Ino Yamamoto 9

And hugs her.

I know, what a surprise, right?

"SOTOKA-CHAN, I WAS WAITING FOR YOU! I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE HERE; I THOUGHT YOU WERE LOST OR YOU WEREN'T COMING, AND I WAS SO SAD AND WORRIED AND…" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Izumi stinks like coffee more than usual, and her eyebags are a little bigger and darker; she's wearing the same sneakers we use at P.E., some old and dirty jeans, and a loose and blue hoodie with TOKYO UNIVERSITY written on in. Maybe it belongs to her dad.

"FINALLY YOU OPEN THAT FUCKIN' DOOR!" Miss Crazy yells. I'VE BEEN HERE LIKE HALF AN HOUR AND NO ONE LISTENS TO ME AND…" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Izumi stares at miss Crazy like she was speaking to her in another language.

"Yes, ma'am, don't worry about it," Sotoka-san pushes Izumi lightly to get rid of her hug. And, weirdly enough, she does: Izumi's so confused by miss Crazy over here she forgets who was hugging right now.

Wow, that had never happened before, and it'll probably never happen again.

Or maybe Izumi's so shocked because she finally found someone even noisier than her.

Who knows.

"I'll turn off the music right now," says Sotoka-san. "Just give me a moment to get into the house and—

"YOU'RE SO INCONSIDERATE IF YOU MAKE THAT MUCH NOISE SO EARLY IN THE MORNING! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU," etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

"I'll turn it off. Just give me a moment," Sotoka-san enters the house.

♫ Damatte, anata wa ki ga kurutte, koko kara deteike ♫

♫ Dare mo kinishinai—

And music stops playing.

But miss crazy doesn't stop yelling:

"YOU KNOW WHAT'S THE 1%, YOU FILTHY AND DISGUSTING BITCHES?!" She yells specifically at Izumi.

But the only thing Izumi does is to look down, say:

"Look: a dog."

Get on her knees and pet Zotrina, the teenage witch.

And I don't blame her: or what would you do: argue with miss Crazy or pet Zotrina, the teenage witch?"

"LEAVE MY DOG ALONE, YOU FILTHY BITCHES, SHE HAS PEDIGREE!" And that fucking bitch Pulls Zotrina, the teenage witch's leash violently.

You motherfucker!

I take Zotrina, the teenage witch's collar, unbuckle her leash and continue petting her.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU BITCH?! WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! 'CAUSE YOU'RE NO ONE, YOU HEAR ME?!"

"What's her name?" Izumi asks me.

"Miss Crazy," I say without thinking.

Izumi stares confusedly at Zotrina, the teenage witch.

"It's not a bad name, I guess," she says.

"No, that's how I call this crazy lady over here. The dog's called Zotrina, the teenage witch."

Izumi gapes.

"Really?! That's the best name ever! Right, Zotrina? ♥" and she pets her harder and with both hands, and Zotrina, the teenage witch, seems to like it because she lays on the floor and shows us her belly. Izumi and I pet her there.

"I'M GONNA TALK WITH YOUR PARENTS AND THE RESIDENTIAL ZONE COMITTEE TO FINE YOU OR SOMETHING 'CAUSE…!"

Suddenly Khanna-san passes in front of miss Crazy and gets into Izumi's house.

"Come," she tells both Izumi and me.

I mean, we are so comfy petting Zotrina, the teenage witch's belly, but, yeah, it'd be better to get into Izumi's house.

And miss Crazy's yells are starting to get on my nerves again.

I stand up and get into Izumi's house.

"Bye, Zotrina, the teenage witch-chan," Izumi pets her for the last time, stands up and gets into her house.

Khanna-san takes one end of the door.

"BECAUSE YOU'RE GONNA PAY, YOU ASSHOLES, OR DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! MY HUSBAND'S—

"Have a nice day," Khanna-san says.

And shuts the door in her face.

Miss Crazy yells even louder and starts knocking the door as hard as she can.

Khanna-san turns toward us. Her face is as emotionless as always.

Wow, not even I would do something like that, and she acts like nothing happened.

"Where did the music come from?" asks Khanna-san.

