Choices:
By: Haruka S. Knight
Chapter Ten: Progress
Flashback:
Little Haruka Tenoh did not have a bad life, she lived in a mansion with her Grandma, Father, and brother. Her mother had fallen sick and died when Haruka was so small she hardly remembered her. Her entire life took place here on the grounds of the Tenoh estate, her friends for the first several years consisted only of her brother and the staff members. At the time, Haruka was not aware that was any different for anyone her age. In the morning, now that she was a little older, a private tutor would arrive to teach the young Tenoh how to read, write, do basic math, and other early lessons that her education would later build on. In the afternoons her Grandma, often with Ichiro's assistance, would take her to outdoor portions of the estate to play catch, basketball, or when the little girl felt like it they'd let her run laps and time her. Haruka always loved proving she could go faster than she had the week before. Maiko often said her granddaughter was born with boundless energy, though young Haruka had no idea what that meant at the time. Evenings Haruka spent learning checkers and chess from her brother, reading history or mystery with her Father, watching baseball on TV with her Grandma, or sometimes learning to play the old grand piano.
"How do the players get so good, Grandma?" Haruka asked, and Maiko affectionately hugged the girl sitting on her lap.
"They spend years playing before they become professionals, my dear."
"How?" Haruka's teal eyes watched as the batter on the screen struck out, and heard the commentator say the pitch had been a 152 kph fast ball.
"They play in college, and high school, and many even played in little leagues." Maiko informed her, before tickling the girl. "Now, quiet down so we can listen to the commentator, little one."
Haruka was a curious child, it was what led to her piano lessons, her chess games with Hiroshi, and to her father teaching her about history. She didn't want to just know things were, she wanted to know why they were. When she wanted to run faster her Father got a book about running, and he'd help her read and understand it. When she'd fiddled with the piano, and asked Ichiro how to play it someone had been found to give Haruka weekly lessons. When she watched her brother and Father play chess, and asked why one piece moved differently than another, her brother took it on himself to teach her the game. Now that Haruka wanted to know more about baseball, she decided she needed to find a little league. If that was where the big players started, Haruka wanted to learn what they learned.
One Saturday morning the entire Tenoh estate was turned upside down. The youngest Tenoh, seven-year-old Haruka, was missing and no one could say they had seen her after breakfast. In her restroom, all the family members had their own, they found golden locks of hair scattered about the floor and a previously missing set of crafting scissors. A search of the mansion showed that her bicycle was also missing. That fact did nothing to ease the panic of nearly every adult in the mansion. Her family and staff split up, some walking and others driving, as they began to search the streets for the girl. It was Yoshi who finally located his daughter, at a park just outside their neighborhood, playing baseball with a group of boys about her age. Her blonde hair was messily cut and Haruka wore the clothes she wore when she played outside. Yoshi smiled, taking out his pipe and lighting it as he watched his daughter round the bases.
"Excuse me?" A man wearing a jacket with coach embroidered on it approached Yoshi. They exchanged a polite greeting, before the coach pointed at Haruka who was now waiting at second base for a chance to run. "Is he your son?"
"That's my child, yes." Yoshi answered cryptically but cheerfully, wondering what his daughter had been up to. "Loves baseball but has never had the chance to actually play it."
"Wow, he's honestly very good." The man offered a genuine smile. "In fact, if it's alright with you, we'd love if he could join our team."
When Yoshi brought Haruka home and hour later, Hiroshi had a small fit as he scolded his baby sister for her disappearance. Haruka looked at the floor, as her father and Ichiro ensured all those looking for her were informed Haruka was safely home. Maiko waited for her older grandchild to run out of steam, before eyeing her granddaughter.
"What have you done to your hair?" Maiko asked, ruffling the very uneven blonde hair.
"The person on the phone said only boys can play on the team." Haruka admitted, still afraid to look up at anyone. "I thought if I cut my hair they'd think I was a boy and they'd let me play too."
"Team?" Maiko asked, moving her eyes to her son as Yoshi returned to stand behind his daughter. He rested his hands on her little shoulders and offered his mother an amused smile.
"This kid decided she wanted to play little league." Yoshi informed them and Hiroshi groaned off to the side. "She called some sports store, who told her to call a community center. Then she got the address and times when teams were being selected and used a map to figure out which way to go."
"Who taught you to read a map?" Hiroshi asked incredulously.
"Dad." Haruka said matter-of-factly, causing her brother to cover his face with his hands and mumble about something no one caught.
"Well, was it worth scaring everyone in the mansion?" Maiko asked, giving the girl a stern look and crossing her arms. Teal eyes finally lifted to look at the Tenoh matriarch.
"They said I can join the team." She offered and bit her lip at the scrutinizing look her grandmother was now giving her. "I really wanna play."
"You can't play on a boys' team!" Hiroshi chimed in drily. "Plus, you ran away, you're grounded."
