Snapshots
Today the Photography Club drags Natsume around campus. They are a tightly woven bundle of nerves twittering in excitement, although Natsume cannot fathom why. A first year carries a tripod and one of their senpai holds the camera in her hands, another carrying a box labeled banners. Yet another student holds a clipboard, directing the group towards each room and building that houses a club activity.
Today is the day that the Photography Club takes pictures of each club and sports team for the school yearbook. It's their club that produces the yearbooks, and a lot of design and thought is apparently put into the process. Natsume doesn't really understand that, either, but he goes along with the festivities and partakes in the high strung enthusiasm that overwhelms the group.
Over the years, he has found that this is the easiest solution.
The day is pleasant, if a bit cold, and the wind blows across Tokyo just enough to nip at their noses and fingertips and ears as they hurry from one building to the next. There is nothing exceptionally beautiful about Seirin's campus, only that its architecture is unblemished and shiny, a new school with new equipment.
They enter the kendo hall, all glossy wooden floors filled with a cacophony of strident shouts, of strikes of wood against wood so sharp it sounds as if something has snapped and broken. It takes five minutes just to catch the attention of the captain, even with the whole club crowded around the narrow sidelines, trying to avoid flying bodies and flying shinai.
Natsume sees Fujiwara across the way, still dressed in his uniform and making a noticeable effort to give another first year advice without moving around. Even so, a large grin is spread across his face.
When the captain finally acknowledges the Photography Club's presence, he immediately draws the attention of the other members – eight in total, seven without Fujiwara. As the boys take off their helmets, a few immediately drag Fujiwara over despite his protests that he isn't dressed properly to take a club picture. They hustle him over to the wall, force him to stand still amongst them, and they all smile into the camera after a moment of readjustment.
Laughing at their antics, the Photography Club makes a quick exit before they are caught up in the whirlwind of shinai and charging bodies. It is Natsume who lingers for a moment more, glancing at Fujiwara behind his back, before he hurries to catch up to the others. It isn't his place to confront the boy there. It isn't much of his place to confront him about anything, really, since they are hardly friends.
The basketball club is next, and given their participation in the Winter Cup, most of the members of the Photography Club are pretty excited. Natsume is, too, secretly. Or maybe not so secretly, since he is acting rather enthusiastic about the day's events anyways. Not everyone is a fan of basketball – Japan is more of a baseball country – but it's still exciting, they say, for a high school competition.
They have two big games soon, against two tough schools – one they have lost to before, if Natsume remembers correctly. They must be training hard and it might be rude to interrupt their practice, but that's what they have been doing to every other club today.
The leader of the Photography Club bows apologetically, wearing a quirky smile as she speaks to the coach of the basketball team, a girl Natsume knows is in Fujiwara's class. Fujiwara, in one of his rapid fire, random conversations with him, said that he has seen her scrawl plans and schedules in her notebook during class before, and has seen some of the players stop in to speak to her every now and again.
Aida, the coach of the team, calls her boys away from their practice to take the picture as she deflects the apologies from the Photography Club's head awkwardly.
"It's really no big deal," she says. "It's just a picture. They'll live if they take a two minute break from basketball. It's all they think ever think about, anyways."
The girl mutters darkly underneath her breath, but Natsume can't hear her as she walks away to shoo her players into something that resembles a line. One of the guys that is usually on the bench runs into a side room, presumably the clubroom, and returns with a dog, curiously enough.
Some of the students around him whisper in confusion about the animal, but they don't question it because the puppy is adorable and the girls begin to coo over it. It even wears a small shirt with the school's colors, name, and a number on it. The guy who retrieved it hands it off to a shorter boy with light blue hair – the boy that everyone forgets both on and off the court.
Now that Natsume sees him up close, he realizes that the boy is in his class. He has seen him before and just didn't remember until now. This perplexes Natsume to the extent that one of his friends pokes him in the head to make sure he is still alive.
"Wait, he is on the team, right?" someone mutters.
A second year who hears the comment chuckles and says, "This is Kuroko. He has such a weak presence that everyone forgets about him when he plays. Ehehe, even we forget about him sometimes…but yeah, he's on the team."
"Wait," one of Natsume's friends practically cries out, much to his surprise and irritation. "Even Natsume didn't remember who he was! He really must be invisible…"
"Hm? Why's that surprising?" says one of the basketball players.
Natsume tries to shush his friend, going as far as stomping on his foot to shut him up because he really doesn't need to be advertised like a new camera, but it doesn't deter the boy who blurts, "Natsume-kun has a photographic memory, that's why. He just made a really surprised face before, so that must mean he remembered seeing that invisible guy before!"
"You didn't remember either, and we've all probably seen him in at least one game before," Natsume hisses. His face is warm and undoubtedly blushing.
"But you always remember everything. Even when the teacher asks for an answer, you can remember exactly which page and paragraph and line it's from."
The Photography Club's leader glares at them to shut up or continue their conversation elsewhere, and they gather the basketball players to take a picture so that they call all be on their merry ways. Natsume takes the time to quietly berate his friend, letting him know that he will by no means be forgiven easily for this.
They are finishing up after a few failed takes courtesy of the squirming dog, when one of the tallest players, the team's star ace, says, "Wait, so is Kise's weird copy ability a photographic memory?"
Natsume doesn't say anything, even though he immediately knows who the guy (Kagami, he thinks) is referring to. Most people would find it hard to forget the charismatic basketball player and model that the girls always fret about, but Natsume remembers from magazines and ads that are everywhere. He's read a few articles, too.
A soft, surprisingly flat voice corrects the tall player. "I do not believe so Kagami-kun, at least, not to the extent that you are referring to. Kise-kun is not particularly good at studying."
All of their heads turn to the first year, Kuroko, who is still holding the puppy in his arms with an expressionless face. It was a bit strange to hear him speak. It was strange just to notice him at all.
Natsume kind of expects his friend to blurt out something embarrassing again, something like, "Natsume-kun's the valedictorian!" Before he can say anything, Natsume is already pushing him from behind, muttering about them having too many clubs to visit for them to get distracted like this.
"Ah, that's right! We have work to do, so um, I'm sorry we took up so much of your time! Thank you for the photos! We'll be sure to get you a copy when we get them printed!" says the Photography Club's leader with a quick bow as she ushers her club away.
It takes a moment for the basketball team to resume practice, with the goal to win the Winter Cup in mind.
- Thanks for all of the support, those of you who reviewed or faved/alerted this story! Ahaha, really not sure if I will continue after this one. I don't have any other ideas unless someone has a suggestion. I really didn't think it would be this well received.
- I just finished this, so let me know if there are typos (I usually write in past tense so that slips in there like all the time...).
- I guess you can say that I kinda based his character off Kise, which is why I compared the two here. I'm not sure what's up with Kise. xD He has insane recall, but only for physical movements/sports and not for remembering anything he sees. Usually as very young children we all have pretty good eidetic memories (babies absorb things like a sponge, no other way to learn) but this goes away as we get older. Very few will retain it into later childhood (5-9?) and a true eidetic memory is probably not possible (but this is fiction.).
- I dunno what's with Kise. The light novel apparently mentions that he isn't so good at studying.