Chapter 4: Liberation

"Say, do you suppose we're the same size?" a young woman asked Anastasia.

Anastasia was working at the restaurant again today. It was a fairly small and quaint place. It had a very earthen color scheme to it, though considering its location in Okinawa not all that far from the U.S military base one could be forgiven for thinking the brown and dark green palette had more to do with the American Army than anything else.

The owner, Jake Ishikawa, was a second generation Japanese-American. He had the opportunity to serve in the U.S military at the Okinawa base and decided to move to Japan after retiring from the military. He used his savings to open up this shop; Rose.

Anastasia passed this restaurant a number of times on her way to and from school both in middle school and now in high school. There were many nights that she came to this restaurant to have dinner. She was considered a regular customer, so when Jake was looking for a new employee, Anastasia had a running start.

It was a small restaurant. It was quaint, appearing something like a coffee shop. There were about half a dozen round tables with a total of four chairs at each. A large etched glass window filled about two-thirds of the wall space at the front of the shop. Towards the back was a partially covered bar area with seating for six along its length. Past there were the kitchen and employee areas such as the dressing room. Open from 7:30 in the morning to 10:00 at night, it had a modest menu; your choice of a Japanese or western style breakfast, a daily variety for lunch, and a set menu for dinner with daily specials.

The restaurant does relatively well for itself, at least well enough to keep going. But most afternoons during Anastasia's shift – from four to about seven at night – it tends to be relatively slow. Even while she was nothing more than a customer it would be fairly empty with only a couple people inside if she came in early enough.

That was more or less what the situation was today too as Anastasia was chatted up by her visitor.

It was into the second trimester now in the school year. The heat of summer was slowly abating in the presence of the coolness of fall that tried to blow in over the seas. A real drop in temperatures from what had been a very hot summer would not likely arrive for a while yet, however, as it was still only mid September. It likely wasn't a far stretch to imagine the likes of Anastasia's current companion was here mainly to escape the heat outside, though one could likely find any number of other places to do that, not least of which would be one's own home.

"Are you trying to poke fun at me?" Anastasia replied curtly to her friend. Onlookers would have thought it to be a harsh retort, but these two were close enough for it not to be misconstrued.

"Aren't you being too self conscious?" the friend answered with a chuckle. "You're so defensive,"

"It's just that I can't imagine any other reason you'd ask something like that,"

"I've been thinking your uniform is cute, so I want to try it on,"

"Sorry ma'am, but employees cannot handout their uniforms to customers," Anastasia replied diplomatic sounding in jest.

"Don't you keep a spare in your locker?" the friend said as she got up and started towards the back of the store and the employee area.

"You'll have to behave yourself if you come out dressed like that," Anastasia added with a grin as the friend passed through the door.

"Yes, boss," the friend called back from the other side of the door.

This young woman was a student at Ryusei as well. She was in Anastasia's grade, and as of the start of the trimester in her class as well. Serina Arenzai was a transfer student into Ryusei towards the end of May, nearly halfway through the first trimester. She gained immediate attention for not only this, but her long, sterling silver hair, and aquamarine blue eyes.

From almost the moment Anastasia started high school, and allegedly since middle school, she was given nicknames by students who had only seen or heard of her. The most popular among these was "the Duchess". This was apparently in reference to the impression many had of her as being headstrong, and highly self-confident; Anastasia would probably agree with the latter, but not much with the former. In general the way Anastasia carries herself can evoke a feeling of regality, or alternatively of looking down on others. As a result, she has a fair share of detractors as well as fans.

Serina was the same when she started at the school. She arrives daily by way of a car, dropped off by a chauffeur, not unlike a number of other students. Even so, some count this as a part of a generally pretentious attitude she seems to exude. The way she carries herself too seems to be as though she is a model on a runway, or an idol in front of adoring fans; as though she expected cheering to break out.

Things only got worse when attempts were made at embarrassing Serina. They were truly childish pranks like hiding her school books, but she seemed casually aloof to all of these acts.

