Chapter 20 - Hitomi & Akiko

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When Keiko took her turn to shower, the soap she picked looked like the cucumber one I’d seen earlier. I floated to the edge of the tub and leaned my arms over it. It seemed like a neat pose. Or rather, it was neat and kinda uncomfortable to hold, especially with the side of the tub mashing my chest.

“Keiko… what did you and Hitomi do in Nana’s room?”

She picked out a sponge and applied an easy lather. “She needed some things moved around, those computers mostly. I was glad to help.”

That made sense. “Did she say anything… odd or notable or strange?”

Keiko was soon covered in suds. She paid careful attention to her arms. “There were some things. When I placed a few of the computer consoles, she would look all around and either shake her head or say ‘that’s right’. It was like she had a plan for where they were supposed to go.”

Jamie cupped some water and splashed his face with it. “We should go in there and move them around so that’ll screw it up for her.”

Keiko picked up the spray nozzle. “She talked about several backups for her ‘work’.”

Jamie sent quakes through the water with his fists. “Our lives are not her twisted plaything!”

I dripped some water through my hair. It seemed a shame that we weren’t going to wash each other’s backs.  

Keiko turned the spray on the nozzle to a low-setting and sprayed it against the tile floor. She curled a bit of water in her hands and watched it dribble down the drain. She said, “I gathered the impression… that she means well. I mean, I’m scared about losing my family and all I care about… but if she’s right, then we could’ve lost a piece of ourselves. And I can understand the desire to do anything to get back those you care about.”

Jamie slunk into the water. “Don’t go sympathizing with someone like her. She means well? …Like fun! She’s a deluded, brain-muddled demi-god who has destroyed our lives, the lives of others, and cast us in some twisted attempt to get her lost family back!”

My area of the water felt like it was getting warmer. I floated over a little.

Keiko sprayed her hair and sighed. “For me, she seems a little like Nana… I mean, Nana always felt so empty and with Hitomi… it feels like that emptiness has been covered or filled in with something fractured and broken…” She blushed and rinsed her hair once more. “I dunno. It’s just a feeling.”

Jamie sent underwater tremors through the bath with his hand. “I’ll buy she’s messed up. And, as for Nana, there’s a good example of what’ll happen if you think about helping Hitomi. She’ll swipe your body.”

Keiko shivered after cleaning and settled back into the water on the far side. She said only, “Sorry…”

The three of us sat in the warm water ‘till I figured it was my turn, since Jamie wasn’t budging. I chose a soap which smelled like orange and had a strange name. I squeezed it onto a fresh sponge and lathered up just like Keiko.

The sponge was slippery. I nearly lost it a few times. The soap I picked had a potent after effect which left my skin tingly.

I had to remind myself how strange animated soap bubbles were. They felt normal to just look at them.

Jamie cleared his throat and asked, “So, what have you learned about Hitomi?”

I figured that question was coming. I unraveled what I had gleaned since Hitomi showed up.

Such as reiterating Hitomi knew Toki.

Jamie shrugged. “Yeah, she said as much and those trippy visions suggested that before.”

I noted the books.

“Well, I’ve never read them either.” Jamie stretched his arms out of the tub.

Keiko softly said, “I can remember reading Carl Jung. I think it was for a class.”

Her hands curled in the water like a dancing ballerina to stir up her memories.

“Umm… I remember reading about the anima. The unconscious, female component of the male mind. There’s a lot of stuff about dreams and the unconscious. The self is a circle…”

Keiko’s hands settled. She shrugged and bowed her head.

Jamie pushed a wave through the water.

I mentioned what Hitomi said that one of the Mecchen girls left has inside knowledge.

Jamie lifted one of his legs out and dipped it back in. “Reiko or Sumi. That’s my guess.”

Keiko couldn’t come up with a guess.

I rinsed and mentioned the figurines.

Jamie coughed. “So… she turned anime girl figurines into a turtle, a bird, and a snake? And you wonder why I question her sanity? Any of this story about ‘you put them there’ is moot…”

Jamie pushed up in the tub, grimaced from hitting the side, and settled back down. “Ow… I just had a thought. A simplification, maybe. What if… being this weird spirit thing… she wanders around, suddenly sees those particular figurines and is like ‘Those look like my long-lost sisters! Those three must be them’. And the rest follows with her delusion.”

It relied on a lot of assumptions.

He rubbed his shin through the water. “It was just a thought. Is that all she told you?”

I shook my head. “She seemed to say Ami started as a dress. The dress from Keiko’s vision.” I told them about what Hitomi said about the dark being too.

Jamie scoffed. “Sounds like her plan is more full of holes than her head. Again, I figure on self-reinforcing delusion.”

He glanced at his dropped towel beside the tub and drifted over there as I finished the last of my scrubbing and rinsing.

I slipped back into the water as Jamie darted out with an undulating splash and a flash of jiggles before he sealed them in his towel.

Heaving a sigh, he concluded, “We must stop her or it won’t matter. To anyone. We’ll all just be at her whims.”

I tried curling my legs. It worked better than leaning against the edge, though not by much. I asked Jamie, “So, what do we do to stop her?”

