Cloudbusting, 4/6
PART FOUR: SOMETHING THERE
She decided that she really had been awful, so readily accepting the nature of the automatons while dismissing Aiba as a mere animal. She wanted to apologize, wanted to thank Aiba for coming out of hiding to ensure that her injury was taken care of. But when she asked the others where Aiba was so she could speak with him, they all gave her the same sad reply.
"He's probably in the workshop."
She could understand how spending decades in front of those tanks would make one so miserable and withdrawn and sad. His friends had done their best to support him, but seeing them with no faces, hearing them approach like a noisy locomotive had to serve as a constant reminder of the Rain Goddess' curse. But Becky was different, wasn't she? She was an outsider. She didn't have a metallic or cursed body. She was merely a visitor to the castle passing through. Well, sort of. Nino had asked her to get to know him - but he had to come out of that workshop if it was ever going to happen.
Though Sho and Nino had not complained once about helping her to plant and tend to the garden, maybe Aiba would be more likely to approach if she was alone. Nino understood and immediately set off to tinker with the dirigible's engine while Sho blustered for a bit. "But it's much quicker with my assistance, isn't it? We can cover twice as much ground, take care of twice as many weeds..."
"Thank you," she told him, wanting to give him and his red coat a thorough shake. "But I can manage, and surely there are things to be done around the castle?"
He grumbled something about helping Satoshi to clean some pots and pans and finally wandered off. Becky smiled, adjusting her straw sun hat as she headed for the castle well to draw up water for her watering can. The patch of daisies was nearest the workshop, and she headed there first, whistling as she went.
The door was ajar, most likely because there was nothing left inside to hide from her. She could hear hammering, indicating that the cursed inventor was working on one of his many toys, perhaps even the giant Cloudbuster Machine that had gotten them all in this mess to begin with. But as she passed by, whistling, she heard the hammering lessen and finally stop as she took her time watering the plants.
For the next week, Becky set to work trying to pull Masaki Aiba out of his self-imposed exile within the castle walls. She continued to be a bit noisier and noticeable when watering or weeding the gardens, eventually hearing footsteps on the other side of the workshop door, as though he was waiting on the other side and listening to her work. She stayed up late in the library with Jun, finding notes on her bedside table in the morning asking questions about the books she was reading. She responded with "Why don't you ask me yourself?" and received no reply.
She even made a big deal of having Nino show her around the workshop, knowing that as soon as they entered that Aiba would hide himself in a corner out of sight. She and Nino would hold conversations about the various inventions lying around on the work tables, and she did her best to ask questions about their construction and origin that Nino wouldn't know the answer to. Nino himself would sigh dramatically, saying "you'd have to ask Masaki" and Becky would sigh in equal measure, "I wish I could!"
It took two full weeks before Becky finally saw him again. After tending to the now blossoming garden, she'd headed inside to the study where Jun had readied a desk for her to work on her Oliver Nesbitt books. Nino had been flying the dirigible to the rainbow house with any finished edits she'd completed so that her father could have them air mailed to her publisher in the capital. Demand for books three and four was mounting, and even if she was stuck where she was, there was work to be done.
She settled in at the desk with sheets of fine paper and high quality ink that Jun had provided for her. She deliberately left the study door open, sitting at the desk and pondering Oliver's next move. The writing desk faced the window, so she had her back to the door. After an hour of scratching the pen across paper, she heard some definite non-automaton movement behind her.
"Well," she said aloud, as though she were merely talking to herself. "Chapter eight, how are you doing today?" She glanced up quickly at the window, seeing him again for the first time since that night in the workshop. He was reflected in the window glass, just poking his head and paw around the edge of the doorframe. She was sad by the way he stooped over, ashamed of his size. Nino had told her that Aiba had been a little shorter before his transformation, maybe the same height as Jun's automaton, which was pretty close to Jun's actual height. The goddess had thought of those cruel details.
She made as if she were just looking out the window at the flowers in bloom while instead watching Aiba watch her. It wasn't the same as if the automatons were watching. Even after all these weeks, their blank faces still could startle her until they started speaking. It wasn't the same as if one of her pet dogs was watching - underneath all that fur, there was still a human heart, Becky was sure of it.
When she finally adjusted in her seat, willing herself to look at Aiba straight on with no fear, he had disappeared from the doorway by the time she turned around. But she'd kept his attention far longer this time. Her writing wasn't going anywhere, so she left the desk in a huff. Patience, she told herself. It would take lots of patience to undo a century's worth of shame - even if she couldn't undo all the damage Aiba had inflicted on his own mind, she could help him move forward in a way that his friends could not.
She headed for the kitchen, finding Satoshi polishing some silver that had long been out of use. After so many years, they tended to redo lots of tasks simply to have ways to fill the time. "He came to the study. He was watching me write," she informed him, sounding hopeful.
Satoshi's voice was as calm as always. "Did he really? It's rare for him to come into the castle. Well..."
"Except for when you let him go in my room?" she asked pointedly.
Satoshi shook his head with a creak. "We honestly didn't know he was doing that, not until you said something about it. He's curious about you. He asks about you when I bring him food."
"Oh? And what does he ask that he can't ask me to my face?"
The automaton shrugged. "I don't know, just normal things. What you were eating, how you spent your day, if you're homesick..."
She shrank back. "If I'm homesick? Why would he ask that?"
"He feels like it's his fault you're here. He knows you've got an exciting job writing, and that your place isn't here. Your place is in the capital. He feels like you can't do what you want all because of him."
It was true in a way, but the more she found out about Masaki, and the more she realized how broken he was, the less anger and resentment she felt about being trapped in the castle. If anything, she was starting to pray, more in the past few weeks than she had in her entire life. She prayed to the Goddess every night, begging her to forgive Masaki and restore him. And if not, she prayed for the Goddess to grant her father the strength and skill to alleviate the inventor's curse.
"I'm tired of just getting peeks and glimpses," she decided firmly. "That's why I've come to you."
"To me?" Satoshi asked, setting down some silverware on the kitchen counter.
She couldn't just hear him on the other side of the door or read his notes or see his reflection in the glass. It would take a lot of coaxing on his friends' parts, but it was the only way they'd be able to take a giant leap forward. "I want you to prepare a dinner, Satoshi. You say that Aiba doesn't have much of an appetite, but surely after all these years you've figured out what his favorites are. I want you to cook so much food that he loves that he won't be able to resist the dining room. And when he gets there..."
"Becky, I don't want to trick him..."
"Well, it's not a trick. It's...it's forced socializing."
He stared at her, as he always did when she perplexed him. "You want me to lure him? With food?"
"Surely the others will help too. Sho can talk to him about some boring bit of historical trivia, chase him to the room. Jun can ensure that the table's set and ready. Nino can keep him from bolting..."
Satoshi looked down at the silverware. "I'm not sure..."
She slammed a hand on the table, as determined as she was ever going to be. "I'm tired of playing along and ignoring his shadow following me around. I'll go right out that gate. I'll walk home, take my father on the first airship to the capital, and you'll never see us again." It was an empty threat, and she knew it, but Satoshi relented.
"Very well. I'll talk with the others. We'll organize a dinner for you, but if Masaki wants out of that room, I'm the first one who will open the door for him."
She expected no less from Satoshi, loyal to a fault. "That's fair enough."
Becky departed the kitchen, suddenly nervous. What would they talk about? What would she say to him? What could she say to him that wouldn't send him bolting for the exit? Well, it was too late now. Becky's plan of forced socialization was already in motion.
--
She stood before the mirror in her dressing area, still so unsure. From the time she'd set up the dinner meeting until an hour earlier, she hadn't given much thought to what she ought to wear. It was strange, knowing that Aiba didn't have much choice but to show up all furry and in whatever clothes fit over his tall frame. The automatons had taken to wearing clothes simply to look a bit more human, and keeping to a standard set of colors was as good an identification tactic as any.
Becky had gone through her clothes trunk five, six, seven times, thoroughly unsatisfied with everything she owned. She wondered if Aiba would notice her hand. Though the bandaging had finally come off a week earlier, a jagged red line still cut down the middle of her palm, a constant reminder of the night they'd first met. This night was special and would probably be really taxing on Aiba if he stayed, so at the very least she had to look her best but still approachable. Jun had assured her that they'd be placed at opposite ends of the dining table, keeping a safe distance in case Aiba's appearance frightened her. She hoped the paralyzing fear that had hit her that first night in the workshop would not repeat itself, not with all she'd learned about the inventor's true nature and kindness.
She decided on a dress that had been her mother's, a dress in a patchwork of colors almost like the tiled roof of the rainbow house. Becky figured if there was any piece of clothing she owned that meant something to her, it would be that dress. She usually wandered around the castle with her hair up, keeping it out of her face so she could lean over the plants or over the writing desk. She let it down, a little disappointed in the ordinary way the straight brown strands fell to her shoulder blades. It took five minutes of staring before settling on a few barrettes: red, blue, and violet like her friends. She didn't have a color for Nino, defiantly going around with nothing but his metal exterior. She grinned and selected a gold barrette, a little showy and ostentatious.
Finally settled on her bit of dress-up, she left the bedroom, surprised to find Jun himself standing in the hallway. He wore a far more elegant lavender coat that fell to his metal knees and had polished silver buttons. "We're all taking this very seriously," Jun informed her, sounding amused. "It's been a long time since there's been a dinner party around here. You don't know how much I've missed them."
