Chapter 26

Kakorrhaphiophobia

Some couples are really strange. Sometimes, when two people first get together and others find out about it, no one can imagine how those two will interact together. Kenichi and Miu were not a difficult couple to imagine; their temperaments were quite similar and they each had a gentle air around them most of the time.

One couple that was trippy could be that of Haruo Niijima and Yuka Niijima, formerly Yuka Izumi.

Yuka and Haruo Niijima were about as different as two people could be; Yuka was gentle and awkward while Haruo was flamboyant, nosy, noisy, and most definitely shameless. Their love and marriage was a subtle thing that wasn't immediately apparent to anyone, not even the parties involved.

When their son died, Haruo Niijima was at his most vulnerable. If someone so much as mentioned what happened to Midori, he broke. Yuka was distraught, as well, but she was more accustomed to vulnerability. It was in dire times like those that they most needed to pay off of each others' strengths in order to persevere.

Two years had passed since the death of Midori Niijima, and now their lives fell into a rhythmic tempo in which their contrasting personalities did not conflict.

In the morning, Haruo woke up early (as was his habit)- before dawn, when it was still dark outside and before anyone else, including his wife, was awake.

After getting dressed, he quietly (in an attempt to not wake Yuka) picked up his laptop and reading glasses from the bedside table and slipped the latter into his breast pocket; he then tiptoed downstairs and made breakfast for the two of them.

To the smell of breakfast rose Yuka. She yawned and stretched, quickly rising and dressing modestly. Yuka was now a housewife and had many duties, but (although it was a rare thing in Japan) cooking was not one of them. Not because she could not but because Haruo was generally better at it.

She slipped on her glasses and quickly braided her hair again, the same way she had in her high school days. The same braids her husband once complimented with ardor.

Yuka descended the stairs and quickly made tea for Haruo (which she was monumentally better than him at). Haruo scanned the news on his laptop while they both ate in near-silence. In fact, they each basically ignore each other until the meal is almost complete.

"I fixed the garden yesterday," she interrupted the mute.

"What was even wrong with it?" Haruo asked distractedly.

"I pruned the rosemary down! It was getting out of control," Yuka pointed out indignantly. For some reason Haruo brought out the sharp side of her as opposed to her typically mild and timid mannerisms.

"Oh. That's nice," Haruo said, sipping his tea. "I'll take a look later."

"Thank you! I worked very hard on that!" she beamed to herself with pride. The rest of the meal is spent in silence. Then Haruo stood, taking his dishes with him to the sink, and closed his laptop.

"I'm going to the study to work on the article," He said. Haruo Niijima was a the best journalist for the local newspaper and tended to work at home. "Tell me when you're hungry."

"Of course," she smiled at him. Haruo hesitated before going to his study.

"I'll see you later," he said, quickly giving her a peck on the cheek.

"Yeah," Yuka said, pulling him down for a proper inter-spouse kiss. The Niijimas then went on their way.

Ryuto sighed.

He'd sighed a great many times in the past week or so, and it was fairly obvious what the reason for his distracted nature was. The potential betrothal between Miu Fuurinji and Kenichi Shirahama was a maddening concept that had his mind considerably boggled.

"Why are you worrying about that anyways?" Rimi pouted. "I mean, sure you're worried about their future or whatever, but isn't this going a little too far?"

"Rimi, what ever do you mean?" Ryuto asked in annoyance. He'd grown accustomed to her idiolect, but he was definitely not in the mood to deal with it right now.

"Well, it is true, Asamiya-sensei," Katsuo whiped sweat from his forehead as he trained. "You are fretting an awful lot about their betrothal. Everyone else thinks it's a fabulous idea, but you don't seem to agree."

"You even went to complain about it to Miu!" Rimi crossed her arms. She held a considerable grudge against her since the incident of her near death at Miu's hand, but she'd matured just as a considerably and now only held her in contempt because of Ryuto's suspected affection towards her.

"I wasn't complaining," he said simply, walking over to the window. "I was alerting her of my concerns. Surely I'm allowed?" Ryuto said the last bit sarcastically.

"I didn't mean anything like that," Rimi sniffed. "I just don't think it's very appropriate for you to even be have concerns. I mean, it's not like you like her anymore."

"I respect her now just as much as I did in the past," Ryuto reminded her. "I don't understand why you're making such a big fuss about this. Let me worry on my own, Rimi. It has nothing to do with you."

"How can you say that? This has everything to do with me!" Rimi whined.

"Don't you think that's a big egocentric?" Katsuo pointed out.

