2021, May 8 - Tokyo, Jinbouchou. Yomiko Readman slips her key into the lock before trying the handle, gratified to find it locked. The stairs are still clear from the great reshelving nine months earlier. When they got back to Japan Nenene had insisted on moving in, which meant the sisters had moved in, and thus the acquisition of the rest of the building, followed by weeks of installing shelving and sorting books. There are hundreds of linear meters of empty shelving still, even though both Nenene's room and the kitchen have only a few one-meter shelves in them. None of the individual rooms, other than Yomiko's and Nancy's, have free-standing shelves, something Anita had insisted on. Nancy almost never used her room, Yomiko's room had always been tight, and Yomiko put up most of the funding for the building, so she got her way. Yomiko locks the door behind herself, then starts up the stairs. No noise from the first two floors, as rather expected -- they were entirely dedicated to the collection. The third floor has eight rooms, Junior and Anita's nearest the stairs, then the kitchen, and dining room, and individual rooms for Nancy, Nenene, Maggie, and Michelle all surrounding an open area in the center. Yomiko smiles at the giggles from Anita's room, and the sounds of computer games mixed with outright cackling from Junior's, indicating both of them have their girlfriends over. At the top of the stairs she pauses, blinking at the brilliant spring afternoon sun, takes a moment to look over the edge of the roof at the bustling crowd before keying into her own room, noticing it isn't locked with another smile. She looks to make sure, `Nancy!' she calls happily, a little confused by the other woman's outfit, a girl's uniform for the local private high school. `Sensei,' Nancy whines, `They sent me an overdue notice,' she proffers a typewritten sheet. Yomiko takes it with a suppressed smile, reading quickly. Nancy had put a bit of effort into it -- the note is on British Library stationary, and in English. "Miss Nancy Readman, The Librarian you checked out is overdue. Please return her at once. Circulation Department" `Well, Readman-ojouchan, it seems you need to check me back in,' Yomiko hands Nancy back her note. `But you're so useful! Could I just bring you in and check you back out again?' `Unless there's a waiting list on librarians,' Yomiko answers with a little frown, enjoying the game. `If that's a risk then I'll have to check you out tonight before I take you back tomorrow,' Nancy says, setting her hands on Yomiko's collar. `I suppose you should,' Yomiko answers, `Readman-ojouchan,' she goes up on her tiptoes, breathes softly into Nancy's ear, `But I want to undress you, slowly, so don't get impatient.' `Nenene,' Nancy whispers back, `is writing, and said to come get her at nine, so don't take _too_ long.' Yomiko glances at the watch on the inside of her left wrist, `No, three hours should be . . . ' she trails off in a moan as Nancy lips at her throat, unbuttoning her collar, her fingers warm and solid as they brush their way down. March, 2020 - Hong Kong The crowd starts to gather as soon as the shutters drop on the Dokusensha building, waiting for trouble to spill out into the street or someone to request help. By the time the first explosions shake the building the crowd has grown to nearly fifty. The white-haired woman who had lived in the neighborhood since she deserted the Koumingtang in 1947, holding her M3A1 in a sure, well-practiced grip. The half-dozen hanamochi, flower-ridden, almost sparkling with impatience. Five youma or half youma. A Cthulu battloid and her half-battloid partner, in civilian clothes. A family of Japanese tourists, the mothers loosening swords in their sheaths, `Sai, take care of Midori and Kasumi, and don't any of you join in. Got that?!' Nanohana Jiyuu tells her fifteen year old son, getting a nod from him and each of her daughters before turning to her wife, `Freesha?' The voluptuous blonde smiles, dangling a spade-shaped eyepatch. The balance are normal people, who check rifles, subguns, or sidearms, and worry. Another explosion, and the Dokusensha building starts to sink. Three of the hanamochi groan, swaying, and the earth stops shaking, the building continuing to sink. Jubei leaps, catching an almost invisible ledge on her way up the building, Freesha running beside her, deigning even that minimal support. Moments later their inhuman dash ends, each catching up two of the young women before charging back down the building, stepping off at the bottom with a smoothness that bends physics, or seems to. They join their children and the rest of the crowd a few hundred meters up the street, setting their passengers on their feet. Moments later, with an impossibly quiet sigh, the Dokusensha building vanishes. The dust begins to settle, and Jubei peels off her heart-shaped eyepatch, and Freesha doffs the spade-shaped one. The tallest of their rescuees nudges the blonde, who gives a little squeal, startling the brown-haired woman in the center of the group hug they'd