Hey all!
I made some mistakes in the other chapters, so I'll correct them when I can, but I just have to fix this: I mentioned that Wing wore kimonos cause he was sickly, right? Well yeah, that's true. But it won't be mentioned in the flash back, 'kay? ;)
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING.
"Impressive."
Billie clapped politely, as Wing landed on his two feet, two unconscious training dummies landing beside them. Wing smiled in thanks as he approached Billie, who had a cool bottle of water at hand.
"Who taught you all those skills? I'm impressed by your expertise." Billie said kindly, also drinking a sports drink. Wing raised an eyebrow in suspicion. His friend caught his expression, and burst out laughing.
"How many times must I tell you? I'm not going to use any information against you. Maya has that strict 'No cheating against friends' policy, and I've learned to trust you and your group." She said, still grinning. Wing gave a small smile.
"My trainer, Lao, taught me everything I know. Ever since I was a young child, he tutored me on how to fight with naginatas and other weapons." He replied, happy at the thought of his family and friends.
"And I thought naginatajutsu was for females?" Billie asked inquisitively.
"Well, that is a rather funny story…" Wing said, laughing nervously.
"Well then tell it! I rather like funny stories." Billie said, grinning. Wing sighed, and tilted his head up high.
A young woman, somewhere in her early twenties, lay crying on her bed while an eight year old girl hugged her tightly. Pacing around them was a handsome man, also in his early twenties. However, the way his eyebrows were crumpled and the way he hunched as he walked made him seem ten times older.
In the room beside theirs were a professional doctor and his nurse. It took the doctor and the nurse hours to get to the rural home, and as it turned out the situation of their patient was worse than they had imagined. The weak four-year old boy that lay on the futon had been diagnosed with Japanese encephalitis, and there was nothing the doctor could do.
"We're very sorry." They replied solemnly. "We cannot do anything at this stage. If we transfer him to a proper hospital in his state, he could very well die from stress. Transferring equipment here will take too long and will cost too much. We advise that you just make him as comfortable as possible before the end of next week." The family understood the implications of his statement, as the mother and the sister broke down crying and the father was about to shout when he realized that it would do no good.
"We are very sorry. Yui." The doctor said, and the nurse lifted the two other women up, guiding them to the bed. As she comforted them, the father led the doctor to the dining room to prepare his things for the long trip home. The doctor stopped in his tracks. He laid a warm hand on the father's shoulder.
"It would be best if you spent some time with your son. The sickness isn't contagious, so you may stay with him in his room." he said.
"Mao… I'm so very sorry." The doctor and old friend repeated, and Mao just tightened his fist. He nodded, and Yui came back out, asking for Mao to come back to his wife and child.
As Mao sat with Mei and Hana, he muttered prayers to anyone that would listen.
'Please,' he said. 'Let my son live. He has only been on this earth for four years, and he has so much to look forward to. Even if it means facing death in the face, let him live! Send a guardian, a protector! An angel. Just… please… let Wing survive through this ordeal!'
The next day, a small ruckus woke the Fanchu family. When Hana looked outside, she saw a moving truck in the far distance.
"I think another family is moving in." she said, when she returned to her brother's room.
"In the old Sato house?" Mao asked.
"I think so. But the stuff the moving men were carrying out didn't seem Japanese. Maybe they're foreign." Hana added.
"Maybe. But what foreign family would go out to such a far place like here?" Mei wondered. Her attention went back to Wing, who was waking up. The little boy looked around, before carefully propping himself on his pillows.
"Someone is moving in?" he asked with a small voice. "Yes, in the old Sato home." Hana replied, smiling at her younger brother.
"You mean the old house that's all creepy?" he asked, sounding dubious. His sister nodded enthusiastically, and her brother made a face.
"Who would want to live there?" he asked, and everyone in the room laughed. Wing joined in, until he started shivering. Mei tucked him into his blanket and Mao stood up.
"I should get ready for work now." He said. "It'll take a long time to get out of the fields."
"I've already got breakfast on the table." Mei replied. "Hana, get you and your brother some food."
"Yes mother." She replied, skipping beside her father as he left the room. Mei smiled at her son, as he cuddled his pillow.
"I'm going to die, aren't I?" he asked calmly. Mei looked at him in shock.
"Of course not dear! We've already offered prayers, so don't you worry." She said, regaining her composure. Wing looked at her with concern.
"You don't have to do stuff like that mother. I know what's wrong and I know I'm gonna die soon." He said. Mei smiled at him sadly before holding his cold hand.
"Don't worry Wing. You're not going to die. I promise." She said sadly. Wing sighed, before Hana entered the room with a tray of food.
"Who are you?"
Wing held up his blanket in defense, when a white haired boy peeked from the window in his room. The boy giggled, before he shouted and a crash resounded from outside.
Wing gasped, almost falling off the bed, until the white haired boy peeked again. He laughed, even though there was a bruise forming on his head.
"Who are you?" Wing asked again, looking annoyed. The boy tilted his head to the side, as though not understanding what Wing had said. Then he 'ah'-ed, and he spoke in very rough Japanese.
"Hajimemashite. Watashi no namae wa Otto Malpense. Namae wa nandesuka?" (1) he asked slowly. Wing raised his eyebrow, before replying.
"I'm Wing Fanchu. What are you standing on?" he asked, looking curiously at the way Otto held himself up on the high window.
"Old boxes." he replied, grinning deviously. "May I come in?"
"Usually people go through the door." Wing said.
"I know. Anyway, I'm new here, so I don't think I'll be allowed from the front." Otto replied. Wing looked at the boy strangely before telling him to come in.
Otto grinned, and climbed into the window. He let himself fall onto the floor, making a small 'thump' when he landed.
