The Metamorphosis of Chiaki Matsuda Part 1

The Metamorphosis of Chiaki Matsuda
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One morning, as Chiaki Matsuda was waking up from anxious dreams, she discovered that in bed she had been changed into a gigantic platypus. She lay on her fuzzy back and saw, as she lifted her head up a little, her cream-colored, fluffy abdomen covered in soft, downy fur. From this height the blanket, just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place. Her four stubby legs, pitifully short in comparison to the rest of her circumference, flapped helplessly before her eyes.

‘What’s happened to me,’ she thought. It was no dream. Her room, a proper room for a Warmaster, only somewhat too small, lay quietly between the four well-known walls. Above the desk, on which an unpacked collection of Kong-brand whiskey bottles were spread out (Matsuda enjoyed a little drink now andagain) hung the picture which she had taken with her phone a little while ago and set in a pretty gilt frame. It was a picture of a woman with long black hair and black eyes wearing a hat. She sat erect there, lifting up in the direction of the viewer her ample bosom under which her entire metallic forearms rested.

Chiaki’s glance then turned to the window. The dreary weather (the rain drops were falling audibly down on the metal window ledge) made her quite melancholy. ‘Why don’t I keep sleeping for a little while longer and forget all this foolishness,’ she thought. But this was entirely impractical, for she was used to sleeping on her right side, and in her present state she couldn’t get herself into this position. No matter how hard she flapped herself onto her right side, she always flapped again onto her back. She must have tried it a hundred times, closing her eyes, so that she would not have to see the waggling legs, and gave up only when she began to feel a light, dull pain in her side which she had never felt before.

‘O God,’ she thought, ‘what a demanding job I’ve chosen! Day in, day out finding Golden Weapons. The stresses of Warmastering are much greater than the work going on in the field, and, in addition to that, I have to deal with the problems of personnel discipline, the worries about paperwork, irregular relationships which never come from the heart. To hell with it all!’ She felt a slight itching on the top of her abdomen. She slowly pushed herself on her back closer to the bed post so that she could lift her head more easily, found the itchy part, which was entirely covered with small white spots (she did not know what to make of them), and wanted to feel the place with a leg. But she retracted it immediately, for the contact felt like a cold shower all over her.

She slid back again into her earlier position. ‘This getting up early,’ she thought, ‘makes a magical girl quite idiotic. A girl must have her sleep. Other Warmasters live like harem women. For instance, when I come back to the office during the course of the morning to write up the necessary orders, these girls are just sitting down to breakfast. If I were to try that with Sayaka, I’d be thrown out on the spot. Still, who knows whether that mightn’t be really good for me. If I didn’t hold back for Mami’s sake, I would’ve quit ages ago. I would’ve gone to the blueberry bitch and told her just what I think from the bottom of my heart. She would’ve fallen right off her chair! How weird it is to sit up and talk down to the Warmaster. The blueberry has a large stick up buttocks, so everyone always has to stand right to attention when speaking with her. Anyway, I haven’t completely given up that hope yet. Once I’ve got together the Golden Weapons— that should take another five or six years—I’ll do it for sure. Then I’ll make the big break. In any case, right now I have to get up. I have to punch in at five o’clock.’

And she looked over at the alarm clock ticking away by the end table. ‘Good God,’ she thought. It was half past six, and the digital numbers sat quietly there. It was past the half hour, already nearly quarter to. Could the alarm have failed to ring? One saw from the bed that it was properly set for four o’clock. Certainly it had rung. Yes, but was it possible to sleep through this noise that made the furniture shake? Now, it’s true she’d not slept quietly, but evidently she’d slept all the more deeply.

Still, what should she do now? Mami was due at seven o’clock. To to greet her properly, she would have to get ready in a mad rush. She hadn't read the dossier yet, and she really didn’t feel particularly fresh and active. And even if she got up fast enough, there was no avoiding a blow up with the blueberry, because the twin-tailed errand girl would’ve waited for the five o’clock punch-in and reported the news of her absence long ago. That girl was the Eversor Rank Leader's minion, without backbone or intelligence. Well then, what if she reported in sick? But that would be extremely embarrassing and suspicious, because during her two years’ service Chiaki hadn’t been sick even once. The blueberry would certainly come with the apothecary and would reproach her for her laziness and cut short all objections with the apothecary's comments; for her, everyone was completely healthy but really lazy about work. And besides, would the apothecary in this case be totally wrong? Apart from a really excessive drowsiness after the long sleep, Chiaki in fact felt quite well and even had a really strong appetite.

