CHAPTER 13

"Well, you sure didn't change much."

"Hana? Wow... almost didn't recognize you!"

"Fufu... I hope that's a good thing!" Hana giggled. "But come on, I told you I was doing this, and I really wanted you to make some kind of adjustment as well!"

"I adjusted my height, that's about it. I'm honestly happy with the way I look. But you... I gotta say you're gorgeous now."

"Oh stop, you're making me blush... but thanks." Hana planted a kiss on Uchiro's cheek as the train pulled into Valleyrun Station.

"Uchi-kun, my man, you're such a player!" Yuka trotted toward the embarrassed couple.

"Ugh... now I'm really blushing," Hana whispered.

Yuka stared at Uchiro for a few seconds. "You're... taller. Did you body-mod last night?"

"Yeah. Hana did too. So please try not to gawk at her."

"That's Hana? Well, miss, you're a sight to behold!"

"Haha, thanks!" Hana replied.

"So did Uchi-kun give you some pointers on what he likes to see on gir-"

Yuka's query was interrupted by Uchiro's hand striking the top of his head. "Dude. Not cool."

"Haha, sorry, you two. I'm just messing around."

"I had nothing to do with her body-mod, that was all her."

"Well, it was me and Erina, she helped me out. Picked out some cute clothes for me too. This one isn't one of them, actually, I've had it since I arrived here..." She pointed to her shirt, which fit her old form but was now short enough to bare her midriff. "...but I like it as a crop top now."

"Oh yeah, did you make the rookie mistake of ripping your old clothes while adjusting your body?" Yuka asked.

"Haha, nope, didn't happen to me."

"So you were pretty much nak-"

Another head chop from Uchiro ended that statement. "Seriously? Don't be like that. Come on, let's get on the train already."

"You're both interested in joining the Journalism Club?"

Ikuro stared intensely at Hana and Uchiro, who both nodded.

The three made their way to a corner classroom on the second floor. Ikuro swung the door open and greeted the two students inside. "We have new recruits!" he shouted.

The boy with shoulder-length wavy brown hair stood up from the computer terminal and bowed. "Welcome! I'm Natsuo Futaba."

"I'm Keira Broussard." The other student, a white girl with long blonde hair and purple-rimmed glasses remained in her seat but waved to them and smiled.

Ikuro marched to the blackboard. "Thank you all for coming, and we hope you'll join us for good. Our advisor is not here, he's a Computer Basics teacher off fixing a computer somewhere, he's an NPC anyway. You've taken your first step into a very important profession here in the hereafter. What news, familiar forms of entertainment and other imports from the living world are found in this place — some call it 'Royal World', some call it 'Hundred Year Heaven', and so on — they're all due to clubs like ours, and the tireless efforts of those who move on from those clubs and work for the media companies here.

"Since this is Sawai, we were never in danger of losing our club, but it was getting a little boring with only three members. So your presence right now is well appreciated. As club president, I take journalist training seriously, but I do promise to keep things fun. I'll touch upon all the different topics vital to the information-gathering trade. We will have the occasional excursion from the school campus, in the name of gaining experience in reporting and gathering news. We'll go to places around Tennosuke and Valleyrun, and also join the pros at the Welcome Center as we help them scout out new arrivals that could give us valuable information. Plenty of time will also be spent on our computers, as lots of valuable scoops can be made from blogs and other personal accounts on the afterlife internet.

"Remember, this is not the afterlife that all those stories from the living world popularized. We can't magically journey back to Earth and see what our loved ones are doing now. We're not able to wander the living world as ghosts. All we can rely on here are the memories of departed souls whom we can trust. The events of Earth may as well be science fiction in this world. And we all have to agree upon the genuine plotlines. Everybody with me so far?"

A collective "Yes" was heard from the others in the club room.

"Good. So... today's topic of discussion will be... sensitivity. Something that all of us have varying levels of. Something that, if you ask me, the Daredevil Club has very little of. But it's very important to stay aware of people's levels of sensitivity when getting the facts on living-world events. We're all here because something bad happened to us that caused us to die at a very young age, right? And while we made it to a world where we can live the life we wanted on Earth and not be in danger of dying anymore, we're still curious about what's happened on Earth since we left there.

"So while you're maybe engaging in conversation with people you just met, you ask if there's been any major events that took place between your arrival and their arrival, you know, just to break the ice. Then you get to talking about other news stories that you know of, like wasn't it awful what was going on in that foreign country where people were getting tortured and murdered... but what you don't know is that the person you're talking to suffered a horrible death by torture and maybe worse. And they haven't really gotten over it, so they're wincing and getting uncomfortable. They may end up getting mad at you for bringing it up. And the trauma might be so intense that it'll trigger a brain-wipe for both of you, and you'll forget what you were talking about.

"That's why you need to keep sensitivity levels in mind. Learn and master the technique of reading other people's moods. Remember that your final moments may not have been as tame as the next guy's, and he may not want to be reminded of the horrible way he died. Now, if you don't mind my asking... Uchiro, what was your cause of death?"

"I fell off a boat into a lake, got stuck in some plants and drowned."

"And Hana? You wish to disclose your demise?"

"Me and my brother and sister were shot dead by some bad guys who broke into our house. They terrorized my sister Yuri by saying they would shoot us one by one if she didn't find them valuable stuff in time."

