Part 33: Storage Shed

Update 29: Storage Shed

This update… This update is a wild ride. It contains both content and some stuff I had to excise for other reasons. Be prepared, it’s a fuckin’ JOURNEY.

Katawa Shoujo OST ~ Passing of Time



(Silence)

The sunlight breaks through my window shortly before my alarm ruins the morning silence. I feel sore.

Katawa Shoujo OST - Raindrops and Puddles

The events of the previous evening suddenly intrude upon my consciousness, and I find myself blushing. That was an eventful evening - and it explains perfectly the soreness in my lower back. The walk back, as I recall, had been rather tense. My trousers having been... soiled, I had washed them off in the bathroom before going back to my room. But there was still a fairly obvious-looking stain on the front.

Fortunately for me, the only person I ran into on my way back was Kenji. And he didn't notice a thing. Well, apart from my being in the general vicinity. Of course he'd asked how the night went, and whether or not I'd learned anything of importance. I don't even know if I opened my mouth to answer; I was too tired to care. And this morning, I'll admit that I'm feeling pretty worn out. Still, Emi had promised to meet me at the track, and I'd hate to disappoint.



She is indeed waiting for me when I arrive. Doing her best to look cheery, despite the fact that she's sitting in a wheelchair. I wave to her and begin stretching.


HISAO: "You're early."

Emi frowns and shakes her head.


EMI: "Ridiculous. You're late. Overslept, Hisao? All tuckered out?"

Well, at least she seems more like her old self. And as expected, she doesn't seem that shy about mentioning our... previous activities.


HISAO: "Hey, you're lucky I could show up at all. All that cardiovascular activity last night, I nearly thought I'd have to see the nurse afterwards."

Emi laughs out loud, then her face suddenly becomes concerned.

(Silence)


EMI: "Hey, that's not uh... I mean, you're not..."


HISAO: "Go on, spit it out."


EMI: "It's just that it would be hard to explain if you had an episode while we were..."


HISAO: "Oh. Oh."

Now that she mentions it, it really is a legitimate concern. I certainly hadn't thought of it last night, of course - other, more pressing concerns had been at hand.




HISAO: "Well, I don't think anything we, er, do is going to be any more of a strain than these morning runs, and I handle those fine, so..."

Emi considers this point.

Katawa Shoujo OST - Standing Tall (Emi’s Theme)



A devious light appears in her eyes.


EMI: "Say..."


HISAO: "Hmm?"



The light vanishes, and Emi grins ruefully at me. I can't help but feel vaguely suspicious.


EMI: "I seem to have forgotten a pair of gloves."


HISAO: "What do you need gloves for?"

Emi indicates the chair upon which she is seated.


EMI: "For this, of course! Sure, regular moving around is all well and good without 'em, but I want to be able to get a good workout. And to get that kind of speed, you gotta have gloves if you don't want blisters."


HISAO: "So what, are you wussing out on me then? Do I have to go it alone?"

Emi thinks for a minute - or pretends to think.


EMI: "Hmm... if I remember right, there's a spare pair or two in the track shed."

So she does seriously want to do it, then. But in her normal school uniform? I'd have expected her to wear her gym outfit for something like this.


HISAO: "Wait, what are they doing there?"

Emi looks askance at me.


EMI: "Seriously? You can't think of why a shed full of track supplies at a school for the disabled would have racing gloves?"

Well, when she puts it that way, I suppose that makes perfect sense.


HISAO: "Hey, I'm still getting used to this place. Give me a break, huh?"


EMI: "I guess I can let it slide this time. Now come on, I'll need your help."

I can't imagine what for, but then again I didn't have a clue why racing gloves would be in the shed, so I'm not willing to press the issue.



Emi navigates her way to the shed easily enough, though I can hear her grumbling under her breath It's actually kinda cute. I hurry a little to reach the door first. Opening it will be easier for me than for her. The door opens, and Emi starts to wheel inside, only to come to a sudden halt at the doorway. It seems the doorsill is slightly too high for her to get over by herself. She makes a few runs at it, unsuccessfully, before crossing her eyes and glaring at the offending object.

