Ch 10
Author notes: I'm going to list the various titles and honorifics that are going to be used in this chapter at the beginning so I don't have to use explain them in the middle of conversations or leave them to the end of the chapter and have the readers going WTH while they are reading. *g* BTW, the general rule is that the younger members of the family will address the older or more senior members by honorific title (ex. Ba-chan), while the older members will address the younger member by name and honorific suffix (ex. Keitaro-kun).
Oto-san – father (formal)
Oka-san – mother (formal)
Onii-san – older brother (formal)
To-san – dad (informal)
Ka-san – mom (informal)
Nii-san/Nii-chan – big brother/big bro (informal)
Ba-san/Ba-chan – grandma/granny (informal)
Keitaro was sitting at one of the back tables in the teahouse, tapping his pencil against the tabletop as he looked over the notes he had before him. The notes from the clipboard that he had carried throughout the full house inspection now ran an even dozen pages, not including the two pages of notes he had taken from the tenant room inspections.
Like he had previously told Naru, he had pretty much decided to leave the dorm open at the Hinata-sou. The problem now were the rules that were going to be put in place to keep the chaos to a minimum. Keitaro had not been kidding about rules regarding certain tenants; almost every tenant had a new rule that was a result of their actions. Keitaro had listed the new rules on a new sheet of paper, and he knew that it would go over with the tenants like a lead balloon. About the only person who's hands were clean in this entire mess was Shinobu, and one of the rules still affected her.
"Thinking deep thoughts, Kei-kun?" Keitaro looked up at the sound of his aunt's voice to see her standing beside his table, wearing her teahouse apron and a semi-amused smile on her face.
"More like working the kinks out of the plans I've come up with." Keitaro gestured to the chair opposite him and Haruka sat down. "I have the new rules I want to implement, I'm just thinking of how to present them without getting the tenants riled up. I can just force it through and they won't be able to say anything about it, but I want them to work with me and not go off again." Keitaro pushed a single sheet of paper over to Haruka, who started reading it.
After a minute, Haruka started chuckling to herself. "Yeah, I can see Motoko going off about this, and Kitsune won't be happy either. You sure you want to go through with this, Kei-kun?"
"Have to, it isn't fair what they are doing to Shinobu, and I have personal safety in mind for the rest of it. Kitsune can't just go through life scamming people, and with the costs of operating the Sou, I can't just let the rent arrears go. Than reminds me, how many people do you have working here?"
Haruka looked thoughtful for a moment. "Three part-timers. Yoko in the evenings, Karin and Jun in the mornings. I can't really afford to pay very much, so they don't make a living doing this. Yoko is retired and the other two are going to school and work here to make some extra money. Why're you asking?"
"Kitsune needs to do extra work to start paying off those arrears, and if she doesn't have a good paying job now, I kinda doubt that she is going to bust her butt to find one to start paying. If I give her a choice of paying cash up front for the arrears or working for either me or you to make the cash, she would very probably rather work for us. It would be a lot harder for her to get much past you, and who knows, she might just like working here." Keitaro smiled thinly.
"And why can't she work for you doing cleanup at the Sou?" Haruka asked, planting an elbow on the table and resting her face on her hand.
"Because either I will be too busy doing things to keep an eye on her, or it's going to be Kanako keeping an eye on her. You can imagine how well that will work out." Keitaro tilted his head to the side.
Haruka gave a shudder. "Oh yeah, not good at all. Look, I can only afford part-timers here, so it would be four hours a day, maxing out at twenty hours a week. I can pay fifteen hundred yen an hour (US$15.00). And this is if I pay cash under the table."
Keitaro did the math in his head. "That works out to four weeks work if she gives all her pay toward the arrears, eight weeks if she gives half. That sounds doable. You're going to use her to bus tables and do general cleanup, right?"
"Yeah, I'll let her get used to how I do things around here. If she keeps at it, and I see that she's a good worker, I can train her in brewing and in working the register, but that's if I'm going to really hire her on."
"Sounds good. Which brings us to the next worry, Aoyama. How am I going to get her to go for her rule?" Keitaro spread his hands in front of him.
"Well… you can always pull the samurai guest rule on her." It took a few moments for Keitaro to understand what Haruka was referring to, but then he got it.
"Ok, that might work, but it only makes the problem slightly smaller, it doesn't get rid of it."
"Tell her it can't be in plain view, and she can't carry the real deal. That plus the rule you came up with for Naru should keep the problem manageable," Haruka replied.
