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Mechanical Mademoiselle Okamura's plot

The wind outside the village ruffled the leaves and tossed around the old and sodden sticks that had lay on the ground, for it was the beginning of the season of spring and all that was old was now being washed away. And the villagers in their attempt to celebrate the joys of spring, decorated the village of Ha-Da-Wa with glass bells and colored streams of ribbon and paper.

And all of the children who had recently come of age and was old enough to enjoy the spiced sake that was being passed around, danced and smiled up happily at their mothers and fathers, for this would be the last time that they would see them for a while.
"Tonight is truly a good night so please do not be of heavy heart!" said the husband of the villages female head, "the separation trial will not last very long and you will be back here before you know it". And time it was that the larger and more plumped man had begun to speak, all of the people in the crowd instantly fell silent to listen to every word that he had to say.

"For those of you that has just come to age tonight or will be in the days that are to come may not know what the separation trial is just yet and I as the husband of the village head is the one responsible to explain it to you" the man said who was only ever addressed by his last name, which was Yokiri.

"The separation trial is a period that is held within the village and is conducted by a group of specially selected adults who, gather all of the village children who has come of age this year to teach them the rules of independence and the responsibility that comes with being an adult individually without the parents being present with the children who are at this time referred to as students". "The child who has reached the age of 11 which is the chosen age, is allowed to spend their birthday morning with their parents and the host of their friends" Yokiri continued as he looked around and ran his eyes over the selected children who were standing in front of him now. "But when the evening comes and your parents have said their final goodbyes, you the child will be called away, where you will leave this village and come away with us where you will stay with us until you have reached your 13th year". "And when it is that you have reached your 13th year, we will send you back safely to your parents where you will be mentally all the better and will know what to expect when you grow older and come into the phase that we call the adult life".

And while it was that the man named Yokiri continued to talk, a young girl with pink blushed skin and lower back length light brown chestnut hair with the fairest of green eyes stood closely by her mother and father, where she held tightly onto their legs and grimaced at all that Yokiri had been saying.

For the little girl who would be turning 11 the next morning on the first day of spring had never in her life, spent a day away from her parents so what the older man had been saying, was scaring the life out of her.
She was her parent's only child after all so how could she ever be okay with not being with them for a whole two years.

"Don't worry" said the little girl's father who towered over her, but looked down at her with the most gentle of brown eyes, "you will be back with us before you know it and those silly two years will pass! But you know every child must do this at least once in their life while staying here in the village of Ha-Da-Wa and then you will never have to be apart from us again until you are grown".

"And even then" the girl's mother said who had been smiling at the two and watching them happily from the side cut in, "you won't have to leave us once your grown if you did not want to" she kindly told the little girl, "even then you can remain with us for as long as you want, even if its for forever and ever!"

The little girl with her brown hair and piercing green eyes couldn't help but to smile at what her parent's had said even if she was deathly afraid inside of her tiny, little chest.

~Part 2: Happy birthday Okamura~

The next day had seen the little girl enjoying her birthday with her parents and eating the cake that her mother had made for her. The cake that her mother had made for her had been sweetened with fruits and buttered bread for everything in the village of Ha-Da-Wa was grown naturally. The village of Ha-Da-Wa had been around for centuries and although everything around it had at some time or another, evolved into bigger cities or had merged with that of something else, Ha-Da-Wa stayed the same.

The village of Ha-Da-Wa had always been the same since it had first begun using the styles of old Japanese tatami styled homes with sliding wooden doors and folding screens to separate the houses rooms. Old wells were used to draw water, while wooden baskets were fetched for the drinking water.

The shops within the village as well as everything built in the village was made of wood along with dirt roads for paths with untamed forests all around. And the only thing in the end that was somewhat modern for its time, was the bus stop that was built 3 miles away from the village. The whole of this bus stop was constructed of wood and had only one small, wooden bench inside it that a person could sit on.

And the bus that did come to the bus stop only arrived, picked up the people or the person that was waiting to get on it, back up to where it would head away from the village, never being allowed to come into the village due to the agreement that the village head had set up with the government about having their own personal space and territory.
The children themselves were warned never to go past the bus stop and that ultimately it was never to be used by them but only the adults who, only used it when they so desperately needed something that they themselves or the village could not provide.
The sole daughter of the Okamura household had always wanted to know what was beyond that bus stop but she never let her curiosity get the best of her like some of the other kids had allowed it to. For one of those kids had been a boy from the Jirou household who was often very loud and always felt the need to be in control of everything.

The Jirou household was a family in the village who lived on top of a small hill that overlooked the village's main well. And because it was that they had lived there, they often overlooked and constantly watched all of those that came to get water from that well. This made the Jirou family feel as though they had ownership of the well and often caused them to argue with anyone who came to draw water from it.

The oldest son had just turned 13 and was years late for the separation trial because he often left the village with his father as training to travel the world and broaden his horizons. He was a tall boy with silver gray messy hair, grayish serious looking eyes, and pale white skin. The only daughter of the Okamura family, who was addressed as Okamura as a sign of respect, never associated much with the silver haired boy who was only known to her as Jirou and she never did not because she didn't like him, but was instead told that he and his family were trouble makers.

And all throughout the day, the little brown haired girl did her best to stick close to her parents and spend every hour of that day with them, for later on that night she would be called down to the village square along with the other chosen kids, where she would finally be taken away for a whole two years and partnered up with another child, while they were instructed on how to live life as an adult.

"Hurry up honey and eat your birthday cake" her mother said and stood at the door as the night finally began to show in the sky outside, "we don't want to be late to the village square".

"Oh I'm trying momma" little Okamura said and stuffed the rest of the cake into her mouth while she stumbled to get up and slide her feet into her wooden sandals. "I don't want to be late either momma but I really don't want to go" Okamura said and sighed.
But in the end the Okamura family had not been late at all, but rather early as they arrived on foot to the sound of the birds chirping and the leaves on the trees making a whispering sound as they moved in unison with each other. The Okamura family wasn't the only ones there when they first arrived but had later been joined by the Jirou family, another girl who little Okamura knew was from the wealthy Chirorin family from the elaborate kimono she and her parents had been wearing, and another boy who was known by his family name of Kaiedu.

