Part I

Chapter 10

Minamo's jaw couldn't have dropped any lower.

"What? What the hell ya' lookin' at?"

"I…wow…"

Yukari frowned, a frustrated look in her eyes. "There somethin' on my face? What? What is it?"

Minamo tried to reply, but her friend's appearance this morning was interfering with her ability to speak properly. She was staring at Yukari while they both stood in the doorway of the woman's house, Minamo having just arrived there a few minutes ago. When Yukari had come to let her in, however, she had given her quite the shock due to how she looked. There was nothing wrong with how she was dressed or anything like that, Minamo quite accustomed to seeing her friend in the messy tank top and pajamas that made up her usual home attire, but her disposition itself was another matter entirely.

"It's…just…" She looked at her watch quickly, verifying that it still was just a bit after eight in the morning. "I don't think I've ever seen you so…awake...?"

Yukari tilted her head with suspicion, looking as if she felt that she had just been insulted, but having no idea as to how.

Minamo smiled sheepishly. She wasn't trying to make fun of her, but, after having been to Yukari's house so many times in the morning before, she couldn't recall an instance when she had looked anything less than completely lethargic at this time of day. Yukari had never been an early riser, and often times when Minamo would come to pick her up for work, she would literally have to drag her sleepy friend out of bed so that she could somehow get them both there on time.

Naturally, then, she had come over today with the expectation of seeing Yukari in that usual sluggish form of hers, but on this occasion she looked as if she had actually been up and awake for hours already. Her friend's eyes were so uncharacteristically alert and ready, her overall demeanor not like anything that Minamo was used to at this hour of the day.

Well…she did answer the phone earlier, too. That was actually pretty strange. "Um…how long have you been up today?"

"What?"

"I mean…sorry, it's just, well, it looks like you didn't have any trouble getting up today."

"Huh? Oh." Yukari shrugged. "I didn't go to sleep."

"What?"

"Yeah, I was playin' all last night. Geez, what's the problem?"

Minamo shook her head wearyingly. Yukari had always seemed to have been the type of person who absolutely required a ridiculous amount of sleep in order to function, and so to hear that she actually had some level of control over it all was entirely news to her. Why the hell can't you get up for work on time, then?

She let the issue slip for now. "Nothing…anyways, can I come in already? It's cold out here."

Yukari crooked her ahead again. "Why ya' here, anyways? I'm off this whole week, remember? I ain't goin' to work."

Minamo glared at her with astonishment. "I just called you an hour ago! I told you that I wanted to come over today because I took off too, remember?"

Her friend began to scratch the back of her head. "Oh…that was you?"

"Who did you think it was?"

A puzzled look came onto Yukari's face then, as if she couldn't understand the question that had just been asked of her. She just stood there silently in the doorway, looking genuinely clueless as to what was going on.

Minamo sighed. "Look, never mind. Like I said, I took the day off and then figured that we could hang out together since we're both off."

The woman continued to stare at her blankly, playing with a strand of her long hair until an impish smile slowly crept across her face. "I know why yer' here." She cackled. "You loved my Playstation that much, didn't 'cha?"

Minamo sighed again.

"You missed it! You missed it's freakin' awesomeness! Watchin' me kick ass across the globe with it!"

Another sigh.

"That's it! That's what it is! You damn hypocrite!" Yukari put her hands on her hips, laughing loudly as she stood forth with a triumphant pose in her doorway, her voice taking on a mockingly passive tone. "'Oh, Yukari! You shouldn't skip work to play that thing! Don't abandon your precioooouuuus students!'" She set her voice back to normal. "I mean, come on, Nyamo, what the hell kinda' example are you settin' to your kids now?"

Minamo kept her mouth closed, patiently bearing through her friend's taunts as they continued on. She really didn't feel up to the task of arguing with Yukari in the cold morning air, figuring that she could leave it that much sooner if she just let the woman have her fun. "Yeah, yeah. Ok, just let me in, alright?"

Yukari crossed her arms over her chest, her voice becoming haughty. "Why should I do that? I mean, it wouldn't be right of me to aid a renegade teach-"

"I'm not a 'renegade'."

"…a renegade teacher who's tryna' abandon her sworn duties. I mean, what would that make me then, eh? An accomplice! An accomplice to your pilferin' of your student's futur-"

Minamo pushed forth her arm suddenly, her fingers clutching a small white bag that she had been holding the entire while. "Here."

Yukari paused in her speech, scrutinizing the item that was before her. "What the hell is thi-"

The woman suddenly ripped the bag away from her, realizing now what it was, and then tore it open, quickly devouring one of the pastries that had been inside. "'mo'kay', thu' hath' paeth' tha' tholl'." She walked away from the door then, signaling for Minamo to follow her.

