Red Data Girl - Series 1 & 2

My First Familiar - 2

An American Girl in Japan

Red Data Girl: My First Familiar
By Noriko Ogiwara
A Translation

Translation notes:

This piece contains a number of place references, many of which are real! If you're curious, look up the Kumano Sanzan, a religious pilgrimage that visits three shrines in the Kii Peninsula of Japan. However, Mt. Tamakura and Tamakura Shrine (the mountain and the shrine where Izumiko lives) are fictional.

Red Data Girl: The First Familiar
Chapter 1: Izumiko
Part 1 (2 of 2)

As Izumiko left school, she dropped her shoulders and began to think.

When Ayumi and Haruna look at me, they see someone who's strange.

At the very least, she didn't want to be a below average sort of person and she didn't want her classmates to see her as such. She didn't want them thinking that way of her home life, abilities, or appearances either.

There was a black sedan stopped at the corner next to the concrete wall surrounding school. Every day, a private care picked Izumiko up from school. She did not participate in clubs or the student council. The car did not pick her up at the gate because she was embarrassed. Today, she felt that feeling of embarrassment even more than usual.

Izumiko wasn't picked up from school each day because her family was rich. There just wasn't any other way to get her there and back. None of the students were envious of her. It was just the way it was.

They say I'm different because I'm from the mountains. Nothing's changed, even though they've known me for years.

It wasn't that she hadn't realized it at least a little before, but to hear it so clearly was definitely a shock. It felt like her eyes had been opened. She could become a normal girl now though...

As usual, big, angular Shingo Nonomura was patiently sitting in the driver's seat. He wasn't a hired driver. Besides Izumiko's grandfather, he was the only priest working at Tamakura Shrine. He was only taking time out of his day to pick up Izumiko. Because of this, she had to be as closed to the agreed upon pick up and drop off times as possible. He wasn't flexible.

"Thanks for waiting," Izumiko said, climbing into the back seat.

Mr. Nonomura nodded silently and started the engine. It wasn't that he was unfriendly or unsociable. He was just a man of few words. Maybe it was a result of spending so much time around him, but Izumiko had never thought much about her own quiet disposition.

As she let her back slide down into the seat, Izumiko brushed her braids behind her. They really were a part of who she was. Was cutting them really the answer to her makeover? Would her personality change with her hair?

I really could go to school and stay in the dorm without having to live on the mountain.

Her heart beat quickly at the idea. Would her grandfather, Takeomi agree to let her live in the dorm?

"Mr. Nonomura, Mom's in Okayama for work right now, right?"

"That's right," Mr. Nonomura answered from the driver's seat. He might not have talked much, but he did answer when spoken to.

"We have our one on one consultations at school soon. If Mom's in Okayama, I guess she can't come,"

"She said she's coming back to Tokyo soon,"

"Even so, I don't think she'll come," Izumiko said, coming to her own conclusion. The possibility was becoming less and less likely. Her mother worked for the Metropolitan police department in the public safety sector so it was only a matter of time before she came back to Tokyo eventually.