//------------------------------// // Unexpected Obstacle In Shipping Lane // Story: Miss Kanna's Dragon Playdate // by Estee //------------------------------// There was something indescribably wonderful about having your entire romantic life settled, especially when you'd originally managed that feat at the age of eight. Which currently meant that Riko Saikawa had come to that realization nearly two years ago, and she knew she'd made the right decision. Even at nine (ten soon), everything was holding up. She still wasn't sure what she was going to do for a living and changed her mind a lot, but she was absolutely going to marry Kanna Kobayashi. There was nothing which could prevent that from happening, especially since Saikawa spent most of her time on full watch for anything which might try to get in the way. Being ready to stop it. For example, there were a lot of people who said girls shouldn't marry each other, and they were very stupid. Saikawa had already figured out how to beat them. She and Kanna would be married once they were both adults. She was skipping down the sidewalk as she made her way through a familiar section of Oborozuka in the Chiba prefecture, early on a beautiful summer morning: a girl of nine (ten soon) with brown-tinged hair, whose arms and legs seemed to be a little too long for her body. Her forehead was rather high (which she claimed to be an obvious sign of intelligence), and she dressed in what she felt would be the cutest outfits possible because Kanna liked cute things. Recently, this had meant paying very close attention to the shows Kanna watched and then purchasing anything which had those logos and characters. Kanna's tastes in the matter were presumed to be perfect. Just like Kanna. Saikawa skipped along, because that was what you did when you were happy and on your way to a date. And she made sure to skip in a very straight path, because Kanna often treated any painted white line as a battlefield and anyone whose skips brought them off to the side was declared dead. Saikawa, who wasn't quite as good at the game, usually responded to her own losses by leaping up again and declaring herself immortal. She was. She was nine, going on ten. It was pretty much the same thing. Kanna... sometimes got this look when Saikawa said it. And Kanna's expressions were usually -- understated. Delicate, while still being almost exceedingly cute. She didn't really laugh or giggle when she saw something which delighted her: instead, she would take a little breath. Her mouth would go round, the blue eyes became wide, and there would be a tiny sound. Something very much like an "...oh!" Saikawa lived to bring forth that sound. But when she told Kanna about being immortal, the white-haired girl would just look... ...sad. It would only be for a moment. But Saikawa hated making Kanna sad, and that was why she was trying to get better at skipping in perfectly straight lines. And running, especially with batons. And she was trying to figure out how to be a good girlfriend. Going on dates helped. ...fine, so it was what the adults called a 'playdate'. They still went out together, didn't they? Spent time with each other. And if you spent enough time with someone else, then you would learn about them. Figure out what truly made them happy. And it was more than just that. Hours, days, weeks and months and it might be another year or so before Saikawa found the right instant, but time shared meant a chance to recognize the best moment. The perfect opportunity to confess, and say "I love you" to the perfect girl. Kanna was smart and athletic and the best at just about everything. She was the most popular girl in the class. She could have all the friends she wanted at any time, and that was a significant difference when compared to Saikawa. Because Saikawa could be loud. Abrasive. She tended to challenge too quickly, punching so far beyond her weight class as to be incapable of reaching the target. When lost for answers on how to deal with a new arrival, her first resort would be insult and she typically wouldn't truly hear what she'd said until the moment after she stopped saying it. And then the consequences would begin. Saikawa, when it came to those within her class, had one friend. But that friend was Kanna. Quality over quantity. Kanna was perfect. ...okay, so there were a few... quirks. Just for starters, Kanna didn't use honorifics when addressing her own mother. It was always just 'Kobayashi' instead of 'Kobayashi-okāsan'. The single parent seemed to be okay with it, but Saikawa was dreading the day when a teacher overheard and launched into a lecture. And she talked about