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"Don't do it."
"I must do it."
"You'll regret it."
"I won't regret it."
"She won't like it."
"So she'll hate me for a few minutes. My sister will lecture me if I have it."
The single blade came down on his upper lip, cutting the hairs off.
Martin threw his arms up, "No! You fool!"
Laughing, Shin continued to shave the moustache and his chin. He then cleaned the rest of his face of the cream. Grabbing his shirt, he put it on and tucked it into his pants. The suspenders followed. He then wrapped his right hand with a skin tone bandage.
"If I go back to Japan with a moustache and goatee, I'll get stared at." Shin then said.
"You'll get stared at because you're wearing red plaid pants with a beige jacket." Martin crossed his arms, "You look funny."
"I look nice." Shin gave him a look, "And it's much better than your jeans and leather coat."
"I'll go put on some Rick Astley for you too."
"Ha." Shin joked.
"Never going to give you up," Martin started singing as he left the wash room.
After making sure that the dog was walked, Shin and Martin met Gabby at the airport. They had lunch before Shin said goodbye. Going through customs, he received a look from the border control officer like he did coming into France years ago. Pulling out his book, Shin waited for the rest of the passengers to finish boarding. An older woman sat next to him. Some of her friends sat around her. They were obviously part of a tourist group returning home, as the older woman tried to ask him in horrible French to help with her bag. He gladly got up to life the bag for her after he spoke to her in Japanese.
"Are you going there to study?" the woman asked.
"No, I'm going home to see family." He frowned after the woman gave him a look.
The rest of the flight was quiet. When he landed, he again received unfriendly looks, and even had a waitress give him a fork for his meal. Was it that obvious he had been out of Japan for a few years? He thought he was fine until he almost got hit by a car for looking the wrong way before crossing.
Walking through the doors of the Rei Fuan restaurant, he was tackled, swung around and finally bear hugged by a grinning Shu. Right after, the noggie came.
"It's good to see you too, Shu." Shin finally got out, laughing.
"Yo man, what the hell took you so long? I thought you'd never come back." Shu said, "You missed four of my birthdays and my wedding."
"Sorry. I did send you the wine."
"And it was great. Touma and his wife Carla were so funny that night."
"Is that Shin?" they heard from the back.
"Yeah Mama, Shin's back." Shu yelled.
Coming out, Mama Rei Fuan slapped Shin a couple of times on the chest, "Why did it take so long for you to come home? We missed you."
"Sorry Mama Rei Faun." Shin frowned, feeling like a little boy.
"You better not be married." She continued her lecture, "I haven't been invited."
"No mama," Shu jumped in, "He's not married yet."
"Good. Mama Rei Fuan wants an invite, you hear?"
Shin nodded.
"Come," she said, "You look like you haven't been eating well."
He was dragged to a seat and forced to sit. Shu joined him. They continued to talk until food was brought to them. As quick as it came, it was gone.
"So when can I meet her?" Shin asked.
"Jae-Hwa should be home soon. She works at one of the clothing stores in the mall." Shu answered.
"So how did you get her to date you? I remember you asking about it."
Shu laughed, "We found each other in a club actually. I offered to buy her a drink and from there we hit it off. She invited me over for a movie and I stayed the night. I was surprised to find out that she was interested too, but neither of us had the guts to say something until we had a few drinks and danced. Seiji was right that silly works. How's your girl?"
Shin sighed. He was holding his head up with one arm while looking out the window.
"I asked her to come with me, but she's afraid of leaving Europe. Other than that, we get along just dandy, but it's been off and on for a couple of years. She finally moved into my apartment last month. I want to make it more, but I want her to meet Sayoko and the rest of you guys first."
"That's rough, buddy." Shu grinned, "Ready for the anniversary party?"
"Yeah. Has it really been ten years since we defeated Arago?" Shin asked, looking at his friend.
"Ten years in back July, but I think we can celebrate it a bit late. Touma's bringing his family. Did you know he goes by Tom at work?"
Shin laughed, "He does?"
"Yeah. I called a month ago to invite him out to our party, and he answered the phone with 'Tom Hashiba.' I laughed at him for five minutes straight. Even Seiji laughed when I told him." Shu then jumped up, "We should get Ryo. He's been a couch potato since he came back from France."
