She gazed at him with disdain. "You mean you appreciated the passers-by staring at me while we were walking to this fine place? Right." "Oh. I could notice them all being jealous of me." replied Hideaki with a smile which made her stare at him. "Wasn't it nice to parade with that -object- you claim as yours?" "Oh come on. You know that I don't see you as an object."
The lady shrugged. "How would I know?" "You really don't know me that much?" pondered the man with a fair amount of disappointment. She made a gesture with her hand as to express how irrelevant his question was.
"Hm.. Do we really know each other? We know we would risk anything to save each other. Because we share the same duty." "I'd like to think that we know each other. Since I've been always honest and open about myself."
She seemed to be slightly embarrassed now. At least he took it that way. "I don't know.. As i see it, the most efficient way to really know someone is to fight him. You didn't fight me seriously in your house, the day i met your parents." "What about the fight on Java?"
Another gesture ruling out his question. "You said it yourself. I took you by surprise. It was pretty much one sided."
Hideaki considered her for a short while, before stating : "I still don't get why you want to fight me in the first place." "Were you even listening? It's the only way to really know someone, according to me." "You want a serious fight. You want someone to get hurt?"
She had an undecipherable expression, a quick smirk playing on her lips. "Preferably not?" "But that's what a real fight includes." "If it is the only true way to know someone, then ..."
Hideaki often found himself lost in the mazes that creature was building with her words. He repressed a gesture of impatience. "hmph. You really want to go through with this. If that's the only way to get closer to you then I'll fight you." "You don't want to know me better yourself?" "I never thought fighting you would help me in that regard."
She raised an eyebrow as she was slightly lying forward to take a closer look into his eyes. "Then how do you intend to? You could spend decades near me without knowing what i really have in mind. you could ask me... But you would never know what i'm hiding nor where i'm lying or telling the truth." "So..? You can still lie to me after I fought you."
Junko shrugged, her denuded shoulders moving charmingly in the process. "You don't understand..." "Obviously." "Nevermind." she said as a waiter was bringing the first plate they ordered. "Nevermind? It's obviously important for you." "Is it?" pondered casually the woman as she was getting ready to eat. "Good apetite." "It is." He replied gravely, before stating : "Have a nice meal."
They remained silent for quite a while, as they were enjoying the exquisite food they just ordered.
At times, Hideaki was raising his head from his soup to gaze at her eating her salad. "... What?" she finally asked? "hm?" "Well you're staring at me and it's uncomfortable." she stated rudely. Then she added maliciously : "Also you're making those weird noises while eating your soup..." "Fine." simply responded the man before turning his head away and resuming to eat.
"Come on.." almost whispered Junko after repressing a laugh. "I just respect your wishes. You said you don't like me looking at you." "And?" "So I don't."
She rolled her eyes and then rested her chin on her hands, her elbows offhandedly put on the table.
The woman insistently looked at the man as he was quietly eating his soup, his head still slightly turned away. "You are quite amusing. And I definitely think I should tell you to jump from a cliff, one day. Just to see if you would do it."
He turned his head back to her, staring at her. "Maybe you should."
She kept this amused expression on her face. "You don't understand how we women work.
You don't know me. Therefore, you are paddling in the mist"
He shrugged. "And I will continue to do so. Alternatively, you could just say what you mean."
"But what would be the point?" "Whatever. Apparently I don't understand anything anyway."
He continued to eat his soup.
She smiled at him, being amused by how easily she could confuse him. "Would you like me to explain..?" "Will it help?" He frowned a bit. "Why are you asking?" "Fine. Just explain then." He sighed and stopped eating.
She then started off for a long explanation of those easy things he apparently couldn't grasp. "We rarely say what we truely think.
People don't. Because thoughts are quite different from language.
So... Whenever someone tells you something, it's already miles away from what he was truely thinking.
Because we cannot express those ideas as quickly as they come."
She looked at him questioningly. "Following me so far?"
He just shrugged. "I always try to say what I think. "
"No matter how hard you try. It is deemed to be insufficient"
He frowned. What kind of explanation was that? "Why bother to talk at all then?" "Because it's better than nothing?"
She then finally came around to making her point. "Now. You ask why i want to fight you. Because when you fight, you use your true spirit.
You cannot lie. Your thoughts are directly translated into actions.
Your acts therefore expose your soul.
Alright, Mister Ishikawa?"
He didn't look very convinced. "I see. So what does it tell you when I plunge my fist into your stomach?"
She rolled her eyes. "Nothing. It's the way you're doing it.
The way our two minds intricate while we seek for victory."
How could he not understand that?
"Uh.. if you say so."
"Hmm..." She sighed. "You do not feel it then?"
