Chapter 33 - Lipstick Game

"How are you feeling?" Gorou asks Hideki as soon as Hideki awakes.

"I-I… I'm still alive…" Hideki struggles to look around.

He sees his parents by his bedside on the left, and a doctor on his right. Near the door are two men in suits who he recognizes as other members of the clan. He can only sigh in relief that he is now at a safe place unlike the cold riverside where Fumio left him.

As he tries to get out of the bed by using his arms, he notices the difficulty of doing so. He then looks at his arms and he see bandages wrapped on them. This triggers the memory of Fumio's abuse to his body.

He then looks at his legs and they too are wrapped in bandages. He cannot help but collapse weakly back on his hospital bed and tears start flowing down from his eyes.

He does not care at all if his tears get to his ears, but as he replays Fumio's words in his mind, he can only fear what will happen to his life from now on.

"Hideki. Who did this to you?" He is pulled out from his thoughts by Gorou's voice.

He then looks at his father in the eyes and for the first time in his life, he sees worry and care that only his mother's eyes showed him. Aside from surprise and confusion, he does not know what else to feel.

All he saw in his life from Gorou eyes was the perennial disapproving gaze and disappointed sighs whenever Gorou looked at him.

"Doctor. Are his ears damaged too?" Gorou asks the surgeon, in worry.

"I don't think so." The surgeon tilts his head in confusion.

The two are interrupted by Hideki's next words.

"Fumio… It was Fumio." Hideki says, brushing aside his father's worry for now.

"Fumio?" Gorou tilts his head, not recognizing the name.

"Fumio. Kubota Fumio." Hideki clarifies. He does not care if his claim sounds crazy, but as long as he can make his father believe him, he still has hope.

~

Nerima, 1 PM

Kotone opens her eyes and she looks around immediately.

She sees that she is still in Muscle Master's massage room and she figures that she must have fallen asleep while having her massage.

"How do you feel?" Kotone hears Red's voice from the opposite side of the panel divider which she is used by Red to separate guests who fell asleep during a massage, from the rest of the massage room, for their privacy.

She then notices that she is lying on her back on a massage table and she panics, thinking that she has her full naked front exposed.

The next moment, to her relief, she realizes that she is covered by what looks like a massage table's silky-smooth linens up to her chest, with the linen's edges tucked under the massage table's cushion.

"Are you still asleep?" She hears Red once more, making her fully sober.

"I'm awake, Kichirou-san." Kotone answers to let Red know of her state.

"And I feel great. Now I get why our guests keep coming back." She also cannot help but appreciate how light her body feels.

"I had no idea how your service felt, and even then, I thought your massage was underpriced based on your powers. Now I realize that your expertise is worth more than just 40 thousand yen." She gives out a review.

"Let me worry about the pricing. Instead, go take a shower right now and change to your gi." Red orders.

Kotone is already used to her suggestions being shut down so she simply follows as ordered.

Kotone, done with her shower and wearing her fresh gi, steps into the reception area. She cannot help but notice that the room has become very spacious.

The panel that divides the lounge area and the reception area has now moved to rest alongside the wall near the main entrance, and all the furniture are also gathered to one side of the room, allowing for a clear and spacious floor.

As soon as she spots Red sitting at the reception desk, "uhhh… Kichirou-san… What's going on?" she asks as she joins him.

Red however does not reply and he silently pulls out a classy looking black leather box from the reception desk drawer and puts it on top of the desk.

"C-Chanel…" Kotone's eyes widen recognizing the logo on the box and she feels curious with a bit of anticipation.

'Is it a gift for his girlfriend? Wife? Or maybe for me?'

Red then opens the box and it reveals four lipstick tubes.

Kotone wants to open one of the tubes to see their color so she is pleased to see Red pick up one of them, removes its cap to reveal the bright matte red color of the lipstick.

She cannot stop herself from breathing a bit heavier as just by the looks of the lipstick, she knows that it is the highest quality lipstick that she has ever seen in person.

The next moment however, her eyes almost pop out of their sockets due to Red's actions.

Red takes, in one hand takes a wooden sword lying on the table which Kotone overlooked, takes the lipstick on the other hand, and rubs the lipstick along the surface of the wooden sword's blade.

"YOU! What are you doing?!" Kotone yells at Red.

"Excuse me?" Red asks in a bored tone, still coating the wooden blade with lipstick.

Kotone immediately realizes how rude her previous tone was and she controls herself. Her heart still aches however, watching Red waste the high quality lipstick. One more stroke of the lipstick on the wooden surface, and she can no longer take what she is witnessing.

"Kichirou-san. What exactly are you doing? It's a waste." She tries to interrupt Red.

To her relief, Red responses by stopping his actions.

"Ah. That should be enough." Red does not answer Kotone's question as he puts back the cap on the lipstick.

"I don't understand why they call it limited edition. Weird." He mutters as he examines his handiwork on the sword once again.

"L-limited edition?..." Kotone almost becomes weak, processing Red's words.

"Yeah… I was curious so I bought it. Doesn't seem to have anything special in it." Red says, wearing a clueless expression on his face.

"Y-you…" Kotone, looking at the clueless expression, cannot even express her anger, "You wouldn't understand, Kichirou-san.", but only her frustration.

"You're right. I don't understand." Red stands up from his chair and walks to the center of the room.

Kotone, used to Red's non-verbal order, joins him just a few steps away.

Red then takes out another wooden sword from his storage space and hands it to Kotone.

"K-Kichirou-san… what exactly are you doing right now?" Kotone is alarmed by what seems to be combat training. Something she did not sign up for.

"Are you worried that you will be hurt?" Red asks.

"Isn't that obvious? I'm not a fighter, Kichirou-san."

