Somebody Else's Problem

“Have you finished that manga I lent you, Kaneko?”

“Naw… I still need a few days.”

The girl next to Kaneko chuckled as she sat down on the curb. “So you haven’t started it? Come on! It's so good. I know you’re gonna love it.”

Kaneko sipped from her can of coffee and shrugged. “Sorry, Naoko. I left it at home.”

Something about what was happening was familiar to Kaneko. She had been here before. She was back in Japan. She had never left.

The girl to her left. Naoko. She was wearing their middle school uniform. She was a cute girl, barely younger than Kaneko, but a full head shorter. She had short black hair and these enchanting green eyes that gave an allure of vulnerability behind her youthful expression. Kaneko hadn’t seen her in years, but it didn’t feel like that was true. Was this a memory? Or… No. It wasn’t that.

“I see… Well, get it back to me when you can. I’ll try to text you about it, but…” Naoko laughed nervously, “You know how I am in the morning.”

Kaneko smiled as she said, “Yeah. No skin off my back. I’ll read it, don’t worry.”

She didn’t know why she was smiling. She didn’t particularly feel like she wanted to. In fact, there was something about this whole situation that was filling Kaneko with dread. It wasn’t a feeling she was used to.

As she looked around, everything seemed right. The sky was a bright blue, dousing the city in a vibrancy that Kaneko wasn’t used to. Here were the same buildings that she gazed at every day, right outside of that convenience store. But they weren’t gray. They were yellow and white and purple and green and red and everything she. hoped they would be every morning that she walk outside her door

So, what was wrong?

“Do those people go to our school?” Naoko asked.

Kaneko looked up from her feet. “I think they might be upperclassmen, yeah…”

Across the street, there were a few kids walking and being loud. As kids often do. Suddenly, one of them says something to the others and they start to jaywalk across the road, towards the convenience store.

“Oh great.”

“Come on, Kaneko. They’re just kids like us. Stop being such a worrywart.” Naoko said, patting her friend on the shoulder like a stern but delicate mother.

“Look, I only hoped that this place would be quiet.”

Naoko gave Kaneko a sympathetic smile, the older kids arriving behind them, walking into the store.

The two girls sat in silence for a few minutes, Naoko optimistically smug and Kaneko waiting for some trouble to occur. It usually did when Kaneko was around. She usually had some pretty bad luck.

Kaneko agreed. With herself…?

A moment later, they heard some sort of commotion from inside as the group of 4 stormed out of the front door.

“Hey, you gotta pay! My boss is gonna kill me!” The store clerk, a skinny college-aged guy, shouted as the door closed, trapped behind the counter.

The punk kids all snickered as they passed bottles of soda to each other.

“Good.” Kaneko thought. “At least now they’re someone else’s problem-”

“Hey, come on guys! Give that stuff back! Or pay! I’ll tell the school what you’re doing!” Naoko shouted.

“Oh, brother…”

Within a beat, the older kids had circled back around to the two girls.

There was a girl with purple faded hair, tied into buns. She was wearing sunglasses and a long jacket over her shoulders, on top of her normal school uniform. She was a delinquent. The 3 guys behind her were definitely imitations of her overbearing presence and style. Even though she was pretty much average height, she towered above everyone else in that empty parking lot.

She walked straight up to Naoko, who was now standing tall. Well, as tall as she could with her short stature.

“You wanna act tough? Look, runt, I get that you’re young, but you really oughta know not to mess with people like me… I mean, you never know what I might be capable of…” The delinquent smiled a devious smile as she pushed in closer to Naoko. She was obviously trying to intimidate and Kaneko knew that Naoko couldn’t put up that much of a fight.

Kaneko attempted to jump to her feet, but someone behind her shoved her away. She tumbled a few meters across the parking lot as the 3 guys moved in between Kaneko and her friend.

The guy in back, already at least 6 foot in middle school, cracked his knuckles and grinned as the other two, slightly less impressive guys stepped in front of him. The effect was clear. Kaneko was gonna have to fight her way through to save Naoko. But she was grinning too, ready for a challenge.

“Ahhh!” She screamed, running straight towards the blockade of boys. The one on the left sent a punch her way, but Kaneko dodged. She used the opening to grab the kid by the collar and send him into the other on his right.

In another moment, she had taken their place, right in front of the big baddie. She put up her hands in defense, putting her attention into her footing. The guy threw a surprisingly quick right hook, for his size, but Kaneko still barely dodged. She wasn’t ready for his next attack though, an uppercut from his other hand.

