Post
by BlackDuke » Fri Apr 28, 2017 10:49 am
“This is, without any doubt, the stupidest idea I have ever heard coming from a grown-up person. Especially when it's from a teacher who really should know better.”
As the entire assembly recovered from their shock and looked for the person who had just uttered such a crushing verdict, I found myself smiling at the sheer audacity of the speaker. Especially since she was right on target on this one...
However, it might be better to tell this story from the beginning, instead of starting off with what was undeniably one of its high-points. So bear with me as we'll return to that later, and I'll give you the whole stuff as it should be. Here we go...
I had just started at Yamaku Academy, during the worst slump of my eighteen-year-old life. Until last winter, I was just another normal adolescent Japanese boy, worrying about my school performance, my future career options, my friends and the chance of getting my heart broken by the cute long-haired girl in the second row.
Then the cute girl confessed her feelings to me. And my heart actually did break. Hard.
When I finally woke up again, I had a nasty scar on my chest and a team of doctors told me that life as I had known it was over. Instead, my new life would involve tons of pills, a ban on most things fun or exciting, and the statistical plausibility to keel over at about forty anyway. Then they gave me really much time to think about it.
After several months in hospital, during which I had experienced the slow evanescence of all visitors except for my usually dreary-faced parents, I probably would have consented to any idea that got me out of my hospital room for good. Nevertheless, the prospect of a special school for the disabled stung. Nobody wants to be disabled.
Still, in the end, I went along with the idea. After all, it was a way out of the hospital and a perspective. I imagined it to be a place with soft walls and lots of traffic signs, a kind of retirement home for the prematurely infirm, but some of the kids there might be not that bad. And anyway, it only was for a year.
Being the 'new guy' can be a very rattling experience, wherever it happens. Being a 'new guy' in Yamaku, coping with overly-careful teachers and with classmates who sported up to eighteen years of being 'special' as well as two years of routine with the school's finer quirks, was not for the weak-hearted. Which was exactly what I was now.
This sobering fact was stressed again by the school's surprisingly young head nurse, to whom I reported on Monday. After he had established my medical needs and given me a short pep talk about my duty to adhere to them, I was sent on my way.
In retrospect, my first two weeks at Yamaku still are a mystery to me. On the one hand, they flew by so fast I later struggled to remember some of the stuff we covered during the lessons. This turned out to be rather a problem later, when the exams came around and I was unable to recall anything about the end of the Togukawa Shogunate.
On the other hand, I met and spoke with more people than I could ever have done in a 'normal' school, where everybody just sticks to their personal spaces. While there were some cliques in Yamaku too, the fact that everybody worked with or around their own physical problem somehow created a spirit of community and mutual respect.
During the first few days, I mostly stuck to my own class – especially since the two girls in nominal command of it had made it their pet project to assimilate me into the school in record time. Shizune and Misha had their faults, but a lack of determination was clearly not among them, and they really proved very helpful to me.
However, I soon started suspecting the two had an ulterior motive in befriending me, as they kept dropping hints about their need to find more supporters for their work at the student council. Since I preferred not to be put on the spot by them, I decided to get a second opinion from another classmate. That was how I met Hanako and Lilly.
One of the first questions to my self-appointed tour guides had been about the location of the school's library. Having become an avid reader during my time at the hospital, I was very eager to find out how well my new school was provided with reading materials. After they had told me, I went there on Wednesday afternoon.
As soon as I entered the library, I knew I would be spending a lot of time in that big and well-stocked room. I decided to start my experience by browsing around the shelves and leave the question of how to check books out for private use later. Walking through the long rows, I spotted a girl from my new class sitting in a corner with a book.
When I went and introduced myself, the girl seemed to be rather shy and hesitant to talk to me. I was almost ready to leave her to her book when I remembered why I had decided to approach her in the first place, so I asked her about Shizune and Misha.
To my total surprise, her partly-scarred face changed from its previous sullen look to a tiny smile as she told me that the two girls actually were the student council. According to Hanako, Shizune's perfectionism and firm resolve had driven off all the other council members, and she advised me to think twice before joining the two.
