[Summary: Nanako talks manga with Kanji and later crushes one of Yosuke's dreams. The DEATH Squad girls visit the bathhouse and talk about the boys. Adachi opens up a little about his ex-partner.]
[6/4: Saturday]
Nanako spent the entire week focused on the music room's piano. She brought earplugs to ignore the band when it had a club meeting, but they didn't work as well as she'd hoped. She almost asked Yosuke to borrow his headphones—he'd probably let her if she promised to keep them safe (or if she ordered him)—but she doubted they'd be much help.
On the bright side, even the club president had recognized Ayane's lack of talent and had asked her to go practice outside on her own. Cruel words, but the girl definitely needed a new hobby. Maybe she'd be interested in cooking? Then she and Yukiko could form their own club together.
In cleaning the piano, Nanako had removed the fall board and carefully cleaned out all the crap from the action: dust and hair and actual crap; apparently a mouse or two had been within the piano. Each key had received a more thorough cleaning job now, and she'd fixed most of the stuck keys. The problem had been moisture in the felt. There were still a few that wouldn't cooperate, however.
She wondered how long it was since the piano had been tuned. If it had been in the closet for over half a year, it was well overdue. That was something she couldn't do on her own; it needed a professional's attention. She might actually have to join the club to get the adviser's support in bringing in a piano tuner to the school. At the same time, the piano didn't sound out of tune yet. It might survive long enough for her to use it for the year.
"Will she make it, Doc?" Yosuke asked with an amused smile. He sometimes watched her work like this.
"There isn't much left I can do for it on my own," Nanako admitted. Yeah, it was probably about as good as it was going to get. She wasn't as satisfied with that realization as she'd hoped. She sighed.
"Why don't you play something," Yosuke suggested. "You've put in all this work but haven't played it!"
"I've played it a little bit."
"Testing keys isn't playing," he said matter-of-factly. "Come on, play something! It might cheer you up. You look like you've been working too hard."
She had been throwing herself full force into this project, hadn't she? The murder case wasn't going anywhere. When Adachi had visited the Seta residence on Wednesday evening, he'd mentioned that 'the shrimpy detective Shirogane' spent every day and much of every night poring over case files in the office, but hadn't reported any progress.
Nanako began to play something from memory, and then one of the keys stuck and she almost smacked the piano in frustration.
"H-hey, it's okay," Yosuke said. He moved next to her to try and comfort her. "Can you, umm, maybe play around the broken key?"
"I wish I was back home," she muttered.
"Don't say that!" he said, sounding worried. "Well, I feel that way, too, sometimes, but there's a lot of good things in Inaba, just think about it!"
"What, like steak croquettes?" she said, rolling her eyes. "Because I can't get that back home." She sighed.
"W-well, there's, uh, that clean air that sometimes smells like cows," he said. "And you can get across town in less than an hour. There isn't much traffic. Not as many people, too, that's a plus when you're not feeling social. And there's, uh, us. You know, your friends!" He wore a silly, but still worried, smile.
She sighed again. "Yeah, I know. It's not the same, though. We had a very nice piano back home, and..."
"I bet you had a lot of friends in Tokyo."
She nodded, and then paused. "Well, not a lot, but I was really close with my group. Closer than I am with everyone here, actually, but that's mostly because I haven't been here all that long yet."
"Really? It's the opposite for me," he reported. "I feel like I'm closer to my friends here than I was back home. I had a group of friends, but we mostly only talked as a group. Never talked to them one-on-one, you know?"
"I'm the only one you talk to one-on-one," she pointed out.
"Y-yeah, well, that's because Chie and Yukiko are inseparable," he said. "I've tried. Sometimes I can lure Chie away with steak, but then that ends up being the main topic of conversation..." He ran his fingers down his headphones cord. "Huh... Maybe I don't have as many friends as I thought."
Nanako suggested that he join a sports club. "They're hurting for members. You'll make some friends there. Basketball would be good for you. You're tall enough for it. As a bonus, it'll help you stay in shape when we're not training in the TV World."
"I don't have that much time," he began.
"Bullshit. You're talking with me right now. And I've seen you stand around in the halls after school is out with nothing to do."
"I'll think about it," he promised. He leaned against one of the music chairs after testing that it would hold his weight. "Say, Nanako, do you ever call your Tokyo friends?"
"I don't even call my parents!" she announced. "Email is the thing to do. I write one big email every week, and then I copy-paste it and personalize it with different comments for each friend before sending it off, you know?"
"It would be pretty funny if they compared emails and you got caught," Yosuke said.
"They haven't called me out on it yet." She grinned, and he smiled back, happy to have cheered her up. "What about you? You said you only had a bunch of guy friends. You keep in touch with them?"
"Not really," he admitted. "When I left, they said they'd text me, but they never did. Out of sight, out of mind, right? I don't blame them. Well, there is one guy I text every week, and he tells me how they're all doing, so..."
