Songs for Daddy- Chapter 29: Home
Author: bar_ohki
Title: Songs for Daddy
Rating: This chapter is rated T.
Summary: After receiving a phone call, Hiruma abandons his job, his football team, and his friends, disappearing into nothing. After several years pass, Mamori finds a strange girl in her Kindergarten class, a girl strange enough to have the only remaining connection to the missing quarterback….
Notes: Home is by Melanie Chisholm, I do not own it.
Links: To song on youtube: Video
To lyrics of song: Lyrics
To a list of chapter links: Links
To chapter 28: Wonderwall
Songs for Daddy
Chapter 29: Home
“Now stay here with Enri-san and be a good girl, Emiko.” Saburo instructed her granddaughter as she made moves to leave.
“But Grandma-!” Emiko protested.
“-You should listen to your grandmother.” Enri, a tall man with a burly beard and sunglasses, told Emiko firmly. Emiko didn’t like the man, he smelled funny. Instead the little girl looked at her grandmother, confused.
“But Kakei-sama said-” Emiko tried again only to be glared at.
“You are staying here and that is final!” Saburo yelled at Emiko, making the girl cringe and sniffle. It was hard to be strong when people pushed mean, hurtful things on Emiko. Saburo turned to Enri, bowed once, then left.
“Looks like it’s just you and me, brat.” Enri observed. “I’m going to watch my game and you are going to sit with me and watch it too, got that?”
“…Football game?” Emiko asked quietly.
“Er, yeah.” Enri admitted. Looks like this was going to be an easy job if all he had to do was watch a football game with the brat.
Emiko started to walk, going in the wrong direction entirely for the sofa.
“Where are you going!?” Enri demanded loudly.
“B-bathroom!” Emiko squeaked. She didn’t like the loud noise.
“Oh, uh, go then. I’ll turn on the TV. Yeah.” Enri turned away blushing. Emiko only shot him a confused look then made her way to the bathroom. She quickly took care of business and was leaving when she saw the cordless phone sitting there.
Emiko knew that her Grandma had just left to go to the custody trial. The last time there had been one of those was when the mean men took her away from Papa. So Emiko had thought that this thing would let her go back to Papa. But Emiko was not allowed to go, or at least Grandma didn’t think she should even though Kakei-sama said Emiko had to come. And that was a really bad thing.
Papa had told her that she should call 119 if something bad was happening and it was an emergency, only if those two conditions were met. Thinking hard, Emiko decided that this was bad and an emergency, so she called 119.
“Hello?” A lady asked on the other end.
“There are bad things happening,” Emiko told the lady, speaking insanely fast, “Grandma is supposed to take me to the custody trail but she’s not letting me come I’m at home with Enri-san and I don’t know him and its really, really bad.”
“Pardon?” The lady asked, having gotten none of that.
“I have to go to the custody trial.” Emiko said, still speaking super fast. “Help!”
“I’m sending a police officer to visit your residence.” The lady explained. “Please stay calm and wait patiently, ma’am.”
“Okay!” Emiko smiled and hung up. She walked back into the living room and sat down to watch the football game with Enri.
“Takekura Babies versus Saburo Witches?” Emiko frowned. Papa didn’t really follow the X-League games, so Emiko didn’t either. The poor girl was now a little bit confused, her Grandma’s company had a football team that she didn’t know about. And they were playing Papa’s old team. Who should she cheer for?
“Get those Babies, Witches!” Enri cried, turning into rabid Witches fan instantly.
It wouldn’t be fair if Emiko also cheered for the Witches, Emiko decided, so she’d cheer for the Babies.
“Go Uncle Musashi!” Emiko cried instead, startling Enri with her volume.
“Uncle?” Enri started at the girl. She was Saburo-sama’s granddaughter and was, most randomly, related to the infamous kicker for the Babies? This was almost too hard to believe.
“Well he’s one of my Papa’s bestest friends in the whole world, so I call him ‘Uncle’.” Emiko explained happily in her usual, too fast manner. “My Papa is going to play for the Babies soon too. He’ll be their quaterback.”
