Chapter 29.

  Book 2, Chapter 3.

  Hell Hath no Fury.

  June 15th, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Kaizaki Residence.

  Tanya was sitting in on another one of Visha’s “wind down” sessions. It had started with Visha asking her to act as a sort of translator for her and slowly worked its way into almost becoming a tradition. Tanya didn’t really pay much attention to the shows, as much as she respected the artform, anime had a certain stigma amongst working adults.

  Tanya had tried cutting it off, but Visha had become insistent that she felt more relaxed after a long day of studying if she got to wind down and watch a show for pure entertainment purposes. Tanya couldn’t argue with that logic, but she didn’t understand how she ended up included in all of this.

  But here she was, eating popcorn, and drinking cola, as a bunch of girls tried to escape hell…by singing? She was pretty sure she got that wrong, but she had lost the plot long ago. Something about the whole show rubbed her the wrong way and kind of pissed her off. So, she tried her best to ignore it and focus on the financial reports from her various assets on her phone.

  The current episode came to an end and Visha turned to her with a question on her lips.

  “You don’t like this one very much do you. Well do you have anything you want to watch? Any recommendations from when you were younger and used to watch this stuff?”

  “I don’t know how much you’ll enjoy the mecha genre Visha, and the few shows I’m sure you’d enjoy, based on your past preferences, I would rather die than watch, so there’s that.”

  Tanya remarked while thinking of a show that featured both action and romance during his youth, that was very popular amongst both boys and girls in the most positively confusing manner, of having the main character be half of both. Shaking the terrible possibility of Visha discovering that particular show from her head, Tanya continued.

  “No, just keep picking what you want and don’t mind me, it’s enough that I get to sit here and spend time next to you…”

  Tanya trailed off as she realized what she had said, turning away, as her neck heated and her ears turned red from embarrassment.

  Visha, however, didn’t let the comment slide and immediately pounced on it.

  “Oh, Tanya! You can be so sweet sometimes, come here!”

  Tanya had to dredge up every last bit of her close combat, hand to hand training over the next few minutes to avoid a soul crushing hug from her insubordinate former subordinate. But physics being what they were, she eventually lost out to Visha’s reach and mass advantage. Something that she wouldn’t be pointing out to Visha as the reason for her loss. She had learned her lesson the first time.

  Tidying up the room after their scuffle the two made their way to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Taking turns doing their usual routine of brushing each other’s hair.

  Waving goodnight, Tanya returned to her room and closed the door, slowly losing the warm feelings from before, leaving her empty.

  As she moved over to her bed, she was left with only a sense of dread and unease, wondering if tonight would be a ‘good night’ or if she would yet again be plagued by nightmares. The restless anxiety she often felt at not knowing, was more exhausting than the actual dreams. She knew for a fact that she would be able to handle everything so much better if she could just know before hand when a bad one was coming.

  She hated it, hated feeling this way, it didn’t make any sense and was completely irrational, why couldn’t she just tell herself to ignore it and feel better. Damn it, she hated sleeping alone.

  ~

  The next evening had them spending time in a similar manner, and this time Tanya wasn’t complaining. Visha had rescued her from spending time with her grandma, watching another episode of the latest Kandora her grandmother was into. Between the two well, most of Visha’s anime rotted her brain much less than that convoluted Korean bullshit.

  However, this simple choice soon led to a much greater problem for Tanya.

  “Those pants look so good on you, where did you get them?”

  “I just picked them up from the shopping center with the others the other day.”

  . boop . boop . boop

  “Other’s?... TAAANYA, did you go shopping without me?”

  Tanya didn’t like the way Visha drug out her name in that sickly sweet tone nor, the crazed look in her eyes, and unnerving tilt to her head. Choosing to avoid eye contact for as long as possible, Tanya wracked her head for a response.

  …

  “Look at me you stubborn little owl.”

  “Little owl?”

  “You were looking everywhere else but me, turning your head this way and that. It reminded me of an owl spinning its head nearly all the way around.”

  “Oh, well, that’s an interesting metaphor I’ll have to rememb…”

  “Oh no you don’t! Don’t go changing the subject. Did you really go shopping without me?”

