|
|
When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say, "But I thought he was a boy?"
"So did I," said Relena Darlian.
"Then you can't call him Yui?"
"I don't."
"But you said -- "
"He's Hiirotsu Yui. Don't you know what 'tsu' means?"
"Aa, soo, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you do, too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get.
Sometimes Hiiro Yui likes a training exercise of some sort when he comes downstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit quietly in front of the fire and listen to a story. This evening --
"What about a story?" said Relena Darlian.
"What about a story?" I said.
"Could you very sweetly tell Hiiro Yui one?"
"I suppose I could," I said. "What sort of stories does he like?"
"About himself. Because he's that sort of Pilot."
"Soo ka."
"So could you very sweetly?"
"I'll try," I said.
So I tried.
* * * * *
Mukashi-mukashi, a very long time ago now, could it be last Thursday, Hiiro Yui lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Pochi.
("What does 'under the name' mean?" asked Relena Darlian.
"It means he had the name over the door in gold letters, and lived under it."
"Hiiro Yui wasn't quite sure," said Relena Darlian.
"Now I am," said a slightly nasal voice.
"Then I will go on," said I.)
One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree, and, from the top of the tree, came a loud buzzing-noise.
Hiiro Yui sat down at the foot of the tree, rested his chin on his hand, stuck the tip of his tongue out of the corner of his mouth, and began to think.
First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're flying around."
Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason for flying around that I know of is going to or away from a base."
And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for going to or away from a base is so I can blow it up." So he began to climb the tree.
He
climbed
and
he
climbed
and
he
climbed,
and
as
he
climbed
he
sang
a
little
uta
to
himself.
It
went
like
this:
Bakuhatsu wa
waga sukimono da.
Okashii na.
Then he climbed a little further... and a little further... and just a little further. By that time he had thought of another uta.
Tobimono wa
hito ni nattara
sono honkyo
bakuhatsu sasete
noboranai hazu.
He was getting rather tired by this time, so that is why he sang a Complaining Song. He was nearly there now, and if he just stood on that branch...
Crack!
"Fn," said Hiiro, as he dropped ten feet onto the branch below him.
"Shimatta," he said, as he bounced twenty feet onto the next branch.
"Ore no tsumori," he explained, as he turned head-over-heels, and crashed onto another branch thirty feet below, "tsumori wa -- "
"It was rather -- " he admitted, as he slithered very quickly through the next six branches.
"It's for the sake, I suppose," he decided, as he said good-bye to the last branch, spun round three times, and flew gracefully into a prickly-bush, "for the sake of being fond of explosions. Fn."
He crawled out of the prickly-bush, brushed the prickles from his shirt, and began to think again. And the first person he thought of was Relena Darlian.
("Was that me?" said Relena Darlian in an awed voice, hardly daring to believe it.
"That was you."
Relena Darlian said nothing, but her eyes got larger and larger, and her face got pinker and pinker.)
So Hiiro Yui went round to his friend Relena Darlian, who lived behind a pink door in another part of the forest.
"Relena," he said.
"Hiiro," said you.
"Have you a balloon?"
"A balloon?"
"I came along, and I wondered and said to myself, 'I wonder, has Relena a balloon?' I just said it to myself, thinking of balloons and wondering."
"What do you want a balloon for?" you said.
Hiiro Yui looked round to see that nobody was listening, put his hand to his mouth, and said in a husky voice, "Blowing up a base!"
"But you don't blow up a base with balloons!"
"I do," said Hiiro.
Well, it just happened that you had been to a party the day before at the house of your friend Quatre Raberba Winner, and you had balloons at the party. You had had a big green balloon; and one of Quatre's relations had had a big blue one, and had left it behind, being really too young to go to a party at all; and so you had brought the green one and the blue one home with you.
"Which one would you like?" you asked Hiiro.
He rested his chin on his hand, stuck the tip of his tongue out of the corner of his mouth, and thought very carefully.
"Jitsu wa," he said. "When you blow up a base with a balloon, the great thing is not to let the soldiers know you're coming. With a green balloon, they might think you were only part of the tree, and not notice you, and with a blue balloon, they might think you were only part of the sky, and not notice you; which is most likely?"
"Wouldn't they notice you underneath the balloon?" you said.
"They might or they might not," said Hiiro Yui. "You never can tell with soldiers." He thought for a moment and said: "I shall try to look like a small black cloud. That will deceive them."
"Then you had better have the blue balloon," you said; and so it was decided.
Well, you both went out with the blue balloon, and you took your gun with you, just in case, because Hiiro asked you to five times, and Hiiro Yui went to a very muddy place that he knew of, and rolled and rolled until he was black all over; and then, when the balloon was blown up big as big, and you and Hiiro were both holding on to the string, you let go suddenly, and pilot Hiiro floated gracefully into the sky, and stayed there -- level with the top of the tree and about twenty feet away from it.
"Yatta!" you shouted.
"Soo ka," shouted Hiiro Yui down to you. "Doo?"
"You look like a very muddy pilot holding on to a balloon," you said.
"Not," said Hiiro anxiously, " -- not like a small black cloud in a blue sky?"
"Not very much."
"Fn. Perhaps from here it looks different. Sore ni, you never can tell with soldiers."
There was no wind to blow him nearer to the tree, and no propulsion system on the balloon, so there he stayed. He could see the flying things going in and out of their base, he could hear the base humming, but he couldn't quite reach the base.
After a little while he called down to you.
"Relena," he said in a loud whisper.
"Hiiro."
"I think the flying things Suspect something."
"What sort of thing?
"I don't know. But something tells me that they're Suspicious."
"Perhaps they think that you want to blow up their base."
"It may be that. You never can tell with soldiers."
There was another little silence, and then he called down to you again.
"Relena."
"Hiiro."
"Have you an umbrella in your house?"
"I think so."
"Bring it out here, walk up and down with it, look up at me every now and then, and say 'Mou, it looks like rain.' Tanomu. If you did that, it should help the deception."
Well, you laughed to yourself, "Boke!" but you didn't say it aloud because you were so fond of him, and you went home for your umbrella.
"You've come," called down Hiiro, as soon as you got back to the tree. "I have discovered that the soldiers are now definitely Suspicious."
"Shall I put my umbrella up?" you said.
"Wait a moment. Let's be practical. The important one to deceive is the Base Commander. Can you see which is the Commander from down there?"
"No."
"Zannen. Saa, if you walk up and down with your umbrella, saying 'Mou, it looks like rain,' I shall do what I can by singing a little Cloud Song, such as a cloud might sing... Start!"
So, while you walked up and down and wondered if it would rain, Hiiro Yui sang this uta:
Aozora ni
Aozora ni
The flying things were still buzzing as suspiciously as ever.
Some of them, indeed, left their nests and flew all round the cloud as
it began the second stanza of the uta, and one flying thing made a tail-first
landing on the nose of the cloud for a moment, and then took off again.
"Rele -- nngh! -- na," called out the cloud.
"Hiiro?"
"I have been observing and have drawn a most important conclusion.
These are the wrong sort of flying things."
"Are they?"
"Zettai da. So I should think they would have the wrong sort of
base, shouldn't you?"
"Would they?"
"Soo. So I think I shall come down."
"How?" asked you.
Hiiro Yui hadn't thought about this. If he let go of the string,
he would fall -- bump -- and that didn't quite seem optimal. So
he thought for a long time, and then he said:
"Relena. You must shoot the balloon with your gun. Have you it
with you?"
"Of course I have, you told me to bring it," you said. "But if
I do that, it will spoil the balloon," you said.
"But if you don't," said Hiiro, "I shall have to let go
of the balloon, and that might spoil me."
When he put it like this, you saw how it was, and you aimed very
carefully at the balloon, and fired.
"Fn," said Hiiro.
"Did I miss?" you asked.
"You didn't exactly miss," said Hiiro, "but you missed
the balloon."
"I'm so sorry," you said, and you fired again, and this time you
hit the balloon, and the air came slowly out, and Hiiro Yui floated down
to the ground.
But his arms were so stiff from holding on to the string of the
balloon all the time that they stayed up straight in the air for nearly
a week, and whenever danger threatened he had to kickbox it into submission.
And I think -- but I am not sure -- that that is why he was always
called Hiiro.
"Is that the end of the story?" asked Relena Darlian.
"That's the end of that one. There are others."
"About Hiiro and Me?"
"And Quatre and Trowa and all of you. Don't you remember?"
"I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget."
"That day when Hiiro and Quatre tried to catch the Zephir -- "
"They didn't catch it, did they?"
"No."
"Hiiro couldn't, because he hasn't any sense. Did I catch
it?"
"Well, that comes into the story."
Relena Darlian nodded.
"I do remember," she said, "only Hiiro doesn't very well, so that's
why he likes having it told to him again. Because then it's a real story
and not just remembered mission logs."
"That's just how I feel," I said.
Relena gave a deep sigh, picked her pilot up by the ankle, and
walked off to the door, trailing Hiiro behind her. At the door she turned
and said "Coming to tuck me in?"
"I might," I said.
"I didn't hurt him when I shot him, did I?"
"Of course not."
She nodded and went out, and in a moment I heard Hiiro Yui --
bump, bump, bump -- going up the stairs behind her.
"I've got two names," said Relena Darlian carelessly.
"So do I, and there you are, that proves it," said Quatre.
One fine winter's day when Quatre was brushing away the snow in
front of his house, he happened to look up, and there was Hiiro Yui. Hiiro
was walking round and round in a circle, thinking of something else, and
when Quatre called to him, he just went on walking.
"Konnichi wa tteba," said Quatre. "What are you doing?"
"Hunting," said Hiiro.
"Hunting what?"
"Tracking something," said Hiiro very mysteriously.
"Tracking what?" said Quatre, coming closer.
"That's the question. What?"
"What's the answer?"
"I'll find it when I catch up to it," said Hiiro Yui. "Look there."
He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do you see?"
"Tracks," said Quatre. "Foot-marks." He gave a little squeak of
excitement. "Hiiro! Do you think it's a -- a -- an Ousel?"
"Maybe," said Hiiro. "It could, and it could not. You never can
tell with foot-marks."
With these few words he went on tracking, and Quatre, after watching
him for a minute or two, ran after him. Hiiro Yui had come to a sudden
stop, and was bending over the tracks in a puzzled sort of way.
"What is it?" asked Quatre.
"It's a very funny thing," said the pilot, "but there seem to
be two creatures now. This -- whatever-it-was -- has been joined
by another -- whatever-it-is -- and the two of them are now proceeding
in company. Would you mind coming with me, Quatre, in case they turn out
to be of Hostile Intent?"
Quatre scratched his temple in a nice sort of way, and said that
he had nothing to do until Friday, and would be delighted to come, in case
it really was an Ousel.
"You mean, in case it really is two Ousels," said Hiiro Yui, and
Quatre said that anyhow he had nothing to do until Friday. So they went.
There was a small thicket of larch trees just there, and it seemes
as if the two Ousels, if that is what they were, had been going round this
thicket; so round this thicket went Hiiro and Quatre after them; Quatre
passing the time by telling Hiiro what his Grandfather Trespassers W had
done to Remove Stiffness after Tracking, and how his Grandfather Trespassers
W had sufferered in his later years from Shortness of Breath, and other
matters of interest, and Hiiro wondering what a Grandfather was like, and
if perhaps this was Two Grandfathers they were after now, and, if so, whether
he would be allowed to take one home and keep it, and what Relena Darlian
would say. And still the tracks went on in front of them...
Suddenly Hiiro Yui stopped, and pointed as excitedly as he usually
got (which was not that much) in front of him. "Look!"
"What?" said Quatre, with a jump. And then, to show that
he hadn't been frightened, he jumped up and down once or twice more in
an exercising sort of way.
"The tracks!" said Hiiro. "A third creature has joined the
other two!"
"Hiiro!" cried Quatre. "Do you think it is another Ousel?"
"No, it makes different marks," said Hiiro. "It is either Two
Ousels and one, as it might be, Easel, or Two, as it might be, Easels,
and one, if so it is, Ousel. Let's go on."
So they went on, feeling just a little nervous now, in case the
three in front of them were of Hostile Intent. And Quatre wished very much
that his Grandfather T. W. and all his friends and relations were there,
instead of elsewhere, and Hiiro thought how convenient it would be if they
met Trowa suddenly but quite accidentally, and only because he got along
with Trowa so well. And then, all of a sudden, Hiiro Yui stopped again,
and licked his upper lip in a cooling manner, for he was starting to feel
hot and anxious for the first time in his life. There were four creatures
in front of them!
"Look at their tracks, Quatre. Three, as it were, Ousels, and
one, as it was, Easel. Another Ousel has joined them!"
And so it seemed to be. There were the tracks; crossing over each
other here, getting muddled up with each other there; but, quite plainly,
every now and then, the tracks of four sets of feet.
"I think," said Quatre, when he had licked his upper lip
too, and found that it brought very little comfort, "I think that
I have just remembered something. I have just remembered something that
I meant to do with Trowa yesterday and shan't be able to do tomorrow. So
I suppose I really ought to go meet him and do it now."
"We'll do it this afternoon, and I'll come with you," said Hiiro.
"It isn't the sort of thing you can do in the afternoon," said
Quatre quickly. "It's a very particular morning thing, that has to be done
in the morning, and, if possible, between the hours of -- What would you
say the time was?"
"About twelve," said Hiiro Yui, looking at the sun.
"Between, as I was saying, the hours of twelve and twelve five.
So, really, Hiiro-chan, if you'll excuse me -- What's that?"
Hiiro looked up at the sky, one hand going to the small of his
back; and then, as he heard the whistle again, he looked up into the branches
of a big oak-tree, and then he saw a friend of his.
"It's Relena Darlian," he said.
"Ah, then you'll be all right," said Quatre. "You'll be quite
safe with her. Good-bye," and he trotted off to Trowa's as quickly
as he could, very glad to be Out of All Danger Again.
Hiiro peered from Relena Darlian to his retreating form Rather
Dubiously.
Relena Darlian came slowly down her tree.
"Hiiro, boke," she said, "what were you doing? First you
went round the thicket twice by yourself, and then Quatre went round after
you and you went round again together, and then you were just going round
a fourth time -- "
"Wait a moment," said Hiiro Yui, holding up his hand.
He sat down and thought, in the most thoughtful way he could think.
Then he fitted his ugly but comfortable sneaker into one of the Tracks...
and then he scratched his nose twice, and stood up.
"Soo," said Hiiro Yui.
"Wakatta," said Hiiro Yui.
"Shippai," said Hiiro Yui.
"I have been Foolish and Deluded," said he, "and I am a Pilot
of No Sense At All."
"You're the Best Pilot in All the World," said Relena Darlian
soothingly.
"Am I?" said Hiiro hopefully. And then he brightened up suddenly.
"Anyhow," he said, "it is nearly Mission Time."
So he went off on it.
Odin Lowe, Jr., known to his friends as Hiiro Yui, or Hiiro for
short, was walking through the forest one day, humming proudly to himself.
He had made up a little uta that very morning, as he was doing his Fitness
Exercises in front of the glass: Fn-fn-fu, n-fn-fn-fn, as he stretched
up as high as he could go, and then Fn-fn-fu, n-fn-fn -- che! --
fn, as he tried to reach between his legs and touch the middle of
his back. After his mission he had said it over and over to himself until
he had learnt it off by heart, and now he was humming it right through,
properly. It went like this:
Well, he was humming this uta to himself, and walking along stolidly,
wondering what everyone else was doing, and what it felt like, being somebody
else, when suddenly he came to a sandy bank, and in the bank was a small
hole.
"Saa," said Hiiro. (Lai-ya-la u um.) "If I know anything
about anything, that hole means Trowa," he said, "and Trowa means Catherine
and Food and Planning and Listening-to-Me-Humming and the like. Fuun-ya
u um."
So he bent down, put his head into the hole, and called out:
"Is anybody at home?"
There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole, and then
silence.
"'Is anybody at home' tteba!" called out Hiiro very loudly.
"No!" said a voice, and then added, "You needn't shout so loud.
I heard you quite well enough the first time."
"Shimatta!" said Hiiro. "Isn't there anybody here at all?"
"Nobody."
Hiiro Yui took his head out of the hole, and thought for a little,
and he thought to himself "There must be somebody there, because somebody
must have said 'Nobody.'" So he put his head back in the hole, and
said:
"Catherine ja nai ka?"
"Hai," said Catherine, in a different sort of voice this time.
"But isn't that Catherine's voice?"
"I don't think so," said Catherine. "It isn't meant
to be."
"Aa," said Hiiro.
He took his head out of the hole, and had another think, and then
he put it back, and said:
"Where is Catherine?"
"She has gone with Trowa to see his friend Pilot 01, who is a
great friend of his."
"But this is Me!" said 01, very much surprised.
"What sort of Me?"
"Pilot 01."
"Are you sure?" said Catherine, still more surprised.
"Zettai da," said Hiiro.
"Oh, well, then, come in."
So Hiiro wriggled and wriggled and wriggled his way through the
hole, and at last he got in.
"You were quite right," said Catherine, looking at him all over.
"It is you."
"Glad to see you," put in Trowa from the corner, balancing upside-down
on the back of his neck.
"Who did you think it was?"
"Well, I wasn't sure. You know how it is in the Forest. One can't
have anybody coming into one's house. One has to be careful.
What about a mouthful of something?"
Hiiro always liked a little something after a hard mission, and
he was very glad to see Catherine getting out the bowls and mugs; and when
Catherine said "Nattou or stewed oxtail with your soup?" he was so excited
that he said "Both," and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, "But
don't bother about the soup, please." And for a long time after that he
said nothing... until at last, humming to himself in a very sticky way,
he got up, bowed un-stiffly to Catherine and to Trowa, and said that he
must be going on.
"Must you?" said Trowa politely.
Hiiro thought for a moment. "I could stay a little longer if it
-- if you -- " and he tried very hard not to look in the direction of the
hangar.
"As a matter of fact," said Catherine, "we were going out ourselves
directly."
"Wakatta. I'll be going on. Ja mata."
"Ee, mata ne, if you're sure you won't have any more."
"Is there any more?" Trowa said, lowering an eyebrow (still
being upside down).
Catherine took the covers off the dishes, and said "No, there
wasn't."
"I thought not," said Hiiro, nodding to himself. "Ja, mata. I
must be going on."
So he started to wriggle out of the hole. He pulled with his hands,
and he pushed with his feet, and in a little while his fingers were out
in the open again... and then his forearms... and then his bangs... and
then his shoulders.. and then --
"Fn," said Hiiro. "I'd better go back."
"Shimatta," said Hiiro. "I shall have to go on."
"Dotchi mo dame," said Hiiro. "Fn and shimatta."
Now by this time Trowa wanted to go for a walk too, and, finding
their back door full, he went out through the mobile suit hangar, and came
round to Hiiro, and looked at him.
"Stuck?" he asked.
"Chigau," said Hiiro, "I'm resting and thinking and humming to myself."
"Saa, give us a hand."
Pilot 01 stretched out a hand, and Trowa pulled and pulled, and
presently Catherine came around and took hold of the other hand and pulled
and pulled and pulled...
"Itai!" gasped Hiiro. "Dame da."
"The fact is," said Catherine, "you're stuck."
"It all comes," said Hiiro crossly, "of having ridiculously narrow
back doors."
"It all comes," said Catherine sternly, "of eating too much. I
thought at the time," said Catherine, "only I didn't like to say anything,"
said Catherine, "that one of us was eating too much," said Catherine, "and
I knew it wasn't me," she said.
"Perhaps it was me," said Trowa.
Catherine gave him a Look. "Ma, ika. I shall go and fetch Relena
Darlian."
Relena Darlian lived at the other end of the Forest, and when
she came back with Catherine, and saw the front half of Hiiro, she said
"Boke," in such a loving voice that everybody felt quite hopeful again.
"I was just beginning to think," said Trowa, folding himself up
next to Hiiro, "that Catherine might never be able to use her back door
again. And I should hate that," he said.
"So should I," said Catherine.
"Use her back door again?" said Relena Darlian. "Of course she'll
use her back door again."
"Good," said Catherine.
"If we can't pull you out, Hiiro, we might push you back."
Catherine scratched the back of her scalp thoughtfully, and pointed
out that once Hiiro was pushed back, he was back, and of course nobody
was more glad to see Hiiro than they were, still there it was, some lived
in trees and some lived underground, and --
"You mean I'd never get out?" said Hiiro.
"I mean," said Catherine, "that having got so far, it seems
a pity to waste it."
Relena Darlian nodded.
"But what about --- " Trowa began.
Catherine kicked him in the shin.
"Be nice," Relena Darlian said. "Then there's only one thing to
be done," she said. "We shall have to wait for you to get thin again."
"How long does getting thin take?" asked Hiiro anxiously.
"About a week, I should think."
"But I can't stay here for a week!"
"You can stay here all right, boke. It's getting you out
which is so difficult."
"We'll read to you," said Catherine cheerfully. "And I hope it
won't snow," she said. "Soshite -- ne, Hiiro-kun, you're taking up a good
deal of room in our house -- do you mind if I use your ankles as
a towel-rack? Because, I mean, there they are -- doing nothing -- and it
would be very convenient just to hang the towels and so forth on them."
"A week!" said Hiiro gloomily. "What about my laptop?"
"I'm afraid you can't have it," said Relena Darlian, "because
of having no protection against Unfriendly Weather. But we will
read to you."
01 began to sigh, and then found he couldn't because he was so
tightly stuck; and a tickle got into the back of his throat, as he said:
"Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and
comfort a Wedged Pilot in Great Tightness?"
So for a week Relena Darlian read that sort of book at the North
end of Hiiro,
and Catherine hung her washing on the South end... and in between
01 felt himself getting slenderer and slenderer. And at the end of the
week Relena Darlian said, "Now!"
So she took hold of Hiiro's hands, and Catherine took hold of
Relena Darlian, and Trowa took hold of Catherine, and Quatre took hold
of Trowa, and all Quatre's friends and relations took hold of Quatre, and
they all pulled together...
And for a long time Hiiro only said "Fn."...
And "Fuuuu!"...
And then, all of a sudden, he said "Pop!" just as if a
cork were coming out of a bottle.
And Relena Darlian and Catherine and Trowa and Quatre and all
Quatre's friends and relations went head-over-heels backwards... and on
the top of them came Hiiro Yui -- free!
So, with a nod of thanks to his friends, he went on with his walk
through the forest, humming proudly to himself. But Relena Darlian looked
after him lovingly, and said to herself, "Boke!"
tadayou kumo wa
utaimasu.
tadayou kumo wa
ureshii wa.
~ in which Hiiro and Quatre go hunting and nearly catch an Ousel ~
The Quatre Raberba Winner lived in a very grand house in the middle
of a beech-tree, and the beech-tree was in the middle of the Forest, and
the Quatre lived in the middle of the house. Next to the house was a piece
of broken board which said "TRESPASSERS W" on it. When Relena Darlian asked
the Quatre what it meant, he said it was his grandfather's name, and had
been in the family for a long time. Relena Darlian said that you couldn't
be called Trespassers W, and Quatre said yes, you could, because his grandfather
was, and it was short for Trespassers Will, which was short for Trespassers
William. And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost one -- Trespassers
after an uncle, and William after Trespassers.
~ in which Hiiro goes visiting and gets into a tight place ~
~ in which Uufei appears and Hiiro has a mission ~
The Solitary Dragon, Uufei, stood by himself in a peppery corner
of the forest, his arms folded, his head to one side, and thought about
things. Sometimes he thought to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought,
"Wherefore?" amd sometimes he thought "Inasmuch as which?" -- and sometimes
he didn't quite know what he was thinking about. So when Hiiro Yui
came stomping along, Uufei was very glad to be able to stop thinking for
a while, in order to say "Ikaga desu ka?" in a gloomy manner to him.
"Sotchi wa ikaga?" said Hiiro Yui.
Uufei shook his head from side to side.
"Not very ikaga," he said. "I don't seem to have felt at all ikaga for a long time."
"Fn," said Hiiro. "Zannen da. Let me have a look at you."
So Uufei stood there, gazing sadly at the ground, and Hiiro Yui walked all round him once.
"Fu. What's happened to your ponytail?"
"What has happened to it?" said Uufei.
"It isn't there!"
"Are you sure?"
"Either a ponytail is there or it isn't there. You can't make a mistake about it. And yours isn't there!"
"Then what is?"
"Nothing."
"Let me have a look," said Uufei, and he turned slowly round to the place where his ponytail had been a little while ago, and then, finding that he couldn't catch it up, he turned round the other way, until he came back to where he was at first, and then he found a nearby Still Pool, turned around, bent over backwards, turned his head sideways, and peered at his reflection behind him, and at last he said, with a long, sad sigh, "I believe you're right."
"Mochiron," said Hiiro.
"That Accounts for a Good Deal," said Uufei gloomily. "It Explains Everything. No Wonder."
"You must have left it somewhere," said Hiiro Yui.
"Somebody must have taken it," said Uufei. "How Like Them," he added after a long silence.
Hiiro felt that he ought to say something helpful about it, but had no idea what. So he decided to do something helpful instead.
"Uufei," he said solemnly, "kono Hiiro Yui no ninmu wa, finding your ponytail for you."
"Thank you, Yui," said Uufei. "You're a real friend, said he. "Not like Some," he said.
So Hiiro Yui set out on Mission Find Uufei's Ponytail.
It was a fine spring morning in the Forest as he started out. Little soft clouds played happily in a blue sky, skipping from time to time in front of the sun as if they had come to put it out, and then sliding away suddenly so that the next might have its turn. Through them and between them the sun shone bravely; and a copse which had worn its firs all the year round seemed old and dowdy now beside the new green lace which the beeches had put on so prettily. Noting all these things and setting them aside, through copse and thicket marched 01; down open slopes of prickly-bushes and heather, over rocky beds of streams, up steep banks of sandstone into the heather again; and so at last, pleasantly exercised and a little hungry, to the Hyakuchoubayashi. For it was in the Hyakuchoubayashi that Dorothy lived.
"And if anyone knows anything about anything," said the pilot to himself, "it's Dorothy who knows something about something," he said, "or my name's not Hiiro Yui," he said. "Which it is," he added. "So there you are."
Dorothy lived at Kuritsubo, a classical pavilion of great charm, which was grander than anybody else's, or seemed so to 01, because it had both a knocker and a bell-pull. Underneath the knocker there was a notice, in English, which said:
PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD.
Underneath the bell-pull there was a notice which said:
PLEZ CNOKE IF AN RNSR IS NOT REQID.
These notices had been written by Relena Darlian, who was the only one in the forest who could spell in English: for Dorothy, wise though she was in many ways, able to read and write English and spell her own name DROTHY, yet somehow went all to pieces over delicate words like PACIFISM and NUCLEARDISARMAMENT.
Hiiro Yui read the two notices very carefully, first from left to right, and afterwards, in case he had missed some of it, from right to left. Then, in order to make quite sure, he knocked and pulled the knocker, and he pulled and knocked the bell-rope, and he called out in a very loud voice, "Dorothy! I require an answer! 01 here." And the door opened, and Dorothy looked out.
"Konnichi wa, Hiiro-san," she said. "Ikaga desu ka?"
"Terrible and Sad," said Hiiro, "Uufei, a friend of mine, has lost his ponytail. And he's Moping about it. Tell me how to find it for him."
