Dreams
Chapter 6
"Major Problems Part I: Edogawa-san"
The three girls sighed as they all plopped into chairs. If Yamazaki-san made them cook big meals, then humungous was the word for the breakfast they had been forced to fix Edogawa-san. He'd even woken them up at 3:00a.m.
"I never thought it'd be this terrible," Rika said wiping sweat off her forehead.
"I didn't either," Naoko and Chiharu said simultaneously.
"It's because he gets up really early and the only person who ever got up early in this household was my okaasan. But she had the decency to let everybody else sleep," Takashi said from the doorway.
"How'd you get out?" Chiharu asked.
"He might be first in command but I'm still the oujisama and this is still technically my kingdom. If something happens to Yamazaki-san on his trip Edogawa-san wouldn't become king, he'd become my adviser, so technically, he's in charge, but I'm still higher ranking than him."
"So you're saying you just said you were leaving and he let you?"
"Hai. Being me does have some advantages."
The girls all sighed, Takashi was lucky to be able to out rank Edogawa-san. If only there was some loop-hole for them, too. Unfortunately, they couldn't think of one.
"I wish I had advantages like that," Rika said as she straightened her apron.
"Technically all of you do because if Edogawa-san does anything to you I can stop him with my authority."
"Arigatou gozaimasu," the girls said extremely grateful to Takashi for doing such a kind deed for them.
"It's nothing, I mean, what wouldn't I give for my three leading ladies," Takashi said with a flattering smile.
"It's wrong to flirt with your girlfriend and her friends at the same time," Naoko stated as all 3 of the girls burst out laughing.
Maybe this week wouldn't be as bad as they thought it would be. I mean, they still had each other.
"Takashi, is class over yet?" Chiharu asked as she leaned on his shoulder.
"Iie, we have a good 30 minutes left," he replied shifting his position so as to make Chiharu more comfortable.
"Man, 30 minutes, when will this ever end?"
"When the fat lady sings."
Chiharu glared at Takashi as he smiled down at her, "There are some people you just can't hate, but you're not one of them."
"Honto ne? How could anybody hate me?"
"Easily."
"Is something wrong ,Yamazaki-san, Mihara-san?" Ukiyo-sensei asked.
"Iie, sensei, I was just asking Yamazaki-kun if he'd seen my pencil. I dropped it."
"Here it is,"Takashi said right on cue.
"Well I'm enthused that you found it, but please be quiet for the rest of the movie."
"Hai, sensei," they simultaneously replied while looking at each other out of the corner of their eyes.
"Good call," Takashi whispered to her after Ukiyo-sensei turned around.
"I learned from the best," she replied as she rested her head on his shoulder.
Chiharu, Naoko and Rika sat down in the kitchen dozing off. They had never been so sleepy in their lives. It was only Wednesday, yet with Edogawa-san there it felt like eternity.
"Get up you filthy wenches!" Edogawa-san yelled from the doorway.
"Hai, Edogawa-san!" All three girls said as they jumped out of their chairs, sleep still in their eyes.
"If I catch you dozing off again I will make sure you lose more than just sleep, you hear me!?!"
"Hai, Edogawa-san!" They replied bowing their heads in respect.
"Good, now is lunch ready?"
"Hai, Edogawa-san."
"Well what are you standing there for, get moving!"
"Hai, Edogawa-san," the girls said as they hurriedly took the plates into the lunch room.
"I hate his guts," Chiharu whispered as she set a plate on the table.
"So does everyone in this kingdom," Naoko replied placing a pitcher in the center of the table.
"No talking, wenches!"
"Hai, Edogawa-san," the girls replied with looks of pure annoyance.
Once they were finished they hurried outside to Chiharu and Naoko's cabin before Edogawa-san could come up with something else for them to do. He was always over-working people. It was as if he thought they were labor animals.
"I can't believe him!" Chiharu yelled plopping down on her bed.
"I know," Naoko said as she dug through her suitcase. "Yamazaki-san only calls us wenches every once in a while, but not every other second."
"He yells way too much," Rika said with a slight trace of fear in her eyes, "and we never get any sleep."
"He thinks we have nothing else to do but what he tells us too," Takashi said from the doorway.
"When'd you get back?" Chiharu asked. Takashi had been forced to go spend the morning and lunch with one of the rich girls from the feast. Yamazaki-san's orders.
