Kanba and I looked at each other. It was clear that neither of us had any idea what was going on.
“Again with that?” Kanba grumbled, still cross-legged on the ground.
“We don’t need you anymore!” I yelled. Even without the penguin hat, we already had that new medicine from Dr. Sanetoshi. With that, Himari would be saved. Kanba said not to worry about the money, and I believed him, so there was no need for us to change fate. The Penguindrum and the diary weren’t our problems anymore.
“Have you peons forgotten your duties?! You mustn’t tarry a moment longer. You must obtain the Penguindrum!” The queen of the hat stomped her foot, looking annoyed. The floor shook so hard that Kanba and I bounced a little.
“So what the heck was with that dramatic exit before?” I looked out again at the alternate dimension, which was back to its beautiful original state. The queen of the hat was once more in her glossy black penguin dress, long hem trailing. It was a far cry from the last time’s flood of dull colors and decay. “Himari is all better now, so she’s fine, right?”
“Also, is that diary really the Penguindrum?” asked Kanba, seeking confirmation.
A strange look flickered across Lady Penguin Hat’s face, and paused before answering, “That’s a secret.”
“You show up after all this time just to not actually tell us anything?” Both Kanba and I were so over this. Furthermore, although Himari said those same words just moments ago, there was nothing cute about them now.
“Well, I will tell you one important thing: If you let the Penguindrum get away from you now, everyone in your family will be punished severely for it.”
I instinctively sat up straight at the word punished. This was no time for my thoughts to meander. I had no idea what was going to happen, so I couldn’t relax just yet. Punishment was a senseless thing. No matter when it came, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if it happened. I had nearly forgotten our family’s curse.
“What are you talking about?” asked Kanba as he stood up.
“The most important thing to you will fall into ruin.”
“Most important? What does that mean?” When Himari had first collapsed, I was sure that she was being taken away from us. That would have been our severe punishment. But we circumvented that tragedy, so what was the most important thing to us now?
“The most important thing…” Kanba folded his arms, thinking. This was too abstract for us.
The lady of the hat huffed through her nose, glaring at each of us in turn.
“What is with you?!” I yelled at her. “We just enjoyed some fresh takoyaki as a family, and yet you expect us to just sit back and listen to this all of a sudden and say ‘Oh yeah, sure,’ and—” I realized something as soon as I spoke those words. There was a certain pattern to these kinds of scenes. “Wait, wait! I’m not finished talking!”
As usual, that was when the floor popped open beneath my feet, and my body was flung into darkness. An anxious feeling overtook me as I tumbled into the dark. Of course there was no way everything would go back to normal so easily. Maybe the luxury of hope—the hope that we could live a quiet life with our family of three—was something we were truly unworthy of.
Our punishment was not yet over.
“Shall we initiate the Survival Tactic?!” I heard the low, powerful voice from above me.
Maybe punishment was something that follows you around for your whole life. Maybe we would never know peace again. If that was the case, then why did we have to run around like this, crying and shouting? I was already so tired of knowing that every little thing about our lives was preordained by that tiny little word: fate.
“Am I really not enough?” Kanba asked the queen, his head hung. “Is there nothing else I can do to help Himari?”
The lady of the hat walked up to him. “You can do this. We know it.” Himari narrowed her red eyes, stroking Kanba’s short, messy hair. “We know it, because the Penguindrum is your—”
“I can’t do it!” he shouted sorrowfully.
Himari held his head to her chest. She gently stroked his hair, murmuring so quietly it was almost silent. “You can do it.”
The sweet scent filling the world grew so powerful it was suffocating, and the waves of soft frills enveloped him. He felt Himari’s thin fingers upon his eyelids as he closed them against the force of it.
“Don’t be discouraged.”
Tabuki Keiju and Tokikago Yuri’s residence had not particularly increased in its number of furnishings after they were wed. Yuri arranged most of the new furniture and appliances on her own, and all the things from their single lives were brought here more or less wholesale. Yuri’s mountains of clothing and jewelry and cosmetics were neatly organized in her personal walk-in closet and on her dresser. Tabuki’s books about birds and birdwatching equipment were neatly packed away in a little drawer. The only thing that could be considered a change was the way Tabuki dressed.
Yuri was aghast at his lack of fashion sense, and would buy him shirts or shoes from time to time without consulting him.
“Put some of these on. They should be the right size, but if you don’t like something you can throw it away.”
Tabuki’s eyes went wide at this, face blank. “No way; that’s a waste. If I can wear them, I’ll wear them all,” he said, taking the large branded paper bag. Then, when Yuri threw away some excess clothing from his closet, she felt a bit better.
Yuri now gazed at the diary half she held in one hand, holding a long, thin champagne flute with an intricately crafted stem in the other. She leaned back into one edge of their large sofa, Tabuki sitting quietly on the other. “Takakura Shoma asked me to lend him the diary. He was saying some weird things about his little sister’s life, and penguins.”
“I see.” He slumped slightly, the same type of champagne glass in hand.