Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MADDOX

When we reach Rina’s house back in Kyoto, we find her grabbing her keys on the way out the door.

“I’m so sorry to run but I just told Yumi I’d pick her up from the hospital. We’re hoping Hikaru gets discharged tomorrow since he’s doing so well. Hikaru told me that if you two were interested, he’d love to speak with you. It’d only be a moment, and then once we have Yumi, we could go out to dinner.”

“Sure,” Hiro tells her. “Let me just set our bags down out of the way, and we’re good to go.”

“Thank you so much,” Rina says, looking glad that we agreed. “I’m sure you both are very tired, so I appreciate this.”

“Not too bad,” Hiro responds as he sets the luggage by the stairs, and as he walks away, I see it immediately fall over. Clearly, the guy who loves smacking over his luggage is back and thrilled we’ve returned.

“I’ll get that when we return,” Hiro says, since if he fixed it, I really feel like it’d be smacked down again and maybe catch some unwanted attention.

We load up in her car and she drives us to the hospital as we tell her about Nara and the deer. Inside, we’re directed to the room Hikaru is in. Rina says something in Japanese before stepping in, and I can tell it’s about us since the only thing I caught was our names.

We follow her inside to where Yumi beams at us and Hikaru gives us a tired smile.

“How are you feeling?” Hiro asks.

“Good! Eager to get out. I definitely feel like they’re just being stubborn not letting me go home at this point. I’m clearly fine,” he declares. “I’m so glad you two could come. I just wanted to apologize for what I got the two of you caught up in. I really cannot apologize enough that I put both of you in danger with my actions.”

“You did nothing of the sort,” I assure him. “You had no control over what the attacker chose to do.”

Hikaru gives me a soft smile. “I understand, but I also know that I shouldn’t have kept it to myself. I never should have ignored his messages. I just… I assumed he was… trying to give me a hard time, you know? I knew he was manipulative and cruel, but he never seemed to act on what he sent me, so the longer it went on, the more I ignored it.

“I really thought I was going to die. I knew I was going to die. When he came up to me with his face covered… I instantly knew it was him. And I just… I stepped back, thinking that I would head to the closest café or something until he left me alone, but I never expected he was going to stab me. And when I ran, he just pushed me farther away from help. I tried to use my phone, but he’d gotten it away from me so I couldn’t even call anyone.

“Somehow, I managed to shove him enough that when I slipped behind a building and under that bell, he didn’t realize I was there. And as I sat there, I knew I was bleeding too much, but I didn’t know what to do. I was so scared that I was going to die. I was so lightheaded that I knew if I got up, he’d kill me before I could get away, but I also knew that if I didn’t do anything, I’d bleed to death. I couldn’t have found help in time. I just remember knowing that I was going to die. I never imagined you two would run in and just… save my life like that.”

He takes a deep breath before continuing. “Thank you both… so much. I don’t know what I could ever do to repay either of you.”

“You definitely don’t need to repay us,” Hiro says. “We’re just so glad we were here to help.”

“Me too,” Hikaru agrees emphatically.

“We were talking about how Hiro and I played with the idea of the two of you coming next week when we were initially making arrangements… imagine if that had happened,” Yumi says.

Hikaru shivers. “I wouldn’t be here if it had.”

“Was your attacker the person who rode by us on the bike when we were finding lunch?” I ask curiously.

“He was.”

“He was?” Yumi asks in surprise. “I didn’t even realize.”

“He had his face covered quite a bit, so I’m not surprised you didn’t notice him,” Hikaru says.

“Yeah, it was your body language that told me something was off,” I tell him.

“I’m just still fascinated how you even found me,” he says.

“I think we all are,” Yumi comments.

Hiro blatantly ignores the clear question in that statement.

“Wait… did you have a ring on before?” Hikaru asks.

Hiro glances down. “Uhhh, no. Maddox proposed.”

“Did he really?” Yumi asks. “Oh! That’s why you were asking about the garden! Let me see!”

She rushes over and Hiro shows her and Rina, who has also come over to look.

“Congratulations,” Rina says.

“Thank you. We uh… haven’t made any plans, and I know it’s not like a simple jaunt… but if you ever wanted to come to America, I would be happy to have you attend the wedding,” he offers, sounding a bit nervous about it for some reason. I think he’s still struggling to understand where exactly the family stands with him in it.

“That would be amazing! But… I guess it would depend on airfare and stuff,” Yumi says, looking disappointed that flying to us wouldn’t be simple for a college student working part time.

“We’ll be there,” Rina assures Hiro.

“Really?” Hiro asks, looking happy.

Yumi’s attention has snapped over to her mother. “‘We’ as in… your poor college student child and you?” she asks hopefully.

“Yes, we ,” Rina assures her.

“Thank you,” Hiro says. “But only if you’re positive. I know it’s asking a lot.”

“I owe you a lot,” Rina tells him.

“You owe me nothing,” Hiro says. “I just like getting to know you guys.”

“Me too. You remind me so much of Ami. We’d be thrilled to get to go.”

“When are we going? I can go anytime. I can start packing tonight if I need to,” Yumi jokes.

“Well, seeing as we won’t even be there, you might have to wait a little bit,” Hiro teases.

She’s clearly excited about the idea of going. “Fine, fine.”

“Come on, let’s head out so Hikaru can get some rest,” Rina says as she ushers us toward the door.

Hiro turns to it and since he’s closest, he’s the first one out. He pushes it open as I step right behind him, but he stops so suddenly that I run into him and nearly shove him through the door as he blurts, “Oh fuck.”

“Well, that’s an odd way to say hello,” Officer Nakamura says as he looks at Hiro in amusement.