Stranded in the Future

Chapter Seven: Conflicting Interests

Please tell me that you'll stab him now, Ichiro thought while Hideo pulled his luggage close and stared at the thief standing confused in the center of the room. He's right where we want him.

Unfortunately, what Hideo did next was enough to make him visibly fume, which drew some concern from Kumiko. "Ichiro, are you all right? You're emitting steam..."

"It's nothing," he lied before glaring back at the shinigami. "I suppose we should just bide our time..."

"Welcome, Tsutomu," Hideo announced with both hands resting firmly on his lap. "Why don't you take a seat? I can see that you have a lot of questions."

"That's true," Tsutomu said with wide eyes. "But how do you know my name? We've never met."

"I'll get to that eventually. You're not the only one here needing answers, so please wait until I address everyone else."

Tsutomu frowned, then sat down with a sigh. Ichiro felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing his impostor being dismissed in such a manner, and he calmed down enough to notice that Kumiko remained ill at ease.

"Before I begin, does anyone have a cigarette and lighter?" Hideo asked, scanning the room for two objects Ichiro had never seen or heard of. "Nobody? What sort of place is this?"

Futoshi gave a shrug. "I left mine at home, but I can go back and get them if you want."

"No, that won't be necessary." Hideo frowned. "I'll just bear with it like I always do."

"Are you sure about that?" Futoshi asked, clearly wanting an excuse to remove himself from the situation again.

"I am," Hideo replied with a roll of his eyes. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes, questions and answers. Who wants to go first?"

Kumiko promptly raised her hand and caught his attention. "Please tell me what shinigami do and where they come from. I didn't know they were real before today."

Ichiro thought this a worthy subject of conversation, even if it wasn't really what he wanted to learn about. He resigned himself to hoping his turn would come soon.

"That's a good one," Hideo opined. "I think it will surprise you to know that we are a new breed compared to the likes of you. The first of us did not emerge until the Meiji Era when Queen Izanami remodeled aspects of Underworld society to fit the sensibilities of her favorite concubine at the time."

"Wait, she has concubines?" Kumiko exclaimed in shock, though Ichiro was anything but surprised. "Are they men or women?"

"Men, every single one of them," Hideo replied with amusement and dismay. "The Queen is always seeking to fill the void left by her former husband, which has made her fickle when it comes to love."

Kumiko took an uneasy step backward. "I see. And what of your purpose?"

"We help keep the peace and deal with any instances of unrest. Occasionally, we are sent to the mortal world to escort lost souls to the afterlife."

"Is that why you're here now?" Kumiko asked as her eyes darted from left to right.

Hideo leaned forward with a knowing smile that made Ichiro uncomfortable again. "Not really. You could say that I'm on a different sort of mission entirely."

"What kind?" Ichiro asked, hoping that doing so would offer him peace of mind. "You don't mean to hurt me, do you?"

"Not at all. That would defeat the purpose and make my client very upset."

"Your client? What do they want?"

"Simple. They want to know how you're going after all these years."

Ichiro's suspicion grew. Apart from his parents and a couple of childhood friends, he could not think of anyone deceased who might want to know about his current life. He looked at Kumiko, then Futoshi, and finally at his impostor before demanding an answer. "Tell me who they are. I deserve to know."

Hideo leaned back against the couch while appearing smug. "Why don't you guess? I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Ichiro clenched his fists and sucked in his breath before humoring the shinigami. "My mother and father. It only makes sense."

"I'm afraid not. They slipped through the cracks long ago, and nobody knows where their souls are now."

A sick feeling arose in Ichiro's stomach. He had known for a while that his parents were gone, but such words drove home the reality. He lowered his gaze in grief, and this gesture aroused Hideo's sympathy.

"I'm sorry, Ichiro," the shinigami apologized. "I didn't mean to cause you sorrow like that."

Ichiro slowly raised his head. He glanced at Kumiko and her outstretched arm before swallowing and moving on to his next guess.

"It must have been Shinrokurō, then. He always seemed to like me very-"

"Wrong again," Hideo interrupted with a pensive expression. "There's someone you've overlooked, and I might as well say their name. It's your sister Isa, or as she is better known, Lady Misaki, personal attendant of the Queen."

Ichiro gasped. Out of all the revelations today, this one was the most ridiculous, and he found himself doubting Hideo again.

"Don't take me for some fool. Isa disappeared when I was a child. There's no way she could have-"

"Yet look at yourself. You were just an ordinary man until Kumiko found you, so what makes you think your sister didn't meet a similar fortune?"

Ichiro remembered his younger sister's plump cheeks and pouting expression. He seldom thought about her fate after being kidnapped, though reason dictated that she must have lived a life vastly different from his own.

Still, the notion of her also becoming entangled in the supernatural was difficult for him to believe. He'd been supremely lucky to win the affections of a kitsune, and he knew that such a thing couldn't happen to just anybody, least of all someone separated from their family or even ancestral home.

"There was another part to your story in the Underworld that I didn't mention earlier," Hideo continued, regaining the interest of everyone else in the room. "After Queen Izanami failed to take you as a concubine, she set her sights on the next best thing, which just happened to be your-"

"Wait, what's this about him being a concubine?" Kumiko said in alarm, inadvertently testing Ichiro's patience. "He's mine. Nobody else can have him!"

"Forget that," Futoshi interjected while striding past her. "You haven't told us everything about yourself. How did you become a shinigami in the first place?"

"Hey, don't forget about me," another voice sounded, prompting Ichiro to turn around and face his impostor. "I exist too..."

Unanswered questions about his sister, combined with the sight of an inferior variation of himself became enough for Ichiro to start fuming again. He wrinkled his brow and clenched his fists before venting his frustration to all present.

"Everybody, stop! Can't you see that I'm the one most in need?"

They all went silent. Kumiko turned towards him, then lowered her gaze in shame.

"That man has stolen my body," Ichiro went on while pointing his unsteady finger at a frightened Tsutomu. "How long must I wait to get it back?"

Hideo sighed harshly and rose to his feet, producing an audible creak. "Ichiro, what are you doing? The right moment hasn't come yet."

"Yes, it has." Ichiro spun around to face his so-called ally. "He's in front of us. You just need to take your sword and-"

"Ichiro, please listen to him," Kumiko begged as she approached him from behind. "You're being rash..." Her hand met with his upper arm, only to slip all the way through. He pulled himself free, then laid his eyes on the sturdy case by Hideo's feet.

"Give me that. If you're not going to help me, then I should do it myself."