[07]

                                    

                                          
Back at the Manor, a crisis had taken over the Wayne family as well. Tim was surrounded by the rest of the family members minus Bruce and Alfred. He had narrated the whole account of the previous night and was asking them to help him with the current situation he was stuck in.
                          
"What do you mean she knew it was you?" Jason asked.
                          
"Jason, I wasn't kidding when I had said that she knows me even better than my own mother would," Tim retorted, "I don't know if it was my voice or just me standing in front of her that made her realize that it was me."
                          
"Wait up here," Richard interrupted, "so you mean to say she tackled three of the gangsters on her own?"
                          
"Four to be precise. Remember the one with the ruptured shin bone? That was her too."
                          
Stephanie nodded quite impressed, "she's brilliant, much more than what we gave her credit for."
                          
"Yeah don't underestimate her from her appearance," Tim added, "she can be deadly. Based on what I saw and heard, she's probably had high class training, known as Ninjutsu."
                          
Barbara rose an eyebrow in astonishment, "but isn't it taught to guerrilla soldiers? It's complete warfare training."
                          
"I know, that's what bothers me too."
                          
"Just to get our facts straight," Steph spoke up, "Tim's extremely sweet sister has had combative training and there's a high chance she's an undercover guerrilla warrior... Un-friggin-believable."
                          
"The Ninjutsu training is not to be taken easily though," Barbara mused, "if she really has that training then she would have easily defeated twice the number of those men. She would probably have heightened senses and strength. That makes her highly advanced for a girl her age and probably even dangerous."
                          
"Like an assassin," Richard muttered under his breath, features set in a deep thoughtful look as he connected the dots to a similar association that he knew of; the League of Assassins, "I bet they don't teach these things normally in schools over there."
                          
Tim nodded, "I looked it up. There's a special academy for Ninjutsu and only warriors take part in it. They don't have a regular admission process either. Potential students are enrolled right after birth and there are speculations stating that all the students there are from families of well known warriors that have been trained here for centuries. The stranger fact is that the academy doesn't accept any outsiders. Not under any circumstances."
                          
Richard suspected that probably Sayuri's mother had been a warrior because that was the only way she could have gotten an admission there, according to what Tim had just told them. "Tim, what do you know about Sayuri's mother?"
                          
Tim faced him, surprise taking over his face, "nothing. She never talks about anything related to her life in Japan. And especially not her mother. It's like one of the topics which you simply don't talk about with her, or else she gets angry."
                          
Jason frowned, "yeah, I can smell a whole fishery here."
                          
"I just think she's a little sensitive about her," Tim's voice had gone a little low, "her mother died when she was very young."
                          
"There's a chance that her mother probably had something to do with the training. She could have been a ninja, or she could have wanted her daughter to be one," Richard's gaze intensified, "do you know how she had died?"
                          
"No. Sayuri never told me about her," he replied, "not even once. But then I was a kid too back then, maybe she would have assumed it wouldn't be any use to tell me."
                          
Richard gently clapped his hand on his shoulder, "alright, leave the assumptions for now and come to the matter at hand. She found out about you and that means we're all in danger of getting exposed. So what do we do now?"
                          
"We threaten her not to say a word," Jason suggested immediately, a grin taking over his face as if he had given the most logical solution, "I am good at that."
                          
Stephanie rolled her eyes wearily, "based on what Tim has told us just now, you'd be the one getting threatened if you dare do that to her."
                          
"Fair point," the three of them agreed.
                          
"Then what? We can't just keep on ignoring her calls," he argued, "if that continues she will definitely come up here to interrogate. And then, we'll have to deal with an angry Bruce. So I'm only taking up the easier option here." 
                          
"Easier?" Tim raised any eyebrow skeptically, "next time she beats someone up, I'll send you as a witness."
                          
"Why don't we just clear it up to her?" Barbara reasoned, "she's Tim's sister and she won't do anything which will get him in trouble. All we have to do is convince her that Tim is safe with us, that's it. One of us just needs to clear up everything to her."
                          
There was utter silence in the room as they were contemplating who was going to take up the task.
                          
"Fine, I'll do it," Richard spoke up when no one else did for a whole five minutes, "I'll go and tell her about us and give her my word that none of us will let anything bad happen to little Timmy."
                          
"You think she'll agree?" Tim was still a little doubtful about it.
                          
Jason laughed, "ah come on. It's Dick Grayson we're sending, guys. He's probably the best choice when it comes to winning over the ladies."
                          
"Jason!" Barbara and Stephanie rebuked him in unison.
                          
"What?" he shrugged, "I'm only being honest."
                          
"When are you going to tell her?" Tim turned to face Richard, changing the topic immediately.
                          
He stood up, "tonight. The sooner we get this over with, the better. You found her after a long time, Tim, I know you don't want to lose her again."
                          
"Thank you," he smiled gratefully at him. 
                          
Richard gently ruffled his hair, "no worries, buddy."
                          
"Yeah, enjoy your first date!" Jason called after him as he stepped out.
                          
"I'll deal with you later, Jay," he yelled back.
                          
After he had left, Stephanie who was looking at the phone handed it to him, "Tim, have you checked the voicemail?". Dreading it, he pressed the voicemail button. What followed though was a rush of Japanese words that the others didn't understand but Tim was getting redder by each passing moment.
                          
"Anata wa zettai-tekina baka-shadeshita. Tegatodoku made matte kudasai. Soshite, kono yō ni watashi o mushi suru koto de anata wa dō naru to omoimasu ka? Watashi wa anata ni keikoku shite iru, timoshī, watashi wa anata o oshimanaideshou!"
                          
"Well, what was she saying?" Barbara asked.
                          
"Nothing important," Tim mumbled but the worry in his eyes indicated otherwise.
                          
Jason held up his phone with the translator app open, "lucky I have this."
                          
"Jason, no!" 
                          
But he held the phone out of Tim's reach, "yeah I recorded the message, and here we go. Translate."
                          
"You have been an absolute fool. Wait till I get my hands on you. And what do you think you'll get by ignoring me like this? I'm warning you, Timothy, I won't spare you at all."
                          
The monotonous voice of the translator felt quite out of sync with the words that were uttered.
                          
"Oh dear, Timmy's in trouble," Jason shook his head, quite visibly amused at Tim's flustered expression.
                          
***