Hit Me Like A Meteor

Everyone stood from their desks in a hurry and raced toward one of the two exits of the classroom. They pushed and shoved each other to see who could leave the room first, but they all made it out sooner or later.

What surprised me were those bright smiles on their faces, like funneling out of the room all at once wasn't out of the ordinary, maybe even fun. They must have been super happy the day was finally over. I mean, I was happy about that too, but I couldn’t imagine looking ‘THAT’ happy. Like, guys, we just get to go home! There’s no trophy outside waiting for the first to leave the building!

Okay, you know, I made it seem like leaving school wasn’t a big deal, but I didn’t want to stick around here anymore than they did. Maybe I was glad I didn’t have to scamper into that crowd like a hungry mouse sniffing cheese, but the least the sign language aid could have done was let me know the bell rang! She had that same eager smile as the rest of them, which told me she’d all but forgotten I existed.

That was nothing new. A girl like me wasn't very memorable.

But there was something wrong here. They weren’t leaving. All of them were lining up outside the class like it was Mardi Gras. Once my bag was packed, I tried to take a peek, but I was short and too many people were in the way.

Maybe there was a celebrity at this school and everyone wanted to see them? Eh, not like I cared too much about famous people. If they wanted to be super special in the public eye, that was their reward, I guess.

But, you wanna’ know what sucked? I couldn’t get through the dumb door because nobody would move out of the way! If only I had a loud voice that didn’t sound like a demented chicken chewing bubble gum–As I’ve been told. That would probably get their attention, but not for the right reason.

Maybe if I sounded like everyone else, then people would listen to me. But no. I could only think these angry thoughts while I waited for the chance to sneak past the crowd.

All the other kids quickly made room for someone marching down the middle of the hall. Everyone went into a frenzy of cheers that vibrated the whole school when they saw him. I managed to get a quick look as he came by, but he wasn't much different from anyone else. Just a typical high school boy.

Why was he so special?

Maybe if I knew anything about that guy, then I’d be fangirling like the rest of them. But right now, the only thing I was excited for was the moment he’d leave so these people would get out of the way! I had things to do tonight! Perseus was waiting for me!

The school day had come to a close. The evening sun, that beautiful bright star in the sky, peeked through the west windows, signaling to all us talented students to start packing our bags and get ready for a temporary reprieve from the academic grind.

The sun especially shined on me, Nodo Hade, like a spotlight from the gods upon the chosen one, as I strutted down a hall full of my peers. Eyes couldn’t help but catch me as I passed by.

Men glared as they grappled with jealousy, examining my smooth swayed walk so they might too be as cool as me some day. Women, on the other hand, gazed on in bewilderment, hearts in their stares as each of them wished for a leisure evening in my presence.

They had great taste. But the show hasn’t even begun yet…

“Eeeeeh!” A pigtailed gal sang a squeal, as if offering a prayer to me. “He looked this way! Did you see that? Ahhh!”

“We love you, Hade-kun!” A gal in glasses screamed as she caught Pigtails falling over in a faint. “Tell me you love me back! Please!”

Glasses wasn’t ready to hear that yet. So instead, I gave the two of them a wink as a temporary tribute to show I had plans for them in the near future.

My charm and good looks were great and all, and let me tell you, they really were… Thousands of hours staring into the mirror had a promising way of proving that… But all this hype was for another blessed gift of mine. There was a routine reason why ‘everyone’ was getting all excited for me at this time of the day.

It was a contagious vibe not exclusive to this school. In fact, everyone in this prefecture was gearing up for the most important hour.

And what was the most important hour, one might ask.

Well, beautiful audience of my imagination, I’m glad you cared. Because the answer was right inside the school's second floor set of former faculty offices. The teachers recently got a new place to crash on the third floor, leaving this one all for us to have a little makeshift broadcast center of an extra-curricular variety.

Awaiting me inside was a wonderfully short, extremely beautiful, sassy eyed girl with her dark hair tied back in a ponytail. Her arms were folded and her hips were tilted at just the right angle to tell me she was in my favorite mood.

“Cutting it close again, aren’t we?” Mimi-chan’s voice cracked like a whip, sending a euphoric shock through my veins. “We’re on in three. So I hope you're ready to talk.”

