Monday morning, October 25 – Ichinose Residence
Monday had finally come and for a lot of people, it couldn't come soon enough. It marked the return to normalcy as some went back to work and others went back to school. It was also a new week that, hopefully wouldn't be as weird as the last one.
None of the events that had happened had been bad… for the most part. Nagisa and Ryou had suddenly become mothers. Akio and Sanae had suddenly become grandparents. Kyou's school received word that it would be closing down as a normal elementary school at the end of the academic year, but it would be re-opening as a school under Kyou's education program. Fuko's ikiryo had disappeared, but the real Fuko had finally awoken from her coma.
And those were just the headliners. There were a myriad of other things that affected even more people, and those other things would take months to analyze and resolve.
But for now, the important thing on Kouko's mind was her little sister. Fuko still had almost no strength and required assistance with everything. Fortunately, she was small and not too difficult to move around. But the fact remained that she could not yet take care of herself and unfortunately, there was no-one at the Yoshino household that could take care of her either. Kouko had already taken too much time off from work. And, with the approach of the coming typhoon, she knew that Yusuke would soon be very busy with electrical repairs all over the prefecture. Maiko had to go to school and that left only little Yasuo. Small as Fuko was, she was still too much for a four and a half year old boy to handle.
There was a knock on the door while Kouko was trying to find the phone number for a home care service. She knew they would be expensive, but she couldn't think of any other options. Poor Yusuke wouldn't complain, even though it would depress him to see all of his overtime pay disappear into the medical bill void. But it couldn't be helped.
"Hello?" Kouko opened the door to the extent of the security chain. It was enough to see part of a rough looking man's face on the other side of the door.
"Hey there Yoshino-san, we're here to take your sister and your children." the man smiled and even sounded cheerful, while he said something that was quite scary.
"Baka!" another voice from a man Kouko couldn't see shouted, "You wanna scare her? You just made it sound like a kidnapping."
The other man was right. Kouko was about to call the police since she already had the phone in her hand. But before she hit the Dial button, she heard a voice she recognized.
"Kouko, Yukine called me this morning and said you might need help." Tomoyo's voice called out to the frightened woman.
"Oh! Just a moment." Kouko quickly closed the door, took off the chain, and opened it wide to see Tomoyo, Isamu, Mikio, and Takeo there.
"What…" she didn't have time to ask her question as her energetic daughter ran out the door and collided into Mikio's leg.
"Eeeeeeee! Mikio-san, why are you here? Are you going to do something amazing again?" Ever since the night of the experiment, Maiko had decided that she liked the big brute. He had addressed the whole group and told them what kinds of things they were doing as explorers. But the golden moment that Maiko would always remember was when she saw him standing there with Huyu and bravely facing whatever came, as the seconds counted down for the emergency retrieval. Standing and waiting was really all he had done, but to this six year old girl he had been amazing.
"Yup! This mornin I'm gonna take you and the Okazaki boys to school. Howzat sound for amazing?" Mikio laughed as he picked up the little seventeen kilogram girl and put her on his shoulder as if she were no more than a stuffed animal.
Kouko was shocked to see her small daughter tossed up onto the man's shoulder in such a carefree way. She though about asking him to put her down, but it was obvious that Maiko was loving the attention and had none of her mother's fear. However, Tomoyo could see the concern in Kouko's face and that worried her. Her boys had come a long way in changing their image. The last thing she wanted was for one of her own friends to think they were still a danger.
"If you have already made other arrangements…" Tomoyo was about to tell Mikio to put down the girl and step away from the front door. She was concerned that this might be too much for Kouko to handle first thing in the morning.
"No, no! Actually, you're a lifesaver. I haven't been able to arrange a sitter or nurse and…" It suddenly dawned on Kouko that she was being unfairly critical of someone who was there to do her a favor. After her brief reflection, she stopped in mid explanation and formally said, "Thank you very much, for your kind offer."
.
Mikio was proudly walking along with Maiko riding high on his shoulders. Mikio had offered to let Yasuo ride on the other shoulder, but he had another place he would rather ride. Sitting in his aunt's lap, he clung to Fuko while Takeo pushed her wheelchair up the street. Walking a little behind the rest, Isamu carried Maiko's randoseru over one shoulder while he held Tomoyo's hand with the other arm.
