“Delivery for a Yagi Hide!”
Suddenly there is a man in uniform who comes out. What the hell? Is Yagi Hide a “he”?
“Who are you?” He barks! He has such an intimidating voice!
“Just trying to deliver some documents sir!” I try to bark back at him! “For Yagi Hide! And I need a signature!” I show him my delivery pad and where to sign.
“I will give this to her in the house.” He quickly signs, closes the gate without much ado and leaves!
Sometimes I hate this part time job. Was that policeman her husband? The police are so rough these days. But as long as someone signed for my delivery I don’t really care!
Contents:
Dear Yagi-san,
Enclosed are the educational certificates for your daughters Ai and Makoto. Please keep this in a safe place as you will need these once your daughters decide to avail of the full tuition scholarship benefit. This benefit is provided to designated beneficiaries (Yagi Ai and Yagi Makoto) of those employed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum under the Home Ministry. This benefit is honored without prejudice at all institutions that is under the Ministry of Education for at least 4 years and a maximum of 7 years.
Also Fujita-san who is under our employ has chosen to sign an indemnity form to allow you as his substitute to collect his monthly compensation. Please come to our office every 15th of the month to collect (address provided). You will have to sign a receipt and provide a valid identification document before we can release the funds.
If you have any questions, the best way to contact me is through the Tokyo Normal School. (Address & Secretary’s name provided)
Best regards,
Takamine Hideo
Education, Historical and Art Administrator of the Home Ministry
(Hide)
Misao-san hands the letter back to me. “I guess between the house and now the girl’s education and the money, you’re set!” She smiles at me but looks away, quickly. It’s similar to what Himura-san said earlier – she was visiting when the letter first arrived with the unexpected news. I suspect she’s the one who sent Misao-san here…
“He’s setting it all up. Besides whatever this case is…” I sigh. “There’s another threat, from his past in Aizu, that’s waiting for him. I worry that one of these… that he’s setting it all up, is that he’s not long for this place. Either living,” I swallow, saying that, “or just in closing down this place. thinking that either way I’m -set-.” I pick at the edge of my sleeve. “Protecting me, that’s what he does.” But this time, as hands-off as possible.
“Yeah, and that’s why he’s still mad at me,” Misao-san hands me a dish. For someone who runs an inn, her domestic skills… well, she was raised to be a ninja. I wipe it a bit, trying to get what she missed when washing. It was nice to have her over tonight, to celebrate a holiday as it -will- be one day in Japan. Karaage, and a nice cake. Christmas is also a premium date night in some distant day… She then frowns as she looks at me. “But Hide-san… all of this talk about protection and in that how -good- he is, he’s -still- with another woman.”
“She came to see me the other day,” I tell her, quietly. “She wanted to know about the situation with Tanaka, specifically, back in Ito.” Of course I had no idea for so long that he was a part of that… since I’m often kept in the dark. “That’s when someone attacked our house there, tried to take Makoto-chan. Hajime was injured…”
(Misao)
I nod as she tells me about Ito. I knew about the attack, Asuka-san shares her reports with me freely (we’re pretty good friends, even if I will -never- get why she’s into Yagi Yuunosuke!), and there have been… whispers about the quiet town of Ito. People who pay well, looking for “muscle”; for boatmen who can move quickly and silently… and boats that went missing from Osaka after the fall of the Kato group now being spotted off of the Izu peninsula. Not typical for a resort town, but more for yet -another- smuggling operation.
But I don’t tell her about Ito. Instead, I ask, “huh, must have been a quiet place – Something like that really would have shaken the place up, I guess?”
She’s lost in her own worries and agrees without seeming to read much into my question. “I don’t know. We stayed at a quiet onsen away from the seaside area while Hajime and Asuka-san so I didn’t hear news from town, what happened. I did get a letter from my friends from there, that they were moving away from Ito to move to Hokkaido as part of some program.” She looks confused, a bit, “so I wonder what else made them leave – they had a good business as cloth merchants and the business had been in the family for generations.”
That is strange… I note that as well. Maybe I should make a trip to this Ito… but I smile at Hide-san. “Well you know Saitou-san. He doesn’t go into things without considering all of the angles…” And why did the other woman come? Strange… is she, as Hide-san said, wanting to know what she’s getting into, or does she have other motives?
She looks at me. “I can still worry. After all, even a chaotic flaming madman sometimes hides a metal plate in his bandages.” Oh… that! She then grabs my hand. “Misao-san… -please-, can you just make certain that he’s not going to get himself killed? He’s going after a government official as well… that not just some thug.” I know I should have told her about what her brothers found (ahahaha Peaches! Although his “son” is -terrible-!), but for some reason, I keep that to myself.
I pat her hand back. “Don’t worry Hide-san. The Okashira is on it!” The other woman asking questions? Interest in Ito -and- strange news from there? These are not coincidences! Look at patterns, like Aoshi-sama told me.
“Just… Misao-san, he can’t die.” She puts down the place she’s re-washing. “He’s bigger than this place, just like he was the Wilderness. This world…”
I stop he before she keeps -wallowing-. “Stop that, Hide-san, or I -won’t- help you!” I step back from her and put my hands on my hips. “That idiot still loves you. Jumping in front of bullets or just fading away does not work!” She should know better by now! I soften my pose and look at her, her eyes cast down. “Tell me anything else you think could be useful.”
(Hide)
Misao-san leaves soon after. She won’t tell me her plans.
I finish cleaning up the kitchen. It’s so quiet here at night, since he left. Not that he’s a noisy man, but in the way I was aware of him. Sitting at the table, watching me. And the movement of time… New Years will be here soon. Will we be apart, for the first one in this place since we came back? Will it be the first of a lifetime of remembering birthdays past, of firsts and what I hoped was forever.
Yukiko-san took Ai-chan to sleep in her room since we had a bit of a party tonight. My own room, lonelier than ever…. I fall asleep on the red sofa, instead, after cleaning. Maybe it’s my mind, but his smell lingers there, but I’ll take whatever strings of him that I can get.
(OOC – close)