Yanagi smiled to herself as she leafed through the first book in her arms. She was excited to sit down with all of her books and review them more formally. Her favorite part of back to school shopping was buying the books, even if the cost made her cringe. Looking through them, at the pictures and the headlines, seeing what might grab her attention, that was an entire afternoon of fun. Smile brightening, she squeezed the bag of books to her chest, letting her pleasure show. She thought that, maybe, she’d stop at the Union and purchase a cup of hot chocolate. Even though it was August, she was a bit chilly. The fact that it was 88 degrees and she was wearing long sleeves and jeans didn’t even occur to her.
Wiggling her toes in her sandals, she regarded her feet. Toes were such strange looking things.
Discarding that thought, she glanced down one side of the street and then the other before stepping across the road. The Union and her hot chocolate were waiting for her.
She was halfway across the street when she got the peculiar sensation that something very bad was going to happen. It was a trait of her race to be able to see the future, sometimes, vaguely, in a distorted sort of way, but she hadn’t ever really experienced. Eyes wide, she swung her head about, gazing down the street as she picked up her pace.
A quicker pace didn’t save her. A roaring monstrosity bore down on her, smashed into her, and rolled over her toes. She shrieked, more from surprise than pain; that hadn’t registered yet. She fell back, onto the median dividing the two lanes of traffic, and wrenched her foot back. Tears filling her eyes, she tried to bite back a cry of pain as her brain finally registered her injury. It didn’t work. “You ran over me!” she shouted at the two people on the bike as it came to a stop. “That hurt!” And then she dissolved into Japanese, repeating itai, itai, kizutsukimashita over and over to no end.