Daigoro

Kikumaru Eiji was afraid of the dark. Of course his family knew early on; they were subjected to hysterics, tight-hand-holding and a variety of other things since he was very small. However, his older siblings were not half as terrible as they pretended to be, so for his fifth birthday, Eiji received a large, fluffy-looking bear.

He named it Daigoro.

Eiji liked talking to his bear, especially when the lights were turned off, because then he knew Daigoro would get up and stand to guard the door against evil creatures of the night. Eiji thought it was cute that Daigoro refused to move in front of the others, and talked only to himself. Most of the time, he would talk until he fell asleep, and the next morning, the giant stuffed bear would be sitting stoically in its corner again.

This got Eiji through most of elementary school: going to bed, Daigoro on the opposite side of his bed. His conversations involved all sorts of things, school events, various friends' mishaps and adventures, stories of tennis practice and enduring the wrath of the coach when he skipped to go to gymnastics...

One July after grade 5, however, one of his tennis buddies had the bright idea of showing Ringu after a local tournament to, as he put it, celebrate like big kids. Eiji went along, he had no choice if he wanted to stay in the same school. He went home after the movie, silently and slowly. His teammates all thought it was because he was exhausted from the games (this incidentally saved his reputation.)

That night, he tossed and turned, unable to sleep with the light on, but couldn't even contemplate turning it off. The bed was too hard, or it creaked. There were shadows on the ceiling, his closet door was slightly ajar- no it wasn't. Even Daigoro-chan was looking exasperated.

Morning came, and in face of the overwhelming cheerfulness exhibited by the Kikumaru family on a normal day, Eiji shrank into insignificance. It was, however, his week to wash the dishes, so he started to wipe at the smooth porcelain listlessly. After the third meal with what resembled rice gruel stuck on the bottom of their bowls, the older sibs began to grumble. Eiji's mother took over, excusing him that, after all, it was the last summer before the rush for junior high exams.

Pure exhaustion crept up on Eiji, and he fell into a light doze- but he woke up with a jolt at midnight, in complete darkness.

His mother had thought to help him by turning the lights off, but this had the inverse effect. Eiji endured a half-hour of mind-bending terror, torn between firmly closing his eyes or to keep them open so he could see-

- dark everywhere.

Whimpering, Eiji scrabbled for his pillow. His hand came in contact with something furry and soft. It was Daigoro, Daigoro who stood guard every night, Daigoro whom he talked to, Daigoro who was there, all of a sudden.

Clutching desperately to the bear, Eiji sobbed with relief and went to sleep, tear tracks still clear on his cheeks.

From then on, Eiji always went to the bear with his problems, more often than to his friends. They didn't know about this habit, and were all of the opinion that Eiji was just an overly cheerful airhead.

One day, however, his older sister caught him chatting with Daigoro. She led him to her room and explained to him, gravely, that Daigoro was only a stuffed bear, and that he should spend more time with his schoolmates. When Eiji protested that Daigoro's feeling would be hurt, his neechan's expression took on that of every parent's when explaining the myth of Santa.

Daigoro did not live, so he did not feel.

She patted Eiji on the head and told him that she'd take him to his favourite ice cream parlor on Saturday, then left him to think things over in his room.

Eiji felt very much like smashing something, and ended up shaking Daigoro hard- to see if he'd react. Daigoro's head moved in different directions in an almost quizzical manner, but there was no sign, no indication that he'd felt the rough treatment from his owner. Eiji let out a frustrated yell and tackled the bear to the ground.

Tangled up in the soft limbs that were dirty and a little worn, Eiji realized that Daigoro would always be warm. If not on his own, then with him.