Thanks for all the nice reviews! I really appreciate it! Hopefully, you'll all like this episode just as much as the last one and I hope that I did a decent job with the characters (because it's really hard to do them, especially in a more serious work...which hopefully doesn't get TOO serious, but I guess whatever works...lol). I think this episode is more serious than the last one for the simple reason of one of the topics that is discussed throughout it, but the next episode after this one is more comedic, so I guess that makes up for it. I mean, the whole story's very thematic, anyway, and the story is, like I said when I posted the first chapter, about four kids growing up, so I guess it has to be serious in some sense. Again, though, this is still PG; there's nothing graphically violent or anything in here (except for maybe a few electric shocks...lol).
Also, you're not supposed to really know what's going on just yet, and so, it might get a bit confusing as I jump from scene to scene, but, just so you know, I guess what you'd call the main, more normal plot line are all the "Tomobiki Summer Carnival" parts, which kind of keep the story a bit more grounded and focused (and less confusing, hopefully). Don't worry, though; in later chapters, all will be (mostly) explained. LOL! Anyway, here goes:
Episode 2: The Magic Show Subtitle: (Truth, Part Two: The Problem with Knowing)
The Tomobiki Summer Carnival, Part Three (The Original Version)
"It sure is hot out here all of a sudden," Ataru muttered, as he tugged at his shirt collar, trying to give his neck some air. He was, unfortunately, unsuccessful and he scrunched his eyebrows in the heat with a frown.
"Well, it is the summer, Darling; it's supposed to be hot," Lum reminded him and then grinned widely. "I just love the summer!" she exclaimed as she stared up at the sunny blue sky. "Everything's so warm and bright!"
"I must say, it is my favorite season, as well," Shutaro agreed with a pleasant smile.
Shinobu nodded and added, "July's the best; August gets much too hot." Suddenly, a burst of cold water hit her back and she let out a cry. "Hey!" Her face turned red in both her anger and embarrassment, the back of her shirt now wet.
Some water then squirted the back of Shutaro and the sound of Ataru's laughter rose over the music of the carnival. Scowling, Shutaro spun around to see Ataru snickering beside one of the carnival games, holding a water gun from the game. "Moroboshi!" he shouted, but Ataru just laughed louder and Shutaro growled in his indignation before crossing his arms and turning his eyes from Ataru in disgust.
"Hey, Mendou! You want to play against me?" Ataru called out, a few chuckles still in his throat.
"Why would I want to play with an idiot like you for?" Shutaro snapped back, glaring at Ataru with the corner of his eye.
Ataru shrugged and looked away, turning his gaze to the game and lifting his water gun, ready to aim it at the target. "Suit yourself," he replied casually, not even a smirk upon his face. "You probably would have just lost anyway."
Shutaro's eyes narrowed angrily, his pride getting the best of him as usual, and he marched over to the water shooting range as Shinobu protested, "No, wait! Shutaro…" She trailed off with a frown, knowing that it was no use, and watched as Ataru and Shutaro readied themselves for the game while a few more kids rushed excitedly over to the booth.
Once all eight water guns were taken the carnie in charge of the booth exclaimed, "Ready! Set! Go!" A green light flashed on and the game began, each player trying to keep their water gun aimed at the center of the target as they shot.
Shinobu sighed, shaking her head as she watched the two teenage boys heatedly play the game, along with six little kids, none older than the age of ten. She mumbled to herself, "Why must boys always be so immature…? Can't they see that that's a kid game…?" Then, noticing the kids giggling as they played, she added, "Well, at least the kids are having fun," as she eyes the scowling faces of Ataru and Shutaro in annoyance.
"Look! Over there!" Lum then called out to Shinobu, considering Ataru and Shutaro were too involved with their game to really care, as she flew up and pointed to the right. "The carousel!"
Not being very interested in the carousel, Shinobu glanced away indifferently and, half paying attention to the conversation, remarked, "Don't you think we're a little bit too old to be going on carousels, Lum? There are a lot of other rides here that are a lot more adult. Like the Ferris Wheel or something…"
"Ferris Wheel?" Ataru asked, overhearing Shinobu and looking over his shoulder for a moment although he continued shooting his water gun at his target. "Are we going on that next?"
Shinobu shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we could…"
Ataru frowned in some disappointment. "But the Ferris Wheel's so boring; can't we go on one of the roller coasters instead?" he asked, but turned away, realizing that Shutaro had just passed him and he needed to catch up, narrowing his eyes in concentration.
"But, Darling, don't you want to go on the carousel with me?" Lum inquired, flying over to him with a desperate hope in her eyes. "It's so pretty! And I thought we could - "
"But the carousel's so slow! Besides, can't you see I'm in the middle of something!" Ataru then turned his entire focus onto the game.
"Darling!" Lum shouted angrily. But, upon realizing that Ataru was no longer paying attention to her, her anger subsided and was replaced with a frown. She then looked down at Shutaro. "Shutaro, do you want to go on the carousel with me?"
"I'll be with you in just a moment, Miss Lum…" Shutaro quickly answered, too involved in his competition with Ataru to actually have heard what she had asked.
"Men!" Shinobu exclaimed in a huff, crossing her arms and glaring away, becoming more embarrassed as they played the carnival game and Lum glowered, agreeing.
It was then that the bell sounded, signaling the game was over. Both Ataru and Shutaro looked puzzled, however, to notice that neither of them had won. Instead, a little boy of about seven or eight who stood beside them had won, and he giggled excitedly and clapped his hands at his accomplishment. Ataru and Shutaro frowned sheepishly at this as the carnie handed the grinning little boy a very large stuffed animal, specifically a goldfish, suddenly feeling very foolish, although both were unsure whether or not it was because they had lost to a little kid or because they had been playing a little kid's game to begin with.
"Hey, look; they're selling charms over there," Shinobu pointed out suddenly, and Lum, Ataru, and Shutaro looked over to her.
"Really? Where?" Ataru asked nonchalantly.
"Right there," Shinobu repeated herself and pointed toward the carnival booth that was selling the charms.
"Ooh!" Lum cheered happily as she now floated down to the three humans, forgetting about the carousel for a moment, and placed her feet onto the ground. "I bet they have good luck charms there!"
"And love charms, too," Shinobu added, slowly starting to smile herself.
"Darling, didn't I buy you a good luck charm once?" Lum then said, looking over to Ataru, but Ataru shook his head
"I can't remember," he answered honestly.
Lum frowned. "Neither can I."
"Ataru sure could use one, though," Shinobu remarked with a snicker and Ataru folded his arms and scoffed.
"I'd love to get one of the magic charms they probably have there," Lum told them. "And get one for Darling, too."
"And I'd like to get maybe a love charm or a beauty charm…" Shinobu said quietly to herself as she lowered her eyes with a dreamy smile.
"And maybe they have a charm there that will bring me lots of woman!" Ataru exclaimed with a perverted grin and Lum's face grew wild with her rage.
"Darling!" she shouted furiously.
It was then that Shutaro started to chuckle and the other three frowned and looked over to him. "What's so funny, Shutaro?" Shinobu inquired curiously.
"You three don't actually believe that those charms really work, now do you?" he questioned and began to laugh harder as Ataru's, Lum's, and Shinobu's face turned a bright shade of pink. "Have any of you learned nothing from our little visit to the supposed 'fortune tell, by trade?' It's an absolute waste of money!"
"But Shutaro…it would be nice to get one…" Shinobu trailed off weakly.
"You three know perfectly well that those charms don't work; it's just a hoax," Shutaro firmly argued and the three frowned even more so, knowing Shutaro was, unfortunately, right. "And since I seem to be the only one paying for anything on this outing, I'm certainly not wasting my money on a phony good luck charm. If anything, I'd rather buy you two girls a necklace or a ring worth ten times as much yen than to get you one of those fake charms."
"Hey, what about me?" Ataru asked with a grin and Shutaro glared at him in disgust.
"I wasn't planning on getting YOU anything, anyway," he coldly answered and Ataru rolled his eyes. "Anyway," Shutaro then continued on, "it's like going to a magic show; none of it's really real. It's all just a bunch of tricks that you wind up wasting your money seeing because you don't know any better. However, I know better and that's why I'm not wasting my money buying silly charms that don't work when I can get you girls something practical. Now come on. Let's see what rides we can go on."
Shutaro then began to lead the way, the other three reluctantly following, Lum and Shinobu's eyes still set longingly on the charms as Ataru shoved his hands in his pockets with a scowl and a scoff, muttering, "Yeah, but a magic show's still fun if you don't ruin it by going out of your way to know what the tricks are."
Question Number One: Is it all about the Medulla Oblongata?
Shutaro stood at the head of the small classroom and in front of the blackboard, long pointer in hand and a detailed picture of a brain drawn in white chalk on the board, divided neatly into three labeled sections. Besides Shutaro's large teacher's desk, there were about fifteen student desks in the classroom, only three of which were occupied, one by Ataru, one by Lum, and one by Shinobu, all three situated in the front row with Ataru in the center, Lum near the window, and Shinobu by the door. The sun had begun setting outside and Ataru was yawning, Lum was looking out the window, Shinobu was frowing, and Shutaro was smugly smiling as he prepared to speak.
"Now then, there are three parts of the brain," Shutaro began his lecture. "The cerebrum," he said, hinting the tip of his pointer against the cerebrum on his brain diagram on the blackboard, "the cerebellum," he told them next, pointing to the cerebellum, "and the medulla oblongata," and lastly pointed to the medulla oblongata. He then placed his pointer in both hands and asked, "Now, tell me, out of all these three, which part of the brain would you want to keep the most and why?" Lum smiled and raised her hand. Shutaro gave her a pleasant grin and said, "Yes, Miss Lum?"
"The cerebrum, so I can keep all my memories of Darling," Lum explained happily.
