Two: Tarzan and Shouko

The refreshing drink helped a lot in getting back Amou to her drive to get the interviews done. One down, six to go. At least, the interview with Shimizu was over, and that alone meant too much to the lady journalist. He wasn't even able to answer the second question of who would he like to accompany him. "Like there's someone who would want to join him." She muttered.

"Amou-sempai, good afternoon." A soft angelic voice graced Amou's ears. "Fuyumi-chan! How wonderful it is t see you!" she replied and the girl blushed. "It is great to see you too." She whispered. Then, that wave of slyness rested on her mind. "Hey, Fuyumi-chan, are you busy?" she asked the rehearsed line to the shy clarinet player. "No, Amou-sempai. Why?" she asked back. The journalist waved her notebook at the first year. "I want to ask you some things. Don't worry, you wont get bad publicity with this question." She said.

"O-Okay. I'd be glad to help you." The kind girl only made Amou more excited. Secretly, Amou turned on the tape recorder again and prayed to the Heavens that Fuyumi would be able to be normal. "So, the question is, what is your dream summer escapade?"

The stroke of pink on her cheeks made Amou smile. "Well…" Fuyumi started then fiddled with her fingers. "You see…" she trailed off again then her shade got pinker by the second. "Well? What is it?" Amou was getting all giddy inside too. She's imagining a cute little beach party or maybe like the one they had in their manor. Surely, that would be fun.

"I kind of like the idea of hiking in the mountains." She whispered then smiled sheepishly. Surprising response but at least not so farfetched. "Ah, that sounds great! You like hiking, Fuyumi-chan?" Amou asked as she scribbled on her notebook. "Not really, Amou-sempai."

"Eh? Then why hiking?"

"I uhm…wanted to see something for myself."

"May I know what is it?"

The pause that the girl had given her seemed familiar to the journalist. A little cold feeling crept down to her spine but she brushed it off, knowing that a good scoop was coming up. Right now, her focus was on Fuyumi's response.

"I…well, not that I believe it but what I really wanted to do is to go in a very dense jungle and…see if a man like Tarzan does or can exist." She humbly answered and a look of relief came on her face. It was like she had just revealed the greatest secret of her life. Amou mentally slapped herself to awake her conscious self from this weird string of events.

"Tarzan? The jungle man?" Amou repeated. Maybe she just heard it wrong. Fuyumi would never say such things—

"Yes, Amou-sempai! You know him too?" The cheery expression painted on her charming face equaled to that of a ghost suddenly appearing in a horror movie in Amou's eyes. "That's…that's…cool?" Amou replied, all the while restraining her eyebrows to twitch. This is not happening! Not happening! Amou told herself. But the look on Fuyumi's face dissolved all her efforts.

"A-And what would you do if ever you find a man like Tarzan?" Amou almost stabbed herself with the pen she was holding for asking the forbidden question in times like this. Fuyumi clapped her hands softly and smiled even more. "I'll ask him if he can take me to his place. I mean, to where he usually stays with his family, uh, I mean the people, er, the animals that he considers family." She said while waving her hands frantically whenever she corrected herself. Nami feigned some laugh as the girl was saying her response. "That seems a lot of fun!" she commented.

"A-And!" Fuyumi said. "And I want to see how they live and experience going through branches of the big trees-"

"Let me guess. By vine-swinging?" Amou's tone returned to dead flat again.

"Exactly! Oh, I'm so happy that you get me, Amou-sempai!" Fuyumi could almost cry with the joy she was feeling. "I'm happy too, Fuyumi-chan. You have a very wonderful dream summer escapade. Wow." She replied. Mentally, tears of confusion and unexplained dissatisfaction of how her series of interviews were going were flowing like endless rivers.

Fuyumi heaved a sigh and composed herself. "I am so happy that I got the be interviewed by you in this topic, Amou-sempai." She said then bowed. "A-Ah, don't mention it. I'd also like to ask a simple pose from you for this interview. Just once simple summer-inspired pose." She said then too her camera. At least, she thought, maybe this would turn out good. Besides, it's not like in the character of Fuyumi to pose like Tarzan or something. Maybe she'll do a very decent pose.

Not in the character, huh?

What greeted Amou's eyes and lenses were beyond her line of reasoning. What is happening to the world? Why is everyone like this?

There, standing on top of the bench, was the demure Fuyumi, posed in such a way that she was holding an imaginary vine. Complete with the facial expression and the outstretched leg. "Amou-sempai!" Fuyumi waved her other hand to her, like she was enticing her to capture the scene.

With unsteady hands and a silent apology to her camera and eyes, she took the photo of Fuyumi Shouko, vine-swinging with her imaginary Tarzan.