Chapter 20: Guitar Love
"Something on your mind?" Lahko asked. The hallways were filled with Zoras.
"Sort of. I think I've made my best friend angry..."
"Oh? Is it the guy that you said you are going to bring your work to?" Lahko brushed against another student.
Mikau jerked up right. "Oh crap! That reminded me. I forgot to do my homework!" Two more Zoras crashed into him as he stopped suddenly. Cursing in Ira Language, they circled around the Zoran Hero and continued their journey through the overly crowded school.
"Typical Mikau. Relax, the work is due the next day," Lahko grabbed Mikau's head and rubbed it really hard.
Pushing the fool Zora away from him, the Zoran Hero didn't feel like joking around. The way that Japas had acted last night was scaring him somewhat. It was very unusual for the easy going Zora to turn one-eighty into a whole new different personality. Why... and how?
Sitting in front of the dinner table, Ruan and Lynisana held onto each other's hands as they chatted and laughed. Japas had already begun to dig into the food, chewing loudly. Mikau was sitting beside him, taking smaller bites. The dinning room was not big. Cozy, brightly lit, but small. The floor was covered with trimmed blue seaweeds, soft and squishy.
After a while of not talking to each other, Mikau glanced at Japas, who was focusing all of his energies onto the plate of fish. Scrap pieces of bones and scales were on the surface of the polished dark green table. The light was reflected off the facade, exploded in a circular shape with rainbow colors.
"Where do you think we can get our own materials for the things?" Mikau asked with slight reluctance. He had sensed that the mood in the room this evening was eerie.
Shrugging, Japas swallowed the last piece of meat before answering. "Somewhere far away from Termina. I think that's our best bet to get the right components." He grabbed another fish.
"Uh, what kind of components do you think that a piano should have?" Mikau had decided to bring the topic up again, just to test to see if what he had thought was right.
Japas stopped eating. He wiped his mouth with his hand as he turned around to face his friend. "Look. All I want to do is to get parts for us. Not for some other people that I do not know. Now if you really want to build one piano for your 'pal', go do it yourself!"
"You know that I am not a builder. I don't know how!"
"And what makes you think that I do?" Japas snapped. "Man, if you would just go and tell that Lahko guy he should solve the problem by himself instead of depending on you, this whole thing would have been disentangled already."
"I wanted to help him voluntarily. He didn't ask for my help."
"Then do it yourself! Don't bother me with things that do not have a physical impact on both of us!" Japas stood up from his chair. He bowed at the adults stiffly. "Thank you, Aunt Lyn and Uncle Ruan. I will be going now." Turning to face Mikau, he stared at his friend for a few seconds, jaw muscles straining, and then he left.
Mikau gazed into the empty space on his friend's chair, not knowing what to say, not knowing what to do, not knowing what to think...
"Hello? Earth to Mikau?" Lahko tapped the Zoran Hero's shoulder.
"Huh? What?" he snapped out of the trance as he blinked a few times.
Sighing, the Zora repeated what he had said before, "I said do you want to get to your class now? The bell is going to ring soon. I'll see you at lunch for the money problem."
"Oh. Yeah. Yeah, sure. See ya." Mikau said it really fast as he swam away.
Lahko shook his head as he grabbed his books from the lockers. Then he turned around again and stared at the disappearing figure among the students.
* * *
It was right after school that Mikau had went directly to Japas' house. He paused at the front door. Breathing in a few deep breathes, he knocked on it. A long minute had passed. He was planning to leave when Japas opened up. Both of them exchanged silent glances.
"Do you want to go now or what?" Mikau asked as he bounced the empty bubbled beside him.
Looking at the Zoran Hero without answering directly, Japas nodded as he came out and closed the door behind him. Leading the way, he used a few side streets as a shortcut. Mikau was shaky all the way. Japas could act extremely tough and could send out malicious feelings when he wanted to.
After more than an hour of swimming, both teenagers were well away from the City. In front of them was a bare plain with a few waterweeds growing here and there in scattered areas. The sunlight shone through the surface of the water was crystal blue. The lines of beams were distorted, as the water current never stopped moving around. Japas swam a few more meters before he signaled Mikau to be quiet. Diving behind a huge red-brown boulder, both of them peered over the edge. Right there, crawling along the ground was a huge King Crab. The size of the crab was enormous.
"There's my guitar," Japas whispered as he pointed. "We will do mine first, then yours."
"Okay. So now what? Stun it? Kill it? Or what?"