  “Visha, I am nearly a grown woman, and I’ve commanded hundreds of men. I think I am able to take responsibility for my own wardrobe. I don’t need your input on every little thing I buy; we talked about this. I’m not your little dress up doll!”

  “That’s not the POINT! It’s the experience, didn’t you think that I might just have wanted to go too, and get stuff for myself!”

  “Well other than your schedule, I don’t see what’s keeping you from doing just that.”

  “No, you just don’t get it. I wanted us to go together. Do you have any idea of how many shopping trips I missed out on… that I’ll never get back. Spending time discussing styles and fabrics with your friends, asking each other’s thoughts on different looks. Even you shared your thoughts with me last time we went and I, I liked that. And now another one of those opportunities, those trips is gone, stolen from me.”

  Visha’s tone shifted between frantic anger and crushed sadness. And Tanya didn’t know how to respond.

  “Look Visha, CALM DOWN! Ok, this isn’t that big of a deal, it’s not like I spent a lot of time wondering around picking outfits, I knew what I wanted, I went in, and I bought it, that’s it.”

  Tanya had said the wrong thing, because Visha just glared at her and walked out of the room, slamming the door closed behind her. Leaving Tanya very confused.

  Where was she going? This was her room.

  ~

  Visha continued to give her the cold shoulder over the next day, vacillating between the silent treatment and bouts of sarcastic snippiness.

  Tanya wanted to feel that she was in the right and that Visha was not only acting out of turn, but also behaving irrationally, but she remained wise enough not to say that to her. Her grandmother seemed caught between the two of them. Switching sides more often than the Ildoans from her days back in the war.

  One minute she would be giving Tanya advice and supporting her, the next would see her at Visha’s elbow, glaring fiercely at Tanya and reprimanding her for not making a whole outing out of her shopping trip.

  She often found herself hiding out in her grandfather’s study reading with him and trying to forget about the whole thing.

  Finally in the evening her grandmother, invited them all to join her for a trip to a public bath to relax, and bury the hatchet. Something everyone gladly agreed was a great idea. Hours later, Visha oddly hesitated, and told them to go on without her.

  Tanya was so confused, earlier she seemed excited to go, and Tanya knew for a fact that Visha loved soaking and gossiping with the other women in the baths. What was going on here? Was she really that upset about the clothes?

  “Visha, a moment please.” Tanya asked pulling Visha aside. Tanya tried to get to the bottom of things and make up with her friend. After all, if she had learned anything from war, it was not to piss off the quartermaster.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Visha, if you’re that upset, I’ll stay behind, and you can go to the baths without me. And you can plan a day off, where we all go shopping again, we can even invite Momo if you want.”

  Far from looking pleased at her words, Visha just began sniffling and softly crying, wiping furiously at the few tears that had begun to leak from her eyes.

  “It’s not that, it’s just that… I, well, I’ve been so mean to you, and you’re right, you didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t listen to half of the stuff you tell me about the economy, so how am I any different than you for not caring about shopping. And, and… I really wanted to go to the baths tonight and say sorry to you and soak and relax. Plus, when your hair’s wet it’s so much easier to braid and try out new styles. It’s a trick granny taught me, and I was looking forward to it but now I can’t go.”

  It took Tanya a minute to get passed the part about Visha not listening to her economic teachings, but she shook her head, saving that tidbit for later and focused on the issue at hand.

  “What do you mean you can’t go, what’s stopping you?”

  Visha turned red and leaned in, whispering something into Tanya’s ear.

  Tanya felt herself turning beat red as well.

  Walking into her living room and meeting up with her grandparents, her grandmother raised an eyebrow and asked.

  “Well, is she coming?”

  “No, Visha says she’ll stay home and hold down the fort, but she did request that I pick up a few items for her on our way back, she made a list.”

  “Oh, let me see, I know where to get all the best deals.”

  Before Tanya could stop her, the list was snatched from her hand and glanced over by her grandmother, who paused, before handing it back.

  “I see, well, that explains it. We’ll stop by the pharmacy on the way home. The poor dear.”

  ~

  Visha watched Tanya and her grandparents walk down the street on their way to the bath house, before closing the door and returning to the kitchen to grab the rice sock from the microwave oven. Such a wonderful invention, she thought. She had been amazed the first time she had seen it being used to cook popcorn. Another wonderful treat she had only ever heard of in her time before the war. Now she got to enjoy it almost any time she wanted.

