Grey Clouds - Chapter 1
Shizuru had a habit. It wasn't a fabulous, illustrious habit that made her appear refined or graceful. In fact, she avoided indulging in her habit in front of other people.
Shizuru had a watch – a delicate wrist watch that fit seamlessly on her fine wrist. She wore it often with suits and occasionally with casual wear. She never wore it with her kimonos. Recently, however, she had been wearing more suits. Thus, this wrist watch had become a staple of her morning routine. And it was quite a routine.
First, she would stretch a little in bed before brushing her teeth in her en suite bathroom, taking a quick shower, brushing and drying her hair, putting on her clothes and, finally, having a bite to eat before heading out the door. She was never late. She was never too early.
Perfectly on time, Shizuru practically glided out those doors and into her family's car, which took her to wherever she needed to be on those same, smiling days. The wrist watch had been an addition to this routine because it refused to run on time. The watch always ran too fast and had to be reminded at the beginning of each day that the time was in fact 6:30 and not 6:34. Shizuru reset this wrist watch between eating and leaving the house. She also made sure that she wound the watch so it would not be too slow during the day.
Shizuru had a habit. To be honest, Shizuru had many habits but they were not considered unnecessary habits. This one was an unnecessary habit. Shizuru had a watch – a delicate wrist watch that didn't tell the time correctly. Her habit was to wind that wrist watch. She would wind it up whenever she began to get stressed or upset or feel uncomfortable or worry.
Shizuru's wrist watch could only wind so far and then it would spring back a little. She would wind the dial at the right side of the watch until it would stop and then listen to it spring back. The sounds of the spin-stop-spring-spin-stop-spring would calm her nerves. Or at least that is how she justified this unnecessary habit to herself.
Her father had once noticed it a few months ago and had proposed to have it replaced after Shizuru mentioned her frustration at it not running on time. Shizuru had declined his kind offer with a cold smile and changed the topic casually. She stopped resorting to her habit in public and only played with the watch when she was alone and could reflect on the day. She wasn't sure where her attachment for the watch came from but maybe it sort of reminded her of someone. She wasn't sure why and she didn't intend to spend all day meditating on why an inanimate object contained the traits of a stranger, especially when she had frequently resolved to not think too much of the subject.
So that was why, right now, Shizuru was sitting on a park bench in the middle of winter, bundled up in many layers of coats and scarves, indulging in her habit, and waiting for the blue haired beauty.
Technically, she was supposed to be walking the rest of the way to the University campus. Her father had insisted that she remain at one of the family's smaller houses near Tokyo University rather than stay in the dorms.
"You'll have more chances to entertain some of my associates that way," he had said, "How else do you expect to make connections trapped within the University?"
Entertaining people had been her job ever since high school. As soon as she looked old enough and acted well enough, her father would simply send people to her and she would feed them, entertain them, and indulge in whatever flattery was needed for them to agree with the merger, or the job cuts, or whatever else was plaguing the company.
As well as staying at the closest estate to the college, she was also driven to school by her regular chauffer, fed by a cook, and cleaned up after by 2 maids. She would have preferred to stay in the dorms or ride a bus to school but there was no need to argue with her father over something so trivial so she accepted his offer and hospitality humbly.
She should have been on her way to classes right now, in fact, driven by her chauffer. But last week, in this exact spot she had caught sight of something unusual.
The sky in this world had always been covered with a thick layer of grey cloud for as long as she could remember. It was true, at one point, the sky had been visible, but God and mankind had managed to cover up that blessed blue.
Most people blamed God.
Blamed isn't the right word. Most people knew it was God's desire that the world be covered in cloud. That might have seemed like a rather narrow minded assumption except…
Well there were places that weren't still covered in cloud, where people could congregate to see the sky. (And they did congregate.)
Churches.
It might have been strange to people who first saw the clouds cover the world but to those, like Shizuru, who had been born into this world, overwhelming evidence of God prevented any other argument. There was no way to explain it. The controversy that did occur was over why. Why did God cover the world in clouds? What were we being punished for?
Shizuru was one of the few who didn't care. But that was going to change. Maybe it already had, the brown haired girl thought to herself, maybe it had all changed the day that I saw her.
She had been walking alone. Facing straight ahead, she walked confidently but without smiling. It was more like she was determined, rather than confident, like she was going somewhere important and all of the other high school students had nothing to do with it. But, although her strange mood was intriguing, that wasn't what was odd about the encounter.
Shizuru had to roll down the window to make sure that she wasn't mistaken. Sure enough, she had been correct. That girl had sunlight dancing in her hair. Shizuru looked up.
There was an opening above this girl. There was sky.
The car had driven away then, with only a chance for Shizuru to look back into the face of this unusual girl. She was mesmerized. On the verge between pretending she hadn't seen her and jumping out of the car while it was still moving, Shizuru promised herself that she would see this girl again.
And that is why, today, Shizuru had explained to the driver, when they were five minutes from school, that she was in need of some fresh air and decided to walk. And that is why, today, Shizuru was sitting on a cold bench, wrapped in scarves, indulging in her habit.
And that is why Shizuru got to see Natsuki again.
