“You want me to resolve the mystery of the Dove District, and you claim not to be a perpetrator of it but a victim, if anything. Is that correct so far?” he asked.
“Yes, you’ve got it.”
The job she offered was to resolve the mystery of the Dove District. The reward was her life. She had already parted ways with Magatsume and had no intention of supporting her. She had nothing to do with the mystery and was only another victim of it. That about covered everything she claimed…but under further scrutiny, it didn’t logically stand up.
“Nanao, you’re lying, aren’t you?”
Hotaru and Aoba didn’t have the slightest doubt about the way things were. The manager of Sakuraba Milk Hall had an inkling something was off, but he continued to run his shop as usual. The other waitresses, like Akemi, went about their work like normal. In other words, none of the people caught up in this mystery were directly aware of it.
“No, maybe ‘lying’ is a bit much. You’re hiding something. Many things,” Jinya said.
“Oh? Am I now?”
“From the start, you’ve been unaffected by whatever is going on in the Dove District. And I’m willing to bet you already have a general idea of what it is.”
Jinya was certain he was right. Nanao could only claim she was another victim here if she had a fair sense of what was really going on. However, she still went out of her way to request that Jinya resolve things for her. There had to be a reason why.
“Oh my. You saw through me rather quickly.” She showed no guilt, likely because she had no reason to feel that way. Even though she knew what was going on, that didn’t mean she was behind it. In that sense, she truly was another victim.
In other words, she knew what the cause was but had no interest in doing anything about it herself. That was why she instead pushed that duty off onto Jinya. Or perhaps she had other reasons for entrusting things to him. He was sure those reasons wouldn’t bring harm to him, but if they were what he thought they were, then he had no choice but to play along.
“I take it you came to refuse my request, then?” she said.
“Not at all.”
“Oh? Well, that’s a surprise. I was sure you would.”
“I’ll dance to your tune for now. It’s a fact you’re not the cause of all this. Moreover, this whole mystery will come to an end on its own if it’s left alone. I might as well accept your request and claim my free reward.”
“My, my. You’re rather shrewd,” she joked. Smiling in satisfaction, she added, “Thank you. You’ll come by again, won’t you?”
“Of course,” Jinya said with a firm nod. “When the time comes to collect.”
The sun fully sank below the horizon, and the night grew deeper. The room’s only source of light was a single lamp, and the flame inside it flickered and swayed as it illuminated Jinya.
By now, he had just about fully recognized the nature of the mystery surrounding the Dove District. The only real issue at hand was Nanao’s motives.
He would not run from her. The time had finally come to confront what he had been avoiding.
Some days later, Jinya visited Sakuraba Milk Hall again. He intended to have a serious conversation but still ordered whiskey. He wanted to keep the lightheartedness of a small chat over a drink.
“Why’d you come to this place?” he asked. He was essentially here to double-check his conclusions.
“Though I managed to survive the firebombing of Tamanoi, I couldn’t feel happy about it. The choice I had to make was just that anguishing.” The manager of Sakuraba Milk Hall wearily shut his eyes. “I didn’t have any grand reason for coming here. I didn’t come here because I chose to; I came here because I was lost.”
He began recounting his past to Jinya. He told him of his youth, of how he never tried to chase after his friends as they ran ahead. He knew he couldn’t keep up, but he never asked them to slow down for him either. He felt as though they would stop being his friends the moment he did so.
He was a child who tried to be as agreeable as possible and was quick to give up on things, but he had the brains and sense to still get by. And he did get by for a time. But eventually the day came when he grew up and had to watch all his friends be sent to the battlefield. There was nothing he could say to them. He believed a man who couldn’t fight for his country had no right to speak.
The years passed, and he continued to age, now alone, but he was still the same lost boy on the inside. He didn’t regret not dying with his friends. Rather, he regretted not saying anything to them, instead using his leg as an excuse to say he had no right to.
Every time he had been presented with a difficult decision, he’d wavered as though he was lost. But he always told himself there was nothing he could do and gave up, allowing himself to drift along into whatever was easiest. He’d worked hard up until now, no doubt, but he’d never once actually tried to overcome his difficulties.
His move to the Dove District was no different. He simply thought it would be easier to start from scratch than rebuild. He lacked the firm will to make bold decisions and could only compromise. It was only natural that his constant indecision would lead him to this place.
Others may have seen him as a sharp, capable man, but he had carried an inferiority complex his whole life. The identity of the unplaceable unease that had tormented him since he was young was the fact that he had drifted through his life leaving the important decisions unmade.
“I’ve known for a long time now that I have to eventually confront this side of me, but I’ve held off on doing so. And before I knew it, I’ve reached this ripe old age.” He smiled wryly as he took his own glass of whiskey and gulped it down. Perhaps he felt he needed the liquor to speak. Jinya didn’t say a word, instead taking a drink of his own to match. “That’s why I made one small decision, a promise to myself, when I came to the Dove District: I swore to remain the manager of this place until the very, very end. Even though it’s somewhere I drifted to, this place is my castle. I want to do right by my girls and my customers for as long as I can.”
At the end of his lost journey, he finally made his first decision. That was why he, and Sakuraba Milk Hall, remained there to that day. For as long as the Dove District existed, he would continue operating this place as its manager.
“Ha ha, or something like that. I’m trying to dress things up, but really I’m just reluctant to part with this place.” He spoke in an emotional tone, and his expression softened.
He accepted that he was lost and tried to move forward, little by little. It was because he was such a man that he, someone with little connection to the supernatural, realized sooner than anyone else that the current Dove District was not right.
“So that’s why you stay here,” Jinya said.
“Right. Like I’ve said before, we all have things we can’t bring ourselves to leave behind.”
That was why the Dove District continued to persist. Time passed, and laws changed. Red-light districts were outlawed, but everyone in this place was unable to leave it behind, so they simply remained.
This was a place that didn’t exist anywhere, formed from somebody’s lingering regrets. There was no real need for Jinya to do anything. These attachments would fade away on their own, taking this place with them. When that time came, this would all be nothing more than a dream.
“So, what will you do, young man?” the manager said knowingly.
Everybody in this place had something they were reluctant to part with, a truth they had to confront, and Jinya was no exception.
“I suppose I have to confront a part of myself as well.”
He didn’t say what, and the manager didn’t ask. His answer was enough.
The manager’s expression suddenly turned impish, like a naughty child who had thought of a prank. Teasingly, he asked, “Is tonight’s drink not to your liking?”
It was the same question as before, but this time it bore a different meaning. To Jinya, who had to confront something in himself, the manager jokingly asked: Can you?
To tell the truth, Jinya didn’t know. The hatred that smoldered in him was still there, and his hands were stained in far too much blood. But if this place was formed from lingering regrets, then he would have to do it.
Jinya drank his glass dry and grinned slightly. “It tastes far better than last time.”
It was time to come to terms with the hatred he bore. Now that he’d wandered into this place, that was the only way he could leave.