Chapter 3: Fortune Favors the Fateful
I never knew or cared about the existence of magic. Fortune cookies and Magic 8-Balls, curses and fortunes, magical charms and mystical tea leaves, the existence of a realm beyond ours and alternate planes of existence. Unbelievable nonsense! I never really cared about any of that stuff. All I ever wanted was to be left to my own devices. All alone with my machines.
I was in the hall of the high school just beside my locker. Inside my locker was where all of my belongings were stored. Contact numbers of my friends Ken and Aoi written in a sheet of wrinkled up paper, baseball cards of famous Japanese baseball players, a notebook that contained all of the important material I learned from the class, and a robotic mouse with a remote control. I reached towards the robotic mouse and remote control and grasped it with my two hands. I looked at the back of my remote control and the bottom of my robotic mouse, and both of them had my name "Satou" written in kanji.
The two of them were special to me. I didn't just purchase it online or some dusty electronics store, I built it with my own hands. I have always been fascinated with how things work, how things function, how things break, and how things are remade. The world of science, the world of gadgetry, the world of logic, technology, engineering, and machinery, that was the domain that long fascinated me. I still remember the very first robotic toy I got when I was a kid. It was Christmas and I remember tearing up the present the same a way a bear tears up a picnic basket. I remember the toy robot in all its complexity, all its ingenuity, and all its parts, the parts creating the whole of such a contraption. I remembered the lights it flashed, the motion of its parts, and the way it reflected my very being almost like a mirror. That was where I truly found myself.
I looked at the floor of the school. It was free of faults and dirt, free of impurities and free of cracks. There were no students and no staff walking or guarding the halls of Sugimori High. It was the afternoon, after all, why would anyone still be roaming the halls of the school at this time? I knew it was against the rules to play with a gadget like mine across the school halls, but I couldn't help myself. I honestly blame all of this for my friend, Ken, being a bad influence on me sometimes.
Speaking of Ken, I still remember him chewing me out after what I heard was a bad date with this cute girl, Aoi, and for this being "my idea." I thought I was doing both of them a favor, hooking the two of them up. I imagined the two of them being an item. I especially liked that sweet girl, Aoi, and her beautiful flowers. They were a beautiful display of craftsmanship, a collection of some of the best floral arrangements I've ever seen. The two of them still meet every now and again, but I have no idea why the two of them still meet after such a bad date. The two of them still won't tell me, but at least Aoi was willing to forgive me and become friends.
But none of that matters to me right now, what matters was testing out my remote controlled mouse in action.
I turned on the electric mouse, laid it flat on the ground, and made a test drive. With the power of my remote control, the mouse skid through the floor with its wheels and travel through the open range of the school hall. Through the flick of my thumbs, the mouse turned in smooth curves from the end of the hall and back to me. I made it do tricks such as donuts, wheelies, and figure-8s. It was riding around the hall and it was all thanks to my device. This belonged to me, this was my machine, and this was my moment. It was like playing a video game, a video game that I made all by myself. I never felt so energized and elated. The power of tech and machinery powered by me, and I had all the power. It felt so much like a dream and I wanted this feeling to last forever.
In the middle of my excitement, I flicked my thumb on the analog stick of my controller, and my mouse flickered off and I lost control. Just as my mouse skidded off, a mysterious figure arrived into the hall. It was a girl around my height, her hair long enough to reach the length of her skirt and it was dark and messy. She wore the standard garb every other female student wore, but there was something off about her and I couldn't put my finger on it. The rat followed her move and became close to her long, dark-as-midnight heels. She didn't seem to notice me or the robotic mouse following her. She entered the bathroom and when she opened the door, the mouse followed. I followed her to retrieve my toy mouse. I didn't really care that I was entering the girl's bathroom. I'm no pervert and no label is going to stop me to get what I want!
I entered the bathroom. When I entered, she noticed the robotic mouse following her and picked it up. She observed it, and her eyes looked curious. She was fixated with my device, intrigued by my brilliance, I imagine.
"That-That's my mouse. It belongs to me. I built that. How impressive does it look?"
"This thing, this thing you call a toy, it's intriguing." Her voice was gravelly, yet feminine. Ominous, yet warming. This girl was quite an interesting figure. I never saw her around school or around the campus before.
