When Ryu and I finally stepped outside, the vibrant hues of the sunset were already spread out across the horizon. Just how long had we been in there? I turned my head around to see which building we had stumbled our way into. A decaying set of letters next to the door read ‘Nakanishi-Bennett Dining Hall’. I looked back at Ryu, who had slowly stopped carrying me and helped me get back on my feet. “Wait, we were in the other dining hall the entire time?”
He wiped the remainder of the dust that still clung to my jeans. “Man, you don’t even remember that? Dude, I hope you have a plan to not get lost on your first day of class.”
I slowly began walking toward the park. Ryu waited until he was certain that I was able to walk on my own before continuing alongside me. “No, it’s not that. I just didn’t know it was closed, that’s all.”
“Dude, how did you not know? They stopped putting ‘two dining halls on campus’ as a selling point in the pamphlets years ago.” Ryu was running his hand along the right side of his head where his hair formerly resided. “When the school closed it, they claimed it was for ‘possible future renovation’, but we all knew that meant the cost of upkeep was too much for it to stay open. And thus, people in the North and West dorms got fucked out of a food court.”
“Huh, I guess I got screwed over by my dorm assignment too.” Man, making that walk all the way to the Southeast quadrant just to eat every single day is gonna suck.
Ryu threw a crumpled piece of paper that he pulled out from his pocket at me. “You and I both, man. Take a look at this malarkey.” I uncrumpled the paper only to discover that it was a page from his acceptance booklet.
Ryu Kase has been accepted for enrollment at S.S.S.S. under the programs of Superior Studies in Maritime Ventures and Aspiring Studies in Engineering.
Living Quarters: West Dorm.
“No shit, we’re in the same dorm?” I tossed the paper back to him. He caught it without even looking back.
He let out a short chuckle. “Imagine that. The two of us ending up in the same building. Talk about a coincidence.”
“I mean, there’s only four dorms. Statistically speaking, those odds aren’t that bad.” Based on those programs he was enrolled in, you’d think that would’ve occurred to him faster. Still, I wonder if he had a point.
“Eh. Either way, I’m hungry as shit. We should make our way to the other dining hall.” He looked to his side at me. “You know, the open one.”
I jokingly slapped the paper out of his hand. “Yeah, yeah. Let it go already, dude.” I bent down and picked the paper up and read it over again while Ryu kept insisting that “it was just a joke, bro!” and apologizing profusely. “By the way, what does ‘Maritime Ventures’ mean exactly?”
“Just a more elegant way of calling a sailor.” He snatched the paper out of my hand and tossed it into a nearby garbage can, scaring off a couple of nearby squirrels. “Not exactly something you’d imagine someone coming to a prestigious academy of talent for, but for better or for worse, it’s the one thing I’m good at.”
I lightly elbowed him in the arm. “Hey man, I think it’s pretty cool. So what if it’s not something that makes people think you’re some sort of academic prodigy?” I pulled my booklet out of my backpack and flipped through it for my own page about my programs. “Hell, I’m apparently some chemistry whiz and I don’t even have a single clue where I’m walking half the time.” I tore the sheet out of my booklet. “As far as I’m concerned, you’ve got your life figured out a hell of a lot more than I do.” I crumpled the paper up and threw it at another passing trash can, completely missing the rim in the process. “See what I mean? Life’s about more than just how smart you are.”
Ryu smiled and picked my paper back up off the sidewalk. “How humble of you.” He handed the crumpled mess back to me. “Don’t throw the good things about you away just to make me feel better. It’ll be better for everyone in the long run if I strive to reach your level, instead of you stooping down to mine.”
I shoved the paper in my pocket. “And who said you’re not already at my level?” The light shining through the windows of the dining hall was within our line of sight. I didn’t even notice how long we had been walking. “We’re all here for a reason, man. Some of us are engineers and chemists, sure, but we just wanna be filmmakers or explorers. Maybe the rest of y’all didn’t come from all that much. But we’ve been given this opportunity to do things that we probably couldn’t even imagine accomplishing at any school back home.” I held tightly onto the railing as we walked up the stairs to the fountain square. Ryu probably took us on a detour without me even noticing. Was it a habit of his to not walk straight to his destinations? “No one here is on a higher or lower level than anyone else. Just different strokes for different folks. And if anybody is gonna look down on you for that at this place, that’s on them, dude.”
Ryu ran his fingers through the fountain. “Hm. I thought you said you weren’t always the positive guy.”
“I’m not.” I kicked up a little bit of water that was still on the ground. Most of it had evaporated away, but enough remained for me to still make a splash or two. “Guess you just bring that side out of me.”
Ryu’s head turned in my direction. His hair wobbled a bit as he did, but quickly reverted to its original position, pointing distally from his forehead. How much product did he need to keep it that way? “Glad to hear it.” He kept running his hand through the water. “Say, the dorm rooms have showers inside them, right?”
“Uh, yeah. They should. Why is that on your mind, of all things?”
“Oh, no reason. I just think it’s always important to shower after intense exercise,” he said before splashing me across the face with a wave of cold fountain water, completely expunging any drowsiness that was still present in my body after the last few hours. I wiped the water off my face and pretended to take a moment to gasp for air before splashing Ryu back with an even bigger wave of water. Unsurprisingly for a lifetime sailor, he was completely unfazed, but still had to wipe it off anyway. “Yeah, I deserved that.” Despite the weird circumstances, I was glad I got to meet Ryu. I really hope he felt the same way.
