Two Body Problem (Complete)

[Asoko_Desu]

Time Flies
May 17, 2007 - Thursday


Tetsu was walking from class to lunch in the cafeteria - it was a rainy day and the cafeteria was crowded. The line was sluggish - he spied bright pink hair up ahead at the cash register.

“A shame I never see Shizune and Misha any more - at least they talked to me, if by talking I mean they’d nod if I said hello, passing them in the halls. Well, Misha would.”

Lately, however, he rarely saw them in the halls at lunch or after class any more - something was taking up a lot of their time.

The line moved forward by inches; Tetsu mentally shrugged. He’d overheard something about a fight in the Student Council - not a physical fight - a political one. Apparently the Student Council had disbanded and now presumably Shizune and Misha were shouldering it all themselves. “Too bad I’d need to be a class rep to help out.” Tetsu thought dryly. Given his struggles to be accepted he couldn’t take pleasure in others’ having to fight huge odds, but he could still appreciate the irony of the situation.

He saw Misha and Shizune collect their lunches to go and leave the line, heading somewhere other than the cafeteria to eat. He wondered if he should offer to help out, but thought better of it - “If they need help they’ll ask."

--

[Asoko_Desu]

The Waggle Dance
June 03, 2007 - Sunday


A warm late afternoon found Tetsu approaching, what he called, the `White Wall` outside the dorm buildings.

He’d heard lots of talk about preparing for the festival, but all he’d seen happen so far was a thick coating of plain white primer appearing on the otherwise neglected brick wall in front of the dorm building. 

Except now, the wall was anything but plain white - or neglected.

The activity at the wall was reminiscent of the activity inside a hive - a swarm of bees putting honey into honeycomb cells - bright and psychotically-coloured honey into oddly shaped 2D cells. Ok, so the metaphor breaks down quickly - no matter; it was the motion of students moving around each other, getting paint and returning to the wall that reminded Tetsu of a swarm of bees.

The longer he watched, the more it became clear there was a focus to their activity - a seated woman with red hair at the centre of the of the crowd of worker-bees; the Queen Bee - directing the efforts of the workers. Sometimes the workers drew outlines on the wall in pencil, building the cells - other times they mixed paints and applied them within the outlines they’d drawn - filling the cells with honey. Occasionally the Queen Bee would check on their work, and make minor corrections.

It was strangely beautiful and absorbing play; Tetsu felt a slight vertigo at the sight - was he observing a bee’s hive up close, or people in a collaborative pursuit from afar? At his distance from the wall, the students were about the size of bees seen at arm’s length. The motionless late-afternoon air and the amber-coloured setting sun contributed to the almost hallucinatory feel of the scene.

Tetsu sat in the grass to watch the wall’s progress, losing track of the time in the hypnotic progress of colour being applied to the wall - a truly impressive transformation.

Gradually the sun set and the number of students decreased from many to few to none - the Queen Bee being the last to leave. Tetsu felt they had an excellent chance, at this rate, of having the wall completed in time for the festival next Sunday and he was very interested in seeing how it turned out.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

All the World’s a Stage
June 04 - Monday morning


[ Get a look at the new hotness - must be the transfer student Mutou mentioned ]

[ I see him Shicchan - where did he transfer from - a boy-band? ]

[ I’ll bet - also, dibs ]

[ All yours - hang on; he’s introducing himself .. `Hisao` is his name - more like Hicchan ]

[ Right? ]

[ And the only open seat is next to us ]

[ Bet you think that’s an accident ]

[ Never, Shicchan, never ]

[ Ok - showtime; Mutou is handing out the assignments - guess who he’s going to do group work with .. I’m so happy for you Shicchan! ]

Shizune just looked calm and professional, biding her time.

[ Ok - time for proper introductions, then down to work .. ]

"I can see you're a little confused, right?, right? But, I understand why you would think I was Shicchan! Shicchan is deaf, so I'm the person who translates things back and forth for her. I'm like an interpreter~! She says it's nice to meet you, too!" Misha exclaimed.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Journal Entry - Feeling Festive
June 07 - Thursday


Short journal entry today - almost time to crash; can barely keep my eyes open.

In a few days there's the big festival. The level of activity at the school has been going steadily up all week - the mural outside the dorm rooms has been a hive of activity - ha! it looks like a hive of bees, busily storing honey away for the winter. Last time I painted a school mural it was just myself and two other students - it's amazing how much more quickly it can go if you have a swarm of students to help!

For our class the teacher picked me to contribute by keeping the machines running (the Shop is holding RC car races, in addition to things like Origami lessons - which I have no involvement in).

We should be ready to go a couple of days early - fortunately the cars were all in decent shape from last year; they mostly just needed new batteries, grease, and a couple of connections cleaned / leads re-soldered; I've been working on them bit by bit over the last week and they're mostly ready to go - should just need a quick going-over the day before the festival. Fortunately the origami exhibition needs no batteries.


Wish me luck - this festival could be fun!


-/\\-

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Quantum Entanglement
June 08, 2007 - Friday evening


Tetsu stopped by the mural on his way to The Shanghai - work seemed to have halted completely on weekdays, presumably to let the paint set. The mural looked even better after the paint had dried - Tetsu took one last look at it, then headed down the hill into town.

—

Several hours later, dinner and studying done, Tetsu paid for his bill and collected his study materials. Studying at the Shanghai was much easier than in his dorm after the library closed - so much more room to spread out, affordable food, and decent service. He’d defaulted to going down to the Shanghai a couple times a week to do his studying - no one minded that, while he was getting better at speaking, he still wrote out his orders; seems the staff were accustomed to the quirks of the Yamaku populace.

Exiting, he very nearly ran into two Yamaku students - a tall blonde girl, and a boy with tousled sandy-brown hair - coming out of a konbini with bags of groceries. The girl appeared to be blind as she was walking with a white cane; the boy had no obvious disability as far as Tetsu could see.

They looked like they were walking back to Yamaku - why not follow along? Tetsu hung back a bit - it was getting late and he’d had a good evening - he didn’t want that spoiled by social awkwardness, besides - walking and writing was a recipe for falling down face-first.

Starting back, they were interrupted by an oddly distinctive figure making its way towards then, silhouetted by the street lamps. As the person got closer, Tetsu saw that it was a familiar-looking red-headed woman.


Coming closer, Tetsu realized the woman appeared not to have much by way of arms; her sleeves being tied off where her elbows should be. She was wearing a Yamaku boy’s outfit; the other two students appeared to know her -


"Rin? What're you doing out here so late?"

"Rin?" the blonde girl tilted her head, listening in the direction of the new arrival.

“It’s Tezuka, Rin - I think her first name is Rin - from our school,” the boy said.

The woman turned in the direction the boy appeared to be speaking and an odd look crossed her face -

“What’s her damage,” thought Tetsu, still hanging back - “Looks like she just ate someone’s first attempt at cooking.” The boy commented something to the girl, too quietly for Tetsu to make out.

Rin stopped walking and looked at them, taking a long slow blink like how cats do when they’re smiling - she appeared to have been deep in thought.

“Hello Hisao, Lilly.”

Tetsu was grateful to have a few more names to place with faces - usually when people talked, they already knew each other; fortunately they all appeared to know each other not so intimately that formalities were completely dispensed with. They appeared to be in his year - what’s the chance he might run into them again some time? He mentally crossed his fingers.

“What are you doing here this late?” Hisao asked of Rin.

“I was wondering about that too just now.” Replied Rin, after a pause. Tetsu’s presence barely appeared to register on Rin, distracted as she was by Hisao and still collecting her thoughts.

“Some people just asked me that - I assume they were wondering the same. I really didn’t have an answer - I asked them the same thing and they didn’t have an answer either.” Rin shrugged. While polite, it was clear that Rin was having fun with the conversation, like someone for whom all humour had an audience of one.

