Author's Note: And this chapter is the one that I dub, "the one with all that KanNao in". The part where I begin using relationships to explore a person's psyche, in other words. (If you want to make it sound more reputable, that is.)

#11: I'll GIVE you something to accuse me of

The past few days hadn't gone all that swimmingly for Kajiko Tatsumi. No, strike that – if 'swimmingly' was what the past few days weren't, they'd gone just about 'drowningly', with extra emphasis on the sinking.

That is to say, she was drowning.

Water filled her nose, burning like acid. She held her breath and struggled blindly against the chains that had engulfed her, feeling the world shrinking and rushing away, as if it was a ghost vanishing down a long and empty corridor in her mind's eye. She was scared, she was angry, her lungs were in a desperate agony—

Days in the past, but not many…

The landscape of Inaba, which normally looked so dry and dull, was vivid as a painting. There was music in the breeze as it wafted against Kajiko's cheek, the sun was like a song warming her skin, and all that other poetic garbage.

Okay, so basically she was paying very close attention for the first time in her life to pretty much anything, so as not to be caught out paying any sort of attention to the slim boy walking beside her. Because that would be bad. Stay calm, Kajiko, she told herself. Be a goddamn cool cat for once in your life. Don't pay any mind to the mesmerizing mysterious youth who said he thought you were incredibly intriguing because look how frikkin' pretty everything else is… I mean damn, check out that tree, and that river, and this sky, and that silent way he walks with his cap tilted down and holy freaking shit is he looking at me?

She caught a glimpse of the his politely intense indigo gaze out of the corner of her eye and nearly jumped out of her skin. "So—" the boy began, and then tilted his head, a little confused by Kajiko's reaction.

"Yeah—huh?" Kajiko trembled. "R-right! S-so… what'd you wanna ask me about?"

"There's no need to rush through the formalities," the boy said placidly. "Tell me, has your past week or so been eventful?" He noticed the girl's bemused squint and added with a tiny smile, "That is to say, how have you been?"

Kajiko fast-forwarded through her memories of the previous week. "Uh. Been good, I guess. Nothin' too big happening."

The boy placed his fingertips together pensively. "So you wouldn't consider your altercation with the biker gang to be eventful, then?"

"I—oh… y-yeah, there was that, but…" Kajiko grimaced. Of course she was infamous now. All because she'd stood up to some dumb punks…

"Do such events occur in your life often?" persisted the boy. "Had you crossed paths with those miscreants prior to the incident?"

Kajiko noticed that he spoke very low, to compensate for the fact that his deeper adult voice hadn't really come in yet. Between this distraction and the fact that she was burning her processors trying to keep up with the boy's eloquent manner of speech, it was very hard to formulate prompt responses. "Uh… you mean… did I know those guys?" She shook her head vehemently. "Hell no! I mean, I've seen 'em around… everyone has, right? Heard them, anyway, roaring up and down the streets on their lousy goddman noise machines. But I ain't ever hung out with 'em! I'm not part of that crowd."

"Then what prompted the fight?" the boy asked, rubbing his chin in thoughtful scrutiny of the girl at his right. "Had you been involved with anyth—"

"H-hey…" said Kajiko. "You sure this is the sort of thing you wanna talk about with me right now?" She scraped her shoe along the ground. The butterflies of giddy anticipation in her stomach had by now turned into heavy stones of anxiety. "I-I mean, I guess it was sort of a big deal but…"

"My apologies," said the boy, but he didn't sound very contrite. "I didn't realize this topic would upset you. As I said, I'm simply gathering information."

"Right," said Kajiko uncertainly. "I guess…" She was starting to regret this whole venture, and she wasn't entirely sure why.

She and the boy walked in silence for a time along the path by the riverbank. The wind stung in Kajiko's eyes, and she huddled deeper into her jacket. She was aware, once again, of being mentally dissected, but it put a flush to her cheeks for rather different reasons this time.

"L-listen, I swear I didn't go looking for those biker dudes," Kajiko suddenly blurted out. "I never met those guys before but my old man kept complain' about the noise… gave him headaches and things… so I figured the next time I saw those guys, I'd give 'em a good talking-to." She spread her arms pleadingly. "But the one night they did show up, and started buggin' me when I told 'em to lay off drivin' down our block... I didn't figure it'd go all violent, but they came after me and, well, and I showed 'em that I wasn't so easy to take down."

