Released – Chapter 18

“Reach a little more to your right, Sanaa. Just two more centimeters, and you’ll have a handhold.”

Tonight, Jiro is my eyes below. Yesterday, Usagi helped while Sakai stood and watched. Two days previous, I actually let Kentaro hold my line and guide me. I must trust him now.

Reaching out with my right hand, my fingertips graze the brick sticking out from the building. That must mean there’s another brick below by about a meter. Never mind the fact I’m four stories above the ground, and my only other handhold is the window to my left.

I’m not afraid of heights. Don’t look down. If I can climb over one more section, I can make it to the fire escape and then I’m half way to my first saké in over two weeks.

True to our word, after the wedding, Jiro and I went on a detox diet. We have been eating three healthy meals per day and not drinking. I’ve been training at the dōjō with Kentaro every day and Jiro joins us twice per week. I travel with Usagi to Ku 1 every afternoon I’m free to watch Maeda and all the minor players left. Most evenings, I spend alone and go to bed early unless Jiro is home which isn’t often. He has been working hard, gaining ground for me with every possible connection he has in the Ku 6 community.

When it comes to climbing, Jiro doesn’t need the climbing equipment. He’s been climbing since he could walk. I found out recently he broke his arm when he was six years old climbing over dumpsters in his spare time. I’m surprised Mariko has not gone completely gray yet.

I only climb at night. If I try to do this during the day, too many people will see me, so I’m getting used to feeling my way in the dark. I only wear the harness. We belay a line between the roof of the Sakai building, me, and the ground, and I refuse to wear a helmet because the extra weight impairs my sense of balance.

For clothing, I wear a tight, long-sleeved, black shirt though it’s hot as hell out here and a pair of tight-fitting black pants I had Beni buy for me. Jiro calls them my ‘sex pants’ because they ‘make my butt look good.’ Or so he says. I roll my eyes every time he sees me get into them.

I’m trying to dress the part of being inconspicuous. I need to learn to fight and climb in these clothes because they are my shinobi wear. If I’m ever able to go out and spy, I’ll slink through the night in this.

“Stop buggering around! There’s saké to be consumed.”

I heave a deep sigh and carefully throw my body weight to the right, stepping onto the brick.

Kentaro is on the roof hurling British insults at me again. He has opened up since coming out to me and jokes and pokes fun at me, Jiro, Usagi, everyone. He must have felt all bottled up those first two weeks. Turns out Kevin, his now on-again boyfriend, is English and lives in the British quarters in the Little Europe section of Ku 4, not far from my Aunt Sharon.

“Piss off, Kentaro!”

I’m totally on board with the Briticisms.

Digging my fingertips into a raised edging above me by ten centimeters, I swing myself, with no footholds, to the right another meter and get my toes onto the fire escape, then climb over the railing to the platform. I wave to the people sitting inside watching a show on their tablets. They are family friends and are used to me outside their window now.

“I knew you would be a good climber, but I didn’t think you’d be better than me,” Jiro shouts up from below.

I lean over the railing and smile down at Jiro. “Thanks. Ow! Ow ow ow.” My hand seizes up, radiating pain straight up my arm.

“What’s wrong?” Kentaro peers down at me from two stories above.

“My body says it’s quitting time.” While shaking out my hand and unhooking myself from the line, I climb down to Jiro. He takes my hand in both of his and rubs out the cramps in my palm and fingers, and it’s so intense I actually want to cry. I’ve been pushing my body to the limits lately.

“You need to deaden this pain with some saké for sure.”

“Holy hell, yes,” I flex my fingers, releasing them from contorted frozen manacles. “Gods dammit, that hurts.”

“Good thing we have tomorrow night off from climbing. Now,” he says, reaching around me and grabbing my butt, “you should probably go inside and change out of the sex pants before we go to Izakaya Tanaka. I can’t have other men looking at you in those.”

“Other men don’t look at me,” I say with a huff.

“Oh, yes they do. All. The. Time.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Completely serious. Usagi stopped some guy from coming over and hitting on you at dinner the other day before I arrived.”

“Really? I don’t believe you.” Never in my life have men flocked to me like Jiro seems to think they now do. He’s delusional.

“Ever since you cut your hair, I swear you’ve become a thousand times sexier, and I’m constantly narrowing my eyes at other guys who have their sights set on you.”

“Do you think I’m a thousand times sexier?” I wrap my arms around his neck, even though I’m very less than sexy all sweaty and gross from climbing, but Jiro doesn’t care.

He leans over and kisses my neck. “I do.”

“Ugh, you guys really need to stop that!” Kentaro says from above.

Jiro smiles at me, and I know that’s our cue to start making out. I jump up and wrap my legs around him, and we kiss and kiss and kiss until the rope I was using hits me on my back, thrown from above by Kentaro. We win this round.

