Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 8 (section)

===Record 66: I Will Wait for Them===

'''06/09/1998

'''4:46

The morning was fairly chilly for June and I could see my deeper breaths. I breathed those visible breaths in every direction in front of Takao Station on the Chuo Line.

“Why are you spreading your bad breath around?” you asked, hitting me from behind.

I looked back to see everyone lowering a large megaphone-like device from the Boss’s Caddy.

Lady attached her keyboard to the megaphone and started tuning.

“The heck is that?”

I was answered by the Boss who walked up next to me with his part of the job complete.

“That idiot professor said it would push back the rain front. You see, one of the school’s washing machines broke and then they all broke in a resonance phenomenon. The repairs only finished yesterday.”

“They couldn’t get enough driers ready,” you added. “The Professor asked for our help because we can operate on emergency funding, but we didn’t bring him with us due to his extensive list of past offenses.”

That was the smart decision. I saw the South Wind and West Wind had arrived and were drawing various lines on their map of Japan.

“So how does that thing stop the rain front?” I asked.

The Boss unfolded a report everyone had been given a copy of.

“Simply put, enjoyable music draws in the cherry blossom front to push back the rain front.”

“That certainly is simple. But isn’t it a bit late for cherry blossoms?”

“To quote that idiot, ‘how can it be late for something that happens every year?’ So Lady just has to play music with the appropriate DC symbols, I think he called it.”

“I see,” I said before realizing something. “So why am ''I'' here?”

“That’s quite the philosophical question.”

“No, it isn’t. My violent aide isn’t here, nor is anyone else who we bring along when we need muscle. Except for me, that is. My rightful place is back in my bed!”

You slapped me on the shoulder.

“Senpai said to bring you just in case.”

Damn, that explained it. It seemed to violate the principle of division of labor, but if the guy in charge demanded it, then we had to do it.

I really, truly had nothing to do, so I started watching Lady.

She was humming the music in front of her and viewing the weather map the winds were drawing out. She looked deadly serious and occasionally shook her head. She was definitely nervous.

“Oh,” she said when she noticed me and raised her head. “H-hey, how long should I delay the rain front?”

“Until the washing machines have been run to death and the dryers have been worked to tears.”

“Um,” she muttered, looking close to tears herself. “I have a rather fundamental question about all this. Do you promise not to laugh?”

“I do.”

“I’ve never done laundry.”

I thought about that for a moment, recalled my promise to her, and suppressed my reflexive response. I put on a serious face and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“That is a serious problem. Oh, you poor soul. You have been deprived of so much. I truly pity you.”

“I get the feeling it would have hurt less if you just laughed.”

“Don’t let it bother you. Push it back for three days and everything will be fine.”

She grabbed the headphones hanging around her neck and put them on her ears. She didn’t look nervous anymore, which told me I really didn’t have anything to do anymore.

“Hey, there’s this weird black bus driving up! It’s an advertisement bus!”

I turned toward your voice to see the black bus entering the traffic circle. It said “Committee for Stopping Kantou Students from Making us Feel Bad by Going on Dates in Public” on the side.

“They sure are up front about what they’re about.”

Students in combat uniforms left the bus and used megaphones to express their firm support of the coming rain. I readied my fist and walked toward them.

I took a breath and looked up into the sky to see the winds carrying in the cherry blossom front.

'''Author Comment:

This was originally about holding the cherry blossom front in place so it didn’t move on, but that didn’t fit the time of year this was being published and I ended up changing it to rain instead.

There are always groups out there making weird claims. Until a few years ago, there was a propaganda truck that often parked itself near my home. The river bank was opened up at the time, and I remember I would often see the guys who operated the truck driving it in the river and washing it while saying things like “Hey, quit splashing water on me.” and “Yikes, that’s cold. Downright freezing. Ah ha ha!”