The little Chirorin who Okamura had been looking at was the same age as her which was 11 and had golden blonde straight hair that pillowed to her shoulders, peach complexioned skin, and the lightest blue eyes. Her family although they had been Japanese, was also European because of her mother who had been married to her father from outside the village some years ago. The grandparents of the Chirorin family had been full Japanese along with their son, but when their son had become older, after going through his separation trial, he went out to the surrounding cities and studied law in a prestigious college.
There he met little Chirorin's mother who was already a successful law student and the two fell in love. Later they married and the mother decided to move back to the village of Ha-Da-Wa when it was that little Chirorin was 5.

And because of that, Chirorin had been the only child for a while in the village besides Jirou, who knew what the cities outside the village and past the bus stop had actually looked like. Her father every now and again along with her mother, had continued to leave the village every day for their law careers and would often come back with expensive toys for little Chirorin to play with.

This caused the wealthy families eldest daughter to be the talk of the village amongst the kids who constantly begged her to tell them what the outside world had looked like and how a normal city schools had run because for a while, Chirorin had actually attended one.
Okamura looked at the little blonde girl some more then directed her eyes over to the boy Jirou, who had been glaring ahead with his hands on his hips and his messy head leaning to the side.

Some more children and their families showed up, none of which Okamura had actually known so she did not pay any attention to them.
In the end the village head along with her husband and the specially selected adults who would be teaching the kids, explained everything to the children and their parents and told them what they would all be required to do during the time onwards.
After leaving their families sides tonight, the children would all be boarded onto a small red wagon with wide and large wheels, where they would be rode along the wooden path that stretched outside the village and past the bus stop that Okamura had been so curious about.
They would stay on this wagon for no longer than an hour and a half, for their destination wasn't very far using the wagon, but was far if one tried to walk back on foot alone.
The area in which the children would be staying in was a small area that was used for the separation trials before them and was actually a village that was abandoned by its people in favor of the much bigger and more modern city that had been growing in the distance.
The children would be staying here, lodging in the wooden homes that had been left behind.
And all around this area was nothing but the countryside and a thick amass of woods that ended at a river bank that started out as a stream and emptied into some famous river that the children knew nothing about.

But in the middle of this abandoned village, was a rather huge building that only had one floor that was made completely out of wood. The whole building itself was constructed of wood and used sliding doors and folding screens to separate the rooms from colliding into each other. This, which was told to the children by the village head was their school where they would come to for every day of the week except Saturday and Sundays, learning the instructions and lessons on what goes on in the adult world.
In the end the village head had concluded, that separating the children from their parents was ultimately a good thing during the coming two years and that this would be teaching them to learn how to rely on themselves. And it was believed to take a greater effect on the children's minds if their parents weren't around during this time to make everything easy for them or to do everything for them.

13 was the age that the village had recognized as the first year of being a teen so when the children had reached this age, they would be let go to reunite with their families where they would be expected to emulate the lessons that they had learned during their time away.

This whole process had scared the little Okamura very much but her parents assured her that everything would be okay...but in the end no one had realized how wrong they truly were.

~Part 3: Okamura on the go~

After her parents had taken her aside and told to her constantly what they wanted her to do and how they wanted her to behave, the children were rounded up onto the villages wagon and were encouraged to say goodbye to their parents. Okamura decided that she was not going to though and sat back in the wagon where she averted her eyes and sighed to herself, she hoped that time would fly by quickly and she would be home again with her family before she knew it.

But one of the things that Okamura remembered while the wagon was riding on its way, was that her mother had told her to try and behave a little bit more ladylike while doing this separation trial. For Okamura, she didn't like to do girly things such as wearing dresses or playing with dolls like Chirorin or her friends did, but better liked to run through the forests and climb the trees that surrounded the village.

She also enjoyed fetching water with her father from the wells within the village, which was something that most girls didn't usually like to do. She also didn't like to clean under her fingernails and never particularly cared about her hair and how it flew all over her head.

But before the wagon was due to take off from the village of Ha-Da-Wa and separate the children from their parents, her mother on the night before, forcefully washed her hair and tamed the cowlick that often bobbed up from the middle of her head. She also combed and brushed her hair over 20 times and even added the final touch of a neat braid to the right side of her hair that came down and flowed into the rest of her brown hair, but was tied at the end with a black bow.

She cleaned up under her daughter's nails for her the first time then gave to her a cherry red razor that she encouraged her to use whenever her nails became dirty once again, which they often did very quickly plenty of times before.

The blade of the razor was hidden inside of an item that looked like the lower handle of a knife. It was modeled after a butterfly knife and the razor could only be exposed when the button on the side of the handle had been pushed. Okamura decided to treasure the razor and the bow that she had tied to the brown braid in her hair the most because it was something that could inspire her to stay strong on the plenty of lonely nights that she was sure she was bound to have.

But Okamura didn't know that in actuality, she would need that razor for more than just removing lines of dirt from up under her small and newly cut fingernails. For in reality, she would need to hold onto that razor to save her very life.

~Part 4: life in the mirror village~

The wagon ride was very quiet and seen the children drifting in and out of sleep during most of the transportation there. There was a number of 12 children present with some more being rumored to arrive in the early hours of the morning.

Okamura sat in a part of the wagon by herself and looked around at all of the sleeping faces that were surrounding her now. She looked to the boy Jirou who was up in the front, glaring at the trees and the shadows that passed them by. She looked at Chirorin who was up but had a bored expression on her face.

After looking at the two of them some more, Okamura trained her green eyes onto the boy known as Kaiedu and was instantly surprised to see that he had been looking back at her as well. Looking at him now, Okamura had more time to actually make out his physical features and to get to know this boy mentally, who she had never really seen in the village before.
But just because she hadn't seen this boy before didn't stop Okamura from knowing what his background was for he and his family had been the fishers of the village and was often the ones to go to and who one would see whenever it was that they went to the village seafood mart.

