Red Suoh and the Eldritch Library
Chapter 11
Fire raged and danced around him as if alive; it stormed and swirled up, down, in and out while the heat rose and roared as it threatened to consume him. Dodging fireball after fireball being thrown at him by an enraged, half-avian man flying through the air on the wind of two sets of feathered wings sprouting out from his back, he leapt and jumped through the air and quickly discovered that he had been led into a trap where he was surrounded on all sides by rising flames that would quickly engulf and burn him to death if he failed to escape. In desperate terror, he froze himself with an icy staff gripped tightly in his hands just as the flames hit him with a hiss of steam and heat. Half parboiled, with pain lancing through his limbs, he threw himself at the winged adversary that taunted him from the skies where he danced. With a casual toss of his hand, the half man half bird hurled another massive fireball at him that hit the staff dead on, set his shirt sleeves on fire and hurled him towards the ground where he hit his head with an agonizing force that sent him towards a darkness that he feared he would never wake from . . .
With a horrible start and a brief scream, Red came clawing up from a troubled sleep into a fighting position as she searched and scanned for super-heated flames or a horrible winged adversary that was taunting her as it sought to end her life. As the tension drained from her body, she found her mind was confused at the instant change of gender. Everything seemed out of place, as if the scale of objects and their relation to her was somehow incorrectly skewed.
Much to her discomfort, as the adrenalin leached out of her system she discovered that her muscles ached and her ribs stabbed into her with sharp, lancing pain for each breath she took. With a surprised grimace she realized that her limbs were shaky and she also felt sick to her stomach. As the beating of her heart slowed from the racing pace it set when she first awoke, each beat pounded a painful rhythm as her head throbbed to its tempo. With a wince she glared at the overhead fluorescents that seemed to lance into her eyes with their harsh light and made her wish she could extinguish them.
Seeing no immediate danger, she carefully and slowly sat back down on the couch she had so quickly vacated just a moment ago and took careful assessment of her injuries. With slow deep breaths she gently probed her right cheek and found it to be deeply bruised and swollen. Her right eye felt extremely puffy and sore. Her arms ached where she had blocked powerful blows and were starting to show deep bruises that had already started turning many different hues, including green, yellow, blue, brown and black in unsightly splotches that ran up and down her limbs. With slow probing fingers she decided that she had a couple of cracked or even broken ribs on her right side and that she would have to be careful how she moved until they had knitted back together for fear of a punctured lung.
Just as she completed her self-examination, the door slowly opened and Ayame carefully stuck her head around the door. "Ahh good, you're awake. How are you feeling?" She asked with a hesitant smile.
"Like a large truck ran over me and then backed up to be sure of the job." Red replied as she stood up with her mouth held somewhere between a smile and a grimace. "For an old fart, he sure could hit hard."
"I'm sure he could. He has been studying martial arts for most of his life. In fact that is probably what put the two of you at logger heads to begin with." Ayame said with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"What's that got ta do with his yelling at me the moment he saw me?" Red asked with a scowl as she moved closer towards Ayame while they talked. "He was a real jerk bout things."
"He has been under a lot of stress lately. I realize that doesn't excuse his attack on you but life has not been easy lately for him." Ayame said.
"How so?" Red found herself asking.
"His wife of thirty years died of cancer in the hospital earlier this year and the costs took all of his savings but still left him deep in debt with bills he couldn't afford to pay. When he appealed to his children for help, they refused him by claiming it was his problem and not theirs. Also, with the hope of higher earnings, he recently applied for a job promotion but he was passed over as too old and I am afraid, as I later learned, that I am the one that received the position he wanted." Ayame continued.
"That don't explain why he had such a problem with me. I mean it was like he didn't like me from the word go." Red stated. "I have a good idea what my problem with him is but I don't know why he was so angry at me."
"I'm getting to it. On top of everything else he was denied a lifelong dream. Very recently he tested to become a master in his martial arts style where he failed to meet the mark. I am afraid that didn't sit very well with him and that is probably one of the main reasons he responded with such hostility towards you, especially after he had read the report that you were supposed to be a master martial artist." Ayame informed the young red head.
"Oh, I just thought it was cause he didn't like kids." Red said with a slightly dismayed look.
"Normally he is fairly decent with children, if a little old fashioned in a way that makes him seem somewhat cold and distant, but I am afraid that you were a tipping point for him." Ayame said as she clasped her hands together in front of her waist while bending forward a little as she spoke to the young girl standing before her.
"Do ya know why he didn't get made a master? He may be an old freak but he is an awful good martial artist. I would have thought they would have gave it ta him just from the way he fought."