However, Shutaro frowned. "I'm sorry, Miss Lum, but I'm afraid that is incorrect." Lum glumly slumped down into her seat. "Anyone else?" Ataru now raised his hand. Reluctantly, he called on him, "Yes, Moroboshi?"
"The cerebellum, so I can still chase after pretty girls," Ataru answered and Shutaro shook his head in disgust while Lum snarled at him in jealous fury.
"No, that is NOT the answer," Shutaro snapped loudly and Ataru cringed. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Shutaro then said, "The answer is the medulla oblongata." He pointed his pointer again to the medulla oblongata on the board. "The medulla oblongata is what keeps your heart beating and your lungs breathing; without it, you can't live. You can live without thought," he pointed to the cerebrum now, "and you can live without movement," he pointed to the cerebellum next, "but you can't live without, well, life," and he pointed once more to the medulla oblongata. However, his three students frowned.
"But, Shutaro, with just your medulla oblongata, you're only living as a vegetable," Shinobu tried to reason now, but Shutaro just chuckled.
"Yes, but that's the point, isn't it?" he said rhetorically. "That you ARE living, even if it is just as a vegetable." He then placed his pointer on his desk and picked up a piece of white chalk, starting to write on the blackboard to the left of the brain. "And, thus, without the medulla oblongata, you are not living and not living equals death and that's, well, never a good thing." He then finished writing and stepped away from the board with a proud grin, revealing "Not Living = Death" written in white chalk on the blackboard.
Lum, Ataru, and Shinobu frowned at this. "Well, that's depressing," Ataru noted.
"I'm afraid so," Shutaro concurred. "But nobody ever said knowledge was meant to be uplifting; where do you think the saying 'ignorance is bliss' comes from, anyway?"
"But wouldn't you rather die than live a life without being able to move or without being able to even remember who you are?" Lum asked, but Shutaro shook his head.
"No, no, no," he answered and then started to write on the board again. When he was finished, the board read "Death = Unknown" and, below it, "Life = Known."
"You see," Shutaro now began to speak again with a smile, "We don't know what happens after death and therefore, it's bad. We do know what life is, though, so that means it's good - well, not necessarily good; just better than death, anyway. Why do you think people don't want to die for?"
"You know, Mendou, this is all pretty morbid," Ataru remarked with a bit of a shudder and Shinobu nodded.
"Do we have to keep talking about this?" she added, uncomfortably shifting in her seat.
"Unfortunately, yes, because we know about it now," Shutaro explained.
"Well, I'd still rather die than not know who Darling is," Lum stubbornly argued, crossing her arms. "Besides, if the unknown equals death than not knowing who Darling is equals death, too."
"A figurative death, anyway," Shinobu stated with a frown. "But I guess any kind of death is sort of bad…"
"Well…um…" Shutaro now frowned himself and scrunched his eyebrows. "I guess I never thought about it that way before…" After a moment of pondering this, he shook his head as he began to get nervous. "This is ridiculous! No one wants to die. Living is better than dying; it's been proven."
"No, it hasn't," Ataru said with a confused look.
"Shut up, Moroboshi!" Shutaro snapped.
"I think you're just afraid of death," Ataru replied casually, closing his eyes and lifting his head resolutely.
"I am not!" Shutaro shouted loudly and defensively and the three winced, very unconvinced. Shutaro's face turned red then and he laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to calm down, and said, "I'm not REALLY afraid…" as he glanced toward the ceiling and Ataru began to snicker. He growled and gave them all a fierce glare, "Well, none of you can say that you're not afraid, either!"
All three frowned at this, their faces flushing, knowing it to be true. Shinobu, however, tried to smile, and replied as optimistically as she could, "Yeah, but everybody's afraid of dying, so it's not so bad."
Shutaro regained his vigor then as he grinned and exclaimed, "That's an excellent point, Miss Shinobu! And why is it that? Because, simply, not knowing is frightening."
"But knowing is just as bad," Lum protested. "Like we all know we're going to have to die someday. Wouldn't it be better if we didn't know at all?"
"Well, I suppose if we didn't know that we were all eventually going to die we wouldn't be having this really upsetting conversation to begin with…" Shinobu remarked as she lowered her solemn eyes to her desk.
"Yeah, and then we'd be living instead of worrying about our stupid medulla oblongata all the time, Mendou," Ataru grumbled with a scoff as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. "Why'd you have to go reminding us all about it anyway? It's something we've almost forgotten about."
"You really do forget about it if you don't think about it so much," Shinobu agreed, lifting her head with a smile and a nod.
"But when did we have to start forgetting about it in the first place?" Lum then asked. "There must have been a time when we didn't know at all so there was no reason to have to forget."
They all looked to Shutaro for the answer and Shutaro frowned in dismay. "Well…I suppose it just sort of happens as you get older," he answered matter-of-factly. "You just start to know things that you never really wanted to know to begin with."
"But what's better, then? Knowing or not knowing?" Shinobu inquired and Shutaro hesitated.
"Knowing is a lot better," Lum resolutely decided.
"Well, I'd rather not know some things," Shinobu answered.
"I suppose they both have their advantages…" Shutaro trailed off.
And Ataru just snorted and muttered, "I think they both suck."
The Tomobiki Summer Carnival, Part Four (The Sky that Goes as High as the Ferris Wheel)
The four sat on the Ferris wheel, Lum and Ataru on one side and Shinobu and Shutaro on the other. They sat quietly as the Ferris wheel slowly moved upward toward the sky, Lum, Shinobu, and Ataru still slightly disappointed in the fact that they hadn't been able to buy any charms from the carnival booth. However, when the Ferris Wheel was about halfway up, a grin began to form on Shinobu's face as she looked out at the carnival below. "Wow! Everything's so small from up here!" she exclaimed.
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, Miss Shinobu," Shutaro said with a pleasant smile and Shinobu smiled herself, although she could feel her cheeks turning pink. Shutaro then looked over at Lum, who was gazing out the window with a disappointed look in her eyes. "What's wrong, Miss Lum?"
"Hmm?" She then turned her eyes to him and tried her best to laugh, scratching the back of her head in some embarrassment. "Oh, it's nothing, really!" Her smile diminished, however, and she added, "It's just that I feel like this Ferris wheel doesn't go very high…"
"Well, that's because you can fly," Shinobu said. "You can go as high as you want; it's not our fault that this is as high as we humans can go."
Lum's face turned sour at this. "I didn't mean it like that, you know," she mumbled bitterly as she folded her arms and crossly slumped into her seat.
Yawning loudly, Ataru complained, "This is so boring…" He then folded his arms behind his head, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes, "Wake me when we're going on something cool like the roller coaster or something…"
Shutaro gave him a glare. "Don't you have an appreciation for anything, Moroboshi?" he questioned and Ataru just gave him a nonchalant shrug, causing Shutaro to sigh in his frustration.
"The view really is something," Shinobu added as her gaze lifted toward the sky, their seats now reaching the top. "Look at the sky!"
Lum now lifted her own eyes to look, but frowned upon the sight. "It's really not much; especially when you know how high it really goes."
With a glower, Shinobu glared away and replied haughtily, "Well, I'm sure it's better than the carousel."
Scowling, Lum returned to slumping in her seat. However, after a moment, her eyes looked over to Ataru's closed ones and she smiled. She closed her own eyes and leaned close to him. But Ataru immediately opened his eyes and pulled away from her, exclaiming, "Come on, Lum! I already said that we're not on a date!"
Lum growled, already having been thoroughly annoyed by Shinobu before, and narrowed her eyes furiously at him. "Darling!" she shouted loudly, before sending out a great surge of electricity throughout their Ferris wheel seat, causing all three to scream loudly and lighting up the top of the Ferris wheel as if it were a star.
A Tribute to the Late Talking Goldfish with Wings
Ataru and Shutaro stood near the front of the long line of mourners at the wake in the temple of gold and white marble. Shutaro stood in front of Ataru, arms folded as he impatiently waited in line while Ataru slumped behind him, yawning and looking rather bored. "I don't see why we're waiting here," Ataru muttered. "We don't even know who the guy is."
Shutaro sighed in exasperation. "BECAUSE, Moroboshi, we're already on line; it would be rude for us to just get up and leave without paying our respects."
"Yeah, but for all we know this guy the wake's for could be some horrible person," Ataru argued.
"Who cares?" Shutaro replied. "That's not really the point, anyway."
"Then what IS the point, Mendou," Ataru asked, growing frustrated himself.
"The point is that it doesn't matter WHO the wake is for; you give your respects because that's what you do at wakes - it's just what you're supposed to do," Shutaro explained.
"Well, that's a stupid reason to pray for a dead guy that you don't even know," Ataru mumbled and Shutaro let out a low growl.
"I didn't ask your opinion," Shutaro snapped in a cold whisper before sharply turning his eyes from Ataru. "Besides," he then continued, "I really don't want to be here myself, I have you know. It's just important that people THINK I want to be here. And it will look bad if we don't kneel and pray. It's called having manners, something YOU obviously lack." And he glared at Moroboshi in disgust.
"Why do you care what these people think, anyway? You don't even know who these people are," Ataru argued still. He then looked over his shoulder at the long line and said in surprise, "Wow, there sure are a lot of people here…"
"Yes, well…" Shutaro trailed off, looking forward. He then muttered to Ataru, "Let's just say some quick generic prayer so we can get out of here as fast as possible." And Ataru, for once, didn't find any reason to disagree.
After a few more minutes, Ataru and Shutaro had reached the front of the line and hastily and uneasily knelt together in front of the large closed golden casket of the deceased man who's name they didn't even know. Ataru frowned, looking down at the casket awkwardly, unsure what he was supposed to do and unsure about whether or not he cared about the fact that he wasn't sure what to do. Shutaro, meanwhile, closed his eyes tightly and clasped his hands together in prayer and raising them high above his head. He took a deep breath and then hurriedly said as he exhaled, "May your soul find peace." He then opened his eyes and stood up, tugging on Ataru's arm. "Come on, Moroboshi."
