Hiroshi couldn’t contain himself while they ate dinner. He kept asking Kenjiro about sumo and the different wrestlers the oyakata has met and possibly trained.
“Let oyakata Kenjiro eat his dinner, Hiroshi,” his mother scolded him. “And you need to make sure you eat yours. All these dumplings we made and the extra rice…” she continued with a sigh.
Kenjiro gave a small chuckle but waved his hand. “It’s fine. It’s refreshing to see a member of a younger generation get so excited about the sport. So many young rikishi don’t have the love your son shows. They simply do it because they feel like they must,” Kenjiro told her and picked around his plate a little more.
Hikari gave the master a strained smile. “Is the dinner not acceptable?” Her green eyes looked at the bowl of hardly touched noodles and she noticed he hardly touched any of the dumplings.
“That’s impossible, I helped!” Asami could barely get the words out, her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel.
Hiroshi’s head bobbed up and down in agreement, slurping the last of his ramen broth. “It’s delicious!” He smiled at Asami, his jowls blubbering a little.
Kenjiro looked wide eyed and shook his head. “No, no, sorry. It’s delicious. The best cooking I’ve had in a long time. Sorry. There’s just been a lot on my mind recently. Anyway, Hiroshi..”
Hiroshi gulped down the white rice he had stuffed in his mouth when he saw the illustrious stablemaster address him.
Without giving the boy a chance to answer, he continued. “I would like to make sure you get to Koto. It’s a bit of a journey and I understand your family not being able to make the journey.”
Hikari closed her eyes and lowered her head, giving an audible sigh. “It was my husband's wish for Hiroshi to get into Sumo, without him…”
Hikari trailed off and Kenjiro raised a hand. “I mean no insult. I’m here to offer to take Hiroshi to the tournament. Help make sure he’s trained and ready. There has-”
“YES I WOULD LOVE TO JOIN YOUR beya!” Hiroshi’s chair flew back when he jumped to his feet and bowed at the oyakata.
“Hiroshi!” His mother scolded as Asami burst out laughing, bits of rice and meat and dumpling dough spewing from her mouth down to her bowl. “Asami!” Their mother then scolded.
Kenjiro’s eyes opened wide, and he shook his head quickly. “No, no. Hiroshi, I’m sorry. I’m not allowed to offer you a spot until you’ve become a full rikishi, not until after you’ve won.”
Hiroshi’s head fell, his jaw hitting his chest. The scolds of his mother went unnoticed in his excitement and then disappointment. He felt his mother put a consoling hand on his shoulder. The warmth of her touch made him smile.
“It’s not all bad news. If you lose but perform exquisitely, I can still offer you a place, you just won’t start in as high of a division. Not ideal, but if you have the skill, it won’t matter in the long run,” Kenjiro told him.
Hiroshi looked up and nodded his head. So either way, if he didn’t make a complete fool of himself, he’ll be in? His eyes went wide with the realization.
There was a noise coming from his mother that he wasn’t sure what it was. A look over to his mother and he saw her with her leaned down and eyes closed. “Mama,” he whispered and reached for her arm.
Asami got up from her seat at the table as well and went over and wrapped her arms around their mother’s midsection. Did she know why Hikari was upset? Could her young mind understand exactly what Kenjiro was offering? Was she even paying attention while she was shoving dumplings and rice into her mouth?
“It’s fine…”
Kenjiro cleared his throat and stood, clearly uncomfortable. “Well, it seems you all need to have a discussion. Know this though, Hikari, ma’am, I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t think your son could do well. Him doing well could mean doing well for you, doing well for Jiro’s memory.” He set the napkin he was still holding down next to his plate.
There was an uneasy silence for several moments while the kids and their mother hugged. Hiroshi wrapped himself around Hikari, his cheek pushed into her shoulder. They didn’t notice when Kenjiro backed away and went to the foyer. They heard him say he’d be back in the morning and that after he came to see them, he’d be heading to Koto.
“Mama, I don’t have to go,” Hiroshi whispered.
“GO WHERE?!” Asami now pulled away from her mother’s breast and looked up at her older brother in horror.
Hikari had resolved herself in the moments, steeled her emotions before she said anything else. Hiroshi had pulled away from her now as well and looked down to his sister with a small smile. “You think you’re going to get off that easy? I demand more dumplings!”
“Your brother has worked hard.”
The two went silent when Hikari spoke. Probably the only time she could ever remember when they’d settled down when she was trying to speak to them.
“He’s going to go with Oyakata Kenjiro in the morning and go to the capital. He will win the tournament and become a full rikishi as his father wanted him to be, as he wants to be,” her voice was soft, but didn’t quaver.
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Hiroshi felt the glare before he saw it. His little sister looked up at him in his seated position, her eyes full of hurt and betrayal at him leaving them. He reached out for her to pull her around their mother and to him so he could give her a hug, but she dodged his bear cub of a hand. He had said her name, but she turned her back and left. Short, hard footfalls clomped through the house as she ran to her room. Hiroshi looked down and sighed and closed his eyes. There were several moments of silence once more.
“She will miss you, you know? More than I will. You’re a good big brother to little Asami,” Hikari put a hand on her son’s shoulder and he nodded his head. “This will be good though, it will be good for you, could be good for the whole family. Good for the town, and the island,” she continued with a nod of her head. She was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince her son.
