“Ahh yes… about that… Well Mr. and Mrs. Himegi, we humbly apologies.” An-Chan says as we all gave a deep bow to them, which shocked them as they suddenly went wide eyed at the sight of us…

Then we stood up and An-Chan began retelling what had happened hours prior…

…

…

“Ahh… So that’s why…” Mr. Sato says as he and his wife contemplated how they should react to what happened.

The scene suddenly became serious as Mr. and Mrs. Himegi suddenly crossed their arms and listened silently. When they heard what had happened, a stark opposite to before when they were questioning me with smiles and open arms. During this time Ageha and Hotaru seemed to sweat bullets as they thought that they will probably be punished.

Everything was told. From when we got there, the initiation, the beach volleyball competition, him getting thrown off the rock and of course the accident. Surprisingly An-Chan told it pretty calmly; as he went on to described things he would sometimes get varying mixes of reactions from the two adults. After that the, two actually remained pretty calm, to my surprise. 

What you would expect normally from parents could probably range from just being told off, then receiving adequate punishment, and that it’s good that nothing bad happened. To more active responses that include yelling, shouting and even sometimes being thrown out the house, which if something bad had happened I could only cringe at what Mr. Shizuka would do to us, if the visual novel was to be kept as an example. Well something bad did happened, with Ageha almost drowning that is. 

But. And this is a big but, what you should expect from entitled parents are much worse, they will probably force you to pay compensation for hurting their little angels. I had to deal with so many of those types when they somehow barged into the principal’s office as I was having a meeting with the her a few times. And trust me they are more stressful than actually being sent to the principal’s office…

 But as said, they remained calm, thankfully, as they contemplated their verdict while we waited with silent but expectant gazes.

This seemed go on for a few more seconds, only to be stopped when Mr. Sato and Mrs. Shizuka looked at each other for a few moments, and simply nodded to one another.

‘Does being married, link your minds somehow? Or make you able to read each other’s mind? ’ I mused at the sight of them nodding to each other, seeming like they had come to the same conclusion, through what could be only be described as telepathy as they gazed into each other’s eyes, without so much as a word spoken.

‘Maybe?’ Angelica shrugs then as if a light bulb suddenly appeared above her head she suddenly grinned, as I braced myself for another one of her antics. It is extremely hard to have a conversation with a teasing angel and not react whilst facing other people. I could probably only cope due to being used to her endless antics.

‘Hey?’ she suddenly sits on the edge of the table in front and looked at me with a mischievous smile. ‘Doesn’t that mean that we are like a married couple? Being able to read each other’s mind and all?’ and leaves a signature grin and wink at the end.

‘I guess so... Now give me the power to read your mind then so we can really be like a married couple. DAR-LING’ I emphasized the end in a suggestive tone as I resisted the urge to react.

‘Da-da-darling?’ The Angel in front of me finally stutters as she looked to the left with bright red cheeks. She is very easy to fluster when she digs her own grave like that, even without the mind reading.

 Then the verdict finally came as I directed my attention back to the married couple who sighed in unison. We prepared for the worst, then…

They both looked to us with a serious look…

….

Feeling beads of sweat form at our brows we waited…

…

*Clap*

This made our hearts jump.

“So, first…” 

…

“I would like to thank you Kazuya.” Mr. Sato said as they both looked at me, this shocked all of us who had brace ourselves for another kind of reaction

‘Huh?’

Then Mrs. Shizuka continued as she saw our dumbfounded faces “What? You saved our daughter so isn’t it right to thank you?” She smiled warmly, and then they proceeded to do a light bow.

“Ah… don’t worry about it Mr. and Mrs. Himegi I just did what others would have done in that” I smiled warmly as I regained my senses after the sudden display of gratitude.

“You have guts Kazuya, still diving off such a tall rock pulling her ashore and giving then her CPR? What kind of normal people have the balls to do that?” Mrs. Shizuka says as she assures me.

“Hmm…” I merely shrugged and smiled at her comment which was rewarded with a chuckle from her, be humble when being praised.

“So the thing about…” An-Chan cuts in with hopeful eyes

“Yeah no need to worry about, Tatsuya-san, nothing bad actually happened right?” Mr. Sato said with warm smile once more.

“Yeah and you actually told us so we are impressed, you could have hidden it, though be careful next time okay? Especially you two” She then looked at the two siblings.

“Ahh… ehehehe” Ageha merely giggled sheepishly

“Right. Ageha?”

“Hai…” She answered

“Though you too still need to be punished for sneaking out and not telling us you were going swimming” She says with a menacing smile as she looked at the two, we all shivered. 

…

“Pfft Hahahahaha” Then the gang cheered  and we looked to each other and celebrated. Aoi and Ma bou even looked like they forgot the previous hostilities they had, as we all laughed and it all ended happily ever after except…

“So thank you again Kazuya-kun, though I do have a question for you…” Mrs. Shizuka once again wore a serious expression as she looked at me. We all suddenly stiffened up at the remark. It was as if the previous cheers didn’t happened as the others sat in silence.

…

“Hai… what would you like to know? Mrs. Shizuka?” I say with an innocent smile to atleast soften the blow that was about to come.

“How was Ageha’s first kiss?”

“Eh?”

