Chapter 9 – Dragon's Den
Yumi sat quietly, hands folded in her lap, ankles crossed, her posture that of a perfectly trained lady. The dress of purple silk with the delicate embroidery around the neck and hem was expensive and elegant. With calm sure hands she served the tea and listened attentively to her grandmother's conversation.
The elderly woman was wearing deceptively simple gold jacket over a black dress of simple design and which perfectly fit her slender frame. Sharp black eyes watched Yumi over the rim of the teacup and the flash of her rings as she put the cup back down revealed, to the discerning eye, her wealth and taste.
"A boxer?" her grandmother repeated with an expressionless face that revealed nothing to her granddaughter.
"The Asian Bantam weight champion," she added, not certain whether his success in this area would work for or against him with her formidable grandmother. The old lady had not earned the title of the "Maeda Dragon" for nothing after all, even Yumi's mother was frightened of her.
"So," Maeda Kimiko replied and gestured for he cup to be refilled. Yumi did as she was bid and schooled herself to patience. Grandmother was not to be won over by being rash or upset. Getting her to side with Yumi against her mother would require delicacy and tact. "I hear that his family is large," the old woman continued and Yumi allowed herself a fond smile for the Ozu clan and their warm, affectionate, and boisterous household.
"He is one of five children." She answered with serene tones and sipped her tea.
The Maeda estate was the exact opposite of the bustling Ozu home. For three generations her mother's family had lived in this home, and the antique furniture Yumi was presently sitting on was only one example of the rare and precious things that were carefully tended by the household staff. Despite that, the house did not look like a museum. It was a sharp contrast to Yumi's own home where everything was breakable and untouchable. Grandmother Kimiko had a home that a child could play in. It was one of the reasons that Yumi had come to her, despite how long the drive out to Shibuya was,
Her grandmother couldn't be too upset with her, Yumi reasoned, since she had had her settled into the western style sitting room in the newer part of the house, rather than making her sit saiza on tatami in the more formal tea room, nor had she refused to see her at all, which had been possible. These little signs were encouraging.
"Tell me about his family," Grandmother asked and with a feeling of relief, Yumi gave her an account of her boyfriend's family. Leaving out the magical aspect was difficult, but she didn't think that she had done too bad a job by the end of it.
Her grandmother was still watching her with her sharp eyes and Yumi wondered if she had done well by Tsubasa's kin or not. It was so hard to tell with the Maeda Dragon.
Tsubasa pounded the bag with a feeling of deep annoyance. For once, the satisfying thunk of his glove against his stuffed opponent failed to ease his heart. Yumi had vanished off on some mysterious trip out of Tokyo yesterday and her father had called Miyuki to tell her that his wife was still dead set against Yumi dating Tsubasa, despite his best efforts. He had sounded sad and tired, Miyuki told him, and Tsubasa had the added worry that his relationship with Yumi was straining her parent's marriage. He missed her greatly and was concerned as to where she could have gone. He was also worried that she could still be a target for some monster and for reasons he didn't understand.
"Focus!" Jun-sensei shouted and smacked the back of his head. It wasn't a hard slap, Tsubasa barely felt it, but he was instantly shamed by the rebuke. "If you fight like this tonight, you will lose for sure!"
"Sorry," he murmured, knowing that his coach was completely right.
"It's that girl, isn't it?" Higa-san sighed from his place on a nearby bench.
"Yes," he admitted and felt a flush on his cheeks. He had always been able to control his feelings, but first Mamiya Rei and now her re-incarnation Kimura Yumi had managed to overturn his heart and mind.
"You'd do well to forget her, boy, that family is too far above you," Jun-sensei growled and the undercurrent of bitterness and pain in his voice made Tsubasa's heart ache for him.
"I can't do that," he replied softly and went back to pounding the bag.
He stepped into the ring that evening feeling both angry and depressed. His parents hadn't said anything against Yumi, but after the terrible dinner with her mother they had seemed subdued and rather sad. He didn't know his father as well as would like, but he could read his mother's worry plainly. She was concerned that his heart was going to be broken again and if he were honest with himself, so was he.
The match started and he was feeling off balance from the start. His opponent was one of the European champions, a short German man with a black buzz cut and very fast fists. Tsubasa was dodging and weaving, but with little of his usual skill and he knew he was likely to lose against so determined an opponent.
"You can do it, Tsubasa!" Came a shout from the audience and he snapped his head around as he heard the voice. There, in the audience, sandwiched between his elder brother and an elderly woman in a black coat, was Yumi. She was smiling and cheering him on. He felt a surge of joy and lunged at the German with renewed vigor.
