part 3:
In Which Mike and Bill Play Magic,
and Sarah Comes to a Terrible Realization
by Matthew Atanian
©2009 by Matthew Atanian
In Which Mike and Bill Play Magic,
and Sarah Comes to a Terrible Realization
by Matthew Atanian
©2009 by Matthew Atanian
Sarah woke with a start and sat up in her futon.
“There you are,” Nicole scolded jokingly. “About time you woke up.”
“What time is it?” Sarah responded. Kirstin was also just beginning to stir, so it couldn’t be too late. Kirstin was usually the first up.
“Oh, about quarter of ten.”
“What?” Sarah stood. “Why did I sleep so late?”
“Oh, I dunno. Jet lag, maybe? Or being up late with the welcome party last night?”
“Some party,” Sarah scoffed. “Just sitting around drinking while that Ichinose woman pranced around.”
“It was quite a nice social function,” Kirstin interjected as she sat up. “We got to catch up with our friends and get to know our hosts.”
Sarah started folding up her futon. “So what do you two have planned for today?”
“I was talking with some of the boys last night,” Nicole said, “and a few of them were talking about doing some exploring, maybe finding our school.” Nicole turned to her twin. “Aaron was one of ‘em,” she added with a grin. “Wanna come?”
Kirstin paused a moment. “Might be nice to do some exploring,” she finally said, “with you.”
Nicole grinned. “Sure, with me. Right.” She turned to Sarah. “What about you, sis?”
“If it’s just the same to you, I think I’m going to stay in,” Sarah responded. She stretched. “Still settling in.”
Nicole’s grinned widened. “Yup,” she said, “must be tough getting old.” She then yelped as she received a pillow in the face.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Sarah said, “I’m going to see if the bathroom is free.” She made her way out of the room.
Nicole, pillow at her feet, looked at Kirstin.
Kirstin looked back, the serious expression on her face lasting only an instant before cracking as a slight laugh escaped. “Don’t look at me, you deserved that!”
Nicole laughed too, causing Kirstin to laugh once more and the two twins giggled together for a moment. “Yeah,” Nicole admitted. “Yeah, I did.”
Sarah walked out into the hallway and noticed that someone was simultaneously exiting the next door over. She saw the youngest of the Boy Scouts, Kenny. He seemed to be carrying two suitcases, which together almost seemed to overpower him. He put them down when he saw her.
“Oh, good morning, Ms. Porter,” the boy said.
“Hello,” Sarah responded. “So, what’re you up to today?”
“Actually,” Kenny said, “I’m planning to head home. So I did wish to say farewell.”
Sarah blinked. “What about school?”
“Oh, I’m not here as part of the exchange program,” Kenny explained. “I was just visiting.”
“Not a very long visit,” Sarah pointed out.
“Oh, I’ll be back, Kenny said. “I just have things to attend to.”
“Ah, I see,” Sarah said even though she didn’t.
“Are Ms. Kirstin and Ms. Nicole awake?” Kenny asked. “I would like to take my leave of them.”
“Oh, um, sure.”
Kenny nodded and knocked on the Porter’s door. A moment later he entered, leaving the cases in the hall.
“Strange kid,” Sarah commented as she continued towards the bathroom. He was one of the odder ones of the Boy Scouts, she thought, but probably one of the more reliable.
When she knocked upon the door, a voice answered, “Just a moment.”
Sarah frowned.
The door opened and Matthew Atanian emerged.
“Good morning,” he said in what he hoped was a friendly way. Sarah, however, detected a hint of fear.
“Hello,” she said. She supposed she’d better get used to this.
“Sleep well?” Matt asked.
“I suppose. And you?”
“Quite well rested.” He smiled. “Looking forward to hitting the town today.”
“Going out with the others?” Sarah asked.
“No, no,” Matt said. “I’ve been wanting to come here for a while now. Something of a dream of mine. So my first time inflicting myself upon the country is going to be something of a personal experience.”
“I see,” Sarah said, somewhat darkly.
“Unless,” Matt began to say. He looked down at the floor for a moment. “Unless you’d like to go with me?”
“Do you mind?” Sarah said. “I kind of need to use that.”
Matt blinked. “What?” He the realized he was still standing in the doorway to the bathroom. “Oh, sorry,” he said, getting out of her way.
She entered and closed the door behind herself. “I can’t believe that!” she grumbled. “Was he actually asking me out?” Although she wasn’t even aware of it, and would deny it completely if anyone was there to point it out to her, a slight smile escaped her lips. “Idiot,” she said.
Bill Gelinas stirred in his sleep as the noise of someone passing by in the hallway outside disturbed him. Lying on his back, he slowly opened his eyes.
Quietly, he spoke. “Unfamiliar ceiling.” He sat up, shaking his head to clear the fog. He stood a moment later and made his way to the door.
Out in the hallway, he thought he saw Matt heading towards the stairs. The figure heard him and turned, and Bill realized that it was someone else clad in a long black coat and fedora.
“Good afternoon, young sir,” the one called Yotsuya said in greeting.
“Um, hello,” Bill replied. “Afternoon?”
“You slept quite late it would seem, but this is understandable on your first day half way across the globe, yes?”
“I suppose so.”
“You’ll find your friend Mike downstairs,” Yotsuya advised, “as well as young Sarah Porter, but I do believe the rest of your companions have gone out for the day.”
“Oh, ah, thank you.” When Yotsuya turned as if to leave, Bill asked him, “And where’re you off to?”
Mr. Yotsuya turned back once more. “I have things to attend to, sir,” he said mysteriously, before making a slightly dramatic bow and taking his leave.
