Amnesia Chapter 14:
Tension
Two days later, Kisshu was fully recovered. Shintaro had already gone to his sister's, so Sakura drove them down to meet him. The funeral was in three days.
Sakura had bought some funeral-appropriate clothing for Kisshu, and Ichigo had a black dress to wear.
They finally pulled into Shintaro's sister's driveway, and got out. "We should leave our stuff in the car, I'm not sure where we'll be staying," Sakura said.
Ichigo's cat hearing picked up the sound of shouting from indoors. "Um… it sounds like someone's having a shouting match in there," she said.
Sakura sighed. "Probably your aunt and your father," she said. "Let's go in, but keep it quiet. Kisshu, stay close to us."
"Okay," Kisshu said.
Sakura went to the door and rang the doorbell. A few minutes later, a woman came to the door. She didn't look very happy to see them, but said, "Come in, Shintaro's already here."
Sakura went in with a quiet thank-you, followed by Ichigo and Kisshu. The woman closed the door behind them and sighed. "It's nice to see you again, Sakura, Ichigo," she said. "Who's this?"
"This is Kisshu, Ichigo's boyfriend," Sakura said. "We adopted him about a week ago."
"Nice to meet you, Kisshu," the woman said. "I'm Ichigo's aunt, Hanabi. You can call me Aunt Hanabi, like Ichigo does."
Kisshu bowed and said, "Nice to meet you, Aunt Hanabi."
"Aunt Hanabi, is Dad around?" Ichigo asked.
"He's steaming in the living room," Aunt Hanabi said. "He's still mad at me."
"I can't imagine why," Sakura muttered.
Aunt Hanabi gave her the evil eye and said, "And what's that supposed to mean?"
"You did keep it from him that his mother was dying," Sakura said. "I spent two hours last week after your phone call trying to get him to calm down."
Aunt Hanabi glared at her. Ichigo could feel things heating up, and quickly said, "Kisshu and I are going to go find Dad, Mom."
"Good," Sakura said.
Ichigo quickly took Kisshu's hand and dragged him to the living room, right before the shouting started.
"What was that about?" Kisshu asked.
"I didn't want to get caught up in the fighting," Ichigo said. "It's better if we stay in here for a while, where it's quiet."
They sat down on a couch, and a few minutes later, Shintaro came in. "Where's your mother?" he asked Ichigo.
"Fighting with Aunt Hanabi, last time I checked," Ichigo said. "I think they're in the front hall."
"This funeral is going to be a nightmare," Shintaro said. "My mother would be horrified to see this."
"Who else is coming?" Ichigo asked.
"My brother and his wife, and all of your cousins," Shintaro said. "And some friends of my mother's."
"Okay," Ichigo said. "How bad do you think it'll be?"
"The ceremony probably won't be too bad, but the reception is a different matter," Shintaro said. "If it gets too heated for you and Kisshu, go outside, there's a nice garden next to the building."
"Okay, thanks Dad," Ichigo said.
"How did Hanabi handle seeing we brought Kisshu?" Shintaro asked.
"She told him to call her Aunt Hanabi, so I don't think she minds," Ichigo said. "My cousins, on the other hand…."
"Is Shino still harassing you?" Shintaro asked.
"Last time I checked, yes," Ichigo said.
"I'll have a talk with him if he gets too annoying," Shintaro said. "Just make sure he doesn't hurt Kisshu."
"Why would Ichigo's cousin hurt me?" Kisshu asked.
"Shino has a crush on Ichigo," Shintaro explained. "He thinks they'll get married someday. But not if I have anything to say about it. That kid is bad news."
"We'll avoid him," Ichigo said. "And I won't let him near Kisshu."
"Good," Shintaro said.
"Are your other cousins nice, Ichigo?" Kisshu asked.
"My cousin Nami is nice, the rest of them are jerks," Ichigo said. "And Shino is downright evil."
"Like Ryou?" Kisshu asked.
"Maybe not that bad," Ichigo said. "But still pretty evil."
"So avoid him at all costs," Kisshu said.
"Yep," Ichigo said.
Shintaro sighed and said, "I'd better go stop your aunt and your mother. If I'm not back in ten minutes, come find me, okay?"
"Okay, but why?" Ichigo asked.
"To make sure I'm not dead," Shintaro said gloomily, and left.
Ten minutes later: "Your dad isn't back yet," Kisshu commented. "Should we go check on him?"
"Might as well," Ichigo said. "If they're still fighting, stay back, and I'll try to handle it."
"O-okay," Kisshu said.
They went to the front hall and saw that the shouting was still going on. "STOP IT!" Ichigo shouted.
Surprisingly, the adults went silent. Ichigo continued, "You should be ashamed of yourselves. Grandma just died, and all you're doing is fighting. Do you really think she'd want that? She'd be horrified to see you all fighting like this the day before her funeral. It's disrespectful to her memory to be acting like this. I understand that Aunt Hanabi did the wrong thing by not informing the rest of us that Grandma was dying, but you could at least try to stop fighting. Grandma wouldn't want to see her children fighting like this. She'd want you to come together and put aside your differences to honor her memory."
Sakura sighed. "You're right, Ichigo," she said. "We shouldn't be fighting over how wrong Hanabi was, we should be preparing for tomorrow." She looked at Aunt Hanabi and Shintaro, who looked rather guilty. They looked from Ichigo to each other, then hugged.
"Much better," Ichigo said.
"You sound like our mom when we were kids," Aunt Hanabi said. "Maybe you've inherited her talent for peacemaking."
"I doubt that, but thanks anyways," Ichigo said.
"Let's go make dinner," Sakura said. "Ichigo, can you and Kisshu get our stuff out of the car?"
"Sure Mom," Ichigo said.
Kisshu followed her outside. "That was really cool, how you got them to stop fighting," he said.
"Thanks Kisshu," Ichigo said, blushing. They got the stuff out of the car, and went back inside.
Next chapter is the funeral.