An Unexpected Wish (Part 1)

Heavy rain poured onto a building where the funeral of a couple and their son takes place. A young lady in a black dress was seen crying a lot in front of the portraits of the deceased. This is Nanami Fujibayashi (藤林 菜々実), their daughter, whose immediate family was killed by a robber. Relatives and friends of any members of the Fujibayashi family paid their last respects to them and offer support for the sole living person in the family. It's hard enough to have someone close to pass on, but a lot harder to have one's entire family to be killed because of someone else's greed.

It was barely a week ago that she came home quite late because of club activities. Nanami was walking along the dimly lit road that leads to her house. As she reached home, she finds that the house is unusually dark and that the front gate and door were wide open. She called her parents to check if everyone had left in a hurry earlier in the afternoon. But when she called, she heard all of their mobile phones ringing from inside the dark house with nobody answering. Normally, if one of them had forgotten to bring their phone, the rest would have brought along. Nanami didn't think that they were going to anywhere today except to work.

As Nanami sensed that something is wrong, but is afraid of the dark, she called some of her neighbours to come along with her with a torchlight. Before entering the main door leading into darkness, they shouted loudly just to make sure. To no avail, there was no response. Nanami switched on the lights, and, to her horror, she found dead bodies of her family with clothes drenched in their blood. The neighbours soon called the police. Nanami was at a loss of words as to what to do.

The police cordoned off the house as they investigate the entire house for evidence as to the cause of death and clues that would lead to the suspect. During that time, she stayed with one of her neighbours.

With some investigations, eyewitnesses and autopsy reports later, they came up with a possible solution: Not long after Nanami left the house for school that day, a strange man randomly chose the Fujibayashi household to break into. However, not long after entering via the second floor, Nanami's brother spotted him stealing things in the parents' bedroom. He then went down to alert mom and dad in the kitchen, but the burglar quickly stabbed Nanami's brother multiple times at the stairs before attacking the other two people in the kitchen. He ran out through the front door in a hurry. All of this happened in broad daylight. This report was published in the newspapers nationwide on the following day, when the funeral would begin.

After the funeral, Nanami's relatives offered her to stay with them, but their house is at Hyogo Prefecture, and the Fujibayashi household is in the Kanagawa Prefecture, far enough for her to change schools. Nanami has already made a lot of friends, and has been living there all her life. Moving there would mean making new friends that may not understand as well as her existing ones, and have to adjust with a lot of new things on top of the stress with studying in high school. As Nanami is now the only living person in the household, and that no will was written, she now inherits everything from them. As she don't foresee obtaining a driving licence in the near future, she decides to sell off the family car and her brother's motorbike with the help of the others. Assuming that she uses the total amount of money gained from the inheritance only for daily necessities, it would be enough to last for several years without working, even after completing college.

As Nanami walks out of the house to hang dry the washed clothes, she walks past a photo frame hung up on the wall of the living room. The photo consists of her family, grandmother, and extended family members Nanami knows very little of. The photo was taken at a park during the Hanami season at the beginning of spring 6 years ago. Nanami is puzzled as to why her uncle's grandchildren living in Hyogo are about the same age as her. Since she was still a child back then, she only remembers the place, drunken adults, and that she was playing with someone who has the same family name as Nanami's grandmother, someone called Izumi Miyazawa (宮沢 泉美).

Nowadays, Nanami is never seen without a gloomy face. Having jokes with her does make her smile, but it lasts for only for a while. Even swimming lessons for physical education in the summer she was so eargly looking for before, had her sitting by the poolside as she watches everyone playing.

"Fujibayashi-san? What's wrong?", said a guy's voice from behind.

Nanami knew that the voice belonged to one of her classmates, Yuichi Takizawa (滝沢 由一), but did not respond. In fact, it was hard to tell if Nanami was even listening. Yuichi is known for being able to cheer people up completely from things like failing exams, but doesn't know how to cheer someone who has three of their family members murdered recently like what happened to Nanami. Yuichi scratches his head, figuring out how to get her back to what she was before.

