Squall

“It’s a Zvezdisk.”
Hiroki declared that confidently as he flipped the translucent plastic case through his fingers. Normally, we would have been studying in his apartment, but that room was Ayasa’s now. That left my room - where I had left the disk Kanamaru had hocked off on me that night.

“What’s that?”

“Zvezdisk? It’s a Soviet optical disk format. It was meant to compete with DVD, but it’s much slower and only holds about half the data - something like 2 gigabytes. The Soviets weren’t able to miniaturize the laser optics enough so the data tracks are more widely spaced.”

“Huh. So is it valuable?”

“Depends what’s on it. The disk itself is practically worthless, but they do get used in government or business applications sometimes. It could also just be someone’s erotic video collection.”

Hiroki smirked a little at that last bit.

“Kanamaru’s contact seemed to think it was valuable. He tried to give it to us as payment.”

“Oh? Did Kanamaru think it was?”

“No. That’s probably why he left me with it. Does K-1104 mean anything to you?”

I pointed at the crudely drawn label. Hiroki sighed.

“No clue. Looks like it could be a date. April 4th?”

“Do we have any way of reading it?”

“Nope. We’d need a ZD reader. As far as I know, you can’t get any outside the communist bloc. Not legally, anyway.”

“So it’s worthless, then.”

“To us? Yeah, pretty worthless.”

Well, damn. For a second, I had conceived of a vain hope that the disc might be enough to put a dent in Kanamaru’s generous financing plan. For now, it might as well have been plastic junk.

“You want it?”

I asked Hiroki. He wasn’t really a collector, but this was at least something he knew more about than I did.

“The ZD? Not really, but I’ll take if off your hands if you’re gonna throw it out.”

A spasm of rain thudded against the window. It had calmed since yesterday but the occasional squall was still drenching the area from time to time. The steel gray skies were still abuzz with activity - formations of allied fighter jets wheeling around as they practiced maneuvers. A tank was rumbling down the side street adjacent to my house. It was barely large enough to fit, clipping exposed ornaments as it made its way to the main road.

“Do they really need to come down this way?”

“I think they’re experimenting with how to move the tanks around in the city.”

“Can’t they do it some other place? It’s hard to study like this.”

It wasn’t the first tank to roll past our window. It had happened four or five times in the past 3 hours. American soldiers were everywhere.

“I heard you went home with Sayu yesterday.”

What? How did Hiroki know about that?”

“Heard? From who?”

“Just scuttlebutt from around my class. Something about Nishizawa and the new girl. Figured it had to be Midorikawa.”

“Someone saw us?”

“Nothing to be embarrassed about, Nishizawa.”

“That’s not what I meant. It was raining sideways yesterday- who was out there to see us?”

“Ooooh, Umbrella date. You lucky devil.”

“It wasn’t a date.”

“Well, my class seems to think you’re dating.”

“We’re not.”
No, but it could look like that, couldn’t it? I had to admit, some part of me still wanted that. Yet, another part of me was ringing alarm bells, warning me that something was seriously wrong with this situation- that Ayasa wasn’t telling the whole truth about what she wanted. I had ignored that part of myself before, and the consequence had been nearly getting killed.

“I don’t understand you sometimes, Nishizawa. The girl you’ve been fantasizing about for who-knows-how-long is finally next to you, and you’re giving her the cold shoulder now?”

“Something’s wrong about all this.”

“Is that residual guilt talking? She doesn’t seem that broken up about leaving the North to me. Actually, It looks to me like she’s loving the Southern life.”

“No, I don’t think it’s that. It’s something deeper.”

“Nishizawa, are you sure you should be talking? You’ve got a lot of game but you’re terrible at reading women. At least, as far as I can see.”

“Huh? What’s that mean?

Hiroki twirled a pen around his fingers. It was a bit of distressing nonchalance from someone who looked ready to tear me down.

“Like with Saijou. She was obviously still into you, and you start acting like you’re exes.”

“We are.”

“You are NOW. I think she was still waiting for you- up until Midorikawa showed up, that is.”

“Waiting for me? To do what? Apologize? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Even if that’s true, objectively, you still hurt her, Nishizawa. And you hurt her more by not following up with her.”

“She decided she didn’t want to talk to me. How is that my fault?”

Hiroki was getting a bit more curt. I was getting riled up too.

“Is that something she told you? Or was that something you decided for yourself?”

“I-”

What was it? What had she said to me the last time we had spoken as boyfriend and girlfriend? Oh, yeah. She had asked me about her hair. I didn’t give her the answer she wanted. That was it. There hadn’t been any breakup - not until Ayasa had arrived.

“So…maybe I misread Miho. How’s that relevant to Ayasa?”