Smacking his friend on the side of the head, Japas sighed. "What do you think? Of course kill it. Ever heard a guitar breathing?"
Smirking, Mikau extended his arm blades. "Time to flash these babies out."
"King Crab is a pretty admirable adversary. Do you want me to stun it first so you can hack away?"
Retracted his blades, Mikau said, "You know what? On a second thought, you can finish it off using full power by yourself. I got pinched real badly once in my buttock a year ago. I will help you after we've finished the job."
Japas grinned. The tension between the two of them seemed to be disappearing when the hunting mood began to set in. He flung himself over the rock and dashed toward his victim.
The King Crab had two massive pincers, both could do significant damage. One was unusually long. With red-orange outer shell filled with spikes thrusting out from around the edges, the crab felt that it was unstoppable. Its eight short legs shuffled among the yellowish sands as it continued its journey across the plain. When it saw Japas moving toward it, its eyes arced upward, as if it was laughing at the pitiful attempt of some foolish creature. Little did it know, that the Zora was going to use an attack that it had never seen before.
Charging himself up to maximum power, Japas pointed out his fingers. A long, thick, blue lightening exploded outward, shooting straight at the poor animal that could only stare. The ground near where the line of electricity had hit erupted upward, splashing sands and small rocks everywhere. When the dusts had settled, the King Crab was not moving at all. Japas had fried it yet keeping the shell intact with little or no burns. His skills had improved a lot since the first time that he used the technique.
Laughing, Mikau jumped from the boulder and raced toward his friend. Japas whooped as he went to collect his prize. Using most of his energies, he was having difficulty to stay afloat. Mikau got beside him and supported him with his arms.
After stashing the crab into the bubble, it was now time to search for Mikau's materials. They went a little farther into the unprotected ocean ground. They tried to search for another crab, but they couldn't find any. Finally, it was Mikau who had suggested that he would use a giant fish's skeleton instead. That way, Japas could use a guitar with low base- leveled sounds while he could use a guitar with high-leveled sounds. Japas agreed. Lucky for them, a big Kunda Fish was swimming happily nearby. The twenty-four-pounder creature with two long whiskers was going out for a mid- afternoon stroll. Mikau and Japas both gave each other an evil grin. They had decided to ambush their prey.
There was a long line of green across the horizon where patches of seaweeds were located. The fish didn't know that its fate had been sealed when it entered ground zero. Mikau emerged from the plants with arm blades slashing. Japas just sat back, and watched the massacre.
It was near five in the evening when both Zoras went back to Mikau's house. Japas said hi to Ruan and Mikau's mom as he entered the house. Adults exchanged curious glances. The emotions running within the children were just so unpredictable. Ruan had noticed an excessively large bubble that Mikau was carrying behind his back.
"Out hunting?" he asked.
"Yup."
Inside the bedroom, Mikau lowered the sphere as he breathed a sigh of relief. It was heavy. Popping the bubble, Japas grabbed his crab while Mikau grabbed his fish. Both of them stared at their reward while pondering what to do with it.
"So..." Mikau started.
"Let's dig in!" Japas yelled as he began to scrap the meat out of the crab.
"Thought so."
For the rest of the afternoon, they were eating away, stuffing themselves to full. They had skipped dinner since they were too full to eat. Finally, only the skeletal remains of the marine creatures were left on the floor. Japas patted his round stomach as he burped.
"Now that we've finished the meal, let's start building our instruments."
Mikau held up his hand in mid water. "We still don't have the tendons for the strings..."
Laughing, the Zora reached under his friend's bed and pulled out at least thirty cords of sinews. "I hid them here just in case I forget to bring them. I've already gone out a few days ago and have tackled down a Noto Whale."
"No wonder I saw giant bones half buried in the sand half a kilometer from here!" Mikau shouted with realization.
"Yup. That's my handy work. I couldn't possibly bury the whole thing though since it was too big. So I buried it half way."
"Right." Mikau extended one of his arm blades.
"I might need your help cutting this later on," Japas pointed at the shell.
Nodding, Mikau sliced through the bones and began constructing. Throughout the whole night, both of them pieced together their homemade guitars. Cutting, fitting, and gluing bones and tendons, the devices started to take shape. Mikau's guitar had a blue-yellowish coloring to it, while Japas' had the red-orange one. His guitar was bigger than Mikau's since it was a base. Finally, just before sunrise, they had finished their project.
