This is the chapter in which I fully learned the difficulty in writing American English compared to British, and I'll be damned if I'm going to write toward instead of towards. Eat my dust, dustmites.
Standing in the entrance to the art room, I am stunned from the perplex brought to me by the red-haired girl whom I have failed to notice while entering. Disregarding her lack of arms, she looks comparatively skinny, although it's difficult to see from her leaning position, and one leg in the air with a fork between its toes distracting me. She's wearing a male uniform, and while surprising, I do realize that it would be quite reasonable, as she seems to use her feet a lot.
Most noticeable, though, are her incredibly large eyes, a deep green that appears to reflect the light in the room in a fashion I've never seen eyes do before in my life. While they're aimed straight at me, it almost feels as if she is looking into something else than my physical form, as if she were able to directly witness my soul. Her nose and chin seem a bit boney, which serves to further my suspicion of her skinniness, and her lips, which look to be a bit dry, are quite thin, too. With the male uniform, I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to misplace her as a boy, actually.
"Hello," she repeats before letting the fork between her toes to her mouth and chewing on the food she got from it. The dexterity she's showing with her feet is quite... intriguing, to say the least, but I opt to focus my attention on her face instead of her toes.
"Hello, indeed," I respond as the dextrous girl continues to chew on the food that seems to have come from a lunchbox sitting in front of her on the table. Why she's sitting on a table in the art room after school, eating from a lunch box, I'd have to take a number of guesses on before being correct, I believe.
"Sorry if I said 'Hello' twice," she says after swallowing the food in her mouth and turning to look out the window. "I do that sometimes. Repeat myself. And you didn't seem to react when I think I first said it, so I thought I'd say it again. Which would've been useless if you turned out to be deaf." For some reason the girl's words get me into a positive mood, quite unlike that which I'd expected to have after being looked after for an afternoon. I'm not entirely sure what to think about her choice of subject for conversation, but it is, like her dexterousness, intriguing.
"Then I guess it's for the better that I'm able to hear you," I respond, clicking my tongue. Sorry, Shizune. "Nakai Hisao, by the way." Taking the list of items out of my pocket I start looking through it and walking toward where I happen to see the first item on the list.
"Tezuka Rin. That's my name, as I believe you just told me yours, unless 'Nakai Hisao' is some strange codeword that's supposed to mean something. In that case I don't know what it means," the girl apparently named Tezuka answers, and a glance back tells me she's still looking out the window.
"It's my name. And I'd expect this room to be empty as of now," I state as I look through a box for another item on the list given to me just a few minutes ago by the ever-so chirpy Misha. Being worried absolutely didn't fir the drill-haired girl at all.
"So would I. That's why I came here." Turning around, she seems to have turned her attention to me now, but her expression does seem rather cloudy, as if she herself doesn't know what she's thinking. It seems philosophical, to some degree.
"So we both broke that belief for each other." Continuing to look for the next object on the list, I take another look towards Tezuka, who's now looking at me with what appears to be a smug grin.
"Guess we did," she answers, before letting her eyes drop down back onto her lunch box, seeming to think a little before again letting her gaze up towards me. "May I continue my lunch? I'm hungry."
"Go right ahead. Although it does seem closer to dinner than lunch, going by the clock," I answer her question, going back to looking for the supplies desired by the student council duo, scanning the list once again to make sure I'm actually looking for the right thing and not blindly searching for something unnecessary. Apparently my memory has served me this time, and I am, in fact, looking for the right thing. Yay, me.
"But I want to eat dinner too, and if I don't eat now my delicious boxed lunch would go to waste. There should be a word for a meal between lunch and dinner. I've thought about that a lot," she states before I hear the sound of chewing and swallowing.
"At least you're thinking about things that would make life more comfortable," I voice my thoughts, a small scoffing leaving me as I do, the thought of the girl eating a non-lunch on top of a table in the art room of Yamaku seeming hilarious. "There's a lot of thinking done that does the opposite, I'd say."
"Then the people who do that kind of thinking should stop thinking those thoughts. I think." Her response is sequel and prequel to the sounds of eating, and her words get me to drop my expression a bit. Not that my facade has been broken, but rather that Tezuka doesn't appear likely to notice if I were to do so unless she was actively concentrating specifically on me, which doesn't seem incredibly likely in its own right.
"Yeah, I guess they should..." Goddamnit Hisao, stop being melancholic! So far it's done nothing but make others around you uncomfortable, and while that's a valuable power to have it should not be overused!
