[+][L-N+][P-UL] ~ SHOUNEN POP - 少年ＰＯＰ ~

[Nileregwen DoUrden]

Azriel left the matter of Ishihara alone and instead replied to the comment in regards to his pet.
"He's warm and I'm quite lazy when I've nothing to do. Besides... I'm having to work twice as hard on him now that he's all upset." this actually DID piss Katsu off.
Aki was dead.
Hiroki was his now.
The elephant no longer belonged to the damn tiger.
Suddenly though, Azriel ducked beneath the water, surfacing again when he got to Izo's side. He didn't touch the man, but his dark eyes were on the spider.
"Yes."
It was a simple answer.
"I'm not a boy and I was never a child."

 

[Kaikoloren]

What I want, I get...
No matter the method------------------------------------------------}:-

Matsumoto Izo
Chairman - SMASH

The itsy bitsy spider...

"Warm? Well I suppose so. But you shouldn't be so lazy." Izo pointed out. However, putting Azriel into new jobs like acting or commercials was impossible until the young man could read better.

The next comment stung the Spider slightly. His dark eyes fully opening as he gazed down at the young man so close to his side. "You are a boy...in an adult body. No matter what the world sees on the outside, you've a ways to go on the inside before you can call yourself a man."

He put his arm around Katsu and pulled him in close to his chest. "I should pulled you from there sooner....I can't change the past but I want you to have a strong rich future."

-:{------------------------------------------------No matter the cost.
...Prepare to pay up!

 

[Nileregwen DoUrden]

It took every single ounce of self control to keep Katsu from hissing at those words. The things he'd done, the things he knew how to do... they were hardly things a boy should know.
He wasn't a damn child! He wasn't some little boy looking for a pat on the head for a job well done!
But then something passed in Azriel's eyes and he frowned, resisting the urge to pull away from the spider.
"Why do you care anyway?" Katsu replied, his gaze angry. "Because I can sing? Because I make you money? Because I can read your competition? That's all I am... dollar signs. I'm not a boy, Matsumoto-san. I never had the chance to BE a boy... and I don't want it now."

 

[Kaikoloren]

What I want, I get...
No matter the method------------------------------------------------}:-

Matsumoto Izo
Chairman - SMASH

The itsy bitsy spider...

"The hell you don't want it. You wouldn't be so angry if you didn't feel like you missed something." The Spider hissed under his breath because the serenity of the pool was now was lost. His strong hand slid over and tightened gripping the young man's shoulder as his dark eyes narrowed. "The world is a dangerous place....and I want you to have the best of it..now that you've had the worst."

Frustration grew in the man's face threatening danger as his other hand reached out and squarely grabbed Katsu's other shoulder and shook him once before held Katsu straight in front of him staring at the softer face that reminded Izo of his beautiful Kaori. " Your words invite retaliation and my reason to care or not to care has hung over your head for a long time! Blindly choosing your fate. My own foolishness...those years gone by. But now...your ignorance obviously can be your own undoing."

His fingers nails cut the skin as his eye bore through Katsu, who looked like a man but surely was a child underneath it all. "No...it's not all you are to me. Even though that's all you should be. And you are still a boy....my boy....That's who you are."Izo said firmly as he stared into those angry eyes. "You've got a lot to learn about this world above, Katsumi...even if you understand the hell below it."

-:{------------------------------------------------No matter the cost.
...Prepare to pay up!

 

[Nileregwen DoUrden]

Ignorance?
What the hell was Azriel ignorant of?
His whole damn life had been one dark sin after another, the existence he considered normal, if come to light, would prove that he had been in the depths of hell.
Katsu never reacted to the nails cutting his skin, his gaze focused on Izo's eyes alone... searching... not reading.
My boy...
There was a flicker in Azriel's gaze and he shook his head slowly. To him, Matsumoto's words meant an owning... nor a biological connection.
"You're my master..." Katsu whispered. "I'm indebted to you. I do what you say and I worship you to a degree and you know it. And yes... I'm afraid of pissing you off because I don't want to return to the only life I once knew. But you freed me, Izo... you don't own me. Not anymore. And my name is not Katsumi."
If only the bat could understand that Izo's words meant more... that the spider was telling him that he was his son...

 

[Kaikoloren]

What I want, I get...
No matter the method------------------------------------------------}:-

Matsumoto Izo
Chairman - SMASH

The itsy bitsy spider...