"What little I know, I have heard from others so it is rumor at best." Ayame said with a dismissive gesture of her right hand.
"It might be nice ta know what you have heard so I could better understand what really happened between us. A rumor is better than nothin'. So could ya please tell me what ya know?" Red implored Ayame.
"Very well, but this is only hear say. My understanding is that he did very well at the fighting part of his test but some of the obscure forms that he disdained as useless were a little shaky. But where he really fell down was his inability to teach. He isn't patient enough and so he has trouble teaching what he knows to others. Plus I was told that he has trouble showing others how to do the techniques that he is capable of performing. It is so completely natural for him that he doesn't really know how to break it down and be able to teach it." Ayame reluctantly replied.
"Ahhh, thanks. That answers some things for me. It tells me why he wanted ta believe that my art was all lies and why the thought that it might be true made him so mad. He didn't want ta believe that someone as young as me could have what he didn't. But that still don't excuse how mean he was ta me despite the way I acted as well." Red said with a thought furrowed brow.
"When you were tested was teaching part of your test?" Ayame asked.
"A couple of days after I was granted my mastership by Sensei Tadashi, he told me that he saw that I could teach from some of the demonstrations I did. When he was testing me, he had asked about some of the techniques and how they worked. So I took the time out to show how they were done and why they work. He said that the proof of a master was their ability to teach everything they know to someone else so they can pass on the style ta others. If Yori can't teach, then he can't pass on the style so he hasn't mastered it. Sensei also told me that some styles only require that you can teach someone else to be able to attain their black belt and that automatically qualifies ya as a master. Different styles have different requirements ta become a master but teaching is always part of it." Red lectured.
"Anyway, that is neither here nor there, the real reason I came in was to see if you were okay or if you needed a trip to the hospital due to your injuries. I didn't mean to get distracted by these other topics." Ayame said as she changed the subject.
"I think I'll be okay lady, I just hurt a lot from the fight. I don't need ta go ta a hospital." Red replied with a slight grimace of pain as she shook her head back and forth to emphasize her dismissal of a hospital trip. "I've seen enough of the hospital over the last couple of weeks despite the friends I made there."
"Well, now that you're awake, I am going to have Doctor Shin check you over to be sure that you really are all right. Then, if he says you are okay, we need to have a conversation about your future." Ayame said with a slight frown at Red's obvious injuries before she exited the room and quietly closed the door behind her.
After the door closed Red move back to the couch and laid down with exaggerated care so that her head was resting on the arm rest and prepared to wait. With slow careful breaths she took herself into a meditative state to control the pain she was in. As she waited, she allowed her mind to move back over the fight. With careful deliberation she set out to map everything she had done correctly into her natural reactions and discard the mistakes she had made so she wouldn't repeat them in a future encounter.
As her meditative thoughts moved to a conclusion, her thoughts were disturbed by a quiet knock at the door. As she turned her head, she saw the door open and Doctor Shin stick his head into the room. Looking around he quickly spotted her on the couch and walked towards her with a black, leather bag in hand.
"I saw the footage of the fight." Doctor Shin said. "How badly are you hurt?"
"Mostly bruises doc, but I think I got a couple of cracked or broken ribs from one of his strikes." Red replied as she held her injured side with one of her hands.
"Well, while I take a look at your ribs, you might want to put this icepack on your eye after I check it for damage." He replied as he dug out an icepack and handed it to her. With gentle fingers he probed the bruising around her right eye, looked into it with a small flash light and muttered to himself about the possibility of a concussion.
"Thanks, Doc." She said with a sheepish grin as she gently held the pack to her eye after he had finished administering to it.
With careful fingers, Doctor Shin started to probe her ribs on her right side until Red involuntarily gasped with pain when he found the injured area. With a gesture, he communicated that he wanted her to expose her ribs by lifting up the hem of her shirt. After establishing the exact location of her injured ribs he took the time to probe her stomach region to make sure there were no signs of internal injuries. With his examination complete, he reached into his bag and pulled out a heavy elastic bandage wrap so he could bind up her ribs.
"Normally we don't bind broken ribs, but with your apparent lifestyle they will need all the help they can get." Doctor Shin fondly chided. "Do you think you can stay out of fights for a few days until these knit back together?"
"I'm sorry Doc, I will try to be good and not get myself into any more trouble." Red contritely said.
"I'm sure you will do your best. I know you're basically a good girl but you seem to attract more trouble than anyone else I have ever met." Doctor Shin said with a smile. "Now, breathe out and hold your breath."
