She offered a strained smile. “No need to apologize, silly.”
Ushio set the music box down, and we ventured deeper into the building, with her making frequent stops along the way to check out any music boxes that caught her eye.
“Hmmm… I dunno what to get,” she said.
“Oh, you actually want to buy one?” I asked.
“Yeah, as a souvenir for my mom. She loves this sort of thing.”
I had a feeling that Yuki would love just about any gift from Ushio; I could already picture her smiling giddily down at a little music box in her palms.
“What about for Misao-chan?”
“I’ll probably just get her a box of Shiroi Koibito at the airport or something. She usually likes getting treats more than trinkets. What about you, Sakuma? Shouldn’t you be looking for a gift for Ayaka-chan?”
“Yeah, I dunno… I’m not really sure what kind of music she likes, honestly. Maybe I’ll get her some sweets or something too.”
“Fair. Well, you can still look around for yourself, I guess. Not a whole lot of places that sell music boxes back home.”
When she put it like that, I felt like it would be a shame not to pick one up. And although I hadn’t had any intention of buying anything when we walked in, I did have more than enough leftover spending money to afford one.
We spent about an hour perusing all of the music boxes they had on offer. In the end, both Ushio and I settled on the simple, see-through variety, which were reasonably priced and fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. I already knew exactly where I’d display mine in my bedroom once we got back home.
After leaving the music box museum behind, we headed over to the Otaru Art Base, and visited the Stained Glass Museum. Upon paying the admission fee and walking inside, we discovered that the interior was far moodier than either of us had been expecting. The dim lighting was a stark contrast from the brightness of the music box museum, but it served to emphasize the vibrant colors of the intricately crafted stained glass windows that lined every wall. It was a powerfully beautiful place.
“Damn… This is pretty incredible,” I marveled.
I hadn’t said it expecting Ushio to acknowledge or agree with me or anything, but I did notice that she didn’t respond. I turned to find her captivated by the large stained glass window we’d just walked past, so I stopped to take a second look. It depicted a person kneeling in prayer before a grave marked by a stone crucifix—with what appeared to be an angel watching over them, just off to the side.
I checked the adjacent placard and learned that the piece was named The Angels’ Prayers. In addition to a description of the artwork, there was also a verse from the biblical book of Revelation: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” This was apparently the message the artist had been trying to imbue into the work—though I had to admit, I didn’t quite grasp the significance.
“Dang, this one’s gorgeous,” I said, voicing my impressions softly because I wasn’t sure if Ushio wanted to be disturbed while she contemplated it. This time, she responded.
“Mm? Oh, yeah,” she said. “Sorry, I got kinda entranced for a second there.”
“There sure are a lot of these that are just people praying, huh? But I guess that was probably your only real option back then, when tragedy struck.”
“Yeah, maybe so. Now that technology and modern medicine can solve a lot of those problems, people don’t need to rely on faith as much anymore… Not that there isn’t still plenty of stuff like that nowadays, where all you can do is pray things work out.”
I didn’t say anything to this, and Ushio quietly walked down the hall.
By the time we left the Stained Glass Museum, it was already getting a bit dark. The snow had let up, but there was still a thick layer of cloud cover hanging over us. It was 4:30 p.m., about time for us to head back to the rendezvous point.
“Guess we should get going,” I said.
“Yeah, okay,” said Ushio.
It wouldn’t take more than ten minutes to get there, so we took our time. But we didn’t speak a word the whole way. With cars constantly passing us by on the roadway, and the sounds of calling gulls and young girls laughing in the distance, it was far from silent—yet I could still vividly hear Ushio breathing softly through her nose. Which I supposed only went to show how mentally preoccupied I was with her right now.
Eventually, the rendezvous point came into view. I’d figured we’d be a little early, but there were already several other students gathered there and waiting for the bus.
“Sakuma,” Ushio said as we made our way down the sidewalk. “We’ve still got some time to spare. Want to walk around a little more?”
“Sure, I don’t mind.”
We took a left at the next intersection and headed toward the bay. As we made it closer to the wharf, the buildings got larger and started to look more like factories and warehouses, and the streets became more deserted.
Eventually, we came to a dead end, where the sound of waves crashing against the breakwater grew louder and the smell of sea salt hung heavily in the air. When I looked out over the water, I could see a large ship making its way to port.
“Damn,” I said. “Feel like I could totally see some yakuza thugs making back-alley deals in a place like this.”
“Stop, you’re gonna creep me out,” said Ushio. “Besides, they usually wait until the dead of night to do those sorts of things. And I’m pretty sure they mostly use private dining rooms in the backs of restaurants and places like that these days.”
“Oh yeah? Sounds like you know more about this stuff than I do.”
“It’s only because they talked about it in this manga I’ve been reading. I’ll lend it to you sometime, if you want to check it out.”
“Yeah, I’d love to.”
For the past month or so, I’d been lending Ushio several of my favorite novels and manga, but now that she’d gotten back into reading, she’d purchased some new ones herself. It was a great feeling to share one of your hobbies with someone else and see them slowly get more and more into it.
“So what did you and Sera talk about, anyway?” she asked abruptly.