Minamo shook her sadly. Why did I come here again?

She decided not to answer that question for now, stepping inside the house as she locked the door behind her and then began to remove her sneakers, setting them aside along with her coat. A quick check on the backpack that she had brought along confirmed that she hadn't left anything in her car, and so, satisfied with that, Minamo turned around to follow her friend up the stairs to her room, taking a peek into the living room along the way. "Where's your mom at?"

Yukari finished gobbling down another pastry. "Uh, I dunno'. Prolly' sleepin' still."

Minamo laughed. "That's a first for her, then."

"What is?"

"Well, she doesn't have to be up early to wake you up for once."

Yukari grunted, shouldering off the remark.

Minamo smiled, happy to take a point back from their earlier exchange outside. She had asked about her mother because, while Minamo had always just called this place 'Yukari's house', it was in reality the home of her friend's parents, Yukari just living with them still. The woman was basically a part of that new generation of young adults who, while having full-time careers, had still chosen to remain with their families so that they could profit from an enormous amount of disposable income. It was a lifestyle that perfectly suited Yukari, the woman having almost nothing to pay towards in terms of living expenses, and that financial freedom had allowed her to completely blow her money on whatever her heart so desired. Her problem, of course, was that she rarely had the capacity to properly save up for what she did actually want, usually giving into the temptations of expensive food and booze much too easily and then soon finding herself broke anyways.

Regardless of that, however, the woman still did enjoy her fairly carefree existence, one of which that, to some degree, Minamo wouldn't mind having as well. She herself had been living on her own since she had first become a teacher, and while she did get by on her modest amount of income, she had felt the strain of a tight budget more often than she cared to admit, something of which Yukari never really had to experience. The woman was essentially freeloading inside of what was a palace when compared to her own little apartment, the Tanizaki residence a large, modern home that was kept in sparkling condition by its owners, and Minamo couldn't help but sometimes feel a bit envious of having such an easy life as well.

Well, I still do love the freedom that comes along with having my own place and what not. But, having no bills once in awhile would be nice too...

Those thoughts left her as the two of them finally reached Yukari's room, a sudden shift in environment causing Minamo to stumble a bit as she walked inside, her friend shutting the door behind her. "Geez, why's it so dark in here? Open the curtains up, or the door at least. It's like a cave in here..."

Yukari rested down upon the carpeted floor, food still in hand, and positioned herself snugly into a pile of pillows that sat in front of a large entertainment center, her games, her systems, a flat screen television, all of it and more adorning it like a shrine. "No way. That would kill the immersion."

Minamo looked at her awkwardly, placing her backpack on to a small floor table as her eyes began to adjust to the dim lighting that was provided by the television. "Immersion?"

Her friend picked up a controller, the device strewn amidst a mess of strategy guides and other console accessories, a little laptop that she used to look up information on her games topping it all off. "Ya' know, my experience. I'll get a lot more return on my investment this way."

Before Minamo could inquire as to what she was talking about, a burst of music and sound effects exploded from a pair of speakers that were next to the flat screen, Yukari unpausing her game and grinning wildly as she brought the room to life. "That's what I'm talkin' about! Get a loada' that." She brought her hands up as if she were presenting something, looking around the darkened room. "See, it's like a movie theater now, Nyamo!" Her head nodded towards the television. "It's like I'm really in this shit!"

Minamo shook her head, sitting down and plunking her elbows onto the table as she took in the spectacle that was before her.

Out of every other person that she knew of their age, of any age even, Yukari Tanizaki was the only one who would be doing what she was at the moment, relaxing in her trademark slacker posture while playing video games at the expense of her job and students. It had just always seemed that her friend's sole purpose in life was to engage in the most frivolous of activities whenever she could, Yukari always making sure to avoid her responsibilities as much as possible in order to allocate more time towards goofing off. Minamo, of course, had always barked at those habits of her friend constantly throughout the years, Yukari's decadent practices completely going against the edicts of hard work and diligence that she herself so thoroughly believed in.

Look at you...Yukari, you can't do this forever. I don't know...maybe one day you'll change finally...hopefully.