With an exaggerated exhalation Red blew out and comically puffed her cheeks up as she held her breath with her tongue stuck out at the doctor while she crossed her eyes. With a snort of laughter at her antics, Doctor Shin started to wrap her ribs with a large elastic bandage, just tight enough to elicit a small intake of breath from his patient. With a flourish he set the butterfly closures and pulled her shirt back down.
With a deliberately loud gasp, Red noisly gulped in some air. "Took ya long enough Doc, ya tryin' ta make me pass out or somethin'?" She said with a mischievous grin as she held the icepack back up to her injured eye.
"If I want you to pass out, I will use a hypodermic. Thank you very much." He replied with a smirk. "If you are up to it, Ayame has said we can go to dinner after she goes over a few things with you first."
At those words, Red's stomach gave out a large growl as she sheepishly looked up with an embarrassed grin. "Sounds great, I worked lunch off a while ago."
"Well, we are going to have a really nice dinner tonight so I really hope you can avoid any more trouble for today. The restaurant we are going to is well known and famous plus I am good friends with the owner. He has promised me that he will fix a special meal for you, though he sounded worried when we talked earlier today. Something is troubling him and I don't know what it is." Doctor Shin said as worry creased his brow. "We will take the train to the Shibuya station and then walk from there. It is only a couple of blocks from the station. Now here is a bottle of water and a couple of pain pills I want in you."
After standing up, Red looked around with a wide, excited grin and then started for the door while taking her medication with a large swig of water. "Well we better find her then. So the sooner we get going the sooner we can tank up."
As she started to reach for the knob, the door opened to re-admit Ayame into the room. "How is she Doctor Shin?" She said with a bow.
"Her? She will be fine. Mostly she just has some deep bruises that will probably be healed up in a couple of days though her broken ribs will probably take a couple of weeks to fully knit back together. If she were an ordinary person, she would be hospitalized by today's events. Luckily the orbit around her eye wasn't broken otherwise she would need to return to a hospital. However, she seems to be basically fine and only shows signs of a mild concussion that I expect to be gone in a couple of hours. Her healing rate is really quite amazing."
"How could anyone heal that fast, let alone a child?" Ayame asked in a doubtful tone.
"I think it is her martial training. I suspect that she had been trained to harness her inner ki to speed up her healing abilities as well as allow her to absorb damage that would kill most people with only bruises to show for it." Doctor Shin said with a contemplative expression as he rubbed his chin with his right hand. "Though that is only a theory, it is the only explanation I currently have."
"Oh. Um, where will you be staying tonight in case we need to reach you?"
"We will be taking rooms at the Cerulean Tower Tokyo Hotel. I have already made reservations for us."
"Then you will have a very nice place to stay. Don't get used to that kind of luxury little one. Unfortunately, you won't see much of it at an orphanage." Ayame warned.
"So what can I expect? I don't know much about being an orphan. Will there be lots of other children? Will I be adopted? Where will I eat and sleep? Will I be able to visit with my friends like the Doc here?" Red worriedly asked as she turned her head up to better see Ayame's face.
"Those are hard questions to answer since we haven't finished deciding all of those things yet ourselves. I will try to give you some general answers instead. Will that be okay?" Ayame asked as she sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to her indicating that Red should join her.
"I guess." Red replied as she took a seat next to Ayame.
"All right then, let us begin with the question of what being an orphan in Japan means by giving you a little history. After World War Two there were a large number of orphans throughout Japan. As part of an effort to take care of these children until relatives or missing parents were found or declared dead a system of orphanages were established to take care of children that needed help even if it meant taking care of them until they were grown. Often this also included children whose families didn't have the resources or the means to provide for them. So they were included in the system to make sure of their continued survival. Since we are Japanese, we tend to stick with a system that has historically worked and continues to work. In fact it was only a couple of years ago that Japan even made child adoptions where parental rights can be severed legal but it seldom happens that way. Any questions so far?" Ayame kindly informed.
"Not yet. Keep going." Red said with a negligent wave of her right hand indicating that Ayame should continue.
"In Japan today, there are two types of children in orphanages. There are those without any parents or family to take care of them and there are those that their parents have left at the orphanages to be taken care of. Some families can't afford to care for their children and others just can't be bothered. I do the job I do because I came up in the system and I hope to change it for the better. I truly love children and I don't like the way we as a society sweep them out of sight and under the rug."
Red jerked her head around in surprise to get a better look at Ayame and blurted out. "So you're tellin' me that parents just drop their kids off at orphanages and leave em there? How come no one comes and adopts them instead of just abandoning them?"
