“The interesting mix of raising technique you two used on us kids is burned into my mind.” Takashi snickered. “And I’m not the only one getting the brunt of Okaasan’s antics. I’ve overheard her get on Rei’s case a number of times.”
His father flinched when Takashi threw the ball extra hard. “This all being said, it’s obvious your normal tactics to contact her and clear things up aren’t working. Have you tried to contact her through Lusara Fates?”
“No, not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because I know if I get on, and there is some sort of problem that I’m not aware of, Shira is going to rip me apart.”
The ball landed hard in Takashi’s glove. Another disapproval throw. “So, what you’re saying is, she’s not worth dying for?”
Takashi frowned and tossed back. “I’m not saying that at all.”
His father threw the ball harder than before and grinned when Takashi winced upon catching it. “Yes you are. You won’t face a devil’s wrath for perceived wrongdoings and fight for what you want. Or, in this case, who you want.”
You and your metaphors, Otousan. He shouldn’t have known this was what his father was getting at. Takashi threw back the ball. “As usual, you’re right. I’m being an idiot.”
His father lowered his arm, the game of catch now over, and chuckled. “In the wise words of your mother, all men are.”
Takashi shook his head as his father approached and pat him on the back. “You’ll win her back. Now go get on the game and face the wrath of your girl’s fiercest champion.”
Takashi snorted. “Champion? More like an attack dog.”
His father’s brow rose for a moment. “I’d take on a champion over an attack-dog friend any day.”
“My situation exactly.”
His father laughed at his expense and then held out his hand. “If you don’t mind, while you’re taming the attack dog, I’d like to take a look at your phone.”
Brow furrowed, Takashi pulled the device out of his pocket. “Okay, though I don’t know why.”
“I’ve been thinking. You said she hasn’t responded to you after you were vague in your reason for having a family emergency to attend to. This means she doesn’t know about your mother’s business. Now, if she wanted to send you flowers locally and really drive a point home that she’s angry with you—”
Takashi’s eyes widened. “Then why didn’t she call mother’s shop?”
His father nodded. “Exactly. No better way to get you into trouble than to make your mother immediately aware. No flower arrangement has any fury like hers. But had she called, she’d know what was going on, since we set up the voicemail.”
“And that means she would have known why I had to bail and shouldn’t have been so mad.”
“Right. So then she would have contacted you. So, I believe we’re not dealing with Mercedes here. Someone else is causing you issues. Why, I can’t say, but it’s also possible if they’re sending you these flowers, there’s the potential that the ignored calls and texts go deeper than just being ignored.”
That’s a good point. His father ran a security firm, so it shouldn’t surprise Takashi that there were some red flags in all this. And if there was some sort of tampering, his father would find it.
His father tucked Takashi’s phone in a back pocket. “Good luck on your end. If I see a new face at the door seething in rage, I’ll start planning the funeral.”
Takashi gave his father an unamused look, triggering his father to laugh. Thanks, Otousan. His father walked back into the house, and Takashi wasn’t far behind, taking deep preparing breaths.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Adisorienting sensation fell over Takashi as his mind found itself in his shop. Before he hopped into the game, he checked his friends’ list for a status on Shira, only to find her, Zach, and Jasper in a brawl match, instead of the usual arena fight. Brawls took far longer to complete due to the randomized objectives, so Takashi would have to wait it out.
He went about checking on his shop funds and the NPC he’d set up to work in his stead on his flight back to San Francisco. The NPC appeared to be working as well as it could with the current available settings. He wasn’t making as much as he would had he been doing the leg work, but it brought in enough to keep his funds from drying up.
Takashi exited his shop and summoned a mount, an elemental cat he and Mercedes worked together to earn through some in-game achievements. Takashi stroked the feline’s head, remembering Mercedes’ excitement the moment they got it. She wouldn’t use any other mount for two weeks unless they had to fly somewhere, and even then she tried to convince others to take the long way to destinations.
Takashi’s chest tightened. He really hoped he could fix things between them. He didn’t want to lose her. He hopped up on his mount and rode through the city in the direction of their guild hall. When he made it to the large building, he entered through the open front doors and looked around the large gathering hall. The place didn’t have a whole lot of individuals hanging around. Didn’t surprise him. During usual work hours state-side, the hall was usually quiet.
Takashi ordered a mug of ale from the NPC bartender and found a corner to sit in and wait. Shira should be done with her match soon. He’d deliberately ridden a ground mount here to waste time. He took a few gulps of ale. While his physical body couldn’t get drunk, the VR simulated the sensation to the nerves and brain to make players think they were if they consumed too much. Unfortunately, the drinking cracked his walls.
The fear of losing Mercedes crept into his mind. He started to wish he hadn’t initiated anything romantic with her. He’d rather have her only as a friend than to lose her completely.
Takashi stopped drinking when a familiar angry female voice bellowed through the main hall. “Where the hell is he?”
Takashi took a deep breath and looked to the entrance to find a short, buxom woman with dark brown hair garbed in half-plate storming into the building, with two tall elven men of muscular builds garbed in leather and plate armor respectively, close behind. Here comes the party.