Knowing Jun and his penchant for planning and organizing, she actually did have an idea how much he would have missed it. She smiled as he held out his arm. She took it, feeling the solid metal through the coat fabric, and she almost felt like a visiting princess as he led her downstairs to the dining room. Satoshi and Sho were in fancier coats as well, probably borrowed from the Count's dressing rooms. They were carrying in trays of food, and she could already smell so many different things. Jun held out her chair and got her seated while Satoshi finished lighting all the candles.
Becky took her breakfasts in her room and her other meals at the simple wooden table in the kitchen, so the dining room was a change of pace. The pearl white tablecloth was pulled taut and neat, and the silverware and china gleamed in the candlelight. It was a long table, meant for a great number of guests, so a good amount of distance separated her from the empty chair at the opposite end.
Sho leaned over, whispering as best as his metallic body would allow. "You'll find that we've done our best to get him suited up for you."
"Hmm?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"
The dining room door opened, and Sho stepped back, the slightest laughter echoing from him. She heard Nino first, no fancy coat as she expected. He was tugging someone along. "She's waiting for you, you big idiot. Those claws don't work against my arm, you know!"
Becky's eyes widened. They'd told Aiba about the dinner! This wasn't going to be a surprise at all? They were truly forcing him into the forced socializing?
"Kazunari, let me go!" she heard from the hallway. "Wait..." She saw Jun and Sho look at each other and snicker. Becky heard Aiba's voice again. "...did he make curry?"
Finally, Nino gave one more tug, pulling the beastly Aiba inside. She covered her mouth, seeing that Sho and the others had done some interesting things to the poor fellow. His body was fully dressed, with a large green jacket over a starched white shirt. His long legs were stuck into black breeches that reached his knees. His hairy legs were shoved into shoes, and he walked gingerly, as though it pained him. His feet were probably just as misshapen as his hands, which had not been covered. His face truly was like a lion's, though they'd managed to pull back some of the frizzy fur into a ponytail. It was almost like when she put Trouble or Sunshine in costumes she'd stitched together, but Becky felt ashamed at the comparison. Aiba looked deeply embarrassed, cowering a bit against the door while Nino held his wrist firmly.
Jun stepped forward, gesturing to the empty chair. "Mr. Aiba, your dinner is ready. If you'd kindly have a seat, we can serve the first course."
Aiba didn't even look toward her end of the table, walking slowly and allowing Satoshi to get him seated. She sat quietly as Sho lifted up one of the lids, revealing something like spinach puffs. Nino closed the dining room door while Jun poured wine into Aiba's glass. She tried the spinach puff, finding several types of cheese baked in. They must have gone to a lot of trouble - they'd probably had to ask her father to procure some food from town.
She saw Nino wince as Aiba picked up four of the puffs in one paw, shoving them into his mouth and making lots of noisy sounds in approval. It seemed like a cross between a human's "mmm" and an animal howl. Becky looked down, having only taken a bite out of half of a puff. Thankfully, Jun and Satoshi had done their best to keep most of the menu within Aiba's abilities. There was no soup course, and they made it through an exceptionally quiet course of finger sandwiches and some fish that Satoshi had breaded and fried up so they could be handheld as well.
The earlier enthusiasm on the automatons' parts seemed to lessen as the meal went on, and more and more food found its way onto Aiba's bright green jacket and his shirt. Aiba still hadn't looked across the table at her or even spoken since he'd started eating. Sho looked to her expectantly when he uncovered the next dish, and it was almost like the smell of the capital brought straight to her plate.
A spicy curry full of potatoes and carrots in a thick sauce paired with rice. Satoshi seemed cheered by the look on Aiba's face - he couldn't exactly smile without looking a bit strange, but he was smelling the plate eagerly. "Say something. Ask him about it," Sho whispered, standing behind her chair.
"Mr. Aiba?"
The room grew silent, all four automatons seeming to hold their non-existent breath as Aiba froze, about to bury his face in the plate full of food even as Jun was approaching with a large serving spoon that could be more easily held in his hand. He paused, snout just hovering above the steaming rice, lifting his face. Though there was plenty of table between them, he seemed surprised and worried that she'd called out to him.
She tried to smile. "Mr. Aiba, Sho has told me that this is one of your favorite dishes. And I hear that you were born and raised in the capital. Well, I've been living there for some time, you see," she said, fingers tapping nervously on her fork. "I know it's been some time since you've been home, but is there a favorite restaurant there? A place for curry? Maybe I'd know the place, could let you know if it's still in operation?"
He lifted his head, his eyes gazing across at her. It was as though he was in a costume for some masquerade, almost like she could just see the frightened human underneath all the fur. "My...favorite curry restaurant?" His voice was rather quiet, as though he'd spent the past one hundred years not wanting to speak at all and had mostly forgotten how to do so.
"Or...or any restaurant I suppose. I mean, I live...well, lived there for several years myself. I'm always looking for something new to try."
"I...I'm afraid I can't remember too much about those days," he answered, and Nino gave the chair leg a little kick.
"You liar," Nino teased. "What about that noodle place we used to go every day after school, huh?"
"The noodle place," Aiba mumbled.
She looked to Nino for additional help, but only got his blank face. This dinner had been Becky's idea entirely, and even as Aiba's friends attempted to help, it was going so poorly. She only had herself to blame for Aiba's discomfort. "Well, it's fine if you don't remember now. Maybe later you can talk to me about it," she replied, lifting her spoon. "Better eat this while it's nice and..."
But Jun with the serving spoon wasn't fast enough. She sat there, spoon poised in mid-air as Aiba went face first into the curry, gobbling it up like his life depended on it. Satoshi looked away, as if he couldn't bear to watch his friend so obviously distressed while Sho sighed softly behind her. Nino patted his friend on the top of his furry head.
"You forget you've got a guest here," Nino chided him gently as Jun finally grabbed hold of Aiba's right paw, shoving the spoon into it. Aiba sank down in the chair, his face dripping with the thick sauce and rice. She felt even worse, setting down her spoon, and Sho gripped the back of her chair in warning.
Jun unrolled Aiba's napkin, holding it out to him. "Here, clean yourself up. Have some wine. You've got a lovely girl across the table trying to talk to you. Don't let her down."
Aiba's paw reached shakily for the wine glass. "I...I guess I was just hungry. I can't...I really can't control..."
This was unfair to him. All of it was unfair. She had to make things more even. She moved her head down, nose to rice, breathing nervously. "Mr. Aiba?"
He said nothing, and she could no longer see his face.
"Mr. Aiba, do you find it tastes better if you skip the spoon?" She could already feel a bit of the curry tickling her lip as she prepared to do her own bit of gobbling. "The curry, I mean? Shall I try it this way first?"
She heard the wine glass shatter, and she looked up, seeing Aiba back the chair up and get to his feet. "Jun, I'm sorry. Oh, Jun, the glass, I'm so sorry..."
"Masaki," Jun said, "you're hurt. Let me see..."
She got up herself, napkin falling to the floor as her chair scraped back. It all happened quickly. Aiba, little shards of glass falling from his palm, fled to the door before Nino could grab hold of him. He opened the door and took off running.
As the others started to give chase, she raised her voice. "Don't move, any of you," she demanded. Four blank faces turned to her obediently. "Just...this was all my doing, and it was a bad idea. Let me...let me try and speak with him."
"Becky, leave him be," Satoshi begged her.
Nino shook his head. "No...no, she's right. Let her go."
Not waiting for their permission, she ran as fast as her feet could carry her, out the dining room and into the hallway, heading straight for the doors to the courtyard. There was only one place Aiba would go, only one place where he liked to tuck himself away. She announced her presence by knocking on the workshop door.
"Mr. Aiba? It's me, Becky!" she called, her voice echoing off the walls inside. There was no moon out that night, and even the stars weren't enough to help her locate him in the darkness. "Mr. Aiba, if you've hurt yourself, let me help. I'm sorry about this dinner. It was my idea. I wanted to talk to you. I've wanted to talk to you ever since I got here." She didn't hear any response or movement inside. She pulled the workshop door open wide. "Please, won't you come over here? Let's get you to the kitchen. If you're hurt, you need to be bandaged up. The two of us will have a matching set, won't we? Injured hands?"
She waited another few moments. Finally, she heard him speak.
"Masaki."
"I'm sorry, what was that?" she called back into the shadows.
Aiba emerged out of the darkness, still keeping himself at a fair distance from her. "You can call me by my name. It's Masaki. Mr. Aiba makes me sound like someone important."
She grinned. "Very well then. Masaki, would you let me take a look at your hand?"
He nodded. "There should be some bandaging in the kitchen. It's where I...where, uh, where Sho found the...the...for when you were..."
She turned around. "Alright then, step to it, let's go." She didn't bother to wait, marching off down the cobblestone path and eventually hearing him following behind her. The kitchen was empty when they arrived, but she saw some cut cloth for bandaging already waiting for them. She gestured for Masaki to have a seat at the table, and he seemed nervous as she sat in the chair beside him. "Does it hurt?"
He shook his head, lifting his large paw and setting it on the table, palm up. She noticed a rather brown stain on the sleeve of his green jacket - he'd wiped his curry-dirtied mouth on his sleeve at some point, and it made her smile. His paw, however, needed a bit of help. She could see tiny pieces of glass embedded there. It was more like a human palm than an animal's soft paw in the center, covered in a thin layer of brown fur.
"Let's get these little bits out of here. You're lucky I'm around," she told him, wiggling her fingers at him. "I doubt any of your friends would be able to do this as well as I can."
He moved his hand slightly closer. "Be careful. Don't cut yourself."
