Up in Flames (Fire Force fanfic)

Chapter Seventeen: Family

My uncle sits across from me in our hotel room as Benimaru packs up our bags.

"I need to know, what happened after the fire? I searched top to bottom but all I could get was that the church took you. I was never told where...so..." he rubs his chin, "Are you in a cult or something?"

Benimaru laughs, "Something like that."

My uncle's face turns pale, I immediately try to calm him, "Benimaru! Uncle he's messing around. I mean the Church of Sol is pretty suspect but I wouldn't say cult exactly." I see his face contort with more concern written upon it, "I'm fine, I promise. This isn't like Aum Shinrikyō or something dangerous. I swear."

He breathes a sigh of relief, "I heard there wasn't much left from your home here. So I'd like you to have this."

He pushes a photo of him and my entire family in a hospital room. My mother is in the hospital bed holding me. I haven't seen her face in ages. Tears well up in my eyes.

My uncle places his hand on top of mine, "I want to be apart of your life. I hate the idea of you or anyone in my family being alone in the world."

"I would love that. But I was wondering...what did you mean the church wouldn't tell you where I was?"

He rubs his chin thoughtfully, "Well the church would claim that they had guardianship over you and couldn't tell me where they were keeping you. One thing stuck out to me...when they talked about you, they referred to you as their property. I can't quite say I understand the Church of Sol since out here in Hakone we don't have any connections to them. So I joined the fire force out here to see if I could ever get any information on you. Somewhere along the way, I made a family and a home here. But know that I never stopped searching for you. I never forgot about you for a moment."

"Did you notice anything about the children they did have?" I ask urgently.

He closes his eyes, almost like he's trying to piece together a memory, "Wasn't so much the children as it was the nuns in charge. They kept them highly guarded from everyone. There was one time while I was going from church to church that disturbed me..."

Benimaru sits next to me, "What happened?"

"Well this was the third church I visited years ago and I remember there were these grandparents who were trying to reclaim their grandchildren. I remember them shouting and crying for the church to give them back. But they simply gave the same answer, 'these children are property of the church now. Please leave before things escalate.' There was just an emptiness in these people. I could never shake that poor old woman's crying in front of the church from my memory. It was haunting."

"They're abducting orphans before the families can show up to reclaim them. This is more messed up than I originally thought." I say exasperated.

"Now I have a question..." he looks at Benimaru, "What're your intentions with my niece?"

I nearly fall forward, please Benimaru don't say anything weird.

"To be with her until one of us dies." He dead pans.

My uncle begins to laugh, "You're straightforward, I like that. You may date her."

Benimaru smiles a half smile, "Already am."

"Let me walk you kids to the station."

🛤🛤🛤🌇🛤🛤🛤

After we exchanged contact information, my uncle pulls Benimaru aside for a moment. I can't hear what their talking about, but it seems serious. He simply nods in affirmation and walks back over to me. We wave to him as we board the train.

After we sit down I immediately ask, "What was that about?"

"He made me promise something." He vaguely replies.

"Promise what?" I persist.

"It's a promise between men, my father raised me to keep those secret."

"Incorrigible bastard." I say under my breath.

He smiles and brings my hand to his lips, "You love me for it." He kisses my knuckles softly. 

I smile back at him, "Yeah, you're right."

🎐🎐🎐🌾🎐🎐🎐

As we left the train station, a voice I didn't recognize called out to us. We turn around to a beautiful young woman with green hair and familiar eyes run toward us.

I look over to Benimaru to see that he has stiffened, "Beni, I think she's calling out to you." 

Benimaru's palms begin to sweat, "Just your imagination." 

The woman punches Benimaru in the head, "You rude little twerp! You think ignoring me will make me disappear!"

He sighs, "I could always hope."

She glares at him, "Why you!?" Suddenly she turns her attention to me, "Oh my, are you little Shinmon's girlfriend. You are definitely out of his league. What's your name?"

I regain my senses quickly and answer, "Clarisse Montag, and you?"

"I'm Wakana Sagamiya, Konro's younger sister." 

Realization kicks in, "Oh so you're the super strict militant woman that Beni is afraid of." 

"So that's what you've been saying behind my back, huh?" She glares menacingly at Benimaru.

"Can we not get into this? I just wanna go home and sleep." He says lazily.

"I agree, I'm exhausted from my flight." She stretches and yawn as she drags her luggage.

"Where were you?" I ask her.

"Well for the past six months I've been to India, China, Germany and Russia was the most recent country I've been to for my research into spontaneous human combustion. How did you meet this gloomy piece of shit?"

"Well I'm the new nun and fire force soldier in his company."

She looks stunned, "He let you join, despite being a nun? Also..." she grabs him by the collar of his shirt, "what're you doing scandalizing this nun?! Have you no shame??"

Benimaru protests, "It ain't like that, I swear!! Clarisse tell her."

I smirk, "Well Beni does let me ride on his matoi."

Wakana uppercuts him, "You scumbag!!"

Oh god, are we gonna have a brawl?!

"Wakana? Is that you?" I hear a familiar voice ask.

She turns to Konro, "Yeah it's me, I just got back and ran into that pervert." She jabs a thumb in Benimaru's direction.

Konro sighs, "You're back and already getting into a brawl with Shinmon."

Benimaru lunges back with his flaming arm, "It's been while since we sparred."

She grins mischievously as she open up her suite case, "That it has, squirt." She pulls out a shamisen instrument.