"Baby, wake up! It's eight in the morning. We need to meet our grandpas at the headquarters."
Akiko was trying to wake me up.
I got up and sat down, still feeling drowsy, and Akiko asked, "Why were you sleeping in the Washitsu? You should have gone to your room."
"Well, I sat here waiting for Satoru, but he didn't come even though it was one, and I felt a little bit sleepy and thought to take a small nap. So, did he come back?" I asked.
"I don't know. I went to your room, but you weren't there, and I came here checking every room," she replied.
"Okay, let me freshen up and we'll head to the headquarters. Is Keiko up?" I asked.
"Yeah, and she went to Satoru's room to see if he came or not," she replied.
After that, I went to the bathroom, completed my needs, took a bath, and came out. I got dressed up and went to the Washitsu, where they were waiting.
I went in and saw Keiko and Akiko sitting and watching their phones. It was very quiet.
I said, "Did that fucker come back last night?"
"No, he wasn't in his room," Keiko answered.
"So, he decided not to come back, huh? Let's see how long he can and will do this," I said.
"What? Are you going to leave him like that?" Akiko asked.
"No, I am going to nitpick on him to his grandpa," I said in a cunning way.
"Do you think he is afraid of his grandpa?" Keiko asked.
"Yeah, I think so too," Akiko said.
"Well, you guys leave it to me. I will handle it," I replied confidently.
After that, a car came to pick us up, and we got in. It took us to the headquarters.
We got out, and the driver told us to head directly to Satoru's grandpa's room.
We went in, got into the elevator, and clicked the tenth floor.
When we reached the tenth floor, our grandpa was waiting in front of the elevator doors.
He asked us to follow him, and we went into the mini meeting room where the captains held their meetings.
We went in, and my grandpa asked, "Where is Satoru?"
"I don't know. He didn't tell us where he was going, and he is not lifting his calls," I replied.
"What? Since when?" he asked.
"Yesterday night," I replied.
"Okay, I will tell his grandpa about this, and you three behave till we come back."
He said it and left. After fifteen minutes, both mine and Akiko's grandpas came with another old lady who was fair and had long hair tied up. She was followed by another three people who were young.
They all came in, and Akiko said, "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"What happened? Why did you say something like that?" I asked.
"Akiko dear, you shouldn't speak like that. You are disrespecting us and them as well, and what's with that language?" her grandpa told her in a sweet voice.
"Who's this young lady, Genji? She looks just like your daughter when she was a kid," the lady spoke with an elegant and amused voice.
"She's my granddaughter, and Akiko, say sorry to them," he said.
"No, Grandpa. Yesterday, we all went out to have dinner, and when we were waiting for the cab, a bald guy came and started to tease us. It was so irritating that Keiko told him to fuck off, and he grabbed her hand. Look at this."
She took Keiko's right hand, pulled up her sleeve, and showed it to all the oldies who were present there.
All our grandpas' faces became a little violent, and Akiko continued, "And that bald guy was with these three yesterday, and he even picked a fight with Satoru yesterday. These guys stopped him. After they left, Satoru said he would join us later, but he didn't come home last night, and the bald guy is also not here. I think he did something to Satoru."
"Whoa, how did you come to such a conclusion? You shouldn't blame them like that without any proof," I said calmly.
"Yes, we didn't see him after that, so don't pin all the crimes on us just because you weren't able to do anything to us."
A girl with short black hair shouted.
"Stop it, Choko. The mistake is on our side, and what did I say to you about not causing trouble?" The old lady became fierce.
"Is this how you raised your prefecture's best students? They don't know how to behave. They get ahead of themselves thinking they are better. You should have trained them properly," my grandpa said angrily.
"That's not even it, Grandpa. The bald guy whom I mentioned earlier tried to use ki with a weapon on us in public. I think he's not afraid of the consequences."
Akiko added fuel to the fire by saying it.
Nobody could beat my girlfriend at bitching about others.
"That's a lie. Why would he use a weapon made of Kionium in public, that too to hurt others?" the old lady said.
