Warning: Language
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Disclaimer: Fanfiction for a reason.
Nanami sat on her legs leaning against the table I had pushed off of in front of the TV. I didn't need to turn around to figure out that she was staring holes into the back of my head.
I nailed the calendar up on the wall beside the apartment door and once I finished I spun around with a flourish to face Nanami.
I tapped the calendar with my chipped nail. "This is our new calendar-"
"That says last years date though. It can't be new."
Snapping my mouth shut I glared at Nanami. "So rude, interrupting people, gosh." I rolled my eyes before huffing. "Anyways, this will be our calendar. Replace the year automatically in your mind. Think of it as brain training." I said waving my hand. Turning back to the calendar, I flipped the pages to the current month. I pinned that page up and pointed to the date. "Today is Saturday. Because we can't afford to go to school, I'll still be your teacher." I ignored her groan in favor of tapping Monday. "Monday will not have school because I said so and lessons will start on Tuesdays. Friday will be no school but there is either a quiz or a test on Friday's only."
Nanami sighed in relief and slumped over. "What a relief." I could tell she wasn't really happy about the quiz or test part but wisely kept her mouth shut.
I smiled then. "Monday's instead will be used to calculate the money we earn in total. I have a notebook designated for the sole purpose of keeping up with our spending and earning." I pointed to the yellow and black notebook sitting on the kitchen counter. "Sensei was kind enough to provide us with a month's worth of food but he isn't rich enough to do this regularly." I bit my lip then debating on rather or not I should say the next part. After a small pause, I decided to continue. "Mom's not here anymore, Dad is not making yen enough to sustain us, we live in a bad neighborhood, and the Landlady is a total bitch...however, we are both very strong and smart young ladies so earning money and surviving won't be too hard." I finished; the last part is more so for myself rather than Nanami.
From the look I relieved afterward I'm pretty sure Nanami thought the same also.
It was true. While Sensei is more well off than the average person he still had his dojo, house, and Ein to care for. It wouldn't be fair and a total overkill to expect him to take care of the apartment and us too. That'll just push him into a financial crisis like us. Then we'd both be screwed, more so than before. Plus there is no way I'd ask Sensei for anything more than he already gives us.
Especially not with Ein always attached to his hip. A mosquito that needed to be squished, a pesky bug, a leech. I'd rather take a swim in deep, freezing water before I'd ask for anything in front of her.
I learned my lesson after the first time.
Nanami shifted in her spot. "There won't be a test this Friday will it sis?" Nanami asked nervously.
"Of course there will be."
She whined pitifully before straightening her body. She leaned forward with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Can you tell me what's going to be on the test or what the tested subject is."
I nodded my head. "You will be tested on your Kanji and some vocabulary words."
Nanami relaxed in her seat and smiled confidently. While she may lack in her social studies and mathematics, her Japanese is up to par. She caught onto things much quicker than I did during my time learning Japanese.
I smirked then. "The test will have twenty written responses and five multiple choice questions."
Nanami exclaimed in shock and I laughed my most villainousness laugh I could muster.
It's a calm Sunday evening. The curtains were opened to allow sunlight into the apartment and the window pushed up to let in semi-fresh air. The cool breath flowing into the small living space was a nice contrast to the heat. The occasional sounds of traffic and people drifted through the open window. Nanami sat across from me at the table sipping her tea to savor it. It was earl-grey tea, a recent gift from Sensei and I had to admit; the smell accompanied by the taste was amazing. We had the futons rolled up and pushed into a corner. All the lights in the apartment were turned off in favor of saving on the electric bill. The TV usually provided nice background noises.
Today it just distracted me from my current task.
"Oh, my dear God! Why is this so fucking hard?!" I exclaimed counting out our earnings for the past month.
Nanami hummed and I pointedly ignored her amused smile. Instead, I sat glaring at our earnings with a vicious passion.
