Chapter Nine: Tomishiro's Return

Mitsako called everyone to dinner. They were discussing the last video they had watched. "Wow that was some beautiful land that you guys were riding through. Is that a park?" Saiya asked. "No, that land belongs to the family. Jackie lives there. It's the family's ranch that lays just outside of the Cherokee reservation" Mina said with a laugh. Kikki leaned forward. "Did you grow up there all your life? What's the weather like?" she asked. "The weather can be brutal at times. During the summer it can hit an easy one hundred and ten and the winter can be as low as ten below zero in Farenheit measure" Komiko answered. "We actually did grow up close to each other. A couple of years ago, Komiko's dad got transferred to San Diego and Mina's family moved to New York City. We try to keep in touch by phone or the internet when possible. We were trying to set up a family reunion for next year when this competition came up. So here we are the three of the four Musketeers" Jackie said grinning. "Three? Who's the fourth?" Uncle asked. In unison all three responded, "Jet!", and broke out into laughter.

Afterwards Komiko helped Saiya clean up the dishes and Mina went to closed up the bedroom, as it had started raining again. Mina met up with the other two in the bedroom where Jackie was using. "Hey, what's up?" she asked when she entered. "You're not going to believe this, but Uncle's whole first name is Shinonome. When I told Jackie this she started to giggle. I asked her why she was giggling and she told me about her gay tattooist friend. He had sent her some yaoi anime and this is one of them. We were about to watch it when you came in" Komiko said. They all sat on the bed and watched the video. "Oh, that was funny and sweet at the same time but now when I think about Uncle's name, I may start to giggle" Mina stated. "You know that one of Uncle's son's is gay. What if he told Uncle about this story and that's why he shortened his name to Shin?. I don't want to embarrass him, so I think we had best keep calling him uncle Shin or just Uncle. Agreed?" Jackie said and the other two agreed with her to keep it to themselves. They watched a few more videos and started growing bored.

They left the room and entered the dojo. All three stopped and looked around and nodded. They started cleaning the dojo from the rafters to the floor. As they were just about finished, Uncle came in. They stood up and bowed to him in honor. He smiled and bowed back at their show of respect. "Proper respect from you three is a very welcome change, unlike that brat, Kirrin. Thank you" he said, smiling at them. "It is proper respect that we will always show you as our Uncle, elder and as our Sensei. It is as we will show our respect to our ancestors as well" Komiko said. The three women turned and knelt before a wall of drawings, paintings and photos of all the past heads of the family. They then touched their heads to the floor in the most ancient and respectful display. Uncle Shin lit three joss sticks and joined the girls in their how. They stood up and Uncle looked around at all the work they had done. "You three have done a splendid job of cleaning the dojo without being asked, thank you. Could I ask one more favor of you?" he asked and at their nod, he continued, "Help me pull out the equipment from this closet, clean them up and put them into their proper places. Please be careful though. Some of them are quite old and still very sharp." He had explained as he opened a locked cabinet and threw open the doors. There were weapons and uniforms just thrown in there.

They started pulling everything out of the closet and placed them all into some old sheets Uncle had placed on the floor. As Mina and Komiko set about sorting the equipment, uniforms and weapons into different piles, Jackie went back into the laundry room. She grabbed more rags, linseed oil, polish and a sharpening stone. Mina took the uniforms to the laundry room and sorted the laundry for washing, colors from whites. She loaded the two big washing machines and started them up. Mina went back to the dojo.