Izo paused and his teeth grit just before he slapped the boy's face, "Don't own you! Because you think you've got your freedom do you really think you are free? Frigging brat, and this is precisely why you need an education. YOU are not listening. You better start thinking beyond the Pit and it's ways. For all your reading and all your other skills your not looking beyond the nose on your very face!"

Lucky they were alone here because Izo certainly didn't want the wrong ears hearing. He grabbed the Katsu by the back of his wet head and turned him roughly so he could see his and Izo's reflection in the pool. "MY boy....my stubborn Son. That's who you are. Maybe it's not so easy to see the resemblance. You look far more like your mother than me. Good thing too...she was far more beautiful than all the stars in the heaven. But it seems you got every ounce of my bullhead nature. You're Matsumoto Katsumi...That is who you are."

He held the young man in place letting Katsu take a good hard look at them in the pool. Maybe the words would sink in this time....maybe.

-:{------------------------------------------------No matter the cost.
...Prepare to pay up!

 

[Nileregwen DoUrden]

Katsu didn't raise a hand to the red mark that he felt swelling on his face and at first he fought against the instinct to retaliate.
But then those strong fingers gripped the back of his head and forced him to look at the reflections in the water.
Words... words that hurt and bit and brought up more confusion.
Izo was crazy.
Katsu felt sick suddenly, but he held it back. His dark eyes couldn't move from the reflection as memories flashed in the corner of his mind. Memories buried... deliberately.
A boy being carried by strong arms. The sound of a piano in the distance. A woman's crying face. The face of a spider not yet wrinkled with age.
"You took me from her..." Azriel whispered, his body never moving. "You left me there... You let him..."
Wrenching himself from Izo's grasp, Katsu backed away slowly, his body coiled to fight back if need be. But he shook his head, a part of him not wanting to believe this.
"You let him have me..." the bat hissed, fear and anger and disbelief coursing through his veins. "You didn't care then... and yet you care now?! Now that I'm ******** useful to you?! I... I don't..." Katsu took a deep breath, trying to still the trembling he felt coming on. "I loved you... I loved you so damn much and... and... and I've done everything you ever asked or ordered and you were my god for pulling me out of that hell hole. But... I've been just a fool... a naive child... haven't I?"
Then... well... Azriel just didn't give a damn anymore.
He let it out.
Dark eyes widened and the pupils narrowed, focusing in on the man before him.
Then Katsu backed up fast, hands groping behind him for the side of the onsen pool, using it to keep himself steady.
"Oh gods... you're not lying..." Azriel whispered, the reader confirming what the bat's heart didn't want to accept.
Without saying anything else, Katsu scrambled out of the pool, wrapping the towel around his waist hurriedly. "You're not my father. No father would leave their son in hell at the mercy of a demon. Call me a child or a boy... I don't care... but you're NOT my father. You're just a lonely old man who..."
But whatever Azriel had been about to say was cut short. The reader wanted more... wanted to peer into Izo's soul... wanted answers and truth and memories that were still locked away...
Katsu screamed, clutching at his head as he collapsed beside the pool. His fingers started scrapping at the rocks and sand around the hot spring, black nails chipping, another nail ripping itself halfway off his pinky. The bat's body was overcome with small tremors before his back arched and a silent scream shook him.
The boy with the bloody hands was staring at him within his mind. The child huddled in a dark corner with bandages around his skull. And that laughter was there... that shadowed sound which haunted his nightmares. Rough hands pawing at him, white sterile gloves holding him in place, eyes... so many eyes... watching and laughing and pointing and the glint of a scalpel.
"Make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop..." Katsu was whispering over and over again, burying his face in his arms as he lay on his stomach. "Okaasan... tasukete..." he whimpered, bloody fingers pressing at his scalp.

 

[Kaikoloren]

What I want, I get...
No matter the method------------------------------------------------}:-

Matsumoto Izo
Chairman - SMASH

The itsy bitsy spider...

Izo took a deep breath because he probably had just admitted something he never should have. At least the lie of life might have been more bearable than learning you're the son of a monster that threw you in to the pit.

What could he say when the boy boy scrambled out of the pool maybe the young man was better off not believing he was his father. However, they both now knew that wasn't going to happen. That reader tried to see into his soul. A place it would never be able to truly go but on the surface Katsu saw those words weren't a lie.

