Chapter XLVI.

'You're home early today!' Natsui Mizoroge's mother exclaimed at her, in astonishment, when she saw the ginger-haired girl enter the door of the apartment.

'Yes! In fact, I didn't go to work at the hotel today. And I left the pizzeria earlier than usual!' the teenaged girl replied, and closing the door behind her very quickly, she ran up to her mother, excitedly, to announce to her, 'In fact, I've been visiting an apartment! Okā-san, I have a great news for you! Today, I have received a phone call! We have obtained an apartment and that for free! The owner does not live in Japan. He doesn't want any rent; he simply wants someone to live at his house and take care of it, so that it doesn't remain abandoned!'

'What?!' the woman gasped.

'Yes, Okā-san, can you believe it?! No rent! We only have to pay for the utilities! The owner does not intend to return to Japan any time soon. And if he ever will, he already owns several other apartments! We can live there for as long as we want, until we buy our own house!'

'But- But, we cannot shift out like this! We have no idea what kind of place it is! And how about the area! We are a woman and girl! We can't live just anywhere!'

'I told you! I've already visited the apartment! It is small, but suitable for two persons. It is situated on the upper floor of a building. Beneath it, is a commercial emplacement, that has remained closed for years. In fact, both the apartment and the emplacement belongs to the same owner. He doesn't have the intention to let the emplacement for the time being. As to the area, it's not infamous or anything!'

'How about the cost for transporting our things there? We can't shift just like that! We need money for that!'

Grabbing her mother's hands, she exclaimed, cheerily, 'Oh, Okā-san! You don't have to worry about that either! I've already taken care of it. I've already found us a truck! I've saved enough money to pay for the transportation, as well as any other expenses we might need to make in regards to the apartment! We have to hurry up and pack our things! We're shifting tomorrow itself!'

'To- Tomorrow?!'

'Yes! Fortunately, we don't have a lot of things! It's going to take us very little time to pack up. And if you're too tired tonight, it's okay! You can leave everything to me! I promise that I won't break anything while packing our things!'

'Natsui!' the woman uttered, pulling her hands away and averting his eyes.

It was only at that moment that the ginger-haired girl noticed her mother's expression.

'Okā-san, what is it? You don't look happy,' she breathed, her chest tightening. 'This is the moment we've been thriving for!'

'Natsui...' the woman said, turning half around, her jaws clenched, her expression agitated. 'I- I can't leave just like that! You're not my only child!'

The ginger-haired girl's heart shook.

'Okā-san, what are you talking about? It was the plan since the beginning, right? We had decided this together. If we never contacted the police, it's because we wanted to do things smoothly. We had decided that we would simply shift away.' Taking hold of the woman's hands again, Natsui made her sit on a chair, and getting down on her knees on the floor in front of her, she murmured, sincerely, 'Okā-san, I know that you are a mother and I understand your feelings. But you, too, you are a human being. You deserve to be happy. You deserve security and peace. And so, do I. We can't continue to live like this indefinitely! And it's not like we're leaving Hisashi in the lurch. He has a job. He can continue to live here. His girlfriend could move in with him. It'd be the occasion for him to stand on his own feet. We'll leave him almost everything. The rest, we're going to buy with the money I had kept to pay the advance.'

The woman looked at her in the eyes, her expression terrified now.

'How are we going to announce him the news? He's going to be furious!'

'I was thinking that it'd be better if we do not tell him that we're leaving because of him. We're going to tell him that you've lost your job and that you can't run the household anymore. One of my school friends has accepted to take us in her apartment and we're shifting with her. It's going to be hard. He will be angry, but we're going to have to be very courageous.' 

Swallowing the lump in her throat, the woman nodded.

'Let's take advantage of the fact that he's not home yet to start packing!' the ginger-haired told her, with a smile, after that, and the woman agreed.

***

A few hours later…

Mother and daughter were still in the midst of packing their things when, they heard several loud bangs on the door of the apartment and Hisashi Mizoroge shouting at them to open it.

The woman exchanged a fearful look with the ginger-haired girl, before she hurried to the door and opened it.

'How long does it take to turn the knob of a door, huh?!' the young man demanded. He was holding himself against the frame of the doorway.

Smacking his way past the woman, he made his way into the apartment and kicked his shoes off, before he took a look around of himself.

'What are all these boxes?' he muttered.

Closing the door, the woman hurried to Natsui's side, her hands and lips quivering with fear.

'Hisashi, I have lost my job,' she told him. 'You must be aware that I have never finished high school and therefore, it's going to be difficult for me to find myself another job. I can't run the household anymore. One of Natsui's school friend has accepted to lodge us for free in her tiny apartment, and therefore, she and I are shifting there tomorrow.'

'Huh? And what about me?!' he demanded, angrily. 'What do I do?'

'You don't have to go anywhere,' Natsui replied, softly. 'With your income, it won't be possible for you to take care of Okā-san and I, as well as run the household. But it's quite enough for you to live your life normally without us. You can continue to live here, not to forget that, you're not going to find yourself all alone; you have your girlfriend.'