"I'm not quite sure about all that." "Why is that?" "Fighting is about surviving. And nothing else." He said firmly and finally managed to finish his soup.
"No." She replied sincerely. "War is but an art. You see it as something wrong.
But it is a necessary activity. Do you even see poetry in fighting?"
He shook his head. "I fight because it is necessary."
She gazed at him and said in a sweet yet disappointed way : "And that is why you're... Hm... Lost about me?" "Maybe. But it's normal that we see things differently." asserted Hideaki, ignoring her manners. "Maybe..."
They remained silent for a while after the waiters brought their main dish.
The man was quietly eating his salmon, appearing to be reflecting on something, while from her end the woman was enjoying her fish along with its rice.
Sometimes, Junko was casting a furtive glance at him. Like many before her, she mastered this skill which is about observing someone without being noticed, and she wasn't missing any of his serene moves behind her eye-slashes.
"So..." Started Ishikawa after a while, feeling that extended silence was odd "Did you fly your repaired ship yet?" "No." She finally replied. "Didn't have time to. I checked the ship, however. As i said, you did a nice work."
He nodded at this compliment. His guest was rarely doing any, which was perhaps the reason making them so desirable. "Hm. I think I should have taken more time with it, but it ended up being quite okay."
She nodded after having savoured a tentacle. "How many hours did you spend on it?" "Uhm.. I don't know? I didn't really pay attention to that." "A day then?" asked the woman. "Maybe i should ask your friend." She then added right away, as if she was doubting he would tell her the truth.
Hideaki wasn't quite sure which answer would be the best. She would probably find something to criticize anyway.
Amused, he finally said : "Hm. It was more than a day." "How many? Wait on... Did you actually take any holidays...?" She questioned while frowning subtly.
"It was a day and a night. I took holidays after I delivered the ship to New Tokyo. And it was somehow fun to work on it. So every thing's okay."
Junko didn't make any comment. She didn't want to acknowledge she was owing him that time he took to fix her ship, right after she acted so boldly against him.
She instead made another question. "Did your fat friend help?" "He is hardly fat."
"Not answering the question, are we?" pondered the woman while staring at the Captain.
She then suddenly smiled mischievously and, after having looked away and back at him : "Did you actually make him do all the work while you were watching him, having margaritas?"
Ishikawa simply shrugged. "Of course. I was doing nothing. Like always." "I knew it. So maybe i should kiss Itsuki instead of you then." "Go ahead. I'm sure he'll like it."
He answered this with such seriousness Junko considered him for a short while, as if she wanted to be sure he just made a joke.
Finally, having made a judgement after the start of a smile played on the man's lips : "You're really no fun tonight. You're actually ruining this whole evening. I hope you're happy."
He sighed. For one moment he thought about replying in the same manner, but that surely was one thing he hated. Hiding behind words, never saying what you mean and playing this stupid game of deception.
So, he decided to not play along with it.
"I'm not good at this sarcasm thing. You know that."
Somehow she seemed disappointed by him ignoring her comment. But eventually she shrugged and let it go. "That's because you don't train enough." "I never found it to be terribly fun either." "hm. Why?"
Puzzled, it took him a few seconds to reply. "There has to be a reason for that?"
"Alright." She decided that she didn't want to talk more about it and so the subject was dropped with this single word. "So you did nothing else while you were on Honshu?" "hm. No. What else should I have done?" "Spending some time home?
I was surprised anyway. Because i thought you were really angry... I didn't expect you to move to Honshu right away to fix that ship."
He explained the obvious reason. "Physical work is a good way to get rid of anger and frustration."
"Yes but you were doing this for me. The one you were angry with?
Why did you take that decision?"
He shrugged, not entirely sure himself, but eventually he answered. "I could understand your reasons. And I managed to forgive you."
She looked away for a moment. "I'm glad you did..." "hm." He moved his empty plate away from him.
She herself is gazing down at her plate, playing with a piece of squid.
He then broke the emerging silence. "All in all.. the time spent on Java wasn't that bad." "Yes..."
She then quickly changed the subject, not really wanting to talk about their time on Java. "You need to tell me how much you spent. For the ship."
"Do I need to? I don't think that's important."
He somehow as uncomfortable with the idea of her paying him back. "I said i would reimburse you, remember?" She continued to press the matter.
He quickly found an excuse, but he knew already that she would brush it aside. "But you said that your house is quite costly." "That is my problem, no?" "Good. Then the money I spent for the ship is my problem." "No, since you bought it for me."
He quickly recognized that he'd have to find something better than that. Unfortunately he failed and just decided to try and delay this decision.
"5 millions? 6 millions?" "Not that much." he eluded with a gesture. "Why do you want to pay for it anyway? You asked me if I could repair it for you and I did. That's all." "Because it's what i said i would do?" replied the woman with stubbornness.
