Chapter 21 - Shards (cont.)

It was a lot to take in. I feared Ms. Ishida didn’t trust me since I’d admitted to hiding discoveries from her last night. I put on a hopeful face.

Ms. Ishida brushed Akiko’s night-like hair with her hand and said, “I’ve been worried lately. I don’t understand what’s going on. I feel lost…”

Akiko pressed her head into Ms. Ishida’s side, and she continued, “This young girl, no matter where she came from, feels like a revelation. She feels so very special. I could sense it while sleeping near her last night.”

She slipped a small lock of Akiko’s hair over her little ear and brushed it down with her hand. She remoistened her lips. “We both had a deep, dark, and quiet slumber…” Ms. Ishida gave the faintest whisper of a chuckle. “…and she seemed so very reluctant to wake up. Oh, I won’t deny she’s… different. But she clings deeply to my heart.”

Akiko let her caress her hair as much as she liked. Her animosity towards me seemed blunted. She looked around with vague curiosity.

Ms. Ishida indulged in a few more caresses before saying, “You say Ami is a dress. You say Hitomi is a lie. You say this girl is a monster. That all… worries me.”

Mami tossed her can away. “It’s worried me as well. I’ve given all you’ve said some thought. And I still don’t know what to think.”

Katsumi silently sipped the rest of her soda. Keiko seemed to search for something else to offer, either to me or to the others. Miki tapped her foot like a nervous tick. Akiko kept her watchful place with Ms. Ishida as her shield.

I stood in front of Hitomi and looked over the girls. I clenched my hands a few times. I hoped that spark was still there.

I said, “I still don’t have any proof… for anyone. I just have my word and my experiences. Both are questionable… I could be wrong, and I probably am.”

I gave them another clench.

“But I need to find out. I need to face the uncertainty. We… need to do this.”

I rubbed my leg to the point I was worried it would burn. Despite that, I wasn’t sweating. I added, “I can’t give any guarantees, but I will try my best. Please trust me on this.”

More words came to mind, but I felt they wouldn’t do anything to drive my point further. As with last night and as with my weaker attempts, I could only wait.

Ms. Ishida seemed tense, but it didn’t take her too long to nod and say, “I don’t approve and I’ll be happiest when you’re all back here. But if you must, please be careful. All of you.” She gave Akiko’s hand a little squeeze.

Mami shrugged and folded her arms. “I really hope you find what you’re looking for…” She bent her knees, swayed a bit, and looked away.

Miki offered to beat back any threats in our way, but I had to decline. Tara didn’t seem bothered at all. She pressed the sweater to Jamie and said, “Yumeko will keep you nice and warm against the wind!”

Jamie and I changed out of our sleeping clothes and into something with more protection from the wind. Thanks to Ms. Ishida, we all got sweaters. Including Akiko, who pulled at the collar.

Ms. Ishida brushed her hair once more and bowed to us all. Tara gave one last, ever-exuberant wave as we slipped on our shoes. Katsumi looked back and raised her hand a little. Mami rearranged something on a table but offered the trace of a smile. The twitch on the back of my neck from Mami was still there.

Miki gave us a thumbs up and Jamie tucked the plushie Yumeko under one arm.

We had a little trouble at the doorway as Akiko seemed hesitant to leave. She leaned back towards Ms. Ishida.

I took her hand. She twitched and looked at me with a quivering, crimson gaze. She leaned away from me, as though ready to bolt. I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb in slow, circular motions. I could feel the drying cuts on her hand.

Slowly, she leaned back and pressed her cheek to my hand. She bumped it and looked up at me. I gestured towards the door. She watched my head’s motion.

I gave a gentle tug and she was the last one out.

The wind traced all the contours of my body, ruffling hair and cloth. A lock of my red hair leapt over my forehead. Akiko hid behind me. I looked back, and Ms. Ishida sealed the door behind us.

I felt a weird, familiar sensation and sniffed the air. It smelled empty, devoid of the variety of scents I was used to.

Hitomi was on the steps, as were Jamie and Keiko. Keiko steadied her hair with a hand. Jamie pressed on the plush and even tighter on the clamps keeping his hair from becoming a series of blond streamers.

The wind wasn’t too strong. It felt like a chill breeze. The trees that lined the steps wavered in the wind but barely rustled, as though afraid to make a sound.

Hitomi held her arms far above her like a ‘Y’ and bent her head back. Her eyes were shut. I could see a sliver of her teeth showing. The wind curled her hair like a heavy tangle of cloud.