Enri didn’t catch any of that.
-At the Police Station, a little while ago-
Officer Kongo Unsui was a very interesting man. His younger twin brother was a yukuza with a bastard child, while he was a police officer, married with no children. This meant he could more easily get compromises with the yukuza and prime information on other violence groups. Though sometimes that meant he could be the only cop in on certain scenes.
Earlier, Kongo Agon, said mentioned yukuza brother, had demanded that a certain Saburo Teru’s residence and surrounding area only be patrolled by Unsui. The station found this a particularly odd request, but decided to comply with it. So when they got the notice from 119 dispatch to send an officer down to look at the house, Unsui was called in.
Now Unsui was currently at a café, eating ice cream with his niece and brother.
“Hello?” Unsui asked when his work cell phone rang. Agon shot him an annoyed look, couldn’t he have turned that damn thing off?
“Someone called from the Saburo residence?” Unsui blinked, amazed. “I’ll be on my way then.”
“Saburo?” Nozomi looked at Uncle, a little confused. Saburo was Hiru-chan’s grandmother, why would Uncle want to go there? Were they going to play?
“Ah.” Agon understood. Unsui quickly pulled out exact change for payment, set it on the table and got up. Nozomi was not thrilled with the idea of leaving her ice cream until she realized she was going to be riding in the police car. That made her very happy because riding in Uncle’s car was always a treat.
Agon had his girl buckled into the passenger seat then proceeded to lock himself into the back of the car. Inwardly, Unsui was always slightly amazed by this behavior, considering that Agon spent most of his youth, and adult life, beating the living shit out of others for the sake of his own comfort. But Nozomi would always get comfort over him, because she was her Dad’s precious baby. And there wasn’t anyone who knew Agon that would dare challenge that, not even his own subordinates.
Breaking away from his musings, Unsui turned around and opened up the little window that let sound through. This was mostly for Agon’s comfort as he liked to know what was going on with Nozomi whenever possible. Nozomi was too excited to really care if she could chat with her Dad because she was going to be able to play solitaire while her Uncle drove them around.
“You buckled in back there?” Unsui asked.
“Yeah, yeah.” Actually Agon wasn’t but Unsui wouldn’t press the matter.
After a few seconds of silence, Unsui decided to enjoy a one on one conversation with his brother, something he hadn’t had the pleasure of having in a while.
“So, you never did answer me, how did you wind up with Nozomi today?” Unsui asked his brother as he started driving.
“Natsumi is getting knee surgery today.” Agon remarked blandly. “So I get Nozomi.” He sounded very pleased with this development. Unsui couldn’t blame him, Agon didn’t get to spend a great deal of time with his daughter to his job as a yakuza. This was mainly for Nozomi’s safety as well as giving her an opportunity to grow up fairly normally (and fairly is the word, her mother is an ex-yukuza).
Nozomi was a talented girl. She might not have had the God-speed-impulse like her father, but she was hyper-coordinated and extremely intelligent. She was more than capable of following the adult’s conversation while playing solitaire.
“Mom said she was going to be really, really sleepy all day.” Nozomi added, as if to explain why she would be with her ‘dead’ father today. “Why are we going to Hiru-chan’s house?”
“Hiru-chan?” Unsui had heard about Nozomi’s new friend only once in passing. He was confused. “What do you mean?”
“Hiruma Emiko-chan,” Nozomi clarified, “she lives with her grandma right now.”
Agon and Unsui were silent at this development. Both knew that Hiruma Youichi had a little girl named Emiko and that she was currently living with her grandmother, Saburo Haruka. Of course this meant that it would be insanely unlikely that Nozomi wasn’t correct about their destination.
“Do you know Hiru-chan’s father’s name?” Agon asked, trying not to growl.
“Her Papa?” Nozomi paused and thought about it. “Hiruma Youichi.”
“I-I see…!” Unsui was nervous because his brother was getting rather murderous in the back.
“Are we going to see Hiru-chan?” Nozomi asked, getting a little more excited.
