This is part 2 of the last chapter. Hope you don't mind the filler mode this brings. And on with the story!
"So what up with Junsei and you, Tomoko?" I ask. Tomoko and I were sitting down in the store while Katsumi and Emi were shopping.
"Yeah. He's kind of cute." Emi says, going through clothes.
"Emi, should I add in my memory that you seem to think all guys are cute/hot?" Katsumi suggests.
"Hmm, probably. Oh, this looks cute!" Emi says, getting distracted by a dress. I go back to facing Tomoko. She sighs.
"I've known him since my brother joined the academy. He's an annoying perfectionist. Despicable guy…" Tomoko murmurs.
"She likes him." I say.
"She totally likes him." Emi says.
"She definitely likes him." Katsumi says.
"I do not!" Tomoko shouts a bit. Everyone laughs except of course Tomoko.
"He is a perfectionist though. Excellent grades and skill. According to my memory, his grandfather was a royal guard, one of the most famous ones. That is, if his last name is Arai. Plus, his name means perfect." Katsumi says laughing. Tomoko grunts.
Emi walks up to me. "Here, Shizu." She says as she gives me a pile of clothes.
"Um, Emi. I don't think I'm your personal clothes carrier." I say, about to give the clothes back.
"No, those are for you to try on." Emi replies smiling. I give a dumbfounded (new word in general class) face.
"No, no, no. I'm not trying anything on. I don't want to pay, and the clothes Katsumi gave me are enough." I say handing her back the clothes. Instead of taking the clothes back, she takes my arm pulls me up, and pushes me a bit. I sigh. "I guess I have no other choice then."
"Yay, now Tomoko you need t-" Emi starts to say but Tomoko interrupts.
"Don't. You. Dare." Tomoko says as she glares.
"Let's leave Tomoko alone for the time being, She's a bit lovesick." Katsumi says smiling.
"Why should I bother protesting now?" Tomoko says as she sighs.
"Maybe because it's entertaining." Katsumi says smirking. Tomoko glares and looks the other way. After watching this show, I go in the fitting room. Emi and Katsumi both get in a dressing room too.
We change and show our outfits for what seemed like eternity. Finally, after trying everything on, I convinced them not to buy anything for me. That hesitated and them bought their own stuff. And that ends our trip to Chic-ful.
"I had to watch you guys change for more than an hour." Tomoko complains, twitching her eyes.
"Well, you could've tried something on..." I argue. Tomoko scuffs, she does that a lot.
"Where now?" Jun asks us as he starts to move the car.
"Well, since it's 12:45, we should head to Emi's family restaurant." Katsumi says.
"Okay! Abott Drive! The one closest to the country's palace." Emi says excitedly. Jun nods in response.
"You know the streets all start with a vowel- a different vowel on each of the 6 streets." Katsumi says.
"Why do they have old style names?" I ask curiously.
"Maybe to look sophisticated." Katsumi answers.
"Sophisticated? Isn't that new word we learned from general class?" I ask laughing a bit.
"If we learn new words, might as well use them." Katsumi says. (A/N: Remember, they're not so big on smartness in their country.)
"I'm just glad math is over." Tomoko says.
"No way! I despise language arts, hopefully I can last one more month." I say in response.
"And then we'll learn history." Katsumi says.
"And afterwards, science. I think that's the least needed subject." Emi states.
"Must be why it's at the end of the year. We have two weeks off for Christmas and New year's, so science is cut shorter than the rest." Katsumi says. (A/N: If you're confused, let me remind you. January-March is math, April-June is language arts, July-September is history, and October-December is science.) The car is put to a stop.
"Okay, we're here, Kaneko Café. Very nice place, but because it's at the end of the street, it's the least known on the street." Jun says as he unlocks the doors.
"There is truth to that. We don't want to attract that many customers, you know, don't want trouble. Plus, our room capacity isn't much." Emi replies.
"Okay, Jun. You're on a lunch break to anywhere. Come back between 1:30 and 2:00 please." Katsumi says.