“I'm always ready to talk, Mimi-chan,” I replied in as charming a voice as I could. “Have I ever let you down? I’m here now, and that’s what matters.”

Her typical attitude retreated with a drawn out huff. With her disarmed of any mean spirited mood, I felt we could get things started.

“One of these days, you’re gonna’ be so late for the wrong thing and someone's gonna’ throw the book at you.”

She was so cute when she was aggravated.

“You can hit me with whatever you want, because I’m invincible, baby.”

“Famous last words,” she chortled. “And don’t call me baby! Get in the sound box already.”

I took my seat inside the soundproof room with only a single glass wall of window looking out toward Mimi-chan, who sat down to play her role as the board operator. As for me, a pair of headphones awaited my ears, and a large microphone awaited my voice. I leaned in as close to it as I could, keeping my eye on her as she skillfully caressed an assortment of knobs and buttons on her side.

Finally she flipped a switch, then gave me the thumbs up I’d been looking for to get on with the show.

I pressed the intercom button. A trendy K-pop jingle played as a cue to all tuning in that things were about to turn up.

“Hello, Konbanwa and Good evening, fellow students and all you other lovely listeners tuning in today. Hade-kun here!”

The airwaves were sanctified by my radio voice. It echoed through the halls of this and many other buildings across the region. I could feel the energy from my audience as I let my voice sway their mood, like a maestro of motivation.

“Whether you’ve been cleanin’ the street, doin’ paper work in an office seat , or just loungin’ at home and keepin’ the place nice and neat, you’re all part of the reason this world keeps turnin’.”

I always started things off by making sure my listeners knew they were special. They listened to me, after all–proof they had good taste. But it never hurt to send out a few rousing words to butter them up. Throw some enthusiasm at the mediocre of society and they’ll keep comin’ back for more.

I had perfect control over my voice, bending it in all the right ways to keep a fantastic flow. But this broadcast wasn’t just a way for me to get well deserved praise or motivate the masses. We had to justify it with a little academic advisory.

Mimi always left a paper packet to the right of my microphone, neatly stapled and signatured with a cartoonish drawing that proved she personalized it. That was the end of the day announcements, usually anything from the weather tonight to some facts the whole school would need for the next day. And if something really cool happened out in the wild world, that would get in here too.

“Alright folks, time for us to get down to business.” I flipped through the packet quietly so it wouldn’t be picked up by the mic. “We’re lookin' at clear skies. And thanks to the shorter days, you boys and gals in practice might get a nice view of the stars on your walk home. Perfect time to walk with that girl if your thinkin’ about it…”

I was speaking from experience there.

“What’s this? I think I had the forecast wrong, because we’re actually getting a meteor shower tonight. Might not need umbrellas for that one, folks.”

Mimi smirked and rolled her eyes at that joke. I shot her a wink of appreciation through the glass.

“Moving on to school activities, our math team’s gettin’ ready for a contest. Why don’t we wish those lovable nerds some good vibes, yeah? They've been multiplying those trophies lately…”

From then on the broadcast was fairly straightforward and informative. Nothing major of note for me, but I naturally assumed somebody was happy with my quippy casting, especially since Mimi was entertained. If I ever needed a judge of whether a joke landed or not, I just needed to look at her and see her reaction.

“And that about wraps things up. Really lovin’ you guys. You’ve been a great audience, as always.”

Mimi-chan was getting ready to end the show. But what she didn’t know was that I had a little extra planned for the very end…

“But hold up now, folks. Your beloved Hade-kun has one last shoutout before we get on with our evening...”

Mimi’s expression shifted to shock as she glared through the glass. She mouthed the words “Don't you dare!” but I ignored her.

“There’s two gals that caught my eye, and I think they deserve a little attention...”

This was my favorite part of the broadcast. An impromptu appreciation to the beautiful girls at this school, and even outside of it too.

“One had the most twisty pig tails I’d ever seen on her head, and the other had the best eyes, made even more beautiful by the glasses framing them...”

“Eeeeeh!” I barely heard a double squeal pierce through the soundproof walls.