“Shira, cool yah jets,” Jasper said. “I get thatcha mad, but you seriously need to handle this a bit bettuh.”
Shira whirled on him. “And you can keep your mouth shut. I don’t need a lecture from you.”
“It’s not a lecture,” Zach said. “Takashi sent you that message because he wanted a civil conversation. You can’t go and have a field day because you’re mad at him.”
“Yeah? Watch me.”
This wasn’t going to be pleasant. Takashi rose to his feet. “I’m over here, Shira.”
Her livid eyes snapped to him and he did his best not to flinch. “You.”
“Shira, stay calm,” Zach warned.
She didn’t listen. Their enraged friend charged him, but before Shira could reach Takashi, Jasper grabbed her from behind and held her back. She struggled against him and shouted. “Let me go! Let me go right now! That jackass needs to pay.”
The commotion drew attention from the other guildmates. Takashi would rather they not overhear all this.
“You need to calm down,” Jasper said. “You’re acting like a lunatic. Just cool yah jets and talk things out with him. You’re makin’ a scene, Shira!”
Shira raged and struggled. When she started shouting again, it was in a language Takashi wasn’t familiar with. It sounded Germanic, and it made sense if it were German, as he knew her father was from there, but he couldn’t be certain.
“That’s it.” Jasper lifted Shira up and threw her over his shoulder. “Now yah can’t get at him.”
“And we can now move to somewhere more secluded to talk,” Zach said.
Takashi couldn’t stop himself from snickering. “You sure you want me in that room, then?”
Bemused smiled spread across the two men’s faces, but Shira wasn’t taking the bait. “Don’t you dare start cracking jokes, you arschloch.”
“Gesundheit,” Jasper teased.
She smacked him in the back of the head. “And you put me down this instant.”
“Nope.” He started walking off with her. “We’re gonna get to the bottom of everything in a calm mannah, away from pryin’ eyes.”
Shira wasn’t going to give up so easily. She continued to rave like a mad woman, in German of course, and make attempts to throw spells and weapons at Takashi, though the game stopped that since he wasn’t marked for PvP. This of course only increased her anger.
Jasper stopped suddenly and opened his menu. “Shit. Serenity woke up from ‘er nap.”
Serenity was Jasper’s daughter.
“I’ll handle her,” Zach offered. “She’ll be more than willing to comply with me if she knows you’re doing something with Shira.”
Shira’s face reddened a bit and she shut up. The soft spot Shira had for Jasper’s daughter was well-known, and Takashi found it adorable. Jasper thanked Zach and continued on, Takashi close behind while Zach logged off.
Shira didn’t start up her shouting again, but she wore the darkest look Takashi had ever seen before. He really hoped she would let him talk and explain his side. He wasn’t an idiot. This lack of communication between Mercedes and him had brought on their friend’s rage.
Jasper led them to the chapel. No players were in here at the moment, so it worked well. He set Shira down and kept a close eye on her as he closed the doors to keep curious eyes out. Shira was too set on staring Takashi down to pay attention to anything else.
Takashi held up his hands. “Before you shout at me some more in that Germanic language, let me explain.”
Shira’s eyes narrowed. “What’s there to explain about you bailing on Mercedes?”
“I didn’t bail on her. Not intentionally, at least.” He took a deep breath. “My mother’s flower shop was vandalized. Arson, to be specific.”
Shira’s expression softened a bit, showing her surprise, but she wasn’t letting her guard down or allowing the information he revealed to placate her anger.
Takashi continued. “I should have told Mercedes this when I called her before hopping on the plane. I screwed up there. I admit that—”
Shira’s eye’s narrowed. “So what? That doesn’t mean you can ignore her for days!”
“I didn’t. I tried to contact her—several times—by text and phone. She hadn’t answered me.”
“You really expect me to believe that?” Shira snorted. “I know for a fact Mercedes texted you while you were on the plane, and had tried to contact you a number of times since you bailed. No response, at all.”
Takashi’s brow furrowed. His father might be onto something. “I never got any of those.”
“And she never got your messages. So who do you expect me to believe? My best friend, or the guy who promised her the world, got what he wanted from her, and then disappeared the next day?”
Takashi sighed. He knew she’d word it that way, and hated it, because it really did look that way. “I can prove it.”
Shira crossed her arms. “You’re not getting away.”
“I’m not running. I will send you proof. It’ll take me two minutes.”
Her eyes narrowed and her upper lip started to curl, but she nodded. “Starting now.”
Takashi activated his menu and logged off. The moment he was released from the system, he bolted out of his gaming station and out of his room. “Otousan, I need my phone real quick.”
“I’m in my office,” came back a reply down the hall.
Takashi rushed down to the far end of the hall, into a neatly kept office. His father sat at the desk, moving objects around on the computer screen, Takashi’s phone plugged into it.
“I just need to get a screen grab of my recent phone call and text attempts to Mercedes.”
His father didn’t look at him as he spoke. “I’m too far deep into this analysis for you to be able to do so manually, but Ochi can do it.”
