Disclaimer: All characters and settings are the property of their original creators, I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Sore ga Ai, Deshou?
Chapter Four: Days of Filler
The following school semester was much better for Andy. Talk began of the Spring Sports Festival and he suddenly found himself to be the most popular kid in his class. His classmates couldn't help but notice how he excelled in PE, that coupled with the knowledge that he was a ward of the Shiranui dojo made everyone in third-year class 4-A anxious to have him sign up for as many events as possible as soon as possible.
Considering the amount as well as the nature of this newfound popularity, Andy greatly missed being a loaner.
However, there was one change since New Years that actually did seem like an improvement. Mai had made good on her promise to repeal her restraining order on him. She waved him over to her table at lunch on their first day back. He didn't particularly feel like sitting with her anymore, by this point he was pretty familiar with the school, the students and the language and so had no real need for the comfort he presence brought.
But it was nice to know that the offer was still open if he ever did need it, it was nice to know that he wasn't being shut out or rejected. Rejection was something that had happened to him allot in the System and so Mai's offer to share her table with him, small gesture that it was, meant allot to him. He also enjoyed the freedom it gave him, if there was ever going to be any rejecting going on he preferred to be the one to do it.
January faded into February, Valentines Day came and went. It seemed every boy in his class besides himself got chocolate from one girl or another (usually interrupting their Sports Festival training to do so, for some reason). February faded to March, White Day came and went. All the boys from his class that had gotten something on Valentines returned the gesture by getting something for the girl whom had gifted him. Andy found the whole practice very inefficient, if they were going to exchange gifts they should just do it on the same day instead of waiting a whole month in between.
March faded to April and as the Sports Festival drew nearer and nearer it seemed to become the only subject of conversation anyone ever heard. Whether he was at school or back at the Shiranui dojo everyone seemed to be talking about the immanent event.
"Ha! Second-year class 2-B is gonna kick third-year class 4-A's butt!" Mai announced one evening at dinner. Andy assumed she was trying to goad him into an argument of sorts by specifying that it was his class's collective butt she was going to kick and not just everyone's.
"Mai-chan please don't shout at the dinner table." Kazutaka chided the girl.
"Gomen ne, 'Touchan." She apologized, moderating her tone. "But seriously, third-year class 4-A's got nothin' on us." She cast her eyes sideways at Andy and was disappointed to see no reaction. ""Couse, ya know, 4-A's nothing but a bunch of whiny pansies."
"Actually, that's true." Andy finally spoke, helping himself to a second portion of odin as if this were just normal dinner conversation. "Just the other day Sagara-kun was whining about Chidori-san again."
"Andy-kun…" Mai glared at him. "You're not doing it right."
Hanzo-sensei snorted into his tea and then coughed for several moments, most likely attempting to cover up a laugh, Mai was oblivious to this, Andy saw right through it.
"Not doing what right?"
"Mai-chan is trying to banter with you." Kazu explained.
"I said class 2-B was gonna kick class 4-A's butt, you were supposed to say that no, class 4-A was gonna kick 2-B's butt." She explained. So she had been trying to bait him into an argument. "I said class 4-A is a bunch of pansies, you're supposed to say that 2-B's a bunch of sissies, or something like that."
"Oh. Sorry." He took a sip of his own tea. "Second-year class 2-B is a bunch of sissies." He said in a monotone.
"No, you're still not doing it right." She gave another one of those pouts that this author is so sad Andy can't yet appreciate. "C'mon, get exited! Your class is gonna be my only real competition this year, aren't you pumped?"
"I don't see how a stupid sports fair will help me further my training or avenge my father's death." He told her. "The whole thing seems really stupid and I'm only doing it because if I didn't then everyone in my class would make my life miserable for the rest of the year." He turned his attention back to his dinner.
"I see." Hanzo leveled a stare at Andy. "And these are your true feelings on the matter?" The aging master asked.
"Hai, Sensei."
