日常 - nichijou, Arawi Keiichi


Mio's day is off to a great start.

Not only did her alarm clock stop in the middle of the night, but her mom also happens to be out that morning, thus unable to wake Mio up at the designated 7 am, thus making Mio late for school.

To make things worse, her older sister stops Mio during her frantic run to school, does some stupid prank, steals 2000 yen, and then reveals herself to be responsible for stopping the alarm clock.

Well, Mio manages to ditch her sister and resumes her sprint to school, but then these police cars pulls up in the middle of the road, blocking her route, moments before she would have made it by.

Had she been only one minute earlier, she would have made it through just fine, and her route would not have been blocked off.

"Sorry, about this," one policeman explains to her. "We're in the middle of recapturing an escaped convict, so it's dangerous here. We're cordoning off the perimeter, so I'm afraid you'll have to take the long way around."

And so Mio runs the long way around, alongside the river. Because her vision is beginning to haze over from the intense physical exertion, she doesn't even see the bicycle coming until she collides with it. She flies into the air, lands on the sloping river bank, and because her body is numb from the collision, she can't stop herself from rolling down the hill and into the river.

Fortunately, the river isn't too deep, and Mio recovers her senses quickly enough, and manages to swim her way over to land again.

"Are you all right?" the bicycle man calls, running down the hill. "You need to watch where you're going!"

Mio coughs. "Yes, I'm all right." She wipes the water out of her eyes, lifting her schoolbag out of the water. It's dripping wet. "Ugh." Then, she looks up, recognizing the bicycle rider. "Assistant Instructor?" From the kendo dojo.

It turns out that Assistant Instructor can't give her a lift to school because the collision had torn off the chain on the bicycle. Neither the Assistant Instructor nor Mio have any clue how to fix it, and Mio isn't about to waste 20 minutes trying to figure it out, so she continues on her run to school dripping wet, her shoes squishing with every footstep.

Even though Mio was supposed to arrive before school started because she's class officer today, she ends up arriving at school 15 minutes after classes have already started.

She then frantically explains why she's late to Takasaki-sensei, almost delirious from how out of breath she is. She's so out of breath that she doesn't even notice that her teacher is talking until an entire minute has passed.

"You don't have to explain why you were late, Naganohara," Takasaki-sensei is saying, waving his hands. "We're having a quiz right now, so you need to get changed right away and get started on it!"

Mio blinks, and then her mouth opens. "Agggh!" she shouts. She slams open the door to the classroom and rushes towards her seat.

"Ah, wait, Naganohara!" says Takasaki-sensei, but Mio's already in her seat, wiping her pencil off on her desk, trying to get it somewhat dry, and then beginning to work frantically on her quiz.

She barely finishes on time, and hands it in with everyone else.

Then, she learns that Takasaki-sensei would have given her time to change into her dry gym clothes and also extra time on the quiz to compensate for the time that she missed. That means she didn't have to do the quiz in dripping wet clothes, and that she rushed the quiz for nothing.

"You can have extra time if you want," says Takasaki-sensei, offering Mio's paper back to her.

Mio gapes, and then her head drops onto her desk with a resounding whack. "No, it's fine," she says in a defeated voice. "I already finished, so there's not much I can do anyway."

Takasaki-sensei frowns. "Well, if you're sure." He takes back the quiz. "You should hurry and get changed into dry clothes, Naganohara."

Mio sighs deeply. She slowly gets up and walks to the lockers at the back of the classroom where her gym clothes are stored. She keeps her head down, ignoring the curious and piteous looks she's sure that she must be receiving from Yukko, Mai, and her other classmates.

Oh, and because she sat in her chair in her wet clothes, it's still going to be wet when she comes back.

And all of this just had to happen right after she'd suffered through an exhaustive sleep regimen of less six hours per night every night for the past week. She had been staying up late this past Golden Week working on her manga for that Golden Week manga competition, and she had just submitted it last night.

"Heh," she chuckles humourlessly, walking out of the classroom so that she can change, gym clothes in hand.


Mio never would have figured herself to be the type of person to hold grudges, but hey, people learn new things all the time. When she gets home, she's prepared a great verbal lashing at her older sister, but of course, that girl isn't home yet.

Mio takes a deep breath, calming herself down. Okay, first things first. How in the hell did that girl get into my room without waking me up? She ponders this for a moment while ascending the stairs. Well, I've been pretty sleep-deprived lately, so I must have been sleeping more deeply than usual.

She walks into her room and examines her alarm clock. It hasn't changed since this morning. The hands are stopped at 2:03:33 am.

This means that at 2:03:33 this morning, my sister snuck into my room and took out the battery in my clock. She opens the back and sure enough, the battery slot is empty.

She goes downstairs and into the kitchen to hunt for new batteries. I remember going to bed sometime after one o'clock yesterday. But definitely before two. Hm...

The batteries aren't in this cupboard. Mio closes them and opens the next one. I think it was probably around 1:10. I was really sleepy then, so I probably fell asleep in less than 10 minutes. That puts the beginning of my sleep cycle at around 1:20.

Mio finds the batteries. Her clock requires one AA battery to run, so she grabs one from the package, slams the cupboard shut, and trudges up the stairs.

There are multiple stages of sleep, and some are deeper than others. Stage 3 is the deepest sleep. A person in stage 3 sleep is unresponsive to most external stimuli, and this would have been the most opportune time for sister to sneak into my room. Mio walks into the room, plops herself on the bed, and puts the battery into her clock. So she must have watched me as I fell asleep, then sabotaged my alarm clock when I entered stage 3 sleep.

Devious. Mio's brow furrows. But how did she handle that situation with mom? Did she purposefully suggest to mom to go play sepak takraw with her friends today? No, mom must have had that scheduled beforehand, and sister scheduled her prank around that.

No, wait... Mio grits her teeth. Why is my alarm clock still frozen!?

She takes the battery out of the clock, scrutinizing it. If this battery's used up, then why is it in the new battery package?

Mio's eyes widen. No.

She runs out of the room and comes back fifteen seconds later with the entire package of batteries in her hand. She tries every battery, but none of them work. Mio slaps her hand on her face. Seriously!?

She stands up. I'm going to have to go out and buy some more. She glances over to her school bag, which is finally dry now. But all of her books are slightly warped now, and most of the tools in her pencil case are no good anymore. I might as well get some more pencils and erasers while I'm at it...

My wallet, she thinks, staring at her backpack. She sighs heavily.

She's going to pay.


"Did you know that if you short the ends of a battery together, it can drain the battery super quickly?" asks Yoshino, carefully hiding the burn marks on her fingers.

"I didn't," says Tamamura.

"I should really have more regard for safety," says Yoshino, stretching her arms.


Mio's class doesn't really have much homework because they've just gotten back from the break. There's that project from literature class, but that's ongoing, and they have class time to work on that, so Mio isn't really concerned about that.

Her sister always goes to bed very late, so that means if Mio wants to observe her sister's mannerisms in order to come up with a suitable revenge plot, she needs to go to bed later than her sister and wake up earlier than her sister. But she's used to sleep deprivation by now, so she's not really concerned about that.