“What a strange man,” Bill muttered. He went over to a sink in the hallway and splashed some warm water on his face. He missed cold, it worked so much better for moments like this. But he made due. Now fully awake, he made his way downstairs and knocked on the door to room 3.
“Come on in,” Mike’s voice responded.
“You know,” Bill said upon entering, “Matt can be pretty obsessive about his hat, as well, but he doesn’t usually wear his indoors.” He paused. “Please tell me you didn’t sleep in it.”
“No,” Mike laughed. “Even I’m not that crazy!”
“No, I suppose not,” Bill admitted. “So, where is everyone?”
“Well, Aaron, Hughes, Kirstin, and Sarah are out exploring. Said they might try to find our school. Matt was insistent on, ‘making a pilgrimage,’ as he put it, to someplace called Akihabara. Sarah’s still around somewhere. You missed Kenny, though. He didn’t want to wake you.”
“Kenny’s gone?”
“Yup. He was sorry he couldn’t wait around, but said something about an experiment he had left running and wanting to get back before it achieved critical mass.”
“Right, critical mass.” Bill sighed. “You ever think there might be something a little, I dunno, odd about Kenny? I mean, where the heck did he come from? People like that shouldn’t exist in real life.”
“Shut up, Bill,” Mike replied.
Sarah sighed. She just didn’t know what to do with her day. She hadn’t really felt like going out today, not even with her sisters, and certainly not with Atanian. Yet she was kind of bored just sitting around, too. She supposed she should do something.
A knock upon the door. “Yes? Who is it?” she asked as she walked over and opened it. “Oh, Mrs. Godai. What can I do for you?”
“Please,” the landlady replied, “no need to be so formal.”
“Okay. Kyoko-san?”
Kyoko smiled. “I was about to go out and do a little shopping. I need to pick up some things for dinner tonight. Would you like to come with me?”
Now Sarah smiled. What the heck? “Sure.”
“I dunno,” Bill said, playing a land. “I just can’t wrap my head around things sometimes.”
“Like what?” Mike asked, considering his hand.
“Well, all that stuff at Summer Camp. The whole plot that Justy and the others had against us seemed rather contrived. And the resolution? Was kind of a mess, wasn’t it? Seemed rather rushed, and I’m still not sure what happened. All I know is that it had something to do with hamsters, and now Hughes thinks he’s a pimp.”
“At least he lost the hat,” Mike pointed out.
“Yeah, because the last thing our group needed was another member with distinctive head gear.”
“I know what you mean, though,” Mike said as he tapped some land and played a card that dealt damage directly to Bill’s life total. “I miss the plaid and the flannel. He’s just not our good ol’ hick, anymore.”
“I never got that ‘hick’ thing, either. He lives in Palmer, for crying out loud. Sure it isn’t exactly big city, but it’s not in some rural farm area either.”
“Yeah, and Matt thought Colin looked like a walrus, and that name stuck. What’s your point?”
“What do you mean?” Gelinas pictured Colin Pekruhn in his mind. “That I can kind of see.”
Mike looked at Bill. “Colin’s kind of thin, and has rather a lack of tusks if you didn’t notice.”
“I think we’ve strayed from the point,” Bill said.
“And what, prey tell, is the point?”
“I dunno.” Bill sighed. “I’m just starting to get a feeling... Hard to explain, really. Like there’s something more out there. Something pulling our strings.
Think of all the stuff that happens to us!”
“Didn’t we go over this at Summer Camp?” Mike asked. “I think I won that bet.”
“On a technicality!” Bill protested. “I mean, come on! With one exception, everything I predicted came to pass! But think about all of the crazy stuff that has happened to us! We get cursed, we deal with a crazy adult conspiracy like something out of the X-Files, we have an outrageously sized Christmas party, we get chased all the way from China by a crazy Amazon warrior (who, incidentally, is also cursed) who wants to kill us, we ship our Senior Patrol Leader to the Middle-East with no consequences from any parents, we once had to fight off terrorists who tried to kill us, our adult leaders once left to go on a camping trip and forgot to bring us with them and they didn’t even notice, and finally all of that crazy stuff at Summer Camp. Culminating, of course, in us being attacked by a crazy secret organization that wants to kill us, from which we are saved by a second secret organization, who thinks to hide us out by moving us geographically closer to the country of origin of the group trying to kill us.
“Have you noticed a pattern here?”
“Mmm, Scully,” Mike said.
“What?” Bill responded.
“Sorry, you lost me after you mentioned the X-Files,” Mike admitted.
“Well, excuse me,” Bill said. “I was just remarking on the strange frequency with which people seem to want to kill us.” As if to emphasize his point, he declared an attack.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Mike said as he designated a few blockers. “We’ll be safe here for a while, and Líng Rén said that after we were settled in school, he’d teach us to defend ourselves.”
“Yeah, that would have to be one hell of a montage if we’re going to be able to defend ourselves against life-long practitioners of martial arts,” Bill commented.
“Montage? What are you going on about, my friend?”
“I dunno, sometimes I just doubt the reality of this all.”
Mike scratched his head through his hat. Now he played a land. “Reality,” he said, then tapping all of his land, “can be a harsh mistress.” As if to prove his point, he threw down a card that dealt massive direct damage to Bill’s life total to which Bill had no defense.
“Hey, no fair!” Bill said.
“You worry about things too much, Bill. Just take what life gives you and go with it. Make the best of things. Stop worrying about why things are as they are, and make good of what is.”
“If God gives you lemons, make lemonade?”
“Exactly!”
“Yeah, but I think this lemonade is a bit on the sour side,” Bill said, picking up his cards. “Sometimes I feel like whoever is supposed to be handing out the lemons keeps accidentally throwing in some mangos or something.”
