Chapter 8: Smiles and Sake
There was a moment of total silence.
And then two arrows arched through the air.
The sound of two arrows hitting the targets broke the silence, but still, no one spoke.
A couple of the judge's assistants got up and dashed over to the targets.
Neither archer had released their stance.
One of the assistants took out a measuring tape and held it next to each arrow. They dashed back to where the judges sat.
Finally, one of the judges stood and cleared his throat; an unnecessary gesture, as the dojo was as quiet as a tomb.
"Ahem. The match between Sumiko Ikeda and Akihiro Kato has been declared…" he paused and looked at a piece of paper in his hand, "a tie!"
The crowd was suddenly a tightly packed ball of jumping, screaming revelers. The rest of the archers poured out onto the main floor to congratulate the two archers, and both Ikeda and Kato were assaulted by well-meaning punches and slaps on the back.
Takashi felt something tug at his sleeve. He looked down and saw that Ikeda's quiet friend was pulling gently on his cuff.
"Quickly," she said, "we must hurry! If we do not leave immediately, we will not be able to procure a favourable table!"
Ageda, that was her name. He allowed her to pull him to the door, where they found Yoshida and Sanu waiting for them. Ageda gestured towards the horde of admirers surrounding Ikeda and said, "I will extract her" before she melted into the crowd once more.
"I'm always amazed when she does that." Sanu commented, "If we lived in the feudal era, she would be a ninja."
"And I would be the prince, and you would be the princess, and Sumiko-chan would be our guard!" Yoshida burbled happily.
"What about him?" Sanu asked, pointing a finger at Takashi.
"Why should I care about him?" Yoshida asked, looking at the tall freshman with a disinterested air.
"He's going to be hanging out with us anyway, so you should start assigning him roles. Trust me, he's not going to be leaving our little group anytime soon."
"Oh fine," Yoshida sighed, and then both of them stared at Takashi, examining him intently.
"Samurai," both of them intoned at the same time, just as Ageda returned with Ikeda in tow.
"What?" Ikeda asked, her forhead wrinkled in confusion, "Why is Morinozuka-san a samurai?"
Instantly, Yoshida launched into an explanation of the 'feudal era roles', but Takashi wasn't paying attention. He was paying attention to the fact that Ikeda was wearing a kimono that accented her figure…nicely. Yes, that was the word he was looking for. She looked very…nice.
Ikeda noticed him looking (staring, said that annoyingly perverted voice in his head, at her voluptuous figu…he stopped that thought right there) and smiled nervously.
"I came straight to the dojo from my grandmother's birthday party, so I'm still kind of dressed up."
"Very pretty," he said quietly, and noticed an almost imperceptible blush spread across her cheeks.
"IS EVERYONE READY TO GO?" Yoshida shout loudly from behind them, making both of them jump. Takashi turned around just in time to see Sanu and Ageda punch Yoshida viciously in the stomach before assuming far too innocent expressions.
"Yes," Ikeda said from behind him, "Let's go."
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The restaurant was apparently on the other side of town, and when Yoshida said brightly "I'll drive us!" the response was only a vehement "NO" from the three girls, so Takashi volunteered his services and found himself attempting to steer Yoshida's… he hesitated to call it a 'car', as it was more like very badly made box on wheels held together with rice paste and old pieces of tape, through streets that were obviously engineered to make driving through them as difficult as possible.
"It's just through here," Ikeda said, pointing to yet another winding street that branched off of their current one.
"Do you specialize in hard-to-find places?" he murmured, and was rewarded with one of Ikeda's glorious smiles.
"No, but the hard-to-find places usually make the best food," she said, and he grunted in amusement.
Another turn, and Ikeda directed him to park in front of a small, brightly lit restaurant with paper lanterns outside.
"In here!" she said, "This place makes the best unagi in Kyoto."
He nodded, and parked Yoshida's vehicle as best he could. The others jumped out, and he heard Sanu say, "I hate riding in that death trap. Buy a better car Yoshida!" as she walked through the restaurant's door.
"Come on!" Ikeda said, and took his hand to pull him inside.
Her hand was warm, and fit perfectly with his own (it would be so easy to pull her around and ki…).
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The restaurant's food lived up to Ikeda's opinion of it. Takashi had never had better unagi in his life. After everyone had finished with their meal, and was trying to fish the last grains of rice from their bowl, Yoshida waved their young waitress over.
"Airi-chan! Give us some sake! Our beloved Miko-chan is a champion, so we must celebrate!" he shouted.
"Yoshida-san, I'm afraid I can't," she said nervously, twisting her apron in her hands, "None of you are twenty yet."
"Oh, come on Airi-chan! We're your best customers. Just this once? It's a celebration!" He smiled flirtatiously at her. "You can join us if you want."
"I…" The waitress glanced behind her at the cook, who gave an 'oh, all right' shrug and turned back to the stove. "I suppose I can make an exception. But just this once!" she warned, as Yoshida whooped in victory.
The sake came a couple of minutes later, and was mostly drunk in toasts to Ikeda and "the noble art of kyudo", and then more sake, and then things went odd and vague. Somewhere around his twelfth cup, he realized that everyone was very drunk, except for Ageda, who was watching them with amusment. At his fifteenth, he noticed that Yoshida had just kissed their young waitress, and that Sanu had just burst into tears and run out the door.
"Shouldn't someone follow her?" he asked in the general direction of the table, realized that he was facing the window, then turned around and repeated his question.
"Um. 'S okay. She lives…" Sumiko (when had she become Sumiko?) said, waving her hand at the door, "Um. 'Cross the street."
"Oh," he said, which seemed sufficient, and attempted to help himself to another cup. Then he realized that he was pouring the sake onto the table, which was annoying, so he turned to the nearest person and said, "Can you pour me another one?"
The nearest person turned out to be Sumiko. "Oh," he said, "Never mind. You're too drunk."
Then he realized just how funny that was, so he started to laugh.
"Whas so funny?" Sumiko asked suspiciously, so he explained it. She just looked at him. "I don' get it," she said, "Whas the joke?"
He was attempting to explain for the fourth time when Ageda took the sake away.
"It is time for both of you to go home," she said firmly, "Or else I won't have enough money to pay for all of this."
"Spoi'sport," Sumiko said, and stuck out her tongue childishly (Kami, but she was pretty). "Fine. I'll go." She stood, swaying, and started for the door.
"Morinozuka-san," Ageda said, "would you help her get to the campus please? I've got to go check on Sanu."
"Mm-hmm," he said, got up (good, he could still walk properly) and walked to the door. He peered out into the dimly lit street before starting off towards Sumiko's weaving form.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Some things of Note:
Unagi is Japanese for 'eel', and I had an excellent bowl of it in Kyoto.
I'm sorry this chapter is so late! We only got back this morning, so I had to type this up very quickly. I'm hoping that I can have the Host Club make an appearance in the chapter after next, so cross your fingers!