Chapter IV
N-inamori's O-rdeal
"You never quit do you?" I sat up from my bed and rubbed my eyes, letting the small book fall to the floor. "Is this what you call checking on me?"
"No. Your dad said that you woke up yesterday so I…."
"So you hit me with a book? You're gonna make a real good mother someday." Ninamori smiles a little then she moved over to me, put her hand on my forehead and smiled again.
"At least your fever went down." She said. "You feelin' better? What happened?"
She asked me a question I didn't have an answer for. I could tell her how I had tried to skip school, how I was sneaking around in the basement and how I passed out looking at a picture of Mamimi; which reminds me. "Where's…?"
"What?" Ninamori asked with curiosity.
"Oh. Uh. Where's my dad?" I asked trying to play off my actual curiosity.
"He's in the shower." Ninamori answered. I stood up and looked over the top bunk noticing Mamimi's absence. "He sings like a girl." She chuckled.
"A girl?"
"Hurry up and get dressed, Naota. We're gonna be late for school."
"School? I'm not going to school." I complained.
"Why not? You're okay aren't you?"
"I'm fine but…."
"But what? Oh good, he stopped singing."
"Look, you just go before you're late." I said. "I'll come later."
"No, its okay." She said. "I got a special pass from the teacher. I told her I was going to check on you again today so it's okay if we come in late." It figures she would do something like that.
"I already said I'm not going." I shouted. "So go to school, or go home or whatever."
"But."
"Why the hell's everybody wanna hang out here anyway…."
"Morning Ta-Kun." Ninamori enraged me and I had been yelling but all of a sudden life became a still when Mamimi came into the room, dressed in a moist towel and slippers, calmly brushing her teeth as we stared at her. I could see curious frustration in Ninamori's eyes.
"Is that my toothbrush?" I snapped.
"Its you?" Ninamori choked out as she stared. Mamimi flashed back a cheesy little toothpaste-foam spattered smile.
"Your name is Ninamori right?" Mamimi asked. Silence then fell over us and all of a sudden all eyes were on me, all of confusion.
"Why is she here?" Ninamori asked.
"She stayed the night." I answered.
"She stayed the night." Ninamori blinked dramatically a few times over at Mamimi and then shifted her gaze back to me. "I thought she went to America."
"It's her story." I said. "Not mine."
"I only came back for a little vacation with Ta-Kun." Mamimi said after she spit. I grunted when she did. I wished that she'd gone back in the bathroom to do it or at least spit in a cup because I did plan on wearing those shoes again.
Ninamori didn't say or do anything at first, she just stood there. I didn't know what she was thinking but she seemed a little tense. After a moment the stepped away from me and stood in front, blocking my view of Mamimi. Dropping her hands behind her back, she just looked at me calmly.
"What?" Without any other choice my gaze returned to Ninamori. I looked at her looking at me and I blinked curiously.
"Are you coming or what?" She asked.
"Where are you going Ta-Kun?"
"Nowhere." I said.
"School!" Ninamori blurted.
"I already said I'm not going."
"Why not?" Mamimi asked. And all of a sudden, the world came to a still. Of all people, it was Mamimi pleading a case against delinquency. Ninamori's shock equaled mine. Everyone knew Mamimi's record in regards to school attendance, so she was the last person you'd expect to hear something from.
"It's already too late." I complained. "I'm not even dressed yet."
"Naota, I already told you I got a pass for us." For her remark, I flashed Ninamori a cold glare to silence her.
"No excuses, Ta-Kun." Mamimi dashed over to my closet and began tossing things about, not noting the face that she was totally messing up my room.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Finding you come clothes. Hurry up and get dressed."
"I already said…."
"Ta-Kun!" Mamimi shouted. "If you mess up things now you won't have a future." And silence fell over us again while I watched her rummage through my things. I wondered if she was purposely trying to sound deep. Still, I caved.
"Fine but will you be here after?" I asked her.
