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Truth be told, Norika’s had a suspicion that Tsunami and she may actually be related by blood or by some sort of ancient alliance both of their families have forgotten – maybe her father whom she’s never known and Mom has never talked about aside from vague “he’s no longer of this world”-like stuff, would turn out to be Tsunami’s father’s brother or something.
Still, as far as she knows, their only relation is friendship and this is all in her mind, and perhaps in Tsunami’s, but he’s been known to “adopt” people a little younger than him, so she’s not the first (if his friendship with Tachimukai is anything to go by) and she certainly won’t be the last.
Still, she can always say they spent at least their high school years as if they were cousins or siblings. After all, the Tsunamis were the first to welcome Mom and her to the neighbourhood they had just moved into at the time, so Norika has always had a fondness for them. They invited Mom and she to eat dinner with them, to birthday parties for their children, to community events. Norika’s first glimpse of Japan outside of the two islands she had inhabited was because the Tsunamis had invited her to travel with them to attend an important match for their oldest son, so it was as if she was a little part of this loving family.
Moving out from Inakuni where she had always lived and to Okinawa was an unpleasant experience to her: she knew nobody, had no actual knowledge of her new home island except for vague knowledge, and had a hard time fitting in because of that. Tsunami, however, didn’t mind any of it. He showed her around, answered her question with a good dose of enthusiasm and even taught her how to surf just because it was a fun thing he wanted to pass onto someone.
If it wasn’t for him, Norika wouldn’t have loved Okinawa as much as she does. It’ll never be quite the same as Inakuni, of course, but she still very much enjoys her visits there.
It’s like they’ve always been there for each other, even at times where things got difficult or weird. Tsunami has to be the least judgemental person she’s been in contact with, so he was the one she was the least afraid to tell about her doubts concerning her sexuality or even her femininity, considering she was the only female player in an otherwise all-male team. He reassured her by pointing out that, sometimes, people think he’s a woman if they looked at him from behind and
When she told him she was probably bi, all he answered with was a very flat “ah, okay, sure”. If it was anyone else, Norika would have probably at least a little bit irked about it, but knowing Tsunami, it was his way to tell her he didn’t care because it didn’t change how he saw her. At a time where it felt like coming out would change every single relationship she had aside from maybe the one she had with her mother, it mattered to her that someone was here for her.
It turned out that it was good the other way around was also valid, considering it was in her that he seriously started wondering if his lack of attraction was any sort of normal; to which she still remembers replying something along the lines of “y’know, if you can be attracted to everyone or anyone, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to be attracted to nobody either”.
Like any good pair of sibling-like friends (and perhaps “friends” is too light of a term for this to be taken so seriously… perhaps “companions” would fit better, it sounds stronger to her for some reason), Tsunami and Norika did have their fair share of disagreements (that always resolved themselves in the end, because they cared too much about each other to leave anything on bad terms). Every disagreement made them understand each other even better, though, so she really never minded them once the heat had passed. Wonderful, wonderful friendship…
…to a point where, even if she knew she was very partially attracted to men (always found girls prettier) and there was the slightest chance it could happen, she also very well knew she’d never fall for who was essentially her sibling from another life. It just didn’t feel right and, to this day, she enforces that this the case: they won’t partake in any spiritual incest, thank you.
Even as she was having troubles with being rejected by straight girls she had gotten attached to or with a relationship that had clearly lost its romantic flame without losing its platonic edge, Tsunami was there to allow her to vent out her concerns and frustrations on the matter, sometimes finding the words to tell her and sometimes just silently supporting her or distracting her away from her unhappy thoughts just so she could finally smile and find the necessary amount of peace of mind to find an actual good solution to her issues.
The term “friend” can be a very strong one, but she can’t really say Tsunami is her best friend either. No, it’s more than that: it’s a sense of camaraderie, of family that she thinks about whenever she actually tries to determine what their relationship is and has been over the years. “Friend” just doesn’t, at least to her, carry the same weight, the same gravitas as what it truly feels like. Words have clearly never been her specialty (there’s a reason why she isn’t currently a literature major and that’s part of it), and she’s always preferred actions over words (and so does Tsunami, come to think of it), so really, now that she has to explain, she’s having a bit of trouble coming up with one.
That, however, doesn’t mean there isn’t one term out there that she feels like could carry the exact meaning it has to her, though…
“Tsunami and I are… companions, you could say?” Norika finally replies with a smile to the curious wannabe journalist who curiously asked her about it.