Chapter 1
This is Kageyama Chiyori and this is my life from past to present…
***
It was 13 years ago when my family was abducted from America. I was three when the incident happened and while my two brothers, Kageyama Tobio and Kageyama Rukawa were two. We had an older sister, Kageyama Ino, who was five. They tricked our parents into selling us into child labor. They took us away to Japan in cages and locked us up in cold, dark rooms. We had thin blankets to cover ourselves. We couldn’t stand it. We were always put to work: washing dishes, cleaning rooms, entertaining our “parents” guests, cooking, and more. Finally, after one year, my sister had enough. Ino gathered us in our room and came up with a plan. Since we had our “parents” trust, we had an hour to go outside and play. Ino said to gather our important things and then we will leave. After one week of planning this, we went to work. I took the things I possessed and came across an old photo of my family before we were abducted. I felt a rush of emotions roll through me. I ran to tell Ino, Tobio, and Rukawa. When they saw it, their eyes lit up like the sun. They hurried back to the room and tried to find more copies of the picture. There it was: one more, two more, then a third. We quickly gathered the second plan together using the pictures as codes. All of a sudden, we all smiled. This was the best plan we had ever come up with. All the others were failures, but they have seemed to soften our “parents” down. It was almost time for our playtime. I gathered my things into a small backpack and hurried out the door. On my way to the back door, I notice something that came out of my pack. It was a number to my cousin Kenma Kozume. I kept it in my small hand and waited for my siblings. Our “parents” were sleeping and the back door was open. I waited for my siblings to come out the door, but they didn’t. I crept back into the room to see Ino crying. She forgot that her cat could not come with her. I slowly lifted a hand out to help her up and smiled.
“Let’s go, Onee-san,” I said.
She looked at me with those piercing brown eyes and accepted my hand. I pulled her up and we left the house without a sound.
***
After running for miles, Ino told us to stop. She pulled something out of her bag and handed us yen for the train. I didn’t ask her what this was for so I went along. We headed to the Saitama train station and headed toward the countryside. We headed off the stop and Ino knocked on a stranger’s door. A young woman answered the door and gasped when she saw us. She ushered us in, but Ino said no. She explained to the woman that she wanted to leave Tobio with her. I looked down at Tobio, who was clutching my hand, tightly. I looked back at the woman who nodded at Ino and then hurried inside to get something. Minutes later, she handed Ino a bag. Ino turned to Tobio and motioned him to come over. Slowly, he let go of my hand and headed toward the woman’s warm arms. Ino said bye and handed him the picture. I saw the woman nod at Ino and we hurried back to the train station. I took one look back at the house in the urban city and saw Tobio close the door behind him. Little did I know I was going to see him again.
***
Since we were going different ways I decided to go to my cousin’s house to live there. I whispered this into Ino’s ear and she nodded. She told me that Rukawa was going to live close to her and she’s going to change his name to Rukawa Kaede. I nodded and hugged them both goodbye. Rukawa sniffed back a tear and I told him I would see him again soon. She gave me more yen and I boarded the train to Tokyo. I waved bye to Rukawa and Ino as the doors to the train closed.
Two hours later on the train, I stepped off and found a payphone. I dialed the number I had with me and a woman’s voice answered on the other side. I told her I was looking for Kenma, my cousin and she gasped. She asked me if I was Ino and I responded no. I told her that I was Kageyama Chiyori and I was at the Tokyo station. She hung up and I just waited at the payphone. I had nothing else to do so I slept by the payphone. Ten minutes later, I was shaken awake by a soft hand. I rubbed my eyes and looked up. Standing before me was a woman. She asked if I was Kageyama Chiyori and I said yes. She smiled and told me that she was Kenma’s mom. She took me to her home which would soon be mine and called Kenma down. As he slowly walked down the stairs, his piercing cat-like eyes met mine. Kenma Kozume. My cousin. He smiled and waved. I hesitated and bowed. Kenma beckoned me to his room, but I hesitated. I looked around at the unfamiliar house and thought, this house is now mine…