"49.37 dollars is all we've managed to earn. That's….about 20 dollars short from the amount we owe this month for rent." I figured out loud and groaned in frustration at the end.
It has been three months since I first set out to earn money and I only have one thing running through my head the most every day since.
Earning money as a ten-year-old is hard. If somebody else tells you it's not then they are a fucking lying bitch.
Don't listen to them.
When I'd set out to find work, I'd been denied by just about every shop, store, boutique, zoo, and market I came across. Nobody wanted to have a child working for them below the legal age. Owners weren't about to risk their entire business over one little girl they don't even know.
That made me fall back on basic side hustles with no main hustle. I raked yards but even that went away when the leaves stopped falling off the trees. I walk peoples dogs and after much convincing and earning a great reputation I did grocery shopping for a variety of people. I ended up doing just about any side hustle I could find to make money.
Somehow all those side-hustles combined with the stuff people would let Nanami do; we still can't afford to pay the rent and the end of the month is in three days. Knowing the landlady she's going to be breathing down our necks more so than usual. She's just waiting for the right moment to strike with her disgusting rotten breath, yellow teethed-self. Ever since Mom's death, she's been waiting for the right moment to just kick us out; more so on the literal side.
I grabbed my shoulder length cornrow-braids and pulled. "If that old-hag comes to my door one more time asking about the rent money I will burn this whole place down!" I said letting my hair go to slam my hands onto the table. "I will pull the barely remaining hairs out of her flaky scalp," I said and Nanami laughed at me. She placed a calming hand on my shoulder.
"Sis calm down. Your veins are becoming more prominent lately." She ran a finger lightly over a vein on my hand.
I sighed before letting my head fall down onto her shoulder. I had to readjust because of her naturally bony shoulder being uncomfortable. I wonder what it's like having a naturally high metabolism. I certainly wouldn't know because my metabolism is naturally slow. It not for my eating habits and training I would be plump by now; more fatty tissue than muscle.
"I'm not going to lie. I'm fucking stressed!" I exclaimed standing up and kicking the floor. "Kaito didn't leave any money this month and when he did come back he came back smoking! Smoking!" I said exasperatedly. "He really thought I'd let him smoke in the house too! Insane." I said crossing my arms.
Nanami nodded her head. "I'm glad you've realized that you might be insane."
I slapped her shoulder. "I wasn't talking about myself Nanami!" I said her name instead of her nickname to show I was serious.
I'm really scared for this month. If we get kicked out we'll have nowhere to go. Mr. Hayako and Ein went somewhere due to a family emergency this month so we can't stay with them and I can't ask for a small loan from them either.
I sat down at the table and crossed my arms. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath in then released. I did this to calm down my nerves; knowing I was on the verge of breaking down.
I'm not cut out for this kind of thing. In my past life, I never had to do anything like this. Dad and Mom worked, they paid the bills mostly on time, we had lots of food, vacations, two-story house, and just overall a comfortable living.
Suddenly I'm broke basically with barely enough money to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly.
Earning sufficient money as a ten-year-old is hard.
I don't care what anybody had to say. I'm more stressed than what legally should be allowed and the sad part about it is that there are people in this world way worse off than I am.
Life isn't easy and it never will be. When my original parents told me that I thought I'd understood them then.
I didn't.
I didn't fully understand until I'm put into the situations I never thought I'd be in. I'm a ten-year-old, living with my younger sister in a shady neighborhood, in a crappy apartment, Dad leaves to gamble and probably do some illegal stuff; and that's not even the end. I can't do this and I can't do that.
I can't, I can't, I can't, Ican'tIcan't.
Nanami wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close. "Mom said everything is going to be fine. So it will be, Keiko." I responded by hugging her back.
Kumimi Momozono, wonderful woman and mother; for all her good qualities was a liar too.
January had pasted in a blur of rushed jobs, stress, and a mixture of sad and happy times. Crappy decisions and mistakes; but most importantly was a year of learning and adjusting. Nanami and I; we were fairing good enough for two underage girls. Kumimi died and that had hit us hard, Kaito leaving didn't help either so we adjusted.
