Chapter 3 - Track Three

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Ryuko sits on a park bench, watching children play on the equipment. She recalls how much she used to love the park. Before she began kindergarten her papa used to take her every weekday afternoon. There they would feed the ducks in the pond (she’d even named each one) and make sand castles in the sand pit. But it was most fun when her daddy had days off to join them. Ryuko used to have swing contests with him to see who could go the highest. Each time one of them would end up fall off while at their highest, so her papa ha learnt to bring a first aid kit each time. She treasured the time she could play with them both in the park. When she began school they could only go on the weekend or late afternoon, it just wasn’t the same.
“I’m such an idiot,” she sighs to herself.

“Sa-ku-ma,” comes an eerie voice. Ryuko gasps, she peers up. Atop a tree stands a person dressed in a black ninja costume. His arms are folded, with a chuckle; he leaps off the tree and lands in front of her. Suddenly, he begins to do dramatic poses. Ryuko blinks, as she scratches her cheek.

“Do I know you?” she timidly asks.

The ninja continues to do poses. “Banished from the heavens, I clothe myself in darkness and steal the stars.”

“Wha…?”

“My tainted soul is dedicated to the god who stole my heart,” he continued, Ryuko has a good idea who she’s dealing with now, “My all belongs to you – Ryuichi Sakuma!” He points to Ryuko dramatically. Ryuko folds her arms and casually kicks him into the duck pond.

The ninja rips off his mask, to reveal her uncle Tatsuha. “What was that for?!”

Ryuko gets off the bench and looks down at him, “Ry-u-ko is my name. Ryuichi was my birth father, how many times must we go through this?”

She helps him out of the pond. Tatsuha begins to wring out the smelly water from his costume. “Ah, but you are my sweet Ryuichi reborn.”

“I was born before he died, now how is that possible?”

“IT JUST IS!” Tatsuha cries out. “Hey, where’s Eiri? He wasn’t home.”

Ryuko sits back on the bench. “At the hall with Daddy. Bad Luck is having their final rehearsal today before tomorrow’s concert. Is that why you’re down?”

Tatsuha rolls his eyes, “Who cares about Bad Luck? I’m here to see Nittle Grasper make their triumphant return to stage!” His eyes stream tears. “I’ve waited so long!”

“How did you know about that?!” She gasps.

“Mika told me over the phone. I can’t believe she left it to the last minute to tell me! My dear Ryuichi’s going to perform again and she has the nerve to wait till yesterday to say a thing.”

“You should have saved your money,” she tells him.

“Eh?”

“I’m not performing.”

Tatsuha’s heart shatters into a million pieces. He races around the park, chucking a hysteric fit while crying. The children in the park all stare in confusion. Ryuko sighs, “And people tell me to act my age.”

“He really is a weirdo,” she makes Kumagorou say.

“I doubt he’ll ever change,” she quietly says with a sad smile.

@~RYUKO’S FLASHBACK THEATRE~@

ACT ONE:

Three-year-old Ryuko sat on the floor with Kumagorou, wiggling along and singing to her favourite Bad Luck DVD. She was enjoying herself, till it was suddenly switched off and replaced with a Nittle Grasper DVD. Uncle Tatsuha was now beside her on the floor.

“Bad Luck!” She sniffled, “Ryuko wants Bad Luck!”

Tatsuha beamed a smile, “Nittle Grasper are WAY better! Now shush, my Ryuichi is on stage!”

Little Ryuko took her DVD off the floor and turned the DVD player off. She ignored Tatsuha’s protests and replaced his Nittle Grasper DVD. Tatsuha growled, and pushed her aside, replacing it with his.

“You’re mean!” She wept, “Kumagorou hates you!”

“Oh boo-hoo,” he taunted, blowing a raspberry. “I’m the guest, what I say: GOES!”

Angry, Ryuko threw her stuffed bunny at Tatsuha and made a break for the DVD player. “Don’t you dare!” He yelled, racing for it. Ryuko threw herself over the DVD player. Tatsuha picked it and her up. She refused to let go. With his free hand, he tried to rip her off it. Accidentally pushing the eject button, his DVD fell to the floor. “Damn it.”

Tatsuha forgot about Ryuko and put her and the machine on the floor. As he went to retrieve his beloved DVD, he heard a snap. Ryuko wondered where the snap came from. That’s when she saw – “BAD LUCK DVD!!! YOU KILLED IT!!!!!!”