As we approached the Southeast dining hall, I stopped to read the sign that looked considerably more modern than the one on Nakanishi-Bennett. It simply read ‘Southeast Dining Hall.’ I scratched my head. “Hm? There’s no interesting name on this one?”
Ryu scoffed. “Oh yeah, pretty boring, huh? I guess they’re waiting on some famous donor to toss a few million bucks over to the academy so they can name it after them.”
“But don’t all the alumni from here usually end up pretty rich or famous anyway?”
“That’s what the website says, at least.” Ryu adjusted the pen that was hanging from the front pocket of his shirt.
I reached into my own pocket to make sure I hadn’t somehow lost my phone during the last few hours. “Then I’m sure they’re waiting on someone who really hits the big time. Some kinda ‘household name’ type of person.”
Ryu chuckled to himself. “I was thinking of a cafeteria name type of person, but to each their own.”
I lightly flicked his fish hook shaped hair protrusion. “That wasn’t funny and you know it, Ryu.” I grabbed the door from him to let him walk inside first. The dining hall was a lot more crowded than it was during lunchtime. Seems like more people arrived while we were gone. I was starting to worry we would never find a table.
Suddenly I heard a voice call out to me from a few tables to my left. “Hey! Genjo!! You’re late!!!” I turned my head to see that my inviter was donning a familiar green hat.
I ran over to the table to go see him. “Hiro! How’ve you been, man?”
Hiro spun his spoon around the bottom of his empty bowl. “Exhausting. You wouldn’t believe how many manholes on this campus are misaligned.”
Glad to see something stayed the same while I was out. “...I don’t quite see how that’s supposed to be exhausting, Hiro…”
He put down his spoon and pulled out his notepad. “Well someone’s gotta file a maintenance request to get those things fixed.” The sheets were lined from top to bottom with coordinates corresponding to each and every manhole on campus with either a checkmark or an X next to each. “We have a few days before classes start, so I felt like I should show some initiative by getting started on improving the quality of campus life. I scheduled a meeting with the Dean for tomorrow morning to report on this.” This guy sure is dedicated to the strangest things, I tell ya.
“Well I hope that goes well for you, dude. I was just…” I remembered how hard it was to explain the past few hours to Ryu, and he actually watched it happen himself. How the hell was I supposed to explain it to Hiro? “...taking a nap in one of the dorms. Met this really cool guy on the way here and -”
Right on cue, he had finally caught up. “The name’s Ryu Kase. I see you’re a long time friend of my new buddy Genjo.”
Hiro slightly readjusted his cap. “Nah, we met on the plane ride here. But I guess comparatively we go way back.” He enthusiastically reached his hand out to Ryu. “I’m Hiro Takamaru. I’m an engineering student!”
“You don’t say… I’m fixin’ to become an engineer myself. I hope you make a good study partner.” The two exchanged a painfully awkward moment where neither of them really knew whether this introduction was supposed to be conducted with a handshake or a high five.
Ryu and I temporarily went our separate ways to get in line for something to eat before returning to the table to sit with Hiro. The three of us engaged in a bit of small talk to get to know each other over our dinner. “So Ryu, where’d you say you were from again? Considering you’re a sailor and all, I figure that’d be close to the beach,” I asked while trying not to choke on my sandwich.
“Glad you asked. I’m from Kujūkuri.” Ryu rolled his eyes while he took a sip of his water. “Bet that’s not surprising in the slightest, huh?”
Hiro and I briefly exchanged devious looks to each other before I responded to Ryu. “I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that. We never really went to the beach a lot growing up. Also, if we ever had a craving for sardines, we’d just pick them up at the market in Hakone.”
Ryu tossed a small potato at me from across the table. “Hey, shut up about the sardines, man. We’ve got more going on than just sardine fishing.”
Hiro took a huge bite out of his chicken. “Yeah, don’t be so narrow-minded, Genjo. They’ve got sardine processing plants too.”
Ryu tossed a larger potato at Hiro. “You better watch yourself before I process you into a tin can.”
I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the table and resting my head on my hands. “Oh, did you hear that, Hiro? I think he just admitted to working in the sardine plant!”
“Me too, Genjo! Say, Ryu, what are the best tips to get the sardine smell out when you’re taking a shower?” Hiro asked with his mouth full of broccoli.
Before Ryu could tear both of our heads off, a boy in a sleek black jacket approached our table. He had short, bright blue hair that parted in the middle and swept outward to the sides of his forehead. The boy was being closely followed by a girl who looked concerningly enthusiastic about talking to him. “So, um, I was, uh, wondering if I could, g-g-get your… I mean go out on a -”
The boy stopped her before she could dig herself into an even deeper hole. “Any time, darling. You know where to find me.” He winked at her, causing her to nearly faint on the spot like a cartoon character before she snapped back to reality. She smiled, awkwardly waved to the boy like the world’s fastest metronome and ran off, presumably to gush to her friends about him.
He sat down right next to me with seemingly little to no hesitation, breathing a sigh of relief as he ran his hand through his hair. “Geez, who would’ve thought that getting my textbooks would be the easiest part of my day? I’m surprised I even had time with all these chicks crawling all over me.” He grabbed my soda without even looking and took a long swig before putting it back down right where I left it. “Anyway, that’s what took me so long. Sorry, Hiro,” he said before turning his head to his right and finally opening his eyes to see me sitting in the chair next to him.
Considering the day I’ve been having, I half expected him to just take another sip of my soda and act like nothing had happened. Instead, without his grin even showing a slight sign of disappearing, he looked around the table to see two new patrons at his dinner table. The boy casually put his hands up like he had just gotten caught by a detective before lightly clasping his hands together, generating a faint sound in the process. “I believe we might’ve gotten off on the wrong foot.” His calm yet smug attitude simultaneously impressed me and made me want to punch him for drinking my soda with zero remorse.
