Midnight Train and Chuunibyou Girl

“Miss, miss!”

Teresa came to a concerned flight attendant.

She groaned with a good old fashioned wake-up groan. “What is the matter, dear, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Thank the heavens I didn’t,” said the attendant. Gesturing to the walkway of people standing preparing to exit the aircraft she calmly said, “We have arrived, miss.”

Teresa finally woke up, nearly forgetting that she was on a flight to Tokyo. She got up and searched for her belongings, hitting her head in one attempt. Ow…

Ah, well, at least I remembered why I am here in the first place, she thought. After she got her belongings under the seat in front of her, she turned to the flight attendant.

“My sincere apologies, miss, I did not know we were to land at this hour,” Teresa said, considering the fact that it is close to late night in Tokyo. The flight attendant just chuckled as she gestured to Teresa if she had any overhead baggage stored. Teresa politely declined, as the attendant bowed to her before assisting the next passenger.

As Teresa exited the aircraft, she felt the cool breeze of the fall changing to winter season. I read from an article once that Chiba is the first prefecture you enter, Teresa pondered, quite excited over the thought that she’ll spot Tokyo Disneyland somewhere. However, with her limited knowledge of Japanese, she wondered if she could communicate well with people to get where she wanted to go.

Teresa’s thinking doesn’t stop in one pondering. Over the course of the arrival processing, she kept wondering how the culture of Japan works, while applying her knowledge of what she read in articles and travelogues she had read a few nights before. Even with the excessive pondering, she is able to cancel it out with her enthusiasm. Her cheerful attitude made the locals smile, especially since they were struck with her bishoujo image.

Once she locked eyes with the smiles of the locals in the country, she felt more relieved.

Oh thank goodness, she thought. At least I didn’t need to fret over something trivial.

-----

As she made her way to the train station, she noticed that she had a missing pen. Her once joyous smile turned immediately to panic.

No, no, no, no! This can’t be happening!

How am I supposed to write the records then?

I don’t know if I could handle memorization-

The last time I tried memorizing a record, it was a total travesty and-

Teresa nearly screamed as she panicked around looking for it, until someone tapped her shoulder.

In Japanese, the person asked Teresa if that was the pen she was looking for. Overjoyed, she took the pen, and bowed to her with a broken arigatou. The person giggled, then chuckled, then burst into a hearty laugh. Teresa lifted her head to see the person who had returned her pen back.

A young Japanese girl, whom Teresa presumed was in her high school teen years, was wearing a pink trench coat and a white muffler around her neck. While she let out the rest of her laughter, Teresa felt a bit embarrassed, noticing the miniskirt and her white-to-light pink stockings.

In Japanese, the girl apologized for letting out a hearty laugh and gestured on the train which was about to leave. Since Teresa was a bit relaxed and calm at the time, she had less time to react as she looked around confused, still dazed at the young Japanese schoolgirl.

The schoolgirl, not wanting to miss her train, which happened to be the same as Teresa’s, grabbed her by the hand while Teresa held her bag as they both boarded the train.

“That was close,” muttered the schoolgirl. Teresa panted and nearly fainted while the schoolgirl caught her.

“This young lady is a weird one,” muttered the schoolgirl in Japanese. “However, if I am not mistaken, she might be the one baba-san was looking for.”

-----

After they had both settled down with two cups of Japanese tea, Teresa apologized to the schoolgirl for making her worry about her, even though she didn’t have to.

“My apologies, young lass, I am not cut out for a sudden adrenaline rush,” Teresa explained.

Having found out that the young woman was English, based on her accent alone, the schoolgirl replied, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have judged that you were proficient enough in Japanese.”

Teresa was just in utter shock.

“Y-You can speak English?”

The schoolgirl nodded and tried doing a cute pose. Teresa was not amused.

After a sip of her cup of tea, which was surprisingly relaxing, Teresa was curious about the schoolgirl’s motivation to help her.

“I am very grateful that you have helped me in a sticky situation, but why did you help me?”

The schoolgirl, smiling responded, “I just think the world will be a better place if we all helped someone out!”

“Aren’t you the optimistic one?”

“Totally!”

Teresa slightly laughed.

“So what brings you to Japan? Or more importantly, what’s with that pen I returned to you?”

“Oh this,” Teresa gestured at the pen. “This is a gift from my grandmother. She said this pen could last a lifetime, even in the hands of record keepers and old fashioned book authors.

“As for my reason being here… well, the pen has something to do with it, although not directly.”

The schoolgirl thought about what Teresa had said as she leaned closer to her realization. “Does that mean your grandmother is a fairy?”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Like, are you going to Sapporo to find out if she is a fairy who will grant you a super-ultra-mega-awesome wish because you’ve kept her pen safe since she gave it to you?”

“Err, you misunderstand-”

“Or maybe, you’re going to Sapporo because she wants you to harness the inner powers of the pen within by writing it on some piece of magical paper that will surely grant you that amazing wish?”

“Uh no, that’s not-”

“Or maybe-”

Teresa yelped as the schoolgirl leaned closer to her, shocking the schoolgirl. Within a second of her leaning forward to Teresa, she realized that she let out way too much of herself into a person she just met as her face turned red from embarrassment. Teresa just slightly chuckled.

“This must be the case of chuunibyou,” she confirmed, affirming herself that her knowledge of Japanese culture is wide enough.

The schoolgirl’s face turned more red. “Wait no, no-no! That was- I was- I just… uhh… you know-”

Teresa giggled. It was like the tables of embarrassment had finally turned to the local girl, who kept turning more red because of it.

“Don’t worry about it, chuunibyou cases are cute methinks,” Teresa said, comforting the young schoolgirl’s embarrassment. “I needed that laugh after everything that happened, thank you very much.”

“D-Don’t mention it, miss… uhh…”

“Oops, I realized we haven’t introduced ourselves to each other.” Teresa reached out her hand to the young schoolgirl. “Darlington. Teresa Darlington.”

The schoolgirl smiled and shook her hand, affirming their friendship.

“Fujioka. Ayane Fujioka.”