As she was thinking all this over in the greatest haste, without being able to make the decision to get out of bed (the alarm clock was indicating exactly quarter to seven) there was a cautious knock on the door by the head of the bed.

‘Chiaki-san,’ a voice called (it was Mami!) ‘it’s quarter to seven. Don’t you want to be on your way?’ The soft voice! Chiaki was startled when she heard her voice answering. It was clearly and unmistakably her earlier voice, but in it was intermingled, as if from below, an irrepressibly painful burbling which left the words positively distinct only in the first moment and distorted them in the reverberation, so that one didn’t know if one had heard correctly. Chiaki wanted to answer in detail and explain everything, but in these circumstances she confined herself to saying, ‘Yes, yes, thank you Mami. I’m getting up right away.’ Because of the wooden door the change in Chiaki’s voice was not really noticeable outside, so Mami calmed down with this explanation and shuffled off. However, as a result of the short conversation the other Officio personnel became aware of the fact that Chiaki was unexpectedly still in bed, and already Kyouko was knocking on one side door, weakly but with her fist.

‘Murderface, Murderface,’ she called out, ‘what’s going on?’ And after a short while she urged her on again in a deeper voice. ‘Murderface! Murderface!’ At the other side door, however, Midori knocked lightly. ‘Sempai? Are you all right? Do you need anything?’ Chiaki directed answers in both directions, ‘I’ll be ready right away.’ She made an effort with the most careful articulation and by inserting long pauses between the individual words to remove everything remarkable from her voice. Kyouko turned back to her immense breakfast. However, Midori whispered, ‘Sempai, open the door, I beg you.’ Chiaki had no intention of opening the door, but congratulated herself on her precaution, acquired from paranoia, of locking all doors during the night, even at home.

First she wanted to stand up quietly and undisturbed, get dressed, above all have breakfast, and only then consider further action, for (she noticed this clearly) by thinking things over in bed she would not reach a reasonable conclusion. She remembered that she had already often felt a light pain or other in bed, perhaps the result of an awkward lying position, which later turned out to be purely imaginary when she stood up, and she was eager to see how her present fantasies would gradually dissipate. That the change in her voice was nothing other than the mischief of Pinky, an occupational hazard of magical girls, of that she had not the slightest doubt.

It was very easy to throw aside the blanket. She needed only to push herself up a little, and it fell by itself. But to continue was difficult, particularly because she was so unusually wide. She needed arms and hands to push herself upright. Instead of these, however, she had only for small limbs which were sluggish and slow and which, in addition, she was barely able to control. If she wanted to bend one of them, then it was the first to extend itself, and if she finally succeeded doing with this limb what she wanted, in the meantime all the others, as if left free, flopped around in a depressingly dull agitation. ‘But I must not stay in bed uselessly,’ said Chiaki to herself.

At first she wanted to get of the bed with the lower part of her body, but this lower part (which she incidentally had not yet looked at and which she also couldn’t picture clearly) proved itself too difficult to move. The attempt went so slowly. When, having become almost frantic, she finally hurled herself forward with all her force and without thinking, she chose her direction incorrectly, and she hit the lower bedpost hard. The violent pain she felt revealed to her that the paddle-like tail was at the moment probably the most sensitive part.

Thus, she tried to get her upper body out of the bed first and turned her head carefully toward the edge of the bed. She managed to do this easily, and in spite of its width and weight her body mass at last slowly followed the turning of her head. But as she finally raised her head outside the bed in the open air, she became anxious about moving forward any further in this manner, for if she allowed herself eventually to fall by this process, it would take a miracle to prevent her head from getting injured. And at all costs she must not lose consciousness right now. She preferred to remain in bed.

However, after a similar effort, while she lay there again sighing as before and once again saw her small limbs sitting still as dead weight, if anything worse than before, and didn’t see any chance of imposing quiet and order on this arbitrary movement, she told herself again that she couldn’t possibly remain in bed and that it might be the most reasonable thing to sacrifice everything if there was even the slightest hope of getting herself out of bed in the process. At the same moment, however, she didn’t forget to remind herself from time to time of the fact that calm (indeed the calmest) reflection might be better than the most confused decisions. At such moments, she directed her gaze as precisely as she could toward the window, but unfortunately there was little confident cheer to be had from a glance at the morning mist, which concealed even the other side of the narrow street. ‘It’s already seven o’clock’ she told herself at the latest striking of the alarm clock, ‘already seven o’clock and still such a fog.’ And for a little while longer she lay quietly with weak breathing, as if perhaps waiting for normal and natural conditions to reemerge out of the complete stillness.