"One guy, huh?" She looked at him curiously. "He gets the 'every week' treatment too, eh?"
"Sometimes twice a week," Yosuke confessed, "if something interesting happens. But it's hard when the most interesting thing is the TV World. We can't talk about that." He paused for a moment and then took his phone out. "Hey, Nanako, can I take a picture?"
"Well, I'm kind of dirty from cleaning here," she said, lips turning down in a grimace.
"You and me and the piano," he further explained. "Fixing the piano is something to talk about, right? He might like to see that."
"'A picture is worth a thousand words,'" she quoted. "Yeah, sure." She stood in front of the piano and Yosuke stood next to her with his phone out. Before he took the picture, she put her arm around him and tugged to throw him off-balance and also put on a silly face.
"Hey!" he protested, but he'd already pressed the button to take the picture. Yes, Nanako was grinning impishly in the picture with an eyebrow raised, and Yosuke was partially out of the screen. "Come on, we'll have to do it again."
"It's perfect," she declared. "Send it off!"
"Nanako—"
"Your friend has a sense of humor, right? He wouldn't be your friend otherwise! Send it off, it's perfect!"
"It definitely captures your essence," he muttered. "Fine, but I'm telling him it's your fault."
She told him to go right ahead.
[6/5: Sunday]
Chie was busy today with family obligations, so she couldn't go training. Nanako didn't ask what the obligations were. In her book, 'Family' was always a good excuse for skipping out on anything.
In fact, family was the reason Nanako wanted out of the house today: Aunt Seta was home and it seemed like she was planning to stay there all day in the living room taking conference calls. Nanako asked Souji if he wanted to go out with her, but he just looked at his mom. He wanted to stay home with her, even if she wasn't interacting with him.
Frustrated, Nanako wandered down the street and eventually found herself at the central shopping district. She hadn't spoken with Kanji in a while—and Tanaka had been trying to sell a fundoshi this morning—so she decided to find him. With his stature and the shopping district's emptiness, he was easy to spot. He was standing near Souzai Daigaku, but didn't seem to have any plans to eat. "Oh, hey Senpai," he said when she walked up to him.
"Yo, Kanji-kun. What's up?" she asked.
He rolled his shoulders in a shrug. He was wearing a tight black leather jacket that looked a bit too warm to wear in June. "Just wanted a break from my Ma," he said. "Skipped school yesterday... She was on my case about it."
"Fuck Saturday school!" Nanako agreed enthusiastically.
"G-geez, Senpai," he muttered, disconcerted. "No one'd think you'd have such a mouth on you..."
She chuckled, then pointed out that they'd already gone over how appearances could be deceiving.
"Actually, Senpai," he said after making sure no one was around to hear them. His voice was quieter than she expected out of him. "I wanted to... to... err... talk to you about that stuff you sent me."
"Oh, did you read it?" she asked innocently.
His mouth tightened. "I thought you were making fun of me. You know, my damned Shadow. Since the cover had two beefy guys on it. But... I read it, and it was pretty cute, yeah." His cheeks were pink now. Another victory!
"What was your favorite part?"
"Uh..." Kanji frowned in thought for a second and then declared, "The tears, man! Hits you right here!" He thumped his chest.
She blinked at him. In retrospect, she should have expected him to be so sensitive, but at the moment, she was surprised!
"I mean," Kanji went on, "he was crying on that motorcycle, about to head on out of there, and then, and then...! And then the guy kisses him and then they're both crying! Frickin' hell, man! I couldn't believe it!"
"Yeah! You can feel their sincerity dripping off the page!"
Kanji voiced his agreement and was silent for a moment. His euphoric expression morphed into a troubled one. "Senpai... I know it was just a story, but... can guys really fall in love with guys like that?"
"Yes, Kanji-kun," Nanako replied gently. "It happens every day."
"But it's... not normal, right?" He shifted from one foot to the other. "What if... I'm not normal?"
"Normal and abnormal are just labels, Kanji-kun. Like gay, straight, bi... Some people like to ascribe to labels, and some don't. The thing is, they're there whether we want to be labeled or not. You already know what it's like not to be normal, Kanji-kun. What's most important isn't to be 'normal' but to be happy. That's just my opinion, but I think it's worked out pretty well for me!"
"You're happy, Senpai?"
She tapped her chin. "Maybe 'happy' is the wrong word. 'Personally satisfied' is slightly more accurate. And, well, you know how some days are better than others, but what I meant was that overall you should be satisfied with yourself on your own merits, not basing it off of what society expects from you."
Kanji didn't look reassured. She told him gently that he didn't have to figure it all out in one day. They were still in high school, after all!
"Y-yeah, thanks, Senpai," he said. "I don't know what I want... Makes my head spin just trying to think about it. All I want is to help Ma with the store. Dunno about anything beyond that..."
She admitted she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, either, and mentioned that Yukiko was also having doubts. "You're not alone, Kanji-kun. I'm here for you. I'm willing to help you figure some of it out!"