Inhale, exhale. Remember those two words. Breathe in the deepest breath you've ever breathed, and breathe it out. A sigh is heaved, and I straighten myself to disperse of the dark emotions residing within my body, if only for the time being, and I turn my head towards Tezuka to see her appearing to be done with her lunchbox, despite it not being empty. Suddenly, her attention is, again, aimed directly at me.
"So, Nakai, what brings you here?" she asks, aiming the foot handling the fork towards me, almost as if she was trying to throw the fork at me in the most hilarious and awesome ninja-move of all time.
"That depends on your scale of things. Do you mean this particular room, or maybe the universe in general?" I ask Tezuka in a manner that seems like one she'd use herself, from what little I've observed so far, and from the returning grin it seems that I was able to hit the nail on the head.
"This school. You look fine, so it's something not visible, right?" Slightly stunned from her words, I turn back and continue looking for the next object on the list, embarrassed about being embarrassed.
"What if I chose to come to this school simply because I wanted to, and not because of some health problem?" I ask, trying to do my best at keeping up the logic-breaking demeanor I've had during the rest of the conversation.
"You don't seem like someone who'd do that. I'm usually quite good at seeing things like that. Better than most. At knowing things, I mean. Not at not being someone." She hesitates for a moment after that, stopping mid-line as if to remember what it was she was meant to say. "Let me guess. Knowing and guessing are sort of the same things, so I'm good at both."
I turn to her, pressing my hands against my sides and pushing my elbows outward to give some kind of strange pose, and Tezuka starts analyzing me with a gaze that almost seems like a slow camera. After having looked me over a couple of times she closes her eyes, and appears to think about what condition might have taken me to this school for 'youngsters with special needs'. Finally, her eyelids are opened to reveal the still surprisingly large eyes.
"The problem mu-"
"Heart. I have a bad heart. It beats strangely," I break her off, not really sure why, although a guess would be that it felt fun to see how she'd react to it. She almost seems to... break, as her mouth remains open, and her entire body gives the impression of having frozen, maybe even forgetting to breathe. Finally, she drops to an expression that almost crosses the line to being considered a sad one.
"I was gonna guess on a problem in your pants. I already have several with heart problems."
"'Have'?" I drop my arms back down to my sides.
"I collect problems. Trying to get an entire body," Tezuka responds, turning over and looking out the window, and I turn back to look for the few things left on my list.
"Ah... Well, heart problems wouldn't be incredibly uncommon to find, in that case." I suddenly realize exactly what her statement before the former one was. "And you don't have anyone with a problem in their pants. I guess one of my medications has a risk of causing erectile dysfunction, if that's good enough for you."
"Huh. I guess that works."
Another few minutes pass in silence as I search and find the last items on the list given to me by the pink-haired partner of the student council president. Feeling satisfied with my findings, I start heading towards the door to leave the room, but turn back to Tezuka once to have some kind of ending to our 'meeting'.
"Well then, I'll be leaving. Adieu, Tezuka."
"Rin. I think we're in a close enough relationship to refer to each other by given names by now. If you're fine with that."
"I see no problem with it." A small grin forces itself upon my lips at the rather strange, but incredibly interesting, individual, sitting at a table in the art room of Yamaku, her attention focused on none other than moi. "Well then, goodbye, Rin."
"See you, Hisao," she says, the same smug grin she wielded earlier returning to her lips as she does so. "I think I'll take a nap. Naps are nice. It's like sleeping, but they feel better because you're not limited by morning. Or Emi, for that matter." Emi. I recognize that as the name of a very certain someone who ran into me earlier this very day, resulting in a lunch spent in the infirmary. Not sure whether to be angry or happy or that, so I decide on neither.
"Would this nuisance of yours happen to be Ibarazaki Emi?" I ask, dwelling into the realms of names that are the students of Yamaku. I don't really have any reason to know of any connection between the two, but if I'm going to force myself into peoples lives I might as well do it thoroughly.
"Yep. You know her?" Rin looks at me with a wondering expression that somehow makes her otherwise bony face look rather cute.
"Rather than 'know', I guess you could say we ran into each other. Or that she ran into me. With the speed of a bullet."
"That happens a lot. I'll tell her you said hi."
"Be sure to mention that I'm alive. She might be worried, otherwise," I state, letting a small smile to my lips that seem to have returned to a straight line before this. "Well then, I'll really be off now, unless any other circumstances hinder me. Bye, Rin." I turn around and head towards the door, the redhead mumbling something that sounds like a farewell as a sound suggests that she's lying down on the table.
