8 - Weird

Then I met you again,
and this time you were just weird.

The situation has started to worry him.
His recurring dreams had taken a new direction: in them he was dressed in a black cloak, running around the city, jumping over the roofs of buildings. It almost seemed as if he were flying: his body had no weight, his legs were soft and capable of carrying him tens of meters above the ground. In the night, he dominated the city.
Then there was some fighting - in superhero style - but on that point his memories became vague when he woke up.
He no longer knew what his head was trying to tell him.
Was he going mad?
For a month now, dreams have tormented him almost every night. Not even the sleeping pills stopped them.
"Mamoru-san?"
"Hm?" He looked at Saori-san.
"Were you distracted?"
"Yes, sorry."
She caressed the glass of the cafeteria with a finger. "It doesn't matter..."
"You were telling me about Kobayashi?"
"Yes. He changed his mind about Psychology."
Was it possible? In his last year of high school Kobayashi had talked about nothing else.
"He will specialize in psychiatry. He has discovered that crazy people are more interesting."
Mamoru laughed. "You think so too."
"For criminals, you say? Yes, I do. I'll have them arrested, then someone like Kobayashi will come along and say there was a mitigating factor for the crime - insanity."
Amused, Mamoru checked what was left in his bowl. There wasn't a single grain of rice inside.
In passing, he caught Saori's attention on his face. When they were in the same class, in high school, she sometimes looked at him like that.
One day a few months ago they had met by chance in the university gardens. Saori had lit up and invited him to lunch. He had been pleased.
"Do you eat here often?"
"No, I usually stay in the park." As long as the good weather continued, he would take advantage of it. "I bring my own food from home."
"I remember your bentos. Simple and substantial, no?"
Yes, he had defined them that way. They had never been as rich as those of his classmates - who had mothers who cooked for them - but he studied his menu carefully, to combine all the nutrients he needed with the flavors he didn't want to do without.
He nodded. "Tell Kobayashi that you met me. Next time I would like to have lunch together."
She hesitated. "Okay."
Probably, Mamoru thought, Saori would like more an invitation to dinner for two.
He got up. "I have class now. It was nice to see you again."
She sprang to her feet. "For me too!"
Mamoru greeted her and headed to room N4. A new session of molecular biology awaited him.
As he walked, he considered the matter. Maybe he should have been more encouraging with Saori?
After his middle-school idol phase, he had been convinced that he would find a girlfriend in high school.
It hadn't happened. By then he had been more comfortable with people. The girls interested in him were not just a few, but he hadn't asked any of them out.
For the most part, the ones he judged suitable had passed him by a year or two. With them he could discuss about the progress of medicine, the problems of society, the meaning of life... But he knew that, when they got to the point, his inadequacy would be obvious.
He could not bear to feel unprepared. From the conversations of his classmates he had realized that, in the last year, some girls had already had sex, while he...
At college! he promised himself. As a college student he would choose a high school student at random and he would experiment with her. If he really had to feel ignorant, he didn't want to be alone. Above all he wanted to be in control of the situation.
And yet, here he was at Todai and nothing had changed. On the contrary, his situation had become more complicated. He had met so many interesting people, and could no longer think of going back and settle for an high school student.
At Edwards' house, for example, there had been that foreign student... Beautiful, green eyes, easygoing. Too much easygoing. She had moved among the others as if they were all her friends, since forever. She had liked him too, so much so that when she became aware of him, she didn't give him a moment's breath. In her eyes Mamoru felt like a prey, unaware of what was about to happen to him.
Of course he had an idea, but...
"You don't know how to kiss?" Laughter. "Poor thing, now I'm going to teach you..."
He would have felt ridiculed.
He needed a more calm and shy person, like Saori-san. But he didn't feel any attraction for her.
If he really wanted to practice, indulging Saori's feelings would be wrong.
He had to find someone else.
He wasn't asking for much. Just a girl who would make him feel good. Or at least, someone who would make him want to kiss her so much that he would forgot about the problems that could arise later.
But by then he wanted to be prepared.

It was a circle with no way out.
As usual, he thought too much.
He spoke too little, that was the problem. He kept everything inside, that was why his brain was full of idiocies and meaningless dreams.
He needed more human contact, without excuses.
He needed a little normality.

Reinvigorated, he tried to find it that afternoon.
He felt better when he put a project into his head and implemented it without waiting.
He would go to Crystal Preparatory School, which was looking for study assistants for high school students. It would earn him a job and a chance to meet intelligent girls. Maybe he would bond with one of them.
... As a semi-professor, wouldn't that be wrong?
No excuses. He would decide what to do on the spot. He still needed money to buy a car.
When he arrived in front of the school, he didn't believe his own eyes.
Odango was in front of the entrance.
Odango - who got 30 in her English exam - was going to a preparatory school?
Perhaps his insults had been useful.
Someone mumbled beside her.
"Usagi, be careful."
Who had spoken?
Odango's little head bent over to the side. "I just came to return this disk, Luna. You worry too much."
... had she bended towards the cat?
No. Impossible. "Have you decided to study a bit, Odango?"
Usage-Odango startled and stared at him. "You again! Why are you popping up at the strangest times?!"
Those should been his words. "I have no idea. Am I mistaken, or was that cat talking just now?"
Instead of bursting out laughing in his face, Odango's little face blanched.
...she was a ventriloquist, wasn't she?
She exploded into laughter. "What are you saying! Since when do cats know how to talk!" She began to run away. "Nonsense!"
Yeah, and she was absurd.
She was a ventriloquist. There was no end to how strange she was.
Odango stopped ten meters away. Turning her head in slow motion, she glanced at him, ashamed as a thief.
She eclipsed herself before he could say anything.

The episode left him with a newfound pride in himself.
There were people who were worse off in the world, way more than him. Odango had been put in his way to remind him of this fact.
In the end, the preparatory school had not accepted him as an assistant: too young, they said. He didn't mind. In that place they were passing off a floppy disk as the ultimate way to improve school performance. He didn't want to work for fraudsters.
He yawned, lying onto his bed.
The next day he would look for another job that would put him in touch with people.
Waiter?
If necessary.
He slept.

8 - Weird - END

N/A - I returned with a new chapter for this story! Just yesterday I found out that online translators work way better than a few years ago, so now I can translate my stories for you more easily and faster.
Let me know what you think of this chapter, you won't have to wait an eternity for another :)
Also, check out the new story I have just posted - Save Me!, a break-up arc fanfic in which Usagi tries to make Mamoru jealous.

P.S. Saori was the college mate that Mamoru presented to Usagi in the fourth season.