The Kaiedu family consisted of the mother, the father, and their only son who all lived in a small modest home right by the stream that ran into the woods around the village. Each of the family members had the most gorgeous of deep, dark, and red strands of straight hair that had a mixture of light autumn brown in it.
And that's how everyone could tell that he was his parent's son by his reddish brown messy hair, his pale skin, and his light brown eyes.

Kaiedu was also rumored to be best friends with a sheepish smaller boy as well, but no one had seen him just yet.

The two continued to look at each other though, but Okamura lowered her eyes and turned slightly away when the boy put out his right hand and put the peace sign up at her, along with a foolish grin.

Nothing more eventful happened on the rest of the ride there and when they did finally arrive, one of the adults who had gotten off the wagon, quickly gathered the kids up into a circle so that none of them would become lost. She was a slim and ghostly looking pale young woman who wore a business suit dress and high black heels. To Okamura, she looked to be the type of person who had never lived in the village of Ha-Da-Wa and from the way that she had introduced herself both using her first and last name, Okamura could tell that she was certainly not from around here.

The woman's name was Yielda Rossendale, and she would be the children's aid if they needed anything for their homes that they already did not have. She was tall and blonde with blue eyes and smiled way too much for Okamura's liking, but she seemed to be kind nonetheless and addressed all of the children by their last names.

She told them that she thought it was cool that they had had first names but only used their last names out of the habit of togetherness that the families had had with each other. If the children was to introduce themselves using their first name it was looked down upon because the village head had said that using the child's last name was a sign that they were happy from what lineage they had come from, and was honored to be the offspring of their parents love.

But when a child became older and was ready to marry, they would then use their first name to signal their earned individuality and that they were no longer properties of their parents anymore.

They were now their own person and incorporated that in using their first name which set them apart from their parent's shared last name.
The woman Yielda told them that she was excited to meet them and while they would be learning things from her, she too would be learning things from them about the ways of the village life as well and the simplicity that came from being in the countryside.
And because it was spring and was still a little cold outside at night, Yielda instructed the kids to find their homes that they would be staying in, as soon as possible. She told them that they should wait inside but not to go to sleep just yet, for the staff would be bringing by wood for the fire places that they had in their homes and would also be bringing by sheets and pillows for their beds.

"Did you hear that?!" the red haired boy named Kaiedu happily said to another boy nearby Okamura after it was that Yielda and the other adults had led them to the area where the wooden houses were, "we're getting beds like actual beds! No more laying on those mats on the floor!"

"Yeah you're right about that!" the boy screamed back and smiled "after a while doing that starts to make you're back hurt!"
"Yeah it does but I've never slept in an actual bed before so this is kind of new to me! But Chirorin should know how it feels, you've slept in an actual bed for 5 years am I right?!" Kaiedu asked and once saying this, everyone except Okamura turned to look at the fair haired girl.

Chirorin scoffed and waved her right and small pink flushed hand out in front of her as if she didn't want the attention, but Okamura could see that she was loving it and was satisfied with everyone looking at and paying attention to her over such an important matter.

"Oh really a bed isn't such a big deal!" Chirorin said and smiled, but blushed as she opened her pink lips and continued to speak with a bragging tone of voice. "Before coming to the village with my momma and poppa, I had like this bed that was the biggest thing in my room and believe me my room was big!" the little girl teased. "The bed was like all white and had layers upon layers of sheets and blankets and pillows all over it. It had two layers of mattress and 7 pillows total! I was like a queen in a bed of sheets!"
And while the little girl Chirorin had been going on and on about her queen sized bedding, Okamura sighed to herself and walked away, coming inside of the wooden house that she was told to be hers.

The inside of the house was very simple, being fully constructed with pure wood. The floor was made of a tatami styled tiled flooring and like their houses back home, there were folding screens that were used to section everything off.
The house wasn't very big for that of a child and had two windows downstairs, a pure glass patio door with a small yard, a small kitchen with a stove and a cooling box and a section that was clearly the living room. And in the living room, there was a vast fire place with a pot inside of it and over the wood that was used to fuel the fire. On the living room floor there were traditional sitting mats and paper lanterns that were used to light the space.

And finally further in the back of the house was 3 rooms, 2 of them being the bedrooms and one of them being the bath room. Both of the bedrooms were ultimately furnished the same way with a 2 layer mattress bed, round and slender tube shaped pillows, a blanket and a sitting mat near the glass window that looked like a door.
The bath room were a small cube shaped like room with a stone square shaped tub that rose off the floor and had wood under it for heating with a fire and a very modern toilet that stood out from everything else in the room.

Some moments later, Jirou entered into the house and quite rudely claimed the bedroom that was on the right side of the bathroom that was in the middle. Okamura simply nodded and retreated to her room, where she awaited the woman Yielda to come and deliver the fire wood.

And two oil lamps were given to every child to have by their bed for a little light to have during the night for because it was that they were surrounded by thick trees and the Spalding woods, it would often be very dark outside.

In the end there were nothing more for any of the children to do so everyone were instructed to go to bed early for they would need to pay great attention for the coming information tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the day that the selected group of adults would explain everything that the kids would be doing here for now on until it was time for them to go.

The children knew that they would be attending school in a real classroom for the first time but wouldn't be doing that until Monday. They had 2 whole days to wait because it was only Friday.

~Part 5: learning all of the rules~

The next morning seen the children being woke up at around 8 am in the morning. They were called down to by the woman Yielda again and she led them down to the bottom of the hill that their homes had been on where they stopped short and seen 6 other adults standing there.

4 of them were men while the other 2 were females, plus Yielda herself that ultimately made 7. They all introduced themselves one by one but Okamura zoned out most of the time because she became bored with trying to remember all of their names.
They told them that for the next period of time that they all would be here they wanted the children to treat this place like home. They wanted them to have fun but to be open to learning as well so that they could be prepared for the transition that was coming in their lives. The head adult who was a young man by the name of Reid told them that they would be attending school from Monday to Friday, 8am to 2pm but would have no school on Saturday and Sundays as well as no responsibilities either.

