Yuzuko followed the smell of pancakes until it led her to a banquet fit for a king. Nobody in her household had any royal family, but the miniature statue of her grandfather playing table tennis seemed relevant. Nestled around her grandfather's trophy were vibrant dishes of food; pancake towers dripping in honey, exotic salads, jasmine rice, chopped up fruit, temaki rolls and mochi in all colours of the rainbow.
Underneath the table was Punchy and Stinky licking the remaining milk in their bowl. Punchy, the one with the brown patches decided to dig his claw into Stinky's ear. Stinky with the cream spots wailed and caught his paw on Punchy's jaw.
Aunt Kiki turned the taps off in the kitchen and manoeuvred towards the cats. In a high-pitched robotic accent echoed, "Punchy! Stinky! What have I told you too about fighting?" Aunt Kiki's heart-shaped eyes turned from a candyfloss pink to blood hues. "I don't care who started it, you know you're not meant to fight. There's plenty of food for everyone."
Taking a look around, Yuzuko opened her mouth. She stroked the spines of the books on each bookshelf that decorated the ground floor. "No gaps!" she said. "The place is so tidy." There were no books lying around in the hallway, or piled up on the floor; not one. "Mother must be upstairs," she said to Hiroki.
"Good morning Yuzuko! Good morning Hiroki!" Aunt Kiki's eyes returned to pink when the cats dashed off to opposite corners of the house. "Breakfast is ready!"
The door beside the kitchenette latched open. Grandma Takako entered the room in a wedding dress and aqua wig that went down to her stomach. Behind her was Professor Denki in his worn-out lab coat.
Aunt Kiki's head turned around as it waved its thin arms in the air. "Professor Denki! Mother! Good morning!" Even in the family household, he still referred to grandfather as Professor Denki. Not Yuzuko though, she felt proud to call him grandpa. As a child, people used to tell her off for not calling her Professor Denki, but the man himself was fine with it.
"We've fixed Koichi's chair!" Professor Denki announced carrying a red high chair in between his thin legs.
"Let's put you in your chair, my sweet Koichi!" Grandma Takako cooed, taking her out of Yuzuko's arms with a gentle swoosh. Koichi babbled he was placed in his seat.
The sides of the banquet table opened and expanded. Round chairs tumbled down from the ceiling. Grandma Takako and Aunt Kiki set the tables up with red clothes, silver cutlery, golden chopsticks and porcelain cups before the chairs hit the ground.
Grandma Takako was the last person to sit on the table. It wasn't until Aunt Kiki delivered everyone a matcha latte for breakfast did she sit by her husband and tuck into the salad that nobody wanted.
Punchy and Stinky congregated around Yuzuko's legs as she ate. The moment Aunt Kiki spotted the cats, she clapped her white hands. "Yuzuko can't play with you now. Yuzuko must have breakfast with her family before she and her husband go to school."
"Anyone know where Mother is?" Yuzuko asked with her chopsticks at the level of her mouth.
Punchy and Stinky meowed in unison as they jumped on the table, snatching the raw fish fillets from the sushi pallets. Kiki's eyes became red pixels. "You silly cats. Why do you always have to play up when Harumi isn't here?"
"Your mother has gone to work," Grandma Takako replied.
She bit her lip in disbelief. Her cold hands thawed by the matcha latte in her hand. as she tilted her head. "Work?"
"Yes!" Professor Denki nodded her head. "She's got a leading roll in an upcoming anime called Choco Donuts."
"Choco Donuts?" Yuzuko steered her head at Hiroki who seemed just as flabbergasted. "Based on the famous video game?"
Professor Denki nodded. "She's in the studio now."
It explained why her mother wasn't at the breakfast table.