But then she said to herself, ‘Before it strikes a quarter past seven, whatever happens I must be completely out of bed. Besides, by then someone from the office will arrive to inquire about me, because the office will open before seven o’clock.’ And she made an effort then to rock her entire body length out of the bed with a uniform motion. If she let herself fall out of the bed in this way, her head, which in the course of the fall she intended to lift up sharply, would probably remain uninjured. Her back seemed to be padded; nothing would really happen to that as a result of the fall. Her greatest reservation was a worry about the loud noise which the fall must create and which presumably would arouse, if not fright, then at least concern on the other side of all the doors. However, it had to be tried.

As Chiaki was in the process of lifting herself half out of bed (the new method was more of a game than an rock with a constant rhythm) it struck her how easy all this would be if someone were to come to her aid. Two strong people (he thought of his father and the twin-tailed girl) would have been quite sufficient. They would have only had to push their arms under her arched back to get her out of the bed, to bend down with their load, and then merely to exercise patience and care that he completed the flip onto the floor, where his diminutive legs would then, he hoped, acquire a purpose. Now, quite apart from the fact that the doors were locked, should she really call out for help? In spite of all her distress, she was unable to suppress a smile at this idea.

She had already got to the point where, with a stronger rocking, she maintained her equilibrium with difficulty, and very soon she would finally have to decide, for in five minutes it would be a quarter past seven. Then there was a ring at the door of the apartment. ‘That’s someone from the Officio’ she told herself, and she almost froze while her small limbs only danced around all the faster. For one moment everything remained still. ‘They aren’t opening,’ Chiaki said to herself, caught up in some absurd hope. But of course then, as usual, the twin-tailed girl with her firm tread went to the door and opened it. Chiaki needed to hear only the visitor’s first word of greeting to recognize immediately who it was, the blueberry herself.

Why was Chiaki the only Warmaster condemned to work in an Officio where at the slightest lapse someone immediately attracted the greatest suspicion? Were all the magical girls then collectively, one and all, scoundrels? Was there then among them no truly devoted person who, if he failed to use just a couple of hours in the morning for office work, would become abnormal from pangs of conscience and really be in no state to get out of bed? Was it really not enough to let an apprentice make inquiries, if such questioning was even necessary? Must the Eversor Rank Leader herself come, and in the process must it be demonstrated to the entire innocent Officio that the investigation of this suspicious circumstance could only be entrusted to the intelligence of the Rank Leader? And more as a consequence of the excited state in which this idea put Chiaki than as a result of an actual decision, she swung herself with all her might out of the bed. There was a loud thud, but not a real crash. The fall was absorbed somewhat by the carpet and, in addition, her back was more flexible than Chiaki had thought. For that reason the dull noise was not quite so conspicuous. But she had not held her head up with sufficient care and had hit it. She turned her head, irritated and in pain, and rubbed it on the carpet.

‘Something has fallen in there,’ said the blueberry in the next room on the left. Chiaki tried to imagine to herself whether anything similar to what was happening to her today could have also happened at some point to the Rank Leader. At least one had to concede the possibility of such a thing. However, as if to give a rough answer to this question, the Rank Leader now took a few determined steps in the next room, with a squeak of her polished boots. From the neighboring room on the right Midori was whispering to inform Chiaki:  ‘Chiaki, Miss Sayaka is here.’ ‘I know,’ said Chiaki to herself. But she did not dare make her voice loud enough so that Midori could hear.

‘Murderface,’ Kyouko now said from the neighboring room on the left, ‘Sayaka-chan has come and is asking why you have not left on the early train. We don’t know what we should tell her. Besides, she also wants to speak to you personally. So please open the door. She will be good enough to forgive the mess in your room.’

