Tomo sprung up in her bed, throwing the sheet off both her
and Sakaki.
"Ohayou!" ('Morning!) Tomo called out.
"Oha-san..." ('Morning...) Osaka sleepily greeted her
friends.
"Damatte, Osaka, sorya hyoujun ja nai zo!" (Shut up, Osaka,
that's not standard!)
"Ugh...Tomo, why are you always the first one awake?" Yomi
grumbled from her bed.
"And why did you end up on the other side of the room?"
Yomi secretly thought. But she'd never tell Tomo that!
Reminder: last night's bed pairings (chosen by lot) were:
Tomo/Sakaki
Kagura/Chiyo-chan
Yomi/Osaka
"And you!" Yomi turned to Osaka. "WHY did you bother to
worry about the cracks in the ceiling? You even COUNTED the
cracks, for Kami's sake! You really oughta be worrying
about cracks in your head...kept me up til midnight, I
swear!"
"Kou ka?" Osaka asked innocently.
"Yes, really!" Yomi snapped back.
(Osaka didn't say "kou", meaning "like that". She said
"kou", meaning "sulci"--in other words, the cracks in her
head. Feel free to groan.)
"Hey guys, let's be quiet, Kagura, Chiyo-chan, and Sakaki
are still sleeping," Osaka said quietly but firmly.
"For once you're making an ounce of sense," Yomi muttered.
"Sakaki's still sleeping?" asked Tomo. Loudly.
"Not anymore," Sakaki murmured, her eyes fluttering open.
Just then, a familiar arm threw open the door between their
rooms.
"Are you awake yet?" Yukari yelled.
"Aahhh!" Chiyo-chan dived under the pillow...and bonked her
cute little head on the headboard. "Ow!"
"Chiyo-chan! Daijoubu?" (Chiyo-chan! Are you all right?)
Sakaki jumped off her bed and landed at Kagura's side of
the bed.
"Huh...what's going on..." Kagura woke up and noticed
Sakaki's anjigao (worried face) looking at Chiyo-chan.
"Chiyo-chan!" Kagura sat up and turned to Chiyo-chan. "What
is it? What's wrong?"
With her head still under the pillow: "Yukari scared me...
and I hit my head..."
"You're twelve, Chiyo-chan," Kagura said evenly. "But
you're still a kid. It's all right to cry."
Kagura and Sakaki did their best to comfort Chiyo-chan
while Yukari stumbled into their room.
"Oooo! Memoto o mite yo!" Tomo yelled from across the room.
(Whoa! Look at ol' Bag-Eyes!)
"Didja have fun with Nyamo last night? Didja? Didja?" Tomo
yelled.
"Yukari had fun with Nyamo?" Chiyo-chan asked, by now
recovered from her scare. "Did they stay up late watching
TV?" Chiyo-chan turned to Kagura. "Speaking of which, what
IS on TV at that hour?"
"You don't wanna know," Kagura replied distractedly, more
interested in the Tomo/Yukari conversation.
"Hell yeah we did!" Yukari answered Tomo, slurring her
voice slightly.
"Shut up Yukari, I'm TRYing to get some sleep in here," a
tired voice called out from the room next door. "In case
you haven't noticed."
A few seconds later Nyamo stumbled in. She looked even
worse than Yukari. Her hair was rumpled, her nightshirt had
slid down one sleeve, and her "sideburns" were matted.
"Oh, NOW you wanna get some sleep," muttered Yukari.
"What was that?" Nyamo sleepily retorted. "I seem to recall
YOU insisting on 'just one more game' at two-thirty in the
morning!"
"You were certainly awake then," Yukari grumbled. "Geez, I
know you're an athlete, but I didn't know you had THAT much
stamina."
"What WERE you two doing that kept you up so late?" Yomi
asked. Not that she'd heard anything, but it was pretty
obvious from their looks. "Assuming Tomo's right about--"
"It's all HER fault!" Yukari pointed at Nyamo. "I was
tryin' to sleep at three-thirty in the morning, and this
moron was keeping me awake!"
"Me? I can't help it! That's just the way I sleep!"
"This is getting interesting," Sakaki secretly admitted in
her mind, a faint blush rising to her cheeks.
"Well, DO something about it!" Yukari snapped. "There ARE
doctors who can help you with that, you know!"
"Help you with what?" Kagura asked. By this point all the
AzuDai girls, including the ever-curious Chiyo-chan, had
gathered near the door. (I forgot to mention--the door is
located on the far end of the room, past all three beds,
nearest Yomi and Osaka's bed. So they all gathered around
that bed.)
