Before MSA + 1: Vivi Meets Arthur
Vivi had been having a boring day. She’d been planning on training with her dad, but he’d said someone had scheduled a private lesson so instead she was reading a book of ghost stories outside with Ben next to her.
Vivi was trying to figure out if the story about the silver man with a third eye was true when a short, stout man walked over, sat in one of the porch chairs, and opened a hunting magazine.
Vivi studied the man for a moment. He looked pretty tough even though he wasn’t that much taller than her. His body shape sort of reminded Vivi of how dwarves were often portrayed in fantasy series. Plus she was pretty sure that was a wrestling championship belt he was wearing. Also, his hair was pretty cool looking. Orange and yellow with some black thrown in. It even extended to his beard. “Hi mister!”
He glanced over the top of his magazine. “Hey.” Was that an accent she heard?
“I haven’t seen you before. Are you new?”
“Nah. Just prefer to keep to myself,” said the man.
He definitely had an accent. There were some elements of the typical southern accent a good portion of Tempo had, but it also had a lilt that she hadn’t heard from anyone else local. Vivi wondered if she could figure it out if they talked some more. If not, maybe after a bit of talking she would be able to ask without coming off as rude. “I’m Vivi. Who’re you?”
“Lance.”
She got a name! “Did you schedule the private lesson?” asked Vivi. “Dad doesn’t get many of those.”
Lance was silent. “My nephew needs some help.”
That caught Vivi’s attention. Nephew, not son. Was said nephew just visiting? Or was this a permanent situation? Was it a recent change or had it been like this for a while? Was there a way to ask without being nosy? “What’s his name?”
“Arthur.”
Vivi giggled. “Like the king.”
Lance groaned. “Yeah. The king.” Huh? Sore point?
A loud thump came from the dojo. Vivi looked in that direction in surprise. Wow, what were they doing in there? Vivi glanced towards Lance and saw him looking in the same direction with a furrowed brow. Was he worried?
Ben suddenly sat up and looked towards the dojo doors right before they were opened by Hiro. Vivi’s greeting died on her tongue when she noticed that A: He was bleeding, and B: He looked furious. “Dad?”
Hiro’s eyes darted to her before turning his attention to Lance. “Why does your nephew know how to kill?”
Vivi’s mouth dropped open. Lance winced, but didn’t seem too shocked. “That bad?”
“He just…If that knife had been real…” Hiro frowned and started pressing down on his head wound with a sigh. “Were you even aware?”
Lance glanced at Vivi. “I only know what I told you before.”
Feeling curious, Vivi peered past her father and into the dojo. Inside was a boy a bit younger than her who was clearly related to Lance. He was hunched in on himself and looked like he was about to have a panic attack. He didn’t look like a killer. He looked like a scared kid.
Ben stood and walked into the dojo. “Ben?” Ben walked over to the boy, Arthur, and sniffed him. Arthur blinked and held out a hand. Ben licked Arthur’s hand before Arthur started petting him. Vivi debated for a moment before following Ben into the dojo. Arthur stopped petting Ben and looked up at her with wide eyes. Vivi waved. “Hey.”
“Hi,” said Arthur.
“So…You live with your uncle?” Arthur nodded. “I’m kind of surprised you managed to land a hit on my dad. He’s pretty tough. Must be getting old.” Speaking of which, she could hear the two men talking in hushed tones that she couldn’t quite make out.
Arthur looked a bit uncomfortable. “I didn’t mean to!” he said, an accent similar to his uncle’s coloring the words.
Vivi blinked. “Oh, did you mess up a move? I do that all the time.” She huffed. “I just can’t seem to move correctly when I try to copy what Dad shows me. I guess I’m just not suited for fighting.”
“You’re lucky,” muttered Arthur.
Vivi blinked. “Huh?”
Hiro walked back in, pressing some gauze to his head. “Vivi, please step out so Arthur and I may continue the lesson.”
“Can I watch?” asked Vivi.
“Yes, you can. No, you may not,” responded Hiro.
Vivi pouted at her father’s grammar correction and walked back outside with Ben on her heels. Hiro closed the door behind her. Vivi huffed and sat down near Lance. The silence was awkward so she turned towards him. “So, where did Arthur learn to fight anyway?”
Lance gave her a look. “That’s personal.”
“Okay.” Something about Lance just made it clear that was settled. “So, where’s Arthur’s parents?”
“Not here.” Once again Lance somehow made Vivi not want to pursue the subject even though she wanted to know.
It was like some sort of mundane super power.
“You guys have pretty cool hair,” commented Vivi. “How do you get it like that?”
“Gel.”
Vivi waited. Lance didn’t go into detail. “Wait. That color’s natural?!”
“Yeah.”
How did that even work?! She guessed the orange to yellow could be the color fading somewhat, but what about the bits that were black? Especially the end of his beard? How do you even go from orange to black naturally? Vivi thought that sort of thing only showed up naturally in anime.
…Actually considering some of the anime hair people came up with, this was pretty tame. Vivi fingered her own black hair.
Her family’s hair turned blue when their power awakened. Her father died his hair black to avoid questions simply because he didn’t think he had the personality that would make dying his hair blue believable. Her Obaa-san’s hair had turned gray before Vivi was born.
