Chapter Nine: Return of the Sun
It was another chaotic morning in Hinata House… was there ever really another kind? Naru mused as she worked on getting dressed and prepared for teaching. She made a face, looking at her options. Actual dresses felt like she was wearing a tent now. Skirts could still be worn, if they had an elastic waist, but the need to wear them above the baby bump meant the hems were that much shorter than before. At least her pregnancy meant the perverts among the middle school boys—which pretty much meant all of them—weren't ogling her as much as they were earlier. Even that Kokeru creature wasn't that much of a problem now that she felt like a whale. The draw back was, some of those boys had taken to calling her Debu-sensei behind her back… or at least they did until Haruna-sensei overheard and brought kaminokari down on them and the girls in her classes responded with indignation. They learned their lesson… or at least were more careful about not being overheard.
After making a decision that involved the fewest compromises between feeling feminine and feeling modest, she made her way down stairs with Hachi, making a face at the overcast weather she would have to walk the dog in. Sara was there seconds later.
"I can take him for you if you want," she offered, feigning indifference. By Naru's edict, Kokeru had been banished from Hinata House until after school was over on weekdays, and Haruka had barred her from leaving for school until after breakfast, which meant she was being cooperative again.
"Thank you," Naru said, handing her the leash. "You know," she added, hoping to help her make some right decisions, "You do so well with animals that I bet you'd be a good veterinarian someday.
Sara briefly perked up with interest, but settled back down to her sullen teenage ways. "Ugh, I'd need to go to more school to do that. No thanks."
Then what are you going to do when you graduate? But she let it rest. Just being pregnant was becoming more of an effort, so she picked her battles that meant additional effort more carefully.
Entering the kitchen, she was greeted with the usual hellos, and Nagumo dashing for the door before she could be asked for rent. Naru gritted her teeth, but now this was another case of picking her battles carefully. She didn't know what effect running would have on her baby, and she wasn't willing to risk it. Maybe I should ask if Motoko will run her down. Unfortunately, she wasn't here now, wanting to prepare her manuscript before her classes because she had a meeting with her publisher afterwards.
"Naru," Shinobu said, looking up from the stove, "your stepmother called again, and asks if you would please call her at a convenient time." She gave a disapproving look, knowing that Naru wouldn't.
She sure seems to call a lot, Naru thought. This was the third time this week. "Okay, if she calls again, please tell her I will call when I can." She made a face at the thought that she couldn't duck this forever.
"Ara, ara," Mutsumi said, misinterpreting. "Are you experiencing heartburn?"
"No, it's not so bad right now." Her morning sickness had faded away, but now that her uterus was rising in her abdomen, the heartburn was replacing it. Naru looked down at her abdomen. According to Mutsumi, the baby was probably less than 13 cm long and weighed less than 150 grams. For somebody so small, you take up a lot of room! she thought, caressing the baby, and feeling like one of the whales at Kamogawa Sea World. "Just a bit tired-" She winced as everybody rushed to try to help her with inconsequential things that ended up making more work for her. "Not that kind of tired! More like I lack the mental and physical energy to do some things."
"You're taking your vitamins and supplements, right?" Mutsumi asked, "Getting enough sleep?"
Naru nodded. "Yes, I think I'm following the doctor's instructions properly, and I haven't deviated from the last time you checked."
"Hmm, well these things do come and go, but you better mention it to Dr. Juse on your next visit." She threw her arms around Naru. "I'm so excited to learn if the baby is a boy or a girl… I was up all night, thinking of baby names!"
Naru sweatdropped.
Haruka frowned. "Normal or not, we really haven't come any closer to finding anyone to step up for her." She held up her hands to stem the protests. "I know you're all trying to help. But there are still some holes in the coverage." She turned to Naru. "I'm including myself in this. I feel bad about leaving Sara with you over the weekend. I feel like a hypocrite bringing up the others."
Naru smiled gently. "Well, it's not that kind of fatigue. It's more like I find myself calculating whether it's worth the effort to deal with certain things or just let them slide. That's true here, but it's also true where I teach at Juban. It's a good thing Ms. Haruna is there to go after the troublemakers when I feel like that."
"I see," Haruka said, looking at the door through which Nagumo had fled a few minutes before. At 35, she also had reached the stage of pick your battles carefully, but for different reasons than Naru. "Sometimes, I think we need someone around here who would love to play the enforcer and just doesn't give a damn about the consequences."
"Sounds like a nice idea," Naru said, taking an antacid tablet and sweatdropping as Su walked by carrying armload of rockets. "You know any candidates?"
