Post by Hayate on Sept 9, 2008 21:13:05 GMT -5
“Kyosuke!”
Black-haired teenager Kyosuke Nanbara is seen sleeping soundly in his futon. …That is, he would be sleeping soundly if not for his ‘maternal’ cousin Satsuki Nanbara standing over him. In his half-asleep stupor, Kyosuke pulls the sheets up over his head and murmurs, “…Go away…”
Exaggerated veins pop all over Satsuki’s forehead, as she was just about ready to douse the sluggish Kyosuke with cold water. “Dammit, ‘Kyo’, get up already!”, she barks at him. “Your second year of high school starts today, and you don’t want to be late! I mean, for God’s sake, you’re already making ME late!” With a firm grip, Satsuki yanks the sheets off of Kyosuke forcefully.
“…” Finally admitting defeat, Kyosuke sits up in his futon and lets out a long, powerful yawn.
Satsuki’s left eyebrow twitches ever slightly at the sight of this. “…I have got to get you an alarm clock…”
~ Episode 1: Hajimari (Beginning) ~
Act 1: Boy Meets Girl
Twenty minutes after his rude awakening, Kyosuke walks out of his house in a casual Fall-version high school gakuran (male uniform): white buttoned shirt, dark-blue blazer, dark-blue pants, black leather belt, and black penny loafers. His right hand held his school bag while his left hand remained pocketed. Right as Kyosuke is about to open the front gate…
…cousin Satsuki steps out of the house holding a small box. “Hey, ‘Kyo’!”, she calls out. “You forgot this!” She proceeds to toss the box – revealed to be Kyosuke’s bento – over to him.
Kyosuke removes his left hand from his pocket and catches the thrown bento with ease. “Thanks, Satsuki!”, Kyosuke calls back apathetically. Placing the box into his school bag, Kyosuke walks past the metal gate, closes it, and sets off down the sidewalk.
As Satsuki had mentioned earlier that morning, today was the first day of Kyosuke’s 2nd year of high school – an occasion that most high school students would be ecstatic over. But not Kyosuke. He didn’t care what day it was. He didn’t even care if the world were to come to an abrupt end. Because for Kyosuke, his life had already ended halfway through his first year.
Kyosuke’s parents felt that their only son hadn’t a good grasp on the cultural diversity that surrounded him. So, a little over halfway through his first year at Shonan High School, Kyosuke was to transfer to Sapporo South High School in Hokkaido. For Kyosuke, this meant leaving behind everything that made him happy: friends, family, and home. Once relocated to Hokkaido, Kyosuke would move in with his college cousin Satsuki in Kita-ku (North Ward), Sapporo.
“Class, I’d like you all to meet your new classmate, Kyosuke Nanbara, who comes to us from Miyako-jima.”
“WELCOME TO SAPPORO, KYOSUKE!”
“…Whatever…”
The first few months were especially hard. Kyosuke, having grown accustomed to his home island’s small population, was unnerved by Sapporo’s amazing number of people. Plus, because all of his friends were still on Miyako-jima, Kyosuke had no one to talk to. In the months that followed, Kyosuke had gotten used to it, but he still missed Miyako-jima a great deal.
As Kyosuke walks down the busy streets of Kita-ku, a wide variety of people pass him by – people that had no doubt been living in Sapporo for years or their whole lives. Kyosuke didn’t pay them any mind. He simply concentrated on his routine walking path and the music playing in his earphones – music performed by his favorite alternate rock group Orange Range. Just a few short blocks later, Kyosuke would soon reach his destination: Sapporo Station.
A ticket machine issues Kyosuke a train ticket after he inserted a few coins. “Okay… Let me see if I remember this…”, Kyosuke mumbles to himself as he tries to recall how to get to his school. His mulling thoughts would be interrupted, however, by a somewhat loud beeping sound. Looking to his far left, Kyosuke notices a girl with bright red hair trying in vain to get through a ticket gate.
“Come on, you stupid thing! Work already!”, the red-haired girl would shout, gaining her the condescending gazes of passersby. “Aw, man… Maybe I bought the wrong ticket or something…”
“…” Taking a lesson from the people who simply paid the girl no mind, Kyosuke takes his purchased ticket and walks in the direction of his designated train line.
“What do I do now? …Huh?” Unfortunately, the girl would look over, notice Kyosuke’s attire, and immediately seek his assistance. “Hey, you!”, the girl shouts over to him.
Realizing that the girl was addressing him, Kyosuke turns to face her just in time to see her positioned just inches away from him. “What is it?”, Kyosuke asks the redhead in a rather contemptuous manner.
Ignoring (or perhaps failing to notice) Kyosuke’s tone, the girl poses her distressed situation. “Do you know how to get to Chuo-ku?”
The girl standing before Kyosuke was headed to Chuo-ku (Central Ward), Sapporo just as he was. It wasn’t in his nature to assist, but judging from the girl’s personality, she was liable to end up all the way in Tokyo if she was that careless enough. “Hmm… You can either take the Hakodate Main Line to Souen Station, or…the Chitose Line to Naebo Station.”
“Hontouni!?”, the girl replies in shock. “Hahaha! Boy, am I embarrassed! I’d been trying to get onto the Nanboku Line this entire time!”
“…Uh-huh…”
“Well, that’s a load off! Thanks for the help!” Grateful for the assistance Kyosuke gave, the girl rushes off towards the Chitose Line.
“…Wait… That girl… Was she…?” Kyosuke was too distracted by the girl’s volume and dimness to notice that she was wearing a sailor fuku for Sapporo South High School’s female students.
A short time later… “Souen Station! Souen Station!”, a grainy voice says through the train’s intercom. “Please be sure to take all of your personal belongings with you as you exit the train! Next stop is Kotoni Station!”