"Fuko, are you cold?" Tomoyo asked as they walked along. This late in October, there was a chill in the morning air and no-one wanted Fuko to get sick while she was still struggling with physical therapy.
"No, Fuko is okay. Fuko could ride for a hundred kilometers like this!" the girl boasted. But in truth, she was quickly tiring. It hadn't even been a week since she had come out of her coma and she did not have much stamina yet.
"We'll be at the Ichinose house soon and you can rest there a bit." Tomoyo told the childlike woman.
"Does Fuko know them?" Fuko asked. The name, "Ichinose" didn't ring any bells, but then again, she had no idea who Yusuke was until he started playing his electric guitar.
"Well, it's called the Ichinose House, but Kotomi married Okazaki Tomoya, so now she is Okazaki Kotomi." Tomoyo explained.
"Okazaki…" Fuko let the name roll off her tongue and, for some reason, it was a name she didn't care for very much.
"Yes, Tomoya and Nagisa were some of your first friends. They were the ones that helped you pass out the wooden starfish and they convinced your sister that she should marry Yusuke." Tomoyo said.
"Why did they do that?" Fuko asked.
"It was something you wanted. Your sister couldn't see your ikiryo at first, so you couldn't tell her yourself." Tomoyo knew that there were more stories of things that happened between those three, but she would let Tomoya and Nagisa tell her. For now, she just wanted to hurry up and get Fuko and the children into a warm house.
"They did that for Fuko?" the confusion grew. Fuko knew that she should feel grateful to someone who had done so much for her, but she also felt a certain distaste when she heard the name Okazaki. She squeezed Yasuo's hand a little tighter. She wanted to wrap her cute little nephew in a hug, but she wasn't recovered enough to do that yet. Finding her determination, she decided that she would find out exactly who this Okazaki person was when she got to the house.
.
But it was not to be. Tomoya had already left for a meeting at City Hall by the time Fuko had arrived. There was nothing about the butler or maid that greeted them that helped to bring back any memories. However, once she got inside the house there was a sense of familiarity and she did get to see something that truly warmed her heart. Her little Yasuo-kun was having so much fun playing with his friends Michiko-chan and Yoichi-kun. From her wheelchair, she watched the three children with their coloring books on the floor of the house's dojo. The children had known where to go to get their coloring books, pencils, and markers. And, by the way they naturally found their places on the floor, Fuko could tell that the children had been to this home a lot. Glancing over at the cabinet where they had acquired their art supplies, Fuko noticed that there were two more coloring books in the drawer. One was still sealed in plastic and the other looked like it had been lovingly used for quite some time.
"Who are the other coloring books for?" Fuko asked.
"Huh?" Michiko looked up.
"There's a new one and an old one in the drawer." Fuko pointed at the drawer that was still open.
"Oh, the new coloring book is for my new sister, Ushio-chan." Michiko said a little stiffly. She still wasn't used to the idea of suddenly having a sister that was about the same age as her. Then, in a more comfortable tone she said, "The old one is yours."
"Huh?" Fuko wondered what the little girl meant, "You're letting Fuko have one of your old coloring books?"
"Huh?" Michiko didn't understand Fuko's confusion. To her, there was no difference between this Fuko and the Fuko that she had always known… except for the wheelchair. But if Fuko was confused, Michiko would try and help. She went over to the drawer, pulled out the older coloring book, and crawled up into Fuko's lap. "This is Fuko's coloring book. See?"
"Fuko's coloring book?" Fuko watched the colored images flip by as the little girl in her lap turned the pages for her. The confusion was ebbing away but it wasn't being replaced by understanding… or calm.
Surprise and shock were battering Fuko as each page revealed an artistic style that she recognized as her own. Kouko had explained about her ikiryo that had known so many people. At first, she had believed her sister was playing some kind of strange joke. In the end though, she knew her onee-chan wasn't that kind of person and she accepted that Kouko honestly believed what she was saying. Fuko herself still found it hard to believe and didn't know what to make of all this. It had made her tired just thinking about it, so she had decided that it was something she could try and figure out later. But it was no longer something she could put off. The impossible was sitting in her lap… just a short reach away.
