Later that day, after his fourth-period class wrapped up, Sakuta went to the platform at Kanazawa-hakkei Station, where he found a blond college girl sitting on a bench. She was waiting for a train, listening to music on her wireless earphones.
He approached and sat down next to her.
“’Sup, Toyohama.”
“I’m clearly listening to something,” Nodoka grumbled, but she took the earphones out and pressed stop on her phone’s music player. “So? What is it?”
“What would you think if the most famous idol in the country started attending our college tomorrow?”
“Wouldn’t know till it happened.”
A very Nodoka answer.
“Fair enough.”
“Wouldn’t exactly be thrilled, though.”
Nodoka put her earphones back in their case. On closer examination, they were the same kind Uzuki had done a commercial for.
“Even if it doesn’t bug me, everyone else’ll lump us together—we’re both idols—and start comparing and contrasting.”
“Sneering at you on the inside, giving you looks of pity?”
“You trying to start shit?”
“Don’t worry, you’ve got your upsides.”
“Take this hypothetical and shove it.”
Nodoka had reached her boiling point already, but she didn’t stay there long. A moment later, she’d cooled down enough to sigh dramatically.
“This about my sister, then?” she asked, refocusing. She crossed her legs and propped an elbow on them and her cheek on her palm.
“You’re way ahead of me, Toyohama.”
“Literally everything you do is about her, Sakuta.”
Her long lashes fluttered as she stared at the far side of the station.
“Well, yeah,” he said.
“So, what? You wanna make her out to be the baddie?”
Nodoka glared up at him.
“Do you think I’d do that?”
“It sure sounded like it.”
She sounded cross, and her narrowed eyes confirmed it.
“Mai’s, you know…special? That’s not the most intelligent-sounding phrasing, but everyone knows her; everyone loves her; just having her around changes things.”
“……”
Nodoka looked rather taken aback. She blinked at him.
“What’s with that look?”
“I just assumed you didn’t realize how special she is. You always act so normal around her, I figured you were oblivious.”
“She’s special to me, too.”
“Spare me.”
Cut down. Nodoka turned to face the tracks again. There were students on the far side, waiting for a train to take them the other direction.
“But I get what you’re trying to say, Sakuta.”
“You do?”
“When we first started here, I ran across plenty of girls of that ilk.”
“What ilk?”
“They were the hottest girl in high school. But in college, my sister was here, and they lost sight of their identity, their status, their self-worth, everything.”
He hadn’t specified any of that, but Nodoka really did know what he was talking about. With pinpoint accuracy.
“Why do you look surprised?”
“Well, it’s surprising.”
“I’m an idol? We’re all about status and identity.”
Nodoka kicked him. Not too hard.
“Idols shouldn’t kick fans.”
“You never even come to our shows.”
“I’ll be there once you land the Budokan.”
“I’m not putting you on the list. Buy your own ticket.”
“Cool, I’ll ask Zukki instead.”
He’d tossed that out, but it got a note of genuine irritation from Nodoka. She made a point of getting to her feet just so she could kick him harder.
“Ow!”
The blow to his calf made an audible thwack.
“Where’d you learn to kick like that?”
“I’m taking kickboxing to improve my stamina.”
Nodoka struck a fighting pose, showing off. It looked very good. Alarming. Perhaps he should consider teasing her less often. He didn’t wanna be her sandbag.
“The girls you deemed ‘that ilk’—what are they up to now?” he asked, rubbing his injury.
“It’s been a year. They’ve settled down.”
She flopped back onto the bench, sounding uninterested.
“Fair enough.”
“Either they got over it, gave up, or found some other way to measure their worth.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
“You’re the club president of Mai’s casualties.”
“Don’t go founding weird clubs on me.”
Nodoka punched his shoulder. They should probably make her quit kickboxing before she got herself arrested.
“But having Mai in your life has definitely changed you, Toyohama.”
In the fall of their second year of high school, her half sister—Mai—had triggered Nodoka’s Adolescence Syndrome. She’d been closer to Mai than anyone and was influenced accordingly.
“I…,” she began, and then her lips stilled.
When they moved again, she was talking to herself.
“She’s just so far away,” she whispered, eyes on the tracks. “No matter how hard I work, I’ll never catch up. I still don’t get how the world looks through her eyes. Her TV shows and movies are expected to be hits, and if they flop, she takes the blame for it, but—have you ever heard her complain? I can’t even imagine how that must feel.”
That did feel like distance.
“So, Sakuta…,” Nodoka said, turning to him.
She looked him right in the eyes, very intensely.
“Mm?”
“You’d better take my sister’s side.”
Nothing she’d said really answered his question.
But this last line was what mattered to him most.
The train pulled in. An express bound for Haneda Airport. They’d both be taking that to Yokohama Station.
“I will,” he said, standing up.
And once on his feet, he repeated those words inside his head.
✦ ✦ ✦
Monday, January 30.
On a frigid morning, Sakuta got ready to go out and headed all the way to Kanazawa-hakkei Station—despite having no classes. It was just past ten. About the time he’d arrive for a second-period class.
A week ago, the station had been packed with students, but now it was deserted, in spring vacation mode.
It was quiet enough that he could hear his own footsteps.
It certainly made it easier to move around the station—he got up the stairs without anyone in his way and was out the gate without waiting in line.
The station roof gave way to a clear blue sky.
Down the stairs to the west was the two- to three-minute walk to campus. But today Sakuta went down the other set of stairs.
The Seaside Line ran on the bridge above. He passed beneath that, waited for walk lights twice to get across Route 16, then turned toward the water.
He followed the road until he saw the blue sign of a convenience store, at which point he turned right onto a side street.
Before him lay a pilgrim’s path across the waters. A torii gate appeared to greet him. The asphalt became gravel.
With each step, the noise of the main road grew distant, and the feel of the ocean grew stronger.
The path itself was four, five yards wide. Evergreen trees were on either side, marking the path.
It ran to the ocean, then across a little bridge with red railings. The bridge was so short it only took a few steps to cross.
On the other side, Sakuta found himself on an equally small island. Maybe ten paces across.
Nothing on it but Biwajima Shrine.
That would draw the eye on a normal day, but Sakuta’s attention lay elsewhere.
On the island’s shore.
A woman in a striking red outfit.
She hadn’t worn that miniskirt Santa outfit much recently.
The very girl who’d summoned him here.
Standing there, staring out at the sea.
His footsteps crunching on the gravel, Sakuta moved closer.
“This shrine was built by Hojo Masako,” Touko said. “The Kamakura period was eight hundred years ago. Amazing it’s still standing, when you think about it.”
“Your songs will last a long time, too, Kirishima.”
He pulled up next to her, admiring the view. The Seaside Line filled his vision, running across the horizon. A sight no one in the Kamakura period could have imagined.
“Does music really last that long?” she asked, clearly dubious.
“Some does. Classical music is, what, three, four hundred years old?”
Didn’t seem like people were gonna just stop listening to that in a decade or two. A decade or two from now, people would probably be thinking this exact same thing. In which case, eight hundred years was totally viable. Even a cool thousand.
“Did you call me out here to talk about that?”
“Of course not. We’re picking up a car nearby.”
At last, Touko looked at him. But only for a second.
“Come,” she said. “I’ll let you be Santa’s little helper.”
With that, she headed back up the pilgrim path.
“If you’d warned me, I’d have brought a reindeer costume,” he said, following after.