My Enigmatic Life

   Following the directions given to me  by Mrs.Hisakawa, I arrive at Take’s school a little while before the bell. It's an average looking schoolhouse with nothing of note about it.

“Might as well just wait until Take gets out.”

I stand in front of the gate along with some parents and other relatives who are waiting just like I am. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, there are a few of them that are giving me suspicious looks. Hell, even the security guard is doing it, which makes sense, it is his job after all.

“Is he a yakuza member or something? Why is he here?”

As I hear something concerning being said, the security begins to approach me with cautious, yet deliberate footsteps. Please leave me, I’m not a bad person at all…Why do I have to look so intimidating, damn it? Between cases like this and Nan outright telling me how ghastly I looked, I'll definitely won't be putting on a full-on smile anytime soon.

The school bell peals, and the students come rushing out excitedly. Amongst them is Take, who’s face starts to gleam upon seeing me. 

“Ani-ue! What are you doing here?!”

“Ani-ue?!”

Take’s outburst earns him a rather subdued reaction from the on-lookers as hurtles into me.

“Hey, Take.”, I smile lightly. “Your mother is busy today, so she asked me to collect you!”

“Cool! I was talking about you to my friends earlier, can you come and meet them?”

“Of course. Hopefully I won't scare them.”

After a brief introduction with Take’s friends, he and I set off to Shizuku-san’s college. But not before stopping to get a few sweets. Take had never had some of them before, so I made certain to get those ones in particular.

"Ani-ue, may I ask you something?”

“Sure, what is it?”, I say, chewing on some sour gum.

“What’s it like to have a girl like you?”, he asks, plopping a candy into his mouth.

Eh? Take’s already interested in the opposite sex? I was four years older than he Is now before those thoughts even entered my mind. 

“Well, that’s a difficult question.”, I answer sincerely. “Each and every girl shows her feelings in different ways, so giving a definite answer is kind of impossible. Why do you ask?”

“Well, there’s this girl in class who always teases me. I told Haha-ue about it and she said that it’s because she likes me..”

I see. I guess he just wanted another boy’s point of view.

“That could be the case, but it depends on how she’s teasing you. It could just be that she’s just bullying you..What kind of things does she say to you?”

Take makes a face that makes it seem like he’s thinking really hard about it. I don’t know if that’s concerning or not.

“She’s always saying how I’m so helpless and that I can’t do anything without her.”, He says confusedly. “What does that mean, Ani-ue?”

Ah, so she’s one of those girls. I can’t say for sure whether that makes her a person to avoid, so I’ll offer a small piece of advice.

“Just be careful around her, Take. Okay?”

“Okay. Do you have a girl-friend, Ani-ue?”

“Something like that…”, I smile crookedly.

I can’t tell Take that I’m some cad who’s in a relationship with three girls, with one of them being my cousin! If he’s going to be influenced by me, even a little, I have to make sure he picks up what few good traits I have.

“Is it Ane-ue?!”, Take asks excitedly. 

“No, I don’t think your sister likes me like that. She just sees me as a friend.”

“Awwwww! I want you to be my ani-ue for real!”

“Huhuhuhu, that warms my heart to hear.”

But dating Shizuku-san, eh? I definitely like her, but I don’t quite feel that feeling for her that I do for the girls.

(“...I wouldn’t feel good about doing that to you…”)

If I’m honest though, I came pretty close to feeling it when that was said. But even so, I only attract a certain type of woman, and Shizuku-san isn’t one of them.

(“Don’t even think about trying to escape…because I’ll find you and drag you back.”)

….I think.

    Take and I arrive at Shizuku-san’s college and begin to look around for her. Of course, the two of us stick out like sore thumbs, so some of the students around start to murmur and talk among themselves.

“Is he a foreign exchange student? I wonder why he brought his little brother with him.”

“His brother looks Japanese, but he doesn’t. Maybe they’re not blood related?”

“He looks scary…Do you think he has a criminal record?”

“Scary? I think he’s a hottie, dead eyes and all. I think that I’ll ask him for his number.”

Unfortunately, my girlfriends weren’t around to hear that last one. I’m sure that they would’ve taken it well.

“Oi, Take, do you know where your sister usually is when she stays for extracurricular activities?”

“Uhhhh…”

“I mean for whatever club she’s in.”, I reiterate.

“Oh! I know that Ane-ue is in the Literature Club, but I don’t know where it is.”

I figured as much. This is probably Take’s first time ever being here. Should I try to find her using Detection? Nah, forget it. 

“Well then, let’s just wait for her over there.”

“Yosh!”, Take yells, punching the air.

“Yosh!”, I echo, pumping my fist in a similar fashion.

Our little gesture earns us a smattering of giggling from a gaggle of girls nearby.

The two of us sit on a nearby bench and talk about Hyper Sentai while we wait for Shizuku-san.

“Eh? You’ve never Hyper Sentai: SDU before, Take?”, I ask, surprised.

“Nuh-uh! Is it good?”

“I remember it being pretty cool, but I haven’t watched it in years.”

“Take-chan? Daisuke-san?!”

Hearing a rather familiar voice calling our names, Take and I get up from the bench and head towards Shizuku-san, who seems to have come along with her friends.

“Hey, Ane-ue!”, Take waves.

“Hullo, Shizuku-san.”, I greet her.

“What are you two doing her?”, she asks, clearly befuddled.

“So this is the little brother you talk about, Hisakawa-san.”

“Ah, that’s right, Suzuki-senpai. His name is Hisakawa Takehiro. Say hello, Take.”