“It’s like a murder mystery without a murder,” she continued - “Yes, definitely having fun with this,” thought Tetsu.

“They went that way.” Said Rin, pointing with one drooping sleeve. “Oh why now?” Thought Rin. “I was close - so close; they sky was such a shade of blue, almost black, now the streetlights are on and .. it’s gone. Oh well - there are places where there are no streetlights, but I’m in no mood to explain myself tonight - how to extricate myself from this .. distraction. Step one - deflect.”

“Please chase after them. Is this what’s called a ‘Hail Mary’ pass?” Rin thought to herself.

Unsure if she was finished, Hisao said nothing, as did Lilly - as if they were afraid of what might come next if they continued the conversation they started.

Hisao and Lilly’s stupefied lack of reaction didn’t faze Rin - she kept looking at them expectantly, calmly hoping they’d go away.

Tetsu speculated to himself that Rin was politely trying to end the conversation - “I think it’s called `de-escalation`”; she’s probably got other things on her mind. What those other things might be, Tetsu had an unexpected interest in knowing - why, he couldn’t say.

“What dumb-ass shit are they going to say next?” wondered Rin, careful to appear relaxed and expressionless, lest she give the game away. “And don’t make eye contact - it may encourage them.”

“Do you have amnesia? I don’t recall you having that though ..” said Lilly, in response to nothing.

“How do you not make eye contact with a blind person?” Wondered Rin, facepalming internally.

“No, I don’t think it’s that,” offered Hiso - “The other passersby were probably just worried; you do look really lost, the way you’re standing in the middle of the street,” Hisao offered.

“Thank you Hisao - you did not disappoint.” thought Rin. “Maybe if you let me past, I wouldn’t be standing here ..”

Hisao resolutely kept his back to Tetsu, Lilly was blind, and Rin was studying the bugs flying about the street lights, so there was basically no way he could engage in the conversation, Tetsu felt - this was deeply weird, like he was some odd-numbered wheel on a vehicle designed for an even number of wheels.

“WTF is going on here? Is this some cultural thing I’m just not getting? Am I invisible to people until I’m introduced?” Tetsu filed this thought away for future discussion with the Administrator, who’d been useful in helping Tetsu navigate other unspoken rules of Yamaku society.

Unable to help herself, Rin went back to taking the piss out of Lilly and Hisao - “Oh, I see. Maybe I should’ve taken some other kind of pose in that case.”

Hisao stood noodling about nothing in particular and Lilly wool-gathered, or did whatever she did in her head when not talking - Tetsu scuffed his boot on the sidewalk to break the growing silence, not that anyone noticed.

“Yeah, maybe taking another pose might have worked. So anyway, you have no idea what you’re doing here?” Asked Hisao.

Rin frowned, looking extremely displeased at either Hisao’s question, its consequences, or the answer she wanted to give. “Fuck off - that’s what I'm doing. Don’t you have some homework to do or something equally exciting like copying physics formulas down over and over again? Can’t you just derive the formulas from the units at test time like everyone else does?” Unwilling to prolong the conversation, and being constitutionally opposed to conflict, she kept those thoughts resolutely to herself.

Rin shook her head - “I do have. Some idea. I can’t really tell what kind of an idea.” - “Or won’t, more accurately.” She said inside her head.

“.. Can't, or won't” observed Tetsu inside his head.

“That sounds like progress, at least.” Lilly gamely offered. Hisao thought Lilly sounded as if she’d spotted an opening to have a conversation - in the middle of the street, in the dark, though she probably didn’t realize it was dark. Hisao didn’t particularly share her optimism.

“Yes, there is some. Definitely. The rest will come later. I’m sure of it. I always have reasons,” said Rin, and offered none.

A silence entered the conversation, unannounced, as silences do; Lilly didn’t appear to have anything to say to fill the void and Tetsu was his usual talkative self. Hisao speculated to himself on their options - “If we leave Rin alone she’ll obviously just stay here until a large bird or a stray dog carries her off.” Hisao speculated if that happened it wouldn’t go well for he and Lilly.

Taking a chance to rescue the damsel in distress - and his reputation - Hisao stepped into the void; “So .. if not the school, are you headed anywhere? Any idea where?" he asked.

Someone, somewhere, opined - “Rin’s eyes widen in shock and she jolted back in a somewhat artificial way, making it seem like an act rehearsed for situations like this.”

“Let’s go with stock response to stupid questions number two ..” Rin thought. “Are you a mind reader? Is that your disability? That’s really special!”

Tetsu nearly snickered at that one - but if Rin could play it straight, so could he; he just stared at the bugs orbiting the street light nearest to him.

“No... What? Why on earth would you think that?" Hisao exclaimed, Rin’s dry wit having neatly parted his hair, metaphorically speaking.

“OK, let’s roll with this and see how far it will go - the sun will set again tomorrow night,” Thought Rin.

"You read my mind.” She replied.

“It was logical - we walked this way to get to the store; if you were going to school, we would've met you going that way."

“Kind of like you just did ..” Thought Tetsu.

"Oh,” Rin said. “Tell me again why I thought this would be fun? It’s just boring. Boring people make boring conversation - a fundamental constant of the universe” she thought.

Hisao thought Rin looked a little disappointed. Hisao thought, being the mind reader that he was, that, like Kenji, Rin appeared quick to jump to completely irrational conclusions. “Maybe it's something in the water here.” And made a mental note to stock up on bottled water, nodding sagely to himself.

Warming to a topic close to his heart, Hisao asked - “You know, that is the second time this week that someone asked if I was a mind reader. Do I really give off that impression?"

Rin shrugged her shoulders, which is all the answer she appeared to be inclined to give.

“How vain - try not to fish for compliments where there’s no water.” Rin thought.

Hisao interrupted Rin’s dialog with herself - “You know—"

"Maybe we should all just head back to the school?" Interjected Lilly, just as Hisao was about to further expand on the topic of his mind-reading capabilities.

“She sounds rather concerned. For everyone's sake, let’s let the mind-reading topic drop,” Hisao thought to himself, showing uncanny semi-self awareness for the second time in the evening - was Rin rubbing off on him?

“Yeah, Lilly's right - “we should probably go.” Added Hisao.

Rin appeared to consider Hisao and Lilly’s opinion - which, fortunately coincided with her intentions before running into them - then nodded.

"Okay." Rin replied. “Okay - I’m not going to get a minute to myself if I don’t go back to school - not with these White Knights galloping circles around me,” she thought to herself.

They started towards the school, having wasted way more time than necessary with this episode Hisao felt - in this he and Rin were in complete and total agreement. "Can I really read minds after all?" Hisao asked himself.

Rin walked along the edge of the sidewalk in her arrhythmic way, looking, to Hisao, like a mix of sleepwalker and rope dancer - step . . . drag . . . drag . . . step . . . step . . . wait . . . drag . . . step . . .

In the mean time, Lilly walked, keeping one hand on Hisao’s shoulder, tapping at the ground with her cane - tap . . step . . tap . . step . .

“She’s going to summon a maker if she’s not careful ..” Thought Rin.

Apart from the sounds of Lilly’s steps and her cane, and a few fragmented beginnings of conversation, the walk back was quiet until they were almost back at the front gates.

“So Rin - how's the mural going?" Asked Hisao.

"We are going to get bad luck. Never talk about works in progress,” suggested Rin.

“Aha!” thought Tetsu - so that’s where he recognized her from - she was the woman sitting on the grass in the middle of the swarm of worker bees creating the mural.

“It’ll be wonderful, I’m sure.” Offered Lilly.

