Chapter #0000 Prologue
Late July, 201X. Two children were eating okonomiyaki at a summer fair in the Sanjo shopping district of Kure.
“Mmm. Kansai-style is good too, nou.”
The girl who said this so happily was about ten years old and dressed in a yukata. She was short, with sun-browned skin, a dark-brown bob, and dark-brown eyes—a Kure girl born and bred.
She was close to her grandmother, and she spoke in a rather old-fashioned way.
“Wonderful! Absolutely delicious!”
The boy smiling warmly at her was also about ten. His short blond hair left his forehead bare, and his eyes were blue. Among his ancestors were members of the Prussian nobility. He had moved to Kure from Yokosuka at the beginning of April, so the two of them had known each other for nearly four months.
“But don’t tell the people at this stall—Kure okonomiyaki is still my favorite, ja.”
The girl was in high spirits.
“Yeah. I guess Kure-yaki is the best.”
The instant the boy said it without thinking—
“Stop.”
The girl’s mood plunged to absolute zero, and her speech shifted closer to standard Japanese.
“Huh?”
The boy had no idea what he had done.
“There is no such thing as Kure-yaki in this world. That’s just what people from other places call it. Kure okonomiyaki is just okonomiyaki to me, ja.”
The girl’s face fell.
“Sorry. Even other Kure kids would be put off by me saying this. Georg... you can hate me now if you want, eeyo?”
The boy’s heart beat a little faster.
“I’m sorry. To you, Kure okonomiyaki is just okonomiyaki. So okonomiyaki exists, but Kure-yaki doesn’t. Is that right?”
“Thank you... I suppose I made you say that. But it matters to me. Granny Mitsuko’s shop in our neighborhood is number one for me, and that’s one thing I don’t want to budge on, ja.”
The girl puffed out her chest.
“And listen, I’m a real kabachitare—a mouthy troublemaker—even by Kure standards. Please don’t think badly of the other kids because of me, kunsai.”
She bowed her head. By the time she raised it again, she was smiling.
The boy stared at her in wonder.
(Strong... She has a strength I don’t. And she lives next door, and we’re in the same walking group for school... This must be some kind of fate.)
This is the story of two slightly unusual children.