dragons a lot. Not that Kanna probably knew Saikawa had spotted that, because Kanna never did it when Saikawa was close. But if there was a gathering of family and friends, with Saikawa was off to one side, just barely in range to pick up a word or two from the central cluster -- then one of those words was probably going to be 'dragon'. It saw a lot of repetition. But when you loved someone, you had to accept their quirks. And it was a quirky family. At least Kanna was only talking about dragons. (It was probably a show. Saikawa was trying to find out which one it was in secret, followed by getting the whole series so they could watch it together.) Her mother could go on for hours about maids, especially when she got drunk. Saikawa, whose older sister was heavily into both the culture and the cosplay, treated that as No Rest For The Visiting Weary and tried to find a quiet corner whenever the alcohol came out. Miss Kobayashi also muttered about dragons. Rather frequently, and typically while sober. Saikawa had wondered if the exhausted adult shared a favorite manga with her daughter. Maybe there was a light novel being written and she read the drafts to Kanna every night. It still felt like an odd choice of secondary interest for someone who was so clearly into maids. Of course, Kanna's family actually had a maid. Saikawa didn't know how that was possible on a programmer's salary, but there Miss Tohru was. (The Lady Tohru, according to Kanna, and that was another quirk: addressing a maid as her superior.) Miss Tohru was mostly all right, even if she acted weird around Miss Kobayashi sometimes. And her first response to most problems was to joke about how many humans she'd have to kill in order to solve them. You got used to that, even when you were still waiting for it to become funny. And then you had Ilulu. Who was very short for sixteen, and so curvy that kids from two districts over had been known to wander into the candy shop where she worked just to get a look. Ilulu was sweet, loving, a bit of a tease, always wanted to play with kids of any age, had unfortunately picked up most of the human massacre jokes from Miss Tohru, and if she'd just been a few years younger, Saikawa might have fallen in love with her first. Ilulu's quirkiness mostly manifested as a general, near-total failure to understand the majority of Japan's culture. Which was expected for a foreigner. Annoying, but -- expected. Kanna had adjusted faster that that, but -- Kanna went to school. Ilulu didn't. And she usually wound up treating normal people as if they were an entirely separate species. But she was incredibly fun to hug. Saikawa loved hugging Kanna even more. They were growing up, though. (With Kanna, the process seemed to be -- slow.) Saikawa had already decided that Kanna would remain just as much fun to hug whether she wound up with Ilulu's figure or something more reflective of her mother, who typically wore Men's Skinny for a better fit. However, there had been a brief moment of concern about how to make hugs work if both Kanna and Saikawa turned out Ilulu-curvy -- and then she'd realized that hugging from behind was fine. It would be squishy, but workable. You could even snuggle against a shoulder that way. Saikawa was always on the lookout for chances to hug. Hold hands. Sometimes when she lost a game with Kanna, the perfect girl would declare that the punishment was having to perform a tummy rub, but you couldn't count on that and besides, it looked too weird if Saikawa lost all the time. And there was something in her which hated losing in front of Kanna. She hated dropping the baton... The thought clouded smile and movements. She nearly went off the straight line. But then she adjusted, skipped towards the entrance of that familiar apartment building while singing to herself. "Pureidēto, pureidēto..." Playdate? It still counted. She loved Kanna. Everyone did. Saikawa's parents adored the smaller girl. They just got funny looks when Saikawa talked about her as more than a friend. They -- thought she would grow out of it... ...it didn't matter. Not even parents could stop love. Everyone loved Kanna, but Saikawa was the only one who got to date her. And there was the elevator door, it opened immediately when she pushed the button and that had to be a good omen, she rode up, exited, walked along the railing-bordered access path which led to the right door, knocked... The maid opened the door almost before Saikawa had pulled her hand back. Miss Tohru was quick like that. "Hello, Saikawa," the tall blonde girl smiled. "Kanna will be ready in a few minutes. I was just packing bentō-bakos for all of you. You can