(Sakaya Tsurumi)
Haha, Midori-chan has been in hiding lately… funny. She scurries from class to her dorm, even eating in there like a -rat-.
And I gaze from across campus… looking for my Tsutomu-kun… I smile. I submitted my story to the school literary magazine. They -have- to accept it this time! It’s all based on Fujita-sensei’s true stories!
I sigh… I imagine Tsutomu-kun looking up at me, with a tender smile (I’ve never seen him smile like that, but I’m sure he -can-). “Oh, Tsurumi-chan,” he’ll say, taking my hand. “How well you honor my mother, which is why I look forward to marrying you. Also, I don’t care about Midori-chan.”
I lean back against a tree.
Then someone is tugging on my sleeves!
“Onee-san! Onee-san!”
WHAT? My daydream -broken-… I look down and it’s -him-. “Oh, Nobuyuki-kun,” I say, pulling back my sleeve. While he may be by -blood- the son of my father he does -nothing- to honor him. “Why are you here?” I scan around, looking for that mother of his. She’s probably ignoring him.
“Okaa-san brought me here! I’m doing so much better Papa and the doctor said I could start at Futaba and not have to wait!” He says, excited, in that wheezy voice of his, his thin arms waving around. “I took a test today and I’ll be starting soon, onee-san!” He then flings his arms around me…
I pry his arms off of me, where did he learn that sort of exuberance? “You should bow, Nobuyuki-kun, and not do all of -that-, you’re the son of a samurai, if you remember? You should bow to your sister.” He was so little when Otou-san died, and then he loved that woman’s new husband soooo much. He’s probably going to be something useless and dishonorable like him when he grows up. “And are you sure that you should be coming here in the winter? There are a lot of illnesses passed around.” I frown. She probably wants my father’s line to die out…
“The doctors all agree that while he’s small for his age, his lungs are strong now and he’s not had an attack in a long time.” Oh, of course she’s here. He runs over to her, and she puts an arm around his shoulders. “He’s nine, now, and so eager to get started here.” She then gives me a look. “And you could try being more friendly. He adores you and speaks of you all the time.”
“I don’t know why he would. He barely knows me,” I say, turning my nose into the air.
But the little boy ignores me and -keeps- talking. “And guess what, onee-san? Kazuhiko-kun and Kiyomi-chan are coming next year for Futaba’s new ‘pre-school’ program!” Oh, those children. The children she had by her second husband. Nothing to me.
“Well, I’ll be gone by then,” I shrug. “I graduate in the spring.” I look at her, she still is being so stubborn about it -all-…
“And besides your brother, I was here because Yamaji-sensei wrote me that they’ll be shutting down the girl’s dorms as soon as possible. It’s felt that the girls aren’t receiving a proper moral environment and would do better boarding in homes…”
“NO!” I say, even though raising my voice is very improper for a samurai’s daughter. “This is some scheme of yours to force me -“
She looks at me with a weird expression. “I’m your mother, Tsurumi-chan. I’ve let you play this game too long, thinking you needed time to mourn your father and adjust to my remarriage. But you’re almost an adult and you need to see reality.”
I toss my hair. “The only thing I need you to do for my future is arrange my marriage to Fujita-sensei’s son.” Really, how hard can it be?
“I’ve not written Fujita-sensei nor -will- I.” She tells me. I put my hand on my heart, she has stabbed me with a dagger of pain and betrayal!
“She -said- I could marry him! That of all of her students, I was her favorite!” Nobuyuki-kun is now -hiding- behind her… “You just need to stop being lazy and -do it-!” Certainly Fujita-sensei may hesitate, knowing how my mother betrayed my father, remarrying after he died and dishonoring the memory of a brave Aizu samurai… but she knows that -I- am true!
The woman shakes her head. “Dear… Yamaji-sensei told me that she said that to many students. Promising them one of her boys… she never meant a word of it.” No, no, this woman tells me -lies-… and then she looks at me with – is that -pity-?!? “Tsurumi-chan… you’re going to have to come home.”
(OOC – to be continued)