Part I

Chapter 11

There. Much better.

A final tug on the sheets pulled them tightly into place over the mattress, Minamo admiring her handy work as she finished making Yukari's bed. Her friend hadn't changed the linens for it in quite some time, and so, after having grabbed some fresh ones, Minamo had just done it herself.

She threw the comforter on top once everything looked up to her standards, smiling as her nose began to tingle. Although it was a bit faint since she had just changed everything, the scent of the perfume that Yukari usually wore was still emanating from the mattress itself. It was a lively, fruity fragrance, smelling like a mix of oranges and berries, and as far as Minamo could remember her friend had always used the same brand since she had started wearing the stuff.

Well, I guess it is a nice one. I mean, I still like it…

*thunk*

Minamo turned to her side, watching Yukari throw down an empty clothes basket with obvious aggravation, her friend now glaring straight at her. "There, I put everythin' in the washer. Are you happy now yer' stinkin' majesty?"

"Yeah, but, you should be, too. I mean, they're your clothes."

Yukari grumbled out something inaudible, taking a long view around the room afterward. "This don't feel like my pad now."

Minamo looked around as well. It had taken them a little longer than expected, but her friend's room actually looked as if it were inhabited by a civilized human being now. No scraps of litter were on the floor anymore, Yukari's furniture and personal belongings finally well organized and dust free. "That's probably a good thing. But, see how great everything looks now? Doesn't that make you feel good, to see your room like this?"

"Whatever." Yukari came up next to her, leaning towards a large window that sat above her bed, her hands pulling the curtains back together again.

"Do you really have to close th-"

"Shut the hell up!"

Minamo put her hands up defensively, her friend bristling with anger. "Alright, alright. I'm just going to borrow your desk lamp then, ok? I just want to be able see my papers."

"Damn your papers and damn you." One she had finished shutting the curtains, Yukari turned around and brushed passed her friend with haste, jumping to where her pillows were and picking up her controller as she resumed her gaming binge once more.

Minamo smiled warmly, the woman's rash behavior causing her to snicker a bit.

She's mad at me.

Her friend's words had been quite heavy with grievance, but Minamo had taken no real offense from any of it, actually finding her actions more entertaining than hurtful. Whenever Yukari was forced to do something against her will, she would put on this pouty looking face that was always so adorable to look at, like that of an impudent child who had just had their pride wounded and could only show their disdain through a naive sort of indignation. It was a type of disposition that was just too humorous to take seriously, even though the woman was probably fuming underneath it.

Minamo took one last look at the room then, content with it all, and then stepped across it while dodging a kick from Yukari since she had gotten in the way of the screen. From off of a work desk she picked up a tall lamp, setting it down next to the floor table. Once it was in a good spot she flipped the switch on, sitting down and making herself comfortable as she resumed watching her friend, trying to hold in another round of giggles as she did.

You're so funny...

While the woman's aggravated look was still indeed tickling her, what Minamo was finding more amusement in now was the entirety of the situation that just had occurred over the last hour. Even though Yukari absolutely hated to do anything that went outside of her hedonistic beliefs, the only time that she did actually undertake such endeavors was when Minamo told her do so. There was always that initial bout of resistance at first, but eventually the woman would succumb to her demands and do whatever chore it was that she had in store for her, a fact that had always filled Minamo with glee. She couldn't exactly explain why, but there was just something so tantalizing from knowing that she alone had a degree of control over such an unruly individual, her commands the only ones that Yukari ever seemed to obey. It was a phenomenon that had hardly gone unnoticed as well, their friends and peers often remarking about how she could manage the woman in the way that she did, Yukari's own parents having been the most impressed by the feats. They both had always greatly adored Minamo, not just for having been a good companion and role model for their daughter, but also for being able to get her to do things that they themselves couldn't even force her to.

You just have to remember that you're dealing with a baby, not an adult, and then take it from there.

A chuckle finally broke out from her, Yukari shooting her a wicked glare before turning back to her screen.