Surprisingly it was Ninamori's gaze I was given in response to my question. "Why?" She asked me.
"Something I want to talk to her about." I said.
"Something we didn't cover in class yesterday, Ta-kun?"
"I guess." I answered with a shrug.
"Well hurry up and go." Mamimi said. "I'll be here later." I nodded and began to pick out pieced to wear from the mess she had made.
/\
After rummaging through the mess of clothes for a few minutes I finally picked out a blue hooded-sweater that I wore over a small white t-shirt and a pair of brown shorts. Ninamori kept insisting that I wear my uniform but it wasn't mandatory and I hadn't planned on staying in school long anyway.
I had a feeling the other students would give me a hard time about having passed out. I wasn't in the mood for that so I figured that it was just best I avoid the situation all together.
On the way out I stopped in the kitchen to see what was cooking. I caught an attractive scent as I stepped down the stairs. When I got there though, all I saw was my dad asleep at the table with his face firmly planted in a bowl of hot cereal. Had it been anyone else I may have found that scene amusing but seeing as how he does stuff like this all the time. It just seemed kind of sad.
"Mm. What smells good?" Ninamori came up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder to life herself up so she could see over my back. Noticing my dad in the bowl, she gasped.
I stepped away and turned to leave with my hands tucked down in my pockets. "Nothing that's any good anymore." I said and I walked off. Ninamori took the time out to rescue my dad from his breakfast before running to catch up with me. For some reason, she chuckled.
I was in no to get to school so I tried my best to walk at a slow pace. The later the better, I figured but for some reason it felt like I'd gotten there faster than usual. Before I knew it I was at the school and on my way up the front stairs.
Oddly enough, Ninamori hadn't bothered me at all on the way over. No bombardment of questions and no pestering comments. She did have the nerve, however, to say that I was being awfully quiet. Not that I talked a lot anyway, I wasn't purposely being quiet. I just had a lot on my mind.
I kept getting strange vibes from Mamimi even now when I just think of her. It was a feeling that I couldn't shake. I had it in my mind that I wanted to say something to her about how I was feeling but I didn't know how to say it. It bothered me to my stomach, though that was the last of me worries at the moment. I still had a whole day of school to go through.
"Aw. Come on, Naota. Its just school. You act like its going to kill you."
"It just might." I said. We made a quick stop to check in at the office before proceeding to class after a short scolding by the principal.
I made every effort to avoid it but Ninamori insisted I go to class first and that she escort me there. I dawdled in my pace before and I slowed even more as we approached my classroom door falling behind Ninamori. "I guess I'll see you later." I said in a sarcastic manner.
"At lunch." She snapped. "And come sit at the table with us this time."
"Yeah, sure." I said lowly.
Ninamori glared at me a bit before tilting her head aside and letting out a long dramatic sigh and asking me, "You're not going to skip school again, are you?"
I shook my head, "No."
"Naota!"
"What?"
"Promise me you won't skip school."
"I already said I won't didn't I?" The way she complained about it all the time, she made it seem like I was a delinquent or something. I only skipped school a few times and there was always reason behind it.
"Promise!" The girl demanded from me.
"Okay, fine. Whatever." I reply.
"Good." She said with a smile. "Now go straight into the class, Naota. I'm watching."
How annoying was that? And she watched me the whole way in too.
/\
I had seen a war movie once about a particular soldier that was injured during a battle and was left incapacitated in a state of comatose for years. The soldier was considered missing in action and during the time he spent in the hospital, the war he was injured in ended and he was noted as a national hero along with other soldiers that went missing.
The years passed and his injuries healed. He woke up, returning to a world where he was a hero. Considered dead, his miraculous return and amazing story made him even more of an icon. Even those at home who hated him now loved him as much as any other man. There were parties and parades of celebration in his honor. He was the happiest man alive. And who wouldn't love to have all that? I would but I'm not that lucky.
