Chapter 8

Chapter 8

JGSDF Camp Fuji, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 7, 2013

1:21 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

“Ichigo, what happened?"

I was unable to answer my Father in law's question, nor even look him in the eye as he asked me that. Instead I just stared down at the floor tiles of this sterile hospital room, dragged down by the feelings of guilt over Kurumi's current medical situation.

"Why is my daughter and granddaughter lying here – "

“Stop it Kentaro,” Magdalena, my Mother in law, interrupted Kentaro. “You sound like you're about to blame him for their injuries.”

“I can't? He took responsibility for Kurumi and Ao, remember? Ichigo, say something. What are my daughter and granddaughter laying in bed for? And what's with the cast on my granddaughter's left shoulder?" Kentaro suddenly hissed at me.

I took a deep breath and reported their ailments, at sufficient pace that Magdalena and Kentaro won't have time to interrupt the litany in mid-way.

"Kurumi is comatose from repeated blows to the head, that's why she has an IV drip attached to her arm. And Ao has cracked ribs and broken bones in her left shoulder from being hit by a motorcyclist who immediately drove away from the scene, which is why she has to take painkilling drugs for weeks and is currently sleeping off the latest dose."

"See?" Kentaro said to Magdalena.

“Mr. Ikeda, Ichigo isn’t guilty of negligence. My son did everything he possibly could to protect your daughter and our grandchild,” Mom protested.

“And yet Kurumi and Ao are here, Yuki. Laying unconscious on hospital beds.”

“Kurumi was with Ao when the accident happened, not Ichigo. He was home at the time.”

Kentaro went silent upon hearing those words from Mom. And then Mom suddenly followed up with something unexpected.

“Magdalena, stop. I’m not blaming Kurumi for the accident. My daughter in law was simply not in the right place to stop the motorcyclist or the thief who made Ao run after him.”

I finally looked up from the floor, to look at everyone else.

In front of me was Ikeda Kentaro, Kurumi’s dad. He was a stout, short, middle aged man with a well groomed walrus like mustache who always wore dark colored clothes. Currently dressed in a blue jacket, with black shirt and pants, he was looking at Mom with a stunned expression.

Standing beside him was his wife, Ikeda Magdalena. She was a beautiful, light brown skinned Filipino in her late thirties who was most notable for her mid-back length straight hair, tasty Filipino dishes, and for being as outspoken and combative as she was shorter than her already short husband. Wearing a floral patterned blouse, denim jeans and a jacket, she looked at Mom's direction with a very conflicted look on her face.

"Not that I'm complaining Yuki, but why are you calling Kurumi by name and referring to her as ‘daughter in law’? Weren’t you adamant on not doing any of that as recently as last week?"

Mom was beside me, the both of us sitting on plastic chairs by the foot of both Kurumi and Ao’s beds. The beds were placed beside each other by the helpful staff of JSDF Fuji Regional Hospital at both my and Dad’s request despite the fact that this room was supposed to only contain a bed and a toilet.

Mom was currently dressed in the same clothes as me, donated by Dad’s fellow JSDF members that he accepted by swallowing his pride. They were thin white shirts, patched up jeans, and cheap, white underwear. While Kurumi and Ao, clad in appropriately sized blue hospital gowns with no underwear and a plaster cast on the left shoulder in Ao's case, were both still asleep under thick, fluffy blankets that covered them up to their chests.

And as for why we were wearing donated clothes from other JSDF dependents, that was because other than the clothes we were wearing at the time everyone’s wardrobes was ruined with the house’s collapse. And the clothes we had on at the time, currently being dried at the hospital’s rooftop with the permission of the hospital administration, needed Kurumi’s skill with the needle before we can wear them.

"Remember the stories your daughter tells you about me every weekend night, Magdalena?" Mom asked as she adjusted a tight shirt that drew eyes to one of the two reasons why Kurumi still tries to bore a hole through Mom with her eyes when she thinks no one was looking.

“What about them?” Magdalena said in a guarded manner as she suddenly covered her husband’s eyes. It was quickly followed by Mom crossing her arms over her chest.

I silently looked at Mom, thinking hard on which story she might be referring to.

I’m keenly aware of those weekend night cellphone calls about daily life between Kurumi and Magdalena, because she does it in our bedroom on loudspeaker mode so that Ao and I can also participate in the conversation.

"Ever heard about the one when I told her what it would take for me to fully accept her as daughter in law?"