"Bad. Luck." Rin repeated, with emphasis. “Fuck off - it’ll never get done. Hisao was helping, but now he’s not. I tried to get into town to forget about it and clear my head if only for a moment, but thanks for reminding me about it.” Rin ranted to herself.

—

Back at the dorms, Rin stopped abruptly - "What's the day?"

"It's Friday - Friday, June eighth," replied Lilly.

Rin appeared visibly agitated - "This is Not Good .."

"Why - what's wrong?" Asked Lilly

"Nothing - yet. It's still only Friday, but the mural needs to be finished by Sunday .. Leave me - I need to get back to work.”

Hisao looked into Lilly’s eyes, expecting her to share an incredulous look as he rolled his eyes - overlooking Lilly’s blindness.

Tetsu wanted so badly to pull out his writing pad and offering to stay late and lend a hand, but Rin appeared to be agitated beyond accepting any help. She was freaking out and needed to be alone and deal with the stress of her work - and the added burden of Hisao and Lilly having walked all over the downtime she’d thought she’d have to get her head back into the space she needed it to be in to paint - time she would now have to spend not painting.

"Leave me!” Rin demanded.

Hisao thought to himself that he did not want to aggravate her any more than she already was - “Rin sure has a knack of making people feel worried about her. She seems like a person who should be kept under lock and key,” he opined. “Maybe I should swoop in and save her?” The more he thought on this, the more Hisao warmed to this course of action.

He and Lilly stepped a few paces away to the foot of the dorm buildings’ stairs and continued their conversation - “Should we call one of the nursing staff? She sounds like she’s going into shock - sorta.” Hisao catastrophized out loud.

"I'm sure she will be just fine. She's just .. how do you say ..” Lilly fumbled for words, cocking her head a little, trying to shake loose a polite way of calling Rin crazy without calling her crazy.

"Unique?"

"Yes, very unique."

“Sounds legit.”

Lilly giggled at her choice of words, nodding in agreement. She reminded Tetsu of people back home who came from money. “Sorry about stranding you to talk with her .. I don't really get her, so I try to avoid her.”

“Hello - I’m standing right here!” Rin fumed to herself. For her part, Rin just wished they would take their discussion of her ‘uniqueness’ further than ten feet away so she could get freaking out over with and get down to doing real work.

Being mute led people to think, by extension, Tetsu was also deaf, so he got to be privy to many such conversations - each as unappealing as they were unguarded. Disgusted, Tetsu scowled at their finding humour in Rin’s distress.

“Sad to see that empathy’s in as short supply here as it was back home,” he thought, but was as unable to articulate his feelings as was Rin, although for mostly different reasons. Still, his thoughts to himself were perfectly clear - “Karma sure has its work cut out for it.”

Tetsu resolved to get up early tomorrow to help Rin out before he had to head over to his class’ radio-controlled car rodeo and do a few last-minute checks. It was too dark to even see the mural - he doubted Rin would be able to get much work done in the meantime.

He looked at Lilly and Hisao having a heart-heart conversation that he had no interest in being a part of, and which they had no intention of involving him in. Doubting that observing such niceties and waving good night would be appreciated - or even noticed, he turned abruptly and headed for his room and to bed.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Return to the Hive
June 09, 2007 - Saturday morning


Tetsu’s alarm went off painfully early - the sun was just starting to colour the sky with a false dawn.

“I could go back to sleep ..” but the sun breaking over the horizon and getting in his eyes had other ideas.

“Whatever - I’m awake now. Bet she’s not even there. If not, well, there’s work to be done at the RC Corral.”

Tetsu was pleased at the name of his class’ effort - a play on `OK Corral`, not that any of his classmates caught the reference - Tetsu decidedly played for an audience of one.

The idea of their festival project was simple - two or three people at a time, piloting radio-controlled cars, raced around a square three metre by three metre enclosure. There were obstacles (old tires) to dodge and the track was made of loose dirt - the first person to cross the finish line won. Easy to comprehend, hard to execute, given that all of the car / controller combinations had one quirk or another.

Tetsu was to take turns with the two boys in his class to recover the vehicles when they needed fresh batteries - or when a wheel popped off and went flying. That way they all got to see the festival and weren’t anchored to their own event. Mika and Kika took turns managing the line so they too could walk about separately - although they were unlikely to.

Tetsu showered, dressed, bought a sandwich from a vending machine and wolfed it down on his way out to see what progress Rin had made on the mural.

—

Rin sat alone in the breaking morning sun, staring at the painfully incomplete mural. The sun had just burned the dew off the grass while she had gone around opening paint cans to take stock of her supplies.

“I wonder if Hisao will come by and help paint today ..” Rin asked herself and sighed silently as she pried open a couple of cans of paint with her feet, suspecting she knew the answer.

“Why would he though? Not after Lilly trash-talked me all the way back to school last night.” Rin ignored the fact that Hisao had done a fair amount of trash talking himself, but since Rin thought Hisao was really cute, it was easier to lay all of the bad behaviour at Lilly’s feet.

Rin had seen Hisao running with Emi at the track earlier in the pre-dawn light - “Score one for Emi? Eighteen is turning into a real circus; I was so hoping I’d have a boyfriend by now. Well, let’s see if I can't cool her jets - if I make a bet with her that he’ll give up on running maybe it’ll jinx things for them.”

Turning her attention from her anemic love life, Rin gazed on the entirely less comforting state of the mural, her face set in a look of despair - “How will I ever get this done?" The art club members having long since scattered to help their respective home rooms complete their own festival projects.

“Hisao’s probably lost interest; if I chase him he’ll just run away. Nothing to be done but keep going - and if it’s not done, I’ll tell everyone that’s how it’s supposed to be. Art - it’s what you can get away with after all.”

Exhausted from a night spent staring at the mural and sleeping very little, Rin neglected to notice Tetsu as he approached. He was looking at her mural over her shoulder, standing away from the welter of paint cans and pie plates with pools of mixed paint of dubious dryness. Tetsu waved to catch her eye.

Rin turned to look at the Tetsu, and thought for a moment he could possibly have been an ogre from the fairy tales her mother had told her or late-night TV, but clothed in Yamaku livery. “Taking inclusiveness to new heights,” thought Rin. He looked vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite recall from where.

He was dressed in some sort of weird mash-up of Yamaku uniforms - a vest, a jacket, shirt and tie, knee-high field hockey socks, polished black boots, a skirt cut at the knees and held up with two heavy black belts. Small flourishes of cloth were tucked under the top of the socks where they folded over.

“Kilt” thought Rin. “He’s wearing a kilt. I wonder if he’s Scottish?” she thought, realizing he wasn’t actually an ogre - just a foreign student. Maybe. “Does Scotland have Ogres? Probably.” Rin shrugged - given that she was wearing a boy’s uniform, she was hardly one to judge sartorial propriety.

By comparison, Tetsu was full head taller than Rin, and easily twice her size. To Rin he looked fit - not the narrow frame of a track runner, but the solid build of someone who might have played contact sports - like panda wrestling. “Do pandas wrestle each other? Do people wrestle pandas?” Rin wondered.

For such a large student, he had walked very quietly she thought. “Oni can be very dangerous - especially the kind that can sneak up on you.”

Of course, Rin being Rin, if a tiger was charging at her she’d want to sketch it.

From his book bag, Tetsu pulled out his small, well-used paper pad with some prepared handwriting on it - he held it out to Rin.

{ Hi - my name’s Kaiyou, Tetsu - I can hear and I can communicate in sign language and in writing, but I can’t speak to you. I can understand what you’re saying if you’re speaking in Japanese - or English, but I can’t speak - I talk using this pad. }

“But I can't write while I’m painting,” Rin said, and waved a brush at him with her right foot.

He flipped over a to a fresh page and wrote - { That’s OK - I can hear you }

“Oh - right. Interesting. Tezuka, Rin.” She shook her head, trying to wake herself up.

