Ano Hito no Jijō (That Person's Circumstances)
by
Saddletank
Chapter Fifty Two – Tonami Takefumi / Three Girls In A Cupboard
14 Days / 4
First thing in the morning mid-week and the news went round the school like a forest fire. The Kadai scores were up.
I didn't even realize. I was walking along, minding my own business on Planet Ryusaki when I saw Kawashima-sensei putting something up on the main notice area in the corridor behind the lockers.
I went up to him.
"Sensei. Ohayo gozaimasu." I gave him a small bow.
He turned to me.
"Ryusaki."
He inclined his head just a tiny bit. Which was nice.
"You may wish to take a look, something here I think will please you."
He packed up his things and turned to go. He gently patted my shoulder.
"I'm pleased too. Keep it up."
He went, I frowned at his receding back. Turned to the ranking boards.
I scanned down in the 200s, nothing. Then in the 180s, the 170s, still nothing. Then I stopped. 156. One hundred and fifty sixth in the year. I'd come in at 266 in March. A hundred and ten places.
Wow.
I'd climbed a hundred and ten places.
I stood there and for the first time in my life since I don't know when, since probably my kindergarten teacher had said what a nice picture of a cat I'd drawn, I felt it.
Swelling and blossoming beautifully in my chest.
Pride.
I was pleased with what I'd done. Pleased with myself.
It was a good moment, one of the best that week.
Someone came next to me.
"Hey."
"Tsubaki, ohi."
The other three close behind her, Tsubasa clinging around Tsubaki's shoulders, like she'd done the other day.
"What are you looking at?" asked Aya.
"That was fast. The scores are already posted," squeaked Rika.
I looked at the top of the list. Two names I expected to find were there, just as always.
"Wow," I said, "Yukinon and Arima sure are good."
Tsubaki frowned, muttering.
"What's wrong?" Aya asked her.
She pointed at the top of the list. Three names were there sharing joint first place. Arima Soichiro, Tonami Takefumi, Miyazawa Yukino.
"That dunk bastard is up there too."
"Oh, yeah," said Aya, "you're right. He's so smart."
"Ooh," Rika seemed easily impressed.
"Not bad. I guess."
We all turned at the voice. He was there. Tsubaki gave him such a black look. Wow, real fire and brimstone.
He calmly looked down at her.
"Where're you ranked?"
"I'm not good enough at school work to rank near the top," she growled at him.
"Hmmm…" he smiled.
"Aya, Rika, let's go. Catch you later Sakana."
She left, Tsubasa still clinging round her shoulders.
"Sure."
He and I stood there watching them go. Tsubasa looked back at him. I've never seen a perceptive expression on her face before but she wore one now. It seemed as though of all of them she, the dimmest and least in touch with the world around her, could see something they couldn't.
I looked up at him. Wow, he was tall. I just didn't like him though. He had a hardness, a coldness in his face that creeped me out. He smiled at me but in an unattractive way, the smile went nowhere near his eyes.
"Do you know them?"
"Hm, a little. I'm Ryusaki, we met yesterday. So you're…?"
"A person she'd love to hit, but at least she's matured enough not to."
I decided I didn't like him.
I heard a voice, a voice I knew…
"Number one! Number one! Hurry up! Hurry up!"
Tonami looked again at the scoreboard, his eyes widened.
"Uh? Arima?"
Oh. Did he know Arima then?
"Oi, Miyazawa, all right!" Arima sounded like he was being dragged along again, as he always was.
He and Yukino arrived.
"Hey, Yukino!"
"Hi, Sakana."
"Ohayo Arima."
"Ohayo Ryusaki, alright?"
"Hm."
"Oh," he said, "we tied for first place. Aren't you glad? It's all fair now."
Yukino went up to the board and stared hard at it as though by willpower alone she could get the three number one ranked names to swap places.
"Hey, doesn't it look like I ranked third?"
"What? Where?"
"It does! And you look like you're first! That's so cheap!" she was doing her whiney voice, a voice that five months ago no-one outside the walls of her own home had ever heard.