Just as I thanked Hanako for her advice and rose to leave again, I noticed that another student had approached us while we were talking. Hanako also noticed her and her face became visibly happier. The new student, a tall blond girl with a cane and sightless milky blue eyes, greeted Hanako and asked about me, so I introduced myself.
I finally left the library half an hour later with a tall stack of books under my arm and an invitation for tea with the two girls the following day. As I crossed the courtyard towards the dorms, I mused that Yamaku might actually be better than I thought.
The next day, I almost missed my teatime appointment when Misha and Shizune tried to press-gang me into helping them with the preparations of the upcoming school festival. It took me several minutes to convince them of my plans, but after I told them Hanako and Lilly had invited me, Shizune frowned and waved me off with a resigned look.
The teatime itself was a quiet and pleasurable affair, with Lilly as a gracious hostess and Hanako acting visibly more relaxed than in class. Lilly also cautioned me not to let myself be roped into Shizune's schemes too easily, but mostly we were just eating our meals and sipping tea. When I exited the room again, I felt calm and content.
Unfortunately, the soothing effect of the teatime was undone in a flash as I turned the next corner and found myself nearly colliding head-on with a smaller girl running through the hallway. I only saw her shocked face and felt her duck narrowly past my side, then she grimaced and called out a short apology as she resumed her sprint.
As she vanished down the hallway, I leant against the wall and breathed deeply. If one of us had been just half a second faster, she would have run right into me – and that might have been the end of me, as my doctors had told me repeatedly. Starting to walk again, I wondered whether to be angry at the unknown girl or to admire her quick reflexes.
The remaining school days were overshadowed by the approaching school festival. Since I had just come in straight from the hospital, I was exempted from helping with the class booth the others were preparing, but Shizune and Misha used my status to guilt-trip me until I accepted to work a shift as cashier at the booth on Sunday.
On Friday morning, I was walking to class when I noticed somebody had started to paint a large mural on the white-washed wall that ran between the main stairs to the dorms. On Tuesday, I had already seen a large number of black scrawls on the wall, but now parts of the wall were painted in blazing colours, showing abstract figures and images.
As I continued walking, I saw a slender student in the boys' summer uniform standing in front of the wall, scrutinizing it closely. I considered walking up to him and asking whether he was the artist, but then I noticed his empty sleeves and decided against it – surely, a person without arms would never be able to paint such a large picture.
Later that day, I had another teatime with Lilly and Hanako and remembered the mural on the wall. I pondered asking the girls about it, but refrained from it since I was still a bit hesitant about Lilly's blindness. However, I made a mental note to go visit the mural after doing my shift on Sunday, hoping it would be finished by then.
By Saturday, most of the students had visibly switched to festival mode: some were busy talking about their plans for Sunday while the more diligent ones (the two council girls among them, of course) only cared for the remaining preparations. I did my assignments quietly and decided to just stroll around the festival grounds on Sunday.
On Sunday morning, I got up later than during the week, ate leisurely and took a nice hot shower before starting towards the festival. Passing the only other occupied room in my hallway, I realized that I had not met its occupant yet; whoever he was, he did not seem to care much for company. Maybe he was already outside at the festival.
When I reached the candy booth my class had rigged up, Shizune and Misha were already there, telling two other students about how to operate the cotton candy machine we had borrowed from somewhere. After a short greeting, I joined them.
Two hours later, I left the booth again after a quiet shift. My fellow workers had told me that many of the guests would not arrive until the later afternoon and stay until the big fireworks display at 9 pm. With the rest of the day for myself, I walked back towards the dorms to look for the mural before finding some cheap food.
The finished mural was easily visible; now it actually covered most of the previously white wall in the blazing colours. Most people just walked by it, but as I came closer, I saw that the armless student I had already seen on Friday was back, turning his head to and fro to make out the smaller details. I smirked at his dedication and called out to him.
As the student turned, I saw to my surprise that it was actually a girl who just wore the boys' uniform with knotted sleeves to make up for her lack of discernible arms. To cover my embarrassment, I quickly uttered a compliment about the mural. The girl smiled at my save and introduced herself as Rin – and as the very person who made the mural.