"From my room upstairs. Let's go."

"Your house is beautiful, Izumi-chan," says Sotoka-chan from somewhere.

"Sotoka-chan, what are you doing down here?" Izumi says and goes find Sotoka-chan.

And I follow her.

Khanna-san goes some other place.

Anyway, Izumi and I cross a hallway and turn right; there's the living room, and it's huge: there's a couple sofas—Sotoka-san's sitting in one of them—, a table with some ornaments, a 20,000 inch screen—probably that's where Izumi watches her anime stuff—, some bookshelves, paintings, and a lot of ornaments and empty spaces. It's weird, but let me give you an example: there's two porcelain figures at the table: one's on the center; the other one's on the left side; but there's nothing on the right side, just an empty space. Also there's spaces in the walls where paintings used to be.

—anata no imaimashī iken ♫

♫ Tashika ni anata ga jinsei de suru yuiitsu no koto wa tanin o nayamasu kotodesu ♫

♫ Anata wa hontōni meiwakudesu ♫

Music's back and the miss Crazy's yells and knocks dissapear.

Khanna-san enters the living room.

She probably was at Izumi's room.

"Did you turn the music back on?" I ask her.

"Yes," she responds as emotionless as always.

"Why? And why did you shut the door on her face?"

"Well, that was just logic."

"No, no, no, no, no. Shut the door on someone's face and then do the exact thing she didn't want us to do has nothing to do with logic. That's just being a bitch."

"Maybe, but it's also just logic. You see: at the beginning she was yelling at us to turn off the music, but when Hamano-san turned it off, she kept yelling at us, so she was going to yell at us no matter what we did, so it's better to ignore her. Also I just turned the music on to stop listening to her.

"And she was getting on my nerves," she confesses.

"There you go," I smile. "That's what I wanted to hear. It was about time to you to show emotions."

"Well, I mean, I'm not a robot, and everybody say—and I get them, because it's really uncommon for people to act as logically as me, even though that doesn't make a lot of sense, but I think that's the point, sorta—I act accordingly to logic because that's the most trustworthy way of acting—even though logic's also amoral and even crazy people act according to it; I mean, they use a sick and twisted logic, but a logic nonetheless."

"What? Really? And how do you know you're as crazy as them?"

"I don't know, and there's always that chance, but also there are a lot of nut jobs who just get carried away by their impulses, so be logical doesn't mean you're crazy, and logic makes us think about everything we do, so we have more chance to act correctly."

"Yeah, whatever," Izumi interrupts us, "come to my room. You too, Sotoka-chan," she takes Sotoka-san by the hand and goes ahead.

"And wouldn't be better if we hang out here? There's sofas and everything," I tell her.

"No; I don't like it here," she replies without stopping.

Well, then. Khanna-san and I follow her.

We walk through a hallway, go up some stairs, and something smells pretty good. It seems Izumi was so comfy having breakfast while we were stuck put there with miss Crazy.

And speaking of miss Crazy, is she still out there?

Well, that's her problem, we go up some stairs, walk to another hallway where there are more paintings and ornaments and empty spaces.

And the music's louder and louder.

♫ ANATA GA WATASHITOISSHONI IRU NODE, WATASHI WA TOTEMO ♫ SHIAWASEDESU

♫ WATASHI WA ANATA O TEBANASU KOTO WA KESSHITE NAIDAROU ♫

♫ ANATA GA WATASHITOISSHONI IRU NODE, WATASHI NI TOTTE HOKA NI ♫ NANI MO JŪYŌDE WA ARIMASEN

Again, whatever, we now get to what definitely is Izumi's room. Yes, it's dirty, yes, it's messy, yes, there's a desk with some paper bags and huge cardboard cups, yes, there's a gamer chair, and yes, there's manga and dirty clothes everywhere, but if I had to describe it I would use the word "tight"; even when the room's so big, it's so filled with stuff it seems there's only space for Izumi. Like a nest or something.

There's a blanket, no, a bed sheet extended all over the floor, four pillows and like ten Styrofoam containers.

Izumi lowers the music volume a little bit.

