Angel Knight: Chapter 1

* Wednesday, April 27, 2033; Year 14 (almost 15) of the Reiwa Era.
** Aizawa Condo, Zaimokuza, Kamakura, Kanagawa.
It was early morning in the Aizawa condo, Unit 735 of Kaihin Condominiums. 14-year-old, second year middle schooler, Keiko Aizawa was still sleeping soundly despite her phone's alarm, which she promptly turned off to go back to sleep. But before she could lull herself back into dreams she was thoroughly woken up by something wet lapping her face.
"O-okay, okay, Tsukune!" Keiko exclaimed. Keiko sat up and wiped her face of her dog's saliva. Keiko's dog, Tsukune, was a three-year-old male American Akita. His body coat is mostly black but his belly, underneck, and legs are all white, and he has a golden stripe running down his nose, between his eyes, over his head and down his back and tail. When Keiko was eleven years old, she first found him as an abandoned puppy on the streets, no more than a few weeks old at the time, saving him from a bunch of kids who were shooting BB pellets at him for fun. Keiko took him in, with her parents' approval, and they've been close ever since.
"How many times will you make Tsukune-kun wake you up?" asked Ryo, Keiko's 11-year-old (almost 12) younger sister, as she woke up herself with a stretch.
"Can I help it if I'm too immersed in dreams to wake up?" Keiko replied as she got out of bed.
"You're just as bad as Papa."
"Just go wake up the boys," Keiko told Ryo.
"Ibaiyo," Ryo replied. Ryo was one of Keiko's three younger siblings. Ryo also had a twin brother who was a few minutes older than her, Hiroki. Both of them were born on May 14, 2021. And they had all had a 9-year-old younger brother, Koichi, whom would be turning ten on the 20th of this coming July.
Keiko also had three younger cousins, the children of her aunt Mito and her husband, Kyoji Yoshikawa, a police officer. Their children were their eldest son, Sosuke, whom was born roughly a month after Hiroki and Ryo, and their two daughters Shiori and Rui. Shiori, their middle child, was born at the beginning of September 2022, and their youngest, Rui, was due to turn eight later this May.
As Ryo left the room to go wake their brothers, Keiko finally got out of bed. She crossed over to the closest she shared with Ryo, yet she had to push away Ryo's many swimsuits to get to her own things. Most of Ryo's swimwear was for recreation swimming, but a fair number of them were for competition. Ryo was a swimmer, and had a few awards she won from various competitions since she started competing a few years ago.
Of Kakeru and Nana's four children, Keiko alone had followed their parents into the world of soccer. Hiroki meanwhile had taken up basketball, while Koichi had been hooked on baseball since he was six and was due to start playing in the little leagues in a few weeks.
Keiko finally unearth a clean set of sweats that she changed out of her pajamas into. Keiko made her way out to the living room and took Tsukune's leash off a hook. Keiko only had to wait a few minutes for her siblings to join her, also wearing sweats.
"let's go," Keiko told her siblings and they left the condo. As they got their running shoes on and went out the front door, the door of the unit opposite, unit 734, opened and closed. Out of it came Chiho Mao, Keiko's childhood friend since kindergarten. Born on June 15, 2019, she was only slightly younger than Keiko, but would be the same age this coming June. She too was wearing sweats.
"Ohayou!" Chiho said cheerfully.
"Too early in the morning, Chi-chi," Keiko replied.
The five of them went down the elevator and made their way to the entrance, where Yuki Nonomiya, Keiko's other best friend, was waiting for them. With her was her own dog, a female Kishu named Kohaku. Yuki also lived in the building, in unit 413.
"You're late," Yuki told them.
"These three had a bit of a sleepy start, Yuki-nee," Ryo told her, and Tsukune barked in apparent approval.
"Shush, Tsukune," Keiko told her dog.
"You all bring your masks?" Yuki asked them, to which they all nodded. Keiko, Chiho and her siblings all took their face masksin their pockets briefly to confirm and then put them back, as they wouldn't be wearing them until they needed to. While the COVID-19 pandemic had ended many years ago, and much pre-pandemic normalcy had since been revived, it was still common practice to wear masks outside of home or in densely populated areas, and maintain a social distance of at least three feet, due to different strains still circulating the globe, some of which were more contagious than others; and the WHO still urged caution and advised disease safety guidelines until the virus was eradicated entirely. Keiko, her family and friends had since gotten their COVID vaccines this year, but still followed the guidelines as closely as possible unless a specific area was relaxed enough.
"Lets start off then," said Yuki.