Screaming with joy, both of them began to admire their work. Once the elation had passed, they began to tune the strings.
* * *
The next day, students all gathered around Mikau's seat as they stared at the marvelous instrument. Mikau had kept a close watch on it, for it was his baby. Lahko was grinning as he asked his buddy how to make one. Listening to about twenty different questions, the teacher had finally told them to be quiet and get back to their own seats. Classes started, and classes ended. During the break time, Lahko tried to play Mikau's instrument. The product of the sounds was just so amazing, that he was instantly traumatized.
After school, Mikau headed directly over to Japas'. Both of them greeted each other as they went into the living room, making songs and music scores. At six, they both went to Mikau's house to eat supper.
"Whoa! I've never knew that you guys had it in you!" Ruan said with a surprised tone as he examined the guitars.
"Huh?" The teenagers were puzzled.
"I know that you both like music a lot, but I've never thought that you two would actually go and make these beauties by yourselves!"
"Mikau, you know that you've made me proud by accomplishing this difficult task," Lynisana said as she placed three more plates onto the dinner table.
"Aw, it was nothing. And mom? Please, PLEASE don't say that phrase outside the house. It just sounds so corny!"
"Yeah, especially that I've done most of the work," Japas narrowed his eyes toward Mikau.
"You did not! I've done the most work!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"You BOTH have done magnificent work! Now stop arguing and start eating," Ruan chuckled as he gently placed the instruments beside the chairs.
Japas swiftly grabbed the biggest fish that he could see and began to eat. Mikau shook his head as he grabbed a smaller one. It was a habit that both parents were used to.
"So now that we've became musicians, what should we do?" Mikau nudged Japas as he whispered, trying hard not to disturb his mom and stepfather's conversation.
"Well. We could hold a concert of our own. You know, make money and stuff. Or we can join a band. I'll have to see."
"Yeah. I wonder if there's a band out there for us..." Mikau sighed.
~End Chapter 20~
Author's Note: Now that Mikau and Japas got their own guitar, the story is beginning to unfold much more clearly as the plot is shifting slowly into the path of the Majora's Mask storyline. It's going to be hard though, merging two different plots into one, major one.
A short chapter this is. With the same reason as stated before in the previous chapter, I do not wish to change the mood or the time in this section.
"Something on your mind?" Lahko asked. The hallways were filled with Zoras.
"Sort of. I think I've made my best friend angry..."
"Oh? Is it the guy that you said you are going to bring your work to?" Lahko brushed against another student.
Mikau jerked up right. "Oh crap! That reminded me. I forgot to do my homework!" Two more Zoras crashed into him as he stopped suddenly. Cursing in Ira Language, they circled around the Zoran Hero and continued their journey through the overly crowded school.
"Typical Mikau. Relax, the work is due the next day," Lahko grabbed Mikau's head and rubbed it really hard.
Pushing the fool Zora away from him, the Zoran Hero didn't feel like joking around. The way that Japas had acted last night was scaring him somewhat. It was very unusual for the easy going Zora to turn one-eighty into a whole new different personality. Why... and how?
Sitting in front of the dinner table, Ruan and Lynisana held onto each other's hands as they chatted and laughed. Japas had already begun to dig into the food, chewing loudly. Mikau was sitting beside him, taking smaller bites. The dinning room was not big. Cozy, brightly lit, but small. The floor was covered with trimmed blue seaweeds, soft and squishy.
After a while of not talking to each other, Mikau glanced at Japas, who was focusing all of his energies onto the plate of fish. Scrap pieces of bones and scales were on the surface of the polished dark green table. The light was reflected off the facade, exploded in a circular shape with rainbow colors.
"Where do you think we can get our own materials for the things?" Mikau asked with slight reluctance. He had sensed that the mood in the room this evening was eerie.
Shrugging, Japas swallowed the last piece of meat before answering. "Somewhere far away from Termina. I think that's our best bet to get the right components." He grabbed another fish.
"Uh, what kind of components do you think that a piano should have?" Mikau had decided to bring the topic up again, just to test to see if what he had thought was right.
Japas stopped eating. He wiped his mouth with his hand as he turned around to face his friend. "Look. All I want to do is to get parts for us. Not for some other people that I do not know. Now if you really want to build one piano for your 'pal', go do it yourself!"
"You know that I am not a builder. I don't know how!"
"And what makes you think that I do?" Japas snapped. "Man, if you would just go and tell that Lahko guy he should solve the problem by himself instead of depending on you, this whole thing would have been disentangled already."