"That is not your decision, young man." Maiko informed her grandson who sort of rocked in place as he swung his eyes to look at his Grandmother.
"But she can't, and I mean, what else do you do when a kid runs away?" Hiroshi backed away a bit when his grandmother glared at him.
"Hiroshi, leave the room and close the door." Maiko pointed to the door of the study they stood in. The boy muttered a clearly offended affirmative and left the room. Now Haruka was alone with her Father and Grandmother. "Haruka, your brother is correct that girls are not allowed to play on a boys' team."
"They don't know I'm a girl." Haruka said softly and received a questioning look. She didn't realize it, but she pouted, wringing her hands in front of her as she begged. "Please Grandma! I really wanna learn to play and it was so fun! Please!"
"Yoshi?" Maiko looked up at her son, and something in his expression told her his mind had already been made up. She sighed, again reaching out to finger the terrible hair cut Haruka had given herself. "If I'm to have two grandsons I demand we get you a proper haircut. You will never cut your own hair again."
Haruka practically launched forward to hug her Grandmother about the waist. At the time, her head basically came to Maiko's stomach. Maiko returned the hug though she shook her head at Yoshi. Hiroshi was waiting in the hall when Haruka emerged and he asked what happened. When she told him the boy looked shocked and resigned. He muttered a prayer to Kami before telling Haruka the next time he got in trouble he was blaming her, because he said somehow, she never really got in trouble. Haruka looked at him full of innocence and just started asking a bunch of questions about how boys were supposed to act.
End of flashback
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"That's how the male Haruka conspiracy started." Haruka finished explaining and felt Michiru squeeze the hand she held. They sat on the edge of Michiru's guest bed as they spoke quietly. "It's less a true conspiracy then it was my Father and Grandma trying to let me do what made me happy. As I got older, I got involved in more activities, and I always just joined the male teams or competed in the male divisions."
"Did you ever tell anyone?" Michiru's voice was filled with gentle curiosity.
"I never really needed to, even once I convinced Grandma to let me attend school my enrollment had the incorrect gender, so I didn't risk my teams finding out." She shrugged and huffed a half-hearted laugh. "Honestly, I was happy when I no longer had to pull out dresses to wear or keep my hair long. I always just felt comfortable and at home as I am."
"Oh, you have issues with dresses and long hair?" Michiru asked teasingly and the blonde turned those teal eyes to regard her again. A genuine smile came to her lips as she eyed the other young woman.
"They look absolutely gorgeous on you, Michiru." The blonde tilted her head. "I have just never liked them on me."
"That is completely fine." Michiru smiled brightly at her. "You look dashing as you are."
"I wish Hiro agreed with you." The blonde sobered with a sigh, her mind coming back to her family. "I found out in high school that aside from my Father, and Ichiro, everyone had been assuming I would grow out of this act one day. When I started participating in semi-pro motorcycle racing my Grandmother was livid for months. Things with Hiro had been getting worse since probably around my junior high years."
"Your Grandmother seems proud of you now."
"You aren't wrong, though she once told me that even if she hated my career, she respected how dedicated I was. Until your family arrived to visit, I had no idea she'd been keeping tabs on my win/loss records." Haruka laughed softly. "I mean, she loves sports, but she never seemed to consider racing a sport. She once told me we were all just overgrown children with shiny toys waiting to die on the track."
"That's terrible." The violin player sounded appalled but somehow the blonde seemed amused.
"She was angry that I refused to go to college at the time. My Father was entirely accepting of my life choices, but Grandma had always been clear that she expected Hiroshi and I to pursue educations which could uphold the family name."
"That sounds so familiar."
"Hiroshi wanted to be an artist." Haruka told her slowly. "His last few years of high school they argued constantly. He had his eyes on a specific art school, one in America, and knew exactly what he wanted to do after graduation. He had an outline written for a series of graphic novels he was hoping to sell to an American comic company."
"Was he any good?" Michiru asked this, trying not to sound skeptical. The young doctor she had met seemed so grounded, tired, and angry it was hard to imagine him as an artist. The blonde fished out her phone, opening an image app and then passing it to the other woman. Michiru slowly shifted through the images, noting Hiroshi's signature on each. Detailed scenes depicting what appeared to be comic book battles, or figures in costumes a superhero would wear. Other images were filled with vibrant backgrounds, detailed depictions of rooms and landscapes.
"What do you think?" Haruka whispered into her ear. Michiru's blue eyes remained on the images displayed by the phone.
"I think, she should have allowed him to go to art school." She told the blonde. "I am not a comic artist, but I can clearly see the talent in these. Does he still draw?"
"Rarely. He posts these on a website, people can pay to download them. He still uses the same pseudonym he did back in high school, I follow him from an account with an alias." Haruka saw the next question coming and answered before it could be spoken. "When I left home, he blocked my old account, I created a new one and I buy digital copies of everything he posts. It's been less and less frequent as time goes."
