Ino Yamamoto 4
[VANDALIZED ANIME LIFE.jpg in the first comment]
What's this? And what's it doing here at the library? Did Izumi also put her flyers here? But last time we came here I didn't see any.
So who brought it? And why? And who'd want to bring that thing with them, anyway?
Maybe he just wanted to show it to his friends to make fun of it.
That would explain those drawings.
Well, whatever, those flyers only could end like this or in a garbage bin.
But what a bunch of ugly drawings, though. They're even uglier than Izumi's, to be honest. What's a magic duck? What does that weird S means? And definitely they don't know how to draw poop.
"What's this?" Izumi takes the vandalized flyer off my hands and looks at it. "Where did you find it?"
"On the floor."
"Man, they really can't draw." And she gives it back.
And I throw it to the garbage bin, where it belongs.
"And speaking of copies," Izumi sits on the floor, opens her gigantic backpack and starts to take out books, notebooks, a sweater, her extra pair of slippers, a laptop…
Oh, Izumi, you really are such a mess.
But, anyway, Izumi takes out a piece of paper, puts back everything she took out before as chaotically and disorderly as she can, and she closes her backpack.
"Here's the original."
[OG ANIME LIFE.jpg in the first comment]
"We can photocopy it here."
Izumi leaves, and Sotoka-san and I follow her.
Izumi walks through bookshelf after bookshelf, and she ends up in a corner where there's a photocopier. She opens it and puts the original flyer inside. She presses some buttons, and the photocopier starts photocopying nonstop.
"How many copies are you going to make, anyway?" I ask.
"Just a few," says Izumi. "50."
"Just a few? And how many are too much? 200?"
"Well, yeah, right?"
"Yeah, but 50 are a lot too."
"Nuh-uh. I always spend 50 in a little while."
"That's because you just throw them everywhere."
Izumi looks at me angrily.
And turns towards Sotoka-san.
"50 copies ain't that many, right, Sotoka-chan?"
Sotoka-san turns towards me.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"SOTOKA-CHAN, WHY DON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME?! INO'S MOCKING ME, AND YOU'RE NOT PROTECTING ME!"
"What happened?"
"I'm making 50 copies, and Ino says they're too many."
"They're too many," says rightly Sotoka-san.
Izumi looks at Sotoka-san hopelessly.
"AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ¡KAMI-SAMA-CHAN, TASUKETE!"
"It doesn't matter, though," Sotoka-san says. "You can save the leftovers."
"But there won't be any," Izumi replies, "maybe we'll need more."
"Sure, sure, whatever, if there are leftovers, we'll save them for later, and if we run out, we'll make more."
"But we'll run out. You'll see."
Izumi opens the photocopier, takes out the original flyer, takes the photocopies and approaches a table full of books, notebooks, calculators, pens, pencils, laptops and a bunch of guys who were very busy talking and laughing and playing and doing everything except whatever they came here to do, in the first place.
"¡HEY!" Yelled Ino. "ARE YOU IN ANY CLUB? DON'T YOU WANT TO JOIN THE ANIME LIFE? WE NEED TWO MORE—
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," every one of them shush Ino.
"We're in a library," whispers one.
"You're too loud," whispers another one to Izumi.
"That's disrespectful," whispers a third guy.
And everyone else laugh on Izumi's face, but quietly.
"So," whispers Izumi, "who of you, guys, will join ANIME LIFE? We're only two members short."
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," they shush her again.
"We're normally at 1-1…" but Izumi doesn't shut up.
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
"You can meet us th—
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
"We're me…"
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"Sotok—"
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Shut up."
"Ino…"
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Fuck."
And Izumi turns around and comes back to us.
"Didn't go well?" I ask.
Izumi looks at me angrily. She approaches another table full of people and:
"Natsumura-san," says a middle-aged woman, who can only be the:
"Librarian-san," Izumi turns towards her.
"What is it now?" the woman better known as Librarian-san asks.
"Nothing, we're just giving these flyers away."
"Well, stop; you're bothering everyone."
"But I'm doing it quietly."
"This is a library, not a social center," a social center? What's that anyway? "If you want to give away those or whatever, do it in some other place, but not here."
And Librarian-san leaves.
"Well, at least we tried," says Sotoka-san.
Izumi turns towards her and:
"Now you'll do it, Sotoka-chan."
"What?!" Sotoka-san was so surprised with Izumi's statement she forgot for a second we were at a library. "But why me?! The librarian told us to stop giving those flyers away."
"No," replies Izumi. "She told me to stop giving those flyers away, but she never said anything about you."
Wait, that's...
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True.
