Chapter Five

Tatsuya woke up late the next morning because he had programmed Gina to let him sleep in on the weekends. He felt like he should get up anyway because he couldn’t go back to sleep, so Tatsuya went downstairs.
“Hey, Kimi,” Tatsuya said, surprised to see his little sister simply watching TV rather than being out with her friends again. “Where’s mom?”
“She went to work,” she said. “And guess who’s she’s bringing on her way back! Grandpa!”
“Seriously? Today? Grandpa’s coming today?”
“Yep. I can’t wait to see him again. I wonder what sort of presents he’s bringing.”
“I’m just really happy to see him again. Wasn’t he not doing so well? I mean, I have a feeling he might kick the bucket any second now.”
“True, so that’s why it’s so great to see him again!”
“Mom said she’d be home late tonight, so I’m in charge, okay?” Tatsuya said to his younger sister. “I hope you don’t have any plans today.”
“Surprisingly, I don’t,” she said. “Jessica is sick with the swine flu, and Brenda is so paranoid, she doesn’t want to leave her house otherwise she’s going to get it, too. So I’m home for tonight with nothing to do.”
Tatsuya sat down next to his sister. “Cool, maybe we can spend some time together for once. If you don’t mind, of course.”
Kimi smiled and put her arms around her brother. “Of course not. I have the coolest older brother ever.”
Tatsuya smiled back at her. And then something in his pocket started buzzing. He picked it up and saw a text from Darren. “Yo tat, im bored so im comin to ur house. Slide me ur address.”
“What?” Kimi exclaimed, looking at the text from behind Tatsuya. “How could you have more of a social life than me?”
Tatsuya laughed, unsure if she was joking or not. “Don’t worry, I’m not leaving this house. I’ve got to keep my eyes on you.” Tatsuya replied to the text with his address. Though right as he hit sent, he thought it probably wasn’t his best idea considering he really didn’t want Darren at his house.
“Hey, Tatsuya, do we have anything to eat?” Kimi asked, lying back down on the couch.
“Sure,” Tatsuya said. He got up and went to the kitchen and made a cheese sandwich to give to Kimi. As he handed it to her on the plate, someone knocked on the door.
“Yo, Tat, what’s up?” Darren greeted. “I brought over some good games I have, we can totally start it up in here. Have a dude day, y’know?”
“You do realize that no one normal speaks like you, right?” Tatsuya asked.
“Dude, just chill and let me into your house.”
Tatsuya invited him in, and it was incredibly awkward when Kimi noticed someone was there, because had never introduced a friend to his sister before.
“Whoa, didn’t know you had someone over already, Tat,” Darren said, shaking Kimi’s hand.
Kimi giggled. “I like your friend, Tatsuya.”
“Right. Kimi, this is Darren. Darren, this is my little sister.”
“I’ll leave you boys alone,” Kimi said, standing up and running towards the stairs.
“Should I hook up the console?” Darren asked, jerking his head towards the television.
“No, I don’t feel like video games,” Tatsuya said, but Darren had already plugged his console into the wall.
“You don’t mind if I play as player one, do you? Some days I just do better like that.”
Tatsuya sighed, and did not object.
“Just so you know, this game isn’t the best if your parents are home,” Darren said, just before turning it on. “And it might not be good for your sister, either.”
“I have no parents at home at the moment, and Kimi’s locked in her room.”
“When are they getting back?”
“My mom is going to be back later this evening after she finishes work and picks up my grandpa at the airport.”
“And your dad?”
“My dad is dead.”
“Oh.” Darren had finally acted awkward for the first time. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t know him too well, anyway. I was only five when he died.”
“Okay, well… are you up for some killing?” he asked awkwardly. Darren felt that this was a bad time and place for the video games he had brought.
“I don’t like guns,” Tatsuya said, grabbing one of Darren’s controllers.
“That’s okay. We can play some Mario Kart or something.”
So they played some of the classic Nintendo games that Darren had, mainly because Tatsuya didn’t feel up for killing anyone, even if it wasn’t in real life.
Tatsuya checked the clock, and decided that it was probably time to eat dinner. Kimi ran down and told Darren that he was perfectly welcome to stay for dinner, even though Tatsuya would have preferred him to go home.
The dinner Tatsuya ended up making was just some frozen thing from the freezer, which he simply placed in the microwave for a few minutes before putting it on plates and serving it for a decent-looking meal.
“Thank you, Tatsuya,” Kimi said, putting spoonful after spoonful in her mouth.
“Tatsuya, you have such a sweet sister,” Darren said, eating as well.
