American Displacement Disorder

by Mister Vault 101

American Adolf Riese has the fortune of attending Yamaku Academy, a school for the physically impaired in Japan, following a horrific car crash in his hometown. After settling down in what he hopes will be a peaceful end to his high school days, Adolf learns that love, drama, and health management are an international affair. (Updated extremely irregularly)

38. Confessions of a Toilet Girl

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Confessions of a Toilet Girl

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...and now for something completely different...

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The wooden door didn't even budge. He slammed his body against it out of desperation, his bladder feeling like it was going to explode. It was an absolutely terrible feeling, and he was frantically trying not to piss himself. With a reluctant groan, the sandy blonde-haired teen turned around and ran a very minute distance down the hall, stopping in front of the girls' restroom. Hesitantly, he began to push the door open before he felt the overwhelming urge to urinate once more, which caused him to shove the door open and sprint to the nearest open stall, the third one from the door. With one hand, he began unzipping his pants, shutting the door with his other hand and not even bothering to latch it. He unbuttoned his trousers and slid his pants down to aim his pee-shooter at the traditional Japanese toilet. As the bodily fluid shot out of his orifice, the pressure within his bladder lessened at a rapid pace. Some of his liquid waste sprayed outside of the ceramic bowl, but that wasn't any of his concern.

"Ah," the American teen sighed, relieved. He was only slightly concerned about being in the restroom belonging to the opposite sex. He put his package away, buttoned his pants, and zipped up his fly, cracking his neck in the process as he spun around to leave.

"Konnichiwa."

The lights flickered and went dim as he froze in place, frightened at the sight he was met with. A girl stood in front of him, short by American standards but average by Japanese ones, with bloody tears running down her face. She stared at him, her eyes spread farther apart than they should've been, similar to those of a dead fish. She grinned, her lips pale and her skin a blueish-gray, a strand of her long black hair hovering over her mouth. Her teeth were pointed and akin to those of a shark, the faint outline of dried blood somehow visible in the dim light.

"What..." the teen muttered in his native English, backing up as far as he could. "What the fuck?"

The girl giggled, her smile menacing and her hair unmoving. She slowly walked closer, forcing the American teenager to look for a way out in a panic. His eyes shot around, unable to locate an escape. Attacking the girl didn't seem smart; he'd watched plenty of Japanese and American horror movies to know that. His eyes shot to the top of the stall, which he noticed had a gap that seemed large enough for him to fit through. He hopped up and grabbed the top of the stall, his arm muscles flexing as he pulled his body up before swinging his legs upward. His left foot collided with something, most likely the girl, before he rolled over the top and into the next stall. The teen landed on his back and groaned in pain, only to shoot back up and try unlocking the door.

"Dammit all to hell..." he breathed as he pushed the lock back as much as possible, to no avail.

He groaned and began trying to force the door open. A shadow growing larger on the door alerted him to another being's presence, throwing him into a panic. He threw himself at the door three times, his heart beating rapidly and an unnaturally cold draft of some sort beating upon the nape of his neck. Upon the fourth attempt, the door's hinges and lock both gave way, the American stumbling due to barely meeting any resistance to lose momentum. He caught himself and regained control of his body, however, and dashed toward toward the bathroom door as a raucous and eerie laughter exploded out of the stall he just escaped from.

"Onii-chan," the girl giggled as the teen threw the door open. "Ogenkidesuka, onii-chan? Kyou wa don'na ichinichi deshita ka?"

The teen dashed into the hall and pressed up against the door, breathing a sigh of relief. "Jesus..."

"ONIICHAN!" the girl shouted from behind the door as she beat on it. "ONIICHAN!"

"Watashi wa anata no oniichanjanaidesu!" the teen shouted.

"Iie, baka-nii" the voice boomed with a slight giggle. "Anata wa oniichanda, niichan. Saa, to o akete kudasai."

"Why the hell would I open the damned door?! Huh?!"

The girl giggled some more and he jumped to his feet after the door took a powerful hit. Without hesitation, he sprinted down the hall, his heart in his throat and his footsteps echoing loudly throughout. He had no clue what was going on, but he didn't like it whatsoever. He rounded the corner next to his homeroom, 3-3, and entered the classroom, expecting some sort of reprimanding in regards to running in the hall. Much to his surprise, he received no such lecture and took his seat. He was just imagining things with that little girl, most definitely. He had no idea what caused the hallucination, but it was ridiculously vivid, something he made a note to inform the school nurse about.

He stoppedy paying attention to his teacher and gazed outside. The sky was a deep blue, a few puffy clouds floating by here and there. He blinked and noticed something odd: the sky was suddenly pitch black, rainclouds polluting the sky. Rain began to beat on the windows violently, drowning out the droning of the teen's lecturer.

The teen turned to face his classmates. "Did anyone else-"

No one was in the room anymore, bar himself. A chill ran down his spine and the hairs on his neck stood on end. Something doesn't feel right... He shook his head. No, I just dozed off, that's all.

"Onii~cha~n..."

The chill became a full-on freeze. The teen turned around slowly, a bead of sweat coldly sliding down his forehead. He froze in place for a moment when his eyes met with the girl's. His mind raced for an answer. His mind was just playing tricks on him, that was all. He was sure of it.

The girl's mouth widened into a disturbing grin and he cracked. He jumped up and, with surprising force, threw his desk at her, knocking the ghoulish girl back. He ran to the door and shoved it open, sprinting out into the hall. He ran down the corridor, to the staircase, and began descending them two to three at a time. He misjudged the first step on the second flight down and slipped, tumbling down the stairs in an awkward roll. He smacked his back, face, posterior, and the back of his head on several steps. He felt pain all over once he rolled to a stop, a single, almost inaudible groan escaping his mouth. "Fuck..."

The teen sat up, wincing in discomfort, and tried rising to full height. In doing so, however, an intense wave of pain coursed through his lower left leg, centered primarily around his foot. Did I sprain it?! he fearfully thought. He knew that he was at a serious disadvantage already.

He felt a liquid sliding onto both of his lips, though he could also taste the coppery substance: blood. He wiped underneath his nostrils and observed the blood on his fist for a moment before raising the lower half of his left leg in the air. The teen leaned on the nearby wall and concluded that he had to have been hallucinating. Any second now, one of the teachers, maybe even Suzu, will walk around that corner and ask what the hell's wrong with me... He sighed and rested his head on the wall. What a good question.

With a wince, he set his injured foot down, but, despite the pain, he ignored the discomfort and limped toward the school's entrance, all of the shoe lockers just inviting him to safety. A stupid grin slid across the teen's lips as he neared the lockers. He limped, and walked, and limped some more, and broke into a full limp-sprint, but he never seemed to get closer. His grin faded and he slumped to the floor, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes, due in part to the pain, but mainly to his overwhelming feeling of helplessness.

I don't even know why I'm crying...

"Dude, you stuck here, too?"

The teen looked up to where the male voice came from and, in haste, wiped away his tears so his friend couldn't see. Another teen with dark hair stood in front of the blonde boy. The exact colour wasn't able to be made out due to the lighting, but the blonde identified the voice as friendly.

The blonde nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

He got to his feet and felt his leg buckle from a combination of the awkward placement and the sprain. His friend reached out and caught him before he fell.

"Dude, are you alright?" the dark-haired boy asked.

The blonde nodded with a grimace. "Yeah, just a sprain." He stepped forward, as if to prove a point, trying to ignore the pain. "See?"

The friend held his hands up apprehensively. "Whatever, big man. You obviously can handle it." The blonde nodded somewhat arrogantly and stood erect, swaying slightly as he grimaced. His friend grabbed him and slung the latter's arm around his neck, stabilizing him. "Don't be a hero, okay?"

"Whatever," the blonde teenager grumbled in response.

He and his friend walked down the hall together, the former trying to remain vigilant of his surroundings, having observed that the girl from the restroom hadn't made appearance for a few minutes. The lights flickered as they made a left in an attempt to reach the auxiliary exit.

"Shit," the dark-haired boy said. "Dead end. We must've made a wrong turn."

The blonde's eyes, originally half-closed and weary despite his attempts to be vigilant, shot wide open. They frantically moved around, trying to locate any identifying characteristics of the auxiliary exit in the ominous dark. He noticed something and pushed his friend away, limping forward while gritting his teeth with every step. An unlit sign that read "EXIT" hung from the ceiling, in front of where the door should have been. The teen angrily pounded on the wall, his hits progressively getting stronger.

"NEIN! NEIN NEIN NEIN!" he shouted, unable to believe the doorway up and vanished. "The door was right. Fucking. Here!"

His fists continued to pound the wall as he shouted in German, his friend looking on anxiously. The blonde's fists pounded and pounded and-

CRAAAACK!

"ARGH! FUCK!"

The blonde gripped his right hand with his left, tears welling up in his eyes once more from the pain. Without a doubt, he broke a bone in his hand, several even. His thumb was contorted awkwardly, pain constantly shooting through his hand due to involuntarily attempting to move the dislocated and fractured digit.

"Shit," he breathed, trying to tough it out.

He had completely forgotten about his friend, who shook his head in disappointment, and tried to reset the bone. He jerked it one way and caused another intense wave of pain, resulting in him howling in agony. He inhaled and exhaled for a few moments and immediately jerked the digit another way, managing to reset the bone, but not without another howl of pain. He dropped to his knees and began breathing frantically, unable to ignore any pain.

I'm alone in this... whatever, he thought, slowing his breathing. I'm fucking alone. Just me and that creepy little girl... Wait, I'm not alone... His head shot to his left, where his friend was, his vision blurry from tears. He held out his uninjured hand, a request for help, and muttered something unintelligible.

A giggle echoed in the hall. "Hehehe, niichan..."

The teen snapped to and wiped away the tears in his eyes. In front of him was the toilet girl. The little shit that's been chasing me... The little shit that - well, thanks to her at least - caused me to break my thumb, sprain my foot, and damn near have a heart attack...

