C&C is welcomed with open arms! If you read, please send me a
comment or two. E-mail me at matt2518@gladstone.uoregon.edu
Feel free to go to http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~matt2518/
There, you'll find episodes of this and my other fanfic series,
the well-received "Boku No Marie: Music-Box Angel".
------------------------------------------------------------------
PROLOGUE
9:58 PM.
"It's time for bed, dear." Satoru Nobata looked at his
daughter and smiled.
"But..." The little girl looked back at her father from the
comfort of the floor, her face glowing blue-green in the fast-
changing light of the television. Satoru cut her off with an
upraised finger.
"Now, I let you stay up an hour late already." Satoru stood,
and stepped to his daughter; her eyes grew even larger with his
approach. "It's time for you," he reached down and scooped her up
in his arms, "to go to bed." With that, he started for the
stairs, and her bedroom. But the little girl had other plans.
"Will you tell me a story? Pleeease?" Her soft, pouting
voice echoed in Satoru's ears.
"Oh, okay," he relented. "But just a short one." He bounced
the girl a couple of times in his arms, and carried her, squealing
in mirth, up the stairs to her room.
10:21 PM.
"...And so they lived many happy years, and the promised
tasks were completed. Yet long afterward, when all had passed
away into distant memory, there were many who wondered whether
King Taran, Queen Eilonwy, and their companions had indeed walked
the earth, or whether they had been no more than dreams set down
to beguile children." Satoru poked his giggling daughter on the
nose. "And, in time," he finished, "only the bards knew the truth
of it."
"Can you tell me another one?"
"I already told you one! Now, you need to get to sleep.
Your first day of school is tomorrow, and you don't want to be all
sleepy and yawning during class, do you?"
The little girl shook her head. "Nuh-uh." She stuffed her
head in her pillow and clinched her eyes shut. Satoru grinned and
pulled the comforter above her pajama-clad shoulders.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah, honey?"
"Were King Terran and Queen Eelownwee real?"
Satoru considered the words, and winked. "They sure were."
"How do you know?"
"Oh, I know quite a bit. And do you know why I know a quite
a bit?"
"Why?"
"Because I wasn't sleepy on my first day of school."
His daughter giggled, and Satoru smiled reflexively.
"It's true! Cross my heart." The man dutifully mimed an X
across his chest. "Now, you get some sleep, okay?"
"'Kay."
"Good night, angel."
"G' night, daddy."
The word touched Satoru like a feather riding a storm.
Daddy. A whispered kiss from his angel. Silently, he nearly shut
the door, leaving a strip of the hall's light to try and fill the
room. The father lingered outside his daughter's mostly closed
door for a long moment, then walked slowly to his own.
As he flipped on the light switch, he could feel it building
somewhere inside of him. It cut to remember, but he had to
relive.
"Just one more time," he told himself. After a deep breath,
Satoru slid open his dresser drawer, and pulled out the worn shoe
box. He didn't dare open it, not yet.
First, a drink.
The very top shelf of the left kitchen cupboard kept the
bottle safe, hidden from tiny eyes. There was only one bottle,
close to empty, and faded with age. "Just one more," he reminded
himself. He poured the last drink out of the reluctant bottle,
and considered the glass.
"Not yet." He wanted to savor this. He took his old friends
to the living room. The television still blared something about a
jazz concert, but it wasn't important at the moment. Any other
moment, it would have been, but...
Satoru flipped the TV off at the source, and slid into his
recliner. He nursed his drink and set it on the end table, well
away from any edge. Now was as good a time as any.
Satoru opened the box, and remembered.
------------------------------------------------------------------
* * * *
O K A E R I, K A O R I - C H A N !
Episode 01
Kaori's Good-bye: "I Will Return Someday..."
Remastered with New and Revised Material
* *
"Okaeri, Kaori-chan!" (c) 1998, 1999 Matthew Johnston.
All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters
to any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
* * * *
------------------------------------------------------------------
September 18, 1985.
"You're not older than me!" Kaori Akazawa, six years old,
knew this to be true. But her sandbox companion shook his head.
"I am too!"
"Nuh-uh."
"Uh-huh! I'm six days, seven hours, sixteen minutes, thirty-
seven seconds older," Satoru's smiled with pride as he calculated
in the sand.
Perplexed, Kaori looked at him for a moment, allowing the
data to sink in. As it hit her, Satoru felt the weather change --
the colors around Kaori seemed to shift ever so much, from blue
towards red. His eyes focused on the empty air next to Kaori,
intently studying what he thought he was seeing.
Satoru didn't notice that Kaori was shaking until he heard a
tiny sob.
"Nuh-uh..." she attempted. A tear tossed itself from her
eye, and swam down her face. Another joined it, and another.
"Kaori, I'm sorry." But it was too late. A wash of tears
fell to the sand from her cheeks. Slowly, deliberately, Kaori
stood and balled her fists.
"Kaori?" The wind shifted, tossing her long red locks
forward from her back. Wandering grains skimmed the tops of the
miniature dunes, and the caught the sunlight. Like glitter on
paper, they covered his view of the girl.
For a brief second, Satoru could see something. Something
still, but also moving. Maybe it had to do with the way the wind
had changed, forcing her hair into her eyes, and the sand into
his. Even though she was angry, she was... Satoru fought for a
word. Pretty?
Then Kaori ran.
To Satoru, it seemed like the wind had sucked her into
another world. She was there one moment, gone the very next.
