Mutsumi knows - Part 3. Address Unknown.
Thanks to the piles of phone books spread around my otherwise nearly bare rented apartment, I now know that there are many Urashimas in and around Tokyo. There's a couple of Keitaro Urashimas, but neither is my Kei-kun. There's even, amazingly, a couple of Taro Urashimas - yes, real people with the exact same name as the hero in the fairy tale. But neither of them is my hero. Maybe Kei-kun is living somewhere further afield, or maybe he is living with his parents and the telephone is in their name. I could phone every Urashima in Japan if I have to, to ask if they have a son called Keitaro, but the prospect is daunting.
Then I realise, there's one phone call I can make that might clear everything up, and I won't even need a phone book! I really need to phone home anyway, so ... here goes. Protectress, please let me have some good luck now!
"Hi, momma! Just thought I'd let you know that things are going really well. Oh, I did have a couple of blackouts, both just before exams. And one of them did last for hours, and it meant that I got taken to hospital and I missed that exam session completely, so I probably haven't passed this year. But apart from that everything's great!"
"That's really nice to hear, Mu-chan!" mom says, but she sounds a bit uncertain.
"And the really good news is that I saw Na-Chan and Kei-kun!"
"Now that really is good news!" she says, and this time I'm sure she means it. "I know how much they mean to you! Please let them know they're welcome to stay here any time they're passing through Okinawa!"
"I'll be sure to do that, mom. And Thanks. There is just one other small problem though ... ara, I lost them again. But don't worry mom, I know a bit more than I did before. Kei-kun's full name is Keitaro Urashima, and Na-chan is Naru, but I don't know her family name. Does any of that ring any bells?"
"Oh my! Yes, it does! I remember reading to you about Taro Urashima, how he rescued the turtle from the naughty children, and how the turtle took him to see the beautiful princess Otohime in her undersea coral palace. That was a really good story, and just perfect for a real beautiful Otohime princess to hear at bedtime!"
"It's KEItaro I want, mom! KEItaro Urashima!"
"Oh. KEItaro. Urashima ... Urashima .. yes! The inn where I worked, where you tell me you met Kei-kun and Na-chan, it was owned by Granny Hina, and she was an Urashima. Keitaro must be related to her ... I think he must be her grandson. But I couldn't tell you his parents' names. They only visited the inn briefly, when your father and I were busy packing to come back to Okinawa, so we never paid them much attention I'm afraid."
"Oh mom, thank you! I'm sure that will help!"
"You're welcome, Mu-chan; but I might be able to help even more. You said that Na-Chan is Naru. That rings a bell too. There was a family that stayed at the inn quite often, with a name something like that ... Naru ... Naruse ... Narusegawa? Something like that. They had a little daughter who was very ill, and they were hoping that the hot springs there might help her condition."
"Yes! I feel sure that's Na-chan - but she looks healthy enough now. I think the springs must have worked!"
"I'm afraid that's all I can remember. But maybe Granny Hina is still at the Hinata inn. She should be able to tell you more, if Keitaro is her grandson. And even if she isn't there, every hotel has a register. Maybe they've kept their old registers, and you could find what you want in them."
"Thank you mom! I love you! And give my love to Dad too! I'll speak to you again soon, but now I've got an inn to visit!"
"Okay dear! If you do see Granny Hina, please give her my regards!"
So I take the tram to Hinata Hot Springs, and it feels like a time machine journey taking me back to my childhood. And now I'm walking across the old wooden bridge to the picturesque town, shrouded in mist from the many springs there. Then a memory comes to me, as vivid as if it is happening now: There's me at the window of the van, waving goodbye to Kei-kun as he desperately chases after it, as if he would follow it all the way to Okinawa, but he stumbles near the end of the bridge. "Kei-Kei!" I shout. "Promise me, when we grow up, that we'll see each other at Tokyo U!"
Back in the present, I'm walking through the narrow alleyway and up to the stairs that seemed so huge to a five-year-old. They're still huge. I can't believe that Kei and Na and I once tried to ride a toy train down them! Thinking about it, I can't believe that any of us is still alive. Could my protectress have been with me even then?
Before I actually enter the inn I make a small detour to the play area. Amazingly, the sand pit is still there. I wonder if the "time capsule" is still buried under it? I sit down on the swing nearby, just soaking in the atmosphere and the memories...
When I find Na-chan and Kei-Kun, I'll have to bring them to this place, so they can experience these feelings too, and maybe we can dig up the buried treasure together. I just know they'll love it here. I wonder if they have actually been here in recent years, just to relive the memories like I'm doing now?
And now I'm actually inside the inn, and it's exactly as I remember. In the foyer, the old reception desk is still there. I go to it, but there's no register there, and no bell to ring. Strange. I look in the manager's office, but Granny Hina is nowhere to be seen, and neither is anyone else. Now I go to the entrance of the hot spring baths, and Tama-chan, who I have brought with me because I know she will love this place, gives out an excited "myu". She dives gleefully off my shoulder and swoops around the springs, sending up a spray of water with her flippers. I smile to see her antics.
I wander around the corridors until I actually meet someone, which turns out to be a hyperactive foreign-looking young girl.
"Heyas!" she says. "Is you an intruder?"
"No, I'm looking for the hotel manager"
"You is out of luck, sorry, cos this isn't no hotel any more! This is a girl's dorm! But you can stay here anyways, cos you is definitely a girl!" she says as she bounces around me.
A girl's dorm. So that explains why there's no register. But that means they probably don't have any of the old registers either. But that's OK, if I can just find Granny Hina.
"Thank you, but I'm just visiting for now, is the dorm manager available?"
"He is indisposed. Sorry! But I can take youse to the cook!"
He. That means the place has changed hands. Still, I can't give up just yet.