Luckily for Kaneko, the guy threw the attack slightly too forward, hitting Kaneko in the stomach. She was barely able to move her arms down, making it connect with her elbows instead of her stomach. With a second of leverage, Kaneko managed to break her arms away, grabbing the muscular arms of the guy. She knew she couldn’t hold him there for longer than a few seconds, so in a split second decision, she kneed him straight in the genitals.

He didn’t resist so much after that.

Kaneko threw him to the side. Next, she had to take on the final boss.

“Hey! Get off of her.”

It had only been a little over a minute between Naoko starting the fight and then. With all the guys either writhing on the floor or pretending to writhe so they wouldn’t have to deal with Kaneko again. The delinquent girl, in contrast, was patiently waiting with Naoko. She knew that nothing was going to happen until Kaneko was finished.

Again, Kaneko started to feel dread, yet her whole being seemed to work against her. It was like someone else was in the driver’s seat.

The leader chuckled, her face contorting into one of deep anger and rage. Her limbs seemed to wrap around Naoko like a net, pulling her into darkness. Kaneko looked between both girls, each changing before her eyes. The leader began to grow taller and more monstrous, while Naoko shrank into the dark shroud

What came out of Kaneko’s mouth next shocked her. “I don’t want to hurt you. Just back off and don’t come back, then we can call it even.”

“What? How- am I supposed to fight that thing?” She thought. “I don’t even have the tape gun, stupid! Why would I say that? Am I bluffing?”

Kaneko didn’t question why she knew what the tape gun was, even though she was in Japan. She also didn’t wonder if she was going crazy, which most sane people would probably consider in this situation. No, the source of her fear, her frustration, her worry, was not the incongruity of the setting, nor the monster that had appeared in broad daylight. An image kept asserting itself in Kaneko's mind, and that was the girl who was trapped in the monster's embrace. Naoko.

"Xxhxhshssxxh" A sound emanated from the monster, like something in between radio static and being under a waterfall.

"You asked for it!" Kaneko responded, still incongruent with her own thoughts.

It only took about a second. Kaneko felt herself pull back, building up for a single strike. In one motion she pushed herself into her fist, which managed to barely make contact with the inky black surface of the monster, less than a foot away from where Naoko's face was buried in the same material.

Kaneko closed her eyes. When she opened them a second later, there was no monster. No real one. Only a girl, unconscious on the floor with her nose bloodied. Next to that girl, was Naoko, also on the floor, but less battered.

"Are you okay?" Kaneko asked, concerned. Kaneko reached out her hand, grabbing Naoko's and pulling her up. "Come on, we're going."

Kaneko looked at Naoko. It seemed her lips were moving, but Kaneko couldn't hear anything. It wasn't her ears, she could still hear the sound of trees swaying in the wind and the odd rumblings from a passing car. Naoko was talking. There just wasn't anything coming out.

Kaneko wishes she could lean in, see if the girl was whispering, but instead, Kaneko turned. She took one step away from the store and immediately there was something wrong. Her foot didn't meet with the concrete.

Instead, it pushed straight through, as though there was nothing there at all. Kaneko was falling.

Kaneko jerked her neck around, back at Naoko. She jerked her head around. Not whatever was controlling her body before. It didn't matter much though, she was still falling.

Naoko was still silently talking. She didn't notice what was happening to Kaneko. Before Kaneko could say anything, her mouth was covered in the concrete. She was nearly completely enveloped in the floor.

She wanted to scream, scramble and scratch her way out of the collapsing floor. But the floor wasn't collapsing. She was collapsing. The last thing she saw as she sunk through, was Naoko's brilliant emerald green eyes. Even as Kaneko's vision completely faded, she could see the negative image of those eyes.

And then, Kaneko was awake. She yawned. It was as if she had skipped right over morning grogginess along with midday alertness and was right at that evening-time sense that she ought to be going to bed soon.

In a few moments, she had nearly forgotten completely about the dream. Though the emotions it brought up took longer to dissipate.

〰

By the time Kaneko got to class, the dream was completely out of her memory. Her second day of school went about as smooth as the previous. Kaneko was still bored, but at least she finally had something she wasn't used to: a thing to look forward to.

Minny had gotten Kaneko to agree to meet up during their lunchtime which was about to start. Once the bell rang, Kaneko quickly packed up her things and left for the spot that Minny said she’d be waiting for her at.

