Cold-Blooded: A DC Universe Fanfiction (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 22: Rose: The Hurt Locker

Yukie then took her father into the shrine itself to show him around, leaving the girls outside.

Saori confided to Rose, "Your stepmother is just as I thought a woman who graduated from Tokyo University would be. Very intelligent, elegant, and serene. But your father is the most impressive man I've ever seen. He must be taller than Abe Hiroshi! What does he do?"

Uh-oh. "He's a—security consultant," Rose replied. That was sort of the truth, wasn't it? As far as it went, anyway.

"A security consultant?" Saori's brow wrinkled. Perhaps the words didn't translate quite the same way in Japanese. "He's clearly a very successful one, because his coat and suit are custom tailored. I can tell."

"Security consultant," Michiru echoed. She had already struck Rose as being the more intelligent of the two girls. "Like a defense contractor, you mean?"

"Something like that," Deathstroke's daughter admitted. "I can't really tell you more than that."

"I see…I know it must be sad that you lost your birthmother, but it seems as though Kuwano-san is a good mother to you in her place. My mother makes fun of me for even thinking I might have a chance to go to university, " Michiru said, her eyes speaking of too many long nights spent trying to sleep over a noisy pub, and never enough money. "She says studying is a waste of time when I should be helping in the pub and charming the customers into drinking more. Actually," The girl squinted toward the west, "I'm supposed to be back before it's dark so I can help with the rush-hour crowd. We've got to go, Saori."

"Ohhh, but we're only just started making friends," Saori groaned. "Wait—how long are you going to be in Tokyo? Maybe we could meet up again! If you want to, that is."

"Uh—we're going to be here for three more weeks, but Yukie's planned a lot of things for us to do and see. I'll have to ask." Rose replied. Nobody simply took a liking to her like this back at home. Were people friendlier here in Japan? Or was it because she was an exotic, a blonde foreigner who spoke perfect Japanese? Maybe it was just how Saori and Michiru were.

She did not realize that her usual state of unhappiness was so obvious it came off her in repellant waves, and as much as her parentage had made the Titans reluctant to accept her, her attitude had put them off as well.

Yukie and her father came back out of the shrine, and Rose immediately asked. "I know you have everything planned out, but—?"

"Including free time," Yukie said. "It's entirely up to you."

"In more ways than one," her father added, reminding her that her stay was contingent on her behavior.

Really, the way the two of them handle things, anyone would think they were married already.

"I'd love to get together," she told Saori, and the three girls exchanged phone numbers. Michiru's phone was several years older than the others, but obviously she'd taken good care of it.

The two girls waved goodbye as they disappeared down the path. "I like Tokyo," Rose surprised herself by saying aloud. "Or at least, I like what I've seen of it so far. Are all the haunted places we visit going to be historic like these today? I was kind of thinking they'd be, well, scarier."

"Most of them will be more active. This was simply an introduction, to ease us into things. Many of them will still be historic, though." Yukie replied.

"That's cool. What next? Another haunted place, or back to the Ryokan?" The sunset was just starting to color the clouds with hints of lavender and peach.

"There is another place we could visit before we go back," Yukie said. "It's right at the subway station, in fact. But this one is active—and I fear it will break your heart, Rose."