'Are you kidding me?!' he snapped at her, and turning to their mother, he snarled, furiously, 'What kind of a mother, are you?! You give birth to a child and then you abandon him?! You're behaving exactly just like one of those bit**y women out there!'

The woman's eyes went wide at him, her heart shaking. 'Hisashi, you're not a kid anymore! You're a grown-up man!'

'It's so easy to escape your responsibilities! Because, that's what you're doing- escaping your responsibilities; there is no other way to view it! I won't be able to enjoy my income anymore! If you leave, I'll be forced to pay the rent of the apartment, all my bills, and fend for myself from there on! Live a piteous life! And do you even realize that if we're in such a situation, it is because of the wrong choices you've made in your life?! What kind of life did you expect us to have when you decided to have children with a loser like our father, huh?! I can accept that you wanted to bring me to this world, but, wasn't Natsui a little too much?!'

'Hisashi, your father was very kind to me when we had gotten married,' the woman sobbed. 'It is only many years after the two of you were born that he changed! I wanted to leave him, but no one from my family was ready to support me!'

'Well then, I understand very well why he had changed! You can make anyone lose their bearing! Including myself!' he asserted, with venom, his eyes bulging, and reaching out for the baseball bat standing against the wall of the genkan, he picked it up menacingly, stating, 'No! I'm not allowing you to leave! It's out of the question that I let you off that easily!'

Both Natsui and her mother took an involuntary step backward, their heart going wild with terror.

Everything happened very quickly after that.

Just as the young man started to surge at them, abruptly, the door of the apartment was kicked open by a man, who was armed with a gun.

Everyone froze in stupefaction.

The man was pointing his gun at Hisashi Mizoroge, and identifying himself as a member of the police force, he shouted at the young man to drop the baseball bat in his possession on the spot and to put his hands up in the air. 

Scared out of his wits at the sight of the gun, the latter immediately did as he was told, and the man hurried up to him to kick the bat off, and putting his gun away, he pinned the young man on the floor, twisting his arms behind his back to handcuff him, informing him that he's under arrest.

Neither Natsui nor her mother could believe it. Hisashi Mizoroge was an abusive person. But none of the two would have thought him capable of attempting to kill his own mother! And perhaps, Natsui along!

For a whole minute, they both remained petrified with shock, their mind going completely blank. When they came out of their trance-like state, the police officer had yanked the young man roughly to his feet and was reading him his rights.

'Stop!' the woman exclaimed. 'Don't arrest him!'

Both the man and Natsui looked at her face, astounded.

'I don't intend to file a complaint against him!' she declared.

'Ma'am! What he has done is a criminal offence-' 

'I won't testify against him, understood?!' she stated, firmly. 'Let him go!'

Natsui stared at her mother, her heart stirring.

Oh, Okā-san… You're too kind...

The ginger-haired girl was perfectly aware of what a criminal proceeding would entail for her brother. Hisashi's life might be destroyed forever. And she knew that the woman didn't want this for him, because she has the heart of a mother- the softest heart of all. This was why they had never tried to take help from the police before.

'Ma'am, I think that you're making a mistake!' the man told her, but she didn't change her position.

After a whole minute of indecision, the man gave in unhappily, and undid the young man's handcuffs, but only to grab him by the front of his T-shirt and shove him against the side wall to warn him, with a fierce look, 'If you ever try anything against them again, or even try to enter into contact with them, I swear on my honor of officer that I'll send you to jail! And if you think that jail is fun, let me inform you that you'll meet with real psychopaths over there! Just try me and you'll see!'

Hisashi Mizoroge fell to the ground as the man released him, but scrambling back to his feet rapidly, he ran out of the door of the apartment, dead scared.

Moving up to Natsui, the man gave her his card, asking her to call him immediately if she ever feels that either her mother or her is in danger at any point after this, after which, he left the small apartment, and that, even before the ginger-haired girl could think about asking him anything about his intervention. 

Looking at her mother then, Natsui saw the woman plump down on the floor to hold her face with her hands while she cried.

'Okā-san...' she murmured, her emotions in turmoil, and hurrying up to her, she got down onto her knees on the ground by her side to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

But the woman slapped her hand off her instantly, to shout, 'I've had enough! I've had enough of your brother and you! No matter what I do, you're never satisfied! Since I'm such a bad mother, I'm going to leave and go far away from the two of you!'

Natsui's heart skipped beat. 

Moving to in front of her, Natsui grabbed her by her shoulders, telling her, desperately, 'Okā-san, what are you saying?! Please, I beg of you, don't punish me for what Hisashi has said and done! We're leaving together tomorrow, right?!'

Slapping her girl's hands off her again and pushing her out of the way, the woman jumped to her feet, exclaiming, 'No! I don't want to live with either of you anymore! You're both on your own now!'

And on these words, she ran out of the apartment, sobbing harder, while Natsui remained petrified where she was, her whole world seeming to come down crashing on her.

Okā-san… Why are you punishing me like this? As of tomorrow, we were supposed to start a new life together… Far away from abuse… Where there would have been only love and tenderness!

***

In the morning…

Taking a glance at the reddish-brown-haired young man, where he was standing next to me on the pavement, I told him, very shyly, 'Shunsui, thank you for having accepted to give me my day off! And thank you for having proposed to help Natsui move in!'