Kyosuke casually exits the station and spots Sapporo South High School in the distance. As he walks, he passes by the usual establishments: a karaoke bar here, a café there. One would even be able to catch a glimpse of Hokkaido Shrine in Maruyama Park. But one thing in particular caught Kyosuke’s eye: an array of flowers on display in front of a local flower shop. The centerpiece of the display was a group of flowers with red petals. “This is…!” Kyosuke recognized these as Erythrina variegata, or ‘Tiger’s Claw’, the official flower of the Okinawa Prefecture. Every year, Kyosuke and his parents would travel to the Okinawa Islands to watch them bloom. “…” A smile creeps onto Kyosuke’s face as he was relieved to know that a small piece of Miyako-jima had been brought to Sapporo with him.
…Once inside the school, Kyosuke proceeds towards his homeroom of Class 7-A. In front of the classroom door, Kyosuke takes a deep breath and slowly exhales that breath before opening the sliding door. He’s immediately greeted by the sight of a large cluster of students, a few of which Kyosuke had met the year before. The teacher had apparently not arrived yet.
Just upon entering the classroom, the homesick 17-year-old is approached by a girl with neatly groomed blond hair. “Well, if it isn’t Kyosuke Nanbara!”, the uppity blond greets. The pompous girl next to Kyosuke is revealed to be Misuzu Akiyama, the self-appointed representative of Class 7-A. “I didn’t think I’d be seeing your despondent face again!”
Turning his head ever slightly to face the girl, Kyosuke’s facial expression becomes one of nausea. “Oh… It’s only you, Misuzu…”
“‘It’s only you, Misuzu…’”, Misuzu sneeringly mimics. “All those months together in the same class, and you still show me the same degree of disrespect as before! I’m the class representative! You should be bowing at my feet!”
“All those months together in the same class, and you’re still as irritating as ever…”, Kyosuke remarks before sulking away.
“H-Hey! Just don’t walk away from me! Nanbara, look at me when I’m talking to you!”
Ignoring the class rep’s morning rant, Kyosuke walks over, sets his school bag down, and takes a seat near the window. The black-haired lad would be shortly joined by a girl with short light-green hair: the class ditz from Osaka, Chiaki Fuyutsuki. “Hiya, Kyosuke!”, Chiaki cheerfully greets the boy. “Looks like we’re in th’ same homeroom again, eh?”
“Uh-huh…”, Kyosuke listlessly responds. He reaches into his school bag, pulls out a manga book, sets it down on the desk before him, and opens up to the first page. But before burying himself in his book, Kyosuke takes another look around the classroom. Near the far corner of the room, he sees a boy with silvery-black hair chatting up and talking loudly. “…Who’s the loudmouth?”
Knowing full well who Kyosuke was referring to, Chiaki narrows her eyebrows as she turns her head. “That’s an exchange student from New York. Name’s Rudy Beaumont. I wouldn’t try gettin’ along wit’ that guy. All he cares about is pickin’ up girls. …Y’know, before ya got here, he asked five girls out already!”
“Let me guess: You were one of the girls he asked out?”
“You kiddin’!? I was th’ first one!”
Momentarily turning away from his manga, Kyosuke rests his eyes on Chiaki’s body. Her chest was displayed rather well from underneath her school uniform. “…I can’t imagine why…”, Kyosuke says to Chiaki with his voice caked in sarcasm.
Nearby, exchange student Rudy Beaumont could be heard ‘working his magic’. “You, me, and a cramped karaoke booth… What do you say?”, he asks a girl with long purple hair with a wink.
Girl #6 was just as sickened as the last five. “Tell you what. Lose the cocky attitude, get a haircut, and ask me again five years from now.”, the girl tells Rudy before walking away.
“Oh, well… Her loss…”, Rudy says to himself with a shrug, as he would move on to girl #7 just moments later.
Leaning back in her chair, Chiaki sighs. “I just can’t stand guys like that, y’know? So persistent and everythin’…”
“Mm-hmm…” Kyosuke flips through the pages of his manga book, only pretending to pay attention to his Osakan classmate.
Just then, the homeroom teacher of Class 7-A makes her entry through the sliding door. Upon said entry, the students all return to their seats. The teacher sets her purse down next to her desk at the front of the room and uses the chalk to write her name – ‘Kozue Natsushima’ – on the blackboard in large katakana. After doing so, she turns to face her class and crosses her arms. “Hello, class!”, the teacher greets with a confident smile. “Welcome to your second year! I, Kozue Natsushima, will be your homeroom teacher for the term! Let’s all try to get along, shall we?”
A part of Kyosuke wished that he had been dreaming. “You’ve gotta be joking…”, he gripes under his breath. “Dozens of teachers in this school, and I get stuck with ‘Miss Sunshine’ over here…?” Just then, a small piece of chalk whizzes by Kyosuke’s face and shatters upon contact with the window. “!!!”
“Did you say something, young man? I didn’t quite catch that.”, Kozue says to Kyosuke from across the room without losing her grin.
Panic-stricken by his new teacher, Kyosuke swallows the lump in his throat and looks straight at her with widely open eyes. “S-Sumimasen, Kozue-sensei!”, he says to her out loud.
“Okay then! I can already tell this is gonna be a great year!”
‘…So can I…’
The next few hours would go by pretty much uneventfully. At 12:00 noon, the school bell would sound in a short 8-note melody, signaling the start of lunch hour. The majority of Kyosuke’s class would opt to eat lunch in the classroom, but as expected of Kyosuke, he would take his bento out of his school bag, exit the classroom, and go to eat lunch on the school’s rooftop. Alone.