"I wanted to help him voluntarily. He didn't ask for my help."
"Then do it yourself! Don't bother me with things that do not have a physical impact on both of us!" Japas stood up from his chair. He bowed at the adults stiffly. "Thank you, Aunt Lyn and Uncle Ruan. I will be going now." Turning to face Mikau, he stared at his friend for a few seconds, jaw muscles straining, and then he left.
Mikau gazed into the empty space on his friend's chair, not knowing what to say, not knowing what to do, not knowing what to think...
"Hello? Earth to Mikau?" Lahko tapped the Zoran Hero's shoulder.
"Huh? What?" he snapped out of the trance as he blinked a few times.
Sighing, the Zora repeated what he had said before, "I said do you want to get to your class now? The bell is going to ring soon. I'll see you at lunch for the money problem."
"Oh. Yeah. Yeah, sure. See ya." Mikau said it really fast as he swam away.
Lahko shook his head as he grabbed his books from the lockers. Then he turned around again and stared at the disappearing figure among the students.
* * *
It was right after school that Mikau had went directly to Japas' house. He paused at the front door. Breathing in a few deep breathes, he knocked on it. A long minute had passed. He was planning to leave when Japas opened up. Both of them exchanged silent glances.
"Do you want to go now or what?" Mikau asked as he bounced the empty bubbled beside him.
Looking at the Zoran Hero without answering directly, Japas nodded as he came out and closed the door behind him. Leading the way, he used a few side streets as a shortcut. Mikau was shaky all the way. Japas could act extremely tough and could send out malicious feelings when he wanted to.
After more than an hour of swimming, both teenagers were well away from the City. In front of them was a bare plain with a few waterweeds growing here and there in scattered areas. The sunlight shone through the surface of the water was crystal blue. The lines of beams were distorted, as the water current never stopped moving around. Japas swam a few more meters before he signaled Mikau to be quiet. Diving behind a huge red-brown boulder, both of them peered over the edge. Right there, crawling along the ground was a huge King Crab. The size of the crab was enormous.
"There's my guitar," Japas whispered as he pointed. "We will do mine first, then yours."
"Okay. So now what? Stun it? Kill it? Or what?"
Smacking his friend on the side of the head, Japas sighed. "What do you think? Of course kill it. Ever heard a guitar breathing?"
Smirking, Mikau extended his arm blades. "Time to flash these babies out."
"King Crab is a pretty admirable adversary. Do you want me to stun it first so you can hack away?"
Retracted his blades, Mikau said, "You know what? On a second thought, you can finish it off using full power by yourself. I got pinched real badly once in my buttock a year ago. I will help you after we've finished the job."
Japas grinned. The tension between the two of them seemed to be disappearing when the hunting mood began to set in. He flung himself over the rock and dashed toward his victim.
The King Crab had two massive pincers, both could do significant damage. One was unusually long. With red-orange outer shell filled with spikes thrusting out from around the edges, the crab felt that it was unstoppable. Its eight short legs shuffled among the yellowish sands as it continued its journey across the plain. When it saw Japas moving toward it, its eyes arced upward, as if it was laughing at the pitiful attempt of some foolish creature. Little did it know, that the Zora was going to use an attack that it had never seen before.
Charging himself up to maximum power, Japas pointed out his fingers. A long, thick, blue lightening exploded outward, shooting straight at the poor animal that could only stare. The ground near where the line of electricity had hit erupted upward, splashing sands and small rocks everywhere. When the dusts had settled, the King Crab was not moving at all. Japas had fried it yet keeping the shell intact with little or no burns. His skills had improved a lot since the first time that he used the technique.
Laughing, Mikau jumped from the boulder and raced toward his friend. Japas whooped as he went to collect his prize. Using most of his energies, he was having difficulty to stay afloat. Mikau got beside him and supported him with his arms.
After stashing the crab into the bubble, it was now time to search for Mikau's materials. They went a little farther into the unprotected ocean ground. They tried to search for another crab, but they couldn't find any. Finally, it was Mikau who had suggested that he would use a giant fish's skeleton instead. That way, Japas could use a guitar with low base- leveled sounds while he could use a guitar with high-leveled sounds. Japas agreed. Lucky for them, a big Kunda Fish was swimming happily nearby. The twenty-four-pounder creature with two long whiskers was going out for a mid- afternoon stroll. Mikau and Japas both gave each other an evil grin. They had decided to ambush their prey.
