Chapter 2 – Question

1

As Eita woke up, his eyes focused on a dome-shaped light fixture. He watched the unfamiliar ceiling with sleepy eyes, eventually wondering, Where the heck am I? The answer came to him quickly enough

It was his new room. His family had moved from Fukuoka the day before last, making it his second morning in that bedroom.

The pattern on the ceiling was different, the new sheets felt different, and even the air in the room didn’t feel quite right. Would it feel like his own place by the time he got all the cardboard box towers taken down? It felt like it’d take a while to settle in.

With that on his mind, Eita put his hand down on the bed to push himself up. Pain suddenly assaulted his right shoulder, upper arm, and back.

“Gh?!” His throat caught in a wordless scream. The pain wasn’t excruciating, so he could deal with it, but whenever he tried moving, the pain mixed with a tingling sensation that kept him from doing much.

He knew he was gonna be sore, but it was worse than his expectations. He ended up moving very slowly to avoid flaring up any muscles, which meant it took him almost a minute just to sit up on his bedside. Giving everything he had after such a long time really took its toll.

He let out a hollow sigh, feeling utterly pathetic.

But at the same time, the reality that the day before had not been a dream washed over him.

He really had come back to town for the first time in four years.

He really met Souma Haruto again.

And then, he met Natsume Mio…

Which meant that today was the day they were all going out somewhere. It was all real.

Bright light streamed through the gaps in his curtains. He heard the cheerful shouts of children playing outside, probably residents of the same condominium complex. His alarm clock informed him that it was just a few minutes before 11. He had arranged to meet up with everyone else at 1:30.

Eita figured he’d get ready nice and slowly, carefully lifting up his sore hips.

After a lunch that felt more like a late breakfast, Eita got changed and headed outside. He considered different outfits for a while, but ultimately was too daunted by the thought of opening and sorting through the monstrous pile of boxes, so he settled on the brown pants and long-sleeved shirt he’d worn on the moving day, throwing his green khaki down jacket on top. It was more or less his standard fit. The thought of how embarrassing it’d be for anyone to think he was overexcited solidified his choice.

As he walked down the slope his condo complex was placed on, the ground below his feet eventually turned into Prefectural Route 32. Just like Kashiogawa High School, his condo complex was sloped along the road that ran through the center of town. It was solidly built to the point that Eita couldn’t believe it was older than him. Nearly 200 condominium units dotted its nine floors.

As far as Eita could tell, it was a bit of a bold move on his father’s part to purchase the unit. He had to wonder if it was a sign that there wouldn’t be any more transfers. Eita hadn’t asked many questions before the move, so he’d had no idea what to expect for the new place they’d be living in. His mom just kept telling him, “It’s a nice place, really.” And it truly was a nice place.

After around 10 minutes walking down Prefectural Route 32, Eita was in the vicinity of the train rails built above the road. A suspended monorail hung from the rails. Eita headed in the direction of the Shounan-Fukasawa Station as a red-and-silver striped monorail whooshed overhead like a flying superhero.

After arriving at the station, Eita purchased his ticket, went through the gate machine, and walked up the steps to the train platform. There, he spotted a familiar face. It was Souma Haruto, leaning back against a support pillar and waiting on the monorail.

Eita called out “Haruto” as he walked closer.

“Yo,” Haruto replied, raising his hand for a high-five. Eita moved to take his arm out of his pocket, then winced. “Ah…” He quickly stopped trying to raise his hand.

“What, muscle pain? Are you an old geezer?” Haruto jabbed, laughing.

“This is why I didn’t want to pitch.” Whose fault did Haruto think all his soreness was?

Eita stood beside Haruto, waiting for the monorail and hunching from the cold. Eita shot a sideways glance at his buddy, noticing he seemed rather nervous. He had clearly put styling gel in his hair, and was wearing what seemed like his favorite combination of a blue jacket with black pants. He must have excitedly planned ahead.

But that excitement didn’t reach his face in the slightest. Instead, Haruto vacantly stared north of the station towards the part of town lined with electronic manufacturing factories.

“So hey,” Eita began as a car whizzed by under the station.

“Hm, what?” Haruto replied, pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the time. They probably had another three or four minutes before the monorail would arrive.

