Kit and Kin

poetheather

Takeshi Saito was a quiet student who kept his head down in Ravenscrest High School trying to get along. But strange things happen in this small town and and the spotlight finds those who would rather hide. So Takeshi finds himself pulled from his happy geek corner to somewhere else, somewhere he is not sure of. Just another day in Ravenscrest.

Chapter One

Kit and Kin

January 18

With a start, Takeshi woke eyes scanning the room, looking into the shadows as if something was going to come out of them after him. He swallowed heavily and wiped the slight sheen from his forehead with the sleeve of his pajamas as he panted. The nightmare was fading and he could only remember faint traces of it, only the cold, of running through the dark, through the snow, but he wasn’t sure if it was on two legs or four. And there was something chasing him or several somethings. Whatever it was it scared him.

He shuddered and dropped his forearm across his forehead, covering his eyes. “Ugh… what the hell was that…”

The red numbers of his clock clearly showed that he still had thirty minutes until he usually got up for school. Closing his eyes, he knew he wanted more sleep but his heart was still pounding fast and he was shaken by how intense the nightmare had been. Even though he could not remember the details, he knew that it had been very crisp and sharp, almost real. There was no way that he was going to get any more sleep thanks to it.

Grumbling, he got out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom, his eyes mere slits. Thankfully he did not have to share a bathroom which made his showering and taking care of his morning ablutions extremely easy and stress free. That made life so much easier. He knew people who shared bathrooms with siblings and complained about it all the time.

Looking into the mirror, it was clear that he had not slept well, with the dark circles under his hazel eyes. It took some work to tame his auburn hair but he managed to get it into some semblance of order before he headed back to his room. Once dressed, he headed downstairs, where he could already smell the rich scent of coffee. Clearly his mother was awake, as she was the only one in the house who drank the bitter stuff.

Entering the kitchen, Takeshi saw that both his parents were there. He went up to his mother and said, “Morning Mom.”

She smiled around her coffee mug, putting down the paper she had been scanning.

From the stove his other mother turned and grinned at him, “Morning baby.”

“Morning kasa.”

“Breakfast will be ready in a little bit. You’re up early.” She poured him a cup of green tea and handed it over.

He bowed slightly in thanks. After taking a sip he replied, “I had a nightmare that woke me and I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I figured I might as well get up.”

His mother, a red haired woman of clearly Irish descent, got up and hugged him, kissing the top of his head. “Do you remember it? Sometimes talking about these things can help.”

Takeshi shrugged noncommittally. “All I really remember about it is that I was being chased by something in the snow. It was pretty scary. The weird thing is I think I may have been on all fours for part of it.”

His mothers shared a look and then his kasa, a beautiful Japanese woman with auburn hair a darker shade than his, said, “Well, have a seat. I have breakfast ready.”

After having breakfast he went upstairs, read some online manga for a bit and grabbed his book bag when he noticed the time. Back downstairs his mom was waiting by the door, jingling the car keys. “Come one Takeshi… gotta get you to school.”

He got his coat out of the hall closet, hugged his kasa and went out to the car. As he was buckling up his mom began the morning interrogation, “Ready for that math test today?”

“No, but I can fake it.” tossed back Takeshi with a confident grin.

“You know you have to keep those grades up. If you can get into AP Calculus that would really help you in college.” stated his mother as she focused on the driving. They were passing through the edges of the University and into the town proper.

“Mom, I’m just a Sophomore. I don’t have to worry about that yet.” complained Takeshi.

“It is never too early to think about your future. A good school can open lots of doors for you. Your mom and I have saved up and we are able to send you anywhere you can get into. We just want you to go after your dreams.”

Takeshi smiled, “Thanks Mom. I will try my best.”

“That’s a good boy.” She gave him a smile that was full of love and caring.

The drive through Ravenscrest always seemed to change in how long it took, despite it being the same distance every day. His mom always drove the same route to the school and yet some days it took them only ten minutes to get there and other days twenty and that was with no traffic. Given that they lived out by the University, where his parents worked, it shouldn’t have been that strange but it was. The whole thing was just one of the strange quirks of the town that always seemed to confuse him.

