And as usual after a post of responses to responses... Another chapter!
My loyal readers will notice Miyabi in this chapter may seem a bit different from the one you've gotten to know so far. As Miyabi even ponders to herself, her lives look like they're quite different between her home life and her Berryz life. Care to take a wager of whether that'll stay the case?
I hope it makes her a more complex and interesting character though. Characters are the life of my writing, after all. Anybody who's not been reading so far might find this one good to start in on as well, since there's a bit of recall of what's already happened.
I also felt able to throw in a few little Japanese cultural references to this chapter as well. Nothing too deep or philosophical I think, but...
Cheesecake is popular here isn't it?
Then some cheesecake to anyone who might catch and understand them all.
Well I've blabbered on too much here. I really like this chapter. I hope you do too.
Chapter 15Miyabi walked down the street in her school uniform swinging her oversized purse that she used as a schoolbag. It was barely big enough to carry
a book, let alone all she needed for her classes, so she stowed everything else in her desk. It barely closed most of the time, but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t part with her little black bag for anything.
The other Berryz regularly teased her about going to Joshi Gakushuin, and Maasa loved also teasing her sometimes that she would turn out to be a princess. She was surprised the girl didn’t bring it up when Momoko saved her from the car of the man with the cute daughter, and that made her think Maasa might actually have been genuinely scared and happy she was all right. Whenever Miyabi appeared the damsel-in-distress was usually prime time for the princess talk.
Pshht, Miyabi thought as she meandered down the steps to the station in Shinjuku that would take her back home. There were plenty of girls there who much more than her wanted to marry any princes, although
so sadly most of them are always disappointed since there are no princes of age to be at school at the moment. She grinned to herself thinking that some of the girls might have to settle for “lower members of the aristocracy”.
Again, Miyabi herself could care less. When her parents told her they were sending her to Gakushuin when she completed elementary school she had just stared at them.
“You’re famous now!” they’d said.
“Places like Gakushuin love to admit students who are maybe not the highest class but still well-connected because it promotes their diversity.” Miyabi plopped down in the seat of a train that was filling up quickly. Well connected, hah. Just because she knew many of the most famous adult celebrities and rumors had flown that one of her friends may have even dated one of the younger ones… She looked around and noticed, as always, people glancing at the junior high school girl taking up one of the precious seats as the number standing grew to overcome the number seated. When they caught sight of her uniform though, they quickly lowered their eyes and gave her a wide berth. Pulling out a cardboard-bound volume that was not a schoolbook from her bag, she opened it smiling. Well, there were
some advantages to going to the school she did. Aside from the space, it helped greatly for staying anonymous without further masquerade since hardly anyone felt willing to look her in the face. The doors slid shut and the train started up, and she began her near-hour ride home.
When she arrived, she called out to her mother to let her know she was home before heading straight to her room to continue reading. Her mother yelled something about supper, but she didn’t bother with it. She’d know well enough when it was ready when her mother banged on her door or yelled even louder.
It was the start of a new school year, Miyabi’s last of junior high, but instead of studying for her classes and high school exams she normally did a sort of more
independent research. Flipping to a page that had a big picture of the planet Mars on it, with various odd-looking markings scrawled on it at various points, she lay back on her bed to relax. Students at Gakushuin Junior High had better chances than most at doing very well on the exams, and she always achieved better than decent marks, but she usually thought her life would take a different direction than that of academic achievement. She wasn’t even sure of continuing onto high school, much to the chagrin of her teachers. She supposed she would though. After all, Saki and Momoko went on… The thought of Saki distracted her from Mars, and she laid her book down in her lap. She wasn’t sure she believed everything the book had said about Mercury and Venus, and although Mars seemed much more interesting at a glance, she wasn’t exactly thrilled to continue on, especially when other such pleasant thoughts entered her head.