“Would it be better if something urgent came up and I suddenly couldn’t make it today?”

Haruto looked up from his phone with an expression that Eita couldn’t quite figure out. “Nah, just come along. Dunno if I could handle being all alone with her.”

“Morikawa-san, right?”

That was what Haruto had called the tall girl that he tried to make a romantic confession to.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, Morikawa.” Haruto put on an awkward smile, looking rather embarrassed.

“So, why Morikawa-san?”

Eita’s eyes met with Haruto’s as he asked his question, but Haruto’s eyes dropped almost instantly. “Well… just because?”

“…You already dragged me into this, so you may as well give me a reason.”

Haruto looked at Eita again. The jab clearly landed. His eyes seemed to beg, You didn’t have to put it like that…

But evidently Eita’s argument was convincing, because Haruto let out a long sigh of defeat. “She was always on the cheer squad, every single summer tourney. She played in the brass band, and something about watching her play the trumpet drew me in… Before I knew it, she was all I was looking at.” Haruto stared at the ground near his feet. “Even in that terrible summer heat, she kept giving her all.”

Haruto was probably thinking of several different summer memories at once. High school baseball games that Eita had never been in. Memories of the trials and tribulations leading up to the Koshien tournament.

“Cheering from the stands has to be a rougher job than playing the game, don’tcha think?”

“…I guess so.” Eita could only offer a vague reply because he hadn’t been out in the field playing the game. He could only speculate. He couldn’t pretend to understand.

Eita waited for Haruto to continue, hoping his guilt wouldn’t show.

“…”

But nothing more came, no matter how long he waited.

“…So, I guess that’s it?”

“Yup, that’s it. Pretty normal. I’m just interested in her more than anything, so I don’t really know how else to put it…” Haruto frowned, his rather pathetic words coming out with a decent amount of force. But Eita knew that was business as usual for Haruto. It wasn’t about logic, or understanding, or anything like that.

“I don’t know why I’m the one getting the honest romantic confession here.”

“Yeah, if only it was to you. Anyway, how’re you on that front? You get a girlfriend after the move?”

“That is a very annoying question.”

“So you didn’t, then? Then everything should turn out great.”

“In what way?” Eita couldn’t see the logic. Haruto was starting to not make sense.

“Well, you always liked Natsume, right?”

The sudden fastball punched right through Eita’s gut. He could hear his heart pounding. “Gh?! Says who?” Even he was surprised by the strength of his response.

“You did, in middle school,” Haruto said with an evil cackle, as if telling Eita not to ask stupid questions.

“I never said that.” Eita had never told anyone about his crush on Natsume Mio. He hadn’t even thought anyone ever noticed. But maybe it was more obvious than he had thought.

Especially if Haruto had figured it out.

“Well either way, you have my full support.”

Their roles had reversed. Haruto grinned at Eita.

“Look, that was a long time ago…” Eita tried to put his discomfort into words when suddenly, a voice called out behind him.

“I should’ve known I’d find you two together.”

Eita recognized the feminine voice instantly. It was Natsume Mio, the girl they had just been talking about. He turned to look at the stairs, finding exactly the girl he expected to see. She was making her way up to him and Haruto.

She wore a white knit sweater accented with a chic black skirt that flowed down to her knees. The understated coat atop it all gave off a very mature impression. He could even see a light coat of makeup on her. Her eyes seemed to pop just a bit more than they had the day before, especially when she blinked.

It could’ve been a typical outfit for Mio, but judging by the way she couldn’t quite look directly at Haruto, Eita assumed she had put a lot of thought into it.

“What? You got a problem?” Mio asked, pouting as she noticed his stares.

“Ah, nah.”

“You flinched when I called out to you.”

“Well, it was unexpected.” Eita leaned towards the monorail, trying to catch its approach.

“Mhm.” He couldn’t see Mio’s face, but her voice did not sound like she bought it. Fortunately, she didn’t press him on it, either. They were both still fairly reserved around each other since they had just reacquainted the day before. “So what were you talking about?”

Mio changed the subject, probing Haruto, but her eyes were firmly fixed on Eita. He could sense her caution.

“Well, y’know, just guy stuff. Right, Eita?”

