Onee-San (Big Sister)

The flight had been unbelievably long and nerve racking. He was here, in America, with hardly any plan other than find Rui. He really wish he would have taken up Hinas offer to help him learn more English, he only knew enough phrases to just get by. Still, he was here, where Rui was. His Rui, he realized. He hoped she still thought of him as her Natsuo. He nearly panicked when he realized he'd arranged zero transport and didn't have the slightest idea of where to go, New York City was unbelievably big with so many people. How was he ever going to find her!, but he decided he'd worry about that after he received his bags from baggage claim, and upon completion he noticed a fancy looking older driver holding a sign that read "Natsuo Fuji" he wondered if Kirihara set this up. He quickly showed the driver proof of his identity who simply nodded and beckoned for Natsuo to follow, so he did. He was dumbfounded to find he'd been hired a limo driver, Kirihara must have really wanted this story to be phenomenal. The driver, who's name was Charles, spoke in basic Japanese, "only the best from Kirihara, for a bright young author."

It dawned on him as they walked and his book of all things was in the book store, on a news shelf, and in other locations. His book must of had received an English print, and sold exceedingly well. On one hand he was excited, but then he realized he never even asked about being paid! Well, problems for later. Charles opened the rear limo door for him and after a bit of navigating traffic and driving, they were parked outside of a Hotel. Charles told him he'd been booked to be his personal chauffeur for the next month at minimum, and would take him and wait for him wherever he went, with a smile. With time to consider it, the man was probably between 50 and 60, but his hair was white and he had a sandy beard and a warm smile. He eerily looked like American depictions of Santa Clause which made Natsuo blush. He wondered where they'd stopped, which Charles seems to pick up on and said "this is a hotel with a famous restaurant . Kirihara said you'd probably want to come here first, but didn't say why. Do we need to book you a room?" Natsuo pondered all the information he'd been given, and realized that this could very well be where Rui is learning her cooking , and opened his mouth to say "no let's... let's just sit outside and watch for a few hours. I think I may be waiting for someone." Charles merely nodded and went to grab a book from his glove compartment, and took to the task of reading.

Natsuo has his eyes peeled on the entrance, when a few hours later, finally he saw her and his heart dropped. Rui...

She'd kept her hair short, and this was undoubtedly his love, and without really thinking he exited the limo which seemed to startle Charles as he dropped his book and began to shuffle, but too late. He'd exited the limo and began to approach the building when he realized maybe this wasn't the best laid plan. He was quickly stopped by a few people he'd guessed were around his age speaking stuff in English while one got out her book, which he realized was a copy of his novel, and before long a big crowd of people had swarmed him asking questions or trying to figure out what the fuss was about. He scanned the crowd for Rui but realized she hadn't fallen victim to curiosity, or she'd noticed it was him and fled which filled him with sadness. After a few minutes of being shoved ,talked at, poked and prodded, he heard a loud whistle and hotel security had dispersed the crowd, and upon conferring with Charles they whisked him inside to the receptionist.

"Novelist Natsuo Fuji, yes?" Were the words he picked up in English from the girl, so he nodded. She handed him a key and said "the hotel owners daughter absolutely loved your book, and when he learned you would be staying with his he spared no expense to give you a suite." He'd heard all of this in Japanese as they had a translator recite it to him, which was a blessing. The translator shook his hand and said her name was Kimmy, and she'd been tasked with handling communication for him while at the hotel and arranging affairs.

Feeling quite sad he'd missed Rui leaving and unsure of what else to do, he requested to go to his room and was shown the way.

Room, suite, whatever word has been used to describe the sheer expanse of a living space in front of him was not adequate enough. Here alone he had more space then they did in their entire house for 5 in Japan and it was quite overwhelming. This entire journey had been just that honestly. Just the other day he'd been preparing for a play with drama club... "the club, school, Hina, Miyabi, oh god I'm an idiot!" He shouted to no one in particular. He hasn't even looked at his phone once since arriving in America and looked down to a bombardment of missed calls, messages, and notifications on line. He melted away for a moment before mentally jotting down who would be the most important to contact immediately. Hina, probably, as she was going to cover for him... after that his parents obviously but he needed to come up with a pretty sufficient lie to explain why he was in America. He supposed Miyabi and the club president deserved some sort of call, to explain things at least a bit more properly. Sighing, he decided he'd contact Hina, let her know he was somewhat situated, and then before it got to late he'd go explore a bit before contacting anyone else.

"Here goes," he quietly said to himself before calling Hina. After 2 rings, she answered with "are you okay?!" And he began to explain his journey. After he'd finished she said "wow you already saw her... and my gosh Kirihara really has deep connections huh! I'll contact your editor about payment for your book having that success in America, so you'll have ample money, and it's lucky the owner was so amendable. Send me pictures okay? And let me know when you find her! And... and... uh be careful." All of this caught Natsuo offguard, Hina was more then ever acting like, well, a big sister would which made him smile. Then he blushed a bit and said "what's weirder, dating your brother or actively trying to get your siblings back together." She shouted "whaaaa- well... both are weird if you don't know our family. Both make perfect sense if you know us though. Make things work Natsuo, okay?" He was crying and said "yeah, I promise I will... Big sister." And got off the phone.