Keitaro considered that for a few moments before nodding in agreement. "As long as I can see her coming, I can handle her. If she manages to sneak up on me without me noticing, it won't matter what she has."
"Which brings up the most fun of the new rules. How are you going to tell Su that she can't play with her turtles in the house anymore?" Haruka grinned at Keitaro, who sighed and copied her earlier pose and braced his face with his arm on the table.
"Only one more thing left to do, Kei-kun."
Keitaro and Haruka had spent the last hour going over the plans for the dorm and the tenants residing within. Only part of the conversation had been about the new rules; repairs and remodeling had also been discussed as well. This was in between Haruka having to leave to go help out at the counter when it got busy.
Keitaro looked at his wristwatch; it was now close to 2:00 PM. The people he needed to call would very probably be at home, and if a certain person was not there, then they had her mobile number as well.
"Lend me your mobile, please?" Keitaro picked up the phone that slid across the table at him. Looking at the screen, he could see his family's home phone number was already on display.
"That's another thing I have to do, get a new mobile phone." Keitaro mumbled to himself. Keitaro had never really had much use for mobiles before he left the country, even though he had a plain vanilla flip phone for emergencies until he graduated high school. Now that he was back home, almost everyone and their dog seemed to be either talking on phones, playing games on phones, listening to music on phones or reading gods knows what on their phones. The fact that almost all of those involved had earphones plugged in did not lessen the impression that the electronics involved were connected directly to their brains. "iPod people indeed," Keitaro muttered as the distinctive *ring-ring* of the Japanese phone system began to sound in the earpiece.
"Moshi-moshi," a older male voice spoke into the phone at the other end of the call, giving the traditional Japanese phone greeting.
"Hello, oto-san, it's Keitaro, how are you?"
"Kei-kun! I'm doing well, we haven't heard from you since you returned to Japan. Everything is going well in Osaka, I trust?"
"Things could be going better, to-san, and I'm not in Osaka anymore. Granny Hina asked me to come to the Hinata-sou, and that's where I'm at now."
"I see… I take it Hina-ka-san told you about her decision regarding the family."
"You could say that. I got here a couple of days ago to find out that the Sou is now a girls' dorm, that she had left for a tour of the world's hot springs the day before, and that the tenants had not been told who their new dorm manager was. Oh, and I found out about becoming the heir and manager by a letter she left after the girls chased me all over the house thinking I was a peeper."
"Heh heh heh… ouch. You weren't hurt, were you Kei-kun?"
"No, but it was touch and go for a while. I think I'm getting things in order here, but I'm going to need some help to do so. Is Kana-chan there?"
"She's in her room, I can call her if you like. What do you mean, need her help?"
"I'm still going to study for the entrance exam for Todai, plus I need a female to help run this place, to-san. I was hoping she could come and become the assistant manager here. It will not be that much work if she and I split it up, so it should not interfere with her school work. She's still doing well in school, I trust?"
"If you can call getting a 4.2 GPA in Honors classes and cutting a wide swath through the high school karate tournaments doing well, yes. Ever since you left, she started to dedicate herself to her studies, even more than you did, Kei-kun."
Keitaro winced at that remark. The final two years of high school he had done nothing but study school and prep materials, stopping only to sleep, eat, and at the insistence of his parents and grandmother, practice his martial arts skills.
The martial arts were what kept him from cracking up like so many other overly dedicated college prep students did, but his dedication for studies bled over to the physical. Keitaro went from a mid ryu rank to sho-dan (first level black belt) in his formal martial arts training just before he graduated high school. Not to say that he wore a black belt before he left school. In his family technique training, on the occasions that members wore gi the beginners wore white belts, and members who had defended others from deadly attack wore black belts. In Keitaro's memory only Great-Uncle Hiro and Granny Hina wore the red belt, and Granny wore one embroidered with the Urashima crest. He had received a red belt with the crest from Granny shortly before he had left Japan over a year ago, but he had never worn it, finally understanding what the symbolism of the belt meant.
"How is ka-san doing? Is she there?" Keitaro decided to change the subject after the turn his thoughts had taken.
"She's out shopping, she won't be happy that she missed your call. Kei-kun, there's something I need to ask you. Are you sure that inviting Kanako-chan to the Hinata-sou is a good idea? She is not as bad as before you left, but that English phrase 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' definitely applies here."
"That might be part of the problem, to-san. I left before I was able to deal with Kanako's feelings to me. Now that I'm back, I can try and convince her that we are not meant to be together like that."