Looking at me, he declared, 'Who told you that I've given you your day off? We're just going to spend the day at the ginger-haired girl's place, but you'll be cooking as usual! I have brought these!' 

Eh?!

He lifted the bags of food he was carrying in his hands to show them to me.

'You're going to cook us both lunch and dinner! I don't think Natsui or her mother will mind if you use their stove!' 

All color drained out of my face.

Is this the only reason why he has proposed to come and help them move in?!

Gōjun arrived at that moment, greeting us with a 'Yo!'

As we looked at the latter, we both noticed that his expression was not good. He always wore a stern look on his face, but today his expression was particularly execrable, and he had dark shadows forming under his eyes.

'Eh?! Was the night long?!' Shunsui asked him, with a teasing smile, sending his arm around his neck playfully. 'Could it be because of a girl?!'

'You've got it right!' Gōjun stated, testily. 'It's all her fault!'

He had turned his eyes onto me as he said that last part, his face scrunching up even further. 

I flinched. 

'M- Me?' I stammered, pointing at my nose with my forefinger. 

'Yes. It's all because of your cat! While you were sleeping tightly at your home, I was spending a white night with Kenren researching the internet about ways to educate that little monster! And like two big idiots, we tried everything that we read on the different websites, but evidently, it was all crap! Nothing worked! And in the end, I ended up falling asleep without realizing it with a guy and a cat in my bed! What are you going to do to bring me reparation, huh? Can you tell me?!'

He was pulling at one of my cheeks, peevishly, now, and I whimpered, 'Ow! Ow! Gōjun, it hurts!'

When he finally decided to release me, I rubbed my cheek with my hand, sniffling, tears having appeared in the corner of my eyes. 

What a delinquent! 

Not to forget that he calls his father by his forename!

'And you, can you tell me why you have called me here?' he barked at Shunsui, turning back to him. 'I should have been sleeping till late in the afternoon to recuperate some hours of sleep!'

'Oh, Gōjun, please, don't be so stone-hearted! It's Natsui- the friend of our Princess! We're only going to help her move a few furnitures!' Shunsui replied, with a conniving smile, his arm still around Gōjun's neck. 'And if you stay, there'll be Ebi Tempura for lunch today! And for dessert, Dango! As for dinner...'

He left his words hanging, but that was enough to bring water to Gōjun's mouth. The latter swallowed hard, before he turned his face away and raked his hand through his hair in frustration, giving in. 

Shunsui smiled, triumphantly. 

I gave the reddish-brown-haired young man a cynical look. What a devil! 

'Ne, ne, Gōjun...' I said, timidly, after a minute, 'How's Yamcha?!'

At this, he turned his eyes onto me again, to give me that same fierce look as before, causing me to flinch and break into cold sweat.

'Huh?!' he uttered. 'Don't talk about that cat with me!'

Humping my back, I closed my eyes and moaned to myself, dejectedly, 'My poor, little Yamcha! I hope that he's not ill-treating you! Humans are cruel! I'm sorry I had to leave you with a delinquent like him!'

'Did you say something?' he demanded at me, and I literally jumped backward this time. Putting my hands up in front of myself in a panic, I stuttered, 'No-No! Not at all!'

He fixated me sullenly for a minute, before he muttered at Shunsui, 'Where is Mizoroge? Why hasn't she arrived yet? Are you sure we're at the right address?!'

'Yes. It's well here,' the reddish-brown-haired young man answered, turning around to face the two-storied building in front of which we were standing.

Natsui had text me the address earlier in the morning and asked us to wait for her here. 

'She should be here at any minutes now. When Hime had called her just a short while ago, she told us that she has already left in the truck.'

As Shunsui was telling him this, a truck rounded the end corner of the street to make its way into this direction. It was Natsui. But we were all very surprised to find her unaccompanied by her mother. The girl's eyes were swollen, as if, she had cried all night.

'Natsui, where's your mother?' I asked her, anxiously.

Lowering her eyes and grasping hold of one of her upper-arms, she leaned backward against the side of the lorry, answering, in a small voice, 'She- She refused to come with me!'

'What?!' I gasped, my heart shaking, while Gōjun and Shunsui looked at each other's face, in puzzlement. 

The ginger-haired girl explained to us what had happened on the night before when she had announced to her brother that they were leaving. When she had finished, we were all left speechless. 

A little more and she might have gone through the same tragedy as I have been through! As to her mother...

'But, I'm convinced that she will come!' she stated, wiping the tears off the corner of her eyes and smiling widely. 

Oh, Natsui…

My heart swelled, tears coming to my eyes too. 

She is a person so full of hope!

'Yes, me too!' I whispered, and wiping my eyes dry with the back of my hand, I cried, with enthusiasm, 'Yosh! Let's get started immediately! We have to make the apartment look spic and span before her arrival! When she's here, she'll be greeted with a pleasant-looking home, and there'll be a delicious meal awaiting her!'

'Yes!' Natsui cried, with the same spirit, and on this, we all got moving.

Thank you for reading!