Fluid Foundation

Anza

“Mom, no!” I jump up, pleading with the darkened television screen. “My show is starting!”

“The show can wait. We are here for my parents, not the television.” Mom places the remote on the bookshelf and casually walks away from her crimes without facing my tribunal.

“No fair!”

She laughs from the other room, calling out, “Sometimes, life isn’t fair. Deal with it, or grow taller.”

BOOM!

Lightning flashes through the room—my shoulders jump.

The rain continues relentlessly. If only I had a television screen on to light up the room.

I look up. The remote challenges me with each passing second.

If I move the table, place the side table onto it... I should be able to reach.

With both hands, I test the weight of the side table. “Ngggh!”

What is inside these drawers? Depleted uranium?

Guess I do without.

My feet dig into the carpet. I push the coffee table near the bookshelf and step onto it. Setting up my offense.

The left knob serves as a great launching pad, but the second drawer has none. Maybe if I open it first, I could—

The door clicks open.

“Anza?” a deep voice calls out.

My eyes widen. I lose my grip.

Thud.

Flat on my back, I stare up at the galaxy of distance between me and the remote. The wild pattering against the glass breaks the silence.

Next time, remote. Next time.

My head sags to the side. Grandpa stands in the threshold with a soft smile.

“Grandpa! You are back!” I push myself up and race to him with wide arms.

“Anza, what are you doing?” Grandpa enfolds me in a hug, the warmth of his touch blending with the outside cold on his damp clothes.

“A burglar came in! And they—”

“Burglar?”

“—stole all the cookies, and placed the remote on the bookshelf! Can you please help me!”

“That is… a very meticulous thief you have there.”

He looks up into the room. “Tell me, did this ‘thief’ have long black hair, and the eyes of my daughter?”

“Grandpa…”

He chuckles, walking to the bookshelf and grabbing the remote. “I better get a new lock. Pesky burglars, always getting to my remote.”

Like a prince, he drops to one knee, offering the remote like a crown. “Your majesty.”

I grasp it, brandishing it in the air. “Yeah! Deal with that, unfair life!”

“What?”

I run to the couch, leap onto the cushion, and zap the television on like a wizard. Aw, I missed the first act. Commercials.

“Dad!” Mom’s voice shrieks from the kitchen. “You didn’t!”

“It was a burglar, honey!” Grandpa calls back, settling next to me on the cushion.

Chibi settles onto my lap, enjoying the commercials with closed eyes.

“Say Myaoy-wowy, Chibi. Come on, Myaoy-wowy!” I try raising my pitch to speak her language, but she does not budge.

Outside, the weather grows grim as wind sends brown leaves twirling past the glass. Strange to watch a storm rage while only feeling the radiating warmth of a furry ball on my lap.

I side-eye Grandpa, pulling his arm farther over my shoulders. “I didn’t know you were into dancing princesses, Grandpa.”

He stares at the screen, which tries to sell us a step stool with RGB lighting. “Oh. Not really. But I am also not a fan of the fiery dragon defending the pantry.”

Yep. That is Grandpa.

He never asks questions... at least, not the questions that create trouble.

Our weekly visits never disappoint, they line up with my favorite show.

‘I Am the Noblest Princess, but Also Have to Pay Taxes, Eh?’

I can feel it. This week is different.

Mom and Dad bicker at the front door, still debating what to say, and more importantly, what not to say.

I thought the entire car ride here would have been enough.

The wind and I stay silent, watching the standoff.

“You know she won’t accept that, honey.” Dad swats her words away with a flat hand, his other hand locked tight around the doorknob.

Mom pushes his hovering hand away, only to point her own back at him. “I don’t want to hear it! You will do it. You will!”

The door swings inward, revealing Grandma.

“Mother!” Dad draws a smile, jolting his head toward the threshold.

She stares back with a deadpan stare. “Come in. Please.”

I... do not think I will be watching the show today.

Mutsu

“Is my hair okay?” I stare into the studio lens, but the glass offers little reflection from this distance.

Nobody responds—everyone just keeps shuffling around the desk.

“Please clear the floor if you do not need to be here!” The producer claps, whipping his head around to scan every person.