“Probably.” Unsui answered as he pulled over and parked the car. He got out, got Nozomi out, then let Agon out (this was of course the preferred order of exiting the car by Agon standards). Agon simply took a deep breath and picked up Nozomi so that he wouldn’t be tempted to grab a gun or knife. Unsui shook his head and pushed past the small gate and knocked on the door.
Enri went up to get the door and had Emiko follow him. It would be easier to keep track of the kid if she was in sight.
“Hell-!?” Enri gasped when he found Boss and Brother at the door. And they had Nozomi-sama.
“That’s a bad word!” Emiko protested, upset. She turned and looked at the newcomers. “Saka-chan!”
“Hiru-chan!” Nozomi smiled at her friend. Emiko smiled back.
“Did Grandma ask you to play with me?” Emiko asked, innocently. She was rocking back and forth on her heels.
Unsui coughed interrupting the girls’ conversation. “We got a call a 119 call from this house, is there a reason?”
“Huh?” Enri asked. “I didn’t call-”
“It’s bad!” Emiko cut him off, her rocking getting a lot faster and her arms starting to flap. “Kakei-sama said I was supposed to go to the custody trial today but Grandma had me stay here and I really want to go back to Papa so I should be there but I am here and that’s not really a good thing and Enri-san smells funny and I don’t like that smell but he is being nice and letting me watch a football game.” One breath, really fast.
“Ah, Hiru-chan, slow down!” Nozomi wiggled out of her father’s grip and clapped her hands in front of Emiko’s face. The other girl seemed to calm down a little and stop flapping and rocking as fast.
“Custody trial?” Unsui and Agon looked at one another.
“Yeah, Grandma’s making me stay here but Kakei-sama said I had to go.” Emiko explained.
“I’m here to take you to the custody trial.” Unsui announced.
“But what about-?” Enri was cut off by Boss.
“You’re sitting in the back with me.” Agon’s voice was deadly.
“Y-yes, sir!” Enri squeaked.
“Wow, a police car!” Emiko exclaimed as she noticed it.
“My Uncle Unsui is a police officer.” Nozomi explained. “Oh, Hiru-chan, this is my Dad.” Nozomi introduced Emiko to her father.
“But you said your Papa was dead.” Emiko was really confused. This showed by increased rocking.
“I’m supposed to say that.” Nozomi explained. “Dunno why, but he told me to tell people that.”
“That’s enough Nozomi.” Agon told his daughter. If Emiko was anything like her father, she’d ask a ton of awkward questions. And Agon was not in the mood to explain to either six year old that he was a wanted yukuza and he pretended to be dead to Nozomi so that she wouldn’t be caught up in all of those gang fights and territory battles.
“…Why were you in the yard?” Emiko asked Agon. “You were in the yard and you didn’t help.” Her hands were flapping a little again.
“I was getting my Frisbee from the bushes.” Agon lied smoothly. “I didn’t know you were Nozomi’s friend, so I didn’t try to get you out.”
“Oh, okay.” Emiko decided that was an expectable answer. Agon blinked once. Was that trash’s daughter really this gullible?
They all piled in the police car and after a little bit of typing on the laptop, Unsui drove them to the place the custody trial was being held at. During this time Emiko was explaining to Nozomi how she’d been watching a football game with Enri-san. And how she was really confused because Grandma hated football but Grandma’s company had a team.
“Didn’t you play?” Emiko asked Unsui and Agon at the end of her explanation. “The Nagas, numbers 2 and 12, right?”
“…Yes.” Unsui answered. It didn’t surprise him that Hiruma’s daughter knew her football inside and out. But he was being troubled by Emiko’s odd behavior; most children don’t rock like that!
“Saka-chan, why aren’t you Kongo-chan?” Emiko asked her friend.
“My parents aren’t married.” Nozomi answered, finding that subject rather awkward.
“Oh, okay.” Emiko accepted the answer easily.
“We’re here.” Unsui announced as he parked.
“This isn’t the right building.” Emiko muttered. This was a different building than last time.
“I’m sure it’s the right one,” Unsui told Emiko, “now let’s go.”