There was a long line of green across the horizon where patches of seaweeds were located. The fish didn't know that its fate had been sealed when it entered ground zero. Mikau emerged from the plants with arm blades slashing. Japas just sat back, and watched the massacre.
It was near five in the evening when both Zoras went back to Mikau's house. Japas said hi to Ruan and Mikau's mom as he entered the house. Adults exchanged curious glances. The emotions running within the children were just so unpredictable. Ruan had noticed an excessively large bubble that Mikau was carrying behind his back.
"Out hunting?" he asked.
"Yup."
Inside the bedroom, Mikau lowered the sphere as he breathed a sigh of relief. It was heavy. Popping the bubble, Japas grabbed his crab while Mikau grabbed his fish. Both of them stared at their reward while pondering what to do with it.
"So..." Mikau started.
"Let's dig in!" Japas yelled as he began to scrap the meat out of the crab.
"Thought so."
For the rest of the afternoon, they were eating away, stuffing themselves to full. They had skipped dinner since they were too full to eat. Finally, only the skeletal remains of the marine creatures were left on the floor. Japas patted his round stomach as he burped.
"Now that we've finished the meal, let's start building our instruments."
Mikau held up his hand in mid water. "We still don't have the tendons for the strings..."
Laughing, the Zora reached under his friend's bed and pulled out at least thirty cords of sinews. "I hid them here just in case I forget to bring them. I've already gone out a few days ago and have tackled down a Noto Whale."
"No wonder I saw giant bones half buried in the sand half a kilometer from here!" Mikau shouted with realization.
"Yup. That's my handy work. I couldn't possibly bury the whole thing though since it was too big. So I buried it half way."
"Right." Mikau extended one of his arm blades.
"I might need your help cutting this later on," Japas pointed at the shell.
Nodding, Mikau sliced through the bones and began constructing. Throughout the whole night, both of them pieced together their homemade guitars. Cutting, fitting, and gluing bones and tendons, the devices started to take shape. Mikau's guitar had a blue-yellowish coloring to it, while Japas' had the red-orange one. His guitar was bigger than Mikau's since it was a base. Finally, just before sunrise, they had finished their project.
Screaming with joy, both of them began to admire their work. Once the elation had passed, they began to tune the strings.
* * *
The next day, students all gathered around Mikau's seat as they stared at the marvelous instrument. Mikau had kept a close watch on it, for it was his baby. Lahko was grinning as he asked his buddy how to make one. Listening to about twenty different questions, the teacher had finally told them to be quiet and get back to their own seats. Classes started, and classes ended. During the break time, Lahko tried to play Mikau's instrument. The product of the sounds was just so amazing, that he was instantly traumatized.
After school, Mikau headed directly over to Japas'. Both of them greeted each other as they went into the living room, making songs and music scores. At six, they both went to Mikau's house to eat supper.
"Whoa! I've never knew that you guys had it in you!" Ruan said with a surprised tone as he examined the guitars.
"Huh?" The teenagers were puzzled.
"I know that you both like music a lot, but I've never thought that you two would actually go and make these beauties by yourselves!"
"Mikau, you know that you've made me proud by accomplishing this difficult task," Lynisana said as she placed three more plates onto the dinner table.
"Aw, it was nothing. And mom? Please, PLEASE don't say that phrase outside the house. It just sounds so corny!"
"Yeah, especially that I've done most of the work," Japas narrowed his eyes toward Mikau.
"You did not! I've done the most work!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"You BOTH have done magnificent work! Now stop arguing and start eating," Ruan chuckled as he gently placed the instruments beside the chairs.
Japas swiftly grabbed the biggest fish that he could see and began to eat. Mikau shook his head as he grabbed a smaller one. It was a habit that both parents were used to.
"So now that we've became musicians, what should we do?" Mikau nudged Japas as he whispered, trying hard not to disturb his mom and stepfather's conversation.
"Well. We could hold a concert of our own. You know, make money and stuff. Or we can join a band. I'll have to see."
"Yeah. I wonder if there's a band out there for us..." Mikau sighed.
~End Chapter 20~
Author's Note: Now that Mikau and Japas got their own guitar, the story is beginning to unfold much more clearly as the plot is shifting slowly into the path of the Majora's Mask storyline. It's going to be hard though, merging two different plots into one, major one.
A short chapter this is. With the same reason as stated before in the previous chapter, I do not wish to change the mood or the time in this section.