Chapter 28: "Bless All the Dear Children"

Knock Knock Knock

"Come in! Unless you've got more flowers—Ahhh-chooo!" Kanazawa Hiroto's deep voice murmurs under his breath about any further appearances his sworn enemy, pollen. After a long, albeit successful, night on the stage, the last thing the lead tenor needed was an allergy attack. But theaters and flowers seemed to go hand in hand. So that's why the sensation-causing operatic leading man and his leading lady had a dressing room that resembled a floral bowery. Kanayan didn't mind the occasional standing bouquet or two when he and his voluptuous co-star were showered in the pollen laden things, but enough was enough.

A man's got to put his foot down once in awhile!

"God bless you." Is Shimizu Keiichi's greeting to his former teacher turned operatic superstar.

"Why, thank you, Shimizu! Fuyuumi! Look at you two!" Kanayan pulls the young couple into the backstage room, after he had given the grip boy a note to deliver to the sleepy blond and his aqua-haired girlfriend in the front room earlier to come backstage.

"I would've thought that Kira'd have you hard at work for his concert into the wee hours—that slave driver!" Kanayan had been in contact with both his old best friend as well as Ousaki Shinobu, right here in Vienna, so he already was aware of the Seiso concert scheduled here.

"Kanazawa-sensei!" Fuyuumi smiles. "You were wonderful on stage."

"Why, thank you, Miss. Third year graduates now, huh? My, I can't get over how you've both grown! Cat! Look!" Spinning both of them around like dolls until they were rather dizzy, Kanayan turns his head to call to someone behind the changing screen.

"Must I be fully dressed, darling?" Caterina van Etten was decidedly a flirt.

"Yes, dear. My children have come for a visit." Kanayan always felt like his students were his own brood, especially the sleepy boy and this shy little girl.

"Kinderen?" In her thick Dutch accent, his buxom beauty suspiciously peers over the screen, pulling on her dressing gown with a little laugh when she sees who was there.

"Ah! Your Seiso children! Let's see who we have here...Cellist Keiichi Shimizu and clarinetist Shoko Fuyuumi. Am I correct, dearest?" Caterina says playfully, recalling the school photo album and the pictures her husband still kept in his wallet of his 'Seiso Family.'

"You are always right, my love." Kanayan kisses both of Caterina's hands to his lips.

"Shimizu, Fuyuumi," he then turns to the wide eyed girl and cloudy-eyed boy, "May I present you with Caterina van Etten—the leading lady of my life."

"Oh, Hiro! You're too much!" The long wavy-haired blonde Dutch woman plants a kiss on Kanayan's embarrassed lips. Though a normal occurance around here, somehow he felt shy to reveal his feelings in front of 'his Seiso children.' He wanted them to remember him as just old 'Kanayan' still.

Fuyuumi blushes at the tall curvaceous woman's open display of affection. She secretly wished she could do that to Shimizu.

Ahhh!

She wonders to herself what was she thinking as her face turns redder than ever.

"N-nice to meet you, Mademoiselle." Fuyuumi swallows her own erstwhile visions and remembers to greet in European address.

When Kanayan turns to find Shimizu napping, even on his feet, he gives the rude boy a ping on the forehead.

"Pleased to meet you, Kanazawa Okusan." Shimizu awakens from his sleepwalking slumber with salutations to the older woman accompanied by a reverent bow.

"'KanazawaOkusan?'" Caterina exchanges a surprised look with the lavender ponytailed man.

"Did you tell the children?" She asks the lavender man across from her, surprised.

"Not one word!" Kanayan protests, shaking his head vehemently, animated hands flying about to prove his innocence.

"Well, it would come out sooner or later anyway, Keiichi-kun." The western woman was picking up the Japanese language and knew how to address the pair, albeit on first name basis.

"Kanazawa-okusan means Kanazawa's wife, does it not? Mrs. Kanazawa. It is true. We are husband and wife. But how did you know? It has been kept it a secret for publicity sake." She asks the clear-eyed blond in amazement, thinking him some kind of genius or clairvoyant as she replaces the wedding band to her left hand that she had been removing each night, per their manager's request.

