Chapter LXIV: The Valley of Roses and Lavender
On the same day of the confrontation, as Akiko gets out of the house, a rampaging old lady tries to shout at her. It turns out to be one of her great-grandfather's daughters.
"Dad was a nervous wreck, and y'all just go there? I don't care for him anyways, I'm glad that I got all the things I've desired" (The Old Hag)
Upon the road they travel, one of them gets nauseated but glad that they have some plastic bags in preparation for that situation. For 8 long hours on the road, through the hilly and curved roads, they finally get to their destination. The family enters a tall building next to a shopping mall. Employees working at the tower for their night shift greet Akiko's mom, and grandma. They then get to the 57th floor of the tower and make their way to a room where Akiko's great-grandpa lies.
"Papa, are you alright?" (Akiko's grandma)
"Kaede, you're here, with the fam" (Akiko's great-grandfather)
Akiko's grandma then kisses her father on the forehead.
"I feel today, that it was almost my last, but a being saved me, and shall he save me from the sins that I atone for", he says as he scoffs and closes his eyes.
The nurse intervenes and says,
"He needs to rest, don't worry. Now his condition is stable, the disease may have spread, but it has stopped"
As they see the situation, the family goes out of the room and goes to the park. Akiko then asks,
"Mom, what is great-grandad's story? And why is he like waving goodbye?"
"Haven't I told you already Aking?" (Akiko's mom)
"Oh huhu, pls don't use my nickname anymore ><, and I think I was 12 at the time, I forgot mb :))" (Akiko)
"C'mon, how would you even forget it?" (Akiko's mom)
"Tsk, beats me, I had many things in mind" (Akiko)
"Yeah, you should work on that attitude with yours' sometimes. Glad you're not showing that to Kota" (Akiko's mom)
"Nah, I don't want to hurt him like that, can you tell me the story then mom?" (Akiko)
"Ok, this is the story of a man who turned from hating, luxury, ignorance, and a man of high power"
As she begins to tell the story, a snowflake covers the scene and time travels back to the 1960s. At home, he looks like an ordinary high school student with big dreams. As a student, Akiko's great-grandfather asks his parents for money for his lunch. His parents then give him 400 yen. However, when he gets to school, he teams up with the gangsters. He is the leader of the group. They always pick on the innocent.
One day, they try to pick on a nerd.
"Give us your lunch money twat!"
"I don't have much money, but 'I'll do what you want me to do"
One of the gang members then spots a wood trunk near the road outside the alley. The gang member then says,
"Pick up that large wood trunk and throw it at the road"
The nerd does what he said. As he throws the wood trunk unto the road, a truck tries to step on the brakes but gets out of control and crashes unto an electric post. The other vehicles follow and it becomes chaos.
When Akiko's great-grandfather gets home, a neighbor then tells him that his parents died. The following day, he receives a newspaper with the headlines,
"Road Trash kills a hundred in Tokyo"
Though looking at the news, he is dumbfounded, not knowing that his parents are already dead. As he inherits his parents wealth, he works parttime for the shop until he graduated from college. As he graduated, he already has a wife and started their own business. The business flourished and it became big.
From the top floor of the tower, he watches the city of Tokyo. His assistant comes running in,
"Sir, there is a lot of money, and I thought what if we could give some to charity?" (Assistant)
"Sasuke, are you questioning me, I may presume?" (Akiko's great-grandfather)
"No sir, I'm just suggesting sir" (Assistant)
"Let's agree to disagree my friend, however, NO charity" (Akiko's great-grandfather)
"But sir, the budget—" (Assistant)
"No one should interfere with the budget for I'm the one in-charge here dimwit!" (Akiko's great-grandfather)
He then rings the buzzer on his table. As big buff men enters,
"Take this imbecile away from me, he's fired!" (Akiko's great-grandfather)
"Sir, pls don't do this, I have a family!", cries the Assistant.
As they take the assistant away, he goes to the buzzer and telecom again and says,
"Tell Ms. Hagakure she's my new assistant"
He then walks to the pool table and plays billiard with his gang. At the hallway of the tower, Akiko's grandma and her sister waits there. Their mom walks to them and comforts them. Their dad walks out of the door.
"You! Come here!"