Very, very true.
Oh, Izumi, you may be an idiot but you can also say something clever once in a while.
Anyway, Izumi gives her flyers to Sotoka-san.
Sotoka-san then approaches a table full of good-for-nothings doing what good-for-nothings do best.
And I bet they're also making fun of us. I hate them.
"Oh, Hamano-san," says one of them.
"Hamano-san, how you doin'?" Asks another one.
"Wanna join us?" Asks a third one.
And everyone else smile at Sotoka-san and stare at her and don't have the guts to talk to her.
Wow, what a different reaction than the last one. If it would have been Izumi they would have ignored her or shut her up right away, but with Sotoka-san's way different, and there may me a couple of reasons of it:
1. Sotoka-san's blonde;
2. Her hair's long and silky, and she always has it in a long braid;
3. Her features are soft and elegant;
4. She has a pretty nice body;
5. She has blue eyes;
6. She has white teeth;
7. She wears glasses;
8. Her skin's pale and smooth;
9. Her voice is smooth and kind;
10. She uses some very long and very dark stockings to cover her very long and very pretty legs.
But she also:
1. Has a little acne on her face (and it seems she's not taking care of it);
2. She's scary when she gets mad;
3. She definitely wears a slightly bigger uniform than the one she needs;
4. She never takes off that horrible brown sweater we have as part of our uniform.
It's like she's actively trying to make herself look ugly, and I feel if she fixes herself a little she could look even prettier than Yuri Okabe.
But she doesn't. And why would she? It's a total waste of time, but people value beaty more than anything, and what else could we expect from a society as shallow and superficial as the one we live in?
Or maybe she's just trying to go unnoticed, but that's practically impossible to her because:
1. Like I said, she's blonde, and there are very few blondes at school, and
2. She's pretty.
"Hi," says Sotoka-san. "Do you want to join the ANIME LIFE club?" And she gives a flyer to each one of them, and they receive it gladly.
"Sure, Hamano-san," says one of them.
"I'm already part of a club, but I can quit, Hamano-san," says another one.
"I'm also in, Hamano-san," says the third one," and what's that club about?"
"Uhmmmm…" Sotoka-san turns towards us, and she asks us for help with just her worried glance. But I honestly have no idea what's ANIME LIFE, anyway, and Izumi… where's Izumi? Izumi…? No, she's definitely gone. Well, it doesn't matter; she'd definitely say something very stupid. "Anime?"
"I love anime."
"Me too."
"I don't, but if you like it, Hamano-san, it must be good."
"ANIME'S THE BEST OF THIS GODDAMNED UNIVERSE!" Izumi appears out of nowhere, approaches them and takes Sotoka-san by the shoulder. "AND IT'S GREAT YOU'RE GONNA JOIN US! WE'LL HAVE A GREAT TIME THE FIVE OF US!"
Everyone stare at Izumi and immediately stop smiling.
"I don't know if I could," says one of them
"Yeah, I'm already in a club," says another one.
"I don't even watch anime," says the third one.
And that's it.
Well done, Izumi! We were so, so close.
But, thinking about it, if we kick you out the club and accept those guys we'll be done.
But we won't do it because we're not like you, and surely Sotoka-san wouldn't let me and probably get mad at me, and it's fun to watch you suffer and fail at everything at any time.
And those three are bunch of assholes who will only try to get in Sotoka-san's skirt.
"That went well," says Izumi despite she totally ruined it.
"Where were you?" I ask.
"Oh, I just went to make some more copies. I made another 50."
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*sigh*
For god's sake.
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So, Sotoka-san gave the flyers away (not all of them, because, as I said, they were too many) and she convinced everyone to join ANIME LIFE by just approaching them.
And Izumi scared them off the same way.
But, anyway, it doesn't really matter, they were just joining because of Sotoka-san, and honestly it would be really annoying if the club just becomes a bunch of guys, girls and an Izumi surrounding and annoying poor Sotoka-san.
"Here," Sotoka-san gave Izumi the remaining flyers back. "Save them for later."
"Why, though? We can use 'em right now," Izumi says stubbornly.
"How?" I ask. "We already gave them to everyone here. You want to give them more of those or what?"
Izumi smiles and goes back to the bookshelves; there she starts to put flyers between books. But she's always leaving them half out.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"I'm leaving 'em here for someone to find 'em."
"Uhm… why?"
Izumi looks at me like I'm the fool here.
"What do you mean why? When someone walks over here, he/she'll notice a sheet of paper between the books and say: "oh, what's this?" and take the sheet and look at it and say: "oh, ANIME LIFE, I'm intrigued. I wanna know more about this club and maybe join it."
