In the end, I never did find a bicycle.
“What a waste of time and energy.”
“Ho ho ho!”
I heard Yashiro laugh overhead and knew she’d sneaked back into the knapsack.
“Oh well…” At least, for whatever reason, I’d received an anniversary gift. Looking at things that way, this hadn’t been a complete loss. “How many years have we known each other now?”
“Certainly fewer than three hundred.”
“I’m starting to think you can’t actually count.”
Once we were out of the forest, I readjusted the luggage on my shoulders. Ahead of us was—to no one’s surprise—more sunset, this time shrouding a meadow. Now that I thought about it, perhaps a bike wouldn’t have been much use in this area anyway.
“Time to find out what we’re in for, I guess.”
Spotting some kind of pole in the distance, I started walking in that direction. Despite my fatigue, I found I rather enjoyed the sound of the grass underfoot—crunch, crunch, crunch. But it also made my ankles itch, itch, itch. For a moment, I resented Yashiro for getting a free ride. Then again, she didn’t appear to own any shoes, so I’d have felt awful making her walk through this…or was my compassion wasted on her? Not that there was anyone I could ask about that.
“Will we find people here?” she asked.
“Not sure,” I answered, craning my neck up at the massive trees that now towered over us in place of buildings. “All I know is that I saw traces that suggested that.”
For example, the grass parted to form a path—as if this area saw regular foot traffic. And that…well, it sort of put me on guard, making me think about exactly how many people could be around here. My memories of other people had already been sepia-tinged by the time I first set out, and so I could scarcely even remember how to act around them, since I had yet to meet a single person since then.
No, Yashiro didn’t count.
“For some reason, humans like to camp around tall things.”
“Oh?” Probably to use those things as landmarks to find their way home again, if I’d had to guess.
“I enjoy being up high, myself.”
“I bet you do, half-pint.”
The day we met, she’d fallen out of the sky from well beyond my reach—from beyond the clouds. Looking back, I should’ve been more suspicious of her. But then she’d told me she came from far away, and that gave me the crazy idea of going on a long journey of my own. One thing had led to another, and now here we were.
Or maybe I’d never really cared what she was. Maybe I just wanted someone to talk to under this sickly sky. Someone to keep me going. Someone to call a friend.
“At least I am taller than you right now.”
“I’ll make you walk, you know,” I growled.
She laughed it off, though. “Ho ho ho!”
I should’ve known that kind of threat wouldn’t work on her. Ugh. I’m so stupid. My heart felt as squishy as her cheeks.
“So do you have a mission here?” I finally asked, after however many years of not really thinking about it—maybe because I hadn’t stopped to contemplate my own journey’s purpose.
“Technically, yes.”
That was an unexpected answer from a creature who was generally useless. “Wait. You do?”
“Although I may soon achieve it.”
“Huh?” How, exactly?
I glanced around but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, I heard the distant rumble of a building, then felt its collapse through the vibration under my heels.
My footsteps slowed, and I looked up. “Hey. I don’t really know who you are, but…”
“Yes?”
“Once this mission of yours is achieved, what—”
“Oh. There is a person here.”
“What?”
Before I could finish my question, a humanoid figure had come into view, and my voice died in my throat. Its shadow was long and thin, as if cast by the sun—surely smaller than the trees among which it was ensconced, yet to my eyes it felt so far away. While I hesitated to close that gulf, however, the figure peeled away from the sunset in my direction…accompanied by the sound of spinning tires. I instinctively stood up strict as my gaze was drawn to the—Bicycle!
“Um…”
I immediately picked up on confusion and discomfort in her voice. For the only time in my life, the crack and crumble of the decaying town seemed to sound in sync with the pounding of my heart.
It was a girl with dark hair. She was…quite possibly…the very person I’d been searching for all this time.
So now what?
My objective had only ever been to find someone. I hadn’t given a single thought to what would happen after. My mind was as yellow as the sun’s rays—not so blank as to be white, but sort of in the middle. For what felt like an eternity, I stood paralyzed, fully conscious for each agonizing moment—a metaphor, perhaps, for life in general beneath this unending sky.
Her shoes were worn to tatters, like mine, and she smelled like dirt. If I’d had to guess, we were around the same age. Her green-tinged eyes wavered uncertainly as she looked at me. As I gazed back into them, I found myself admiring their beauty and fumbling desperately for something to say. Then I noticed the girl’s choppy, uneven hair and realized she was probably all alone, the same as me.
“Hello there!”
Only Yashiro, cozy in my knapsack, remained utterly unperturbed in this moment. In hindsight, if I wanted to make a good first impression, I probably shouldn’t have brought her with me. I could already see the other girl’s eyes widening.
“H-hello…”
“Indeed.”
“…I, um…”
From the way she looked at the ground, I got the sense that she’d decided to ignore Yashiro. Smart.
“I didn’t expect to find anyone here.”
Those words rippled through my heart. This was everything I’d ever wanted…but I said, “Yeah. I hadn’t really thought about it either.” That wasn’t much of an introduction, but at the same time, it was plenty.
The girl smiled stiffly, which suggested she wasn’t used to it. We were reflecting our inexperience back to each other like mirrors.
With a deep breath, she finally said: “I’m Shima. What about you?”
Her voice was as cold and bracing as ice. As for me, I hadn’t needed to offer someone my name since the day I’d met the unidentified life-form, so answering took me a moment.
“I’m…”