I guess my astonishment showed, because Rin chuckled at my expression and then asked about my name. Before I knew it, I found myself deep in a conversation with her, totally forgetting I had only intended to take a quick look on my way for a snack.
After some time, Rin's gaze suddenly wandered past my face to someone farther away, and her expression became amused. I turned around and saw the head nurse approaching us, talking vividly with a smaller female student next to him. My eyes caught hers, and I suddenly recognized the girl who had almost careened into me some days ago.
By the time the two had reached us, the girl had also recognized me, because she smiled awkwardly as she introduced herself. Her name turned out to be Emi, and judging by the way she addressed Rin, the two were evidently good friends. The nurse just waved at us and walked on while Emi started telling Rin what she thought about the mural.
Seeing the two girls chatting, I suddenly remembered my original plans and moved a step away, but Emi stopped me while saying something to Rin. Rin just nodded shortly and Emi told me that, as a way of apology for the close shave in the hallway, she wanted to invite me and Rin to lunch at one of the booths. Feeling my stomach growl, I gladly accepted.
In the end, I spent the rest of the afternoon with the girls, telling them about my life at Tokyo and learning about Emi's dedication to track running, which – seeing as Emi walked around on two prosthetic legs – baffled me just as the armless Rin's obsession with the arts had before. As we parted ways, I felt slightly tired, but rather fulfilled.
On the way back to the dorms, I met Shizune and Misha, who had apparently just finished closing up our class booth. Misha was busy trying to clean her skirt, which showed a large irregular pattern of colourful gossamer-like candy threads, and Shizune had to nudge her to make her notice me. Finally Misha looked up and greeted me sheepishly.
As I looked at the two girls and thought about their commitment to making the festival a success, I had an idea. I deliberately did not say anything to Misha, but caught Shizune's gaze before I made a sweeping gesture at the merry scene all around us and lowered my head towards her. Shizune happily smiled at me while gesturing to Misha.
Misha now completely abandoned any attempt to clean the candy goo off her clothes and asked me whether I would like to see the fireworks with them. As I nodded emphatically, Shizune gave us a wave and we followed her to the main school building, where we went up to the fenced-in roof and secured a place with a view over the grounds.
While the attention of the girls was fixed on the first rockets going up, I looked around and noticed a familiar figure standing alone some feet away. I stepped closer and saw her hand slowly brushing the long hair from her face to see properly; as artificial stars lit the sky, they also illuminated the scarred skin normally hidden beneath the hair.
I watched Hanako's solemn face for a while as the girl stood at the fence, her face full of wonder at the fireworks shooting up from somewhere beyond the dorms and bathing the sky in colourful lights. Knowing better than to disturb the lone girl, I quietly returned to Shizune and Misha, watching the rest of the fireworks with them.
My second week at Yamaku began with a painful reminder of my still fragile state. When I was walking to class on Monday morning, I ran into the head nurse, who had apparently waited to catch me before the lessons began. After telling the passing Misha to relay my absence to Mutou, he inquired about my state of health.
Although I was irked at being waylaid by him, I truthfully told him about my activities of the preceding week, eliciting a smirk when I described my time at the festival with the girls. After I finished talking, he cocked his head and asked me whether I had also begun to take up some kind of physical exercise like he told me to.
Five minutes later I walked back to my class with a leaflet listing the physical pastimes I was permitted as a heart patient. The nurse had given me one week to start exercising on my own or be assigned to a supervised callisthenics group. Stupid slave-driver...
The predicament of having to take up some kind of sport hung over me all day and made me shirk the people I had met during the last days; in the end, I had a solitary lunch on a bench outside before I returned to my seat in the classroom. That night, when I went to bed, I asked myself whether I had just dreamed the fun time at the festival.
Luckily, next morning I met Emi in front of our classroom. After telling me how sad I had looked the day before, she invited me to spend the lunch break on the roof with her and Rin. This, along with Misha's ebullient gratitude for the help I gave her during the science lesson, did a good job of clearing away my moody feelings.
Just like at the festival, the lunch break with Emi and Rin was a strange, but very pleasant experience. Rin spent most of the time observing the clouds moving overhead, while Emi quickly devoured her meal to gain more time for talking afterwards. I sat with my back to the fence, calmly munching my bread and breathing in the fresh air.
