Welcome to Hibaku's Japanese classroom. It will help a little if you had a basic understanding of Japanese and Japanese names for you to understand some parts of this piece of fiction, so here goes!

Gaijin: foreigner

Yanagi: in case you don't know already, it means willow. (okay, I don't mean to belittle your intelligence but just putting these may help others, aight? Peace.)

Michi: The name 'michi' has many many many forms in Japanese. However, our Michi (my original character number one) is more special – her radical for 'mi' is similar to the 'mi' in Mikagami. Hence, you get the radical for 'water' in her name. The word for 'chi' means 'wisdom', if your computer supports Japanese text you may see it appearing in this chapter. Other words for 'michi' can mean 'the unknown as of now' (you will be seeing her relation to this meaning later in the fic) or 'the way' (you will not see any relevance whatsoever to this word in this fic).

How Wednesday is related to water: The radicals for the days of the week in Japanese are represented by elements. Wednesday holds the element of 'water' - 水曜日, if you can view Japanese text. Wednesday is pronounced suiyoubi, 'sui' in this case being the 'sui' in 'Ensui'. Radicals are the same for both 'sui' and 'mi' but pronunciations are different. Ironically, the most popular pronunciation for the radical is neither. When people see the radical for 'water', it is most often pronounced 'mizu', which is literally, water.

Ryou and Shizuka: Why do they not live up to their names? I had a purpose for choosing these two names – Ryou (良) means 'good' while Shizuka (静), means 'quiet and peaceful'. Get the picture?

Hibaku: Yes, just for fun! 'Hibaku' is written 飛瀑, which means 'a waterfall from a high place'. Unfortunately, it can also sound like 'a bombing casualty' in Japanese. Ah, woe is me!

Chapter One

"Pikachu! Are you free this weekend?" Saitou Michi, a student from another high school working at the kindergarten, approached Yanagi.

Yanagi giggled and asked, "Why do you just have to call me Pikachu?"

"Un… Because Pikachu is cute and happy, like you!" proclaimed Michi. She had been working with Yanagi for three months, and the two had become firm friends.

Laughing, Yanagi replied, "I'm not free this weekend, I have to go to my art classes in the morning before attending a little boy's birthday party."

"Is the little boy from our kindergarten?"

Yanagi shook her head. "He's a… relative," she decided with a smile.

Michi finished arranging the painting pots and stood back to admire her work. Yanagi chuckled, "It's not that fascinating."

"I like it," Michi smiled, still gazing lovingly at the paint pots.

Yanagi gathered up all the paintbrushes she had washed and wondered out loud, "Is there anything you don't like?"

"Un…" mused the blonde, a hand on her chin, thinking hard. "I think I would not like to be lonely."

The statement struck Yanagi as unexpected; and she quietly dried her hands on a towel hanging by the sink. She thought Michi would say something like, "I don't like purple birds that perch on pine trees" or something else pertaining to the girl's character.

"What about you?" Michi voiced.

"I think I would not like to be lonely too," softly came the confession.

There was a pregnant pause before Michi spoke again.

"My mom and dad met in a café somewhere in Hawaii. You would think that they would have met on the beach, when you mention they first met in Hawaii," Michi fondly recounted as she planted herself on a little chair the kids normally sat on while drawing their pictures. She quietly moved another chair to accommodate Yanagi, and gingerly the other girl sat down, not wanting to create any noise that could wake the sleeping children from their afternoon nap.

"Kaa-san was most definitely a gaijin, and my father's parents objected to the marriage because they felt Japanese and Americans should not have anything to do with each other. They were both involved in the war, you see. But… Kaa-san and Tou-san went against my grandparents, as television dramas always go."

Yanagi silently wondered where the conversation was going. She felt that Michi was going to give her a revelation of some sort that day, no matter if it was terribly important to her or not.

"So, they got married and had me. We lived happily in Hokkaido for about ten years until Kaa-san contracted cervical cancer… Well, you probably know what comes next after cancer. Tou-san doesn't seem to be very bothered that Kaa-san isn't around now, but I think it hurts him deep down inside."

Michi held Yanagi's gaze soulfully.

"I'm not sure whether it was Kaa-san that caused it, but I felt so lonely. So empty inside… As if there was a huge part of me that was missing. It seemed that I was feeling that way for a long, long time, so I couldn't be sure that it was Kaa-san that made me feel that way."

Michi sighed and closed her eyes.

"Until I met you, Yanagi-chan…"

Yanagi felt her breath catch in her throat. Michi smiled sadly at her.

"I'm not saying that I treat you as my mother… That would be terrifyingly hilarious. But… It's just that… When I moved to Tokyo and saw you leading the children around in the park drawing the flowers and the trees, I knew I had to get to know you. I knew you had to be a part of my life, somehow. So I decided to join the kindergarten as an assistant, like you."

Yanagi cleared her throat. She felt uneasy – Michi seemed to be telling her about her true feelings, and Yanagi was 100 per cent straight, boyfriend included.

