Lining Up the Dominos

Hideo and Miho had to cut their time with Hanzo and Sayuri short if they were going to get home before Kumiko’s train arrived.

He couldn’t explain it, but Hideo felt on edge throughout the entire trip. He wondered if he was being oversensitive. Every little thing was setting him off and he knew he was making Miho worried.

When Miho asked him about it as they got off the train, he admitted that he hadn’t felt like this since the days after the Perfected Emperor died. He would swear he saw things move in the shadows, whispers of voices in his head.

“I’m fine,” he lied. “Really.”

Miho called him out on it as they left the station. “You were staring at everyone on the train like they were going to pull a knife on you.”

But what she’d said didn’t sink in. Outside their train station were a public works crew removing graffiti off the walls using a pressure washer.

Some of it had been washed off, but a few words remained.

[NO HOPE, NO FUTURE]

[NEW JAPAN] [OLD SOLUTIONS]

“Hideo, are you…” Miho trailed off as she saw what was left of the messages.

They were words that neither had seen in the wild since they’d retired to family life. Some of them were ones that Hideo had heard time and time again, drilled into his head from the moment that he’d broken free from Jade Chrysanthemum’s experiments.

A new Japan requires old solutions. A new Japan requires old solutions. A new Japan requires old solutions.

Their people said it like a prayer, from the lowest grunt to the Emperor himself. That they could force a new Japan into being, if only they embraced the old ways. Not the ways of bushido, not the ways of the Shogun, not even the ways of the Empire. Something much older, something more hidden.

He only stopped when Miho took his hand in hers and squeezed. “It’s going to be ok.”

But even her promise trembled at the words. The others, the ones that Hideo hadn’t fixated on. She knew those words all too well.

----

The next morning, Kumiko could feel tension at breakfast. As her parents ate their rice mixed with raw egg, she saw them exchange looks and talk around something.

Her father would glance at her midsentence, while her mother’s hand would occasionally rotate by the wrist. They’d been jittery ever since she came home from school yesterday and she hadn’t the faintest clue why.

At last, Hideo smiled at Kumiko. “Sweetie, there’s been some last-second changes. I’ll be coming with you on the field trip today.”

That was a surprise. Her teacher had mentioned that they already had all the chaperones they needed when the field trip was announced. But her father continued insisting he was going and that he’d cleared out his entire day. Kumiko was happy to spend time with her father but this was an odd way to spring a surprise on her.

Speaking of surprises, her mother had moved Kumiko’s backpack from where she normally put it after school. Miho was sifting through it with a frown. “Kumiko,” she asked, “I forget, were you supposed to do anything special on your field trip?”

Kumiko paused. Her parents were showing a lot of interest in the trip all of the sudden. “We were going to meet with some lawmakers and ask questions. Our teacher joked we could try proposing legislation or ask about important issues.”

Miho got a twinkle in her eye. “Have you thought of anything you want to ask them? Like say… why your favorite shows aren’t on the air anymore?”

That was an amazing idea! Kumiko was jumping with joy as she imagined a legislator wondering why too, there were no more adventures for Sweet Bear or Wolf Knight!

“Then maybe you’d appreciate a bit of help?” From behind her back Miho brought out a blue teddy bear with tiny angelic wings on its back ‘shoulders’. “From Kuma-chan?”

“Kuma-chan!” Kumiko took the blue bear and put him in her backpack. “He always brings good luck to good girls!”

Miho smiled. “That’s right he does!” She leaned forward to look the stuffed bear in its beady black eyes. “And he’ll bring you luck today, won’t he?”

It must have been a trick of the light, but Kumiko swore she saw Kuma-chan wink at her mother.

-----

Kakurejin Academy was somehow both one of the most prestigious and least well-known private elementary schools in the greater Tokyo area. And as Hideo was reminded every time he got the bill for their tuition, one of the most expensive.

He could smell every yen that went into the place as he walked a few steps behind Kumiko through its halls. Attention to detail had been put into everything, down to them maintaining a level of cleanliness that stopped short of sterile.

Just enough to let you know it was a school and not a hospital.

The classroom of 2-B was not much different. It was certainly better kept than the school Hideo had been dumped into when he’d broken free from Jade Chrysanthemum.

He didn’t like it. All the attention to perfection, it lacked personality. It was a rich person’s idea of what a school should be.

It made sense why the classroom was filled with rich kids, scions of the powerful. Nepo babies.

Kumiko raced into the room towards one of her friends, a girl about her age flanked by men in suits with sunglasses and ear pieces. Bodyguards.

But one of those guards caught his eye, and he caught the guard’s. He would recognize those thick and bushy brown eyebrows from anywhere – no matter how badly he didn’t want to.

For all of the terrible things Hideo could say about Kobayashi Fuku, the one thing he did better than anyone else was clean up. His hair was mussed up just right, matching the color of his sunglasses’ frame. That suit was putting in a lot of work though.

“Hideo.” Fuku’s voice was clipped.

“Fuku.” Hideo’s was just as curt.

“You’re not licensed anymore,” said Fuku. “Who invited you here?”

Hideo grunted, gesturing to Kumiko. “Who’re you escorting this time?”

Fuku thumbed at the girl Kumiko had gravitated towards. “Ogawa Haruna. Her mother’s the betting favorite to become Prime Minister.”

The daughter of the next Prime Minister, here? His daughter was friends with the daughter of the next Prime Minister? No wonder the class could get a field trip to the Diet. Or why Hanzo had been so nervous about something going wrong.

But if Haruna was what could go wrong, then Hanzo was left wondering how.

----

Halfway across the city, Miho rubbed at the sleeves of her shirt.

Sayuri had led her to an old fire house that advertised holding bingo games on Sunday mornings. It wasn’t ideal but owning a dedicated space in Tokyo would’ve exhausted their funds years ago.

Inside the fire house was a large hall with the windows covered by thick blackout curtains, leaving only the fluorescent overhead lights to illuminate a circle of chairs. Every chair was filled with persons tall and small, wide and thin. Some others were trailing in, pulling more chairs out from a stacked pile in the corner. But most of them were at least as old as Miho and Sayuri, save for a male student in his school’s class uniform. His glasses were thick, and there was a gauze pad peeking out from his left shoulder.

Sayuri pulled out a chair for Miho next to her, taking the other free seat. “Good morning, everyone. I see a lot of familiar faces today. Before we get started, I’d like to introduce everyone to Ryoma.”

There was a collection of greetings for the bespectacled student.

“Ryoma,” said Sayuri, “was bitten a few weeks ago. Because we couldn’t find the attacker, he will be transforming into a werewolf for the first time tonight. Thankfully, the Tsukiodorite pack has offered to take him to a safe place for him to be. Ryoma, this is a safe place. You’re surrounded by people who’ve known about this for years or decades.”

Sayuri smiled. “Welcome to the Kaijin Support Group.”