go out when they're done." Saikawa wasn't quite sure how old Miss Tohru was. Nineteen felt about right, but it was hard to tell age on a lot of adults. For example, Miss Kobayashi claimed to be twenty-six, which just showed that adults lied a lot. Not that it really mattered. The minor sin of lying about her age was more than countered by her excellent taste when it came to adopting children. Not that she'd ever talked about it. But even though Saikawa felt the programmer was more than old enough to have birthed both Kanna and Ilulu, the two girls were just so obviously foreign. Miss Kobayashi was a native. It was the only possible answer, and Saikawa contented herself with having worked it out. Besides, asking could be rude. "Thank you for the meal!" Saikawa chirped in advance, because saying it over the bentō box didn't guarantee the chef would hear you and it made the maid's smile a little warmer. Miss Tohru turned, began to go back down the hallway. Saikawa paused to remove shoes. "Do you have a phone with you?" the maid asked. "Yes." Saikawa's parents had finally given her one of her very own. She tended to wander when she was with Kanna, because Kanna wanted to see everything. And the girls usually traveled without adult supervision. Miss Kobayashi didn't mind: she'd just make of those completely unfunny jokes about how Saikawa was safer in Kanna's company than in the center of a full tank battalion. But Saikawa's parents... ...Saikawa was sure the phone came with a hidden tracking app. She was still trying to figure out how to both find the thing and get it turned off. "Just in case we have to call," Miss Tohru said. "And you need to call us if you're running late. Your parents will understand if you stay over tonight, but you have to be back here in time for dinner." Which would probably be omurice. The entire family loved it, and Kanna's mother had once muttered something about it being the best way to keep Miss Tohru from trying to add meat. "Okay!" "Do you know where you're going?" "Wherever Kanna wants to --" -- and then it hit her. 'min'na no tame.' She nearly stumbled over her own shoes. Lunches for all of them. You didn't say that about a pair... It's not Chloe. It was too soon for the American's return and besides, they would have gotten some warning. The Skype calls were good for that. "Is Ilulu coming with us?" The teenager's working hours were irregular, she loved the company of children, and she occasionally tagged along for the fun of it. Saikawa usually didn't mind, because the adolescent could play like a kid, was fun to have around, and could sometimes entice sweets out of adults with one of those half-crooked smiles and a strategic anatomical bounce. But... ...I thought this was going to be our playdate... "No, no!" the maid brightly declared. "She went in to work early. 'Inventory', she said. She'll be there for most of the day." Saikawa cleared the hurdle of her footwear, scrambled to catch up. "But you said 'all' --" -- Miss Tohru reached the end of the hallway. A maid's wide skirt swished, and the tall girl ducked off to one side. Entering the kitchenette. And without her in the way... It wasn't the largest apartment: three bedrooms, and one of those had to be shared. (Saikawa, whose parents had good jobs, lived in a house.) Clear the viewing path from the hallway and you would be looking directly into the little living room. Something which was dominated by a midsized television, one older model of console, a couple of small couches, and the kotatsu had been put out. Saikawa didn't understand that. A table with a heat source mounted on the underside, with a thick blanket draped around the edges... that was a winter thing. No one needed to get their legs beneath the warm blanket in summer. But it had been put out. Brought into unseasonal service, and that was the first strange thing. The second was the boy who had sat down next to it, with his feet tucked under the blanket's folds. He was a foreigner -- well, of course he was. The Kobayashi household was full of them. Additionally, Kanna's mother had a lot of friends, and Mr. Takiya seemed to be the only adult among them who'd been born in Japan. Being foreign really wasn't the problem. He just happened to be a foreign boy who, a mere few seconds ago, had been counted within the traitorous category of 'all'. Saikawa's stare did its best to burrow into his skull. The boy flinched. Looked up at her from his seated position on the floor, and reluctantly began to stand. Foreign? Absolutely. In fact, Saikawa was fully certain that she knew exactly where he was from, to the point where she wasn't going to bother asking