Many choices ran through his head. He could ignore the boy let him scream it out in a corner. Walk away... That had a very easy appeal to it because sooner or later the screaming would die off. But, the Spider was nagged by Koyasu Aki's last letter. That old tiger's words plaguing his thoughts. A glimpse of Kaori's face flashed through his head. Her laughter...her smile. Her..holding Katsumi so proud. And soon he pulled himself up out of the water walking straight over to the young man on the floor.

Kneeling down beside him, he pulled the bloodied fingers from the scalp and this time kept them tightly in hand so they would not go anywhere and do more damage. His words came quickly as if such moments were difficult for him to reveal. "Your mother was a gracious loving woman. She always wanted the best for you. And...I knew back then I wouldn't be a good father. And she wanted you to stay with her so badly. But...Koyasu Aki wouldn't allow you to stay with her. And gave me no choice but to take you in. Back then, when you were in my arms I wanted to be a good father to you. But...your mother was murdered just around Christmas...and I...lost my heart and mind. After losing Rie..." He paused for a moment trying to find his own means to continue, "....then losing Kaori, I abandoned you to the Pit because I became soulless as it. If I had known what the Doctor had done back then..." His words stopped and for those moments the anger he felt had to be quelled by his own willpower.

"I never should have dropped you in the Pit. I'll regret it until the end of my existence. When I brought you out of there...old memories of your mother wouldn't let me forget what I had done. How precious you should have been to me. How precious you were to her. I suppose it's Karma, to lose both of them during Christmas. Karma has a way of coming back on people. And for me it has been tenfold. I am a evil monster that will never find heaven. But...You're life...your future. If I can make that brighter, I shall. I don't expect you to love me. I don't expect you to call me your father. I've never earned that from you." Izo's words were sincere enough but he doubted Katsumi would believe them. The boy's trauma...was quite deep. And Izo could only blame himself for it. This might have been the closest he could find of his old self prior to losing his heart and soul to darkness. He could see that man he had been but his icy hands could never quite regain what he lost.

His hands pulled up Katsu by the hands so he'd rise from the floor enough that he could see the young man's face. "I can't change the past as much as this wicked soulless spider would try. I wish she were here with you instead. I wish I could have convinced Aki to let you stay with her. She loved you so very much." His eyes glanced away to the bloody sand. Dry eyes filled with bitter regrets. He couldn't shed tears for the losses that he had suffered and the scars that covered those wounds. Although deep within he felt the ache of these old wounds in the heart.

-:{------------------------------------------------No matter the cost.
...Prepare to pay up!

 

[Nileregwen DoUrden]

Despite what the bat saw in his mind's eye... he could not pull away from the hands that held his own so tightly. This was Izo's voice. His master... his salvation... his... father...
It hurt.
It hurt so deeply...
What had Katsu done to deserve this? What sin could a child possibly commit to be worthy of tossing them into a soulless hell?
Then two words cut through the pain and the fog and the laughter faded away as dark eyes blinked to find sand and small rocks and tracts of blood beneath him.
Koyasu Aki
Two simple words and Katsu's hands tightened into fists within the spider's grasp. A soft sob echoed in the serenity of the bath. His father had loved a woman... and had lost that woman. Had gotten rid of anything that reminded him of her... including his own son.
The knife he felt in his chest twisted and Azriel moved enough to place his head in Izo's lap, tears falling from his eyes as his fingers writhed in the older man's grasp until he gripped Matsumoto's wrists in return... and grip him hard he did.
When Izo finally could look into Katsu's face, he would find sadness... pain in those dark eyes... but anger? Hatred?
The spider saved him... the spider loved him... the spider cared... the spider wanted to make things right...
"All my pain..." Katsumi whispered brokenly, staring up at the older man. "All those nights left screaming... alone... frozen with fear and cold... wondering when he'd come again... wondering if I'd die this time... wanting to die... surviving... thriving in the darkness... pissing off that p***k because I SURVIVED..." the young man shook his head in shock. "What have I become, Matsumoto-san? What have you made me into? I see people happy... free of the fear I felt... people who have little kids that play in the snow and try to catch snowflakes on their tongues... I... I should have been one of those children... I knew nothing but pain and you abandoned me... But you saved me from hell... a hell ruled by your own hand... Devil is a better word for you than Spider." Katsumi took a quick breath, stopping his sentence least he break down again. "I hate you... but I love you. This..." for a second he tried to pull away, but the young man truly didn't have the strength to fight Matsumoto's grasp in those seconds. "I'm the son of a monster... Asato was wrong... I... I am a monster... A twisted perversion of life... You didn't want me... You're no better than Koyasu Aki... If he made my mother throw me away... you just passed me off at the easiest convenience... You were hurting and you threw me aside. Would that you had just killed me..."
But then Katsumi laughed softly, some strength returning to him, the sound eerie and half mad. "But you didn't... and now you want me to prosper and live and have everything I never could. You give me Asato and a beautiful home and adoring fans to listen to my nightingale songs... but it's all the same, isn't it? Just another cage... My body has made you so much money..." one of Azriel's hands wrenched itself free, grasping hard at Izo's wrist and forcing the man's hand down to touch the side of Katsu's towel clad inner thigh. "I hate the PIT... I love the PIT... just as I hate and love you. In that hell I learned how to survive and how to find pleasure... I owe who I am to that abyss. I owe who I am... to you... To a father who forsakes his son for his own madness." Katsumi shook his head, his eyes never leaving Izo's own gaze. "Don't think this changes anything, Matsumoto-san... I'll not call you father... because whatever was my father died a long time ago it seems." Laughing again, Azriel wrenched his other hand from the spider's own, but instead of pulling away, he drew himself closer. Lithe fingers moved behind Izo's head, fingers tangling in the older man's shorter wet hair. "You're my master. That will never change. Even if I fall into hell again... least I'll know destroying a child's innocence won't be what denies me entry to heaven." he whispered before pressing forward, his lips claiming Izo's in a sudden rough kiss.