Then she laughed as she looked at my shocked expression. The others also did the same and laughed along, though Ageha seemed to blush beet red and run out the room 

“Ahhh! Shut up!!!” She shouted as she disappeared past a white door with the sign saying Ageha-chan stuck to it.

As I shook my head and rubbed my temple. I saw Aoi and Hotaru was also uncomfortable…

“My, my… not only Hotaru but Ageha too huh? Quite the ladies man you are, Kazuya-kun. But I will only let you have one, so Hotaru fighto!” She pushes on with a cheeky grin and a wink as I looked at Mr. Sato who was also rubbing his temple as he sympathized with my situation. Hotaru looked like an apple with how red her face had become and also stormed out the room covering her face.

 ‘Well… this is gonna be a problem’

‘Yeah, maybe.’ Angelica said while wiping a tear from her eye after laughing so hard.

Mrs. Shizuka seemed to smile triumphantly at the sight of the two blushing girls as Mr. Sato cuts in “Dear you should probably stop teasing the them…”

Then everything was wrapped up in a neat bow as I found out that Ageha and Hotaru’s Parents were pretty cool. They only told us off and reprimanded us for a bit, telling us to inform them next time, but it was not as much as we were expecting, so we sighed in relief.

…

Though as we left the store we heard the muffled cry Ageha and Hotaru. I turned to the others for an answer, as the all seemed to have also become scared due to the sound.

As if sensing my gaze An-chan answered “Ah… that was Mrs, Shizuka’s famous butt kick” he laughs in a nervous manner, “Yeah… you wouldn’t want to experience it trust me” Ma bou added as I saw a bead of sweat trickle down the side of his ear.

Imagining it I could only shudder, as I got on my bike, waved them goodbye and cycled off. 

‘Looks like Aoi didn’t wave back’ Angelica says as she sat upon my shoulder.

“Well maybe he hates me now” I answered with a shrug as I pedaled 

“Hmmm… I am not sure about that...” 

“What?”

 “Hmmmm… I want pancakes! Kyousuke” She changes the subject as I questioned her only to get no more information about the matter

*Sigh*

“Sure…”

So I just went with the conclusion of maybe he didn’t hate me? But I may still need to talk with him about this. Miscommunication will only lead to relationships being broken. Well I’ll drop by the store to buy some ingredients for pancakes to butter Angelica up and probe her for information…

 I cycled off as I think of how I should approach the matter…

_________________________________________

…

“You seemed to recognize the boy, dear” Sato says crouched down as he put away sports goods and equipment into their respective racks.

“Oh you noticed? Hmmm… ah! this  one… I once saw him on the front page of a recent sports magazine, here.” She hands him a glossy magazine, with the front page depicting a jet black haired boy standing straight and proud with a kendo sword held with both hands as the tip rests upon the ground. 

 “That boy from Tokyo is really good, the article said he defeated any opponent no matter who, after debuting in the junior’s bracket last year. Taking out seeded opponents one after another, Even the older competitors of the same bracket were no match for him with only the former winner from Okinawa got an ippon lead on him in the grand final. Only for Kazuya to suddenly awaken according to that, and take two points and winning the match in just 14 seconds” Shizuka who walked behind the counter, went about doing some paper work.

“The front page? Is that so… Wait… Shirou? ” Sato says as he glances at the magazine then towards the single shelf of barely adequate amount of kendo equipment. Most of the time the front page of such magazines uses more international sports such as volley ball, basketball and football, kendo rarely gets the front page so this was quite the achievement.

“Yeah from Shirou Corp, well it probably helped that he was handsome and he was actually praised as the “Undefeated Young Kensei” after that match, and that maybe landed him the front page”

“The Undefeated Young Sword Saint… Then… what is such a talented boy from Tokyo doing in a town like this? I wonder?” Sato asks as he stood up after finishing and walked towards the counter 

“I don’t know, he said he was here for vacation, probably that.” She then promptly shrugs and continues working.

“Yeah…” 

“Though he might end up actually taking one of our angels away” Shizuka says teasingly as she looked up at him with a cheeky smile.

“As if you’d let him. Though I thought you only would accept Aoi?” Sato looked at her with a quizzical look

“Well they could have one each, that boy his eyes seemed to tell that he is wise beyond his years. Has the guts to dive off a cliff to save someone. And quite polite too, though he doesn’t seem to blush easily… He would probably make a good son in law” Shizuka says as she flicks through a stack of papers.

“Are we seriously talking about giving our daughters away?” Sato says with an eye brow raised.

“I don’t know? Maybe” She just shrugged once again and smiled at him. Then they shared a laugh as Sato leans in and gives his wives chaste kiss on the lips. Leaving Shizuka with a slight red tint on her cheeks.

“Hehe… Umm… you should probably console the two I may have went too far this time” She looks up innocently as she rubs the back of her head

Sato smiled warmly, shook his head and said “I love you so much, dear” then kisses her in the forehead

“I love you too...” Sato smiles brightly as he hears that, then turns and proceeds to go to the back room.  

‘Shirou Kazuya huh?’ Sato once again glanced at the magazine as he walked up the stairs

‘If you want one of my daughters... You have to fight for them’ He thought as he nodded to himself…