Alex Brim, Hero for Hire

Chapter 6.1

Hojo Masako slowly nodded and glanced at Hangaku, that was still talking with Tomiko and Takechi before continuing, “I could be wrong, but I suspect you are even more interesting than everybody thinks, and when she knows you better, she will not leave you alone, if she likes what she finds out. She is sweet, and she always puts all her strength and heart into her relationships. At least, try not to hurt her…”

“No one ever accused me of hurting a woman. I never did such a thing, actually. I am more worried about her hurting me!”

Sakamo ate the last bit of his cake, thinking that Hojo Masako was quite interesting because even with her calm and serious look, she seemed like someone that really appreciated her friends and cared about them.

After a lot of fooling around, they all agreed it was time to go, especially because some of them needed to take a train because they lived almost one hour away. Sakamo warned them to be at Tomoe’s concert one hour before, and that he would meet them there.

One last toast and the waiter brought the bill. Sakamo signalled her to give it to him, and while everyone was taking out their purses and wallets, Sakamo was already paying. The waiter gave him the receipt, and when the others called the waiter to pay their share, she told them it was already taken care of by the cute boy that even gave her a huge tip.

Hangaku frowned at Sakamo and complained, “Not fair, totally not fair! Instead of paying everything to these morons, you could invite me to a romantic dinner in a very expensive restaurant, if you have so much money to spare!”

A lot of booing received that complaint and Hangaku got a pull on her ear by Tomiko Hari and Hojo Masako. Sakamo raised both hands and tried to stop the booing mob. “Today was on me, next time another person can pay!”

Yoshinobu Tokuga argued with a frown. “What are you saying? Not everyone is rich like you! I get a lousy allowance from my parents that I have to use carefully!”

Sakamo approached him with a kinky smile and caressed his left cheek. “You can also pay with your body, I won’t mind. In fact, I hope you do it. I have a few things that I would like to try with a cutie like you.”

Yoshinobu Tokuga stared at Sakamo, completely blown away and without knowing how to answer. Sakamo tilted his head and said, “Strange, you were mocking me so much since we met, and now you go silent! What did you expect, that you could tease me and I wouldn’t get my revenge? This serves as a warning. Next time you mock me, I will kiss you in front of everyone!”

That threat and how Yoshinobu Tokuga looked so scared made everyone laugh their lungs out. Even the waiter joined them, and she tapped Yoshinobu’s back and teased him, “Way to go, little brother! You got a pretty boyfriend! Ahahah!”

Sakamo smiled at her. “Thanks for the compliment. I knew you both were related, because you look so much with him, except on the beauty part, because he is not as cute as you.”

The waiter nodded with a big smile. “Yes, I am Yoshinobu Oda, his older sister. This is our family coffee-house, and it is a well-known place among the students of your School.”

Sakamo frowned at the awkwardly looking Yoshinobu Tokuga and said, “So, that means your invitation was a plan to gather money for your family. Pretty slick of you, Yoshinobu-kun. I guess I can’t be angry with you because this coffee-house is very nice, like you said it was. I think I am going to be a regular here. It’s a cute and quiet place to have breakfast or a snack after School.”

Yoshinobu Oda made a deep bow with a smile. “It will be an honour to have you as our regular customer.”

Sakamo returned the deep bow. “The honour is all mine, Yoshinobu-san. I hope that on my next visit, you can tell me some secrets about Yoshinobu-kun, because it will give me a significant advantage, for the next time he mocks me!”

Despite the protests of her brother, Yoshinobu Oda happily agreed, and she held the door for the huge group to leave, while grabbing her brother by his neck to stop him from escaping. “No, no, little brother, you brought them here, you help with the cleaning! And after finishing, you go help mum with the laundry!”

Outside, Hangaku held Sakamo’s right arm, with Tomiko walking next to Takechi, talking about nothing and everything. Hangaku signalled with her head in their direction and spoke in a low voice, “It has been a long time since I saw Tomiko-chan so happy. She is almost glowing. The last boy she liked was no good. He treated her badly, and he always made her wait for him because he never showed up on time on their dates. He was prettier than Takechi-sama, but it seems Tomiko-chan is starting to like Takechi-sama a lot.”

“Yes, they make an odd couple. The tall and slender Tomiko-chan and the short and round Takechi-sama. I guess there will be boys in School that won’t like very much if they start dating. I noticed that Tomiko-chan gathered a lot of looks from the boys, today. Like you.”

Hangaku nodded with a slight smile. “Yes, we always had a lot of fans in Middle School, and our bodies were not so developed as they turned out to be during this last summer. Tomiko-chan grew one size on her b*a, and I went almost two sizes up. Big boobs run in my family, and I got the good genes for that. These squishy round balls, together with my pretty butt and general figure, always granted me a lot of interest from the boys.”

Sakamo raised one eyebrow. “Weird, you didn’t mention your contagious laughter and your cute smile. The boys you knew so far, they were blind or what?”

Hangaku grabbed one boob with one hand and shrugged while wiggling it. “I guess any healthy boy forgets to look to anywhere else when he sets his eyes on this. Strangely, you don’t stare at them as much as other boys do. Why is that? You don’t like them?”

“I do, but I tend to look at the general picture, and not focus on a single attribute.”

Hangaku went silent for a while, but after a few seconds, she asked, “What you know about me and what you see, you like it?”