Once it was that they were released from school, they would have the rest of the day to do anything that they wanted and were encouraged to spend this time getting to know each other. But they told them that regardless of how friendly they were to get with each other, they were not to use their first names but only their last names to keep up the practice of being proud of their family and where it was that they had come from again.
Okamura didn't have a problem doing any of this though and better preferred everything to be this way so that she didn't have to make friends or get to comfortable with anyone. For it wasn't that she was incapable of making friends or wasn't comfortable with anyone, it was the fact that she could already see the cliques forming around her, and could already see who was going to be in control.

Chirorin was already going to be one of them while Jirou with his mean glare and cold personality was going to be another one. He was going to literally scare the other kids into doing whatever it was that he had said and Okamura didn't wish to be a part of any of that.

And in the end the rest of the remaining kids arrived at the once bustling village, 5 of them to be exact 3 being girls and 2 being boys. Okamura didn't know any of these kids either, but was drawn to one boy because of the way that Kaiedu had suddenly reacted.
The boy who was standing way in the back only caught Okamura's eyes because Kaiedu when the boy's name was called, ran over to him and threw his arms about the smaller boy's neck.
He squeezed him close against his chest and ruffled his hand about in the little boy's light and sandy brown colored hair.

~Part 6: They know him as Hebbie~

Okamura stood to the side as Chirorin and Jirou along with a number of the other kids, went forward towards the boy and gathered round about him and asked him a series of fast paced questions. They asked him what it was that he had done for his birthday and if he had had an amazing cake. They also asked him that did he feel any different now that he had turned 11, but the little boy seemed too shy to reply.

And Okamura in the end, was only able to hear his name once again because Kaiedu had said it and she was surprised that it was the Japanese translation of the word Snake.
For this little boy who was standing some ways away from Okamura now, didn't seem to resemble the personality of a snake at all for he was slim and dainty looking with sheet white skin, almond shaped gray eyes, and long light brown sandy hair that was straight and curled up beautifully at the ends.

And this boy had been what was known to Okamura as a Bishounen boy, a male being so beautiful that they often times resembled girls. For some reason, Okamura felt that she could see herself getting along with this child but decided to stay away from him because of the attention he seemed to receive from those that she hadn't particularly liked.
She didn't know anything about the little kid but decided not to let this shape an unfair opinion about the pretty little boy that she hadn't had the chance to talk to just yet.
To Okamura there weren't a reason for her to stand around anymore so in the end she decided to go back to her temporary home, where she would sit around and do nothing in particular there either.

"At least I'd have the place to myself" Okamura said under her breath as she turned around and took her time going back to the wooden homes, "I wonder how school is going to be and if we're actually going to learn anything good" she slowly said. "Surely learning about teenage and adult stuff will prove to be very new to me so I hope I turn out okay" she mumbled.

And while she walked, Okamura realized that it was the second day of spring and the pollen in the air was becoming very thick against her skin. The flowers were growing and coming up all over in every part of the grass, and everywhere she walked Okamura seen busy little bee's. This would sure be a good time to spend with her parent's the little Okamura thought, but instead she was here, talking to herself and missing them already.
She wondered what it was that they were doing and if they were missing her as well. She wondered if she would make any friends here, and if she didn't have too she would like not to be so alone. But Okamura could already guess who was going to be a problem and who wasn't but how could she avoid them when she knew that they were going to be forced to share every aspect of their lives for the coming years.


She could tell that Jirou didn't like her and really didn't want to room with her either and she definitely didn't want to do anything with him but what could they really do? They had to do it for the time being but that didn't stop him from being so scary looking and always appearing to be in a bad mood.
Plus he was so much older than that of all the other kids there so what if he knew about things that she didn't and because she didn't she would always appear dumb in his presence. Jirou had also been outside of the village of Ha-Da-Wa before as well so he was bound to be much smarter than anyone else.

Chirorin was another person that Okamura couldn't see herself really liking either and came off as a snooty and a know it all type of kind of person. She was a person who believed herself to have everything and if for one moment that she didn't, she would yell, smack her lips, and probably roll her eyes as she constantly complained.
She also seemed to be the type of person to only want to talk about herself and if she wasn't the subject then she wouldn't rather speak at all.

But Okamura had never really had a lot of friends herself anyways because of her boyish nature and her fiery personality. She wasn't afraid to fight boys and was so much louder than that of the other girls. Okamura didn't care what anyone thought of her and loved believing boys to be ugly and dumber than that of girls.
Her mother though had always wanted her to be a little bit more girly and to wear dresses a whole lot more but whenever Okamura finally did give in and wear what it was that her mother had wanted her to wear, she would always come back with cuts and scratches on her lower legs and thighs.

For even in dresses, Okamura always ended up climbing trees and running through sharp blades of grass causing her to cut herself or would fall down, scrapping the skin off of her legs and leaving plenty of bandages behind.

Maybe Okamura thought as she neared the wooden little homes, that being here would teach her to be more ladylike and more accepting of her femininity. That maybe after learning how to behave in a dress, she could be the daughter that her mother had always wanted.
But in the end it wasn't just her personality that made her appear to be boyish, but it was also her family name that sounded to hard and masculine for that of a female.
Okamura in Japanese meant hill village or hidden village of the ancient days and was often pronounced with a hard sound to it so whenever someone introduced her or addressed her using her families last name, they always thought that she was a male.
And this made it somewhat hard for her Okamura to make friends especially with girls because they all believed her to be a boy before even seeing her.

But suddenly she was snapped out of her thoughts when Okamura raised her head and looked to see that one of the paper lanterns inside of her shared house had been turned on. She stopped and for a moment wondered to herself who it was that could be in the small home.
Was it Jirou Okamura wondered to herself? But she hadn't seen him pass her at any time that she had been coming back so she instantly removed that thought from her mind.
She stood still for a couple of more moments, trying to rack her head to come up with who could've gotten to the home before her and how had they passed her on the road without coming in contact with her at all.

She looked around herself then reached into her pants pocket and ran her small hand over the butterfly razor that she had tucked away some hours ago. Okamura swallowed her growing fear then channeled the strength in her body to move herself forward and close the distance between her and the glowing house.

