At long last! Another chapter. Thanks so much for your patience.

Four

Mika had never before realized exactly how fast time could fly. Two weeks came and went in a mere blink as she spent her days making arrangements for her big move. Her boss wasn't exactly thrilled when she turned in her notice, but finding a replacement didn't take long; there were always immigrants looking to earn a profit under the table. Training was a little more difficult. She didn't speak Portuguese any better than the trainee spoke English, so it made giving instruction a little confusing, but she thought she managed to get the main points across before her final day was up.

She rescheduled as many of her online courses as she could in between working, cleaning the apartment, and packing what few belongings she planned to take with her. Rintaro had made it clear that she should leave most of it behind as a new bedroom suite would be provided, including all the supplies she would need. She didn't protest … much. Everything in the apartment had been there even longer than her, and with most of the furniture being literally on its last legs she had no desire to keep any of it.

At the end of the second week, a thick padded envelope arrived from Japan via UPS overnight express. Mika nearly choked when she saw the shipping fees. What could be so important to pay that kind of money?

Inside the package, she found a plane ticket and her new passport and her heart tripped in her chest as she stared at them in her hands. She'd known she would receive them at some point, but this was way sooner than expected. Somehow, physically touching them made everything seem so much more real and she wondered—not for the first time—just what she thought she was doing.

"I'm not ready for this!" she wailed to Miss Jemima as they loaded cookware and old clothes into cardboard boxes to be delivered to the local Goodwill. "I … I can't move to an entirely different country and live with a bunch of complete strangers! I can't even speak the language! What the hell was I thinking?"

Jemima chuckled as she taped another box, took the passport from Mika's shaking hand to examine it. "I thought you took that Japanese language class way back when. Did pretty good in it, too, if I recall."

"That was in eighth grade. It's not like I've had the opportunity to practice or anything," Mika grumbled.

"Seems you'll have plenty of practice now, eh?"

She huffed and waved the plane ticket. "Is it too late to change my mind?"

Jemima just laughed as she riffled through the envelope, then paused. "Well, now. Looks like you got a package, too." She pulled out a slender, slightly-squashed box wrapped in bright-patterned paper, with a very crushed bouquet of curly ribbons on top. "Your daddy's a little early with the birthday presents, ain't he?"

Mika's curiosity was enough to tamp down the momentary panic attack as she opened a small card attached to the box and scanned the neatly-printed message. "It's a 'welcome home' gift," she reported with a wry twist of lips. "And Rintaro says I have orders from my sister to … practice?" Her brow furrowed with confusion as she opened the box. And gaped when it revealed a sleek and expensive-looking smartphone, colored a pale, metallic pink. The logo of a well-known tech company graced the back. A bright blue sticky note tacked to its screen—in the shape of a cat head—had one word written on it.

"Translate."

"Translate what?" Jemima wanted to know.

Mystified, Mika turned the phone on and immediately noticed the icon of an envelope at the bottom of the screen, lit up. Did that mean she had a message? Already? The phone must already be set up and ready to use.

She had three messages, in fact, and unlike the control screen (which was thankfully in English), all of them were written in Japanese.

"Now how're you supposed to read those?" Jemima snorted.

Mika shrugged. "Translate."

She spent the evening doing just that, thanks in large part to the language translation app she found pre-installed on the phone. It was helpful but slow-going; in her class, she'd always found it easier to speak the language than to read or write it. But, she was gonna have to learn at some point and she was grateful for Ema's foresight that gave her a head start in figuring it out. The date on the plane ticket read the end of November, directly after Thanksgiving. The very last one she'd celebrate, she thought wistfully. And who knew what Christmas would bring this year… She shook off the melancholy thoughts and focused on her self-appointed assignment. After all, there was no point in wallowing in homesickness when she hadn't even left yet. There'd be plenty of time for that later.

The first two text messages were thankfully short and relatively easy to figure out. Just little notes welcoming her to the family. She struggled a bit with the names but thought she managed to get them right: Azusa and Tsubaki. Two of her brothers, she assumed, although the second's message seemed disturbingly … flirty for welcoming a new sister.

