Chapter Four
I let a small smile find its way onto my face as Megumi squeals with excitement for what seems like the millionth time today. I feel my smile disintegrate and my muscles tense as Megumi wraps her arms around me and squeezes me. Our little group of four makes its way out of the school gates and towards the bus stop, only ten metres away.
Megumi, Takeshi, Ezra and I reach the bus stop and see that Jase and Satoshi are already there. When Megumi announces our arrival by glomping Satoshi, the two boys turn to us. Jase glares at me, while Satoshi winks in a way that I desperately hope isn't intended to be as flirtatious as it came across.
"How was your day, Korin-chan, Ezra-kun?" Satoshi asks cheerfully, sounding as though he actually cares how our day was (moments like these make me question how someone like Satoshi could be friends with someone like Jase). I nod.
"My day was good. The teachers were all really nice, and the other kids were all really welcoming." Satoshi smiles at me, then glances towards Ezra. He nods.
"W-what Korin said." he mumbles.
Satoshi grins broadly, "That's great. I'm glad you both like it here."
I turn to meet Jase's eyes with a slight frown, "How was your day, nii-chan?" I ask patronisingly, and Jase's glare deepens.
"It was good, Imouto." he says, putting emphasis on Imouto, as if he's trying to prove that him being older than me means he's more important.
"My day was great, thanks, Satoshi." Takeshi says sharply with a irked frown. Satoshi snorts and waves his hand dismissively.
"Good, good." he says. Megumi pouts.
"No one cares about my day!" she says with mock sadness. Satoshi rolls his eyes.
"Your day was probably 'Totally perfect!' yet again." he says teasingly, and Megumi grins.
"You know me too well." she says, and we all laugh.
We stay like that for a few minutes, just the six of us chatting and laughing, until the bus arrives. We all get on and show the driver our bus passes, and he looks slightly surprised when he sees my surname.
"Belododia?" he asks (although his 'accent' turns the l into an r), "Claudiu-sensei's daughter?" I nod, and the bus driver (Chikao, his name badge says) smiles at me. When he sees Ezra and Jase's passes, he gives them the same smile he gave me.
"What did Chikao-san ask you?" Megumi asks in a hushed whisper when we sit down at the back of the coach.
I shrug, "Just if I was Claudiu's daughter." Megumi nods in understanding.
"That would be why he gave you that smile," she says, and I tilt my head to the side questioningly. "He's being asking around trying to find a good counselor who's good with kids for his daughter for months. He's probably already booked her in for an appointment with your dad. If your dad's helping Akiko-chan, Chikao-san will probably give you loads of sweets. He gave me tons of Pocky when my mum got rid of the Aka-Manto that was haunting his bathroom." Megumi shudders slightly at the mention of the Aka-Manto. I feel my jaw drop.
"He had an Aka-Manto in his bathroom? Like, in his house?" I ask. Megumi nods, then smiles sadly.
"It killed his wife and two eldest daughters and hospitalised Akiko-chan before Chikao-san realised what it was and called my parents. Little Akiko-chan hasn't been the same since." she says. She turns her head so that she's looking out of the window and her left hand finds its way to her face. I wince and seriously regret asking about it. I glance behind me and see that the boys are being idiots in the five-seat back row. Some poor girl is trapped between Satoshi and Jase, although her enamored smile seems to be genuine. She must be insane, the poor thing.
Ezra slides the door open and steps into the house. With some trouble, I pull myself out of Megumi's hug. Jase and Satoshi do some sort of weird handshake thing and hug each other. I shake my head and step inside the house, kicking my shoes off and dumping my school bag.
"We're home!" I call, and Xander's sulking reply follows instantly.
"Dad's with someone!" he snaps, and Ezra and I share an exasperated look. Wherever we are, whichever home we're in, Xander always has a childish strop if Dad's with a customer.
"If Mummy was here, she wouldn't be ignoring me." I imitate Xander's most common bratty complaint in an undertone. Jase laughs loudly, and Ezra smiles and shakes his head. "Race you to the kitchen!" I say, then sprint towards the kitchen.
I throw the kitchen door open and skid on my knees across the floor to the fridge-freezer. I pull the freezer door open and close my eyes before sticking my hand in and pulling out a tub of ice-cream.
"What are you doing, you utter weirdo?" Xander asks, and I open my eyes as I turn to look at him. He's sitting on the counter on the other side of the kitchen with his hand in a box of Strawberry Pocky.
"Lucky dip ice cream!" I yell, punching the air, before checking what flavour ice cream I've taken out. "Matcha green tea! Score!" Xander frowns at me and turns his head away.
"You're weird. I'm not related to you." I pout at his 'harsh' words and stand up, kicking the freezer door shut as I do so. I reach up and take down a bowl, pull a spoon out of the draw, and begin to serve myself a large portion of ice cream. It could do with some Sakura to soften the flavour, I think, and open the freezer again. When I put the green tea ice cream back, I take out one of the tubs of Sakura flavour that the Akiyamas gave us, which they had left over from this year's Sakura season, almost six months ago. I scoop out about half of the tub and deposit it in my bowl. I quickly shove it back into the freezer, putting a spoonful into my mouth.