Fuko's eyes were open wide and her hands were trembling. There was something frightening about all of this. Knowing that she… or at least the ikiryo of her had done things and known people while she slept for almost a decade… How many people out there know me… and I don't know them? What kinds of things have I done… and don't remember? Onee-chan… help me! She didn't want to lose it and cry in front of these children, but it was a shock to see this… real physical evidence that she had been here before. The slightly browned color of the pages and the way the pages curled up a bit at the top… I… I've seen this before! Fuko reached out and felt the grainy texture of the page's border and the waxy feeling of the colored places. Her fingers rubbed against the place where the pages curled up and suddenly, a mad procession of memories came rushing back into her head.
She had played with these children before. In this house. In this room. She could see herself on the floor with them – coloring together. Sharing markers and showing their works to each other… Fuko hadn't realized that she was hyperventilating until she saw the children's worried faces looking up at her.
"Fuko-chan… are you okay?" Yoichi asked.
"Ojiisan! Ojiisan!" Michiko screamed as loud as she could while she held on tight to the struggling Fuko. She didn't know what had happened but she knew Fuko was in trouble.
"What's wrong, Michiko-chan?" Sugisaka was the first to arrive in the room and saw the Okazaki daughter clinging to Fuko's neck.
"Obasan Fuko is breathing funny!" Yasuo yelled.
"And she's crying!" Michiko added.
"All right, down you go." Sugisaka separated the scared child from the nearly unconscious Fuko as Koumura also came into the dojo.
"All right now, there is nothing to be worried about." Koumura said while he took a seat in the rocking chair and reached out to Michiko. The boys watched as a tearful Michiko crawled into her Ojiisan's lap and were thus distracted while Sugisaka wheeled Fuko out of the room. As soon as he saw that Sugisaka and Fuko were gone, he smiled and told the children, "It may have been scary for you, but what you just saw is a sign that Fuko is getting better."
"It… it is?" Michiko asked.
"That's right. Fuko-chan has actually been sick for a long long time and just started getting better a few days ago. It's not the kind of sickness that makes you have a fever, or a cough, or a sore throat. But just like that kind of illness, it isn't a good thing. Part of the sickness is that she has a very hard time remembering anything that happened in the last seven or eight years. When she sees or hears, or does certain things, it can bring back a lot of memories suddenly – and that can be difficult for her." the old man knew he was oversimplifying but he was talking to children not yet old enough to be in Kindergarten yet. Their ability to understand more difficult concepts was still a few years away, so simplifying the story couldn't be helped.
"Is that what happened? Was she remembering something?" Yoichi asked.
"But why… why does it hurt to remember things. I remember things all the time and it doesn't hurt me." Yasuo wanted to know.
"You are too young to understand now, but someday… when you are ready, Fuko-chan will tell you all about it." Koumura assured them.
"It sounds like a scary story." Michiko worried.
"It may seem that way because of what just happened, but by the time you are ready to hear the story and Fuko-chan is ready to tell the story – I believe it will be a wonderful and exciting tale." Koumura smiled.
"How can a story about being sick be wonderful?" Yasuo doubted.
"Or exciting." Michiko added.
"It will be a story about a sick person getting well and about having lots of friends. Wouldn't you say that is wonderful?" Koumura asked.
"Yes." the children agreed with the old man on that.
"And, all three of you will be in the story. Now doesn't that sound exciting?" Koumura didn't need an answer. He could see the joy in their little faces and knew that they were already anticipating a story that might need to wait six or more years, before they would be ready to understand it.
.
Fuko was still asleep in the guest bedroom when Tomoya returned. He was home for several hours during the day, but Fuko slept through it all. By the time Kouko and her husband arrived to pick Fuko and Yasuo up at the end of the day, Fuko was feeling much better, but Tomoya and Kotomi had both left for a dinner engagement.
She still had a vaguely uneasy feeling whenever she thought about this Okazaki Tomoya guy… even if she now remembered having wonderful times playing with the children in this house. Just because the children are cute and wonderful doesn't mean the Okazaki guy is too. Nobody else seems to think he is a bad guy, but for me to feel this way so strongly… he must have done something horrible that only I knew about! Fuko wondered if this Okazaki guy was avoiding her intentionally. She was determined to get her answers the next time she visited.
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Tuesday afternoon, October 26 – Ichinose Residence
Kyou had been gazing out the large windows watching the sheets of rain falling from the mass of gray skies overhead. It wasn't until a crack of lightning illuminated the room around her that she realized she wasn't alone. Kotomi was there as well, but she wasn't watching the skies. Glancing to her right, she could see that Kotomi was staring at her… again.