The third message was from Ema herself and it was longer. Much … much longer. There were several of them, in fact, and most contained pictures as well. Mika scrolled through them, curious. Were these men all her new brothers? She had never seen a gathering of so many beautiful people before! There wasn't a single average-looking face among them, although there were quite a few less than thirteen. She counted eight total, including a selfie of a pretty teenage girl in a school uniform. She didn't need to translate the name to figure it was her sister. An odd-looking little animal sat on Ema's shoulder. It was too big to be a hamster or rat; a pet squirrel, maybe? It looked kind of big even for a squirrel, but with the angle hiding its tail, it was hard to be sure.

She recognized Ukyou in a snapshot of a small but modern kitchen. He wore a dark green apron over dress pants and a crisp white shirt with rolled sleeves, looking at the camera with an indulgent smile as he stirred a pot.

The next picture depicted a much younger boy who wore a big grin and an excessive amount of pink and yellow. Mika paused to translate the name under it. "Wataru." She jotted it down in a small notebook along with the others.

A pretty silver-haired man flashed a victory sign with bejeweled fingers, his arm slung around the neck of a dark-haired man who was clearly a twin. A third man with a much more stoic countenance stood a little bit off on the first brother's opposite side. He shared their striking purple eyes but otherwise, they looked very little alike. When Mika carefully translated Ema's lengthy explanation she discovered that they were triplets. Tsubaki, Azusa, and Natsume.

Ah, she thought. Ema didn't specify who was who, but she'd bet anything the silver fox was Tsubaki, the one who'd left her the flirty message. He just looked like the confident playboy type.

A man with longish hair smiled gently at the camera, although his drooping eyes gave Mika the impression that he might drop off to sleep at any moment. "Louis" his name read, and she didn't have to translate that one. She wondered briefly why his name was so different from everyone else's before scrolling on.

Another picture of a man in a doctor's coat was labeled Masaomi, the eldest brother. He had a kind smile that put Mika a little more at ease. He just looked like a nice guy and Ema's brief explanation that he was a pediatrician certainly made him seem trustworthy.

There was a picture of a boy with fiery red hair that had to be a dye job. He looked a little awkward standing there with a crooked half-smile, like he wasn't quite sure how to pose for the camera. Yuusuke, the text read, was the same age as Ema and they were classmates in school, so had known each other even before they became family.

For some reason, the last picture was a short video of a television, which was tuned in to some sort of concert. The young singer featured on stage hopped about with enthusiasm, belting out some catchy pop song in Japanese to the discordant harmony of screaming fans. Mystified, Mika translated the message under it. He was called Fuuto, the next-youngest brother, who happened to be a pop star currently on tour. Mika's eyebrows shot up at that. A famous brother? Now that was interesting.

The message ended with Ema's explanation that the rest of the brothers were away, either on business or in school, but they'd been told about their new sister and would no doubt meet her later over winter break.

Mika sat back in the chair with a sigh that turned into a huge yawn; a glance at the clock had her eyes widening in surprise. It was almost one in the morning! She'd been translating messages for nearly six hours! She stretched to ease the cramps in her sides and back from being hunched over for so long. It was rare that she ever got so absorbed in a task that she completely lost track of time. But she had to admit that she'd kind of enjoyed the challenge. Maybe she ought to add another Japanese course to her online classes to help her learn faster?

Before going to bed, she sent a message to Ema in return, thanking her for the needed practice. She wrote the body of it in English, but above it wrote one word in Japanese: "Translate". And added a winking emoji. Maybe Ema would appreciate the extra English practice. After a moment of thought, she also pulled up the phone camera and fiddled with settings until she managed to find the selfie view. Her dark hair was in dire need of combing and she had bruises under her eyes in a face that looked bleached-white from exhaustion. Not exactly a pretty sight. Mika wrinkled her nose and turned off the camera. Even she had some standards. She'd take a picture to send when she didn't so much resemble a walking corpse.

She sent her message off, briefly considered answering the other two messages from the twins, and decided it could also wait until tomorrow. With another huge yawn, she collapsed onto the fold-out couch without bothering to change into her pajamas or turn out the lights. She'd barely gotten the covers pulled up before she was sound asleep.

