This interlude is dedicated to someone who will certainly realize it is dedicated to her.
Light rail station.
Sunday. 1am. 1982 (v1)
"Hey, kid," said the girl.
He looked over at her. She was older than he was, at least in college, wearing platform shoes, and fishnet leggings, and dark eye shadow. Three necklaces, an arm full of bracelets, a cigarette in her hand.
"What are you doing out so late, kid?" she asked. "Sure it's not past your bedtime?"
He wasn't quite sure what to say to that. The reason for being out late, the true root cause, seemed as abstract and unknowable as it was inevitable and all-pervasive. Was there a really reason for anything in the world? Was there a reason for death? Was there a reason his father had brought a strange woman home, as if she could replace his mother? If there was, was there some way to explain it to a stranger?
He shrugged.
"Hey, kid?" she asked. "What's your name?"
He mumbled.
"How's that again?"
"Shizuki," he said.
"Get out," she said, waving him off.
He shrugged again.
"No for real, though," she said.
"Shizuki Yuji," he clarified.
"Is your daddy rich?" she asked.
He shrugged again.
"I'm Jewel," she said, and took a drag on the cigarette. "I'm a model."
Weird name, thought Yuji, but he said nothing.
"Hey rich kid," she cooed.
"Mm?"
"You look uptight," she said. "Want to get laid?"
"Huh?" he asked, confused. It wasn't a phrasing he'd heard before.
"You and me, what do you say?" she asked, leaning in closer.
"I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting," he said.
"Aw, come on, do I have to spell it out for you?" she asked.
In the end she spelled it out for him.
"Don't you have a boyfriend? he asked.
"I don't have a boyfriend," she declared. "He's a jerk. Boyfriends are stupid and I don't need one."
Yuji shrugged.
"Then why me?" he asked.
"Look at it this way," she said. "If they drop the bomb and the world ends tomorrow, then at least you didn't die a virgin, and I fucked a Shizuki."
He shook his head and walked away.
"Fine," she said. "Suit yourself."
Pathway.
Monday morning. 1982 (v1)
The breeze in the trees in the morning sunshine: a moment of tranquility. A moment where he could almost pretend that the world was still okay.
Peace.
"Look out!" cried a voice.
Yuji froze in place, a terrible grinding sound approaching. He turned to face the attack …
Yukari-san, on a skateboard, on a collision course. What should he do? He wasn't awake enough to have reflexes, dang it.
Yukari Hitomi swerved at the last minute, vaulting over a low flowerbed as her skateboard clattered on the edge and landed in the flowers, smashing them and sending up a cloud of petals.
Shizuki Yuji fell on his butt.
"Watch where you're going!" he yelled.
"Sorry!" she said, still grinning. "I'm not good at this yet."
"You're a menace to pedestrians!" objected Yuji.
She bounced over to pick up the skateboard and get going again.
"Oh no," she said. "It's broken! Huh. Guess I'll have to walk."
Serves her right, he mumbled to himself. Girls probably shouldn't be on skateboards in the first place, he decided.
Classroom
Monday morning. 1982 (v1)
The last time they had an informational film in class, it was about a vaccination campaign, which was not exactly painless. Kinomoto-san was particularly traumatized by the images of polio victims, and had been moody for days, before deciding she wanted to be a doctor.
This one was a Civil Defense Ministry filmstrip.
"The atomic bomb could strike without warning at any time," said the man on the film. "If you see the flash, know what to do." He broke down the destructive elements of the bomb: the heat of the fireball (vaporizes buildings instantly), the burns of its infrared emissions (easily reflected by a thin sheet of newspaper), the shock wave (may knock over buildings), then scattered fires, and fallout (gamma radiation, capable of penetrating 2 meters of soil but incapable of turning corners). If the world ended today, and you survived, it seemed you were expected to follow the instructions of the Civil Defense Ministry on a transistor radio. Make an emergency kit, check the batteries.
Boys' Locker Room.
Monday noon. 1982 (v1)
"Hey Shizuki," said Igarishi. "Who's the girlfriend?"
"The what?" Yuji blushed like a pomegranate.
"Didn't know she was your type, man," added another boy, Higuchi.
"She's not 'my type,'" mumbled Yuji.
"Aw, don't listen to him. You don't gotta bother with a 'type,' man," said Igarishi. "That's thinking about it all wrong. Guy like you, you oughta be relaxing with one chick on each arm, you know? Spread the wealth around and live a little, ya know?"
At this point Yuji stopped blushing and just stared.
"Hey for real," said Igarishi. "There's lots of girls out there just asking for it. Why not use your natural advantages?"