"Kotomi-chan, that is a little creepy." Kyou let her socially awkward friend know.
"I'm sorry Kyou-chan. I was trying to figure out what kind of mood you were in purely by observation. Melissa says I am getting better at it with the people that are closest to me, so I wanted to see how much I could discern with you." Kotomi explained. All the while, she kept watching Kyou… even during the apology. Kotomi had explained several times that she couldn't tell Kyou when she was observing her as some sort of social understanding experiment. If the test subject knows they are a test subject and that they are being observed, they will behave differently – and that would ruin the experiment. Kyou understood the argument, but she didn't have to like it.
"So, what have you figured out about me?" Kyou asked.
"You are annoyed with me for observing you again." Kotomi finally looked down.
"Before that though. What else did you see." Kyou didn't dispute the fact that she was annoyed with the girl genius.
"You seemed upset about something. I was able to figure that out fairly quickly. But I was trying to gauge how upset you were so that I might be able to infer what – specifically – you were upset about." Kotomi said.
"What do you mean?" Kyou was still annoyed, but she was curious too.
"If you were a little upset, but not seriously depressed, it would probably be about the weather and how it has ruined your plans for the Koyo trip. If you were more depressed, I would previously have assumed that it was about the rift between you and your sister… but that recently seems to have cleared up. And if you were upset and very angry, It would mean that you found out that I backed over your motorcycle with the car." Kotomi explained.
"YOU WHAT?" Kyou shouted and was about to stomp off to the garage, but Kotomi caught her sleeve.
"Your motorcycle is fine. I just wanted to observe an anger / shock response to use as a baseline for further observations." Kotomi told the fuming friend.
"Kotomi…" Kyou spun around and glared at Kotomi for an instant before she put a hand over her face and counted to ten. When she was able to speak without shouting, she said, "It was the weather. I was really looking forward to the Koyo trip with my class. And, the kids were looking forward to it too."
"It would have been irresponsible to take a class full of children on a road trip, knowing that a typhoon was about to make landfall." Kotomi said.
"I know that. I canceled the trip for that reason. But still…" Kyou felt responsible for everyone's crushed dreams. Especially, Shuichi and Shuji. They seemed to have been looking forward to this trip ever since they came back from Hokkaido with Yuki.
"There is no but still. You are an adult who is entrusted with the health and safety of numerous children. You made a logical, correct, and responsible decision. Anyone who doesn't understand that is either a child or is an irrational adult." Kotomi delivered her analysis like a math teacher explains how two plus two equals four. To her it was so obvious as to be a natural fact. She could see no valid argument against this verdict, therefore, there was no valid reason for Kyou to be upset either. And yet… she was. Kotomi found this discrepancy to be very perplexing.
"Kotomi-chan, my students are children, but I know what you mean. I guess it bothers me more because Shuichi and Shuji were looking forward to it so much." Kyou looked back at the rain outside. A typhoon was running along the eastern shores of Japan, but the winds were not so strong in this area. However, the rainfall was torrential. Flood waters had already overwhelmed some of the lower lying areas and forced bridge, road, and rail closings. At an intellectual level, Kyou knew she had made the right decision. If she and her class had been caught out on the roads in this storm… And yet, she had really wanted to give these children an experience that not many kids had.
Kotomi could tell that Kyou wasn't cheering up with simply reinforcing the opinion that she had made the correct decision to cancel the trip. It was therefore, time to go to Plan B. At one time I thought that I should stop thinking of dealing with people like I deal with strategic decisions. But the more I understand the complexities of interpersonal relationships, the more I realize that one often needs a Plan B, or even a Plan C, D, and E… when trying to resolve a personal problem. And fortunately, it looks like this problem can be solved with simple logistics.
"Yuki-chan has also seemed depressed about missing the trip. I wonder… is it possible for you to reschedule this outing." Kotomi asked.
"I suppose, but it wouldn't do any good. The best colors will be gone if we go to Aomori after the end of the month." Kyou moaned. By then we would just see a bunch of dead looking trees.
But they would still be nice in another region. Do you have enough time to arrange a trip for the fifth through the eighth of November?" Kotomi asked.