Minny was standing underneath a large tree, swiping around on her phone. She looked awkward, like she didn’t know how she should be standing to look “normal”. That wasn’t a problem for Kaneko, she only noticed it because Minny looked so out of place.

Stepping up Kaneko gave an “Ahem.” to catch Minny’s attention.

She looked up quickly, “Kaneko!”

“What’s got you in such a fuss?”

Minny thought about the question before responding, “I don’t know. I guess I’ve never waited on anybody before.” She said smiling.

Kaneko caught the meaning, but briskly shrugged and decided to move past it. “So, what’s the plan? Do you like to eat lunch here?”

“Not really. I just do it when I get out. Food’s not very good here.”

“Yeah,” Kaneko chuckled. “My old school didn’t make very good lunches either. I usually got something at the convenience store after.”

Minny started idly walking, which is something that Kaneko was starting to get used to at that point.

“I like to go to the mall after school a lot. There’s usually stuff to do and a bunch of different options for food. I haven’t gone as much recently though. Because of… the side job. *wink* *wink*”

“Did you just say ‘wink wink’?”

Minny gave a sly smile. “Yes.”

Kaneko rolled her eyes as she looked away. She was smirking too, but she didn’t want to show it.

“We should go some time. It’s actually pretty cool.” Minny explained. “Hopefully we’d actually get to spend time there though. The shifts at work have been getting more and more frequent recently.”

Kaneko looked back at Minny, trying to gauge where she was at mentally, but looking at her face, Kaneko couldn’t tell much. She looked more neutral than anything else. Not contemplative or excited or even disappointed. But neutral.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Minny said, before returning to her more common generalized excitement. “So, what was your old school like?”

“Very different.”

“I bet. I mean, the outdoor hallways alone must be pretty weird. Most schools in southern California don’t even have that. I bet yours was the same as like, in anime, right?”

“Heh. Pretty much. At least in terms of layout. In terms of style it was kinda like those old Sukeban shows from the 80’s.” Kaneko explained

Minny responded with an inquisitive look.

“Um, Sukeban? You know… How do you say it in English? Delinquent girl show. Something like that.”

Minny’s look didn’t fade though.

“Well, it had this good delinquent girl, and she would fight off all the evil delinquent girls. Kind of like a magical girl show… but with a very different theme and tone and… Well, the audience was the same, but you get it.”

“So you fought off a bunch of bad apples everyday? Like a high school Robin Hood.” Minny mimed out some fake martial arts moves to back up her point. “Like a sort of a precursor to being a superhero now!”

Kaneko didn’t respond to that. She didn’t want to have another argument over it. She wasn’t a superhero. It was as simple as that.

As a lull appeared in the conversation, Kaneko decided to actually take in her surroundings. They had made their way to the half of the school that was closer to the entrance. Minny was leading them towards a large building in the almost exact center of the school. None of Kaneko’s classes were over there and she didn’t see nearly as many student’s hanging around as the other side.

“What’s over here?” she asked after a moment.

“Oh, sorry. We’re going to the school library. I need to do something.”

Kaneko was interested to see what the library was going to be like. It wasn’t something she really would have bothered with unless she had to go there for some reason, like she did now, but it was another difference in culture that Kaneko was open to seeing.

“So, what are we actually doing in here?” Kaneko said as they walked inside.

“Shh!” Minny whispered, “It’s a library. Show some manners.”

Looking around, Kaneko saw pretty much everybody around hanging out and talking normally. There were maybe one or two people who were actually doing any work, and they were surrounded by their friends who were definitely not. It wasn’t exactly a sight she expected, things being very different whenever she went to the library in Japan, but that was honestly par for the course at this point.

“Come on, I gotta print off a paper for my next class.” Minny continued.

The pair walked over to a row of ancient computers that were set up by the back wall. She started to look around the small stand up desk and hit certain buttons, turning this and that on.

Once Minny was satisfied, she turned to Kaneko and said, “Now we have to wait.”

“Really? This seems like a complete waste of time. Why didn’t you print it at home? I’m sure you guys have a computer, right? Doesn’t your Dad work at a computer factory or something?”

“First of all, he’s a hardware engineer for NXZT, so it’s not like he gets free computers… On the other hand, I forgot to print it out.”