"Yeah? Actually, Senpai, I..." He shifted his weight again and scratched the back of his head. "That detective..."
"Naoto Shirogane?"
"Yeah, him! I'd never seen him before in my life, and then he comes up to me and says he's interested in me. What the hell was I supposed to think? Something like that never happens to a guy like me... But he wasn't interested in me after all. It hurt, dammit."
Naoto was likely not even aware of how his words had been misinterpreted. It was kind of tragic, actually. Poor Kanji. "There are plenty of fish in the sea, Kanji-kun. Let's go fishing some day, hmm? If you're free, we could even go now."
"Now? I gotta do some errands for Ma today, but... I'll go anywhere with you, Senpai!"
Nanako felt trust emanating from the boy, and then a new social link was established. Emperor...
"By the way, Kanji-kun," she said when the voice in her head was done speaking. "About that manga. There's more where that came from!"
"Y-yeah? W-well, I don't know, uhh..."
"You like what you like, Kanji-kun!" she declared. "Don't be ashamed of it! Besides, the sex was pretty good, too, right?"
"S-Senpai!" he stammered in an uncharacteristically squeaky voice.
It was an image she'd remember for a long time: Kanji blushing there in his tight leather jacket, scratching his head while thinking about Men's Love.
She'd have to pass him more of her favorites.
[6/8: Wednesday]
Nanako had noticed Yosuke poring over some sort of manual during class, but she didn't ask him about it, deciding that if he was actually buckling down to study, well, more power to him, honestly. Their next set of exams were over a month away, however, and she doubted he'd be preparing so far ahead of time.
She didn't have to wonder for too long, because after class that afternoon he handed her an identical manual and told her to check it out.
It was a study guide for the exam to obtain a motorcycle license.
"Please don't tell me you're getting a motorcycle," she said with her fingers splayed over her eyes.
"I've always wanted one!" Yosuke said with starry, Teddie-like eyes. "But no, I can only afford a scooter. You should get one, too! Take the license exam with me, Nanako!"
"No."
"Huh? I thought you'd be completely on this," he said, puzzled. "You could have your own biker gang, 'Boss.' And it'd be much faster to get across town on a scooter."
"It's dangerous, Yosuke!" she exclaimed. "How often do you crash your bike, again? I like you enough not to want to have to pull your mangled body from a pile of twisted metal, okay?"
"A scooter is completely different from a bike!" he protested.
"Yeah, it goes a hell of a lot faster! Mangled body, do I have to repeat that?"
Kanji overheard part of the argument because he'd just entered the classroom. He walked up to them. "Still talkin' about that motorcycle, huh? He went on and on about it during lunch. 'Squeeze play,' or somethin'?"
"It's not a squeeze play," Yosuke said, looking anguished. "I-I don't know what it's called! Probably doesn't even have a name."
"What are you even talking about?" Nanako asked.
"Yosuke-senpai said that when a girl sits behind you on a motorcycle—"
"Don't tell her about that!" Yosuke hissed.
"Tell me, Kanji-kun," she immediately ordered. "Nevermind, I can probably guess. Boobs, right?" By the look on Yosuke's face, she was totally on target. She sighed. "Right when I was starting to think you weren't just a hormonal teenage boy, you go and remind me that you are."
"Nanako!" he whined.
"I get it," she said. "I understand that they could feel nice against your back, but ugh, you've just made sure that I'll never ride with you... Wanting to get a license just for that? It should be a bonus, not the goal!"
"I never said that was the only reason!" Yosuke defended.
"He was going on about pher... pheral... mones?" Kanji added helpfully. "An' calling it the 'up close and personal' plan."
"I think you just got busted, Yosuke," Nanako said, shaking her head. "Really, though, if you wanted a girlfriend so bad, you should've just told me."
Yosuke's eyes grew large. "Nanako, what are you saying...?"
"We'll go clubbing in Okina and we'll find someone for you," she finished with a nod. "I promised Kanji-kun the same thing."
"O-oh... Umm, okay," Yosuke said uncertainly. "Clubbing...? I've never done anything like that. It could be fun."
"You'll have fun!" she claimed. "Or maybe I'll have fun, heh heh. But anyway, look, I can't stop you from getting a license, but please think harder about this. Do your research about crash statistics and cost and value. And really, Inaba is so small that an ordinary bike is fine."
Yosuke sighed and took the study guide back from her.
"Now Kanji-kun," she proceeded in a businesslike fashion, "is there a reason you came up here? You wanna talk or something?" She almost asked if he'd read the latest manga she'd sent him, but not in front of Yosuke.
"It was just somethin' about the camping trip next week," Kanji said. "I was wondering if I could hang out with all you senpai during it. 'S not like I have friends in my own class, you know? Now that Naoki's gone, anyway... I've tried to be friendly, but the guy behind me says I'm too tall and he can't see the board, and the dude next to me is all cowering and stuff..."