“You two ladies are welcome to join me for karaoke tonight, if you’ve got what it takes.”

“Eeeeeeeeh!” The squeal intensified tenfold, like they were shouting in my ear. The glass window of my room nearly cracked at the high frequency.

Meanwhile, Mimi cut my mic. “Get on with the end!” her voice ripped through my headphones. “We’re on the clock, idiot!”

“Gotcha’” I finger gunned, then she gave me permission to use the mic again. “Now that about wraps things up for real this time. You guys are beautiful… Have I said that already? Keep shining like the stars in the sky. Love you.”

And that was the end. Felt pretty good about this broadcast, especially since I scored a nice double date tonight. No way those girls would turn down my invitation. Nobody would ever dare waste an offer like that, especially if it meant they’d get up close to me.

Mimi came storming into the room like a typhoon ready to strike. But a series of her best breathing techniques eased her anger.

“Hey, Mimi-chan, nice wo-”

“Don’t…” she raised up her hand, her cheeks flush red as whine and her eyes momentarily closed. “Don’t you have any shame?”

“‘Course I do,” I replied. “It’d be a shame if I didn’t ask those gals out on a date.”

Life left Mimi’s eyes as they rolled to the back of her head. Not the best look for her, but I still digged her.

“You gettin’ overworked, Mimi?” I asked, a counseling smile on me as I stood to my feet. “You know, if you wanna’ go out tonight, I wouldn’t mind-”

“You do realize you just asked out two random girls on air, at once…” her head tilted with her brow low. “Now you have the gall to ask me out to my face?”

“Yes,” I replied. “And your answer?” I rolled my hand. “Need a yes or a no here. Don't leave me hangin’, milady.”

“How about you learn to invest in one girl at a time. Then we'll talk.”

Mimi was always one of the very few who just never clicked with me that way. Part of me was disturbed that anyone could have been so oblivious to what they were missing out on. But there was another portion of my soul that was more intrigued than insulted.

She was the one I couldn’t figure out. A white whale, so to speak. I'd never tell her that because she might think I was calling her fat. And with a toned up body like hers, that couldn't have been further from the truth.

They say an old dog can learn new tricks, so maybe I hadn't found the right honeyed words to send her heart fluttering. It was only a matter of time before a spark lit flame, and I had a wet match in my hand.

“Well, we’re done here. Good work today, Hade-san.” she said, half-heartedly while packing her book bag to the brim. “Enjoy your karaoke fling, I guess.”

“Hey, thanks. I will enjoy it.”

“Ugh…” she grumbled, returning her attention back to the sound board to shut it down for the day.

“♫Nothing can stop the whim of fate, it strikes with irony, but it’s never late!♫”

I sang with passion into the microphone of the karaoke room. The two girls I’d invited were wrapped around my arms, supporting me with their beautiful voices as I led them on with a heavenly tune.

Glasses, the girl to my right, was the dominant voice between the two tandem singers. It was clear she had a profound respect for modern American pop with how she stretched her voice at certain key points in the song. She might not have done too bad in jazz, which made me queue up a jazzy song next.

As for Pigtails, the girl squealing on my left, she didn’t have nearly the same control over her voice, but could hit higher pitches and had this squeakiness to her that I absolutely adored.

“This is so much fun!” Glasses said as a song picked for her concluded.

“Haa hee heaae!” Pigtails squealed with glee. For those of you who didn’t speak the tongues of fangirls, allow me to translate… (I had fun too!)

Their excitement was music to my ears, because it told me all was going according to keikaku. ᵏᵉᶦᵏᵃᵏᵘ ᵐᵉᵃⁿˢ ᵖˡᵃⁿ I was nothing if not entertaining, and I promised these ladies a fun evening. But for all that pleasure I graciously handed out in the form of a song, there was a problem.

I was getting bored. I'd heard girls like them hundreds of times now and I couldn’t come up with an excuse in my head as to why I’d want to keep coming back to them. Glasses had potential, but she’d have to improve a lot to lose that amateur idol feel. And as much as I thought Pigtails was cuter, her squeaking was going to get old fast if I had to hear it every day.

All that to say I wouldn’t regret moving on to whoever came next.

