BOOK 2

  THIRD TIMES THE CHARM

  Chapter 27

  Book 2, chapter 1. Boomerang Kids.

  March 4th, 2014, Tokyo Japan, Kaizaki Residence.

  Tanya never thought she would live to see the day were she had to move back in with her parents. But here she was, unloading her suitcases and several boxes of stuff she had acquired into her new/old room.

  Looking over the room, much had changed, but there was still a BO?WY poster framed on the wall from way back when, along with her old bookcases, so not everything had changed. Sighing, Tanya began the lengthy process of unpacking and organizing her possessions. She could still hear her grandmother’s excited voice in the kitchen, as she prepared a welcome feast for them.

  Hearing her voice made her remember the nearly frantic manner in which she had shown them around the house. Explaining the locations and purpose of each room, something Tanya had to pretend to be unaware of.

  “Tanya, you’ll be in this room dear. It was your father’s old room. And Visha, you’ll be down the hall on the same side here, let me show you…”

  Tanya remembered that room being her grandfather’s old room. The two shared a wall and she could remember being woken up every once in a while, from his father’s snoring after a late night at the office.

  After they had gotten settled, the two went down to the living room to pay their respects to her “father” at the altar. It was surreal looking at the black trimmed photo of her old self staring back at her from the memorial tablet. Tanya didn’t know what to feel.

  Visha leaned over and whispered softly,

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s alright, just strange is all.”

  “I know. You look different than I imagined. So, normal, like any one of the thousands of men we passed by on our way here. I always had this image of you being this tall imposing figure, with a fierce face and sharp eyes.”

  “But you’ve seen me before in the…vision.”

  “Yeah, but not really. It was mostly from your point of view and I focused a lot on how people reacted to you not what you looked like. Have you noticed that it’s hard to remember a lot of what happened during that time.”

  Stunned, Tanya thought it over and hesitatingly responded.

  “Ye—yes. Like all the details remain fuzzy.”

  Just then, her grandmother walked in and noticed them.

  “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes’ girls, oh… Would you like me to give you some privacy or?...

  “No. It’s alright we were just paying our respects. Though I would like to go to his grave when we get a chance. Maybe during O-Higan?”

  “Of… of, course dear,”

  Her grandmother sniffed loudly and coughed once before forcefully pitching her voice higher in a more chipper tone and saying.

  “If you ever want to look at some pictures of when he was young, I have a few laying around here and there we can pull out, and I think we still have his old school yearbooks on the bookshelf in your room as well. Maybe we can look at them together sometime.”

  Tanya felt her eye twitch, and decidedly didn’t translate her grandmothers last offer to Visha.

  That night at dinner her grandmother had pulled out all the stops and the four of them had a great meal. Tanya felt her stomach full to nearly bursting and forced herself to take small sips of her tea, so as not to feel further bloated.

  “So how is Momo-chan settling into the apartment? You mentioned she was able to transfer to a new school already, how’s she holding up?”

  Her grandmother asked.

  “Well enough, she scored adequately in her transfer tests, and they accepted her credits from her old school, which is why we picked that school in the first place. She seems to be adjusting well to the curriculum and environment.”

  Tanya stated.

  “She also said she’s made a few friends and that they even invited her to karaoke.”

  Visha added for some reason.

  “Oh, that’s good, we should get together again for dinner sometime, invite her over when you get a chance.”

  “Sure thing, Grandma.”

  ~

  March 6th, 2014, Tokyo Japan, Kaizaki Residence.

  “Is it ready yet?”

  “Patience.”

  “Urg”

  Tanya whined.

  “Ok, now it’s ready”

  “What’s got you girls so excited this morning?”

  “Oh, that’s right! Grandfather you’ve never had some, here try some of this, its Visha’s coffee, she makes the best in the world.”

  “A bold statement for one so young, but your old grandpa’s been around the block a few times and… OH MY!!!”

  “See, told you.”

  “It really is rather good. My compliments to the young lady, would it be possible to get another cup to take with me to wor.”

  “Nope sorry, it’s already all gone grandfather, I’ll ask her to make a larger batch tomorrow.”

  “Gone? Already? Wait, why do you have such a large mug, when did we get cups that big for the house?”

  ~

  March 12, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Kaizaki Residence.

  “She’s just in here, I’ll introduce you.”

  Entering Visha’s room after knocking, Tanya caught the tail end of a video browser closing as Visha quickly mashed the keyboard.