Exiting the art room and turning around to close the door, I hear sneaking steps coming toward me from behind, and almost instinctively I bend my back slightly forward as I spin around to find... none other than Misha taking a leap and landing with her face right in front of mine. A couple of inches separate our faces, and staring into those large, hazel eyes is quite the entertaining act, neither of us saying anything. Finally, I realize that it would probably be a better idea to actually say something than just stand here, watching each other intently for the rest of the day.
"So what might bring you here, Misha?" I ask, keeping my face at the exact same distance from hers as I have until now, and my field of view is pretty much limited to those golden brown eyes, although I do see a hint of a drill on each side in the corner of my vision. No idea as to why, I push my own face half an inch forward, which serves to have Misha back off, but only half as much as I moved closer.
"Shicchan and I were wondering what was taking you so long, Hicchan~" she responds with a cheery, yet serious voice, and the tones seem to contrast, as if she were speaking with two voices at once. In a way, I guess you could say she is, with the interpretation she's constantly doing for her partner, whom I assume to be standing somewhere behind her, unless Misha's genuine care for me isn't shared by Shizune. I sigh, turn my head downwards, take a step back and stand up straight.
"While I will have to thank you for making sure that I'm not falling and not getting up at a moment's notice, I'll have you know that I've made a promise not to have a heart attack while I'm at Yamaku," I state, heightening my face again and seeing that I was correct in my guess that Shizune was standing behind Misha. She seems to have been trying to take a peek at me from her position while her pink-haired friend and I were having our, partially literal, face-off. Looking back down at Misha, who's still standing just a few inches away from me, she's wearing quite the serious expression.
"And you're completely sure you can abide by this promise of yours?" she asks, almost as if she were some kind of government agent making sure that I have not committed an illegal spy operation. As she furrows her brow a bit, she lowers her head, which results in her drills bopping, which is quite cute, to say the least.
"As sure as a teenage boy with a chronic heart condition can be." 'Not sure at all', basically, but I'll do my best, both for you, Misha, and for Lilly, whom I made the promise with. That good enough for you?
"Good~," she says, closing her eyes, heightening her head, and putting on a grin the size of a CD. I'll have to say, you do have incredibly nice, white teeth, Misha. How do you keep them that way? "Then what was it that took so much of your time?"
"I had a rather intriguing conversation on non-lunch. Sorry for making you worry, but from my perspective I'll have to say that it was worth it," I answer her question and put on a smile as the girl with the drills puts on a questioning expression before turning back to Shizune and conversing for a bit in a language I understand nothing of. Huh, maybe I should learn it. Would make speaking with the eagle easier, and it would look quite good on my resume in the future. Of course, the question is whether sign language is easier, harder, or just as difficult to learn as a 'voiced' language is, the latter two possibilities setting up quite a problem, since languages have never been my strong side. I don't think I've ever gotten above 80 on a Japanese test, actually.
"Well then, we'll have to inspect regarding this information we've gotten, as that does sound as an excuse for some prohibited activity," Misha states, turning back to me, and before I'm able to react Shizune's pushing her way past me, thankfully on the side with which I'm not carrying items she herself specifically asked for, as that would have most likely resulted in my dropping of them. The following reaction to witnessing someone lying on a table, probably already asleep, is most likely impossible to explain in words, but I'll make an attempt; her body tenses to the state of resembling a statue, as her skin goes as blank as snow, freezing to a temperature colder than that necessary to have hell freeze over, and her eyes shake as if they are about to pop out.
Slamming the door shut, the student council president turns to me and doesn't even bother signing anything to exclaim the dark emotions running through her body at this moment, but the soul-devouring stare she carries is enough to make the point come across. She takes a few inhumanly long steps forward, passing both me and Misha, and a look to the pink-haired girl reveals that she currently looks almost... scared.
"Hello?" a voice suddenly asks from beyond the door, and it takes a few moments for me to realize the immediate problem Rin might be facing with getting the door opened, so I decide to help her on that front. Her exit is opened, and she leaves the room with a tired expression, looking around a little before settling her eyes on nothing in particular, which looks stranger than it sounds. "I didn't know I was this popular."
"Disregarding popularity, it seems that the student council president has taken to aggression regarding your illicit repose on school furnishing," I comment, stepping a bit to the side to allow the redhead to move into the hallway, which she does, as I close the door behind her before turning back to the other two girls, and it appears that the pink-haired one is trying to calm down her companion in a blistering sign conversation more resemblant of a battle of blades than a discussion.