Close to the end of our break, Emi suddenly asked about the downcast expression I had worn on Monday. When I told them about the nurse's ultimatum, Emi smirked and offered me to join her in her daily morning runs. Since the idea of running appealed to me more than water gymnastics or other things from the list, I agreed to give it a try.
Later that day, I went to the library to return some books and found Lilly there, chatting with the mousy librarian. After they had finished their chat, Lilly came over to me and I asked her about Hanako watching the fireworks on her own at the festival. She hung her head sadly, but then thanked me for not disturbing Hanako in her solace.
When my alarm clock blared early the next morning, it took me some seconds to remind myself that I was supposed to go running with Emi. I put on some clothes and tottered outside to the track, where I was greeted by a smiling Emi doing her warm-up sprints. I started imitating her and after five minutes, we started our normal running.
To my surprise, moving through the cool morning air actually felt quite good. Sure, Emi was way faster than me and my untrained muscles started aching after the first round, but apart from that it was strangely soothing to thread the ground in a quiet, continuous beat. Although I stopped after doing three laps, I promised Emi to come back soon.
After having a shower and a quick breakfast, I went to the nurse to inform him about my new routine. Since he just nodded and told me not to overexert myself, I suspected that he had known what I might do; anyway, I had done my duty. Feeling content and even a bit elated, I left the nurse's office and walked to class.
During the first break that morning, Misha and Shizune came over to my desk and asked me to help them with sorting the festival paperwork after school. Since I was still in high spirits from the exercise and had no plans for the day, I agreed at once; this easy victory seemed to genuinely baffle both girls, who had clearly expected some resistance.
Coming into the student council room and seeing over a dozen solid stacks of paper on the desks, I almost regretted my sudden outburst of school spirit. But as we started to sort out the various stacks, I settled into a nice quiet routine which was only broken by the occasional silent exchange of gestures between the girls.
Due to the calm atmosphere and the good preparation work of the girls, we progressed faster than I had thought. After about two hours, Shizune closed the last box and placed it on a cart with the other full boxes. Noticing that Misha had vanished, I gave Shizune a questioning look, but she just answered with a knowing smirk.
Misha returned some minutes later with a big paper bag and half a dozen soda cans, all of which she placed on an empty desk. After Shizune opened the bag, she offered it to me first; I chose a bread roll and a small packet of sweets while smiling to her to convey my thanks. As the girls also started eating, we all sat back and enjoyed our late meal.
Getting up on Thursday morning proved to be more strenuous than normally; my muscles were sore from yesterday's running. Luckily Emi and I had agreed I would not participate in her runs every morning, so this morning I was free to soothe my muscles with a longer hot shower before I ate breakfast and went off to class.
When I entered the classroom, Hanako rose from her seat and slowly walked over to me, drawing surprised looks from several other students. After she quietly greeted me, she asked whether I would like to have tea with Lilly and her later. Having neglected them a bit in the last days, I gladly consented, which earned me a tiny smile from her.
The kettle was already boiling when Hanako and I came to the empty classroom the two girls used for their breaks, and Lilly was busy measuring the right amount of tea leaves for three people. Hearing my voice, she turned and greeted me, then she went back to her preparation work while Hanako and I sat down and took out our food.
Once again, drinking tea with the elegant Lilly and the quiet Hanako felt like a scene from an English novel, although I endured some good-natured teasing when Lilly learned about my morning run with Emi and my work with the student council. Partly to stop her, I asked about the nearby shopping facilities, remembering my own supplies were dwindling.
Lilly smiled first, seeing right through my diversion attempt, but then she asked about my requirements. When I told her I just needed some food supplies to prepare my own meals and a few other essentials, she invited me to accompany Hanako and herself to the town on Friday, when they were taking care of their own shopping.
On Friday morning, I stumbled down to the track where Emi was waiting for me, her eyes glinting with amusement at my tired demeanour. Once again, she literally ran rings around me, but at least this time I managed to run a little longer before slowing down to a quick walk, and I willed myself to start running again for most of the last round.
