Your Past Precedes You

Step, step, step, step, step.

The rubber soles of Toyo’s shoes squeaking with each step reverberated within the narrow staircase. Her legs began to ache from exhaustion and despite the winter cold, sweat started trickling down her neck. Finally making it to the top, she pushed through the door, opening her view up to the captivating view from the school rooftop.

“Where the hell is she?” Toyo whipped her head left and right, scanning the horizon. Akari was nowhere to be found, and Toyo was beginning to grow agitated.

Wrapping around the entrance, she found a thin sliver of open space between the wall and the edge of the roof. And to her relief, Akari was seen huddled in the corner, desperately trying not to be noticed.

“Akari!” Toyo howled as she pounced onto her, stopping her attempt to flee. The two of them rolled to the ground with Toyo clenching her legs around Akari’s thighs, holding her firmly in place. “Give it to me you brat!” Toyo reached her right hand over Akari’s shoulder, trying to pry her fingers open while she wrapped her left arm around her neck. The two scuffled for a while before the sought after item slipped from Akari’s hand.

A smartphone wrapped in a purple case with a rabbit pendant attached.

Toyo lunged towards it, diving with her arms outstretched, her fingers barely grazing the surface of the phone. She had overcalculated. As her body kept on its forward trajectory, the device moved further and further out of her reach. Overshooting it and opening an opportunity for Akari to capitalize on her mistake, with her already inches away from the goal.

Thud!

“Ha!” Akari held the phone straight up in the air, presenting her victory over Toyo as she lay on the cold ground in defeat. Her body too cold to feel the pain of the impact of hitting the hard surface. “Akari, give me my phone back!” Toyo chanted, but the tantalizing sneer on Akari’s face only assured the worst was yet to come. As Toyo made another attempt at seizing her phone, Akari quickly dashed over to the side of the roof, dangling the phone over the edge.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Toyo stopped dead in her tracks; stuck at a crossroads on what to do. Akari was rash and unpredictable, although she wanted to believe she wouldn’t actually drop the phone. Regardless, she knew she needed to act fast.

If I try my luck and attempt to snatch it from her, it could slip from her hand and fall anyways. But if I give up and let Akari look through the phone, she might find out the truth... I should’ve put a lock on the damn thing!

“Imagine how pissed your father will be.” Akari threatened, jolting Toyo back into action as she held the phone by the rabbit pendant.

“That’s not funny!” Toyo barked with a tormenting glare.

The sudden guilt of having pushed too far with her teasing finally hitting her, Akari unconsciously pulled her hand in, moving the phone back over the rooftop. And in a heartbeat, Toyo attacked. Clutching Akari by the wrist and yanking the phone from her clasp.

Looking to revel in her victory, the sound of beads scattering put them both on alert. Akari quickly reached for her wrist, while Toyo glanced down towards the floor. Tiny beads bounced up and down, rolling in all directions. Some flying straight over the edge of the rooftop.

They both raced to the banister, peering over and watching in despair as the tiny objects plunged towards the ground. Eventually vanishing in the distance.

A waft of misery poisoned Akari, completely ripping her away from their back and forth.

“I’m so sorry.” Toyo pleaded. “You did that on purpose!” Akari roared. “No, I didn’t, I swear,” Toyo attempted to reason. But with sadness boiling over in Akari, Toyo knew she had to do something quick.

“I’ll buy you a new one. Right now!”

Akari’s expression went from on the brink of tears to an abundance of suspicion with a dash of menace and arrogance. “I’ll accept your peace offering under one condition.”

Her suddenly pompous tone irritated Toyo, who began to realize just how much power she’d put in Akari’s hands.

About thirty minutes later, a painful expression glued itself to Toyo’s face, feeling sick to her stomach as she gawked at the price tag of the wrist beads. “Did Kuro really pay 16,000 yen for these damn things?” Toyo looked towards Akari, who held her arms crossed with a brick wall of impatience shielding her from Toyo.

“Oh my god…”

The Sun had begun to set with its orange hues painting over the dusk sky. Toyo and Akari’s shadows stretched in the distance behind them down the quiet road. Slipping her hand through her new beaded bracelet, Akari’s face glowed brighter than the streetlights in the dark of night. Toyo, meanwhile, was solemn and unspoken, the pain of her empty wallet still gnawing at her. As they approached a home sitting at the corner of a narrow intersection, Toyo took a deep breath.

“Why do you want to see the inside of my house so much?”

“I wanna see the shrine relics that your family owns.”

The exhaustion within Toyo was clear. She couldn’t bear to deal with Akari’s overbearing obsession with treasure hunting, let alone her ignorance toward anyone who tried to steer her elsewhere. “My parents don’t keep any of that stuff here. My father doesn’t even get involved, since it has nothing to do with his side of the family.”

