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Secrets

Chapter Two - Ajisai

Takao

You know, I never did like June. Or July. And that year, I certainly didn't like May either. Because, simply put, I don't like rain.I mean, rain in Hawai'i might be nice. Or rain that only sprinkles for just a tiny bit. Or even rain on a sunny day with a warm wind...

But no. The Japanese rainy season is cold and dreary and wet. The only "bright side" to tsuyu is the lowered entrance fees to the bath houses and local hot springs. And they're always packed, or so said my father and grandfather, who liked to spend their rainy days (and a few suspicious nights) at massage parlours.

Speaking of which, that's where they went THAT night. To a massage place, I mean. I think. I assumed. And then Daichi ran off complaining about how wet Tokyo was. Leaving me alone. In my dark house. With an angry storm raging outside.

I mean, I was a little freaked out, you know? That was when Hitoshi-niichan came. Out of nowhere. Behind me. He dragged me out into the rain! It's all because of him. It's all his fault.

Flashback -

2 July 4:58 PM

Endless buckets of icy water continued to upend themselves relentlessly over the whole of Japan.

Two figures, their forms fuzzy and dark in the mist of rain, made their way slowly through the downpour across a deserted street.

Hitoshi had no idea where he was going. It certainly wasn't home, his or Takao's, nor was it work, over forty-five minutes away. The beystadium still hadn't been rebuilt, the closest park's river had flooded, and almost all the restaurants and shops were packed with lingering bodies who did not want to brave the weather.

There was an impending sense of Time Wasted beginning to creep over Hitoshi's head, and he disliked the thought. Wasn't there something constructive he had to do? Errands? Friends to visit? People toannoy? Laundry--ANYTHING?

He paused at the door to a closed flower shop and waited for Takao to wearily drag his already soaked through form up next to him. Said teenager collapsed on the front step, heedless of the large puddle ofwater he'd just placed his bottom in.

"Are we there yet?" he asked tiredly, all the fight having been "walked" out of him several minutes before.

"No." Hitoshi snapped, squinting through the haze.

"Where are we going, anyway?"

Would the youngest Kinomiya never shut up? Hitoshi refused to answer.

Alas, Takao's intellegence had been underestimated.

"You don't even know where we're going, do you!" he cried angrily. Taking the ninja's silence as an affirmative, Takao threw himself to his back, effectively covering his entire backside in muddy water.

"Niichan! Geeze! What did you drag me out here for? Ugh! This was such a waste of time."

Those were the key words.

"We're going to Niaso." Hitoshi said abruptly, and then took a moment to first, try and remember what Niaso was, and second, mentally curse himself out for spouting such a moronic suggestion.

Takao sat up. "Isn't that the new bath house? With imported waters from La La Land?" He tipped is head slightly, "I didn't know it was open."

Hitoshi winced. Last he had checked, it wasn't.

"Well, just to look around, anyway," he muttered, still attempting to formulate a reason as to why these events were beginning to take place.

Takao's eyes widened briefly before he jumped to his feet rather excitedly. "Great idea! That sounds fun--are we going to see if everything is true?"

"What?"

"You don't know?"

"Know what?" Hitoshi could already see an exceptionally repetitive conversation looming before them.

"A group of people from my school went there after the construction workers left for the season," Takao began cheerfully, "They said that the place is already ready, water there and warm and everything. But then one girl fell into the water and came out screaming all freaked and stuff--she babbled about how the water was actually blood or something all through chemistry! It was great! Stupid, for sure, but hey--it got me out of chemistry homework." He paused for a moment. "Actually, I hadn't thought about it since, but now I do, I want to see if they were telling the truth..."

Hitoshi stared. Takao was basing a potentially illegal act upon the word of a handful of teenage kids?

"No," our metal tiger announced cautiously, "no, on second thought--"

"Aw, c'mon, dude!" Takao broke in playfully. "You aren't chickening out, are you? Now that I'm all wet and seven thousand blocks from home, I think for sure I'm going! And you're supposed to be baby-sitting me, right?"

Hitoshi's bemused expression failed to convince Takao otherwise.

Sensing victory, the dragon pressed on.

"Besides, you need to repay me for joining BEGA and leaving without saying goodbye and stuff. Revenge would be my only other option, and surely you don't wish me to seek revenge upon you?"

Hitoshi drew his eyebrows into a further look of Stop-BS-ing-me-and-be-serious, drawing his lips into a thin line before answering.

"You're acting like a fool. It's illegal to trespass on Government property." he uttered, ignoring the BEGA remark.

"S'not government's, it's people's. The Niaso isn't for just government people, and it's ready for customers, isn't it? That chick said so."

"And you believed her."

"Well, no...not really, but c'mon, if I'm gonna waste my time, I'm gonna waste it on cool things that involve blood and magical water. Let's go!"

Hitoshi heaved a sigh, and tipped his head to his left shoulder before rotating his face in the same direction to stare out across the street. The weather appeared to be improving--or was that the imagination of a hopeful adult?

"You know you want to go, Niichan, admit it!" Takao encouraged, "I don't know where it is from here."

Hah! Figures, Hitoshi thought, before giving in and pushing a few strands of wet hair behind his ears. I'm going to regret this..

"It's this way," he sighed, and began leading his brother toward the construction site of Niaso.