A/N: Sorry I have not updated this story since my initial publication, but my life has been very crazy. Hopefully, I will have better luck now that my school is out until the end of January, but I can't promise anything. Please bear with me. I hope this chapter will placate my one reader for now. Please remember to read and review.
Chapter –1 "Upbringing"
Where should I begin? This is the most difficult question for any autobiographer to answer and in my case more so. I have lived before, but I will get into that later. I think the best way to start is to shed light on my beginnings (for this life).
I was born January 27, 1978 to Tenoh Suki. Suki-sama was a beautiful woman, or so I'm told. She died as a result of complications from my birth. I realize how rare it is these days for a woman to die giving birth, but Suki-sama had a heart condition that the doctors did not catch in time, and the stress of the birth killed her. I thank the Gods everyday that she was strong enough to give me life, even if she did not live to see it.
Anyway, on to less morbid thinking. My father, Tenoh Kado, was a strong and powerful businessman. He raised me with a little help from my nanny and tutor Lee Elisa. Lee-sensei was an American my father hired in the hopes that would be well rounded and bilingual before I started school. As you can see, from my ability to write this in English, she succeeded in her task.
Father never blamed me for my mother's death, though for a while I believed he had every right to do so. By he did blame me for not being a son and his lack of ability to have one. He got over it, sort of. He decided that since he couldn't have a son, he would groom me to be his successor in business. This meant that I had to learn what it meant to be a man, because until very recently, Japan was not the place for a woman to run a company. It happens now and again, but the way is much harder.
Father had me learn maths, sciences, economics, history of all kinds, Japanese, English, German, Spanish, and Russian. I'm well versed in all these subjects now; I had no choice but to be. He then had me learn martial arts so that I would have patience, discipline, and could above all else, defend myself if need be. I guess aside from the patience part, those lessons paid off well. Finally, he sent me to modeling school. I've never told anyone about it because, I mean, why the heck should I learn to be a model? Well the reasons were poise, refinement, and how to wear make-up. The last being the most important to father because he could not teach me that himself.
Yeah, I know how to wear make-up and which tones best suit my skin color. I also know haw to change from a twenty pound wedding gown to a skimpy cocktail dress in under a minute. And although some say I look very attractive in both (make-up and dresses), I hope to the gods I never have to put any of this information to use. Don't get me wrong, I love the way make-up and dresses look on beautiful women, but I am not comfortable in them myself. Besides, (1) I can hit on more women if they think I'm a man and (2) how on earth am I supposed to pull off a roundhouse kick wearing three-inch heels and an evening gown? (By the way, some of the Sailor Senshi blow me away with their ability to fight in heels and not kill themselves.)
Now we come to the part where I explain why I speak of father in the past tense. When I was about fourteen, I met a beautiful, young woman named Tomaru Midori, who saw through my masculine disguise immediately. She asked me out and I agreed. She is the first person I ever dated, and we only ever went on one date. Allow me to digress for a moment. We went to see the movie Mortal Kombat ® and then went out to dinner. Now up to this point, I was dressing like a boy, but since she saw the real me through my disguise, I decided to dress up for out date. She showed up at my house dressed in a suit, with her long hair pulled back in a low ponytail. I came downstairs to greet her wearing a buttercup yellow cocktail dress, heels, and a small purse to match. My father thought she was a man coming to take me out on a date. We left on our date and everything was perfect. When the night was over, I invited Midori-chan back to my house to hang out.
Well, uh, we did a little more than hang out, which brings me back to my story. Father heard us come in and go to my room. He decided to make sure that his daughter remained "unspoiled," under the pretense of offering us a snack. Let's just say, he got an eyeful. We were just making out, which wouldn't have set father off, except for the fact that Midori-chan had removed her jacket. It was plain as day that she was a woman. Needless to say he was not pleased. I think he nearly had a coronary that night as he threw Midori-chan out of the house.
The next morning, father found an apartment for me and essentially threw me out too. He left me with the words, "Until you have a respectable lifestyle, you will not live under my roof." He pays for my rent and provides whatever I need, but I am not to return until I have found a suitable courtship. Since I don't foresee that ever happening, well, I will be living out from under his roof for a long time to come.