Snapshots


Whimsy

"His what?"

Fuji turned, brows raised as if to say, what a charming surprise.

"The Sparrow Tail?" He actually demonstrated, giving a hop and a sweep of his racket before falling back into step. "It's Nittouryu, from the—"

"I know," said Tezuka, who'd caught the reference a second late. He frowned, thinking of Fuji's taste in nomenclature; trying to remember who'd invented the now-ubiquitous sobriquet for Kaidou's whip shot. Inevitable though that one was... "The proper name is one-footed split step."

"With a hand switch?"

"With a hand switch."

"You have no sense of whimsy, Tezuka," Fuji said cheerfully.


Nemo

"Here, then," Fuji said thoughtfully, gesturing with a wasabi roll, "is a great mystery. For you and for me, nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere – we do not know where – a few aquarium-dwellers managed to free themselves into the sea... Look at the ocean. Ask yourselves: yes or no? Did the fish escape their plastic bags? And you will see how everything changes..."

Eiji looked accusing. Kappamaki, oshinkomaki or inarizushi, not a scrap of ichthyous protein on the table: Ooishi's eyes harboured guilt, Eiji's stomach rebellion.

"Next time I'm picking the movie," he said.


Cursive

Fuji's handwriting was compact, rather than sprawling; even, rather than messy; sparse, rather than elaborate. He elided strokes in a manner reminiscent of running-script calligraphy. The result was neat and completely illegible.

(Kikumaru: "I dunno. Ignore the fact that the characters are all weird, I guess."

Kawamura: "I cross my eyes, Buchou. Er. It seems to work."

Inui: "Have you tried holding it out at arm's length?"

Ooishi: "Well, it is pretty cursive. ...Really you can't read this, Tezuka?")

"You're in the minority, Tezuka," Fuji said, smiling, and Tezuka had to remember not to take him up on the challenge.


— Montreal, June 2004

Notes:

1. Miyamoto Musashi, as of course we all know, invented Nittouryu (two-handed sword technique). Google journalism refuses to turn up a confirmation for this, but I believe "sparrow tail" is the name of a Nittouryu move where the sword changes hands for the strike. Note that "tsubame gaeshi" is also the name of a sword technique, associated in the popular imagination with Sasaki Kojiro – Musashi's opponent in perhaps the best-known of his duels.

2. Fuji's soliloquy comes from the under-the-sea remix edition of The Little Prince. :P