A/N: Written as a Yuletide 2016 gift for napkins.
Rays of sunlight peek through the branches above them. The ground is warm and grassy, the scent of the air balmy and sweet from the recent rains. Students nearby chatter about their next class, an upcoming assignment, or a movie they saw over the weekend or an upcoming one. They munch away at the food in their own lunch boxes.
Under one of Uranohoshi's oldest and tallest trees, Hanamaru, Ruby, Yoshiko sat among those students.
Hanamaru raised her chopsticks towards her mouth. She tastes the sushi before the fish and vegetables reach her tongue. She smiles gently, proud of her own cooking.
About to do the same, Ruby lifts her chopsticks. Mid-bite of an octopus piece, Ruby's face lights up urgently.
"I think I should text Dia and tell her we can cook dinner together tonight. So she won't come home and flood me with texts asking where I am," Ruby murmurs to herself, nodding. It is not meant to be heard, but her expression is dreamy as if she right then is recalling a memory from something that recently happened. She drops her chopsticks neatly on top of her lunch box.
Usually, Hanamaru is polite. She rarely if ever eavesdrops on something that does not concern her, but her sense of self-preservation automatically shatters the moment she spots the device drawn out of Ruby's pocket. Hanamaru's eyes zone in on Ruby's hands tapping the screen. The faint light reflects off her eyes, and her fingers click against the screen. Hanamaru's impossibly impressionable and innocent eyes widen. Her face rounds to a massive sun of sparkling amazement and wondrous admiration.
"Zuramaru?" Yoshiko asks, glancing over at her. She sits between them in a triangle. She stops scribbling in her notebook and decided Hanamaru has slipped into her daydream phase again about technology and the like.
Hanamaru's heart beat wildly in her chest and pitter-patters like a bunny's racing footsteps. Honestly, she didn't mean to ignore Yoshiko, but this was an emergency! This was an Earth rattling discovery. She had to know everything about what that little box was. She had to understand the ultra-cool object in front of her.
"Ruby-chan," Hanamaru says slowly, trying to control herself. She showers the cellphone with longing and hopeful praise. "What's that thing you're holding, zura?"
Ruby blinks in surprise. She finishes typing her text out to Dia and then sends it off with one click of the button.
"It's my new smartphone." Ruby turns the cellphone around so Hanamaru could see the screen. The screen shows colorful bubbles with words, and the two writers are of course named Dia and Ruby. "See? Isn't it cool?"
"It's a new model, too!" Yoshiko pipes up and leaned in to look at the color and appearance. "Those are popular."
Luckily, Hanamaru cares little for popularity; she only cares about what the object does and all its functions. Meanwhile, Hanamaru's genius detective brain tries to piece together what she just heard. Nothing about this phone's identity made the slightest sense whatsoever.
And then it hits her. "Um…" Hanamaru gestures, puzzled.
A… phone? How was that a phone? This new information floors Hanamaru. Carefully, she cranes her head, but she still couldn't see a way to talk into it! This "phone" has no mouthpiece to be seen or a long cord. All of the phones back at the temple were old-fashioned landlines like that.
"But… but…! Ruby-chan, there's nowhere to talk into on that phone," Hanamaru reminds, urging her to get this troubling issue. She hopes Ruby had not been ripped off at the store or something else devious.
If Ruby had been hurt, Hanamaru would give that person a stern talking to for bullying her friend and force them into giving back here money. Hanamaru was shy and quiet, but she would stands up for her friends in a heartbeat.
"You hold phones to your ear like this." Holding a hand up to her ear, Hanamaru demonstrates the proper logic to using phones. She curls her fingers into a shell-like shape and puts her lips against her palm.
"Oh, well, down here's there's a mic to speak into—" Ruby begins to explain to her, but her sentence is cut off.
Yoshiko moves closer to Hanamaru. She mimics her hand gesture and puts the side of her hand against Hanamaru's. She informs, "That's the way of the past! All the best little demons move on and work with new technology. And we know this for a fact, because we can contact our fellow fallen angels in the darkness of the universe—space!"