Nanako told him it'd be perfectly fine—as long as he was willing to cross paths with Mr. Morooka, since he was going to be their chaperone.
"Tch, I'll manage," Kanji said. "I can't disappoint you, Senpai. I won't sock him one, even if he deserves it."
"He talks a lot of shit, yeah," Nanako admitted, "but he's not such a bad guy."
"Dude, do you even listen to him?" Yosuke snorted. "He's awful! He all but called you a slut that one time you corrected his spelling!"
"There was a 'thank you' in there," she said. "Really, if you ignore the garbage, he knows his subject pretty well. Damn, that reminds me, I gotta turn in that essay he assigned me."
"Surprised he hasn't complained at you yet for it," Yosuke remarked.
Nanako shrugged her shoulders. "He never gave me a due date. Should hand it in before the camping trip, though. Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, guys, I've gotta get going—I have plans!"
Her 'plans' involved meeting the girls, Chie and Yukiko, at the Junes food court. Well, that was only half the plan, actually. The other half...
"All right, girls, we're going into the TV!"
"Without the boys?" Chie protested. "Isn't that..."
"We'll be fiiiine," Nanako assured her. "I just wanna use the baths! I wouldn't want to use them with the boys around, would you?"
"Maybe," said Yukiko with a dreamy look.
"Yukiko!" Chie scolded, covering her mouth in surprise.
"Wow, Yukiko," said Nanako. "I mean, I could call them up if you want, but I was thinking just the three of us."
"Yes, just the three of us!" Chie declared with determination. "Let's go!"
The fog in the TV World wasn't exactly cold, nor was the walk to the bathhouse particularly long, but the heat from the steam in the bathhouse felt good, for once. It was probably because they weren't there to fight Shadows. Relaxation as a team was something that was long overdue.
They didn't strip all their clothes off in the changing room, only their jackets and shirts, just in case any Shadows had wandered into the bath chamber. Nanako had asked Teddie if he'd noticed any up there, but he couldn't tell without going inside himself, and they weren't about to let him join in their bath time, even if he had been willing to come with. So they'd brought their weapons, too, but they turned out to be completely unnecessary.
Nanako stripped first because, well, because she was Nanako. Her bra, skirt, and underwear went into a bucket near the washbasin. The faucet poured out cool water, and she cleaned herself with a sponge. Not far from her Chie and Yukiko had started to do the same. She left them alone; Chie was overprotective of the young innkeeper, that was for sure. It was cute to see her fussing over the girl, though!
Nanako was also the first to jump into the bath. "Ohoho, this is niiiice." She leaned back against the edge, then twisted to crack her back. Man, they should've done this right after they'd saved Kanji.
The other two girls joined her moments later, Chie helping Yukiko step in. Soon they were both sitting across from her in the bath and enjoying the hot water.
"Sooo," Nanako drawled. "Now that we're alone. Kanji-kun and Yosuke underwear grades! Go go go!"
"Nanako!" Chie protested. She might have blushed, but it was hard to tell through the bathhouse's steam.
"The briefs were very... traditional," Yukiko commented.
"But those tiger stripes, am I right?" Nanako laughed.
"Are we really talking about this?" Chie complained.
"Yes," said Nanako, and Yukiko nodded.
Chie looked put out.
"Come on," said Nanako. "It's not like they weren't looking at us! Yosuke for sure, and Kanji-kun out of curiosity more than anything." And... it's not like I wasn't looking at you myself! Heck, she was looking at both of the girls right now... heh heh... Was this her true plan...?
"At least he wore boxer-briefs instead of normal boxers," Chie contributed begrudgingly. "Boxers are like shorts, you know? Why bother?"
"Yesss," Nanako agreed, rubbing her hands together with fanatical fervor. "I'll give Yosuke that much credit. He did give us something to look at."
"K-Kanji-kun gave us more," Yukiko said quietly, looking down to hide her embarrassment at voicing such a comment. Nanako just laughed and told her not to be ashamed.
Chie then said that neither of the boys were her type.
Yukiko hummed at that as if considering the options, and Nanako wondered if the girl was more... open and inclusive like she was. That was exciting. She'd have to find out!
"We should come here after the camping trip," Chie murmured. Her eyes were closed as she relaxed in the bath. "We're going to be sore enough, after sleeping on the rocks in a tent!"
"And after picking up all that trash at the campground." Nanako sighed. "Man, what a lame field trip that's gonna be. Learn to respect nature, what a crock."
"It's not all bad," Chie said. "We went swimming last year."
"Swimming?" Nanako perked up. "If I buy you two swimsuits, would you wear them? Trust me, I'll get ones that'll suit you. I need to get one for myself, too. I didn't pack anything like that from home."
"I wasn't actually planning on going swimming," Chie admitted. "The water was pretty cold last time, and the boys in the class kept splashing us." She splashed water over her shoulders now as if in memory.
