Chapter 45: 1%

Volume 2

---

Ghost...?

As a realist, he never believed in things like ghosts. Yet, Minoru couldn't explain why these books were hurling themselves off the shelves for some reason.

"Was the culprit a ghost?" Ruby asked, clutching Ai tightly.

"There's no such thing as ghosts, Ruby," Minoru said, picking up a book without feeling anything peculiar.

"Then why did it suddenly fall like that?" Ruby persisted.

Minoru smiled, "I guess that's your homework then. Find out what happened before jumping to conclusions."

Ruby pouted, "Guess I'll let Aqua do the homework. But, I still think it was a ghost."

Aqua stared at Ruby-like, 'What the hell, man?'

"I'm busy. Do it alone."

"Oh, come on, Aqua. Since you're smart, help your sister out, alright?" Ai said, patting his head.

"Okay, sure."

Minoru and Ruby exchanged glances, wearing expressions that said, 'He's such a mommy's boy.'

"Anyway, let's go back to sleep."

"Eh? What if the books fall again? I don't want to wake up every time they start making a lot of noise."

"Even though we could change rooms, I don't want my kids running away from their problems. Just bear with it."

Ai closed her eyes and pondered, "I guess you're right."

With his reasoning, they all drifted back to sleep. As time passed, the books didn't fall again, but the mystery remained unanswered.

---

"Sob! Sob!"

The relentless rain mirrored the unending sorrow of the elderly woman beside him. It was just another day, another rain in London. The scene unfolded with a six-year-old boy, James, his blonde hair plastered to his face, watching a group of people in hazardous suits solemnly place two coffins into a rectangular hole.

"James, from now on, you'll sleep in my house," a sharply dressed old man to his right informed him. On his left stood his grandma, and the three maintained a distance from each other under their respective umbrellas.

Young James nodded slowly, his soulless gaze fixed on the grim sight. His grandpa acknowledged the resilience in his grandchild, who didn't overreact to the loss of his parents this day... due to the early COVID-19 outbreak.

Since then, James has been living with his grandparents.

His grandpa, a head chef, taught him how to cook, while his grandma, a professor who had studied medicine at Oxford, remained haunted by guilt. Having lost her son-in-law and daughter, she blamed herself for not developing the vaccine in time, pointing fingers at others for their incompetence.

As the years passed, James immersed himself in learning to cook from his grandpa. One day, armed with a sandwich and coffee he had just made, he entered his grandma's lab. The sight of her sobbing at her desk didn't escape him, and he winced as he stepped on a messy pile of newspapers, noting, "Ah, it's Grandma's Nobel Prize."

Undeterred, he approached her desk, saying, "Grandma, I brought sandwiches." After a bit of effort, he managed to place the tray in front of her.

"Sob! I'm sorry, James," she apologized through her tears. "If the vaccine was on time, maybe I could have saved them."

In response, he gazed out of the window at the rain pouring from the gray sky, a constant reminder of the distance he felt from his parents' graves. All he could do was watch from afar.

"..."

As the haunting memories of his past faded away, Minoru woke up slowly. He stole a glance at his peacefully sleeping family, sighed, and quietly left the bed. A brief pause at the bookshelves preceded his return to his study room.

---

April 3, 2014

It had been two days since then. It's thirty minutes before lunch, and Minoru is maintaining his undercover status as a teacher, jotting down his lecture on the board. However, he needs to leave the school due to a family situation, as he explains.

"Alright, folks, this is your homework. I'm wrapping up the class now, and you can spend the last thirty minutes however you want," Minoru says, adjusting his suit over his white shirt. "If you have any questions about your homework, you know my email address. Have a good day."

As Minoru walks out of the classroom, the students start buzzing with curiosity.

"Hey, where's he going?"

"Fujiwara-san, since you're close to Sensei, do you know where he's headed?"

"Easy, everyone..." Chika is overwhelmed by the barrage of questions. "I don't know everything about him, you know. Why do people keep asking me these questions? Ah! Why don't you just ask him directly, huh!?"

Meanwhile, Minoru heads to kindergarten and replaces Miyako, who couldn't make it due to B-Komachi's new song. Despite the attention from curious parents, Minoru gracefully steps out of his G-Wagon. At the kindergarten, most parents are women, and they glance at Minoru as if he's a rare species before quickly averting their gaze, a typical Japanese politeness.

This meeting is about Aqua. Minoru isn't sure what the teacher will say about his son, but he's already aware of what's happening. In short, Aqua wants revenge for an incident involving a guy who's already met his demise.

Minoru is conscious of the situation but allows Aqua to handle it on his own, not wanting his son to become a spoiled brat overly reliant on his parents. Moreover, he can't just tell Aqua what happened, so he waits for the right moment. Over the past month, Ai, has sensed something wrong with her son, and she wants Minoru to talk to him as a father.

It seems he needs to impart a life lesson to Aqua.

---

"There you go, Ruby! Well, well… who said you can't dance as well as me?"

Ai smirked with narcissism as Ruby managed to move exactly as she instructed. Currently, it was the afternoon, and Ruby and Ai were using their gym in the penthouse when Ruby asked her to teach her how to dance.

"Huft… huft… thanks, Mama! I didn't know if I could become this flexible, thanks to you!" Even as she gasped for air, Ruby couldn't hide her excitement. Ai laughed at this.

"I think it's because you're a prodigy at this, huh?" Ai hummed, rubbing her chin. "Well, since I'm your daughter…" Ruby put on a smug face, and Ai giggled at that.