“Wow.” Mike laughed. “Deep.”
“Yeah, well you’ll be sorry when you’re swimming hip deep in mangoade,” Bill said. “And things seem even stranger since we came here.”
“How so?”
“Well, the whole bloody country for one. Japan in reality is just like Japan in anime? But it’s all a big secret cover-up? Like they could keep something this big a secret!”
“Had you ever heard it before coming here?”
“Well... no,” Bill admitted. “But what about the Porters? Isn’t that an awfully big coincidence? And really convenient that no one in our group said anything to the Porters or vice versa. Seems especially contrived in the case of Aaron and his girlfriend.”
“You do know that aren’t exactly officially a couple, right?”
“May as well be, everyone sees it but them,” Bill said. “And anyways, what about school?”
“What about school?”
“Well, we’re going to be starting school soon, yes? In a couple of days?”
“That’s right. Looking forward to it, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but that’s beside the point. It’s going to be fall soon.”
“Quite observant of you, Sherlock Gelinas.”
“Yes, well, I’ve watched enough of that anime stuff of Matt’s to know one thing about the Japanese school system.”
“Oh, and what is that?”
“Their school year should start in the spring. So how could we be joining the start of a new term now?” Bill clutched his temple. “My brain hurts sometimes thinking of these things. I can’t wrap myself around this so called reality.”
“Bill?” Mike said, picking up his own cards.
“Let me guess, shut up?”
“Right.” Mike grinned. “And shuffle, before I decide I don’t want to give you a rematch.”
Bill sighed. “Right.”
Sarah ended up having rather a nice afternoon in the company of Kyoko. The two got to know each other by chatting about various nothings while visiting some of the stores in the Clock Hill Shopping District. After feeling a few drops of precipitation they made their way to Kyoko’s original goal of the local grocery mart, making it inside just as the rain began in earnest.
Kyoko led the way down various aisles as she chose the items she would need for the dinner she planned to cook that evening. As she placed a few vegetables into the basket she was carrying, she asked of Sarah, “So what will you be doing with your time while you’re here?”
“Well, I’ve been set up with a company called Mitsutomo Enterprises. I’ll be doing administrative work for one of their executives who recently returned from an assignment with an American branch of the company.”
Kyoko smiled as a memory of a time past flittered to the surface of her brain. “My husband applied there once, before he’d settled on teaching. It was, well, an interesting experience.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Anything I should worry about?”
“I think not,” Kyoko responded, adding some noodles to her basket. “Not unless the daughter of the man hiring you develops a bit of an obsession over you.”
“Oh, my. I think that’s unlikely.” Sarah paused. “I hope.” She smiled at Kyoko. “So, was he a big ladies man back then?”
Kyoko laughed lightly. “Depends how you look at it. He wasn’t intentionally, but he did seem to develop something of a following. And, of course, he was too... what’s the word? Indecisive... No...”
“Wishy-washy?” Sarah offered.
“Wishy-washy?”
“Um... non-committal, but not out of any malice.”
“Yes, that’s it exactly. He loved me, but had a hard time making his feelings clear to others at times out of fear of hurting them.”
“All seems to have worked out in the end, though.”
“Indeed. And what of you? I’ve noticed you having conversations with the one named Matthew. Is there a relationship there?”
“Good lord, no!” Sarah protested. “Not that he wouldn’t want one.”
“But you do not?” Kyoko asked.
“Bit of a busy body, aren’t you?”
“I apologize, it wasn’t my intent to offend. I suppose Ichinose-san’s tendencies may have rubbed off a bit over the years.”
Sarah thought back to the party the night before. “Even not knowing 99% of what she was saying, she did seem a brash one.”
“Indeed, but she is a good person.”
“Well... I don’t know about Matt,” Sarah admitted. “When I first met him, I thought he was a jerk. Then I made a friend who was also friends with him, and she only has good things to say about him. And... well, he has been nice to me. I guess I’m just used to not wanting to be with him.”
“Sounds like you might be considering the alternative,” Kyoko ventured.
“No! Of course not!” Sarah’s voice lowered a bit. “I mean, he’s just so... so...”
“‘So’ what?”
“I guess... I guess I never thought about it. I don’t know that I’m ready to. After my last relationship, I just wasn’t looking for another.”
Kyoko was paying for her goods. “I’m sorry, I’ve been too forward.”
“Not at all,” Sarah said. “It’s been nice to have someone to talk to about this. I mean, my sisters would probably just try to push me into something with Matt, and Matty... I love her dearly, but since she’s also friends with Matt she’d hardly be objective. But talking to you... I think you’ve given me something to think about.”
Making her way to the cash register, Kyoko smiled. “I am happy if I could be of help,” she told Sarah.
The cashier finished ringing up Kyoko’s purchase, money changed hands, Kyoko picked up her items, and the two of them made their way to the door. The rain had thankfully been brief, and the sun was shining once more.
As they walked outside, Sarah looked at Kyoko. “Of course, it goes without saying that if one word of this reaches Atanian’s ears, I can’t be held responsible for any deaths.”
“Of course,” Kyoko said. Then the two of them started laughing together as they began their way back towards Maison Ikkoku.
As the pair of them were passing by the train station, Kyoko took note of someone and pointed him out to Sarah.
Matthew Atanian, laden with a few colorful looking shopping bags, was exiting the station. As he hadn’t noticed them, Sarah was about to call out to him to get his attention. She didn’t, though, when she saw him turn to face someone else exiting the station. Someone who obviously already had his attention.
“Who the hell is that?” Sarah asked rhetorically. This was just as well, as Kyoko wisely thought it best not to answer.
