Strong Winds (1999)

[FLP00]

Strong Winds



Tokyo, Japan. May of 1999


"A hurricane? You want me to cover the news about a hurricane?" Hisae asked to her boss, clearly frightened. She was afraid of what could happen to her there, but she was afraid too that her boss would mistake her surprise by refusal. She could not afford to lose her current job; finding a new job in Tokyo was really tough. "Nakada-san... Will I be in danger there?"

Nakada refused with his head. "Oh, no! Not at all" he assured her. "In fact, the eye of the hurricane won't pass near Tokyo. Not even close. You shouldn't worry."
Given this information, Hisae felt more relaxed, but now she felt disrespected. At 29, she had been working hard for the last eight years, covering all kinds of stupid stories and now they're sending her to cover a hurricane! It was so unfair. Nakada-san passed his hand through his gray hair and then placed it on Hisae's shoulder.

"You'll be safe. I promise you that" he said, smiling without showing his teeth. Hisae couldn't decide if that smnile was a paternal one or... another thing. She wished it was the former. Nakada-san rubbed his hand over Hisae's arm, further creeping her out. "Nakada-san?" asked Hisae, nervous. "I have a lot of work to do... May I leave?"

Nakada-san put his hand out of Hisae's shoulder, seeming quite disappointed.

"Sure, you may go." he said. After bowing lightly and thanking him, Hisae turned around and walked towards her office. She heard Nakada-san talking to her from behind.

"If you still have some concerns about this job you can go to my office. I'd gladly discusse them with you there!"

Hisae, feeling furious, said nothing. Instead, she picked her bag from her office, walked over her crew's office and stuck her nose on it.

"We have another shitty job to do. Let's go!"

-------------------------

The crew's van headed towards one of the many docks that Tokyo has. Hisae believed that the images would be much more shocking and effective if there is some sea near the camera's range of filming.

"I don't get it" said Hisae, sitting next to one of the members of her crew, a young man named Kazuo. "Eight years. Eight years of hard work! All I want is that position as weather woman. Makada-san knows that I want it badly, but he refuses to promote me, no matter how many days I work overtime."

"Haven't you thought of applying for a job in another TV chanel? You may be lucky" said Kazuo. Hisae refused with her head.

"And starting from the bottom again? No way. That would equate to throwing all these years away" she looked at Kazuo and pointed her figher at him; "That's why I want this

story to be good! I'm demonstrating that I can be competent and that I don't hesitate to take risks in life. What would make a better proof of risk-taking that heading into a hurricane?"

"Easy, Hisae. We're not heading into a hurricane. We're just getting close to it, that's all" said Kazuo, a little surprised by Hisae's vehemence.

"You get my point" continued Hisae. "Sometimes I think that Nakada-san doesn't promote me because I won't indulge with his flirting towards me..." Hisae's face displayed a disgusted grin.

"Did he do that?" asked Kazuo, shocked.

"Oh, he always does" states Hisae, enhancing the disgusted grin. "I cannot believe it! His age is almost twice mine's. Does he really think that he has a chance? Please..." And after a pause; "Perv."

Kazuo said nothing to this. He had known Hisae for a long time and have worked with her plenty of times, and that was enough to realize that if he tried to offer reasonable advice to Hisae in that right moment she could lash out against him. She didn't want advice, but to rant instead. She wanted emotional support. And he would have been glad to offer it to her, if not for the not-so-fun idea of having to film near a hurricane in the docks. He was concerned about what could happen.

Finally, the van arrived to the docks in the harbor. Hisae and Kazuo were looking through the van's window and they were terrified; Giant waves were hitting the docks. The wind had ripped some signs from their poles and some of those signs were being carried by the wind further into the sea. Ships, even the biggest ones, wailed under the force of the waves and the wind. The sky had a dark gray-ish color that didn't lead to think that the end of this bad weather was a matter of minutes only.

"Well" said Kazuo, taking a deep breath. "It's time!"