The roof’s perimeter was lined with a metal grated fence – obviously for safety reasons. Setting his bento down on the bench under the grated fence, Kyosuke looks out in the distance, where he could see the school campus’ entire front courtyard. Past that, he could see parts of Chuo-ku, including Hokkaido Shrine and the bank of the Toyohira River. The distance was far too great for Kyosuke to truly see it, but in his mind, he could see Miyako-jima. “…” His strong desire to return home causes him to clench his fingers tightly between the fence’s grates until they started to hurt. Shifting his vision downward, Kyosuke looks towards the school courtyard again and sees someone dashing onto the school grounds, red hair swaying in the breeze. “…Well, well. Look who it is.”, Kyosuke says to himself, recognizing the person as the girl he had encountered at Sapporo Station that morning. The thought of her getting lost on her way to the school even after Kyosuke’s straightforward instructions was enough to make him chuckle. Having had his laugh, Kyosuke turns around and props down onto the bench to enjoy his lunch. He removes the bento’s cloth wrapping and picks up his chopsticks. “Itadakimasu!”
An hour later, shortly after lunch hour had ended, Kyosuke returns to his seat in Class 7-A. Just returning from lunch as well, Kozue-sensei enters the room and stands near her desk. “I have some news, class!”, she merrily announces. “It looks like we have another new student joining us today!”
“‘Another’?” Hearing this, several thoughts begin to circle Kyosuke’s mind. “…No… I couldn’t be that unlucky…could I?”
The jovial teacher faces the sliding door, where a silhouette of someone standing behind it could be seen. “You can come in now, Miss Sakurai!”
The door slides rapidly open, making a loud clacking noise as it collides with the left wall, and a girl nonchalantly walks into the classroom, brushing her bright red hair aside as she stepped. Her tomboyish beauty and the manner in which she walked had earned her some looks of awe.
Kyosuke could feel his stomach turn. “…I am that unlucky…”
Just as Kozue-sensei had done earlier that day, the girl picks up a piece of chalk and vigorously scrawls her name on the board in large katakana. She then slams the chalk down and turns to the class with her hands on her hips. And in a dynamic voice, she says with an outstretched grin, “I’m Emiri Sakurai! Nice to meet you all!”
“I’m Emiri Sakurai! Nice to meet you all!”
His encounter with the girl at the train station, ending up with a teacher with attitude, and now this recent development, Kyosuke was almost certain that God was angry with him.
“Hmm…” Emiri’s eyes move about the room, as she was getting a good look at her new classmates. “Yeah… Not bad… Not bad at all…”, she says almost cryptically. Inevitably, that analytical gaze would land on Kyosuke. “Ah! It’s the guy from this morning!”
Kyosuke could feel a cool chill run down his spine.
Sitting in the desk to Kyosuke’s right, Chiaki blinks several times before turning to face her friend. “You know that girl, Kyosuke?”
Kyosuke answers with a short and hasty “No.”
A short 30 minutes later, ‘free study period’ begins. Not like the class took the ‘study’ part seriously, as the majority of the class would simply use the time to talk amongst friends. During said period, a group of students gather around Emiri. “So, Emiri, have you been in Sapporo for very long?”, one female student would ask.
“Nah. I grew up in Fukuoka, but I moved out here to Sapporo a few years back to help take care of my grandmother.”, Emiri replies.
A second girl queries, “You have such pretty hair, Emiri! Is red your natural hair color?”
“Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, this is my natural hair color. Not to brag or anything, but people always say my hair’s my most attractive quality. Hehehe.”
It’s at that moment that Chiaki decides to ask a question of her own. “Do you have a boyfriend, Emiri?”
Emiri’s face flushes a little at the sound of the Osakan girl’s question. “Hahaha. No, not yet… But I’m still looking.”, she teasingly responds.
“Oh, really?”, a suave voice speaks up. The girls surrounding Emiri are shocked to see Rudy Beaumont pop up inside their circle. “Then perhaps I could interest you in a little romantic rendezvous with me?”, he proposes with a glimmering smirk.
An exaggerated drop of sweat trickles down the side of Emiri’s head at Rudy’s proposal. “Uh… N-No, thanks.”, the nervous redhead answers. “…Hmm?” Looking over outside the girls’ circle, Emiri spots Kyosuke across the room reading his manga. With a beaming smile, she walks over and seats herself in the empty desk behind him…
…much to the girls’ surprise. “You think Emiri’s into Kyo-kun?”
“Dunno. She did say she ran into him this morning.”
“Wow… ‘Emi-chan’ sure has a lot of initiative, huh?”
Kyosuke’s face was too buried in his manga to notice Emiri seat herself behind him. But he did indeed sense a disturbance in the force.
“Hiya!”, Emiri greets the black-haired mope. “I’m Emiri!”
Kyosuke didn’t even bother to turn around to acknowledge the girl’s presence. “…”
“…Well?”
“‘Well’ what?”
“Aren’t you gonna tell me your name?”
“…It’s Kyosuke.”
“Kyosuke, huh? …Well, anyways, thanks again for the help you gave me this morning!”
“Help? Even after I helped you, you still managed to lose half the school day. How’d you pull that off?”
“Oh, that?” The red-faced Emiri rubs the back of her head in embarrassment. “Well, a little after I boarded the train, I dozed off. By the time I woke up, I was all the way in Tomakomai. Hahaha. Isn’t that funny?”
“…Hysterical…”, Kyosuke dispassionately replies.
Soon after ‘free study period’ ends, Kozue-sensei resumes her usual lesson plan for the day. She walks up and down the rows of seats reading aloud from a text. As she does this, her students take notes in their notebooks. Emiri is seen writing in her notebook as well. Seated in the desk behind Chiaki, she glances over at Kyosuke. He had his notebook wide open, but the pages on which it was opened up to were blank. Apparently, the dejected boy had kept himself occupied by gazing out the window. Watching this had made Emiri a little depressed herself. In the entire time she had looked at and spoken with Kyosuke – from their encounter early in the day up until now – he hadn’t smiled. …Not even once.
