Passage 1. New Routes
The first rays of dawn were casting long shadows across the rooftops when Akari boarded her gondola and set off to pick up her first client. She was the kind of person who woke early, eager to find out what the new day had in store for her. So taking the early shift wasn't really any trouble for her. She blew warmth into her bare hands, and rubbed them together, before grasping the chilly oar. And with hardly a sound, she was sculling forward.
This wasn't the life that Akari Mizunashi had expected as a Prima Undine, but she couldn't complain. Her fellows did complain a bit about their dimensional translocation, but that just wasn't in Akari's character. She had a gondola, a plan, a canal, and a slice of open sky under which to sail.
All she needed now was a customer. Since the "explosion", the gondoliers had become a vital link for the people living in the houses of the old canal district. While the old bridges across Venice Boulevard remained intact, the bridges of Venice's original canal zone had long been removed. For those living northeast of Kinney Plaza, or rather, Kinney Lagoon, simply getting to work involved crossing the water.
It was all a bit more like traghetto work than the tourist experience a Prima Undine could offer in her native Neo-Venezia. But for Aria Company's brand new branch in Venice, California, it was just the thing to get business moving.
Rounding a bend, Akari finally spotted her first customer, a middle-aged man in a brown suit jacket hunched over the handle of his suitcase. He soon waved to get the gondolier's attention, but by that time she was already making a bee-line to him.
She pulled the boat alongside the front of his house, where the green grass of his lawn met the waterline. "Ah, you're up early this morning."
"Yeah," said the man, a bit bedraggled at the early hour. "I've got a flight this morning."
Akari lifted his baggage into the back of the boat, then helped her customer onto the seat.
"So, where are you going to?"
"Orlando."
"Wow, that sounds romantic," Akari opined, reflecting on the legendary hero of the Franks.
"It's really not. It's like here, but with more strip malls and worse weather."
"Ah, well." Akari paddled down the canal. "So where am I taking you? I can't quite reach the airport, but I can go all the way across the marina," she offered.
The man in the suit said, "Just to the parking lot, please." He meant the one on Venice Boulevard where most of the area's residents were keeping their cars.
"You sure? I think I could get there faster than through the freeway traffic."
"Probably. But then I have a last mile problem."
Akari agreed, "Yeah, I know. They should let us float all the way to the airport!"
"Heh, you think they're going to put in a water terminal?"
"Why not?"
He laughed. "Not gonna happen."
"Aw!" she pouted.
She dropped him off at Venice Boulevard. It was so hard to overcome the ingrained car culture of Los Angeles, but at least she could leave her customer in a better mood than she found him. She handed him his bags, and signed off, "Buon viaggio!"
She rowed back up past the Post Office peninsula, which had recently rejoined the mainland thanks to a massive dump of gravel into the newly formed canal. The mail distribution center had finally been put back to work a couple days ago, and the mail trucks were coming and going across the makeshift bridge.
It also allowed a beachhead to get some larger vehicles into the neighborhood. At the far corner of the Post Office, a truck-mounted construction crane was currently parked, its painted yellow and red steel beams towering over everything in the neighborhood.
Akari waved over to the crane operator, calling out "Good morning, Joe! Good luck fishing today!"
As she passed, the operator waved back. Joe started up the crane, and began extending the hydraulic arm as he watched her row into the neighborhood. With her lithe figure, Akari was not the typical woman for whom construction workers extended their pistons, but that girl just had charm in spades.
When the neighborhood's streets had flooded, most of the cars were gone. Enough people had evacuated from the firestorm that the cars were now clogging other people's streets. Still, many were trapped in garages and alleys behind the houses, that in the old days had been linked to the city with wooden bridges. These were easy to free with a small barge that had been floated in the canal, but not so easy that you'd take the ferry for a trip to the store.
Opinions varied on what to do with the newly reformed canals. Some residents wanted the streets restored along with their sense of normalcy. But others saw the land value in the canal neighborhood to the south, and wanted the waterways and bridges fully restored. The eternal debate on walkable neighborhoods in a car culture continued apace right alongside gentrification arguments.
But the main problem upon which everyone agreed was the hundred-some cars that had sunk to the bottom of the new canals. People throwing Bird scooters into the water was bad enough, but the automobiles with their gasoline tanks and lead-acid batteries posed a more serious environmental threat. And so it was Joe's job to hoist them out, wherever he could get to them.
Akari settled into her new morning routine, taking groups of salarymen and women across the water, so that they could drive to work. She called out "Gondola!" to Aika Granchesta as she passed, with her ferry boat filled with passengers.
Aika nodded, smiled, and thrust her oars even harder to pull away. She and Akira ran the morning traghetto routes, clockwise and counter-clockwise around the neighborhood, which tended to get the most passengers.
Akari herself started out the day as a water taxi pilot, offering more expensive direct service. But at about seven-thirty, she began pickups for her school boat service. This took about ten kids all the way from the new canals directly to Sakura's school. Aria Company had agreed that Alicia Florence and her protege had the best temperament to deal with children, so they ran the route every school day. Alice Carroll had flat out rejected the route—along with the premise that twelve year-olds were "about her age".
Akari's boat was a boisterous crowd; more than once she had to remind a couple of the boys that she had an oar and she was not afraid to use it.
Alicia's boat always managed to stay calm. This was in no small part due to the boys falling for Snow White, and the girls being a little in awe of her.
Passage 2. Duck Uncovered
Akari was rowing through downtown Venice, not having much to do without a customer. Certainly, business had picked up a lot in the past few days, but there was always a time in the late morning where things calmed down quite a bit. She decided that it might be good to get out of the wind for now, and moored her gondola on the lee side of a large old ficus.
Akari extracted a bentou box from the end of the boat, taking her lunch break outside today. As she chomped on some onigiri, a duck paddled over alongside her boat. It had a long orange bill and the lemon yellow feathers of a duckling, though it looked pretty large for a duckling.
"Oh hi there, you want some food?"
"Quack."
Akari looked down into the waterfowl's clear blue eyes, and couldn't resist. "I know I shouldn't, but here." She threw a bit of her rice ball towards the water, and the duck thrust out of the water to catch it in its bill.
"You're pretty graceful, you know, Miss Duck."
"Quack?" The duck looked away, and then back to Akari. She then briefly took to wing, landing on the opposite end of the gondola.
She proceed to do a complex dance, mostly on the tips of her webbed feet, flapping her wings in practiced extensions. She danced across the boat's bow, to music only she could hear.
It was not the polished dance of a prima ballerina. Her lines were a little sloppy, her steps a bit short. But it was full of heart, and was still the best waterfowl dance performance one can find this far from Stella Anatium. In her light steps, Akari could almost follow the story of a young water sprite who was tempting a mortal man to follow her.
When the dance came to an end, Akari put her hands in front of her chest and clapped mightily. "Wow! You're really good, Miss Duck. I think you've earned the rest of this."
She threw the rice ball towards the duck, but her aim was poor, and it careened towards the water.
The duck launched towards the canal with a jeté, catching her chow in midair. She jostled her head, sliding the meal down her throat.
"OK, I guess it's time to go back to work. Thanks for the show, Miss Duck! Hope I see you again!" Akari started folding the napkin back around her obentou.
"Quack! Quack quack!" Sensing that this scene coming to an end, the busker duck paddled onwards to find another audience.
Passage 3. The Passenger
As the sun began its long fall into the western sky, Akari sculled her empty gondola alongside another. "How goes it, Alice?"
"Pretty good. It feels nice to have my own customers."
"I know, being a Prima is so exciting!"
President Aria, who napped through as many early mornings as he made it out for, climbed out of the inside of Alice's boat. He took the opportunity to hop onto Akari's boat, to better supervise another of his employees.
"I see the president has deserted me. I will remember this treachery, furball," Alice declared, deadpan.
Akari's mouth stood agape.
"Punyuu?"
"Anyway, Aika and I are planning on getting dinner together later. Wanna come with?"
"Hahi!" she raised her hand.
They parted to look for more customers in the post-lunch slowdown. Akari spent a good twenty minutes with nothing to show for it but a mile of water underneath her. She was almost back home, ready to give up for lack of fares.
"Hey, Miss Undine!" a woman called out, waving over Akari.
She steered the gondola over to her next fare, but it was apparent right away that this one was a little different. Instead of the jeans and T-shirts and worse common around the SoCal beach scene, this woman was fashionable with a capital F.
"Miss Undine, I was wondering if you could give me a tour?"
"Of course!" Akari was feeling lucky. In Neo-Venezia, over ninety percent of the work would have been tourists needing transportation and tours around the city. The work of ferrying passengers a short distance was giving the fledgling Venice Beach branch of Aria Company a purpose and an income, but it just wasn't nearly as fulfilling as sharing the city with on a tour.
