Chapter 3 – Fond Farewells
It was a hard week leading up to the memorial for Miki. It wasn’t hard in the sense of work, but emotionally Reina felt drained to her limits. After her intimate night with Eririn, all the girls quietly went about whatever business they might have had before the wake that afternoon. She spent time mostly with Eri, Sayu, and Baby Girl, and it seemed that whenever any of them looked at her she couldn’t stop herself from blushing. Sayu and Baby Girl thought it was just Reina being Reina and so didn’t think much on it, but Eri, thinking she knew what it was about, didn’t let it go so lightly. In fact, at one point after lunch, Eri took her aside and asked her if something was wrong. She denied anything of the sort.
The wake itself passed with tears spread all around, so she didn’t have time to think of anything else. Along with the other girls, friends, and family, she passed by the portraits solemnly hung at the place of honor. They were different from the cute or sexy or whatever poses she generally saw Miki take for work. In these pictures, provided by her family, she saw the girl as she was, as a normal person, not as the idol that everyone else knew her as. She wondered if she even knew Miki for who she really was. She wondered if she really knew anyone around her like that. She blushed again. She really had to stop doing that.
As she left the portraits, she overheard conversation concerning why Miki’s body itself wasn’t there, since apparently that was the normal thing for wakes. She wouldn’t know, since she’d never been to one before. The staff being asked responded uncomfortably that her body was still needed for investigation of the accident, but also slipped in that it might be better that they don’t see the body after what happened to it, and would the questioner like a drink? Reina stopped listening after that.
During the hour she was there, she hugged seemingly every member of the Hello! Project; at least, aside from the kids, who apparently someone thought shouldn’t come to something like this. Everyone else seemed as depressed as she felt in this atmosphere, except for a few who seemed to have a lot on their minds. One of those she was sure was herself after last night and how she’d felt today, except strangely, Eririn didn’t seem affected at all. She even seemed happier than most of the others. Reina was glad of that, she supposed. For all of that though, they made sure to keep their distance during the day, since they didn’t want anyone to get any ideas. Sayu seemed to look at her strangely as time went on, though…
Aya was there, but seemed in a trance the whole time, only sitting in a chair in the front row and staring at Miki’s pictures through most of the gathering. Nobody dared to ask her to move from that spot, even Miki’s family, but several of the girls attempted to offer some comforting words and gestures. Reina did too after how Aya opened up to her the day before, but Aya’s seeming inability to appear anything but completely distraught soon drove her away. She felt bad about that, but she kept telling herself she did what she could. She figured nothing would help the poor girl right now, anyway. She gazed over at Eri talking softly with some of the other girls and swallowed at the smile she returned after noticing the look.
The other girls were as she’d expect. Risa and Baby Girl were as genki as always, though in a subdued way in respect to the environment. Makoto apparently couldn’t fly back here yet, but Reina supposed she’d come at least for the memorial whenever it happened. Ai and Konkon kept to themselves mostly, though talked with the others from time to time like the rest of them. Konkon seemed conflicted between happiness at seeing them all again and the sadness of the occasion, while Ai just seemed uncomfortable being there. She also always seemed to know when Reina was looking her way, because she’d always give her a hard look in return. Reina didn’t hold that look for long, and in fact, kept her distance from the girl as much as she could. Yossi, Maki, Nacchi, Kaori, and several of the others in turn asked Reina if she was all right, to which Reina always nodded her assurances, but otherwise just chatted among themselves.
Near the end, they all gathered together in the seats, though no one sat next to Aya, and representatives of their management and Miki’s family gave short comments and told them of the memorial to be held in about a week’s time. At the very end, when Miki’s family left, Tsunku stood and told the girls that they should go spend the next week until the memorial with their families and come back rested and ready to get back to work once it was done. Some of the older girls thanked him and seemed eager about the chance to spend so much time at home. Reina shared a look with Eri and hugged the younger Musume before heading out herself.
It wasn’t a bad week at home, though Reina had a hard time thinking about anything other than Miki and Eri, and for very different reasons. Her family was wonderful to her and catered to her every need, just happy to have her with them and to help her through what they knew was a hard time. She had long discussions with her mom about death and the wonders of the human soul. Reina thought she was trying to share her experiences with her daughter so she’d feel better, and just maybe understand better something she hadn’t thought about much before. Afterwards, she thought she probably did.
