Yumi enjoys a peaceful day out with her friends. Surely nothing bad could happen.
It was a long but unusually easy day at school. The class was in between big assignments and tests at the moment, so most of the students were taking it pretty easy outside of the routine studying. There wasn't much going in the area of club activities, either, so many more than usual had free schedules after class.
"There's no practice today, so what do you want to do?" Suzy had joined the track team like Ami had suggested, realizing she was unexpectedly quick when she wanted to be. Right now, though, they were leaving school at the same time as Yumi. Deciding to use the free time as a group, the three tried to figure out what to do together.
They hadn't really decided on what they were meant to be doing yet, having expected one another to think of an idea before school ended. Now they were just walking around aimlessly hoping someone would have an idea to no avail. Beyond a few, "What if we..." and "Maybe we could..." utterances, the three simply wandered the city with no goal or direction.
Suddenly, Yumi's phone buzzed. Moments after looking at the screen, she began to hop up and down. "I finally know what we can do!" she told the others excitedly. "We can go see my friends."
The meeting place they headed to was a bit out of the way compared to any of the usual shops or restaurants near the school, but they made it there on foot without much issue. Right as they reached the unassuming ramen stand, a couple familiar faces came into view.
Forgoing any kind of greeting or introductions, Yumi launched herself into Kazuhiko's arms for a long-awaited hug. "Come on, you don't have to do this every time," he complained, making no effort at all to not hug her back.
"It's been so long since we got to see each other, though," she said, jumping off him to high five Hideo, having taken to it as a preferred method of contact as of late.
"It was barely two weeks ago and we've been texting every day."
Yumi shrugged. "Feels like longer. Are you okay?" She gestured towards the both of them and their dirtied, wrinkled clothes, not to mention the fresh, purple bruise on Kazuhiko's cheek.
"It's nothing," he said with a wave of his hand. "Just had to set some guys straight for picking on a buddy of mine." He and Hideo instinctively fist bumped without looking at each other, perfectly in sync.
"You get in fights?" Suzy asked, the first of the two to approach the older kids. With a tiny squeal of excitement, she blurted out, "Are you a real high school delinquent?"
It took him a moment to register what she'd said, but upon understanding her meaning and grasping that she probably wasn't from Japan, he couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, so don't mess with me. Wouldn't want to have to rough you up, you know?" He did his best to look intimidating, forehead vein popping as he scowled as hard as possible. This only made her more enthusiastic, almost having the urge to whip out a piece of paper for an autograph.
"Is it really okay for us to be talking to someone like that?" Ami whispered after pulling Yumi aside.
She laughed, amused at just the idea Kazuhiko was even capable of being dangerous. "Oh, yeah, definitely. Watch, I saw this in a TV show once." Without warning, Yumi began sprinting forward, screaming "Catch me!" at the last moment.
Immediately dropping any pretense of looking cool, Kazuhiko stopped posing and dropping one-liners to grab Yumi out of the air, stumbling around trying not to fall over. "Don't do that!" he said, putting her down. As he did, Hideo took her place, jumping into Kazuhiko's arms. "No one else better do this!" he yelled, though it was fairly clear he'd continue catching until people stopped throwing themselves at him.
"Told you so," Yumi said, Ami feeling a bit more secure seeing the tough guy act crumble to pieces. "He even cries when he watches those commercials with all the sad animals in cages."
"I do not!" he protested, finally letting Hideo go after casually holding them for several seconds longer than one would expect. "I just get real angry, is all. With how people can treat their dogs like that. Those little guys depend on you to take care of them, and then people just hurt them and abandon them, and it's..." He turned his back to the group, wiping away the tears at the corners of his eyes with his sleeve before sticking his hands in his pockets. "Anyway, I'm hungry, so I'm going over there."
As the group followed Kazuhiko to the ramen stand, not allowing him to outrun his embarrassment, Hideo walked beside Yumi and presented her a card. "You found it for me!" she shouted, quickly pocketing it.
"Found what?" Suzy asked as they sat down.
"Just a card I was looking for. And I'm not telling you what it is yet, so don't ask."
She flailed her arms in Yumi's direction and grumbled. "Come on. I bet it's not that big of a deal."
"Nope. It's going to be a surprise next time we duel."
They would have continued the bickering for several minutes if allowed (arguing back and forth to try and make the other reveal their new cards had almost become a hobby to them), but the conversation was interrupted by the woman working the stand. "What can I- oh, hey, it's you guys."