"Wait, that was it?" Ataru said, blinking in surprise and confusion as he felt himself being pulled up by Shutaro. Realizing what the answer was, he said, "Well, that WAS quick…"
The two stepped out of the temple or church or whatever it was - neither boy had actually bothered to try and figure it out - and onto the large white marble stairway that led down to the street, the bright sunlight shining down on them. Each took a deep breath of the fresh air in and exhaled at the same time, smiling as they basked in the day.
"It sure is nice here," Ataru noted as he looked around at all the shiny white and gold buildings that matched the temple they had just exited.
Shutaro nodded, the sunlight sparkling on the white shining buildings just as they did in his handsome eyes. "It really is, actually." The two took a few quiet moments more as their eyes scanned the clean city street, lined with bright green trees, the brilliant sky above them, and even the marble stairs that they stood upon, white and luminous.
"So…now what?" Ataru asked, breaking the silence, and Shutaro shrugged.
"I don't know…what do you want to do?" he asked.
"I think I'm kind of hungry; maybe we can get something to eat."
"All right," Shutaro agreed. He took a step forward, but then frowned. "Hey, Moroboshi, do you know if there are any places to eat around here?" Ataru frowned and shook his head. Shutaro sighed. "Well, I guess we can just look around…"
Ataru just shrugged and the two boys casually strolled down the marble stairs and onto the sidewalk. As they began to walk down the street, the sound of drums came to their ears. Ataru was the first to hear it and he stopped walking, his ears perking up to listen. "Hey, Mendou."
"Hmm?" Shutaro now stopped and turned around to face Ataru. "What is it, Moroboshi?"
"Do you hear that?" Ataru asked. "It sounds like music…"
"I don't hear anything," Shutaro replied before even listening and went to turn back around. However, he stopped himself, noticing something with the corner of his eye, and faced Ataru once more, although he was looking past him and down the street. "Hey, maybe it's that," he said and pointed and Ataru looked over his shoulder to see a colorful parade just a few blocks away, marching down the street perpendicular to the one they were standing on now.
"It's a parade," Ataru said, somewhat bewildered.
"Obviously," Shutaro remarked with a patronizing smirk and Ataru gave him a slight sneer because of it.
"So, let's see what it's all about," Ataru told Shutaro as he started walking in the opposite direction, heading towards the parade now.
"I thought we were going to get something to eat, Moroboshi," Shutaro began to complain, a feeling of hunger rising in his stomach.
"It's only take a few moments," Ataru argued. "Now, come on!" Ataru then started running toward the parade.
"But, wait!" Shutaro called out and then, realizing it was no use, sighed in a frustrated defeat. Shaking his head and clenching his fists with a glower on his face, he reluctantly followed Ataru, muttering, "Of all the immature, self-indulged, incompetent idiots…" until he trailed off into profanities that he grumbled under his breath.
"Wow!" Ataru exclaimed, mouth gaping open in awe as his eyes set upon the magnificent floats of the parade, taking his spot amongst the massive crowds of cheering onlookers, all dressed in the brightest of colors, who had come to watch the festive parade. Like a child he watched, his dull eyes suddenly brightening, as if the rainbow of colors that ran throughout the floats, the flying confetti, and the fireworks that illuminated the already brilliant sky were reflecting in them. And the marching band came to his ears, and he turned his head to see them marching, dressed in bright pinks and purples and blues, with bright white feathers on their hats and sparkling instruments, so clean and new, as if they were gold, and playing a joyous melody and Ataru couldn't help but start cheering along with the others as well.
Shutaro, still very irritated, finally made his way to the parade, and with a scowl, somehow managed to push himself to the front of the crowd to where a cheering, albeit oblivious, Ataru stood. "Moroboshi!" Shutaro scolded as he crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently, however Ataru could not hear him over the loud music and the exuberant cheers of the crowd. "Moroboshi!" Shutaro shouted once more, but Ataru still ignored him. Sighing irritably, Shutaro gave Ataru a hard shove to the shoulder, yelling, "Moroboshi, you idiot! What on earth are you doing?!"
Ataru now turned around with a sour expression on his face as he rubbed his shoulder. "I'm watching the parade!" he shouted back and Shutaro rolled his eyes.
"I KNOW that," he said loudly, trying to speak over the crowd. "But why are you - "
"Party hats and noisemakers!" a voice then shouted over the crowd, a grinning middle-aged man walking down the sidewalk with a large selection of colorful hats and noisemakers sticking out of a bright golden cart that he rolled in front of him.
"I'll take some!" Ataru excitedly exclaimed.
"You idiot, Moroboshi; you don't have any money for that," Shutaro told him. "And I'm surely not paying for that, especially not for you."
"Don't worry, young man!" the man with the hats and noisemakers said with a generous smile, having reached them now. "All these are for free! After all, this is a celebration!" He let out a boisterous laugh before pulling out a red plastic top hat and putting it onto Ataru's head. He then handed him three noisemakers and Ataru grinned wildly.
"Thanks, sir!" he exclaimed before spinning around the two noisemakers in each of his hands and blowing loudly into the third one.
Shutaro just groaned and shook his head as he placed a hand to his forehead. "Great," he grumbled, "Now he has an excuse to be an even bigger loud and obnoxious moron." Then, to his surprise, he felt a plastic top hat be placed on his shoulder and he looked up to see the middle-aged man with the hats grinning. Shutaro immediately took it off, saying, "Oh, um, thank you, sir, but I don't want - "
"I insist you take it!" the man insisted. He then leaned in, placed a hand on Shutaro's shoulder, and whispered, "You know, you really ought to lighten up, kid; this is a parade, after all." He gave him a wink and widened his smile, and then was on his merry way, generously handing out hats and noisemakers to the rest of the large crowd.
"Kid?!" Shutaro defensively shouted, but the hat-man was too far gone to hear him. Realizing this, and noticing the people happily cheering around him, hats and all, Shutaro frowned awkwardly and then lowered his eyes to his own shiny blue top hat, suddenly feeling very out-of-place amongst the crowd.
However, after a moment, Ataru had grabbed onto Shutaro's arm and pulled him forward, spitting out his third noisemaker and exclaiming, "Look at that!"
Shutaro looked up at the parade then to see a group of a hundred dancing girls, dressing in glittering sequin dresses, all different vivid colors, dancing freely down the parade, none doing the exact same dance, but all doing a beautiful dance nonetheless. Shutaro now grinned himself as he watched the pretty girls, as Ataru began to smile and drool at them. Then his eyes widened as he looked up at the sky filled with fireworks, although no smoke remained in the air from them, and his grin widened as well. "This really is an amazing parade. Too bad Miss Lum and Miss Shinobu aren't here to see it…" He then frowned in a bit of puzzlement and scrunched his eyebrows. "Hmm…I wonder what this parade is for, anyway…" He looked to Ataru and his face grew panicked as he noticed Ataru was heading toward the dancing girls with arms outstretched and a devious smirk on his drooling face. "Moroboshi!" he scolded and quickly took hold of the back of his collar, yanking him back just in time, Ataru falling flat on his behind as Shutaro said, "Control yourself, you idiot!"
Ataru groaned as he rubbed his rump and looked up. He then gasped in shock, raising his finger and pointing behind Shutaro. "Jesus Christ!"
"What is it NOW, Moroboshi?" Shutaro questioned.
"Behind you!"
Shutaro then turned around and looked up. He gasped himself and stumbled backwards as Ataru got to his feet and stood beside him. "That's…a…" he stammered.
"Castle?" Ataru finished for him and Shutaro nodded. A few blocks away, where the parade seemed to be heading, stood a enormous white and gold castle, basking in the sunlight that made the white turn to gold and the gold brighten until it was white. Fireworks went off all around it and it's large elegant towers that reached toward the sky, and beautiful white marble statues lined its roof and ledges. It's windows were wide and made of the cleanest of glass, sparkling as if it were diamonds, and no gate or wall encircled the palace; it was as if it was open to all.
"That's a really big castle," Ataru said, still in an awed daze as he stared up at it, having to lift his head all the way back until his neck hurt in order to see it all, and still, his eyes couldn't reach the very top.
"I'd say," Shutaro agreed.
"It's like out of a fairytale or something…" Ataru trailed off.
Shutaro nodded and repeated, "I'd say."
"I wonder who it belongs to," Ataru then said and Shutaro shrugged.
"I guess to whoever this parade is for, right?" Shutaro suggested and then looked over to one of the members of the cheering crowd. "Excuse me, miss?" Shutaro then asked, addressing a woman in about her forties or fifties. "Do you know who this parade is for and who's castle that is exactly?"
The woman gave him a smile. "Why, this parade is for our king, the Talking Goldfish with Wings! That's his castle over there," she explained and pointed over to the castle that Ataru and Shutaro had been gawking at only moments beforehand.
Ataru and Shutaro exchanged looks of worried puzzlement then, and Ataru turned to the woman and inquired, "Talking Goldfish…with Wings?"
The woman nodded and her eyes brightened as if she were still a young girl. "Yes; the greatest king to ever rule this land or any land! He saved us from a tyrant - a cruel hearted man - twenty-five years ago. I remember how horrible times were then; but now, well, he rebuilt everything in this city, using his own gold to line each building, and brought us education and so many wonderful books to read, and made it a custom to hold the greatest celebrations for even the smallest of good deeds any citizen does, oh, and so many more good, good things. In his first few years of ruling, when times were still hard after the tyrant, he made sure that his people all had the best of food before he ate a single crumb, and he tore down the gates around the castle as to welcome us all in - anyone is allowed in now. I met him only a few times - he made sure to meet every one of his people at least once, and, always, to remember each one of their names - and he was the kindest, gentlest, humblest, and most honest of all creatures I have ever met!"
