Much to her father’s surprise, his brother agreed with his son Jin, and abandoned his attempts to beg for money based solely upon familial blood ties, and instead began to explain the details of his business plan.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kotoe didn’t really understand the conversation from that point on, but ultimately, Kotoe’s father did end up lending his brother some money. What Kotoe remembered was how Jin’s farewell showed far better manners than his father’s.
✦ ✦ ✦
He seemed so noble.
✦ ✦ ✦
He was her first love.
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She had looked forward to seeing him again, but it turned out that the start-up business that Jin’s father had founded with the borrowed money had gone bust. They didn’t return to Kotoe’s house for a very long time. Occasionally, her father would refer to his brother as “that good-for-nothing,” which always made Kotoe extremely sad.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was four years beforeKotoe met Jin again.
✦ ✦ ✦
Father and son called at the Kinukawa home once more. The father was extremely well-dressed, and surprisingly, he returned the money that he had borrowed. Plus interest.
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Kotoe’s father muttered, “Normally, you would also have to pay damages...” but he was clearly happy to have the money back.
✦ ✦ ✦
“But how did you get it?” he asked, but Jin’s father just grinned.
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His son sat next to him, in the uniform from his junior high school. He didn’t appear bored by the grown ups’ conversation, but he also did not appear to be excessively interested either.
✦ ✦ ✦
He blended in so easily, and Kotoe, who was watching from the shadows, was mystified by this.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Say, Kouji, would you like a painting?”
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“Painting?”
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“First rate artists only. I’m in that line of work now.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You sell paintings? You got a D in art! How do you know you aren’t selling fakes?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I leave all that up to him,” he said, pointing at his son. “He’s a genius. He’s won all sorts of awards for his paintings.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Really? But even so...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“His eye is amazing. We buy stuff up at paltry sums, and a year later that artist explodes, and we sell it for ten times the price,” he said proudly.
✦ ✦ ✦
Even when praised, the boy stayed quiet.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Oh? So someday you might become a great artist like Pi-casso, Jin?” Kotoe’s father asked, addressing his nephew for the first time.
✦ ✦ ✦
“That’s my dream, sir,” the boy replied, without a trace of ar-rogance. His manner proved that he was the most together person in the room, Kotoe thought.
✦ ✦ ✦
He knew what everyone in the room was thinking, and matched it. He was perfectly at ease, yet he never gave off even a hint of being such.
✦ ✦ ✦
The evening developed into a drinking party, and J in and his father spent the night at Kotoe’s house.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kotoe wanted desperately to talk with Jin, but he never left his father’s side, and she never had the chance.
✦ ✦ ✦
Only once, when Jin came to the kitchen to get a glass of water for his father’s stomach pills, was she able to say, “Um...”
✦ ✦ ✦
There she was, standing in front of him, the moment she’d been longing for.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Oh, sorry. Can I get some water?” he asked politely.
✦ ✦ ✦
“C-certainly!” Kotoe replied.
✦ ✦ ✦
Her mother said, “What a good boy,” and handed him a cup of water.
✦ ✦ ✦
He bowed his head, and left.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kotoe wanted to call after him, but she couldn’t think of anything to say, and so she could only watch him leave.
✦ ✦ ✦
But that evening, when Kotoe woke in the middle of the night and came down to the kitchen for a drink, she found Jin standing alone in the garden, looking up at the night sky.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was winter outside, and all he had on were the pajamas they’d found for him, so it must have been terribly cold out.
✦ ✦ ✦
He looked so sad. She’d never seen him look anything but calm, so Kotoe was a little shocked.
✦ ✦ ✦
She wanted to know what he was thinking about, but she thought it must be something difficult that she wouldn’t be able to understand. This meant she didn’t know what to do. So she stood there for a while, and eventually he turned and spotted her.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ah. . . !” she exclaimed, and he bowed his head, and came over to the outside of the house.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kotoe hurriedly unlocked the window. “Wh-what are you doing?” she asked. When she opened her mouth, a white cloud came out.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Sorry, didn’t mean to surprise you. I was just wondering if it would snow.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Snow?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah. It looked like it might, but...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You like snow?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah. Childish of me, huh?” he grinned.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Aren’t you cold?” she asked, and instantly regretted it. What a stupid question.
✦ ✦ ✦
But he didn’t seem to notice. “Sure, it’s cold. I was just about to come inside,” he said softly, bobbed his head, and walked away.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kotoe watched him go again.