I wasn’t just going from girl to girl like a player for fun though… I mean, it was fun. Very fun… But I had to sift through the sea to find that perfect pearl hidden in the water. I couldn't just settle for anyone, now could I? The Chosen One had to have an equally special gal at his side.

But hey, even if I had to let them down softly, everyone benefited from this. I narrowed down the pool of potential partners a bit, and they got a benchmark for perfection in a man.

“Heeeeaaah hee? Hhhaaaa,” (Hade-kun, are you okay? You’re spacing out.) squealed pigtails in her fangirl dialect.

“Is something wrong?” Sensing my brooding contemplation as well, Glasses leaned down low to look up toward me, a cute low brow painting concern on her. “We weren’t so horribly bad that we offended you, did we?”

Now, I wasn’t going to say that. These girls could sing, and that was the baseline I could tolerate for a date.

“Nah.” I disarmed her worry with a grin. “Just thinkin’ about the lovely time we’ve shared. But it’s getting late. How about we go one more song and give it our all?”

Both of them begged and pleaded for more, but I had to cut things off eventually. Couldn’t go abusing my voice, could I? I needed this tool to be in top shape at all times if I wanted to make the most of life!

When our time in the karaoke room concluded, we made our way out of the building. But before I could bid the girls farewell and step out the door, I heard a tantalizing voice call my name…

“Hade-kun…” A receptionist called to me as she leaned over the counter, hearts in her eyes. “This is your third time here this week. Must be awfully hard on that wallet of yours…”

As a man on a part time WcDonald's salary, she hit a money shot with that assumption.

“It’s nothin’,” I replied, smugly so she didn’t think I was broke. “Every yen is worth it to see the smiles on these ladies’ lips.”

“He’s so noble!” Glasses cried.

“Haaa heee!” (So noble!) Pigtails cried as well.

Not only did I save face, but the girls were impressed at my self-sacrifice for their sakes.

I'm such a good person.

“What if…” Receptionist poked her lip with comically long gyaru finger nails. “...What if I could make that burden just a bit lighter on you?”

“I’m listening.” I tilted a smoldering gaze her way.

“I’ll give you a freebie tonight, if…” Receptionist’s face scrunched up mischievously, “...if you give me a smooch♥”

Woooah… Now that was a bridge too far!

I was all for some lovey dovey fun and play, but when a girl started getting frisky, next thing you knew she’d be talking about wedding plans!

Wooing women was a dangerous game of balance. If I came on too strong, they’d get the wrong idea and turn me into a stud muffin. I didn’t want to be a stud muffin! But if I didn’t work ‘em up a bit, there was no passion. Clearly this one was heading in the wrong direction, so it was time to pull back a little.

“Listen…” I leaned over the counter, giving her a new grin and raised brow to show I was ready for some negotiations. “How’s about dinner and a show, on me?”

“I get to eat dinner on you?!” she swooned.

Commas matter, folks.

“No…” I momentarily lost my smile. This one was dangerous. But she was a high risk high reward. A free karaoke night hung in the balance, and all I needed to do was cash in an employee discount at work. “I take you to dinner at a restaurant, then we sing together up on stage.”

Glasses and Pigtails both gasped hearing that offer. I rarely pulled out that card from my deck without a good reason, because it was considered a high honor to sing with me in public.

“He’s actually offering to sing with her on stage…” Glasses uttered in shock and awe.

“Haeeehaa eeee?!” (I don’t know if I’m jealous that we aren’t getting that offer, or delighted that he’s negotiating this for a free date with us!) Pigtails squealed yet again.

Receptionist was blown back with my offer and nearly toppled over. Thankfully a chair caught her fall.

“How can I say no to that?” she uttered with a high pitched breath of bewilderment. “Okay… You win, Hade-kun…”

“You’re a doll, sweet thing," I said as I finally found the opportunity to bid farewell to the girls and this lovely karaoke club.

It was now just me, myself and I as night fully fell over town. This place was still bustling with students and familiar strangers frequenting leisure establishments to blow off steam, but I was working my way out of their midst. It was good though to see my people were still lively here, because I didn’t want this place to turn into a ghost town. Of course, they had me to thank for that, since I made sure to set a good example for them as their unofficial leader.