"That was partly my fault." Shin frowned, "I shouldn't have let my friend Martin talk us into stair surfing with an ironing board down two flights of stairs."
"Sounds like fun."
Shin smiled, "It is almost as fun as actually surfing, but Ryo hit the rails the wrong way and flipped over them. I nearly broke my ankles jumping down to check on him. Then he missed out on what he has wanted to do."
"There's always next time." Shu said, "Come on. Let's get him before Jae-Hwa comes back. Then we can go out before heading to the mansion tomorrow."
Shu spent five minutes at Ryo's front door, pounding on it and yelling at him to get up. They both knew he was home, as Ryo yelled back that he had to get himself up.
"It's about time." Shu said as the door opened.
Seeing Shin, Ryo got into a defensive stance, "Martin isn't here with you is he?"
"No." Shin laughed, "He's on the other side of the world."
Ryo sighed with relief, "Isn't it early to head to Nasuti's mansion?"
"No silly," Shu smirked, "We're getting you out of the apartment. Shin just got in from the airport."
"Aren't you tired?"
"No, I woke up when I was tossed around like a sack of potatoes by Shu."
Ryo relaxed a bit, "Alright then. Let me get a coat and my boot thing."
Shu made a comment about Ryo's big black boot that helped him walk around. Trying to hold his laugh in, Shin failed when Ryo knock his foot against the table.
"Want some help?" Shin asked.
"Just get me out the door please."
Instead of letting Shin help, Shu picked Ryo up and walked out the door. Shin grabbed Ryo's coat and a shoe.
"Shu, did anyone ever tell you that you hide your strength very well?" Ryo commented.
"Are you trying to call me fat?"
"You do look like you gained some more weight in or around the belly area." Shin teased.
"I think it's more in the head area."
"Ryo, you do know that I am carrying you, right?"
"Yeah, you can put me down now." He said as Shin was tying his shoe.
The first thing Shin noticed about Jae-Hwa was that she was quiet and polite. The second thing was that she was like that with people she was just meeting. She and Shu were soon head to head in a staring match about going downtown. When she won, she jumped into the air with joy, and then said that they could all go out. Shu sighed.
Shin started having a feeling of déjà vu when they couldn't find a parking spot around the theater. Looking at the movie selection, he noticed that Lethal Weapon 4 was playing.
"I think we should find another theater to go to." He commented.
"Why?" Shu asked.
"Because last time we tried to go see a movie and couldn't find parking, we got jumped."
Ryo frowned, "We did, didn't we?"
"Yeah, and Lethal Weapon 3 was playing." Shin continued.
"Okay, what about karaoke?"
"I hate singing." Ryo said.
"I think you three should just go to a strip club." Jae-Hwa said.
The comment made Shu stop the car, and all three of the men stared at her.
"You're kidding, right?" Ryo asked.
"Of course I am. I just wanted to see what you three would do." She finally laughed, "Shu, your friends are funny."
After talking about what to do, they decided to play it safe and go bowling. Shu even got a thing for Ryo to roll the ball off of so he didn't feel left out. Later Shu would complain about every time Ryo got a good score and he managed to get only gutter balls. Shin was quietly drinking a beer before going up for his turn.
"And Fish-boy scores another strike." Shu commented after seeing Shin's goofy smile, "You must have played a lot in France."
Shin grinned, "No, it's all luck."
Shu gave Ryo a look.
"It's all luck and alcohol." Ryo said, "Shin was too busy drinking wine and throwing me off of stairs to play this game a lot."
"I didn't throw you." Shin corrected him, "I simply pushed you too hard, and I was the one to get to you first and got the ambulance."
"Excuses."
Jae-Hwa later drove them back to their apartment. Ryo slept on the couch while Shin took the floor.
Shin, Shu and Ryo all agreed that Touma didn't look normal with long hair and he had continued to bleach his hair as well. For Shin and Ryo, it was like reliving their mullet days, but worse. Only Shu was brave enough to say it to his face.
"Touma, you look like someone placed a mop on your head, tied it back and decided to call it a hairdo."