To compensate, she's moved several hours of sleep from the night to the afternoon, right after she gets home from school. Her sister isn't usually home right after school anyway, so it's unlikely that her sister will find out about her strange new sleep patterns and get suspicious.

Right now, it's 3 am, and Mio is crouching in the dark outside of her older sister's room, listening intently to her sister's breathing. A while ago, Mio would have been hard pressed to hear such a quiet sound, but a week of practice does wonders. Mio carefully records her observations in one of her school notebooks. Well, technically, it's not really a school book.

A while ago, Mio realized that she really, really, really wanted to prevent her... doodles from appearing in a notebook that might be handed in to her teachers or seen by students copying notes. And so to satisfy her urges to draw, she had bought an additional notebook specially designated for doodles.

Although this notebook now has other uses as well, which is always useful for disguise purposes.

It has now been approximately 45 minutes since her sister has fallen asleep. If her calculations are correct, her sister should be falling in the deepest stage of sleep right about now. She closes her notebook, stands up, and rehearses the excuse she planned beforehand just in case her older sister does wake up and ask questions.

"I have a quiz tomorrow and I just realized that I'm missing an eraser, so I'm borrowing one from your room," Mio mouths to herself. It sounds reasonable enough.

Mio walks carefully into the room. She stands above her older sister and tries to glare as loudly as possible. Her sister shows no signs of waking. Okay, good.

Mio walks over to her sister's desk. She had done some reconnaissance in this room in the afternoons when her sister wasn't home, so Mio already knows where everything is. Tomorrow, she's actually going to come in here with a screwdriver to take out the batteries. She knows that their mom is going to be out two days from now, so that would be the ideal day to enact her scheme.

She smiles. She walks in circles and squares and various other squiggly paths on the floor for a while, attempting to make the same level of sound her manipulations with the clock would make. She keeps her attention fixed on her older sister. Her older sister shows no sign of waking. Mio continues walking around for five minutes.

She smiles. Perhaps a bit evilly. Perfect.

Her deep sleep stage test was a success. She walks out of the room, carefully leaving the door in the position that it had been in before she entered this room.


"I couldn't get in touch with you during Golden Week, Mio-chan," says Yukko at lunch. "You went straight home after school for all of last week as well. Were you busy?" She blinks. "Hm... Now that I look closer, there are shadows under your eyes. Are you sleeping okay?"

"Yeah..." Mio's mind is elsewhere. She's looking off into the distance, drinking from her juice box. Though the hours of sleep she's getting should be adding up to a healthy amount, perhaps the strange scheduling of her naps isn't optimal. Maybe that's why her sleep hasn't been as restful as it could be. She yawns.

"It's a shame that we didn't really get to do anything together during Golden Week," says Yukko. "Us three! The Yukko-Mio-Mai trio!" She takes a bite of her lunch. "Hm... hey, are you busy next weekend, Mio?"

"It should be done by then," says Mio absently. "So most likely."

"What should be done?"

Mio blinks. "Ah, nothing," she says, waving her hands dismissively.

"Hm. Whatever." Yukko smiles. "So, apparently there's going to be good weather this weekend. Why don't we go camping?"

"Camping?"

"You know! Roughing it in the wild! Fishing! Tents!" Yukko grins. "We could bring rice and curry, cook it there, and eat it! I've had this craving for curry, recently."

"That does sound fun..." Mio tilts her head. "What about you, Mai-chan? Do you want to go?"

Mai had been reading a magazine throughout the conversation. She looks up. "Neutral," she says.

"That's effectively 'yes' in Mai language!" says Yukko. "Okay, this weekend! A chance to unwind!"

"You're so enthusiastic," says Mio.

"Well, of course."

"Have you been camping before?"

"Yeah!"

"What about Mai-chan?"

"School trip," Mai says, glancing at Yukko.

"Oh, I see." Mio smiles tiredly. "Well, I'll ask my parents for permission. I think they'll most likely be okay with it."

"That's the spirit!" Yukko grins. "Gosh, it's almost the weekend already, so we need to get planning! So, so, I was thinking fishing rods! And rice! And vegetables and the spices for the curry—"

Mio takes another bite from her lunch, then lets her mind wander back to the troubling things that she had just discovered that morning.

She had been listening outside of her sister's room, as usual, and her sister's alarm had gone off at 7:07, as usual. It was quickly silenced, as usual. But then, ten minutes later at 7:17, a second alarm had gone off; one that sounded completely different from the first one. That one was quickly silenced. And then five minutes later, at 7:22, a third alarm had gone off.

It was at that point that Mio heard the sounds of her sister getting out of bed. "Phew, I must really be tired," her sister said. The quiet self-mutterings of her older sister were easily heard by Mio's now well-trained ears. "It's been a month since I've needed my secondary and tertiary alarms. Usually I turn them off before I wake up—" Here, her older sister had yawned.

A secondary alarm? A tertiary? Then, even if she sabotaged her sister's bedside alarm clock, her sister would still wake up on time!

Mio grits her teeth. She's going to have to find a way to work around it. She needs to gather intel. "Hey, do any of you have smart phones?" she asks.

"Hm?" says Yukko. "Smart phones?"

"You know, those new fancy devices where it's just a screen and you touch and slide things on it to do stuff." Mio makes a sliding gesture. "My sister has one."

"Oh, that!" Yukko makes a thoughtful expression. "Of course, I've heard of it, but I don't actually have one."

"What about you, Mai-chan?"

Mai shakes her head.

"Why do you need to know?" asks Yukko. She grins. "Are you thinking about getting one?"

"Are they password protected?" asks Mio. She puts a finger on her forehead, thinking furiously. She's seen her sister using the phone before, so she's sure that the user interface is fairly intuitive. If given enough time with it, alone, she could probably figure out the way to get to the alarm function and turn it off. She's used computers before in the LL room, so she's familiar with how user interfaces should work. In theory. But if she can't even get into the phone in the first place, then it'd be an issue.

"Yeah," says Yukko. She seems quite happy to flaunt her knowledge. "Usually it's a 4 digit passcode, but I've heard of this new-fangled passcode thing for phones where you have to connect the dots in the correct pattern." Yukko makes a swiping gesture.

"I see," says Mio. She's pretty sure that her sister's phone has a 4-digit passcode, so that should be okay. "Let's see... Ten possibilities per digit to the power of four..."

"Ten thousand," says Mai, not looking up from her magazine.

"If you're trying to break into your sister's phone, then brute force isn't going to cut it," says Yukko, holding up a finger. "I heard that the phone locks up if you try more than ten consecutive incorrect passcodes."

"No, no, I wasn't thinking of doing that!" says Mio, waving her arms defensively.

"Is that so?" Yukko takes a sip of her drink. "Anyway, back to the camping plans..."

So I can't just sneak into her room at night and try every possibility, thinks Mio. Which means I'm going to have to get the passcode from her directly. Asking her would just arouse suspicion, so my best course of action would be to shoulder-surf the code as she's typing it in. She nods. That can work. I just need to find a good excuse for her to access her phone in front of me...