Ryu was silently eyeing him up like a private investigator while I did what I can only assume, by proxy, was an interrogation of sorts. “You know Hiro? How the hell did you guys meet?”
Unsurprisingly, the boy didn’t crack under the pressure. It’s almost like that expression is the only one he can wear. It felt more like I was speaking to an action figure than a person. “Give me three good reasons why I should tell you.” Shit - this guy is good.
“Um, well, first of all, you drank my soda.” Damn it, why did he have to pick three? “And uh… well you -”
“AHA!” Ryu jumped out of his chair. “I knew I recognized you from somewhere! The jig is up, Eiichi Kido!”
I spun around in my chair towards Ryu. “Uh, I’m sorry… is he like…” I pointed at the boy that he called Eiichi. “...famous or something?”
“Are you kidding?” Ryu said as he realized how big of a scene he just caused and promptly sat back down and swapped out his loud shouts with a whisper. “I saw him in a video where he went bungee jumping with a blindfold on while tied up in one of those straightjackets. This dude’s insane.” It was hard to believe that anyone could do something that stupid. But when I look at Eiichi, part of me almost suspends that disbelief.
“Is it true? Did you really -”
Eiichi laughed. “See for yourself, hotshot. You heard him, right? They made Google for a reason.”
I genuinely can’t believe the tenacity of this guy. I pulled out my phone and began to search for “Eiichi Kido bungee jumping” before the autofill search results did the work for me. But what greeted me in those results was even more horrifying.
‘Eating a Live Cockroach?!?!?!?’
‘You Won’t BELIEVE How Many Venomous Snakes Were In My Bedroom!!!’
‘Jet-Ski with Orcas [GONE WRONG]’
All of these videos… and many more… all uploaded by the same person.
Eiichi Kido.
My jaw dropped like a cartoon character. The guy sitting next to me was the same person who had done every single one of these stunts that could only be described as completely unhinged?? “There’s no way… these have to be fake, right? Like, you had a stunt double or something for these videos, didn’t you?”
Eiichi shrugged. “Well that would explain the orcas. But how exactly would I get a body double for eating a cockroach?”
Damn it. It became harder and harder to believe with every passing second. “Simple. You… have a twin brother, and he ate it for you!” (Man, I was really grasping at straws there.)
Hiro finally butted into our conversation. “Genjo, I’m not an expert on these things, but if I was a twin brother being forced to eat a cockroach, why wouldn’t I just upload it myself?” He was right. I had no choice but to believe it, as ridiculous as it sounded.
Eiichi seemed unfazed by my resistance. “It appears you’ve come to your senses.” He slid a 10 dollar bill across the table. “And sorry about the soda.” Does money have any meaning to this guy?
“Thanks.” I slid the dollar into the same wallet compartment as the yen that I had yet to convert. Despite the lingering shock I felt from sitting next to a guy who - let me fact check this - tricked a yakuza into sitting on a whoopee cushion, the conversation somehow returned to normal. “But I guess I’m still confused…” I turned to look at Hiro. “...about how the hell you two know each other.”
Hiro hopped back into the conversation the second he was brought up again. “Oh, I thought I told you earlier. We’re roommates!”
Wait, he’s living with this guy?? “No shot you’re living with an internet celebrity, dude. This is the first I’ve heard about it.” I pulled out my phone to check and see if he actually texted me. Turns out that there were a whole series of messages I didn’t check. It appears that the “junk text” I got earlier was actually from Hiro the entire time. I opened the app to read the full series of messages.
[Text Message: Unknown Number]
“You’ve been selected for an exclusive dinner experience with the one (and only) Hiro Takamaru at 7:00 P.M. at the Southeast Dining Hall. This is a limited time offer, so please take advantage of this golden opportunity!”
“IMPORTANT UPDATE: Unfortunately, Mr. Takamaru had a meeting come up for the previously scheduled time. The dinner will now be postponed until 8:45 P.M. the same night. Thank you for understanding.”
“RE: IMPORTANT UPDATE: Unfortunately, Mr. Takamaru’s exclusive dinner experience… is no longer exclusive. Fortunately, we hope you will welcome our special guest: the one (and only) Eiichi Kido!! We hope you forgive us for this drastic change in plans. There will be no financial reimbursement should you decide to cancel.”
Well, I don’t necessarily blame myself for ignoring all of these. “Hiro, is there any particular reason these are all phrased like spam emails?”
Hiro laughed. “Oh, I just thought it’d be funny to mess with you since you didn’t have my number in your phone yet.” He paused for a moment. “I guess it kinda backfired, huh?”
“Nah, dude, you’re fine. My bad for not reading past the first six words, huh?” I made sure that I added his number to my contacts for future reference.
Eiichi broke the tension in the air rather easily. “Hey, why don’t all four of us swap numbers? You guys all seem to be friends here. A friend of Hiro’s is a friend of mine.” He pointed at Ryu. “And so is a friend of a friend of Hiro’s. Just don’t follow that train of thought too far. I don’t have that many friends.”
I cocked an eyebrow at Eiichi. “Are you sure you’re okay with giving out your number to regular people? How do you make sure no one will dox you?”
His grin only grew sharper and more devilish. “Don’t ask any questions you aren’t prepared to know the answer to.” When does this guy ever stop messing with people?
Ryu slid his phone across the table. “Just type it in yourself. Don’t want any fangirls overhearing you read it out loud to us.”
