Lavo Standard (14) (9-8-09)

“I’m really sorry, Keyron. But I have something to do. I’m going but will come back soon after finishing the job.”

Jade was reluctant to leave Keyron alone, but a request to tail the girl came from the bottom of Libro’s heart.

Juno did not join a line of adults waiting for a bus which would take her home. Instead, she went to the rail station, bought a ticket and passed through the ticket gate to catch a train. Libro could not even guess where Juno was going, but believed that following her would give him a chance to see her face to face.

Jade too was unsure at which station the girl would get off, and bought the cheapest ticket to just pass through the ticket gate: Boarding a train was the priority. Ascending the steps, Jade found the girl waiting for a local train on the platform, which would reach Shinjuku and go further to the west, and began waiting as well by her.

The situation was difficult for Jade: If she dissociated Libro from her amongst people, he would soon be mobbed since he had been telecast nationwide. If Jade in this state is already intimate with the girl there is no need to begin from introducing herself and to explain that Libro is inside the body, and can easily take her to some safe place for him to face her. But this situation was untrue. Put in this predicament, Jade was just standing by the girl while seeking a way to isolate her from a crowd.

The name of the girl was Juno, Jade learned from Libro.

A trip was nearing, away from Keyron. Whereas at any rate Jade was surely slated to revert to a cat, she hated to imagine that this trip would let Libro go forever. She preferred reverting to a cat just for minutes. “I may want to see Keyron after finishing this job, as a human for another time,” confided Jade. And, Libro agreed.

Inside the train car, there were some empty seats. While being bothered by other passengers a little, Jade sat on a seat in the middle of a broadset on the northern side, after Juno took a seat at the corresponding location on the opposite side. Juno appeared fidgeting, unsettlingly changing the direction of her face and looking at a piece of paper on her hands. The location of the seat allowed Jade and Libro easy observation at Juno’s behavior and made him happy. Out the window behind Juno, scenery with residential buildings was quickly shifting from the right to the left as the train was moving. Jade conceived of the scenery as beautiful during the transit: the Edo river, the Shin-nakagawa river and the Arakawa river, each of which accompanied wide grassy fields on both sides; The clear skies were at a moment of changing the tone of its colors.

About 17 minutes after departing the Ichikawa station, the train was arriving at the sixth one, Ryogoku. A little taken aback by an announcement which communicated the next stop, Juno stood up and walked to a pair of automated doors to get off the car.

The meeting place written on the memo was the west exit of the Ryogoku station, and the time was 5:30 p.m. It was a small adventure for Juno since Ryogoku--home to a grand sumo stadium and stables--was not an area her family was familiar with so much. According to her memories, she with her family had just passed by the station and never gotten off the cars here. In addition, it would be late to go back home.

Nevertheless, Ric told her that this trip would give an opportunity to become more adult--this travel itself yet seemed part of the opportunity. As Juno had high trust in him, there seemed nothing to chill her motivation.

Ric wrote down on the memo in a way Juno, also given drawings, could understand what was meant, that he would tell Suzan Juno would take an extra lesson on something important and go back home late. Reading up all the memo, Juno believed that communication between Ric and Suzan would be of adults to cover children issues. Even though Juno was in an argument with Suzan and hating her, she admitted that she was mature; so was Ric. Juno remembered that Ric had told that he lived in an apartment near the Ryogoku station, and she anticipated that entering his independent living would be a milestone in her growth toward adulthood. Henceforth, the green roofs of Ryogoku Kokugikan, the stadium for sumo bouts, and the unique spacecraft-esque design of the gigantic Edo-Tokyo Museum would remain firmly in Juno’s memory as landmarks symbolic of the area.

Juno wrongly took the east exit which led her to land on the southern side of the station. The street along the station was lined with restaurants, pubs, a cake shop, a fruit and vegetable shop and a pachinko parlor. Although there was still about an hour before the rendezvous, the design of each lights-fitted sign--still inactivated--and shopfront looked so artistic and interesting, some unique, that Juno wouldn’t pay attention to the significance of Ryogoku Kokugikan and the Edo-Tokyo Museum on the opposite side. There also was a convenience store very close by the east exit of the station, wherein she could kill time. Thanks to all the lures, Juno’s time was passing quickly.

Meanwhile, Jade and Libro were tracking Juno’s footsteps at a distance along the station. Juno’s heart seemed captured as she repeated to move and stop from door to door across small businesses; At each stoppage her peaceful smile and somewhat inquisitive eyes were cast at those embellishments. After window-shopping, she entered a convenience store and began having her nose in books. Gathering Juno’s all behavior led to a conclusion that she was waiting for someone.

For Jade in search of a safe place where Libro would see Juno, however, as the Ryogoku station was a hectic part of the public transportation, passers-by would never leave the street completely isolated. Plus, those pubs and restaurants would fuel their number at night, although it was Sunday, not Friday. A question was if walking on this street eastward out of commercial activities would surely lead to a least populous place.

Then, through the glass wall of the convenience store Jade witnessed Juno return a book onto the shelf, leave the store and walk to the west exit; She began standing off the ticket gate.

Shortly later, a tall slim man crossed the line of automated ticket machines at the gate and approached Juno.

“Excuse me for making you wait,” said the man with a smile.

“It’s OK, Ric!” Juno beamed.

Following the situation via the human body, Libro reacted earliest to the face of the man.

“(Jade, we’ve gotta take her back home immediately! I remember that guy! He’s a bad guy!)” the squeak of Libro was trembling.