"I'll be very careful," she said, reaching her thumb and forefinger to the first part of glass. "We'll go one at a time, at your pace. How about it?" She took hold of the first tiny shard, yanking it up and out, and Aiba fidgeted in his chair. She smiled once more. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
She yanked the second and third piece, halfway done. Just as she poised her fingers over number four, he spoke again. "Harriman's."
She looked up, finding his brown, almond-shaped eyes to be warm and gentle in the kitchen lamplight. She'd been in the castle for weeks, dealing with the automatons for company. This was the closest she'd come to someone with eyes, someone with a face in all that time, and it nearly took her breath away. Aiba's face was definitely not human, but his eyes were.
She remembered how to speak. "Harriman's? In Russet Square?"
He nodded. "It was my favorite place to eat. Nino always got the same thing. Hamburger."
She turned away, bringing her attention back to his injured hand. Calling it a paw just took away from the humanity that was shining through, almost like a beam of light, from his eyes. She yanked the next piece of glass out.
"Yeowch!" he complained, pulling away from her. "Don't you have any kind of bedside manner?"
She grabbed his wrist, pulling him by the cuff of the green jacket. Becky was finally getting to see the real person inside the furry body, the person who'd been suppressed for so many years under heavy layers of guilt and depression. It seemed like Masaki Aiba was kind of a pain in the ass.
"My father's the healer. Not me. And stop being such a baby."
"A baby? Me?" She smiled, yanking out number five. "Ow! Demon woman!"
"Oh, for goodness sake!" she laughed. Becky gently eased glass shard six out of Aiba's hand, hearing him exhale heavily in relief. She grabbed the bandaging that had been left for them, and he allowed her to wrap up the wound, and she secured it with a tight knot.
He stood up, holding up his wounded limb for inspection. "Well, way to go, Masaki," he mumbled to himself. "There goes work."
She stood as well, folding up the bandaging she didn't use. "What's that? Is it your dominant hand?"
He nodded. "And I was finally making some good progress on the new rotors for the dirigible. What am I going to do?"
"You could take a walk with me?"
"A walk?" he sputtered.
"I've been inside these walls for weeks, you know," she informed him, crossing her arms. "And your friends are kind of noisy company, especially when it comes to walking. Clomp clomp clomp. So maybe we could talk a walk together, in the Western Wood?"
"You want to walk? With me? I'm not the most interesting company..."
"Well, we can't all memorize trees and royal lineage and the history of the world like Sho can, but I'm sure you'll do fine." She looked up at him. "You could tell me about your inventions. I'm writing a book about dirigibles and adventures and the like. You could serve as my technology advisor."
This appeared to interest him, and his energy level seemed to be rising and rising. He'd been small and sad during dinner, but he rose to his full height, smiling and revealing sharp, white fangs that were probably hidden otherwise. "Really? Because I've got a whole slew of ideas for things to create, but I just don't have the hands or the skill for it. But ideas...ideas I've got in abundance. I'd be happy to help!"
"It's settled then," she said, holding out her left hand for his uninjured left to shake. "We'll walk, we'll talk, you'll tell me about all these ideas. My publisher is going to think I've gone to engineering school."
They ran out of things to say then, and she noticed that his gaze had not left her in some time. She looked away, fixating on a brass pot suspended from the ceiling rack. "Well then. I should probably get to sleep. If we have such a big day ahead of us tomorrow."
She still wanted to apologize about the dinner, about the way she'd coerced his friends into dragging him into such a situation. But seeing how the true Aiba had finally emerged, how enthusiastic he was to have someone listen about his inventions made her decide against any further apologies. She didn't want to bring his mood down by reminding him of what had happened earlier.
Instead she cleared her throat. "One thing to ask of you, now that we've become better acquainted. I think it's best you don't leave me any more bedside messages..."
If a person with an animal's face could blush, surely Aiba would be blushing. "I...I didn't know how to talk to you. I didn't know how to approach..."
"Enough of that," she said, waving him off. "We're friends now, aren't we? Save your questions for in-person and don't go creeping around in a lady's room at night. Is that fair?"
"I...I didn't go in your room to be weird! I wasn't trying to scare you!" he apologized, and she laughed.
"Good night, Masaki. It's been wonderful talking to you. Take care of that hand," she said, turning around and heading for the kitchen exit.
"It's been wonderful for me too," he said shyly.
She left the kitchen feeling happy from head to toe. She'd finally reached out to him, finally gotten through and pulled him a bit more out of his shell. Nino was waiting for her at the staircase.
"I see you've been having a pleasant chat with our snouted friend?"
She walked past him, heading up the stairs. "You only ate the hamburger at Harriman's?"
Nino laughed. "He remembered that?"
Becky smiled, feeling a rush of bubbling energy as she took the steps two at a time even in her dress. "Good night, Nino!"
"Good night, Breeches. Pleasant dreams." She heard him start to stomp away. "Oh, and Breeches?"
She turned at the top of the stairs, looking down at him.
He lifted his hand to his forehead, giving her a reverent salute. "Thank you."
--
She'd dressed down for their walk in the woods. Freshly laundered gray breeches under one of her shorter dresses with some less than dainty boots. As she emerged and headed for the workshop, Jun stopped in his tracks in the hallway.
"You sure are night and day when it comes to your wardrobe, aren't you?" he asked her.
"Says the machine in a purple morning coat."
He nodded, escorting her to the stairs. "Fair enough." They walked down in tandem. "You're something of a miracle worker, Miss Vaughn."
She looked to him curiously. "Why do you say that?"
"Aiba spoke to you."
"Maybe my willingness to shove my face in a plate of curry charmed him."
He paused at the bottom of the staircase. "No, he really spoke to you. In the kitchen. I think that's one of the longest conversations he's had with someone in years. We usually do most of the talking. I'm beginning to wonder..."
She was confused. "Wonder what?" Was there something on her face?
Jun cleared his throat, not that he really had a throat that could be cleared. "Ah, it's nothing. Do you have enough writing supplies? Is there anything I could get for you?"
Though it had been difficult to warm up to Count Jun Matsumoto at first, over the past few weeks he'd been nothing but kind to her. He just had an impertinent way of expressing himself from time to time - you could take the soul from the aristocrat, but you couldn't take the aristocrat from his soul. She shook her head. "I've just dispatched Nino with a few more pages, but I think my supplies are holding up. I find that I write better with such fine paper - I don't waste one drop of ink or bunch up the paper and toss it over my shoulder like I did before."
"Well, you should have the best. For all you're doing for Aiba. For what you're doing for all of us." He bowed to her. "Have a lovely walk, I hope the weather holds."
She felt a blush creep into her cheeks at Jun's words. It really had been a long time for the castle dwellers without someone to talk to but one another. But was she really affecting their lives that much? The five of them had grown so close, something more than friendship or even family, that a few weeks' company from a silly girl who wrote fantastical stories couldn't really make that much of a difference, could it?
Shaking her head, Becky headed outside, noticing worrisome gray skies far off in the distance. A summer storm was usually greatly welcomed for the fields around Sora, but it didn't necessarily bode well for her walk with Aiba. She could already imagine the automatons staying indoors, grumbling about having to keep from rusting. She knocked on the workshop door, surprised as Aiba called for her to "Come on in!"
She did so, seeing him tinkering at one of the workbenches. The tools that had been so large compared to her own hands were a far better fit for his own. She marveled at his dexterity despite his condition. He was screwing a small metal plate onto some sort of gear, definitely outside her level of mechanical expertise. Even with his bandaged hand, he simply would not give up his work. "Good morning," she said cheerfully. "Hope I'm not interrupting."
"You are," he said quickly and all too honestly, "but it's fine. I told myself I'd stop fiddling with this about twenty minutes ago, and now I finally have an excuse to do so!"
"Well," she said. "I'm glad to interrupt then?"
He set down his screw-turner with a sigh and gestured to his chest. He was wearing another white dress shirt with a green vest. "See? They say I have to wear clothes all the time now, on account of my new social calendar."
She laughed. "I appreciate your sacrifice, but I'd prefer you in trousers, thank you very much."
"It's different when you're hairy," he began, wiping grease from his large hands with a cloth. "I mean, it really covers..."
He looked away. "Uh..."
She found herself torn between sheer embarrassment and wanting to slap him. She settled on "I get the picture, Masaki, thank you."
He scratched his head, walking to the door. He seemed far more comfortable since he hadn't forced his misshapen feet into shoes. "Ah, you have to understand. It's been a long time since I've spoken to a lady."
"Uh huh," she replied as they left the workshop for the courtyard. "So that's the excuse you're going with?"
"I usually have Nino to slap me for saying things like that," he apologized, walking at her side as they moved to the rear castle gate. "You can hit me. My mouth moves before my brain does."
Satoshi and Sho were waiting at the rear gate. Satoshi handed Aiba a basket with sandwiches for lunch while Sho opened the gate and lowered the drawbridge, which was smaller than the one at the castle entrance. Their feet thumped across the wooden drawbridge, the moat below them bubbling and greenish blue beneath them. Sho and Satoshi waved farewell as the drawbridge lifted again, and the two of them were alone with nothing but woods in every other direction.
"Well, which way strikes your fancy?" she asked. To the left was the path Satoshi usually took to his favorite fishing spot while he usually gathered mushrooms and herbs and other sorts of plants to the right. Straight ahead continued west, a part of the Western Wood nobody in Sora had visited in over a century. In their day, Sho had explained to her a few weeks prior, Matsumoto Castle was a stop between Sora and Snow Lake.