"Just now. Makino-chan told me you were in here."
"So did you have any fun on your little "date"?" Naoko asked with that mischievous look in her eyes.
"None, whatsoever," Takashi said sitting down next to Chiharu. "I've met annoying, preppy girls before, but this was the worst. She talked on and on about stupid stuff like her hair, and her "new" dress. There was no end!"
"Poor thing," Chiharu said laying her head on his shoulder.
"Oh, and at lunch she tried to feed me, like I was some baby or something."
"Honto ne?" Chiharu asked looking up at him, a hint of anger in her voice.
"And the last and worst thing she did was trying to kiss me when I left."
"Nan?" Chiharu said standing up. "That flirtatious little rich snob tried to kiss you?"
"Is someone jealous?" Naoko asked sarcastically.
"Of course not. It's just that trying to do that seems"-"Indecent?" Rika asked.
"Hai, indecent," Chiharu said with a smile of gratitude towards Rika.
"Whatever, Mihara-chan, whatever," Naoko replied as the group started laughing.
"Here you wenches are!" Edogawa-san said coming towards them. "Who said you could take a break!?!"
"I did," Takashi said standing up boldly. "I don't know how you do things in your dwelling, but here everyone gets a break and if I'm correct these ladies haven't had a decent break all day."
"You are correct, Yamazaki-oujisama, but there is still much work to be done," Edogawa-san replied lowering his tone.
"There's no more work for these ladies to do. They have done all that's required of them: wake me up, cook breakfast and lunch, wash clothes and dishes, and keep track of me."
"Hai, Yamazaki-oujisama, but"-"No buts, Edogawa-san. These 3 ladies are to be on break until it is time to cook dinner, understood?"
"Hai, Yamazaki-oujisama," Edogawa-san said sheepishly as he walked out of the door.
"Oh my gosh, Yamazaki-kun, you were just wonderful!" Rika said in awe.
"Sasaki-chan's right. I could never be that bold to Edogawa-san even if I was royalty."
"Me neither," Chiharu agreed.
"It's nothing, I mean, all I have to do is remember what the Native American's remember."
"Oh no," the girls said in unison, knowing what was coming.
"If I concentrate on his evilness the great shoe warrior will destroy him with his mighty boot!"
The girls sighed and shook their heads. They should've expected it from the beginning.
"Nan," Takashi said with a confused look, "You don't believe me? It's all in the ancient book of the shoe that's located in England."
"Takashi-kun."
"Seriously, they store it in a safe right next to the brain of the great singing scepter of the queen of Polish."
"You mean Poland?"
"No, Polish, the country on the other side of Poland where they grow shoe polish and use sharp nails as weapons of mass destruction."
"Yamazaki-kun," Naoko said.
"Hai, Yanagisawa-san?"
"URUSAI!" she said throwing a pillow at him.
"Help me, I've been injured," Takashi said slowly falling off the bed.
"Oh, we'll show you injured," Chiharu said as the girls ganged up on him for an all out pillow/tickle fight.
"Is dinner done yet?"
"Iie, Edogawa-san," Rika replied from the stove.
"If you were working for me I would surely have fired you by now!"
"Gomen nasai, Edogawa-san," the girls said in unison as they froze.
"I should definitely tell Yamazaki-sama about this inconvenience."
"Gomen nasai, Edogawa-san."
"Stop standing there and get to work!" Takashi yelled coming through the door with a big smile on his face.
"Yamazaki-kun, that was a terrible trick!" Naoko said about to hit him with her spoon.
"You nearly scared us to death!" Rika said letting out a huge sigh.
"I can't believe you!"
"Gomen, girls, but I couldn't help it. The aliens made me do it."
"Well, the aliens will be sorry to hear what happened to you when we're through," the girls said with their evilest laughs.
"Iie!" Takashi said as he ducked behind the counter.
"We see you," the girls said ganging up on him.
"Help me!"
"What's going on here?" Edogawa-san said from the hall.
"I was just looking for my dagger," Takashi said as he pretended to be searching on the ground.
"Hai, and we're helping him," the girls said searching around the kitchen.
"I see, well hurry-up and find it so you can finish dinner!"
"Hai, Edogawa-san."
"I'm glad he's gone," Takashi said standing up and handing Chiharu her bowl.
"Me too, he's so aggravating," Naoko said placing a pan in the oven.