Eiichi chuckled at Ryu’s idea. “Oh yeah. I’m glad one of us remembered to be worried about that.” He typed his number into Ryu’s phone. Soon after, I read out my number to Eiichi. “Woah there, Genjo, my man… you sure you aren’t afraid of any chicks listening in on us for your info?”
“Not really, actually. It’s not like I’m anywhere near worth fawning over as a literal celebrity.” I know he was just joking, but it still kinda hurt to think about it like that.
Eiichi could see the look of embarrassment on my face. “Hey, don’t kid yourself like that. Somebody out there’s gotta want ya. It might not be as easy for you to find them, but the only thing stopping you is yourself, man.” I looked at his face to see the first expression that wasn’t smug. For once, it actually looked sincere. “Also, I’m not exactly a celebrity, so jot that one down.” There’s the Eiichi that I expected.
“Wait, so then what are you here for? I thought you were like the ‘Superior Daredevil’ or something?”
“Haha, if only I had a title that was that cool.” Eiichi rummaged through his phone for his acceptance email and cleared his throat. “It says my formal title is ‘Superior Studies in Social Media Management’, which, if I’m being frank, does not sound anywhere near as sick as ‘Daredevil’.” I noticed him typing ‘make Genjo my caption writer’ in a note on his phone.
Ryu flicked a bean at him with a spoon, almost like a catapult. “If you ask me, a better title would be more like ‘Magician’.” Everyone at the table turned their heads to Ryu in silence. “...What? You guys don’t actually believe those stunts and pranks are completely legit, right?”
Hiro launched his own bean at Ryu with a primitive yet impressive spoon trebuchet, hitting Ryu square in the nose. “What’s with you all of a sudden? Weren’t you the one gushing about how insane he is?”
“Well obviously he’s doing some of those viral stunts.” Ryu stuck his spoon out at Eiichi in an accusatory manner. “But no one here can tell me that this guy sitting right in front of me raced a rhinoceros.”
Eiichi simply smirked.
Ryu scowled. “And won.”
“Mr. Kase, have you considered that maybe the simplest solution is not always the most likely?” Eiichi said as he leaned back into his chair.
Ryu stood up again. “Don’t you lecture me about Occam’s Razor right now, Kido.”
I could see an idea brewing in Eiichi’s head. And from the glint in his deep hazel eyes, I didn’t see a single ounce of hesitation either. “Funny that you mentioned razors.” His eyes drifted down to the small patch of blonde hair on Ryu’s chin. “You do know that those come in the non-philosophical variety, right?”
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Hiro quickly grabbed onto Ryu’s arm to stop him from lunging for Eiichi’s neck. “You’re one lucky son of a bitch I’m impressed by that punchline setup.” Ryu sat down and disgruntedly ate his peas.
“That’s right… You mess with the bull,” Eiichi pointed his pointer fingers down on the sides of his mouth like fangs and audibly made a hissing noise. “You get the horns.”
Hiro looked up from his notepad and stopped scribbling small blueprints with his pencil. “Wait, I saw that video, didn’t you-”
Ryu stabbed his fork into one of his potatoes. “Shut up, Hiro.”
“Noted.” Hiro tugged down on the brim of his baseball cap and went back to scribbling on his notepad.
Time ticked by as the four of us chatted away over dinner. Ryu and Hiro compared their schedules with each other to figure out how quickly they’d get sick of studying together, while Eiichi shared stories of all the various women that had asked him to date them all day. Hiro even showed us some schematics of his engineering projects he wanted to work on this year. Ryu pulled a single piece of scrap paper out of his pocket labeled “The Stealthy Sardine”.
I snatched the shoddily drawn blueprint out of his hand. “Dude, is this a fishing boat with invisibility tech?” I could feel the laughter pounding away at my chest as I tried my best to hold it in. “Who are you trying to hide from? A pelican?”
Hiro flipped through his own schematics. “Ryu, I hate to break it to you.” He showed him a plan for an invisibility panel that he marked as ‘not possible yet’. “Even if it did exist, no amount of invisibility tech can hide that sardine stench.”
A puzzled Eiichi watched as we kept teasing Ryu before joining in on the fun himself. Despite the jokes, we assured Ryu that he didn’t actually smell like sardines - at least, he didn’t smell right now. I sorta felt bad for how much we kept poking fun at Ryu, but to be fair, it’s not like Eiichi was an option; That guy is the definition of impenetrable. It felt kinda weird to make fun of Hiro. I had a feeling he’s had to deal with enough of that for one lifetime.
Though in the end, none of that truly mattered. I only cared about one thing. These are my friends now. Even though I didn’t know a single one of them before yesterday, I still felt confident in saying that. It was so perfect, it felt almost like a dream. All I hoped for… was that I wouldn’t wake up.
After Hiro finished telling us a story about accidentally making his homemade baseball pitching machine powerful enough to get it stuck in a tree, Eiichi turned to look at me. “Say, Genjo… You mind if I take a picture of you real quick? I gotta update my stories, or my followers will all start commenting that I ‘fell off’ or ‘we will not be watching’ on my next video.”
“Hm? Why take a picture of me, though?” I wiped my face with a napkin to make sure no one would comment on any crumbs. “Surely there’s something better…” Why did I feel so embarrassed?
Eiichi started opening the camera app on his phone and began adjusting way more options than seemed necessary. “My fans are really into the strangest stuff… the last time I posted a picture with someone who had heterochromia, they lost their minds.”
…What? Is he even talking about the same topic? “Eiichi, why are you telling me this?”
