“I’ll never forget this moment. I promise.”

Wakahisa Tamiko


16


February 20th


Year 10


Pansexual


Tamiko may appear perfectly healthy on the outside, maybe just a bit underweight, but were one to peel back the layers, one would see an invested lung and lymph nodes. Cancer. Stage IIIb. Inoperable. Currently undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy in order to make the time she does have just a little bit more comfortable. Tamiko has more or less accepted her likely mortality, though rather than fret over the future, she lives in the moment, taking things one day at a time.


At about 155cm, Tamiko is not exactly the tallest girl around, rather landing squaring on the opposite side with her petite build. Her skin is rather pale, though her cheeks and nose are a bit more rosy and have a smattering of freckles running across the middle of her face, just under her eyes. Her straight, brown hair is often trimmed into a bob cut. While she does apply make-up, it’s kept to a minimum.

She’s not much for the whole fashion scene, either. When out and about, Tamiko dresses for comfort. Simple t-shirts, shorts or pants, anything that would give her the freedom to move or breathe is right up her alley. She does seem to favour the colour pink though, owning a number of shirts in various shades of it. Should she have to dress up for some sort of occasion, Tamiko prefers to keep things simple. Nothing loud, just mainly traditional get-ups.


The younger of the Wakahisa girls is a fiercely independent woman, who loves being in control of her life, making her own decisions, and quickly becomes irritated when this isn’t the case. Live and let live. Tamiko isn’t about to get onto others for how they live their lives and expects the same. She’s rather confident in her choices, and resents the notion that she may need to rely on others for anything. Perhaps a bit too much. Due to her condition, she’s had many people display a nauseating amount of pity for her. Quick word of advice: don’t do that. While at first it simply made her uncomfortable, she now takes it rather personally.

That all being said, Tamiko does like others. She’s rather relaxed most of the time. Warm even. And while she’s not one to really share her own problems, she’s all ears if somebody needs to vent, finding it quite easy to empathize. Besides, that helps remove herself from the spotlight. It’s a win-win, really.

The girl has a rather competitive side oddly enough. She loves competing in...well, just about anything. The glory that exists in the moment after a victory, well, it’s enough to keep her going. Granted, she’s not delusional enough to think that she can’t lose - she just doesn’t like thinking about it. When it does inevitably happen, however, Tamiko tries to keep her cool. She really doesn’t like losing, but she’s not going to blow her cool over it. Just expect her to downplay it a bit in case of a loss, or ham it up if she wins. But it’s all in good fun.

There’s also a bit of an unpredictability to Tamiko. She’s a creature of impulse, often forgoing plans and responsibilities in favour of whatever happens to catch her attention at the time. Along with being so spontaneous, she’s got a rather poor sense of time. Punctuality, thy name is not Wakahisa Tamiko. Others may see this as somewhat annoying if they prefer more structured lifestyles, but...well, who needs them? Tamiko likes to have fun. And fun to Tamiko is usually actually DOING something rather than just sitting around and talking about it. Who needs a schedule if that schedule is going to get in the way of just living?

Yet, the girl’s free spirit also breeds a rather imaginative and passionate artistic nature. She’s curious about the world, and how she and others may see or hear it completely differently. Thus she strives to explore this, mainly in music. She tries to craft sounds that touch people deep in their hearts, throwing every bit of her being into her work. At times, the girl gets so absorbed in what she’s doing that time and even the world around her may disappear without her knowing. All that matters is translating her thoughts into sound.

And yet, despite the pure love and effort Tamiko puts into her work, she’s rather sensitive about it. While she is a normally confident person, when it comes to music, Tamiko tends to suffer some esteem issues. Where she normally has thick walls guarding her soul, music transcends such barriers, becoming a pure, vulnerable display of her heart. As such, she’s not likely to perform in front of people. It may happen, but not if she has anything to say about it.

Being so in touch with her own emotions, Tamiko is rather easily susceptible to stress. While she would hate to show weakness in front of others, when things get a bit too overwhelming, Tamiko simply shuts down. Knowing this, the girl often flees when things get a bit out of hand, retreating to a more personal place to get a grip


Enrolling in Yamaku wasn’t exactly a life-changing ordeal for Wakahisa Tamiko. Rather, it was to be expected. She was born to an average family living in an average small town within the Miyagi Prefecture. Yamaku just so happened to be the closest school to her home, so it was bound to happen one way or another, barring some kind of miracle or outstanding academic or athletic latent abilities earning her a place at a more prestigious place. When Tamiko displayed rather average grades and mediocre athletic skills, it all but sealed the deal.

It’s no biggie.

She never much cared to gaze longingly at the future, dreaming of where her life would take her. Instead, she enjoyed the things that were happening around her. The small miracles that happened each and every day. And more than that, she had her music. As long as she could play, she didn’t quite care what life threw her way

Unfortunately for her, life decided to throw a raw deal.

Go directly to cancer. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

They discovered it a bit too late to really do much for her. Radiation therapy and a bit of chemo to try to keep it from spreading and buy her a little more time. While her parents and sister took a bit harshly, Tamiko didn’t really get hung up on it too much. Alright, that’s a bit of a lie. She had a hard time understanding why she had to have it. And in the beginning, she even felt a bit robbed. Of time. Of life. It didn’t seem fair. But she quickly realized that just dwelling on it would do nothing but destroy her. There was nothing that she or her doctors could do about it. The treatment wasn’t going to cure her cancer, just...y’know, keep it still. She was going to die young, there was no way around that. Once she came to terms with what that all meant, Tamiko went back to her old self. Yeah, it sucked, but it didn’t mean that she had to give the damn disease control over her. She was nobody’s puppet. Certainly not some disease’s.