“Hello.”, Take bows.

“I should introduce myself as well.”, I say, bowing my head. “My name is Colen Daisuke.”

“Are you Shizuku-chan’s boyfriend, Colen-san?”

An odd yelp escapes Shizuku-san mouth as her face flushes. That’s a cute reaction, huhuhu. 

“Of course he isn’t, Mei-san! He’s just my English tutor.”

“Ani-ue is her friend as well!”

"Ani-ue? I don’t think that something you get called so easily, don’t you agree, Colen-san?”

The only bloke of the group puts on a knowing smile. But honestly, I did end up getting called that easily..

“Hmmph! Let’s go, you two! We don’t have to stand for their teasing!”

Shizuku-san grabs both Take and I by the wrists and pulls us along. I forgot how haughty she can be sometimes. 

“See you tomorrow, Shizuku-chan!”

Fortunately, it seems like her friends are used to such behaviour. That’s reassuring, because I don’t recall ever seeing her hang out with any other students during my tenure at West Hill Academy. But then again, I never really got involved with her during that time, did I?

If you told me that she and I would be friends in the future, I would’ve just ignored you. Which is kind of rude, actually.

“Do you want some candy, Ane-ue?”

“What? You aren’t supposed to have any candy before dinner, Take.”, Shizuku-san scolds him. “It’ll spoil your appetite.”

“Ehhhhh?”

“Don’t worry about that, Take’s a growing boy. There are very few things that can spoil your appetite at his age.”

“You need to stop spoiling him so much, Daisuke-san.”

“Nonsense. It’s an older brother’s job to spoil her younger siblings.”

“Since when were you his older brother?”, Shizuku-san sighs.

“Since a month ago.”

Take and I spoke in unison, which only further exasperates Shizuku-san.

“That doesn’t count…”

  After giving Shizuku-san a worksheet to complete, I head to Old Man Hisakawa’s room to chat with him. I still haven’t the foggiest idea as to why he wants to have these talks with me, but I attend them nonetheless.

“Who are ya again, sonny?”

“I’m Colen Daisuke, sir.”

“Right, Daichimura. What is it that yer teachin’ my grandson?”

“I’m just helping to improve his swordsmanship.”

Old Man Hisakawa snorts.

“Hmph, ya don’t seem accomplished enough at swordplay to teach anybody, but yet yer tryin’ to have him go back on everythin’ his father taught him.”

“No, that’s not what-”

“I’m not sayin’ that it’s what you intended, sonny. I’m sayin’ that it’s what yer doing.”

Am I really changing Take’s style that much? He has become less aggressive in his approach, but surely that isn’t too much of an alteration.

“People often underestimate how much influence an older brother has over his younger one.”, Old Man Mafuyu says sagely. “Sometimes it can easily be greater than their parents. That boy’s father will be baffled at the change by the time he returns next year.”

Mr.Hisakawa, eh? I wonder what he’s like. Hopefully he and I can get along swimmingly.

“For yer sake, ya better not be around here anymore when my son comes back. He’s going to detest ya as soon as he sees ya.”

Oh, that’s delightful.

“What makes you say that, sir?”

Strangely, Old Man Hisakawa stares at me with an expression that I can’t read at all. When he speaks, it’s in a low tone that I haven’t heard from him during these conversations.

“I just know, sonny. Ya can chalk it up to being a silly old man.”

“I see. That’s admittedly disappointing to hear.”

Old Man Hisakawa turns on his side, with his back turned to me.

“Yer dismissed, sonny. Let me get some rest.”

“Yes, sir.”, I nod.

With that, I leave Old Man Hisakawa’s room and head back to join Shizuku-san and Take. The first thing I do when I return is check over the former’s work and-

“Hey! This is perfect!”, I say brightly. “And these are some pretty advanced ones, too! You’ll probably be the best at your college at this rate!”

“And I’m getting better at my pronunciation now, too!”, Shizuku-san says proudly.

That’s clean English! We’ve done it! We’ve gotten past the real ordeal, now all we have to do is just keep building off of what we have!

“Good job! I’m really impressed by your improvement, Shizuku-san!”

Reflexively, I happily ruffle her hair. It’s not until I see her flustered, flushed face that I quickly retract my hand.

“S-sorry.”, I mutter sheepishly. “Force of habit…”

I’m genuinely embarrassed. I’m just so used to doing that with the girls and Take, that it causes me to do it on impulse.

Now Shizuku-san is holding her head down and shaking violently, with her face resembling the colour of a tomato. Surely, I did a good thing looking at the results. What a pillock I am.

“Ane-ue’s gotten all shy, Ani-ue! Ahahahaha!”, Take guffaws.

“Oi, Take, why don’t we go and practice? If you get a hit on me, I’ll let you have one of my Hyper Sentai action figures.”

“REALLY?! LET’S GO RIGHT NOW!”

Take bolts out of the room, his bamboo sword held aloft. I chuckle at his exuberance before turning to the still abashed Shizuku-san.

“Say, your birthday is in April, right? That’s in a fortnight’s time.”

Shizuku-san nods quickly.

“Alright, I’ll buy you some books, then. I don't know which genres you prefer, so I’ll just buy a lot of them.”

Shizuku-san nods again, although much slower than before. Is some of the embarrassment starting to wear off?

“Ani-ue! I’m ready!”

“I’m coming!”, I shout.

As I got up and left, I could swear that I saw Shizuku-san stare at me deeply with her silver-grey eyes.

And as for my bout with Take, he didn’t land a single blow on me. I’m still going to give him one of my action figures, though.