“Hey, I need an opinion on my hair! I cannot go on for my major debut with bedhead.”

Only the cameraman looks at me funny from behind his rig. And here I thought I was the most important voice in the room.

I shift my mouth, testing expressions. What looks best for this story?

A neutral, flat line?

Maybe a small, comforting smile?

Or the classic, overly serious mask?

No matter which, It needs to look perfect. Nobody remembers the early morning news—curse Tanaka and his prime evening slot.

But this bit will be repeated all day, nationwide! I can feel it!

I should clear my schedule, maybe pass up the checkers club this week…

“Silence on the floor!”

I rub my palms together. Come on, you can do this!

This is the big moment. Do not screw it up.

The camera lights up red.

“Good morning, and welcome to the morning news.

We start today’s program with breaking developments in the Yamato regional crisis that has now spread nationwide.

Yamato Automotive is bankrupt.

Weeks of internal debate did nothing to prevent total collapse. More than eighteen thousand workers face unemployment by week’s end. Stay tuned in this broadcast, a branch manager and union representative will join us for a live debate later.

The Minister of Finance remains unavailable for comment, but the workers’ union is already striking, demanding answers for the gross mismanagement.

Does our nation’s pride now stand without wheels, or is the future truly electric?”

Anza

“Save me, save me!” The peasant boy presses a hand to his face, leaning over the tower window.

The heroine brandishes her sword toward the wooden door at the bottom of the tower, widening her stance. “Don’t worry, my love! I will defeat this dragon and save you so we can be together forever!”

“Help! Help!”

Smoke billows from the window.

The heroine looks up, hesitating with a pout before she kicks the door open with her foot.

This show… really is getting dark somehow.

“I’m coming for you! Hang in there! Stick to the knowledge that—”

“I will never do that!” A muffled voice bleeds through the ceiling, intercepting the show’s finale.

Wood is not a great insulator for sound…

“Accept it!” a deep voice penetrates through it. “This is no time for pride!”

“Pride?! Pride is optional! This is dignity! I will not live without it!”

“Mom! Stop this! You cannot keep this up!” Someone else mingles in, the voices’ pitches mixing unrecognizably.

“We will! I can live without!”

“Dad, that is not your choice to make!”

“I’ll make it!”

“Stop it, you two. I—I!”

“We will never!”

“Mom, you cannot keep avoiding this!”

“You—”

Footsteps approach.

The door slides open, revealing Dad with a blank face.

He moves toward me, ushering me toward the garden door. “It is going to take a bit longer, Anza, sorry. We might be staying for dinner, too. Go play with Chibi outside for now, will you?”

“But Dad!” I reach for Chibi, who rumbles with a purr after being awakened by his arrival.

He lifts her with one arm and nudges me outside with his free hand. “Be a brave girl and stay out of trouble for a bit. I will bring some snacks later, okay?”

“Okay…”

The outside door closes. But the shouting is only clearer out here.

I caress Chibi, her paws gently batting at my outstretched fingers. “Don’t worry, Chibi, it will be fine. It always does.”

Picking her up, I set her down on the wooden rim of the koi reservoir.

I point at her, assigning her role. “You are the peasant! I am the great heroine who saves the day! Now, be afraid!”

She stares blankly at me.

Mutsu

I pan left and right at my guests. “Gentlemen, remember. Let each other finish your sentences before you—”

“Why did you invite that man!” Riki slams a hand onto the desk.

Eisuke across from him scoffs. “If I’d known you were coming, I’d have stayed home.”

This… is not going to go well, is it? There goes my clip.

“Going live! Get ready, everyone.” The producer hurries over, setting up the decorative water glasses.

The guests look at them as if they are poisoned.

The camera light glows red.

I snap my head up as if caught off guard. “Welcome back, viewers. We start our live debate with my guests on the ongoing developments in the Yamato Automotive crisis. The gentleman on my left, industry branch manager representative Eisuke. Welcome.”

Eisuke looks at me, holding his gaze as if waiting for a cue before nodding. “Thank you. Glad to be here.”