Unsurprisingly the one more adjustable was Nanami. Nanami, I discovered is a person able to adjust to the situation in a way less likely to harm our progression. Me on the other hand?
Well, hell.
I thought I was good at adjustments. I woke up in a baby's body for crying out loud! It turns out Kumimi's death, Kaito's leaving, caring for Nanami, and most of all fighting off that damned landlady takes a lot of energy out of me. Everything seemed like it was overwhelming me. The main reason I didn't resort to illegal dealings is that having Nanami, my sunshine, in my life stopped me. When I felt down and on the brink of just calling it quits Nanami was there to help pull me back onto my feet and give me an encouraging push again. She worked, earned her money right along with me, and she helped with what she could. She's been paying attention to all my lessons and even though her heart isn't into BJJ she still tries and listens to Sensei.
So because she is my only sister and I love her to bits, I'm about to be heavy on the love on February twentieth. Nanami will be turning ten, her first double-digit birthday. Which means I have to make it special, even if I can't give her what she wants for her birthday, I'll do the next best thing.
See she indirectly told me that she wasn't expecting anything special or really big because of our financial situation.
So obviously I gotta prove her wrong!
I mean shiii, I can't get her a band to sing at her birthday but I'm gonna at least make it live for her. Like that hurt my sensitive self when she hinted that she didn't expect much. Dad had come back February 17th so he wouldn't miss her birthday. We planned in secret, which wasn't hard cause Nanami, the trusting butterfly, never suspects anything when it's regarding something with me involved.
Which leads me to my current situation. Nanami was at home being distracted by Dad; which I gotta hand it to the man. He knows how to get attention and keep, even if some of his stuff has weird flexes but okay. It works so I'm chill as long has it diverts Nanami's focus from what I'm doing for maybe an hour.
I had my Polaroid camera, the basic old one with me, and a few yen. I expected for this to be a quick trip to one of the many pharmacies in Tokyo.
I was wrong.
My nosy-self saw the landlady with a man. See now that would be no problem...normally. However, I knew for a fact that the man whose arms she's hanging onto is indeed not the father of her child! Neither is he her current husband. This dude isn't just a friend, cuz she pushing her saggy boobs on him and the way she's smiling at him ain't right.
She's cheating, and if I pass up this opportunity to have leverage against the old-hag I won't be able to sleep at night!
I got my camera ready and I didn't worry about the flash giving me away. It was still daytime after all, so it'd be hard to even notice it. Which now that I think about it, she's big bold to be out in daylight with the man she's cheating with. She must not be scared and the dude she with seems like a wannabe thug.
She likes messing with that kind.
Taking a few more pictures, I went into a pharmacy a block away because getting the photos off of the camera is cheaper there. When I walked in I got distracted immediately by some necklaces on sale on one of the cash registers counters. One, in particular, made me touch the necklace around my neck. Deciding that if I had enough money left over I'd check back on it.
I quickly handled my business inside the store. I didn't waste time and the lady that assisted me with my needs was absolutely amazing. I mean it; if I ever come back to this store I want her has my assistant every time.
Leaving the store with a small box in my hand; I felt accomplished. Now I just had to get this box back to the apartment without somehow messing things up. Twenty minutes later I found myself staring at my Dad with a deck of cards in his hands and Nanami strangely had a tutu. She was spinning around rapidly and Dad was cheering her on; which encouraged her to spin faster. She stopped abruptly when I walked into the door which caused her to face plant onto the hard floor.
"Freaking weirdos," I mumbled underneath my breath before quickly shutting the door not wanting anybody else to see my family like this. Going to the kitchen I hide the box somewhere obvious. It sometimes works better to make something plain and simple than complicated.
February 20th, 2001
Today is Nanami's birthday. I am determined to make it enjoyable for her and everybody else involved.
