Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage

Chapter Three

Akito had completely lost the notion of both time and space and by the time his senses started noticing the loud banging on the door, he realised that his body was entangled around that of Ryoko and his hand was very close to a place he'd never even dreamed of touching before.

'Oh, that's my father,' she whispered and those three little words made Akito jump far enough to probably beat the current jumping Olympic record.

'Crap, crap, crap,' he muttered as he tried to tuck his t-shirt back into his trousers while looking around for his long lost shirt.

'OPEN THIS BLOODY DOOR!' they heard Keisuke's roar from the outside.

Ryoko was trying to get her long hair back into a pony tail as she rushed to the door and, as she unlocked it, a completely enraged Keisuke stepped into the room. Akito stole a quick glance at the window, seriously contemplating suicide as a more honourable and probably less painful way of dying.

'Daddy, wait!' Ryoko exclaimed as Keisuke started walking towards a terrified looking Akito then, seeing her words weren't working, she grasped her father's arm with both hands, 'Daddy stop!'

Meanwhile, the rest of the Takahashi family had reached the room, probably fearing for Akito's bodily integrity.

'Uncle Keisuke…' Kyosuke started.

'Dad, if you do anything to him I won't speak to you ever again!' Ryoko said.

Only this seemed to make Keisuke return to reality.

'Ryoko…'

'Dad, I'm serious,' the girl said and the way she was standing up to her father was a clear proof that she had inherited all of her father's courage, and probably all of his bad temper too.

'What has he done to you?' Keisuke asked and that made Ryoko turn red.

'Nothing,' she said and that was true, at least technically speaking, for she had done most of it herself.

'So, what's the deal? Are you seeing each other?' Keisuke asked as he fought with himself to control his fury.

'Yes,' she said and Akito's eyes widened even more than they already were.

Keisuke sat down on his daughter's bed putting his head on his hands and his elbows on his knees.

'Darling,' Kyoko started as she walked into the room towards her husband.

'Uncle Keisuke, this is the best that could happen. Let's face it, we've known Akito for most of our lives, isn't it better that Ryoko dates him rather than one of her classmates?' Kyosuke asked.

Keisuke looked at his nephew, then at Ryoko and, at long last, he turned his gaze back to Akito who looked absolutely petrified and too afraid to even allow himself to breathe.

'Darling, Kyosuke's right,' Kyoko said.

'Yeah, I vote for Akito too,' Seisuke said smiling at his friend while putting both of his thumbs up.

Without having stopped glaring at Akito, Keisuke said:

'If you hurt her, even remotely, you're dead. I won't care if I've known your father since before he even started dating your mother.'

'Yes, sir,' Akito managed to say with a strangled sounding voice.

'If you make her cry, I'll kill you, understood?'

'Yes, sir,' Akito repeated nodding.

'And no more locking yourselves up in the room.'

Akito shook his head.

'Alright, you've got my permission to date her,' Keisuke finally said and Akito swallowed visibly before muttering:

'Thank you, sir.'

'Guys, let's go and eat something, okay?' Akiko suggested seeing that the storm seemed to be over, at least in part.

'I've never been any more scared in my whole life,' Akito commented as Kyosuke was driving him back home.

'Well, he was a gangster when he was younger,' Seisuke said, speaking from the back seat of the car.

'I'm actually proud of you, the way you were trembling I thought you were about to faint,' Kyosuke commented.

'I wasn't about to faint, I did feel like puking though,' Akito said very honestly.

'You really didn't do anything, did you?' Seisuke asked.

'Hey! That's none of your business!' Akito protested.

'They didn't,' Kyosuke said laughing making Akito feel rather annoyed.

'In any case, well done mate, you now officially are our dear baby cousin's boyfriend,' Seisuke said patting Akito's shoulder.

'Yeah,' he muttered more to himself than to his two best friends.

'So, what's next?' Kyosuke asked.

'We're going to the cinema this weekend,' Akito said.