He then spanks the sister of Akiko's grandma. The mother then comforts them. As the family grow, each tension became wider and wider and some are going to be excommunicated from Tokyo. Some of the descendants of the sister of Akiko's grandma and her are intermarried with Filipinos, and Americans.
In his life, with the loss of his wife, a sudden change came into his life. As he sees the poor on the footsteps of his tower, he reflected what is life and the life he lived his whole life. A flash of the streetlight then flashes into the present as Akiko's mom's narration comes to an end.
At dawn, Akiko goes to the guest room, and cries. His brother then comes in.
"Hey Aking, are you ok?" (Akiko's brother)
"Yes:))" (Akiko)
"Nah, I know you're not fine" (Akiko's brother)
"I'm fine:))"(Akiko)
"Aking, don't pretend anymore, it hurts me to see you like this" (Akiko's brother)
"Then why did y'all are hurtful to me at home" (Akiko)
"It's no fun if you don't say the truth Aking, you know the whole story of the Broken Chains?" (Akiko's brother)
"Yeah, the girls escaped from the prison-like home" (Akiko)
"Well, it's something like that, but we were like that so you can learn to be strong to be honest. But it's not like we are going to leave you to learn like that, we are there to guide you. However your adolescence took a turning point because we all gave things for you" (Akiko's brother)
"To be honest big bro, I didn't want to tell you this but I do see your efforts. It's just I'm sorry for saying things that weren't true to my friends. Like Uncle Takeshi bought things, but in reality is that it was you guys all along who bought all of my stuff. I just wanted to impress them:((" (Akiko)
"It's ok Aking, we've gone all of there. However, in social media, you need to be more truthful, people can get misinformation though. But Takeshi isn't really your Uncle, he is just a relative" (Akiko's brother)
"What's your deal bitch?!" (Akiko)
"Woah, woah, control your tone sis" (Akiko's brother)
"Are you against him? Do you hate Uncle Takeshi?" (Akiko)
"No, no, your inner child is acting up again, sorry. I'm not against him, but please be careful with your words. This can lead to catastrophe, like what happened to great-grandfather" (Akiko's brother)
"Ok, just pls don't say something bad about Takeshi" (Akiko)
"Ok, ok, I know you love him, but be cautious when you say it to a person you love ok? Their sacrifices worth more than gold, for the love they had given to you" (Akiko's brother)
"I'm really sorry for bringing that up again Big bro, my bad" (Akiko)
"It's ok, just please don't do it more often, just us. Glad you don't do that with Kota" (Akiko's brother)
"Where are you going with this?" (Akiko)
"This is serious ok? Try to be truthful, have you ever did this to Kota? Telling these untruthful things to him?" (Akiko's brother)
"Well… Just once" (Akiko)
"Listen Aking, you need to be careful with him. You already know who he really is, the one who is in truth with you, he gave you a sacrifice, and but tell the truth to him, no lies, because he is your love" (Akiko's brother)
"Ok, I will" (Akiko)
After that, he hugs her. He goes out of the room, andchats someone and that someone turns out to be Kota.
"Sup bro" (Kota)
"Hey bro, how's there?" (Akiko's brother)
"Not much, I'm fine bro:))" (Kota)
"Hmm, really?" (Akiko's brother)
"To be honest, not really" (Kota)
"What happened?" (Akiko's brother)
"Well, for a long time, my group of friends have always my back and let me join in them, but today, theyjust avoided me for no reason" (Kota)
"So, Asahi, Hanako, Enmei, and Gin avoided you? Correct me if there are others" (Akiko's brother)
"Yep, but the things is, it's like they are against me or something, just because I don't get their language" (Kota)
"That sucks, what's your plan" (Akiko's brother)
"Tbh, I don't really know bro" (Kota)
"You only need to do is by lending them some space so that they will reflect on it" (Akiko's brother)
"Alright bro, thanks. Btw how's Akiko" (Kota)
"Oh, she was crying earlier but don't worry, I calmed him down" (Akiko's brother)
"Ok bro, thanks, stay safe there" (Kota)
"Oh we will, thanks for your concern" (Akiko's brother)
As dawn brings upon them, they go back to their town and wishes goodluck on their great-grandfather's health. Akiko gets off at school, but goes to the dike. She finds Kota at the dike, sitting while listening to some songs. She then puts on her barrette and scarf and approaches him. Kota gets scared but Akiko calms him down. Right after that, the confrontation between the squad and them happens.