Her sprite bounces off an invisible object appropriately.


EMI: "Stupid wheelchair. Hisao, can you give me a hand here?"


HISAO: "Sure, no problem."

It's a simple enough matter for me to bump Emi over the doorway, jostling her slightly.


EMI: "Hey, easy there!"


HISAO: "Whoops! Sorry."



It's at about this time that I fail to notice where I'm going and run Emi's chair into a mat. She gives a startled yelp and topples forward out of her chair. There's a moment of silence as I gaze in horror upon what I've done, and Emi glares at me.


EMI: "Hisao..."


HISAO: "Yes?"


EMI: "Promise me you'll never work at a hospital."


HISAO: "Sorry! I didn't mean to!"

Emi giggles, and holds up a hand.


EMI: "Would you kindly help me back into my chair, Hisao?"

As I bend down to pick up Emi, she grins in triumph and pulls me into a kiss that quickly has us both entirely unconcerned about getting her back into the chair. In fact, as I move to a more comfortable position, I confess that the chair is pushed out the door, which, startled by the passage, swings shut…

Emi makes her intentions clear, and by that I mean that topless sprite makes its triumphant return. And yes, we STILL have adult content disabled. They wrestle a bit until Hisao’s back hits something on a mat…


HISAO: "Ow!"

Emi, still flushed and breathing a little heavily, peers at me and bursts into laughter.


EMI: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Are you all right?"


HISAO: "Yeah, I think so. Not sure what I landed on, though..."

I reach under my back and pull the offending object out, inspecting it closely.

(Sudden Silence)

“Personal lubricant. Lemon-flavored.”

Wait, what?

Katawa Shoujo OST - Hokabi

Emi's eyes shoot upwards and she begins, if possible, to laugh even harder.


HISAO: "Somehow, I don't think this is... this isn't track-related."


EMI: "Oh man, I know whose that is!"


HISAO: "What?"


EMI: "It's the track captain's!"

Ah, my old nemesis. Or, kind of.


HISAO: "How d'you know it's his?"

It appears that I've asked a stupid question, or at least Emi thinks so.


EMI: "Because he's the one who told me the track shed was a good place for... what did he call them? “Clandestine encounters.”"


HISAO: "Oh? He invite you to one or something?"

Emi bursts into more laughter. I confess the sight of a naked Emi laughing is oddly beautiful. I feel an eagerness to end conversation and get back to what we were doing, despite my rather pointed questioning.


EMI: "Hisao, the track captain's gay."

Huh.


HISAO: "Really? And here I initially thought you two were a couple."


EMI: "Well... I did have a crush on him when I first joined up, but he wasn't interested. Obviously. But we are good friends, I guess. I mean he told me about all this, you know."


HISAO: "I hesitate to ask,"

And really, I do. But I ask anyway.


HISAO: "But what does he need the uh... lube for, anyway? I mean, he doesn't... er..."

How the hell does Emi always manage to not blush?


EMI: "Obviously he uses it for, you know.”


EMI: "Anal."

I try to suppress a snicker. I fail. Emi's giggling too.


HISAO: "And he tells you about all this?"

Emi shrugs.


EMI: "Yeah, of course. He's kinda wild about the whole thing. Says it's a feeling that can't be beat."


HISAO: "Uh... huh."

(Sudden Silence)

The air in the track shed seems charged with some kind of horrible curiosity.


HISAO: "That's interesting. I suppose I'll have to take his word for it."


EMI: "Well..."

Birds outside stop chirping. The wind dies down.

Somewhere, a man is drinking a cup of coffee. He freezes with the cup at his lips.


EMI: "We could... maybe...”


EMI: “Try it."

Katawa Shoujo OST - To Become One



Emi finally blushes, and NOW the melon photo substitutes itself in. The wiki lists out every song with all the places it shows up in the game, complete with sentence-long descriptions of the context. To Become One’s entry for this scene?



Yeah, it just says “Anal.”

They try it. It doesn’t work out well. At all.

Katawa Shoujo OST - Ease


HISAO: "Yeah, I uh... This was probably not a great idea."

Emi squirms in order to try and sit down beside me without too much pain. Judging by her wincing, it doesn't really work.