"Eh?"
"It's not fair! You rank higher than me even if I work just as hard! In the end with my Miyazawa family name…"
She turned to him looking like a demon. Arima was lucky there were no guns or knives lying about.
I could see it now "High School Prodigy Murdered due to Chance Name Alphabet Ranking" the headline went.
"Oh, what does it matter anyway, ow!"
She'd turned and stamped on his foot, was grinding her heel over his toes.
"Oi, your foot! Get off!"
I glanced up at Tonami who was watching all this from behind a look of shock and disbelief. I sniggered. It was actually funny. I was used to how Yukinon behaved. It was always fun to see a stranger experience it for the first time. His face was great.
"Oh, really! Come on!"
"Right. I suppose all I can do now is marry you and get a last name starting with 'AR'," she joked.
Arima went the most amazing colour. Not just pink but bright red. He glowed. His ears, his neck. The lot. For a second I could imagine his entire body glowing red. Which brought up a very weird image. He could sell that power to the electricity company. It was impressive. I think I could even hear church bells chiming.
"What? Something wrong?" she had an innocent look on her face but I think she knew exactly what she was doing. Just trying to piss him off as pay back. I laughed out loud.
"Gomen. You two are so funny, gomen!"
"Uhm, you… you're…" Arima floundered.
"Come on, first period, let's go."
She grabbed his arm and swung him away. I watched them go.
"Rats. One more point. Just one and I'd have ranked by myself…" her mutterings faded down the corridor.
Other students were thronging round the ranking boards now too. I squeezed out of the crush.
- - - oOo - - -
"Who's that with Arima?"
I looked up from my lunch, a meatball speared on my chopsticks. Miyazawa had disturbed me.
She and Asaba and I were eating in our homeroom, talking about nothing very much. Asaba kept rubbing his ankle where I kept kicking it to shut him up.
I needed to talk to him alone to keep quiet about me and him in school. It was becoming a priority. I'd decided I'd grab him alone at the end of lunch when he went back over to the other block.
Arima had come in. Tonami was with him.
Now that had my attention. So Tonami did know Arima then?
"This is Tonami," he said, "We used to be in middle school together for a short while although his family moved away after just a few months into the first year. It's been a long time. We met just now, in the gym. So, would it be okay if he joined us for lunch?"
"Oh, in that case, sure," Yukino was chirpy and enthusiastic. Bouncy.
"No! Don't be friendly with other boys!" Asaba stood up and looked heartbroken, like he was about to faint, "Onegai! I'll never forgive you!"
"Get away! You're way too clingy," Arima pushed him off although Asaba tried to hang onto his arm. Then he collapsed weeping theatrically on the floor behind us, "Now, let's see. This is Miyazawa-san. We're both class reps in our class. Class A."
"Domo!" Yukino gave Tonami a dopey smile and wave.
"And this is Asaba. He's in class F. But you don't need to remember that."
"No way! Bitch!"
Asapin crumpled up like he'd been betrayed. He went foetal. I sniggered. What the heck the new guy must think of this freak show I couldn't guess. Had he run out screaming I wouldn't have been at all surprised.
"And this is Ryusaki-san. She's a friend of ours too, in class A."
"Vewy please to meet chew," I spoke in my best English and gave him a low bow.
"Kanahrin, your panties are showing," Asapin smirked from behind me.
"Surprised you're not in there like a shot, sniffing them like the sick bastard you are!"
"Ah," said Tonami.
"We met this morning. By the Kadai scores," I was all smiles again. Me and Yukinon must have looked like a couple of Cheshire cats on speed.
"Uh, yeah. We did."
Poor thing, he looked like he was already checking around for the nearest exit, or maybe the police.
"And Miyazawa and I are seeing each other," Arima finished.
"And I'm seeing Ryusaki's panties," Asapin sang from near the floor.
"Tonami-kun, onegai, sumimasen(1)," I turned to Asapin and gave him a pretty good slap. He howled. Then a kick in the shin. He howled again.