"Wow," Ataru replied, "he seems like a great guy," and the corrected himself, "or, well, talking goldfish…with wings."
"And especially for a king," Shutaro noted.
The woman nodded once more, a twinkle still in her eye, and she looked down at them. "Yes, but you two should know all about him. Everyone knows about him here."
Shutaro frowned. "Actually, this is our first day here; we've never met the Talking Goldfish with Wings before."
The woman's eyes fluttered in surprise. "You mean, you two are visitors here?" Both boys nodded. "Well, you two must go to the castle then!" she exclaimed. "It's a custom, really! And especially today of all days - that's what the Talking Goldfish with Wings would want - he would want you two sitting in the royal banquet hall! Welcoming visitors is very important to us here; the Talking Goldfish with Wings taught us that. Now come along!"
Shutaro and Ataru looked at each other, still very confused, but then Ataru shrugged and Shutaro placed his plastic hat atop his head, and the two boys followed the woman.
When they reached the castle, they were vigorously greeted with kind, welcoming grins, all of the people dressed in beautiful bright fabrics and with eyes just as bright. They all talked and asked questions with great enthusiasm - more than Ataru and Shutaro had ever seen before in their lives - all very interested in what Ataru and Shutaro had to say as well as equally excited to praise their kind king, the Talking Goldfish with Wings.
They were then eagerly taken up to the royal banquet hall that stretched out over the balcony which hung over the end of the street, the parade still marching on outside as if it were a never-ending celebration. Ataru and Shutaro were graciously given a seat at the head of the largest table, food already laid out for them, while people danced and talked around, a large band playing in the castle, yet somehow not clashing with the music playing outside.
Ataru and Shutaro grinned as they watched all the people enjoying themselves and took to eating. "Wow, this food's really good, Mendou" Ataru said as he chewed and Shutaro swallowed and nodded.
"It's even better than what I usually eat, and I always have the best," Shutaro added.
"This Talking Goldfish guy seems like he's really cool," Ataru then said, taking another bite. "Everyone loves him here, anyway, and from what we've heard, he seems exceptionally nice."
"Although I am a bit confused to how he became king, being a goldfish and all," Shutaro replied.
"It was probably the wings," Ataru told him matter-of-factly. "Everybody knows that."
Shutaro just shrugged and then continued to ponder, "This whole celebration is probably in honor of his twenty-five year reign; the lady mentioned that it was twenty five years ago since the Talking Goldfish with Wings saved them from that tyrant." Ataru nodded in agreement.
"Why, hello," a kind woman's voice came to their ears then and both boys looked up to see a beautiful woman standing over them with long, flowing lavender hair and a gentle smile, both boys grinning at the sight of her beauty. "You two must be the visitors I've been hearing about. I'm the Queen of this land, and wife of the Talking Goldfish with Wings, great king and darling husband." She extended her elegant ivory hand to them.
"YOU'RE married to the Talking Goldfish with Wings?!" Shutaro questioned in shock as he stared up at the beautiful woman, baffled as to how and why a gorgeous lady would be with a goldfish.
However, before she could answer, Ataru seized the queen's hand as he stood up and pulled the queen close to him. "My stunning lady; forget about your husband! Let us run away together and make beautiful love!"
"Moroboshi!" Shutaro reprimanded. "Don't you have any tact at all?"
"It's all right," the queen said kindly, still smiling as she let out a soft chuckle and her glossy eyes glinted as if they were two teardrops. She then took a seat besides Ataru, Ataru returning to his seat, although his arms were still wrapped tightly around the queen's waist and drooling and snickering as he did so, a perverted smile on his face. "Are you two enjoying yourselves?" she asked them.
Shutaro nodded. "This is quite an impressive celebration."
"I'm glad you like it."
Shutaro hesitated a bit and then asked, "If you don't mind my asking, your majesty, but why would a young woman as beautiful as yourself marry a talking goldfish with wings for?"
Her smile widened a bit as her eyes glossed more and she answered simply, "Because - I love him and will always love him. What greater reason do I need than that?"
"Well…" Shutaro now frowned, suddenly feeling embarrassed, and annoyed because he felt embarrassed, and averted his eyes to his food. "It just seemed odd, that's all." Then, lifting his fork, he continued, "But, from what I hear, he is a very good king. I don't think I've ever heard of or met anyone so kind and generous before."
Lowering her eyes, the queen said quietly with a bittersweet smile, "Neither have I."
The revels continued on for quite some time more, with music and dancing, eating and laughing. It was when a grinning Shutaro finished taking a big gulp from his gold goblet after everyone had boisterously raised their glasses and cheered after the fifteenth toast of the day, although by the way they joyously toasted it still seemed like the first, that he finally asked to no one specifically, "By the way, where is the king, anyway? The Talking Goldfish with Wings? I'd really like to meet him." Ataru nodded eagerly, although his head still snuggled against the queen's chest, his arms still wrapped around her, his eyes closed tightly, and his mouth drawn into a daydreamer's smile.
It was then that everyone grew quiet, the music and dancing suddenly ceasing as did the laughing and eating; even the music and the cheering from the parade outside seemed to diminish, as if everyone in the city somehow sensed the melancholy that had unexpectedly seized the room and the people in it. Except for Shutaro and Ataru, who both were very confused now as they looked around the room for some sort of answer - or, at the very least, the question that would bring them an answer.
"I'm afraid…that…you can't meet him," the queen finally spoke, her words coming out slowly.
"Why not?" Ataru asked casually, raising his head a bit to look up at her.
"I don't see why we can't," Shutaro then stubbornly disagreed. "After all, this party is for him, isn't it? Shouldn't he be at his own party?" His eyes began to scan the royal banquet hall then, as if thinking he had missed him in the large crowd, although he failed to consider the fact that a talking goldfish with wings would be pretty noticeable, no matter how large the crowd was. He frowned in some disappointment, the rest being just annoyance, and demanded, "Why isn't he at his own party? Tell me."
"Yeah, especially if everyone loves him so much, you'd think they'd want him here," Ataru added. A long silence followed, the party members all staring down at their feet with some sort of guilt in their eyes, a guilt that neither Ataru or Shutaro had seen before or could explain.
Finally, the queen took a deep breath and bravely raised her chin to speak. "I…my husband - my wonderful husband - the Talking Goldfish with Wings, loving king and father to all of his people…" she trailed off for a moment, but only for a moment, as if it was imperative for her to find the right words, "…passed on from this world yesterday evening, to find an even better place than this wonderful city he created for us." She then added with a sweet, ironic chuckle, "Although I cannot think of a place greater than the one he made for us all."
Both boys' faces suddenly turned pale at this, as if the spirit they had just had only minutes beforehand had never been there at all, and their eyes turned dull and somber, the unexplainable guilt in the party members' eyes replacing their childlike enjoyment and causing a twinge of pain in both of their stomachs and throats. Even their once bright plastic top hats, Ataru's red and Shutaro's blue, that they wore atop their heads seemed to lose their luster, Ataru's now looking more like rust and Shutaro's like slate. Ataru slowly and quietly uncoiled his arms from the beautiful woman - the kind queen who had allowed him to grope onto her for the past couple of hours without complaint - and withdrew them into himself, pulling away completely from the queen and lowering his eyes from her sad ones in guilt and shame.
But the queen continued on, trying her best to smile, "But my husband told me - he told all his people - to only mourn for a moment. He said that today he wanted a big celebration, not only to celebrate his long, happy life, but to celebrate our own continuing lives as well as his new life, whatever it might be. He made us all promise we'd do this - that we'd be happy even after he was gone; he said his life was meaningless, otherwise, if his people weren't to remain happy even after his passing. And so we celebrate today, like he asked, and go only for a moment to mourn him in the golden temple which is where his body now lays, only a few blocks away from the parade - the temple that he built for us all, just as he built everything for us all - and, after that moment, say a happy prayer of thanks, and then enjoy ourselves and celebrate at the parade. There should only be a couple hundred people left waiting in the temple; and soon, once they are finished, they will all join us as well, you see, and we will all celebrate together, in honor of him and in honor of ourselves, just like he had asked of us. This was his last wish - his last words - before he closed his eyes and slept for the last time, never to wake up again."
It was then that both boys realized that the shine in her eyes were her tears, glistening like diamonds in her beautiful solemn eyes that she somehow kept happy just for the sake of the late Talking Goldfish with Wings and her love of him. Shutaro just nodded, swallowing hard, and Ataru kept staring downward, looking at his food with a frown. The queen, with bittersweet eyes, raised her wine glass then and said, "But enough with that; we must continue on with the celebration." She gave a nod to the conductor of the band and the conductor returned this with a sympathetic smile before he started the band up again, and soon everyone was joyously dancing and laughing again; even the parade outside seemed to somehow burst with life again as its energetic music and cheering returned to the royal banquet hall, brightening it just as the fireworks that had begun to go off again outside brightened the sky.
Yet neither Shutaro or Ataru joined in the festivities any longer. Instead, with melancholy eyes they stared down at their plates of half-eaten food, a quiet somber amongst them as they frowned, neither speaking a word to each other, yet the same thoughts running through their heads as they tried to understand how everyone could be celebrating knowing that their king was dead; they certainly couldn't find it in them to be happy now that they had learned the truth. They were detached now from the happy people of the Talking Goldfish with Wing's kingdom, the only two sad ones amongst all in the city, and while the thousands in the city were attached to each other somehow in their joyous celebration, the two boys were now attached to each other in their guilt and grief - and in their newfound regret.
For all the while they wished they had never asked where the Talking Goldfish with Wings was, or had ever known who the man was in the casket that they had knelt before with only a careless, thoughtless, five-word prayer between the both of them.
