Realms: "Kakurenbo? Sukima Onna- ASH

Chapter 9: The Full Story

It's a blinding Friday morning. Without the need of Satsuki to wake her up, Rei fell headfirst off the bed. Least favourite time of the year, Summer's sweaty mornings. By the time she finished making her bed neat, Satsuki came pounding on the door to wake her up. Now Rei was fully awake.

"Get up Nii-chan!" cried Satsuki. Rei walked up to her door and opened it, seeing her sister about to skreich again.

"Satsuki, it's 30 minutes past six! You should still be sleeping like a baby!" Rei complained. Satsuki shrugged, what Rei said didn't quite mean anything to her. The five year old girl dragged her sister down the corridor all the way to their older brother's room. "What idea do you have now?"

"Wake up Onii-chan!" declared Satsuki.

"Wait, are you saying you are going annoy him until he wakes up?"

"Yes" Satsuki proudly confirmed.

"Bye, I'm not going to go messing around in your troublesome affairs." Rei announced. Before Rei could leave, Satsuki had already opened the door, standing right in front of her, was Tatsuya, who has already wakened.

"What are you two doing this early?" he asked.

"She dragged me here," Rei blamed. "also, she wanted to wake you up."

"Why are you putting the blame on me?" whinged Satsuki.

"No need for the dispute, let's just go get ready and then we will both be early."

All the morning tasks are to be done now. As Rei will be alone again, and it's a Friday, she will be needed to sweep and mop the house. Might as well get it all done in the morning so that she can spend the rest of the time with her "research."

For Kaiyo and Karin, they have nearly the same habits. Cheerful outlook (sometimes), absurd reactions when you switch off Doraemon, and picking their own fights. But when it comes to mornings, that's where things differ. Karin is usually a morning person with incredibly foul-smelling breath, Kaiyo will refuse to get out of bed until you tell him that there is steamed rice, fish, tofu, natto, seaweed, and fresh, cooked, or pickled fruits and vegetables on the table. This time it's the other way around. Kaiyo got up first, walking into the kitchen to see his mother and sister made them stunned. When has he ever been so keen to get up early in the morning?

"Morning" he greeted.

"Good morning, why have you wakened up so early? You sir, wake up at 7:30, it's 7:00 right now!" Kairi rejoiced.

"Mum's right you know! Where's Karin, doesn't she get up at five in the morning or something?" Katsura specified.

"Oh, she said she won't go to school today."

"Go eat your food with your sister, I need to talk with Karin for a moment." she sighed. Kairi walked to Karin, seeing her daughter like this made her sad. As she sat on her bed to talk, Karin rolled over as a gesture saying, "I'm not in the mood to talk." Kairi is not one to quit so soon. "I heard what happened yesterday, can you tell me what happened?"

Karin refused to answer, stuffing her head into her pillow instead. "If you're not willing to talk at least let me see your face" her mother pleaded. Karin sat up from her bed and showed Kairi her face.

"I have a headache" Karin whined.

"You can skip school today, just try to rest so that you'll feel better." her mother advised.

"Arigato" Karin acknowledged. (Thank you")

"Doitamashite" ("You're/You are welcome")

The rest of the day went on like this for Karin, her lying on her bed not eating anything. Once Kaiyo was at school, he marched up to who Taro with his bag and books sitting on the bench near the big cherry blossom tree reading. "Hello Kaiyo-san, I believe you are here for the explanation if I am correct"