"No, no, noooo. First Arima gets a new boyfriend and now my favourite girl won't let me sniff her underwear any more… my life is ending… cruel fate, you are a contrary companion."
"So, welcome to our group. We're all good friends here," Yukinon jabbered on, grinning like a looney.
I went to sit down again so my underwear wasn't visible to Captain Creepy. I noticed that Tonami was wearing a suitably nonplussed expression. I suppose if he'd known Arima when they were about eleven or twelve, seeing him now in the company of us three reprobates must be quite a shock. He looked carefully at Yukino and I could tell what he was thinking. He was thinking What's Arima the Perfect Untouchable Loner doing with a girl like her? He'd had offers from loads of charming well brought up girls in the past. So why the heck say yes to an oddball like this?
"Come on," Arima suggested to him, "let's eat."
"Hm," Yukino beamed. It was almost a bark, like a small and rather zany doggie.
- - - oOo - - -
"Here, Arima. Say ahhh…"
She was doing it deliberately. To wind Tonami up. I could tell. She messed about like this a little but not that often.
It was a little later, we were eating and Yukino was trying to feed Arima a fish roll. She teasingly thrust it at his face with her chopsticks.
"What are you saying? No, I don't want it!"
"Come on, ahhh…"
I watched her. She was actually going for it. She had a lovely smile on her face and she did in fact look quite sexy. The way she said ahhh all soft and breathy, it wasn't the usual her at all, this wasn't a Yukino I'd seen before. Before summer break she was never like this. That was odd.
"No, I don't want to."
Now I looked at him. I actually think he did want to, just not here. Hm, so she fed him food playfully like that when they were alone did she? That was quite advanced wasn't it? Therefore…? My mind began to imagine various possibilities.
Asapin got up from next to me and went behind Arima and put him in a deadlock, pinning his arms, holding him back.
"Wha? What the heck? Hideaki! Baka! Let go!"
"Now here… ahhh…" and she opened her mouth and ran her tongue around, just a little.
They'd done it. I knew they had. Some time over the summer break, after he came back from his kendo event. They'd slept together. It was obvious. A girl didn't make beautiful sexy faces and noises like that without that sort of experience.
Well, that was a turn up for the books, the summer break had been a busy time for lots of us.
"No…no… I don't…"
"Hmm… making people do things against their will is such fun," she purred and slipped the fish into Arima's mouth. He gulped, choked and swallowed.
Asapin, still holding Arima, caught my eye. He winked. He knew making people do things against their will was fun too. Especially when they were tied up.
I suddenly had a recollection of a very rude memory but pushed it away.
Another time, Sakana.
I blushed.
"Yeah, it's addictive. Don't you think, Kanahrin?"
"Er… I don't know."
"What? Are you guys all crazy?"
Poor Tonami. He'd walked into the lunatic asylum.
- - - oOo - - -
"You're not eating with Sakura's group today then?" Arima asked Yukino.
I saw Tonami's eyes flicker at him when he said the name.
"No, sometimes, I just like to be with you guys. Besides, right now there's this little thing…"
"Huh?" Both Arima and Asapin became attentive, worried even.
"What? You're pregnant?"
"What?!" Asapin leaped up.
"Dammit, Sakana! Don't joke like that!"
I was laughing. The boys faces. Priceless!
There was a distant wet plop as the mouthful of rice Arima had been eating reached the ceiling and stuck there. He was coughing fit to choke and as usual had gone bright red. I think for a second there he thought she might be. His frantic blushing reaction was all I needed to know.
Gotcha!
Asapin being your average boy, dim-witted in these matters hadn't got it at all.
"Sakana, when you've quite finished killing my boyfriend! What I was going to say was Aya wrote a play for the culture fest and she's suggesting that Sakana and I perform in it."
"Hm, so we're in hiding."
"Together with Maho and Tsubasa."
"Really?" Arima sounded impressed.
Asapin had reached the bottom of his juice carton, his straw sucked air and made that funny farting sound.
I was pretty close to the end of mine too, so I slurped it up quickly and made my straw do sucky farty things too.