"I might know one," Haruka replied, idly swatting Su with her harisen. It's probably time I paid a visit to Nakagyo anyway, and since Sara will be at school…. She looked outside the window and saw it was starting to sprinkle. Haruka sighed. Well, I promised Naru. I better get my coat.
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Shinobu's classes started later that morning, so she saw the others off before finishing up the chores and doing some studies. On one hand, she wanted to be at Todai so she could be near Takane. On the other hand, she didn't want to come across as a yandere type either. Sitting down at the kotatsu with her books, she began to look over the latest assignment, hoping it would stop raining when it was time to leave for school.
At that moment, the phone rang. Sighing, she got up to retrieve it. "Hello? This is Hinata House, Shinobu Maehara speaking. How can I help you?"
"Hello again, Miss Maehara," came a very familiar voice. "I'm sorry for the continued inconvenience, but I was hoping to speak to my stepdaughter, Naru."
"Ah, I'm sorry, Mrs. Narusegawa. She left for classes five minutes ago."
"I see," Mrs. Narusegawa replied. "I'm not going to hear from her, am I?"
"Never give up hope, Mrs. Narusegawa!" Shinobu blurted out without thinking. Auuu! Why do I always do that? Trying to be more professional, she continued, "Umm, there is a lot going on her life right now that keeps her busy."
On the other end of the phone, Mrs. Narusegawa gave a small, slightly sad, smile at Shinobu's earnest tone. The young woman wasn't lying to her, but was trying to be loyal too about Naru's not calling. "I see. Can you tell me at least if she is doing well? Is her baby okay?"
Caught off guard, Shinobu hesitated but decided there was nothing wrong with telling her. "Everything seems fine so far to me. If there are any emergencies, nobody told me."
Mrs. Narusegawa was ready to hang up after thanking her, but a thought struck her. "While I am on the line, you work here, representing Hinata House, right? And it's not just a dormitory anymore right?"
"Well, yes?" Shinobu said, surprised by this change of direction. "Nobody ever uses it for the other but…"
"Well, maybe you can help me with something…" Mrs. Narusegawa proceeded to describe what she needed.
Shinobu smiled as she heard the details. "I think I can help you with that," she said picking up a pad and a pencil.
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Keitaro sighed as he stepped out of his (unexpectedly) last lecture of the day. There was a leak in the roof in the archeology department and the students needed to leave. Up until that point, the day passed by routinely, and the students at his guest lectures were interested in his accounts of dealing with the ancient cultures of the South Pacific… and thankfully now it was mostly focused on the discoveries. When he first started, some of the younger students —and some military otaku—had looked at the events he experienced leading to the tragedy on Pararakelse as if he was Indiana Jones exchanging gunfire with enemy soldiers while hanging from the wheel of a flying airplane. That had been hard while he was dealing with survivor's guilt and a couple of times he had been almost ready to chuck it. But thanks to the support of his wife and Dr. Nakahara, he was gradually coming to a balance over it. He'd always be sorrowful when he remembered the death of Makie Saito, but at least he no longer blamed himself for it.
I'm glad it was Artyom who killed that soldier and not me, he thought to himself. I don't know if I ever would forgive myself if I took a life.
He checked his watch. Hmm, earlier than usual. It was still raining, but if he cut across campus, maybe he could make it to the train and to Naru's school before her classes let out. It would be nice if we could see the return of the sun.
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Kanako saw Keitaro crossing the quad at a distance, but he was looking the wrong way in the rain, so he didn't see her wave. She smiled at the irony… I wished I could go to Todai with my brother… I got my wish but not as I expected. She shrugged. He was happy, so she was happy.
Looking around at the path she needed to take, she decided to cut through the entrance of one of the cafés on campus to get to her classroom. She knew she was supposed to stick to the paths and not take shortcuts through buildings, but dammit, it was raining out. Ducking inside she made a beeline for the back door, trying to avoid the eye of the woman at the register, and she stopped suddenly. Motoko was sitting at a table with a man in his early to mid-30s—somewhat handsome—engaged in animated conversation. Papers were spread across the table and they both picked up different sheets as they talked.
"…this is different from your past approaches, but I like it Ms. Aoyama," the man said. "Turning Ms. Bluepeak into the other woman who bravely gives up her love is going to be a switch for the romance readers."
Motoko smiled, demurely. "Do you think so? I'm glad. I decided I needed to stop doing the typical story and try something that was less fantasy and more plausible. But I wasn't sure if that would be all right."
"Well, if he balks I'll glad to tell my father that this one comes with my personal recommendation."
"Well thank you very much Mr. Gotanja."
"Please, call me Yuto," he said smiling.