Becky had only heard about Snow Lake in stories her father told. A place blessed by the Rain Goddess, it boasted crystal clear water and year-round snow despite being located at a relatively flat elevation. It wasn't an area that the locomotive reached or a standard airship route, so it had become nothing but a legendary location. But Sho had spoken of it as a real place, in the same tone of voice he saved for reciting Count Matsumoto's lineage or describing what Sora had looked like before the smokestacks had dotted the skyline.
Aiba seemed to have the same idea. "I know it's a long way," he said, "but I'll be honest with you, Becky. I've been in that workshop a long time. I kind of want to walk and never stop."
"I don't think the weather's going to allow that. How long is it to Snow Lake?" she asked.
He beamed, his fangs not really as scary as they could be. It was just a part of who he was. "Snow Lake? It's been so long. An hour, maybe?"
An hour turned out to be two and a half as one hundred years of inactivity had obscured the pathway. Satoshi was usually the only one who left the castle grounds other than Nino's trips in the dirigible, and he never wandered too far for his fishing or mushroom picking. He couldn't stray far or risk his metal body falling apart. But fortunately, Aiba wasn't invisibly tethered to a body in a tank. Becky watched as he grew livelier, hopping over fallen logs almost like a little boy.
Their conversation stayed as light as Aiba was on his feet, bounding through the forest. She talked him through the first few volumes of Oliver Nesbitt's adventures. The first book where he'd met his co-pilot Elsie and their race against their rival's dirigible. The second book where Oliver and Elsie discovered a mysterious island and learned how to build a stronger ship from a wise old man. Aiba half-listened, half-hopped around, but she didn't mind.
He asked questions as they came to him, interrupting her narrative to inquire about Oliver's dirigible. He offered suggestions for plots, and she in turn asked about his inventions. Or his ideas for inventions that hadn't quite come about yet. He spoke about a machine that you could speak into and hear the voice of someone else speaking into a machine of their own where they were. She'd be able to talk to her father from the capital that way, if he ever got around to actually inventing it.
He was a genius in his own strange way, Becky thought. He spoke more matter-of-factly about his Cloudbuster Machine. How he'd been in way over his head, thinking he could solve all the world's problems simply by taking over the Rain Goddess' job and letting the country grow crops as they needed. His heart had been in the right place, Becky thought. He'd wanted to help people - it was too bad the Rain Goddess herself had seen it more as hubris. And even after such a harsh punishment for Aiba and his friends, technology had greatly advanced over the past hundred years, and the Rain Goddess had done little to put a stop to it.
"Becky!" he declared with a bit of a playful roar. "You should help me with my machine!"
"Which machine?" she asked, watching him walk backwards so he could speak to her face to face. Even though he had a snout and a face full of hair, his expressions were animated and warm.
"My Cloudbuster Machine," he said, smiling. "I mean, the Goddess turned it into a heap of scrap metal, but I'm not giving up. I'm trying for more of a...hmm, how should I say it, more of a 'help the Goddess' rather than 'replace the Goddess' standpoint this time. I'll make the rain come with her blessing, I guess. Once I'm human again at least. There's a lot of little bits of tinkering that I can't really do with my hands, stuff that's absolutely necessary."
"And you want my help? I've never constructed a machine in my life!" she said.
"Oh, that doesn't matter! You probably wouldn't complain as much as Nino. I think I frustrate him, I don't know why," Aiba mused. Becky knew why - it was probably the long hours and Aiba's apparent interest in bouncing from project to project in the workshop, working on whatever struck his fancy. Nino had probably lost the patience in keeping up after so many years. She couldn't imagine how Aiba had been while the dirigible was under construction for twenty-five long years.
"Well," she decided, unable to resist his request. "I suppose I can turn a wrench once or twice."
"That's the spirit!" he said happily, turning back around after stumbling ungracefully over a log.
His enthusiasm was infectious, and soon their long journey came to a close as the woods thinned out and the dirt under her boots turned to a muddy sort of slush. As they came fully out of the forest, Becky couldn't help gasping. Lake was probably a misnomer, since the body of water before them was more pond than lake, but the stories were absolutely true.
Snow Lake lay in a cove, surrounded on the three sides not forest by ancient rock. The water itself wasn't frozen, but the ground all around it was hidden beneath several inches of snow, enough to reach the middle of her calf. She felt almost horrible for tromping through the pure white snow with her muddy boots, but it wasn't enough to deter her companion. "Snow!" Masaki cried, almost as though he hadn't seen it before. He had, Becky knew, since Sora's winters usually came with plenty of snowfalls.
But what was so strange about the place was the amount of snow given the temperature. A slight chill ran through her as her boots brought her forward, but the rest of the air had the warmth of summer, if a bit dulled on account of the pending storms and the cool forest behind them. Masaki bounded over to the lake itself, crouching down to dip his uninjured hand into the water. It was almost like glass on the surface when she approached, though the view down was eventually muddled - it was far deeper than it looked at first glance.
It had been well worth the trip, especially since nobody had come this way in so many years. The pristine state of the cove was proof enough of that. They had the place entirely to themselves, untouched by time. A true blessing from the Rain Goddess. Of course, her stomach decided to growl then and there, and Aiba laughed.
"How about we have a picnic?" he asked, brushing a bunch of snow off a tree stump to set down the basket Satoshi had prepared. "I can't remember the last time I've been on one."
She nodded, letting Aiba clear more snow away so she could sit down. She probably could have done so herself, but his furry arm and large hands were a lot more efficient. She sat, opening the basket and handing one sandwich over for her companion. The walk had definitely been invigorating and enjoyable after being confined for so long - she could tell how happy Aiba was to get away for a while. Maybe deep down he'd always wanted to make a journey, but his devotion to his friends' made that impossible.
They ate quietly, enjoying the scenery. She snuck quick glances at Masaki from the corner of her eye, seeing how hard he was focusing on holding the small sandwich in his big hand and doing his best to take small nibbles rather than finishing it in two bites. She grinned, wondering if his friends had given him more suggestions for improving his behavior. Becky thought about what it must have been like, if the animal part of Aiba was solely a part of his physical appearance. Maybe the goddess had punished him with more baser instincts and behaviors like gobbling up his food or chasing his tail. She turned beet red. Did Aiba have a tail?!
"What are you thinking about?" he asked her suddenly, and she jumped a bit, seeing him dig around in the basket for another sandwich.
"Who? Me?"
He sighed. "No, the tree. Of course you!" He laughed at her, and it was a rather strange laugh with the same breathy quality as his voice. "Are you thinking about your books?"
No, she thought. I'm thinking about your possible tail! She shook her head, shoving her hand into the basket and grabbing a second sandwich herself. "I'm thinking about home," she lied. "I'm wondering how my father's doing."
Aiba grew quiet. "If you want to see him, you should go with Nino next time. If you miss him, I wouldn't want to keep you from him."
She felt bad about her lie and more importantly her choice of lie. Why had she brought up her father? It was definitely a sore subject for Aiba. "No, no. I made a promise, didn't I? I said I'd stay at the castle until he's done. I intend to keep my promise."
"Well, you're not at the castle right now..."
She took a bite of the sandwich and chewed huffily. "I'm still honoring my promise if I'm with you, aren't I?"
"But if you want to go home, you should be able to," he continued. "I just want you to be happy."
She had trouble eating then, hastily wrapping the sandwich back up and settling it back in the basket. Things had been going so well, and her awkwardness and Aiba's guilt were combining in a pretty depressing way. They said nothing, Aiba getting up from the tree stump and walking through the snow to take another glance at the lake. She had to do something, had to restore his spirits. The automatons were counting on her, weren't they? They'd asked her father to heal Aiba's body, but it seemed as though they'd asked Becky to heal Aiba's heart.
Out of ideas, she got off the stump and crouched down, hand suddenly chilled as she balled up some snow in her palm. She packed it tight, just as she had when she was younger and was the only girl willing to compete against the boys when they built snow forts. Snowball strategy wasn't so easily forgotten. She took aim, figuring it would be mean to aim for Aiba's head. She'd always aimed for Alaric's head to get him to back off. Instead she sent the snowball flying, seized with glee as it pelted Aiba right between his shoulder blades, the snow dispersing and leaving a fine dusting of white in his brown mop of hair.
He turned around, mouth wide. "What did you...?" But she was already readying snowball number two, and his eyes narrowed. "Alright, Vaughn, I see how it is."
And he was off, far faster than she'd even expected, dragging his paw along the ground until he had a snowball the size of her head forming. Now that was definitely cheating. Somehow it was cheating! She ducked behind a tree, laughing as she felt the huge snowball splatter just on the other side. "Have to do better than that!" she called out.
Their voices and laughter echoed off the walls of the cove, and she ignored the tingling cold burn of the snow as she dodged Aiba's unrelenting attacks and sent off more snowballs of her own. He was an excellent opponent - she had speed and agility on her side while he had the advantage of size. She nearly forgot it was midsummer as snow splatted against her dress, sending cold rivulets of water down her arms. They continued until the first clap of thunder sounded off in the distance, somewhere closer to the castle.
She collapsed back on the tree stump, exhausted but content. She closed up the basket. "Masaki, we should get back to the castle before..."
Splat! He'd dropped a whole large palm full of snow right on the top of her head, and she shrieked. "No fair! That's no fair!" she protested.
He smiled, dusting off his palms on his dark breeches. "You have to finish what you start, you know." He held out his hand. "I'll take the basket, let's get moving."
