Reversal!

[bury the year]

[spoiler=Chapter -2]“Saki, come look at this.” Reito Minami, a man with lightly-tousled brown hair, around thirty years old or so and sporting the beginning of a five-‘o-clock shadow, picked up a letter from the granite countertop at which he was sitting and waved in the direction of his wife. “It’s a letter from the Kousaka family.”

“Ara~? Let me see that.” A moderately-young woman with an unruly tangle of black hair streaming behind her, swept to her husband’s side from the nearby door, startling him slightly. Saki swiftly pulled the letter out of Reito’s hand, flapped it open with a quick motion of her hand, and began to read it.

[i]Dear Minami Family,

It’s been a good four years that we’ve been away, but I think that Yoshiro and I have decided at long last that we should be heading back to Tanamachi-gun. We believe it’s best for the kids that they grow up in a more... “native” environment, and although America’s been good to us, I have to admit that we miss Japan! (Look at me – I’ve forgotten how to write a proper letter!) Also, since our house seems to have been unsold all these years (with the recession, I’m only mildly surprised), I think we’ll be moving back next door to you. Expect us over here in a week or so: we’re just finishing packing as I write this, so the only big hurdle we have left is getting all our stuff over. On that note, Akio and Yuka have picked up a new hobby, and I think Kenta-kun would like to try it out. Well, that’s all for now. Can’t wait to see you all again~!

Sincerely,
Kousaka Miki.[/i]

Sweatdropping a bit, Saki sighed and passed the letter back to her husband. “I knew they’d come back someday, but I didn’t think it would be this long,” she said placidly.

“Hey, you remember Kousaka-san, right?” Reito replied, folding the letter back up. “He was never one to stay in a single place. Give him credit for sticking in a foreign country for so long. And besides,” he continued, “we can pick things up like they had never left. I’m just a bit curious on what that ‘hobby’ they were talking about is.”

“You and me both,” Saki sighed, resting her forearms on the countertop. A flash of an idea lit her face up, though, and she propped herself up. “Should I wake up Kenta to tell him the news?”

Reito chuckled slightly and reached over to grab a nearby coffee mug, with all the intent of filling it up. “Naw. It’s the weekend. He deserves to sleep.”

Smiling back, Saki turned around and walked back to the stairs. “Whatever you say, honey,” she cheerfully stated with a wink.

In response, Reito waited until his wife was out of sight up the stairs, then grumbled to himself and stared into his empty cup of coffee. [i]‘This should be... interesting.’[/i]

Suddenly, another thought struck him, and he bolted upright. [i]‘Wait. If the letter was sent a week ago, and it takes about a week to get the mail through…’[/i]

His train of thought was greeted by the honking of a car next door.

[center][b]- - - - - - - - - - - - -
REVERSAL
Chapter -2 – Ready!
- - - - - - - - - - - - -[/b][/center]
“Kenta, wake up.”

“Hrm?” Groggily opening his eyes, Kenta Minami, a young boy of only 10, looked up into the eyes of his waiting mother. His hair, a dark brown that took after his father’s, was mussed into uneven spikes from a severe case of bedhead. This contrasted with his eyes, which were an unusual shade of azure blue that took after his mother’s. “Whassa matter,” he slurred, still rather tired.

“Honey, do you remember the Kousaka family?” Saki asked inquisitively.

Kenta racked his brain for information. “Yeah,” he said finally. “Weren’t they our neighbors who moved to America four years ago?”

“Yes, and guess what?” Saki’s voice sped up a bit.

“What?”

“They’ve come back!” the woman exclaimed, waiting for her son’s reaction.

She was met with a blank stare. Kenta was a bit confused at first by what his mother meant. “Wait. You mean they’ve moved back?”

“Yep!” Saki seemed abnormally excited, and the honk of a nearby car horn only reinforced this point.

“But wait. Why?” The speed of the fevered conversation only served to confuse Kenta even further, and he right now had absolutely no clue what was going on. “Didn’t they like... wherever they went?” he concluded with the same confused tone. However, any further words were cut short by the sounds of the Minami residence’s door slamming open and a mingling of energetic voices.

“I guess that’s them! Honey, why don’t you get changed and cleaned up, and come down when you’re done.” With a kiss on the forehead, Saki swept out of the room, leaving her son speechless.

Grumbling, Kenta dropped back down and smothered his face with the pillow. [i]‘There go my plans for a peaceful weekend,’[/i] he thought morosely. However, after a few moments of sulking, the preteen shrugged it off and pushed the covers off. Slipping into a pair of navy windpants and a simple white T-shirt, he walked into the bathroom, splashed some water on his face, and made his way downstairs.

As he stepped off the last step, Kenta nervously made his way into the main room, hoping that he wouldn’t get spontaneously mauled. His fears were unjustified, though, but they were in the wrong direction. From seemingly out of nowhere, a large leather ball came spiraling out and smacked him in the face. “Oof!”