When he turned to look, Kaori was halfway across the playground,
past the swings, and almost to the benches. By the time he was
standing, she had scrabbled over the bench and was heading towards
the playground monitor.
"I'm gonna get it now," Satoru realized.
And he did. The teacher on duty told Mr. Asato, his real
teacher, and he made Satoru spend an hour after school in room 2-
B, working on math drills. As he finished the twentieth and final
page of subtraction, Satoru took his first look up from his desk
since a random teacher walked in and whapped him with his ruler
for "daydreaming."
Mr. Asato was smiling. The cold-hearted demon that claimed
to be his teacher was actually smiling. Satoru removed teaching
from his list of what he wanted to be when he grew up and handed
the immense stack of papers to the grinning tormentor.
"You may go now, Satoru," Mr. Asato was so collected,
speaking with such a level candor, that Satoru knew he had to be
an alien. No human could be that calm.
"Thank you, sir." The boy wasted no time in gathering his
things and exiting the classroom. "Stupid girl. Why do I play
with her anyway," he grumbled as he turned left at the classroom
door. A small shuffling alerted him to another presence in the
hall. He turned around, his statement of excuse ready for even
the upper grade teachers, but got cut off by a tiny smile.
"Hi, Satoru." Kaori must have seen the irritation on his
face, because she turned her gaze to the wall and sighed. "I'm
sorry about the whole 'telling on the teacher' thing. I didn't
think the teacher'd take it so seriously."
Satoru smiled. "That's okay." The irritation faded, no
matter how much he tried to remind himself about the reams of math
homework he had just completed. "Thanks for, you know, staying."
"I didn't have anything to do after school," Kaori sniffed
and looked at her nails.
"Yeah, well, you still won't have anything to do. I can't
play with you anymore. Satoru's smile turned to a lop-sided grin.
"You get me into too much trouble."
"Oh, get off it. We better get home before we get into real
trouble. C'mon, I'll race you!"
"I'll win so easy, you won't know what hit you!" Satoru
didn't beat Kaori in their first race home, but, by the time the
pair reached their houses, it didn't really matter.
March 29, 1989.
"Hey, Kaori! Gonna run today?" The voice was Masao
Ishiki's. He sounded like his usual arrogant self. As a sixth
grader, he made sure everybody knew his superiority, even though
he wasn't more than a few months older than most of the fifth-
graders.
"Yeah," Satoru saw Kaori's shoulders tighten as she spoke.
The girl couldn't answer either way without ridicule. The truth
was as good an answer as any, Satoru supposed.
Then the crowd of boys behind Masao spoke.
"Are you even a girl?"
"Why don't you go to the monkey bars and play with the rest
of the girls?"
"She's not a girl!"
"Well, she sure ain't a boy!"
"Hey Satoru! Is she a girl?"
"Yeah, I bet Satoru knows!"
Kaori fumed. "C'mon, Satoru, let's get out of here."
"That's it, defend your boyfriend!"
"That's it, Satoru! Hide behind your girlfriend."
Satoru scowled at the group, but did no more. As the pair
turned to walk away, the horde surrounded them.
"C'mon, Satoru! Be a man!"
"Satoru likes a guy!"
"Satoru and Kaori sitting in a tree..."
"If Kaori's so big and strong, how come she doesn't wanna be
around other guys?"
"Yeah!" Masao proudly stepped forward. "Let's have it
then." He took on the role of ringleader, prancing around the
pair dramatically. Satoru had closed his eyes, and was taking it
well, until he felt Kaori back into him. They both tumbled to the
ground. Satoru opened his eyes just after the impact, and saw the
tall leader laughing. His arms were outstretched, his palms
facing forward.
"He pushed you?" Satoru growled softly.
"Look at the two lovebirds!"
"Let's see some action!"
Kaori nodded as she got up. "But don't--"
It was too late. Satoru was on the boy before anybody could
so much as breath. Satoru had never fought before, but he knew
basically what to do. A flurry of punches hit home, landing on
Masao's face and chest, though as many deflected harmlessly.
"Hey! Get offa me! Help!"
The ring of boys first contracted, then expanded when the
small boy noticed the teacher coming and alerted his cohorts.
When Kaori saw the teacher coming, she tried to peel Satoru from
the whimpering Masao. She didn't try very hard until the
teacher's whistle blew.
"That's it! All of you! Break it up!" As Satoru got up, he
noticed the recess monitor for the first time. The crowd of boys
had dispersed, leaving only Kaori, Masao, and himself.
All three spent the rest of the school day in the principal's
office, apologizing, but not to each other.
"This isn't the first time I've seen you two in my office,"
the principal began, motioning to Kaori and Satoru with stern
hands. "I must say I'm more than a little disappointed. I
expected better from you two." The pair lowered their heads
simultaneously. Satoru began to smile at it, but hid the ill-
timed grin before the principal or Masao noticed.
"And you," The balding man turned his icy gaze to Masao.
"You don't seem to have too much respect for the fairer sex, do
you?"
"I..." Masao stopped, realizing how futile it would be to
try and argue, and how damaging it would be to agree.
"Nothing. Satoru, Masao. I'm calling your parents. I'll
let them deal with you when school's over." Satoru breathed a
sigh of relief. "But! Not before all three of you write me a
five page report on the damaging effects of fighting."
Kaori looked at the principal, her expression hurt. "Even
me?"
"I did say 'all three of you,' didn't I?"
"Yes, but..."