 

[Kaikoloren]

What I want, I get...
No matter the method------------------------------------------------}:-

Matsumoto Izo
Chairman - SMASH

The itsy bitsy spider...

The older man said nothing as Katsu spoke. Tolerated the grasping of his wrists. He probably deserved every spiteful word said. Oh he was sure of that. Maybe what stung the most was being compared to his dead rival. Koyasu Aki would have laughed and probably agreed with the young man's evaluation. What a disgusting thought indeed.

He knew by Katsu's actions that he was only covering up the weighty pain he hid behind that laughter. But his dark eyes narrowed as he was kissed so roughly. His own strong fingers tightened upon Katsu's thigh, however, he didn't respond nearly as much as he might of in the past. Right now, his desire wasn't even ignited. He felt cold. The young man might have felt he needed this consolation so Izo didn't pull away. Instead he just bide his time and when the young man pulled away to breath, he got up and dragged his towel across his skin.

"If I'm your master, then clean up...Mikosu-chan will have lunch ready for us. Afterwards, I think that it will be better for you not to attend the New Year's party. Nor the afters." All the warmth he could try to have for a son, he couldn't have with a pet. If some things weren't to change then, so be it for now.

-:{------------------------------------------------No matter the cost.
...Prepare to pay up!

 

[Nileregwen DoUrden]

Katsu stared up at Izo as the man spoke... and the anger which filled the bat's eyes was unmistakable.
In fact, the young man's body shook with rage, but he didn't disagree with his master's orders... even if he didn't think he could stomach a meal right now.
"You're going to keep to your promise?" Azriel asked as he ripped off the black nail that was barely hanging on, blood welling up to run again. "You're going to fix my head still? Or would you rather he just finish the job this time?"
There was a horrible bite to Katsu's words, but he didn't give a damn. The towel that had been around his waist was now blood stained, though it was staunching the bleeding. He'd have to get something done about his hands... his nails shot to hell...
"I guess it isn't so bad. I'll spend my first real New Years alone, crying into my champagne and staring at the fire, wondering how much it'd burn if I touched it... if I might feel alive with the pain." Azriel spoke as he picked himself up. "Maybe I can just take a trip to my basement and strap in... find out if I've still got the stamina you used to be so damn proud of."
Bitter and angry... denied the thing he'd been looking forward to for so long... Katsumi really was like a child throwing a tantrum for not getting what he wanted. "I wonder how drunk I'll have to be to think it's real. Wonder whose name I'll cry out in the end. Maybe I'll pass out first and just let my nightmares run away with me... screaming and clawing at the first person who dares try to wake me up or share my bed."
But the bat followed the spider back into the onsen, curbing his tongue now that there was less of a possibility of them being alone. He'd never been this angry before... no... he had been once... when someone had nearly killed his Asato.
Dark eyes narrowed on Izo, "Don't take him away from me." Katsu hissed in a whisper as he walked over to a sink in the washroom, cleaning his hands up. "If you so much as touch one hair on his head, Matsumoto-san... your pet will bite the hand that feeds it."

