At School –
“In human context, a family is an exclusive group of people who share a close relationship — a unit typically composed of a mated couple and their dependent children in co-residence….” Our teacher said while pointing at the picture on the power point of a very happy family which is composed of a father, a mother, a little brother and an older sister having a picnic at a park.
“…the majority of single parent families are more commonly single mother families than single father. These families face many difficult issues besides the fact that they have to rear their children on their own. Many single parents struggle with low incomes and must cope with other issues, including rent, child care, and other necessities required in maintaining a healthy and safe home...” She continues. Well, actually I’m not quite listening to her discussion because my mind is busy thinking about answers to my questions in my head right now: what if Dad didn’t die? What if we’re the ones on the picture having a picnic together at a park and watching the sunset together? What if I have a complete family by my side?
My subject for today is Sociology and we’re now discussing about families. I don’t know why it bores me, maybe because their description of family is not what my family looks like or I’m just jealous of the family and people they’re presenting. My family is different; I don’t even know what a real family looks like.
It seems like I’m preoccupied with these stuffs that I didn’t even noticed that it’s lunch break already.
“Yo! Hiro. Wanna eat?” Ichiro asked as he packed his things back to his bag. I was sitting at the back of Ichiro, which is the last row from the door which makes me near the window.
“I’m not in the mood to eat Ichiro.” I said as I slump myself on the table. Actually I forgot my bento at the apartment. I don’t want to tell him that coz he’ll insist that I should eat his lunch instead.
“OK. It’s a delicious crab meat you know.” He said while pulling the other table from the other row next to my table. “I cooked it myself so you’ll know its high quality cooking. My mum gave me the crab meat when I visited her in Hokkaido. Are you sure you don’t want?” He pulls out his bento and places it at the table next to me.
“You know Hiro. I want to ask you something?” he said as he poke his chopstick on me.
“What is it?” I asked but it doesn’t sound like that actually, it sounded more like ‘Raarng ing inggrr?’
“The girl from your apartment, is she your new girlfriend?” he asked while swinging his chopsticks and munching his crab.
Oh shoot! I almost forgot about Anne. I don’t know school can do that to you, forget things and let you live in an illusion of boredom. Honestly, when they started teaching about families my mind went blank and having a wishful thinking of having my mom come over and dad is still alive which is only allowed during 11:11am or 11:11pm of the day.
“You’re being unfair you know.” He said as he chews the crab in his mouth. “I thought we won’t keep secrets from each other?” He annoyingly said to me. I know it sounds gay but we actually made that promise to each other. If you put it in this context I and Ichiro are alone in Tokyo, we only have each other here in this big and busy city of Tokyo, and we cannot trust anyone here except each other. Well you know my mom is somewhere out there and Ichiro’s family is in Hokkaido which is miles away from Tokyo, since we only have each other here like brothers; we share everything.
I clearly don’t know how to explain it to Ichiro; I just can’t say ‘She’s my older sister from my mom’s early husband who I don’t have any idea of.’ But then I realized keeping it a secret from him won’t change everything and eventually he’ll know and he’ll be upset if he finds out I lied to him so better tell him the truth now. An upset Ichiro is not funny to look at.
“She’s not my girlfriend silly. She’s one of my sisters from my mom’s past adventures.” I said while trying to sound like I’m pissed which I am really with my mom. Even though I’m mad; people usually don’t see that. I fail at projecting my emotion through my gestures and facial grimace; do I have some mental illness?
“Sister!?! Seriously man, you should stop watching those animes. Hahaha! You need to get a life.” He suggested. His reaction is different from what I expect it to be but it’s Ichiro, I should’ve expect it to be this different, he has a different perspective about life, it’s so different that only him can understand it.
“Ichiro I’m not joking, I’m serious here, can’t you see?!” I try to look at him at his face but the people outside screamed like they’ve seen a celebrity modelling in front of the campus so both of our attention landed on them.
“OH MY GOSH!! IS THAT A MODEL?!” one of our girl classmate screamed as she points out of the window.
“Whoooaaa! The other girl looks like Kanon Wakeshima!!” our classrep said while spazing like a total idiot in front. From what I’ve heard he’s a total - full blown Kanon fanboy.
Ichiro stood up and run towards the window to see it himself, he’s the kind of guy that will spazz if he sees a celebrity out in front. It somehow makes me happy seeing him that way despite of being down the whole morning class coz Ichiro really looks funny spazzing.