He opened the van's sliding door. As soon as he did they could hear the hurricane's wind in all their power. Hisae thoght it was incredibly intense and heasitated to get out of the van, completely frightened. Nakada-san had to be joking!
However, Kazuo was already out of the van, and so were the rest of the crew. She had no choice, so Hisae got out of the van, smartly dressed in her ivory-colored skirt suit. She was a short woman, standing only 5ft2, but she possesed a very cute face. Her black straight hair was very long, almost reaching her butt, which was cute and certainly quite big. The fast winds didn't make her job easier in any way. Neither for her nor for her crew; Kazuo could not set the cameras right and, with every gust of wind Hisae thought that she was going to be carried into the sea. Hisae had to place her bodyweight into the direction the wind was coming from in order to stay on her feet. Her hair kept getting wrapped around her face, moved by the wind.

"Kazuo! Let's do this now!" shouted Hisae. The wind prevented them from hearing themselves clearly. "This hurricane is going to kill us!"

Kazuo was almost done with the cameras; "Hold on, Hisae! It's almost ready". He seemed pretty scared, and nobody could blame him; although there hadn't been casualties, the wind had destroyed properties and caused damage to several ships in the harbor. Only luck could be the true reason behind the fact that their equipment was still undamaged.

"Hurry up, Kazuo!" urged Hisae, who was holding her hair and her skirt down at the same time. Kazuo started to feel annoyed. Hisae complained as much as she wanted standing there and doing nothing while he and the rest of the crew prepared the equipment.

"I'd go faster if you didn't distract me" grumbled Kazuo. Hisae, however, just waved her hand in an impatient gesture.

"Whatever! Just set that up" she demanded. Kazuo shrugged it and said nothing while he kept working. In general he liked Hisae, both physically and personality-wise. But under stress, she could be pretty much a pain in the ass. Despite all this, Kazuo managed to set the equipment up and get it ready to start filming.

"Okay, guys, this is done! We can start now and get the hell out of here soon!" he said, and everybody took their roles. A member of the crew threw the microphone to Hisae, who managed to catch it in the air. She tried her best to display a professional and relaxed posture, but given that hellish wind she could not do much.

"Good evening, Japan!" she started to say, displaying her beautiful smile, while keeping her hair from standing in her face with one hand. In other circumstances that would have looked horrible, but the hurricane was a good excuse for that. "I'm Kikuchi Hisae, broadcasting live from the docks of Tokyo's harbor. As you can see, the effects of the hurricane have been devastating; only workers from emergency services are on duty now, as the conditions make work impossible for the rest."

Hisae kept giving information in her fast Japanese speech while trying her best not to get dropped to the ground by the winds. She moved to the left side of the camera all the time, in order to remain in the middle of the filming range. It made Hisae look like the main character of a surreal comedy farce.
Kazuo wanted to get this done for good, and was mentally encouraging Hisae to speak faster. In his opinion, this coverage was a waste of time; most people in Japan didn't need any coverage to know that the hurricane was causing a mess all over the east shore. But he wasn't the boss, so he had to suck it up like Hisae did.

Then, out of nowhere, the wind seemed to get stronger. Kazuo feared of the equipment -the cameraman almost fell to the ground- and Hisae clearly lost a lot of balance, as she stumbled like a drunk woman inside of a moving bus taking a turn.

"Oh" she muttered, but then she went back to her professional demeanor. "The government has stated that it won't hesitate to provide support for those families affected by the hurricane. We remind you that, for now there haven't been any casualties caused by this hurricane."

Another strong gust of wind struck Hisae, this time hard enough to make her fall to the ground. Hisae got back up as quick as she could, blushing big time. In spite of that, she went back to her professional-journalist-mode. The wind was shaking the ivory-colored lapels of her jacket over her tight black microfiber T-shirt.

"The rescue services are have focused in the near sea, in case some vessels, either local or foreigner, may need help. Scientist say that this hurricane will head north from here, will strike the island of Hokkaido lightly and two days later it will fade far into the ocean. However, they remind us that we need to follow basic safety tips..."