PART FIVE
She decided that she really had been awful, so readily accepting the nature of the automatons while dismissing Aiba as a mere animal. She wanted to apologize, wanted to thank Aiba for coming out of hiding to ensure that her injury was taken care of. But when she asked the others where Aiba was so she could speak with him, they all gave her the same sad reply.
"He's probably in the workshop."
She could understand how spending decades in front of those tanks would make one so miserable and withdrawn and sad. His friends had done their best to support him, but seeing them with no faces, hearing them approach like a noisy locomotive had to serve as a constant reminder of the Rain Goddess' curse. But Becky was different, wasn't she? She was an outsider. She didn't have a metallic or cursed body. She was merely a visitor to the castle passing through. Well, sort of. Nino had asked her to get to know him - but he had to come out of that workshop if it was ever going to happen.
Though Sho and Nino had not complained once about helping her to plant and tend to the garden, maybe Aiba would be more likely to approach if she was alone. Nino understood and immediately set off to tinker with the dirigible's engine while Sho blustered for a bit. "But it's much quicker with my assistance, isn't it? We can cover twice as much ground, take care of twice as many weeds..."
"Thank you," she told him, wanting to give him and his red coat a thorough shake. "But I can manage, and surely there are things to be done around the castle?"
He grumbled something about helping Satoshi to clean some pots and pans and finally wandered off. Becky smiled, adjusting her straw sun hat as she headed for the castle well to draw up water for her watering can. The patch of daisies was nearest the workshop, and she headed there first, whistling as she went.
The door was ajar, most likely because there was nothing left inside to hide from her. She could hear hammering, indicating that the cursed inventor was working on one of his many toys, perhaps even the giant Cloudbuster Machine that had gotten them all in this mess to begin with. But as she passed by, whistling, she heard the hammering lessen and finally stop as she took her time watering the plants.
For the next week, Becky set to work trying to pull Masaki Aiba out of his self-imposed exile within the castle walls. She continued to be a bit noisier and noticeable when watering or weeding the gardens, eventually hearing footsteps on the other side of the workshop door, as though he was waiting on the other side and listening to her work. She stayed up late in the library with Jun, finding notes on her bedside table in the morning asking questions about the books she was reading. She responded with "Why don't you ask me yourself?" and received no reply.
She even made a big deal of having Nino show her around the workshop, knowing that as soon as they entered that Aiba would hide himself in a corner out of sight. She and Nino would hold conversations about the various inventions lying around on the work tables, and she did her best to ask questions about their construction and origin that Nino wouldn't know the answer to. Nino himself would sigh dramatically, saying "you'd have to ask Masaki" and Becky would sigh in equal measure, "I wish I could!"
It took two full weeks before Becky finally saw him again. After tending to the now blossoming garden, she'd headed inside to the study where Jun had readied a desk for her to work on her Oliver Nesbitt books. Nino had been flying the dirigible to the rainbow house with any finished edits she'd completed so that her father could have them air mailed to her publisher in the capital. Demand for books three and four was mounting, and even if she was stuck where she was, there was work to be done.
She settled in at the desk with sheets of fine paper and high quality ink that Jun had provided for her. She deliberately left the study door open, sitting at the desk and pondering Oliver's next move. The writing desk faced the window, so she had her back to the door. After an hour of scratching the pen across paper, she heard some definite non-automaton movement behind her.
"Well," she said aloud, as though she were merely talking to herself. "Chapter eight, how are you doing today?" She glanced up quickly at the window, seeing him again for the first time since that night in the workshop. He was reflected in the window glass, just poking his head and paw around the edge of the doorframe. She was sad by the way he stooped over, ashamed of his size. Nino had told her that Aiba had been a little shorter before his transformation, maybe the same height as Jun's automaton, which was pretty close to Jun's actual height. The goddess had thought of those cruel details.
She made as if she were just looking out the window at the flowers in bloom while instead watching Aiba watch her. It wasn't the same as if the automatons were watching. Even after all these weeks, their blank faces still could startle her until they started speaking. It wasn't the same as if one of her pet dogs was watching - underneath all that fur, there was still a human heart, Becky was sure of it.
When she finally adjusted in her seat, willing herself to look at Aiba straight on with no fear, he had disappeared from the doorway by the time she turned around. But she'd kept his attention far longer this time. Her writing wasn't going anywhere, so she left the desk in a huff. Patience, she told herself. It would take lots of patience to undo a century's worth of shame - even if she couldn't undo all the damage Aiba had inflicted on his own mind, she could help him move forward in a way that his friends could not.
She headed for the kitchen, finding Satoshi polishing some silver that had long been out of use. After so many years, they tended to redo lots of tasks simply to have ways to fill the time. "He came to the study. He was watching me write," she informed him, sounding hopeful.
Satoshi's voice was as calm as always. "Did he really? It's rare for him to come into the castle. Well..."
"Except for when you let him go in my room?" she asked pointedly.
Satoshi shook his head with a creak. "We honestly didn't know he was doing that, not until you said something about it. He's curious about you. He asks about you when I bring him food."
"Oh? And what does he ask that he can't ask me to my face?"
The automaton shrugged. "I don't know, just normal things. What you were eating, how you spent your day, if you're homesick..."
She shrank back. "If I'm homesick? Why would he ask that?"
"He feels like it's his fault you're here. He knows you've got an exciting job writing, and that your place isn't here. Your place is in the capital. He feels like you can't do what you want all because of him."
It was true in a way, but the more she found out about Masaki, and the more she realized how broken he was, the less anger and resentment she felt about being trapped in the castle. If anything, she was starting to pray, more in the past few weeks than she had in her entire life. She prayed to the Goddess every night, begging her to forgive Masaki and restore him. And if not, she prayed for the Goddess to grant her father the strength and skill to alleviate the inventor's curse.
"I'm tired of just getting peeks and glimpses," she decided firmly. "That's why I've come to you."
"To me?" Satoshi asked, setting down some silverware on the kitchen counter.
She couldn't just hear him on the other side of the door or read his notes or see his reflection in the glass. It would take a lot of coaxing on his friends' parts, but it was the only way they'd be able to take a giant leap forward. "I want you to prepare a dinner, Satoshi. You say that Aiba doesn't have much of an appetite, but surely after all these years you've figured out what his favorites are. I want you to cook so much food that he loves that he won't be able to resist the dining room. And when he gets there..."
"Becky, I don't want to trick him..."
"Well, it's not a trick. It's...it's forced socializing."
He stared at her, as he always did when she perplexed him. "You want me to lure him? With food?"
"Surely the others will help too. Sho can talk to him about some boring bit of historical trivia, chase him to the room. Jun can ensure that the table's set and ready. Nino can keep him from bolting..."
Satoshi looked down at the silverware. "I'm not sure..."
She slammed a hand on the table, as determined as she was ever going to be. "I'm tired of playing along and ignoring his shadow following me around. I'll go right out that gate. I'll walk home, take my father on the first airship to the capital, and you'll never see us again." It was an empty threat, and she knew it, but Satoshi relented.
"Very well. I'll talk with the others. We'll organize a dinner for you, but if Masaki wants out of that room, I'm the first one who will open the door for him."
She expected no less from Satoshi, loyal to a fault. "That's fair enough."
Becky departed the kitchen, suddenly nervous. What would they talk about? What would she say to him? What could she say to him that wouldn't send him bolting for the exit? Well, it was too late now. Becky's plan of forced socialization was already in motion.
--
She stood before the mirror in her dressing area, still so unsure. From the time she'd set up the dinner meeting until an hour earlier, she hadn't given much thought to what she ought to wear. It was strange, knowing that Aiba didn't have much choice but to show up all furry and in whatever clothes fit over his tall frame. The automatons had taken to wearing clothes simply to look a bit more human, and keeping to a standard set of colors was as good an identification tactic as any.
Becky had gone through her clothes trunk five, six, seven times, thoroughly unsatisfied with everything she owned. She wondered if Aiba would notice her hand. Though the bandaging had finally come off a week earlier, a jagged red line still cut down the middle of her palm, a constant reminder of the night they'd first met. This night was special and would probably be really taxing on Aiba if he stayed, so at the very least she had to look her best but still approachable. Jun had assured her that they'd be placed at opposite ends of the dining table, keeping a safe distance in case Aiba's appearance frightened her. She hoped the paralyzing fear that had hit her that first night in the workshop would not repeat itself, not with all she'd learned about the inventor's true nature and kindness.
She decided on a dress that had been her mother's, a dress in a patchwork of colors almost like the tiled roof of the rainbow house. Becky figured if there was any piece of clothing she owned that meant something to her, it would be that dress. She usually wandered around the castle with her hair up, keeping it out of her face so she could lean over the plants or over the writing desk. She let it down, a little disappointed in the ordinary way the straight brown strands fell to her shoulder blades. It took five minutes of staring before settling on a few barrettes: red, blue, and violet like her friends. She didn't have a color for Nino, defiantly going around with nothing but his metal exterior. She grinned and selected a gold barrette, a little showy and ostentatious.
Finally settled on her bit of dress-up, she left the bedroom, surprised to find Jun himself standing in the hallway. He wore a far more elegant lavender coat that fell to his metal knees and had polished silver buttons. "We're all taking this very seriously," Jun informed her, sounding amused. "It's been a long time since there's been a dinner party around here. You don't know how much I've missed them."