Jackie was working on a pile of swords when she came across a very long sword in its scabbard. It was very heavy, caked in layers of dust and grime. By the weight, Jackie knew the sword was very old. She used some soft towelling to wipe most of the grime off of it and found a beautifully enameled and inlaid scabbard. It had been artfully wrapped in gold silk braid which had deteriorated from the passage of time and was falling off. Jackie went to work carefully with the linseed oil until it gleamed under the lights. It had made her sad to see the neglected condition at first but she grew excited as the true beauty was revealed. She finished with the scabbard and moved on to the hilt. As she wiped away the layers of dust she saw the gleam of gold and the shine of jewels. "Oh my! A real honest to goodness Bushido! I can't believe it!" she exclaimed as she reverently held up the ancient sword. Jackie slowly and carefully slid the blade from its scabbard. The blade had very little rust on it and was still extremely sharp. She noted a slight discoloration on the blade and some blackened flakes. She realized the blackened flakes were very old dried blood. She wiped it down carefully and gave it a light coating of oil to protect the blade. "Uncle, where did this come from?" Jackie asked. He came over and sat down next to her. He took the sword out of her hands and looked at it in pride. "Remember when I told you that our ancestors were noble Shoguns to the Emperor?" he asked and at her nod he continued, "This was the sword that he had earned, showing that honor and position. I didn't realize that it was in that closet this whole time. The last time I saw it, my brother had been playing with it until our father took it away from him. He punished Toji for using it like a toy. We are going to have to find a special place for it" he said. He fingered the braid and more of it came apart in his hands.

"This braid needs to be replaced though" he said. "Let me do it, Uncle. My grandmother taught us how to do the braiding and wrapping the right way. She had learned how to do it from great grandfather. I actually have a roll of gold silk braid with me that I made" she said taking the sword back and sipping it back into its beautiful scabbard. Uncle nodded as it seemed important to her, a way to honor her heritage. "You can work on it after your practice tomorrow or any other free time you have. Now, where should we place it?" he queried. Komiko snapped her fingers and announced, "I know the perfect place, right below the pictures of all our ancestors. Uncle smiled. They all walked over to the wall of ancestors. Just below the pictures was a shelf. It contained an incense burner, joss sticks and a rack containing several swords. It held three swords on four of the spaces. Uncle moved all the swords down one space each and placed the Bushido on the top, the place of honor. "It is where it properly belongs" Jackie said and bowed to the wall of ancestors. The other three followed her example and bowed to their ancestors. Uncle wrapped his arms around each one and placed a kiss on their foreheads. Mina left to go tend to the uniforms. She hung them up to dry. She was wiping tears off of her face when Kiki found her. "What's wrong? Did something happen?" she inquired. "No, nothing is wrong. These are tears of joy. I just now realized how big our family has become and how welcoming you all have been, except Kirrin. By the way, go take a look in the dojo." Mina said. Kiki went into the dojo and saw her father smiling with his arms around Komiko and Jackie's shoulders. She looked around and saw how the dojo gleamed and everything was in its proper place. She also noticed all the weapons were cleaned and sharpened too. She saw all the hard work that had been put into it and was only able to whisper an, "Oh wow." Her father had tears in his eyes as he said, "Good night girls. I know you all must be tired after all this hard work you have done. Get a good night's sleep and we'll see you bright and early in the morning." He walked out with Kiki.

"She's going to make our Tomishiro a good wife. You should have seen her excitement when she found the Bushido. We are going to have to teach them our history, both the good and the bad. We are also going to have to tell them about Shou and Han" Uncle said looking a bit sad. "If you're talking about them being gay, don't worry yourself. Jackie has two gay brothers and sister. And all her tattoos were done by a gay friend of hers" Kiki explained and smiled at the surprised look on her father's face. "They wouldn't have any qualms about Shou and Han's relationship. As a matter of fact, they are looking forward to meeting them." Uncle scratched his head. "I guess I'm still living in the past when it comes to their relationship. Goodnight daughter" he said, giving her a kiss on the top of her head. He headed into his room. "Did we just hear Uncle correctly? Did he just say 'our Tomishiro'? As in the Tomishiro from the plane is your brother?" Komiko asked quietly. Mina stood there stupified. "Yes we were asked to keep it a secret until he returns. He is handling business for his mother while she is away. His mother should be back any day now and then he will be coming back home" she whispered back. "That means that the room Jackie is staying in, is Tomishiro's room, I guess? Oh this could be quite fun when he returns, and just imagine if she's asleep when he arrives. The fireworks are going to fly" Komiko said rubbing her hands together. "What else does Tomishiro do?" Mina asked in curiosity. "He owns a night club with his brother Shou and Han and is half owners in a gym and recording studio with one of his friends from his school days. Shou and Han run the nightclub when Tomishiro is away" she explained to them as they went towards the girls' room. They didn't say anything more because of the looks they were getting from Kirrin.