In the middle of all this, the Rank Leader barked out in an unfriendly way, ‘Good morning, Warmaster.’ ‘She is not well,’ said Mami to the blueberry, while Kyouko was still talking at the door, ‘She is not well, believe me, Sayaka-san. Otherwise how would Chiaki-san miss a train! She has nothing in her head except Warmaster business. I’m almost angry that she never goes out at night. Right now she’s been doing paperwork for eight days, but she’s been at home every evening. She sits there with Midori at the table and reads the newspaper quietly or studies her dossiers. It’s a quite a diversion for her if she busies herself with fretwork. For instance, she cut out a small frame over the course of two or three evenings. You’d be amazed how pretty it is. It’s hanging right inside the room. You’ll see it immediately, as soon as Gregor opens the door. Anyway, I’m happy that you’re here, Sayaka-san. By ourselves, we would never have made Chiaki-san open the door. She’s so stubborn, and she’s certainly not well, although she denied that this morning.’

‘I’m coming right away,’ said Chiaki slowly and deliberately and didn’t move, so as not to lose one word of the conversation. ‘My dear Mami-san, I cannot explain it to myself in any other way,’ said the blueberry; ‘I hope it is nothing serious. On the other hand, I must also say that we magical girls, luckily or unluckily, however one looks at it, very often simply have to overcome a slight indisposition for professional reasons.’

‘So can Sayaka-chan come in to see you now’ asked Kyouko impatiently and knocked once again on the door. ‘No,’ said Chiaki. In the neighboring room on the left a painful stillness descended. In the neighboring room on the right Midori began to sob.

Why didn’t Midori go to the others? She’d probably just gotten up out of bed now and hadn’t even started to get dressed yet. Then why was she crying? Because she wasn’t getting up and wasn’t letting the manager in; because she was in danger of losing her position, and because then the blueberry would badger Mami and Kyouko once again about coddling Chiaki? Those were probably unnecessary worries right now. Chiaki was still here and wasn’t thinking at all about abandoning her friends. At the moment she was lying right there on the carpet, and no one who knew about her condition would’ve seriously demanded that she let the blueberry in. But Chiaki wouldn’t be casually dismissed right way because of this small discourtesy, for which she would find an easy and suitable excuse later on. It seemed to Chiaki that it might be far more reasonable to leave her in peace at the moment, instead of disturbing her with crying and conversation. But it was the very uncertainty which distressed the others and excused their behavior.

‘Warmaster Matsuda,’ the blueberry was now shouting, her voice raised, ‘what’s the matter? You are barricading yourself in your room, answer with only a yes and a no, are making serious and unnecessary troubles for your friends, and neglecting (I mention this only incidentally) your Warmaster duties in a truly unheard of manner. I am speaking here in the name of your friends and your Incubator, and I am requesting you in all seriousness for an immediate and clear explanation. I am amazed. I am amazed. I thought I knew you as a calm, reasonable person, and now you appear suddenly to want to start parading around in weird moods. The Incubator indicated to me earlier this very day a possible explanation for your neglect—it concerned the collection of cash entrusted to you a short while ago—but in truth I almost gave him my word of honour that this explanation could not be correct. However, now I see here your unimaginable pig headedness, and I am totally losing any desire to speak up for you in the slightest. And your position is not at all the most secure. Originally I intended to mention all this to you privately, but since you are letting me waste my time here uselessly, I don’t know why the matter shouldn’t come to the attention of your friends. Your productivity has also been very unsatisfactory recently. Of course, it’s not the time of year to conduct exceptional business, we recognize that, but a time of year for conducting no business, there is no such thing at all, Murderface, and such a thing must never be.’

‘But Sayaka,’ called Chiaki, beside herself and in her agitation forgetting everything else, ‘I’m opening the door immediately, this very moment. A slight indisposition, a dizzy spell, has prevented me from getting up. I’m still lying in bed right now. But now I’m quite refreshed once again. I’m in the midst of getting out of bed. Just have patience for a short moment! Things are not going so well as I thought. But things are all right. How suddenly this can overcome someone! Just yesterday evening everything was fine with me. Midori certainly know that. Actually just yesterday evening I had a small premonition. People must have seen that in me. Why have I not reported that to the office! But people always think that they’ll get over sickness without having to stay at home. Blueberry! Take it easy on Mami and Kyouko! There is really no basis for the criticisms which you are now making against me, and really nobody has said a word to me about that. Perhaps you have not read the latest orders which I shipped. Besides, now I’m setting out on my trip on the eight o’clock train; the few hours’ rest have made me stronger. Sayaka, do not stay. I will be at my desk in person right away. Please have the goodness to say that and to convey my respects to the Incubator.’