On the day of the memorial, she caught the train back into Tokyo and arrived just in time for the ceremony. Everyone looked well-rested just as Tsunku hoped, in fact more rested than Reina thought she’d ever seen some, although a few, including Sayu, Baby Girl, Ai, and Aya, looked like they hadn’t slept at all. Reina supposed everyone dealt with it in their own way.
The memorial was held in a small park near Ginza. They wanted to make it pseudo-public, Reina imagined, for the publicity it might generate, but security tape and police officers scattered around the perimeter made sure that no one who wasn’t actually invited was able to disturb the proceedings. Thankfully, the crowd of mostly young to early middle-aged men that had developed outside the lines was keeping respectfully silent. Looking around at the activity inside the lines though, Reina thought there might be another reason for having the memorial in a park. As she surveyed the rows of chairs lined up from near the podium, she wondered if that many people would even fit into a building.
After a moment she saw Eri arrive and couldn’t stop herself from smiling, though Sayu ran up to her and pulled her away before she noticed Reina was there.
“That’s a cute pout you’ve got there Reina-chan,” someone said from beside her. “I thought we were the only ones allowed to do that?” She turned and was surprised to see someone shorter than her standing near.
“Airin-chan!” she said happily, and lightly touched the arm of the c-ute girl next to her. “How are things going for you guys?”
“Not too bad,” the fellow Aa! member replied. “We’ve been busy in our tour with Berryz, as I’m sure you can imagine. I wish they’d feature me more though…”
Reina laughed and patted the girl’s head. Airi shrunk down a little and giggled herself. “Well, I think I’d better go up to Tsunku and tell him to feature my little sister more! He’s stupid not to recognize how special you are!” While they were laughing, they didn’t notice someone else had come up within arms-length of them.
“Tanaka… Reina?” an official-sounding male voice asked, and the two girls’ laughter died out before Reina turned to see who it was. Before them stood a somewhat tall, middle-aged man in a dark suit and unbuttoned trenchcoat. He wore sunglasses beneath his thick wavy hair and clutched a notepad in his hand.
“Yes, that’s me,” Reina said quietly.
“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” he asked, and looked over and down at Airi. “Alone.” He gestured Reina off to the side of the clearing.
“Um… ok,” Reina responded, and glanced apologetically to Airi before heading off with the strange man. When they got to a spot out of earshot of others, Reina whirled around to him and asked suspiciously, “So who are you anyway?”
“I’m Detective Kitamura,” he answered patiently, brandishing some kind of badge almost too quickly for Reina to catch a glimpse of it. “I just have a few short questions for you. I promise it won’t take long.” Reina stood puzzled and no less suspicious for a moment before deciding she’d at least hear what this “detective” had to say.
“On the day Miss Fujimoto… Sorry for your loss by the way… On the day she was killed, as I’m sure you know, she was driving a car through Shibuya. Do you know anything about what she had planned to do that day?”
Further deciding she would amuse the fellow, Reina responded, “Well, I was off at the time doing a photo shoot in Utsunomiya, so I of course can’t say anything for sure, especially about what she might have been doing right when she had her… accident… but a friend told me she was called into work that day. They were supposed to do something together, but apparently Miki cancelled because of that call.” The detective seemed to write notes smoothly as Reina spoke, and she kept an eye on his pen the whole time.
“This friend,” he continued, looking back up at her, “Who was it?” This time, Reina looked oddly at the detective before responding.
“Why are you so interested? It was just an accident, wasn’t it? Why the serious investigation?”
“Miss Tanaka, I assure you, everything is well in order. Even in incidents like that which happened to Miss Fujimoto there must be a thorough investigation into the circumstances. For insurance purposes, of course.” Reina didn’t think he sounded too convincing, but their conversation was disrupted suddenly by a very upset-looking manager of theirs, Mr. Shuyen.
“Kitamura!” It almost seemed he wanted to yell, but did his best to restrain himself. Reina was glad of it with respect to where they were. “I told you detectives not to come to this memorial! These girls have enough to deal with today without having to worry about answering your pointless questions. In fact, I’d prefer that you stay away from the girls totally from now on. There’s nothing they could know about anything and… Ahh! What am I saying! There’s nothing to even know anything about! Just let Fujimoto’s accident go and leave us in peace.”