Even while the sun was just starting to rise and a fog still hung over Sagami bay – which the condo building looked out over from beyond Zaimokuza beach – the group set off and began walking to warm up before picking up the pace to begin their jog. The six of them and Tsukune went jogging every morning.
In the fourteen years since Keiko was born, much had happened, mainly to her two best friends.
Yuki was the daughter of Yoshiko Nonomiya and her Egyptian-born husband Harsiese Nonomiya (né Suleiman). Both were career archeologists. When Yuki was six, her father vanished in the Peruvian Amazon while on an expedition to prove or disprove reports that the lost city of Paititi had been found. She and her younger brother, Akito, whom was three years younger than her and had just turned 11 earlier this month, became orphaned two years ago when their mother died of takotsubo cardiomyopathy. They had since been taken in by their aunt and uncle, but life under their uncle's thumb wasn't easy.
Chiho had a more complicated past. Keiko and Yuki first met her in kindergarten and they've been close ever since. As far as anyone knew, Chiho's mother had apparently died when she was born and her father's identity was unknown. She was raised in an orphanage until she was finally placed with a foster family right around the time they entered elementary school. It wasn't until midway through elementary, when they were ten, that they finally found out that her foster father had been abusing her, and that it had finally devolved into sexual abuse.
The instant they found out, Keiko informed her uncle Kyoji and the authorities took it from there. Chiho was almost immediately placed with they Aizawas, becoming a foster sister to Keiko and her siblings. Less than a year later Chiho was adopted by Miyuki Tsujimoto & Natsumi Kobayakawa, lesbian wives that lived in unit 734 of Kaihin Condominiums. While an unconventional arrangement by Japanese standards, her adopted mothers had been the most loving family Chiho ever had.
Keiko also had a third best friend, Mayumi Takajo, daughter of Akira Takajo, whom Keiko called Mayucchi. But she was currently living in America with her father while he's on loan to the New York Red Bulls.
Of her three best friends, only Mayumi played soccer with Keiko. They've been playing together on the same teams since elementary school and have been an almost unstoppable duo ever since. Meanwhile, Chiho was a basketball player, like Hiroki, and Yuki was a dancer, specializing in freestyle dances. Both of them were talented a seemed prime to go far in their respective disciplines.
"Any plans for golden week?" Yuki asked as they started jogging after a ten minute walk. Golden week was beginning in two days, as was Year 15 of the Reiwa Era on May 1st.
"I'm probably gonna be training with my team," Keiko replied.
"For all the good it's gonna do you," Hiroki said under his breath, but Keiko heard him.
"I heard that," Keiko snapped.
Privately, Keiko knew he had a point. Keiko was practically a star during her elementary school years, but since entering middle school her performance had been degrading.
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After the Aizawas had all gone to sleep, Isamu, who was sleeping in Ryo's bed with her, got up to go for a drink from the water bowl. Jumping down from the mattress, Isamu passed by Tsukune, who was sleeping at the foot of Keiko's bed, as quietly as he could so as to not wake the dog, unaware that Tsukune was watching him with one eye open.
Isamu made his way out to the kitchen where the water bowls were and began quenching his thirst. Moments later, Isamu's ears perked up as he heard footsteps and the jangling of dog tags behind him. He turned around and saw the Akita bearing down on him.
"Nice doggie," Isamu whimpered.
"Enjoying yourself so far?" Tsukune inquired.
"Well… I guess so, becau—"
"Enjoy it while it lasts, you little pocket-pet!"
Isamu was taken aback by this. He'd sensed that Tsukune was being unfriendly when Ryo brought him home earlier, but now it was confirmed.
"Um… I know you've been here longer than me, but can't we get along?"
"'Get along?!' Don't make me laugh. Listen here you little snowball: I'm a dog with hunter ancestors, born in this country and raised by the Aizawas; you're a cat with a pedigree from who knows where," Tsukune sneered.
"But Ryo-sama took me in. She saved me from a rough place," Isamu reminded the Akita.
"Stop it, you're making me sad," Tsukune replied uncaringly. "Understand – Isamu-kun, isn't it – my base instincts would be to hunt you down, to keep you out of my territory. The only reason I'm tolerating you right now is because I know the Aizawas won't like it if I did anything to you. And I love this family."
"Can't we share?" Isamu asked desperately.
Tsukune just scoffed and turned around to go back to Keiko and Ryo's room, only turning around once more to say one last thing, "You can do with Ryo-sama and the rest of the Aizawas as you please, but stay away from Keiko-sama. She's my human. It's one thing if she picks you up on her own, but don't approach her otherwise."
"Can't we just get along?" Isamu asked one last time.
"Read my lips: no." Having said his piece to the kitten, Tsukune went back to the room.
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