While Chiaki was quickly blurting all this out, hardly aware of what she was saying, she had moved close to the chest of drawers without effort, probably as a result of the practice she had already had in bed, and now she was trying to raise herself up on it. Actually, she wanted to open the door; she really wanted to let herself be seen by and to speak with the Rank Leader. She was keen to witness what the others now asking after her would say at the sight of her. If they were startled, then Chiaki had no more responsibility and could be calm. But if they accepted everything quietly, then she would have no reason to get excited and, if she got a move on, could really be at the station around eight o’clock.

At first she slid down a few times from the smooth chest of drawers. But at last she gave herself a final swing and stood upright there. She was no longer at all aware of the pains in her lower body, no matter how they might still sting. Now she let herself fall against the back of a nearby chair, on the edge of which she braced herself with her short limbs. By doing this she gained control over herself and kept quiet, for she could now hear the blueberry.

"Did you understand a word of all that?" the blueberry asked Mami and Kyouko, "surely she's not trying to make fools of us". "Oh, God!" called Mami, who was already in tears, "she could be seriously ill and we're making her suffer. Midori! Midori!" she then cried. "Mami-san?" Midori called from the other side. They communicated across Chiaki's room. "You'll have to go for Apothecary Asai straight away. Chiaki is ill. Quick, get the apothecary. Did you hear the way Chiaki spoke just now?" "That was the voice of an animal", said Sayaka, with a calmness that was in contrast with Mami's screams. "Mami-san! Mami-san!" Kyouko called into the kitchen through the entrance hall, clapping her hands, "get a demolition team here, now!" And the two girls, their skirts swishing, immediately ran out through the hall, wrenching open the front door of the flat as they went. How had Midori managed to get dressed so quickly? There was no sound of the door banging shut again; they must have left it open; people often do in homes where something awful has happened.

Chiaki, in contrast, had become much calmer. So they couldn't understand her words any more, although they seemed clear enough to her, clearer than before - perhaps her ears had become used to the sound. They had realized, though, that there was something wrong with her, and were ready to help. The first response to her situation had been confident and wise, and that made her feel better. She felt that she had been drawn back in among people, and from the apothecary and the demo-team she expected great and surprising achievements - although she did not really distinguish one from the other. Whatever was said next would be crucial, so, in order to make her voice as clear as possible, she coughed a little, but taking care to do this not too loudly as even this might well sound different from the way that a human coughs and she was no longer sure he could judge this for herself. Meanwhile, it had become very quiet in the next room. Perhaps her friends were sitting at the table whispering with the blueberry, or perhaps they were all pressed against the door and listening.

Chiaki slowly pushed her way over to the door with the chair. Once there she let go of it and threw herself onto the door, holding herself upright against it using the claws on the tips of her legs. She rested there a little while to recover from the effort involved and then set herself to the task of turning the key in the lock with her bill. She seemed, unfortunately, to have no proper teeth - how was she, then, to grasp the key? - but the lack of teeth was, of course, made up for with a very strong bill; using the bill, she really was able to start the key turning, ignoring the fact that she must have been causing some kind of damage as a milky fluid came from her mouth, flowed over the key, and dripped onto the floor.

"Listen", said the blueberry in the next room, "she's turning the key." Chiaki was greatly encouraged by this; but they all should have been calling to her, Mami and Kyouko too: "Well done, Chiaki", they should have cried, "keep at it, keep hold of the lock!" And with the idea that they were all excitedly following her efforts, she bit on the key with all his strength, paying no attention to the pain she was causing herself. As the key turned round she turned around the lock with it, only holding herself upright with her mouth, and hung onto the key or pushed it down again with the whole weight of her body as needed. The clear sound of the lock as it snapped back was Chiaki's sign that she could break her concentration, and as she regained her breath she said to herself: "So, I didn't need the locksmith after all". Then she lay her head on the handle of the door to open it completely.

Because she had to open the door in this way, it was already wide open before she could be seen. She had first to slowly turn herself around one of the double doors, and she had to do it very carefully if she did not want to fall flat on her back before entering the room. She was still occupied with this difficult movement, unable to pay attention to anything else, when she heard the blueberry exclaim a loud "Oh!", which sounded like the soughing of the wind. Now she also saw her - she was the nearest to the door - her hand pressed against her open mouth and slowly retreating as if driven by a steady and invisible force. Mami, her hair still loose and not in her trademark drills from bed despite the blueberry's being there, looked at Kyouko. Then she unfolded her arms, took two steps forward towards Chiaki and sank down onto the floor into her skirts that spread themselves out around her as her head disappeared down onto her breast. Kyouko looked hostile, and clenched her fists as if wanting to knock Chiaki back into her room. Then she looked uncertainly round the living room, covered her eyes with her hands and wept so that her powerful chest shook.

