Quarantine Tag Game!
I feel like I haven’t done an original post/non-reblog in forever.
Tagged by @thejumpingrice
ARE YOU STAYING HOME FROM WORK/SCHOOL?
Yup. My employer mandated a work from home policy from 16 March and besides a meeting at the office on the 17th, I’ve been working at home since. Whew. The good thing is that in my line of work, working from home isn’t that much more different than working on site, besides not being able to chase clients up (physically) to provide documents... and feeling like you’re working in a call centre instead.
IF YOU’RE STAYING HOME, WHO IS THERE WITH YOU?
I have a housemate. And my subconscious...
ARE YOU A HOMEBODY?
Very much so, and this whole shelter in place thing is making things worse. I go out to do things alone all the time, occasionally involving a few friends along the way, and I’d usually force myself to step out of my apartment to do something other than spend a lot of time in front of my computer, except now I shouldn’t be going out unless it’s “essential movement” and... oops.
I’ve got a couple of things planned for this weekend that will take me out of the apartment (and safely distanced from people) so that’ll be good.
AN EVENT THAT YOU WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT GOT CANCELLED?
I know the question basically asks for one thing but I would like to whine about 2.
Earlier in March, I actually talked myself into going for a concert by The National, which was supposed to happen on March 17. When dates for the gigs originally came out I was all “Eeeehhh do I really listen to The National that much to want to spend ~$80 on a gig of theirs?” but the answer turned out to be “YES, I WOULD LIKE TO GO”. I was going to go alone, by the way. And then Australian government restrictions came in and the gig got postponed to a date I wouldn’t be able to make, alas.
I was also meant to travel to Japan with a friend at the end of May - we had everything planned and booked, it was very much going to be a Treat Yourself holiday for the both of us, complete with an epic road trip, actual kaiseki meals and lots of mountains... Let’s just say I’m thankful for having the foresight of booking things with free cancellation.
(See also: Tokyo 2020 Olympics)
WHAT MOVIES HAVE YOU WATCHED RECENTLY?
A lot of the movies I’ve watched recently stemmed from one movie I watched almost exactly a month ago... Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It blew my mind and I’m still reeling from it and there’s so many layers to the little movie onion that I’d love to peel but haven’t had the time to because work has been absolutely crazy (what a time to specialize in the healthcare industry, eh?) but now that I’m going to have lots of days off over the next couple of months, the time spent peeling the Portrait onion will be then.
Since Portrait, I’ve watched La Fille Inconnue/The Unknown Girl, L'Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close/House of Pleasures, Les Combattants/Love at First Fight (what do you mean THERE IS A PATTERN?) and finally caught up with Just Mercy and Seberg.
WHAT SHOWS ARE YOU WATCHING?
I recently started rewatching Castle. Currently watching Brooklyn 99, and Schitt’s Creek just ended. Series I recently picked up that had their seasons already end but I plan to continue watching when they return: Stumptown, Awkwafina is Nora from Queens.
WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LISTENING TO?
A random assortment of music from my Spotify Discovery Weekly playlists, and songs that have turned up on Giri/Haji (that show is WILD).
WHAT ARE YOU READING?
I wish I had a more enriching answer, but my reading time has been spent on various interpretations of International Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (how riveting) and a bunch of technical accounting methodology things, for work reasons.
I’ve started (and put down, but intend to continue/finish when I have the time to) Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”, and I’ve got a copy of Murasaki’s “The Tale of Genji” (my friend and I went to the Genji Museum in Uji back to 2017 and sat through this video summary of what the Classic is about, and we are Still Confused. So I bought the book to wrap my head around it, it’s gonna be fun).
WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR SELF-CARE?
Nothing...
Kidding. I’ve tried (Keyword: try) setting work/home boundaries, purely because I’m a semi-workaholic to begin with and I spend a lot of time on my PC outside of work hours
Weekend grocery shopping is my go-to me time outside of the apartment these days, and although all the farmer’s markets are closed (I NEED MY FRESH FISH, FRUITS AND VEGETABLES SEND HELP), there’s a mall a short drive away that has all the options (I’m already bored of my local supermarket). I also try to head up to the roof of my building once in a while because it actually overlooks the airport and I love planes so I just like staring at them once in a while, especially since there aren’t as many flying overhead these days.
