Interlude: Yashiro Comes Calling, Part 4

Interlude:
Yashiro Comes Calling
Part 4

“I ’M HERE for my chocolate.”

“What…?”

Yachi’s at our house yet again, except this time she’s acting like we owe her something. Me and my big sister are standing at the front door, staring at her like she’s cuckoo.

“I’m told it is a common custom at this time of year!” she insists, swinging her arms. Whoa… She’s so excited, her bright-blue fairy eyes are all sparkly. I almost expect them to start glowing or something. Like, literally. Because it’s Yachi.

“What are you even—ohhhh . You mean Valentine’s?”

“Yes, that,” Yachi says, nodding like a bobblehead. I can kinda tell she doesn’t actually know what “Valentine’s” is.

“Okay, well, Valentine’s Day is still a ways off. It’s closer to Setsubun right now.”

“Either one is fine,” Yachi shrugs with a smile. So, she doesn’t care about Valentine’s at all?!

Even my sister looks annoyed. “Someone just had to go and tell you about Valentine’s, huh? Well, let’s see… I think we have some chocolate in the fridge.”

She turns to go look, but then Yachi starts jumping up and down all excited, so she turns back and puts a hand on Yachi’s head to stop her.

“Calm thyself, child.”

“I am calm!” Yachi declares, straightening herself up to her full height. Satisfied, my sister heads to the kitchen.

But Yachi’s “calm” only lasts for maybe five seconds before I feel her big, round eyes on me, so I turn to look. Gosh, are her eyes pretty. Whenever I look at her—or she looks at me—my heart always starts racing.

“I’d like chocolate from you, too, Little.”

“Say wha…?!”

She cups her hands and holds them out expectantly. She’s so greedy! I stare down at them and think about it for a while. Wow, even her nails are pale blue. Is that nail polish, or…?

“Sure, I’ll give you some chocolate,” I say. “But you have to give me some back.”

“Why is that?” Yachi asks, confused. I guess she thinks all this gift-giving is one-sided. Where’d she get that idea?

“That’s how Valentine’s Day works.”

“Really?”

“I think so.” I swing my arms.

She starts doing it, too—back and forth and back and forth. “In that case, let’s have our gifts ready by the next time we meet.”

“When’s that gonna be?”

I don’t even know where she lives or anything, so I have no way of finding her. She just sort of…appears. Maybe she really is a fairy.

Meanwhile, the strands of fairy hair wrapped around my finger continue to glow faintly blue. I like to look at them at nighttime when I’m in bed. Somehow, I can never tear my eyes away.

“God, it’s freezing,” my sister grumbles. She walks out from the kitchen carrying a box of chocolates she got as a souvenir last month.

She hates the cold more than anybody else in our whole family. Mom says it’s because she’s a wimp; I think so too.

“Here. I’ve got some leftover chocolate-covered macadamia nuts for you.”

“Ooh, that sounds good!” Yachi lunges for the box, snatches it, and holds it over her head triumphantly, like a video-game character. “I will be sure to repay this gift sometime in the future!”

“Wait… You’re going to take the whole box?”

“Yaaaay!”

Yachi toddles off at full speed without listening to a single word, cradling the box of chocolates like a priceless treasure.

“Good grief… Oh well. Only three or four were left in there, anyway.” My sister shivers and rubs her arms like she’s more worried about staying warm.

I guess I’ll need to get Yachi’s gift ready for next time.

“Man, everybody wants chocolate from me,” my sister mutters as we watch Yachi disappear into the distance.

“Who’s ‘everybody’?” I ask, confused.

She sighs and pats my head. “Do you want something, too?”

“If you’ve got extra candy lying around, I could take it off your hands.” I put my hands on my hips and chuckle smugly. “Heh.”

She jabs me in the stomach, and I start coughing instead. “Geh!”

~ Today’s Adachi Forecast~

Out of nowhere, Shimamura asked to compare foot sizes with me. I was totally lost, but nevertheless, I took off my shoe and pressed the sole of my foot against hers. As it turned out, my foot was the smaller of the two.

Once Shimamura had her answer(?), she nodded to herself and walked off.

What the hell was that about…?