 

[Kaikoloren]

What I want, I get...
No matter the method------------------------------------------------}:-

Matsumoto Izo
Chairman - SMASH

The itsy bitsy spider...

Izo watched as Katsu raged. In some ways it reminded him of himself when he was younger. So much anger and so few places to vent. "I'm keeping my promise. And you won't be alone just as I said before." he answered keeping his own voice from raising because right now the young man was frustrating him. He knew that Katsu had every right to be angry but throwing a tantrum like this wasn't going help either of them.

As Katsu ranted, Izo wished he had just kept his mouth shut about the whole affair. What had been the point of telling the young man in the first place. Oh Aki surely was laughing at him now. Even as a ghost some where beyond the pale that old tiger was laughing at him. He shook his head trying to push that thought aside. "Yes, it isn't so bad...you'll be home in your own house, drinking your own champagne and enjoying your own fire in front of a fire place. And if you are so worried about the hair on YOUR pet's head then I suggest you think about it before contemplating any of the choices your tantrum is opting for you." Izo pointed out as he found a sink to clean himself up at. He had emphasized the 'your' because it was true. Life was far better for Katsu even if he wasn't at the party or the afters.

Once Izo washed his fingers, he walked to the lockers and found his clothes. His eyes drifting around the inn. Next year, he'd come alone. Just like he used to. And find a small slice of serenity once more. He should never have brought Katsu to this place.... Maybe it was the location that changed his decision and softened him just enough to reveal a bit of himself to the young man. Now he regretted that decision as well.

-:{------------------------------------------------No matter the cost.
...Prepare to pay up!

 

[Nileregwen DoUrden]

"Is any of it really mine in the end?" Azriel whispered as he toweled his hands off, though he didn't say it loud enough the Izo could hear.
His rant ended there and the young man didn't say anything else. Katsumi hide inside of Azriel, pushed deep down because the vocalist couldn't bear seeing the child's bloody hands again.
'Katsumi... I have a name... a real one...' he thought to himself bitterly.
Looking back in the direction of the hot spring, the bat knew he'd never come here again. A place so innocent looking... so serene... had shattered his happiness.
Or had it?
He had a father... even if the man were a b*****d who had abandoned him into the hands of a perverted madman.
He had a name...
He had a mother... even if she were dead.
And now he knew why the face of Narcissus infuriated him to his very core.
Narcissus had freedom and life and a family. He had safety and comfort and a chance to live and be a boy.
Katsumi had everything stolen away from him because of one dead tiger...
"If your rival weren't dead... I'd have killed him myself." Azriel spoke to Izo as they both dressed. "It's his fault before yours, Matsumoto-san. I'm sorry I look like her." he said softly but angrily, pulling his shirt over his head. "Hope I at least felt like her in your arms at night."
His fingers felt the small box with the amber spider in his pocket, fingers clenching on it for a few moments. But he didn't draw it forth... didn't return it to the spider...
It was all he had of an ideal now...
"Did she at least cry when you took me? Tell me my memories aren't false."

 

[Ryuu Minamoto]

~ Nanika tarinakute mo ima aru iro de ~

With a mouthful of waffle already shoved into his mouth, the vocalist kind of resembled a hamster more than a puppy.

"Mhmf....waffurs...." he swallowed, "Yeah, I've...been in the hospital a lot of times. They kinda know that I like sweet breakfasts when I'm feeling bad. Pretty awful when the hospital knows your preferences and makes special accommodations for them, huh?" he looked down, feeling a little self-conscious about that little fact. What kind of grown man was so clumsy, foolish, and bad-lucked to wind up in the hospital that often, really?

"Hm? Well...I'm sore, of course. But...I think I'm feeling better. I feel well enough, I guess." Ryu smiled in response to Kou's question. It felt nice knowing that somebody worried about him. Just knowing he wasn't alone...that was more than he used to think he would ever have, so long ago.

"And yes...." he took another large bite, "I'm well 'nuff to eat deeze waffurs."

