Chapter One
My first memory that day was the shrill sound of my alarm clock buzzing loudly in my ear. Any thought that might have come to me as I lay there, glum and exhausted, was blasted away in an instant. With a groan, I reached out and slammed my fist onto the snooze button.
It was a tiny victory. I thought momentarily about the strange dream that had only just been interrupted, but the memories of my dreams had always been hazy at best. Usually I didn't even remember them. This one, though still fresh in my mind, was fading fast.
As I stared moodily up at nothing in particular, it dawned on me: I didn't at all recognize the ceiling. For a moment I thought I was still dreaming. I looked out the window to make sure.
There was snow for as far as the eye could see. It drifted lightly from above.
I sighed. "It wasn't a dream." My shoulders slumped dejectedly. Just a few days ago, I was in Tokyo. The warm air caressing me, the tall rows of buildings devouring all. Now, however…
Hokkaido. I wondered again just how all of this had come to pass. God must hate me, I decided. I shivered involuntarily. Unfortunately, I would be shivering for quite some time to come. That is what one did when he, against his will, was shipped out to Hokkaido, a land of seemingly eternal winter. At least, so they say.
"I just don't get it…" I grumbled to myself.
Determined to stay warm, I buried myself under my blanket in hopes that it really would turn out to be a dream. I knew how utterly ridiculous such a dream would be, but then again, I was already stuck in an utterly ridiculous situation.
At least my blanket was warm. That was something, wasn't it?
"What are you mumbling about? Come on, get up!"
In the instant following the unexpected voice belting its orders down on me, I felt the blanket being yanked away from my body. Icy threads of an inverted Hell belted down on me from above. I'm pretty sure my cry of shock shook the dead from their eternal slumber.
It was so incredibly cold!
"Saki!" I growled, infuriated.
She was smiling. The queen of the ice demons smirked down on me from her perch, a sparkle of pleasure in those crystalline blue eyes. "Don't whine like that! You sound pathetic!"
I growled up at her. At least, I would have, had I not been so busy shivering. Saki was around my age, and I guess she would be considered my cousin. Her body was a slim and her light hair soft, silky. She may look cute, but I wasn't fooled. The girl had a devil on each shoulder, and they were likely as frozen and miserable as I was.
"Come on, get up and eat your breakfast," she said. She was too perky. How could anyone be so damn perky in Hokkaido? It was a real mystery. "Yuuji…"
"No way! I'm cold!"
Now she was annoyed. "That's no excuse!"
Like Hell it wasn't. "I don't want breakfast!" I declared, as if declaring such a thing was even necessary, which in my own humble opinion, it wasn't. Of course, Saki would disagree, but I didn't care. "I just want to sleep straight through to Saturday morning."
"Quit being such a lazy bum!"
Quick as lightning, my cousin pounded me right on top of my head. "Ow!" Now that wasn't the tiniest bit necessary, and she knew it. Before I could tell her, though, she was spouting off her reasoning behind the perceived flaw in my reasoning.
"When you're in this house you follow our rules!"
"What rules?" I demanded.
"You must always eat your breakfast. If you don't eat your breakfast, you'll freeze to death!"
I figured I was already freezing to death, and getting out of bed would only hasten the process. I wrinkled my nose. "You're lying."
She smirked. "I'm lying."
Of course. "Why you…"
"Did you believe me, just a little bit?"
"No way!"
Saki cocked an eyebrow as she gazed down at me. "This is why I hate smartasses who grew up in the city."
I snorted, wondering if I would somehow be able to survive this wintery hell. Admittedly, I had my doubts. Saki didn't help any; to me she seemed to play the part of a man-eating shark circling in bloody chunk of raw meat—namely, me—as the Crocodile Hunter stared into the whites of her eyes. "Look at 'er eyes," he'd say, right before she bit my head off.
She's a feisty one, mate.
I wonder why all this had to happen. I'd already come to the conclusion that it wasn't all a dream. It sure seemed like a dream, but I knew better. I was only fooling myself if I continued to search for an explanation I desired, when the truth was that I was stuck here in Hokkaido, abandoned really. I stared up at the ceiling. I really don't recognize this ceiling at all.
Just one short week ago, I returned home from school, I was in for a shock. The furniture was gone. The house had been empty save for the note taped to the screen door for me to find. In addition, my mother and father were nowhere to be seen.
Naturally, in my infinite wisdom, I read the note:
"To my stupid son. I know this is sudden, but my business has transferred me overseas. I'm going to Hawaii. We'll be here for a full year. You mother is very happy. We were going to bring you with us, but you've been kind of a wiseass lately, so we decided to leave you behind. I've left everything else up to my brother in Hokkaido. Your school transfer has already been taken care of. Pack your bags and go to Hokkaido. P.S. Be strong!"
