A New Chapter

A New Chapter

Chapter 1: Family and a Strange yet Familiar Girl

A YYH Fanfiction by Sir Psycho Sexy


"Do not unfasten your seatbelts until the aircraft has some to a full and compete stop."

Mitarai opened his eyes. He didn't believe that he had slept for most of the flight from Tokyo to Berlin. His head ached, he still felt the effects of jet lag, and had only awoken because of the stewardess repeating her English sentence in German.

When the plane finally stopped, he stumbled to get off and find his baggage at the baggage claim. Of course, he found he had to wait half an hour for his bags to go around, and, in the interim, he wondered how Kuwabara was doing, how Kurama would feel about him not only getting into his alma mater but being involved in one of its prestigious study abroad programs, and what exactly his German relatives would look like at present, since Kiyoshi hadn't seen them since he was about four years old (his parents didn't have the money to go to Germany that often, and this flight had been paid for by Meioh), and he only had Christmas photographs to go on.

He looked around and found his large blue suitcase being poured onto the baggage claim track. He picked it up, and, to his chagrin, found a somewhat familiar-looking middle-aged man waving at him, with an unfamiliar woman holding a large placard with "KIYOSHI" written on it in red Magic Marker. Under the Roman script was an attempt to write his name in hiragana. It wasn't perfect, but it was passable, as if they had looked it up in a kana dictionary just for the occasion.

He looked at the man again, and realized that, since the last Christmas photo, he had only grown a few more gray hairs.

"Uncle Till?" he questioned in German.

"It's you! How's my nephew?" Till leaned in and gave him a big hug, and then kissed him on both cheeks in greeting.

"Umm…good." Mitarai didn't want to tell his uncle that this German-style greeting made him uncomfortable, being used to living in Japan, nor did he want to tell his uncle about Sensui, for chance that he would get very angry at him for following a psychotic genocidal maniac. For now, he endured his uncle's greeting.

Till broke the hug, and then put his arm around the strange woman, who dropped the placard onto the floor. "I'd like you to meet my new fiancée, Sandra Meyer. Her daughter is going to Japan to study in your place."

"I see." Mitarai didn't know his uncle was about to get remarried. He didn't even say anything to his mother, or put any notes in the Christmas photos. "When did you meet?"

"A month and a half ago", replied Sandra. "He just whisked me off of my feet at a nightclub one night, and, well…"- she flashed her engagement ring- "here we are!"

Till was tired of hearing his fiancée's rambling. "Honey…let's go home. Kiyoshi, there's going to be a room upstairs for you. Don't worry, we took out all of Liese's girly things."

Sandra and Mitarai nodded, left the airport, and the three of them got into Till's car.

Later that evening, a suggestion was made to take Mitarai out to the local Japanese restaurant.

"Oh, you'll love it!" cooed Sandra. "They have the best tempura there…"

Mitarai didn't really want to go to a Japanese place in another country; he'd already had the stuff that was actually from Japan. It would seem too surreal, but Mitarai couldn't say no to an offer of hospitality. "I'll go."

"Good", said his uncle. He wandered over to the stairs and yelled, "Ulrike! Get down here!"

To which came the reply: "Dad, I'm trying to study. My Abitur (1) isn't going to grant itself, you know."

"Oh, just be agreeable for once! It's for Kiyoshi's sake. Besides, we're going out for sushi."

Upon hearing the word "sushi", Ulrike dropped everything, threw on a pair of shoes, and ran down the stairs, lighting a cigarette.

"No smoking, please!" chimed Sandra.

"Geez…you're not my mom. You're never going to be my mom. Besides, it helps me relax." With that she defiantly took a puff.

"Sandra…humor her, okay? She's almost old enough to go to university. Besides, she's still doing research…"

"Of course, dear!" Sandra smiled. "I wasn't thinking is all."

"Good." Till grabbed his coat and opened the door for his fiancée and his daughter; Mitarai followed them. They walked about three blocks to a place called "Mikado" (what was with the stupid title, Mitarai thought to himself, but reminded himself that most Germans didn't speak any Japanese), and then sat down at a table.

Even more surreal than having a Japanese restaurant in Berlin was the fact that this particular eating establishment was noticeably staffed by Turkish migrant workers; somehow Mitarai expected actual Japanese people, but then reminded himself that few Japanese would ever immigrate to Germany, and would just use the visit there to take pictures of the remains of the Berlin Wall or somesuch. The family took their orders, and the hubbub around the restaurant in Turkish between the waiters and the sushi chef reminded Mitarai that he was no longer in Japan.

He watched his uncle, his cousin, and his soon-to-be step-aunt happily devour their sushi. Curious to how it would actually taste, Mitarai took a piece of his tempura roll and plopped it into his mouth. It wasn't the best sushi he had ever had- that honor would be when he went on his first-year Meioh class trip to Osaka- but it was, surprisingly, edible. He slowly finished his meal, and then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a stunningly familiar girl outside of the restaurant.

Yukina…?

It couldn't be, he reassured himself. What would Yukina be doing in Berlin, of all places?

He was curious as to why Yukina, or, at least some other woman who looked like her, was in Germany.

"Excuse me," he announced to the table. "I…I have to go to the bathroom for a bit."

"Don't take long!" yelled Sandra before she put another piece of inari-zushi into her mouth.

In the moment when the rest of the family was looking away, Mitarai went out the back door of the restaurant (which, incidentally, was next to the bathrooms), and decided to have a closer look at the woman.

She definitely was not Yukina, since she was taller and more refined-looking, with her hair put up higher than Yukina's. Her eyes were the usual Koorime blue instead of red, and Mitarai could hear her clogs going clip-clop against the pavement in the parking lot. She was definitely the same species as Yukina, and she stuck out like a sore thumb in Berlin, wearing a kimono, obi, and clogs.

But what was she doing there…?

Mitarai snuck up on her until he was not ten feet from where she stood, and started speaking to her in Japanese, since he assumed she didn't know German. "Excuse me…"

The Koorime turned around and glared it him icily. "You do not have permission to talk to me. You are a man. You will undoubtedly do horrible things to me, like all the men here have done. So be quiet and leave me alone."

"I'm sorry…" Mitarai bowed his head in submission. "I won't hurt you. I just want to know your name is all."

"Hmmph!" She stuck her nose up in the air. "Very well then. I am Shirahime; and that is ALL you are going to know about me. Good-bye."

Mitarai wanted to tell her to wait, but he already heard the sound of her clogs growing more distant.

He turned around and went back into the restaurant.

END CHAPTER 1


(1) An Abitur is the diploma received upon graduating from a Gymnasium (German college-prep high school). It is roughly equivalent in US terms to an Associate degree, since, in Germany, Gymnasium coursework goes on to the 13th grade.