KOF School

An Offering

The silence was loud, loud enough to even filter out the sounds of the restaurant they were in. Neither of them said anything as they ate, especially Yashiro who simply nodded if his mother were to ask him anything.
"Yashiro, please, I can't with this," Yashira finally said, resting her chopsticks. She sighed and looked at him. "Why aren't you speaking to me properly?"
"Huh?" Yashiro said, seemingly in surprise.
"Yashiro, you hardly said anything since we left home," Yashira leaned forward.
Yashiro shrugged. "I... don't have much to say."
Yashira sighed. "Is it still bothering you? How... how I treated you, is it still bothering you?"
Of course it was, it still didn't sit right with him. How she can suddenly, miraculously, become so kind? It even seemed suspicious now, given how she used to be just a few weeks ago.
Yashira could tell that he was still afraid of her, worried that she might lash out on him like how she did. It wasn't fair, what she had done to him, and she knew that. But she didn't know how to properly win back her son's trust. Yashira looked up at her son, his eyes downcast as he meaninglessly stared at his ban mian.
Yashira sighed and continued eating, desperately searching for something that could lighten the mood. It was a chore, seeing how she drew a blank wherever she looked.
Finally she remembered something. Something that she had seen in his room, something that defended him.
"Yashiro, I saw something in your room the other day," Yashira said, resting her chopsticks again. "Something that you're hidding."
Yashiro looked up in surprise, thinking about the wig and mask that he used as a disguise to roam around during the time he was dubbed missing, which he hid under his bed so that no one would see. Yashira had plenty of time to search his room whenever he was at school, put two and two together and relate it back to the 'tall young man' that she had seen behind the cafe he works at.
What if she found out? Found that he had met her but didn't in the least make a move to show himself?
"Mom... I... I had no choice," Yashiro said. "I didn't know what else to do."
Yashira gave him a pained smile. "I'm sorry I made you feel that way. You shouldn't keep those trophies locked away like that. They're something to be proud of!"
Yashiro relaxed slightly. "Oh. You saw my trophies."
"Yeah, when I came to look for you when you left," Yashira sighed. "There were just so many of them, I couldn't even look at them then." She frowned slightly. "Where were you hiding, Yashiro?"
"I can't tell you, but I was safe and away from any sort of danger," Yashiro said. He couldn't risk giving away the only hideout he had. "What about those trophies, Mom? Why did you bring them up?" He changed the subject.
Was she going to break them too? Throw them away? What was she planning?
Yashira turned cheerful. "Oh! I was planning... since we have a lot of unnecessary empty spaces in the living room shelf, why don't we put them up there instead? We can get rid of all the useless knick-knacks, we can find some other place for  them and you can use that cupboard in your room for your other things."
"Really?" Yashiro said, surprised at her suggestion. "But... why? You never really paid any attention to them before. Why is it that you want to put them for show now?"
Wasn't that what she said for that Bronze Trophy, that she wanted to keep it on the shelf for everyone to see? He handed her the trophy then, and the next thing he knew, it was in pieces by her feet.
Yashiro shook his head. "No, Mom. It's fine. I'll keep them in my room. They're safe there. And it's fine, I don't need any extra space for now."
Yashira looks at him in surprise. "Yashiro, those are your achievements. You should be proud of them, not hide them away like that."
"It's fine, I don't like bragging about my achievements anyway," Yashiro said. "Let them stay in my room."
"Yashiro..." Yashira insistently said.
Yashiro looked at her in the eyes. "Why? Why, Mom? I thought swimming was pointless?"
"It isn't, Yashiro, I was wrong about that. You're an athlete, and a good one too. I shouldn't have said those things to you," Yashira sighed. "I'm just trying to fix things between us, nothing else."
Yashiro watched as she turned to poke around her bowl, not looking as if she wanted to eat any more. Yashiro sighed, closed his eyes before turning to look at her. "Fine. I'll bring them down tomorrow."
Yashira looked at him in surprise. "You will?"
Yashiro nodded, smiling slightly. "So long as they don't end up broken."
Streams of tears escaped Yashira's eyes as she gave him a watery smile, nodding. "They won't, Yashiro. I promise you."

For some reason, Iori was stuck with Masaomi yet again since Aiko and his uncle thought it would be a fun idea to go get some cakes from that new hipster cafe. They decided to give it a try after all, seeing how they had a variety of freshly baked goods. Iori and Masaomi, on the other hand, were left on Posiden duty.
"You guys order the drinks and wait till they arrive while the two of us get the pastries," Kazuhiro said. "Aiko wants to choose stuff since she thinks that I would only take the boring ones."
"Well, yeah you will," Aiko cheerfully argued. "You just take the same old, same old, floss buns, which I'm not sure they have."
"I don't know about that," Masaomi chuckled. "But what I do know is Iori has to help me to order the drink."
Iori sighed. "You just refuse to learn how to use the delivery app, but can very well use the online shopping app to buy unnecessary things."
"Explain yourself, Niisan," Kazuhiro smirked.
Masaomi groaned. "You're the expert, Iori. I still can't figure out how that app works."
"Fine," Iori rolled his eyes.
Aiko and Kazuhiro left, waving at them as they bundled off to the garage.
Masaomi took his phone out and simply handed it to Iori. "Here, order the Posiden."
Iori took the phone and opened the app. "What do you want?"
"Something hot, it's freezing outside," Masaomi said. He scooted closer to Iori to look at the phone. "What do they have?"
Iori started reading out all of the options for hot drinks.
"The Strawberry Latte sounds good," Masaomi said. "Not coffee, right?"
Iori shook his head. "Nah, just strawberry milk." He frowned when he reached the checkout. "They're charging us extra for delivery."
Masaomi was confused. "Huh? But wasn't it free the other day?"
"That was because we took the Creamy Strawberry Burst," Iori explained. "It's a little more expensive than this one, so it doesn't meet the minimum amount for free delivery."
Masaomi frowned thoughtfully before speaking again. "Where is this shop?" He asked when he got an idea.
"Across Yoyogi," Iori said.
"Then why pay when we can get free delivery?" Masaomi asked. "We can go get it ourselves."
Iori didn't really think so. "You're sure that's a good idea?"
"Come on, it's so near," Masaomi said. "We'll be back in a jiffy."
"Okay," Iori nodded slowly. "I'll order pickup, then. All we have to do is collect it. So it will be done by the time we go there."