"Of course Katsumi." Jun replies.
We get out of the car and into the café, Emi going in first. "I'm home!"
A little kid comes up to us. "Hey! Everyone! It's Emi and other people!" the kid shouts. Almost immediately, 7 other people in waiter/chef outfits come out. I take a good look around the place. It has a nice tune playing while there are about 10 tables. Four tables have people there including- Arisa and some older female, maybe her mom. I'll ignore that for now.
"Hi guys, I missed you so much!" Emi says happily. Many customers are looking at us. Emi hugs all 8 of her family members, then she introduces us. It turns out, they are Emi's parents, three of Emi's siblings, and two of Emi's cousins plus their one parent. Big family. We introduced ourselves and then sat at a table when they went back to work.
"Okay, so I have the perfect thing we can order!" Emi says excitedly.
"I'm alright with Emi choosing. How bout you guys?" I ask Katsumi and Tomoko. They nod their heads in agreement.
"Alright!" Emi says. One of Emi's family members come to us and ask of our order. "Okay. We want the large plate of fried rice and the large plate of fried noodles!" Wow, how simple. We all ordered ice cold water and the waitress left.
"I'm going to go to the restroom." Katsumi says and gets up.
"Me too!" I say as I follow her. Arisa's table is on the way to the bathroom. Katsumi surprisingly stops at her table.
"Hello. Mrs. Yoshida and Arisa. How are you?" Katsumi says politely.
"Oh we're fine. You know, mother-daughter bonding." Arisa's mom replies.
"That's good. Have you heard of my father lately? How is he?" Katsumi asks, he voice is a bit frantic.
"He's doing well and he's sorry he can't be with you that often." Arisa's mom says, her voice is rather calm. Arisa's just there very silent. "Who's the girl next to you?"
"I'm Shizu." I say in response.
"Nice name." Arisa's mom replies.
"Thanks." I reply. It feels kind of awkward, plus she's a royal guard.
"Well, we should get going." Katsumi says and we walk off to the bathroom.
"My dad and mom don't really have time to be with me. They always volunteer to do guard duties outside the country." Katsumi says. We're both in different bathroom stalls.
"I feel sympathy Katsumi, but WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS WHILE WE ARE PEEING? Or at least I hope both of us are peeing." I ask really weird out.
"I don't know, I'm in the moment now." Katsumi replies. I sigh.
"Never forget your parents are thinking of you every second of every day." I say as I flush the toilet and get out of the stall.
"How do you know?" Katsumi asks as she also flushes the toilet and leaves the stall.
"I'm just guessing, but I'm a good guesser." I say. We laugh, wash our hands, and leave the restroom.
Lunch was amazing. Super fresh vegetables and well cooked meat. We shared shaved ice for dessert. "I'm in heaven~" I say after we finished everything. I noticed. Arisa and her mom already left.
"And we provide this for free as a birthday present." Emi's parents say to us smiling.
"Thanks so much Mr. and Mrs. Kaneko." Katsumi says smiling.
"You guys are welcome. I hope things are going well at the academy." Her mom says. We look at each other with uncertain faces and fake laugh a bit.
"Nothing bad going on I presume?" Her dad says. We're all speechless when Tomoko talks.
"Everything is great." Tomoko says and we take our leave. I take a breath when we're outside.
"That was close." I say. They nod in response. Remember those monthly things happening? Well, someone broke their arm this month because of it. And now it's a code orange for the school. We still can't tell any of our parents. (A/N: Most of them in the academy are brave, they are training to be guards. They don't want to go tell their parents anyways.)
"Come on, it's 1:47, and Jun's car is right there. Still got more to do!" Katsumi says, lifting our spirits up. I nod and we start to walk to the car. I stay behind and take a last look at Emi's restaurant.
"Hurry up, Shizu!" Emi shouts. They're already far ahead! I start running and I bump really hard into a person.
