Hello! Thanks for looking at my story! I'm ChibiStellaChan!
Now, normally I'm not going to do very long author notes, sometimes I may not even have one, but this chapter does need some explanation, since it's the first one.
"Guns and High Heels" is going to follow the manga of Katekyo Hitman Reborn! and it starts a day before chapter 26, "3 Brothers in Crime," and it will mostly follow my OC, Hotaru Fukushima, but there will be some points where I will have little excerpts in another character's point of view, but it will always be in third person limited, in that case.
Also, I'll be the first to say my grammar is pretty bad. I've read this chapter over several times before posting and while it seems to make sense to me, I know there's bound to be a mistake in there that I missed. For instance, sometimes I forget to type the "n't" part of a word like "doesn't" or "wouldn't" and I just don't notice. So, I apologize for any mistakes you may find, and if you just tell me about it I'll go into the story and fix whatever mistake I made.
Lastly, sorry that this chapter is so spaced out! There's a lot of dialogue instead of thought out actions, as well as some sentences I thought deserved their own line, which may be overdone. But I promise that the next chapter is not only longer but is around the same amount of pages as this chapter, meaning longer paragraphs and more thought process.
Some warnings are Hotaru's excessive use of profanities and her tendency to speak bluntly and possible offensively.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC, Hotaru. Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is Amano, Akira's work.
The best thing to do now is to increase marketing by 2%, and take that founding from development… Consumers are happy enough with the product now, we already know what to release in a year, the new "slimmer" version that's cheaper to make but costs more for the consumer to own… Ah, business…
The sound of my fingers hitting the keyboard was the only sound coming from my laptop, but not the only sound in the room, unfortunately.
The room, is my class room, class 1 – A, and the entire place is full of giggles, rumors, and teenage hormones. It's unsightly really.
But I won't have to deal with that in… three hours? Oh, no… no, no, no, no… after the giggles, rumors and hormones, I get to deal with corporate undermining, sabotage, and ruthless company takeovers.
Let's give a round of applause for mutual employee respect and company courtesy.
Sighing and flipping back my raven hair, I try and train my thoughts on my resolve. I have to do it. I enjoy progressing to my goal, I want to keep progressing towards my goal, even if I don't actually like doing business. Although, I could deal without the office drama but it must be part of every job, right?
My future job at any rate…
"Fukushima-san!" Crap.
It was Minako Honda, president of the Takashi Yamamoto Super Lovey Dovey Fan Club (TYSLD for short) and the daughter of a major potential company partner (not the car; Honda-san owns a pretty big disc production company). As annoying as she is she has power of sorts.
And power means being pleasant.
"Yes, Honda-san?" Smile, be pretty, and pray she goes away. Not that it would be hard… I'm not shallow enough to think I'm the most beautiful thing around, but I'm not dumb enough to think looks don't matter. And I'm smart enough to realize that every person has looks, but the beautiful ones, are the ones who realize what their strong points are, and what are NOT. So, yes, I do know how to look presentable and nice.
Contrariwise, there are so many people that think they AMAZING hair and eyes and nose and EVERYTHING.
Take Minako Honda for example. She has a really good figure, her eyes sparkle when she talks and she has a good smile, anyone who denies that is either blind or stupid. But she thinks her stringy/frizzy hair contraption perfectly frames that face and likes to draw attention to it with every accessory ever made, when she should really be trying hard to fix it, or just keep it pinned down, and maybe use some makeup to draw attention to her smile, and ware nice fitting clothes to show her figure (both of which she doesn't do, in fact the lack of knowledge she has with limited amounts of makeup is disturbing, most days she comes to school looking like a drag queen).
Mistake.
It makes the male population happy Yamamoto-san attracts all the girls. Sort of. They still hate it. Just not when it comes to her.
Some avoid her like plague.
Not to mention she had a fight with the teacher about whether or not the English letter 'a' was a vowel or consonant. And even in other subjects she just is not the brightest. Not at all.
Which is why her wanting to talk to me, the leader of the class and grade and school in academics (least until Hayato Gokudera showed up), means a 70% I get stuck with the head ache of tutoring or something.
"It's about that history project," I knew it, "I don't really get it… Do you think you could help me?" Don't you tilt your head at me!
…
…
…
I can't really refuse can I?
