CLANNAD visual novel is the property of Key. CLANNAD anime is produced by Kyoto Animation, and CLANNAD the Movie by Toei. This work of fiction is not for profit.
This work is based largely on the animated series, and is presented as a sequel to After Story. It presents a scenario where Nagisa had died from childbirth, but where Ushio had survived her ordeal in the snow, unlike in the series where she passed away as well. (Personally, I think that had been overkill.)
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The Tides, Chapter One
Ah…, thought Tomoya, it looks like we'll finally have some fair weather tomorrow, as he gazed at the late afternoon sky. It really looked normal now. The sunset glow was just as to be expected for five in the afternoon, quite unlike the alternation of heavy gray pall and unsettling red smears on the heavens this past week.
Better yet, it was a Friday, and he could look forward to being with Ushio full time over the weekend.
Only that…
Work is not really over yet.
'Home run!"
No, Akio-san, it's not a home run.
A new kid who was an excellent jumper caught the ball eight feet in the air just as he left the hot corner.
When he touched home plate Akio belched out his most insultingly hearty laughter at the neighborhood boys. "Eh, you have a tad lot of rice to eat before you can even half beat that!' But the kids were just staring at him like his pants just fell. "Hah—what's with that spaced-out look of yours? Can't accept defeat with grace? Ah…if you get resentful over someone who beat you squarely in sports, you'll never advance in life!" Loud guffaw. "Take my advice, and learn from the one who had his years."
Tomoya had just turned on the lights of Furukawa Bread and was wiping the counter when he heard a horrendous shout from outside across the street. No doubt, it was "the old man". Making a goofball out of himself again. Really, he should be getting over his bad habits now. Still, he did not feel comfortable thinking of him as "old man", not anymore, since long ago when circumstances pushed them closer together: him, his in-laws, and his daughter. Since then he had also regarded him with more of the respect due a father-in-law, though some resentments still bubble at times. Like today.
"Tomoya-kun," Sanae said, "I hope you don't take it against Akio if he left the bakery with you for a while."
"No," he replied uneasily, "it's alright, he comes home in the evening, anyway." He looked in the direction of the park. "I'm sure he will coming back by now."
"I knew we could always rely on you," she said gratefully. "You were always such a good boy. After all, to whom else would we pass on this place after we're gone?"
Tomoya laughed. "Such nonsense, Sanae-san. You don't look it. You always look your best, even at that age a highschooler might still want to date you. Better watch out."
Sanae let out such a beautiful laugh it unnerved him. She sounded clearly flattered. "Oh, Tomoya-kun, always funny as ever."
"You flirting with Sanae again?" threatened Akio to a startled Tomoya.
"'Again'? We were just discussing what will happen to the bakery when you're gone, Akio-san, and now this?"
"So you want me dead so you can take Sanae all for yourself?' he blared.
"Akio-san," Sanae said, "stop troubling him with crude black jokes like that."
"Phew! I should have known all along. Really, Tomoya I do not know what you feed all those girls back in the day, but it will take more than flattery to get Sanae." He made a heroic pose. "You must step over my dead body!"
"Actually, Akio," chimed Sanae, "if only you were half as good in compliments as he is, you can flirt me all you want."
"But of course, Sanae!" he gushed, taking her hands. "I've never seen a galactic beauty as you are! You have the looks to destroy the universe, just like your bread. AHAHAHA….Haha …Ha…Huh?…"
Uh-oh.
"So my bread…" sobbing, "… my bread… destroys the universe!"
The heartbroken lady ran out in a weeping fit, and now Akio had to stuff a number of her oyster-flavored rosemary muffins (whatever that was) into his mouth and dash after her. "Oyster bread is the hope of the cosmos!" Tomoya followed them outside and saw them off.
He was still gazing after them when someone called him. "Sir?"
He turned to see two boy seniors from Hikarizaka escorting another senior, a girl, of long, flowing, brownish hair, and browner eyes.
It's not about the color, though. The least that could be said of those eyes is that they're…deep.
His daughter.
"Papa…" she mumbled nervously, seeing that not-so-pleasant look of his. "I'm sorry. You're not home, and… I was really worried I'd be late 'cause I went all the way here to look for you."
He did not say anything. Before long she made out that the black looks were aimed at her companions.
"W-We took Ushio-chan to the clinic today and she had to rest there for quite some time. We were worried about her all the way so we made sure we'll be there if she needs help." They bowed low. "Please accept our apologies."
