A Night in The City Pt. 2

Elsewhere in the night, Kenta and Akane were strolling through the empty streets between the houses. Kenta, heart pounding and knees weak, strolls casually next to Akane. Akane looked ahead into the sky and into the full moon.

"So, Kenta Kobayashi, how are you enjoying this city of ours?" she asked and then turned to him.

"It's a good city, Ms. Iwanaga," Kenta replied.

"I haven't actually asked you where you came from."

Kenta thought about it for a while. An innocent question, one that he prepared many times for occasions such as these. But something told him that something was off. She had asked him earlier. Why is she asking again? Maybe she just forgot. Kenta opened his mouth, ready to reply with the first place that came into his head. But then, he stopped. Kenta noticed that Akane was waiting too intently for his answer. She tried to look normal, but the twitching on the corner of her mouth, the way her eyes widened as she stared forwards, and the way she got closer and closer to him as they walked. No, she didn’t forget nor was this an innocent question. She was testing him. She was trying to see if his answer stayed consistent. His mind went to the news he saw at the city of the family being ratted out by their neighbors. Could Akane be one of those neighbours? But what exactly did he say last time? Oh no. He could not remember. Kyoto, no it was Nagasaki, actually it was Nagoya. Yes. No. Wait. He had to reply with something. The silence was becoming too long. He closed his eyes, and thought of a place.

"Kyoto." Kenta said the first place that came into his mind.

Akane's eyes loosened. Her smile was now more relaxed and natural. She stopped getting nearer. Kenta had passed the test. He relaxed too.

"How is it there?" Akane’s eyes looked up to the moon again. “I heard mages over there are better at magic than we are here.”

"It’s a mixed bag,” Kenta remarked, unsure of what to say.

After a while, they both reached the convenience store just outside the neighbourhood and across a now quiet road. The store inside was cool. The AC was heavenly compared to the humid night outside. Akane went straight to the cashier, while Kenta, needing a break from her, went to the back isles. There was a uniformed employee there with him. He was sitting on the floor reading a manga, his tome opened on the floor next to him. Packets of biscuits lazily and slowly floated and arranged themselves from a box on the floor into the shelves.

The employee bats an eye to Kenta before returning back to his book. Kenta walks past him and grabs a packet of chips that was just enough for the money he had left. He walked back into the register. Akane was outside enjoying her cold stick of ice cream, staring into the moon again, holding what she bought with the other arm. Kenta soon joined her, and they were on their way again.

"You know, I'm curious," she asked, "why did you decide to move here?"

Kenta's ear perked up.

"Was it because you wanted to live in the capital? Or maybe you're running away from loan sharks."

Kenta chuckled. He knew that this time, he hadn’t told her yet. Instead of some elaborate lie, he decided that maybe telling the truth for once was the easiest thing to do and to remember.

"Mostly it was because of our mother," he said looking at Akane, "she died not long ago."

The ice cream came to halt just in front of Akane's mouth.

"We had no money, and our lives were rough. Where we came from, it was hard finding a job. Our poor mother had to work herself to the bone at a factory that paid too little just for us to have a nice meal everyday.”

Akane now turns her head to Kenta, her face now serious.

"After she died, I decided that I don't want us to live like that anymore. I wanted a better future for my brother and me. I heard the capital was full of opportunities for young people like us. So, we left everything and went here."

"I'm sorry," Akane said.

“Don’t be,” Kenta replied.

They both walked in silence for a while.

"All good now though," he suddenly said, "the future here is already looking better than it did back home"

Akane's smile returned. She was happy that he was happy. They both continued their walk.

High above, at the twentieth floor, Huko was helping Rin Tamura wash the lunch box that was now empty. After the soba and now this, Huko was beyond full, and sensing this Rin Tamura was glad. Their room around them was now proper. Now, it felt like a normal room. It was even a bit cozy.

"You should eat more," she said as she washed the smaller boxes, "a kid your age needs a lot of nutrients to grow big and strong."

Huko only smiles. This was the first home cooked meal he had ever since his mother had passed away. Even if the food was different, Rin Tamura’s cooking reminded him of his mother’s. Then, it slowly reminds him of her.

"I'm not a very good cook, but I hope it was good enough for you."

Huko’s eyes began to burn. Memories flashed. Warm comforting memories. The kitchen, the old home in the village, the hills, and her.

"My mother was the better cook, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her.” Rin Tamura chuckled. “and yet her daughter's cooking can't even begin to come close to her's.”

Tears were now slowly streaming down his cheeks. He sniffled as he dried the boxes. Rin Tamura heard this and turned to him. Huko placed the lunch box on the counter, and crumpled to the floor in tears. It was too much. He missed her.

"What’s wrong?" Rin Tamura said as she knelt beside him.

Huko tried to come up with a believable excuse, but just couldn’t. He didn’t want to lie anymore. He just wanted to speak.

"I'm so scared," he whispered.

Rin Tamura gently strokes his shoulder, her face worried.

"I don’t like it here. I miss home and I miss her."

Hearing this, Rin Tamura deduced what had happened. In many ways, she understood him. She had lost her parents too.

"I have to face the school committee tomorrow, and I have to impress them, or else I’m going to crooked school and we’re going to be poor.”

Huko wiped his eyes with the back of his hands.

“Why can’t it be easy? Why does everything have to be so hard?”

They both sat in silence for a while, Rin Tamura gently caressing Huko as she let him continue. There was only the sound of the wind through the glass doors of the balcony, and the soft buzz of the crystal light.

"My oldest," Rin Tamura said, "he's not very good at magic."

Huko had his head sunk low, but he listened, and Rin Tamura could tell.

"When he was five, we brought him to the school committee. My parents were proud mages, and they wanted my eldest son to go into one of the good schools. Long story short, he didn’t impress any of the judges.”

Rin Tamura sat next to Huko, looking ahead at their room.

“They placed him in a normal school with kids that weren't very good at magic, like him. My parents yelled at him, I was disappointed, and he cried a lot.”

Rin Tamura turned to Huko.

“But no matter how much he cried, he didn’t stop. He just kept on going, doing what he could with what he had. Twenty years later, he has a nice job, a pretty wife and a beautiful son. To think that he was the weakest out of all our kids, and yet now, he seems to be the happiest."

Rin Tamura stretched her arms and lifted Huko’s head by his chin.

"We might not know what the future holds for us, but you shouldn’t underestimate your abilities to adapt to that future, Huko Kobayashi. The world might seem like it's falling down now, but as time goes on, you realize that autumn weather is amazing and a blue sky is still beautiful no matter what’s happening in your life.”

Rin Tamura stood up, grabbed a dishcloth, and started drying the lunch boxes.

“Whatever happens, Huko Kobayashi, I have a feeling it will turn out good for you."

Huko smiles as he wipes away his tears. After all the boxes are washed and dried, Rin Tamura takes her leave. As she opened the doors to her apartment, a couple walked out of the elevator, both of them laughing. She knew who the man was. The demon, she said to herself and went into her room.

"That was a fun little walk, Kenta Kobayashi," Akane said as she opened her door.

“It was,” Kenta replied.

Akane looked at him for a while, and then gave him a small wave.

“See you around,”

Kenta gave her a little wave as she closed her door. He opens the doors to his own room, and finds it to be suddenly neat, and his brother is hunched over the dining table with piles of items from the box.

"Why do I smell fried fish?" he asked and closed the door behind him.

Huko ignored him and glanced at the clock on the wall.

“10 hours,” he said to himself, “I have that much time.”