"I didn't catch your name, what's your name?"
"Kyoko. Kyoko Kurosawa." She looked more and more closely at my robotic mouse. The dark shade of her eyes filled with mystique, she observed the inner workings of my hand-crafted machine. With her elongated fingers and her nails coated with purple paint, it looked like she was trying to pry open the insides of my toy.
"Wait a minute, stop! That's mine. I worked hard on that toy for weeks. You can't do that!"
"This is your toy?" She stared at me intensely. I didn't know what facial expression she had, but what I knew was that her eyes were wide and looked very interested.
"Yes, that is mine. Now, please give it back."
"That's too bad."
With a sudden flick of her wrist, she took my remote control out of my hands. The two things that I built all by myself were taken from me and I was left empty-handed.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Immediately I was frustrated.
"These are some really nice toys. If you want your precious material possessions back, meet me at the Black Cat Apothecary. I'll be waiting." She ran out of the bathroom as soon as she finished her sentence.
I tried to chase after her, but she disappeared as soon as I exited the bathroom. What the hell? Who was that girl, anyway? I couldn't believe a girl like her took my prized possessions just like that. But the question that stood out inside my mind is why? Why take my stuff and disappear like a ghost? There was this strange aura that permeated throughout the bathroom and that aura came from her. This girl is so different from all the others and I couldn't figure out why. In fact, why was she in the bathroom in the first place? Does she even go to Sugimori High? A girl like her would stand out in a crowd, yet I've never seen her before. Nothing was making any sense and I wanted to find answers.
With the help of Google Maps, I was able to find Black Cat Apothecary. The sign was a large, imposing black cat with green eyes. How appropriate. I glimpsed into the verdant, emerald eyes of the black cat sign. The more I stared into the eyes, the more I felt the cat was capriciously gazing into my being. I look away and my eyes shift into the storefront. Old dusty windows with the glass fogging up the inside of the building, I can sense the orangish hue peeking out the interior. There was light, but it was barely visible. Next to the windows was the front door with a bunch of markings written in thick, black calligraphy in kanji I found hard to decipher. Rounding it out, there were mysterious black flowers adorning the window sills, a metallic raven watching over the front and fences with holes shaped like a heart, a spade, a diamond and club all in a pattern.
What kind of place is this? Why would she send me to a place like this? Why would she steal my gadgets just so she could send me here?
I open the door and I hear the ominous sound of the bell. I look around. Lamps and wind chimes in a whole rainbow of color covered the entire ceiling. There is a cash register in my front but there's no one there. Behind it was dolls, masks, and hats from all over the world, across different time periods and cultures. All of them showed clear sign of age like no one has touched them for ages. Ancient calligraphic murals and opened scrolls filled up the walls. They were all filled with thick black ink and imagery of creatures and monsters of ancient myth and samurai battling the monsters in fierce clashes. To my right were playing cards, a collection of die, magical playing kits, plastic swords, and books. The collection of books caught my eye the most. All of them were about astrology, fortune-telling, divination, meditation, spirit energy, and the mind. I continue looking at the books until I accidentally touched something with my back. I turned around.
"Wah!" Caught by surprise, it was a fortune-telling device run by some dated looking technology. The fortuneteller was an animatronic man whose face was concealed by a bunny mask. The ear stalks were long and tall, and the paint looked like it was chipping away, almost like the visage was going to disappear and reveal it's true plastic face. The rest of the body was covered in thin-looking cloth and satin covering up the hollow plastic. The only part of the body the cloth didn't cover was the hands. The hands looked the most life-like. The fingers looked natural and clean with the gestures making it look like it was going to predict something, much like an actual fortune-teller. Inside its box, it looked sad almost, trapped forever to be a cheap device to fool people into thinking it had something real to say about their fates and fortunes.
Speaking of fates and fortunes, where is Kyoko? She told me to meet here, and I've so far haven't seen her.
"I see you've met Ninjin."
Out of nowhere, she appeared from behind the boxed fortune teller. I fall backward and the force of my fall caused the store to shake. The books all start to drop and land all over my face. Kyoko struts forward and picks up one of the books covering my face.
"Welcome to the Black Cat Apothecary," she says with the sultry tone of her lips. "I didn't expect someone like you to come into my family's establishment."
