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Bloodbath at Nishiyama Street
The camera started rolling at the hands. Zooming in on the finger tips.
The texture of the skin was smooth, there was no nervous scent of moisture from sweat… calm composed. The hands were clasped – over of the other, the wrists bound by silver hand cuffs. The chair was sterile, silver…
The lights came on.
The eyes flicker adjusting to the light.
The camera pans there for a second, then the shot is cut back to the hands.
All was there silence. There was no music in the background. There was a soft sound of lips against cigarettes in background.
“Alright, let’s go through this one more time…” The voice was rough.
The camera cuts to the face of the main character – a stoic face looking into the light.
The figure questioning him was darkened by the light shining in front of him. It was obvious though… this was an interrogation room.
“Where were you when the bloodbath took place?”
The protagonist didn’t blink. His lips didn’t move. There was a hint of sadness in his eyes… but it disappeared quickly.
“AGGH! DAMMIT!”
I quickly closed my notebook, tossing my pen into my book bag.
Why am I even bothering to write now? I asked myself.
The train slowly came to a stop at the busy Tokyo stop. I took a step out.
It was the end of spring, but there was still a hint of the cherry scent in the air. I checked the collar of my uniform.
Today was important. I clenched my fist.
The escalator to the street level was long… and it moved slowly…
Today was very important!
I looked up through the opening to the subway. The sun shined in brightly.
Today was very, very important!
I swiped my metro pass and moved out of the station.
You could see Mihara High in the distance. I spotted some of my classmates. Some waved at me, others just didn’t look this way. I moved along as usual.
TODAY IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY…
As I approached the gate… something caught my eyes… something… something…
Beautiful…
She stood there. Almost like she was afraid to step through the school gates. Her eyes were closed… but as her hair moved against the wind… and both her hand clasped her book bag against her chest tightly… she was beautiful.
Her complexion, her…
Pause.
Silence.
Pause.
The bell rang.
…
WHAT AM I THINKING! I slapped myself internally, and picked up my pace and ran. I was going to be late! I couldn’t! Not on this day! If I got detention… NO! I COULDN’T! NOT TODAY.
Pause.
Who was she though… I thought as I ran past the gates. I shot a glance as I ran with my backpack over my shoulders. She was still standing there… scared to move. Then I saw her… place one foot slowly beyond the gate… She seemed to relax a bit.
I’ve never seen her before… she had our uniform… was she a freshman?
She smiled vaguely… opened her eyes to check where her toes were… and sighed.
I shook my head.
NO! WHAT ARE THINKING! GET TO HOMEROOM! CHECK IN! AND GO TO THE GYM!
I repeated this over and over again to myself.
Today was important. I didn’t sleep last night just waiting…
Today was exhibition day! The seniors from the school clubs at the gym would hold a rush for the freshmen. And I – Ito, Seiichi – of the Mihara Film Appreciation Club had in charge of the preparations along with the other seniors in the club.
I had to break the curse.
I had to break our streak.
For the past 2 years, Mihara High hasn’t even placed in the National High School Film competition.
The first time we lost that competition in the history of the Mihara Film Club was my freshman year. And no matter how much I was told otherwise, it felt like it was my fault… or at least I had brought the bad luck.
And I was extremely disappointed and depressed. I had done everything I could to get into this school. Mihara High was the rank one school in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, and prior to my freshman year, they had won the Tokyo High School Film Festivals every year, and took the National High School Film competition for five years in a row. Yet, despite all my efforts to get into this school, all the studying, and all my dreams of getting into a good school and study film, my freshman year we lost. We didn’t even win the Tokyo Film Festival… we didn’t even place… our short movie which we made scored some of the lowest scores amongst the judges there.
The following year, we didn’t do any better… again we didn’t place at the festival, hence we didn’t move on the national competitions. And as the as my second high school ended then, my dreams of becoming a movie script writer seemed to disappear. The school administration was about to disband the club because the members were fading, and it was ruining the reputation of Mihara. I couldn’t blame them… but our club president Yamada, Kai persuaded them to extend the Mihara Film Club for one more year.