Kitamura greeted Shuyen smoothly with a flourish and bow. “Shuyen-san, as you well know, this is an official police investigation, and we need to survey anyone who might know something about circumstances surrounding…”
“I don’t care!” Shuyen interrupted. “These girls have gone through enough. Let them mourn and honor the untimely death of their comrade. I mean it. If I catch any of you around them once more…” He glared threateningly at the detective, a look Reina was glad she wasn’t the one receiving. You know, this is a good homage to Miki… she thought wistfully.
Kitamura, however, did not look fazed. “All right, then. I’ll leave you all be.” He gave a piercing, but not unkind, look to Reina before turning away. “I’m truly sorry for your loss. Please, keep your spirits strong.” As he walked away, Reina stared after him. Maybe she had judged him too quickly. Still, she didn’t understand…
“Tanaka-san,” Shuyen said firmly to her, bowing. “I apologize for any discomfort that man caused you. Detectives have been harassing us all week for information on the crash. I promise you though, they won’t bother you any more.” With that, he gently took her arm and guided her back to the gathering area. As she looked around, she noticed that apparently she had developed quite an audience. Airi was looking her way, along with several of the other younger girls. Ai was also, as always, along with Risa, though Konkon didn’t seem to be paying her any mind. Sayu, Eririn and Baby Girl gazed at her approach while talking, but with varied expressions. Eririn seemed almost to want to run to her, giving her a look of warm worry, while Sayu looked like she’d eaten a sour grape. Baby Girl just looked like there was nothing between her ears. Nothing uncommon really, though she’d have to find out what had gotten Sayu’s pigtails in a knot.
Shuyen left her near the chairs, bowing his farewell, and walked back to join the other officials. Since no one seemed excited to approach Reina, she thought she might as well see what was up with Eri and Sayu. On the way, however, a soft hand grabbed her arm and made her stop in her tracks.
“Who was that you were talking to?” asked Aya. When Reina turned to look at her face, she saw in it a flurry of emotions fighting for dominance.
“I don’t know,” Reina lied. “Some guy who wanted an autograph. I’m just glad Shuyen-san was there to shoo him away.”
“I see,” Aya said with a mysterious voice. “I was just worried…” She paused, looking to the side for a moment. “I heard there have been some detectives asking around about Mikitty’s accident, and I worry that they might have moved on to questioning even us.” She seemed to grind her fingertips into her palm as she went on, “I hope they just leave us alone. Mikitty deserves better.”
After a moment, she looked up at Reina and widened her eyes as if coming out of some sort of trance. “Oh! Reina, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go on like that. I’m… I’m sorry. I’ll leave you be…” After that, she walked off quickly, apparently fighting back tears. That poor girl… Reina thought pityingly.
Before she could go on thinking, however, three girls walked up and greeted her. “Hello Reina!” Eri said almost cheerfully, before restraining herself unsuccessfully. Reina smiled at seeing her friend’s… her lover’s, she supposed, though that sounded strange… cute face.
“Hi Eririn!” She gave the other girl a hug. So as to remain circumspect, she hugged Baby Girl as well, along with Sayu, though winced as she thought she felt the last girl’s nails dig into her back. Well, someone was happy to see her.
“Hello Reina,” Sayu said with a fake smile. Reina thought nothing of it though, since Sayu was an expert at fake smiles and fake well… almost anything, so it was nothing unusual once again.
“What happened with that guy?” Eri asked curiously. Baby Girl looked at her curiously, too. Ahh, to be young and naïve… Reina thought, unconsciously tilting her head while showing a wistful smile. It seemed she’d have to work harder on her lover.
“Oh nothing,” she said. “It was just… you know.” The other girls nodded knowingly, although Reina was sure they had absolutely no clue what she might be implying. It really was great to have friends like this. “So how was your time with your families?”
At the question, Baby Girl began talking as if she wouldn’t stop, and although Eri and Sayu did their best to act interested even though Reina was sure they’d heard the stories at least five times already, Reina’s mind drifted out into the warm spring air. It’s not like the youngest girl was even paying attention to her anyway. Once she started telling her stories, nothing existed but the words coming out of her own mouth.
A slight commotion from across the way caught her attention, and she watched as Aya and the fifth gens began to get into some kind of argument. She hoped Aya wouldn’t get herself into too much trouble with her moodiness today. Maybe it was best that she stay with the older group… They were more likely to sympathize with her, at least. She really did feel for the girl, and had felt closer to her since the accident for some reason, but there was only so much she could do. Sometimes she just wished she was older.