Kimi giggled in response to him. She was officially brainwashed by his “charm.”
The door opened and closed, and Tatsuya got up from the table to greet his mom and see his grandfather again.
“Hey, Grandpa,” Tatsuya said, embracing the old man who had just walked him.
“Hey, Tatsuya, where’s Kimi?” he said with a slightly raspy voice.
“She’s just finishing up dinner. And I’ve got a friend over, too, and he’s sitting with her.”
“Grandpa!” squealed Kimi, running towards him.
The old man picked her up for a brief second before setting her gently back down. “Hi, Kimi, how are you?”
“I’m good!”
“Andy, you’ll be staying in the guest room,” Tatsuya’s mom said. “Tatsuya, please help him with the bags. They’re in the car.”
“Sure, mom,” Tatsuya said, and he quickly ran to the car and came back with two large suitcases.
Darren had come out of the dining room, and smiled around at the group of people. “You must me Mrs. Gray,” he said, shaking hands with Tatsuya’s mother. “My name is Darren Morris, ma’am. I’m new around here, and Tatsuya’s been a good friend to me.”
Lies, Tatsuya thought in his head.
“Oh, that’s so nice of Tatsuya,” she said. “You’re welcome here any time, Darren.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said. It was amazing how much more polite and calm he was around her than he usually was.
Tatsuya dragged his grandfather’s suitcases up to the guest room, and just as he was about to head back downstairs, he had noticed that his grandfather had followed him up here.
“You’ve grown up so much, Tatsuya,” his grandfather told him. “It’s great seeing you as such a fine young man.”
“Thanks, grandpa. You’re looking pretty good yourself.”
“Ah, you don’t have to lie to me. I’m just hoping my last moments will be peaceful.”
“Don’t talk like that, grandpa. So what work are they doing on your house, exactly?”
“Oh, apparently I have termites or things of that sort, so since I’m dying anyway, they decided to give me a run for my money and tear my whole house down and rebuild it. And I’m an old man, Tatsuya, I can’t do anything about it. Your mother was just kind enough to let me stay here.”
“You’re welcome here any time, Grandpa,” Tatsuya said with a great grin. “Seriously, Kimi and I have really missed you.”
“It doesn’t seem like it,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re going off and making new friends now.”
“Friends?” Tatsuya repeated. He scoffed. “Darren Morris is not my friend. He is possibly one of the most annoying people I know.”
“He seems like an all right young man.”
“Trust me, he is far from all right.”
He chuckled again, because a full laughter would probably result in his lungs flying out of his body. “Oh, dear Tatsuya, you remind me so much of your father.”
Tatsuya smiled. Though he didn’t know about his father too much, he had always imagined him as an awesome, wonderful man.
The old man decided that he was too tired to remain standing any longer, so he took a seat on the bed. “Maybe I should take some rest. You should go downstairs and say goodbye to your friend.”
Even though Tatsuya didn’t want to, he did it because his grandfather told him to. His grandfather had always been a great father-figure for Tatsuya, especially when he didn’t grow up with his actual father.
“Hey, Tat, I think I’m going to be heading home now,” Darren said. “It was so nice meeting you, Mrs. Gray and Kimi.”
“Come around some time soon, all right?” Kimi asked, giving Darren a hug. “Bye!”
“I’ll see you all later.”
“Bye,” Tatsuya said, closing the door behind him.
“What happened to your grandfather?” Tatsuya’s mother asked as Kimi decided she was done here, and left for her room.
“He wanted to get some rest,” Tatsuya said. “I think I’m pretty tired, too. I’ll finish some homework before bed.”
This, of course, was a complete lie. Tatsuya didn’t want to do his homework at all, but instead just wanted to get a bit of quiet because after spending almost the entire day with Darren Morris, all one needs is some tranquility. Tatsuya randomly picked up his great-grandfather’s journal, and began to read:

It’s around mid-November, but it’s getting hard to keep track of the date with all of the stuff going on. We’ve begun our search for the treasure, but it’s been proving a lot harder than we originally thought. The last time I wrote in this journal, we were left with me and 45 of our men. Right now, we only have 30 left. I don’t know where the other fifteen have disappeared, but I have a strong feeling they’re dead.
We started with 50 men! And now we’re down to 30. I talked to the rest of them, and we’re all determined not to give up. When they heard about that treasure, they got as excited as I did, and we’re going to get that treasure if it’s the last thing we do! I’m so proud of how excited my men are, and even though our number is slowly dwindling down, we’re going to keep fighting and searching until we find that lost treasure. I only hope that there is at least one of us who makes it out alive.