As there was some distance between them, Sarah couldn’t entirely make out this unknown person. But whoever it was was definitely female. Her most distinctive feature that Sarah could make out at this distance was her hair. It was quite long. Most of it was a sort of bluish-green, but the last six or eight inches of it was black, as if whoever this woman was once had colored her hair and hair and had since been letting it grow out.
Sarah frowned her familiar frown. It deepened as she thought she heard light laughter pass between the two she was observing. “Come on,” she said. She was speaking to Kyoko, but her gaze did not leave the two standing outside of the train station. “Let’s get your food home.”
“Are you sure?” Kyoko asked.
Sarah turned to look up the hill towards Ikkoku and began walking. “Yes, I’m sure.”
Sarah closed her door behind herself and flopped down onto the tatami mats. “Oh, the nerve of that man!” she exclaimed to no one in particular. “One day in the country, and he’s already...”
She stopped. Why did she care? Yes, he had said he loved her, but so what? She’d been quite clear that the feeling was not mutual.
It wasn’t. It couldn’t be.
Her hand slipped into her pocket, and wrapped itself around the small object within. Her mind went back to the snowy evening it had been given to her. When had this item become so important to her? Why had it become so important to her?
Suddenly she snapped. She pulled the item from her pocket and hurled it at the wall across the room. Instantly, though, she regretted it. Relief filled her when she observed it fell to the floor intact. She got up, crossed the room, and picked it up.
“It can’t be,” Sarah said. She looked down at the small item she held in her hands without really seeing it. “There is no way I am starting to develop
feelings for that... for that...”
With an annoyed grunt, she shoved back into her pocket the Christmas present that Matthew Atanian had given her the previous year. She stood there, not at all sure what to do next, and so it was rather a relief when Kyoko’s voice came from out in the hallway.
“Sarah-san, you have a telephone call!”
They had long since stopped playing Magic. After Gelinas had finally won a game, he had decided it was time to call it quits so he could go out on a high. Gelinas was currently fine-tuning his deck, hoping to make it better for the eventual rematch. Meanwhile, Mike’s nose was deep into an X-Files novel.
Gelinas felt his stomach rumble a bit. “Hey,” he asked, “what are we going to do for dinner?”
Mike looked up from his book. “Ya’ know,” he said, “I hadn’t thought of that. But now that you mention it...”
There was a knock at the door.
Mike looked at Gelinas. Gelinas looked at Mike. Mike shrugged, put in a book mark, stood, tugged down on his hat slightly to make sure it was properly in place, and opened the door.
It was the last person he was expecting.
Okay, second to last. But since he wasn’t having a heart attack from blissful shock, Gillian Anderson was obviously not the one on the other side of the door.
It was Sarah Porter. She looked as if she might have something on her mind, but Mike didn’t think it was his place to inquire so he only said, “Hello, Sarah. What’s up?”
“Nicole just called,” Sarah said. “Apparently everyone is at some place close by called the Cha Cha Maru for dinner, and she wanted to know if we would join them.”
“Ha!” Gelinas exclaimed. “I was just saying I was hungry, and now this! Rather convenient if you ask me.”
“Well, then,” Mike replied with a wicked grin, “you’re welcome to stay here while we go join the others.”
“Oh no you don’t,” Gelinas responded, hastily collecting his spread-out cards into a pile. “Just give me a moment to run these up to my room, and then I’ll join you for what can only be a convenient plot twist.”
“What?” Sarah asked, but Mike just dismissed it with a standard, “Shut up, Bill.”
And a few minutes later, the three of them were on their way.
“There you are,” Nicole scolded jokingly. “About time you woke up.”
“What time is it?” Sarah responded. Kirstin was also just beginning to stir, so it couldn’t be too late. Kirstin was usually the first up.
“Oh, about quarter of ten.”
“What?” Sarah stood. “Why did I sleep so late?”
“Oh, I dunno. Jet lag, maybe? Or being up late with the welcome party last night?”
“Some party,” Sarah scoffed. “Just sitting around drinking while that Ichinose woman pranced around.”
“It was quite a nice social function,” Kirstin interjected as she sat up. “We got to catch up with our friends and get to know our hosts.”
Sarah started folding up her futon. “So what do you two have planned for today?”
“I was talking with some of the boys last night,” Nicole said, “and a few of them were talking about doing some exploring, maybe finding our school.” Nicole turned to her twin. “Aaron was one of ‘em,” she added with a grin. “Wanna come?”
Kirstin paused a moment. “Might be nice to do some exploring,” she finally said, “with you.”
Nicole grinned. “Sure, with me. Right.” She turned to Sarah. “What about you, sis?”
“If it’s just the same to you, I think I’m going to stay in,” Sarah responded. She stretched. “Still settling in.”
Nicole’s grinned widened. “Yup,” she said, “must be tough getting old.” She then yelped as she received a pillow in the face.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Sarah said, “I’m going to see if the bathroom is free.” She made her way out of the room.
Nicole, pillow at her feet, looked at Kirstin.
Kirstin looked back, the serious expression on her face lasting only an instant before cracking as a slight laugh escaped. “Don’t look at me, you deserved that!”
Nicole laughed too, causing Kirstin to laugh once more and the two twins giggled together for a moment. “Yeah,” Nicole admitted. “Yeah, I did.”
Sarah walked out into the hallway and noticed that someone was simultaneously exiting the next door over. She saw the youngest of the Boy Scouts, Kenny. He seemed to be carrying two suitcases, which together almost seemed to overpower him. He put them down when he saw her.
“Oh, good morning, Ms. Porter,” the boy said.
“Hello,” Sarah responded. “So, what’re you up to today?”
