Sometimes, Love Costs More Than 298 Yen

Although much of the strip mall was exposed at every inch to the searing sunbeams, heading upwards towards its little spike in the road, where it soon diverged towards the station and city, and dipped into a cove that wormed its way down into the centre of town, afforded a nice cooling trail of shadow across the latter. I hadn't thought to ask for a bicycle, but I hadn't seen one around either, and I certainly wasn't going to ride in a car with that woman, so although it was significantly less dangerous to make my way beneath the overhanging jade diamonds, the heat nonetheless bounced up at me, constricted the air around me, and the only saving grace was the damp darkness outstretched beneath the forest.
I wondered if I could ever acclimate to this environment, or if this would be the kind of thing where, shedding tears in the finale, I would regret only having truly become a part of this place the very day before I had to leave.
Is life really that dramatic and perfectly paced, though?
Yeah, a lot of the time, it really is that melodramatic.
But at the same time, it's extremely volatile, to the point where predicting anything is difficult.
We can use probability to narrow down the trajectories of atoms, but we can never surely pinpoint that direction even with the technology we gorge ourselves on today.
But even if we're making probabilistic determinations here, can I say with any truth that there's a high probability I could get attached to this place?
Maybe not the people, but the place could start to grow on me.
Who knows, maybe the people really will as well.
Never underestimate the human ability to match itself to its situations.
It felt like I had been wandering forward for a while, but I still couldn't see anything past the array of dark shamrock and kaleidoscopic bits of fragmented light.
Just then, I heard a bell ring behind me, and unconsciously I sidled off the left a little.
On my right was a gravelly pathway that was leading me straight towards the town centre, while an old metal safety barrier separated the path from a small main road, itself dark with overhanging branches that seemed kind of like a safety hazard.
Tearing up that gravel path with ferocious energy was a woman, short-cut and layered hair, wearing a tank-top and black cycling shorts, however, although she had rung the bell of her bike, it was her feet, rather than any bike tires, that were kicking up the storm of ashy brown dust.
That is to say, although she had her grip tightened against the peeling handlebars of her bike, her feet were steadily pounding forwards against the ground with such speed I wondered why she even brough the bike along in the first place.
However, just before she passed me, no, at the moment I passed backwards and she darted forwards, our eyes met for a split second, but that was enough for that storm of gravel to halt and turn violently on an angle, almost sending my hurtling backwards.
"Oi! You're the new guy, aren't you?"
Does nobody have a sense of self-preservation in this town?!
Moreso, does nobody have any sense of empathy, of basic human decency?
And I say that, although only in my own head.
It might just be that the human body and mind is truly miraculous, and I've already acclimated to this bizarre place, but at that instant, rather than the switch flicking towards danger after a bit of fretful running around like anybody's mind would in this situation, my thoughts instantly hardened, and instead, the little me inside of my skull strolled calmly over to the switch on the far end of the common sense wall, almost its opposite, and struck it down with a grin.
"I guess so, if you're the one that tried to kick down my door a while ago."
"Oh, haha, you heard that?"
"Uh huh, I was real impressed too. I didn't think anybody could shake a building with one kick like you did. It was really unbelievable."
And frightening.
Terrifying.
But, faced with this extremely attractive tomboy in front of me, anything I thought or said tumbled out in the form of a compliment, or at least in a flattering tone.
"Hehehe..." she mumbled, scratching the back of her ruffled hair meekly.
"Well, where are you headed?" I began, swiftly gliding over to her side and placing my hands against her bike, helping her push it forwards while she strolled alongside me with a smile.
"I was going to head to town for lunch, but, I also wanted to buy Genmi something as an apology for damaging the front door."
"I see. Well, we can head in together then. I might even help you pick something out."
"Really? You would surely know what Genmi likes, right? I was thinking of getting her a identical door, but something cool and engraved sounds nice too. Maybe even something with heat resistance? Do they make those kinds of things? I know they definitely have windows like that..."
Apology my ass!!!
She had been beat up, scolded, and sent to town to buy a replacement for the door she had smashed in!!
Nonetheless, I kept my calm, and simply smiled at her as best I could.
"I'm sure she would appreciate any kind of gift. I might not know her very well yet, but she seems to be the kind of person who appreciates the practicality and sentiment of the gift, even something small. I don't think she's especially fussed, although heat-proofing does sound nice and practical."
And also useful for me, too, but I didn't admit that.
"By the way, how do you know Genmi?"
Of course, this woman certainly wasn't being treated like some scumbag vandaliser, more like, even her motivations for kicking the door down seemed intrinsically linked to a relationship with Genmi, so I was curious if there was something there other than being a daytime and violent drunk.