Jackie decided to do the braided wrapping on the Bushido early the next morning. She bowed once again to the wall of ancestors. She gave the floors one quick wipe down before she put the cleaning supplies away and threw the rags into the washing machine. She took a shower to remove all the grime from her skin and hair. As she exited the bathroom, she saw Kirrin walking around the dojo in the dark, looking around. She was on her phone as usual, "Yes Poppa, these people are utter fools. They keep fawning over that so called 'Queen of the Cage' girl. She's just a giant freak and hasn't done much in the way of showing off her skills. She probably doesn't have any. Although she and the other two make great cleaning women. These people are so poor that they are pathetic. I can't wait to come home, I miss you and all our servants tending to my needs. I love you Poppa. Bye." she said and hung up. She ran her fingers over the Bushido. Kirrin left the dojo, never knowing that she had a very angry Jackie fuming over the conversation she had over-heard. "What nerve to call us cleaning women and me a freak when she's nothing but a stuck up midget!" Jackie tuned, "And her father is supposed to be dead, her mother is poor and she talks about having servants." Jackie came to one major conclusion, Kirrin wasn't whom she claimed to be. The lying bitch is a spy but from which family?

Early the next morning, Jackie got up before anyone else and replaced the gold braid on the Bushido. She placed the Bushido where it belonged the went to get ready for the day. She re-entered the dojo as the others arrived for their practice. They worked diligently all day with only breaks for meals and water. Kirrin acted like this was all beneath her and kept complaining that no one was as good as her. Jackie just practiced some of her different forms outside. She didn't want to be anywhere near Kirrin or she was libel to snap and hurt her. After practice, they showered and had dinner. They all sat down in the living room after that for some tv time and then off to bed. Jackie went to bed but found that she couldn't sleep because she kept seeing two very different faces in her mind. One had her eyes bugging out of her head in fear of Jackie and the other one was grinning as he blew kisses at her, saying that she was his. Fed up with her overactive imagination, Jackie got out of bed, brushed her hair forward. She tied it off about three quarters of the way down and trimmed her hair. She dropped the cut off part into the waste basket by the outside door.

Jackie grabbed her mp4 and headphones then walked outside into the pouring rain. She put in her headphones and cranked up the volume, putting on her heaviest hard rock music and stood there for a moment longer before she put herself through a brutal set of moves. It was helping to get rid of the tension and rage that had built up over the past several months and especially the last few days. Jackie kept it up for fifteen minutes, then she felt as if she was not alone any longer, as if someone has been watching her from the shadows. He stepped out of the shadows, smiling. It was Tomishiro.

Tomishiro had finally caught a break when his mother had returned from her trip. He explained the details of what the one client he had been working with wanted, told her about the competition. He then told her about Jackie and her cousins being a part of the competition and that he had to get back home. He left shortly thereafter on his motorcycle. He rode his bike all evening and continued even after it started raining. Tomishiro arrived back home right around midnight. He walked around the outside so as to not disturb the people sleeping inside or get the floors wet. He continued around to his bedroom. He stopped when he saw the light was on in his room. Tomishiro placed his bag down quietly on the porch and staying in the shadows, approached his room. He looked in through a window that was partially open and saw Jackie trying to relax on the bed but her eyes were open. She suddenly got up, cut her hair and grabbed an mp4 and headphones and came outside. He melted deeper into the heavy shadows around him as he continued to watch her as she worked through whatever was bothering her. He guessed that he was one of the problems. He was going to add to it in a short while. He smiled as he watched her. Here was the amazingly wild beauty that had first hooked his attention six years ago. He slowly stepped out of the deeper shadows where he had been hiding and waited for her to notice him.