Chapter 18 - Fragments and Mec chen House (cont.)

She explained thusly, “I’m going to assume this location is relatively close, somewhere between here and what you call Mecchen House. Now urban and commercial areas are labeled according to a box-within-a-box system. The middle part of the number is the big box of a given division of the city. The last part is that smaller box. And the first part is the physical number given to the building. And I’m just chewing over the ways it can be done. There is a Hongen. Many Hongens. But maybe…”

Shiori flipped to the back and smiled. “Actually, this is quite easy. You see, there is only one Hongen with a box that is marked with a zero. So, we have big Hongen box zero, which has little box five and building twenty-three… and those records can be found right here.” She pointed to a hexadecimal string.

Jamie looked at her. “And this means… what?”

“It means we look in the back for the box in the Archive where those records are kept…” She flipped several pages. It took her just a moment to announce, “...Box AHKK4.”

Jamie stood and wiped her hands as best as she could with her arm position. “Let’s go check it out…”

Shiori scratched the back of her head. “Well, technically…” She stopped, smiled, and said, “Aw, heck, let’s do it. You aren’t library personnel, and I’m not on duty, but it’s just some stuffy old records… and this is important, right?”

“Very much,” Jamie assured her.

Shioriko had one condition though, “But… you have to promise me, no matter what we find, that you tell me everything you know or think might be going on. Promise?”

I didn’t have any problems with that, but Jamie looked non-committal.

Shiori added, “I’ll throw in a free lunch. I was just about to get something to eat.”

That was all the convincing Jamie needed.

“Deal.”

-----

We snuck between rows of books, creeping like covert troops behind enemy lines.

Well, Shiori and I did at least.

Jamie’s steps seemed halfway between feminine and boyish. Her hips rotated like a girl’s, but she would force her foot down as though to correct for the feminine motion. It was easier to see when she strutted slowly.

Shioriko took out her key card and used it on a door at the back of the library. It swung open. We walked through and made sure to shut the door behind us.

The room inside was covered in towers like the ones in Nana’s room, only made to stand in orderly rows like soldiers, dressed in black. Each had several levels of drawers.

Shiori took the first row to the left. The labels on the towers started with A. She stopped halfway through the row then whispered, “Get down.”

We all crouched.

The door beeped and opened again. I could hear footsteps. I wondered why my heart was racing so. Most likely it was just Rin or Mei putting something away. Still, I didn’t want to get Shiori in trouble. Jamie looked perturbed.

Shiori rose to where the footsteps were coming from. I could hear Mei’s voice.

“Oh hey, Shiori. You getting something for those friends of yours?”

Shiori stammered with soft ‘um’s, ‘oh’s, and 'uh's.

Jamie snorted, stood up, and stepped over. I didn’t have time to admonish her before Mei saw Jamie. I slowly stood up and came out of hiding as well.

Mei shrugged. “No skin off my nose if you browse these records. They are public records. Just take care of them. Oh… and Shiori… you read too many spy books.”

Shiori gave an apologetic bow as Mei left.

Jamie groaned, “Could we stop messing around and just get on with it?”

-----

It didn’t take long to find the correct drawer labeled AHKK. Shiori took out the fourth folder and passed it to Jamie. She thumbed through the other folders a little, but my attention was on the folder in Jamie’s hands.

There was nothing spectacular in the documents. Mostly land valuations and requests for changes in zoning. The most recent showed a change from residential to light commercial. The name of the current owner was ‘Tomasu Carolyn.’

I was shocked. Jamie muttered, “What I expected…”

She flipped back a few pages. The papers, which at first fluttered like wings, soon moved with a wary stiffness. Jamie positioned a finger over a particularly-aged page. She followed a line. At the end, her hands dropped. Her shoulders went slack.

She stated, “This is proof. This house, this location… was in that vision.”

I leaned closer to see the names. The line listed the owners as Ishida Toki and Ishida Masuyo. It also listed one feline resident.

I found myself perplexed, but it clearly meant something significant to Jamie.

I asked her, “Does this mean our hypothetical ponderings are true?”

Jamie read over the paper again, shook her head, and said, “I can’t imagine it any other way…” She turned the paper over. Sitting underneath was a small, black-and-white photograph. She held it up.

