Chapter: 4 Past {Re-write}

Hori and her short friend walked over, settling down a few feet away from Renko. They unpacked their lunches, chatting away as Renko observed them from the corner of her eyes. The rooftop had been peaceful initially, but the gossip was starting to sound increasingly tedious.

Hori looked over at Renko, her eyes seemed a bit brighter than before.

"So, how are you finding the school so far?"

Renko shrugged, she didn't have an answer to that question. So she decided to go with a vague answer that wouldn't reveal too much of her thoughts,

"It's... different."

The other girl, who had been silent for a while now, finally spoke up,

"I'm Yuki, by the way. Hori said you're a new face here, right?"

Renko nodded,

"Yeah, just transferred."

The three of them fell into a comfortable silence, with Hori and Yuki continuing with their lunch while Renko's thoughts drifted. She couldn't help but feel a bit weirded out, it was too much to take in. Everything suddenly changed in an instant and she was just going along with whatever the moment brought down on her.

The lunch period came to an end, Hori and her friend stood up, 

"We should probably head back to class,"

She said, glancing at Renko.

"You coming?"

Renko nodded, picking up her duffle bag and following them back inside. The rest of the school day passed without any incidents, it was mostly a blur of faces as the teachers came and delivered their lessons. By the time the final bell rang, Renko had a pretty solid idea as to how to ditch classes if she even had to attend the school in the first place.

She left the school building, making her way towards the address mentioned in the letter. The streets of Hanyū were not too crowded nor too desolate, just busy enough to be called lively. As for the apartment building, it wasn't hard to find once she asked someone for directions, apparently the whole neighborhood was one big residential section of the city.

The apartment building was a modest structure. Yeah, no. It was a four-story tall structure with five apartments on each floor. She climbed the stairs to the top floor and found her apartment, the fourth from the stairs. It looked freshly painted and there were some empty boxes outside the door. 

The key slid in perfectly, and she pushed the door open. Inside, the first thing she saw was a doormat that read 'Welcome Home.' There was also a shoe rack with a pair of boots and slippers.

Aside from the main entrance, the apartment contains two rooms: a spacious living room and a bedroom, as well as a balcony running along the bedroom and a kitchen adjacent to the bathroom.

The apartment was clean, crisp, and precise. It didn't have that 'lived-in' feel, or at least Renko couldn't spot any 'personal' touch that apartments tend to have when occupied.

Well, except for one framed family photograph, it featured a white-haired albino man, with electric blue eyes, appeared to be in his mid-to-late 50s, and was 5'10" tall. The woman was a blond Russian, with deep-set brown eyes, thin lips, in her mid-to-late 40s, and was around 5'11" to 6'. There was also a child, a daughter, who looked like a science experiment with both her parents' genes. White-haired, with pale skin, deep electric blue eyes, and pursed lips, looked to be around 13 or 14 years old and 5'3" tall.

Yeah... it looked more like the picture of a couple with their grandchild instead of one with their child.

The first few pages of the diary did mention something about Renko's 'parents,' mostly that she had only seen them once, on her 14th birthday when they both came to meet her for the first time. She was born of surrogacy, Gestational surrogacy to be exact, although there was no mention of her surrogate mother.

All 'Renko' knew was that both of her parents were considerably influential politically, financially, and militarily. Must be an alliance of some sort, that's why they kept a respectable one-hand distance between each other while the family photograph was taken. No smiles, just calculating cold eyes of a businessman and a businesswoman.

The living room was freshly cleaned and dusted, with an expensive-looking rug on the floor between the couch, and two empty bookshelves on both sides of the TV. Still no sign of any personal item, no book or medal or trophy anywhere.

Renko moved into the kitchen. It was also newly cleaned, she could smell the cleaning products. She opened the refrigerator, it was packed full of fresh groceries and neatly arranged food items. There were also several boxes of cups that read 'instead ramen,' some sort of fast food that didn't need much cooking. 

The bedroom had a wardrobe, a bed, a table, and a chair. Inside the wardrobe, there were two spare sets of uniforms and two more in plastic bags with a sticker saying 'Winter.' As for outfits other than uniforms, there were seven sets of baggy clothes which wasn't saying much considering she was built like a stick... all skin and bone.

It took her quite a bit of time to finish inspecting the apartment, most of the time, however, was spent before the mirror. She didn't take all that time to do makeup or anything, just staring at herself in the mirror. The reflection looked nothing like she remembered, just a normal semi-albino teenage girl with sticks for arms and a permanent frown on her lips.

Renko wasn't particularly fond of the veranda, it was far too exposed for her liking. But the view from there was spectacular, especially after it was illuminated by the red hue of the dusk, bathing the city in a crimson light.

Suddenly, a scraping noise caught her attention. It was coming from the next-door veranda. She turned to look and saw a somewhat intimidating middle-aged man...

'Yakuza?'

But that couldn't be right, he was wearing an apron for goodness sake.