Minamo covered her mouth, eventually calming down, and then reached into her backpack to take out a thermos that she had filled with coffee. She took the cap off, pouring the liquid into it since it doubled as a mug, and then set about on her work amid the blaring sounds of Yukari's video game. Although the noise from the speakers was quite loud, it really didn't bother her that much at all, Minamo having become quite used to operating in such conditions from her many past visits. To some extent she actually even enjoyed having it all about her, the clamor helping her to concentrate on what she was doing since it essentially kept her thoughts in check, whereas, in a silent environment, they could easily wander off to places where Minamo didn't want them to go, like they had done all night before.

Content with everything as it was then, she began to grind through her papers diligently for the next half hour, finishing up some grading and other miscellaneous tasks. When she had gotten to a point at where she felt a break was needed, she set her pen down and then looked up at Yukari, smiling as she did.

Ah, there she goes. Perfect timing.

Minamo sat back, watching her friend as she continued to plow through the game that she was playing, the irritation that had gripped her earlier now having faded away. The state of the woman's emotions had never held any real lasting power in the face of her distractions, a fact that Minamo had come to rely upon whenever they had a scuffle, since absolutely no one, let alone herself, ever wanted to get on Yukari's bad side. In this case, however, Minamo wasn't trying to avoid her wrath because of any fear from her actions, but rather, she was hoping for it all to not interfere with the show that she had been waiting for.

She took a sip from her coffee, peeking over the cup with excitement as the reason of why she had wanted to come over today began to play out before her eyes.

If there was one thing that Minamo could honestly say that she had always actually enjoyed about Yukari Tanizaki's oddball behavior, it was the way in which the woman could become so completely engrossed in her hobbies. Her friend had been enjoying a role playing game that she had picked up along with her new console, its story unfolding before her as she delved further and further into it, and her reactions towards what was happening on the screen were nothing short of being absolutely delightful to watch. Almost every other minute she would be talking to herself for some reason or another, discussing the nuances of some character drama that had occurred, when a twist in the story had taken place, and her facial expressions and voice would quite vividly state her most inward thoughts. She would look incredibly surprised one moment, sad the next, her emotions changing with every scene and new piece of information, and her brown eyes would suck in every little detail as she became more and more oblivious to her actual surroundings.

She was, in a nutshell, truly believing that she was in the world that she was vicariously participating in through the controller, and it was a spectacle that Minamo had seen her duplicate in front of all sorts of media. Whether it was a video game, a movie, a television series, anything that tugged at one's suspension of disbelief would easily lure Yukari into it. The inner workings of her whacked personality, the construction of it, had always been well maintained by the wildest of imaginations, a voracious one that needed to constantly feed off some external source of wonder whenever it could, and her earlier words to Minamo about the quality of her 'immersion' had been said with all seriousness. The thrill that she got from her games was solely derived from how well she could get into them, and, while the display that she put on while doing so might appear as the behavior of a screwball, to Minamo it was all nothing short of being positively charming. There was just this purity about her friend's pleasure that she found so enthralling, to watch Yukari's unique sense of character act out in such a raw form.

I don't know why, but, it's just so amazing...to watch you be amazed.

She took a quick look at her watch, noting how long she had already been working on her papers, and then decided to get a bit more mileage out of the fun she was having. Her attention shifted towards the television, now following the game along with Yukari. "So you really like this one, huh? I think I saw you play it a bit before I left yesterday."

Yukari kept her eyes on the screen. "Huh? Oh, yeah, it's hecka' awesome. It's been pretty good so far, no stupid ass cliches and what not. Ya' know, that stuff I always tell ya' about the other RPG's I play?"

Minamo thought for a moment. "Oh, yeah. You said they always have the same kind of story or something."

"Yeah! Well, this one is different, 'cause it has a good writer, or designer, or whatever. Like, see these three guys? They…"

Minamo listened to her go on, Yukari describing to her the backgrounds of each of her characters, how the plot had played out so far, and so forth. No detail was spared from her explanations, and Minamo paid close attention to every word that she uttered. She didn't do so, however, in order to gain some key understanding of the game's world and history, most of what Yukari was telling her flying well over her head, but rather to just simply listen to her friend's voice itself, Minamo not really caring what she was saying, but how she was saying it. Every little utterance that came from Yukari's mouth was just dripping with sheer enthusiasm, Minamo feeling much like a parent that was listening to her child rave on and on about their passion in the most innocent of ways.

