Chapter 75 - Kids

"Children. Line up!" Gin commands the children, breaking Chihiro away from Yoshiko.

The children follow the order immediately and they line up side by side in front of Red.

"Good afternoon, Kichirou-san!" They greet Red enthusiastically.

"Good afternoon, children." Red smiles at them.

"Let me introduce you to this young lady." Red gestures Yoshiko in front of the children.

Yoshiko almost shakes her head at Red's move. She knows that Red is doing it to play with her heart, making her want the job. But she already has decided to take the job.

"Good afternoon, children. I'm Yoshiko." Yoshiko cuts Red off and introduces herself instead of letting Red do it for her. 

"You can call me Yoshiko-sensei. I will be your school teacher, and I will be living in that house over there."

Red smirks, pleased that Yoshiko decided to take the job.

Gin meanwhile, nods, now understanding that it is the young lady in front of him will be his neighbor in the future.

"Good afternoon, Yoshiko-sensei!"

"Pleased to meet you, sensei!"

The five children greet Yoshiko chaotically, saying their own welcoming words.

The dissonance within the five's greetings meanwhile, bring adoring smiles to the adults.

The children immediately have a good impression of Yoshiko. Not only because Chihiro was happy to see her, but she also has a dainty and kind impression to her.

"Where did your uncle Gin bring you all today?" Red asks.

"We went to…"

"The river.."

"The village"

The children start talking over each other excitedly.

"Alright. One by one, please. Ran, why don't you start?" Red asks the children to speak in turns starting from the girl at the leftmost of the line, Ran.

Ran, a lively nine-year old girl whose face looks skinny and small due to her long and voluminous straight raven black hair, steps up.

"Kichirou-san! Uncle Gin brought us to the river! We wanted to play in the water, but we are wearing nice clothes." She excitedly recounts.

"But we were skipping rocks…" A tall and skinny boy next to her mutters softly.

"Yes, Osamu? What was that?" Red asks.

"W-we were skipping rocks…" Osamu softly reports.

"And did you have fun?" Red asks.

"Y-yes…" Osamu softly nods with a straight face, but one can see the glint of happiness in his eyes.

"Yes! Osamu is great at it! He made one stone skip seven times!" Ran hypes Osamu up, making Osamu smile shyly.

Red however knows that Osamu does not like attention, so he wants to avoid bringing the kid any more discomfort.

"Well done, Osamu." He compliments the child before turning his attention to the next one.

"How about you, Taishiro? Did you see something you liked today?" He asks the bespectacled, bowl-cut having boy beside Osamu.

"Yes, Kichirou-san. I liked the waterfalls." The boy answers straight.

"What did you like about it?" Red asks.

"The sound it makes. And the cool droplets." The boy recounts.

"And why did you like the sound and the cool water?" Red asks.

"I…" Taishiro struggles for a moment, before, "I just do.", finding his answer.

"Very good." Red nods.

He likes that Taishiro sees things as they are, and says things as they are. But he plans on having the child express himself more emotionally in the future.

"We should bring these kids to go swimming some time. It's the middle of the summer after all." Red turns to Gin and Yoshiko.

The two nod, approving of Red's suggestion.

"And you, Kanon?" Red then turns his attention to the girl next to Taishiro.

The girl is quite short for her age, tan, and her shoulder-length hair which should have been naturally black, has become dark brown-colored due to its overexposure to the sun.

She also has another trait that Red finds amusing.

"Kanon? Hey…" Taishiro calls out to Kanon as Red failed to pull her out of her daze.

"O-oh… What was that, Kichirou-san?" Her thick Okinawan accent comes out as she asks for the question she missed.

Red smirks. He has noticed the moment he met Kanon that the girl always has her head in the clouds, or day-dreaming.

"Did you have fun?" Red asks.

"Y-yes?" Kanon asks in confusion.

"Where did you go with Uncle Gin today?" Red asks more specifically.

"Oh. There was a river, the waterfalls, and the bridge." Kanon lists.

Red hears Kanon's excitement at a certain word.

"Did you have fun at the bridge?" Red asks.

"Yes! I was watching the birds fly over the river. Then… then the leaves! They looked like boats." Kanon recounts.

"Good. Good." Red is satisfied by Kanon's mood.

"And you, Chihiro?" he then turns his newest adopted child and Yoshiko's former homeroom student; a slightly plump but lively child.

"I had fun with everybody! I liked everything!" Chihiro reports excitedly.

"Also. A grandma from the village gave us red bean sweet rolls. It was delicious!" He is more excited about the snack however.

"You dropped by the village?" Red asks Gin.

"Yes. Kanon had to go to the bathroom. I was also not confident in packing their lunch, so..." Gin scratches his chin, nervous if he made a mistake in having the children dine out.

"Alright. Move on with the schedule." Red will have to hear whatever Gin said to the villagers to explain the children's presence.

"Okay. Kids! Take a nap for an hour. Big sister Kotone will come and play with you all." Gin informs them.

The kids' excitement deflates at it, and Yoshiko notices.

"Who is Kotone?" Yoshiko asks Red. "And why do they look scared?"

"A student of mine." Red does not explain further as they watch the kids enter their house.

"So. What changed your mind?" He then asks, switching subjects.

"And so suddenly at that. This place is quite isolated too, so a city girl like you might not get used to it." 

"Well... I actually already decided. But I had to make sure if you have the ability to fulfill the things you pledged to me earlier." Yoshiko says. 

"I see. That's good then. You have helped build the future of quite a number of non-superiori children."

<>

An hour later.

