April 20, 2011

Forecast… Cloudy

"Oh," I was walking with Yu to school that day; we passed by an old lady in black who was talking to a cat… Not weird if she was a crazy cat lady, but she didn't seem like one. "Are you hungry? Or are you lonely? Haha… Of course. Everyone is lonely."

"That was weird." I whispered to Yu as we walked away from the woman, Yu nodded in agreement. "So what do you think was up with that?" Yu being the ultimate master of language just shrugged; yet, that's when a familiar cheerful voice found its way to our ears.

"Morning!" Chie was running down the road up to us, she had a smile on her face. I just smiled back. "Hey, did you guys see that just now?"

"Crazy lady in black?" I smirked an evil smirk towards her. "Or the cat?"

"The cat," Chie giggled a little before continuing to explain herself. "It was cute. Yukiko gave it some food a while back, but it just won't take to me."

"Ya win some ya lose some." I just shrugged at her, yet it didn't seem to bother her that much. "Oh well, I'm more of a dog person. Oh yeah, I got a text from Yukiko, she's slowly getting better. Doesn't seem like there's any weird lasting effects, so that's good."

"I'm relieved to hear it." Yu just nodded at Chie. I smiled and put my arms around the two of them. "What are you doing?"

"Just taking it in…" I smiled as we awkwardly continued to walk to school. I was smiling like an idiot, Yu just went with it putting his arm on mine. Chie was blushing in embarrassment. "I mean after all, we're heroes! This is freaking awesome!"

"I guess so," Chie shrugged a bit, it didn't really seem to hit her, after all she was still worried about Yukiko, which she showed by continuing to explain her status to us. "All we have to do is wait till she gets better. Let's hold off on the other stuff until then."

"Well," I sighed still holding the two close. "The longer you wait, the worse someone's memory will be, but she does need the rest… so, yeah let's wait."

"Agreed."

Time Change: Early Morning to Lunch

"So we gonna train today?" I sat down next to Chie on the roof, it was just us today. Yosuke and Yu were going to what I assumed was the cafeteria. Still Chie sighed at the question like she was actually sad about something. "What's wrong?"

"Sorry," Chie looked at me with a half-smile, I was actually getting worried for a moment, until… "Not today, my parents want me to go straight home and help around the house."

"It's cool," I shrugged chowing down on my soba noodles in front of me, I shrugged. "I'll just go bug Yosuke or watch TV…"

Chie just sighed, lunch had just started so we had a lot of time to talk, I could not stand the awkward silence, so what did I do… I started to sing. "Welcome to the world you see. An AK with a couple blood is this? don't matter to me. Scatter the ashes over the seven seas. That sickness, that feeling inside you. That's weakness, don't let it divide you. Keep this, that feeling of pride too. Digging up bones which you buried the truth."

Chie looked up at me as I sang the song from memory, I knew this song well enough, and I finished my noodles, so I stood up and started to move around as I sang the song. Chie started to smile a bit as I continued to sing. "Children, hypocrisy, that's what I give, you can take it from me. If you don't, won't live to see. One last act of tragedy. A mother's heart can make me humble. No life lost can make it stumble. Our empire will never crumble."

At this point Chie actually joined in, which surprised me greatly. She knew, not only the song, but the way to say the words. "We did it for the glory. The glory. Only the glory! We live inside a story. It's a story. All for the glory!"

"Holy shit," I was amazed at one, her voice, two, that she knew Hollywood Undead… "Whoa… um… Chie, th-that was awesome! I didn't know that you listened to Hollywood Undead!"

"Who hasn't at least heard of them?" Chie smiled brightly as I did a fist pump, this was awesome! Man, I thought I would be alone in my taste in music, but now; OH HELL YEAH! We both started laughing for a moment. That is until the bell rang, at which we both just looked at and scrambled back to the stairs. All we could think at that moment was "SHIT!"

Time Change: Lunch to Afternoon

I was so confused by the way that the teachers in this school, first Mrs. Sofue, the Pharaoh, then Mr. Kondo; P.E. plus English, now Mr. Hosoi, or in my book, Mr. Puppet hand… yeah no joke, he wore a puppet of himself on his hand. I have no other way of wanting to explain him; the puppet was enough to notice him from a mile away. "All right, allll right! Settle down, now. Class is in session. My name is Mr. Hosoi and in this class you'll be learning about contemporary writing. Let's all have fun."

"There is now why this can be fun…" I whispered to Chie, she tried not laugh. Yep, I still had that effect on people. For once that is… anyway. "His puppet talks more than he does… I think the puppet is the puppeteer, not him."

Chie now started to roll her eyes, after all, now she was trying to listen to the lesson. "Shush, he might hear us!"

"Not like we're doing anything bad." I grinned evilly as Mr. Hosoi continued the lesson.

"I know this is off topic, but what's the point of applying to colleges outside of Inaba?" There was no way he could have been serious, right? Was he really complaining about the lesson… Oh dear god! "Why even bother?"

"Carpe Diem, that's why…" I sighed, I really didn't want any chances I had for hope to vanish. Not like one teacher would ruin that, but still…

"Nothing good comes out of competing with city folk. The country-side is all you need." Oh god, he was serious about this, well, we knew who not to be in charge of a class reunion… "Well, since this is our first lesson, why don't you show me how much you already know. Now then, how many parts are there in Murakami's 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle?' Hana-chan! I'm calling on you, I get the feeling you're not much of a reader."