"Your mothers might be looking for you by now," he spat out. "Be good boys and go straight home."
"Papa…" she whispered with concern.
"Worrying about other people's girls is not your responsibility."
"We're very sorry, sir!" As they hastily left they wanted to bid her goodbye but all they could do was look back before they finally disappeared in the evening shadows.
The girl looked hurt. Papa, she thought, those guys were only helping me. What kind of treatment is that? "Papa…"
Tomoya followed the boys with his glares. Upon seeing her expression, however, he instantly softened. He took her in his arms and kissed her on the forehead. "Come now, Ushio, don't give me that." He then felt her neck, forehead, and back. He couldn't remember her not feeling well when she left their apartment that morning. "What happened to you, dear?"
"No, dad, it's nothing. I…it was hot."
Well, he thought, it really was getting hot that morning. He was sweating in Yusuke's van, not to mention being in that stuffy lineman suit atop a pole exposed to the elements all day long.
"Well, then, you can sleep here with me for the night. I must be manning the bakery this weekend so I guess we can't eat out for now. Sorry."
To his surprise, she lightened up. "Really? We're staying here?" She let out her version of Sanae's laugh. "Then why don't we eat in? You know how much I love Sanae-san cook. Her bread's just great!"
"I'm so glad to hear that, Ushio-chan!" sniffled Sanae as they sat down to dinner. "You are a great comfort to my dark and sorrowful life."
Not to mention how sorrowful too the people who had a taste of the rainbow bread, thought Tomoya.
"Don't worry, Sanae-san, I'll be here with dad the whole weekend, and I'll even help you invent new flavors for the bread."
Oh no, Ushio, not you, too.
"You know, Sanae-san, I just found this wonderful book on pastries and confectioneries. Come to think, Sanae-san, I don't suppose you have ever made any pies yet."
"I would love to, Shio-chan! And since you're here as well, we'll be having a great time."
She drew close to her sister-looking grandmother and leaned on her bosom. "You bet, Sanae-san." Ushio has taken a special liking to Sanae, being the closest link she could have to the one missing in her life. Heck, she is to her the closest person that looks like her beloved mother. And they do often bake together. Which was for the better, as the girl can be on hand to put some sense into Sanae's baking.
"By the way, Ushio," said Akio, "Perhaps you might want us to get a new uniform for you. You're growing fast and it looks like your present uniform can't hold you in."
She blushed. "My friends say that, too." Then, hopefully, straightening up, "Akio-san, you don't think I'm gaining weight, do you?"
"Eh, why should a girl of your figure worry about weight? If you add weight it would be from muscle, not fat. You don't look like someone predisposed to fat. Neither that it runs in our family."
"I don't want to be muscular, either. I want to stay slim and tall, and my complexion smooth, just like the others do."
"Eheh. That's my girl! Ready to smite a man as well as her mother did, eh, Tomoya?"
"Blah," scoffed Tomoya at his daughter. "I should say smitten. Don't tell me you're actually preening for someone at school."
She was taken aback. "Dad!"
"You're getting pretty vain. Just because you're in high school."
Everybody else at the table could not speak.
It stayed this way for perhaps at least a full minute before Sanae could finally speak up, if distantly.
"I must say, our little girl is our little girl. And she's not little anymore." She managed a weak smile.
"Well," said Akio, "I think I should see the tea. You go on, I'll be back."
At about eleven Ushio had already been in bed but Tomoya was still downstairs musing. Some of it was about the uproar he caused at dinner, but he was pretty firm in that and would not let himself mind it a lot. Mystifying, though, was how the girl told him she went to the clinic because of heat. She was one to be especially vulnerable to cold, indeed there had been a particularly unhappy experience about that when she was smaller, but she couldn't possibly weaken too easily to heat, maybe? She could just drink something, like he often does. Perhaps it was the change in the weather?
Still unconvinced, he went up quietly to Ushio's room to check if she is alright.
Well, whoa, she's up.
"Papa?"
"Ushio," he said softly.
He went over to her side, sat on her bed, and cradled the back of her head in his left hand with an endearing rub, the same way he did to her mother years before. She can feel through her hair the ring he wore there.
He then held her hands. "You should be resting now, Ushio," he said.
She gently gestured a 'no'.
She looked at her father's face and saw in it a handsome man, the dashingly careless hero her grade school teacher Fujibayashi-sensei always ranted about to her. At the same time, looking carefully, and she was more than able when it comes to subtle observations, she can discern a man who was really, really, really tired.
