You have just gotten off the train. Dragging your suitcase behind you has been tiring, and it feels weird that all of your belongings fit into it.
Your aunt, who you'll be staying with as your parents take care of getting you all a new place, could not pick you up from the trainstation, but you don't mind. It's only a ten minute walk, and she's probably very busy. Your suitcase gets snagged on the uneven stones of the pavement here and there, and it sends a small jolt that smarts through your arm every time. Despite all this, you're trying not to get annoyed. At least the weather is nice. At least the street you're walking through is... No. You can't call it nice. It's a bunch of abandoned storehouses and what appears to be an old factory that seems to be home to dozens of pigeons.
You can hear a bird call. You don't know much about birds, but you know what pigeons sound like, and this is not a pigeon. You look around the top of the factory to see if you can spot it, but all you see is fat pigeons nestling in the broken windows. The sound seems to be coming from lower down, closer by. You turn your head, looking into the open wall of one of the storage buildings, and then you see it.
A girl, standing in the middle of the building, facing away from you. Her light colored clothes almost blend in with the pale walls of the ruins around her. She's holding up her left hand, on which a large black and white bird is perched. It looks like a magpie, and you have to blink a few times to make sure you're not imagining things, as something looks off.
The magpie has three heads. You absentmindedly let go of the handle of your suitcase, struggling to understand what you're seeing, and it falls to the ground with a loud clatter. The girl turns her head to look at you, as the magpie noisily flies off, startled by the sound.
???
"So you see him too?"
She walks closer to you as you hastily pick up your suitcase. You feel like you saw something you weren't supposed to and don't know what to say to her.
???: "Sorry for what? You didn't do anything wrong."
???: "He doesn't normally get so close. I began to believe I was the only one who could see him."
???: "Are you afraid? Everything is okay. Besides, he is gone now."
???
"He likes to hang out here. I wonder when he arrived. I think I know why he's come but he won't tell me. Did you move here? People don't visit Grey Springs for vacation, usually."
She is standing uncomfortably close to you. You don't remember seeing her step closer, but she was definitely not this close before. You want to take a step back, but you'd step out into the road. You tell her you're moving in with your aunt. She looks away from you, as if searching her mind for something. At least the break of eyecontact makes you feel slightly less on edge."
???
"Your aunt? That sounds nice. I could sense you are new here. And that something big is coming for you. But I think you'll be ready for it, if you are open to it. You look like you are. You're like an open door to me."
Temperance
"My name is Temperance. What's yours?"
You tell her. You're beginning to wonder if you're dreaming. The dreary train ride over would argue you're not, but Temperance's demeanor and the three headed crow make you unsure. Strangely this feeling puts you at ease.
It feels like she is staring into your soul. She said you're like an open door to her, but to you it feels like she opened this door herself, without your input. None of it seems right, yet you feel so calm. Suddenly something changes, like a connection was broken, and Temperance takes a step back.
Temperance
"So your name is Yon...
It's close, I can sense it. But you're not ready yet. I'll see you again. You should go see your aunt now. I'll be here when the time is right. It was nice to meet you."
You bid her goodbye and walk off in a hurry. A small part of you wants to check if she's still standing in the ruins, as you didn't hear her leave, but your desire to get out of this place as fast as possible is stronger. The whiplash between feeling calm and stressed out is making you feel slightly sick; while you were talking to her you felt so oddly peaceful, but now your body is telling you to run.
Koizumi Residence
You get to your aunt's house after walking for another ten minutes. When you finally let go of the handle of your suitcase and relax your arm, it fills with an ache from straining your grip on the suitcase for so long. You are still rubbing your arm when your aunt walks towards you from the back of the house.
Koizumi
"There you are! I was wondering if you'd gotten lost. I'll take your suitcase for you. Come in, come in."
Koizumi Residence - living room
It's been a few years since you've been to your aunt's house, but it hasn't changed much. The kitchen and bathroom are small, sober spaces but the house has a large living room which doubles are your aunt's atelier. You know she gives painting classes, though you're not sure how often. You can see easels stashed in one corner of the room, and a table with supplies alongside multiple cabinets which you think likely hold more painting supplies. You remember being little and spending time sitting on the floor and trying out a multitude of crayons, pens and paints that your aunt would let you play with. You don't really spend any time doing any art nowadays, but the memory makes you feel happy.
