Bright Window 2 : Sitting At The Feast
by Rob Morris
Toriko and the little ones were shrieking, and the smoke was getting thicker.
"Kanbe-San! We're all so scared!"
Kaede had seen Yuka keep her head, getting Kanae out of the cafeteria when the fire started. Kouta had guided everyone he could find out, before some collapsing wood blocked off the exit he'd been standing in. He got out as well, but looked blank-eyed at Kaede, still trapped inside with the little ones.
"Go, Onii-Chan! I'll be fine!"
"I know you'll be. But what about the kids?"
Kaede gained a determined look.
"I'll make sure they'll be fine."
Kouta had left, to make sure Kanae and Yuka got to their parents.
"My family is safe."
That was not all that mattered to Kaede, but it was a huge part of it. Now she was free to do what she had to.
"Toriko, I'm going to look for an opening and get us out, okay? But you and the others have to close your eyes."
A girl named Tomoko got a look of wonder.
"Kanbe-San is going to do one of her special magic tricks?"
"That's right. But it doesn't work if people are looking."
Kaede reminded herself to be more careful. Even if the little ones weren't apt to be believed, she had been riding the rails on using her strange extra arms to retrieve lost treasures to calm crying eyes.
"Oh, please don't let this one be load-bearing."
Timing her movements to the noise of the fire, the roar of the fire engines and the cries of the concerned outside the fire, and most importantly, the sound of hoses turned on the opposite wall.
"There should be no one there...oh, boy!"
Kaede waited until the various noises were at their worst, and the fear kept the little ones eyes shut tight. Her unseen arms blew a hole in the rear wall, into which she threw the bread oven, both to widen it and cover what she had done.
"Guess we won't need any tricks of mine, guys-now get through there, or Kaede-chan will turn you all into rabbits!"
She'd made the hole small but workable, and even after the last one was out, she scanned the burning area for any stragglers. Finding one, she sighed, grabbed it and got out. The fire, while bad, had never gotten out of control. Quick thinking by the school administration had killed the gas line feeds to the stoves. Still, the kitchen and eating areas were a complete ruin.
"Hey! I found somebody!"
Kaede handed a stuffed cat to a grateful child.
"I think Foo-Chan would have hated being left behind."
Kaede felt warm from the fire, but concentrated on getting the kids to the front yard and some anxious guardians. Yuka spotted her, and ran towards her at top speed. Expecting a hug or a joke, Kaede instead got the warm tea in Yuka's thermos dumped over her head. Before Kaede could even question this, a teacher chastised Yuka.
"Yuka-chan! There were better ways to put out the fire on Kaede-chan's cap! You could have simply pulled it off her head."
The worry on Yuka's face was not just for her sister's safety, and Kaede knew it.
"No, Kawakami-Sensei, Yuka-chan knows me too well. I panic whenever anyone tries to take my cap off. She did the right thing."
The teacher shook her head.
"Are those scars you have so horrible, Kaede-chan? The cap runs evenly across your head, so I know you have hair growing up there."
Kaede froze up a bit. Hiding her horns had always been the priority - although changing out her caps and keeping them properly laundered was up there, too. She'd never considered that the story might have more holes than just the obvious.
"It's just how I'm made, Sensei."
The teacher walked off to reunite anxious children with even more anxious parents. Yuka looked down.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do."
Kaede hugged her sister.
"Onee-Chan did right by me. I would have been exposed otherwise. Yuka-chan? Did we-did we lose anyone?"
Yuka was crying.
"No! But it was all so close. How did that fire even start?"
Kaede had no idea.
"Here's something even more important-where do we eat lunch at?"
Kouta found them as they began to walk back home, Kanae keeping up as always.
"Kaede-chan did a good job! I didn't even see those little kids in there. Were you safe?"
Kaede wanted to remove her cap, but the fire meant too many people traveling up and down that same path.
"The sprinklers worked a little, so the danger was more the smoke and the sparks."
Yuka grew indignant.
"I notice Kouta-Kun asks how Kaede is, but not Yuka! Huh! Yuka only saved Kaede from burning to death or people learning her secret."
But Kouta was having none of it.
"Hey! You did a great job. You got Kanae and some others out. But Kaede saved those little kids lives. I'll bet she's a hero to the whole town."
Kanae leaned forward, somewhat mischievously, and somewhat concernedly.
"Well, not everyone is gonna like what she did - or how she did it."
As Kaede realized their Imouto's meaning, she began to shake.
"They're gonna kill me!"
Yuka put her hand on Kaede's shoulder.
"No, they won't. If they are angry, we'll stand by you."
Kouta also placed his hands on his two step-sisters.
"Of course we will."
His two step-sisters then punched him, because of where he put his hands.
"PERVERT!"
As the two older girls walked away, they whispered.
"So how far did he get this time?"
"Inside the first curve."
As they giggled, Kanae walked over to her fallen brother.