"Haru!" Yumi shouted directly into her unfazed face. Slapping herself on the forehead, her outburst made her realize a crucial detail she'd forgotten up until now. "I totally didn't introduce anyone, did I?"
"Was kind of waiting for you to do that," Kazuhiko said.
"Sorry! Okay, that's Kazuhiko and Hideo," she said to the girls. "They're my friends from summer and are in high school." She turned the opposite direction. "That's Ami and Suzy Q. Ami's been my friend since elementary school and Suzy just moved here from America. And that's Haru who runs the ramen stand, but half of you already knew that."
Before taking their orders, Haru paused to look Kazuhiko up and down. "You look worse than usual. Did your little sister beat you up again?"
He scoffed, waving his hand. "Not this time. Just took care of some bullies. They were picking on a guy I know and no one else wanted to help." The others looked to him, now intrigued by the extra detail. "It's nothing much. I was friends with a dude named Yomi back in middle school and we kind of fell out of talking a lot since last year, but we're still pals. But he's always been kind of a sickly nerd, and it looks like some people at school have been taking advantage of him, so me and Hideo decided to put a stop to it."
"Wow, I get to serve ramen to a couple of heroes today. I'd almost feel like giving you some kind of discount if my dad would let me."
"Yeah, I was just thinking that." Kazuhiko combed through his hair with a smirk. "Maybe you need some protection around here. Couple of tough delinquents out front and no one will mess with you."
"I think we're good," she said preparing some bowls for the group in advance.
"I don't know, be a shame if something...happened."
She laughed. "Kyoko's got it covered. No offense, but she and her girls would stomp the yard all over your ass if they wanted to."
"Yeah, you're probably right," he with a disappointed look. In the dueling world he might edge her out, but when it came to fighting, Kyoko far outclassed him. If this was a different kind of story, she'd probably be his rival full time by now given how much it motivated him to get stronger.
"Is Kyoko around right now?" Yumi asked, looking excitedly up and down the street and trying to listen for any motorcycles in the distance.
"Nah, she's off doing some things with the gang," Haru said. "Still really bummed she had to dye her hair back to its normal color."
"What is it now?" Yumi asked.
"This real mellow green. I always liked it, but she's all depressed."
"Speaking of people who aren't here," Kazuhiko interrupted, "where's your dad at? Doesn't he work the stand with you?"
Haru pouted and stomped her foot. "He left right when I got here from school. I think he's out drinking with his friends. That's what I'm supposed to be doing!" She quickly corrected herself, remembering the children sitting in front of her. "Age-appropriate drinking, I mean."
She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "It's no big deal, I guess. I like working here, so it's not a problem right now. What do you want to eat, by the way?"
Kazuhiko looked at the menu for a moment before deciding on his order. "Think I'll go with the tonkotsu. Extra pork, too, and mild." He looked to Hideo who nodded in approval. "Make that two, but one extra spicy."
"Ooh, three!" Yumi said. "Mild, though."
Ami scanned the menu, giving her order a bit apprehensively. She was never very good at making quick choices. "I guess...the shoyu. Can I ask what the broth base is?"
"Chicken for that one."
"Oh, okay. I'll take that, please."
"Want extra pork, too?"
She gave a small laugh and nodded. "I guess so."
Attention fell to Suzy. For what seemed like the first time since she'd arrived in Chiba, she was quiet. Nervously, she asked, "I don't want to sound picky or disrespectful, but the shoyu ramen doesn't have any pork or shrimp in it, right? Like, in the broth?"
"It shouldn't. If you wanted that, I might be able to figure something out."
"No, no! That's what I wanted. I'll have the shoyu, too, and no pork, please."
Yumi laughed. "You must really hate pork."
"Well, sort of." She cleared her throat. "It's more I just don't eat it, you know? It's not kosher."
"What's that mean?" she asked, Ami turning to hear the explanation. On the other end, Hideo had preemptively pulled up a definition for Kazuhiko to read, who nodded understandingly.
With the slightest hesitation in her voice, she explained, "I'm Jewish, and my religion says there's some things we shouldn't eat. The basics are pork and anything in the ocean that's not a regular fish, so like shrimp and crab and stuff."
"Huh. I'll remember that if I ever- crap!" She slammed her head into the counter. "Octopus comes from the ocean, so you can't eat takoyaki."