"I think I could, do you want me to try and explain it to you now, or do you want to get together later?" Please let a pleasant tone come out… Then again, she wouldn't notice either way…
"Oh, Oh! I really think we should, like, like, uh, get together after school." …Fuck it; I am getting something out of this.
"Ok, when are you free?"
"Oh, I'm fine today till, like six is when I get back from my boyfriend's house~!"
"Ok, my house is a little crazy today, but I'm free too! Do you think we could work at your house?" I am meeting daddy.
"Oh, totally! That's perfect! We can listen to fun-a-delic music too!" Oh, God help me.
It is now midnight.
Minako Honda has finally got an outline of her paper done. It had taken nine hours. Three of those hours her taken explaining what the assignment was, it took three more hours to explain what she needed to do, it took two more hours to explain what an outline was, the remaining hour was spend telling her exactly what to write down for the outline. I didn't meet daddy; daddy was on a business trip to New York City.
In conclusion?
This trip was completely worthless.
Not to mention I live pretty far away from her mansion… My apartment is on the other side of the residential district… Oh, well no point bitching until I get my bath. No, scratch the bath, I'm too tired.
"Fukushima-san, what are you doing?" Oh, come on!
It was Tsunayoshi Sawada, the only kid who has a lower grade than Minako Honda in our class (though I suspect some bribing going on there) and totally sucks at everything else. I don't have anything against him, and I feel a little sorry for him for the bullying but even if I had time to interfere it wouldn't help him any. He would just be bullied the moment I left.
"Well, what are you doing, Sawada?" Go away.
Course, that doesn't mean I'm going to stoop so low as to call him by his nickname 'Dame-Tsuna,' everybody deserves respect if you don't know them.
"Oh, I'm just running out to get more diapers."
"Diapers?" Sawada can't be that wimpy can he? The raise of my eyebrow seemed to tip him off about my train of thought. That only seemed to start the flushed face and sputtering I see all the time at school.
"T-they're not for me Fukushima-san! There for this kid, Lambo who's staying with my family."
"Oh right…" A few days ago… "You wear boxers, right?"
Cue more blushing.
"A-ah, haha, yeah, you probably heard about that…" What we're referring to is the so-called 'epic showdown' between Sawada and some stupid senpai, where all of a sudden he burst in with his boxers on and pulled the senpai's hair out, literally. I didn't believe it but after seeing the kendo captain come to school with a wig on, I had no reason to doubt it.
"Yeah, congrats on standing up for yourself." I'm not sure running around in your boxers is the best thing though.
"U-uh, yeah, thanks…"
"…"
"…"
Silence.
Silence is a time waster.
"Well, I'll be going."
"Wait."
Who was that?
Turning around I meet the eyes of baby, or is it a figment of my imagination? Whatever the little guy is he apparently likes Sawada's shoulder. Well, that explains how our eyes met. Was he always there?
I'm too tired for this.
"What?" Is this the Lambo kid?
"You never answered Dame-Tsuna's question."
"Wha-?"
"Question?"
Sawada must have been the same as me, I have no idea what that child is talking about.
"When you first saw each other Dame-Tsuna asked what you were doing here, you never answered."
Oh. That's right, I never did answer that.
"I was just on my way home helping a classmate with a paper; it took longer than I thought it would." Hell yes, it took longer than I thought it would.
"Fuu~…"
…
What the hell?
"Is that all? I have to get home to do my own homework."
"Dame-Tsuna will walk you home."
"Wha- Reborn!"
"Huh?" Too tired for intelligent response.
"Dame-Tsuna a mafia boss should respect and take care of women." Mafia? "Which means that a real mafia boss should never leave a defenseless girl to walk home alone." Ah, he wants Sawada to play a mafia game. That makes sense.
"I don't want to be a mafia boss!" What a jerk, he's not even going to indulge a kid? "Ah, but, mm, I guess you're right about walking her home…" I could barely hear the mutter but I really don't care right now, so I just shrug.
"You can walk me home if you really want to, but I live pretty far away, and it's like what, 12:30? That means you have to remember your own way home and get there in the dark. I can take care of myself, but if you really want to I won't stop you." Now I get to walk away.
"E-eh? Uh, wait up Fukushima-san!"