"I have a mind to poison his food," Chiharu said with devilish smirk.
"Mihara-chan!" Rika said, "If you did that you might kill Yamazaki-kun, too."
"That's true. Maybe, I could bring him some wine and poison that!"
"And you'd get this poison from..."
"The old lady in the village. She has every poison every created."
"You're so menacing, Chiharu-chan."
"I know," she said with another smirk.
After dinner, Takashi and Chiharu met in Takashi's room to do some studying. Every Wednesday, Takashi gave the girls "school lessons" which included Math, Science, History, and Japanese. They all did pretty well in all their subjects, except Math.
Rika did okay in Math but Naoko needed help, and Chiharu…well let's just say that help's not even the word to describe what she needed. Takashi had offered to give them extra help, Naoko in the day and Chiharu at night. Unfortunately with Edogawa-san there the only way to get Chiharu's extra studying in was to do it late at night. Chiharu would've just skipped her lesson until Yamazaki-san got back, but Takashi had reassured her that not even Edogawa-san could stop her "learning experience."
"I still say this could've waited until next week," Chiharu yawned as she looked confusingly at the book.
"You just want to get out of it," he said with a small laugh. "You better be glad that you're learning from me instead of a real tutor."
"How much worse can a real tutor be than you," she said laying her head on the book.
"Much worse, just imagine doing all that studying everyday and then having the 3rd degree given to you about each subject. Did I mention that if you get a question wrong you get hit on your hands with a ruler?"
"Whoa, where do you get hit on the hands?"
"Wherever the tutor chooses. But it's better than being hit on the head if you start dozing off, daydreaming, or if you answer two questions incorrectly."
"Sounds brutal," Chiharu said with concern in her eyes, as she looked up in him.
"That's exactly what my okaasan said about tutors. If she had been here when I was 7 she would've stopped the whole tutor madness before it started," he said sitting on his bed.
Chiharu walked over to him, "I'm sure she would've stayed if she could've."
"I know, I know…but it doesn't make it any easier for me."
"Just think about it this way," Chiharu said walking over to the window, "Somewhere out there your okaasan is safe and sound just waiting for the day when she can save you from the terror that is Yamazaki-san"
Takashi smiled, walked over to the window, and put his arm around Chiharu's waist as he whispered, "You don't have to leave."
"Nan?" Chiharu said turning around to face him.
"You can sleep here tonight, I mean it's way too dark to let you go back now."
"Well…"
"I mean you'd probably wake up, Yanagisawa-chan."
"True."
"And you could take the bed and I'll take the floor, it's actually quite comfortable."
"No, I couldn't, what if Edogawa-san sees me," Chiharu said thinking of any and everything to get her out of this.
"I'll simply tell him that you were helping me with something and that if he has a problem with it he can take it to the King of the next kingdom because that's where he'll be going."
"Well, Yanagisawa-chan might worry about me when I don't come in or when I'm not there in the morning?"
"She'll understand."
Chiharu sat down on the bed and messed with her dress. What was she so worried about anyways? This was her boyfriend, she could trust him…but could she trust herself?"
"Chiharu-chan, if you don't want to you don't have to. I would never push you into doing something you don't want to do."
"No, it's not that, I just wouldn't forgive myself if you got in trouble, and I don'twant to makeYanagisawa-chan to worry, especially not now."
"So, I'll see you tomorrow."
"I never said I wouldn't stay; I just said that I had some reasons to go," she slowly walked over to him and put her hand on his cheek, "but I have reasons to stay, too."
They continued their lesson for a few more minutes and then decided to hit the sack. By now it had to be around midnight and they both were pooped.
"Takashi-kun," Chiharu whispered in the stillness of the night.
"Hmm?"
"Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be…you know, normal?"
"Yeah, I do. I bet it would be a lot better then this."
"Me, too. Could you imagine living free from the rules of people like Yamazaki-san?"
"That would be so sweet! Unfortunately, if we're ever going to live a life like that we'll probably have to wait awhile."
"You're right," she sighed, "but I just wish that we could live like that right now. You, me, and all of our friends, living a happy, normal life."
"Well, as long as we're talking about that right now," he said sitting on the edge of the bed, "we do have something good going."
"Nan?"
"Us," he whispered grabbing her hand and kissing her.
