The biting words. That little blond head and pale face. There was no doubt. It was Natsuhiko, the Amefurikozō!
I picked myself up and he got out of the way as I opened the window for him to enter. He jumped in, landing on his two feet on the floor.
'Time for payment!' he declared, before his eyes fell onto the young girl half-hidden behind me.
His face flushed bright red.
'He-Hello!' he called at the girl, stammering. 'My name is Natsuhiko.'
'Gakkuri,' the latter murmured, shyly.
He grinned at her, flushing deeper.
Oh?
The young spirit became unusually polite and cheerful after that and I had a good idea about the reason to this change.
Since, I didn't know any games, I taught them the only art that I knew from when I was kid. We spent hours making Origami and fortunately, Gakkuri and Natsuhiko were deeply fascinated by it. This took me back to my childhood and I remembered how much my mom loved this art. She was the one who had taught me. Subaru and I used to make Origami all the time.
At lunch, I prepared some sandwiches and after we had all eaten, Natsuhiko became fed up of staying indoors.
'Oh, come on, it's going to be fun!' he exclaimed at Gakkuri who seemed a bit reticent to go play outside.
Taking her hands, he pulled her to her feet, making her swirl and the girl finally gave in.
This was how we ended up having a walking trip around Shiratori.
Having grown closer with the girl, Kōmori-san ride on Gakkuri's back.
Natsuhiko was excited to discover town-life and I realized that this was the first time that he had stepped in a rural area; he was captivated by all that could be found and I was glad to be sharing this special moment of his.
I took the two kids into a pastry shop, knowing that the boy spirit would really like it; it was also my first time, and we bought lots of pastries.
'Shun, what is this place?' he asked, pausing by the bay window of the shop next door.
'I think that it's a sweet shop,' I replied, after reading the sign board. I had never been there before.
Grabbing my wrist and that of Gakkuri, he dragged us inside of the said-shop.
My mouth went agape so much I was mesmerized by what my eyes were seeing, saliva dripping from the corner of my mouth. There were sweets everywhere- of all colors, forms and sizes; of every possible savor!
The kids were in the same state as me.
We took a bag each and began filling them with sweets. The choice was difficult to make due to the wide variety of sweets available and we continued exploring the shop long after I had paid for what we had bought.
Bending over one of the counters, I admired the beautiful display for a few minutes. Just as I straightened and turned around to get to another counter, abruptly, I bumped into somebody's chest.
'Sorry,' I began to say until my eyes became focused onto the person holding himself in front of me, and I realized who it was.
'Doctor Tsunan,' I breathed.
We were both surprised to see each other.
'Shun, how are you?'
'I'm fine, thank you,' I replied, cheerily.
He looked past my shoulder in curiosity.
'Oh, I present you Natsuhiko, the Amefurikozō I mentioned in my report. He's come for payment. I've got to be up to it!' I told him, as I took a glance at the young spirit, then at the girl standing at his side, in the distance. 'And she's Gakkuri. She's a young friend of mine!'
I looked away then, feeling shy. 'I didn't know that there was such a variety of sweets available!'
Until now, I had always known only the mochi of my village.
I blushed, fearing that I sounded childish.
Something occurred to me then. What's he doing here?
'Say, wouldn't you have a sweet tooth too, just like me?' I asked, teasingly.
His cheeks reddened and he averted his eyes, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, as he admitted, 'Indeed.'
Digging my hand into my bag of sweets, I picked out one at random to offer it to him. I blushed again when I saw that the one I had picked was a chocolate shaped in the form of a heart. Still, I offered it to him.
'Here! It's a gift!'
He put his hands up in front of him, refusing in politeness, 'I can't accept.'
'I insist. It's to thank you for having saved my life.'
He took it and I gave him a smile.
'I forgot something in my car,' he said, becoming nervous suddenly, and after having wished me a good day, he left in a hurry.
I chuckled at his reaction.
'Oh, he's so handsome!' exclaimed Gakkuri, as Natsuhiko and she arrived by my sides.
They were both staring after the doctor long after he was gone. 'Yes, really very handsome!' the young spirit agreed. 'When I'll grow older, I'd like to be as classy as him!'
I turned to them, smiling. 'It's true that he's very handsome,' I admitted. The doctor was extremely alluring. 'And he's also very kind.'