“Yah! Hiro! It’s your sister and the Nyappi girl from the apartment.” Ichiro said while looking excited. I don’t know why he is excited seeing them in front of our school but it makes me kinda nervous. I felt a sudden flow of electricity from the back of my spine when I heard Ichiro saying that the girl is Anne. She really is serious when she said she’ll gonna meet me at school today, I thought she’s not. So I took a peek from the window inside me and my eyes widen with just what I saw. It was them. It was really them for heaven’s sake!!
“Yah Hiro is she really your sister??” Ichiro asked as he stares at me like a scanning machine. “Well your eyes and nose seems the same to me… hmmmmm” while putting his fingers on his chin and looked at me a little closer, well it irk me much so I gave him a very big smack on the face.
“STOP THAT ICHIRO!!!”
~BAAAAAAGGG!! Ichiro fell to the floor with a big bang.
“aaawwww… I just wanna be sure.” Ichiro said while he tries to sit back and try to smudge back his face which kinda funny that I smiled for a little. “It makes me feel happy when I see like that Hiro. Hahaha.”
“Huh?”
“You look so troubled the whole morning since we left the apartment. I don’t really care who’s that girl in your life but if makes you like that then we better start eliminating her!” he said jokingly. Ichiro is the type of guy who doesn’t take things really seriously but if he needed to be serious he’ll be the most serious person you’ll ever meet. “You know I’m always here if you need someone to talk too.” as he gave me a big punch at my chest.
“ouch! That really hurts!! …” I complained as a rub my hands to my chest. “Thank You Ichiro.” Then we heard someone shouted a familiar name.
“[gasp!] IBARAI SANGO?!?!?!” a girl from the outside shouted. Everyone from the room rushed towards the window to see if it is really her. Ibarai Sango is Japan’s number 1 onna-bugeisha and the president of the Kendo club of the school. She also competes in many International competitions for Kendo and always takes home grand price winnings but recently she got defeated by an entry from America. With her status it’s really rare to see her out in the open that’s why people get so agitated when she appears on public eye.
“Man! It’s really her.” Me and Ichiro said in awe.
From the window of our classroom we can totally see and hear what is happening down the lawn. It’s like we’re given a first class seats to a grand opera.
“CATHY ELRICH!!! I CHALLENGE YOU IN A SWORDS FIGHT!” Ibarai shouted at Nyappi girl as she points her shinai to her. Everybody from the ground to our room gasped in shockness, all of them are asking questions like ‘What is Ibarai-senpai doing?’, ‘Is she challenging the Kanon Wakeshima look alike?’, ‘Why is Ibarai-sensei challenging the girl??’, ‘whooaa I didn’t know Ibarai-sama knows English!’
“WHOOAAAA!!” Ichiro exclaimed. “Hiro it looks like Nyappi girl is carrying a shinai too.” He continued. He grasps my collar and pushed me to the window. “Maybe that’s why Ibarai-san what’s to challenge her? Ne?”
“Whhaaa It is a shinai!” I agreed. Cathy is really carrying a shinai. In her Kanon Wakeshima attire there’s a strap the runs from her back that carries a long object which from a far looks like a sword. “Wait Ichiro, that is not a shinai, it’s a bokken!”
“whooaaa! Is she a samurai or something?” Ichiro said.
Back at the ground.
“Hello, nice to meet you again Ibarai-san. I’ll be glad to fight you but me and my nee-chan have some business here. I’m sorry.” Cathy calmly answered and slowly bowed down to Ibarai. Why am I surprised hearing her speak in fluent Japanese? She looks more Japanese than I am, well I'm Chinese so... yeah.
“I will never forget the day you defeated me Cathy-san! You humiliated me in front of my people! I will never forgive youuuu!!!!” Ibarai shouted as she jumps from where she is standing and charges Cathy fast and swings her shinai as if she’s cutting down Cathy from the top. Cathy dodges to the left and Ibarai’s shinai hit the ground so hard that it made a very loud sound of CLAK on the ground that causes the slats of the shinai to break and reveal a very fine bokken inside it.
Everybody was shocked by the action of Ibarai, it’s not really common that you charges at your enemy even your enemy is not prepared, it is not inline with the rules of Kendo.
