Chapter 53 - Anniversary

"Thank you for coming, dear guests." Red, bids his customers goodbye.

"No… Thank you, Kichirou-san. You don't know how badly I needed your services." Fire Colossus thanks Red profusely.

"That's right. But, where have you been for the past three weeks?" Gorilla asks.

Fire Colossus rolls his eyes at the sense of entitlement of the man.

"The massage solutions that you B-Class need are hard to make. I had to take that long to stock up again." Red smoothly rolls out his excuse.

"Oh…" Gorilla is immediately convinced. "In that case, thank you."

And the shop is empty once again. Except for Red and his two employees.

"You two, lock the shop up. I'm heading somewhere." Red excuses himself.

"Uh… boss. Can I come with?" Fumio asks.

Kotone snaps her head to Fumio's direction, interested at the question.

"I told you to take a break. Not only from training, but to have fun. Don't you have fun things to do?" Red tilts his head at the odd request.

"You gave me a week off, boss. I don't have anything in mind for fun, but I want to see something interesting." Fumio shrugs.

"And you think that my day is somehow interesting?" Red smirks.

"Yeah. If you're going shopping, you might need an extra hand. If you're going somewhere fun, maybe it can give me an idea for something fun. Besides, I'm already wearing a nice kimono. Wherever you go, I'm properly dressed for it."

Fumio has been too focused on training his spiritual energy control, and has actually learned to love doing it, and so he forgot about the other aspects of his life, until Red reminded him the previous night.

"Alright. But don't ask too many questions. And if you get bored, just leave." Red gives Fumio an inviting gesture.

"Nice! Kotone, see ya~" Fumio walks to Red with bouncy steps.

"Wait! May I come too? I'll go quickly change to my kimono too!" Kotone asks in a hurry.

"Sure. But I ask you of same thing. Don't ask too many questions, and if you get bored, just leave." Red figures that having companions is not that bad.

"And oh. Wear your illusions."

<>

Suginami City 11 AM, Sunada Medical Center

"Why a hospital?" Kotone whispers to Fumio, curious at where Red carried them to; outside the main entrance of a hospital.

"I dunno. We traveled much faster than we did when we first went to Hinohara. He must have thought you fainted." Fumio teases.

"I-I'm already used to it…" Kotone has no retort.

They then see Red wave his hand to their direction.

Fumio feels spiritual energy envelope him and Kotone, as if another illusion is cast to their already existing illusions. Fumio looks at the nearest reflection and he notices that him, Kotone, and Red do not have reflections.

"Look at that." Fumio points his observation to Kotone.

"Whoah…" Kotone's eyes widen in realization.

"We're gonna do something sneaky." Fumio whispers in excitement.

"Hehe~" Kotone is infected by Fumio's mood.

A few minutes later, the trio are now in one of the many medical wards of the hospital.

Fumio and Kotone stop in their steps as they see Red stops his.

The two are about to wonder why Red is simply standing in the middle of the ward when they notice that the noisy and busy room suddenly turns silent.

They look around to find that the patients, the visitors, and the nurses, all suddenly fell asleep.

Before they can express their concern of Red's actions, Red approaches the bed of one of the patients. Red then lays his palm to that patient's belly.

Fumio and Kotone then see Red's palm emit a green light for a few moments, before shortly disappearing.

For the next few minutes, they can only watch Red as he repeats the same action, and its different variations depending on the medical condition, to the rest of the seven other patients in the ward.

"Let's go." Done with the remaining patient in the ward, Red makes his way out of the room. While Fumio and Kotone are still confused at what just happened, they can only follow red out.

A minute later, the trio are now back outside of the hospital, walking to where ever Red wants to go.

"Kichirou-san, if I may ask?" Kotone prefaces, getting a discouraging look from Fumio. She ignores him however. "Did you just treat those patients?" She asks Red.

"Yes." Red nods.

Kotone already knows Red's identity as a 'doctor', but she is more curious as to why he just did what he did.

"Do you do this often?" She asks.

"No. This is the first time. As I am celebrating something, I want to share it with others." Red says.

Today marks the first anniversary of his arrival on Terra: this planet. The hospital ward where he healed the patients was the room he woke up in a year ago.

For eons, he has experienced many things, enjoyed all the pleasures the infinite realms offer, and possessed all the material and mystical treasures that other sovereigns envied. Therefore, barely anything brings him joy anymore.

That resulted him being more sentimental.

Keeping things like important dates, and objects that has good memories attached to them, has become a habit of his which many of his servants in Okuba never understood.

He is still the same in this world. Not even the things he first found novel in Terra's society mean anything to him. The only thing he finds important, is the date of his arrival. 

"May 17th..." Fumio notes in his head. "Boss… What makes today special?" He asks. "You know, maybe I can celebrate it too." He adds, after getting a look from Kotone.

"Hmmm… Even though I'll teach you more secrets in the future… But the meaning of today, you'll never know." Red smirks.

"Yes. It must be very personal for Kichirou-san." Kotone nods as she elbows Fumio.

"…I'm sorry for asking, boss." Fumio scratches his cheek out of embarrassment. "But boss. How did you make that entire room fall asleep?" He asks instead, which is the thing that mystifies him more than Red's healing powers.

"I don't only make massage solutions and medical concoctions, Fumio. I make poisons too. And what I used, was some sort of a knock out gas." Red explains.

The two almost take a step back to get away from Red, out of caution and fear.

"Heheh~" Red is pleased of the vigilance of the two.