What's Next:
Episode 3: I See, You See, We See Subtitle: (Truth, Part 3: The Problem with Untruths)
Featuring:
-The Tomobiki Summer Carnival, Part Five (The House of Illusions)
-Mr. Bean, the Chicken Man, and His Amazing Circus of Eden
-The Tomobiki Summer Carnival, Part Six (The house of Material Things)
-Now Presenting the Pseudo-Prize of Mute-Singing Turtles To...
Also, you're not supposed to really know what's going on just yet, and so, it might get a bit confusing as I jump from scene to scene, but, just so you know, I guess what you'd call the main, more normal plot line are all the "Tomobiki Summer Carnival" parts, which kind of keep the story a bit more grounded and focused (and less confusing, hopefully). Don't worry, though; in later chapters, all will be (mostly) explained. LOL! Anyway, here goes:
Episode 2: The Magic Show Subtitle: (Truth, Part Two: The Problem with Knowing)
The Tomobiki Summer Carnival, Part Three (The Original Version)
"It sure is hot out here all of a sudden," Ataru muttered, as he tugged at his shirt collar, trying to give his neck some air. He was, unfortunately, unsuccessful and he scrunched his eyebrows in the heat with a frown.
"Well, it is the summer, Darling; it's supposed to be hot," Lum reminded him and then grinned widely. "I just love the summer!" she exclaimed as she stared up at the sunny blue sky. "Everything's so warm and bright!"
"I must say, it is my favorite season, as well," Shutaro agreed with a pleasant smile.
Shinobu nodded and added, "July's the best; August gets much too hot." Suddenly, a burst of cold water hit her back and she let out a cry. "Hey!" Her face turned red in both her anger and embarrassment, the back of her shirt now wet.
Some water then squirted the back of Shutaro and the sound of Ataru's laughter rose over the music of the carnival. Scowling, Shutaro spun around to see Ataru snickering beside one of the carnival games, holding a water gun from the game. "Moroboshi!" he shouted, but Ataru just laughed louder and Shutaro growled in his indignation before crossing his arms and turning his eyes from Ataru in disgust.
"Hey, Mendou! You want to play against me?" Ataru called out, a few chuckles still in his throat.
"Why would I want to play with an idiot like you for?" Shutaro snapped back, glaring at Ataru with the corner of his eye.
Ataru shrugged and looked away, turning his gaze to the game and lifting his water gun, ready to aim it at the target. "Suit yourself," he replied casually, not even a smirk upon his face. "You probably would have just lost anyway."
Shutaro's eyes narrowed angrily, his pride getting the best of him as usual, and he marched over to the water shooting range as Shinobu protested, "No, wait! Shutaro…" She trailed off with a frown, knowing that it was no use, and watched as Ataru and Shutaro readied themselves for the game while a few more kids rushed excitedly over to the booth.
Once all eight water guns were taken the carnie in charge of the booth exclaimed, "Ready! Set! Go!" A green light flashed on and the game began, each player trying to keep their water gun aimed at the center of the target as they shot.
Shinobu sighed, shaking her head as she watched the two teenage boys heatedly play the game, along with six little kids, none older than the age of ten. She mumbled to herself, "Why must boys always be so immature…? Can't they see that that's a kid game…?" Then, noticing the kids giggling as they played, she added, "Well, at least the kids are having fun," as she eyes the scowling faces of Ataru and Shutaro in annoyance.
"Look! Over there!" Lum then called out to Shinobu, considering Ataru and Shutaro were too involved with their game to really care, as she flew up and pointed to the right. "The carousel!"
Not being very interested in the carousel, Shinobu glanced away indifferently and, half paying attention to the conversation, remarked, "Don't you think we're a little bit too old to be going on carousels, Lum? There are a lot of other rides here that are a lot more adult. Like the Ferris Wheel or something…"
"Ferris Wheel?" Ataru asked, overhearing Shinobu and looking over his shoulder for a moment although he continued shooting his water gun at his target. "Are we going on that next?"
Shinobu shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we could…"
Ataru frowned in some disappointment. "But the Ferris Wheel's so boring; can't we go on one of the roller coasters instead?" he asked, but turned away, realizing that Shutaro had just passed him and he needed to catch up, narrowing his eyes in concentration.
"But, Darling, don't you want to go on the carousel with me?" Lum inquired, flying over to him with a desperate hope in her eyes. "It's so pretty! And I thought we could - "
"But the carousel's so slow! Besides, can't you see I'm in the middle of something!" Ataru then turned his entire focus onto the game.
"Darling!" Lum shouted angrily. But, upon realizing that Ataru was no longer paying attention to her, her anger subsided and was replaced with a frown. She then looked down at Shutaro. "Shutaro, do you want to go on the carousel with me?"
"I'll be with you in just a moment, Miss Lum…" Shutaro quickly answered, too involved in his competition with Ataru to actually have heard what she had asked.
"Men!" Shinobu exclaimed in a huff, crossing her arms and glaring away, becoming more embarrassed as they played the carnival game and Lum glowered, agreeing.
It was then that the bell sounded, signaling the game was over. Both Ataru and Shutaro looked puzzled, however, to notice that neither of them had won. Instead, a little boy of about seven or eight who stood beside them had won, and he giggled excitedly and clapped his hands at his accomplishment. Ataru and Shutaro frowned sheepishly at this as the carnie handed the grinning little boy a very large stuffed animal, specifically a goldfish, suddenly feeling very foolish, although both were unsure whether or not it was because they had lost to a little kid or because they had been playing a little kid's game to begin with.
"Hey, look; they're selling charms over there," Shinobu pointed out suddenly, and Lum, Ataru, and Shutaro looked over to her.
"Really? Where?" Ataru asked nonchalantly.
"Right there," Shinobu repeated herself and pointed toward the carnival booth that was selling the charms.
"Ooh!" Lum cheered happily as she now floated down to the three humans, forgetting about the carousel for a moment, and placed her feet onto the ground. "I bet they have good luck charms there!"
"And love charms, too," Shinobu added, slowly starting to smile herself.
"Darling, didn't I buy you a good luck charm once?" Lum then said, looking over to Ataru, but Ataru shook his head
"I can't remember," he answered honestly.
Lum frowned. "Neither can I."
"Ataru sure could use one, though," Shinobu remarked with a snicker and Ataru folded his arms and scoffed.
"I'd love to get one of the magic charms they probably have there," Lum told them. "And get one for Darling, too."
"And I'd like to get maybe a love charm or a beauty charm…" Shinobu said quietly to herself as she lowered her eyes with a dreamy smile.
"And maybe they have a charm there that will bring me lots of woman!" Ataru exclaimed with a perverted grin and Lum's face grew wild with her rage.
"Darling!" she shouted furiously.
It was then that Shutaro started to chuckle and the other three frowned and looked over to him. "What's so funny, Shutaro?" Shinobu inquired curiously.
"You three don't actually believe that those charms really work, now do you?" he questioned and began to laugh harder as Ataru's, Lum's, and Shinobu's face turned a bright shade of pink. "Have any of you learned nothing from our little visit to the supposed 'fortune tell, by trade?' It's an absolute waste of money!"
"But Shutaro…it would be nice to get one…" Shinobu trailed off weakly.
"You three know perfectly well that those charms don't work; it's just a hoax," Shutaro firmly argued and the three frowned even more so, knowing Shutaro was, unfortunately, right. "And since I seem to be the only one paying for anything on this outing, I'm certainly not wasting my money on a phony good luck charm. If anything, I'd rather buy you two girls a necklace or a ring worth ten times as much yen than to get you one of those fake charms."
"Hey, what about me?" Ataru asked with a grin and Shutaro glared at him in disgust.
"I wasn't planning on getting YOU anything, anyway," he coldly answered and Ataru rolled his eyes. "Anyway," Shutaro then continued on, "it's like going to a magic show; none of it's really real. It's all just a bunch of tricks that you wind up wasting your money seeing because you don't know any better. However, I know better and that's why I'm not wasting my money buying silly charms that don't work when I can get you girls something practical. Now come on. Let's see what rides we can go on."
Shutaro then began to lead the way, the other three reluctantly following, Lum and Shinobu's eyes still set longingly on the charms as Ataru shoved his hands in his pockets with a scowl and a scoff, muttering, "Yeah, but a magic show's still fun if you don't ruin it by going out of your way to know what the tricks are."
Question Number One: Is it all about the Medulla Oblongata?
Shutaro stood at the head of the small classroom and in front of the blackboard, long pointer in hand and a detailed picture of a brain drawn in white chalk on the board, divided neatly into three labeled sections. Besides Shutaro's large teacher's desk, there were about fifteen student desks in the classroom, only three of which were occupied, one by Ataru, one by Lum, and one by Shinobu, all three situated in the front row with Ataru in the center, Lum near the window, and Shinobu by the door. The sun had begun setting outside and Ataru was yawning, Lum was looking out the window, Shinobu was frowing, and Shutaro was smugly smiling as he prepared to speak.
"Now then, there are three parts of the brain," Shutaro began his lecture. "The cerebrum," he said, hinting the tip of his pointer against the cerebrum on his brain diagram on the blackboard, "the cerebellum," he told them next, pointing to the cerebellum, "and the medulla oblongata," and lastly pointed to the medulla oblongata. He then placed his pointer in both hands and asked, "Now, tell me, out of all these three, which part of the brain would you want to keep the most and why?" Lum smiled and raised her hand. Shutaro gave her a pleasant grin and said, "Yes, Miss Lum?"
"The cerebrum, so I can keep all my memories of Darling," Lum explained happily.
However, Shutaro frowned. "I'm sorry, Miss Lum, but I'm afraid that is incorrect." Lum glumly slumped down into her seat. "Anyone else?" Ataru now raised his hand. Reluctantly, he called on him, "Yes, Moroboshi?"
"The cerebellum, so I can still chase after pretty girls," Ataru answered and Shutaro shook his head in disgust while Lum snarled at him in jealous fury.
