Hello there! Long time no see!
Here is my new fanfic (Clannad this time) - I was trying to write it for a few weeks, but I struggled as I had no time and kept changing the concept. The second thing occured three times... -,- ...but it's finally here.
I hope you'll like it :)
The action is taking place in the morning of the day after culture festival.
Tomoya yawned and scratched himself behind his ear. He took a look at the ringing alarm clock and switched it off. It was early enough to get prepared.
Okazaki came to the window and looked outside. It was a bright, warm day – ideal for his plans. Today was his day out with Nagisa and luckily, the weather was perfect. The rest was in his hands.
Without wasting more time, he grabbed his trousers and shirt and went to the bathroom for a quick shower. Nagisa's room was closed, assuring him that the girl was still sleeping. It was a day off so it didn't surprise him. Her parents, as bakers, were at work, he didn't have to check that.
When Tomoya was clean and dressed he went down the stairs to the kitchen behind the bakery.
"Tomoya-kun!" he heard.
"Ah, Sanae-san, good morning," he said.
"You woke up very early today," she said with a smile, gesturing him to sit down at the table. He did so and thanked her for scrambled eggs she placed in front of him.
"Yes, but not as early as you two," he responded, eating.
"Are you talking about me, brat?"
Tomoya only nodded, chewing as Akio Furukawa entered the room. He washed his hands and sat at the table. His wife gave him breakfast and went to the bakery to replace him at the counter.
"Great that you're awake, brat," Nagisa's father said between chews. "I've got a little job for you," he added. Okazaki looked at him questioningly. "My friend has a problem which I want you to solve," Akio said, sipping his coffee.
Tomoya waited for more details, but Furukawa stood up and left the room. The boy took the dishes, washed them quickly and went to the bakery where Akio was waiting for customers.
"Hey, old man, what am I supposed to do?" Tomoya asked, coming in. He was waiting for his meeting with Nagisa, so he decided to do what he had to as quickly as he could.
"Hm?" Furukawa looked at him.
"Don't hm here and tell me what I'm supposed to do for your friend!"
"Oh, yes," Akio said and showed him four big parcels. "Look, these are my pastries," he opened one of the parcels, which was filled with bread and other bakings. "He has a shop in the other part of the town and asked me if I can sell him some baked goods as his supplier had some problems and didn't send him any. I want you to deliver it to him."
Tomoya looked at the parcels with his eyes wide open.
"It's too big to carry," he noticed.
"Yes, that's why he lent us this," Akio smiled, gesturing Tomoya to follow him. They went out of the bakery and Furukawa pointed at a knackered bike with a trailer. Okazaki facepalmed.
"Is this even legal?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," admitted the baker, looking at the borrowed thing with fascination. "Look at it as an adventure!"
Okazaki came closer to see better.
"It's a tricycle," he noticed.
"Yes. Once you finish, leave it at his shop. You're young, you'll be back quickly," Akio said, coming inside the house. "I'll draw you a map to his shop."
Tomoya sighed heavily and followed the older man. He took the first parcel and placed it in the trailer. Then he did the same with the second box.
"Brat, come here!" he heard Akio's shout. "Take this," he handed Okazaki a piece of paper. Tomoya looked at it. There was a road and some notices like second street on the left or straight at the roundabout. The boy looked at it carefully and put it in his pocket.
"Ok, I get it," he said and looked at the last parcel, which was opened earlier by Furukawa. "Hey, old man," he added, gaining Akio's attention. "Should I put some Sanae-san's bread inside?"
Akio shook his head and said:
"He wants to sell it so I shouldn't do it to him."
"So my bread… my bread isn't good enough to be sold in other places?" his wife showed up to the men's surprise and ran out of the bakery.
"No! Look Sanae! I LOVE YOUR BREAD!" Akio took one of her brand-new bitter anpan with soy sauce and put it in his mouth, chasing her.
When they both came back, Tomoya already closed the last parcel and put it in the trailer. He also used a rope he found to make sure that boxes wouldn't fall down.
"Looks like you're ready," Akio said to him.
"Yeah, I'm leaving," Tomoya said, sitting on the bicycle seat.
"Please, be careful!" Sanae told him.
"Yeah, try not to die," Akio added. Tomoya smiled lopsidedly and waved to them.