It's not that hard for him to catch up, and it's not like I tried to make it that way. But about 10 minutes, it seems the shorter member of our trio didn't like the silence.
"Your first name is Hotaru, right? Hotaru Fukushima?"
"Hm? Yes, that's right. And you're Lambo?"
"No, I'm the greatest it hitman in the world, Reborn!"
"Mm, ok, nice to meet you."
"You're also the daughter of Seiichi Fukushima, the CEO of Fukushima Industries?"
Wait…
Stopping I turn to the know-it-all.
"How is that any of your business?" So, it's an evil baby…
"Of course it's my business; you're a prime candidate to be a part of Dame-Tsuna's family."
Family? Oh, right the mafia game…
"…It's not exactly polite for you to decide things for yourself when it comes to other peoples' business."
"So?"
I don't like this kid.
Giving the brat the best glare I could in my condition I started walking at a faster pace.
Only to feel a new weight on my shoulder.
"No snarky remark?"
Ass.
"It's not my job to discipline brats."
"I'm not a brat. I'm a super cool hitman."
"Say whatever you want; I'm just calling the kettle black."
"Nicely done."
"…? Ah, thank you I suppose…" I still don't like you.
"A-ah, Fukushima-san, how far are we from your house?" Ah, the other one decides to speak.
"Only about five more minutes, and it's an apartment, not a house."
"Oh, sorry, Fukushima-san." He's bothering me.
I stop again, making the other teen bump into me.
"Ah! Sorry, Fukushima-san!" Again, he's bothering me.
"Stop apologizing so much."
"Huh?" He doesn't hear this often?
"You apologize too much." Maybe if I look him the eye he'll get it.
"What do you mean, Fukushima-san?"
"Earlier, I was only correcting you; to be honest I would be pretty creeped out if you had known I live in an apartment, rather than a house. Then you apologized for running into me, when it was my fault for stopping so suddenly, well more like for being really tired. Anyway, you apologize too much. It's not that big of a deal really, just something to think about."
"Oh… ok…" Good, I'm too tired.
"Oi." Damn that baby.
"What?" The suit clad baby never bothered to remove himself from my shoulder, and I never bothered to move him.
"You should tutor Dame-Tsuna."
"Hm."
…
…
"Wait, what?"
"You should tutor Dame-Tsuna."
"Reborn!"
"…Why would I do that?"
"You were tutoring someone earlier, why not Dame-Tsuna?"
"That was because Honda's father is a possible business partner; I wanted to get on his good side." Why do I always get like this when I'm tired? I can't lie and I can't keep my mouth shut, everything that come out of my mouth is unfiltered, which can be very bad.
"Fuku-!"
"Shut-up Dame-Tsuna. Is it for your father?"
"No, of course not, why would I want to help him?" Should I really be telling them this? I can't really think that well right now… it should be fine, what's the worst that can happen?
"-!"
"Then why?"
"I want to destroy him. That means getting as many associates I can for me. But it didn't work in the end."
"Oh?"
"Her father is on a business trip, I didn't meet him, and Honda probably won't even remember my name tomorrow."
"So you'd never tutor out of good will?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I have a company to steal. I don't have time to tutor. I only own 27% of the company; I still have 24% to buy to own the majority, and then more to feel safe."
Oh, we're here.
"This is my building, you can you can go home now."
"Ok, you can be over to Dame-Tsuna's house at 5, I'll make him call you and give you the address after school."
"I'm going to his house?"
"Yes, you agreed to tutor him."
"I did?" Did I? I can't really remember…
"Re-!"
"You did."
"I did… Huh… Ok, I should be able to make it, but I'm not going to school tomorrow, too tired."
"B-but wait, Fuku-!"
"That's fine, you don't have to bring anything either, in fact, you should stay for dinner."
"I can't stay for dinner."
"Thanks for agreeing to stay for dinner."
"I agreed to stay for dinner?"
"You agreed to stay for dinner."
"I agreed to stay for dinner… I'll have to thank you for having me."
"It's no problem, good night!"
"Yeah, night."
Then I dragged myself to the elevator, entered my apartment, and collapsed on my bed. Today just needs to end.
"Reborn! That was so mean! Fukushima-san didn't agree to any of that! What did you do to her?"