He looked up from his phone and made eye contact with me. “Genjo, you’re joking… right? And I thought I was a convincing actor.”
God, he’s making even less sense now. Figured as much…
Hiro took a break from eating his third plate of chicken thighs in an attempt to clarify Eiichi’s comments. “Yeah, I kept trying to ask you where you got that colored contact from, but I never found a good time to bring it up.” This attempt was not successful.
Eiichi sighed. “Colored contact?” He looked extremely disappointed. “Well, we can at least pretend it’s real, right?”
I stood up from my chair so quickly that it nearly tipped completely backwards. “Excuse me for a moment, please.” I hoped that I hadn’t caused a scene as I quickly made my way to the bathroom. The incident at the airport taught me how to weave through the crowds of people waiting in lines for food along the way. I checked to see if the restroom was empty, and I went straight to the mirror. When I looked at myself, I couldn’t believe my eyes - or rather, my eye.
The color in my right iris had mutated into a deep, rich purple.
Thoughts began to race through my mind too rapidly for me to comprehend all of them. How the fuck did my eye change color? Why didn’t Ryu say anything? Wait… why hasn’t his eye changed color too? Eventually, my thoughts started to feel like TV static buzzing away, contributing absolutely nothing but noise.
Before I could get too overwhelmed and shut down entirely, the door opened behind me. I instinctively held my eyes shut - I couldn’t let anyone else see this. Especially not while my newly altered eye was in the process of holding back tears.
“You’re alright, Genjo. Nobody’s here to judge.” To my surprise, it was Ryu’s voice that greeted me. “Don’t worry, it’s only me. Hiro and Eiichi are back at the table.”
I opened my eyes and looked at him through the mirror. Sure enough, both of his eyes were still just as green as my left eye. “Ryu… why didn’t you say anything to me before?”
“Because you’ve always looked like that. At least, I thought you did. I figured that enough people have asked you about your eye for your whole life, so it would’ve just annoyed you if I did too.” He looked down, breaking our eye contact through the mirror. “Guess my assumptions really are kinda shit, huh?”
Hearing his genuine, albeit misguided, concerns cheered me up a little bit. “So… what do you think caused it, then? My eyes have always been the same shade of green. Never even heard of a purple eye until now.” Ryu stood silent for a good few seconds, completely lost in thought. Suddenly, without any preparation, he flicked my left hand with a spoon. “OUCH! Ryu, what the hell was that for?”
Ryu let out a hearty laugh. “Depends. Look in the mirror again.” As I flung my hand around in an attempt to shake the pain off, I took another glance at my face.
Low and behold… both eyes were green again.
I let out a quiet groan as I struggled even harder to understand it. This defies all logic - it contradicts so many laws of the natural sciences that I could probably write an entire dissertation on it. “Ryu, how did you do that?”
“Lucky guess on my part.” He looked closer at my hand - more specifically, the welt he had left behind - more curious than ever. “I figured that Petrov must’ve been acting up a bit. Didn’t think I’d actually be right.”
Petrov… that’s right, all of this only happened after he showed up. The colors… my eye… what exactly was he? And what was this all supposed to mean?
After a few more minutes of theorizing, Ryu and I eventually decided it would be best to return to the table before Eiichi and Hiro got worried. The excuse I came up with was, “I didn’t want to take off my contact in front of the entire dining hall.”
Eiichi stared me down. “Hm.” Knowing Eiichi, this was just a bluff to scare me into giving him a reaction. “Fair. That shit would’ve been nasty.” He didn’t actually seem grossed out, just disgusted on everyone’s behalf. Hiro was too caught up in the aerodynamics diagram of a lobster - and a rough blueprint for a lobster-sized cannon - to care.
Without warning, Ryu’s phone started ringing at an annoyingly loud volume. He was quick to shut it off before he skimmed the notification on his screen. “Shit. Sorry guys, I gotta run.” Ryu left the dining hall without taking any of his dishes to the washing station. “Catch you on the next wave!”
Hiro finally looked up from the lobster launcher as the door slammed closed. After noticing that Ryu had already left before he could say anything back, he went back to drawing. I admire his ability to focus so intently. Without my music, I can barely write my name down.
Eiichi took a long and comically loud sip from his coffee. (I chose to not ask why he was drinking coffee at 10 p.m.) “Wonder what’s got him in a rush. Did his airlift sardine delivery finally arrive?” I’m surprised at how quickly he’s caught on to the bit.
“Nope, he’s probably got roommate selection soon,” Hiro chimed in. “I looked on the website for the entire academy’s orientation schedule so I knew where not to be at any given time. He’s probably in West Dorm. Their meeting is at 10 p.m. for some reason.”
The words ‘West Dorm’ hit like a freight train. I looked down at my phone to check the time; 9:55. “Shit.” I grabbed my plate, tossed it into the dirty dishes bin, and sprinted out the door. “Sorry! I’ll text y’all later!” By the time Hiro or Eiichi could’ve even had a chance to respond, I was halfway down the sidewalk towards the park.
As I ran across campus, the lampposts illuminated themselves as I passed each and every one of them. The academy’s plan to minimize power consumption made me feel like an action hero running away from the spotlight casting down from an overhead helicopter. Once the light from the front door of the West Dorm was in my line of sight, I checked the time again - 9:59. Attempting to use my momentum to carry me through the doors, I was reminded of a very unfortunate design choice - these were pull doors.
