User blog:Arvin30p/Haruhiko and Mikazuki 4 – Along comes Karen

Prologue:
I remember a time when my dad introduced me to Kumano-san’s daughter. She was a pretty girl with a different attitude. Rather, she acts too old for her age as if she knows everything right from the start.

“Is this a marriage meeting?” The girls asked Kumano-san as she looks displeased. “You figured it out? You sure are too clever for your age.” Kumano-san replied gently as she looks at her daughter. “Ma, I am only 10 and you already selling me for marriage with some kid?” “But he is not an ordinary kid. He is the Raven’s kid.” “The Raven’s chick? I never thought he looked too… lame.”

For some reason, I am being insulted and humiliated by the girl who was standing right in front of me. But even so, I decided to ignore her comments.

“It seems that you are too smart aren’t you missy.” My father spoke as he gets a bit closer to the girl. “I am not a missy. I do have a name. And my name is…”

Before I knew it, I wake up from this rather odd dream.

�

And her name is…
Mornings are always a pain to deal with. Ever since I became a hacker, my sleep patterns are a mess. But when I became an admiral, my natural body clock seems to have been misplaced between 2AM and 3AM, which is quite late already in my standards, but even so; there were those times that I just can’t sleep at all.

But today is a special day, It rather the 2nd most important day for me as a person.

“Admiral, wake up. It’s 10 in the morning already.”

The one who was waking me up happens to my angel and my lover. She has long black hair with a very distinct bed hair that was shaped like a crescent moon. Her eyes were close to gold yet her most prominent feature is that she looked too young that I might get to jail if she was indeed someone who aged below 18. But even so, nothing is more beautiful than being pulled out from bed by someone as precious as her.

“Geez, How long will you be sleeping?” Mikazuki pouts as she pulls my blanket. “5 minutes more.” I replied while still conserving my energy. “Admiral, we will visit your parents later. Please wake up and prepare already!” Mikazuki replied as she pulls me out of the bed.

Instead of being catched by my angel, I fell to the floor instead and had a bump in my head as it was get hit by the fall. So far, I have now fully awake due to the fact that the rough way of waking me up was used to me rather than the traditional one. But I won’t complain since it’s Mikazuki who did it.

After I changed my clothes and did my daily chores, I left all the work to Sazanami who seem to be eager to join to our way towards home. But of course, I didn’t let her do what she pleased since it might trigger some incident again.

“Young Master, good luck. Are you sure you don’t want me, your most trusted ally to be your partner in this one?” Sazanami pleads as she shows me her puppy eyes. As of these days, Sazanami acts like a dog whenever I have to go on a trip with Mikazuki which to her annoyance, adopted a strategy that will make me fall-in-love once I saw her doing that. But of course, I didn’t look her at the eyes at all. “Nah, it would be better to guard the area. I heard that you are good with your hands in terms of self-defense.” I replied as I carry my bag.

Sazanami who was surprised to my new knowledge was silent and simply obeyed my instructions. It seems that she would require me to buy something from her later. Even if she didn’t voice it, I would give her something nice as a souvenir.

“Well then, take care then. See you later Sazanami.” “See you later, Young master.” And after that, Mikazuki called my name signaling for us to head out to our destination.

Mikazuki and I slowly and gently strolled our way towards my home. I have no idea why I have to meet them but it seems that they wanted Mikazuki’s participation too. Now that I remember, I heard that Yakumo started to become an admiral and his crew is quite a warm bunch. I guess I better pay him a visit then. I wonder if he has found something important then. I just don’t want to be competing against the same person for too long. But knowing Yakumo, he will pester me with challenges every now and then.

“Admiral, you seem to be enjoying yourself.” “Well, it’s been quite some time since I left home. I wanna see Aoi-san again.” “Aoi-san?” Soon, we arrived at our destination.

As I open the door, two young ladies greeted me and they both ran towards me and… “Welcome back, Pyon!” “Welcome back.” One of them immediately embraced me and smelled me all over as if I was owned by her. The other one looked calm as she looks at the other one who is still trying to mark me or something.

