The scene shifts to Shuichi running to Yuki's house (okay, so they ran into Ayaka not at Yuki's house like I thought but somewhere else. Not a big deal, my mistake) and hurries to find the key to open the door, expecting to see Yuki there as he always is.
That is probably the most depressing panel in this manga so far. There's so much white space and Shuichi looks so small up in the corner there. You can tell that he half expected to see this but didn't want to even think the possibility out loud. The next panel is just as bad! This is so depressing! Shuichi freaks out and kicks over a box, screaming curses as Yuki for leaving him like this. He yells at him (or rather shouts to himself since he's alone in the house) about Yuki just used him for his body and how Shuichi protected him even when being GANG RAPED. Shuichi has a right to be pissed especially if Yuki really is just leaving without a word. Shuichi dissolves into tears and hugs someone who just appeared and Shuichi says he doesn't want to give up. Of course, we're led to believe that Yuki is the one he's crying into.
Shuichi tells Tatsuha that he needs to see Yuki again whether Ayaka likes it or not. Tatsuha tosses Shuichi a motorcycle helmet and says that Ayaka told him to go find Shuichi. Shuich wants to know just what the heck is going on and what her reasoning is and Tatsuha tells him to just get on unless he wants Ayaka to marry Yuki. The scene shifts again to the temple where Yuki is talking with his father. He's telling Yuki that the marriage is very important to Ayaka's parents since she is their only daughter. Yuki is as airy and dismissive as ever, to his father's dismay, but Mika tries to keep the peace between the two. Tatsuha shows up at this time saying he brought Ayaka. Of course he actually brought Shuichi who...is in drag again pretending to be Ayaka. I'm starting to think Shuichi is looking for excuses to be put in drag now. Everyone just stares blankly at him except for Mika who is shocked as can be. Since Yuki's father hasn't seen Ayaka since she was a little girl he actually believes it's her and Shuichi says that he wants to call off the engagement while Yuki and Mika look on in total horror. Yuki's father tries to convince "Ayaka" to reconsider but Shuichi keeps to his guns. When Yuki's father insinuates that Shuichi is the cause of all the problems Shuichi loses it and announces that he's Yuki's lover. By showing off his privates to Yuki's father. Yuki has the best reaction of everyone.
This whole scene is pure silly craziness and after the angst of the last few chapters (and the earlier scenes of the empty apartment and the crying) it's completely welcome. Yuki's father blows up and yells but the scene shifts to Shuichi (dressed normally) sitting outside the temple with Yuki. He still has things he wants to say. He tells Yuki that it doesn't matter what kind of person he was in the past. He also asks Yuki to tell him everything. Yuki did, in fact, kill someone when he was 16 and living in a different town. Now I had already had an idea that Yuki probably did kill someone since multiple people had heard the story and something like that would be easy enough to find out with a little research. However, I was surprised to hear that Yuki had killed multiple people. He doesn't give specifics but he says that he killed "them". After saying this, Yuki says that Shuichi now knows everything that he didn't know before. Well...you know except who they were and why you did it. You're not very good at telling stories Mr. Award Winning Writer. Anyway, Shuichi says that it doesn't matter what Yuki did and it doesn't matter what Yuki says. Nothing will keep him away. Yuki then tells him that he didn't need to say anything about the marriage and we have a Gravitation first! Yuki calls Shuichi by his first name (no brat or kid or anything like that) to his face. Shuichi is as happy as you'd expect him to be!
The scene shifts over to Mika talking to Ayaka. Mika asks her if she's really alright with cancelling the engagement and she says she is. Ayaka says that Yuki wouldn't have been happy with her anyway since she believes he truly likes Shuichi. She says that she only ever saw him smile once (if I remember correctly it was during the live show when Shuichi shouted Yuki was his but I may be wrong). The scene shifts one last time to the airport (people sure do seem to fly in a lot in this series) where Seguchi is waiting for Ryuichi to arrive. Ryuichi excitedly greets Seguchi who says that its been three years since they've seen each other. Wow, really? Three years? Has it been THAT long since the live show? Or did Seguchi just not see him that time? If there's one major problem this manga has it's the time frame. It's almost never clear exactly how much time is passing.
That brings Track 16 and volume 4 to a close! This also brings the Ayaka Marriage Arc (as I call it) to an end. It was altogether satisfying and we learned a bit more about Yuki's past! Still, there are a lot of blank spots but we've got 8 volumes left to go through so there's got to me SOME mystery left. I'm eager to see where the series goes from here!
Tune in tomorrow for Gravitation Track 17! See you then.
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