People think that governments and businesses ran the world, either out in the open or from the shadows. But the truth is that in this age of connection, it's those of us charismatic voices that can sway opinions. We didn’t need money or shady partners, we could just do something controversial, get in the public eye, and boom. Instant fame and a cult following. And my controversy? Having such a damn smooth voice.

If I wanted something, all I had to do was ask for it, and all the lovely ladies would come running. I was like a king who hadn’t been crowned yet.

Speaking of ladies, my mind wondered who the next girl would be. Would she be cute? What would her voice be like? A particular image came to mind of a sassy girl with a pony tail. It didn’t take too long for me to realize I was just thinking about Mimi.

A sudden streak of light blazed across the night sky.

Another came and went by in a flash.

Many more followed.

“What was-?” I uttered as I remembered there was a meteor shower tonight. “Oh…”

Those meteors were so bright, and there were so many of them. How close were they? I could have sworn if I reached up I could have caught one.

It was mesmerizing, like looking into my own eyes.

There were too many trees here, so I walked toward the river to get as clear a view as I could of the whole night sky. Twinkling and bright, I was suddenly struck with wonder of truly how big the universe really was.

My eyes glimmered brightly as a grin broke through. I wanted it. I wanted it all! Every last star would be mine! My voice would reach them all, and I would conquer it through the radio!

“My kingdom!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, spreading my arms out as far as they could go.

A meteor flew by my view, slower than the others, leaving a hot trail as it crackled across the sky, reflecting brightly off the water as it missiled its way to the horizon.

Something brighter caught my eye just then. A girl with blond hair reflected the moonlight brilliantly as she stood at a balcony overlooking the river to watch the celestial show.

I lost my breath for a moment as she gracefully leaned over the railing to catch as much of the sight as possible. Thankfully she had enough grip to keep from falling… But even if she didn't, I bet she hid a pair of white wings under that school uniform.

She was beautiful. Perhaps the most beautiful person I’d ever seen. Was she a student at our school? I’d never seen her before, and I would’ve remembered a blondie like her. Stunning figure, crystal blue eyes and maybe even an angelic voice too.

This was it. The girl of my dreams, maybe? A gift from above, like a fallen angel. It was my destiny to see her tonight. Every star aligned just right to set this fateful encounter up perfectly.

I approached her, making sure my presence was known with each heavy footstep on the concrete. With all the charm I could muster, I smiled, allowing the moonlight to bathe my back in its radiance like a halo. I would have preferred the sun, but I’d take what I can get.

Finally I was in earshot, and I took a breath to bring out the right words.

“Hey, babe,” I said as I stroked my hair, tilting my head up with appeal. “Is Heaven missing an angel? ‘Cause I swear I saw you just fall from above.”

She didn’t turn around. Did she not hear me? That was some good material right there! For her sake, just this once I’d repeat myself.

“Is Heaven missing an angel?”

But she still didn’t turn.

“...because…”

There’s no way she couldn’t have heard what I said. Absolutely no way! I was close enough that I could practically touch her.

The only logical conclusion was that she was ignoring me. That’s it! But why? Why would someone do something so vile and neglect to give my words attention?

Nobody’s ever been able to ignore something I said. NOBODY. Not a soul. This was something else. Something sinister, as if she was denying the power of my birthright.

“Don’t ignore me…” I grit my teeth. “This isn’t right. You’re not supposed to do that.”

What power did a priest have if not given from above? Maybe the gods were stealing my gift back. Was I getting too powerful, my aspirations exceeding my predestined limits?

“Please, say something to me!” I shouted. “Say something!” my voice exploded.

I needed her to notice me. It didn’t matter if she would reject me for being a prick. Whatever. At least then I’d have some validation that I existed. Even as much as I drove Mimi nuts, she still reacted to me.

My arm stretched toward her and my hand pressed against her shoulder, grappling tightly so I would force her to acknowledge me.

“Please…” I whimpered. “Don’t…!”

She finally reacted to me…

…by smacking my jaw with one mother of a book.

The next thing I knew, I was face down on the floor, barely able to register the pain through my utter shock.

