Part 3: Time with the Sakamotos, Afternoon
"Hey, Ma! I'm back!" he called out.
"Oh, hello Ryuji!" a sweet, bodied voice replied back. Stepping inside, we'd all taken our shoes off by the front door and followed him into the main area. His house was a two bed - the kitchen area could accommodate up to 3 people given its modest size. With a sink and dishwasher unit in the middle of the cupboard area, the cooker used gas hobs instead of electrical ones and had both oven and grill facilities. It led to the dining area with a table that could accommodate 6 people with a cabinet to its left. The living room area had two single person chairs - one for Ryuji and one for his mother. A TV was placed in the back corner of the room with carpet floor in use. His mother was seated in the rightmost chair. Her hair was a lovely brunette with blonde streaks and her mahogany brown eyes matched her sons. She had an average build and a wonderful complexion. The fragrance she wore didn't overpower her natural aroma either. She wore a simple pink cardigan, yellow dress and brown tights with grey indoor slippers. As she looked at the lot of us, she went over to investigate Ann with a warm smile on her face.
"It's been far too long since I've seen you two. Ann…you look as stunning as ever - are you trying to give Oko a run for her money?" This led Ann to blush crimson in silence.
"How are Oko and Chad doing?" She asked, easing Ann's heart.
"Working as usual, Ramie-san…they're doing okay."
"And Shiho…you've still got an overly sensible aura around you. I sense you've found that someone in your life who's worth your time. It's jagged edge over there, right?" Shooting an odd nickname my way, it seems I was brought into the fold.
"Guilty as charged, ma'am. I'm Ren Amamiya." I happened to playfully respond to her to which she'd responded in kind.
"None of that ma'am talk. You'll make me feel a lot older than I want to. Just call me Ramie or Ramie-san if that's too uncomfortable." She chided me in a way that I couldn't refuse.
"I'll stick with Ramie then. It's truly a pleasure to meet you." I went over to shake her hand.
"What a young gentleman. Now buzz off for a little, curly." Okay…wasn't expecting that but whatever. She then turned her attention back to Shiho.
"Shiho…you're still nuts over volleyball, right?"
"Yes…though I've been having some doubts lately." she responded.
"Well, you can tell me all about it over some chai tea. It's your favourite, right?" Ramie replied. Both Ann and Shiho had looks of grief on their faces. I had no idea the relationship either girl had with their parents but one thing was for sure: Ramie probably was like a second mother to them both. Seeing such motherly love reminded me of my own mother and how I really needed to get over my silly pride and call my folks at home. Even though I knew this answer in my mind, it didn't feel that way in my heart.
"Sorry I didn't keep in touch…" Ann said.
"Me too…" Shiho followed on. This led Ramie to hug the two young woman like they were her own daughters.
"You're here now. Don't sweat something as silly as that. My door won't shut on either of you - not now, not ever." With that reassurance, the two girls reciprocated the action.
"And who are the two quiet cuties hiding behind fuzzy here?" Ramie critiqued. Sumire and Futaba were frightened they were intruding on such a family like setting - they didn't hide behind my back but were awkwardly stood there.
"Mom's friendly. She's not gonna bite." Ryuji teased. Sumire spoke up first.
"I'm Sumire Yoshizawa. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sakamoto-san's mother!"
"Oh no…that won't do at all. There's manners and then there's…your shtick. Ramie or Ramie-san, okay Yoshi? And I expect you to use my son's name too." She glinted.
"R-Ramie-san…thank you for having me here." Sumire bowed her head, slightly embarrassed at her pet nickname.
"F-Futaba Sakura. Nice to meet you…Ramie-san." Futaba squeaked holding out her hand for Ramie to shake. It led her to laugh in Futaba's face for a little before she even got around to shaking it.
"I'm just playing with you, blossom…how'd you meet such innocent young girls, Ryuji?"
"Uh…about that, it's because of Ren that I know the two of them."
"I see. Well, I can't help but be extremely glad to know you've all stayed by my son and kept him in check. Where did you guys go earlier?"
"Took 'em round the ramen joint!"
"And that explains the bloated stomachs. If you wanted to have a feast, you could've asked, Ryuji. Not that it matters now. I suppose I should let you all hang amongst yourselves, right?"
"Cheers, Ma!"
"Tea's ready by the way, Shiho." What an understanding, approving mother. Shiho went into the dining area to sit down whilst the rest of us went upstairs to check out Ryuji's room. Situated in the back left corner of the floor, his mother's room was opposite the bathroom which was the first thing facing our eyes. Heading inside, I chose not to have any thoughts towards the room but the same couldn't be said about everyone else. His room was about the size of a student dorm and had the feel of a chill hangout. Towards the upper right of the back wall, the window presented us with a view of the neighbours' homes and opened a slight amount. To the right of this window was Ryuji's cupboards - they stood a few inches away from the ceiling. To the left wall was a standard small double bed that had a particular height allowing for things to be stored underneath. The corner that we first saw had a set of 5, 10 and 15kg weights as well as a bunch of protein powders and other gym stuff under the desk that resided there. Not that much studying was done on it, it seemed.