"Okay then, puppy. I'm giving you a mission." This announcement brought everyone's heads up, their full attention now fixed on Hanzo. "If your class comes in ahead of Mai-chan's class in the Sports Festival then I'll step up your training. How's that for furthering your goal?"
Andy was suddenly wary. He had learned to be distrustful of bargains made with adults, especially when they didn't tell you what would happen if you lost the bet or failed to hold up your end of the bargain. Sometimes they would change the terms or just refuse to up-hold their end completely.
"And if Mai-san's class finishes ahead of mine?"
Hanzo pulled a paper fan out from nowhere and casually fanned himself. "I expect you'll have to be subjected to her bragging until you can rectify your defeat the next year at the next Sports Festival."
The terms didn't seem all that bad and if he could accelerate his training then it was worth the gamble of having to put up with Mai's bragging for a year. Besides, he had gotten quite good at avoiding her while here at the dojo and he did have to see her all that much around school either. All and all, he figured that he was getting the better end of the bargain.
"Deal." He said.
…
The day of the Sports Festival was overcast and gray, threatening to rain. Classes for that day had been canceled for the all day event.
Andy warmed-up with his fellow classmates. They had made him sign up for almost every event and he was not happy about that, on the other hand the rigorous day that was ahead of him might be a blessing in disguise as far as his training went. It would certainly be a test of his endurance and stamina, if nothing else.
The first event of the day was the hundred meter dash, followed by the long jump, then the high jump, then a short break for lunch and the clubs to solicit for new members, after lunch was the relay race, the festival's main event.
Andy came in first in the Dash, apparently he was quite fast in short bursts. His long jump, however, was not so great. His distance came up just over one meter placing his class in third behind Mai's. He had gritted his teeth when they displayed the scores on the chalkboard that had been brought out for that purpose, coming in first in the Dash had made him over confident, his defeat on the Long Jump reminded him that this was a mission not play.
He rectified his defeat on the Long Jump with a spectacular tie on the High Jump. Apparently, he and Mai had gotten the exact same score placing their classes at a tie. She had laughed at him from behind her fan, trying to make him angry, to goad him into doing something that would get him disqualified.
She came over and sat next to him at lunch, earning dirty looks from everyone in his class. They probably though he was fraternizing with the enemy, after all it wasn't second-year class 2-B that was their main competition it was Shiranui Mai, heiress of the Shiranui school or martial arts.
"What are you doing here?" He asked loud enough for his classmates to hear. He hoped they wouldn't think that he actually liked her company.
"You haven't come by my lunch table yet, so I thought I'd come to you." She answered sweetly and then launched herself on him, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.
He pushed her away the moment her arms encircled him, not only did he not like to be touched but he especially didn't want to be hugged by her in front of his classmates. "Leave me alone."
She gave another one of her cute pouts. "Why do ya always gatta push me away whenever I try being nice to you?"
"Because you're idea of 'nice' is annoying."
"I'm not annoying, you're annoying!" She shot back in class elementary school fashion. "Every time I try to be nice you act like I'm a pain. You just wanna be sad all the time!"
"What you're mistaking for being 'sad' is just me being more 'mature'. Don't get angry just because I'm more mature than you."
"Oh? You think that just because you're a little older than me you're more grown-up?"
"No." Andy replied evenly. "I'm more grown up than you because I had to grow-up to live where I lived and how I lived before I met my dad. You? You've had a home and a family your whole life. You don't know anything about the real world, you're just a sheltered little princess."
Mai was suddenly reminded of what her father had said on new years. 'He's very grown-up for his age…. makes me wonder about his life before Jeff-san.'
"Well, fine!" She shouted, not willing to let him have the last word. "I'd rather be a princess than a sad lonely little peasant boy with no friends!" And with that she stormed off to meet up with her classmates before the Relay Race.
…
They were still mad at each other when the classes lined up on the starting line. They were still seething when the rods were passed from the first group to the next. They were still incensed when their teammates came running towards them to pass the rods off for the final stretch of the race.
They glared at each other from across the track, hopping back and forth on the balls of their feet, ready to launch themselves at the finish line to moment their classmate deliver the rod.