His hat and sunglasses come off. The guy's hair is green and he looks a bit out of place for some reason. He looks like he's in his twenties. I pick up the stuff he dropped. It's a bag of candles, and they're exactly what the academy candles look like. The academy candles are on each balcony. Weird…
"Sorry." The guy says in a scruffy voice. He grabs the bag and walks off. I shrug the weirdness of that moment off, and run to the car.
"Where to next?" Jun asks.
"Edmon Avenue. I have a place to show." Tomoko tells Jun. Jun nods and he starts driving. The street is on the next lane, so we get there quickly.
"Watanabe Dojo." Katsumi says.
"Wow, your family has their own dojo!" Emi exclaims. Tomoko nods proudly.
"They don't allow anyone other than family, but I think I can sneak you guys in." Tomoko says. I'm not so sure. We go into the wooden dojo quietly.
"No one is allowed except family members." A guy says right when we get in. Wow, that was fast. I look to my left and I see a middle-aged white haired (of course) man with dark eyes that kind of scare me.
"Sorry, uncle. We'll leave." Tomoko says with a plain voice.
Tomoko's uncle nods and says, "What user type are you?"
"Savager sir. My egg's right here." Tomoko replies showing her egg.
"It should hatch soon." Her uncle says. What the? I heard an egg takes about a year, and all year the savagers prepare for it. "And did you get rid of that music junk yet?" I give a weird face. Tomoko's guitar seems to be as important as her user bracelet.
"Yes, I have sir." Tomoko answers. Her uncle gives a stern look and walks away. Tomoko signals for us to leave and we go right back out of the dojo. "Well, I knew that would happen."
"And yet you wanted us to give it a try?" I say as we get back in the car. Tomoko does her signature 'looking away'.
"Tomoko, should I add in my memory that you look away a lot?" Katsumi asks with a smile. Tomoko shrugs. "And that you shrug too." We all laugh.
"Where to next?" Jun asks as he starts the car.
"The time says 2:10 on the car." Emi says. "Let's go to a arcade! Is there one near here?"
"The best one is at the last street, Yules Lane. It's the street closest to the government building." Katsumi says.
"We go!" I say excitedly.
"I'm okay with it." Tomoko says.
"Okay, it's called Game HQ." Katsumi responses.
"HQ stands for?" I ask.
"Headquarters." Katsumi replies.
Jun nods and starts driving. It takes extra time to reach there because; well it's the last street. We get there in about 10 minutes.
I then remember how much money I have, 10 dollars. You can revert your school points into dollars. I only changed 10 of my points, so right now I have 27 points. I made about 25 for the finals in April. (A/N: There were three tests. Whichever score you get, you divide by 10 and get that many points. Shizu got an average of around 85% then.) But since my friends' birthdays just past, I spent a lot of money.
We get to the arcade and immediately go to the token exchange. I use all my 10 dollars because I know I'm going to use all of them. I put all 40 tokens in a cup. My dorm mates put in their money too. I go over to a machine I've never seen before, it's called skee ball. Emi goes to the basketball, Katsumi goes to claw machines, and Tomoko goes to those video game things. We play for about a half hour.
"I think we should play some games together." I say. Tomoko gives a glare.
"Come on, it'll be fun!" Emi says happily. I admire her cheerfulness.
We decide to go to the car racing game, four way. It was awesome, although really fake.
After that, we did an air hockey tournament. Since there was only one table, we had to do a tournament. Surprisingly, I was pretty good. We were all so aggressive with the puck; it sometimes flew out of the table. One time, it even hit my face while I was watching.
And then, it was Dance Dance Revolution! I got super sweaty from it and we were laughing almost every second. I had to lie on the floor for a few minutes. I didn't even care that people were staring at me.
"Yes! I am the ultimate gamer girl!" Emi shouts.
"Yeah, out of us four." I say getting up from the floor.
"Well, it was fun wasn't it?" Katsumi says smiling.
"Come on, Shizu and Katsumi. You two got tickets, go exchange them." Tomoko suggests.
"I still have about 10 tokens, let's use them to get a little more tickets." I say. Everyone nods and we all go to skee ball. I got the hang of it after a few games and now it has become my specialty.