It's almost dinner at the Naganohara household. Their mom is out late again tonight doing who knows what, so today, Mio is in charge of making dinner.

"Oh, smells good," says her sister, walking into the room. "Almost ready?"

"Yeah, in about five more minutes." Mio lifts up the pot lid to check inside. Not boiling yet. She sets it down again. She walks over to the dining area, stretching. "How's university, sister?"

"It's doing all right," grins her sister as she walks into the kitchen. She walks out with two sets of bowls, chopsticks, and cups, and helps set up the table.

"Hmm." Mio takes a step backwards, leaning against the wall.

"Oh, come to think of it, I have a midterm coming up," says her sister, taking out her phone. "Gosh, it's tomorrow. That came faster than expected. Oh well." She turns off the phone and puts it in her pocket. "What's for dinner?"

"Hmm." Mio looks up at the ceiling lazily. "Some soup today."

"That's going to take a while to cool. Personally, I prefer cold soup."

"You're weird."

"Well, the weather has been getting hot recently..." Her sister begins wandering about the room, humming some tune.

Suddenly, Mio's eyes widen. Wait. Her sister just used her phone right now. Mio had been staring right at it! Why hadn't she been paying attention? Curse this sleep-deprived mind of hers!

She presses two fingers against her temples. She had been staring right at her sister's fingers when her sister typed in the passcode, so she should remember. What was it?... Okay... Okay, it's coming back to her. It was 5... 0... something... 6. No, 9. Is that right? She turns around and heads to her room to write it down before she can forget.

"Ah, it's boiling," says her sister from down the hallway.

"Sorry, could you take care of it?" calls Mio. "I... er, I need to go to the washroom."


At 03:32:05 am, the door to Naganohara Yoshino's room opens silently. The girl is still fast asleep. In creeps Naganohara Mio, with a screwdriver in one hand and a small pad of paper in the other.

At 03:32:47 am, the back to Yoshino's alarm clock has been firmly reattached, with the batteries successfully removed.

At 03:33:15 am, Mio successfully locates her sister's smart phone. It's lying on her sister's bedside table. She turns it on and proceeds to try and enter the correct passcode.

She tries 5009.

It's incorrect.

She tries 5019.

It's incorrect.

She tries 5029.

It's incorrect.

She tries 5039.

It's incorrect.

She tries 5049.

It's incorrect.

Mio begins sweating at this point.

She tries 5059.

Success. She breathes a silent sigh of relief. She glances over to the bed and makes sure that her older sister is still asleep. Abruptly, Mio realizes a potential danger. She doesn't know how the alarm clock app works, so what if it suddenly starts sounding an alarm as a sample?

Mio takes the phone and her tools out of the room and locks herself in the washroom. She closes the lid on the toilet, sits down, and then begins fiddling with the phone.

At 03:38:16, she feels that she has succeeded in turning off the alarms.

At 03:40:05, she feels that she has made sure that the alarms have all been turned off. If the alarms are still on after all that, then whoever designed the user interface for this phone is stupid, and it's not her fault.

At 03:41:47, Mio feels that she has double-checked the alarm app to the maximum extent possible. If she did end up doing something incorrectly, then there's ultimately nothing that she can do now that will change the outcome. She turns off the phone, opens the door, and sneaks back into her sister's room.

Fortunately, it seems that her sister is still asleep.

At 03:42:32, the phone has been successfully replaced in its original position. As Mio begins sneaking out of the room, something abruptly catches her attention. A shadow. Something is casting a shadow in this room. The light is faint, pale, and slightly bluish, but...

Mio turns around and sneaks to the window. She looks up at spots the waning gibbous moon in the sky.

Hm, light. That could be a problem. If there's sunlight streaming through this window in the morning, then her sister is bound to wake up, alarm or not.

As silently as possible, Mio pulls both curtains shut.

At 03:45:02, Mio leaves the room, making sure to leave the door exactly where it was when she first arrived.

At 03:48:12, Mio re-enters the room. She holds the door open, scanning the room, making doubly sure that she didn't accidentally leave any incriminating evidence. The clock is in its original orientation and position. The phone is in its original orientation and position. Mio had taken her pad and screwdriver with her when she left three minutes ago, so there's no way that they can be still here.

Mio checks the room anyway, just to make sure that her memory of taking her tools with her isn't faulty. She glances at her sister. Her sister's still fast asleep, and her breaths are still slow and deep.

Mio sneaks out of the room.

At 04:02:12, Mio sneaks back into the room, just to make doubly sure again that she didn't leave anything in here.

Then, she returns to her room and goes to sleep.


At 07:25:12, Mio walks by her sister's room on her way to the kitchen. She has to resist the urge to peek into the room to make sure that she didn't leave anything in there, because her checking the room might wake her sister up and mess up her entire plan.

Mio gathers all of her things and then leaves her home, locking up as quietly as possible. She doesn't hear any signs of her sister waking up, so it should still be okay.

Mio walks out into the bright morning, heading in the direction of her school at a relaxed pace. That's right, what should she eat this morning? She had chosen to eat breakfast outside this morning to reduce the chances waking her sister up. Well, there's that new coffee place that opened up recently. Maybe she should try that one out.

Mio yawns, stretching. Justice has been served! She feels like a huge load has been lifted off of her shoulders.

She grimaces. What is with this ominous feeling?


It might have been karma, but Mio's revenge prank was supposed to be a good thing, as retribution to balance her sister's bad karma, right? What did Mio do to deserve this? That camping trip?

Worst.

Camping trip.

Ever.


"What's wrong, Mio?" asks Yukko, walking up to Mio's desk. "You're looking kind of glum."

Mio shoots Yukko a glare.

"Ack, sorry, sorry!" shouts Yukko, bowing her head repeatedly. "Sorry about the curry. Sorry about the rice. Sorry about the tokoroten."

"It's fine," says Mio, staring ahead blankly. "I've already put that behind me." She lowers her gaze to the paper lying on her desk.

Yukko notices. "What's that?"

"My quiz." She flips it over, visibly annoyed. "A 92.5."

"That's better than what I got," says Yukko, bending down to take a closer look.

"I could have done better," says Mio, gritting her teeth and looking out the window. "Several careless mistakes. It would have been an easy 100."

"Well, it's only a quiz," says Yukko dismissively, spreading her arms. "It's not worth much. Besides, you're not going to get anywhere in life if you keep getting caught up in the marks." She grabs Mio's head and brings her close, winking. "They're just numbers."

"You're just saying that because you got a low mark."

"So what?" Yukko takes a step backwards. "Unlike you, I'm not moping about it."

"You should really take your studies more seriously."

"And you need to lighten up!" says Yukko, grabbing her bag. "Anyway, see you tomorrow." She walks out the door.

Mio takes a deep breath, and then exhales slowly. She stares out the window, at the bright blue sky and the green leaves on the trees. They're going to be changing to their summer uniforms soon.

She stretches, then slaps herself on the cheeks. Maybe Yukko has a point. Mio stands up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Okay, here's what she's going to do to cheer herself up. She's going to buy one those mont blanc treats from that expensive bakery that she's always been wanting to try. She should have saved up enough money to buy one, so she'll spoil herself just this once.