"Aw, come off it," said Higuchi. "You're talking like you're some big player, we know better."
"Look, man, I know I'm a nobody," he replied. "I'm just saying, if I were in Shizuki's shoes? Things would be different. Guy like this can't not get some action."
Yuji shook his head.
"That's no good," he said. "You just get all the women who want your money."
Like that ... stranger, at home. And the other girl, from last night.
"Hey, maybe," said Igarishi. "But that's more than I've got, you know?"
"Anyway," said Hagichi. "If you're not into her it's probably for the best. I think she's a lesbian."
"No way," said Igarishi. "How do you figure?"
"She hangs out with Daidouji," replied Hagichi. "And Daidouji is definitely a lesbian."
"Yeah, but, like, so does Kinomoto," observed Igarishi. "And they're just friends."
"That's one sided, though," said Hagichi.
"Daidouji's pretty," said Yuji, obliviously. "I could see going out with her."
The other two laughed.
"Too bad you're a man," said Hagichi.
"What?" asked Yuji.
"Was I not just saying she's a lesbian?" asked Hagichi.
Yuji looked askance. "Okay. I lived a sheltered life once. Explain it to me like I'm five."
"Kindan no koi," said Igarishi. Forbidden love. "Daidouji loves Kinomoto. She isn't into guys. Lesbian. Yuri. Girls loving girls."
"What?" asked Yuji. "I thought they were cousins or something."
"They are," confirmed Hagichi.
"Isn't that a little gross?" objected Yuji.
"Not sure that matters once you're a lesbian," mused Igarishi. "I mean it's not like they'd be having kids."
"I don't blame you anyway," said Hagichi, and then he got an idea. "Hey, maybe if you tried to make Kinomoto your girl, you could get both of them at once."
Yuji shook his head and left.
Classroom
Monday afternoon (v1)
[erased]
Classroom
Monday afternoon (v2)
"Yuji-san!"
The instructor was demanding an answer, presumably selecting him for dozing off during class. In principle, an unfortunate situation, if he could make the effort to care.
But the problem on the board seemed familiar somehow. Imaginary numbers. Something about rotation and an equivalence with triangles. The triangles were easier.
He schlepped up to the board and began.
"Ah," said the instructor. "I see someone has been reading his textbook. Very good. However, let us do it the hard way first. You may sit back down."
He looked back at the class. Why was Yukari looking at him like that?
"You okay?" he asked as he sat down again.
She tensed up a moment, then nodded Yes, wordlessly, almost like she was about to cry. Definitely something weird going on with her.
Hallway
Monday evening. 1982 (v2)
"Shizuki-san?"
Yuji looked around. The orange afternoon sun was streaming through the windows, the vertical blinds leaving stripes of black on the floor.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Oh. Well," she said, hesitantly, avoiding eye contact. "I was sorta wondering why you were here so late."
"I took a nap after last class," he said, covering a yawn.
"Well," she said. "I'm, um, sorry about this morning. I got it fixed. The skateboard. It shouldn't do what it was doing any more, so I won't crash—"
"Don't worry about it," he said.
"Oh," she said. "Okay."
Yuji stared into his shoe locker, trying to decide what would be next. In principle he should go home. And he didn't want something weird to happen again like last night. But maybe he could go somewhere else.
"Shizuki-san?" asked the girl.
Oh. She was still here. And something didn't add up. Had she stayed here waiting for him? Just to apologize? That didn't make sense.
The girl closed her eyes for a moment, and smiled.
"I, um, I just wanted to l-let you know," she began—
"Is this a confession?" he asked.
Yukari-san squealed.
He shook his head. "Sorry."
She wanted to know why. It was clear, even if she couldn't get out the words.
"You're not my type."
The girl mumbled a question.
"Graceful," he said. "Gentle. Quiet. Pretty. Like a girl is supposed to be, a flower, not a ... skateboarder."
She stared at him.
"I'm sorry, Yukari-san," he said, as he walked away.
Commercial district
Monday 9pm. 1982 (v2)
He had to get out of there.
But sometimes getting out wasn't much better.
A group of older girls were giggling over their haul, crisp paper bags with fashionable logos. Blue jeans. Short hair, trendy and flirty. "Do you think they make my butt look fat?" asked one. "You don't have any butt to look fat, girl," replied another. Disappointment; it seems boys don't like that. Who cares what boys think? Why, everyone. It's very important. Girls just want to have fun. With boys. Preferably handsome ones, but if you're ugly, simply being rich would probably do.
Neon cafés. Convertible parked out front, playboy leaning against the hood wearing sunglasses after dark, smoking. Here's your man. Come and get him, ladies. A paper cut-out of a man with paper cut-outs of girls on each arm, exaggerated big butts. It was almost psychedelic.