When he finally reached his destination, it was ten minutes to 7 o'clock. The road was mostly uphill and the tricycle was in such a bad shape that the chain fell off four times. Luckily, the town wasn't big so he made it quickly enough. The shop was already opened but due to what the owner said, there were only a few customers till then. The shop was standing alone and near a supermarket so Tomoya wasn't really surprised by the low number of buyers. When he finished helping in the shop it was twenty past seven. He said goodbye to the older married couple who ran the shop and started his way home by foot.
Not so long before, Tomoya noticed an old man who was pushing a big cart in front of him. It was full of garbage. Some metal parts, cables, fans and other things. The road was uphill and it didn't take much time for the old man to lose strength and even fall down. Okazaki ran to him and grabbed the cart before it went down the street.
"Hey, old man! Everything's alright?" Tomoya asked.
"Yes, yes, thank you, young man," the older man said. "It's just too heavy for me but I need to take it home," Tomoya glanced at the garbage, what the older man noticed. "Ha! You're probably thinking What does this old man need this trash for? Aren't you?"
Tomoya didn't respond and pushed the cart. The man looked at him and caught up to him.
"To your knowledge, young man, I'm not a bum. I'm an inventor!"
"Inventor?" Tomoya repeated, looking at the trash.
"Yes, inventor. I used to be an engineer in a factory but now, on retirement… It's an odd hobby of an old man, you know! Ha, ha," he laughed as they were walking. Tomoya noticed a slight sadness in his voice but didn't utter a word. "You know, young man," he continued. "We, older people, need to spend time somehow too, just like the young. Not so long ago, a few years ago, I was making toys for my granddaughters but now they are in high school and have no time for an old man and his crazy things, ha, ha! Look, we're on the top of the hill already, thank you, young boy!"
"No problem. I can help you push it to your house, old man," Tomoya suggested. I still have time to the meeting with Nagisa, he thought. The so-called inventor looked at him.
"What's your name, young man?" he asked Tomoya.
"Okazaki Tomoya."
"Hoshino Akira," the older man said. "And I'm not that old to leave everything to the young, make some space for me, Okazaki!"
Tomoya moved and Hoshino grabbed the handle of the cart so that they both were pushing it. Luckily for Okazaki, the house of the old man wasn't far away. Although it was long enough to hear the whole story of repairing the scooter of one of his granddaughters and arguing with miss Hoshino about sleeping on the couch.
"I tell you, Okazaki, never get married, wives never let their husbands live…" he concluded as they stopped. The house was not big and rather simple. It had a self-made garage which Hoshino pointed at. "Let's take it to this place."
Tomoya obediently followed the old man's instruction. The garage was full of things. Okazaki noticed not only a desk with some books on it, but also three chairs, a wardrobe, a collection of umbrellas in Chinese style, a few boxes with unidentified content and much, much more. He maneuvered carefully and left the cart next to the bookcase with many bibelots.
The old man heaved a sigh.
"Uff… Finally…" he gasped and leaned on the bookcase. It creaked strangely. The rest happened very quickly.
Like in slow motion, Okazaki saw how the bookcase broke in half and the upper half started to fall. He grabbed the old man's hand and pulled him but not quickly enough and an old radio fell on Hoshino's leg which bent unnaturally. The old man shouted but Tomoya dragged him outside the garage where the wardrobe followed the bookcase in collapsing and in a blink of an eye, everything was lying on the ground.
"My… my…" whispered the old man and shouted as he tried to stand up. Tomoya helped him not to fall down once again. One glance at Hoshino's leg told him that it was definitely broken. "I must…" the old man started but Tomoya interrupted him.
"We'll take care of it later, you have to see a doctor, old man," he said, dragging him to the garden armchair which was nearby. "Is your wife home?"
"No, she's probably in the grocer's shop. Our granddaughters were going to come today…"
"Do you have a phone?"
"Yes, but we have problems with it since yesterday, and I wanted to repair it today and…"
Not to waste more time, Tomoya quickly jumped over the fence which was separating Hoshino's house and his neighbour's one. He pressed the doorbell. A short woman in her forties opened the door.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Please, could you call an ambulance? Your neighbour has broken his leg," Tomoya said quickly, pointing at the house nearby. The dust from the garage was still in the air, so she only nodded and went inside the house. Okazaki came back to the old man.
When the ambulance showed up, Tomoya decided to join Hoshino and went to the hospital with him. The neighbour promised to tell everything to the wife of the old man.
They spent nearly two hours in the hospital. Not only were there problems with life insurance of the old man, but they also found out that there was a big crash nearby, so the emergency department was full of injured people.