“Actually,” Kenny said, “I’m planning to head home. So I did wish to say farewell.”
Sarah blinked. “What about school?”
“Oh, I’m not here as part of the exchange program,” Kenny explained. “I was just visiting.”
“Not a very long visit,” Sarah pointed out.
“Oh, I’ll be back, Kenny said. “I just have things to attend to.”
“Ah, I see,” Sarah said even though she didn’t.
“Are Ms. Kirstin and Ms. Nicole awake?” Kenny asked. “I would like to take my leave of them.”
“Oh, um, sure.”
Kenny nodded and knocked on the Porter’s door. A moment later he entered, leaving the cases in the hall.
“Strange kid,” Sarah commented as she continued towards the bathroom. He was one of the odder ones of the Boy Scouts, she thought, but probably one of the more reliable.
When she knocked upon the door, a voice answered, “Just a moment.”
Sarah frowned.
The door opened and Matthew Atanian emerged.
“Good morning,” he said in what he hoped was a friendly way. Sarah, however, detected a hint of fear.
“Hello,” she said. She supposed she’d better get used to this.
“Sleep well?” Matt asked.
“I suppose. And you?”
“Quite well rested.” He smiled. “Looking forward to hitting the town today.”
“Going out with the others?” Sarah asked.
“No, no,” Matt said. “I’ve been wanting to come here for a while now. Something of a dream of mine. So my first time inflicting myself upon the country is going to be something of a personal experience.”
“I see,” Sarah said, somewhat darkly.
“Unless,” Matt began to say. He looked down at the floor for a moment. “Unless you’d like to go with me?”
“Do you mind?” Sarah said. “I kind of need to use that.”
Matt blinked. “What?” He the realized he was still standing in the doorway to the bathroom. “Oh, sorry,” he said, getting out of her way.
She entered and closed the door behind herself. “I can’t believe that!” she grumbled. “Was he actually asking me out?” Although she wasn’t even aware of it, and would deny it completely if anyone was there to point it out to her, a slight smile escaped her lips. “Idiot,” she said.
Bill Gelinas stirred in his sleep as the noise of someone passing by in the hallway outside disturbed him. Lying on his back, he slowly opened his eyes.
Quietly, he spoke. “Unfamiliar ceiling.” He sat up, shaking his head to clear the fog. He stood a moment later and made his way to the door.
Out in the hallway, he thought he saw Matt heading towards the stairs. The figure heard him and turned, and Bill realized that it was someone else clad in a long black coat and fedora.
“Good afternoon, young sir,” the one called Yotsuya said in greeting.
“Um, hello,” Bill replied. “Afternoon?”
“You slept quite late it would seem, but this is understandable on your first day half way across the globe, yes?”
“I suppose so.”
“You’ll find your friend Mike downstairs,” Yotsuya advised, “as well as young Sarah Porter, but I do believe the rest of your companions have gone out for the day.”
“Oh, ah, thank you.” When Yotsuya turned as if to leave, Bill asked him, “And where’re you off to?”
Mr. Yotsuya turned back once more. “I have things to attend to, sir,” he said mysteriously, before making a slightly dramatic bow and taking his leave.
“What a strange man,” Bill muttered. He went over to a sink in the hallway and splashed some warm water on his face. He missed cold, it worked so much better for moments like this. But he made due. Now fully awake, he made his way downstairs and knocked on the door to room 3.
“Come on in,” Mike’s voice responded.
“You know,” Bill said upon entering, “Matt can be pretty obsessive about his hat, as well, but he doesn’t usually wear his indoors.” He paused. “Please tell me you didn’t sleep in it.”
“No,” Mike laughed. “Even I’m not that crazy!”
“No, I suppose not,” Bill admitted. “So, where is everyone?”
“Well, Aaron, Hughes, Kirstin, and Sarah are out exploring. Said they might try to find our school. Matt was insistent on, ‘making a pilgrimage,’ as he put it, to someplace called Akihabara. Sarah’s still around somewhere. You missed Kenny, though. He didn’t want to wake you.”
“Kenny’s gone?”
“Yup. He was sorry he couldn’t wait around, but said something about an experiment he had left running and wanting to get back before it achieved critical mass.”
“Right, critical mass.” Bill sighed. “You ever think there might be something a little, I dunno, odd about Kenny? I mean, where the heck did he come from? People like that shouldn’t exist in real life.”
“Shut up, Bill,” Mike replied.
Sarah sighed. She just didn’t know what to do with her day. She hadn’t really felt like going out today, not even with her sisters, and certainly not with Atanian. Yet she was kind of bored just sitting around, too. She supposed she should do something.
A knock upon the door. “Yes? Who is it?” she asked as she walked over and opened it. “Oh, Mrs. Godai. What can I do for you?”
“Please,” the landlady replied, “no need to be so formal.”
“Okay. Kyoko-san?”
Kyoko smiled. “I was about to go out and do a little shopping. I need to pick up some things for dinner tonight. Would you like to come with me?”
Now Sarah smiled. What the heck? “Sure.”
“I dunno,” Bill said, playing a land. “I just can’t wrap my head around things sometimes.”
“Like what?” Mike asked, considering his hand.
“Well, all that stuff at Summer Camp. The whole plot that Justy and the others had against us seemed rather contrived. And the resolution? Was kind of a mess, wasn’t it? Seemed rather rushed, and I’m still not sure what happened. All I know is that it had something to do with hamsters, and now Hughes thinks he’s a pimp.”
“At least he lost the hat,” Mike pointed out.
“Yeah, because the last thing our group needed was another member with distinctive head gear.”