Eita refused to go along with Haruto’s dumb grin. Giving a careless answer would only be digging a deeper hole. “Hey, monorail’s coming.”

Eita couldn’t have been more grateful for the monorail’s arrival.

“Nice, got some empty seats.” Haruto immediately sat down in a four-person booth section as they boarded the monorail. Eita sat down directly across from Haruto thanks to a gentle leading push behind him from Mio, who then immediately sat down next to the seat she had pushed Eita towards.

Mio noticed Eita’s side eye, and stared right back. “Souma takes up too much room to sit next to him.” She very proactively gave a reason that Eita hadn’t asked for.

“I didn’t ask, though.”

“What’re you guys even talking about?” Haruto asked, confusion washing over his face. But just then, the doors closed, and the sounds of the monorail picking up speed drowned out any more conversation, which Eita was glad for.

The monorail moved up the slope, trying to gain even more speed. Just as the town abounded with hills, so did the monorail. They went up a hill, through a tunnel, then down a steep incline, heading towards Nishi-Kamakura Station. That and the curve along the way almost made the whole thing feel like a roller coaster ride.

After waiting for a moment at Nishi-Kamakura, the monorail headed towards Kataseyama. Just a little further, and they would have a nice ocean view to the south.

“Say, Izumi, how are entrance exams going? Do you have the time to just hang out?”

Mio was the first to speak, evidently bored of just staring at her phone.

“I got a recommendation,” Eita replied quietly, looking out the window.

“Where to?”

“Joei University.”

“Woah, that’s annoying.” Mio’s sullen look reflected in the window, but Eita pretended not to notice. “That place is pretty hardcore, right? You turned into a real bookworm.”

“I wasn’t in any clubs in Fukuoka… and I didn’t have a part-time job. I had to at least be good at studying so people wouldn’t look down on me.” Eita found himself blurting out everything on his mind as he stared vacantly out the window.

“What kind of reason is that?” Haruto laughed it off like a joke, but Eita had been serious. He’d moved right during his second year of middle school. He didn’t have the courage to throw himself into the already established friend and club groups, so he put everything he had into studying so people couldn’t make fun of him.

He kept up the studying habits through high school, culminating in a college recommendation. Although, there was a significant difference from middle school in that he did make a few friends. Not any spectacular amount, but he was particularly close with one who he still messaged on LINE every day.

As the monorail arrived at Kataseyama, Eita watched the ocean come into view behind the cityscape. The weather was very nice, making for a pleasant combination of the ultramarine sea and the pale winter sky.

“How about you, Natsume?” Eita threw the question out since he was uncomfortable with the conversation grinding to a halt. The way Mio reacted earlier tipped off that she was taking entrance exams, so he figured he’d ask sooner than later to prevent a future faux pas.

“I still have to take entrance exams, I guess. I guess my first choice would be Suizan Academy,” Mio explained calmly, feigning disinterest, but Eita could practically see the thorns wrapping around her. It was clear that she knew Eita’s recommendation was for a higher caliber school, and that really got to her.

Eita figured it’d be best to change the subject.

“So, Haruto, you’re job hunting, right? Where’ve you applied?”

“Over at that factory you could see from the station,” Haruto replied, talking as if it were someone else’s business. He leaned his elbows on the window frame, his mouth lolled open with a bored expression.

“What’s the factory for?” All Eita knew was that they were some kind of electronics manufacturer.

“For something or other.”

“What do they make?”

“Something like satellites and stuff?”

“Oh, that’s pretty neat.”

Haruto himself didn’t seem to think so, replying with a noncommittal, “Eh, yeah,” as he indifferently watched the scenery flash by.

The monorail arrived at the final stop, Shounan-Enoshima, before the conversation could go anywhere else.

The three got off and left the station, walking slowly along a narrow path that eventually would take them all the way to the ocean. It was built like a sidewalk, and the trio eventually found a pace that worked for all three of them, walking along with the flow of the rest of the tourists.

Their destination was Katase-Enoshima Station off of the Odakyu-Enoshima line, which was roughly a 10-minute walk away. Of the three stations that had “Enoshima” in them, including the main Enoshima line, Katase-Enoshima Station was the closest to both the ocean and Enoshima itself. But Eita figured that Haruto chose that particular station because it was the closest to their ultimate destination, the Enoshima Aquarium.