Jamie sighed. “This would be the house I saw. And I believe you know those two… and at least three of those over there.”

The house was much smaller than Mecchen but still a large two-story. It had nice landscaping and an area to park a car between buildings. Telephone pole supports dug into the ground. There were six people in the picture. Two were the Ishidas. The three Jamie mentioned were our male figures. And the other person was little girl Hitomi, clinging to my male body.

I looked to Jamie. She said, rubbing an eye, the blockade of her chest neglected for the time being, “I met her briefly. She was as you described. Only she really had a thing for you. I didn’t have any control over what I said or did either…” Jamie shivered again.

Shiori gasped and called us over. She looked back and forth at each of us and asked, “What the heck is going on?”

I saw what had disturbed her. She ran her hands through countless folders full of paper. Each paper meant to be a meticulous record of civic affairs.

Each of them was blank.

Each drawer she opened revealed exactly the same thing.

Jamie passed the folder back to Shiori. She noted, “Perhaps it’s time we get that lunch and explain what we know…”

-----

Although dazed, Shiori guided us to a nearby sushi bar she frequented which gave discounts to librarians. We selected a table near the back for the sake of privacy. We ordered. I chose the tuna roll with miso soup. Jamie ordered some tempura and beef sticks. Shiori just had the lunch special (salmon and salad).

Our waitress was small but carried a massive teapot on a glass tray. She addressed us as, “You lovely ladies.” Jamie took to sheltering her chest again soon after that.

The waitress was dressed in a white, Chinese dress with ornate pink and purple roses in a band on her left side and black trim. She also wore a pink and black apron and silvery, round earrings that matched her eyes. Her black hair was pulled into a tight bun with long locks framing the sides of her face.

Her attire was eye-catching. But, for me, more so because she was about my size and figure. I could easily wear a dress like she did. I turned away and felt my face grow hot.

She served tea first then went to check on the patrons in the bar area. Shiori drained her tea, wiped her mouth, and asked, “So, what’s going on?”

“It’s tough to really explain. There was much guesswork involved. Still is,” Jamie answered as she laid with her napkin across her chest. If her intent was to hide her chest, she failed miserably.

Shiori caressed the side of her ponytail. “Let’s go with what you’ve told me already. You came from another universe…”

Jamie tried to reposition the napkin. It didn’t help. “Actually, so far as we can tell, we didn’t go anywhere. The universe changed.”

“Wait… what? How?”

“Dunno. All we have are visions which have been confirmed as plausible clues by public records. I was in a real place. But in the… past.”

Shiori’s forehead strained. “You had a vision of the past. But then wouldn’t that past be… like your world?” Or ‘our’ world, I thought to myself.

Jamie tried tucking the napkin. “It is confusing…”

“Maybe it’s just nothing…”

Jamie dropped the napkin back on the table. “You know… I’d have said the same thing a few hours ago, but it happened to me too.”

“Okay… but that doesn’t really help much.”

“Was it supposed to?” Jamie toyed with the napkin again.

Shiori set her hands on the table with a little more force than I expected. “I’m in this universe too, you know.”

“I thought you liked being a girl.” Jamie pressed against her chest with renewed antagonism.

Shiori’s hands rubbed along the table. “I’ve adapted, I suppose. But this is something entirely different. If someone or something can change everything, change who people are, then what’s to stop them from just erasing anyone whenever they like? It’s like that Twilight Zone episode with the omnipotent little boy.”

I knew the one she was talking about. More proof for the idea Shioriko came from our universe.

Jamie just said, “Never seen it but I get your point. It’s disturbing.”

Shiori pulled her arms close. “No kidding. Do you have any clue what this thing may want?”

“A pretty good clue. It thinks the three of us are its sisters. It expressed that in my vision and Kelly’s. My best guess is what it did to the universe will somehow turn us into reproductions of its sisters. Why us? Dunno. But we changed slower and remembered more about our past than others. We still have lost memories, like you talked about though.” Another tidbit about what Jamie experienced.

Shiori was silent in response. The waitress returned with my miso, Jamie’s beef sticks, and Shiori’s salad. While Jamie tore ravenously into the beef, neither I nor Shiori touched our dishes.

“What do you think it wants with me?” Shiori asked.

