Ablution

“Touma.”

That gruff voice from the kitchen meant I was unlucky. Mom could usually be reasoned with, and if not, then her lectures were usually short. My father was not so easygoing. Ignoring him would make things worse. I poked my head in the kitchen- just far enough not to show the state my clothes were in.

“Yeah?”

Uh oh. That was probably a bit too nonchalant for the incoming lecture.

“Where have you been?”

It was a rhetorical question. Where I had been was immaterial. In this case, that was probably a good thing. If my father knew what I had actually done, he would have blown his top right then.

“I was over at Shinji’s place. Studying.”

That excuse usually worked. My parents knew Hiroki, and that he was a better student than I was.

“Studying what, huh? How to rebuild engines?”

Oh, right. I was hiding my clothes, but I couldn’t hide the smell. I had just gotten used to it after walking around a few hours.

“He bought an old dirtbike. He was showing it to me before we started studying.”

That much was true - Hiroki had purchased one after saving for a few years. That didn’t make it a plausible excuse. Nobody would get that messed up after tinkering with a tiny engine for a few minutes.

“Come here.”

My father was unusually calm. He was probably just waiting to find something off about my story so that his verbal lashing would be more effective. I did as he asked. If I was lucky, he wouldn’t inspect me too closely.

“Touma.”

If he ever called your name- just your name- that meant either one of two things: he was summoning you, or he was about to launch his attack. It was the latter this time.

“CUT THE CRAP!”

Yep, it was time for the lashing.

“Touma Nishzawa. You are almost an adult now. I understand and respect that, and I- we- give you the freedom to go where you please- within certain limits. But-!”

He stood up and marched over to me. We were almost the same height now, but he still felt a head taller than me. His two fingers made a knife- which he jabbed straight into my chest.

“-UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES is that ANY excuse to make your mother- or I- worry about you. That means you come home at a REASONABLE time. Do you know how late it is?”

I didn’t answer. It was another rhetorical question.

“DO YOU KNOW HOW LATE IT IS, TOUMA NISHIZAWA?”

Okay, maybe he was expecting an answer. The clock on the microwave read 02:14.

“...After midnight?”

That deflection wasn’t going to help. My father was too diligent to ask that question without already knowing the answer.

“It is a quarter past two in the morning. That is four- FOUR- hours past any reasonable curfew for you.”

“You never complain when my sister-”

Wrong move. He was already boiling over, and any complaints were only going to stoke the fires. I don’t know why I didn’t just stay silent- it would have been better for both of us.

“YOUR SISTER? Your sister is a working adult. She has to stay late sometimes because her job DEMANDS it. We accept that because she knows how to take care of herself and isn’t getting in any trouble. That does not mean we like it. You are a high-school student. You have NO SUCH EXCUSE. Not even studying with your friend.”

“...Sorry.”

That was all I had left in me to say. No protest would work against someone so forceful. I had no excuses that he would accept. Anything I said was just going to make things worse. Telling the truth might have made things far worse- at least he seemed to accept that I was over at Hiroki’s place to study. Hiroki would back me up if he started digging, too.

“You should be sorry. You’ve made your mother sick with worry. Apologize to her tomorrow.”

He was, surprisingly, done with the lecture. He usually went on for at least half an hour when he was really pissed off. His eyelids were sagging. My father wasn’t the kind of person to let weariness show on his face, but something told me he had been exhausted even before waiting up for me most of the night. Was being a low-ranking civil servant really such a stressful job?

“-and clean yourself up. You smell like shit.”

I did.

The shower was already warm right from turning on the handle. Someone had used it recently- maybe my Mom, staying up late waiting for me to return. Maybe it was my sister, who usually came home on Friday nights after everyone was asleep. It was a welcome relief.

The grime took a lot of soap to wash off. I hadn’t realized it before, but some thick and dark goop had stuck to the shirt and stained all the way through to my skin. The clothes were probably a write-off, regardless of whether that goop was congealed motor oil or some kind of kelp concentrate. It seemed to come off my body after a good scrubbing, though.

I couldn’t focus on cleaning myself, though. Too much else had happened.

Kanamaru’s plan had backfired- on him, at least. I had come out at least even, or perhaps even ahead if you counted the bribe fee that Kanamaru had spotted me and then failed to recover after we were safe. Still, any hopes of getting a summer of fooling around were shot. I’d have to work for any cash I wanted to spend. If I wasn’t working, my parents were going to make sure I was studying. Even hanging out with Hiroki wasn’t a guaranteed escape- he usually left to visit his grandparents in Kyushu around midway through the summer.

No, was that really the right thing to be worried about now? I had almost been shot. The bullet whizzed into the dirt next to my feet, but if that guard had aimed a little better- a little longer- I wouldn’t be here taking a shower right now. Would Ayasa even have stopped to rescue me if I had fallen there?

What was Ayasa, even? From when I first spotted her across the floor at the rave, she was unmistakably the same girl I had been watching every afternoon for many weeks- But getting closer, speaking with her- now I couldn’t be so sure.

I had made a little backstory for her as Sayu Midorikawa, the honor student of the North Akiba Academy. Despite her cute name, she was uptight, proper, and demanding. But she also had a cute, vulnerable side- the side that she didn’t even let close friends see- something that was reserved for only the one who got closest to her.

Ayasa didn’t seem anything like that up close. Sayu would never go to an underground- illegal, at that- rave. Ayasa was there. Sayu was reserved and bashful. Ayasa called me by my first name from the second I told it to her, and was so direct as to be rude.

Most importantly, Ayasa existed. Sayu did not.

Maybe there was some kind of mistake. Maybe I had just found a convenient look-alike to the girl in the window. If that was the case, then I had made a second mistake in grabbing her when I ran away. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Ayasa to escape- she seemed nice enough- but when I had grabbed her hand to escape with me-

I had wanted to take Sayu’s hand.

Sayu, who didn’t exist.

Now, I was in a bind. Ayasa was here. She couldn’t go back- not tonight, maybe not ever. I had roped Miho into putting her up for the night, but it was very clear that was only a temporary solution. What now? How would I get Ayasa back across the wall? Did she even want to go back? Who was she, really?

The thoughts spun down the drain. It was too late to worry about any of that. Ayasa was here in the South now. I’d have to figure it out sooner or later. I dried myself off and collapsed on the bed. There’d be time in the morning to sort things through.

As it turned out, there was less time in the morning than I expected. I woke up to a series of text messages from Miho. It was the first time she had messaged me since the start of the year.

Europa Fashion Center in Shibuya.

Be there at 11.

Bring money.