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Archive for February, 2009
The Science Lab’s Black Shadow Page 2
February 24th, 2009

While washing his hands in the bathroom, Goro looked up at Kazuo.

“YoYoshiyama is nice and cute and all, but isn’t she a little over maternalistic?”

Goro had a bad habit of trying to smugly use difficult words. Kazuo, with his glazed over eyes as usual, looked down at the 20 centimeter shorter Goro.

“Hmmm, why’s that?”

“What? You don’t think so?”

Goro puffed himself up. Due to his red swollen face, he often looked like her was straining himself.

“Yoshiyama, She completely thinks we little babies. Huh! ‘Go wash your hands’ she says!”

“I guess…” mumbled Kazuo. With eyes that seemed stuck in a dream, he continued to leisurely wash his hands.

Kazuko, who had come back from throwing out the garbage behind the school building, put her hand on the door to the neighboring lab. This science lab was the room with all of the chemicals, so it had two doors, one from the classroom and another to the hallway. The one Kazuko was opening was the one from the classroom.

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So, I wanted to do this at a page per Tues-Thur-Sat pace, but the story is 112 pages, so what, that’s 37 weeks to finish. Hmmm less than a year. I’ll try to keep that pace at a minimum. Maybe I can get more out. We’ll see. (I’d worry about a DCMA takedown notice if someone actually was reading this…)
Also, in the first page, I incorrectly translated “Science Classroom” as “Science Lab”. I’ve now fixed it (think I’ll go with science room).
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The Science Lab’s Black Shadow
February 18th, 2009

With classes over, the school building was quiet and kind of bleak. Occasionally, the sound of a classroom door sliding open and close echoed hollowly down the empty hallway. Someone was playing Chopin’s polonaise on the auditorium piano. Third year student Kazuko Yoshiyama had just finished cleaning the science room with classmates Kazuo Fukamachi and Goro Asakusa.

“That’s good enough. I’ll take the trash out. You two, go wash your hands.”

“Oh, thanks…”

Kazuo and Goro walked off to the hallway sink. As she watched them walk away, Kazuko again, felt like laughing. The two of them were a truly funny pairing. Kazuo was tall and thin. Goro was short, fat and round. While both of them had good grades, Goro was a hard worker, if not a little too straight. On the other side, Kazuo was a dreamer. He seemed kind of vague and you never knew what he was thinking. He was a little creepy from time to time, too.

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This is the first page of the book. More to come. A side note. All three are junior high students. They’re the equivalent of an American 9th grader, so they’re 14-15 years old. For those that didn’t know, Japanese students clean the schools. There are no janitors. So in the hallways, there are sinks (like this) for the students to wash their hands and get water to wash the floors, rinse the rags, etc. Personally, I think it’s great and American schools should do it, too. Kids keep it cleaner and save money on janitors salary.

As for the names, Kazuko and Kazuo, in Japanese, they’re completely different. I would refer to Kazuo by only Fukamachi, but he gets called that later. So, ummm just be careful.

[Edit] So, reading the next paragraph, they go to the bathroom, not to the hall sink…

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My Running Route
February 15th, 2009

It’s 5.1K one way and the green is up a massive hill. The loop around the moat is 1.7k and I’m going to cut it out for the first month.

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