Jamie blew on the meat. She restored the napkin to her chest. “It never mentioned you. I dunno. I haven’t discounted the possibility it intentionally put you where it did. It left those bewildering blank papers after all.”

Shiori’s hand was above her chopsticks. She paused. “What do you mean? I was just here.”

“So you say…” Jamie chewed roughly.

“It’s the truth!” Shiori’s voice was still low but she spoke with force behind her words.

“‘If something can change anything it wants’, as you said… well, that means anything and everything is in question.”

“I’m not a liar…”

“But you can be manipulated.”

“So can you…”

“Agreed.” Jamie set one empty skewer down and picked up the next.

“And???”

I set a hand on Shiori’s arm. She looked at it with quick alarm but didn’t do anything.

Jamie took a bite, swallowed, and proclaimed, “And that’s where things are. There are tons of little weird things but nothing objective.”

“What about the books you needed last time?”

“Utterly useless.”

Shiori’s head drooped.

I inserted, “But we haven’t looked at them much with all the things that have happened.”

Shiori’s head turned. “What things?”

Jamie answered, “Little weird things, as I said.”

I don’t know if that was the last straw or if it would’ve come no matter what. I’m sure Jamie’s demeanor didn’t help.

Shiori’s head lowered again and long strands of shimmering silver streamed down her shut eyes. She brought her hands up and sniffled. She rocked. I kept my hand at her side, but it didn’t seem to help. Jamie set her beef stick down but peered at a nearby wall.

Some of the bar patrons glanced in our direction for a moment. After sobbing a few times, Shiori finally spoke.

“I’m scared. I mean… I don’t know what to believe. But to think that I’m just some tool in this unknown plot… Why? WHY? What makes you so special?”

Jamie looked back, her eyes narrowed and focused. “Special? I never wanted any part of this. I have hair that weighs a ton! And I have these… counterweights stuck to my chest. I have a voice that sounds like a child's. Sure, my life sucked before, but that was MY LIFE. This is not me. All that keeps me from screaming is moving forward and looking for old connections to retain my sanity.” Jamie trembled with her hands on the table.

They looked at each other. Shiori leaned forward to touch Jamie’s hand. Jamie didn’t jerk it away.

Shiori rubbed Jamie’s hand gently and said, “I’m sorry. I know this is tough all around. But it just makes me want to throw up. The idea that my life… that I'm just some extra in a play and my life is incidental… I can’t imagine a more horrible fate.”

She shut her eyes. “When I’m reading a novel, there’s always this little character in the story. A man or a woman or something else. Maybe they have a scene or two and a couple of lines. But I can tell they’re just a stock character with some penciled-in traits. I’d often stop and imagine if they have a home. Who do they love? What makes them laugh? When did they last get embarrassed? How do they brush their teeth? Where do they like to relax? Why are they only in the margins?…” Her eyes fluttered open.

Shioriko sniffled a few times in a row and gave the beginning of a chuckle. “It’s funny. I’m so scared of the idea of being insignificant, and I care for books for a living.”

I told her, “I’ve always had a high opinion of librarians.” Jamie didn’t add anything, but she slowly scooted her hand out from under Shiori’s. Shiori took the hint and let go.

She tried a bite of her salad. “Thanks… I turned into a girl and that didn’t bother me. But then I barely remember ‘Brookville’, if that really was my home. Or is…” Shiori took another bite.

I asked her, “Is there anything I can do… to help?”

She paused before asking, “Is there anything else you know for certain?”

“Well, we think the one involved might be named ‘Hitomi’. But then there’s a dark… thing in the room belonging to one of the girls at Mecchen House which seems pretty nasty.”

Shiori chewed quietly. She rested her fork on the plate. “It sounds like there’s a lot on your shoulders. I could probably question the two of you for hours and not understand it. That’s okay. I have patience. I’ll try to stop by Mecchen this evening on my way back home. I live in the foothills.”

She smiled faintly. “So far as helping, just don’t forget about me. Please keep me informed of what you figure out. And I’ll do what I can to help in turn.”

I looked to Jamie. She sighed but those sounded like acceptable conditions to me. It would be nice to introduce Shiori to the House girls.

