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MORNING practice wraps up like it does every day. I take a quick shower, change into my uniform, and lock the dojo. Kazuya goes to a different school, but he’s a chivalrous guy and insists on walking me to the train station. We walk side by side, making small talk.
Hold on. Is there something up ahead of us?
I tense up. I was right. A big, black wild dog barrels toward me, snarling and foaming at the mouth!
I shield myself with my schoolbag. When the dog bites it, I slam my fist down on its defenseless neck. With a wretched grunt it collapses on the ground, unconscious.
“No! Not another bag!” I cry.
“Uh, shouldn’t you be more worried about getting attacked by another stray dog?! That’s way too many recently!” Kazuya shudders, his face pale.
I guess it’s true that for the past year or so, wild dogs have attacked me about once every three days. What really surprised me was when a Japanese wolf came after me. Those are supposed to be extinct!
“Ack! Kazuya, take two steps that way!” Sensing something overhead, I bump Kazuya aside and kick a falling flowerpot in mid-air. It smashes on the footpath. Yikes. That could’ve really hurt somebody if it landed on their head.
“And another falling flowerpot?! How many times has that happened now?!” Kazuya cries.
“Hmm, by my count, that’s the 666th time this year.”
“666th?! You don’t find that ominous?! That’s way too many flowerpots!” he says, trying to draw my attention to the absurdity of it.
“I guess. Actually, not just flowerpots, but other stuff keeps falling, too, lately. Oh well. No one was hurt, so no harm no foul.” I shrug.
“You can’t just write off something like that!”
Wow. Kazuya’s normally laid-back in the morning. It’s unusual for him to be so chatty.
Oh… My back’s tingling again. I whip around and, sure enough, a telephone pole is plunging toward us. I thrust out both hands and catch it as it falls.
“Could you move a little, Kazuya?” I ask. “I’m going to set this down.”
“Why is something like that falling?! No, never mind that; how do you manage to catch literally everything?!”
Feels like Kazuya’s become a big fan of interrobangs, I think.
“No problem. This happens all the time. At least once a week,” I state.
“And you don’t find that weird?!” Another interrobang.
With a soft “hup” I gently lower the pole to the ground.
“Things have gotten a little extreme around you this past year. Maybe you should stay home and take shelter?” he suggests.
“Huh? But I have to go to school— Oh, that dog!”
The light is red at the crosswalk we’ve stopped at, but a dog is crossing the road. And a huge truck is coming— Before I can think, my body is already in motion.
I scoop the dog into my arms and dash across the road. Luckily, I was quick on my feet. If I hadn’t been, both of us would’ve been flattened by that truck.
I put the dog down— Oh. It was another wild dog! And it’s snapping its bared teeth, like it could be rabid.
A swift punch to its belly stuns it. Geez, another one? That one almost got me. That would’ve sucked.
I gently set the unconscious dog down. Kazuya was right. There are too many wild dogs around. It’s an accident waiting to happen.
Wait a second, is that…another Japanese wolf?
Just as I think that, another telephone pole comes toppling down. I catch it, only to spot a steel beam sliding off of a building that’s under construction opposite us. I didn’t have time to stop it, but if I hit it with the telephone pole then it would land— No, the Japanese wolf is lying right where it would fall. It would be crushed! Then it really would be extinct!
…I hesitate too long.
The shadow of the steel beam is on me. Before everything goes black, I swear I hear Kazuya’s voice.