Looking at the chain, the Vespa girl shook her head. She started rattling Naota's head, saying, "This is no good. Maybe I'll try again."
As the girl once again readied her lethal guitar, Mamimi ran over and embraced Naota, attempting to shield him.
"I'm about to hit his head, so please don't move him."
With a critical look, Mamimi faced the other girl.
Naota, who had regained full consciousness right then, opened his mouth and asked, "What did you do?"
"What? CPR, of course!"
"Not that," he said, instinctively wiping his moist lips.
"Did she stick her tongue in?" Mamimi asked.
Naota was at a loss for words. Against his will, he had received his first kiss. Moreover, it had a spicy curry taste.
It was terrible.
His biggest problem wasn't that his first kiss had been foisted upon him, but that Mamimi had seen it. A speechless Mamimi stared at Naota.
What's that? It was the sound of a Vespa engine. When they looked up, they saw the girl was on the seat, ready to flee.
"Thanks for nothing!" she yelled to Naota; then, she accelerated away at full speed.
What was that all about? She was a lunatic who had come like a bolt out of the blue.
The Vespa, rapidly getting farther and farther away, seemed to be expensive. Watching the girl's figure grow smaller, Mamimi voiced her sentiments, "That must feel so good."
"Good?"
"Being free." Naota didn't reply.
"She was older than twenty, huh?" Mamimi continued. "An idiotic adult who still hasn't grown up," said Naota. "Ouch!"
The wound left by the guitar suddenly hurt. And that was how Naota met her.
Chapter 2
The Nandaba family business was a bakery. It had been started by his grandfather Shigekuni, so the shop was called "Shigekuni Bakery." When Shigekuni retired, he passed the family business to Naota's father, Kamon.
Kamon wasn't Shigekuni's son by blood, rather a man who had married into the family. He had been working at a publishing house when he'd met Shigekuni's only daughter, whom he later married.
When their eldest son, Tasuku, was born, Kamon and his wife had moved to her hometown, thinking that Mabase was where they would like to raise their children. However, the boys lost their mother before Naota had entered kindergarten. Naota had been told she wasn't dead, but that her whereabouts were unknown.
So, Naota's family now consisted of his grandfather, Shigekuni; his father, Kamon; his brother, Tasuku, who currently was studying in America; and finally, Naota himself. It was a household made up of four men.
They also had an old pet cat called Miyu Miyu. Miyu Miyu was fairly fat, and when he wailed, he sounded like a wild boar.
Speaking of the cat, Naota remembered one particular occurrence. It had occurred right after their mother had disappeared and a large typhoon had hit Mabase.
On one side of the Nandaba house was a river; both banks were reinforced by six feet of concrete. Normally, the water level wasn't very high—but due to the typhoon, the current had transformed into violent rapids. The water level rose, raging along like a muddy waterfall.
Alone, the young Naota was watching the muddy river from his bedroom window when he saw a small kitten floating downstream in a cardboard box. He thought the kitten looked at him. He cried out, but the kitten was carried off into the distance. From his place at the second-floor window, there was nothing Naota could have done.
Naota never told anyone about it—but six months later, Kamon brought home a cat. Around this time, Kamon had begun leaving the house for frequent walks. Thinking back, maybe his dad had been looking for his missing wife, or perhaps he simply was wandering around in shock. Naota never knew. One day, Kamon brought home a cat and cared for it, saying they wouldn't have to worry about pests in the bakery anymore. From that point on, Kamon changed his careless ways and started taking the bakery seriously.
Maybe that cat—now their pet, Miyu Miyu—was the kitten that Naota had seen floating down the stream. He couldn't, however, remember any distinguishing characteristics of the kitten that would substantiate this theory.
During long nights, he often reminisced about various things in the faraway past. This was one of those nights.
I can't sleep. Naota was lying awake on the bed, curled up like a fetus. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep.
A chill ran down his back. For some reason, he couldn't calm down. Maybe I've caught a cold?
He didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't keep the idea out of his mind that the Vespa girl might have passed something on to him when she'd kissed him earlier.
He remembered the touch of the Vespa girl's lips from that afternoon. His first kiss had had a spicy curry flavor.
That flavor. I need to forget about that. It was like a bad accident.
He turned over, and the bed creaked.
It was a bunk bed, and Naota slept in the bottom bunk. The top bunk belonged to his brother, Tasuku. Although Tasuku was out of the country, Naota couldn't use it. After all, in a small room shared by two people, the bunks were the single sacred space the two brothers had.
"Good, Naota. I'll take the top bunk, and you take the bottom," Tasuku had said.
I'm always at the bottom of things.
If his brother did become a professional baseball player, their father probably hoped Naota would continue the family business.
Naota raised his head from the covers, sighing. It would be hard to sleep tonight. Thinking he might have a fever, Naota put his hand on his forehead.
What is this?
On his forehead was a large bulge.
A large bulge!
A large bulge!
A LARGE BULGE!
What is this? Am I dreaming? Trying to process the surrealism of the situation, he kicked off the covers and sat up. Calm down. I have to calm down.
He touched his forehead in an attempt to assess the situation.
"Ouch!" he cried out reflexively as an intense pain suddenly shot through him.
At the same time, from the center of his forehead, he felt a pulsing sensation. Ba-dum… ba-dum… ba-dum.
It was a bit like the drunken feeling he'd experienced when Grandfather Shigekuni had given him a little alcohol—but he hadn't touched a drop of booze.
Ba-dum… ba-dum… ba-dum. His head pounded as if it had a heart inside. No, the bulge itself was throbbing.
Naota's face turned pale as he examined the bulge more gently.
As he'd imagined, it was a single, hard, long bulge—about five inches long, it extended straight out from his forehead. If he grasped it firmly, the part connected to his head hurt. What is this?
Then, Naota remembered that the Vespa girl had hit his head with her guitar that afternoon. Mamimi had said they should go to the hospital; after all, a bike had hit him. Although nothing seemed wrong, he really should have gone to get checked out by a doctor. He had ignored her, saying that all he had were bruises. With Mamimi there, he had played up his "Cool Mint" image.
If I'd gone to the hospital then maybe this wouldn't have happened, he thought. Ouch!
Ba-dum… ba-dum… ba-dum…
Naota turned on the light and put on his glasses.
No, it wasn't a dream: There really was something sticking out of his head. A dark blue object projected straight from his forehead. The object actually was less swollen than it was angular. In fact, "horn" was a more suitable description than "bulge."