"Hey! I read!" What manga, god Yosuke really did not seem like a heavy reader. "I mean not books, but…" Whoop there it is! "Kreed! C'mon man, help me out here!"

"How am I supposed to know!?" I whispered quietly to Yosuke. "I never heard of the guy before!"

"Guess!?"

"Three!" I almost yelled my guess out, yet Yosuke still took the answer. Mr. Hosoi actually seemed surprise that for once he was wrong about something… God complex much…

"Very good, Hana-chan! Either you're more literary than you look, or that was a lucky guess." Mr. Hosoi suddenly went on a long speal about the book… I missed most of it, because I was surprised by myself getting the question right, so were Chie and Yosuke.

"How did you…?" Chie raised an eyebrow at me.

"I have no idea, but," I whispered back to Yosuke. "You owe me two steaks now!"

"Wh-what!?"

Time Change: Afternoon to After School

I was walking through the shopping district; with nothing to do I decided to just walk around for a while. I had been walking for a while when I noticed a familiar face; Yu was walking with a black haired girl with a blue hat on, it took me a moment, but I recognized her. The girl from the train station, they were walking away from a little outdoor… um, diner I guess. I could barely make out Yosuke running in the opposite direction. I probably had to go to Junes for work… How he forgot was beyond me. "Yo, Narukami-san!"

Yu looked at me and smiled. "Kreed, what's up?"

Bored and nothing to do was the truth, but I went simply with. "Nothing much, hey I didn't know that you two knew each other."

"Whatever…" The girl looked away from me, I thought it was kinda rude, but she really didn't know me. She pointed at me. "Who is that?"

"Okay doesn't remember me either…" I shrugged slightly before turning back to her. "We seven days ago on the eleventh, at the train station. I'm Kreed Richards, Yu's friend."

I held my hand out to her and she just looked at Yu. "I thought that other guy was your 'partner?'"

"I have more than one friend…" Yu sighed, before turning to me. "We're going to the hill just outside of town."

"Well I'll be out of your guys hair," I bowed and stepped aside and started walking to the Northern End of the Shopping District. "See ya at school Narukami!"

I walked away before they could say anything else, I really didn't want to get in their way, after all. I ended walking by a video store and stopped before noticing that it was a pawn shop, and there was a specific movie in the window. I looked at it and smiled, I had the money to make plenty of small purchases, besides, and this was for a friend… I walked into the store and in ten minutes I walked out with three games and a brand new copy of "Trial of the Dragon!"

Time Change: After School to Evening

"I'm coming!" I walked down the stairs from my room when I heard the doorbell start to ring. It was dark out, so I had no idea who it could have been. I reached the door and slowly opened the door grabbing my baseball bat to see Chie standing in my doorway… "Oh Chie… WAIT, CHIE!?"

"H-hi…" Chie smiled shy fully. Wh-why was she at my house at night!? There was no way in hell her parents were gonna like this! "I wanted to know if you've eaten yet…"

"N-no, why!?" I was actually nervous about this. Why? Don't ask me!?

"You wanna go to Aiya's?" Chie smiled a bit, again I was confused she was asking me this at NIGHT! "I just didn't want to eat there alone, and Yukiko is still sick…"

"U-um…" I had no idea what to say to her; usually I had a freaking clue! Yet here I was speechless. "S-sure, are your parents okay with this!?"

"Yeah," Chie sighed with relief as I agreed to go and eat with her. "They actually thought it would be okay for the tonight at least…"

I sighed and grabbed a hoodie; it was kinda cold at night. "Lead the way madam!"

Aiya's

"Wow!" I was so happy when I saw the menu at Aiya's, it all sounded good! Yet, there was one item on the menu that I wanted more than anything at that moment. "They have steak!"

"Yeah," Chie was smiling brightly as she placed her menu down on the counter and almost started jumping up and down with excitement for her favorite meal. "I can't wait!"

"What you two having?" The owner spoke up to us. Without missing a beat we both answered at the same time.

"Steak!" We both smiled, until he heard each other's answers and we just stared at each other for a moment, Chie blushed dark red in embarrassment, it really didn't help with what the owner said next.

"Never heard of a couple sharing a steak…" Chie and me both turned dark red and avoided eye contact. After a moment I finally broke the silence.

"W-we're not dating…" This time the owner turned red with embarrassment.

"Aiya! Sorry, two steaks coming up." I started to rub the back of my neck at this point, god I was nervous about what was going to happen, because, until that moment I had never really thought about what I thought about Chie… I started think I actually did like her, but I doubted that she could feel the same way.

"Sooooo," I sighed a bit. "That was awkward…"

"Yeah," Chie laughed awkwardly at the atmosphere at the moment. "So, um… Wanna train tomorrow?"

"S-sure…" She sighed in relief that it wasn't awkward enough for us to stop hanging out. We didn't really talk much for the rest of the night. There were some random comments about Hollywood Undead and other things, but still the awkward atmosphere lingered for the rest of the time. After that I walked her to her house and went home to sleep. Still the steak was FUCKING AWESOME! I go back to Aiya's more often!

Wow that was fast! Well here is chapter nine, I don't think there will be an update tomorrow, sorry. Still hope you enjoyed!