Though most importantly being Nanami.
I woke up early in the morning to get things ready. If I'd woken up any later I would have either been caught by Nanami or I wouldn't have enough time to finish everything. Sensei had driven his car to our apartment so I wouldn't have to make multiple trips in the cold weather. We'd stuffed the bags and presents into the backseat and trunk before I left with Sensei to his house.
Unfortunately, our stove had started acting up so I couldn't make the cake at the apartment. So the plan was for Dad to keep Nanami busy today with fun activities until we had everything set up in Sensei's house.
Sensei is an amazing man for allowing us to do this and I'm almost certain he had made some kind of deal with Kumimi at some point. Anyways, Sensei had offered to help with the cake but I'd assured him I could handle it.
While I baked a simple yellow moist cake with chocolate icing. Nothing fancy but delicious nonetheless. Sensei and Ein helped make some foods for after the cake and we had water for the drinks.
Who got money for anything else? I mean the cake and sandwiches if not for Sensei could have hurt us financially really bad. We 'bout to be drinking tap water. If it's polluted; it'll build our immune system, and if one of us dies then he or she just didn't have the will to live.
The will of fire!
I chuckled to myself leaning against the counter in Sensei's house before shaking my head. "Man, I'm about to burn this cake. Let me focus." I mumbled to myself going to check the timer for how long the cake has to bake. Seeing that I still had ten minutes to go, I went back to the counter instead of going to help with setting up.
They said they wanted to help and technically I'm not done in the kitchen yet so I don't have to come help.
Anyways, an hour passed in now time because even though I didn't burn the cake; I didn't factor in icing a cake to be hard. So my icing work wasn't really that good. I had leftover icing so I ate it because the icing is delicious by itself.
Taste just like diabetes.
I think Nanami enjoyed her birthday. When Dad walked her into the house covering her eyes with his hands, she was already practically jumping. I think he might have let something slip about the surprise party.
Nanami opened her presents in careful and gentle movements. She loved the clothes and gift cards from Sensei and Ein. Dad gave her a winning lotto ticket which was worth about sixty dollars and a teddy bear holding a big red heart. The words Mommy, Daddy, and Sister was sewn into the big red heart in the middle.
Personally, I think my gift was the best. I didn't wrap one of my gifts because I felt it unnecessary. One hung around my neck and the other was in a frame. When I handed Nanami the necklace from around my neck that Mom gave me she flat out refused. I persuaded her by using some inheritance bullmess though. When she looked inside the heart locket she hugged me tightly. When she I handed her the family photo of our family on the bench during Christmas she flat out cried. She went around snotting on everybody and declaring her love for us.
It made me feel warm that I was apart of making her birthday special.
Kaito came up beside me and sat on the couch. He had a sandwich in one arm and slung the other around my shoulder. He had a grin on his face.
"So my birthday is coming up."
I hummed uninterestedly chewing on my own sandwich. "Really?"
"Yep. So I was thinking can I have a party to-"
"No."
Kaito whined playfully, at least I think it was. "Aw, why not?"
"Because you'd probably get drunk and end up inviting some of your gambling buddies over. Then we definitely are screwed. I'm not housing smelly drunk men." I explained.
"You're so mean to me Keiko-Panda!"
"Stop calling me that!"
Nanami should have figured something was wrong when she heard the sirens progressively getting louder. She should have taken more notice to her surroundings. Instead, Nanami walked up the stairs to her shared apartment unknowing to what was happening inside the apartment.
The door opened slowly when Nanami entered. She paused slightly when she noticed that the lights were still off.
"Sis?"
She received no response but pained groans; so she flipped the switch quickly. Stepping fully into the apartment and closing the door behind herself.
What she saw stopped her heart for the hundredth time in her life.
Her precious big sister was lying on the floor gripping her leg with a pained expression on her face. Her Dad held her up with his arms-his burned arms- and the house smelled of burning material and smoke. Nanami went quickly to open the window.
