Kazuya’s Birthday (3/3)

He heard footsteps and knew that it was Chizuru.

"You okay?"

"Yeah… Just annoyed. I didn't want to say something that I would regret later so I left to cool my head."

"If it's any consolation, I didn't like how she acted with you."

"It's fine. I honestly don't care enough to let it get to me." He wasn't lying. The only reason that he walked out was that he wanted to maintain some decency. If it was anyone else, he would've ripped them a new one.

It wasn't like he had any profound feelings about his so-called family. It wasn't exactly 'his family' either. He just didn't want to completely ruin the so-called celebration, and that was why he didn't do anything.

He was only being slightly considerate since there was a tiny bit of guilt inside him for taking over their dead kid's body, that's it. Otherwise, he would've completely cut his ties with them.

He was pretty indifferent to them.

Chizuru hugged his arm and leaned her head on his shoulder, watching the full moon today.

After a while of staying like that, they both go back to their apartment.

Chizuru thought that when they went back, his grandma would at least apologize to him, but she was just sulking angrily. She looked over to his parents who shook their heads helplessly.

'Huh… old people and their pride. Kazuya won't apologize either… He's too prideful to do that, especially since there was no fault of his here.

'Forget it…' She gave up on trying to salvage the situation. Kazuya took a seat and after a while, his grandma pulled Chizuru to the side.

"I have a little present for you Chizuru." She brought out a velvet case.

Chizuru realized that it was jewelry and planned to refuse her.

*Ring* Before she could say anything, she got a call.

"I'm sorry, I need to get this." She apologized to his grandma and took the call, walking away. She wouldn't have done this in any other circumstance, but the call was from the hospital.

A minute later Chizuru came back. She was suppressing it, but Kazuya noticed that she was slightly hyperventilating.

Kazuya got up with a concerned look and went up to her.

"What happened?"

"I-I need to leave… M-My grandma collapsed." She said loud enough that everyone to hear.

"Let's go." Kazuya didn't hesitate and pulled her out of the house to go to his car.

He didn't wait for anyone to say anything and rushed to the hospital as soon as possible.

"She'll be fine." He held her hand. Not knowing how else he could comfort her.

"Mhm…" She was looking down and he could feel her hand trembling.

"What did they say? She seemed fine when we left her."

"They didn't say much… S-She didn't wake up from her sleep. The nurse t-tried to wake her up for dinner." Her words were as erratic as her thoughts.

They reached the hospital as soon as they could and ran to her grandma's room.

"Oh? Kazuya? Chizuru? What are you guys doing here." The scene that awaited them was of Chizuru's grandma sitting with a nonchalant expression and an IV drip connected to her arm.

Kazuya couldn't help but blink his eyes a few times.

'Did she know that we'll be arriving? It's like there's no weakness in her body at all.' Kazuya realized that even when she insisted that they should leave for the party, she was probably in pain and was just hiding it very well.

They both sat with her and at some point, Kazuya's grandma also showed up about 15 minutes later.

Kazuya and Chizuru sat at the side as the two old ladies gossiped.

"Ichinose, can I talk to you." The doctor came up to them and asked for Chizuru.

"Yeah." Kazuya squeezed her hand as she left after the doctor.

'I don't like this… Couldn't I have gotten medical knowledge or something like that?' Kazuya didn't like seeing his girl so stressed and afraid.

"I'll get some snacks." Kazuya left the room since he didn't want to become the butt of these old ladies' jokes.

He got some snacks from the vending machine and ran into Chizuru who was looking down at her feet while walking slowly.

He went up to her and held her hand, before pulling her to a bench at the side.

"What did he say?"

"…Bad. He said that her condition is pretty bad." She looked to the side with a nonchalant look.

"She might seem fine, but she doesn't have much time left."

'What do I even say in a situation like this…' Kazuya didn't say anything and hugged her shoulder.

"You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine. I've been prepared for quite a while… Ever since I learned about her disease."

'That doesn't make it better you fool… You've been hiding your sorrow for who knows how long. You're not fine with it, you're just numb to it.'

"You're lying."

"N-No, I'm not."

"You're lying not only to me but also to yourself."

"I'm not! Okay?" She lashed out.

Kazuya just smiled.

"Come on, we should let your grandma rest. Let's go home."