The end of everyone’s first school day comes just over an hour later, as the school bell sounds another 8-note melody. “Huh?” Kozue-sensei looks out towards the window, having failed to anticipate the bell’s sounding. “Looks like we’re done for today, class.”, she starts. “I wish you all a good day, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Class representative Misuzu Akiyama is the first to stand up from her front row seat. Upon doing so, she turns to face the rest of the class. “Stand!”, she shouts out in a firm voice. At her command, the remainder of the class rises to their feet. “Bow!”, Misuzu then shouts, ordering the class to bow courteously to their teacher. “Dismissed!”
Chiaki hums a cheery tune to herself as she packs her belongings. As she fastens her bag closed, she faces Kyosuke, who had just finished packing as well. “Hey, Kyosuke! Ya wanna go get some dango on th’ way home?”
Upon picking up his bag, Kyosuke props the bag over his shoulder and heads towards the classroom entrance. “No thanks.”, he answers Chiaki before making his exit.
“Oh… O-Okay… Some other time then…”
Having witnessed this rather disheartening scene, Emiri tightens her grasp on her school bag’s handle… “…Hmph!” …and dashes out of the classroom after Kyosuke.
…Outside the same flower shop from that morning, Kyosuke admires the arrangement of ‘Tiger’s Claws’. It returned to him that feeling of nostalgia he had felt before. Just then, he senses a familiar presence and looks to his right, noticing Emiri standing a few feet away from him. “…” Unchanging his expression, he picks up his school bag and walks away towards the train station.
Emiri follows a short distance behind him.
The two enter the same train station.
The two even board the same Kita-ku-bound train.
Kyosuke was unfazed by this, however. Why bother troubling himself with a girl that he wanted nothing to do with? Of course, this view changes by the time he and his ‘stalker’ reach the same residential district in Kita-ku. Just a few blocks away from his house, Kyosuke stops in his tracks. Emiri stops walking in tow. Without turning to face her, he addresses her. “…Why are you following me?”
“I’m not. I live around here too.”
“…Of course you do. After all, I’m just that unlucky.”, Kyosuke says before continuing his walk.
“Kyosuke!”
Once again, Kyosuke stops. This time, he turns to face the red-haired girl. “…What?”
Emiri decides not to beat around the bush. “How come you never smile?”
“…”
“You haven’t smiled even once since we met. You don’t even smile to your friends. Why?”
“…I have nothing to smile about.”
“…Hehehe. What are you talking about? Everyone has at least one thing that makes them smile. Even someone like you.”
“You just don’t get it, do you!?”
Emiri gasps upon hearing Kyosuke’s outburst. “K-Kyosuke…”
“I…haven’t lived in Sapporo for very long. Not even for a whole year. I used to live on Miyako-jima. There…I was happy. I smiled all the time. …But then…”
“…S-Sapporo!?”
“Yes. We’ve already finished enrolling you in a high school there.”
“Please try to understand, Kyosuke. This’ll be a good experience for you.”
“But…I don’t wanna leave! I have a life here!”
“…Kyosuke…”
For the first time, Emiri was speechless.
Kyosuke’s hands, balled up into fists, tremble at his sides. “…This morning, you said you used to live in Fukuoka, right? You can’t say that you didn’t feel the same way I do when you left, can you? Torn inside…ready to rip your hair out…”
“…Of course I felt that way.”
“Huh?”
“When I left Fukuoka, I felt homesick all the time. I missed my friends, my family… But what I was introduced to when I arrived here made it all worthwhile. I still have family close by, and I made new friends. …So I always had something that made me smile.”
“…”
An abrupt but short-lived silence would follow. Emiri was the first to break that silence. “…Kyosuke, I don’t think anyone should ever go through life without smiling. So…” Before continuing, Emiri’s grin reappears. “…I’m gonna help you open up more!”, she suddenly proposes. “I’m gonna help you open yourself up more to others! So that…you’ll show me your smile just as I’ve shown you mine!” With that, Emiri bids her new friend farewell and runs in the direction of her block…
…while Kyosuke is left trying to swallow the girl’s words. “…That is one really weird redhead…”
The next day, before class had begun, Emiri once again stands at the center of the front of the classroom. Kozue-sensei, positioned near her desk, faces Emiri and says. “Okay, Emiri. Since you’re a new student, Sapporo South High School tradition dictates that you can choose one of your classmates to show you around the school during lunch hour. Take your pick.”
Several students raise their hands in hopes that Emiri would pick them. Emiri looks among the raised hands and ponders. “Hmm… Okay! Then I choose…”
The class goes deathly silent in anticipation.
“I choose…Kyosuke!!!”, Emiri spouts with her right index finger pointing towards Kyosuke’s desk.
As a fraction of the class either gasps in surprise or goes ‘awww’ in disappointment (or both), Chiaki turns to face Kyosuke. “Hehehe… That girl’s sure attached to ya, isn’t she, Kyosuke?”
As Emiri’s tomboyish giggle echoes in Kyosuke’s ears, another chill runs down his spine, accompanied by a brief twitch in his left eye. ‘…Why me…?’
Kyosuke: …Cafeteria.
Emiri: Ooh…
Kyosuke: …Gym.
Emiri: Ahh…
Kyosuke: …Roof.
Emiri: Roof? …Hey, I just had an idea!
Kyosuke: Idea? What idea? …Wait! Where are you going!?
Chiaki: Next time on Power of Love! Episode 2, “Tomodachi (Friends)”!
Emiri: Hehehe!