"What happened?!" Nanami tripped over herself trying to reach Keiko.
Kaito looked to the ground ashamed with himself and guilt-ridden. In the brief moment, Keiko and Kaito made eye-contact Keiko understood. If Nanami found out that it was her Dad's fault that her sister was burned, Mom's futon basically burned, and some of her remaining clothes; she'd hate him for the longest time possible for her.
Nanami prided herself on being the more loving and forgiving one out of the sisters but even she had some limits you can't push. Hurting her big sister is the last thing anybody would want to do.
Keiko groaned harder. "I was messing around with one of the lighters and one thing lead to another." She kept the lie short.
Before Nanami could question the lie further Kaito stepped in quickly. "Nanami, I called the ambulance and they should be on their way. Could you make sure they don't pass us up?"Kaito asked before grounded his teeth together when he accidentally moved his arms too fast. "They have an awful tendency to get lost."
Nanami took one look at Keiko's burned thigh and her dad's seriously burned arms before shooting to her feet; determined to go find some help. "I'll direct the ambulance to us." She directed one disappointed and angry look Keiko's way before disappearing through the apartment door.
"Dad...I would hit you but you saved me." Keiko moaned staring at her burned thigh. Her gaze traveled from her thigh to the portion of the house burned. She knew instantly that the landlady will give her hell for this. No, give Kaito hell, because there's no way he's leaving anytime soon after what he'd done today.
Kaito, after being gone for five months; occasionally dropping money off randomly, decided to sneak into the house when Keiko just happened to use the bathroom.
He ignored her rule of no smoking in the house and had left one of his cigarettes lying around which caught the house on fire. Kaito not knowing that Keiko was still in the bathroom left out the front door without thinking. Keiko smelling the smoke quickly ran from the bathroom. She'd filled pots full of water from the faucet. When she'd yelled out in surprise and frustration Kaito heard her and rushed back inside only to see Keiko about to be burned by falling clothes. He'd sped over to protect her from most of the burn damage and resulted in burning his arms. A stray piece of cloth burned Keiko's exposed leg.
"I know…You didn't have to lie for me." Kaito said sadly staring at the part of the apartment filled with memories of his wife burned now to a dark black color or ruined by burns. He failed Kumimi, Nanami, and Keiko. His recklessness injured one of his children and destroyed most of his wife's possessions.
Kaito Momozono was not having a good day and he hasn't had one since the death of his beloved wife Kumimi Momozono. He's been on a rollercoaster ride of emotions ever since; the highest slope never reaching too far up. He wouldn't truly be happy again until he meets his wife again.
Now he won't be able to face her. Not after indirectly harming their child in such a way. He felt at that moment that he didn't desire to be loved by two amazing girls like Keiko and Nanami. Definitely not Kumimi.
Keiko quickly took Kaito's hand in her's and squeezed his hand reassuringly and hit him over the hand with the first thing that she could get her hands on. "I did it cause I felt like it."
That wasn't necessarily a lie. Keiko wouldn't have told Nanami that if she didn't want to and it's not like it's the first lie she's told in this life. What's one more string in a web of lies?
Keiko groaned again in pain and Kaito lowered his head. Which resulted in his hair covering his eyes and his shoulders began to shake uncontrollably. Keiko realized in her pain that Kaito is indeed crying. Not the comical tears he'd pull, but genuine tears.
Real raw tears.
Keiko doesn't really know how it happened but her body reacted on first instinct when seeing tears. She knows it helps Nanami so why not Kaito? Kaito Momozono, bad dad but still trying nonetheless. Keiko Momozono hugged Kaito out of pity and half-assed comfort. Her full heart wasn't in it because he was the dumbass who caused the fire but he'd saved her from some serious burns.