When I walked in the class, I got no such reception. In face, no one said a word to me or even moved at all to recognize me. Everyone was laying with their heads down at their desks and their arms at their sides. A few kids were also laid out on the floor by the chalkboard, positioned like they had passed out. There was no teacher in the room for whatever reason.
I walked around the class, poking at some of the students as I passed them by. Some of them twitched and giggled while others held obvious strains on their faces from trying to keep them straight.
It was obvious to me that this was some kind of joke aimed at teasing me about what had happened. It wasn't a very good one though and I wasn't really in the mood for it.
I moved to my desk and stood by it while I watched the students continue with their joke. For some reason, there was no instructor here and that bothered me a little. I considered the possibility that he may have been in on it. Unfortunately, this school year our instructor was a clown—literally—as a side job and he loved to extend his antics into the classroom.
And so, in my impatience I said to the class, "If this is all we're going to do today, I'll just go back home." To that I received no response. Making my way back to the door to exit after a short wait I uttered another snide remark and was again ignored. So I made up my mind and decided to go.
To be honest it did bother me when things like this happened to me. It happened right after Haruko left and it was happening again because of an accident, however I always acted as if I didn't care. You would never be able to tell by my calm expression but to this one, I did cringe when I heard laughter ring out behind me after I closed the door behind me.
I was free now but where could I go? If I went home, oddly enough, Mamimi would probably scold me and that's one thing I didn't need. Not only that, Ninamori would carp about it too and I couldn't just hang around outside all day either. So what could I do?
I stopped my thinking for a moment to grunt at the continuous laughter that still rang out behind me. "It wasn't that funny." I said to myself. After sort of a tantrum I walked off down the hallway towards the gym. No intentions of going anywhere specific.
The halls were quiet. There was no soul to be found except mine. It seemed odd how calm the school was today. Usually, it was normal to see someone running the halls or hear the shouts of teachers as they yelled at their students. Today there was silence.
After a few minutes of aimless walking I grew bored, so much so that I thought of doing something childish. I suddenly got the urge to set off the fire alarm.
At first it was just a pointless whim but I also realized that it was a way to get out of school. The evacuation was enough of an excuse to leave the building and the uproar was enough for me to leave with a feasible story to tell when I got home. Besides that, I knew that it would piss the teachers off.
School has been such a burden since that day. It was like all the kids lost their minds and the teachers seemed to not care. They were no exceptions to the insanity and neither was I. Everyone seemed. Perhaps the experience was too much of an incident for simple lives. Still, everything was always ordinary.
I looked around and spotted a fire alarm at the end of the hallway. It was a long stretch so I decided to run. No sooner did I take a few steps and pick up a little speed was I reminded that I shouldn't be immature. The door to the girl's bathroom swung open in front of me and I was moving far too fast to do anything to stop myself from being hit by it. The knob of the brown door hit my chest hard followed by the door itself, smashing into my forehead.
The impact threw me back and before I knew it I was on the ground holding my ribs and taking a deep breath to gather every foul word in my vocabulary in preparation for shouting at whoever was behind that door, whether it was her fault or not but almost instantly after the hit she uttered her apology. "Oh, sorry." She said.
I didn't get to see her face before she finished her line and I exhaled without words. She didn't have to peek behind the door and look down at me nervously before I realized who she was and who else would it be?
"What'd you go and do that for?" I snapped.
"Naota?" Ninamori said so innocently. "I'm sorry but you shouldn't walk so close to doors that swing open." I heard some giggling as I stood that apparently didn't come from Ninamori. It was the high pitched chuckle of Noriko, one of the newer residents of our little town and friend of Ninamori.
"Shouldn't you be in class?" I said to the duo.
"Shouldn't you?" Noriko said in a snap retort. "He's probably cutting class." She said to Ninamori.
"You're not cutting class again, are you?" Ninamori asked.
I stalled in answering by looking around for a moment and then hesitated even more before I coughed out a "no".
