Pep in Step

Theo had a lot to be happy about as he sauntered through the after-school corridors on his way to the school library. He had almost forgotten that one could so simply walk through Hokishi High.

The Kurose-plan had worked, beyond even his predictions. He had arrived that morning to the gossip pot already boiling, and even a certain glasses guy couldn’t help but ask the million-dollar question of the day. 

“Yo, dude. You and Ema Kurose dating?” Sakai asked, not even trying to be sneaky about it.

They weren’t, but nobody needed to know that. All it took were cryptic answers on his part for the whole thing to blow up. 

It was a day which would live in infamy for the Theo Lovell fanclub, as their American idol suddenly and deliberately torpedoed whatever image of him its members had conjured in their heads, and the show of favor to a girl that was never even in the running in their betting pool provoked a schism in the ranks. 

When the dust had settled, he could identify two factions: those who had burned bridges and gone back to the previous most popular guy, a third-year who was working as a model, and those who accommodated themselves to the new order. The latter were more a more moderate bunch compared to their predecessors, content with their whispers of something called “Thema”, whatever that was, and mercifully left Theo alone. 

If it gave him the desired results, Ema also looked to be catching some heat of her own. More than once, he spotted her getting badgered by assorted groups of other girls.

He had passing concerns that her testimony would set him back, but he needn’t have worried. Once the rumors had taken on a life of their own, whatever she might have said quickly got lost in the rumors and retellings. Ema had already played her part magnificently.

With the meddlers gone, it was high time to come back to the reason why he approached Kurose in the first place. It was time to get back to work. With his newfound freedom of maneuver and a little luck, he might even find something to show for his efforts thus far.

 

Now that he had no obvious starting point, he figured that he might as well see if he could brush up on the local folklore and look for potential connections there For that, the library was his best option over talking to his classmates.

For one thing, the average Japanese teenager wasn't any more in touch with local legends than with those of other countries, he quickly discovered, and they usually responded to his queries by assuming he was talking about some cartoon. 

He had another reason for selecting the library. Despite his preference for being in the thick of the action, he had always been a voracious consumer of written material.

Reading had been an old interest, something from before the Program. Far from wilting, his awakening to his calling in the Unit had kept it well and alive, although he had to admit that he had acquired a bias for his profession lately. 

But conflict was one of the universals across any period. After all, Thucydides was contemporary to Euripides, Clausewitz to Austen, and Mahan to Tolstoy. And there were no small number of warriors that just happened to be handy with the written word.

All that reading meant that he’d gone through a couple translations of Japanese works, but the consonance of the name of the last author he’d read eluded him, such was the time since, and he generally had a big gap when it came to eastern literature. Maybe he could rectify that a little here, but scrounging up a lead had to come first. 

His destination came quickly into view. The library was situated in the smaller of the classroom buildings, and took up most of the space on one side. The first thing that hit him on opening the door was the air conditioning, followed by fleeting hints of wood and vanilla as he passed by the rows of high shelves, with the rest of the space taken up by a study area that formed an L with the librarian’s desk and a small annex. 

At this time of day, the studious segment of the student population was represented mostly by third years preparing for entrance exams, although they were just as likely to be busy with a smartphone than with a book. Whatever they were doing, they were engrossed enough that Theo was able to start his search without interference.

He was navigating the high shelves when turning a corner revealed the girl behind the librarian’s desk. If he had failed to notice her when he arrived, she looked to be in her own little world; buried as she was in a thin paperback, she probably missed him too. 

As he looked on, the girl gave a start that nearly tipped her chair over, only to just as quickly sit back down. That piqued his curiosity enough for him to approach. He needed help with finding the local folklore section anyway, and as much as he’d been given ample opportunity to practice, walls of kanji were still agony to him. Might as well hassle the student on duty for help. 

As he came up he got a better look. She was on the shorter side, freckled and pale in contrast with her jet-black hair; above sharp eyes it ended in blunt bangs, everywhere else fell in messy cascades down to her chest. And what a chest that was. They certainly drew attention to the small silver crucifix she was wearing on her neck. Before his eyes could stray any more, Theo mastered himself and called out her.  

He was right in front of her, but she only noticed him after a second attempt. She looked up in surprise before she snapped up her book like it was a shield, so that only the upper half of her face was visible. 

“What is it?” she intoned, in a voice so soft that it was only the local bubble of silence that made it intelligible. 

“I’m looking for the section on local folklore, traditions, stuff like that.” Theo explained. 

Something about that perked her right up; her meekness dissolved in an instant, and the girl beamed as she put down the book. 

“Local folklore?” she spoke up. 

“That’s right. I’m new here, so I guess I just got curious, is all. This town seems like it would have a rich local tradition, no?” he added, trying not to show that her one-eighty turn had caught him off-guard. 