"No but's. The monitor saw you. She said you didn't do
anything to stop Satoru, and in a court of law, that's as good as
committing the crime yourself."
"But..." Satoru began even before he had a sentence to speak.
Masao threw a sharp gaze at him, the beginnings of a condescending
grin playing on his face. Satoru could almost hear Masao
thinking, 'that's it, protect your girlfriend.'
The principal shook his head once, silencing the boy before
he could protest on Kaori's behalf. "I like to keep an orderly
school. That means obedient students who don't cause fights," he
looked pointedly at Kaori, "or let them continue."
Satoru opened his mouth to try another defense, but the
elderly headmaster continued. "The boys in the group will learn
their lesson, too. When Masao here tells them he had to write a
seven page paper, they'll know the same will happen to them if
they do it again."
"Seven!? What happened to five?" Masao's eyes looked like
saucers; his pupils seemed imperceptibly small.
"That's what I said, Mr. Ishiki. And if you keep talking
like that, I'll just tack on a few more pages."
"Yes, sir."
"Now, you're all dismissed. Be here after school, and we'll
walk to the detention room together."
"Yes, sir," all three muttered as they bowed and left.
"Way to go, Nobata," Masao muttered as they reached the door.
"Ishiki!" The principal yelled from his desk. "I may be
old, but I'm not deaf. Two more pages!"
"Aww, man." Satoru wanted for the life of him to laugh, but
didn't dare until they were safely in the hall. He looked to
Kaori. Her face looked serious, but her eyes revealed the laugh
Satoru wanted so badly to hear.
January 31, 1996.
"Have you seen him?"
"Who hasn't!"
"Isn't he the cutest?"
"If he talked to me now, I'd die."
"But you'd die happy!"
"Of course!"
Satoru walked behind the strolling wall of freshman
femininity, searching for a way to get by them without seeming
like a complete jerk. He shook his head at the conversation; he
knew exactly who they were preparing to swoon over. The new
transfer student from Fujishima High School. Jun What's-his-name.
Jun had everything they wanted in a man; not that Satoru was
jealous. Oh no. It wasn't like he had spent all of the evening
before staring at the mirror wondering why he wasn't being fawned
over by countless cute girls. Nope. Not a bit.
Satoru frowned.
It wasn't that he was ugly, or even really unattractive. He
was just average. Satoru mulled over the term. Just average. A
number of times, he had been mistaken, at a distance or from
behind, for any number of people. Average hair: not too long, not
too short. Average face: a little rounder than many, a little
thinner than a few. Average height, though he was growing; he had
noticed yesterday that his shirt sleeves seemed a little short.
He changed his assessment: above-average height. But he knew his
above-average weight made up for it.
The boy sighed, just as he did after the previous evening's
gaze into the mirror. It was all so ordinary. "Why can't that be
enough?" The answer, as painful as he was, walked past Satoru,
between the six swooning groupies, and confidently strode into his
classroom.
"This is ridiculous," Satoru grumbled. He thought for a
second about how much he really wanted even one of the girls to
hear him, even as they sighed and giggled. "I'm gonna be late to
class, and then I have the 'privilege' of sitting next to the
guy."
Satoru received his wish. "You sit next to him?" One of the
girls turned around, and walked backwards for a few steps.
"Yeah," he answered ruefully. The group halted, and
immediately circled the boy. Regret whapped Satoru on the back of
the head, and muttered, 'dummy,' from inside his brain.
"Could you give this to him for me?"
"And this!"
"Wait, I have my note in my book..."
"Here's mine!"
"Give him mine first!"
"No, mine!"
"Hold on a second," Satoru grumbled. "I'm not giving
anything to anybody."
"Why not?!" The girls whined in unison.
"Okay, first off, did any of you sign your name on your
note?"
The girls paused, and shook their heads no.
"And if he gets six letters with no names from me, what will
he think, hmm?"
"Well..."
"I hadn't really..."
"He wouldn't think of you..."
"Though you do seem a little..."
"Not that we're..."
"It's just that..."
"I'm sorry, girls. Now, if you'll please step aside, I have
to get to class."
The girls sighed together and dispersed.
The day was uneventful; since Kaori wasn't in his class this
year, he couldn't see her except during lunch, but she was
conspicuously absent even there. As the final bell rang, Satoru
began to wonder if she was okay.
"Satoru!" Kaori greeted him from the door of the classroom.
"Look, Satoru, it's your girlfriend!" Masao Ishiki crowed
from a corner of the emptying classroom.
"She's not my girlfriend!"
"I'm not his girlfriend!" The pair yelled in simultaneous
irritation.
"Whatever," Masao scoffed.
"I didn't see you at lunch." Satoru tried not to sound too
concerned.
"I was busy," Kaori murmured. She quickly scanned the room,
then asked, "Is Jun here?"
"He's gone already."
"Good."
"Why?"
"Well," Kaori peeked around the room again. "I wanted to put
this in his desk." She sheepishly held up a note.
"Don't tell me..."
"What?"
"Is this why you weren't at lunch?"
Kaori yanked her gaze to the ground, but smiled in spite of
herself.
Satoru grinned mercilessly. "Kaori's got a crush on Jun," he
sang under his breath. She seethed as he repeated the tune.
"Would you shut up?" She stuffed the note in Jun's desk and
stalked off.
"What?" Satoru was still grinning, but it was more at the
strangeness of the situation than anything else.
"Lovers' quarrel!"