  “Ah, perfect you’re still studying. Visha, feel free to take a quick break while I introduce you to your new language tutor, Koyanagi Hanako. Please treat her with respect as your teacher and don’t waste her time. She came highly recommended and is fluent in both Russian, German, English and Mandrin Chinese, as well as speaking a few others with less fluency.”

  “Miss Koyanagi, this is Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, your new student. Feel free to get to know each other and begin lessons whenever you are ready. If she gives you any trouble, please let me know. I’ll deal with it.”

  And with that, Tanya let herself out of the room, dusting her hands and checking that box off her list of things to do. Visha would be in good hands, she wasn’t exaggerating when she said that the tutor came highly recommended, and highly expensive, went left unsaid.

  ~

  Visha’s first impression of her language tutor was…as expected of someone who the commander personally selected and spoke so highly of. Tanya wasn’t one to hand out praise lightly and when she said someone was competent, they were. The woman dressed in a very sharp and freshly starched women’s suit, with a black skirt and jacket over her plain white blouse. She had a stern sharp face with prominent cheek bones and a pointed chin, paired with her deep black hair that was pulled up tight in a high pony tail and almost had a seaweed green tint to it in certain lighting. All in all, a lovely if fierce looking woman, even with the glasses, that only served to make her appear all the more intellectual.

  Visha feared that she was going to be working for quite the task master again.

  “Now then miss Serebryakov, I will be instructing you in the language moving forward, after today I will see what your baseline is and plan your curriculum accordingly going forward. However, why don’t we take a quick moment to get to know each other first. Do you have any hobbies or favorite TV shows, are you familiar with any anime from our country that you like to watch? How about manga do you follow any?

  Visha had the woman repeat a few of the questions and clarify, before answering in the negative, regarding anime and manga.

  “Hum, pity. Alright let’s get started….”

  ~

  March 20th, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Kaizaki Residence.

  Visha was furious. The Colonel had come in and without any warning, turned off her show. Did she know how annoying it was to have to sit there and wait for all the ads to finish before she got to watch the show.

  No! She didn’t, because she didn’t care and she saw it all as a useless waste of time just like everything else Visha did for fun these days. She practiced the language; she studied the math and history materials that she was given. Was it too much to ask for a little R&R!

  Tanya was wound so tight, it was like they were still in the trenches, waiting for the next wave to attack. Everything was still, preparation, preparation, preparation.

  Taking a calming breath, Visha decided she needed to find a way to convince her friend that this was something she needed and not just her being lazy. It was offensive that the colonel still thought she could be lazy. Maybe it was time to bust out her old notebook and slap that hard ass with some cold hard numbers. Speak in a language that robot would understand…Or go on strike.

  Maybe making coffee was time better spent studying as well…

  ~

  Tanya looked over the numbers Visha had written out, and to the best of her knowledge, they did line up with the amount of leave both her and Visha had been owed by the army. Then Visha brought out the big guns and Tanya soon found herself not only allowing “wind down” time for post study R&R but also being drafted into it as well.

  Visha called it team building and therapeutic, Tanya called it hell. Though the snacks were nice.

  ~

  April 13, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Kaizaki Residence.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Sonoko woke up to the sounds of screams and shouts. Sitting up in surprise, she was halfway out of bed before her mind recognized that they weren’t screams of fear or terror. She couldn’t understand the language, but she recognized it as the one Tanya and Visha shared with each other. The panicked shouts abruptly cut off at the sound of a second voice barking an order. Silence reigned in the house once more, before the sound of a door sliding open broke the silence, followed by the pat pat of little feet on the floor leading to Visha’s room.

  That was far from the last incident they had in the house.

  It had nearly broken her heart the first time it happened to little Tanya, as she had been dosing on the couch after a long day. Sonoko had dropped a pan onto the floor trying to put it away and the sound had startled her dear one into panicked shouts, before she realized where she was.

  ~

  Tanya had to keep reminding herself that waking up from nightmares of the war was a normal symptom of the stresses of war and that it was not a weakness or an indication of a flawed mind.

  As guilty as the sentiment made her feel, it had been a relief when Visha had her first nightmare. At least the first one Tanya had noticed, but it was of some comfort that even in this, they were together and could reach out and pull one another through.

  When she had said as much to Visha, the girl had beamed at her and told her she was “making great progress.” Whatever that meant.

  Most of the dreams weren’t that bad, just startling, waking up in preparation for an attack or barrage that wasn’t there. No, the bad ones were the ones with faces. Faces of her men, fighting, dying, asking why she had abandoned them and left them to die, or worse, why she’d ordered them to die in her stead.