—-

Kentaro and I sit in a booth at Izakaya Tanaka, eating pickles and rice, and drinking saké. Ah, I missed saké. Jiro is at the bar talking to Sono, Yoichi, and Usagi. Oyama is in the kitchen as always. The cooks love him back there. They are forever laughing about something. Now that Kentaro has the freedom to date who he wants under my roof, he has been inviting Kevin over more often. When we meet up in public, Kentaro is not as forward about his affection as he is in private when it’s just us.

“I’m not worried about my father spying on me. You know I go back to our building and talk to him once per week, though I have no idea why. I keep an eye out for our family spies, but I never see them. I’m more worried about friends of the family seeing me and reporting back to him. You never know when you’ll run into someone on the street or in a restaurant or wherever.”

“It’s too bad he can’t accept it. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t pity me, Sanaa.”

I blink and pull back into my seat. “I’m not pitying you. Don’t get all huffy with me. I’m just showing a little sympathy for your situation. My Aunt Kimie was disowned for the same reason, and it still makes me angry.”

“Sorry,” he mutters into his drink.

“See? Don’t pity me either.” I chuck a pickle straight at his head, and the slice lands in his hair, making us both laugh. Kentaro can go from happy and joking to sad, abusive, and lonely in no-time flat. But I never harp on him for his swinging personality. I have one of my own to deal with.

“Is Kevin coming?” I sit up a little in the booth and turn towards the door.

“Not tonight. He has to be up early tomorrow.” Kevin is a doctor, a pediatrician who loves kids.

“Sanaa,” Kentaro starts, but stops, playing with the cup in his hand, “how long have you and Jiro been together?”

“Ummm…” I think back. How long has it been? “A few months now. We met for the first time on New Year’s Eve. Well, as adults, that is.”

“You met earlier than that?”

“Sort of. Our families were good friends when I was a baby and supposedly we played together. Our parents were hoping we’d get together but we moved away when my parents died.”

“Huh. Funny how that happens.” He stops for a moment, and I put my chin on my hand and study him. Why do I get the feeling he’s digging for specific information? He only gets serious now when we talk business. I put on my passive face and push my emotions aside and wait. I’m getting better at this, as long as I’m not involved in a stressful situation.

“You know Jiro and I grew up together,” he starts.

“Yes. Jiro said his family and yours were pretty close but not as much in the last ten years. I’ve heard the term ‘best friends’ used.”

Kentaro fills up both our cups, and we drink. “Jiro and I, we’ve always been, sort of, competitors, but yeah, we were great friends. We were constantly trying to best each other, climb the highest, fight the hardest, get the prettiest girl…”

I blink and remain otherwise emotionless.

“My father tells me you two are traveling around to all the families together — that Jiro’s introducing you as his fiancée.”

Fiancée, a term I never expected to be applied to myself. Then two days after Miko’s wedding, we went to visit Masa Suzuki, the man who made my shinobijō, and Jiro introduced me as his fiancée. I’ve never had such a thrill from openly rejecting someone else’s rules and laws. Jiro’s been telling everyone, and I haven’t stopped him. People ask us when the wedding will be, and we just say “later” then concentrate on talking about the colonization and what people can expect from me.

I can’t hold back a small smile, but I try to cover it with a sip of saké. “We’ve been to all the minor families in the last couple of weeks connected with Sakai clan — the Suzukis, Saitos, Moris, Takahashis — and then the rest of Mariko’s family, the Kurokies. It’s been good meeting people, hearing what they want out of Yūsei.” Hearing Jiro call me his fiancée over and over, that’s been nice too.

“My father, he’s not very happy about this.”

When I look up from the plate of pickles, I expect Kentaro to be frowning, but he’s smiling widely at me.

“You have pissed him off to no end, Sanaa.”

Kentaro’s still smiling, but a chill races up my spine. I never considered this would anger Minamoto. Jiro and I aren’t planning on being legally married, but we’re also not telling anyone that. My thoughts on the matter? Let them think whatever they want. It’s none of their business what I do with my personal life. What matters is doing my job and listening and acting.

Maybe Minamoto suspects I’ll care less about his interests if I’m aiming to get married and end the whole imperial line. Or maybe he’s angry that I’m siding with Sakai clan?

Shit. I think Jiro and I have made a big mistake. We should have gone to Minamoto first before doing our tour of the minor families. What the hell was I thinking? He’s my ally now.

My stomach is on its side, twisting into a little knot, and my throat is so dry no amount of saké is going to wet it. Jiro walks over to the table, and it takes a lot of effort to pull myself up and appear normal.

“Sanaa, finish up your saké. It’s time to head home,” Jiro says, a small smile crawling across his face. I bet he’s thinking of sex. He winks at me, and I know he is. It’s been days since we were last awake together in the apartment. “You have the dōjō in the morning, lunch with my mother, coffee with Lucy in the afternoon, and then dinner with Helena and Miko, remember? A long day.”

“Yes, another long day.” They’re never not long anymore. And at some point, I need to talk to Sakai and Jiro about this mess with Minamoto.