Ink Stained

04: shopping*

買い物する

Pai really didn't know how other people did this. She wanted to consider herself normal, and normal people went through this routine their whole lives, so clearly it was something that could be accomplished...

But how?

By the middle of the first week since starting school, Pai began to wonder if she would even make it to the weekend.

She did, of course, she was nothing if not quietly stubborn about it, but by the end of the week, she was genuinely shocked to find that it was Saturday. The weekend. Free-time for approximately forty-eight hours, to be used wisely but rarely done so.

She tried not to think about the fact that the weekend lasted only two days, and instead relished in waking up naturally, organically, as opposed to being jolted awake by the horrific blaring of her alarm. She had almost forgotten how blissful it was to wake up knowing that she didn't need to hurry out of bed, get a quick shower, pull her hair into some passable semblance of normal, before heading out the door to school with Shiori trudging along beside her.

It had only been one week. The thought of doing this for a whole year almost made her cry several times throughout thee week.

Late Saturday morning found her just outside the boundary wall, picking kaki fruit from the tree next to the wall. She felt better than she had for the last week, having slept for seven hours – longer than she had been able to thanks to the actual mountains of homework the teachers seemed to firmly believe could be done in a single evening.

She had already finished washing the dishes after a rowdy breakfast, done some homework with Shiori (but not all of it, because Shiori believed Sunday existed for a reason). It was almost noon now, but even with the glimpses she had gotten of the climbing sun through the tree leaves overhead, it was still a cool day.

Despite being outside, the magic of the boundary extended far past the walls, so she didn't feel to uncomfortable at being outside. As long as she didn't stray too far from the wall, she was safe. Far behind her, she could see the occasional darting shadow in the trees, balls of light dancing along the branches. None came too close.

She was fine.

Pai stood on her tip-toes, reaching for another fruit hanging on a branch close to the ground. The tree was laden with the deliciously sweet fruit. She wanted to gather as many as she could and make a pie for everyone with them. Or, at least, try to make one. She had never made one before, though she had watched her mother flawlessly bake dozens of little things that tasted heavenly.

She had been watching and caring for this particular tree for almost two weeks now, waiting for just the right moment when the fruit could be picked. Now was the best time – if she waited any longer, the fruit would grow overripe, fall off the tree, and rot. Yukiji had taught her enough about that whenever Pai wandered out of the house on the rare occasion she was bored and found Yukiji tending to a tree or plant somewhere.

After picking the fruit, she planned to leave them in Mizutani's care. She would make sure nothing happened to them – more specifically, that Haru wouldn't get to them. It was a wonder he doesn't gain as much weight as food he ate, with that glutinous appetite of his. With Haru, it didn't matter how much you told him it would taste even better in a pie. If Haru saw the fruit, he'd want to eat it right at that moment.

"Who cares about later?" was his reasoning when an exasperated Yukiji asked why he couldn't just wait. "If it looks good now, it's meant to be eaten now, and so help me I will eat it."