I was flat on my face, my nose bruised badly against the hard concrete of the balcony overlooking the river. If that wasn’t enough, the side of my jaw hurt from taking the full force of that book.

The pain was really something awful, but the humiliation was the part that kept me from getting back to my feet right away. It was an echo of something in the past I’d long forgotten, and rather stayed there.

Was I upset that this girl just smacked me upside the head for surprising her? One look at her frightened face told me she was more upset than I was. Sure, I was mad, but I couldn’t tell if I was more mad at her or myself. Did she even deserve any blame if she was the one scared by me suddenly appearing?

Of course, maybe she just didn’t know who I was. I would have thought my aura preceded me, but apparently some people were blind to my charm at a first encounter. It had been a long time since I met someone who didn’t already know me, and her being a blond foreigner was a sadly excellent excuse on her part.

“G-goaee!” Strange gibberish escaped her mouth and assaulted my ears. It was such an untamed voice, like she never used it properly. “Goaee! Oiee!”

What was that? Was that English? Nah, couldn’t be! She was clearly saying something, but not clearly enough, clearly.

Aside from her talking in tongues, another thing I couldn’t wrap my head around was that she didn’t even react to me when I was calling out to her before. Normally people would at least turn and see who was speaking to them, but she didn’t even give me the time of day. It was made even worse by the fact that I pulled out some of my best material! How could anyone ignore that? And, let me be clear; I didn’t see every girl as an angel.

I certainly didn’t see her that way after she hit me! No wonder she fell out of heaven… They didn’t want her there either!

So what was Blondy’s deal? It was obvious she wasn’t ignoring me on purpose, because she would have turned around at some point before I grabbed her shoulder. And I didn’t see any earbuds, so she didn't have that excuse.

“Adahi o bi-u no o a-amede guemau-u ga,” she stuttered in her ungraceful tone.

Those words felt like they were on the cusp of evolving into something discernible, but it was just a linguistic mess. The longer they processed in my mind though, I almost could have sworn there was something to it, like she was speaking a scrambled version of Japanese.

“Can you repeat that?” I asked, intrigued to figure out what she was saying.

“Eh…?” she uttered in shock. Her eyes blinked a few times in disbelief. “A-adahi o miyu no o amede guemau…ga.” She blushed and grimaced a bit. Her eye contact was very sporadic, like she couldn’t speak while looking directly at me. Actually, it looked like her eyes were focused on my lips.

“Ada…ata…Atashi…?”

I could only pick up on that word and some of the sentence structure. It was a question, because ga at the end sounded a lot like ka, and that was how basic questions were posed.

And ‘Atashi’ was a childish or cute way to refer to one's self. She might have been saying ‘watashi,’ but I couldn't tell why that didn’t stick as strongly.

I couldn’t figure out any more of what she was saying though, but it looked like she was losing tension fast and actually giving me a more judgmental glare, like scrutinizing a child.

“What’s that look for?” I asked. “You can’t look at me like that when I’m the one hurt here!” I just reminded myself that I had a beat up face. “Oh no…”

I pulled out my phone and–ᴺᴼᵎ ᴵ ᵍᵒᵗ ᵃ ᶜʳᵃᶜᵏ ᵒⁿ ᵐʸ ᵖʰᵒⁿᵉ ʷʰᵉⁿ ᴵ ᶠᵉˡˡᵎ–when I looked at my face in the selfie camera, I looked like I just was in a fist fight. No broken nose, but there was a little blood.

“My beautiful face…” I lamented as I poked the sore bruises, hoping a miraculous touch would heal them away. “Ouch…”

“Maiomu?” her face turned pouty and sad.

“What?” I tilted my head.

“Maiomu?” she pointed to my wounds. “Giu-ugea Imaei oee maai, eo goagai n ehu”

My god, I couldn't understand a word of that alien speak. The poor thing was trying so hard, but nothing was getting through. All I could do was stare at her in bewilderment.

She got frustrated and stomped once, then tapped her fists to her side a few times before taking in a deep breath.

“Ah… Aha!”

Her hands raised up and her fingers posed in front of her, very clearly meant to catch my attention. A series of gestures followed that I’d never seen in person before, but knew very clearly what they were signaling about this girl.