As soon as I regain my composure, I felt a cold gaze being stabbed at my back. “Admiral, who are these girls?” Mikazuki replied as she emits her killing aura.

Soon, the one who was hugging me introduced herself. “I am U-chan, and the other one is Ya-chan. Both of us are Haruhiko’s aunt.” U-chan introduced herself as she introduces Ya-chan too. “Aunt?” “Oh, this girl might be Haruhiko’s girlfriend. She really looks like Yoru-chan.” “Shh Uzuki, it’s still a secret.” “Oops. Sorry.” “Anyways, Nii-san is waiting for you. We just came here to play with him.”

As I listen to Ya-chan’s voice, I realized that these two always came to play with dad. Even though they looked in their 20s, why do they want to play with dad? Aren’t they too old for that? Anyways, After the door was shown to us by my 2 young aunts, we enter the house and saw my mom serving tea.

“Haru, welcome home.” “Welcome back mom.” “Sazanami-san!?”

I almost forgot that Mikazuki hasn’t saw my mom so her reaction Is pretty normal. Afterall, what she is seeing right now is an almost carbon-copy of the Sazanami we have at the base, the only difference is that my mom looked a bit older.

“I get that at times too, especially back in those days.” My mother replied as she gets closer to Mikazuki. “Sorry. I just thought that thieving cat is already here.” Mikazuki replied as she sits.

But seriously, how long will Mikazuki and Sazanami antagonize one another? I guess I need to solve that trouble soon.

“Haru, Dad will be arriving later tonight; so, spend the night here with your girlfriend over there.” As if my mother was fanning the flames, I realized that Mikazuki’s face was red because my mother said something in-between without me detecting any anomalies in her words.

But as soon as I realized that it was some kind of gestures that she used to make some suggestions to Mikazuki, there was a knock on the door.

“Coming! Haru, open the door.” “me?” “It’s fine.”

As soon as my mother passed the responsibility of opening the door to me. I immediately do what she has asked me to do.

As I open the door, I come to peek at the person who was standing behind it. She had long brown hair and her eyes were a bit dull, but overall; I can say that she is a beautiful girl who looked a bit dull.

“Ah.” “…” “Haru, when did you came back?” “Only today? But Karen, why are you here?” “I heard that you are around town… I just came to see if it’s true. Haru, who is that girl behind you?”

As I turned around I can see Mikazuki’s face which suggests me that I should finish talking to her. For some reason, I can feel that Mikazuki is being jealous right now.

“Anyways, do you have anything to do here?” “Oh right. Your dad asked me to come here too.” “Oh.”

I let Karen out and she sit at the chair opposite to mine while Mikazuki sits beside me while wrapping my arms declaring that I am hers. Soon, Karen introduces herself to Mikazuki who was keeping me on a leash.

“Nice to meet you. I am Karen Kurokaze. I came from the branch family.” “I am Mikazuki, Haruhiko-san’s lover.”

Now that I realized what is happening, I felt that something weird is happening between those two.

“Oh right. Haru, did you tell her about our relationship?”

After Karen said those words, I froze and remembered everything that happened a few years back.

“Haru, don’t tell me…”

Soon, I can feel hell is getting closer to me. �

A Past deal
When we were young, Karen isn’t the type of a girl who wanted to play with the kids of her age. Rather, she is a rare case among the kids in this community. She was a born genius.

And so, my dad who was managing the whole branch family affair came up with a proposal that would strengthen the ties between the two. Marrying me and Karen as if we were just political tools. But Karen agreed to their whims… afterall, her eyes tells me that she wanted to take control.

And so, the 11-year-old Karen is being matched to me who just turned 10 a few months back then. And guess what, she throws all kinds of insults to me and humiliated me which caused her to be slapped to the face by her mother, who is as a pretty woman.

“Karen, I didn’t teach you to speak like that.”

But my dad came to console Karen saying that she is just not good in expressing herself. Which later on proved to be true since I haven’t seen her with anyone she can consider as her friend.

And so, I have decided to become her knight. And that’s how we became friends.

Looking back at time, I remember a certain scene where we are alone underneath the blanket of stars.