As I was walking towards the cafeteria at lunch-time later, I found Rin next to the closed door of the art room, sitting on a large box. Seeing me, she got up slowly and requested my help in getting the box into the room, which I did. Apparently Rin had shoved the box all through the corridors and the elevator, but the closed door had defeated her.
Leaving the art room again, I decided against going to the cafeteria and asked Rin about her lunch plans. She suggested to go to the roof and just nodded towards her bag when I asked about food. Once up on the roof, she nimbly took out a packet of snacks, which we nibbled quietly while watching the clouds in the cerulean springtime sky.
After an uneventful school day, I joined Hanako and Lilly at the school gate and together, we started walking down the winding road to the adjacent town. With Lilly unable to tell me anything about the scenery and Hanako lost in her own thoughts most of the time, it was a quiet walk which ended in front of a small grocery store.
Once inside, I made myself useful to my companions by first locating Lilly's wishes for her and then saving Hanako from being stared at by offering to pay for her. After buying my own stuff too, we left again with our arms full of shopping bags.
The way back up the hill proved to be harder than I had expected it to be, with my hands full of shopping bags and the morning run fatigue still in my legs. I tried to keep down my panting to avoid worrying Lilly, but it was Hanako who suddenly suggested a short pause; as I sat down on a bench near the road, I gave her a grateful smile.
When we finally reached the school again, it was dark already; the grounds were empty while most of the dorm windows were lit. The girls thanked me for my help in the shop and then left towards their dorm, while I dragged my bags to my own abode. Back in my room, I laid back on my bed, wondering what Yamaku had in store for me next.
With my body still sore from the physical efforts of the preceding day, I appreciated the fact that Saturday morning's lessons gave me the chance to just sit around and relax. As the bell rang for lunch, I rose from my place with a quiet grunt, expecting my weekend to be quiet and restful. Then I felt somebody jab me in the back sharply.
Turning around, I found Shizune and Misha looking at me with expectant faces and their school bags already packed up neatly. Misha then told me that, as a reward for my help on Wednesday, they would treat me to a visit at their favourite tea house. Seeing that resistance would be futile and actually appreciating the idea, I nodded and we left.
After another walk down the hill, which was much less quiet than the first one thanks to Misha's cheerfulness, we reached our destination. The tea house was empty except for the waitress, which turned out to be the mousy school librarian Yuuko; when we came in, she made a big effort of bowing and taking our orders, which the girls took in stride.
During our meal, we mostly talked about my first days at Yamaku; the girls were eager for my impressions of the teachers and other students. I had feared that they would try to recruit me into the student council again, but apparently they were simply grateful for my help and willing to show this by treating me to a nice meal.
On our way back towards the school, we continued chatting about school stuff and other things. As we walked through the gate, another student came running up to us, wanting to speak to the girls. I took the chance and excused myself after thanking them for the invitation; as I entered the dorm, I could still hear Misha voicing Shizune's thoughts.
Despite my intention to catch up on my sleep on Sunday morning, I was wide awake at 7 am. Several failed tries to get back to blissful slumber later, I cursed my new medication and got up, deciding to make use of my insomnia and do some homework.
By 2 pm, most of my schoolwork was done and I proudly looked at the folded laundry on my bed, which I had just retrieved from the dryer in the dorm basement. Pondering what to do with the rest of my Sunday, I suddenly heard several voices outside my door, with one of them asking my name and another person answering in a haughty tone.
As I opened my door, I found Emi and Rin standing some feet away in casual clothes, and a boy wearing the full school uniform. The boy gave me a disapproving frown through his thick glasses, but the two girls' faces brightened as they saw me. While I greeted them, the boy shuffled back into his own room opposite mine and slammed the door.
Ignoring the boy's conduct, Emi told me that they wanted to have a picnic in the woods next to the school. But since Rin intended to do some nature sketches while there, they needed a third person to carry some of the goods; if I helped them, I could share in their picnic. After I fetched some fruit tarts as my picnic contribution, we left.
Half an hour later, I found myself sitting on a blanket next to Emi, chewing on a rice cake while feeling the slight wind brush across my face. Rin was lounging some distance away, sketching a large tree with quick strokes of a pencil held between the toes of her right foot.