“Hey!” Akari interjected, “you made a promise.”

Toyo sulked, but finding herself on the losing end, she figured it’d be easy to just let Akari deal with reality on her own.

As they entered the home, Akari was ecstatic. “How old is this place?” she questioned, her eyes twinkling like glitter. “I don’t know, I think my family inherited it,” Toyo deflatingly explained.

“Ojamashimasu”

Akari was mesmerized by the old design of the house. Light passing through the shoji screens were filtered into a soft haze that showered the exposed wooden frames and aging floorboards. The scent of cedar lingered throughout as they crept down the hallway. Akari was captivated by the contrast of earthy colors and the intricate paintings that plastered the sliding doors of each room.

She peered into a room covered with tatami flooring. Its vastness inducing, yet somewhat lonely. She peered down at a single pillow, lightly askew in the center, illuminated by a stream of sunlight slipping through narrow window on the opposite wall. The lone scroll painting hanging over an empty flower vase gave Akari pause, before she quietly turned away.

Sitting at the kitchen table, Toyo poured a pot of freshly made barely tea into a mug. Akari looked out at the garden through the door glass, noting how well kept it was. The sound of teacups clanking as Toyo placed them on the table pulled Akari’s focus back towards her.

“You really don’t keep anything here, do you?”

“I told you so.”

Akari leaned back, the old chair creaking with every centimeter. Dropping her arms to the side, she stared down at the cup of tea, bits of leaves crowding at the bottom. “You don’t care much for that shrine, do you?” she then questioned, her habit for pestering Toyo to discuss things she clearly chose to avoid on full display.

“My mother despised it for some reason… And you see how that turned out.”

Akari pulled back, worrying that she may have hit a nerve. Simply nodding her head before shifted topics.

“So, do you really like Kuro?”

Toyo’s eyes shot open with her lips furled. “Rina saw you texting Kuro to meet him at the train station this weekend. You’re going on a date, aren’t you?!”

“Huh?!”

Toyo was utterly speechless. To think Akari went through all of that trouble because of the words that fell out the mouth of the school gossiper Rina from class 3-2. At the same time she was also overcome with relief, having feared that Akari was onto something she would much rather keep a secret.

“My god, Akari, you’re such a handful.” Toyo rubbed her eyes, placing her cup down on the table before fishing her phone from her pocket. “You know Kuro’s brother, Fukai, right?” Akari tentatively nodded her head as Toyo further explained, “He loves conspiracy and mystery nonsense just like you.”

Akari was repulsed, interrupting Toyo to claim, “Isn’t he kind of a dork?”

Waving her hands, Toyo dismissed Akari. “Anyways, he said he found out something that had to do with my mother’s family. Kuro was struggling to explain it, so he said he would just show it to me this weekend.”

“Oh…”

“I told him not to tell you anything because you always get overexcited about these things, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. My mother never told me much about her side of the family, nor have I ever met them. Even though I, for some reason, kept her last name instead of my father’s…”

The branches of the tree outside scraped across the kitchen window, its leaves ruffling with the brisk breeze. Before Akari knew it, she was hustling down the road with Azu and the twins in tow. Remembering that day at Toyo’s house had invigorated Akari. She never did ask Toyo what Kuro showed her, nor did Toyo or Kuro ever speak about it.

“Why are you in such a rush?” Azu yelled from behind. “We have time, Akari.”

In a hurried gasp Akari replied, “Your idea of having time and mine are probably not the same!”

“You don’t even know where you’re going.”

Despite Azu’s attempts at getting Akari to pull the brakes, she trekked on unwavering. After having been told what Iddak and Saba overheard form the messenger, it was as if she’d become possessed. Stopping at nothing until she found what she was looking for.

Finally, Akari’s feet slowed to a pause. A change in the air struck her as reminiscent of what she’d felt the day she climbed Kanmu-mori towards the old temple. “Is there anything that way,” she asked, pointing deep into the wooded forest.

“I doubt it, forests in this region aren’t good for cultivating food,” Azu replied, “Hunting the animals nearby wouldn’t be practical for a group of people. Most of them are small and live up in the trees. I will say though, that some of the trees up the hill seem out of season.”

The twins traded glances with one another, with Iddak then walking towards the forest as he claimed, “It’s a preservation script. This is the best bet we have at finding the Futamata tribe.”

As Saba followed along beside him, Azu briefly turned to Akari and asked, “Why is that name so important to you?”

With her eyes boiling with resolve, Akari answered, “It’s not the name… It’s the person.”