She breathed in and out then dropped her arms and head. When she looked at me, I saw the darkened rings around her eyes were gone. She appeared energized. Then she looked at my hand gripping Akiko’s and frowned.

She coughed and said, “Let’s go…”

Keiko followed her slowly. Jamie squeezed the plush and took the steps with a cautious gait. I looked up.

The sky was a dense and featureless gray that seemed to absorb everything. As I took the steps, I could see it lingering on far-off buildings. The sun was nowhere to be found. The air already had the sensation of evening.

It took Akiko and me a little longer together to get to the bottom of the steps, arm-in-arm. Hitomi was already pressing into the wind with a smirk on her face. Keiko seemed adrift by herself on the curb with her arms folded in front. Jamie took his time to hurl rigid glares at Hitomi. Akiko dug her nose into my arm.

With a wave, Hitomi turned back to us and said, “Yes. It’s almost there. Soon, my recipe will be complete, and my sisters will be restored. And there isn’t a thing that impossible oddity over there can do about it.”

Jamie groaned and pointed out, “Enough with the euphemisms and cryptic talk and so forth… When are you going to tell us what the heck is going on?!” He strangled his words as he tightened his grip on the little blond plushie.

Hitomi looked at Keiko, who drew closer. “I agree. My plans are set. I should at least tell about my ingredients and what particular recipe I prepared for my sisters, at least as much as my memories will allow.”

She slid her foot along a patch of narrow dirt, kicking up a bit of dust. It twirled in the air and swooped back towards her, against the wind.

“First, there are a few things my sisters must understand about each other and about themselves. Their true selves.”

The dust swirled like benign bees over her hands. She let her palms sink and the dust fell with gravity back to the pavement. Keiko stared.

“A little example. My sisters are similarly-skilled.”

Jamie narrowed his eyes. He looked a little alarmed. “Uh… I’ve never been able to move dirt around.”

Hitomi burst out with a sharp giggle. “Why… my dear Kimi… so far from the point and yet still right there.”

Jamie wasn’t at all amused. “I thought you promised not to be as cryptic anymore and start providing some answers.”

She bowed her head. “That I did… more or less. We four are, put simply, elemental by nature.”

She touched a hand to herself and said, “I am influenced by and influence the wind and air.” Then gestured in turn to each of us, starting with Jamie.

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“You, Kimi, influence the element of the earth and all the rigid objects therein.”

She turned to Keiko.

“You influence the element of water and other fluid forms which flow through you in turn.”

Her hand came to rest on me.

“And you, eldest sister, influence the element of fire and the heat within.”

[https://i.imgur.com/Rbwc7sQ.png]

I squeezed my free hand. It felt as warm as ever.

Jamie looked amused and scoffed with a wave of his hand. “That’s your big ‘secret’? You do realize there are over one-hundred elements, right?”

Hitomi retained her amusement. “Think of it philosophically, if you must.”

A bus groaned past, as though in agony. It slipped by quickly. Few people were on the streets. They hurried with their faces down and heads covered. No one looked over at us. Their hair seemed to lurk in shades of gray.

I focused on Hitomi. “What have you done to Ogawa?”

Keiko glanced down at her hands, then over at Hitomi. She took a cautious step towards her.

I felt a tickle on my arm. Akiko whimpered and pressed into my side.

A slow drizzle began to fall. We rushed down the small hill and made our way near the street overpass, where we huddled under a protected bus stop. Jamie flicked a few damp locks, brushed some drops away from the sweater, and muttered, “I don’t care for thinking about it ‘philosophically’. You turned us into girls, and I don’t like it.”

Hitomi marveled at a set of silvery droplets on her arm and gave Keiko a glance. Keiko stared at her feet.

“You did feel antsy about being a girl sometimes, Kimi-chan. You favored the shell of a human male, but you were always the girliest girl at heart.”

Jamie sat on the bench, his face turned away from Hitomi, and his arms folded under his chest. “So says you.”

Hitomi dipped her head and turned to me. “You asked what I’ve done to ‘Ogawa’. I’ve merely set the last portion of my recipe in motion. Preparation to serve it to my sisters…” She spoke with a strange inflection on the name.

Again she spoke of all this like a meal.

Keiko looked over and asked, “The typhoon?” She scooted nearer to Hitomi on the bench.

Hitomi curled her hand and the wind lessened a bit. The little tickles of rain droplets slowed. “Consider that the final straining and separation of my recipe.”

Jamie gave a little burp. “Which means?”

Keiko clenched her hands. The drizzle ceased.

Hitomi stood. “It means soon I’ll be done, and everything will be the way it was before.”

