Chapter 2

For the past few minutes or so, Nanako had been standing in front of the full-body mirror in her bedroom, making sure her outfit was neat and, more importantly, looked good. It was only when the buzzer sounded (signifying that someone was at the front door of the apartment building) was when Nanako finally ripped herself from the mirror. Knowing exactly who it was, she unlocked the door and waited for her guest to walk up the three flights of stairs to her floor.

Finally hearing the knock on her door, Kuroi opened up and gave a wide smile to her friend. "Glad you could make it," she said to her guest.

"Yeah," replied Sawako back. "For a while there, I thought the school would have had a hold of me all day, but at the last second they finished up the board meeting and we all got to leave early."

"Well good. I'm kind of excited about tonight. I mean, its like our first date since our university days."

"First? What do you call last week then?" She was referring to their initial reuniting at the sports festival and, more specifically, what happened after.

"Uh… I call that 'catching up.' This will be a date. So, Sawako, where did you decide on bringing me today?"

"That's a secret. You'll find out soon enough. You ready to go?" She asked Nanako.

"Been ready," she replied.

With that, the two walked down the steps and out of the apartment building. As they walked around the structure and toward the parking lot located behind the building, Nanako could not help but grin in anticipation. It had been such a long time since she had ridden in Sawako's Mustang and the thought of hearing the roar of the engine made her almost squeal in delight.

But when Sawako approached a Scion xB and open the door with her key, Kuroi's heart felt as if it was impaled with the Buster Sword. Noticing her friend now frozen in place, Yamanaka asked her "What?"

"… That is you car now?" asked Nanako, hoping to God that this was all a joke.

"Yeah, it is? Why?"

"… Jesus, Sawa-chan, I get changing your appearance to look more like a teacher, but getting rid of the Mustang?"

"Oh, don't worry," Sawako said back as she stepped into the driver's seat, "I kept it."

Phoenix Down: Nanako's Heart

Jumping into the passenger seat and throwing the seatbelt on, Kuroi excitedly asked "You kept it? You kept the Mustang?"

"Yep," she replied casually. "I take it for a ride every now and then, just to turn heads, really. I could never give her up."

"Awesome! When can we ride around in it?"

"Soon, Nanako," replied Sawako, who then took a glance at the digital clock in the dashboard. "Crap, we gotta get moving. Don't want my reservation to go to waste."

"A reservation," Nanako thought to herself as Sawako drove out of the parking lot and onto the main road. "Sounds like that one time… No, I'm just imagining things. There's no way she would bring me back there, would she?"

-o0o-

She did.

Nanako seemed to be in a trance, her eyes gazing across the street at the restaurant that sat before her: Daiwa Sushi. The memories of that day years ago, Nanako's failed attempt at impressing Sawako on her birthday, seemed to come flooding back into her mind. Even though this particular Daiwa Sushi was not the same one from before, it shook Nanako's confidence even still.

She only broke from her trance by a jab in her left arm by Sawako's elbow. "What's wrong with you?" she asked Kuroi. "I thought you'd be happy to come here."

"But the last time we came here I was trying to impress you… but I failed. Why would I be happy returning to that?" Nanako asked in reply.

"Well, if we never when there, we never would have done all that stuff after dinner."

A blush shot across Kuroi's face. "I guess…" she whispered. Suddenly being grabbed by her left arm, Sawako pulled her friend across the street and to the direct front of the line. Immediately upon arrival, the waitress dispensed with the obligatory "May I help you?"

"We have a reservation," explained Sawako.

Retrieving the clipboard, she then asked "Name?"

"Suzumiya."

"What the-?" thought Nanako.

"Ah yes," then said the waitress, "right here: table for two. Please follow me."

With absolutely no trouble at all (a complete turn-around from their previous experiences with this restaurant chain) the girls were seated at a booth. Immediately, Sawako ordered sake. As their waitress left to get the two's drinks, Sawako noticed that Nanako had placed on her a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Yamanaka asked her friend.

"'Suzumiya?' Really, Sawako?" she asked back.

"What, you did it before."

"Yeah, a long time ago."

"Not that long ago. Besides, who cares? I was just joking around."

"Whatever… So why did you bring me here, Sawako?" Kuroi asked.