"Huh? That's a rather specific date range, Kotomi-chan. What do you have in mind?" Kyou looked back at Kotomi as she asked. She was a little perturbed to see Kotomi still watching her as if she were still monitoring an on-going experiment, but the question had definitely piqued her curiosity.
"I have arranged something over those dates. I can cancel if it there is not enough time for you to get the approvals from your school." Kotomi said.
"No. That is enough time." Kyou smiled. It was nice to see that Kotomi was trying to help her with her school project but it might not be enough. When arranging a school trip with an age range like this, she would need to be able to make sure of the children's safety, privacy, and supervision. For that, she would need more than two or three rooms, even for a class size as small as hers. "So, what did you have in mind?"
"I have acquired the services of an onsen in the Kurobe Gorge. According to my research, the higher elevations should be in the peak of their fall foliage during that time frame." Kotomi said.
"Higher elevations… Kotomi, you do remember that my class is a bunch of grade schoolers? I can't take them mountain climbing." Kyou could actually imagine Shuichi and Shuji scaling the side of a mountain and Maiko-chan desperately trying to keep up with them.
"Oh, there will be some walking required but no mountain climbing. The gorge has a narrow gauge railroad that climbs up into the higher areas where the onsen is also located." Kotomi told her.
"Oh my, the kids would really like that." Kyou now considered this a much better idea than she had previously thought. She didn't know much about that region and it wasn't in the areas she had researched for her Koyo trip that was supposed to take place two weeks earlier. But she could look up all of that later. Now she wanted to know if it was a realistic goal. She asked Kotomi, "So, how many rooms did you request?"
"I was able to get all of them. I have some rooms in the main building and a few bungalows that are supposed to have splendid views of the stream and the walls of the gorge. According to their web site, the rooms should be able to sleep four people on individual futons. In all, the accommodations should be sufficient for up to forty guests." Kotomi said.
"Forty?" Kyou gasped, "My class isn't nearly that big, Kotomi-chan."
"I am also inviting a few others. But there will be room for you and all of your students." Kotomi tilted her head and waited for one of the predicted responses. She was not ready for Kyou's reaction, but she welcomed it nonetheless.
"Oh, Kotomi!" Kyou stepped into her purple haired friend and wrapped her arms around her in a loving hug. "You always surprise me like this when I least expect it… but when I need it most. What a bland and boring world this would be without you in my life."
"Th… thank you, Kyou-chan" Kotomi cherished the words and hugged her lavender haired friend back. Kyou-chan's response had been outside of the prediction parameters, and Kotomi had been mildly displeased with herself for that. But to see Kyou-chan so happy was well worth it.
.
Wednesday afternoon, October 27 – Hikarizaka High School
Lunch was over for everyone and they were back in their classes for the afternoon lectures. Most of the rooms were still settling down when the students and teachers all across the school heard the public address speakers crackle to life. Some conversations continued, but most everyone turned toward the speakers and waited to see what unusual thing was going on.
"Attention. May I have your attention, please. At this time, we would like the students who are members of the following clubs, to go to the auditorium. Seniors who are scheduled for mock exams this afternoon are exempt from this meeting, but should check with their club representative at their earliest convenience. Again, we would like the students who are members of the following clubs, to go to the auditorium: The Performance Club, The Karate Club, The Cooking Club, The Dance Club, The Lite Music Club, The Art Club, and the Girls Baseball Club. Also, we would like the students and instructor of class 3-B to also come to the auditorium as well. If you missed any part of this announcement, your sensei should have a list of everyone that should be attending this meeting."
As soon as the announcement was over, many of the first and second year classrooms began emptying themselves of as many as half of their students. In the third year classrooms, the teachers informed their students that they should go to this meeting if they had ever been a member of one of the clubs – since many third-year students had quit their clubs to focus on their mock exams.
Watching from one of the classrooms that overlooked the central courtyard, it looked like there was a fire drill going on with the number of students leaving the classroom buildings and heading for the large auditorium. Some of them were in their gym clothes, but most were in their Hikarizaka yellow winter uniform. All of them were curious and asking or speculating with their friends on what this must all be about.
"Sensei." a male student with a Student Council armband called out to Kouko, "You are needed in the auditorium as well. I have been sent to watch over your class until you return."
"Oh, thank you." Kouko worried that this young man's self important attitude might not mesh well with her class, so she decided to make him a part of the class… if only for a little while, "If you don't mind, could you come to the center of the room."
