NOTE: A little deviation and profanity don't hurt no one, ne? Kagura, retired from swimming to the workforce…days gone by, days gone by.
An Azumanga Christmas Carol
Chapter 2b
By this moment, Yukari and the spirit left the school behind them, and they were in what seemed like an office in Tokyo. Outside the office building, people were moving in and out, out and in. It was Christmas time again, but it was evening, and the streets were lit up. But seeing lit up streets at night were nothing new to Tokyo. They had been turning up the neon ever since the first tube was brought there. Or was it made there? It was up to history to answer that question. The corporate logo was as domineering on the building as the door windows and the billboards that surrounded it: MediaWorks.
"I remember this place," Yukari said to the smiling spirit. "Before I became an English teacher, I was an office lady."
"And what an officer lady you were, Miss Yukari," said the spirit, "eheheh."
As the two of them went in the suite, they saw a woman wearing a conservative blue outfit and hairstyle. She was carrying a clipboard and pen, and was checking on her employees. Yukari, exclaiming at the idea, let out a squeal and a wide gasp.
"Why, it's Miss Kagura! Blees her heart, it's Miss Kagura alive again!"
"You remember," acknowledged the Spirit.
Kagura went back to her desk, laid down the pen, and looked at the clock. 5:58. She knew that something was going to happen just down the road within an hour and a half. Calling out in a laid-back, but businesslike tone:
"Yo yo yo, Yukari, Takeshi!"
Yukari's former self, now a young woman fresh out of college came out of her cubicle to Kagura's desk, accompanied by his taller, more robust apprentice. He had slightly spiked hair, with glasses and a beard.
"That's Takeshi Takeda," acknowledged Yukari. "There he is. He was a very close sidekick of mine's, was Takeshi-kun. Poor Takeshi. We used to call him Jumbo because he was so tall."
"Hey, you two," Kagura said as they went inside her office. "No more work tonight. You guys did a wonderful job, I'm treating you to a couple of tickets to see Ayumi Hamasaki, live in concert, at the Tokyo Dome. And we have front-row seats."
Yukari and Takeshi were wide-eyed at the opportunity. "You mean," Yukari said, "we get to be in front of Ayu?"
"Yep," confirmed her boss.
"Oh man, I can't wait," Takeshi said, fist in the air. "But how are we going to get there?"
"We'll go in my car. We also have VIP parking, since we're from MediaWorks."
Yukari and Takeshi bowed their heads, fake tears swinging from their eyes. "Yeah…" MediaWorks was once of the largest companies in promoting entertainment and employed some of the best mangaka in the business. It was a little bit off-kilter for Yukari to start working at a position like this, before becoming a teacher.
"Come on," Kagura said, "let's go!"
"Yeah!" said the other two, taking their belongings, and walking downstairs to Kagura's rather shiny green Aston Villa.
"How are we going to get to the Tokyo Dome from here?" asked the older Yukari to the Spirit.
Frowning, and putting in a rather questionable expression, the Spirit said, "Miss Yukari, I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past. I can take to anywhere…" She waved her hand and finished, "…in your past."
Yukari looked at her surroundings. She couldn't believe it. They were at the Tokyo Dome, and the concert was starting. Pitch black, and then, a young woman dressed in white, looking like a total American, stood on stage, the lights were on her. The crowd was roaring as she made her way on stage. She began her song, after the guitar began a little riff, "Saa ryoute wo hirogete , Isshoni te wo tataite arukou , Hashiridasu toki ni wa, Koko e kite kyou ni hajimeyou…"
Yukari was mesmerized as the main melody got kicking to the roar of the crowd. "Ayu…" She and the spirit watched as Takeshi, the younger Yukari, and Kagura swayed their arms to the music, in the bliss of the Hamasaki Republic. The audience had their fill, eating hot dogs, hamburgers, sushi, and loads of sake and beer. And just as fast as the calories were consumed, they were burned through grooving to the music. It was a complete orgy of melody, love and peace.
The concert lasted for about 3 hours, with 18 songs played, all written and composed by the woman herself. Ayumi was a tireless musician who was an entrepreneur all her own. She went through bouts of adversity, without compromising anything to be successful in her business. Kagura was a summer when sh8e was young, and the accomplishments and her drive were built upon as an employer for MediaWorks. She, perhaps, knew of her work ethic more than Yukari, or even Takeshi. The latter two were mere fans of her music. Ayumi's work ethic was the type of commitment she wanted from her employees, and as her two top guns in her branch, Takeshi and Yukari, were miles ahead of the game, a reward was in order.
When the last number, "Poker Face," finished playing, everyone but the three of them were left in their seats. Then, with a nod, they began to leave, Kagura with her arms around Yukari and Takeshi, one at her side, united together, laughing, talking, but without a stumble or a stutter.
During the course of the concert, Yukari was in her former self, a happy, sober, spirited girl, soaking in the past of days gone by, the concert, the music, Ayumi…She then remembered that the Spirit was next to her, and a sweatdrop could be seen, along with an embarrassed expression, and a little "Eheheheh…"
"That was one hell of a concert," said Yukari. "Wooo-woooooh!"
"Those folks were so full of excitement for so little," said the Spirit, looking at the empty stage.
"Little?"
"Why not little? She only spent money to entertain you, that's all, and not for something conventional."
"It isn't that. Miss Kagura had the power to make us happy or unhappy, our duties easyof hard. And having a conscience is better than losing it." Seeing the Spirit glancing with a slight scowl, she stopped.