“He brings twenty years of industry experience and joins us to debate my other guest. Riki. President of the workers’ union, here to highlight his… feelings on the matter.”

Riki scoffs, glaring at Eisuke. “Debate is the wrong word! I came here to correct the record! Management has been feeding the media wrong messages for weeks now. I don’t tolerate any more—”

“Wrong!?” Eisuke huffs. “At least we communicate clearly! Your party’s a scattered mess!”

“Gentlemen, gentlemen.” I hover my palms over the desk. “Please, wait for the intro reel to—”

Riki grabs my right hand, pinning it down on the desk. “How else do we deal with the situation you put us in!? Livelihoods are on the line, you—”

“We? Are you blind?” Eisuke waves his hands in front of his eyes. “You can’t personify progress into one man!”

I check the timer on the tablet before me. Cut to commercials?

Anza

“Stop moving! You cannot rescue yourself from the tower!” I pick up Chibi, planting her firmly onto the wooden rim.

She immediately jumps off the moment my hands let go.

I sigh.

The garden door opens.

I turn. “Da—”

Grandpa walks out, arching an eyebrow at me. “Sorry, just your old man here. Mind if I join you for a bit?”

“Of course… You can be the peasant with no money, and I will—”

“I am sorry, Anza… I do not feel like playing today. Maybe some other time.”

He walks toward me, stopping at the koi reservoir .

“Oh. I… I am sorry. This is all just taking so long, boring!”

He does not respond, staring into the water.

Koi fish swim aimlessly, bopping their heads against the walls, then turn to swim toward the next wall.

One hovers in the middle, watching the others.

“Can I feed the fishies?! Where are the food pellets?”

“Thirty-five years…”

“Huh?”

“I thought it mattered.”

I tug his shirt. “Don’t worry, Grandpa. Things will be great! Dad always says that after every low a new—”

“Not even a meeting. Just a letter.”

“…”

I run around the tank, checking the side for a container. “Where are the little food cubes They usually sit around here. Where are they?”

“Look at them, Anza.”

“At what?”

“They swim around, day in and day out. They don’t question it. But… they look happy, would you say?”

“Those ones do, but that one in the middle seems a bit sad.”

“You mean that one?” He points to the middle of the tank. “I think he’s just still thinking it over, where he’ll go.”

His finger moves higher, toward the big pond next to it that anchors the middle of the garden. “Maybe wondering what’s beyond the tank.”

“Why do they not swim in the big pond, Grandpa?”

“They can’t live there healthfully, apparently. They need to be nurtured constantly or else they’ll get confused.”

“If I were a fish, I would choose that big pond!”

“But how would they—you—know the pond exists?”

“Um… Maybe jump over the rim! See what is on the other side?”

He holds his palm above the water line. “The water level is far too low for that. See?”

Water flies toward me as he scoops it up with a flick of his wrist.

“C-cold! Hey, stop!”

Mutsu

I retreat, holding up my cue cards before me as if the cardboard excuses me from my duties.

Maybe if I hold them over my mouth, it looks like I am deep in thought reading them, while also keeping me unrecognizable in the clips later.

“I will never stop! You lukewarm, pre-made microwave meal!” Riki sputters, his wild gaze unfocused on anything in particular.

Eisuke pulls his hands from the table, evading the spray. “This part of the industry had plenty of time to adapt! They failed! And now they must face the consequences!”

“Monster! Tell that to all the families who have nowhere else to go!”

“They had their chance! There was enough time! And some did—”

“The region only knows one major industry, and that is making cars! Great cars! People cannot suddenly—”

“And what about the next generation! When is it their turn, huh? Who speaks for those who are not yet here! You cannot seriously suggest this fantasy bubble lasts forever. The new cannot exist without the old being gone.”

“It was you who stole their time! You personally lobbied the government to pass that vicious law, didn’t you!?”

“Heh, are we resorting to that? Very low to the ground.”

Eisuke stands up and nods to me, before glaring down at Riki. “Thank you for the invitation. But this pond is clearly too small for both of us.”

“Oh, um...” I look around.

The producer offers no cues, his head slumped into his hands.