"Yes sensei." he marched to the middle of the room and stood proudly amidst all the second year art students.
"Now, strip to the waist." she told him.
"Excuse me?" he couldn't believe what he had just heard.
"You're going to be here long enough that they can use you as a model, and that would be a real help." then turning to her class and talking over any objections the Student Council representative may have had, she gave them their orders. "I want you all to do charcoal sketches of the upper torso and head. Lower torso and hands are not required. Leave your work on your easels if I don't get back before the end of class. This will count as a test grade, so make sure you work seriously."
"A… test grade?" the young man asked.
"Yes, so pick any pose you like, but make sure it is comfortable enough to stay in for half an hour." Kouko told him as she picked up her purse and quickly left the room. A smile crossed her lips as she thought about how she had just tempered the brashness and pride of the young man. But her mind was also on this meeting. There was something familiar about the list of clubs that had been announced…
.
Yukine waited on the stage of the auditorium and watched as people came in and slowly began to fill the front half of the seats. Fortunately, the stage crew members of the performance club had provided her with a microphone. She was never one to have a loud voice that carried across big spaces. And now, she needed to address so many people. One of the girls in the stage crew part of the Performance Club approached her. She was dressed all in black, and kept out of view of the people in the audience. Yukine thought it was odd that they would go this far since this wasn't really a production. But, they were a proud group and wanted to take this opportunity to show off their craft. With a hand signal, the girl let Yukine know that they were about ready to begin.
The audience got quiet when the large doors closed and the lights dimmed… except for the light on Yukine. Fear of getting stage fright was gone and she was somehow calm as Yukine looked at the sea of inquisitive faces. Knowing it was time to begin, she took a deep breath. It was time for the beginning of the end of the long project she had started at this very high school, so many years ago.
"Hello everyone and thank you for coming. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Sunohara Yukine, although it used to be Miyazawa Yukine back when I was a student at this school. But I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to talk about my best friend. Does anyone here remember Fuko?"
Remember Fuko...
All of the members of the Performance Club smiled when they heard that phrase. But they were the only ones that knew what it really meant.
Yukine was about to specify Fuko by her last name and describe her a bit – to make sure everyone knew who she was talking about. But she needn't have worried. The microphone fell away from her lips in surprise when she saw every hand in the room go up. There were several students named Fuko in the school, but everyone in the audience knew who she had been talking about as soon as she asked the question. The members of some clubs were suddenly looking around and wondering why members of other clubs knew their Fuko.
"I'm guessing some of you are wondering where she has been this past week, and why so many clubs remember her. For those of you that are worried about her, she is doing fine – and thank you for your concern. Now, I would like to ask for your help. Fuko needs you more than you know. All I am going to ask you to do is to visit her and talk to her. This would mean a lot to her, to me, and to her family. But before you reply to this request, please allow me a moment to explain why this is so important, and what has happened to Fuko."
There were a few mumblings in the audience, but all eyes were on Yukine as she took a deep breath and got ready to start the explanation with a question.
"Does anyone here know what an ikiryo is?" Yukine smiled at the curious faces and wondered how many would believe what she was about to tell them.
.
Most of the students believed Yukine. Those that didn't at first, started to believe after they talked amongst themselves. The members of the girls baseball club distinctly recalled Fuko being a very loyal member of the team. Except for a few weeks at the start of summer, she always made it to every practice. Even if she wasn't the best member of the team, she was always trying her best. But the members of the Karate Club couldn't believe that. After all, Fuko never missed one of their sessions either, and many of their club times overlapped. In fact all the clubs activities overlapped with each other at one time or another, and yet… everyone believed Fuko to be a determined member of their own club.
Class 3-B rejected all of that talk. Fuko had been with them since the beginning of the year and she had never missed a class or a study session. Although no-one would say she was the smartest person in the room, she had a knack for the homework as if she had done all the problems dozens of times. Since the beginning of the year, Fuko had helped most of the students with their homework assignments. She was a dependable classmate, so it was hard for them to believe it possible for her to have been involved in all those clubs too.
Yukine sat next to Kouko on the edge of the stage as they listened to the cacophony of argument and revelation. She had told them that, as an ikiryo, Fuko had been attending this school seriously, for the last seven years. She had also told them that she had often been in more than one place at a time. Laughed off as pure fantasy at first, many were coming to the opinion that those abilities were the only way to explain how any of this was possible.