"No way," I instantly said to Mom with a glare.

"Bullshit," Magdalena growled in English. All of a sudden, Kentaro wrapped his arms around his wife's torso and held her tight.

Mom sighed and looked away from the both of us.

"I know that my dislike of Kurumi went into reprehensible territory upon saying those words. I just wanted to show Kurumi I will never accept her. And yet Kurumi came as close to death as possible nine days ago, for the sake of the Ohta family. With no hesitation whatsoever, from Ichigo’s recounting of that night’s events. Therefore I now accept her as my daughter in law, and will call her by name.”

I tried to be silent. Mom finally accepted Kurumi.

I should be silent. Because…

No. I can’t stay silent.

"This is what it took…Mom, do you recognize that telling someone who just gave birth to your first grandchild that you will accept them as family only after they die for us is wrong? Yes or no?" I asked Mom in a serious manner.

“...yes.”

“So, Mom…what are you going to do when Kurumi wakes up?"

I got an idea of how Mom was during her childhood, when her gaze turned towards the floor and she mumbled her answer.

"Say 'welcome back'."

"And what else will you do?" Magdalena asked, in the manner of a good teacher waiting for a slow learner to give the correct answer. Behind her, Kentaro looked at Mom with a hopeful face.

"…apologize. Say ‘sorry’ to Kurumi."

‘Yes! Finally! Thank you Mom!’

“That’s all?”

For a moment I was puzzled as to what Magdalena was waiting to hear from Mom. After all, Kurumi was finally going to receive an apology from Mom. The next instant I understood what was supposed to come next after one apologizes, and promptly started worrying.

“Yes. That’s all.”

I sighed and planted my face in my palm.

‘Mom, I love you. But sometimes you are just…argh.’

“Hey Yuki, you do know that you can’t make people feel obligated to forgive you just because you said ‘sorry,’ right?” Magdalena asked

“Are…are you implying I’m not sincere with my intention to reconcile with Kurumi?”

“Then why won’t you ask for my daughter’s forgiveness? I’m not demanding you grovel in front of Kurumi to beg for it.”

It took a few seconds for Mom to respond. During that time she kept her eyes shut while thinking deeply about Magdalena’s question.

“I can’t say it,” Mom finally replied. “We’ll just get into a fight, and then we would be thrown out of the hospital by the nurses and doctors.”

“I don’t want that to happen.”

I twisted around in my seat to see Ao awake and smiling cutely at us, the visual effect enhanced by the white, fluffy blanket that Ao somehow dragged all the way up to her chin without anyone noticing.

As Mom and Magdalena garbled their words by saying something at the same time, I made my way down the narrow space between Kurumi and Ao’s beds to get near her.

“How long were you listening in on us?” I asked with a smile once I got beside her.

“Uhm...ever since Lolo and Lola came into the room,” she replied, using the Filipino words that Magdalena taught her to distinguish between my parents and Kurumi's parents.

The room fell silent at her words.

On my part, I was aghast that my daughter now knows about Mom’s…reprehensible words towards Kurumi.

"Did I do something bad?" Ao asked as she looked from me to Mom and the in laws, and back again with worry written all over her face.

"No. No, you did nothing wrong Ao. We're just…talking about serious stuff. Isn’t that right Mom? Mother, Father?"

I looked back to see three adults unwilling to look my daughter in the eyes for reasons that only they know of. I quickly turned back to Ao and tried to spare them from more embarrassment.

“Serious stuff. Trust me,” I said while trying to give off an approximation of a confident person’s smile.

For the next few moments Ao looked me straight in the eyes, with a cute pout on her face. And then all of a sudden she asked me, Mom, Kentaro and Magdalena to listen to her. After she had all four of us looking at her, Ao started talking.

“Lolo, Papa and Mama are not at fault for me getting in an accident. It is because of that bad driver. They wanted to hit me.”

“...how can you tell that Ao?” Kentaro asked in a disbelieving manner.

“Because I already moved out of his way, but the bad driver followed me until they hit me.”

I felt an overwhelming urge to beat someone to death when I heard that, but it quickly faded into frustration when I realized I had no other information on said bastard.

“So Lolo, are you still going to blame Papa or Mama?”

“No. I promise I won’t do that.”

“Thank you Lolo. And Grandma...”

Ao’s voice trailed off as she looked at Mom. Mom, on her part, stared back at her granddaughter.

