Chance! Catch Him as He Falls!

“Mina-san, it’s been a while since we had a classical performance, so I’m sure you are all pumped up for our rising star!”

The hall was jampacked and there was soft murmuring everywhere that reached even backstage. The burgundy-haired girl tried to suppress her worries. This sort of muffled chatter was not good for a piano performance. She wasn’t the type to pander to an audience. No one even told her there’d be this many—she was only informed of her recital this very same morning.

“Take this,” said the girl’s father as they stood in the shadows.

“I don’t…” she said softly, “I don’t need it.”

“Look at your hands, dear.” They were trembling.

“It’s alright, Papa.”

“No. Take it.”

She stared at the Etizolam tablets with a bit of irritation. When did it come to this? She loved the Music Room. She loved the grand piano. She loved playing her fingers. She even played for the school welcome and graduation ceremonies. When exactly did she start needing a pill to go on stage?

“Our prodigy is from Tokyo and will perform a medley of classical and contemporary music.

“I’m sure you’ve been waiting long enough.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let us all welcome…

"Where does the mundane end?"

Whack!

"And the fantastic begin?"

Whack!

The high-schooler tried mightily to keep pace with the onslaught of baseballs shot at him again and again by the tube of the mini-gun. Yet somehow, he kept hitting every single pitch, sending every last ball far out to the ocean. Whilst blindfolded.

Whack!

He was all alone on a sandbar out in the middle of nowhere, practicing. And he kept asking himself these questions. Perfecting his every swing. Hitting the ball every time. All the while, a bevy of press people photographed him just behind the gun, to chronicle his every move. "Sugeeeeh..." gawked one. They can't have enough of him.

"A wise man once said, 'In a workout you can only go so far as your body odor dictates.' "

Heh.

"Not anymore."

The gun would not stop, would not run out of baseballs. At the same time a hole in the sand by his feet spat out an extra ball every so often. Tough work. But, still, he hit them all. Nothing can stop him now with his new body wash. Nothing could possibly hinder absolutely anything he set his mind to!

Suddenly, a watery spray blasted in his face from the sand at his feet. That was… a blowhole?

Yoshiyuki woke up in a fit of wheezing and raging cough. Just outside his window by his bed Grandma had pushed a pole under yesterday's catch of rain off the tarp that shaded the window. The shade wasn't fastened all the way through, sending quite a lot right into the room and onto the bed.

"Aa, gomen, gomen," she smiled apologetically. "Silly me. Really now, I should have put you in the spare-room."

He glared at his feet and muttered to her, "You did it on purpose, didn't you?"

#1. Chance! Catch Him as He Falls!

Grandma went off to the yard, humming. Actually, there was no reason to hole up in bed on such a fine, clear day. The air seems to have been refreshed by the passing summer storm. The sky never seemed bluer and the boisterous uproar of the nearby sea enlivened one's nerves.

And it's only nine in the morning.

None of those mattered. His privacy was paramount. That, and his pack of Camels. He felt about under the mattress where he cleverly concealed three of them under layers of bubble wrap. But Grandma was cleverer. Cursing, he stormed out of the room down to the kitchen where a hearty spread of pancakes were laid just for him, and the teapot was humming along with the stiff sea breeze gently tapping the closed windowpane. He left all the cupboards open and sailed right across the living room to her small real-estate office, where he also ransacked the drawers and left those open.

He bounded out to the yard where he found her pruning a few low bushes. "Where are my sticks?" he demanded.

"You were saying?" she called back pretending to be hard of hearing.

He walked up to her and did not tone down his voice. "Where did you keep them?!"

"Them? Are they good to eat?"

Realizing the futility of it, he went over to her electric scooter parked by the fence. "Hey," she called, "don't get that! You will…" But her grandson has already strode to the thing and started it with the keys he had spirited out of one of the drawers. “Wait!” she said trying to get to him, but he had already driven away.

"….the battery's low…"

At a beach not far away from the house, the waves tumbled onto the sand. Further down the beach there was a low wooden pier where you had to stoop to cross under, and a little after that a pebbly shore, where the waves dragged the stones back and made an eerie white noise. The sea looked frightening even though it politely kept itself to the shoreline. It was like this all along the coast road where the bike was now making its way.

At that same road, taking advantage of the brisk weather, he passed by a pair of local high school girls jogging in their P.E. uniforms. A honey-haired lass trailed by a redhead trying to catch up.

“Kan-chan!” wailed Ai. “Wait up!” She finally sank to her knees breathing heavily.

Kanako jogged back to her. “Ai-chu we’re not even halfway done, zura.”

“I… I… I can’t keep up to you. I just can’t!”

“Aren’t you worried about your weight?”

“Well… I don’t know. I guess my weight is pinning me down. I can’t run any great distance when I’m too heavy. But… I gotta run to shed pounds. Wahhhh… Kan-chan, what shall I do?!”

“Simple,” she said with a wink. “I’ll dig up a beetle and stick it into your pants, that’ll get you running, zura.”

“Kan-chan!”

Laugh. “Kidding…” She sat down to her level. “Looks like we must make a program suited to you. Say, you remember those barbell guys on YouTube? You must do something only heavy guys can do.”

Ai pouted. “I’m not like that, Kan-chan, I’m not that heavy.”

“Hora,” she said standing up, “carry me on your back and let’s go back to the dorm.”

“Eh? Can I really do it?”

She went behind her and clung to her back. “You won’t find out if don’t try, zura.”

With a determined look, Ai began to stand up whilst lifting Kanako. She made slow progress wailing through gritted teeth.

“Show no mercy, Ai-chu!”

“Uhhhh!”

“No prisoners! No mercy!”

“Uggggh!”

“I find your lack of faith disturbing!”

“Urrggggh—”

“Great power... Great responsibility!”

“Ahhhhh!”

“Life is a box of… chocolates!”

“Arrggggh—”

With a final furious roar Ai finally got to her feet—to her surprise. “Huh? Wow, Kan-chan you’re actually pretty light.”

She chuckled embarrassingly. “It’s more like you’re stronger when you’re on your feet, zura. I should have just climbed up the seawall first, so you didn’t have to lift me from the ground…”

Ai laughed and spun around with her delightedly. “Come on, cutie pie, I’m taking you home with me!” And off they went.