"Fujibayashi-san, shall we go swim...", he said to Nanami as he was about to hold her hand when another classmate, Misae Tamura (田村 三佐枝), pushes the both of them into the pool.

"Tamura-san! What are you doing?", said Yuichi as he reached to the surface of the water.

"Ah~ Takizawa-kun... I thought you two were about to enter the pool. I was only helping~"

"Can't you at least see how depressed Fujibayashi-san from the recent death of her entire family? Fujibayashi-san? Fujibayashi-san??!!"

Nanami is now sinking towards the bottom of the pool, but knows that it was Misae that pushed her. However, her depression made her not care that she's drowning.

Nanami blacked out.

379th post:: Wonder what they are up to...

(written on 13 May 2009)

Being away from home, I wonder if the people at home are doing anything to my room. I don't mind if they clean it up, but not throw away my precious stuff. Also, I don't want them to go sneaking into my room to find something that would make me embarrassed. They normally don't as I'm always in my room and is hard get around but you never know.

Sigh, I can't watch much of the new Spring anime or the new episodes of Haruhi. I'm also missing out on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince... If only they didn't delay it from the originally planned December 2008 release... Oh well, there's always the DVD release or something.

378th post: How my posts are numbered.

(written on 13 May 2009)

You might have noticed I numbered my posts, except for my stories and some of the older posts. It's based on the post count of what I had done, including scheduled and drafts. It's because of of the later that you might see the numbers jump around.

Oh, and in case you have forgotten, I had mentioned back in April that I am now off to somewhere and would not be able to to put up new posts. However, I have prepared posts that are scheduled for the next 2-3 months.

Well, to tell if my posts are scheduled ahead, I might put up something like at the top of this post. Also, the time of the post would be at exactly 11:00 AM. Due to time constrains, lengthening list of what-I-should-be-doing- but-have-yet-to-do, (as at 13 May) I don't have much of my stories scheduled for the next 3 months. Also, until I have the time and get access, the links would not be available and would have to look through tags and archives after they are released.

414th post: Noodles

Noodles are stiff and fragile when dry.

But soft and springy when soaked in water for some time.

It tastes plain, but flavoring can be added.

However, that flavoring is not part of the noodle.

It just sits on top of it or the soup it is soaked in.

Chocolate marshmallow flavored noodle....

Purple noodles...

When bringing them abound in its unused form, broken pieces are unavoidable.

A cup of hot instant noodles is warm in the cold tempreatures.

It's hard to tell when those 3 minutes are up.

And I don't know why I'm talking about noodles.

Or what's with the purple chocolate marshmallow part I mentioned earlier.

Alternate Dimension (Part 29)

(continued from part 28)

I had the sensation of my life I have never felt before last night. I was like, "Is this for real?" when it was going on, but I don't want to talk about it.

Anyways, today is the cultural festival at Kotomi's school. I didn't know what to wear, so I just wore my uniform. Saeko, who has been hiding somewhere in the house since before I arrived home last night, only came out of hiding after Kenjiro and I left. Kotomi is already busy helping out people this early in the morning that she can't stop and talk to me. She did say that her siblings are around when she ran past me.

Oh, Kotomi's siblings... I haven't seen them since I went to that country with Haruna and some of my current classmates not too long ago. It was such a large group that they probably didn't notice me there as though I was invisible. I did see Shin'ichi there, but he was too preoccupied with whatever he was doing. On top of that, they probably don't recognize me without my uniform on. Not to mention that I was stuck in a wheelchair and can't do absolutely anything. Saeko didn't even call them out as she never saw them before that day, but I have, at the Miyazawa household almost a year ago. We never met face-to-face that day, as though we didn't see each other that day.