He clenched his fists in not fear, but a newfound anger, one more akin to fury. Without any weapons, he stood up and decided that the only viable option was to fight the girl hand-to-hand, even though attacking a creepy little girl wasn't really on his to-do list. He grunted as he rose to full height and took a step forward. He took another step, and another step, and another, closing the distance between him and the little girl.

The girl's playful-sounding giggles suddenly stopped. "Eh? Niichan, nani o shiteru no?" She suddenly giggled and stretched her arms out. "Hagushite?"

"I. Am. Not..." The blonde swung his left hand, balled up into a fist, toward the girl's temple. "YOUR NIICHAN!"

He anticipated resistance, so he swung with as much force as he could muster. However, his fist met no opposing force and he stumbled, twisting on his injured foot awkwardly. He yelped in pain and fell to the floor, suddenly getting blown back into the wall as soon as he hit the floor. He felt something snap in his back and swore loudly. He was not going to be able to reset whatever snapped on his own, and his only ally had just disappeared.

"II NA YO!" the girl shouted, slowly walking forward. "Niichan, anata wa otokonokona iijanai..."

The girl began to walk forward slightly faster and the boy suddenly found that he couldn't move. He tried willing his muscles to make some sort of movement, but they refused to make a single motion. He felt his heart tighten and quicken in pace. He wanted to cry out for help, but he couldn't even lower his jaw.

"...saa, manabanakereba naranai."

She flashed a devilish grin and the teen's eyes shot wide open against his will. The girl licked her lips and leaned in close, her eyes little more than black beads.

"Hehehe... niichan..."

No, the teen thought, unable to actually shout or say the word. The light overhead flashed brightly for a moment, illuminating the girl's face to be covered with blood just as a sharp object was brought down forcefully to his eye. NOOOOOO!

---

"No!"

I shot up out of bed and looked around, what felt like a film of sweat layering my back. My heart was racing and my breathing was rapid, which went hand-in-hand as "not good." An intense fear crept over me, making me probably about as paranoid as Kenji. I kept looking around my room, anticipating something to jump at me before I realized that my heart was beating dangerously fast. I slowed my breathing, though, understandably, it required some effort.

Once I calmed down and finally registered that the Corpse Party reminiscent nightmare I had was just that, a nightmare, I lied back down and felt a rush of relief. An odd rush of relief, but a rush of relief nonetheless.

"First time I had an actual nightmare in a while," I mused aloud. It was true, since most "nightmares" I did have were little more than memories of my sister.

After lying in bed for a few more minutes, my eyes still heavy like anyone's would be on a Monday morning, I sat back up and looked at my clock, which read 7:42 A.M. With much reluctance, I got out of bed and stretched, cracking my back in the process. I leaned close to the blinds and peered out, noting that rainclouds were fast on their way. Lazily, I grabbed my toothbrush and a towel and walked to the door.

With some serious caution, my hand pulled my door shut. Kenji was becoming more prone to jumping out of his room whenever I left mine, so any and all precautions were taken to ensure he didn't snag me into another hare-brained scheme. Granted, outings with him were fun and oddly satisfying, but it was still annoying to get cornered at random points by him.

The door to the bathroom was open, a small amount of steam rising from one of the shower stalls. It was a little strange, since I was typically the first one to even approach the bathrooms, but I shrugged it off and began brushing my teeth. It was, for all intents and purposes, a very pointless thing to care about. Who really cared about who was in the shower first?

I spat out the toothpaste and inhaled some water, swishing the H2O around to rinse my mouth, taking note of "Hallo, freund," in the corner of the mirror. I spat the water out and began rinsing off my toothbrush, yawning while doing so. Once I finished with that, I took my clothes off and set them to the side, all the while wrapping a towel around my waist and walking into the open stall. The door shut behind me and my right hand moved the towel from my waist to the door, draping it over the top. My left hand grasped the shower valve and twisted it, water sputtering out before being followed by a steady stream.

The water rolled on my body, all at a perfect temperature to relax my muscles. Not that they were strained or anything, of course. Lazily, I lathered the washrag up with soap and began to scrub, my thoughts bouncing all over the place.

What the hell was that dream all about? I wondered, still uncertain about why I had it. I shouldn't try looking too deep into it. If I was a literature teacher, I'd say that the dream foreshadows a traumatic event that would leave me depressed and in solitude... I scoffed loudly, the noise even echoing over the running water. ...but, if by some outstanding circumstance that is the case, that dream's about seven months too fucking late.

---

The cool October air blew around in my barely damp hair, sending some minor chills down my spine. It wasn't that discomforting; it actually felt kind of good, oddly. I wasn't really bothered since I stood outside in below freezing temperatures in summer clothes after taking a shower to catch the bus, all because I got up late and was being rushed to no end by my sister... several times. That was partially why I became infamous for waking up earlier than a normal person during my American high school career. It wasn't unusual, not even something to gain infamy from, but everyone thought I was freaking insane. However, I became much more prone to falling asleep in class, especially any math classes I had to take. Good times, especially when Sean fell asleep and got pissed whenever I woke him up, but immediately told me to wake my ass up if I even began to doze off... two-way street, I guess. Louis did the same, but Colton was the worst... good god, was he the worst.

I swung my bag back and forth, generally disinterested in what was going on around me. People were mingling, some couples holding hands, a few people kicking around a soccer ball, and very select few actually on their way to homeroom. I was one of those select few.

"Well, at least no one seems to want to bother me," I mused to myself, rapid footsteps sounding behind me. "It's kind o-"

"Adolf-senpai!"

"Well, shit." I turned around, the underclassman's voice very familiar, and nodded in greeting. "What's up, Iwasaki-chan?"

She shyly turned away, her brown hair blowing with the breeze. "Uh... nothing, really..." She shuffled a little, her legs pressed together. This seriously seems like a scene out of a romantic comedy anime or something.

Immediately, my bullshit senses started to tingle and my eyebrow raised. "Iwasaki, is it really nothing?"

She nodded, her chin touching her blazer. "Yeah... um, Adolf-senpai?"

"What?"

"Um..." She shuffled a bit again, clasping her hands together. "Can... can you call me Aoichan?"

My eyebrow-raising instincts kicked in. "Why?" The second syllable in the word was subjected to some extra inflection.

"Can you... can you just... please?" [shuffling intensifies]

I glanced at my wristwatch and sighed. It was such a pointless request, one that wasted about three minutes. "Sure, but we ought to get to class, Aoichan."

She straightened herself and her mouth twisted into a grin, her cheeks a light, almost unnoticeable pink. "O-okay, senpai."

With a shake of my head, I returned to making my way to homeroom, Aoi walking unnecessarily close to me. The two of us walked past a few groups of people, all of whom were starting to rush to class, and something suddenly grabbed onto me, accompanied by a yelp from Aoi. I turned my head to look at Iwasaki, who was staring at me. Some guy pushed past us, more or less confirming that she was shoved into me.

"I'm so sorry!"

I shrugged. "Whatever, it's not a big deal."

She quickly retracted herself from me and nodded. Jesus, just be normal. We returned to our journey to homeroom, climbing the stairs to the entryway; Aoi was even closer to me than she was before. We walked through the front entrance, escaping the mobs of people.

Yamaku was abnormal when compared to other Japanese schools; not because of its purpose as a school for the physically disabled, but because it didn't have shoe lockers in the front entranceway. That abnormality, thanks to some overheard conversations, could've been due to the design of the school being Western, looking eerily similar to a college on the East Coast, in addition to having Western benefactors, as well as the fact that the school had dorms close by.

The two of us walked up the stairs, but Aoi suddenly broke off on the second floor landing. I gave her a look that basically asked where she was going, or at least I hoped that's the message it conveyed.

"I'm a second year," she said, slowly walking down the hall while she faced me. "Remember?"

"Er... yeah... Yeah, I, uh, just thought I felt something," I lied, not wanting to seem stupid despite feeling it. First floor, first years; second floor, second years; third floor, third years... Dumbass.

She didn't see through my ruse. The underclassman smiled and waved. "Bye, Adolf-senpai!"

I held my hand up in farewell, my wristwatch visible out of the corner of my eye. Shit! I'm gonna be late!

I turned around and sprinted up the stairs, ignoring the "no running in the halls" rule. My footsteps somehow echoed over the noise made by the masses of also unpunctual students. My legs pumped, carrying me past class 3-2, and around the corner to the back door of class 3-3. I threw the door open and forced myself in the room just as the bell rang. Everyone turned back and stared at me, Mutou especially. He's here before the bell? What the hell... I was also positive the suddenness of it made Hanako jump.

Awkwardly, I closed the door, made a very sloppy and barely apologetic bow, and walked to my seat. The constant feeling of eyes upon me was annoying to no end, but it subsided shortly after I sat down. After making a small crack toward me, my homeroom teacher went on to take roll.

While I got my physics book out, Hisao leaned in close. "You were almost late, for once," he said, chuckling a little. "Even Mutou-sensei was here before you. Why's that?"

While Mutou began writing some scientific brilliance on the board, I sighed and looked my friend in the eye. "Damn underclassmen, Hisao. Damn underclassmen."

---

The rustling of nylon track suits quickly became faint, instead being replaced by numerous metallic crashes. The lockers being slammed shut was annoying at first, but I grew used to it, much like I grew accustomed to being a lookout for Hanako whenever she needed to change; however, she began changing in the girls' locker room more frequently when we were on the track. When we were in the gym, she still ran to the girls' restroom to change, unlike everyone else, who changed in the classroom.

On this particular day, we were only changing in the locker rooms because the P.E. teacher figured that the looming rainclouds, which had stalled over the area for most of the morning, weren't going to unleash a torrent of rain upon us. Most of the guys in the locker room shared the same thought, but I didn't and ran back to my room to grab an umbrella, just in case.

"It's totally gonna rain," Sean said to me after he shut his locker.

"No shit," I replied, pacing back and forth. "It should've started raining three hours ago." I stopped and looked through the little window at the top of the wall. "It seems to rain a lot here."

