DANCE by Sushifishie
Part Four
"But, Mama," Shiori whined, struggling to break free from her mother's tightly clenched hand. Her wrist was beginning to ache from the pressure. She glared something fierce and allowed herself to be pulled away from the dining cabin, where everyone in the community watched with critical stares.
Finally, outside the building, Shiori's mother released her wrist and brought her hands to rest on her daughter's shoulders. Looking at her with stern eyes, the mother asked, "What in the world made you think that you could skip out on your chores, young lady?"
Taking in a deep breath, Shiori braced herself for impact. Her mother did not like the boy she was with. "I went to look for Kashino Rei, you know, the chief's son?"
"Shiori," her mother warned, "I've told you time and time again about that boy. He's not someone you should be hanging out with. He skips his chores and other events, doesn't contribute anything to the Village besides mockery and disrespect, and has less wit than that of a two-turn-old. If you've gotten yourself a promised Dance. . ."
"I haven't, Mama," Shiori stressed. "No one has promised a Dance with me yet. You know that's against the rules anyway."
Shaking her head, her mother continued, "Don't think I don't understand what you children are up to these days. I know that you'll break any rules you can get your hands on."
"Okay," Shiori said, turning away from her mother and beginning to walk back into the dining cabin.
She was brought to a halt when her mother yelled, "I'm not through with you yet, young lady. There's also the matter of why you're so dirty. It's not right for a girl of your status to get so dirty!"
Sighing, Shiori explained, "I just took a little hike through the woods, okay? It's not like I rolled around in the mud or something foolish like that!" Although, she added silently, I suppose I did roll in the mud on that hill more than once.
"Okay," her mother finally conceded, "I can live with that, I suppose. But, honey, just answer me one thing," she began, giving the shorter girl a look of sadness. "Why did you do it?"
This was a question that even Shiori didn't know the answer to. She hated running through the woods! Her preferred activity, by far, was to make beautiful clothing in the arts cabin. Maybe her reason was to become one step closer in making Rei her Dance partner. Maybe that was the reason for her sudden eagerness to prove herself a few hours ago. But, whatever it was, she had to make up a quick answer to her mother. She was looking rather disturbed at the thought of her spending time with Rei.
She coughed to buy and extra second and lied, "I was feeling a little bit fat. You know, the dress I'm making for the Dance is pretty form-fitting, and I thought I needed exercise. The most obvious person to show me the woods was Rei, and I knew he would be able to lead me without any fault. Sorry, Mama, but he was the only person I could think to ask at the time!"
"I suppose it's all right then," her mother replied, running her fingers through her graying hair. "I can certainly understand the woes of wearing a form fitting dress. Goodness knows that it was a reason that your father chose me to Dance with him."
Shiori smiled, happy that her mother was forgetting about Rei in the midst of her reminiscence. Not wanting to make her remember, she kept her mother talking as she was led to their cabin to change into cleaner clothing. They passed the Gathering spot, and Shiori noticed Sei sitting on one of the logs. Breakfast wasn't over yet, was it? She'd have to ask him what he was doing there when she got to the art cabin for free time.
Tuning back in to her mother, Shiori heard her say, ". . .and I swung my arms, like so," she volunteered a motion, "and I could see your father's eyes on me. Of course, it's not proper to make eye contact with any one man, but I did for just a second. That was when I knew he would choose me. I didn't even really know him—in my day, they kept the boys and girls more segregated then they do now—but even so, he still picked me to Dance.
"That just goes to show you the importance of having not only a good performance, but also a lovely dress, too. I'll admit, before the Quest, I found myself doing more activities to lose extra pounds, too."
Smiling, Shiori followed her mother into the cabin and picked out a dress made of goatskin. It was a size too small—it had been her summer clothing last year—but she knew that she wouldn't get her other outfit back for another day. It needed to be washed and dried.
"The boys are so lucky, having two outfits for every season. Imagine that, Mama," Shiori said idealistically, "imagine me having four outfits every turn. Think of all the beautiful beads I could add. Wow, I could look so pretty."
Her mother shook her head, knowing that she should disapprove, but she knew exactly how her daughter felt. "Daughter of mine," she warned with a grin, "be sure not to get too vain. It is not proper for a lady. You must know your place."
Looking up from her dressing, Shiori saw that her mother was smiling. She let out a little laugh, and her mother joined in. They were interrupted by the sounds of people leaving the breakfast cabin. They heard the gruff voices of men, heading off into the woods to hunt. They heard the fisherman loading up their fishing poles and taking their extra hooks. They could even pick out the distant child calling to a friend about what they would do for free time. Needless to say, breakfast was over.
"Thank you for the help," Shiori said, taking a step out of the cabin. "I really appreciated it." After she was already gone, she back-tracked a couple of steps and added, "Especially the story. I love that story."
Picking up her skirt, which was shorter than she imagined when she'd put it on, she hurried to the craft cabin. When she walked in, she took a deep breath. It was the best smell she could imagine. This was her favorite place in the entire Village. It always smelled of something wonderful—clay, flowers, and charcoals—anything that was used in art.
Today, she decided to spend her free time on her dress. She had been doing that a lot lately. She was very impatient for the Dance to arrive. Her deepest desire at the moment, save Dancing with Rei, was to show off her beautiful dress in front of the entire community. It was truly a thing of beauty, she thought as she pulled it's lovely leather off of a wooden shelf used for keeping projects.
Currently, it was completely sewn together. She'd spent almost four months getting it perfect. The stitches were even for the most part, and on some parts, there were little flowers and plants. Today, she decided, she would add some fringes to the sleeves.
