The Tale of Niiko

Two

Two days.

Only two more days.

He could almost taste the freedom.
Classes had been suspended for the senior students. After all, what more was there to teach an unruly group of preteens who's minds were already set on the next big step in their life journey?
Instead the students used whatever class time they would have had to gather in their respective clubs to prepare for the Graduation Festival.
Niiko didn't belong to any particular club, instead he went back and forth between them, running errands. It was hard work...but it wasn't thankless work. The cooking club gave him freshly-baked cookies, he got to be a judge for almost all the bending clubs and the woodworking club let him mess around with the tools when he had nothing to do.
As far as Niiko was concerned almost everyone at school was his friend and it was only common-sense to help your friends.
And in two days he would be saying goodbye to all of them.

Well, not all of them. Not his three partners in crime.
Out of all the other kids at school Niiko had three who he considered the best of them all.
Every friendship group had itself a self-appointed leader, a kid with wisdom beyond their years who kept the others grounded and out of danger; Magami was their leader.
But every leader needs their opposition. That one kid prone to peer-pressure barreling the others into whatever crazy idea that came upon them. Tuku had the scars and bruises to prove himself an absolute master in his role.
Umi was the only kid Niiko knew to have the ability to read, write and somehow contribute to a conversation at the same time. She had to be the smartest kid on the entire island.
Niiko was...well, Niiko didn't know how he fit into the group. It didn't matter.
He'd think about it later, after graduation.

The four of them crossed through the crops that enveloped the small port-side town in something of a warm welcoming hug. It was quicker and way more fun than going around. Dodging the view of farmers preparing for the summer harvest, knees shuffling deeply in cool soil, the hit of adrenaline as you were chased out by an angry horde of farmhands.If you were lucky you could nab yourself a fresh cabbage or a juicy melon. Tuku had once tore an entire bushel of sweet potato right from the ground, never letting go until he was well and truly home. The four of them had eaten like royalty for a week!

But now Niiko never wanted to see another sweet potato as long as he lived.


"Winds of change caress / As I grow older I walk / Slowly and with grace."
Umi had been reading aloud the same three haiku since before they'd even left the school gates that afternoon. They all had the same premise, something about growing up and changing, there was a dragonfly-wasp in there...and it got eaten by a cat?
It was nothing but audible goop to Niiko now, the beauty of haiku lost on him.
Tuku had been feeling the same way. He'd been ready for Umi to finish the final line of her next haiku before he puffed up his chest and yelled "It's snowing on Mount Makapu!"
Whether by hilarity or the general awkwardness of the situation Niiko started laughing. He hadn't meant to, but Tuku was an idiot and sometimes it just spread to those close to him.
A fist planted right into his waist and he was thrown into Tuku, who caught him before they both fell into a patch of soon-to-be-ripe melons.
"Oww!" Niiko moaned. "What did I do?"
Magami walked beside him, nursing her knuckles. "Don't be mean!"
"But I didn't do anything!""Yes, you did. You were laughing."
Niiko could see the color had drained from Umi's face, she'd closed her little notebook of handwritten haiku and was wringing it between her hands. He hadn't meant to make her feel bad, and now he was beginning to feel guilty for laughing. But it wasn't his fault...Tuku had made him laugh! If anyone was meant to get a tongue lashing from Magami it was Tuku.
"Calm down," Tuku said. "It was just a joke."
"Yeah, well..." Magami was at a loss for words. "It wasn't a very good one..."
Their tiny squabble had alerted an elderly farmhand on their presence. As they were chased through fields of produce by a cantankerous old man waving a shovel above his head in an attempt to look threatening, their fight suddenly forgotten by the thrill of the chase, Niiko felt something tug at him. Not physically. It was more like a longing, like he'd lost something and it was just without reach. He'd miss moments like this.

That was until the old man tripped and face planted right into the dirt.