The Substitute

Chapter 12

Nanako seemed unimpressed.

"I'm, uh, Saiga Reita. I'm a, well, I used to be a student of your mom's, but now I guess, I'm more of a… friend. I think."

Nanako furrowed her eyebrows, seemingly contemplating this new information. Suddenly coming to a decision, she waved her arm around regally.

Unsure of what arm waving meant in baby culture, Reita hesitantly reached out to hold her tiny hand. She responded by grabbing onto his finger, which Reita took to be a friendly gesture.

"You're not so scary for a baby." He observed, then winced as her grip tightened. "Hey! Ow! I need that finger!" As he tried to release his captive digit from her surprisingly strong grasp, he muttered, "Well, at least we know you weren't adopted."

A giggle came from the doorway. "I think she likes you."

Shaking his head as he looked up, Reita started, "Oh, I doubt…", then stopped suddenly.

Standing before him was a girl about his age, with reddish hair and light brown eyes, grinning openly at his predicament. Coming forward, she smiled at Nanako, who Reita believed looked very pleased with herself.

"Can I hold my niece?" She asked, looked up at Reita, who was still somewhat stunned, for some reason.

"Huh?"

"My niece. Can I hold her?"

"Oh, uh, yes, of course." As he glanced back and forth between the girl and the baby, he wondered how people actually transferred babies.

Laughing again, the girl seemed to understand his trouble, and slid her arms underneath baby Nanako and lifted. Nanako looked to be content with the exchange, but maintained her iron grip on Reita's finger, probably to prove that she could. It was then that the girl's words actually made it to Reita's brain.

"Wait… niece? Which means that you're…"

"Oh, I'm sorry. How rude of me. I'm Sawada Natsumi." She bowed slightly, then straightened as Nanako glared in disapproval of the motion.

"Sawada? So you're Shin's…"

"Sister. Yeah. Little sister, as he constantly reminds me." Natsumi rolled her eyes with a small smile. "And you are?"

"Oh, I'm Saiga Reita." He attempted to bow with his hand still captive, but felt rather ridiculous.

Natsumi looked up from shifting Nanako to a better position. "Wait… Saiga Reita? The Saiga Reita?"

Looking around in confusion, he asked, "Is there more than one?"

Laughing again (she had a really beautiful laugh, Reita realized), Natsumi explained, "No, it's just that Onii-chan told me that a Saiga Reita had rescued Yankumi from a gang and saved her life. Is that true?"

Now, usually when people asked him about the events of the end of the school year, Reita tried to make it clear that he had received a lot of help, that it was really a group effort, and that they owed their lives to all of Yankumi's other students. But suddenly, this didn't really seem like a good time to explain all that.

"Well, yes. It is true. I mean, I had some help, but really, I organized most of the whole thing. So yeah, that was me."

Eyes widening in amazement, she asked, "So you really faced down a drug kingpin and a motorcycle gang?"

"Yep. They weren't that scary, when you got down to it."

"And you swooped in front of a thousand guys and sprinted Yankumi to safety?"