She pulled the dress over to one of the wooden tables and took her seat in her normal position. Across the room was usually one or two of the other girls who also wanted the best for their dress, but no one else appeared to be there today. She wondered why. She usually had Shuichi and Sei to sit across from her, and once in awhile, even talked to them. But, even they seemed to be gone. Maybe she had been mistaken, and breakfast hadn't really let out yet?
A bit puzzled, she stood from her seat at the long, wooden bench and spread her dress over the table, careful not to let any part of it touch the ground. Then, she stepped over to the door and peered out of the cabin. She saw the usual crowd coming her way, but there was no Shuichi or Sei to be found.
She looked the other way down the path and was startled to see Shuichi standing next to her. He was leaning against the door jamb, and appeared to waiting for someone. Probably Sei, Shiori mused.
Shuichi brought his head up, and he jumped a little when he saw Shiori looking right back at him. He asked her, "You haven't seen Sei since breakfast, have you?"
At the mention of breakfast, she heard her stomach give a little rumble. She wouldn't be able to eat until lunchtime! She wished that she had moved faster so that she could have at least gotten a handful of nuts or something to tide her over. Maybe, if she begged at the kitchens, one of the women there might hand her a piece of fruit or some other such item. Actually, that wasn't such a bad. . .
"Shiori!" Shuichi called, waving his hand in front of her face. "Remember—Sei?"
She shook her head and put hunger out of her mind for just a moment. "Right, sorry. Well, I did see him a little while ago. But, it was before breakfast was technically over. I think he probably walked out before morning announcements or something. Anyway, it was in the Gathering spot. He was sitting on a bench there."
"Great, thanks a lot," he said, shooting her a grateful glance before sprinting off to find his friend.
Shiori sighed and headed back into the cabin. As she suspected, her table was still empty besides her beautiful dress. The other girls who'd come in to work had sat down at the other side of the cabin. That's how it always was.
Well . . . not always. She could remember in the distant past, Shiori had lots of friends. Back before any of the planning for the Dance began, she was surrounded by girls in the craft cabin. She used to teach them how to embellish old or plain clothing and make it pretty. Most of the girls, who were sitting on the other side of the room, making their dresses at present, had learned their tricks from Shiori. They used to be friends.
Then, the Quest had been officially announced at a dinner one evening, about six moons back. The exact day was set, and the girls and boys in the proper age groups were encouraged to begin getting ready for that important day. The next morning, when Shiori went to the craft cabin for free time, she was surprised to find that none of her friends had arrived. They had all decided to avoid her. Although they never said it straightforward, she knew the reason why. To get a good Dance partner was more important than her friendship. They knew that Shiori could have any guy she wanted—she was beautiful, crafty, and out-going. But, no man would want a depressed girl for a Dance partner. So, they'd taken friendship away to make her feel bad.
This had a good effect for awhile. Shiori did indeed get upset and she started to neglect her duties of making a dress and coming up with a performance. For an entire moon, instead of going to the craft cabin, she spent her time helping out in the cooking pit. Then, one day, she decided to see how the other girls' dresses were coming along. She was surprised to find Shuichi and Sei sitting at her table. Quietly, she ventured inside the cabin, receiving some dirty looks from the other girls. She had seat at her table and ended up finishing off a necklace she'd started before leaving the cabin.
The next day, she decided to go back. After a week of returning, Sei and Shuichi began to greet her when she arrived. Pretty soon, they were striking up conversations about various events in the Village. While Shiori would have preferred female company, she was rather entertained by the two boys, and continued to sit by them. Her dress made a great deal of progress over those four moons. Now, though, with her friends gone, she was left to sit alone.
Sighing, she picked up her dress and began to slice fringes at the sleeves. She was used to solidarity by now, but it still hurt. She thought that if the girls were going to abandon her like that, they weren't worthy of being her friends anyway. But it still hurt.
Underneath it all, she knew that Sei and Shuichi were the ones who were really her friends. Especially Sei, Shiori thought with a giggle, because he was her greatest connection to his brother, Rei.
Smiling, she began sewing the edges of her new fringes on the left sleeve of her dress. Thinking about how she'd acted so uncharacteristically that morning, for the sake of Rei, she didn't even notice when someone sat down across from her.
When she did notice, she was jerked into alertness. It was one of the general cleaners of the village. It was a woman that lived around the third place area. Shiori heard that she was widowed. This was not a very good social standing, and at first, Shiori was a little bit horrified to be seen sitting at the same table as this woman.
But then, she saw the woman's face. It was full of grief. She looked like she was deeply troubled by something, and Shiori stopped worrying about sitting by her. The woman looked like she couldn't handle being repellent.
The woman noticed that the girl across from her had been staring. She looked up with sad eyes and asked her, "Do you mind my sitting here?"
Shiori waved her hands in front of her face, "No, no, it's all right. It's not like I'm saving seats for anyone."
Letting out a little smile, the woman stood from the bench for a formal introduction. "Hello," she began, holding her hand out for Shiori to shake, "I am Mrs. Aso."
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Okay, here's the deal with this story: I am continuing it. But, there is a catch. I am making it a non-fanfiction (a.k.a. original fiction) work. Because my characters are diverging farther and farther from the way the mangaka intended, I have decided to just change them entirely to how I want them to be. While their personalities are, in reality, inspired by those in MARS, they really have little in common. So, I am sorry to say, I am rewriting this story entirely (not just changing names, and places, etc.). I have a plan now!
As I wrote previously, I do have up to chapter six (and some of seven) complete. If you wish me to post those, I would happily oblige. And, I am not planning to put my original story on FictionPress, but if anyone wishes me to do so . . . Ha! Right . . .