New Chitose Airport boasted an inn with hot springs.
It was well past one AM, and everyone was fast asleep.
This place was open all night, and they were killing time here before an early flight to Tokyo.
The indoor and outdoor baths were equally large. It had a restaurant, break rooms, even a hot stone spa.
Sakuta took a nice bath, donned the provided jinbei, and sat down on a recliner in the relaxation room.
He flipped through a volume from the room’s manga shelf.
After a while, Takumi joined him in the next chair over. He was wearing the same gray jinbei.
“Word from Akagi. She booked the first flight back in the morning.”
“What time?”
“Seven thirty. Should reach Haneda a bit after nine.”
Takumi’s eyes were on his phone, reading what Ikumi had sent through a messaging app.
“Where’s she?”
“Resting in the girls’ relaxation room.”
“Thank her for me.”
“Hell no. Do that yourself.”
With that, Takumi tossed the phone to him. Sakuta had to drop the manga to catch it, losing his place. He’d only been skimming it, so no big whoop.
He put the manga aside and glanced at the screen. The message app was still up and running. The other side was labeled Ikumi Akagi.
He wrote:
Thanks for getting the tickets, from Azusagawa.
It was soon marked read.
You’re welcome.
How polite.
Very Ikumi. He let out a wheezy laugh.
“Thanks for the phone,” he said, tossing it back.
Takumi let out a surprised yelp but easily caught it.
“Yo, Azusagawa.”
“Mm?”
“Sakurajima know you’re here with Akagi?”
“I called and let her know before we popped in here.”
“What’d you tell her?”
“Somehow Akagi ended up tagging along.”
“What’d she say?”
“She said, ‘Hmm.’”
Takumi gave him a horrified look.
“So she’s super pissed?” he asked, attempting a smile and failing.
“Don’t worry, I’ll blame you for everything.”
“Sounds like I should be worried.”
“It’s the truth, though.”
“Oh, right.”
Takumi gave up and flopped back against his seat.
The conversation died down.
“……”
“……”
Silence reigned.
Sakuta didn’t reach for the manga, and Takumi didn’t look at his phone.
Both just sat there like they were waiting for something.
It was a full minute before Takumi said anything else.
“Uh, Azusagawa…”
“What?”
“What’s gonna happen to Nene?”
That long silence had been leading up to this.
“Right now, she’s lost track of Nene Iwamizawa. If you and I forget her, she might as well no longer exist.”
Miori had also been able to see her, but he didn’t bother bringing that up.
“What should I do?” Takumi asked, his voice the same as with the first question.
Serious but not desperate.
“The power of your love is the only thing that can save her.”
“A man who forgot her for most of a year? Where do I get off talking about love?”
“If not you, then…there’s no one else who can. Get it together.”
Sakuta kept his eyes forward, saying what had to be said.
Takumi seemed taken aback.
But then he laughed out loud.
“Ah-ha-ha, been a while since anyone clapped back that hard.”
“Get your girlfriend back so she can clap you back.”
“Nene’s super scary when she’s mad.”
But he was speaking with real warmth and affection.
Takumi and Nene. He could feel the time they’d spent together.
“She was pissed when I asked her out, too. ‘Took you long enough!’ she said.”
“And when you failed exams?”
“First time she cried. ‘Why?!’ Second time she was supportive. ‘Don’t push yourself too hard.’”
Takumi laughed, like that was worse.
“And the third time was the charm?”
“She cried again, saying, ‘I’m so glad.’ She’d been in shambles.”
“……”
“Thinking back, I bet she was already going through some stuff.”
“……”
“She was legit famous back home. Going off to Tokyo for modeling jobs. No one but Nene did anything like that. They even knew her name at other high schools—people would roll past just to scope her out. May not sound like much to you, but…”
Takumi smiled awkwardly because he was referring to Mai. No one could really compete with her in the “famous” category. She wasn’t a local celebrity, but a national one.
“But coming to Tokyo, it didn’t seem like she got as many jobs as she’d hoped. Not that Nene ever wanted to talk about that.”
“She won the beauty contest.”
“That’s why she was so thrilled. The song she did struck a chord. And so she started filming videos of herself singing. Happy to be recognized for something. People saying she sounded just like Touko Kirishima, like the real deal—Nene was enjoying that.”
“Was that what she’d wanted to do?”
“She told me she was hoping to be an announcer for a Tokyo TV station. Another reason why she was so pumped about the beauty contest victory. I’d known she could sing from karaoke, but…”
“Now she’s claiming to actually be Touko Kirishima. And seems like she genuinely believes that.”
“What went wrong?”
“A lot of things, with her and with you. But you can still fix it.”
“……”
Takumi just stared at him.
Sakuta ignored that.
“Maybe I can,” Takumi muttered.
“You can,” Sakuta said, nodding.
“Azusagawa…,” Takumi said, not looking at him.
“Mm?”
“I do love Nene.”
A confession out of nowhere. Though perhaps it wasn’t so out of the blue for Takumi. Talking about her had likely brought those feelings back up, along with all his memories of her.
“I love Nene,” he said again.
“Tell her that tomorrow.”
Sakuta hopped up off the recliner and headed to the door.
“Where you going?”
“Toilet.”
“Make it a good one.”
“You get some sleep, Fukuyama.”
“Like that’s possible?”
Sakuta didn’t dignify that with a response, just sailed out of the room.