“Why does Nyappi girl have a bokken in her back anyway?” I asked Ichiro.
Ibusho Kida suddenly appeared at my back and said “She’s NOT Nyappi girl!” he’s one of my classmates and it is known to be a geek of female combat shows, no wonder he looks excited from what is happening.
“YYAAAAH! Kida! Don’t just appear like that!!! You can kill with that!!” I shouted as I hold my heart.
“She’s Cathy Elrich from America. She’s the grand champion of last year’s Nihon Samurai Olympics women division. She’s also the reigning champion of The American Kendo League for 5 consecutive years! ” He said enthusiastically. Ichiro and me just looked at him like a crazy person
“ ..And the model like girl beside her is Anne Victoria Grey from England. She’s the three time Olympic gold medallist from the archery division of the Olympic games.” He added. “MAN!! I cannot believe I would see them here in our campus! THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE!” He said while running outside the classroom. I have a good hunch that he’s running down to the ground to see them up close. I don’t know if I will be amazed because he has more information about my sisters than I am or be scared because he’ll start to stalk them now that they are in Japan.
“Hey Ichiro, If what Kida said is true then your family looks like a family of assassins. Kekekeke” Ichiro whispered in my ear.
“Eh?! What are you saying Ichiro!?”
“Look. Anne-san, the girl from your apartment is a champion archer and if my hunch is correct, Cathy-san is your sister too and she’s a champion Kendokkan and you Miyagi Hiro is Japan’s Junior Magnum Sharp Shooter for 5 years now. Hiro! CANT YOU SEE THE CONNECTION HIRO!!!” he tries to reason out to me that me and my sisters are trained to be assassins. Well in my case I was asked by my mom to study how to shot bullets and hold guns and it is my own choice to be good at it well in Anne and Cathy’s case I don’t really have any idea.
“Aisht Ichiro, you should be the one who needs to stop watching ridiculous animes!” I said as I push Ichiro away and continued watching the fight.
“Anne–chan! Can you look for Hiro-chan for me? ~chu I think Ibarai-san forgoten something about Kendo. Hihihihi” she said giggly to Anne which is at the back of her. I just felt embarrassed after hearing that, I really do hope nobody hears.
“*sigh* Ok Cathy. Just be fast alright? We want to get home early.” Anne replied as she walks away from Cathy and Ibarai. She cat walked her way towards the school building although there are a lot of people there, the crowd automatically made way for her.
“Yes Nee-chan!” Cathy salutes and quickly turns to Ibarai “Now. You want to fight with bokken ei?! I’ll give you the fight you want ~ chu” she quickly draws her bokkan from her back and releases it from it’s tight tie with the strap and it reveals a very smooth bokken, a good quality I might say. If you don’t have a keen eye sight you must see her bokkan as a real katana. The tsuba of her bokken looks like the sakura flower, pink but very thick, enough to protect the hands of the wielder from a true samurai and the tsuka is well designed as if the maker of her bokkan really took his time is carving and shaping it. Everybody awed with amazement after seeing Cathy’s bokken.
“Yes! Yeees! You’ve already drawn your bokken. Hahahahahaha!” Ibarai said as she walks slowly backward from Cathy. “I would love to see you begging for mercy!” She smirked.
“Aigoo!” Cathy reacted while putting on a very cute shocked face. “Ne Ibarai-san this is just a kendo battle right? What are you saying about ‘begging for mercy’? You’re not going to kill me aren’t you? ~chu”
Ibarai moved to her battle position. “Hehehehe. Why? Are you afraid? Hahahaha. I will take my revenge from here Elrich-san. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Ibarai charges again towards Cathy, tilting her sword in a different manner, a manner that samurais use when they want to cut the head of their opponent, Cathy assumed her defence position facing Ibarai head on. She looks very fierce, like an ambush predator she’s waiting until Ibarai is close enough to make a fatal blow.
It was an awesome show down there; where two of the strongest women fight each other but in the back of my mind there’s a fight much more epic than what is going on. When Anne arrived my definition of home is shattered into a thousand pieces, her existence challenge the way I see how my family should looked like. Why is this happening to me? Why mom did that? Why keep her children from each other? And now it seems like Cathy is one of my sisters too and she brings a different perspective of a NORMAL family looks like. I just wanted a complete family: A father, a mother, and siblings that I can call mine. I’m still wishing this is all a dream, a very long dream.
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