Fiction: Three (part one, chapter one)

Chapter one: Trouble

He had always been the reliable one, but reliable was the last thing Kenji felt as he stood beside Arai, watching the usual boat with his little brother in it gain speed and get further away from the harbor. It was still possible to make out his black beanie and green sweater in the crowd of excited students as they went back to school, but Kenji knew that Jun hadn’t been excited about going back. Of course, the quiet boy would never say it out loud – instead he smiled faintly as he said his goodbyes and went without protest. As he always did.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine,” Arai said beside him, hooking his arm over Kenji’s shoulder as they watched the boat make a wide turn, heading out to Shima, the small island that was a part of Saitama and yet not. These moments, whenever they said goodbye to Jun like this, was some of the few times that Kenji and Arai didn’t fight – it was as if their common concern for the baby in the family made them forget all their differences, even if only for about ten minutes.

“I’m not so sure. With everything that’s going on, maybe I should have---”

“Should have what? Kept him home from school so he can stay at home and watch you slowly go more mental than you already are? Or wander around the town with me?” Arai let go of Kenji as the boat got so far away that they couldn’t make out a single detail, and they turned to get back to the car, though Kenji was pretty sure that Arai wasn’t going to come with him. Not that he wanted him too, either, but right now he had to admit that he knew a bit more about what the unruly young man spent his days doing.

“Fine, fine, I get your point. It’s better for him to be at school right now, I get that, I just…” Kenji trailed off, sighing. His little brother was the most important thing in his life, the one he had sacrificed almost everything for, the one that he loved with all his heart and then some. Which made it all the more painful to know that he might get taken away.

Arai cut his worries short, as usual, smacking him over the head and grinning as he scampered off, too quickly for Kenji to manage to retaliate. For a moment he watched the figure of his adoptive brother as he headed down the main road, and he sighed again. He knew that Arai was in some kind of trouble as well, but when asked he hadn’t said a word about it and just laughed it off – as he always did whenever something less than perfect happened. It was as if nothing could ever harm Arai, though Kenji knew that wasn’t true. He had seen him vulnerable and hurt, though admittedly it hadn’t been often. Tearing his eyes away he shook his head and got in the car – moderately expensive model, though not too fancy – and drove to work.

As he walked through the big building on the way to his own office, he noticed that several people were glancing in his direction, or at least it felt like it, but he tried not to let it bother him. There was no reason for anyone to be staring at him, nobody could possibly know. Kenji had always been very careful about keeping his work life and his personal life separate, and the only thing most of his colleagues knew about him was that he had the responsibility for his two younger brothers. He had one picture of the three of them in his office.

If he had thought that the most difficult part of the day was over, he was sorely mistaken. Kenji was met in his office by Heath Carlson, the company director, as well as a couple of his closest colleagues and someone he had only heard about, but there was no doubt who he was; the man who owned the company. They all looked so serious than Kenji involuntarily sighed. As if he didn’t have enough to think about, now there would be trouble here as well?

His workplace had always been his safe haven, the place where he had felt in control, without fail. When he had been seventeen and forced to take the responsibility, he had found the first and best job he could manage to, which had been here, in the single largest marketing firm in Saitama. Back then he had been hardly even an errand boy, but as the years went by he had stayed here, working and learning and gaining the trust of the people above him – before he got promoted and took their jobs. Now he was the assistant director, with only Heath and the company owner as his boss. So why this feeling of dread?

“Miyazaki-san, there you are. Would you please come join us?” Heath asked with a much more serious tone than usual, and when Kenji looked questioningly at Sinclair and Nanette ---, the married couple he worked with every single day, for any kind of explanation, they just shook their heads, almost looking sad.

“Of course,” he answered lightly, and after bowing slightly to the owner, who still hadn’t said a word or even acknowledged anyone in the room, Kenji walked over to his desk and sat down. Oddly enough it felt less secure than usual, possibly because he had no idea what was going on. “Well? What’s happening?”

Might as well get it over with, he thought, and after casting a quick glance over at the framed picture of him, Jun and Arai, he focused on the director again.

“Kenji, I’m really sorry to have to bring this up, but the fact is that the Redmon portfolio hasn’t been delivered,” Heath began, though he didn’t get further before Kenji stood up, his face having paled considerably.

“What do you mean, it hasn’t been delivered? I was here until nine Friday night looking over it and left it on your desk. I wanted to make sure it was absolutely perfect, and I swear, I haven’t gone and removed it again,” Kenji said, his voice actually shaking slightly. The Redmon project was one of the largest they had had in years, spanning almost globally, and it was by far the largest project he had ever been in charge of, with Sinclair and Nanette as his close advisors. He had worked insanely long hours on the project, he had traveled outside of Saitama, he had spoken to so many people and he had worn himself so thin that even Arai had gotten honestly concerned. There was no way in hell this could have happened.

“I’m sorry, Kenji, I really am, but the fact is that the portfolio is not there, and you were the last one to see it. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about this, we’ve been looking all around the building for it before you got here, but it’s nowhere to be seen.”

There was no doubt that Heath was speaking the truth, Kenji trusted him that much, but he still didn’t get how this could have happened. He had been the last one out the building on Friday, and he was fairly certain that Heath had been the first to be here this morning – nobody had the clearance to go into the director’s office apart from the director himself, as far as Kenji knew.

“For the time being, Kenji, until we find the portfolio again, I have no choice but to suspend you. Call it a vacation, if you want to. Right now we can’t have you here, I’m sure you understand. We’ll keep you informed about what’s happening, but… You have to leave,” Heath finished, looking more than a little uncomfortable, something which Kenji could understand. He was fairly sure that hadn’t it been for the company owner sitting right behind him, Heath would have let him stay and help solve this, but now that was impossible, so he merely nodded.