  Shuffling to her room, she finally made it to her bed and curled up around the large sock filled with hot rice. The waves of warmth doing its best to combat the waves of pain emanating from her core.

  This was Visha’s first period since her time in officers’ training, and it felt like her worse one yet. She had worried that she would never get one again and that she would end up barren. A fate so terrible she shuddered at the thought, suddenly happy for the pain in her womb. A sure sign that things were finally getting back on track. She would have to contact her doctor and let her know of the new development.

  ~

  June 27th, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Kaizaki Residence.

  Tanya was in her grandfather’s study going over their finances with the old man. Yet again they found themselves with a dilemma.

  They had enough funds to send both her and Visha to a private multinational academy, but that itself came with some draw backs. Mostly the location, but also, going to a private school would exclude Tanya from being able to use the grant money allotted to her for schooling if she didn’t go to a public school. Not a huge loss but still, money was money.

  No, the real sticking point was that Tanya’s goal was to integrate Visha into the culture as much and as fast as possible and there was a very real chance that going to a multinational school would hinder that. What if they ended up in a class with a bunch of kids who grew up in France. Bleh!

  There was a specific school that she was aiming for. It was near enough to her old apartment, just one 12-minute train stop away, and it had a relatively average reputation. Best of all the standards for entry were pretty lax. Most of the other schools she had contacted weren’t ones to accept transfers students like her and Visha, who had no academic background.

  “What do you think, do I spring for the fancy foreign school or shoot for the more normal route?”

  “I still think you should stay here and take another year to study and pick a school closer to home.” Sighing, her grandfather continued. “Or maybe you should ask your friend her thoughts on the matter.”

  Tanya blinked stupidly.

  That this was honestly the first time the thought had crossed her mind was concerning. Visha hadn’t ever brought it up either. Just blindly trusted her to continue to lead her down the right path and do what’s best for her. The little fool, Tanya thought, with no small amount of affection, leaving to go find the troublesome young girl.

  Visha was in the middle of her studies when Tanya interrupted and asked Visha her opinion on the matter.

  “So which school would you prefer, supposing we can pass the entrance exams?”

  “Well, it would be nice to learn in German or Russian, but if that is the case then, what has all this studying been for?”

  “Most classes would still be taught in Japanese, Visha.”

  “We would live with Momo if we went to this other school?”

  “Yes, but that is no reason to base your life’s choices on.”

  “For some of us it is.”

  Tanya paused, stunned at Visha’s declaration. Her friend was dead serious. The thought caused Tanya’s heart to flutter and her cheeks to heat slightly of their own accord.

  “If I may interrupt.” The tutor stated before continuing. “I believe that miss Serebryakov here, at least with the spoken word, should be able to get by no matter the school she attends. It will even be beneficial to her to get used to the ways various people talk. As for her reading and writing skills, sadly she will struggle in the classroom for some time at her current pace. However, that is only because it takes her time to figure out the characters and look up the ones she doesn’t know. If given adequate notes, she shouldn’t have much of a problem passing her classes for the first year or so.”

  The tutor paused to nod at Visha and gestured to the pages on the table.

  “After all most of her grade won’t be based on classroom work, but on homework assignments and her test scores. For homework, she will just take longer than most other students to complete it. As for tests, well from what I have observed, Visha has a great memory so with adequate studying beforehand, she should be able to score well. In conclusion, with the proper support I see no reason she couldn’t go to any mid-tier school.”

  Tanya looked at miss Koyanagi as she gave her thoughts on the matter. Taking it all in, Tanya turned back to Visha and silently expressed that the ball was in her court.

  “I want to go to the normal school, the one that lets us stay with Momo.”

  “Alright, I’ll see about getting our tests scheduled.”

  ~

  July 8th, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Kaizaki Residence.

  Visha’s test was today, and they had left home early to make sure she got to the testing facility on time. Tanya’s tests were scheduled for a later date, allowing her to curate her scores based on how Visha did.

  What followed was a few weeks of various testing, both placement tests, to show where they fell academically, as well as the official transfer/entrance exams that would let them go to this specific school. Tanya of course had several back up schools they also took exams for.

  By the time end of term and summer break came around, they were both truly in need of a vacation.

