Chapter 26: Deuteronomy 10:18
Eri nodded excitedly. It had been a long time since she had something to be excited about. Not since her grandfather had passed away almost a year ago and Overhaul had taken over and started experimenting on her did anything good happen. The best she could hope for was a day without suffering and even those were few and far between.
She wasn't sure what would be happening going forward, but it would be hard for it to be worse than the situation she had been in and the big brother seemed kind.
"So Eri... I don't want to just abandon you when I just rescued you, but my parents don't know about what I did." he said.
She nodded unsurely.
"I want to keep taking care of you, but we can't tell them what I did. So we are going to have to play a little trick on them," he told her.
Eri titled her head in confusion. James thought it was rather cute.
"So we have a little thing planned to make things work. Tsumugi here will be working with someone that works with my father and tell them you were the daughter of on of his employees that lost her parents," he continued.
"Then I will try to convince them to adopt you or at least let you stay with us. Do you understand?" he finally asked after explaining the entire plan.
Eri nodded still somewhat unsure, but still felt excited about the idea of maybe having a family again. Even before her grandfather died her family wasn't quite a regular family.
"That can wait until tomorrow though as I'm sure you could use a good night's rest." he said.
Eri came up to him and hugged him tightly before letting Tsugumi lead her to her bedroom.
Meanwhile he had to get back home soon so he could get a few hours of sleep before having to wake up again and go through with the charade to trick his parents into accepting Eri.
When he got there he already found Himiko passed out on his bed in pajamas with a trail of drool leaking onto his pillow. He shrugged and just crawled into the bed already used to her antics.
After lunch the next afternoon was when the plan was set into motion. One of his father's trusted employees came to alert his father of the "bad news".
"Hello Mr. Busujima. I regret to inform you that one of our employees and his wife died in a car accident and left their 5 year old daughter orphaned. We are currently holding the girl to keep her safe until we figure out what to do regarding her situation." he explained.
The supposed couple that passed away didn't exist and his father wouldn't be aware of them, but with a consortium as large as the Busujima one there was no way he could know most of their employees and just trusted his employee to be truthful.
They shared some doctored documents with his father which included a photo of Eri.
He snuck up beside his father looking at the picture.
"Dad, we can't let the poor girl all alone. Not after her father worked for us most of his life." he said.
"And we can't let her end up in an orphanage." he continued to lay it on thicker.
"Is there anything we can do for her? Can we take care of her?" he asked innocently.
His father seemed to hesitate a little.
James didn't want to give up though so he continued his onslaught. "You always say the Busujima consortium is like a big family that takes care of each other which helps us prosper right dad?" he asked. Manipulation was still his forte after all.
"I guess we can take care of the girl at least for now... what do you think?" he asked James' mother.
His mother was the easier one to convince actually as although she could be a hard businesswoman she was soft at her core.
"She looks like a sweet girl. We can't just leave her at some house without support. Let's bring her here," she said picking up the picture of Eri.
James was excited, he was sure as long as he managed to get her to stay in their home for a while they wouldn't have the heart to send her away anymore.
"Thanks mom," he said while giving her a hug. He didn't enjoy acting like an actual kid, but when it works it works.
A few hours later Eri was brought over. She still seemed rather unsure though she seemed more relieved when she saw James again. To make sure she she didn't blab he was the first to rush up to her and hug her while saying "It's so nice to meet you." before she got a chance to say anything that might reveal the ruse.
His mother didn't give him much time stealing the adorable little girl from him. "You're so cute. You're going to spend some time with us ok?" she said her.
His father was more reserved, but that wasn't unexpected.
"Uhm." Eri hummed in agreement. She wasn't used to the attention she was getting.
When his mother finally let her go she rubbed the tears that had been building up from her eyes.
"Ahem..Let's have dinner and we can get to know each other better." his father interjected.
They all agreed and Himiko also joined them for dinner. Himiko was character of her own. She was usually lazy and just liked to hang out wherever she felt like even taking frequent naps whenever she felt like it. When something got her attention like James or food was the only time when she suddenly became very energetic and could be all over the place. It was like she was a switch with only two states. Lazy and uninterested and hyper when something did catch her interest with nothing in between.
Over dinner Eri got more used to being around his parents too and started acting more comfortable around them.
Himiko was more focused on the food though as the new girl didn't really interest her yet. This didn't surprise James though as he had gotten used to the girl's quirks over the years.
The servants had already prepared a room for her that was near James and Himiko's rooms. Himiko still had a room though she spent more nights sleeping in James' room than she did her own. There was enough space to accommodate a room for everyone in his parents mansion that was far from being filled.
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