Chapter Sixteen
Satoshi runs across the arcade, laughing maniacally.
"Hey, Korin-chan, I just found the dumbest game ever. Do you want to come and play it with me?" he asks.
"Yeah, sure. In a minute." I say, only half listening to what he said, as I continue to shoot the computer generated enemies.
The game ends and Satoshi drags me away before I have a chance to put in more money and start a new game.
"You are now going to play the dumb game which has shit representations of both Yokai and onmyoji." Satoshi orders as he drags me across to the game, which Hanako seems to have beaten us to. Xander stands beside her as she all but screams at the console. Satoshi and I stand beside Xander, laughing at how Hanako is getting into the game so much.
When Hanako finishes the game, she puts in some more money and goes to start a new game, but Satoshi puts in some money, too.
"I'm playing with you." he says. Hanako rolls her eyes.
"That's fine, as long as you don't run crying to your mummy when you lose." she says. Satoshi raises his eyebrows.
"You think I would do that?"
"Just shut up and play."
Xander and I watch the two play together, with Hanako taking the lead and yelling orders at Satoshi. I share a few looks with Xander, like It's cool that an onmyoji and a Yokai are working together so well. I smile. Someone grabs my shoulder and I turn to see Megumi.
"Do you know where the toilets are, Korin-chan?" she asks. I nod. "Can you show me?"
"Yeah, sure." Megumi beams at me. The two of us walk to the girls' toilets.
When we get there, Megumi locks herself in a cubicle. After about thirty seconds,
I start to get a bit bored and I decide to have a laugh. I stand in front of Megumi's cubicle.
"Red paper or blue paper?" I ask, trying to keep the laughter out of my voice. Something flies over the top of the door, and for a moment I worry that Megumi sent out a Shikigami. But, when it lands on the floor by my feet, I stare, shocked, at it.
"How's that for red paper, bitch?" Megumi asks, and I burst out laughing. She just threw a used tampon at me. The cubicle door opens and Megumi steps out, smiling slightly and shaking her head.
"I hope you're going to put that in the bin," I say, pointing at the tampon. "I wouldn't want to be the cleaner that finds that." Megumi nods with a laugh.
"Of course I am." she says as she bends over and picks up the tampon, stepping back into the cubicle and putting it in the sanitary bin.
Megumi and I are still giggling when we get back to the others.
"What's so funny?" Satoshi asks us. We share a look and immediately burst out laughing.
"It doesn't matter…" I manage to say between fits of laughter.
"Y-you had to be there…" Megumi squeaks out.
Satoshi regards us with what appears to be mild concern for our sanity, "Right… Okay… I'm not going to ask anything else…" he says slowly.
"I wanna know!" Xander says. I shake my head.
"It's girl stuff. You wouldn't understand it." I say, waving my hand dismissively. Satoshi wrinkles his nose in disgust.
"Well, this is a great conversation to be having." he says. Xander and Hanako both look incredibly confused.
Eight hours later, I'm lying on my bunk with Ezra snoring above me. Takeshi is sitting by the window, staring out at the moon, and Megumi is playing on her phone. Every thirty seconds or so, Megumi's phone beeps and she giggles. I am honestly considering throwing something at her, because I want to sleep but the light from her screen as well as the annoying beeping is keeping me awake. How Ezra is managing to sleep through it, I will never know.
Eventually, I give up on sleep with a small sigh. I take out my phone and open Crunchyroll. I plug in my headphones and put them on, before flicking through and finding the first anime I ever watched, the one that first sparked my interest in Yokai, Nurarihyon no Mago.
I rewatch from the first episode, and I reach episode 22 before Ezra hangs his head over the side of the bed and tells me that it's time to get up.
"Good morning!" he says cheerfully, sliding out of bed and going to the window to open the curtains. Early morning sunlight streams in through the window and I groan. Ezra receives three dark glares. He smiles sheepishly. "S-sorry, guys… Did I wake you up?"
"Yes, you did." Megumi snaps.
"You would have woken up on your own by now if you hadn't been up until three playing on your phone." I point out to her.
"And you know what time I went to sleep how, exactly?"
"I was watching anime because I couldn't sleep because your phone kept beeping," I state. "It was almost as loud and obnoxious as its owner." Takeshi gets up and stands between our beds.
"Guys, shut up. You're both in foul moods because you're sleep deprived. That is your own fault, no one else's. Don't take it out on each other." he says calmly, though he's smiling in a way that makes me think that he might have found our almost-argument amusing.
I get out of bed and throw on the same clothes I wore yesterday.
"Are you kidding? You're wearing the same clothes twice in a row?" Megumi asks. I nod.
"You should know by now that Korin-chan does that sort of thing," Takeshi says, shaking his head. "And that she doesn't care if people think she's weird because of it."
"You know me too well, Takeshi-kun." I say. He sighs and takes out some clean clothes.