Akari pulled up alongside the shore, and held the boat in place with an oar pressed firmly against the sandy bottom. Her other hand she offered to the young woman, perhaps twenty five years old, skinny, and gorgeous.
She came aboard with ease, and sat herself down in the middle seat of the boat. "Thank you." With her easy confidence, she ordered, "Full tour of the city, please."
Wearing the big straw hat, Akari assumed she must be a movie star. After all, they are the single most common fashion accessory among famous women trying not to be recognized. Though she was lacking the associated big sunglasses.
The rest of the outfit didn't help the case for anonymity, either. It was a perfectly tailored knee-length dress in powder blue, with pink, floral-patterned bias tape lining the hems on the V-neck and sleeves. The short-haired brunette wore a sheer pink scarf, along with a golden brooch with a five pointed star resting inside a stylized crescent moon. It looked like the perfect outfit for someone who was trying to blend in, but only had a wardrobe full of designer clothing to choose from.
There was no worry about the fare, then. "Of course. Welcome aboard!"
President Aria hopped over to greet the new passenger. "Well, hello kitty! How are you today?"
He smelled her hand, thought about it a minute, then smelled her hand again. Now that doesn't make any sense, he thought. But then the passenger started rubbing his head, and he decided to just enjoy the trip and to let Akari try to figure this woman out.
She turned to Akari, asking, "What's your name?"
"He's President Aria."
She giggled a little bit. "I meant your name."
"You can call me Akari."
"But don't you have a special undine name?" She asked it almost like she already knew the answer.
"Oh right, I'm called Aquamarine! I just got the name a week ago, so I'm still getting used to people calling me that."
"It's a beautiful name. Aquamarine, just like the vast sea that embraces this Earth. It really suits you."
"Thank you! You're too kind."
"You know that the Romans believed that aquamarine gemstones would protect against peril on the sea? So it's a fortuitous name for a gondolier. Well, if you believe in magic."
Akari swallowed a yelp. Normally she would have agreed, but recent events were a little too fresh in her head for her to want to talk about magic right now.
"Either way, I feel very safe in your boat."
"Why thank you!"
Akari made a quick plan as to where to take her customer. With this much wind, the marina was out -- too choppy at the entrance to the harbor. She'd stay inside the city, behind the shelter of the buildings.
Akari steered the craft between the houses, and under the concrete bridges, offering the best tour she knew how of this city she had lived in for only a few months. She could have done a much better tour of Neo-Venezia, that was for sure. But with a single passenger like this, what she was looking for most in a tour was probably not facts, but companionship. So, her pride as a prima undine on the line, she did her best to set the charismatic young woman at ease.
After explaining a few of the sights along the waterline, Akari couldn't stand the suspense any more. "Are you a movie star, miss?"
She giggled a little. "I guess I can say I've been in a few movies," she said enigmatically.
Akari kept quiet and composed, but internally, she knew she couldn't wait to tell her friends about this customer.
As she navigated northward, Akari introduced her next tour topic. "This area is the site of the original canals here in Venice, just newly reopened. I'm sure you've heard all about the incident."
"Ah, well," the ingenue admitted, "I know all about it."
"Right. The Venice Canals were opened by Abbot Kinney in 1909, as an attempt to create a version of Italy's Venice here on the Pacific coast.
"Nineteen oh five," the passenger corrected.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Tours had been really rare, and it was still strange to talk about years that didn't start with centuries like 14 or 15 or 22.
"Don't worry about it. I used to live here when I was a kid, and I learned a lot about the town."
"Oh," Akari was disappointed. "Maybe you don't need the guided tour after all?"
She shook her head, "Nnn-mmm. Your tour is lovely. Sometimes you want to be reminded of where you came from."
"Ah, I understand."
A few moments passed, and the warm sun touched the undine and her passenger. "It's just, I have a hard decision to face back at home. And I couldn't think of anywhere better to clear my mind than out here on the water."
Now Akira Ferrari, she was the kind of undine who would advise, "Never involve yourself in a client's personal life." Rather than step into an easy mistake, she instead preferred to create a calming experience, to let her customers enjoy relaxing escapism.
Akari was not that person. (And, to be honest, Akira wasn't all the time either.) Akari couldn't resist a chance to connect to anyone, heart-to-heart. Instead she relied on her bountiful natural charm to keep the customer happy. So it wasn't really all of a surprise that, after a moment, she pried, "Is it about love?"
The passenger turned her head to the gondolier curiously, took a moment, and then sighed. With a half-smile, she said, "I suppose all hard decisions are about love in the end, aren't they?"
It was a rhetorical question, but Akari tried answering anyway, "They all should be."
"I once knew a man who believed with all his might that love is the only law, love under will. And that our true will would guide us to do the right thing, if we only follow it. But it doesn't always work," she shook her head to emphasize. "Sometimes our love leads to too many choices, or the wrong thing altogether."
"Right," Akari nodded attentively to her customer.
"I know that everyone depends me, and I love them all as much as they love me, but…" she hesitated trying to find the right words, "Is it wrong to want a little just for myself? Is it wrong to choose one person over everyone else?"
Akari regretted her curiosity briefly; the question left her speechless. She guided the gondola into a side canal, using the time it took to turn to gather her thoughts. She knew she had to say something, as silence would be terribly rude to someone sharing her soul.
"No, I don't think it's wrong." She skulled another couple strokes, adding, "It doesn't mean it's right either." Akari frowned thoughtfully. "Sorry, that's not helpful at all. Let me try again."
"Take your time, Miss Aquamarine."
Akari thought it must be terrifying to be a star, having so many adoring fans that follow your every move. And to have whole crews depending on your performance. But even then, people always deserve a little love for themselves.
"I think it's okay to hold a little bit of yourself back."
"Of course," the woman sitting inside the gondola agreed. She leaned against the side of the boat, palm of her hand under her chin. "But I have to choose: stay or go."
"Ah! I understand." Akari assumed she must be considering a location shoot, far, far away. "Does your um, most important person -- would they be willing to wait?"
"Yes, he will, but to make him wait for so long?" she sighed.
"Will he love you any less if you go?"
Matter of factly, the passenger spoke, "Absolutely not." She glanced back to the boat's pilot, true relief showing in her green eyes. "Thank you."
Akari simply offered her guileless smile in response to the gratitude.
Aria stretched, then lay spread out across the bow of the boat to soak up the sun, thereby telling everyone to lighten up.
Akari turned the boat to the south, back into the Grand Canal. As she passed Athena Glory's gondola, she returned Athena's wave with a smile.
A few moments later, the passenger asked, "Can you sing for me, Aquamarine?"
The question took her by surprise, as not many people in Venice knew to ask for a canzone. "Oh! Certainly!"
"How about something Japanese?"
"Hahi!" After a second, Akari began a lyrical piece with a catchy melody. It was something she remembered from being very popular in her childhood, and she knew by heart. But the passenger, that day, was enraptured by the first ever performance of "Green Dream" in this universe.
Akari wound the boat through every canal, pointing out everything she found interesting, and her passenger seemed much freer than before. She almost hated to let the woman go, but it was getting to be time to pick up the kids from the magnet school, and she had already run out of new water to cover. So she returned the customer back to where she had boarded.
After receiving the fare, and a very generous tip, Akari gushed, "I hope I can give you a ride again soon!"
"Oh, I'm sure you'll be seeing me sooner than you expect," the young woman said with a grin that didn't quite betray some private joke with herself.
"Thank you for sailing with Aria Company!"
"Nyuu!" agreed Aria.
Passage 4. Ghost in the Seashell
Akari's shift ended at 3:30 PM, as soon as her last schoolkid was dropped off back at home. That was always a smaller crowd than the morning, as not everyone went straight home. She tied her boat alongside the Grand Canal, slipped through the cars waiting for the stoplight on Pacific Avenue, and arrived back at Aria House.
She schlepped up the stairs, closely followed by President Aria, ready to start his afternoon siesta. Hers was the very closest apartment, on the first floor. She almost unlocked her door, but paused when she noticed an unfamiliar presence ahead.
Akari saw a tall woman moving through the hall, but even from behind she could tell she didn't know her. She had wavy, deep violet hair down her back, so shiny it was as if it glowed with its own internal light.
"Miss, can I help you?" Akari asked the stranger. Ignored, she walked after her and tried again, "Hey, miss, can I help you?"
The woman turned to face her, showing her beautiful, naggingly familiar face. "Are you talking to me?"
"Yes. Hi!"
"Oh, wow!"
This one seemed a little slow to Akari. "I was just wondering if you were looking for someone here?"
"Oh, no. I'm Nadeshiko Kinomoto, I was just heading up to wait for Sakura-chan."