Nobody else living would have done that for Keiko. Not Nanami because she'd freeze up in terror. Having a lowkey asshole older sister changed canon Nanami. "Nanami still loves you Kaito-san. Everybody makes mistakes." Keiko said and Kaito allowed his head to rest on top of hers. Pulling her close despite the obvious pain in his arms.
"I'm sorry." He mumbled crying. Kaito doesn't like crying in front of us, but it's okay. I won't hold it against him, after all, he is still my dad that taught me so much. One of his lessons he taught me unknowingly was to not judge others by skin-deep assessments.
"Kaito-san, don't burn smoke again and don't almost burn the house down again.," I mumbled burying my face in his side. "Otherwise I might actually start to hate you. I know it was a mistake but you still went against the rules and not only that you smoked up the apartment." Keiko knew she wasn't a saint and that she never will be. "You put everybody at risk with your careless actions."
Though after ten years of living her second life she was finally starting to realize that she was getting better.
"I promise." He said firmly and Keiko just grunted in response.
It has been almost two weeks since the incident with the cigaret. Kaito doesn't leave the apartment except to work and sometimes do grocery shopping. I could tell he was unhappy staying here like he was.
I have recently discovered that Kaito is an active man, he wanted to move around, he needed to have some kind of thrill. Staying in the apartment and working isn't thrilling or entertaining. Besides the TV making noises the house remained oddly silent; even with all three of us in the same space.
Everybody was on edge and tense since the fire happened. The burns decorating the corner that used to host Kumimi's left behind possessions served it's purpose well. Nanami kept shooting me and Kaito suspicious and mistrustful looks. She knows something else had happened and was without a doubt hurt by my lie. Kaito, being the awkward person he is when faced with these kinds of situations avoided eye-contact with either one of us. The guilt wouldn't let him do much else.
I could tell he wanted to leave so badly during those moments.
Nanami and I didn't do much in the small breaks that we did have from side jobs. Speaking of side jobs, I had lost two and I am currently unable to do the others because of my leg. Most of the time I'd clean and cook when I could. I left laundry to Nanami and Kaito most of the time because washing machines were too expensive so we did ours by hand. Normally we would practice some of our moves but me being bed-bound stopped that.
And when Nanami wasn't home because of BJJ and Kaito wasn't either; that gave me too much time to think about stuff I'd pushed to the back of my mind.
Isobe.
Aside from Ein I really had no friends. Ein wasn't even really a friend, our relationship was based on pure competition that leads to something. Not quite friendship but something. Isobe, however, while annoying was enjoying to be around. I haven't seen him in so long and I didn't even get to see him before he moved.
I missed him.
Being taken out of school really made me think about my future. Not Nanami's and damn sure not Kamisama Hajimeshita. Nanami...she had a future with a happy ending. Me on the other hand, where the hell would I be in the next six years or so?
I have absolutely no clue and that is terrifying.
On another note, I recently discovered I have powers.
I can control the movement of water.
I stopped the fire from spreading too far and consuming my memories.
I'm completely stumped on what to do. How did I even get powers? Sure I'm not complaining because that gives me a leg up in surviving a world with youkai, fallen gods, and overall supernatural beings.
I'd always felt a bit strange since waking up in this body; however, that only seemed to increase once I'd put out the fire. I didn't even mean to do it honestly. My heart had just dropped so quickly and I didn't know what to do. The water from the faucet wasn't enough to quench the gaining flames.
I was in a stress-induced situation that almost did me in.
My body and mind were already stressed from my everyday struggles. Ranging from financial to personal problems I could say that my stress level had to be a solid eight. If that fire had succeeded in burning down the house; I'm not certain I would be here today. That alone is probably the sole reasons my powers activated.
My body seemed to just fall into the motions I've seen from all the fairy tale books and movies in both my lives. In that moment I realized two very important things.
I really am in Kamsaima Kiss and Keiko, the lucky child, is somewhat true.