His thought’s turned inwards as he thought about the town and growing up there. Being a boy and living in what had been dubbed the Estrogen Palace by a number of students over the years had been an experience for Takeshi. This was because his mom taught Women’s Studies courses and her Kasa was the women’s Soccer coach and taught as well. That and they were married. The family was a mix of both American and Japanese cultures and he had been teased growing up for being in a strange family. Occasionally Craig Harper would help stop the bullies from doing anything but not always. Sometimes, he wasn’t there, because he was busy with his friends.

Being a mix blood kid in a small, somewhat of conservative town like this was not the easiest of things to deal with. He got left out of things and picked on a lot. There were a few people that actually would hang out with him on a semi regular basis but no one really was there all the time and that was a sad thing. Trevor Locke was a sort of friend but he had vanished in the fall along with Craig. That really sucked, as it sort of left him open to some of the bullies out there. But several of the worst were gone as well. Mike Curtis, one of the football players, was gone, much to his relief and Troy had gotten hurt really bad. It was a strange year school year so far and it was only halfway over.

There were some new kids as well at school, but they were not in his social circles, down near the bottom rung of things. For a quiet town where things rarely changed, things had changed a lot in just the last few months. But the influx of girls was nice on the eyes. Cindy and Tracy were really popular but his eyes were only for one girl, Dana Stiles, the love of his life. Just thinking about her made his heart race.

As the car pulled up to the school, Takeshi scanned the school for any sign of Dana and there was none. The Vice Principal was there standing outside and he did glare for a moment at his mother, who glared right back. Then they both looked away at the same time. Takeshi had no idea what to make of that. Once the car pulled to a stop his mother leaned over and kissed his cheek, “Have a good day at school sweetie.”

“Thanks mom.” He got out and headed inside, sighing about the fact that he had to face yet another day of dealing with this bull. In all honesty there was a lot of this he could learn more efficiently at home on his computer, but he did have to confess that there were a few competent teachers that he would miss. There were even people at the school that he might miss and definitely some he would not.

At his locker he switched out his books and got what he needed for his first few classes. There were more and more people filling the halls as the couple of busses that served the town arrived. Things were just fine until he felt a disturbance in the wa of the hallway. He looked to his left and noticed one of his other usual bullies. David Westerburg, one of the starting hockey players and his cronies were headed his way. They hadn’t spotted him yet but if he did not do something soon they would in a few moments.

Takeshi shut his locker, slid quickly through a few clumps of people and slipped into a small gap between the sets of lockers that was barely big enough for his body. Putting his back into the corner, he slowed and deepened his breathing, pulling in his ki like his kasa had taught him back in second grade. He let the air out in a silent trickle, feeling himself fade away. He kept this up until the trio of thugs walked past, not even noticing him.

Once they moved out of his line of sight and around a corner of the hallway Takeshi started breathing normally, letting himself fade back into the flow of every other teenagers’ ki signatures. He sighed and thought to himself that sometimes coming from a family background where you learn Ninjitsu as soon as you can walk has its benefits. Of course it also has its down sides as well.

Since Ninjitsu is by its very nature a hidden art and his Kasa insisted that he practice it in a traditional manner, Takeshi really couldn’t let people know that he was actually really skilled. This meant that occasionally he had to let Curtis and his goons or Troy or Westerburg and his other hockey goons have their fun. He never got hurt that bad, because after all that training he could move with things and roll with the attacks, but it was embarrassing getting stuck into lockers and dumped into a trash can knowing that he could actually beat down the people doing it to him. And he actually liked sports like lacrosse and swimming and wanted to play but as long as his bullies played such things he had to not let on what he could do. Stupid rules.