"Ah, you must be Sakura's mother!" This explained why Akari thought the face had been so familiar now.
She gave a kind smile, "Mmm-hmm!"
"It's so nice to finally meet you! Oh, I forgot my manners. I'm Akari Mizunashi, pleased to meet you, Kinomoto-san."
"Likewise."
Nadeshiko was a vision in white. Her blouse was detailed with cutwork around the broad collar and cuffs. Akari thought that she wore clothes as good or better than her daughter.
President Aria was more interested in the floor-length pleated skirt, and how all those folds worked. He pawed at the bottom of Nadeshiko's dress, but didn't meet the expected resistance, and in fact his paw went entirely through her dress. "Puuu?" He tried a couple more times, with similar results. He decided to try harder, except he managed to walk right through where her legs should be as if nothing was there. "Punyuu??"
Both women missed this byplay, however, as they continued talking.
"So, how is life out on the canals?"
"Really busy, ever since Sakura-chan did her thing."
"Oh, I'm sorry. You take your eyes off your kids for one minute, and they cause millions of dollars in damages. You know?"
"Hoheee? But Kinomoto-san, she really tried her best, and nobody died! And we don't mind the business really, it's really a big help to our company!"
"I was teasing, Mizunashi-san."
"Oh, um, okay," Akari said sheepishly.
"To have people she's known for three weeks jump to her defense—really, I couldn't be prouder."
"She has that effect on people, doesn't she. She's going to be truly amazing when she grows up."
"For certain," she agreed. Nadeshiko hadn't talked so someone like Akari for such a long time. It's not that couldn't talk to others, it's just that she preferred to keep a watch on her family. Watching life pass had a certainly loneliness to it, but in her view it was far less lonely than the alternative.
"Well, I don't want to keep you," Akari excused herself.
"Oh, please, don't go!" Nadeshiko said, with an intensity that surprised herself. She made herself relax, and said, "Would you like to come in for tea?"
"Really? Sure, I'd love that."
Nadeshiko followed Akari up the stairs, not that she had any use for them, but it allowed them to continue their chat about Sakura and her friends.
Akari didn't notice anything amiss about Nadeshiko. Had she been able to squint with her third eye, it might have been a different story. But Coyote's surgery had cast the girl's third eye wide open, a condition that persisted to this day.
When they hit the third floor, Aria ran forward and pounced.
"Hey Aria, what are you doing?"
President Aria had pinned down a moth, a really big one. "Nyuu!" He felt proud over his catch.
"Let that dirty thing go! Come on, she's waiting for us."
He reluctantly let it go. Really, humans have such strange priorities.
While Akari was distracted, Nadeshiko went ahead to her apartment's door. She concentrated really hard for a second. The tumblers in the lock clicked into place, and the doorknob slowly turned. The door opened with the slightest application of Nadeshiko's telekinesis, and she invited Akari inside.
Akari paused at the genkan to slip off her shoes; Nadeshiko wasn't wearing any.
"Please, sit down! It sounds you had a long day on the canals."
Akari took up her up on the invitation, and seated herself on the middle of the couch. "It's not so bad out there, the gondola is like an old friend to me." She was a little tired, though.
"Alright! I'll go make the tea, I'll be right back."
Nadeshiko hadn't entertained in her own home in years, so she decided that she really needed to make a good impression. Sure, she might not have a bed or a toothbrush here, but it was still her home, because it was where Fujitaka and Touya and Sakura lived. And they wouldn't have it any other way.
She decided to put out all her favorites, black Darjeeling tea, cookies, and mochi. The main problem was how to put them out. She had heard of spirits who could heat or cool with their thoughts, but such a complexity escaped her. She could barely handle one object a time.
She used telekinesis to lift the tea kettle to the spigot, then flipped the spigot up as fast as she could, and grabbed the kettle before it fell. When it was full, she flipped the spigot off, but didn't quite catch the kettle before it crashed to the ground. "Oops!" At least she got it before much of the water sloshed out.
Meanwhile Akari looked around the den at the belongings that the Kinomotos had assembled in their brief time in this dimension. Three of the five shelves of the bookshelf were already full, but that was to be expected of an archaeologist. A few were checked out from the UCLA Library, on those basically-forever loans that professors get—even visiting professors like Fujitaka. A whole shelf was dedicated to Native American archaeology, including a few books she recalled seeing on their desert tour. He had taken quite an interest in the topic as of late.
A photograph of Nadeshiko sat on a end table, alongside a jade-glass vase with five fresh pink roses. Akari bent down to smell the roses. And then she heard a small crash in the kitchen, as several plastic wrappers fell to the ground.
"Oh, darn it!"
Akari took this a her cue to return to the couch, and was soon joined by Aria.
About a minute later, Nadeshiko emerged from the kitchen, carrying a tray bearing a teapot, two china cups and saucers with a flowery design, and a selection of cookies. "Sorry for the wait!" She slowly brought the tea tray down onto the paned coffee table, and then appeared to let go about an inch above the table. The tray dropped abruptly in a clatter; one of the teacups fell against it's saucer. "Yabai!"
This woman is seriously clumsy, Akari thought. "Would you like me to pour the tea?"
"Ah, yes please. Go for it." Nadeshiko looked relieved.
"Sugar?"
"Of course!"
Akari stirred a spoonful of sugar into both cups.
Akari took bite of cookie into her mouth, then gently lifted her teacup to her lips. After tasting the combination, she declared it, "Oishii!"
"I'm glad you enjoy it."
Nadeshiko dared to lift the teacup to her spectral nose, and let the delicate scent of the steam waft through her. It was really a shame she couldn't drink it, but such is death. She replaced the cup on the table, and returned her attention to Akari.
Akari never noticed that Nadeshiko never actually took a sip, nor ate a cookie. Aria did notice, however, and started snatching cookies from Nadeshiko's plate. There was no use in letting sweets go to waste on a spirit, he concluded.
The jam and cream cookies were pretty good, but Aria took a chance on the mochi. He plopped it in his mouth, which got really sticky right away. Eventually, he was forced to admit defeat to this snack, and grabbed the little pitcher of milk from the table to wash it down. Human snacks could be downright dangerous.
Akari looked over at Nadeshiko, sitting in the easy chair. She was just so pretty, and her face was flawless. "You look so young to be Touya's mother! What's the secret?"
"Oh, you know, my age is really just how I feel," she replied, literally.
"For sure! You should really be a model."
"Oh, I was a fashion model for quite a while! Quite a lot of traveling to photo shoots and scrambling to fit into that next dress behind the runway, let me tell you." Akari smiled back, so she continued, "It was really the travel that was the end of it. Once I had Touya, I really wanted to be present for my children as much as possible."
"Oh, I understand. Touya-kun turned out to be a pretty good man. Maybe he should be the model."
"Oh, don't go chasing after my son—he's taken. You'll only get your heart broken."
Akari laughed, "No, I didn't mean that!" On hearing Nadeshiko's laugh, "And you knew it too, you tease!"
"So absolutely no omiai at this time, I regretfully inform you."
"Stop! Stop!" Akari giggled.
"Sorry, it's a mother's solemn duty to meddle in their children's romantic affairs."
"See, it's people like you why I had to run away from home and join the gondoliers," Akari joked. "So what about Sakura? Meddled in her love life lately?" Something about this woman was bringing out Akari's seldom-seen puckish side.
"No, I'm afraid not. She has so much magic in her heart that she'll find the way without me. She found herself a pretty impressive boy already."
"I know, the way he fought, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. You know, he always put himself between Sakura-chan and the enemy."
"Yeah. They really do grow up so fast, don't they," Nadeshiko lamented her lost time. "Treasure every minute, Akari."
"I already do," she replied truthfully.
"But Sakura is more impressive than I could have ever dreamed, and for that, I am thankful."
"Her magic is truly amazing. Sometimes I wish I could do magic."
"But you can talk with me, right? Isn't that magic enough?"
Akari smiled, "Of course you're right. Friendship is the real magic, isn't it?"
Nadeshiko giggled. "Of course." Akari wasn't getting it, but in her own way, she understood the more fundamental truth. Friendship across the walls of death and spacetime, that was real magic.
It was like they clicked in a way that she hadn't felt since she grew up, back when she was inseparable from Sonomi-chan. And that had been a literal lifetime ago.
Akari saw her mood change. "Is something the matter?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just thinking about someone important to me who I haven't talked to for a very long time."
"Nuh-uh, that's okay. I have someone like that too." She couldn't help her self from adding, "But I got lucky, and I got to meet him a couple weeks ago!"
"At the Halloween Party?"
"Well... I guess you can say that."
Nadeshiko cheered up, "That's good!"