They only make ten of those mont blancs a day, but she should be able to get her hands on one if she hurries to the bakery right away. Mio smiles, humming to herself as she hurries out the door.


Yoshino puts a knight in Mio's mont blanc.


Mio manages to get her hands on a limited five-per-day strawberry shortcake.

Yoshino replaces the strawberry with a king.


"Mio." Yukko snaps her fingers in front of Mio's face.

Mio jerks in her seat, startled. She blinks. "Sorry. What were you saying?" She rubs her temple with her wrist, sighing. She feels very tired. Not sleepy, but just mentally exhausted.

"Right." Yukko claps her hand. "So. As we all know, that literature group project is due in a few days. Since we still far from finished, we're going to have to start working on it outside of class."

Annaka nods in agreement, her red ribbon bouncing with her nod. Mai says nothing.

"Whose place should we go to?" asks Annaka.

"Um, preferably not my place," says Mio, raising her hand. "My older sister..." She looks away.

"Your older sister?" Yukko leans closer to Mio.

"Ah," says Annaka, smiling. "You don't want to disturb your older sister because she must have her own work to do."

"Y...yeah," says Mio, turning back. "Let's go with that," she murmurs.

"Any requirements for the meeting place of choice?" asks Yukko.

"Well," says Mio, looking down at her notebook. "If we're still going with the idea with the digital additions, we're going to need a scanner."

"Oh, my dad's apartment has a scanner," says Annaka. "If I ask, I'm sure that he'll let us work there. Unless someone else has a scanner."

"Nope," says Yukko.

"No," says Mio.

Mai shakes her head.

"All right, your place it is!" says Yukko, patting Annaka on the back.

"I can ask him today," says Annaka. "So if everything works out, we can work there tomorrow and the day after."

"Will that be enough time?" asks Mio.

"Plenty, plenty!" grins Yukko.

"O...okay," says Mio.

"You've been kind of glum lately, Mio-chan," says Yukko. She winks. "Don't worry! We're definitely going to finish before the deadline, and then we're going to get the best mark of the class!"

"That's kind of overly optimistic..." says Mio.

"No, you're the one who's overly pessimistic," says Yukko.

Annaka holds up her hands, smiling. "Now, now. It's always good to approach things with a positive attitude."

"All right, then!" shouts Yukko, shooting up her arm. "First after school meeting, tomorrow, at Haruna-chan's dad's apartment!"


The next day, Mio, Yukko, and Mai head out towards Annaka's dad's apartment. They decided to buy some more supplies, so Annaka goes on ahead first. Mio and her friends get the supplies, walk into the apartment building lobby, and then enter the elevator.

They spend the next five hours stuck in the elevator.


Mio yawns. For some reason, she feels very, very exhausted. Even more so than before. She's grateful that she finally has the chance to unwind and read the newspaper. A relaxing Sunday morning on her couch at home. It's just what she needs.

"Thank goodness, you're still here..."

"Huh?" Mio shifts her gaze. "Sister, what's up?"

"Something came up. Could you help with the Neighborhood Association today?"

"Eh? Get mom to do it."

"Mom's playing sepak takraw with her friends. And besides, they said that they'd pay 100,000 yen!"

"That much money, huh..." Mio accepts the sheet of paper. Well, it's not like I have anything else to do. It... it can't hurt to go help.


"Nice to meet you," says Mio, bowing respectfully. "My name is Naganohara Mio."

"So you're the help for today," says the old man. "You may call me Nakanojou-san. I'm setting up now, so just give me a minute and then I'll give you your task."

"Yes sir."

As Nakanojou-san fiddles about with his boxes and supplies, Mio takes a look around. It's a fairly hot day today. There aren't many clouds in the sky. It's still only 10 in the morning, so there aren't many people on the streets yet.

I wonder when everyone else is going to arrive, thinks Mio, looking at the stand. They're rather late. I mean, the flyer says that the fair starts at 10 am today, right? If the organizers are this tardy... Mio bends down, pressing her finger against the wood. Plus, this stand looks very cheaply nailed together.

"Okay then," says Nakanojou-san, lifting a giant egg-shaped thing from behind the stand.

Uwaa, thinks Mio, staring at it. That must be a daifuku. It's so huge! I wonder if it's the prize for some sort of contest... She takes a look around. No one else has really shown up yet though... I wonder what kind of contest will it be?

"Your task for today will be acting as the mascot, Daifuku-kun," says Nakanojou-san.

"Ah, okay," says Mio. "I can do that. Is there a costume or mask that I need to change into?"

"This is the mask," says Nakanojou-san, dropping the giant daifuku into Mio's hands.

Um... Mio's eyes widen. Whaaaaaaaaa?...

"Though it may not look like it, there are small holes punched in the front, so you'll be able to see," says Nakanojou-san. "Now, you can just stand in that general area as the mascot, and..."

"Um, when will the others be arriving for the fair?" asks Mio, looking up at the old man. "It looks like no one else has set up their stands yet..."

"Huh? Oh, no, it's just us two," says Nakanojou-san, completely unperturbed by the question.

Wh...what. Mio looks down at the giant daifuku.

"Wear this, too," says Nakanojou-san, handing Mio a name tag.

"Ah, yes..." says Mio, taking the name tag absently. She stares at the mask for a long time. Just what... is... this?...

"Is there a problem?" asks Nakanojou-san.

"Ah... no," says Mio. She takes a deep breath and puts on the mask. She gets it on the wrong way the first time. After taking it off and rotating it 180 degrees before putting it on again, she can see. Barely.

Um... Hm.

Nakanojou-san goes to the stand. He starts advertising the stand aloud. "Come and get fresh daifuku. Pure white daifuku..."

I... Mio's mind has just about finished processing the situation. I was tricked!


Nakanojou-san thought that he'd teach the newcomer how to become Daifuku-kun properly, and so he dons the mask and commences what he has recently begun calling the "Daifuku-kun Introspection Dance". He can't do it as well as the previous Daifuku-kun, but what's important is the passion! This is why Nakanojou-san puts his all into his dance moves.

He has no idea how these dance moves could possibly result in him suddenly being forced against a wall with a policeman aiming a gun at his back.

"Do not resist!" says the policeman.

"Did... I do something wrong?" asks Nakanojou-san. When there's no response, he begins slowly taking off the mask.

"I said, do not move—" The policeman stops in mid-sentence just as Nakanojou-san finishes taking off the mask.

"What is it?" asks Nakanojou-san, an unpleased expression on his face.

The policeman blinks. He then quickly puts his gun away, looking embarrassed. "Sorry about that," he says apologetically, shaking his head. "I mistook you for the someone else."

"Oh?" Nakanojou-san turns to face the policeman.

The policeman nods, serious again. "There's an escaped convict on the loose, and we've all been extra alert in trying to find him. He's incredibly devious and unpredictable, and that's why we've been on edge lately."

"Understandable," says Nakanojou-san, lowering the mask. "I wish you success in finding this person."