Red simply smirks at her, knowing that she has a bit of a fighting bone in her.

"I won't hurt you. What I'm going to do, is to smear the lipstick on my sword, on your gi. Try your best to dodge and block, yes?" He then takes a one-handed kendo stance and points the wooden sword to Kotone.

"W-why the Chanel lipstick, Kichirou-san? Why not just use paint? Or cheaper lipstick?" Kotone awkwardly raises her wooden sword.

"I like it's consistency." Red simply shrugs, annoying Kotone.

"Anyways. Try to dodge. The more I smear the lipstick on your clothes, the more I need to re-coat this sword. If you don't do a good enough job of dodging, there might not be enough for you to take home." Red clarifies his actions.

"…" Kotone takes a few seconds to make sure if Red is being serious with his ridiculousness, but seeing that Red does not seem to be showing signs of joking, she sighs in frustration.

"Why can't you just give them to me like a normal person, Kichirou-san?"

"I need your help to practice my control over my swordsmanship. This makes me sure that you take it seriously." Red randomly comes up with an excuse.

"Aren't you mistaking me for Fumio-san? He once said that he was a member of the Hasegawa Clan from Sagamihara, so why not just practice with him?" Kotone asks.

"What do you want to do in the future, Kotone? Do you want to remain simply as the receptionist of this shop? Or be promoted to more fulfilling responsibilities?" Red asks.

"O-of course, I want to be promoted. But… aren't there other ways I can prove my worth?" A glint of ambition appears on Kotone's eyes.

"As the owner of the shop, I have plans for this place. I need people I trained myself for those plans to go smoothly." Red pauses, allowing Kotone to take his lie in.

Seeing Kotone dropping her intention of arguing, Red continues. "But those plans, I don't plan to share to you or Fumio, at least for now. So, for now, trust my process, yes?"

"O-okay." Kotone is hesitant, but remembering that despite the oddities surrounding Red, she is treated too generously than she thinks she deserves by Red.

"Good. And, aside from the monetary benefits, haven't you felt healthier and stronger since I've been giving you these odd tasks?" Red asks.

"Yes." Kotone can only nod, noticing the changes to her body.

"Good."

Not soon after Red said his affirmation, Kotone suddenly sees Red's left arm and the wooden sword it is holding, suddenly blur, followed by a feeling of something brushing across her abdomen.

Before she can even process what she has seen, Red's arm and sword are back in their previous places.

"First blood." Red then points his sword at Kotone's abdomen, to help Kotone realize what just happened.

Kotone looks down at her abdomen and, "Wha- wha.." is stunned seeing that there is now a long red horizontal stain on the fabric of her gi, drawn across her abdomen.

"Come on. Focus..." She is pulled out from her daze by Red's words.

"I-I… Even if I was ready, it's impossible to dodge!" She protests.

"Then make yourself hard to hit. Move around or something. Jump around for all I care. Or maybe, just raise your sword in front of your body. That will cover you more than you think." Red starts his instructions.

Kotone immediately assumes an awkward kendo stance, trying to make herself look like the kendo practitioners she saw on TV.

"Hmm… I didn't think you'd be this bad." Red comments.

This immediately agitates Kotone. "Give me a break. I never once held a weapon before." She tries to reason.

"Well… True. Alright. If you land a hit on my person, even you only make contact with my clothes, then the training for the day is over." Red challenges.

"Even if I just touch your clothes with my sword?" Kotone asks just to be sure.

"With your sword, or hilt, or any part of your body, whatever. If you succeed, then we're good for the day." Red clarifies.

"Then here I come, Kichirou-san." Kotone then charges forward, thinking that it is best to hit Red as soon as she can before Red has the chance to use up all the lipstick on his sword.

Soon however, she realizes that her task is not simple as she thought.

With every swing of her sword to Red, she receives at least two new stains on her gi.

"Too open…

"Maintain some distance…

"Strike sharper…" In between dodges, Red is also starting to instruct Kotone.

Soon after, "Oh. I'm out of reds.", he stops attacking and countering as he pulls out the tube of lipstick he opened earlier, and starts painting his sword with it once again.

Kotone, seeing Red's actions is angered once again.

At the same time, she also realizes that she can take this opportunity, seeing that Red seems vulnerable.

"You didn't say I can't attack while you're doing that." She then strikes.

"Ah. You're not skilled enough to take advantage." Red answers in a dull tone as he dodges.

Kotone meanwhile becomes frustrated seeing that Red is simply dancing around her strikes even without looking, while casually, and taking his sweet time, wasting more lipstick on his sword.

Not even a minute later, Kotone is now breathing heavily, her movements slowed, tired from all the missed swings and annoying taunts from Red. Her, also knowing that Red is deliberately re-painting his sword very, very slowly just to make her mad, is not helping with her patience.

After one last missed swing, she retreats to take a breather.

"Ah. I reloaded…" Red is done repainting his sword and he puts away the lipstick tube once again.

"Wait. You're already tired?" He feigns a surprised tone to simply rile Kotone.

"*huff* *huff*" Unfortunately for Red, his riling is not working as Kotone focuses on taking her breath back.

After stabilizing her breathing, "I didn't know you are an excellent fighter as well, Kichirou-san.", Kotone gets over her frustrations and is now more confused more than anything.

An hour later.

"Ah… It's only been an hour and the first lipstick already ran out. It hurts my heart to open the second one." Red is now lazily standing over the exhausted Kotone who is lying flat on her back on the floor.

"This is hell… This is hell…" Kotone can only look dazedly at the Red, helpless.

"Why don't you give young Haruto a call? Looks like you need overtime." Red says as he puts his hand on Kotone's forehead.

While Kotone feels her body starting to be refreshed, it is not making her feel better as it only prolongs her suffering, almost making her cry.