Steadily Erratic #9: nocturne
nocturne (French: at night)
a quiet, lyrical piece with a pensive, dreamy mood
alone at night
It was Monday night. Mere hours ago, Kaorin had roped Chihiro into helping her spy on Sakaki and her friends, but now—at least for Chihiro—the day was over. Now it was night, the time when most of Japan was going to sleep.
But for Kaorin, the budding astronomer, the night was just beginning. Already the sun had set, and the moon was showing its platinum-tinted face.
Platinum...that was a nice change from the usual term "silvery", Kaorin mused.
It was a lovely March night, cool and with little wind. The grass was soft and cool under her bare feet.
In the backyard, she set up her telescope on its tripod, and glanced up at the darkening sky with her naked eye. What stars would show up tonight?
Tanabata's Vega and Altair would have easily fitted her current bout of teenage angst, but this was March, not July as the Tanabata story demanded. So she flicked open her booklet on the Chinese constellations, and turned to the Spring section.
In the Spring section of the booklet, she looked up the Azure Dragon and found the Heart constellation. Glancing upwards, there it was.
The constellation next to it was the Chamber constellation. Since the seven constellations of the Azure Dragon were meant to form a complete picture of that dragon, the Chamber constellation was sometimes taken as the dragon's great and noble breasts, in order to continue the Chinese astrographical metaphor.
"My heart, right next to Sakaki-san's breasts...ack! That sounded so silly! Just an elementary schoolgirl's fitting anything to her desire."
"But that is my desire. To be with her. To be protected by her, my fierce dragon, she who will fend off all comers, all who dare to threaten our love."
"Still silly, though. Me, a seventeen-year-old aspiring astronomer, reading stars as if they really foretold the future."
"Asking the stars to intervene in our daily lives is like ants asking us humans to intervene in their daily lives."
Kaorin's motives were pure—she honestly believed this. The fact that she knew practically nothing about Sakaki—the supposed star for which Kaorin was always reaching—had apparently never crossed the younger girl's mind.
How do you reach somebody you don't know?
Other than obsessing and stalking, one couldn't really accuse Kaorin's fangirlish behavior of reaching extremes. At least, not yet.
"I've got to find a way to reach her. There's got to be some way to pierce that cool aura of hers, to touch the woman inside" —Kaorin blushed at the accidental innuendo— "some way to connect with her, right? Right?"
The only thing left to do was to find a way. For that, she would need the help of her ever-resourceful Chihiro.
And a trip to the claw game at the local mall.