“I know what you mean, though,” Mike said as he tapped some land and played a card that dealt damage directly to Bill’s life total. “I miss the plaid and the flannel. He’s just not our good ol’ hick, anymore.”
“I never got that ‘hick’ thing, either. He lives in Palmer, for crying out loud. Sure it isn’t exactly big city, but it’s not in some rural farm area either.”
“Yeah, and Matt thought Colin looked like a walrus, and that name stuck. What’s your point?”
“What do you mean?” Gelinas pictured Colin Pekruhn in his mind. “That I can kind of see.”
Mike looked at Bill. “Colin’s kind of thin, and has rather a lack of tusks if you didn’t notice.”
“I think we’ve strayed from the point,” Bill said.
“And what, prey tell, is the point?”
“I dunno.” Bill sighed. “I’m just starting to get a feeling... Hard to explain, really. Like there’s something more out there. Something pulling our strings.
Think of all the stuff that happens to us!”
“Didn’t we go over this at Summer Camp?” Mike asked. “I think I won that bet.”
“On a technicality!” Bill protested. “I mean, come on! With one exception, everything I predicted came to pass! But think about all of the crazy stuff that has happened to us! We get cursed, we deal with a crazy adult conspiracy like something out of the X-Files, we have an outrageously sized Christmas party, we get chased all the way from China by a crazy Amazon warrior (who, incidentally, is also cursed) who wants to kill us, we ship our Senior Patrol Leader to the Middle-East with no consequences from any parents, we once had to fight off terrorists who tried to kill us, our adult leaders once left to go on a camping trip and forgot to bring us with them and they didn’t even notice, and finally all of that crazy stuff at Summer Camp. Culminating, of course, in us being attacked by a crazy secret organization that wants to kill us, from which we are saved by a second secret organization, who thinks to hide us out by moving us geographically closer to the country of origin of the group trying to kill us.
“Have you noticed a pattern here?”
“Mmm, Scully,” Mike said.
“What?” Bill responded.
“Sorry, you lost me after you mentioned the X-Files,” Mike admitted.
“Well, excuse me,” Bill said. “I was just remarking on the strange frequency with which people seem to want to kill us.” As if to emphasize his point, he declared an attack.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Mike said as he designated a few blockers. “We’ll be safe here for a while, and Líng Rén said that after we were settled in school, he’d teach us to defend ourselves.”
“Yeah, that would have to be one hell of a montage if we’re going to be able to defend ourselves against life-long practitioners of martial arts,” Bill commented.
“Montage? What are you going on about, my friend?”
“I dunno, sometimes I just doubt the reality of this all.”
Mike scratched his head through his hat. Now he played a land. “Reality,” he said, then tapping all of his land, “can be a harsh mistress.” As if to prove his point, he threw down a card that dealt massive direct damage to Bill’s life total to which Bill had no defense.
“Hey, no fair!” Bill said.
“You worry about things too much, Bill. Just take what life gives you and go with it. Make the best of things. Stop worrying about why things are as they are, and make good of what is.”
“If God gives you lemons, make lemonade?”
“Exactly!”
“Yeah, but I think this lemonade is a bit on the sour side,” Bill said, picking up his cards. “Sometimes I feel like whoever is supposed to be handing out the lemons keeps accidentally throwing in some mangos or something.”
“Wow.” Mike laughed. “Deep.”
“Yeah, well you’ll be sorry when you’re swimming hip deep in mangoade,” Bill said. “And things seem even stranger since we came here.”
“How so?”
“Well, the whole bloody country for one. Japan in reality is just like Japan in anime? But it’s all a big secret cover-up? Like they could keep something this big a secret!”
“Had you ever heard it before coming here?”
“Well... no,” Bill admitted. “But what about the Porters? Isn’t that an awfully big coincidence? And really convenient that no one in our group said anything to the Porters or vice versa. Seems especially contrived in the case of Aaron and his girlfriend.”
“You do know that aren’t exactly officially a couple, right?”
“May as well be, everyone sees it but them,” Bill said. “And anyways, what about school?”
“What about school?”
“Well, we’re going to be starting school soon, yes? In a couple of days?”
“That’s right. Looking forward to it, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but that’s beside the point. It’s going to be fall soon.”
“Quite observant of you, Sherlock Gelinas.”
“Yes, well, I’ve watched enough of that anime stuff of Matt’s to know one thing about the Japanese school system.”
“Oh, and what is that?”
“Their school year should start in the spring. So how could we be joining the start of a new term now?” Bill clutched his temple. “My brain hurts sometimes thinking of these things. I can’t wrap myself around this so called reality.”
“Bill?” Mike said, picking up his own cards.
“Let me guess, shut up?”
“Right.” Mike grinned. “And shuffle, before I decide I don’t want to give you a rematch.”
Bill sighed. “Right.”
Sarah ended up having rather a nice afternoon in the company of Kyoko. The two got to know each other by chatting about various nothings while visiting some of the stores in the Clock Hill Shopping District. After feeling a few drops of precipitation they made their way to Kyoko’s original goal of the local grocery mart, making it inside just as the rain began in earnest.
Kyoko led the way down various aisles as she chose the items she would need for the dinner she planned to cook that evening. As she placed a few vegetables into the basket she was carrying, she asked of Sarah, “So what will you be doing with your time while you’re here?”
“Well, I’ve been set up with a company called Mitsutomo Enterprises. I’ll be doing administrative work for one of their executives who recently returned from an assignment with an American branch of the company.”
Kyoko smiled as a memory of a time past flittered to the surface of her brain. “My husband applied there once, before he’d settled on teaching. It was, well, an interesting experience.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Anything I should worry about?”