"Of course not!" Rimi scoffed. "I am perfectly within my rights!"

"You're both irritating me," Ryuto said, uncharacteristically cranky. "Rimi, I'm going to tell you to do something that doesn't sound very friendly, but I assure you, in fact, is. Leave me alone. Katsuo, you are invited to join her."

"Yes, master," Katsuo bowed quickly and speedily vacated the premises.

Rimi stomped once in childish frustration and left as gracefully as befitted the speed-oriented martial arts master.

Ryuto rubbed his temples. They couldn't understand. He wasn't unreasonably obsessed, like Katsuo thought. He also wasn't in love with Miu, as Rimi thought (nor was he in love with Kenichi, as many, many people thought).

Ryuto felt responsible for them both. Ryuto, Kenichi, and Miu all shared a memorable past. No matter how minute the connection might seem to them, the experience had shaped the very way Ryuto grew up. His entire being was formed by that one detail.

Kenichi and Miu made his life. He felt like it was his duty to ensure they were making the best decisions they could.

"I'm getting old," he realized out loud to himself with a small smile. "The times have changed. I can't pretend to be an apathetic outsider this time. But Katsuo was right. It's not very much my business anyways."

Ken-chan isn't a complete idiot, Ryuto thought to himself. He and Miu can make decisions on their own.

"Apachai! Shigure! I'm here!" Honoka said as she knocked on the dojo doors. She wasn't completely weak, and by now she was strong enough to just barely push the door open an inch. After all, she did go to Ryouzanpaku frequently.

"Apa! Honoka is here!" Apachai repeated, holding the door open for her to enter.

"Welcome... Honoka," Shigure greeted her from above her on the wall.

"Hi, guys!" Honoka grinned and bobbed in. She truly matched the women of Ryouzanpaku; headstrong, beautiful, and well-endowed. "Apachai, wanna play Othello? We haven't played in months!"

"Yes! Yes! Apachai is ready!" in a flash, the bronze behemoth ran to fetch his Othello board and was back before Honoka had finished blinking. She was already used to such behavior and took it in stride.

"May the... best player win," Shigure bid them well.

"You bet!" Honoka laughed deviously as she predicted her inevitable long-standing victory. "You know, Kenichi hardly ever plays with me!"

"Well, you know he's a busy man, Honoka," Miu reminded her from the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah," Honoka pouted. "But I still need my big brother to play with me! Ken-chan and Nacchan are always leaving me!"

"Tanimoto is occupied as it is with Ma Kenichi," Akisame said. "That child is very lazy, so it takes all of his attention."

"What do you need people to play with ya for, anyways?" Sakaki snapped. "Don't you have a job? You know you're almost 30 years old, right?"

"I am still in my twenties, I'll have you know!" she stuck her tongue out. "And you're one to talk, Scar-face! You don't work! All you do is take Apachai to the horse races!"

"At least I make money, you leech!" he roared his retort.

"Now, now," Akisame pacified them. "There's no need to argue. Honoka is still young and finding her way. Although it's true that people without a legitimate job also shouldn't criticize people like her."

"Too true! You're not getting any younger either, Sakaki!" Ma Kensei cackled. "You and Apachai and Shigure don't have jobs! It's only poor Akisame and me supporting all of Ryouzanpaku!"

"Why don't you get on Miu's case, eh? She's unemployed, too!" Sakaki snapped, pointing at her.

"Eh?" Miu blinked. She'd never thought of herself as unemployed. It was true that she never got paid for her services, but she technically did have a job, right? Was she just a burden on the dojo?

"Yeah, but Miu's gonna be a housewife soon! She doesn't need a job with Kenichi supporting her!" Honoka said loudly.

"Honoka! Sssshhh!" most of the masters stared at her with wide eyes. She'd practically given away the fact that Kenichi was going to propose to her!

"Whoops," Honoka whispered.

"It's kind of too late for that, stupid brat," Sakaki growled. The five masters turned to look at Miu to gauge her reaction to the news.

"What was that, Honoka? I'm afraid I couldn't hear you!" Miu lied. The masters relaxed. They couldn't see her face, but she was blushing furiously. What did Honoka mean by that? A housewife? At first, Miu thought it was just playful teasing. However, the masters' powerful reaction made her think that it was an actual future possibility.

So that's why Kenichi has been running around recently, Miu put the pieces together in her mind. Her face grew bright red when she recalled Kenichi holding a plastic bag holding something obviously expensive. Could that have been the ring?