We were horribly unprepared the coming year. And it seemed at the end of the second year, that Kai’s efforts would go to waste. Not including myself, the Mihara Film Club had only one other member – by default as well… and that was Kai’s girlfriend, Fujisawa Kanna.
One. We need members. At least two more just to sustain the club. Two we needed actors, grafters, set designers… and a variety of other talented students to make a decent movie – not a mention a good story. The past two scripts I had edited, but I was not the writer… however, they were all much better than something I could possibly write… a short dramatic piece on a day in the life of a cat, and humorous short about insomniac…
And so today was important.
As I dashed into the Room 1-D with sweat on my brow from the sprint.
We need to keep our club. We needed to win. We need to make a great film.
We had one last year before we all graduate. We had one last chance to make our mark in High School film history.
I sighed and smiled tiredly at Kai as he and Kanna waved to me.
We had one last chance to make something great… something meaningful…
Something to prove to myself…
I sat down.
“Geez, you look terrible… haha, you ready?” Kai smiled in his usual chirpy attitude.
I looked him in the eye.
The two of us had joined the club since freshman year… we had been through everything together…
“Are you kidding? More than ready.”
I had to prove to myself… I could write something great.
Kanna smiled.
“You two are way too into this,” Kanna teased.
Kai looked over and made a playful glare.
“And who was the one that cried last year at the end of the movie we made.”
Kanna blushed.
“Quiet you.” She turned around and sat down.
Kai and I laughed.
“STAND.”
The homeroom teacher was here.
“BOW!” The class rep said.
Kurosawa-sensei walked to his lectern.
“SIT!”
“Welcome back to Mihara, everyone. I hope this will be a productive year for you all. As you know, college exams are going to around the corner after first semester, so the best of luck to all of you. For those of you who’ve been in my homeroom before, you should know that I’m also the advisor for the Film Club, so after classes, this room is the club room for the Film Club – since most of you will be wanting after class studying and help for the college exams you can find me in the office. Now before I excuse you all to your club activities for the freshmen exhibitions, there is one announcement.”
Pause.
“We have a new student to our class this year, a transfer student from Kyoto…” He signaled for the new student to come in.
Pause.
Pause…
Time stopped. I hadn’t been paying attention… but the entire classroom became very quiet… and so I looked up…
And there she was…
The girl I saw this morning.
She walked in… shaky… with a nervous smile on her face… to the front of the room.
I wasn’t the only one… all the boys in the class were staring… even the girls…
“G-Good morning everyone,” she bow. It was a deep and low bow… but it was refined… she must be from a very traditional family.
“My name is Hashimoto, Ami…” she turned around slowly and wrote her name up on the chalk board… the handwriting was beautiful… definitely from someone who’s family was traditional.
She turned around slowly blushing heavily.
“Nice to meet you, please take good care of me.” She bowed again.
Silence.
Pause.
Silence.
I looked around… everyone was in the same awe I was in.
Everyone wanted to know more about this girl…
Her face seemed to be more and more intimidated though… she didn’t come up from her bow…
Silence.
Why aren’t they clapping.
Silence.
Clap you idiots…
I started to clap… slowly… I saw her peek up and look at me her short raven black hair a little loose as she gave a weak smile loosening up a bit.
Then suddenly the whole class followed my lead.
Ami stood up from her bow and finally gave her true and genuine smile.
With the window’s open…
From the back of the room…
Everything seemed to change…
As Ami’s tensions disappeared…
So did mine…
Seeing her smile… made me forget about all my worries about the film… about… everything.
Everything was possible… everything became possible.
Hashimoto… Ami.
Hmmm. It's been quite a while. I must say, that every time I start a new project it really does feel great.
In any case, I hope you've all enjoyed the first chapter to this fiction. Much more coming very soon.
Reviews, of course, are always welcome, but if you're too lazy to click the button, the most important thing is I hope it was a delightful read.