Staying in a strange town for a year will be challenging, but at least you know that at the end of each day you'll be able to return to a place that feels familiar and warm.
Koizumi
"I'll take your suitcase up. I normally use that room as storage space for supplies, it's not very big. But there's just enough space for a bed and a desk. I moved all the art stuff downstairs. Feel free to do whatever you want with the room, I don't mind."
You follow your aunt upstairs. You feel bad for not taking the suitcase up yourself, but your aunt moves so fast you had no chance to stop her.
Koizumi Residence - bedroom
The room is small but has a nice big window, and the bed looks comfortable. A faint smell of paint supplies still lingers in the air.
Koizumi: "Of course! You're my only nephew, I'm pretty excited to have you here. I remember when you were just a little kid and your mom would bring you here for the weekend. You're almost an adult now! I'm not as strict as my sister, but I'll do my best to make sure you stay in school and stuff. God, that sounds kinda weird to say..."
Koizumi: "It is, but it's all I can give you unless you wanna sleep in the living room. This might surprise you but being a painter doesn't pay that much."
Koizumi: "Oh, um, yes? I work here every tuesday to saturday, so you can't spend any time in the living room then, and your room is pretty small, and the walls are really thin so you can't make too much noise... I guess it's fine with me, but I don't know if it's a good idea."
Koizumi
"Take your time to settle in. I still gotta do some cleaning up downstairs, so I'll see you whenever you're done here."
You put your suitcase on the bed and open it. You put your clothes in the wardrobe and put some of your belongings around the room, but when you look around the room still looks pretty barren. You really only took your essentials with you, after all. You had some posters on your bedroom wall back home, but it would've felt weird to take them with you to a room that's only yours for a year. You push the now empty suitcase under your bed and head downstairs.
Koizumi Residence - living room
Your aunt is moving around some of the easels. There is a carpet rolled out on the floor that was previously leaning against the wall. It looks like your aunt is clearing up some more of her painting class supplies and trying to make the living room more homely.
Koizumi
"Ah, all done? I hope you'll feel at home here the oncoming year. Speaking of, I got word earlier today that your school books are ready to be picked up at the bookstore. It's the second shop on the left on the main street, just a couple of doors down. It's the one with the bright purple exterior. I'd have picked them up for you myself but you gotta show your school ID for that. I hope you didn't forget it back home."
Grey Springs - Main Street
You step outside. While lugging your suitcase around you hadn't taken much time to look around, your mind had still been on the strange experience with Temperance. Now you notice your aunt really lives in the middle of the town center, there are shops right and left of you. People are dotting the streets here and there and making small talk with each other. Most of them appear to be older. You wonder how many kids your age actually live in this place.
You make your way down, following the directions your aunt gave you, and it only takes you a few minutes before you're in front of the bright purple bookshop your aunt mentioned.
Grey Springs - Kaminski Books
To your surprise the bookshop is quite a bit larger than it appears from the outside. The front of the store mostly sports racks of magazines, then children's books and this month's bestsellers. To your left you spot the main desk. A girl is standing behind it, looking at an outdated computer and looking a little bored. You wonder if you should ask her about your books; you feel a little awkward standing here. You're just about to walk over when she spots you.
Cashier
"Oh, hello. Can I help you with anything?"
She smiles at you as she waits for your answer. You feel a little startled; she's very pretty.
Cashier: "Oh! You must be Yon Hoshizora then, is that right? School started last week, so your box of books is the last one still left here. Everyone else picked theirs up over the summer. Not that it was that many boxes compared to other places, I guess. But picking them up is quite a hassle..."
Cashier: "What are you looking for? Wait, did you transfer here? I've got one box of school books still back here, and I've been wondering when they'd get picked up."
Cashier: "Oh. Uh, thanks." She looks uncomfortable. "Did you need anything? I don't think I've seen you around here before... Wait, are you a new student here? I've got a box of school books back here and no one's come by yet to claim them."
Cashier
These are so heavy... It's silly, we do so much on computers these days but all the reading material is still printed. I wonder if it's something they do to save money, I'm pretty sure these books are all pretty old. Could you hand me your ID for a sec?
You give her your school ID. She glances at it quickly before handing it back; she knows you're the right person for the books, she's had the box with your name on it for at least the whole summer. You move to pick up the box from the counter.