"Saa," said Dorothy, "the customary procedure in such cases is as follows."
"What does Chastimary ProC-4 mean?" said Hiiro. "For I am a Pilot of Very Little Sense, and nonspecific words Bother me."
"It means the Thing to Do."
"As long as it means that, I don't mind," said Hiiro, shrugging.
"The thing to do is as follows. First, Issue a Reward. Then -- "
"Chotto," said Hiiro, holding up his hand. "What do we do to this -- what you were saying? You sneezed just as you were going to tell me."
"I didn't sneeze."
"Yes, you did, Dorothy."
"Sumimasen, Hiiro-san, I didn't. You can't sneeze without knowing it."
"Well, you can't know it without something having been sneezed."
"What I said was, 'First Issue a Reward.'"
"You're doing it again," said Hiiro tonelessly.
"A Reward!" said Dorothy very loudly. "We write a notice to say that to anybody who finds Uufei's ponytail, oomono o ageru."
"Aa, soo," said Hiiro, nodding his head. "Ageru to," he went on dreamily, "ore ga Wing o ageru, usually around now -- about this time in the morning," and he looked wistfully at the Stardust Memory cels hanging in the dimmest corner of Dorothy's parlor; "taking it up very quickly at first, and then leveling out perhaps around twelve thousand meters -- "
"Well, then," said Dorothy, "we write out this notice, and we put it up all over the Forest."
"Twelve thousand meters," murmured 01, "or -- or not, as the case may be." And he gave a deep sigh, and tried very hard to listen to what Dorothy was saying.
But Dorothy went on and on, using longer and longer words, until at last she came back to where she started, and she explained that the person to write out this notice was Relena Darlian.
"It was she who wrote the ones on my front door for me. Did you see them, Hiiro-san?"
For some time now Hiiro had been saying ""Aa" and "Iya" in turn, with his eyes shut, to all that Dorothy was saying, and having said "Aa, soo," last time, he said "Iya, zenzen," now, without really knowing what Dorothy was talking about.
"Didn't you see them?" said Dorothy, a little surprised. "Come and look at them now."
So they went outside. And Hiiro looked at the knocker and the notice below it, and he looked at the bell-rope and the notice below it, and the more he looked at the bell-rope, the more he felt that he had seen something like it, somewhere else, sometime before.
"Handsome bell-rope, isn't it?" said Dorothy.
Hiiro nodded.
"It reminds me of something," he said, "but I can't think what. Where did you get it?"
"I just came across it in the Forest. It was hanging over a bush, and I thought at first somebody lived there, so I rang it, and nothing happened, and then I rang it again very loudly, and it came off in my hand, and as nobody seemed to want it, I took it home, and -- "
"Dorothy," said Hiiro solemnly, "you made a mistake. Somebody did want it."
"Who?"
"Uufei. Nakama no Uufei. He was -- he was fond of it."
"Fond of it?"
"Attached to it," said Hiiro Yui sadly.
So with these words he unhooked it, and carried it back to Uufei; and when Relena Darlian had rubber-cemented it back into its right place again, Uufei frisked about the forest, waving his ponytail so happily that Hiiro Yui came all over funny, and had to hurry home and take Wing up for a spin to sustain himself. And, practicing complicated loops above the clouds half an hour afterwards, he sang to himself proudly:
"Uufei no
osage mitsukecha
ore datta
kono Hiiro Yui.
Ninmu kanryou."
"What was it doing?" asked Quatre.
"Just zerphing along," said Relena Darlian. "I don't think it saw me."
"I saw one once," said Quatre. "At least, I think I did," he said. "Only perhaps it wasn't."
"Ore mo," said Hiiro, wondering what a Zephir was like.
"You don't often see them," said Relena Darlian carelessly.
"Not now," said Quatre.
"Not at this time of year," said Hiiro.
Then they all talked about something else, until it was time for Hiiro and Quatre to go home together. At first as they stumped along the path which edged the Hyakuchoubayashi, they didn't say much to each other; but when they came to the stream and had helped each other across the stepping stones, and were able to walk side by side again over the heather, they began to talk in a friendly matter about this and that, and Quatre said "If you see what I mean, Hiiro," and Hiiro said "Soo ne, Quatre," and Quatre said "But, on the other hand, Hiiro, we must remember," and Hiiro said "Soo ka, Quatre. I had forgotten it for the moment." And then, just as they came to the Six Pine Trees, Hiiro looked round to see that nobody else was listening, and said in a very solemn voice:
"Quatre, I have decided."
"What have you decided, Hiiro?"
"I have decided to catch a Zephir."
Hiiro nodded his head several times as he said this, and waited for Quatre to say "How?" or "Hiiro, you couldn't!" or something helpful of that sort, but Quatre said nothing. The fact was Quatre was wishing that he had thought of it first.
"I shall do it," said Hiiro, after waiting a little longer, "by means of a trap. And it must be a Cunning Trap, so you shall have to help me, Quatre."
"Hiiro," said Quatre, feeling quite happy again now, "I will." And then he said "How shall we do it?" and Hiiro said "Soo ka. How?" And then they sat down together to think it out.
Hiiro's first idea was that they should dig a Very Deep Pit, and then the Zephir would come along and fall into the Pit, and --
"Why?" said Quatre.
"Why what?" said Hiiro.
"Why would he fall in?"
Hiiro rubbed his nose with his index finger, and said that the Zephir might be walking along, humming a little uta, and looking up at the sky, wondering if it would rain, and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way down, when it would be too late.
Quatre said that this was a very good Trap, but supposing it were raining already?
Hiiro rubbed his nose again, and said that he hadn't thought of that. And then he brightened up, and said that, if it were raining already, the Zephir would be looking at the sky wondering if it would clear up, and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way down... When it would be too late.
Quatre said that, now that this point had been explained, he thought it was a Cunning Trap.
Hiiro was very proud when he heard this, and he felt that the Zephir was as good as caught already, but there was just one other thing which had to be thought about, and it was this. Where would they dig the Very Deep Pit?
Quatre said that the best place would be somewhere where a Zephir was, just before he fell into it, only about a foot farther on.
"But then he would see us digging it," said Hiiro.
"Not if he were looking at the sky."
"He would Suspect," said Hiiro, "if he happened to look down." He thought for a long time and then added flatly, "It isn't as easy as I thought. I suppose that's why Zephirs hardly ever get caught."
"That must be it," said Quatre.
They sighed and got up; and when they had taken a few prickles out of themselves they sat down again; and all the time Hiiro was saying to himself, "If only I could think of something!" For he felt sure that Very Clever Sense could catch a Zephir if only it knew the right way to go about it.
"Suppose," he said to Quatre, you wanted to catch me, how would you do it?"
"Well," said Quatre, "I shouldn't want you or anyone else to get hurt, so I should do it like this. I should make a Trap, and I should put a Tub of Nattou in the Trap, and you would smell it, and you would go in after it, and -- "
"And I would go in after it," said Hiiro, eyes lighting up, "only very carefully so as not to incur unnecessary damage, and I would get to the Tub of Nattou, and I would run my finger round the edges first of all, simulating that there wasn't any more, you know, and then I should walk away and think about it a little, and then I would come back and take some out of the middle of the Tub, and then -- "
"Yes, well never mind about that. There you would be, and there I should catch you. Now the first thing to think of is, What do Zephirs like? I should think eggplants, shouldn't you? We'll get a lot of -- ne, Hiiro, kowai yo!"
Hiiro, who had gone into a happy dream and was laughing to himself in a Disturbingly Psychotic sort of way, snapped out of it with a start, and said that Nattou was a much more trappy thing than Neggplants. Quatre didn't think so; and they were just going to argue about it whan Quatre remembered that if they put eggplants in the Trap, he would have to find the eggplants, but if they put nattou, then Hiiro would have to give up some of his own nattou, so he said "All right, nattou then," just as Hiiro remembered it too, and was going to say "All right, neggplants."
"Nattou," said Quatre to himself in a thoughtful way, as if it were now settled. "I'll dig the pit, while you go and get the nattou."
"Wakatta," said Hiiro, and he stumped off.
As soon as he got home, he went to the refrigerator; and he reached into the back, and pulled out a very large tub of nattou from around behind the ammunition, which he kept in the refrigerator in case his house should ever burn down. It had NAQTOO written on it, but, just to make sure, he took off the lid and the freshness seal top, and it looked just like nattou. "But you never can tell," said Hiiro. "I remember my guardian saying once that he had seen navy bean soup just this colour." So he put his finger in, scooped up a large morsel, and licked it off. "Aa," he said, "it is. No doubt about that. And nattou, I should say, right down to the bottom of the tub. Unless, of course," he said, "somebody put navy bean soup in at the bottom just for a joke. Perhaps I had better go a little further... just in case... in case Zephirs don't like navy bean soup... and the mission should fail... Ah!" And he gave a deep sigh. "I was right. It is nattou, right the way down."
Having made certain of this, he took the jar back to Quatre, and Quatre opened up Sandrock's chest panel and looked up from where the seat was when Sandrock was standing on the bottom of his Very Deep Pit, and said "Kanryou desu ka?" and Hiiro said "Kanryou... datte, it isn't quite a full tub," and he threw it down to Quatre, and Quatre said, "No, it isn't! Is that all you've got left?" and Hiiro said "Aa." Because it was. So Quatre put the tub at the bottom of the Pit, and climbed back into Sandrock and jumped it out, and they went off home together.
"Well, good night, Hiiro," said Quatre, putting him down when they had got to Hiiro's house. "And we meet at six o'clock tomorrow morning by the Pine Trees, and see how many Zephirs we've got in our Trap."
"Ninmu ryoukai." Pause. "And have you got any string?"
"No. Why do you want string?"
"To lead them home with."
"Oh!... I think Zephirs come if you whistle."
"Some do and some don't. You never can tell with Zephirs. Ja."
"Ja, mata ashita!"
And off Quatre lumbered to his house TRESPASSERS W, while Hiiro made his preparations for bed.
Some hours later, just as the night was beginning to steal away, Hiiro woke up with a sinking feeling. He had had that sinking feeling before, and he knew what it meant. He was hungry. So he went to the refrigerator, and he reached into the back around behind the ammunition, and found -- nothing.
"Okashii na," he thought. "I know I had a tub of nattou there. A full tub, full of nattou right up to the top, and it had NAQTOO written on it, so that I should know it was nattou. Sorya okashii." And then he began to wander up and down, wondering where it was and murmuring a murmur to himself. Like this:
Okashii na.
Ippai mo;
He had murmured this to himself three times in a singing sort
of way, when he remembered. He had put it into the Cunning Trap to catch
the Zephir.
"Shimatta!" said Hiiro. "It all comes of trying to be kind to
Zephirs." And he got back into bed.
But he couldn't sleep. The more he tried to sleep, the more he
couldn't. He tried Counting Dolls, which is sometimes a good way of getting
to sleep, and as that was no good, he tried counting Zephirs. And that
was worse. Because every Zephir that he counted was shooting its way to
a tub of Hiiro's nattou, and eating it all. For some minutes he
lay there miserably, but when the six hundred and eighty-seventh was licking
its jaws, and saying to itself "Very good nattou this, I don't know when
I've ever tasted better," Hiiro could bear it no longer. He jumped out
of bed, he ran out of the house, and he ran straight to the Six Pine Trees.
The Sun was still in bed, but there was a lightness in the sky
over the Hyakuchoubayashi which seemed to show that she was waking up and
would soon be kicking off the covers. In the half-light the Pine Trees
looked cold and lonely, and the Very Deep Pit seemed deeper than it was,
and Hiiro's tub of nattou at the bottom was something mysterious, a shape
and no more. There didn't seem to be any Zephirs about, but Hiiro kept
his gun out as he clambered into the Very Deep Pit and down to the shape.
As he got nearer to it his nose told him that it was indeed nattou, and
his tongue began to polish up his mouth, ready for it.
"Fn," said Hiiro, as he peered into the tub. "A Zephir has been
eating it!" And then he thought a little and said "Oh, no, I did.
I forgot."
Indeed, he had eaten most of it. But there was a little left at
the bottom of the tub, and he carefully examined the Very Deep Pit once
more for Zephirs. There were no Zephirs "and," he thought to himself as
he put his gun away, "there probably won't be any now. Ninmu shippai."
Then he cheered up. "Dakara, the nattou has to be finished off before it
goes bad. "And he put his head right into the tub, and began to lick...
By and by Quatre woke up. As soon as he woke, he said to himself,
"A!" Then he said bravely, "Ee," and then, still more bravely, "Soo ka."
But he didn't feel very brave, because the word that was really jiggeting
about in his brain was "Zephirs."
What was a Zephir like?
Was it fierce?
Did it come when you whistled? And how did it come?
Was it Fond of Arabs at all?
If it was Fond of Arabs, did it make any difference what sort
of Arab?
Supposing it was Dangerous to Arabs, did it make any difference
if the Arab had a grandfather called TRESPASSERS WILLIAM?
He didn't know the answer to any of these questions... and he
was going to see his first Zephir in about an hour from now!
Of course Hiiro would be with him, and it was much more Friendly
with two. But suppose Zephirs were Very Dangerous to all sorts of Pilots?
Wouldn't it be better to pretend that he had a headache, and couldn't go
up to the Six Pine Trees this morning? But then suppose that it was a very
fine day, and there was no Zephir in the trap, here he would be, in bed
all the morning, simply wasting his time for nothing. What should he do?
And then he had a Clever Idea. He would go up very quietly to
the Six Pine Trees now, peep very cautiously into the Trap, and see if
there was a Zephir there. And if there was, he would go back to
bed, and if there wasn't, he wouldn't.
So off he went. At first he thought that there wouldn't be a Zephir
in the Trap, and then he thought that there would, and as he got nearer
he was sure that there would, because he could hear it zerphing
about like anything.
"Ara, ara, arara!" said Quatre to himself. And he wanted to run
away. But somehow, having got so near, he felt that he must just see what
a Zephir was like. So he crept to the side of the Trap and looked in...
And all this time Hiiro Yui had been trying to get the nattou
tub off his head. The more he shook it, the more tightly it stuck, and
he couldn't even get a finger between it and his face. "Shimatta!" he said
inside the tub, and "Dame!" and, mostly, "Fn." And he tried bumping it
against things, but as he couldn't see what he was bumping it against,
it didn't help him; and he tried to climb out of the Trap, but as he could
see nothing but tub, and not much of that, he couldn't find his way. So
at last he lifted up his head, tub and all, and made a loud, snarling growl
of Utter Frustration... and it was at that moment that Quatre looked down.
"Taihen desu!" cried Quatre, "Zephir yo, sore wa Zephir yo!" and
he scampered off as hard as he could, still crying "Taihen desu, zere wa
Sophir yo! Sohen zesu, dere wa Taiphir yo! Zephen sesu, tare ya Dohir o!"
And he didn't stop crying and scampering until he got to Relena Darlian's
house.
"Whatever's the matter, Quatre?" said Relena Darlian, who was
just getting up.
"Zeh," said Quatre, breathing so hard that he could hardly speak,
"a Zeh -- a Zeh -- a Zephir."
"Where?"
"Up there," said Quatre, waving his hand.
"What did it look like?"
"Like -- like -- it had the flattest face you ever saw, Relena
Darlian. A great enormous thing, like -- like nothing. A huge big -- well,
like a -- I don't know -- like an enormous big nothing. Like the bottom
of something."
"Ara," said Relena Darlian, putting on her shoes, "I shall go
and look at it. Come on."
Quatre wasn't afraid if he had Relena Darlian with him, so off
they went...
"I can hear it, can't you?" said Quatre anxiously, as they got
near.
"I can hear something," said Relena Darlian.
It was Hiiro thudding against the ground as he pulled on the tub
with too much strength and yanked himself off-balance.
"Hora!" said Quatre. "Isn't it awful!" And he held on tight
to Relena Darlian's hand.
Suddenly Relena Darlian began to laugh... and she laughed... and
she laughed... and she laughed. And while she was still laughing, Hiiro
pulled out his gun, held it at arm's length, shot a piece off of the tub,
stuck the fingers of his other hand through the hole, ripped it off with
a pop!, and out came Hiiro's face again...
Then Quatre Raberba Winner saw what a Foolish Quatre he had been,
and he was so ashamed of himself that he ran straight off home and went
to bed with a headache. But Relena Darlian and Hiiro went home to breakfast
together.
"Hiiro no BOKE," said Relena Darlian, "How I do love you!"
"Ore mo," said Hiiro, ears still ringing.
"Pathetic," he said. "That's what it is. Pathetic."
He turned and walked slowly down the stream for twenty yards,
splashed across it, and walked slowly back on the other side. Then he looked
at himself in the water again.
"As I thought," he said. "No better from this side. But
nobody minds. Nobody cares. Pathetic, that's what it is."
There was a crackling noise in the underbrush behind him, and
out came Hiiro.
"Ohayoo, Uufei," said Hiiro.
"Ohayoo, Hiiro," said Uufei gloomily. "Hayakereba," he said. "Sore
o utagatteru," said he.
"Nan de mo nai, Yui, nan de mo nai. We can't all, and some of
us don't. That's all there is to it."
"Can't all what?" said Hiiro, rubbing his nose.
"Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush."
"Ah!" said Hiiro. He thought for a long time, and then asked "What
mulberry bush is that?"
"Bon-hommy," went on Uufei gloomily. "French word meaning bon-hommy,"
he explained. "All that Frolicking and suchlike. I'm not complaining, but
There It Is."
Hiiro sat down on a stone and tried to think this out. It all
sounded like a riddle to him, and he was never much good with riddles that
required words to mean two things, being a Pilot of Very Little Sense.
Besides, he could not recall ever having Frolicked in his life. So he sang
an English song called Cottleston Pie instead.
That was the first verse. When he had finished it, Uufei didn't
actually say that he didn't like it, so Hiiro very kindly sang the second
verse to him:
Uufei still said nothing at all, so Hiiro hummed the third verse
quietly to himself:
"That's right," said Uufei. "Sing. Laili, laili, laili li lah.
I just feel rhythm emotion. O-tanoshimi ni."
"Tanoshinderu," said Hiiro.
"Some can," said Uufei.
"Fn. What's the matter?"
"Is anything the matter?"
"You seem sad."
"Sad? Why should I be sad? It's my birthday. The happiest day
of the year."
"Your birthday?" said Hiiro in great astonishment.
"Of course it is. Can't you see? Look at all the presents I have
had." He waved his hand from side to side. "Look at the birthday cake.
Candles and pink frosting."
"Presents?" said Hiiro. "Birthday cake?" said Hiiro. "Where?"
said Hiiro.
"Can't you see them?"
"No."
"Neither can I," said Uufei. "Joke," he explained. "Ha ha!"
Hiiro scratched his head, being a little puzzled by all this.
"But is it really your birthday?" he asked.
"It is."
"Fn. Saa, many happy returns of the day, Uufei."
"And many happy returns to you, Yui."
"But it isn't my birthday."
"No, it's mine."
"But you said 'Many happy returns' -- "
"Saa, why not? You don't always want to be miserable on my birthday,
do you?"
"Ah, wakatta," said Hiiro.
"It's bad enough," said Uufei angrily, "being miserable myself,
what with no presents and no cake and no candles, and no proper notice
taken of me at all, but if everybody else is going to be miserable too
-- "
This was too much for Hiiro. "Stay there!" he called to Uufei,
as he turned and hurried back home as quick as he could; for he felt that
he must get poor Uufei a present of some sort at once, and he could
always think of a proper one afterwards.
"Ninmu," he said to himself, "ryoukai."
Outside his house, he found Quatre, jumping up and down, trying
to reach the knocker.
"Hello, Quatre," he said.
"Hello, Hiiro," said Quatre.
"What are you trying to do?"
"I was trying to reach the knocker," said Quatre. "I just came
round -- "
"Let me do it for you," said Hiiro. So he reached up and knocked
at the door. "I have just seen Uufei," he began, "and poor Uufei is in
a Very Sad condition, because it's his birthday, and nobody has taken any
notice of it, and he's very Gloomy -- you know what Uufei is -- and there
he was, and -- what a long time whoever lives here is answering this door."
And he knocked again.
"But Hiiro," said Quatre, "it's your own house!"
"Ah!" said Hiiro. "Soo ka," he said. "Ja, let's go in."
So in they went. The first thing Hiiro did was to go to the cupboard
to see if he had quite a small box of plastic explosive left; and he had,
so he took it down.
"I'm giving this to Uufei," he explained, "as a present. What
are you going to give?"
"Couldn't I give it too?" said Quatre. "From both of us?"
"Aa," said Hiiro. "That would not be a good plan."
"Saa... soo ka! I'll give him a balloon. I've got one left from
my party. I'll go and get it now, shall I?"
"That, Quatre, is a very good idea. It is just what Uufei
wants to cheer him up. Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon."
So off Quatre trotted; and in the other direction went Hiiro,
with his box of plastic explosive.
It was a warm, clear day, and he had a long way to go.
This would probably be the reason why he saw the Enemy Soldiers
before he walked straight into them.
He dropped to his stomach, and wriggled through the heather round
to where they had stopped and gotten out of their car to have a drink of
water and a little something.
"Fn," said Hiiro to himself. "I didn't know they were coming this
far into the Forest." So he sat down and took the top off his box of plastic
explosive. "Lucky I brought this with me," he thought. "Many a pilot going
out on a warm day like this would never have thought of bringing explosive
with him." And he crept up, planted the explosive on the underside of the
car, and wriggled back into the underbrush.
The soldiers got back into their car. It went over the crest of
the hill and exploded with a loud bang and a plume of smoke.
"Now let me see," Hiiro thought, checking to make sure that the
explosion had been quite as big as need be and was not about to set the
Forest on fire, "where was I going? Soo, soo, Uufei." He got up slowly.
And then, suddenly, he remembered. He had blown up Uufei's present!
"Shimatta!" said Hiiro. "Doo sureba ii? I must give him
something."
For a little while he couldn't think of anything. Then he thought,
"Well, it's a very nice box, even if there's no plastic explosive in it,
and if I cleaned it out and got somebody to write 'A Happy Birthday' on
it, Uufei could keep things in it, which might be Useful." So, as he was
just passing the Hyakuchoubayashi, he went inside to call on Dorothy, who
lived there.
"Ohayoo, Dorothy," he said.
"Ohayoo gozaimasu, Hiiro-san," said Dorothy.
"Many happy returns of Uufei's birthday," said Hiiro.
"Oh, is that what it is?"
"What are you giving him, Dorothy?"
"What are you giving him, Hiiro-san?"
"I'm giving him a Useful Box to Keep Things In, and I wanted to
ask you -- "
"Is this it?" said Dorothy, taking it out of Hiiro's hand.
"Yes, and I wanted to ask you -- "
"Somebody has been keeping plastic explosive in it," said Dorothy.
"You can keep anything in it," said Hiiro tonelessly. "It's Very
Useful like that. And I wanted to ask you -- "
"You ought to write 'A Happy Birthday' on it."
"That was what I wanted to ask you," said Hiiro. "Because
my English spelling is Wobbly. It sounds right, but it Wobbles, and the
letters get in the wrong places. Would you write 'A Happy Birthday' on
it for me?"
"It's a nice box," said Dorothy, looking at it all round. "Couldn't
I give it too? From both of us?"
"Aa," said Hiiro. "That would not be a good plan. Now I'll
just clean it out first, and then you can write on it."
Well, he cleaned it out, very carefully, as he was rather Fond
of his fingertips, while Dorothy licked the end of her pencil, and wondered
how to spell "birthday."
"Can you read English, Hiiro-san?" she asked a little anxiously.
"There's a notice about knocking and ringing on my door, which Relena Darlian-sama
wrote. Could you read it?"
"Relena Darlian told me what it said, and then I could."
"Well, I'll tell you what this says, and then you'll be able to."
So Dorothy wrote... and this is what she wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.
Hiiro looked on admiringly.
"I'm just saying 'A Happy Birthday,'" said Dorothy carelessly.
"It's a nice long one," said Hiiro, very much impressed by it.
"Well, actually, of course, I'm really saying 'A Very Happy
Birthday with love from Hiiro.' Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil
to say a long thing like that."
"Oh, I see," said Hiiro. He picked the box up and neatly painted
"O-tanjoubi omedetoo" on the underside.
"Why did you ask ME to write on it if you were going to?" Dorothy
asked, huffing herself up.
"I don't know if Uufei can read kana," Hiiro explained. "He ought
to be able to read his present."
Dorothy realized that there was something very interesting about
the beam over the door, and paid very close attention to it.
"Ah," Hiiro said, "and I must just be going, but I blew up a car
of Enemy Soldiers over that way. If the flame has gone out," he said, "you
might want to get rid of the wreckage," he said, "before Relena Darlian
sees it and gets Upset."
While all this was happening, Quatre had gone back to his own
house to get Uufei's balloon. He held it very tightly against himself,
so that it shouldn't blow away, and he ran as fast as he could so as to
get to Uufei before Hiiro did; for he thought that he would like to be
the first one to give a present, just as if he had thought of it without
being told by anybody. And running along, and thinking how pleased Uufei
would be, he didn't look where he was going... and suddenly he put his
foot in a rabbit hole, and fell flat on his face.
DOKAN!!!???***!!!
Quatre lay there, wondering what had happened. At first he thought
Relena Darlian's brother had blown the whole world up; and then he thought
that Hiiro had managed to blow up only the Forest part of it; and then
he thought that he had stepped on a land mine and blown himself
up, and was now lying at the Gates of Paradise, and would never see Relena
Darlian or Hiiro or Uufei or Trowa again. And then he thought, "Well, even
if I'm in Paradise, I needn't be face downwards all the time. I wonder
if my sister's in with the houris?" so he got cautiously up and looked
about him.
He was still in the Forest!
"Hen desu ne," he thought. "I couldn't have made such a noise
just falling down. And where's my balloon? And what's that small piece
of damp rag doing?"
It was the balloon!
"Taihen desu!" said Quatre. "Taihen, taihen, shimatta, choudaihen
desu! Well, it's too late now. I can't go back, and I haven't another balloon,
and perhaps Uufei doesn't like balloons so very much."
So he trotted on, rather sadly now, and down he came to the side
of the stream where Uufei was, and called to him.
"Ohayoo gozaimasu, Uufei," shouted Quatre.
"Ohayoo, Winner," said Uufei. "Hayakereba," he said. "Sore o
utagatteru," he said. "Not that it matters," he said.
"Many happy returns of the day," said Quatre, having now got closer.
Uufei stopped looking at himself in the stream, and turned to
stare at Quatre.
"Moo ichido?" he said.
"Many hap -- "
"Chotto matte."
Uufei drew his sword and began to cautiously remove wax from his
ear with the point. "I did this yesterday," he explained, as he nicked
his hand for the third time. "It's quite easy. It's so as I can hear better..
There, that's done it! Now what were you saying?" He polished the wax off
his blade.
"Many happy returns of the day," said Quatre again.
"Meaning me?"
"Mochiron, Uufei."
"My birthday?"
"Hai."
"Me having a real birthday?"
"Yes, Uufei, and I've brought you a present."
Uufei drew his sword again, switched hands, and with great difficulty
de-waxed his left ear.
"I must have that in the other ear," he said. "Saa."
"A present," said Quatre very loudly.
"Meaning me again?"
"Hai."
"My birthday still?"