"I was never splashed," Yukiko said with a small frown.
"But I bet you had a bunch of boys following you around like ducklings, anyway," Nanako said with a snicker. "Princess." She moved through the water until she was sitting right next to Yukiko.
"If there were, I didn't notice," Yukiko admitted freely.
"Don't worry," Nanako said. "If the boys start splashing, I'll kick their asses. All of them. At once."
Nanako slid her hand around Yukiko's back in the water. "N-Nanako!" the girl protested, but she didn't pull away.
"Just need an estimate on your size for the swimsuit," Nanako murmured, moving her hands into place on Yukiko's sides. Oh, her skin was very smooth in the water here, probably sensitive, too...
"Well, all right—h-hey! Ch-Chie!" Yukiko cried in between a sudden set of giggles. "She's t-tickling me!"
"Where is she tickling you!?" Chie demanded, moving forward.
Nanako grinned, then dived for Chie and gave her the same treatment. Chie gasped in surprise, but it wasn't long before she was fighting back and tickling Nanako as well. Yukiko laughed uproariously as she watched the two girls make waves in their tussle.
After a few minutes, Nanako called a timeout, and then all three of the girls were trying to catch their breaths while still giggling.
"I do need your measurements," Nanako said with a sheepish smile.
Oh, yes, after today... she'd almost be as close with some of her Inaba friends as she had been with her Tokyo friends.
Nanako bid farewell to the two other girls in front of the big TV in the electronics department. They were hardly out of sight when she began to make plans to bring the boys to the bathhouse. With Yukiko or without Yukiko? That was the question. She thought about it while she went shopping for some new bath toys for Souji. Having the TV World entrance at Junes was hella convenient.
She found a pack of those little sponge capsules that expanded when put in water. Oh, Souji would get a kick out of that. She could imagine his gray eyes staring intently at one while it grew in his hand. The capsule pack she picked up would, of course, become various dinosaurs. Man, now she couldn't wait for bath time.
Maybe she should bring some capsules to the bathhouse when she went again, too. She could surprise Yosuke by throwing a t-rex sponge at him. His squawk of protest was pretty easy to imagine.
Nanako stopped before leaving Junes because it was still raining outside. What a drag... and damn, it was really dark out there. It was so easy to lose track of time in the TV World, but she had a hard time believing how late it was until she checked her cellphone. She was totally late for dinner. Poor Souji...
She wasn't the only one totally late for dinner, though. Detective Adachi was standing by Junes' huge front window, looking out into the rain with a rather lost expression. Oh, wait, he'd come over to the Seta residence for dinner last week, so he probably wasn't due for a visit until next week. That seemed to be his schedule, anyway.
Still, it didn't mean she couldn't be friendly with him. "Adachi-san! Did you forget your umbrella?"
The detective blinked, his mind slowly returning to earth. "Oh, Nanako-kun," he greeted. "What are you doing out after dark? Wait, let me guess. Your aunt... she doesn't even know you're out, does she?"
"Damn right," she replied unashamedly. "She's almost always home late."
"She works at some place past Okina City, and you know how it is. Gotta stay at work 'til the boss leaves. That's how it is in office jobs. Makes me glad to work the streets, heh." Adachi didn't seem to be judgmental about it, nor was he being reproachful towards Nanako for her negative attitude.
"Speaking of working, you aren't working now, are you?" Nanako asked. She noted how loose his brown tie and collar were. Nah, he was out on the town for the evening. Oh, there was an umbrella leaning against the window behind him. It was probably his.
"I was thinking of hitting up the pub at the shopping district," he said, "but ehhh. Old Lady Shiroku always looks at me like a piece of meat..."
"Oh, god!" Nanako moaned sympathetically.
"I know, right?" He laughed.
"Hey, speaking of food, did you eat?" Nanako asked. "Why don't you come over and kill some time? I've got, well, leftovers, but..."
He blinked at her, then narrowed his eyes. "Nanako-kun... You're inviting me, a man you hardly know, over after telling me that you're going to be alone. You don't see anything wrong with this?"
"What, it's not like I'm inviting myself to your place. Though maybe I should." She scratched her chin in a playful pose of thought. "I'm kidding," she added, just in case.
"I was about to say. I'm a single guy living alone. It's not a pretty sight. You don't wanna go there."
"You should clean up or you'll never be able to invite a pretty girl over!" she said. "But I was serious about the dinner at Auntie's. You're not that much of a stranger, and I'm not home alone. Souji-kun's there. He's alone right now, actually. I should be getting back."
At the mention of Souji, Adachi began to shift uncomfortably. "Ehh, it'd be better if I didn't... If I came over every week, he'd resent me more."
"He'll never get used to you if you avoid him," she stated matter-of-factly.
"Used to me?" he repeated under his breath.
Nanako opened her umbrella and stepped towards the door. "Come on."
