Note: I made up Yukari's birth year, sorry. I have no idea, it didn't say. I was thinking about having at the end Yukari gaining white wings that turn into black demonic wings of fire, and her falling from salvation's grace, but I'm not that mahou cheap, sorry, lol…
; Okay, just this time…cause I wanna. This is my fanfic after all, and I can do whatever I want with it…evil laughter
An Azumanga Christmas Carol
Chapter 4b
No voice produced those words in Yukari's head, and yet she heard them ringing like school chimes. She though, if this woman could be raised up from its current state, what would be her thought that first came to mine? Bibilous, venomous, drunkenness? They have brought her to a rather ludicrous end, most definitely!
She laid, in the house, with not a woman, or man, or child, and without an iota of kindness to be instilled in her. A gray can with a smile of sharp picked at the door, and the resident mice were scuttling about with the ants. What those creatures wanted, Yukari didn't want to know, for she knew, and what it was cannot be mentioned as per.
"Spirit," Yukari said, "this is a scary place. I have learned my lesson, okay? Let's go!"
The Spirit, floating, still pointed at the head.
"I understand what you are saying, and I would do it, if I could. But I don't have what it takes. Please, listen to me! I don't have what it takes, Spirit."
The Spirit's eyes constricted again.
In agony, Yukari cried, "Okay, if there is anyone in this world who feels for this woman's death, show that person to me. Shot that person to me NOW, Spirit!"
Glowing, the Spirit revealed a room, where a mother and children were.
The mother was expecting someone, and with eagerness, since she was walking up and down the room, checking the clock, looking outside, but instead, worked on her sewing, and could hardly hear the voices of the children playing.
At long last a knock was heard, Opening the door, she saw her husband, a man who was completely depressed, though young still. There was a look of happiness in his face, a sort of happiness and bliss which was hard to restrain.
He went over to the dinner table, and chuckled a bit.
"Is it good, or bad?' the shorted mother asked.
"Bad."
"Really? We're done for?"
"No. There is hope yet, Ayako."
"If she is still alive," saying in amazement, "sure. There is no reason not to hope, if a miracle has happened."
"She is past living," said the father. "She…is dead."
The mother was thankful to hear that news, and as she recognized the bigger picture, she summoned the gods to give the deceased one forgiveness. "How the heck did that happen?"
"You know what? What the half-drunken man who I told you about said last night, said that to me. I thought he was being an idiot because he was drunk, but now…it's true. She was not only intoxicated, but she was dying, too."
"I see. So who's gonna replace her at the school for Class Three?"
"I'm not sure, but before third semester begins, I hope to work with someone who is a little bit nicer as a teacher. But you know what? We may be able to sleep better now, Ayako!"
Indeed, their spirits were brighter, and the children danced around in a circle in celebration of the woman's death. The Spirit glowed brightly, its pupils dilating a rich black. A glow of pleasure.
"Let me see some tenderness with death," said Yukari to the spirit, "or that…place we were? That place will be there to me."
The Spirit went down streets familiar to her, and the two of them stopped by Rie Sakaki's house, and found the mother and children seated, watching nothing but pure static.
It was quiet. Very quiet, if you exclude the small static noise on the broken down cable television. Yotsuba and Ena were very still, looking up at Miura, reading an issue of Libon Magazine. The shorter mother, Fuuka, and Asagi were busy sewing, but they were also very quiet.
"And she took a cat, and set him in the middle of them."
Where in the world has Yukari heard those words? From a higher existence? From the man selling chestnuts? From the local animal shelter's veterinarian? Miura must have read them out. Why did he not continue?
The shorter mother set her work on the table, and put her hand to her face. "This color is hurting my eyes," Asagi said.
The color? Poor, poor Maya!
"It's okay not. It makes the color weak when your turn the light on then, and I wouldn't shake a blind eye to your other mother when she comes home. Her time is near."
"Really?"
"Mmm-hmmm."
"Past it, actually," said Miura, closing his book. "But I think she's walked a little bit slower than she used to, in recent nights, kaa-san."
Again, quiet, and the mother said, "I have known her to walk with Maya on her shoulder, very fast indeed."
"And so have I," said Miura.
"And so have I," exclaimed Yotsuba and Ena. So did everyone else.
"But he was very light to carry," she said, resuming her work, "and your taller mother loved him a lot, and it was no trouble, no trouble at all."
"You'd think," said Miura, frowning. Ena gave him a little nudge on his shoulder in disagreement. That was the last case of smart-alecky one would see from Miura ever again. At least, in this time.
"There's your mother at the door!" said the shorter one, who hurried out to meet her, and little Rie, in her comforter, poor girl, came in. The o-cha was ready for her, and they all tired to help her to it most. Yotsuba and Ena hugged their taller mother, and she spoke in good cheer with the rest of the family.
"You guys will be finished with this quilt long before Sunday," Sakaki said, sipping a bit of the o-cha made.
"Sunday? You went today then, Rie?" asked her wife.
"Yes, my dear Kaori, I wish you would have gone to see how beautiful a place it was. So beautiful, so wonderful. I promised him that I would walk with him there on a Sunday. My little cat!" cried Sakaki. "My little, little darling cat!"
She broke down profusely, the tears streaming down her face, sobbing. She couldn't help it; she and her cat were now more father apart than they were. Her wife hugged and comforted her. Yukari knew who Sakaki was talking about.
Sakaki went to the room, and went to the room above, which was decorated rather brightly with cheap light, and Santa motifs, and a manger with a child on it. A pet dish and a cast on a chair were lying next to it. Sakaki kissed the child's face, blushed, and came down happily.