"It was wonderful! But I don't see him often enough. There was one time I was so desperate to see him, I walked all over the city to find a way to him! Not that I'm bragging…" she blushed. Akari left out Cat Sìth's name, of course, because there was no way that a normal person like Nadeshiko would believe in fairies. Fairies are not exactly a first-meeting topic.
She offered conspiratorially, "So, is he your most important person?"
"Um, well, I'm not really sure yet," Akari giggled nervously.
Direct hit. Nadeshiko joined her in giggling.
"It's just, he's so cool. And I know he likes me, but we live in different worlds, and I'm just so ordinary compared to him. You know?" Akari lamented.
"It was like that with me and Fujitaka at first, where he felt so much more amazing than little me. He was a student teacher, so smart and funny, and I was just a silly little girl with stars in her eyes. But… I caught up. And I caught him."
Akari shivered a little, and her eyes opened wide. "Wooow." She truly loved a romantic story.
Nadeshiko's emerald eyes stared right into Akari's aquamarine eyes. "You can do it, too. You're so much like Sakura-chan, with your specialness coming into bloom. And if you truly are each other's most important person, then the only thing that can stop your love is yourself. You can do it, Akari-chan!"
Akari's eyes were as wide as her smile. It took her a moment before her emotions sorted themselves, before she said, "Thank you. No wonder Sakura grew up so sweet, having a mother like you around."
"Ah, well, that didn't have all that much to do with me, really."
"No, you're a great role model for her."
For the past few minutes, Nadeshiko had managed to entirely forget that she was dead, so Akari's innocent praise was more painful than normal.
Akari picked up on her change in demeanor. "I'm sorry. Is it about your friend?"
"Mmm," she muttered. It was true enough; she felt she deserved her fate for what she did to Sonomi. She explained, "It's just, when I eloped with Sensei, she didn't take it very well. She felt betrayed. And really, it was a betrayal. I got to live my happy life, and she had to marry for the family business. I swear, I never knew how bad it got with him. And by the time it was over, well…" Akari let her finish. "It would take a miracle for her to forgive me now."
"It's okay, Kinomoto-san. Believe in miracles, and she will know your feelings." She spoke with the conviction of someone who definitely believed in miracles. "Just like you believe in me, I believe in you."
With such a charm offensive, her defenses fell completely. There could be no arguing with someone who believed in you with their whole heart, that she well knew. "I haven't had a friend like you in such a long time. Please, call me Nadeshiko."
"Hahi, Nadeshiko-chan!"
The deadbolt on the front door turned to the locked position, and then it rotated all the way back to unlocked. Fujitaka was a bit startled to see Akari sitting alone in his apartment, because Sakura was downstairs still.
"Welcome home," Nadeshiko said reflexively.
"Ah, well, maybe it's time I should get going. Thanks for the tea!"
"Puunyuu!" agreed President Aria, who did a brief stretch, then hopped off the couch.
"Um, sure," Fujitaka said, still unsure what was going on.
Akari stood up and walked out the front door, saying, "Bye-bye, Fujitaka-hakase, Nadeshiko-chan!"
At this moment, Fujitaka was enlightened. He closed his eyes, and concentrated for a minute, and could feel Nadeshiko's warm presence filling the room. "Are you making friends, dear?" He felt her pleasant presence, right until he turned into the kitchen to start cooking. Surveying the mess, he picked up the broom and got to cleaning up, for what was definitely not the first time. Though, it had been quite a while.
He could have sworn her heard Nadeshiko's sweet voice saying, "Sorry, darling!" But he couldn't be sure if it was really her ghost, or just his memory playing tricks on him.
Passage 5. Pizza Margherita
Having spent years at a workplace with a company canteen, the displacees from Orange Planet and Himeya weren't used to cooking their own dinners after a long day. So once again, a few of them went off to find a restaurant.
President Aria was not happy about this arrangement, as twenty-first century Earth had truly regressive ideas about feline rights. Particularly in access to public places in which food might be rightfully begged. He decided to go to Sakaki, and see if he could convince her to start some form sort of movement for his rights. Perhaps they should call it the Society for Pets' Equal Welfare, he concluded.
Meanwhile, Akari and her younger coworkers set out to find some food, and ran into their fellow residents of Aria House, Tomo Takino and Mizuhara Koyomi, looking for the same. They set off along the beach boardwalk to find to find some new restaurant to try. As the evening twilight faded, they settled on a place where they could get seated fast.
It was kind of odd restaurant, half American sports bar, half Mexican cantina, but it was convenient, and everyone was hungry. The service, on the other hand, was a bit slow. Still, with an unfamiliar menu, it wasn't time wasted as the girls read through their options.
As a waiter walked past with a plate, Aika's eyes followed him over her shoulder. "Oh, they have pizza here. That sounds good!" She closed her menu right then and there.
Finally, the waitress appeared for their table. Alice got a basic hamburger, while Tomo ordered a set of loaded potato skins.
Alice commented, "If you think about it, the middle of the potato is useless anyway."
"Oh yeah, totally useless," Tomo picked up her cue, intentional or not. "I mean, why even bother with that boring white part?"
Yomi ignored the heathens next to her, and ordered the fish tacos, which she assumed was one of the healthier options on the menu.
Finally, the ordering got around to Akia, "Can I get a margherita?"
"A margarita? OK." The waitress looked over Aika, and judged her to be pretty young. "Virgin?"
"Extra-virgin."
"Heh, sure."
"And a glass of still water."
The waitress finished writing on her pad, and went on her way.
For some reason, this event caused a tight smile to appear on Yomi's face. Tomo knew that look, and kept an eye out for whatever funny thing happened next. She asked, "So why are the middle of potatoes useless, Alice?"
"All it does is hold other flavors. It's almost as useless as eggplant."
"Yeah, I don't understand why girls are so into eggplant these days. Look at Yomi, she's into fish tacos." Two seconds later, Tomo felt a line of blunt force across the top of her head, followed by pain.
"Quiet, you uncultured idiots," indicted Yomi, giver of karate chops. "Starches have lots of uses in cuisine, from providing a texture, a place absorb sauces, and as a palate cleanser for more intense flavors."
A couple minutes later, the waitress returned with drinks for everyone. In front of Aika, she placed a wide, stemmed glass with salt lining the rim and a lime hanging off the side.
"What the hell is this thing?" Aika barked.
Yomi couldn't suppress her chuckles.
Passage 6. A Footnote
Tomo put down her tablet computer. She scrunched her eyes, and shook her head. "What the heck?"
What's up?," Yomi responded.
"Here, read." Tomo shoved the tablet into her friend's hands.
"Oh, cool. Akari finally got her blog up!"
"Keeeep reading."
A couple minutes later, Yomi burst out, "Is she a total airhead?"
"No, wait, it gets better."
Yomi continued on for a couple more screens. "Oh, now she's talking to a ghost without even realizing it. Seriously, what's wrong with her?"
"Mmm hmmm."
"Always check the feet."
Tomo looked over with narrow eyes, "What?"
"Nothing."
Yomi kept reading. "Hey, we're in here too! And you seem like an idiot."
"Thank you."
"I can't believe she's telling this story to the world."
"Eh, we're already world famous, right?"
"I know, but…" Yomi sighed. She finished reading the post. "Where the heck did she get those rose-colored glasses?"
"Oh, I think Elton John gave them to her as a tip."
Yomi chuckled, "I wouldn't put it past her."
Quote:An Ordinary Day in the Life of an Undine
Posted on November 20, 2016 by Aquamarine
Wow, everyone, I wasn't expecting a such a big response so early! Thank you all for your interest and kind words!
A couple of readers of this blog asked what a day in the life of an undine is like, and I'm happy to share. Let me say, It's not quite what you would expect. It can look really glamourous at first—I know, because that's what brought me into the profession. But in real life, it's hard work to row a gondola, and even harder to make it look easy!
But now that I know what the life of a gondolier is like, I love it even more. You follow the gentle rhythms of each day, at let the wind and water carry you where you need to be.
For me, a work day starts very early in the morning…
The first rays of dawn were casting long shadows across the rooftops when Akari boarded her gondola and set off to pick up her first client. She was the kind of person who woke early, eager to find out what the new day had in store for her. So taking the early shift wasn't really any trouble for her. She blew warmth into her bare hands, and rubbed them together, before grasping the chilly oar. And with hardly a sound, she was sculling forward.
This wasn't the life that Akari Mizunashi had expected as a Prima Undine, but she couldn't complain. Her fellows did complain a bit about their dimensional translocation, but that just wasn't in Akari's character. She had a gondola, a plan, a canal, and a slice of open sky under which to sail.
All she needed now was a customer. Since the "explosion", the gondoliers had become a vital link for the people living in the houses of the old canal district. While the old bridges across Venice Boulevard remained intact, the bridges of Venice's original canal zone had long been removed. For those living northeast of Kinney Plaza, or rather, Kinney Lagoon, simply getting to work involved crossing the water.