Up until this point, I knew I was in an anime but I still didn't believe it to be true. Almost losing the things that grounded me took a great deal out of me. When water suddenly did what I told it to, I'd all but collapsed into Kaito's waiting arms. The water didn't come from my body but instead of the still running faucet. I didn't want to believe it but my situation became all the more real. I couldn't o longer just try to shove through this life. I had to acknowledge that this life is real. With those realizations came the tiring emotions of grief.
My old life I'd been pushing down into the far reaches of my mind pushed back with a vengeance. Memories of my life before this crappy one filled my thoughts for days. I knew Nanami was greatly worried about me. More so when I asked her to share a futon with Kaito for a night. Obviously that night into more than just that one.
I knew I should have been more alert and addressed the look in her eyes whenever I rejected her request to sleep in the same bed as me. I couldn't though, I was mentally and physically unable to care for much at that point.
Finally, after ten years of being reborn, I believed I'd hit one of my lowest points.
Between Kumimi dying, Kaito constantly leaving, taking care of Nanami, BJJ lessons, money issues, the house responsibilities, people not wanting to hire me, and fending off the landlady had taken too much from me.
My kid body was exhausted and shutting down was the only thing keeping me from breaking down. Like an old computer constantly left running all night and day; I needed a break to cool off.
Which lead me to my current situation. The apartment door was locked securely and the curtains on the one window pulled together. That left the main room engulfed in darkness; the only sounds filling the silence was both Nanami's and Kaito's ugly ass snoring. My quiet breathing overdone by the two combining noises.
On regular nights, I would have minded greatly because their snoring was keeping me awake. Regularly, I'd come home to cook, wash and bath myself, then head to sleep because I'd expect a full day of work tomorrow. Tonight, however, I found myself not caring because sleep kept eluding my grasp anyway. Laying on my back, staring at the darkness in a house that felt so familiar and foreign hurt me.
I wanted to go home badly and sleep in my comfy bed, not a futon. I really needed to get away from this apartment for a cooldown period.
A little Omake right here 'cause you're special to me!
"This is utterly stupid."
"Hey! Don't be such smarty pants all the time sis, you need to loosen up some more! Enjoy life while we're still young!"
I stopped my practiced motions in order to fully pin Nanami with my stare. "You've been talking to Ein again haven't you?"
Nanami had the decency to look sheepish at my comment. I chose that moment to let an aggravated sigh escape my mouth.
"I'm nine and you're eight years of age Nana." I made sure she was listening before I proceeded knowing I was approaching a highly sensitive topic. "Mom left me in charge and like it or not with Kaito-san's tacky disappearances, we're gonna have to start pulling our own weight even more." Nanami visibly flinched at the mention of Mom. She'd only died a few months ago after all. "Including some of his work around the house."
Ein's, stupid self, had gotten her claws of stupidity into Nanami during one of our more relaxed training sessions. She had apparently brought it to Nanami's attention that we both acted like adults. The idiot had told Nanami that we weren't like the other normal kids and that I was probably stressed out.
Nanami, with her big heart, tried at an opportunity to get me to take a break from doing so much. Today also being one of those days she caught me at home cleaning the house so it doesn't fall apart.
Nanami furrowed her eyebrows in deep thought. Knowing she was probably going to take a few minutes to get everything in her head straightened out, I resumed my original task. I found myself wondering about how Ein was doing lately. Even though I had continued my lessons weeks after Mom's death BJJ lessons weren't the same.
There was no more Mom sometimes waiting at home with a bath prepared for me and Nanami to use. No more snacks left out on the table for after our shower. No more sometimes sitting in front of the TV talking while Mom cooked. There was no more familiar bickering between husband and wife to fill the occasional silence.
Nanami brought me back out of my thoughts before I could get too far lost in them.
"Mom…" She took a moment to pause on her words. "She told me to be an independent young woman and someone reliable." She moved closer to me. "What does reliable mean?"
"Someone that is trusted to fulfill a task given to him or her," I answered without missing a beat 'cause that's what I excelled at; my academics. My brain was curious as to why this has anything to do with why she was talking to Ein again.
