“Mom,” said the all-seeing Aniko.
“Oh. Hiroshi,” said the woman closest to the youngest Okhayashi. “Mean little pig.”
***
“Greetings, Kenta-san.”
“Ho-ho, Shinji. I'm glad to see you, very glad,” the old man said cordially, waving his hand at the zabuton. “It's a pity that you are so late. Today, Kagami outdid herself with the dinner.”
To me, it seemed pretty regular that she did just that.
“What can I do, Kenta-san?” I spread my arms.
“I understand you too well Shinji,” he shook his head. “Should we play a game of Go?”
“Umm... Sure.”
If I don't win, I'll play on his nerves.
“Wait a minute,” he looked out into the hallway and shouted, “Akeno, bring me Go!” Then, he addressed me, “Let's wait for a little.”
We waited. Ten minutes later, Akeno came in, carrying a Go board. Five more minutes later, when we had already started arranging the rocks, Kagami came into the room, brought us tea with sweets and settled by the door. All I could do was sigh. It seemed they were planning on having a serious conversation.
After about ten games, when no serious topic had come up, I decided to move on to the business with which I had come.
“Tell me, Kenta-san, what do you think of making a little extra money? You won't have to do much at all,” I asked, putting the next rock on the board.
I couldn't watch all the adults in the room, so I didn't know how Kagami's face changed after my question. Akeno, however, was clearly surprised. Meanwhile, the old man's face did not twitch a muscle. He continued to look at the board and deliberate on his next move.
“It depends on what is required of me, Shinji,” he answered, stroking his beard. “But on the whole, my answer is positive.”
“The fact is, Kenta-san, that the other day I acquired fifty-five,” I substracted Akemi's percentage, “tons of silver.” His eye twitched. “Now, I want to turn this metal into money. If possible, without attracting too much attention.”
“Are there any reasons,” Kenta asked, still not looking up from the board, ”to avoid attention.”
“Yes.”
Brevity is the soul of wit.
“Hmm,” the old man started thinking. I didn't understand whether he was concerned about the situation on the board or my words. “Hmm. Seven percent.”
Seven, seven... how much would that be? Three million and something? Less than I expected.
“I agree,” I said and made my move.
“Well, that's great. Discuss the details with Kagami. Akeno and I might not have the time for it,” Kenta almost mumbled the end of the phrase, completely focused on the game.
Let him think. I'll talk to his son about something else on my agenda.
“Akeno-san, while Kenta-san is thinking...”
“Heh...” the old man voiced.
“... I have a different question for you. Could you help me with the purchase of MIA?”
“Kha, kha...” that was the old man again.
“Why would you need it?” Asked the man, surprised.
Kagami remained silent, which was not surprising. But, her eyebrow, which rose in surprise, spoke louder than her words ever could. I now really wanted to give them the classical “shoot” reply, so common in my world, but they wouldn’t understand me here.
“I now have so many answers for you, Akeno-san, that I don't even know where to start.”
They, apparently, had many answers to my words as well, because they were silent for a whole minute. I did not interfere, letting them digest the information. I would be able to get my MIA anyway. Even if they didn’t know this for sure, they could surely assume. The only thing was that with the help of the clan Koyama, getting armor would be both easier and faster. In addition, the selection would be better, so would the quality and reliability. In short, there were a few advantages for me. I didn’t want to accept gratuitous help from the clan, but this did not mean that I didn’t intend on using my connection with them. The help that this clan provided me by default, just being my neighbors, was already hard to repay. But then, if you think about it, I was already on my way to repayment. If they agreed to sell me the MIA, it'd have to be on the terms that this trade operation was as inconspicuous as possible. I didn’t need to spread rumors.
“I think,” Akeno finally answered, looking at his father, “that shouldn't be an issue. However... Damn it, Shinji, I'm going to burst with curiosity. Why don't you tell us what you need it for?”
Kagami's sighed as soon as she heard the man speak. She didn't like it when her husband cursed. Her husband couldn't care less though.
“Hm,” I began. “In general, last night I started fighting against one of the guilds of Garagarahabi.”
Silence in response.
“Mmm, only they didn’t understand yet that it was me.”
“Shinji...” the old man said. “Umm, well. And what about the fact that using MIA requires a certain skill? A lot of skill. Otherwise, the armor will only be a large tin can. I doubt that you have time to train people. Not to mention, training the instructor.”
“I already have people. They're trained, professional military men.”
Silence again.
“That's swift,” Kagami finally spoke up. I didn't expect her to say anything.
“And commendable, I have to note,” said the clan heir. “I see you came prepared for this conflict. Well, you will have your MIA. Father, you don't mind, do you?”
“Of course not, my son,” said the head of the clan. After a short pause, he continued, “Tell me, Shinji, what do we need to do to ensure that you don’t take part in the fighting personally? For some reason, I believe that you are going to do just that. If you haven’t already.”
The old man raised his eyebrows.
“Yes, to some extent. And I honestly don’t know what you could do. I can't even imagine. Why would you need to do something? Think about it, whatever my reasons are, sometimes we, men, have no other choice.”
