Plate 5:
Sachet
Scene 1
KAZUKI WAS FIVE at the time.
It was a bright, sunny afternoon at the beginning of spring when the Yasakas brought home the fourth member of their family. Their living room overlooked the Sumida River, lined with sakura trees that blossomed beautifully in the spring. They decided to name the little boy Haruka, after the Japanese word for the season that was upon them.
“…Haruka,” Kazuki said softly, testing the name.
Kazuki could see his reflection in the baby’s misty eyes. Haruka’s hand, smaller than an autumn leaf, stretched slowly toward him. When he reached his out in return, the baby clasped his finger tightly. Kazuki was surprised at the strength of his little brother’s grip, and he felt a sense of duty, one he couldn’t describe in words, swell in his chest.
Kazuki’s father, who watched from beside him, wrapped his arm around Kazuki’s shoulder and said, “You’re an older brother now.”
That’s when it hit him.
That’s right, I am an older brother now!
Kazuki felt joy then, at meeting someone that he needed to protect. He gently leaned his face in toward Haruka’s. The baby smelled of sweet milk and sunshine.
Ever since that day, the two of them were always together.
Haruka’s first word was “Kaa-cha,” a nickname that sounded similar to the Japanese word for mother (Kaa-chan). This led to a disagreement in which their mother insisted Haruka was calling her name, while Kazuki swore it was his name. The boys’ father, looking rather dejected, had to play peacemaker.
One day, their happiness was abruptly cut short.
Kazuki was ten years old when his grandfather on his dad’s side became terminally ill. As all of his relatives gathered at his grandfather’s bedside, the old man suddenly pointed his finger at Kazuki and said, “Your real mother was a disaster.”
For a moment, Kazuki had no idea what he meant. He could tell, however, from the chilly air around him, that the woman beside him was not who his grandfather meant. As he stood there, dazed, he understood that he didn’t belong. The only saving grace of the situation had been that Haruka slept through it all and hadn’t heard a peep.
He had a real mother out there; one he had been ripped away from. His parents were tight-lipped about the details, but they eventually told him that he was actually the child of his father’s older brother.
“Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the four of us are a family,” his father gently assured him. Kazuki tried to believe him.
But we’re not really family. I’m the only one who isn’t connected to them. Such thoughts came daily, unbidden, flitting through his head again and again.
Suddenly, everything that they shared up until now—matching striped outfits for the whole family, the four of them gathered at the table for a piping hot breakfast—he could no longer enjoy sincerely. Just seeing Haruka’s face, as the younger boy innocently idolized him, felt painful for Kazuki. He no longer knew the scent of happiness.
Scene 2
THE KAMINARI 5656 MEETING HALL, located in Asakusa and owned by the Tokiwadou Kaminari Okoshi Head Office, was a performance hall with a long history. It had a flashy exterior and a traditional arched roof, like something straight out of a Japanese fairy tale. This was where the local idol Azuma Sara’s meet-and-greet event was to be held that day.
“It’s here! That’s Sara’s car!” Kazuki said as he watched the van slip into the parking lot. He hefted the box holding his Sara disguise in his hands.
“Hey, are we seriously doing this?” asked Toi, who’d let himself get wrapped up in this despite his reservations.
“Of course we are! I’m going to see this mission through to the end!” They even labeled the mission “Operation Kidnap Azuma Sara.”
“Why are you like this?”
At Toi’s question, Kazuki looked confused. “Huh? Oh, you mean why I’m not dressed up yet? I’m going to change after—”
“No, not that! I mean, you know about me now… Why haven’t you said anything?”
Seeing how awkward Toi was acting, Kazuki dropped the tone of his voice a bit and said, “I was scared at first, but I was also jealous of you. Incredibly jealous.”
“What the…? I don’t get you at all.”
“Yeah, sorry. I know it’s probably all just me being selfish.”
The expression on Toi’s face made it clear that he didn’t understand.
“All right, let’s go,” said Kazuki, trying to switch gears. “First we have to deal with the manager.”
“Okay, Sara, I’ll come get you ten minutes before it’s time to go on stage,” the manager said as he ducked out of her dressing room.
“Roger that, dish ✩,” she called back, sounding just as dreamy as she did on TV.
Toi took one glance at the door, labeled “Azuma Sara’s Dressing Room,” and promptly followed after the manager.
“Hm-hmm, hum. ♪” The manager was in a cheerful mood as he relieved himself inside the old-style bathroom. “Sara’s finally gotten popular enough to hold her own personal event at the 5656 Meeting Hall. If we keep this up, we might actually make it to the Budokan arena one day!” He continued muttering about his dreams of grandeur, trying to slide up his zipper when—
Creaaaaak.
He could hear the door to one of the stalls behind him crack open.
“Hm?”
In the mirror in front of him, the manager watched as a man in a kappa mask whipped out a cucumber.
“Gyaaaah?! Guh?! Urgh?!”
A sign hung on the door to the men’s bathroom that read Closed for Cleaning. The noises echoing from behind the door certainly seemed disturbing for a simple cleaning, but silence settled back over the area soon enough.
“Phew…” Toi pulled the mask to the side of his face and heaved a sigh. In the stall in front of him sat the manager, bound and pantsless, looking utterly depraved.
“What the heck am I doing…?” Toi’s complaint slipped out the bathroom window along with the man’s pants, disappearing in the wind.
Sara lifted her head at hearing a knock on the door. The smartphone in her hand displayed the thumbnails for a series of cucumber photos: the phrase “cucumbers around the world” had been typed into the search engine above.
“Pardon the intrusion.” The person who entered the room wore a kappa mask on his face.
If Sara were a normal idol, she would have immediately called for help after an intruder slipped into her room. As fate would have it, however, the man in the kappa mask held the very cucumber in his hand that he used in his crime moments ago.
“It’s a cucumber, dish! ✩” she said happily.
“We’d like you to do a PR photoshoot before you go on stage for the meet-and-greet.” He gestured with the cucumber, and Sara’s eyes followed it greedily. She was too focused on it to question his request.
“Okay, dish. ✩”
Toi sighed behind his kappa mask, a little surprised at how easily he managed to lure her out of the room with him.
“What the heck am I doing…?” he muttered, not for the first time today, though no one paid attention to his complaint.
One person watched Toi’s careful execution of the plan—Sara-Kazuki. “Kuji, you did it!” He stepped out of the shadows and slipped into Sara’s waiting room, safe and unnoticed.
“Okay, everything’s in place,” Kazuki told himself. As he sat at the extravagant vanity, his smartphone chirped at him, alerting him of a new message.
Harukappa: I just arrived at the meeting hall! I’ll finally be able to meet you! A selfie of Haruka in front of the venue was attached to the text.
Sara: Thanks for coming! I am excited to meet you too, dish! ✩
Harukappa: Remember how we talked about a secret code yesterday? I thought of a good one!
Sara: Okay, tell me!
Sara-Kazuki’s expression remained dark the whole time, at odds with the cheerful replies he was sending. The words Toi said to him before replayed through his mind: You and I aren’t so different. We’re the kind of people who’ll do anything to get what we want. Toi couldn’t have been more right.
Kazuki dressed up as Haruka’s favorite female idol, created a fake account to connect with his little brother, and even went so far as kidnapping Sara today so he could fulfill his promise. All for Haruka.