"All right, Yuto, if you call me Motoko."
Kanako shrugged. It was a business meeting that Motoko had told them about already, but she did seem to be acting more feminine than usual. Time to get out of here before I get spotted, she thought, remembering every other incident in Hinata House where person あ walked in on person い.
"Heya Kanako! Heya Bluepeak! How ya doing?" Su shouted, running up, carrying a backpack worth of what looked like ordinance. Kanako and Motoko both sweatdropped and glared, and tried to wave her away. Su ignored them and grinned. "Ooh, Motoko, is this your new boyfriend?"
Motoko's glare deepened. But before she could say anything, Su looked at her watch. "Oops! Gotta get to class. See yas!" She rushed out leaving the other two and the embarrassed Mr. Gotanja as the focus of the stares of the students in the building.
Don't tell anybody! Motoko mouthed with a fierce glare.
Kanako responded with a roll of her eyes and a gesture to the direction in which Su had disappeared.
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Despite their different start times, the Todai attendees and Naru all made it home close to the same time. Apparently it was an interesting day over there, Naru thought. Kanako and Motoko were avoiding eye contact, and both were glaring at Su and her empty backpack as they all got off the streetcar. A newsstand displayed the evening Yomiuri Shinbun showed the headline Mysterious Explosions at Tokyo University Campus Robotics Lab. She sighed, figuring there was more drama to deal with.
They made their way up the steps through the rain silently, except for Su glancing at Motoko and saying to Shinobu, "I have a secret, Shinomu" in a stage whisper, followed by Motoko taking wild swings with her shinai.
The kitchen was in the usual chaos, with Kitsune—apparently off the fruit juice wagon—was partially intoxicated, Kokeru clinging onto an irate Sara who was punching him away, and Nagumo, who was looking over a racing form. Dishes and remains of snacks were scattered across the table.
Shinobu sighed at the thought of the wreckage she would have to clean up, while Naru sighed at the disciplinary wreckage. Better get started. "Nagumo! You're very behind on the rent," she said, hoping she wouldn't be a pushover. "You need to either pay up or set up an arrangement today."
"Welp, I'm outta here," Kitsune said, getting up and walking to the teahouse, weaving slightly.
"Arrangements? Right," Nagumo said, swiftly and decisively… before swiftly and decisively jumping up and running for the exit."
"Is that the deadbeat?" croaked an old tired voice? Everyone whirled to see Grandma standing at the doorway with Haruka. She looked old and frail, with two crutches supporting her.
"Uh huh," Haruka nodded wearily.
"On it," Grandma Hina replied, grabbing her crutches in one hand and rushing after Nagumo full speed. "Yamero! Zakennayo, you lazy deadbeat!" she shouted as she rushed out after Nagumo.
Everyone stared and sweatdropped. "Erm… should she be doing that after her heart attack?" Naru asked.
Haruka sighed and shrugged. "You try telling her anything…."
Naru nodded, taking out an antacid and swallowing it.
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Try as she might, Nagumo couldn't shake her pursuer. Is everybody crazy around here? Worse, the crazy old lady was gaining on her. Desperate she put on a burst of speed. Ha! She was pulling away now!
A whirling whoosh of a sound came from behind. Nagumo instinctively jumped into the air as one of the crutches nearly grazed the bottom of of her shoe. "Ha!" she shouted, looking back over her shoulder... just in time to be struck in the face by the other cane.
Staggering, she crashed through the door of the tea house, sprawling on the floor. She looked up to see Kitsune sitting unsteadily on a stool, looking down at her.
"I've had too many," Kitsune muttered to herself.
"Kitsune!" Nagumo said, desperately, "I need a favor!"
"I don't have any money to lend ya, dammit!" Kitsune snapped.
"Not that! There's a crazy old woman chasing after me! I need you to hide me!"
"Crazy… old woman ya say? Not one of the residents?"
Nagumo pulled herself off the floor, picked up a pair of reading glasses that Mutsumi had left behind, and grabbing a bar cloth, ducked down and pretended to clean, hoping she wouldn't be noticed by this stranger… or at least be mistaken for somebody else.
Grandma Hina rushed through the door. "Where is that deadbeat?"
"Grandma Hina!" Kitsune exclaimed in excitement and surprise. "I didn't know ya were back!"
"Just temporarily, Mitsune," Grandma Hina said in a gentler tone. "I'm looking for that new girl who's been giving my granddaughter-in-law a hard time. You see her?"
"Uhm…," Kitsune said, finding this all a bit hard to follow at her present level of intoxication. Nagumo wanted protection, Grandma wanted information, and she was having a hard time trying to figure out what took the least amount of effort to do, let alone the right thing.