Vivi wanted blue hair. She didn’t like the way black hair looked on her, didn’t like how it looked with her clothes. “I’m thinking of dying my hair blue,” she randomly said to Lance. Lance gave a grunt in response. “It’s kind of annoying how limited hair color is in humans, don’t you think? Mostly black and brown. Some red and orange and yellow. I think it would add more color…More eye colors would be nice too. We have more eye colors than hair colors, but it’s still mostly brown I think. Some blue. Some green. Hazel. Gray or purple if you’re lucky. I guess red if you’re albino. No orange or…” She trailed off. “Actually, your eyes look kind of orange. Maybe those are just super rare too…”
“Pops up in the family,” said Lance as way of explanation.
Did Arthur have orange eyes too? Vivi made a note to check when he came out of the dojo because she was definitely sticking around for that.
“So what do you do?” asked Vivi.
“Car mechanic.”
“Oh!” A couple of things snapped into place in Vivi’s head. “Kingsman Mechanics!”
She’d never been there. Tempo was just big enough to have three garages. Two were big chain garages that you could find anywhere. The last was Kingsman mechanics, which everyone preferred to the other two. It was a bit out of the way and owned by the only employee, but the work was second to none, and the owner (Lance if Vivi was right.) was willing to do payment plans that other places wouldn’t consider. Was apparently willing to barter to an extent if someone was in a tight spot. Even had a junkyard behind the shop that Vivi could only assume was for scavenging or something. When her father needed to have the car’s oil changed, he’d schedule at Kingsman Mechanics if he could get an appointment and they weren’t too busy. The way he’d described the owner, he was shorter than most, muscular, no nonsense, practical, and Scottish.
Huh, so his accent must be a combination of Southern and Scottish. No wonder it was so unusual. “What got you into cars?”
“…Seemed like a waste of money to buy a car when I could fix one up for myself.” Lance shrugged. “Turned out I liked fixing up cars.”
Vivi nodded. “Yeah, it’s lucky to get a job you enjoy.” She huffed. “I know what I wanna do, but I’ll probably have to get a second job or something.” Paranormal investigating wouldn’t pay all the bills.
At this point, Baa-san suddenly appeared, walked over, and plopped several ofuda on Lance’s leg. “Put those on your windows. They’ll repel negative spirits.” Lance raised an eyebrow as Baa-san walked back into the house.
Vivi was more surprised by how many ofuda Baa-san had given Lance. Why would he need that many so suddenly? If he’d never needed them before…
Unless they weren’t for him.
“What exactly does your grandmother do for a living?” asked Lance.
“She’s a former miko, Japanese shrine maiden, a sort of priestess,” explained Vivi. “Ofuda are…sort of like charms for luck or protection.” Vivi took a closer look. “Like Baa-san said, these are for repelling negative spirits that might try to hurt you. Kind of surprised she just came over and gave them to you. Usually she asks a bit more about what’s going on.” Actually, now that Vivi was looking closer, she could see these were ofuda that Baa-san had made, not Vivi, which would make them stronger than what they usually gave out. “Are you being followed around by something nasty?”
Lance glanced toward the dojo. Something to do with Arthur? Lance looked back at Vivi. “What exactly does your family do?”
“Well, like I said my Baa-san is a former miko, but still does little things out of habit. Dad is a theology teacher at the community college and teaches martial arts. Mom’s a psychologist.” Vivi grinned. “But we also occasionally do paranormal investigations. Not a lot though. Not much happens in Tempo.”
“Uh huh.” Lance studied the ofuda for another few moments before stuffing them in his pocket. So he was keeping them! “Any other way to keep away ghosts?”
Vivi grinned. “Having a priest bless your house usually helps. So does burning sage while praying. Some places sell sage bundled into sticks specifically for that purpose.”
“Hm.” Lance looked down for several moments.
Vivi opened her mouth to try and ask Lance if anything odd had been going on at his house, but Ben headbutted her in the stomach. She huffed and gave him a look. He just yawned.
“Does your dad give religion lessons?” asked Lance.
Vivi blinked. “What? At home?” Lance nodded. “I don’t know. He already has his lectures at the college.” What did religion have to do with seemingly unnecessary defense lessons and a possible haunting? “You could probably sit in on Dad’s classes for free if you don’t care about getting credits.”
“It’s not for me.”
Wow, what was up with Arthur? Before Vivi could ask, the dojo door opened. Her dad walked out, Arthur following a moment later. “That’s it for today. Lessons will be Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The lessons on Saturday will be longer since school will not be an issue.”
Arthur looked at her dad in surprise. Lance nodded. “Thanks. Was getting worried I wouldn’t anyone. Any chance you could teach him theology or something?”
Hiro blinked, frowned, and studied Arthur. Arthur looked away, grasping at his arm. Hiro nodded. “That might not be a bad idea. Can you bring Arthur after school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays?”
Lance nodded. “I’ll make it work. Somehow.” He gestured turned, gesturing for Arthur to follow him. Arthur gave the Yukinos one last confused, lost look before leaving as well.
“What was that about?” asked Vivi.
Hiro sighed. “Arthur has had a rough life. He needs a lot of help if he wants a chance at living normally.” He turned to Vivi. “Would you mind sitting in on the theology lessons? It might help him if someone his age is present.”
An opportunity to figure out what’s going on? “Sure.”
“And don’t try to push Arthur for answers. He’s nowhere near ready,” continued Hiro.
Darn it.