"Er, here, I have an advisory flyer," says the policeman, handing Nakanojou-san a small slip of paper. "I see you're running a food stand here, so I ask that you be cautious of your surroundings and that you report anything suspicious to the authorities."

Nakanojou-san looks over the mug shot of the convict on the slip of paper. The man in the photo doesn't look familiar to him. "Of course," he says, tucking away the slip of paper into his pocket.

The policeman nods, then continues on his way.

Nakanojou-san plops the mask back on and begins walking back towards the general daifuku fair area. He notices that the newcomer has been staring at him for quite some time now, with a strange look in her eyes.

Evidently, a good observer, thinks Nakanojou-san. I must be a good example and demonstrate the full range of positive qualities regarding this Daifuku-kun costume. Then, as if he had never been interrupted, he continues his Daifuku-kun dance.


Mio tries very hard to turn invisible.

Actually, watching the stand might be even worse than acting as that embarrassing mascot. At least her face would be hidden if she's wearing the mask. Right now, her face is freely visible for all the world to see, and freely available for association with that strange... strange man.

She feels her cheek flushing bright red from embarrassment. Agh, why did I agree to this!?

There's a clock on one of the buildings nearby.

It's 9:05 am.

Mio inhales slowly, holds it, and then exhales slowly. She barely manages to resist the urge to press her palms to her face and sink towards the earth. This must be hell.


June 12.

Evening.

"What was that!?" shouts Mio. "That was horrible. That was one of the worst days I've ever had the misfortune to live through!"

Yoshino tilts her head. "One of?" she murmurs. "Well, that's besides the point. You're already in high school. An experience with a part-time job does wonders—"

"That's not what I'm annoyed about!" Mio glares. "I mean, what kind of crappy fair was that!? What did you trick me into doing!? A fair? Don't make me laugh! It's a mockery of all fairs! Just look at that cheaply nailed together piece of woodwork! It's barely a food stand! And who ever heard of a food stand on the street needing a mascot!?"

"I understand that you may not have enjoyed the job," says Yoshino, closing one eye, smiling. "But not every job you do will be enjoyable. Think of it as me paying you back for the 2000 yen I—"

"That is not payback!" shouts Mio, stalking forwards. She jabs a finger at Yoshino, glaring directly into her eyes. "This was my money that I earned fair and square and that was my money that you took. This and that are different things—"

"Well, you must thank me for giving you the opportunity—"

"A pretty crappy opportunity! I'm surprised the neighbourhood association lets him sell stuff on the street!"

"You got money nonetheless."

"No thanks to you."

"It's pretty much exactly thanks to me, isn't it?" Yoshino smiles cheerfully.

"That's what ticks me off about you!" shouts Mio. "That annoying righteous attitude! But you're not righteous at all!"

"Please," says Yoshino. "I'm perfectly righteous."

"You're constantly playing pranks with me, and messing with my life! How could you call that righteous!?"

"All of my test answers are pretty right. I got the highest midterm mark in my class, after all."

"Who cares!? I already know how much of a perfect genius you are! If you're so smart, why don't you apply your talents properly instead of just wasting your time on useless crap?"

"No, they're not useless. They're actually quite interesting. See—"

"You are wasting your time on useless crap!" Mio grabs a nearby newspaper and rolls it up. "I know for a fact that you're smart enough to have skipped grades. Several grades! Why didn't you?"

"Mio—"

"Because you like spending your time on useless crap! I mean, what the hell was with the alarm clock several weeks ago!?"

"I could be asking you the same question—"

"Don't play dumb! You knew that I told mom to wake me at seven that day! You knew what that meant! That I had class duty! So why did you have make me late!? Do you know how... how... horrible that day was for me, just because of your stupid actions!?" Mio stifles a sob.

"You can never take a joke," says Yoshino, shaking her head. "Mio, not everyone in life is going to be all nice and friendly. If you don't know how to take a punch and roll with it, you're not going to get very far in life."

"Oh sure, so my very own older sister is going to betray me!?"

"It's not betrayal if I'm providing you with valuable training."

"Training for what!? That's bullcrap! You just like screwing with me, admit it!"

"Well," smiles Yoshino. She pauses. "But I am serious about the training. If you can't learn how to take a joke—"

"Ha! A joke! Very funny!" Mio grits her teeth. Her nails dig into the newspaper. "Like deliberate sabotage is a joke!"

"It can actually get a lot more serious than that in real life."

Mio grits her teeth. "It isn't funny! Apologize! Apologize for that absolutely tasteless prank!"

"Perhaps I did take it a bit far," says Yoshino, "but I didn't detain you long enough to make you late for school."

"You set off a chain of events that made me late for school! If you weren't there, I would have made it on time!"

"Now, now, Mio, you can't start blaming others for your own downfalls."

"What downfalls!? That was all you! If you hadn't stopped my alarm clock—"

"So what? Are you going to depend on your alarm clock for the rest of your life?" Yoshino pouts. "If your alarm clock honestly fails, you're going to be late, no matter what important test you have on that day."

"What are the odds of that of that happening?"

Yoshino crosses her arms, looking faintly annoyed.

"Ah." Mio takes a step backwards. She looks away, flushing. "If you happened to have a test on that day, then it was your own fault," she says quietly. "Sister, you're in university now. You're a grown up now. Can you please act your age?"

"Oh, come now. All of the true adults have embraced their inner child."

"What inner child!?" Mio snaps back. "You're all child! What the hell was all that crap with the shogi knight and the shogi king! Do you have any idea how much you're tormenting your little sister!?"

"Is this level of prankery not expected between siblings?" Yoshino frowns. "Besides, it's not as if the knight made you unable to eat the Mont Blanc, or the king—"

"What the hell do you mean!? You stole the strawberry! What the hell were you thinking!?"

"There were other strawberries inside the cake," says Yoshino, smiling innocently. "Taking away the top strawberry hardly affects the fruit content of the cake slice as a whole. Less than 15% difference, I'd say. Besides, if you want strawberries, you should get them from the grocery store rather than from cakes. It's healthier, and since you're getting older and may live off on your own someday, then healthy eating—"

"Quiet! That has nothing to do with what we're talking about! You knew that I look forward to the strawberry as the best part of the cake and so you purposefully removed it to torment me!"

"Mio," sighs Yoshino. "I'm just trying to teach you how to grow up."

"That's just an absolutely horrible justification for your pranks! Admit it! You just get a kick out of tormenting me! You get off on it, you freaking loner!"

"'Get off on it', huh," says Yoshino. "You would know about that."

Mio's face contorts into a combination of anger and confusion. "Huh?"

"You're already in high school now, so you need to grow up." Yoshino crosses her arms. "If you expect to make a living out of making manga, then you need to improve on your skills. Perhaps you are above a considerable percentage of the bad artists suggested by Sturgeon's Law, but you're far from top tier. It is my profession opinion as a perfect genius that the proportions of your characters are off. You need to work on your foreshortening. The expressions of your characters are somewhat bland and lacking. The panel flow is unintuitive at times, and the panel sizing and spacing could be improved upon. Furthermore, some of your drawings are quite anatomically inaccurate and it is also of my professional opinion that the positions they engage in look rather painful—"

Mio's face goes bright red at the end. "WAIT WHAT!?" she shouts, waving her arms defensively. "How the hell do you know about my manga!?"