After using up my tokens, we go to the ticket exchange. Putting all the tickets together equals 998 tickets. I look to the prize place and there's a gigantic chocolate bar for 1000 tickets! It's about 4 feet wide and long.
"Oh missed a ticket!" Emi says as she puts it into the ticket exchange. Now it's 999 tickets.
"You guys! Search the floor for another ticket!" I say.
"We can always play another g-" Katsumi starts but I interrupt.
"No, we can just find one!" I say. We searched every inch of the place and gave up.
"Let's just play another game." Tomoko says. I sigh and we're about to go back to the ticket exchange when the prize worker speaks.
"Why don't I just give it to you with 999?" he says in a very bored voice. I turn to him slowly.
"You watched us look for a ticket this whole time, and didn't mention that?" I ask slowly. He's a bit on the old side and he looks super bored.
"Pretty much." He replies real plainly. I give a sigh. Why should I go crazy over one ticket?
"Just give us the dang chocolate bar." I say handing him the paper that says my 999 tickets. We carry the chocolate bar together and we almost bump into- Mana and two other girls. One of the girls was the one in the PE locker restroom that day.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't paper freak and her friends." Mana says. I sigh, there's a reason that I have that name.
You see, sometimes I didn't have much homework in study hall, so then I'd read books.
But then sometimes I'd be bored with books so what would I do now? I then found my answer, paper! I have so much scratch paper in my bag. On the Internet I searched up how to do different paper folding. I learned to make boats, airplanes, boxes, balls, stars, hearts, and finally mastered the crane recently. It's my additional hobby now in the library during free time.
Of course, Mana and her friends would see me fold paper and make fun of me. I just ignored it and sometimes flew a paper airplane at her.
"At least I don't serve a royal guard's daughter/ogle over the principal's son and have a fake personality doing it." I say in response. Mana gives an angry look and is ready to come at me. I give her a glare and walk out of the arcade before she gets a chance. My friends are right behind me.
"Well, that was pretty harsh, but I have no right to judge." Katsumi says.
"All of it was true in my opinion." I reply.
"Well, if she doesn't like you, then we don't like her." Emi says smiling. I give a smile.
"Wait, what time is it?" Tomoko asks.
"4:39. Why?" Katsumi replies.
"There's a cool snack place near here." Tomoko says. That's weird; Tomoko only remembers something important.
"Oh yeah, it's called Teen In The Mix." Katsumi says fixing her glasses.
"Alright, let's walk there!" Emi says walking fast. We reach there in about 2 minutes. We open the door and someone greets us.
"Hey there Tomoko." A girl says. She has green eyes and brown hair. Her hair is medium, below the shoulders but above the waist. Tomoko gives a wave. She works here from how I see it.
"These are my… friends. Katsumi, Shizu, and Emi." Tomoko says to the girl. The girl grins.
"I'm Ootsuki. Don't ask for my first name. I'm a level five knight." Ootsuki says. I then wonder what her first name is.
"Yeah, your first name is pretty funny." Tomoko says grinning a bit.
"Come on, sit down." Ootsuki says smoothly ignoring Tomoko. We sit down and order drinks. Ootsuki goes to the counter to make our orders.
"She got me into music when I was young." Tomoko says.
"Oh, but I saw her play basketball. And really good too." Emi replies.
"Yeah, she's good at that too." Tomoko says with a face full of pride.
"What instrument does she play?" Katsumi asks.
"The baritone sax." Tomoko responses.
"Never heard." I say simply. Ootsuki comes to us.
"Let's see. Two strawberry bananas, one extreme berry, and one strawberry kiwi." She says setting down our drinks and walking off.
"Okay, guys. This toast is to being 14!" Emi says loudly.
"To being 14!" Katsumi, Tomoko, and I say happily. We lift our smoothies and they clang.
End of chapter. The new character, Ootsuki is not that important. She's just a role model for Tomoko. And also if you'd forgotten: a knight is a swordsman. A swordsman can choose from a knight or a samurai their second year.