He walked on into the endless neon maze.
Rooftop.
Tuesday morning (very early). 1982 (v2)
There was a wobble.
Yuji looked down on the city.
Where was he? On the roof? How'd he get up here, anyway? Maybe this was a bit too much wandering. Ugh. His neck was sore for some reason.
He should go home and get half a night of sleep.
He shuffled over to the door to the stairs.
"You!" said a voice.
"Daidouji-san?" he marveled.
She was dressed up in some fancy get-up to match Kinomoto, who was sitting on the ground next to Yukari. The latter, still wearing her school uniform, appeared to have collapsed.
What any of them were doing here was beyond him. Of course Kinomoto and Daidouji liked to play dress up in middle school, but that was years back and also not in the middle of the night.
"You have some explaining to do, Shizuki," she said.
"I do?" he asked, a little incredulous.
"You hurt one of my friends," she said, in a cool and controlled tone. "And my precious Sakura-chan was endangered too. So yes."
"Is this about Yukari-san?" asked Yuji, confused.
"You said cruel things to her," said Daidouji.
He nodded. "Yeah, I guess I was a little blunt. Sorry. Didn't mean it like that."
"Well then," she said. "Please explain what you did mean."
He shrugged.
"Explain it in detail," she commanded. "Tell me the ways that Hitomi-chan falls short being a girl."
The purple jewel pinned over her breast flashed in the light.
"Well to begin with, there's the skateboard," he said. "It's loud and obnoxious and smashes into things. She's awkward like that. She's not ugly or anything. I'm sure she'd clean up okay if she grew her hair out and put on a dress and wore some nice shoes instead of the big clumsy sneakers. But even then. She's not elegant like you, Daidouji-san, and she's not even trying."
He caught his breath. Why did he say all that?
"She's not of a rich enough class for your tastes?" scowled Daidouji.
"It's not about class," he began, against his will. "It's about what girls were supposed to be and what none of them are anymore. Gentle. Graceful. Demure. Yamato nadeshiko."
Kinomoto-san made a little noise, and Daidouji-san glared, but Yuji could only pause.
"Instead," he said, "all the girls are modern and want to ride around on skateboards and smoke cigarettes and hang around with the rich boy because he's got all the money, and she wants him to buy her diamond necklaces and take her on trips to Fiji, and cares more about that than about taking care of a family, and I can't stand that kind of woman."
Daidouji took a deep breath.
The jewel seemed to be glowing brighter somehow, but swirling in the light were blotches of darkness.
"Well then," she said, calmly. "Let's make sure get this right. What is your perfect little yamoto nadeshiko like, Shizuki?"
"What is going on, Daidouji-san?" he asked.
"I'm playing matchmaker," she said. "Close your eyes and picture this girl in your mind, everything that makes her old fashioned and perfect."
"Okay...?" He was really confused now, but too tired to argue, and didn't seem to possess a capacity to resist anyway.
Tomoyo pulled a weapon from the air, a pair of scissors, hilariously oversized, as long as a sword.
"Tomoyo-chan!" cried out Kinomoto. "No!"
He opened his eyes, as she swung them right around with all her might. Somehow they passed right through him, like he was a ghost, and there was a flash of pain and of light.
The boy couldn't even scream.
Classroom
Monday afternoon, 1982 (v1)
[restored]
"Yuji-san!" called the instructor.
Uh-oh.
This was going to be hard. He was sleepy, not quite paying attention.
Imaginary numbers, huh?
It went poorly. The teacher made fun, then introduced a new technique.
"Now," said the instructor. "Try it the new way."
Yuji stopped.
He felt weird. Something was wrong. He wasn't quite sure what it meant, just a sense of foreboding doom.
"Shizuki-san, is everything all right?"
He looked back to the class. Was it just him?
It wasn't quite just him. Kinomoto seemed upset too. But what was it?
He turned to the instructor.
"Something's wrong," he said.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light from outside.
"Don't look!" screamed the instructor. "Under the desk! Everyone! This is not a drill!"
Several students screamed. The instructor shoved Yuji under his own heavy wooden desk at the front of the classroom, standing exposed beside it.
"Protect your heads!" he cried out.
Then the wall blew in and no one saw what happened to him.
The loudest noise possible gave way to a silence, slowly filled as sound returned. Screams.
The drills said to remain in place and wait for the instructor to give an All Clear. But the drills all started with a siren. And Yuji wasn't quite sure there was going to be an all clear. What would you do without an instructor? Fall back on the Civil Defense Ministry directly?