Ishikawa sighed before leaning back. "I suppose I can't really stop you if you want it so much." "It is just to be fair, 'boy'..."
She then shrugged before adding : "I even took the cash from the resale, remember?" "Hm. Then let's say you give me that amount and it's done." "Deal."
As a waiter came back to take their empty plates, she asked a tea while Ishikawa ordered a small cup of sake for himself.
Junko slightly raised an eyebrow when she heard him.
She however didn't make any comment, contenting herself with gazing around without curiosity.
Ishikawa stared at her for a while, and, as she was still ignoring him, asked : "Hm...? You disapprove?" "Hmm..."
A charming grin appeared on her face before she pondered innocently : "I was just wondering what your honorable mother would think about it, Hideaki-chan."
Subtly shrugging, she then added to rub it in : "Taking a cup of sake right after dinner? Tssk tssk. My my."
Ishikawa considered her gravely for a short while. "Good sake is something you don't get every day. And it's nice as a conclusion to a good meal." "Right.", simply replied the woman, in an unconvinced tone. "Remember what happened the last time..? Right after you drank."
The man smirked, his gaze lingering on her neckline. "Is that a threat?"
The woman was looking right into his eyes, as if she was waiting for a weakness to exploit. "Your opinion?"
They gazed at each other until the man shrugged, feeling somewhat uncomfortable because of those eyes observing him unceasingly. "Seriously, it's just one tiny bit of sake, Junko. You're impossible, sometimes."
She herself eventually looked away before moving her shoulders in what could have been the beginning of a shrug. "You're an adult. Why are you even looking for my blessing?" "Well, I would just like to know why you disapprove."
She waited for the waiter to serve them and walk away before replying. "I dislike drugs, no matter what they are." "You're very short sighted in that. Alcohol is not that bad." "How can you say that.. After what happened..?"
His physiognomy darkened as bad memories were summoned by that simple sentence. That was my own stupidity.. and not the drug. Would have it happened if you weren't drunk? It was my fault to even get that drunk. Everything should be consumed in moderate amounts..
An uncomfortable silence washed on them until Junko said thoughtfully : There was a short period of my life where... I used alcohol as a way of escape. Really? I wouldn't have expected that. Why did you?
She smiled bitterly. Life rarely gives us what we expect from it? There was a day.. I decided to act, and quit letting others use me at their will.
Ishikawa reflected for a short while, fascinated by the development of this conversation. There was a time when you let others use you? Yes., she simply replied after taking a sip of tea.
She then added : I was born in a noble family, where marriages always were arranged. Right. And then you ran away. So your husband was really bad, or ugly?
She didn't reply at first. He had to lean forward to hear her whispering after a while : I thought he was alright, at first.
She then stared at him. I made the mistake to trust him
A few seconds passed until he asked : So, what did he do? He made me work in a kitchen.
A cruel smile played on her lips. So i had to murder him.
He frowned at her. "Let's be serious for a moment and you tell me what really happened."
She rolled her eyes. "You think I'm lying? I buried him not far from here. Come on, I'll show you."
Ishikawa sighed. He hated it when she did that. "Junko. You didn't kill him."
"Oh? Why are you so sure of that?" "You're not a cold-blooded killer. I'm sure of that."
She made that expressionless face again that made her seem a little bit scary. "I did kill many people. And so did you."
"In the Naval Forces, during a fight, yes. But not a civilian."
She shrugged a bit. "Alright. So what do you think happened then?"
"Well.. one day you had enough of being a wife and you ran away. You joined the Naval Forces to escape or something like that. I don't know what he did to make you leave."
She hesitated a bit before telling that much about herself. But eventually she decided that she could trust him enough to tell him. "I just wasn't... what he expected me to be."
Ishikawa gazed at her interested. "And that was..?"
She frowned. "Oh, you know.. a good, obedient slave."
He smiled. "So he expected you to be a housewife? You had to do the cooking and cleaning?"
"No... We had servants for that." "Uhm.. what was the problem then?" "I just wasn't good at playing the role that was expected from me."
He nodded. "You could have led a happy life though, without the dangers of being a pilot." "Happy? Right.." She didn't seem to be convinced. "I knew you would disagree." He smiled a bit.
"What else do you know?"
He shrugged. "Not much unfortunately. That's why I'm asking. How would you like a relationship to be then? You obviously don't like the traditional roles."
She sighed. "I don't know. I never really thought about it much either. Maybe it's simply not for me."
He gazed at her thoughtfully. "I don't think so." "hm..?" Apparently she had been lost in some thoughts. "I think you should try being in a relationship again."