"What is the matter?" asked the spirt?
"Oh, nothing, nothing," said Yukari.
"Well it must be something…"
"No, no, it's just…" Her pride got in the way. As always. "I just wanted to have a word with my clerk, that's all."
Closing her eyes and sighing, the Spirit shook her head, as if to say, "That's not what I wanted to hear." She then said out loud. "It's getting a bit late. Come on!"
"Huh?"
Yukari another image of herself, but this time, in her prime. She was in another pair of pajamas, dirty and unclean, and studying a bottle of sake. For some odd reason, this inanimate object could talk to her, The glint of the bottle shined off the light of the Ghost of Christmas Past.
The bottle silently said, "It matters little to you. Very little…another liquor has displaced me, and if it can cheer you and comfort you, as I tried to do, I have no reason to grieve."
"What liquor has displaced you?" she asked the bottle.
Without words, it said, "A golden one."
"Oh give me a break, my love! There is nothing on which it is so hard as being clean, and nothing so dedicated to bringing happiness as a can of Asahi!"
"You fear life too much," it said, soundless. "All your other hopes and dreams have merged into the hope of being beyond what can be done. They fall off, one by one, until the highest passion, Alcoholism, engrosses you. Haven't I?"
"What then?" retorted Yukari. "Even if I have grown up to be a hooligan in my new profession, what then? I am not changed toward you in any way. Am I?"
The bottle was still. And then it said in Yukari's head, "Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both fresh and uncontaminated, to be so, until we could improve our fortunes by me bring consumed and abused. You are changed. When it was made, you were another woman."
"No, I was a girl."
"Your emotions tell you that you are not who you are," the bottle continued in spirit. "But I am. What promised us happiness, is nothing more than misery and overconsumption, now that we are two. I have made up my mind, and so I release you."
"Release? Hold it, hold it. Now you're starting to make no sense? Have I ever asked to be released?"
"In words? No."
"Okay…in what?"
"In a changed nature, altered spirit, another facet of life or Hope, whatever you can make of it. If this had never been between us, would you want to win me out now? No way."
Yukari scoffed at the remark in her head. "You think not."
"I would gladly think the other way, but when I have learned a truth like this, it seems so irresistible, almost welcoming. But if you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, or in a million years, can I even believe that you would choose an ageless, glass bottle of sake, who you weight everything by Alcoholism, or choosing to distribute to your friends and yourself in moderation? I do, and I realize you. With a full cap, for the love of her you once were."
Yukari tried to speak, but the bottle continued speaking for the last time. "You maybe hurt when I say this, but you will forget this as something that can be thrown out the three-story window of your school, a worthless dream and vision, from which you will never awake from. May you be happy in the drink you have chosen!"
Yukari, furious, grabbed the bottle, and said, "And may you be happy that I throw and smash you against the wall. Don't you bullshit with me again!" She flung the bottle of sake against the wall, and watched it disintegrated to minute shards of what it had been.
The older Yukari watched it unfold, and broke down in tears, screaming, "Spirit, please take me home. Please! I don't want to see any more of this crap happening before my eyes!"
"One more shadow," Chiyo said.
"No! Please, no! Dammit!" The Spirit still held Yukari's arms back as she saw what unfolded afterwards.
They were in a house that looked rather wealthy, and resembled Chiyo Mihama's estate. Actually, it was, but it went under a slight remodeling, and a new family moved in. The Mihama family had since moved to America. A man, woman, and a set of octuplets, aged 11 and older, four boys and four girls were having dinner. The odd thing was, the father was looking at a glass bottle of sake identical to the one Yukari destroyed in rage.
"Hey there my little bottle," he said with a grin, "I saw a friend of yours this afternoon."
The bottle, silent, said in the father's head, "Hmmm? Who?"
"Guess…"
The bottle remained still, as if to say, "Oh, I don't know big guy." And it glinted as he smiled. "Yukari Tanizaki."
"Yes, Miss Tanizaki it was. I passed by her cubicle at her school, I can hardly help seeing him. She told me that her partner was on the point of death, and she sat alone. Quite alone in the word I guess."
"Hiro-kun," the mother said, "who are you talking to?"
"Oh, just me and my bottle, Kana-chan."
"You're so silly." And they hugged and kissed. Some of the girls made some silly faces, to the boys' laughter and amusement.
Yukari was livid, and devastated. Tears could be seen from her eyes. "Spirit! Remove me from this place."
"Miss Yukari, these are just shadows of what have been. They are what they are, don't blame me!"
"Remove me from here, or I'll kill you! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU DAMMIT! AAAARRRGGHHHH!!!"
The Spirit shrieked for mercy as it was being choked upon by an angry and hurt Yukari, who was crying, sobbing, and screaming in agony at the same time. It soon dropped beneath it.
Yukari then became exhausted by the turn of events, as the choking was nothing more that a bedsheet. She then sank into a heavy sleep, still crying, saying, "I'll kill you…Chiyo-chan…"
Somewhere on the other side of the Pacific, perhaps in the Orange County, one girl with light brown hair locked in ponytails and a miniskirt, whose prodigal mindset and gorgeous, slender build become flooded with California overtones and a tan, felt a sudden chill up her spine.
"What is it, Chiyo?" her friend said in a tone that reminded him he was from Santa Barbara on a holiday. A Christmas holiday. At the mall.
She closed her eyes, and then giggled hesitantly with a sigh. "Oh, nothing. It's nothing, really."
End Part 2b