✦ ✦ ✦
At the time, they were just relatives. They had no other connection. So once again, quite some time passed without the two of them seeing each other.
✦ ✦ ✦
(But...)
✦ ✦ ✦
Kotoe stopped in front of the most eye-catching remnant, a spiral tower that was to have been named “The Ladder.” Like Asukai J in had done as a boy, she looked up at the sky.
✦ ✦ ✦
But of course, it was not snowing. After all, it was April.
✦ ✦ ✦
(But. . .Jin-niisan’s father, so awful...) His cause of death was still unclear.
✦ ✦ ✦
He was walking along the street, and suddenly, he vomited up blood and fell over. It was all so sudden that the police suspected he’d been poisoned.
✦ ✦ ✦
But there were no traces of anything like that. Witnesses had said that just before his death, he’d eaten lunch at a perfectly ordinary family restaurant. Nobody who worked at the restaurant had any connections to him. Clearly, it wasn’t poison.
✦ ✦ ✦
Even so, the whole ordeal left Asukai Jin orphaned.
✦ ✦ ✦
“We should help him,” Kotoe said.
✦ ✦ ✦
Her mother asked, “Why don’t we adopt him?”
✦ ✦ ✦
But since her father had married into the family, he felt it would never do for him to take in his brother’s child. Besides, Asukai J in himself refused to entertain such notions, telling them not to worry.
✦ ✦ ✦
His father’s business was handed off to others, and most of the inheritance went to various debts and obligations, but Jin quickly secured a full scholarship to an art school, and a job as a cram school teacher took care of his living expenses. Very efficient.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kotoe was somewhat relieved.
✦ ✦ ✦
If they had adopted him, then she would have become his sister. Sure, it was a dream, but as long as they were cousins, the possibility remained.
✦ ✦ ✦
But no matter how quickly Asukai Jin had taken charge of his situation, that sad boy who stared up at the night sky remained.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kotoe could still see it in him.
✦ ✦ ✦
He had some sort of burden. He’d carried it for a very long time.
✦ ✦ ✦
(And yet...)
✦ ✦ ✦
Recently, Jin was acting strangely.
✦ ✦ ✦
Wandering around all night long, coming back with what looked like bloodstains on his clothes. . .and even worse, he was oddly cheerful.
✦ ✦ ✦
He had always been affable, easy to get along with and well liked. That hadn’t changed, but...
✦ ✦ ✦
The only person who had listened to her problems was a girl from her school named Suema Kazuko. They weren’t close enough to be called friends, but she had listened carefully, and told her,
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why don’t you leave things up to me?”
✦ ✦ ✦
She had telephoned later and added, “I’ll clear things up, but until then, you’d better stay away from him.” Which meant Kotoe hadn’t seen Jin for a while.
✦ ✦ ✦
Suema Kazuko seemed reliable, and she would probably be able to figure things out far better than Kotoe herself could ever manage. But she still missed him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Jin-niisan. . .” she whispered, looking up at the red sky.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Is that your man’s name?” a voice asked from behind her.
✦ ✦ ✦
Surprised, she tried to turn around, but the electric monster’s hands had already latched onto each side of her head.
✦ ✦ ✦
There was a crackle, and she could feel her brain’s functions rudely interrupted.
✦ ✦ ✦
“............?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Kinukawa Kotoe was unconscious.
✦ ✦ ✦
Spooky E had gone through the pockets of his newly acquired prey, and found her Shinyo Academy Student ID.
✦ ✦ ✦
“So, that’s how she had a master key,” the monster whispered, glancing over towards a sign at the side of the park. The name
✦ ✦ ✦
“Kinukawa Enterprises” was printed on it.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Damn, she’s loaded...”
✦ ✦ ✦
Had she been awake, she would have shuddered at the sight of the sinister smile that split Spooky E’s face from ear to ear. His big round eyes stayed wide open, making it even more horrible.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Which means she’s got cash. Perfect. I can use her to find this ‘Imaginator.”’
✦ ✦ ✦
The monster licked his fingers, and thrust his saliva-drenched hands into Kotoe’s beautifully treated hair.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
But she failed to wonder what she had been doing all this time. She was neither surprised nor confused.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
The street was filled with clusters of people, freed from the stress of the day. Older men, faces already flushed with booze, young lovers chattering happily in cafes.
✦ ✦ ✦
Ignoring this peaceful world, she headed straight for an ATM, and began withdrawing money. It was early in the month, so there was no one else in line.