Kotomi's siblings' age gaps with Kotomi are so great that I first thought they belonged to someone else as I was surrounded by so many unfamiliar people, including those whom were from my school at that time, until they address her as the older sister. It's that unfamiliarity the reason why I stayed close to Kotomi most of the time on her birthday. Although they had seen me on that day, I don't know if their memories on what they had known me as are modified like everyone else as they don't work with my company, but Kotomi and their uncle are. Are they here yet? If so, where?

Izumi: "Oh? Isn't that Hisakawa-oneechan? Hey! Over here!"

I stopped walking, paused, and started to turn around.

Shin'ichi: "Hey, you're calling the wrong person!"

Izumi: "What are you talking about?"

Kousei: "She's Kotomi-oneechan's close friend and visited her birthday party last year! Don't you remember?"

Shin'ichi: "What are you both talking about? Nee-chan's best friend is a guy!"

Ah, mixed reactions. Her oldest younger sibling still remembers me as a guy, while the other two remembers me as a girl.... Kotomi did told me that she had said to one of her siblings in November last year about Kotomi and I being boyfriends and girlfriends. It feels weird to have that relationship since I turned into a girl 4-5 months later. What I'm curious is why does he still know me as what I was.

Me: "Oh, Shin'ichi-kun, Kousei-kun, Izumi-chan! Long time no see! Your older sister did tell me that you three were visiting."

Izumi: "You're Saeko Hisakawa, right? My older brother keeps thinking you're a guy named Itsuki Hisakawa. He's weird isn't he?"

Mentally, yes, but physically, no. I'm stuck with the cloned body of myself while the one controlling my original body is a random lost soul. It behaves a lot like me because it has my memories and knowledge but absolutely nothing from its former self. Or is it the other way around? It would be scary and hard to believe to think that my mind was that lost soul because it didn't seem that way to me. Also, I need to explain my situation to Shin'ichi away from the others. But how?

Me (looking at Shin'ichi): "WHAT!? You think that I'm a guy!? How can you say that when you have seen me before?! Come with me! Oh Izumi-chan, Kousei-kun, you can go wonder around while I deal with this weird brother of yours."

I know, I made Shin'ichi unnecessarily scared. But it's the only way I could think of.

Izumi: "Ha ha! You got scolded! Hisakwa-oneechan, I'll see you later."

The other two are now out of sight. Shin'ichi is still trembling from my (fake) scolding.

Me: "Are you all right? I didn't mean to scold you. I don't know what exactly Kotomi told you about me, but as for what you said earlier, I am that Itsuki."

Shin'ichi: "Huh? How can a beautiful girl with a sweet voice like you be him? You look nowhere near to be cross-dressing, unless you have done it very perfectly."

Huh? What's with that last sentence? Let's pretend I never heard that.

Me: "It's hard for me to belief it myself too. I was working on something one night, and then I found myself to be like this the next day. To tell you the truth, I actually want to be what I am now. What I'm still puzzled is why you and the employees of the company I work for still knows the old me while everyone's memory about me has changed."

Shin'ichi: "No wonder I saw Kotomi-oneechan becoming quite depressed since May until quite recently. However, just the day before yesterday, I heard her watching a video and her repeatedly saying 'I don't want to die!', sounding as though she is in tears. I saw her carrying the old computer into her room not long before that, saying something about transferring files to the new computer I saw her bought in end-November last year. But, still, how do I know you are whom you say to be and not his little-known sister? Tell me something that I know about Itsuki that neither of us has already said."

You mean the computer the video file Saeko had transferred into was on the old computer that she hardly uses? That explains her recent behavior, because she just saw it. So that time travel to last year from the future is as good as traveling to the day before. Judging by the noise outside Kotomi's room that Saeko heard back then was probably on Kotomi's birthday last year, but she was too preoccupied and saw no reason to bother checking that computer even though it was placed on the computer desktop.

