School Girls' Stories: New Generation - Finale

Chapter 3 – 24 Hours Until the Wedding

“Ashe, where have you been?” Ashe cringed as he closed the door and found his mother facing him in the hallway, glaring him down. He put down his briefcase, which he loathed, and loosened his tie before he readied himself to answer her.

Fuji was ageless, her beauty still youthful, her face still vibrant with life she had held onto when she had been nearly a fifteen year old. Ashe highly suspected there was help in making Fuji as beautiful as she had once been, but he knew deep down she would remain beautiful until she lay in her grave. She grew excited every time someone mistook her for Rhapsody’s older sister instead of the mother, and Rhapsody smiled gracefully and took it all in.

Why did Ashe feel like the old one in the bunch?

“I was working,” he explained.

“You said you were going to get off early so we could have a nice lunch before you all disappeared on me.” Fuji meant for the rest of the day, but he knew she was also leading innuendo into the rest of their lives. Rhapsody, whose things were mostly over at Sora’s house now, would be living with him after tomorrow’s big day, and before that they would be gone for two weeks on a honeymoon in Hawaii. Ashe could not help cringe thinking of the younger girl wrapped in Sora’s arms on a beach.

“I went home as early as would allow,” Ashe explained. “You are the one who left me in charge, trusting my instincts.”

Fuji smiled slightly, her coy smile of knowledge. “How was I supposed to know how well scandal would have paid off for you to be a lead businessman?”

How was she to know? She was the leading lady of scandals, and the leading lady of recuperating afterwards. His scandal of him sleeping with his younger sister, and his uncle raping his little sister, and the animosity between the Chenbaro side and the Inperiaru side of the family had all grown and elevated. Now when dealing with the home land of Japan Ashe was a star because they were curious, when he dealt with other countries they came because he was not some secretive super-government type of business. The only problems they had had was with the Middle East, who were most definitely against the things Ashe was accused of, even if he still denied it all to this day, no matter how true.

“Ashe?”

“I’m sorry, Mom,” he said quickly. “I’ve just been out of it all day.”

Fuji followed her son in concern. Why had she picked when he was an adult to start showing motherly love? And still he could never push her away, even as she followed him up the stairs.

“Are you all right?” she asked unhesitatingly.

Ashe sighed and ripped off the tie, the jacket, and kicked the shoes into a corner. “Mom, can we just all have lunch and talk about something else?”

Fuji nodded with a bit of acknowledgement. She left her son to change and ran down the stairs to meet with her daughter and her husband. Ashe walked down after changing and felt like he was interrupting the perfect family picture, as he often did when they were not looking his way. Fuji and Rhapsody, almost like sisters, though Rhapsody was decidedly still childish where Fuji had always looked adult, looking beautiful while laughing with father and husband. Amatsu looked to the two women, the most important people in the world to him, with love and compassion. Who could have picked a better husband for Rhapsody? Sora was a Marine, a squid, a man of uniform, a man who Amatsu had quickly offered a position to in the business when Sora was free from his line of duty. Ashe could picture Sora joining in on family dinners, he could see Rhapsody look up at him with those beautiful gem-like eyes and loving him eternally, while Ashe would always sit in the dark gloomy corner, always the remembrance of horrible things he had done when he had nowhere else to turn, or at least he had thought.

Rhapsody turned to her older brother and smiled at him. What he did not catch was the way her breath caught in her throat, or the way her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. It had been three years since their last physical contact, in that time he had not even offered her a peck on the cheek. He could not. She could not. So he did not know how her blood burned at the sight of him, the hair he had let grow just a hair longer, the eyes that had shaded with age and experience, the muscles that had become thicker in workouts done to keep her out of his mind, his shirt too tight. The man should have been wearing leather and denim, not a suit. In casual, a blue shirt and a pair of navy slacks, he looked delicious, and it took everything in her not to stare or let him know how once in a while she still ached to be with him.

“You know, it looks like it’s going to rain,” Ashe said blandly as he took a seat at the table they had shared many meals at, even after their family had been shattered slightly.

“Don’t be so melancholy,” Fuji demanded, kissing her husbands head and taking her seat next to him while the two ‘children’ sat next to one another, awkward and unsure of each other still, even after five years. “You are trying to make Rhapsody nervous about her wedding day, and I will not allow it.”

“It is okay, Mom,” Rhapsody said pleasantly, smiling through her teeth though in many ways she wanted to reach over and belt Ashe. “He won’t worry me. The forecast is calling for a beautiful day.”

“You know if it rains it is a bad omen,” Ashe continued.

“Ashe,” Amatsu said in a rumbling voice he had only grown into with age. Unlike his beautiful wife Amatsu had aged, but like the rest of the family, he had done it with dignity and was as handsome as he could ever be. The gray that colored his hair made him distinguished; a proper head of the household. “Do not do this at the lunch table. We are here to celebrate and ending and a new beginning.”

“What are the plans for the bachelor party?” Fuji asked, turning her head towards Ashe and looking up at him with beautiful emerald eyes that still appeared as innocent as when she was fourteen.

“I can’t tell you that,” Ashe insisted while the maids brought out the food. “You can not know what your husband-to-be will be engaging in, the debauchery would make you blush. Unless you want to tell me what the girls have planned for the bachelorette party tonight.”

Rhapsody gave off a very pleasant snort and shook her head. “Tonight is just for the girls.”

“You know Tiera and Bliss are the only two you could possibly trust in that group,” Ashe continued.

Fuji let out a sigh and tried to hold her spine straight. “I’m afraid for once I agree with Ashe,” she said sadly. “Harmony and Yuna have been no-good for the last few years, and your other friend, Lisa, seems to be a little sketchy.”

“But Lilis will be there as well,” Rhapsody smiled. “You know Lilis is the sweetest woman ever.”

Amatsu rumbled once more, but in a pleasant laughing way. “Yes, while Fuji, Shai, and Yuki take care of all of the whining children tonight so you youngsters can enjoy your new lives.”

“What I don’t understand,” Ashe went on, “is why Sora invited Waza.”

Silence. Even Rhapsody did not know the answer to that question. Waza had officially announced that he would not be attending the wedding of his niece and her fiancé for the was forsaking that side of the family. With the riches he did have left he planned to become a large mogul once more, even if he had to start at the bottom. He was swiftly going through his riches and swiftly losing his mind. Yet, when the invitation came for the bachelor party the man could not say no. The surprise was receiving his yes to the invitation.

“I think he did it to be polite,” Rhapsody said sadly. “No one really wants Waza around any longer.” It was the darkest thing the bright girl could possibly have said and the thickened silence grew until it was becoming suffocating.

“I think we should enjoy the rest of the meal and talk about the things that will be,” Amatsu insisted. “To Rhapsody and Sora.” He raised his glass and three glasses joined his, though one albeit very reluctantly.

The true surprise was that it was Rhapsody’s glass that was the most reluctant.