“Sign language…” I uttered in disbelief. “You’re deaf, aren’t you?”

It all became clear then what the problem was. She didn’t respond to me before because she couldn't hear a word of my charming voice.

“Mmm!” she nodded, cutely smiling like there was hope we could form a positive communication link.

Poor thing didn’t know what she was missing out on here without hearing me…

I was initially happy to figure that out, because I believed we had a chance to chat through our conflict, but then reality hit me like a hard-covered journal…

I didn’t know sign language! All those gestures she speedily struck meant absolutely nothing to me. What she lacked in the ability to speak, she more than made up for in dexterity though. Her hands were on point with every single motion as if she’d done this a hundred times, and it was impressive. But I only knew how to talk to people through spoken word, so no matter how good she was, it didn’t mean much.

“I don’t know what you're trying to say,” I admitted with a shrug and earnest smile.

“Uhhhhgg…” she grumbled and glared at me with a deathly stare. “Maka…” her right fingers posed in a double downward, loose finger gun and moved slightly to the left, then into an angled peace sign, also moving to the left.

“You want to kill me for peace?” I tried to interpret.

Now she just looked disappointed.

“Maka…” she said again, shaking her head.

Why did I get the feeling just then she was calling me an idiot? Was she actually trying to say ‘baka?’

“Hey now, that’s not nice,” I asserted with a tilt of my head toward the starry sky. “You shouldn’t go running around calling people above you that, you know?”

She didn’t reply, but thoughtfully pursed her lips like she was trying to figure out what I said.

Something new that bothered me was that she replied to me a few times already. Either she was lying about being deaf, or maybe…

“You can read lips,” I said as I looked at her, which earned me a nod. “So, I have to look at you when I’m talking, right?”

“Mmm,” she nodded. “Maka…”

“Stop calling me stupid!”

Blondy was so frustrating. I never had this much trouble with anyone, and I knew a lot of people. What was I thinking, considering her a potential fateful encounter? If talking to her every day was going to be this much of a chore, count me out of that bad business! But I did feel partly responsible for this mess, and it only seemed right to try and fix it before I left.

“Look, I don’t say this often, because I’m perfect and never mess up…” I took a breath and closed my eyes, ready to draw out a rare set of meaningful words. “But, I’m sorry I scared you.”

She had this blank stare for a moment as if unsure how to reply to me. But slowly it gave way to a crinkled face and curved lips that broke out into a clumsy cackle.

“This is the part where you apologize for smacking me in the face,” I pouted with a critique. “Go on! Praise me for being so humble! I did it first, so you do it next.”

Now she was really laughing in her own chaotic way. It just got me so aggravated that I had to listen to that noise.

“Mou ahha o!” her laughing subsided and she looked at me with a little grin, which slowly faded as well. “Maiomu?”

There wasn’t anything in particular that sounded like an apology, but the new face she was giving seemed apologetic enough. I accepted that.

To be honest, I was ready to write her off as a lost cause. That voice was nothing like I was hoping it would be, nowhere near a respectable level of coordination to match my own. So letting her be was probably for the best.

But part of me couldn’t separate so easily. Maybe it was some instinct flaring up, but this girl didn’t have any situational awareness. What if I had been a total scum bag trying to recruit her into a shady idol camp? That weapon of a book could only protect her for so long.

I looked around and didn’t see anyone else nearby. Was she waiting for somebody here? No, she wouldn’t have immediately gone for a slugging if she was, unless she hated that person.

Wait, did she hate me?

Anyways, I figured it might be a good idea to stick nearby until she got where she needed to go. But first, I needed to know where that was.

“So, what are you doing here alone?” I asked.

She pointed up to the sky, which was still peppered with occasional meteors streaking brightly.

“You’re here for the meteor shower?” I smirked. “They’re pretty great, like me. Speaking of me, are you here because you heard my announcement earlier?”

She looked so disappointed at that question on a whole new level.

“Oh, right. You can’t hear anything.”

I kept passively forgetting that I wasn’t talking to someone who knew what my voice sounded like. It was hard to keep in mind that she was deaf beyond a superficial understanding, especially when she otherwise looked like a normal foreign girl…