Sean shrugged, something I saw thanks to a very faint reflection in the window. "Maybe it has something to do with you." I turned and glared at him and he just grinned. "It could be... either that or it's just 'cause where we're situated. We're kinda near the coast, so, y'know, that could be part of it. Otherwise, I dunno."

"Es sein könnte."

"Speak English for once in your life."

"I said, 'It could be.' Anyway," I motioned toward the door, "we oughta get a move on."

Sean nodded and we turned to walk out of the locker room. A couple of the other his followed suit and we left, an oddly warm breeze blowing by. This is probably gonna be the last week we'll be outside for gym, at least until spring. It's supposed to be in the high forties all next week. We all strolled onto the field part of the track, where a couple others and the teacher already were, and waited for the rest of the class. Hanako was with the group already on the field, surprisingly engaged in idle conversation with Haruhiko.

"That's a first," I heard from behind me in Japanese. I turned around to see one of the guys from 3-2, Kouta Hamasaki, and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Ikezawa, talking to Suzumiya."

"There's a first for everything, Kouta," Sean replied. "But, that's not even a first. You just noticed."

Kouta shrugged, seemingly unconcerned about his ignorant comment. All of us continued to walk, me basically leading the pack, and we merged with those already on the field. Haruhiko noticed me and pointed me out to Hanako, who promptly turned to face me while Haruhiko went off to talk with someone else. Since Hanako and I spoke to each other at lunch not even ten minutes earlier, I didn't bother to ask her "what's up." Instead, I cut to the chase.

"You know what we're doing today?" I asked, anticipating a change due to the weather.

"Soccer," the scarred girl quickly replied. "The te-teacher said we... were going to play soccer."

"Doubt that'll work with the weather."

The class assembled and the teacher began to take roll, ignoring the stalled storm clouds. She called out people's names, accompanied by a hand going up with a shout of "Here!" Okazaki-sensei's soft voice still contradicted her job, an observation that never ceased to cross my mind. Once she was done with roll call, she raised the fußball that she had tucked under her armpit.

"Today, we'll pla-"

A sudden clap of thunder cut her off. She and several students, Hanako included, jumped out of surprise. One girl from my homeroom class, Ikuno Komaki, was so scared that she basically assumed fetal position. Sean and I looked at each other and shrugged, both of us unfazed by the weather. Rain began falling lightly.

"Everyone, head to the gym!" Okazaki-sensei shouted, her soft voice almost drowned out by another clap of thunder. A flash of lightning accompanied the thunder, which was followed by an object pushing against my back and hands tugging on my jacket. My classmates pushed past me in a mad dash to get inside. A little rain never hurt anyone... wait, did Sean also go? What the hell, mate? I mused internally as I looked over my shoulder.

"Hanako, let go." The scarred girl shook her head and pulled my jacket closer to her face. A sigh emerged from my mouth and I shook my head. "Let go. It's just a little lightning and thunder."

"B-b-but..."

"But nothing!" I replied, walking forward some in an attempt to nonchalantly shrug her off while the rain began coming down furiously. Komaki was still lying on the ground in fetal position and everyone else was at least a hundred feet away. "Komaki-san! Are you alright?" I shouted over the pounding of the precipitation.

The girl on the ground had her eyes squeezed shut and she was whimpering, all the while shaking her head violently. She's obviously not okay, and... wow, no one else decided to help the girl on the ground? Asshats. Another clap of thunder roared from above, resulting in Hanako pulling tighter on my jacket and causing Komaki to wail loudly.

"MAKE IT STOP!" she shouted. "MAKE IT STOOOOOOOP!"

"Komaki-san!" I shouted again, kneeling down as best I could. We were already drenched. "Here, take my hand!" She's going to get sick if she stays out here.

She tried to pull herself into an even tighter position, herself being outright frightened by the thunder and lightning. Her brown hair was plastered on her face and the ground, the braid she had done glued onto her cheek. Komaki and Hanako were both scared, it seemed, but Komaki was literally traumatized. Leaving her outside isn't right, but... goddammit.

"Hanako!" I spun around abruptly, removing her hands from my jacket. She was shaking and her hair was also glued to her face, some of her scarring visible. She tried to grab hold of me, but my hands grabbed hers and kept her at bay. Her eyes widened, her right eye visible to me for the first time in a long time. "Stop trying to use me as a shield! Nothing about the rain is going to hurt you! Now get the hell inside! You'll catch a cold."

She just stared at me, wide-eyed and speechless, letting her arms limply sway back and forth in the pouring rain. I shook my head and turned back to Komaki, who was wailing even louder and more unintelligibly than before. I wrapped my arms around her midsection and heaved upward. She was noticeably heavier than Hanako or Suzu, which, when combined with her slippery clothing and constant squirming, made actually carrying her quite a feat, an almost impossible one at that. The practical thing to do is to get her to her feet, but she seems like she's just going to tumble back over. Shit... We're already soaked, so maybe we won't have to participate? I shook my head and tried to set Komaki upright, wrapping her left arm around my neck and securing it with my hand. That's not important right now.

I got Komaki to her feet and she immediately went limp again, unwilling to cooperate as a clap of thunder roared. Swearing under my breath, I picked her back up again, but the slipperiness of our wet track suits made it troublesome. Due to a rumble of thunder in the distance, she went limp once more. Verdammt... I righted her a third time, and just as she was about to go limp, I felt some resistance on the opposite side of my terrified classmate. My head instinctively turned to face the Komaki's right side, only for a surprising sight to meet me.

"Hanako..." I muttered, slightly shocked that she was helping. She cracked a small smile at me in response and wrapped Komaki's right arm around her neck, firmly grabbing hold of it with her hand.

Without a word being spoken, Hanako and I carried Komaki across the field, the pelting rain basically blinding and freezing us. Late October rains weren't meant to be warm, anyway, and water kept getting into my eyes, so I was constantly blinking in an attempt to see; there wasn't a doubt in my mind that Hanako was doing the same, too. Komaki whimpered and whined with each rumble and clap of thunder, occasionally struggling to get free and shouting "LET ME GO!" or "MAKE IT STOP!" I glanced at her a couple times and, despite the fact that rainwater was rolling down her face, I was positive that she was crying.

Eventually, though we were completely soaked, Hanako, Komaki, and I made it to the gymnasium entrance. I let go of Komaki's arm for a brief second to pull the door open and, once I had it opened enough, Hanako and I booked it inside with Komaki in-between. The door closed, the warmth of the gym being the first thing I felt and not the eyes upon us. One of our classmates ran up to us with towels and draped them around us. I didn't really know her, since she was from 3-1, but she had silvery hair and brown eyes. Once she stepped away, Hanako and I continued carrying Komaki to an unoccupied section of the gym and set her down, taking her towel away in the process. She was muttering uncontrollably as Hanako wiped her face off, though a steady stream of tears kept rewetting her face until Hanako gave up. I took the towel and dried off Komaki's hair and, after I finished and was starting to wrap the towel completely around her, I heard footsteps. Looking up, I saw our teacher standing in front of us with a pair of extra towels.

"Are you all okay?" Okazaki-sensei asked as I stood up completely, taking my towel off and accepting another one. Hanako scooted in close to me for some reason.

I shrugged, trying not to be unpleasant about everyone, including the teacher, leaving Komaki in the rain. "Hanako and I are. Komaki, on the other hand..."

She nodded. "I'll get someone to take her to the nurse. Also, change of plans. We were going to play soccer, but now that we're inside, I'm going to have everyone play dodgeball. If you two want to," she motioned to the equipment room, "there are some dry tracksuits in the equipment room, so you can dry off and participate if you want to. Today is completely optional for you two." She turned around and waved down a girl who was just walking around. "Haruna!"

The girl, who had brown hair done in pigtails, walked toward the teacher. "Hai, sensei?" she asked.

"Can you take Komaki-chan to the nurse's office, please?"

Haruna nodded and bent down to pick up Komaki. She slung Komaki's right arm around her neck and was able to move with some better efficiency than I was able to at first, likely because the thunder and lightning weren't really noticeable inside. She still slipped from time to time, at least until the pair were out of sight. Okazaki-sensei then walked away to begin instructing the class, leaving Hanako and I to dry off.

"You want to participate?" I asked. Her answer was my answer, since it didn't matter to me.

She shrugged. "I-I guess..."

I nodded, though I was somewhat reluctant. "Okay then."

We walked toward the equipment room and I opened the door, allowing her to go in first. The door shut behind me and I looked around for the suits. Hanging up next to the volleyballs were a few tracksuits of varying sizes, one of which seemed to be big enough for me by some odd stroke of luck. I looked at Hanako, who was just standing awkwardly, water dripping down off of her hair.

"Hey, you- ugh." I groaned and stepped forward, taking the towel out of her hand and putting it on her head, rubbing it around in an attempt to dry her hair. She seemed shocked at first, but she didn't fight me. "Don't just stand there and expect it to air dry here, alright?"

I stepped away as she took the towel in her hands and glanced at me. "I... I'm not..."

I began drying myself off, the water sliding down my face having become bothersome to me. "Really?" I roughly rubbed the towel on my head and stared at her. "Standing there, dumbfounded, implies otherwise."

She shuffled nervously and began drying off what I didn't get of her face. She suddenly grabbed a properly sized tracksuit, turned around, and began shuffling some more while rain pounded off of the windows that were high on the wall. To be quite honest, it was a soothing kind of noisiness — relaxing, even. I flat out enjoyed the rain, and merely standing there was making me slightly drowsy.

"Can..." Hanako muttered, eliminating the drowsiness despite the fact that she was barely loud enough for me to hear. "Can you... turn around?"

"Yeah, sure."

I turned around and took my jacket off, the maroon garment basically a nylon sponge. Water basically ran out of the jacket like it was a spigot, albeit one of the slow and non-metallic variety. My undershirt was, surprisingly, almost entirely unaffected. It was only slightly damp and I expected the same to be true for Hanako, since she basically had a bomb suit on. I kicked off my shoes and slipped my pants off, as well; unlike my shirt, my boxers were damp, leaning more towards "actually wet" in some spots. My body lurched forward as I bent down to pick up the towel, which was promptly used to dry off and wet spots left on my body, my feet especially. I peeled my soaked socks off of my feet and shrugged internally, realizing that I was going to have to participate without socks. The worst that was going to happen was some slight chafing, if that. The towel dried my lower appendages quite quickly and, once finished, I set it aside.