Tatsuha blinked, looking down. He sweated, slowly turning around to face the sobbing little girl. Grimacing, he nervously giggled, rushing to her side. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll get you a new one! Promise! Don’t tell Eiri! Please! Please! Please!”

“Don’t tell me what?”

Tatsuha noticed Yuki had just returned home. Yuki frowned when he saw Ryuko crying. Ryuko ran to him, crying into his leg. “Uncle Killed Bad Luck DVD! Kumagorou hates him!”

Moments later ~

“But it’s an old DVD, where the hell am I supposed to get one?!” Demanded Tatsuha into the apartment intercom from downstairs. “Let me in Eiri, I’ll order one tomorrow!”

“You made her cry, you’ll fix it now,” he simply replied.

“But it’s cold, and I’m hungry,” he pathetically sniffled.

ACT TWO:

Ten-year-old Ryuko sat at her room’s desk doing the draft for her project. Shuichi lay on the couch in the lounge room preparing his speech for his music award. Yuki was in his office working on the ending of his novel. The three were enjoying the quiet of the afternoon.

“What I want to be when I grow up,” Ryuko read aloud from her homework sheet. Writing a report on what she wanted to be when she grew up shouldn’t have been too hard, though she didn’t actually know what she wanted to be. Maybe a professional food tester, she loved food. Or that person who hands out shoes at the bowling alley, being there all day would be fun!

There was a knocking at the door. Shuichi sighed; he’d just had what he was going to write (well, no he didn’t, he was just comfy ^^). He stood by the door. “Who’s there?”

“Tatsuha! Emergency! Let me in!”

Shuichi opened the door. “What’s – ack!” Tatsuha pushed him aside and ran to the couch, turning the TV on with the remote.

“What are you doing?” He asked, bewildered and annoyed to see him in his comfy spot.

“There’s a special of Nittle Grasper on!” He frantically yelled, holding up a TV guide he’d found in the street. “Don’t you care?! What sort of fan ARE you anyway?!!!”

Shuichi laughed to himself, turning the TV off.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“Check the date of that guide.”

“Huh?” Tatsuha flips to the cover and shrieks in terror. “This is last week’s! I missed my honey! Noooo!”

Shuichi goes to the video cabinet and takes out a taped video. “Here you go Tatsuha, I taped it.”

Tatsuha held onto Shuichi's legs weeping, “Oh, thank-you! Thank-you!”

Ryuko poked her head out the door of her room. “What’s going on? Oh, hi Uncle.”

Tatsuha grabbed the video. “Kawaii!”

Ryuko blinked.

“It’s a little Ryuichi!” Tatsuha tore into her room and hugged her. He hadn’t realized how much like his idol she was growing to look like.

Shuichi sighed, pulling him from his suffocating daughter. “You can do your fanboy routine later, she has homework to do.”

“Homework? What is she doing?”

Ryuko held out her paper. He read it with a grin. “Oooh! You’re writing about how you want to be just like Ryuichi when you grow up?”

Ryuko shook her head, “Ryuko doesn’t want to be a singer. Maybe a – “

“You’ll be just like Ryuichi when you grow up,” he sweetly told her, rubbing her head.

Shuichi folded his arms. “Ryu-chan will be whatever she wants to be when she grows up.”

Ryuko nodded. “Can I even be a toadstool? They’re so pretty!” ^^

“If you’d like,” he cutely replied, beaming a smile.

Tatsuha lovingly rubbed his video. “If you and Eiri had your way, you’d let her grow up to be a fire engine if she wanted.”

“Broom-broom!” Ryuko made a sound like a car and ran around the room. Shuichi followed her, going, “Eeeeoooorrr! Eeeeeeoooooor! Time to get to that fire!”

“Idiots,” Tatsuha turned away, giving the video a kiss.

ACT THREE:

A month ago Ryuko and her parents travelled to Kyoto to visit her Grandpa, who was allegedly dying – again. As they entered the temple, Tatsuha greeted them, dressed in his Monk robes. He bowed to them. “It’s great that you made it Eiri, Dad’s really on his deathbed this time.”

“You sound so concerned too,” doley replied Yuki.

Tatsuha shrugged, “No big loss. Come this way.” He led them to a dimly lit room, where the head of the family shrine lay unmoving on a futon.

The four knelt beside the futon. Been through this a thousand times before, Yuki was unmoved. Shuichi and Ryuko couldn’t hold back their tears though.

“Ryu-chan,” he softly whispered. “Come to me.”

