3
NANAO TOLD HIM the next visit would be the last. He couldn’t come up with a fitting gift for the occasion, though. Learning what lay in Magatsume’s heart had daunted him. His thoughts were leading him nowhere, so he decided to get a drink and visited Sakuraba Milk Hall.
“Nice to see you.”
“Welcome.”
He was greeted by both the manager and Hotaru. The latter acted slightly differently now, perhaps because the matter of Kajii Takumi had been resolved. She was still as graceful as before, but there was also something more to her now.
“Hey,” Jinya greeted.
“Is something the matter? You seem to be in low spirits,” Hotaru said.
“Do I?”
“You do. Quite obviously so too.”
“I see…” He couldn’t even be bothered to deflect it.
She looked at him and thought for a moment, then grabbed his hand. She turned to the milk hall manager and asked, “Is it all right if I step out for a bit?”
“Go for it. Make sure you treat our best customer well.”
Without even waiting to hear Jinya’s wishes, she pulled him out of the shop. A demon like him could’ve resisted if he wanted to, but he trusted her enough to go along.
She took him to the bank of the Sumida River, a place they’d been before and a good spot to see the stars.
“You’re rather aggressive today,” he said.
“You could have resisted me if you wanted. The fact that you didn’t means you don’t mind, right?”
“I suppose so.”
She’d seen how troubled he was and brought him out here as a way to return the favor he had shown her. But she struggled to find the right words to say next, even though she was usually such a smooth talker. That proved she was trying to help him as herself, not a sex worker. Understanding that, Jinya relaxed greatly.
“…Do you find it funny to see me so tongue-tied?” she asked.
“Not at all. It’s heartwarming, if anything.”
“Somehow, I’m not too flattered.”
He let out a warm sigh and looked up at the night sky, where a curtain of stars was sprawled out above. Starry nights were something special to both of them.
“Sorry for making you worry about me,” he said.
“Not at all. Would you mind if I asked what happened?”
“I was just reminded of how pathetic I am, that’s all.” He avoided giving a true answer, which made her frown.
“All right. But if you ever need anything, come to me. I can’t be on the receiving end of your kindness forever. A woman’s got to save face.”
“I appreciate your kindness.” But he would never actually seek her help if it came to it. She was a woman of the night, and he was a client. The line in the sand was clear, and crossing it would do neither of them any favors. “This is a good opportunity. Can I have your opinion on something?”
“Of course.”
“I can’t think of a good present to give this one sex worker I’m acquainted with. Can you recommend anything?”
She frowned. It was discourteous to ask one sex worker to think of a present for another. But she quickly guessed who this gift was for, and her frown faded. “Oh. Is this sex worker the one I’ve heard so much about?”
“My niece? Yes. I’ve gifted her food and a comb already, and she liked them, but they don’t seem to have been quite what she was after.”
“I see. Are the two of you close?”
“Good question. I’d like to believe she’s fond of me, at least.” He shrugged.
Hotaru couldn’t see what he was so stumped by. She replied not as a lady of the night, but as herself. “Just about anything should be fine, I’d think. It’d be one thing if you were getting a gift for any old sex worker, but I’m sure your niece would be happier with one that you had to come up with yourself instead of asking around for. All the more so if she likes you.”
“…Is that really true?”
“Absolutely. At least, that’s how it was for me,” she said, fiddling with her bottle of star sand.
The value of a gift didn’t lie in its price or how it matched the receiver’s interests. The value of a gift lay in the thoughts it was chosen with.
“Was I of any help?”
“Yes, very much.” Jinya thanked her, then looked up at the stars with her.
The stars were less numerous than he remembered from the past, but they certainly shone a little brighter than they had a few moments ago. The night sky was not so bad in this neon-lit part of town.
The act of wrapping gifts in paper is called origata. In Edo times, paper was a precious commodity, and using it to wrap objects was an act of both etiquette and prayer. One could not fold paper without it coming from the heart. A gift could be a transient thing, but the sincerity with which it was prepared and given always lingered.
The gift Jinya brought this time was not wrapped in anything. However, that wasn’t because he lacked sincerity; instead, he believed his sincerity would come across even if he didn’t dress his gift up.
“Is that your gift for today?” Nanao asked.
“It is,” he answered without a hint of shame, which seemed to please her. The gift in his hands was a small flower he had found along the street as he made his way here—a dandelion.
“I saw it on the way here. You like yellow flowers, right?”
“I do. Thank you, it’s a wonderful gift. You pass.” She accepted the flower from him with great care, as though it was a fragile thing.
He had given her expensive sweets, a boxwood comb, and now a flower picked off the street. Most would think his last gift was intended to slight her, but Nanao was beside herself with joy and wore a broad smile. Seeing her smile reminded him of a much younger girl—Suzune used to smile like that for him, long ago.
“Of course, all your gifts so far have been passing ones. Or rather, there isn’t a single gift you could give that wouldn’t be. I am part of my mother’s heart. It’s only to be expected that any gift from you would please me.”
From the start, this had been nothing at all like the Five Impossible Requests. The gifts themselves were unimportant; it was the effort he put into making them that mattered. That was why the gifts he had help in choosing, like the sweets and the comb, didn’t reach her heart as much as the flower that caught his eye on the way here.
Nanao smiled victoriously, full of relief and satisfaction. “You understood what I was after.”
“It took me a while, but yes. You said you weren’t the type to mess around for no reason. It took me a few days, but I finally figured things out.”
In the past, Magatsume…Suzune used to be happy to receive the trifling gifts he had brought her. As a child, he had no money. The best he could manage to give her were things like pretty stones found on the riverbed or flowers, but she would treat them like little treasures anyway. Any gift from him was a precious thing. Such happy times had once existed between them, and that was what Nanao wanted to remind him of.
“Good. I may have been abandoned, but I’m still my mother’s girl. I wanted to do at least something for her.” With this, Nanao’s lingering regret—the fact that she hadn’t done anything for her mother—was resolved. Though she had been abandoned by Magatsume, she still regretted not being able to do anything for her. But now that Jinya had learned a little of how her mother felt, the lump in her heart cleared away like ice melting in the spring sun. She had fulfilled her purpose and was in high spirits. “Let’s get to our final topic, then: my mother’s ability and her ultimate goal. But promise me one thing before we continue. Once we’re done, make sure you accept my payment.”
Once it was all over, he was to use Assimilation to devour her and her ability.