Reunited – Chapter 29

I take my morning coffee by myself on the porch outside of my room. Kumo doesn’t count as company. Beni is running errands in town. Mariko is helping Oyama in the front garden. Usagi is taking Helena to another doctor’s appointment, and Lucy is returning messages in her room. Everyone is distracting themselves except for me. I’m staring out at the small pond in the middle of the garden and wondering what I should do with my last hours of freedom.

“Hey, Sanaa.” Kentaro approaches me from the main house along the covered porch in socked feet.

“Oh, hi, Kentaro. Long time no see.” I smile up at him, and he softens as he sits down next to me.

“I’m sorry I ditched you at practice yesterday. I’m an ass.”

Kentaro kicks at the gravel with his feet, his eyes trained on the ground.

“Did I do something to deserve this silent treatment from you? You’ve been strange for weeks now. Whatever I did, I apologize. I want to make this better because I miss you. We used to spend time together…”

Kentaro hangs his head, but his hand jerks over to mine and holds my fingers in an awkward grasp. I’m so relieved a familiar person wants physical contact with me. I squeeze his hand and rest my head on his shoulder.

“Sanaa, I think I’m in love with you.”

His statement knocks me over the head, and I remember when I fought off the horny men in Izumo, he looked into my face and rested his forehead against mine. Wow, I was drunk, but I should have remembered that.

“Is this why you’ve been avoiding me?”

He squeezes my hand and sighs. “Yes. I’ve been trying to figure things out. I’m… I’m jealous of Jiro, and I think… no, I know I’m in love with you, but…” He sighs again. “I’m fucking confused. Sorry.” He winces, and I hold back a laugh. None of the boys ever swear in front of me. I need to tell them it doesn’t bother me.

Hmmm, I didn’t see this coming. His comments about the massage, his action after the fight in Izumo, and the way he yelled at Hideki were all signs that went right over my head. As long as I’ve known Kentaro, he’s preferred men, except for that one little comment in the Itō dōjō about meeting the right guy or girl on Yūsei. And despite my relationships with Joshua and Chad, they never courted me like Jiro did. No one but Jiro has ever flirted with me, so it’s not as if I have a lot of experience in this area. Really, I thought Kentaro preferred blonds.

“Look at me.” I turn my face to his, and we look into each other’s eyes for a moment. “Do you want to kiss me?”

He pauses before his face screws up. “Sort of?”

Before he can move away from me, I quickly lean in and kiss him on the lips. I try to make this a real kiss, thinking if I’m going to kiss Kentaro, of all people, I should make it count, but Kentaro doesn’t relax. He’s like a solid block of ice. I pull away and smile.

“See? You may love me — I love you — but it’s not in that way.” He smiles and chuckles, touching his lips with his other hand. “And it’s okay to be jealous of Jiro. I think you’re jealous of our relationship, not jealous because he’s with me.”

“You love me?” he asks, his voice hopeful.

“Yes, of course. You’re such a good person, sweet and funny and smart. You don’t find me sexually attractive because you like men, but we can still love each other.” I squeeze his hand and hug his arm tight, and he laughs again. “You’re like a brother to me. I’m glad you came into my life. I never had siblings and neither did you. We were made to be brother and sister. I’m sure of it.”

Now that I’ve said it, I know I’m right.

“I like both men and women. Always have,” he confesses. “I like people and have never cared about what gender they were.” He sighs and looks at our hands clasped together. “Kevin was special. Not my first boyfriend but the first I loved. I think I’m coming around to women again. It’s been a very confusing few months.”

“I bet. Whatever you do, you know I’ll support you.”

“Thanks. Uh, brother, huh?” he asks, and I nod with a smile. “I like that.”

“Speaking of family, how’s your mother?”

“Yes, that’s another reason why I’ve been gone, I don’t know how to say this, but I need to leave and go find my father.”

“Oh.” All my happiness fades away, my shoulders droop, and I loosen my grip on Kentaro’s hand.

“No, no, no,” he pleads, squeezing my hand again. “Please don’t think I’m betraying you, too. I would never, ever do that. Never.” Swiping away tears that jumped into my eyes before I could stop them, I let out a deep breath. “I need to try to get my father to come home. He needs one more chance to make things right. He didn’t know about Sasaki and Rokkaku, and I have to believe he did this because he was worried about his family, not because he was intent on betraying you from the beginning.”

If Minamoto was concerned for his family the entire time, and not just betraying me because he felt like it, I might be able to forgive him. I would do anything for my family, and that includes Kentaro now, right? I should grant him the same leeway.

“Please, Sanaa. If you allow me, I’ll take the shuttle and do my best to figure out what’s going on with him. My loyalties lie with you. They always will.”

“Won’t you be scared, going in there all alone with no one to help you?”

