16 - The Siege of the Parents and the Brother

RAW

After returning home and getting ready, Haruto visits the Tojo family for the third time.

In front of the entrance to the mansion, which is as impressive as ever, Haruto presses the intercom button.

A response comes immediately.

"Yes, yes. Otsuki?"

"Yes, this is Otsuki. I'm here to help with the housekeeping."

"I've been waiting for you. Ryota, big brother is here! Open the front door! Oh, Otsuki, Ryota will open the door now, so please wait a moment."

"Yes, thank you."

At the same time that Haruto finishes thanking them, the front door is slammed open.

"Big brother!"

"Hey Ryota. Hello."

"Hello! Hurry up, big brother! The fish are amazing!"

Ryota, who is at the peak of his excitement, says excitedly.

Just like last time, he takes Haruto's hand and pulls him into the living room.

"Welcome, Otsuki."

When they enter the living room, Tojo's mother, Ikue, stands up from the sofa and calls out to Haruto with a big smile.

"Pleased to bother you."

"Hey! Otsuki! Welcome!"

Next, Tojo's father, Shuichi, welcomes Haruto.

A fairly large cooler box is placed at his feet.

Haruto looks at the large cooler box and says.

"Tojo-san... I heard the story from Ayaka-san. That Shuichi went fishing and caught a yellowtail, a sea bream, and a Spanish mackerel."

When Haruto said that, Shuichi excitedly spoke, with a look on his face that said, "I'm glad you listened!"

"That's right! One of our clients is a recreational fishing boat enthusiast. I often go on boat trips with him, and wow, today was a hit! When I caught this yellowtail, I thought it had gotten stuck on the bottom at first! I reeled it in with all my might, but it wouldn't budge! When I finally got to the last 20 meters, it started to struggle again, and the drag came out with incredible force. It was a life-or-death struggle! It took about 15 minutes, no, 30 minutes to reel it in..."

"You. If you talk too long, you'll ruin the freshness of this fish, you know?"

With shining eyes, Shuichi passionately tells Haruto about the situation when he caught the yellowtail.

However, he is interrupted by Ikue in the middle of what he is saying.

"Hmm, that's right. These fish are very fresh. I need to get Otsuki to prepare them quickly."

"Yes, leave it to me."

Shuichi seems a little reluctant to leave, and Haruto nods with a bitter smile.

"Even so, they are all very large fish. This sea bream is the most delicious size, isn't it?"

Haruto says while peering into the cooler at Shuichi's feet, and Shuichi immediately begins to speak.

"That sea bream too! At first, I felt the reel become lighter! I thought, 'Oh?' and quickly set the hook! Then the hook was set perfectly, and it struggled a lot, but it didn't come off..."

"You?"

"Ah, no... well. Otsuki. Can you cook it?"

Once again, Ikue interrupts Shuichi, who looks a little disappointed.

"Well, shall we take this cooler to the kitchen?"

Haruto sympathizes with Shuichi, who is itching to talk about the excitement of catching a fish, but decides to prioritize the freshness of the fish and tries to grab the handle of the cooler.

However, Haruto's face is distorted as it is heavier than he expected.

"I'll take the opposite."

"Oh, sorry. Thank you."

The yellowtail is about 70 cm long, and the Spanish mackerel is about 60 cm long. The sea bream is about 40 to 50 cm long, and the cooler with ice in it is not impossible for one person to carry it, but it is not heavy enough to just lift it up.

Haruto and Shuichi help carry the cooler to the kitchen.

"Thank you very much. That was helpful. I think I'll start right away, but do you have any requests regarding the food?"

As Haruto asked, the door to the living room opened and Ayaka entered the room.

"Oh, Otsuki-kun. You're here. Well... please come in."

"Oh, yes. Um... it's nice to see you."

The two of them exchanged a slightly awkward greeting, with the incident at the home improvement store fresh in their minds.

Ikue quickly noticed the change in their behavior and looked at her daughter with amusement.

"Wh-what?"

The daughter, who caught her mother's gaze, asked a little shaken.

"Otsuki-kun is going to make a dish full of love for you, what would you like, Ayaka?"

"Oh, love, I-I don't know that kind of thing."

Ayaka frowned at her mother's words and answered. Ikue, on the other hand, looks at Haruto with amusement.

"I know! Right, Otsuki? The reason why Otsuki's cooking is so delicious is because he's not only a good cook, but also puts a lot of love into it, right?"

"Yeah, yes. I... I make it with all my heart and soul."

"See! Otsuki cooks with all his heart for Ayaka?"

"Well, not just for Ayaka, but for everyone..."

"Oh! Otsuki is so kind."

"No..."

Haruto smiles wryly, knowing that Ikue is the strongest in the Tojo family.

"Hey, hey, big brother. I want to eat sashimi."

Haruto is being led astray by Ikue's words, unable to tell if they're a joke or serious, and Ryota makes a request.

Seeing a chance to escape from Ikue, Haruto bends down, meets Ryota's gaze and answers.

"Okay. I'll make sashimi of three kinds of fish for now."

"Yay!!"

Ryota is innocently happy at Haruto's words.

Shuichi nods and says.

"After all, we want to eat fresh fish as sashimi. We are Japanese after all."

"Okay. Then, let's have yellowtail, sea bream, and Spanish mackerel sashimi for dinner tonight. Is that okay with Ikue and Ayaka?"

Haruto asks them.

"Yeah, of course! I'm looking forward to it."

"I want to eat sashimi too."

Having gotten the approval of the entire Tojo household, Haruto immediately starts cooking.