Knowing Jun and his penchant for planning and organizing, she actually did have an idea how much he would have missed it. She smiled as he held out his arm. She took it, feeling the solid metal through the coat fabric, and she almost felt like a visiting princess as he led her downstairs to the dining room. Satoshi and Sho were in fancier coats as well, probably borrowed from the Count's dressing rooms. They were carrying in trays of food, and she could already smell so many different things. Jun held out her chair and got her seated while Satoshi finished lighting all the candles.
Becky took her breakfasts in her room and her other meals at the simple wooden table in the kitchen, so the dining room was a change of pace. The pearl white tablecloth was pulled taut and neat, and the silverware and china gleamed in the candlelight. It was a long table, meant for a great number of guests, so a good amount of distance separated her from the empty chair at the opposite end.
Sho leaned over, whispering as best as his metallic body would allow. "You'll find that we've done our best to get him suited up for you."
"Hmm?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"
The dining room door opened, and Sho stepped back, the slightest laughter echoing from him. She heard Nino first, no fancy coat as she expected. He was tugging someone along. "She's waiting for you, you big idiot. Those claws don't work against my arm, you know!"
Becky's eyes widened. They'd told Aiba about the dinner! This wasn't going to be a surprise at all? They were truly forcing him into the forced socializing?
"Kazunari, let me go!" she heard from the hallway. "Wait..." She saw Jun and Sho look at each other and snicker. Becky heard Aiba's voice again. "...did he make curry?"
Finally, Nino gave one more tug, pulling the beastly Aiba inside. She covered her mouth, seeing that Sho and the others had done some interesting things to the poor fellow. His body was fully dressed, with a large green jacket over a starched white shirt. His long legs were stuck into black breeches that reached his knees. His hairy legs were shoved into shoes, and he walked gingerly, as though it pained him. His feet were probably just as misshapen as his hands, which had not been covered. His face truly was like a lion's, though they'd managed to pull back some of the frizzy fur into a ponytail. It was almost like when she put Trouble or Sunshine in costumes she'd stitched together, but Becky felt ashamed at the comparison. Aiba looked deeply embarrassed, cowering a bit against the door while Nino held his wrist firmly.
Jun stepped forward, gesturing to the empty chair. "Mr. Aiba, your dinner is ready. If you'd kindly have a seat, we can serve the first course."
Aiba didn't even look toward her end of the table, walking slowly and allowing Satoshi to get him seated. She sat quietly as Sho lifted up one of the lids, revealing something like spinach puffs. Nino closed the dining room door while Jun poured wine into Aiba's glass. She tried the spinach puff, finding several types of cheese baked in. They must have gone to a lot of trouble - they'd probably had to ask her father to procure some food from town.
She saw Nino wince as Aiba picked up four of the puffs in one paw, shoving them into his mouth and making lots of noisy sounds in approval. It seemed like a cross between a human's "mmm" and an animal howl. Becky looked down, having only taken a bite out of half of a puff. Thankfully, Jun and Satoshi had done their best to keep most of the menu within Aiba's abilities. There was no soup course, and they made it through an exceptionally quiet course of finger sandwiches and some fish that Satoshi had breaded and fried up so they could be handheld as well.
The earlier enthusiasm on the automatons' parts seemed to lessen as the meal went on, and more and more food found its way onto Aiba's bright green jacket and his shirt. Aiba still hadn't looked across the table at her or even spoken since he'd started eating. Sho looked to her expectantly when he uncovered the next dish, and it was almost like the smell of the capital brought straight to her plate.
A spicy curry full of potatoes and carrots in a thick sauce paired with rice. Satoshi seemed cheered by the look on Aiba's face - he couldn't exactly smile without looking a bit strange, but he was smelling the plate eagerly. "Say something. Ask him about it," Sho whispered, standing behind her chair.
"Mr. Aiba?"
The room grew silent, all four automatons seeming to hold their non-existent breath as Aiba froze, about to bury his face in the plate full of food even as Jun was approaching with a large serving spoon that could be more easily held in his hand. He paused, snout just hovering above the steaming rice, lifting his face. Though there was plenty of table between them, he seemed surprised and worried that she'd called out to him.
She tried to smile. "Mr. Aiba, Sho has told me that this is one of your favorite dishes. And I hear that you were born and raised in the capital. Well, I've been living there for some time, you see," she said, fingers tapping nervously on her fork. "I know it's been some time since you've been home, but is there a favorite restaurant there? A place for curry? Maybe I'd know the place, could let you know if it's still in operation?"
He lifted his head, his eyes gazing across at her. It was as though he was in a costume for some masquerade, almost like she could just see the frightened human underneath all the fur. "My...favorite curry restaurant?" His voice was rather quiet, as though he'd spent the past one hundred years not wanting to speak at all and had mostly forgotten how to do so.
"Or...or any restaurant I suppose. I mean, I live...well, lived there for several years myself. I'm always looking for something new to try."
"I...I'm afraid I can't remember too much about those days," he answered, and Nino gave the chair leg a little kick.
"You liar," Nino teased. "What about that noodle place we used to go every day after school, huh?"
"The noodle place," Aiba mumbled.
She looked to Nino for additional help, but only got his blank face. This dinner had been Becky's idea entirely, and even as Aiba's friends attempted to help, it was going so poorly. She only had herself to blame for Aiba's discomfort. "Well, it's fine if you don't remember now. Maybe later you can talk to me about it," she replied, lifting her spoon. "Better eat this while it's nice and..."
But Jun with the serving spoon wasn't fast enough. She sat there, spoon poised in mid-air as Aiba went face first into the curry, gobbling it up like his life depended on it. Satoshi looked away, as if he couldn't bear to watch his friend so obviously distressed while Sho sighed softly behind her. Nino patted his friend on the top of his furry head.
"You forget you've got a guest here," Nino chided him gently as Jun finally grabbed hold of Aiba's right paw, shoving the spoon into it. Aiba sank down in the chair, his face dripping with the thick sauce and rice. She felt even worse, setting down her spoon, and Sho gripped the back of her chair in warning.
Jun unrolled Aiba's napkin, holding it out to him. "Here, clean yourself up. Have some wine. You've got a lovely girl across the table trying to talk to you. Don't let her down."
Aiba's paw reached shakily for the wine glass. "I...I guess I was just hungry. I can't...I really can't control..."
This was unfair to him. All of it was unfair. She had to make things more even. She moved her head down, nose to rice, breathing nervously. "Mr. Aiba?"
He said nothing, and she could no longer see his face.
"Mr. Aiba, do you find it tastes better if you skip the spoon?" She could already feel a bit of the curry tickling her lip as she prepared to do her own bit of gobbling. "The curry, I mean? Shall I try it this way first?"
She heard the wine glass shatter, and she looked up, seeing Aiba back the chair up and get to his feet. "Jun, I'm sorry. Oh, Jun, the glass, I'm so sorry..."
"Masaki," Jun said, "you're hurt. Let me see..."
She got up herself, napkin falling to the floor as her chair scraped back. It all happened quickly. Aiba, little shards of glass falling from his palm, fled to the door before Nino could grab hold of him. He opened the door and took off running.
As the others started to give chase, she raised her voice. "Don't move, any of you," she demanded. Four blank faces turned to her obediently. "Just...this was all my doing, and it was a bad idea. Let me...let me try and speak with him."
"Becky, leave him be," Satoshi begged her.
Nino shook his head. "No...no, she's right. Let her go."
Not waiting for their permission, she ran as fast as her feet could carry her, out the dining room and into the hallway, heading straight for the doors to the courtyard. There was only one place Aiba would go, only one place where he liked to tuck himself away. She announced her presence by knocking on the workshop door.
"Mr. Aiba? It's me, Becky!" she called, her voice echoing off the walls inside. There was no moon out that night, and even the stars weren't enough to help her locate him in the darkness. "Mr. Aiba, if you've hurt yourself, let me help. I'm sorry about this dinner. It was my idea. I wanted to talk to you. I've wanted to talk to you ever since I got here." She didn't hear any response or movement inside. She pulled the workshop door open wide. "Please, won't you come over here? Let's get you to the kitchen. If you're hurt, you need to be bandaged up. The two of us will have a matching set, won't we? Injured hands?"
She waited another few moments. Finally, she heard him speak.
"Masaki."
"I'm sorry, what was that?" she called back into the shadows.
Aiba emerged out of the darkness, still keeping himself at a fair distance from her. "You can call me by my name. It's Masaki. Mr. Aiba makes me sound like someone important."
She grinned. "Very well then. Masaki, would you let me take a look at your hand?"
He nodded. "There should be some bandaging in the kitchen. It's where I...where, uh, where Sho found the...the...for when you were..."
She turned around. "Alright then, step to it, let's go." She didn't bother to wait, marching off down the cobblestone path and eventually hearing him following behind her. The kitchen was empty when they arrived, but she saw some cut cloth for bandaging already waiting for them. She gestured for Masaki to have a seat at the table, and he seemed nervous as she sat in the chair beside him. "Does it hurt?"
He shook his head, lifting his large paw and setting it on the table, palm up. She noticed a rather brown stain on the sleeve of his green jacket - he'd wiped his curry-dirtied mouth on his sleeve at some point, and it made her smile. His paw, however, needed a bit of help. She could see tiny pieces of glass embedded there. It was more like a human palm than an animal's soft paw in the center, covered in a thin layer of brown fur.
"Let's get these little bits out of here. You're lucky I'm around," she told him, wiggling her fingers at him. "I doubt any of your friends would be able to do this as well as I can."
He moved his hand slightly closer. "Be careful. Don't cut yourself."