"Pig." Xander says, and a laugh from the doorway alerts us both to Jase's existence.
"I wish I had your metabolism, Kor," Jase says, shaking his head and staring pointedly at my ice cream. "I could eat as much as I wanted and the girls would still love me." I wrinkle my nose in disgust, and see that Xander has done the same.
"I'm done with you two morons," I say, pushing past Jase and leaving the room. "If you need me, I'm in my room." I turn and make my way down the corridor until I reach my bedroom. From inside, there is the noise of shuffling papers.
Ever so slowly, I open the door a crack and peer through. Inside, a girl with long gingery-blonde curls in a high ponytail fumbles with a pile of… My Yokai photos!
I slam the door open. The girl whips around. Her blue eyes, framed by thick-rimmed glasses, lock onto mine. She drops the photos, and the box they were in, and throws herself out of the open window, leaving behind a faint smell of cherry blossoms, mingled with blood. I place my bowl down on the bed and run over to the window. The girl is almost out of sight, but she frequently stumbles as her feet catch on the silken hems of her blue-green kimono. I swear loudly and walk back to the bed and pick up my ice cream. I sit down and start eating it as I look through the photos to see if there are any missing.
After counting and recounting, I come to the conclusion that the red-haired girl didn't steal any of my photos. On the fourth count, however, I come across something that shocks me. One of the photos, with the word Kejoro written on it in the boy's scruffy scrawl, is an image of a small girl with red-blonde ringlets bouncing around her shoulders. On her thin frame rests a kimono which glistens the colour of lake water, embroidered with an intricate silver thread forming a celestial pattern. I gasp and begin to chew my lip. I recognise both the hair and the kimono. It can't be, though. The kimono would be several sizes too small for her by now.
I shake my head to clear it of the ridiculous thought. It's not her. I'm just pattern matching. I sigh and put the photos away.
I take out my 3DS and switch it on. I'll just play whatever's in there already, I decide. It's Pokémon X. I tap the screen with my thumb and press the A button impatiently as I wait for the game to load. I wander around aimlessly for a while, until I get a little notification thingie saying that someone in my local area has challenged me to a battle. I grin: it's the first time I've ever battled against an actual Japanese person. I click the bones in my neck and fingers and accept the battle.
I repeatedly have battles with the mysterious 'Hanako-chan' until a soft knock on my bedroom door alerts me to the presence of someone in my room. I look up towards the door with a glare.
"I was battling!" I say indignantly, and Dad nods.
"I noticed," he says, "I also noticed that it's past your bedtime. I don't want you to be miserable from tiredness like your brother is." I snort.
"He's just miserable because he's an attention whore and you're too busy to pamper him like Mum does."
Dad frowns, "I wasn't talking about Xander. I already know what his problem is. I was talking about Ezra. You've clearly been too busy playing video games and trying to find Yokai to notice." The disapproval in his voice combines with the instantaneous guilt that settles over me about how bad a sister I've been to Ez and makes me feel pretty much worse than I can remember feeling since Vienna.
"Is Ez okay? H-he's coping, isn't he? He seems like he is. I hope he is. Oh, gods. What if he isn't? What if he's really struggling and he feels even worse because I haven't noticed and he thinks I don't care. What if-"
"He's fine, Korin. He might need a few more Korey hugs than normal for a little while, just until we've all settled in. You don't need to cry." Dad reaches down and a wipes from my cheek a tear that I didn't even realise was falling. He holds his hand out. "DS, please. You'll be on it all night otherwise." I smile slightly and save my game, before switching off my 3DS and placing it in Dad's outstretched hand.
When Dad leaves the room, I don't bother to change into my pajamas or clean my teeth. I just get up and walk across the room to the light switch, then climb into bed and try to go to sleep.
I wake early from dreams filled with the sounds of something being scratched. My vision is blurred from the way my eyes squint as they try to adjust to the light pouring in through my open curtains.
"Hurry, Mariko-chan! She's waking!" I groan and try to push myself upright when I hear someone speak.
"I'm going as quickly as I can, Onee-sama!" A high-pitched, irked voice follows, and the voice triggers a sense of deja vu in my mind. I force my eyes to open fully, but I'm too late too see who it is. All I do see is a flash of red-blonde hair disappearing out of the window, leaving behind a slip of parchment which slowly falls to the floor. I climb (or rather fall, face first) out of bed and walk (drag myself across the floor) to where the parchment has landed. I scoop it up and unfold it. Written on it, in flawless English from a neat hand, is This room belongs to Nii-san. You have no business. My eyes widen. Last night, when I saw the photo labelled Kejoro, I was right.