Unsui carried Emiko and Agon carried Nozomi while Enri followed like a dog with his tail between his legs. With little difficultly and a few flashings of his badge, Unsui got them past the reception desk and into the hallway outside of the courtroom. There were a few security men outside the doors of the room that were very intent on not letting them inside.
Agon decided that ‘nice, correct’ persuasion wasn’t working and pulled out a knife and just gave them one of his psychotic grins. The guards decided to have a change of heart and let them right on inside.
Hiruma was at the stand and couldn’t help but to observe the procession walk down the main isle of the courtroom. The Kongo brothers carrying children, one of which was his, and a third guy that looked like he was about to be kicked in the balls, it wasn’t a common sight.
“Papa!” Emiko cried, sounding relieved more than anything else.
“Can I go down and get her?” Hiruma asked the judge.
“Yes.” The judge nodded. Hiruma simply put his hand on the rail and jumped out over the stand, landing expertly on the ground. He jogged up the isle and took his squirming daughter from Unsui.
There wasn’t a single person in the room that wasn’t touched by the reunion of father and daughter. Emiko burst into tears, partly in happiness, partly because she felt safe enough to do so. Hiruma looked like he’d been stressed and now was completely relaxed.
Saburo was sitting there wide-eyed looking somewhere between mortified and betrayed. She knew it hadn’t been Enri that got Emiko here at the trial, Emiko had managed that on her own. And then she had the nerve to break into tears in her father’s arms. What the hell did that man know anyways? Emiko briefly looked up from her Papa’s chest and met eyes with Saburo.
Emiko had no regrets. She was exactly where she wanted to be. And she hoped, sincerely, that Grandma would understand that.
“…We need to talk.” Agon broke the silence with a glare at Hiruma.
“Later.” Hiruma told Agon as he turned around and walked down the isle. It’d be a bit before Emiko calmed down. The judged seemed to understand this.
“Kakei Shun.” The judge called. Kakei stood up and proceeded to walk up into the stand.
And with that, the custody trial began to move into full swing.
_=_=_=_=_
For those who haven’t guessed, this song title is about Emiko’s feelings.
Title: Songs for Daddy
Rating: This chapter is rated T.
Summary: After receiving a phone call, Hiruma abandons his job, his football team, and his friends, disappearing into nothing. After several years pass, Mamori finds a strange girl in her Kindergarten class, a girl strange enough to have the only remaining connection to the missing quarterback….
Notes: Home is by Melanie Chisholm, I do not own it.
Links: To song on youtube: Video
To lyrics of song: Lyrics
To a list of chapter links: Links
To chapter 28: Wonderwall
Songs for Daddy
Chapter 29: Home
“Now stay here with Enri-san and be a good girl, Emiko.” Saburo instructed her granddaughter as she made moves to leave.
“But Grandma-!” Emiko protested.
“-You should listen to your grandmother.” Enri, a tall man with a burly beard and sunglasses, told Emiko firmly. Emiko didn’t like the man, he smelled funny. Instead the little girl looked at her grandmother, confused.
“But Kakei-sama said-” Emiko tried again only to be glared at.
“You are staying here and that is final!” Saburo yelled at Emiko, making the girl cringe and sniffle. It was hard to be strong when people pushed mean, hurtful things on Emiko. Saburo turned to Enri, bowed once, then left.
“Looks like it’s just you and me, brat.” Enri observed. “I’m going to watch my game and you are going to sit with me and watch it too, got that?”
“…Football game?” Emiko asked quietly.
“Er, yeah.” Enri admitted. Looks like this was going to be an easy job if all he had to do was watch a football game with the brat.
Emiko started to walk, going in the wrong direction entirely for the sofa.
“Where are you going!?” Enri demanded loudly.
“B-bathroom!” Emiko squeaked. She didn’t like the loud noise.
“Oh, uh, go then. I’ll turn on the TV. Yeah.” Enri turned away blushing. Emiko only shot him a confused look then made her way to the bathroom. She quickly took care of business and was leaving when she saw the cordless phone sitting there.