fallen into. `Nanohana Jiyuu and Yagyu Freesha!' she exclaims, `Could I get an autograph?' Jiyuu laughs, `That doesn't happen often.' `Why not?' the blonde asks, `I love your books.' `As do I,' the tall one says, blushing. `But they're,' Jiyuu pauses, looking at Freesha. `Trashy, plotless, and smutty?' Freesha continues, `There's nothing wrong with that.' `Exactly!' the brown-haired woman says, `Sumiregawa Nenene, and these are Maggie, Michelle, and Anita,' she indicates each in turn, stopping with the pink-haired youngest. `I like writing them, but accept no claims of social worth!' Jiyuu laughs, `Any such that you find Freesha must have put there.' `Right. Sure. But you know how far flattery will get you,' Freesha answers, smiling. Nenene blushes, `When I read your books, then found out that your first one was published when you were sixteen, it gave me so much encouragement.' `You do know what it means when one author's name is larger than the other's on the cover, don't you?' `Now I do.' `My father pretty much ghostwrit the first two, with me and Freesha providing direction and demanding re-writes. The third one was the first I actually wrote.' `The prose doesn't flow as well in that one, but the feelings seem truer,' Michelle says. `Let me buy you all lunch,' Nenene looks at her watch, `Well, dinner, for saving me.' `Sounds good,' Anita says, `I'm starving.' The *Thwop Thwop Thwop* of arriving helicopters drowns them out as a Dark Kingdom investigatory team arrives from the mainland at the same time as the Hong Kong Police helicopter, the Jet Ranger almost inaudible over two Apache gunships and two Chinooks. 2003 Feb 16 - Mainichi Shinbun Literature Section YF - Jiyuu and I have been married for twelve years now. MS - How did you meet? Is it true that your first novel was a fictionalized version of it? NJ - Yes it is. We had to tone it down a lot, since no one would believe the truth if it was written. MS - What is it? NJ - Yagyu Jubei chose me to be the successor of his school, two hundred and fifty years after he died. When he was younger, he'd taken up with a woman in Siberia, and had a daughter. When his daughter was eight she was caught up in a duel and slept, frozen in ice, for three hundred years. Thawing out in the early 90s she drifted to Hokkaido, and was raised by wild animals. The animals brought her news of the young successor to her father's school, and set out to find me. We fought each other and the Siberian Yagyu, falling in love along the way. MS - That's a good tale, what really happened? NJ & NJ - *laughs* 2021 May 9 - Tokyo `Umi! Umi! Umi!' Anita chants softly, staring down the track as they wait for the train. Hisami smiles happily, content for the moment to watch her girlfriend. Junior is watching the track as intently as Anita, Midori's hand caught loosely in his own. Nenene yawns, leaning back against Nancy, who is also blinking sleepily. Yomiko is bright-eyed and distractable, alternating between watching the track, reading the book in her hands, and her wife and lover. `Nenene,' she suddenly shifts her eyes from the track, `Have you decided yet?' `Decided?' Nenene yawns again, `About?' `Us,' Yomiko drops a casually possessive hand on Nancy's shoulder, brushes her cheek with her thumb. `Um,' Nenene blushes bright red, `I have.' `What did you decide?' Nancy asks, wrapping an arm around Nenene's waist. `I'll tell you later,' she says, snuggling closer, ducking her head to try and hide her blush. `That's fine,' Yomiko says, and throws her arms around them both, her index finger marking her place in her book. Michelle wraps her arms around Maggie and sighs happily, `That's soo sweet.' `Weren't you?' Maggie asks. `Yes, but she's so happy.' `Tired, anyway.' `If you got your hands on the one you'd been crushing on for years, wouldn't you be?' `Probably,' a faint blush touches Maggie's ears and the top of her cheeks. `Um.' Michelle turns them both to face the voice, "young, female voice," she notes absently, behind them. `So everything worked out with the Dokusensha?' the tall woman with olive-drab hair asks. Maggie looks at her and the taller woman at her side, who's blood red braid reaches to her knees, `Hong Kong?' `Yes,' the redhead answers, `I'm Kasuga Noriko, and this person is Octavia,' she ruffles her partner's shoulder-length hair. `Yes, eventually,' Michelle smiles up at them, `This is Maggie and I'm Michelle.' ~*~ Anita scurries from one side of the train to the other, kneeling on the seat next to Hisami to look out, then looking out the door window on the other side. Hisami pulls her down into the seat, wraps an arm around her waist. Anita settles a little, snuggling close, but continues to rubberneck. ~*~ If this was an anime, or a manga, I'd go for the full beach sequence, but since we can't see Anita and Hisami flirt wordlessly or Octavia's swimsuit, we'll let it go with everyone had fun and Anita got a sunburn. Yomiko would have, but Nenene and Nancy took turns slathering her pale skin in sunscreen. ~*~ --- Log: 2006/Jun/sometime: Paper draft 2006/Nov/11: Typed in.