"Manga?" Yoshino tilts her head innocently. "What manga?"

"Wh...No, don't mess with me! Why do you know!?" shouts Mio, panicking.

"I'm your older sister," says Yoshino, winking. "Why would I not know?"

"Do you not know anything about privacy!?"

"Do you not know anything about the requirements of proper lu—"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Mio turns around, clapping both of her hands on top of her ears. "I am not having this conversation!"

"When two people are talking, people usually call it a conversation," says Yoshino, raising her voice a little. "Besides—"

"Stop! Talking!"

"Hm, perhaps a lot, but I'm really trying to help you improve—"

"That doesn't give you the right to invade my privacy like that, you IDIOT!"

"Well, okay, but next time, you shouldn't sneak into my room, hmm?"

"Wh...!" Mio is speechless for a moment at the sheer injustice of it all. "How can you say that when you started it!?"

"It takes two to fight a war, and since you are the one who continued it—"

"That does not take the blame away from you, who started it! You're a childish, selfish... self-indulged brat who takes delight in the misery of others! How are you in university!? How can you live with having such a twisted personality!? How do you live like that!?"

"How mean," huffs Yoshino.

"Apologize! Apologize for the alarm clock! Apologize for my food! Apologize for... your pranks! Just apologize!" Mio's out of breath at this point from all of the shouting. She holds the newspaper up menacingly, ready to attack.

"Well, okay," says Yoshino, raising her hands defensively. "I'm sorry."

There's a short pause.

"That's not going to stop me from further pranks though so—"

"AUGGH!" screams Mio, dropping the newspaper and pulling at her own hair in frustration. "What the hell is wrong with you!? What the hell do I have such a freaking—" She starts hyperventilating a bit. She clutches her chest and tries to get her breathing under control.

"Come on, Mio, this level of prankery is expected between siblings—"

"Who says!? Who? The hell? Says!?"

Yoshino frowns. "You need to take things a bit more lightly—"

"And you need to take things a bit more freaking seriously!"

"Mio—"

"Just stop it! Just stop what it is you're doing! Do you not have any idea of just what effects your stupid schemes have on other people!?"

Yoshino opens her mouth. "Of course."

Mio grabs her sister by the shoulders, a dangerous glint in her eyes. For a moment, she thinks that she might actually do some real physical harm. Then, she takes a deep breath, lets go, and stomps up the stairs.

Yoshino reaches out. "Ah—"

"Don't talk to me!"

The door slams loudly.


Yukko's hand has been poised to knock for the last ten minutes.

She came over to Mio's house to play, but it seems that she had come at an inopportune time. She had heard every word through the door. Yukko remains motionless at the door, an expression of utter shock on her face. The silence drags on for a full minute.

"O...kay..." Yukko says to herself, still completely at a loss as to how to react. "I guess I'll go to Mai-chan's... then..."

She stands there for a moment longer before hesitantly turning around and shuffling away, trying to keep her footsteps as silent as possible.


Mai's playing some old video game on the TV screen, while Yukko is lying on the tatami mats, facing the ceiling. "Aggh," says Yukko. "What a mess."

Mai continues pressing keys on her controller, not looking away from the screen.

"So that was her in that daifuku costume that I saw earlier. I must have made the situation worse by laughing at her. Agggh." She rubs her hair. "What should I do? Should I apologize?"

"Don't." Mai's eyes remains fixated on the TV screen.

"But that argument sounded so intense! I... I have to say something..."

"How do you know?"

"How do I know what? That it was Mio-chan that was in that super weird mascot costume? It's obvious! After listening to that argument of theirs, it's the obvious conclusion to..." Yukko blinks. "Oh."

"You shouldn't know."

Mai's fingers dance around rapidly on the controller. She then sets it down, relaxing marginally. Yukko glances at the screen. Another level cleared.

"Right, right." Yukko sighs, scratching her head. If she apologizes to Mio, then the apology itself will reveal to her that Yukko had heard the argument, and also that Yukko knows that it had been Mio who was wearing that embarrassing mascot costume. That would just make things worse. "Though we have to think of something!"

Mai picks up the controller again. The next level is starting. "For what?"

"For what... Isn't it obvious? We need to help restore friendly relations between Mio-chan and her sister! It's terrible for siblings to be on such bad terms with each other!" Yukko crosses her arms. "We have to do something!"

"The best choice..." For several seconds, Mai remains silent, still focusing completely on the game in front of her. Her fingers manipulate the controller in short and precise bursts. "Do nothing."

Yukko sits up. "Whaaa? What do you mean?"

"We shouldn't interfere," says Mai. "Besides, fights between siblings are natural."

"How would you know? You don't have any siblings."

There's a long pause. The loudest sound in the room are the occasional clicks as Mai presses the buttons on the controller. "You don't either."

More clicking.

"That's not an excuse. And you don't know how bad it is!" Yukko stands up and begins pacing. "I mean, they were yelling at the top of their lungs for at least ten minutes straight! Well, at least Mio-chan was." She stops, putting her hand on her head. "I've never heard Mio-chan that angry."

"It probably sounds worse than it is."

"It was pretty bad. I actually flinched when she slammed her bedroom door. I mean, it was so loud that I thought for sure that the door was broken." Yukko puts her left pinkie into her ear and wiggles it. "I mean it when I say that was loud."

"This could be normal." Mai glances at Yukko. "We've only known her for several months."

"Again, that's not an excuse! I mean, no two siblings can have that kind of relationship without it deteriorating completely, right? That can't happen on a regular basis. Something happened to fragment their relationship to this shaky of a state, and we're going to fix it!"

More game controller clicking. Mai turns and glances at Yukko for a moment before turning back to the TV.

Yukko makes a face. "Okay, I know that I don't have any expertise in the area of siblings, but I have common sense! And what my common sense is telling me is that that kind of relationship is really bad!"

"It's a private matter."

"S..." Yukko turns away, putting a finger below her nose. "So what? We're her friends!" She walks up to the window. It's already dark outside, so she can clearly see her reflection in the glass because of the brightly lit interior.

There's another long pause.

"Who was right?" asks Mai.

"Huh?"

"An argument implies a disagreement in viewpoints. Who was in the right?"

"It doesn't matter!" Yukko throws her arms in the air. "Mio! Her sister! Both! Neither!"

"Both and neither simultaneously?" asks Mai.

"Yes!"

"Superposition?"

"Whatever!" Yukko turns around. "The point is, it doesn't matter who's in the right! They need to make up!"

"Interpersonal conflicts are complex and it's rude to intrude—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know!" Yukko turns around, tousling her hair. "I know that it's possible that we might make the situation even worse if we mess around unnecessarily. Aggh... The very least we could do is try to cheer Mio up... But that won't fix things."

"If you're too obvious, she'll find out. "

"Who cares!" Yukko twirls 360 degrees on the spot. She stops, facing her friend. Mai has paused the game some time ago, and she's looking out the window with that glassy expression of hers.

