usual animosity between the class representative’s group and Natsuki and Rie’s friends was overcome by their common interest in the potential power of the heart stones.
On the way back down the hill, Moriyama let the students peek into a few shops. Shou and Naoto appeared before David holding matching black key chains with “I love Badminton,” and “I love Track and Feild” respectively. One whole half of the store seemed devoted to the same design with different sports on everything from shirts to cups. They seemed proud to have found trinkets in English.
“’Track and Field’ is spelled wrong,” David said, laughing. Naoto shrugged and smiled, heading off to pay at a register. David’s two friends had a kind of war going to see who could fit the most key chains and phone straps on their pencil cases.
As the rest of his group looked through the stores, David found he was alone outside a cake shop. Turning, he nearly ran into a short Japanese woman holding a tray of cakes. She had moved so close to him without his noticing that the shock nearly made him summon his Seikaku. His heart racing, he covered his shock with a polite bow and moved away. The woman moved with him.
“Listen but do not react,” the woman said. David peered down at her, unsure if he should head for Moriyama-sensei. Something about the woman seemed off.
‘She is standing too straight, too serious for a cake seller who has to bend over a register all day,’ Kou warned.
David slid his foot behind him, moving into a fighting stance.
“No need for that. I’m from a mutual friend. Continue your watch. We have reports that Chul Soon may be on Kyushu. He was your classmate. He knows about your school trip. Some of us think he may try to attack while you’re away from the Estate.”
“Wait who are you? How do you know about…”
“David,” Moriyama called. David’s teacher was at the bottom of the drive, the rest of his classmates around him and ready to go. David looked back, but the woman was gone. With a shiver, he headed after his group.
Class 2B spent the next hour walking the streets of Nagasaki. They peered past restaurants and walked through what looked to David like a Chinatown. Moriyama and their tour guide led them across a small channel and through a gate with a sign proclaiming they were entering Dejima Island. The whole way he felt watched. His skin crawled. The cake lady had unnerved him.
David and his classmates wandered through the reconstructed Dutch buildings of Dejima. Much of it was like a museum but there were enough hands-on activities to keep them interested. They even found a spot where they could play with old-fashioned badminton paddles made of wood and leather. As they walked, Takumi took pictures with one of the school cameras. As he stopped to snap a picture of an old school room, David scanned the rest of the tourists, hoping and fearing he might spot Chul Soon. Instead, he spotted a few of the gray uniformed students he had seen earlier in the day.
“Where do you think they’re from?” Kenta asked from beside David and Takumi. Tall and beefy, the fourteen year old often went over-looked by David and his friends. Though he had seen him often enough in the library, David had rarely talked to the student council member, assuming he was one of Mizuki’s friends.
“They’re from Okinawa,” Tsubasa answered. Tsubasa seemed like the least likely person to befriend Kenta. He was much, much shorter, and so thin he looked to be almost bone. David smiled. He knew Tsubasa from the badminton team. Although he was at a disadvantage due to his height, he was quick. His passive face watched everything with intelligence, be it on the court or in class. Kenta’s raised eyebrow was enough to get Tsubasa to continue. “I was looking at the hand generator display and a group of them came in. I guess one of them was into technology too and we got to talking. They’re doing almost the exact same trip we are. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them a couple more times.”
David shrugged, but before he could turn away, Kenta spoke up, saying, “Do you two want to come with us? I saw a big cannon around the corner and it looks like the rest of your group wandered off.”
Looking around, David realized the others were gone.
“Sure,” David said. Together the four walked off to find the old cannon, David alert for any sign of his enemy. Kou prompted him to speak so their observant classmates would not notice his search. “So why are you on the student council too, if all you’re interested in is the technology club?”
“Because people asked me to. Not everyone wanted Mizuki, and even those that did decided it might be better if she wasn’t the only voice for our class,” Kenta said with a laugh. They spent about half an hour exploring the various paths, models, and rooms before they found the rest of the class. An enthusiastic guide had pulled them into a presentation on the second floor of one of the buildings.
Since time was limited, Class 2B stopped for lunch at a convenience store and took one of the local streetcars to their next stop. David just had enough time to choke down a tuna sandwich outside the museum’s entrance. The other groups seemed to have spent their time more efficiently, and had already eaten by the time 2B arrived with their shopping bags.
Inside the Nagasaki Bomb Museum, David wandered through the exhibits with Kenta, Tsubasa, and his friends. The instant they passed the ticket counters, David felt out of place. The old style clock near the entrance, stopped at the instant the bomb went off, sent a chill through him that stayed past the strikingly lit ruins and twisting towers of steel. There was an aura to the place. It spoke to a part of him he had never been aware of before. Each piece in the bomb museum evoked a deep sense of sadness and loss. Despite the burnt lunch boxes, human hand fused to stone, and other horrible things, the tone was not anger, but instead a will to show the price paid in war. David felt the importance of ensuring such weapons are never again used.
As they wandered through the museum, their group began spreading out as his friends moved to different exhibits. David followed the sound of someone speaking English and shivered as he entered a room with low benches and videos of survivors telling their stories.
“It’s like there are ghosts telling us their stories,” Kenta whispered as he left the remaining group to watch one of the videos. Beside him, Takumi tensed as David moved toward the corner of the room. Like David, he could see that it was not just the old-timers’ stories that made it feel like there was someone else there. In the corner they were approaching, a young man, almost transparent, stood looking through a wall, a sad expression on his face.
The obake looked up at them as they came closer but made no move to attack. With a jerk of his chin, the obake gestured to a video of an old man talking about his lost comrades.
“Don’t forget what you saw here,” the obake’s wilting voice said in English, his tone pleading for someone to hear him.
“I won’t,” David whispered. With a sudden look of surprise, the obake turned its long gaze on David. The apparition stared back with a curious look, as his western features grew ever more defined. Then with a solemn nod, the apparition disappeared, just as the obake that had attacked Natsuki had disappeared when David pierced it with his Seikaku.
“What did he say? I didn’t catch the English,” Tsubasa asked, cutting off Takumi before he could ask the same thing. Together David and Takumi turned on their lone classmate.
NAGASAKI GHOSTS AND KASTELLA CAKE
Such a large part wanted to give in.
