The wine tasted bitter, even after nearly two bottles it still made Sachi grimace. Maybe, she thought, staring out over the lights of the city from her darkened apartment, it was her taste buds that were off. Or just everything about her was off and the wine was just serving as a bitter, physical reminder of that fact.

Akari was gone. Sachi had sped to the hospital but was rebuffed in her request for information. She was simply told that Akari had been released. She had tried Akari’s apartment to find it empty as well and her cell phone was turned off. None of her things were missing; she was just gone, vanished into the Tokyo night like a ghost. Now, with no options coming to mind, Sachi decided to disappear as well. Even if it was into the bottom of a wine bottle that tasted like it had gone bad. Suddenly the doorbell chimed and Sachi leapt up, nearly knocking the bottle over and hurried to the door, slamming her knee painfully on a table in the darkness.

“Akari!” She exclaimed, unlocking and throwing open the door. She sagged in disappointment when she saw Mari and Yukiko standing in front of her door. “Oh, it’s you two.”

“Hello to you, too, Sacchan,” Mari smirked. “Can we come in?”

“Get tired of screaming at each other in the ER waiting room and decided to try a change of venue, eh?” Sachi sighed, standing aside. Mari and Yukiko stepped inside sheepishly.

“You heard about that, huh?” Yukiko muttered.

“Everyone’s heard about that,” Sachi replied, closing the door and striding past them unsteadily as the wine seemed to have gone to head. “If you fight in here I’ll throw you out the window.”

“Yuki and I had a good talk in the parking garage at the hospital and we’ve both been acting like…”Mari began.

“Selfish fucks? “ Sachi supplied. “Entitled brats? Brain dead shit gibbons?”

“Ok! Damn, Sachi, you don’t need to help, you know,” Mari replied.

“Shit gibbon?” Yukiko asked curiously. Sachi shrugged and shambled back toward to the living room.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sachi sagged back into the chair facing the window and sunk into the leather. “All three of us have pretty much sucked at an elite level through this whole thing. Not that it matters, anyway. So what do you want? You have high level peace talks in the parking garage and now…what? Are you hoping I’ll nominate you for a Nobel Prize or something?” Mari was surprised at Sachi’s entire demeanor. She’d never seen her like this.

“We want to help,” Yukiko said, taking Mari’s hand in hers for strength. Sachi, if she was honest, intimidated the hell out of her. Onstage she was radiant and beautifully breathtaking. Her smile was sweet and kind with a mischievously seductive look in her eyes but off stage she was thoughtful and deliberate, cool and calm at almost all times, but not afraid to get angry and tell you exactly what she was thinking. If Akari was the star, Sachi was the mom. When Sachi glanced at you and scowled you knew you were pushing it. She kept them in line and on task. What was this look, then? Yukiko had never seen it before and it scared her more than any look she’d seen on Sachi’s face, even the look of rage at the hospital before. It was a look of defeat. The look of someone who had never given up on anything in their lives they felt worthy of their time finally throwing in the towel.

“I take it you didn’t see the press conference, then,” Sachi muttered, draining her glass with a grimace and pouring some more. She fiddled with her phone for a moment and the picture of Dutch fields playing on the TV abruptly vanished, replaced by the press conference video Hiroto had sent earlier.

“No,” Yukiko murmured, slumping onto the couch as the video ended.

“Th-This can’t be right!” Mari snapped, trying to replace hopelessness with anger.

“Don’t fool yourself,” Sachi chuckled bitterly. “We are on forced hiatus until someone decides our fate.”

“B-but Akari…” Yukiko tried to seize on anything to keep herself from the plunge off despair into hopelessness. “Akari will get better and we’ll be back together! Right, Sachi?”

“Akari’s gone,” Sachi replied, rubbing her cheek absently where it was finally going numb from the alcohol. At this point she had no more tears left to cry and welcomed not feeling anything. “No one knows where. Whisked away by this so-called ‘guardian’ that seems to have sprung up from the shadows.”

“If we’d been there instead of…” Yukiko started, tears flowing down her face, fingers clenched into fists so tightly her nails cut into her palms, drawing blood.

“Don’t scream,” Sachi admonished, “it agitates the neighbors. Besides, none of us were there so there’s plenty of blame to go around.”

“Who is this person?” Mari could no longer manage to get angry. She was just hurt at how unfair it all seemed. Sachi shrugged and finished off her wine with a gulp, staring sadly at the empty bottle.

“No one knows,” Sachi replied then chuckled dryly, “at least no one that’ll talk. Hiroto isn’t taking my calls and none of the other managers are available. Strange how quick they forget your name once they’ve no use for you.”

“What do we do?” Yukiko looked helplessly from Mari to Sachi.

“I have no idea about you two,” Sachi shrugged, hauling herself reluctantly from her chair and making her way toward the apartment’s dining room. “I, however, am going to drink until I can’t feel anything and then pass out.” Mari shared a look with Yukiko and shrugged.

“Mind if we join you?” Mari asked.

“I don’t care, but get your own glasses,” Sachi said, pulling another bottle of wine from the cabinet. “I’m not your bitch.”