'Ah, take her to watch some romantic comedy, she's nuts about them,' Seisuke suggested.

'I know, hey, I've known her for ten and a half years: I know very well what she likes,' Akito said.

'Which is why we've always thought you were the perfect guy for her,' Kyosuke said.

'Anyway, what's the deal with you and your parents?' Akito asked, more than eager to remove the focus of the conversation off his and Ryoko's newborn relationship.

It worked, because Kyosuke spent the rest of the ride explaining the whole thing to Akito who, once more, felt very proud of having the father he had. Maybe Fujiwara Takumi wasn't the smartest guy alive but in Akito's opinion, he was a great father and he always found the time to listen to what Akito had to tell him and encouraging an open communication between the two of them.

This was the reason why the minute the Takahashi brothers dropped him by his house, Akito walked into the Fujiwara's living room and with a huge smile, he announced:

'Dad, Mum, I'm going to start seeing Ryoko.'

Akito almost laughed at his old man seeing him do a double take.

'Ryoko, as in Takahashi Ryoko?' Natsuki asked.

'Yep,' Akito replied, his smile getting even wider.

'Does Keisuke know about this?' Takumi asked his son.

'Yep, he's given us his permission,' Akito replied, deciding to leave out Keisuke's death threat which had allowed for such agreement to take place.

'Oh, I see.'

'I'm happy for you,' Natsuki said getting up from the couch to go and hug her adopted son who gave her a quick peck on her forehead.

'Yeah, life's great,' Akito said happily then, walking out of the living room, he shouted, 'good night!'

Takumi and Natsuki looked at each other and they started laughing as they heard Akito whistling while he climbed the stairs.

Akito woke up very early on Sunday morning so he could get ready to walk to the station. Not being able to drive there meant that if he was to make it to Maebashi before ten in the morning, he needed to catch the eight twenty five train.

'Do you want a lift?' Takumi asked his son.

'Nope, don't worry,' Akito said.

'Maybe you two can agree to see each other the days I go to Maebashi so I can give you a lift there and back,' Takumi suggested.

'Yeah, that'd be great,' Akito said grabbing his coat and checking that he had his wallet with him.

'Need any money?' Takumi asked.

'No, Dad, honestly, I'm okay,' Akito replied.

'Okay, well, have fun,' Takumi said as Natsuki was coming out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hands.

'You're leaving without getting any breakfast?' she asked.

'Yes, guys, stop fussing! It's my first date, not my first day of school,' Akito said as he put his shoes on.

'I can't believe he's going on his first date already,' Takumi commented once Akito had gone, thinking that he had been three years older than his son the first time he'd been out with a girl, the same one who was now standing next to him, looking as beautiful as she did then.

Akito's train got to Maebashi station ten minutes before ten o'clock and he rushed to the square in front of the station's building where he and Ryoko had agreed they'd meet.

Not seeing her there, he decided to wait for her sitting down on a nearby bench taking that time to organise his ideas and select several topics of conversation so he would have plenty of things to talk about.

'Hey,' he heard her say as she walked towards him.

'Hey!' Akito said getting up and just seeing her wearing a dark brown miniskirt with a pair of black kitten heel shoes which made her legs look fabulous, made him forget all about the conversations he had so carefully planned out in his head.

'You look, wow, you look amazing,' he managed to say feeling underdressed even though he was wearing his best pair of jeans, one of the nicest jumpers he had and the coat Natsuki had bought for him in her last shopping trip in Tokyo.

'Thanks,' she said, 'you look good too.'

'Let's go?' he said offering her his arm.

'Yes,' she said smiling happily as she took his arm with both her hands, snuggling herself to him.

'It's cold, isn't it?' he said. Oh my gosh, I'm talking about the weather! Akito thought to himself disconsolately.

'Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed, Kyosuke and Seisuke will be very angry if it does.'

'Ah yeah, that's right, your uncle was going to take them to the Centre,' Akito said feeling eternally grateful to Ryoko for bringing up a topic he felt very confident in: motor racing.