"But Kichirou-san, how come we were unaffected?" Kotone asks.

"Because I already sprinkled the antidote on your noses when you two were hanging on to me." The two realize that Red had plenty of chances of doing so on their way from the shop to the hospital.

"Anyways, where do we go next, boss?" Fumio asks, not wanting to think about it anymore. "You won't go knocking out people again, would you?" He jokes.

"Nah." Red smirks.

"But I'm going to meet someone for a private lunch. Might take me an hour or so. So, if you two don't want to wait for me, then see you two tomorrow."

"Is it a date?" Kotone asks, interested of Red's private life.

"No." Red looks at her weirdly.

"Oh…" Kotone is disappointed.

"Then I'll just go to lunch while I wait for you boss." Fumio insists on following.

"Me too…" Kotone does not want to be left out.

"Alright. Come." Red offers his hand to his two students, which they take.

Half a minute later, they are now in Suginami's most exclusive neighborhood.

"This… looks like the Sunada Clan's compound." Fumio says as he recognizes Sunada's Kamon (crest) plastered in sides of the buildings and in the signages of what looks like luxurious businesses.

"It is." Red nods and cancels his illusion.

Fumio and Kotone get interested seeing that Red is no longer the 40 something year-old Iwai Kichirou, but a young 20-year-old non ethnically Japanese man with black hair and black irises.

His haori also changed colors from its original black, to maroon.

Soon however, they shrug off their interest as they know that it is simply one of Red's many disguises. After all, even the two of them have different disguises provided by the clothes Red made them.

"Let's go." Red then leads the two inside what looks like a high class French restaurant.

Unlike three weeks ago in Chofu, Fumio and Kotone are now much more confident in walking in such an establishment.

"Good morning." The maître d' greets the three by the entrance.

"Reservations?" He asks.

"Red." Red says in English.

The maître d' looks at his clipboard before nodding.

"And, is it possible for these two to take any available table?" Red asks.

"Of course." The maître d', knowing that even a friend of a friend of Junichi's should be treated a bit more special.

"Welcome." He then leads the three in.

<>

"Red. You son of a bitch." Junichi gives Red a bear hug as soon as Red enters the private room that Junichi reserved.

"Hello to you too…" Red tries his best to act glad to see the young man.

"If you didn't text from time to time, I would have posted a missing's person report on you." Junichi disengages from the hug, holds Red's shoulders, and gives his 'friend' a once over.

"Who knew you'd look great in a kimono." He nods in approval at Red's fashion.

"I know. I can't stop wearing them after I found out." Red wears a playful smirk. 

"Damn it. You now acknowledge that you're handsome? You've really changed." Junichi laughs.

"Heh...Won't you offer me a seat?" Red asks.

"Ah.. That's right. Sit. Sit. I have a lot of questions."

"I bet you do." Red chuckles.

While he does not want to meet Junichi, he owes it to the original Red to do so. After all, Junichi is the only family that the original Red has ever known.

<>

"Which one's good?" Kotone scrunches her nose in frustration, looking at the names of the French dishes on the menu.

"I don't know…" Fumio too, has his head spinning at the odd combination of ingredients in the dishes' description.

"Shall we ditch Kichirou-san and go somewhere else?" Kotone suggests.

"Shall we?" Fumio likes the idea.

"If I may make a suggestion?" The maître d', seeing the two struggling, and hearing the two's words, offers his assistance in concern.

"I'd recommend our French onion soup for the appetizer. The soup is made of beef stock and onions, served with croutons and melted cheese on top. It is the appetizer I've seen couples enjoy best in our restaurant."

"…"

"…"

Kotone and Fumio look at each other and indeed, their illusions just happen to match, making it easy for strangers to misunderstand their relationship.

Fumio's illusion is a handsome looking 30-something year old man in a suit, and Kotone's is a gorgeous lady who looks mixed race due to her oriental and western features going well with a simple but classy cream dress.

"T-that sounds great…" Fumio utters.

He then realizes his thoughtless words and his eyes widen in regret.

"I-if you want, of course." He adds, to cushion his embarrassment from Kotone.

"Y-yeah. That sounds great." Kotone nods thoughtlessly, escaping the situation not even in her mind.

"That's great. You two seem to be on a date? I recommend a bottle of Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir. Strong enough to help you two loosen up, but not strong enough to get you two drunk." The maître d' continues to suggest. 

"Ehhh.. wine at this hour is a bit…" Fumio winces at the suggestion.

"Yeah…" Kotone on the other hand, never had French wine, and is curious of how it tastes.

Thankfully for her, "Aherm.", the maître d' speaks up once again.

"The young man who was with you earlier, insisted. He also wants me to pass this to you two." He hands a folded note to Kotone, "You can tell me your entrée later on.", and excuses himself.

Kotone then opens the note, for her and Fumio to read.

[Why don't you two enjoy more finer things in life? Order whatever you want. They're on me. Treat it as a payback for the lunch you two refused back in Chofu. You two know I'm rich so don't hold back.

And by the way. I just realized that your disguises look good with each other. So why don't you two roleplay? It's not like you two have relationships of your own.]

After reading the note, the two realize that their heads are too close to each other.

"Aherm…" The two lean back at the same time, embarrassed.

"Hmmm.. When's that wine coming." Fumio drinks the water from his wineglass to swallow his embarrassment.

"I don't know if this is a treat, or a prank.." Kotone mirrors Fumio's actions.