The Day After
Chapter 3 Tour of the Wolf's Liar
It's only called snooping when you do it without an invitation.
The nap won out, but afterward Tokio decided to do a little exploring. Hajime told her to make herself at home, so it shouldn't feel like she was snooping around if she took a self-guided tour. The first place she decided to examine was his kitchen. He would need to eat when he got home, and the attorney was fairly confident that his children would be in tow. She'd been in it once today to make him some coffee. It was a very easy task because the coffee maker was already filled with grounds and water. He must have set it up during the night with the intention of making coffee to take with him, since an insulated bottle sat on the counter next to the machine. He probably just didn't count on going into work as early has he did. Tokio made sure to check how much coffee he put in the filter, so she would be able to make another pot just the way he liked it.
She remembered that her former husband had fairly simple tastes. Chicken was okay as long as it was white meat, not dark. Don't bother to put pork on the table, unless you intended to eat all of it yourself. He preferred beef steak, cooked rare or medium rare. He liked cooked eggs, and would eat most anything made with eggs as the main ingredient, as long as the eggs were cooked. The smart chef never cracked a raw egg into his donburi, even though the broth might be boiling. He didn't like sweets, but on special occasions he indulged her, or at least he used to, by buying a few European style chocolates. But his favorite food, hands down, was soba, ramen or udon, soba being the first on the list. The man had never met a noodle that he didn't like, at least back in Meiji 1.
Peeking into his fridge was the first item on her agenda. She checked the freezer section to find several packages of multiple servings of beef tenderloin steak, nothing surprising there, since he wasn't the only one in the household who needed to be fed. There was also a bag of individually wrapped chicken breasts, similar to the ones that she bought at Costco, the discount bulk food emporium. One of the boys must like those; either that, or he wanted to provide some variety to their diet. She liked having each piece of chicken wrapped, since it kept them fresh longer. The attorney noticed that everything in the freezer section was as neatly stacked as possible. She mentally noted there was still room in the freezer for more items. There were also several cold packs such as you would apply to keep an injury from swelling. Now days there were cold therapy strips that did the job perhaps even better, but sometimes using an old fashioned gel ice pack just made a person feel better.
The light inside the main refrigerator revealed an almost empty white box, causing the attorney to frown. Providing fresh food for children should be the most important item on a person's shopping agenda. Fresh fruits and vegetables provided the most nutrition. Due to hothouse technology, acquiring a wide variety of these items was no longer dependent on the season. Adding to her mental inventory she took note of the one gallon of milk, not enough for two boys; a half-full carton of large eggs; a bundle of what appeared to be mustard greens, long overdue for cooking. She resolved to wash and steam the ones still edible, immediately. There was also a container of ground coffee. It didn't escape her that her former husband had added a new drink to his menu in this century.
She couldn't fault Hajime for the near empty fridge. He was a single parent, who worked long hours, and Tokio had no doubt that he did the best he could for his children. Shopping and cooking took time. It was her fault that his boys were farmed out at a relative's last night, her presence in his home only adding to his work related tasks.
Closing the refrigerator door, she realized that someone would have to go shopping. Hajime would be too tired when he got home, so there was no way she would impose on him. It wasn't safe for her to leave the house by herself. She couldn't ask her secretary, due to having to keep her location on a need to know basis for now. Her former husband probably had someone he could call on for the task. She would make up a list. After opening several drawers under the kitchen counter, she found one that contained some notepads, pencils and pens. The neatness of each drawer was very familiar to her. All the storage spaces in their home in the Bunkyo Ward had been similarly treated. Paper and pencil in hand, she began to make a list of what she thought they needed to buy, if he wanted her to cook for his family.
As Tokio wrote down fresh grocery items, especially ones she wanted for the boys, butterflies of anticipation fluttered in her chest. The thought of being reunited with Tsutomu and Tsuyoshi was beyond words. Finding Hajime in this era was almost unbelievable, but the fact that he had two of their three children with him was incredible. He told her that Tsutomu was the name of one of his boys, and she just assumed that the name of the other would be the same as it was in Meiji 1.
His boys would not recognize her as their mother, of that she could be sure, but she was. From the time her secretary told her about Hajime's family tragedy, she knew. They were her precious children from Meiji 1 brought into this world by another woman. Tokio would never try to take Yaso's place; the woman was the only mother that the boys knew. But the attorney would, in secret, watch out for them and help them in any way she could for the rest of her life.