"Shut up, Masao!" Satoru stormed from the room, his face
burning. He followed Kaori at a distance, which wasn't an easy
task. She was walking at a furious pace, and traffic was pretty
heavy. He lost sight of her at one point, and almost gave up, but
he found her a block ahead, picking up her books.
"Kaori!" He finally called. "Wait up!" Kaori finished
collecting the contents of her dropped book bag, and stood,
waiting for Satoru to catch up. Satoru could see that, though she
was waiting, the girl was still furious.
"Look, I'm sorry..."
"You can be so..." the statement decayed into an exasperated
growl. "It wasn't mine."
"Huh?"
"Oh, why do I even bother?" Kaori threw up her arms and
turned to finish her march home.
"What? C'mon, Kaori." Satoru jogged to catch up, and rested
his hand on Kaori's shoulder. "The note wasn't yours?"
"Boy, you're quick today!" Kaori pulled herself away from
Satoru's reach.
"Why are you acting like this?" Satoru stepped back.
"Because you're being an idiot!" Satoru expected her to
start walking again, but she just stood there, breathing deeply.
Satoru took the opportunity to collect his thoughts and try to
form an explanation for why this was happening. And then it hit
him.
"Is it... umm..." Satoru flushed with embarrassment. He
could barely believe he was saying it, but it was either that or
nothing. "You know. That time? Of the month?"
Kaori's eyes widened. For a time, neither person spoke.
Satoru didn't dare breathe. The second seemed to stretch into an
hour. He heard a bird chirp cheerily, and the wind whisper
against the concrete wall next to sidewalk. Kaori inhaled, and
Satoru prepared for the worst.
Kaori exhaled, and the moment continued.
Finally, she spoke.
"Yes. As a matter of fact, it is." Her voice wasn't soft,
but the edge had faded, just a little.
"Oh." Satoru wished he had said something more meaningful.
He tried again. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Kaori waved her hand absently.
"Oh." Satoru winced.
But Kaori smiled. "Not too intellectual today, eh?"
"It's one of those days." Satoru tried a roguish grin.
Kaori stifled a giggle.
"All right, Robin Hood, let's get home."
"Yes ma'am."
"And Satoru..."
"Yeah?"
"The note wasn't mine."
"You doth protest too much."
"No way."
"Sure you do."
"I am not protesting too much!"
"You are too."
"Are not."
"Are too."
"Are not... Forget it."
"What?" Satoru shrugged, smiling in mock confusion.
"We'd better get home before I beat you senseless..."
"Yes ma'am."
"That's better."
April 23, 1997.
"C'mon, Satoru! Hurry up!" Kaori laughed as she ran kitty-
corner across the street, leaving Satoru behind to try and keep
up. He knew by now that it was impossible to catch her; he never
had, not in a thousand races over twice as many days. But it was
okay, because he also knew that, eventually, she'd let him. It
was nothing new; she'd slow to a jog, and he'd tag her on the
shoulder. Then he'd collapse in the street.
After a chase down three blocks of city sidewalk, he did just
that. In that order. Kaori smiled triumphantly as she caught her
breath, gulping the air as if it were water. Satoru was
concentrating too hard on the burning in his lungs to smile.
"You're gonna kill me one of these days," Satoru gasped.
"Me? Never." Kaori's voice held no sign of fatigue. Satoru
coughed and looked up at the girl.
For the first time in three days, the sun was bathing the
city in unobscured light. Kaori's shape towered above him,
silhouetted against the ivory-washed background of urban towers.
For a while she stood, letting the sun embrace her. He could see
the halo of radiant light dancing, bouncing off the tiny droplets
beading on her forehead. He was sure that, if he looked hard
enough, he'd see it moving through her.
Kaori must have felt him looking at her, because she looked
down with a grin that said, 'see anything interesting?' while she
asked, "So, where to now?" She continued to grin at the exhausted
boy, who attempted another weak cough from his sitting position.
At the moment, she seemed much taller than him, even though
he knew she was a good six or seven centimeters shorter than his
175 cm. Satoru mused that it was his extra weight that kept him
from looking as tall as he should.
Kaori finally sighed and sat next to him on the curb. "You
really shouldn't over-exert yourself like that." She shook her
finger and frowned.
Satoru shot her an incredulous look and wheezed what he had
intended to be a laugh. "Next you'll be saying I brought this all
on myself."
"Well, you did." Kaori's frown was breaking at the corners
of her mouth. "You shouldn't break a girl's heart like that."
"All I did was correct your math, or whatever you call those
weird random scribblings of yours." Satoru tried to keep a
straight face. "And didn't my math give you a higher score
anyway?"
"That's not the point!" Kaori furrowed her brow to keep from
smiling. "You left me with no choice in the matter." She lifted
her chin piously. "Besides, your punishment was fair and
inevitable." The solemn expression faded away when Satoru
chuckled.
"Uh-huh. And you didn't enjoy administering my punishment?"
"Of course not!" Her face tried to hide a beaming smile, but
failed after a short struggle. "You dare accuse me of taking
pleasure in your penance?"
"Oh, no. I'd never do that." Satoru sighed as he rose to
his feet. "And this is the last time I go running after you." He
offered Kaori a hand and tried to look serious.
Kaori grinned lopsidedly. "How many times have I heard that
before?" A lock of short red hair fell as she took his hand.
Once on her feet, she smoothed it back behind her ears with
slender fingers.
"So," Satoru returned Kaori's grin. "Where are we off to,
anyway?"