She rolled said head to the side to look at her phone sitting silently on her bedside table, with its tassel hanging just over the side. She said she’d call today… Of course, Miyabi didn’t know the first thing about what she’d say if the girl
did call, but still she found herself waiting anxiously for it.
She’d never had a boyfriend before joining the Hello! Project Kids and eventually Berryz, at first partly because she was too young, but she just didn’t develop the desire early like some of her friends in elementary school did. Then, especially when Berryz was formed, she became very good friends with Risako, and after about a year the two of them began hanging out together outside of work from time to time. It wasn’t too long after that they became closer and closer, with lots of hugging and eventually cuddling, and after a time they began sharing beds, which ended up being the closest they would become since not long after it began they each became busy and were able to see each other only rarely. That was, of course, until the other night.
Miyabi wasn’t sure exactly how it happened. She liked boys well enough, although she didn’t see many outside of rather formal occasions where she couldn’t really get to know one, but there was something about Risako that drew her to want more than friendship, even if it was nothing more than that she was the only one Miyabi ever really spent much quality time with. She hadn’t thought of a girl other than Risako like that, but she supposed her experiences with Risako broke down some sort of barrier that opened up the possibility of… others. Still though, she could have never imagined the one she’d fall for would be her Captain.
She looked at her phone again and sighed. As hard as it was to believe, after what Momoko made clear the day before and she’d thought about things, it was obvious that she’d developed feelings for the girl beyond just friendship. For some reason though, it felt different than it did with Risako. Maybe it was different for every person you came to like. She wouldn’t really know, she supposed. She’d only felt that way about two people. With Risako she felt very comfortable, perhaps because they were such good friends for so long before becoming more. Risako also felt very fragile to her, as if she had to tread carefully or something might crack, perhaps because she was so much younger than herself. A vision from a few nights ago flashed through her mind of curls held very still, and when she tried to touch them they seemed only to get farther away. She suppressed that vision vigorously. It was crazy to begin with, she tried to convince herself. The girl was too young. If they weren’t put basically on equal footing in their work she would hardly have considered even being friends with the girl. The girls she knew at school sure would have quite a laugh about it if they knew. Well, if it wasn’t Risako Sugaya that is.
With Saki there was also the sense of comfort, but it was different. Instead of being comfortable in any situation, it was as if she felt secure, protected. The thought of running around Captain in her underwear just being silly was still mortifying to her, yet she and Risako did that kind of thing all the time when they shared rooms. Still, the awkwardness was… nice. Saki’s frame was so small when she held it that night, but the girl still radiated strength that Miyabi felt she could feed on. She had a deep respect for the girl, and awe of what seemed some kind of mystery she couldn’t yet uncover. Miyabi
herself was the younger and simpler one between them. In fact, the gap wasn’t all that different than between her and Risako… She widened her eyes. That was true! Aside from leading them the last three years, she also was that much older! Anxiety gnawed harder in the pit of her stomach. Momoko didn’t know what she was talking about! There was no possible way the girl could feel the same way she did about her…
“Mu-na-sa-wa-gi Scaalet-to! Koi no niji ga hi-ka-ru! YES – MY - LOVE!” sang her cell, and her book went flying as she bolted up, her heart beating wildly. She stared at her flashing phone a second before scolding herself for being silly and picking it up.
“Hai, moshi moshi,” she said in a voice she tried to keep from being breathless. Before she held it to her ear, she’d seen the katakana for ‘Captain’ on the little screen.
“Miya-chan! How are you?” came the thin voice from the other end.
“I’m okay. Just got back from school a little while ago and I was lying in bed reading…”
“Reading? I’d really like to know what it is you read all those nights at home sometime, Miya-chan…”
“Mhmm…” Miyabi responded sarcastically. “Someday you’ll find out, I’m sure,” she finished mysteriously.
The effect seemed to be lost on the other girl though. “Oh?” She paused a moment, but Miyabi didn’t say anything. “So, how was the start of your term?”