"Onii-Chan better not try that on Kanae!"
He started to get up.
"Don't be stupid! I'd never try that on you."
Kanae pushed him back down and walked off.
"KoutOnii's a jerk!"
Back at home, all ecchi real and imagined faded in the face of raw fury, albeit guided by concern.
"What were you thinking?"
Emiko, as always, was the one doing the speaking. Junichiro stood there silently, with his arms folded, a practiced frown his adopted daughter knew wasn't as bad as it looked. She knew also that Emiko was saying what she did out of love and concern-except that her glare was very much for real.
"Mama, I meant no harm. The little ones were in danger. Was I supposed to let them die?"
Emiko's look softened only a little.
"What happened, exactly?"
Kaede thought back.
"I heard someone tell them to stay put, I guess to keep them from running around in a panic. Then, when everyone was told to get out and follow Kouta, they got upset, because they'd been told to stay put. By the time I convinced them to get out, we were trapped. I-told them to close their eyes, and faked an exploding stove knocking a hole in the wall. That's how we finally got out."
Junichiro smiled and nodded.
"Smart work, Kaede-chan! In the chaos of a fire, no one's really going to question a thing like that, and if the kids saw anything, people will say they imagined it. That was really clev-"
He caught the full force of a glare from Emiko, but while he winced, he didn't wilt entirely.
"Emi, just what was she supposed to do? Even if she didn't have powers, who could leave those kids behind?"
Emiko reacted as well as Kaede thought she might.
"Great! Break ranks and make me the villain, to boot!"
Rather than allow an argument to break out on her account, Kaede spoke up, the risk aside.
"You're not being a villain. You're being a good Mama. But you're also still wrong. Mama, no one knows better than me why I shouldn't use my arms-and especially why I can't take my cap off in public. But things like the cafeteria fire don't happen every day, and I was careful."
Emiko shook her head.
"No more so-called 'magic' tricks. I don't care if Kanae has lost her favorite bow on a flagpole. Kaede-chan stops doing odd things-damn it honey, the cost is too high. All it takes is one time."
Kaede knew what was being asked of her.
"I promise to hide what I can do, and not show off, even if I think I'm being clever. But Mama, Papa? Sensei noticed that the shape of my hair through the cap doesn't fit with the story we tell people."
That thought to seemed not to enrage but concern the Kanbes. Kaede's experience in the orphanage had shown them how cruel and unthinking people could be. Every time a member of the family played with their dog, Pietro, they were reminded of how cruel people could be, and how their beloved pet might never have entered their life at all. Junichiro now forced a smile.
"We'll figure that out, honey. Now clean yourself up and get ready for dinner."
The girl anxiously asked a question.
"No customers tonight?"
Emi offered some reassuring words that no one really believed.
"People can't eat out every night, Kaede. We'll have customers this weekend. So many, you kids will complain about all the work!"
But as Kaede left her parents' room, she overheard something she suspected anyway.
"Don't cry. It was worth the effort. We aren't done yet, anyway. Besides, the failure rate of new businesses - especially restaurants - is pretty damned high."
"I-I just wanted to make this place work again. Our new lives together, our new family, and the rebirth of Maple House. But seasonal and weekend appointments just won't cut it, will they?"
Inside the room she shared with Yuka and Kanae, Kaede saw Kouta sitting and doing his homework. Until he was playfully chased out, it was not unusual to find him there.
"Did you get in trouble?"
Yuka shook her head.
"Mother barks, but her real concern is for Kaede-chan. It was hardly like she was showing off."
"Kaede Onee-Chan? Kanae has something to tell you."
Seeing the worry on her little sister's face, Kaede stroked her hair till she smiled.
"Can it be all that bad, for you to look so grim and frowny?"
Kanae looked down.
"I was the one who told those stupid little kids to stay put and not run. I didn't think they'd get so scared by my scolding they wouldn't get out on time."
Kouta put down his pencil and walked over.
"Kanaemouto can be pretty stupid at times. But you were only trying to protect them from getting hurt. I was the same way when I was their age, and so were you. Older people shout so many orders, you don't know which one to obey. In a crisis, that can get crazy worse."
Yuka chimed in.
"It's like Kouta said. You know how when Mama and Papa have us on some big project in the kitchens, and we get told to do this, then that, then something else, all in the same five minutes? We all figured out to just keep working on the first thing they said until we're done. But when they're that little, kids like that get really confused."
Kouta added more.
"I only joked in calling you stupid, Kanae. But what was stupid was the school system using the same cafeteria for three different grade levels. It's always so noisy and smelly, I couldn't even tell a fire had broken out. Kanae-chan saw the little ones upset, and tried to calm them. She did nothing wrong."
Kaede looked around, closed the bedroom door, and lifted Kanae up with her vectors.
"Kaede-Chan?"
"Stretch out your arms and legs, Kanae-chan-it's time for the flying Imouto!"