  Those dreams caused her to wake up in a cold sweat with her heart pounding, but she rarely shouted or disturbed anyone else. Even then, most of the time she would be awakened from the visions of her men’s bodies lying before her, by the gentle shaking of her shoulder and soft sound of Visha’s calm voice.

  She would then offer to talk about it, but Tanya still couldn’t bring herself to share this particular nightmare with anyone yet, even Visha. No, she would just make another note of debts owed and strive to somehow balance the ledger between them in the future.

  ~

  April 25th, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Momo’s Apartment.

  Momo let her two friends into the apartment and nervously stepped back, as Tanya looked around the place.

  “It looks nice, I like what you’ve done with the space. They say plants help reduce stress and improve relaxation after a long day of work.”

  Momo exhaled at the gentle praise. She had been so excited and deeply honored to have been offered to rent the apartment from Tanya’s family. After all, she knew what the place meant to them. That and the rate was beyond generous; she was practically just house sitting at this price.

  Leading them to the couch, they sat down while she retrieved the drinks and snacks. Officially this was a sort of study session rather than a pure get together, but Momo had no illusions about what this visit was really about.

  Her friends had missed her and she them! Oh, they had so much to talk about, were her thoughts as she returned with the snack tray. Only to gaze in stunned horror at the literal pile of open books and study guides now littering the table.

  Where did all those come from?

  After what felt like years later, Visha finally closed some books and began talking about stuff that was actually important. Tanya grudgingly participated as well giving them all a break. It was Friday, the start of the weekend and Momo would be damned if they wasted their time together only doing school work.

  So, they talked about this and that, Visha wanting to go through her wardrobe after she mentioned a great sale she had gone to. Tanya asked after her health and how her job search was going, but was hushed by Visha as they got to the closet.

  After settling down at the table with the take out, they’d ordered, Tanya once again asked about her job search.

  “It’s going fine, I’ve had a few call backs, but they wanted me to work hours that wouldn’t mesh with my schedule, so I had to decline. Though I got a lead from your grandma, that I’m following up on. Apparently, there’s a senior center she has an acquaintance at, it’s always looking for strong bodies to help out with things. The pay isn’t amazing but it’s a chill, safe job, so I might go for it.”

  “That sounds great Momo-chan, but don’t over stress yourself.”

  Visha commented.

  Dinner ended nicely and Momo was truly enjoying the feeling of having people around her again, sharing her day with them. They watched movies and shows and ate snacks, staying up late, before they finally got ready for bed.

  Just like that one time back at the shelter, the three found themselves laying next to each other on three futons that had been squished together on the floor, talking late into the night.

  Then Tanya brought up that topic. She didn’t do it to be mean or spiteful, just genuine concern, in her own special Tanya way. Like a man meticulously going over his favorite car, checking for any strange sounds, that might indicate a problem.

  And in this case, there was a problem.

  “No, I haven’t been able to find a new therapist for a while now. After Dr. Okido, I went to another male doctor, thinking it might be similar…but his eyes. Well, after a few sessions I just started feeling uncomfortable, and I didn’t like the way he talked or looked at me sometimes. He would always take opportunities to touch me as well. A shoulder pat, when I was leaving or a lingering handshake during greetings. It felt gross, and he would always sit too close. So, I just stopped going, and ignored his follow up calls. After that…”

  Tanya went very still all the sudden, before suddenly snaping her arm out across Visha-chan’s chest as the girl made to rise. She spat out a quick string of words in German, before looking back at Momo.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, please excuse Visha, she’s a bit upset with your doctor at the moment and needs to calm down! Please continue.”

  “Ah… Ok… as I was saying, so, I stopped going to him and tried out a woman next, she wasn’t bad, someone younger, anyway, so, I started seeing her for a bit and she was good. But when I really started opening up after a few sessions about my real problems, and my need for validation and the lengths I’ll go to get it… Well, that’s when she got weird. She would still say all the right things and give good advice, but when I would share things with her, details. I could see it in her face, in her eyes…she was disgusted by me. For a professional she wasn’t even that good at hiding it, like it was so obvious! You and Visha are much better at hiding how you’re feeling.

  “Not that I’m saying you guys feel that way, or anything! Just that in general, you two do a good job of hiding what you’re feeling or thinking…Anyway, so after that I just stopped looking for a new therapist and decided to figure it out on my own.

  “Oh, Momo!”

  Visha wailed, before leaping over Tanya and wrapping Momo in a hug.

