Dreams of the Quill

by Flak

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Valentine’s Day. Back where I’m from, this time of year, the worst it could be out is a little windy, maybe some weak rains. Here, the weather is no different from the day before, or the week before, or even a whole month before- just about freezing. This weather is wonderful. For someone like me, who grew up in a more or less balmy place, this climate is exotic. I’ve always liked cool air and preferred it freezing, meaning that this was the best Valentine’s Day of my life. Plain and simple, nothing else to it- the best.

Or so I thought as I meandered around the back alleys of Osaka after my three hours of class were over. I was walking slowly, breathing white puffs of breath into my drawn-up collar, enjoying the chill and bite of the wind. There hadn’t been any surprise love letters or unforeseen confessions from any of the female students at Kurosakura U, but that followed the trend line. A zero-association trend line.

A long time ago, Valentine’s Day’s romantic meaning had already faded completely for me. Few students at my high school were capable of even being friends with eachother, much less falling in love. There were never any hearts or roses at my school. My only reminder of the lover’s commercial holiday lay in anime.

Of course, on some level, it’s something ingrained into our subconscious. On February fourteenth, somehow we know- it’s Valentine’s Day. Just like Christmas being December twenty-fifth, Valentine’s Day will never escape notice. So, as I walked along, I knew what day it was.

What with the Entwined Branches and heavy work-oriented atmosphere at Kurosakura, there was no mention in class. There were some young adults loitering outside of some of the class buildings, I guess waiting for their loved ones. Their valentines.

Yeah, it was hanging over me I guess. I mean, I was thinking that it was the best Valentine’s Day of my life, after all.

That is, until I almost walked up on something startling.

Rather, I did, I just had the good fortune of not being seen.

I stepped back, and crouched down behind some debris in the alley, and looked on in amazement as the interactions between the two before me unfolded. Before I go on, let me make it clear that from the moment my roommate, Nimue Fuuko, met Suigeki, she hated him. She berated him every time I was injured, nearly attacked him every time he dragged my body into the room. No matter his own wounds, he would stand there wearily. He wouldn’t be lethargic, but though keen and golden as always, his eyes would radiate exhaustion. And he’d never say anything to defend himself. For the life of me, I couldn’t have imagined them sharing any kind of relationship, much less talking to eachother civilly. And yet…

That was Sui, bandaged as always, standing in the alley facing me, looking down, and, by the voice, that was Fuuko facing him and speaking in low undertones. She at least, mindful of the weather, was wearing a warm coat. That idiot Sui was standing there in his usual thin cotton shirt and jeans.

I should have turned and left. This was their gig, after all. What was I doing here listening in? Even with those thoughts coursing through my mind, I stayed and listened. Keeping the wind from roaring down the narrow passageway was trivial for me, and I could make out every word.

"I don’t know anymore," Fuuko said, sounding dead tired. Usually she would have a lazy air to her speech that would make her appear lacking in energy, but it was the first time I’d ever heard her talk like this.

"If you do-" Suigeki started, but Fuuko cut him off.

"I need to know for sure."

"How do you propose to find out?" Sui said with the tone of a teacher attempting to show a child that something is impossible.

"If I just-"

"Just what, Nimue-san?" Nimue-san? It seemed odd to me that he would call her that, at such close quarters, in such intimate conditions.

"I’ll just… try it out, I guess."

"Right, then," Sui sighed, and made as if to turn. Fuuko caught his wrist. "What is it?"

"This’ll do," she said. "Right here." He looked surprised. He didn’t struggle, however, when Fuuko raised her hand to his face and began to unwrap the bandages he wore about it. I’d only seen Suigeki’s face once, and that was more than two years ago… I could only look on disbelievingly as she straightened her back and turned her face up to him.  He lowered his to hers. Before I could see, hear, or deduce anymore, I turned around and dashed from the alley, using a noisy blast of wind to cover the sound of my footsteps.

Later that evening, I was sitting on my bunk, flipping through a section of a reader, when Fuuko came in, her cheeks red from the cold. She smiled at me and tossed up a small parcel. I caught it, saw its red and pink wrapping. My jaw dropped.

"Obligation, obligation," she laughed when she was my expression. "Don’t think too much of it, Kaze."

"Right," I replied slowly before dropping it beside me. I didn’t so much as unwrap it.

There were classes the next day. It was no time to slack off. In short order, she’d shed her coat and was in a position similar to mine on her own bed, going over her econ notes. Silence filled the room around the two of us as we immersed ourselves in our studies. Minutes crept by, hours. It began to get dark out, and Fuuko got up to flip on some lights. I didn’t move, absentmindedly turning the same pages over and over again.

After a while, Fuuko called out to me.

"Oy Kaze, what’s wrong?"

"Huh?" I grunted.

"You’re only using one text tonight? Is it that hard that you can’t move on, or what?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your book bag, it’s down here. You haven’t come down since I got in…" I took a curious glance over the edge of my bunk and saw my bag on the small table in the center of the room.

"Oh. Right." I shut my reader and made for the bunk rail.

"Hold up, Kaze. How could you just forget? What’s wrong with you?" She placed her hands on the edge of the bunk and pulled herself up so that she was facing me. "Are you not feeling well?"

"I…"

"What’s troubling you?" She looked so earnest, so worried. I hadn’t meant to think about the incident, I hadn’t meant to reveal that I’d been witness. But I couldn’t help but explain when faced with that expression.

"I… saw you in the alley… with Sui…" She seemed taken aback for a moment, but then she just laughed.

"Did you hear what we were talking about?"

"…yeah."

"Man, that guy!" She grimaced. "You know what he whispered to me? Or did you hear that too?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I thought he was going to kiss me, but he just told me, ‘I’m not over her yet.’ Can you believe that? And I was afraid he would, too. He’s so big and intimidating."

"I’m… not sure I understand, but-"

"Neither do I. That guy’s sure full of mysteries. You know weird people, Kaze." I would say she giggled, and at the time I was almost certain she did. But… that’s so un-Fuuko-ish. And girly. There’s no way she could have giggled. She must have chuckled. "At least I found my answer."

"Answer?"

"Yeah, to my question." She looked confused. "I thought you said you heard everything?" Had I? Maybe I had made a stupid assumption… "The answer is that your chocolate is obligation chocolate." I raised an eyebrow. "What, you didn’t think I was about to make out with him did you?"

"You undid his face bandages-"

"He’s your friend, right?" I paused and thought about it. I couldn’t call him a friend. There was no way I could call him a friend after all that had happened over the last two and a half years. Because of all that had happened over the last two and a half years. But I guess to her, our relationship looked a bit like friendship. An odd friendship, for sure, but any such image would be a nice way to convince her to be less harsh in dealing with Sui.

"I… don’t get it."

"Well… maybe next year you’ll be more discerning, Kaze," she laughed, and lowered herself back down to her studies. The best Valentine’s Day of my life, and also the most confusing, I thought to myself as I scrambled down to grab the rest of my books. The next time I saw Suigeki, he raised an eyebrow at me quizzically. When I asked him why he was looking at me like that, he hastily replied that oh, he supposed it was nothing. I still haven’t unwrapped the chocolate Fuuko gave me.

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