"Is this the Akira we have been hearing so much about? She is quite cute." A high voice spoke up as soon as they stepped into the living room
The speaker was Yamazaki Isami's wife, Nanase. Akira looked at the woman with a critical eye. She was a beautiful woman, and she was without a doubt younger than Sayaka. However, there was a hint of unnaturalness on her cheekbones and around the corners of the eye.
"She is quite cute," Sayaka agreed with a proud smile.
"It's too bad she was not raised in the family. She could have been a top socialite with her looks." Nanase added with an exaggerated shake of her head.
"Nanase!" Isami rebuked his outspoken wife. "Akira, don't mind your aunt too much. She just likes talking without thinking."
The man stood up and walked to Akira and shook her hand.
"I am your uncle, Yamazaki Isami. The loud woman is my wife, Yamazaki Nanase." His easy and friendly manner was warm and comforting.
Akira nodded. "I am Akira."
Nanase also walked over and shook Akira's hand.
"Please don't take offence at my words. I have been told I need to shut up sometimes. But I refuse. The mouth is for eating and talking. If I am not eating, I will be talking." She paused. "You really are quite cute."
Akira could not get a clear read on Nanase. She seemed to have a harsh tongue, but when one looked at her, they could not find a hint of evil energy. It was as if she was just a loud and outspoken person who spoke without thinking.
Akira did not like being uncertain about the personalities of people around her. She preferred having an evil person in her presence as opposed to a wild card. And this Nanase was a wild card.
"I know." She responded to Nanase's statement about her cuteness.
The woman broke out into boisterous laughter. "I like you. I like you very much."
She turned to Seiji. "You look a little less stiff than usual, Seiji. Your paralysed face seems to have moved recently."
Seiji looked at the woman flatly. As a doctor, he had noticed that there was something unusual about Nanase's face. She probably had had some cosmetic surgery done in the past. Hearing her criticise his face without a hint of politeness made him angry.
However, he still had to withstand it.
"I smiled recently." He responded in a deadpan manner.
"I can't believe I missed it." The woman reached and patted Seiji's face and pinched his cheeks as if trying to form a smile.
Akira watched as Seiji suffered under the woman's hand, and her lips stretched into a little smile. No wonder he wanted to escape as soon as he heard about their uncle and his family.
This aunt was on a different level of obnoxious.
"Oh, here are my children." She turned her attention from Seiji. "You, come over and say something nice to your new cousin."
Unlike other people in the room, Nanase spoke in a casual, bordering on crude manner. Moreover, her accent was a little off from the standard, making her stand out as an oddball even more.
These things made Akira more puzzled and curious about her.
The three children were not children. The older son was twenty-four, the same age as Seiji while the twin girls were seventeen.
"This is Kensei. You can call him Brother Ken." She introduced.
Akira nodded. "Hello."
The young man nodded back. Akira could tell that he had a quiet and stable personality by looking at his demeanour. It seemed at odds with his mother's loud personality and even his father's warm and outgoing manner.
"And those clones are Nana and Nami." She introduced the twins while pointing at them.
"We are Nanami. Hello, Akira." They spoke at the same time.
Nanase stepped forward and hit the twins in the head with a knuckle each.
"Don't do that. It creeps people out." She rebuked them ruthlessly.
The two girls made identical dissatisfied faces at the words. Their expressions were so similar that one could not find a single difference. The scene was comical to Akira, and she unintentionally laughed.
When the other people in the room looked at her, she schooled her face.
"I think it's quite cute." She said without expression.
The twins smiled and looked at their mother.
"We told you so." They said.
"Ooh, so you think you know more than your mother, right?" Nanase put her hands around her waist and looked down at the girls.
The girls looked at each other before turning and running out of the room. Nanase chased after them without the dignity of a grown-up.
As soon as they were gone, there was a collective relieved sigh from the entire room followed by a few chuckles of embarrassment.
"Mom, where is dad?" Seiji noticed that Daiki was missing.
"Your grandfather just called him. He will probably be back soon." Sayaka said.
Seiji frowned. He was worried a little about his father because of the Saffron Garden incident. If his grandparents had heard about it, they would probably not sit quietly.
They had made it clear that they did not want Akira to return to the family. Their suggestion involved paying off Akira and avoiding all ties. In the grandmother's words, Akira's kidnapping was a sign that she was a person with bad luck.
At least, he did not have to deal with Hurricane Nanase.