“Grandma, if I talk with Mama before you say sorry, can you ask Mama to forgive you?”

“Ao, if you’re going to do what I think you’re going to do, please stop. That is unfair to Kurumi,” Magdalena gently scolded Ao.

“Unfair to Mama?” My daughter replied in a genuinely confused manner. “How is making Mama and Grandma finally become friends unfair to Mama?”

Before Magdalena managed to say anything, Mom suddenly barged into what I felt was a burgeoning argument.

“Everyone stop! Look...all I ask is that everyone gives me some time to mentally adjust, because I had spent so much time being antagonistic against Kurumi. I promise that when I had finally adjusted my mind, I’ll apologize and ask for Kurumi’s forgiveness...not that I expect to get that after all this time.”

As Mom sighed with closed eyes while rubbing her forehead, I exchanged glances with Ao, Magdalena and Kentaro.

Everyone of us hid our smiles anyway we can, because we know something that Mom still doesn’t know about Kurumi because of her antagonism.

My wife is an easily forgiving person.

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JGSDF Camp Fuji, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 7, 2013

2:13 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

“What was that earlier?” Kentaro hissed from the opposite side of the cafeteria table, while stirring his cup of instant noodles.

“You don’t believe Ao?” I asked after finishing my own cup of noodles, paid for by my father in law.

“Magical aliens? Talking rats? A college graduate, doctor inari?”

I nodded to concede the point.

If I hadn't experienced the events alongside my daughter and my wife I would also be hard pressed to believe the story Ao just told, especially when it was impossible to find corroborating proofs for it.

Dad and the rest of the Self Defense Forces personnel who survived the fight on the streets were unable to see the fight because of all the Lighteaters they were shooting and the translucent green magical barrier between us and them that disappeared when I killed that Lighteater. That was why all they could confirm was that I killed a Lighteater, that Kurumi saved me from death at almost the cost of her own, and that Krauncha was some kind of immortal being when his floating ashes compacted back into a human body and he asked them if they wanted an explanation for everything that happened this night.

Based from the newspapers that were delivered daily to the hospital lobby, the traditional media could only confirm that a barrier suddenly sprung up into being, that a battle took place in Matsumoto, and that beams and balls of light that instantly sets people on fire and melted metals on impact were coming out of it.

And the government won't confirm anything, if the seclusion that I and my family had been placed under was any indication...

"How did you two find us?" I asked.

Kentaro swallowed the mouthful of noodles he had just chewed on before answering me.

"I asked some of my clients for help.”

I blinked, puzzled by his answer.

"Father, weren't your clients small family owned stores and professionals with few customers?"

Kentaro, a graduate of Hokkaido's Kushiro Public University of Economics, owned a small and independent accounting firm that he established the same year Kurumi was born. The firm's only employees were Magdalena, who serves as his secretary up to this day, and a team of two or three CPA exam passers that changes every two or three years because the exam passers were only after the minimum practical experience needed to be registered as a CPA.

Nothing about that job description would give him the clients with the resources to track us down.

Kentaro grinned smugly at me.

"So Kurumi never told you what the professionals among my clientele exactly did for a living, did she?"

“She said that was confidential information, but that they were all in legal jobs.”

An idea suddenly came to mind.

"Your clients are private investigators, aren’t they?"

Kentaro shrugged and started finishing his noodles, the smug smile never going away from his face.

In my mind, finding us this quickly in the face of a possible government cover up made sense if Kentaro had several private investigators to ask for help from. At the same time my respect for him rose up.

“If your clients had few customers because they were the less skilled ones, then you must have had a horde of private investigators looking for us to get answers within days.”

Kentaro blinked and then drank down a glassful of water.

“It’s the other way around kid,” he said after putting the glass back on the table. “My clientele is a horde of small family stores and a few professionals who are very highly paid for each job they take.”

That didn’t make a difference in how I looked at him. Kentaro must be doing something right to get that many clients for a small accounting firm in a city like Yokohama.

“Can we now stop talking about my clients? That is confidential information."

Upon seeing me nod, Kentaro continued talking.

"Now Ichigo, is everything my granddaughter said earlier real?”

"As real as you and me, Father. I just can't think of any way to prove it."

"How about letting me meet one of these inari you were talking about?"

My memories were jolted by Kentaro's words.

That night, everyone who was wounded inside our house was loaded up in four different ambulances. I rode with Kurumi, Mom rode with Ao, and the twins...were loaded into two separate ambulances that followed after us. Dad had stayed behind to see to his men, since he was the most senior officer around at the time.