He shrugs his shoulders and rolls his eyes. “Whatever. I live for adventure. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Kentaro, the Daredevil Risk Taker. He loves a good challenge, and he can charge into any crazy situation and flourish.

“I have a bad feeling about all of this. Jiro said he’d get back to me this afternoon, but I doubt it will be that easy, and tonight’s the deadline. Go to your father. Tell him you want to help him. That you’re on his side…”

“I’d rather die —”

“No. No. Listen to me. Pretend you’re on his side. I know I’ll be kidnapped, and I’ll need your help.”

“You’re scaring me.”

“I’m being realistic. You’ll do it?”

He nods.

“Then go. Tell Lucy you’d like to use the other shuttle to drop you off outside the capital, and I said it was fine.”

“All right. I have a bag to pack before I leave.” Kentaro releases his hand before standing up.

“Two things before you go. One, never, ever tell Jiro I kissed you.” He laughs and nods his head. “Two, be careful.”

“I will.”

“Go. If you get on the shuttle soon, you can be there by lunchtime.”

I’m alone for the rest of the day. No Kentaro. No Usagi. I ditch the dōjō and sit outside at the grave I dug for the dead kitten, pulling at the grass and lifting the blades to my nose to smell the greenery. This scent reminds me of the times I went to Ku 10 in Nishikyō and how much I loved the cool, rich air of plants growing. Now, I breathe deeply, and I can smell the flowers, the grass, the ocean. I can close my eyes and hear the wind in the trees, the buzz of insects. Nature. I wish we had never destroyed Earth because I would still be there, instead of here. I don’t want to be here. As much as I love this, as much as I feel alive right now, I’m better off dead. Everyone around me would be better off if I were not alive.

Deep breath, Sanaa.

I need faith this will work out, but I’m going to have to give myself up tonight. It’s already five. Two hours past Jiro’s deadline, and neither Jiro nor Sakai have messaged us. Did they make it to the town in the mountains? Have they met Sasaki? Are they still alive? What if I’m counting on Jiro to come and get me and he’s dead? What then?

“I’ll give myself up,” I shout in the direction of the woods, hoping whomever is there can hear me. “If Jiro doesn’t come back before I go to bed, I’ll give in. I don’t want Kohaku and Hiro to die.”

No response. What was I expecting?

The minutes tick by, and I turn on my tablet to check the time and make sure I’m connected to YūseiSat. My mail messages keep coming but nothing from Jiro.

I don’t remember what I eat for dinner. I don’t think I eat anything. I stare into space, wonder where Jiro and Sakai are, and how long it’ll be before my enemies come for me. How long will it be?

—-

Kumo is the first sign something is wrong. He wakes me from a deep sleep, whimpering and whining with his nose at the door.

“What’s wrong, Kumo?”

I can just make out Kumo’s white fur at the door to the outside as my eyes adjust to the moonlight sneaking in under the doors. He scrapes his paws at the threshold, then sits back on his haunches and howls, making my blood run cold. I freeze in place, panic coursing through me so fast all I can hear is my heartbeat. Outside, the clanging of bells and metal objects rings through the courtyard.

Jiro’s pirate alarm!

Beni and Mariko are at my door.

“Shit,” Mariko whispers, jumping at the bells. “Let’s go.”

The estate is eerily quiet after the pirate alarm is silenced. I strain my ears to hear where the intruders are coming from, but silence blankets the hallways. Mariko pulls me forward to the front wing of the house where the security staff is stationed at all hours.

Beni, Mariko, and I are only a few meters down the hallway when Sakai’s bedroom door slides open and three people dressed in black come running towards us. They’re quiet and step so light and fast the boards in this hall don’t make a sound.

Something streaks past my ear with a puff of air.

“Ow!” Beni cries, her hand to her neck, and a moment later, she loses her balance and falls into a heap on the floor.

Mariko and I both try to jump over her and keep going, but we’re cut off by two other people at the end of the hallway. Trapped. If it hadn’t been for Jiro’s alarm outside, I doubt any of us would have known. They came so swift and silent.

There’s no escape for me.

Before I can shout for help, a biting pain shoots into my neck, and when I reach up, I pull out a sharp, metallic object.

“Got her!”

The hallway tilts, as if the world has been twirled by the gods, and I land on my knees and then my side. My fall knocks the wind out of me. I gasp for breath and try to get up, try to fight. I have to fight! The only comfort I feel is knowing they want me alive. Drugging me is easier so I won’t struggle.

Just before I black out, Kazuo Uchiyama’s face swims over me. He looks different, older. He told me he’d see me again, in another life, on another world. He kept his promise.

“You were almost too easy to catch. The bells outside were a nice touch.”

His eyes are the last thing I see.