1.1 Enter — Hanabashi Akefumi 花橋明文

2012, April 1 — Yotakajima (lit. Nighthawk Island), Hanabashi Household
7:00 AM

Yotakajima is a small island around a mile south from Hasegawa City in Tokaikoku. In comparison to the capital, it's very peaceful with very kind, humble people. Tourism isn't particularly high, primarily because places like Hasegawa, Shinomiya and Sekka City—just to name a few—are cultural hotspots with tons of stuff to do and people to meet. Tourists, both domestic and international, wouldn't really think about smaller places like Yotakajima, especially if they're on limited time. The beaches are very nice, though.

The inhabitants of this small island city are deeply grateful for that, all things considered. It keeps noisiness to a minimum.

One of these inhabitants is Hanabashi Natsumi, and currently, she's walking up to her brother's room, holding something.

"WAKE THE HECK UP, AKEFUMI!!!" Her voice cut through the air like a hot knife through butter. In her arms was a metal pot holding a ladle, and she brought them both above her head and banged them against each other in very loud, rapid succession.

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

"UWAAAAAH—!!!" Akefumi exclaimed as he fell off his bed.

Thud!

"Ugh!"

Natsumi stopped banging the two items together and put them on his desktop. 

"Hold on, just..." he yawned, voice heavy with grogginess. "...just another few minutes."

"You...!" Natsumi smacked her tongue and hastily stomped over, scooping her little brother off of the floor and sitting him upright against his bedframe. "You've been saying that for an hour now. Come on, get up!"

Akefumi was nodding off.

"You know what?" Natsumi had an idea, slipping one arm underneath Akefumi's legs and the other around his shoulders with a grin. "I'm gonna carry you downstairs like a little princess if you don't wake up!"

"Wait!" That woke him up. "Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no. You don't have to go that far."

Natsumi let out a small huff that was both amused and annoyed, shaking her head with a small eyeroll. 

"Okay?" Natsumi pulled back and stood back up, still looking down at the tired boy. Her voice softened as her lips curved into a smile, "I made breakfast and it's getting cold."

"Plus, you don't wanna be late on your first day this year, now do you?" She said as she walked back to his door and picked up the pot and ladle from his desk. "So hurry up and get ready."

Natsumi left Akefumi's bedroom, and her footsteps down the stairs could be heard from his room. He leaned forward as he sat down with his back against the bedframe, stretching with a long groan.

"...'kay."

 ✿✿✿

Akefumi got ready, putting on the Yotaka High School uniform after brushing his teeth, washing his face, and... not really doing anything with his hair. He's sixteen and entering his second year of high school.

Shortly after, he went downstairs, where Natsumi was in the kitchen. She'd already finished eating, so she was just washing dishes at this point.

Natsumi wore a raglan shirt with a gray body and salmon pink three-quarter sleeves with white jeans. She was always barefoot in the house. Her shirt and pants were snug around her figure, accentuating the strong figure she had underneath. Her hair was a black wolf cut that reached down to the top of her spine.

"Took you long enough," Natsumi teased as she glanced over his shoulder.

"That sounds like an attitude, " Akefumi smirked.

"And if it is?" She looked back at the sink, continuing to scrub her plate under the running water.

"I don't know..." Akefumi sat down at the seat where a full plate of food waited. "I don't think I got my full eight hours, so..."

"If you go back to sleep, I'm gonna pour a cup of ice cubes down your shirt and beat your stomach with a wooden spoon like an ōdaiko," Natsumi laughed.

"Wha–"

"Then I'm just gonna pour a cup of ice water on your face and run out of the room with super heavy stomps."

There was a brief beat before Akefumi snorted and they both broke into laughter. She said that last part with such a quick, monotonous cadence that it sent her little brother howling. Not only that, but the very end of that was just absurd.

"Shut up, weirdo!" He laughed, doubling over his food.

"You know better than to talk big to your big sister!" Natsumi turned and pointed a wet, soapy finger at Akefumi. She laughed as she said, "So go back to sleep and see what happens!"

"No, I don't want to! You're already annoying enough, I don't want to wake up in an ice bath on my bed!"

"HAA—H?!" Natsumi exclaimed in mock offense, snappily yanking a freshly washed wooden spoon from the rack, aiming at Akefumi. It was still kind of wet, so if she hit him with this, it would really sting. "YOU WATCH YOUR MOUTH! I'M JUST DOING MY JOB AS YOUR BIG SISTER!"

He saw the wooden spoon and stopped, holding back a grin.

"..." Akefumi was suddenly silent with his hands up at by his head, but it was clear he was holding back laughter. He nodded and went ahead and sat down, though.

Natsumi eyed him, but then turned around, now taking a more relaxed tone. "Good! Now hurry up and eat!"

Nodding with fresh air filling his lungs, Akefumi closed his eyes and bowed his head. Bringing his hands together, he murmured, "Thank you for the food."

Behind Natsumi, Akefumi murmured something as he began to eat.

Something along the lines of:

"It's a thankless job, isn't it?"

Natsumi suddenly froze with her back straight, looking out the window with a straight face.