Kyosuke: …I don’t like where this is going…
~*~*~*~*~
EXTRA:
Opening Theme: “Power of Love” by Yoko Ishida
emasters.co.uk/userfiles/3377/Power_of_Love.mp3
Ending Theme: “Haru no Hi” by yozuca*
emasters.co.uk/userfiles/3377/Haru_no_Hi.mp3
Black-haired teenager Kyosuke Nanbara is seen sleeping soundly in his futon. …That is, he would be sleeping soundly if not for his ‘maternal’ cousin Satsuki Nanbara standing over him. In his half-asleep stupor, Kyosuke pulls the sheets up over his head and murmurs, “…Go away…”
Exaggerated veins pop all over Satsuki’s forehead, as she was just about ready to douse the sluggish Kyosuke with cold water. “Dammit, ‘Kyo’, get up already!”, she barks at him. “Your second year of high school starts today, and you don’t want to be late! I mean, for God’s sake, you’re already making ME late!” With a firm grip, Satsuki yanks the sheets off of Kyosuke forcefully.
“…” Finally admitting defeat, Kyosuke sits up in his futon and lets out a long, powerful yawn.
Satsuki’s left eyebrow twitches ever slightly at the sight of this. “…I have got to get you an alarm clock…”
Power of Love
~ Episode 1: Hajimari (Beginning) ~
Act 1: Boy Meets Girl
Twenty minutes after his rude awakening, Kyosuke walks out of his house in a casual Fall-version high school gakuran (male uniform): white buttoned shirt, dark-blue blazer, dark-blue pants, black leather belt, and black penny loafers. His right hand held his school bag while his left hand remained pocketed. Right as Kyosuke is about to open the front gate…
…cousin Satsuki steps out of the house holding a small box. “Hey, ‘Kyo’!”, she calls out. “You forgot this!” She proceeds to toss the box – revealed to be Kyosuke’s bento – over to him.
Kyosuke removes his left hand from his pocket and catches the thrown bento with ease. “Thanks, Satsuki!”, Kyosuke calls back apathetically. Placing the box into his school bag, Kyosuke walks past the metal gate, closes it, and sets off down the sidewalk.
As Satsuki had mentioned earlier that morning, today was the first day of Kyosuke’s 2nd year of high school – an occasion that most high school students would be ecstatic over. But not Kyosuke. He didn’t care what day it was. He didn’t even care if the world were to come to an abrupt end. Because for Kyosuke, his life had already ended halfway through his first year.
Kyosuke’s parents felt that their only son hadn’t a good grasp on the cultural diversity that surrounded him. So, a little over halfway through his first year at Shonan High School, Kyosuke was to transfer to Sapporo South High School in Hokkaido. For Kyosuke, this meant leaving behind everything that made him happy: friends, family, and home. Once relocated to Hokkaido, Kyosuke would move in with his college cousin Satsuki in Kita-ku (North Ward), Sapporo.
“Class, I’d like you all to meet your new classmate, Kyosuke Nanbara, who comes to us from Miyako-jima.”
“WELCOME TO SAPPORO, KYOSUKE!”
“…Whatever…”
The first few months were especially hard. Kyosuke, having grown accustomed to his home island’s small population, was unnerved by Sapporo’s amazing number of people. Plus, because all of his friends were still on Miyako-jima, Kyosuke had no one to talk to. In the months that followed, Kyosuke had gotten used to it, but he still missed Miyako-jima a great deal.
As Kyosuke walks down the busy streets of Kita-ku, a wide variety of people pass him by – people that had no doubt been living in Sapporo for years or their whole lives. Kyosuke didn’t pay them any mind. He simply concentrated on his routine walking path and the music playing in his earphones – music performed by his favorite alternate rock group Orange Range. Just a few short blocks later, Kyosuke would soon reach his destination: Sapporo Station.
A ticket machine issues Kyosuke a train ticket after he inserted a few coins. “Okay… Let me see if I remember this…”, Kyosuke mumbles to himself as he tries to recall how to get to his school. His mulling thoughts would be interrupted, however, by a somewhat loud beeping sound. Looking to his far left, Kyosuke notices a girl with bright red hair trying in vain to get through a ticket gate.
“Come on, you stupid thing! Work already!”, the red-haired girl would shout, gaining her the condescending gazes of passersby. “Aw, man… Maybe I bought the wrong ticket or something…”
“…” Taking a lesson from the people who simply paid the girl no mind, Kyosuke takes his purchased ticket and walks in the direction of his designated train line.
“What do I do now? …Huh?” Unfortunately, the girl would look over, notice Kyosuke’s attire, and immediately seek his assistance. “Hey, you!”, the girl shouts over to him.
Realizing that the girl was addressing him, Kyosuke turns to face her just in time to see her positioned just inches away from him. “What is it?”, Kyosuke asks the redhead in a rather contemptuous manner.
Ignoring (or perhaps failing to notice) Kyosuke’s tone, the girl poses her distressed situation. “Do you know how to get to Chuo-ku?”
The girl standing before Kyosuke was headed to Chuo-ku (Central Ward), Sapporo just as he was. It wasn’t in his nature to assist, but judging from the girl’s personality, she was liable to end up all the way in Tokyo if she was that careless enough. “Hmm… You can either take the Hakodate Main Line to Souen Station, or…the Chitose Line to Naebo Station.”
“Hontouni!?”, the girl replies in shock. “Hahaha! Boy, am I embarrassed! I’d been trying to get onto the Nanboku Line this entire time!”
“…Uh-huh…”
“Well, that’s a load off! Thanks for the help!” Grateful for the assistance Kyosuke gave, the girl rushes off towards the Chitose Line.
“…Wait… That girl… Was she…?” Kyosuke was too distracted by the girl’s volume and dimness to notice that she was wearing a sailor fuku for Sapporo South High School’s female students.
A short time later… “Souen Station! Souen Station!”, a grainy voice says through the train’s intercom. “Please be sure to take all of your personal belongings with you as you exit the train! Next stop is Kotoni Station!”
