Part III

Shingo slapped his shrieking alarm into submission, groaning into his pillow as he heard his neighbors arguing loudly through the paper-thin walls. He cracked open a bleary eye, and noted with some consternation that it was only 8:00am.

"What the hell?" he mumbled. Then he remembered the promise he made to his mother the night before. "Shit!" he growled.

Rolling out of bed, he headed for the bathroom for a quick shower.

"Niiiichaaaan!" a high-pitched voice whined. "Ryo chan hit me!"

"She started it!" a slightly lower pitched voice complained sullenly.

Shingo was ready to rip his hair out. He had been trying to read his new issue of MotorTrend, to no avail. (Never mind that his poor language skills made deciphering the English magazine that much more difficult.)

"I did not!"

"Did too!"

"Shutup! Now!" He gave them a glare that usually sent the Night Kids scrambling to their cars. The two children were unfazed.

"Miki, stop irritating him!"

"I'm not doing anything!" she pouted.

"Yes you are. And Ryo, don't hit your sister!" The 9-year-old boy snorted angrily.

"I knew it! You always take her side!"

"I'm not taking any sides at all! You hit her, not the other way around. And besides, it's not manly to hit girls."

The young boy's eyes widened. Glad that his words had taken some effect, Shingo returned to his "reading". Unfortunately, a few minutes later, they were bickering again. Completely exasperated, he tossed his magazine aside.

"Which circle of hell have I fallen into?" he snarled. They both looked up at him, startled out of their argument. They blinked in confusion, unsure if a response was expected or not. He sighed.

"What's wrong with you two? You never fight this much."

"We're bored!"

"Yeah, we're bored!" Miki echoed.

"Well, I don't have much money, and Mom didn't give me any. So what do you want to do?" Ryo's eyes lit up.

"Take us driving!" he volunteered excitedly. Miki nodded in agreement.

"Try again. You know I can't, Dad would kill me!"

"Awwww, please?" he whined. The little girl soon picked up on her brother's tactic, and joined in the pleading.

"No! Absolutely not!" He remembered all too vividly his mother's horror when she'd found out that he had taken the children out for a quick run down Mt. Myogi. The kids had loved it, his parents had not. All his protestations of what a good driver he was did nothing to further his case, either. And after he dealt with Mom's hysterics, came Dad, who was far worse. As a rule, their father never got involved unless it was something serious. "Dad made it abundantly clear what would happen to me if I took you guys out again, so think of something else."

"What if you just drove really…slow?" Ryo cajoled. "We can go uphill. And Mom and Dad would never know!"

Shingo felt his resolve slipping. It was a beautiful day out, and he was itching to be behind the wheel.

"Pleeeaase?" Miki wheedled.

"I'll compromise. We'll go through the automatic car wash, how about that?" The children heartily agreed, and they ran to the door to put their shoes on. Sometimes, he wished he could be as easily amused.

Come 7:00pm, the children had finished their dinner and were settling down to watch their favorite TV show. Shingo was finally able to read his magazine in peace. It hardly bothered him that their parents weren't home yet; it was pretty typical of them to return home hours after they were due. He'd spent the first half of his life as an only child, and had learnt to be self-sufficient. And after Ryo and Miki were born, he'd been expected to take care of both himself and the children. Not that he'd minded, it was just the way things were. And actually, now that he was older, he was rather glad it had happened that way. There were quite a few people that he knew who couldn't take care of themselves to save their lives. Twenty years old and they hadn't a clue how to balance a bankbook, or do a load of laundry. Those sorts of people made him sick, and he was damned grateful he wasn't one of them.

Eventually, he got tired of trying to read the English magazine. Cross-eyed and confused, he closed his eyes for a minute and ended up falling asleep on the couch. He was consequently startled awake some time later by his ringing cell phone. Glaring at the phone, he recognized the number immediately.

"Shingo!" he growled into the phone.

"Were you SLEEPING? You lazy pig! It's 8:00pm. Where are you?" Shingo ran into his parents' bedroom and slammed the door shut so he wouldn't have to censor himself in front of the children.

"You bastard, who're you calling lazy? It's too bad you don't drive near as well as you talk, you arrogant prick!"

"Hey! You asshole! You told me you'd be at this meet, now what do you think you're doing?"

"I'm busy."

"Oh yeah? Doing what, sleeping?"

"None of your damned business!"

"It damn well is my business! You've missed five practice meets in the last three months, and we don't even have one every weekend! This is the last straw! If you're not here in fifteen minutes, I'll kick you off the team!"

"You can't do that!"

"Watch me!" Takeshi snarled, hanging up on him.

Shingo had to restrain himself from throwing the phone out the window and screaming in frustration. He paced back and forth, glaring at nothing in particular. On the one hand, he had just as much of a stake in the Night Kids as Takeshi did. On the other hand, however, Nakazato had a lot of influence, and if he couldn't make good on his threat, he could at least make his life very difficult.

He sat down on his parents' bed and chewed his lip thoughtfully. What could he do? There was little to no chance that they would be home in the next few minutes. If he just left the children unattended at the house, his parents would be furious. But he couldn't take them with him…could he? He paused to consider it.

"That would be stupid," he mumbled. "Children don't belong in the gallery!" He tapped the phone unconsciously on the nightstand, mired in indecision. He had no choice…there was only one thing he could do. So, he did it.