"Sasaki-chan, good you're here," Naoko said rushing into the kitchen. "Have you seen, Mihara-chan? I'm pretty sure she didn't come in last night, and now, she's not here."
"Don't worry, Yanagisawa-chan, she's probably with Yamazaki-kun and is coming down in a sec."
"I sure hope so," Naoko said worriedly.
Almost 20 minutes had passed since Naoko had gotten to the kitchen and still no sign of Chiharu or Takashi. Naoko nervously paced with her bowl in hand, mumbling every few seconds.
"Yanagisawa Naoko, calm down!" Rika said though she was equally concerned. "Now, I'm sure that they're just fine. They're probably just moving very slowly this morning."
Naoko look at her with a face that said she wasn't buying any of Rika's word, "But what if she was attacked in the night and when Takashi tried to help her he became seriously wounded and now they're trying to get back here alive?"
"Yanagisawa-chan."
"Or what if they stumbled up on a poisonous plant and now are fighting for their lives out there?"
"And you say Yamazaki-kun is bad," Rika said setting a pot on the stove.
Just then Naoko gasped loudly making Rika turn around abruptly, "Oh no!"
"Nani?"
"Mihara-chan and Yamazaki-kun aren't here and it's been almost 30 minutes."
"I know."
"You don't understand, if they don't get here soon then...iie, iie, iie!"
"No what?"
"You know how Edogawa-san likes checking up on us during breakfast every other day. Well, today would be an other day so that means that if they don't show up soon we will have to cover for them and even with us covering Edogawa-san could tell Yamazaki-san that she was…was…"
"AWOL?"
"Hai and then Yamazaki-san will fire her and she'll be all alone."
"Yanagisawa-chan, nothing that bad is going to hap"- Rika froze as she heard boots hitting the ground and a deep cough.
"I told you, Sasaki-chan, I told you," Naoko said obviously panicking.
"What are we going to do? What are we going to say?" Rika said hurriedly as the footsteps got closer.
"Um…I got it! We'll tell him that she went upstairs to get Yamazaki-kun because he went back to sleep the first time she woke him up and that he's a very hard sleeper."
"That sounds good, but what if wants to go check?"
"Well…um…"-"You could (a) try and sidetrack him or (b) hope that a kind hearted soldier comes in at the right time," Terada-san said from the door way.
"Terada-san!" Rika said with a slight sigh of relief.
"You heard everything we said?" Naoko asked not fully trusting him.
"I heard enough to understand that you have no clue where your friend or Yamazaki-oujisama are and that you are going to try to hide it from Edogawa-san if he comes in."
"Sounds like you heard a lot, but will you tell?"
"Tell who, Edogawa-san? I wouldn't tell him anything even if my life depended on it."
"You sure aren't like the other soldiers," Naoko replied still suspicious of him.
"That's because he's not from here," Rika replied.
"Honto ne?"
"Hai, I am from a kingdom south of here, but I came here to raise money for my family."
"I see, but why did you choose this kingdom?"
"Here, my pay is so generous that not even the highest positions in other kingdoms come near it."
"I see, so you don't like Yamazaki-san that much?"
"I believe everyone has some good in them, but I think it'll be along time before he finds it."
Naoko confusingly looked a Rika and said, "So basically using a play of words he just said that Yamazaki-san is a very evil man who will probably be like that the rest of his life?"
"Don't mind Yanagisawa-chan," Rika said shaking her head, "she's a bit overprotective of her friends."
"I am not."
"I'm not arguing with you, Yanagisawa-chan," Rika said before turning around and mumbling, "You are too."
Naoko glowered at her and then turned to Terada-san, "Well, if you really are a good person than stay on the lookout for our friends."
"That I can do," he said turning around and walking away.
After he was gone Naoko sighed and said, "Where in the world could they be?"
A/N: Hi-hi, yeah I'm sorry abouttaking so long to update, but as one of my faithful readersknows, it wasn't my fault. My computer wouldn'tget the internet, so I had to wait until Christmas, ut when I got a new computerthe old computer wouldn't let me open upword so I still couldn't get it.But now, finally I got it and I'm contented. Nowabout making this a two part. sorrybut it seemed too long with the other part so I had to split it up into two chapters. Hopefully, the next chapter won't be so long but it'll have the whole reason why I started this story in it. Anyways, prepare for-oh you'll see next time!
Please R/R
SHA