Kyosuke casually exits the station and spots Sapporo South High School in the distance. As he walks, he passes by the usual establishments: a karaoke bar here, a café there. One would even be able to catch a glimpse of Hokkaido Shrine in Maruyama Park. But one thing in particular caught Kyosuke’s eye: an array of flowers on display in front of a local flower shop. The centerpiece of the display was a group of flowers with red petals. “This is…!” Kyosuke recognized these as Erythrina variegata, or ‘Tiger’s Claw’, the official flower of the Okinawa Prefecture. Every year, Kyosuke and his parents would travel to the Okinawa Islands to watch them bloom. “…” A smile creeps onto Kyosuke’s face as he was relieved to know that a small piece of Miyako-jima had been brought to Sapporo with him.
…Once inside the school, Kyosuke proceeds towards his homeroom of Class 7-A. In front of the classroom door, Kyosuke takes a deep breath and slowly exhales that breath before opening the sliding door. He’s immediately greeted by the sight of a large cluster of students, a few of which Kyosuke had met the year before. The teacher had apparently not arrived yet.
Just upon entering the classroom, the homesick 17-year-old is approached by a girl with neatly groomed blond hair. “Well, if it isn’t Kyosuke Nanbara!”, the uppity blond greets. The pompous girl next to Kyosuke is revealed to be Misuzu Akiyama, the self-appointed representative of Class 7-A. “I didn’t think I’d be seeing your despondent face again!”
Turning his head ever slightly to face the girl, Kyosuke’s facial expression becomes one of nausea. “Oh… It’s only you, Misuzu…”
“‘It’s only you, Misuzu…’”, Misuzu sneeringly mimics. “All those months together in the same class, and you still show me the same degree of disrespect as before! I’m the class representative! You should be bowing at my feet!”
“All those months together in the same class, and you’re still as irritating as ever…”, Kyosuke remarks before sulking away.
“H-Hey! Just don’t walk away from me! Nanbara, look at me when I’m talking to you!”
Ignoring the class rep’s morning rant, Kyosuke walks over, sets his school bag down, and takes a seat near the window. The black-haired lad would be shortly joined by a girl with short light-green hair: the class ditz from Osaka, Chiaki Fuyutsuki. “Hiya, Kyosuke!”, Chiaki cheerfully greets the boy. “Looks like we’re in th’ same homeroom again, eh?”
“Uh-huh…”, Kyosuke listlessly responds. He reaches into his school bag, pulls out a manga book, sets it down on the desk before him, and opens up to the first page. But before burying himself in his book, Kyosuke takes another look around the classroom. Near the far corner of the room, he sees a boy with silvery-black hair chatting up and talking loudly. “…Who’s the loudmouth?”
Knowing full well who Kyosuke was referring to, Chiaki narrows her eyebrows as she turns her head. “That’s an exchange student from New York. Name’s Rudy Beaumont. I wouldn’t try gettin’ along wit’ that guy. All he cares about is pickin’ up girls. …Y’know, before ya got here, he asked five girls out already!”
“Let me guess: You were one of the girls he asked out?”
“You kiddin’!? I was th’ first one!”
Momentarily turning away from his manga, Kyosuke rests his eyes on Chiaki’s body. Her chest was displayed rather well from underneath her school uniform. “…I can’t imagine why…”, Kyosuke says to Chiaki with his voice caked in sarcasm.
Nearby, exchange student Rudy Beaumont could be heard ‘working his magic’. “You, me, and a cramped karaoke booth… What do you say?”, he asks a girl with long purple hair with a wink.
Girl #6 was just as sickened as the last five. “Tell you what. Lose the cocky attitude, get a haircut, and ask me again five years from now.”, the girl tells Rudy before walking away.
“Oh, well… Her loss…”, Rudy says to himself with a shrug, as he would move on to girl #7 just moments later.
Leaning back in her chair, Chiaki sighs. “I just can’t stand guys like that, y’know? So persistent and everythin’…”
“Mm-hmm…” Kyosuke flips through the pages of his manga book, only pretending to pay attention to his Osakan classmate.
Just then, the homeroom teacher of Class 7-A makes her entry through the sliding door. Upon said entry, the students all return to their seats. The teacher sets her purse down next to her desk at the front of the room and uses the chalk to write her name – ‘Kozue Natsushima’ – on the blackboard in large katakana. After doing so, she turns to face her class and crosses her arms. “Hello, class!”, the teacher greets with a confident smile. “Welcome to your second year! I, Kozue Natsushima, will be your homeroom teacher for the term! Let’s all try to get along, shall we?”
A part of Kyosuke wished that he had been dreaming. “You’ve gotta be joking…”, he gripes under his breath. “Dozens of teachers in this school, and I get stuck with ‘Miss Sunshine’ over here…?” Just then, a small piece of chalk whizzes by Kyosuke’s face and shatters upon contact with the window. “!!!”
“Did you say something, young man? I didn’t quite catch that.”, Kozue says to Kyosuke from across the room without losing her grin.
Panic-stricken by his new teacher, Kyosuke swallows the lump in his throat and looks straight at her with widely open eyes. “S-Sumimasen, Kozue-sensei!”, he says to her out loud.
“Okay then! I can already tell this is gonna be a great year!”
‘…So can I…’
The next few hours would go by pretty much uneventfully. At 12:00 noon, the school bell would sound in a short 8-note melody, signaling the start of lunch hour. The majority of Kyosuke’s class would opt to eat lunch in the classroom, but as expected of Kyosuke, he would take his bento out of his school bag, exit the classroom, and go to eat lunch on the school’s rooftop. Alone.