At some point Serina became an existence that was similar to Anastasia's. She had those who admired her air of confidence and splendor, and thought highly of her. Even though not at the very top of the class in terms of grades, she was very smart too, so she made for a good role model. She had her detractors who considered her a showoff and to be too interested in putting on a good face for everyone. They felt she had a sinister and conniving side to her such that if you got too close to her she'd betray you somehow.

Anastasia and Serina had no occasion to meet at first. Greeting transfer students was the job of the student council president and secretary. As only the treasurer Anastasia had no reason to meet with a new student, especially one not in her class. Serina had even less reason to meet Anastasia as she was nothing but a student. It would have been stranger for her to go out of her way to greet Anastasia.

That didn't stop rumors from spreading about the two. The tales alleged that the young women were adversaries; that Anastasia didn't approve of someone coming up to steal her spotlight, and Serina not content sharing the spotlight with anyone.

Part of what endears and infuriates some with Anastasia and Serina is the fact that they can be so unbelievably aloof. Until the first trimester was almost over Anastasia had thought that this Serina person was a freshman in the grade below her. Serina had no idea what Anastasia even looked like, despite having passed her in the halls almost every day, and didn't seem to know that Anastasia was on the student council.

Schools like Ryusei – new schools – tend to have a lot of turnover of population throughout the year. Ryusei wasn't really "new" but because of its transition from a private to a public school, and going from women only to mixed gender, it might as well have been new. This turnover was the coming in and going out of students as the school sought to establish a reputation and identity.

Through this tumult the student council even lost a few members who stepped down in anticipation for their heading off to a new school at the start of the next trimester. Anastasia was promoted from treasurer to vice president. They were still short a secretary and now a treasurer. The student council advertised for the positions. Serina offered forth her name for the position of treasurer; what turned out to be another unintended point of convergence of the two lady's stories.

"Whaddya think?" Serina asked, re-emerging in Anastasia's spare restaurant uniform.

"I'm a bit impressed. I think it actually suits you nicely," Anastasia complimented, looking over Serina from head to toe.

"The chest is a little tight though…" Serina stated airily as she fidgeted with the blouse.

"Go take it off right now!" Anastasia sternly retorted, returning to wiping down the counters behind the bar.

"You're so self-conscious," Serina sighed. "I think you have a beautiful figure,"

"You sound like an old man," Anastasia retorted again.

"That's such a stale comeback," Serina remarked as she sat down in one of the bar stools.

"I'd rather at least hear you deny it," Anastasia sighed.

"Do you have any plans this weekend?" Serina asked, changing subjects abruptly now.

"Not really. I was thinking of just relaxing for once,"

"Let's go shopping,"

"I don't really know…"

"You just said you didn't have any plans," Serina pointed out, seeming as though she was trying to pin Anastasia in.

"The last time we went shopping together you got so frustrated with the clerk that you threatened to buy the entire store. I don't think you understand how embarrassing it is to be with someone when they say something like that,"

"That man was so incompetent I just lost my temper a bit,"

"Most people don't threaten to buy stores when they're upset," Anastasia blearily answered back.

"You'll never let that go, will you?" Serina asked, returning a similarly bleary tone.

"Well, it's not like I had plans anyway, so I guess I'm fine with that," she conceded.

After Serina joined the student council, she and Anastasia had little choice but to interact with each other directly. It was Anastasia's responsibility, as the last treasurer, to teach the new treasurer the ropes. Serina was a quick study, so she was up and running very quickly.

Nevertheless, the two ladies found they had similar interests and that they got along well, despite their respective fans' contention of the opposite. They began to talk regularly during and after council meetings, met up between and after classes, during lunch, and before long would hang out together outside of school as well.