“Should I stay?” Hiroshi looked up now and met his mother’s eyes. She was looking at him and smiled. Her eyes were misty, glass pools with green emeralds on the bottom of them, but she shook her head.
“No. It is your duty to go. Your duty to the memory of your father, the duty to your family to become the best you can be. That’s why you’re going to win this tournament in the capital.” Hikari’s seat slid out from the table and she stood. “Start to clean the table, will you? I’ll get your sister.” She looked down at Hiroshi and gave him a soft smile.
Hiroshi nodded his head and finally picked up the chair he knocked over in his excitement earlier. Hikari disappeared from the room and back into the bedrooms of the house. By the time the girls of the family were back, Hiroshi had the table cleaned and was saving what food he could. Hiroshi scraped the food that was left on the plates into a compost bucket.
When his mother and sister came back out to the main room where they ate, Hiroshi had most of the table cleaned. The plates were scraped clean and in the small wash basin where they washed dishes. He had filled the basin with some soap and water just as they entered.
“You’re just in time to dry,” Hiroshi said and grinned at Asami.
Asami glared at him. Her little eyes still looked like reflecting pools of water. “You’re not supposed to leave,” she said and even kicked her big brother’s shin softly.
“Ow!” he called out and dropped the plate back into the basin. He was kidding, of course, Asami didn’t set out to hurt him. It was a small kick from a small girl. He had been hit harder, square in the face with an open palm just earlier that day.
“Alright, enough. Come, let us get this mess cleaned up, and then you both shall get all the blankets and pillows we have in the house. We’re going to make…” but Hikari couldn’t even finish her statement.
“BLANKET FOOOOOOORT!” both of the children yelled out. Their excitement almost matched when they received news that they were having dumplings and noodles for dinner.
Hikari laughed and nodded her head. “Yes, we’re going to make a blanket fort and camp out in the living room. Hiroshi still needs his sleep though. Oyakata will be here in the morning to collect him.” She pointed at them both with a stern finger. “No point in making a bad first impression.”
The children weren’t listening. They were busy trying to get the dishes cleaned as quickly as they could. The soy stains were clear on the wooden plates when Hikari looked over them, they weren’t doing their best work. She sighed and smiled and shook her head. Kids will be kids, and if this was going to be their last night as a family in this house, then she would make it memorable for them both.
It only took them a few minutes and then they ran off and left Hikari looking over the dish drainer full of dirty dishes. Ah well. She would have time to wash them in the morning. She would have much more time than she normally did with Hiroshi gone. The boy took up a lot of her time with his woodworking and sumo activities. She left the kitchen and went off to the living room where Asami and Hiroshi were both already piling pillows. They also hung blankets off of pieces of furniture in the living room.
Their excited chattering seemed like it was any other night. That they would not send Hiroshi off in the morning with some strange man so he could pursue her husband's dreams for him. They were Hiroshi’s dreams for himself as well, Hikari scolded herself. Hikari’s head shook as she stabbed herself in the finger with one of the bamboo skewers she was working with.
Besides getting dumplings and noodles ready for dinner for Hiroshi’s big day, she had also gotten together a special treat for dessert. She had taken some rice and ground it into flour and rolled and worked the flour into a sweet dough. She looked over the twelve balls of dough in front of her: three reds, three greens, and three whites. It was a dessert for the children to signify the coming of spring, and mostly because she knew the children would like it. She assembled the skewers with a ball of each color on them.
“MOOOOOOOOM, ARE YOU COMING?!” Asami’s voice rang out, only slightly muffled by the blankets she was hiding out in.
Hikari peeked her head in and gave a small laugh when she saw the bunny shadow on one side of the blanket. Hiroshi had gotten a lamp and was showing Asami different animals he could do.
“Of course I’m coming. I just had to make these,” she said and brought the tray of the sweet rice dumplings into view.
Asami squealed and Hiroshi was too busy growling, imitating a bear with his latest shadow puppet. He didn’t notice the plate of two skewers were set beside him. He was sitting with his legs folded in front of him, hunched over the lamp so he could get the best angle to do his shadow puppets.
It was a few more minutes of shadow puppets and animal noises before Asami piped up. “Does this mean you don’t want your dessert?” She asked him with her mouth full of her last treat, her skewer empty.
“My wha…?” He turned and saw the plate. “YES!”
Hikari sat watching her children and laughed as Hiroshi took one skewer and gobbled it down greedily. She was only on her second treat, the white one. Eating it slowly and enjoying it. She’d have to make more treats like this for Asami in the future. Without her brother, she would get lonely and possibly sad. Treats might help. Hikari scolded herself once more and shook her head. She pushed the thought of saying goodbye to her son in the morning from her head and put her own skewer down on the plate and moved over the lamp to try her hand at making the puppets.
She approved when Hiroshi gave his younger sister the white dumpling from his second skewer. His least favorite, since it wasn’t really flavored with anything besides some simple white sugar. The red was colored and sweetened with cherry, and the green was minty for a sweet refreshing end to the skewer.
The trio had stayed up well into the night, too late, probably with Hiroshi’s big morning and day coming up. They eventually all passed out snuggled together under the last blanket in the house, the one that couldn’t be used for the fort. It was too big and unruly and heavy. Hikari had her arms wrapped around Hiroshi, and Asami’s head was in her armpit and the last thing she said before she finally fell asleep was, “goodnight my little hamster.”