Rika startles the new girl by being more cryptic and open than she really should be.
Current IC time is: Sat Nov 02 17:51:32 2002
Upper Observation Deck
The upper observation deck of the Tokyo Tower is much smaller than the lower one, but it’s much higher above the city and allows one to see both far into the ocean and deep into mainland Japan. The outer walls exclusively consist of windows slanting outwards, surrounded by railings so that you wouldn’t fall over onto the glass if you get dizzy. The light of the city below is swallowing everything in in a sea of stars to rival - no, surpass! - the stars above, which are practically invisible, even here.
Rika
This girl fits the textbook definition of ‘cute redhead’, and while she’s unmistakably asian, her relatively pale skin and dark green eyes, coupled with flaming red hair cut in a pageboy style make it easy to forget about it, especially since there’s no sign of hair dye. She does seem to wear some makeup on her face, still posessed of soft, childlike features, but it’s hard to trace just what did she do with it - there isn’t much. Overally, she resembles a fox - lithe and slim, and generally small, since she’s rather short.
She is wearing a loose-fitting thin sweater, the neck hole being considerably larger than needed, folds circling her neck and falling off onto her right shoulder. The soft purple color of the equally soft and fuzzy wool is further faded out by deliberate uniform mix of white, and an exquisitely laced collar of a bluish white silk blouse - or rather, just one side of it - is visible through the neck. The sweater continues on almost halfway down her thighs, tighly bound in deliberately faded blue jeans, which widen at the bottom, offering only a glimpse of the blue and white sneakers on her feet.
On her back is a fancy-looking black backpack, which, beside the obvious hundred and a half pockets sports what looks like decorative Angelic Layer style wings on the sides.
An unusual hairband rests upon her hair - a silvery, thickish metallic object with glistening chrome parts. It looks very pretty, almost like jewelry, but very weird. And it has leds.
Rika is to be found there, on the observation deck, staring down through a telescope. And tossing coins in, one by one, repeatedly, without fail. Looks like she has a whole bagfull of them.
Emiko
This young woman is slight of build and possesses a beauty that belies her age. Straight, shoulder-length blonde hair is styled to frame the curve of her face and strikes a light contrast to the pale golden complexion of her Asian heritage. Perched atop her small nose is a pair of thin, rectangular framed glasses with deep rose hued lenses that slightly obscure the striking hazel of her eyes.
She wears an ivory white angora sweater with a wide ribbed turtleneck collar that easily reaches her chin. The cuffs of the sleeves are a similar ribbed texture unlike the rest of the fuzzy top. Its bottom stops short of her waistline, showing off her athletic midriff which is encircled by a small silver chain that has a small dangling medallion that sways to and fro with her steps. The blue denim of her jeans begin just below her narrow waistline, fitting snugly through her long leg’s hips and thighs but flares out to the frayed bell bottoms that all but obscure the old and scuffed black doc martens on her feet. She wears multiple rings on many fingers of both hands, from simple bands to more intricate ones with expensive looking gemstones.
Emiko is not generally afraid of heights but she’s not been up this eye, out in the open air, in quite awhile. She moves carefully around the tower and notices a familiar. She strolls over in that direction, passing by a couple that are having a whispered conversation by a railing. When she’s close enough to Rika she says softly, “I looked up, and I saw you here.”
Emiko is not generally afraid of heights but she’s not been up this eye, out in the open air, in quite awhile. She moves carefully around the tower and notices a familiar. She strolls over in that direction, passing by a couple that are having a whispered conversation by a railing. Shen she’s close enough to Rika she says softly, “I looked up, and I saw you here.”
Rika smiles ironically without peeling her eyes off the telescope, “You could have missed by a few meters.” she comments cryptically. Tossing in another coin she shifts the telescope slightly. “Aren’t you afraid coming here? This is supposed to be dangerous, you know. Dimension gate and all that.” she says without a hint of humour in her voice. Does she really believe that anime concept of Tokyo Tower being the mystical antenna of the city?…
“Dimensional gate? Sou desu ka?” she says with a detectable mock sincerity, and replies “Iya, I’m not frightened. I think that anything this big which Godzilla hasn’t knocked down on his few dozen rampages must be pretty safe.” The blonde girl chuckles, and steps over to look out over the railing and into the sea, “We’re so small,” she says in a moment of self-reflection, overwhelmed by the view.
Rika grins, peeling her eyes off the telescope for a brief moment and glancing at Emiko with sparkly eyes. “You don’t have to knock down the tower to end up in another world.” she says cryptically. “I’d say… most people already have no idea whatsoever what world they DO live in.” she adds before looking into the telescope again.
What a strange girl, Emiko thinks to herself, though she thought that when she first met Rika as well. “Well, what world do you live in, Maeki-san?” Her tone is serious enough, and she is intrigued what else this girl may have to say.
Rika responds, looking up from the telescope, “The one populated mostly by blind people, it appears.” she says, looking at Emiko for a while, her eyes betraying there’s a sea of emotion somewhere deep inside this girl, but she just presses her teeth tighter a bit and looks back into the telescope. “Their world ends about fifteen meters in front of them.”