After that, the bout was as good as over.
Yumi watched in satisfaction as Tsubasa knocked the other man down and the referee began the count. Beside her, her grandmother smiled a little.
"Your young man has excellent footwork," she commented and Yumi tried not to choke. She turned wide eyes on her grandmother whose face had returned to coolly impassive. "I was young once too, you know," she added in a scolding tone. Yumi had no idea how to answer that.
Makito smiled down at her Grandmother with his usual good humor and exuberance.
"Tsubasa did really well!" Whether he was talking about the match or about Yumi, she didn't know, but the way he said it made her blush.
Makito did a great job of breaking a path for them to the locker room area, but Yumi noticed that her grandmother's sharp stare was also extremely effective. No one wanted to mess with the old lady.
"Yumi!" Tsubasa pushed past the doctor to her and she ran forwards to meet him. They stood there for a long moment just smiling at each other, before her grandmother carefully cleared her throat.
"Ah! Sorry! Maeda Kimiko, may I introduce Ozu Tsubasa! Tsubasa, please meet my grandmother," she introduced them with the proper formal phrasing and watched Tsubasa's eyes widen. He bowed respectfully to her.
"It is my pleasure to meet you, Ozu Tsubasa," grandmother said as she bowed in return.
"I am honored that you came tonight," Tsubasa replied with a gracious tone.
"How could I not, my granddaughter insisted that you were something wondrous to behold." Her voice was soft, but the twinkle in her eye told Yumi that her grandmother was not at all displeased with Tsubasa. "I cannot say that she was wrong," Kimiko added and Tsubasa blushed at the praise. She extended her hand to Yumi. "Your doctor seems impatient to tend to you, we will wait outside."
Tsubasa floated over to the table and didn't notice the doctor at all as he bandaged and taped up his injuries.
"That was a very scary old lady," Higa-san muttered from beside him and Tsubasa came down to earth long enough to smile at him.
"She seemed very kind to me," Tsubasa answered, still somewhat dreamy feeling. Yumi had come to his match and she had been smiling and happy. Things must be better with her family. Hope soared in his heart.
"She was not at all what I expected," Jun-sensei, his face full of confusion, added and Tsubasa looked at him with curiosity.
"When I was young I dated Maeda Yukio. She made it seem that her mother would never allow the match and she dumped me. I wonder now if that was so." It was a long speech from Jun-sensei and Tsubasa suddenly understood why his mentor had been so sensitive about Yumi before.
"She seems to approve of Tsubasa-kun," Higa-san muttered and then both men fell silent.
They were seated at dinner and Tsubasa was being gently grilled by Kimiko-san. Her black eyes seemed to miss nothing and he gaining new levels of respect for the elderly woman with every question.
"And once you have defeated the American champions, what are your plans?"
"Well, the Japanese national boxing team has requested that I try out for the Olympics and I would like to do that." Yumi gave him a look of surprised delight and he smiled back at her. "Depending on the results of my try-out I will either compete at the Olympics or finish with the American boxers and then retire."
"What are your plans for your retirement?" was her next question and like all the previous ones, she asked it in a neutral tone that had no sense of either approval or disapproval in it.
"I wanted to open my own training center and teach children to box," he admitted and she raised an eyebrow in way that invited him to continue. "There are lots of kids who need structure and discipline in their lives, boxing can give that to them." She was watching him with those dark eyes of hers, her gaze was straightforward and clear, much like Yumi's.
The spider-woman's comment came back to him. Clear Eyed One, she called Yumi, like it meant something particular.
"My daughter, Yukio, will probably not ever like you or your family, young man, but if you don't care for that, you have no obstacle in me." She was looking out the window as she said it and Yumi smiled at him with such warmth and happiness that he was hard pressed not to shout for sheer joy.
"Thank you, Maeda-san, it does make me sad that your daughter is unhappy, especially as it makes stress with Kimura-san." He ran a hand through his hair, feeling a pang for Yumi's father.
The elderly woman chortled suddenly and they both looked at her in surprise.
"Yes, Yukio has that poor man completely under her control, doesn't she?" Tsubasa gaped a bit and then closed his mouth quickly as Maeda-san shook her head. "You won't let my Yumi run over you, Tsubasa-kun, nor will you run over her, it will be a much better situation than what her parents have."
Tsubasa nodded at Yumi, he knew that what the elderly woman was saying was completely true. They respected each other and neither of them would ever try to make the other over into something they were not. She smiled back at him, thoughtful, but obviously in agreement with her grandmother.