Kaori threw back her head and looked at the top of the
horizon of buildings ahead of her. After a long moment, she
inhaled deeply, and exhaled a long, soft sigh. Turning to Satoru,
she nodded once, announcing her oracular decision.
"You're going to get me a drink at the Cafe Pierrot."
Satoru frowned. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Please?" Kaori pouted.
"Well..." Satoru hesitated. He was in trouble; she was
breaking out the heavy artillery. Ever since fourth grade, she
had been using her infamous "pout" maneuver whenever Satoru balked
at a suggestion. Despite the frequent use of the behavioral
weapon, Satoru lost willpower with each use. He felt downright
Pavlovian; he heard the bell and reacted.
Satoru looked down the street, trying to avoid her watery
gaze. "But..." His willpower was fading fast. Maybe he could
weasel his way out of it if he held a hard gaze. All he had to do
was say, "No." It was a simple enough word.
He glanced at her against his better judgment. She tilted
her head and blinked, letting her lids linger over her eyes. When
they opened again, they bored into him with Machiavelian
precision. "Please?" she almost purred.
Satoru hung his head and sighed at his defeat. Maybe next
time, he'd be able to.
"Thank you!" Kaori twirled around her friend, poked him on
the nose and skipped ahead three steps before Satoru could argue
the decision. He jogged to catch up, feeling relieved that she
had decided not to run in response. Apparently, he had paid
enough penance for his mathematical arrogance.
The Cafe Pierrot wasn't a very popular spot for high school
kids; it was mostly a haunt for well-to-do college students and
successful graduates. Satoru felt a little strange entering the
place, but he rationalized that since he was going to be a college
student in a few weeks, he'd be okay.
The Cafe served all manner of cuisine and drinks, from any
country one could name. The atmosphere was decidedly French, with
a few tables just outside the building's front window, and
lightweight furniture inside.
It was in the late afternoon; the window let in the late rays
of the day, filtered only by the painted logo. Satoru and Kaori
entered, and were seated at the last available table, in a rather
subdued corner of the cafe.
"Can I get you anything to drink?" The waitress clicked her
pen and flipped to a fresh page on her pad.
"Two lemonades, please." Kaori announced. Satoru wished
that just once he could order for them.
"I'll return with them in just a moment!" The waitress left
them to a conversation Satoru had waited a long while to start.
"You're sure you got the scholarship?" He looked towards the
kitchen, trying to seem nonchalant.
"I'm positive! I called the office right before I went to
your place. College is as good as paid for!" Kaori sounded like
she was still looking straight at Satoru, but he didn't dare look
her in the eye. This wasn't something he enjoyed bringing up.
"So you're definitely going to college in America?"
"Well, yeah. The University of Oregon has better modern
music and jazz programs than any other college around here. At
least, anywhere I could get into." Kaori's tone seemed to grow a
little melancholy. Satoru imagined that she was still smiling,
but that the smile was probably fading.
"And you'll be gone all four years?"
"Satoru, what are you getting at?"
Satoru felt himself crossing the line between pleasant
conversation and serious discussion. He forced himself to look at
Kaori. Her smile had weakened somewhat; it seemed to be trying to
convince itself that it was okay to exist.
Satoru heard the beginnings of a chuckle, but it stopped
short.
"I... I'm..." He paused, again unsure of how he should
phrase it. He closed his eyes, and recited his statement as he
had practiced it the night before. "I'm going to miss you."
Finally, he added, "A lot."
"And I'm going to miss you, too. You're my best friend. But
I'll be back. I promise."
"You promise?" The question sounded so pathetic to Satoru as
it came out that he couldn't believe he had even considered saying
it. He sucked in his breath and hoped she hadn't heard.
Kaori smiled, and sighed. The airiness of it reminded him of
his mother. "Of course I promise. Here." She set her arm on the
table like she was about to arm-wrestle. Her pinkie pointed out
at the end of her fist.
"You want me to pinkie swear?" Satoru chuckled in disbelief.
"I wouldn't joke if I were you. Now, get it up here!"
Satoru had to smile at the melodrama of it all. "Okay, okay!
I believe you!" He reluctantly linked his pinkie with hers.
"You'll write me letters, right?"
"I will write you letters," she closed her eyes and repeated
his words solemnly.
"And you'll call me?"
"I will call you," she smiled, her eyes still closed. "But
I'll call collect."
Satoru gaped. "Not from America you won't!" The pair began
to snicker, and that mutual giggle turned into a full-blown laugh
by the time the waitress arrived with their lemonades. When
Satoru realized the she was setting them down, he yanked back his
pinkie and stared intensely at the icy drinks.
"Don't tell me you're trying to impress the waitress," Kaori
chided when they were once again alone. Satoru looked up, his
cheeks flushed; Kaori's gray eyes beamed.
"Don't you ever get depressed?" Satoru took a sip of his
lemonade.
"Nope."
"How do you do it?"
"That's a secret." Kaori stirred her drink with the straw,
letting the ice cubes settle.
"Aww, c'mon. You can tell me." Satoru grinned.
"This is really good lemonade. I think I'll order another."
"If you do, you're paying for it," Satoru huffed. "And don't
try to change the subject."
"Forget it, Nobata," Kaori drained the glass. "I'll never
tell. You can torture me, kill me, but I'll never tell. Never!"
Kaori's smirk challenged Satoru's pride.
"You're beyond insane, you realize."
"But of course." Kaori made eye contact with the waitress
and shook her glass. The waitress nodded and headed to the
kitchen.
