camwyn | Oh yeah.

olna_jenn, I started on the happy Japanese Mountie story today, but work was a ~~MOTHERFRELLING~~ ~~MELONFARMING~~ ~~MOBOFSCKING~~ bloody zoo. I only have the first scrap so far.

2 November, 2019

"Great-great-grandfather," came a little piping voice at Ikeshoji Kiyoshi's ear, "Mama says you have to get up now."
The old man grunted, still only about half awake.
"Right now," it insisted.
"You know," said Kiyoshi slowly, wincing a little as he started to roll towards the source of the sound, "when I was your age, no one would have talked to someone of ninety-five years like that."
The voice's source, a pyjama-clad boy of four or five, grinned widely. "Mama said you'd say that."
"Oh?" Kiyoshi's hands found a spot to rest, braced themselves. "So why did she send you to wake me up, eh?"
"Because Mama said Grandmama said you have to be in Tokyo before noon today, 'member?"
"Ah yes." Kiyoshi grimaced. "Help your great-great-grandfather out of bed, Daisuke."

Osaka gets more crowded every year, Kiyoshi told himself as his great-grandson scampered ahead of him to the tiny room that served as the family dining room and meeting place. An apartment this big is an incredible prize, and we ought to be grateful for it. Well, maybe Daisuke was, but Kiyoshi couldn't bring himself to think much of it no matter how hard he tried. He had been housed in police barracks where the individual horses got more space than this- all right, all right, that was exaggerating, but not by much. At least his great-granddaughter Haruka and her husband had enough sense to stop at one child. Any more people trying to live in this space, and he'd be right back where he started- back in Tokyo, where it was as much as a man's life was worth to go outside in summer without a breathing mask.
Literally. They'd buried Mayumi's husband back in June.
There were two steaming bowls set up at the table; Haruka was in the kitchen somewhere finishing up, and Kaoru, Daisuke's father, had most likely set out for work an hour before. It was a long walk to his office, and Kaoru always said he'd sooner get a little exercise at the expense of sleep than cave in and buy a scooter. Well, that was his choice, and Kiyoshi didn't begrudge him that choice. Even if it did make for an awfully empty table at mealtimes-
That particular train of thought was cut off as Daisuke, already half-seated, suddenly remembered his manners and scrambled over to pull out Kiyoshi's chair. The old man smiled, murmuring his thanks and surreptitiously tugging at the table to assist the child's efforts at pushing in the chair. "Sorry, great-great-grandfather," said Daisuke, "I forgot."
"That's all right. You remembered in time."
"Uh-huh." Daisuke nodded rapidly, squirming his way back into his own chair. "Just like Mama remembered in time this morning-"
"Daisuke, don't go telling your great-great-grandfather tales!" Haruka stuck her head out of the kitchen, loose strands of her long black hair falling in her eyes.
"But you said you almost turned the alarm off!" Daisuke protested. "You did!"
"That's enough, Daisuke." Tucking the hair behind one ear, Haruka pointed a wooden spoon mock-menacingly at her son. "Now eat your breakfast quickly. We have a train to catch."
"Excuse me, Haruka," said Kiyoshi politely (no sense interrupting if it couldn't be helped), "but why does Mayumi want us in Tokyo today, of all days? Culture Day isn't until tomorrow."
Haruka sighed a little. "My mother said it's a Parliament thing, and that you had to be there."
Kiyoshi suppressed a sigh of his own. Parliament. Again. He had a chest in his half of the room he shared with Daisuke, a chest full of honors and remembrances the Diet had seen fit to give the surviving Imperial Mounted Police. They changed with the years; Kiyoshi had noticed, once, how the more recent ones were nicer work by far than the first. Made sense. There were fewer left every year. "Another medal?" he murmured, reaching for his drink.
"No, something else." Haruka waved her spoon vaguely. "Some new law going into effect today. Mother introduced it."