Okamura the whole time made sure to move in a slow and deliberate pace and didn't want to apply to much pressure upon the ground or the noisy grass to attract attention to herself. She thumbed the small button upon the razors handle and timidly came up the wooden steps of the houses porch.

The little girl swallowed the lump in her throat once more that continued to rise up and desperately tried to drown out the sound of her blood running through her veins along with the sound of her heartbeat drumming loudly inside of her chest. Okamura could feel the beads of sweat running down her suddenly burning forehead and she had to blink two to three times to keep her eyes steady and herself from growing heady.

And she wanted so desperately to find out who it was that was running around in her house so bad that the little Okamura suddenly reached out and shoved hard at the wooden front door with her right hand while clutching tightly onto handle of her butterfly razor with her left. She didn't think and just threw open the door and rushed in, only stopping when she came face to face with the slightly taller figure of the boy Jirou.
Okamura had been moving so fast and had been so scared that she didn't notice how quickly she had withdrew the razor from the confines of her pocket and was now holding it to that of Jirou's slender throat. She swallowed loudly and blinked twice when she snapped from her fear and took a huge step back to remove herself from his non changing face.

"Wha-what the hell are you doing?!" Jirou said and looked at Okamura as he continued to stand his ground, "why the hell are you bursting in carrying a damn razor like that for?!"
"You-how did you get here before me?!" Okamura responded and quickly shoved the razor back into her pocket, but only after she lowered the blade into the handle and locked it in place by once again pushing the button. "I didn't see you leave from where everyone else were so how did you get here before me?!" the little girl asked again.

"There's another path that is so much shorter than the one you took" Jirou replied and glared at her, "I didn't want to go through all of that itchy ass grass so I just cut through the stream" he said. "But that turns into a lake" Okamura told him, "aren't you scared that the currents can become strong enough to wash you away??"
"That doesn't happen until you get all the way further down that way" Jirou replied and carelessly threw his left hand in the direction of the north, "so I just went through it, one to get here quicker and two to get my feet wet" he said. And when the older boy had said this, Okamura quickly glanced down at his feet to see that they were indeed glistening with drops of water.

"But you still haven't answered my damn question yet" Jirou continued on and pulled Okamura's attention back to that of his mean looking face. "You still haven't told me why you're walking around with a razor like that in the middle of the day" he said to her, "yeah I know its kind of wild and things like that out here, but you don't have to feel the need to become George of the jungle and carry around blades and shit, we don't have to hunt for our own food you know".

"I know that and you don't have to be so rude!" Okamura told him and looked away because she became so easily flustered and couldn't bring herself to look at him or his never faltering gray eyes. "I wasn't going to really cut you or anything, I just thought that there was a stranger in the house!" Okamura replied.

"But still you're not supposed to be walking around with blades and shit like that, you know I could easily tell the adults on you and they'd punish you in no time flat" he said.
"So what your going to go and tell on me now?!" Okamura demanded and tried to perform her best glare at him, "my mother gave this to me to keep my nails and stuff clean, I was not going to try and kill you!" she said, "I just thought that there was someone in here that didn't belong and I wanted to protect myself is all! So don't go and tell on me and get this razor taken from me when it's the only thing that I have to remember my mom!"
And for awhile the two stood alone in silence with Okamura glaring ahead at Jirou with her fist balled up at her sides and him standing tall and lean with his eyes never being taken off of her. Okamura could hear the silence around them and it made her so uncomfortable and so sweaty to be standing here under this boy's strong sight.

But in the end Okamura could see something in Jirou's eyes change, that caused his mouth to slightly slowly open and his silver eyebrows to cock right up. Jirou continued to look at her then slowly formed the following words which gave birth to the bright red bloodstains in the cheeks of the angry Okamura who couldn't believe what he had just asked her...

"Aren't you that boy who lives in the village of Ha-Da-Wa with your parents and is the household's only son?" Jirou asked her, "Aren't you the one that's always outside with your father and always helps him to fetch the water from in front of our well?" he said.
And for a long while there was complete silence once again and the two standing across from each other didn't utter a single word. But deep down inside, Okamura could feel the burning anger coursing through the veins under her skin and causing her to shake so hard that it rattled her bones.

Did he really just insinuate that she was a freaking boy?! Okamura thought to herself, for clearly now with how feminine she had been made up to look a damn wall could tell that she was in no way, shape, or form a freaking boy. She concluded to herself then that Jirou was doing this on purpose, especially when she seen the sides of his mouth twitch into a sarcastic smile.

"YOU INSUFFERABLE IDIOT!" Okamura screamed and threw her wooden sandal at the top of his head so fast that Jirou wasn't prepared enough to stop it from colliding with his head, and bonking off somewhere over to the side of the room.
"DO I LOOK LIKE A FREAKING GUY TO YOU?!" Okamura screamed as Jirou turned around with his back to her and rubbed his slightly pink forehead while snickering to himself. "Waa don't ignore me I'm talking to you!" she said "you-you idiot!" and shakily she pointed her small pointer finger at him and in that instant, felt so extremely girlish and foolish.
"Well I mean you're like really flat chested and everything" Jirou said and put his hands out in front of him innocently while taking on a sheepishly looking expression on his face when Okamura reached down and wiggled her other wooden sandal at him.

"Your face is kind of mean too and most girls they always smile at me while dudes constantly glare at me so I just mistook you for a boy" Jirou said and shrugged, but quickly changed his approach when Okamura stood over him while this time going into her pocket to grab her butterfly razor blade.

"Uwaa" Jirou sighed and Okamura smacked her lips at him and went to stand over by the door and gritted her teeth at him, "there's no winning with any of you!" he looked over his shoulder at her and said.

And after Okamura's anger and Jirou's teasing had calmed down, the two did an awkward handshake and bowed to one another to signify their respect for each other. Okamura noticed that as Jirou bowed, he kept his eyes off to stare at something on the side of her and had his lips cut into a straight line. The little girl also noticed a slight tinge of pink to his cheeks and after she continued to stare at his face and wonder why his cheeks had been turning colors different than that of his skin, Jirou shakily told her that he had never roomed with a girl before.