Souji was shocked to see Adachi over when he wasn't scheduled to visit. Nanako tried to grab him before he could run into his room, but the boy was slippery like a fish and got away. Adachi told her to let him be, though he sounded somewhat wistful.
She sat the detective down at the kitchen table and heated up some leftover takeout rice and ginger pork for both of them. He ate it with small sounds of enjoyment. "Better than what I'd have at home," he admitted. "This old lady keeps bringing me nimono, and I wasn't joking about my place being kind of... yeah."
"Not like I cook either," Nanako admitted. "That ramen a few weeks ago was just a fluke. If I had more time, I'd learn to cook, but, eh, I'm a student, you know."
"Yeah, ramen and takeout is the staple."
"And sometimes the takeout is ramen."
When they were done eating, they moved to the living room tea table. She poured him some tea, and he seemed to appreciate it. They enjoyed the hot drinks in silence for a while.
Then Adachi sighed. "This whole house feels wrong without Sachio," he confided.
"I... I never met him, but..."
He leaned back, although there was nothing to lean against. "He was a good guy. I was glad to be assigned under him when I was sent out here. Well, actually, I was kind of pissed... Hated being sent to the boonies. He helped cool my head, haha... He and Ryoko-san, yeah, they made me feel welcome."
Perhaps unconsciously, he'd taken out the lighter and was rubbing over its stylized dragon etching.
"Doesn't mean he was easy on me," he continued, "but... he was just teaching me from experience. Maybe I didn't appreciate it at the time." He flipped open the lighter's lid and then thumbed the dial. "Appreciate it now. That bastard..."
Nanako let the silence hang. It felt important that she not interrupt.
The detective heaved another sigh. "He'd invite me over for dinner every other week. It became a sort of tradition, and Ryoko-san has kept it up, and, well... She hides it well, but I think she needs the support. And Souji-kun... It can't be easy for a kid to lose his dad like that."
"Y-yeah," Nanako admitted. "I wouldn't know, but... Souji-kun's, well, I think..."
"Ryoko-san isn't giving him enough attention, right? He probably reminds her of Sachio. He looks more like his father than his mother, that's for sure. But Ryoko-san, well, I don't know if she was ever all that motherly. Doesn't strike me as the type."
"Yeah, she's not," Nanako said. She let out a long sigh of her own.
"Sachio wasn't that fatherly, either, to tell you the truth... Hate to say it, but some people shouldn't have children."
"He took baths sometimes with Souji-kun," Nanako contributed. "That's about all I know. You know, umm... I've never seen a picture of Sachio, err, Uncle Seta. There aren't any in this house."
"There isn't one at the family shrine?" Adachi pulled out his phone—not as nice as the one her dad had in Tokyo—and found a picture to show her. "Here's me and him... out drinking. Heh. Don't tell Ryoko-san!"
God, Souji did look like his dad. Sachio had short, gray hair. His eyes—also gray—seemed bright and cheerful, and his smile genuine. He had his arm around Adachi's shoulder. They'd only had a drink or two, because it seemed like they'd loosened up, but were not quite at the drunk stage. Adachi's arm was out towards the camera; he'd been the one to take the picture.
"How long ago was this?" Nanako asked.
"A month before the end. Hard to believe from that, huh?" The bitterness made his voice a croak.
"I'm-I'm sorry," Nanako whispered back. "I shouldn't have asked you about this."
Adachi waved her off. "You've an unhealthy curiosity. And I bet you don't wanna ask his only living family, huh?"
"Y-yeah... Thanks for talking to me."
But... what do you know about how he died? She knew the basic story, but Adachi had to know more as his friend—best friend? The picture implied that they'd been close enough to be drinking buddies, at least. And Aunt Seta had to know more, she'd been his wife...
"Keep an eye out for both of them, will you?" Adachi said suddenly. "You live here, and you're family. I mean, I check up on them, you know... Feel like I owe it to Sachio, but..."
She assured him that she was taking care of Souji. "He's already calling me his 'big sis,'" she reported, her chest puffing up unconsciously the same way Aunt Seta's did when she spoke of the boy.
Adachi hummed, and Nanako felt her Justice link grow stronger.
Nanako slowly opened the door to Souji's room. It was rather late, but she could tell he was awake since light flooded under the door. "Souji-kun...?" she whispered, peeking in.
He was on the floor playing with Foxie. He blinked up at her in question.
She stepped in and then sat on the floor near him. "You don't like Adachi-san."
By his sudden downcast look, he clearly didn't want to talk about it.
"He's nothing to be afraid of, Souji-kun. I think... he's worried about you, somehow."
Souji stroked Foxie's fur.
"I'm worried about you, too," she continued, "do you know that?"
"Don't have to worry," he muttered. "I'm okay."
"What's wrong with Adachi-san? Is it because he used to work with your dad?"
Souji stared down at Foxie, thinking about it for some time. Then he looked up at her. "I don't know what happened to Papa. Mama won't tell me. Adachi-san wouldn't tell me either... And..." His eyes darkened, seeming extra stormy all of a sudden. "He knows."