Grandma Hina's expression looked a little disappointed, but compassionate. Oh dear, you're not doing well, are you? She'd have to try to gently set the girl straight again. But, first things first. "Who's that behind the counter?"
"Counter?" Kitsune said, trying to hold together a coherent thought.
Realizing Kitsune wasn't going to be of any help, Nagumo said in a disguised squeaky voice, "I'm the new help, ma'am."
"Ah, I see, the hired help… you need help running the place, Mitsune?"
Kitsune blinked unsteadily. "Well, it's a little more of a challenge with Mutsumi needin' to prepare for her final exams and her residency."
"I see." With a speed and agility that should have been physically impossible—especially considering her small stature—she lunged over the counter and dragged Nagumo out. "Well, you can work here to pay off your rent. You owe about ¥90,000 for the last three months, and I'll pay you minimum wage to help Mitsune here… Let's see… 90,000 at ¥700 an hour, more'n you're worth by my guess, you have to work about a hundred twenty nine hours to pay that off, plus the upcoming rent… you'll be busy this month playing catch up."
"Hey! What gives you the right?" Nagumo demanded, reacting to the influx of responsibility with horror. She looked to Kitsune for appeal.
Kitsune rolled her eyes. "This is Hinata Urashima… the person the place is named after…"
"That's right toots," Hina said, dumping Nagumo on her ass on the floor. "I gave it to my grandson so he'd have to be allowed to stay here, but I can still call the shots here if I want to… including who stays and who goes. So, don't get any smart ideas about not showing up for work without an excuse."
Turning around, she headed for the door. "See you at dinner, Mitsune-chan," she said sweetly.
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Since the rain had briefly let up, coinciding with Grandma Hina's arrival, they opened the sliding door to let the setting sunlight in. Dinner was both a joyous and intimidating affair. Joyous because Grandma Hina was visiting them again. Intimidating, because her tongue was as acerbic as usual.
"It's good to be away from everyone keeping a close eye on me," she cracked. "Although it might have been more bearable if I had more visitors come by."
Everyone sweatdropped, even though the doctors had said that she shouldn't have many visitors.
"So…" Keitaro said, "the doctors said everything was okay?"
"Yeah, the docs said I could start traveling again. Well, technically they said they couldn't stop me if I chose to ignore their advice. Close enough."
Everybody sweatdropped again.
"Well, if you're ready to travel again, I can join you Grandmother," Kanako said hesitantly. She loved Grandma, and was willing to do so. The only problem was the old woman was pretty impetuous. For all she knew, Grandma Hina might say "Okay, let's go right now." That could be awkward.
"No, grandchild… you finish your degree first," Grandma Hina said firmly. "You worked hard to get to this point!" She turned to Naru and Keitaro. "So, speaking on family, I got your anteiki. how's my great-grandchild coming along?"
"Well, the baby seems to be coming along fine," Naru said, placing her hand over her baby bump. "We'll be doing some tests later this week to keep an eye out how things go. And we'll find out the baby's gender too."
"Times sure have changed," Grandma Hina mused. "Used to be you had to wait until the kid popped out before you knew what you were getting. So, you picked out names yet?"
"Actually, Grandma," Keitaro said, "We wanted to talk to you about that. If the baby turns out to be a girl, we thought we'd like to name her-"
"No," Grandma Hina said, flatly.
"No?" Naru asked, taken aback.
"Don't get me wrong. I'm honored that you want to use my name, of course. But I'm old and superstitious. Naming a baby after me now seems likes it's just tempting fate, asking the spirits to send me onward, and I'm not ready for that yet. Save it for the kid you have after I'm gone!" She held out her sake cup for a refill. "Bad enough that deranged monk keeps popping up, saying it's fate."
Kokeru gave a yelp, and jumped to his feet, looking around wildly. Seeing nobody, he cautiously sat back down, but had a haunted look on his face.
Keitaro and Naru looked down, feeling awkward. "I guess we'll have to try another idea."
"I have some ideas!" Mutsumi said, enthusiastically.
Naru winced and swallowed another antacid.
Haruka put her hand on Grandma Hina's arm. "Grandma…" she said, placatingly.
Grandma Hina took out a harisen and hit her with it. "Don't call me grandma! It makes me feel old! I adopted ya!"
Keitaro smiled and turned to Naru. "I guess I know where Aunt Haruka gets her behavior from."
Haruka grabbed the harisen from Grandma Hina and smacked Keitaro with it, glaring at him.
"Ah," Motoko said, hoping to head the conversation back in a constructive direction. "What will you call your child if it's a boy?
