Steel Angel Yuichiro

#1

“Kechiro-kun, can I have a glass of water?”

Takiguchi Yuichiro silently sighed to himself, getting up from the floor. He had been crouched over, probably closer to the TV than he really should be, enjoying the latest episode of RepubiMan. He knew it was government propaganda, but it was also really good government propaganda. It was easy to get lost in, until his grandmother pulled him back to reality.

He didn’t bother correcting her, as he went over to the sink. His grandmother was sat at the table of the living room in their two-room apartment, staring into open space. She had good days and she had bad days. This was one of the latter. The sink creaked as he turned the tap, water filling the glass.

“There you go, Obaasan." he said as he handed it over.

She took a moment to realise he was there, before nodding and giving him a big smile as a thank you. “Thank you, Kechiro-kun. You’re such a good boy.”

He smiled back. It hid the pain. He wished she wouldn’t call him that.

Kechiro was his dad. He wasn’t around any more. That’s what happened when you were a rocker in this country. One day, four years ago, he’d gone out for an underground concert, and that was the last time Yuichiro had ever seen him. For weeks he’d sat on the street outside, waiting for his dad to come home. He never did.

Had he died? Been arrested? Or maybe he’d just ran off? Yuichiro didn’t know, and he didn’t expect he ever would.

But he knew his dad was a good person. They didn’t have much growing up, but his dad always found time to watch his favourite anime with him. In truth it was probably because he wasn’t working in between gigs, but Yuichiro didn’t think about that. Even if something had happened to his dad, or he’d made a mistake, he didn’t want to hold it against him.

His grandma’s mind had been going since then. She had her forgetful moments before that, but lately she’d been getting worse. She kept thinking he was his dad, probably because he looked like him. That’s what she kept telling him when she was lucid, at least. They didn’t have the money to have a doctor look at her though, not that Yuichiro was sure what a doctor could do.

He wasn’t that great at school, but sometimes he liked to think that maybe he could be a doctor one day. Then maybe he could help people like his grandma. Sometimes he thought he might make a better nurse than a doctor, but only girls became nurses. It was dumb, but that’s how it was.

He knew his grandma was a good person though. He couldn’t blame her for her mind failing; how could he? So he got her water when she asked for it, or helped her prepare rice that they had eaten already, or turned the noise down on his shows so that she could read books that weren’t there. He just wanted her to be happy, after all. Him, his grandma, and his mother.

Speaking of, Mrs Takiguichi emerged from the other room in their apartment. She was dressed up so pretty, even though it was almost 10 at night. She had been working nights for about a year now, so Yuichiro had to look after his grandma in the evenings. “We need the money,” she had explained, but she didn’t need to. Yuichiro knew she’d do what she’d have to for their sake, so the least he could do was return the favour.

She used to go out wearing a nurse’s uniform, back when that was her job, but she had stopped after his dad disappeared. Nursing doesn’t pay enough, she had told him, so she had gotten glamoured up instead. Now she was singing in a lounge bar, apparently. Yuichiro wasn’t sure that would make more money than nursing, and he had heard his mother sing in the shower enough to know that she wasn’t all that great at it, but he didn’t question it. He didn’t think lounge bars usually stayed open until 5 in the morning either, but he couldn’t be sure. He wasn’t 20 after all, so he couldn’t go into bars.

Besides, he knew his mom was a good person. Even if she had to do things that people made up rumours about, she wouldn’t do it if she didn’t have to. Yuichiro didn’t like to listen to rumours anyway. There were plenty of rumours about the students in his class, for starters, but they were pretty dumb. Sure, some of the guys were rough around the edges, and some of the girls were pretty forward, but they were just being themselves.

He was pretty sure they were good people too.

Sometimes, he pondered as he turned back to RepubiMan, he wondered how he could do more to help his mom. She had told him to focus on school, that if he wanted to be a doctor (probably not) he had to get his grades up. But he got distracted pretty easy, and if someone gave him a chance to talk about an anime, he was pretty hard to shut up. He knew that, but he just really liked anime. Could you blame him? But it still hurt his grades, and he got teased over it from time to time. Like the time Kiriyama’s gang had locked him in the sports supply shed overnight. That was a pretty big prank.

He had almost been mad at them, but he reminded himself that they were good people, really. So it was funny, he supposed.

Sometimes he wished he had been born a girl. It sounded pretty stupid, he knew, and it wasn’t that he didn’t like being a boy, but it would’ve made things easier. The rumours about the girls in his class were dumb, but he knew compensated dating was a thing. If he was a cute girl, he could go out and have dinner with some guys, and he’d make some more money for the family. Then maybe they wouldn’t all have to share a bedroom, and he wouldn’t have to take up so much space with his manga and anime collectibles. He knew he should sell some of those, and his mom had tripped over them sometimes, but he just really liked anime.

He had tried to get jobs other ways, but most store owners took one look at him and said he was too shrimpy. They were right, he knew, but it didn’t make sense. Couldn’t a shrimpy guy bus tables, or stack shelves? But they were good people, and they probably needed the best employees for their stores, so he was out of luck.

So the only alternative was compensated dating, which he couldn’t do because he was a boy. It wouldn’t be the proudest way to make money if he could, but what was the harm in it? And besides, he didn’t mind the idea of dating guys. He blushed to himself as he thought about that. That was pretty weird: he knew that guys dated girls, and girls dated guys. But he didn’t really feel anything about the girls in his class like he did some of the guys. Well, maybe about Souma-san, but that was it. He rubbed at his head in embarrassment as he honed in on the train of thought, even as RepubiMan blasted the Capericans away.

There was Tadakatsu, who was his best friend. He felt really safe around him, and sometimes he kind of wished they could hug, or...you know.

But that was really embarrassing, and of course he had never asked. How would you even start that conversation? No, it was dumb and he was just being silly.

And of course, there was Shuuya. He was the most handsome guy in class, all the girls said so. He had to agree with them, but of course he didn’t say that out loud. Besides, guys could think other guys were handsome right? It didn’t mean anything. Like saying girls were pretty. You could say girls were pretty, and it didn’t have to mean anything.

So that’s how it was, with him stuck in the middle between his anime, his grandma, and his probably not-great future. Sometimes it got pretty hard, but then he remembered that if people tried their hardest, like RepubiMan, or Astro Boy, or Shinji, then things would work out OK. Anime said so.

“Kechiro-kun, can I have a glass of water?”

He sighed again.