The next stop was a cupboard that looked as though it might be a pantry since it stretched from floor to ceiling. Inside were boxes of several kinds of fortified whole grain cereal, quite appropriate breakfast food for growing children. There was a box of instant miso packets. In Tokio's opinion it was better to buy fresh miso paste. When she hadn't seen any in the refrigerator, she put it on the shopping list. The stuff kept forever in the fridge, and mixing a spoonful of it with hot water made better miso stock than any instant pack, even if you skipped using konbu and bonita flakes. There were several unopened containers of coffee. It appeared that Hajime had no desire to run out of that, since he had so many extra in stock. Japanese green tea was conspicuous with its absence. That was something else that she would add to her shopping list. There was also a sealed bag of short-grained sushi rice, a staple food even in homes of noodle eaters.
The attorney wasn't surprised to see more packages of instant soba and ramen than she had ever seen outside a grocery store's instant noodle aisle. She smirked. Looks like her former husband's tastes hadn't changed one bit in the past two hundred years. During their married life, she occasionally teased him about how much he loved to eat soba. But it was always done in a loving way. It was interesting how her memories were returning and confirming certain things in her present life, such as her knowing without being told that he was a very light sleeper.
Satisfied with her assessment of his kitchen, she tore the top page off the notepad, leaving the shopping list on the counter and putting the pad and pencil back in the drawer before wandering down the hallway that ran through the middle of the house. There were doorways along the hall, three on each side. She knew which one was the guest bedroom, since that is where she spent the night. She didn't remember walking there under her own power last night, so she guessed that he must have carried her. It was the first room on her right just past the living room. Across the hall from it to the left was the main bathroom. She walked past those doors, opening the one to the room next to the bath, finding it almost empty. It appeared as though it should be a child's room. Stepping inside she noticed a door that looked like it opened to another room. It actually led to a bathroom that had a connecting door on the other side which led to another bedroom, this one definitely inhabited by a couple of children. Tokio assumed that once Hajime's boys were old enough, perhaps each would have his own bedroom, one on each side of the Jack and Jill bath. The empty bedroom could even be used as a nursery, if need be. Now why on earth would she have that thought, she asked herself.
Exiting the bedroom occupied by his boys through the door that led to the main hallway, she was confronted with a closed door directly opposite. She had the feeling that his bedroom was located behind that door, and for some reason she did not feel comfortable breaching the sanctity of his room, regardless of what he said about making herself at home. In Tokio's mind under normal circumstances a single woman simply didn't enter a man's bedroom, regardless of whether he was home or not. On the same side of the hall next to what she assumed was Hajime's bedroom, there was a door standing ajar, revealing what was clearly an office with a desk and plenty of bookshelves. To the attorney the open door was akin to an invitation to enter.
The first thing Tokio did once inside the room was to scan the bookshelves. There seemed to be three main kinds of books. Many were about kendo and swords. Some of these titles dealt with appraising antiques. This didn't surprise the attorney at all. Back in Meiji, her former husband had free access to a large storehouse of antique weapons and was often asked to evaluate and give an appraisal of katana, wakizashi, and tanto.
Hajime had been the Captain of the Shinsengumi's third squad, and one of the three top swordsmen in the entire organization, only Okita and Nakagura were of the same caliber as her former husband. During his time in the Tokyo MPD, he'd won competitions. She knew he was the same man now as he was then, only some circumstances were different. He'd had children with his first wife; this wasn't the case back in Meiji 1.
Not surprising, most of his books were police journals, forensic science manuals, and books about abnormal and criminal psychology and related topics. Tokio gave herself a mental kick in the head when she found her mind thinking things such as, 'there is enough room for another desk in this office', and 'there is enough empty shelf space for all my law books and cook books'.
She smiled when she saw the volumes on parenting and child development. There were also several titles having to do with 'feeding your child right'. Some of the books on parenting and nutrition even had strips of paper inserted to mark a page. Tokio took one of them off the shelf, flipping to one of the marked pages.
It warmed the attorney's heart to see the effort the stoic police officer was putting into raising his children. The marked section explained the benefits of eating green, leafy vegetables with suggestions on not only how to choose the freshest, but also how to prepare them in tasty ways. No wonder the fridge had those greens, speaking of which, she needed to cook them before they self-destructed. It was all information that Tokio knew, having been trained by her mother in all the home skills needed by a modern woman, who also had a toe in traditional Japanese culture. Her parent's goal for her was to become a competent wife, mother, and household manager, not one of the best government prosecutors in the country, as happened to be the case. Tokio had long ago abandoned all thoughts of having a husband and children; that is until today when little threads of ideas started assaulting her mind.
