Tai's Story: My Dad is not a Ninja

It all started after the benefit for the History Museum. Every year Torika's dad organizes a fund raiser in order to get money for new exhibits. This year he asked my mom and dad if they would help him. After a little discussion, the three decided the best thing to do was to have a fashion show with an art auction afterwards with my dad's art photos and some paintings from my dad's friend, Fai D. Flowrite. Torika, Maddy, Natsume and I all agreed to help set up the show and do work during the auction. Here's where the trouble began.

     Maddy was helping Mr. Flowrite put some of his smaller prints on a table when Mr. Flowrite turned to my sister and announced happily, “You know you're father is a ninja, right?”

     “Really?” Maddy gasped in disbelief.

     “Oh yes, a very skilled one at that. Kurogane's a master of the katana. I've seen him in action. If I have time later on I'll have to tell you some stories,” Mr. Flowrite stated the information as though it were very ordinary well known fact. The artist didn't say anything else about the matter, but after she finished helping him, Maddy ran over to where Torika, Natsume and I were setting up the decorations.

     “Guess what guys! My dad's a real live ninja!” my slightly off sister yelled as she was coming towards us.

     “What?” I gasped in a slightly different kind of disbelief, “Who told you that?”

     “Mr Flowrite, he's says he's seen Dad in action,”

     “Maddy, that's impossible, our father is not a ninja. You heard Dad say Mr. Flowrite likes to tease him and make up stories about him. That must have been just a story. Everyone knows ninjas don't exist,”

     “Well, actually Tai, from what I've heard, there are actually still plenty of active Ninja families in Japan. They still do spy and assassin work for the government,” Natsume said as she pinned up some ribbon.

     “Well, even if there are Ninja families in Japan, I highly doubt that my father is from one of them. Besides, if he was a ninja, don't you think we'd know about it by now?”

     “I don't know, Tai, it is possible that you're father is a ninja. I mean, for the first ten years of my life I would have bet money that my mother and father weren't magicians, or that my uncle could see ghosts. Being a ninja isn't outside the realm of possibility for Mr. Greening,” Torika considered.

     “See Tai, Mr, Flowrite was right!” Maddy crossed her arms and smiled in triumph.

     I just rolled my eyes, “Thanks for not encouraging her, Torika, Natsume. Maddy, there's just no evidence our father is a ninja,”

     It was clear she would not be convinced, so I walked away and helped my dad set up his photographs. As I did, I looked at the subjects. There was a lot of architecture and flowers. Gardens and desert landscapes as well as a few fashion photographs he took for my mom. This was not the subject matter of a trained assassin. I avoided Maddy the rest of the night, and when we went to school the next day she didn't bring up the matter, so I figured she lost interest. But I was wrong.

     When the weekend came and I was 'helping' her with one of her new outfits the argument started again. “Well, you said we have no evidence Dad was a ninja, but if I showed you evidence, would you finally believe me?”

     “Maddy, not this again...”

     “C'mon! If there's real convincing evidence, you'd have to say I'm right,”

     “I suppose so, but what kind of evidence could you possibly have?”

     “First off, hasn't ever come off odd how much dad is out of the country?”

     “Yow! Watch the pins Maddy!” Maddy was so focused on this ninja thing that she wasn't paying much attention to her sewing, “No, it's not odd. Dad is a fashion photographer, people do shoots all over the world so he goes all over the world,”

     “Then how come he never tells us where he's gone until after he's already gotten there?”

     “Because he doesn't always have time, because the shoots are short notice,”

     “Short notice shoots? And I'm the crazy one? Those things are planned months in advance,” Maddy huffed and brought up a new point, “Okay, what about some of his non-fashion photos? Some of the angles look like something you take in the corner of a ceiling, or upside down,”

     “You do photography, Maddy, you know you can set up different rigs for taking pictures. Besides, based on that there's just as much evidence Dad's Spiderman as he is a ninja,”

     “What about the sword he keeps on his wall in the glass case? The katana with the dragon head on the handle,”

     “Lots of people have swords as decorations. Rich people have tons of them. Even Torika's father keeps a sword on the wall,”

     “Yeah, but Mr. Showron can use his, and he knows magic,”

     “Maddy, I'm not being difficult because I'm a skeptic. We're surrounded by all kinds of things people would have a hard time believing. Hana is a priestess, Torika and Natsume both come from powerful magical families. Heck, even I'm really a magical being living through a false form. But could it just be possible that our parents could be nice, normal people?”

     “If you won't believe me even with evidence, I'm just going to ask dad and settle this once and for all,” Without even a pause, Maddy stormed out of her room and headed for Dad's studio.

     “You're what?” My sister's action caught me off-guard and I ran after her. Dad had already let her into the studio when I caught up to her. Dad looked at me and sighed, I was still wearing the dress Maddy was making.

     My twin got straight to the point, “Dad, are you a ninja?”

     I don't think my father was prepared for such a direct and strange question, especially after seeing his only son come running down the hall wearing seafoam taffeta. But at the same time he didn't seem entirely shocked by it either. My dad's facial expressions can be hard to read, and I had no idea how he'd react, “Who told you, I was a ninja?”

     “Mr. Flowrite, at the auction when I was helping him,” Maddy told him.

     “Fai D. Flowrite has been a good friend of mine for years, but he makes it a hobby of his to get on my nerves. So kids, just go off and play and forget about the whole thing,” He gave Maddy a hug and gave me a sympathetic pat on the head before closing the door and going back to work.

     “See? I told you, Mr. Flowrite was just telling you a story to annoy Dad,” I said as I started to pull the embarrassing dress off of me.

     Maddy looked to me with devious smile, “Dad said to forget what Mr. Flowrite said, but he didn't say Mr. Flowrite was telling us a lie,”