Learning To Fly: A Saki Enomoto Pseudo-Route

Ignition :: World 2-1

"You'll be okay, right?" Chisato asks, picking up Noriko's bag and handing it to her.

"I'll be fine," her friend states, gratefully taking it and slinging it over her shoulder. "I'll be back tomorrow evening!" She looks around, her dark hair swirling gently in the light summer breeze.

There's five of us clustered together here at the bottom of the hill that leads up to Yamaku, or more specifically, the bus stop at the bottom of the hill. Chisato, Mitsuru, and myself are standing around Noriko, while Saki's taken a seat on the bench next to us to rest her leg.

Since the four of us were heading down into town to go to the Shanghai and Noriko needed to catch the bus, we decided to walk down as a single group. We met by the front gate shortly after classes ended early for the day and made our way down, the tensions of the last week ebbing out of us as we got farther away from the school.

"Text us if you want us to pick you up when you get back," Saki says, waving a goodbye.

"Okay!" Noriko answers loudly to be heard over the noise of the bus that has just pulled up. With a final round of nods or waves to and from all of us, and a quick hug from Chisato, she climbs through the entrance and disappears. We continue to stand around for a moment or so after the bus leaves, watching it pull away from the curb.

It's interesting to me that the exact same thing happen again with Noriko. When we were leaving the school, she was her normal, shy self...but as we got farther away and finally into town, you could see that her step got a little bit lighter, and her eyes were a little bit brighter. It may all be in my imagination of course, or I'm seeing something I want to see...but after Saki told me a bit about her when we went into the city, I may be a little bit biased about what I'm seeing.

"How's the leg?" Chisato breaks the silence, turning her attention towards Saki.

"Better," Saki replies, flexing the limb in question and positioning her cane to get ready to stand. Automatically, I move to offer her my arm, which she quickly takes to help herself up. She smiles at the three of us. "I'll be happy when we can sit down again though. Can we get going now?"

"How far away are we?" I ask.

"Not too far," Mitsuru says, cocking his head in a specific direction. "Just a block or two that way. It should only take us a few minutes."

The sidewalk isn't wide enough for all four of us to walk side by side, so Saki and I fall into step behind Chisato and Mitsuru. When I see the two of them easily let their hands grasp each other, I feel Saki reach for my own and only blush slightly when we link our fingers together. After a few silent minutes of walking like this and just taking in the sights of the town, we arrive at the teahouse I've heard so much about. Instead of a grand restaurant or larger building designed to lure customers in, it looks instead like a standard cafe, with a small sign on the sidewalk by the front door.

"Looks nice," I comment, and I mean it.

Mitsuru holds the door open for the three of us, and I pass by him with a brief nod of thanks. The inside looks to be a lot more traditional than you would expect from the exterior, with dark rich woods and white walls and accents. The place has a very open feeling to it, but I can tell that when you sit down, you'll have a bit of privacy. The word that instantly comes to mind is "homely." Before I can take anything else in, a flash of pink materializes in front of us, bowing sharply at the waist.

"Welcome! Thank you for patronizing this establishment!"

"Yuuko?" I ask, surprised. "I didn't know you worked here."

"Um...yes," she says, a bit flustered, clasping her hands together in front of her chest in a slightly defensive gesture. "I've been here for a year and a half now...oh! May I get you anything?"

Chisato and Mitsuru exchange glances before he speaks for the both of them and orders two coffees. With that, both of them turn to me and I turn to Saki.

"Hmm..." Saki ponders for a second or two. "I'll take a slice of cake and some green tea. Hisao?"

I have no idea what this type of place serves, as there doesn't seem to be a menu posted anywhere. I follow in the footsteps of those before me and order both cake and coffee. Yuuko gives a quick affirmation then scoots off, leaving us to our own devices to find a seat. Fortunately, the seasoned veterans around me find a place for us to stake our claim as we slide easily into a booth, one couple per side.

"Ahhhh," Chisato says, relaxing both into the booth and Mitsuru's side. "Air conditioning is great, isn't it?"

"It has been rather hot this week, hasn't it?" Mitsuru comments, reaching up to loosen his tie and undo the button of his uniform collar. None of us had a chance to change out of our school clothes before we came down here, and the summer's been making itself known quite well with a heat wave this last week.

"I'm glad I can go swimming again," Saki sighs, visibly sagging a bit. She's definitely feeling the effects of this excursion, but she's trying hard not to show it. "I don't know what I'd do if I had to wait any longer to get back in the water."

"Maybe I should start," Chisato says. "That sounds wonderful right about now."

"I've been trying to get you to, you know."

Chisato laughs, cocking her head towards me. "What, one convert isn't enough? No thanks. If I start doing it because I'm obligated to, that takes all the fun out of it. Besides, I don't have a swimsuit that I can use at the school."

"Shouldn't be a problem if nobody sees you."

"Yeah, right. Plus, my pump isn't waterproof."

Yuuko returns, balancing our drinks and orders on a tray that she handles quite well. She may be incredibly nervous, but she seems to do her job with no problems.

"Is everything alright?" she asks, fidgeting and holding the empty tray in front of her almost like a shield. "If there's anything else you need or want...I can get it for you..."

"This looks great, Yuuko," Saki says with a warm smile, and I agree with her. "Thank you so much!"

Yuuko breathes a sigh of relief and gives a huge smile. "Okay then! If you need anything else, let me know!" She turns on her heels and disappears towards the back.

"Is she always like that?" I idly wonder aloud.

"You've seen her at the library. She's always been a little high strung," Saki answers, taking an experimental sip of her tea.

"How is it?" I ask.

"Really hits the spot. I can't wait to see what the cake tastes like."

I look down at my own plate and see a small slice of a yellow cake with a white frosting. Saki didn't say what kind of cake she wanted, and Yuuko didn't ask, so I imagine this is the standard. I take my fork and try a bite, letting out a small noise of approval as the taste of lemons spreads across my mouth.

"Wow, it is good," I mention to Saki, who's already eating.

"They have a different type every day of the week," Chisato explains. "Looks like you're enjoying it."

"Why didn't you order any?" I ask. "Blood sugar?"

"No," she replies, her face scrunching up. "I just don't like lemons."

"I told you something was wrong with her," Saki says, putting her fork down. "Between not liking lemons and that ice cream she made us try when we were in the city, I simply can't believe she's normal."

"You try it every time I have it, just to see if you still hate it," Chisato says indignantly, while her boyfriend tries very hard to suppress a smile. "Maybe you're a closet masochist."

"Must explain why someone so sadistic is my best friend," Saki fires back, causing all of us to break up laughing.

"So Hisao," Mitsuru says after a brief pause for us to catch our breath. "You transferred in a few weeks ago, right? How do you like Yamaku so far?"

I take a minute to think about how I'm going to answer that question. I've only been here a month, but it seems like it's been so much longer than that. In that amount of time, I've started working out a bit, have thrown myself back into my studies, had to learn to live more on my own, and even made a few new friends...and when I think of the girl sitting next to me, there's something even more than that.

"Not bad. I'm getting used to it. I mean, it's not easy transferring into a new school your third year, no matter what the circumstance."

"I imagine it must be. I don't think any of us can relate."