Together with Megumi and Tania they spent much of their summer vacation together. They gave Serina a tour of Okinawa, had the obligatory beach trip, and the now infamous store incident in which a store clerk was a bit curt with Serina. She got into an argument with the man, at some point her temper swelling to the point that she threatened to buy the store and fire him on the spot. To make matters worse she nearly tried to do just that, ordering him to pack every item in the store and charge her bank card for the purchase. Megumi and Anastasia talked Serina down after some time, while Tania could barely contain herself as she laughed over the matter.

"Have you ever considered working here?" Anastasia asked Serina as they were walking home after Anastasia's shift.

"Hmm…" Serina sighed with a small shrug of her shoulders. "It's hard feel the urge to work being around my mother. She's so carefree it saps your energy to do anything,"

"I'm not sure how to respond to that," Anastasia giggled. "I don't know your mother would appreciate you saying that about her,"

"It's fine; she knows how she is," Serina dismissed. "The sky could be falling and she would act as though she could just fly out from under it,"

"You're terrible," Anastasia continued to giggle.

"Have you heard of a triskaidecagon?" Serina asked, somewhat out of the blue.

"It's a shape, right?" Anastasia guessed based on the phonetics of the word.

"Yup. It's a thirteen sided polyhedron,"

"Why bring that up now?"

"I just remembered it. Mother had mentioned something about it. Apparently an acquaintance of hers is working on a triskaidecagon structured carbon material,"

"Oh, you mean like carbon nanotubes?"

"Yes. Apparently the more sides you can add to the polyhedron, the stronger the bond becomes. By messing around with carbon molecules, there's this scientist mother knows that is trying to create triskaidecagon carbon-based molecules,"

"I still don't see why you'd suddenly bring something like that up,"

"We started talking about mother and I suddenly remembered, that's all,"

"I've never asked before, but what does your mother do?"

"Her title is investor, but really that's just a nice way of saying she has a lot of money to spend so she gives it away to whomever she likes,"

"I'd like to meet your mother. She sounds like a wonderful person,"

"I'll tell her you said so. I'm sure she'd be pleased,"

"Why would your mother care what I think of her?" Anastasia chuckled.

"I'm sure you've experienced it all your life; the stares, the whispering, the looks of both awe and loathing," Serina softly said as she crept as close to Anastasia as they could get while walking. "I bet that all your life you've had those around you bowing to you for no reason at all,"

"That's…" Anastasia was going to refute the allegation, but she couldn't, only becoming a bit dreary and quiet.

It was true, after all. For as long as she could remember, most people around her age, even those just a little older than her, were apt to prescribe their thinking, their behavior, towards hers. Debate was something somewhat foreign to her.

In kindergarten if she asked to play with a toy, it was given to her with a big smile. In middle school when the class had to put on a play, her suggestion was picked by near unanimity, even those who first suggested other ideas abandoning their own with little to no hesitance on hearing Anastasia's. She was always first to be nominated for the lead in class plays, or to be class rep, even if not interested. In high school she'd already received adulatory affirmations from people she had never seen before, let alone knew, was commonly treated as though she were student council president before she even joined the council, and most recently had become aware of the extent to which her fan club had grown by way of their self-appointed task of persecuting those they perceived as Anastasia's enemies.

It developed into something of a complex for Anastasia, hence her silence now with Serina's spotlighting the reality. Anastasia is a private person, in spite of her fawning public. While most imagine her living in some posh condo or great mansion, she lives in a very average apartment in an average apartment building. Most think her to be fabulously wealthy, and took rumor of her working as some kind of euphemism saying that she was helping out her parents with their business; never mind that Anastasia's parents are dead before you can even get into a question of helping them out at home.

"It was quite enjoyable," Serina added, swooning a bit as she gave Anastasia some space. "It was nice not having to deal with other's whims. I had a lot of fun. But it's not like I could call a bunch of drones following me about "friends". I did have fun, but I would probably account you as my first real friend,"

"That's far too sad and depressing,"

"That wasn't my point," Serina replied, taking some light offense to the idea of being pitied. "My mother simply hasn't had the experience of an acquaintance of mine making such comments about her in anything but a sense of obligation,"

"I'm not so sure I get the significance, but if it makes you both happy, that's fine,"

"Say, if you could really rule the world, would you want to?"

