Loud

Chapter 14 - Fumiko to the Rescue - Sort Of

Trigger warning: Characters inform other characters about incidents of sexual abuse.

FYI: Fumiko appears here in LOUD for the first time. However, Rob met her in Ch. 12 of VINTAGE ROB. Fumiko's friend and bandmate, Naoko, is Nobu's niece.

Cynthia and the seniors retreated down a sidewalk overrun with shadow. Rob waved without being able to tell them apart, then crossed a wide boulevard. The sidewalk rose for a block and turned sharply to the left. An enormous skyscraper in the heart of Roppongi Hills, at least twenty minutes away, stabbed a pink sky. The incline skirted a leafy park with a high wall. Rapes, beatings - was it possible Rob had misjudged Nobu that badly? And if it was true, Fumiko had to know something. She had to have had at least an occasional bad feeling.

Rob pulled out his phone. Fumiko did not answer, so he tried again. Up ahead, police officers filled the opposite sidewalk. They flanked a mobile barrier for blocking traffic, because the building on the left was the Chinese embassy, a target for frustrated Japanese rightists. Rob ruminated as he walked, but he stayed alert for sudden violence here.

If Nobu was a pimp, what then? Rob could deny the photographs of Keating exist, because Nobu never saw them. Then he could use them later, when time and distance would better protect Cynthia and others, including the girls in the photos.

On the other side of the Chinese embassy, another group of policemen with a barrier tracked Rob's progress. He was about to try Fumiko a third time when his phone rang.

"Hi, stranger," Fumiko said.

"Sorry, I've been hanging out with my daughter."

"That's great!"

"Yeah, let's celebrate."

"Naoko's in Osaka. She'll be back in a few days."

"Forget Naoko. You and me."

***

Rob hopped onto one of the rainbow-colored buses that link Roppongi Hills and Shibuya. Up front, an elderly woman stared out the window. Rob took a seat in back. The elderly woman, street signs, pedestrians on sidewalks - everything triggered unpleasant images of Nobu with waifs. Closing his eyes made it worse, so he opened them and texted Fumiko, explaining where and when to expect him at Shibuya station.

Her response came immediately. You're on a public bus, rockstar?

His clumsy finger pressed the phone's tiny buttons. Complex vocabulary might slow her down and give him a chance to rest. I'm from New England. That means I'm a Puritan at heart. I was also raised Catholic, ie double jeopardy. Waste not, want not, capiche?

He rested the phone in his lap and took a deep breath. To clear Nobu from his mind, he filled it with Fumiko. Meeting her alone was exciting, and not just because he wanted information. The excitement that stirred in him was more carefree and sexual than usual these days. Like he visited from a bygone era. Fumiko would have to leap into his arms though. Despite the excitement he felt for her right now, he intended to keep his hands to himself.

Lust isn't evil. Far from it. Though Keating gave lust a bad name. Nobu did too if Cynthia was correct.

Damn guys like them.

***

The bus pulled into a lot by Shibuya station and swung around its perimeter. A line of people on an island of tar waited in a swath of artificial light. On one side, Fumiko held a shoulder bag. A light dress danced off her jutting hips and breasts while her bare legs shimmered. When Cynthia asked if he feared for his life, he had answered honestly, but anxiety or dread about Nobu, Mr. Young, and the Yakuza apparently aroused all his base instincts. Perhaps the looming danger eroded his resistance. If he was lucky, it increased his sense of smell and gave him superpowers too.