Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Happy Endings, And Other Lies ❯ Happy Endings: 5 ( Chapter 5 )

The following two days were great fun. We rose, we ate a full Japanese breakfast and gathered in our groups with numbers exchanged with chaperones and our teachers. I strolled through Kyoto, enjoying the absence of pain for a long day walking its narrow twisting streets, overhung roof tiles, chains for catching falling water, which tended to spray for meters in every direction a good downpour.

Saki joined us. Yui was happy by my side, pulling Totsuka to her unconsciously because she was a very touchy kind of girl. Woman. She’d changed over the last few months without me here. Some of her childishness was gone, and her more mature look really suited her well. Maybe there was someone she wanted to be noticed by.

I took lots of pictures, as people do. Yui grinned, and Totsuka tried not to blush as her boob pressed into him. He’d changed his hair to a shorter cut? Something like that. It was a man’s hairstyle, not one he’d be mistaken for a girl anymore. There were subtle changes to his clothes and he talked to Kawasaki Saki (another victim of the medical establishment) like they were friends. Maybe she’d changed his uniform to make him reveal his masculinity? It was a good look. Maybe she could do the same for me? I’d ask later.

I sometimes noticed other groups from our school, and Yui called out, knowing names. I admired her ability to be friends with so many people. Totsuka also called out to people from sports teams he knew. Saki drifted closer to me then, her shyness a nice feature and it was genuinely attractive. Did I have a crush on the pretty woman? Maybe? Komachi would tease me. I took a picture of her in front of some monument from 800 years ago and forwarded it to my sister. Having fun in Kyoto.

Lunch was from a food stand, not quite enough. Yuigahama bought a bunch of typical tourist things, then realized it was too much so she shared them with all of us. We each ended up with several different kinds of traditional things: buns, takoyaki, bean paste fill mochi, various stuff like you’d get at a festival stall, but all were of superior quality.

“These are very good. Speaking off, have you been practicing your cooking using those things I taught you, Yui?” I asked. She froze, blushing.

“Uhm. Yes. I learned a bunch of recipes with mom once I worked-up enough nerve to ask her for help. .. How come you’re so good at cooking, Hikki?” she asked, leaving off the honorific as I had hers. I guess we were that close.

“My parents work almost all the time. They come home to sleep and leave when I’m getting up. I had to cook for Komachi.”

“Who’s Komachi?” asked Totsuka.

“His sister,” answered Saki without thinking. She blushed. It was very… pretty.

“My sister is dating her brother. It’s still cute how they are. I think if things had been different over the last couple years I might be annoyed, but I’m just happy to see her happy. I won’t always be there for her,” I admitted. Saki quietly nodded, eating a bun to avoid speaking. Suitably fed we moved on to a rock garden with a famous pattern in it titled “bear and cubs”. I went to look and sat down to stare.

“Do you see it?” asked Yukinoshita from beside me. She’s arrived at some point.

“I think so. It’s very relaxing. This is a pleasant place to just take it all in. I can see the point of this kind of garden,” I agreed.

“Is your leg troubling you at all?” she asked.

“It’s fine. Good as new. Thank you for your support. Miura’s parents did excellent work. I feel like the six million dollar man.” Yukino choked at the figure.

“Hmm?” I asked.

“Nearly,” she finally said. “I wasn’t supposed to know, but I overheard.”

“Is that yen or American dollars?” I asked.

“You’re happier not knowing. I’m just glad it was worth it. I couldn’t have you on my conscience,” she admitted.

“Thank you.” I suppose it was all I could say. Yukino sat there blushing prettily like the schoolgirl she was.

That evening I was bored and found Yukino perusing the stuffed dolls from a series she liked and picked one out. I smiled and she found me there, holding her prize. If things had been different she might have been ashamed but instead she finished filling out the form for the purchase and dropped it into the box, then came to sit beside me on the hotel lobby couch. It wasn’t actually that comfortable, but I was just enjoying the quiet. Maybe in another life she would snark at me, but we’d both changed, hadn’t we?