EMI: "Yeah, I'm going to have words with the captain. He was clearly lying."

The utter and absolute ridiculousness of the situation suddenly hits, and I begin laughing. Emi shakes her head and begins laughing with me.


EMI: "Hey, Hisao."


HISAO: "Yeah?"


EMI: "We're never doing this again, right?"


HISAO: "Yeah, I think my curiosity is satisfied on this one."

Emi nods, satisfied.


EMI: "Good. I think we should maybe stick to the basics, don't you? I mean most of this is new to me anyway."


HISAO: "What d'you mean, “most?”"

Emi grins impishly.


EMI: "I'll never tell."

They take a moment to, uh, clean up.

It takes some time, but finally we're both more or less clothed. There's a frantic moment where neither of us knows where Emi's wheelchair is, but I recall it going through the door and rescue it.


EMI: "Now be more careful going through the door this time, would you? Bumps are not my friend right now."


HISAO: "I am so sorry we tried this."

Emi shrugs and grins.


EMI: "Well, it was worth a shot, right? And anyway, it was good exercise, right?"

Can't argue that. As we make our way up to the nurse's office, I notice that Emi keeps shifting uncomfortably in her seat.


EMI: "God, this feels weird. Good thing I'm in a wheelchair, Hisao."


HISAO: "Why's that?"


EMI: "Because, now I don't have to explain to the nurse why I'm walking funny."


HISAO: "Oh. We're never doing this again."



The nurse is at least kind enough to not comment on the marks that Emi left on my shoulders. Nor does he say a word about Emi's constant shifting about in her wheelchair. Either he didn't notice, or he didn't want to notice. All the same, I'm going to have to make sure he didn't slip cyanide into my medication for a little while. Just to be safe.

(Silence)

I shower for longer than usual, just to be sure I'm clean of our little “experiment”, and then collapse on my bed. Class is in twenty minutes, so I can probably afford a nap.



Knock knock.

Who's there?

Knock knock.

That's not how the joke goes at all.

Knock knock.

I already said who's there!

More importantly, what time is it? Even more importantly, what day...? I am suddenly catapulted into wakefulness by both the fact that the knocking still hasn't stopped and the fact that it's noon. On a school day. Now fully awake, I can remember why I was napping. Better not give that excuse to Mutou. “Sorry I wasn't in class, I was experimenting sexually with my girlfriend and it tired me out.” Yeah, that'll go over well. I wonder how long this knocking is going to continue. Guess I ought to answer the door.



I'm strangely unsurprised to see Kenji on the other side. Though it appears that Kenji is surprised to see me.

Okay, look. The stuff Kenji does in this scene is played for laughs. Nothing that happens here results in anyone getting hurt, according to the followup scene. The tropes it pulls on are tropes I’ve seen used elsewhere for comic effect.

I guarantee even describing it would trigger plenty of people in this thread. I heard screaming in my head as I read it.

I don’t plan on censoring Kenji scenes unless they get as egregious as this one was. I’m here to show this game off, warts and all. But I’m also trying to spread awareness and build a community, and Kenji’s bullshit can only sabotage those goals. Judging by some of the responses to this thread, this thread has actually helped people; I will not let him drag that down. So I’m going to go ahead and lay down a new thread rule: no Kenji discussion. Not of his beliefs, not of his behavior, no nothing. There’s a lot important to say there. I KNOW. But we’ve already discussed this to death, no one’s opinions are going to change, and we have better things to do with our time.

…Well that was grim. Back to the plot.



Knock knock.

This time the noise jerks my attention away from my book. An experience not unlike being woken up.


HISAO: "Who's there?"


EMI: "Me! Aren't you glad?"

Katawa Shoujo OST - Standing Tall (Emi’s Theme)

The voice is muffled through the door, but unmistakably Emi's.



I hop up and open the door, smiling broadly.


HISAO: "Hey! Nice to see you again!"

Emi grins back, staring up at me from her wheelchair.


EMI: "Yeah, you would have seen me earlier, but the damned elevator wasn't working. Had to wait for them to fix it. You'd think they could keep it in better order, but nooo..."

