Firecracker: The 99th Games Book One

Arena, Night 4 Part 2

Touma turned to her, eyes sparkling. "Really? Can you teach me?"

Kikue nodded, scooting away from Touma enough to draw in the dirt. "Okay, so...this may be hard to see. Do you have the night vision goggles?"

Touma nodded back, retrieving said goggles and pulling them over his eyes. "Yep!"

Kikue smiled. "Here. This character means 'chrysanthemum.'"

She took great care in drawing the character in question, occasionally brushing over the dirt to try again. After four tries, she was finally content.

菊

Touma stared down at the symbol, awed. "Wow...that's so beautiful. You have really nice handwriting!"

Kikue's smile grew warmer. She chuckled bashfully, pleased. "Thank you. It's a beautiful language. You would pronounce this character 'kiku.'"

"Kiku," Touma repeated, nodding firmly.

His genuine interest made Kikue happy, admittedly. She happened to love her name and the deliberate way it was written; sharing it with someone who honestly cared was refreshing.

She drew the second character in the dirt beside the first, as Touma moved to view her writing from the same angle she made it.

"This character means 'depending,'" she recited as she sketched. "It forms the 'e' in my name."

依

"E," Touma echoed. "This is so cool...! I mean, my parents didn't ever teach me this stuff even though I have a Japanese name, so I feel like I'm learning a lot!"

"That isn't even all of it," Kikue said with a chuckle. "My last name begins with the character 'No,' meaning 'field.'"

野

Touma nodded attentively. "Is your last name two characters too?"

"It is," Kikue confirmed. "So if this one is 'No,' the next one must be...?"

"'Guchi?'" Touma guessed.

Kikue nodded, oddly fluttery at the confirmation Touma easily remembered her last name. It was such basic respect, but it had been denied to Kikue so often it had somehow looped back around to being touching.

Her final character was a simple doodle.

口

"It is usually pronounced 'kuchi,' but has some alternate readings," Kikue said. "Including the one used in my surname. It means 'entrance,' essentially."

"Essentially?" Touma pressed.

"More specifically, it means 'mouth' or 'opening,'" Kikue said. "But since 'field opening' is a little awkward, 'entrance' is a more natural translation."

"Kikue Noguchi," Touma mumbled. "Chrysanthemum, depending, field entrance. So your full name means something like...entering a field of dependable chrysanthemums?"

Kikue giggled, covering her mouth so as not to appear impolite. "Y-yes, well...something like that. I wish I knew enough to tell you how to write your name, but there are so many variations, even if I did know every character I couldn't tell you which ones your parents had in mind."

"That's okay," Touma assured. "I already feel smarter! What else can you teach me?"

Kikue left her writing in the dirt, thinking. "Unfortunately, not much. But let me think about the other things on your list..."