Minding your own business is an art in itself. Hands flexing, eyes ahead or slightly at an angle; this is an art I have perfected with style, and which I achieved with some success on the bus. But I heard a voice, a calm and strangely melodic voice. I wish now I hadn't listened.
"…in case of a crash, you will put your heads between your knees and keep calm" the voice said, bemusedly.
"Wha?"
I turned to face her. Wearing shades, outrageous fashion style, cool and sexy with raven black hair flowing down past her waist. She was smiling in amusement at a sign stencilled on the wall above her.
"Heads between your legs and keeping calm" she chuckled "What an imagination; humans are innately designed to panic, keeping calm is not an option"
"Surely it's there for security purposes?" I foolishly asked, getting into conversation with Rei Hino.
She turned to face me, slightly adjusting her shades so I could see her eyes.
"Naivety. No, it's there to distract people from the fact they are going to die"
I stared at her in disbelief.
"I'm sorry?"
"Well think about it" Rei said, changing her posture, so she was now crossing her legs "Would a transport company knowingly tell its passengers that in case of a crash, death is certain? It's like being on a plane, they inform passengers to put on oxygen masks…"
"To help them breathe of course" I added.
She looked at me as if I'd had an intention to piss against a wall.
"No. Oxygen…gets you high" she said, slowly. "Their expressions. They're all grinning as if they're on a vacation, and they're actually going to meet their maker"
I couldn't quite believe I was listening to this twisted logic, that this bizarre way of thinking was making…some kind of sense. It was hitting a nerve. I had prayed for the bus to crash, for it to experience some kind of accident…but I did have an accident. I met Rei.
"Who are you?" I asked.
She put her hand out.
"Rei. Rei Hino"
She smiled, and pulled a small briefcase from under her seat.
"What you got in there?"
"Soap"
I blinked.
"What?"
"I work at the temple…but on the side? I make and sell soap"
She opened the briefcase, and I stared at the bars of soap, all labelled and organised properly, very much like my own life. Well, maybe not entirely.
"Where you located?" I asked.
She smiled.
"My card"
A small strip of beige card flipped in front of my face. I couldn't quite believe it, she had her own business cards too? I was aware that next to me was sitting an extroverted bundle of twisted nerves.
I read the card. In small print 'Rei Hino, Temple on the Hill, Juuban'
"Whaddya know?" I said, shrugging casually "Near where I am"
Walls in Japan are thin. It's not helpful for when the next door neighbour's playing music too loud, or when there's a row going on next door. It's especially not helpful when your house and everything in it is sent with a fiery blaze into the night, as it did with me. I stared at my house, my weeping parents standing beside me. All that I had ever owned had been in there. Well, not everything. There had been some stuff I ke aside in my Aunt's house…but everything else was burning spectacularly, in the yellow and orange inferno that had once been my home.
"Oh Serena honey…" my mom wept "…our house is just gone!"
"We'll have to find somewhere to stay" my dad added "Serena honey, have you got a friend you can stay with for a day or two? Like Ami?"
"Uh, sure dad"
"Call your father on his cellphone" My mom continued "We need to sort this out"
I smiled, kissed my parents and turned away. I walked in shock. My place of residence no longer existed. It had been deleted, like something embarrassing being airbrushed out of a photograph. I could call Ami…I turned to the phone. No, not Darien. No way.
I went to the phone, and made the biggest mistake I had ever made in my life ever.
I decided to call Rei.
I tapped the buttons, and waited as the phone rang through.
There was the sound of a receiver being lifted, and then a female voice.
"Hello?"
"Uh…hi. This is Serena"
A silence.
"Don't know ya"
"The girl on the bus? You know, the one you had the conversation about transport safety with?" I was sounding almost pathetic.
"Oh yeah…" she said after a while "…what's the problem?"
"Uh…can I explain somewhere else?"
Ed's Café was of Canadian origin, it was a good place if only frequented largely by older people. But here Rei and me were, in the crowded music filled atmosphere while we talked over our chocolate Fudge sundaes.
"…Everything!" I continued, I was aware I had been blabbing about all my personal possessions for nearly forty-minutes, but Rei didn't seem bored. She listened intently, it was obvious she was hungry for info about me.
"Well it could be worse" she replied, taking a sip from her sundae "Some guy could cut your odangos off and throw them down the drain"
"Uh…true" I said, uncertainly.
"It's stuff" she added "What you have? It's not what you need. We're part of a hunter gatherer society, all of us have basic needs to fulfil, and owning all kinds of clothes and furniture is not one of those"
I sighed. I was slowly subverting to her way of thinking.
"I guess so" I finally admitted "It's not really important, it's just…stuff, I suppose as you put it"
We finished a little later, we went outside as Rei finished off her sundae.
"Thanks for that" I said, thankfully "I guess I better find somewhere to stay, I'll go Ami's…"
Rei turned to me, looking amused as she always did and almost exasperated.
"Ask"
"Ask what?" I replied, a little nonplussed.
"After two sundaes and you won't ask me? Why did you call me in the first place?"
"To talk"
"Look, if you need a place to stay all you need to do is ask" she said.
"Would that be okay?"
"If you don't ask I don't think it would"
"Can I stay at your place?" I asked uncertainly, thrown by this line of conversation.
"Sure" she said, casually.
We walked out into the car park, before she stopped, and breathed in and out. I didn't know what she had in mind, I never did. A mind like Rei Hino's is not easy to fathom, and a lot of the time I didn't want to fathom it.
"Do me a favour" she said, turning to me.
"Sure"
"I want you to hit me as hard as you can"
There was a long silence. A very long silence. I was having difficulty comprehending what she had just asked me.
"Wha…I'm…sorry?"
"I said" she continued, as if talking to a difficult child "I want you to hit me as hard as you can"
"What the hell…?" I said out loud, completely confused.
"Look hit me before I change my mind!" she insisted, quickly.
Allow me to tell you a little about Rei Hino.
Rei Hino had part time jobs all over the place, she never really held anything down for very long at a time. Still, nobody noticed that she pissed in the popcorn when she worked at the pictures, or that she constantly spliced in stills from the more grotesque parts of The Thing. She was the guerrilla terrorist of the media entertainment industry. She probably ruined more hearts and taste-buds than most other human beings do in lifetimes.
"Hit me!"
Back in reality.
"This is really stupid…" I muttered, pulling my fist back to ready a swing at her. I threw the punch. It landed in her ear.
"OW!" she cried, clutching her ear "JEEEZUS!! You hit me right in the ear!!"
"Well, I'm sorry!" I retorted, angrily.
"The ear?! JEEEZ…"
"Look, I said I was sorry!" I continued, going over to her.
"No, that was just PERFECT!" she replied, grinning. Suddenly, her own fist cannoned hard into my stomach. It was agony, my vision disappeared for a moment as I staggered back, wheezing and clutching myself in the stomach.
I gasped against a car as she came over to me.
"How was that?" she asked, smiling unpleasantly.
"It…really hurts!" I managed.
Yes. The sheer truth. It hurt. It did hurt. And I liked it. It scared me that this felt so satisfying.
I launched myself back, not in anger…but out of the sheer desire to beat something to pulp.
It was long, and an extended fight.
We sat there, a little bruised and cut.
"We gotta do this more often" I said, handing her the coke bottle.
We got up, and walked off. To Rei's home. From here, things get worse. Much worse.
END OF PART TWO