“Unn,” Emiko acknowledges the girl’s perspective, “I know how that can be. I sometimes feel that the only time I can really see what is in front of me is to close my eyes and feel the wind against my face.” Earlier, Nanako asked if she was aspiring to sagehood, maybe she is. This newest Tokyoite has had a lot of time for self-reflection her first week in a strange new city. “Sometimes you have to show people new ways of seeing things,” she concludes.
Rika shrugs, tossing in another coin and looking down at the world through the telescope “People have the tendency to protect their little shell by ignoring everything that breaks it.” she says. “And even if they go out of it, can they really be trusted? There’s so much a normal man can do in the world of the blind…”
She’s another tough customer alright, and Emiko can’t really understand where she’s coming from. She’s never been all that bright, her midterms can attest to that. A few moments of silence pass, the couple near the railing some meters beyond where Rika and Emiko are start to leave. Emiko turns to look out at the view of Tokyo once more and decides to try to find where she lives, and goes over to a free telescape and deposits a coin while scanning the streets of Tokyo. She finds the school first, “Oh, there’s our school and where we were earlier.” It’s a novelty perhaps, but Emiko always liked playing the tourist while overseas.
Rika looks up from the telescope and throws a glance at Emiko. The hairband goes beep flash. She looks about. The place’s deserted now… Only a stray attendant is nodding off on a chair in the far corner. Opening up her backpack, she pulls a smaller baggie out of it. “Could you do me a tiny favor, Goto-san?” she says, untying the string on the container.
Rika smiles, fumbling with her bag, pulling out a set of thinnish aluminium pipes… One of which ends in what looks like a synthetic broom. “One does. They forgot to lock it. Just don’t tell anyone…” she says, sticking the pipes together to make a full size broom… Almost as tall as the tiny Rika herself, it looks kinda wobbly. Sliding a credit card through a thin crack between the window and the frame, she opens it, letting in the howling autumn wind and tosses another glance at the snoozing attendant in the corner. After that, it gets weird… Well, weirder. She mounts the broomstick like a horse and chants in a strong voice, which belies good singing ability gone to waste, “Izati abamehinam etokafe nan!” The broom silently lifts off… and with it, Rika disappears through the open window.
Never-the-less, Emiko obliges and says, “Well, even without the wind I can imagine it.” She listens to Rika explain about the window, and she turns to look at the guard a few moments too late. Suddnely there’s a blast of wind that whips her hair about her, and gets the attention of the groggy guard. The blonde teenager is left standing by the open window fumbling with her glasses and wiping the stinging tears from her eyes caused by the sudden cold air. She runs for the lift, thinking that Rika fell out the window. Moments later she’s on the ground circling the base of the tower in a dead run, “Maeki-san!”
Base of Tokyo Tower
The magnificent weave of metal painted red and white, illuminated by night lighting in bright orange and blue hues, that is the Tokyo Tower stretches up for 333 meters above your head. It’s not falling. It’s not being demolished either. That’s the only sign that you’re actually in a real Tokyo and not in some kind of anime, because in anime, this landmark invariably gets destroyed at least once per series, and sometimes twice.
Only the overall dampness in the air and a layer of clouds in the sky reminds that autumn is here to stay, and the typical autumn chills make t-shirts well out of season.
Rika is practically unnoticeable in the thin crowd of teenagers hanging out, random tourists and other stray people, sitting on a street bench, fiddling with her backpack. Trying to squeeze something in that doesn’t fit quite well. In the early night, the brightly lit tower is magnificent, but it looks like Rika’s less interested in the tower than she is in the contents of her bag.
“Maeki-san?!” Emiko sees the girl and stops a meter or so away from her, “Daijoubu desu ka?” She’s clearly a bit surprised to see the girl, but relieved that she appears unhurt.
Rika looks up from her backpack. beep SNAP goes the flash in her hairband. “What did the wind tell you?” she asks in the same cryptic manner.
Emiko doesn’t get flustered often but she appears to be a little conflicted, torn between concern for the girl she thought just plummeted to her death and anger for the riddling redhead without a scratch on her. It lasts only a few moments as her gaze softens, and she says in a somewhat hurt tone, “It told me nothing, and left me with only tears.” She shakes her head and turns her back on the girl, “And it’s left my vision somewhat blurred. If you’ll excuse me… shitsurei shimasu. I should be going home.”
Rika responds, not moving to stand up from her bench, “There’s a door in school, on the second floor, near the other clubrooms and classrooms, not marked cause Yuuzen-san never got around to making a sign for it. I suspect it was a broom closet once.” she says, zipping up the backpack and sliding it on. Slowly rising from her place, she walks towards Emiko, passing by at a slightly higher speed, lightly touching the girl’s shoulder with the decorative wing of her backpack. “If you know where to look, you’ll find it. If you don’t, you will have to wait for it to tell you.” Suddenly Rika stops and turns back to glance at Emiko, “But if it lets you through, you will nave nobody left to blame for being blind.”
Emiko listens quietly to what Rika says, more riddles, though her mind is not quite here at the moment. It’s thinking of the grave of the young girl she saw only hours ago, and how so many bad things happen in this world. However, tonight she was sure there’d be another grave in some cemetery with another girl her age in it. It’s hard to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, there’s a visible slump in hers as she nods to Rika. She’s emotional at times, and this is one of those times. Her parting words to the miraculous living girl is, “Doumo arigatou, Maeki-san.”
Rika smiles to the new girl, nods silently, and disappears in the crowd, not to be seen again.
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