"Ahahaha! Makes sense! So, you want to show this to Papa?" Ruby blushed a bit, "Um… no. Not yet."

"Ehehe~ How cute…" Ai read her; it seemed Ruby wanted to perfect her training before surprising him. "Oh… it seems Papa just arrived here. Don't worry, I'll keep him away from this place, kay?"

"Okay! Promise me to keep this a secret."

"Sure sure…" Ai patted her head as she went to the elevator's door. As she walked, she heard something falling again in the kids' room.

"It's been two days, and the books keep behaving like that. How does that even make sense?" She took a quick look, and she was right about it; the books were shattering to the floor like before. And it was the same book when this thing happened. Ai stepped out of the bedroom with a sigh; she wasn't scared anymore, but she worried since the kids were sleeping there.

Speaking of worries, "Minoru-kun—he's waking up late at night again. Did he have bad dreams?" Ai wasn't sure about it.

He's a kind and sweet person. He's the closest person to her right now, but he's also very distant. It's complicated.

Ding!

The elevator doors swung open, revealing a man with silver hair, "I'm home..."

"Welcome home~," Ai said with a grin. "How was your day at work?"

Minoru stepped out, eyeing her with curiosity. It looked like she had just wrapped up a workout, clad in a white sports bra and long leggings.

"Nothing much. Oh!" Minoru smirked, remembering something.

"Hey, what's happening?"

"That's not gonna happen."

"What? You're saying that to me after making that kind of face."

"What face? I'm just dodging red flags, you know? I don't want to end up six feet under after spillin' the beans."

He said, slipping out of his suit, grabbing a glass, and taking a swig of water in the kitchen. Ai kept her eyes on him, pouting.

"You know what? Why would I kill you over some trivial matter? Just spill it, please~"

Minoru nodded while downing the water. "Take a look in my bag..."

Ai peeked inside. "WHAT!? You've got five love confession letters this fast!?" Ai shot him an unsatisfied look. "You claimed you were gonna be a scary teacher. Hmph, such a big liar..." Ai pouted, her eyes growing darker.

"Can't help it. I'm just too good, right?" He smirked, walking over to her. "Tell me, you're not wearing this in public..."

Ai smirked back. "Ehhhhh~? Are you jealous?"

"Of course. And tell Miyako that I forbid all B-Komachi members from wearing revealing clothes from now on."

"Ehehehe~ Then you're a fool for not letting me retire quickly," she said, kissing him. She quickly realized she was becoming bolder than before, hiding her mouth as she added, "Speaking of that, you need to check your song. Will you come to the studio?"

Well, since he was the one who brought this song to the world, he needed to take responsibility.

"Okay. Anyway..." Minoru glanced around. "Where's my daughter?"

Ai snapped, "Ah! She's up to something secret. Don't find her!"

"Huh..." He sighed. "So, my daughter wants me to die of curiosity, huh? Well played."

"Hahaha! Take that as payback for what you did to me earlier," she said, recalling something. "Oh, Minoru-kun. The books are acting up again."

"Ah, that phenomenon. That's Aqua's department, so I'll let him find the answer."

Ai's face couldn't hide her disbelief.

"Minoru-kun, our kids just turned four this month, and you want him to find the answer? He hasn't even graduated from kindergarten."

"Well about that, the teachers think Aqua could graduate anytime soon. So, they're okay with him not taking classes because he's more than qualified to outsmart an elementary school student. You know what? Our little genius can sit calmly reading books mostly at the college level. And again, he's not even four. On top of how brilliant he is, he behaves like a perfect adult, and scares his teacher so many times."

Since they were born, Ai never had the slightest trouble taking care of her kids, especially Aqua. When she reads about other parents' experiences with raising children, Aqua and Ruby seem like a breeze compared to other kids their age.

"Don't stress about it," Minoru reassured Ai, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Even if they're geniuses, they're still just kids. That won't change. As the adults who brought them into this world, it's our job to take care of them, right?"

Ai smiled at his words. "You're absolutely right."

Minoru chuckled, "Damn, now I feel like an old man," he said as he headed upstairs.

Following him, Ai added, "Minoru-kun, never mention age in front of a woman, okay? And I think now is the perfect time to talk with Aqua."

Entering his study room, Minoru mused, "I know. Aqua's shooting in Shibuya, right?"

"Yeah," Ai said, checking out the room. "He's in the middle of shooting a flashback for drama 'I Married My Childhood Friend,' playing the main character back when he was a kid."

Nodding, Minoru grabbed the keys to his Koenigsegg Agera. Meanwhile, Ai couldn't help but feel a bit lost in Minoru's study room.

"I feel too dumb to understand all this. Are you trying to calculate something?" she asked, eyeing the blackboard.

"Oh, I'm just working on a formula for safe travel to and from Mars."

Taking a brief pause, she asked softly, "Mars?" Ai inquired.

"Yeah, it's what I do," Leaning on his desk, arms crossed, he met her eyes with a composed stare. "Perhaps it's because Aqua is my son. I hate to boast, but you know, people who know me don't call me Professor Moriarty for nothing."

Ai stared at Minoru, a mixture of stunned and bewilderment evident. "Professor Moriarty?" she asked, a softness in her voice, the realization dawning that there was so much more she didn't know about him—maybe just 1%, leaving her feeling somewhat lost.

"Ai..." Minoru hesitated, yet feeling the moment was ripe for unveiling a fragment of his, "James Moriarty... is my other name. And most people who know me, remember that name better than Yanagi Minoru."

---

A/N:

It's been a while since I had a story to finish.