✿✿✿

Akefumi had a bright red handprint on his face.

It stung and throbbed like hell, but was it worth it?

Probably not, but he thought it was funny.

While eating, Natsumi finished washing the dishes, so now she was just sitting across from him, scrolling on her phone.

"Nee-san," Akefumi called for her with a mouthful of rice.

"Mm?" Natsumi picked her head up and looked at her little brother, putting her phone face down on the table. "What's up?"

"I had a..." he was chewing the rice down, then swallowed. "...really weird dream."

"Can you remember it?"

Akefumi tilted his head and glanced up, thinking. Then he nodded. "Yeah? Mostly, anyways."

"Okay, so what'd you see?"

"Well... I remember seeing a really pretty lady," Akefumi answered. That answer left a small moment of silence between them.

"...is that it?"

"It's not, no, just trying to remember."

His eyes lit up as he followed up with, "The lady had long gray hair and a red scarf. It looked pretty similar to yours, except... less beat up?"

Natsumi nodded in acknowledgement.

"She was running from someone or something, and... that's all I remember, honestly."

"Hmm.. hmm.." Natsumi sat up straight and crossed her arms, processing the information.

"Yeah, that was our Mom."

"Hm?"

"Yeah. Give me a second, I'm gonna go grab the photo album from my room," Natsumi got back on her feet, then climbed up the stairs on the balls of her feet.

For a moment, Akefumi just put his chopsticks down and simply gazed out the window above the kitchen. A potted red chrysanthemum was on the windowsill—Natsumi's favorite. She watered it everyday, pretty much.

✿✿✿

Natsumi came racing down with a thick book that had a floral pattern on its covers. "Here it is!"

She pulled open the seat to his left, putting the photo album down on the table.

Flipping through the pages, there were a lot of photos. Some of them were more diluted by the elements than others, but there was definitely history within each of these.

"This was Mom's album. It's definitely seen better days, but it's still here," Natsumi said as she flipped another page, finally landing on a photo that was clear and in color. Pointing at it, she said, "Look! There she is! Along with me and Dad!"

Akefumi gazed at the photo Natsumi pointed at. In the photo, there was a mother and a father with a young, three-year-old daughter. The girl's parents were smiling while she had a neutral expression as she looked at the camera.

"You look like you were forced to be there."

"Do I?"

"Yeah, you look annoyed."

Natsumi let out a single dry laugh. "That's funny."

And surely enough, their parents—particularly their mom, was there. The color was still there, so the necessary details were there: silver hair, red scarf, very pretty. Clearly, they passed down to his sister right there, minus the hair.

"I wonder why I dreamed about her," Akefumi murmured. He glanced over at their dad. He was tall, well-built and very handsome. "I think I saw him in my dream too. Is that Dad?"

"Mhm," Natsumi nodded. "Even though Mom was out working a lot, Dad liked taking things easy. He also liked gardening, which..." she gestured and pointed at various plants around the house.

One in the corner of the living room, the one on the windowsill, the one by the front door, the one by the backdoor. There's a garden in the backyard that Natsumi always maintained.

"I remember complaining to Dad that watering the plants everyday was a hassle," Natsumi smiled warmly with nostalgia coloring her soft laugh. "When I was around this age in the picture, I remember a time where I was crying because I just didn't want to water the plants across the house. I told Dad that I hated it and that we should get fake plants, but..."

Natsumi put up a fake voice, puffing her chest out, "'No plant around here's gonna be a fake, young lady!' he said." Relaxing her shoulders, she shook her head with a smile. "I still complained after that."

"Such a big baby," Akefumi snorted.

"Yeah," Natsumi laughed softly as she sat back, closing her eyes in remembrance. "But Mom and Dad... they were the kindest people ever, and one thing they always told me was that 'it doesn't take that much effort to be kind'."

Natsumi opened her eyes. Her truly pleased, soft smile never left her lips as she looked down at the album. 

Once Akefumi sat back up after looking at the photos for a little while longer, he closed the book. "I'm gonna finish, then get going."

"You better," Natsumi said as she grabbed the photo album and held it tight against her chest.

✿✿✿

Akefumi finished his food then got up, pushing his chair in, "Thanks for the food."

Natsumi gathered the dishes and brought them to the sink, turning the water on again.

"By the way," Akefumi got to the genkan and slipped his feet into his shoes. "How do I look?"

"Why? Are you gonna pick up some girls or something?" Natsumi giggled as let the water run for a bit before adding the soap and scrubbing.

"No, just... do I look presentable?"

Natsumi turned her head to the side, briefly inspecting her little brother's outfit from afar.

"Your hair looks like a cat's hairball," she said casually as she turned back. "Apart from that, you look fine."

"Ah, that's fine enough," he reached for the doorknob after picking his bag up. "Heading out now."

"Come back safe," Natsumi waved Akefumi goodbye before returning to the dishes, and he left the house.

The house was now quiet as Natsumi looked out the window while scrubbing away.

✿✿✿

Akefumi arrived at school with a bright red handprint on his face, sitting in the back of classroom 2-C. Although, the vibrancy of the redness did come down a little.