He picked up a bar of soap but no sponge, shook his head slowly, and said, “I wish I knew. Maybe…? No. We have to persist and be watchful for an opening.” He scrubbed with the soap while trying to hold the towel. The towel failed in the process.

Keiko’s mouth opened gently and the words, “You’re so beautiful…” dripped out.

Jamie lamented, “Not… helping.”

With awkward grabs and crouching, Jamie managed to scrub and rinse with a towel shield. He kept far clear of his groin region and only cleaned his chest through soapy run-off.

I gave Jamie the courtesy of the male pronoun until he considered himself differently in much the same way as with Keiko’s shy, affectionate feeling about the female pronoun. For me, it was much harder.

I stepped out and dried off with Keiko soon following me. I wondered if Akiko was done with her bath yet.

The pajamas were nice and fit me well. When I left to check on Akiko, Jamie was still soaking by himself, and Keiko was nearly dry.

I padded barefoot down the hall, slowing as I passed Katsumi’s room. I gave a few loud taps with my left foot. She didn’t emerge.

Mami’s door was just ajar a crack. I opted to check on them both on my way back.

Before then, I met Katsumi leaving Ms. Ishida’s room with a stack of papers. She leaned towards me, gave a sniff, and remarked, “Nice choice.”

She presented the papers to me and said, “All backed-up and this is for you: a complete female change.” Katsumi looked quite satisfied with herself.

I accepted the papers and bowed slightly. I heard some splashing from the bath.

Katsumi coughed and asked, “Are you going to look at them?”

I figured she meant ‘now’, I held them up, and riffled through the pages.

They were well-ordered and not terrible artistically.

My main complaint was she drew the original male form with a menacing sneer and exaggerated facial hair. Her lines looked rather strange as well, like she was trying to scratch them into the paper.    

In the next image, the guy wore a girlish outfit, a stunned expression, and a red wig. He was restored to a masculine appearance in the next drawing with a ‘whew… I guess that’s over’ sense of relief on his face. It was more caricature than portrayal though.

I was impressed by the fourth one. I could see Katsumi grinning out of the corner of my eye. The doomed male figure’s clothes were loose on him and at risk of falling off.

With the one after that, Katsumi began to combine changes. I didn’t mind. The figure’s facial hair dots and other marks of body hair were gone. Not only that, but he clutched at his throat in bewilderment with one hand while his other tried to hold up the pants sliding from his smaller waist.

I gave Katsumi a nod and turned the page. Despite the fact I went through it, I could appreciate the work Katsumi put into the drawings.

She combined changes again with the pants falling all the way down to reveal girlish legs with cute arms trying to pull them back up. The face also looked more like the one I had now.

For the seventh one, she was rather clever. Katsumi shortened him even more, so his oversized shirt went to his thighs. And she made some action lines around the groin with crossed legs and the most indescribable expression on his… now likely, her face.

For the penultimate sketch, the female figure clutched her new chest in shock. Katsumi made the size of the chest more comparable to the one on Jamie than the one on me. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be flattered.

For the last one, it was as she alluded to. The now-girl was sitting effeminately and wearing a nicely-detailed kimono that fit her well. She blushed a bit and held her hands in her lap. That, I could tell, Katsumi borrowed from Keiko and applied to me.

Despite her own twists on reality and little drawing flaws, I liked it, and I told her such.

Katsumi held her hands together in front of her and blushed a little.

[If Katsumi had her way, with a gender-zapping ray gun]

The door to the bath then slid open, and Ms. Ishida stepped out in a pale nightgown with Akiko clutching her side. She was dressed in a little, light nightgown herself. Their hair looked damp.

Katsumi bid them goodnight with a smile, thanked me, and scampered off with spry energy. Her footfalls sounded lighter than usual. I figured that was a good thing.

I tucked the papers under my arm gently and crouched by Akiko. She still had the pink blanket, though it seemed damp as well.

I reached my hand out to her. She looked at it like a curiosity. Ms. Ishida crouched as well and smiled at me.

I asked how things went.

Ms. Ishida said, “We had a little trouble at first, she didn’t like the soap or the water one bit. I cleaned up the mess though, so it’s quite alright.”

I could only imagine.

“So, she’s ready for bed? I think I still have a futon upstairs where she can sleep.”

Ms. Ishida made a little ‘oh’, looked to Akiko, and said, “Well… actually. If you don’t mind it, I was thinking she could share my bed. She seemed to enjoy it when I was picking out a nightgown for her.”

I looked at Akiko. She watched me like a stranger. I stood. She dashed behind Ms. Ishida. I rubbed my legs with my hands and nodded.

“Sure… if she likes that.”

Ms. Ishida bowed. “I’ll take good care of her. Promise.”

I nodded again and bid them both good night.

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Mami’s door was still open when I went upstairs again. I peered in.

She was curled in her bed, her regular clothes still on and her legs and arms crinkled close around her. I sighed. The cover was down, so I pulled it up.

Her expression, a jagged frown, softened as she clutched the blanket. The strange sensation returned for a moment.  

I closed her door the rest of the way but left her light on.  