So in other words, I'd been abandoned. That had been Saki's observation, much to my dismay, on the day she'd picked me up at the train station, my first day back in Hokkaido in ages. Okay, to be fair, that's not really what my dad wrote to me, but he still twisted the knife good and hard after ramming it into my heart and leaving me in this Godforsaken wasteland.
"Ugh…"
"Could you look any more depressed?" Saki asked. There seemed to be a hint of understanding in her eyes as she gazed down at me. She smiled and her voice was gentle. It seemed my father wasn't the only fiend good at twisting the knife buried in my flesh. "Poor Yuuji. You probably had friends back at your old school."
I rolled my eyes. "I don't care about that."
"Oh, what's this?" She was genuinely surprised, though I wasn't exactly sure why. "You don't see to be taking it very hard."
"I went to an all boys' school," I explained with a shrug of my shoulders. In all reality, I'm glad to get away from there. Life becomes pretty mundane when you live with a bunch of testosterone-driven windbags. Still… anywhere would have been better than Hokkaido. "I had a few friends, but nobody really stood out."
"Well anyway, I guess there's nothing that can be done about that now, anyway," Saki replied cooly as she grinned. "Dad is strangely happy about the whole thing too."
My father's older brother. In other words, my uncle. He had agreed to take care of me in my parent's absence, while they were soaking up the sun in beautiful Hawaii, far from the blustery chill of Hokkaido. My uncle owned an inn in the small rural town of Yukito, a suburb of Hokkaido. Or rather, he did run an inn.
"Speak of the devil!" Saki said cheerfully as the big man poked his head into the room.
"Yuuji! Are you awake?"
I could have sworn I heard some ribs break when he hugged me. I still don't understand the man at all. I mean… I do care for him. He's my uncle, but… I'm just not the kind of guy who makes a habit of hugging other guys. I haven't even hugged my father since I was little.
"I leave you alone overnight and you've gotten so big already! Why, you!"
"Uncle," I gasped as he attempted to squeeze the life from me. "I can't breathe…"
"When was the last time we met? Ten hours ago? Eight?"
"Uncle, you're crushing me…"
"Yes, yes, I'm happy to see you, too."
Utterly ridiculous. It's my only explanation for the man's behavior. "I'm not happy! I'm suffocating!"
Saki, of course, did not help matters. "See?" she told me as she gazed at the two of us."He's overjoyed!" Great, I thought. She was sitting there, lost in the moment, and I was being crushed into chum for my uncle's next fishing trip.
"Somebody stop him!" I squealed.
Saki chuckled. "Dad, Yuuji just woke up."
"Oh, I see! Time for breakfast then!"
I won't go into details, because no fool should have to go through the embarrassment of being physically dragged from his cozy bed to the dining room by his lug of an uncle and be forced to explain it to the masses, so you'll just have to bear with me. It was an awful event, rest assured.
I still wonder, though. What kind of beastly strength does that man have?
We sat down for breakfast a few minutes later, just the three of us. Saki, Uncle Takeaki, and me. My aunt passed away about ten years ago, leaving behind two broken hearts and countless scattered dreams. I can't really imagine what it must have been like for the two of them, but I think that maybe they feel their lives are a little less empty since I'd moved in. Now there were three in their small family, after all.
Of course, it wouldn't be all that surprising if I were way off course. How does the old song go? You're so vain… Yeah, I suppose that's quite possible.
Regardless, since I moved in, the place wasn't quite so lonely for Saki and Uncle anymore. Saki handled most of the daily chores, including the cooking, and I have to admit, she's not a half bad cook. It's like my father always says though: in this life, you gotta be good at something. The truth is the truth, and Saki's truth is in the kitchen, so to speak.
Midway through our meal, the phone rang. When Saki jumped up and hustled out of the room to answer it, Uncle leaned forward. "So, what do you think?"
"Huh? About what?" I asked through a mouthful of broiled fish.
"About Saki," he said, leaning forward conspiratorially. "Don't you think she's grown? You know, like an hourglass figure?"
I stopped chewing. When he continued, it was quite obvious that he misunderstood the dark stare I gave him.
"Hmm. Well… maybe not quite an hourglass. I don't know who she takes after, but her breasts haven't grown an inch!" I very nearly chocked on my fish. What the hell was he talking about? More importantly… this was my cousin he was talking about here! And his daughter…
A fist thudded against the back of his head, and he let out a grunt.
Speak of the devil, I thought with a smirk.
"Don't be so rude," Saki grumbled as she plopped down on the floor. "Anyway, the phone's for you."
As Uncle left the room, rubbing his head, Saki rolled her eyes at me. I could only shrug in reply as I sipped my spiced tea.
"Yuuji, when he does stuff like that, you should put him in some wrestling holds."
I grunted. "As if."
"Oh, come on…"
I couldn't help but think as I looked at her across the table that maybe Uncle was right. She had grown up a bit since I'd last seen her.
"What?" she asked when she caught me staring.
"Oh… nothing. Let's eat!"
She eyed me suspiciously before returning to her meal.