Cashier
"Careful! Don't hurt your back. I'm being serious when I say they're heavy. I saw you're in year 2 by the way, that's the same year as me! And class 2B as well... What are the odds. Actually, before you leave, I have a question... It's a bit awkward but, I'm the head of one of our after school activity clubs and we don't have enough members this year. We need five, and there's just two of us. I know you just got here and you don't know me but, please consider joining? Even if you don't like it, at least it'll help boost our numbers a bit so we can keep going, it would mean a lot to me."
Robin
"Oh wait, I haven't even told you my name! I'm Robin. Robin Kaminska. It's nice to meet you. And please consider joining the club! I've put an application form inside the box. I guess I'll see you on Monday!"
You nod at her, slightly slack jawed, and leave the store.
Grey Springs - Main Street
Outside you realise you didn't ask her what club it is she's running. What kind of club can function with only two people in it? You're not surprised the school is considering shutting it down, but Robin seemed very passionate about it. You are seriously considering joining, if only to help her out. She seems nice, after all. What harm could it do?
Koizumi Residence - living room
You carefully drop the heavy box of books on the kitchen table and stretch your arms to relax them from the strain of carrying the box. You've done quite a number on them today, you think. You can hear a voice coming from the living room, and when you walk over you see Koizumi is watching television. It's a very old model - you remember your aunt was never a big fan of technology. The program she is watching shows a man speaking to a large room of people. He is on a stage and the room is all white. From his tone of voice and the paraphernalia behind im it doesn't take you long to figure out he's a preacher. Why is Koizumi watching this?
Koizumi
"This man... Unbelievable. Did you get stuff like this back at home?" [You shake your head.] "I figured. Then again, I suppose your hometown had it's own issues, otherwise your parents wouldn't want to move out."
Your aunt is right. The town you spent the first sixteen years of your life in was slowly getting taken over by a shady institution, until your parents didn't want to live there anymore. You don't understand entirely what happened, or what a corporate town exactly is; just that your parents eventually had enough and wanted to get out. They weren't the first, some of your friend's families had moved out in the years before. It seemed like if you weren't working for this institution, it wasn't worth staying in town. You feel a little sad that you were forced to leave it behind, but are also excited to move to a new place.
Koizumi
"This guy's been growing a big following over the last year. He's from around here, you know. He's always been a cook but only recently people started listening to him. Apparently he can tell people's futures or something. I dunno, to me it sounds like he's just good at guessing. If people wanna hear something specific they'll believe anything as long as it comes close enough. You'll probably hear about him and his ilk at school. Especially now they're minor celebrities. Mike Murphy is his name."
She turns back at the tv and tuts. The man on the tv has a very bombastic way of speaking. His light colored suit looks slightly too big for him, but the tie is a striking teal and you can tell the preacher put in a lot of effort to look presentable. You can kind of see why your aunt watches his sermon even though she seems to hate him; there's something mesmerizing about his presentation.
Koizumi: "It's not really telling the future, from what I understand. He can only do it on people when he takes their hand and stares into their eyes, so it's specific to whoever he's looking at at that moment. It creeps me out whenever I see him do it. He probably charges a pretty penny for it too, now he's got all that attention."
Koizumi: "Hate is a bit too strong, but I'm definitely not a fan. It's not just him, he's got a church in town and a decent chunk of followers. It used to be him and his wife, and she was very pleasant. She even came to some of my painting classes. But it's just him now. They have seven kids, she died when the last one was born. Ever since she's gone they've gotten more secretive. People at least used to know what the religious cult family was up to, but now they're largely a mystery. I just hope those kids are okay..."
Koizumi: "It's just because he's on tv all the time now! He's hard to avoid, it's obnoxious. It's kind of hard to look away."
Koizumi
[She switches off the tv.] "We shouldn't be watching this. The guy gets more than enough attention as it is. I see you got your books, that's good. I think the daughter of the guy who runs the bookstore is around your age. It'd be nice if you had a friend so close by, though I'm sure you'll be fine making friends regardless." [She gets up.] "For now, let's get dinner sorted, shall we? I don't ask much in return for you staying here for the year, except that you help me make dinner and clean up afterwards!"
You spend the rest of the evening preparing dinner with Koizumi as she shows you where everything is located in the kitchen. It's nice; your aunt is very patient and you learn a lot about cooking you didn't know before. This should come in handy in the future, when you'll be making meals on your own. After the washing up, Koizumi makes you both some tea and you spend some time chatting at the dinner table before you head off to bed.
Your first day in Grey Springs has been an interesting one.
