Fikush-ON!

Ch. 28: Festival and Tea Time

Another snowy landscape. A white ground covered in a thick mist, snowflakes falling from the ostensible sky, passing through me as though they were nothing but illusions. The familiar sense of anxiety washed over me, and I began to walk, my legs moving through the thick layer of snow with ease like air. It wasn't long until I came across it: the green light orb. Peacefully hovering in the air, not too high from the ground, casting a faint, green illumination around itself. Why did it have to be here? Why was I here? And why do I want to catch it so badly? Maybe now's my chance. I moved forward, but halted when another light appeared between us. A yellow light. It didn't stay there for too long, instead charging at me, almost as if attacking me. And it hurt. I fought back. I punched it, I kicked it, I punched it again. With each hit, it faded away little by little. But at the same time, the green light did the same, fading away with every hit I took at the yellow one. But, I wasn't hitting it, so why was it disappearing? With the last punch, both of the lights disappeared, leaving me alone in the white emptiness. The whiteness soon blinded my eyes, and turned into darkness.

Slowly opening my eyes, I was met with my room's darkened ceiling. I kept staring at it for a minute, maybe two, before closing my eyes and rolling over to my side, pulling the blanket over my head. I stayed like that for some time, until I silently sighed out of frustration, and sat up. Rubbing the sleep out of my eye, I finally got out of the bed, and slowly made my way to the computer table to check my watch. Damn, I'm somehow up early, even though I didn't hit the hay until 1am. Well, I tried falling back to sleep already, and as it clearly didn't work, I might as well get ready for school. Besides, I've been missing lots of morning classes lately.

Getting dressed and half-assedly making my bed, I picked up my school bag and was about to head to the bathroom. However, as I was just about to exit my room, the door suddenly opened, taking me by surprise. I took a quick step back to avoid getting hit by it. Behind the door was Tamiko, dressed in her school uniform, seemingly as surprised as I was.

"A-Ah, Eiji-chan, I was just about to come and wake you up, but, I guess there was no need."

"Yeah," I murmured, scratching my head. "Why such a service?"

Tamiko frowned. "Because you've been sleeping in too often lately."

"And that affects you how, exactly?" I sighed.

She just kept frowning, muttering: "You're an idiot."

With a tired yawn, I waved my hand in front of her face. "Yeah, yeah. Out of the way, I need to take a piss."

"An idiot," she said as she finally moved out of the way and began walking towards the stairs. "A shameless, insolent idiot."

I quickly wiped my shitty grin as I exited the room and made my way towards the bathroom.

Just as I got to the bathroom door, I heard Tamiko talking from behind me. "Hey, uh..."

I turned around, seeing only her head peeking amongst the stair railing.

"...I made some coffee for you," she finished her sentence.

With an amused snort and a slight smile, I gave a quick wave of a hand. "Thanks."

That's how my and Tamiko's relationship is. I always manage to annoy her in one way or another, and oh man, does she let me know when I've gotten on her nerves. But, at the end of the day, she's still my loving little sister. That's why I always try to show my gratitude whenever possible, even as a single word of thanks. I gave up on the idea of trying to be the cool big brother a long time ago, but I still try my best to be at least a decent big brother to her.

After having my breakfast, I made my way to the school, joining the mass of dozens of students on the street. When I finally got there, I headed straight to the club room. As I presumed, no one was there. It was rare for all three of us to be awake early at the same time. There was still some iced coffee left from yesterday, so I grabbed myself a glassful, since I didn't feel like making anything special today. I also spent the time cleaning our coffee making equipment, all the while listening to some 80's Japanese rock. I got things done just as the bell rang, and I lazily made my way to the class. Minutes later Ichiro ran to the class only seconds before the teacher, and Tadaaki joined us about an hour later. A really typical morning.