Hisae kept talking. Kazuo was fighting the urge to jump into the van and leaving that place. What was Nakada-san thinking? This was too dangerous. If only he paid better...
Hisae, meanwhile, was talking to the millions of spectators about those easy-to-follow tips that may prevent them from getting dragged with the hurricane. And then, another gust of wind. It wasn't as strong as the second, but this one struck Hisae with a somewhat upward angle. The air seemed to concentrate between her legs and started to pull Hisae's skirt up. The skirt was a little tight, but with such a strong wind that didn't matter much. Hisae was quick enough of reflexes and placed her hand on the hem of her skirt, preventing it to rise up. Kazuo felt a shudder.

"Lock you windows shields. Don't leave your house unless it's strictly necessary. If you have a basement..."

Hisae's voice didn't sound confident anymore. Which was understandable, as trying to broadcast a hurricane while holding your skirt down and, in top of that, trying to look professional was anything but easy. The wind hadn't weakened after the gust, so Hisae had to hold her skirt down the whole time. Kazuo thought that now it really looked like a comedy TV show.

While Hisae was warning people that they shouldn't walk near hanging wires under any condition, and new, extremely powerful gust of wind hit her again. Hisae struggled to keep her position, while holding the hem of her skirt down. Since she had the other hand holding the microphone, she could not prevent her long black air from covering her face and even getting inside her mouth.

Suddenly, something happened. Hisae hadn't imagined this, not even in a thousand years.

RRRRRIIIIIIIPPPPP!!!!!

That last gust of wind was so powerful that had literally ripped her skirt off of her! Kazuo was so amazed that followed Hisae's ivory skirt with his sight. The skirt was being carried by the wind until it finally dropped in the water, far into the harbor. There was no way that Hisae was retrieving her skirt.

Hisae, meanwhile, looked down and saw that she was skirtless. Not only her crew, but millions of Japanese people were watching live what underwear she had choosen to wear today; it was a pair of dark blue high cut panties, whose sides had trims made of cute lace. The panties were very tight, and a cameltoe was crearly on display.

Hisae lifter her hands and screamed. Despite having put the microphone far from her mouth, the whole crew could hear her scream over the windblow. Hisae could only react at this horrible situation.

"NOOOOOOO!!! MY SKIRT!!!!"

And she only managed to use her hands and the microphone to cover the front side of her panties. In another instinctive move, she solved to turn around, forgetting about the exposure of her big ass. The spectators were now delighted with the sight of Hisae's round buttocks under the tight dark blue fabric of her panties. The seat of Hisae's panties, made of polyamide, was big and covered almost her whole ass, but it was so tight that looked almost like painted on her skin. Since the wind kept blowing, the hem of Hisae's jacket was flailing over her waist, exposing her underwear no matter what.

Finally, she solved to cover now her ass, using both her hands and the microphone, placing the device in front of the lower part of her ass. Kazuo thought that it looked like Hisae had solved to interview her own ass, enhancing the comedic impression. Finding Hisae physically attractive, he had been having some kind of thoughs about her during the years; one of them, or couse, wondering about which underwear Hisae wore. Now that he had seen it, he was still in sock about the whole situation. Not knowing exactly what to do, he -along with the whole creew, which was equally amazed- bursted into a fit of laughter.

Hisae's final move was to head towards the van, still with her hands and the microphone trying to cover her large ass. Tears were pouring from her pretty almond-shaped eyes; she was crying from humiliation.

"This is the worst day of my life!" she cried, while getting into the van and closing the sliding door.

---------------------------

Two days later. Hisae is in her flat, sitting in her couch and dressed in her old, ragged baggy clothes and covering her legs with a thick blanket. She was watching TV while eating all kind of junk-food. She was feeling depressed overall because what had happened to her in the harbor. Ironically, before that she was trying to lose some weight because she thought that her thigs and her butt were a little fat -despite weighing only 120 pounds. In fact, that was one of the things that mortified her the most about losing her skirt in public. But now, she didn't care that much about that anymore.

