Saturdays without school are a blessing from God, no doubt. Complete solitude from the outside world and silence worthy of an Egyptian tomb. However, it did get a little boring after a while, and the silence could freak you out if you let it get to you. All in all, I'm sure that this Saturday off will help me out mentally. Everything lately has just been too much. I'm not used to being so girly. I usually could care less about men, but Satoshi has been different. A day off from the world will do me good.
I was just getting comfy on the couch with a hot bowl of instant Ramen when the phone rang. I get off my lazy butt to go answer it.
"Moshi moshi,"
"Ohayou gozaimasu!" It was Sae-chan.
"Ohayou," I reply. "How are you?"
"I'm just fine, I was calling to see how you were doing," Sae-chan says.
"I'm fine,"
"Great! Because there's something else I need to talk to you about as well," Sae-chan continues.
"And what might that be?" I ask.
"You see, I talked to Noriko-chan, she's in my English 1 class, and she has the script all set for the Spring Festival Play! Isn't that wonderful?" Sae-chan coos.
"I suppose so," I was still a bit agitated that I was to be an actress.
"Anyways, I was wondering if I could possibly come over to discuss it with you?" Sae-chan asks, with a childlike nervousness. "I know that Nazumi-sensei wanted you to play a role in it and I think I know the perfect one for you. I just need to get your approval."
"It's Noriko-chan's script, shouldn't she say who plays who?"
"She said it was up to me!" Sae-chan giggles.
I sigh lightly. "You can come over."
"Yoroshii!" Sae-chan delights. "Watashi wa suguni owari mashou!"
She hangs up and so do I. I wasn't necessarily excited at the fact of having company today, but what the heck. I put my Ramen into a Tupperware bowl and into the refrigerator for later. I put a kettle of water on the stove to boil so the tea would be ready by the time Sae-chan got here. I was standing in the kitchen doing nothing when I realized I still had my pajamas on. I panicked for a moment, but then knew that Sae-chan probably wouldn't mind.
Once the kettle whistled, I put it on a tray along with the sugar bowl and cream pitcher and a basket of crackers. Those were to go on the coffee table in the living room. Sae-chan knew I wasn't a particularly wonderful host, but it isn't like you have to spruce things up for a friend coming over to discuss a play over a cup of tea.
The play worried me. It sat in the back of my mind and munched away at it like a family size package of Maruhiko Umai*. However delicious those are, I wish for my brain not to be eaten up in the same way. I'm not much of a person when it comes to a stage. There's that saying from that Old English guy--I think his name was Shakespeare--The whole world's a stage. Well, it may have been for them, but definitely not for me. Whatever it was about the whole concept of acting, I didn't like. The lights, the lines, the audience staring at you, the pressure. Nope, I'm not meant to be an actress.
The doorbell rings. I knew it was Sae-chan.
"Come on in. The doors open," I call.
I go into the entry hall to welcome her but don't see Sae-chan standing by the door. It was Satoshi. I feel a rush of redness fill my face. My pajamas!
"I'm sorry," Satoshi says, but doesn't sound like he is. "I must not be the person you're excepting."
"Uh, no,"
"I just needed to tell you something, that's all," Satoshi continues.
A knock came on the door and Sae-chan opens it a crack before hitting Satoshi in the back.
"Ooh!" Sae-chan puts a hand over me mouth after peaking her head inside. "I'm sorry."
"Come on in, Sae-chan," I say, trying to rid my face of pink.
"I knew I was interrupting something," Satoshi bows his head slightly for a good-bye. "Kasumi-san, if you could come by my place later today, I'd really appreciate that. I need to talk to you about something important."
I felt my eyebrow twitch. "Of course I will. See you then, Satoshi-kun."
"Sorry about coming over without notice," Satoshi bows his head again and leaves.
Sae-chan looks at the closed door and then over to me. "That was a little weird, I'll say."
"I will too,"
Sae-chan takes off her shoes and puts on the slippers. "Pajamas all day, Kasumi-chan?"
"Don't remind me," I start to walk into the living room.
"Thanks for letting me come over again," Sae-chan says. "I haven't been over in so long it seems! The last time was when I got my sweet little Muchuuru."
"What happened to the simplicity of those days? Where one could just train Pokemon as a hobby and battle for fun," I ramble nonsense. "The whole idea for the Tournament got me into this mess to begin with."
"Finding out Satoshi-kun's secret was a mess?"
"Of course it was," I plop down on the couch. "Now about the play?"
"Oh, yes!" Sae-chan reaches into her bag and pulls out a thick and healthy script. "Noriko-chan is pure genius if you ask me. The world she created is absolutely extraordinary."
"What's the title?" I ask.
"Ki no Sasayaki,"
"Is there a summary so we don't have to read the whole thing?"
"Noriko-chan gave me the summed up version after school yesterday," Sae-chan reports. "It's about a small village next to a forest. The village suffers under severe weather conditions due to the Mori no Otome, that will be you."
