Chapter Text
“You can’t let her manipulate you like this. You’re the adult, fucking act like it!”
Isamu wasn’t particularly tall, but he was taller than her. With how angry he was, it felt like he was towering overhead, like she was in immediate danger. She shrunk in on herself, gaze fixed on her feet.
“S-sorry, um, I-I’ll go talk to her.”
“Hey!” He grabbed her chin roughly, forcing their eyes to meet. The ferocity in his gaze made her tremble. “Do not just talk to her, Akemi, she’s fucking disgusting. Throw her in the bath if you have to! Just get her clean!”
“O-okay,” she said, legs shaking. It took a lot of willpower not to cry, but she managed. With a deep breath, she turned and walked to their daughter’s bedroom.
Akemi glanced over at her husband, mildly relieved to see he was storming off to god knows where. Less immediate pressure. She knocked lightly on the door, leaning her ear closer.
“Yumie?” she said, waiting a moment for an answer. None came. “I’m coming in, okay?”
Still no answer. She opened the door.
The lights were off, as per usual. The room was small, just big enough for a twin bed and a dresser. She got on her hands and knees and peered under the bed.
There was a small ball of blankets and greasy black hair huddled in the furthest corner.
“Yumie,” she said again, watching the ball curl up tighter, “Hey, sweetie, why don’t you come out?”
Silence.
“You need to take a bath, you know. It’s almost been a week.”
Yumie’s small, bare feet emerged from the blankets as she tried to push herself further back into the corner. It didn’t work. Akemi’s heart hurt as her daughter started to visibly shake.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay! I-it’ll just be quick!” she blurted out, holding her hand out to Yumie. “In and out, I promise. It’ll be nice.”
She wished she knew what had triggered this behavior in Yumie. It had seemed so… abrupt. She could remember when her daughter was younger, how energetic she was, how excited she was about the world. Sure, Isamu had been doing his best to beat the joy out of her, and everyone else for that matter, but it felt like this had happened overnight. She hadn’t been hiding before, hadn’t skipped meals before, hadn’t hated bathing.
Finally, after a few minutes of silence, Yumie began to crawl out from her spot. Akemi let out a soft, relieved sigh. “There’s my girl. We’ll get you cleaned up and in your pjs.”
When she was close enough, Akemi grabbed Yumie under her arms and hoisted her up. She was certainly light for her age, the meal skipping was not helping with that. She needed the food to grow properly. Maybe after a bath, she’d feel up to a meal.
She hugged her daughter to her chest, feeling her small arms squeeze her tightly. A soft whimper left her throat. “Mommy…”
Akemi moved to her dresser, picking out a set of clean pjs for Yumie. “We’ll be quick. We can get a snack, too, if you want. Maybe some chicken nuggets?”
“I-is Daddy home?” she murmured, face still pressed into her mother’s neck.
“I’m not sure… But I think he’d be okay with you eating late.”
Yumie hugged her tighter and started shaking again. “I-I don’t wanna go out if he’s home.”
Her heart clenched. Had Isamu started hitting her, too? She’d never seen him put a hand on Yumie before, but maybe it had been foolish to believe he could be kinder to their daughter than he was to her. Despite everything, she still pictured him as her high school sweetheart once in a great while. He’d vanished after they’d gotten married, but after Yumie was born, she could see glimpses here and there. She thought maybe fatherhood could fix him.
As she set her daughter down to check the apartment for his presence, she realized how fucking stupid of a thought that was.
A quick search revealed he had in fact left. Akemi rushed back to the room to retrieve Yumie, kissing the top of her head as she brought her to the bathroom. It was right across from Yumie’s room.
She shut and locked the door behind them, setting Yumie down on quivering legs. She was only wearing a sleeping shirt that went down to her knees, which felt a bit weird for this time of year. Yumie was only a child, though, she didn’t know better. It was on her for not making sure her daughter was dressing correctly.