When the old man finally had his leg in a plaster, Tomoya called for a taxi and they went back to Hoshino's house.
"Thank you, young man," the old man said when they were being taken to his house. "You saved me twice today."
"No, no," Tomoya waved his hand. "If I only didn't leave the cart in that place…"
"There was no other place," Hoshino laughed and patted the boy's shoulder. "My wife was asking me to do something with the garage but I was always delaying it. Now I suffer because of my laziness!" he laughed again, pointing at his leg. "Oh! Here we are!"
When the car stopped, Tomoya paid and helped the old man get off. They went towards the house, where Mrs Hoshino was waiting with tears in her eyes.
"What have you done, you old fool!" she shouted as they were slowly moving towards her.
"See? I told you, don't get married, boy!" the older man said.
Tomoya told the woman what happened in the hospital and what the doctor said. She listened to him carefully both crying and shouting at her husband. Although she kept calling the old man a fool, Okazaki could see she truly loved her husband. That made him feel more guilty for what happened.
"Don't blame yourself, Okazaki-kun," Mrs Hoshino said when she noticed his strange face expression. "It would happen either with or without you here. Luckily, you were with him to help."
"Yes, we need to thank you somehow," her husband took up the thread. He raised his finger as if he came up with an idea. "Do you want to go on a date with my granddaughters? They're really cute…" his wife hit his hand. Tomoya laughed a little.
"They will be here in a moment. I phoned them when I heard you're in hospital," the old woman told her husband. "They said they'll be here at ten."
Tomoya looked at his watch, terrified. His day out with Nagisa was supposed to start at ten. He needed to tell her.
"You said you phoned your granddaughters, but old man said the phone isn't working," he said in hope he could make a call after all.
"Yes, but we have cellphones."
"I forgot something," the old man said, taking his phone out of the pocket. "Uh."
"What's wrong?" asked his wife.
"I promised to give them old photo albums they wanted. And they were in the garage…" he confessed sadly.
"I can try to find it," Tomoya suggested.
"It's too dangerous…" started Mrs Hoshino.
"It's okay. But I need to call somebody to postpone a meeting," he smiled nervously.
"Oh, I'm so sorry… You had plans and I ruined them…" the old man said, giving him his phone.
"It's okay," he answered, dialing Furukawas' number.
Tomoya walked to the little terrace where he could be seen but not heard by the older couple. He still felt guilty and wanted to help them somehow. He was sure that Nagisa would understand, though he felt bad for what had happened.
"Furukawa's here," he heard familiar voice.
"Nagisa?"
"Okazaki-san! Is everything all right?!" the girl almost shouted happily.
"Yes, but I'm afraid we need to postpone our meeting…" he started and told her what happened. "I feel it's my fault and want to help find those albums at least… I don't know how much it will take…"
"It's not your fault, Okazaki-san! It's just a bad coincidence. But it's fantastic you want to help these people. If we meet in the afternoon, I will have fun too, so don't worry about me, Okazaki-san."
"Thanks Nagisa, I hope I'll be back quickly," he said. "Ah, and tell the old man I did what he wanted."
"Ok, I will."
"Bye, Nagisa."
"Bye, Okazaki-san."
He finished the call and went inside the house. Only the man was there.
"They came," he greeted the boy.
"Thank you," Tomoya said, giving back the phone. "I'll start the search," he added, leaving the house again.
"Okay, and thank YOU, young man," he heard as he was going towards the garage. "I'll send my granddaughters to help you as it's them who wanted those albums."
Tomoya walked inside the garage. When the dust settled, the inside started to look like a battlefield. Every move caused a little cloud of dust so he covered his mouth with his arm.
There were some kind of books at the table in the corner, maybe they were those albums?, he thought.
Everything was destroyed so it took him a while to reach the corner. He started to move the lumber to see what was under it.
He was searching only for a few minutes when he heard a knock. He looked back to see somebody standing in the entrance.
"Hi, hi, I came here to help," he heard a familiar voice.
"Kyou?!" he shouted back.
A second of silence.
"Tomoya?"
Thanks for giving this a read! If you enjoyed it, please let me know in reviews and favs!
It's only the prologue, but I hope you got interested. The story might move slowly at the beginning but I'll do my best to entertain you with it. Next chapter will come in a week or two, it's ready, but getting some corrections while I'm writing next parts of it.
See you next time!