He did it again.
I did.
Him again.
Me.
I looked at him, he was looking back.
Sucky, suck.
Sucky, suck.
He looked at me. I looked at him.
Suck. Suck.
Sucky suck.
We both burst out laughing.
It was our private joke.
The others tried to carry on as though we weren't there. As though we were merely naughty misbehaving kids. But with two out of five people in a group laughing fit to bust it was hard for them to ignore us.
"Don't mind those two peasants, they don't rank number one in the school," Yukinon dismissed us with a wave of her hand.
"You should do it," Arima was saying, "I want to see it."
"No way," she bit back at him, "You're just making fun of me. I can't perform in front of an audience."
"Me neither."
"That's why we're on the run from her."
"What's this?" Asapin interjected, "Trying to counter my dinner show with theatre?"
"Shut up!" Yukino turned on him, cute zany doggie had turned into a rabid snarling monster, "Your attitude when you talk about that just pisses me off!"
"No, go on, do it. You do it!" He grinned back, "And I bet Sakana is really all repressed and just loves to perform in front of an audience!"
"Shut up! Poser boy!"
"You know, Arima," Tonami was saying, slightly pale and sweaty, "You seem to have changed a lot."
"Ah, Tonami, friends. It's what friends do to you."
"And ponces like Asaba. They do that to Arima-kun as well," I added, smiling.
- - - oOo - - -
After lunch fifth period was math and then sixth was a homeroom study period.
And that's when things got very silly. That's when the three of us, Maho, Yukino and I went on the run.
All of us staying in 1-As homeroom was asking for trouble, so we went down to the drinks machines.
I'd come back to the classroom after lunch, after walking with Asapin back to 1-Fs room and laying down the law to him about how he and I should behave in school.
Or really, how he should behave.
"All right, let's have a deal," he smiled at me in that syrupy way I know means trouble.
"Why aren't I going to like this?"
"In school I'll watch out. No more suggestive jokes involving you, nothing to be said that'll make others think we're seeing each other. All right? I'll be a good boy in school."
"All right."
"As long as out of school…" his treacly smile came close, way too close, "you be a bad girl."
"I knew I wasn't going to like this."
"A bad girl who needs discipline. A bad girl who needs to be taken under a firm hand. And sorted out."
I shivered, I knew quite well what him 'sorting me out' meant.
But really that wasn't such a hardship was it?
Not really.
Not if the bad girl got her reward at the end of it.
"Alright. Deal. But if you do let on that we're more than just school friends…"
What?
I didn't know.
Of course he knew that too. He knew that what he and I did together was something we both enjoyed and I didn't want it to stop just as much as he didn't either.
So I just had to trust him.
"I still love Maho. I need to remind you of that."
"I understand."
"I don't think she will change her mind. But I'm not going to give up on her. And if she does…"
"I'm outta here. I know."
"As long as you understand that. I'm not going to have a serious relationship with someone and still have you hanging about assuming that you can jump into my bed on the days they're not around. I need to be clear on that."
"I feel pained to hear it," He struck a tragic pose, "My heart will bleed but I'll understand."
"I'm serious, here. You be serious too!"
"Alright."
"We'll still have lots of fun, yes? Still see each other but nothing else."
"Let me know when it starts and we'll go out with a bang. One last time."
"Pervert!"
So I got back from the other block and Inoue met me in the classroom.
"Hi."
"Chiwas!"
"Sakana, that Sawada-san was here just now asking after you. Where were you?"
"Ah. Thanks Inoue. I'll catch up with her later."
At the beginning of our study period we couldn't stay in 1-A, Aya'd be round in five minutes.
The three of us left hurriedly.
Down by the drinks machines we sat, nursing drinks we didn't really want.
We were all panicky. We sat there, sighs all round.
"Good grief. With her coming every single day we can't even relax in our own homeroom," Yukino took a sip of her drink.
"Why me too?" Maho moaned, "I can't do acting."