Just like every room in this apartment, the bathroom was tiny. She started up the water for the tub, waiting for it to warm up before plugging the drain. The lack of room made her sit down on the toilet’s lid as she pulled Yumie’s clothes off.
The first thing she noticed was that Yumie had bruises all over her. They were large and suspiciously hand-shaped. Not like she’d been struck, but like she’d been grabbed and squeezed for a long time. They looked horrible.
Akemi stared for several minutes before she realized her mouth was hanging open. “Oh my god, baby, where did you get these?”
Yumie hugged herself, looking to the side. “I-I-I can’t tell you.”
“You can’t tell me?!”
Akemi’s hands slid over the purple marks, her heart sinking as Yumie visibly flinched away from her touch. They hurt. They were fresh. It seemed obvious they were from Isamu, but she just didn’t know when it would’ve happened. A horrible thought started to fester in the back of her mind. She stayed home to care for Yumie and the house. She was awake and alert at all the times Yumie would be up and about. If he’d hit Yumie during the day, she definitely would’ve noticed.
Why was he interacting with her in the middle of the night?
“I can’t, he told me I’d get in trouble if I did,” Yumie murmured, staring at her feet. Akemi gently grasped her shoulders, trying to stay as calm as possible. She didn’t want to scare Yumie.
“Why is-“ She paused, rephrasing the thought in her head, trying to figure out the best way to ask her five-year-old such an awful question. Akemi took a deep breath, settling down her inner turmoil just enough to finally say, “Is Daddy coming in your room at night?”
It was like a switch flipped. Yumie started sobbing. She stumbled forward, arms held out, and Akemi immediately wrapped her up in a tight hug. Yumie was trying to talk, but all that was coming out were horrible, unintelligible wails. It was genuinely the worst noise she’d ever heard her daughter make, and it took an absurd amount of willpower to not break down crying as well. She had to be strong for her.
She knew Isamu was awful. He’d made her life a living hell, isolated her from her friends and family, forced her to basically be a maid. And yet, she could’ve never expected he was this despicable.
It took a few minutes, but eventually Akemi settled her emotions enough that she felt coherent again. She took several slow breaths, stroking Yumie’s back, centering herself in the present. She needed to wash Yumie.
Wash Yumie.
Slowly, she picked up the still-sobbing child before her and placed her into the warm water. She focused on her task for a bit, pouring water over her head, adding shampoo to the dirty hair that desperately needed it. The grime slowly tinted the water brown.
When it came time to rinse, Akemi’s thoughts started to process everything again. They needed to leave. She’d known for a while that they needed to leave, but planning was hard when she hadn’t had a job before, didn’t have any friends, and her family lived overseas. There was nowhere to leave to. How was she gonna feed herself, let alone Yumie?
The longer she thought on it, the more her insides twisted up with dread. No, she really couldn’t make it out of here and care for Yumie. If she were on her own, it would suck, but she’d manage. She could starve for periods, but she’d survive. The thought of putting Yumie through that made her feel terrible. But she couldn’t stay here! She absolutely was not going to let her daughter endure another night of… that just to give her more time to plan. It wasn’t right.
As Akemi rinsed the rest of the suds from Yumie’s hair, something popped into her head. Something awful, something terrible, something that she wanted to brush off and never consider again. But she did consider it. She considered it as she towled Yumie dry and put her in her clean pajamas, as she made her a quick meal before bed. And she definitely considered it when Isamu eventually returned home and she noticed, to her disgust, that with added context, it was glaringly obvious how fucking weird he was acting.
It was the most horrible idea she’d ever considered, and as she laid in bed next to her husband that night, she knew it was her only option.
He’d fallen asleep almost right away tonight, one of the few benefits of him coming home drunk. Akemi slid out of bed as quietly as she could, heart racing as she tiptoed towards the door. Her eyes never left him, and she prayed desperately over and over again that he wouldn’t wake up and catch her doing this.
The second she latched their bedroom door, she was all but running.