At that moment, Shuichi comes into the kitchen with a plastic bag in one hand.

"Oh, by the way, Otsuki-kun. I was originally planning on having you make sashimi, so I bought a lot of tools and vegetables that I thought would be useful."

"Oh, really? Can I take a look inside?"

Haruto takes the shopping bag from Shuichi and checks the contents.

Inside is a fish scale remover and a julienne purifier that makes it easy to make radish garnishes. And the vegetables inside are carrots, radishes, cucumbers, shiso, and other things that can be used as garnishes.

"Thank you, Shuichi-san. With all this, the sashimi will look more colorful."

When Haruto thanks her, Ikue smiles, teasing Shuichi a little.

"This guy bought all these different things, but he forgot to buy the most important thing, wasabi."

"Hahaha, wow, I'm so grateful."

Shuichi embarrassedly scratches the back of his head with one hand after hearing Ikue's words.

Haruto felt a little relieved to know the truth behind why Ayaka had gone to the trouble of going to the supermarket just to buy wasabi.

"Well then, let's get started."

First, Haruto takes the tail of the yellowtail and places it on the cutting board, then lightly splashes water on it while removing the scales.

Once all the scales are removed, he cuts off the head and removes the gills, opens the stomach, removes the innards, and cuts the flesh into three pieces.

Shuichi is impressed at how quickly the yellowtail has been filleted.

"You're really skilled. It's a pleasure to watch."

"Thank you. I've never had to fillet such a fine fish myself, so I was worried about whether I'd be able to do it properly, but this makes it very easy to fillet."

Saying this, Haruto slightly raises the deba knife he is holding in his hand.

The deba knife is from the Tojo family, and there is a name carved into the base of the blade, making it a very luxurious knife.

The sharpness of the knife is outstanding, and even a yellowtail, which has a large body and hard bones, can be filleted without any problems.

Haruto fillets all the fish, then cuts off the blood vessels and bones and removes the belly bones to make them easier to eat.

"That's amazing. I think I'll learn how to fillet fish from Otsuki."

Ikue sits at the dining table and looks into the kitchen and says.

"I can teach you if you want."

Haruto answers while pulling the skin off the fish that he has cut into three pieces.

"Oh really? Then I'll have you teach me next time. How about you join me, Ayaka? It will be useful when you feed fish to your future husband."

"Eh? No, I..."

Ayaka looks a little confused, and Ikue gives a suggestive smile, "Hehehe."

"You don't like it? Ah, but if someone like Otsuki becomes your husband, it won't be a problem, right?"

"Hey! Mom! What are you talking about when Otsuki is here!?"

Ayaka's face instantly goes red at her mother's sudden remark.

Seeing her daughter's reaction, Ikue calmly says.

"Oh, I didn't mean 'someone like Otsuki'?"

"... I don't like it, mom."

Ayaka pouts and sulks at Ikue's meanness.

However, Ikue talks to Haruto with a happy look on her face.

"Otsuki, I'm sorry my daughter misunderstood you. Ayaka can be a little naive, but please continue to be friends with her."

"Haha, thank you."

Haruto, while taking three positions, is concerned about Ayaka's protests to her mother, exuding an aura of "I'm in a bad mood," so he smiles and gives a safe answer. For now, there is no sign that her daughter's protests have reached her mother.

At that moment, Shuichi puts his hand on his chin and opens his mouth with a serious look on his face.

"I see, if Ayaka marries Otsuki, he'll be her husband, or in other words my son-in-law... I see, that's fine. But giving away a cute daughter to be married off..."

Muttering to himself, Shuichi was lost in his own world, agonizing.

Shuichi's shocking mutterings made Ayaka's protests to her mother fly away somewhere.

"Hey, dad! Don't have weird fantasies all by yourself!"

In Ikue's case, Ayaka knew that it was clearly a joke, so she sulked and got upset, but she didn't really mean it. It was like a mother and daughter playing around.

But Shuichi's words now seemed quite serious.

The fact that he was muttering to himself, thinking deeply, without talking to anyone, made it seem like he was being quite serious.

Ayaka panics and tries to pull her father out of his sea of thoughts as he is lost in thought.

However, due to his innocence, a troublesome presence attacks him.

"Big brother, are you going to marry big sister?"

"What?! Eh? No, not at all..."

"Hey Ryota! Otsuki is holding a knife right now, so don't say anything distracting! It's dangerous!"

Ayaka grabs the hand of her younger brother, who is looking at Haruto's decorative knives next to him, and pulls him away.

"But if he marries you, then he'll be my real big brother, right?"

Ryota looks at Ayaka with an excited expression, as if he's imagining what it would be like if Haruto became his real brother. Ayaka can't help but look away.

"There's no way we're getting married! We're still in high school!"

"Well, we can get married if our parents agree."

"Come on! Mom, stay quiet!"

For a while after that, the Tojo household unfolds like a romantic comedy.

Haruto senses the danger of sticking his nose into things here and decides to focus on cooking the fish in front of him.

After finishing all the cooking, Haruto picks up the large plate with the sashimi on it.

"Well, for now, the sashimi is done..."

Haruto hesitantly carries the large plate with the sashimi on it to the dining table.

While he was cooking, the Tojo household became rather chaotic.

Shuichi was deep in thought with a serious expression on his face, while Ryota innocently questioned him about the marriage. Ayaka, blushing, tried to stop him. And Ikue, who seemed amused by the situation, occasionally made some comments.

Haruto called out to the Tojo household hesitantly.

"Um... I've also made some yellowtail soup, so please have some of that too."