Friday, December 9, 2005

A Surprise for Hikaru

There are some things you’ll never forget. For Hikaru, one of those things happened on the day after he burst into flame. For the rest of his days, he would never forget what he saw that morning.

Samantha and Midori stopped in the market and bought some breakfast to take over to the house. Samantha was wearing her new kimono and was a bit nervous as they walked.

Midori glanced over at Sam and smiled. “What is wrong, Sam-chan?” she asked, fully knowing what the problem was.

Sam fidgeted with the basket. “Do I look all right?” She smoothed out a wrinkle only she could see.

“You look fine. Don’t worry so much,” Midori said. “We’re almost there.”

Sam looked ahead and saw the little house. She took a deep breath. “All right, I can do this,” she said quietly.

They approached the house and could hear raised voices in the back. They went around to the backyard to find Takeda and Hikaru sparring with shinai. It seemed almost as if the two were taking out their frustrations on each other.

“Oh!” Sam exclaimed as Takeda landed a solid hit on Hikaru. The boy landed on his rear at his teacher’s feet. There seemed to be a look of satisfaction on Takeda’s face. Sam dropped the basket and ran to help Hikaru up. “Are you all right?” she asked as she held out her hand.

At first, Hikaru glared up at Sam, eyes flashing in anger, but his expression quickly changed to one of surprise as he realized it was Samantha holding out a hand. He hadn’t expected to see her dressed like that. He took her hand and allowed her to help him to his feet. “Arigatô,” he muttered. He looked away, feigning embarrassment at being seen at Takeda’s feet, and dusted himself off. He stole another glance at Samantha and started to blush.

Takeda was just as surprised to see Samantha dressed like a young lady instead of a young man. He smiled as he lowered his shinai and went to help Midori pick up the basket of food. “Good morning, Midori-san,” he said. “Sam-san looks very nice today. It was quite a surprise to see her dressed that way.” His hand brushed Midori’s as they both reached for an apple.

Midori blushed slightly and said, “Thank you, Takeda-san. I thought she would like to look like a young lady again. Is Hikaru-kun feeling better today?”

Takeda looked over at Hikaru and Samantha and sighed. “Yes, he is. It’s been hard for him since his father died. Yesterday was a bad day for him.”

Midori suspected there was more to it than what Takeda let on, but she did not press the issue. “Sam-chan also wants to try out her Japanese. She’s been trying hard to learn so she can talk to people herself.”

“Good. Hikaru-kun needs someone his own age to talk to. Satsuo doesn’t visit very much anymore,” Takeda said. He helped Midori to her feet and picked up the basket. “Thank you for bringing this over. Have you had breakfast yet?”

“No. We thought we’d bring something over for you, but it seems to be ruined since Sam-chan dropped the basket. I think the fruit will be all right, but the rice is bad.”

“Not to worry. We have rice here. I’ll go prepare something.” Takeda went into the house to put together some breakfast.

Midori watched as Sam showed off her new kimono to Hikaru. The boy was speechless as he saw her dressed as a girl for the first time. Samantha was chattering away at him, and he just nodded, not understanding a thing she was saying. He seemed to be completely dumbfounded by her appearance.

Takeda came out with a tray of breakfast and called the two young people over to eat. They sat at the back of the house to eat. Samantha looked embarrassed as she realized she had ruined their breakfast by dropping the basket and apologized as best as she could in Japanese.

The rest of the morning was spent in conversation with Midori translating as needed for Samantha.

Takeda watched Hikaru and was surprised to see he had calmed down considerably from the angry state he had been in the night before. He was even eating breakfast with them. Takeda thought about it for a while and was wondering if the presence of Samantha had some hand in calming Hikaru. He would have to keep an eye on the boy’s moods when she wasn’t there, just to be sure.

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