Space and Time

A Rutabaga to the Head

If Takumi drags me back to the produce and vegetable section again, I am going to hit him over the head with a rutabaga.

"You know I can feel your hateful stare." The devil speaks. "We've lived together long enough for me to know when you want to whack me," he says.

Why am I stuck shopping with my brother instead of training or something? Why is Lev occupied with midterms? I thought those were over weeks ago. "What else do we need?" I moan, crumpling onto the top of our shopping cart. "Can't we just get those 80-cent minute-noodle packs?" They're always done in two minutes, tops, without an hour of circling around the goddamn vegetables.

Takumi stops walking and whirls around with an offended expression. Oh, boy, here we go again. "How can you even speak of that sodium-infested abomination as a Japanese woman?" he almost cries. I groan. Why couldn't Dad have gone with him instead of me?

"Neither of us has ever set foot in Japan," I point out as we start moving again.

He shakes his head at me. "If we did, you'd be completely lost," he says.

I leave it at that. Takumi pulls out his phone and seems to be checking his ingredient list. Honestly, with the amount of crap we have in this cart, we could probably eat whatever noodlefood Takumi's trying to prepare for like a week straight.

Well, if Takumi's ignoring me – out of family shame or whatever – I might as well check my own phone and ignore him back. Hm, looks like Vid and Johnathan are arguing about video games again.

Isn't this supposed to be a NCC chat? I plunk out.

i mean, Smash is basically the NCC, Vid replies immediately. battle royale between a bunch of weirdos

LOL. Johnathan backs him up. I mean them. Anyway, clearly the chat's going nowhere for me, so never mind about that.

Maybe there's something more interesting earlier in the thread.

"Thanks, guys." Oh, yeah, that was when Evren posted about being distracted.

I can't help but just stare at this whole conversation again.

The more I get to know her, the more... human she is. I mean, of course she's a human being, but it's so odd to see her in her competitive space, all sparkles and smiles and cool lighthearted jokes, versus her goofing off teasing others, swearing at random things, being a hopeless romantic for the outdoors. I still can't get over her having lived in Cardend. All Google Maps showed was farmland, farmland, and more farmland, with the occasional cow. Evren, with her bright blue hair and social media prowess, I could never see as a farm girl.

And yet there she is: a whole load of weird bright colours that all seem to contrast.

Pft. Both on the inside and outside, now that I think about it.

"What are you giggling about?" Takumi asks me as we duck into an aisle with a lot of little boxes stacked on the shelves.

"Evren." I guess being her friend means getting all kinds of inside info.

I might still be able to beat her in competition if I play my cards right. Though I'm not sure how knowing she's a farm girl could possibly help me...

"I still can't believe she's from Cardend."

Takumi shrugs. "Sometimes people don't put everything about them out there on display." He smiles mischievously. "Example: You actually wore something nice to the opening ceremony of the NCC, when you usually wear black on black tee and track pants combos that are the most boring thing in the world."

Excuse me! "Now you're the fashion police? You sound like Lev," I shoot back.

Takumi scoffs. "I am nothing like him!" He tries to sound offended but I can hear his laughter. I can't help but laugh, too.

"OK, but seriously, what are we actually looking for?" I ask. We've been in this store too long. The fluorescent lights are starting to make me dizzy.

Takumi holds his phone screen up for me to see, as if I could read the fine print from two metres behind him while still nursing a concussion. I assume it's noodles, though, because we just passed the macaroni.

"And remind me why you had to drag me across the whole store instead of just splitting the ingredient list?"

"You know nothing about noodles. There's no way I'd trust you with that," he says. Ouch! "And you called the rutabagas onions." Double ouch!

"Hey, I learned from that."

"Sure."

We've gotten to the end of the aisle, and Takumi still hasn't found his sacred noodles.

"Where are they?" he mumbles.

"Well, you said this recipe was Japanese, so maybe the international foods section will have it?" It's worth a shot.

"Oh, good idea, Aika." Takumi immediately stomps off in what I hope is the direction of the international foods section and I have to quickly fumble with the shopping cart to get it around the corner.

I nearly bash the whole thing straight into Takumi.

He's lucky Nevaeh's been training my reflexes lately.

"What's the hold up?" I ask. Takumi steps aside and apologizes to the floor beside the guy in front of us.

What?

Oh.

Wait.

That's Hadley Theoharis.

Lethal.

"Oh, um, don't worry, he's OK," Hadley says. "We didn't see you."

We? I step to the side of the shopping cart and see a shiba inu wearing a neon SERVICE ANIMAL vest. Hadley's holding it on leash. Oh.

My idiot brother just bumped into Lethal's guard dog.

"Oh, hey!" Shit, he's talking to me. "You're Aika, right? I've seen you competing in this year's NCC. You're incredible."

I... what? This guy's just... smiling at me without a care in the world? He killed a guy.

"Oh, uh, sorry, I'm Hadley." He gives me and Takumi a little wave. "And this is Major." He points to his dog.

"Takumi," Takumi says, giving Hadley the same little awkward wave we were just given. "I'm Aika's brother."

"Oh! Nice to meet you," Hadley says. I think I'm starting to sweat. "So you are Aika, huh? Well, sorry to bother you, I'm sure you have loads of fans always running up to you like this so I won't take up your time. Let's go, Major." He pulls a little at his dog's leash and they start walking past us. "Good luck with the NCC, Aika, and hope we chat some other time!" he adds before he passes me and the shopping cart.

"Uhm, yeah! Thanks," I manage to get out before he turns away from us.

"The hell was that?" I look back at Takumi and he's giving me a weird face.

"What do you mean?"

"Uhh, you completely clammed up."

"Takumi, that was Lethal. You know... from the NCC years ago...?"

"Yeah, and?"

"What do you mean, "Yeah, and?"" I furrow my brows at him.

"He seemed nice," Takumi says. He shrugs, as if this whole interaction was completely chill. "Wasn't the death an accident?"

"I mean, yeah, but-"

"Then it's no big deal. And he seemed to be your fan."

Before I can answer, Takumi walks off again, swiping through his phone.

OK, Aika, deep breath.

You're fine.

Let's keep going and get those stupid noodles so we can get out of this place.