Amano-kun was faster and reached Andy first, but then fumbled the pass-off Andy had to stop to pick up the rod, this gave Kanzaki-san time to reach Mai and pass of their rod to her. Not wanting to be beaten by a spoiled little princess Andy scooped up the rod and propelled himself towards the finish line.
He was quite fast in short bursts and caught up to Mai quickly. Mai, however, went at a more even pace and after Andy had caught up he started to slow down while she maintained the same speed. The end result was that they both crossed the finish line at the same time. A tie, their second tie for the day.
"Not… bad for a… princess." He panted.
"Not… bad for a… sad, lonely, little… huff. I'm tierd."
"Me too."
And the two promptly collapsed.
"Next time… lets not let them make us sign up for every event." Andy said.
"I only did because you were."
"Why?"
"I wanted to annoy you with my attempts at being nice." She replied sarcastically rolling over onto her side as she said so, propping herself up on one elbow.
Also rolling onto his side to face her he said, "We need water."
"Yeah." She agreed.
…
"So I heard you both lost." Hanzo-sensei commented when they had gotten home. Andy wasn't sure how word had traveled so fast and beaten them home but Mai didn't seem bothered by this so he just brushed it off.
"We didn't 'lose', Sensei, we tied." Andy corrected, thinking the rumor network that had informed him had passed on some misinformation.
Mai face palmed at his words while Hanzo-sensei raised a single quizzical eyebrow.
"You tied…" He said slowly. "Tell me, puppy, had this been a battle instead of a children's' affair and you were fighting for your very life would you settle for a 'tie'?"
"Well, I…" He paused.
"You wouldn't, would you?" The master continued. "Had you been fighting Geese Howard would you have settled for a tie? I don't think you would have then either. Let this be a lesson for you: never settle. If you tie then you train harder until you can be the winner, if you are second then you work until you can be first. Never settle for second best."
"I… I'll try harder next time, Sensei." Andy promised, somewhat subdued.
"I should hope so. When you first came here I requested nothing but your very best and I expect nothing but the best from you, Andy-kun."
"Hai, Sensei."
…
Latter that evening Andy was practicing his forms in the courtyard when Mai came out to keep him company. She said nothing as she fell into step next to him, mimicking his movements but adding her own unique flare to the katas by gesturing with her fan.
"What are you doing here?" Andy asked after they had finished one set.
"You messed up today." She told him, beginning the next set of katas.
"What'd ya mean?" He followed suit.
"You told Ojisama that we tied. That's like saying that his training is second best or that he's only adequate. Ojisama has been very sensitive about that for almost as long as I can remember. I think its because the rest of the family puts allot of pressure on him and he doesn't want to seem weak."
"The rest of the family? But I thought you and Kazutaka-sama were all Hanzo-sensei's family. And how is a tie showing weakness?"
"You are the only person Ojisama is training personally right now." She explained. "Your actions, your successes and you're losses all reflect directly on him. I don't know much about it, 'Touchan says I'm to young to worry about grown-up problems but the rest of the family seems unhappy with Ojisama and the way he's running things."
"'Running things', Sensei's the head of the family?" He knew that the Shiranui family was well off and that Shiranui Hanzo had to be at least an important member of the family for everyone in the village of Mino to treat him with such respect and he knew that the old master had been out on family business the day he arrived in Japan but for some reason Andy had just never imagined his master as the head of a large and powerful Ninja family.
"Sou desu." She nodded. "If you were smart you would have said something like 'I may not have been first but either way it was a Shiranui win'. 'Touchan says that answers like that are diplomatic and say what you wanted to say without actually saying it. My family talks like that allot, its like no one can ever really say what they mean to say."
"Must be tough." He commented, not knowing if it was exactly the appropriate thing to say, especially not now that he knew that all his words were going to be dissected for hidden meanings.