I took the suit that was hanging up down and separated the clothes, sliding the pants on first. They were actually a comfortable fit and long enough for my legs. The jacket was next and it was also a splendidly comfortable fit, though the sleeves were just a tad long. I slipped my shoes back on and stretched, my medium-length hair still somewhat damp. I never got that haircut like I wanted to... maybe the town has a barber or something... Worse comes to worst, maybe Misha or someone knows how to cut hair. I don't want to have to go into the city just for a haircut.

My body began to turn, but I managed to stop at the last second. "Is it okay to turn around now?" I asked aloud, not wanting to spook Hanako because I saw her undressed or anything of that ilk.

Nylon was still being rubbed around, so I figured that she'd say... "N-no..." she muttered, making me feel good for guessing right. "J-just another s-second."

The bouncing of my head went unnoticed. "Alright..." My eyes glanced at the wet heap that was my tracksuit from back home, hidden deep in my bags. Even if I found it when I was running with Hisao and Emi in the summer, I wouldn't have worn it. Too damn hot. My thoughts moved from the tracksuit to the events of the day prior, which was perfect conversation material in the uncomfortable silence. "Hey, Hana."

"Huh?" she responded, sounding as though she were slightly startled. The rustles of the nylon also stopped. How long does it take to put on a tracksuit? Geez...

"I was thinking... the article? I think it'll do fine."

The rustling resumed. "W-what?"

"Like, popularity and feedback and such. I got the idea that American football is kind of popular here, so it seems like it'll do well... Hell, we spent most of yesterday reviewing and editing, and your writing was also really good, which should be beneficial in some aspect." I laughed a little, though it felt less like a normal laughs and more like one of those awkward 'Holy shit, what are you saying?' laughs, for some reason. "I can only hope my translation did it right."

"I think... I think it did." She cleared her throat. "You ca-can turn aro-around now."

With a nod, I spun around and sighed since she was finally dressed, though she took forever. "Hey, that reminds me... why did you run out of the room before we started?"

"Uh..." She shuffled nervously again. "I-I-I-I... I ju-just for-for-forgot so-so-some-something..."

I raised an eyebrow at how nervous she got, but just shook my head in the end. "Eh, no matter." With a swift jerk of my hand, I motioned toward the door. "Ready to go play some dodgeball?"

She nodded slightly, not saying a word. Without delay, I reopened the door and we walked out into the gym, the wooden floor shining in certain places due to water that dripped off of students' wet clothes. A larger-than-usual yellow sandwich board-style sign was set up, reading 「足元注意 : 掃除中」 and "Caution: Wet Floor," both phrases having been printed in a large font and accompanied by Braille writings to their respective parent languages. A couple of students had dry mops and were running back and forth with them, laughing and having a grand ol' time while drying the floor, which was almost completely dry.

Hanako and I walked past our classmates on drying detail and toward the already divided groups that were preparing to play dodgeball in the centre of the gym. Before we even made it half of the way to them, both of us were called out.

"Ikezawa, you're on Lynch's team," Okazaki-sensei said, an unspoken option to sit out accompanying her statement. "Riese, you're with Suzumiya."

I nodded and walked over to Haruhiko's team, falling in line behind Kouta Hamasaki, while Hanako hesitantly made her way to her team, awkwardly loitering next to Sean. We were instructed to go to the opposite extremes of the gym, Sean's team being on the side that was once wet. Hanako didn't seem too keen to play, but I wasn't surprised in the least.

The First Yamaku Floor Drying Battalion of the Japanese Mop Corps hung up their weapons from a long, hard day of drying and rushed over to join either the United States Forces Japan or the People's Liberation Army. Commander Lynch of the PLA and his subordinates watched us, the members of the USFJ, anxiously as the teacher set spherical weaponry down across the center line, the thin white border that kept us from direct engagement. Tension was tangible in the warm gymnasium air, a feeling augmented by the scents of wet hair and floor cleaner. The teacher, the United Nations representative that was to ensure no dirty tricks would be put into play, brought both factions to attention.

"We're playing with American rules," she said, her voice reverberating a little in the largely quiet battlefield. "Lynch, Riese, you should both be accustomed to this. More specifically, you'll be playing the army dodgeball variant." A few of the opposing communists and the allied troops were confused about the rules of engagement and, in turn, made their confusion known. So, the UN representative explained the rules vividly, leaving behind little to no confusion. It was quite hard to get confused anyway, when "American" rules, which are probably standard rules everywhere but Japan, were compared to Japanese rules.

The whistle blew, indicating that the conflict could begin. Almost everyone, bar a select few that included myself and Hanako, rushed toward the balls lined up one the center line, grabbing them and immediately throwing them at an opposing player. Several people on both teams lost limbs while a few were directly knocked out due to chest shots.

The games played out randomly. However, Sean and I ended up having standoffs and the wins were split fifty-fifty. Hanako kept to herself, also. Though she tried sometimes, Hanako didn't really seem like she wanted to participate most of the time. Like a typical girl in the United States, she'd stand in back, except she had no one to stand around and gossip with. It was more like she was too scared to actually participate, which made sense from a certain standpoint. Dodgeball especially wasn't feasible, since she'd hide behind as many people as possible, usually me, Haruhiko, or Sean if any of us were on the same team as her, sometimes all three of us; Sean was the human shield in this particular class period. It was an unspoken rule amongst many to try ignoring Hanako in dodgeball, since no one knew what she'd do if hit. If she was the last one standing, she'd just sit down and no one would take a crack at her. Even when the teacher offered to let her sit out of the game, she'd decline as if today was the day that she'd play. Sometimes, she'd pick up a ball and throw it with an absurd amount of strength, mainly whenever she panicked. Luckily, no one was on the receiving end of any of those throws... Yet.

After a few rounds of American-rule army dodgeball, Okazaki-sensei decided to switch things up to doctor dodgeball. She had both teams choose a doctor and tell her separately who was the doctor. Haruhiko decided to alternate between a silver-haired girl from the Art Club named Kara Gafu and me. The other team didn't catch on to the alternations and used the same doctor constantly, otherwise known as Taiga, a very short girl who was from class 3-1 and had strawberry-blonde hair. Due to their inability to switch things up a bit, we ended up winning often, with Haruhiko and Kouta leading offensives and taking out the doctor. I wasn't hit even once as doctor, whereas Kara was knocked out twice.

Fast forwarding some, we were in the middle of a match, maybe ten minutes before the class period ended, and I had a ball in my hand. Kara was the doctor during this match and sort of slinked around behind a couple of guys, using them as cover whenever she had to heal someone. I sprinted toward the line, suspecting that Taiga was the doctor again. She was furious about constantly being the doctor and probably was furious at me for sprinting at her. I tossed my ball with as much force as possible toward her, though my otherwise impeccable footwork failed and I tripped over my own feet. While I clearly saw Taiga get hit in the chest with the ball I threw, she managed to lob her ball at me before she was downed and, without ample time to dodge, it smacked me in the shoulder. We both sat on the floor, merely a meter apart.

"Nice throw," I said, nodding politely toward her. It was more surprising than nice, though...

"Yeah..." she muttered in response, though she seemed reluctant. "Y-you, too..."

That was an odd response, I observed, taking into account that Taiga was somewhat known for being standoffish. At least that's what the rumors say she was like at her old school about a year ago...

Some random Japanese shouts followed by a familiar American accented voice spouting English became rather loud, curiosity causing my head to lift up. Some kid lead the pack, while Hanako, Sean, and some other kids I also didn't really know were behind him. The group bent down next to Taiga, and the I noticed something. Rather than shout about it to my allies, I kept quiet and watched as they retreated. My compatriots quickly came to my aid and revived me, after which I sprinted back to safety. I motioned for Haruhiko to come over and he complied, Kara and Kouta close behind.

"What is it?" Haruhiko asked, anxiously checking his six.

"Hanako's the doctor," I stated, but not loud enough for my voice to reverberate. My allies looked at me, confused; Kouta narrowly dodged a dodgeball by merely leaning in. "I know, it's a dastardly trick."

Haruhiko threw his hands up, a ball in both. "Well, shit. No one's gonna hit her, even if she is the doctor." He tucked a ball underneath his right armpit and rubbed his temples. "Dammit..."

"Well, we could just try taking everyone out before she can heal them. Then she'd just quit," Kouta suggested. A loud rumble of thunder penetrated the gym's walls.

"It's just a game, guys," I said, grabbing the ball out of Haruhiko's hand. "Let's just play, okay? All I did was tell you that she was the doctor, damn."

I walked forward, feeling odd looks upon me, and searched for a target. A mass bombardment happened during our short conversation, resulting in most of the other team being downed, but because of that, they also had all the balls; Sean and the rest of Hanako's entourage were among the downed. Taiga threw a ball at me again, but I dodged and another guy on my team caught it. Reluctantly, she sat down, frowning and swearing in the process. I cracked my neck and took a gander at my standing adversaries, but it was very brief gander as a second strike occurred, taking out everyone but Hanako, a guy, and a girl. Thanks to that, I was the only one with a ball of the dodging variety, literally on the front line.

Hanako looked around fearfully, despite the fact that no ball even came close to her. A strike of lightning flashed outside, making the scene just a little more dramatic than it actually was. Suddenly, she began walking forward rather than sitting down, keeping an eye on me the whole time. She had a ball in her hand, which was mildly concerning. Like I said before, her throws were powerful, but no one had experienced one yet. She passed several of her teammates, some of whom shrugged and lied back down while the others rolled their eyes and threw up their hand(s).

