Beware of feels in Totsuka’s Memory of Red piece. The original text is provided by .
K ~ Seven Stories: 24 Pieces
Piece 17: Totsuka Tatara (A Little Promise)
by Raikaku Rei
Totsuka was bad with promises.
Those who were too much of a free spirit since childhood could live happy and strong on their own even without being protected, but the price for that was the inability to deal with restrains, no matter their shape and whether they found themselves on the side being bound or doing the binding.
“It’s so inconvenient that you don’t have a PDA,” noted Kusanagi once when Totsuka was still in middle school.
“Really? I don’t really feel inconvenienced though.”
“Even though you had to wait for us for so long again?”
At the time, Totsuka came to visit the school Suou and Kusanagi attended and had to roam near the school gates for quite some time, waiting for the two to come out. To Totsuka, who had no means to contact his friends, that was just par for the course in order to see them, and he had fun doing it, so he didn’t feel troubled by it.
“Oh well, guess we’d better work out a schedule for when we meet then.”
“Eh, why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’…? If we set a specific time and place for our meetings, we’ll avoid any trouble when getting together. Without making that kind of promise, we might make the others wait needlessly or even miss each other…”
“We can do without any promises.”
“Why?” asked Kusanagi. Next to him Suou, who kept silent until then, glanced at Totsuka in slight puzzlement, too.
Totsuka was bad with promises. A lot of it had to do with him being a child who was no good at dealing with being restrained, but now that Totsuka thought about it, there was another possible reason: he probably also was a child who rarely saw promises to him being kept.
“Even without a promise, I will be the one to go out and find King and you, Kusanagi-san, so it’s okay!” said he with a smile at the time.
When he remembered that, the Totsuka in the present chuckled a little despite his labored breathing. He felt blood seep out of his belly without stopping, his body temperature gradually dropping lower.
Totsuka no longer could be the one to go out and see those he wanted to see. His beloved freedom was out of his reach now.
What was within his grasp was a PDA he didn’t have back when he was a child and a little promise to meet up with Kusanagi, 'Wait for me’, made through the PDA with the line connected.
Far away, Totsuka could hear the sound of rushing footsteps running up the emergency stairs.
As he waited for the footsteps to get closer, it occurred to Totsuka how surprisingly delightful it felt when a promise to you was kept, and he smiled just a little.