The cook turns out to be another young girl, hanging out washing on the flat roof of the annex. I explain to her that I'm hoping for a chance to look at the old registers, or to speak to granny Hina or to the manager.
"I'm sorry" she says. "I don't know about any registers. Granny Hina went on a trip around the world. There is a new manager, but sempai really is indisposed. He's not in any condition to see anybody. Perhaps you could leave a note, and I'm sure he'll get back to you when he's feeling better. Or if you see Haruka, who runs the tea shop at the bottom of the steps, she used to be house-mother here. She might be able to help".
I thank the young girl and say I'll do both those things. I write my name and address and a brief note about why I was here, and I hand it to the young cook, who promises to pass it on to the manager. Actually, in the note I gave my Okinawa home details, not the details of my rented accomodation in Tokyo, because I'll probably be leaving that in a couple of days.
As I'm leaving the inn, the young foreigner is there again. "Does you want to play?" she asks, hopefully.
It might be nice to forget about studying and searching for a while, and just play; but if her playing is like her leaping around, it could demolish me.
"Oh my!" I say "What a friendly and helpful place this is! I'm sorry, I have to be moving on, I have to see somebody in the tea shop. But, did you mean what you said about how I could stay here? It isn't just a place for young teenage girls?"
"Oh no, you can be an old hag, as long as you is a girl and is not a meanie. Why, Kitsune stays here and she is even older than you!"
"Ara, thank you". Now I know where I should have stayed. It would have been a very long commute into Tokyo every day, but worth it. Oh, well. Maybe I'll be here next year. Maybe if I find Na-chan and Kei-kun and tell them about this place, they'll agree that it's a great "find", and we can all stay here together. Ara, what am I thinking? Kei-kun isn't a girl! But maybe they would let him stay anyway, if I asked nicely.
At the bottom of the steps I try to call on Haruka, but there's a sign in the teashop window: "closed temporarily due to staff shortage. Open again tomorrow". Oh well. There's bound to be one setback in any adventure.
As I head back to the tram stop, Tama-chan rejoins me, settling on my shoulder again. I muse about what I have achieved, if anything. I've enjoyed the trip, I'm happy to be reacquinted with Hinata-sou; but I've not made as much advance in the finding of Na-chan and Kei-kun as I had hoped. After the sense of progress that I felt when I spoke to mom on the phone, it's a bit of an anticlimax. At least I tried, though. And in a couple of days I'll meet Kei-kun and Na-chan when the results are announced, so surely there's no harm done.
General POV
Shortly afterwards, Naru and Kitsune emerged from their rooms and met in the corridor. They both took an anxious glance out through the window, looking at the adjoining roof where the "indisposed" manager had apparently been camped out for some days now, oblivious to the world. "Still up there, I see" said Kitsune.
"Yes, I wish I understood what was up with him" replied Naru, shaking her head sadly.
"Come on, you can tell me, I'm you friend. What was it you said to him? Or what did you do? He was fine when he left here on the morning of the last test!"
"Nothing! Really, it was nothing!" Naru said, but her red face contradicted her words.
Kitsune didn't press the matter, because she could see that Naru was uncomfortable about it, but she was determined to find out eventually. It didn't seem right, something going on which she didn't understand. And she really didn't like seeing Keitaro so obviously upset, and the thought that her friend Naru might have something to do with it made her uncomfortable.
Naru's POV
It seemed like nothing at the time, just the correction of a simple misunderstanding, but now I must admit I'm having doubts. But, fifteen years ago I was two years old. Simple arithmetic should have told him that! I could hardly talk, much less make a promise like the one he thought I made. And he has no right to involve me in his fantasies.
Well, it's the truth, isn't it? I can't be his promise girl. Oh, I did promise him this year, that we'd do our best to get to Tokyo U together, but then he goes and misunderstands, and thinks I'm this girl from fifteen years ago, and he embarasses me in front of the whole class, on the first day of exams! I had to set him straight, or he might have embarassed me again on the last day!
Maybe it was a mistake, though, to tell him that it's my promise to my tutor that's been keeping me going for the last two years. I think he might have taken that a bit hard. But really I haven't seen Seta in ages, it's not as if he's still around! Oh well, I should have known, it's just like that idiot to overreact, and to take things the wrong way!
back to Mutsumi's POV:
As I'm on the tram and watching Hinata house recede into the mist, I get a sudden foreboding. It's as if I've made a wrong turn somewhere, and missed an important chance, one that might not come again. But why? Tokyo U will always have entrance exams every year. I know my family will let me try again, for however many attempts I want to make. I feel sure that I will be meeting Na-Chan and Kei-Kun soon, despite all setbacks; and I feel sure that I'll get along with them, and we'll be happy together. I also have my protectress looking after me. So why do I feel this way?
To the reviewers:
Shinji: Thanks for the enthusiastic tribal dance. I hope this update meets the requirements.
TornadoReviewer: Mutsumi is developed a bit more in the manga than in the anime, but I'm having second thoughts about following the Manga storyline because I think a lot more people will be familiar with the Anime. If I follow the Manga, I will have to occasionally switch away from Mutsumi's POV, like I have done near the end of this chapter, to mention things which Mutsumi doesn't know about but which the readers will have to know if they want to fully understand what is going on.
In the Manga, when Naru tells Keitaro that she thinks she isn't the promise girl, she doesn't save this bombshell until after the exams are safely over. Instead she detonates it on the way to the last session of exams, and tops it with a revelation about how she made a promise to someone else, and it's because of this promise to someone else that she gets so weak whenever she hears the word "promise". She then carries onward to the exam hall, serenely unaware of the devastated wreck of a Keitaro that she is leaving in her wake. After the exam Keitaro settles down on the roof of Hinata-sou, and continues to be devastated and dead to the world until the day when the results are announced.