“You’re not from here?” she said with tilted head, as though somehow she wasn’t aware of Theo and the ruckus around his transfer. Without waiting for an answer, she continued. 

“I guess I have never seen you before. Anyway, you want to know more about the old ways of the city, right? That’s great! All too rare these days I tell you, so it’s always a pleasure to meet a fellow enjoyer!” 

 She shot up from her seat like a rocket before gesturing towards the shelves. “Follow me!” she said cheerfully, and Theo had no choice but to.

 “You’re a lucky one, aren’t you? Normally, we’d have to go to the municipal library for all this, but right now we’re looking after a part of the collection, only while the town hall’s being renovated of course– oh, there we are, three-hundred-and-eighty.” 

Making selections with an ease that suggested she could make her way through the shelves by feel alone, she handed him doorstopper after doorstopper to carry. He just was starting to huff under the weight of the stack when she apparently judged that they had everything they needed.

“Enough’s enough, I guess.” she said reluctantly, and led them back to the desk with a final volume in her hands. “Careful, okay? Set them down here.” 

It was a mighty effort to follow her instructions, but he managed to drop off his burden with a crash that only narrowly avoided sounding like a horse falling down a well. 

“So, where do you want to start?” she asked Theo. He hadn't gotten his full breath back, but he just about managed to reply. 

“Uh, right. Do you have anything on…”

Unfortunately for him, there was nothing that even remotely called back to the former nurse’s rant. Feigning interest in the flurry of factoids about extra ladles on fishing boats, Devil’s triangles and myriad cryptids, Theo was at one point presented with a photobook. One picture in particular caught his eye, showing a derelict hamlet by the sea. He had to squint to make out that it was man-made at all.  

The caption underneath was a single word.

Kuroshima.

“That’s a wonderful shot, isn’t it? By the Iemon Fujimiya himself.” the girl interjected proudly, like she expected him to know the name by heart. 

“It’s much farther out than Utarijima, but it’s sometimes visible on the horizon, if the weather is right. Unlike its sister island, nobody’s lived there for a long time though. Its last occupants were imperial army troops in the war– I believe they wanted to fortify it in anticipation of American invasion.” she added, before elaborating on the point about it being abandoned.

It was something about kujiragami, a whale god, bringing ruin on a whaling village was why locals viewed it as a haunted place. 

“Toyohime said these words the day before she first disappeared– ‘the sea roars beneath the waves, further out.’” the girl recited from one of the thinner tomes. The story seemed familiar to Theo, but he chalked it up to most fables being that vague. He needed solid connections. 

Theo failed to find any. Having failed to get anything out of the staggering body of material she had presented, he thanked her and offered to undertake the arduous task of returning the books to their shelves. She declined, reasoning that she would be far faster, and that he should feel free to come back. 

Theo left feeling a little overwhelmed. All that, and that girl never asked for his name, or offered hers. It struck him late that he knew that book she was reading, prompted in part by the quote the girl supplied with that village photo. The Sound of Waves. 

Oh, so that was the last Japanese thing he’d read. 

“Hey, you.”

Theo had barely taken a step out of the library when he was confronted by someone he hadn’t seen in some time. Feet wide apart, the sour-faced Hara stood rooted to the ground to block his way. 

“Don’t you have judo club, Hara-san?”

“Not today.” he grunted. “Hey, come with me behind the building. Or are you gonna chicken out again?” 

“I wasn’t aware I ever chickened out to begin with.” Theo shot back. 

He hadn’t thought for a second that the first day would settle it, and here was Hara to prove him right. It was only a matter of time before the other guy tried to get in another tussle. 

So be it; there was hardly anybody around anymore, and this blockhead was overdue a lesson in who was boss of this locker room. Theo signaled his acceptance to the challenge with a nod, and Hara’s face lit up the same way it had the first time they’d met. “Alright!”

Hara led the way, and it wasn’t long before they reached a niche behind the north building that would serve as their ring. They were in their own stand-off. 

“So, what is this about, Hara-san?” Theo asked, unruffled by Hara’s gaze. 

“That damn attitude of yours is exactly what it’s about. Couldn’t even prove you’re man enough to hit back, pissing me off from day one– I’ve been giving you a pass since Shigeru put in a good word for you, but enough’s enough!” he growled, adding to the display by cracking his knuckles. “It’s about time someone smacked that shit-eating grin off your face, and I’ll be the one to do it.”

Despite himself, Theo couldn’t help but show his belligerent the aforementioned grin. That broke the final straw for Hara, who closed the distance with a lunge and threw a wild haymaker. 

Theo slipped it with ease. 

That’s the opening bell, then.

For the next few seconds, Theo dodged a flurry of successively wilder and sloppier strikes, easily weaving through each. Each miss forced him back a step, but his footing was sure where Hara’s was off-balance. It was an easy leg-trip from there, and Hara was groveling on the ground before he could stop swinging. 