She stopped right next to Sean and started leaning down. We kept our gazes locked on to each other, making no funny moves. My aim was sometimes off, and I didn't want to waste the shot. We were fairly close, so I could've just lobbed it and been done, but there was always the fact that she could dodge it by just an inch. Her fingers slowly approached my half-blind friend's shoulder, and I acted upon impulse.

My arm shot forward and my fingers raised upward.

Time seemed to slow as the ball coasted in the air. Silence burst into the room like the damned Kool-Aid man as the ball smacked Hanako in the arm, eliminating her from the game. I felt people staring at me — hell, I SAW them staring — and a lack of caring sprouted up inside of me. Then, something odd happened.

Hanako smiled.

Who the hell smiles after getting hit in dodgeball? I thought, being pretty confused about her facial expression. No one, at least not in my thirteen years of schooling. They get mad and throw their hands up, or walk off the battlefield, dejected.

She suddenly giggled and threw her ball at me, despite the fact that she was out and the game was essentially over. The ball bounced off of my chest and her giggle became contagious all of a sudden. I giggled and she giggled and everyone in the class was probably looking at us with raised eyebrows. It felt as though everyone else had disappeared and it was just us, laughing at some ridiculously obscure joke that only we understood...

...and it felt nice.

---

"You mind telling me what you two were laughing about in gym?"

"To be honest, I don't know."

After Hanako and I laughed for no reason at the end of gym, everyone stared at us and Okazaki-sensei got some umbrellas out of one of the storage closets, sending people out in groups to get their clothes and whatnot out of the locker rooms. After that, everyone relocated back to the gym and got into groups to get back to the main building. That was interesting, to say the least. I had my own umbrella, so I was able to walk more leisurely than some, since Hanako was the only person I ended up sharing with.

I tapped my pencil on my desk and groaned, thunder rumbling had a couple minutes left in the last class period of the day, the dreaded college algebra class. Sean was leaning toward me while Lehrerin Eisenhauer was handing back tests before the period ended. I heard some frustrated sighs, but I anticipated a loud swear from Sean. Both of us didn't do well, and we knew that.

He sat back in his seat proper as die Lehrerin walked past and set his paper down. We didn't get special English-language tests for most algebra tests, this specific test having had quite a few word problems. Though our ability to read kanji had definitely improved, we still weren't able to read it all. I lazily looked at the time and flipped my pencil around in my hand, only to get startled slightly by a pounding on the desk next to me. My gaze slowly drifted to Sean, who was looking at me with his nostrils flared and his eye wide. He threw his arms up into the air, fists clenched.

"How'd you do?" I asked, ignoring the ape-like look he had.

"Got a seventy-eight!" he proudly exclaimed. No one really paid any mind to us, since we were speaking in English.

Die Lehrerin walked past me, set my test down, and said, "Gut gemacht, Adolf." Good job, Adolf.

My eyes shot to the test paper, which had a nice number written in the uppermost margin. In response to Sean, I mimicked his movements, smacking my hands off of my desk and throwing my arms up in the air, all the while flaring my nostrils and widening my eyes. "Usil'te, Sean!" I said, trying not to grin; the words probably wouldn't have made much sense to another Russian speaker. Turn up!

His silly grin quickly faded. "What'd you get?"

I held up my paper and broke into a grin, pointing at the '87' circled in red. "Vosem'desyat sem'!"

"Prick," my friend said. "Also, speak English, please."

"Nyet."

"Eres muy tonto, mi amigo. Muy tonto."

"Speak English, Sean," I mockingly said. "I can't understand when you call me stupid in Spanish."

"Oh, dude, maybe I was just calling you silly. Way to make it worse than it actually was."

I nodded. "Sure."

About then, the bell rang, indicating that the day had finally come to a close. Everyone left their tests on their desks since Lehrerin Eisenhauer still had to put the grades in her grade book; the way she handed the tests back before actually recording the scores was reminiscent of school back home. The students poured out of the classroom, out math teacher wishing us all to have a nice evening. Hanako met with Naomi in the hallway to talk about the article while Sean met with Lilly and they went elsewhere.

"So~..."

The very familiar voice was right next to my ear.

"Miki, what are you doing?" I asked, turning around and blowing air in her face. Some of her hair blew around as she made an awkward face, which made me laugh.

"Shut up," she said in English, swatting at me. "Anyway, Suzu said you were asking about me being Canadian?"

I slowed down some and spun back around so that we were walking together. "Kind of. I sort of forgot about the whole conversation until now, but... I guess."

My girlfriend shrugged. "Well, I'm Japanese Canadian. My dad's Okinawan, my mom's French Canadian..." The look in her eyes was somewhat wistful. "...that's all there really is to it."

"So... Tu parles français?" I asked, curious if she could speak in her mother's mother tongue.

She raised her stump slightly and opened her mouth, but quickly lowered the stump and shut her mouth with a frown. "No."

"Really? You can't speak French?"

She cocked an eyebrow at me. "Would you ask a kid from California if he could speak Spanish just because his mother was a Mexican?"

I put my hand on my chin and, after a brief moment, nodded. "Yeah, actually."

She sighed. "Okay, that was a bad example..."

"Obviously. Have you ever been to California?"

Miki nodded. "Once."

"Where at?"

"Bakersfield, when I was twelve. My mom has some relatives there... What about you?"

"You mean being in California?" She nodded. "My sister and I took a longass road trip to Los Angeles a couple years ago to tour UCLA and USC. Before that, though, my uncle took us with him to San Diego for some reunion with some old Air Force buddies that fought in the Gulf War." I stretched out my arms and sighed, keeping my two limbs above my head for a couple of seconds before relaxing them. "I was thirteen. Comic-Con was really the only thing in the city that interested me and we were there as it was going on. My sister and I went to the convention while our uncle caught up with old friends." I looked at Miki and let my arms go limp, having noticed her odd, seemingly disapproving look. "What?"

She shook her head and sighed. "God, I'm dating such a fucking otaku. You gonna take me on a date to Akihabara next, maybe show me around an anime shop or two?"

I nodded. "Yeah. We could buy some doujin stuff, like Eren-Mikasa Attack on Titan stuff — or Eren-Levi if you're into that, but I'm not — and look at an Ichigo-Sakura Bleach-Naruto crossover even though I'm not into either, and then we'll look at cheap computer parts and buy some cosplay costumes. Maybe finish the evening in a karaoke bar, singing along to Hatsune Miku."

"At first, I was okay with the karaoke bar. Now... not so much."

"We'll finish off the night taking a tour of an animation studio and then we'll rent a hotel room, a love hotel room-"

"This is escalating quickly. What's in store now, lightsaber dildos and Hello Kitty staring as we..." She rocked her hips a little with a lewd grin on her face. "...get nasty?"

By that time, we had already walked outside and were underneath umbrellas, embraced by a chilling blanket of air. I shook my head in response. "No. No! Damn, I was just saying we get one of those rooms because they're cheaper. I mean, unless you'd want to get lewd with this dude."

Miki waved her stump. "We'd probably be better off figuring that out then, anyway... not now."

"Probably... Anyway, where do your parents live? Probably not far from here, I'd assume."

She grimaced. "You'd assume wrong. My mom lives in Vancouver. My dad... he lives in Osaka."

"Oh..." Well, shit. Didn't expect that. The way she spoke of her father didn't sound like there was a healthy father-daughter relationship. I also noticed that she was walking not to the dorms, but rather toward the field. "You got soccer practice today?"

I'd often forget that she was on the girls' soccer team in addition to the track team since she hardly mentioned it. Unlike the track team, there were two gender-specific soccer teams which, coincidentally, performed at about the same level as Uniontown High School's soccer teams; that basically means their performances were... not really memorable. They lost more than they won.

She nodded, her grimace disappearing, though she still seemed a little upset. A couple of kids ran past, rainwater splashing underfoot. "Yeah, but I was looking forward to practicing on the field..." She shook her head and shrugged. "Whatever. I could be like you and get soaked, but I'd rather not."

Ignoring her jab, I twirled my umbrella a little, the accumulated rain spraying about. "So, what, are you gonna do suicides and running drills in the gym or something?"

"Something like that." She raised her umbrella some and leaned in toward me, her lips puckered. We shared a kiss as a flash of lightening struck somewhere in the woods. Miki jumped, prematurely terminating our face battle. She huffed angrily and spun around, beginning a backwards trot to the gym with her stump in the air. "Damn lightning... I'll talk to you later tonight!"

I held my hand up and watched as she spun around and broke into a sprint, water splashing high enough to wet her skirt. She was, somehow, completely unfazed and kept going. I spun around and restarted my trek back to the dorms, but then Komaki crossed my mind.

"Ich frage mich... wie ist sie?" I muttered, thinking aloud. She wasn't looking too good whenever she was taken to Nurse. I wonder... how is she?

Without even thinking about it, my legs were already moving toward the auxiliary building. The rain thumped on my umbrella relentlessly, the fallen precipitation running off in streams. Despite the downpour, students were milling about, protected by umbrellas. A kid in a wheelchair had an umbrella mounted on the chair, while a kid with only his left hand had an odd umbrella that clasped around the stump that his right hand likely once occupied. The kid that I'd spotted several times before with the strange prostheses had an equally as odd umbrella-ish thing attached to his arm stump... except he had folded sheet metal instead of plastic to deflect the water. I spotted Rin and Maeda walking together, Takashi holding an umbrella between the both of them. Rin, unsurprisingly, seemed like she was spaced out and was changing her pace constantly. She probably got some sort of spark of inspiration.

I opened the door to the auxiliary building and dashed in, closing my umbrella. It was a lot warmer and comfortable in the auxiliary building, which instantly gave me a feeling of reluctance in regards to going back out. I shook some excess water off of the umbrella and started toward the door to the infirmary. Just as I was about to knock on it, the door swung wide open from the inside, revealing a certain Russian.

"Mikhail, chto novogo?" I asked. What's up?

"Ne tak mnogo," he responded. "Vy?" Not much. You?

"To zhe samoye." The same.

My eyes shot to his left hand for some reason, which was clenched into a fist, a minute piece of foil protruding from his grasp. His right hand held an umbrella. "Chto eta znachit?" What's that?