He said that his mother indeed didn't count when Okamura was getting ready to ask that and that even when he had left the village of Ha-Da-Wa he didn't ever really talk to girls.
"Girls are stinky and they act like crybabies and their really gross!" Jirou responded when Okamura asked him why he did not. "That girl Chirorin is the prime reason that I don't" Jirou continued to say, "she like craves to much attention and she thinks it's cute to smell like a dead flower all of the time and it's not" he replied, "Sometimes can't a girl just smell normal? Like a normal human being just for once?"
"And um how does a normal human being smell?" Okamura asked and noticed then how self-conscious she thought herself had smelled.

"Like dust or sweat, or napkins or something" Jirou said and looked quite taken aback when Okamura giggled at him and told him that he had been smelling way too many boys.
Okamura asked him then that if he had started to miss the village and his mother and father just yet, but was shocked and somewhat impressed when he replied and said no, that it would take a whole lot more days for him to begin to miss them at all.
Okamura thought to herself that it had to be that whole analytical thing that her mother had told her that guys always seemed to have, that things that usually affected a girl took much longer to affect a boy.

Jirou then told her that only if she wanted to though that she could head down to the stream with him that ran in the middle of the woods outside the village so that they could meet up with the other kids to introduce themselves. The silver haired boy told her that originally it was Chirorin's idea and that it would be the only respectful thing to do.
And Okamura grimaced to herself but in the end decided to go along at least not to look so rude. She didn't have to be friends with any of them but she did have to live with them so knowing their family names would at least do her some good in the long run.
So in the end, Okamura followed Jirou back outside of the house and waited quietly while he shut and locked the door.

She thought to herself as she watched him do that, how his hands and the broadness of his back differed much strongly from hers. She realized then that she had never roomed with any males either and that her father didn't at all count.
This would be a new thing for her and Jirou while living here, Okamura thought to herself and she really didn't want to come off as stupid or be the type of girl that Jirou had said he hated.

~Part 7: Okamura, Jirou, Chirorin, Kaiedu, and Hebbie~

The two of them although they would be housing together, didn't know much of what to say to each other as they walked out into the noon day of spring. They looked at each other every now and then but they didn't know much of what to talk about anymore.
Did all girls like to talk about dolls? Jirou wondered as he walked somewhat ahead of Okamura who purposely lagged behind. But while Jirou thought all of these things to himself, Okamura wondered if all guys liked to really talk about was sports...she didn't know if they like things like midnight walks or cooking or cleaning or eating.
Okamura supposed that they liked to sleep a lot though because whenever her dad wasn't working or doing something, he would be in his room curled up sleeping the day away. Okamura's mother never really did bother him unless he wanted to eat which was a lot, so Okamura figured that guys really did like to eat a lot in the end.

'Maybe I should ask him what he likes to do instead of just guessing away' Okamura thought to herself as they continued to walk, 'I mean in the end, all guys can't possibly be the same and I'd do better to ask him then to pre-assume' she thought. But Okamura didn't have the chance to open up her mouth and ask him any of the questions that she wanted to ask because Jirou suddenly stopped short in front of her which caused her to snap out of her wondering state and stop herself quickly as well.

"What's wrong why are we stopping here?" Okamura asked and leaned to the side so that she could see the side of Jirou's face.

"We're here" he replied and turned to the side while looking at her, "we all decided that we would meet up here so there isn't any sense to go any further anymore" he said.
"Oh okay then" Okamura answered and took this as her time to pay attention and to look around at her surroundings.

Behind them from where the two had just come from, was the mass of woods that were always dark no matter how bright it was or the time it was during the day. In front of the two was a clearing that was divided in half by a quiet stream that was passing through.
Okamura was tempted to go and stick her feet into it but knew that all of the bodies of water around these parts only ever really warmed up during the late part of the summer season. Across the water on the other side was the other half of the clearing and ended in more thicket of trees and bushes.

And Okamura was just getting ready to stretch when she suddenly heard more footsteps coming through the woods at an alarming speed. She looked to Jirou who shook his head, then quickly turned herself around to see Kaiedu in mid stride, emerging from the trees with a silly grin on his face.

And not that far from behind him, was the little boy who Okamura had seen earlier, trying desperately to keep up with him. Both the boys had leaves and small sticks curled up in the strands of their messy hair, and Kaiedu was clearly more physically adapted to running then the tired little boy known as Hebbie who had stopped sloppily and fell over in an attempt to catch his breath.

But not so far from behind them emerged Chirorin as well who was taking tiny little steps so that she wouldn't mess up her families' fancy kimono. Her blonde hair was once again perfect and she didn't really seem to give Okamura a passing glance.
She came to a stop and raised her little hand, yawning then finally raising her blue eyes to take acknowledge of everyone who had been standing there.

"Chirorin you lost the race you know!" Kaiedu called and turned around to face her to only point his dirty finger towards her perfect face, "I said in the beginning that you had to race us in order to see who could win, but I guess you didn't want to try because in the end, you knew it was going to be me!" the red haired boy happily screamed.
"That isn't the reason at all so don't get your drawers in a bunch" the blonde haired girl haughtily said and side glanced at him, "I didn't wish to run because I'm wearing my families prized kimono and honorable colors, and it wouldn't be becoming of me to be so sweaty while wearing this against my skin".

"Waa I-I just think that that's an excuse and you knew you couldn't beat me!" Kaiedu screamed and grinned at her, "you don't have to use that old lame excuse about a families robe to try and hide the real reason why you lost against me!"
"And besides" Kaiedu said and crossed his arms up over his chest, "I don't even know what the word drawers really mean! So don't speak a made up language to me!"
Okamura who had been watching from some ways away from the commotion, couldn't help but to snicker and laugh. For even she knew what the word drawers meant and wondered if Kaiedu was serious or was he simply pulling their chains.

