Chapter 4 Childhood Friends

“Kisuke! Wake up! It’s late!”

A voice of a woman resounded throughout the old two-story house.

*Groan* “Fifte- no, half an hour more please.”

Replied Kisuke back to the voice while clutching his blanket over his head. He didn’t leave the comfort of his bed yet since he was very tired from yesterday’s experiments.

“Did you stayed up late again last night? What were you doing anyway?”

The voice of his mother from the first floor resounded again, but this time, Kisuke didn’t bother to answer back.

Soft footsteps were heard from the stairs and Kisuke’s mother came up to his room on the second floor. She didn’t knock on the door and immediately opened it. Kisuke’s mother, Urahara Sakura, noted the messy room of his son with various tools and items laying around. She has gotten used to this kind of sight by seeing it almost every day.

At first, she reprimands him every time his room is messy. Although he will clean up, after a few days, it’ll end up in this kind of mess again. After this repeated a dozen times of so, she stopped scolding him and just reminds him to clean his room every now and then, in any case, he cleans his room himself whenever necessary and because she doesn’t think that every 8 years old kid can clean up their own mess, she is contented with her son even though leaving a messy room is not a very good trait in the first place.

She asked him one time is he wants to become an engineer or an inventor when he grows up because he loves tinkering with things, but she was surprised when he answered back that he wanted to become a candy store owner. She thought it was just a child’s whim and didn’t ask anymore.

Sakura came to his bedside and nudge him a bit before saying, “Get up. It’s already 10 AM. I already told you not to stay up doing weird things, both Issei-kun and Irina-chan are downstairs. Aren’t you hanging out with them today?”

Kisuke moved a bit before denying the things his mother said, “I’m not doing anything weird, I’m just tinkering with some things, and I don’t remember promising them anything. If they are there, let them wait for an hour more, they enjoy your sweets anyway, no big deal…..” Then a snoring sound was heard.

This ticked her mother off. “If you don’t get up in another five seconds, I promise that I will drag you to the shopping district later and leave you in the hands of those aunties that you love so much.”

Kisuke heard a cheerful voice that didn’t match its contents from his mother. He immediately sprang up and tossed his blanket aside while saying, “I’m up! I’m up, alright! I just remembered that I’ll be playing with Issei and Irina at the riverbank today.” And he rushed for the door leaving his mother behind.

“Go wash up first and brush your teeth. Your breakfast is on the table. I have to go first since I still have a meeting to attend. Lock the doors and the windows before you leave and don’t stay out too late, alright?” Sakura’s reminders reached Kisuke as he goes into the washroom.

“Got it. Stay safe.” Kisuke said before closing the door.

While he was washing up, he heard his mother talk to someone before leaving, “You two, take your time. You can take those cookies when leave, treat it as a snack while having fun.” Then he heard the door at the front close, after a while, a sound of engine revs up and his mother left for work.

After washing up, Kisuke made a beeline to the living room, there he saw to kids of his age. The first one is Hyoudou Issei, a kid with short spiky brown hair, with two short locks of hair behind his head, and light brown eyes. He first met him at the Primary School. The second one is Shidou Irina, a kid with short chestnut-colored hair tied in ponytail and violet eyes. Although she acts and looks like a boy, she is, in fact, a girl and Issei probably still thinks she is a guy. He didn’t bother correcting his view because he thought it would be more amusing that way. Like Issei, Kisuke first met her at the Primary School, and this two are his childhood friends in this life.

It might be weird for an old man like him to make friends with kids, but it would even be weirder for a kid if he didn’t make any friends of his age, and it would just make his mother worry unnecessarily. There are reasons, however, why he chose to make friends with this out of tens and hundreds of kids out there. Irina, while faint, emits an aura that is warm and calming which doesn’t exist in any other people except for her father. When Kisuke her father, he also emits the warm and calming aura but on a stronger scale. Issei, on the contrary, has normal parents, but Issei himself also emits an aura different from Irina, it feels overbearing and prideful. It is so faint, hower, that Kisuke wasn’t able to notice it until he is only a meter away from Issei.

Although the reason why he approached this two is impure, he learned to enjoy their company and antics and treats them as his little brother and sister.

“You two are early as always,” Kisuke said while scratching his head and yawning.

“”You just wake up way too late!”” both Issei and Irina responded while holding the cookies in their hands.

Kisuke took a sit on the chair of the dining table while reaching out for his breakfast, a toast. After he took a bite at it he asks the two “So, what’s the plan for today?”

“Irina found an abandoned factory the other day and wants to play there today.” Answered Issei after taking a sip from his juice.

“Let’s go there and find some ghosts, then kick there asses!” Irina is excited at the thought of exorcising ghosts because of his family’s influence as a devote believer of Christianity.

“Is that so?” Kisuke is lacking any enthusiasm when he suddenly thought ‘Maybe I can use it as my training field as delinquents started gathering at my previous spot.’

“Okay, finish up and let’s go. I want to see this abandoned factory.” Eating the last bit of his breakfast, he stood up and urge the two to finish up.

“Ohh… Looks like Kisuke is also excited to see a ghost.” Irina also sprang up while cleaning up the table.

“I don’t want to see any ghost.” Only Issei is against their trip.