But of course, digging for information was my goal all along.
I may be partial for tanned, short-cut tomboys, but my need to live comfortably is far greater, and knowing what kind of woman I was living with and indebted to was part of that.
"Well, we used to pick up guys on the street together..."
If I hadn't turned to the side, all the muscles that seized up in my face at that moment would probably have terrified this poor woman and sent her bolting even faster in any direction away from me.
"...yeah, I think that was the first time we met, when we would organise community stuff like that around campus, and drag anybody we could find into it. Of course, most people only came along because Genmi was so attractive, and a few of them left when they realised it was for something club-related."
Thank God for that smidgen of self-control I had in not bursting out with a straight-man routine then and there.
I really wish she would organise her sentences better, though.
But what she said also threw me off in a completely different way.
Sure, Genmi was conventionally attractive I guess, her features were certainly refined and symmetrical, but this woman in front of me, drenched in sweat and hair poking up at every end like a ruffled Norwegian Forest Cat, was somehow still able to project her beauty in a way that was specially reserved for uniquely attractive people.
To the side of her beige, long-lashed eyes, trails of sweat were streaming down with a shimmer, but she seemed completely unfazed.
"I see. So, you guys are long-time friends, then."
"I guess so. Well, we certainly have strong enough differences that we clash pretty often, but yeah, we're friends, because no matter what, our fights don't cause either of us any distress. We're arguing, we even land some good punches, but we know there's no animosity or gravity to it."
"I see."
See had a good grasp on things, way more than the airheaded muscle-freak persona she was giving off.
Hiding your true self under this guise of frivolous immaturity or ignorance; was this the real commonality between the two?
More like, was everybody in this place somehow like this?
Was it a requisite for this kind of environment?
I was treating this new home of mine, this strange town like it was some new detective novel mystery for me to unravel, completely forgotten all that musing about probability and uncertainty in certainty from earlier.
"What are you heading into town for? Buying some dirty magazines? Genmi has enough to last a while, though."
"Just what kind of person do you think I am!? No, even if I was the kind of person who, before anything else, before food or furniture or textbooks was going out in broad daylight to buy erotic magazines, do you really think I would admit that?!"
"No, I guess not. But that doesn't mean you aren't. Actually, though, if any of that was true, you probably would just up and admit it."
"Don't dissect that part like it was the main point!"
"Haha! I'm kidding, you know. Genmi doesn't have any with women in it, anyway."
"That's not the point!"
"Oh, I guess I shouldn't be slandering her, since I caused her so much trouble anyway. So, I'm guessing you're going to buy stuff like food or furniture and probably some textbooks, right?"
"What an amazing guess! Some people might even think you knew the answers already!"
"Ahhh, well, what can I say. I my head might be a little filled with air, but I know how to read people."
"What does that have to do with reading people. What a useless reason for activating that ability anyway."
"Don't worry, I have a chewing soul in my pocket"
"You're lucky I understand that reference, but some people would just think you have some chewed-up gum in your pocket."
"Didn't I tell you I'm good at reading people?"
We continued with this same stupid banter for a while, at some points even devolving into us throwing references at each other to see who had wasted more of their life on videogames and manga, to which she obviously had me beat, since I had shackled myself to the straight life of studying for a while.
We were getting to the point that both of us were so brightly glistening with sweat, so lethargic and sluggish in our movements, that it looked like we had just come from some major battle, or at least climbed our way out of the ocean to get here.
But, once we finally reached out into the sunlight, our hands gripping the image of concrete apartment complexes and street after street of cafes, bookstores, and convenience stores - once the two of us almost fell over ourselves buying bottles of P-Sweat and slumped against the back of the convenience store, our legs stretched out against the parking lot's ridge, I felt truly grateful for that money in my wallet, for that liquid whirling around my tongue and throat, and in some strange way, though I wouldn't like to admit it, and probably wouldn't under calmer circumstances, grateful that I had such an enjoyable conversation with such a beautiful woman.
"Oi, you two!"
All at once, everything was shattered, and between those shards of glass, the darkness of curl after curl of smooth, onyx black hair almost fell down in waves to strangle us.
"You! Why didn't you ask for a ride" she questioned in that calm but commanding tone of hers, one a military general or blonde-haired and scarred Balalaika would be proud of.
"And you! Get your hands off him!"
Huh?
What does she...
I see.
I realised why this concrete slab had felt so comfortable, why it didn't feel like harsh stone against my back, and why that heavy breathing seemed to come from two directions at once.
I was sitting nestled in the lap of a heaving, sweaty woman in her bicycle shorts and crop top.