Renko could almost feel the scrutiny by which the man was evaluating her... all the while taking clothes off of the drying rack. She stiffened slightly as the man reached into his back pocket, she was beginning to regret leaving the duffle bag back inside. Her eyes narrowed slightly, or they might've just dilated a little, it was a genetic thing she had inherited from... someone?

Her instructor was the first to notice that, she still remembered his exact words: 'Those are some eyes you got there kid.' 

Although it unnerved quite a lot of people, no friends though, she didn't have any. Fellow DMs were either busy putting rounds down the range or for some other reasons, and the rest didn't want anything to do with a 'Coward.'

For a moment, she was lost in old memories, not noticing that the Yakuza was talking to her,

"Yo, new neighbor!"

He called out once Renko turned to look at him, he had an intimidating grin on his face, and the shades, she wasn't sure if he was trying to look scary or he was simply born with that scary mug of his.

She gave him a polite nod, her leg twitching slightly as she readied herself to jump back inside if he pulled a gun on her,

"Name's Tatsu. yer next-door neighbor!"

'I figured as much.'

He started folding the clothes then and there, neatly, just like a Laundry Specialist. However, she never saw one in her entire career, which wasn't a surprise since most of it was spent on moving around bases or on combat deployment.

Tatsu paused, lowering his head so his eyes were visible despite the shades,

"So, just moved in?"

Renko didn't answer, the silence lingered on for a moment, broken only by the rustling clothes as Tatsu continued with his chores. She took a moment to scan the streets, they were pretty deserted save for a couple of housewives walking about with large cloth bags in their hands. Probably returning after some shopping. 

Tatsu seemed unbothered by the awkwardness for he spoke again,

"Don't see many kids your age in this neighborhood. Yer parents moved in here?"

Renko still didn't answer, only stared at him. 

"Fair enough."

He finally stopped asking questions.

The pile of laundry kept disappearing as he folded them into near squares and then into a basket. Both his hands seemed busy, so he was not hostile.

Maybe she ought to answer with something,

"We moved in yesterday."

No point in telling someone she lived alone.

Tatsu looked up from his work and grinned eerily, seemingly satisfied that she was finally responding,

"Oh? If you need anything, feel free to hit me up."

Renko nodded,

'Operation Socialization: Success!'

After nodding Tatsu goodbye, Renko moved back in and decided to look through the diary just one more time. Mostly the part about her parents, just in case there was anything she needed to know before making a move.

And... she was right in doing so.

Her father was a European American shipping magnet, although, the shady people he kept around him seemed to be hinting at something else. As for her mother, well, she was a businesswoman and her business was a front for a Russian organized crime group to export Soviet-era arms and ammunition stored in Siberia all across the world.

'This...'

Truth be told, her diary turned out to be a treasure trove for any Federal Organization...

But how did a teenager get so much information about her supposed 'Parents' whom she had only seen once in her entire life?

The answer was on the next page:

[No need to thank me!]

[Te-he~]

It was the glowing lady's work, wasn't it?

Renko hesitated, contemplating whether she should burn the diary and be done with it, or keep it as a failsafe just in case.

Also, she just found out she had two siblings from her father's side and another one from her mother's. Pretty good considering both sides had no intentions of reaching out to her until their alliance ended and till then, she would be receiving-

'How much's that in yen!?'

Both sides would send a check worth $25,000 each month to assure the opposing party that their alliance still lasts. Renko received the last check three months ago, signaling the end of their so-called alliance. It should be a bloodbath on the international underworld network.

Well, there was nothing for her to worry about. She had been receiving six million yen every month since her birth, in addition to obligatory gits on Christmas, New Year, and her birthday... she could confidently say she was pretty loaded.

Most of the gifts were stuff like jewels or diamonds or gold, pretty much the residue of an international black money laundering machine. She was the garbage disposal bin for stuff they couldn't launder without raising some eyebrows. 

Renko sighed, closing the dairy with a thud. She was starting to see why the glowing lady was washing her hands off of her, probably set her new life on a whim and messed up big time. Her eyes were starting to droop and her limbs felt sore for some reason, overall, she felt a bit too tired to do anything else for the day.

As if to make things worse, her stomach started to grumble. She hadn't realized she had gone the entire day without anything to eat, guess it was a strange sensation to her considering what she had been eating just a while back.

Just like that, another problem dropped into her lap. She had no culinary skills, none at all, nonexistent. But she had heard of grunts hunting and cooking wild animals when they had the chance to do that. So how hard could that be?

...

..

.

Turns out, quite a lot, so she decided to stick with the fast food called 'Instant Ramen.' She had heard of 'Instant salted noodles' before, but never 'Instant Ramen.' 

'Guess it follows the same logic?'

By the time she figured out how to cook the damned thing, which was just to add some boiling water, it was already late. The sky outside was dark and stars were shining, it was a sight she had only seen once when they took her down to Planet Earth along with the rest of the Boots. Once in an entire lifetime.