The next day, while I was taking a nap to compensate for the sleepless night I just had, Dad woke me up. With him in the room was Colonel Kanda, commander of the 13th infantry regiment, and a pretty flustered looking doctor.

I was then promptly informed we were to transfer hospitals to here at Camp Fuji, via helicopter. And if I remember the details of that morning right...there was a second helicopter landing on the helipad when the helicopter we were in was racing away to the south east.

"Father, I'm going to check something with the hospital lobby."

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I was right. Moe and Ran were in the same hospital as us. Not only that, they were in the room directly above ours.

After I thanked the nurse at the reception, I led Kentaro onto the third floor to meet the inari that saved us and prove that my daughter was telling the truth. However, what we saw on that floor stopped us in our tracks.

A waist high barricade of sand bags blocked the stair landing to the third floor. Behind it stood a sweaty and stern faced member of the Self Defense Forces Military Police, easily recognized by the big, black armband with ‘MP’ in white font and the white colored helmet that he wore.

He had his right hand wrapped around the handle of his PM-9 submachine gun and was staring down the stairs, while behind him another Military Police member stood in pretty much the same pose, only he wasn’t facing the stairs but down the hallway where Ran and Moe’s room was located.

"I'm sorry. You two can't proceed any further," the stern faced man said to us while raising his left hand to us with a stop sign.

“Why can’t we?” Kentaro challenged him.

“Father, I'm sure that's because of his orders. I’ll just ask Dad when he comes back, ok?” I intervened, wanting to keep my father in law out of jail because of refusal to follow the instructions of the Military Police.

All of a sudden the MP who was facing down the hallway stiffened to attention, saluted, and yelled 'sir.'

The one who was facing us also stiffened his back, but in an act that I would approve of when there wasn't the threat of me being shot at, he never took his eyes off us nor removed his fingers from his gun.

"What's going on here?" someone asked as they walked into view.

It was a skew eyed, thin Major with a confident bearing. A look at his unit insignia –

I froze up when I saw the Yatagarasu and the English words spelling ‘Military Intelligence Command.’

“Sir, these two civilians just walked up the stairs,” the private who faced us replied.

“Civilians, you say?”

The Major stepped aside to let a group of other people look on us.

There were two or three men in nondescript suits, someone in police uniform, someone from the Air Self Defense Forces, the Maritime Self Defense Forces, and finally a Colonel of the JGSDF’s Military Intelligence Command

Judging from the presence of Military Intelligence Command members, I was looking at a group of representatives from pretty much every intelligence agency the Japanese government had.

“Wah! It’s Mr. ‘Call me James Bond!’”

Everyone’s eyes zeroed in on Kentaro, who had this genuinely happy look on his face.

“Congrats, Suzumoto. You...kind of got your childhood dream? Military Intelligence counts as a spy, right?”

"Y – yes," the man Kentaro identified as Suzumoto instantly choked out in an embarrassed manner as his colleagues, all higher ranking than him, tried their hardest from grinning at the scene. "Pardon, but who are you?"

"You forgot me, ‘James Bond’? We were schoolmates until junior high. I even had a famous nickname at school."

Major Suzumoto stared at Kentaro for a few moments before his eyes glittered with the light of realization.

"'Fat Ainu!' Is that you Ikeda – "

The moment Suzumoto said Kentaro's surname a cold wall of professionalism slammed down on his face.

"You're the father of Ikeda Kurumi," he finished in a deadpan.

"Uh, yeah. Small world, right?" Kentaro said with a shrug.

The moment he admitted that, the Colonel from MIC and his colleagues lost their grins and replaced it with professionalism.

"How...how did you even get here?" Suzumoto asked.

Before I was able to think of the implications of those words, Kentaro replied in a sheepish way.

"The kind government official who got me and my wife inside here made me memorize a message to...well...in her words 'the top soldier in charge.' Here goes."

Kentaro coughed once, and then continued.

"We never tell you how to point your guns, or how to drive your tanks and ships. In turn, don't transfer patients from one hospital to another without our permission. That's the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's turf."

It took several moments of stunned silence before the recipients reacted, and it wasn't what I expected.

"I believe I speak for the National Police Agency when I say we're not getting involved in this," the policeman said while stepping away from his colleagues with two raised hands.