"Wait? My character is some Mori no Otome?" I sit up straighter and Sae-chan sits down next to me to flip through some of the lines.
"Yes, she's a goddess that has power over the elements," Sae-chan says. "She lives in the forest, of course, in a glade with a whole bunch of Pokemon servants."
"Pokemon servants?"
"I know that sounds a tad drastic, but the way Noriko-chan explained it, it will work out perfectly," Sae-chan says. "You'll get to talk with her once we start rehearsal"
"Okay, and what does she have to do with the village?" I ask.
"Since she has power over the elements, as I said before, she can control the climate and weather and rain, etcetera. She's the one who uses Mother Nature to attack the village. The village, you see, in the Meiji Era after the revolution is trying to recover, so it's building new houses for the increasing population. For new houses, they need trees, so they're cutting down the ones in the forest," Sae-chan flips to a certain page and points to a narrated paragraph. "See?"
"Okay, it doesn't sound too bad," I read through some of my lines. "I won't have to wear any goofy costume, will I?"
Sae-chan laughs for a moment. "The thing is, the costumes don't really fit the Meiji era, but we'll have to deal with it. We're low on budget so we're just reusing the ones we had for a play a few years ago."
"Which Pokemon servants do I get?" I ask, excited about that part only.
"Noriko-chan said she wanted mainly grass-type, since the setting is near a forest," Sae-chan replies. "However, the glade was supposed to have a pond, so you can have some water-type in there if you want. I was hoping to add a Odoshishi, for more realistic feel."
"That would be cool," I say. "Who else is going to be in this play?"
"I don't know yet," Sae-chan ponders. "I personally don't want to act, but maybe I can be the narrator. We still need a lighting crew, though."
"That should be easy. Our Audio/Visual Club is huge,"
Sae-chan snickers. "One more thing. Noriko-chan wants Satoshi-kun to play this certain part. I'm not sure why, though, because I've read the lines and it doesn't particularly reflect his personality."
"Every girl has their eyes on Satoshi-kun it seems," I mutter under my breath.
"I don't," Sae-chan must have heard me. "He's so volatile. And black may be his color, but he's on the brink of over-doing it."
I couldn't help but laugh. "Sae-chan, you say that even when you know why he wears black all the time."
Sae-chan shrugs. "If I were part vampire, I wouldn't want to sit around looking depressed all the time. I'd spruce life up a bit. Maybe wear some dark blues for a changed. It's not like I'm asking the kid to walk around in a neon pink pinstripe suit."
That image was even more amusing.
Sae-chan laughs too. "That would be a great. We should get him into a game of 'Shinjitsu matawa kiken'."
We sit in my living room for half the afternoon munching on crackers and talking about nothing in particular. That is the joy of 'girl-talk'. No matter what subject you arrive at, you can joke and laugh about it with no hard feelings. I had missed talking to my friends like this. It made the world seem elementary at the moment.
Once the basket of crackers was reduced to a few scattered crumbs, Sae-chan reminds me that Satoshi-kun asked me to stop by the cemetery to talk. I didn't want to go, but I knew I must. For one, it was the polite thing to do since he personally asked for me to meet up with him. Secondary, he said it was something important. So, I quickly run upstairs and change into a simple pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Sae-chan requested to go with me and I couldn't refuse her company.
We leave the house and head down the street. The weather was getting drearier as the minutes past. It wasn't windy for once, which felt sort of weird. However, the gray sky and creaking trees made up for the image of transition from fall to winter. Nobody was outside, even though it was Saturday. It felt we were suddenly in one of those spooky towns from a movie, where a mass murder is just around the corner and isn't a big surprise to anybody.
Yousei Cemetery looked the same when we got there. Sae-chan cowered behind me for some unknown reason. I was used to this place, but maybe the concept of a graveyard still freaked her out. A good three dozen dead bodies buried six feet under the soil marked with a block of stone. Yes, now that I think about it, a graveyard is pretty nerve-racking.
I open the gate and suddenly feel my shadow disappear. I turn around to see Sae-chan hiding behind the brick wall.
"You go on ahead, I'll wait for you here," She says. "Satoshi-kun only asked for you, anyways."
I suppose she was right. "Okay, I'll be out as soon as I can."
I continue my way into the cemetery and stop halfway to the shrine. Satoshi usually shows up on his own, you don't have to go looking for him. Sure enough, he walked out from behind a neighboring tree as soon as I stopped walking. It's like he waits for something to come when it's not always definite something will.
"You came," Satoshi murmurs.
"I promised I would," I try to give him a nice smile. Brighten the mood.
Satoshi shrugs one shoulder. "I needed to prepare you for something, that's all."
Prepare? "What is it?"
"I knew I couldn't hide it from you forever, and I'm sure you've heard the rumor in those books you're reading," Satoshi says. He knows I'm reading up on vampires?
"Rumor?" I question.
"Let me ask you something first," Satoshi requests. "Have you been feeling any different lately?"
"Different? How so?"
"Nai, mattaku anata jishin…," Satoshi mutters.