"No, that is NOT the answer," Shutaro snapped loudly and Ataru cringed. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Shutaro then said, "The answer is the medulla oblongata." He pointed his pointer again to the medulla oblongata on the board. "The medulla oblongata is what keeps your heart beating and your lungs breathing; without it, you can't live. You can live without thought," he pointed to the cerebrum now, "and you can live without movement," he pointed to the cerebellum next, "but you can't live without, well, life," and he pointed once more to the medulla oblongata. However, his three students frowned.
"But, Shutaro, with just your medulla oblongata, you're only living as a vegetable," Shinobu tried to reason now, but Shutaro just chuckled.
"Yes, but that's the point, isn't it?" he said rhetorically. "That you ARE living, even if it is just as a vegetable." He then placed his pointer on his desk and picked up a piece of white chalk, starting to write on the blackboard to the left of the brain. "And, thus, without the medulla oblongata, you are not living and not living equals death and that's, well, never a good thing." He then finished writing and stepped away from the board with a proud grin, revealing "Not Living = Death" written in white chalk on the blackboard.
Lum, Ataru, and Shinobu frowned at this. "Well, that's depressing," Ataru noted.
"I'm afraid so," Shutaro concurred. "But nobody ever said knowledge was meant to be uplifting; where do you think the saying 'ignorance is bliss' comes from, anyway?"
"But wouldn't you rather die than live a life without being able to move or without being able to even remember who you are?" Lum asked, but Shutaro shook his head.
"No, no, no," he answered and then started to write on the board again. When he was finished, the board read "Death = Unknown" and, below it, "Life = Known."
"You see," Shutaro now began to speak again with a smile, "We don't know what happens after death and therefore, it's bad. We do know what life is, though, so that means it's good - well, not necessarily good; just better than death, anyway. Why do you think people don't want to die for?"
"You know, Mendou, this is all pretty morbid," Ataru remarked with a bit of a shudder and Shinobu nodded.
"Do we have to keep talking about this?" she added, uncomfortably shifting in her seat.
"Unfortunately, yes, because we know about it now," Shutaro explained.
"Well, I'd still rather die than not know who Darling is," Lum stubbornly argued, crossing her arms. "Besides, if the unknown equals death than not knowing who Darling is equals death, too."
"A figurative death, anyway," Shinobu stated with a frown. "But I guess any kind of death is sort of bad…"
"Well…um…" Shutaro now frowned himself and scrunched his eyebrows. "I guess I never thought about it that way before…" After a moment of pondering this, he shook his head as he began to get nervous. "This is ridiculous! No one wants to die. Living is better than dying; it's been proven."
"No, it hasn't," Ataru said with a confused look.
"Shut up, Moroboshi!" Shutaro snapped.
"I think you're just afraid of death," Ataru replied casually, closing his eyes and lifting his head resolutely.
"I am not!" Shutaro shouted loudly and defensively and the three winced, very unconvinced. Shutaro's face turned red then and he laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to calm down, and said, "I'm not REALLY afraid…" as he glanced toward the ceiling and Ataru began to snicker. He growled and gave them all a fierce glare, "Well, none of you can say that you're not afraid, either!"
All three frowned at this, their faces flushing, knowing it to be true. Shinobu, however, tried to smile, and replied as optimistically as she could, "Yeah, but everybody's afraid of dying, so it's not so bad."
Shutaro regained his vigor then as he grinned and exclaimed, "That's an excellent point, Miss Shinobu! And why is it that? Because, simply, not knowing is frightening."
"But knowing is just as bad," Lum protested. "Like we all know we're going to have to die someday. Wouldn't it be better if we didn't know at all?"
"Well, I suppose if we didn't know that we were all eventually going to die we wouldn't be having this really upsetting conversation to begin with…" Shinobu remarked as she lowered her solemn eyes to her desk.
"Yeah, and then we'd be living instead of worrying about our stupid medulla oblongata all the time, Mendou," Ataru grumbled with a scoff as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. "Why'd you have to go reminding us all about it anyway? It's something we've almost forgotten about."
"You really do forget about it if you don't think about it so much," Shinobu agreed, lifting her head with a smile and a nod.
"But when did we have to start forgetting about it in the first place?" Lum then asked. "There must have been a time when we didn't know at all so there was no reason to have to forget."
They all looked to Shutaro for the answer and Shutaro frowned in dismay. "Well…I suppose it just sort of happens as you get older," he answered matter-of-factly. "You just start to know things that you never really wanted to know to begin with."
"But what's better, then? Knowing or not knowing?" Shinobu inquired and Shutaro hesitated.
"Knowing is a lot better," Lum resolutely decided.
"Well, I'd rather not know some things," Shinobu answered.
"I suppose they both have their advantages…" Shutaro trailed off.
And Ataru just snorted and muttered, "I think they both suck."
The Tomobiki Summer Carnival, Part Four (The Sky that Goes as High as the Ferris Wheel)
The four sat on the Ferris wheel, Lum and Ataru on one side and Shinobu and Shutaro on the other. They sat quietly as the Ferris wheel slowly moved upward toward the sky, Lum, Shinobu, and Ataru still slightly disappointed in the fact that they hadn't been able to buy any charms from the carnival booth. However, when the Ferris Wheel was about halfway up, a grin began to form on Shinobu's face as she looked out at the carnival below. "Wow! Everything's so small from up here!" she exclaimed.
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, Miss Shinobu," Shutaro said with a pleasant smile and Shinobu smiled herself, although she could feel her cheeks turning pink. Shutaro then looked over at Lum, who was gazing out the window with a disappointed look in her eyes. "What's wrong, Miss Lum?"
"Hmm?" She then turned her eyes to him and tried her best to laugh, scratching the back of her head in some embarrassment. "Oh, it's nothing, really!" Her smile diminished, however, and she added, "It's just that I feel like this Ferris wheel doesn't go very high…"
"Well, that's because you can fly," Shinobu said. "You can go as high as you want; it's not our fault that this is as high as we humans can go."
Lum's face turned sour at this. "I didn't mean it like that, you know," she mumbled bitterly as she folded her arms and crossly slumped into her seat.
Yawning loudly, Ataru complained, "This is so boring…" He then folded his arms behind his head, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes, "Wake me when we're going on something cool like the roller coaster or something…"
Shutaro gave him a glare. "Don't you have an appreciation for anything, Moroboshi?" he questioned and Ataru just gave him a nonchalant shrug, causing Shutaro to sigh in his frustration.
"The view really is something," Shinobu added as her gaze lifted toward the sky, their seats now reaching the top. "Look at the sky!"
Lum now lifted her own eyes to look, but frowned upon the sight. "It's really not much; especially when you know how high it really goes."
With a glower, Shinobu glared away and replied haughtily, "Well, I'm sure it's better than the carousel."
Scowling, Lum returned to slumping in her seat. However, after a moment, her eyes looked over to Ataru's closed ones and she smiled. She closed her own eyes and leaned close to him. But Ataru immediately opened his eyes and pulled away from her, exclaiming, "Come on, Lum! I already said that we're not on a date!"
Lum growled, already having been thoroughly annoyed by Shinobu before, and narrowed her eyes furiously at him. "Darling!" she shouted loudly, before sending out a great surge of electricity throughout their Ferris wheel seat, causing all three to scream loudly and lighting up the top of the Ferris wheel as if it were a star.
A Tribute to the Late Talking Goldfish with Wings
Ataru and Shutaro stood near the front of the long line of mourners at the wake in the temple of gold and white marble. Shutaro stood in front of Ataru, arms folded as he impatiently waited in line while Ataru slumped behind him, yawning and looking rather bored. "I don't see why we're waiting here," Ataru muttered. "We don't even know who the guy is."
Shutaro sighed in exasperation. "BECAUSE, Moroboshi, we're already on line; it would be rude for us to just get up and leave without paying our respects."
"Yeah, but for all we know this guy the wake's for could be some horrible person," Ataru argued.
"Who cares?" Shutaro replied. "That's not really the point, anyway."
"Then what IS the point, Mendou," Ataru asked, growing frustrated himself.
"The point is that it doesn't matter WHO the wake is for; you give your respects because that's what you do at wakes - it's just what you're supposed to do," Shutaro explained.
"Well, that's a stupid reason to pray for a dead guy that you don't even know," Ataru mumbled and Shutaro let out a low growl.
"I didn't ask your opinion," Shutaro snapped in a cold whisper before sharply turning his eyes from Ataru. "Besides," he then continued, "I really don't want to be here myself, I have you know. It's just important that people THINK I want to be here. And it will look bad if we don't kneel and pray. It's called having manners, something YOU obviously lack." And he glared at Moroboshi in disgust.
"Why do you care what these people think, anyway? You don't even know who these people are," Ataru argued still. He then looked over his shoulder at the long line and said in surprise, "Wow, there sure are a lot of people here…"
"Yes, well…" Shutaro trailed off, looking forward. He then muttered to Ataru, "Let's just say some quick generic prayer so we can get out of here as fast as possible." And Ataru, for once, didn't find any reason to disagree.
After a few more minutes, Ataru and Shutaro had reached the front of the line and hastily and uneasily knelt together in front of the large closed golden casket of the deceased man who's name they didn't even know. Ataru frowned, looking down at the casket awkwardly, unsure what he was supposed to do and unsure about whether or not he cared about the fact that he wasn't sure what to do. Shutaro, meanwhile, closed his eyes tightly and clasped his hands together in prayer and raising them high above his head. He took a deep breath and then hurriedly said as he exhaled, "May your soul find peace." He then opened his eyes and stood up, tugging on Ataru's arm. "Come on, Moroboshi."