The old man didn’t answer, and neither did Akeno. Of all people, they should understand me. Any sane person knew that it was stupid to run bare-chested in front of your troops. But you couldn’t refuse to participate in battle in this world, either. It was always like that, and that's how it was now.
“... You've grown up too quickly...” Kagami whispered.
“Your move, Shinji.”
Chapter 7
I woke up from a phone call. Pretty soon, I'd forget when the last time was that I had woken up on my own. Today, I had quite a day ahead of me. Silver and MIA. The second one would probably have to wait until another day, but I should have time to meet Akeno in the “Boei to Kogeki” pavilion. The company itself, by the way, belonged to the Imperial Family of Taira and specialized in the sale of military equipment. Getting on the list of their buyers was not easy. For example, I, myself, wouldn't be able to pull that off. Even this time, I would choose, and the Koyama clan would have to buy. With my money, of course. Unfortunately, places where I could buy myself—that is, working with people of my status—did not provide the proper variety.
No matter how much I avoided it, this time I had to use Koyama's connections. Then I'd have to decide whether I should buy all available items immediately for Shidotamoru, and then I'd have to figure out the maintenance aspect, that is, spend extra money, or get just what was needed for now, but with the prospect of using the services of the Koyama clan again in the future. I could also turn on my “arrogance mode” and ask the Okhayashi clan for help next time.
“Yes, I'm listening,” I finally found the cell phone.
“Good morning, boss.”
“Taro... Why so early?”
“I'm sorry, boss, I have bad news.”
“Wait a second,” I had to get myself ready for this.
I rubbed my face, stretched, inhaled-exhaled.
“What is it?”
“This morning... Okay, it's still morni
ng... Well, an hour ago, I found out that Somatsu was killed. Last night, Yamashita called me and congratulated us on the purchase of his company. He hinted that now he would have to find something different to do... like manga. He said something about buying a publishing house.”
What a jerk, huh? Schmuck. And I'm a moron. Who knew that he would immediately jump into killing? So pointless. What the hell did he have against the poor mangaka? Dipstick.
“Move to the base. It's time to move out from your parents' house.”
“It's a bit far, boss. Maybe...”
“No, no maybes. Not now. You can deal with it for now,” I sighed, “and then we'll see. Is that all you have for me?”
“That's the only important news.”
“Okay then. We'll talk later tonight.”
“Bye, boss.”
Well, Yamashita, you shouldn't have done this. I did not expect this from you. But if you are ready to kill, be ready to die.
Mizuki did not show up all morning. As soon as I walked outside, I saw her standing six feet away from the cat on the fence, showing him her tongue. I stepped out just at the moment when Idzivaru gave her the silent treatment, turning his back on her. She snorted and turned to me.
“Shinji! And here... here... Your cat is mean!” She pointed to the cat with her finger. “He doesn't even let me pat him.”
Oh, pity. As if she had not just shown him the tongue.
“He's not my cat. He is on his own,” I answered the girl.
“Ha, can I take him home with me then?”
“Go ahead and try,” I shrugged.
“I will,” she stamped her foot, then squinted at the animal and added, “Later. When I learn some combat skills. By the way, Shinji,” she started getting on my nerves again all of the sudden “could you teach me some things? Please!”
As we approached school, just as she did last time, Mizuki waved at me and ran toward the main building. I even sighed with relief at that moment. If the first couple of days of her nagging had caused mainly a smile deep inside me, now it was really getting on my nerves. Well at least, she had stopped waking me up in the morning. That part always drove me nuts.
Should I talk to Kagami? Nah, it's probably not worth it. It could be kind of embarrassing. In the end, Max, don't you know how to filter external stimuli? Remember your mother-in-law? She wasn't evil but horribly boring. She could talk about anything, but not something you had at least the slightest idea about. I know. I'll follow the cat's suit: I'll just ignore her.
Today, I had to wait for Rydon at the school gate. I waited for ten minutes, and this was despite the fact that I'd left the house at the same time as usual. I was already thinking of calling Rydon when he and Aniko finally showed up.
“Hello, Rydon. Good morning, Aniko. You're kind of late today.”
“The traffic is just horrible. There was a car accident on the way here,” the guy sighed.
“Good morning, Shinji,” the girl smiled at me. “Sorry for making you wait.”
“Oh, that's not a problem at all. It's not your fault. Shall we?”
After the first class, Rydon grabbed his notebook again and started scribbling something in it. I couldn't help it anymore. My curiosity took the best of me, and I looked over his shoulder. I couldn't understand a thing. The drawings were obviously some technical blueprints, but they were not meant for my meager mind.
“What is that?” I asked the guy.
Do you know what his answer was?
“Time machine! I have been thinking about this project for years, but only recently has it all begun to come together.”
“Is that so? I see. Well,” I patted him on the shoulder, “good luck.”
“You can laugh all you want,” Rydon sounded hurt. It's hard to not be skeptical when you hear something like that. “I'll remind you how you laughed at me, when you ask me to give you a ride to the past.”
Yeah, yeah, sure. I think I'm gonna go.
“Hello, lady-killer!”
“Huh?” I turned to the voice. “Oh, it’s you, Hiki-san.”