“Oh you know, last year of junior high, everybody is stressing out already about exams and stuff…”
“It doesn’t seem like you are though.” Miyabi’s lips turned down in a frown as she could almost hear the smirk appear on the other girl’s mouth.
“Yeah, well, I’m not too worried about them. Exams of any kind have never really bothered me…” She lay back down against her pillow as she spoke.
There was a short pause before the other girl spoke again, though Miyabi heard a sort of chuckle first. “Miyabi Natsuyaki, resident Berryz genius!”
“Am not…” Miyabi said with a hint of a whine. She really wasn’t. She didn’t realize it, but she was talking very comfortably with the girl on the other end. She never really had just talked like this on the phone with Captain before. Or anyone really…
She began picking at the tie at her chest. “I miss you guys already.”
“There’s no need to feel that way! We Berryz are always together!”
“Hah hah,” she responded with definite sarcasm.
“Well, if that’s not good enough for you, then I’ll just have to bring a little of Berryz to you.” Miyabi’s hand froze on her tie. This might be what she was waiting for.
“I have all our CDs, thanks,” she said as if preemptively dismissing the favor.
“Well, as you know, I just live a train ride or two away in Tokyo. High school is already busier than the last year of junior high was –
some of us actually have to
study for our futures you know, Miya.” Miyabi closed her mouth tightly from what she was going to say. “So I can’t get away during the week. But I thought… if you weren’t doing anything special… I mean, if it wouldn’t be too much of a bother, maybe I could come over on Saturday or Sunday…”
“I have school on Saturday morning,” Miyabi blurted out, and during the silence on the other end of the line she felt she could kick herself. “I mean…” She wasn’t sure what she really did mean. “Well, obviously I do have school then.” Well, that surely wasn’t it.
“Of course you would,” Saki said quietly. This was not going at all the way Miyabi hoped. She didn’t know what kind of school Saki went to… it could even be a public school…! And here she was basically bragging about her own. She knew anything too serious was a little touchy for a few of the other Berryz. She wasn’t sure if that included Saki though…
“I mean… um…” she stuttered, “I’ll be away then, but then I have the rest of that day and all day Sunday. Actually, I’d really like having you over Saturday afternoon, because it’d be a great way to wind down after the week of school. You and I could…” As she trailed off, she lifted her phone and stared at it before forcing herself not to slam it repeatedly against her forehead. From one extreme to the other! She was hopeless. Suddenly she realized she wouldn’t be able to understand anything if Saki started talking, so she hurriedly brought the phone down to her ear, twisting it when she realized it was upside-down, and fearfully listened closely.
There was silence for a moment, before, “That sounds wonderful.”
Miyabi loudly let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Ahh, that… that’s great then!”
“You’re a strange girl, you know that Miya-chan?” Her breath caught again.
“Um, abracadabra?”
The girl laughed on the other end. “I think I should let you get back to your book. Enjoy your… research… and I’ll get back to my studying that will now possibly keep me up all night.”
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Miyabi gasped, sitting up again and acting as if to bow before she realized how ridiculous that was.
More laughter came in response. “No no, don’t worry. Fail with five, you know?” Miyabi actually didn’t know. “Anyway, I like doing it. I probably wouldn’t be here otherwise, ne?”
Miyabi stared at the ceiling. “
You’re the genius.”
Saki laughed again. Miyabi didn’t really know how she was doing it, but she was glad to be making the other girl laugh so much. “Will you really have time to come visit me?”
“Of course Miya-chan, why would I have suggested it if I didn’t?”
“I just wondered.”
“Well, ganbatte these next couple weeks.”
“I will.”
“Oh, and by the way, Momo called me earlier. We had quite an… interesting discussion. She’s really quite a friend, isn’t she? Although, by the silence at the other end of the line when I told her I wanted to visit you this weekend I thought she might have died. No worries though! I think she’s planning to call you tomorrow, though I told her not to try too early. Ganbatte ne! Ja ne!” And there was a click from that end of the line.