"I think she picked you for your looks," I said
"Nah, she just picked me because I was there. Wrong place, wrong time."
"I wish she'd give up soon," said Yukino.
Suddenly she stood up, tense and alert.
"What's wrong?" Maho asked, getting upset, "What is it?!"
"Is she here?! She's coming?!" I stood too.
This was stupid.
Yukino put down her drink and went. At a dead run.
"Wha?!"
"No, wait a minute! Wait for me!"
We sprinted after her.
"It's gonna look bad. Three half finished cups in the drinks area. That'll be a dead give away! She'll start looking there now too!"
Yukino led us up to the roof.
We leaned on the railing, got our breath back.
"Whew!" Yukino gasped, "We should be safe here for a while."
"Yo."
"Ahh!"
All three of us yelped in surprise. It was her. The demon playwright from hell.
"Oh what a co-incidence, meeting all three of you here, of all places," she smoothly approached us, relaxed and victorious.
"I'll never do it, okay?" Yukino folded her arms, "There's just no way I could act."
"Oh, onegai. I'm not here for that today. I just want to talk to you guys."
"Really?"
Maho clung to Yukino's left arm, hiding slightly behind her. I hid behind both, peering out around Yukino's right shoulder.
"Yeah, really. See? I don't have the script for the play."
She stepped forward and held out her arms. At once an A4 lined pad fell out from under her shirt and thudded to the ground.
Written on it was "Culture Fest Draft."
"Ah," she said.
"Oh," I said.
"Uh," Maho said.
"Run away!" Yukino said.
We did.
Aya followed us.
"No, means no!" Yukino screamed back over her shoulder.
"Wait! Wait, Yukinon!"
Down the stairs, along corridors, around corners we ran, Aya in close pursuit.
Considering this was the most prestigious high school in the Tokyo Metropolitan area it always surprised me, as we ran headlong down those corridors screaming and yelling, firstly how rarely we ever saw another teacher and secondly how many students were scattered about during lesson time, striking fixed poses of friendship along the corridors.
But there was no time to dwell on all that.
We skidded round a corner and quickly disguised ourselves.
Yukino made circles with her thumbs and forefingers and held them around her eyes. She looked exactly like she was wearing glasses, nothing like her usual self.
Maho grabbed long bunches of her hair and held them out. Perfect pigtails.
I squashed my hands to my chest, pressing myself flat. With my short spiky hair I looked exactly like a boy. In a skirt.
Aya came past, looking around suspiciously. She didn't see us. We were three strangers.
"Huh, where'd they go?" she muttered.
She went past a little way down the corridor, came back.
"Hey," she spoke to Maho, who stood there, sweating, hair held out looking silly, "Did you see Miyazawa-san, Izawa-san and Ryusaki-san just go past here?"
"Uh, uh, er… they went that way," Maho waggled her right pony tail.
"Right. Arigato."
Aya walked away. Then she jumped back.
"Yeah, RIGHT!"
We fled.
"Guess it won't work at all," Yukino wailed, holding her circled fingers to her head as she ran.
"You thought it would?" Maho ran beside her, hair wagging stupidly.
"Don't ever bother going into costume design Yukinon!" I shouted from the back, hands still pressing myself flat.
We ran past three boys. At least their lower jaws lying across the hallway might delay Aya for a few precious seconds.
"Stop!" she shouted.
"No!"
"Stop! Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stooooooop!"
"No, no, no, nooooooo!"
"You could at least listen to what I have to say!"
"In here!"
Yukino dived right into a classroom.
Lucky. No startled second years. No angry sensei. No-one.
We followed her.
"Quick, in!"
"Oh, no!" Maho cried. It was a cleaning cupboard. Brushes and buckets.
"What?" I was stunned.
This was slapstick nonsense, this wouldn't be even remotely believable in any sensible fanfic.
I dived in after the other two, slammed the door behind me.
Uh, clearly this was no sensible fanfic.
It was dark. The metal cabinet had badly fitting doors so some light filtered in.