"Wait, that was it?" Ataru said, blinking in surprise and confusion as he felt himself being pulled up by Shutaro. Realizing what the answer was, he said, "Well, that WAS quick…"
The two stepped out of the temple or church or whatever it was - neither boy had actually bothered to try and figure it out - and onto the large white marble stairway that led down to the street, the bright sunlight shining down on them. Each took a deep breath of the fresh air in and exhaled at the same time, smiling as they basked in the day.
"It sure is nice here," Ataru noted as he looked around at all the shiny white and gold buildings that matched the temple they had just exited.
Shutaro nodded, the sunlight sparkling on the white shining buildings just as they did in his handsome eyes. "It really is, actually." The two took a few quiet moments more as their eyes scanned the clean city street, lined with bright green trees, the brilliant sky above them, and even the marble stairs that they stood upon, white and luminous.
"So…now what?" Ataru asked, breaking the silence, and Shutaro shrugged.
"I don't know…what do you want to do?" he asked.
"I think I'm kind of hungry; maybe we can get something to eat."
"All right," Shutaro agreed. He took a step forward, but then frowned. "Hey, Moroboshi, do you know if there are any places to eat around here?" Ataru frowned and shook his head. Shutaro sighed. "Well, I guess we can just look around…"
Ataru just shrugged and the two boys casually strolled down the marble stairs and onto the sidewalk. As they began to walk down the street, the sound of drums came to their ears. Ataru was the first to hear it and he stopped walking, his ears perking up to listen. "Hey, Mendou."
"Hmm?" Shutaro now stopped and turned around to face Ataru. "What is it, Moroboshi?"
"Do you hear that?" Ataru asked. "It sounds like music…"
"I don't hear anything," Shutaro replied before even listening and went to turn back around. However, he stopped himself, noticing something with the corner of his eye, and faced Ataru once more, although he was looking past him and down the street. "Hey, maybe it's that," he said and pointed and Ataru looked over his shoulder to see a colorful parade just a few blocks away, marching down the street perpendicular to the one they were standing on now.
"It's a parade," Ataru said, somewhat bewildered.
"Obviously," Shutaro remarked with a patronizing smirk and Ataru gave him a slight sneer because of it.
"So, let's see what it's all about," Ataru told Shutaro as he started walking in the opposite direction, heading towards the parade now.
"I thought we were going to get something to eat, Moroboshi," Shutaro began to complain, a feeling of hunger rising in his stomach.
"It's only take a few moments," Ataru argued. "Now, come on!" Ataru then started running toward the parade.
"But, wait!" Shutaro called out and then, realizing it was no use, sighed in a frustrated defeat. Shaking his head and clenching his fists with a glower on his face, he reluctantly followed Ataru, muttering, "Of all the immature, self-indulged, incompetent idiots…" until he trailed off into profanities that he grumbled under his breath.
"Wow!" Ataru exclaimed, mouth gaping open in awe as his eyes set upon the magnificent floats of the parade, taking his spot amongst the massive crowds of cheering onlookers, all dressed in the brightest of colors, who had come to watch the festive parade. Like a child he watched, his dull eyes suddenly brightening, as if the rainbow of colors that ran throughout the floats, the flying confetti, and the fireworks that illuminated the already brilliant sky were reflecting in them. And the marching band came to his ears, and he turned his head to see them marching, dressed in bright pinks and purples and blues, with bright white feathers on their hats and sparkling instruments, so clean and new, as if they were gold, and playing a joyous melody and Ataru couldn't help but start cheering along with the others as well.
Shutaro, still very irritated, finally made his way to the parade, and with a scowl, somehow managed to push himself to the front of the crowd to where a cheering, albeit oblivious, Ataru stood. "Moroboshi!" Shutaro scolded as he crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently, however Ataru could not hear him over the loud music and the exuberant cheers of the crowd. "Moroboshi!" Shutaro shouted once more, but Ataru still ignored him. Sighing irritably, Shutaro gave Ataru a hard shove to the shoulder, yelling, "Moroboshi, you idiot! What on earth are you doing?!"
Ataru now turned around with a sour expression on his face as he rubbed his shoulder. "I'm watching the parade!" he shouted back and Shutaro rolled his eyes.
"I KNOW that," he said loudly, trying to speak over the crowd. "But why are you - "
"Party hats and noisemakers!" a voice then shouted over the crowd, a grinning middle-aged man walking down the sidewalk with a large selection of colorful hats and noisemakers sticking out of a bright golden cart that he rolled in front of him.
"I'll take some!" Ataru excitedly exclaimed.
"You idiot, Moroboshi; you don't have any money for that," Shutaro told him. "And I'm surely not paying for that, especially not for you."
"Don't worry, young man!" the man with the hats and noisemakers said with a generous smile, having reached them now. "All these are for free! After all, this is a celebration!" He let out a boisterous laugh before pulling out a red plastic top hat and putting it onto Ataru's head. He then handed him three noisemakers and Ataru grinned wildly.
"Thanks, sir!" he exclaimed before spinning around the two noisemakers in each of his hands and blowing loudly into the third one.
Shutaro just groaned and shook his head as he placed a hand to his forehead. "Great," he grumbled, "Now he has an excuse to be an even bigger loud and obnoxious moron." Then, to his surprise, he felt a plastic top hat be placed on his shoulder and he looked up to see the middle-aged man with the hats grinning. Shutaro immediately took it off, saying, "Oh, um, thank you, sir, but I don't want - "
"I insist you take it!" the man insisted. He then leaned in, placed a hand on Shutaro's shoulder, and whispered, "You know, you really ought to lighten up, kid; this is a parade, after all." He gave him a wink and widened his smile, and then was on his merry way, generously handing out hats and noisemakers to the rest of the large crowd.
"Kid?!" Shutaro defensively shouted, but the hat-man was too far gone to hear him. Realizing this, and noticing the people happily cheering around him, hats and all, Shutaro frowned awkwardly and then lowered his eyes to his own shiny blue top hat, suddenly feeling very out-of-place amongst the crowd.
However, after a moment, Ataru had grabbed onto Shutaro's arm and pulled him forward, spitting out his third noisemaker and exclaiming, "Look at that!"
Shutaro looked up at the parade then to see a group of a hundred dancing girls, dressing in glittering sequin dresses, all different vivid colors, dancing freely down the parade, none doing the exact same dance, but all doing a beautiful dance nonetheless. Shutaro now grinned himself as he watched the pretty girls, as Ataru began to smile and drool at them. Then his eyes widened as he looked up at the sky filled with fireworks, although no smoke remained in the air from them, and his grin widened as well. "This really is an amazing parade. Too bad Miss Lum and Miss Shinobu aren't here to see it…" He then frowned in a bit of puzzlement and scrunched his eyebrows. "Hmm…I wonder what this parade is for, anyway…" He looked to Ataru and his face grew panicked as he noticed Ataru was heading toward the dancing girls with arms outstretched and a devious smirk on his drooling face. "Moroboshi!" he scolded and quickly took hold of the back of his collar, yanking him back just in time, Ataru falling flat on his behind as Shutaro said, "Control yourself, you idiot!"
Ataru groaned as he rubbed his rump and looked up. He then gasped in shock, raising his finger and pointing behind Shutaro. "Jesus Christ!"
"What is it NOW, Moroboshi?" Shutaro questioned.
"Behind you!"
Shutaro then turned around and looked up. He gasped himself and stumbled backwards as Ataru got to his feet and stood beside him. "That's…a…" he stammered.
"Castle?" Ataru finished for him and Shutaro nodded. A few blocks away, where the parade seemed to be heading, stood a enormous white and gold castle, basking in the sunlight that made the white turn to gold and the gold brighten until it was white. Fireworks went off all around it and it's large elegant towers that reached toward the sky, and beautiful white marble statues lined its roof and ledges. It's windows were wide and made of the cleanest of glass, sparkling as if it were diamonds, and no gate or wall encircled the palace; it was as if it was open to all.
"That's a really big castle," Ataru said, still in an awed daze as he stared up at it, having to lift his head all the way back until his neck hurt in order to see it all, and still, his eyes couldn't reach the very top.
"I'd say," Shutaro agreed.
"It's like out of a fairytale or something…" Ataru trailed off.
Shutaro nodded and repeated, "I'd say."
"I wonder who it belongs to," Ataru then said and Shutaro shrugged.
"I guess to whoever this parade is for, right?" Shutaro suggested and then looked over to one of the members of the cheering crowd. "Excuse me, miss?" Shutaro then asked, addressing a woman in about her forties or fifties. "Do you know who this parade is for and who's castle that is exactly?"
The woman gave him a smile. "Why, this parade is for our king, the Talking Goldfish with Wings! That's his castle over there," she explained and pointed over to the castle that Ataru and Shutaro had been gawking at only moments beforehand.
Ataru and Shutaro exchanged looks of worried puzzlement then, and Ataru turned to the woman and inquired, "Talking Goldfish…with Wings?"
The woman nodded and her eyes brightened as if she were still a young girl. "Yes; the greatest king to ever rule this land or any land! He saved us from a tyrant - a cruel hearted man - twenty-five years ago. I remember how horrible times were then; but now, well, he rebuilt everything in this city, using his own gold to line each building, and brought us education and so many wonderful books to read, and made it a custom to hold the greatest celebrations for even the smallest of good deeds any citizen does, oh, and so many more good, good things. In his first few years of ruling, when times were still hard after the tyrant, he made sure that his people all had the best of food before he ate a single crumb, and he tore down the gates around the castle as to welcome us all in - anyone is allowed in now. I met him only a few times - he made sure to meet every one of his people at least once, and, always, to remember each one of their names - and he was the kindest, gentlest, humblest, and most honest of all creatures I have ever met!"
"Wow," Ataru replied, "he seems like a great guy," and the corrected himself, "or, well, talking goldfish…with wings."
"And especially for a king," Shutaro noted.
The woman nodded once more, a twinkle still in her eye, and she looked down at them. "Yes, but you two should know all about him. Everyone knows about him here."
