Motoko (1)

“What the hell?” Motoko said when she saw me.

This was because I was hunkered down in front of the vending machines, my arms resting on my legs like a delinquent. I had been waiting for her for quite some time.

Standing up, flexing my back and putting on my best Junichi Suwabe impression, I spoke to her thusly, “so, you finally decided to show your face.”

“Do you think that makes you seem cool?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess.”

“Well it don’t,” she flicked me on the forehead, “so drop it.”

Motoko seemed fairly serious. At least compared to that morning.

“Alright girlie, put ‘em up.”

“Are you right in the head?”

“Don’t try and chicken out now.”

Motoko sighed and flicked me on the forehead, but this time she didn’t hold back. I was sent flying from where I stood into one of the vending machines behind me. As I crumpled into a heap on the ground, a cold refreshing pocari sweat popped out of the machine and hit me on the head.

“A-alright… match one to you.”

I tried to push myself to a stand but Motoko put a foot on my chest and pinned me down.

“You know you can’t win against me, right? Don’t get up.”

“I’ll never admit defeat!” Motoko stepped down on my ribs with just enough force to not break them. “Ouch! Ow! I admit defeat!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Please get off me…”

With a hint of reluctance, Motoko stopped crushing my ribs.

Some of you might be seeing this as a pivotal moment in the story. It’s not, I assure you it’s not. I merely let her win, I would never be beaten by a girl, okay? Let’s agree to that.

“Come on, get up.”

Motoko leaned over my body and grabbed the stray bottle that had spilled from the machine. She beckoned me to join her at a nearby bench and I obliged.

“So,” I say as I sit down, “no prizes for guessing why you’re at Yūkan.”

“Heh. You liked that did you?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t need to.”

She handed me the pocari sweat. Some kind of peace offering.

“I don’t need your charity, alright?”

“What do you mean? You’re the one who paid for it.”

She gestured towards the broken vending machine, which by that stage was threatening to catch fire.

Reluctantly, I took the bottle. Letting Motoko beat me up was thirsty work you see, I didn’t want to take it but I didn’t have any other choice.

“So… why do you want to join the dreamer’s club?”

“Didn’t Shizuko tell you?”

“Oh, I don’t mean that. Yeah, you have a dream, everyone has one, that’s an obvious reason to join the dreamer’s club. But I want to know, is why some dickhead like you wants in?”

“...can you ask a different question?”

“I can ask you the same one in a roundabout way.”

“Sure.”

“Why do you think I’m in the dreamer’s club? What my dream is is irrelevant, think about why I have to join a club to achieve it.”

“It’s simple right? Your dream is impossible to achieve.”

“Not at all,” Motoko takes a second to think and points lazily at a girl crossing the yard in front of us, “see that girl there? Tanaka Risa. Comes from an influential family, real cutie. Since her first year she has been very open about wanting to be a popstar.”

“Is that so unreasonable a dream for a hot rich girl?”

“If she was born without vocal chords it is. She’s here because she’s a telepath, communicates directly with other people’s minds, it’s kind of freaky actually.”

“Tragic. A shame even. But I don’t see how it’s relevant.”

For my insolent remark, Motoko flicked me in the thigh and gave me the most painful dead leg of my life.

“You need to learn to shut your mouth, I’m giving you a chance here… You already know this but Risa-san isn’t in the dreamer’s club. Why do you think that is?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know?”

“You’re not that bright are you?”

I was contemplating risking it all to get one solid punch in when Motoko stood up, a decision that surely saved my life.

“Can you walk?”

“Don’t ask stupid questions.”

I said that but it was only the adrenaline coursing through my veins as a result of her verbal assault that allowed me to push through the pain barrier and stand up.

“Good, then follow me.”

***

For the first time in my life that day, someone forced me to understand their point of view.

Motoko lead me through the school grounds, taking a meandering route to her goal. She made a point to lead us just near enough to groups of people that they noticed our presence. Every single time our existence was registered by someone else, they’d change directions or slow down, in some way alter their course as to avoid us.

At first, I thought it was because of me. It made sense, I was foreign, taller than everyone else and I hadn’t made a great impression of myself whilst talking to Hachitama before. But as we walked, as more and more people turned away, I realized something. They weren’t avoiding ‘us’, they were avoiding her. A couple of times a group would notice me first and give me an odd look but when they saw that Motoko was in my company, the change in the atmosphere was swift.

The biggest group we came across was a number of girls gathered around Risa as if she was an idol. They ran away from us quicker than most.

Eventually, she lead me to a set of stairs hidden away behind one of the school buildings.

“Where do these lead?”

“There’s a beach down there.”

“I didn’t bring my speedos.”

“What a shame,” she said with a distinctly sarcastic edge.

As I limped down the steps after her and the beach started to come into view, Motoko finally began to give me an explanation.

“See those people over there?” Motoko pointed to a group of two guys and one girl down on the beach. “We’re going to sort them out.”

“What does that mean?”

“We’re gonna scare them shitless.”

“And why are we going to do that?”

“Those two are nasty pieces of work. Hide and Fuyuki, one with the ability to create small flames in his hands, the other blessed with the power to heal superficial wounds… the girl that’s with them is a first year, and she’s not there by choice.”

“...what are they doing with her?”

“You’ll see.”

Motoko jumped over the last few steps and sunk into the sand a bit upon landing. As we approached where the group were, the situation became clear. The two of them were pinning the first year to the ground, one set of knees on her arms the other on her legs. Hide was using the flames in his hands to burn the girls face and Fuyuki was then healing the wound. They repeated this cycle several times as we walked towards them, every time they did so they’d laugh a little. Not heartily though, just a pathetic chuckle.

It was a classic case of bullying. Well, maybe not classic, I hadn’t seen things go as far as burning a victim’s face back home but that’s only because normal people can’t hide a wound like these two can. Rest assured, plenty of people with immaculate faces ended up with a tonne of fractured ribs.

“Oi, you two!” Motoko called out. “I thought I told you to give this up!”

“And I thought we told you to stay out of our business!” Hide shouted back.

Hide burned the girls face again and she yelped.

“If you don’t stop right now, you’re gonna regret it.”

“Oh yeah?” Fuyuki taunted. “What are you gonna do about it?”

“I’m not, going to do anything about it, but he will.”

Motoko put her hands on my shoulders as if to show me off, whispering in my ear as she did so, “Pretend you can’t speak Japanese.”

“We’re not scared of some foreign guy.” Fuyuki squeaked, very clearly afraid of me.

“Yeah! W-w-what could he even do to us?” Hide whimpered.

“My new friend here has quite the ability, he can alter people’s perception. Ever wondered what your veins taste like? This guy can convince you they’re strawberry liquorice just by touching you.”

“There’s no way he’d do that, right? Right?!” Hide said.

“You wanna bet?”

Motoko turned to me and spoke in almost perfect English. “Point at them for me and say something.”

“Why can you speak English?” I said while pointing at them.

“I watched a lot of Breaking Bad. Now take a step towards them.”

I did as I was told and before my right foot had come down to complete a single step, the two of them were running for the hills. Motoko’s little play had convinced them that I was dangerous.

I was confused though. Motoko was strong, not stronger than me of course but definitely stronger than those two. Why didn’t she just deal with them herself?

“They won’t bother you anymore,” Motoko said to the girl.

In return, Motoko got nothing. The girl looked just as scared in that moment as she had when she was getting her face burned, maybe more so. Without a word of thanks she crawled to her feet and walked hastily away from the scene.

Motoko seemed to expect this, as there was no change in her expression, not even the slightest twitch. With a light sigh, she grabbed a handful of stones from the beach's edge and started walking towards the shore.