Me: "Hmm, this is hard, considering that I don't know what you know. Let's see, I was in class 1-3, joined the music club when I was still here, Kotomi changed her hairstyle before the first day of high school, she wrote a strange love letter with the name 'Coltrane Gorbachev', I was in the news several times for being stabbed to death..."

Shin'ichi: "Ok, that's enough. You are the Itsuki Hisakawa I used to know. Wait, did you say being stabbed to death?"

Me: "That's right. Three times, not including the unreported rape. I was already a girl when all of them happened."

I can't believe how casually I can say such things as though it's a daily thing.

Shin'ichi: "News report... wait, I saw another girl who looks exactly like you. Mamiko or something. News report says that she's your twin, but you don't have a sibling..."

Me: "Actually, that girl is my clone. Or rather, I am that clone, so technically, it's not wrong for your siblings to call me Saeko instead of Mamiko. It's hard to tell if my current mind was transferred from or created from my original though, because it seem that I know I entered a strange machine that looked like a teleporter and found myself to be suddenly at the other part of the room when I was being cloned. However, I saw someone who looked very much like me at where I was teleported form. Was it a cloning machine, or a failed teleporter? One thing for sure is that my body, especially my eyes, felt like they were never used before, like I was just born at that time. Also it would be impossible for me to turn back into a guy as my current body was never a guy in the first place, so that means I can no longer be your sister's boyfriend again. It's still possible with whoever is in my original body though."

He was at a loss of words and don't seem to know what to say.

Shin'ichi: "So how can I tell you two apart?"

Me: "Let's see, I am wearing a swimsuit of some sort that seem impossible to remove. (Wonder how it even got on.) You can see a bit of it if you look around my neck or when I wear short sleeves. Other than that, only our behavior is the noticeably different. You can tell if you were to simply observe. Asking what we both know is useless as we share information of what either of us encounter. Even right now, the other me knows that I'm talking to you and what I had just said even though she's nowhere near here."

Shin'ichi: "Sound like you are having a tough time adjusting to all those events that happen in just a short time. Oh, I should go now. It would be suspicious if I talk to you for too long. We would drop by to see you act later on."

Me: "Your're right, I forgot about them. Pretend that I have been giving you a long lecture of whatever I was pretending to be scolding you for from earlier when you get back to them."

Shin'ichi: "Yeah, see you."

I saw him having a sigh of relief when he walked away.

Oh! I should be heading to Kotomi's class at 2-1 now. They must be waiting for me to test out the costume.

(to be continued in Part 30)

[Author's note: It feels like I have been repeating what I have already said in the earlier parts.]

Disoriented Feelings (Part 13)

(continued from Part 12)

Just as I was about to leave, Shin'ichi wanted to tag along with me. Well, since he's about to enter middle school next year and the most mature among my siblings, I don't see why not.

Along the way, we walked past an ad for enrollment into a university and academy specializing in certain fields: the school our cousin went to was one of them. The sight of those ads made him think about which middle school he should go to.

Me: "If you're thinking about entering the academy Aiko went into, you should keep in mind that many people are applying for it and admission is based on the grades you scored for the entrance tests and the amount of places avalable. So in order to guarantee being able to get in, you need to score around full marks."

Shin'ichi: "Kotomi----oneechan, why is it that you did not enter that school and chose a normal high school instead when you obviously can score high?"

This brother seem to always add an odd silence between my name and the suffix or even omit addressing me completely and jump straight to what he want to say. Well, I myself omit addressing them, but I am the eldest child (not that I want to be) in the family.

Me: "You see, I don't really like large places and the people there are the rich type who look down on poor people. On top of that, the school fees are quite high. The uniform of my current school was paid for by our Uncle Kenji since mom and dad are already struggling to support all of us."

Shin'ichi: "Oh, does that mean that uncle will help us?"

Me: "Well, only financially for necessities, but you never know. He may help you to pay the fees, but not help you to admit into places unless you could proof to him that you can. I got to work with him because he knows I like science-related stuff and score well in school. You could go to my middle school: I'm sure the staff there would know you as my brother from our family name."