"I saw you on the stage. For 'Rigoletto,' didn't you have to get married after Act 2?" Kanayan and Caterina burst into laughter at the boy's innocence. But however he came to it, it was the truth.

Kanazawa Hiroto and Caterina van Etten were indeed husband and wife.

The happily married couple sits their two young visitors down for a long awaited chat over tea.

"So how are the rest of my brood holding up? Kira's not pushing you too hard, is he? Let me know and some heads will—" Kanayan was goodnaturedly teasing, not expecting the next answer.

"Yunoki-senpai is sick." Shimizu states honestly, not knowing how it would affect the older man so.

"What?! Yunoki? Is it just a cold or the flu that's been going around Vienna, or...?" The teacher in Kanayan was instantly worried for one of his oldest students who was never sick a day in his life when he was attending Seiso.

"The doctor says it's a nervous breakdown due to stress and malnutrition." Fuyuumi says sadly, pointing at the handsome young man's smiling face in the picture kept in the wallet of their former teacher that Caterina was still leafing through.

"Oh, dear, Hiro. This is terrible news. You must go and visit the boy." Caterina offers in understanding.

"Yes, yes. Right away. Will you be all right to face the press on your own?" Kanayan was already pulling on his hat and coat.

"Of course! I'll just tell them one of your 'children' has fallen ill. I'm sure they'll understand." She smiles understandingly with her lighthearted taunt. "Do not worry, I'll handle it just fine, my dearest. Now off with you. Stay the night with your students. I'm sure they need your support about now." She gives her husband an encouraging kiss on the cheek.

"It was so nice to finally meet you, Keiichi-chan, Shoko-chan." Caterina proudly remembers not just their names, but the correct Japanese honorifics as she gives the couple a farewell smile.

"You sing so very beautiful." Fuyuumi says in broken English to the woman as Caterina wraps a warmer cloak around the shivering girl to keep her comfy on their way across the Ringstrausse.

"Thank you, sweet child." She pats the little girl on the cheek as she then wraps a silken scarf around her husband's neck.

"I'll call you tonight." Kanayan kisses her goodbye quickly, then leads Shimizu and Fuyuumi out the back door, to avoid the waiting press, to catch the tram back to the Grand Hotel Wien, where their sick friend awaited.

"Vaarwel, mijn liefde." Caterina whispers her love's farewell to her beloved in her native Dutch tongue.


"Kanayan!" Hihara jumps up with a great start at the sudden appearance of their old teacher entering his and Yunoki's suite of rooms.

"Hihara! My same scapegrace as ever!" Kanayan gives his favorite ex-student a warm noogie, seeing from the wear lines on Hihara's face that the boy could sure use some care and extra kindness, too.

What has this darn world done to my 3B boys?

Kanayan regrets for a moment not sticking around to see his two favorite students find their way in the world. But Yunoki was always destined to travel beyond anyone's care.

"It's a good thing you're here for him, Hihara, when he needs us most. How is he?" Kanayan continues to put his arm around Hihara's shoulders—the happy young man with a big heart was truly almost like a son to him.

As Hihara leads him to Yunoki's bedroom, Kanayan sees girls crowding around the room—Hino, Amou, Shouji, Mori, Tsuchiura's friend Sakimoto, Yunoki's little sister, Miyabi, and that lovely dark haired lass keeping constant vigil at Yunoki's bedside must be the devoted fiancee that Kanayan had heard so much about.

With so many females loitering, it's just like the old days of that so-called Yunoki 'guard' traipsing about the boy at Seiso. Kanayan muses randomly.

"Kanazawa-sensei," Hino Kahoko whispers. And the mentally exhausted girl rushes to her beloved teacher's now dapper side, hugging him tightly as Kanayan envelops the redhead in his warm arms, soon joined by many of the other girls who longed for a fatherly presence in times of crisis, just the same.

"I'm here now, for all my kids." Kanayan pats Hino's back and rubs Hihara's head simultaneously as his eyes study Yunoki on the bed, a few feet away from the gaggle of past students and friends surrounding the operatic leading man.

His indigo hair was strewn all across his pillow, from his obvious tossing and turning, to restless unconsciousness. Playing on his lips was a pitiful frown that his heavily knit eyebrows mirrored.

