Chapter 1

Hiro’s had enough! This has been the worst year of his life and now this?! First his sister passed away, he had to come back home and help with the family business because his aging parent’s refused to take a break! And then suddenly this brat was stealing his money.

“Pflese lef meh go.”

Hiro presses the kids cheek into the stone ground, “let go of the money.”

“Mmph, ophay.” 

His hand opens up and the coins fall on the ground.

…
“Can I phet phup?”

…

“Phwease.”

“What’s going on over here?” A police officer walks up behind the two, “Do I need to arrest you both for public indecency?”

Hiro doesn’t move right away, “he stole my money.”

“I GHABVE IF BAFFFF!” the smaller man struggles to get off the ground, but Hiro doesn’t get off of him.

“Oh Hiro I didn’t recognize you there,” the officer says with a small smile, “everything good?”
Hiro smiles back “Hey officer Yone,” the officer was a bit older than him and was a regular at his families takoyaki stand. 

Hiro stands up, quickly the other man does too, he wipes himself off and looks at the officer with his hands folded and shoulders back, “I gave the money back officer, there’s nothing to worry about here. And I’m sorry and I won’t do it again!” 

“It’s the middle of the night, lower your voice!” The officer looks at Hiro, “What’s your name kid?”
“Yoite,” the kid says. His face is covered in scratches from the ground and his pony tail is a ruffled mess, he mutters, “I’m not a kid.”

The officer looks at Hiro, "do you want me to arrest him?”

“Please no!” The kid looks at him with praying hands.

Hiro sighs heavily, the little guy compared to him was a crumb, even if he tried again, he already learned that Hiro could easily overpower him. The little guy looked ready to start crying. 

So with a sigh Hiro tells the officer, “It’s fine, Officer.”

Skeptically Officer Yone walks away, The small man smiles brightly.

“Thank you so much!” He balls his fists, “I promise I won’t do it again.”

Hiro squint, “sure.”

The kid walks off with a skip to his step, Hiro walks back to the stand, it was late and dark out and the humidity sticked to his skin, he was looking forward to getting home and washing this day off. He’s put everything away and packed the car with the things to bring back home, Then he notices that his wrist feels off, his bracelet that he hadn’t taken off in months was gone.

‘I should have let Yone arrest his ass! DAMN IT!’ That’s what he get’s for being nice… especially to someone that tried to steal the money from the register! It was a pitiful day with barely any money but still! That was his families pitiful money! And that was his dead sisters bracelet! ‘Selfish bastard!’

For a second he allows himself to picture just screaming at the top of his lungs like a child, of course he would never do that, he’s a grown adult… and there were people trying to sleep. He drives the car up the long street back home.

“Welcome back!” His mom says with a smile when he walks through the door.

“Mom what are you doing up?” he asks rubbing his own eyes.

“It’s still early, and I thought I’d help with some clean up,” the moment he sents the dishes down on the counter she’s fast to take them.

“I can do that,” Hiro tries to stop her.

“I can do it,” she swats him away, “you smell like fish go shower.”

He did smell like fish, and his mom wasn’t giving up helping. Her and his father had run that takoyaki shop his whole life after his father inherited it from his father. It was their buisness, and his sister was always going to be the one who took over afterward. Then it was him, and his parents refused to take a break.

He needed to find a way for them to go back to thinking of their retirement. The shower was the best thing he’d felt all day, finally feeling clean again. He tried to think of ways he could reassure his parents that they didn’t need to keep helping him. Make them see that he could handle it on his own.