"You're generously proportioned in areas of the abdomen and the neck and should go for a walk." Was Touma's smart comeback.
"Dammit." Shu mumbled.
Seiji was the last one to show up. He had picked up Jun along the way. Nasuti had gone first to make the house livable for them and decide where to place people for rooming. She apologized when she put Shin, Ryo and Jun in the same room. Speaking of Jun, Shin noticed that the nineteen year old was now much taller than him.
Standing around listening to everyone greet and chat, Shin felt someone grab his ear and pull him into another room. It was an angry Seiji. It became serious when he leaned against the counter in the kitchen.
"So what made you think you could just give away our names?" he said in a monotone voice.
It didn't take long for Ryo to come in.
"What's going on?" he asked, "I saw the two of you leave."
"Ryo," Seiji said in a better tone, "I was just asking Shin why he gave our names out to the public."
"It wasn't the public." Shin said, also trying to keep the neutral tone.
"Seiji," Ryo sighed, "I asked you to not bring this up. We're supposed to be enjoying the fact that we're alive and not some demon's tools of destruction."
"What happened to your hand Shin?" Seiji's tone was changed a bit.
"It was a cooking accident."
"Bullshit it was." Seiji replied quickly.
"Seiji, can you leave him alone?" Ryo's tone was harsher.
"Negative." Seiji was now leaning at the island in the kitchen, "Shin's pretty good with knives. You don't just cut yourself unless someone was distracting you. What happened?"
"The government grabbed Gabrielle and myself after she received a warning from Nasuti. They were asking about your names and I refused to speak." Shin spoke calmly, "But the head director had other plans."
"What did he do?"
"Seiji." Ryo pleaded again, seeing Shin's change in demeanor.
"It's not important." Shin growled.
"Yes it is."
"Seiji, stop."
"What is it Shin? What did they do?" Seiji's tone was now full of impatient anger.
Grabbing a knife from the island, Shin slammed it down in between Seiji's middle and ring fingers. Seiji jumped back as Shin removed his hand from the knife.
"That, except it was in my hand." Shin growled, "And then they held me up by my feet. It's not a pleasant feeling, you know. I didn't want to tell them, but I didn't want to lose my hand either. I spoke and they dropped me."
Shu and Touma could be seen peeking in.
"Is this a bad time to get drinks?" Shu asked.
"No." Seiji said, opening the refrigerator for them.
"Why is there a knife in the counter? It doesn't do us good being there like that." Touma asked.
"Shin was showing us his new knife skills." Seiji lied.
Ryo sighed, "Seiji's questioning Shin's actions in Paris that led to our names being leaked."
"Oh dude, anyone would have done the same if his girlfriend was taken hostage. Shit, they're lucky it wasn't Shu or Ryo, or Paris would be nonexistent under layers of stone or ash." Touma said, but continued when he saw Shin's face change, "But there's more isn't there? They didn't just take her did they?"
"No." Shin unwrapped his hand to show the cut. There was a mixed response.
"Fuck, man. That looked like it hurt." Touma said.
Shu looked like he wanted to kill someone. Seiji just stood there.
"Just can't handle pressure, can you?" he spoke.
"I think I would have said anything to get out of that, Seiji. It looks painful." Touma said.
Seiji still had a face of disappointment, "You sure do know how to find trouble, Shin. Are you going to run this time or blindly get into a fight with one of us?"
Shin felt all eyes on him, "I'm doing nothing because it's going to ruin the day. Nasuti took a lot of time to cook all the food for us to just let it go to waste."
Touma gave Seiji a look, "It's my fault for everything Seiji. You can't just blame him for all of this."
He then turned and walked out. Shu followed, leaving a steaming Ryo and a somewhat pleased Seiji. His attitude changed when Ryo slammed him into the fridge and the heat from Rekka was hitting him.
"That was a dick move and you know it." Ryo said.
"Someone had to say it, because you weren't."
"No Seiji, any of us would have done the same thing he did. I saw you react to the knife slam in between your fingers. He just had it happen to him first." Ryo stopped at the door, "Not all of us are trained to be emotionless."
Looking at his ruined counter top, Seiji sighed. Those were brand new oak tops. When he walked out, no one looked his way. He then decided to head upstairs to hide.