When I got back to ‘my’ room, I plopped on the futon with my arms out. The floor creaked under me. I sat up, carefully folded Katsumi’s drawings, and tucked them in a pajama pocket.

I listened to the room. I could hear Katsumi ambling around through the wall. I could hear a constant breeze against the windows. They rattled occasionally.

I heard a door slide open. I dashed to the door and looked out.

Jamie stood there in a pair of gray pajamas.

I said a quick, “Hi…” which he repeated back.

Jamie looked into the bath and said, “I dried what I could. And I left the water in the tub, just in case. Is that okay?”

I had no idea, but I felt hot in my cheeks. Here I had bolted off to check on Akiko, and Jamie had cleaned up after us.

He shrugged as I stammered out an apology. “It’s okay. We have bigger things to worry about.”

My eyes automatically drifted to the ‘prominent’ appearance of his chest through the material of his pajamas. He blushed, gave me a half-serious glare, and said, “I mean Hitomi. Are you sleeping up here?”

“I guess. You?”

His hair looked like the world’s largest tangle. He picked at it with a towel. “I’m sleeping in uh… my room. Nathan is down on first in… his. He helped some with drying.”

That made me feel even worse about bolting.

Jamie pointed a finger at me. “You don’t have to be up here, you know. Who knows what having Hitomi nearby will do to you…?”

He had a point, which I countered with, “But this way I can watch her for weird stuff.”

He stared me down. “From three rooms away?”

Another point.

Jamie gave me a half-smile and said, “Strength in numbers against that psycho girl. Come on.”

I had no real reason to protest, so I nodded, and before long I was lugging my futon down to where Jamie was staying.

It was even easier to hear the wind outside from this room. Strange, considering if the weather was coming from the seaward side and we were facing the other direction.

I rolled out my futon with a shrug, careful to avoid the patch in the floor, and watched Jamie sit down on his.

I cracked my neck once and noticed a stack of boxes set firmly against the wall. I was sure they’d been set off to the side before but then it was Jamie’s room to rearrange how he liked. I curled back the blanket and comforter.

The spot I’d picked felt especially soft. The mattress felt so nice. I blinked my eyes several times. I heard Jamie say something to me, but the words were lost in darkness.

I fell asleep right then and there.

In the still, drifting dark, I received no new dreams or visions. But from far across the void, I thought I could hear soft words.

They said, Sleep now, dear sister. For soon, you will truly awaken.

I knew it as Hitomi’s voice and yet it soothed me to hear those words.

And so, I slept.

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Waking came with steady, slow pounding against a wall. It sounded like a hammer on wood.

I sat up. The comforter was tangled around me. I looked at Jamie with a smile.

His hair looked like a pale-gold, feral beast he’d flattened in his sleep. His pink mouth hung open and crooked with a clear touch of drool.

I stretched on the futon and peered out the half-open door. A yellow blur dashed past and skipped back. It was Tara dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Something seemed amiss.

She bowed to me. “You’re finally awake, Keli-kun. I’m glad.”

“What’s going on?”

She clutched her hands together. “Umm… it’s the typhoon.”

I could hear the hammering again.

Tara gave the same look as when she spoke about Mildred.

“...It turned.”

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I roused Jamie from slumber once Tara had filled in the details.

The typhoon had shifted on its track. It was going to blow right into downtown Ogawa and was gathering moisture too.

As Jamie sat up, he unleashed the feral beast in a dust-like plume. I left Tara, gleeful to see Jamie, behind to get him up to speed on events. I dashed upstairs to change. All doors were open. I looked in Katsumi’s room. She carried around a box of items.

She looked at me and asked, “You’re finally awake?”

“Yeah, Tara filled me in… a little.”

Katsumi sighed and put a glass item inside the box with a bit of paper. “It arrives tonight. We still have a lot to do. Miki, Sumi, and Keiko are outside putting up shutters to reinforce the weaker areas and Ms. Ishida and Mami are putting bracing tape on some windows. The rest of us are storing breakables and doing what we can.”

The dresser was flush against the far wall.

She turned around a crystal figurine in her hands. “Looks like you won’t have to worry about my offer. This storm will blow away all the flowers. There won’t be anything left.”

I grimaced and wanted to offer some words of encouragement, but Hitomi appeared in the doorway and called me over.

Her purple eyes were ringed in shadow. Her steps were heavy, and she coughed a little before she spoke. It seemed as though Hitomi had been up all night and then some.

She wore something around her neck.

She breathed slowly and said, “Hello, sister. You slept well, I gather.”

I had a sneaking suspicion. I leaned forward to get a better look at her necklace. It was banded and brown like chocolate. It looked somehow familiar.

“Where did you get that?” I asked her.

She held it up with her fingers and said, “Why… I made it myself. Don’t you like it? It’s a wind charm. A very special one.”

A chill curled up my spine and, for some reason, I thought of Nina Metora. I had to find her.

Now.

I glared at Hitomi and asked her, with an edge of panic, “What have you done?”

Hitomi seemed so at ease as she said, “Don’t worry, dear sister. I took care of the ‘lumps’.... I took care of everything.”