The main dish arrived soon after. We each said our “humbly partake”s. Shiori almost forgot hers.

We didn’t talk much after that. Shiori brought up clothing and necessary ‘undergarments’ once but Jamie was tight-lipped. I answered, “It’s not quite what I expected. Although I think I wound up… fortunate. Not much of a chest and I’m rarely conscious of the undergarments.” Jamie’s eyes were stony-daggers and her mouth shut tight.

Shiori picked at her salmon with one chopstick. Jamie just ate the tempura by hand. I tried to be meticulous with my chopsticks, but I still wound up with a few squished pieces.  

We didn’t talk much after that. I noticed Jamie would let her hands stray from her chest every so often.

When we were done eating, Shiori insisted on taking care of the entire bill as she promised. Shiori slung her engorged purse over her shoulder and sighed.

“It was nice to see the two of you again, despite how our discussion made me feel. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to see Nathan again. Tell… her 'hi' for me…”

Shiori turned around in place. It seemed like she was searching for something.

“It’s weird. I love reading about crazy sci-fi plots, about all kinds of mind-bending scenarios. I cope with spontaneous gender-change. But the chance I’m a tiny piece in someone else’s plot? It just makes me wish I could forget I’d ever heard the idea.”

We stood near the exit and looked at one another quietly.

Shiori fanned her hands, as though trying to clear away a buzzing insect, and smiled. “As I said, this was actually nice. It did make my day better. And may the rest of yours be so helped.”

We parted on the street. Shioriko waved high over her shoulder. I waved a little in return. She kept waving for as far as I could see her.

I did feel a little better.

-----

Jamie didn’t say anything as we boarded the train Officer Yamamoto referred us to. The train car was nearly empty. Despite this, Jamie sat right beside me. She gave a few long blinks once we’d pulled away from the station.

Jamie stretched her back a few times, looked down at her chest projecting outwards, and tried to rebuild the shield of her hands. She fidgeted with positions until she just dropped her hands to her legs and leaned her back against the train bench.

[A slightly yandere-esce Katsumi riding one of the Ogawa/Sekkei area trains by MysticSwordsman]

I looked out the window at the artful cityscape flowing past. The mottled-green trees swayed. The apartment complexes and low houses were an interweaving of brown and yellow. The area was mainly residential. I hadn’t seen much industry along the way, just a warehouse every so often.

Jamie coughed. I turned to look. She seemed to be edging close to me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

She leaned away. “It’s nothing. I’m just a little sleepy. Forget it.”

“Forget what?”

“It’s just a stupid idea.”

“Tell me.”

“I said to forget it.”

Jamie stood up. I grabbed her hand as a reflex.

She said quickly, “Please let me go…”

“I’m here for you. You don’t have to be afraid.”

“…I know. It’s just… I really have to pee.”

I let go with a look of bright embarrassment.

Jamie walked away quickly.

Outside, everything was green now with a smattering of light-brown. The ground seemed fresh.

Then, it all exploded into pink. The cherry blossoms. They filled everything, flowing like a cresting river of pink flame in the sky but still firmly rooted to the ground. There seemed to be nothing in the world around but the blossoms. I could watch them all day long.

But we soon passed into a tunnel. The world became a quiet void. It only lasted a few seconds. When we emerged from the tunnel, there were just sparse blossoms. The city had reasserted control and passed in orderly lines.

The train rocked ever so gently.

Jamie returned. She sat right next to me again.

I asked, “Everything go alright?”

“I figured it out…”

I waited a little while before asking, “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“You had something on your mind before.”

“It passed.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely.”

I watched Jamie lean her head back and away from me. I brushed my shoulder off. My shoulder was so soft now. I looked over at Jamie, but she didn’t budge. She rested her eyes.

The train rocked firmly. An alarm sounded overhead. The train slowed to a crawl and stopped. The alarm sounded once more.

A voice spoke. It seemed pre-recorded.

“High winds have been reported for the Eastern Nishibara area for an indefinite period. Out of precaution, the Ogawa/Sekkei Transit Authority has recommended a temporary rerouting of the Downtown Ogawa to Nasuka #3 to the Manako stop. Your train will soon be rerouted. Please, remain inside the train. Do not leave until the train has arrived at its rescheduled stop.”