"Takoyaki?" Suzy asked with confusion, not really understanding the extreme reaction over that one food.
"It's kind of her thing," Kazuhiko explained, both Ami and Hideo nodding.
"I'll think of something," Yumi said with determination. "Maybe there's imitation octopus? Oh, I know some people use things like beef sometimes, so that might work. Beef is okay, right?"
Suzy laughed, her fears assuaged seeing how everyone had taken things quite well. "Definitely. I love steak."
"You've still got ramen, so don't go running off yet," Haru said as she placed down their food, giving Suzy double eggs to hopefully keep her from feeling left out. "I still remember when you took off before I could even get your food out before. Where did you even have to go?"
Yumi was halfway through a noodle slurp as she responded, mumbling, "I remembered I left my bike at the park, but I forgot where I was going while I was running because they were unloading new booster packs at a card shop, and when I got done looking I was lost so I started going back before I remembered what I went to do, so then I finally made it to the park and was riding back here, but then I met up with everyone as they were leaving and ran into Kazuhiko." She finished her story by swallowing everything in her mouth in one gulp.
"You really do hit a lot of people with your bike," Suzy said, Ami glaring over at her for having yet another accident.
"It's not like I plan on it," she said defensively, not letting her shame keep her from eating.
Kazuhiko chuckled, chewing a fishcake. "It's not big deal. I'm the only one who didn't see her coming, so it was kind of my fault this time."
"This time?" Ami repeated, looking accusingly at Yumi who innocently slurped her noodles and pretended not to hear her.
To change the subject, Hideo nudged Kazuhiko, showing him a message written out on the phone screen. "Hey, Suzy Q. Hideo wanted me to ask what you and your family do about, uh..." He mouthed the characters to himself. "Synagogue. Since there isn't one in Chiba, right?"
She nodded. "Yeah, we just meet with a few other people once or twice a week. My temple back home got us in touch before we moved, so it's been a pretty easy transition. A little more difficult keeping up with some of my mitzvah, though."
She continued, realizing the others probably didn't know what that meant. "Mitzvah are, at least what I'm talking about, kind of like good deeds you're supposed to do. Ever since my bat mitzvah, I've been volunteering at a retirement home to try and help my community, but I'm not sure how to do that now that I've moved. Oh, and, uh, the bat mitzvah is kind of like a special birthday when you're officially considered an adult." Sighing loudly, she added, "It's really hard to talk about all of this in Japanese."
"I think I've actually heard of that," Yumi said, bowl now empty. "Is it kind of like a quinceañera?"
"Oh, yeah, sort of. I guess they are kind of similar in, like, broad strokes."
"My abuela in Mexico talks about it sometimes with me and my grandma. There's a big party, right? That sounds really fun!"
"We kept mine kind of small, but yeah, they can be really huge. I was at a friend's last year and she had this whole fireworks display and a helicopter. It was huge!"
As her friends talked around her, Ami noticed the gem hanging around her neck begin to pulsate. With a grumble, she began to think of excuses. "Sorry to interrupt," she said with a frown, "but I just remembered there was something I needed to take care of for the team back at school. I have to leave now."
"Oh, should I come?" Suzy asked.
"N-no, no, it's just me. Don't worry. It was fun meeting all of you. We should get together again soon." With a quick farewell between all of them, Ami left some money on the counter and ran off down the street, turning a corner into a dark alleyway.
Yumi put her hand up as if to hide her whispering, though who, exactly, she was trying to hide it from wasn't exactly clear given everyone in attendance could hear her. "I don't think it's actually track," she said. "Ami told me she got super into this cosplay thing over the summer and she might be embarrassed about it. I'm only telling you guys because I want to try and find a way to help her be more confident about it. She shouldn't have to hide what she's passionate about."
"Yeah," Kazuhiko agreed. "There's no shame in it. Cosplay is cool."
"Totally," Suzy said. "You're doing it right now, aren't you?"
Baffled, he looked to his friends for support, with none to be found as they waited to see how he'd respond. "What? This is just how I look. What am I cosplaying?"
"I just assumed with the black uniform and the cool hair."
"Cool hair, you say?" With a smirk, he combed through his pompadour once more. "I guess I can understand. You must have thought I had to be copying an anime character since I've got such a great sense of style, right?" He wasn't even wrong.