For the inside of a cleaning cupboard it was amazingly soft in here, warm and fragrant. I breathed in deeply. Oh, God. Heaven. I was…
Yukino one side, facing me, Maho the other. Pressed squishily and breathtakingly up against my back. We were squashed in tighter than sardines in a tin.
"You think we got away?"
Yukino's breasts moved against me as she spoke. I gurgled.
"She's really persistent today," Maho's breath tingled on my neck. Oh… no… I was melting.
"Uh," Yukino breathed in, she pressed more firmly to me. I could feel a major heart attack just seconds away, my pulse raced, "I wish there was some way she'd give up. Oh, I know!"
Urr, God, don't make sudden moves like that…!
"…If I say I'm busy with my culture fest duties…"
"That's cheap! Just you?!" Maho barked back.
Uh, I was already climbing towards that peak.
"I could say I've been roped into the swimming club event," as I spoke I worked out through the gloom that the soft, delicious smelling warm thing my lips were pressed to was Yukino's neck.
Arima… you lucky bastard…
My thoughts were shattered.
"You as well?! You two selfish bitches deserve to be caught! What happened to friendship? Hm?" Maho was indignant, "Whatever happened to that? Eh? Stand together, fall together!"
My God, how I'd love to.
Next time Yukino, pick a bigger cupboard. Or maybe a hot tub…
"What's with you?" Maho was shaking my shoulders, "What's with that dribbling, moaning noise?"
"Gomen, gomen…!"
Light. Bright and painful. Flooded in.
"But Arima has kendo club on top of his duties too," said Aya, holding the door, "I caught you."
Damn.
Go away, Aya. Leave us another hour.
Better still, lock the door. Come back on Monday.
- - - oOo - - -
Resources Room. Five minutes later.
Tsubasa and Rika were with us.
"Theatre!" Aya was standing before us three. We huddled together around Yukino, hoping she'd take the brunt of Aya's wrath and have the right comebacks ready to save us, "Now I finally have your attention! You've been scurrying around hiding from me, but now you're going to hear what I have to say."
"We don't need to hear it," I said, "We said we wouldn't do it."
"You could at least hear me out." She stood there, arms folded, looking more than a little bit cross. I suppose we did owe her that much.
"Liar! That look in your eyes says you're trying to drag us into it no matter what."
Ouch. When Maho bit, she bit.
"It's not our style to perform in front of people," Yukino added.
Rather leaving herself open I thought.
"Style?" Aya retorted, "Strange you should say that Yukinon. Sure you came out, but you were once the masked girl who played the super beautiful model student all those years. And you stand there," she almost laughed in derision, "and tell me you can't perform in front of people? You of all people, should know the joy of captivating people in the moment when you become someone who isn't you. Have you really forgotten? Can you forget those days of admiration? Your days are so normal now. I think you miss it. Acting fills a hole in your heart! You cannot live without performing!"
"Oh. Shut. Up. As if I'd fall for such simple word tricks! No. No and no means no!"
"Damn!" Aya was furious, but crumbling.
"Tsubasa, you won't perform either, right?" I asked her.
She was sat at a table with a huge pile of sweets in front of her. Her chin was stained with chocolate.
She munched her way through a fistful of Pocky sticks.
"I don't really care."
"What?!" Yukino and Maho were aghast.
"So," Yukino sounded resigned, "she got bought off."
"What is she? A kindergartener?" Maho sat, watching Tsubasa, easily pleased, munching her way through the mountain of sweets.
"Come on!" Aya kept on, "Let's do it! Onegai! Do it! Let's dream a sweet dream together!"
"No way! If you want to do it so badly, do it by yourself!"
"No, Yukinon, I don't fit my image of the story."
"No, no. I won't ever do it!"
The two of them, Yukino and Aya were at deadlock. They both stood, glaring at one another, gasping for breath.
Finally Aya sighed.
"Hm. I guess it won't work after all."
"Nope, nope, nope," we all chorused.
"I knew it was really sudden. But I wanted to see it come to life."
"Ah, finally," we all sighed, "she gave up."