“I understand. I promise you, I did not take the portfolio, I didn’t destroy it, I didn’t misplace it. I left it on your desk Friday evening, that’s the last I saw it. I swear that’s the truth.” Kenji noticed that there was a hint of desperation in his voice, no matter how much he tried to suppress it. Maybe not so strange, considering that this was the only job he had ever had; he had spent years getting to where he was, to get the privileges and the salary he had now. Starting all over again somewhere else struck him as one of the worst things that could possibly have happened to him, but unless the portfolio was recovered, that was where this was heading.

For a moment Kenji stood still, watching first Heath walk out, followed by Sinclair and Nanette, who could do nothing except send him a few supporting glances. He appreciated it, knowing that they still believed in him, and he knew they would do anything to recover the thick file that had been lost. The last one out the door was the company owner, his long, red kimono sweeping the floor ever so slightly. He hadn’t said a word or done much of anything the entire time, and Kenji wondered why he had been here in the first place. Maybe it was just to get a look at the one who had put the entire company in jeopardy, willingly or not.

Kenji couldn’t help but sit down for a moment, on the edge of the desk, watching the elegantly receding figure, and suddenly he thought of Arai, though he wasn’t quite sure why. This was the first time he had seen the owner of the company. The elusive Ming Yue, the rich man, originally Chinese but who wore only Japanese kimonos – or so it was said. Nobody really seemed to know anything about him apart from where he lived and which companies, schools and entertainment places he owned or part-owned.

Ming Yue seemed to be everywhere, all the time, and yet hardly anyone had ever seen him. Nobody knew how old he was, there were hardly any pictures of the man, nobody could say that they had spoken to him, and yet seemingly everybody knew who he was and had a clear image of him. Strange how one man could wield that kind of power, even here in Saitama.

With a little sigh Kenji snapped out of his thoughts and picked up his briefcase again before walking out, trying to ignore the stares he got – even more obvious this time when he had walked in. It was as if everybody knew already, something which wouldn’t surprise him one single bit. Word traveled fast in an environment like this.

At home in the apartment Kenji didn’t know what to do with himself. Arai wasn’t there, which he had anticipated, and the emptiness left after Jun was like an ache inside of him. Without really seeing much of the street outside, Kenji walked out onto the small balcony and leaned against the rail, looking out over Saitama, where he had lived his entire life. Hell, he had even lived in this very apartment his entire life.

They lived in The Plains, closer to The Hills than The Slums, and not far from Doushi Park. It was an almost idyllic neighborhood, with kind, hardworking people and small cafés and shops underneath the apartment buildings. He loved it here, he always had. However, it was far from cheap to live here, and in their first years on their own it was only with help from their neighbors that they had managed to keep the apartment. Kenji shuddered. Their lives could have been so different now, for better or worse, there was no doubt about that.

He thought back to the day that he had gotten the news. Two very serious police officers had shown up on their door and asked for him, Kenji Miyazaki, seventeen at the time, and still a kid. When the police officers left twenty minutes later, he had been an adult. His parents were gone. His and Jun’s biological parents, Arai’s adoptive parents. They had been in an accident – the officers wouldn’t tell him what kind, apparently it was classified – and they had died, just a few hours before. It had been the end of Kenji’s life as he had known it, and he began another one, where his task was to take care of Jun and Arai. If he couldn’t, they would be separated, and he knew that he’d rather die too than allow that to happen.

It was a little over ten years ago now. Kenji was twenty-seven, grown up and responsible and serious and hard working. The provider of the family. He had been the big brother, the father and the mother all rolled into one. He had had no other choice in the matter, and he knew he couldn’t have done anything differently.

They were a family, the three of them. Wildly different yet similar. They completed each other and helped each other out, and drove each other crazy. Just like they had done when they were kids. Kenji was sure that their parents would have been proud of them. He sure was. Or well, he was proud of himself and Jun. Arai was a different matter, he always had been.

Sighing, Kenji walked back inside, looking at the pictures on the wall. There were a few of their parents; they had gotten a special place on the wall. His father, Keitaro, had been Japanese, while his mother, Julianne, was English, causing the children to get Japanese names and rather English looks. Kenji himself was a bit taller than most Japanese men around him, and he had his mother’s deep red hair and green eyes, something that he had been ashamed of growing up but which was more of a pride now.

Jun was a different matter. Already now he was much taller than both Kenji and Arai, and looked nothing like either of them, something which was one of the many reasons why his little brother was so painfully shy. The doctors had never done a very good job of explaining it, but due to some genetic imbalances Jun had ended up with bright blue eyes and white hair – something which he hated intensely and hid as best as he could, often walking with thick beanies inside and in the middle of summer. Jun, the different.

Arai was different too, for that matter. The troublemaker, the wild one, the rebel. When he had been younger, Kenji had envied Arai that. Now it just annoyed him that Arai wouldn’t grow up and take responsibility. On the other hand, he loved his adopted brother almost as much as he loved Jun. Nobody knew where Arai was from or who his real parents were, but from his height and his long, silky black hair you’d think he was purely Japanese, like the majority in Saitama. But then there was the matter of his eyes, which were a strange, almost violet color, depending on how the light hit them. Kenji had wondered about it many times, but Arai would merely shrug, not caring one single bit.

They were both his brothers, his family, and Kenji knew that he’d do anything in the world for them. He already had, and he continued doing so every day. Maybe even more now, after what had happened only days ago, and which had undeniably become more severe after the morning’s affairs.

Because now, there was a chance that they would be separated by force, a real threat that something they all feared would happen.


~tbc~