Tetsu interpreted Rin’s exhaustion as an aversion to acknowledging him - “Guess I’m just going to have to introduce myself; he flipped over to a fresh page and wrote:

{ I walked back to school with you and two other students last night }

Had he? Rin couldn’t remember.

Tetsu looked at the mural - “What happened to her worker bees? She’s nuts if she thinks she’ll get the whole thing done by herself, by tomorrow.”

He considered the look of anguish on her face - “I guess she knows that; no reason to point it out,” he thought.

{ For the festival? } he wrote, at a loss for anything more meaningful to say. He inclined his head toward the mural; Rin nodded.

“The rest of the art club was helping at first, but they’ve all gone on to work on their own home-room preparations.”

Tetsu nodded; he knew a cry for help when he heard one.

{ Can I help? }

“Can you?” she asked, and looked back at the mural.

Rin shook her head quickly, realizing she’d yet to replace the look of despair with her usual mask of indifference.

Tetsu cocked his head and looked at her quizzically - his sense of humour tended towards such verbal sleights of hand, though it was hard to tell across the language barrier if she was joking or not; the tone of her voice suggested rather more real concern than sarcasm or philosophizing, despite her trying to hide it.

Rin, sitting in a chaos of cans, brushes, trays, and rags, had been so overwhelmed she hadn’t even heard Tetsu approach - and there was that look of abject despair she hadn’t completely erased. Tetsu had also not missed her deliberately changing her expression either - hiding his emotions was something he did himself as occasion demanded.

He studied her face - her way of looking at him obliquely, her red hair; unusual in the student population - almost unique. Her seemingly bottomless emerald-green eyes, and her overall air of artistic chaos.

“I’m a sucker for an injured animal or a lost child,” he thought and, fortunately, while his clinical shyness mostly stopped his voice, his confidence in his ability to create things was nearly inexhaustible. “I guess I know what I’m doing for the rest of the morning,” he thought.

{ Yes } - He wrote - { I can }

Tetsu showed Rin the page, then wrote some more -

{ for a while - I’ll need to leave after a bit to work on my class’ event. Where do I start? }

“Get me some blue paint.”

Tetsu looked over to where the cans of blue paint were piled together, mostly upright.

{ The Prussian or the Aquamarine? } picking out the two biggest open cans - both nearly empty.

“Prussian ..”

Locating the fullest open can, he brought it to Rin. { You’re almost out, Tezuka } he wrote.



“I’ll get more later if I need it. If you’re going to help out, you can call me Rin.”

{ Same - I mean call me Tetsu, not Rin. }

Rin nodded. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth - she fought it down. Her nose itched in defiance - she rubbed it on her arm. “It wasn’t that funny - besides, isn’t that supposed to be one of my jokes?” she thought.

{ I’ll be back - let me change into my shop uniform if I’m going to get paint on my clothes. } With that he headed off in the direction of the school building.

Rin considered Tetsu’s condition as she loaded up her brush with the last of the Prussian blue paint - “Can hear, but can’t talk - that’s new. Not stupid - has a dry sense of humour. Written Japanese is horrible.”

She picked out a little drawer in her mind, down near the bottom in the ‘People’ section, and labelled it ‘TETSU: MUTE - NOT DEAF; FOREIGN’ She then put a little mental drawing of Tetsu into this drawer - his drawer - and closed it. “One more for the collection,” she thought and went back to painting.

“Cute, here, or helpful - you only get two; a fundamental law of the universe,” thought Rin as she got down to the business of making art.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Proper Etiquette
June 09, 2007 - Saturday afternoon / evening


Rin was unimpressed - Emi and Hisao had showed up to help after Tetsu had gone to work on his class’ festival project, then Emi and Hisao had gone to get her more paint - but that was over an hour ago.

“Are they ever going to come back? Well, whatever. Go - have fun. You wouldn’t know Prussian blue if it bit your ass. Don’t forget to put a sock on the storage room door handle.”

Rin strongly suspected they’d gotten .. distracted.

“They’ll figure out they can leave the paint here, if they get back with any - or they can carry it around all day; up to them. I’m going to go to the washroom - apparently the mural can wait all day but that can’t.” With that, Rin got up and left the mural to perform some personal maintenance.

—

Hisao noticed the art room was getting warmer “Guess it gets hot in here when the sun rises - or something,” he thought, absently. Speaking of which, why was he and Emi in the art room together - alone - right now, anyhow?

Emi jumping up and down to reach the upper shelves was a distracting sight. Sheer determination .. and all the right kinds of perkiness. “Stop that Hisao,” he thought, as his eyes traced the outline of her workout gear.

A small, distant bell went off inside Hisao’s head - “Oh! I guess we should get that paint for Rin, huh?” Hisao said flatly. The way things were going, he probably would have hung out with Emi in the art room all day if she’d let him, and, given the lingering glances she’d been giving him, it was likely she would have - if they didn’t have the nagging distraction of having abandoned Rin.

“Oh no! It slipped my mind!” Emi gave Hisao her best innocent look - it was a good look; it should be - she’d practiced it in front of her mirror almost as long as she’d practiced her ‘puppy dog eyes’.

By the time they collected the paint and got back to the mural, Rin had left.

“Oh well.” Thought Hisao, without much concern.

Emi and Hisao both decided to part ways there, abandoning the paint on the ground amidst the welter of cans.

“Rin’ll find it. Whenever she comes back, anyway - or she won’t,” Hisao thought with a mental shrug. Rin was, to Hisao, still essentially a stranger and he didn’t feel hugely invested in waiting around all day for her to return - if she even did, which wasn’t guaranteed.

“OK, well, I guess I’ll see you later Hisao.” Emi gave Hisao a bright smile.

“Yeah .. you too Emi.” Hisao fought to keep too much enthusiasm out of his voice. “Down, boy - rabbit loses the race.”

“Cool your jets, girl - reel the big fish in slowly; give him some play and don’t rush it,” Emi counselled herself as she delightedly bounced her way back to the women’s dorm.

—

Some time later Tetsu arrived at the mural. He’d finished his class work, grabbed some lunch and a bottle of water, and headed directly over to the wall - to find no one there; the mural grounds were in a state of near-complete chaos.

“Hm - no painting this afternoon? Isn’t the festival like, tomorrow? Maybe Rin’s just on break ..”

There really wasn’t a lot left to be done on the mural - Rin had clearly been painting all day, putting detail on top of the broad swathes of colour that Tetsu and the others had added.

As a lot of the paint cans were empty and needed to be put away anyhow, Tetsu set to collecting them and taking them to the storage space out behind the school. He noticed a half-full can of Prussian Blue and set that aside. He was pretty sure he knew where that was supposed to go, but thought it best to wait for Rin to get back and make that call.


That done, there was still no Rin. “Well, I have to eat lunch somewhere - may as well be here.” He sat down in the shade of a tree to have his lunch and enjoy the view of the nearly-complete mural.

Tetsu was mostly done his lunch when Rin finally appeared. Tetsu waved and wrote on his pad - { Rin Desu }

“I don’t think that’s grammatically correct - but whatever.”

Rin looked somewhat the worse for wear - a week of almost non-stop painting, combined with poor eating habits and probably very little sleep hadn’t been kind to her. Also, it looked like she’d been crying; although she shook her hair over her eyes to mostly hide the fact, Tetsu observed her sleeves were wet.

Tetsu, in a rare moment of tact, forbore to comment.

{ Did you have lunch? }

Rin shook her head.

All Tetsu had left of his lunch was a sandwich still in its wrapper and the remains of a styrofoam container of omurice. She probably didn’t want some half-eaten egg dish, but the sandwich hadn’t been touched.