"Kaiedu drawers mean underwear it's not a fancy term or anything" Chirorin laughed as she walked past him and came over to a small rock to sit down upon it.
"Oh..." Kaiedu mumbled and did his silly grin once again while this time putting both his arms up behind his head and standing near Hebbie as he finally got himself up, "and besides I don't even wear those!" Kaiedu told her which made Chirorin gasp then choke respectively.

A number of other children later on showed up and everyone decided that they would sit near the stream and tell 3 things about each other so that everyone could get to know one another a little better.

And as usual, Chirorin insisted that she should be the one to go first since she was the one who had spent most of her life outside the village. She felt that if she was able to go first, she could share her wise information on the things she remembered the most in the outside world. For Chirorin believed that everyone could benefit from her peaceful and benevolent sounding voice being heard first and no matter with how wrong she really was, no one felt the desire to argue her about it.

"Well my family name is Chirorin so please address me strictly by that" the little girl started off, "I am 11 years old and for 5 years, I lived in the mountain resort village of the honorable Kanta-Belle". "The 3 things that I guess I could part to tell you all about myself is that before I came to the village of Ha-Da-Wa, I was going to school to be a ballerina. I had a cat and a pet dog both of who were blonde, and I love ribbons and school uniform dresses" she said.

Okamura looked at her and then set her eyes onto the braid that she had noticed was in her own hair. For some reason when Chirorin spoke about herself liking ribbons, this bought her attention back to the braid that her mother had put in her hair for her and ended it off with a black ribbon before she had gotten on the wagon.

But apparently Okamura wasn't the only one who had taken notice of the braid in her hair because surprisingly, Chirorin had casted her blue eyes over at it as well. Okamura didn't know if this was done to be a compliment or was just a random reaction, but Okamura was somewhat happy nonetheless.

And the red haired boy known as Kaiedu was the next one to share his 3 things about himself and said that he had been born and raised in the village of Ha-Da-Wa and had never been anywhere outside of it before. He had just turned 12 years old, liked eating spicy peppers and his favorite animal was the bird.

Next Jirou wasted no time in revealing his 3 facts about himself and told everyone that he was 13, preferred cold weather, and was a heavy fan of sports and kendo. He too had been outside the village a number of times before and briefly played a sport called soccer.
Okamura for some reason paid more attention to what he had said then she had done to anyone else and found herself wondering how he became when he played the sport kendo.
For kendo was a favorite past time in the village of Ha-Da-Wa and it took a violent and strong but passionate person to excel beautifully at that sport.

But Okamura's newly positive and fantastic way of thinking about the personality and integrity of Jirou, quickly changed when it came time for Hebbie to name the 3 things about himself.

For some reason, Jirou coughed and sighed and made rude noises over him while Hebbie tried his hardest to talk. And in his reaction to Jirou's rudeness, Hebbie became quite nervous and knew what it was that Jirou had been doing, but tried his best to continue on anyways.
He quietly told everyone that his family name was Hebbie and that he had just turned 11 years old. And although he and his families name translated to that of a snake, he didn't like them at all, his favorite food were strawberries, and his family had just had a girl which was now his new little sister.

Okamura thought that he was so adorable but didn't want to say that and embarrass him in front of everyone. She also wanted to know why Jirou had reacted to Hebbie like that and wished that she wasn't so scared and that she could just come right out and ask him. But in the end she didn't get to say what she had wanted to say again because now everyone had been looking at her to tell her 3 things.

For she was the last one to have to be the one to go but unlike the others, hadn't prepared for what she had wanted to say. Everyone constantly looked at and stared at her but Okamura found herself unable to open up her mouth and speak.
"Come on already!" Jirou said and was glaring hard at her, "come on and say what you have to say so we can go ahead and move on!"

"Alright fine I just wanted to make sure that I was prepared!" Okamura answered and glared over at him, "it's not really going to take me all that long anyways".
"Then come on already!" Jirou said which made Okamura feel that she was once again two seconds away from slapping him in the forehead once with her wooden sandal.
"...Well" the little brown haired girl said and looked around at the faces that were staring back at her, "I have just turned 11 years old, I've never been to the bus stop outside the village of Ha-Da-Wa before and um I really like to play sports and climb up trees..."

~Part 8: The girl boy~

Everyone around Okamura had went into a quiet stare and Chirorin who was sitting near her, turned to look at her and widened her eyes.
"You-you can climb trees?!" Kaiedu asked her and stuttered a little bit in shock at that fact, "you're the only girl I know that can climb and likes to climb trees, that is like so cool!"

"You actually like to play sports too?" Hebbie asked Okamura and looked at her with his little eyes being wide as well. "Yes I do um...is there something so weird about that?" Okamura asked.

"Well yes it is!" Chirorin suddenly said and a little too strongly as well. She looked at her like she was an alien from outer space and even nodded her head as if Okamura was a pitiful sight. "Playing sports and climbing trees is like so weird and odd for a girl to do, I mean what kind of fun could you possibly get out of doing things like that?"
"Well I mean the same fun you get out of playing with dolls and wearing fancy things and stuff, is the same fun that I get with playing sports and running around I guess" Okamura replied, "It's not something so weird that I have to be judged differently for it".
"Quite honestly though I agree" Jirou suddenly said which took everyone's eyes off of Okamura and made them all focus on him. "I mean she plays sports and shit so what? It doesn't make her a freak or some monster girl or something. She's still a human, she's still a person and just because she may do things differently than all of you doesn't mean she doesn't feel the same way that we do".

"Yeah I know that it's just that I've never met a girl who likes to do those things before so I was just kind of taken aback is all" Chirorin mumbled but rolled her eyes at Jirou nonetheless.

"Well like I said I don't think it's weird or nothing" Kaiedu said and smiled, "in fact once we leave this place Okamura, you should come and play with Hebbie and me!"
"Waa" Hebbie said and looked away as Kaiedu smiled and continued saying, "If she comes to play with us Hebbie that means that I'll have one more person to help me find you in hide and seek and I can have even more strength to beat you with my favorite stick!"
"What you beat that poor kid with a stick?!" Chirorin screamed as Kaiedu giggled and lightly pushed Hebbie, "what a brute you are Kaiedu! I won't stand to have you beat this little child anymore!"