Glancing down, she saw his hands—and the left one. As soon as she laid sight on it, her eyes widened, and moistened. She shut them and turned her face away from him.
"What's wrong, Ushio?"
"Papa," she began, "can you… can you trust your daughter?"
When, stunned, he could barely manage a reply, she continued. "Can you trust your daughter…not to hurt you? Ever again?"
She then stared at him through those enthralling brown discs, which, intriguing at first glance, transfigures into breathtaking pools of vastness whenever a very sensitive chord in her is struck.
Tomoya reflected to her his own expression: awe, joy for discovering such unearthly beauty, and the bewilderment of hardly accepting that such a sight could be possible. It turned out that this was only the third time he saw her like this in the entire seventeen years of her frail, borrowed time on earth.
"Papa. You were not always like this."
She suddenly gripped him in a stranglehold embrace. She pressed her cheek against her father's. She merged her tears with his, flowing in rivulets. She struggled to hold him in, with all the young-love passion she could never show to any other man. Not while he was here.
Later, they have both calmed down, only a bit, resting in each other arms, but they would not let go of what they had wanted to say.
"I always thought you were happy," she sobbed. "When I was little every time you talked to Kyou-sensei, to Yusuke and Kouko-san, to Fuko, to Sanae and Akki, you were strong, unmoved. After I got out from the hospital that winter, I didn't know what happened to you. You never told me.
"Why, papa? Have I become another person after I recovered? Or perhaps I have done something to you again? I don't even know if you really trust me."
"Stop saying absurdities," he choked. "You're only clouded." He wiped his face with one arm. "I will always trust you." And he wiped hers. "But I will trust you even more…if you tell me what really happened to you yesterday."
She was somewhat shocked. "Papa…"
"Ushio, tell me. Tell me."
"Papa, please…"
"Ushio, you asked me if I trust you, but you must also let me know that you trust me as well."
A look of pity for him surfaced on her. "Papa…"
"IDIOTS! BASTARDS!"
Ushio was clinging to Tomoya as he stormed across Hikarizaka High's soccer field where he knew the rugby club also practiced every Saturday. He was too fuming mad to hold down. Akio and Sanae had earlier tried to talk him down as well, but he was just intractable. Akio told him not to make a ruckus without even knowing who exactly pulled the prank on Ushio (one of the rather few times he looked wiser than his son-in-law), but he could not forget the low but sizable bump on the top of her head, obviously from being hit by the wide bottom of a wash pan. From a huge, piñata-like papier-mâché ball.
Pull me. It'll be fun.
"Let go! I swear I'll kill whoever did this!"
"Dad, don't get worked up! Your blood pressure—"
"To hell with what Ryou says! Where was she even when this happened? And why didn't Kyou know about this? Those rugby dogs need a kick or two from her.'
"It's only yesterday, Dad! And you know how busy they are."
Ushio was practically dragging along until Tomoya grabbed one of the players' neck, a rather burly fellow, with his arms, Ushio locking both of hers around her father's waist. "Let go…punk…"
It looked like they were playing an overly perverted children's game.
"All of you!" bellowed Tomoya, "If you don't vomit who whacked up my girl, none of you will live to see the next day!"
"H-Hey," they fearfully faltered, "Why are you looking at us all of sudden? Just because we pick fights—"
"It's because you pick fights! Nothing good could ever come from you. I know women who'll beat the guts out of you, just so you know how it is to pick on a lady!"
One of them was starting to get nervous. "He's not talking about Misae-san, is he?"
Another called out to Tomoya. "Misae moved out last month! If I were you, I wouldn't let women do the fighting for me."
Another murmur came up. "I heard there were really bad gals studied here and kicked gangster butts years ago, but they all graduated now."
"Let's just take him out! There's no other girl or guy here but us."
The team started to surround Tomoya. "Get him!"
"Everyone!" rang a calm, clear voice.
"Eh?" they said, rugby, Tomoya, and Ushio, in unison. So there was someone else at school on a Saturday, after all. And female, too.
A teacher?
She does look very smart in her outfit, but rather too smart for a high school sensei. It took them a moment to realize that this was someone else. The rugby team saw her as
"The guest lecturer from America." "One of the new honorary fellows of the school board." "Toured every top university in nearly all of Japan, including Keno." "Heck, I even heard she is presently based in Keno, if she's not abroad."