The children are now seated on the stone-paved ground of the training yard beside their house. In front of them is Kotone, and behind them is Yoshiko and Red.

"Alright kids. I know, it's hard and it's painful… But..." Kotone starts, but she gets distracted immediately.

"Kanon?" She calls out to the absentminded girl.

"Y-yes, Kotone-nee?" Kanon gets her attention back.

"Why are we doing this again?" Kotone asks.

"To grow stronger… TO… defend ourselves." Kanon says, with determination in her eyes.

"Very good." Kotone nods, seeing that Kanon's answer helped the others to get into what they are about to do.

"Okay! I heard from Fumio-san that you can all do pose 1 already." She asks.

"Yes! And Pose 2! Fumio-san taught us pose 2, but I can't do it yet!" Chihiro reports.

"Alright then. Everyone, assume pose 2!" Kotone then starts the lead in assuming the pose.

"Pose 2?" Yoshiko asks Red beside her.

"Yes. A form of an exercise." Red assumes the front-split-like second pose of the sixteen basic poses he first taught Kotone and Fumio.

Yoshiko frowns and in the corner of her vision, she sees that the children also start attempting in assuming the pose. Her heart aches looking at the determined expressions of the children.

"Look at Kichirou-san!" Ran is the first one to spot Red following along with the exercise. The children also look at him in excitement. This is the first time that Red is joining their afternoon training after all.

Kotone, meanwhile, cannot help but feel jealous of the children. It has only been three days since the children started training the poses, but they already had the first pose down without any assistance. She herself took three entire days, and with Red's assistance, before she can assume the first pose on her own.

What she is more jealous of however, is that the children are more natural in the basic breathing technique.

While they are still not skillful at it, Kotone can see that it will not take long for any of them to complete one breathing cycle at each pose.

The only consolation she can use to soothe her feeling of inferiority, is that the kids give up easily and they do not push themselves to increase their breathe repetitions, and that delays the kids to achieve their first breath cycle.

"Kichirou-san. What is this training for? It doesn't look yoga." Yoshiko asks softly.

"The first steps of their martial training." Red explains.

"Martial training… Why do they need that?" Yoshiko asks, feeling protective of the children.

"I know what you're thinking, Yoshiko-san. And I assure you, it gets easier for them. And. Once they grow up, and they progress in their training, they would have no problems defending themselves against D-Class Superiori." Red assures her.

Yoshiko looks at Red in skepticism.

Red simply smiles at her. He has severely undersold the potential of the children he adopted.

"Just trust me on this." He adds assurance.

Yoshiko does not know why, but she feels that Red is not lying.

"Yoshiko-san, are you flexible?" Red asks suddenly.

"I think so. I did some home yoga. Why?" Yoshiko shares.

"Oh? You don't look like someone who gets interested in yoga." Red wants to know more. +

He already knows that Yoshiko is flexible with his spirit scan of her the previous week he visited the orphanage, so he brought it up.

"I didn't think I would either. When I saw this Yoga DVD on sale for a dirt cheap price, I bought it. Before I realized it, I was already following along the poses." Yoshiko explains.

"Oh… Those shows." Red nods dismissively.

There is another reason why Red chose Yoshiko out of all the potential caretakers and teachers he could have hired. It is because of her spirit root. A spirit root that is just slightly inferior to Fumio's.

"Well, why don't you join in with the kids' training? When I said that they need a role model non-superioris, this may be one of the ways you can establish yourself as one." Red then suggests.

"But if you don't want to, then, hey." He shrugs to not force the young lady.

"Alright." Yoshiko finds no problem joining the kids.

"But you have to catch up to them first. I'll teach you the first pose. It should be easy for you." Red then starts guiding Yoshiko.

The next moment, "Okay. You undersold your flexibility, Yoshiko-san." Red nods, seeing Yoshiko assume the side-split-like pose 1 in one go and with ease.

"I mean… home yoga." Yoshiko can only shrug.

"Good. Now follow the kids' breathing." Red proceeds to instruct and explain the breathing technique.

A minute later.

"*Huff* *huff* *huff*" Yoshiko gives up.

"Nice… 12 breath repetitions in your first attempt." Red nods in satisfaction.

Three breaths more than Kotone's first attempt, and two breaths more than Fumio's.

And looking at Yoshiko's ease in achieving 12 breaths, he is positive that Yohiko can complete 64 continuous breath repetitions, or one breathe cycle in under five days.

"IT feels weird." Yoshiko complains.

"I know. Had you started younger, it wouldn't feel as weird." Red explains.

"So you don't have to worry about them. Their bones and muscles are still young and moldable. Their breathing patterns too is not as stubborn as an adult's. They would not get hurt, and they would not suffer in this training." He then reassures her.

"Well then. I have to train hard then to keep up with them." Yoshiko nods, noticing that the children are struggling less in their breathing than she just has.

"And trust me. This is for their health. And healthy children have too much energy. You will need to be as healthy as them if you want to keep up." Red warns her.

Yoshiko takes the suggestion seriously.

Meanwhile in the distance, in Gin's front yard.

"This oddly looks similar to how judo athletes train." Gin says to Fumio beside him, who is also observing the training of the children.

"It is." Fumio confirms.

"Ah… Youth. I would join in the fun if I was younger." Gin sighs.

Fumio smirks meaningfully.

Looking at the children doing much better in the poses than he did, he starts to feel competitive.

He also feels regret.

But soon, he drops it.

He is already lucky to have met Red.

Him wishing to have met Red when he was the age of Red's adoptive kids makes him feel pathetic.