"There's a pretty big difference between being the ruler of the world and being admired by a bunch of high school girls,"

"I think even that says something about your temperament as a potential ruler," Serina complimented, again taking on that sort of clever tone that said she was on to something that was particularly interesting to her.

"There's no "potential" there since ruling the world's the stuff of villains in movies and anime," Anastasia dismissed.

"Really? I would've thought you considered it at least a little, even as a joke. Are you really so pure?"

"It's not about purity; it's just not reasonable to think one person can manage something like that,"

"Even so, there are some people who'd take the chance, even start a war on that belief,"

"You're talking about what's going on in Russia?" Anastasia inferred.

"You've heard the rumors, right?"

"I did, but I hardly believe that's really the case. I mean, why would you start a whole war over something like that? It's so completely illogical,"

"That just goes to prove how much they believe in it,"

"They're willing to risk their lives and other people's lives over something so… flimsy. I think it's nothing but a rumor that just sprouted up since no one knows what's going on,"

"That's one theory. Anyway, I'll call you later," Serina waved as she strolled off a different direction.

"Sure. Later," Anastasia returned, heading for home too.

The two girls went their separate ways. Anastasia had said so to Tania before as well, that her home was only a few blocks from Rose. As such it wasn't much of a walk home for her. Serina also walked home… or so Anastasia suspected. She had to admit to not being too sure. Evenings like this one where they hung out together they would reach the same spot, Anastasia walking her way home, Serina going the other direction; one going left and one going right. Anastasia has yet to visit Serina's home, although Serina has seen Anastasia's.

"It's not bad… quaint," Serina said with as much zeal as filling out a tax form upon seeing Anastasia's place the first time.

"You said the same thing when you walked up," Anastasia criticized. "If you wanna say it's small, just go ahead and say so,"

"Hmm… I wouldn't call it small. I can certainly imagine much smaller. But I do think I imagined something a little more lavish," Serina commented as she passed through the living room. "It's a very open concept, which is quite rare. Nice hardwood floors, nice addition with the rug… the furnishings are nice, as well as the decorations… Honestly, it's not bad for a high school student on her own,"

"You sound extremely condescending right now, you know that?" Anastasia replied, heading down the short hallway to her bedroom.

Serina headed over to the window and drew open the curtains a little to peer out. "It's a shame you don't have a better view though," she added, the scenery being that of a side street, a light pole, and another apartment complex about two floors taller than this one.

"I inherited this you know," Anastasia reminded Serina upon coming back out of her room. She had already un-tucked her shirt, removed her tie, and gotten off her socks of her school uniform. "And even so, it's not like I have a ton of money to be picky about where I live,"

"I know, I know," Serina lightheartedly answered. "I am being sincere, despite your acrimony. It is a nice place. All I'm saying is that it's easy to see how this place would fail to match up to the general image you garner. I'm sure most at school think you're place a mansion, or a huge condo atop some fabulously tall building. I'm a bit honored to be able to say that I know the real you,"

"There's no need to be honored. It's just an apartment,"

"That's good, so you won't care if I look around a bit, right?" Serina joyfully exclaimed. She ran off to Anastasia's bedroom before Anastasia had a chance to say anything against it.

Serina peered through the door and around the modestly sized room. There was a single bed tucked into a corner with a slider window above. There was a desk with a laptop and a table lamp on the next wall. Beside the desk were a bookcase and a door to a closet. On the next wall was a dresser with a few things on top.

"Now this is a little disappointing," Serina chastised as she strolled to the center of the room.

"What now?" Anastasia sighed.

