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Supplement #2.2 - Desolation

As Toji sat in the darkness of his room, he could think of nothing more than of the world he'd lost. His world was broken – an empty shell of what once used to be there. His body trembled as his mind replayed it all on endless loop in vivid detail. He could only recall the pain that Etsuko suffered, right up until she died in his very arms.

And he couldn't cope with the very thought that had he not listened to her, she would still be here.

He may have had to explain to their grandparents as to why Saitou had issued them both with suspensions, but the other half of his soul would still be here, overflowing with child-like quips and arguments like she always was.

He wished nothing more throughout the choking sobs that he had of listened to his gut feeling at the time – He wished for anything else but this. If only this was some twisted nightmare, and when he woke up, everything would be back to normal.

But it was too late, and there was nothing that Toji could possibly do.

Toji couldn't recall how he had gotten home, or even what had happened after he failed to save his sister. He didn't know whether he had been pulled aside for questioning, or even if anything had even happened. It was all a featureless blur to him, and nothing else mattered.

The sounds of a faint knocking echoed through the silent darkness that was his surroundings, that of which he eventually realized was the door. He wanted to ignore it, to stay there in the darkness and let his grief have its way with him.

But somewhere in the back of his mind, he had the faintest semblance of rational thought reminding him that it was late in the evening, and their grandparents never liked to leave them alone in the house – Their grandfather would sometimes come home to check on them, if it looked like their grandmother's stay in the hospital was going to be longer than expected.

His unsteady footsteps lead him out of his room, down the corridor leading towards the front of the building. No lights were lit inside, everything was smothered in darkness as Toji navigated his way by touch.

The knocking at the door echoed once again as he reached the door, louder even. And yet on the other side was not his frail, kindly grandfather, standing in wait with his usual bag of dango in hand.

Two men aged in their thirties stood on the front steps of the house, dressed in the iconic uniforms for the police, and a marked vehicle stood parked in the driveway beneath the street lamp. Toji saw nothing more beyond their appearances, and the identical expressions that both men wore as they looked down at Toji's grief-consumed form.

Where ... was his grandfather?

'Evening, we apologize for disturbing you at such a late hour.' The taller of the two spoke, his tone far gentler than any police officer Toji had ever spoken to before. 'Are you Katsuragi Toji-san, by any chance?'

Mutely, Toji nodded ever so slightly.

What he finally recognized to be grave expressions seemed to only strengthen across the faces of the two police officers.

'Please, we need you to come with us to the station.'

'No.' Toji adamantly declined, quickly shaking his head as he took a step back. 'I-I can't. I have to wait for my grandfa--'

'Please, this is very important.' The second spoke seriously, casting a glance at his colleague for just a second. 'There has been a fatal accident, and we believe your grandparents were involved. We need you to come and identify the bodies.'

Whatever Toji was about to say was lost on him at those words.

All he could do was stare disbelievingly up at them as their words sunk in on him.

'This ... this has to be some kind of misunderstanding!' Toji gasped out, looking desperately from officer to officer. 'My grandparents aren't even in town!'

'Katsuragi-san, please come with us.' They reaffirmed just the same.

Helplessness gripped Toji's heart like a vice as he was escorted into the police car and whisked swiftly away to the police station on the other side of town.

He prayed that this was a misunderstanding, that everything would revert back to normal at any second.

He prayed endlessly, tumbling into a downwards spiral with every passing second.

Words were spoken, and yet he didn't hear them.

The world continued in spite of his desperate cries that it stop, and far, far too soon he was standing in front of the coroners office. One of the officers knocked upon the door, eliciting a distracted grunt of acknowledgement from the other side in return.

Seconds later, the door opened inwards, and the first words that were uttered were those of grave understanding.

'Wha--? ... I remember you...' The hoarse voice of the coroner spoke, recognition clear in the man's tone as he looked down at Toji's silent form. He awkwardly cleared his throat before he spoke again. 'I see... So that's what happened...'

The officer standing over Toji's shoulder gently nudged him inwards the very second the coroner had stepped out of the way, urging him inside.

The room was vaguely familiar in spite of the recent visit Toji had made here. An office in the front, with a single set against the left wall with the right completely filled with filing cabinets, and a large, observation window upon the wall directly ahead. A lone sliding door left ajar stood to the left of the window.

The officer closed the door behind him as he and Toji stepped inside, where he remained unmoving, watching as the coroner lead the way towards the second room.

'The accident took place ten minutes out of town, at the major intersection connecting here to Tokyo two hours ago, at approximately 11.39pm.' The coroner began as he pressed the switch for the overhead lights to come to life. 'A truck towing two semi-trailers was the cause. The driver failed to obey the legal stop signs and inadvertently collected the vehicle already crossing. They were declared dead at the crash site.'

The coroner cast Toji a small glance as he walked into the autopsy room, with a grim look spreading across his face.

Two steel tables on wheels stood in the centre of the room, with an equipment trolley off to one side adorned with scalpels and various tools required within such a facility. Upon the tables were white sheets, covering two vaguely human forms laying beneath.

The coroner stopped at the first of the two tables, waiting patiently for Toji to approach.

'I must warn you, this will be distressing.' He informed with a steely tone.

And with no response escaping Toji, the coroner could only lift the sheet and fold it down to reveal the person lying beneath.

Cold, and ghostly white lay the body of an elderly woman, her skin hanging bruised and bloodied off of her frail frame. Glass gashes and cuts peppered her face and marred her kind face to horrific extents. And yet that didn't stop Toji from recognizing her within an instance.

His throat closed up on him as he stared mutely down at his grandmother's face, the emotionless front cracking completely in two as the tears began to cascade down his face.

There was nothing that could be said, nor was there anything that could be done. As he collapsed and wept over his grandmother's bloodied body, the coroner had silently left the room, if only to give him time to mourn the great loss that befell him in one fell swoop.

He was now all alone in the world, and he could do nothing.

He could see nothing outside of the pain and sorrow the world had become for him, and his sense of time had been removed from his comprehension.

Words had been said, though he scarcely recalled what the words eluded to. He was required to sign declarations of which he had no conscious memory of, before he was handed the few belongings that had been in his grandparents possession.

He had then been escorted home, where his solitary world was intruded upon before dawn had even arrived.

Faces invaded his home, those of relatives he had seen only upon the deaths of his parents. Aunts and uncles, cousins and the like walked into the house as if they owned it, demanding his hospitality while they forced their way through cupboards and vanities to clear out everything they wished to take. They scarcely said more than a few words to him, nothing beyond how they were so heartbroken over their loss, and how it was a "shame that it was Etsuko who was no longer here". They found him everything under the sun to keep him out of their way at all costs while they pillaged through the broken pieces of his world.

It was all a sickening sense of deja vu to him.

By the time his grandparents wills had been read out the following morning, there was nothing left to divide. Like crows picking over a carcass, every little thing of monetary worth had been scavenged, and everything else left to decay. All the photographs and memories had been thrown in the trash by Toji's aunt just as she had left last of all.

He could find no words to describe the mix of emotions that bombarded his silent form as he watched their expensive luxury vehicles disappear out of the driveway, no words would ever fit the myriad of thoughts that could cross his mind. All he could do was watch through the back window of the vehicle as his youngest cousin laughed and showed off the collection of pressed flowers that had once belonged to Etsuko.

As the days passed on in the loneliness of his shattered world, he only brought himself out of his room for the funeral.

And as he had already expected, not a single person came to say their farewells.

They left him all alone, in the end.

[Shorter than most, but I felt there wasn't much that needed to be said]