He was staring at me as though there was something.

Shin'ichi: "You know, I never understood why dad keeps avoiding looking at you, Kousei or Kuniko. Do you know why?"

Me: "I don't know why myself, so I don't know the answer to that any more than you do. You could ask him, but he might change the subject if you do try to ask."

Shin'ichi: "Also, your face has that 'I have a boyfriend and want to be with him' written all over."

What? He knew about it? How...

Me: "H....How.... did you know?"

Shin'ichi: "Oh ho ho! So it's true! I noticed that since golden week, and more obviously, the days leading to your birthday. You were behaving differently. On top of that, I saw you sitting quite close to a guy at your birthday party at home the other day. Wanted to tell you this earlier, but mom is always around."

Me: "Okay, but don't tell anyone else about it, not even our younger siblings, until me or him say so. Promise?"

Shin'ichi: "Promise."

After a long trip, I finally reached a particular area in the capital I wanted to check out on, like music players, cameras and other interesting things with my salary. Not only is this place known for electronic goods, but also products relating to animation that is, for some reason, aired mostly quite late at night. We had to have a look around for cheaper prices, but also watch out if they are 2nd-hand or fakes. Good thing they close the road around the station: the place is too crowded!

Looking around, I decided to get a new notebook computer as the one in my bedroom is too old, slow, and can't run the current applications. I might also need it to write my own programs or do work. As for the old one, I'll put it aside: it's been gathering dust since I last use it during the holiday before I started working anyway. I can't even use the internet with the old one and since been using computers outside home a lot. At least it has a connection interface that is backward compatible with the memory devices I use a lot so I can get data out of it. As for the internet part, there isn't any at home, but I might be able to use the cellular network or one of my neighbor's wireless access point.

Is there anything else here? Well, since I came all the way here and dragged my brother along (or rather, he wanted to tag along) here, might as well explore the place. Where I am is not a good place to start for him though, at least, until he gets older.

I'm feeling rather hungry now, but something tells me to avoid those cafes that are scattered in this area and head elsewhere. After that, I'll let my brother go wherever he wants to go, except back here. I don't have anywhere in particular that I wanted to go now.

(to be continued in part 14)

410th post

I don't know what to write. My head gets fried when I try to think. Maybe it's the overload of unnecessary stuff I had learn since childhood, like why a particular day less than a week after my birthday some years earlier that important to a particular country somewhere is over-emphasized to the point I don't want to hear it.

Or maybe it's the overload of the number of languages I was exposed to: at least 10. Español, Français, Deutsch, 中文/汉语, Bahasa Indonesia..... must I list them all? Many people around the world seem to be exposed to only one or at least two, but unlike those fast learners you see on TV, learning them is at a cost of learning other things like the molecular structure, the contour lines on a map to determine the height and steepness. Anyways, I'm exposed long enough to know what is being communicated but not the other way around or what is being said in written form. This could partly because it could be related or structured similar to what I already know. It's hard to say how many I am good at, but I can safely say at least 3 languages: you probably already know. How does one forget one's own native language? Lack of use, good at other language enough to read and fill in official documents correctly without aid, in a country that does not speak your language for a long time, etc... Kind of scary to think that I'm fluent at a foreign language, but poor in my native language.

In unrelated news, I edited my Twitter profile as I was typing this. Oh, the number 410 is based on what I see on Blogger's "edit posts" of this blog: already published + scheduled + draft + this one. Does not include posts I had done on my other blogs. Probably higher (and harder to keep track) if I did. Oh, and from Saturday, until the end of August, you might see the number drop back to around number 370+ and the English version of the 4th story I put up some time ago. Since these are written some time ago, I probably don't remember what they contain and mught be outdated by a few months.




I was originally going to write only a few lines after a long thought of writing nothing after uploading the above image, but didn't happen that way...