"I'll be very careful," she said, reaching her thumb and forefinger to the first part of glass. "We'll go one at a time, at your pace. How about it?" She took hold of the first tiny shard, yanking it up and out, and Aiba fidgeted in his chair. She smiled once more. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
She yanked the second and third piece, halfway done. Just as she poised her fingers over number four, he spoke again. "Harriman's."
She looked up, finding his brown, almond-shaped eyes to be warm and gentle in the kitchen lamplight. She'd been in the castle for weeks, dealing with the automatons for company. This was the closest she'd come to someone with eyes, someone with a face in all that time, and it nearly took her breath away. Aiba's face was definitely not human, but his eyes were.
She remembered how to speak. "Harriman's? In Russet Square?"
He nodded. "It was my favorite place to eat. Nino always got the same thing. Hamburger."
She turned away, bringing her attention back to his injured hand. Calling it a paw just took away from the humanity that was shining through, almost like a beam of light, from his eyes. She yanked the next piece of glass out.
"Yeowch!" he complained, pulling away from her. "Don't you have any kind of bedside manner?"
She grabbed his wrist, pulling him by the cuff of the green jacket. Becky was finally getting to see the real person inside the furry body, the person who'd been suppressed for so many years under heavy layers of guilt and depression. It seemed like Masaki Aiba was kind of a pain in the ass.
"My father's the healer. Not me. And stop being such a baby."
"A baby? Me?" She smiled, yanking out number five. "Ow! Demon woman!"
"Oh, for goodness sake!" she laughed. Becky gently eased glass shard six out of Aiba's hand, hearing him exhale heavily in relief. She grabbed the bandaging that had been left for them, and he allowed her to wrap up the wound, and she secured it with a tight knot.
He stood up, holding up his wounded limb for inspection. "Well, way to go, Masaki," he mumbled to himself. "There goes work."
She stood as well, folding up the bandaging she didn't use. "What's that? Is it your dominant hand?"
He nodded. "And I was finally making some good progress on the new rotors for the dirigible. What am I going to do?"
"You could take a walk with me?"
"A walk?" he sputtered.
"I've been inside these walls for weeks, you know," she informed him, crossing her arms. "And your friends are kind of noisy company, especially when it comes to walking. Clomp clomp clomp. So maybe we could talk a walk together, in the Western Wood?"
"You want to walk? With me? I'm not the most interesting company..."
"Well, we can't all memorize trees and royal lineage and the history of the world like Sho can, but I'm sure you'll do fine." She looked up at him. "You could tell me about your inventions. I'm writing a book about dirigibles and adventures and the like. You could serve as my technology advisor."
This appeared to interest him, and his energy level seemed to be rising and rising. He'd been small and sad during dinner, but he rose to his full height, smiling and revealing sharp, white fangs that were probably hidden otherwise. "Really? Because I've got a whole slew of ideas for things to create, but I just don't have the hands or the skill for it. But ideas...ideas I've got in abundance. I'd be happy to help!"
"It's settled then," she said, holding out her left hand for his uninjured left to shake. "We'll walk, we'll talk, you'll tell me about all these ideas. My publisher is going to think I've gone to engineering school."
They ran out of things to say then, and she noticed that his gaze had not left her in some time. She looked away, fixating on a brass pot suspended from the ceiling rack. "Well then. I should probably get to sleep. If we have such a big day ahead of us tomorrow."
She still wanted to apologize about the dinner, about the way she'd coerced his friends into dragging him into such a situation. But seeing how the true Aiba had finally emerged, how enthusiastic he was to have someone listen about his inventions made her decide against any further apologies. She didn't want to bring his mood down by reminding him of what had happened earlier.
Instead she cleared her throat. "One thing to ask of you, now that we've become better acquainted. I think it's best you don't leave me any more bedside messages..."
If a person with an animal's face could blush, surely Aiba would be blushing. "I...I didn't know how to talk to you. I didn't know how to approach..."
"Enough of that," she said, waving him off. "We're friends now, aren't we? Save your questions for in-person and don't go creeping around in a lady's room at night. Is that fair?"
"I...I didn't go in your room to be weird! I wasn't trying to scare you!" he apologized, and she laughed.
"Good night, Masaki. It's been wonderful talking to you. Take care of that hand," she said, turning around and heading for the kitchen exit.
"It's been wonderful for me too," he said shyly.
She left the kitchen feeling happy from head to toe. She'd finally reached out to him, finally gotten through and pulled him a bit more out of his shell. Nino was waiting for her at the staircase.
"I see you've been having a pleasant chat with our snouted friend?"
She walked past him, heading up the stairs. "You only ate the hamburger at Harriman's?"
Nino laughed. "He remembered that?"
Becky smiled, feeling a rush of bubbling energy as she took the steps two at a time even in her dress. "Good night, Nino!"
"Good night, Breeches. Pleasant dreams." She heard him start to stomp away. "Oh, and Breeches?"
She turned at the top of the stairs, looking down at him.
He lifted his hand to his forehead, giving her a reverent salute. "Thank you."
--
She'd dressed down for their walk in the woods. Freshly laundered gray breeches under one of her shorter dresses with some less than dainty boots. As she emerged and headed for the workshop, Jun stopped in his tracks in the hallway.
"You sure are night and day when it comes to your wardrobe, aren't you?" he asked her.
"Says the machine in a purple morning coat."
He nodded, escorting her to the stairs. "Fair enough." They walked down in tandem. "You're something of a miracle worker, Miss Vaughn."
She looked to him curiously. "Why do you say that?"
"Aiba spoke to you."
"Maybe my willingness to shove my face in a plate of curry charmed him."
He paused at the bottom of the staircase. "No, he really spoke to you. In the kitchen. I think that's one of the longest conversations he's had with someone in years. We usually do most of the talking. I'm beginning to wonder..."
She was confused. "Wonder what?" Was there something on her face?
Jun cleared his throat, not that he really had a throat that could be cleared. "Ah, it's nothing. Do you have enough writing supplies? Is there anything I could get for you?"
Though it had been difficult to warm up to Count Jun Matsumoto at first, over the past few weeks he'd been nothing but kind to her. He just had an impertinent way of expressing himself from time to time - you could take the soul from the aristocrat, but you couldn't take the aristocrat from his soul. She shook her head. "I've just dispatched Nino with a few more pages, but I think my supplies are holding up. I find that I write better with such fine paper - I don't waste one drop of ink or bunch up the paper and toss it over my shoulder like I did before."
"Well, you should have the best. For all you're doing for Aiba. For what you're doing for all of us." He bowed to her. "Have a lovely walk, I hope the weather holds."
She felt a blush creep into her cheeks at Jun's words. It really had been a long time for the castle dwellers without someone to talk to but one another. But was she really affecting their lives that much? The five of them had grown so close, something more than friendship or even family, that a few weeks' company from a silly girl who wrote fantastical stories couldn't really make that much of a difference, could it?
Shaking her head, Becky headed outside, noticing worrisome gray skies far off in the distance. A summer storm was usually greatly welcomed for the fields around Sora, but it didn't necessarily bode well for her walk with Aiba. She could already imagine the automatons staying indoors, grumbling about having to keep from rusting. She knocked on the workshop door, surprised as Aiba called for her to "Come on in!"
She did so, seeing him tinkering at one of the workbenches. The tools that had been so large compared to her own hands were a far better fit for his own. She marveled at his dexterity despite his condition. He was screwing a small metal plate onto some sort of gear, definitely outside her level of mechanical expertise. Even with his bandaged hand, he simply would not give up his work. "Good morning," she said cheerfully. "Hope I'm not interrupting."
"You are," he said quickly and all too honestly, "but it's fine. I told myself I'd stop fiddling with this about twenty minutes ago, and now I finally have an excuse to do so!"
"Well," she said. "I'm glad to interrupt then?"
He set down his screw-turner with a sigh and gestured to his chest. He was wearing another white dress shirt with a green vest. "See? They say I have to wear clothes all the time now, on account of my new social calendar."
She laughed. "I appreciate your sacrifice, but I'd prefer you in trousers, thank you very much."
"It's different when you're hairy," he began, wiping grease from his large hands with a cloth. "I mean, it really covers..."
He looked away. "Uh..."
She found herself torn between sheer embarrassment and wanting to slap him. She settled on "I get the picture, Masaki, thank you."
He scratched his head, walking to the door. He seemed far more comfortable since he hadn't forced his misshapen feet into shoes. "Ah, you have to understand. It's been a long time since I've spoken to a lady."
"Uh huh," she replied as they left the workshop for the courtyard. "So that's the excuse you're going with?"
"I usually have Nino to slap me for saying things like that," he apologized, walking at her side as they moved to the rear castle gate. "You can hit me. My mouth moves before my brain does."
Satoshi and Sho were waiting at the rear gate. Satoshi handed Aiba a basket with sandwiches for lunch while Sho opened the gate and lowered the drawbridge, which was smaller than the one at the castle entrance. Their feet thumped across the wooden drawbridge, the moat below them bubbling and greenish blue beneath them. Sho and Satoshi waved farewell as the drawbridge lifted again, and the two of them were alone with nothing but woods in every other direction.
"Well, which way strikes your fancy?" she asked. To the left was the path Satoshi usually took to his favorite fishing spot while he usually gathered mushrooms and herbs and other sorts of plants to the right. Straight ahead continued west, a part of the Western Wood nobody in Sora had visited in over a century. In their day, Sho had explained to her a few weeks prior, Matsumoto Castle was a stop between Sora and Snow Lake.