Emiko knew that her Grandma had just left to go to the custody trial. The last time there had been one of those was when the mean men took her away from Papa. So Emiko had thought that this thing would let her go back to Papa. But Emiko was not allowed to go, or at least Grandma didn’t think she should even though Kakei-sama said Emiko had to come. And that was a really bad thing.
Papa had told her that she should call 119 if something bad was happening and it was an emergency, only if those two conditions were met. Thinking hard, Emiko decided that this was bad and an emergency, so she called 119.
“Hello?” A lady asked on the other end.
“There are bad things happening,” Emiko told the lady, speaking insanely fast, “Grandma is supposed to take me to the custody trail but she’s not letting me come I’m at home with Enri-san and I don’t know him and its really, really bad.”
“Pardon?” The lady asked, having gotten none of that.
“I have to go to the custody trial.” Emiko said, still speaking super fast. “Help!”
“I’m sending a police officer to visit your residence.” The lady explained. “Please stay calm and wait patiently, ma’am.”
“Okay!” Emiko smiled and hung up. She walked back into the living room and sat down to watch the football game with Enri.
“Takekura Babies versus Saburo Witches?” Emiko frowned. Papa didn’t really follow the X-League games, so Emiko didn’t either. The poor girl was now a little bit confused, her Grandma’s company had a football team that she didn’t know about. And they were playing Papa’s old team. Who should she cheer for?
“Get those Babies, Witches!” Enri cried, turning into rabid Witches fan instantly.
It wouldn’t be fair if Emiko also cheered for the Witches, Emiko decided, so she’d cheer for the Babies.
“Go Uncle Musashi!” Emiko cried instead, startling Enri with her volume.
“Uncle?” Enri started at the girl. She was Saburo-sama’s granddaughter and was, most randomly, related to the infamous kicker for the Babies? This was almost too hard to believe.
“Well he’s one of my Papa’s bestest friends in the whole world, so I call him ‘Uncle’.” Emiko explained happily in her usual, too fast manner. “My Papa is going to play for the Babies soon too. He’ll be their quaterback.”
Enri didn’t catch any of that.
-At the Police Station, a little while ago-
Officer Kongo Unsui was a very interesting man. His younger twin brother was a yukuza with a bastard child, while he was a police officer, married with no children. This meant he could more easily get compromises with the yukuza and prime information on other violence groups. Though sometimes that meant he could be the only cop in on certain scenes.
Earlier, Kongo Agon, said mentioned yukuza brother, had demanded that a certain Saburo Teru’s residence and surrounding area only be patrolled by Unsui. The station found this a particularly odd request, but decided to comply with it. So when they got the notice from 119 dispatch to send an officer down to look at the house, Unsui was called in.
Now Unsui was currently at a café, eating ice cream with his niece and brother.
“Hello?” Unsui asked when his work cell phone rang. Agon shot him an annoyed look, couldn’t he have turned that damn thing off?
“Someone called from the Saburo residence?” Unsui blinked, amazed. “I’ll be on my way then.”
“Saburo?” Nozomi looked at Uncle, a little confused. Saburo was Hiru-chan’s grandmother, why would Uncle want to go there? Were they going to play?
“Ah.” Agon understood. Unsui quickly pulled out exact change for payment, set it on the table and got up. Nozomi was not thrilled with the idea of leaving her ice cream until she realized she was going to be riding in the police car. That made her very happy because riding in Uncle’s car was always a treat.
Agon had his girl buckled into the passenger seat then proceeded to lock himself into the back of the car. Inwardly, Unsui was always slightly amazed by this behavior, considering that Agon spent most of his youth, and adult life, beating the living shit out of others for the sake of his own comfort. But Nozomi would always get comfort over him, because she was her Dad’s precious baby. And there wasn’t anyone who knew Agon that would dare challenge that, not even his own subordinates.
Breaking away from his musings, Unsui turned around and opened up the little window that let sound through. This was mostly for Agon’s comfort as he liked to know what was going on with Nozomi whenever possible. Nozomi was too excited to really care if she could chat with her Dad because she was going to be able to play solitaire while her Uncle drove them around.