Jamie crossed his legs and tugged on the sweater to cover more of his body. “Let me see if I follow this. Now in this ‘before’ you talk about… we were your sisters… and yet, in your strange item memory fragments, we’re all guys. Explain that.”

It was an oddity to me.

Hitomi leaned her head on her left shoulder. The wind shifted. “Well, none of you three were ever really ‘guys’. Part of our training involved learning the fullness of human experience. I never got to it.”

Jamie poked at his temple. “That was not an explanation…”

“Even when you took on the physical trappings of a human male, your spirit pressed through to the surface. You were glad when it was over. You were always so soft, motherly, and comforting.”

Jamie gave a long grunt. “That wasn’t an explanation either. And it was annoying and utterly inaccurate as well.” Akiko sniffed around. The air felt muggy. Though I knew the painterly world around me didn’t have the same consistency as a drawing, I worried the landscape would warp and melt from the humidity.

Hitomi stretched her feet on the pavement and stood as a few travelers, their heads still lowered, rushed by. “Think what you like. It won’t matter for long. Come on.”

Keiko stood up first and glanced at the clouds above. I hesitantly joined Keiko on the side furthest from Hitomi, who glanced at Akiko pressed into my arm.

Hitomi tightened her shoulders as Jamie joined us, his feminine traits guarded by the loose sweater and his arms, on the other side. This caused Akiko to migrate around my back a few times to find a hiding place. I turned to give her the best coverage. She squeezed my shirt in her hands.

Hitomi led us towards the footbridge over the street. Keiko followed. I stepped forward slowly and Jamie tugged at my arm. Jamie said softly, “Why should we follow where she wants to go? She gives us nothing but riddles and absurd answers.” He coughed and Keiko looked around. Jamie gestured for her to come back and she slowly stopped and looked between us and Hitomi, who paused on the footbridge.

Jamie shook his head. Hitomi noticed she was alone and slowly walked back.

She asked, “Is something wrong?”

Jamie laughed. “Something? Everything is wrong. If… if even a tiny bit of what you’ve said is true, then… you have broken so many lives.” He shook his head again.

Keiko took a little step back from Hitomi. The moisture in the air seemed to clear.

Hitomi stared at Jamie. “It is all true. So far as lives, I’ve only created.” She laid her palms out. “Think of your friend, Carolyn Tomasu. I haven’t hurt him. His life is fine.”

Jamie snorted. “Oh, yeah? What about since this morning?”

“He is fine.”

Jamie stomped his feet. “We’ll see about that…”

Hitomi turned over the leader role to Jamie without a word of complaint. Keiko moved closer to me and Akiko while Hitomi lingered in the rear. She lowered her face like the other travelers and seemed to watch the pavement slipping by with each step. I gave Keiko a frown and backpedaled till I was beside Hitomi.

Her head didn’t turn.

I asked softly, “So, you mentioned elements. There’re the four of us for four elements? Why?”

She swayed an arm and the wind picked up. Akiko pressed her face into me to avoid it. “Our… teacher was always...inspired by human perceptions of reality. As for the why, you’d have to ask her why she did what she did…”

That seemed like a clearer answer than she’d offered Jamie, who leaned his head back a bit as we talked. It was clear enough that I spoke my next words with confidence.

“You’re talking about Toki, aren’t you?”

She made no attempt to hide a little smirk on her face, which soon faded. “Yes. Toki was our teacher. Our first teacher. More than that, I refuse to acknowledge.” She dashed her arm back and the wind suddenly gusted. Jamie stopped and steadied her hair clamps. Keiko kept her hands over her eyes. I had to gently push Akiko away, as her head was beginning to hurt. She still clung fast to my arm.

I thought back to the vision, the one constructed from Hitomi’s memory. Toki and Masuyo were both in it. We lived with them. Hitomi called her our ‘teacher,’ but I knew there was more to it than that. I wanted to grill Hitomi further and sift out the truth, but the flash of confidence I’d felt before seemed muted in the dull monochrome of the world around me. I just wanted to get to Carolyn and make sure that Hitomi was true to her word.

So, I gave her a slight nod. Jamie kept leading, though with a closer distance between us. Hitomi didn’t say anything further, though I noticed her attention was on the close contact between me and Akiko. She leaned towards my free arm a few times but made no other gestures. She clutched her hands with her arms in an upside-down V. Jamie kept a rigid fold of his arms and Keiko held her hands in a narrow V.

We passed few others on our way to Carolyn’s barbershop, and just the occasional small car groaned past.