"Why?" Kouko asked Yukine, "Why did you decide to tell them?"
"It's only right. They have been her friends for a long time, you know." Yukine replied.
"But… she had friends before. What about the kids that graduated last year. And the year before. And the year before that?" Kouko asked.
"I have told the members of the Performance Club, every year. I honestly didn't know she was in all these other clubs until a few days ago." Then she gave Kouko a conspiratorial wink and said, "Your sister… is probably leaving this place with more friends than anyone in the history of this high school."
"Yeah… you may be right." Kouko realized that this half full auditorium was only some of the friends she had made. Fuko had watched friends graduate and leave her behind, for the last seven years. And yet, she had been able to make new friends every year as well. She had always thought that her little sister's coma had been a terrible curse, but maybe it wasn't after all. Before the accident, Fuko would cling only to Kouko and would never try to make any friends of her own. And now… "I'm just so amazed that she has made all these friends. If you had seen her before… Really Yukine, you have no idea how much you've done for my sister. I was so worried about her…"
"I claim to be her best friend, but you know who you have to thank for this?" Yukine looked around the room full of kids that had gotten to know the flighty little girl as a club member and a classmate. Then she looked up at Kouko and told her, "If it hadn't been for Okazaki Tomoya and Furukawa Nagisa deciding to help her give away all of those silly wooden starfish, I would not have met her, you would not be married to Yusuke-san, and none of this would have happened."
"I have thanked them before but I will do it properly again. But you deserve thanks too, Yukine-chan! I know you had a lot to do with all of this. If it hadn't been for you helping me to remember the ikiryo Fuko again and again… if it hadn't been for you setting up the Performance Club to keep Fuko involved and remembered by so many… she might have disappeared from all of our memories and been alone all this time. But now, because of your efforts, and all of these friends, all those years she was in the coma may still be full of good memories for her. And, for the real Fuko, she will have friends for the first time in her life. " Kouko bowed to the younger woman and realized just how much this group of friends had truly helped out her sister, and her family.
There was no time to say more. The talking amongst themselves had run it's course and many curious faces were now turning to Yukine and Kouko with lots of questions.
.
Thursday late afternoon, October 28 – Shinkansen, Green Car
The sleek bullet train rushed through the Japanese countryside at the velocity of an airplane in flight. At these kinds of speeds there should have been noise and vibration, but the smooth-as-glass ride was the pride of the Shinkansen. And the first class accommodations were the pride of the Green Car. Kotomi and Tomoya sat on the other side of a small table from Melissa and Kobayashi Jun. The four of them were on their way to Tokyo where Kotomi would be giving a speech on the latest findings of her multi-verse research.
Kotomi was reading through her prepared discussion notes. Kobayashi Jun was reading through them as well to help fact check them… and to become more acquainted with Kotomi's latest work. Melissa had a stack of papers in her hand as well, but her eyes were glued to the window as the scenery slid by at unbelievable speeds.
"Dammit… we really need these in Texas." Melissa sighed.
"Yeah." Tomoya was broken out of his daze by the quiet comment. Unlike the others, he didn't have the scientific background to fact check Kotomi's speech, so he had been staring out the window at the blur of scenery as well. But Melissa's comment brought him back and made him wonder about something that had always bothered him, "That was something that I always wondered about, while we lived over there. The lack of a decent mass-transit infrastructure was… weird. How can a place with so much wealth, and so few barriers, not have a bullet train?"
"Barriers?" Melissa asked.
"In Texas, the terrain is flat… compared to Japan. You don't have valleys, mountains, volcanoes, rock slides, or earth quakes to contend with. You could build a bullet train at a fraction of the cost that Japan has to pay. And yet, you have nothing."
"Some parts of Texas are… Well, I get your point." Melissa turned back to the big window to watch the blur of landscape zooming by, "I guess it just comes down to politics."
"Oh?" Tomoya replied.
"If you don't have the political will to do something at that scale, it won't get done." Melissa sighed, "And we've just never been able to get enough people excited enough about it to get that political will."
"Hmm…" Tomoya let it drop. From his studies of government and law he knew that political will translated to funding. And if you don't have funding, your project is doomed – no matter how beneficial it might be.