After they finished, Satoru paid, and they returned home.
Their homes stood across the street from each other in a quiet
residential area. This was not by accident; their families had
been friends since before either of them had been born.
"See ya." They parted ways near Kaori's door. Satoru
wondered how much college would change him, or if college in
America would change Kaori at all.
"Nothing can change that girl," he finally decided. When he
entered his house, he saw two large stacks of empty boxes,
flattened and leaning against the wall. At first, he just looked
at the boxes, confused as to their purpose in the house.
By the time his slippers were on, he was thoroughly
perplexed. He strolled into the living room, where his parents
sat, enjoying a drink and a light comedy.
"I'm home," he murmured at the pair, who turned, smiling to
their boy. "What are the boxes for?"
Mr. Nobata nodded. "We figured it would be easier for you to
pack if you had brand new boxes for everything, rather than try to
find all the boxes we have stuffed in the attic. That'd take a
week by itself."
"Pack?" The word sounded foreign. "A week?" And then it
hit him.
"You move in to your dorm in a week, son."
April 30, 1997.
"Now, you're sure you have everything packed?" Mrs. Nobata
looked about her son's empty room from the hallway. Satoru could
hear the third wave of unabated sobbing about to begin, and
decided to strike first.
"Mom, it's okay," he smiled as he filled his last cardboard
box with a few stray books and wires. "I'm just moving across
town. It's not like I'm..." He held his tongue.
"...Leaving the country?" Mrs. Nobata finished with a
sniffle. "I know. But you're growing up..."
"I'm a human. We tend to do that with time." Satoru tried
to grin affectionately. His mother laughed, but her quivering lip
betrayed her.
"I'll tell your father you're ready to go." She turned,
handkerchief in hand, and disappeared from view. Satoru could
hear a couple of distant sniffs and whimpers. He felt sorry for
his mom; She wasn't usually very emotional. But, she was as close
to Kaori as she was to him, and losing both of them to college
seemed to be more than she could take. Truth be told, he was
having a little trouble with the idea himself. His move across
town to Toyama University seemed more like a practice for Kaori's
departure than anything else. The whole procedure reminded him
that his time with Kaori was coming to an end for a rather long
time.
"Hey, slowpoke. You done with that box, or are you going to
write a eulogy for it first?" Satoru immediately wiped the
welling in his left eye and looked up. Kaori smiled at him from
the door frame. She leaned against it like a boy; she always had.
Satoru returned her smile and shook his head.
"Nope. This one's getting buried at sea. Nothing much to
say about it." Kaori stepped to the box and peered at the
contents. It wasn't so much filled as infested with the dregs
from the corners of Satoru's closets -- some spare change in a
plastic bag, telephone wire, batteries, two copies of 'A Brief
History of Time' ("Why two copies?" "I lost the first one in my
desk..."), more wire for his speakers, a few randomly colored and
labeled floppy disks, and last, but not least, the blue mug he had
made in third grade for his mother, that had found itself in his
room, and had remained there through middle and high school,
holding pens and pencils and paper clips.
"Man, you weren't kidding, were you? Why don't we just drag
it out to the back and shoot it discreetly?" Kaori smirked.
"Well, I'll probably need most of this stuff eventually. You
know the second I throw anything away, I'll need it somehow."
Satoru shook his head and taped the box closed. "But, this is the
last of it."
"It looks so weird," Kaori commented, gazing at the vacant
room. "I've never seen it empty before."
Satoru chuckled. "It's the cleanest it's been in years."
"How true you speak." Satoru made a point of looking the
other way as she bent over to pick the box up. Kaori hefted the
box easily, her arms flexing underneath an overly loose pink tee
shirt. Her denim shorts didn't help his cause any, either. He
shook his head and followed the girl down the hall, past his
smiling and weeping mother, towards the azure hatchback sedan.
"Is that the last one?" His father spoke for the first time
since breakfast, when he said, "I'll get the car ready." It was a
little unusual; his father wasn't overly talkative, but he wasn't
usually this taciturn.
Kaori beamed. "Yessir!"
Satoru nodded and headed for the passenger-side door. Mrs.
Akazawa rushed him from the side and nearly crushed him with a
hug.
"Oohhhh, you've grown so much! I'll miss you!" She smiled
and wiped a tear. "You make sure to call us too, okay?" Satoru
nodded vigorously, but couldn't gather the air in his lungs to
speak.
Mr. Akazawa stepped up from behind his wife and patted her on
the shoulder. "Let the boy go, dear." She winked at Satoru, who
breathed with relief as Mrs. Akazawa released him. "We'll follow
you to the campus and help you unpack, okay?"
Satoru opened his mouth to protest, but Mr. Akazawa cut him
short. "Don't try to talk you way out of it, Satoru. We're going
to help you, whether you like it or not." He smiled and called
his daughter to their car.
"Now, let's get this caravan on the road."
Toyama Technological University laid comfortably distant from
Toyama High School, though some 15 blocks from Satoru's house,
just on the other side of the downtown area. A recently planted
grove of alders shaded much of the campus, which seemed at first
glance very cosmopolitan. Satoru noted as they approached the
gated entrance of the campus that it looked a little too much like
the brochures to be real.
The more he thought, the less any of it felt real. College,
dorms, graduation, none of it seemed tangible anymore. It was
just a pleasantly manic blur that just didn't happen. Suddenly he
wished that none of it had happened.
"I'm dreaming," he rationalized. "This can't be happening."