So it had finally happened without her realizing it. Ruby had officially become Yoshiko's devoted little demon.
Was Yoshiko saying… Could cellphones be demon related technology and Yoshiko knew all about it?
Nah, Yoshiko-chan was just being Yoshiko-chan.
"Really!?" Hanamaru squeals anyway. Entranced, she glances from Yoshiko to Ruby for answers. "Ruby-chan!"
Ruby laughs nervously, wringing her hands to ward off the embarrassment. "Sometimes I can't even get good reception when I go to the supermarket and stand in the back isles. So, I doubt I'd get any reception in space."
Yoshiko throws her head back laughs anyway in her insane but loveable way. She tackle hugs Ruby and squeezes her tight. Ruby blushes and pushes her off, more embarrassed about being hugged than upset.
Hanamaru's eyebrows furrow at this. She takes the cellphone and carefully holds the rectangular plastic in her hand. "Then… It looks like a mini TV, not a phone."
"You can watch TV on it if you want to!" Ruby pips up eagerly. This time, she is confident in herself, helpful.
Hanamaru's mouth goes agape. Awestruck, she gasps and holds the phone above her head, paralyzed at this truly magnificent information. "I—I can watch… Are you telling me… TV on a phone… Truly the future, zura!"
Yoshiko gives Hanamaru a gentle chop on the head to wake her out of her technology-crazed-daydream land.
Hanamaru rubs the growing red bump her head. She groans sadly. "Ouch. That's mean, Yoshiko-chan."
"Don't do that," Yoshiko reminds Ruby with the wide berth of her hands. "You'll break Zuramaru's brain from how innovative that is." Her voice deepens. "How can we plot on our phones if you my best little demons reveal our secrets?"
Ruby spots something equally rectangular in Yoshiko's pocket. "Oh, is that your cellphone, too?"
Yoshiko balances her lunch box on her lap as she pulls out the smaller and more compact phone. "Ta-da! It's a handy flip phone I can store all my secrets in! Now that I think about it, why didn't you get a flip phone?"
"My last phone was a flip phone," Ruby explains.
Flip phones? What did that mean? Hanamaru drowns out their conversation out as she processes this as well.
Hanamaru imagines that one time when she was a child. Back then, she had been so excited about the release of her favorite book that she had walked everywhere around the temple reading it. Most people had gotten out of her way upon seeing her, but Hanamaru had bumped into the phone stand and knocked it over. The phone had broken. Her parents had not been too happy about that.
"Yoshiko-chan, that's not very reliable of you," Hanamaru scolds her. "Why would you want a phone that flips, zura?"
Flipping never meant anything good. It meant accidents.
Yoshiko is a weird girl anyway, so maybe it checks out.
Yoshiko just shrugs, expression turning to wonder at how she would explain something like that to Hanamaru.
Dolphins flip. So do fish! Not cellphones. That's weird.
Anyway, time for small talk was over. Hanamaru needed to focus on this exceedingly important mission laid out in front of her, because there was so much yet to do.
Hanamaru stared down at the smartphone. The corners of her lips twisted, and she hunched her shoulders. Ready.
Hanamaru was about to embark on a journey. A perilous voyage across new lands and adventures. This cellphone would change her entire outlook on life. Thankfully, she had her lunch at her side for extra energy and her two best friends to commemorate this special occasion. Otherwise, Hanamaru doubted she would have the stamina not to faint from pure bliss. All technology was great, but this was the much coveted cellphone, a piece of true brilliance.
Hanamaru loved it and she hadn't even used it.
Ruby waits for Hanamaru to press one of the buttons on the phone. Hanamaru continues to imagine the out of the world possibilities she could apply back to the books she has read. A goofy grin spreads on Hanamaru's lips.
"Here, I'll help you out," Ruby offers tentatively. After all, she knows how Hanamaru's imagination veers off on its own and refuses to cooperate until it's fully settled in reality. She reaches out for the phone to show her.
Hanamaru automatically dives over towards Yoshiko. She bumps into her side. Yoshiko squeaks, mid-bite of her weird colored vegetables (that she seems to put red and black food coloring on). Hanamaru shakes her head vigorously at Ruby and waves her hands frantically.