“You buckled in back there?” Unsui asked.
“Yeah, yeah.” Actually Agon wasn’t but Unsui wouldn’t press the matter.
After a few seconds of silence, Unsui decided to enjoy a one on one conversation with his brother, something he hadn’t had the pleasure of having in a while.
“So, you never did answer me, how did you wind up with Nozomi today?” Unsui asked his brother as he started driving.
“Natsumi is getting knee surgery today.” Agon remarked blandly. “So I get Nozomi.” He sounded very pleased with this development. Unsui couldn’t blame him, Agon didn’t get to spend a great deal of time with his daughter to his job as a yakuza. This was mainly for Nozomi’s safety as well as giving her an opportunity to grow up fairly normally (and fairly is the word, her mother is an ex-yukuza).
Nozomi was a talented girl. She might not have had the God-speed-impulse like her father, but she was hyper-coordinated and extremely intelligent. She was more than capable of following the adult’s conversation while playing solitaire.
“Mom said she was going to be really, really sleepy all day.” Nozomi added, as if to explain why she would be with her ‘dead’ father today. “Why are we going to Hiru-chan’s house?”
“Hiru-chan?” Unsui had heard about Nozomi’s new friend only once in passing. He was confused. “What do you mean?”
“Hiruma Emiko-chan,” Nozomi clarified, “she lives with her grandma right now.”
Agon and Unsui were silent at this development. Both knew that Hiruma Youichi had a little girl named Emiko and that she was currently living with her grandmother, Saburo Haruka. Of course this meant that it would be insanely unlikely that Nozomi wasn’t correct about their destination.
“Do you know Hiru-chan’s father’s name?” Agon asked, trying not to growl.
“Her Papa?” Nozomi paused and thought about it. “Hiruma Youichi.”
“I-I see…!” Unsui was nervous because his brother was getting rather murderous in the back.
“Are we going to see Hiru-chan?” Nozomi asked, getting a little more excited.
“Probably.” Unsui answered as he pulled over and parked the car. He got out, got Nozomi out, then let Agon out (this was of course the preferred order of exiting the car by Agon standards). Agon simply took a deep breath and picked up Nozomi so that he wouldn’t be tempted to grab a gun or knife. Unsui shook his head and pushed past the small gate and knocked on the door.
Enri went up to get the door and had Emiko follow him. It would be easier to keep track of the kid if she was in sight.
“Hell-!?” Enri gasped when he found Boss and Brother at the door. And they had Nozomi-sama.
“That’s a bad word!” Emiko protested, upset. She turned and looked at the newcomers. “Saka-chan!”
“Hiru-chan!” Nozomi smiled at her friend. Emiko smiled back.
“Did Grandma ask you to play with me?” Emiko asked, innocently. She was rocking back and forth on her heels.
Unsui coughed interrupting the girls’ conversation. “We got a call a 119 call from this house, is there a reason?”
“Huh?” Enri asked. “I didn’t call-”
“It’s bad!” Emiko cut him off, her rocking getting a lot faster and her arms starting to flap. “Kakei-sama said I was supposed to go to the custody trial today but Grandma had me stay here and I really want to go back to Papa so I should be there but I am here and that’s not really a good thing and Enri-san smells funny and I don’t like that smell but he is being nice and letting me watch a football game.” One breath, really fast.
“Ah, Hiru-chan, slow down!” Nozomi wiggled out of her father’s grip and clapped her hands in front of Emiko’s face. The other girl seemed to calm down a little and stop flapping and rocking as fast.
“Custody trial?” Unsui and Agon looked at one another.
“Yeah, Grandma’s making me stay here but Kakei-sama said I had to go.” Emiko explained.
“I’m here to take you to the custody trial.” Unsui announced.
“But what about-?” Enri was cut off by Boss.
“You’re sitting in the back with me.” Agon’s voice was deadly.
“Y-yes, sir!” Enri squeaked.
“Wow, a police car!” Emiko exclaimed as she noticed it.
“My Uncle Unsui is a police officer.” Nozomi explained. “Oh, Hiru-chan, this is my Dad.” Nozomi introduced Emiko to her father.