I wish she just turn it off, but, anyway, it's something.

"Sit down," Izumi tells us, and she sits on one of the pillows. "You sit with me, Sotoka-chan."

Sotoka-san sits beside Izumi; I mean, it's not like she has an option or something; Izumi keeps holding her by the hand, and she's not letting go.

Khanna-san and I sit on the remaining pillows.

The four of us barely fit on the floor.

Izumi opens the styrofoam containers; each one has a different dish: sushi, chinese food, burgers, pasta, tacos, salad, nachos, chicken wings, cake and pan cakes.

"I don't know what you like, Sotoka-chan, so I bought everything I found. What's your favorite food, Sotoka-chan? It's something I bought? Because if it isn't we can go buy it. There's also médium roast coffe 'cause I know you like it, and I also have water and soda and chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, banana milkshakes and—

"Thanks so much, Izumi-chan," says Sotoka-san, "but I already had breakfast, and can I use your bathroom?"

Izumi gets so excited when she hears that "Izumi-chan."

But Sotoka-san didn't say it to get her excited.

"Can I use your bathroom?"

"Oh, sure, it's on the bottom right, and don't worry about anything. Of course you already had breakfast, why did I thought you didn't?"

"Thanks," Sotoka-san gets up, but: "Umm… Izumi-chan."

"Um, yeah?"

"Can you let me go, plea—

"No… ok, I will," Izumi finally lets her go, and Sotoka-san goes to the bathroom with her backpack still on her shoulder. I bet she has a change of clothes there. I know because I have mine in my backpack. I should go change after she comes back.

Izumi gets up and starts closing the containers one by one.

"Naze, Kami-sama-chan?!" Izumi just yells out of nowhere. "Why didn't I think Sotoka-chan would already have breakfast?! I should have told her earlier, but how would I told her to have breakfast here when it just occurred to me at two in the morning? I should have called her, but what's her number? And it was two in the morning: she wasn't gonna pick up…"

"Hey, Ino Yamamoto," Khanna-san speaks to me. "So all this food is for Sotoka-san?"

"How would I know? Ask Izumi."

"I rather not; it's not a good idea to talk with someone who's talking with herself."

"That makes sense. But why did you ask? You hungry?"

"A little."

"Why? You didn't have breakfast or what? Where's the logic of coming to someone's place early without having breakfast before?"

"I did have breakfast, but it was just half of what I usually eat because there was always the change we would go out to have some breakfast, so I needed a little space if that happened.

"Hey, Izumi," I call her.

"… I would have saved all this, and I would have invited her dinner—

"Izumi!"

Izumi glares at us.

"What you want?"

"Khanna-san's hungry. Can't you give her something to eat?"

"If Sotoka-chan doesn't want it, sure. Or I guess you can have this one; it's supposed to be mine," Izumi takes one of the huge cardboard cups, approaches Khanna-san and…

"Did you call me?"

Sotoka-san's at the door; she's wearing some Brown working boots, some black track pants and a light brown and loose enough to cover half her thighs sweater.

"SOTOKA-CHAN, YOU'RE SO GOEGEOUS!" Izumi runs towards Sotoka-san, but she trips with one of the styrofoam containers and drops the cardboard cup she had, and it hits Sotoka-san and leaves her soaked in soda.

Fortunate(or unfortunate)ly for her, only her sweater got soaked.

Izumi gets up.

—¡GOMENGOMENGOMENGOMENGOMEN, SOTOKA-CHAN! ¡I DIDN'T WANT TO STAIN SUCH A PRETTY SWEATER, BUT DON'T WORRY; I CAN WASH IT FOR YOU, AND I HAVE A LOT OF CLOTHES I CAN LEND YOU, EVEN THIS HOODIE I HAVE ON, YOU WANT IT?, HERE, HERE IT IS!" That Izumi fool starts to take off her hoodie. So far so good, but we can see from here Izumi's wearing nothing below that hoodie.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, IZUMI-SAN?!" Sotoka-san grabs Izumi's hoodie from the low end and puts it on Izumi again. "I'm fine, really. It's just a stain."