Knows... what? What happened to Sachio? Yeah, of course he did... But it wasn't something to tell a six-year-old. Nanako couldn't fault the detective's decision not to tell Souji the details. It had to be hard to talk about. Heck, she was surprised that he'd volunteered as much as he had with her this evening. She didn't have a right to know, not really.
Maybe when you're older, Nanako thought, but no child wants to be told that. "Well, he's trying to be good to you. Do you think you can be good to him, too? For your mom? For me?"
Souji's mouth twitched, but after a long moment, he nodded.
Yeah, no Hermit link up tonight, that was for sure.
[6/9: Thursday]
After school Nanako decided she ought to turn in her haiku paper to Morooka before he assigned her another one on the importance of punctuality. When she entered the faculty office, however, she interrupted him talking with a female student with brown hair. She was a third year and Nanako did not know her name.
"Err," Nanako said, standing awkwardly in the doorway. She could return at a later time, but who knew how long they'd be?
Morooka turned his balding head and sighed at the sight of her. "Dojima. What do you want?"
"Th-the paper you assigned me, umm, I have it here." She had pulled the sheaf of papers out of her bag before coming to the office, so it was already in her hand. "I wanted to turn it in now." She waved it vaguely at him, aware that the third year girl was looking at her with tormented eyes.
She expected him to complain that it had been almost three weeks ago, but he simply told her to put it on his desk and then turned back to the other girl. "Go on. What else did he say?"
"That it's not respectable..." the girl said. "That I can do 'better' … as if there was anything better than my art!"
"I can presume that his 'settling down' is studying business, hmm?" Morooka said. "Your father is an analyst, correct?"
The girl nodded. "Yeah. And I've tried! I've tried impressing him with my best pieces, but he just doesn't understand. He doesn't see the meaning in any of it! It's my heart and soul, and he... wants to c-crush it!"
Morooka handed her a tissue, and she dabbed her eyes with it. She pulled something out of her pocket and held it out to him.
"This," she said. "I showed it to him."
The teacher gingerly accepted the item and held it up to his face. Nanako, all but forgotten during the discussion, squinted at it from her place by Morooka's desk. It seemed to be a metal bracelet of some sort. "Intricate," Morooka commented. "I see the pieces interlock."
"He threw it in the trash!"
The girl wrung her hands and wailed. Morooka handed her the entire tissue box and allowed her to cry uninterrupted. When she had recovered, he returned the bracelet and asked if she'd spoken with Daidara-san.
She sniffled and rubbed her nose. "He said he'd rather not interfere with me and my family... It's my responsibility to convince them that I want to study art. I don't think I can do that."
Morooka paused for a moment. "It's not unusual for artists to be forced to split from their families. It's a difficult road, not a decision to be made lightly. Some find freedom in being unchained from familial responsibility, but many find their dreams too lofty to support their resolve, and by the time they've changed their minds, it's too late to turn back... For now, I would suggest that you not fight with your family if you can help it. Save running away from home for your college years. Together we'll look into art colleges. Entrance exams are still several months away. Does that sound good?"
"Y-yes, Mr. Morooka," said the girl. "Thank you. I'll-I'll try not to get kicked out of my house..."
His face twisted into what was for him a wry smile. "Good. The school would object if I tried to take you in." He chuckled. "Follow the rules and keep your nose clean. It's only another year. Seems like forever to you kids, but it's only a sneeze in the grand scheme of things."
She thanked him again and then left the faculty office.
When the door was closed, he sighed heavily. "Hope she doesn't crash and burn," he muttered to himself. He turned to his desk only to find Nanako standing there. "Dojima!"
"Ah-err," she said.
"What are you still doing here?" he said gruffly. "Eavesdropping isn't a criminal offense, but if I had my way, it would be!"
"But that girl..."
"She was in my homeroom last year," he said, glaring at her. "What's so surprising about that? I've been teaching here for too damn many years! You know how little thanks I get?"
He started rambling on in the same vein of thought until she excused herself.
She walked slowly out of the school, taking the time to consider how Mr. Morooka actively worked to make the students hate him with his attitude towards them. And yet here he was, doing his best to support a student having trouble with her family. It was a dichotomy she couldn't quite understand.
Perhaps that was the point of her social link with him: to get down to the bottom of this mystery and see what made the man tick.
[6/11: Saturday]
The women's clothing department at Junes covered an entire floor, which seemed a bit overboard, honestly, but at least it resulted in a large swimwear section.
A life-size cutout of pop idol Risette in a bikini advertised, well, bikinis. A display of sun screen and sun tan oil was nearby, apparently as impulse buys, along with beach towels and beach umbrellas. Summer break was creeping up on them and Junes was quite happy to remind everyone to prepare for it.