She relaxed down onto the table then, almost melting into it. The pure zeal that Yukari could put forth about stories that she loved had always seemed incredible to Minamo, and she felt somewhat privileged in being able to experience the magnitude of her friend's fascination first hand, even if it was just over something as simple as a video game. It was like she herself was feeling the excitement that Yukari was, her friend's enormous personality acting as the conductor between them.

I'm so glad I came over here today. So, so glad...

Minamo chuckled, feeling a pulse of happiness ripple through her body. When she had decided to visit her friend this morning, her hope behind it had been for Yukari to help her forget about the difficult night that he had undergone with her mother yesterday, and so far the woman had delivered completely. Just being able to witness her zany, animated self always soothed her mind somehow, Yukari's antics and peculiar sort of charisma acting like a panacea for all her worries and troubles.

Thanks, Yukari.

She looked back at the screen for a second, hearing some dialogue that was strangely familiar to her. "Hey…weren't you playing through this part yesterday? I sort of remember that cutscene…"

Yukari didn't look at her. "Huh…? Oh, yeah, I was on this part before ya' left."

"…'this part'?"

"Yeah, I started over at like midnight."

Minamo eyed her with suspicion. "Umm, why? You said you had played it like five hours already yesterday."

"Yeah, I know, but, I was readin' about the endings on this one site, and, uh, I was goin' towards the best one, but then I read what happened in it and it was super lame."

"…what was 'lame' about it?"

Yukari glanced between her laptop and television a few times. "'cause it's dumb, where everyone's all happy and shit."

She was about to question her friend about what she meant before Yukari interrupted her. "You see that little girl there, with the pink hair and crossbow?" She nodded towards the screen.

Minamo looked back towards it. "Yeah, that cute little kid in your party?"

"Yeah, her." Yukari looked at her laptop again, slowly reading something. "So ya' see, after this scene ends, I'm goin' to this one town I didn't go to yesterday. I got this item on her now that they don't like, so if I go visit them with her while she's got it, then I can start this story arc where I can get her and some other dude in my party killed pretty damn badly at the end."

Minamo stared at her blankly for a few moments, eventually mustering forth a half-hearted laugh for her friend, one in which she acknowledged what Yukari was going for but that also showed some disgust towards it. "Yeah…good luck with that."

Yukari didn't seem to hear her, the woman just smiling cheerfully at the screen, the morbidity of her goal pleasing her incredibly.

Minamo shook her head. You really haven't changed at all. Not in any way.

She stretched her arms out, holding back some more chuckles as she recalled how her friend's particular tastes in stories had remained much the same since they were teenagers. While Yukari could get into almost any sort of tale that she deemed worthy enough of her attention, she had always had this special love affair for ones with tragic endings, where the characters and overall plot often took turns for the worst. Minamo had never really understood her affection for them, but figured that, to some degree, it probably had something to do with her friend's infamous amount of pride. Yukari had always been a person who had never enjoyed seeing other people do better than her in life, and so just seemed to find some solace in watching anyone, in real life or in a game, run into horrible obstacles that set them aback, their failures somehow vindicating her.

It was, of course, a sadistic pleasure, one that Minamo had often criticized her about since high school, but Yukari had never let go of the habit. As in the case of the RPG that she was playing, she had absolutely no problems with starting over in order to get the marred ending that she required for herself, to throw off any hope of a happy future for her own heroes. It was simply too much of a cathartic experience for her, to see others fall at her whim, and the demented grin that was stroked across her face at the moment told Minamo that she was certainly getting her money's worth from her purchase.

That same old sicko face, just like when you...

Her train of thought led her eyes towards the far end of Yukari's entertainment center, several rows of shelves situated next to it.

She got up, stretching her legs now as she went to stand before them. Earlier in the day they had been a bit empty, their usual contents thrown about the floor carelessly, but after both she and Yukari had reorganized everything, it had been fully restored.