  Despite all of Visha’s hugs and gentle assurances, it was Tanya’s words that truly brought comfort to her heart.

  “Well, I’d like the name of your first therapist later if you don’t mind. But there is something I want you to understand. You can’t give up on getting professional help after a few duds. Remember just because someone got the degree doesn’t make them magically competent at their job. They are still the same lazy slackers that did the bare minimum to pass their classes all throughout high school and college. No! You need to keep looking until you find someone competent. This is my failure; I should have helped you out with the interviews and research.

  “The next thing is, well, this may come off as a bit preachy but don’t use other people as a means to receive validation. Your own work and efforts should be what brings you that. Find validation in the work that you do and the quality of your own efforts. Then no one else can let you down, you rise or fall on your merits. And if someone is undervaluing your efforts, resign from them and move on to somewhere else that does.”

  Momo spent a few minutes getting her back patted, while she slowly let those words sink in. They weren’t poetic or profound, in fact they were things she had heard before, but said with much less passion then Tanya had. The earnestness in her friend’s tone had been touching; Tanya was trying her best to hep her in the only way she knew how. And Momo refused to let her friend’s faith in her go to waste.

  Maybe she would try a little harder to get that part-time job she had been dragging her feet on.

  Later that night, Momo woke up in a puddle of sweat, feeling incredibly hot. Then she noticed the reason why. She had started out the night on the end with Tanya’s futon being between Her’s and Visha’s. After their little hug session, she had ended up in the middle of the two. Now she was tightly sandwiched between Visha and Tanya, who both had their arms wrapped around her, while clutching each other.

  Momo knew that Tanya was much more withdrawn emotionally than her or Visha. She knew that Tanya cared for her in her own way, but seeing this and feeling how protectively she encircled her in her arms, Momo felt the bitterness and jealousy she sometimes felt towards Visha fade away. Maybe it would never be as strong as with Visha, but Tanya still cared for her all the same, and it felt nice to feel that expressed in the subconscious way Tanya pulled Momo’s head into her chest.

  Kicking the blanket down, to cool them off, Momo closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

  ~

  Over the next few weeks, while Visha was engaged in language studies, Tanya set up quite the little sting operation for a very unfortunate piece of filth therapist. As the police went through his patient records, and more victims came forward, Tanya’s only thought was that the man was lucky. It had taken quite a lot of convincing on her part, for Visha not to take matters into her own hands.

  ~

  May 3rd, 2014, Tokyo Japan. Kaizaki Residence.

  Tanya, her grandmother and Visha were all sitting around a table as the tutor gave them an update on Visha’s progress as well as brought up an issue she wanted to address with the group.

  “Visha’s doing well enough and her progress with the spoken language is nearly astounding. That said she is still struggling with the written forms and has picked up some bad habits that I would like to address, hence why I called for this meeting.”

  “Go ahead miss Koyanagi, if there is anything I can do to straighten out the little…

  Tanya paused, when she remembered that all her favorite swears would be understood by the woman in front of her.

  “…troublemaker, please just let me know.”

  “I’m very glad you feel that way miss Kaizaki, this mostly concerns you. Please understand that I mean no offense, but it would be best for young Visha here’s education if you would stop teaching her bad habits and to speak so roughly.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “As my employer I do not know if talking to you this way is wise, but it is my duty as a teacher to do so, nevertheless. I am neither your teacher nor your guardian, so I cannot comment on your own masculine choice of speaking, but for goodness sakes, please leave poor Visha out of it. She keeps getting confused when I teach her how to say a word or phrase, only to have you say or teach her a different way. I thank you for all the work you do to help my student learn, but in the future could you please pay more attention to the manner in which you speak when teaching Visha. I’m sorry and thank you. Please excuse me.”

  And with that, the woman practically ran from the room, leaving a frustrated and confused Tanya behind glaring at the door, with the other women at the table.

  “I’m teaching Visha bad habits? Me!

  Tanya exclaimed in surprised outrage.

  “That’s rich coming from this… as if I don’t know about…

  She further mumbled before raising her voice again in complaint, looking towards her grandmother for support.

  “Just where does she get off, what a load of crap!”

  “Ahem, Tanya dear, ladies don’t say things like, “load of crap.” We say bunch of garbage, or trash. Crap sounds much too vulgar.”

  Tanya turned red faced and had the sudden realization of what had been happening ever since she returned to Japan. She had been talking as she had done her whole life. Her past male life. She had completely failed to notice the way she had been talking, and at this point she didn’t know how much work it would take to correct herself, or if she even wanted to do so.