"Shut up!" Nyamo tiredly snapped. "You're making this whole
thing sound way too dirty, and then I'm gonna end up saying
something like...ah...Osaka, help me out here..."
"Nandeyanen!" (What the hell?)
"No, not that..."
"Chaunen!" (It's not what it looks like!)
"Yeah, that!"
"Well, what is it?" Kagura asked. Yukari opened her mouth
to say something. "Yukari, shut up."
"I...I snore," Nyamo admitted, turning red.
"You what?" Tomo called out. "Sorry, I couldn't hear you
all the way over here!"
"I SNORE, okay?" Nyamo said, louder. "It's been like that
ever since I was your age."
"Gives me a headache every time I sleep over," Yukari
interjected.
"Oh, she's just saying that in front of the girls," Nyamo
thought. "It certainly never stopped her before. Hey, wait
a second...why are we discussing our private life in front
of them anyway?"
She turned to Yukari. "And you wonder why we don't live
together," Nyamo said levelly.
"So that's what you meant when you said it's not so bad
living alone," Tomo called out. "Even though you two do
make such a cute--"
"I said that, and with your short attention span I can't
believe you remembered that," Yukari retorted. "Geez, that
was, what, two years ago?"
"I know it's a problem," Nyamo admitted, "and I know there
are surgeries for it. Problem is, I'm just a teacher and I
can't afford it."
"That's 'cause you're a stupid P.E. teacher," Yukari said,
earning her a tired half-hearted smack from Nyamo.
"What? We have the same salary! We got hired on the same
day, remember?"
"I get the feeling that's not the only reason you don't
live together," Kagura said.
Oddly enough, Yukari suddenly shut up.
"O-ho-ho, you REALLY don't wanna go there, Kagura," Nyamo
said with a big grin.
"Guess Nyamo's got something on her too," thought Kagura,
who'd heard from Tomo that Yukari had something on Nyamo.
Tomo had heard it from Chihiro, who'd heard it from that
Inoue girl. Something about a raburetaa (love-letter). Oh
well.
(Readers: Wondering who Inoue is? She first appears in the
"Health First!" 4-koma on page 13 of vol. 1 and then in the
"A Secret" 4-koma on page 15 of vol. 1.)
"Whatever, I'm going back to our room," said Yukari, not
even bothering to call it "the teachers' room".
"Me too," said Nyamo. "I think today's activity is gonna be
napping. That sounds pretty good. Napping on the beach."
She yawned and shut the door.
After everybody woke and changed, they decided to visit the
coral reefs of Naha.
Kimura's class joined Yukari's class for this brief visit,
so all nine of them (the six girls, Kimura, Yukari, and
Kaorin) boarded a glass-bottom boat to check out the coral.
(Obviously there were more than nine people, but we're only
concerning ourselves with these nine.)
"It's so colorful," said Sakaki.
"Kirei!" (Pretty!) Kaorin said with extra enthusiasm,
wholeheartedly agreeing with Sakaki. (Kaorin did not
personally like coral.)
"Whoa...it's so cool!" said Kagura, excited. "Hey, Sakaki,
is it alive? I think I saw it moving!"
"No, it's not alive," said Sakaki. "But it's made of animal
skeletons. And there are fish swimming in there."
"Awesome!"
Later, the two classes parted ways. Kimura's class visited
Miyako Island and Yukari's class visited Iriomote Island.
"Yeah!" shouted Kagura. "It's Nishihyo Island!"
"Kagura, you idiot, it's Iriomote!"
"Shut up Tomo! It slipped out. Again."
"Another slip of the tongue, eh?"
"Not gonna answer that," Kagura muttered. "WHY is Tomo
always coming up with rude comments?" she thought. "Geez,
you'd think she blows off plenty of steam with Yomi. Maybe
I'm reading too much into this. Oh well, it's a beach, so
let's have some fun! YEAH!"
The six of them decided to explore the island as a group.
Yukari had gone off to tan, telling them to come back in
six hours.
"If you feel like it," she added. "But that ferry's leaving
with or without you, and trust me, I'll be on the ferry.
And I'm NOT coming back for you!"
"Doesn't matter," said Osaka. "We'll start our own
civilisation. We'll call it...the Namako Society!"
"Again with the namako (sea cucumbers)?" Yomi asked.
"You gotta admit it'd be kinda funny," Kagura said.
"Isn't this island inhabited?" asked Chiyo-chan.
"Doesn't look like it," answered Tomo, surveying the port.