We al sagged down onto the tables, exhausted by our victory.
"I wanted to see it too," Rika said, still bouncy but a little downcast, "You'd all have fit perfectly if you'd tried it out. I wanted so much to make the costumes for the doctor and the androids."
"Doctor?" said Yukino.
"Androids?" said Maho and I, looking at one another.
"It can't be helped," Aya continued, "I don't want to waste it so I'll change it into a novel and have my agent take a look at it. Since I have it here, do any of you want to read it?"
What a fatal question that was. What a fatal question that turned out to be.
"Ah…" said Maho.
"Yeah. If I don't have to do it, then I'd like to see it," Yukino added.
"Er… android?"
I puzzled over that. Something about being an android was strangely appealing. Half human, half machine weren't they? That dichotomy spiked my interest.
"I always wanted to know what kind of stories you wrote," Yukino said, "Being a student author is so cool. Show me some of the stuff that got published next time."
Yukino flicked through the A4 pad, Maho and I each leaned over a shoulder.
"Uh, so it's sci-fi?" I asked.
"I'm not sure," Aya answered, which I thought a bit odd, seeing as she'd written it. Didn't she know? "But it's set far into the future on earth. Androids have become mass-produced and like cars today are a daily part of our lives. They do everything, preparing meals, cleaning, working, security and taking care of our daily needs. But there's nothing strange about that, right? That's common to lots of sci-fi stories, right? Androids are the evolved state of the PCs and security and alarms and communications systems of today."
Yukino made a sound that indicated interest.
That bothered me a little.
She wasn't changing her mind was she?
How the heck could I go up on a stage and act in front of hundreds of people?
Come on Yukino, don't fall into Aya's trap!
"The main characters are the Doctor, the genius scientist who developed the core programming and mechanical systems of all androids produced on earth. The first, old-model robot that he ever made, called Antique, plays a part. Sigh is an interesting creation. She was a path of development that the Doctor abandoned after several attempts that ended in failure. Sigh takes a human body that is donated by a volunteer and grafts onto it boi-mechanical parts and a powerful computer brain. She's half and half combined robotics and digital systems with human form. And finally Neo-Model, the newest model android that's gone through many stages of design development. The story starts with Neo-Model coming to visit the Doctor. The Doctor has distanced himself from the cutting edge of science, and he's been living on a planet far from earth, all alone with Antique and Sigh, never seeing anyone."
"Why?" I asked the obvious question.
Despite my refusal to be involved this was an interesting sounding story.
"You'll have to read for yourself to find out," came the reply.
"Ah, you're amazing," Yukino seemed overwhelmed, "I don't know how you come up with these things. I think I'm good at academics, but I never think of things like this."
"It's because I'm not good at academics like you. People who can't find a good job through academic ability have no choice but to hone their talents."
- - - oOo - - -
Later, on the roof.
"I know what Aya said, but she's still amazing, you know?"
Yukino seemed to be in some kind of awe of Aya. I didn't know why, writing seemed to be a cursed occupation. All day like she'd been over summer, trapped indoors struggling with draft after draft, while we'd be out in the sun enjoying ourselves.
No thanks. I'll never be a writer.
"Neo-Model sounds so cool though," I had to admit, "It's fantastic what Aya has done, giving each of you characters that fit you so well."
"Shibahime as Antique fits well too, you know," Maho wore a thoughtful expression.
"Hm."
"And you as Sigh is pretty shrewd too. Half girl half machine," she continued.
"Oh, thanks."
"No, when you think about it. A girl who isn't like other girls, who's mixed up. It's right on the nail."
"She's right," Yukino was looking up at the sky, the clouds.
I thought about it. What did Aya know? How shrewd a judge of character was she? What had she surmised about me?
That bothered me a little.
No, it bothered me quite a lot.
Perhaps she'd not just thought about me but discussed me with Tsubaki and Rika?
- - - oOo - - -
07 – 08 July 2007
(1) For notes on Japanese words, see my forum.
For author notes about Chapter Fifty Two, please see my forum (click on my pen name).
