After Summer

by ShadowRunner31

After the events of Love Machine's attack on OZ the Jinnouchi family is starting to get back into normal life, but it isn't as easy as it sounds. With the whole world affected by OZ and without Granny to guide them things aren't going to be easy. And what about Kenji? Taking a break from work seemed like a good idea but can he survive the chaos that is the Jinnouchi clan?

1. Chapter 1

The day August 18, 2010 was a clear beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was a gently breeze blowing. Kenji Koiso walked across the field of morning glories on the Jinnouchi land, he was going to visit the grave of Sakae Jinnouchi.

Kenji approached the grave, it was a very simple one, after all Sakae had said to make her funeral simple, and that had included the grave, personally Kenji knew that most of the family would have wanted to give her a stunning grave but had chosen to follow her wishes. It was easy to see why a woman like Sakae Jinnouchi would deserve a grand funeral, she had done so much in her life, and although her family probably wished she had, she had never stopped doing what she felt had to be done. Even the day before she died Sakae had done all she could to protect and help people in a time of crisis. She had been an amazing woman, and she would be missed by so many.

Kenj pulled some incense sticks out of his pocket, lit them, and placed them in front of the grave before kneeling down.

"Hello Sakae… I.." He looked down and sighed, "it's hard to believe that it's been two weeks already. Everyone is holding up well, and we're finally moving back into our normal lives. I think it's understandable that it took this long, I mean so much had happened after all." Kenji was silent for a moment as he thought about those three days that had become the most memorable days of any summer in his life.

"Wabisuke was brought in for questioning." Kenji said after a moment, "he should be fine, after all when Love Machine caused all that trouble in OZ it hadn't been him who activated it."

The birds passing overhead called out to each other and the breeze picked up. Kenji took a moment to look up to the sky and just soak in the warmth of the sun, it truly was beautiful here.

"I guess I should get to the point of my visit." Kenji said directing his attention back to the grave, "I wanted to thank you. You were the first person who had believed in me like you did. Frankly my whole life I've had so little to feel confident about that I had come to expect to be overlooked, until you and your family helped me see that I could make a difference. You showed me that we can make a difference even when things seem most impossible.

So I wanted to stop here and thank you for that. But there was one other thing, the matter of a certain card game…."