On the way home Tsuna made it a point to be extra annoying, to Reborn anyway. The trip was actually productive, just like how he predicted. Hotaru Fukushima is a needed element in Tsuna's family. She's intelligent, straightforward, and most importantly, she is absolutely willing to do anything to reach her goals. That readiness and calculating ability in the same person hasn't appeared in Tsuna's school.
Gokudera's extremely intelligent academically and will do anything for Tsuna, but he lacks any common sense and has a way too short of a temper. That's good when trying to manipulate him, but not good for any actual business. Yamamoto is a quick thinker in bad situations, but can't really think past tricks or in the long term. Ryohei is extremely strong (no pun intended) and will follow through whatever he says, but is an idiot. Lambo can take care of lightning, but is an annoying little brat. Hibari is the best fighter around without question, but would never voluntarily help any members of the family.
If Reborn could give her some training she could make a pretty good illusionist…
Quickly scraping the idea, knowing it would take too long to fully train a disgruntle teenage girl, he turned his attention to the wimpy, pathetic teenage boy he was stuck with.
"Hitman mind trick."
Ah, Saturday afternoons, this one being a review day at school. Which means I don't have to go anywhere today. Yay!
First on my list, make myself breakfast at two in the afternoon, everything is great. The birds are singing, I own 2% more of the company, I finally have a convenient day off and-
RING~~! RING~~!
Someone's calling me? On my day off? That's a new one.
Picking up my phone it's obvious that it's a residential number, probably Minako Honda, I gave her my number last night, in case she needed any help when her father was home.
"Hello?"
"Fukushima? It's Reborn. I have Dame-Tsuna's address." Address? Reborn… the baby form last night? How did he get my number?
"Why would I need his address? And more importantly, how did you get my cell number?"
"You agreed to tutor Dame-Tsuna last night." What?
"No I didn't, I would never do something like that." I mean, what could I gain from that? The kid probably wouldn't listen anyway. Though, he probably couldn't be worse than Honda.
"You did."
"No, I didn't."
"Yes, you did."
"No, I didn't."
"Yes, you did."
"Can't you think of anything else?"
"What about you?" Damn.
"I'm still not coming."
"Ok, then Dame-Tsuna will show up at your house in 20 minutes."
"You don't know where I live!"
"Dame-Tsuna walked you to your building last night." He did?
"And so you magically know my room number?"
"405."
…
…
…
"WHAT?"FREAK!
"I know everything."
"Bullshit!"
"We'll see you in a few minutes."
"Now wait-!"
Beep, beep, beep.
Oh, hell no.
He did not hang up on me.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"R-reborn, are you sure we should really be going to Fukushima-san's house? She seemed angry…"
"She is angry, Dame-Tsuna get it right."
"B-but, then we shouldn't-." Cue, drop kick, and arm throw.
They aren't actually going to come are they?
I mean, I don't have to let them in, but then would they just wait outside until I opened the door?
…
Nah, I just won't go out today, I didn't plan on it anyway. They'll leave after a few minutes. I'll just do some reports on the computer and fax them over to Takana-san at the company and maybe to some analysis and look at the new budget.
"F-fukushima-san?" I could barely hear the whimpered voice but I know its Sawada's. Crap.
Just ignore them, Hotaru, just ignore them.
"Move over Dame-Tsuna," so the baby is here too, "Oi, Fukushima, I brought Dame-Tsuna here like I said, are you going to go back on your word?" I never agreed in the first place!
Ignore them, ignore them.
"Would Honda like it if I told her you were just using her?" Like she would believe you, plus she's the one who bribes her teachers, she doesn't exactly feel any shame.
I'm not home right now, I am at the beach, I have a puppy, I am snuggling with a beautiful, beautiful man, father is dead, the sunset is beautiful, I have a strawberry smoothie.
"…"
Silence, another happy thought.
"Fu~… I guess I don't need these files of your business takeover plans. Starting with Mushibashi Industries, right? Or your thoughts on your 'fuck-face father'?" Wait, what?
Turning my head toward the door I pay a bit of attention to the baby. He couldn't be referring to my personal notes could he? I mean, they're basically my diary. All of my plans and personal spite go into those things, but how could the baby have those? And more importantly what will he do with them?
I already have enough trouble getting people to not underestimate me, if they don't think I'm absolutely serious about everything, I would have to wait until I'm at least 20 years old to continue my company work. I don't have time to wait years, and learning about my immature thoughts will not help.