Miyabi thought she maybe should have said some sort of farewell as well, but her mouth was hanging open as she stared at the foot of her bed, the now-still phone still held to her ear. Momo… And Saki told her she would be coming over this weekend… and she was going to call tomorrow…
Her Captain would be coming over this weekend…
“Oh my god! I need to clean!” She looked around her room. Clothes hung from drawers pulled wide open and a wardrobe at one end. Books lay strewn across the floor. Charms hung everywhere they were able. There was a circle of candles on what could almost pass as a makeshift shrine in one corner. This wouldn’t do at all!
“Miyabi!” her mother called from downstairs. “Supper!” She flipped her phone shut. Later… She would get to it later…
…
Food resting comfortably in her stomach, Miyabi lounged in the twilight reading the last few pages of her book on the astral sphere. She still wasn’t sure she believed everything it said, but couldn’t deny it was somewhat interesting. She’d always had an interest in the stars and sky, and though she believed in fate more than the motion of balls of gas burning billions of miles away – her mind as it was she couldn’t think of them as anything more – she still liked to think there was some way to read what was in store. Because really, you never knew. Today you might be lying in bed in your seifuku reading a book, and tomorrow you might be dead. That was something she tried not to dwell too much on though except to do her best to avoid it. Who could say it was really the end, after all?
Even though two days had passed since her talk with Saki, clothes, books and miscellaneous trinkets still hung and laid everywhere around her room. She never really felt like doing anything productive after supper, and she returned from school so late there wasn’t time to really do anything before it either. Except for a phone call or two of course. Her mother didn’t really bother her since she thought she was studying hard as any good Gakushuin girl should be, and she really did study sometimes, so she enjoyed her quiet thoughts and contemplations.
It was definitely exhilarating being around Berryz when they were together for practices or concerts, but there were times she still longed for the solitude of a nice book and cup of tea on her bed table. None of the Berryz knew what kind of life she led here, and that it was almost opposite what she led with them, just as she knew nothing of what Risako did at her hometown. The girl really
must be terribly popular. She probably has boys eating out of her hands… Noticing she was distracted again, she flipped the last few pages of her book and sighed before laying it in her lap. Some force was preventing her from finishing this book, she was sure of it. That was another reason she was determined to read it all even though she didn’t care all that much for the material. Jupiter and Saturn were no more interesting than Mercury and Venus, although far more so than Uranus or Neptune. Poor Pluto… Well, she would persevere. That was what was important. Just as she closed her eyes and for some reason saw Risako’s face there, her phone sang out the tune to
Gag 100kaibun Aishite Kudasai.
Groaning, after a second she reached over and picked it up as if she were handling a poisonous snake, which made her think again that she should get some kind of poisonous snake as a pet so she’d stop having those nightmares, and opening it, brought the phone to her ear.
“Miyabi-chan!” squeaked a voice on the other side before Miyabi could open her mouth. “How are you?”
“Hi Momo,” Miyabi responded wearily.
“You sound tired! Have you been getting enough sleep?”
“What?”
“You know, if you have
that much studying to do you should
really think about transferring to a different school. One like I’m in for example! That’s why I never went to a place like Gakushu-“
“I’m getting plenty of sleep,” Miyabi retorted in frustration. “…mother…”
“I’m sorry. Do you really like going there so much?”
Miyabi’s frustration died with the words she had planned to use next. That was a sudden change in tone. “Yeah, I suppose I do,” she answered. “It’s really all right. I would have thought you’d love to go to a place like this too. You could even become a princess.”
“Of course. Too bad all the princes are already taken…” Miyabi could almost sense the glint in the girl’s eye when she revealed her motivation.
“Man, I don’t know if I can take this. I’m surrounded by geniuses…”
Momoko giggled. “Nonsense. You’re the one going there after all! Plus, we all know what you do in your spare time over there, and to even understand it you have to be leagues smarter than… Toku-san, for instance.”