"Mochiron, Uufei."
"Me going on having a real birthday?"
"Yes, Uufei, and I brought you a balloon."
"Balloon?" said Uufei. "You did say balloon? One of those
big colored things you blow up? Gaiety, song and dance, now I'm here, now
I'm there?"
"Yes, but I'm afraid -- I'm very sorry, Uufei -- but when
I was running along to bring it to you, I fell down."
"Arere, how unlucky. You ran too fast, I expect. You didn't hurt
yourself, Winner?"
"No, but I -- I -- oh, Uufei -- I burst the balloon!"
There was a long silence.
"My balloon?" said Uufei at last.
Quatre nodded.
"My birthday balloon?"
"Yes, Uufei," said Quatre, doing his best not to sniff, not even
a little. "Here it is. With -- with many happy returns of the day." And
he gave Uufei the small piece of damp rag.
"Is this it?" asked Uufei, a little surprised.
Quatre nodded.
"My present?"
Quatre nodded again.
"The balloon?"
"Hai."
"Thank you, Quatre," said Uufei. "You don't mind my asking," he
went on, "but what color was this balloon when it -- when it was
a balloon?"
"Red."
"I just wondered... Red," he murmured to himself. "My favorite
color... How big was it?"
"About half as big as me."
"I just wondered... About half as big as Winner," he said to himself
sadly. "My favorite size. Well, well."
Quatre felt very miserable, and didn't know what to say. He was
still opening his mouth to begin something, and then deciding that it was
no good saying that, when he heard a shout from the other side of
the river, and there was Hiiro.
"Many happy returns of the day," called out Hiiro, forgetting
that he had said it already.
"Hsiehsie, Hiiro, I'm having them," said Uufei gloomily.
"I've brought you a little present," said Hiiro, somewhat excitedly.
"I've had it," said Uufei.
Hiiro had now splashed across the stream to Uufei, and Quatre
was sitting a little way off, his head in his hands, wondering why he had
bothered to get up.
"It's a Useful Box," said Hiiro. "Here it is. And it's got 'A
Very Happy Birthday with love from Hiiro' written on it. That's what all
that writing is. And it's for putting things in. Hora!"
When Uufei saw the box, he became quite excited.
"Why," he said, "I believe my Balloon will just go into that Box!"
"Chigau, Uufei," said Hiiro. "Balloons are much too big to go
in Boxes. What you do with a balloon is, you hold the balloon -- "
"Not mine," said Uufei proudly. "Look, Quatre!" And as Quatre
looked sorrowfully round, Uufei picked the balloon up, and put it carefully
in the box; picked it out and put it on the ground; and then picked it
up again and put it carefully back.
"So it does!" said Hiiro. "It goes in!"
"So it does!" said Quatre. "And it comes out!"
"Doesn't it?" said Uufei. "It goes in and out like anything."
"Fn," said Hiiro. "It's good that I thought of giving you a Useful
Box to put things in."
"Ara," said Quatre."It's very good that I thought of giving you
Something to put in a Useful Box."
But Uufei wasn't listening. He was taking the balloon out, and
putting it in again, as happy as could be.
"And didn't I give him anything?" asked Relena Darlian
sadly.
"Of course you did," I said. "You gave him -- don't you remember
-- a little -- a little -- "
"I gave him a box of ink and brushes to write things with."
"That was it."
"Why didn't I give it to him in the morning?"
"You were so busy getting his party ready for him. He had a cake
with icing on the top, and three candles, and his name in pink frosting
-- "
"Yes, I remember," said Relena Darlian.
NAQTOO to iu
hitsu hazu da.
doko made ni
itta ka na?
~ in which Uufei has a birthday and gets two presents ~
Uufei, the Solitary Dragon, stood by the side of the stream, and
looked at himself in the water.
~ in which Noin and Hilde-chan come to the Forest, and Quatre has a bath
~
Nobody seemed to know where they came from, but there they were in
the Forest: Noin and Hilde-chan. When Hiiro asked Relena Darlian "How did
they come here?" Relena Darlian said "In the Usual Way, if you know what
I mean, Hiiro," and Hiiro, who didn't, said "Ah!" Then he nodded his head
twice, and said "In the Usual Way. Soo ka." Then he went to his friend
Quatre's house to see what he thought about it. And at Quatre's
house he found Catherine and Trowa. So they all talked about it together.
"What I don't like about it is this," said Catherine. "Here are we -- you, Trowa, and you, Quatre, and Me -- and suddenly -- "
"And Me," said Hiiro.
"And you, Hiiro -- sorry about that -- when suddenly -- "
"And Uufei," said Hiiro.
"And Uufei -- and then suddenly -- "
"And Dorothy," said Hiiro.
"And Dorothy -- and then all of a sudden -- "
"Ah, and Uufei," said Hiiro. "I was forgetting him."
"Here -- we -- are," said Catherine very slowly and carefully, "all -- of -- us, and then, suddenly, what do we find? We find a Strange Being among us. A being of whom we have never even heard before! A being who carries her family about in a back seat of her mecha! Supposing you carried your family about in your mecha, Quatre, how many extra seats should you want?"
"Eighty-six," said Quatre.
"Eighty-seven, isn't it?" said Trowa.
"And one more," said Catherine, "if your sister has her baby -- that's eighty-eight. Eighty-eight more seats in Sandrock! They wouldn't fit."
There was a long and thoughtful silence... and then Hiiro, who had been frowning very hard for some minutes, said "I make it thirty-five."
"What?" said Catherine.
"Thirty-five."
"Thirty-five what?"
"Quatre's family."
"What about them?"
Hiiro rubbed his nose and said that he thought Catherine had been talking about Quatre's family.
"Did I?" said Catherine carelessly.
"Yes, you said -- "
"Never mind, Hiiro," Trowa interrupted.
"The question is, what are we to do about Noin?"
"Ah, soo ka," said Hiiro.
"The best way," said Catherine, "would be this. The best way would be to steal Hilde-chan and hide her, and then when Noin says 'Where's Hilde-chan?' we say 'Aha!'"
"Aha!" said Hiiro, practicing. "Aha! Aha! Of course," he went on, "we could say 'Aha!' even if we hadn't stolen Hilde-chan."
"Hiiro," said Catherine kindly, "you haven't any sense."
"I know," said Hiiro humbly.
"We say 'Aha!' so that Noin knows we know where Hilde-chan is. 'Aha!' means 'We'll tell you where Hilde-chan is, if you promise to go away from the Forest and never come back.' Now don't talk while I think."
Hiiro went into a corner and tried saying "Aha!" in that sort of voice. Sometimes it seemed to him that it did mean what Catherine said, and sometimes it seemed that it didn't. "I suppose it's just practice," he thought. "I wonder if Noin will have to practise too so as to understand it."
"There's just one thing," said Quatre, fidgeting a bit. "I was talking to Relena Darlian, and she said that a Noin was Generally Regarded as One of the Fiercer Beings. I am not troubled over Fierce Beings in the ordinary way, but it is well known that, if One of the Fiercer Beings is Deprived of its Young, it becomes as fierce as Two Pilots. In which case 'Aha!' is perhaps a foolish thing to say."
"Quatre," said Catherine, taking out a pencil and licking the end of it, "you haven't any pluck."
"It wasn't that," said Quatre, huffing slightly, "but I was worried," he said, "that Noin and Hilde-chan might get hurt in the fallout," he said, "and I shouldn't like that," he said, "even if I am a Very Small A -- never mind."
Catherine, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said:
"It is because you are a very small being that you will be Useful in the mission before us."
Quatre was so excited at the idea of being Useful that he forgot to be troubled any more, and when Catherine went on to say that Noins were only Fierce during the Winter Months, being at other times of an Affectionate Disposition, he could hardly sit still, he was so eager to begin being useful at once.
"What about me?" said Hiiro sadly. "I suppose I shan't be useful?"
"Without Trowa and Hiiro," said Catherine, "the mission would be impossible."
"Soo ka," said Quatre, and tried not to look disappointed. But Hiiro and Trowa went into a corner and said to each other "Impossible without us! That sort of Pilot."
"Now listen all of you," said Catherine when she had finished writing, and Hiiro and Trowa and Quatre sat there very eagerly with their mouths open. This is what Catherine wrote:
1. General Remarks. Noin is faster than any of us, even Me.
2. More General Remarks. Noin never takes her eyes off Hilde-chan,
except when Hilde is safely buckled into the back seat of Noin's mecha.
3. Therefore. If we are to capture Hilde-chan, we must get a Long Start,
because Noin is faster than any of us, even Me. (See 1.)
4. A Thought. If Hilde had jumped out of Noin's back seat and Quatre
had jumped in, Noin wouldn't know the difference, because Quatre is a Very
Small Being.
5. Like Hilde.
6. But Noin would have to be looking the other way first, so as not
to see Quatre jumping in.
7. See 2.
8. Another Thought. But if Hiiro and Trowa were both talking
to her very excitedly, she might look the other way for a moment.
9. And then I could run away with Hilde.
10. Quickly.
11. And Noin wouldn't discover the difference until Afterwards.
Well, Catherine read this out proudly, and for a little while after she had read it nobody said anything. And then Quatre, who had been opening and shutting his mouth without making any noise, managed to say very throatily:
"And -- Afterwards?"
"How do you mean?"
"When Noin does discover the Difference?"
"Then we all say 'Aha!'"
"All four of us?"
"Yes."
"Ah!"
"Eh, doo shita n da, Quatre?"
"Nan de mo nai," said Quatre, "as long as we all four say it. As long as we all four say it," said Quatre, "I don't mind," he said, "but I shouldn't care to say 'Aha!" by myself. It wouldn't sound nearly so well. By the way," he said, "you are quite sure about what you said about the winter months?"
"The winter months?"
"Yes, only being Fierce in the Winter Months."
"Ah?! Hai, hai, that's all right. Well, Trowa, Hiiro? You see what you have to do?"
"No," said Trowa.
"Not yet," said Hiiro.
"What do we do?"
"Well, you just have to talk very hard to Noin so as she doesn't notice anything."
"Soo ka," said Hiiro. "What about?"
"Anything you like."
"You mean like telling her my last three mission reports or a little uta or something?"
"That's it," said Catherine. "Splendid. Now come along."
So they all went out to look for Noin.
Noin and Hilde were spending a quiet afternoon in a sandy part of the Forest. Hilde-chan was practicing very small jumps in the sand, and falling down mouse-holes and climbing out of them, and Noin was fidgeting about and saying "Just one more jump, cara, and then we must go home."And at that moment, who should come stumping up the hill but Hiiro.
"Konnichi wa, Noin."
"Konnichi wa, Hiiro."
"Look at me jumping!" squeaked Hilde, and fell into another mouse-hole.
"Hello, chibi Hilde-chan, Noin-oneesan," said Trowa, coming up by another way.
"Konnichi wa, Trowa," said Noin; "we were just going home. Konnichi wa, Catherine. Konnichi wa, Quatre."
Catherine and Quatre, who had now come up from the other side of the hill, said "Konnichi wa" and "Hello, Hilde," and Hilde asked them to look at her jumping, so they stayed and looked.
And Noin looked too...
"Ano na, Noin-oneesan," Trowa said, after Catherine had winked at him twice, "I don't suppose you are interested in Circuses at all?"
"Hardly at all," said Noin.
"Hilde, cara, just one more jump and then we must go home."
There was a short silence while Hilde fell down another mouse-hole.
"Go on," said Catherine in a loud whisper behind her hand.
"Talking of Going and Coming," said Hiiro, "I made up a little uta as I was coming along. Anoh... chotto... "
"Ara ma," said Noin. "Now, Hilde cara -- "
"You'll like this piece of poetry," said Catherine.
"You'll love it," said Trowa.
"You must listen very carefully," said Catherine.
"So as not to miss any of it," said Quatre.
"Hai, hai," said Noin, but she still looked at Hilde-chan.
"How did it go, Hiiro?" said Catherine.
Hiiro gave a little cough and began.
LINES WRITTEN BY A PILOT OF VERY LITTLE SENSE
Getsuyoobi
Kayoobi ni
Suiyoobi
Mokuyoobi
"Soo desu ne?" said Noin, not waiting to hear what happened on
Friday. "Just one more jump, Hilde, cara, and then we really must
be going." She climbed into her Valkyrie, which happened to be set on battloid
mode.
Catherine gave Trowa a hurrying-up sort of nudge.
"Talking of uta," said Trowa, "have you ever noticed that tree
over there?"
"Where?" said Noin. "Now, Hilde -- "
"Right over there," said Trowa, pointing over to Noin's right.
"No," said Noin, shifting her Valkyrie into gerwalk mode and popping
the canopy. "Now, hop in, Hilde, cara, and we'll go home."
"You ought to look at that tree right over there," said Catherine.
"Shall I lift you in, Hilde?" And she picked Hilde up in her arms.
"I can see a mobile suit in it from here," said Hiiro. "Or is
it a mobile doll?"
"You ought to see that mobile suit from here," said Catherine,
"Unless it's a doll."
"It isn't a doll, it's a mobile suit," said Quatre.
"So it is," said Catherine.
"Is it an Aries or a Zaku?" said Hiiro.
"That's the question," said Catherine. "Is it a Zaku or an Aries?"
And then at last Noin did turn her head to look. And the moment
that her head was turned, Catherine said in a loud voice "In you go, Hilde!"
and into the back seat Trowa tossed Quatre, and off scampered Catherine,
with Hilde in her arms, as fast as she could.
"Ara, where's Catherine," said Noin, turning round again. "Are
you all right, Hilde, cara?"
Quatre made a squeaky Hilde-noise from the back seat.
"Catherine had to go away," said Hiiro. "I think she thought of
something she had to go and see about suddenly. Come to think of it, there's
something I must be doing just now."
And he trotted off in a direction that was carefully not
the direction of his Gundam.
"And Quatre."
"I think Quatre thought of something at the same time," Trowa
said. "Suddenly."
"Well, we must be getting home," said Noin. "Good-bye, Trowa."
And in two large jumps and a takeoff she was gone.
Trowa looked after her as she went.
"I wish I could jump like that," he thought. "Some can and some
can't. That's how it is."
But there were moments when Quatre wished that Noin couldn't.
Often, when he had had a long walk through the Forest, he had wished that
he were a bird; but now, he thought jerkily to himself from the back seat
of Noin's Valkyrie as it clawed its way through a small bit of turbulence,
"If
And as he went up in the air, he said "Kyaaaaaaa!" and
as he came down, he said "Gyah!" And he was saying "Kyaaaaaaa-gyah,
Kyaaaaaaa-gyah, Kyaaaaaaa-gyah" all the way to Noin's house.
Of course as soon as Noin hopped out of her Valkyrie, she saw
what had happened. Just for a moment, she thought she was frightened, and
then she knew she wasn't; for she felt quite sure that Relena Darlian would
never allow any harm to come to Hilde. So she said to herself, "If they
are having a joke with me, I will have a joke with them."
"Now, then, Hilde, cara," she said, as she helped Quatre down.
"Bed-time."
"Aha!" said Quatre, as well as he could after his Terrifying
Journey. But it wasn't a very good 'Aha!' and Noin didn't seem to
understand what it meant.
"Bath first," said Noin in a cheerful voice.
"Aha!" said Quatre again, looking round anxiously for the others.
But the others weren't there. Catherine was playing with Hilde-chan in
her own house, and feeling more fond of her every minute, and Hiiro was
Wreaking Havoc while giggling to himself in a Disturbingly Psychotic sort
of way, and Trowa, who had decided to be a Noin, was still in the sandy
place on the top of the Forest, practicing jumps.
"I am not at all sure," said Noin in a thoughtful voice, "that
it wouldn't be a good idea to have a cold bath this evening. Or
maybe even a cold shower. Would you like that, Hilde, cara?"
Quatre, who had never been really fond of cold showers, shuddered
a long indignant shudder, and said in as firm a voice as he could,
"Noin, I see the time has come to speak plainly."
"Funny little Hilde," said Noin, as she got the bathwater ready.
"I am NOT Hilde," said Quatre loudly. "I am Quatre!"
"Hai, hai," said Noin soothingly. "And imitating Quatre's voice
too! So clever of her," she went on as she took a large bar of industrial-strength
soap out of the cupboard. "What will she be doing next?"
"Can't you see?" shouted Quatre. "Haven't you got eyes?
Look at me!"
"I am looking, Hilde, cara," said Noin rather severely. "And you
know what I told you yesterday about making faces. If you keep making faces
like Quatre's, you will grow up to look like Quatre -- and then
think how sorry you will be. Saa, into the bath, and don't let me have
to speak to you about it again."
Before he knew where he was, Quatre found himself in the bath
fully dressed, and Noin was scrubbing him firmly with a large leathery
washcloth.
"Itai!" cried Quatre. "Let me out! I'm Quatre!"
"Don't open the mouth, cara, or the soap goes in," said Noin.
"Hora! What did I tell you?"
"You-you-you did it on purpose," spluttered Quatre, as soon as
he could speak again... and then accidentally had another mouthful of lathery
washcloth.
"That's right, cara, don't say anything," said Noin, and in another
minute Quatre was out of the bath, and being rubbed dry with a towel which
had missed its destiny as a door-mat.
"Now," said Noin, "there's your medicine, and then to bed."
"W -- wh -- what medicine?" said Quatre.
"To make you grow up big and strong. You don't want to grow up
small and weak like Quatre, do you? Saa, doozo..."
At that moment there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," said Noin, and in came Relena Darlian.
"Relena Darlian, Relena Darlian!" cried Quatre. "Tell Noin who
I am. She keeps saying I'm Hilde. I'm not Hilde, am I?"
Relena Darlian looked at him very carefully, and shook her head.
"You can't be Hilde," she said, "because I've just seen Hilde
playing in Catherine's house."
"Ara," said Noin. "Imagine that! Imagine my making a mistake like
that."
"Yappari," said Quatre, "I told you so. I'm Quatre."
Relena Darlian shook her head again.
"Oh, you're not Quatre," she said. "I know Quatre well, and he's
quite a different color."
Quatre began to say that this was because his clothes had just
all had a bath together, and then he thought that perhaps he wouldn't say
that, and as he opened his mouth to say something else, Noin slipped the
medicine spoon in, and then patted him on the back and told him that it
was really quite a nice taste when you got used to it.
"I knew it wasn't Hilde," said Noin. "I wonder who it can be."
"Perhaps it's some relation of Hiiro's," said Relena Darlian.
"What about a sister or a cousin or an aunt or something?"
Noin agreed that this was probably what it was, and said that
they would have to call it by some name.
"I shall call it Hiroko," said Relena Darlian. "Kasahara Hiroko
for short."
And just when it was decided, Kasahara Hiroko wriggled out of
Noin's arms and jumped to the ground. To his great joy Relena Darlian had
left the door open. Never had Kasahara Hiroko Quatre Raberba Winner run
so fast as he ran then, and he didn't stop running until he had got quite
close to his house. But when he was about a hundred yards away he stopped
running, and rolled the rest of the way home, so as to get his slacks and
vest their own nice comfortable color again...
So Noin and Hilde stayed in the forest. And every Tuesday Hilde
spent the day with her great friend Catherine, and every Tuesday Hiiro
spent the day with his great friend Wing, and every Tuesday Noin spent
the day with her great friend Trowa, teaching him to jump, and every Tuesday
Quatre spent the day with his great friend Relena Darlian. So they were
all happy again.
"Hoyoyo to utae, hitotsu no ikikata ni!"
When he had got as far as this, he stretched his neck, and thought
to himself "That's a very good beginning for an uta, but what about the
second line?" He tried singing "Hoyoyo" a few times, but it didn't seem
to help. "Perhaps it would be better," he thought, "if I sang Hanyaan,
hitotsu no ikikata ni." So he sang it... but it wasn't. "Maikka," he said.
"I shall sing that first line twice, and perhaps if I sing it very quickly,
I shall find myself singing the third and fourth lines before I think of
them, and that will be a Yoroshii Uta. Saa tte to."
He was so pleased with this uta that he sang it all the way to
the top of the Forest, "and if I go on singing it much longer," he thought,
"it will be time to eat, and then the last line won't be true." So he turned
it into a serifunashi uta instead.
Relena Darlian was sitting outside her door, putting on her Big
Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Hiiro knew that a Mission was going
to happen, and he brushed the wasabi off his nose with the back of his
hand, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready for
Anything.
"Ohayoo, Relena Darlian," he called out.
"Hello, Hiiro. I can't get this boot on."
"Mazui," said Hiiro.
"Do you think you could very kindly lean against me, cause I keep
pulling so hard that I fall over backwards."
Hiiro sat down, dug his feet into the ground, and leaned hard
against Relena Darlian's back, and Relena Darlian leaned hard against his,
and pushed and pulled at her boot until she had got it on.
"Sore de ii," Hiiro said. "What do we do next?"
"We are all going on an Expedition," said Relena Darlian, as she
got up and brushed herself off. "Arigatoo, Hiiro."
"Going on an Expotition?" said Hiiro thoughtfully. "I don't think
I've ever been on one of those. Where are we going to on this Expotition?"
"Expedition, boke. It's got an 'x' in it."
"Aa," said Hiiro, "wakatta." But he didn't really.
"We're going to discover Lagrange Point One."
"Aa," said Hiiro again. "What is Lagrange Point One?"
"It's just a thing you discover," said Relena Darlian carelessly,
not being quite sure herself.
"Ah, soo ka," said Hiiro. "Are pilots any good at discovering
it?"
"Mochiron desu. And Catherine and Dorothy and all of you. It's
an Expedition. That's what an Expedition means. A long line of everybody.
You'd better tell the others to get ready and see if their guns are all
right. And we must all bring Provisions."
"Bring what?"
"Things to eat."
"Naruhodo," said Hiiro in realization. "I thought you said Provisions.
I'll go and tell them." And he stumped off.
The first person he met was Trowa.
"Hello, Trowa," he said, "is that you?"
"Let's pretend it isn't," said Trowa, "and see what happens."
"I've got a message for you."
"I'll give it to him."
"We're all going on an Expotition with Relena Darlian."
"What is it when we're on it?"
"A sort of ship, I think," said Hiiro.
"A! that sort."
"Aa. And we're going to discover a Point or something. Or was
it a Plot? Anyhow, we're going to discover it."
"Soo da na?" said Trowa.
"Aa. And we've got to bring Pro -- things to eat with us. In case
we want to eat them. Now I'm going down to Quatre's. Tell Catherine and
Noin, would you?"
He left Trowa and hurried down to Quatre's. Quatre Raberba Winner
was sitting happily in front of the door of his house picking fluff-bits
off a dandelion, and wondering whether he liked Quatre or disliked Quatre.
He had just discovered that he disliked Quatre, and was wondering who "he"
was and hoping it wasn't any of his own friends, when Hiiro came up.
"Na, Quatre," said Hiiro animatedly, "we're going on an Expotition,
all of us, with things to eat. To discover something."
"To discover what?" said Quatre anxiously.
"Eeto, just something."
"Nothing fierce?"
"Relena Darlian didn't say anything about fierce. She just said
it had an 'x' in it. Trowa didn't know either."
"It isn't it being X I mind," Quatre said earnestly. "It's it
being H. But if Trowa is coming I don't mind anything."
In a little while they were all ready at the top of the Forest,
and the Expotition started. First came Relena Darlian and Catherine, then
Trowa, Quatre, and Hiiro; then Noin, with Hilde in a safety harness attached
to Noin's wrist with a string, and Dorothy; then Uufei; and at the end,
in a long line, all Quatre's friends-and-relations.
"I didn't ask them," explained Quatre worriedly. "They just came.
They always do."
"They can march at the end after Uufei," said Catherine decisively.
"What I say," said Uufei, "is that it's unsettling. I didn't want
to come on this Expo -- what Yui said. I only came to oblige. But here
I am; and if I am the end of this Expo -- what we're talking about -- then
let me be the end. But if, every time I want to sit down for a little
rest, I have to brush away half of Winner's friends-and-relations first,
then this isn't an Expo -- whatever it is -- at all, it's simply a Confused
Noise. That's what I say."
"I see what Uufei means," said Dorothy. "If you ask me -- "
"I'm not asking anybody," said Uufei. "I'm just telling everybody.
We can look for Lagrange Point One, or we can do the New Year's Dragon
Dance with the end part of an ant's nest. It's all the same to me."
There was a shout from the top of the line.
"Iku wa yo!" called Relena Darlian.
"Ikoo!" called Hiiro and Trowa
"Ikimashoo!" called Dorothy.
"We're starting," said Catherine. "I must go." And she hurried
off to the front of the Expotition with Relena Darlian.
"I promised," Quatre apologized, and hurried off behind her.
"All right," said Uufei. "We're going. Only Don't Blame Me."
So off they all went to discover the Point. And as they walked,
they chattered to each other of this and that, all except Hiiro, who was
making up an uta.
"These are the first three stanza," he said to Quatre, when he
was ready with it.
"First three stanzas of what?"
"This one."
"Which one?"
"Fn. If you listen, Quatre, you'll hear it."
"How do you know I'm not listening?"
Hiiro couldn't answer that one, so he began to sing.
Kyokuten o
Sagashimono
Doko ni aru
"Sh!" said Relena Darlian turning round to Hiiro, "we're just
coming to a Dangerous Place."
"Sh!" said Hiiro turning round quickly to Quatre.
"Sh!" said Quatre to Noin.
"Sh!" said Noin to Dorothy, while Hilde said "Sh!" several times
to herself very quietly.
"Sh!" said Dorothy to Uufei.
"SH!" said Uufei in a terrible voice to all Quatre's friends-and-relations,
and "Sh!" they said hastily to each other all down the line, until it got
to the last one of all. And the last and smallest friend-and-relation was
so upset to find that the whole Expotition was saying "Sh!" to her,
that she buried herself head downward in a hole in the ground, and stayed
there for two days until the danger was over, and then went home in a great
hurry, and lived quietly with her little girl ever-afterwards. Her name
was Mary Bratchet.
They had come to a stream which twisted and tumbled between high
rocky banks, and Relena Darlian saw at once how dangerous it was.
"It's just the place," she explained, "for an Ambush."
"What sort of bush?" whispered Hiiro to Quatre. "A prickly-bush?"
"Hiiro-san, Hiiro-san, Hiiro-san," said Dorothy in her superior
way, "don't you know what an Ambush is?"
"Dorothy," said Quatre, looking round at her severely, "Hiiro's
whisper was a perfectly private whisper, and there was no need -- "
"An Ambush," said Dorothy, "is a sort of Surprise."
"So is a prickly-bush sometimes," said Hiiro.
"An Ambush, as I was about to explain to Hiiro," said Quatre,
"is a sort of Surprise."
"If people jump out at you suddenly, that's an Ambush," said Dorothy.
"It's an Ambush, Hiiro, when people jump at you suddenly," Quatre
explained.
Hiiro said that a prickly-bush had sprung at him suddenly one
day when he fell off a tree, and he had taken six days to get all the prickles
out of himself.
"We are not talking about prickly-bushes," said Dorothy,
a little irritably.
"I am," said Hiiro.
"An Ambush," Trowa put in from where he was watching the other
bank, "usually has the people jumping out at you being soldiers."
"Hiiro," Quatre amplified, "when a lot of soldiers or something
jump out at you suddenly, that's what an Ambush is."