***
I took the kids to the playing ground after that and just as I expected, Natsuhiko was on cloud nine to discover this new universe. Gakkuri seemed to be well enjoying herself too, and sitting myself on a bench, I watched the two play together until the sky went to orange.
'I want an ice-cream!' Natsuhiko exclaimed, out of the blue, and my mouth hanged open at the young spirit. Turning my back onto him, I took out my purse to check how much money I had left.
With our little trip at the sweets shop, my purse had suffered a lot.
'This is extortion!' I whined, dragging my feet under me as I went up to the merchant to buy every one of us an ice-cream, Kōmori-san included.
I had found that the small winged animal, strangely, ate nearly everything: fish, rice, cakes, etc.
'Yatta! This is really good!' the kids and I exclaimed in unison, as we all sat, enjoying our ice-creams a minute later.
It was a real delicacy!
We watched the flow of people coming and going in the park while we ate.
'This woman is pregnant,' stated Gakkuri, in all of a sudden, and I followed her gaze onto the young woman who was striding by us with her husband. Her belly was huge and the man had an arm wrapped around her shoulder while they walked, happily talking to each other.
'Do you think that he's going to cheat on her because she's pregnant?'
My head snapped around at Gakkuri in stupefaction. 'What?!'
She had stopped eating her ice-cream and was staring at the ground, her expression sorrowful.
'Do you think that the woman is going to blame and hate her baby for it? Do you think that the husband will hold the baby responsible for everything that goes wrong in his life and neglect it? And do you think that she will tell her child that she wished she had had an abortion?'
I was speechless, so much her words staggered me.
Where did such a young child hear something like this?
'Oh, can you see that?!' asked Natsuhiko, abruptly, breaking my line of thoughts. 'What is that man over there eating?'
I glanced at the man he was pointing his finger at, and answered, distractedly, 'It's a pizza.'
'I want to taste that!'
'Huh?' I jumped to my feet.
He gave me a stubborn look and I turned away to count my money again, feeling like crying.
This IS extortion!
Fortunately, I still had enough money left to buy us a pizza without having to take on the money I had kept in a corner for the cinema.
I remembered having come across of a pizzeria close-by earlier and we headed there to eat dinner.
The young spirit seemed completely satisfied of his journey when we came out of the pizzeria and it was time for goodbyes.
I had a feeling that I was going to miss that little guy, for at the end of the day, we all had to admit that we had great fun together.
'Come again whenever you want!' I told him, handing him his bag of what was left of sweets and pastries.
He nodded, grinning widely.
Gakkuri gifted him one of the Origami she had made herself and the young spirit blushed madly at her.
The latter smiled shyly, blushing too.
I chuckled, finding them too cute. The young-spirit was all lovey-dovey with her and the girl seemed to appreciate him too.
After having bid Natsuhiko goodbye, I turned towards Gakkuri.
'Say, Ane-ue, do you think that I could sleep at your place tonight?'
Ane-ue? My heart swelled, feeling so honored to be called like this.
I thought over her question, a bit uncertain, though. 'And your parents?
'It's alright. I'll tell them that I'll stay over at my friend's place. They won't mind. In fact, they're gone on a voyage together and I'd be staying all alone at home anyway.'
'Oh, I see. Okay, then,' I agreed and she hurried up to the phone booth a good distance away to call them while I waited for her.
We headed back to my apartment right after and Gakkuri went back to folding papers to make Origami, which she put into display on the couch.
I couldn't help but feel a bit disturbed whenever I rethought about what she had said in the park earlier.
It was quite late when she fell asleep on the floor by the couch.
Picking her up in my arms, I carried the child up to my bed and placed her on it, tucking her under the blanket.
I switched off the lights in my bedroom then, before moving to turn off those in the kitchen.
When, out of the blue, I heard heavy footfalls- belonging to more than one person- in the corridor, and flashes of light under the front door. Without any warning, the door of my apartment was blown open and several masked men armed with guns surged at me.
My eyes went wide, my heart going insane.
One of the men flung me around and pinned me down on the floor, twisting my arms around my back to slid a cold and metal bracelet around my wrists- handcuffs!
My heart was going at a thousand miles per second as I glanced up at Gakkuri who was screaming in terror, having been shocked out of sleep.
'Shun Shutsuki, you are under arrest for child kidnapping!' the dark figure holding me down informed me and I was pulled to my feet, and my rights read to me.
I was dazed.
Child kidnapping?!
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Mochi - rice cakes
Ane-ue - big sister