{ Eat } he wrote and handed the sandwich to Rin, who just looked at it, the corners of her mouth tightening.

“Right. No hands. I’m such an idiot.” Tetsu realized, and mentally face-palmed.

Tetsu unwrapped a corner of the sandwich and, holding it by the still-wrapped part, held it up to Rin. She looked at him, shrugged, and took a bite.

“It’s dry. Anything to drink?” She said around a half-chewed mouthful of sandwich.

Tetsu held up a half-empty bottle of water. He pointed to the mouth of the bottle and to his lips; Rin got the idea.

“I don’t care - I’m thirsty. Your mouth can’t be any dirtier than a paint brush handle.”

Rin sat down on her knees beside Tetsu; he held the bottle awkwardly to Rin’s mouth - she drank like a bird at a spigot. Tetsu gently angled the bottle so water wouldn’t over-fill her mouth, tilting it back when it looked like she’d had enough.

Once Rin got eating it was obvious she was starving; she and Tetsu got into a rhythm - bite, chew, pour, swallow - until the whole sandwich was gone and the bottle of water was empty.

“You didn’t save any water for yourself,” observed Rin. Tetsu thought it was OK - the omurice didn’t really need it - he just shrugged.

{ What now? } he wrote, inclining his head towards the mural.

“We’re basically done. The Prussian blue is for adding depth to a few of the areas that still need it. If you open the can for me and pour some out I’ll take it from here.”

Tetsu nodded and did as Rin asked.

{ OK - see you at the festival tomorrow I guess }

“I guess.” Rin was too tired to comment on the unknowability of the future, for a change - it seemed even philosophy had its limits.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Is Festival!
June 10, 2007 - Sunday morning


Rin spent the morning of the festival sitting under the big tree by the mural - she watched people wander by the mural laughing at something or other, arm in arm, eating, or a combination of all three. Not being on the way to or from much, she didn’t count more than a handful of people actually seeing the mural.

“I guess Tetsu’s not coming by after all.”

“Was it all worth it? All the effort? No one’s really looked at the mural; who did I do it for - them, or me? Or someone else? Or nobody? If nobody, why did I sacrifice so much time and effort and tears? Does the Universe conserve emotional energy?”

Rin was in the middle of a good, solid philosophical funk when Emi and Hisao showed up.

"Hello Emi,” said Rin with perhaps less than her usual level of unenthusiasm.

"Hey Rin! I brought Hisao - we stopped by to see how the mural turned out!"

Rin nodded slowly, Emi’s exuberance unable to lift the heaviness of the morning’s mood weighing on Rin.

“It's right here - I'm not happy with how it turned out, but I guess it'll do." Said Rin in a somewhat resigned tone.

Rin, Emi, and Hisao stood in front of the mural for a bit, then a bit longer - then a bit longer still. Hisao was starting to wonder what he actually was supposed to be looking at so he hunted for some of the colours he and Emi had dropped off for Rin, but found none. The novelty of that exercise wearing off, he really wished they could move on and get something to eat.

Emi, sharing Hisao’s sentiment, had an inspiration -

"Hey Rin, have you had lunch?”

“Today? Probably not.” “Sigh,” thought Rin.

“How about in the past five hours?”

“Maybe. But I'm hungry, so maybe not.”

Emi grinned - “Good! Come get some food with us!”

“I probably should eat,” thought Rin, nodding in assent.

After some cajoling from Emi, Hisao bought lunch for the trio and they found a spot on the grass away from the mural to sit down and have lunch. Emi and Hisao started to eat, but Rin mostly stared out at the festival grounds, only having a bite or two of her lunch.

“Damn that sandwich yesterday was tasty - this takoyaki isn’t half as good,” Rin thought idly to herself, then the thought was gone.

Emi, Hisao, and Rin, in no mood to move on immediately, chatted; well, Emi and Hisao chatted - mostly about the exercise and diet regime Emi had made up for Hisao, and by chatted, that meant Emi locking Hisao into a commitment to get up early and come running the next day.

With nothing much to contribute to the conversation, Rin kept looking out at the festival going on around them. Looking for something or nothing at all - it was hard to tell, even for her.

Swivelling her head, Rin wondered - “Why do I keep doing that? What is it I expect to see?” And she shrugged to herself.

Finally Hisao excused himself and headed back to his dorm to catch up on homework and make an early day of it.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Be Careful What You Wish For
June 10, 2007 - Sunday afternoon


Rin and Emi sat on the grass, surrounded by the garbage from their lunch.

“What’s the chance he’s off to get some junk food.” Said Rin.



“Want to bet?”

“Mama Tezuka didn’t raise her girl to take any sucker bets.”


“So ..” Rin continued

“So ..” Emi countered

“Nice weather ..”

“Yes - nice weather ..”

“.. for fucking.”

“Rin!”

“Are you saying you don’t want to?”

“With Hisao? I wouldn’t go quite that far .. yet”

Rin thought back to last year when Emi had dated a boy from 3rd year, now graduated - “What was his name?” Rin couldn’t remember. Emi had dubbed herself “The horniest thing on no legs”, which had always stoked a small pit of envy in Rin’s stomach.

“Why am I trying to mess with Emi’s head and jinx her thing with Hisao? Am I really that petty? I saw him first, but it’s pretty clear she’s won - I should just let it go .. no matter how hot he is.” thought Rin to herself.

Unwilling to give up without at least a token consideration, Rin offered up a silent prayer to those distant powers that ensured artists never find true love, that they’d be satisfied with this sacrifice - that Rin would drop her attempts to mess with Emi and Hisao - and in return said powers would leave her alone the next time a boy was interested in her. “Just this once - please - let it happen.”

Having nothing else to do, Rin and Emi sat quietly as the late afternoon turned into early evening.

“OK - I’m done.” Rin announced. Her thoughts were somewhat jumbled -

“Sun’s gone and it’s almost time for the fireworks to start. I’m going to stop by the mural one last time and see ..” Here she was at a loss - whoever was going to see it had probably already done so. If they hadn’t already seen it yet today then they weren’t going to. Still, she wanted to take one more look at it because .. Just one more look at it - that was all. The birds in her head were disquiet - unsettled. Maybe looking on the mural before wrapping up for the day would get them to go back in their cages. She shrugged and walked off, saying nothing further to Emi.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Fireworks
June 10, 2007 - Sunday evening


Rin walked through the crowds lined up to see the fireworks - the fire show would be starting shortly, once the sunset faded from the underside of the clouds.

Arriving at the mural Rin had difficulty making it out, her eyes having not yet adjusted to the dark - and just barely avoided tripping over a body seated beneath the tree in front of the mural.

Tetsu, snoring softly, had reclined with his back against the tree. One leg was folded under the other; a sketchbook lay open on his knee. His stint at his class' festival booth had been longer than expected - the two other boys from class that were supposed to help out had failed to show up at all, leaving Tetsu to cover all of their shifts. The less said about Tetsu’s opinion on that turn of events the better - the end result is that he didn’t get cut loose until after the sun had set, and after a very long day.

“Hello Tetsu - you came. What have you been up to?” Rin thought as she looked at the open sketchbook with now dark-adapted eyes. Tetsu had drawn the mural; she could see that he’d made several tries at it from previous half-open pages and that he’d finally done quite a good job of capturing the mural in soft graphite.

Rin sat down silently, her back to the tree beside Tetsu, and listened to him breathe.

Turning to watch him sleeping, she pulled a small sketch pad out of her bag - taking a long look at him, she quickly sketched him in profile before putting her sketch book away and wandering back to the women’s dorm.

Rin gone, Tetsu woke to the sound of fireworks. He could smell the gunpowder smoke - and something else; the indefinable presence of someone in the air, now gone.