  ~

  July 16th, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Kaizaki Residence.

  Everyone was finally out of school and there was only twenty hours left before they left for the airport to take their flight to Okinawa. They would be meeting Reimu and her parents at the airport in Okinawa and from there taking a shuttle together to their rooms at the resort.

  Visha was beside herself with excitement and had taken Tanya on several shopping trips to buy various outfits for the trip. But she had been a bit confused at Tanya’s explanation that she had her swimsuit situation handled.

  Tanya looked over her luggage, and everything seemed ready. Still, she couldn’t shake this strange feeling that she was missing something. Unpacking her bag, she rechecked everything. Including making sure she had packed her swimwear.

  Everything was here; it must just be her nerves getting to her. She really hoped there wouldn’t be any unexpected surprises that suddenly cropped up.

  ~

  April 8th, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Redlight District.

  “Hey there Usako, long time no see.”

  “Ah hell, for shits sake, Dontō what are you doin here?”

  “Nothing much slut, just wanted to spend some time with and old friend, shoot the breeze, maybe snap a few fingers if I don’t get the information I want!”

  “Calm down you big oaf! I’m one of Nendo’s girls now! So, if you break me, he breaks you! Now, what do you want and just so you know you’re still paying for this time. I’m not going to eat it on this one.”

  “That night, you were there… Don’t pretend you weren’t. My brother died, I want to know what happened and who killed him?”

  “Look, I’ll tell you like I told the police and Ishi and Nendo. I didn’t see anything, just heard some screams and shouts, like a fight was going on, then a few minutes later a gun goes off a bunch of times and then everything went quiet. After that, the cops came and we were all hauled off, now if you don’t mind, I have some work…”

  Smack!!!

  Usako held a hand up to her cheek from her position on the floor as Dontō loomed over her shouting.

  “That’s it!... My brothers dead with his head smashed in! And all you got to tell me is that you know nothin!... No, you’re going to tell me everything that happened that night. Anything different that you saw, and you better be quick, because I’m starting to get angry.”

  Dontō fumed, as he reached his hands down wrapping them around Usako’s neck and began applying pressure. Not enough that she couldn’t breathe, but enough to get his point across, and make her panic.

  “O…Ack…Ok, hey let up. Ok, there was something weird that night!... Two somethings.”

  Dontō let go and leaned back.

  “Talk.”

  “So, there was a lot of fresh produce at that warehouse, and I was mixed in among them, doin my thing, talking about how it would be hopeless to try and escape, how it was better to just give in and accept it, it hurt less that way, you know the usual. But after everything went down, two girls showed up, way before the police. Claimed they were a new shipment, but they didn’t act much like it, you see. They were dressed all funny as well, in fact they were the ones that called the cops.”

  “Names?”

  “I… I don’t know.”

  Dontō raised a hand.

  “I don’t! Honest I don’t! I never talked to them. Freaky little bitches, but they were both foreigners. I had to hightail it before I could spend any time around them, that old hag at the women’s shelter recognized me, bitch cut off my funds too, account went inactive after just two days.”

  “So, two foreigners that were at the shelter, that’s all you’ve got for me?”

  “Honestly, they’re your best bet, they must have seen something that night, but really, they were the only thing that was out of place during that whole disaster. And there was something about them…”

  “Go on…”

  “Well, remember how I said they were freaky little bitches, well I was serious, the little one was like ten years old, but she acted like one of the big bosses, if you know what I mean, had an aura. They tried to fake it but the two weren’t scared at all, and the way they moved, like… I don’t know, but whatever you do leave me out of it.”

  Dontō smirked and made his way over to the door, locking it.

  “Hey! I told you what you want, what are you doing?!”

  Dontō unbuttoned his pants, before responding.

  “I paid for the hour; I’m going to get my money’s worth.”

  ~

  This image captures what the scene between Vishia and Tanya feels when Visha was made at her for not taking her shopping too.

  Chapter 29. Book 2, Chapter 3. Glossary

  Kandora:

  In 2010, amid the height of the "" (Hallyu) in Japan, Korean dramas were commonly referred to as Kankoku dorama (韓国ドラマ), which translates directly to "Korean drama". They were also frequently called Kandora (韓ドラ), a common Japanese abbreviation.