"Why didn't he just leave?" She asked.
"The same reason you came here with your parents."
"Family duty and trying to keep the peace?" Michiru sighed and returned the phone. "Am I correct to assume the Great Tenoh conspiracy did not extend to allowing you to have a girlfriend?"
"Never tried when I lived here. Honestly, I was so busy with school, sports, and racing I didn't have time for it. I'd flirt, but that was it. Hiroshi found out I was a lesbian and made it very clear what he thought of that, he even went so far as telling our Grandmother and Father." Haruka shifted uncomfortably. "Grandma basically refused to acknowledge or accept it, and later she made a few comments that I'd never settle down."
"And your Father?"
"He wrote me an exceptionally long letter. He accepted it, though he advised me to be careful around Grandma. He actually said he was proud of me." Haruka sighed. "I miss him. I haven't felt comfortable in this house since long before I left, but Father would always try to make me feel at home when I would come by."
"If you aren't comfortable with this." Michiru used a hand to indicate the two of them and Haruka jerked slightly in place. She caught one of Michiru's hands, dropping a gentle kiss on it.
"Michiru, I am very comfortable with you." They shared a smile. "And I'm looking forward to when we can both leave this house and . . ."
"Not be haunted by family demands and memories?" Michiru suggested and the blonde nodded her agreement.
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"Haruka-san, what do you have planned today?" Suguru smiled kindly at the blonde across the breakfast table. The blonde took a sip of her water, before giving her full attention to Michiru's father.
"I was hoping to go out to the track for a few hours today." Haruka shifted her eyes over toward her Grandmother who offered her a small, approving, nod.
"I would greatly enjoy seeing what a day in the world of a professional racer is like." Suguru said this with enthusiasm that was not mirrored on his wife's face.
"That sounds like an excellent idea." Maiko Tenoh said, and Hiroshi nearly choked on his coffee. The young doctor had appeared at the breakfast table looking slightly ill this morning and had not spoken since exchanging a few greetings. He looked up with slightly bloodshot eyes, but whatever he was thinking he did not dare say it. "I'm sure Haruka can find a way to accommodate you."
"Only if it isn't an imposition." Saki said, sounding like she was hoping to find a way out of her husband's idea.
"It won't be a problem, will it?" That question came from Michiru and the blonde turned to look at the beautiful woman seated next to her. Michiru smiled at Haruka and the race driver couldn't fight a smile of her own.
"It won't be a problem; I'll make a call after breakfast." She turned her teal eyes back to Suguru. "In fact, I could probably get cleared to let you take a spin around the track."
"Don't you dare." Saki told her husband who was clearly considering that offer.
"Thank you." Michiru whispered when conversation seemed to have turned to other things.
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Saki wrinkled her nose at the smell created by the high-octane fuels used by the various vehicles. Today was reserved for the team Haruka was signed to, so it was only the blonde, her teammates, and the various members of their pit crews. Haruka, and an American man named Green whom Michiru was already familiar with, led the Kaiou family about on a tour. Haruka's crew chief greeted them all cordially and spoke proudly of the driver he maintained the cars of. They watched Green's practice from near the maintenance pit, wearing borrowed safety gear and jumpsuits. Saki had a firm dislike of the jumpsuits, but they protected the clothes they each wore underneath. The speaker built into the earmuffs they wore to protect their hearing crackled as people spoke, allowing the visitors a rare window into their world.
"Bring it in Green, it's Tenoh's turn!" The crew chief said and there was a static ridden reply. The powerful car began to slow, using a full lap to slow before pulling into another pit area where Green's crew descended on it.
"What are they doing?" Suguru asked and Haruka's crew chief offered him a smile.
"They're doing some checks, getting feedback from their driver, and prepping his vehicle for the autoshop. They'll make needed adjustments based on how it performed during practice." The man explained as Haruka literally slipped into her vehicle through the window hole on the driver's side. The chief saw that the entire family watched the young racer do so with varying expressions. "They don't have doors."
"Why don't they have doors?" Saki asked before squinting.
"In an accident a door can fly off or be disabled, their basically pointless on a race car." He explained.
"So, in an accident they climb out the window!?" Saki sounded appalled but the man shrugged.
"Or we pull them out the window. Really depends on the crash. Sometimes they're able to drive back to the pit and get out here." He turned his eyes to the car as Haruka finished snapping the netting the covered her window in place. They were suddenly reminded Haruka also heard the channel in her helmet when the chief spoke to the blonde racer. "You good, Tenoh?"
"Ready." Haruka responded, adding a thumbs up before returning her full attention to the vehicle. A couple mechanics jumped the wall out of the pit, clearing the Jersy barriers with practiced ease. The car gave a growl everyone in the pit could practically feel in their bones as it prowled smoothly out of the pit and to the starting line. Green joined them, having traded his helmet for a headset and dabbing sweat from his face, just as the starting lights began to change.