"I've felt fine," I reply, not sure where he was trying to go with this question.
Satoshi sighs. "Okay, but just so you know what you're going to expect, please listen to what I have to say. Take it seriously."
"All right," I say a little hesitantly.
The tone of Satoshi's voice is that of one I've never heard before. Such a mix of emotion. Sorrow, deceit, fidelity, confusion, sincerity, scorn, gravity. It made me want to listen to him. It was drawing me in, entrancing me in the drone.
"I know that when I was sick, it was necessary for me to get blood," Satoshi begins. "However, I was not in my right mind and I took yours without thinking of the consequences. You see, when Hanako first bit you, she didn't have enough time for her saliva to get into your blood stream."
Hearing it that way wanted to make me vomit.
"So, you weren't effected by her," Satoshi continues. "But when I bit you, I'm almost certain something was exchanged."
I didn't want to laugh, but it sounded as if I was being told I had an STD.
"Since my genes are only half vampire related, it will probably take longer for you to wake," Satoshi says. "I'm not sure when."
I was trying to read through my books one more time in my head to try to understand what Satoshi was trying to tell me.
"I don't understand, Satoshi-kun,"
Satoshi sighs and hangs his head for a moment before facing me again. "When a mortal is bitten by a vampire, they…change."
"Henkei?" I ask, worry rising in my voice.
Satoshi nods. "That's a better term for it."
Suddenly, a certain paragraph I read in Night Walkers popped into my head:
The first few days after coming out of a vampiric coma are especially difficult for a vampire. A newly transformed vampire awakens disoriented, its judgment clouded by competing impulses and memories of its previous life. But all those are drowned out by a fierce, intense desire for blood. This urge for blood eventually snaps a vampire into focus, and it sets about finding a way to fill that urge.
Then, Sae-chan's statement from yesterday: "Chotto matte, if you got bitten by Satoshi and Hanako, doesn't that make you a vampire now?"
I was…to become a vampire myself now? I stood there in shock, not able to blink my eyes, letting the desiccated fall air dry them out. What was going to happen to me? Will I forget everything? My friends, my family, my Pokemon! My precious water Pokemon! Hitodemon, Kameiru, Kodakku, Tosakinto. I'm scared.
"Kasumi-san," Satoshi breaks my trance. "You will eventually become one of us."
I wanted to cry. I didn't want to believe it. It was just a rumor.
I start shaking my head. "No. No, no."
Satoshi starts to walk closer. "There is a way to speed up the process, if you want to get it over with."
"No, no!"
Satoshi opens his mouth and stabs his thumb with one of his fangs. He holds it out, blood running down rich and dark. A bubble forms at the opening of the cut, swells, then releases more blood. I stared at it, still hazy in the head and not wanting to understand anything.
"Are you tempted?" Satoshi asks.
Before I could even contemplate an answer, I run out of Yousei Cemetery, not even bothering to close the gate behind me. Sae-chan was still waiting for me there and she quickly pulls me into a hug. I'm not sure if she heard anything, but it was comforting to know she cared.
"What's wrong, Kasumi-chan? Please tell me," Sae-chan says.
"Tadashi katta," Was all I could find.
"About what?" Sae-chan asks.
I didn't want to talk about it. I pull away from her embrace and take a deep breath. "Let's just go back to my place."
"Okay," Sae-chan agrees. "We'll just relax."
My mind was blank and buzzing at the same time. A swirling mass of nothingness. Was Satoshi just pulling a prank on me or telling me the truth? He asked for me to take it seriously, so was he serious as well? It was all too confusing. I didn't want to believe it, even when it was so believable. How could something so supernatural be happening in this quiet town?
A sudden gust of wind swept by, sending thousands of dead leaves our way. We lift our arms to shield our faces, but Sae-chan cries out for a second, right before it dies down.
"What happened?" I ask.
"There must have been a stick in that or something. It scrapped my face," Sae-chan points to her cheek where there was a thin red line. A trickle of blood started to flow from the cut and my eyes were fixed once more. I quickly shake my head and walk away, as fast as I could. Sae-chan followed, and I didn't mind, but I couldn't look at her face.
"Have you been feeling any different lately?"
Shimatta!! When was this all going to end?!
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Japanese Romanji Translations
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Moshi Moshi - Hello (only for when you answer the phone)
Ohayou [Gozaimasu] - Good Morning (the gozaimasu only makes it more formal)
Yoroshii! - Okay!
Watashi wa suguni owari mashou! - I'll be over soon!
*Maruhiko Umai * - A famous brand of rice crackers (very good ^_^)
Ki no Sasayaki - Whispers of the Trees
Mori no Otome- Forest Maiden (Maiden of the Forest, whichever one you prefer)
Shinjitsu matawa kiken - A game similar to our Truth or Dare
Nai, mattaku anata jishin - Not quite yourself
Henkei - Transform
Chotto Matte - Wait a minute/second
Takashi katta - You were right
Shimatta - Shit/Damn it! (swearing on a high degree)