After crossing the bridge over the Sakai River, the standout station building came into view. Katase-Enoshima station had a pale green roof and red pillars, its construction reminiscent of the Dragon Palace in the folk tale of Urashima Tarou. It housed the Odakyu-Enoshima line, and was the main gateway into Enoshima tourism.

All three of them stopped in a small section just before the ticket gate, nobody saying a word. Morikawa Hazuki was nowhere to be seen.

“Looks like the princess of the dragon palace hasn’t shown up yet, Souma,” Mio teased. She seemed oddly amused watching Haruto’s face.

“Why would you say it like that?” Haruto asked, offering an uncomfortable smile. He sat down, leaning back against the archway that bottlenecked station traffic.

“You better tell her how you feel before you end up an old man like Urashima Tarou.”

Haruto’s jaw dropped in response to the direct hit. “Well, yeah, I know that.” He seemed to accept that his romantic feelings were already known with a pained smile. He looked down to his phone, and Eita assumed he was trying to hide his embarrassment before Haruto started adjusting his bangs in his reflection.

By the time he was done, a train was barreling in from the long, straight tracks. It had a silver color divided by a sharp, blue line. It slowed down, eventually stopping right on the platform.

The doors opened, and countless families and couples poured out. The ticket gate was so overloaded that it was hard to try and single out one person.

As Eita was starting to think how difficult it was to find anyone, Haruto brightly yelled out, “There’s Morikawa!” His exclamation was immediately followed by a, “Huh?” as a shadow cast over his face.

“Aha, found ‘em!” a girl called, waving her arms vigorously as she stepped out of the gate. By all accounts, she was waving at Eita and the others, but Eita didn’t recognize her. She was tall, dressed in a red climber’s parka and ripped jeans.

“What’re you doing here, Inui?” Haruto grumbled at her as she came up, clearly displeased.

“I was already hanging out with Hazuki when she said she was going out, m’kay? Figured I’d come along.”

“Or don’t.” Clearly, Haruto was familiar with the girl, or else he was acting that aggressively with a stranger, which would have been unthinkable.

“Sorry, Haruto-kun.”

The first to offer an apology was actually Morikawa Hazuki, Souma’s princess. She wore a duffle coat with a long skirt underneath, but her extra height made her look even more impressive than Mio.

“No, Morikawa, you didn’t do anything wrong.” From the way Haruto couldn’t stop looking at her, Eita wasn’t sure he’d ever blame her for anything.

“No kidding, she didn’t do anything wrong.” Eita didn’t manage to get out anything interesting, but he had never been too skilled at follow-through. Not to mention he still didn’t have a handle on the whole situation.

Just then, the girl who had been called Inui noticed Eita. “Oh, I’m Inui Yoriko. I’m Hazuki’s friend, and Souma and Natsume-san’s classmate. Nice to meetcha.”

She was quite friendly, and maintained consistent eye contact as she spoke. Her straightforward mannersisms suggested that she was probably a sporty kind of girl. She called Hazuki a friend, but very clearly denoted Souma and Mio as classmates, which gave some insight to the general dynamic between everyone. After all, if Haruto had been more familiar with the other girls, he probably wouldn’t have resorted to blurting out, “I’m free” for his romantic confession.

“I’m Izumi Eita. We can get through niceties on the way there.”

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s get going, then.” Inui Yoriko brazenly took the lead, and Hazuki followed just behind, watching her back keenly. Haruto reluctantly followed behind the pair, and Eita tried to throw him some mental encouragement.

Once they got walking, the group was greeted by the ocean breeze, the smell of the sea, and the sounds of the waves. They crossed the National Road 134 that ran along the coastline, and the vast ocean and the horizon beyond took up their whole view. It was just them, Enoshima Island floating in the distance, and the Benten bridge that connected the two.

The group turned away from Enoshima, heading west. If they went straight on, they would eventually reach the coastal towns of Kugenuma, Tsujido, and Chigasaki. But their destination was a fair bit closer. In fact, without the traffic lights, it was only a two or three minute walk from the station. They were headed towards the long building placed parallel to the coastline, Enoshima Aquarium.

Haruto bought their five tickets and handed them out. “‘Kay, let’s go.”