Well, Nanako definitely wanted to buy two-piece swimsuits for her friends, but they didn't need to be name-brand. Just because she had saved a lot of money by ignoring the Velvet Room didn't mean she needed to blow it all on a skimpy piece of cloth. She ignored the Risette display and headed towards the back end of the swimwear section for the store-brand clothing.
She was systematically flipping through a rack of tops when there was a poke on her shoulder. She turned, expecting Yosuke, and found Saki smiling at her. "Oh, Senpai!" Nanako said. "You almost scared me."
"Swimsuits?" said Saki, raising an eyebrow. She was wearing the orange and white Junes part-timer's frock. Her wavy hair was tied back by a lavender ribbon. She wore a small amount of makeup, possibly because she was working. "Going to the beach?"
"Maybe!" said Nanako. "But actually, it's for the camping trip. You know my friends, right? Chie and Yukiko. I'm buying for them and myself. Wanna help?"
"Only if you buy the expensive stuff so I get praise for the sale," Saki said, but she was joking. "Let's see, Amagi likes to wear red, so this one might be nice, hmm?"
Some time later, Nanako and Saki had picked out swimsuits for both of her friends. Now she couldn't wait for that stupid camping trip just to see the girls in them! It was going to be fab. If only Saki could come along, too, but the third years weren't invited.
"And as for you," Saki said, looking her up and down. "Hmm... Try this one." She picked out a hot pink top with lacy straps.
"I like pink as much as the next girl," Nanako said, "but that one is a bit much. Maybe if the color was, you know, more subdued."
Saki pulled off a few more tops. "You need a bright color, honey. Or perhaps a fuchsia is more your style. Lemme see your eyes." She squinted into Nanako's face, and it was awkward but Nanako wasn't going to complain about the proximity. "Such dark eyes... Hmm I was hoping to find something to match them. Well, I can work with this. Here." She pulled off a bottom from the rack. It was light yellow with a little orange sun on it. The sun's rays were represented by alternating shades of orange and yellow. Saki then found the matching top. "I think yellow is your color."
Nanako considered it. People probably thought she liked yellow because she wore the school uniform's scarf in her hair all the time. She didn't hate the color or anything, so why fight it? It was a pretty cute set, anyway! "Sure."
"All right! Is there anything else I can help you with?" Saki asked in a rehearsed manner. In a quieter voice she added, "If you wanna just shop around, I can pretend I'm helping a customer."
Nanako snickered and then they wandered around the women's clothing displays just for the heck of it. They chatted about fashion and current styles, mostly making fun of it all.
Nanako was starting to get tired of holding the swimsuits, though, so she told her friend it was about time to head out. "Hey, Saki-senpai, can I... use your store discount?" she asked.
"I really shouldn't." Saki sighed. "But screw 'em. Sure, let's go."
"Normally I'd call Yosuke up," Nanako said, "but—"
"You don't want him to see your swimsuit ahead of time, huh?" The sly grin on Saki's face was something Nanako really wanted to wipe off.
"Nah, it's just he gets annoyed when I use him for a discount," Nanako explained breezily. "And you're already here, so... Actually, speaking of boys, I have some more shopping to do!"
Saki followed her to the men's clothing department, where Nanako proceeded to search through the male swimsuit section. When Saki asked what exactly she was looking for, Nanako ignored her until she found it: the most amazing piece of clothing.
A black speedo.
"This is perfect for Kanji-kun," she declared, holding it up in front of her.
"...Kanji-kun? In a speedo?" Saki gave her a very quizzical look.
"You'd be surprised," Nanako said with a sly smile of her own, "by how good he looks in briefs."
"Wait what!?"
Nanako sauntered away, goods in hand. Hopefully that would stop Saki from shipping her with Yosuke!
[AN: The bara manga Nanako sent Kanji is 'Abnormal' by Mentaiko. Obvious warning: it's NSFW.
We won't be having the cavalry attacks that were added in Golden. It was quite the conundrum. It would be cool if the team all had scooters, but then I'd have to write about their care and maintenance, etc. It was more hassle than they're worth. It seems more natural that Nanako, after going on about seatbelts in the very first chapter, wouldn't be keen on the scooters.
I wanted to end the chapter with the Souji scene, but the last two scenes with Morooka and Saki fit better here than in the next chapter due to the theme I'm setting up for it.
There's an NPC in the game that mentions Morooka helping a female student with some problems. I don't remember seeing it myself when I played the game, but maybe this is what happened. There is an NPC obsessed with Daidara, at least! I looked up metalwork while writing this. If you're interested, do an image search on 'Junko Mori.' She's a professional artist who's made awesome metal-based art like this unnamed NPC plans to.
By the way, I'm not necessarily going to point out when Nanako gets a rank up for a social link. If she's hanging out with a friend, you can probably assume it's going up or at least gaining points. I'll point it out only when it seems important or relevant to note.
Next Chapter: The Melancholy of Nanako Dojima
Summer brings about all sorts of changes, not all of them welcome. Or maybe, some of them too welcome. Heh heh.]