On each level of shelving, completely filling each one, were rows of books that her friend had been collecting well before Minamo had first met her. A few of them were the types that someone would expect of Yukari's caliber to have, some mangas and game guides here and there, but the vast majority of them were actual, traditional novels, classic and modern works that reflected her specific penchants: tragedies, horror stories, somber mysteries, anything where the outcome was probably not something that most people would regularly find palatable. To Yukari, however, they were delights to be enjoyed, an array of fictions and fantasies that quenched her heart's lust for blood, books by far her most favorite method to do so.

The funny thing about them all though, apart from their macabre genres, was that a good portion of them were foreign books that had been penned in English. When her friend was young, she had discovered that a great many works in the world hadn't yet been translated into their own language, and so, instead of wondering about their contents or hearing short summaries about them, Yukari had just decided to learn English herself. By the time that Minamo had met her in high school, the woman had already developed a decent grasp of the language and had never hesitated in showboating her proficiency with it to anyone that she ran into.

Minamo knelt down in front of the shelves, looking over some of the titles. "I can't believe that you have some of these books still. I recognize some of these from our first year."

Yukari peeked over towards her. "Yeah…I dunno'. I don't like throwin' em away."

"You shouldn't!" Minamo stood up, stepping back to look at the overall collection. "I mean, even if you don't read them anymore, they still really add something to your room, don't you think? Definitely looks better than having them all on the floor."

Her friend scrutinized her belongings over. "Yeah, I guess they do."

She smiled. "See? Now that you've cleaned up your whole room, you can really see the difference it all makes! I mean, that's why I keep telling you to keep this place looking well, because it feels great to see all your stuff looking so slick, right?"

Yukari turned back towards her game, not saying anything in reply, and that silence on her friend's part filled Minamo with a little satisfaction. When the woman didn't continue a conversation like she had just done, it was usually just her stubborn way of admitting that whoever she had been talking to was right about something that she had initially disagreed with.

Minamo looked at the shelves, admiring it all once more, and then stooped down on the ground as something caught her eye. "Oh…oh, wow!"

"Wha'?"

Her hand reached behind one of the shelves, pulling out some old notebooks that had been hidden behind them, clothes and other bedroom junk having covered it all up before now. "Are these…oh my gosh, they are! Yukari, I can't believe that you have these still!"

Her friend finally looked over. "Ah, crap, put 'em back."

She laughed. "But why? I want to read them!"

"Man...dammit', don't laugh at 'em or I'll kill ya'."

"I won't! I won't!"

Her words were just for show, Minamo unable to stop some chuckles from coming out as she removed the notebooks from their hiding place, stacking them on the floor and taking the top one into her lap as she sat down. Its red cover was badly faded from years of exposure to sunlight and natural wear and tear, but as Minamo flipped it open she was relieved to see that the pages themselves were still quite intact, the scribbled writing and terrible looking doodles that accompanied them quite discernible.

It all looks the same...just like it was back in high school.

Without another moment's hesitation her eyes flew across the words, gobbling up the text that was sending nostalgia blazing through her, Minamo feeling the goosebumps she had felt when she had first read these books as a teenager. What they contained upon their pages was a part of her best friend that most people would never assume she was capable of having, a talent that was the natural development of anyone who possessed an imagination that was as enormous as Yukari's. "I'm so glad that you have these still! You shouldn't have stopped writing, you know."

Yukari took her time in replying, the clicking of buttons from her gamepad the only audible sound between them in the meanwhile. "Wouldn't matter anyways."

She looked at her friend then, having felt the slightest trace of somberness in her voice, and became puzzled since Yukari was looking a bit melancholy now. "...what do you mean? What wouldn't matter?"

The woman didn't answer her, and Minamo was unable to tell whether she was just too into her game at the moment, or was simply ignoring her.

She shook her head, leaving the matter aside for now, and then continued reading from where she had left off in the notebook, when she had been right at the start of just one of the hundreds of stories that Yukari herself had written back in their school days.