Of course it was nowhere near as easy as Maeda-san had made it sound. Yukio had thrown a well-bred fit when her mother informed her that she was to leave Yumi and Tsubasa be.
Still the second dinner with the two families went off much better than the first. Yukio might have maintained a stony silence throughout, but her mother made up for it with her graciousness and genuine warmth.
There had been an odd moment when she first met the family, Tsubasa had noted that her keen eyes had widened a bit when Isamu was presented to her and she blinked suddenly when meeting Hikaru, by the time she met Ki Sakura, she seemed a little dazed, but she shook it off quickly and in truth, Tsubasa wasn't sure it wasn't his imagination that gave these slight changes in expression any significance.
Later that evening, Tsubasa found himself flopped on the soft gold-toned couch in Yumi's apartment feeling as though he had gone twenty rounds in the ring.
She brought the tea and set it down in front of him, pouring for him with her perfect manners and for just an instant he felt like she was very far away from him. Then she looked up and he saw the warmth in her eyes and everything was all right again. Their families might be worlds apart but they were joined together so deeply that the distance between them seemed like nothing at all.
"Yumi," he started and she looked at him with a smile that made his heart flutter. "I'm glad that we found each other again." He had meant to say something else, something romantic, but words seemed so inadequate for how he felt.
She reached out and took his hand and he wrapped his fingers around hers.
"Me too," she smiled back at him and he knew that she understood completely.
Isamu watched as Sakura and Makito wandered through the front garden, hands intertwined and happy voices drifting on the night breeze. Miyuki came up beside him and slipped her own hand into his.
"I think they will be very happy together," she murmured, leaning against him, and he nodded, knowing that she meant not the couple before them, but Tsubasa and Yumi.
"I hope the old dragon will be content with the match as well," he answered back and Miyuki chuckled.
"That was a bit of a surprise, wasn't it!"
"True, but since one son is marrying a cherry tree, it only seems natural for the other to marry a dragon's grand child, after all, their sister married a Heavenly Saint." He shrugged his shoulders in resignation. They were hardly a normal family, after all, it only stood to reason that the children would end up with not-so-normal spouses. Only Kai seemed to be bucking tradition, which was only to be expected, so similar was he to his father.
Miyuki's laughter warmed the night and he drew her close to him, deeply grateful for the happiness they had won.
Miyuki's phone rang just then and he watched her flip it open and listen. A huge smile spread across her face.
"We will all come immediately Hikaru, of course!" She closed the phone and looked at him with excited eyes. "We are about to be grandparents!"
Yumi held tightly to Tsubasa, her arms wrapped around his waist and tried very hard not to think about how high they were off the ground. The roar of the broom's engine was deafening, but she could still hear her heart pounding crazily in her chest. She had absolute faith in Tsubasa, so she wasn't scared, but she also wasn't so sure that a broomstick was ever going to be her preferred mode of travel.
The rose through the clouds and she shivered at the sudden cold. Warmth spread out from Tsubasa to envelop her and she burrowed into his back. Around them other broomsticks flew upwards through the clouds and she turned her head enough to see Kai and Yuka to her right, Yuka looking far more comfortable with her perch than Yumi was just then.
Just beyond them Makito and Sakura flew, the gentle Sakura seeming completely unfazed by flying. She had her usual look of serene joy and Yumi didn't know if it were because she was with Makito or if was just a natural expression of who she was. Even after several weeks of acquaintance, Yumi found Sakura quite baffling.
All of her attention was captured though as they burst through the clouds and were flying above floating islands of surpassing beauty. It was incredible and part of her mind was taken up with figuring out what held them up. Years of her father's lectures made her shake her head in wonder and awe. She was looking at the impossible.
They drifted through the star strewn sky to land on one of the floating islands. It was as though someone had plucked a mountain up from the ground and set it on a cloud, houses and gardens dotted the hillsides and where the ocean would have been, empty sky stretched and Yumi felt small and cold. Tsubasa, no longer in his armored form, wrapped an arm around her and she realized that she was shivering. It wasn't that she was scared, she realized, just overcome by how beautiful and strange everything was.
A woman in purple, white, and blue robes came running out of a large sprawling villa and they all moved to meet up with her. Her face was luminous and lovely and she was grinning broadly. The villa behind her was painted in blues and gold and had a large sun with radiating arms set on top of it.
"You made it!" the smiling woman cried gladly and the whole Ozu clan started to talk and chatter all on top of each other. Yumi found herself being swept along with the whole loud excited clan.