“Yaji-san!”
“Kita-san!”
Two figures burst from the crowd, running full tilt past the broken bodies of defeated enemies scattered about the courtyard, towards the two girls standing amidst them.
One ended his run sedately, very conscious of the many eyes that watched them. A few steps away from the object of his desire, embarrassment and determination warred openly upon his young face. In the end, he settled on taking the brunette’s hand in his, and smiling goofily, congratulating Yajima Junko on her defeat of the gang that had plagued their school for years.
The other figure, all delicate limbs, long black hair and pale skin, threw herself heavily into Kita’s arms, practically bowling the blonde over. Kita’s reaction was instant and severe. Yelping loudly, she peeled the girl off and held her at arms length. The girl, whose almost doll-like appearance was not in anyway marred by the tears that streamed from her eyes, pulled Kita into a suffocating embrace with surprising force. Shinokita Reiko could do little more than straighten her glasses and suffer the girl’s emotional outburst for at least a little while. Glancing at her partner, Kita rolled her eyes only to be met with the same mischievous grin that Yaji-san always gave her in circumstances like this.
Thankfully, the scene was over quickly. The school, now in a state of almost complete chaos, began to pull itself together; picking up the threads of lives that had been brought to a halt by an era of organized harassment.
Yajima Junko had let down her new admirer politely but firmly, and turned to leave – only to be stopped by a hand that gripped her sleeve tightly. She glanced at the hand with recognition, but no joy.
“Yes?” She gazed at her partner with no real enthusiasm.
“Help?” the bespectacled blonde said, gesturing at the girl who remained buried face first into her chest.
Yaji smiled, enjoying the situation. “Oh, no. I’ll leave you to it.” And she turned and walked away quickly, leaving Kita-san to deal with the melodramatic lover she had picked up…again.
***
After Reiko had finally extricated herself from the girl’s emotional outburst, her confession of love and several vows of eternal affection, she made her way home, exhausted and tetchy.
Why, she wondered, did this always happen to them? She and Yaji-san weren’t teases…well, she wasn’t, anyway. They were just doing their job…infiltrating a student body to deal with a problem at the school. *Not* to pick up a stable of admirers. Yet, every story ended the same way: A clandestine admission of love in the forest from a nervously sweating boy, or an emotional scene in public with a tearful and over-reacting girl.
It wasn’t like she ever encouraged them! Reiko snorted with annoyance. If anything, she went out of her way to discourage any intimacy between herself and the other students. It would be easier that way…if only they didn’t keep falling in love with her! All those….hands…touching her, hugging her. She shuddered.
She slammed the door to her apartment, closing it with a resounding finality. Throwing herself onto the chair, Reiko glowered into the mirror. It wasn’t like she was pretty or anything, not like Yaji-san, with her long, silky black hair. She wasn’t even nice to people, really. A pale, blonde Ice Queen – that was what she was – and she liked it that way.
“Why?” she asked aloud to no one in particular. A laugh made her spin around in her chair. “What? Oh…you’re home.”
“Are you driving yourself crazy, *again* wondering why at every school someone falls in love with you?”
Reiko blushed. “I just don’t get it – I don’t encourage them. I’m not even nice to them.”
“Silly,” Junko rose from the sofa and walked over to where Reiko sat, reaching out to touch the blonde’s hair. “*That’s* what they like about you.” She leaned close to Reiko’s ear, “You’re very cool, you know. And the colder you are to them, the cooler you are.”
Reiko scowled. “But then…” she considered. “Oh forget it.”
“Come on, Kita-san, let’s go get some dinner.”
Reiko looked up at Junko, her scowl disappearing for a brief moment. In that one second, Junko thought, she was able to see that thing that everyone fell in love with. And she smiled at that thought, which brought the habitual scowl back to Reiko’s face.
“Good job, today, Yaji-san,” Kita said, as they left the apartment.
“Yeah, Kita-san,” Yaji grinned. “You too.”
Notes:
This is a silly little twiddle from a silly, yet immensely popular series from the late 1980s called YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki, which roughly translates to “Yaji/Kita’s School Travel Diary.” Yaji and Kita are nicknames for two of the coolest female characters to ever grace shoujo manga: Shinokita Reiko, a cool, outspoken blonde and; Yajima Junko, a hot-tempered, athletic brunette. Although they don’t really like each other initially, they are forced to work together. Yaji and Kita are “assigned” to new schools, where they fight corrupt student bodies, organized gangs, powerful student crime lords, yakuza, etc., etc. They leave after each clean-up, having wreaked much havoc and having broken at least one heart each, but more usually, dozens.
Here’s the inside joke – there was a classic Edo story of two men who travel from town to town fighting crime lords and corrupt village headmen, (kind of like “Kung Fu” here in the U.S. The characters names were Yaji and Kita.) This comic novel, written by Ikku Jippensha was titled Douchuu Hizakurige (known as “Shank’s Mare” in English); but the characters were so endearing that they have spawned a popular early Nintendo game, YajiKita Chin Douchuu (Yaji/Kita’s Strange Travels) and even a TV series, Yaji Kita Onmitsu Douchuu (Yaji/Kita’s Secret Travels). Yaji and Kita are popular Japanese characters, showing up in everything from Hiroshige paintings to samurai movies. And shoujo manga, in the guise of two uber-cool high school girls who fight for justice and never stick around long enough to get the guy or girl.
YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki © Shitou Ryoko, Bonita Comics. Akita Shoten
Original characters and situations, E. Friedman