Noticing Yanagi's discomfort, Michi decided to explain further.

"Don't get me wrong, Pikachu!" Michi laughed, blushing and rubbing the back of her head. "I see you as a sister, a close friend…"

Yanagi, still suspicious, only gave an apprehensive smile.

"You don't think I'm speaking the truth?"

Yanagi shook her head. "I just find it hard to stomach."

"No matter what, it's true. Even so… I still feel that something else is missing from my life. I'm still in search for it… I believe that when I've found that something or someone, I will know why you are so important to me."

Smiling, Michi decided to change the subject. "So, Pikachu, why did your parents give you the name 'Yanagi'? I've always wanted to ask you this."

Yanagi was surprised. "Well… The kanji for 'yanagi' is this," she grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from the little table and wrote the word '柳'. "I was born premature, and my parents felt that even though I was with weak constitution, I would grow up to be resilient, even though I may not be physically strong. Un… Why do you ask?"

"I just get interested in people's names," confessed Michi. "I like to use their names to identify with what kind of people they are, and whether they live up to their name or not."

"Well, tell me how you got your name and I'll see if you live up to it or not!" teased Yanagi.

Michi laughed. "You may think that my name is 'michi'," she paused to write the word '道' on the piece of paper, "or 'michi' with the 'mi' like that," she followed by writing the word '美'.

"But my name is kind of weird because the first radical was chosen by my mother and the second by my father. My name is written like this," Michi wrote the kanji characters '水智'.

"Uhhhh… 'The wisdom of water'?" Yanagi studied the words carefully.

"Literally, yes. You see, I was born on a Wednesday, and you know the radical for Wednesday is-"

"Water," finished Yanagi.

"Obviously," sighed Michi, "that part of my name was chosen by my gaijin mother. My father wanted me to have wisdom, so hooray for the 'chi' part of my name. I'm supposed to be, in essence, the product of love of my parents, that's why they chose to choose a word each to make up my name. My name doesn't mean much literally – it's the essence that counts. So," concluded Michi, "you can be a judge of whether I live up to my name or not!"

Laughing, Yanagi nodded. "I see."

At that timely moment, just when they had run out of things to say for that day, Ryou, one of the children at the centre, popped out of the room and rubbed his eyes.

"Yanagi-neechan, Michi-neechan, I need to pee!" he announced loudly, waking half his class up. Behind him was Shizuka, his rival classmate who had to copy everything he did.

"I need to pee as well!" she proclaimed as royally as she could.

"I need to pee more urgently!" Ryou shouted, not wanting to be defeated.

"I am already peeing!" Shizuka put her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue, attempting to wet the floor.

Enraged, Ryousquatted down and made a measure to defecate.

Sighing in mock desperation, Yanagi and Michi hurriedly grabbed the hand of each of the children and the former whispered to the other, "These two certainly don't live up to their names!"

Using her other hand to muffle her snort of laughter, Michi nodded in agreement as they rushed the children to the bathroom before they could make the two older girls their clean-up slaves.

"Kurei… Kurei!"

"I'm sorry, Neon."

Neon woke up to the sound of her son, Hiro, crying. Rushing up to his cot, she rocked him gently and lifted up her shirt to breastfeed him.

She gave an inward sigh and thought of how nice it would be if Kurei was around. He would help her with the baby, come home to a loving family…

…But that probably would never, ever happen.

Saitou Nobuhiko was preparing the table for dinner when he heard a click in the door.

His daughter was home.

That meant he had to tell her the news.

"Otou-san! I'm home!" Michi called from the front door.

"Okay! Dinner's ready!" Nobuhiko smiled. Keep calm, keep calm, he told himself.

Michi put down her schoolbag and asked her father, "How was work today?"

Nobuhiko froze for less than a nanosecond and replied with a bright grin, "It was terrific. We managed to finish the Arakawa project!"

Michi raised her eyebrow critically. "I thought you finished that project last month?"

"Oh… I meant the OTHER Arakawa project."

"…Stop it, Otou-san. What's going on?"

Nobuhiko sighed and put his head in his hands. "I've been retrenched."

Michi was quiet as she picked up her bowl of rice.

"Otou-san," she gently spoke, "let's eat first."

Nobuhiko, always one to listen to his daughter, took his chopsticks in his fingers and announced with a sad smile, "Itadakimasu."

"So, basically we will have to find another place to live in, right?" Michi asked, looking around the living room.

Nobuhiko nodded.

"Well, it's only the two of us… We'll live in an apartment! How about that? We don't have to live in a house like this. An apartment will be just nice for us. Cozy and warm."

Nobuhiko nodded again.

"Otou-san… Don't be so sad. I'm not affected by it at all, really."

Nobuhiko gave Michi a shadowy smile. "I promised your mother I would give you the best…"

Michi walked over to her father, knelt down and gave him a hug. "You already have."