Kazuya didn't talk about it with her since it's not easy to get someone to open up about the feelings that they've been hiding for so long.

They went to her grandma's room and said their goodbyes before all three of them left.

"I'll bring the car here. you guys wait." Kazuya left to bring the car from the parking lot.

"Here." Kazuya's grandma handed Chizuru the box with the ring.

"G-Grandma… I can't accept this."

"It's fine, honey. This ring has quite a bit of meaning to the family. It was the one that Kazuya's grandpa gave me for our wedding. I passed it on to Harumi after that… Both of us decided that we should give it to you for your twentieth."

"All the more reason that I shouldn't just accept it. Kazuya and I haven't even been going out that long."

"Sayuri doesn't have that long to live, does she? She is in bad shape. I can tell. She acts strong and she really is a strong woman, just like you. But I can tell from her face. She'd told me that she was the last of your family. If you really don't want this ring, then you can sell it. You don't need to put it on yet. I just want you to have it. It really is just that."

Before Chizuru could reply, Kazuya pulled up in front of them.

"Should I drop you home, grandma?"

"It's fine, brat, I'll take a cab. You take care of her."

"I know that more than you." Kazuya opened the door from inside the car.

"Let's go home, honey." He smiled at her.

Chizuru couldn't say anything about the ring and kept it in her bag before sitting in the car.

Kazuya drove off to his penthouse.

"What did she give you?"

"A ring…"

"That heirloom ring?"

"Seems like it."

"Damn. Well, I guess it's official. We're getting married."

She didn't say anything.

Kazuya realized that his attempt to lighten up the mood wasn't going to work so he kept quiet while driving home.

'I hate that I don't know how to make her feel better.'

He played some Til Kingdom Come by Coldplay while driving home. It seemed to match his current mood.

Although he was in Japan, he had no plans to ditch his old favorite songs. He could only be glad that this was pretty much a mirror world with some very minor changes.

"Do you usually listen to English songs?" Chizuru wanted to talk about something that wasn't related to her grandma.

"Yeah, I do, I listen to quite a few bands. I just didn't get a chance to introduce you to them yet."

"Seems nice."

They had some meaningless small talk that got Chizuru's mind off of the situation with her grandma.

When they got home, Kazuya remembered that he'd prepared the penthouse for his birthday night celebration.

'I forgot… There goes my plan of having her cosplay in a slutty catgirl outfit as my birthday gift…'

When he opened the door, the entire place was lit with dim lights and had quite a few rose petals spread out in a path toward their bedroom.

She was surprised that he'd planned so much.

"K-Kazuya…" She looked at him apologetically, knowing how her efforts for his birthday weren't even close to how much he did for her birthday.

"Shush. I love you and that's it. You don't need to worry about anything. Come on." Kazuya picked her up in a princess carry and brought her to the bathroom.

They took a shower and didn't do anything else. Neither of them was in the mood after the stuff with grandma Sayuri.

Chizuru was mostly silent and deep in thought.

After that Kazuya entered his room and discretely put the catgirl outfit that was on the bed into his inventory.

"You're hiding everything deep down. I'm not going to tell you if it's healthy or not. That's for you to decide. But I want to tell you that no matter what, you have me." Kazuya was cuddling with Chizuru who was clinging to him tightly.

"And what if you leave too…" She was having pretty dark thoughts.

"I don't think you have to worry about that babe. I'm pretty sure that even god doesn't want me dead."

'I mean I wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case…'

"…" She didn't say anything.

"You're never losing me. End of story. You can talk to me whenever you want about whatever you want." With that, Kazuya closed his eyes and hugged Chizuru to sleep.

"Promise?" She asked in a small voice.

"I promise with the entirety of my being." Kazuya kissed her forehead.

…

The next day, Kazuya dropped Chizuru off at college and came back to his apartment.

He was going to spend the morning playing with his pet before going to work at Nexus.

*Click*

He unlocked Mami's apartment door and walked in. The place seemed empty except for the door to the second bedroom being slightly ajar.

He smirked when he noticed the open door and slowly walked to the room.

'She seems to be ready.'

When he walked into the room, he was greeted by the sight of Mami kneeling on the floor wearing nothing but her chastity underwear.

She was wearing her collar that had a leash attached to it.

"Welcome home, master." She said in a sultry voice and with dead eyes. It was the yandere.

'Now that's a birthday present.'