"Naruhodo," said Hiiro, who now knew what an Ambush was. "Why
didn't you just say you meant a target-rich environment?"
They were climbing very cautiously up the stream now, going from
rock to rock, and after they had gone a little way they came to a place
where the stream went in wide loops and the banks widened out, and then
a place where the stream went straighter and more steeply and the banks
stayed widened on both sides, so that on either side of the water there
was a strip of grass on which they could sit down and rest. As soon as
she saw this, Relena Darlian called "O-tachidomari nasai!" and they all
sat down and rested.
"I think," said Relena Darlian, "that we ought to eat all our
Provisions now, so that we shan't have so much to carry."
"Eat all our what?" said Hiiro.
"All that we've brought," said Quatre, getting to work.
"That's a good idea," said Hiiro, and he got to work too.
"Have you all got something?" said Relena Darlian with her mouth
full.
"All except me," said Uufei. "As Usual." He looked round at them
in his melancholy way. "I suppose none of you are sitting on a Red Szechuan
Death Pepper by any chance? Or some bok choy?"
"I believe I am," said Hiiro. "Fn." He got up, and looked behind
him. "Aa, soo da. Yappari."
"Hsiehsie, Yui. If you've quite finished with it." He caught the
bok choy as it came flying across the open space and began to eat.
"It doesn't do them any Good, you know, sitting on them," he went
on, as he looked up munching. "Takes all the Life out of them. Remember
that another time, all of you. A little Consideration, a little Thought
for Others, makes all the difference."
As soon as she had finished her lunch Relena Darlian whispered
to Catherine, and Catherine said "Hai, hai, wakarimashita," and they walked
a little way up the stream together.
"I didn't want the others to hear," said Relena Darlian.
"Chanto iimashita," said Catherine, looking important.
"De -- jitsu wa ne -- datte -- Catherine, I suppose you
don't know... what does Lagrange Point One look like."
"Eeto," said Catherine, laying a finger along her cheek. "Now
you're asking me."
"I did know once, only I've sort of forgotten," said Relena Darlian
carelessly.
"It's a funny thing," said Catherine, "but I've sort of forgotten
too, although I did know once."
"I suppose it's just a point on the ground somewhere?"
"Sure to be a point," said Catherine, "because of calling it a
point, and if it's a point, well, I should think it would be located somewhere
on the ground, shouldn't you, because where else would a point be?"
"Yes, that's what I thought."
"The only thing," said Catherine, "is where is it located?"
"That's what we're looking for," said Relena Darlian.
They went back to the others. Trowa had found a place to
sit where he could lean his back against a bush and be reasonably comfortable.
Quatre was lying on his back with his head in Trowa's lap, sleeping peacefully.
Hilde had slipped out of the safety harness and was washing her face and
hands in the stream, while Noin explained to everyone proudly that this
was the first time she had ever washed her face herself, and Dorothy was
telling Noin an Interesting Anecdote full of long words like Neotitanium
and Minovskyparticles to which Noin wasn't listening.
"I don't hold with all this washing," grumbled Uufei. "This modern
Behind-the-ears nonsense. What do you think, Hiiro?"
"Fn," said Hiiro, "Ore wa -- "
But we shall never know what Hiiro thought, for there came a sudden
squeak from Hilde, a splash, and a loud cry of alarm from Noin.
"So much for washing," said Uufei.
"Hilde's fallen in!" cried Catherine, and she and Relena Darlian
came rushing down to the rescue.
"Look at me swimming!" squeaked Hilde from the middle of her pool,
and was hurried down a very small waterfall into the next pool.
"Are you all right, Hilde cara?" called Noin anxiously.
"Yes!" said Hilde. "Look at me sw -- " and down she went over
the next waterfall into another pool.
Everybody was doing something to help. Quatre, wide awake suddenly,
was jumping up and down and making "Taihen desu!" noises; Dorothy was explaining
that in a case of Sudden and Temporary Immersion the Important Thing was
to keep the Head Above Water; Noin was jumping along the bank, saying "Are
you sure you're all right, Hilde cara?" to which Hilde, from whatever
pool she was in at the moment, was answering "Look at me swimming!" Uufei
had turned round and laid on the bank of the first pool into which Hilde
fell, letting his ponytail dangle into the water, and staring up at the
sky was grumbling quietly to himself, and saying "All this washing; but
grab onto my hair, Hilde-er, and you'll be all right"; and Relena Darlian
and Catherine came hurrying past Uufei, and were calling out to the others
in front of them.
"Chotto matte, Hilde, oikakete ikimasu yo," called Relena Darlian.
"Get something across the stream lower down, some of you guys,"
called Catherine.
But Trowa was getting something. At the first big loop of the
stream, Hiiro had flopped belly-down in the low point between the bit in
the middle of the loop and the bank proper and just missed catching hold
of Hilde; now he did a quick sort of twisting somersault, caught a long
branch as Trowa tossed it to him, and ended up belly-down facing the opposite
way with Trowa's branch in his hands, and Noin jumped up and took the other
end of it, and between them they held it across the returning part of the
stream; and Hilde, still bubbling proudly "Look at me swimming!" drifted
up against it, and climbed out.
"Did you see me swimming?" squeaked Hilde excitedly, while Noin
scolded her and rubbed her down. "Hiiro, did you see me swimming? That's
called swimming, Trowa, what I was doing. Catherine, did you see what I
was doing? Swimming. Hello, Quatre! Ne, ne, Quatre, what do you think I
was doing! Swimming! Relena Darlian, did you see me -- "
But Relena Darlian wasn't listening. She was looking at Hiiro.
"Hiiro," she said, "how did you find that point?"
Hiiro picked himself up and looked at how much point had gotten
onto his front.
"I just found it," he said. "I thought it would be convenient.
I just flopped there."
"Hiiro," said Relena Darlian solemnly, "the Expedition is over.
You have found Lagrange Point One!"
Uufei was lying with most of his ponytail in the water and the
back of his head nearly touching it when they all got back to it.
"Tell Hilde to be quick, somebody," he said. "My hair's getting
weeds in it. I don't want to mention it, but I just mention it. I don't
want to complain but there it is. There are weeds in my hair."
"Here I am!" squeaked Hilde.
"Oh, there you are."
"Did you see me swimming?"
Uufei sat up and wrung out his ponytail.
"As I expected," he said. "They're all caught in it. Gotten tangled.
That's what they've done. Gotten tangled. De wa, as long as nobody minds,
I suppose it's all right."
"Kawaisoo-na Uufei. I'll pick them out," said Relena Darlian,
and she began to carefully untangle a bit of pondweed from the black hair.
"Hsiehsie, Relena Darlian. You're the only one who seems to understand
about hair. They don't think -- that's what's the matter with some of these
others. They've no imagination. Hair isn't hair to them, it's just
a Little Bit Extra at the back."
"Moo ii, Uufei," said Relena Darlian, combing the last of the
weed out with her fingers. "Is that better?"
"It feels more like hair perhaps. It Belongs again, if you know
what I mean."
"Konnichi wa, Uufei," said Hiiro, coming up to them brushing point
off himself.
"Konnichi wa, Hiiro. Thank you for asking, but it should be quite
all right once it dries."
"What dries?" said Hiiro.
"What we are talking about."
"I wasn't talking about anything," said Hiiro, looking faintly
puzzled.
"My mistake again. I thought you were saying how sorry you were
about my ponytail, being all wet and tangled with weeds, and could you
do anything to help?"
"Iya," said Hiiro. "Ore ja nakute," he said. He thought for a
little and then suggested helpfully, "Perhaps it was somebody else."
"De, thank him for me when you see
him."
Hiiro looked questioningly at Relena Darlian.
"Hiiro's found Lagrange Point One," said Relena Darlian. "Sugokatta
deshoo?"
Hiiro looked modestly down.
"Is that it?" said Uufei.
"Hai," said Relena Darlian.
"Is that what we were looking for?"
"Aa," said Hiiro.
"Ah!" said Uufei. "De wa, doose -- it didn't rain," he said.
Relena Darlian tied a message onto Trowa's branch, and they stuck
it into the point.
LAGRANGE POINT ONE
Then they all went home again. And I think, but I am not quite
sure, that Hilde had a hot bath and went straight to bed. But Hiiro went
back to his own house, and feeling very proud of what he had done, took
Wing up to celebrate.
"Rusu da," observed Hiiro. "That's what it is. Inai. I shall have
to go a fast Planning Walk myself. Shimatta!"
But first he thought that he would knock very loudly just to make
quite sure... and while he waited for Quatre not to answer, he jumped
up and down to keep warm, and an uta came suddenly into his head, which
seemed to him to be Yoi Uta, such as is Hummed Hopefully to Others.
Kono yuki, pa-ra-ra-ra
De, daremo, pa-ra-ra-ra
"Ja, tsumori wa," said Hiiro, "is I'll do this. I'll just go home
first and see what the time is, and perhaps I'll put on a jacket, and then
I'll go and see Uufei and sing it to him."
He hurried back to his own house; and his mind was so busy on
the way with the uta that he was getting ready for Uufei that, when he
suddenly saw Quatre sitting in his best arm-chair, he could only stand
there rubbing his head and wondering whose house he was in.
"Hello, Quatre," he said. "I thought you were out."
"Iie,"said Quatre, "it's you who were out, Hiiro."
"Soo datta," said Hiiro. "I knew one of us was."
He looked up at his clock, which had stopped at five minutes to
eleven some weeks ago.
"Nearly eleven o'clock," said Hiiro calmly. "You're just in time
for a little hitonigiri of something," and he put his head into the refrigerator,
"and then we'll go out, Quatre, and sing my uta to Uufei."
"The one we're going to sing to Uufei," explained Hiiro.
The clock was still saying five minutes to eleven when Hiiro and
Quatre set out on their journey half an hour later. The wind had dropped,
and the snow, tired of rushing round in circles trying to catch itself
up, now fluttered gently down until it found a place on which to rest,
and sometimes the place was Hiiro's bangs and sometimes it wasn't, and
in a little while Quatre was wearing a white scarf round his neck and feeling
more snowy behind the ears than he had ever felt before.
"Hiiro," he said at last, and a little timidly, because he didn't
want Hiiro to think he was Giving In, "I was just wondering. How would
it be if we went home now and practised your uta, and then sang
it to Uufei tomorrow, or -- or the next day, when we happen to see
him?"
"Good idea, Quatre," said Hiiro. "We'll practise as we go along.
But it's no good going home to practice it, because it's a special Soto
no Uta which Has To Be Sung In The Snow."
"Are you sure?" asked Quatre anxiously.
"Ja, you'll see, Quatre, when you listen. Because this is how
it begins. Kono yuki, pa-ra-ra-ra -- "
"Para what?" asked Quatre.
"Ra-ra," said Hiiro. "I put that in to make it more utarashiku.
Furu hodo, pa-ra-ra-ra, furu -- "
"Didn't you say yuki?"
"Yes, but that was before."
"Before the pa-ra-ra-ra?"
"It was a different pa-ra-ra-ra," said Hiiro, feeling a bit muddled
now. "I'll sing it to you properly and then you'll see."
So he sang it again.
Kono yuKI
De, dareMO
He sang it like that, which is much the best way of singing it,
and when he had finished, he waited for Quatre to say that of all the Settenki
no Soto no Uta he had ever heard, this was by far the best. And after thinking
the matter out carefully, Quatre said:
"Hiiro," he said solemnly, "it isn't the toes so much as
the ears."
By this time they were getting near Uufei's Gloomy Place, which
was where he lived, and as it was still very snowy behind Quatre's ears,
and he was getting very tired of it, they turned into a little pine wood,
and sat down on the gate which led into it. They were out of the snow now,
but it was very cold, and to keep themselves warm they sang Hiiro's uta
right through six times, Quatre doing the pa-ra-ra-ra and Hiiro doing the
rest of it, and both of them thumping on the top of the gate with pieces
of stick at the proper places. And in a little while they felt much warmer,
and were able to talk again.
"Kangaeteru," said Hiiro, "and what I've been thinking is this.
I've been worried about Uufei."
"What about Uufei?"
"Ja, poor Uufei has no place to live."
"Nor he has," said Quatre.
"You have a house, Quatre, and I have a house, and they
are both very good houses. And Relena Darlian has a house, and Dorothy
and Noin and Catherine have houses, and even your friends and relations
have houses or somethings, but Uufei has nothing. So what I've been thinking
is: Let's build him a house."
"Sore wa," said Quatre, "Joufunbetsu desu. Where shall we build
it?"
"We shall build it here," said Hiiro, "just by this wood, out
of the wind, because this is where I thought of it. And we shall call it
Hanekado. And we will build an Uufeitaku with sticks at Hanekado for Uufei."
"There was a heap of sticks on the other side of the wood," said
Quatre. "I saw them. Lots and lots. All piled up."
"Doomo," said Hiiro. "That'll be a great help, and because of
it I could call this place Hatosunaiwakado if Hanekado didn't sound better,
which it does, being smaller and more like a corner. Saa."
So they got down off the gate and went round to the other side
of the wood to fetch the sticks.
Relena Darlian had spent the morning indoors going to Mars and
back, she had just got off the shuttle and was wondering what it was like
outside, when who should come knocking at the door but Uufei.
"Hello, Uufei," said Relena Darlian, as she opened the door and
came out. "Genki desu ka?"
"It's snowing still," said Uufei, gloomily.
"Soo desu ne."
"And freezing."
"Soo desu ka?"
"Shi," said Uufei. "However," he said, brightening up a little,
"we haven't had an earthquake lately."
"Doo shita n da, Uufei?"
"Nan de mo nai, Relena Darlian. Nothing important. I suppose you
haven't seen a house or whatnot anywhere about?"
"Dare ga sunde iru ie?"
"I do. At least I thought I did. But I suppose I don't. After
all, we can't all have houses."
"But, Uufei, I didn't know -- I always thought -- "
"I don't know how it is, Relena Darlian, but what with all this
snow and one thing and another, not to mention icicles and such-like, it
isn't so Hot in my field about the hour of the Ox as some people think
it is. It isn't Close, if you know what I mean -- not so as to be uncomfortable.
It isn't Stuffy. In fact, Relena Darlian," he went on in a loud whisper,
"quite-between-ourselves-and-don't-tell-anybody, it's Cold."
"Aa, Uufei!"
"And I said to myself: The others will be sorry if I'm getting
myself all cold. They haven't got Brains, any of them, only grey fluff
that's blown into their heads by mistake, and they don't Think, but if
it goes on snowing for about six months or so, one of them will begin to
say to himself: 'Uufei can't be so very much too Hot about three o'clock
in the morning.' And then it will Get About. And they'll be Sorry."
"Aa, Uufei!" said Relena Darlian, feeling very sorry already.
"I don't mean you, Relena Darlian. You're different. So what it
all comes down to is that I built myself a house down by my little wood."
"Hontou? How exciting!"
"The really exciting part," said Uufei in his most melancholy
voice, "is that when I left it this morning, it was there, and when I came
back, it wasn't. Not at all, very natural, and it was only Uufei's house.
But still I just wondered."
Relena Darlian didn't stop to wonder. She was already in her
house, putting on her waterproof hat, her waterproof boots and her waterproof
raincoat as fast as she could.
"We'll go and look for it at once," she called to Uufei.
"Sometimes," said Uufei, "when people have finished taking a person's
house, there are one or two bits which they don't want and are rather glad
for the person to take back, if you know what I mean. So I thought if we
just went -- "
"Itte-miyoo," said Relena Darlian, and off they hurried, and in
a little while they got to the corner of the field by the side of the pine-wood,
where Uufei's house wasn't any longer.
"Hora!" said Uufei. "Not a stick of it left! Of course, I've still
got all this snow to do what I like with. One mustn't complain."
But Relena Darlian wasn't listening to Uufei, she was listening
to something else.
"Kikoemasen ka?" she asked.
"Kiite."
They both listened... and they heard a slightly nasal voice saying
in a singing voice that the more it snowed the more it went on snowing
and a smaller higher voice pa-ra-ra-ra-ing in between.
"Hiiro," said Relena Darlian excitedly.
"Possibly," said Uufei.
"And Quatre!" said Relena Darlian excitedly.
"Probably," said Uufei. "What we want is a Trained Bloodhound."
The words of the song changed suddenly.
"Ie, dekiTA!" sang the nasal voice.
"Pa-ra-ra-ra!" sang the higher one.
"Hiiro!" shouted Relena Darlian.
"Relena," said Hiiro.
"She's round by the place we got all those sticks from," said
Quatre.
"Iku zo," said Hiiro.
They climbed down their gate and hurried round the corner of the
wood, Hiiro making naming noises all the way.
"Fn. Uufei da," said Hiiro, when he had finished staring Relena
Darlian in the eyes, and he nudged Quatre, and Quatre nudged him, and they
thought what a lovely surprise they had got ready.
"Hello, Uufei."
"Kochira koso, Yui, and twice on Thursdays," said Uufei gloomily.
Before Hiiro could ask "Why Thursdays?" Relena Darlian began to
explain the sad story of Uufei's Lost House. And Hiiro and Quatre listened,
and their eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger.
"Where did you say it was?" asked Quatre.
"Just here," said Uufei.
"Made of sticks?"
"Hai."
"Ara," said Quatre.
"What?" said Uufei.
"I just said 'Ara,'" said Quatre nervously. And so as to seem
quite at ease he hummed pa-ra-ra-ra once or twice in a what-shall-we-do-now
kind of way.
"You're sure it was a house?" said Hiiro. "I mean, you're
sure the house was just here?"
"Mochiron," said Uufei. And he murmured to himself "No brain at
all some of them."
"Ara, doo shita n da, Hiiro?" asked Relena Darlian.
"Jaa... " said Hiiro... "Jitsu wa... " said Hiiro... "Well, the
fact is..." said Hiiro... "Eeto ne," said Hiiro.. "It's like this,"
said Hiiro, and something seemed to tell him that he wasn't explaining
very well, and he nudged Quatre again.
"It's like this," said Quatre quickly... "Only warmer," he added
after deep thought.
"What's warmer?"
"The other side of the wood, where Uufei's house is."
"My house?" said Uufei. "My house was here."
"Iie," said Quatre firmly. "The other side of the wood."
"Because of being warmer," said Hiiro.
"But I ought to know -- "
"Come and look," said Quatre simply, and he led the way.
"There wouldn't be two houses," said Hiiro. "Not so close
together."
They came round the corner, and there was Uufei's house, looking
as comfy as anything.
"There you are," said Quatre.
"Inside as well as outside," said Hiiro proudly.
Uufei went inside... and came out again.
"It's a remarkable thing," he said. "It is my house, and
I built it where I said I did, so the wind must have blown it here. And
the wind blew it right over the wood, and blew it down here, and here it
is as good as ever. In fact, better in places."
"Much better," said Hiiro and Quatre together.
"It just shows what can be done by taking a little trouble," said
Uufei. "Wakaru, Hiiro? Wakaru, Quatre? Brains first and then Hard Work.
Goran kudasai! That's the way to build a house," said Uufei proudly.
So they left him in it; and Relena Darlian went back to lunch
with her friends Hiiro and Quatre, and on the way they told her of the
Awful Mistake they had made. And when she had finished laughing, they all
sang the Settenki no Soto no Uta the rest of the way home, Quatre, who
was still not quite sure of his voice, putting in the pa-ra-ra-ra again.
"And I know it seems easy," said Quatre to himself, "but
it isn't everyone who could do it."
"If only," he thought as he looked out the window, "I had been
in Hiiro's house, or Relena Darlian's house, or Trowa's house when it began
to rain, then I should have had Company all this time, instead of being
here all alone, wondering to myself when it would stop." And he imagined
himself with Trowa, saying "Did you ever see such rain, Trowa?" and Trowa
saying "Hidoi da, na, Quatre?" and Quatre saying "I wonder how it is over
Relena Darlian's way" and Trowa saying "I should think Hiiro-kun is about
flooded out by now." It would have been nice to talk like this, and really,
it wasn't much good having anything exciting like floods, if you couldn't
share them with somebody.
For it was rather exciting. The little dry ditches in which Quatre
had so often nosed about became streams, the little streams across which
he had splashed were rivers, and the river, between whose steep banks they
had played so happily, had sprawled out of its own bed and was taking up
so much room everywhere, that Quatre was beginning to wonder whether it
would be coming into his bed soon.
"It's a little Anxious," he said to himself, "to be a Very Small
Arab Entirely Surrounded by Water. Relena Darlian and Hiiro could escape
by Climbing Trees, and Noin and Trowa could escape by Jumping, or Trowa
and Catherine could escape by Burrowing, and Dorothy -- or anyone with
a plane -- could escape by Flying, and Uufei could escape by -- by Making
a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by water and I can't
do anything."
It went on raining, and every day the water got a little higher,
until it was nearly up to Quatre's window... and still he hadn't done anything.
"There's Trowa," he thought to himself. "Trowa has plenty of Sense
and would be sure to do the Best Possible Thing. There's Hiiro. Hiiro hasn't
much Sense, but he never comes to any harm. He does ridiculously dangerous
things and they come out all right. There's Dorothy. Dorothy hasn't exactly
got Sense, but she Knows Things. She would know the Right Thing to Do when
Surrounded by Water. There's Catherine. She hasn't Learnt in Books, but
she can always think of a Clever Plan. There's Noin. She isn't Clever,
Noin isn't, but she would be so anxious about Hilde that she would do a
Good Thing to Do without realizing it. And then there's Uufei. And Uufei
is so miserable anyhow that he wouldn't mind about this. But I wonder what
Relena Darlian would do?"
Then suddenly he remembered a story which Relena Darlian had told
him about a man on a desert island who had written something in a bottle
and thrown it into the sea; and Quatre thought that if he wrote something
in a bottle and threw it in the water, perhaps somebody would come and
rescue him!
He left the window and began to search his house, all of it that
wasn't underwater, and at last he found a pencil and a small piece of dry
paper, and a bottle with a cork to it. And he wrote on one side of the
paper:
HELP!
and on the other side:
IT'S ME QUATRE, HELP HELP.
Then he put the paper in the bottle, and he corked the bottle
up as tightly as he could, and he leant out of his window as far as he
could lean without falling in, and he threw the bottle as far as he could
throw -- splash! -- and in a little while it bobbed up again on
the water; and he watched it floating slowly away in the distance, until
his eyes ached with looking, and sometimes he thought it was the bottle,
and sometimes he thought it was just a ripple on the water which he was
following, and then suddenly he knew that he would never see it again and
that he had done all that he could do to save himself.
"So now," he thought, "somebody else will have to do something,
and I hope they will do it soon, because if they don't I shall have to
swim, which I can't, so I hope they do it soon." And then he gave a very
long sigh and said "I wish Trowa or Hiiro was here. It's so much more friendly
with two."
When the rain began Hiiro was asleep. It rained, and it rained,
and it rained, and he slept and he slept and he slept. He had had a tiring
day. You remember how he discovered Lagrange Point One; well, he was so
proud of this that he asked Relena Darlian if there were any other Points
such as a Pilot of Little Sense might discover.
"There's a Lagrange Point Four and a Lagrange Point Five," said
Relena Darlian, "and I expect there's a Point Two and a Point Three, though
they wouldn't be properly stable at all."
Hiiro was very excited when he heard this, and suggested that
they should have an Expotition to discover Lagrange Point Two, but Relena
Darlian had thought of something else to do with Noin; so Hiiro went out
to discover Lagrange Point Two by himself. Whether he discovered it or
not, I forget; but he was so tired when he got home that, in the very middle
of his supper, after he had been eating for little more than five minutes,
he fell fast asleep in his chair, and slept and slept and slept.
Then suddenly he was dreaming. He was at Lagrange Point Two, and
it was a very cold point with the coldest sort of snow and ice all over
it. He had found a suitcase to sleep in, but there wasn't room for his
legs, so he had left them outside. And Umbrageous Ousels, such as inhabit
Lagrange Point Two, came and nibbled all of his sneakers and socks off
to make nests for their Young. And the more they nibbled, the colder his
legs got, until suddenly he woke up with a Fu! -- and there he was,
sitting in his chair with his feet in the water, and water all round him!
He splashed to his door and looked out...
"This is Serious," said Hiiro. "I must have an Escape."
So he took his largest tub of nattou and escaped with it to a
broad branch of his tree, well above the water, and then he climbed down
again and filled one of his empty washed-out nattou tubs with ammunition
and escaped with it, and then he climbed down again and escaped with another
tub... and when the whole Escape was finished, there was Hiiro sitting
on his branch, dangling his legs, and beside him were twelve tubs of ammunition,
a gun or three in the sort of plastic sleeve that one puts on an umbrella
to keep it from dripping all over the shop, and ten tubs of nattou...
Two days later, there was Hiiro, sitting on his branch, dangling
his legs, and there beside him were four tubs of nattou...
Three days later, there was Hiiro, sitting on his branch, dangling
his legs, and there beside him was one tub of nattou...
Four days later, there was Hiiro...
And it was on the morning of the fourth day that Quatre's bottle
came floating past him, and with one loud cry of "Nattou!" Hiiro
plunged into the water, seized the bottle, and struggled back to his tree
again.
"Shimatta!" said Hiiro. "All that wet for nothing. What's that
bit of paper doing?"
He took it out and looked at it.
"It's a Tsutaegoto," he said to himself, "that's what it is. And
that letter is an 'H,' and so is that, and so is that, and 'H' means 'Hiiro,'
so it's a very important Tsutaegoto for me, and I can't read it. I must
find Relena Darlian or Dorothy or Quatre, one of those Clever Readers who
can read things in English, and they will tell me what this Tsutaegoto
means. Only I can't swim. Shimatta!"
Then he had an idea, and I think that for a Pilot of Very Little
Sense, it was a good idea. He said to himself:
"If a bottle can float, then a tub can float, and if a tub can
float, then I can sit on top of it, if it's a very big tub."
So he took his biggest tub, and sealed the top tight. "All boats
have to have a name," he said, "so I shall call mine Floating
Pilot-gou." And with these words he dropped his boat in the water and jumped
in after it.
For a little while Hiiro and the Floating Pilot-gou
were uncertain as to which of them was meant to be on the top, but after
trying one or two different positions, they settled down with Floating Pilot-gou underneath and Hiiro triumphantly astride it, waist-deep
in water and paddling vigourously with his hands.
Relena Darlian lived at the very top of the Forest. It rained,
and it rained, and it rained, but the water couldn't come up to HER house.
It was rather cool to look down into the valleys and see the water all
round her, but it rained so hard that she stayed indoors most of the time,
and thought about things. Every morning she went out with her umbrella
and put a stick in the place where the water came up to, and every next
morning she went out and couldn't see her stick any more, so she put another
stick in the place where the water came up to, and then she walked home
again, and each morning she had a shorter way to walk than she had the
morning before. On the morning of the fifth day she saw the water all round
her, and knew that for the first time in her life she was on a real island.
Which was very exciting.
It was on this morning that Dorothy came flying across the water
to say "Ikaga desu ka "Ne, ne, Dorothy," said Relena, "isn't this fun? I'm on an island!"
"The atmospheric conditions have been very unfavorable lately,"
said Dorothy.
"The what?"
"It has been raining," explained Dorothy.
"Hai," said Relena Darlian. "It has."
"The flood-level has reached an unprecedented height."
"The who?"
"There's a lot of water about," explained Dorothy.