I try to stick to my usual night time routine - do a bit of writing or doodling and news-reading before lying in bed and doing a couple of Sudoku puzzles then sleeping. And I make sure I try to get at least 6 hours of sleep each night. It’s easier now without the need to commute to work, but it’s also hard to motivate myself to get out of bed sometimes.
That said, I’ve got a lot of days of annual leave over the next couple of months, which means a lot of long weekends before a nice long break, and I have a to-do list of hobbies I’d like to indulge in during that time so I’m looking forward to it.
Tagging... no one in particular but feel free to take this tag meme if you like!
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Red Data Girl: My Wish on the Night of the Shooting Stars (Week 29)
Red Data Girl: My Wish on the Night of the Shooting Stars
By Noriko Ogiwara
A Translation
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The excitement continues! Enjoy this week’s RDG!
Red Data Girl: My Wish on the Night of the Shooting Stars
By Noriko Ogiwara
Chapter 4: Mizuho
Part 2 (1 of 4)
Izumiko instantly went pale.
“Is she badly injured?”
All Mizuho said was, “I can’t say anything.” Even that came out stiffly. “However, we should get there as quickly as possible. My car is waiting, so get your coat. You can’t say anything to your roommate though.”
“We were just leaving to go to a party at a friend’s house…” Izumiko said, her voice shaking.
“Then tell your roommate that you have to make a stop on the way. You don’t want to worry your friends, do you?”
Izumiko nodded and went back up to her room. Trying in vain to act normally, she pushed the door open.
“I’m sorry, Mayura. I know it’s time to go, but I was wondering if you could meet me at the party? I’ve got an errand to run first, just like Sagara.”
Mayura listened to Izumiko’s words and then her eyes went wide. “But it’s in Minato-ku. Will you be able to get there on your own?”
“I’ll be alright. Dr. Nakayama said she’d bring me.” It was difficult to keep up her stiff smile as she spoke.
Izumiko avoided Mayura’s gaze as she grabbed her black coat and her little bag, and then rushed out of the room.
The black taxi Mizuho had come in was stopped in the parking lot outside of the school’s main gate. Izumiko tumbled into the backseat. The driver must have already known their destination because he pulled away without saying a word. Even after the car had been on the road for a few minutes, Izumiko still felt like she was in a bad dream. All of this was happening so quickly and she had no idea what was going on. The whole world had turned on its head.
What’s happening?...
It felt like the sheltered world she lived in had been dealt a hard blow. She had been worrying over nothing before this. It was as if she realized at that moment that up until now, she had been living a life with her eyes closed.
Mom’s job is something unusual. It seems dangerous. I’ve always known that. But I’ve been pretending not to know that or to see it. Now something’s finally happened. It’s not like it’s unexpected. I really should have known something like this would happen…
“What kind of injury is it?” Izumiko asked Mizuho who was sitting quietly besides her. “What happened? How much danger was Mom in?”
“Shh,” Mizuho warned quietly. She seemed worried about the taxi driver listening in. “I’ll tell you more when we get there. We can’t really talk here.”
“How long will it take us to get there?”
“If we don’t have too much trouble with traffic, it should take about an hour and a half.”
Izumiko bit her lip and gazed out the window. Why did she want to scream from the bottom of her heart on Christmas Eve? Tonight was supposed to be a time for everyone to gather together and have fun while eating delicious food and yet, it felt like the inside of the car was cut off from all of that and in a completely different world. She had gotten all dressed up for a party, but now she felt like she was on a fool’s errand she knew nothing about.
At this rate, if I don’t get to the party, Mayura and the others will worry about me like they did last time I disappeared. I wonder where Miyuki is right now…
“Is it okay if I send a text? Can I at least tell Miyuki about Mom?”
Izumiko pulled her cellphone out of her bag, but Mizuho said quickly, “There’s no need to do that. Yukimasa has already told him what’s going on.”
“Huh? Mr. Sagara? Isn’t he in the US?...”
“He’s on his way back right now. His job is to jump from one thing to another.”
“Um, does Dad know about what happened?”
“Of course.”
After a moment, Mizuho added coolly, “Don’t use your phone. Why do you think I came all the way out to your school without calling or sending you a text first? You have dangerous people around you on that campus. Your roommate is one of them.”
Izumiko stared at Mizuho, her eyes wide.
“Why Mayura?”