"Do you think Kyou-chan is going to be okay?" Kotomi asked when there was a break in the conversation.
"She'll be fine. She has Yuki, Koumura, and Sugisaka to help her, and we've got some pretty good kids. Besides, we'll only be gone for a couple of days." Tomoya assured her, but he knew what her real concern was. And he re-assured her there too, "More importantly, you are going to be okay too. Melissa, Kobayashi-hakase, and I will all be with you. So just relax and concentrate on memorizing your speech. You'll do well."
Kotomi smiled up at her husband and leaned into his arm.
"Thank you, Tomoya-kun. I… I just wish this presentation could be in Hokkaido again. I liked it there." Kotomi might have stretched the truth a bit. She had been scared when she made her presentation in Hokkaido as well, but it was at least a familiar place now. Going to speak at Tokyo-U would mean a new place, in a much bigger city, if front of even more strangers.
"Kotomi-chan, getting to Hokkaido and back in time would mean flying." Kobayashi Jun reminded his goddaughter.
"Eep." Kotomi's eyes opened wide at the prospect, and she was now holding onto Tomoya's arm like a lifeline. Although Kotomi now had quite a bit more experience on airplanes… she was still afraid of them. No longer terrified, but still… afraid.
"Besides, I need you to go to Tokyo-U." Kobayashi said while still reviewing the documents in his hands, "One of my colleagues has a brilliant young student there that he wants you to talk to."
"A graduate student?" Kotomi asked. She was always willing to bring more graduate students into the program. So far, the project had made use of graduate interns from several of Japan's better colleges of science and engineering.
"No. He's an undergraduate freshman, but he supposedly shows immense promise." Kobayashi replied.
"A freshman?" Melissa was puzzled, "Surely he has a few years of college before talking to Kotomi-chan will do him any good. As it is, half our graduate student interns can't follow her."
"What?" Kotomi sounded shocked at this revelation.
"It's not that I want him up to speed on the research. My colleague and I just want him to get an idea of how fascinating his future could be if he chooses to pursue his studies in this direction." Kobayashi explained.
"So, he's thinking of getting into some other field of science?" Melissa asked.
"Not exactly." Kobayashi had an amused expression on his face when he explained, "I haven't met the young man myself, but my colleague had a long talk with him about his future. Apparently, there are people in his life that are pulling him in vastly different directions. Although he is very bright and has an interest in science, he is also being pulled toward the entertainment industry, as well as hotel and restaurant management."
"Wow, that's really… diverse." Tomoya said.
"Sounds to me like someone that needs to grow up." Melissa said sagely, "He's probably a kid that still wants to be a star."
"Actually, no." Kobayashi chuckled, "He's not trying to be famous himself, but he is already managing some models, a singing group, and a young idol."
"Wow!" Melissa was impressed. She let her one word reply take back all that she had said about this person's lack of maturity.
"And he's good at math and science?" Kotomi sounded dejected. She was instantly envious of someone that had a good mind for science and yet still had that kind of charisma and charm to make so many friends, and impress so many people.
"Ah… I may be making him out to be a bit more impressive than he really is." Kobayashi remembered the other thing his colleague had said. And this had been a warning more than a recommendation. "He has a problem similar to your friend, Hiroki-san."
"He is also in love with someone from another world?" Kotomi asked.
"Huh? Ah… no. His appearance can be… somewhat frightening. Your first impression may be that he is a bully… or worse. But my colleague insists that he is nothing of the sort." Kobayashi assured them.
Even with her godfather's assurance, Kotomi still turned a concerned glance to Tomoya.
"Don't worry. I'll be with you the whole time." Tomoya said as he took her smaller hand in his.
"Promise?" Kotomi asked meekly.
"I Promise." he said as he squeezed her hand.
.
Glossary
Koyo trip: a journey in the autumn to view the colorful leaves.
Kurobe Gorge: a deep gorge in the Northern Japan Alps region of the Toyama prefecture. If you want to see what the place looks like, search for "Kurobe Gorge autumn" and look at the pictures. It is a beautiful place that I am sure I will fail to adequately describe. Although it can be reached rapidly by the Hokuriku Shinkansen (bullet train) now, that service has only been available since 2015.
Obasan: aunt
Ojiisan: grandfather
Randoseru: a traditional leather backpack used by elementary grade children in Japan.