"In Japan a parent usually keeps all of their rights where their children are concerned even when they leave them in orphanages to be raised by others. Those rights are only severed in very extreme case since the government doesn't like to interfere with families." Ayame said with a slight sigh of frustration.
"How come parents like those aren't seen as bad parents? I would think that abandoning your kid ta be raised by strangers would be a public loss of face and a blow ta your honor." Red asked.
"Because it doesn't appear on the family registry letting a child be raised in an orphanage holds no social stigma for the family. Since there is no apparent loss of honor for the family it is often a common practice in Japan. It is just one of those things that aren't talked about so it isn't seen for the problem it is. A child in an orphanage whose parents have retained their parental rights is not eligible for adoption, even if they spend their entire childhood in the orphanage. Parents can come and visit their child there or take them home at any time but most children spend their childhoods hoping that Mom or Dad will come for them in vain. I know this because I was one of those children and even today I almost never see my mother or my father." Ayame sadly continued with a single tear rolling down one cheek.
"That's awful. Am I going ta be one of those children?" Red asked.
"We are still checking several leads and if they don't pan out then you will most likely be listed as adoptable simply because we have no idea of where or even who your family may be. But the odds are against it." Ayame said with a sigh.
"What do ya mean the odds are against it?" Red suspiciously asked. "Do ya think that people won't like me or something?"
'It has nothing to do with that; it has to do with the view of the Japanese people. Most Japanese find the idea of adoption to be a strange idea and the idea of raising another's family member even more so. In fact most Japanese don't even think about the problems of orphans let alone realize there are children in need of adoption. I think it is a blind spot in our culture." Doctor Shin added.
"There are around thirty six thousand children in the system today but only about twelve percent of the ones that qualify for adoption will ever be adopted. The irony of this is that Japan is only second in adoption to the United States. The difference is that it is adults adopting adults. This is often done by business owners or those with financial empires that are disappointed in their birth heirs so they groom a replacement for their real children that meet their wants and desires. These replacements are often employees that are on the company fast track. After they are satisfied with their potential, they adopt them into the family as a replacement for their blood relation and add them to the family registry. Many famous corporations have done this such as Suzuki. So Japan now has one of the highest rates of adoption in the world while only a small portion of eligible children are ever adopted." Ayame finished.
"So you're sayin' that I may live out my childhood in an orphanage because the Japanese don't adopt children much. Is that what you're telling me?" Red asked as she tried to absorb the information she had just been given.
"Yes, at its core that is what I have been saying. The other problem is that it isn't in the best financial interest of the orphanages to have children adopted because they receive money from the government for each child they care for." Ayame replied.
"Oh, then I guess I will just have to live my life as I see fit and not rely on anyone else ta help me too much." Red sadly said.
"Don't give up hope for a good life. The orphanage will provide for your needs such as food or a bed. But as you know, there are many things that can happen in life and you do have friends that will stand by your side." Doctor Shin encouraged.
"I ain't givin' up hope. I am just not gonna expect nothing. Taking care of yourself is part of martial arts as well. This just means I have ta start younger than most." Red replied with grim determination in her voice. "But I still say this whole thing sucks!"
"You're right, it does." Ayame agreed. "So let's move onto other matters. Those of the tests you took. They were most surprising."
"How so?" Doctor Shin inquired.
"Well either she is a genius elementary school student or a fairly mediocre high school student." Akira said. "Since she is obviously a child, we have to assume that she is a genius."
"Me? I don't think so." Red stated.
"Whether you feel that way or not, your test scores indicate that we need to give serious thought to your schooling." Ayame said. "We need to make some calls and some pretty strong decisions about the best way to serve your needs. As such we won't have a decision for your housing or schooling needs until tomorrow."
"Oh." Red said with a slight pout shadowing her lips.
"Also, we are finishing following up some inquiries about your possible family origins. We will have the answers we need tomorrow." Ayame added.
"So we will need to return here on the next day to learn where she will be staying?" Doctor Shin asked.
"Yes, when you come back tomorrow we should better know where the best place for her will be." Ayame said as she stood up walked across the room and held to the door for them. "Have a nice meal little one and please try to stay out of any more trouble."
"Thanks! I plan ta, though trouble seems to find me without my seekin' it out." Red quietly replied as she started out the door with the icepack held to her eye as Doctor Shin followed a couple of steps behind and gave a small bow of farewell.
[Authors comments: Thanks for all the reviews. I appreciate and read every one of them. I wish to apologize for the slow release of this chapter. I was unhappy with the original chapter I had written so I chose to take the time to rewrite it before posting. All the best.]