"Pre-college jitters?" Mr. Nobata grinned. "Don't worry.
When I first moved into the dorms here, I was a complete mess.
But you have it easier than I did. You're just a few blocks away.
Back when I was in college, my parents still lived in Kobe."
"But..." Satoru couldn't finish the sentence.
"Yeah," Mr. Nobata looked at his son, his expression
sympathetic, but also sad itself. He nodded quickly and added, "I
know." A few moments of silence, then the crank of the hand
brake. "We're here. Better lose the melancholy for now. You
don't want your mother crying all over your stuff, do you?" Mr.
Nobata grinned and scruffed his son's hair. "Now, which floor did
you say you were on?"
Satoru smirked maliciously. "Fourth."
Mr. Nobata blinked. "Is there an elevator?"
Satoru's smirk curled into a full-fledged grin. "Nope."
"Did you have to be a Math major?"
"No. I could have been an engineering major. Their dorm has
eight floors."
Mr. Nobata nodded approvingly. "Math is good."
A knock at Satoru's window startled both men in the car.
"Are you gonna get out here and unpack, or is the view just
too startling?" For the briefest of moments, the pink tee
dangled, its loose neck giving Satoru a very clear view of...
He looked at his father, his face nearly glowing red. "Yes!
That is a good idea! I think we shall! Father, let us unpack!"
Mr. Nobata stifled a laugh and opened his door. "Let's."
Satoru's room had a wonderful view of the campus,
encompassing the entire grove, and beyond, the classrooms. At
night, Satoru imagined, he'd probably be able to see much of Tokyo
from his vantage point.
"Satoru! Box!" Kaori half-passed, half-tossed the box to
the boy, who managed to half-receive, half-catch it without much
incident.
"Erk... Thanks," he muttered. The box was a lot heavier than
he had figured it to be. He hadn't labeled it, so he ripped off
the tape and began opening it.
"Don't open that!" Kaori nearly screamed in terror.
"What?!" Satoru jumped back from the box, ready to see a boa
constrictor or something slink out from between the flaps.
"You don't have time to open boxes!" She shoved a newly
delivered box into his arms and smiled. "Here. Find a place for
this, 'kay?"
"And thus the grand and picturesque Toyama University claims
another mathematical victim." The voice from the hall sounded
familiar, but Satoru couldn't place the voice until he saw the
face.
"Masao." Kaori turned her nose up at the boy when she
noticed him. "Were you in the neighborhood, or did you go out of
your way to ruin our day?"
"A suitably masculine response, though I suppose it is your
only available recourse. Say, are you two moving in together? I
suppose that's possible. Though this lovely abode is an all-male
dorm, there shouldn't be any difficulties proving your manhood, eh
Kaori?"
"My, my, my, what big words," Satoru growled, fists clenched.
"Writing all those essays after school must have really paid off."
He wished he could have come up with a better retort, but he was
too busy trying to stay civil.
"You started that fight." Masao gritted his teeth for a
second. Satoru almost laughed -- he didn't expect any response
from Masao, let alone one so intense. After a brief moment of
seething, Masao changed. Maybe it was just to keep Satoru
baffled, but Masao actually let his features soften.
He was smiling.
Satoru could hardly believe it. He had never seen Masao
smile his way, except to begin a fresh session of mocking. When
Satoru looked to Kaori for a reaction, he found her in a similar
state of shock.
Still smiling, Masao chuckled. "That was quite a while ago,
Nobata. I didn't think you'd remember."
Satoru tried a grin. It felt strange, but not totally alien.
"Well, trying to write five pages on why I was wrong was pretty
tough. I had to do a lot of lying. Say, how long did that paper
take you, anyway?"
"I finished it a few days ago."
Satoru and Kaori gaped. "A few days ago?"
"Yep. I didn't do it originally. When the principal didn't
say anything, I figured I was off the hook. But about two weeks
ago, I got a letter from the old goat saying that if I didn't
write that 15-page paper, he'd make sure no college in Japan would
accept me."
Satoru laughed. "And he'd do it, too."
"Fifteen pages? I thought it was only nine." Kaori grinned
even as she asked.
"You really want to hear the answer to this one, don't you,
man-thing?" Satoru bristled, and took a step forward. Kaori shot
him a warning look, and he stopped.
"I won't give you the pleasure," Masao sneered. He sauntered
back down the hall, slamming his door indignantly.
"What a sleaze!" Kaori shook dramatically. "I think I need
a shower after that." Satoru nodded in agreement. When he
noticed his fists still clenched, he exhaled dejectedly.
"At least you get to leave the country," he murmured. "I get
a whole year of that joker, probably more." Kaori looked at him
sympathetically as he continued. "I can't believe I was actually
warming to that... that..."
"...Spineless tree-sucking pseudo-intellectual loud-mouthed
animal?" Kaori offered.
"That works." Satoru looked at the girl, and smiled.
"You're so good at that."
"At what?" Kaori returned his smile, her eyes glittering with
impish curiosity.
"At making everything so--"
A hefty sigh cut Satoru short. Satoru's mother entered, her
eyes shut tight. "What a loud boy he is!" she noted sweetly.
"There's all sorts of loud music coming from the room next door.
Listen. You can hear it even from here."
As he listened, Satoru realized he had been hearing little
above his own breathing since he had looked at Kaori a moment ago.
He shook he head, trying to clear his brain, and listened closely.
As he did, he saw Kaori carefully place her ear against the wall.
She nodded solemnly. Satoru couldn't hear much of anything still,
but he also nodded.