“You may not know, but whenever Mayura and Manatsu Souda go anywhere, without a doubt, they have people following them in the shadows to protect them. There are people doing the same within the student body as well. That’s useful in the way that when you do anything with them, you too have powerful bodyguards, but it also means that it’s difficult to keep secrets around them and that’s troublesome.”
Izumiko thought of Yoshiki Hayakawa and knew that there was truth in Mizuho’s words. Having people like him around would be a plus for a smart girl like Mayura—information could probably be passed quickly to her that way.
“So you mean you don’t want the people in Togakushi to know about Mom?...”
“We’ll talk when we get out of the car.”
******
The taxi drove down the city’s main thoroughfare, the grey of the road and the grey of the median continuing on and on.
All Izumiko wished for was that they could arrive at their destination quickly, but that only added to the pressure of the situation, and she didn’t bother to read the names of the exits they passed. No matter where they were going, Izumiko wouldn’t know where they were, so even if she did read the names, they would mean nothing to her. As she was in an area she wasn’t familiar with, she couldn’t even keep track of the distance they had driven. Besides, everything looked the same on this city highway.
They turned onto an expressway, but Izumiko knew they’d be back on the regular highway sooner or later. Still, she had no idea what direction they were going in and she still didn’t know their destination. Even so, Izumiko began to notice little by little that the white signs flashing by them were starting to say Yokohama. She came to a realization.
Yokohama isn’t in Tokyo Prefecture. It’s in Kanagawa Prefecture. That means we’re not going into the middle of Tokyo. We’re going south.
The highway brought them through a tunnel. When they came out, the city signs they drove past were for Yokohama Park. The highway scenery had also been replaced by a large town full of tall buildings. The buildings weren’t as tall as they’d be once they got into the heart of Yokohama though. The taxi drove down a tree lined road that, according to the signs, would take them to the prefectural building. Then they took a right turn at a traffic light and stopped.
Izumiko got out of the taxi. She looked around, but she couldn’t spot anything that looked like a hospital.
Mizuho paid the driver and got out of the taxi. Something about the current situation frustrated Izumiko and she asked sharply, “Which hospital are we going to?”
Mizuho watched the taxi drive away, straightening the cuffs of her jacket. Then she said suddenly, her voice full of emotion, “I am so sorry, Izumiko. I’ll do whatever it takes to make this up to you. When I told you that Yukariko was hurt, it was actually a lie.”
Izumiko opened her mouth. Finding that she couldn’t make any words come out, she stood there for a moment instead. The world before her eyes seemed to be flickering around her.
“…a lie?”
“I know it was a terrible thing to do. In order to bring you here in absolute secrecy though, it was necessary to confuse you. We had no intentions of letting you go to Angelica Bernard’s party at her home.”
Mizuho’s voice had taken on the confident tone of a doctor. She might have been sharing a difficult truth, but her words were exceptionally calm. Izumiko continued to stare at her, unsure whether to be relieved or upset.
“Why?”
“Because the Bernard family would like to take you from us as a research specimen.”
A research specimen?...
After a moment, Izumiko felt like she was starting to figure out what was going on. Even so, it still hurt badly that Mizuho had lied to her.
“This is too much. You lied to me and then took me all the way out here all of a sudden. You’re treating me like a little kid who doesn’t understand anything.”
Mizuho nodded her acceptance of this and said soothingly, “It was wrong of me. That’s why I’m apologizing. At some point, Houjou Academy somehow became a place where either everyone was being monitored or there was no way to see what was really going on inside.”
“Then if Mom isn’t hurt, why are we here?”
“We’re working to expose what’s going on inside the school,” Mizuho answered in a deliberately calm voice. “This also happens to be the reason why we never told you anything before this. It’s also the reason why I’m the one who was sent to get you even though I’ve never revealed myself as part of this group before. Up until recently though, I couldn’t make it to Houjou Academy. It would have been suspicious for me to move too quickly.”
The energy Mizuho was giving off made her feel more like a man than a woman—not unlike Yukariko. Izumiko recalled that Mizuho had been a close friend of Yukariko’s during college. Some of Yukariko must have rubbed off on her then. Some of Izumiko’s anger slowly began to calm.
“But why did you bring me all the way to Yokohama?”
“Because we’re getting on a boat.”
“A boat?”
Mizuho’s tone suddenly changed. “Izumiko, you’re going to get on boat to Hong Kong with me. From that boat, we’ll take a plane to the U.S. Your father is there, dealing with a number of situations. We’ll be going to him.”
