078. Reply by telling Yuki what jellied salt really is.

I knew she was lying as I swallowed down the warm milk and looked her in the eye deciding two could play at that game. "Oh yeah, well you know Shinji's 'jellied salt' he was selling you was just his baby batter that he jerked out into a bottle," I snidely quipped back at her. I wasn't going to be made the fool by a ditz like her as a silly little game.

Natsumi just broke into a snarfing laugh and almost upchucked her food all over herself, but managed to get control of herself. "Matsumoto you are one fucking stupid baka!"

At first, I was confused, but then Yuki said quietly, "No, it’s okay Kenji. It was stupid of me to…" Instantly by Yuki’s gentle blush I could see that she had known that, but had just told me that as a silly romantic ploy to get intimate with me. And now I had embarrassed to have something like that announced in public.

I can’t believe I had been so blind! Yuki always seemed like a nice person, just a little slow, but really I was the slow one. Suddenly I could see half my life more clearly than ever. All the times I’d ignored her or taken her advances as something completely different, never realizing she had been hitting on me for at least a few years. "Yuki, I…" I started, but had no clue what to say. I had ruined what was probably my last chance with her.

"Matsumoto, I have some more questions about that fire," Natsumi interrupted as I struggled to find some way to apologize to Yuki.

"Not now," I snapped at her and instantly regretted it.

"Yes now," she bellowed as she practically threw me away from Yuki. I tripped and tumbled to the dirt, trying to curse and fight her, but she just picked me up and forcefully led me down the road.

"Can’t you see I was trying to…" I berated my oppressor.

"…Make an even bigger fool of yourself?" she laughed. "Yeah, I saw that. That was why I stepped in."

"Why you…" I repeated dumbly.

"Look, Matsumoto," she said now in a much softer voice. I’d really never heard her talk to me with what seemed like genuine concern before, so was doubtful that was what I was hearing now. "You are dense as a rock, lazy, and will probably end up a useless drunk like your father," she put me down over and over so I tried to grumble back, but she interrupted me, "But despite all your numerous flaws, you are somehow still a decent person."

I was shocked that she had said something so complimentary about me, much less to my face. "You could do a lot worse than a nice girl like Yuki, and for some reason, she seems to have significantly lowered her standards to have a soft spot for you." Natsumi obviously had detected Yuki’s advances long before I had and strangely seemed to be acting like a parent giving me advice. I guess being one of the town leaders, with all the menfolk at the war, she felt she had **** but to step in.

I was just beginning to accept this heart-to-heart we were having when that strange stray dog that Kouki had been feeding earlier came wandering up to us. I didn’t think anything of it since it had been so friendly for her earlier, but suddenly Natsumi pushed me hard, and I tumbled to the ground. I looked up and she was standing over me, fending off the wild beast as was barking loudly and baring its teeth, obviously trying to bite me. "Get back Kenji!" she yelled now and I didn’t argue and just ran off leaving her facing it and trying to keeping it away from me. That only works for a second as it’s too fast for her and is able to run around her, chasing after me as I sprinted desperately to get away.

I don’t know why, but my feet in their fearful scramble brought me to the burn and still smoldering remains of the Dashi house where Hazuka had passed away last night. I’d wanted to come and see it for myself, but this really wasn’t what I’d been envisioning when I had heard about the fire. I scrambled into the ruins hoping to find a log or something I could use as a weapon against the dog. Luckily for me as soon I entered the smoking ruin the creature seemed to decide that it didn’t like the smoke or something since it whined and turned, running off rather than continue to chase me.

"Thanks again, Hazuka," I muttered thinking back to how she protected me once from one of the older boys that had bullied me once when we were kids. It was strange thinking about her being gone now. I wandered around the boards half-consumed that had once been flooring and logs that had been part of the small building’s roof. As I looked around I found a small area, completely burned out and now just a pile of ashes, but I still felt pressed to investigate.

Reaching down to the grey piles of soot I felt compelled to push my hand into one. I suddenly had a strange shiver of pleasure as I found something hard and pulled out a long straight object. Brushing it off I could see the chilling whiteness of the bone, almost as if it was unburnt while the flesh around it had evaporated off. Natsumi had said this wasn’t normal and I was sure she was right. While I’d seen people die in fires before they never were burned right to the bone like this. And with how quickly it had happened I wondered again what had really happened last night. Whatever had done this was pure evil and I couldn’t help but wonder if Hazuka had died in pain, but despite those horrible thoughts something inside me just loved the feel of this smooth bone as I turned it over in my hands, wondering what part of her body it was from and perversely imagining I was toughing her erotically even now.

Reverently I placed down the bone and departed the scene since the dog was long gone now. I heard a grumble from my stomach and only now realized I hadn’t eaten anything at all today and here it was already getting late into the afternoon. Sunset was only about an hour off as I headed home and almost collided right into Yuki who was doing the same pulling her packed-up cart of cooking utensils.

"Kenji!" she said with surprised to see me again.

"Yuki," I said just as startled. I had planned to avoid her for a while after embarrassing her the way I had. "Um… sorry." I feebly apologized sure words couldn’t convey the shame I felt.

"No, I’m sorry," she countered. "It was a stupid joke." She blushed and looked down at my feet. Man, she was cute when she did that. Then after a bit of awkward silence, we both started to speak and laughed at our mutual confusion.

"Let me make it up to you," I pleaded earnestly when she insisted I speak first, yet still with no idea of how to do that.

"Alright," she grinned broadly. "Walk me home?" she offered hopefully.

"Sure," I replied happily and then looked at her critically. "Push over," I instructed and ducked under the handle of her cart. It was just a simple wooden square brace made for one person to push on the handle to pull the cart on two wagon wheels behind you, so the two of us made a tight fit, but we were both thin so it made it cozy, if a little awkward. The whole short half-mile walk to her home was filled with laughter and inadvertent touching as we shared the load of pushing her cart back to her home shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip.

We were breathless from giggling and half-running the last stretch and just sat down next to each other on a grassy knoll overlooking the sea to the west just as the sun set the sky afire with beautiful streaking clouds of oranges and pinks. She laid her head on my shoulder and together we rested watching the sun disappear below the horizon and the sky moved from red to violet.

"Thank you," Yuki sighed as she sat back up and smiled at me.

"No problem," I shrugged. "Your cart isn’t that heavy."

"Not that," she started, but then changed her mind. "So now that we're here, all alone, just you and me, what would you like to do?" she asked simply. She was smiling, but for some reason, it felt like a loaded question. What I said next might blow the mood completely. In my mind, I had a voice crying out for me to just kiss her. She looked so beautiful in the vivid sunset light that I just wanted to jump her and ravish her, but I had somehow to restrain my lusty urges. To think of something that was both reverent and innocent, yet let me keep spending time with her.