The King�s Big Score:

This big score? My jaw just dropped at what I saw.

�Whoa!� I gasped. This house� No! This mansion stood before us like a hungry giant. The �king� grinned at me.

�Magnificent, isn�t it?� he asked. Sappoto-san and I nodded. The �king� turned to his �duke.�

�Let�s go,� he said. The thin man nodded. I watched them as they walked up to the front door. Okay, here begins their little con. The �king� rang the door bell. A woman about middle-age came to the door. I tried to listen in on what they were saying. The �king� did most of the talking. At one point, he pointed over at Sappoto-san and me. I gave the woman a little wave when she glanced over in our direction. The �king� spoke even more. So far, I understood �home� and �family.� I raised an eyebrow at this plot. Okay, dude. What are you planning? I hoped that the lady would say no. To my surprise, she invited those jokers inside. What the heck? No, lady! You were supposed to kick them out. What are you doing? The �king� turned to us grinning with a thumbs-up. I rolled my eyes. Please stop doing that; it�s creepy.

Well the inside looks nice. The gold color made the living room look like the perfect display for a home shopping catalog. So clean, so nicely trimmed. I got a chill up my spine just looking at it. I felt Sappoto-san squeeze on my hand. I glanced over in her direction.

�You okay?� her eyes asked me.

�A little,� the look I gave her replied. My eyes trailed up to the gold dusted ceiling. The lights looked so dim compared to everything else. I guess the paint just sucked it dry.

�Welcome, my son!� we heard an older man boom out. We looked up to see him dressed up in a nice suit with the woman from earlier. I blinked for a moment.

Son?, I thought. The �king� held out his arms wide open.

�Dad!� he called out. I fell straight to the ground. D-Dad? What the fuck?!? The men met in the middle and hugged!

�It�s been so long!� the older man said.

�Yes, father,� the �king� said. �I missed you so much!�

�How have you been?�

�Great! I have been great these days.�

The old man looked over at the �duke,� Sappoto-san, and myself.

�Mamoru-kun,� he spoke up.

�Yes, dad?� the �king� asked.

�Who are these people?� he asked. �Mamoru� turned to us. I gave him a snarky look. Okay genius, how are you going to BS your way out of this one? Go on, let�s hear it.

�Oh,� �Mamoru� replied. �These are my friends.� He came over to each of us. �This is my roommate, Okita. This is his girlfriend, Hitomi, and her cousin, Aoi.� We gave him a little wave. I frowned to myself. Friends, huh?, I thought. Good one� The old man walked over to us.

�I welcome you all home!� he said.

�Thank you,� we said with a bow. It didn�t take me long to figure out what the scheme was here. I glanced up to see the man�s wife and daughters. The youngest one looked to be about my age. I�m starting to think that they aren�t buying this whole thing about the �king� being their long lost brother. I can see it in the youngest one�s eyes. That�s it, I�m going to have to stop this before it all gets out of hand and this family ends up paying the price for the �king� and duke�s� greed.

Something tells me that won�t be an easy job to carry out.