"There's an idea," Yumi said after starting on a second bowl of ramen. "We should all cosplay with her."
"My mom taught me to sew," Suzy added. "I could do that."
"And Hideo's got a whole closet full of cool outfits already we could take from. It wouldn't take much to turn them into something even cooler. Seriously, why don't you ever wear any of those?" Hideo shrugged, though seemingly agreed to the proposal by bringing up a picture of a character clad in a slightly different hoodie than the one they were wearing.
"I bet Kyoko's got some tips or supplies," Haru added. "Maybe she's even got some costumes made already. I know she does the whole goth loli thing on the weekends when it's just the two of us sometimes, so maybe she's got some secret cosplay stuff up her sleeve, and I probably shouldn't have told you that since I'm in the doghouse the moment she finds out and you all may die."
Whether they felt like laughing or fearing for their lives, the three could do little but sit in stunned silence with jaws agape, the mental image of tough-as-nails Kyoko in an elegant, cutsey dress and parasol. Lolita stuff wasn't even that big anymore, so she must be dedicated, too. On the end, Suzy simply asked for clarification, unsure as to why this was supposed to be shocking.
Finishing their food, they settled up with Haru and left the stand, making a silent pact never to speak of what they'd just learned on this day. No matter how adorable, threatening, hilarious, or downright disturbing it might be for one or all of them, they'd do everything in their power to stay alive and never mention it again.
With that behind them, though, they continued down the street to look for something to help their plan. "There's got to be a craft store around here," Kazuhiko said, drawing on vague memories of a place he allegedly saw in the past. "Something like that, at least."
His iron-clad memory seemed to be the real deal, as they found the place he referenced rather quickly. As they were about to enter, the door was flung open with a friendly chime. The chime itself, though pleasant, was more or less undercut by the door itself smacking Yumi in the face and sending her to the ground.
Rather than do the sensible thing like apologize or help her up, the customer ignored her and began walking away. "What the hell's wrong with you?" Kazuhiko shouted with a shake of his fist, Hideo helping Yumi to her feet.
"It's fine, I'm jus- Kaguya?" It was indeed her, sour disposition and total disregard for others on full display.
"Just because you don't like someone doesn't mean you can go around hitting them with doors," Suzy said.
She scoffed, looking towards her with disdain. "It's not like I could have known she'd get in my way."
"You can still apologize for it."
"Why should I apologize for something I didn't mean to do?" She scoffed once more for emphasis just to show how little regard she gave this conversation.
"Because it's the right thing to do. When you hurt people, you have to make it right."
"No one cares about your opinion," she said callously. In complete shock at just how unnecessarily confrontational she was being, the group couldn't say anything for a solid three seconds, Yumi slowly raising her hand to say that she cared to break the silence. "And you don't matter, either."
"I don't know what I did to make you hate me this much," Yumi said in utter confusion. "All we've ever done is try to include you."
"Ever think I didn't want to be included with you losers?" Even Kaguya was continually surprised at just how much gasoline she was pouring onto this burning bridge. At her core, she was always a bit of a coward, so this sudden outburst left her as off balance as the rest, only she was more adept at keeping a poker face.
"Then you could have said so. We would have left you alone. You just look so alone all the time, so-"
With a third scoff, she finally started to laugh, ending with a throaty cough. "Of course I'm alone. I'm better than all of you, so it's natural people take the hint and don't even try to come close. Well, normal people."
"What makes you better than anyone?" Kazuhiko asked. "All you've done so far is act like an asshole and hit people with doors."
"This from someone with a gross bird's nest on his head." If not for Hideo putting him into a full nelson, Kazuhiko's blinding rage would have taken over and made him do things he regretted again. Treasured hairstyle or not, he'd rather not end up as the guy who beat up a frail twelve year old girl.
"Just go," Suzy said finally. "You can pretend you're better than anyone you want, just get lost."
"Don't have to pretend if it's true," she replied in a sing-song, mocking manner.
"Then prove it," Suzy replied. Despite wanting nothing more to do with this irritating girl, she was somehow managing to press every single one of her buttons. "Do something better than us. Anything. Anything at all." It was taking all of her willpower just to keep speaking in Japanese lest she break out into English or, even more powerfully, the Yiddish she'd learned from her grandmother.
"I don't want to embarrass you more than you've already embarrassed yourself," she said, her sickly pallor making her aura of smugness even more infuriating.