He didn't move much at all, nor was he too phased by my inquiry. "Eh, nichevo." Nothing. He walked by me and patted me on the shoulder. "I mean, you'll find out, with your girlfriend and all."

I turned to face him, not breaking stride due to the language change. "Condoms?" He stopped and nodded without turning, causing me to scratch my neck and sigh. "We haven't done it yet, dude. Even if we had, why would you care?"

He merely shook his head and started walking. "A little disappointed in you, Adolf Riese."

"For what? Not screwing my girlfriend yet?"

His head shook again slowly. "No, not that."

No idea what the hell he's talking about. I frowned and remembered that Suzu was actually worried about him, about someone, in first period today, given that he was absent, so a change of subject was in order. "You aren't going to miss tomorrow, are you? I don't want to have to start bringing you homework."

He shook his head and held up his clenched fist in farewell near the door, pulling his umbrella up and preparing it. "No. I gotta get going, so see you around."

He opened the door and waltzed into the rain. What the hell could he possibly be disappointed about? The fact Miki and I haven't had sex yet? No, that's ridiculous. He's newer here than I am, I think, so... is he jealous? I turned back to the gradually closing door to the infirmary and pushed it back open. Doubt it. I walked into the sickroom. Maybe it's something cryptic... or just the vodka talking. Damn, I could smell it plain as day, but... scheiße, he didn't look drunk in the least. Must be some Ruskie tolerance to vodka, I don't friggin' know. I heard some rumors about him inviting Maeda to his room and trying to... do something with vodka. Get him drunk or give it as a gift? I dunno, but rumors are rumors.

"Ah, Mister Riese!" Nurse boomed, interrupting my already stagnant thoughts. I looked at his chair and was met by his Brock-eyes and typical beaming smile. "What brings you to my fine establishment?"

I pointed toward the bed that was separated from the rest of the room by a curtain. "I wondered how Komaki-san was doing."

Nurse stood up and walked toward the curtain, his smile disappearing. "She was trembling for a couple of hours, but she's calmed down significantly within the past half hour. Want to talk to her?"

My shoulders rolled in a shrug. The shrugging felt like it happened without me even thinking. "Yeah, sure."

Nurse nodded and pulled the curtain back some. "Komaki-san, you have a visitor." Komaki-san muttered something unintelligible, to which Nurse shook his head. "No, it's one of your classmates. One of the ones who carried you inside." Nurse nodded and turned to me and walked forward some. "You're clear. By the way..." He raised an eyebrow. "I heard Ikezawa helped you bring her into the gym. Is that true?"

"Surprisingly, yes," I responded, taking note of the slight surprise that briefly appeared on Nurse's face.

"That's good to hear. Surprising, but good nonetheless."

I nodded and walked into where Komaki was lying, taking a seat on the old-school fold-up chair next to the bed. Komaki had sat in an upright position, her braid undone. Her brown hair was fairly messy, though it was obvious that she didn't care. She smiled at me as I set my umbrella and bag down.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, unconsciously cracking my knuckles.

"Eh... alive, I guess." She laughed weakly and sighed. After a moment, she put her head down. "I... I just didn't want to..."

"It's nothing to beat yourself up about, Komaki-san."

She looked up, glistening streams running down her cheeks. "I-I-I..." She sniffled loudly and wiped away her tears. "I'm so-sorry."

Komaki used Confusion! It was super effective! Adolf is now confused! "Er... sorry about what?"

"Making yo-you ca-carry-"

"It wasn't just me and it wasn't a problem, not in the slightest. Everyone has fears, Komaki-san. It's nothing to be ashamed of, honestly. Some people are scared of ducks looking at them at any given time from somewhere on Earth. Seriously." I leaned forward. "What happened with you... must've been something traumatic. Even less of a reason to be ashamed, let alone apologize."

"Riese-kun..."

I cleared my throat. "I was scared of explosions in general, even fireworks, from when I was six until I was eight, because..." I drifted off and shook my head, not wanting to discuss that. "I couldn't enjoy the Fourth of July, couldn't watch most movies without getting scared... hell, I couldn't even play video games without being scared most of the time. Almost shit my pants once, when my sister played Grand Theft Auto really loud." I sighed and leaned back a little. That memory was, in hindsight, humourous, and memories that didn't exactly bother me all too much any more began popping up, though the latter memories were still disturbing despite being over a decade old. "So, don't beat yourself up, like I said."

Komaki-san and I just sat there in relative silence for a minute. She kept her head down while I looked around the room blankly. Unsure of what else to do, I decided to leave. I gathered my bag and umbrella and stood.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Komaki-san," I said, turning to the curtain and sliding it a little. I walked forward, but there was a tug on my blazer.

"I was ten," Komaki said quietly, her voice hardly above a whisper.

Now you've done it. I backpedaled a single step and spun around. "You were ten when what?"

Her head was still angled downward. "I was walking home from school. I lived in a town in Niigata... Kariwa. Five thousand people at the most." She sniffled again and wiped her nose. "Dark, pitch black clouds blanketed the sky. I thought nothing of it and kept walking. Thought I might go explore the old castle ruins again, but I didn't. Then I saw old man Fukozaki, a nice man who worked at one of the grocery stores, and he was walking the same way I was. So, we walked together."

"Okay..." I kneeled down and refrained from sighing or saying something regarding her walking with an old man at the age of ten. I knew that in Japan it was likely safe to do that, but in the United States or anywhere else in the Western World? Not really. "Continue."

She shuddered. "It started raining, a-a lot... We started running t-to the bu-bu-bus stop but w-we didn't even make it fifteen meters down the road. He... he..." More tears began streaming from her eyes and she sobbed harder.

"He was struck by lightning in front of you," I guessed, earning an affirmative nod.

"He..." She snort-sniffled. "Fukozaki-san... he began shaking on the ground and..."

She began sobbing uncontrollably, cupping her eyes with her hands and snorting. With an internal sigh, my eyes closed and my head angled downward. I'd gone through what she did before, sometimes just as severe, but not as long. Where we lived, people liked setting off fireworks and, even though I hardly saw them go off, it wasn't unheard of for me to become deathly scared. Someone, usually my sister or uncle, would find me wrapped in a blanket, shaking and muttering unintelligibly. I wasn't able to watch most movies or play most games that I wanted to, but I literally forced myself to play games despite the fear. That may have been part of the reason I got over the fear... that and therapy for the whole bloody incident.

I opened my eyes and looked up at my classmate, her sobbing maintaining a steady volume. Nurse is probably wondering what the hell I did... and goddammit, I hate when girls cry, especially when I inadvertently cause it.

"Hey, Komaki-san." I dropped the umbrella from my right hand, extending that arm and resting the hand on her shoulder. I felt pretty bad for making her relive those events. "Don't..." I sighed, reluctant to sound like a cliché anime protagonist. "Just... don't cry, okay?"

Almost instantly, her hands dropped and she awkwardly grabbed hold of my jacket, burying her face near my armpit for some reason. She was sobbing louder than she was just a moment earlier. "I-I-I... I just stood there!" Her words were slightly muffled and she sniffled loudly, possibly even blowing her nose in my jacket. "Fu-Fu-Fu-Fukozaki-sa-san... he d-died in fr-front of me..."

Once more, I was stuck with a crying girl in a bed holding on to me. Like I was her brother or boyfriend or close friend, despite being relative strangers, I wrapped my right arm around her and patted her shoulder. After a couple pats, I began to rub her back, which I hoped she didn't assume was me trying to make a move. "Hey, Komaki-san... You're okay. I..." I took a shaky breath. "I've seen two people die, people very close to me. I've almost died a couple times..." I rubbed her back some more before finishing with a pat; going further into detail wasn't an option. "Everything's okay, now. That's all in the past, right?"

With a loud sniffle, she let out some more sobs and wrapped her arms around me. I'm not sure if this is considered awkward or... For several minutes, we remained like that, in an awkwardly friendly embrace. She was constantly sobbing and I was constantly rubbing her back.

Eventually, her steady sobbing turned into steady breathing. I looked at her and noticed that her eyes were closed. She literally cried herself to sleep. Nice. I peeled her arms off of my torso and laid her on the bed, pulling the sheet up to cover her. In less than five minutes, I managed to make a girl bawl her eyes out and fall asleep in less than fifteen. Methinks that's a new record.

I picked up my umbrella and walked out into the main part of the office, where Nurse was waiting in earnest. As soon as he saw me, his eyebrows shot up and he asked, "So?"

"So what?"

"So..." He motioned toward Komaki's bed. "What happened in there? Love confession?" He grinned. "Can't control yourself, huh?"

I nodded, going along with his jab. "All these young Japanese beauties are ripe for the picking, my good man."

He laughed, then assumed a serious expression. "Seriously though, I heard what you two were talking about. Her astraphobia hasn't caused a reaction this bad in her three years here." He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "She suffers PTSD from that incident, but therapy has helped with that for the most part. As for the fear of thunder and lightning, the therapy didn't even come close to lightly scathing it. From what I understand, you're really the only person who she's mentioned that to. Not even her friends know, to my knowledge."

I cocked an eyebrow, not deciding to question if he had a group of spying schoolgirls; Emi was just one of many. "I guess I'm a special stranger or something, huh?"

"You seem like it, especially with your fan club and whatnot." He scratched his chin and spun around to face his computer. "While you're here, I got another batch of prescriptions from your doctors in America."

"I'm guessing they also want a check-up?"

Nurse nodded. "Yeah, but you can just come in and do that whenever. They also want you on Cy-"

"I don't need it," I interrupted.

"What?" Nurse spun around and cocked an eyebrow.

"I said I don't need that script."

Nurse's neutrally confused expression contorted into a neutrally analytical one. He rested his hand on his chin and pondered for a moment. After a second and with some finality, he sighed. "Alright, fine. You'll still need to do that check-up, though."

My shoulders raised a little before lowering. "Whatever, I can do that. Just don't put me on that damn medicine."