Thankfully, the *thud* produced from the collision between my shoulder and the glass door was loud enough for someone to notice and let me inside. In a slight daze, I walked through the door to find myself in the middle of a large crowd of other students. The current time: 10:00 p.m. (and 48 seconds, to be precise). I had arrived just in time for the meeting. I slowly shifted my way through the crowd towards Ryu - whose hair I could spot from a mile away - so we could be next to each other during the meeting.
Ryu saw me walking up to him and whispered, “What the hell took you so long? Didn’t you check the schedule?”
“Of course I did,” I whispered back. “Your fault for not taking me with you.”
The person who actually initiated the meeting itself was a familiar man in a brown sweater who had just entered from a back room. “Good evening, everyone. I’d like to apologize for the late start. The guy who chose the time for this meeting just went on vacation, and nobody could figure out his password, so no one could go in and change it.” That joke got a good amount of laughs from the other students. Maybe this meeting won’t be boring, at the very least. “My name is Yukio Ichioka, and I will be your residential assistant for the year. I’ll be staying in the West Dorm with you all. I sleep in room 320, so please try to keep the noise down.”
Yukio went over the basic rules and tips for living in the dorms, including - but not limited to - cleaning up after yourself in the community kitchen, being considerate to other students during nighttime, and the best places to keep your student ID card to prevent losing it. He seems like he’ll be the ‘cool’ RA. None of his rules sound all that harsh, and the worst punishment you’ll get for breaking them is - and I quote - “I won’t be mad, just disappointed.”
“Alright, everyone. Now that we’ve laid down all the ground rules, I’m sure you all are excited to start moving into your new rooms.” After he said that, every head in the room turned to look right at Yukio. “You have 10 minutes to choose your roommate for the year.”
A boy from the crowd spoke up. “Wait, that’s it? I can’t pick a roommate that fast!”
“Sure you can.” Yukio turned to face the general area of the crowd where the boy spoke from. “You kids are all smart. Just treat it like you’re speed dating - don’t spend too much time speaking to one person in case you don’t click, and you’ll be fine.”
This time, Ryu was the one to object. “Mr. Ichioka, is it okay if we don’t have a roommate at all?”
“No can do; we don’t have enough rooms for people to not double up. Any other concerns, anyone?” Yukio paused for a few seconds, but didn’t receive any more questions. “Alright. If you come knocking on my door in a week to complain about your roommate, don’t say I didn’t try to help.”
“Your time starts…” Yukio pressed a button on his watch. “...Now.”
The entire room started to scramble. All of the chattering from the rest of the students quickly turned in white noise. I turned towards Ryu. “Hey… why did you ask him about living on your own?”
Ryu shrugged. “I just don’t wanna bother more people than I have to.” He looked back at me. “Don’t take it personally. I’ll room with you if you want.”
“Sure, I don’t mind. A lot less risky than trying to find someone else.” Ryu and I walked towards the couch where Yukio had taken a seat to watch the chaos unfold.
When Yukio saw us approach, he had a puzzled expression. “Wow, that was quick. Probably a new record.”
Ryu and I made eye contact with each other, smirked, and then looked back at Yukio. “Yeah, crazy right?” we both somehow said in almost perfect sync.
“Haha, right.” Seeing Yukio smile reassured me that he’d be the right person to be in charge of a bunch of clueless students. “Can I get your names and a form of identification to verify you guys?”
Within a second, Ryu had already snatched his ID out of his front shirt pocket and handed it to Yukio. “Ryu Kase, Maritime Ventures.” Was he handing him an ID, or a business card?
I fumbled through my back pockets to grab my wallet, which took a lot longer than I’d like to admit. When I opened my wallet, I was surprised to see a card I didn’t recognize. The card was a deep blue, and it seemed to fluoresce underneath the artificial lights on the ceiling. I quickly pulled my ID out of the wallet before slamming it shut and shoving it back into my pocket. “Genjo Sazama, Natural Sciences.” Yukio, who seemed a bit zoned out, snapped back into reality after a few seconds and took my ID.
“Alright, boys. You’re good to go. You should be in…” Yukio looked down at his clipboard. “Room 319.” He handed us a set of temporary student ID cards. “These should hold you over until tomorrow. You’ll get your real IDs then. Let me know if you guys need anything.”
We thanked Yukio before taking the elevator up to the third floor. Ryu scanned the temporary ID and opened the door to our new home.
“Genjo, why is somebody else’s stuff already in our room?”
“Huh?” I leaned my head through the doorway. It didn’t take me long to identify the bag and suitcase sitting next to the bed. “Forgot to mention that.” I ran into the room, unzipped my suitcase, and pulled out an old photograph. “This is my stuff!”
Ryu slowly followed me into the room. “You never run out of surprises, do you?” He set his own bags down next to the bed opposite to mine. “Guess there’s no need to argue over who gets which side of the room.”
We both started to unpack our bags and set up the bare essentials - I plugged in my computer, and Ryu taped a massive nautical chart to the wall. Once the computer had booted up, I wasted no time putting the CD that Taisuke had sneakily placed in my backpack into the computer’s disc drive, and then connected my MP3 player to automatically copy the contents of the disc. Ryu was very delicately placing glass bottles with models of ships on his desk. “Hey, Ryu. How did you get the ships into those bottles in the first place?”
“Magic.” I could hear Ryu snickering to himself under his breath.
“Haha. Very funny.” As I spoke, I didn’t lose my focus on rebuilding my CD rack. “There’s always a scientific explanation for everything. I mean, we all know magic doesn't exist-” I stopped myself. It wasn’t until just now that I finally realized just how much today’s events had turned my world completely upside down.
“Gotcha.” Ryu had finished setting up his collection of models. “Science ain’t always as smart as it’s cracked up to be. Sometimes, science can be wrong.”