"Hai," said Relena Darlian. "There is."
"However, the prospects are rapidly becoming more favorable. At
any moment -- "
"Have you seen Hiiro?"
"Iie. At any moment -- "
"I hope he's all right," said Relena Darlian. "I've been wondering
about him. I expect Quatre's with him. Do you think they're all right,
Dorothy?"
"Tabun. You see, at any moment -- "
"Do go and see, Dorothy. Because Hiiro hasn't got very much sense,
and he might do something silly, and I do love him so, Dorothy. Wakaru
deshoo, Dorothy?"
"That's all right," said Dorothy. "Iku wa yo. Back directly."
And she flew off.
In a little while she was back again.
"Hiiro isn't there," she said.
"Not there?"
"Has been there. He's been sitting on a branch of his tree
outside his house with twelve tubs of ammunition, a gun or three in the
sort of plastic sleeve that one puts on an umbrella to keep it from dripping
all over the shop, and nine tubs of nattou. But he isn't there now."
"Hiiro!" cried Relena Darlian. "Where are you?"
"Koko," said a nasal voice behind her.
"Hiiro!"
"Relena."
They rushed into each other's arms.
"How did you get here, Hiiro?" asked Relena Darlian, when she
was ready to talk again.
"On my boat," said Hiiro proudly. "I had a Very Important Tsutaegoto
sent me in a bottle, and owing to some water having gotten in my eyes,
I couldn't read it, so I brought it to you. On my boat."
With these proud words he pulled the bottle out of the back of
his waistband and gave Relena Darlian the message.
"But it's from Quatre!" cried Relena Darlian when she had read
it.
"Isn't there anything about Hiiro in it?" asked 01, leaning over
her shoulder.
Relena Darlian read the message aloud.
"Oh, are those 'H's Help? I thought they were Hiiro."
"We must rescue him at once! I thought he was with you,
Hiiro. Dorothy, could you rescue him on your back?"
"I don't think so," said Dorothy, after grave thought. "It is
doubtful if the necessary dorsal muscles -- "
"Then would you fly to him at once and say that Rescue
is Coming? And Hiiro and I will think of a Rescue and come as quick as
ever we can. Mou, don't talk, Dorothy, go on quick!" And, still
thinking of something to say, Dorothy flew off.
"Saa, Hiiro," said Relena Darlian, "where's your boat?"
"I ought to say," explained Hiiro as they walked down to the shore
of the island, "that it isn't just an ordinary sort of boat. Sometimes
it's a Boat, and sometimes it's more of an Accident. It all depends."
"Depends on what?"
"On whether I'm on the top of it, or underneath it."
"...ah. Jaa, where is it?"
"Asoko," said Hiiro, pointing proudly to the Floating
Pilot-gou.
It wasn't what Relena Darlian expected, and the more she looked
at it, the more she thought what a Brave and Clever Pilot Hiiro was, and
the more Relena Darlian thought this, the more Hiiro stared modestly at
his sneakers and tried to pretend he wasn't.
"But it's too small for two of us," said Relena Darlian sadly.
"Three of us with Quatre."
"That makes it smaller still. A, Hiiro, what shall we do?"
And then this Pilot, Pilot 01, Hiiro Yui, F. O. Q. (Friend of
Quatre's), T. C. (Trowa's Companion), L. P. D. (Lagrange Point Discoverer),
U. C. and P. F. (Uufei's Comforter and Ponytail-finder) -- in fact, Hiiro
himself -- said something so clever that Relena Darlian could only look
at him with mouth open and eyes staring, wondering if this was really the
Pilot of Very Little Sense whom she had known and loved so long.
"We might go in your umbrella," said Hiiro.
"?"
"We might go in your umbrella," said Hiiro.
"? ?"
"We might go in your umbrella," said Hiiro.
"!!"
For suddenly Relena Darlian saw that they might. She opened her
umbrella and put it point downward in the water. It floated but wobbled.
Hiiro got in. He was just beginning to say that it was all right now, when
he found out that it wasn't, so after a short drink which he didn't really
want he waded back to Relena Darlian. Then they both got in together, taking
along Floating Pilot-gou to dump out any water which might rain
into the umbrella, and it wobbled no longer.
"I shall call this boat The Sense of Hiiro-maru," said
Relena Darlian, and The Sense of Hiiro-maru set sail forthwith in
a south-westerly direction, revolving gracefully.
You can imagine Quatre's joy when at last the ship came in sight
of him. In after-years he liked to think that he had been in Very Great
Danger during the Terrible Flood, but the only danger he had really been
in was during the last half-hour of his imprisonment, when Dorothy, who
had just flown up, sat on a branch of his tree to comfort him, and told
him a very long story about a first cousin once removed who had planted
blackberries instead of roses by mistake, and the story went on and on,
rather like this sentence, until Quatre who was listening out of his window
without much hope, went to sleep quietly and naturally, slipping slowly
out of the window towards the water until he was only hanging on by his
toes, at which moment luckily, a sudden loud squawk from Dorothy, which
was really part of the story, being what her first cousin once removed
said, woke the Quatre up and just gave him time to jerk himself back into
safety and say "How interesting, and did he?" when -- well, you can imagine
his joy when at last he saw the good ship, The Sense of Hiiro-maru
(Senchou: R. Darlian; Koukaishi: H. Yui) coming over the sea to rescue
him, Relena Darlian and Hiiro again...
And that is really the end of the story, and as I am very tired
after that last sentence, I think I shall stop there.
"Is that you, Quatre?" he said.
But it wasn't.
"Come in, Relena Darlian," he said.
But Relena Darlian didn't.
"Out with it, Trowa," he said.
But Trowa couldn't.
"Tell me about it tomorrow, Uufei," said Hiiro sleepily.
But the noise went on.
"Kukukukukuku," said Whatever-it-was, and Hiiro found that
he wasn't asleep after all.
"What can it be?" he thought. "There are lots of noises in the
Forest, but this is a different one. It isn't a growl, and it isn't a purr,
and it isn't a bark, and it isn't the noise-you-make-before-beginning-a-little-uta,
but it's a noise of some kind, made by a strange being. And he's making
it outside my door. So I shall get up and ask him not to do it. Ninmu ryoukai."
He got out of bed and opened his front door.
"Hello," said Hiiro, in case there was something on the other
side.
"Hello!" said Whatever-it-was.
"Aa," said Hiiro. "Hello."
"Hello!"
"A, soko sa," said Hiiro. "Hello."
"Hello!" said the Strange Being, wondering how long this was going
on.
Hiiro was just going to say "Hello" for the fourth time, when
he thought that he wouldn't, so he said: "Who is it?" instead.
"Ah," said Hiiro. "Saa, come here."
So Whatever-it-was came here, and in the light of the flashlight
he and Hiiro looked at each other.
"I'm Hiiro," said Hiiro.
"I'm Shinigami," said Shinigami.
"A!" said Hiiro, for he had never seen a creature like this before.
"Does Relena Darlian know about you?"
"Of course she does," said Shinigami.
"Ja," said Hiiro, "it's the middle of the night, which is a good
time for going to sleep. And tomorrow morning we'll have nattou for breakfast.
Do Shinigami like nattou?"
"They like everything," said Shinigami cheerfully.
"Then if they like going to sleep on the floor, I'll go back to
bed," said Hiiro, "and we'll do things in the morning. Oyasumi." And he
got back into bed and went fast asleep.
When he awoke in the morning, the first thing he saw was Shinigami,
sitting in front of the glass and looking at himself.
"Ohayoo," said Hiiro.
"O-ha-yo!" said Shinigami. "I've found somebody just like me.
I thought I was the only one of them."
Hiiro got out of bed, and began to explain what a mirror was,
but just as he was getting to the interesting part, Shinigami said:
"Excuse me, but there's something crawling up your table," and
with one loud Kukukukuku he jumped at the end of the furoshiki that Relena
Darlian had given Hiiro for a table runner, pulled it to the ground, wrapped
himself up in it three times, rolled to the other end of the room, and
after a terrible struggle, got his head into the daylight again, and said
"Kachi wa ore?"
"Furoshiki da," said Hiiro, as he began to unwind Shinigami.
"I wondered what it was," said Shinigami.
"You wrap things in it, or put it on a table or something to look
decorative."
"Then why did it try to bite me when I wasn't looking?"
"I don't think it did," said Hiiro.
"It tried," said Shinigami, "but I was too quick for it."
Hiiro put the furoshiki back on the table, and he put a large
nattou tub on the furoshiki, and they sat down to breakfast. And as soon
as they sat down, Shinigami took a large mouthful of nattou... and he looked
up at the ceiling with his head on one side, and made exploring noises
with his tongue and considering noises, and what-have-we-got-here
noises... and then he said in a very decided voice:
"Shinigami don't like nattou."
"E?" said Hiiro, and tried to make it sound Sad and Regretful.
"I thought they liked everything."
"Everything except nattou," said Shinigami.
Hiiro felt rather pleased about this, and said that, as soon as
he had finished his own breakfast, he would take Shinigami round to Quatre's
house, and Shinigami could try some of Quatre's neggplants.
"Sankyuu, Hiiro," said Shinigami, "because neggplants is really
what Shinigami like best."
So after breakfast they went round to see Quatre, and Hiiro explained
as they went that Quatre was a Very Small Being who didn't like bouncing,
and asked Shinigami not to be too Bouncy just at first. And Shinigami,
who had been hiding behind trees and jumping out at Hiiro's shadow when
it wasn't looking, said that Shinigami were only bouncy before breakfast,
and as soon as they had a few neggplants they became Quiet and Refined.
So by and by they knocked at the door of Quatre's house.
"Ohayoo gozaimasu, Hiiro," said Quatre.
"Ohayoo, Quatre. This is Shinigami."
"A, soo desu ka?" said Quatre, and he edged round to the other
side of the table. "I thought Shinigami were smaller than that."
"Not the big ones," said Shinigami, carelessly throwing his braid
over one shoulder.
"They like neggplants," said Hiiro, "so that's what we've come
for, because poor Shinigami hasn't had any breakfast yet."
Quatre pushed the plate of neggplants towards Shinigami, and said:
"Doozo," and then he got close up to Hiiro and felt much braver, and said
"So you're Shinigami? Soo ka!" in a careless sort of voice. But Shinigami
said nothing because his mouth was full of neggplants...
After a long munching noise he said:
"Ii-ami oh ai eh-amf."
And when Hiiro and Quatre said "Nan da to?" he said "Skuuz i,"
and went outside for a moment.
When he came back, he said firmly:
"Shinigami don't like neggplants."
"But you said they liked everything but nattou," said Hiiro.
"Everything but nattou and neggplants," explained Shinigami.
When he heard this Hiiro said "Naruhodo," and Quatre, who was
rather glad that Shinigami didn't like neggplants, said "What about Red
Szechuan Death Peppers?"
"Red Szechuan Death Peppers," said Shinigami, "is what Shinigami
like best."
"Then let's go along and see Uufei," said Quatre.
So the three of them went; and after they had walked and walked
and walked, they came to the part of the Forest where Uufei was.
"Ohayoo, Uufei," said Hiiro. "This is Shinigami."
"What is?" said Uufei.
"This," explained Hiiro and Quatre together, and Shinigami smiled
his happiest smile and said nothing.
Uufei walked all round Shinigami one way, and then turned and
walked all round him the other way.
"What did you say it was?" he said.
"Shinigami."
"Naruhodo," said Uufei.
"He's just come," explained Quatre.
"Naruhodo," said Uufei again.
He thought for a long time and then said:
"When is he going?"
Hiiro explained to Uufei that Shinigami was a great friend of
Relena Darlian's, who had come to stay in the Forest, and Quatre explained
to Shinigami that he mustn't mind what Uufei said because he was always
gloomy; and Uufei explained to Quatre that on the contrary, he was feeling
particularly cheerful this morning; and Shinigami explained to anybody
who was listening that he hadn't had any breakfast yet.
"I knew there was something," said Hiiro. "Shinigami always eat
Red Szechuan Death Peppers, so that was why we came to see you, Uufei."
"Don't mention it, Yui."
"I didn't mean that we didn't want to see you --"
"Quite. But your new bempatsu friend -- naturally, he wants his
breakfast. What did you say his name was?"
"Shinigami."
"De, come this way, Shinigami."
Uufei led the way to the most deathpeppery-looking bunch of Red
Szechuan Death Peppers that ever was, and waved a hand at it.
"A little bunch I was keeping for my birthday," he said, "but
what, after all, are birthdays? Here today and gone tomorrow. Doozo, Shinigami."
Shinigami thanked him and looked a little anxiously at Hiiro.
"Are those really Red Szechuan Death Peppers?" he whispered.
"Aa," said Hiiro.
"What Shinigami like best?"
"Wakaru," said Shinigami.
So he took a large mouthful, and he gave a large crunch.
"Aah!" said Shinigami.
He bolted for the nearby brook, flopped down on a largish stone,
and stuck his face in the water, mouth wide open.
"Doo shita n da?" asked Hiiro.
"Hot!" gurgled Shinigami.
"Your friend," said Uufei, "appears to have bitten on a bee."
Hiiro's friend stopped gulping down water to wash away the pepper
oil, and explained that Shinigami didn't like Red Szechuan Death Peppers.
"Then why bend some perfectly good ones?" asked Uufei.
"But you said," began Hiiro, "you said that Shinigami liked
everything except nattou and neggplants."
"And Red Szechuan Death Peppers," said Shinigami, who was
now running around in circles with his tongue hanging out and his braid
streaming behind him.
Hiiro looked at him dispassionately.
"What are we going to do?" he asked Quatre.
Quatre knew the answer to that, and he said at once that they
must go and see Relena Darlian.
"You'll find her with Noin," said Uufei. He came close to Hiiro,
and said in a loud whisper:
"Could you ask your friend to do his kata somewhere else?
I shall be having lunch directly, and I don't want it bounced on before
I begin. A trifling matter, and fussy of me, but we all have our little
ways."
Hiiro nodded solemnly and called to Shinigami.
"Come along and we'll go see Noin. She's sure to have lots of
breakfast for you."
Shinigami finished his last circle and came up to Hiiro and Quatre.
"Hot!" he explained with a large and friendly smile. "Come on!"
and he rushed off.
Hiiro and Quatre walked slowly after him. And as they walked Quatre
said nothing, because he couldn't think of anything, and Hiiro said nothing,
because he was thinking of an uta. And when he had thought of it he began:
Doo sureba
Nattou ya
Umai no ga
"He's quite big enough anyhow," said Quatre.
"He isn't really that big."
"Demo, he seems so."
Hiiro was thoughtful when he heard this, and then he murmured
to himself:
Ikutsudemo
Itsumademo
"And that's the whole uta," he said. "Do you like it, Quatre?"
"All except the meters," said Quatre. "I don't think they ought
to be there."
"They wanted to come in after the kilos," said Hiiro, "so I let
them. It is the best way to write poetry, letting things come."
Shinigami had been bouncing in front of them all this time, turning
round every now and then to ask "Is this the way?" -- and now at last they
came in sight of Noin's house, and there was Relena Darlian. Shinigami
rushed up to her.
"Ya, there you are, Shinigami!" said Relena Darlian. "I knew you'd
be somewhere."
"I've been finding things in the Forest," said Shinigami importantly.
"I've found a hiiro and a quatre and an uufei, but I can't find any breakfast."
Hiiro and Quatre came up and took Relena Darlian's hands, and
explained what had been happening.
"Don't you know what Shinigami like?" asked Hiiro.
"I expect if I thought very hard I should," said Relena
Darlian, "but I thought Shinigami knew."
"I do," said Shinigami. "Everything there is in the world except
nattou and neggplants and -- what were those hot things called?"
"Red Szechuan Death Peppers."
"Yes, and those."
"Soo ka. Jaa, Noin can give you some breakfast."
So they went into Noin's house, and when Hilde had said "Hello,
Hiiro," and "Hello, Quatre" once, and "Hello, Shinigami" twice because
she had never said it before and it sounded funny, they told Noin what
they wanted, and Noin said "Saa, look in my cupboard, Shinigami caro, and
see what you'd like." Because she knew at once that, however big Shinigami
seemed to be, he wanted as much kindness as Hilde.
"Ore mo ii?" said Hiiro, who was beginning to feel a little eleven
o'clock-ish. And he found a small can of stewed oxtail, and something seemed
to tell him that Shinigami didn't like this, so he took it into a corner
by itself, and went with it to see that nobody interrupted it.
But the more Shinigami put his hand into this and his finger into
that, the more things he found which Shinigami didn't like. And when he
had found everything in the cupboard of health food, and couldn't eat any
of it, he said to Noin, "Now what?"
But Noin and Relena Darlian and Quatre were all standing round
Hilde, watching her have her Syrup of Coca. And Hilde was saying "Must
I?" and Noin was saying "Saa, Hilde cara, you remember what you promised."
"What is it?" whispered Shinigami to Quatre.
"Her Strengthening Medicine," said Quatre. "She hates it."
So Shinigami came closer, and he leant over the back of Hilde's
chair, and suddenly he put out his tongue, and took one large golollop,
and, with a sudden jump of surprise, Noin said "E?" and then clutched at
the spoon again just as it was disappearing, and pulled it safely back
out of Shinigami's mouth. But the Syrup of Coca had gone.
"Shinigami caro!" said Noin.
"He's taken my medicine, he's taken my medicine, he's taken my
medicine!" sang Hilde happily, thinking it was a tremendous joke.
Then Shinigami looked up at the ceiling, and closed his eyes,
and his tongue went round and round his lips, in case he had left any outside,
and a peaceful smile came over his face as he said "So that's what Shinigami
like!"
Which explains why he always lived at Noin's house afterwards,
and had Syrup of Coca for breakfast, dinner, and late-afternoon snack.
And sometimes, when Noin thought he wanted strengthening, he had one or
two of Hilde's fried steaks after meals as medicine.
"But I think," said Quatre to Trowa, "that he's been strengthened
quite enough."
Well, he went on singing, until he came to the part of the stream
where the stepping-stones were, and when he was in the middle of the third
stone he began to wonder how Noin and Hilde and Shinigami were getting
along, because they all lived together in a different part of the Forest.
And he thought "I haven't seen Hilde for a long time, and if I don't see
her today it will be a still longer time." So he sat down on the stone
in the middle of the stream, and sang another verse of his uta, while
he wondered what to do.
The other verse of the song was like this:
Yasumi dano
The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone, which had been
sitting in it for a long time, was so warm, too, that Hiiro had almost
decided to go on taking a rest in the middle of the stream for the rest
of the morning, Rest and Recuperation being Important to the Proper Maintenance
of H. s. sapiens, when he remembered Trowa.
"Trowa," said Hiiro to himself. "I like talking to Trowa. He
talks about sensible things. He doesn't use long, difficult words, like
Dorothy, or wander all-over-everywhere, like Shinigami. Nor does Catherine.
She uses short, easy words, like 'How about lunch?' or 'Doozo, Hiiro.'
I suppose, really, I ought to go and see Trowa and Catherine."
Which made him think of another verse:
Sono kotoba
So when he had sung this, he got up off his stone, walked back
across the stream, and set out for Catherine's house.
But he hadn't got far before he began to say to himself:
"Aa, but suppose Catherine and Trowa are out?"
"Or suppose I get stuck in their back door again, coming out,
as I did once when their back door wasn't big enough?
"Because I know I'm not getting fatter, but their back door
may have got thinner."
"So wouldn't it be better if -- "
And all the while he was saying things like this he was going
more and more westerly, without thinking... until suddenly he was at his
front door again.
And his laptop was beeping.
Which meant Time-for-a-bit-of-constructive-mayhem...
An hour later he was doing what he always really meant to do,
he was stumping off to Quatre's house. And as he walked, he wiped his mouth
with the back of his hand, and sang rather a crimson uta through the bit
of blood barely worth mentioning.
Katoru to no
Katoru shika
Written down, like this, it doesn't seem a very good uta, but
coming through pale fawn fluff at about half-past eleven on a very sunny
morning, it seemed to Hiiro to be one of the best uta he had ever sung.
So he went on singing it.
Quatre was busy digging a small hole in the ground outside his
house.
"Hello, Quatre," said Hiiro.
"Hello, Hiiro," said Quatre, giving a jump of surprise. "I knew
it was you."
"Ore mo," said Hiiro. "What are you doing?"
"I'm planting a neggplant, Hiiro, so that it can grow up into
a neggplant-vine, and have lots of neggplants just outside the front door
instead of having to fly miles and miles, do you see, Hiiro?"
"Supposing it doesn't?" said Hiiro.
"It will, because Relena Darlian says it will, so that's why I'm
planting it."
"Dakara," said Hiiro, "if I plant gundanium casting molds outside
my house, then they will grow up into a Gundam factory."
Quatre wasn't quite sure about this.
"Or a piece of a casting mold," said Hiiro, "so as not to waste
too much. Only then I might only get a piece of a factory, and it might
be the wrong part, where the duplicate records were being made and not
the spare parts. Fn."
Quatre agreed that that would be rather fn-some.
"Tonikaku, Hiiro, it's a very difficult thing, planting, unless
you know how to do it," he said; and he put the eggplant in the hole he
had made, and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
"I do know," said Hiiro, "because Relena Darlian gave me a asukago
seed, and I planted it, and I'm going to have asukago all over my front
door."
"I thought they were called asagao," said Quatre timidly, as he
went on jumping.
"Iya," said Hiiro. "Not these. These are called asukago."
When Quatre had finished jumping, he wiped his hands on his pocket-handkerchief,
and said "What shall we do now?" and Hiiro said "Let's go and see Noin
and Hilde and Shinigami," and Quatre said "H-hai. L-lets," -- because he
was still a little anxious about Shinigami, who was a Very Bouncy Kami,
with a way of saying Oi-genki-kai, which always left your ears full of
sand, even after Noin had said "Gently, Shinigami caro," and had helped
you up again. So they set off for Noin's house.
Now it happened that Noin had felt rather motherly that morning,
and Wanting to Count Things -- like Hilde's camisoles, and how many pieces
of soap there were left, and the two clean spots on Shinigami's placemat;
so she had sent them out with a paper bag, containing buns with red-bean-jam
in the middle for Hilde, and buns with chocolate-and-butter in the middle
for Shinigami, to have a nice long morning in the Forest not getting into
mischief. And off they had gone.
And as they went, Shinigami told Hilde (who wanted to know) all
about the things that Shinigami could do.
"Can they fly?" asked Hilde.
"Yes," said Shinigami, "they're very good flyers, Shinigami are.
Stornry good flyers."
"Waa!" said Hilde. "Can they fly as good as Dorothy?"
"Yes," said Shinigami. "Excepting Dorothy's only got wings, and
Shinigami do Gundams."
"Soo ka," said Hilde. "Can they fly as good as Trowa?"
"Much better than Trowa," said Shinigami. "Only SOMEone waltzed
off with half the rarest bits without so much as a by-your-leave, and Shinigami
don't want to fly with missing parts."
"Why don't they want to?"
"Jaa, they just don't like it, somehow."
Hilde couldn't understand this, because she thought it would be
lovely to be able to fly your very own mecha, but Shinigami said it was
difficult to explain to anyone who wasn't a Gundam Pilot himself.
"Ano ne," said Hilde, "can they jump as far as Fujin Pairotto?"
"Yes," said Shinigami. "When they want to."
"I love jumping," Hilde said. "Let's see who can jump farthest,
you or me."
"Ore da," said Shinigami. "But we mustn't stop now, or we'll
be late."
"Late for what?"
"For whatever we want to be in time for," said Shinigami, hurrying
on.
In a little while they came to the Six Pine Trees.
"I can swim," said Hilde. "I fell into the river, and I swimmed.
Can Shinigami swim?"
"Of course they can. Shinigami can do anything."
"Can they climb trees better than Hiiro?" asked Hilde, stopping
under the tallest Pine Tree, and looking up at it.
"Climbing trees is what they do best," said Shinigami, eyes lighting
up. "Much better than Hiiros."
"Could they climb this one?"
"They're always climbing trees like that," said Shinigami. "Up
and down all day."
"Ne, ne, Shinigami, are they really?"
"I'll show you," said Shinigami stoutly, "and you can sit on my
shoulders and watch me." For of all the things which he had said Shinigami
could do, the only one he really wanted to do just then was climbing trees,
especially given the actions of a certain pilot, who shall not be named,
but who, having proved that black was white in his blatant disregard for
ware no and nanji no, will undoubtedly get himself killed at the next zebra
crossing.
"Waa, Shinigami, waa, Shinigami, waa, Shinigami!" squealed Hilde
excitedly.
So she sat on Shinigami's shoulders and up they went.
And for the first three meters Shinigami said happily to himself,
"Agatteru!"
And for the next three meters he said:
"I always said Shinigami could climb trees."
And for the next three meters he said:
"Not that it's easy, you know."
And for the next three meters he said:
"Of course, there's the coming-down too. Backwards."
And for the next three meters he said:
"Which... will be difficult."
And then he said:
"Unless one fell...
"When it would be...
"EASY."
And at the word "easy" the branch he was standing on broke suddenly,
and he just managed to clutch at the one above him as he felt himself going...
and then slowly he got his chin over it... and then one leg... and then
the other... until at last he was sitting on it, breathing very quickly,
and wishing that he had gone in for swimming instead.
Hilde climbed off, and sat down next to him.
"Waa, Shinigami," she said excitedly, "are we at the top?"
"No," said Shinigami.
"Are we going to the top?"
"No," said Shinigami.
"Saa," said Hilde rather sadly. And then she went on hopefully:
"That was a lovely bit just now, when you pretended we were going to fall
bump-to-the-bottom, and we didn't. Will you do that bit again?"
"NO," said Shinigami.
Hilde was silent for a little while, and then she said "Shall
we eat our buns, Shinigami?" And Shinigami said "Un! Where are they?" And
Hilde said "At the bottom of the tree." And Shinigami said "I don't think
we'd better eat them just yet." So they didn't.
By and by Hiiro and Quatre came along. Hiiro was telling Quatre
in a singing voice that whatever he could do this morning, since he wasn't
getting any fatter, it didn't matter; and Quatre was wondering how long
it would be before his neggplant came up.
"Mite, Hiiro!" said Quatre suddenly. "There's something in one
of the Pine Trees."
"Soo ka!" said Hiiro, looking up speculatively. "There's a Creature."
Quatre took Hiiro's arm, in case Hiiro was frightened.
"Is it One of the Fiercer Beings?" he asked, looking the other
way.
Hiiro nodded.
"Jagular da," he said.
"What do Jagulars do?" said Quatre, hoping that they wouldn't.
"They hide in the branches of trees, and drop on you when you
go underneath," said Hiiro. "Relena Darlian told me."
"Perhaps we better hadn't go underneath, Hiiro. In case he dropped
and hurt himself."
"They don't hurt themselves," said Hiiro. "They're such very good
droppers."
Quatre still felt that to be underneath a Very Good Dropper would
be a Mistake, and he was just going to hurry off and see if perhaps Trowa
knew of a way to make Jagulars do as they were told when the Jagular called
out to them.
"Oi! Oiiii!" it called.
"That's what Jagulars always do," said Hiiro, much interested.
"They call 'Oi! Oi!' and then when you look up, they drop on you."
"I'm looking down," cried Quatre loudly, so the Jagular shouldn't
do the wrong thing by accident.