It was all a bit more like traghetto work than the tourist experience a Prima Undine could offer in her native Neo-Venezia. But for Aria Company's brand new branch in Venice, California, it was just the thing to get business moving.
Rounding a bend, Akari finally spotted her first customer, a middle-aged man in a brown suit jacket hunched over the handle of his suitcase. He soon waved to get the gondolier's attention, but by that time she was already making a bee-line to him.
She pulled the boat alongside the front of his house, where the green grass of his lawn met the waterline. "Ah, you're up early this morning."
"Yeah," said the man, a bit bedraggled at the early hour. "I've got a flight this morning."
Akari lifted his baggage into the back of the boat, then helped her customer onto the seat.
"So, where are you going to?"
"Orlando."
"Wow, that sounds romantic," Akari opined, reflecting on the legendary hero of the Franks.
"It's really not. It's like here, but with more strip malls and worse weather."
"Ah, well." Akari paddled down the canal. "So where am I taking you? I can't quite reach the airport, but I can go all the way across the marina," she offered.
The man in the suit said, "Just to the parking lot, please." He meant the one on Venice Boulevard where most of the area's residents were keeping their cars.
"You sure? I think I could get there faster than through the freeway traffic."
"Probably. But then I have a last mile problem."
Akari agreed, "Yeah, I know. They should let us float all the way to the airport!"
"Heh, you think they're going to put in a water terminal?"
"Why not?"
He laughed. "Not gonna happen."
"Aw!" she pouted.
She dropped him off at Venice Boulevard. It was so hard to overcome the ingrained car culture of Los Angeles, but at least she could leave her customer in a better mood than she found him. She handed him his bags, and signed off, "Buon viaggio!"
She rowed back up past the Post Office peninsula, which had recently rejoined the mainland thanks to a massive dump of gravel into the newly formed canal. The mail distribution center had finally been put back to work a couple days ago, and the mail trucks were coming and going across the makeshift bridge.
It also allowed a beachhead to get some larger vehicles into the neighborhood. At the far corner of the Post Office, a truck-mounted construction crane was currently parked, its painted yellow and red steel beams towering over everything in the neighborhood.
Akari waved over to the crane operator, calling out "Good morning, Joe! Good luck fishing today!"
As she passed, the operator waved back. Joe started up the crane, and began extending the hydraulic arm as he watched her row into the neighborhood. With her lithe figure, Akari was not the typical woman for whom construction workers extended their pistons, but that girl just had charm in spades.
When the neighborhood's streets had flooded, most of the cars were gone. Enough people had evacuated from the firestorm that the cars were now clogging other people's streets. Still, many were trapped in garages and alleys behind the houses, that in the old days had been linked to the city with wooden bridges. These were easy to free with a small barge that had been floated in the canal, but not so easy that you'd take the ferry for a trip to the store.
Opinions varied on what to do with the newly reformed canals. Some residents wanted the streets restored along with their sense of normalcy. But others saw the land value in the canal neighborhood to the south, and wanted the waterways and bridges fully restored. The eternal debate on walkable neighborhoods in a car culture continued apace right alongside gentrification arguments.
But the main problem upon which everyone agreed was the hundred-some cars that had sunk to the bottom of the new canals. People throwing Bird scooters into the water was bad enough, but the automobiles with their gasoline tanks and lead-acid batteries posed a more serious environmental threat. And so it was Joe's job to hoist them out, wherever he could get to them.
Akari settled into her new morning routine, taking groups of salarymen and women across the water, so that they could drive to work. She called out "Gondola!" to Aika Granchesta as she passed, with her ferry boat filled with passengers.
Aika nodded, smiled, and thrust her oars even harder to pull away. She and Akira ran the morning traghetto routes, clockwise and counter-clockwise around the neighborhood, which tended to get the most passengers.
Akari herself started out the day as a water taxi pilot, offering more expensive direct service. But at about seven-thirty, she began pickups for her school boat service. This took about ten kids all the way from the new canals directly to Sakura's school. Aria Company had agreed that Alicia Florence and her protege had the best temperament to deal with children, so they ran the route every school day. Alice Carroll had flat out rejected the route—along with the premise that twelve year-olds were "about her age".
Akari's boat was a boisterous crowd; more than once she had to remind a couple of the boys that she had an oar and she was not afraid to use it.
Alicia's boat always managed to stay calm. This was in no small part due to the boys falling for Snow White, and the girls being a little in awe of her.
Passage 2. Duck Uncovered
Quote:A lot of what we do is routine, for sure. It's not always exciting rowing back and forth across the same waters. Even so, I enjoy the connections I make with the customers, their lives, their clothes, their manner. Even in the short passage of a routine trip, you can feel how each person is unique.
But sometimes, life can really surprise you, if you take the time to look around. Even in your own hometown, life is full of mystery and grace—and the smallest things can be the biggest surprises!
Akari was rowing through downtown Venice, not having much to do without a customer. Certainly, business had picked up a lot in the past few days, but there was always a time in the late morning where things calmed down quite a bit. She decided that it might be good to get out of the wind for now, and moored her gondola on the lee side of a large old ficus.
Akari extracted a bentou box from the end of the boat, taking her lunch break outside today. As she chomped on some onigiri, a duck paddled over alongside her boat. It had a long orange bill and the lemon yellow feathers of a duckling, though it looked pretty large for a duckling.
"Oh hi there, you want some food?"
"Quack."
Akari looked down into the waterfowl's clear blue eyes, and couldn't resist. "I know I shouldn't, but here." She threw a bit of her rice ball towards the water, and the duck thrust out of the water to catch it in its bill.
"You're pretty graceful, you know, Miss Duck."
"Quack?" The duck looked away, and then back to Akari. She then briefly took to wing, landing on the opposite end of the gondola.
She proceed to do a complex dance, mostly on the tips of her webbed feet, flapping her wings in practiced extensions. She danced across the boat's bow, to music only she could hear.
It was not the polished dance of a prima ballerina. Her lines were a little sloppy, her steps a bit short. But it was full of heart, and was still the best waterfowl dance performance one can find this far from Stella Anatium. In her light steps, Akari could almost follow the story of a young water sprite who was tempting a mortal man to follow her.
When the dance came to an end, Akari put her hands in front of her chest and clapped mightily. "Wow! You're really good, Miss Duck. I think you've earned the rest of this."
She threw the rice ball towards the duck, but her aim was poor, and it careened towards the water.
The duck launched towards the canal with a jeté, catching her chow in midair. She jostled her head, sliding the meal down her throat.
"OK, I guess it's time to go back to work. Thanks for the show, Miss Duck! Hope I see you again!" Akari started folding the napkin back around her obentou.
"Quack! Quack quack!" Sensing that this scene coming to an end, the busker duck paddled onwards to find another audience.
Passage 3. The Passenger
Quote:Venice, as part of Los Angeles, is a city of stars. L.A. is still a company town for the vast entertainment industry, and all of the dreams that they make. So it's not surprising to meet the occasional celebrity as you pass through town. Maybe if you book a trip with us, you'll run into one too.
Today was one of those lucky days, where I got to meet an actress who had made it. She looked so fashionable, and lived a truly different life from me.
But famous people, on the inside, are just like us. They just have a lot more people looking up to them. They have the same hopes, dreams, expectations, and worries that we all have—just a little bit more glamorously. Under the same sky, atop the same water, we connected as one person to another.
As the sun began its long fall into the western sky, Akari sculled her empty gondola alongside another. "How goes it, Alice?"
"Pretty good. It feels nice to have my own customers."
"I know, being a Prima is so exciting!"
President Aria, who napped through as many early mornings as he made it out for, climbed out of the inside of Alice's boat. He took the opportunity to hop onto Akari's boat, to better supervise another of his employees.
"I see the president has deserted me. I will remember this treachery, furball," Alice declared, deadpan.
Akari's mouth stood agape.
"Punyuu?"
"Anyway, Aika and I are planning on getting dinner together later. Wanna come with?"
"Hahi!" she raised her hand.
They parted to look for more customers in the post-lunch slowdown. Akari spent a good twenty minutes with nothing to show for it but a mile of water underneath her. She was almost back home, ready to give up for lack of fares.
"Hey, Miss Undine!" a woman called out, waving over Akari.
She steered the gondola over to her next fare, but it was apparent right away that this one was a little different. Instead of the jeans and T-shirts and worse common around the SoCal beach scene, this woman was fashionable with a capital F.
"Miss Undine, I was wondering if you could give me a tour?"