The roof’s perimeter was lined with a metal grated fence – obviously for safety reasons. Setting his bento down on the bench under the grated fence, Kyosuke looks out in the distance, where he could see the school campus’ entire front courtyard. Past that, he could see parts of Chuo-ku, including Hokkaido Shrine and the bank of the Toyohira River. The distance was far too great for Kyosuke to truly see it, but in his mind, he could see Miyako-jima. “…” His strong desire to return home causes him to clench his fingers tightly between the fence’s grates until they started to hurt. Shifting his vision downward, Kyosuke looks towards the school courtyard again and sees someone dashing onto the school grounds, red hair swaying in the breeze. “…Well, well. Look who it is.”, Kyosuke says to himself, recognizing the person as the girl he had encountered at Sapporo Station that morning. The thought of her getting lost on her way to the school even after Kyosuke’s straightforward instructions was enough to make him chuckle. Having had his laugh, Kyosuke turns around and props down onto the bench to enjoy his lunch. He removes the bento’s cloth wrapping and picks up his chopsticks. “Itadakimasu!”
An hour later, shortly after lunch hour had ended, Kyosuke returns to his seat in Class 7-A. Just returning from lunch as well, Kozue-sensei enters the room and stands near her desk. “I have some news, class!”, she merrily announces. “It looks like we have another new student joining us today!”
“‘Another’?” Hearing this, several thoughts begin to circle Kyosuke’s mind. “…No… I couldn’t be that unlucky…could I?”
The jovial teacher faces the sliding door, where a silhouette of someone standing behind it could be seen. “You can come in now, Miss Sakurai!”
The door slides rapidly open, making a loud clacking noise as it collides with the left wall, and a girl nonchalantly walks into the classroom, brushing her bright red hair aside as she stepped. Her tomboyish beauty and the manner in which she walked had earned her some looks of awe.
Kyosuke could feel his stomach turn. “…I am that unlucky…”
Just as Kozue-sensei had done earlier that day, the girl picks up a piece of chalk and vigorously scrawls her name on the board in large katakana. She then slams the chalk down and turns to the class with her hands on her hips. And in a dynamic voice, she says with an outstretched grin, “I’m Emiri Sakurai! Nice to meet you all!”
~Hajimari: End of Act 1~
Act 2: Girl Meets Boy“I’m Emiri Sakurai! Nice to meet you all!”
His encounter with the girl at the train station, ending up with a teacher with attitude, and now this recent development, Kyosuke was almost certain that God was angry with him.
“Hmm…” Emiri’s eyes move about the room, as she was getting a good look at her new classmates. “Yeah… Not bad… Not bad at all…”, she says almost cryptically. Inevitably, that analytical gaze would land on Kyosuke. “Ah! It’s the guy from this morning!”
Kyosuke could feel a cool chill run down his spine.
Sitting in the desk to Kyosuke’s right, Chiaki blinks several times before turning to face her friend. “You know that girl, Kyosuke?”
Kyosuke answers with a short and hasty “No.”
A short 30 minutes later, ‘free study period’ begins. Not like the class took the ‘study’ part seriously, as the majority of the class would simply use the time to talk amongst friends. During said period, a group of students gather around Emiri. “So, Emiri, have you been in Sapporo for very long?”, one female student would ask.
“Nah. I grew up in Fukuoka, but I moved out here to Sapporo a few years back to help take care of my grandmother.”, Emiri replies.
A second girl queries, “You have such pretty hair, Emiri! Is red your natural hair color?”
“Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, this is my natural hair color. Not to brag or anything, but people always say my hair’s my most attractive quality. Hehehe.”
It’s at that moment that Chiaki decides to ask a question of her own. “Do you have a boyfriend, Emiri?”
Emiri’s face flushes a little at the sound of the Osakan girl’s question. “Hahaha. No, not yet… But I’m still looking.”, she teasingly responds.
“Oh, really?”, a suave voice speaks up. The girls surrounding Emiri are shocked to see Rudy Beaumont pop up inside their circle. “Then perhaps I could interest you in a little romantic rendezvous with me?”, he proposes with a glimmering smirk.
An exaggerated drop of sweat trickles down the side of Emiri’s head at Rudy’s proposal. “Uh… N-No, thanks.”, the nervous redhead answers. “…Hmm?” Looking over outside the girls’ circle, Emiri spots Kyosuke across the room reading his manga. With a beaming smile, she walks over and seats herself in the empty desk behind him…
…much to the girls’ surprise. “You think Emiri’s into Kyo-kun?”
“Dunno. She did say she ran into him this morning.”
“Wow… ‘Emi-chan’ sure has a lot of initiative, huh?”
Kyosuke’s face was too buried in his manga to notice Emiri seat herself behind him. But he did indeed sense a disturbance in the force.
“Hiya!”, Emiri greets the black-haired mope. “I’m Emiri!”
Kyosuke didn’t even bother to turn around to acknowledge the girl’s presence. “…”
“…Well?”
“‘Well’ what?”
“Aren’t you gonna tell me your name?”
“…It’s Kyosuke.”
“Kyosuke, huh? …Well, anyways, thanks again for the help you gave me this morning!”
“Help? Even after I helped you, you still managed to lose half the school day. How’d you pull that off?”
“Oh, that?” The red-faced Emiri rubs the back of her head in embarrassment. “Well, a little after I boarded the train, I dozed off. By the time I woke up, I was all the way in Tomakomai. Hahaha. Isn’t that funny?”
“…Hysterical…”, Kyosuke dispassionately replies.
Soon after ‘free study period’ ends, Kozue-sensei resumes her usual lesson plan for the day. She walks up and down the rows of seats reading aloud from a text. As she does this, her students take notes in their notebooks. Emiri is seen writing in her notebook as well. Seated in the desk behind Chiaki, she glances over at Kyosuke. He had his notebook wide open, but the pages on which it was opened up to were blank. Apparently, the dejected boy had kept himself occupied by gazing out the window. Watching this had made Emiri a little depressed herself. In the entire time she had looked at and spoken with Kyosuke – from their encounter early in the day up until now – he hadn’t smiled. …Not even once.