"Well," Keitaro said, rubbing his head, "we both liked the name Shinnosuke, so we'll probably go with that."
"Well, that's a nice name," Shinobu said. …So why does it sound so ominous?
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After dinner, Grandma Hina collected Kitsune and took her out to the tea room to talk, ejecting Nagumo. Nagumo came to dinner, looking depressed. "Because of my debts, my life is nothing but work and gambling now. Where did I go wrong?" She sighed dramatically, looking for sympathy.
Naru rolled her eyes, not having any after chasing her for rent for three months. "With gambling, dumbass."
"But your grandmother won't give me the money I earn, so how can I win big and pay it all off at once, if I can't dream big?"
"So dream smaller and pay it off a little at a time," Naru growled, taking another antacid out of the package.
Mutsumi frowned. "Ara, ara, Nacchan, these shouldn't be treated like after dinner mints…." The younger woman hadn't exceeded her dosage yet, but if she didn't watch her habits, she might fall into taking too many in late pregnancy.
"AUUUU! Is it dangerous?" Shinobu cried out, wringing her hands.
Keitaro shook his head. "Come on girls, there's nothing dangerous here." He turned to Mutsumi. "...is there?"
I should have kept my mouth shut, Mutsumi thought, grabbing the antacid out of Naru's hand and swallowing it as a cacophony of alarms rose from the girls (apart from Naru).
Grandma Hina came back then, with a contrite looking Kitsune who was back to fruit juice. The old woman looked tired now. "Girls, I need to go home to rest. Don't give Naru any crap, y'hear? She has enough to deal with without any fuss from you!" She turned to Keitaro. "Take good care of your wife and my great grandchild now, got it?"
There was a chorus of Hai from the girls as Grandma Hina embraced Naru. "The first one's rough because you never know what to expect until it happens. Second one's easier though. So if you and my grandson want to get busy on making a second after this one is born, go right ahead."
Naru blushed.
Grandma Hina turned to Haruka. "I'm ready to go back to Nakagyo, Haruka-chan."
"I can take you, Grandma Hina," Keitaro said, seeing Haruka's tired look of dreading another five hour round trip or staying overnight.
Grandma Hina hit him with a harisen. "What part of 'take care of your wife and my great-grandchild,' don't you understand! And the rest of you have school!" she added when Kanako opened her mouth.
"Yeah, we can tell you all about the man we saw Motoko with today!" Su interjected.
"Oh... really?" Shinobu said, looking at Motoko with an intensely icy smile. "I'd love to hear about that.
Sweatdropping at the thought of facing a potentially vindictive Shinobu, Motoko grabbed Grandma Hina's coat, an umbrella and taking her arm said, "I can take you. I'm not graduating this year."
"Hey! Put me down!" Hina protested as Motoko scooped her up and out the door.
Su giggled. "I'm gonna have so much fun with this!"
"Looks like it's starting to rain again," Kanako said. Naru thought she looked a little disappointed in not getting to go back to Nakagyo with her grandmother.
"You're right," Ema nodded. "Strange that we only saw the sun when Mrs. Urashima was here."
"Well, it's fitting," Naru said. "She brought a little brightness into Hinata House after this dreary weather."
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Author's Notes
Hina is sometimes translated as "sun." Hence the title.
Nagumo, who's modeled after a character from the manga CITY, hasn't been used too much. I thought now was a good a time to use this scene before she wound up forgotten. Likewise Grandma Hina who fell off the radar after Forever And A Day.
Debu-sensei Literally "Fat teacher," though given considering how we in the West address teachers as Mr., Mrs., or Miss, it looks like an equivalent translation might be "Mrs. Fatso." Recently, some Japanese are working to find less blunt terms for plus sizes than debu, but apparently it's still the common term today.
Kaminokari literally "wrath of god"
"It's probably time I paid a visit to Nakagyo anyway." Akamatsu based the Urashima family candy store after a real one in the Nakagyo district of Kyoto. Since I'm not aware of any official designation of where the Urashima family lived, I figured I'd just run with it.
"Mr. Gotanja" a pun adjusting the diacritical marks on the kana of the name of a real Japanese publishing company. By sheer coincidence, I discovered I can take some kanji and get a sense of "five river love" out of it—which fits for the publisher of romance novels.
"where person あ walked in on person い." We might say in English, "When person A walked in on person B" as these hiragana are the first two syllables.
"Yamero" would be a very rude way to stay "stop."
"Just temporarily, Mitsune." It's easy to forget that Kitsune's actual name is Mitsune Konno.
"at ¥700 an hour" Grandma Hina is essentially paying her minimum wage.