"He's lying." Noriko said. She cleared the bathroom door, finally letting it close and walking off a bit. "You coming?" She asked Ninamori. "This pass is only for five minutes."
"Go on ahead. I'll catch up." Ninamori said.
"You sure? I could wait."
"No, its okay. Really."
"Okay." Noriko said in a sigh. "But you shouldn't waste your time with a loser like Naota."
"Why? So she can waste her time with a loser like you?" In response to my reply she stuck her tongue out at me before turning with prance and stomping off. Ninamori and I both watched her as she left.
Noriko Reika. She was a very strange girl. She had only been in town since the start of school and barely knew anybody—especially me—yet for some reason she always seemed to have a problem with me, never speaking to me with an ordinary tone like she does everyone else, always with attitude.
My curiosity was endless. I had questions that I knew would never be answered. As I stared a mindless stare at the girls exit another gaze was set upon me. Ninamori's violet carefully locked onto mine.
"Are you really not cutting class?" She asked.
"I said I wasn't didn't I?"
"Yeah but…."
"Oh, you don't believe me?" I said humorously.
"Not one bit." Ninamori answered with a smile.
"Well thanks." I said. "I appreciate your confidence in me."
"I was only kidding but you'd still better hurry back to class before someone catches you."
"Okay." I said but only to pacify her. I still had no intentions of going back to class.
She waited a moment and eventually turned to leave but not before kissing me on the cheek again, same side, same cheek, same spot as before and I just watched as she did it.
Again I wondered why she had done that. However, the interest passed quickly as another strange urge came over me. Mamimi came to mind and I suddenly became oddly curious about that poster from the basement. I thought maybe I should show it to Mamimi. I had nothing better to do so any idea seemed like a good idea at the time.
/\
What had happened before was weird and it was painful. Ina town like this, where everything is boring and ordinary, even the weirdest, the most painful things, somehow seem interesting. I would come to realize that my life wasn't as ordinary as it once was.
I arrived at my destination within minutes and eagerly proceeded toward the exit door. I hastily pushed aside old desks and chairs that were left there and a newly set up 'keep out' sign. At the door I stopped when I found what I wanted.
The poster was still there though not as I had left it. This time the poster was taped to the wall but there was a long and wide tear straight down the middle of it. Most of Mamimi's body was torn away. What was left was useless to me; not enough to explain what was on it, not even enough to identify who was on it. And the pieces were nowhere to be found.
For a moment I just stood there, unsure of what to do. Then boredom set in and by that time I had decided I would just leave. I was already at the door and I felt just fine.
All ready to leave I touched the door with a hand and pushed at it but I was halted when I heard a foot lightly step down behind me. I didn't turn immediately. All my attention went to my head which immediately began to feel hot. When I did turn I saw only the silhouette of a tall, petite woman standing laxly with one arm at her side.
A step was taken and she drew closer to me. With her step, as before, the heat I felt began to intensify. With each step I grew hotter until the heat became a pain that jolted through me. As she came closer her full figure, though shadowed, became visible. The skinny woman had short, jaggy hair and a large object flung over her shoulder. Though bemused, it soon became obvious to me that this woman was none other than Haruko.
The pain inside me intensified until the point I could not stand. I fell to my knees, holding the sides of my head in throbbing pain. It bolted through me like lightening. Though I should have been screaming, I did not make a sound.
The figure grew closer to me and a final bolt of pain shot through me. My heart skipped a beat and she was in range. The shadowy arm reached out to me and my eyes clammed shut in reaction. I was afraid, too afraid to move and I was at her mercy as a hand lay on my shoulder and she called out me name, "Naota!"
But Haruko has never called me that.
The fear seemed to recede; the pain subsided and my breathing automatically went back to normal. I opened my eyes to see the basement oddly lit with overhead lights. I looked around for Haruko in confusion only to find the bemused face of Ninamori staring down at me with worrisome eyes, her left had resting lightly on my shoulder.