Tetsu had always loved fireworks. Smiling, the show finished, he gathered up his bag and book and pencils, then made his way back to his dorm room.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Tea for Three
June 11, 2007 - Monday


Having found the Aura Mart in town, and finally sick of the monotonous cafeteria food, Tetsu had resolved to take advantage of the kitchen facilities in the room he called the Catering Room. He’d stuck his head in after class and seen a hot plate and mini-fridge, as well a line of tea canisters carefully arranged by the sink, and had decided that today he was going to make himself something more appealing than bland Yamaku food.

Having stopped by the Aura Mart, and with that thought in mind, he headed off to the Catering Room with his food - and to see what kinds of pots, pans, and other utensils were available.

—

Hanako inhaled sharply.

“Hanako - what’s wrong?” asked Lilly

“A boy - a s-student ..” Hanako paused, frozen, unsure of how to proceed. A student had shown up at the tea room, probably by accident. Hanako would have bolted, but that would have been unfair to Lilly to abandon her - and besides, the boy was blocking the doorway rather effectively, if unintentionally, as he was about as broad across as the door was wide.

Seeing her alarm, the boy held up his hands as if to say he was no threat - which didn’t calm Hanako much, although it did keep her from running out of the room; something about six-foot tall foreign students who looked like they could bend small trees spoke to her with a certain authority, even if he was wearing Yamaku colours.

“Hello?” Said Lilly, hopefully, rather confused at what was happening.

Tetsu made a sound in his throat and motioned with a chopping gesture at his neck.

“I think he’s d-deaf, Lilly,” said Hanako

Tetsu shook his head - in a now familiar pantomime he communicated that he couldn’t talk, but could hear.

“Oh! He’s m-mute!” Hanako exclaimed, to which Tetsu bowed politely.

“Everyone respects politeness - I hope. They have tea - I could also use a cup of tea, and a chance to put these groceries away.” thought Tetsu to himself. He motioned to the tea set on the counter and an empty chair at the table. Tetsu regarded Hanako with a blank face. “Man, that’s some bad burn scarring.” He thought, and speculated whether she hadn’t pulled a pot of boiling water on herself as a child.

“I think he’d l-like to join us?” Hanako fervently wished that she was wrong - but, even if she wasn’t, at least he wasn’t likely to try to make conversation with her.

“Oh, of course.” Turning towards the door - “Please come in and have a seat, may I make you a cup of tea?” asked Lilly.

Tetsu nodded - “He says y-yes, Lilly.” to which Tetsu bowed again.

“He’s v-very polite - he bows v-very nicely.” Hanako, having fallen into the unconscious opinion that because Tetsu couldn’t talk he couldn’t hear as well, shared a rather more direct opinion of Tetsu than she might otherwise have done. In fact, she spoke - which she probably wouldn’t have done at all.

“Oh shit.” Thought Tetsu with a start, recognizing Lilly “It’s that woman from the night we ran into Rin outside the Shanghai.” He mentally face-palmed. “Oh well, I’m here now and she doesn’t know me - may as well have some tea.”

Tetsu took out his writing pad and introduced himself to Hanako.


“He ss-says his name is Kaiyou Tetsu, but that we can call him Tetsu if we w-wish.”

Lilly turned from making tea and towards where she heard Tetsu sit down; she gave him a polite bow - “Nice to meet you Tetsu, I’m Satou Lilly and this is Ikezawa Hanako”

“But-t you c-can call me Hanako.”

“And I Lilly,” Lilly said with a smile.

Tetsu nodded his head and took the teacup from Lilly’s outstretched hand.

{ Thank you } he wrote on his pad, after putting the tea cup down. { Do you mind if I put some groceries in the fridge? }

“H-he says ‘thank you’, Lilly. Also, he’d like to use the fridge to store his food.”

“Certainly,” responded Lilly - “But I wouldn’t leave it in there long - food tends to, ah, grow legs if left in the fridge. Unless you make your dishes blisteringly hot, as Hanako does ..”

Hanko reddened and giggled behind her hand at this. “D-discourages it from h-happening twice,” she said from behind a smile.

“They seem very proper - and a bit skittish. I hope this isn’t laying it on too thickly ..” Tetsu wrote: “I apologize for communicating in such an awkward fashion, and obliging Hanako to be my interpreter. Thank you for your hospitality.” Which Hanako relayed to Lilly - they appeared to appreciate the courtesy.

Tetsu tried signing to Hanako - “Worth a shot,” he thought.

“S-orry - I don’t read sign.” Said Hanako.

“I do, however,” said Lilly.

“She’s fucking with me - good one!” Tetsu thought.

Lilly held out her right hand in Tetsu’s general direction - “You can finger-spell on my palm; my cousin, who is deaf, and I would communicate in this way many times.”

Raising an eyebrow, Tetsu took her small, delicate hand gingerly in his, and wrote on it with his other hand. Compared to her skin, his hands were rough as sandpaper, but he carefully kept his touch light so as not to be uncomfortable.

“This works very well - he says now he’s burdened me with the task of interpreting for him and he’s deeply grateful,” said Lilly with a small giggle.

“I-I’m glad you can talk to Lilly a-as well.” Said Hanako. Truth be told, Hanako was intrigued to encounter someone who was apparently more isolated than she from other students.

They chatted a bit more - about Yamku, the weather, their classes and interests, and then bell rang and tea time was over.

{ Thank you again for the tea } wrote Tetsu. { I hope I should be favoured by your company some other time }

“Absolutely - please, feel welcome to join us again for tea; is that OK with you Hanako?” Asked Lilly who, for her part, was desperate to find at least one other friend for Hanako before the school year was up.

Hanako hadn’t expected to be put on the spot, but felt manners offered her no real option to disagree - and besides, he didn’t look like much of a reader so her library refuge was still open to her.

[ Thank you both - please let me know if I can return the favour ] Tetsu spelled on Lilly’s hand. He then stood up and bowed to each, punctuating his bow to Lilly with a click of his heels for her benefit.

“What do you think?” Lilly asked Hanako, after Tetsu’s footsteps had sufficiently receded down the hall.

“About Tetsu? He is very p-polite, but he looks a brute.”

“A brute? How so?”

“He doesn’t look a-angry - quite t-the opposite; his face is very calm and composed. H-his posture is good b-but ..” here she paused, searching for the right words as Lilly herself was partly a foreigner and Hanako didn’t want to give offense.

“But ..”

“He’s huge - about 10 centimeters t-taller than you, and twice as broad across at the shoulders. And his face .. it’s ..”

Here Hanako stopped. She had run straight on into her own unvarnished opinion of the physical appearance of another person. She despised what she perceived as others judging her appearance as unappealing and to describe someone else as ugly turned her stomach, but she didn’t have any other words to describe Tetsu.

Lilly cocked her head and faced towards Hanako, possibly intuiting the challenge Hanako was facing. Hanako looked down at her hands, fingers laced tightly in her lap.

“He’s ugly. I’m ss-sorry. I can’t d-describe it .. any other ..” Hanako hid her face behind her hands.

“It’s ok - I don’t need to remind you, of all people, that it’s not how we look that is our measure - not like it matters to me anyhow.” She finished with a smile.

“I kn-now - and I’m m-m-mortified at h-having a c-critical op-p-pinion of someone else’s a-p-pearance.”

Hanako buried her face in her hands, distraught at having visited on someone else the scorn and the pity she felt was uniquely her lot. Here was another human, forced to live, she thought, under a similar burden. Truth was, Tetsu felt himself rather handsome - though Hanako of course had no idea that this was so.

“It sounds like you two may have had similar experiences growing up.” Lilly said gently. “Maybe you two can become friends - if he’s as you say, he could hardly have a negative opinion of you now could he?”

“H-how could he not? I d-did th-that to him, after a-all.”