"But I suppose that the CEO of Honda industires would be dying to see such vigor from a hormonal teenager, even you former crush on To-!"
SON OF A BITCH!
"Nice to see you again, Fukushima." I had slammed the door open, and I had a blush of anger and embarrassment on my face as I glared down on what I now know to be pure evil, in baby form.
HELL SPAWN HELL SPAWN HELL SPAWN-
"I-I'm sorry Fukushima-san, Reborn just likes to be pushy, you don't have to tutor-."
"Yeah, you don't have to tutor Dame-Tsuna unless you want anything sent to the personal emails of every possible business partner you could ever have. Or your classmates." This time I don't even bother hiding my thoughts.
"You bastard." I try giving him the worst possible glare to no avail. That damn baby just smirked. Little Fucker.
So, with no other choice, I left the door open, turned around, and barked an order to close the door on the way in.
"Thanks!"
"Fuck you."
So, after wasting three hours of my life, I had a revelation. Sawada isn't as dumb as everyone makes him out to be.
Sure he is not the brightest bulb in the box, but that just means you have to slow stuff down and explain why you do stuff. It's not that hard, it just takes five extra minutes, but people always seem to assume that it'll be too much work.
So, in just three hours we finished both of our essays due on Tuesday, our math homework, our science homework, our history homework, our Japanese homework, and our English homework. It really helps that we're both in the same class, but even then it wouldn't have been that hard to help him. He's dim but not hopeless.
"Well, that's it, unless you were assigned a special assignment by sensei."
"W-wow, thanks, Fukushima-san, I never get my homework done that quickly!" With a baby demon as a tutor? Really? I wonder why?
Killing my sarcastic thoughts, I just turned to him again, analyzing him.
He really wasn't that bad a guy, wimpy, yes, slow, yes, but a nice guy none the less. He's like a bunny in the way he acts too; all stuttering and worried every second of the day, it's kind of cute. Not my type but still, cute.
"Well, then that's good I guess, but don't you have to get home for dinner?"
"You should come and have dinner at Dame-Tsuna." Ew, Satan's back. The kid stepped out for most of the tutoring session, claim he 'was suddenly overcome with emotion that his student can finally talk to girls with no wingman'. I assumed he was referring to either Takeshi Yamamoto or Hayato Gokudera, Sawada's usual friends.
"A-ah, Fukushima-san doesn't have to- HIEE!" Does this guy always get kicked in the head by children? Though, granted the baby is obviously not normal. A child his size doesn't have nearly enough muscle mass or bone development to do nearly anything this 'Reborn' does.
"Do I have a choice?"
"No." Woo-hoo for me.
Taking a deep breath is all I can do to control myself, this kid is far beyond the point of pissing me off, but what choice do I have? Those letters are incredibly incriminating but I now know that's not even the worst this kid can do; according to Sawada he regularly uses explosives when tutoring him. I don't want to put anything past him.
"Wait here, I'll go change." So much for staying in my pjs…
Now donning my favorite black blazer and skinny jeans, I'm ready to go. Greeting Sawada again in the living room I realized I must have walking into an awkward conversation, at least for the sane member of the discussion. Raising my eye brow I slow my steps to a stop, after waiting a second for an explanation. By not receiving one after a second or so, I decided it must be something that is none of my business.
"Ready to go?"
Tsuna doesn't like forcing people into things they don't like, especially if they openly dislike it, like how Fukushima-san is acting now. At least with Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto they kind of know what's going on with the mafia (even if Yamamoto thinks it a game…) and enjoy in to some end. But with Fukushima-san you can practically see her glaring and cursing out Reborn in her mind, in fact, is wasn't even till Reborn left them to the tutoring that she visibly relaxed. He really wanted to repay her for helping against her will; he owed her that much, but all he could think of was trying his best to keep her out of Reborn's schemes.
So, when Reborn turned to him once Fukushima-san was out of ear shot and proclaimed, "Dame-Tsuna, you should make Fukushima your mafia wife," he obviously freaked.
"REBORN? What are you talking about? Fukushima-san doesn't have anything to do with the mafia! And I don't like her like that! I have Kyoko, remember!"