"… For a second chance," Sawako replied. "Since our first time going here bombed, I thought of giving it a second shot."

Though Nanako gave a slight cringe of her lips at the thought of being here, she kept quite. A few moments later, the sake arrived and by that time, Sawako had already chosen both their orders. "Emperor's Platter," she told the waitress and she walked off with her order.

Kuroi gave her friend a glare from across the table. "You really are just screwing with me, aren't you?" she asked.

"Oh lighten up, Kuroi," Sawako said back as she once more poured sake for the both of them. "This time, this date will go off without a hitch. I promise."

Again, Nanako cringed her lip slightly, but she trusted Yamanaka enough to believe her when she made a promise like that. Even so, with each passing minute, Kuroi's hopes that the date would go perfectly began to fade. At one point, she wanted to just grab Sawako and leave-

"It's here," Sawako suddenly said.

The waitress returned holding up with one arm a platter with a huge radius. Placing it on the table's surface, Kuroi's eyes seemed to light up with stars. Displayed before her was an elaborate and incredibly pricey platter, complete with a number of different sushi to sample (Nigirizushi, Makizushi, and Oshizushi, just to name a few.)

"Anything else you would like, mame?" the waitress asked Sawako.

Taking a glance at Kuroi's ecstatic look, she smirked the reply of "I think we're set here."

Even after the waitress left, Nanako's eyes seemed immovable from the display placed before her. They were only lifted when Sawako reached across the table and gave her friend a hard flick against her forehead. "You gonna eat the thing," asked Sawako, "or are you just going to look at it all night?"

"… You talking about the platter or yourself?" Nanako joked.

Yamanaka's face suddenly blushed. She accompanied it with a light-hearted "Did my little Kuroi just make a dirty joke?"

"Catch you off guard, did I?" Nanako asked back, all the while grinning. Taking chopsticks in hand, she plucked a piece of sushi at random from the platter and popping it into her mouth. After a few seconds of chewing, followed after by a swallow… Nanako seemed to melt into her seat with an euphoric look on her face.

"Uh, Nanako?" asked Sawako as she leaned across the table to look at her sunken friend, "you alright there?"

"… It's delicious," she replied in a fluttering voice.

"Is it that good?" Taking a piece for herself, she ate as well… only to follow in the footsteps of her friend by melting into her own seat. "Damn, that is good. Good thing I got it then, huh?"

"… And to think, we could have had this eight years ago."

"… But instead," said Sawako, "we had each other."

Nanako's blushed as well. "… Maybe we should start eating this, before it goes bad?"

"Y-Yeah, ok."

-o0o-

Both teachers left Daiwa Sushi about an hour and a half later sharing the feeling of bloated stomachs. Even between the two of them, the Emperor's Platter proved to be quite the challenge. In the end, though, they left the restaurant with a clean plate.

The two walked away from the restaurant and back toward the parking lot they had parked in, located a few blocks away. Stretching her hands over her head in a show of victory, Nanako seemed to have quite the content grin on her face. "Man!" she said aloud. "That was really good! Thanks for suggesting the place, Sawako."

"No problem," she said back. "I just wanted it to be like when we were younger, when we were university students…"

"… Well, you overlooked one thing, then."

"Oh? And what's that?" asked Sawako.

"… Well, you, Sawako… You weren't wild like you once were-"

Nanako suddenly gasped with the feel of a hand grabbing each side of her waist. With a simultaneous push and pull of opposite hands, Kuroi was spun around 180o and was now face to face with Sawako, who then wrapped her arms completely around Kuroi's waist and pressed themselves together. With their noses now only a few inches apart and Sawako grinning rather devilishly, the couple received glances from the passersby.

"So you want it wild," Sawako whispered into Kuroi's ear, "is that it?"

"S-Sawako, people are staring at us," Nanako whispered back.

"Forget them- So, you wanna see me as wild Sawako again?"

"… Actually, I kind of do… I mean, I know you can't act and dress the way you did around your school, but… Maybe just for one last time?"

Yamanaka leaned forward to kiss Kuroi on her forehead. "For you, Nanako, of course."


Author's Notes: Ok, short chapter, I know. Not much I can say about that.