She smiled to herself as she began to take some binders and writing utensils out of her bag. In a way, Yukari had always been a sort of ongoing pet project of Minamo's, her goal being the reformation of her friend by means of eliminating some of her more self-destructive habits, in order for her to finally become a more mature and respectable adult. It was, essentially, an act done out of Minamo's natural sense of compassion, her desire to try and enrich the life of someone that she cared about always giving her the motivation to keep on working with them. In Yukari's case, she felt that her friend had just simply never benefited from the fruits of an organized, purposeful mindset, and so had always gone well out of her way to aid her in obtaining one. Most of the time, though, her efforts were quite in vain, Minamo's lectures to Yukari regarding her brash behavior usually not having the desired effects, but that had never deterred her from trying time and time again. She really did worry about her friend's future down the line, of where her childish antics might lead her to someday, and so simply wanted to help her avoid any sort of troubles by having her grow up just a bit.

It's probably the teacher inside of me, not wanting to give up on someone that needs so-

Something that she hadn't noticed around her before suddenly made itself visible, Minamo's sight finally having become properly adjusted to the low levels of light in the room. "Holy crap, Yukari."

Her friend didn't take her eyes off her game. "What?"

Minamo stood up, coming over to where Yukari sat and pointing towards a sea of junk food wrappers, empty beer cans, and other such trash that littered the floor of her room. "You didn't clean this up from yesterday? Look at all this. It's disgusting!"

"Dammit', shutup."

"Pause your game. We're going to clean everything up right now." She stormed across the room before her friend could answer, opening the curtains of the window that resided over Yukari's bed, sunlight now spilling inside.

Yukari looked over at her with fury. "Ahhh! What the hell are ya' doin'? Close them, dammit'!"

Minamo ignored her, turning around to take a look at the room as a whole since she could actually see it all now. Her friend's part of the house was pretty much like it always was: a complete mess with books and magazines scattered everywhere, clothes tossed about carelessly, her personal belongings disorganized and dusty. And, while there was usually leftover trash from whenever Yukari ate in here, there was much more than usual scattered about due to last night's fun.

She put a hand over her face, covering it as if she had a headache. "I should have known better. I only left it like this since you said that you were going to clean everything up."

Yukari laid down on the floor, resting on her side as she continued to play her game. "It's not your place, so why the hell does it matter?"

"Because you always make your mom and dad pick up everything! How pathetic is that?"

"But they want toooooo…"

Minamo let out a distressed breath. "Seriously, you need to stop acting like a baby and start taking care of things yourself. Come on, get up and start picking this up while I go get a trash bag."

Yukari whined loudly, launching into a tantrum about how Minamo was some sort of obsessive-compulsive neat freak, but after a bit more coaxing she finally got up and started to gather some of the litter that was tossed about.

Minamo smiled. "Good. Now, hold on, I'll go get that bag quick."

"Ahhh, go stuff yourself in it…"

She turned around as she was about to leave the room. "What was that?"

Yukari put on a happy face. "Nothing, nothing!"

Minamo rolled her eyes, taking her leave as she made her way to the laundry room, the household supplies located in one of the cabinets there. She knew the layout of the Tanizaki house quite well, possibly even more familiar with its organization than that of her own apartment, and so knew exactly where to go whenever she needed to get something. A good amount of her time had been spent here ever since she had first met Yukari, and so she had absolutely no problem in finding anything inside of it. In less than minute she was already back in her friend's room, a large trash bag in hand.

Yukari groaned as if she were in pain, the woman kicking together piles of garbage with her feet. "Why should I have to do this shit? I'm on vacation, dammit'."

"Because it's your room, and you never clean it." Minamo paused, taking a look around at the mess again. "You know what? While we're at it, let's straighten the whole thing out, too. I mean, I can't even remember the last time that this place looked even half way decent."

Her friend looked up at her as she was dealing with the last few wrappers on the ground, a scowl on her face now. "Are you kiddin' me? No way!"

"No, I'm not kidding. We're both here cleaning up already, so we might as well do it all. Come on, it'll probably just take about an hour."

"Then you do it, 'cause I'm on vacation."

"That doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. I'm on vacation."

"It's your room and your responsibility to not live like a pig."

"I'm on vacation!"

"Look, I understand that, and all that means is that you have plenty of time to do something that's actually productive. This is probably the best time to get this done."

"No it isn't!"

Minamo placed some authority into her voice. "Your room has been like this forever, Yukari. Stop complaining and let's just take care of this."

Her friend put her hands over her face, screaming loudly into them "Why are you doing this to meeeeee?"

An argument broke out then, both women stating their cases with passionate vigor, going off on the most inane of tangents when their discussions got a bit too heated. After about five minutes of it, however, Minamo's desired course of action prevailed over the belligerence of Yukari, who was finally able to pressure her friend into doing what she felt was such a routine and simple task.

"I'll get you for this, woman."

Minamo shrugged, brushing off her friend's threat without a word as they both began to clean up the rugged landfill that was Yukari's room.