"Ah. So it was merely an act of loyalty and charity that drove you on?" inquired the boy. He sounded mildly disappointed, although Kajiko, blushing from perceived praise, didn't pick this cue up.

"Yeah! That's all!" she exclaimed. "I mean hey, if those assho—if those idiots on TV hadn't gotten the story wrong, then people'd be callin' me a hero by now!"

"Perhaps you're right," said the boy, rather distantly. His manner became even more detached and formal, if that was possible. "Well, this was a very informative discussion we had. I'm afraid I have urgent business to attend to now, however…"

"W-wait," stammered Kajiko. "You're leavin' already?" She bit her lip as the boy turned to head off. "See you around, then, I guess!" she called desperately. "But, uh… Listen, if you got more stuff you wanna ask me, y-you can do that anytime. I'm cool with that. Anythin' I can do to help, okay?"

The boy stopped in his tracks and glanced back over his shoulder. "Your cooperation is very much appreciated," he told Kajiko. "If I have any further questions, I won't hesitate to approach you."

Kajiko swallowed hard and looked down, scuffing gravel furiously. "O-or maybe next time we could just hang out—" When she glanced up, however, the boy had his back turned to her and was silently proceeding away from her down the block, by now out of earshot.

"Oh," mumbled Kajiko, disappointed. "You're gone. Right." She let out a heavy sigh and idly scratched the back of her head. "Walkin' off into the sunset all mysterious-like, huh? Sure, whatever suits you."

That could have gone a lot better, she reflected, as she turned away and started to skulk back home, but then it could gone much worse as well. He'd promised to meet her again if he had any more questions, hadn't he? That was a vaguely optimistic indicator of, well, something. Unless he'd just said that to be polite.

Sometimes Kajiko hated the way that she couldn't think before she spoke, because it meant that her words always came out very rough-sounding, and someone as cultured and well-spoken as that boy probably found it irritating. Kajiko had never had a good lid on her mouth. When her brain decided that something needed saying, it made her say it, and be damned to all the filters in between that should cut out the intercalations and colloquialisms and other speech patterns that made her sound like a total frigging 'tard.

The streets were almost, but not entirely empty today, though in a small town like this one there was never much bustle. Kajiko only saw a high-school-age couple crouched by a lamppost, bickering with their cell phones out over what sounded like a takeout order.

… hold on a sec.

Those kids were two of the group of four that had been hanging around outside Tatsumi Textiles the other day, weren't they? That had been the previous time she'd spoken with that mysterious boy, too. She'd called the kids out on it when she'd noticed them, and they'd promptly scampered off. Almost as if they had been spying on her…

And now Kajiko was really starting to get pissed. Who did these jokers think they were, anyway? Just because someone got shown on TV more or less against their will – the censorship bar they put over her eyes hadn't done diddly squat, because there was only one girl in town who dressed like she did – didn't mean they were suddenly like a celebrity you could follow around and invade the privacy of.

Kajiko unzipped her jacket, marched over to the squabbling couple and stood over them, her hands on her hips. "The hell d'you think you're doin'?" she asked angrily. "You guys been followin' me or something'?"

The boy in the green shirt looked up and his eyes widened. At his side, the red-haired girl shot to her feet and giggled nervously. "What're you talking about?" she said, waving a hand in the air with frantically casual abandon. "We weren't following you! We're just a, a couple of lovebirds out a date!" She pulled the boy to his feet and vigorously threaded her arm around the crook of his elbow, clinging to him like he was a life preserver.

"Date!?" squeaked Green Shirt, going red. He stuffed his phone away. "Whaddaya mean, date? W-we're not dating, Yoshiko!"

"Shut up, Chiyuu…" muttered the girl, Yoshiko, warningly. "Let me handle this…"

"Yeah, well, you're lyin'!" snapped Kajiko, balling her fists. "I saw you guys outside the shop the other day, watchin' me! You think I'd forget somethin' like that?"