"There's practically nothing here."
"There's the Iriomote Mountain Cat," said Sakaki hopefully.
"Probably not, so don't get your hopes up," said Tomo,
seriously for once.
"But don't knock 'em down either," said Kagura.
"Anyway, it's a WILD cat," Sakaki explained, as if that
explained everything.
As they were walking through the jungle, Kagura asked, "So
why are you so interested in seeing this Iriomote cat
anyway?"
Sakaki flushed slightly. Even with her Aura of Cool, she
does that a lot. "There's the obvious reason..."
"Because it's a cat?"
"It's a RARE cat," Sakaki said. "I looked it up in the
library. It's so rare, nobody saw one until 1967. Chiyo-
chan, what were those local names again?"
"Yamamayaa (mountain cat), Yamapikaryaa (mountain sparkly-
eyed), or Pingiimayaa (escaped cat), in the local dialect,"
answered Chiyo-chan.
"She really helped me a lot with my search," explained
Sakaki. "Especially when it came to using the Internet."
Chiyo-chan grinned broadly. "No problem, Sakaki."
"It's not THAT rare," Kagura said.
"Huh?" Sakaki was confused.
"Not for YOU, anyway," Kagura said, flashing her trademark
grin.
"Why's that?"
"You know," Kagura explained, "I bet YOU could just stick
your hand out and that cat would come up and bite it." She
meant it.
Kagura was fully expecting Sakaki to put out her hand,
which she did. However, Kagura was NOT expecting--
"Ah...ahh..."
Sakaki turned white, but not with fear.
An Iriomote Mountain Cat appeared!
It jumped down from the tree it had been hiding in and made
its way to Sakaki.
"Whooaa." Kagura was sincerely impressed.
"Yamapikaryaa..." Chiyo-chan breathed.
And then something completely unexpected happened. The cat
climbed up Sakaki's long leg, somehow taking care not to
rip her jeans even though it can't sheath its claws.
Sakaki gently put the cat down and knelt down to its level.
She put out her hand toward the cat's head. Closer...closer
and closer...
"Careful, Sakaki," Kagura warned, ready to protect Sakaki
if she needed to.
Sakaki's hand touched the cat's head...and to everybody's
surprise, not only did she not get bitten, the cat actually
LIKED it!
"Whoa! You can PET 'im!" Kagura said quietly, excitedly,
but not wanting to scare away the cat. Though highly
excited (and excitable), Kagura put away her usual antics.
This cat wanted Sakaki, so Kagura was NOT going to ruin
Sakaki's day.
Neither was Tomo. Even she stood awestruck.
"Ahh, Sakaki, that's amazing," said Yomi.
Sakaki dared to pick up the cat. Amazingly, it actually
snuggled against her chest.
"He's so CUTE! He's still just a kitten, huh?" Chiyo-chan
rambled excitedly.
For once, Sakaki wasn't listening to what Chiyo-chan had to
say. She was in her own private heaven.
"Yamamayaa!" cried Sakaki, not loudly enough to scare the
newly-named kitten.
"Yamamayaa is another word for the Iriomote cat," Chiyo-
chan gently reminded Osaka.
"Hai, hai," answered Osaka. (Uh huh...)
For the rest of the day, Yamamayaa never once left Sakaki's
side. Together they visited the Wildlife Conservation
Center, the Arauchi River (where they all had lunch by the
river), and even Maryude Falls (Tomo didn't scare Chiyo-
chan here since there was no rail).
Finally, they arrived at the port, where Sakaki set down
Yamamayaa with a heavy heart.
"I guess this is goodbye," she said, "since I can't take
him back with me." She knelt down for one last hug. "We
can't keep any cats in our house...and he's a protected
species and all..."
Sakaki looked up at a nearby tree. "Is that your mommy?"
she asked.
Yamamayaa climbed up onto Sakaki's shoulder. Holding him
carefully, she walked over to the tree. When she approached
the branch, Yamamayaa expertly leaped from her shoulder to
the tree branch.
Yamamayaa's mommy purred with pleasure. Yamamayaa himself
jumped on his mommy's back, and with one last look at
Sakaki, climbed from there, further up in the tree.
Yamamayaa's mommy turned to Sakaki with a meaningful look.
She purred at Sakaki before she herself disappeared into
the trees.
"Goodbye, Yamamayaa," Sakaki murmured as she boarded the
return ferry, tears running down her cheeks and wetting her
Iriomote Mountain Cat T-shirt. "The only cat that truly
loved me..."