~ Sou boku no sekai wo nurikaete mitai ~

 

[Kaikoloren]

What I want, I get...
No matter the method------------------------------------------------}:-

Matsumoto Izo
Chairman - SMASH

The itsy bitsy spider...

Izo glanced back at the young man as he spoke of his rival but then his eyes hardened as Katsu foul mouthed his mother. "You...shall never say cruel words about her again. Do you hear me? She loved you and she was a very beautiful woman inside and out. Her gifts to you are more than just that handsome face."

For a moment he paused before saying with a sigh, "You did..." Why not admit it? If Izo were playing cards with his life, he knew his hand held spades especially with his mad son.

"She cried....and so did your brother and sister." He buttoned his collar and gazed at the mirror seeing the box with the amber spider in its reflection. Maybe he should have killed Aki when he was younger. But it took a long time to bring Smash to the height of what it was today.

Izo wanted this to be over. He had tried to break the ice around his frozen soul just enough to work through this difficult moment. Maybe it was better that he had thrown the truth on the table now rather than years later. But still, it gave him no comfort, no happiness. Nor did it do much for Katsumi's personality either.

So he walked out of the washroom to meet Mikosu-chan to push the day forward rather than dwell upon his past.

"Matsumoto-san. lunch is waiting for you in the private gazebo just where you've always had it. We've already arranged the plates. Grilled salmon lightly dusted with dill and drizzled with teriyaki. Several steamed vegetables, rice and a plate of fresh cheese and pickled radishes. Please enjoy." The old woman said sweetly and gestured with a shaky hand towards a hall that lead down to an enclosed gazebo over looking a frozen pond and ice encased trees. The gazebo was warm and the view eased back towards the mountains beyond. For the spider the site was breathtaking. Even for the tragedy he had invited into his world, he could look out of the expanse of nature and see that his darkness did not encompass everything. If only he could step outside himself and start new.

As he watched out over the pond a memory of Kaori on ice skates caught his eye. Twirling and falling flat on her butt. He smiled for a moment in that reverie before he sat down at the table. The skylight above allowed the white light of winter to fill the room. "Itadakimasu." he said softly before picking up the perfect green tea prepared by Mikosu-chan. He didn't know if Katsu would join him or stay in the washroom. Did it matter?

Izo tried to view the world from Katsu's perspective. And yes this outcome wouldn't be a surprise at all. The spider wouldn't expect more or less from the situation. Katsu probably felt betrayed, bitter and maybe even somewhere in his mind murderous. While Katsu appeared to be a strong survivor there was a soft weak side within. And even if the boy hated him, well, it wouldn't be the first time he had been hated. But for now Katsu whether or not he was willing would need the Spider's help until he could crawl off his back and survive on his own.

His eyes gazed quietly out the windows that surrounded the warm gazebo and he took a deep sip of the tea. "Rie...Kaori....here I am again, ending another year without you. This year has been long, but I've done the right thing and ended this one on a different note. Your son knows the truth now." His own ritual on this day. Talking to the ones he missed in the sanctity of this peaceful place. It gave his soul the illusion of peace.

-:{------------------------------------------------No matter the cost.
...Prepare to pay up!

Kou laughed a little when he saw that full face. Ryuu really did look like a hamster. "You're eating too much too fast." He pointed out as he cut a bit of waffle and put it into his own mouth. "Yeah that's not a good thing when the staff knows what you like to eat here. Maybe you're New Year's resolution should be to not be in the hospital. Not get hurt or injured."

"I'm going to head back to my apartment this afternoon and get a shower and plus I want to see what...the cleaning people did to my home." said Kou in casual conversation as he worked through the second waffle. "You're going to be here a few days from what they said."

"Tonight we get to celebrate New Years eve here. So is there anything you want for our celebration? Party favors? Some treats?? Hospital approved treats, of course."

Once he said that the nurse knocked on the door and set a vase with a bunch of blue cut flowers. Some Blue Nigella, mixed with light blue daisies, mini blue rose clusters and baby's breath. The card was discretely inserted and stamped with silver.

Kou got up and handed the card to Ryuu, The outside was stamped with the logo of Smash.

Inside the card said:

Not quite the way one expects to end the New Year but let the next see you shine bright as the stars in the heavens. You're missing a great party tonight!

Matsumoto Izo.