"Wait…" Ann bewilderedly reacted.
"Seriously…" Shiho exclaimed.
"Sakamoto-san…what a lovely room!"
"What did I say about first names?!" Ramie bellowed. These were thin walls and thin floors so hearing upstairs from downstairs was not difficult.
"Sorry!" Sumire responded back.
"Hmm…Ryuji's room is speckless indeed. I never would've thought you'd keep such cleanliness." Futaba piqued.
"Well…seeing Ren's room all the time and how he keeps it in check, I figured I'd follow suit. Let me just tell ya, the amount of random shit I found in here, you'd figure I was having a jumble sale or something! Sit wherever you like, everyone." He answered. I chose to sit on the rug, resting my back on Ryuji's cupboard - Futaba took a bed seat with Ann whilst Sumire and Ryuji sat to my right.
"You use G-Fuel, Ryuji?"
"Yeah. What's it to you, Sumire? Is it okay I use your name?" Sumire smiled gently and provided a proper response.
"Of course. It's just…Are you trying to use it as a pre-workout drink or an energy supplement? It works as the latter but not really the former."
"Does it make a difference?"
"Are you serious, Ryuji?! Of course it does! You don't drink an energy supplement for a pre-workout session - you need proper proteins, fat and carbs!" Sumire berated.
"Well, it doesn't leave me crashed out and I like the taste…even if it ain't much, it's better than nothing." Ryuji shot back.
"No! No! No! You use it 20 minutes after your MAIN workout begins but there are better supplements out there. Take Omega-3 and caffeine for example - you can get that naturally from fish dishes and coffee respectively."
"Why don't you hit Leblanc a little more, Ryuji?" Futaba offered slyly.
"Hate fish and not the biggest on coffee I'm afraid."
""What?!"" Sumire and Futaba audibly reacted.
"You know I take my coffee with lots of milk and sugar, right? I was never really one for the bitterness."
"My my…someone doesn't appreciate a good brew when they have one for free." Ann mocked.
"Leblanc is an exception. Boss makes really good coffee…" Ryuji defended, contradicting himself rather poorly. Looking over onto the desk, there was this picture of Ryuji and some other Shujin guys - given that Nishihara and the other one whatever he was called was in it, I could only assume this was a time where the track team existed.
"Seems you're all quite active without me." Shiho observed, sitting right by me and leaning her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my left arm around her.
"You've not really missed anything. Now that everyone's here, we've got things to discuss going forward." The relaxed atmosphere now had a focused calm and collective air. We put on some music to distort the conversation from Ramie - I didn't want to add another parent who had to harbour their child's secrets.
"If we're going to continue, we'll need to take our busy schedules into account to reduce the chance of our double lives catching up to us." I started.
"Things such as part-time jobs or family events will need to come first. Other celebrations such as our birthdays will come up and we may need to sacrifice them. When taking on Kamoshida's Palace, you all went in after school, right? Sundays, you had the option to enter a little earlier though." Shiho finished, opening up the floor.
"It's not like I've got a fixed schedule. My shoots are on a request basis. They always take place after school, sometimes much later in the evening." Ann contributed.
"Thing is, we don't know how long it'll take to get to safe rooms where you can instant teleport home, Panther. Plus…that feature may not work in future Palaces. The backers will begin to take everything around them with a pinch of salt and have their guards up. As such, we may need to begin sacrificing our evenings or our sleep." Futaba explained.
"I don't like the sound of that very much…" Ann contemplated. Neither did the others.
"I've got training almost every day after school. Sundays are usually the only days I get off - there may be the odd cancellation or two so on those days, I can lend my strength." Sumire explained.
"Well, you're our cook for that very reason. You'll feed us when we have long periods in the Metaverse!" Futaba pitched.
"Oracle, I need you to conjure up experiments of any and every kind using your knowledge. Unlock everything this Meta-Nav can do if you would and cram it with features aplenty. We'll conduct them under your direction when we can. It should allow us to get far stronger."
"Leave it to me!" Flashing me a thumbs-up, a grin flashed on my face.
"Oh! I will need to learn how to use this gun and sword." Sumire chipped in.
"Panther and Skull will be on that the next Palace we find." I reassured.
"Can I see your sword?" Ann asked. Sumire gladly obliged and took out the exquisite rapier for all to see. Everyone was captivated at the craftsmanship that went into the model - a lot of time and care was put in for those who called themselves a serious collector. We might not even be able to display this one…it looks far more pricier than I'd have liked.
"It's beautiful…" Futaba whispered.
"Goes perfectly with you, Violet." Shiho complimented.
"A girl's sword is her treasure, after all." She charmingly replied. That doesn't sound quite right…
"Um…the saying doesn't go like that. It's diamonds are a girl's best friend…" Ann corrected. Hmm…sounds right.
"Yeah, that sounds more accurate." Ryuji concurred. This led Sumire to chuckle awkwardly.
