Respect For My Elders

The first official day of their vacation. If yesterday was any indication, this was going to suck for Arata. Hopefully that was just a bad day, and this trip was going to go swimmingly.

The alarm rang, one that he had set the night before. It was well before he'd normally get up on a day with no school. However, there were things he needed to take care of. Quickly, he turned it off, making sure the other boys weren't awakened by it.

With three rooms under his name, they had divided up into three groups. The elderly, the girls, and lastly the boys he was with. Since those two had known each other longer, Yogi and Akaki shared a bed. That allowed Arata a bed to himself. Probably the only good thing about yesturday.

He tried his best to open the door silently, so as not to stir them. It opened more quickly than expected, and a certain somebody plopped onto the floor in front of him. It was Erina, who had somehow fallen asleep against the door.

He sighed, knowing why she was laying about. That girl must've been spying on them, trying to hear what they were talking about before falling asleep. Arata dragged her out as quietly as he could, closing the door behind him.

"Hey… Wake up." He whispered to her, trying to wake her gently. No reaction, now was the time to try a bit more of a harsh approach. Two light slaps to the face was enough to get her somewhat awake.

"Huh? Oh Yogi not so rough…" She murmured. Arata felt very uncomfortable hearing that. He really didn't want to know what she was dreaming up at this moment.

"I said wake up!" He bopped her on the head, causing her to jolt up from the pain.

"Ow! Hey what's the…" She paused before saying her angry response. "Huh, where am I?"

"I'm taking a not so wild guess that you were peeping on us last night." He told her. She remembered now. When the rest of the girls went to bed, she sneaked out to see what the boys, mainly Yogi, were up to. However, Erina was more tired than she thought, resulting in her passing out while on the door.

"Oh yeah, now I remember. Too bad you guys didn't talk about anything interesting." She acted like he was the one that did something wrong here.

"Well I'm sorry I just didn't feel like talking before bed." He sarcastically apologized. "More importantly, I had to get up early, as you can see."

"Why?"

"Well for today, I promised Hine and the others that I'd help out in the morning. Then after that, I was free to spend it with you guys." He wasn't certain what it was that she needed him to do, but it was probably some simple things. After all, it was their vacation, it was only fair that he helped to lighten their load.

"Good luck with that. I'm heading back to my room then." She was about to leave, but he stopped her.

"Actually, can you please help me here?" He pleaded with her.

"What? And make me spend less time with my dear sweet Yogi." She went off on another daydream. Arata grabbed her arm to break her out of it.

"Please, I could really use the help." He told her. "Plus don't worry about that. I've got a plan for when we hang out in the afternoon." For the morning, he had told Misei she was in charge while he was gone. He was confident that nothing bad would happen under her watch.

"Okay fine, I'll come." She relented. "But your plan better be worth." In truth, he had no plan at the moment. He was just desperate to get her help. Hopefully he would come up with something by then.

The two walked over to the room where the elders were at. When they got there, all of them were awake, waiting for them.

"Oh Arata, I didn't expect you so soon." Hine greeted them. "And you even brought Erina with you."

"Wow, I can't believe he brought his girlfriend with him." Monju complained. He was going to disagree with her, but stopped. At this point, it really didn't matter to him.

"Girlfriend?" I thought that was the girl that was blackmailing him." Said the man of the group.

"They know?" Arata turned his attention to Hine.

"Oh you really don't know how to shut your mouth Gouzaburou." She said to him, irritated. "And yes, they all know about your situation here."

"Wait, does that also mean…

"Oh no, they don't know what you're being blackmailed with."

"I doubt we'll get an answer to that." Said Asazuku. "No matter, it's not our business to be trifling with."

"I'm sorry, but maybe we should be discussing our plans for the day." He wanted to move past this subject about himself. There was nothing that could be done about it with just talking.

"You're right." Said Hine. She looked around for her key card, gathering the things that she would need. "I realize that I haven't properly introduced you to everyone. We can do that on our way to the first place." They all agreed to that. Now it was time to go.

Walking out of the hotel, Arata took a closer look at the people he was escorting. Despite knowing Hine for over a year now. He had never met these people before, did they live in the same area?

"So anyway…" Hine started to introduce her friends formally. "This here is Monju Akata." That was the lady that had been on his case this entire trip.

"Yeah. I bet you've been so busy that you forgot us old folks, didn't you?" While making sure he was doing well weighted heavily on his mind. Arata was always tried to make sure that the elderly came first.