"You'd better take that off, Sotoka-san, or you're going to get sick," I tell her because that sweater's really soaking wet.

"NO!" she yells out of nowhere.

"Ino Yamamoto's right: you will get sick," says Khanna-san, "and Izumi Natsumura can lend you something else. Izumi Natsumura," Khanna-san turns towards Izumi and stares at her spectantly.

"Sure, sure," Izumi starts to check all the clothes she has everywhere. Then she finds a light grey hoodie with the word CANADA on it—and, judging by its size, it probably belongs to her dad too—and gives it to Sotoka-san.

What's the deal with you and your dad's clothes, Izumi? You ought to stop wasting that much money on manga—and food, apparently—and buy yourself some decent clothes.

Anyway, Sotoka-san takes the hoodie and goes back to the bathroom.

"What's wrong with you, Izumi?!" I yell at her because I can't help it. "Respect yourself a little: wear something below!"

Izumi stares at me like I was stupid or something.

"Why? It's not like someone will see what I wear below. And it's so hot right now."

"At least wear a bra, you know."

"They are so uncomfortable, and I'm fine like this…"

Oh, god, I don't know why I even try.

"There," Sotoka-chan appears again. Even though the hoodie is way too loose for her.

"SOTOKA-CHAN, WE LOOK LIKE SIBLINGS!" Izumi gets up, and everyone but her yell at the same time:

"No, no, no, you'd better stay there!" Sotoka-san yells.

"You shouldn't run here, Izumi Natsumura!" Khanna-san yells.

"Don't even think about it!" I yell.

Fortunately, Izumi listens to us and stays where she is.

"Now's my turn," I stand up and go to the bathroom. There I take off my uniform, fold every piece carefully and put it over the toilet lid. Then I take out my black sneakers form my backpack, put them on the floor, take out my change of clothes, put it besides my uniform, grab my uniform and put it back into my backpack with my shoes. I put these with the soles up so they don't get my clothes dirty. And finally, I wear my black and washed out jeans, a black T-shirt with the band Disintegration's logo, my favorite jacket: a denim one with a black hood, and my sneakers.

I go out of the bathroom and get back with the girls.

"… probably no one's getting in the club because no one knows what's about," Khanna-san's talking. She has one of the styrofoam containers in one hand, and a fork in the other. She eats a little bit, swallows and continues: "that's why we need to define what is or what it could ANIME LIFE be."

"Ok," says Sotoka-san. "So turn off the music, Izumi-chan, and let's go."

Sotoka-san and Izumi stand up.

Khanna-san eats as fast as she can.

Izumi finally turns off the music and takes Sotoka-san by the hand.

"What are you doing?" Sotoka-san asks.

A while ago I grabbed your hand and you didn't yell or anything. So you don't mind I grab you by the hand, right?

Sotoka-san stares at Izumi.

And sighs.

"Ok, of that means you won't hug me that much is fine."

"Arigatōgozaimashita, Sotoka-chan!" Izumi gets closer to Sotoka-san, but stops and takes Sotoka-san's both hands, and starts to leap a little bit out of sheer happiness, and Sotoka-san smirks back. "Sotoka-chan, I would like to hug you forever, but now you don't like it that much, and I respect you, and the important thing is you stay with me, Sotoka-chan, 'cause—

"Izumi-chan, let's go," says Sotoka-san.

Izumi leaps a little bit more.

Sotoka-san laughs and, why not?, leaps a little too.

Khanna-san gets out of the room.

"What's wrong with those two?" She asks me.

"Why should I know?" I reply. "But let the have it. Whatever that is."

And they both keep leaping.

But it doesn't last forever.

"Ok," says Sotoka-san. "Let's go."

"Ok," says Izumi, and they both get out of the room.

"So, where are we going?" I, the only one who doesn't know what's happening, ask.

"To seize our youth," replies Izumi, but that doesn't say anything to me, really.

"We need to get what is what people like so we can lure them to our club," explains Khanna-san, "and because it's most probable to find that outside, we are going to look for it."

"So that means we don't know where we're going. Ok, let's go."

We get down the stairs, go across the hallway, open the door, and miss Crazy is still out there.

With some cops.