“Haru, if you are still single before 25, let’s get married.”

For some reasons, I have agreed to her since I didn’t have any friend asides from her and Yakumo; and back then, my world seemed to be quite small.

It seems that my dad was listening to us all along.

And now that I am 26…

Ah, why did I forgot such an important promise. Such things… I wish I did have more time to have tell Karen to stop waiting for me. But now that it all comes down to this…

“Sorry.”

I bowed down and was in all-fours as I apologize to Karen who seem to have been shocked to the development that happened right now.

“I see… So, you have found love. Haru, I am happy for you.”

Karen stands up and immediately exits the door. I tried to catch her but…

“Haruhiko-san, please leave her alone for now. Right now, you can’t help her.”

Mikazuki grabbed my hand as she stops me from leaving the place. It seems that she understood why Karen is upset to me.

“Dammit, why do I always hurt Karen the most?”

As I said those words, my mom arrived and she gave me a cup of ice tea for me to calm down my senses. It seems she is listening to our conversation a while ago. And now that it turned out a bit bad; my mom calmed me by patting my head.

“It’s alright. Afterall, your dad and I misunderstood one another whenever there are people getting close to him. In the end, we make up and understand one another. But even after all these years, your father and I still have some arguments, but he makes sure that he will apologize to me in the end.”

Hearing from mom, I realized what kind of relationship they had back then. Was it as simple as the relationship I have with Karen? Or was it as complicated as the one I have with Mikazuki?

“Anyways, what should I do?” Mikazuki lets go of my hand and she embraced me from behind. “It’s alright. Haruhiko-san knows the best answer to this. Even though this is vexing for me, I will let you talk to her for now. I love you, so please come back to me once you have resolved things.”

As soon as Mikazuki said those words, I decided to finally chase Karen away. And as I exit the door, I immediately went to the place to where she would be.

As I chase Karen, something life-changing has happened to Mikazuki and I wasn’t there to witness it all. �

Karen and I
I run to where my foot takes me. It was a place to where we both agreed into something. Even though I am not worthy of it in this moment of time…

But before I can collect my thoughts, I saw Karen lying on the grass.

I immediately run towards her direction and check up on her to see if she is still alive.

“Haru, I won’t kill myself over that. Rather, I am just upset.” “Sorry. I should have told you some time ago.” “Indeed. Now what should I do? I have no one to rely on. I have no shoulder to lean on, and I have no one to turn to. Ah, I am alone again. Since Yakumo-kun isn’t around nowadays, I feel like I am the only who has been left behind. Haru, are you going to leave me too?” “Sorry Karen, I will leave you behind too. I truly love Mikazuki.”

Karen smiled as she flicked my forehead

“Lolicon.” “I have no defense against that.”

As soon as I replied, Karen laughed genuinely for the first time. That laughter hurt me more than the usual since it was the first time I hear her saying her emotions out loud.

“But Haru, she will grow up to be like Yoru-san in the end. I guess those are your types, right?” “No idea. But I like your hair too. I like it long.” “I see… Haru, can I lean on your shoulders for the last time?” “Yes, you can. Actually, you can always do these since we are friends.” “But I am afraid that your girlfriend might misunderstand you.” “Then, I shall let you be friends with her too. She won’t be making a jealous face if you become friends with her.” “I doubt about that. But I should try.”

And so, as Karen lies to my shoulder I recalled the first time that we became friends. And before I knew it, an hour has passed by before Karen decided to go home. From this point of time, Karen and I are not bound by anything anymore and we are nothing more than just friends.

After I send her off to her house, I walked towards my house and I saw Yoru-san standing at the front door.

“Haru-kun, please don’t enter for now.” “What’s happening inside Yoru-san?” “Your dad is telling Mikazuki something. Sorry, I can’t tell you for now.” “What do you mean?” “Sorry, I can’t speak any further than that.”

All I can do is look at my house as I wait for Yoru-san to open the door. But as I wait for the door to open. All I can feel is that something bad is bound to happen.

And my hunch was totally on the mark today.

- To Be Continued-