"Aw fine!" Kaiedu sighed and pouted his lips out at Hebbie, "I guess I'll just beat Jirou then!"

"Yeah right in your wildest dreams" Jirou replied and the group of kids smiled and laughed.
And in that moment, Okamura didn't feel so bad and actually felt quite good and happy, for she found things to be a lot simpler and easy to go through if one had people in which they could call their friends. And Okamura didn't refer to any of these kids as her actual friends just yet, but she was finding herself to like Jirou more and more.
Regardless of how mean and cruel his face always seemed to be, Jirou was actually a pretty nice kid or so Okamura thought at the time. For being able to go outside of the village and see other people in their ways of life, really helped to broaden the horizons of the kids who were lucky to be able to do that in the village of Ha-Da-Wa.

And because Jirou was one of them, it wasn't weird when he seen girls outside the village in the cities or towns that didn't behave in the way that Chirorin always did, so it wasn't weird or off putting for him when Okamura revealed her embarrassing but unique passion.

For in fact Okamura felt that much closer to him for the things that they both were interested in which was sports and interacting in various activities.
In the end, no one teased Okamura about her passion and they all settled to play a game of hide and seek. But at first, Jirou thought the game to be exceedingly childish but when Okamura teased him and said that she could find him in 3 minutes if she wanted to, Jirou decided to play just to prove her wrong.

This game continued on well into the night, and finally at around 3am in the morning, the group of kids decided that they should all go home. And on the way back towards their shared wooden home, Okamura smiled and looked at the frame of Jirou as he walked up ahead, being happy that she was finally seeing him as a more friendly and open kind of person.
She was glad that she wasn't rooming with Chirorin and felt that Kaiedu would tire her out if she had to room with him. Hebbie would be the perfect roommate Okamura smiled and thought but she knew that Kaiedu wouldn't leave his side to let her room with him.
But in the end, Okamura was happy where she was at and decided to treasure all of these times that she would have with Jirou...for in the end memories, would be all of what she would have left...

~Part 9: the school and the class of spring~

The weekend for the children in the village, went by exceedingly fast with no more events happening or anything more that was of any importance taking place. Most of the whole time through Okamura remained at the house or met back up with the rest of the kids in the village and played a number of games over the weekend.
Jirou often left and accompanied Okamura to these things but ultimately laid around and continued to be his grumpy self.

Monday came quickly for the children after the weekend passed and Okamura was shocked to find that someone had left a package on the porch out in the front of their home. Jirou stood behind Okamura and looked over her shoulder as she read from a piece of paper that the package was full of uniforms that the children would be wearing when they were due to school in the next hour.

And as Jirou was complaining with how he wouldn't wear that uniform and that uniforms were for slaves, Okamura found herself being both excited and afraid of what would happen to her after the uniform had been put on.

For the uniform in question had been one a student from in the city with huge a school and a shopping mall would have on and to wear. The top part of the uniform consisted of a blazer that was a pure black color and was short sleeved with a gray neck tie that came with it.

To be worn under that was a gray uniform shirt that was short sleeved and had a collar around the neck. There were black buttons on it and it was quite thin so that it could be worn during the hot summer days that were sure to come with them being here.
In the boys uniform sets were black pants along with black socks that were to be used with their black shoes that were provided.

But with the girls uniform set, Okamura stopped and froze because there inside of the package in front of her was a black dress and knee high black socks...something that Okamura had never thought that she would have to touch or let alone wear.
Okamura looked over the skirt some more then decided to just go ahead and try it on. In the end what would it have hurt it was just a dress...something she hadn't worn in 9 of her 11 years.

But by the time that Okamura had calmed her nerves enough to even pick up the dress, Jirou had been waiting for her outside, where he sighed and tapped his feet impatiently to himself.

"Come on Okamura it's just a dress, it's not going to bite you" Jirou said to her and waited outside the front door.

"I know that! it's just that I haven't wore a dress in forever so I'm kind of nervous on how I look" Okamura said who had been standing inside of the house, near the front door doing the finishing touches.

"Well come on we're late we have to go!" Jirou said but stopped talking fully when the front door suddenly opened up.
The first thing that Okamura could feel when she opened the door of their house was the soft breeze of the wind that touched the skin on her legs. The black and plaid gray dress that she had on her still girlish hips now were short and came down a little past her buttocks but was long enough to feel somewhat comfortable in.
The knee high socks that she had on her legs covered from her feet to up under her knees but left her small and pinkish pale thighs exposed which was one of the spots that Jirou's eyes were instantly trained to.

The girl who had always had her hair in a ponytail or who always made sure to wear pants upon her legs, looked extremely different now to Jirou and he meant that in an extremely good way.

"You-uh you look presentable" Jirou stammered and said to her when he seen Okamura standing shyly at the door and looking back at him expectantly. "Yeah-you look real presentable..." he oddly finished and looked away when she bowed and replied to him, thank you.

"We should come on and go" Jirou mumbled to himself and breathed in hard when she came towards him, "we're already late enough and I don't want to get in trouble for you".
"Okay I'm sorry I'm coming!" Okamura argued back and gasped when Jirou shook his head, turned around, and begin to leave her.

The walk to school was somewhat odd and harrowing for Okamura as she walked quickly behind Jirou, trying her hardest to keep up. The skirt that the little girl had been wearing allowed the long blades of grass to tickle her legs and her thighs as the two traversed through it and Okamura struggled to keep her skirt pulled down as they walked faster and faster.

The two moved through a thicket of woods and came out to a field surrounded by a light forest. In the middle of this field was a large building made of logs that was put together to make a school.

The building seemed tall enough for one floor and maybe a basement and had a multitude of windows running along it.
The two watched as more of the children from the surrounding homes, poured out of the woods that they had come through and ran happily up to the front door of the school. Everyone was told that they would all be in one class because they didn't need to use multiple rooms because they would all be learning the same thing.

Behind the school building was a peaceful stream and across that stream was more woods that they were already forewarned not to go into.

If you guys give me a review at least two or more i'll continue writing this story and will add a chapter or so to it okay? do we have a deal? okay good.