TW: This chapter contains themes of Suicide and Self-Harm, please read with caution

Two days have passed since Satoru visited Kanato. He was woken up by the sound of his phone going off, he was receiving a message. 

Satoru dashed over to grab his phone from his desk. He felt a smile creep onto his face when he saw who it was from but his smile quickly faded after reading.

It was a message from Kanato that read, “Thank you for always being there for me and for giving me a place where I could escape when I needed it the most. You were the best thing that happened to me. But unfortunately it is my time to go. Goodbye and I hope we can meet again someday.”

Satoru’s heart sank and he immediately dialed Kanato’s number. It went straight to voicemail. He tried again, no answer. He kept calling, begging and praying for a miracle.

Kanato eventually picked up on the tenth try.

”Kanato! Where are you!?” Satoru exclaimed.

There was no response but Satoru could hear the sound of crashing waves.

”Kanato! Kanato, please tell me where you are!” Satoru pleaded.

There was more silence before Kanato eventually spoke up, “I’m at the beach on the edge of town…” he weakly answered.

”Okay stay there! I’m coming to you! Don’t hang up either! Just stay with me!” Satoru hastily said, throwing on his shoes before running out of his apartment. 

Although no words were said Satoru knew that Kanato was still on the line. Satoru could hear the crashing of the waves and quiet sobs. 

As Satoru ran, small droplets of rain started to fall on his face. This made him run faster, needing to get to Kanato as quickly as possible. He had no clue what state he would find Kanato but he prepared himself for the worst.

As much as he tried, nothing could prepare him for what he saw. It was worse than anything he could have imagined.

Kanato was sitting on the beach facing towards the ocean. His hair and clothes were sticking to him, he was soaked down to the bone. Kanato was curled in on himself, he looked so small.

”Kanato!” Satoru shouted, running up to him.

Kanato turned around to face Satoru, eyes dull and hopeless. He had a black eyes and many bruises scattered across his body, presumably from Kanato’s mother. Despite all the injuries inflicted from his mother there were two that looked to be his own doing, his wrists were a bright crimson color, the wounds appeared to be fresh.

Satoru knelt down beside him and took off his sweatshirt to put it around Kanato. 

“Oh my god, what happened to you?” Satoru asked, horrified.

Kanato looked down at the ground, not uttering a single word. 

Satoru bit his lip as he sat there anxiously, a million thoughts running through his head. “I’m sorry, I won’t ask anything now. How about you come with me to my apartment and get you cleaned up,” he said getting up and offering his hand to him.

Kanato sat there for a few moments, hesitating to take Satoru’s hand. He did eventually take it, putting the hood over his head and keeping his eyes downcast. 

Through the entire way home neither of them said a word and the air felt tense and crushing, to Satoru it felt suffocating.

The gloomy pair eventually made it back to Satoru’s apartment after a train ride that lasted for what felt like an eternity.

Satoru brought Kanato into the bathroom to get him cleaned up. He grabbed a towel from the laundry room for Kanato to dry off with.

Satoru carefully took Kanato’s arms and disinfected his wrists which caused Kanato to flinch, even so, he remained silent.

Despite everything going on, Kanato appeared to be numb, he flinched from the pain but other than that he seemed lifeless. 

Satoru found that to be rather chilling.

As Satoru applied the bandages to Kanato’s wounds they continued to sit in deafening silence.

After Kanato was all patched up Satoru gave him a change of clothes and got his room ready for Kanato to spend the night.

Kanato got himself changed and headed into Satoru’s room then sat on his bed.

”If you don’t want to talk that’s okay but I want to know what’s going on. What happened tonight was terrifying…” Satoru started, “I just want to be in the loop. You haven’t really been yourself and you’ve been worrying me for the past month.”

Kanato drew in a deep breath, averting his gaze, “you are not wrong. A lot of shit has been going on…”