She ended up continuing her classes at Yamuka. It’s been a year since she was diagnosed, and she’s holding on strong. She’s responded well to the treatments, even keeping her hair despite the chems and radiation. Lucky her. She’d decided to just live everyday like it’s her last, squeezing every last drop of life out of her days as possible. While she knows it may end up being a stretch, she hopes to graduate. But if that doesn’t happen, she’d be alright.

It’s no biggie.


Currently owns an old Taylor acoustic twelve-string guitar given to her by her uncle living in America and a pink bass guitar that her sister Mio bought for her.

"No excuses, just get it done."

Wakahisa Mio


18


August 2nd


Year 12


Heterosexual. Probably.


Student Council, Baseball Club, Literature Club


In a bit of a contrast to her tiny sister, Mio is a rather tall woman, hitting 180cm easily. While she is in rather decent shape, her muscles aren’t very well defined at all. Still, her light skin is pulled tight across her body. Instead of freckles, Mio has a very small mole under the corner of her left eye. Her hair, if left alone, falls down just past her shoulders, but it’s unlike Mio to go into public like that. She usually sports a pair of red-rimmed glasses over her pale blue eyes.

Outside of her school uniform, Mio tries to keep herself looking nice. She likes to experiment with her style, so it’s hard to really pinpoint what she’s going to wear. She does love dressing up though, so it’s not uncommon to see her in dresses or just stylish skirts. Nothing tasteless, though.


Mio can be a...a bit much for some people. On one hand, she’s incredibly energetic, strong-willed, intelligent, ambitious, and efficient. On the other, she a bit headstrong, dominating, and quite frankly, a bit arrogant. She’s a woman of action, approaching life with a calm, clear, strategic mind. She sees problems as challenges, and revels in besting them with carefully laid-out plans.

One would expect that most people wouldn’t take their plans failing very well, but Mio isn’t most people. Rather than getting discouraged, Mio gets even more energized, approaching things from a different angle. She’s willing to work with others to get to the solution to a problem, but don’t expect her to take a back seat. Accepting the ideas of others isn’t exactly something that Mio does very well, not unless she already respects them in some manner. But hey, if she can’t figure it out, she doesn’t have much choice in the matter.

To the outside world, she may even come across as rather cold and ruthless at times, eager to crack the whip. Seemingly insensitive when it comes to accomplishing her goals. It’s not exactly without merit, but Mio DOES care about others. Why, she’d do anything for her little sister Tamiko. In fact, she’s rather kind and motherly to the girl, supportive to boot. But actually getting to that side of Mio is a challenge. She doesn’t exactly handle her emotions well. She keeps most things bottled up refusing to deal with things. Especially not in front of others. And as far as other’s emotions go...well, Mio can be a bit careless with her words or actions from time to time. It’s nothing personal. She just really dislikes laziness and inefficiency. Honestly, it’s her own fault, but she’s not likely to face THAT little truth either. But what can she say? She’s rather impatient after all. Deadlines won’t meet themselves, y’know.

Mio tends to pile responsibility on herself. She enjoys the rush that she gets from being stressed. She THRIVES on it. So much so that she actually feels a bit lost when she doesn’t have something she needs to be doing. But that rarely happens. What with her work with the Student Council, her management of the Baseball Club, and odd appearances at the Literature Club, Mio is stretched quite thin. Even when she’s not participating in some sort of club activity, she is deep into her studies. She’s even tried her hand at music and isn’t too shabby on guitar, but Tamiko ended up with most of the creativity in the family.

The practical girl oddly enough has a great sense of humor. While not one to crack jokes often, she finds most things funny. One of the easiest ways of getting past Mio’s walls is to make her laugh. Do that, and she’ll put up with most crap. Probably.


The firstborn daughter to a couple living in the Miyagi Prefecture, Mio had a fairly happy upbringing. She wasn’t around long before she had a sister, Tamiko. She latched on to her sister from an early age, trying to assume a sort of “protector” role for the little girl. Why, at times, it seemed as if Mio was more of a mother to Tamiko than their own mother.

Mio early on showed signs of a great intelligence. Quick to learn to speak, to read, to write, she breezed through her classes, bringing home nothing less than top marks. She even got accepted to a very good school that would practically put her on the fast track to one of the top universities in the country.

But then Mio’s world shattered.

Her little sister was diagnosed with cancer. Late. And it didn’t look good.

She couldn’t accept it for the longest time. Still can’t, quite frankly. It’s gotten to the point that Mio simply doesn’t speak about it. That little conversation piece has been shelved nice and tight under the “This isn’t happening” category. While Mio has seemingly gotten a bit happier since Tamiko pulled herself out of her funk, the girl still seems a bit...touchy about her sister.

So much so that upon Tamiko returning to Yamaku, Mio pulled out of her posh academy and transferred. While everyone protested her decision, Mio was hearing none of it. She wanted to go to school with her little sister and that was that.

Since arriving at Yamaku, Mio wasted no time in getting as involved as she could, joining the Student Council, managing the Baseball Club, and attending the meetings of the Literature Club when she could. It would appear as if Mio was trying to drown herself in as much responsibility as possible, effectively killing any and all free time she might have once had.

Still, she seems happy for the most part. And utterly convinced that Tamiko will get through this stupid disease just fine.


Absolutely adores animals.
Absolutely terrible cook.