"And we're only one branch of the Ministry of Justice. You guys are on your own," one of the men in suits informed everyone with a grin as he stepped away from the Self Defense Forces members.

"Naicho," another one of the suits said in a singsong manner before joining his colleague from Justice. That left one man in suit, the JASDF and JMSDF officer, and the Colonel from the MIC, all of them slack jawed and their skin slowly flushing red with the message they just received.

On the side, the two JGSDF privates and Major Suzumoto tried their very best to become one with the wall.

"So, uh, now that I sent the message, can I go thank the two girls who helped save my daughter?"

"No," the Colonel instantly replied to Kentaro's question. "Major!"

Even as Suzumoto stepped forward and replied with a very professional bearing, I somehow felt from him the sentiment of one who was begging for mercy.

"If this man tries to enter the third floor, you are to escort him out of the hospital! Understood?!"

"Sir yes sir!"

The Colonel then rudely shoved Kentaro out of his way and stomped downstairs, quickly followed by the last suited man and the JASDF and JMSDF officers.

Kentaro stared at the man's back until we can't see him and his companions anymore. When that happened, he turned towards Suzumoto, who remained in his military posture, and the remaining spies, whose mouths were twitching at what they just saw.

"I met Yakuza who were more mature than that," Kentaro commented snidely. That turned their smiles into outright laughter.

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JGSDF Fuji Regional Hospital, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 7, 2013

2:40 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

“Suzumoto, not that I don’t want to catch up with you, but why are you tagging along?” Kentaro asked Major Suzumoto as we walked down the hallway towards the room of my wife and daughter.

“You heard the Colonel’s orders. I can’t let you step on the third floor.”

As Kentaro grumbled about immature professionals and Suzumoto chuckled at his antics, I trudged along right behind them, my mind bothered by what the spies had told us earlier.

After their laughter had faded away Kentaro asked their permission to meet Ran and Moe, probably because he thought these guys liked him. To his surprise, and my dismay and guilt, the spies gently told him he can’t meet with the twins any time soon because they had just delivered to the twins the sad news that their mother’s body had been found among the rubble yesterday morning.

I blanked out after that, and only came to when Kentaro shook me by the shoulder and asked if I was alright or not. After mumbling something along the lines of it was my fault, I was suddenly subjected to a lengthy pep talk by none other than Major Suzumoto and the spy in police uniform.

The talk helped. From feeling guilt at causing someone’s mother to die, I’m now thinking of how to help the twins move on from this tragedy that might be partially blamed on us.

"Well, we're here," Kentaro announced once we had reached our destination. "Before we enter, Suzumoto can we pretend we met at the cafeteria and not when I embarrassed some high ranking military men?"

"Oh? Are you afraid of something?" Suzumoto ribbed Kentaro with a grin on his face.

"Bad things happen when my wife feels threatened," Kentaro said with a shiver.

When I saw that Suzumoto was about to tease Kentaro for his well founded fear, I tried to tell him how serious Kentaro’s words were.

"Mr. Suzumoto, Mrs. Ikeda is an expert at creating innocuous looking improvised weapons from ordinary household objects."

Kentaro joined me in emphasizing the seriousness with which a threatened, paranoid Magdalena should be taken with.

“Our mops could be used as spears, the brooms are improvised kanabo, there were arm length wooden sticks in every single room in the house, and worst of all are her stashes of soy sauce bottles filled with water and chopped ginkgo leaves and seeds.”

“Ginkgo?” I asked Kentaro. “What can you do with Ginkgo Father?”

“Use it as an improvised chemical weapon. Ginkgo plants contain chemicals that are extremely identical to the chemicals from the Japanese Lacquer Tree.”

“Does it work as intended?” Suzumoto asked.

“Well, yes. We rushed Magdalena to the family doctor when a few drops spattered on her arm gave her rashes all over said arm within minutes.”

I winced at the image, and stopped wondering why Magdalena never said anything about that during the weekend talks. Not when a self induced accident would make Kurumi scold her over the cellphone.

“Ok, ok. I get it. Dangerous woman, don’t make her feel threatened,” Suzumoto conceded with a disbelieving look on his face aimed towards Kentaro.

“Thanks Suzumoto,” Kentaro said as he twisted the doorknob and opened the door –

“What the hell?” Kentaro said one moment as the voice of Magdalena praying emanated from the door. The other he was sprawled on the floor, pushed there by Suzumoto who aimed an M9 pistol into the room.

“Don’t move!”