Friday
Night
RECALLING A DREAM from my childhood, of having an adventure in a department store after closing time, I decided to sneak into one at night. To think that having a form like this could literally make my dreams come true.
Knowing that no image of me would appear on film, I walked brazenly into the darkened store. Of course, I still had to scale myself down to canine size. I couldn’t risk scaring the life out of some poor nightguard.
I warily surveyed the shop’s interior from above, standing at the top of the stairs. I couldn’t help but notice how eerie the purple glow of the emergency lights was. I didn’t think it was unusual to be a bit creeped out, but really, there was barely any difference between the shop now and the shop during the daytime. The theme park had still had employees around to finish work that could probably only be done at night, but the department store had no need for a graveyard shift. Besides a stray flashlight beam that passed near the stairs, there was nothing to get worked up over.
I think that dreams might be more beautiful while they’re still in our heads. There was no shelter in this store for a monster like me. But where to go next? If I really put some effort into it, I could probably run all the way to a neighboring land. I could challenge myself to visit every part of our country, gradually expanding my territory.
I proceeded through that nerve-racking space, a tense atmosphere where both time and light seemed to have stopped. Myriad scenes floated through my head.
I had probably made it down to the second or third floor by now. There, I happened upon a corner stand with various goods lined up around it and stopped on the spot.
Perhaps it was because it was a rainy day, or perhaps because the rainy season had arrived, or maybe they were just always there. Whatever the reason, the heaps of colorful girls’ umbrellas shined brilliantly to my night-sharp eyes.
Honestly, I was a bit bewildered by the thought that had popped into my head when I saw them. Given that fact, I doubt I made my next decision out of goodwill. I think I just had an opportunity and followed an impulse.
I decided to act. I rushed up to the rooftop, bounded across the roofs of other buildings, and took a brief detour back to my own home. Naturally, I knew my house well and moved through it with all the silence of the night.
I snatched an umbrella from our stand with my tail and climbed to the second floor, opened a window, and leapt back outside. I needed to avoid being seen exiting my house, just in case, so I flew out at my highest speed. Once I confirmed the place I landed was empty, I expanded my size. I couldn’t be captured on film, after all. Might as well be a kaiju through and through.
It was surprisingly thrilling to act as though I were a kaiju. Iguchi had gotten it right—there were some unexpectedly childish parts of me. Of course, was it really all that unexpected?
Even running through the rain, I reached the school quickly on my six massive feet. I stretched myself up high, shrank my body down, and landed atop the roof.
From there I had to put a spin on my usual method of entry, as I had not only myself, but the umbrella to sneak inside. This time I would have to actually bother with opening the roof door.
If Yano-san wasn’t there, then she wasn’t there, and that would be that, I thought. It was raining. I couldn’t imagine her coming even on a day like this.
I’m not sure if I was relieved or disappointed to find that I could pull the front door of the classroom open with my tail. Perhaps it was both.
“Even on a night like this, huh?” I said.
As I spoke, Yano-san raised her head. She’d been sitting at her desk, fidgeting with her phone.
“I didn’t…think you’d…come.”
I closed the door with my tail, moved to the back of the classroom, and changed my size to one more comfortable for sitting.
“You said you’d lost your umbrella. I had an extra one, so here.”
“Wah!”
Yano-san let out a puzzled cry when I gently tossed the umbrella her way—it smacked her right in the face.
“Oww. Hey, no…talking about the day…time.”
Again with that warning. I dismissed the advice with a “Hmph,” wondering just which of us was being the more annoying one here.
She stoically bowed her head. “Still…thank you.”
I’d half expected see her usual grin at a time like this, but I wasn’t one to go around forcing people to make the expressions I wanted, so I said nothing.
I recalled Iguchi-san and the pained smile upon her face.
Unlike our usual routine, there was something that I actually wanted to discuss with Yano-san today. But how to broach the topic? During the daytime, with someone like Kudou, this would have been a breeze—but I had no idea how to direct a conversation the way that I wanted when it came to Yano-san.
How to open the conversation? As I searched the ceiling of the classroom for an answer, Yano-san again asked a strange question, as though she had suddenly thought of something.
“Acchi…kun, are you…a Laputa fan? Or…Naussica fan?”
I hesitated, as I was unsure if I should tell the truth or give the prepared answer that I always gave when asked about my favorite Ghibli film.
“Uh, I prefer Totoro.”
“It was…all just a…dream, but…it wasn’t a dream.”
A famous line from the movie. For a moment it sounded like a completely different quote, thanks to Yano-san’s strange speech pattern.
In that moment, I thought that quote might encapsulate just how being a monster felt to me.
“What about you, Yano-san? Laputa or Naussica?”
“Ac…tually, I like…Princess Monono…ke.”
“Then why did you give me those two other choices?”
Maybe it was because of her fondness for Princess Mononoke that she wasn’t afraid of seeing me like this at first meeting.
“Actually, Yano-san, shouldn’t your favorite be Totoro?”
“Why…?”
“Well, I mean, your name is Satsuki.”
I had only said it as a bit of friendly ribbing, but for some reason she looked a bit peeved—which is to say, she very intentionally wrinkled her brow and pursed her lips, which wasn’t in the slightest bit intimidating.
“I’m not…that Satsuki.”
“No?”
“Though our names…do share the…same meaning: May.”
As I tilted that great head of mine, so massive I could swallow Yano-san up in a single gulp, she smugly answered a question I hadn’t even asked.
“It’s the name of a…flower.” Not waiting for my acknowledgment, she continued, “They should be bloo…ming right a…bout now. It’s…a little late for…them, but it’s a…spring flower.”
The phrase “spring flower” conjured up images in my mind of pearly pink sunsets swallowing up the sky and fields of golden blossoms. I had no mental imagery for the flower that shared her name.
“It’s…my favorite spring flower. It…would be even if it weren’t…my…name.”
“Not cherry blossoms, or rapeseed flowers?”
As I tried to convey the image that Satsuki gave me, Yano-san nodded. “Of course I…like those…too. But…if I had…to choose, I’d…say I pre…fer flowers that…bloom quietly on a mountain…top or on a back road over the…pretty, showy ones that every…one else loves.”