“I’ve already obtained them,” Ochi said. “Takashi, please tell me where to send.”
“My Lusara Fates account. I need to forward them to Shira so she believes me.”
“They will be in your inbox when you log back in.”
Takashi rushed back to his room and logged back into the game in record time. Once the disorienting feeling eased out of his head, he opened his eyes to find Shira and Jasper still waiting, the former leaning against a pew with her arms crossed.
“It took you longer than two minutes,” Shira said through gritted teeth.
“By thirty seconds,” Jasper corrected. “You’re being wicked unreasonable. Give ‘im a break, Shira.”
Her eyes darted over to him, but she didn’t say anything.
Opening his menu, Takashi found the messages Ochi promised, along with a link to the news article about his mother’s shop—Thank you, Ochi—and he forwarded them to Shira. “Here, take a look at these.”
Shira’s eyes narrowed at Takashi before she activated her menu to look at the message. While she was doing that, Jasper got his attention and made a motion for Takashi to send the proof to him as well, so he did.
Shira let out a long sigh. “How do I know you didn’t doctor this?”
Jasper’s brow rose. “Really? It took ’im two minutes to get these to us. No way could he make this up in that short a time.”
“He could have had it all ready.”
Jasper sighed. “If he were that sheisty, then he wouldn’t need to log off. He woulda already had this.”
“That’s what he wants us to think.”
“Stop being so stubborn about this.”
Takashi suspected this would happen. He didn’t expect Shira to let this go so easily, but he did wish she’d be a little less stubborn. “Shira, I understand you’re mad at me. But I’m not making this up. Those are real screen grabs from my phone. I didn’t create them in some program to convince you.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. “And I’m not trying to use this as some sort of convoluted way to cover any tracks of intentionally bailing on Mercedes because I regretted it later.”
Shira shut her mouth and blinked. Jasper laughed so hard he fell over.
Takashi grinned. “I’ve heard enough of your bizarre conspiracy theories to know you’d come up with one for this situation.”
Just then, Zach logged back into the room. He looked between the three of them. “I missed something.”
Takashi nodded, a smirk on his lips. “Yes. I think I’ve finally placated Mercedes’ attack dog.”
Zach chuckled and Jasper’s laughter worsened. Shira pressed her lips together as she crossed her arms, her nose scrunching, clearly trying not to be suckered into laughing as well. Takashi waited, knowing if he were patient enough, he’d win. He did.
Shira threw her arms up into the air. “Okay, okay, I believe you.”
Takashi relaxed. “Thank you.”
She went back to crossing her arms and muttered, “Now I feel like a traitor.”
Jasper calmed himself. “Ya can’t be a traitah if it’s the truth you’re seeing. We just gotta get Mercedes to believe it.”
Shira sighed. “I guess you’re right.” She looked to Zach. “Is Serenity okay now?”
He nodded. “I set her up with a snack and coloring supplies. She’s making you a picture because she convinced herself Jasper is the one who made you mad and wants to cheer you up.”
Shira placed her hand on her chest and her eyes softened, showing how touched she was by the gesture, even if for slightly inaccurate reasons.
“Well if that ain’t a pissa,” Jasper said as he
stood up. “Make me the skeezy one.”
“I did try to convince her, but she’s wicked stubborn, like you.”
Jasper glanced Shira’s way. “I think she’s pickin’ it up from Shira.”
She gave a flourished bow. “Pleased to be of service.” Then her posture straightened. “Wait, why isn’t she in school?”
“Teachers’ workshop day.”
“Ah.”
Takashi didn’t want this to get too far off track. He was glad Shira wasn’t trying to kill him anymore, but there was still the matter of Mercedes. “Shira, do you know if Mercedes got the flowers I sent her?”
She nodded. “She did. Narissa mentioned it when the three of us were talking earlier. Cede killed that topic pretty quick, though.”
“Do you know what she planned to do in response?”
Her brow furrowed as she thought for a moment. “As far as I know, she was just going to ignore you. Safe to guess you were hoping it’d placate her?”
He nodded. “I worried she was mad, but because I couldn’t get a hold of her, I thought flowers would still show her I hadn’t forgotten about her. Then I received some flowers today that were supposedly from her. The arrangement translated to ‘fuck you,’ but I’m skeptical it’s from her.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like Mercedes.” Jasper said.
Shira snorted. “No, that’s sounds exactly like her when she’s mad. What makes you skeptical, Takashi?”
“Besides the fact it was only signed ‘M’ instead of her name, I know that if she was that mad at me, she would have tried to send the flowers through my mother’s business. Her fury would be worse than any floral arrangement. But if she tried, she would have gotten an automated message explaining the issue with the arson.”
Shira nodded. “And then she’d know what was going on. Partially. This messaging conundrum is weird, too.”
“I do have my father looking into that. He speculates some sort of phone tampering.” Takashi took a deep breath. “But could you do me a favor and talk to Mercedes for me? I can live with an answer on the flowers for now, if that’s all you’re willing to do.”
Spellbinding His Ranger: A Sci-Fi Gamer Friends-to-Lovers Romance (Looking For Group Book 1) Page 23