Nakada-san had sent her home for a whole week in order, as he said, to recover emotionally from such a traumatic experience. Hisae suspected that the old man's nice gesture had nothing to do with her emotional well-being, but it was just a move in order to look good to her. Anyway, she really didn't care; she didn't see how the hell she was going to face her coworkers when she came back to work. Hisae had left the house in a couple of ocassions since her public humiliation, one of them to buy the junk food that she was now eating. At first everything went good but a little kid, that was there with his mother, pointer his finger at her and laughed, telling his mom who Hisae was. Her mother's reaction was to place her hand on her mouth, but Hisae could appreciate that she was hiding a smile. She had left the place blushing, feeling utterly embarrassed.

The phone rang. Since it was over a little table near the couch Hisae didn't need to get up to pick the phone.

"Moshi, moshi" said Hisae, asnwering the phone. She didn't expect any call, but she wasn't surprised to hear Nakada-san's voice at the other side of the line.

"Hisae? I called you to check how you're doing..." he said, with a timid voice. Hisae thought it was normal, since it was a situation difficult to handle. She answered politely, as always, but sounding a little off.

"I'm fine, Nakada-san. Thanks for calling" she said. "And thanks for giving me a week off. I really need it. I'll work extra-hard when I come back"

"Don't worry about that" said Nakada-san. "It was a horrible accident, I wanted to make sure you're coping well. Anything you may need... just call me, okay?"

"Thanks again, Nakada-san" thanked Hisae. "I'm fine for now, but in case I need something I'll call you."

"Good." A brief pause. "Hisae..." Nakada-san grasped. "I have some news for you. I don't know if this is the best moment to tell them to you, but... well, here it goes..."

Hisae was intrigued. And a little scared, fearing that she would be fired. "N... Nakada-san?" she asked, fearful. Hisae resembled a scared little girl. "Nakada-san? Is something wrong?"

"Oh, no! Not at all" he said, with a conforting tone of voice. "You see... The video of... what happened to you has been one of the most viewed moments of the history of Japan's TV. A lot of channels and shows have been broadcasting the moment over and over and over..."

"Nakada-san... I already know that" said Hisae, blushing, while trying to sound pleading rather than cynical.

"Wait, wait!" he interrupter her. "Given the amount of share that we have been in these last two days, we've thought that you would make our best weather woman. So, I'm offering to come back here in five days as our weather woman. What do you say to that?"

Hisae was speechless. And she had mixed feelings too; being a weather woman had been her dream for the last eight years, and now she only had to say yes. On the other hand, that offer was based in the fact that people will watch the weather report only to see the woman who made a huge fool of herself on TV. She didn't exactly know how to respond to that.

"Of course, keep in mind that people will know you for being the girl of the blue panties -that's how they're calling you on some night shows already, I'm sorry" Nakada-san kept saying. "But with the amount of spectators that you could drag to the channel we would have a big past of the share. And we'll pay you accordingly.

Weather woman. Money. Hisae found it difficult to say no. And she didn't;

"Thank you, Nakada-san" she said, finally. "That's exactly what I wanted."

"Good... uh, Hisae? One last thing..."

"Yes, Nakada-san?" she asked, intrigued.

"Well... uh... we have been having plenty of calls and mails about what happened to you two days ago" he explained to Hisae. Nakada-san sounded extremely nervous. "They have asked mostly about... about your underwear. A lot of ladies wanted to know where do you buy yours and..." a brief pause. Nakada-san grasped again. "A man from Hokkaido has offered to pay you 40'000 yens if you send him the blue panties that you were wearing that day."

Hisae was speechless at this, completely amazed. She didn't want to keep talking... what to say now?

"Uh... oh... Nakada-san? I'm sorry, but I have to hang the phone. I was cooking, and it smells like roasted now. I'm sorry! Goodbye!" Hisae lied and hung the phone. She remained in her couch looking at the wall, completely astonished. Apparently, a man at the other side of the country wanted to buy her worn underwear.

"Perv" she muttered.

---------------------------------

At the other side of the line, Nakada-san hung the phone too. He was sitting in his desk, looking disappointed.

"Well" he sighted to the empty room. "Seems like I'm not going to get Hisae's panties. At least I tried."



The End.