Familiar Stranger: CH 19

Chapter 19: Tears

 

Sometime he wonders why.

Ever since that incident, it's as if something had changed inside him without him knowing. He's not sick, at least not physically, but he's not entirely fine either.

Sometime he feels like everything is ending, and there's nothing he can do about it other than just let himself crumble away. Other time he felt almost normal. Just that, nothing more.

But no matter how bad he feels, he no longer has any tears to cry. As if it had all dried up along with the part of himself that died that day. Every time, he's left only with a bad headache and a terrible pain in his chest.

And he wonders, until then.

It had been a fairly normal day, and as usual he'd been overseeing Toma's training. Fusa as well is left to her own devices, and Ryuga is out on his morning run.

Ryuga had just returned when suddenly Fusa called out to him.

He hadn't meant to pay much mind to it at all, really. He had a guess over what their business is, having accidentally found out about it himself. Though it is certainly strange to hear them discussing about it openly.

 

"Ryuga, I want to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"About that.., did you felt or did anything strange happen before that time? Beside what you already told me."

The pause that follows was full of anticipation. His eyebrows knitted in concentration while he tries to pull out the memories. Quite some time passed before he lights up.

"Ah, there is something, but I don't think it's related or anything.."

"It's fine, it may still be a clue."

Ryuga fidgeted a bit. "It started a while before that, and it's really strange too."

Clearly he's having difficulties putting into words, but he trudge on anyways. By then, Mikage's attention has more or less shifted to their conversation, and similarly even Toma had started to notice them too.

"Sometime I get this heavy, terrible feeling in my chest and I don't even know why. It comes suddenly without any reason, too. I'm not even sad but the tears won't stop. That's weird, right?"

Eh?

That's-

Momentarily, he can see Fusa glancing his way from the corner of his eyes. She noticed that too.

But it couldn't be, can it?

"..I see..Did you do anything about that?"

"Well, Rian gets worried every time that happens so I tried to control it.."

For the rest of the day, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

It couldn't be. That's too much of a coincidence.

"..That's definitely weird.." So he heard Toma thoughtfully mumbled to himself at some point of the day.

"That thing earlier this morning, you heard it right?" Though he certainly didn't expect Fusa to be direct about it. Wonder if it's her way of easing him into the business.

"Yeah, I did."

"Wasn't that like what you've told me that time?"

 

"It's so painful I felt like crying, but the tears never came. Then it just slowly goes away. Like someone else lifted it off of me."

 

He didn't know what to say. Ryuga came from a wildly different place and they were literally strangers before they first met. It sure does sound a lot like a mere coincidence.

And he had left it at that, determined to not mull over it any more than he should. That is until he starts having the bouts of pain again, and he caught Ryuga with tears running down his face.

"-Ryuga? Are you okay?"

He looked a little surprised before he realised it. "-Ah, it's happening again.." Casually, he tried to dry it with the back of his hands. "Don't worry, I'm fine, really. I'm sure it's not really mine."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I think.., there's someone else somewhere is feeling sad, and I'm crying it out for them. It doesn't really make much sense, but that's how I feel." His sheepish smile ends up looking a bit watery, still he's trying to ease off Mikage's worries.

But..

Shedding someone else's tears..,

Is that even possible?

They just stood there under the night sky in silence. He didn't know what else to do other than simply wait.

 

And the pain in his chest gradually goes away as the tears come to a stop.