"No stuffed animals, no posters of some band or something, no risqué things lying about… I was hoping for a little more personal touch," Serina sat down on the bed and crossed her legs. "Now I'll have to see about snooping through your things and hope to find something more interesting,"

"Or you could not do that and just be satisfied," Anastasia remarked from her door.

Serina giggled as she looked at Anastasia's expression. She looked like a disappointed mother trying to guilt her child. It was then Serina caught a better glimpse of something on top of Anastasia's dresser. She rose up off the bed and approached the dresser, Anastasia mistakenly thinking at first that Serina was approaching her specifically.

"What is it?" Anastasia asked.

"I would think that this here makes up for the rather blandness of your room," Serina stated, observing the object of her attention without touching it. "Can I ask where you got it?"

"Oh, that…" Anastasia replied, glancing at the object. It was an orb, egg shaped, made of blue glass with a white band about the hemisphere, set within a creamy white crystal base that looked like a formation of clouds. A star-scape was engraved in the glass, several stars clearly emphasized by sparkling stones that very well could have been diamonds. The semi translucent blue glass allowed one to look inside to reveal the complex mechanism of a clock.

"It's very lovely, isn't it?" Serina mused, her gaze enthralled with the object.

"It's a family heirloom I guess," Anastasia noted, taking it off the dresser and holding it so Serina could look a little closer. "Supposedly it dates back about a hundred years by now. It's one of the few things I have belonging to my parents,"

"This is the Gemini constellation, isn't it?" Serina continued to marvel as she remained captivated by the heirloom. "I never would have imagined I'd see this here,"

Anastasia picked up on the last comment and asked, "Whaddya mean?"

"No, it's nothing," Serina replied. "Only that this is a truly beautiful, exquisite, piece. Just seeing it makes me happy,"

"You really are strange sometimes," Anastasia remarked, returning the glass and crystal decoration to its spot on her dresser.

"What does that say about you who let me in your home?"

Anastasia chuckled on her way out the room, replying, "That would make me strange too I suppose,"

"I'm looking forward to your dinner," Serina only lightly teased, following after Anastasia to the kitchen.

"I'm not a great cook, so don't expect too much. I've never cooked for anyone before either,"

"I thought Tania and Megumi said they tasted your cooking before?"

"Well, that's different. They took some of my lunch when I wasn't looking. It's not like I cooked specifically for them,"

"I was wondering…" Serina started to ask a question. Her pause spoke to the fact that she wasn't entirely certain how she wanted to ask the question, perhaps priming Anastasia for how sensitive the topic was likely to be.

Anastasia glanced at Serina from the kitchen. There was a distinctively pensive look on Serina's face as she sat in the living room. With a sigh Anastasia asked, "Is it about my parents?"

"Sorry. Don't say anything,"

"No, it's fine. I really can't be too broken up about it. My parents died when I was so young I can hardly remember them. I've been raised by my aunt and uncle ever since. I moved here to live on my own when it was time to start high school. They send me money, but I don't want to rely on them. I love them and I owe them a lot, but I just felt I needed to try it on my own a little,"

"I must say, it's not very unusual to want a little freedom as a teenager, but not many our age would have the self-control or temperament to do as you have,"

"Thanks for the compliment," Anastasia said with a demure smile. "But it really sounds like you're trying to butter me up for something,"

"You're always so suspicious. Perhaps you've grown up too quickly," Serina sighed, laying down in the couch.

"Maybe you're just the type that makes people suspicious," Anastasia added, refocusing on what she was doing.

That was the first of only three visits Serina made to Anastasia's place. They chatted while Anastasia prepared dinner. They ate together, and then after dinner they did homework, before Serina had to head home. The last visit wound up being a sleepover during a weekend towards the end of the summer break. On her way home now, Anastasia was thinking it might be nice to invite Serina over again. Not just Serina, but Tania and Megumi as well. Cook together, eat together, do homework, or just sit around doing nothing of any consequence. Even if they would never recall the exact conversations they would have that day, the fact that they had them would be something to treasure for a long time.