“Is your goodbye over?” A monotonous voice called out to Takumi as he groveled on the ground. A figure approached—it was the young man who’d set the stage for tonight’s meeting.
“Yeah. It’s over. It’s all…over. She’s gone…” Takumi said.
“I see. The wind’s cold tonight. You should get going,” urged the young man.
Takumi made no effort to move. Nothing was on his mind but thoughts of her.
He truly loved her and had wanted nothing more than for her to be happy. But the red-light districts were already a thing of the past by the time he had reached the Dove District. The woman of the night called Hotaru passed away even a full year before that, and so their love had never reached a proper conclusion.
“I had no idea what she was thinking when she left, and she never understood how I felt up until the end. Maybe the two of us weren’t looking at one another at all.”
Hearts could not communicate if both sides only forced their feelings onto each other. Perhaps they had just been selfish, claiming they acted out of love without ever stopping to consider what the other really wanted.
“You said just being by her side made you happy, and she wished for you to be happy even if she couldn’t be by your side. I’d say you were both looking at one another just fine.” The young man’s voice was uncharacteristically gentle. “So don’t be so down. The two of you definitely loved one another.”
The kindness in the young man’s voice made Takumi look up, only to find him gone.
Lingering regrets faded and become no more than memories. But from time to time, Takumi would surely recall the beautiful stars he had seen that night together with her.
✦ ✦ ✦
Thus ends the story of Kajii Takumi, Hotaru’s former boyfriend.
For the most part, things went just as Jinya expected they would. Only one abnormality remained.
“Thank you very much. You made it so I could settle things.”
Just as he left the Sumida River to head back to the shopping district, a woman called out to him. He had assumed those who abandoned all their lingering regrets would disappear from the Dove District, but here Hotaru remained.
“Not at all. Sorry for forcing something so difficult onto you,” he replied.
“It was necessary. For Takumi-san, and for me as well. You knew the truth from the very start, didn’t you?”
It only took a glance for Jinya to understand that Hotaru was dead and Kajii Takumi hadn’t moved on from her. That was why he intervened when he first saw them, even though he didn’t like to meddle in a couple’s affairs. It was easy to see that only a grim fate awaited the two: a woman who couldn’t fully discard her feelings and a man who remained entranced with the dead. From the start, the one Jinya had been saving wasn’t Hotaru, but Takumi.
“You hung around where I was for his sake as well, I assume,” Hotaru said.
“More or less. I’d rather not see what becomes of a man entranced by the dead.” It could be said that Jinya himself became a demon because of lost love. He felt an obligation to stop them from meeting the same fate, even if it meant doing something unthinkable. “You really needn’t thank me, though. I intended to kill you if things had ended differently.”
If Hotaru shared Takumi’s wish to stay together, then Jinya would have killed her to free him. That was why he couldn’t readily accept her gratitude.
“Even so, I’m thankful.” She smiled genuinely, not as a sex worker but as herself. “Thanks to you, our feelings could reach a conclusion. We managed to identify the thing we held between us as love, despite all our misunderstandings. That wouldn’t have been possible without you.”
“I see,” he said, finally accepting her gratitude.
She nodded, then said, “I can only hope he manages to forget me.”
There was still quite a distance before they reached Sakuraba Milk Hall, and the two walked side by side as they chatted.
“Don’t ask for the impossible. Some women stay unforgettable no matter how much time passes.”
“Even for you?”
“Of course. I’m sure I’ll never experience a love as vivid as my first.” Jinya looked over at Hotaru; he’d remembered to ask her something. She was unlike anyone he had ever met before. She was old-fashioned, clumsy with her feelings, and sometimes couldn’t bring herself to say what she truly felt, but something about her made her easy to talk to, especially now that she had parted with her lingering regrets. “Say, Hotaru…”
“Yes?”
After ending things cleanly with Takumi, she should have had no reason to cling to her life in the Dove District. So why did she stay?
“Why are you here?”
Did she still carry lingering regrets?
She understood Jinya’s question and thought about it with a childish look on her face. “Hmm, well…” She trotted forward a few steps, spun around, and impishly put a finger to her lips. “That’s a secret.”
She truly was a lady of the night. Her smile was so perfect one wouldn’t mind letting themselves fall for her.