She shook her head. Nothing was confirmed yet. Whatever it was that was going on, Miu would surely find out soon enough.

"Actually, where is Kenichi?" Akisame noted, looking up from his stone carving.

"What do you mean? Isn't he around the dojo somewhere?" Ma Kensei asked, looking up from his magazine. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him all morning either!"

"Apachai no see Kenichi either!" he bellowed.

"Me... neither," Shigure agreed.

"He got up really early in the morning," Sakaki coughed into his hand. "Didn't say where he was going. Just said he had someplace to go. Mentioned something about missing dinner. I think he looked pretty stressed out, but I can't think of what."

"He got up really early, went someplace alone, and look stressed, you say?" Ma Kensei yelped.

"What is it, Kensei? Do you know where he went?" Akisame asked mildly.

"No, not really," he muttered. "But I do think I know what he's going to do next."

"You don't mean-?"

"It's... today?" Shigure asked with interest.

"I think so," Kensei nodded. "Let us all bow our heads and pray that Ken-chan will be alright."

When Tanimoto returned to his home that evening, there was a number of things he expected to find. A messy house was one of them. An utter lack of edible food was another. For his disciple, Ma Kenichi, to be fast asleep on the couch was yet another.

There was also a number of things he wasn't expecting but also wouldn't have been surprised to find. The most notable one was Honoka Shirahama, who was still to this day obsessed with coming over to his house and doing him inconvenient favors. Another might be for Ma Kenichi to be absent from the house and off philandering with his would-be girlfriend.

One thing he absolutely could not account for, though, was the presence of his rival and friend, Kenichi Shirahama, History's Strongest Disciple.

And it was History's Strongest Disciple that he found huddled on his couch, sipping tea, looking like he was about to cry.

"Shirahama," Tanimoto said, barely containing his annoyance. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hello, Natsu," Kenichi said with a forced smile. "How's your day been going?"

"It's getting worse and worse by the minute," he answered flatly. "My question still stands: What in the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, you know how you wake up one morning after a really vivid dream?" Kenichi started. "And that dream kind of revealed the answer to the universe to you, and now you know the secrets to love and happiness? But then within the next few seconds of waking up, you forget everything except one little thing, and all of a sudden you know what the rest of your day is gonna be about."

"I honestly don't know or care what your talking about," he sighed. "But if it'll get you out of my house sooner, just say whatever it is you're blathering about."

"Yes, well," Kenichi ignored his comment. "I experienced something like that this morning. It was like, whoosh! Epiphany! And all of a sudden I knew the secret to my happiness. And, as you may know, I realized that all I really wanted was to be united with Miu forever. That's the best happiness I could ever imagine."

"Great. You came here to tell me that you realized something I already know," Tanimoto said sarcastically.

"That's not all, though," he went on. "You see, it wasn't just about the realization! It was about the timing of the realization. Why a dream? Why in the morning?"

"Maybe because it's been on your mind for a long time?" Tanimoto mumbled.

"Maybe, but I don't think so," Kenichi shook his head. "I think it means that I have to do something about my happiness today. I think it was a sign that whatever step towards happiness I'm going to make has to start today. After all, what have I been waiting for? Everything's ready! I've been preparing for this day almost a month now."

"It almost makes you wonder why you're wasting time at my house," Tanimoto interjected.

"But then I realized what it was I was missing," Kenichi said, standing up slowly. "What I'm missing is courage. Because, you know what? I'm scared. I'm scared of being rejected, even though I trust Miu with my heart as much as I can trust her with my life. I'm scared of failing, even though I've made so many mistakes in the past that I can't expect to repeat one now. But most of all, I'm scared that even through the trust Miu has for me, even through the determination and love we have, I won't be enough. I'm afraid I won't be able to protect her."

"You're long monologue is depressing and annoying," Tanimoto snapped. Kenichi blinked in surprise. "Listen, Ken-chan. I'm going to tell you something that sounds friendly, but I'm really just saying it so you'll get the fuck out of my house. Everyone knows you're going to marry Miu one day. Everyone knows you're one of the strongest people in the world; in fact, you're just about as strong as me. She won't reject you, and you'll be able to protect her. It's a simple as that."

"Nacchan..." Kenichi looked at him with wide, tearing eyes. "I'm touched."

"Do you feel better now?" Tanimoto said slowly.

"Yes, I do, actually-"

"Then get out of my house," Tanimoto pointed to the door.

"Sure thing, buddy," Kenichi hopped out with a smile. "Thanks for everything."

"Shut up."