They spent all the way to the cinema talking about it and, after they watched a romantic comedy starring some American actress whose name Akito couldn't remember, he asked her to tell about the upcoming ice skating exhibition.

'Oh, it's just that to celebrate that we've qualified for the inter-high championships, we've organised a special show for Christmas.'

'That's right, you're going to Tokyo next month,' Akito said.

'Yeah, I'm actually pretty excited: I'm going to compete with the best ice skaters of the nation, at least at middle school level!'

'I'd love to go and see you,' Akito commented.

'You can come, you know? Tokyo isn't that far away,' she said sounding rather hopeful.

'I know, I was born there, remember? In any case, I'll ask Dad if I can go.'

'It'd be great if you could, I'd love to have my boyfriend supporting me.'

'Boyfriend…' Akito said.

'Well, that's what you are, isn't it?' Ryoko asked him frowning.

'Yeah, of course,' he said nodding.

'Good,' she said and, after that, she gave him a quick peck on his lips.

'You know, it'd be fantastic if you achieved your dreams,' he said.

'Yeah, well, I don't think I'll ever manage to win an Olympic gold medal like Arakawa Shizuka did in 2006,' she said.

'Why not? Ryoko, you're only fifteen, she was a lot older than that when she won that medal, wasn't she?'

'Yeah, she was twenty four,' she replied.

'See? Look, my grandfather always says that there's nothing impossible…'

'…only challenges that are harder than others,' she finished for him then, seeing his puzzled expression, she explained, 'that's what Dad always says too. He's probably learned it from your grandfather.'

'Yeah, that crazy old man has taught us all loads of things,' he commented smiling.

'Your grandfather's great, from the few times I've seen him, I can tell that he must be a lot of fun,' Ryoko said.

'He is,' Akito said feeling even prouder of his family.

After an extraordinarily successful first date Akito walked Ryoko back home and while he was on the train back to Shibukawa, he decided that having a girlfriend was great. Especially when said girlfriend was someone as fantastic as Ryoko: not only she was gorgeous but she was also very funny and Akito found that he could talk to her about almost everything.

To be able to get rid of the psychological block that had made him stutter every single time he'd been anywhere near her had been an immensely liberating experience for Akito. It helped knowing that his feelings were fully returned by her and that he no longer risked his life by being in the same room with her. Just as long as they left the door wide open!

The day of the ice skating exhibition, Akito sat with his parents, his sister and the entire Takahashi family as they got ready to see Ryoko give the best of herself.

'Mum, I want to do that,' little Haruko suddenly said seeing the girls as they started their warming up on the ice.

'You want to do ice skating?' Natsuki asked her daughter.

'Yep,' the girl, an exact copy of Natsuki at her age, said.

'What about karting? I thought you wanted to do that,' Takumi said.

'I can drive karts too, can't I?' Haruko asked looking at her father.

'Sure you can,' Takumi replied smiling at his little girl.

'Shush, she's starting her exercise,' Akito said pointing at the ice rink where his girlfriend was preparing herself to start her exhibition.

They lowered the lights and, after the speaker introduced her, making Kyoko's eyes get shinier than usual, Ryoko started skating at the rhythm of the classical music they were playing for her.

'She's fantastic,' Akiko whispered to her sister-in-law who could only bring herself to nod due to how very emotional she was feeling.

'She said she was going to do that triple axle thing,' Seisuke commented and just as he said that, they saw her picking up speed and with feline agility, Ryoko jumped up in the air and turned once, twice and, as her body was taking the third turn, gravity seemed to pull her back down.

It all happened in a question of nanoseconds: her skate's blade touched the ice, Ryoko slipped on it sideways losing control of the skate and as she fell down on the hard and cold surface, her knee seemed to bend in a very unnatural-looking angle.

After that, Ryoko remained there, lying on the ice, apparently unable to move.

To be continued…