“But you said your Papa was dead.” Emiko was really confused. This showed by increased rocking.
“I’m supposed to say that.” Nozomi explained. “Dunno why, but he told me to tell people that.”
“That’s enough Nozomi.” Agon told his daughter. If Emiko was anything like her father, she’d ask a ton of awkward questions. And Agon was not in the mood to explain to either six year old that he was a wanted yukuza and he pretended to be dead to Nozomi so that she wouldn’t be caught up in all of those gang fights and territory battles.
“…Why were you in the yard?” Emiko asked Agon. “You were in the yard and you didn’t help.” Her hands were flapping a little again.
“I was getting my Frisbee from the bushes.” Agon lied smoothly. “I didn’t know you were Nozomi’s friend, so I didn’t try to get you out.”
“Oh, okay.” Emiko decided that was an expectable answer. Agon blinked once. Was that trash’s daughter really this gullible?
They all piled in the police car and after a little bit of typing on the laptop, Unsui drove them to the place the custody trial was being held at. During this time Emiko was explaining to Nozomi how she’d been watching a football game with Enri-san. And how she was really confused because Grandma hated football but Grandma’s company had a team.
“Didn’t you play?” Emiko asked Unsui and Agon at the end of her explanation. “The Nagas, numbers 2 and 12, right?”
“…Yes.” Unsui answered. It didn’t surprise him that Hiruma’s daughter knew her football inside and out. But he was being troubled by Emiko’s odd behavior; most children don’t rock like that!
“Saka-chan, why aren’t you Kongo-chan?” Emiko asked her friend.
“My parents aren’t married.” Nozomi answered, finding that subject rather awkward.
“Oh, okay.” Emiko accepted the answer easily.
“We’re here.” Unsui announced as he parked.
“This isn’t the right building.” Emiko muttered. This was a different building than last time.
“I’m sure it’s the right one,” Unsui told Emiko, “now let’s go.”
Unsui carried Emiko and Agon carried Nozomi while Enri followed like a dog with his tail between his legs. With little difficultly and a few flashings of his badge, Unsui got them past the reception desk and into the hallway outside of the courtroom. There were a few security men outside the doors of the room that were very intent on not letting them inside.
Agon decided that ‘nice, correct’ persuasion wasn’t working and pulled out a knife and just gave them one of his psychotic grins. The guards decided to have a change of heart and let them right on inside.
Hiruma was at the stand and couldn’t help but to observe the procession walk down the main isle of the courtroom. The Kongo brothers carrying children, one of which was his, and a third guy that looked like he was about to be kicked in the balls, it wasn’t a common sight.
“Papa!” Emiko cried, sounding relieved more than anything else.
“Can I go down and get her?” Hiruma asked the judge.
“Yes.” The judge nodded. Hiruma simply put his hand on the rail and jumped out over the stand, landing expertly on the ground. He jogged up the isle and took his squirming daughter from Unsui.
There wasn’t a single person in the room that wasn’t touched by the reunion of father and daughter. Emiko burst into tears, partly in happiness, partly because she felt safe enough to do so. Hiruma looked like he’d been stressed and now was completely relaxed.
Saburo was sitting there wide-eyed looking somewhere between mortified and betrayed. She knew it hadn’t been Enri that got Emiko here at the trial, Emiko had managed that on her own. And then she had the nerve to break into tears in her father’s arms. What the hell did that man know anyways? Emiko briefly looked up from her Papa’s chest and met eyes with Saburo.
Emiko had no regrets. She was exactly where she wanted to be. And she hoped, sincerely, that Grandma would understand that.
“…We need to talk.” Agon broke the silence with a glare at Hiruma.
“Later.” Hiruma told Agon as he turned around and walked down the isle. It’d be a bit before Emiko calmed down. The judged seemed to understand this.
“Kakei Shun.” The judge called. Kakei stood up and proceeded to walk up into the stand.
And with that, the custody trial began to move into full swing.
_=_=_=_=_
For those who haven’t guessed, this song title is about Emiko’s feelings.