Pulling the duffle bag off of the drop, I inspected the crowd around me. Mostly what I saw were older businessmen and younger executives, ambitious and willing to sell their soul for the chance to move up and make a name for themselves. Japan hadn't changed in the last seven years.

I hauled the bag onto my shoulder, limping beneath the weight and searching for a way to get outside of this place. It took my brain a full thirty seconds to transfer the Japanese to my native language, which humiliated me to say the least. Listening and speaking was no problem, but writing and reading was always a problem for my brain to process. I did my best to make my way in an orderly fashion to the nearest door, deciding to walk a few blocks before calling for a taxi. There were too many busy, loud men and women all clamoring for the quickest way to get where they were going. Hell, I would be willing to walk if I wasn't lugging most of my possessions on my left shoulder, which was quickly losing all feeling.

I found a taxi in a few minutes, giving the address to my cousin's home. Shizuru had been sweet to offer to pick me up, but I didn't want to put her through the trouble. What with Kazuma getting into constant trouble and her being in charge of the household, I didn't care for making her go through anymore trouble than she already was for putting me up for my father's funeral.

"Miss, we're here."

I jolted, suddenly aware of my semiconscious state, and handed him the money for my ride, pulling my bag up and heaving it onto my shoulder again, taking a breath. The pavement probably would have sank in if we had been inside of an anime, but luckily this was the real world, and sinking pavements did not really exist other than within the limits of construction sites that put in wet concrete. I stared up at the house, memories of small children racing around the practically nonexistent yard around the perimeter. It was so much larger when we were all three feet or less.

I lifted my hand to knock on the door when something in my peripheral vision caught my attention. There was nothing but trees in front of an older looking house, but nothing that should have caught my eye. I moved away from the door and tried to find anything out of the usual, watching the trees swaying.

"Good to see that you haven't changed."

I jumped, grinning at my older cousin and dumping my bag, leaping into her. She laughed, wrapping her arms around me and squeezing me. The smell of tobacco and ink was absolutely beautiful, and intoxicatingly sickening.

"Where's the little one?"
"Oh god, you really haven't been around."
"As long as he isn't taller than me, it's all good."

"Sweetie, everyone is taller than you."

I elbowed her, lightly, laughing while we each took a side of my bag and heaved it into the house. Shizuru tossed her end down to the left of the door, which meant that by all logic mine followed the dominant end. The house hadn't changed much from what I remembered, the same basic layout with different colors of furniture and new pictures. Japanese houses didn't change as much as the houses in Italy, clearly.

"Kazuma will take care of your bag once he gets back from the arcade. A good workout will be good for him after all of the pathetic beatings he takes from his friend Yusuke. You'll be staying in the guest bedroom if that's alright, seeing as I have a weird work schedule and you don't want to room with my brother." She led the way up the stairs, showing me the plainly decorated room, a single bed with pink bedsheets and a small desk in the corner of the room. It would do nicely. "I'm sorry about your dad, Gav. None of us saw it coming."

I looked down, remembering the real reason I was standing in my childhood home. I had almost forgotten with the excitement of seeing my family again.

"An accident is something no one sees coming. He was a good father from what I remember." I stated awkwardly, shifting my feet. It was expected of us to go through the motions, but how are you supposed to communicate about a subject no one can prepare for? It was like trying to paint Picasso with a blindfold and Beethoven's fifth symphony playing in the background. "You said Kazuma was at the arcade?"

"Yeah, he went down to burn a hole in his pocket with some of his friends from school. You should go surprise him, get to know the town. You want me to show you the way?" Shizuru jumped on the change of subject, motioning toward the door. I smiled, nodding and glancing around the room once more.

I looked at the pictures as we descended the staircase, pulling at my sweater and following at a close distance to my cousin. Whilst I was positive I would not lose her in the crowd, I was less certain that I would not find myself in a position where I would have to beat off a few punks looking to scam the foreigner, and Shizuru would probably deter any of that from happening. Proximity equals safety with scary women.

I told Shizuru about my school, my friend group and my dance community, walking backwards while talking to her. She told me about her work, dealing with raising Kazuma while their parents were abroad working and trying to keep him out of trouble. I was shocked at the distance Kazuma walked everyday to go to the arcade, almost a mile and a half the opposite direction from the school we were going to be attending together. In Italy, we took these normal things called buses to get from point A to point B.

"Hey, sis, who's the babe?" A freakishly tall blob of muscle in a blue uniform and an orange duck-do on his head questioned Shizuru upon seeing her. I flinched away from him, horror peaking its head into my stomach. That monster couldn't be... no...

Shizuru hit him over the head, hard, sending him to the ground flailing. I stared at them, feeling sick to my stomach as Shizuru screamed at him about his incestual tendencies.

What sort of sick hell have I come to?