Shutaro frowned. "Actually, this is our first day here; we've never met the Talking Goldfish with Wings before."
The woman's eyes fluttered in surprise. "You mean, you two are visitors here?" Both boys nodded. "Well, you two must go to the castle then!" she exclaimed. "It's a custom, really! And especially today of all days - that's what the Talking Goldfish with Wings would want - he would want you two sitting in the royal banquet hall! Welcoming visitors is very important to us here; the Talking Goldfish with Wings taught us that. Now come along!"
Shutaro and Ataru looked at each other, still very confused, but then Ataru shrugged and Shutaro placed his plastic hat atop his head, and the two boys followed the woman.
When they reached the castle, they were vigorously greeted with kind, welcoming grins, all of the people dressed in beautiful bright fabrics and with eyes just as bright. They all talked and asked questions with great enthusiasm - more than Ataru and Shutaro had ever seen before in their lives - all very interested in what Ataru and Shutaro had to say as well as equally excited to praise their kind king, the Talking Goldfish with Wings.
They were then eagerly taken up to the royal banquet hall that stretched out over the balcony which hung over the end of the street, the parade still marching on outside as if it were a never-ending celebration. Ataru and Shutaro were graciously given a seat at the head of the largest table, food already laid out for them, while people danced and talked around, a large band playing in the castle, yet somehow not clashing with the music playing outside.
Ataru and Shutaro grinned as they watched all the people enjoying themselves and took to eating. "Wow, this food's really good, Mendou" Ataru said as he chewed and Shutaro swallowed and nodded.
"It's even better than what I usually eat, and I always have the best," Shutaro added.
"This Talking Goldfish guy seems like he's really cool," Ataru then said, taking another bite. "Everyone loves him here, anyway, and from what we've heard, he seems exceptionally nice."
"Although I am a bit confused to how he became king, being a goldfish and all," Shutaro replied.
"It was probably the wings," Ataru told him matter-of-factly. "Everybody knows that."
Shutaro just shrugged and then continued to ponder, "This whole celebration is probably in honor of his twenty-five year reign; the lady mentioned that it was twenty five years ago since the Talking Goldfish with Wings saved them from that tyrant." Ataru nodded in agreement.
"Why, hello," a kind woman's voice came to their ears then and both boys looked up to see a beautiful woman standing over them with long, flowing lavender hair and a gentle smile, both boys grinning at the sight of her beauty. "You two must be the visitors I've been hearing about. I'm the Queen of this land, and wife of the Talking Goldfish with Wings, great king and darling husband." She extended her elegant ivory hand to them.
"YOU'RE married to the Talking Goldfish with Wings?!" Shutaro questioned in shock as he stared up at the beautiful woman, baffled as to how and why a gorgeous lady would be with a goldfish.
However, before she could answer, Ataru seized the queen's hand as he stood up and pulled the queen close to him. "My stunning lady; forget about your husband! Let us run away together and make beautiful love!"
"Moroboshi!" Shutaro reprimanded. "Don't you have any tact at all?"
"It's all right," the queen said kindly, still smiling as she let out a soft chuckle and her glossy eyes glinted as if they were two teardrops. She then took a seat besides Ataru, Ataru returning to his seat, although his arms were still wrapped tightly around the queen's waist and drooling and snickering as he did so, a perverted smile on his face. "Are you two enjoying yourselves?" she asked them.
Shutaro nodded. "This is quite an impressive celebration."
"I'm glad you like it."
Shutaro hesitated a bit and then asked, "If you don't mind my asking, your majesty, but why would a young woman as beautiful as yourself marry a talking goldfish with wings for?"
Her smile widened a bit as her eyes glossed more and she answered simply, "Because - I love him and will always love him. What greater reason do I need than that?"
"Well…" Shutaro now frowned, suddenly feeling embarrassed, and annoyed because he felt embarrassed, and averted his eyes to his food. "It just seemed odd, that's all." Then, lifting his fork, he continued, "But, from what I hear, he is a very good king. I don't think I've ever heard of or met anyone so kind and generous before."
Lowering her eyes, the queen said quietly with a bittersweet smile, "Neither have I."
The revels continued on for quite some time more, with music and dancing, eating and laughing. It was when a grinning Shutaro finished taking a big gulp from his gold goblet after everyone had boisterously raised their glasses and cheered after the fifteenth toast of the day, although by the way they joyously toasted it still seemed like the first, that he finally asked to no one specifically, "By the way, where is the king, anyway? The Talking Goldfish with Wings? I'd really like to meet him." Ataru nodded eagerly, although his head still snuggled against the queen's chest, his arms still wrapped around her, his eyes closed tightly, and his mouth drawn into a daydreamer's smile.
It was then that everyone grew quiet, the music and dancing suddenly ceasing as did the laughing and eating; even the music and the cheering from the parade outside seemed to diminish, as if everyone in the city somehow sensed the melancholy that had unexpectedly seized the room and the people in it. Except for Shutaro and Ataru, who both were very confused now as they looked around the room for some sort of answer - or, at the very least, the question that would bring them an answer.
"I'm afraid…that…you can't meet him," the queen finally spoke, her words coming out slowly.
"Why not?" Ataru asked casually, raising his head a bit to look up at her.
"I don't see why we can't," Shutaro then stubbornly disagreed. "After all, this party is for him, isn't it? Shouldn't he be at his own party?" His eyes began to scan the royal banquet hall then, as if thinking he had missed him in the large crowd, although he failed to consider the fact that a talking goldfish with wings would be pretty noticeable, no matter how large the crowd was. He frowned in some disappointment, the rest being just annoyance, and demanded, "Why isn't he at his own party? Tell me."
"Yeah, especially if everyone loves him so much, you'd think they'd want him here," Ataru added. A long silence followed, the party members all staring down at their feet with some sort of guilt in their eyes, a guilt that neither Ataru or Shutaro had seen before or could explain.
Finally, the queen took a deep breath and bravely raised her chin to speak. "I…my husband - my wonderful husband - the Talking Goldfish with Wings, loving king and father to all of his people…" she trailed off for a moment, but only for a moment, as if it was imperative for her to find the right words, "…passed on from this world yesterday evening, to find an even better place than this wonderful city he created for us." She then added with a sweet, ironic chuckle, "Although I cannot think of a place greater than the one he made for us all."
Both boys' faces suddenly turned pale at this, as if the spirit they had just had only minutes beforehand had never been there at all, and their eyes turned dull and somber, the unexplainable guilt in the party members' eyes replacing their childlike enjoyment and causing a twinge of pain in both of their stomachs and throats. Even their once bright plastic top hats, Ataru's red and Shutaro's blue, that they wore atop their heads seemed to lose their luster, Ataru's now looking more like rust and Shutaro's like slate. Ataru slowly and quietly uncoiled his arms from the beautiful woman - the kind queen who had allowed him to grope onto her for the past couple of hours without complaint - and withdrew them into himself, pulling away completely from the queen and lowering his eyes from her sad ones in guilt and shame.
But the queen continued on, trying her best to smile, "But my husband told me - he told all his people - to only mourn for a moment. He said that today he wanted a big celebration, not only to celebrate his long, happy life, but to celebrate our own continuing lives as well as his new life, whatever it might be. He made us all promise we'd do this - that we'd be happy even after he was gone; he said his life was meaningless, otherwise, if his people weren't to remain happy even after his passing. And so we celebrate today, like he asked, and go only for a moment to mourn him in the golden temple which is where his body now lays, only a few blocks away from the parade - the temple that he built for us all, just as he built everything for us all - and, after that moment, say a happy prayer of thanks, and then enjoy ourselves and celebrate at the parade. There should only be a couple hundred people left waiting in the temple; and soon, once they are finished, they will all join us as well, you see, and we will all celebrate together, in honor of him and in honor of ourselves, just like he had asked of us. This was his last wish - his last words - before he closed his eyes and slept for the last time, never to wake up again."
It was then that both boys realized that the shine in her eyes were her tears, glistening like diamonds in her beautiful solemn eyes that she somehow kept happy just for the sake of the late Talking Goldfish with Wings and her love of him. Shutaro just nodded, swallowing hard, and Ataru kept staring downward, looking at his food with a frown. The queen, with bittersweet eyes, raised her wine glass then and said, "But enough with that; we must continue on with the celebration." She gave a nod to the conductor of the band and the conductor returned this with a sympathetic smile before he started the band up again, and soon everyone was joyously dancing and laughing again; even the parade outside seemed to somehow burst with life again as its energetic music and cheering returned to the royal banquet hall, brightening it just as the fireworks that had begun to go off again outside brightened the sky.
Yet neither Shutaro or Ataru joined in the festivities any longer. Instead, with melancholy eyes they stared down at their plates of half-eaten food, a quiet somber amongst them as they frowned, neither speaking a word to each other, yet the same thoughts running through their heads as they tried to understand how everyone could be celebrating knowing that their king was dead; they certainly couldn't find it in them to be happy now that they had learned the truth. They were detached now from the happy people of the Talking Goldfish with Wing's kingdom, the only two sad ones amongst all in the city, and while the thousands in the city were attached to each other somehow in their joyous celebration, the two boys were now attached to each other in their guilt and grief - and in their newfound regret.
For all the while they wished they had never asked where the Talking Goldfish with Wings was, or had ever known who the man was in the casket that they had knelt before with only a careless, thoughtless, five-word prayer between the both of them.
What's Next:
Episode 3: I See, You See, We See Subtitle: (Truth, Part 3: The Problem with Untruths)
Featuring:
-The Tomobiki Summer Carnival, Part Five (The House of Illusions)
-Mr. Bean, the Chicken Man, and His Amazing Circus of Eden
-The Tomobiki Summer Carnival, Part Six (The house of Material Things)
-Now Presenting the Pseudo-Prize of Mute-Singing Turtles To...