Kaneko shared another incredulous look with her cousin, astounded that someone as uncoordinated and unprepared as her could successfully fight monsters for as long as she had.

“Okay…” Kaneko said at length.

For a few minutes, neither girl spoke. Neither knew anything to say. Minny was patiently waiting for the computer to finally boot up, and Kaneko had positioned herself facing the opposite direction so she could watch the rest of the library.

It wasn’t until Kaneko saw a familiar face that she turned to Minny and asked, “So, what’s the deal with her?”

Minny turned around and spotted who Kaneko was talking about. A blonde girl with designer clothes was walking around the library, handing out fliers to pretty much anybody she could. Sylvia.

“You mean the papers she’s handing out?” Minny asked. “I don’t know anything about that.”

“No, I mean yesterday. In class. She was fine until you showed up…” Kaneko said. “Did something happen between you two?”

Minny turned back toward the computer before responding. “I don’t know… We used to be friends. Or friendly, I guess.” Minny let out a long exacerbated breath. “One day she started acting all cold and stuff. I kept on treating her nice, hoping she’d apologize or something, but… She hasn’t done that yet.”

“When did she start acting like that?”

Minny paused for a moment… “I guess, a while ago. I don’t really keep track or anything.”

Kaneko glared at the girl as she made her way around the large room. She hadn’t known Minny long at all, but Kaneko could tell that she wasn’t the kind of person who would sour relationships so badly. As far as Kaneko could tell, Minny definitely didn’t deserve that kind of treatment from somebody, especially for that long.

Again, the pair sat in relative silence until Sylvia inevitably made her way over to them. Minny didn’t turn towards Sylvia and Sylvia didn’t acknowledge her at all.

“Um, Kaneko, My cat’s gone missing. She’s an indoor cat, so I really want to make sure she’s okay…” Sylvia explained as she handed Kaneko a sheet of paper.

On it was printed a picture of a big fat ginger cat sitting in a box that was way too small for it. Beside that there was a set of contact information and an address where one would presumably return it.

“And you expect me to look for it?” Kaneko asked. “Look how big it is. All you have to do is leave some food on your porch and it’ll probably come running. As much as it could run. Ha.”

“Just keep an eye out. His name is Red Butler. He should respond when called.”

Sylvia looked genuinely worried about her cat, but Kaneko didn’t pay her any sympathy. She was actually about to say something to that effect when Minny surprised her by speaking first.

“We could help you look around. Y’know, after school.”

Sylvia dished out an arrogant look at Minny, responding, “I don’t need your help, okay? What’re you even gonna do besides screwing things up even more?”

“Hey!” Kaneko exclaimed, a bit too loud for the library. “What did she even do to you?”

Sylvia failed to respond before Minny got another word in. “Come on, just let us help. Three heads are better than one, right?”

Sylvia narrowed her eyes at Minny before finally withdrawing, “Fine” “I’m gonna be at the railroad tracks on Bellwood Blvd. Show up or don’t.”

The girl turned around and walked away, neglecting to hand out any more of the fliers to people in the library.

Kaneko was honestly baffled at what had just occurred. “What’s her damage? You didn’t do anything!”

“I don’t know.” Minny responded looking down. Her face was yet again neutral, but her voice was still slightly downtrodden.

“And why did you offer to help? She doesn’t freakin’ deserve it. Geez…”

“If I don’t help, then who will? We’re superheroes, y’know. Right?”

Kaneko bit her tongue. She could think of a million reasons that she could argue with Minny, but none of them seemed worth it. Besides, she’ll figure out that she’s living in a fantasy eventually. You can’t walk around thinking you’re a superhero forever, can you?

“Whatever. It’s someone else’s problem now.” Kaneko said, immediately getting a bad feeling. Like she was going to regret what she just said and someone was watching her to make sure that she really did. She looked around for a moment, but the only people watching her were the kids that were hanging out in the Library before. “How close are you to being done? We’re getting a few stares.”

Minny’s energy immediately returned as she turned to look at the screen. “Ooh! Looks like I can finally log in.”

Kaneko’s jaw dropped. “So, how much do you need to do?”

“Oh… Well, I need to get onto the internet, then log into Goodle and then I can get the document and wait for it to print.”

“So you just started?” Kaneko asked.

“Yeah, these computers are kinda slow. But it’s okay, they’re trying their best!” Minny smiled as she patted the top of the computer like it was a dog.

“Oh boy…” Kaneko breathed, realizing that this was her life now.