Izumiko stared at her. “Why… are we taking a plane from Hong Kong?”
“If we go through an airport in Japan, it would be easy for someone to trace our flight information. We need something to throw people off our trail. There aren’t any passenger boats that leave from Yokohama’s Osanbashi Pier, so it’ll be a good smokescreen. Even though we’re going to Hong Kong, it’ll still take a night to get there. There’s a comfortable ship leaving this evening. We can take that.”
Izumiko winced at the words Mizuho was telling her so candidly. Leaving country like this sounded far too sudden.
“But I didn’t pack anything. I don’t have an overnight bag… I don’t even have a passport with me.”
“We can easily prepare a passport for you,” Mizuho said. From her voice, this did not seem to be a surprising problem for her. “The ascetic monk organization is good at turning out items like that. Yukimasa Sagara alone has made more ID cards and passports than you can probably imagine.”
“What? Is that really true?”
Izumiko took a deep breath thinking it actually did sound likely. No matter how she had thought about it, it had always been suspicious that Yukimasa had a teacher’s certification as well as a nurse’s license.
As Izumiko stood there, bewildered, Mizuho continued on objectively. “Being flawlessly talented at whatever he does is just another part of what makes Yukimasa who he is. No one can match him when it comes to pretending to be a professional in any field he chooses. He has a rare gift.”
“…Oh.”
When Izumiko, who was feeling very overwhelmed, didn’t respond further, Mizuho leaned forward and looked into her eyes.
“Do you understand a little more of what’s going on now? If you still don’t trust what we’re doing enough to get on the boat to Hong Kong, you can talk to Daisei. We’ve gone far enough, so using a phone should be alright. Do you want to talk to him?”
Izumiko nodded, and Mizuho pulled a cellphone out of her coat pocket. She typed a number on the touch screen which she was clearly familiar with entering. As if distancing herself from the sounds of the cars on the big road, Mizuho turned her back and took a few steps away. Then she said something in quick English to the person on the other side of the line. She had gotten in contact with someone in California.
Izumiko watched silently. After a minute, Mizuho turned back to her, the phone still pressed against her ear. She smiled and walked back, the heels of her shoes making a clicking noise as she returned.
“It’s Daisei.”
Izumiko, still only half believing this, pressed the phone against her own ear.
“Um, hello.”
”It’s me. Did you hear everything? Everything Mizuho’s told you is correct. I’ll come pick you up at the airport, okay?”
“Dad, this is all happening out of nowhere. I…”
“That’s very true. I’ll be there for sure. Wait for me.”
Izumiko wanted to speak more, but Daisei hurriedly hung up. Without thinking, Izumiko glanced down at the time display on the phone. There was a seven-hour time difference between Japan and California. Doing the math, she found that it was early night there; ten o’clock. Daisei often went to bed after the sun had come up so he was probably still working.
“Did he hang up already? He’s always been a fidgety person,” Mizuho said, trying to comfort her.
With a long face, Izumiko handed the phone back.
“We’re not getting on the boat right now,” Mizuhol continued. “We’ll wait until you’re feeling calm again. This is the first time you’ve seen the harbor, right? Miyuki should be arriving here, too.”
Izumiko looked up quickly. For the first time since Mizuho had arrived at the dorm, her spirits lifted somewhat.
“Miyuki’s coming with us too?”
“Oh, I guess I didn’t say that. He should already be here.”
What is this?...
“Then can I call him too?” Izumiko asked, her voice instantly cheerful again. “Or I could text him.”
“You can’t do that yet. There’s still a high chance that he may still be being followed. He’ll find us once he knows he’s lost them. There’s no need for you to worry though. Yukimasa will take care of it.”
Izumiko was able to nod her head. This must have been why Miyuki had left before them on a sudden errand. Finally, she allowed herself to relax. While the idea of getting on a boat to Hong Kong only made her recoil, she felt better about it than she had before.
…If I was worried about Miyuki going abroad, at least I’m going with him now. Wait. Why didn’t I think of that before?...
Noticing the trouble fall away from Izumiko’s expression, Mizuho grew relieved.
“You didn’t get to go to the Christmas party, so I want to make it up to you. We’ll go have Christmas dinner at a nearby hotel. It’s still early for dinner though, so let’s go get some tea and cake. Or we could get dim sum in China Town.”
Keep reading!
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