"Yeah, but I only have to see them once a year. Which reminds me!" She paused in mid step and locked gaze with him. "Are you coming to Hagi with us this summer? Every summer Ojisama takes 'Touchan and I to Hagi to spend Obon with the rest of the family. Since you're staying with us you're coming to, right? I suppose he could send you to stay with Yamada-san, though. Uncle Nagare doesn't really like foreigners and he especially hates Americans. Ojisama might not want you to come along…"
Andy was momentarily thrown off his mental balance, that was allot of information to take in all at once. "What is Hagi?" He asked.
"Oh, it's a small island just off the coast of Niigata." She answered easily enough. "My family owns it."
"Your… your family owns its own island!"
"Just a small one."
Andy had to sit down. Somewhere amidst all the preparations to send him here, Master Tung had forgotten to mention that his new master was freaking rich! How was it that he had gone from living in an abandoned warehouse with drug addicts and the mentally insane to being the ward of a family that owned their own island? He looked up at Mai again. "What's 'Obon'?"
"It's a lantern festival to honor the dead." She replied happily. "It's a three day long celebration with dancing and candles and lights and we make offerings and-"
"I think I get it." He cut her off not wanting to put up with her irritatingly cheerful voice. "Its like the Day of the Dead in Mexico."
"Yeah!" She confirmed ecstatically. "Wait… what's the Day of the Dead?"
For some reason the floor suddenly became very slippery and Andy spontaneously fell to the ground with his feet sticking up in the air, an anime style drop for when face-palm just wasn't enough.
…
Andy's popularity after the Sports Festival seemed to level off at a point somewhere between the acclaim he had during the fair and when he had first arrived. He still didn't have any real friends but people were more sociable with him and often tried to include him in their conversations or pelt him with questions about Shiranui Hanzo. He actually learned more about his master in two weeks from his classmates than he had in almost a year living with the family.
He learned that Hanzo-sensei was so well liked by the people or Mino not because of his being the head of an old and wealthy family but because he had given generous amounts of financial aid to the town of Mino (as well as other small townships in Niigata prefecture) after the end of the War, late in the summer of forty-five.
Andy had to marvel at his master's kindness and generosity even at the age of twenty-four. He did have to wonder, however, how he and Master Tung could have ever become friends living through such a turbulent age and on opposite sides of the War no less. He found himself debating whether or not it was a good idea to ask him about it. It sounded like it would be an interesting story whatever had happened. But would he be overstepping his bounds and prying?
His classmates' talk turned to the mundane and Andy lost interest, his thoughts drifted to Terry for maybe the first time since he'd arrived in Japan. He wondered where his brother was, if his training was going well or not, if he had found another master or was training himself by other more unorthodox means. Was he still attending school? Did he have to put up with the same kind of silly chatter that normal kids their age talked about? Or had he stepped out of the societal norm and was he devoting his whole self to their mutual goal of revenge?
He was beginning to miss Terry almost as much as e missed Jeff. Out of all the people in Andy's life, Terry was the one person that had never left him, that had always been there for him. Even when they were separated, when the System put them in separate homes and they had to attend different schools Andy still knew that his brother would rush to his aid at the drop of his hat just as Andy was willing to do the same.
Terry had been the one to come to him one night and suggest that they run away. Terry had been there with him during their whole time living on the streets. Terry had been the one to find Jeff, to find them a real home. Out of everyone Andy had ever known in his whole short and inexperienced life, Terry was the one person he felt comfortable depending on.
'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.' That didn't apply to Terry.
…
The semester ended soon after the Sports Festival and Spring Break brought a welcome recess to the school's tedium. Andy worked twice as hard on learning the newest set of katas for his Koppouken fighting style. He was determined to give Hanzo-sensei better than his best. After his "defeat" at the Sports Festival he wanted to show his master that he was still serious about his training.
Koppoujitsu was a difficult art to learn, it focused on inflicting damage to an opponents bones rather than their muscles like most other martial arts. It was a hard discipline but Andy was determined. He especially didn't want to embarrass his master in front of the rest of the extended Shiranui family if and when he was taken to Hagi in the summer.
