Fan Fiction ❯ Phantom ❯ A Fixer Upper ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

“This is it?! This dump is what we moved to the city for?!” Yukishiro stared in disbelief at the ruins of the dojo and house that sat inside what was once a white wall, now brown stained and crumbling at the top. Inside the grounds were overgrown, weeds pushing up all along the perimeter of the fence and around the house and outbuildings. A huge old tree towered above the place casting a shadow over the house adding to the gloomy effect. The house itself was in desperate need of repair, the shoji doors splintered and open revealing the dirty, dusty interior. The walls were filthy; the roof patched with holes and as the walked across the porch and stepped inside rotten patches in the ancient tatamis completed the look of total disarray. Yukishiro looked at his father, Hiroshi, like he was mad, his mother, Yuri, behind them was quiet her dismay apparent in her face. Planting his hands on his hips Hiroshi Takashi surveyed their new home in silence for a long moment listening to his son whine about the mess, the work to be done, the lack of air conditioning and modern amenities and the color of the sky. He’d known it would be hard on Yukishiro to leave his friends behind in Osaka but he hadn’t wanted to pass up the promotion that would give him a raise and better benefits. The manager of the company he worked for had assured him they had the perfect place for them. “It’s a bit of a fixer upper, Hiroshi-san but it’s in a good location, in a quiet neighborhood by the river. I think it was a dojo at some point, doesn’t your son enjoy that sort of thing?” Hiroshi looked at his wife who was trying her hardest not to wring her hands. Yuri was a perfectionist and no doubt the chaos around them was making her itch to set it right. Yukishiro was still complaining about the lack of electricity when Hiroshi looked at him. His son was like him tall for his age, around 5’8 and slender the muscles he had from his years of kendo were subtle. He had his own black hair cut in a modern style; a mix of short and long layers cut around his ears and above the collar of his shirt the bangs falling into his soft hazel eyes. He had inherited his eyes from his mother as well as his shapely nose and pretty mouth. His temper and impatience for things to go right were Hiroshi’s mark on the boy’s personality and Hiroshi felt his lip twitch in a smile as he watched his son’s disgusted expression as he surveyed the room. Now if only children came with a mute button. He put a hand on his seventeen year old son’s shoulder and looked at him. “Ok so it needs some work. Isn’t this what you always wanted though? You will have your very own dojo to practice in, your mother will have plenty of room for that flower garden she’s always wanted and I can turn one of those buildings out back into a workshop. This can be the home of our dreams. So what if it looks like a nuclear bomb hit it right now? Imagine it in two years after we’ve fixed it up. It’ll be great, you’ll see.”With that Hiroshi turned and walked back out the door stumbling as his foot went through the floor just outside the door. Laughing he pulled his foot free and went to talk to the men in the moving van. Yukishiro looked to his mother who was still staring in bewildered dismay at the house. “It’s happened. The old man finally fell off his rocker.” He said.Yuri, who was a good deal shorter than her husband and son at only 5’3, turned her soft hazel eyes on him and lifted a hand to touch her neatly coiled bun at the back of her head. “Your father just wants us to be happy, Yuki-chan.” She said softly. “This new job means a lot to him and with more money and better benefits........you’ll see we’ll be happy here.”Yukishiro snorted and shook his head. “Like I have a choice.” He grumbled and walked off outside leaving his mother to wring her hands in private. Outside the moving men were unloading their belongings into a storage shed for the night. Hiroshi met his son halfway with a big smile. “Let’s get started shall we? I’m going to run down the road for some supplies to get to work with, why don’t you and your mother open the windows up and sweep out the place and see if that makes a difference, ok?” Yukishiro nodded mutely refusing to pretend he was at all happy. When his father was out of sight he turned and went back inside to find his mother, having already snagged her apron, gloves and hair kerchief from the car, hard at work ripping up the rotten tatamis. Yukishiro sighed and moved to help her.