"This is your family's establishment?"
"Why yes, this is my family's magic shop. It has been a part of my family for generations."
I get up from the pile of books and say, "So this is a magic shop. Are you here to curse me?"
She lightly chuckles. "Don't be so presumptuous, Black Cat Apothecary has been helping enchant our world for many, many years. Magic has always been a part of my family for generation and we believe magic is inside us all. The purpose of our shop has always been to unlock that part of ourselves and that is a mission we've been striving for centuries."
"Thanks for the advertisement, witch. Can you show me where my stuff is?"
"There is a task you must do for me."
"Fine, lay it on me."
"You seem to be antiquated with Ninjin. It's too bad he hasn't been himself ever since he shut down. Since you seem to know a lot about the inner workings of a machine, I want to see if you can fix Ninjin. Let's just say he's been a long part of the family. I hope this task isn't too great for you."
"I've never worked on a fortune-telling device, but I'll see what I can do." I reluctantly agree to do this random girl's bidding.
I open the compartment of the box and look over the interior circuitry of the machine. To the ordinary eye, the inside was a complex web of circuits and wires. A complicated web of interconnected systems and an electronic ecosystem interdependent and coexisting. Upon closer inspection, however, I notice that not all of the circuitry wasn't hooked up correctly and not all of the systems were working. Fortunately, this all looked pretty fixable from my vantage point. With a helpful set of tools, I went ahead and started to work on fixing the machine.
"Satou," Kyouko said while I was fixing the fortune-telling machine. "How did you manage to learn how to be so good at all this tech stuff?"
"I took a lot of STEM classes. I learned about gadgetry and how all of it works and how connected all of it is. I tinkered around some devices and played around with it during my spare time. My turn to ask a question. Where are your parents? Is it just you watching over the store?"
"My parents are at a magic and commerce convention. I'm just here manning the shop so to speak."
"So it's just you manning the shop? Do you know anyone else, anyone else that you can hang out with?"
There's an awkward pause between the two of us before she responded. "No, I don't know anyone else." The sultry tone of her voice dropped and it was replaced with something more stoic.
Come to think of it, I've never really seen her at school before. She wears the school uniform, but I had no idea she ever even attended the same high school I went into.
"How long have you been at Sugimori High?" I press further.
"I've been there for almost a semester. I take some of the same classes as you, which means I'm around the same grade as you."
Wait, how does she know that she and I take the same classes? Before I could ponder further, I ask another question.
"Do you have any friends? Any groups or organizations you're a part of?"
Another awkward pause fills the air between our conversation. This one felt longer than the first. After what felt like the longest, most awkward pause I've ever had with someone, she finally blurted out an answer.
"No. I don't have any friends. It's just me."
I stop working and I look at Kyouko. She's staring at the window, a window indicative of a world outside the magic shop. Far beyond the interior window, the day was starting to turn into night. Darkness appeared and the shadows exposed its shade, there was still a little bit of daylight present in the outside world. That piece of daylight peered into the window and inside the shop. The light hit a piece of Kyouko's body. When she continued to stare, a reflection of her face appeared in the glass window. The face was somber and moody, indicative of a deep desire, a desire for longing and a desire for something more. For such a mysterious girl, her face could tell no lie. It was perfectly clear that this was a girl in need of companionship, people who could understand her and connect with. It reminded me of the time I first met Ken.
I was once again stuck between a rock and a hard place. The last time I tried to "help" someone out, it resulted in ruining a blooming relationship and almost destroying my friendship with Ken. Could I do anything? Should I do anything? Will my intervention actually help anyone? Will it make things better or a lot worse? All of the pondering inside my head made me realize that I was neglecting my current task. I decided to ignore all of those questions inside my head and just go back to work.
After tinkering with the circuitry and fixing all the wires, I closed the main hatch and tested on whether the fortune-telling machine was working again. I clicked the button and waited for a response.
"Ninjin welcomes you, my friend!" His arms move around slightly. Despite how decrepit and old it looks, the animatronic itself still functions. "Fate has brought you here to hear one of my fortunes. Remember that fate isn't just an invisible that guides someone to a certain destiny, it is a choice and how that choice reverberates and leads to other events far beyond someone's understanding. Out of all the billion choices you could make in the entire universe, you decided to make a choice yourself and it led you to me. Take your fortune and interpret it however you wish. May fortune favor the fateful."