The family sat by the table and talked about school and how everyone was doing in their classes, the older girls continuing their work with the quilt. Sakaki talked about the extraordinary kindness of Nyamo, a teacher and friend she knew so well when she was a student, and when she met her, was a little…
"…down, you see," said Sakaki. "On which, I told her about my boss's death. She said, 'I am sorry that happened, Miss Sakaki, and I am sorry for your 'wife''. How she ever knew that, I'm not sure."
"Knew what, my Sakakikins?" asked Kaori.
"Why you were a good 'wife.'"
"Everyone knows that," said Miura. "And you know what? Everyone is teasing me at school because I have two mothers. They call me the Happy Lesson kid because-OW!" A bigger lump on his forehead than before came out.
"Very well observed, my dear Miura," said Sakaki. "I hope they still do." Kaori lushed and smile. "So, she continues, 'I'm sorry, for your 'wife.' If I can be of service to you in any way,' she said, hading her business card, 'this is where I live. Drop by if you want to talk.' This was quite a surprise. Miss Kurosawa's such a nice person. It seems she knew who our Maya was, and that she felt for our loss, also."
"Miss Kurosawa is a very nice lady," said Kaori.
"You'd be sure of it," said Sakaki with a wink, "if you saw and spoke to her. I wouldn't be surprise, if, and let me make it clear, she gave Miura a job."
"True."
"And then," Ena said, "Miura will be keeping company with the girls and having one for himself."
"Hey, wait a minute," said Miura laughing. "I'm just in high school, okay? I haven't worked ever in my life. Of course, there's that Magnetron Burger I've always wanted to work at over the summer." The family looked at Miura with a suspicious eye, and who paled a little bit. "What? It was only a joke!"
"And a crappy joke at that," said Ena, pouting.
"Beaten by a girl. Oh the horror." He shriveled in his verbal defeat.
"There will be time for that, when he has a job, my Kaorin. But when the time comes where we part from one another, I am sure no one in this family will forget poor Mayas, right?"
"Never, Sakaki-kaasama!" cried the family.
"And I know, that
when we remember how patient and mild our cat was, al though he ws
just a little kitten, we will not quarrel against one another, and
forget poor Maya in doing it."
"Never ever, Sakaki-kaasama!"
they cried again.
"I am happy. I am…so…happy!"
Kaori kissed her, Fuuka and Asagi kissed her, Yotsuba and Ena kissed her, even Miura kissed her (though he thought it was gross). Spirit of Yamamaya, thine light and feline essence cometh from the one Kami-sama! Victory, victory to thee!
"Spirit," said Yukari, "soothing is telling me that our parting moment is coming soon. I know it, but I don't know how I do."
The Spirit glowed and raised its right upper appendage as if to say, "Indeed, and as for the second question…you just know."
"Tell me, who was that person that we saw lying dead. Who was that person?"
The Spirit glowed, as if to say, "These are just random visions of the future." Eventually, he glowed again, as if to say, "but if you must, here we go."
The Spirt showed what was once Yukari's office in the school, but instead had a different teacher, and it was organized cleanly. It continued on, until it reached a churchyard. Here lied the wretched person who laid underneath the ground. Walled in by building, and overrun by grass and weeds and unclean incense, the growth of dying vegetation was marred by the frequent splattering of beer and beer bottles and caps on the ground. Such a place!
The Spirit stood among the graces, pointing down to one grace. She advanced to it, shaking with fear. Yukari dreaded that she saw new meaning in its ghastly shape.
"Before I see that headstone you are pointing to," said Yukari, "answer me this one question. Are these the shadows of things that will be, or things that may be?"
The Spirit glowed, pointing down to the headstone, as if to say, "You decide."
"The courses of all people, men and women, regardless of race, creed, color, or character foreshadow and end to then, to which they must lead," said Yukari. "But they can change their path, and their life. Tell me who this person is on this grave! NOW!"
The Spirit glowed, eyes constricting to their maximum.
Yukari walked over to the head stone, and read it.
YUKARI
TANIZAKI
1975-2006
"I don't care if I live my life half drunk,
that's how I will always live it,
so la-di-fucking da!"
"Am I the woman who laid on that bed," she cried, on her knees.
The spirit's pointed to her, and then to the grave, glowing a deepred red, pupils still constricted. Yukari shrieked like crazy, sending the crows out of the trees into the gloomy sky that had started to storm into a tornado of doom.
"Spirit!" exclaimed Yukari, tears streaming down her face like a flood, "please hear me. I am not the woman I was. I will not be the woman I should have been up until this time. Why show me this, if all my hope is gone."
The Spirit began to shake.
"Good, kind spirit," she pursued, "What you have done has moved me in ways I could not have imagined. Tell me that I can change all this and have a new life!"
It shook even more violently.
"I will honor, Christmas in my heart, and keep it all year throughout my life. I will live in the Past, Present and Future. The three Spirits shall live anid strive within me. I will never throw awaythe lessons they teach. Oh spirit, tell me that I can take away the writing on this stone.
Yukari, in agony, grabbed hold on the spirit. It wanted to free itself, but Yukari did not let it go. Eventually, as the eye of the storm watched over with an evil blind eye on the tow of them, the Spirit was free of her restrain.
Holding up her hands in a last ditch prayer, Yukari screamed "YUKARI! SALVATION!! POWER!!!" The Spirit exploded into a ball of light. Yukari was enveloped in the light and what resulted the Spirit shrunk into a doll of Chiyo's imaginary father…and her bedroom.
End Chapter 4b