“I think not,” Kyoko responded, adding some noodles to her basket. “Not unless the daughter of the man hiring you develops a bit of an obsession over you.”
“Oh, my. I think that’s unlikely.” Sarah paused. “I hope.” She smiled at Kyoko. “So, was he a big ladies man back then?”
Kyoko laughed lightly. “Depends how you look at it. He wasn’t intentionally, but he did seem to develop something of a following. And, of course, he was too... what’s the word? Indecisive... No...”
“Wishy-washy?” Sarah offered.
“Wishy-washy?”
“Um... non-committal, but not out of any malice.”
“Yes, that’s it exactly. He loved me, but had a hard time making his feelings clear to others at times out of fear of hurting them.”
“All seems to have worked out in the end, though.”
“Indeed. And what of you? I’ve noticed you having conversations with the one named Matthew. Is there a relationship there?”
“Good lord, no!” Sarah protested. “Not that he wouldn’t want one.”
“But you do not?” Kyoko asked.
“Bit of a busy body, aren’t you?”
“I apologize, it wasn’t my intent to offend. I suppose Ichinose-san’s tendencies may have rubbed off a bit over the years.”
Sarah thought back to the party the night before. “Even not knowing 99% of what she was saying, she did seem a brash one.”
“Indeed, but she is a good person.”
“Well... I don’t know about Matt,” Sarah admitted. “When I first met him, I thought he was a jerk. Then I made a friend who was also friends with him, and she only has good things to say about him. And... well, he has been nice to me. I guess I’m just used to not wanting to be with him.”
“Sounds like you might be considering the alternative,” Kyoko ventured.
“No! Of course not!” Sarah’s voice lowered a bit. “I mean, he’s just so... so...”
“‘So’ what?”
“I guess... I guess I never thought about it. I don’t know that I’m ready to. After my last relationship, I just wasn’t looking for another.”
Kyoko was paying for her goods. “I’m sorry, I’ve been too forward.”
“Not at all,” Sarah said. “It’s been nice to have someone to talk to about this. I mean, my sisters would probably just try to push me into something with Matt, and Matty... I love her dearly, but since she’s also friends with Matt she’d hardly be objective. But talking to you... I think you’ve given me something to think about.”
Making her way to the cash register, Kyoko smiled. “I am happy if I could be of help,” she told Sarah.
The cashier finished ringing up Kyoko’s purchase, money changed hands, Kyoko picked up her items, and the two of them made their way to the door. The rain had thankfully been brief, and the sun was shining once more.
As they walked outside, Sarah looked at Kyoko. “Of course, it goes without saying that if one word of this reaches Atanian’s ears, I can’t be held responsible for any deaths.”
“Of course,” Kyoko said. Then the two of them started laughing together as they began their way back towards Maison Ikkoku.
As the pair of them were passing by the train station, Kyoko took note of someone and pointed him out to Sarah.
Matthew Atanian, laden with a few colorful looking shopping bags, was exiting the station. As he hadn’t noticed them, Sarah was about to call out to him to get his attention. She didn’t, though, when she saw him turn to face someone else exiting the station. Someone who obviously already had his attention.
“Who the hell is that?” Sarah asked rhetorically. This was just as well, as Kyoko wisely thought it best not to answer.
As there was some distance between them, Sarah couldn’t entirely make out this unknown person. But whoever it was was definitely female. Her most distinctive feature that Sarah could make out at this distance was her hair. It was quite long. Most of it was a sort of bluish-green, but the last six or eight inches of it was black, as if whoever this woman was once had colored her hair and hair and had since been letting it grow out.
Sarah frowned her familiar frown. It deepened as she thought she heard light laughter pass between the two she was observing. “Come on,” she said. She was speaking to Kyoko, but her gaze did not leave the two standing outside of the train station. “Let’s get your food home.”
“Are you sure?” Kyoko asked.
Sarah turned to look up the hill towards Ikkoku and began walking. “Yes, I’m sure.”
Sarah closed her door behind herself and flopped down onto the tatami mats. “Oh, the nerve of that man!” she exclaimed to no one in particular. “One day in the country, and he’s already...”
She stopped. Why did she care? Yes, he had said he loved her, but so what? She’d been quite clear that the feeling was not mutual.
It wasn’t. It couldn’t be.
Her hand slipped into her pocket, and wrapped itself around the small object within. Her mind went back to the snowy evening it had been given to her. When had this item become so important to her? Why had it become so important to her?
Suddenly she snapped. She pulled the item from her pocket and hurled it at the wall across the room. Instantly, though, she regretted it. Relief filled her when she observed it fell to the floor intact. She got up, crossed the room, and picked it up.
“It can’t be,” Sarah said. She looked down at the small item she held in her hands without really seeing it. “There is no way I am starting to develop
feelings for that... for that...”
With an annoyed grunt, she shoved back into her pocket the Christmas present that Matthew Atanian had given her the previous year. She stood there, not at all sure what to do next, and so it was rather a relief when Kyoko’s voice came from out in the hallway.
“Sarah-san, you have a telephone call!”
They had long since stopped playing Magic. After Gelinas had finally won a game, he had decided it was time to call it quits so he could go out on a high. Gelinas was currently fine-tuning his deck, hoping to make it better for the eventual rematch. Meanwhile, Mike’s nose was deep into an X-Files novel.
Gelinas felt his stomach rumble a bit. “Hey,” he asked, “what are we going to do for dinner?”
Mike looked up from his book. “Ya’ know,” he said, “I hadn’t thought of that. But now that you mention it...”
There was a knock at the door.
Mike looked at Gelinas. Gelinas looked at Mike. Mike shrugged, put in a book mark, stood, tugged down on his hat slightly to make sure it was properly in place, and opened the door.