Despite how much he hated those rules, he still had to play by them, especially at school. Ravencrest High School had several different social pecking orders and having to hide the fact that he was in excellent shape and stuff was tough. The fact that he was into a number clearly ‘geeky’ things, like anime and manga, fantasy fiction and gaming both tabletop and console as well as certain comic books helped with that a great deal. Those hobbies ensured that he was relegated to the bottom of the social heap, with a number of other people. But even then there was a stratum of losers; you just couldn’t win for losing in this stupid town.

Takeshi looked at his watch and hustled. He had to get to homeroom and one of the three classes that he had with Dana. He knew that there was something seriously wrong with him. There was no way in hell that Dana Stiles would ever deign to go out with him. She was so smoking hot and there is no way that she would ever do anything as ridiculously stupid as go out with a social reject like him. It would ruin her socially. He was beneath her notice.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, thinking that maybe that was a bit harsh. He wasn’t a total reject, but by and large he just did not feel comfortable around some of these kids but that had nothing to do with how attractive Dana Stiles was and how she would never give him the time of day. She knew the Harper’s and the Locke’s and the people who actually seemed to be the movers and shakers in this stupid town and he was just the son of a couple of lesbian teachers at the University. What did he have to offer to a girl like that? He took his seat and slumped into it, depressed yet again by that realization.

Dana came into the room, talking with her friend Cindy, and he straightened right up. He tried to keep from staring but it was difficult. How could one avoid gazing at the sun? He just loved her so much. Why couldn’t he get up the courage to even talk to her? He sighed and opened his book bag, getting out his notebook, trying to keep from making more of a fool of himself than he normally did.

Class passed in peace with him occasionally losing track over what was being said and just watching Dana. Cindy caught him looking once and he busied himself taking notes, looking down and scribbling frantically. His face burned red with embarrassment and he kind of wished a hole would open up and swallow him. Thankfully class ended and he had a while before he had class again with her. The other two classes with her were after lunch.

Making it through until lunchtime with only a few bumps into the lockers by the usual suspects counted as a good day to him. He sat down at the geek table and pulled out his bento, unwrapping it from the cloth that it had been tied up in. He unscrewed his thermos and found the tea still somewhat warm, which was nice. This meant that it had been skin flaying hot when it had been poured in and he was glad he had not had any of it earlier. Getting out his chopsticks from his backpack, he started eating, after he enjoyed the cute art that his Kasa had made out of his lunch.

“Dude, your mom is so awesome with that stuff. It looks like it came right out of a manga.” commented Wallace, as he sat down opposite Takeshi. He was a lanky anime nerd wearing a Deathnote t-shirt and a Full Metal Alchemist satchel with his coat tucked through the straps, who had a tray of whatever the usual school swill was. He grinned huge and tucked into what supposedly passed for beef stroganoff.

Maggie, a rather quiet girl who was into all sorts of fantasy literature and nearly as socially isolated as he was, sat down next to him and smiled at his food. She chuckled as she got her brown paper bag out of her book bag. “You always have the cutest food.”

With a sigh and a long practiced exaggerated roll of the eyes, Takeshi lamented, “That’s exactly what a guy wants with his food… for it to be cute. Oh the eternal shame!”

“I’ll eat it and you can have my tuna salad.” Maggie offered with a hopeful grin.

“No thank you.” countered Takeshi. “I may not want my food to look like Sanrio exploded in it but it is always tasty. And it shows that my Haha cares about me. But you can have a little bit if you want.”

Maggie smiled as she unpacked her lunch and started eating.

Greg, who was one of his friends through Trevor, sat next to him on the other side, saying, “So, Takeshi, I heard that you were mooning over Dana Stiles in class again.”

Takeshi blushed again and looked down at his food, pretending to ignore Greg. “I did not.”

“In Homeroom.”

“Uhm… eating here.”

“Really? Again?” asked Maggie, quite unhelpfully.

“Where did you hear it from?” Takeshi asked.

“From Malice who said she heard it from a friend of Cindy’s who said she saw you.” Greg smiled broadly like he had made a scoring point.

Takeshi lowered his head, his cheeks coloring. His heart was racing some and it felt like something was caught in his throat. “Could you guys just drop it.”