"Subtlety."

"Right, right, we don't want her to find out that we overheard her argument. That would be... well, mortifying." Yukko flops onto the ground, splaying her arms outwards along the floor. "I know that. But we don't need that to be the reason we're intervening. To be honest, I think we've been having a pretty crappy couple of weeks. There was that camping incident and then that elevator incident... And Mio-chan was looking really sleep deprived after Golden Week. She must be pretty stressed out. Maybe today was the last straw." She closes her eyes. "Well, first things first. No matter what means, we need to make sure she gets more sleep. Sleep is always important. We'll have to resort to sleeping pills if necessary. Mai-chan, you have sleeping pills in here somewhere, right?"

"Yes, but—"

"Good, good!"

"Artificially induced sleep does not necessarily—"

"It's better than no sleep at all." Yukko frowns. "Though point taken, that would be sort of extreme. We'll use that as a last resort." She points at Mai, nodding.

"We?" Mai blinks.

"Next things next, we need to cheer her up. Food is always good. So for the next week or so, we're only going to go out to the best restaurants with the most delicious food ever! And we'll also foot the bill!"

"It would be suspicious if only she doesn't—"

"Right, right, so we'll take turns on covering the entire bill. I'll do it one day and then you the next and then me the day after—"

"Mio will eventually insist on—"

"Ah, that's right, isn't it?" Yukko's eyebrows furrow in thought. "She's such a good little girl... Once we've both done it, she'll insist on doing it too in the interests of fairness. Well then, we'll just have to refuse her! I can think of some superficial reason on the spot, don't worry." She looks around. "This is pretty complicated. We should start writing some of this down."

"If she finds these notes—"

"She won't. Let's just keep the notes here, then, at your place."

"The paying strategy..." Mai pauses. "Won't she feel guilty? "

Yukko closes her eyes and sighs. "Yeah, this is trickier than I thought." She stands and walks up to the nearby desk.

"Then let's forget it."

"No freaking way." Yukko begins perusing the contents of the desk. "Hey, is this notebook okay? It's mostly blank, anyway." She holds up a thin green spiral-bound notebook.

"That was for science, third year middle sch—"

"Oh, it's fine, then." Yukko grabs a pencil, plops herself into the seat in front of the desk, and begins writing. "Hm... So anyway, that's all the superficial stuff that we can do... But we also need to strategize on how we are to restore the friendly relations between Mio-chan and her sister."

"We shouldn't."

"Just who exactly is her sister?" Yukko frowns. "We need to gather more intel." She twirls the pencil around her hand.

Mai closes her eyes. "More data can't hurt."

"Yeah..." Yukko makes a face, staring intently at the notebook.

There's a long pause. Then, Mai gets up, walks to the bookshelf and picks out a thin hardcover book. She walks over to Yukko and drops it on top of the notebook.

Yukko blinks. "This is?"

Mai points at the cover.

"Tokisadame High School Yearbook, 2010 to 2011," Yukko reads.

Mai reaches down and turns to page 134 in one fluid hand motion. This section of the yearbook appears to be graduation photos.

"Er... what exactly am I supposed to be looking at?" Yukko scans the contents of the page, confused. Then, something catches her eye. "Ah, hey! This 'Naganohara Yoshino'... I can see the resemblance. So, this is Mio-chan's sister?"

Mai nods.

"This is a good start to my information gathering. Thanks, Mai-chan!"

"I am not involved," says Mai.

"Ehh?" Yukko turns to Mai, pouting. "Come on, she's our friend! You should help out! Show some compassion!"

Mai just looks at Yukko with a blank expression.

Yukko frowns. Then, she shrugs. "Well, whatever."

There's a long pause. Then, Mai walks back to the cushion in front of the TV. She sits down, picks up the controller, and unpauses the game.

"Well, that's friendship, huh?" Yukko grins. "Helping each other. I like that!"

Mai doesn't say anything.

"But man, I never knew that Mio drew manga," says Yukko. "Well, I mean, she is pretty good at drawing, so I guess it's not too much of a stretch of imagination." She clenches her fists in excitement. "But wow, manga! That's like, so legit! I wonder what kind of manga she draws? Maybe we could ask her about it and encourage her and motivate her! That could also cheer her up."

"From your recap of the argument, she wanted to keep it a secret," says Mai.

"Well, of course! It would be kinda embarrassing, doing something awesome like that. And you wouldn't just want to tell anyone about it because then it'd seem sort of like bragging. Which would be bad. I think. But it should be fine if we ask her about it!"

"It may be secret for a reason."

"I don't see why. She's a good artist." Yukko grins. "Oh, maybe it's because she has manga that she drew a while ago, when her skills weren't that developed yet, and it's embarrassingly bad!" She giggles. "Ah, I'd see how she'd be reluctant to share that! Mn, I see, I see." She nods her head, eyes closed.


The bell rings. It's lunch time.

"Hey, Mio-chan, how're you doing?" asks Yukko, grinning.

"Fine," responds Mio.

Yukko blinks. What a terse response! "S...so, what do you want to go out for lunch? Mai-chan's coming along too, of course." She turns to Mai, who's still sitting at her desk. The girl is in the middle of perusing some sort of catalogue. "Er... right, Mai-chan?"

Mai gives Yukko a thumbs up without looking up.

"N...no, it's okay," says Mio, holding up her hands defensively. "I need to save up on money, so I brought my lunch from home—" She suddenly freezes.

"Mio-chan?" Yukko tilts her head.

Mio suddenly runs to her desk and pulls her wrapped obento out of her bag. She slams it onto her desk and begins unwrapping it with almost violent fervour. "Ah." She slaps her hand onto her forehead. "Of course. Why did I let her do my lunch? Why?" She begins slamming her head into the desk. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

Yukko grabs Mio's shoulders. "Stop that! You'll hurt yourself!" As she's struggling to restrain Mio, she glances down at Mio's lunch box. The only thing in it is white rice. Nothing else.

Mai walks over and sticks a food thermometer into the rice.

"Mai-chan," says Mio, "what are you—"

"It's warm," says Mai, tilting the thermometer so that the digital readout is visible to the others.

There's a long pause.

"I have money," says Mai, putting her thermometer away and pulling out a wallet.

"That's right," says Yukko. "Mai-chan will be treating today, so don't worry! Come with us today!"

"I...If you insist," murmurs Mio. "Thanks." She begins packing up her lunch box. She lets out a very deep sigh.


Yukko takes out her flip phone and dials Mai's number, not taking her eye off of the house on the other side of the street. The line picks up in the middle of the first tone. There's silence. "So, starting day 1 of reconnaissance on the Naganohara residence," says Yukko. "This is to ascertain behavioural patterns concerning the subject during post-school hours—"

"How far are you from the house?" asks Mai's voice.

"How far?" Yukko blinks. "Er, I'm right in front of it. Why?"

"Too obvious. Move farther away."

"What? Er..." Yukko picks up her school bag and begins walking away from the house at a quick pace. "I mean, I wasn't that close."

Silence. "Describe your state of dress."

"What do you mean?"

Silence.

