Anitha p.34-38

     A guy with an unusual aura was climbing the stairs that connected the floor to the loft. He carried two glasses in his hands.       "I'm glad you came."      Katou put the glasses on the table and sat on the stool. "Oolong tea is good for you, right?"      "Thanks," I said.      Katou and I held our glasses up and clinked them together for luck.      "Ah, I'm glad to be alive," I said, after sipping the oolong tea.      "Heheheh." Katou laughed in an embarrassed way, looking down at the ground a little.      Then, purposely, he said "Ah, that reminds me," and put his hand in his pocket, bringing out a small matchbox and putting it on top of the table.      "What's with that?" I asked.      "There's some L inside. Have some if you want," said Katou, still smiling a little embarrassedly.      The man in front of me was dear to me. His awkwardness came from not being raised to know how to give favors in a refined sort of way but, because of his innocence, he could really look embarrassed and smile, the man in front of me could.      I gently clapped my hand against the back of his hand on the table.      "Thanks, but I don't have time to get high. I have a lot of things to think about. When they go away, we'll do it together sometime."      Katou searched my eyes quickly, and, finding something there, he grinned. Then, raising his little finger, he asked, "Is this better?" As I laughed, I shook my head. "If you could, a sandwich, or some fruits, something like that would be good." Katou nodded and got up from the stool. "Hey!" I called to Katou's departing back. He turned his head, and I tossed the matchbox to him. He caught it perfectly, and, closing both eyes, winked back.      Just as Katou was going down the connecting stairs, the entrance door opened with a swish. My gaze, which had been following Katou, naturally went to the door. A lone girl came inside. Because of the angle, I could only see the upper part of her body. Her hair was short, a to hell with it style like Jean Seberg. I liked Jean Seberg's to hell with it style. Her eyes, like Winona Ryder's in Age of Innocence, were full of intelligence, as if they understood even far away things clearly. I liked Winona Ryder in Age of Innocence.      My gaze continued like that to her nose, her mouth, but she rejected letting it go lower. Like her heart wasn't here, she handed over her jacket to Takeshita and restlessly surveyed the scene on the floor below. I followed the minute movements of her face. A guy got close to her. He had long, black hair, and an earring dangled from one ear. If you threw a stone in Shibuya, ninety per cent of the time you would hit a clone just like this guy. I drank my tea, feeling slightly disappointed because I thought that he was the guy she was looking for.      He called to her. She gave him a cold, pointed look that stole all of his spirit, crumpled it up and threw it out the window. Clearly, around the girl a special magnetic force had started emanating, and everyone's eyes were drawn to her. I was one of those people. I put down my tea, and focused completely on her. The girl abandoned her search of the floor, and transferred her gaze to the loft, which was shaped like a :. She started gazing intently at one end. I was on the other end. Her serious gaze turned to each table one by one, left it, then went on to the next.      There were a lot of tables in the loft. Two tables before mine, she paused, sighing softly. The light in her eyes dimmed a little. Still, she continued looking at the rest of the tables, as if she had come this far, and might as well finish. Then, she reached my table.      The light in her eyes once again became bright. A bold gaze was focused on me. Then the girl's glance was followed by that of the gallery's. I reverted to my bad habits, and glared back at the girl looking at me. To put it in the words of a punk, I eyeballed her.      It's strange, but her attractive smile widened even more. Even on the faces in the gallery, a "I'm glad I could meet you" smile grew. Then on my face a smile grew, and it felt like if we could have embraced, it would've been the best kind of happy ending, but that could not be. I kept on eyeballing her. I didn't have the slightest clue who she was.      Feeling that the story was becoming incoherent, the gallery turned its gaze to the heroine to figure out her true intentions, just as she started to move, with a spring to her step, towards my table. When I saw she was headed towards me, honestly, I thought, "She must be the little sister of one of the guys I defeated. Any moment now, she's going to take out a knife, scream, 'My brother's enemy!' and attack me."      But, she made it to my table without taking out a knife, and jumped on to a stool.      As I sat there, stunned, when she landed, her little tartan checkered pleated skirt lifted for a moment, and I saw her thighs and her underwear. Both were white.      With the image of that brilliant white in mind, I looked up, where her powerful gaze awaited me.      I waited, expecting the look she gave the clone earlier to turn on me, but my expectation was out of place.      Her eyes were full of mischief. As if she were chasing a fluttering butterfly, she slowly moved her head from the left to the right. Boldly, she turned her head forward again and looked into my eyes, as if asking "Well?" I silently answered "?", and she moved her head from the right to the left, more slowly. I thought for a moment she was a little dangerous. Perhaps she really did see the butterfly, I thought, but I soon dismissed that idea. She was the most up-front girl I had ever met.      The girl stopped moving her head and stared challengingly into my eyes. I'm sorry to say, no matter how carefully she showed me her face, I had no memory of it. Silently, I gave her another "?". She looked disappointed for a moment, and her shoulders drooped. But the next moment, her eyes were filled with mischief again. She grabbed the edges of the table with both hands, and using her hips to throw her weight, made the stool turn left to right. When I eventually opened my mouth to ask her what she was doing, she twisted her body as far to the right as she could. She gathered her strength for ten minutes, then, turning left, she let go of the table. The stool started spinning fast, and the girl's body went around in circles with it.