Chapter 4: Family is a Pain in the Butt

After showing the new Japanese Smashers to their rooms, Master Hand, Nana, and Zelda left. Nana had been hanging around Ashimaru the entire time, trying to pry personal information from him.

"So, you like girls with short hair?"

Ashimaru scoffed. "I could care less. Oh wait, I do."

"Um, OK, do you have a girlfriend?"

The boy had pulled a face which screamed, "Dear Lord in Heaven Above, I hope you're kidding."

This had continued until Master Hand had to pry Nana off the Asian boy with his entire set of fingers.

When they left, Ashimaru ran into his room, and double-locked it. From behind the door, Ashimaru screamed, "I'm leavin' you two to your business, so get it done before I change my mind!" After a pause, he added, "And no little Kyokos and Kenwas when I come back out, 'kay?"

Kenwa and Kyoko just stood there, not knowing what to do.

"Uh, maybe we should get unpacked?" Kyoko tried.

"Right. Sure." They only had a suitcase apiece, so they were done after 15 minutes.

Kyoko sat down on the bed, stretching her legs luxuriously. Flopping onto the bed on her back, she gazed at the ceiling. Which was really quite dull, being a plain and whole white. Then, after a while, she spoke.

"Kenwa?" He nearly jumped, having been thinking about….things that he wouldn't mention to Kyoko just yet. "What is it?" His voice was deep, soft, like the essence of wood. So unlike ice and sleet.

"You know…." She fiddled with her shirtsleeve, searching for the right word. "The Smashers….have the strangest THEORY about us." Her friend cocked an eyebrow.

"Intriguing….this conversation is going WHERE again?"

"Oh, shut up. What I mean is that I think they have already guessed what's between us. Or some of them, anyway. I already told Zelda; she seems reliable enough…."

Kenwa's arms grasped his girl's shoulders. "Already! Kyoko, we've only been here an hour!" He checked the clock. "Actually, an hour and six minutes! But you've already told someone!" He sat on the bed, head in his hands. "Oh no, if our families get involved…"

Kyoko froze at the mention of that incident. Even if she WAS a seasoned and hardened warrior of the darkest shadows, that event sent shivers down and up her spine. It still stalked her, in the deepest corridors of her complicated mind…..

"Your….charge is not FIT to be with MY son!" Mino Suichino stood up from his seat violently, knocking over the poor cleverly crafted wooden chair. Striking his fists upon the wood of the table he had been sitting at, his eyes flashed at the young man watching him quietly, burning fire in his middle-aged eyes.

Harutomi Makashiro stared calmly at Mino, inwardly seething with suppressed rage. How dare this old man think that of his cousin, Kyoko, of which he thought of her as a little sister!

Standing up as well, he faced Kenwa's father with the same murderous, flame-flicked eyes that Mino had. "What's so wrong about her? She loves him, he loves her. Should be the end of that problem, ne?"

"You couldn't understand if you tried…." "Try me."

"I…am the leader of my clan, the Ice Rogues, a very large and important region of Japan's icy mountains. Kenwa, being my one and only son, is, of course, next in line. So, his wife should be very carefully chosen, for she will be queen along with him."

Harutomi had listened throughout this paragraph with a silent and deadly demeanor. Now, he surprised Kenwa's father, and himself, by doing something out of order. He laughed. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!"

After getting himself under control, he straightened his clothes out. "Sorry, that was a bit ironic. You see, my family, or more importantly, Kyoko's family, made a…..army, when they realized that here, on level ground, innocent people were slaughtered right and left. An army of ninja, to be precise. I am the current head; Kyoko is to succeed me. Meaning, her husband will be head of this huge army, the Makashiro clan.

Mino laughed out loud. "What army?"

Ten score of ninja, hidden in various niches and nooks of the room, popped up suddenly, weapons brandished, katas ready to be chanted.

The smile quickly faded from Mino's weathered face.

"Can we not talk about that now? Besides, I'm pretty sure that I can trust Zelda…."

"Right." Kenwa was deep in thought. "Did….did you see how they looked at us after we had demonstrated our powers?"

Kyoko was very relieved that the conversation had turned away from the matter at hand. "Unfortunately, yes."

"And with a tournament coming up…."

"That's why I'm not going."

Kenwa looked incredulous. "Really?"

Kyoko nodded. "If we make them all quit because of us, I wouldn't want to hang around any longer. I want them to trust us. Not like…those other fighters…."

Kenwa pondered this awhile before saying something else. "Then how are we going to earn our keep here?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out…."

Now, in another part of Smasher Mansion, Zelda was holding a meeting with…some Smashers the author will not name right now.

"Now, let us send 'Mission: Confession' on its way…."