He really was too thin. Kanazawa sadly notices the bones of Yunoki's clavicle and Adam's apple jutting out from his pallid skin beneath the white pajamas shirt, since the moment the former teacher came in.

Poor guy.

Kanayan shakes his head at how the most promising graduate of his own class had ended up a broken wreck like this, not even two years later. Kanayan knew of Yunoki's overbearing family issues and how they had continued to rule his life, even from his American business university, but he hadn't known it had gotten this bad.

"What did the doctor say?" Kanayan asks in low tones, like a concerned parent. "When will Yunoki be up and about again?"

"Nobody knows yet. The doctor's running some more initial tests. Yunoki-san mustn't leave this bed indefinitely, at least until his malnourished body is stronger." Mizue whispers, her vocational skills in much need tonight as she rejoins the group after attending to the physician's instructions. Shouji wraps a sympathetic arm about Miyabi's tense shoulders.

"That'll take more than a good night's rest. But...some of my famous chicken broth will surely do the trick! When he wakes up in the morning, I'll have it all prepared for him. As for the rest of you, figure out a tag team. Yunoki doesn't need all seven lovely ladies hovering over him at all hours of the night. Amou, you start. Sort it out. I'll be around in about an hour with my famed miracle cure chicken soup that can fix everything but a rainy day—and maybe even that!" Kanayan was 'teacher' in charge all over again—the level head these young people needed to guide them in times of trouble such as these.

Amou whips put her notepad and quickly draws up a schedule having each of the six girls getting about an hour of watch time. Amou had not chalked down Ayano to her list, all of them knowing full well that the loyal girl was determined to stick it out by her love's side tirelessly throughout the entire night no matter what any of them said. But at least someone else would be there to watch her watching him, if the fragile creature needed any aid.

"Okay." Kanayan agrees to the game plan. He too relinquishes that Ayano was an immovable fixture at his fiance's side. "But as for the rest of you—chop chop!" He quickly scurries the girls from the suite, into the hall where two by two, they disappear into their own rooms.

"Ring the next girl when it's her time, Amou, and then get to sleep yourself. I don't want you up all night or you'll end up like him, too." Kanayan pulls Amou's curly ponytail with a gentle, paternal air.

"Yes, Daddy." Amou says sarcastically, causing Kanayan's eyes to first bulge out, then melt into a soft smile.

"I'll be back soon with the soup. If you need me before that, I'll be in Kira's room—whichever one that is?"

"Executive Suite #601, Pops." Amou says with a teasing grin and a poke in the chest of her favorite old teach.

"Goodnight, then." Kanayan whispers with one final, saddened glance at Yunoki before he leaves, with a very guilty Hihara in tow.

"I've got a job for you, Hihara," Kanayan soon has a list written down of all the ingredients he required to make said nutritious, revitalizing soup, as he sends eager-to-help Hihara off to gather them from the hotel kitchen or local store on the avenue.

Since he didn't really expect an answer, without as much as a 'how-do-you-do?' Kanayan knocks on Kira's door and lets himself in with a spare pass key that Mori had accosted a hotel attendant into giving her with her most convincing eyes. After all, Amou had informed him that the Director and Tsuzuki-san were staying at the home of one of the Vienna Opera House's trustees upon invitation.

"Not too shabby at all..." Kanayan had been in many fancy a hotel room before, but this one was something else. From the terrace to the fancy rugs, Victorian gold decor and plush white curtains, the Grand Hotel Wien was a cut above all the others.

Kanayan makes himself at home, fixing himself a brew in the well-equipped dinette of the Grand Hotel's posh executive suite.

Putting his feet up on the super polished marble coffee table, he sips the coffee whilst awaiting Hihara's delivery. Though worry for Yunoki was preying on his mind, you couldn't tell from the calm demeanor of the equally polished leading man, who looked more at this moment like a handsome king considering his subjects as he flips out the photo a certain reporter girl snapped of the happy group of students, in youthful days of Seiso Concours gone by...

We'll get you whole again, old chap. Kanayan's gaze finally lands on his most needy of children who required him to be their guardian once again, to be a blessing to them...

Heavy is the head that wears the crown...