She seemed to think on that for a few seconds. "Mom taught us that men are unreliable to do the work." I didn't agree with that part but kept silent because my original father is-was a very reliable man. "Do you remember that time when Mom told us never to tell Papa where the money was hidden?" I couldn't help but laugh a little at that before I covered it up with a few coughs.
Nanami just kept on laughing. It was so carefree and playful, I loved hearing her laughs. That may have sounded cliche but it helped, her laughs truly helped me.
"Yup, I remember! I saw Kaito searching all night to find the money, and helped him." I said grinning more for her benefit than mine.
Nanami giggled."That wasn't helping. You kept leading Papa in circles around the house." I laughed some more, a little bit more real this time. "When Mom woke up and spotted him looking through her underwear drawer for money, she yelled at him. Papa was in big trouble." Nanami elaborated calming down her full-blown laughs to giggles.
"Anyways, back to the main point, I was trying to make. We'll have to clean Kaito-san's portion of the apartment also while he's gone right now okay, Nana." I explained wanting to get back to work. Nanami quickly shot to her feet.
"Don't worry, I'll start on our room!" Nanami exclaimed shouting at me. By our room, she really meant the left side of the apartment since we used that has our sleeping space.
I know at a young age Nanami was more independent in the regular story. It was just Mom, her and Kaito. I guess that changed because I was here. With an older sister to look after her other than just being by herself with her awkward Dad, she has another girl to look on for direction.
Two months later It was getting dangerously close to my tenth birthday. I found I was beginning to get annoyed with the mats stupid carpeted floor of our apartment. Very annoyed if I was being honest completely honest. Like close to just cutting up the carpet kind of annoyed.
After we had finally gotten the left side of the apartment clean, Dad had gotten drunk and spilled some of the juice he was drinking onto the recently cleaned carpets that came with the apartment.
During that month I've never really allowed myself to actually start to think like this but I do believe Kaito was just stupid or very much clumsy. After all these years of having gambling problem he still hasn't sought out help or anything, that I know of. Maybe he truly believes that he is going to actually win a large amount of money to start paying back all the loan sharks he most likely has collected by now. I could ask Kaito why he does gamble instead of just settling down and getting a steady job that actually guarantees an income of money after taxes, to be spent on surviving and putting food on the table.
After ten whole minutes of trying to remove a carpet stain out of the rug in the tiny living room, it wouldn't come out. It didn't help that Nanami kept bothering me about the most recent stuff Ein had told her about. This time the conversation in question, questioned my merit. It quickly turned into a conversation that only fueled my annoyance.
I found myself wanting to replace the brush in my hands with Ein's face.
"Agh, listen, Nana, I don't know how many times I have told you this but I'm not a good individual. I highly doubt I'll ever be a real merit being." I spoke glaring at the carpet trying to kill it with my eyes. Nanami looked at me confused.
"What's a merit?" Nanami asked tugging on the end of my green dress that was in fact pretty old. I am almost certain it was a hand-me-down from Mom's side of the family. I shook my head. I keep forgetting that Nanami is still so young.
"Merit is just the quality of being particularly good or worthy, especially so as to deserve praise or reward. Understand?" I explained in the simplest way I could come up with on the spot.
Nanami stood in one spot with her face squished up, she does that when she's thinking, then exclaimed; nodding her head energetically.
"I think a sis is a good person but also scary." I paused in what I was doing to shoot her an inquiring look.
"You always take care of me and Papa. Though when you're around Ein-chan you're scary!" Nanami exclaimed bouncing in one spot.
I quickly abandoned my cleaning materials in order to pounce on Nanami. She squealed in shock before laughing in delight when my skillful fingers tickled her sides.
Hope you enjoyed.
I tried to end this chapter on a happy note because the story seems to be getting a little darker, but don't worry!
Next Time on Keiko
"Why in hell would I go anywhere willingly with you?"