“And then, Nee-chan and I went to the park and picked these beautiful flowers! You wouldn’t have believed them! I swear they were two meters tall and were yellow as the sun! Oh, and then…” A fragment of Baby Girl’s story entered Reina’s mind, though it quickly died out once more as she continued gazing dazedly at the group of older girls arguing together.
Apparently they didn’t come to any agreement, because after a moment Aya just raised her chin and walked off. Gaki-san looked like she was in mid-sentence at the time and almost followed Aya before Konkon hurriedly pulled her back. Aya was headed over toward the older group. Reina was thankful for that. However, when she looked back at the fifth gen girls, Ai was staring at her once again. Seriously, what was up with that girl lately? Reina always thought she was strange, but her recent behavior really took the cake. She whispered something to the other two, never taking her eyes from Reina, and they looked over at her as well before starting a slow walk her way. Reina was wondering when other people would take interest in her since apparently the whole time since the accident had been “Let’s make Reina feel special!” time. Reina didn’t know how much more of this “specialness” she could take.
They arrived while Baby Girl was still telling her story of course, though Eri and Sayu now looked like they would pass out from boredom at any time. The brash young girl fell silent, however, when Ai spoke up. “Hey, Reina.” She looked slowly around at the others. “…Eririn, Sayu, Koha-chan.”
“How are you guys holding up?” Gaki-san offered her words this time.
“Oh we’re just all fine and dandy,” Reina said with heavy sarcasm, though she almost kicked herself when she realized it. Apparently she didn’t have to though, because someone punched her in the arm, and not lightly. “Aa! Itai…” She turned, rubbing it, and saw Sayu with what almost seemed like a satisfied smirk on her face and her fists at her waist.
“What Reina-baka means,” she said cutely, “Is that we are doing quite well, thank you very much. And you guys?”
“Well,” Konkon replied. “We’ve just been talking about some great times we’d shared with Mikitty. Ai-chan noticed you guys looking our way, and we thought we’d ask you guys if you had anything to share too? We thought it might help cheer everyone up.”
“Well…” Baby Girl began, though Ai-chan quickly cut her off, to the young girl’s supreme chagrin.
“First though… I was wondering, who was that guy you were talking to just now Reina? I mean, I thought we had better security than that…”
The clarification seemed a little fishy to Reina, but the other girls seemed to take it as perfect explanation for the sudden question, so she decided to go on like she had. “Well,” she started, but before she went on, she noticed Ai looking at her with a strong piercing gaze that made her hesitate. She never remembered Ai looking at her quite like that before. Is that the way her eyes looked the last week when they’d seemed to be constantly on her at a distance? She supposed she couldn’t have been able to tell then… though the gaze that was now just centimeters away from her own almost made her gulp. It was almost as intimidating as talking to that detective… “Th-that detec… I mean, that man was just… he had somehow gotten through the lines, and Shuyen had to come and shoo him back where he belonged…” Through her stuttering now, the explanation no longer seemed anything close to adequate, and she couldn’t believe that what lay behind those eyes believed her.
“Ah, I see,” Ai said, to Reina’s sudden surprise, and she looked back to Baby Girl, seemingly content to drop the subject. “Sorry to interrupt, Koha-chan. Did you want to say something about Mikitty?” The young girl beamed and began some other story about some time after a taping of some show or another.
Even though Reina kept her eyes on Ai for a moment, the other girl seemed to show no more interest in her, so she gradually shifted her gaze and tried to make herself become interested in Baby Girl’s story. Apparently it didn’t work though, because afterward she couldn’t remember a word the girl had said. She felt another jab in the ribs and winced, glaring over to see Sayu grinning smugly at her once more. The smugness faded though when Eri leaned down to her ear with a stern expression and said something apparently scolding. Now the smugness was replaced with one of Sayu’s cute pouts, and Reina rolled her eyes and giggled away her worries to herself inaudibly. Later, she would most definitely need to see what was going on with Miss Ichiban Kawaii.
“…so then, Miki glared at the cameraman and said, ‘Hey! Watch where you’re pointing that thing!’ But you know what? I caught her just a second later whispering to the guy that he’d better keep it on her all the time… or else!!!"
Ahh, to be young… Reina thought through the unstoppable giggles that followed the punchline.