Ushio saw her as
What a fine lady. She definitely does not belong here in Hikarizaka.
And Tomoya
"Kotomi", he gasped.
"All of you are a shame to this school, and this city," the lady said. "At an age when human knowledge had advanced people should learn how to deal with their differences professionally. If you don't behave yourselves I'll see to it the board hears of this."
All the rugby boys fell in line and bowed low to this unlikely creature. Even the big one managed to wriggle out of the dazed Tomoya's grasp and join his fellows. "We understand ma'am. Accept our apologies, Miss Ichinose-sama."
"It's Doctor Ichinose for you. You spell Ichinose with three kanji. And never mind the –sama. I'm not putting myself above you, I only want all of us to act like civilized men. Now tell me what this is about."
"This bum—er—fellow here is accusing us of harming his daughter.'
"Pulling pranks!" retorted Tomoya.
"Enough!" she said. "I don't want an argument. Now," she commanded the team, "investigate on all the possible identities who could have done this to his daughter, and submit a report to the student council within thirty-six hours."
The big one counted off on his fingers. "But Miss—er—professor—er—doctor—er—master—ah…ah… We don't have until Sunday night! The student council opens with classes on Monday!"
"You don't have the president's e-mail?" she flashed.
"Okay! You got it." To the rest, "Let's go!" They went out in file, jogging and chanting like troopers.
After they have disappeared from view, Kotomi glanced back at Tomoya. "Tomoya-kun," she said, bowing, "Konnichiwa. I'm sorry about that. It is necessary when facing people who get physical.'
"It's nothing," he said, laughing uneasily. "It's not like I'm not myself inclined. You know me ever since."
She came closer and regarded him intimately. "Yes. We know each other. Ever since." When she saw Ushio, "And she is your child?"
Suddenly she had a flashback. This was the one she never actually saw, only felt, in her mother's womb. She could remember vividly what she said back then. "It's wonderful."
She reached out as if to rub Nagisa's pregnant belly, but instead caressed Ushio's face, down to the nape, fingering through her hair.
"So… beautiful."
Ushio blushed. "How can you say that, Dr. Ichinose, when it's you who are exceptionally lovely?"
"Tomoya," she rhapsodized, though face and body clearly conversed with Ushio, "I remember that time. We, the twins, Sunohara, and I, all of us, we were there when Nagisa had her child. Even then I could feel the baby's heartbeat under my fingertips. Even inside, I knew she was fine as gossamer, delicate, just like her fragile mother."
She took the girl into her embrace and rested her head against her neck. "So you are Ushio. What a noble creation you have grown to be. If only I could be your mother…"
Father and child were dumbfounded.
When Kotomi sensed that they did not react, and saw their expressions, she promptly came to. "I…I didn't mean anything. Sorry." She paused to pick out a stray tear with her finger. "It's just that you always have Tomoyo, Kyou, Ryou, and Sunohara, while I never even got to see your daughter grow."
"Ah…we really don't see each other every day. They got their work, too."
"Still, it's different if your friends are close at hand." She smiled. "I really should count myself blessed to have stumbled into you today,"
"By the way, why are you here? And on a weekend?"
"The director invited me for a student exchange program. I'd rather not make waves than if I came on a school day."
"Well," shrugged Tomoya, "now the rugby boys will storm it out for you."
"Never mind, I won't have to suffer through that as I need to stay here only today."
"You already going back to the States?"
"I must return to Tokyo first and stay before my flight on Tuesday."
"Well, wouldn't you at least drop by for the night? Akio and Sanae-san would be delighted to have someone from Keno, and I'm sure my girl here would want to hear a lot from you."
"Do you perhaps…still live where we found you before?"
"Ah, yes, the apartment's still there. But we're staying at Furukawa Bakers for the weekend."
"Then wait for me there. As for Ushio, well, I do have much to share. If Hikarizaka has nobody to recommend already, she just might qualify for the exchange program."
They were stunned. "Ichinose-san, you're only too kind," they fumbled with a bow.
She laughed. "Don't be silly, you two. It's the most I could do after these years of absence. And I did say there might be others didn't I?"
She gave Ushio a special contact card with her private e-mail and Academia and Twitter accounts. "I would have given you the website as well, but it's too public."
With that, she parted with a kiss to Ushio, and crossed the field.
The two could only stare after her. Tomoya was even more struck.
"Did Kotomi…just…laugh?"