So Chiaki did not go into the room, but leant against the inside of the other door which was still held bolted in place. In this way only half of her body could be seen, along with her head above it which she leant over to one side as she peered out at the others. Meanwhile the day had become much lighter; part of the endless, grey-black building on the other side of the street - which was a hospital - could be seen quite clearly with the austere and regular line of windows piercing its façade; the rain was still falling, now throwing down large, individual droplets which hit the ground one at a time. The washing up from breakfast lay on the table; there was so much of it because, for Kyouko, breakfast was the most important meal of the day and she would stretch it out for several hours as she sat reading a number of different newspapers. On the wall exactly opposite there was photograph of Chiaki when she was a rank-and-file Vindicare, her Ingram in her hand and a dull look on her face as she called forth disrespect for her uniform and bearing. The door to the entrance hall was open and as the front door of the flat was also open she could see onto the landing and the stairs where they began their way down below.

"Now, then", said Chiaki, well aware that she was the only one to have kept calm, "I'll get dressed straight away now, pack up my weapons and set off. Will you please just let me leave? You can see", she said to the blueberry, "that I'm not stubborn and I like to do my job; being a Warmaster is arduous but without being a Warmaster I couldn't earn my living. So where are you going, in to the office? Yes? Will you report everything accurately, then? It's quite possible for someone to be temporarily unable to work, but that's just the right time to remember what's been achieved in the past and consider that later on, once the difficulty has been removed, he will certainly work with all the more diligence and concentration. You're well aware that I'm seriously in debt to our employer as well as having to look after my parents and my sister, so that I'm trapped in a difficult situation, but I will work my way out of it again. Please don't make things any harder for me than they are already, and don't take sides against me at the office. I know that nobody likes the Vindicares. They think we earn an enormous wage as well as having a soft time of it. That's just prejudice but they have no particular reason to think better of it. But you, Sayaka, you have a better overview than the rest of the Officio, in fact, if I can say this in confidence, a better overview than the Incubator himself - it's very easy for a mutant bastard cat like him to make mistakes about his employees and judge them more harshly than he should. And you're also well aware that we Warmasters spend almost the whole year locked away in the office, so that we can very easily fall victim to gossip and chance and groundless complaints, and it's almost impossible to defend yourself from that sort of thing, we don't usually even hear about them, or if at all it's when we arrive back home exhausted from a trip, and that's when we feel the harmful effects of what's been going on without even knowing what caused them. Please, don't go away, at least first say something to show that you grant that I'm at least partly right!"

But the blueberry had turned away as soon as Chiaki had started to speak, and, with protruding lips, only stared back at her over her trembling shoulders as she left. She did not keep still for a moment while Chiaki was speaking, but moved steadily towards the door without taking her eyes off her. She moved very gradually, as if there had been some secret prohibition on leaving the room. It was only when she had reached the entrance hall that she made a sudden movement, drew her foot from the living room, and rushed forward in a panic. In the hall, she stretched her right hand far out towards the stairway as if out there, there were some supernatural force waiting to save her.

Chiaki realized that it was out of the question to let the Rank Leader go away in this mood if her position in the Officio was not to be put into extreme danger. That was something her friends did not understand very well; over the years, they had become convinced that this job would provide for Chiaki for her entire life, and besides, they had so much to worry about at present that they had lost sight of any thought for the future. Chiaki, though, did think about the future. The blueberry had to be held back, calmed down, convinced and finally won over; the future of Chiaki and his family depended on it! If only Midori were here! She was clever; she was already in tears while Chiaki was still lying peacefully on her back. And the blueberry was a lover of green-haired, large-breasted women, surely she could persuade her; she would close the front door in the entrance hall and talk her out of her shocked state. But Midori was not there, Chiaki would have to do the job herself.