"You weren't there, and the ones that were present aren't denying it, ma'am," Keiko said.
"So where is that young man? I would like to have a little chat with him," my grandpa said.
"I think I should also join you in that chat," Grandpa Genji said.
"So where is he?" the old lady asked, looking at the three of them.
"We don't know. He didn't come back last night, ma'am," the bulldozer-looking guy said.
"See? It's totally suspicious. I think they did something to Satoru."
And she was cut off by Satoru's grandpa.
He came in, saying, "Satoru? What happened to him?"
"We don't know. He didn't come home last night, and I think it was them who would have done something," Akiko said furiously.
"What are you saying? He's here in the headquarters," he said and continued, "What happened to your arm, Keiko?"
He asked.
My grandpa told everything that happened, and after completion, he said, "I want that kid in my cabin when he returns. Do you understand, Tomiko? You did a shit job training your students."
"Well, what about that kid named Satoru? He was also ready to fight with my student," the old lady said in a distressed voice.
"You mean my grandson? Even if he was ready to fight, he won't break rules because he doesn't carry weapons made of Kionium, like your students," he replied.
"What? He's your grandson? Which one is he?"
"The second one," he answered.
"I heard he quit using the sword," she spoke.
"Well, he wants to use it again, and don't worry, I will punish everyone, okay?" he said, smiling.
Then Grandpa Sakutarou called a man and asked him to bring Satoru here, and he left to bring him.
After five minutes, Grandpa Sakutarou got a call. He lifted it and kept it on speaker, and the man on the call spoke, saying that Satoru didn't want to come up and asked him to come down as he was busy.
Grandpa Sakutarou got angry and asked the man to hand over the mobile to Satoru.
The man handed over the phone as he was ordered, and Satoru spoke.
"Good morning. What do you want with me now?"
"Brat, come up now, or you won't walk out of here today," he threatened him.
"Don't stress yourself out, Pa. I won't be leaving today because I have a lot of work to do, and if you want to talk to me, come down. I will listen to you and show you my upcoming work, okay? Bye."
He said it and disconnected the call.
Grandpa Sakutarou got up and spoke, "You all heard him, right? Let's go."
"What are you talking about? He should be the one coming for us. We shouldn't be the ones going for him," the old lady opposed.
"I think he is really busy. Unless he's busy, he won't behave like that, and if we wait for him, we'll be the ones at a loss, as he'll leave when he's done, and we will be the fools at the end," he replied while turning back.
"You spoiled him by pampering him," she said.
"Not me. He was spoiled by his maternal grandparents," he answered.
Then all of us got up, got into the elevator, went to the ground floor, and headed to the storage room.
We didn't understand why we were going there, but there was a lift, to my surprise, and there were three levels.
My grandpa pressed the third level, and we reached it, but strangely, all three levels were stinking with the smell of blood.
The rest of the five kids were also feeling uneasy, as it could be seen on their faces.
The man who was supposed to bring Satoru was waiting to receive us and guided us to where that fucking shithole was.
He stopped at a room that was far from the elevator.
As we went in, the room had dim lighting, and that shit was sitting on a steel foldable chair with an apron covered with blood. He was tapping his head with some weird tool, his eyes closed and hitting the pose of thinking about something.
The old lady and we young ones were shocked to see him like that, but the three old men were just fine.
Grandpa Sakutarou said, "Brat, I came as you asked me to. Now go and clean yourself and come. I need to talk to you."
He opened his eyes and saw all of us.
"I told you to come alone. Why did you come with all the others, Pa? Anyways, listen to me. Yesterday night, I came across some secret organization members. They were so fishy, and one of them was crazy, so I caught one of them and brought him here to know their plans. But this one's a hard one. He's not opening his mouth at all, so I called you here."
He said and went near the switchboard and turned on the lights.
There was a man tied to a chair. He looked bald and was just about our age.
"Ken!"
The old lady shouted and ran towards him.
"What?!"
I exclaimed with all three old men.