They all walked through the gate and into the aquarium.

The building opened into a long staircase, the room lit in a pale blue while the ceiling and walls were colored a deep sea blue. The first exhibit began by explaining the various growth processes of whitebait, before descending down a giant spiral slope to emerge in front of the giant aquarium.

Countless schools of fish swam back and forth as if dancing. They would dart to and fro, each quick stop and shift reflecting different variations of silver light from their scales. The kaleidoscopic, unpredictable yet synchronized dance made for a brilliant spectacle that many visitors were stopping to watch.

“That’s… incredible.” Haruto’s mouth hung open as he stared like an elementary schooler.

A plaque beside the aquarium informed visitors that some 8,000 sardines were kept in the large display. Apparently, the vast and varied fish on display throughout the aquarium all came from Sagami Bay, the part of the ocean they had just been looking at.

A huge ray went back and forth in graceful circles above, while a shark with a pointy head wiggled its body back and forth down below. Some of the fish looked like what Eita thought were pufferfish, and some of them looked like they’d be really delicious if served up. A great multitude of fish swam in vibrant and powerful waves throughout the whole tank. It was almost impossible to find all the individual species listed on the plaque.

“A little weird to be transferring schools at a time like this, right?”

Eita looked up from the information plaque to find Yoriko watching him.

“But you moved over to Kyūshū right around the same time, right?” Mio added from his other side.

“Fukuoka, actually.” Eita moved away from the information plaque to make room for a different visitor. Mio and Yoriko followed right behind. Stepping back gave Eita a view of the entire tank, which practically made for a whole new exhibit. It was like a massive screen of ocean.

“Fukuoka’s on Kyūshū island though, right?”

“Well, sure…”

“And you, Souma and Natsume-san were all in middle school together, right? So today’s kinda like a mini-reunion?” Yoriko was still staring at Haruto and Hazuki’s backs as they stood in front of the huge aquarium. More specifically, she was watching Haruto’s back, which almost looked spring-loaded for all the tension he had in it.

“I just kinda… went with the flow,” Mio said with a hint of self-deprecation, her expression troubled.

Eita figured that was true for him as well, so he nodded silently.

“And by the flow, you mean that flow over there?” Yoriko glanced at Mio and Eita before offering a very meaningful look back to Haruto. “So it’s Hazuki, huh, Souma?” Her mouth formed a sharp grin. Clearly, Haruto’s reason for inviting Hazuki had been discovered.

But from the way Haruto had been acting, he hadn’t gotten anywhere. He hadn’t even managed a conversation with Hazuki yet.

The first thing he finally managed to say was, “Woah, that’s a big one.”

“It sure is. I think that’s a bullhead shark.”

“You know this kinda stuff, Morikawa?”

“My little brothers love them. They’re always showing me their picture books and encyclopedias.”

“Huh.”

“…”

“…”

After there was finally a spark of conversation, it suddenly ground to a halt.

“What is he doing?” Complained a voice right next to Eita. Mio looked absolutely dumbfounded. But she quickly hid that expression, replacing it with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Mio worked her way towards the two with a spring in her step, still plastering on that fake smile. “Hey, c’mon, let’s get a picture!”

She practically forced Haruto and Hazuki into a selfie with her.

“Your arms are long, Souma, so you take it.”

“My arms aren’t that long.”

“Ooh, the sardines are getting close. Get it, fast!” Mio urged him more and more, finally managing to get Haruto to snap a selfie on his phone with them.

Mio immediately ran defense for Haruto since he couldn’t keep up the conversation. She asked Hazuki about her younger brothers, discovering that she also had a younger sister. She casually brought up that Hazuki still went to practice with the younger band members even though her tenure was over. All the way from the deep-sea exhibit to the tropical tanks, Mio steered the conversation as if mediating between the other two.

Her attitude was natural, and her social grace was in full force, but Eita couldn’t see it as anything but a clumsy and rather painful effort.

She had become too familiar with lying to herself.

He was about ready to turn her own question on her. What was she doing?

But he kept his mouth shut. The last thing he needed was someone to call him a meddler, so he just tried to focus on the fish and ignore all the unimportant stuff. He applauded happily during the penguin show, not letting his sore muscles show. But it was rather impressive to watch the penguins swim around and compete for their food.