"So long as she does not wind up going yandere (1) on you, son. I'll go and call Kanako-chan over right now."
"Gee, thanks to-san." Keitaro muttered to himself as he heard his father put the phone handset down . Twenty seconds passed before he could hear thundering footsteps through the phone and in a moment of insight yanked the mobile phone away from his ear before the deafening shout of 'Nii-chan!' blasted out of the speaker. Carefully he put the phone back to his ear to hear someone babbling at about 200 words a minute. After a few moments he heard her take a breath and was finally able to get a word in edgewise. "Kana-chan, I didn't understand a word of what you were saying. Please slow down."
"Nii-chan, you're finally back in Tokyo! It's good to hear your voice again! When did you get here, and how long before you get home?"
"It's good to hear you too, Kana-chan. I got to Tokyo a couple of days ago, and I'm not going home yet. I'm at the Hinata-sou, and wanted to ask you a favor."
"Anything, nii-chan!" Keitaro could hear at least a couple of different meanings to those two words, but it was not something he could do anything about right now.
"I need to talk to you in person here at the Sou in order to explain it right, it's not something I can do over the phone. How soon can you get here?" Keitaro asked.
"In an hour if I use my motorcycle. Thirty to forty-five minutes if I push it."
"No need to push it, Kana-chan. I don't want you get hurt when there is no need." Keitaro was wondering how it was that Kanako had a motorcycle; she was barely of the legal age to have a driver's license. "One more thing, pack for an overnight stay, if everything works out, we can go back to the house and get more things if you agree to my idea."
"Yatta! (2) I'll start packing right now! You're at the house right?"
"I'm at Haruka's teahouse, meet me here. The three of us have to be involved in this talk."
"OK, nii-chan! I'll see you in an hour!" There was a click as Kanako hung up the phone on her end.
Keitaro looked up at Haruka, who had been listening from across the table. She had a unlit cigarette in her mouth and was toying with her lighter. He could see that she wanted to say something, but was keeping quiet. "Go ahead, say it."
"This is going to be really really good or really really bad, Kei-kun." Haruka grinned crookedly at him around her cigarette.
"Yeah yeah." Keitaro stood up and stretched. "Go ahead and light up, I'm going outside for a walk. I'll be back in a few minutes." He walked toward the side door and therefore did not see Haruka look at the smoke she had taken out of her mouth for a moment before lighting it up.
Keitaro was sitting on the back steps of the teahouse doing his dexterity exercises. For whatever reason, he was slightly more dexterous with his left hand even though he was right handed, although he was left eye dominant as well. So every once in a while he would practice pencil spinning with both hands, switching from one hand to the other. Haruka had done the same when she was younger, however she had done it with a balisong knife and had gotten very good at the trick methods of opening one. However, Keitaro did not want to look like some kind of delinquent loitering at the rear of the teahouse, therefore, the pencil spinning.
Keitaro had been sitting there for almost an hour when he heard the hum of a motorcycle approaching. Standing up, he saw a black and grey Honda sport motorcycle with a helmeted rider wearing matching black and grey armored jacket, pants, gloves and boots. He wondered who the rider was; Kanako was due any time now, but this looked to be a pro level cycle racer, not a schoolgirl.
The rider stopped the bike nearby and kicked down the stand. Swinging off the bike, the rider stretched their arms out before reaching up to remove the full helmet and shaking their head. Keitaro's eyes widened as long black hair trailed down the rider's back before she turned and he was able to see her face. "Kana-chan?"
Kanako turned and saw that someone was looking at her. She was about to dismiss him as another perverted gawker, which was very common when she was wearing her tight fitting racing gear, when she focused on his face and recognized him. "Nii-chan…"
With a breathtaking slam that almost knocked him off his feet, Keitaro was abruptly being hugged tightly by his younger sister, her cheek rubbing against his as he could feel a purr vibrate through her. "Nii-chan, it's been so long…" Kanako whispered.
"Kana-chan…" Keitaro said breathlessly after a few moments. "I need to breathe…"
Reluctantly, Kanako loosened her grip on her older brother and pulled her head back so she could look at him face to face, although it was still a little more closer than most people would be comfortable with, as he could feel her breath on his face. Her eyes were wide as they roamed his features, as though she was making sure he matched her memories.
"Long time no see, little sister." Keitaro smiled fondly at her. "You're a lot more grown up than I remember."