"Of course!" Akari was feeling lucky. In Neo-Venezia, over ninety percent of the work would have been tourists needing transportation and tours around the city. The work of ferrying passengers a short distance was giving the fledgling Venice Beach branch of Aria Company a purpose and an income, but it just wasn't nearly as fulfilling as sharing the city with on a tour.
Akari pulled up alongside the shore, and held the boat in place with an oar pressed firmly against the sandy bottom. Her other hand she offered to the young woman, perhaps twenty five years old, skinny, and gorgeous.
She came aboard with ease, and sat herself down in the middle seat of the boat. "Thank you." With her easy confidence, she ordered, "Full tour of the city, please."
Wearing the big straw hat, Akari assumed she must be a movie star. After all, they are the single most common fashion accessory among famous women trying not to be recognized. Though she was lacking the associated big sunglasses.
The rest of the outfit didn't help the case for anonymity, either. It was a perfectly tailored knee-length dress in powder blue, with pink, floral-patterned bias tape lining the hems on the V-neck and sleeves. The short-haired brunette wore a sheer pink scarf, along with a golden brooch with a five pointed star resting inside a stylized crescent moon. It looked like the perfect outfit for someone who was trying to blend in, but only had a wardrobe full of designer clothing to choose from.
There was no worry about the fare, then. "Of course. Welcome aboard!"
President Aria hopped over to greet the new passenger. "Well, hello kitty! How are you today?"
He smelled her hand, thought about it a minute, then smelled her hand again. Now that doesn't make any sense, he thought. But then the passenger started rubbing his head, and he decided to just enjoy the trip and to let Akari try to figure this woman out.
She turned to Akari, asking, "What's your name?"
"He's President Aria."
She giggled a little bit. "I meant your name."
"You can call me Akari."
"But don't you have a special undine name?" She asked it almost like she already knew the answer.
"Oh right, I'm called Aquamarine! I just got the name a week ago, so I'm still getting used to people calling me that."
"It's a beautiful name. Aquamarine, just like the vast sea that embraces this Earth. It really suits you."
"Thank you! You're too kind."
"You know that the Romans believed that aquamarine gemstones would protect against peril on the sea? So it's a fortuitous name for a gondolier. Well, if you believe in magic."
Akari swallowed a yelp. Normally she would have agreed, but recent events were a little too fresh in her head for her to want to talk about magic right now.
"Either way, I feel very safe in your boat."
"Why thank you!"
Akari made a quick plan as to where to take her customer. With this much wind, the marina was out -- too choppy at the entrance to the harbor. She'd stay inside the city, behind the shelter of the buildings.
Akari steered the craft between the houses, and under the concrete bridges, offering the best tour she knew how of this city she had lived in for only a few months. She could have done a much better tour of Neo-Venezia, that was for sure. But with a single passenger like this, what she was looking for most in a tour was probably not facts, but companionship. So, her pride as a prima undine on the line, she did her best to set the charismatic young woman at ease.
After explaining a few of the sights along the waterline, Akari couldn't stand the suspense any more. "Are you a movie star, miss?"
She giggled a little. "I guess I can say I've been in a few movies," she said enigmatically.
Akari kept quiet and composed, but internally, she knew she couldn't wait to tell her friends about this customer.
As she navigated northward, Akari introduced her next tour topic. "This area is the site of the original canals here in Venice, just newly reopened. I'm sure you've heard all about the incident."
"Ah, well," the ingenue admitted, "I know all about it."
"Right. The Venice Canals were opened by Abbot Kinney in 1909, as an attempt to create a version of Italy's Venice here on the Pacific coast.
"Nineteen oh five," the passenger corrected.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Tours had been really rare, and it was still strange to talk about years that didn't start with centuries like 14 or 15 or 22.
"Don't worry about it. I used to live here when I was a kid, and I learned a lot about the town."
"Oh," Akari was disappointed. "Maybe you don't need the guided tour after all?"
She shook her head, "Nnn-mmm. Your tour is lovely. Sometimes you want to be reminded of where you came from."
"Ah, I understand."
A few moments passed, and the warm sun touched the undine and her passenger. "It's just, I have a hard decision to face back at home. And I couldn't think of anywhere better to clear my mind than out here on the water."
Now Akira Ferrari, she was the kind of undine who would advise, "Never involve yourself in a client's personal life." Rather than step into an easy mistake, she instead preferred to create a calming experience, to let her customers enjoy relaxing escapism.
Akari was not that person. (And, to be honest, Akira wasn't all the time either.) Akari couldn't resist a chance to connect to anyone, heart-to-heart. Instead she relied on her bountiful natural charm to keep the customer happy. So it wasn't really all of a surprise that, after a moment, she pried, "Is it about love?"
The passenger turned her head to the gondolier curiously, took a moment, and then sighed. With a half-smile, she said, "I suppose all hard decisions are about love in the end, aren't they?"
It was a rhetorical question, but Akari tried answering anyway, "They all should be."
"I once knew a man who believed with all his might that love is the only law, love under will. And that our true will would guide us to do the right thing, if we only follow it. But it doesn't always work," she shook her head to emphasize. "Sometimes our love leads to too many choices, or the wrong thing altogether."
"Right," Akari nodded attentively to her customer.
"I know that everyone depends me, and I love them all as much as they love me, but…" she hesitated trying to find the right words, "Is it wrong to want a little just for myself? Is it wrong to choose one person over everyone else?"
Akari regretted her curiosity briefly; the question left her speechless. She guided the gondola into a side canal, using the time it took to turn to gather her thoughts. She knew she had to say something, as silence would be terribly rude to someone sharing her soul.
"No, I don't think it's wrong." She skulled another couple strokes, adding, "It doesn't mean it's right either." Akari frowned thoughtfully. "Sorry, that's not helpful at all. Let me try again."
"Take your time, Miss Aquamarine."
Akari thought it must be terrifying to be a star, having so many adoring fans that follow your every move. And to have whole crews depending on your performance. But even then, people always deserve a little love for themselves.
"I think it's okay to hold a little bit of yourself back."
"Of course," the woman sitting inside the gondola agreed. She leaned against the side of the boat, palm of her hand under her chin. "But I have to choose: stay or go."
"Ah! I understand." Akari assumed she must be considering a location shoot, far, far away. "Does your um, most important person -- would they be willing to wait?"
"Yes, he will, but to make him wait for so long?" she sighed.
"Will he love you any less if you go?"
Matter of factly, the passenger spoke, "Absolutely not." She glanced back to the boat's pilot, true relief showing in her green eyes. "Thank you."
Akari simply offered her guileless smile in response to the gratitude.
Aria stretched, then lay spread out across the bow of the boat to soak up the sun, thereby telling everyone to lighten up.
Akari turned the boat to the south, back into the Grand Canal. As she passed Athena Glory's gondola, she returned Athena's wave with a smile.
A few moments later, the passenger asked, "Can you sing for me, Aquamarine?"
The question took her by surprise, as not many people in Venice knew to ask for a canzone. "Oh! Certainly!"
"How about something Japanese?"
"Hahi!" After a second, Akari began a lyrical piece with a catchy melody. It was something she remembered from being very popular in her childhood, and she knew by heart. But the passenger, that day, was enraptured by the first ever performance of "Green Dream" in this universe.
Akari wound the boat through every canal, pointing out everything she found interesting, and her passenger seemed much freer than before. She almost hated to let the woman go, but it was getting to be time to pick up the kids from the magnet school, and she had already run out of new water to cover. So she returned the customer back to where she had boarded.
After receiving the fare, and a very generous tip, Akari gushed, "I hope I can give you a ride again soon!"
"Oh, I'm sure you'll be seeing me sooner than you expect," the young woman said with a grin that didn't quite betray some private joke with herself.
"Thank you for sailing with Aria Company!"
"Nyuu!" agreed Aria.
Passage 4. Ghost in the Seashell
Quote:After a long shift on the water, I'm ready to head back home for a little rest. My friends get to handle the afternoon and evening -- I head out again for the rush hour later, but that's only because we're so busy lately.
Rest is an important part of life. You need downtime to let the body relax, space to let the mind recover. A respite lets you reconnect with old friends, and gives you a chance to connect to friends you never even knew you had.
Every friend you make is like discovering a new facet of yourself. Unexpectedly, the next thing that happened was meeting a woman who offered me the precious gift of friendship.
Akari's shift ended at 3:30 PM, as soon as her last schoolkid was dropped off back at home. That was always a smaller crowd than the morning, as not everyone went straight home. She tied her boat alongside the Grand Canal, slipped through the cars waiting for the stoplight on Pacific Avenue, and arrived back at Aria House.
She schlepped up the stairs, closely followed by President Aria, ready to start his afternoon siesta. Hers was the very closest apartment, on the first floor. She almost unlocked her door, but paused when she noticed an unfamiliar presence ahead.