I turned to Aketi Toremazu's friend. The girls at this school were truly pretty. It had all been much simpler in my previous life.
“I wanted to talk to you about something. I wanted to stop at your table at lunch, but since I ran into you here...”
“I'm all ears, Hiki-san.”
“I wanted to apologize,” she looked at me sheepishly, but for some reason, I did not feel that her apology was sincere. I also didn’t like pauses like that.
“Well, what can I say? Do it then.”
“Umm, yeah. So. I apologize,” she bowed, falling silent again.
I did nothing and said nothing.
“Well, why are you silent? Do you forgive me?”
“I'll think about it.”
The funny thing was that she didn’t expect this kind of response.
“You're so... interesting. So you won't even ask me why I'm apologizing?”
“Well, I don't really care, I guess.”
I wasn't completely honest here. As a regular person, of course, I was curious, but I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of my curiosity. In addition, thinking of the past few days, I could sort of guess what she was talking about. If it was something that was supposed to happen in the future, she would tell me about it anyway.
“Let's pretend,” she sat down across from me on the bench, “just hypothetically, that I asked someone to go and hurt your friends? If you found out about this now, then you would quite possibly have time to stop them. You could also warn your friends.”
“Heh,” I grinned. “My friends can harm anyone themselves. I know, I know,” I stopped the girl who wanted to say something. “I remember you said 'hypothetically’. But that's how it works. If you want to hurt my friends, be ready for retaliation. If you want to hurt me, ask yourself: What do you know about me to be able to hurt me really badly?”
“Hmm. Nothing really. But I can do small harm. Or not so small. I know enough to do that.”
“I'll survive,” I said, waving my hand.
If I had believed that she could harm me, I would have acted differently. At that moment, I didn’t really care.
“You're a bit too self-confident,” the girl made a skeptical face.
“I'm not. The situation is not worth sweating over. Why do you say I'm self-confident? Maybe I'm just melancholic?”
“It doesn't matter, actually.”
She put her arm on her crossed leg and then placed her chin on top of her hand. Sitting like that, she watched me for a minute in silence.
“I'm really sorry. The girl who shocked you with the Taser... that's my fault.”
Well, that's what I thought.
There was nothing major that had happened to me lately, for which she could apologize. That incident was the only thing that came to mind from all recent events.
“It was a joke,” Hiki frowned. “It wasn't meant for you. I wanted to play a prank on Tori-chan. I didn't know this moron would take my words seriously. And so literally.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Umm, don't make me tell you the details,” she answered, looking away. “That's between us girls.”
Girly secrets. Whatever. Who cares.
“How is Aketi-san?” I asked, not because I cared, but just because I had to say something.
“Hey! Are you really interested? Really!?” She exploded with excitement. Then she suddenly became serious. “Okay, it's not funny actually. You know, I wanted to talk about this with you. As Tori-chan's friend, I can't ignore the situation.”
The situation? What situation? What does it have to do with me?
“Huh?”
“Oh, men,” I didn't try to hide my bewilderment, and Hiki had no difficulty in reading my questioning expression. “Why do you, men, never see it?”
Damn. When women begin talking in this tone and in this context, the chances are great that they mean love. At first
, I thought they were just making fun of me, but now I started feeling uncomfortable.
“It's about Tori-chan. If you're not seeing it, you're blind and cold-hearted...”
At that moment, another girl came out from the corner of the building. I couldn't see who she was because of Hiki in the way, but after she took a few steps toward us, she was clearly visible. Before recognizing her, I first heard her address Hiki.
“What the hell are you doing, Maki-cha...” She finally saw me. “Ma... Ma...”
Amazing! She's trying to talk.
“Ma...”
“Tori-chan! What are you doing here? Were you looking for me? Why?” Hiki said quickly.
It didn’t look like Hiki was going to walk away and take her friend with her.
“Ma... Ma...”
“Come on, Tori-chan, join us,” the girl said and patted the bench on which she was sitting.
It was hard to believe, but Aketi took a step toward the bench. Slowly, as if her legs were made of wood, with arms outstretched in our direction and her constant “Ma”, she reached Hiki and grabbed her shoulder with a dead grip. Aketi froze in this position, still staring at me like a rabbit at a boa.
“Tori-chan,” Hiki winced. “You're hurting me. Ouch.”
A powerful jerk with a step back pulled the poor girl to the ground. Meanwhile, Aketi did not calm down. Without taking her eyes off of me, she took another step back, pulling Hiki after her.
“Ma...” Step, one more jerk. “Ma...” Hiki finally managed to get up and was instantly pressed to Aketi's chest. “Ma...” One more step back.
“Aketi Toremazu,” the girl hissed. “How are you treating your best friend?”
“Ma...”
“Come on, turn her so she faces away from me!” I couldn’t take it any longer.
Finally. I thought I wouldn't be able to hold in my laughter any longer. They started walking away from me. Hiki clasped her friend by the shoulder with one hand, while massaging her tailbone with the other. She was whispering something under her breath, leading her friend away. After waiting for them to disappear from my eyes, I decided it was time for me to go back to class.
***
Somebody knocked on the door of my office.
Losing Masks Page 21