With the aid of her sister's wondrous power, an overwrought Kanae felt her tensions fall away as she soared across the room, bonking Yuka on the head gently, and planting a kiss on her big brother's cheek. Kaede then let her fall suddenly, only to catch her in her arms.
"Oooh-I gotta pee like right now!"
When the delighted little girl had run off, Kaede confided what she had overheard. She couldn't account for the reaction. Kouta shook his head.
"Well, I say, good! An end to no free weekends, no having friends over, and us only hanging out with each other. You guys are great. But we all have friends from school we never see except when we're there."
If Kaede thought Yuka would chastise Kouta for this, then she had another surprise coming.
"We keep working so hard, and Mama can be a bully when it comes to all that prep. I get tired, I can't catch up on extra homework or college sample tests. I'm sorry the business is failing, but maybe this place wasn't meant to be a restaurant anymore."
Kaede saw this restaurant as part of her new wonderful life, and was almost offended by this talk.
"But we did so well, back when we first reopened. People were coming here a lot. They seemed excited by having us back."
Kouta was back at his homework. With the weekend coming up, he couldn't afford to slack off.
"The novelty wore off. Traditional Service restaurants like this one don't lend themselves to casual dining. I knew a kid from Nagoya whose Dad ran a bar-and-grill tavern. Places like that, people hang out in. We're an event-driven business, and basically, that means summer. Maybe that's not enough for something as costly as a formal Inn. Lots of overhead, in a place this size."
Yuka showed she was in full agreement, and backed up Kouta's argument as well.
"By just preparing for the few customers who show up on the weekends, and maybe some odd holidays, we're actually losing money. Plus, we know our morale can droop from not being able to relax in town sometimes. Customers can sense when maybe you don't want to be there. We'd need something steady, like a catering contract. I heard a while back, some eccentric billionaire from an old family was set to build some kind of facility on Breakfront Island just off the coast. But it shut down quickly for some reason. To boot, people who had moved into the area to take jobs there were stuck. If they'd opened up, I'll bet people would be kicking down the doors to get a reservation here."
At Yuka's words, Kaede felt a chill. She saw a room painted red-a horrible red-and then she saw herself falling off a cliff, into the water, utterly helpless. Kouta rushed forward to catch her as she grew unsteady.
"Is it more of those lost memories, Kaede-chan?"
"Something like that, Kouta-San-now let go of my chest."
Kouta showed he (for once) had honestly not realized where his hands went.
"Eeep! I was only trying to help. Yuka-chan-help me put her to bed. Oh, Kanae, you're back-get Kaede something, okay?"
Confused, Kanae picked up one of her slippers. Yuka sighed.
"I think he meant some water, Kanae-chan. You do know what water is, right?"
"Jerky Yuka. No wonder no one likes you! Hmmph!"
But the trio quickly turned their attention to the suddenly feverish Kaede. Kanae arrived with a pitcher of water, and Yuka made sure to thank her. But the little girl lay down next to Kaede, ignoring all else.
"She's always sick. I wish she'd just get better once and for all."
Yuka thought about something.
"She does get better each time. I mean, she gets stronger than she was before she got sick."
Kouta nodded.
"Her powers and her control over them just keep on getting stronger-or are they the things making her sicker too?"
All three agreed to keep this from their already-burdened parents, and that evening, Kouta was not chased out until their sister's fever broke. In the still of the night, Kanae thought she heard Kaede mutter something.
*No, Mama-No, Mama-don't make me-No*
But since Kanae knew that Kaede's original parents had left her in a field to die when she was born, she merely took this for having to do with that abandonment. This was mistaken in more ways than one.
The next morning, Kaede awoke, as Yuka and Kouta had predicted, feeling stronger than ever. Rising and washing up, she left for school early, even though no word had been given on letting kids back into the school, where smoke from the fire had wafted and left a memorable stench.
"Prinicipal-San?"
The principal shook his head.
"Kaede-chan, tell your family that school is likely closed for the rest of this week. The smoke smell has gotten better, but now inspectors need to make sure the rest of the school won't burn down too. I heard from the little ones that you pulled another 'magic trick', but you saved their lives and played it cleverly, so let's keep this quiet, alright?"
Kaede nodded and looked at the burned-out ruin.
"When we come back, where will we get our food from? Some kids only got their lunches here. Even we don't pack one everyday."
The principal sighed.
"Kaede-chan asks a good question that I have no answer for."
The girl saw no one else around, and so pulled off her cap in front of one of the few people who knew her secret.
"Principal-San? I-have-a plan."
Kaede's plan was heard out, but would require some planning all by itself before it could even be discussed. Yet after she had gone home, donning her cap when the fire department officials approached, the principal heard news he had dreaded almost more than loss of life or severe injuries for his charges.
"Sir, while it is very soon after the fact, and a proper investigation needs to confirm this, we already largely feel that there is no way that this fire was not the result of arson."