Miyabi couldn’t help herself but break down in a giggle as well. “Hey! No putting down other Berryz who aren’t here to defend themselves!”
“Oh you know her. She’d be the first to admit it!”
“I wish Maa-chan was like that sometimes. Rooming with her last week was almost a nightmare. The girl has way too much intuition…”
“Oh? Don’t tell me someone else noticed the sparks flying between you and our beloved Captain?”
Miyabi froze and became dead silent. Of course. This was why the girl was calling after all, because she had to nose her way as far into their relationship as she could. …Sparks?
“Oh come on,” came the voice from the city. Why did it seem every single person she talked to this week lived in Tokyo? “Don’t tell me you haven’t accepted what’s going on between you two yet.”
“I… don’t understand what you mean,” Miyabi said slowly.
“You were like that when I talked to you over the weekend, and you’re being that way again now, although from what I hear at least you’re not too much like that when you’re alone with her.” What she heard? What exactly did Saki tell her the other day?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Miyabi insisted stubbornly.
“Do you like Captain?”
Miyabi became flustered at the sudden question. “Er… well…” After giving this a lot of thought lately, she knew her answer, but was a little afraid to give it to this girl. “Yeah, I suppose.” There was a small squeal of delight from Tokyo.
“And do you think she likes you?”
“Well I don’t know… I mean… She couldn’t, could she?”
This time there was a low exhalation of breath. “And why is that?”
“Well… she’s… I mean, she’s the Captain, right? She’s older than me… prettier… in much better shape… it’s just so weird anyway…! She doesn’t like to get too attached to her Berryz…” That was true, but something else the girl had told her at the same time rang through her memory loud and clear.
“I’ve forever lost my image of the Captain that cares for each of her troops equally yet never becomes too close.” Then she realized she’d known the answer to this question ever since the night they spent in the hotel courtyard.
“Miyabi?” came the voice, though instead of being impatient, it just seemed to be gently pushing again for a truer answer.
“I… think she does…”
Another squeal of delight. “Wonderful! Well then, now you’ve come to grips what you already knew, I can tell you that yes, she does like you.” Miyabi’s ears seemed to throb suddenly. “It took nearly as much effort as it took to get it out of you – you always were the stubborn one – but apparently you did something for her that swept her off her feet, so to speak I’m sure, and now she’s broken her cardinal rule of never falling in love with a
nakama. Stupid rule to begin with I’d always thought…”
If Miyabi had been paying any sort of attention to the girl’s tone of voice at the end she would have noticed an odd bitterness in it, but what the girl had said earlier on made the throbbing in her ears expand to encompass the whole of her sizable head. “Excuse me…?” she said in a whisper likely barely loud enough to carry across the digital airwaves.
“Yes?”
“…Nothing.” A smile had now begun to bloom across her face as she stared out her window at the colors of last rays of the setting sun.
“Well, it seems my job is done here. Do have fun this weekend, won’t you?”
“Yes, I’m sure we will.” She paused a second, but then burst out in case the other girl was about to hang up, “Momoko?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
There was silence from the faceless girl on the other end, but she hoped there was a smile on her face that at least almost matched her own.
“Of course! See you later, Miyabi!”
“Bye bye.”
Miyabi flipped her phone closed and fell back against her pillow once again. As she lay there, her fingers mindlessly played with the phone’s tassel. Whatever she was thinking before one of her least favorite songs rang out to her was replaced only with thoughts of the coming weekend. She turned her head to look at the book that had fallen open, the last few pages waving up in the spring breeze wafting in through her window. She really might never finish that book. It was late tonight and she still had a bit of studying to do before a date with a bed that was beginning to seem all too tempting, but she still had two more evenings. She glanced up and around at her still-cluttered and unpresentable room. She had work to do.
Topic: Berry Beautiful [Volume 2] (Read 94751 times)