Hajime's house was fairly spacious, more room than necessary for his family of three, but it was Spartan in appointment with only the most basic of furniture, and then only what appeared to be absolutely necessary. The walls were bereft of any sort of adornment, not surprising for a household that lacked a female presence.
The main living area with the front entrance was at the end of the hall towards the garage, opposite the kitchen. It contained a sofa with a low table in front of it, a small end table, a large screen television and several cushions meant for seating. There was also a low cabinet with doors below the large screen. Because of a divider wall, the cooking part of the kitchen was hidden from the living room, but the eating area next to the kitchen was visible, making the living room area feel larger, even though it was plenty spacious in its own right.
She'd been too out of it last night to take much notice of the inside of the garage, so after leaving his office, she decided to take a look in there before she cleaned and cooked the mustard greens. At the end of the main hall between the living and eating areas was the door to the garage. She noticed that it had a security pad beside it. She realized that if the security system on this inner door to the garage was activated, her self-guided home tour was over.
Hajime must have anticipated her inquisitive nature, because the door opened when she tried it. Taking the one step down into his large garage, she gave the place a quick scan. On the wall opposite the garage doors there was a workbench with cabinets both above and below. The surface of the work area was as neat as a pin, all of the tools tucked away; she presumed in the cabinets. Tokio wasn't surprised. He was the same way when they were married, nothing out of place, everything always put away.
In addition to the two large doors for vehicles and the one to the inside of the house, there was another one. It almost looked like a closet door, but there were cupboard doors just down from it, like you would put on storage shelves that were installed over a stairwell to a basement.
Curiosity got the best of her. Carefully opening the mystery door, she cautiously peeked into the darkness. There had to be a light switch around somewhere. When Tokio stepped back, she noticed a switch on the adjoining wall. She flipped it and was rewarded by bright light. It was a stairway just as she suspected. She had to consider for a moment whether negotiating the stairs was such a good idea. Her body was still achy, even after her nap, and that swollen knee was certainly going to protest both the walk down and the walk back up.
Perhaps if she was careful, she could manage. What did that physical therapist say on that health news segment she saw last week? Up with the good and down with the bad? So one step at a time, her leg with the swollen knee going first, she made the trip down. Fortunately, the light switch at the bottom of the steps was obvious. She switched it to the on position, bathing a large room to the left of the bottom step in a bright, but not glaring light.
Tokio smiled at the sight before her. Hajime had his own dojo. One wall was mirror lined…there was a bench on another wall, and a rack that held protective body padding and head gear. Next to it was a wall bracket with various sizes of shinai and bokken. The flooring looked like bamboo, but she was sure it was some sort of composite that wouldn't scratch and would retain its shine under the most ardent use. It was amazing and so like Hajime to have a special place like this in his home.
When she flipped off the dojo lights, and turned to go back up the stairs she noticed another door. It was opposite from the bottom step and Tokio wondered how she missed it before. She guessed it was to a storage room. She almost didn't open it, but there was a soft breeze at her back that seemed to push her forward, compelling her hand to reach for the knob and turn it. He must have a ventilation system down here, she thought to herself.
The door opened with a click, revealing neatly stacked storage boxes. "Make yourself at home," he'd said. With that in mind, and as if some force was urging her on, she carefully opened the lid of the top box in one of the stacks, peeking in, only to freeze in place when she saw the contents, realizing what she was viewing.
Gads.
These had to be Yaso-san's personal belongings.
A picture frame lay face down on top. Gently, she turned it over, revealing a photo of a woman, a very beautiful woman, with kind eyes and a warm smile. The attorney knew there was only one person this could be.
Tokio felt like she'd been struck in the stomach. Her breaths became shorter, a feeling of grief gripped at her, tears welled as she remembered exactly how the woman died, and how she had protected the children entrusted to her care.
Carefully, the attorney turned the picture back over, leaving it how she found it. Then with shaking hands Tokio replaced the lid on the box, closed the closet door and turned towards the stairs, trying to get a grip on her emotions. Although, not as fragile as last night, she knew that the events of the last two days were just below the surface. Perhaps her reaction was due to almost losing her own life; perhaps it was because she knew how devastated Hajime had been by the loss of his wife; perhaps it was because of the little boys who no longer had the love of the only mother that they'd known.
With a heavy heart Tokio trudged slowly back up the stairs, one step at a time, her injured knee protesting with each step she took. Good thing there was a cold pack in the freezer, her knee was going to need it. Now if only there was something to heal the pain she felt for this little family who had been broken beyond measure by the permanent loss of their mother, and the temporary loss of their father to alcohol.
To see what happens next, please see the Gumi Reloaded fanfic, The Wolf at Work, that is posted on ffnet.