"What mother could possibly raise such a boy?" Satoru's
mother asked rhetorically.
Satoru grinned at the opportunity. "Not you, mom."
Kaori chimed in. "Your son's never been rude like that!"
Mrs. Nobata smirked and set the box down. Satoru shrieked
inwardly as he noticed where she had put the box.
"Mo-om! My poster!"
"Oops! I'm sorry, I'll get you another."
"You can't -- they're out of print," Satoru sighed as he
tried to lessen the crease marks on the parchment paper. It
wasn't working. "Oh well, it was time for a change anyway."
"Change is good," Kaori nodded. "Any more boxes, Mrs.
Nobata?"
"This was the last one." Mrs. Nobata turned to her son.
"Your father will be up in a second. He wants to get a good look
at the room before we go."
"You're going already?" Satoru tried not to sound profoundly
disappointed.
Kaori patted Satoru on the back. "You gotta unpack, and we'd
just be in the way."
"And you should take time to meet all the people in your
hall," Satoru's mother beamed. "They all seem so..." she looked
behind her quickly. "...so interesting."
June 18, 1997.
When it came time for Kaori to board her flight to Oregon,
Satoru had firmly entrenched himself in denial. His line of
thinking went like so: he wasn't even fully unpacked in his dorm,
so Kaori couldn't possibly be going yet. Keeping one or two boxes
packed in the corner of the room helped, even though he was sure
his stapler was in that bottom one. It worked very well for the
first four weeks, but his professors started frowning on his use
of paper clips. Even after rummaging through the bottom box for
his stapler, he carefully re-packed the box and set it back in its
corner to reinforce his own mock-reality for another two weeks.
When his parents called, asking if he was ready to be picked
up, he had convinced himself so thoroughly that Kaori was simply
not leaving that he had to ask them what he was getting ready for.
After they told him, he looked desperately at the corner, but they
offered little reassurance.
Once he was actually at the airport, things seemed no less
surreal. Satoru spent much of the waiting period wandering with
Kaori waiting to wake up. But his reality was slowly crumbling.
When she showed him the ticket, something snapped. He had to come
up with seven separate excuses as to why his eyes were
"mysteriously watering." Kaori smiled and patiently accepted each
excuse as it came, and let a few minutes pass before some other
facet of his denial fell and she could ask her question again.
"What's wrong, Satoru?" she asked sweetly. She knew full
well what was wrong, but she asked anyway. Satoru wondered if she
enjoyed tearing down his world.
"There's just a little dust in my eyes," was the best he
could come up with at the time. Then he saw the luggage. Two
suitcases, both purple, both tagged, both heavy. And both on the
baggage cart. He felt the tear hit his cheek before he knew it
had fallen.
"What's wrong, Satoru?" The question could never bother
Satoru -- the tone was too soft, too honestly concerned. Satoru
wiped his eyes and tried to find a more creative response. But
all he could drag from his brain was, "There's something in my eye
again."
That was when Kaori smiled and stepped close. "Thank you,
Satoru." Her whisper barely made it to Satoru's ears.
She kissed him on the cheek. Satoru thought he heard people
watching, or felt them gasping. Everything was wrong. No, not
wrong. Everything was right. But it was all spinning. Nothing
was where it should be. He was sure his parents were either going
crazy with shock and disappointment, or smiling like a bunch of
old wrinkled matchmakers. He didn't really care which. Her lips
lingered, even as she started to pull away.
Satoru touched his cheek as she stepped back. "Thank you for
everything," she smiled. The spinning slowed gradually, until
reality matched Kaori again. But something had changed.
She seemed to turn in slow-motion. Satoru thought he saw a
tear float to her cheek. As he focused on it, he realized the
airport was fading from view.
Kaori was all he saw, all he wanted to see. Seventeen years
of shared experience flashed in front of him as she turned to pick
up her bag. In that single action, Kaori evolved, smoothly
encompassing all their years.
She considered the backpack for a moment as the curious red-
haired pre-schooler with a chubby face and dimples. She reached
for it as the lanky tomboy with too-long legs and too-short hair.
As she hefted the bag, she became the girl who could run faster
than all the boys. And always she had that smile; that smile
could melt stone.
And as she walked to the gate, she was everything she had
been before that moment, and somehow just a little more. With her
chin up, shoulders back, walking steps measured and prepared, she
boarded the plane.
Satoru thought, or maybe just hoped, he heard Kaori whisper,
"Good-bye," but knew her voice would have been lost in the
distance between them.
------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Welcome back to "Okaeri, Kaori-chan!" With any luck some of you
remember what the story used to be like (if not, it's now
available at my web site), and can see an improvement in this
version, even though it was produced mainly during the height of
the writer's block that made me leave the story in the first
place.
This story is by no means dead -- I plan on revisiting it and
continuing my remastering. However, inspiration is a rather
fickle companion, and has taught me that I can't keep a good
schedule without losing interest. So, please bear with me as I
juggle two projects and school -- it won't be fast, but it may
very well be entertaining.
There's only one major reference here -- the prologue contains a
quote from the very end of "The High King" by Lloyd Alexander. I
found the paragraph compelling, and added it to the prologue and
epilogue (which nobody's seeing till I finish the story. Nyah!)
to give the story some overarcing allusions.
My web site has the original versions of Episodes 01-03, plus the
unfinished draft of Episode 04, as well as some other miscellany
to enjoy. Take a jaunt on down and take a look!
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