"You can't do it. You're just pathetic and all talk."
"Suzy, it's okay. Let's just go." This whole exchange was making Yumi uncomfortable. If Kaguya didn't want them to interact anymore, that was fine. There was no need to draw it out like this in the middle of the street.
"No, it's not okay. You and Ami are nothing but nice to her and all I've ever seen her do is make fun of you and ignore you. That is not okay."
Kazuhiko was more clearheaded now, and though he agreed with what Suzy was saying, he had to side with Yumi's desire to simply leave the situation. "Nothing we can do either way. Let's just get out of here."
"Looks like he's the only one with any sense over there. I would have thought all the hair gel he'd need to style that ugly thing would have rotted all his brain cells." Any semblance of calm he'd managed to regain vanished instantly, Hideo needing to hold him back once again.
"Just one thing," Suzy repeated, holding up her index finger. "One thing you're better at that anyone. I've seen your test scores and you're at the bottom of the class. You don't have perfect attendance. You slack off on your classroom job. You're not part of a club. What do you even do that you could be better at?"
Any logical person would be able to tell this argument had gone far past the point of sense, but neither Suzy nor Kaguya was ready to back down. She'd called her bluff twice now. Making more excuses wouldn't work out at this point. Like any rash decision made by a child, she have to up the ante.
Shaking her head with a completely forced yet genuinely smug smile, she finally agreed to put up. "Alright, I'll do it. Just to make you shut up." Dropping the things she was holding, Kaguya reached inside her school bag and pulled out, of all things, a duel disk. "This is what you were hoping for, right? Then you can have it. I'll duel...Yumi!"
A coward right up to the end, her declaration was made entirely in ignorance. Having missed every duel Yumi had partaken in since the semester started, Kaguya was fully convinced she was better than her. She'd heard talk that Yumi had won some tournament over the summer, sure. Something that had made her marginally more popular in class, whatever it was, but she reasoned it couldn't be anything that serious. It's not like she was a prefectural champion now, or anything. This was obviously the weakest opponent she could face right now.
"I...I guess, okay." Pulling out her own duel disk, Yumi somewhat reluctantly placed it on her arm. Though she'd be happy to have this whole episode over and done with, she couldn't remember a single time Kaguya had actually accepted a challenge like this before. Wouldn't it be kind of unfair to just jump right in like this?
"You've got this," Kazuhiko said with a pump of his fist, Hideo on standby should Kaguya make any more comments about his hair.
"Send her home with her tail between her legs," Suzy encouraged, though the words did little to motivate Yumi in what was likely to be a very one-sided match. Though she wasn't in the habit of underestimating her opponents, she'd managed to develop a sense for roughly how strong another duelist was after all her training. And Kaguya...barely registered.
"I guess...duel," she said halfheartedly, their discs springing to life.
That took a while to get done. I'd say it won't happen again, but it will.
I've been waiting forever to do the "natural hair color" joke. Probably flew over some people's heads but I'm perfectly content to sit here and laugh about how clever I am.
I was talking about VRAINS a lot last week and didn't even mention how it stole the name of another one of my characters. Honestly, though, I kind of think "Hal" is a better way to anglicize his name, since it's got that classic sci-fi reference and it sounds more similar to Bohman. Either way, all they'll ever have is crappy hotdogs sold by a man in a shady hacker van. My Haru's got ramen, so I think we know where everyone stands.
I feel bad for Suzy here having to explain all the complexity that is Judaism in her third language simple enough that people who have no real background in it can understand the basics. She always gets real anxious having to explain everything, too, since it's usually more of a crapshoot on whether or not she gets to find out her friends are antisemitic. They're all good kids, though, and wouldn't knowingly do anything to hurt her.
On that note, that's generally how I approach topics that aren't part of my identity like this one. I always take into account things people I know have told me and stuff I researched on my own, but I'm always willing to listen to other perspectives on how I can improve my portrayals of people or issues. So if there's things you want to see or things I should do better, tell me about it.
Kaguya truly is the Waluigi of fanfiction. Thin, self-pitying, an asshole, usually smells bad, purple. Just significantly less banjos and crotch thrusting (for now). You're probably expecting some kind of climactic battle next chapter where we find out she's been hiding her power level this entire time, but...no. No...
Not much left to say. Thanks for reading. Always remember to Waluigi.