The ball bounced off his forehead and landed in his outstretched hands. “What is this?” Spinning the object in his hand, Kenta noticed that it really wasn’t a ball, but more of a stretched ellipsoid. There were two distinct points on the ball, at either end, and a row of thick white stitches ran down to connect them. “And who threw this at me?” However, he was cut short again when a body rammed into him in an attempt at some sort of greeting, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to drop the ball!.

“KENTA-KUN!”

“Who the-?” Flailing his arms around in an attempt to get the offending party off, Kenta finally managed to dislodge the other body. “Ack! Akio?”

“Glad you remembered me, Kenta.” Grinning goofily, Akio Kousaka picked the oblong ball off the floor. “It’s been a long time, right?” Two years older than his friend, Akio was a lot more expressive than Kenta was, and a good degree louder. His chestnut-colored hair was clipped short, and he was wearing some sort of sports jersey with English written on it.

“Yeah,” Kenta said in response, a slight smile forming on his face. “It has been. So...”

“What?” Akio’s expression turned to one of curiosity.

“How was America?”

Akio’s grin grew ever further. “IT WAS AWESOME AND REALLY LOUD AND BRIGHT AND-”

“ONII-CHAN, SHUT UP!” A voice even louder than Akio’s echoed out from behind, and both he and Kenta turned around to see Yuka Kousaka, Akio’s younger sister. “Do you have to be so loud right now? You were like this all the way on the plane ride!”

Stomping over and nearly pushing her brother clean over, Yuka marched up to Kenta and closely examined her. The same age as him, the younger Kousaka was much more temperamental, with furrowed eyebrows and a mouth always peeled into a slight frown. Her long lightly-colored hair was done up in a high ponytail, with only a few loose strands hanging down over her forehead.

“Sorry, Ken-chan,” she tacked onto the end of the previous outburst, hugging Kenta in a manner that completely surprised him. “Akio’s too... excited to be back,” she stated in a somewhat sarcastic tone, stepping back a bit. “But I don’t see why he wouldn’t be,” Yuka tacked onto the end, blushing.

[i]‘Okay…?’[/i] A bit confused by the disjointed train of thought, Kenta scratched the back of his head. “So, what have you two been doing?” he asked, trying to change the flow of conversation.

“I think I can explain that, Kenta-kun.” A third person, Yoshiro Kousaka, slipped past his two children to stand in front of the boy. He looked tired, with a scraggly beard on his face and many well-worn wrinkles around the eyes. “You remember what I do for a living, right?”

“Um...” Kenta racked his brains. “I forget,” he finally conceded, a bit sheepishly.

Yoshiro laughed. “That’s okay,” he said, mussing Kenta’s hair. The boy was a bit embarrassed, especially watching his parent’s slight chuckling in the background. “We ran a sporting goods company, and the reason why we moved over to America was because I needed to broaden our base a bit more. But, that’s beside the point,” he continued, stepping back a few strides.

“Kenta-kun, have you heard of a game called ‘American football?’”

The name sounded a bit familiar to Kenta, but he couldn’t place an accurate picture on it and shook his head. “Not really. Why?”

The corners of Yoshiro’s lips turned up slightly, and he winked. “Oh, you’ll get experienced with it soon enough.”

Putting two and two together, Kenta looked at the ball now gripped firmly in Akio’s hands and made a realization. [i]‘I guess I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow...’[/i]

“Yep!” Seemingly reading Kenta’s thoughts, Akio bounced the ball up and down in his hands a few time. “We’re gonna play tomorrow!”

Gulping and piecing together a few memories of the Kousaka siblings’ previous... expeditions, Kenta put on a forced smile while remembering the last game they had played before they left, and the fear he had of river water after that. “Sound like fun!” he finally spat out with forced enthusiasm.

“Okay.” Yuka smiled and waved to Kenta as the Kousaka adults just finished up their conversation and were leaving. “Be up early tomorrow, okay~?” Her tone was sweet, but there was just enough acid to make Kenta shiver.

As the Kousaka family gathered up their belongs and swung out the door, the hubbub of conversation and conversation left with them, leaving Saki with a rather large Yubari melon in her hands and Kenta with a rather confused expression on his face.

“My, things have changed,” Saki smiled, still left holding the expensive melon. “Although I’m a bit confused why they gave this to us and not the other way around.”

“I don’t care,” Reito said, hungrily eying the fruit. “I’m starved, and that looks good!” He dived for the melon, but Saki pulled it away at the last moment, causing him to almost fall flat on his face. “C’mon, honey! I didn’t have breakfast yet!”

As Reito chased his wife around the kitchen for the melon, Kenta stood still, trying to figure out what just happened. However, he could only make one conclusion.

[i]‘...things really did change.’[/i]

[center][b]- - - - - - - - - - - - -[/b][/center]
Can’t make any promises, but let’s hope that this thing works out, ne?[/spoiler]

[bury the year]

Bawmp? *is sad*

[JG.]

Here's a comment, as you requested.

I think the story is really well written, and I'll try to keep reading if I remember.

[bury the year]

I'm disappointed. BUMP.