Akari saw a tall woman moving through the hall, but even from behind she could tell she didn't know her. She had wavy, deep violet hair down her back, so shiny it was as if it glowed with its own internal light.
"Miss, can I help you?" Akari asked the stranger. Ignored, she walked after her and tried again, "Hey, miss, can I help you?"
The woman turned to face her, showing her beautiful, naggingly familiar face. "Are you talking to me?"
"Yes. Hi!"
"Oh, wow!"
This one seemed a little slow to Akari. "I was just wondering if you were looking for someone here?"
"Oh, no. I'm Nadeshiko Kinomoto, I was just heading up to wait for Sakura-chan."
"Ah, you must be Sakura's mother!" This explained why Akari thought the face had been so familiar now.
She gave a kind smile, "Mmm-hmm!"
"It's so nice to finally meet you! Oh, I forgot my manners. I'm Akari Mizunashi, pleased to meet you, Kinomoto-san."
"Likewise."
Nadeshiko was a vision in white. Her blouse was detailed with cutwork around the broad collar and cuffs. Akari thought that she wore clothes as good or better than her daughter.
President Aria was more interested in the floor-length pleated skirt, and how all those folds worked. He pawed at the bottom of Nadeshiko's dress, but didn't meet the expected resistance, and in fact his paw went entirely through her dress. "Puuu?" He tried a couple more times, with similar results. He decided to try harder, except he managed to walk right through where her legs should be as if nothing was there. "Punyuu??"
Both women missed this byplay, however, as they continued talking.
"So, how is life out on the canals?"
"Really busy, ever since Sakura-chan did her thing."
"Oh, I'm sorry. You take your eyes off your kids for one minute, and they cause millions of dollars in damages. You know?"
"Hoheee? But Kinomoto-san, she really tried her best, and nobody died! And we don't mind the business really, it's really a big help to our company!"
"I was teasing, Mizunashi-san."
"Oh, um, okay," Akari said sheepishly.
"To have people she's known for three weeks jump to her defense—really, I couldn't be prouder."
"She has that effect on people, doesn't she. She's going to be truly amazing when she grows up."
"For certain," she agreed. Nadeshiko hadn't talked so someone like Akari for such a long time. It's not that couldn't talk to others, it's just that she preferred to keep a watch on her family. Watching life pass had a certainly loneliness to it, but in her view it was far less lonely than the alternative.
"Well, I don't want to keep you," Akari excused herself.
"Oh, please, don't go!" Nadeshiko said, with an intensity that surprised herself. She made herself relax, and said, "Would you like to come in for tea?"
"Really? Sure, I'd love that."
Nadeshiko followed Akari up the stairs, not that she had any use for them, but it allowed them to continue their chat about Sakura and her friends.
Akari didn't notice anything amiss about Nadeshiko. Had she been able to squint with her third eye, it might have been a different story. But Coyote's surgery had cast the girl's third eye wide open, a condition that persisted to this day.
When they hit the third floor, Aria ran forward and pounced.
"Hey Aria, what are you doing?"
President Aria had pinned down a moth, a really big one. "Nyuu!" He felt proud over his catch.
"Let that dirty thing go! Come on, she's waiting for us."
He reluctantly let it go. Really, humans have such strange priorities.
While Akari was distracted, Nadeshiko went ahead to her apartment's door. She concentrated really hard for a second. The tumblers in the lock clicked into place, and the doorknob slowly turned. The door opened with the slightest application of Nadeshiko's telekinesis, and she invited Akari inside.
Akari paused at the genkan to slip off her shoes; Nadeshiko wasn't wearing any.
"Please, sit down! It sounds you had a long day on the canals."
Akari took up her up on the invitation, and seated herself on the middle of the couch. "It's not so bad out there, the gondola is like an old friend to me." She was a little tired, though.
"Alright! I'll go make the tea, I'll be right back."
Nadeshiko hadn't entertained in her own home in years, so she decided that she really needed to make a good impression. Sure, she might not have a bed or a toothbrush here, but it was still her home, because it was where Fujitaka and Touya and Sakura lived. And they wouldn't have it any other way.
She decided to put out all her favorites, black Darjeeling tea, cookies, and mochi. The main problem was how to put them out. She had heard of spirits who could heat or cool with their thoughts, but such a complexity escaped her. She could barely handle one object a time.
She used telekinesis to lift the tea kettle to the spigot, then flipped the spigot up as fast as she could, and grabbed the kettle before it fell. When it was full, she flipped the spigot off, but didn't quite catch the kettle before it crashed to the ground. "Oops!" At least she got it before much of the water sloshed out.
Meanwhile Akari looked around the den at the belongings that the Kinomotos had assembled in their brief time in this dimension. Three of the five shelves of the bookshelf were already full, but that was to be expected of an archaeologist. A few were checked out from the UCLA Library, on those basically-forever loans that professors get—even visiting professors like Fujitaka. A whole shelf was dedicated to Native American archaeology, including a few books she recalled seeing on their desert tour. He had taken quite an interest in the topic as of late.
A photograph of Nadeshiko sat on a end table, alongside a jade-glass vase with five fresh pink roses. Akari bent down to smell the roses. And then she heard a small crash in the kitchen, as several plastic wrappers fell to the ground.
"Oh, darn it!"
Akari took this a her cue to return to the couch, and was soon joined by Aria.
About a minute later, Nadeshiko emerged from the kitchen, carrying a tray bearing a teapot, two china cups and saucers with a flowery design, and a selection of cookies. "Sorry for the wait!" She slowly brought the tea tray down onto the paned coffee table, and then appeared to let go about an inch above the table. The tray dropped abruptly in a clatter; one of the teacups fell against it's saucer. "Yabai!"
This woman is seriously clumsy, Akari thought. "Would you like me to pour the tea?"
"Ah, yes please. Go for it." Nadeshiko looked relieved.
"Sugar?"
"Of course!"
Akari stirred a spoonful of sugar into both cups.
Akari took bite of cookie into her mouth, then gently lifted her teacup to her lips. After tasting the combination, she declared it, "Oishii!"
"I'm glad you enjoy it."
Nadeshiko dared to lift the teacup to her spectral nose, and let the delicate scent of the steam waft through her. It was really a shame she couldn't drink it, but such is death. She replaced the cup on the table, and returned her attention to Akari.
Akari never noticed that Nadeshiko never actually took a sip, nor ate a cookie. Aria did notice, however, and started snatching cookies from Nadeshiko's plate. There was no use in letting sweets go to waste on a spirit, he concluded.
The jam and cream cookies were pretty good, but Aria took a chance on the mochi. He plopped it in his mouth, which got really sticky right away. Eventually, he was forced to admit defeat to this snack, and grabbed the little pitcher of milk from the table to wash it down. Human snacks could be downright dangerous.
Akari looked over at Nadeshiko, sitting in the easy chair. She was just so pretty, and her face was flawless. "You look so young to be Touya's mother! What's the secret?"
"Oh, you know, my age is really just how I feel," she replied, literally.
"For sure! You should really be a model."
"Oh, I was a fashion model for quite a while! Quite a lot of traveling to photo shoots and scrambling to fit into that next dress behind the runway, let me tell you." Akari smiled back, so she continued, "It was really the travel that was the end of it. Once I had Touya, I really wanted to be present for my children as much as possible."
"Oh, I understand. Touya-kun turned out to be a pretty good man. Maybe he should be the model."
"Oh, don't go chasing after my son—he's taken. You'll only get your heart broken."
Akari laughed, "No, I didn't mean that!" On hearing Nadeshiko's laugh, "And you knew it too, you tease!"
"So absolutely no omiai at this time, I regretfully inform you."
"Stop! Stop!" Akari giggled.
"Sorry, it's a mother's solemn duty to meddle in their children's romantic affairs."
"See, it's people like you why I had to run away from home and join the gondoliers," Akari joked. "So what about Sakura? Meddled in her love life lately?" Something about this woman was bringing out Akari's seldom-seen puckish side.
"No, I'm afraid not. She has so much magic in her heart that she'll find the way without me. She found herself a pretty impressive boy already."
"I know, the way he fought, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. You know, he always put himself between Sakura-chan and the enemy."
"Yeah. They really do grow up so fast, don't they," Nadeshiko lamented her lost time. "Treasure every minute, Akari."
"I already do," she replied truthfully.
"But Sakura is more impressive than I could have ever dreamed, and for that, I am thankful."
"Her magic is truly amazing. Sometimes I wish I could do magic."
"But you can talk with me, right? Isn't that magic enough?"
Akari smiled, "Of course you're right. Friendship is the real magic, isn't it?"
Nadeshiko giggled. "Of course." Akari wasn't getting it, but in her own way, she understood the more fundamental truth. Friendship across the walls of death and spacetime, that was real magic.