"Oh, Dame-Tsuna, polygamy isn't frowned upon in the mafia world, you could have both, and even Haru, too. But with Fukushima you get access to a driven and meticulous woman and a powerful business." Was he always looking at these kinds of facts?
"You can't just go deciding these things on your own! Fukushima-san shouldn't be thrown into the mafia in the first place! She has nothing to do with it!" Tsuna thought he made some pretty good points
"Or maybe she could be in charge of a department? The possibilities are endless." And, as usual, Reborn doesn't care.
Tsuna and Reborn then heard a door closed and there stood Fukushima-san, eye brow raised and her hand on a cocked hip. After a second she simply said, "Ready to go?" And Tsuna made the biggest sigh of relief in his life. Fukushima-san hadn't heard the conversation.
Sawada walks too slow.
It's annoying, but what can I really do? The poor kid can probably sense my irritation but it's just making him even more jumpy, and even slower, so making a big deal about it will only make the kid even worse. I can't even walk ahead of him; I don't know where his house is.
Eventually, Sawada's jumpy behavior was more annoying than his pace, so I figured I might as well sacrifice some silence to get him to relax a little.
"Hey, Sawada, does your mom know that I'm coming?" I tried to make it as casual as possible, but the kid still leaped a few feet in the air, making me hide a wince. I really don't like making people act like this, it's just uncomfortable.
"U-um, well, Reborn told her you'd be coming, s-so…" I crushed my flare of anger; it wouldn't do to intimidate Sawada any more. But even he knows I don't like the mention of that devil in a suit.
"I see. I hope this isn't too much trouble, is it?" Again, he jumps. I resisted raising my eyebrow, but it is rather odd that Sawada is more jumpy than I had ever known him to be, even just a few hours ago- no, just minutes ago. He only started acting this bad once I came back from changing. Just what were he and that demon talking about?
"Oh, not at all! My mom's used to having a lot of people for dinner, especially lately. A bunch of people have been showing up at our house, like the kid I told you about yesterday, Lambo, and this other kid, I-Pin, have been staying with us for a week or so now, they're both really good kids!" Sawada visibly relaxed at the mention of the kids at his house, and he just went on and on about them. Admittedly, it is… nice, hearing him talk so fondly about children who he and his mom had no obligation to take care of. It's a nice refresher from all of the corporate schemes I keep hearing about; a nice reminder that there are good people too.
As Sawada went on about all the little habits and quirks of these kids, Lambo and I-Pin, I decided not to interrupt him and just nod at the appropriate times, and this also seemed to satisfy the smallest member of our trio, to an extent anyway.
"Dame-Tsuna, you talk too much," cue Sawada becoming a victim of green hammer violence, "we're already home!" Killing the smart remark that almost shot out of my mouth, I realized that according to the name plaque that said 'Sawada,' the pint-sized fiend was probably right.
"Oh, sorry, Fukushima-san, I must have gotten carried away, heh…" A little blush rose to Sawada's face as he scratched his head, which I don't like.
"You're fine, there's no reason to apologize. It was nice hearing you talk about those kids, and I was honestly enjoying myself, so there's no problem. And just because we've arrived at your house doesn't make it a problem, it just means that the conversation has come to an end, you don't have to apologize for something like that. If you keep apologizing then people are going to walk all over you, like your tutor is doing and like what I'm probably doing now." Huh, maybe my real problem with the constant 'sorrys' is that if I were to anyone else it would be a sign of weakness? It's always interesting when one realizes some insight into themselves.
"You're walking over me?" A point I should clarify.
"Well, I'm telling you what to do in a brash matter, like what I say is fact, when really you could have reasons for your constant apologies, and you're just letting me rant without interjection, does that sound like walking over someone?" It is, even if what I think is fact is fact.
"No, you're just giving your opinion. I don't think you're trying to force me to do anything I don't want." Surprise, Sawada has a slight backbone when debating.
Well, what to say? Can't disagree with him now that he's proven me a bit wrong, which isn't really that bad. But if I point it out he may apologize again, even if I congratulate him in some fashion. So, I suppose the best form of action would be to just nod and ignore this development?
I act on my thoughts and walk ahead of Sawada to his front door with a little smile on my face.
"Ah, wait, Fukushima-san, let me unlock the door!"
But I only noticed the little imp smirking after Sawada caught up with me.