Sakamo glanced at her from the corner of his eyes and saw her cheeks turning pink, and she looked nervous, with her lower lip twitching a little, and she kept on putting a curl of her hair behind one ear and taking it out again.

“What’s not to like? But it’s too soon to start something. Let’s see if you still think I am so amazing in a few days. I always give a good first impression, but then some people get disappointed at my easy-going character, or get really irritated, because they think I take nothing seriously, when in fact I am a very serious person.”

Hangaku stared at him. “I am almost sure you will never disappoint me. I am the one that is worried to disappoint you.”

“Well, let’s wait and see then, who will disappoint the other or not.”

Hangaku nodded with a slight smile and a shine in her eyes. She faced forward and squeezed Sakamo’s arm a little. She felt her heart pumping like crazy, and she even thought it was going to fly out of her chest. That boy was not only good-looking, but he was also sweet and caring. He didn’t accept her feelings yet, and he didn’t tell her he liked her, but she hoped to conquer him. She glanced at Hojo Masako that was talking with Shintaro Nakaoka and saw her looking at Sakamo a few times. Hangaku saw very easily that, like her and all the girls in her class, Hojo was also interested in Sakamo.

Hangaku disguised a smile and mumbled, “Yeah, but I am the one daring enough to do something… I just hope he doesn’t get fed up with my persistence...”

Sakamo looked at her because he thought he heard something, and Hangaku smiled at him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

When they approached the intersection between the main street and the small perpendicular street that led to Takechi’s restaurant and to his house, Sakamo spoke, “This is my stop, everyone. Let’s go Takechi, I want to take a bath and check my email before dinner. Your grandma is waiting for me at eight, and I need to check a few things first.”

Hangaku made a sad face and pulled his arm. “You are not even going to show me your house? Or invite me in for a juice? I am kind of thirsty!”

“No, you will just distract me and I have work to do. Another time, but today I really must concentrate on my work. There are many people counting on me, and I don’t like to have people waiting.”

Hangaku frowned. “What kind of work you do, anyway?”

Sakamo poked her nose with a scary smile. “The kind that would make me kill you if you found out. Better if you go to the safety of your home, Hangaku-san, and don’t peek at other people’s business.”

Hangaku gulped. “You… are joking, right?”

“Maybe I am, and maybe I am not. I will see you tomorrow, Hangaku-san.”

Sakamo walked to his street, smiling at his classmates, leaving behind a dumbfounded Hangaku Mae, wondering if he was talking seriously or not.

Takechi made an awkward smile at Tomiko, and when he was about to speak, she elbowed him. “I will see you tomorrow in class, right?”

“Yeah… I am looking forward to it. Goodbye, my beautiful purple Goddess. Goodbye, everyone!”

Tomiko made a big smile with her face all red. She felt her heart stopping at the sight of Takechi smiling at her, with his eyes glowing. Hojo noticed how happy she was and approached her while they were all walking in the direction of the train station. “I guess you will always be like this from tomorrow onward, glowing in happiness, right?”

“I… don’t know what you are talking about.”

Hangaku was still frowning and mumbled, “Stupid Sakamo-kun, he refused me just like that, with the stupidest excuse… Work to do, yeah, right. I bet he just wanted to arrive home and read all those letters he got.”

Tomiko muffled laughter and winked at Hojo. “I know someone that is jealous… Hehehe!”

Hangaku put her tongue out at the laughing duo and kept on walking, kicking every stone in her way.

Meanwhile, Sakamo waved at Takechi in front of his restaurant, and told him he would be back for dinner, and walked along the street to his house.

As soon as he went to the backyard, he saw a training wooden dummy, together with a pull-up bar and a boxing pole.

Sakamo punched the pole to test its toughness, and gave a few hits to the wooden dummy, mumbling at the end, “Yeah, this will do just fine. Let’s see inside how the Gym looks.”

When Sakamo entered, he went straight to the top floor and opened the door of his office. Near the left wall, there was his desk, chair, computer, and a cabinet with reports and maps. The rest of the once empty room was now full of weapons in hangers on one wall, a punching bag in a corner, another wooden dummy, and a set of blue and red tatamis in the middle, making a nice training area. Sakamo kneeled down and touched the tatami area, testing the thickness.

He smiled and mumbled, “Perfect, just like I ordered on that website. The punching bag looks sturdy, and the wooden dummy is of excellent quality and really well made. Ok, I need to take a bath and do some work and I can go for a quick visit to Azurath. Well, I can stay there for as much as I want and when I return, it will be as if no time has passed. I bet Shinatobe is curious about my first day of School. I can talk with her for a while and come back in time for dinner.”

Sakamo went to the bigger bathroom after putting his School’s uniform inside the closet in his room. A quick bath and he changed into his Azurath clothes, a dark brown shirt with black knots to close it, a dark cotton trouser and long leather booths, and went straight to his office. A glance over his emails was enough to make him frown. “Weird. I thought this was already taken care of. I need to see tomorrow why the delay. So, just one small email to everyone to thank for their work, and ask a few things...”

Sakamo read the last couple of emails and turned off his computer, going to his room. He grabbed the leather belt purse and the sheath with his sword. He touched the pendant on his neck, and when he grabbed the doorknob of his room, he whispered, “By the power of the fallen Spirits, open a Passage to Azurath!”