It was like they clicked in a way that she hadn't felt since she grew up, back when she was inseparable from Sonomi-chan. And that had been a literal lifetime ago.
Akari saw her mood change. "Is something the matter?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just thinking about someone important to me who I haven't talked to for a very long time."
"Nuh-uh, that's okay. I have someone like that too." She couldn't help her self from adding, "But I got lucky, and I got to meet him a couple weeks ago!"
"At the Halloween Party?"
"Well... I guess you can say that."
Nadeshiko cheered up, "That's good!"
"It was wonderful! But I don't see him often enough. There was one time I was so desperate to see him, I walked all over the city to find a way to him! Not that I'm bragging…" she blushed. Akari left out Cat Sìth's name, of course, because there was no way that a normal person like Nadeshiko would believe in fairies. Fairies are not exactly a first-meeting topic.
She offered conspiratorially, "So, is he your most important person?"
"Um, well, I'm not really sure yet," Akari giggled nervously.
Direct hit. Nadeshiko joined her in giggling.
"It's just, he's so cool. And I know he likes me, but we live in different worlds, and I'm just so ordinary compared to him. You know?" Akari lamented.
"It was like that with me and Fujitaka at first, where he felt so much more amazing than little me. He was a student teacher, so smart and funny, and I was just a silly little girl with stars in her eyes. But… I caught up. And I caught him."
Akari shivered a little, and her eyes opened wide. "Wooow." She truly loved a romantic story.
Nadeshiko's emerald eyes stared right into Akari's aquamarine eyes. "You can do it, too. You're so much like Sakura-chan, with your specialness coming into bloom. And if you truly are each other's most important person, then the only thing that can stop your love is yourself. You can do it, Akari-chan!"
Akari's eyes were as wide as her smile. It took her a moment before her emotions sorted themselves, before she said, "Thank you. No wonder Sakura grew up so sweet, having a mother like you around."
"Ah, well, that didn't have all that much to do with me, really."
"No, you're a great role model for her."
For the past few minutes, Nadeshiko had managed to entirely forget that she was dead, so Akari's innocent praise was more painful than normal.
Akari picked up on her change in demeanor. "I'm sorry. Is it about your friend?"
"Mmm," she muttered. It was true enough; she felt she deserved her fate for what she did to Sonomi. She explained, "It's just, when I eloped with Sensei, she didn't take it very well. She felt betrayed. And really, it was a betrayal. I got to live my happy life, and she had to marry for the family business. I swear, I never knew how bad it got with him. And by the time it was over, well…" Akari let her finish. "It would take a miracle for her to forgive me now."
"It's okay, Kinomoto-san. Believe in miracles, and she will know your feelings." She spoke with the conviction of someone who definitely believed in miracles. "Just like you believe in me, I believe in you."
With such a charm offensive, her defenses fell completely. There could be no arguing with someone who believed in you with their whole heart, that she well knew. "I haven't had a friend like you in such a long time. Please, call me Nadeshiko."
"Hahi, Nadeshiko-chan!"
The deadbolt on the front door turned to the locked position, and then it rotated all the way back to unlocked. Fujitaka was a bit startled to see Akari sitting alone in his apartment, because Sakura was downstairs still.
"Welcome home," Nadeshiko said reflexively.
"Ah, well, maybe it's time I should get going. Thanks for the tea!"
"Puunyuu!" agreed President Aria, who did a brief stretch, then hopped off the couch.
"Um, sure," Fujitaka said, still unsure what was going on.
Akari stood up and walked out the front door, saying, "Bye-bye, Fujitaka-hakase, Nadeshiko-chan!"
At this moment, Fujitaka was enlightened. He closed his eyes, and concentrated for a minute, and could feel Nadeshiko's warm presence filling the room. "Are you making friends, dear?" He felt her pleasant presence, right until he turned into the kitchen to start cooking. Surveying the mess, he picked up the broom and got to cleaning up, for what was definitely not the first time. Though, it had been quite a while.
He could have sworn her heard Nadeshiko's sweet voice saying, "Sorry, darling!" But he couldn't be sure if it was really her ghost, or just his memory playing tricks on him.
Passage 5. Pizza Margherita
Quote:After the evening rush faded, I had a chance to catch dinner with some of my closest friends, Aika and Alice. They were the best training partners you could find, so I miss them a little in our new roles as prima undines. But we're not going to let us keep us apart!
Our neighbors Tomo and Yomi decided to come along with us. I always like their company, because they're so funny! It's like living next door to a comedy act. But this time, I think the undines were even funnier!
Having spent years at a workplace with a company canteen, the displacees from Orange Planet and Himeya weren't used to cooking their own dinners after a long day. So once again, a few of them went off to find a restaurant.
President Aria was not happy about this arrangement, as twenty-first century Earth had truly regressive ideas about feline rights. Particularly in access to public places in which food might be rightfully begged. He decided to go to Sakaki, and see if he could convince her to start some form sort of movement for his rights. Perhaps they should call it the Society for Pets' Equal Welfare, he concluded.
Meanwhile, Akari and her younger coworkers set out to find some food, and ran into their fellow residents of Aria House, Tomo Takino and Mizuhara Koyomi, looking for the same. They set off along the beach boardwalk to find to find some new restaurant to try. As the evening twilight faded, they settled on a place where they could get seated fast.
It was kind of odd restaurant, half American sports bar, half Mexican cantina, but it was convenient, and everyone was hungry. The service, on the other hand, was a bit slow. Still, with an unfamiliar menu, it wasn't time wasted as the girls read through their options.
As a waiter walked past with a plate, Aika's eyes followed him over her shoulder. "Oh, they have pizza here. That sounds good!" She closed her menu right then and there.
Finally, the waitress appeared for their table. Alice got a basic hamburger, while Tomo ordered a set of loaded potato skins.
Alice commented, "If you think about it, the middle of the potato is useless anyway."
"Oh yeah, totally useless," Tomo picked up her cue, intentional or not. "I mean, why even bother with that boring white part?"
Yomi ignored the heathens next to her, and ordered the fish tacos, which she assumed was one of the healthier options on the menu.
Finally, the ordering got around to Akia, "Can I get a margherita?"
"A margarita? OK." The waitress looked over Aika, and judged her to be pretty young. "Virgin?"
"Extra-virgin."
"Heh, sure."
"And a glass of still water."
The waitress finished writing on her pad, and went on her way.
For some reason, this event caused a tight smile to appear on Yomi's face. Tomo knew that look, and kept an eye out for whatever funny thing happened next. She asked, "So why are the middle of potatoes useless, Alice?"
"All it does is hold other flavors. It's almost as useless as eggplant."
"Yeah, I don't understand why girls are so into eggplant these days. Look at Yomi, she's into fish tacos." Two seconds later, Tomo felt a line of blunt force across the top of her head, followed by pain.
"Quiet, you uncultured idiots," indicted Yomi, giver of karate chops. "Starches have lots of uses in cuisine, from providing a texture, a place absorb sauces, and as a palate cleanser for more intense flavors."
A couple minutes later, the waitress returned with drinks for everyone. In front of Aika, she placed a wide, stemmed glass with salt lining the rim and a lime hanging off the side.
"What the hell is this thing?" Aika barked.
Yomi couldn't suppress her chuckles.
Passage 6. A Footnote
Quote:And for me, it's into bed, curling up with a book back in the Aria Company apartments. It was another beautiful day full of wonderful people. As I turn off the light and close my eyes, I think of all the good times we had, and I hope to dream of a certain special person.
So, that's what a day in the life of an undine is like. It's pretty ordinary, I know, but ordinary days lived well are the precious memories that make life worth living. Just to ride the blue water and reconnect with the customers and friends—that's enough to make every day feel like a miracle.
Tomo put down her tablet computer. She scrunched her eyes, and shook her head. "What the heck?"
What's up?," Yomi responded.
"Here, read." Tomo shoved the tablet into her friend's hands.
"Oh, cool. Akari finally got her blog up!"
"Keeeep reading."
A couple minutes later, Yomi burst out, "Is she a total airhead?"
"No, wait, it gets better."
Yomi continued on for a couple more screens. "Oh, now she's talking to a ghost without even realizing it. Seriously, what's wrong with her?"
"Mmm hmmm."
"Always check the feet."
Tomo looked over with narrow eyes, "What?"
"Nothing."
Yomi kept reading. "Hey, we're in here too! And you seem like an idiot."
"Thank you."
"I can't believe she's telling this story to the world."
"Eh, we're already world famous, right?"
"I know, but…" Yomi sighed. She finished reading the post. "Where the heck did she get those rose-colored glasses?"
"Oh, I think Elton John gave them to her as a tip."
Yomi chuckled, "I wouldn't put it past her."
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto