Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin... and Rurouni Kenshin's Saitou Hajime (too bad...)
A/N: Yes, "Teru" is modeled from Princess Teru of Aizu because the real Tokio Takagi is her lady-in-waiting. Their closeness results in Princess Teru naming her Tokio when her birth name is actually Sada. From Wikipedia... I can't find another source so I'll stick to that information.
Chapter 1: Know Thy Enemy
It was a fateful day for her.
She was on the way to work when a luxurious-looking black sedan stopped by in front of an apartment. The driver door was opened, showing a quite fatherly-looking man—presumably a man in his late forties—climbed down the seat. "Well, this looks nice," he said while taking a breath of relief.
The apartment's landlord, upon seeing the arrival of the car, hurriedly ran downstairs to meet Mr. Fatherly (let us just call him that way, he did look fatherly anyway). She did not expect the landlord to be so polite and amiable—it was actually quite a surprise for her. As far as she knew, the landlord was an old man whose personality was far from 'amiable', let alone polite. She lived in this neighborhood too, and almost every morning both she and her younger brother could hear the landlord fretting about menial things that were actually... ahem, unimportant and none of his business: who was this crazy person that put one's two milk bottles messily that almost land his bottom on the floor (the truth was that the bottles were closer to the door than the corridor), ouch, and look who was playing that awfully noisy western music again (actually it was not one of his tenants, her brother did), and who was that witch with screechy voice (it was her, chiding her brother to put on a headset... in other words, she did her best to protect her neighbors' 'happiness', and it worked because her brother obeyed her).
It was eight o'clock at night.
Tokio Takagi worked at her family's convenience store until midnight. His father, Kojuro Takagi, bravely quit his job some years ago and decided to build his own business, a business where he could be the boss and enjoy his old age. Business was risk, her father told her countless times. Sometimes it is all about wicked rivalries. Tokio did not really pay attention to what her father said, but after Kogoro Katsura's company won a huge, valuable project and sucessfully sent the company where her father worked for decades collapsed, she could not help but felt sorry... to her friend.
Teru was her good friend since middle school. Her father was the president director of the company, so her life had been changed drastically since Kogoro Katsura and his partners took over the company. Teru was no longer the same, and it was really painful seeing her trying hard to adapt with her family's economic condition. Teru used to treat Tokio lunches, invited Tokio to her grand birthday parties and once bought Tokio an exquisite party gown just because she wanted Tokio to go clubbing with her. For Tokio, her kindness and that gown was everything one could get from a friend—the gown itself was so amazingly pretty, made of white satin with some laces on the chest, huge black belt on the waist and some more laces attached to its assymetric thigh-length ends. Her first clubbing experience, her first taste of fine champagne, her first sensation of wearing an expensive gown, all thanks to Teru.
It was even more painful hearing about the shocking news of Teru's father: the man committed suicide not long after the company's collapse. As if it was not enough, Teru suddenly disappeared without telling her. After spending some time waiting for her bestie in school, Teru's old chaperon asked to see her. Tokio felt her heart leaped when her name was voiced by the announcement speaker to her class. "Takagi Tokio, III-F... somebody wishes to see you, it is important so please hurry." She went to the teachers' office, busy thinking about the wrongdoings that she might do... Morinusuke did not kill someone, she hoped desperately. Then she remembered that her brother was in middle school and felt really stupid afterwards. The way her name was called was like her mother's way when she needed to tell dire news, like the way her mother used when telling about her grandmother's death due to heart attack. She knocked the door politely, trying her best to smile. She prayed silently of not wanting to meet her parents or even a teacher stating how her grades had been falling for the last month.
Teru's old chaperon, dressed in white kimono, eyed her solemnly. "Good day, Miss Tokio," she bowed when seeing Tokio. She then reached for a letter that previously hid in her kimono sleeve, and clutching it in her hand, she shoved the letter to Tokio's delicate hands with a very sad expression, as if forbidding herself to cry. "It's the Ojou-sama," her lips were trembling, "please, Miss Tokio. Read it when you have arrived... that's what Ojou-sama wanted."
"What... happened to Teru?" Tokio, too, resisted the urge to croak.