"You'll enjoy this." The American told them over the headsets.
"We just observed you do the same." Saki commented, still not impressed with their trip today.
"I can't hold a candle to Tenoh, this seems to be in his blood." Green said. The conversation died as the car revved, and when the light flashed green it basically launched from the line. With no one else on the track Haruka was free to push the vehicle, to focus on only her vehicle and the track itself. The three Kaious needed no explanation to see that Haruka's run was already much faster than Green's had been. Haruka's turns were so smooth it was as if the vehicle was flying instead of driving, and the whine of the engine echoed around the track.
"How fast is he going?" Suguru asked, with out really thinking. The crew chief looked at a laptop another person was manning.
"He just passed 328 kilometers per hour." The crew chief said into his own comm. "How does it feel, Tenoh?"
"Beautiful." Haruka's one-word response came as he blasted past the starting line again.
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"So how fast can those vehicles go, Haruka-san?" Suguru asked over dinner that night. Hiroshi silently ignored the conversation and Saki still seemed ill at ease with the idea of any vehicle moving that quickly.
"An American driver named Rusty Wallace holds the record." Haruka told him as she thought about it. "A few years ago, he got just over 348 kilometers an hour on the track in Talladega."
"Were you aware there are an average of six crashes per race." This was the first thing Hiroshi had said to anyone since they returned from their day at the track. The young doctor looked at Haruka with anger clear on his face. "Haru, you were in a crash last year, weren't you?"
"My car has been hit a few times." Haruka admitted, though the blonde did not sound at all worried. "Mostly small incidents, I can normally compensate for those with out even leaving the track."
"But last year you wrecked." Hiroshi pushed and the younger Tenoh grimaced.
"Yes, though I wasn't seriously injured my car was out of the race after that." The blonde admitted but apparently the elder Tenoh wasn't done.
"And how did you leave the track that day, Haru-kun?" Hiroshi used a very condescending tone as he asked this.
"Hiroshi." Maiko's tone was dangerous as she spoke to her elder grandchild. "Do you have something to actually say, or are you in the mood for childish games tonight?"
"HE is going to get himself killed one day!" Hiroshi stressed the word 'he' as the doctor pushed to his feet. "Haruka was pulled from his car by track personnel, carried away from his burning car on a stretcher, and taken to the hospital in an ambulance." After saying that Hiroshi stormed out of the room, leaving a moment of complete silence behind himself.
"How long were you in the hospital?" Michiru asked, reaching over to rest a hand on Haruka's arm.
"Not long, they mostly took me as a mandatory safety precaution. The crash was very high speed, and I was conscious after but a little disoriented. The men who helped pull me out have to do so to ensure drivers aren't left in a vehicle if it catches fire." When the blonde admitted that Saki blanched where she sat. "I had some x-rays and got checked out, no breaks, no fractures, no concussion, just a good amount of bruising. I was released the same night."
"That was quite lucky." Saki commented with a stern look toward her husband. Only Michiru fully knew why her Father received that look.
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Haruka groaned, a pillow over her head as she lay on her bed after dinner. Michiru, looking about the blonde's room and inspecting the items she found, giggled. The blonde muttered into the pillow, and while the blonde's words were completely destroyed by the plush object the violin player could understand the tone.
"It wasn't so bad." The graceful young woman told her in a comforting manner. Blue eyes were currently inspecting a framed team photo, a younger Haruka stood among her teammates in a dark blue baseball uniform and white pants. "My Father was very impressed at the track."
"I am certain your Mother hates me." Haruka said, finally having taken the pillow from her face. Michiru turned and watched Haruka, who was still prone across the bed as if she'd been thrown there by some superior force.
"She hates your career; she doesn't even know you." She reminded, walking over, and coming to sit at the edge of the bed near Haruka's side. The blonde sighed and teal eyes slipped shut when Michiru started finger combing her hair. "Given time she might see passed that."
"And if she doesn't?" The blonde asked. Haruka kept her eyes shut, but she felt Michiru lean forward until she was able to gently kiss her forehead.
"Then we resort to plan B." The violin player reminded her; a slow smirk began to spread over Haruka's lips.
"That's the plan where we just run away together into the night, isn't it?"
"Yes." Michiru said and giggled at the almost blissful look that caused.
"I like that plan. It's a wonderful plan."
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Notes:
Haruka's speed at the track was approximately 204 miles per hour, which was based off info about NASCAR. Speeds above 200 miles per hour happen frequently.
According to a quick search the current top speed record for NASCAR is 216.309 miles per hour (348.116 km/h) set at Talladega track on June 9, 2004. I didn't find an updated one after that, but this story would be set roughly in 2007 when it was first written.