preview

Yu Dialectical Journal

Decent Essays

His feet are numb. Seaspray splashes onto his cheeks, glistening under the moonlight. Water pools around his ankles as waves ebb back and forth over the rough shore. It's early in the summer—the dreaded Japanese humidity is not yet at its peak—but the monsoon season has begun. So far, this year's summer rain, the everlasting tsuyu, is the same as it's always been. Rain is rain, Yuuri thinks. Rain has been the same for millennia. Except Yuuri knows that's not true. Being friends with Phichit teaches you things—weather patterns over the last century, carbon emission trends, the hashtag of the year on Twitter—you name it. Admittedly, Yuuri doesn't always pay attention to Phichit's ramblings (especially when they start to get political), but …show more content…

The Japanese Branch is peaceful and quietly devoted to technology research. They've bred some exceptional Field Arbitrators in the past few decades (a fact which Yuuri is intensely proud of), but that number has declined. There are no other Japanese Field Arbitrators, none that Yuuri can speak with. Though now, Yuuri thinks, they wouldn't talk to me even if I begged them to. His parents had welcomed him back with open arms, but he knew that the Japanese Branch resented him. Sure, Yuuri was lucky—he'd gotten away with barely a slap on the wrist—but the punishment still left a bitter taste in his mouth. A temporary suspension is disgraceful, no matter how harsh the alternatives might be. As Japan's only Field Arbitrator, it was Yuuri’s duty to make his compatriots proud. He failed. He had broken a law, a sacred law that even the most liberal of Arbitrators hesitated to tamper with. He'd broken a law and had paid for it. Otabek had told Yuuri to lay low and stay out of the spotlight—no matter how hard that might be—but he didn't know how much Yuuri loathed them. Spotlights shone with a sickly light; they were ugly and spun dizzily, scorching everyone under their relentless beams. Yuuri was often left feeling a tad more than just

Get Access