"Please, Miss Tokio," the chaperon tilted her head then nodded to the III-F class teacher, who followed their conversation in silent alert. The class teacher then asked Tokio to return to her class because she and Teru's chaperon had to discuss something. For the very first time in her life, Tokio wanted school to end at an instant. Later when she arrived at home, she quickly tore off the envelop and read Teru's letter, of which informing her that Teru had moved to another city. She stated that she would live at her aunt's without spitting out further details except the probability of her old maid in kimono would be fired because her family could not afford to pay her anymore. She even considered of quitting school and looking for a job. The letter ended with a sad "Thank you for everything, Tokio. Your best friend always, Teru. Good bye," and Tokio did not know which one was more painful: the fact that Teru had to give up her dream and quit school, or knowing that Teru suffered a great lost and burdened with shame— once-known princess no more existed, no more grand parties and beautiful clothes, no more lifestyle, and of course, goodbye borjuis friends!
Tokio replied the letter, waiting for an answer... to no avail. She tried to contact Teru via phone, email, and even buzzed her messenger but her efforts were fruitless. Finally she ought to accept that Teru withdrew herself from a life they used to share before, and prayed that the light always shone upon her dearest friend wherever she went. Katsura reformed the company and made some successes, but still, for Tokio there was only president director of the company—Teru's father, even if she too acknowledged that Katsura's leadership brought the company to reach a better future.
Then Kojuro Takagi said that he 'had it enough' being 'a servant'. This was the perfect time for a perfect turnabout, and Katsura, despite being a nice boss, did not want old faces to hold important positions in the company . Kojuro, being a loyal person that he was, told his family that he could not imagine working for other boss besides Teru's father either. So it was settled—Kojuro used his hard-earned savings to start his own business and thus the convenience store was chosen. It was a hard decision because it was some sort of gambling, but fortunately Lady Luck came just in time. The Takagi Convenience Store was the only convenience store at their usually-quiet neighborhood, and with some flats and apartements around, the convenience store had maintained its steady income. Three years after the 'revolution' and Tokio had graduated from university while Morinusuke, her younger brother, was able to continue his education to high school, all thanks to Papa Takagi's convenience store.
In the morning, Tokio's mother worked at their 24-hours-open store. Morinusuke replaced his mother after the boy was done with school, and starting eight o'clock until midnight, Tokio. For safety, Kojuro chose to work there after Tokio. He never allowed his daughter to work there past midnight, and Morinusuke ought to go to school.
"Yes?"
Tokio gasped when the voice penetrated her ears. The voice was husky and deep, successfully brought her back to reality. "Y-yes!" She bowed deeply (thanks to her comical reflexes), eying the master of the voice with a quick glance below her lashes. That was when she realized that she had stood there for only God knew when, successfully embarrassing herself because she must look so dumb that the man asked her with irritation in his tone.
Then she realized that yes, it is a voice of a man, and the man himself did not look pleased. "H-hello. N-nice t-to meet you," she somehow managed to answer. Tokio was not a woman without wits and guts, but his tone was domineering that she doubted it for a question—it was a command, an affirmative ordering her to speak.
She finally lifted her head up to see what kind of man who 'ambushed' her. He had a tall, lean but muscular body. If his hair was not black, it would be doubtful that he was a Japanese. His expression was—what was the perfect word to describe him? He did not look amiable, but to say him grumpy was far too much. He had slanted eyes and somewhat hollow cheeks, his lips continuously puffing out smoke from a cigarette he had between his lips. His gaze was as sharp as a dagger, as deadly as the wrath of the long-extincted Japanese wolf.
The landlord looked at her, annoyed. Of course he knew this young woman too well! The eldest daughter of the Takagi family would yell at Morinusuke to wake him up. She then mercilessly dragged the sleepy Morinusuke to the station, and while waiting for the train to come, she would smack Morinusuke's head using an out-of-nowhere harisen because Morinusuke was busy with his Nintendo DS again. While at home, sometimes he could hear her "Morinusuke-kun, you eat those carrots or I'll skin you alive!" and "What is this, challenging me into arm-wrestling?", ended with Morinusuke's "Onee-san, you are so mean! You got a hand of a gorilla you know that? Owwww!" and to think that this neighborhood's Miss Takagi never hesitated to dig her knee to the perverts-on-train's stomach, the landlord thought it would not be a hard task to convince the apartment's new resident about this woman's 'demonic, ruthless, horrible demeanor'. Tokio Takagi always defended the landlord's victims-of-blahblah-abuse, and he hated her for 'jamming his authority as a landlord' (ignorant people just love power-abuse so much, you know). Tokio smiled at the university student who rented room 10 while the landlord constantly nagged him for bringing his friends home and being noisy when he actually worked on a project, laughing at Mrs. Yamada's five-year-old son who loved to run across the corridor shouting "This is Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! I am Naruto!" while the landlord chided him for being a disturbance to other tenants. Tokio Takagi always stood in his way!