“Yes, Grandpa,” she sniffled, kneeling beside him.

“How old are you now?” he quietly asked.

Ryuko rubbed her eyes, “Sixteen. Look, I’m wearing the necklace you sent me for my birthday.” She bent forward to show him, her loose shirt falling forward a little to show some of her E cup bra and cleavage. “Aunty Mika and Aunty Maiko say I’m practically a woman now.”

The old monk’s mouth drooled, “You sure are. My little Ryuko’s all grown up!” He rose to a sit and lunged himself onto her, rubbing his head in her chest. Ryuko wailed for help, trying to push him off.

Eiri Yuki slapped his father over the head, punching him off. “Oh look, you’re cured.”

His father nervously laughed. “I didn’t do anything wrong, I was just congratulating my granddaughter on her coming of age.”

“How would you like to see my coming of fist!” Shuichi warned.

Later ~

Ryuko stepped out of her bath. She’d forgotten about the earlier experience with her lecherous grandfather and was happy to relax in the temple’s bath. She wrapped a towel around her torso and another around her head. Humming to herself, she opened the door that led to the change-room. It was dark. She searched for the light switch, happy to find it from her growing chill. In the far corner of the room was her uncle; his hands were behind his back.

“Sorry for taking so long,” she apologized.

He presented his hands; in them was a roll of white bandages.

“What’s wrong?” She gasped. “Did someone get hurt?”

His eyes just sparkled. “Ryuichi-chan!”

One Minute Later ~

“Help me! Argh!” Came Ryuko’s muffled pleas.

Shuichi and Yuki opened the bath’s change room door to find her upper torso wrapped in bandages, while Tatsuha wrapped some more. He stopped as they angrily stared at him.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Shuichi demanded.

“My darling Ryuichi shouldn’t have breasts,” he simply said. “It’s an eyesore.”

“You’re insane!” Growled Ryuko.

“You’re such an idiot,” sighed Shuichi.

“You’re going to die,” warned Yuki.

@~END OF RYUKO’S FLASHBACK THEATRE~@

Ryuko laughs to herself. Her uncle sure is a bizarre fanboy, but he does come in handy every now and then. “I feel oddly cheered up, Kumagorou, let’s buy him a soda.”

Minutes afterwards, Tatsuha and Ryuko sit in an ice-cream shop with a banana split and soda each. Tatsuha isn’t in his ninja costume anymore.

“Come on Ryu-chan, why won’t you sing?”

“Because.”

“Do it for your favourite uncle!” He says, eating some vanilla ice cream.

“But you’re my ONLY uncle,” she sadly says, her disappointment of that fact clear. “Between you and Aunty Shouka, I don’t know which relative is more insane.”

Tatsuha scoffs, “Oh, did SHE tell you not to sing?”

Shouka Morita is her mother’s protective big sister, and was her agent. She’s never forgiven Ryuichi Sakuma for marrying her mentally unstable sister and getting her pregnant. The memory of him sickens her. Her bitterness grew stronger when the courts handed custody of Hanako’s only child to two men she didn’t know. The very idea of her little niece to be raised by two perverts enraged her to her soul. Shouka’s rights are limited, though she is allowed visitation like any normal relative. Whenever she meets Ryuko, she probes her for information to use against her so-called parents. As of yet she hasn’t been successful.

“No, I haven’t told her, no point. I know what she’ll say.”

“Want to go home after this and play some video games?” He asks, quickly changing the subject. “I got this cool new two player RPG.”

Ryuko nods, “Sounds like fun! But I really should give my parents a call; they’ll be so worried about me. I shouldn’t have run out like that, it was so selfish of me.”

“Meh, it happens. Right, Kumagorou!”

“That’s right!” Energetically replies Kumagorou.

Evening comes, warn out from hours of hard RPG playing, Tatsuha and Ryuko lay on the floor, snoring. The apartment door opens; Yuki and Shuichi see them and smile in.

Shuichi lays a blanket over them. “Thanks for taking care of her, Tatsuha,” he whispers.

“We were lucky he was in the city,” says Yuki, “Sometimes he can be of use.”

“Was it a mistake to dedicate the concern to Ryuichi?” Wonders Shuichi, rubbing his eyes. “I didn’t think Ryuko would react like this.”

“That isn’t the reason,” assures Yuki, wrapping his arms around him from behind, “She’s just concerned to be forgotten for who she is.”

“I’d never want that to happen. Never.”

“I know, she knows that too.”

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