I finally turned around. “Not wrong, just uninformed. There’s lots about the world that we didn’t, don’t, and still don’t know.”
Ryu leaned up against his desk. “You’re saying that today can also be explained with science?” He took his pen out and started to habitually flip it through his fingers. “Are you too scared to admit that, sometimes, things just don’t make sense?”
“Everything makes sense eventually.” I took one of my leather journals out of my bag and started to write down all the things that happened today. “It’s only a matter of time and effort.”
“And where do you even think you’re gonna start?” Ryu scoffed. “I’m telling you man, magic is real. One day, I’ll make you see.”
“Sure.” I held out a hand. “It’s a deal, then. If I can’t prove that there’s some kind of scientific basis to that whole situation, you win.”
Ryu raised an eyebrow. “And what will I win exactly?” He already sounded confident in his odds of victory.
I made direct eye contact with him. “The winner gets to take all of the credit for discovering it.”
He smiled. “Sounds fair.” Ryu heartily shook my hand. “It’s a deal.”
The two of us went back to finish unpacking all of our bags. My desk already looked just as messy as my room back home. I need to find a better way to organize everything that isn’t a CD case. Ryu’s side was considerably better organized than mine. Or maybe he just had less stuff. A lot of his belongings were simple and well taken care of. I was impressed by his interior decorating skills - until I glanced further to the right and saw Ryu hastily shoving sails and ropes underneath his bed.
I sat down at my desk to get a feel for the placement of the keyboard and mouse in relation to the monitor. Ideally, I could try to get the monitor wall mounted, but that probably violates one of the few actual rules that Yukio gave us. Taisuke’s CD had finished copying to my PC and MP3 player, so I slid my at-home headphones on to give it a listen. Taisuke intentionally labeled a lot of the tracks with generic names like ‘Song 1’, ‘Song 3’, and ‘Song 4’. For some reason, he skipped a number - either to evade copyright, or just to piss me off. Like his letter said, most tracks were old demos from our middle school days, but with one major difference that he had neglected to mention: Taisuke finished them. New guitar riffs were added, the songs actually had production done to them, and he even re-recorded some of Fumio’s parts with some new backup vocal layers. I’ll be damned; Taisuke has gotten really good at audio mixing lately. Listening to all of our old demos finally get finished was surreal. Before I knew it, I was accidentally getting nostalgic.
Before I could get to the final few tracks on the disc, I heard a knock on the door. I swiveled around in my chair to see Ryu’s head poking out from the bathroom. “Genjo, can you remind me which of these cleaning products I’m not supposed to mix?” I decided to get up and explain the entire reaction mechanism between bleach and ammonia to Ryu. After giving him way more detail than he’d ever need, he had no further questions. I quickly brushed my teeth, changed clothes, and hopped into bed with my MP3 player.
The last track on the entire disc wasn’t one that I recognized at all. In fact, it was the only song with an actual title - ‘When I Get Home’. As I stared at the ceiling, I found myself getting lost in the track. It didn’t sound like anything I’d heard in a long time, nor did it sound like something Taisuke could make. I rolled over to the side of the bed and pulled Taisuke’s letter off my nightstand. This must have been the song that ‘seems like something I would’ve written’. Ryu had already turned off the lights. I stared at the blank, dark ceiling while the song continued.
“‘Cause I see it makes you happy, and I hate it to be true… But I know that I won’t make it anywhere following you…”
“Just say you’ll be there… When I get home, we can do it again.”
Taisuke wasn’t kidding. This hit eerily close to home… I guess my friends know me better than I give them credit for. Was it… that obvious how much I wanted to leave?
“I see your face in all my dreams, but I guess I never understood exactly what it means… I wake up feeling sorry, never know what for…”
Before the song ended, the moment was interrupted by a small ball of paper that hit me in the face. I sat up and took my headphones off. Ryu whispered, “Hey. Genjo. Can I talk to you about something?”
My eyes slowly adjusted to see him in the dark. “Ryu, you don’t have to whisper. We’re the only ones in the room.”
“Right. Anyway, is it okay if we talk for a bit?” His voice sounded a bit timid.
“Sure, I’m still pretty restless. What’s up?”
Ryu sighed. “Well… you saw a lot earlier today.” I could hear him hesitating in between most of his words. “And it’s just now occurring to me that it probably didn’t make a lot of sense.”
I moved out from under my sheets and sat on the edge of the bed. “Ryu, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t-”
“I do, Genjo.” He responded quickly and sternly. “...sorry. I just think I owe it to you. You saved my life back there, so I feel like you deserve to know about it.”
“Well, no matter what it is, I won’t judge you.” I smiled, even though he probably couldn’t see it in the dark. “Promise.”
A long moment of silence went by before Ryu spoke again. “...I wasn’t always supposed to be a sailor, Genjo.”
“Huh? I thought you enjoyed it.”
“It’s not that. I love what I do… It’s just not what I was meant to be.” He sat up on the edge of his own bed and faced me as well. “Genjo… let me tell you a story.”
“...my biological father was a piece of shit. He was an alcoholic, and he was always the type to get angry and start fights when he was drunk. After getting banned from enough bars and clubs, my dad started drinking at home. He would still get into fights, though. He and my biological mother started getting into a lot more arguments. Arguments would turn into screaming… screaming would turn into hitting and breaking things… and that would turn into… you know.” I could hear Ryu crumpling a piece of paper that he was holding on to as he gripped it tighter.