As the shadows of the trees slowly moved across the clearing we sat in, I contemplated the girls before me. Emi sat cross-legged on the blanket, the line between her left leg stub and the prosthetic appendage distinctly visible beneath her over-knee stocking; the view might have freaked me out two weeks ago, but now I barely noticed it.
Granted, the sight of Rin in her faded green t-shirt with the sleeves sewn up below the ends of her arm stubs was still a bit unsettling – as was the spectacle of her holding a soda can between her knees, from which she drank through a straw. But here I was, out on a Sunday picnic with two girls my age. Sounded pretty good to me.
On Monday, we all tottered into our classrooms, expecting our homeroom teachers to give us the usual lecture about the upcoming week. Being familiar with Mutou's oddities by now, I settled in my seat and let my thoughts wander.
However, instead of giving one of his absent-minded speeches or calling out those who needed both hands to keep up their sleepy heads, Mutou informed us there would be a general school assembly this morning. Everybody looked up surprised – even those who had been busy fighting drowsiness just a moment ago.
Mutou
“As I said, the principal has called a general assembly starting at 9 pm. I believe she has an important announcement she wants to make to all members of the school, but I don't want to take away your surprise.”
Miki
“Maybe she wants us to elect a new student council. What do you think, Suzu?”
Misha
“I heard that, Miki! And it's not a nice thing to say when Shicchan and I are doing so much for everybody's benefit all the time!”
Mutou
“Calm down, Mikado. I don't believe the principal wants to impeach you two. Why don't you just wait for the assembly to find out? We'll all go to the auditorium at 8:45, so you can spend the time until then working or talking with each other – but do it quietly.”
Having said that, he opened his desk and drew out a book to read. Most of the students also started leafing through their bags for school materials or other items. Seeing that Shizune and Misha were already busy signalling to each other, I decided not to interrupt them and took out a novel I had gotten from the library.
When Mutou called us up again, we left our seats and marched down the hallway to the stairs, mingling with the other third graders from the adjacent rooms. I saw Hanako wait up for Lilly, who was busy guiding some of her blind classmates in the right direction; to my surprise, I recognized my ill-mannered dorm neighbour among them.
Entering the auditorium for the first time, I immediately noticed several differences to a 'normal' auditorium: there were handrails on the walls, a large screen on the far wall and the individual seats were marked by small plaques with numbers and small dots to ensure the students with sight problems would get a seat in one of the front rows.
As everybody had settled in, the principal rose from her seat on the podium and stepped up to the microphone. The gaze of the middle-aged woman veered over the assembly for a moment before she cleared her throat and started speaking. A teacher I did not know also stepped up and started translating her speech into sign language.
Principal
“Good morning everybody. I hope you all had a pleasant weekend and are now ready for a new school week. I would also like to thank each and everyone of you for your efforts in preparing our school festival which was, once again, a big success.”
Principal
“Now that the festival is over, there will be a longer time without big celebrations, which means that we all can focus on our normal work and the club activities. I believe most of you are involved in one our school clubs; if you are not, just ask one of the teachers or look for the club announcements on the message boards.”
Feeling that her speech was, after all, the same kind of drivel told by school principals all over the country, I leant back in my seat, seeing that several of my classmates around me were doing the same – but then the principal raised her voice again.
Principal
“However, our honoured music teacher has suggested something, which I believe will be a great way to raise our school spirit and strengthen the ties between the students of all ages. Starting this Saturday, we shall all prepare ourselves for the first Yamaku School Dance, which will be held in four weeks.”
Principal
“Each of you is supposed to find a partner, and there will be dance classes for everyone during the Saturday afternoons, so you can all practice and learn the necessary skills to make the dance a success. Your homeroom teachers will tell you the details later...”
The principal suddenly stopped speaking, and there was a moment of general confusion as dozens of heads turned to find out the reason. They all settled on the auburn-haired girl who had stood up from her seat, looking unusually determined.
Rin
“This is, without any doubt, the stupidest idea I have ever heard coming from a grown-up person. Especially when it's from a teacher who should really know better.”
Last edited by
BlackDuke on Sat May 23, 2020 9:33 am, edited 2 times in total.