“Why do you keep calling her that, Nishizawa?”

“What? Ayasa?”

“Yes. She asked you to call her Sayu, didn’t she? That’s what you told me.”

I didn’t have an answer for that. I stammered something out, but there wasn’t any meaning to it. An exasperated smile came to Hiroki’s face.

“You fell in love with Ayasa, didn’t you?”

“Huh? What do you- they’re the same person!”

“No. Sayu’s just a fake identity. You made her up, and now she feels fake to you.”

“Well- yeah…”

“Maybe Sayu feels more real to Sayu than Ayasa ever did to Ayasa.”

“What does that even mean?”

Hiroki lost control of the pen he was spinning between his fingers. It made a pathetic little bouncing noise and rolled under the desk.

“Figure it out, Nishizawa. There’s only one person you’re gonna find out from, and that’s not me..”

I heard a voice calling from downstairs. It was a man’s voice. My Father’s. What was he doing home at this time? He had been working late for weeks at this point.

“Touma!”

“Coming!”

Hiroki followed me downstairs. Sure enough, my father was there, thoroughly soaked by the rain.

“Ah, Shinji. I didn’t realize you’d be here.”

“Oh! Mr. Nishizawa. It’s been a while. We were studying.”

“Is your father doing well? I heard he was reassigned.”

“He’s conning a desk in Yokosuka right now.”

“Ah, well. A shore position’s never as exciting as a command, but it’s nice if it lets him be closer to his family.”

“Yes, sir. We’re all living under one roof again.”

“Oh? I thought you lived in the area?”

Hiroki struggled, clearly trying to avoid mentioning Ayasa.

“Oh, yes- we needed the extra rent. The economy is…very tough.”

My father nodded along.

“Well, Shinji- I’m afraid I have some family matters to discuss. I’m terribly sorry to interrupt your study session- especially when you’ve been keeping Touma on track so well- but…”

Hiroki took the hint and departed with a wave.

“Well, then, I should get going. See you tomorrow, Nishizawa.”

“That Shinji boy is a nice kid. You had better not be dragging him down, Touma.”

“I’m not. We were just studying.”

“I hope you were actually studying and not playing video games.”

“No, sir.”

“Good.”

My father took off his coat, hanging it near the door. The black bags under his eyes had been particularly prominent lately. With a lurch, he dragged himself over to the easy chair in the family room and sat down. I made for the refrigerator- my father was not a heavy drinker, but when he came home like this he almost always asked for a beer.

“Touma. Wait.”

“Huh?”

“I said I had important matters to discuss.”

“Oh. I thought you were trying to shoo-”

“I wouldn’t want to scare away the only person keeping you on the straight and narrow right now. This is serious.”

I sat down on the couch, opposite the chair my father was sinking into.

“Touma. Do you know where your sister and mother are right now?”

“Mom’s out shopping, and my sister’s at her job…right?”

“No. They’re in Okinawa right now.”

Huh? They had just been here last night.

“Okinawa? They went on vacation? Without us?”

My father sighed.

“No. It’s not a vacation. We will be moving there when summer break starts.”

I didn’t have any words at first. Huh? Why? Okinawa? What could possibly be the reason for leaving Tokyo?

“Did…you get reassigned?”

My father let out a brief chuckle.

“No. I’m not that lucky.”

“So…why?”

“The situation in Tokyo isn’t going well right now. My job is temporarily relocating us to Okinawa.”

“I thought you were part of the city government. Why would a Tokyo city official work in Okinawa?”

“Touma…have you ever heard the phrase ‘Continuity of Government’?”

“No.”
“In times of disaster, whether natural or…otherwise… It’s typical for important government roles to be fulfilled from a place of greatest safety. Okinawa is safe. The US Navy can stop any attempt to land troops there.”

“So…there’s going to be a war?”

“God willing, no. But we can’t rule that out as a possibility right now. I was one of the people selected for this task. The family is relocating until the assignment ends.”

“And…when will that be?”

“If we are lucky, no longer than summer break. If we are not…”
My father trailed off. There were no words for what would happen if we were unlucky.

“Then…”

“Make sure your things are packed, Touma. We leave in two weeks.”

“I thought you said we would leave when summer break-”

“Your summer break is starting early. Don’t think that means you can slack off more. And be ready to go earlier if we need to leave.”

“Right…”

“Don’t tell your friends at school about this. I don’t want to spread any bad rumors about what’s going on, especially when everything is so tense.”

“Okay…”

“Stay out of trouble. I don’t need any more of it right now. You can get into trouble when we are in Okinawa if you absolutely must. But not now. It’s too dangerous for that right now.

“I see…”

“Oh, and Touma?”

I nodded.

“Could you get me a beer from the refrigerator? I've had a long day.”