Yeah, sure.
"That's not going to happen," I tell her.
"Nuh-uh, right, Sotoka-chan?"
"You'd better take them out," Sotoka-san says; "they're too , and if the librarian sees them, she'll get pretty mad, and she can easily find our names in the flyers, so…"
"Ok, Sotoka-chan. Just because it's you," Izumi then takes back her flyers.
She seems clearly disillusioned.
"Unless…" Izumi starts folding her flyers and hiding them inside some books.
Now she seems stubbornly determined.
"And now what are you doing?" I ask her.
"I'm hiding 'em here; when someone takes one of these books he/she's gonna notice something between the pages and say: "oh, what's this?" and he/she's gonna find the flyer and he/she's gonna open it and say: "oh, ANIME LIFE, I'm intrigued. I wanna know more about this club and maybe join it."
"Izumi, he/she'll surely look at the book and say: "oh, a book, one of those useless relics people used to use but we don't need to because we now have internet, where there's way more information and it's way easier to find" and he/she'll never open it and no one will never find your flyers.
"Says you, but there's a lot of people here."
"Yeah, but they are just wasting everyone's time."
"No, they also pick some books too."
"Yeah, but they only pick some of them, and just the ones the teachers tell them to pick, and I'm pretty sure they already took them. The ones remaining are the ones no one picks up."
"Whatever, I've already hid 'em, and I'm gonna leave 'em there," says Izumi stubbornly.
And she leaves them there.
"Hey, let's do our homework," or Sotoka-san wasn't paying attention to us or she simply doesn't care that Izumi left those flyers with our names on inside all those books.
Or maybe because no one will notice the flyers inside the books because no one ever will pick them, there's nothing to worry about.
Or maybe she just remebered we haven't done our homework.
Or I don't know. Sotoka-san's weird.
But we have to do our goddammed homework.
And all tables are taken.
"Let's go to a study room," says Izumi, and we follow her.
But all study rooms are taken.
"Well," she says, "maybe we can get in this one."
And she gets in a study room where there's only a girl reading.
And I think she's even tinier than me.
"Hi, Mausumiya," Izumi says while she drops her backpack somewhere on the floor and takes a seat like she was invited there.
"Natsumura-san," says... ¿Mausumiya? but we can barely hear her. ¿Why she's speaking so softly, "just let me read."
It seems we're leaving, then.
What a shame.
But I'm not judging you, Mausumiya; I would have done exactly the same.
So, we go back to the door, but Sotoka-san approaches Mausumiya and:
"Hi, Nishimiya-san," wait. That girl's called Nishimiya? Well, yeah, that last name sounds way more real than Mausumiya, but why did Izumi... ah, because Nishimiya looks like a mouse.
Sad but true. Anyway:
"I'm Sotoka Hamano and," she takes both Nishimiya's hands, "please, let us stay with you. We just want to do our homework, and there's nowhere available right now. We won't be making noise, and I will really, really appreciate it.
Nishimiya's just staring at Sotoka-chan.
Is it me or Nishimiya really, really blushed?
"Ok, then, but please be quiet."
Wow! I've never imagined Sotoka-san could be so persuasive. She's always so quiet…
"YES!" Yells you-know-who, "ARIGATŌGOZAIMASHITA, NISHIMIYA-CHAN! YOU'RE NOT GONNA REGRET THIS!
Probably she already did.
But that's on her. Right now we make ourselves comfortable and take out our books, notebooks, pens, pencils and so on and so on.
"And what's the homework?" Asks Izumi.
"Well," answers Sotoka-san, "we have to solve some math exercises and do some history research.
"So, Ino's doing that math stuff, and I'll do the research with you, Sotoka-chan. Let's go get the books," Izumi gets up, takes Sotoka-san by the hand, and both of them get out the study room and get lost between the bookshelves.
And leave me alone with a complete stranger.
But it's ok; it's not like I want to do that research anyway.
I open my math notebook.
[HOMEWORK.jpg in the first comment]
Oh, that's easy. I shouldn't take long doing this.
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[FINISHED HOMEWORK.jpg in the first comment]
Done. That was easy.
Very, very easy.
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And now what?
When are those girls coming back?
Surely Izumi took Sotoka-san to some corner and annoyed her with her hugs and her "SOTOKA-CHAN, DAISKI, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! LET' BE TOGETHER FOREVER AND EVER EVEN THOUGH YOU CLEARY DISLIKE MY AFFECTION 'CAUSE YOU HAVE COMMON SENSE AND A LOT MORE DIGNITY THAN ME, BUT IT'S OK, I'LL NEVER GIVE UP ON YOU 'CAUSE I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TAKE THE HINT AND BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, ETCETERA, ETCETERA, ETCETERA!"