He fumbled his way out from below the desk. There was something in one of the drawers, a small radio, with fresh batteries. He extended the antenna and retreated back below the desk, scanning back and forth across the AM band.
"Everyone be quiet!" He yelled. "This is important!"
He turned up the radio as loud as it could go.
… a series of strikes targeting primarily military and infrastructure targets. However, civilian targets were also hit, and further strikes are possible. If you are safely in cover, we do not recommend that you proceed to a community fallout shelter at this time. Prioritize your immediate safety.
Right. The shockwave had come from the east, near the port, and the refinery. But downtown was still intact; you could see it, where the wall wasn't anymore.
"We're not safe here," he declared, standing up. "Go to the fallout shelter under the auditorium."
The others looked at him blankly.
"Go!" he yelled. "Obey the civil defense broadcast!"
They began to move, and he turned around to look behind himself, towards the auditorium. There was a hole in the wall, and the class adjacent to his was moving too, a commotion as they called out to others.
"Shizuki-san," called out Kinomoto. "Help."
He turned to look.
The one who actually needed help was Yukari-san, half buried in a pile of debris. It took a few minutes to extract her.
"There's first aid equipment in the fallout shelter," he said. It didn't look like the classroom kit was still there anyway. "Do you think you can make it?"
She shook her head no, and whimpered.
"Here," he said, crouching down. "Kinomoto, help her onto my back. Be careful."
After some hoisting, she was on his back.
"Now go!" he shouted to Kinomoto. "Run!"
She nodded, and ran.
He surveyed the scene. Maybe it would be faster to go to the auditorium on an outside path. Less rubble. But also less shelter, if there was another bomb.
He decided. The hallway.
Why had he decided that?
He wasn't sure. Then he was sure.
The feeling was back.
"No!" he whispered.
He wasn't going to make it.
So what would he do?
"Shizuki-san? What's happening?" asked the girl.
The answer was clear. He would drop Yukari-san in the best shelter he could find in the rubble, and throw himself on top of her.
The explosion was closer this time, he thought (wrongly), as the infrared of the heat blast seared into his skin.
The girl screamed.
Rooftop.
Tuesday (still very early). 1982 (v2)
The girl screamed.
It was dark now. Yukari wasn't there anymore. There were lights from the city all around. Kinomoto was sitting off to the side, reaching out her hand.
"Quiet," said Kinomoto, with a gentle light of magic. "Rest now. You'll be okay."
The girl slept.
"You shouldn't have done that, Tomoyo-chan," said Kinomoto, rising.
Daidouji looked away from her at the ground.
"My friend was hurt," she mumbled. "And you got hurt too."
"Tomoyo-chan," said Kinomoto, after thinking a moment. "Why is Hitomi-chan here?"
"Because she was hurt," said Daidouji, "and a witch found her, to make it worse."
"And why is she —" Kinomoto began, then paused.
"Tomoyo-chan," she said after a moment, gesturing at the other girl. "What have you done to her?"
"Yamoto nadeshiko," replied Daidouji.
"I can't even say — the old name anymore," she said, looking over at the girl lying there on the roof. "What do you mean by that?"
"She's a girl who can't ever use skateboards," said Daidouji, "or wear blue jeans, or... any of that. A perfect, demure flower. I wanted her to know what that's like, since she wants it so much."
"You couldn't have picked any other name?" she asked.
Daidouji looked away again.
"She looks just like Mom, too," said Kinomoto.
"I'm sorry," said Daidouji.
"Change her back," said Kinomoto.
Daidouji shook her head.
"Not until she learns ... a lesson."
"I don't want this," said Kinomoto. "Please, Tomoyo."
"I can't," she said. "Not yet. It's not something possible anymore."
Kinomoto sighed.
"Then on top of everything, it was too much magic," she said, reaching for her grief seed. "Give me your soul gem."
"No," said Daidouji. "No, you need it more—"
"Give it to me," commanded Kinomoto, in an anger which Daidouji had never seen before.
With a flash, Daidouji was back in a school uniform, handing the gem to Kinomoto.
The corruption drained slowly.
"She came here for the same reason Hitomi-chan came here," said Kinomoto. "A witch kiss. And she was up on the roof of a building. You understand? Hitomi-chan was in trouble too, but her pain was just an appetizer for the witch. She wasn't about to jump."
"I'm sorry," said Daidouji.
"I am going to bring Hitomi-chan home," said Kinomoto. "Take care of the other girl, Daidouji-san," said Kinomoto.
"... Sakura?" asked Daidouji, taken aback.
"Take care of … Nadeshiko," said Kinomoto, reluctantly, and she left the two of them in the cold dark night.