Something very excited next to the Jagular heard him and squeaked:
"Hiiro and Quatre! Hiiro and Quatre!"
All of a sudden Quatre felt that it was a much nicer day than
he had thought it was. All warm and sunny --
"Hiiro!" he cried. "It's Shinigami and Hilde!"
"Soo da," said Hiiro. "I thought it was a Jagular and another
Jagular."
"Konnichi wa, Hilde!" called Quatre. "What are you doing?"
"We can't get down, we can't get down!" cried Hilde. "Tanoshii
ne? Hiiro, tanoshii ne, Shinigami and I are living in a tree, Dorothy mitai
ne, and we're going to stay here for ever and ever. I can see Quatre's
house. Quatre, I can see your house from here. Aren't we high? I wonder,
is Dorothy's house as high as this?"
"How did you get there, Hilde?" asked Quatre.
"On Shinigami's shoulders! And Shinigami can't climb downwards,
because their hair gets in the way, and he's wearing quite the wrong kind
of shoes, and Shinigami forgot about that when we started, and he only
just remembered. So we've got to stay here for ever and ever -- unless
we go higher. What did you say, Shinigami? A, Shinigami says if we go higher
we shan't be able to see Quatre's house so well, so we're going to stay
here."
"Quatre," said Hiiro solemnly, when he had heard all this, "doo
sureba?" And he began to eat Shinigami's choco-pan.
"Are they stuck?" asked Quatre anxiously.
Hiiro nodded.
"Couldn't you climb up to them?"
"I might, Quatre, and I might bring Hilde down on my shoulders,
but I couldn't bring Shinigami down. So we must begin to think of something
else." And in a thoughtful way he began to eat Hilde's ampan, too.
* * * * *
Whether he would have thought of anything before he finished the
last bun, I don't know, but he had just got to the last but one when
there was a crackling in the underbrush, and Relena Darlian and Uufei came
strolling along together, Trowa trailing them by two meters or so.
"I shouldn't be surprised if it hailed a good deal tomorrow,"
Uufei was saying. "Blizzards and what not. Being fine today doesn't Mean
Anything. It has no sig -- what's that word? Well, it has none of that.
It's just a small piece of weather."
"Hiiro ga imasu!" said Relena Darlian, who didn't much mind what
it did tomorrow, as long as she was out in it. "Hiiro!"
"Relena Darlian wa kimashita!" said Quatre. "She'll know what
to do."
They hurried up to her.
"Relena," said Hiiro.
"And Trowa," said Quatre.
"And Uufei," said Uufei.
"Shinigami and Hilde are right up the Six Pine Trees, and they
can't get down, and -- "
"And I was just saying," put in Quatre, "that if only Relena Darlian
were here -- and Trowa -- "
"And Uufei -- "
"If only you were here, then we could think of something to do."
Relena Darlian looked up at Shinigami and Hilde, and tried to
think of something.
"I thought," said Quatre earnestly, "that if Uufei stood at
the bottom of the tree, and Hiiro stood on Uufei's shoulders, and Trowa
stood on Hiiro's shoulders, and I stood -- "
"And if Uufei's back snapped suddenly, then we could all laugh.
Ha ha! Amusing in a quiet way," said Uufei, "but not really helpful."
"Well," said Quatre meekly, "I thought -- "
"Would it really break your back, Uufei?" said Trowa, very much
surprised.
"That's what would be so interesting, Barton. Not being sure until
afterwards."
Trowa said "Aa," and they all began to think again.
"I've got an idea!" cried Relena Darlian suddenly.
"Listen to this, Winner," said Uufei, "and then you'll know what
we're trying to do."
"I'll take off my pinafore and we'll each hold a corner, and then
Hilde and Shinigami can jump into it, and it will be all soft and bouncy
for them, and they won't hurt themselves."
"Getting Shinigami down," said Uufei, "and Not hurting anybody.
Keep those two ideas in your head, Winner, and you'll be all right."
But Quatre wasn't listening, he was so agog at the thought of
seeing Relena Darlian's blue Lucky Kitty Gym Shorts again. He had only
seen them once before, when he was much younger, and, being a little over-excited
by them, had had to go to bed half an hour earlier than usual; and he had
always wondered since if they were really as blue and as kitty-some as
he had thought them. So when Relena Darlian took her pinafore off, and
they were, he felt quite friendly to Uufei again, and held the corner of
the pinafore between him and Trowa -- leaving Hiiro quite out -- and smiled
happily at him. And Uufei whispered back: "I'm not saying there won't be
an Accident now, mind you. They're funny things, Accidents. You never
have them till you're having them."
When Hilde understood what she had to do, she was wildly excited,
and cried out: "Ne, ne, Shinigami, we're going to jump! Look at me jumping,
Shinigami! Like flying, my jumping will be. Can Shinigami do it?" And she
squeaked out: "Tobu wa yo, Relena Darlian!" and she jumped -- straight
into the middle of the pinafore. And she was going so fast that she bounced
up again almost as high as where she was before -- and went on bouncing
and saying "Kyaaa!" for quite a long time -- and then at last she stopped
and said "Waa, cool!" And they put her on the ground.
"Saa, tonde mite, Shinigami," she called out. "It's easy."
But Shinigami was holding on to the branch and saying to himself:
"It's all very well for Jumping Beings like Fujin Pairotto, but it's quite
different for Swimming Beings such as Shinigami." And he thought of himself
floating on his back down a river, or striking out from one island to another,
and he felt that that was really the life for a Shinigami.
"Saa, tonde kite," called Relena Darlian. "You'll be all right."
"Chotto matte," said Shinigami nervously. "A few bits of bark
in my hair." And he moved slowly along his branch.
Hiiro, not being needed to help hold the pinafore, took a few
steps backward and carefully sighted.
"It's easy!" squeaked Hilde.
And then suddenly Hiiro shot at the trunk above the branch, and
Shinigami found how easy jumping was.
"Gyaaaaa!" he shouted as he missed the branch on the way back
down and the tree flew past him.
"Abunai!" cried Relena Darlian to the others.
There was a crash, and a tearing noise, and a confused heap of
everybody on the ground.
Hiiro put his gun away and hauled Shinigami out of the heap by
the wrist.
"Now we're even," he said.
Relena Darlian and Quatre picked themselves up first, and then
they picked Trowa up, and underneath everybody else was Uufei.
"A, Uufei!" cried Relena Darlian. "Are you hurt?" And she felt
him rather anxiously, and dusted him and helped him to stand up again.
Uufei said nothing for a long time. And then he said: "Shinigami
ga imasu ka?"
Shinigami was there, feeling Bouncy again already.
"Ee," said Relena Darlian, "Shinigami ga imasu."
"De wa, just thank him for me," said Uufei.
There was a broad track, almost as broad as a road, leading from
the Outland to the Forest, but before it could come to the Forest, it had
to cross this river. So, where it crossed, there was a wooden bridge, almost
as broad as a road, with wooden rails on each side of it. Relena Darlian
could just get her chin to the top rail, if she wanted to, but it was more
fun to stand on the bottom rail, so that she could lean right over, and
watch the river slipping slowly away beneath her. Hiiro could get his chin
onto the bottom rail if he wanted to, but it was more efficient to lie
down and get his head under it, and watch the river slipping slowly away
beneath him. And this was the only way in which Quatre and Hilde could
watch the river at all, because they were too small to reach the bottom
rail. So they would lie down and watch it... and it slipped away very slowly,
being in no hurry to get there.
One day, when Hiiro was walking towards this bridge, he was trying
to make up an uta about fir-cones, because there they were, lying about
on either side of him, and he felt utarashikatta. So he picked a fir-cone
up, and looked at it, and said to himself, "This is a very good fir-cone,
and something ought to go with it." But he couldn't think of anything.
And then this uta came into his head:
Momi wa nazo
"Which doesn't make sense," said Hiiro to himself, "because Noin
doesn't live in a tree."
He had just come to the bridge; and, hearing something in the
underbrush, he jumped, whirled, and dropped the fir-cone. One of Quatre's
friends-and-relations waved sheepishly, grabbed his tub-shaped red hat
with both hands, and ran away.
"Shimatta," said Hiiro, noting that the fir-cone had gone into
the river. It floated slowly under the bridge, and he went back to get
another fir-cone which had an uta to it. But then he thought that he would
just look at the river instead, because it was a peaceful sort of day,
suitable for studying natural features in case of needing to use them in
a very great hurry, so he lay down and looked at it, and it slipped slowly
away beneath him... and suddenly, there was his fir-cone slipping away
too.
"Fn," said Hiiro. "I dropped it on the other side," said Hiiro,
"and it came out on this side! I wonder if it would do it again?" And he
went back for some more fir-cones.
It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two in at once, and
leant over the bridge to see which of them would come out first; and one
of them did; but as they were both the same size, he didn't know if it
was the one which he wanted to win, or the other one. So the next time
he dropped one big one and one little one, and the big one came out first,
which was what he had said it would do, and the little one had come out
last, which was what he had said it would do, so he had won twice... and
when he went home for dinner, he had won thirty-six and lost twenty-eight,
which meant that he was -- that he had -- well, you take twenty-eight from
thirty-six, and that's what he was. Instead of the other way around.
And that was the beginning of the game called Yuishi (Yui-sticks,
only sticks), which Hiiro Yui invented, and which he and his friends used
to play on the edge of the Forest. But they played with sticks instead
of fir-cones, because they were easier to mark.
Now one day Quatre and Trowa and Catherine and Hilde were all
playing Yuishi together. They had dropped their sticks in when Catherine
said "Hajime!" and then they had hurried across to the other side of the
bridge, and now they were all leaning over the edge, waiting to see whose
stick would come out first. But it was a long time coming, because the
river was very lazy that day, and hardly seemed to mind if it didn't ever
get there at all.
"I can see mine!" cried Hilde. "Ie, chigau, it's something else.
Can you see yours, Quatre? I thought I could see mine, but I was wrong.
There it is! Ie, it isn't. Can you see yours, Trowa?"
"Mienai," said Trowa.
"I expect my stick's stuck," said Hilde. "Catherine, my stick's
stuck. Is your stick stuck, Quatre?"
"They always take longer than you think," said Catherine.
"How long do you think they'll take?" asked Hilde.
Before Catherine had quite begun to speak she heard a noise. So
she stopped and listened. This was the noise.
NOISE, BY HIIRO
Tonde iru
Oshidori mo
Mitsubachi wa
Ushi ga naku
Haru dakara
Hototogisu
"Konnichi wa, Hiiro," said Catherine.
"Konnichi wa, Catherine tachi," said Hiiro a bit vaguely.
"Did you make that uta up?
"Ja, I sort of made it up," said Hiiro. "It isn't Sense," he went
on humbly, "because You Know Why, mina; but it comes to me sometimes."
"Soo ka," said Catherine, who never let things come to her, but
always went and fetched them. "Jaa, you don't happen to see any of our
sticks, do you?"
"I can see a pale something," said Hiiro, getting onto the very
end of the bridge.
"Mine's a sort of whitish one," said Quatre, not daring to lean
too far over in case he fell in.
"Aa, that's what I can see. It's coming over on to my side."
Catherine leant over further than ever, looking for hers, and
Hilde wriggled up and down, calling out "Saa, koi, stick! Stick, stick,
stick!" and Trowa thoughtfully caught hold of the back of Hilde's shirt
so as she shouldn't wriggle herself off the bridge, and Quatre got very
excited because his was the only one which had been seen, and that meant
that he was winning.
"It's coming!" said Trowa.
"Are you sure it's mine?" squeaked Quatre excitedly.
"Aa, because it's white. A big white one. Kuru zo! A very -- big
-- white -- Are, chigau, it's Uufei!"
And out floated Uufei.
"Uufei!" cried everybody.
Looking very calm, very dignified, with his hands in the air,
came Uufei from beneath the bridge.
"It's Uufei!" cried Hilde, terribly excited.
"Soo desu ka?" said Uufei, getting caught up in a little eddy,
and turning slowly round three times. "I wondered."
"I didn't know you were playing," said Hilde.
"I'm not," said Uufei.
"Uufei, what are you doing there?" said Catherine.
"I'll give you three guesses, woman. Digging holes in the ground?
Chigau. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak-tree? Chigau. Waiting
for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Catherine time, and
she'll always get the answer."
"But, Uufei," said Hiiro in distress, "what can we -- sore wa,
how shall we -- do you think if we -- "
"Shi," said Uufei. "One of those would be just the thing. Hsiehsie,
Yui."
"He's going round and round," said Hilde, much impressed.
"And why not?" said Uufei coldly.
"I can swim too," said Hilde proudly.
"Not round and round," said Uufei. "It's much more difficult.
I didn't want to come swimming at all today," he went on, revolving slowly.
"But if, when in, I decide to practice a slight circular movement from
right to left -- or perhaps I should say," he added, as he got into another
eddy, "from left to right, just as it happens to occur to me, it is nobody's
business but my own."
There was a moment's silence while everybody thought.
"I've got a sort of idea," said Hiiro at last, "but I don't suppose
it's a very good one."
"I don't suppose it is either," said Uufei.
"Itte, Hiiro," said Catherine. "Let's have it."
"Ja, if we all threw stones and things into the river on one
side of Uufei, the stones would make waves, and the waves would wash him
to the other side."
"That's a very good idea," said Catherine, and Hiiro looked moderately
content again.
"Very," said Uufei. "When I want to be washed, Hiiro, I'll let
you know."
"Supposing we hit him by mistake?" said Quatre anxiously.
"Or supposing you missed him by mistake," said Uufei. "Think of
all the possibilities, Quatre, before you settle down to enjoy yourselves.
But Hiiro had got Trowa the biggest stone he could carry, and
03 was leaning over the bridge, holding it in his hands.
"I'm not throwing it, I'm dropping it, Uufei," he explained. "And
then I can't miss -- I mean I can't hit you. Could you stop turning round
for a moment, because it muddles me rather?"
"Bu," said Uufei. "I like turning round."
Catherine began to feel that it was time she took command.
"Saa, Trowa," she said, "when I say 'Jan!' you can drop it. Uufei,
when I say 'Jan!' Trowa will drop his stone."
"Thank you very much, Catherine, but I expect I shall know."
"Are you ready, Trowa? Quatre, give Trowa a little more room.
Get back a bit there, Hiiro. Don't crowd, Hilde-chan. Are you ready?"
"Bu shi," said Uufei.
"Jan!" said Catherine.
Trowa dropped his stone. There was a loud splash, and Uufei disappeared...
It was an anxious moment for the watchers on the bridge. They
looked and looked... and even the sight of Quatre's stick coming out a
little in front of Catherine's didn't cheer them up as much as you would
have expected. And then, just as Hiiro was beginning to think that he must
have chosen the wrong stone or the wrong river or the wrong day for his
Idea, something white showed for a moment by the river bank... and it got
slowly bigger and bigger... and at last it was Uufei coming out.
With a shout they rushed off the bridge, and pushed and pulled
at him; and soon he was standing among them again on dry land.
"Ara, Uufei, you are wet!" said Quatre, feeling him.
Uufei shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Winner what
happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.
"Gokurou, Trowa, Hiiro," said Catherine kindly. "That was a good
idea of ours."
"What was?" asked Uufei.
"Hooshing you to the bank like that."
"Hooshing me?" said Uufei in surprise. "Hooshing me? You didn't
think I was hooshed, did you? I dived. Barton dropped a large stone on
me, and so as not to be struck heavily on the chest, I dived and swam to
the bank."
"You didn't really," whispered Quatre to Trowa, so as to comfort
him.
"I didn't think I did," said Trowa dryly.
"Nor did I," said Hiiro.
"It's just Uufei," said Quatre, turning to 01. "I thought your
Idea was a very good Idea."
Hiiro began to feel a little more comfortable, because when you
are a Pilot of Very Little Sense, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes
that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when
it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it, such as setting
off explosives as close as possible to the thing you want blown up instead
of from a safe distance, or taking off in the middle of something to rescue
young women whom you happen to know. And, anyhow, Uufei was in the river,
and now he wasn't, so he hadn't done any harm.
"How did you fall in, Uufei?" asked Catherine, as she dried him
with Quatre's handkerchief.
"I didn't," said Uufei.
"But how -- "
"I was BOUNCED," said Uufei.
"Kyaa," said Hilde excitedly, "did somebody push you?"
"Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking by this side of the
river -- thinking, if any of you know what that means, when I received
a loud BOUNCE."
"A, Uufei!" said everybody.
"Are you sure you didn't slip?" asked Catherine wisely.
"Of course I slipped. If you're standing on the slippery bank
of a river, and somebody BOUNCES you loudly from behind, you slip. What
did you think I did?"
"But who did it?" asked Hilde.
Uufei didn't answer.
"I expect it was Shinigami," said Quatre nervously.
"But, Uufei," said Hiiro, "was it a Joke, or an Accident? I mean
-- "
"I didn't stop to ask, Hiiro. Even at the very bottom of the river
I didn't stop to say to myself 'Is this a Hearty Joke, or is it the Merest
Accident?' I just floated to the surface, and said to myself, 'It's wet.'
If you know what I mean."
"And where was Shinigami?" asked Catherine.
Before Uufei could answer, there was a loud noise behind them,
and through the hedge came Shinigami himself.
"Hello, mina-san," said Shinigami.
"Hello, Shinigami," said Hilde.
Catherine became very important suddenly.
"Shinigami," she said solemnly, "what happened just now?"
"Just when?" said Shinigami a little uncomfortably.
"When you bounced Uufei into the river."
"I didn't bounce him."
"You bounced me," said Uufei gruffly.
"I didn't really. I had a cough, and I happened to be behind Uufei,
and I said 'Grrrr -- oppp -- ptschschschz.'"
"Why?" said Trowa, helping Quatre up, and dusting him off. "It's
all right, Quatre."
"It took me by surprise," said Quatre embarrassedly.
"That's what I call bouncing," said Uufei. "Taking people by surprise.
Very unpleasant habit. I don't mind Shinigami being in the Forest," he
went on, "because it's a large Forest, and there's plenty of room to bounce
in it. But I don't see why he should come into my little corner of it,
and bounce there. It isn't as if there was anything very wonderful about
my little corner. Of course for people who like cold, wet, ugly bits it
is something rather special, but otherwise it's just a corner, and if
anybody feels bouncy -- "
"I didn't bounce, I coughed," said Shinigami rather crossly.
"Bouncy or coughy, it's all the same at the bottom of the river."
"Well," said Catherine, "all I can say is -- well, here's Relena
Darlian, so she can say it."
Relena Darlian came down from the Forest to the bridge, feeling
all sunny and careless, and just as if governmental representation didn't
matter a bit, as it didn't on such a happy afternoon, and she thought that
if she stood on the bottom rail of the bridge, and leant over, and watched
the river slipping slowly away beneath her, then she would suddenly know
everything that there was to be known, and she would be able to tell Hiiro,
who wasn't quite sure about some of it. But when she got to the bridge
and saw everybody there, she knew that it wasn't that kind of afternoon,
but the other kind, when you wanted to do something.
"It's like this, Relena Darlian," began Catherine. "Shinigami
-- "
"No, I didn't," said Shinigami.
"De, anyhow, there I was," said Uufei.
"But I don't think he meant to," said Hiiro.
"He just is bouncy," said Quatre, "and he can't help it."
"Maybe if we tried picking out boundaries," said Trowa.
"Try bouncing me, Shinigami," said Hilde eagerly. "Uufei, Shinigami's
going to try me. Quatre, do you think -- "
"Hai, hai," said Catherine, "we don't all want to speak at once.
The point is, what does Relena Darlian think about it?"
"All I did was I coughed," said Shinigami.
"He bounced," said Uufei.
"Jaa, I sort of boffed," said Shinigami.
"Sh!" said Catherine, holding up her hand. "What does Relena Darlian
think about it all? That's the point."
"Jaa," said Relena Darlian, not quite sure what it was all about,
"I think -- "
"Yes?" said everybody.
"I think we all ought to play Yuishi."
So they did. And Uufei, who had never played it before, won more
times than anybody else; and Hilde fell in twice, the first time by accident
and the second time on purpose, because she suddenly saw Noin's Valkyrie
flying over from the Forest, and she knew she'd have to go to bed anyhow.
So then Catherine said she'd go with them; and Trowa and Uufei went off
together, because Uufei wanted to tell Trowa How To Win At Yuishi, which
you do by letting your stick drop in a twitchy sort of way, if you understand
what I mean, Barton; and Shinigami, after trying out a new invention of
his, the flyingtackleglomp, on Quatre, who didn't appreciate it, and Relena
Darlian and Hiiro, who did -- at least, Hiiro presumably did, since he
didn't need to be helped up -- remembered that it was nearly time for late-afternoon-snack
at Noin's, and hurried off in case he should miss it; and Relena Darlian
and Hiiro and Quatre were left on the bridge by themselves.
For a long time they looked at the river beneath them, saying
nothing, and the river said nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful
on this summer afternoon.
"Shinigami is all right really," said Hiiro lazily.
"Of course he is," said Relena Darlian.
"Everybody is really," said Quatre. "That's what I think," said
Quatre. "But I don't suppose I'm right," said Quatre.
"Of course you are," said Relena Darlian.
"Jitsu wa," said Catherine, coming to the end of it at last, "Shinigami's
getting so Bouncy nowadays that it's time we taught him a lesson. Don't
you think so, Quatre?"
Quatre said that Shinigami was very Bouncy, and that if they
could think of a way of unbouncing him, it would be a Very Good Idea.
"Just what I feel," said Catherine. "What do you say, Trowa?"
Trowa opened his eyes with a jerk and said, "Extremely."
"Extremely what?" asked Catherine.
"What you were saying," said Trowa. "Mochiron."
Quatre gave Trowa a stiffening sort of nudge, and Trowa, who felt
more and more that he was somewhere else, got up slowly and began to look
for himself.
"But how shall we do it?" asked Quatre. "What sort of a lesson,
Catherine?"
"That's the point," said Catherine.
The word "lesson" drifted in to Hiiro through the door as one
he had heard before somewhere.
"There's a thing called Follow-your-motions," he said. "Odin Lowe
tried to teach it to me once, but it didn't."
"What didn't?" said Catherine.
"Didn't what?" said Quatre.
"N?" said Trowa.
Hiiro shook his head.
"Shiranai," he said. "It just didn't."
He went back to working on his laptop.
"What are we talking about?" Trowa asked.
"Trowa," said Quatre reproachfully, "haven't you been listening
to what Catherine was saying?"
"I listened, but I had a small piece of fluff in my ear. Could
you say it again, please, neesan?"
Catherine never minded saying things again, so she asked where
she should begin from; and when Trowa had said from the moment when the
fluff got in his ear, and Catherine had asked when that was, and Trowa
had said he didn't know because he hadn't heard properly, Quatre settled
it all by saying that what they were trying to do was, they were just trying
to think of a way to get the bounces out of Shinigami, because however
much you liked him, you couldn't deny it, he did bounce.
"Naruhodo," said Trowa.
"Soo ka," said Hiiro.
"There's too much of him," said Catherine, "that's what it comes
to."
Hiiro tried to think, and all he could think of was something
which didn't help at all. So he hummed it very quietly to himself.
"What was Hiiro saying?" asked Catherine. "Any good?"
"Iya," said Hiiro brusquely. "No good."
"Jaa, I've got an idea," said Catherine, "and here it is. We take
Shinigami for a long explore, somewhere where he's never been, and we lose
him there, and next morning we find him again, and -- mark my words --
he'll be a different Shinigami altogether."
"Naze?" said Hiiro.
"Because he'll be a Humble Shinigami. Because he'll be a Sad Shinigami,
a Melancholy Shinigami, a Small and Sorry Shinigami, an Aa-Catherine-I-am-glad-to-see-you
Shinigami. That's why."
"Will he be glad to see me and Quatre, too?"
"Mochiron."
"That's good," said Trowa.
"I should hate him to go on being Sad," said Quatre doubtfully.
"Shinigami never go on being Sad," said Catherine. "They get over
in with Astonishing Rapidity. I asked Dorothy, just to make sure, and she
said that that's what they always get over it with. But if we can make
Shinigami feel Small and Sad just for five minutes, we shall have done
a good deed."
"Would Relena Darlian think so?" asked Quatre.
"Hai," said Catherine. "She'd say 'You've done a good deed, Quatre.
I would have done it myself, only I happened to be doing something else.
Thank you, Quatre, Trowa.' And Hiiro, of course."
Quatre felt very glad about this, and he saw at once that what
they were going to do to Shinigami was a good thing to do, and as Hiiro
and Catherine and Trowa were doing it with him, it was a thing which even
a Very Small Arab could wake up in the morning and feel comfortable about
doing. So the only question was, where should they lose Shinigami?
"We'll take him to Lagrange Point One," said Catherine, "because
it was a very long explore finding it, so it will be a very long explore
for Shinigami unfinding it again."
It was now Hiiro's turn to stop wondering how he had gotten involved
in all this and feel very glad instead, because it was he who had first
found Lagrange Point One, and when they got there, Shinigami would see
a notice which said, "Discovered by Hiiro. Hiiro found it," and then Shinigami
would know, which perhaps he didn't know, the sort of Pilot 01 was. That
sort of Pilot.
So it was arranged that they should start next morning, and that
Catherine, who lived near Noin and Hilde and Shinigami, should now go home
and ask Shinigami what he was doing tomorrow, because if he wasn't doing
anything, what about going for an explore and getting Trowa and Quatre
and Hiiro to come too? And if Shinigami said "Yes" that would be quite
all right, and if he said "No" --
"He won't," said Catherine. "Leave it to me." And she went off
busily.
The next day was quite a different day. Instead of being hot and
sunny, it was cold and misty. Hiiro didn't mind for himself, but when he
thought of all the soybeans that weren't photosynthesizing to full capacity,
a cold and misty day always made him feel sorry for them. He said so to
Quatre when Quatre came to fetch him, and Quatre said that he wasn't thinking
of that so much, but how cold and miserable it would be being lost all
day and night on top of the forest. But when he and Hiiro had got to Catherine's
house, Catherine said it was just the day for them, because Shinigami always
bounced on ahead of everybody, and as soon as he got out of sight, they
would hurry away in the other direction, and he would never see them again.
"Not never?" said Quatre.
"Well, not until we find him again, Quatre. Tomorrow, or whenever
it is. Come on. He's waiting for us."
When they got to Noin's house, they found that Hilde was waiting
too, being a great friend of Shinigami's, which made it Awkward; but Catherine
whispered "Leave this to me" behind her hand to Hiiro, and went up to Noin.
"I don't think Hilde had better come," she said. "Not today."
"Dooshite?" said Hilde, who wasn't supposed to be listening.
"Nasty cold day," said Catherine, shaking her head. "And you were
coughing this morning."
"How do you know?" asked Hilde indignantly.
"Mou, Hilde, you never told me," said Noin reproachfully.
"It was a Ticklycrumb Cough," said Hilde, "not one you tell about."
"I think not today, cara. Another day."
"Tomorrow?"
"We'll see," said Noin.
"You're always seeing, and nothing ever happens," said Hilde sadly.
"Nobody could see on a day like this, Hilde," said Catherine.
"I don't expect we shall get very far, and then this afternoon we'll all
-- we'll all -- we'll all -- a, Shinigami, there you are. Saa. Mata ne,
Hilde! This afternoon we'll -- saa, iku wa yo, Trowa! All ready? Soo ka.