"Okayy... I'm in a black hoodie, jeans, normal running shoes, black hat, sunglasses—"

"Take off the hat and sunglasses."

"Wh...What are you talking about?" asks Yukko, hastily taking off aforementioned objects and stuffing them into her bag. She smiles nervously. "I'm not wearing those things. They're wayyy too obvious. I would never make such an amateurish mistake. Ha ha..."

"Good," comes Mai's satisfied voice.

"Wait, I think something's happening." Keeping the phone propped up against her ear with her right shoulder, she rummages through her bag for a pair of binoculars. "It's her!" Yukko's voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper. "It's the target. She's exiting the home."

There's a short pause as Yukko watches Mio's sister walk along the street. Yukko shoves the pair of binoculars into her bag and zips it up. She grabs her cell phone with her right hand. "I'm going to follow her," she hisses. "I'll see if I can collect any useful data."

"Don't be too obvious," says Mai's voice.

They continue walking for a long stretch of time.

"She made a left turn," reports Yukko, trailing Mio's sister at a safe distance.

More walking.

"Another left turn."

Some more walking.

"A left turn."

Even more walking.

"Yet... another left turn." Yukko blinks. "Hey, who makes four left turns in a row? Mio's got a weird sister, that's for sure."

"Actually—" Mai's voice pauses.

"Yeah?"

"Never mind. Call back later."

"Oh. Mai-chan, are you busy right now?"

Mai's response is a soft hm in the affirmative.

"Oh, okay. I'll give you the full report tomorrow, then. See ya."

Mai hangs up. Yukko snaps her phone shut and tucks it away. She looks up and spots Mio's sister making yet another left turn. "Again?" mutters Yukko. "What is she doing, taking a walk around the block or something?" Keeping at a safe distance, Yukko walks around the corner fifteen seconds later.

She halts abruptly. Mio's sister is nowhere in sight.

Yukko squints and looks at the next intersection, which looks like it's a good 150 meters away. "Crap, that girl is fast!" She grabs her handbag tightly and takes off at a sprint, trying to get to the intersection as quickly as possible so that she doesn't lose Mio's sister.


Yoshino steps out from behind the tree, watching the strangely dressed girl run off ahead of her. Her eyebrows furrow for a moment. "Possibly one of Mio's friends," she says to herself. "She's the right age. But why would she be following me?" She shrugs nonchalantly. "Oh well."

She turns around and begins walking the other way at a casual pace. "Now, I've got to get to the grocery store before it closes. I can't believe we forgot to restock. The fridge was practically empty this morning..."


"Sorry!" Yoshino says into her cell phone at the grocery store. "Due to schedule constraints, I won't be able to do the job anymore."

"And your sister?" asks Nakanojou-san's voice.

"She won't be able to, either. Ahh, she's still in high school, you know? Busy times."

"I see. Very well." He hangs up.

"Well," says Yoshino, putting her phone away. "That settles that." She bends down, picks up her bags of groceries, and begins walking towards the checkout line.

She suddenly pauses. "Wait. When did he get my number?"


Nakanojou-san has taken to walking around town with the Daifuku-kun costume on. It's good advertising. After all, it is very obvious that it is supposed to be an anthropomorphized daifuku. As far as Nakanojou-san knows, his Daifuku-kun is the only daifuku-related mascot in the entire Tokisadame metropolitan area, so there should be no confusion. If a curious bystander were to spot him walking along the street, and if were to do some very basic cursory research regarding daifuku-related mascots, then they would discover very quickly that there is a Daifuku Fair every weekend from 9 am until 5 pm.

He allows himself a brief smile inside the mask. It's brilliant!

However, there's no point in advertising using Daifuku-kun if there isn't anyone to wear the Daifuku-kun costume during the Daifuku Fair. After making that phone call to Naganohara, whose phone number he had cross-referenced from the Tokisadame High student contact registry from last year, he learned that he can no longer neither depend on that elder Naganohara nor that younger Naganohara, and so he must find someone else for the job. After all, he couldn't possibly man the stand while simultaneously wearing the costume. Could he?

Nakanojou-san ponders the possibility for a moment before dismissing it. No. It's absolutely impossible. The existence of a mascot must be supplementary and separate from the vendor itself. Another other way simply doesn't make sense in his mind.

He blinks for a moment. This is sleepiness that's he's experiencing. It's tough maintaining her Daifuku Fair stand every weekend in addition to performing adequately his daily job at Daiku Daifuku. What he'd really like to do is create enough of an income from his own Daifuku business so that he can quit his job at Daiku Daifuku and work full time on his own daifuku. Given enough time, his Nakanojou Daifuku could beat the pants off of Daiku Daifuku any day.

Yes, definitely.

However, at the moment, he simply isn't receiving enough of income from Daifuku Fair to justify quitting his day job. He spent most of last night trying to think of how to increase revenue, which is why he's feeling sleeping right now.

Right, so coffee. That'll get him all awake again.

He looks up at the street signs, recognizing his current location. There's a Daiku Coffee just a block away from here. That's convenient. He begins walking in that direction, ignoring all of the fascinated glances being shot his way.

In any case, if Naganohara (II) and Naganohara (III) are no good, then perhaps he can get Tamamura back onto the job, and then everything will be swell.

Chimes jingle as he pulls open the door to the coffee shop. Well, even if she can't, then he could put up posters and attract workers that way.

"Na...Na...Nakanojou-san!" squeaks Tamamura, who's standing at the counter.

Nakanojou-san looks up. Deep inside, he feels somewhat disappointed.

"I... er... um..." Tamamura stammers, a hand held up close to her mouth. "This isn't..."

"I see," says Nakanojou-san. "I see how it is." If she already has a job, then there's no point in asking her. He turns around and walks out.


"Okay guys, we're eating lunch today at that famous udon and soba place!" declares Yukko.

"Hm?" Mio smiles, putting her books away into her bag. "We're eating out again today?"

"Of course, of course!" grins Yukko. "I read about it in a magazine!"

"Sounds interesting," says Mio, standing up, bag over her shoulder.

Yukko is already at the door. "Off and away!" she shouts, pointing upwards.

"Yes, yes," Mio says placatingly, tucking in her chair and then walking towards the door at a slower pace.

Mai closes the book in her hands, puts it into her bag, and then stands up. "Let's go."


h(x) = f(x)g(x)
dh(x)/dx = lim[h → 0] ((f(x + h)g(x + h) - f(x)g(x)) / h)
= lim[h → 0] ((f(x + h)g(x + h) - f(x + h)g(x) + f(x + h)g(x) - f(x)g(x)) / h)
= lim[h → 0] ((f(x + h)(g(x + h) - g(x)) + g(x)(f(x + h) - f(x))) / h)
= lim[h → 0] (f(x + h)(g(x + h) - g(x)) / h) + lim[h → 0] (g(x)(f(x + h) - f(x)) / h)
= f(x) lim[h → 0] ((g(x + h) - g(x)) / h) + g(x) lim[h → 0]((f(x + h) - f(x)) / h)
= f(x) g'(x) + g(x) f '(x)


日常 - nichijou, Arawi Keiichi