“Next up is the dolphin show, which will take place in the outside exhibit! Please go give that a watch, too!” The zookeepers quickly moved the crowd along the exhibit trail once the penguin show was over.

“We should get going, too.” By that point, Haruto had enough initiative to lead everyone, perhaps because of Mio’s assistance earlier. Haruto went in front, followed by Hazuki and Yoriko.

Eita was getting ready to follow suit before stopping dead in his tracks when he heard Mio say, “Oh, crap.”

Before he could turn around, he was grabbed by the shoulders from behind. Mio had begun hiding behind him. “What is it?” he asked.

“A friend from class is here. She’s wearing a whitish coat… she’s with her boyfriend, see?”

Eita followed Mio’s gaze over his shoulder and into the hallway, and found a girl who was indeed wearing a whitish coat, holding onto the arm of a boy beside her.

“C’mon, this way.”

Mio took Eita backwards through the exhibits until they reached the jellyfish, acting for all intents and purposes like she was running away.

The exhibit was crowned in the center with a spherical aquarium where many different shapes and sizes of tanks were fanned out. The room was even lit up in Christmas colors, offering an almost mystical feel, like they were on a different planet.

Eita absentmindedly stared at the jellyfish in the largest tank. Or at least, that was his excuse to watch Mio as her face reflected in the glass like a hologram.

 Mio suddenly started speaking, like she had only just remembered why they were there. “Sorry about that friend. I’ve been turning down all her invitations to hang out lately, telling her I have to study for entrance exams…”

“You could just tell her you came here for a change of pace.”

“But just yesterday I told her I couldn’t go to karaoke.”

“Then you should’ve said you couldn’t come today, either…” If Mio still had the same feelings he remembered, then no doubt she was horribly conflicted.

“Yeah right, like you were gonna turn down the offer in that situation?”

Mio’s reflected eyes suddenly met his.

“…” Eita didn’t answer, because he figured that the fact they were having the current conversation was her answer. Surely she understood that.

Eita ended up breaking eye contact first. He looked intently into a random tank, zoning in on a particular jellyfish.

Before he knew it, he was impatiently pulling out his phone. He noticed a notification for a LINE message.

“Souma?” Mio asked with a sideways glance.

“He’s asking where we went.” Eita began typing a reply as he told Mio.

“It’s fine. No need to tell him.”

Her dull, flat reply instantly froze Eita’s fingers. He deleted his halfway typed reply, Jellyfish. Haruto continued, The show’s starting soon, but Eita left the message unread and put his phone back in his jacket pocket.

The two stared at jellyfish in silence.

“…”

“…”

The jellyfish floated around weightlessly, like they were made of nothing. It was almost like a different, unreal world. But they were indeed in reality.

“So hey,” Mio mumbled.

“Yeah?” Eita replied, keeping his eyes on the jellyfish.

“You didn’t tell him, right?”

Eita could feel Mio staring at him, or at least at his reflection.

“Tell him what?”

“About that.”

“What’s that?”

Eita knew exactly what she was talking about, and reflexively played dumb. He really didn’t want to get into that topic with her. It was almost an instinctual lie.

Eita pulled out his phone to get a picture of the jellyfish, trying to calm himself down. He sent Haruto the picture as an answer for where they were.

“Well, if you don’t get it, then fine, I guess.” Mio talked like she would back off, but her eyes did anything but that. Her dissatisfaction was evident in the way she stared holes through Eita.

Eita shoved his phone in the way of her stare. “From Haruto.”

Haruto had replied with a selfie of him, Hazuki, and Yoriko, with a dolphin in the middle of a big jump behind them. He followed up with, C’mon, get over here!

“Looks like they’re having fun…” Mio turned away from the screen as though she didn’t care. “You might as well go, Izumi.” She leaned her face close into the tank, staring at a small jellyfish way in the back.

“I’m alright… My muscles’re sore, anyway.”

“What do you mean? That’s not even related.” Mio let out a small sigh, and her face finally relaxed into the first natural smile he’d seen all day. He thought about taking a selfie with her and the jellyfish, but quickly put a stop to that thought. He doubted that’d earn anything more than her ire.