"It looks like they're fighting. Not fighting like when you yell at someone because you're angry. Fighting like in movies," Rin voices what my mind has already stated, and a look towards her shows that she is, in fact, looking at the debate with the analytic gaze of... an artist, I guess? That would explain why she was, quite specifically, in the art room... Before I'm able to completely go off on a mental tangent, though, Misha seems to have given up on calming down Shizune, as she lets her face down and the latter aims her mad gaze at Rin, whom it appears to have no effect on.
"Besides the imminent matter of misuse of school furniture, we, the student council, wonder if Tezuka actually has the time to relax, as the mural she is meant to make has yet to be finished," Misha says with a defeated tone, refraining from raising her head... or maybe the better term would be 'continuing to keep her head down', as her defeat was so great that for the moment it seems to be the basic form of things.
"Huh," Rin responds. "You're probably right. I'll have to postpone my nap, I think." That would make her being an artist correct, explaining her analytical gaze and spending time in the art room... I think. Maybe she'd be like that whether she was an artist or not, but who am I to judge others behavior based on their past-times?
"Well then, that will be perfect, Tezuka," Misha says as she finally raises her head again, slowly, as if it were the most difficult task throughout her entire life. Are... are her eyes tearing up? Shizune, you're one scary student council president, you know that, right? "Now then, Hicchan~. Let me take those supplies back to the student council room." Whether she's trying her best to appear blithe or her vocal chords have gotten so used to it that it's difficult to not have such a tone is a question I am unable to answer. Nonetheless, the girls with the bobbing drills takes a step forward me, and instinctively I back off, but hit the door, and she takes the bag of items on my side.
"Misha..." I say, my eyes locking onto hers with worry, but she gives a slight smile, sending the message that she'll be okay across. As she grabs the bag, though, I, for reasons unknown to myself, throw my arms around her in a spontaneous hug. I feel her stiffen within my arms, just for a second, but then she relaxes, although a look over her head reveals that Shizune is just as, if not more, shocked than Misha herself was just a second ago.
"You're a really strange guy, Hicchan~," she says, her bubbly voice returning to her, and she goes silent for a moment before starting to laugh the vivacious laughter I've gotten used to after only three days at this academy. An exuberant laughter, the kind that, although carrying the power of being found incredibly annoying, can also lighten up the mood of a situation with ease.
"Has strange guy Hisao been successful?" I ask, letting go as Misha's laughter slowly ceases, finally completely disappearing. Looking at her, she now seems completely fine, so I guess this 'strangeness' of mine has been good for something.
"He has~," she responds, drills bobbing as she does, her teeth-showing grin having returned. A look over Misha reveals that her comrade is turned to the side, looking at us through the corner of her eye, blushing. The hugged one does as I have and looks over there, to giggle at the sight of Shizune blushing at our earlier commission. The latter, realizing that we're looking at her, turns to Misha with an angered yet blushing face and starts rapidly signing something, which makes the drill-haired girl laugh. "We should get going now. Bye, Tezuka, Hicchan~" The student council duo leaves, signing a conversation that's rather difficult for the one carrying a bag to hold.
"Didn't expect that," Rin, who's remained largely silent until now, says, and I turn to her with a wondering expression regarding her statement. "The hug. I mean, I didn't expect anything of what just happened to happen, but the largest surprise was the hug. I think. Maybe there was something else so shocking I decided to forget it. I do that sometimes. Forget things, I mean. I'm not good at getting shocked. At least not that I remember." She seems finished with this monologue of hers.
"They mentioned a mural. Care to explain?" I ask, lacking any particular reason for doing so.
"I'm making a mural. For the festival." She stops for a moment, as if realizing something. "Although it'll be there after the festival, too, so I guess it's not only for the festival." Although she's supposed to have finished this mural of hers in only four days, it doesn't seem to concern her that much, so either she's close to finished or she just doesn't show that she cares, the question in the latter case being whether she actually does.
"Any way I could help?" I ask, determining that sticking with Rin will most likely result in a fairly interesting experience, as it already has been. In the very least, I'll be helping out with preparations for the festival while in the company of this enthralling girl. She freezes up, which, from my experience, appears to indicate her thinking, before finally aiming her gaze, which was fixated on nothing, towards me.
"You could help me carry some paint. It gets difficult, since it's problematic to jump around on one leg while carrying a bucket with the other."
And so, the first chapter of (probably) two chapters to make up the Rin Arc has been released, along with the revised version of Chapter 10. Love all of you guys that actually read this, as I'd feel pretty bad about myself if I wrote it and nobody read it.