"No, Ruby-chan! Please don't." Hanamaru cradles the phone close to her chest as if it were a precious baby.
Dejected, Ruby now shoots her a quizzical look. Then, she shrugs, knowing that she had to give her friend time for these things to sink and make sense to her naturally.
Hanamaru peeks at Ruby's baffled but patient expression. She instantly feels a little guilty. After all, this was Ruby's phone and she shouldn't hog the phone like it is hers.
Hanamaru laughs and blushes, kicking her foot.
"Um… Sorry… I have to do this myself." Hanamaru squares her shoulders and nods determinedly. She raises the smartphone in front of her again and stares at it with all the purpose and love in the entire world. She wants to press all the buttons, see all the colorful lights. "I have to experience it for myself… or it won't be satisfying, zura!"
Yoshiko and Ruby ball their fists, rooting her on.
Hanamaru taps the buttons. The two on the side close together do nothing, but the one on the other side make the screen light up. She sees a flash of familiar costumes and quickly clicks again. It's an Aqours group photo.
Already, Hanamaru can't figure out how this got here.
"How did you get these pictures on here?" Hanamaru asks. You, Riko, and Chika would have uploaded most of their photos to their channel so other people would be able to see. But how did Ruby get it on here? A mystery!
"I just downloaded them from our site. They're wallpapers," Ruby tells her. She stops when she notices Hanamaru's thoughts are wandering away all over the place.
Hanamaru keeps babbling, swept away by nostalgia.
"So you can carry memories like that with you!" Her eyes are starry. Now she feels special. "That's so nice."
Hanamaru swipes a finger over the screen and… Magic happens, seriously—the screen goes to a µ's photograph in the background. But that is not totally what captures Hanamaru's attention. She sees at least twenty small buttons on the screen. Her thoughts swim, and her imagination soars to new heights. What does she press first? What wouldn't break Ruby's phone after she played around with all the buttons was the real question.
"What are all these buttons?" Hanamaru exclaims. She scrolls the page, and she sees a familiar face. Is that… no, it couldn't be… is that Kousaka Honoka from µ's? Her face is smiling, and the icon has a pink background. She pokes it and a splash page loads with each of the µ's members.
The familiar song Takaramos blares out of Ruby's phone.
Hanamaru jumps so far back her lunch box falls sideways. Miraculously nothing spills out of the box and she sighs.
Girls look over in their direction curiously. Alarmed, she frantically jabs at Ruby's phone to find some way to shut it off—the two buttons on the side apparently do something after all and the sound quiets. Hanamaru sighs. Phones can be so bothersome to other people sometimes.
"I didn't mean to do that…" She laughs, sitting back up. "Sorry! Wait… What was that button? What is this?"
Hanamaru hopes Ruby can understand her, because she feels like everything on the phone is so brand new.
Ruby uncovers her ears. She looks like she had expected that, but follows her line of sight. She pauses, surprised.
"Ah, that's just, um…" Ruby's cheeks flush red. "It's a game called School Idol Festival. I play it sometimes. You can go back to the Home screen and look at the other buttons. Those are just called apps. For applications."
Games? Did she just say… games?
"You can play games on your phone?" For Hanamaru, that was the most insane thing ever. This truly was the future.
Tabletop games usually came to mind whenever she thought of games at all, or anything like playing a game of hide-and-seek outside. Playing a mean game of cards with her grandparents had been a usual Saturday for younger Hanamaru before making friends outside the temple. Oh, sure, she had also seen many people with handheld devices that played roleplaying or shooter games on the subway liens during transport. But that was different.
Hanamaru just listens to Ruby instruct her. Ruby shows her how to navigate the little menu options. All she has to do is press "Home" at the bottom whenever she wants to go back to the main screen and click another application.
The Home button—the all-purpose lifesaver button! Hanamaru can only marvel at its supreme power.
"If this is a phone…" Hanamaru snaps her fingers. Finally, she thinks, she should put this phone through the ultimate test. She needs to understand how this device could be spoken into. "I want to call Yoshiko-chan. Hurry!"