Ikimashoo."
So they went. At first Hiiro and Catherine and Quatre and Trowa
walked together, and Shinigami ran round them in circles, and then, when
the path got narrower, Catherine, Trowa, Quatre, and Hiiro walked one after
another, and Shinigami ran round them in oblongs, and by-and-by, when the
bushes got very prickly on each side of the path, Shinigami ran up and
down in front of them, and sometimes he bounced into Catherine and sometimes
he didn't. And as they got higher, the mist got thicker, so that Shinigami
kept disappearing, and then when you thought he wasn't there, he was again,
saying "Oi, hanareru na," and before you could say anything, there he wasn't.
Catherine turned round and nudged Trowa.
"The next time," she said. "Tell the others."
"The next time," said Trowa to Quatre. "Tell Hiiro."
"The next time," said Quatre to Hiiro.
"Next time what?" said Hiiro.
Shinigami appeared suddenly, bounced into Catherine, and disappeared
again. "Now!" said Catherine. She jumped into a hollow by the side of the
path, and Trowa and Quatre and Hiiro jumped in after her. They crouched
in the underbrush, listening. The Forest was very silent when you stopped
and listened to it. They could see nothing and hear nothing.
"Sh!" said Catherine.
"I am," said Trowa.
There was a pattering noise... then silence again.
"Oi!" said Shinigami, and he sounded so close suddenly that Quatre
would have jumped if Hiiro hadn't been accidentally sitting on most of
him.
"Where are you?" called Shinigami.
Catherine nudged Hiiro, and Hiiro nudged Trowa, and Trowa looked
about for Quatre to nudge, but couldn't find him, and Quatre went on breathing
wet underbrush as quietly as he could, and felt very brave and excited.
"Okashii na," said Shinigami.
There was a moment's silence, and then they heard him pattering
off again. For a little longer they waited, until the Forest had become
so still that it almost frightened them, and then Catherine got up and
stretched herself.
"Well?" she whispered proudly. "Yarimashita! Just as I said."
"I've been thinking," said Hiiro, "and I think -- "
"No," said Catherine. "Don't. Run. Come on." And they all hurried
off, Catherine leading the way.
""Now," said Catherine, after they had gone a little way, "we
can talk. What were you going to say, Hiiro?"
"Nan de mo nai. Why are we going along here?"
"Because it's the way home."
"Fn," said Hiiro.
"I think it's more to the right," said Quatre nervously. "What
do you think, Trowa?"
Trowa looked at his two hands. He knew that one of them was the
right, and he knew that when you had decided which one of them was the
right, the other one was the left, but he never could remember how to begin.
"Saa... " he said slowly --
"Iki nasai," said Catherine. "I know it's this way."
They went on. Ten minutes later they stopped again.
"It's very stupid," said Catherine, "but just for the moment I
-- a, naruhodo. Itte."
"Here we are," said Catherine ten minutes later. "No, we're not...
"
"Saa," said Catherine ten minutes later, "I think we ought to
be getting -- or are we more to the right than I thought?"
"It's a funny thing," Catherine said ten minutes later, "how everything
looks the same in a mist. Have you noticed it, Hiiro?"
Hiiro said that he had.
"Lucky we know the Forest so well, or we might get lost," said
Catherine half an hour later, and gave the careless laugh which you give
when you know the Forest so well that you can't get lost.
Quatre sidled up to Trowa from behind.
"Trowa!" he whispered.
"Nani?"
"Nothing," said Quatre, taking Trowa's hand. "I just wanted to
be sure of you."
When Shinigami had finished waiting for the others to catch up
to him, and they hadn't, and when he had got tired of having nobody to
say "Oi, hanareru na" to, he thought he would go home. So he trotted back;
and the first thing Noin said when she saw him was "There's a good Shinigami.
You're just in time for your Strengthening Medicine," and she poured it
out for him. Hilde said proudly "I've had mine," and Shinigami swallowed
his and said "So have I," and then he and Hilde pushed each other about
in a friendly way, and Shinigami accidentally knocked over one or two chairs
by accident, and Hilde accidentally knocked one over on purpose, and Noin
said "Saa, run along."
"Where shall we run along to?" asked Hilde.
"You can go and collect some fir-cones for me," said Noin, giving
them a basket.
So they went to the Six Pine Trees, and they threw fir-cones at
each other until they had forgotten what they came for, and they left the
basket under the trees and went back to dinner. And it was just as they
were finishing dinner that Relena Darlian put her head in.
"Where's Hiiro?" she asked.
"Shinigami caro, where's Hiiro?" said Noin. Shinigami explained
what had happened at the same time as Hilde was explaining about her Ticklycrumb
Cough and Noin was telling them not to both talk at once, so it was some
time before Relena Darlian guessed that Hiiro and Quatre and Trowa and
Catherine were all lost on top of the Forest.
"It's a funny thing about Shinigami," whispered Shinigami to Hilde,
"how Shinigami never get lost."
"Why don't they, Shinigami?"
"They just don't," explained Shinigami. "That's how it is."
"Jaa," said Relena Darlian, "we shall have to go and find them,
that's all. Itte, Shinigami."
"May I find them too?" asked Hilde eagerly.
"I think not today, cara," said Noin. "Another day."
"Ja, if they're lost tomorrow, may I find them?"
"We'll see," said Noin, and Hilde, who knew what that meant,
went into the corner and practiced jumping out at herself, partly because
she wanted to practice this, and partly because she didn't want Relena
Darlian and Shinigami to think that she minded when they went off without
her.
"Jitsu wa," said Catherine, "we've missed our way somehow."
They were having a rest in a small sand-pit on the top of the
Forest. Trowa was getting rather tired of that sand-pit, and suspected
it of following them about, because whichever-direction they started in,
they always ended up at it, and each time, as it came through the mist
at them, Catherine said triumphantly "Now I know where we are!" and Trowa
said sadly "So do I," and Hiiro said "Fn," and Quatre said nothing. He
had tried to think of something to say, but the only thing he could think
of was "Help, help!" and it seemed silly to say that, when he had Trowa
and Hiiro and Catherine with him.
"Ja," said Catherine, after a long silence in which nobody thanked
her for the nice walk they were having, "we'd better get on, I suppose.
Which way shall we try?"
"How would it be," said Hiiro slowly, "if, as soon as we're out
of sight of this Pit, we try to find it again?"
"What's the good of that?" said Catherine.
"Ja," said Hiiro, "we keep looking for Home and not finding it,
so I thought that if we looked for this Pit, we'd be sure not to find it,
which would be a Good Thing, because then we might find something we weren't
looking for, which might be just what we were looking for, really."
"I don't see much sense in that," said Catherine.
"Aa," said Hiiro humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to
be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way."
"If I walked away from this Pit, and then walked back to it, of
course I should find it."
"I thought perhaps you wouldn't," said Hiiro. "I just thought."
"Try," said Trowa suddenly. "We'll wait here for you."
Catherine gave a laugh to show how silly her brother was, and
walked into the mist. After she had gone ninety meters, she turned and
walked back again... and after the three guys had waited twenty minutes
for her, Hiiro got up.
"I just thought," said Hiiro. "Saa, Quatre tachi, kaeroo."
"But, Hiiro," cried Quatre, all excited, "do you know the way?"
"Iya," said Hiiro. "But I hid Wing Zero behind my house yesterday,
and it's been calling to me for hours. I couldn't hear it properly before,
because Catherine would talk, but if nobody says anything except the
Gundam, I think, Quatre, I shall know where it's coming from. Ikoo."
They walked off together; and Trowa said nothing; and for a long
time Quatre said nothing, so as not to interrupt Wing Zero; and then suddenly
he made a squeaky noise... and a kyaa-noise... because now he began to
know where he was; but he still didn't dare to say so out loud, in case
he wasn't. And just when he was getting so sure of himself that it didn't
matter if Wing Zero went on calling or not, there was a shout from in front
of them, and out of the mist came Relena Darlian.
"Jaa, there you are," said Relena Darlian carelessly, trying to
pretend that she hadn't been Anxious.
"Here we are," said Hiiro.
"Where's Catherine?"
"Shiranai," said Trowa.
"Soo ka -- ja, I expect Shinigami will find her. He's sort of
looking for you all."
"Ja," said Hiiro, "I've got to go home for something, and so have
Quatre and Trowa, because we haven't had it yet, and -- "
"I'll come and watch you," said Relena Darlian.
So she went home with Hiiro, and watched him for quite a long
time... and all the time she was watching, Shinigami was tearing round
the forest making loud yelling noises for Catherine. And at last a very
Small and Sorry Catherine heard him. And the Small and Sorry Catherine
rushed through the mist at the noise, and it suddenly turned into Shinigami;
a Friendly Shinigami, a Grand Shinigami, a Large and Helpful Shinigami,
a Shinigami who bounced, if he bounced at all, in just the beautiful way
a Shinigami ought to bounce.
"Aa, Shinigami, I am glad to see you," cried Catherine.
Why we are having a Contradiction is because last week when Relena
Darlian said to me, "What about that story you were going to tell me about
what happened to Hiiro when -- " I happened to say very quickly "What about
tariffs between the Moon, the Colonies, and Earth?" And when we had done
that one, we had one about modern housing being cheaper to build, and far
more efficient once it was built, so how does one go about persuading
people actually to build it so that more adults can have their very own
washrooms? We find these very exciting, and when we have been excited quite
enough, we curl up and go to sleep... and Hiiro, sitting wakeful a little
longer on his chair by our pillow, thinks Grand Thoughts to himself about
Nothing, until he, too, closes his eyes and nods his head, and follows
us on tiptoe into the Forest. There, still, we have magic adventures, more
wonderful than any I have told you about; but now, when we wake up in the
morning, they are gone before we can catch hold of them. How did the last
one begin? "One day when Hiiro was flying over the Forest, there was a
thoroughly modern house... " No, you see, we have lost it. It was the best,
I think. Well, here are the last of the other ones, all that we shall remember
now. But, of course, it isn't really Good-bye, because the Forest will
always be there... and anybody who is Friendly with Pilots can find it.
Kono basho wa
Now one autumn morning when the wind had blown all the leaves
off the trees in the night, and was trying to blow the branches off, Hiiro
and Quatre were sitting in the Thoughtful Spot and wondering.
"What I think," said Hiiro, "is I think we'll go to Hanekado
and see Uufei, because perhaps his house has been blown down, and perhaps
he'd like us to build it again."
"What I think," said Quatre, "is I think we'll go and see Relena
Darlian, only she won't be there, so we can't."
"Let's go and see everybody," said Hiiro. "Because when you've
been walking in the wind for miles, and you suddenly go into somebody's
house, and he says 'Konnichi wa, Hiiro, you're just in time for a little
hitonigiri of something,' and you are, then it's what I call a Fortunate
Day."
Quatre thought that they ought to have a Reason for going to see
everybody, like Finding Shinigami Breakfast or Organdizing an Expotition,
if Hiiro could think of something.
Hiiro could.
"Mokuyoobi de," he said, "we'll go to wish everybody 'Mokuyoobi
Omedetoo.' Saa, Quatre."
They got up; and when Quatre had sat down again, because he didn't
know the wind was so strong, and had been helped up by Hiiro, they started
off. They went to Hiiro's house first, and fortunately Hiiro was in just
as they got there, so he asked them in, and they had some, and then they
went on to Noin's house, holding each other, and shouting "Soo desu ne?"
and "Nan da to?" and "Kikoemasen." By the time they got to Noin's house
they were so buffeted they stayed to lunch. Just at first it seemed rather
cold outside afterwards, so they pushed on to Catherine's as quickly as
they could.
"We've come to wish you Mokuyoobi Omedetoo," said Hiiro, when
he had gone in and out once or twice just to make sure that he could
get out again.
"Why, what's going to happen on Thursday?" asked Catherine, and
when Hiiro had explained, Catherine, whose life was made up of Important
Things, said "Soo ka. I thought you'd really come about something," they
sat down for a little... and by-and-by Hiiro and Quatre went on again.
The wind was behind them now, so they didn't have to shout; when they saw
Trowa running after them, they slowed down for a while, until after he
caught up.
"Neesan's clever," Trowa said thoughtfully.
"Hai," said Quatre. "Catherine's clever."
"And she has Sense."
"Aa," said Hiiro, "Catherine has Sense."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," Trowa said, "that that's why she never understands
anything."
Relena Darlian was home by this time, because it was the afternoon,
and she was so glad to see them that they stayed there until very nearly
dinner-time, and then they had a Very Nearly dinner, which is one you forget
about afterwards, and hurried on to Hanekado, so as to see Uufei before
it was too late to have a Proper Dinner with Dorothy.
"Komban wa, Uufei," they called out cheerfully.
"Aa," said Uufei. "Lost your way?"
"We just came to see you," said Quatre. "And to see how your house
was. Mite, Hiiro, Trowa, it's still standing!"
"I know," said Uufei. "Hen ne. Somebody ought to have come and
pushed it over."
"We wondered whether the wind would blow it down," said Hiiro.
"Soo ka. That's why nobody's bothered, I suppose. I thought perhaps
they'd forgotten."
"Ja, we're very glad to see you, Uufei, and now we're going on
to see Dorothy."
"That's right. You'll like Dorothy. She flew past a day or two
ago and noticed me. She didn't actually say anything, mind you, but she
knew it was me. Very friendly of her, I thought. Encouraging."
Hiiro and the other two shuffled about a little and said "Ja,
mata ne, Uufei" as lingeringly as they could, but they had a long way to
go, and wanted to be getting on."
"De wa mata," said Uufei. "Mind you don't get blown away, Winner-er.
You'd be missed. People would say 'Where's Winner-er been blown to?' --
really wanting to know. De, o-genki de. And thank you for happening to pass
me."
"Genki de ite ne," "Fn," said Trowa and Quatre and Hiiro for the
last time, and they pushed on to Dorothy's house.
The wind was against them now, and Trowa's forelock streamed behind
him like banners as he fought his way along, and it seemed hours before
he got it into the shelter of the Hyakuchoubayashi and they stood up straight
again to listen, a little nervously, to the roaring of the gale among the
treetops.
"Supposing a tree fell down, Hiiro, while we were underneath it?"
"Supposing it didn't," said Hiiro, after careful thought.
Quatre was comforted by this, and in a little while they were
knocking and ringing very cheerfully at Dorothy's door.
"Komban wa, Dorothy," said Hiiro. "I hope we're not too late for
-- "
"He means," Trowa interrupted, "genki ka, Dorothy? Quatre
and we just came to see how you were, because it's Thursday."
"Suwatte kudasai, Trowa-san, suwatte kudasai, Quatre-san, suwatte,
Hiiro-san," said Dorothy kindly. "Make yourself comfortable."
They thanked her, and made themselves as comfortable as they could.
"Because, wakaru deshoo, Dorothy," said Trowa, "we've been hurrying,
so as to be in time for -- so as to see you before we went away again."
Dorothy nodded solemnly.
"Correct me if I am wrong," she said, "but am I correct in supposing
that it is a very Blusterous day outside?"
"Very," said Quatre, who was quietly thawing his ears, and wishing
that he was safely back in his own house.
"I thought so," said Dorothy. "It was on just such a blusterous
day as this that my Grandfather His Grace of Dermail, a portrait of whom
you see upon that wall on your right, Quatre, while returning in the late
forenoon from a -- Nanda?"
There was a loud cracking noise.
"Abunai!!" cried Hiiro. "Mind the clock! Doke, Quatre, I'm falling
on you!"
"Help!" cried Quatre.
Hiiro's side of the room was slowly tilting upwards and his chair
began sliding down on Quatre's. The clock slithered gently along the mantlepiece,
collecting vases on the way, until they all crashed together onto what
had once been the floor, but was now trying to see what it looked like
as a wall. Grandfather His Grace of Dermail, who was going to be the new
hearthrug, and was bringing the rest of his wall with him as carpet, met
Quatre's chair just as Quatre was expecting to leave it, and for a little
while it became very difficult to remember which was really the north.
Then there was another loud crack... Dorothy's room collected itself feverishly...
and there was silence.
In a corner of the room, the table-cloth began to wriggle.
Then it wrapped itself into a ball and rolled across the room.
Then it jumped up and down once or twice, and put out a quantity
of blond hair. It rolled across the room again, and unwound itself.
"Hiiro?" said Quatre nervously.
"Nanda?" said one of the chairs.
"Where are we?"
"I'm not quite sure," said the chair.
"Are we -- are we in Dorothy-san's House?"
"I think so, because we were just going to have dinner, and we
hadn't had it."
"Naruhodo," said Quatre.
"Quatre," Trowa said in a strained voice, "would you please move
to one side or the other so I shan't drop on you?"
Quatre hastily moved, and Trowa unbraced himself from high up
in the corner of a wall that used to be a wall and a wall that used to
be the ceiling. He landed neatly with only a small thud, looked around,
and whistled.
"Waa, did Dorothy always have a letter-box in her ceiling?"
"Has she?" said the chair.
"Hai," said Quatre. "Look."
"I can't," said Hiiro. "I'm face down under something, and that,
Quatre, is a very bad position for looking at ceilings."
"Ja, she has, Hiiro."
"Perhaps she's changed it," said Hiiro. "Just for a change."
There was a disturbance behind the table in the other corner of
the room, and Dorothy was with them again.
"Quatre-san, Trowa-san," said Dorothy, looking very much annoyed;
"where's Hiiro-san?"
"I'm not quite sure," said Hiiro.
Dorothy turned at his voice, and frowned at as much of Hiiro as
she could see.
"Hiiro-san," said Dorothy severely, "did you do that?"
"Itashimasen deshita," said Hiiro humbly. "I don't think so."
"Then who did?"
"I think it was the wind," said Trowa. "I think your house has
blown down."
"E, sore deshita ka? I thought it was Hiiro-san."
"Iya," said Hiiro.
"If it was the wind," said Dorothy, considering the matter, "then
it wasn't Hiiro-san's fault. No blame can be attached to him." With these
kind words she flew up to look at her new ceiling.
"Quatre!" called Hiiro in a loud whisper.
Quatre leant down to him.
"What did she say was attached to me?"
"She said she didn't blame you."
"Fn. I thought she meant -- naruhodo."
"Dorothy!" said Quatre, "come down and help Trowa help Hiiro."
Dorothy, who was admiring her letter-box, flew down again. Together
they pushed and pulled at the arm-chair, and in a little while Hiiro came
out from underneath and was able to look round him again.
"Mou!" said Dorothy. "This is a nice state of things!"
"What are we going to do, you two? Can you think of anything?"
asked Quatre.
"I had just thought of something," said Hiiro. "It was just
a little thing I thought of." And he began to sing:
Mune futete
Hara futete
bechanko no
pairotto
Oshikorosu
oshikorosu
"That was all," said Hiiro.
Dorothy coughed in an unadmiring sort of way, and said that, if
Hiiro-san was sure that was all, they could now give their minds to the
Problem of Escape.
"Because," said Dorothy, "We can't go out by what used to be the
front door. Something's fallen on it."
"But how else can you go out?" asked Quatre anxiously.
"That is the Problem, Quatre-san, to which I am asking Hiiro-san
to give his mind."
Hiiro sat on the floor which had once been a wall, and gazed up
at the ceiling which had once been another wall, with a front door in it
which had once been a front door, and tried to give his mind to it.
"Could you fly up to the letter-box with Quatre on your back?"
he asked.
"Iie," said Quatre quickly. "She couldn't."
Dorothy explained about the Necessary Dorsal Muscles. She had
explained about this to Hiiro and Relena Darlian once before, and had been
waiting ever since for a chance to do it again, because it is a thing which
you can easily explain twice before anybody knows what you are talking
about.
"Because you see, Dorothy, if one of us could get up to the place
where the letters come, he might squeeze through the place where the letters
come, and climb down the tree and run for help."
Quatre said hurriedly that he had been getting bigger lately,
and couldn't possibly, much as he would like to, and Dorothy said that
she had had her letter-box made bigger lately in case she got bigger letters,
so perhaps Quatre-san might, and Quatre said "But you said the necessary
you-know-whats wouldn't," and Dorothy said "Hai, they won't, so it's
no good thinking about it," and Quatre said "Then we'd better think of
something else," and began to at once.
But Hiiro's mind had gone back to the day he saved Quatre from
the flood, and everybody had admired him so much; and as that didn't often
happen he thought he would like it to happen again. And suddenly, just
as it had come before, an idea came to him.
"Dorothy," said Hiiro, "I have thought of something."
"Astute and Helpful Pilot," said Dorothy.
Hiiro looked proud at being called a stout and helpful pilot,
and said that he just happened to think of it. You tied a piece of string
to one of the pilots, and then you flew up to the letter-box with the other
end in your mouth, and you pushed it through the wire and brought it down
to the floor, and you and the other two pulled hard at this end, and the
pilot went slowly up the other end. And there you were.
"And there I am," Trowa said, "supposing you really have made
your letter-box larger."
"I have made it larger, Trowa-san," Dorothy said, "but... kindly
divest yourself of that coat."
Trowa took the large warm parka off.
"Kyaaaaa," Dorothy said, fanning herself with one wing. "Either
Catherine-san has obtained some of Hilde-chan's Strengthening Medicine
from Noin-san, or you have drastically increased your Rate of Consumption
and your Patterns of Exercise, or you have been ingesting something quite
extraordinary. We had much better make it 'And there Quatre-san is.'" She
paused. "If the string doesn't break."
"Supposing it does?" asked Quatre, wanting to know.
"Then we try another piece of string."
This was not very comforting to Quatre, because however many pieces
of string they tried coming up, it would always be the same him coming
down; but still, it did seem the only thing to do. So, with one last look
back in his mind at all the happy hours he had spent in the Forest not
being pulled up to the ceiling by a piece of string, Quatre nodded bravely
at Hiiro and said that it was a Very Clever pup-pup-pup Clever pup-pup
Plan.
"It won't break," whispered Trowa comfortingly, "because you're
a Small Arab, and we'll stand underneath, and if you save us all, it will
be a Very Grand Thing to talk about afterwards."
"And perhaps I'll make up an uta," Hiiro added, "and your friends-and-relations
will say 'It was so grand what Quatre-sama did that a Respectful Yuika
was made about it.'"
Quatre felt much better after this, and when everything was ready,
and he found himself slowly going up to the ceiling, he was so proud that
he would have called out "Boku o mite!" if he hadn't been afraid that Hiiro
and Dorothy and Trowa would let go their end of the string and look at
him.
"Ageteru!" said Trowa cheerfully.
"The ascent is proceeding as expected," said Dorothy helpfully.
Soon it was over. Quatre opened the letter-box and climbed in. Then having
untied himself, he began to squeeze into the slit, through which, in the
old days when front doors were front doors, many an unexpected letter
that DROTHY had written to herself, had come slipping.
He squeezed and he squoze, and with one last squooze he was out.
Happy and excited he turned round to squeak a last message to the prisoners.
"Daijoubu," he called through the letter-box. "Your tree is blown
right over, Dorothy-san, and there's a branch across the door, but Relena
Darlian and I and my friends-and-relations can move it, and we'll bring
a rope for the other two, and I'll go and tell them now, and I can climb
down quite easily, I mean it's dangerous but I can do it all right, and
Relena Darlian and I will be back in about half-an-hour. Ja mata, Hiiro!
Mata ne, Trowa!" And without waiting to hear Hiiro's answering "Fn," and
Trowa's answering "Ja, sore ni doomo, Quatre," he was off.
Hiiro shrugged and went back to renewing his acquaintance with
Dorothy's collection of mech show cels, which were now much easier to get
to.
"Half-an-hour," said Dorothy, settling herself comfortably. "That
will just give me time to finish my story about my Grandfather His Grace
of Dermail -- a portrait of whom you see beneath you. Saaa, eeto ne, where
was I? Aa, soo ka. It was on just such a blusterous day as this that my
Grandfather His Grace of Dermail -- "
Trowa closed his eyes.
"I'm leaving one for all the others," said Catherine, "and telling
them what it means, and they'll all search too. Isoide, mata ne." And she
had run off.
Hiiro followed slowly. He had a better thing to do than search
for a new house for Dorothy; he had to make up a Yuika about the old one.
Because he had informed Quatre days and days ago that he would, and whenever
he and Quatre had met since, Quatre didn't actually say anything, but you
knew at once why he didn't; and if anybody mentioned Uta or Trees or String
or Storms-in-the-Night, Quatre's nose went all pink at the tip and he talked
about something quite different in a hurried sort of way.
"Datte, it isn't Easy," said Hiiro to himself, as he looked at
what had once been Kuritsubo. "Because Haiku and Tanka aren't things which
you get, they're things which get you. And all you can do is to go where
they can find you."
He waited hopefully...
"Jaa," said Hiiro after a long wait, "I shall begin 'Fuita ki'
because it is, and then I'll see what happens."
Fuita ki o
Fukiareru
Sono toki ni
Ato soshite
Ririshikute
"Doroshii ya
De, Katoru ga
Hoyoyo to utae, Katoru no tame ni!
"So there it is," said Hiiro, when he had sung this to himself
three times. "It's come different from what I thought it would, but it's
come. Now I must go and sing it to Quatre. Ninmu ryoukai."
I AM SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR DOROTHY SO HAD YOU CATHERINE.
"What's all this?" said Uufei.
Catherine explained.
"What's the matter with her old house?" asked Uufei.
Catherine explained.
"Nobody tells me," said Uufei. "Nobody keeps me Informed. I make
it seventeen days come Friday since anybody spoke to me."
"It certainly isn't seventeen days -- "
"Come Friday," explained Uufei.
"And today's Saturday," said Catherine. "So that would make it
eleven days. And I was here myself a week ago."
"Not conversing," said Uufei. "Not first one and then the other.
You said 'Hello' and Flashed Past. I saw your tail in the distance as I
was meditating my reply. I had thought of saying 'Nanda?' -- but, of
course, it was then too late."
"Well, I was in a hurry."
"No Give and Take," Uufei went on. "No Exchange of Thought: 'Hello'
-- 'Nanda' -- I mean, it gets you nowhere, particularly if the other person's
tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation."
"It's your fault, Uufei. You've never been to see any of us. You
just stay here in this one corner of the Forest waiting for the others
to come to you. Why don't you go to them sometimes?"
Uufei was silent for a little while, thinking.
"There may be something in what you say, woman," he said at last.
"I must move about more. I must come and go."
"Atarimae, Uufei. Drop in on any of us at any time, when you feel
like it."
"Hsiehsie, Catherine. And if anyone says in a loud voice 'Mazui,
it's Uufei,' I can drop out again."
Catherine stood on one leg for a moment.
"Jaa," she said, "I must be going."
"Zai jien," said Uufei.
"E? A, ja mata. And if you do come across a house for Dorothy,
you must let us know."
"I will give my mind to it," said Uufei.
Catherine went.
Hiiro had found Quatre, and they were walking back to the Hyakuchoubayashi
together.
"Quatre," said Hiiro almost shyly, after they had walked for some
time without saying anything.
"Nani?"
"Do you remember when I said that a Respectful Yuika might be
written about You Know What?"
"Soo desu ka, Hiiro?" said Quatre, getting a little pink round
the nose. "Aa, soo, I believe you did."
"It's been written, Quatre."
The pink went slowly out from Quatre's nose to his ears and hairline,
and settled there.