"I'm going to get dressed now." he says, and walks into the ensuite bathroom, locking the door behind him.
Ten minutes later, we are all dressed. We walk across the hall to the parents' room, where Satoshi, Jase, Xander and Hanako are already waiting.
"We're just waiting for the mothers to finish doing their make-up." Satoshi says.
"I wonder if they're having fun with Emmie in there with them…" I say. Ezra, Jase and Xander laugh. As if to back up my point, the shriek of an angry baby comes from inside the room. Inside, I can hear Mum scolding Emmie to the point of using her full name.
The door opens and Mum, Dad and Mr and Mrs Akiyama come out.
"Good morning! Is everyone ready for breakfast?" Mrs Akiyama says cheerfully. We all nod. "How late did everyone stay up last night?"
"Half past eleven." I say, and Ezra, Takeshi and Megumi all nod in agreement. Our group walks down to the food court and find the restaurant we went to yesterday, which serves a buffet breakfast and is willing to heat bottles of milk for babies.
We enter the restaurant and find a table. We get the all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast for everyone, because it's easier than having some people getting too much and others not getting enough, and everyone can have what they want. Mum sticks a warm bottle of milk in Emmie's mouth and hums to herself. I pile my plate high with bacon, bacon, bacon and bacon. I eat at least twice as much as anyone else. Megumi eats one slice of toast and stares at me enviously.
"How are you so skinny even though you eat so much?" she asks. I shrug.
"I have a fast metabolism, and I generally eat lots of healthy stuff, rather than junk food and processed stuff." I say.
"You're so lucky. I wish I was as skinny as you." she says. I hold my arm alongside hers. There's barely any difference in size. Her's is marginally bigger, but I know that that's only because she's more muscular than I am.
"You're about the same size as me," I say, "The only reason you're bigger is that you have muscles and I don't." Megumi quickly withdraws her arm. Mr Akiyama makes eye contact with me and smiles gratefully.
"I don't have muscles. Takeshi's much stronger than me." Megumi says.
"That's because he eats enough to be able to train more and is therefore stronger." I counter. Takeshi nods, half a slice of bacon hanging out of the corner of his mouth as he attempts to shovel in as much as possible. He puts his hand over his mouth and swallows hard twice.
"You're not fat, Megumi. I'm fatter than you." he says, and it's not just to make Megumi stop complaining about her weight. He is actually about twice her size, but he's by no means fat.
Megumi scoffs, "No, you're not. You just have chubby cheeks." Takeshi squeezes his cheeks between his fingers.
"That is true. All of my extra weight is on my face. It's a wonder I can hold it up!" he says, and I burst out laughing. Everyone else stares blankly at him. "At least Korin-chan thinks I'm funny." He pouts as he speaks. Ezra giggles.
"You are funny sometimes, Takeshi-san." he says quietly.
"Funnier than Satoshi?" Takeshi asks. I shake my head.
"Sorry, but no. After yesterday, I've started thinking that Megumi-chan might just be the funniest." I say. Megumi looks at me and I know that we're thinking about the same thing. We both burst out laughing.
"Is that because of the 'girl thing' that you wouldn't tell us about?" Satoshi asks. I nod. He rolls his eyes at us. "If you don't want to tell us what happened, stop talking about it when we're around." Mr Akiyama raises his eyebrows at us.
"Is this something appropriate?" he asks.
"It was, but Megumi-chan ma-" I'm cut off by Megumi clamping her hand over my mouth.
"Shut up, Korin-chan!" she says. Hanako gets up and comes round the table to stand next to me.
"Can you tell me, Korin-nee-chan? You don't have to tell anyone else." she asks. I shake my head. She pouts.
"Sit down, Chiasa-chan." I say, pulling Megumi's hand away from my mouth. Hanako pokes her tongue out at me before going and sitting back down beside Xander.
"You're a poo, Korin-nee-chan." Hanako says, and I laugh out loud at the poor attempt at an insult.
"Chiasa-chan's right! I wanna know what happened!" Xander whines petulantly. I roll my eyes. Dad places his hand on Xander's shoulder.
"If they don't want to tell you, don't pressure them." he says softly. I smile at him as I stand up with my plate to go and get more food. Takeshi does the same.
"Want to see who can eat the most without puking?" he asks me with a cheerful, carefree smile.
"Are you sure you should-"
"I'm dying anyway, making myself sick from eating too much bacon isn't really going to make much of a difference." he says, shrugging. My muscles go rigid and I feel tears forming in my eyes. Hearing him say it out loud, so casually, as though he's accepted his fate and stopped caring, makes me want to hug him and never let go.
"Yeah, sound like fun." I say, trying to smile. My voice trembles slightly. Takeshi smiles softly at me, as though he can tell what's going through my head.
We pile our plates with matching mountains of bacon and sit down. We begin to scarf it down, shovelling the sweet savoury goodness down our throats and grinning every time we make eye contact.