"You know, my sister or my mother could come in anytime." He said, before suddenly coughing. Otto stood up, and instead of replying with an 'I know', he asked a short question.
"Are you sickly too?" he asked. Wing nodded. "Are you?" he then asked, and Otto grinned, nodding.
"Isn't it obvious?" he said excitedly. Wing looked at him for a moment, before gasping.
"Yep, it's my hair!" Otto replied happily. "I'm an albey-aldi-albu-er… oh right, an albino!"
"What's that?" Wing asked. Otto took a seat beside him, on his bed.
"I have this weirdo sickness called albinisism, and when I have that stuff my hair turns real white, my eyes become a really cool color and my skin becomes really pale." He replied smartly. Wing 'ooh'-ed.
"That's cool! It's better than mine, anyway." He said dejectedly. Otto tilted his head to the side.
"It's called Japanese encephalitis." Wing replied. "Encepho-what?"
"Encephalitis." Wing repeated. "And I'm not gonna last very long either."
"What! No way!" Otto exclaimed a tad too loudly. Suddenly, footsteps approached the room, and Wing quickly told Otto to get in the closet. The boy rushed in, and the moment the door closed Mei came in.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, worried.
"Uh… the window suddenly swung open and I got surprised." Wing quickly said. Mei sighed in relief, and went to close the window. She kissed him on the forehead.
"By the way Wing, the people who moved in? One of them is here right now." She said, smiling. "Mrs. Malpense." Mei left the room, and the very moment she left, Otto left the closet, before whispering what he had shouted before.
"No way!" he said quietly. "You can't die!"
"Why so?" Wing asked.
"Cause. You're my new best friend." Otto replied, grinning.
"Oh." Mei said, right after she'd left the room.
"But the window had to be slid open…" she muttered. She suspected that her son had lied. So as a caring mother, she just had to see what Wing was doing.
"—you're my new best friend." Said a white haired boy, grinning. She saw her son blush, and then he began smiling too.
The boy looked much like Mrs. Malpense. Maybe he was her son. The woman did ask if she saw a four year old boy with white hair pass by.
"Did something happen Mei-san?" Gracia Malpense asked, sounding concerned. She'd also heard the shout from Wing's room.
"Oh, it's nothing." She said dismissively. "Thought I think I found your son."
"Really?" Gracia exclaimed. Mei smiled.
"Yes. He snuck into my son's room and at this very moment is making friends with him." She replied. Both of the adults rushed to Wing's room, Mei sliding the door slightly so they could see what was happening between the two.
The two of them were laughing like no tomorrow. Wing's cheeks were reddening with joy. It was as though he was never sick.
When Mao learned of what had happened, he was overjoyed. The gods had answered his prayer! Soon enough, the Malpense family became good friends with the Fanchu family.
One day, however, the Malpenses had to leave.
It had only been a year since they first arrived. Jasper, Gracia's husband had been in London all along, and had been supporting the two of them with his job as a computer designer. However, Jasper told them to come back to London. Gracia was shocked, but she complied.
"And you're not going to tell Otto that he told you to move, Gracia-san?" Mei asked, when she came over for lunch.
"No. I don't want him to hate his father more than he does now." Gracia replied, shaking her head. "I have to tell him that I chose to move."
Mei looked surprised at the fact that Otto hated his father, but that was probably because of reasons she didn't need to know.
"I'm really sorry, Mei-san." Gracia said sadly. Mei smiled.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure Wing will understand." She replied.
However, things didn't go as well as Mei thought. Right after the Malpenses had left, Wing went into depression. No matter how hard they tried, the Fanchu family couldn't get him to be happy. But they all understood. He was a child, and he lost his best friend. Nothing else could replace the year he had with Otto.
Until Lao came along.
"Hello there Hana."
Wing and Mei came to visit Hana when she was in her naginatajutsu training. The ten year old girl smiled, as she approached her mother and brother.
"Is this the family you spoke of, Hana?"
"Oh, sensei!" she said, surprised. She bowed low, before introducing them.
"This is Fanhcu Mei, my mother." She said. "And this is Fanchu Wing, my otōto-kun (2)."
"Oh, really?" Lao said. "I thought he was your imōto-chan (3)."
Suddenly, Wing's face reddened.
"I'm not a girl!" he said angrily. Suddenly, everyone in the room froze. Lao stared at Wing for a moment, before laughing boisterously. Wing had a very annoyed look on his face, until Lao stopped laughing and smiled.
"I like your spirit, boy. How would you like to learn naginatajutsu here?" he asked, sounding serious. Wing pouted.
"Naginatajutsu is a girl thing, right?" the boy asked. Lao nodded.
"That is true. As you may have noticed, all the students here are women." He said, and everyone in the room waved. "However, gender is merely a way for people to differentiate themselves. Such a vague concept such as that… it does not exist in the case of protecting someone. You do not have to be male or female to learn a certain martial art. I'm male, and yet I study the art of the naginata."
"Is that a challenge?" Wing asked quietly. Lao smiled.
"You're on old man!"
"That actually was sort of funny." Billie said, smiling. "But really… you and Otto were childhood friends? Why did he seem so cold to you on the airplane?"
Wing was about to ask how Billie knew about that.
"Me and Maya's table was right beside yours in the plane." She replied bluntly.
"Oh." Wing replied meekly.
"Hey, Wing! Big sis!" Maya called. "Shel wants us to meet in the entertainment room in half an hour. She says she's got something she wants us to do."
"And why would we follow what she says?" Billie asked.
"She's got Otto as a hostage." Maya replied. Billie and Wing raised an eyebrow, before going their own ways. In thirty minutes, they would see what Shelby had planned.
(1) How do you do? My name is Otto Malpense. What is your name?
(2) "little/younger brother"
(3) "little/younger sister"
Read and Review please!