Transition and Restart, book one: Arrivals

Chapter one, 2016, school start, part five

Second fiddle. Cram school was the only place where she was just Takeida Kyoko. Otherwise she was an accessory. Friend, or even best friend. That was how she was normally seen.

In the beginning she had been happy to be associated with Kuri-chan. Part of the exotic glory spilled over to her. Two outsiders befriending each other. Later she resented it a little. To play second fiddle and be part of someone else's life rather than making her own.

But in the end Kuri-chan was just too good a friend. As they got to know each other better Kyoko's strengths came to light even if no one else saw them, and Kuri-chan displayed quite an impressive array of faults of her own. Even if no one else saw those.

In the eyes of the masses Kuri-chan was a goddess. Flawless.

Yesterday Kyoko had been on her own, walking home from cram school in a slight drizzle when the sight of a ridiculously expensive bike locked all alone to a stand caught her attention. It wasn't the first time she saw it. Usually it stood out among its company when she was on her way to cram school, but that evening it was still there all alone in the rain.

She never stopped or anything, but she did look up and through the windows to the café located on the second floor of the old fashioned mall. And she saw blazers from their school. For a moment she entertained the idea of entering the café just to find out whom they belonged to, but that bordered on stalking, and in the end she just passed below those windows.

Today when she brought a bag with supplies to the soccer club she once again saw a pair of blazers separated from their owners.

It's funny how your mind sometimes plays pranks with you, and on this occasion hers did, and on this occasion it happened to be true. Kyoko decided that those two blazers were the ones she had seen yesterday, and for that reason alone she had to find out.

The kendo club was on lunch break, but the sound of voices in training still reached her from inside the gymnasium. So she sneaked away to the opening to see if the two piles of clothes outside it had anything to do with what was happening inside.

Two boys, freshmen if the clothes outside the gym told the truth, were training. If that could be called training. A small loudspeaker with what looked like a smart phone on top of it spewed out foreign music, and they were... dancing?

"No, no, no!" the taller of them laughed.

Kyoko sat down beside the door not knowing if it was OK to eavesdrop on the boys or not.

"If I do it like this?" the other answered and flailed around like a helicopter on its terminal way down to its doom.

What on earth are they doing?

The tall one sat down on the floor and hugged his stomach. He was literally roaring with laughter.

"Sure," he shouted, "you'll get the girl." Then he slammed a fist to the floor and laughed again. Tears of mirth ran from his eyes. "You'll get her because you just downed her partner. Victory by attrition!"

There was, Kyoko thought, something odd with his accent. As if he had learned Japanese rather than grown up with the language. But apart from his oddly coloured hair he looked Japanese. She knew she ought to walk away from here, but something drew her to the two boys and their antics.

His accomplice in what passed for dancing sat down on the floor as well and poked his friend in the chest. "No good?"

"Plenty good. You'll have no rivals if you knock them all out." The taller of the two grinned back, a wolfish, mischievous grin.