…
Spring Break ended all to quickly it seemed and Andy's time at school seemed to become consumed entirely by studying for end of the year exams. Classes were spent furiously taking down notes as teachers lectured on math, science, Japanese history and literature. By the end of each day Andy felt like he had learned more in eight hours than he ever had in four years of public school in America and by the following morning he had forgotten it all.
It seemed like the strategy for passing the end of the year exams wasn't so much learning the information as it was memorizing the material and then regurgitating it for the test. Andy could do that, it was all a matter of repetition, just like with his martial arts training. Practice, practice, practice. 'If you wanna be the best, its practice every day.'
Mai seemed more relived than he was when exams were finally over. He supposed that growing up in this system they were more of a tedious chore for her rather than an intellectual challenge as they were for him.
"Isn't it great to be free!" She exclaimed on their walk home from their final day of school (well, he was walking, Mai was skipping).
"Its just a passing freedom." He replied, putting a damper on her merry mood. "Real freedom is almost impossible. Even after my brother and I ran away we were still subject to our basic needs of food, shelter, sleep and warmth."
"Well, you're just a regular Mr. Sunshine, aren't you." She commented dryly.
"..."
"Well, I don't care what you say. Nothing is going to spoil my perfect mood. This is the best time of the year!" She thrust her fist into the air to punctuate her statement. "It's the longest possible time before more school!"
"And in another few days you'll get to see the rest of your family." Andy added.
"Yes, well…" She instantly sobered.
"You're not exited?"
"Hagi's a really nice place. The water's so clear and perfect for swimming and you can watch my cousins swimming or training from the porch and the porch opens out right onto the dock, but…" She paused. "Uncle Nagare is kinda mean. He's Ojisama's little brother but he wants to be the head of the family instead. He's always telling everyone else all the things Ojisama does wrong and never says anything nice and… and I don't like Koinosuke!"
Andy sighed. Why did she always have to give so much information all at once, in fragments and spoken so fast? Couldn't she just give him the important highlights, paraphrased and spoken slow enough for him to actually catch it?
So Nagare was Hanzo-sensei's brother. Nagare wants to be head of the family and so is trying undermine Hanzo in the eyes of the rest of the family in order to instigate a coup. ("Coup" by the way was one of the new words Andy learned for his exams. That's the only reason I can think of for a nine-year-old to know it). There was just one thing Andy couldn't decipher from her babble.
"Who's Koinosuke?"
"Uncle Nagare's grandson. He's closer to your age than to mine. Uncle Nagare is trying to convince Ojisama to agree to a marriage contract between Koi-chan and me but I don't like him."
"Uh-huh…" Andy said, more as an acknowledgment that she had spoken then out of any real appreciation for the information. He didn't understand enough about adult politics to be able to fathom why Nagare would want his grandson to marry Hanzo-sensei's granddaughter when he was trying to unseat Hanzo in the first place. But once again, Andy reminded himself that it was not his problem.
'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'
His credo still held. In another nine years he would be out of the Shiranui family's collective lives, there was no sense in getting himself involved in something that wasn't any of his business in the first place. He was living with the Shiranui, he wasn't one of the Shiranui.
…
Two weeks later, Andy along with Mai, Kazutaka and Hanzo were on a boat bound for the small island of Hagi just off the coast of Niigata.
…
(A/N: I have to say that, as a writer, I think this was my worst chapter so far and I hate it. I'll try to have the next update up soon so that you're not left with this crap.)
Review Responses:
StardustDragon52: I as under the impression that Andy's birthday gift to Mai wasn't until they were much older (high school age, at least). I'm actually having lots of fun drafting that chapter. (-smily face-)
MopSink: I had originally planned for my chapters to be a little episodal. I'm glad you were able to pick up on it in chapter three. It was the only one where I actually succeeded in an episodic draft. All the others ran to long and had to be cut up (like chapter 1, chapter 2 was originally supposed to be part of ch. 1 but it was to long so I cut off the end of ch. 1 and tacked it onto ch. 2). And then this chapter felt more like crappy filler than anything else. (-sad face-)