And without considering that she still was not familiar with how well she could move about in her present state, or that her speech still might not - or probably would not - be understood, she let go of the door; pushed herself through the opening; tried to reach the blueberry on the landing who, ridiculously, was holding on to the banister with both hands; but Chiaki fell immediately over and, with a little scream as she sought something to hold onto, landed on her useless little legs. Hardly had that happened then, for the first time that day, she began to feel alright with her body; the little legs had the solid ground under them; to her pleasure, they did exactly as she told them; they were even making the effort to carry her where she wanted to go; and she was soon believing that all her sorrows would soon be finally at an end. She held back the urge to move but swayed from side to side as she crouched there on the floor.

Mami was not far away in front of her and seemed, at first, quite engrossed in herself, but then she suddenly jumped up with her arms outstretched and her fingers spread shouting: "Help, for pity's sake, Help!" The way she held her head suggested she wanted to see Chiaki better, but the unthinking way she was hurrying backwards showed that she did not; she had forgotten that the table was behind her with all the breakfast things on it; when she reached the table she sat quickly down on it without knowing what she was doing; without even seeming to notice that the coffee pot had been knocked over and a gush of coffee was pouring down onto the carpet.

"Mami, Mami", said Chiaki gently, looking up at her. She had completely forgotten the blueberry for the moment, but could not help herself snapping in the air with her jaws at the sight of the flow of coffee. That set her mother screaming anew, she fled from the table and into the arms of Kyouko as she rushed towards her. Chiaki, though, had no time to spare for her friends now; the blueberry had already reached the stairs; with her chin on the banister, she looked back for the last time. Chiaki made a run for her; she wanted to be sure of reaching her; the blueberry must have expected something, as she leapt down several steps at once and disappeared; her shouts resounding all around the staircase.

The flight of the blueberry seemed, unfortunately, to put Kyouko into a panic as well. Until then she had been relatively self controlled, but now, instead of running after the blueberry herself, or at least not impeding Chiaki as she ran after her, Kyouko seized the blueberry's curved red sword in her right hand (the blueberry had left it behind on a chair, along with her hat and cape), picked up a large newspaper from the table with her left, and used them to drive Chiaki back into her room, stamping her foot at her as she went.

Chiaki's appeals to Kyouko were of no help, her appeals were simply not understood, howevermuch she humbly turned her head Kyouko merely stamped her foot all the harder. Across the room, despite the chilly weather, Mami had pulled open a window, leant far out of it and pressed her hands to her face. A strong draught of air flew in from the street towards the stairway, the curtains flew up, the newspapers on the table fluttered and some of them were blown onto the floor. Nothing would stop Kyouko as she drove her back, making hissing noises at her like a wild woman. Chiaki had never had any practice in moving backwards and was only able to go very slowly. If Chiaki had only been allowed to turn round she would have been back in her room straight away, but she was afraid that if she took the time to do that Kyouko would become impatient, and there was the threat of a lethal blow to her back or head from the sword in Kyouko's hand any moment. Eventually, though, Chiaki realised that she had no choice as she saw, to her disgust, that she was quite incapable of going backwards in a straight line; so she began, as quickly as possible and with frequent anxious glances at Kyouko, to turn herself round. It went very slowly, but perhaps Kyouko was able to see her good intentions as she did nothing to hinder her, in fact now and then she used the tip of her sword to give directions from a distance as to which way to turn.

If only Kyouko would stop that unbearable hissing! It was making Chiaki quite confused. When she had nearly finished turning round, still listening to that hissing, she made a mistake and turned herself back a little the way she had just come. She was pleased when she finally had her head in front of the doorway, but then saw that it was too narrow, and his body was too broad to get through it without further difficulty. In her present mood, it obviously did not occur to Kyouko to open the other of the double doors so that Chiaki would have enough space to get through. She was merely fixed on the idea that Chiaki should be gotten back into her room as quickly as possible. Nor would she ever have allowed Chiaki the time to get herself upright as preparation for getting through the doorway.

What she did, making more noise than ever, was to drive Chiaki forwards all the harder as if there had been nothing in the way; it sounded to Chiaki as if there was now more than one Kyouko behind her; it was not a pleasant experience, and Chiaki pushed herself into the doorway without regard for what might happen. One side of his body lifted itself, she lay at an angle in the doorway, one flank scraped on the white door and was painfully injured, leaving vile brown flecks on it, soon she was stuck fast and would not have been able to move at all by herself, the little legs along one side hung quivering in the air while those on the other side were pressed painfully against the ground. Then Kyouko gave her a hefty shove from behind which released her from where she was held and sent her flying, and heavily bleeding, deep into her room. The door was slammed shut with the sword, then, finally, all was quiet.