Family Begins With You

by Jmaster49

Arc XXI Episode VIII: Japonese Scion

“Go ahead and explain yourself,” Keiji said as he kicked out one of the chairs towards Flash. “Not like we’re going anywhere anytime soon.”

“Oh, uh…thanks?” Flash replied with a surprised tone--he hadn’t been invited to sit with someone in a while, so it was a bit unexpected. Nevertheless, he sat down and started to explain himself. “Anyway, so I don’t think I ever told you guys about my uncle. He has a job here at the mall on one of the lower levels near the outside. So I decided to help him out, right? Give him some extra elbow grease since I really didn’t wanna hang around my dad today…”

Sandbar and most notably, Keiji were both fixated on his story to the point of surprise when he slowed down to a stop.

“Yeah?” Sandbar asked, “What happened, yo? Keep goin’!”

“...Huh, I…okay.” Yet again, Flash was surprised, but it was a positive surprise. “Sorry if it’s a bit of a ramble, I just…haven’t chatted with anyone like this in a bit.”

Keiji shrugged his shoulders. “Go ahead, my dude. We’re listening. We’re your friends or whatever, right? It’s what we do.”

“What he said, bro,” Sandbar added as he sipped his lemonade and rolled his free hand, motioning for Flash to continue. “Go on. Tell us what happened.”

With newfound excitement, Flash continued to describe what he had just experienced earlier that day. “Alright, so this guy comes in and starts complaining about the transmission we did on his truck, saying that someone did it wrong and starts blaming one of the girls that worked on it…”

Meanwhile, at the nearby elevator that led to the food court’s level…

“That’s them over there,” Fricket explained to the boy standing next to her with her friend and her boyfriend in tow as well. “They were the ones who bought up all the robes from that store. Their little friend held them back from other customers. Sneaky insekto!”

The boy in question was a Crystal Prep student--though he wasn’t in uniform. He had dull-blue skin, a head of short, neatly-trimmed black hair and wore jeans and a white tee with a leather jacket over that. The spitting image of a ‘Greaser’ as it was often called.

“I see…that’s grounds for fraudulent exchange if there was no advertisement or contest. My father will be the first to hear about this if it’s true. And you said the larger girl insulted you, yes?”

“Her whole presence is insulting!” “Yeah. Tell ‘em off, Shinji,” Fricket urged him with her fists shaking down at her sides, “They don’t deserve any of that stuff they’ve got. Not with that walking, beefy menace around…”

“Makase nasai--this won’t take long,” the boy replied as he slowly walked towards the table where Sandbar and the others were seated. As he walked through the foodcourt, a few of the patrons seated at other tables stared up at him and started to mutter quiet words of confusion and predictions…

And at their table…

Flash had just begun to wrap up his tale. “...So essentially, this dude was blaming one of the girls working there and claimed she did it wrong even though it was one of our guys. When he realized how wrong he was, he shut down like a clam and just kept silent as we fixed the problem.”

“Damn, bro--” Sandbar grit his teeth while shaking his head to express shame, “Them kinda people have no hope in this world.”

“Love how he assumed the chick was at fault just for being a chick,” Keiji scoffed with a grin, “If I was her, I’d have volunteered to fix his shit just to piss him off more.”

“That’s the best part, she did!” Flash went on with a laugh, “Ah, it was hilarious. Wish you could’ve been there to see it.”

A few moments later, their conversation would be interrupted by the young man who had been approaching them. His voice caused everyone at the table to turn their heads towards him.

“Hello--excuse me,” he called out to them, and bowed, “My name is Shinjiro Hishima. According to what my lady told me, it seems that you’ve purchased those items from a store that isn’t supposed to reserve them. Is this true?”

Keiji shut his eyes and folded his arms. “‘Hishima’? Why does that name sound so familiar…?”

Sandbar was about to answer first, “Well--”

But his sister quickly interrupted him, “Nah. It ain’t. We just got lucky. Now if you’d leave us be, that’d be cool, Mr. Hishi.”

“Hmph,” Shinji folded his arms, “Very well. But know that the Hishima family imports many things from the East to Canterlot from apples to clothes, silk, and various pieces of technological hardware. You’d do well to treat those products with respect and not use under-handed tactics to purchase them.”

“Nothin’ underhanded here, dawg,” Keiji explained, “We purchased ‘em fair and square. I mean, Coral did but--ya know.”

“I see…” Shinji looked over in Yona’s direction. “And is it true that you spoke poorly of my lady? She claims that your foreboding presence scared her into submission.”

“W--huh?!” Yona squinted her eyes as she tried to rationalize what she just heard. “Yona hasn’t said two words to anybody but her friends since coming here. What’s everyone’s problem?!”

A few of the nearby patrons started to idly gaze at Yona with concerned looks.

“Apologies--forgive me,” Shinji replied, “It’s just…you…Yakistan folk have a nasty habit of leaving destruction in their path. I’d hate for any of my valuable pieces of property to be crushed by your…meaty fingers.”

Before anyone could say anything else, Flash stood up, meeting Shinji eye to eye. “You got a problem, bro? What’s with the prejudice? She’s done nothing to warrant your suspicion!”

“You’d better watch your tongue, ‘bro’,” Shinji responded with airquotes, “My family has quite a lot of influence in this city that you aren’t even aware of.”

Sandbar had put an arm around Yona to console her, and urged Flash to cease his actions. “Hey, man. It’s no big deal. He’s not worth the energy,” he said while still maintaining his relaxed smile, but Coral could tell that it was forced due to the way his free hand was twitching.

“...Big brother…don’t let yourself boil over.”

“You heard him,” Shinji added, “There’s no reason to fight.”

“You ain’t got one, but I do!” Flash retorted as he cracked his knuckles, “Leave her alone before I make you.”

By this point, the other patrons had cleared out of the food court. Though some were still watching from afar…