Asuka: Island of Shadows

chapter 18

           Chapter 17

I watched as Benjirou happily followed Satoru over to a tall older teenager who must have been Makito.

I was very glad that my friend was going on a hunting trip, because it gave me the opportunity to look around his home without being afraid he would appear around every corner.

Of course, at the same time I would still be afraid that might happen. I was like that.

They left, and I smiled after them. I was still kind of embarrassed that Keiji found us the night before while we were hugging.

We were only hugging, but it was a wonderful hug, and Keiji didn’t know me that well. In fact he probably didn’t know me at all.

So when he saw us, I had stood up and ran downstairs. I think that Satoru and Keiji then ensued in having a painfully torturous talk.

About me.

So Akemi and I were going to talk about this. We really badly needed to. I needed to find out things about Keiji, and Satoru, and the entire population of the hideout.

She probably didn’t need much from me, I didn’t have any information about the outside world or anything like that.

And it wasn’t like I knew Satoru better than she did, she was his sister, and before this crazy trip, he had hardly spoken to me the entire time I’d known him.

I didn’t know how much Akemi spoke to him, but it must have been more than how much I did.

Akemi was sitting next to me, still watching Joji do something funny. I went back to watching, as he did some backflips, where every time he landed he would make a weird face and sound.

Every single time, it was something different, even though he had used up every face I could even believe was in the universe.

Finally he stopped and bowed proudly. “And Benjirou knows even more than I do.” He told us as we clapped and laughed.

“That was amazing Joji, go and tell Mai how well you did, even though Benjirou left.” I urged him, and he quickly scampered off to his Mother.

“Those two are the happiest people here.” Akemi sighed, staring after the little boy longingly. “I’m never that happy, if only because I’m worrying about Keiji and Satoru all the time.”

I looked at her sharply. “Worrying about them all the time? Why would you be worried all the time?” I asked quickly.

She lowered her head and bit her lip. “When my brother leaves the hideout, he warns no one. We don’t know if he’ll be gone a day, or a week. Keiji is more of the type that gets into dangerous spots that are hard to get out of.”

I nodded. “I see. I used to be angry when Satoru visited my Grandmother and I, because he never told us when he would leave, how long he would be gone, or when he would return. I always thought he would get himself killed.”

Akemi smiled at me. “Exactly, that’s exactly what he does. He’s more adept at getting out of bad situations than Keiji, but he is also more likely to disappear for weeks.”

We began to talk about how horrible her brother was when he left on a journey, exchanging our weirdest and worst experiences.

I came very close to beating her, but she lived with him, and hers were always more life and death, or he would scare her when he came home.

I laughed at some of her stories, and she laughed at some of mine. I had known that Satoru was weird, but Akemi was telling me the most disturbingly hilarious things.