“Perhaps, but he doesn’t need to know that, and he’s not you - you could do worse than finding out.”

Hanako believed this to be true, but in her heart she felt otherwise.

Desperate to change the subject, Hanako continued.

“He was d-dressed .. weirdly.”

“Oh? How weirdly?”

“He was wearing a s-skirt.”

“That’s different, but several women wear trousers here, so I wouldn’t say it was weird - just different. I’m sure he has his reasons; perhaps to accommodate some condition?”

“He w-wore the skirt high on his w-waist and down to his kn-nees, and held it up with two heavy l-leather belts; the pleats were f-flattened in front, and it l-looked like he a-added belt l-loops to the skirt.”

“Indeed,” mused Lilly. “And what else was he wearing?”

“Knee-high socks, short l-leather boots, a v-vest and a blazer. And a tie.”

Lilly recognized the outfit immediately from a book her mother had bought her has a child - a book of doll-sized cutouts of clothing in differing fabrics so she could understand what clothing looked like by touch.

“A kilt - he was wearing a kilt. Was he Scottish?”

“I-I d-don’t know - y-you’re the only Scottish person I know! He was a f-foreigner ..”

“Did he have ribbons tucked under the top of his socks?”

“Y-yes”

“And a purse on a chain around his waist?”



“No - he had a leather s-shoulder bag though.”

“That’s ok - not everyone wears a sporran with their kilt, and a shoulder bag would be more practical here at school. Did he look like he could throw a tree trunk, or a heavy stone?”

“Oh - Yes - V-very much so!”

“Certainly sounds Scottish. We will have to take tea with this Tetsu again sometime soon - I’d like to know more about him!”


--

[Asoko_Desu]

At The Track Meet
June 17, 2007 - Sunday


Miki and Tetsu stood off to the side, away from the crowd - far enough away that Tetsu felt comfortable talking to Miki.

“Thanks for inviting me out.” Tetsu felt it was nice to get out from under studying. “You did really well!"

“Thanks - this is what I live for.”

“Short fast person - who is that?”

“Oh - Ibarazaki. She’s really good. Fast, but more of a sprinter than a distance runner. I have her in the 1200m and up, but she’s unbeatable on shorter distances.”



“Friend of yours?”



“Sort of, not really - no fault of hers; we just never clicked. Too competitive perhaps; track can be like that. We’re all buddy-buddy right up to the meets, but no real friendships after - no one wants a competitor to know their weaknesses maybe. Anyhow, she’s a good person - got her demons, but so do we all. She’s tight with that artist chick you’ve been going on about.”



“Tezuka? Really?”

“A bit. She’s obviously on your mind.”

“Didn’t realize.”

“Boys never do.”

“Huh?”

“Oh .. nothing. Time for the next heat - you're in a good position to see it; wish me luck!”

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Sprinting Backwards into the Future
June 17


“You’re here,” observed Rin.

“Of course - I told Emi I'd come, didn’t I?” Hisao said, with just the slightest air of “Did you really think I was going to sleep through the whole track meet?”

“Uh-huhn” Thought Rin - “You’re not washed or showered; your eyes are crusty and your hair’s a mess - you woke up no more than 10 minutes ago. Go you.”

Out loud she said - “No guarantee you were going to show though - lots of people say things and don’t follow through.”

“Like that boy from last year who hit on me,” she thought “He never showed up for our dates - turns out he was dating someone else the whole time and I was `Plan B`. Fuck him - I’ve already forgotten his name.”

Rin Shrugged - “Now I owe Emi money”

“Why?”

“I bet Emi that you wouldn’t show, and she bet that you would - now I owe her 500 yen.”

“Why am I still trying to mess with Emi? I’ve got a deal going, after all - the Distant Powers are supposed to throw me a bone if I lay off of Emi and Hisao. I suppose they’ll just make things harder for me now, if they don’t consider the deal broken entirely,” she thought, resignedly.

“Do you two bet on things a lot.”

“Only when I’m trying to mess with her and move things my way by fiddling with probabilities,” Rin thought to herself.

Rin shrugged - “What’s a lot? Anyhow,” Rin said, waving her arm at the upper bleachers - “.. we’re sitting up there. I, ah, came to see if you were here.”

Hisao followed Rin up to an almost-empty bench and sat beside an older woman; probably someone’s mother; she gave Rin a smile as Rin sat down.

“Well, well - I thought you’d gone out to get a snack and you came back with a boy! Haven’t you always been the one to go out for one thing and come back with something totally different? ” Observed the older woman.

“That was one time - one time,” thought Rin, as she scanned the sky. “Bring home a lost kitten in your teeth when you were going out for lunch and they never let you forget it.”

“A snack - is that what I told her? Good in the moment, but forgetting was sloppy - the least I could do is remember what I told her. What’s better - a reputation for unpredictability, or consistency? Make up your mind Tezuka!” Rin chided herself. Changing mental tracks, she fumed - “I was close, so close .. he was standing right there with Miura, but I had to run into Hisao. Definitely the gods of probability messing with me for making that bet with Emi - guaranteed.”

Rin didn’t know exactly why she wanted a closer look at Tetsu - like so many things in her life, some she deeply and relentlessly - endlessly - analyzed and cogitated upon. Others - like her interest in clouds, or the sky, or .. Tetsu - were just simply currents in the air that drew her where they alone chose.

It wasn’t that Rin was reflexively disingenuous - it’s just that if she said “I’m going to go get a closer look at a boy,” there would be no end to the jokes, interrogations, and expectations - and Rin had better things to do than deal with needling. “Better, perhaps, to appear to space out ..” Thought Rin.

“Hello - I’m Ibarazaki, Meiko - Emi’s mother. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Ibarazaki” Hisao said belatedly. “I’m Nakai, Hisao - I was waiting for Rin to introduce us ..”

“Please, call me Meiko. You’ve not known Rin for very long? I never expect her to remember niceties - she’s got other things on her mind.”

Rin nodded, absently - but not unhappily - “.. Like whether Tetsu wears his kilt `regimental` style .. wait where did that come from??” Thought Rin.

“I was thinking about .. Sunsets,” said Rin. ”Sunsets - Sure,” she thought, giving herself a mental kick “.. and don’t forget it this time!”

Rin tuned back in to catch the tail-end of Meiko pulling Hisao’s chain:

“.. So this must be a new romance then, mustn't it?"

"Wait, that's not the question that—"

Meiko laughed - "I know, but it's funny to watch you squirm. I'm sorry. Forgive an old woman her amusements."

“Ah, Meiko - constant as the stars ..” Rin thought - thankful that Hisao was the target of her humour for a change.

"They're starting again,” observed Rin, drawing their attention to the runners getting back into position on the track.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Fugue State
June 21, 2007


Rin and Emi made their way up the disused stair to the rooftop door; the door swung open silently - some enterprising students were keeping the hinges oiled to ensure the door wouldn’t draw unnecessary attention. Did the teachers know it was unlocked? Maybe they did. If they didn’t, well, no reason to bring it to their attention

Speaking of which - Emi and Rin emerged from the staircase to find Hisao asleep on the bench of the rooftop picnic table.

“Oh, it’s Hisao - he seems to have fallen asleep on us, Rin - he looks so peaceful,” observed Emi.

Hisao had stretched himself out on the roof bench and was to all appearances dead to the world - the bench top shaded his eyes and his hair stirred gently in the light breeze.

"Maybe he's faking, to lull us into a lowering our guard,” mused Rin.

"Why would he do that?"

“To learn our secret secrets.”

“You make a good point - we should kick him or something to make sure he's really asleep,” offered Emi.

Hisao stirred - “Whun?” he said, helpfully.

Emi bent over Hisao, almost face-to-face with him -

“Rin, he’s awake - I think. We don’t get to kick him.” Emi sounded a bit put out by this turn of events, but also amused.

“Was this your plan all along?” Rin asked of Hisao.

Hisao shook his head - “Wait - what?”

“Looks like a nice place for a nap - maybe not so comfortable though,” mused Emi.

Once Hisao had roused himself to sitting, Emi sat next to him, got out her lunch, and started eating. Remembering what happened the last time three people tried to crowd onto one side of the bench, Rin sat on the opposing side to balance the bench out. “Ow - crowding together was kinda fun, but flipping a table backwards onto gravel was no fun at all,” Rin recalled. Sitting cross-legged on the bench, Rin got her lunch out and started to eat as well.

Hisao appeared still rather zoned out while Emi and Rin resumed their conversation -

“.. So when Mori-sensei said that the flexibility we should be aiming for is being able to touch our forehead to our shins, of course I took my leg off and touched my forehead with it .. she was not impressed.”

Rin looked contemplative for a second, then touched her shin to her forehead - spoon still between her toes. “Like this?”

Emi nodded, laughing - “Maybe without the spoon though .. now you’ve got curry in your hair,” at which both laughed as Emi reached over to wipe Rin’s hair clean .. ish. She was going to smell like curry all day, Emi speculated.

Hisao concentrated on his food, not really paying attention Rin and Emi’s conversation.

“Hm. Funny that - Every time Emi has something to say, Hisao glances over at her - he looks like he’s trying to memorize a difficult equation. Interesting,” Rin observed.

“Hey - did you get one of those career surveys in class?” Emi asked Rin.

“Yeah.”

“What did you put down for what you want to do after high school?”

“Model - I have the `stand still and space out` thing down solid.”

“I’m not sure it entirely works that way..Hisao - how about you?”

“Huh - what? Still waking up here ..” apologized Hisao.

Emi rolled her eyes and Rin just barely raised an eyebrow -

“I said, `We got career surveys in class this week` you know - what do you plan to do after high school-type things - `Did you get one too?`.”

“No,” Hisao replied - “Not yet at least. Maybe Mutou is going to hand them out in a bit?” Hisao found that Mutou was often slow to do anything that deviated from his lesson plan - like administrative tasks such as handing out surveys.

Rin had stopped listening, focussing instead on the unspoken aspect of Emi and Hisao’s interaction. “Impressive how much is said without words at all; isn’t that the height of visual art - to speak a novel in a single work,” she speculated. All technique, all media, were subordinated to this one goal; to express a truth - a feeling, a vision, a story - immediately, and without need for annotation - at least that was the theory Rin had been taught. She chewed slowly considering the import of the words in the context of Hisao’s eyes following Emi like beads on a string.

Emi suddenly sprang up from her seat and started swaggering up and down the rooftop, shouting like a madwoman in, what Rin presumed to be, `Piratese`. English being one of her poorer subjects - and Emi’s - Rin wasn’t really sure Emi would be understood if she ever encountered pirates. Now if they were Japanese pirates, or the pirates knew Japanese and English, then maybe - but probably not because Emi was shouting in a weird accent that sounded like a cross between stereotypical Old English, but in Japanese - like a mix of battered fish with nori and pickled ginger, and rice instead of French fries, which didn’t sound too bad, but which also didn’t make any sense because there were no Japanese pirates; maybe bandits, but did bandits know how to sail a boat? Probably not - because if they did, then they’d be pirates. Maybe it was more like sushi with ketchup ..” Here Rin’s logic ran aground.

“Emi - what does any of that even mean?” Asked Rin.

“Ah .. I don’t really know - it’s intended to strike fear into victims’ hearts though! Yarr!”

With that, the bell rang and Emi dashed off - presumably to class - leaving Rin and Hisao alone together on the roof.

“Hm,” thought Rin, still watching Hisao - “He’s staring at the door like he’s hoping she’ll come back through it. Weird.”

“Ah, can I help you?” Asked Hisao, abruptly realizing Rin had been intently watching him for some time.

“Can he help me? The answer to that would be `no`. Can he help himself? Also no - he’s hooked, line and sinker,” thought Rin while regarding Hisao closely.

“Nope,” answered Rin after a couple moments, and Rin shook her head to underline the finality of her opinion, but offering no explanation.

“Why were you staring then?”

“Why was I staring?” And Rin mentally facepalmed.

“I don’t get it ..”

“Get what?”

“Any of it - the staring thing, mostly; you two do though.”

“I wasn’t staring - I was just .. looking .. I mean distracted“

Rin snorted - “`distracted` - I’ll bet,” but said nothing.

"Mmm." Thought, Rin, noncommittally. “No, he wouldn’t understand at all - he lacks the proper perspective. Well, this ball’s rolling downhill all on its own - no need to help it along, and I have my own life to worry about.”

Abruptly, as if eager to avoid a continuation of the conversation with Rin, Hisao got up and headed back down to class without another word.

“Hmph. Goodbye to you too,” Rin thought as the door to the school closed behind Hisao.

Rin looked at the door herself for a while. It wasn’t a very interesting door, but it seemed to have the property of encouraging introspection -

“What am I even doing here? Why do I bother? I’m keeping up my end of the bargain - I’m not trying to drive Emi and Hisao apart; I don’t have to like it though. Hisao’s so fixated on Emi, he can’t even be civil to me when she’s not around.”

“Should I just give up on everything - Emi as a friend; Hisao - although he’s not much of a friend; art - there are other things I can do that aren’t art, I .. just don’t know what they are yet.”

Rin turned from the door downstairs - “Why bother indeed,” she asked no one but the table, the sky, and a few birds sitting on the fence. She even questioned the existence those gods of good luck to whom she gave nominal deference - “Does anyone do something that doesn’t have a reward? I guess so - people do gamble, after all.”

“But for how long?” She wondered. Obviously there were things people did for their own enjoyment throughout their lives, but when that enjoyment is derived from the participation of another person - or persons - then isn’t it an empty point?

“.. Unless doing something on your own, where people could see you, is a way to attract someone who’ll do things with you?”

Rin looked out, past the rooftop fence, for quite some time after the bell rang - her eyes looked like there was a lot going on behind them if there had been anybody there to look into them. “Thanks Thinking Door - I should introduce you to my Worry Tree some day - I think you’d get along,” she observed, then turned and went back downstairs to class herself.

--

[Asoko_Desu]

Writing Home II
June 22, 2007 - Friday


"Hi Mom - this may need to be a two-postcard update.

School is going well - my language classes are progressing, I'm keeping up with the gym, and I've made at least one friend. About school - I'm getting good marks in math and science and my home room, which is technically art. English I excell in, but that's not entirely fair - English is only a second language for 99% of the students so I have an unfair advantage there .. out of space - on to the next card now."

-

"Hi Mom - card 2/2; there's another card on the way if you get this one first.

(In case you get this card first - my other classes are all good) Japanese class marks are a pass, but just barely so - I'm lucky the words and phrases in text books and lessons seem to repeat a lot. I will take some pictures of the projects I've completed in home room art class - I've done some work with the air brush that you might like. Anyhow, this is all the room I have for now - promise to write again soon.

-

Dear Diary

Why do I bother writing. I know she doesn't care - I .. I just feel it's the right thing to do. I don't want to write them and she doesn't want to read them and one day I'll be back there and she won't want to hear about the trip, or here, or what I learned, or the people I met - just that I didn't screw up somehow and that'll be the end of the discussion. She won't even get the joke that home room is `technically art`. Has she ever laughed - at a joke I mean - what a funny question to ask myself. People say distance give perspective, but I hadn't thought like this - weird. Is not laughing or having a sense of humour weird? I've always assumed that most people do, but does everyone? Gonna have to think on that.

Anyhow, time for something altogether more enjoyable - homework.

=/=