"So, the summary of it is we'll need to consider moving Palace efforts to the evenings on certain days and just try to accommodate the unexpected events. The next thing I need to bring up is the questioning. I'll need to get confirmation from Sae Niijima as to a timeframe so we can prepare for it if possible."
"Right…you should see her at some point." I highly doubted that anyone was in the dark as to who she was at this point in time.
"Whether we have a timeframe or not, the investigation into Shujin is going to happen sometime in the not too distant future. At that point, the police will come in and question everyone who's there. For obvious reasons, you'll be excluded from questioning Oracle. We won't be able to risk getting caught doing Palace stuff so you'll need to find some distractions."
"Oh…" Sumire gasped.
"That's not exactly reassuring…" Ryuji thought aloud.
"A lot of things will come to light after the questioning happens. Seeing as there are several people who need to give their statements, it can't happen in one fell swoop. Like I said, I'll work on getting confirmation for the exact date but give me some time." I supplemented.
"What can we do in the meantime?"
"Study, I guess? We do still have those exams coming up…or are you all telling me you forgot they were coming up?"
"Urgh…" "It's not like I intentionally forgot…" "Way to shoot down the mood…" "I kind of did…" Ryuji, Ann, Shiho and Sumire each reacted respectively to my question.
"You know…if it's sounding boring, why not make it a group session?" Futaba offered, opting not to mock the school attendees in a rare moment of Alibaba maturity.
"I can lend my knowledge to help you guys out. More brains can't hurt, can it?"
"You can't enter our school. Plus, even with our club, the school wouldn't make an exception to allow you into there."
"So the school doesn't need to be the backdrop." The group sure enough turned to look at me as if to tell me two things: Leblanc was the destination to study and I was the one who had to ask permission from Sojiro. Futaba couldn't do it on behalf of my friends even though they were also hers.
"I GET IT. I'll ask Sojiro for permission to have a study session. THAT being said, you guys need to take it seriously. I won't have you come just to chill out. Unless it's a break, I want to see a real effort put in."
"Thanks, Joker." Ann grinned. Luckily, I didn't have a chorus of gratitude thrown my way.
"Ryuji, Rain and co! Can you all come down, please?" Ramie called to us.
"Rain?" I sarcastically asked.
"Your name in English, dude." All six of us came downstairs, following after Ramie and entered the dining area. Ramie continued into the kitchen.
"Would you guys like supper? I've put together seafood hot pot tonight. It's been a long time that Ryuji's had company and I figured this was worth cooking to commemorate it."
"Really?! Yes, please!" Futaba was the first to sign on.
"That would be wonderful." Sumire also signed on quickly.
"Oh yes! Your food is to die for!" Ann's eyes glowed and she was ecstatic.
"Why would I ever not have some?!" Shiho expressed, slightly salivating and licking her tongue. That expression's going into the memory banks…
"Looks like everyone's on board, Ramie. Let's see what you can do." I challenged.
"Hmm…with talk like that, I'll kick your taste buds around silly!" Ryuji and Ramie moved in sync - whilst Ramie carefully placed out the bowls, placemats and chopsticks to our seats, Ryuji took great care bringing in the prepared hotpot and putting it in the middle of the table. Shiho sat in between Sumire on her right and myself on the left. We were by the cabinet side. Ryuji and Ramie sat at the head and foot of the table meaning Ann and Futaba were seated opposite us. I was sat on a stool to make things easier for the others. With a giant serving ladle, we would portion out what we want for ourselves.
""""Thanks for the food!"""" We all chimed before digging into the dish in front of us. I took my first bite…and I felt like a right idiot for ever doubting Ramie's skill. Impossible! This is ridiculously, insanely good! I turned to her on instinct and she flashed a cheeky smile my way.
"Surprised? I've honed my skill on this particular dish for many years." she puffed.
"We need Sojiro to try some of this!" Futaba suggested to me.
"Sorry, but we don't let anyone in on our Sakamoto Seafood Special. We ain't having no thieves come and steal our recipe, right Ma?"
"Couldn't say it any better, Ryuji." Ramie instantly replied.
"Hmph…it can always be replicated." I teased jokingly.
"Just for that…you can help with the cleanup after due to your doubting tendencies, Rain." Great…I just had to open my gob, didn't I? Nonetheless, we tucked into our bowls of hot pot. Savouring the squid, crab, shrimp and tilapia pieces was so hard to do when the perfectly boiled vegetables and well balanced broth harmoniously weaved the flavours on our tongues and tickled our sweet, salty and bitter zones. I kept on shooting glances at the chef - that was just how monstrously good this dish was. Before we knew it, everyone was finished and truly satisfied with the portions they had. There was not a trace of the hot pot to be found and now my role as clean up guy would begin. Ann was now really tired and ready to fall asleep.
"Right, you all head on up or elsewhere and Rain and I will take care of clean up. Ann, you can take whichever bed you like - I know I can trust you." Ramie proposed.
"Go for it, everyone." I informed. Ryuji, Ann, Shiho and Sumire went straight upstairs to chill and play some games - Ryuji had plenty of games that everyone could go off and play. I probably wouldn't hear any more from Ann for a while.