Cake Sensei arrived, being very suspicious in her trenchcoat. She was totally sneaking out of the hotel after dark.

“Think she’s off to meet her lover?” I asked Yukinoshita. She laughed. Sensei noticed us.

“Oi, you two. Come with me if you want to live,” she ordered, offering a hand. I rolled by eyes but joined her. “I’m going out for ramen. They’ve got special ones at this place I heard about a few blocks away. I’ll buy.” I offered my hand to Yukinoshita. She took it and didn’t let go as we walked down the street and around some corners to an izakaya. She was still hugging the stuffed animal. It was cute. And to think her father is on the Diet.

I chose Tonkatsu ramen. Yukinoshita went with sour pickles. Sensei wanted thin sliced beef, which cooked the moment it hit the hot broth. She also got herself a beer, a local lager.

“How have you been, Hachiman?” she finally asked.

“Better than I’ve been in years. I think I might be more grownup than many of the kids around me, though.”

“That was something I was afraid of,” she admitted. “Your experiences have changed you. Tempered by fire.” I understood the metaphor.

“Are you finding it harder to get along with the kids in your classes?” she asked. Yukino also peered over her bowl at me for this answer.

“In some ways. Many seem preoccupied with unimportant things. They can’t see what’s happening, or that time is running out for their fantasies of unchanging life. The riajuus have it the worst. They aren’t preparing for life after these evaporating relationships. Its all just transitory nonsense.”

“I have seen this happen, over and over, every year. Some students hang on for the long haul with close friends. Some marry each other. Many lose touch after high school, until it becomes embarrassing to even reconnect. Too much time goes past, too many changes.”

“Is that how it was for you, Sensei?” I asked her. She carefully swallowed her mouthful of food before answering.

“Yes. You’re a lot more perceptive than before.”

“I was always perceptive, Sensei. I was just naïve about the outcomes.” She grumbled, and finished her beer. I finished up my bowl and Yukino was done, so sensei paid for our meal, collecting the receipt.

“Sensei, are you going to bill this to the school as a counselling session?” asked Yukino. Cake sensei tripped slightly at this accurate deduction and chose not to answer.

We returned to the hotel and went to our respective rooms. I smiled gently to Yukinoshita before she disappeared down the corridor to her room, where a chaperone glared, guarding the door. I gathered my bathing things and went for a soak in the hot spring. It was fitting. I was the only one there, being late and left once my muscles had fully relaxed. Bed called and I dropped off quickly.

The following day we rose, ate quickly, and gathered in our groups again, minus Yui who seemed to have regained her group’s acceptance once more. Saki and Totsuka and I wandered another section of Kyoto, and rejoined our group for the trip to the Stage, which was a famous world heritage site with a very nice view over the city. The gardens were nice too. We later went to Kinkaku, the gold-leaf colored building just above a reflecting pond with koi. It was pretty, but the building was a lot smaller than I’d realized and we weren’t allowed to touch it because, surprise, it was real gold leaf.

We wrapped up around noon, with our hotel and gathered our bags for travel back to Chiba. We reversed our trip by bus and Shinkansen and a regular train and finally back to buses at the station in Chiba. I walked Saki back to her house and wished her a good night before returning home. We’re in the same neighborhood. Komachi was glad to see me before sundown, and I joined her for dinner and told some stories about the trip, and pictures of the various monuments.

“So, Saki huh?” she teased.

“She’s very cute. I also had some moments with Yukino. Did you know she paid for my leg? And how much it cost?”

“How much?”

“Almost six million. Yen or dollars I don’t know. She wouldn’t say. Her family paid the bill.”

“Mom had words with her mom and it was settled,” Komachi said, utterly serious. I was surprised.

“Huh. Did they know each other before?”

“They went to Soubu together. Fought over the same boy. Mom told me.”

“Does Dad know?” I asked.

“Of course. He said he won that contest.”

“Weird. Small world. I’m going to bed. Thanks for keeping the house safe without me for a few days,” said, hugging my sister. She hugged me back.

“That was worth a lot of Hachiman points!” I teased her, heading for the stairs over her protestation.

I slept well that night.