Green Shirt, or Chiyuu, as his name apparently was, gulped. "Okay maybe we were following you a little, but w-we just wanted to know—"

"If you've been up to anything, uh, strange, lately," finished the auburn-haired girl, trying to grin disarmingly but succeeding only in putting on a pained grimace. "Anything at all."

Chiyuu bobbed his head vigorously. "You can totally tell us," he said. "We're not, like, the police or something. Just a pair of concerned citizens, haha…"

At this, Kajiko's eyes bulged, and so did the veins on her neck. "Strange?" she squawked."Just what kinda bullshit are you accusin' me of!?"

"W-we're not accusing you of anything yet!" blurted Yoshiko hurriedly, and then clamped a hand over her mouth. "Uh-oh…"

"Yet?" growled Kajiko. "YET!?" She smacked her fist against her palm, finding herself in the throes of blind rage. "That's it! You two are so friggin' dead!"

This time, she wasn't about to let them get away. Kajiko charged after them as they turned on their heels and fled. Fear must have given them extra speed; normally she figured she'd catch up to them in no time.

"Keep runnin' and I'll give you something to accuse me of!" she screamed after them. It occurred to her after she said this that it might not help her case. "W-wait! I didn't mean that! Don't you dare go spreading this shit around town, you hear! I ain't done nothin' wrong!"

"Yoshiko, come on!" yelped Chiyuu, his hand closing around the girl's wrist as he passed by her. "We have to get to the others before she catches up! Run faster!"

"I said stop!" yelled Kajiko fruitlessly, her legs windmilling into overdrive. "You think you can get away from me so easy!? Argh! Shit! Come back here!"

That was then, and this was now.

A stream of bubbles escaped Kajiko's lips… there went all the air she had left, not that it could do her any good. The ghastly chains had tightened around her limbs so much that she didn't think she could feel them anymore, but her brain was so disoriented that it might have just gotten mixed up. A shout echoed in from above, but she couldn't hear it clearly because her ears were clogged with bathwater. She was falling; no, she was sinking, the square patch of light where the surface of the bath should be was shrinking fast—

An instant and an epoch ago…

"That's right," said the boy, he of the blue hair and the blue cap and the blue jacket and the blue eyes. Even his voice was a kind of mellifluous blue, soft-spoken and mysterious like the night. "I find you incredibly intriguing."

No, not blue, indigo. The color of the most precious dyes that Kajiko's family owned. It was such a beautiful hue…

Kajiko knew her cheeks were flaming as the boy turned and left her. "He… finds me intriguing?" she mumbled to herself. "He's a guy, and I'm a girl, but he still finds me… intriguing? Wh-what kinda pick-up line is that, anyway?"

The kind of pick-up line that worked, apparently. No one ever gave a rat's ass about Kajiko Tatsumi. Not the way that she longed for. It had been so long since a guy actually treated her like she was as good as another guy, and for some reason that made her blush a lot more than being treated like a girl. He hadn't said she was cute, or hot, or anything demeaning like that. He'd said 'intriguing', like she was a puzzle to be pieced together, a seething fractal of complexity. An actual human being, in other words. Not just some dowdy wannabe-punk with an unofficial police record who could never get her life together.

Heh. Probably Kajiko had it all wrong, and was seeing meaning in nothing. But it still was something to hope on. Everyone needed a hope spot to pull them out of the rough patches in life, right…

That was then, and this was now… or was it the other way around?

Dizzy and fading, Kajiko felt a pair of strong, firm arms around her shoulders, and her world lurched, no longer a descent but an ascent. The light was growing… was she dying? Was this the rosy light of Heaven, were these the arms of an angel? No way… she knew what Heaven-bound souls were supposed to be like and she sure as heck wasn't one of them. They only took good girls, the ones who ate their veggies and attended school every day and didn't beat people up, right? But if she wasn't dying, then what…?

Once upon a time…

Once upon a time, Kajiko's hair was long and black, and she didn't have piercings or a scar on her forehead. She was little then, running happily through the parks of Inaba, weaving sticks and wildflowers and rice husks together into all sorts of things. She made crowns and mats and sometimes little grotesque dolls with giant ears and an abundance of spidery limbs, that she would play at pitting against one another in gladiatorial arenas made from stones. Anything she found, there was something to be made from it. One day, she knew, she would weave the air and sculpt the sunshine and braid the lightning into fancy pleats that she could twine with her hair, but for now she was content with grass and bugs.