Kanako blushed. To tell the truth, her big brother was the only one she was ever embarrassed around. She knew deep down in her heart that he would never hurt her, and even though he had left her behind when he left the country after graduation, she had been certain that he would return to her.
"I found that I had time on my hands, even though I was studying and practicing martial arts. So I had Haruka teach me how to ride cycles and I do that when I'm not preparing for tests and tournaments." Kanako was a borderline insomniac, needing only three to four hours of sleep a night. She could only study so much before she got twitchy, and it was not like she could practice the more vigorous aspects of her art at four in the morning. Racing cycles during the evening after school and practice calmed her down enough to study in the early hours at home.
"How could you afford all this though?" Keitaro gestured at the high performance Honda CBR sport bike behind her and the leather and Kevlar racing gear she was wearing.
"We were studying economics and the stock market in school and I found out I was rather good at predicting trends. Oto-san let me take some of my savings and I made a little money, I used that to invest some more, and I made some more money, and then the next thing I know I had a sizable return on my investments." Short-selling was such a useful method of making money in a down market, plus she invested the profits in precious metals, which she definitely did *not* short-sell. It was to the point that her investment adviser at the brokerage house she dealt with would invest his own money in her picks, as she had never failed to turn at least a twenty percent profit in her dealings.
"Good for you, Kana-chan. Planning on studying finance in school?" Keitaro was still smiling, but he took a small step back from her, as he did not want anyone who came upon them to get the wrong idea. However, Kanako did not release her arms from his sides, so they were still relatively close.
"Perhaps, although if I wanted to really go into the finance business I would have to go overseas, and I don't want to do that. I can still make money here while I do other things." Sexism was still the norm in Japanese business affairs, and Kanako did not want to be a glorified office lady serving tea while her male superiors took the credit for her work.
"Have you decided where you want to go to school, Kana-chan? I heard about your GPA, you're beating my old scores, you know." Keitaro had studied to earn top marks in high school, but concentrated mostly on the Todai entrance exam. Kanako had overachiever tendencies however, and wanted to be the best, period.
"Todai, of course. If it's good enough for you, I will follow behind you." Kanako had few interests beside racing and martial arts. Being a part of her nii-chan's life was certainly the top one.
"Well, you will certainly do better than I did when you take the exam." Keitaro kept smiling, but Kanako could see the look in his eyes change at that statement.
"I'm so sorry nii-chan, it's my fault that you did not pass the exam. If I had not been so weak, you would not have had to…" Kanako trailed off as Keitaro suddenly leaned into her, almost literally nose to nose.
"Never be sorry, Kanako. You were in a bad situation through no fault of your own, and I was able to save you from it. I defended my little sister, I will never be sorry to have done that. I can take the exam again, I can't replace you. Understand?" Keitaro's voice had gone flat, but Kanako was in no way frightened by him.
"Nii-chan…" Kanako tightened her arms around him and hugged him again, although this time she was careful not to cut off his air again. Keitaro did not resist, feeling the emotion pouring off her for what had happened in the past.
"Break it up you two, people are starting to talk." Keitaro and Kanako both turned to see Haruka standing a short distance away, a lit cigarette dangling from her mouth. "It's good to see you again, Kanako-chan."
Kanako stepped away from Keitaro and with a deft motion snagged the cigarette from Haruka's lips, dropped it, and ground it out with her boot. Before Haruka could complain, Kanako stepped up to her and gave her a brief hug. "It's good to see you too, Haruka-oba-san."
Haruka gave a slight growl at losing her smoke and being called an old lady again, but with the matching slight smiles on Keitaro's and Kanako's faces, she gave up and started to smile as well. "I get that crap from Kei-kun, I don't need it from you too."
"Yes, well, I only wanted to be polite." Kanako smiled for a bit longer before going back to her normal near-emotionless expression. "What is it that you and nii-chan want to talk to me about?"
"It's something that will take a while to explain, so grab your bag and come inside. You can change and after you have some tea Kei-kun and I tell you everything." Kanako nodded at that, and stepped back to her parked cycle. Undoing a duffle bag that had been strapped down to the fairing behind her seat she shouldered it and followed Haruka and Keitaro as they walked back into the teahouse.
1 - Yandere - a person that is very gentle and loving to someone at first, then winds up obsessive and destructive, sometimes in violence. The violence can be directed to both the loved one or anyone perceived to be interfering in their relationship. Known in the US as Fatal Attraction syndrome.
2 - Yatta! - Japanese expression equivalent to 'I did it!' or 'hurray!'.