Aya 1

In retrospect, marrying Rei had been the stupidest decision she'd ever made.

Aya snorted sardonically to herself. That was the understatement of the millennium. Rei hated her now, he'd made that very clear with the last fight, where he'd screamed at her and told her that he was leaving her, and by the way, he'd been fucking his secretary on the side for the past six years. He hadn't been home in two weeks, and Mikiyo, their five-year-old daughter (and wasn't that just a slap in the face, to think that the little girl had been conceived while Rei was in the middle of an affair), was starting to get suspicious, asking questions that Aya wasn't really sure she knew the answers to. "But why isn't Daddy coming home tonight? Why do I have to wait until the weekend to see him?"

"Miki-chan, your father is a very busy man," had become Aya's stock response to the incessant questions. "He has to stay at work so that he can finish everything he needs to."

"Well, that's dumb," was the usual response from the little girl, but she usually seemed to accept it. At least, she accepted it until that morning.

"Mama, are you and Daddy going to get a dee-vorce?"

Aya froze. "What... what exactly do you mean?" she asked.

Mikiyo shrugged. "It's just that Kazue-chan said that her daddy stopped coming home every night, and her mama didn't want to talk about it anymore, and then a few months later her parents got a dee-vorce, and her mommy left their house. Then her daddy married again and she got a new mama who's really young and pretty!." Aya winced. She'd completely forgotten about that. Miyu had warned her a few months ago that the family of one of the children in Mikiyo's class was going through some serious upheavals. Miyu had a bit more information on the situation than apparently the little girl knew- the mother had apparently been stealing money from the father and using it to give to her lover- apparently drugs were involved, but no one was stupid enough to tell the child that. The girl's father had remarried, and she had been so proud, going to kindergarten and telling all of her little friends about her pretty new mommy who bought her expensive presents and cooked so much better than her real mommy did. Aya had thought that maybe Mikiyo hadn't picked up on any of that, considering that her own daughter had never mentioned it at home, but apparently she hadn't blocked it all out completely.

But it was Mikiyo's next statement that practically sent knives into Aya's abdomen. "Am I gonna get a new mama too?"

"No," Aya replied, somewhat more forcefully than she had originally intended. "No, Mikiyo, you're not going to get another mother. I will always be your mother, and I love you. Remember that, alright?"

Mikiyo didn't look entirely convinced, but eventually just shrugged it off. "Alright," she agreed, easily enough.

"Now come on, you're going to be late for kindergarten. You don't want to get in trouble with Kotobuki-sensei, now do you?" Mikiyo giggled, scrunching up her nose.

"Mama, you don't get in trouble with Kotobuki-sensei unless you do something really bad!" Aya gave her daughter a mock stern look.

"Being late for class is really bad," she replied seriously, mimicking her daughter's emphatic inflection. "Go get your shoes on, we'll leave in five minutes."

"Ugh, can you believe the nerve of that woman? Bringing that child to school as though she was actually the mother!"

"Ah, well, you cannot blame Inuzuka-san too much. After his whore of an ex-wife, anyone would have looked like a good mother."

"Yes, but really? What their neighbors must think! And what kind of influence is that woman having on the child? I am almost to the point where I want to tell my Sadao to stay away from the Inuzuka girl! Imagine what she is telling the other children!"

"Aah, now, Kawamura-san, they are just children. I doubt that Inuzuka is telling his daughter all of the details about the split- she is only five. It's likely that she's just excited to have a new adult around her house to play with her. It probably hasn't really sunk in yet, that she's likely never going to see her mother again."

"Ah! Otohata-san, it is good to see you! I was wondering if you were showing up, it's a little later than you normally get here! Is Mikiyo-chan alright? Tamotsu had the flu last week, I hope he didn't give it to Mikiyo-chan!"

Aya forced a smile as the ringleader of the group of gossiping women, Mikimoto Rika, dragged her into the conversation. Mikimoto really was the last person she wanted to talk to at the moment, especially given what she'd just overheard. The woman was a relentless gossip and more stubborn than a dog with a bone when she wanted to get information. Really, she hadn't changed much from high school, when Aya had known her as "Rika-pe," with the exception of now that she was married, she used her change in status to give herself a veneer of respectability. At least she didn't have her two tanned flunkies hanging around her all the time anymore.

"Oh, no, Mikiyo got her flu shot this year," she replied politely. "I do hope Tamotsu-kun is feeling better now?"

"Yes, of course! Do you really think I would send my son to school if he was still sick?" There was a bit of bite behind the other woman's words, and Aya knew she had somehow crossed a line. What that line exactly was, however, was anyone's guess. Maybe Mikimoto thought that Aya was accusing her of not caring about her son?

