CHAPTER 55: THE ABYSS OF SUFFERING BEHIND THE PERFECT GIRL’S MASK (2)

«P-Please, Aoshi... w-whatever cruel thing Miori did to you, whatever she said to you, please... forgive her...» Shin sobs, shaking with tears, slumped over the table in front of him as small puddles form on its smooth surface. «I-I’d be lying if I said Miori didn’t know what she was doing... it’s just that... she was never truly able to control her own anger, and all the abuse and insults those bastard parents of ours threw at her only made her even more aggressive.»

Shin suddenly jolts upright, slamming his fist down hard, shaking with rage and nerves. «I was only five years old — just five fucking years old! At that age you’re not supposed to remember shit, a-and yet... yet I can still see way too clearly that image of my sister being dragged down the stairs by her hair, my mother yanking at it with both hands. A memory blurred only by the curtain I hid behind, terrified by the screams of rage exploding from my mother’s mouth, and the cries of pain coming from my sister’s... I... I will never be able to forget that! Just like I’ll never forget when my sister begged her with tears in her eyes to stop hurting her... "M-Mom, why are you hurting me, Mom? What did I do? You’re hurting me, stop, please..." And the more she begged, the harder and heavier my mom’s blows got — later brushing those bruises off as just the result of her years in combat sports. But the truth is that only a small part of them came from the hits she took during training...»

«There are plenty of awful things — maybe even worse ones — I could tell you, but I don’t want to drag you through any more of it...» Shin concludes, trying to regain even a shred of composure despite the despair carved into his face. «The only reason I told you all this is because... p-please, Aoshi... don’t hold anything against her. I’m begging you with everything I have. At least now that she’s gone — now that no one will ever hurt her again — let Miori finally have some peace, and leave behind all the hatred and resentment that never gave her a moment of peace while she was alive. That’s all I’m asking you...»

«After everything you’ve told me, I couldn’t hate her anymore even if I tried, believe me... actually, all I can feel now is a deep pity for her — for the hell she went through, and for what you went through too,» Aoshi murmurs, keeping his eyes fixed on his empty coffee cup so he doesn’t have to meet Shin’s gaze. «I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for a daughter to be treated so brutally and cruelly by the woman who gave her life — the one who should protect and love her more than anyone else — until death felt like the only option. And it breaks my heart to think about the horrors you were forced to witness since you were just a child...»

And to think I believed my parents were terrible just because they cut my allowance after that gift I bought for Takuma... but the truth is, all I can do is thank the God of Light for not being born into a family even remotely as twisted as the one Shin and Miori were unlucky enough to be born into...

«Shin, there’s something I want to give you,» Aoshi continues, pulling the black purse studded with rhinestones out of the grocery bag and placing it on the table in front of Shin, his eyes swollen and red.

«T-That purse... it was my sister’s, right? How do you have it?» Shin asks, confused.

«Yes, she gave it to me last night after she saved me and a very close friend of mine from two shady guys up to no good. From what she told me, it was her way of making up for the fact that I lost my job because of that stupid fight we had — something she must have come up with on the spot, since we ran into each other just by chance, and she even forgot to take her documents out of the wallet first...»

...Though, now I understand why she didn’t care about such small details... and since we saw each other almost an hour before the time of death mentioned in the newspapers, what she did wasn’t some sudden moment of madness — it was something she had been planning for who knows how long. Poor Miori...

«So, I’d like you to keep this,» Aoshi adds, gently pushing the purse forward, letting it slide toward Shin. «I imagine you’ll want to hold on to as many memories of her as possible, and it would be selfish of me to keep her favorite purse. Or at least, that’s what she told me once when we were... uh... during that month when she was technically my girlfriend. So I don’t know if it actually was her favorite or not, but just in case, it’s right that you have it.»

«A-Are you really sure...?» Shin stammers, holding the purse in his hands with extreme care and delicacy, as if he were holding a precious, fragile relic.

Aoshi nods silently.

«T-Thank you... thank you so much!» Shin exclaims, completely overwhelmed with gratitude, hugging the purse like a child clinging to his favorite stuffed toy.

«Y-You know, what she told you wasn’t a lie...» Shin continues — a faint, sad smile stretching across his face. «That really was her favorite purse — and actually the only nice one she ever owned. Our uncle gave it to her for her twentieth birthday, and Miori always kept it safe, like a treasure — not because of its price, but because of its sentimental value, since it was one of the very few gifts she ever received in her life...» Then Shin stands up. «But now I really should leave you in peace. My mom’s really on edge, and I don’t want to make things worse by staying out too long instead of studying. I really enjoyed talking with you, Aoshi — thank you again for the purse and, above all, for listening to everything I had to say.»

«Th-Thank you for telling me about her,» Aoshi murmurs, still seated at the table.

Then, after a small, polite bow, Shin leaves the karaoke room with the purse held tightly against his chest, leaving Aoshi alone, lost in that whirlwind of thoughts and revelations that has shattered everything he thought he knew about Miori.

And just as he’s about to stand up as well, like a flash of light, everything falls into place in his mind — bursts of images and words rushing through his head like fast-cut frames, a chain reaction triggered by Shin’s simple confirmation that yes, that really was her favorite purse. A myriad of disconnected dots begins stitching itself together.

All those confessions Miori had poured out to me on those nights when Eliss was at work and I was forced to stay in bed after the beating — the bruises on her legs, her complaints about constantly being watched, humiliated, broken down... all abuse that Miori had blamed on Renji and that I had dismissed as bullshit she had made up just to gain my sympathy — or so I had believed until now...

«It was all true...» Aoshi whispers, frozen in place.

Now I understand why she had seemed so sincere, so genuinely broken, why her tears felt so real. During those nights, she had been truly opening up to me about the pain and suffering she endured every single day — the only difference was that it wasn’t inflicted by Renji... it was her own mother...

Finally, Aoshi lifts his gaze toward the ceiling, a single thin tear tracing down his cheek.

M-Maybe... maybe she wasn’t lying either when she said she was happy to come to my place, to finally feel free to be herself, to spend even a little time away from her everyday worries and pain... and maybe...

Aoshi blushes, a small smile forming on his lips.

Who knows... maybe she wasn’t even lying when she said she loved me? But I guess I’ll never know now...