"Okay. Pretty harrowing accounts, right? Uchiro's drowning, while tragic, may not have been as traumatic as your experience. And you've been in this world how long?"

"I think a few weeks now."

"So now that you've had some time to be happy and free in this world, it doesn't sting as much to recall your demise. If someone asked you about it, say, the day after your arrival, you probably would've freaked out, right?"

"Yeah, most likely."

"Come to think of it," Uchiro interjected, "I did meet you all the day you arrived. I was about to ask what happened and your sister cut me off."

"See, so you're a living example of what not to do!" Ikuro proclaimed with a grin.

Uchiro rolled his eyes. "Sure, make me look bad, you jerkwad."

"Now, come on, no hard feelings. Live and learn, right? And it makes my point that when interviewing new arrivals, sensitivity is key. Don't ask what happened to them, lead off with questions about maybe their favorite movies, songs, singers, games, get to know them a little. Then ask if there was anything earth-shaking that took place in the past year that they lived. They may grow more comfortable after you ask the right things, and open up more.

"So now you bring up something that might hit too close to home with them, and they may suddenly look a little distressed. If you detect that you might have offended, you might say, you know, never mind, let's talk about something else. If you're good at that, you can retain their trust and their comfort without it getting to the point where they ask to change the subject.

"If you're really bad at these verbal cues, that can reflect poorly on the organization you represent, which could gain a bad reputation in turn, where others will tell the new arrivals to steer clear of journalists like you. So it's my opinion that sensitivity awareness is vital to maintaining journalistic integrity. You follow me?"

Ikuro observed the nods and "Yes" responses.

"Well, that concludes my little talk. Feel free to converse amongst yourselves or use the computers."

"Hey, uh... Hana... what do they call you? Hana-chan?"asked Keira as they left the school grounds.

"Yes, Hana-chan's fine. What about you?"

"You can just call me Keira, or Keira-sama if you want. I know I don't look like the typical Japanese school student so I understand the awkwardness. Are you going to the train station?"

"Yes, I live in Valleyrun."

"Cool, so do I! It's a beautiful city, isn't it? Not as big as Allsaint City but it's still bustling with energy, and I love its diversity."

"I've only been here a couple of weeks now, so I haven't had much time to explore."

"Well, if you stick with me, I'll show you all the good stuff in Valleyrun. Lots of cool things to do there!"

"Thanks, I just might take you up on that."

"So what did you think of the Journalism Club?"

"It's... interesting, to say the least," Hana replied as they reached the station and boarded the Orange Line. "I didn't realize how much effort it takes to bring everybody news from the living world."

"Crazy to think that the world we came from is treated like a typical fictional universe here, huh?"

"Yeah... and all those stories about your dead loved ones being able to mingle as ghosts, or look down from heaven and watch over everyone... turns out that can't be done!"

"I know, it kinda sucks... I had some wonderful friends in the living world, and I won't be able to see them grow up, graduate, get married, have their own kids and so on... would've been really difficult for me to do all that anyway if I survived."

"What was your story... if you don't mind my asking..."

"No problem at all. I'm eleven years old, originally from Thibodeaux, Louisiana. For most of my nine years on Earth I had a rare muscular disease, so I was always in a wheelchair, unable to move much on my own. I watched a lot of anime and I loved seeing what school life was like in Japan. So when I got here two years ago I decided I, a blonde-haired freckled white girl, wanted to be like one of those anime school girls. At first I was at Yoruichi Middle School in Fortune Bay, but they were a bit too strict for my taste."

"I hear ya. I'm from Japan, and they were just like you'd expect."

"So I decided to just leave and move here. I've never really been to a typical American school, so I don't have anything to compare Sawai to."

"I love your glasses, by the way... they're not prescription, are they? I mean, if we don't get sick, our eyes shouldn't go bad either, right?"

Keira laughed. "You're right, these are strictly for style, ma'am! My shorts aren't, though." She pointed to her green athletic shorts. "Normally I'd be in the usual skirt and stockings, but the Pee Your Pants Club had a little meeting before class this morning, so I packed these to change into..."

"Wait... you're in that club too?"

"Hilarious, right? I had to be in diapers all my life, and now that I have a perfect body free of disease and disorder, free to move around all I want... I still like to wet myself every now and then. Old habits die hard, I guess! And a club like that seemed very interesting to me."

"So... do the club members do anything else?"

"Not really. We just sit around, talk, study, watch videos, drink a lot of water, juice and soda, of course..."

"And the school's totally fine with that?"

"Well... kinda. The principal told us one day that we can't be peeing all over the building, our only approved meeting spots were restrooms, gym showers, or the gardens outside. So we usually go with the last option. Gotta keep the grass watered!"

"Sounds like Headmaster Hiro is a genuine human being."

"Yeah, quite a swell guy! Very mysterious too. Hey, you got your cell phone? Wanna exchange numbers?"

"Sure!" Hana beamed, digging through her tote bag as the train pulled into Valleyrun Station. "I live just a few blocks away from the station if you ever wanna stop by. And my sister is planning to join an American-style school, so you could chat with her if you're curious!"

"Cool! And I promise to keep my peeing to the toilet there!" Keira grinned.