After a few seconds, a fortune card pops out of the box. I choose to ignore the fortune card.
"Well then, it looks like the machine works. Now that my end of the bargain is done, I think you owe me something."
"Not to so fast. There is one more thing you must do for," the sultry tone of her voice suddenly returns.
"Oh come on! I already did one thing for you. What else is there for me to do?"
"Take a seat." She points to a seat in front of a stage at the very back of the magic store. I didn't notice that until now. The stage itself looked finely crafted, with some of the wood clearly made out of the finest, long-lasting material. The top of the stage a roof shaped like the classical, ancient temples of the Muromachi Period. The back wall consisted of a mural depicting a long, elegant looking tree with exquisite detailing and the rest of the walls depicted bamboo thickets complimenting the large tree mural.
I begrudgingly nodded and took my seat.
After I waited for a few minutes, the light for the entire magic shop dimmed. The lights of the stage turned on and I saw Kyouko, but she wasn't the same Kyouko I met at first. The dirty, messed-up look of her hair was gone and it was replaced with long, straight hair with no strand out of place. On the top left of her hair was an array of cherry blossoms aligned and interconnected. The top half of her outfit was a dark purple tube top firmly pressing her thin physique, exposing her stomach. The lower half of her outfit was long, baggy pants that were mostly white with dark purple highlights. Both her arms and her feet were uncovered and her eyes had a sensual gaze to it. The person standing in front of me didn't feel like the same girl that stole my two gadgets. I honestly couldn't believe this was the same girl I just met today.
The music started to play. It was the sound of enka music. An eclectic mix of traditional Japanese wind, percussion, and string instruments started to play accompanied by a piano. She danced as soon as the music started. She moved around the stage, in rhythm with the music. The music was soft and slow in melody, and so was her dance. The motion of her arms was busy and hard to ignore, and the motion of her feet softly skid through the floor and there was a sense of rhythm and grace to it. There was a sense of beauty and a sense of elegance, two words I never thought I would ever describe Kyouko.
My feelings? I felt thrilled, exhilarated, enthralled, ecstatic, so many adjectives coming out from inside my head. It was like playing with my electronic toys, but it felt somewhat different. The difference between that and the dance all came down to one word, one word above all that I could use to describe this feeling, this feeling coming from this dance. Magical. Is this magic? Have I been the blind one this entire time? Am I starting to realize what magic really is? Is the magic coming from this dance, the ritual of elegance and grace coming from Kyouko's dance? Or is it coming from me? Was the magic inside me all this time and it's been locked away for a long time until I saw this dance, just like she said? I don't know the answers. The only thing I can do is just sit back and watch as she performs her spell, a ritual seemingly designed to awaken what's been missing inside me all this time.
Her performance continues, the music plays in the background and I just watch, stuck in a trance. When the instruments reach their crescendo, she reveals in her hands both my remote control and the robotic mouse. She hands them to me and I grab them without hesitation. But I don't look at the two of them, and I just continue watching the dance until the music hits its last chord. She stops with her arms out in front of me, right foot facing, and her eyes facing towards me. She smiles first, but her look turns into a nervous expression. It's like she turned back to her "normal" self.
"What did you think?"
"That was impressive. I never knew you could dance."
"I've been doing it since I was a young girl. But I have never danced out in public before. I have never had an audience before."
"Do you know any more dances?"
"I know some more." She blushed a little bit.
"I'll bring my friends next time. Thanks. I'll see you again" I got out of my seat and waved her good-bye, my two devices in hand.
"Yes, well, I'll see what I can do." She waved back.
I closed the door and left the Black Cat Apothecary. She was a peculiar girl, that Kyouko. I don't get why she had to pull a stunt like stealing my toys like that, but it was worth the visit. Hopefully, I'll get to see her again, both in and out of school.
It was late at night, darkness arrived and the street lights were all lit in my neighborhood. I thought to myself, let's try riding my mechanical mouse one last time. I sat on the porch and positioned my mouse on the street curb. I turned on my remote control and the mouse started to move. The mouse skidded a little until it stopped all of a sudden. I moved the analog stick all over the place and continually pressed the go button, but the mouse was unresponsive.
Damn it.
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