Yoshiko fumbles for her phone. Hanamaru is about to call—if she can figure that out for herself—but she sees Yoshiko typing. A screen shows up on Ruby's phone that prompts her to accept or reject the call. Hanamaru presses it, but nothing happens, and as she pulls her finger away. After the swipe the button goes away.
Now what Hanamaru do? Did she end the call?
In the phone she can hear the whistle of wind the nearby voices. The voices are clearer in reality, but she can still hear them fairly easily. She puts the phone up to her ear trying to find the best way to hear it, tilting it up and down.
"I hear sound! I hear sound!" Gleeful about this victory, Hanamaru almost loses sight of her mission. She pulls her knees up to her chest and listens. Realizing her mistake when Yoshiko gives her a pointed look and gestures at Ruby's phone, she hunkers down and asks, "Hello?"
Can Yoshiko hear her? She's sitting right next to her, but that isn't the point. Hanamaru holds a bated breath.
"You dare only say 'hello' to the fallen angel Yohane!" Yoshiko roars into her phone. "This is a phone only meant to speak the laws of darkness, and you're violating—"
Hanamaru reciprocates Yoshiko's head chop from earlier, and Yoshiko calms down. Something about the phones has her particularly acting like her Yohane self today. Maybe phones really were technology from the Dark World. Hanamaru would accept that until proven wrong.
"Stop that, zura," Hanamaru scolds her gently and nods. "You have to be polite on the phone and get to the point."
Her parents had always told her that.
Yoshiko rubs her head. She hangs up, and Hanamaru's heart drops. But it doesn't matter, because that was fun! Yoshiko continues to type on her phone and smirks.
Suddenly, the phone vibrates in her hands. Hanamaru paws at it to keep it in place—what did she press!?—but it stops. Curious, she glances up at the top and sees a little mail envelop. She taps it, bringing down the top drawn down menu. The message there is only half written.
She sees an angel with black wings and a smiley face. Hanamaru eagerly clicks it and sees the same bubble screen with all kinds of cute faces in the text area.
"That's so cute!" she exclaims. "Wait… is this… the mythical text I've heard about? And Ruby-chan was using this earlier." Always, Hanamaru would hear about texting but thought the rumors were just rumors. She hugs the phone. "It's the best way to keep in track with all your friends! Aw, and Yoshiko-chan and Ruby-chan have already been talking…" She learns to scroll and sees their previous messages show up. Worried that she may have fallen behind without a phone, Hanamaru shakes her head. After a moment's pause, she decides she should be happy for them and not be upset about this. "That's not fair. I want to talk to the both of you over texts, too."
Ruby's ear tips color the same shade as her hair. She shakes her head. She seems to calm down. "If you can afford one, or ask your parents, buy a phone and we can all do a group chat. It's pretty normal," Ruby agrees.
The phone vibrates again at that moment. More focused this time, Hanamaru does the same thing as before.
However, the new message is not from Yoshiko.
"Oh," Hanamaru squints at the screen and reads the person's name. "You got a message from… Dia." She presses on it and the text window shows up. What another marvelous discovery! These shortcuts were brilliant.
Ruby stills, then asks, "What did she say?"
"Well, she says okay about the dinner thing… zura…" Hanamaru skims. "She can see us outside the window from the student council room." Hanamaru is chipper here and ready for whatever Dia has to say, but her expression darkens as she continues. "We're late to class—zura?"
The instantaneous pause between the three deafens even them. Ruby, Hanamaru, and Yoshiko exchanged a distressed glance and then followed each other's gazes the school building. Indeed, the phone's time said that five minutes had elapsed since their allotted lunch break.
The scramble to pack up their lunch boxes and race inside was even more hectic than their early morning dancing practice sessions. With each step, Hanamaru gasps heavily by the time they arrived to class, but she had no complaints at all. She had learned so many new inspiring things about cellphones and their multitasking methods. She would have to Yoshiko and Ruby more about it later. But, for now, she's perfectly happy daydreaming about it.
Cellphones were the fantastical devices of the future!