Nurse nodded. "I'll have your other prescriptions ready tomorrow morning. Just get 'em before classes start."

I nodded. "Anything else?"

Nurse thought for a second before shaking his head. "Not really..." I nodded and spun around, opening the door out. "...but, if you do show signs of-"

Without even looking at the school's head nurse, I gritted my teeth. "I'm not going to show any signs, I promise you."

"And I promise you that, if you do, I'll make absolute certain you take those pills, got it?" His voice was stern and commanding, giving me the impression that he would force the undesired pills down my throat if I wasn't complacent.

Reluctantly, I looked at him and nodded. "Understood."

The medicine man's expression softened and I began to walk out of he room. Just as the door was almost closed, Nurse boomed, "Don't forget to use protection!" He laughed afterward.

I, on the other hand, just stared at the door for a moment before shaking my head, unsure what to make of that outburst. I beelined toward the door to the stormy outside, opening my umbrella and the door in the process. My feet pushed off of the ground and I dashed out into the rain, precipitation pattering onto and then sliding off of my umbrella.

After dashing past several groups of people and possibly splashing water on them, I made it to the dorms relatively quickly. In the entrance hall of my dorm, my umbrella quickly got closed and my pace slowed to a walk. A couple of the usual guys were sitting on the couch, watching some Korean drama. Thought only girls watched those, to be honest.

They nodded at me and continued watching after I returned the favour. What happened with Komaki didn't make much sense, but it did give off a feeling of déjà vu, taking me back four months, to my second week in Japan. About then, Hanako felt the need to tell me about what happened to her roughly a decade and a half earlier, while Miki decided I'd be a cool person to just head into the city with; both of them only knew me for a little over a week. Although Komaki and I had spoken before and she'd known me for four months, we weren't friends, by Japanese or American cultural standards, the latter of which were very lax on how people became friends.

Once in my room, I stripped off my clothes and hung up my umbrella above a towel, plopping on my bed with a sigh. Overthinking things was getting me absolutely nowhere at an incredulously fast speed. Must be why I've never made it far in most things. I overthink every-goddamn-thing.

After a few minutes of lying in my bed with nothing worth mentioning crossing my mind, I got slightly restless and sat back up before standing up and clasping my hands onto my chair. With one swift motion, I planted the chair on the floor in front of my TV and sat on it, reaching for the controller sitting atop of the Xbox 360 console. The Xbox One I had snagged several weeks prior lied in wait of usage, the new FIFA game begging to be played. Unluckily for that, I was in the mood for some Minecraft on Xbox 360, the saves for which I hadn't transferred to Xbox One. My gamer profile automatically signed in and, as usual, no one was online for anything other than Netflix. It was around three in the morning back home in Pennsylvania, so I wasn't all too surprised.

I booted up Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and started up the world at the top of my world list that wasn't from a mash-up pack. The typical loading occurred, with the random messages in the box beneath the loading bar being displayed. "Creepers were born from a coding bug" and all that jazz. The world eventually loaded, and I spawned somewhere peculiar.

The last time I played, a few weeks prior with an old friend named Luke, I saved the game while in a building I built in a taiga biome, which I aptly named the German Embassy. It was a failed role playing world I had tried creating in which several friends and I would pretend to be leaders of various European nations. I was representing both Germany and Russia, both of which I had enter a treaty, Sean was the leader of Poland, who was friendly with Germany but not Russia and was teetering on war with Ukraine, Luke was the president of Ukraine and held a grudge with Russia, Colton was basically leading a Fascist Italy and was at war with everyone except Russia... Germany had managed to expand into the End and the United States, despite being an ocean away from Europe, had a small presence in the Nether, which made perfect sense in my head.

Long story short, I had grand ideas that never met fruition.

Where I ended up spawning was atop a man made plateau, one that was close to the Ukrainian headquarters. In the distance was an honest attempt at an American flag, albeit one that was missing stars and had eight red stripes and five white ones; it wasn't like the one I built in a separate world. In front of the flag were four English words written in red, white, and blue wools, all pretty uniform in spacing.

HI I LOVE YOU

I stared for several seconds, unsure how the words got there. What really irked me was having to take it down, and since there were trees below, fire wasn't the best option. Breaking the blocks would've been easy, even though the constructions weren't several blocks deep and all filled in, but I wasn't keen on not finishing and then forgetting. Even though it was a failed project, I had still put in a lot of time with constructions and such, not to mention it was a nice world, so deconstruction was my first priority.

But... I wondered, not moving my character a nanometer as I thought of the people who played on my Xbox in recent months. Who the hell built this? Couldn't have been Sean. Well, it might've been, but that's gay. Unless he merely meant that he loves the US, which makes some sense... Definitely wasn't Miki, she can't play controller based games well at all. She did manage to drive around in Grand Theft Auto V, but I can also do that with one hand. Minecraft's a bit much, not to mention she hasn't been in my room for a while... Soccer practice and those track training sessions I should probably go to. I got up and walked to the fridge. Hanako... did we play Minecraft? Maybe... Yeah, we did, but we stopped and played Halo and Left 4 Dead. We didn't even play this world...

With a sigh, I rose to full heights and set the controller on the chair. Maybe a certain, visually-impaired friend of mine would know. I threw on a pair of basketball shorts and an old T-shirt before walking out into the hall, unconsciously cracking my knuckles in the process. I stood outside of room 116, rapping my knuckles on the door a couple of times, drowning out the already barely audible speech from inside.

"...so, then we go- ah, what the hell?" I heard my neighbor groan. "I'll call you back." A few seconds passed and the atypical sound of footfalls managed to make it out into the hall, albeit just barely, and the door began to open. "I swear to God, Kenji, if it's-" Sean's door swung completely open and he just cocked an eyebrow at me.

"'Sup?" I casually said, cracking a grin.

Sean sighed and leaned on the door frame. "What is it?"

I spun around and motioned for him to follow. "Come here."

Although he asked why I wanted him to "come here," he still followed. "What is it?" he asked once we were in my room.

My right index finger immediately shot up and pointed to my television screen. "Know anything about that?"

He looked at the TV and observed it for a second before laughing. "Hah, you sure that ain't for me, bud?"

"Oh, I'm not just sure, I'm HIV positive." Neither of us managed to keep a straight face for that, and after we shared a hearty giggle, I got back down to brass tax. "Seriously though, I saw it there and it wasn't there before." I sighed and began pacing around the room. "It's gonna be a bitch to tear down, especially without being able to use a flammenwerfer."

"Why can't you just burn it?"

"Trees and buildings and stuff below it, dude."

He stared at the telly for a few seconds. "Wait, is this that world with the nations?"

I nodded and kept pacing. "Yeah, the world I haven't touched in... scheiße, several weeks. Luke and I played it last."

"Luke's a bitch."

"He probably feels the same about you. Anyway, you didn't build this?"

Sean shook his head and walked out of my room. "You're more dense than the bottom of the ocean, Adolf Riese."

He closed my door behind him while I just raised my hands in confusion. "Why the hell does he keep calling me dense? Goddamn arschloch."

Lacking an acceptable response, I decided to exit the world and upload every world I had onto the cloud service, that way I could transfer them to Xbox One. Once they were uploaded, I shut off my 360 and powered up my Xbone, still deep in thought as to who constructed both things.

Did someone break into my room and... I stopped my thought and put my head down, having a sudden revelation. It was Aoichan. Almost positive it was. I know she has a thing for me, the typical "notice me senpai" kuhscheiße. Shaking my head, I started Minecraft on Xbox One and began the transferring process, occupying myself on my phone in the meantime. It's one thing to confess your love, that much I understand. Really big thing for Japanese girls. She hasn't made me a bento, however, which kinda sucks since I'd like to be given food... Anyway, that's one thing, but breaking into the person you're infatuated with's room? The hell's wrong with you, then? That's... stalking, ain't it?

A notification popped up at the top of my phone, notifying me of a message from Miki, which I tapped reflexively. Odd, she's supposed to be practicing. It read: We're in town to practice in the park. Want to meet me in an hour, maybe get dinner?

Despite it being unnecessary, I shrugged and said, "Don't see why not" aloud. All I typed in response, however, was Sure, though I was slightly curious why they were practicing down there in the rain and not on the Academy's field. It wasn't really my place to judge, and as I thought about it, playing association football seemed appealing. I sometimes felt I was better at soccer than hockey, since I started to play pick-up games with Haruhiko and the soccer team often over the past couple of months. They kept pressuring me to join, but...

I won't join, though. Ain't a chance in hell.

With a heavy sigh, I turned back to my television, exited Minecraft, and put the FIFA disc into my Xbox One. Might as well do something to pass the time.

---

The rain once more pattered on my umbrella, the thumping more like subtle music to my ears. The weather forecasts for the next few days predicted even more rain in the Miyagi prefecture, maybe even a small chance of snow by the end of the week. A couple cars drove past me, water spraying from the turning tires, while the girls' soccer team finished up their practice in the park. Their clothes were wet, which wasn't exactly flattering given the white uniforms, and some of their socks and shoes were muddy, the rain having cleaned off the mud for the most part.

The nets, which were probably a decade and a half old, seemed like they were stuck in the ground from the downpour, having sunk into the ground quite a bit. Half of the girls wore just their wet white t-shirts, most of them having bras visible underneath whereas the rest had... other body parts visible, while the other half wore purple vests of the latticed variety, though their undershirts were still see-through. I twirled the umbrella as I watched the purple goalkeeper dive to make a save, only for the ball, which was kicked by one of the second years who wore the number 19, a brunette named Mayu. Miki was on the shirts team, playing striker, but Mayu, a midfielder, managed to get the ball past the defense and put it in the back of the net.

The coach, a woman with short bleached blonde hair in a yellow poncho, blew the whistle. "Defense!" she shouted. "You guys are defending like statues out there! She had absolutely no trouble getting past you!" She shook her head and motioned away from the field. "We'll work on it tomorrow, but for now, get out of the rain. Suzumoto, Miura, great work on offense. The rest of you, take notes."