Becky had only heard about Snow Lake in stories her father told. A place blessed by the Rain Goddess, it boasted crystal clear water and year-round snow despite being located at a relatively flat elevation. It wasn't an area that the locomotive reached or a standard airship route, so it had become nothing but a legendary location. But Sho had spoken of it as a real place, in the same tone of voice he saved for reciting Count Matsumoto's lineage or describing what Sora had looked like before the smokestacks had dotted the skyline.
Aiba seemed to have the same idea. "I know it's a long way," he said, "but I'll be honest with you, Becky. I've been in that workshop a long time. I kind of want to walk and never stop."
"I don't think the weather's going to allow that. How long is it to Snow Lake?" she asked.
He beamed, his fangs not really as scary as they could be. It was just a part of who he was. "Snow Lake? It's been so long. An hour, maybe?"
An hour turned out to be two and a half as one hundred years of inactivity had obscured the pathway. Satoshi was usually the only one who left the castle grounds other than Nino's trips in the dirigible, and he never wandered too far for his fishing or mushroom picking. He couldn't stray far or risk his metal body falling apart. But fortunately, Aiba wasn't invisibly tethered to a body in a tank. Becky watched as he grew livelier, hopping over fallen logs almost like a little boy.
Their conversation stayed as light as Aiba was on his feet, bounding through the forest. She talked him through the first few volumes of Oliver Nesbitt's adventures. The first book where he'd met his co-pilot Elsie and their race against their rival's dirigible. The second book where Oliver and Elsie discovered a mysterious island and learned how to build a stronger ship from a wise old man. Aiba half-listened, half-hopped around, but she didn't mind.
He asked questions as they came to him, interrupting her narrative to inquire about Oliver's dirigible. He offered suggestions for plots, and she in turn asked about his inventions. Or his ideas for inventions that hadn't quite come about yet. He spoke about a machine that you could speak into and hear the voice of someone else speaking into a machine of their own where they were. She'd be able to talk to her father from the capital that way, if he ever got around to actually inventing it.
He was a genius in his own strange way, Becky thought. He spoke more matter-of-factly about his Cloudbuster Machine. How he'd been in way over his head, thinking he could solve all the world's problems simply by taking over the Rain Goddess' job and letting the country grow crops as they needed. His heart had been in the right place, Becky thought. He'd wanted to help people - it was too bad the Rain Goddess herself had seen it more as hubris. And even after such a harsh punishment for Aiba and his friends, technology had greatly advanced over the past hundred years, and the Rain Goddess had done little to put a stop to it.
"Becky!" he declared with a bit of a playful roar. "You should help me with my machine!"
"Which machine?" she asked, watching him walk backwards so he could speak to her face to face. Even though he had a snout and a face full of hair, his expressions were animated and warm.
"My Cloudbuster Machine," he said, smiling. "I mean, the Goddess turned it into a heap of scrap metal, but I'm not giving up. I'm trying for more of a...hmm, how should I say it, more of a 'help the Goddess' rather than 'replace the Goddess' standpoint this time. I'll make the rain come with her blessing, I guess. Once I'm human again at least. There's a lot of little bits of tinkering that I can't really do with my hands, stuff that's absolutely necessary."
"And you want my help? I've never constructed a machine in my life!" she said.
"Oh, that doesn't matter! You probably wouldn't complain as much as Nino. I think I frustrate him, I don't know why," Aiba mused. Becky knew why - it was probably the long hours and Aiba's apparent interest in bouncing from project to project in the workshop, working on whatever struck his fancy. Nino had probably lost the patience in keeping up after so many years. She couldn't imagine how Aiba had been while the dirigible was under construction for twenty-five long years.
"Well," she decided, unable to resist his request. "I suppose I can turn a wrench once or twice."
"That's the spirit!" he said happily, turning back around after stumbling ungracefully over a log.
His enthusiasm was infectious, and soon their long journey came to a close as the woods thinned out and the dirt under her boots turned to a muddy sort of slush. As they came fully out of the forest, Becky couldn't help gasping. Lake was probably a misnomer, since the body of water before them was more pond than lake, but the stories were absolutely true.
Snow Lake lay in a cove, surrounded on the three sides not forest by ancient rock. The water itself wasn't frozen, but the ground all around it was hidden beneath several inches of snow, enough to reach the middle of her calf. She felt almost horrible for tromping through the pure white snow with her muddy boots, but it wasn't enough to deter her companion. "Snow!" Masaki cried, almost as though he hadn't seen it before. He had, Becky knew, since Sora's winters usually came with plenty of snowfalls.
But what was so strange about the place was the amount of snow given the temperature. A slight chill ran through her as her boots brought her forward, but the rest of the air had the warmth of summer, if a bit dulled on account of the pending storms and the cool forest behind them. Masaki bounded over to the lake itself, crouching down to dip his uninjured hand into the water. It was almost like glass on the surface when she approached, though the view down was eventually muddled - it was far deeper than it looked at first glance.
It had been well worth the trip, especially since nobody had come this way in so many years. The pristine state of the cove was proof enough of that. They had the place entirely to themselves, untouched by time. A true blessing from the Rain Goddess. Of course, her stomach decided to growl then and there, and Aiba laughed.
"How about we have a picnic?" he asked, brushing a bunch of snow off a tree stump to set down the basket Satoshi had prepared. "I can't remember the last time I've been on one."
She nodded, letting Aiba clear more snow away so she could sit down. She probably could have done so herself, but his furry arm and large hands were a lot more efficient. She sat, opening the basket and handing one sandwich over for her companion. The walk had definitely been invigorating and enjoyable after being confined for so long - she could tell how happy Aiba was to get away for a while. Maybe deep down he'd always wanted to make a journey, but his devotion to his friends' made that impossible.
They ate quietly, enjoying the scenery. She snuck quick glances at Masaki from the corner of her eye, seeing how hard he was focusing on holding the small sandwich in his big hand and doing his best to take small nibbles rather than finishing it in two bites. She grinned, wondering if his friends had given him more suggestions for improving his behavior. Becky thought about what it must have been like, if the animal part of Aiba was solely a part of his physical appearance. Maybe the goddess had punished him with more baser instincts and behaviors like gobbling up his food or chasing his tail. She turned beet red. Did Aiba have a tail?!
"What are you thinking about?" he asked her suddenly, and she jumped a bit, seeing him dig around in the basket for another sandwich.
"Who? Me?"
He sighed. "No, the tree. Of course you!" He laughed at her, and it was a rather strange laugh with the same breathy quality as his voice. "Are you thinking about your books?"
No, she thought. I'm thinking about your possible tail! She shook her head, shoving her hand into the basket and grabbing a second sandwich herself. "I'm thinking about home," she lied. "I'm wondering how my father's doing."
Aiba grew quiet. "If you want to see him, you should go with Nino next time. If you miss him, I wouldn't want to keep you from him."
She felt bad about her lie and more importantly her choice of lie. Why had she brought up her father? It was definitely a sore subject for Aiba. "No, no. I made a promise, didn't I? I said I'd stay at the castle until he's done. I intend to keep my promise."
"Well, you're not at the castle right now..."
She took a bite of the sandwich and chewed huffily. "I'm still honoring my promise if I'm with you, aren't I?"
"But if you want to go home, you should be able to," he continued. "I just want you to be happy."
She had trouble eating then, hastily wrapping the sandwich back up and settling it back in the basket. Things had been going so well, and her awkwardness and Aiba's guilt were combining in a pretty depressing way. They said nothing, Aiba getting up from the tree stump and walking through the snow to take another glance at the lake. She had to do something, had to restore his spirits. The automatons were counting on her, weren't they? They'd asked her father to heal Aiba's body, but it seemed as though they'd asked Becky to heal Aiba's heart.
Out of ideas, she got off the stump and crouched down, hand suddenly chilled as she balled up some snow in her palm. She packed it tight, just as she had when she was younger and was the only girl willing to compete against the boys when they built snow forts. Snowball strategy wasn't so easily forgotten. She took aim, figuring it would be mean to aim for Aiba's head. She'd always aimed for Alaric's head to get him to back off. Instead she sent the snowball flying, seized with glee as it pelted Aiba right between his shoulder blades, the snow dispersing and leaving a fine dusting of white in his brown mop of hair.
He turned around, mouth wide. "What did you...?" But she was already readying snowball number two, and his eyes narrowed. "Alright, Vaughn, I see how it is."
And he was off, far faster than she'd even expected, dragging his paw along the ground until he had a snowball the size of her head forming. Now that was definitely cheating. Somehow it was cheating! She ducked behind a tree, laughing as she felt the huge snowball splatter just on the other side. "Have to do better than that!" she called out.
Their voices and laughter echoed off the walls of the cove, and she ignored the tingling cold burn of the snow as she dodged Aiba's unrelenting attacks and sent off more snowballs of her own. He was an excellent opponent - she had speed and agility on her side while he had the advantage of size. She nearly forgot it was midsummer as snow splatted against her dress, sending cold rivulets of water down her arms. They continued until the first clap of thunder sounded off in the distance, somewhere closer to the castle.
She collapsed back on the tree stump, exhausted but content. She closed up the basket. "Masaki, we should get back to the castle before..."
Splat! He'd dropped a whole large palm full of snow right on the top of her head, and she shrieked. "No fair! That's no fair!" she protested.
He smiled, dusting off his palms on his dark breeches. "You have to finish what you start, you know." He held out his hand. "I'll take the basket, let's get moving."
PART FIVE