Turtles

Dissonance

"Good morning, Miho."

"Oh! Koume! Um, you made it!"

"Of course I did."

"Great! So, um, let's go! We don't want to be late!"

"Hold it." Miho, who'd been about to march off down the street in the direction of the school, stopped in her tracks. "Miho, did you eat anything?"

"What? Yeah, I had a granola bar."

"That's not going to be enough, Miho, and you know it. Whatever. Did you get all your books?"

"Yes! They're right here, see, biology, 20th century Japanese history, statistics. Koume, I'm not a kid, you don't have to-,"

"Did you lock your door?"

Miho froze, then bolted back up the stairs, leaving Koume trying not to laugh behind her. It was nice to see that some things, at least, never changed.

Once Miho, flushed from embarrassment, had returned, the two of them set off towards their new school. The shops and homes they passed as they walked down the street seemed completely normal, just like one might find in any town in Japan itself, or on the urban area on the top deck of the Graf Zeppelin, but something still seemed off about them to Koume.

They were passing a bakery when it clicked. "Miho, how far are we from the school?"

Miho brought up the GPS app on her phone, very obviously trying to ignore the smells wafting from the bakery's open door, and judging by her stomach's loud rumbling, very obviously failing. I don't know how she's going to make it to lunchtime. "Um, half a kilometer to the main building. Assuming we're going the right way, I might be reading this-,"

"You're not, Miho. I'd believe you'd forgotten your own name before you forgot how to read a map. Besides, there's a sign right over there that clearly says, 'Ooarai Campus', with an arrow. Thanks for the answer, by the way."

Miho had given her the last piece. At Kuromorimine, a half kilometer from the main building would've put them squarely on the campus already, no matter which direction they approached from. Here, apparently, the main building was the campus, or at least had few enough outbuildings in this direction that it would be the first thing they saw.

This place, this "Ooarai", just feels wrong. So completely different from everything I've ever known. Am I ever going to get used to it? Bad enough she'd moved more than halfway across the country to come here. It feels like I moved to the moon. And I haven't even made it to the actual school yet!

Something of her internal thoughts must have shown on her face, because Miho looked over at her with a concerned expression. "Koume, is something wrong?"

"What? No, nothing's wrong," she answered immediately, and then cursed herself. That would sound like a lame excuse to anybody... and Miho wasn't just anybody. She could read Koume like a book. She can read anyone like a book.

Sure enough, as they walked, Miho turned and peered closely at Koume's face. "Do you miss Kuromorimine?"

"... I miss parts of it." That, at least, was true enough. I miss the uniform. I miss my crew. I miss my Panther.

But I don't miss the school itself.

"Do you not like Ooarai?"

"We just got here, Miho. I'm sure I'll get used to it. It's just different."

There was a pause, and then—

"You didn't have to follow me here, Koume," Miho said softly. Koume almost groaned aloud.