She remembered one time she had been crouched in the mud, happily stirring up the soil and plucking up stems, when a kamikaze plane had dive-bombed her. Not a real one, of course – it was actually a remote controlled Flying Featherman Ranger R Jet but she had been little enough that it might as well have been a real plane, in her humble opinion. It had bowled her over, and sent her tumbling down a hill more out of surprise than pain, and she'd heard the fast thumping of the owner's tiny footsteps approaching her.

"I'm sorry!" a boy's voice squeaked. "I'm sorry, I just lost control of the app-apparatus!" Someone had knelt by her side and pulled her over, sniffling apologetically. "D-did I slay you?"

Kajiko had rolled over to stare into a pair of eyes that were the darkest shade of blue she'd ever seen. "Um," she'd said, completely confused and not caring one bit. "No, I'm okay…"

"I should have de-deducted from the manual that a height of one-fifty meters would be far away enough to lose the signal," said the boy, wiping his eyes.

"… 'kay…" Kajiko had said blankly, and had untangled herself from the toy. "Hey… Your robot's really cool." She'd flown it over her head, making shooom, shoooom noises with her mouth. Then she had directed it downwards. "Neeeeeerrrww… pcchhww." She dug the nose of the plane into the dirt.

"What's that you're wearing?" the boy had eventually asked curiously. He'd pointed at Kajiko's head. "Did you… make that?"

Kajiko nodded eagerly and removed the crown. "Uh-huh. I used all kinds of flowers and beetles and—"

"Beetles?" gagged the boy. "You put beetles in your hair?"

"Only… only the died ones," explained Kajiko, blinking at what she considered to be an odd reaction. "Same with the, with the buttery flies. I find the died ones. They don't crawl around 'n stuff no more."

The boy looked at the flower crown with disturbed fascination. "Could you construct one for me, too?" he asked haltingly. "Please?"

"You don't need one," said Kajiko reasonably, "You have a hat." She pointed to the boy's head and then shyly added. "I… I like your hat. It's blue; I like blue."

"But I want one," the boy insisted. "I want one with all the bugs in it, too. It must be just like this one, with the same flowers. These are my specifications." He handed the flower crown back to Kajiko. "I shall pay you," he informed her magnanimously.

"You don't have to pay me," the girl told him, brimming with firm generosity. "I like to make 'em. It's fun."

But soon after that, though they'd played for a time, the boy had been called away, and then he'd vanished like fog from her life. The flower crown she'd made for him wilted quickly, and within a week she'd thrown it out. At the time, she told herself that she'd make him a new one the next time they met. Within time, though, she'd forgotten all about it, and she had a scar on her forehead the next time she remembered. Girls with scars didn't wear flower crowns, she'd decided, even ones with bugs on. Besides, the boy probably wouldn't recognize her anymore, even if he did come back to Inaba, since she had a scar, and was ugly now.

That was then, and this was—

"Wake up, dammit!" someone growled. "Don't be such a… such a girl! What, you think you can just die now, without a fight! I never said you could die!"

The world was cold and damp. Kajiko wanted to shiver, but her whole body was entirely limp. She wanted to do as the voice said, but it was too difficult. She couldn't think, and without that, she couldn't tell her body what to do. So she lay on the stone floor, her head propped up on something low and flat, like a boxy pillow, letting the seconds drip from her face along with the bathwater that was saturating her clothes.

She felt someone slapping her cheeks, not to injure but to rouse, and she felt a little sorry that she couldn't respond to them, because they sounded so worried about her. That was nice. It was nice that someone cared.

The voice had returned, with a pleased, rather impressed tone. The panic in it was gone. It laughed, perhaps out of relief. "My, my… have you been carrying that around all this time? Well, you know what it's for, don't you? Good. Then I'll leave the rest to you, m'kay? Ta-ta for now…"

The sound of receding footsteps, and then something small and round, almost like a glass bead, was touching Kajiko's lips. It wormed its way into her mouth past her teeth all by itself and then burst on her tongue.

The world exploded into existence. Kajiko took a heaving lungful of air and then opened her eyes very, very wide.