because no other answer was possible. She watched a lot of movies with Kanna, because the world's most perfect girl loved films. She wanted them to have magic and monsters and, where possible, interesting bugs. You usually couldn't get the last part, but the first two just about took care of themselves. It meant they'd both seen that one film with a corrupted goddess, a demigod (who carried a giant fishhook for magical reasons) who was frankly a jerk and that was what you got with boys who tasted the smallest bit of power, and songs which might have been different before they'd all been dubbed into a more sensible language. She guessed him to be about twelve. The skin was a light, even brown. Black hair, somewhat curled -- but there was also a thin ridge of upraised strands. This started at the peak of his forehead, then ran backwards along the center of the skull. And where the rest of the follicles were black, the ridge displayed embedded highlights of a deep forest green. Saikawa's assumption was that he'd started into the chuni phase a little early. Or he was a delinquent. Delinquency made just as much sense and meant she could look down on him, so she decided to go with that. He was wearing a short-sleeve shirt: medium lavender. Black pants. Neither did much to hide his build, and it was a fairly strange one. The boy was lightly muscled, almost wiry -- but that quality sat directly on top of a powerful bone structure. Saikawa felt he was closer to average Japanese height for his age than what she presumed to be suitable for the much larger Samoans, but... it was the build of someone who wasn't going to be small for very long. And he had bright emerald eyes: almost luminescent, with an odd reflectiveness about the irises. It was strange to see, and most of that strangeness came about because Saikawa could see it. A lot of people passed through the Kobayashi household, and every last one had perfectly normal eyes. Even Miss Lucoa could say that, although heterochromia meant hers displayed two colors. Perfectly normal eyes. Just as long as you were looking directly at them. There were times when Kanna's eyes... ...Kanna's eyes were beautiful. And the boy was getting up now, legs shifting as if he didn't quite understand how the full length was supposed to work, he had this odd little rounding at the tip of his nose, his front incisors were a little long, the fingernails had been cut so poorly as to leave little points at the centers and as far as Saikawa was concerned, he was the ugliest boy in the world. (His features were -- pleasant. A little drawn around the cheekbones, as if he had to grow into them. But in Saikawa's expert, fully unbiased opinion, he was hideous.) "Kanna found another friend!" Miss Tohru happily announced as the maid continued to busy herself about the kitchen. "And he can really only drop by today. So you're all going to go out together! Won't that be fun?" Saikawa felt her entire body go tense. Sunlight came in through the apartment's big living room windows, bounced off her forehead and seemed to burn. No. No, it would not be fun. It was her date with Kanna. Ilulu could have been tolerated because she was part of Kanna's family, could actually be a lot of fun, and obviously wasn't a potential rival. This was a boy. The boy was standing. Moving towards her. She stood her ground, because that was what she had to do. And then he raised his right arm, held out the hand with the knuckles facing her and the fingers curled in -- -- it was probably a Samoan thing. Belatedly extending the fingers was more of an American one. She stared at the hand. She knew what a handshake was, and she also knew she didn't have to return the gesture. Three awkward seconds ticked by, and then the thin arm dropped. "Kon'nichiwa," just barely emerged from his mouth, and that after adjusting for an atrocious accent. It was the voice of a boy who was both speaking the local language for the first time and had no idea of what a tongue was supposed to do. And yet he might have almost gotten away with it, if not for the rather poor choice to say something else. "Watashinonamaeha Supaikudesu. Aruiwa 'Supaiku'...?" She made the conscious choice not to correct any of it. He was free to sound as stupid as he wished or, better yet, as dumb as he was. Your name is 'Spike'. It was good to know that. Miss Kobayashi had once said that as a programmer, most of the initial trouble came from trying to define what you needed to solve. You had to put a name on the problem, and Saikawa now knew her problem's name was 'Spike'. Progress. Now she just had to figure out how to keep him from taking Kanna away from her.