Maggie turned and hugged him briefly. “You just need to get brave enough to ask her out.”

“Oh sure. Like that will happen.”

“Maybe to your party this weekend?” offered Wallace.

“No. For some reason my Great Grandmother wants to have a big to do out at her place. I have no idea what that is all about. So my whole weekend is back to traditional Japanese stuff.” grumbled Takeshi fairly irritated about the whole thing. He just wanted to have a party with his friends but his parents had said this was an important cultural event and could not be excused.

“How cool is that.” said Wallace, otaku stars dancing in his eyes.

“Wallace, it is a lot of formality over nothing. It makes me crazy. I have no idea why my crazy Japanese family is up here in the middle of the effing Catskills to start with. Makes no sense.” Takeshi was warning up to a familiar rant that the others had heard a time or two before.

“Maybe you can ask about it this weekend? Maybe you are the descendant of a group of samurai or something?” mused Greg, trying to make Takeshi feel better over everything. “I mean, it’s possible… right?”

Thinking about the Ninjitsu training he had been given since he could stand, Takeshi thought that last guess was probably not correct. If there was some sort of family secret it was probably not something to do with samurai. He was really hoping that they were not a family of assassins or something, as the idea of killing someone turned his stomach, “I guess.”

“So when are you celebrating your sweet sixteen with the rest of us Takeshi?” asked Wallace, with a smirk.

“I guess we can do something the next weekend. It’s just that my moms have been really saying that this thing with my Great Grandmother is really important and there is no excuse for me to miss it. I have no idea why this is important. It’s weird. The old woman’s a bit strange and flighty.” Takeshi replied with a resigned shrug.

“Dude this sounds like the start of a Miyazaki film.” Wallace seemed really excited by this idea.

Takeshi stood, reached across the table and slapped him in the back of the head, “No it does not. My life is not a fucking Anime. My Great Grandmother is just a weird old lady who has a fixation on being a traditional Japanese crazy lady. We will probably sit around her house having a tea ceremony, talk about what she wants my future to be like and maybe have her plan out who she wants me to marry. I don’t know. She is a cracked old lady who only speaks Japanese and is six tacos short of a combination plate. So, no… my life is not a Miyazaki film.”

There was a voice clearing itself from behind them. The group of them froze and all turned to look behind Takeshi. The Vice Principal was standing there looking down at them with beady eyes, “Mr. Saito, may I have a word.”

Takeshi dropped his head and sighed in resignation, “Yes sir.”

He stood up, closed up his bento and followed along to the Vice Principal’s office. When he got there, he sat down in the chair indicated and looked around as he had never been there before. He noticed that there were a lot of fox objects in the room, more so than he had expected from the Vice Principal. It was almost like the man had a bit of a fixation with the animal. It just made the man even creepier in Takeshi’s eyes.

“You know that you are not supposed to hit your fellow students Mr. Saito.”

“Yes sir.”

“I suppose that your defense is that Mr. Erickson said something that warranted a blow to the back of his head?” asked Mr. McCormick, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes sir… I mean no sir.” said Takeshi.

“I see. So you are having a birthday this weekend?”

“Yes sir.” Takeshi was unsure where this was going and was a bit hesitant about answering. Was this something he did not have to talk about? And what did this have to do with his smacking Wallace?

“Well… seeing as it is your birthday and all, I will let you go this time. Have a good birthday Mr. Saito and do stay out of trouble.” said the Principal, looking down at some paperwork on his desk, clearly dismissing him.

“Uhm… thank you Mr. McCormick.” Takeshi was even more confused than usual. This whole thing seemed completely bonkers to him. The Vice Principal wasn’t giving him detention? What the hell had this been all about?

“Head off to classes.”

Takeshi left the office and was a bit dazed. He blinked a few times trying to sort out what had just happened. It was all so strange. Today was very odd with nothing really going right. He was so focused on how peculiar the day was that he did not notice what was going on around him until he ran right into Dana Stiles.