I chuckle a bit at her vexed expression and invite her in. She wheels in easily, and with my help she hops onto my bed.


EMI: "There. Much more comfortable than that stupid chair."

A sigh of contentment hangs in the air, and for a minute we both just stare at one another. It's at that point that I notice the circles under Emi's eyes. They're not that dark, but they definitely weren't there before. Before I can ask about them, Emi fixes me with a mischievous stare.


EMI: "So, I couldn't help but notice you weren't at lunch today. In fact, I don't think I saw you at all. What happened, hmmm?"


HISAO: "Fell asleep. I actually didn't wake up until lunch, and only then because Kenji woke me up."


EMI: "What had you so tired, hmm?"


HISAO: "Strenuous workout this morning. Slightly uncomfortable, too."

Emi coughs, a half-laughing, half-embarrassed noise.


EMI: "Remind me not to do that again."


HISAO: "No problem. It wasn't exactly great for me either, to be honest. We'll just avoid that from now on. Are you, er, still sore?"

Emi stares at me in disbelief.


HISAO: "What? It's a legitimate question!"


EMI: "Of all the questions I never thought I'd be asked, that's one of them."


HISAO: "Well, I didn't ever expect to have to ask it, so we're even."

Emi laughs at this.

(Silence)


EMI: "I guess so, huh? Well, since you asked, yes. I'm still a little sore. We're never doing that again."


HISAO: "No arguments from here."

A yawn escapes her, and I raise an eyebrow.


HISAO: "Tired?"

Emi nods sleepily.

Katawa Shoujo OST - Lullaby of Open Eyes




EMI: "Haven't slept well."

Not sleeping well? I can tell that she didn't mean to tell me this either, because she gives a little start like she's just been caught lying and hastens to add,


EMI: "It's not a big deal, though."


HISAO: "What's the trouble?"

Emi shrugs and refuses to elaborate.


HISAO: "Stressed over exams?"

Another shrug, but after a pause, Emi nods hesitantly.


EMI: "Er, yeah, I guess. Actually, that's why I stopped by."

She begins to look more and more miserable. Not so you'd notice, of course; but her eyes are on her lap, she's fidgeting and her voice is quiet.


EMI: "We uh, we need to stop hanging out so much."


HISAO: "Huh? Why?"

Emi takes a deep breath, like she's been practicing this.




EMI: "Because you're too much fun to be around. And I can't concentrate when you're near me. With exams coming up soon, I just... can't have that distraction. Otherwise my grades will be pretty lousy, I'm afraid."


HISAO: "I could help you study..."

She smiles at me, clearly unhappy with the situation.


EMI: "I'd love it if you could, but we wouldn't actually study, would we? I mean even now, I'm trying to have a conversation with you but I kinda just want to, uh... Not converse."


HISAO: "Ah. Overwhelmed by my rugged manliness. I understand."

That earns me a grin, at least. Emi shakes her head.


EMI: "Idiot. You're full of yourself."


HISAO: "Well, I am pretty irresistible."


EMI: "Er, more or less. I guess. So that's the situation, Hisao. I have too much fun around you, and if I'm going to go into exams prepared, I need to be alone."


HISAO: "Hey, that's okay."

It really seems to have been bothering her. Besides, it's only a couple of weeks. And we'll still see each other in the mornings, and at lunch.


HISAO: "We can just hang out at school, no problem. And after exams, we'll go on a date to celebrate their being over, okay?"

Emi grins, pleased by this proposal.


EMI: "Yeah, sure! That sounds great!"

As if to signal the end of the conversation, she leans in and kisses me.

The rest of the night is not spent worrying about exams.


Speaking of things that involve questions, I have an important one for the thread. We’re closing in on the end of Emi’s route now; we’re maybe a week and a half away, but for various reasons I’d really like to have which route we’re going down next pinned down early. You can vote for Lilly, Rin, Shizune, or Hanako, but for what it’s worth, I would really prefer it if you voted Hanako. Doing her route next would fit what I’ve planned for the LP structurally and thematically a lot better than the other three, but I can work with all four if necessary. Voting ends in approximately 48 hours.