I slowly lower my cue cards. “My pleasure... Next time, we… will go to an ocean?”

Anza

Triiing! Triiing!

Nothing.

Mom tilts her head toward the door. “Maybe… they went to the supermarket.”

“Please.” Dad points to the car in the driveway. “The store is too far for them to walk. I will use the spare key. The champagne drinks best when chilled.”

He squeezes the bottle between his knees, searching his pockets for the key.

I slip through the first gap in the doorway as it opens. “Grandpa, we are here! Great, great news!”

“Anza! Get back here!” Mom calls from behind.

“Catch me if you can!”

I turn, skidding into the kitchen.

Nothing.

Every item sits in its place like a movie set ready for filming.

I dash into the living room. “Grandma! Are you—”

Nothing.

Chibi’s cushion sits empty, too.

Guess I check upstairs.

I dash past Mom in the hallway. She swipes and misses as I duck under her arm in stride.

I vault up the stairs at lightning speed.

Peeking into each doorway, I check every room.

Nothing.

“Are they up there?” Mom calls from below.

I rush back down the stairs. “Nope. All neat and tidy up there.”

Dad walks back from the kitchen with a furrowed brow. He places the bottle on the hallway table, hurrying to the front door. “I’ll check with the neighbors. Maybe they’re over there. Wait here.”

Mom shakes her head, staring at the gold-trimmed bottle.

I slip past her, running back toward the living room. “But Chibi should at least be here!”

“Anza!” her voice echoes down the hall.

As I make it to the garden door, Chibi sits before her little cat door, chewing on… a fish?

“Chibi! What do you have there?” I crouch down, touching the slimy scales.

That…

Stepping past her, I open the door and rush into the garden. “Hello!? Where—”

Birds scatter upward, spooked by the opening door. They vanish into the sky.

Drip. Drip… Drip…

There is no wind today. Just a clear sky.

Drip… Drip. Drip…

I…

A shriek tears through the garden.

Mom wheezes shallowly behind me.

Thud.

She collapses to the floor.

Drip... Drip. Drip.

I glance back at her before looking forward.

Slowly, I step forward into the garden.

I should have put on a jacket after all. It is icy cold today.

“What!?” Dad screams from the house. “Anza, get back! Now!”

I…

Drip. Drip... Drip.

He abandons Mom on the floor, sprinting past me into the yard.

Splash!

He leaps straight into the tank, spraying water all over me.

Freezing cold.

A koi fish sits jammed in the corner, flailing around from the newcomer in its home.

I slam my hand against the rippled surface. “Go! Stupid fish! Jump!”

Dad weeps on his knees, his shoulders deep in the reservoir. His tears blend invisibly with his wet face.

I reach down into the water, lifting the fish from underneath. “Jump! Do it already! JUMP! P-plea... p… please…”

The fish wriggles its way out of my hands, falling back into the tank.

Splash.

Mutsu

I release a long sigh.

Guess I am heading back to the checkers club this week. Not even trending for two days.

What a sham.

How do I ever pay off all my debts? Morning news simply does not cut it.

I fall right back into my routine, doing what I do best.

The red studio light glows.

“...In other news.

The government has finally broken its silence on the Yamato Automotive crisis, offering a massive aid package for all affected families.

However, officials reiterated that they won’t prop up the business, stating that the collapse was unfortunately inevitable. The striking union wasn’t able to mount a counteroffer, settling instead with the overarching branch managers on the deal.

And… in other news from that region. An elderly couple was found dead, holding each other in a koi tank. They were discovered yesterday morning, sending a shock through the community.

Locals tie the incident directly to the Yamato Automotive crisis. Police decline to comment on the ongoing investigation, though they state they are keeping all options open.

Both reportedly worked at the Yamato Automotive factory and were likely affected by the turmoil in the region. You can catch the full report on the… evening news, tonight.”

The camera light dims.

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This is a Honeyfeed exclusive chapter, detailing the backstory of Anza. For more content, see the main story page “Minorities Rule”.

Written by Limited_Infinity. Extras, official publishing platforms and updates are publicly available only on the Patreon page “_Limited_Infinity_”

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