"Has it, Hiiro?" he asked huskily. "About -- about -- That Time
When? Do you mean really written?"
"Aa, Quatre."
The tips of Quatre's ears glowed suddenly, and he tried to say
something; but even after he had husked once or twice, nothing came out.
So Hiiro went on.
"There are seven tanka in it."
"Seven?" said Quatre as carelessly as he could. "You don't often
get seven tanka in an uta, do you, Hiiro?"
"Never," said Hiiro. "I don't suppose it's ever been heard of
before."
"Do the Others know yet?" asked Quatre, stopping for a moment
to pick up a stick and throw it away.
"Iya," said Hiiro. "And I wondered which you would like best.
For me to sing it now, or to wait until we find the others, and then sing
it to all of you."
Quatre thought for a little.
"I think what I'd like best, Hiiro, is I'd like you to sing it
to me now -- soshite -- soshite, then to sing it to all of us. Because
then Everybody could hear it, but I could say 'Hai, hai, Hiiro's told me,'
and pretend not to be listening."
So Hiiro sang it to him, all the seven tanka, and Quatre said
nothing, just stood there and glowed. Never before had anyone sung hoyoyo
for Quatre (Katoru no tame ni) all by himself. When it was over, he wanted
to ask for one of the tanka over again, but didn't quite like to. It was
the one beginning "Ririshikute," and it seemed to him a very thoughtful
way of beginning a tanka.
"Did I really do all that?" he said at last.
"Fn," said Hiiro. "In the uta -- in the kazeken -- de wa, you
did it, Quatre, because the uta says you did. And that's how people know."
"Soo desu ka?" said Quatre. "Because I thought -- I thought I
did blinch a bit. Just at first. And the uta says 'Aozamenakute furuenai
Katoru.' Dakara.."
"You only trembled inside," said Hiiro, "and that's the bravest
way for a Very Small Arab not to blinch that there is."
Quatre sighed with happiness, and began to think about himself.
He was BRAVE...
When they got to Dorothy's old house, they found everyone there
except Uufei. Relena Darlian was telling them what to do, and Catherine
was telling them directly afterwards, in case they hadn't heard, and then
they were all doing it. They had got some ropes, and half of Quatre's friends-and-relations
were pulling Dorothy's chairs and pictures and things out of her old house
so as to be ready to put them into her new one. Noin and another third
of Quatre's friends-and-relations were down below tying the things on,
and calling out to Dorothy "You won't want this dirty old dish-towel any
more, ne, and what about this carpet, it's all in holes," and Dorothy was
calling back indignantly "Of course I do! It's just a question of arranging
the furniture properly, and that isn't a dish-towel, it's my stole." Trowa
was watching all the smaller friends-and-relations and making sure they
didn't wander off or get into trouble, and every now and then Hilde fell
in and came back on a rope with the next article, which flustered Noin
a little because she never knew where to look for her. So she got cross
with Dorothy and said that her house was a Disgrace, all damp and dirty,
and it was quite time it did tumble down. Look at that horrid bunch of
toadstools growing out of the floor there! So Dorothy looked down, a little
surprised because she didn't know about this, and then gave a short sarcastic
laugh, and explained that that was her sponge, and that if people didn't
know a perfectly ordinary bath-sponge when they saw one, things were coming
to a pretty pass. "Mou!" said Noin, and Hilde fell in quickly, crying "I
must see Dorothy's sponge! Ya, there it is! Waa, Dorothy! Dorothy, it
isn't a sponge, it's a spudge! Do you know what a spudge is, Dorothy? It's
when your sponge gets all -- " and Noin said "Hilde, cara!" very quickly,
because that's NOT the way to talk to anyone who can spell PARTICLEBEAM.
But they were all quite happy when Shinigami saw Hiiro and Quatre
coming along and left off running around helping out with whatever looked
most interesting at the time in favor of enthusiastically greeting the
two of them, and after he helped Quatre up again they all stopped work
in order to have a rest and listen to Hiiro's new uta. So then they all
told Hiiro how good it was, and Quatre said carelessly "Yoroshikatta desu
ne? I mean, as an uta."
"And what about the new house?" asked Hiiro, beginning to sort
Dorothy's furniture into a pile. "Have you found it, Dorothy?"
"She's found a name for it," said Relena Darlian, lazily nibbling
at a piece of grass, "so now all she wants is the house."
"I am calling it this," said Dorothy importantly, and she showed
them what she had been making. It was a square piece of board with the
name of the house printed on it.
THE DROTHEION
It was at this exciting moment that something came through the
trees, and bumped into Dorothy. The board fell to the ground, and Quatre
and Hilde bent over it eagerly.
"Yaa, anta yo," said Dorothy crossly.
"Hello, Uufei!" said Catherine. "There you are! Where have you
been?" Uufei took no notice of them.
"Konnichi wa, Relena Darlian," he said, brushing away Hilde and
Quatre, and sitting down on THE DROTHEION. "Are we alone?"
"Hai," said Relena Darlian, smiling to herself.
"I have been told -- the news has worked down to my corner of
the Forest -- the damp bit down on the right which no one wants -- that
a certain Person is looking for a house. I have found one for her."
"A, gokurou," said Catherine kindly.
Uufei looked round slowly at her, and then turned back to Relena
Darlian.
"We have been joined by something, he said in a loud whisper.
"Maa, ii ka. We can leave it behind. If you will come with me, Relena Darlian,
I will show you the house."
Relena Darlian jumped up -- looked at Hiiro, staggering under
the weight of the table on his shoulder -- turned and looked in the other
direction.
"Iku wa yo, Quatre," she said.
"Itteru yo, Trowa," said Quatre.
"Itte, Shinigami!" cried Hilde.
"Ikimasen ka, Dorothy?" said Catherine.
"Chotto machi nasai," said Dorothy, picking up her notice-board,
which had just come into sight again.
Uufei waved them back.
"Relena Darlian and I are going for a Short Walk," he said, "not
a Jostle. If she likes to bring Winner and Barton with her, I shall be
glad of their company, but one must be able to Breathe."
"Daijoubu, daijoubu," said Catherine, rather glad to be left in
charge of something. "We'll go on getting the things out. Ano ne, Shinigami,
where's the rope? Doo shita n da, Dorothy?"
Dorothy, who had just discovered that her new address was THE
SMUDGE, coughed at Uufei sternly, but said nothing, and Uufei, with most
of THE DROTHEION behind him, marched off with his friends.
So, in a little while, they came to the house which Uufei had
found, and for some minutes before they came to it, Quatre was nudging
Trowa, and Trowa was nudging Quatre, and they were saying "Aru yo!" and
"Masaka!" and "Honto ni aru!" to each other.
And when they got there, it really was.
"Hora!" said Uufei proudly, stopping them outside Quatre's house.
"And the name on it, and everything!"
"Ya!" said Relena Darlian, wondering whether to laugh or what.
"Just the house for Dorothy. Don't you think so, Winner?"
And then Quatre did a Noble Thing, and he did it in a sort of
dream, while he was thinking of all the wonderful words Hiiro had sung
about him.
"Iie, it's just the house for Dorothy," he said grandly. "And
I hope she'll be very happy in it." And then he gulped twice, because he
had been very happy in it himself.
"What do you think, Relena Darlian?" said Uufei anxiously, feeling
that something wasn't quite right.
Relena Darlian had a question to ask first, and she was wondering
how to ask it.
"Eeto ne," she said at last, "it's a very nice house, and if your
own house is blown down, you must go somewhere else, mustn't you, Quatre?
What would you do, if your house was blown down?"
Before Quatre could think, Trowa answered for him.
"He'd come and live with Catherine and me," said Trowa, "wouldn't
you, Quatre?"
Quatre squeezed his hand.
"Honto ni arigatoo gozaimasu, Trowa," he said. "I should love
to."
One day when she felt that she couldn't wait any longer, Catherine
brained out a Notice, and this is what it said:
"Notice a meeting of everybody will take place at the Hanekado
no O-taku to pass a Rissolution By Order Keep To The Left Signed Catherine."
She had to write this out two or three times before she could
get the Notice to look like what she thought it was going to when she began
to spell it: but, when at last it was finished, she took it round to everybody
and read it out to them. And they all said they would come.
"Are," said Uufei that afternoon, when he saw them all walking
up to his house, "this is a surprise. Am I asked too?"
"Don't mind Uufei," whispered Catherine to Trowa. "I told him
all about it this morning."
Everybody said "Ikaga-desu-ka" to Uufei, and Uufei said that he
wasn't, not to notice, and then they sat down; and as soon as they were
all sitting down, Catherine stood up again.
"We all know why we're here," she said, "but I have asked my friend
Uufei -- "
"That's Me," said Uufei. "Yoroshii."
"I have asked him to Propose a Rissolution." And she sat down
again. "Saa, ne, Uufei," she said.
"Don't Bustle me," said Uufei, getting up slowly. "Don't saa-ne
me." He took a piece of paper from the back of his belt, and unfolded it.
"Nobody knows anything about this," he went on. "This is a Surprise." He
coughed in an important way, and began again: "Nanda and Eeto, before I
begin, or perhaps I should say, before I end, I have an Uta to read to
you. Hitherto -- hitherto -- a long word meaning -- de wa, you'll see what
it means directly -- hitherto, as I was saying, all the Uta in the Forest
have been written by Yui, a Pilot with an Abundance of Skills but a Positively
Startling Lack of Sense. The Uta which I am about to read to you was written
by Uufei, or Myself, in a Quiet Moment. If somebody will take Hilde's all-day
sucker away from her, and wake up Dorothy, we shall all be able to enjoy
it. I call it -- UTA."
This was it.
Relena Darlian is going.
"If anyone wants to clap," said Uufei when he had read this, "now
is the time to do it."
They all clapped.
"Hsiehsie," said Uufei. "Unexpected and gratifying, if a little
lacking in Smack."
"It's much better than mine," said Hiiro admiringly, and he really
thought it was.
"Sore de wa," explained Uufei modestly, "it was meant to be."
"The rissolution," said Catherine, "is that we all sign it, and
take it to Relena Darlian."
So it was signed, HiiRo, QUATRE RABERBA WINNER, DROTHY, CHANG
WU-FEI, TROWA, CATHERINE, NOIN,
"Konnichi wa, mina-san," said Relena Darlian -- "Konnichi wa, Hiiro."
They all said "Konnichi wa," and felt awkward and unhappy suddenly,
because it was a sort of good-bye they were saying, and they didn't want
to think about it. So they stood around, and waited for somebody else to
speak, and they nudged each other, and said "Itte," and gradually Uufei
was nudged to the front, and the others crowded behind him.
"Nanda, Uufei?" asked Relena Darlian. Uufei swished his sword
from side to side, so as to encourage himself, and began.
"Relena Darlian," he said, "we've come to say -- ageru tame ni
-- it's called -- written by -- demo mina de -- because we've heard, I
mean we all know -- eeto, you see, sore wa -- wareware -- you -- de wa,
that, to put it as shortly as possible, is what it is." He turned round
angrily on the others and said "Everybody crowds round so in this Forest.
There's no Space. I never saw a more Spreading lot of beings in my life,
and all in the wrong places. Can't you see that Relena Darlian wants
to be alone? Iku zo." And he humped off.
Not quite knowing why, the others began edging away, and when
Relena Darlian had finished reading UTA, and was looking up to say "Arigatoo
gozaimashita," only Hiiro was left.
"It's a comforting sort of thing to have," said Relena Darlian,
folding up the paper, and putting it in her pocket. "Iku wa yo, Hiiro,"
and she walked off quickly.
"Where are we going?" said Hiiro, hurrying after her and wondering
whether it was to be an Explore or a Mission or a What-shall-I-do-about-you-know-what.
"Nowhere," said Relena Darlian.
So they began going there, and after they had walked a little
way Relena Darlian said:
"What do you like doing best in the world, Hiiro?"
"Fn," said Hiiro. "Ichiban no sukimono wa -- " and then he had
to stop and think about it. Because although Accomplishing a Mission was
a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began it which
was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. And
then he thought that being with Relena Darlian was a very good thing to
do, and having Quatre near was a very friendly thing to have, and knowing
where Shinigami was was a very assuring thing to know; and so, when he
had thought it all out, he said "Sekai de ichiban no sukimono wa, Me and
Quatre going to see You, and Shinigami Bouncing in at the last moment,
and You saying "How about a little hitonigiri before you all leave for
your mission," and Me saying "I shouldn't mind a little hitonigiri, should
you, Quatre, don't bother to answer, Shinigami," and it being a utarashii
sort of day outside, and birds singing."
"I like that too," said Relena Darlian, "but what I like doing
best in the world is Nothing."
"How do you do Nothing?" said Hiiro, after he had wondered for
a long time.
"Eeto, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off
to do it, What are you going to do, Relena Darlian, and you say, E, nothing,
and then you go and do it."
"Fn," said Hiiro.
"This is a nothing sort of thing that we're doing now."
"Fn," said Hiiro again.
"It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't
hear, and not bothering."
"Naruhodo," said Hiiro.
They walked on, thinking of This and That, and by-and-by they
came to an enchanted place on the very top of the Forest called Galleons
Lap, which is sixty-something trees in a circle; and Relena Darlian knew
that it was enchanted because nobody had ever been able to count whether
it was sixty-three or sixty-four, not even when he tied a piece of string
round each tree after he had counted it. Being enchanted, its floor was
not like the floor of the Forest, prickly-bushes and underbrush and heather,
but close-set grass, quiet and smooth and green. It was the only place
in the Forest where you could sit down carelessly, without getting up almost
at once and looking for somewhere else. Sitting there you could see the
whole world spread out until it reached the sky, and whatever there was
all the world over was with them in Galleons Lap.
Suddenly Relena Darlian began to tell Hiiro about some of the
things: People called Kings and Queens, and something called Markup, and
a place called the Earth Sphere, and the possibility of dreams and whether
that made a difference in whether you chased them or not, and when Knights
were Knighted, and whether having rules for something meant you were acknowledging
its right to be or not, and Latter Half of the Twentieth Century C.E. Speculative
Fiction, and what comes from the Asteroid Belt. And Hiiro, his back against
one of the sixty-something trees, and his hands draped between his knees,
said "Soo ka," and "Honto?" and thought how wonderful it would be to have
Real Sense which could tell you things. And by-and-by Relena Darlian came
to the end of the things, and was silent, and she sat there looking out
over the world, and wishing it wouldn't stop.
But Hiiro was thinking too, and he said to Relena Darlian:
"Is it a very Helpful thing to be an Afternoon, what you said?"
"A what?" said Relena Darlian lazily, as she listened to something
else with her chin in her hands.
"On a horse," explained Hiiro.
"A Knight?"
"E, sore datta?" said Hiiro. "I thought it was a -- is it as Helpful
as a King and Markup and all the other things you said?"
"Well, it's usually not as helpful as a King," said Relena Darlian,
and then, as Hiiro seemed disappointed, she added quickly, "but it's far
more helpful than Markup."
"Could a Pilot be one?"
"Of course he could!" said Relena Darlian. "I'll make you one."
And she took a stick and touched Hiiro on the shoulder, and said "Rise,
Sir Hiiro Yui, most faithful of all my Knights."
So Hiiro rose and sat down and said "Arigatoo," which is a proper
thing to say when you have been made a Knight, and he slid sideways and
rested his head in Relena's lap and went into a dream again, in which he
and Sir Enterprise and Sir Zilpha and Sir Admiralbob and Sir Yoshiyuki
and Markup lived together with a horse, and were faithful Knights (all
except Markup, who looked after the horse) to Good Queen Relena Darlian...
and every now and then he shook his head, and said to himself "I'm not
getting it right." Then he began to think of all the things Relena Darlian
would want to tell him when she came back from wherever she was going to,
and how muddling it would be for a Pilot of Very Little Sense to try and
get them right in his mind. "Dakara, perhaps," he said to himself, "Relena
Darlian won't tell me any more," and he wondered if being a Faithful Knight
meant that you just went on being faithful without being told things.
Then, suddenly again, Relena Darlian, who was still looking at
the world, with her back against the same tree, called out "Hiiro?"
"Nanda?" said Hiiro.
"When I'm -- when -- Hiiro!"
"Nanda, Relena Darlian?"
"I'm not going to do Nothing any more."
"Never again?"
"Well, not so much. They don't let you."
Hiiro waited for her to go on, but she was silent again.
"Nanda, Relena Darlian?" said Hiiro helpfully.
"Hiiro, when I'm -- you know -- when I'm not doing Nothing,
will you come up here sometimes?"
"Ore dake?"
"Hai, Hiiro."
"Will you be here too?"
"Hai, Hiiro, I will be, really. I promise I will be, Hiiro."
"Yoshi," said Hiiro.
"Hiiro, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when
I'm a hundred."
Hiiro thought for a little.
"How old shall I be then?"
"Around there somewhere, I'm not sure. Maybe ninety-nine."
Hiiro nodded.
"I promise," he said.
Still with her eyes on the world Relena Darlian put out a hand
and felt for Hiiro's.
"Hiiro," said Relena Darlian earnestly, "if I -- if I'm not quite
-- " she stopped and tried again -- "Hiiro, whatever happens, you will
understand, won't you?"
"Understand what?"
"E, nothing." She laughed and jumped to her feet. "Saa, iku wa
yo!"
"To where?" said Hiiro.
"Anywhere," said Relena Darlian.
* * * * *
So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever
happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on top of the Forest,
a little girl and her Hero will always be playing.
Inuarai drew a picture for the first story, before I changed the title.
atsuku nattara
nani wa dore
doremo wa nanimo
sore wa jitsu ka na?
hisame futtara
sore wa are
are to sore to no
chigai mienai.
sora ga haretara
dare wa nani
nani ga dare to ka
kangaete iru.
kooridashitara
dare no kore
kantan mieru
demo kore dare no?
this
is
take it."
flying
really
to
I
never
shall
~ in which Relena Darlian leads an Expotition to Lagrange Point One ~
One fine day Hiiro had stumped up to the top of the forest to see
if his friend Relena Darlian was interested in Pilots at all. At breakfast
that morning (a simple meal of wasabi spread lightly over a bowl of nattou
or two) he had suddenly thought of a new uta. It began like this:
sagasu minna de
ikimashita.
de aru to itta
Katoru-tachi.
sore o minna ga
wakaranai.
DISCOVERED BY HIIRO
HIIRO FOUND IT.
~ in which a house is built at Hanekado for Uufei ~
One day when Pilot 01 had nothing else to do, he thought he would
do something, so he went round to Quatre's house to see what Quatre was
doing. It was still snowing as he stumped over the white forest track,
and he expected to find Quatre warming his toes in front of his fire, but
to his surprise he saw that the door was open, and the more he looked inside
the more Quatre wasn't there.
Furu hodo, pa-ra-ra-ra
Furu hodo
Yuki-futte yuku.
Ashiyubi, pa-ra-ra-ra
Ashiyubi
Atatamerareru.
pa-ra-ra-ra
Furu hoDO
pa-ra-ra-ra
Furu hoDO
Yuki-fut'te yuku.
pa-ra-ra-ra
AshiyuBI
pa-ra-ra-ra
AshiyuBI
Atatame'rareru.
~ in which Quatre is entirely surrounded by water ~
It rained and it rained and it rained. Quatre told himself that never
in all his life, and he was goodness knows how old -- fifteen, was
it, or sixteen? -- never had he seen so much rain. Days and days and days.
QUATRE (ME)
~ in which Shinigami comes to the Forest and has breakfast ~
In time when the sun had come back over the Forest, bringing with
it the scent of spring, and all the streams of the Forest were tinkling
happily to find themselves their own pretty shape again, and the little
pools lay dreaming of the life they had seen and the big things they had
done, and in the warmth and quiet of the Forest wood-pigeons were complaining
gently to themselves in their lazy comfortable way that it was the other
fellow's fault, but really it didn't matter very much; when day followed
night in quick succession, and such things as Expotitions and winters and
floods seemed very long ago and far away; Hiiro Yui woke up suddenly in
the middle of the night and listened. Then he got out of bed, and turned
on his flashlight, and stumped across the room to see if anybody was trying
to get into his refrigerator or gun-cupboard, and they weren't, so he stumped
back again, turned off the flashlight, and got into bed. Then he heard
the noise again.
aware-na no ni wa
Shinigami ga
nanimo tabenakya
takaku naranai.
nasu tougarashi
karai kara
sore ni aji kara
kimochiwarui da.
zembu nonde wa
machigai-shi
koumi wa ne
karasugiru.
kiro ya meetoru
guramu to ka
aitsu no mekata
hakattara no ni
motto ookiku
miete iru
ano Shinigami
bane-shiteku kara.
~ in which it is shown that Shinigami don't climb trees ~
One day when Hiiro was thinking, he thought that he would go and
see Uufei, because he hadn't seen him since yesterday. And as he walked
through the heather, singing to himself in a really rather pleasant voice,
he suddenly remembered that he hadn't seen Dorothy since the day before
yesterday, so he thought that he would just look in at the Hyakuchoubayashi
on the way and see if Dorothy was at home.
tachiyori dano o
kesa dekiru
futoku naranaku
te mo kamawanai.
suki da ze, soo sa.
Sono doozo
kuse ni narete mo
ore ni niau zo.
tachiyori shinakya
kesa mazui.
Hirude ya Torowa
minakya kamawan.
tachiyoranai zo
tachiyorazu
moshi mo Ririina
Daarian sae.
~ in which Hiiro invents a new game and Uufei joins in ~
By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown
up so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and
jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved
more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and said "There is no
hurry. We shall get there some day." But all the little streams higher
up in the forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having
so much to find out before it was too late.
Doroshii no ki ka
Noin no ka
chouchou mo hibi
hana ga saku.
hayashi mo sumire
maiutau.
kita natsu ga ii
to haoto da.
oshidori mo naku
soshite ore.
asagao ya tori
kikoeteta.
mitai Hiiro ga
hiiro-suru.
~ in which Shinigami is Unbounced ~
One day Catherine and Quatre were sitting outside Hiiro's front
door listening to Catherine, and Trowa was sitting with them. It was a
drowsy summer afternoon, and the Forest was full of gentle sounds, which
mingled with the sound of Hiiro's fingers dancing over the keyboard of
his laptop inside as he switched between altering some orders in a secure
database and working out a Strategy for Yuishi, into a chorus which seemed
to be saying to Trowa, "Don't listen to Catherine, listen to me." So he
got into a comfortable position for not listening to Catherine, and from
time to time he opened his eyes to say "Soo ka," and then closed them again
to say "Aa," and from time to time Catherine said "Wakaru deshoo, Quatre"
very earnestly, and Quatre nodded earnestly to show that he did.
- Contradiction -
An Introduction is to introduce people, but Relena Darlian and
her friends, who have already been introduced to you, are now going to
say Good-bye. So this is the opposite. When we asked Hiiro what the opposite
of an Introduction was, he said "The what of a what?" which didn't help
us as much as we had hoped, but luckily Dorothy kept her head and told
us that the opposite of an Introduction, Relena-sama, was a Contradiction;
and, as she is very good at that sort of thing, I am sure that that's what
it is.
~ in which Quatre does a very grand thing ~
Half-way between Hiiro's house and Quatre's house was a Thoughtful
Spot where they met sometimes when they had decided to go and see each
other, and as it was warm and out of the wind they would sit down there
for a little while and wonder what they would do now that they had seen
each other. One day when they had decided not to do anything, Hiiro made
up an uta about it, so that everybody should know what the place was for.
Hiiro no tsumori
kimeru basho.
A, soo, wasureta;
Katoru to no no da.
yasunde iru to
misekaketa
utatte mite mo
konakatta.
kao yoku niau
kyokugeishi
hijikakeisu o
kakete ii?
omoni mashite wa
kirai hana
omoni wa yoku
kubi ni wa ya
kuchi ya mimi ni wa
omosugiteru zo.
~ in which Uufei finds the Drotheion and Dorothy moves into it ~
Hiiro had wandered into the Hyakuchoubayashi, and was standing
in front of what had once been Kuritsubo. It didn't look at all like a
pavilion now; it looked like a tree which had been blown down; and as soon
as a house looks like that, it is time you tried to find another one. Hiiro
had had a Mysterious Tsutaegoto underneath his front door that morning,
saying "I AM SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR DOROTHY SO HAD YOU CATHERINE,"
and while he was wondering what it meant, Catherine had come in and read
it for him.
tatteru toki ni
suku tori no
Doroshii ga ore
to hanashi-nagara
kaze ga sono ki o
fukikakete
fukiotoshiteta --
mazui datta zo.
Katoru "yuuki o
dashite" tte
"ito ga aru no ka"
to itte kiita.
tegamibako ni
agattara
binketsu o nuketa
atama ya ashi.
aozamenakute
furuenai
Katoru ga nuketa
binketsu no naka.
Torowa ni tasuke
nasai" tte
itta, mina o
kiita toki made.
hou oshieta shi
sono doa wa
sugu ni aketa shi
soto ni ikaseta!
Hoyoyoyoyoyoyo!
~ in which Relena Darlian and Hiiro come to an Enchanted Place, and
we leave them there ~
Relena Darlian was going away. Nobody knew why she was going;
nobody knew where she was going; indeed, nobody even knew why he knew that
Relena Darlian was going away. But somehow or other everybody in the
Forest felt that it was happening at last. Even Smallest-of-all, a friend-and-relation
of Quatre's who thought he had once seen Relena Darlian's foot, but couldn't
be quite sure because perhaps it had been something else, even S. of A.
told himself that Things were going to be Different; and Hayai and Osoi,
two other friends-and-relations, said "Hayai ka?" and "Osoi ka?" to each
other in such a hopeless sort of way that it really didn't seem any good
waiting for the answer.
At least I think she is.
Where?
Nobody knows.
But she is going --
I mean she goes
(To rhyme with "knows")
Do we care?
(To rhyme with "where")
We do
Very much.
(I haven't got a rhyme for that "is" in the second line yet. Shimatta.)
(Now I haven't got a rhyme for shimatta. Shimatta.)
Those two shimatta will have to rhyme with each other Shimother.
The fact is this is more difficult than I thought,
I ought --
(Very good indeed)
I ought
To begin again,
But it is easier
To stop.
Relena Darlian, good-bye,
I
(Yoshi)
I
And all your friends
Sends
I mean all your friend
Send
(Very awkward this, it keeps going wrong)
De wa, anyhow, we send
Our love
END.
S-ILLEGIBLESCRIBBLE,
CHICKENTRACKS,
and they all went off to Relena Darlian's home with it.
WITH RESPECT FOR THE VOCAL TALENTS OF:
Midorikawa Hikaru HIIRO YUI (PILOT 01)
Yajima Akiko RELENA DARLIAN
Orikasa Ai QUATRE RABERBA WINNER
Suzuki Saori CATHERINE
Nakahara Shigeru TROWA (BARTON)
Ishino Ryuuzou UUFEI (CHANG WU-FEI)
Matsui Naoko DOROTHY (DROTHY)
Yokoyama Chisa NOIN
Araki Kae HILDE
Seki Toshihiko SHINIGAMI
and
Koyasu Takehito THE NARRATOR
I picture Hiiro looking like my Mandy doll with his own head rather than himself with bear ears, but it isn't as if I commissioned the picture -- it was a present, and I think Inuarai is a wonderful person for drawing it for me.