  Dropping her head into her hands, she aggressively scrubbed her face and hair, trying to think it over and painfully remembering conversations where she had gotten odd looks in the past.

  “Tanya dear.”

  She heard her grandmother say tenderly. Leaving her head on the table she tilted it sideways to look up and meet eyes with the woman, who just smiled down at her.

  “Don’t feel embarrassed of who you are. If that is the way you like to talk, then don’t let the Man try to dictate your life to you. Stand up and say no! Rise up and choose who you want to be and what you want to wear!… I mean, how you want to speak.”

  Grandmother spoke like she was quoting a speech or propaganda brochure from the war, leaving Tanya very confused. Her grandmother had never talked like this, ever. What was going on?

  The old woman had a far off look in her eyes, but suddenly seemed to snap out of it, looking around the room conspiratorially before leaning towards them and whispering.

  “Can I let you girls in on a secret?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer, just stood and motioned for Tanya and Visha to follow her.

  Up in her sowing room, Grandma closed the door behind them and locked it, something she had never done in Tanya’s memory, and turned back to them.

  “You have to keep this a secret, especially from Grandpa.”

  Then she got out a stool and pulled an old box down from the closet. Setting it before them on the low table and opening it up. Inside were a number of sowing items and a square cookie tin, Tanya recognized as likely having buttons and thread inside.

  Opening the tin with an almost reverence, her grandmother revealed the contents. Inside was a stack of photos and letters wrapped in some sort of cloth strip, that turned out to be an armband that had the Kanji for boss on it.

  “Grandma, what is all this?”

  Tanya asked.

  “Back in high school, grandma was struggling to get her feet under her. The country at the time was shifting this way and that. They wanted women like me and my mother to work but they didn’t want to treat us with the same respect that they gave the men. When I got into school, they made us wear these ridiculous short skirts and uniforms, not that we cared so much about the length understand, but the audacity to dictate it to us, and they were so strict. Worse they wouldn’t let us do the things the boys did. Women were looked down on for smoking or enjoying a drink. Some teachers would get mad if you spoke too loudly or didn’t act like a “proper girl”. So, I joined some like-minded girls, and we rebelled a bit.”

  “Wait! Grandma, were you a Sukeban?!”

  Tanya shouted incredulously as Visha held up a photo of a group of girls squatting around some old, modified motorcycles smoking cigarettes.

  “Shuuush! Grandpa might here you.”

  “He doesn’t know?”

  “No, I never told him, or your father for that matter, I felt like it would have affected my image and authority as a mother, if he knew his mother was a… well…you know, I didn’t want to be a bad influence. But I do have some fond memories of those times. I made so many great and loyal friends. Not all of us were as wild as some of the stories say, that was mostly the news exaggerating to sway public opinion against us and away from the real issues we were fighting for! But there certainly were some bad eggs that had to get a good cracking every once in a while.

  “Oh, sorry for droning on dears, Grandma got lost in her memories for a bit. What I wanted to say was, Tanya it’s ok to fight against and break the norms of society, if that’s what you believe in. You don’t have to let anyone tell you how to live your life, not even me or Grandpa.”

  She pulled out one of the photos and held it out to them.

  “Here, this one’s of me when I was about your age. Pretty cool right! Yes sir, in my school if there was any trouble, girls would just come to me to fix it. Cheating boyfriends, abusive fathers, mean brother, man stealing tramps, Bam! Taken care of. Your old grandma set them all straight. They used to call me the Devil of Nishi High. Everyone knew to respect me.”

  Tanya had to elbow Visha in the ribs several times to get her to stop tapping at her leg so furiously. She could almost feel the smile that must be adorning the little shits face even now.

  “So, grandma, back in the day what would you do to an annoying subordinate who didn’t know how to keep their mouth shut?”

  “Snitches get stitches, and it’s hard to tattle when all your teeth are knocked out.”

  Visha abruptly stopped tapping Tanya’s leg.

  ~

  Book 2

  Chapter 1 Glossary

  (meaning "delinquent girl" or "girl boss") were all-female teenage gangs that emerged in Japan during the 1960s as a rebellious response to male-dominated society and strict school norms

  O-higan

  O-higan is a week-long Japanese Buddhist observance held during both the spring and autumn equinoxes (three days before and after). It signifies "the other shore" (enlightenment/nirvana), prompting reflection on the six paramitas (virtues). Families traditionally visit ancestral graves, clean them, offer incense/flowers, and eat special sweet