She rushed to Yumie’s room, almost throwing the door open. “Yumie! Come out, we’re leaving!” she hissed in a whisper. Her daughter’s head popped out from under her bed almost immediately.
“W-where are we going?” she said. Even in the darkness, Akemi could see how wide her eyes were.
“Away from Daddy,” she said, and Yumie ran to her. She scooped up her daughter, hugging her tightly, fighting back tears. This was what needed to happen. It had to.
The only thing she grabbed was her purse and a coat for each of them, and then she was running out of their apartment complex as fast as she could.
There was a Catholic Church only a couple of blocks from there. She’d never been there before, Isamu only really let her leave the house to get groceries, but every time she passed by, it felt safe. Maybe it was just because the building was so pretty, but it was calling to her, telling her this was where she needed to go. As she crossed through the threshold of the large doors, her adrenaline finally bubbled out, and she felt absolutely exhausted.
Her head instinctively lowered as she caught her breath. Akemi gasped for a few moments, her limbs all shaky from spent adrenaline. When she felt like she’d finally recovered, she looked up and jumped slightly.
There was a priest in front of her, and he was quite literally the biggest man she’d ever seen. Not only was he tall, he was extremely muscular. He looked like he could lift up a car. And yet, behind his glasses were the kindest eyes she’d ever seen.
Without thinking, she blurted out, “You have to help me, please!”
He blinked, suddenly looking a bit nervous. “Oh, er, Ahm no’ actually the, uh, the priest here.”
“I don’t care,” Akemi said, voice shaking, “I-I just need someone to protect my daughter.”
His gaze shifted to Yumie, and instantly his entire demeanor changed. He took a deep breath. “Come wi’ me, we’ll talk.”
She followed him through the rows of pews, feeling when Yumie shifted in her arms to look at the man. She didn’t seem to be afraid of him, just intrigued, and that was a great sign.
They eventually entered a small bedroom with very simple living quarters. Everything had been made up as though it wasn’t in use. The priest motioned for her to sit down, and so she did, setting Yumie on the floor. She opened her purse and pulled out a plastic dinosaur, which Yumie eagerly took and ran off to the other side of the room to play with. It wasn’t going to keep her completely away from the conversation, but Akemi figured it was better than her being right there.
“Wha’s goin’ on?” the priest said. Akemi wilted under his gaze.
“Do you… know where an… where a good orphanage is?”
She bit her lip, eyes squeezing shut as the tears came rushing out. She tried to force them away with sheer willpower, but the overwhelming despair that sentence filled her with was too much to ignore. She flinched when she felt one of his massive hands rest on her arm.
“Can ye not take care’a the lass?” he said, voice hushed. He sounded so so kind, it was literally the polar opposite of how Isamu talked to her.
“I…” Akemi looked over at Yumie, who was pretending her dinosaur was biting a candle on the nightstand. She smiled, an ache in her chest. “I can’t. She- we’re not safe at home, b-but she has it so much worse. I-I-I can’t… I had to get her away, b-but we don’t have anywhere to go…”
His thumb slid comfortingly up and down. “No family?”
She shook her head.
“Friends?”
She shook her head again. The man took another deep breath. “Well, Ah could get ye both a place t’ stay.”
Akemi chewed her lip, hands clenching into fists. “I-I can’t, I- he’ll find us. He’s always found me before, a-and especially here, I really stand out.”
He looked over at Yumie briefly. “It’d be safe, Ah promise.”
“N-no, no, you can’t. I can’t risk her like this. I can’t let him have even a chance of finding and hurting her.” She stared at her feet, anxiety chewing her up.
This was the right decision. She just wished it didn’t hurt so bad.
Finally, the priest sighed and nodded. “Ah understand where yer comin’ from. Ah know a place she c’n go.”
“Thank you. God, thank you so much,” Akemi choked out. Her eyes burned and her throat ached, but Yumie would be safe. That’s all that mattered.
He gave her a sad, yet understanding smile. “I’s th’ right thing ta do. Ah jus’ need ya t’ promise, first chance ya’ get, when yer sure it’s safe, come’n find ‘er.”