"Naota?" She said again. "What are you doing?" I stared silently for the moment. I wasn't sure what to think, yet alone say, so I chose not to speak at all. What just happened?
In a snap it became apparent to me that I was in a potentially embarrassing situation. I climbed to my feet and dusted what little dust there was off me calmly while trying to think up some clever reason for my appearance.
Ninamori's gaze never shifted. Her eyes stayed locked on me, waiting for answers. I didn't know what to say, so I snapped, "What are you doing down here?" I asked.
"Hey!" She yelled. "I asked you first."
"Why are you following me?"
"You were cutting class." She said.
"Didn't I tell you I wasn't cutting class? Don't you listen?"
"I believed you…until you left that is. You walked the wrong way." She said. "Your class was in the other direction so I wanted to know where you were going."
"Did you ever stop to think that I may have been going to the bathroom?" I asked.
"You passed it." She said with a smile. I knew I was in trouble when she caught me down here but I was able to change the subject and get a smile out of her. That, I knew, was good enough to assume that I was off the hook. "You're lucky that it was just me, Naota." She said. "If it were a teacher you'd be…." Pausing in her speech, she gasped and covered her mouth, pointing at me with a single finger.
"What?" I asked. "Is my nose bleeding again?" I said sarcastically.
"No. Your head."
"My head is bleeding!"
"No." She said again. "There's a little bump." I questioned it at first with a curious shift of my eyebrows, and then I examined it. I put my hand on my forehead and felt the little bump which wasn't as little as it was painful to touch and oddly soft too.
"What did you do?" I shouted.
"Me?" Ninamori squeaked. "You're the one who ran into the door."
"No. You hit me with it." I complained. "Ow!"
"It hurts, huh? Here, let me take a look at it." Ninamori crouched over me and examined my head, careful not to touch it as I instructed. "You should go see the nurse." She said.
"I don't need a nurse." I said. "All I need to do is put some ice on it and I'll be fine.
"Its starting to turn blue."
"Its fine. I'm going on home. I just need to lie down."
"You cant just skip school like that, Naota. Go to the nurse first."
"Why? She'll end up sending me home anyway. So I'll save myself the time and just leave now. Besides, if I have to tell her what happened, I don't want you to get in trouble for hitting me with that door."
"You ran into the door!" Ninamori shouted, and then she sighed and calmed herself. "Fine but I'm coming to check on you in the morning." That was fine with me. I was just glad she left me alone.
I went directly home, escaping the school through the door in the basement. I moved hurriedly as I didn't want anyone to notice my bump. It was just a normal bruise but it was blue and that was weird.
When I walked into the house all the lights were off and it was quiet. I expected to walk in to fine my dad watching a soap but there was no one. I went straight in, ignoring the fact that the door was ajar when I arrived.
First I went to the bathroom, relieved myself and attained a small cotton bandage to cover the bump with after adding some cold water to the inside. Afterwards I checked my room for Mamimi or my dad. No one was home, so down I went to the kitchen.
It was on the stairs before the hall leading to the kitchen I hesitated. Further down I heard whispering, voices I didn't recognize. With caution I proceeded. Getting to the door I peered in with the most stealthy sneak I could muster and there I saw two familiar faces; one of a woman I had only seen before but never met, she had short, golden hair and was dressed properly in a blue suit and stockings. She was looking away as I peeked in.
The other was a man I had spoke with on several occasions in the past. He sat at the kitchen table aside the standing woman exchanging words with her. I immediately recognized his burgundy hair and most notably, his strange eyebrows.
As I stepped out into the doorway to stare, this man too noticed me and his woman turned to face me as well with a strange gaze. "Naota," The man said. "It's been a while."
"What are you doing here?" I asked calmly. I had already passed the point of concern of why he was here or how he'd gotten in. I knew that there was no reason to fear him so those questions were irrelevant. My only concern was why he was here.
"I came to see you, Naota. We need to talk." He said.