“I didn’t like being at home. I’d always turn up the TV really loud so I wouldn’t have to hear them yelling at each other. All that did was make my dad yell at me for having the TV on so loud, though. So I’d stop going home. I would go anywhere that wasn’t home - friends’ houses, shops, the beach - anywhere that kept me away from him. Eventually, he started to catch on. He started asking people to watch where I went after school everyday, just so he could sneak up on me there the next day and drag me home. So… I figured that there was only one place where he couldn’t reach me.”
“The ocean. I always thought it was beautiful. Mom would take me to the beach in Kujūkuri during the summer, and even after school sometimes. But as I got older, it became my escape; the only way that my dad wouldn’t ever be able to drag me back home again. After a while, I started actually enjoying sailing itself, aside from just an escape. I got so damn good at it that I could stay out on the water for hours, waiting until my dad would go to sleep before I got home. It’s always so peaceful out on the ocean. It was the first time I had ever truly felt peace.”
“Around the time that I was entering middle school, mom finally had enough money saved up from her job to leave that fucking jerk. After the divorce, mom and I got the legal right to keep him away from us, thanks to the Prevention of Spousal Violence Act. My mom remarried to a much better man. My stepdad was a lot nicer; he didn’t drink, he actually spent a lot of time with me, and he treated my mom well. Things were really great for a while. When we received the news that my biological father died from his alcoholism, we kind of had to attend the funeral out of respect. But it felt amazing, knowing that he’d never hurt anyone ever again.”
“For several years, life was actually normal. My stepdad was actually really supportive of my sailing. He’d even go out with me onto the ocean for fun, just to show how much he really cared about me. And my mom… Well, she was doing alright for a while.” I heard Ryu crush the piece of paper in his hand. “She had a stroke when I was 15. No one was home when it happened. I was at the beach, and my stepdad was at work. I could’ve been there. I wasn’t.” I didn’t think it would be the right time, but I wish I could help him realize that it wasn’t his fault.
“People always told me, ‘it’s okay, Ryu, no one could’ve predicted this,’ or ‘this was just an accident. It’s nobody’s fault.’ They’re fucking liars. I was only gone because of a hobby - one I started because I couldn’t stand being around that fucking asshole. I should have been there. But I wasn’t. And it’s all his fucking fault.” Ryu tore the sheet of paper into shreds. “...my stepdad got married again after that. He said that he couldn’t afford to take care of me and pay for my college on his own. But my stepmom… she just felt like a replacement. I couldn’t look her in the eyes. She’s a nice woman, don’t get me wrong. But she’s not my mother. She never will be.”
I was stunned. Ryu had opened so much of his heart to me all at once. I can’t believe that he trusted me enough to tell me all that when we had only met earlier today. “Ryu… I’m sorry. I know that just saying that won’t change anything. But… look at yourself. You’re still here. And everything that you just told me made you into the person that you are right now. Everything that you do, you’re not doing it alone.” I stood up and sat next to him on the edge of his bed. “You said it earlier today; You’ve been dealt a shit hand in life. Hell, you got dealt one of the shittiest hands imaginable. But that’s no reason to give up. You know that.”
It took him a while, but Ryu eventually smiled. “Sure. It’d be kinda stupid to give now. I mean, just look at the school we’re at, Genjo. Mom would be proud to see me here.”
“Damn right.” I picked all the torn up pieces of paper and walked over to my desk. “I’m sure I’ll remember where I put my tape tomorrow morning.”
Ryu sounded confused, asking, “Why are you gonna tape that back together?”
“Eh, no reason. I just think it would be a nice, symbolic gesture.”
He sighed. “You never stop being good at this kinda stuff, Genjo.”
I slid the fragments of paper into my lockable drawer. Maybe he was right. Have I always been this good at uplifting people? People never gave me enough chances to figure it out, I guess.
“Say… Genjo, do you ever go stargazing?” Ryu asked while looking through the window in between our beds.
“Uh, not really. Do you?”
“Yeah, I had to learn how to use the stars to navigate at night, so I know a lot about constellations.” Ryu pointed at some of the patterns of stars in the night sky. “There’s Orion. I can’t believe it’s still visible this late into the month. How do you think they ended up like that?”
I chuckled. “I’m pretty sure the constellations are just a social construct. They just sort of exist, and we just come up with the patterns on our own.”
Ryu laughed. “Nah, stupid, I meant the stars themselves. Those stars all exploded, right? What if our Sun explodes some day? To so many other planets of living creatures, all we’ll ever be is part of one of their constellations.”
“If only there was life on other planets. The conditions to support life are so rare and specific, it might just be us.”
“How many times have I told you that you’re no fun?” Ryu tossed his pillow at me. “Let your mind wander for a change. Things don’t always make sense, you know.”
I threw the pillow back in his face. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Ryu jumped back into bed. “Suit yourself.” He was still gazing out into the night sky. “The Moon is stunning tonight. You know, I think it’s amazing how it doesn’t even give off its own light - it just reflects the light from the Sun. Without the Sun’s help, the Moon can’t shine.”
After a while, Ryu fell asleep. I was still struggling to adjust to the new time zone, so I popped a sleeping pill and laid down in bed. My MP3 player was still playing very quietly, but I was too tired to reach out my arms and press the pause button. I drifted to sleep as soothing words played from my headphones.
“The dread in your heart that shackles you down… you have begun to turn the key that will break you free from your chains. Along your way, you may choose to bestow this key to your companions, to help them open their own locks. Be the Star that grants the light to the Moon. The choice is, ultimately, up to you. You may change this world as you see fit, if you so desire. Use this power for good…
Genjo Sazama - the Alterer.”