Interlude: Yashiro Comes Calling, Part 5

Interlude:
Yashiro Comes Calling
Part 5

“I ’M HERE for my chocolate.”

“Whoa!”

Out of nowhere, a little blue head of hair springs up at my side. Judging by the color, it’s Yachi. I’m used to bumping into her on the street on my way home from school, but not in my own front yard! Was she waiting for me to get here?

“Ahem ! I’m here for my chocolate!”

She swings her arms around, so I start doing it back. Oh no. I did buy some chocolate for her at some point, but then I felt like eating it, so I did. It was so good, too. No regrets.

“Valentine’s Day is over now.”

“But our promise isn’t,” she grins.

Ugh…that was a pretty cool comeback. I never knew that asking for chocolate could be so suave. Hmmmm.

“Just a sec!” I say.

“Okay!”

Yachi stands firmly at attention; I leave her outside and dash into the house. No sign of my sister’s shoes by the door, which means she isn’t home yet. I drop my bag off in our room, take out my wallet, and go back outside.

There, I find Yachi jumping up and down.

“Calm thyself, child,” I say, imitating my sister. Then I try to put my hand on Yachi’s head. I reach, and reach, and reach. Ow, my sides! I can’t reach!

Not that Yachi’s super tall or anything—I’m just too short. Even on my tiptoes, I can’t quite reach the top of her head. Guess I’ll have to jump, too! There! Now I can reach! Wait, but…if I’m jumping too, how am I going to hold her in place?

We jump and jump until we’re both sweaty and tired. Then I say, “Okay, let’s go buy chocolate now!”

“Oh, lovely,” she responds, but it doesn’t quite fit her. Every now and then, there’s something off about the way she talks… Maybe she’s not from Japan…?

“To the grocery store!”

So, off we go to the grocery store. It’s weird—by this point, I’m already used to walking around with her.

“Next year, I’ll make sure to have some chocolate ready on the fourteenth like you’re supposed to,” I say.

“Next year? Hmmm.” She falls into thought. “My plan was to go home as soon as I locate my compatriot.”

“Compatriot?”

“But where could my dear friend be?”

Don’t ask me. I don’t even know what a “compatriot” is.

“I followed the coordinates as best I could when I landed, but this planet is just so vast… Walking around on the surface, I can’t tell one location from the next. This has significantly complicated my search. Hmmm…what a pickle.”

I didn’t get most of what Yachi said just now, but I can at least tell that there’s a chance she might have to leave as early as tomorrow. She’s just so fragile… It feels like she might disappear in a big poof of blue sparkles any second.

“No idea what you’re talking about, but it can’t hurt to promise for right now, right?” I say. “If it turns out later on that you have to break it, then just give me a heads-up!”

This is what my gut’s telling me: a broken promise still isn’t quite as sad as a promise that couldn’t be made in the first place. So, I figure we may as well make the promise while we can.

Yachi smiles, and sparkles fly—sparkles that perfectly match her hair. “Let’s do that, then.”

The bright-blue sparkles gently float over to me as the two of us entwine our pinky fingers. She didn’t know about Valentine’s Day, but she knows about pinky promises? What a weirdo.

And so, Yachi and I make a promise for the future, clear-cut and carved into stone.

~ Today’s Adachi Forecast~

When Shimamura said “let’s keep rockin’,” it suggested that from her point of view, our friendship was successfully “rockin’” thus far.

“Heh…heh heh…”

Curled in a ball under the covers, I laughed quietly to myself in the darkness. The feeling of Shimamura’s back was engraved into my arms.

Now my brain could faithfully recreate it anytime I dreamed about her hugging me.