Kokoro Culture Festival: Alternate Perspective

Boy 1 - "What is this about Eri?"

The hallway of building 3 swarms with the crowd as the anime club begins their dance routine in their club room. Eri tried to tell me before where it was from but the music was too loud to decipher. Her and I bump into each other in the swirling crowd.

Boy 1 - "And will you stop wearing those stupid swirly glasses, you bumped into me 4 times now."

She pulls them off revealing rings under her eyes. I feel very sorry for her. She looks embarrassed.

Watanabi - "My apologies Shin, I'm trying to get used to these things. This skit requires I master them."

Shin - "Didn't expect you to lose sleep over this festival."

I feel bad for acting like this now. She's obviously under a lot of stress lately. She is VP of one of the most prominent anime clubs in the region. And that is on top of her involvement in the VP rumor mill.

W - "Ahaha, no these are from binge watching."

Why am I not surprised?

W - "We had enough practice we can do Happy Party Train in our sleep if we needed."

Her pride showed a little too much for my tastes. She seems too scatterbrained to answer my question.

S - "That's good to hear. You still need to tell me why you brought me here."

She seemed troubled as she pulled out her real glasses from her breast pocket and put them on. She switched to her inspection voice.

W - "I found a strange RMIN the other day. I tried to look it up but nothing appeared. No writings, no recordings, not even a name or address."

I start to sweat a little in the gaggle of students as she continues. Could this be it? She pulls out a sheet of paper.

W - "Normally this is if the person wanted to keep their information private, that is understandable. But look at the induction and creation dates."

S - "Dates?"

I look at the sheet. It's a printout of the RM lookup page for the name in question. I read the induction date box under Address:

3450 years ago

Panicked I switched over to the date of creation box:

8 days ago

Watanabi fidgeted, her soft black hair swaying back in forth. I take a long while to just soak it in. These numbers make this RMIN older than even the town. This means that if my math still adds up, we have been running this same week for 1000s of years. And whoever this RMIN belongs to has a hand in this. I want to collapse in on myself. This is the chance we have been waiting for. A lead to the Cicada President!

W - "You have the full support of the council and the Rasputin Rumor Mill. They'll let you know more if anything turns up."

I can barely speak. My hands crumple the paper in impotent anger. So much needless death and destruction. So much stories that will never be recorded for loved ones. Everything wrong with this town in one name. I start to shake as Eri holds me against her.

S - "I-I thought I was chasing ghosts for so long."

W - "We finally have it Shin, we just need to find out more. We will get what's owed to us then."

S - "Thank you, thank you so much."

I almost want to propose to Eri right here. But there is no guaranteed we will live tomorrow, let alone to any sort of ceremony. I'm pulled from my reverie as the dance finishes to a round of applause from the congregation of Otaku that flood the room in front of us.

W - "We made it to the festival Shin."

Her smile is always a welcome sight in a town like this. Her VP duties had to start again. I never want to let go.

W - "I have to play my part now."

S - "You'll do great. You had years of practice."

She giggled a mirthful laugh. We looked into each others eyes.

W - "I love you Shin."

S - "I love you too Eri, Always."

We kiss then she goes into the club room to take part in the next skit. I straighten out the readout again and look at the RMIN at the top. I close my eyes and try to control my emotions. I must not of payed too much attention in doing this as I felt someone bump into me again. This time a short black-haired first-year in a yellow button down shirt. He must have been light weight since he was down on the ground from a slight run-in. He looked jittery and unkempt. Like he needed air. He had what looked like a decrepit tome in his hands.

Short Teen - "Does no one walk in a straight line in this place?!"

Judging by his temper this may have been a common occurrence today. I know that feeling little man. Culture festivals are the devil if you want to be anywhere.

S - "Sorry about that, here let me help you up."

I give my hand to help the guy up. He gives a sigh of relief and grabs it. When he gets up he started shaking it with a grin. His hand is cold and clammy.

ST - "Finally someone who speaks English. You wouldn't happen to know where the Literature Club is would ya?"

He certainly trims the fat off of formality that's for sure. I try to be subtle.

S - "W-who's asking?"

ST - "Me."

He pointed to himself grin unfettered. Ok that got nowhere. He's still shaking my hand.

ST - "Just playing with ya, Name's Eddy I'm new in town and I'm trying to find this club I joined."

S - "Shin Yamichika, I'm the president of the Debate Club. It's nice to have fresh faces around here."

E - "So I've been told."

He finally releases my hand.

S - "I think they hold their meetings in building 2, try level 3 at the end of the hall, if it isn't there head back here and find me."

E - "Shin, you are my go-to guy now. Thanks!"

What does that mean? Before I could ask he disappears into the crowd. Must of been in a hurry. Strange duck, but he seems harmless. I look back into the club room and flinch as I watch Eri fall down in a heap to the sound of rambunctious laughter. I can't tell if that was part of the skit or her stupid swirly glasses. I can't help but laugh a little though.

She looks so adorable when she's flustered.

She deserves more happy days like this. No peering over our shoulders for the Colors. No waking up to open white fields of blank glitchy nothing for days at a time. Hoping to gods and monsters we have enough food and water to make it to the end of the week. No more forgetting our loved ones when they die only to then have to listen to their last parting words that they have to make when the system removes their address. Reopening wounds by doing so days, even months later. All the while this name sits in a hole and plays little games with toys they have no god-damn right to use.

She deserves better.

We all deserve better.

I switch gears back to the paper in my hand. I re-read the RMIN again and again hoping to burn it into my retinas. MON-IKA

I figured as much. We were hunting white whales and ghosts for so long, when we should have been looking for giant squid. This doesn't matter now. We will get what we're owed soon. Our special day will come in the Cicada's blood! For the File-less! Death to the Cicada President! TO HELL WITH ALL ELSE!

-PERSPECTIVE ENDED-