It was the last person he was expecting.
Okay, second to last. But since he wasn’t having a heart attack from blissful shock, Gillian Anderson was obviously not the one on the other side of the door.
It was Sarah Porter. She looked as if she might have something on her mind, but Mike didn’t think it was his place to inquire so he only said, “Hello, Sarah. What’s up?”
“Nicole just called,” Sarah said. “Apparently everyone is at some place close by called the Cha Cha Maru for dinner, and she wanted to know if we would join them.”
“Ha!” Gelinas exclaimed. “I was just saying I was hungry, and now this! Rather convenient if you ask me.”
“Well, then,” Mike replied with a wicked grin, “you’re welcome to stay here while we go join the others.”
“Oh no you don’t,” Gelinas responded, hastily collecting his spread-out cards into a pile. “Just give me a moment to run these up to my room, and then I’ll join you for what can only be a convenient plot twist.”
“What?” Sarah asked, but Mike just dismissed it with a standard, “Shut up, Bill.”
And a few minutes later, the three of them were on their way.
Author's Notes & Disclaimers
Hello, everybody! Matt here! Sorry it has been a while. I think it was a case of having a bit too much time on my hands, and thus putting the writing off for a bit with the rationalization of, “It isn’t like I won’t be able to get to it later!” Of course, later kept just being later, and after a while (namely right now) I said to myself, “Okay, later has been later long enough! Time for later to be now!”
Does the preceding paragraph make sense? I think it does. I rather hope it does! If not... well, then, pretend it does, okay? Good? Good.
So where was I?
Ah yes, author’s notes.
This part is the first of a loosely connected trilogy of stories in which the main characters will be split up a bit, and each part will follow one group of characters through the same space of time. Sort of explore them settling into their new surrounding a bit before I start throwing plot at them. Maybe get in a bit of character development, which is always fun. Maybe even introduce someone new?
The next part will be the main series authortorial debut of Mr. Jason Bertovich, and shall follow the exploits of Aaron, Hughes, Kirstin, and Nicole as they go check out the school they’ll be attending, and maybe one or two other things. The story has been delivered, but I’ve yet to have a chance to read it. So I am rather looking forward myself to seeing what happens. And, of course, hopefully it shan’t be long before you are able to as well.
The part after that will be something of a different story for Boy Scouts ½, as it will almost exclusively focus on the character of Matthew Atanian, as he goes to otaku paradise and undoubtedly shall come close to exploding in happiness. (Just what could be in those shopping bags he was carrying? Who knows! I’m dying to find out myself, and I’m the one who’s going to write the bloody thing!)
This part, which I suspect will be the most introspective of the three and thus may have gotten things off to a bit of a slow start, dealt with those who stayed behind. Mike, Gelinas, and Sarah. Gelinas seems to be getting suspicious of his own reality, and even worse... is Sarah getting suspicious of her own feelings towards Matt? Only time shall tell, I suppose. And me. I’ll be telling. But not yet, dear reader! So yes. Only time and I shall tell. Eventually.
Now onto the usual stuff. Although I am pretty sure there was no direct references in this particular story, as always it bears mention that Boy Scouts ½ was inspired by Takahashi Rumiko’s Ranma ½. And, probably just as obviously, with BS½ in Japan we have brought in settings and characters from her earlier series, Maison Ikkoku. And finally, this story is not endorsed by or meant to reflect the values of the Boy Scouts of America.
‘Tis all for now, dear reader! See you soon with Jason-kun’s story, and then hopefully soon after with the next part.
So long for now!
Does the preceding paragraph make sense? I think it does. I rather hope it does! If not... well, then, pretend it does, okay? Good? Good.
So where was I?
Ah yes, author’s notes.
This part is the first of a loosely connected trilogy of stories in which the main characters will be split up a bit, and each part will follow one group of characters through the same space of time. Sort of explore them settling into their new surrounding a bit before I start throwing plot at them. Maybe get in a bit of character development, which is always fun. Maybe even introduce someone new?
The next part will be the main series authortorial debut of Mr. Jason Bertovich, and shall follow the exploits of Aaron, Hughes, Kirstin, and Nicole as they go check out the school they’ll be attending, and maybe one or two other things. The story has been delivered, but I’ve yet to have a chance to read it. So I am rather looking forward myself to seeing what happens. And, of course, hopefully it shan’t be long before you are able to as well.
The part after that will be something of a different story for Boy Scouts ½, as it will almost exclusively focus on the character of Matthew Atanian, as he goes to otaku paradise and undoubtedly shall come close to exploding in happiness. (Just what could be in those shopping bags he was carrying? Who knows! I’m dying to find out myself, and I’m the one who’s going to write the bloody thing!)
This part, which I suspect will be the most introspective of the three and thus may have gotten things off to a bit of a slow start, dealt with those who stayed behind. Mike, Gelinas, and Sarah. Gelinas seems to be getting suspicious of his own reality, and even worse... is Sarah getting suspicious of her own feelings towards Matt? Only time shall tell, I suppose. And me. I’ll be telling. But not yet, dear reader! So yes. Only time and I shall tell. Eventually.
Now onto the usual stuff. Although I am pretty sure there was no direct references in this particular story, as always it bears mention that Boy Scouts ½ was inspired by Takahashi Rumiko’s Ranma ½. And, probably just as obviously, with BS½ in Japan we have brought in settings and characters from her earlier series, Maison Ikkoku. And finally, this story is not endorsed by or meant to reflect the values of the Boy Scouts of America.
‘Tis all for now, dear reader! See you soon with Jason-kun’s story, and then hopefully soon after with the next part.
So long for now!