Thanksgiving came and went without much fanfare; Mika spent it as she always did in Miss Jemima's apartment—now free of water and soot—with a few of her oldest friends from back in her heyday as a performer. The only difference was the absence of Abigail, but Mika had to admit (with more than a little guilt) that it was nice being able to celebrate without worrying about inadvertently triggering a violent tirade from her mother. Her moods had always been a little iffy around the holidays and Jemima's friends tended to be blunt and outspoken in their opinions, much like the lady herself. Abigail hadn't minded her honorary sister's bossy and stubborn nature, but she'd never tolerated it from anyone else.

And now the Saturday after Thanksgiving was here and Mika found herself in the airport at six-thirty AM, sitting at her terminal with a single carryon and enough butterflies flapping around her stomach to set off a small hurricane. She'd already gotten through security and checked her luggage, which hadn't taken as long as she'd expected. Now all she had to do was wait, although it'd be a bit of a long wait since her flight only left at seven.

Beside her, Jemima's head bobbed as she nodded off in her chair, dark shades slipping off her nose. Mika felt bad; she'd told her to stay home and sleep off the hangover she was no doubt suffering after her drinking binge with her girlfriends the night before, but Jemima had insisted on seeing her off. The other two were still passed out in the apartment, no doubt, but Jemima had been up and ready to go even before Mika herself.

Mika smiled faintly as she watched her guardian doze, a pang of homesickness already taking root. She was seriously going to miss the flamboyant crossdresser, wondering if they'd ever be able to meet again, especially since Jemima had also decided it was time to make a few changes in her life. She planned to go traveling with her friends after Mika was gone, a cross-country tour all the way to California, just like the good old days. They'd keep in touch, of course, but Mika was certain it would be awhile before Jemima decided to settle again, possibly on the other side of the country.

She wanted to be glad for her guardian, who had always dreamed about traveling and performing again. But mostly she was left feeling vaguely unsettled and more than a little nervous about this unexpected news. She couldn't keep the doubts from whispering in the back of her mind. What if Japan—for whatever reason—didn't work out? What if this new family rejected her? Or what if she just couldn't hack it over there? She wouldn't stay in a place where she didn't feel welcomed, but with Jemima gone and both of the apartments likely rented out again, she well and truly didn't have a home to return to. She would be stranded in that foreign land, without family or resources…

Before she could work herself into a full-blown panic attack, Mika's spiraling thoughts were disrupted by a swirl of black and red and the bloom of expensive perfume as a tall, slim figure dropped into an empty chair directly across from her. She couldn't help but marvel at the elegant woman who sat there, wrapped in leather and silk, with a shining mane of copper hair and impeccable makeup that complemented sharp, intelligent green eyes. Eyes that were currently focused with unwavering intensity directly on Mika's own.

Realizing that she was staring quite rudely, Mika hastily dropped her gaze to the phone she held limply between her hands as heat crawled into her cheeks. Her heart thudded oddly in her chest for no reason at all, which was a confusing reaction in and of itself. So she inhaled a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down and tried to pretend the breathtaking woman didn't exist.

"My, my. You're even more adorable in person than I'd imagined," a smoothly androgynous voice purred, with the faintest hint of an accent. "Although … I do think a bit of a makeover might be in order. Once we get home. The color of that blouse doesn't suit you at all."

Mika's gaze immediately flicked up to the stranger's face again, her own heating further as the veiled insult reached her, even as her thoughts stuttered in confusion. "I'm—What—Who the hell are you?" she finally snapped.

"Ah, could it be that Ema-chan hasn't bothered to introduce me yet?" The stranger pouted. "I haven't been away that long. I think I'm rather insulted."

Mika's mouth opened and closed a few times as she belatedly realized, with an astonished jolt, that it wasn't a woman who addressed her, but a startlingly beautiful man. How had she almost missed that? She struggled to process. "E-Ema…?"

"Yes." A sly smile; he was clearly amused by her discomfiture. "Our younger sister."

Our? Her eyes widened. "You're one of my…"

"My name is Asahina Hikaru." He smiled warmly, inexplicably pleased with her surprise. "I'm your fourth-eldest brother. It's a very great pleasure to meet you, Mika-chan."

In case anyone is interested, I have a series of explicit one-shots called Domino Effect posted on Archive of our Own under the same penname. Written in second-person POV, it features various scenarios between various brothers and the reader (who may or may not be channeling Ema-Chan).