And Nishimiya and I are here alone. She's reading a gigantic book.
And it's bigger than her head.
Ha, she does seem like a tiny mouse.
And she really is tinier than me.
Just a little bit, though, but tinier.
If it weren't for that uniform, I'd swear she's from an elementary school.
And she's also really thin.
She looks like she could just break at any second.
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Anyway…
"Uhm, Nishimiya-san, ¿right? Hi, I'm Ino Yamamoto.
Nishimiya-san stops Reading her book and turns towards me.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Kazumi Nishimiya," and she turns back to her book and completely ignores me.
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This is awkward. Should I leave her alone?
Yes; if she wanted to talk to me she would do it, right?
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"Hey, Nishimiya, uhm… you read a lot? Who are your favorite authors?" I only ask because there's nothing more I can do in here.
She turns towards me.
"Well, I like a lot. My favorite is and always be Jane Austen, but, I don't know, I like them all: from Kurt Vonnegut and Terry Pratchet to Stephen King y Mark Danielewski, to mention a few. I don't know, I'm not very picky with my books, but there's some I don't really like, like those from Raymond Carver because they make me really, really sad—but they're very interesting—and he's a great writer.
"Oh… " I don't recognize any of those names, " that's nice."
Nishimiya smiles at me and asks:
"Do you read?"
"Uhm… no, not really."
"Oh," Nishimiya turns back to her book and completely ignores me.
And I die of loneliness.
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"HEY, HEY!" Izumi and Sotoka-san finally come back. They bring a bunch of books with them.
"Why you took so long?" I asked.
Izumi looks at me like I'm lying.
"But we didn't," she's the one who's lying.
"Of course you did," I reply, "I even finished my math's homework."
"Really? Let me copy it."
I give her my homework, and she and Sotoka-san start copying it.
"And what did you two did?"
Izumi takes her notebook and gives it to me.
[IZUMI REPORT.jpg in the first comment]
"What's this? I can't read anything, Izumi. I thought your handwriting was like the one on the flyer."
"No, that's my best handwriting."
"And what's this? The ugly one?"
"What's wrong with you? This is how I write."
And what does it say, then?"
Izumi takes her notebook back.
"But it's super easy. It says:"
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"I dunno, political regime, something, something, Louis XIV. It's just that I wrote it as fast as I could 'cause I was speaking with Sotoka-chan. Why don't you ask her for her research?"
Yeah, I should have done that first.
I turn towards Sotoka-san.
She's copying my homework.
"Let me copy your research, Sotoka-san."
"I haven't done it yet," she doesn't even turns towards me." Izumi's work is just some key words and concepts, but there's still a lot to do."
"Oh, ok," I mean, I'll only have to wait until she's done, and considering Izumi won't be at any help, this will take a while.
And I know, I could help her, but I already did my job. They chose the research and they will do the research.
Maybe the best I can do is distract Izumi so she doesn't distract Sotoka-san and she finishes as quick as she can.
And maybe Nishimiya can help me out with this…
I touch Izumi's shoulder and:
"Hey, Izumi, have you ever told Nishimiya about ANIME LIFE?"
Nishimiya finally stops reading and stares at us confusedly.
Izumi stares at Nishimiya with a little bit of disdain.
"Why, though?" She asks. "She'll only be a nuisance."
"You're the one who's a nuisance because you never shut up. At least show her the flyer you made."
Izumi stares at Nishimiya with a little bit of distrust.
"Ok, then," Izumi takes the original flyers and gives it to Nishimiya.
Nishimiya stares at it.
"It's prettu," she says. "Can I take a picture of it?"
"It really is, right?!" Says Izumi with a big, big smile. "It's one of my best Works, and yeah, take as many as you want. I'll hold it."
"No, it's ok, thanks," Nishimiya takes the flyer, puts it on her book, takes out her phone and takes the picture. Why? I don't know, but it seems she has a horrible taste.
But I like her, despite all.
"Thanks," and she gives the flyer back to Izumi. Izumi takes it and put it back into that disaster she calls backpack.
And I ask Nishimiya:
"So… do you want to join our club?"
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Ok, ok, I get it.
So… I still need to wait for Sotoka-san to finish her homework so I can copy it.
She has a bunch of open books and she's typing nonstop on Izumi's laptop.
She shouldn't take long.
And it will be too cynical of me to ask her to send it to my email when she's done and leave.
So I rest my head on my notebook,
close my eyes
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and die of boredom.