The soccer team dispersed and grabbed their bags, which were setting on the ground and protected by a conveniently placed umbrella. Some of them pulled towels out and covered their chests while the majority just ran for the nearest building to get out of the rain. The coach, after collecting some equipment, took said items back to her car and placed them in the trunk, the nets notwithstanding.

Miki slung her bag across her torso and walked toward me, her hair plastered to her face and her bra basically covered by clear cloth-based wrap. She didn't seem to care, though, which wasn't surprising in the least. I held the umbrella out some for her to get some protection from the rain, and she grabbed my left hand with her right hand.

"Guess that was some rather flimsy defending, huh?" I asked as we began walking away, a lone car passing by with water spray almost hitting us.

"What are you, an announcer?" she asked, throwing her hair around some for no apparent reason and swinging our hands back and forth. "Anyway, yeah. Those are our first-years. Absolutely atrocious defenders, most of 'em. The shirts were the girls who already played before. I only played for a bit last year, but I'm still one of the better players, according to the coach."

"Just curious, but... your coach has played soccer before, right?"

Miki nodded. "She played for five years on Associazione Sportiva Dill- fuck it, it's Italian. ASD Torres. She won a couple championships, I think, but then she retired and moved back here."

"No idea what you're even talking about, but okay."

"I don't know either. Apparently they were a decent team or something, and these championships were kinda recent." She shrugged. "I just play the sport."

I nodded in agreement as we crossed the street. "Yeah, there're far too many soccer teams to be able to follow it successfully."

"I follow MLS and the NSWL, but I don't really follow any other soccer leagues. The here in Japan isn't even a professional league, and I can't even find broadcast matches, and they broadcast almost anything here, at least compared to the US and Canada." She rubbed her stump on her chin. "Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough... anyway, not my thing. I can't even follow European leagues. FC Barcelona, AC Arsenal? Meh. I don't even know many women's leagues over there, let alone care."

We stopped right in front of the Shanghai. "Now, tell me how it feels that Canada didn't make it to the World Cup, or even that Japan didn't make it to the Round of Sixteen."

"How's it feel to lose to Belgium?" she retorted with a cheeky grin.

"Felt friggin' great. Did you not see the Secretary of Defense in action? Woo, that was some hardcore stuff."

Miki just laughed a little, a grin plastered on her face as our hands split apart and I opened the door to the most popular restaurant in the small town, which was coincidentally the only one. "You know, we ought to play a pick-up game sometime. You and the boys' team, me and the girls. I think it'd be fun." She entered the Shanghai, shrugging as she did so.

I let out a single 'ha' as I walked in behind her. "For you." I noticed that there were a decent amount of people inside the restaurant, an oddity for my visits. The Shanghai received business from all across the prefecture, sometimes even from as far away as Osaka, but most times I went, it was fairly empty.

She spun around, grinning and nodding. "Yeah, probably." She looked toward the restrooms and motioned to them, twisting around continuously. "Hey, I gotta dry off and pee. Just-"

"Get a table and order if I have to, I know," I finished, knowing full well what she was about to say.

She nodded and backed up into the restrooms, waving at me as she pushed the door open with her back. I shook my head and nodded to Yuuko, who seemed like her usual nervous self. She seemed to acknowledge my presence and I strolled back to the corner that I always sat in, happily noting that no one was occupying it. I sat down and slid my phone out, seeing that there were no messages from anyone, which was nice, especially since my younger cousin, Jacob, suddenly started texting me for dating advice, even though he was a shut-in and had no clue that I was in a relationship. Comparing him to Kenji wasn't even a comparison, since Kenji actually went outside. Jacob only went if it was "absolutely necessary," such as the midnight launches for the "new" Call of Duty games that Emily and I were often dragged along to. The only one I enjoyed going to was Black Ops II's. Besides, why the hell does a thirteen year old who does nothing but sit on his ass and play games need freaking dating advice? Not like I'm one to talk, but... shit, when I was fourteen, I got labelled a stalker and rapist just for liking a girl, so why the hell not? Let him experience it, then he can fail to approach women, even really goddamn shy ones, until he gets sent to a foreign country.

My mental rant ended with a sigh and my eyes swept the floor, informing me that Yuuko was taking orders not too far from me. What Miki was going to order was somewhat known to me, though she ate sporadically all the time. One day she'd have pizza, the next she'd have a salad, the day after that she'd have some weird Thai dish, the fourth day would see the consumption of Kraft dinners... She ate just about anything, sometimes having those foods in the same dinner.

I already knew what I was getting, however: curry, General Tso's chicken, and rice. I was skipping out on coffee for the day.

While still looking toward Yuuko, I began wondering about the Minecraft creation again, but quickly dropped it since I didn't have an inkling of an idea who it could've been. The waitress-librarian fumbled with writing down an order, which wasn't surprising in the least, as my girlfriend emerged from the restrooms, her hair still slightly damp. She had a hoodie on and a pair of sweatpants, as opposed to my basketball shorts and t-shirt, even though it was a little chilly outside. She set her bag down next to the window and sat down across from me, sighing.

"You wouldn't believe how slobbish people are," she said, running her hand through her hair. "There was toilet paper scattered around the stall I was in, and I swear that whoever was in the stall next to me wasn't in there to use the toilet."

"Nice," I replied. "I know how people are, though. Scheiße, going to a Walmart on the first of the month?" I shuddered for dramatic effect. "It's ten times more revolting and mentally scarring than someone fapping in a public restroom."

She bobbed her head up and down. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

My thoughts wandered around for a few seconds until they crossed the topic of covering the bill. Instinctively, my hand shot into my pocket to pull out my wallet, but Miki shook her head. "What?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll pay for tonight."

With a shrug, I removed my hand from both my wallet and my pocket, relaxing a bit in my seat. Arguing about who was footing the bill was pointless with Miki, since she was always super adamant when she decided to foot the bill, going as far as smacking me and telling whoever waited on us to only accept money from her. The clatter of china caused me to look past my dinner-mate, registering Yuuko fumbling with dishes as usual. She set an order down at the table next to us, which was directly behind Miki, and, after apologizing, she quickly turned and dashed toward us.

"I'm so sorry for the wait," she quickly said, bowing uncontrollably.

"Yuuko, you're in the clear," Miki replied. "It's just us, you can take your time."

The librarian-waitress nodded and exhaled, apparently trying to calm down. "Okay," she said, her voice still slightly shaky. "What would you like to order?"

"Spicy curry, rice, and General Tso's chicken for me," I said, taking note that Yuuko still scribbled the order down like she was about to get shot if she didn't write it down in two seconds flat.

Yuuko nervously nodded once she finished scribbling my order down and looked at Miki. "I'll take a bowl of yakisoba, French fries, a marinated steak, and two slices of cheesecake."

While I wasn't fazed in the least by her order, Yuuko cocked an eyebrow for a split second before realizing that she was supposed to write that all down. True, it was an... odd order, more peculiar than some, but that wasn't unusual for Miki; hell, it wasn't even odd for me on some occasions.

Yuuko nodded after she finished jotting the order down and asked if either of us wanted drinks. I asked for citrus soda and Miki asked for lemonade. Once Yuuko was gone, our orders down, Miki and I were left alone.

"You ever think she's not gonna be so nervous?" I was asked.

My shoulders rolled. "I don't know. She's more comfortable with some people than others, but... chert, she's still pretty nervous."

Miki nodded. "I'm pretty sure it's because she doesn't want to screw up."

With yet another shrug, I looked out of the window and into the street. Some people, mainly older folk and young couples, were walking around in the streets, most of them under umbrellas. One notable exception, however, was a bespectacled young man with jet black hair and a red-gold scarf, staring into the restaurant without an umbrella.

"What the hell's Kenji doing there?" I thought aloud. "Probably scouting for feminists or something..."

"Doubt it." I turned to Miki and cocked an eyebrow. "It's something more personal. Not saying he doesn't have a vendetta against feminists, but I've dealt with Kenji enough last year to know that he's not here because he thinks it's a 'feminist front.'"

Odd. I've dealt with Kenji quite a bit in the past few months and he hasn't mentioned anything... wait, he might have. Before Tanabata, I think, and... damn, he's mentioned personal things a couple of times. Ah, whatever. With merely a nod, I dropped the topic.

Miki and I ended up just looking at each other for a few seconds, and, without even thinking since we were already so close, I leaned in for a kiss, which Miki was also apparently thinking of doing. Our lips touched, hers still fairly soft while mine were probably chapped. Pretty much everything that happened during the day, the unclear comments from Mikhail and Sean, Komaki's breakdown, Hanako's uncharacteristic smile, the anonymous love confession in Minecraft, my odd nightmare... all of it just seemed to fade in the moments that we kissed, her lips salty and sort of like a medicine that temporarily causes amnesia.

Once we broke from our face battle, Miki shook her head and grinned with a little laugh. "You 'avin' a giggle, mate?" I asked in English with a decent British accent.

She shrugged with a smile. "I have no idea whatcha talkin' aboot."

---

AN: Two months in the making, Mister Vault 101 returns with his longest chapter yet! The previous chapter is just for shits and giggles, but if you guys want more silly chapters like that every now and again, let me know. I enjoyed writing it.

Questions and such are acceptable, as are reviews. So is constructive criticism, but none of that "kill urself, u fookin' suk m8" kind of crap. As for any analysis of the chapter, I'll leave that up to you guys this time around. I will tell you that the nightmare is relevant. Also, if you spot any typos, let me know. Apparently, after I uploaded the chapter, a bunch of words ended up with missing letters.

Things are going smooth for Adolf and Miki, but then we have the lovestruck kouhai and the infatuated shy girl. It's a love rectangle.

Moving on to projected dates for yhe next chapter of ADD (or even AotD and AoA if you read those)... I don't know. ADD is my top priority, but the other two are still a thing. I'd say that, given how I've been uploading, a month seems like that's been easily how long it takes me to write a chapter, so... given school, renewed woman chasing, and work, that seems feasible.

Don't feed the Yao Guai!