The end of everyone’s first school day comes just over an hour later, as the school bell sounds another 8-note melody. “Huh?” Kozue-sensei looks out towards the window, having failed to anticipate the bell’s sounding. “Looks like we’re done for today, class.”, she starts. “I wish you all a good day, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Class representative Misuzu Akiyama is the first to stand up from her front row seat. Upon doing so, she turns to face the rest of the class. “Stand!”, she shouts out in a firm voice. At her command, the remainder of the class rises to their feet. “Bow!”, Misuzu then shouts, ordering the class to bow courteously to their teacher. “Dismissed!”
Chiaki hums a cheery tune to herself as she packs her belongings. As she fastens her bag closed, she faces Kyosuke, who had just finished packing as well. “Hey, Kyosuke! Ya wanna go get some dango on th’ way home?”
Upon picking up his bag, Kyosuke props the bag over his shoulder and heads towards the classroom entrance. “No thanks.”, he answers Chiaki before making his exit.
“Oh… O-Okay… Some other time then…”
Having witnessed this rather disheartening scene, Emiri tightens her grasp on her school bag’s handle… “…Hmph!” …and dashes out of the classroom after Kyosuke.
…Outside the same flower shop from that morning, Kyosuke admires the arrangement of ‘Tiger’s Claws’. It returned to him that feeling of nostalgia he had felt before. Just then, he senses a familiar presence and looks to his right, noticing Emiri standing a few feet away from him. “…” Unchanging his expression, he picks up his school bag and walks away towards the train station.
Emiri follows a short distance behind him.
The two enter the same train station.
The two even board the same Kita-ku-bound train.
Kyosuke was unfazed by this, however. Why bother troubling himself with a girl that he wanted nothing to do with? Of course, this view changes by the time he and his ‘stalker’ reach the same residential district in Kita-ku. Just a few blocks away from his house, Kyosuke stops in his tracks. Emiri stops walking in tow. Without turning to face her, he addresses her. “…Why are you following me?”
“I’m not. I live around here too.”
“…Of course you do. After all, I’m just that unlucky.”, Kyosuke says before continuing his walk.
“Kyosuke!”
Once again, Kyosuke stops. This time, he turns to face the red-haired girl. “…What?”
Emiri decides not to beat around the bush. “How come you never smile?”
“…”
“You haven’t smiled even once since we met. You don’t even smile to your friends. Why?”
“…I have nothing to smile about.”
“…Hehehe. What are you talking about? Everyone has at least one thing that makes them smile. Even someone like you.”
“You just don’t get it, do you!?”
Emiri gasps upon hearing Kyosuke’s outburst. “K-Kyosuke…”
“I…haven’t lived in Sapporo for very long. Not even for a whole year. I used to live on Miyako-jima. There…I was happy. I smiled all the time. …But then…”
“…S-Sapporo!?”
“Yes. We’ve already finished enrolling you in a high school there.”
“Please try to understand, Kyosuke. This’ll be a good experience for you.”
“But…I don’t wanna leave! I have a life here!”
“…Kyosuke…”
For the first time, Emiri was speechless.
Kyosuke’s hands, balled up into fists, tremble at his sides. “…This morning, you said you used to live in Fukuoka, right? You can’t say that you didn’t feel the same way I do when you left, can you? Torn inside…ready to rip your hair out…”
“…Of course I felt that way.”
“Huh?”
“When I left Fukuoka, I felt homesick all the time. I missed my friends, my family… But what I was introduced to when I arrived here made it all worthwhile. I still have family close by, and I made new friends. …So I always had something that made me smile.”
“…”
An abrupt but short-lived silence would follow. Emiri was the first to break that silence. “…Kyosuke, I don’t think anyone should ever go through life without smiling. So…” Before continuing, Emiri’s grin reappears. “…I’m gonna help you open up more!”, she suddenly proposes. “I’m gonna help you open yourself up more to others! So that…you’ll show me your smile just as I’ve shown you mine!” With that, Emiri bids her new friend farewell and runs in the direction of her block…
…while Kyosuke is left trying to swallow the girl’s words. “…That is one really weird redhead…”
The next day, before class had begun, Emiri once again stands at the center of the front of the classroom. Kozue-sensei, positioned near her desk, faces Emiri and says. “Okay, Emiri. Since you’re a new student, Sapporo South High School tradition dictates that you can choose one of your classmates to show you around the school during lunch hour. Take your pick.”
Several students raise their hands in hopes that Emiri would pick them. Emiri looks among the raised hands and ponders. “Hmm… Okay! Then I choose…”
The class goes deathly silent in anticipation.
“I choose…Kyosuke!!!”, Emiri spouts with her right index finger pointing towards Kyosuke’s desk.
As a fraction of the class either gasps in surprise or goes ‘awww’ in disappointment (or both), Chiaki turns to face Kyosuke. “Hehehe… That girl’s sure attached to ya, isn’t she, Kyosuke?”
As Emiri’s tomboyish giggle echoes in Kyosuke’s ears, another chill runs down his spine, accompanied by a brief twitch in his left eye. ‘…Why me…?’
~Hajimari: End of Act 2~
~Power of Love: End of Episode 1~
~ Power of Love: Next Episode ~Kyosuke: …Cafeteria.
Emiri: Ooh…
Kyosuke: …Gym.
Emiri: Ahh…
Kyosuke: …Roof.
Emiri: Roof? …Hey, I just had an idea!
Kyosuke: Idea? What idea? …Wait! Where are you going!?
Chiaki: Next time on Power of Love! Episode 2, “Tomodachi (Friends)”!
Emiri: Hehehe!
Kyosuke: …I don’t like where this is going…
~*~*~*~*~
EXTRA:
Opening Theme: “Power of Love” by Yoko Ishida
emasters.co.uk/userfiles/3377/Power_of_Love.mp3
Ending Theme: “Haru no Hi” by yozuca*
emasters.co.uk/userfiles/3377/Haru_no_Hi.mp3
