Reminiscence

The summer holidays were close and the weather was fantastic. No single cloud could be seen quite the sky, the familiar sound of the cicadas filled the air and there were occasional refreshing breezes of wind. All in all, Subaru Mimasaka decided that today was a perfect day to pick his three children up from school and treat them to ice cream.

He informed them beforehand via text and based on their replies he knew in which order the three would arrive: Ran, still busy in an Elite 10 meeting, would come last, Kazuo, occupied with taste-testing Takayuki’s newest creation, would be there closely before Ran and the first one to arrive would be Ayano. Her reply to Subaru’s text had said that she just finished her last class and, and this was much more important, that she would use this chance to introduce her father to “her new best friend”.

Subaru had not been able to keep the smile off his face ever since reading his youngest child’s text.

Friend. Ayano made a friend. And Subaru couldn’t wait to meet them.

Whoever they were, they were deserving of his time and attention. Ayano struggled so much in her still so young life and the thought that someone had finally reached out to her was probably the best news Subaru could have heard this month.

As he waited in front of his daughter in front of Totsuki’s gates, he even found himself occasionally fixing his collar or straightening his pants. Afterwards smirking over how childish it was, yet repeating the circle a few minutes later.

Finally his daughter appeared, smiling widely as always and waving enthusiastically.

But now as the moment had come at last, there was stiltedness in his hand wave and a slight hesitance in his smile.

Ayano’s new friend walked close to her, hands in his pockets and gaze averted to the side. But to Subaru he didn’t look as new as he expected him to.

The messy bangs that fell into the young boy’s face were certainly inherited from the boy’s mother: Nene Eizan, formerly Kinokuni. Why was Subaru able to identify the kid’s mother on first glance, you might ask? Well, it was because everything else about the child indicated that he was the son of Nene’s husband and, given the bangs, Nene being the mother was the only logical deduction.

Subaru knew many, many people well but Nene’s husband was one he knew especially well due to having been a former underling to him, back when Subaru didn’t quite knew what he was doing and how to use his talents appropriately.

The child had Etsuya’s dirty blonde hair and his dull, yellow eyes. While Subaru was thankful that at least he didn’t wore the school uniform in the exact manner Etsuya had, their tastes in clothing seemed to be rather similar on first glance. Finally, the youth had much of the same kind off walk as his father had: hands dug deep into the pockets of his pants and slightly crouched.

Of all the people his little baby could have befriended in school, it ended up being the son of the Boss Subaru had in his darker, unruly days he wasn’t all too proud off. A man who was not exactly known for shrugging off his grudges. And a grudge he held indeed.

“Daddy!”

Subaru was almost startled by the sound of his most beloved youngest daughter. Having been too caught up into his thoughts, he barely noticed how the two middle schoolers had come closer and closer in the meantime.

Ayano smiled for a majority of the time but today her face practically radiated. Every two seconds she’d excitedly look at Eizan Jr., clearly overjoyed that he was here with her.

Subaru reminded himself that his daughter had no friends her age, at least none that were out of flesh and blood, and that she had the ability to read people well, a given as the daughter of two phenomenal observes.

There had to be redeeming qualities to this child for Ayano to be so fond of him already. And these two ultimately had nothing to do with the past that Subaru had with Etsuya and he decided it shouldn’t get into the way of their blooming friendship. He could only hope that the guy who resided in one of the noble districts, overlooking half of Tokyo, felt the same.

“Hello, mushroom!” Subaru therefore exclaimed and a second later, Ayano had already crashed into him, while her short arms tried to hug a much of her muscular, huge father as possible.

Once Ayano decided that she cuddled enough, she backed off again and placed herself next to her companion. “Kei-kun, this is my father Mimasaka Subaru.” She smiles while pointing at the person she’d just named.

Kei took one of his hands out of pockets - and gee, were those rings Subaru saw on his fingers? - to adjust his glasses real quick before he made a slight bow. “It’s….uh, a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Mimasaka.”

Ayano beamed. “He is my new best friend, daddy! Eizan Kei.”

A light blush appeared on Kei’s cheeks as Ayano had said the words “best friend” and at the sight of that, Subaru did not even have to force himself to smile and sound friendly as he held out his hand to Kei. “Hey Kei-kun. I’m more than glad to meet you.”