Pounding the turf like its existence was a personal insult to him, Hara quickly rose back to his feet with a scream fit for a demon. 

That took Theo aback. It’s not like he couldn’t sympathize with the guy, but the teasing alone couldn’t possibly account for how riled up Hara had become. Was that really all it took to tick this guy off? 

That was when Theo saw the silver crucifix jangling off his neck, having slipped out of his undershirt thanks to his wind-milling, and Theo stopped. He held up his hands, suddenly understanding. 

“Look. I wasn’t coming on to your girlfriend, okay?”

“Yuzuki’s not my girlfriend! And I saw you ogling her boobs, you sunnavobitch!” Hara bellowed, pointing his finger like it was a spearpoint. Well, Theo couldn’t exactly deny that.

Taking one more wild swing to shut Theo up, Hara suddenly backed off. Then, he squared up in an orthodox left foot-leading boxing stance, and Theo smiled again. Evidently, eating dirt had made him rethink his approach.

Hara started fighting like a boxer, setting up strikes from long-range and taking advantage of his height, even coming close to landing a few hits on Theo with his floaty footwork. A regular Ali, Theo thought.

A minute or so sufficed for Theo to take the measure of Hara’s ability. Rough, but there was potential. He had a habit of letting his lead hand fall after a strike, though. Poor defensive responsibility.

Theo saw the chance and took it. He fired back with a left cross, clipping Hara and forcing him back. Hara reacted with an uppercut that Theo took on his guard; with his guard low, Theo looked overextended, and Hara tried to follow-through by throwing a cross off the same hand. Theo saw it coming like the world was in slow motion; Hara's cross seemed like a sure hit– 

Only for Theo to slip it. The surprise was written on Hara's face. Theo couldn't have possibly dodged that cross with his feet in southpaw. 

Indeed, Theo could never have dodged that cross in southpaw. So he simply stepped off-line and switched to orthodox. Theo had started the exchange with his right foot-leading, but now switched to the same lead foot as Hara, and Hara’s head was now wide open. Hara realized this and tried to duck off of the cross that had missed, but it was far too late. 

Theo caught him with a left hook, a clean hit that turned the jaw.

Hara’s legs wobbled before he fell backwards on his ass. For a few seconds, the only sound that rose above the afternoon's singing birds was that of his ragged breathing. Theo relaxed and got down on his haunches for a quick breather. 

“Now tell me, Hara-san. What exactly did we prove here?” he said earnestly. “I’m being honest when I say that I ain’t gunning for your girl.”

“She’s not my–“

“Well she’s somebody to you, if that exact same necklace is any indication–“ Theo pointed to the crucifix, “–would add up with why you chose today of all days to make your move on me, too.” 

Hara said nothing, which to Theo said it all. Theo reached out with an open hand to his fallen classmate, who finally seemed to be calming down. 

“Look, none of that is my business. I was doing research in the library, is all, and she told me what I was looking to know. She was a big help, but she didn’t even tell me her name.”

Hara ignored the offered hand and stood up on his own with some difficulty before replying. “Yeah, that’s Juri, alrig– I mean, that’s typical Yuzuki.”

Juri Yuzuki, so that was her name.

“Must be real close to be calling her Juri, huh?” Theo said wryly. 

“Anybody ever told you that nobody likes a smartass?” Hara snapped back. “But you fight good for a dirty switch-hitter. You learn that trick back in America?”

“That’s right. You’re not too bad yourself, even if I did clean your clock there.” 

“Damn right, and you can bet your ass I’ll tag you back. Count on it.” Hara said. 

To his proclamation, Theo could only shrug. 

“Fine by me. But we both get along with Sakai, don’t we?” Theo reached out another time, this time for a shake. “How about it, Hara-san? Think we can get along?” 

Hara swatted his hand away before turning to leave. Over his shoulder, he threw Theo the bird before huffing a reply, in a voice just a mite softer than before. 

“Like hell.” 

Getting back up to an amused sigh, the notion that someone was watching suddenly struck Theo. He looked up at the back of the school building, but it was no longer anywhere there. For a moment, he could have a sworn that a a tall girl with a killer's eyes was looking down on him. 

With his notion coming to nothing, and having nothing else to do, Theo vacated the makeshift ring with a specific destination in mind. That bout of sparring had made him hungry.

***

It was none other than Theo-san.

Ema chided herself. She couldn’t hate Theo-san outright when he was so earnest in getting to know her. Their hanging out wasn’t really a secret that could be kept for long, anyway. In the end she sat opposite from Theo-san, who had ordered their clam miso soup; her clam miso soup. She noticed that he hadn’t touched the chopsticks at all.