"Oh my, no, not at all, Mikimoto-san," Aya replied politely. "Kids do sometimes bounce back quickly then get sick again, though. I know last year Mikiyo got food poisoning, and she was doing so much better after two days, that I thought it would be alright to have her go to play with her friend. Mikiyo was so excited, too, that even if she had been feeling ill that day she would have hid it. Well, most of the day went fine, until I went to pick her up. Apparently she relapsed, and she was sick all over the car." Mikimoto looked somewhat mollified, but she still delicately turned up her nose with a vague air of superiority.

"Well, you will just need to be more careful in the future, then, won't you?"

"Yes, of course," Aya replied, her smile becoming a bit fixed. Damn it, why was she letting Mikimoto get to her? It wasn't as though the other woman knew what was going on.

Suddenly, a loud little boy's voice interrupted the gathering of mothers. "But MOM! I don't WANT to go to school today! Purple Panther X is on today!"

Equally loudly, an adult woman retorted, "Oh, shut up, Yuji. You know Kuroi-san will have recorded it! I'll call her and see if I can get a copy of it. Now let go of me and stop complaining! I'm going to be late for work!"

"I DON'T WANT TO!"

"Well, tough! Get off!"

"Looks like Aso-san is having trouble with her son as usual," one of the mothers said, sniffing. "Really, that woman needs to learn to discipline him better."

"You cannot blame the kid, Kawamura-san, look at what he has for a mother!"

Aya winced. It seemed like every morning, this same incident happened: Mami would show up at school with her son, Yuji. Yuji would belligerently complain about being made to attend school. Mami would, equally belligerently, frog-march the child into the classroom and make him sit down, before hurrying off to get to her job, at a clothing store in Ikebukuro's Sunshine City shopping mall. Yuji was a good kid, but he'd inherited his mother's stubbornness, without a doubt.

"Oh! Hi, Otohata-san! Is Miki-chan here?" Yuji had noticed Aya and came tromping over to see her. Aya smiled. Yuji really was a funny little boy, even if he was a bit headstrong.

"Yes, she is, Yuji-kun. She is already sitting down. Why don't you go say hello to her? She will be happy to see you. And I heard you say something about Purple Panther X?"

"YEAH!" Yuji cheered.

"Well, ask Mikiyo to show you her new coloring book. Officer Ran gave it to her for her birthday, I'm sure she would be glad to show it to you."

"ALRIGHT! AWESOME!" the little boy yelled. "I didn't know Miki-chan liked Purple Panther X?"

"Oh, yes, she does," Aya tried not to laugh. If there was one thing that Ran had managed to pass onto her children, and her friends' children, it was her love of the Purple Panther X franchise. Cheering, Yuji stomped off, humming the theme song to the show. Momentarily, Mami sidled up to her friend, sighing.

"Yuya was watching television last night, and a commercial for today's special PPX marathon came on. He hasn't shut up about anything else since he saw that commercial, and he threw a fit when I made him come to school today. Thanks for distracting him."

"Oh, it's no trouble," Aya replied. "Mikiyo gets like that sometimes too, and I wish someone was there to get her mind off of it." Mami laughed, then immediately sobered, dropping her voice so that Aya could barely hear here.

"Actually, my shift doesn't start for another four hours. Why don't we go to the coffee shop? There's… something I need to talk to you about. About your… well, you know."

It didn't take a genius to figure out what Mami was talking about, and Aya felt her stomach sink like a lead balloon. What else could the other woman be talking about? Mami's husband was her husband's best friend, and it was likely that she'd seen something that Rei would prefer to keep from her. "I… I guess, that's fine. Which coffee shop were you talking about?"

"I was thinking the Tully's in Sunshine City, since it's close to the store," Mami replied. "Plus I get a discount. I'll buy your coffee."

Sunshine City was kind of out of her way, but Aya didn't have the energy to argue. Besides, free coffee was always a plus, and Tully's Maple Earl-Grey Danish was pretty tasty.

"Alright, let's go. We'll take my car, I guess."

To Be Continued

Author's Comments:

I know, I know, it's been way too long, but I actually was out of the country for two months. Actually, I was in Japan on a study abroad program, and I spent a week in Tokyo. Sunshine City in Ikebukuro is a real place: I stayed there. It's a bit dated, but it's very nice. The two shopping malls attached to it, Alpa and ALTA, are very interesting as well. I'd never seen most of the store they had there, we don't have equivalents in America.

I also went to Shibuya as well, although I didn't end up staying there too long. It was extremely hot and humid that day, it was pouring down rain, and I had bad jet lag. I did go check out Shibuya 109 and Bunkamura though. It was a great trip, I'd love to go back someday. Although considering this last trip basically took all the money I had, it's probably going to be a while, unless I can secure a $30,000 contract for work or something. Oh well.

-Kaboom