The tall man did not stop smoking. He observed her as if watching something under the microscope and tilted his head to exhale the smoke to somewhere else so that it did not bother her.
"Yes?"
The same question again, successfully made her jawdropped. She searched his face, only to find him deadpanned. She began to wonder whether he did this to 'punish her for staring', but the only expression he wore was... no expression.
"Well, I... I live here, you know. Not in the apartment, but my house is... ummm... behind this apartment. Uh. So, just letting you know." Tokio silently cursed herself for being awkward and... again, stupid. She could have berated him for being impolite and intimidating, but just like before, her nicely-planned arguments were silenced by a single glare.
He threw his cigarette down and tramped it to extinguish the fire. "Is that all?" there was mockery in his tone, and now his eyes were glowing. Tokio felt as if becoming a wolf's prey... and cornered.
"Is that all?" she answered back, this time unmoved. Her hands on her hips and she readied herself to counterattack.
"Yes?" that was his reply, and honestly she wanted to rip his face all at once.
"I mean your manners," she cleverly answered back. She smiled at him for her triumph, and, how she enjoyed looking his eyebrows twitched! She waited for his 'next attack', but all he did was taking out another cigarette out of the box, lit a match, then continue smoking.
Mr. Fatherly came in time. "Ah, you made a new friend," he said happily, and bowed his head to her. "It's my pleasure to meet you."
"I am not a little kid," Mr. Wolf—a nickname she found suitable for him just a couple of seconds ago—quickly retorted. "Really, Sir, you said this is a peaceful and quiet neighborhood—"
"—and as far as I know normal people live here," she cut in. Uh-oh. Again, Tokio?
"And you call yourself normal," said Mr. Wolf with a great sign of amusement, and Mr. Fatherly cleared his throat.
"I must be going now, Boy," he announced, being nonchalant on hearing the tall man snorted. "Ah, Landlord, I trust him in your care. He is not the nicest boy around, I know it, but I am sure he will not be much of problem—"
"—as long as you let me be," Mr. Wolf started again. "I hope so."
He glanced at her when saying his last sentence in that menacing tone, and she could not help but running from his gaze. She had dealt with perverts in train before, she had dealt with her brother's laziness, even some fussy customers' annoyance, but this man absolutely would not go down easily. She was rather stubborn to admit that she did stare at him because of the car and his looks (his height contributed much on that), but being the Brave Tokio Takagi of the Bravaland, she did not want to surrender easily. Besides what the hell was the usually-annoying landlord, treating her like an annoying kindergarten student that was trying to annoy the already annoying man, simply because she was annoying? No way Jose.
"Well then... welcome, neighbors! If you ever need anything, feel free to ask. I will be glad to help!" Mr. Fatherly looked so kind and she did not want him to get the bad impression on his first visit here, besides the landlord would kill her if he lost a potential client... ahem, tenant, like this. Well, she was not afraid of the landlord—she waited too long for this (if the landlord tried to kill her, it would give her a nice reason to kill him first)—but her gentle mother certainly would not approve this. And to think that her father ran the one and only convenience store around the neighborhood—
"Ah, I am sorry, Young Lady, but you made a mistake," said Mr. Fatherly, being fatherly as if soothing a little kid. "Only him will live here. I come to assist him... ahem, to get him used to few things."
Another thing that made her jawdropped. She 'went blank' for several seconds when Mr. Wolf, with roared laughter in his eyes, said calmly, "That's very kind of you. I am sure even I will not have the heart to turn down such nice invitation."
"Jerk," she cursed silently, hoping a magic strongbox to appear out of nowhere and landed on his head as she saw in most anime...
The first rule of Sun Tzu's The Art of War: know thy enemy.
Later, she thought miserably. Perhaps I should meet a doctor now... I am jawdropped twice in a day.