"Don't mind her." Hine whispered to him, noticing his sadness. "She's just trying to make sure you do your best. That old woman actually does care about you, believe it or not." She did? He was wishing she would say it a bit nicer than that.

Wait a second… Would that make her a tsundere grandmother? A tsungranny?

"Anyway. The other lady here is Asazuku Omachi." That was the woman who spoke in an interesting tone. At least by Arata's standards.

"Ah yes. It's also thanks to me that we can afford our annual trips as well." She bragged.

"Really?" Erina spoke up. "What did you make your money?"

"Ah simple. I used to own a chain of desert shops."

"Wait a second." Arata stopped. "You don't mean to say that you're the Omachi?"

"Oh yes I am, or was to put it more accurately." She responded. "But alas, I've given up the business to my son. I hope he's done well for the place."

"Well? He's done amazing!" His eyes lit up in excitement. They was never a moment in his life that he'd ever thought he'd meet the former owner of the ice cream shop he loved so much. "I love it when they get out and set up a surprise shop."

"Oh I'm glad to hear he's kept up that tradition." She had come up with that as a way to promote themselves during their early years. When it was so popular, they just had to keep doing it, even if it was difficult to do.

"I'm glad to hear you're getting along." Hine jumped into their conversation. "But we do have one more person left." She pointed over to the man yet to be introduced. He was an odd looking fellow. With a long beard and shades, it was hard to tell what he was like.

"Hello. I'm Arata, and you-"

"Gouzaburou Koboku." All of a sudden, he disappeared from sight. His voice coming from behind Arata. It gave him enough of a fright to scream and fall over backwards trying to turn around. Even Erina was shaken from it.

"What? But? How?" The old man laughed as he tried to make words.

"Don't worry, he likes to do that to new people." The others laughed along with the Gouzaburou.

"Yeah! As long as they're not old enough to die from a heart attack that is." He said, helping Arata back up off the ground.

"Thanks." He said to him.

"How did you do that?!" Erina still could not believe her eyes. There was almost no way someone could move that fast, not someone at his age, right?

"Well I used to be quite the master in the martial arts, you see." This was amazing to Arata. It was like watching the real life version of shonen anime.

"I can't believe it, you gotta show me that sometime." He asked, it was like a kid meeting their hero for the first time.

"Oh, but it took me years to be able to do something like that. I still train to this day, but I'm not as young as I used to be." Arata was a bit disappointed, but not surprised.

"Lucky for us, now that introductions are out of the way. We've made it to our first destination." Hine pointed out the shop they were now standing next to. "You didn't think we'd skip out on breakfast, did you?"

It was a nice little shop, looking a bit old. Though not unexpected seeing who it was that lead them here. On the inside, the food just smelled so magnificent. Erina couldn't help, but drool.

"Don't leave a mess on the floor." Arata scolded her, but she didn't listen. Instead, she rushed up to the front counter. That was where there were so many freshly baked treats lined up in display.

"That girl is quite something, isn't she?" Hine walked up to him.

"Yeah, it's like taking care of a child." He sighed. "Except children listen to me." She laughed at that joke.

"Ah, but you two have grown so close, haven't you."

"No we haven't." He told her directly. "Listen, if she didn't have any dirt on me. None of them would be here." He was certain that he also wouldn't have been invited to this trip if it weren't for them, but he was leaving himself out of the group.

"Really? Then why'd you invite her to join us here?" She countered.

"It's complicated, I ran into her on my way here. Let's just say she was doing one of those types of things I've mentioned before." Her crush, or obsession, was not a secret to Hine. It really wasn't much of a secret to most people that knew her either.

"Okay, let me ask you this." She said. "If it was someone else, would you have asked them to come." He didn't answer her question.

"Come on, let's eat." He changed the subject, and moved to look for a table that could seat all of them.

"Oh, I've gotta have this noodle bowl. Oh and this too…" Once they got seated. Erina wasted no time ordering her food. Arata realized that the concept of a light breakfast, or any meal, must've been foreign to her.

"I'll just have some fried rice." He asked, much more restrained compared to his partner. "And some chocolate filled croissants."

"You should probably eat more than that." Said Monju. "Aren't you supposed to be growing boy?"

"What she means to say is that you are going to need your energy for today." Something about that sentence made him really worried for what was in store for him.

"Yeah." Gouzabou continued. "Can you also get this boy some kebobs, extra beef please." Arata put his palm over his face. This was going to be a long day, wasn't it?