Ryuuji kept a slight distance from Yasuko as he passed through the empty ticket gate. It was a Sunday.
“Kushieda…”
His chest, which had somehow settled as they made their way home, was roused again. Minori stood behind the few people milling about the station. She’d covered her bedhead with a knit cap and was wearing a down coat and jeans.
“I don’t understand.” Once she spotted Ryuuji, that was all she said. After she mumbled just those words, she bit her lips so hard they lost their color.
Faced with her unmoving and wide-open eyes, Ryuuji didn’t know what to say. When he thought about explaining to Minori why Taiga left, why he’d let her go, and why it was for the best that way, he felt himself quail. Minori would probably understand, but he was tongue-tied and knew his explanation would end up being clumsy.
Ami was standing a short distance from Minori, looking like she hadn’t gotten much sleep. She stuck both her hands in her coat pockets, and her back was uncharacteristically hunched. Even her normally beautiful face looked ashen. Further away, Kitamura was walking towards them. Though he didn’t look at all like he was blaming him, there was clear confusion in his eyes as he looked at Ryuuji, who was the only one in his school uniform.
The only thing Ryuuji had been able to write in the message he sent them was that Taiga had gone back to her mother. No wonder they were confused. Taiga had promised them she wouldn’t give up on loving everyone. She and Ryuuji had promised they would return together.
“You’re all friends,” Yasuko murmured softly. She knew the faces of everyone there. She took a bunch of keys from her tracksuit pocket, unlinked the condo key that Taiga left with her, and held it out to Ryuuji. “You should all go and look for Taiga-chan. I need to go get Inko-chan.”
“Who did you leave Inko-chan with?”
“With the landlady.”
Then we’re going the same way, Ryuuji started to say, but Yasuko smiled and waved her hand at them, “Off you go.” She probably understood that Ryuuji would have to tell his friends that Taiga was no longer there.
He accepted the key and lifted his head.
At no one’s prompting, he started to walk.
He walked with long strides down the familiar station road, and before long, everyone started running like they were racing each other. Even Ryuuji, who knew that Taiga was no longer in their town, hastened his legs as his heart quickened. They turned the corner that led to the Takasus’ apartment, ran up the stairs, went through the condo entrance, and punched in the PIN to open the auto-locking door. Taiga said the condo had long been out of the hands of the Aisaka family. They might have already changed the lock. There might already be a realtor inside.
Though Ryuuji feared the key would resist when he tried the lock, it instead slipped smoothly all the way in and turned. Though the door was stately, it made a surprisingly light sound as it opened.
He turned on the light at the entrance. As though they were vying with each other to be first, they took off their shoes and came in one after another. “Taiga! We’re coming in!” Minori called out, and her voice held the hope that Taiga was still inside. “Aisaka!” “Are you here, Taiga?!” Kitamura and Ami also called.
“It’s me! I’m here, I’m coming in! Taiga! Tai—”
When they pushed opened the glass door that led to the living room, Ryuuji froze in place automatically. Behind him, Minori was also at a loss for words. It was because they were familiar with the terrible spectacle that was Taiga’s room when she had lived there alone that they couldn’t find anything to say.
They were just shocked.
The large living room was terribly frigid without the heater on. Below the now tenantless chandelier, everything had been left behind—the one-person sofa, the small glass table, and the white cabinets. Covers had been placed over all the furniture. There was not a single scrap of garbage to be found anywhere—not on the kitchen island, the shag carpet, or the cushion Taiga often held. Every nook and cranny was neat and tidy, scrubbed until pristine.
Minori slowly stepped into the middle of the living room. Moving like a robot under someone else’s orders, she opened a cabinet and pulled open a drawer to look inside without a second thought.
“The bag she kept all her valuables in is gone.”
She raised her face.
“It was flat, with navy and pink stripes. She always kept her bankbook and signature seal, her insurance card, and her passport in it. She always used to tell me that it was the only thing she would grab and run if there was ever a fire. It’s gone.”
Minori shut the cabinet. Walking with long strides, she opened the sliding frosted-glass door and stepped into the north-facing bedroom. She pulled the covers all the way up to the pillows and looked at the wrinkle-free bed. There was still a closed laptop left on the desk. The cords and cables that had always been a tangled mess and sent Ryuuji into a tizzy were unplugged and bundled together on top of the desk with a hairband.
Opening the closet, Minori was silent for just a moment.
“Her uniform is still here.”
Her back trembled.
“Tiger, how could you disappear like this?” Ami seemed in a daze as she muttered to herself where she stood in the bedroom doorway. Her voice echoed painfully in the large, silent room.
Minori turned around and looked up at Ryuuji’s face. She took in deep breaths for a while. Ryuuji just watched as her shoulders heaved up and down. “B-But…are you… Takasu-kun, are you… Are you fine with this…?!”
“I am.”
“But this is no good!”
“It’s fine!” It wasn’t like the louder person would win, but Ryuuji frantically raised his voice. “I think it’s fine that Taiga left like this!”
“But aren’t you sad?!”
Of course he was. He was so sad he couldn’t bear it. “I’m not!”
“Don’t give me that!”
“Kushieda, calm down,” Kitamura spoke softly as he grasped Minori’s shaking shoulders from behind. “Aisaka might still be nearby. We might still be able to make it in time.”
“R-right. She might still be nearby. Maybe she’s just walking around acting like nothing happened!”
Minori turned around at Kitamura and Ami’s words. “Right. She might have been here all this time, just cleaning the place up. Maybe we can make it in time…right! Maybe we’ll make it in time! Takasu-kun!”
“…”
“Takasu-kun! Let’s go!”
Minori, Ami, and Kitamura started running toward the front door. Ryuuji followed after. They came out the entrance and ran down the street lined by Zelkova trees, and he gasped as the cold air stung his lungs.
Maybe we’ll make it in time—maybe he would make it in time to reach her back, where her fluffy hair fluttered, maybe he would make it to her as the hem of her dress billowed. Maybe he would be able to run up to her with his hand outstretched, and grab her shoulders, and tell her not to go.
“Kitamura.”
If only he could be with her without letting go.
“Kawashima.”
But if he couldn’t let her go…
“Kushieda…Kushieda!”
“Let go of me, Takasu-kun! Let’s go! Let’s chase after her!”
“We can’t, Kushieda! We can’t! This is…fine!”
“Why?!”
He grabbed the sleeve of Minori’s down jacket and used the weight of his entire body to hold her back. Minori chaotically swung her arms around and struggled to shake herself free from Ryuuji’s grip as, with his other hand, Ryuuji snatched at Kitamura’s elbow and the end of Ami’s scarf.