“Of course!” she blurted out. “I-I don’t know when that’ll be, but absolutely, I’ll come find her when I can.”
“Good.” The priest nodded once, then looked over at Yumie. She was staring at them now, clearly she knew something was happening. “Ah’ll give ye two a minute. Lemme know when yer ready.”
She watched as the giant man left the room, gently closing the door behind him. As if on cue, Yumie ran back to her, small hands clutching at her coat.
“Who’s that, Mommy?”
Akemi took a long, shaky breath to try to stop herself from breaking down. She smiled at her daughter, barely fighting off sobs. “He’s going to take you somewhere safe where Daddy can’t hurt you anymore.”
“Really?” Yumie said. Her eyes were huge and hopeful, and it broke her heart.
“That’s right. And you’ll have lots of other kids to play with.”
Her hands slid through Yumie’s still damp hair, and she wondered if this would be the last time she ever did it. She cupped her daughter’s small face, then leaned down to kiss her forehead. When she pulled back, Yumie suddenly appeared upset.
“What about you?” she said, voice small. Akemi forced the knot back down her throat.
“We… we won’t see each other for a while,” she said eventually. Yumie’s face fell immediately.
“How long?”
“I… I’m not sure.” She had to at least try to be honest with her daughter. “It’ll be a long time probably.”
Tears fell from Yumie’s eyes, and Akemi pulled her into a hug in an attempt to hide that she, too, was crying now.
“B-but I’ll miss you!” Yumie sobbed, squeezing her as tight as she could. “I-I-I know I’m bad sometimes, b-b-but-!”
“No, no, baby girl, you didn’t do anything wrong. Please don"t think you did anything wrong.” She kissed the top of Yumie’s head over and over, stroking her back.
For a few minutes, Akemi just held her daughter, trying to memorize every part of her. Her scent, the texture of her hair, even the sound of her crying. She had to remember her. She had to. Even if she never saw Yumie again, she needed to know what her perfect, wonderful, gift from God was like until the day she died.
She wished they could stay in this limbo forever, not have to face Isamu, not have to send Yumie away. But they couldn’t. They just couldn’t. Instead of letting go, Akemi lifted up her daughter and pat her back as she got up and walked out of the room.
The priest was waiting outside the door. He had the decency to look sympathetic when their eyes met. Slowly, Akemi peeled Yumie’s wailing body off of her and passed her on to the giant man before her.
“It might be a while, but I’ll come back for you,” Akemi sniffled. She gave Yumie one last kiss to her forehead and gently squeezed one of her hands. “Be good for me, alright?”
In spite of everything, Yumie nodded.
“Tha’s a good lass,” the priest chuckled. He ruffled Yumie’s hair, drawing her attention.
“Who’re you?” she murmured, wiping her running nose on the sleeve of her coat.
His gaze softened instantly. It was a comforting sight for Akemi. “Ah’m Father Anderson. Wha’s yer name?”
A loud sniffle. “Y-Yumie.”
He gave her a big, warm grin. “Yumie! Wha’ a pretty name fer a pretty girl.”
Akemi choked out a bitter laugh as she started rummaging through her purse. She produced a single envelope and held it out to Father Anderson. He blinked a couple times before taking it.
“I-it’s her birth certificate. Figured that was important.”
“Aye, it is,” he said. Before Akemi could say anything else, Anderson reached forward with his unoccupied arm and pulled her into a hug. “Ah know this in’t easy fer ya. Yer a good mother.”
“Th-thanks. I hope you’re right.”
She pulled away, then hugged Yumie one last time. “Bye, sweetheart. I love you more than anything.”
A quiet sob, “L-love you too, Mommy.”
She let go of Yumie, looked her in her beautiful, red eyes for the last time, and then turned and ran out of the church.
And god she had to run, because if she listened to Yumie screaming for her to come back much longer, she wouldn’t be able to leave her behind.