Chapter 7

CHAPTER TWO Nn… Her surroundings were dark, and it took her a few seconds to realize that she was lying down. She was looking at the sky. The stars were twinkling. Huh? I— She searched the depths of her memories. On her way to her favorite outcrop, she’d encountered a monster on the railway bridge and had been saved by a boy. The memory she found was hard to believe. Did I…dream that? she thought, and just then— “You’re awake.” At the sound of a voice, Asuna jolted up to a sitting position. She was on top of her favorite outcrop, up on Mount Obuchi. The long-haired boy from her memory was sitting on a rock, and he turned to smile at her. So it wasn’t a dream? “You’re safe now, so don’t worry. Go on home,” he said, getting to his feet. He started to walk away, apparently having waited for her to wake up. The mere sound of his kind voice set her heart at ease. “U-um…” As the boy passed her, Asuna knew she had to say something now. “You saved me, didn’t you? Thank you!” The boy stopped, then looked back at her. “It’s a good idea to stay away from this mountain.” That was all he said before he disappeared into the forest. …What’s that supposed to mean? In the time it took her to process what he’d said, the boy vanished into the trees—and a cat followed him, its steps light and quick. “Mimi!” It was the cat who’d been raised with Asuna, ever since she was small. Ordinarily, Mimi would come running whenever Asuna called, but today she ignored her human friend and disappeared into the woods after the boy. “……” Asuna tried to call after them, but she couldn’t find the words. All she could do was watch them go. The next day, several men in suits had come to a rocky area a little ways downstream from the railroad bridge. They wandered around the rocks for a little while, searching for something, and before long… “Commander, it’s here!” One of the men pointed at what he’d discovered. The corpse of that bearlike monster. The man in sunglasses who’d been addressed as Commander went over to the monster’s body. “This is…” He sounded startled as he gazed at the corpse. Plants had sprouted from it—varieties that didn’t grow in this season. “They’re saplings…and…” He crouched down. Part of the corpse had turned into transparent crystals. “…it’s crystallized… Someone must have come up to the surface,” he murmured, turning around. “Find them!” Obeying orders, the suited men scattered. The long-haired boy was gazing at the sky from the outcrop on Mount Obuchi. Mimi was curled up beside him, asleep. “Teacher…,” he murmured to himself. Suddenly, Mimi raised her head. Noticing it, too, the boy gave a smile that was slightly troubled but happy. “She came anyway. Figures… After I warned her and everything.” Apparently listening, Mimi mewed. The boy stroked her head. “You’re right. I was hoping she would, too.” The figure he had spotted belonged to—Asuna. The boy smiled. “I told you coming here wasn’t a good idea.” “Yes, but…,” Asuna began, then gulped the words back down. Oh, honestly! Why am I so bad at talking? Sometimes she was so frustrated with herself. As she thought about it, she spotted Mimi beside the boy. “Mimi.” When she called, the cat came trotting up to her and nuzzled her legs with her cheek. “What was that about, huh? You’ve never gotten attached to anybody except me before.” Asuna stroked Mimi’s head, and it relaxed her a little; she felt the words she needed to say to the boy surface in her mind. “This was my spot before it was yours. I don’t want anybody telling me I can’t come here.” Asuna wasn’t trying to criticize him for what he’d said the day before; she hadn’t realized that it might come across that way. However, those words didn’t seem to sour the boy’s mood. He only smiled at her gently. “You’re just like me.” “Huh?” I am? Asuna stared blankly back at him. “I wanted to come, so I came,” he said. Slowly, he got to his feet. She still didn’t understand what he was saying to her. Think. She went back over her own words, then compared them to what the boy had said. What she’d said was, in effect, “You told me not to come, but I came anyway, because I wanted to be here.” Did that mean someone had stopped this boy, too, but he’d wanted to come anyway? Who stopped him, and why? Asuna looked perplexed. “My name is Shun,” the boy said cheerfully. “It’s good to meet you.” He gave her a kind smile. He really does smile a lot—and it looks so good on him, she thought. He’s kinda handsome, really. That was when she realized he’d just introduced himself. She could handle self-introductions. All she had to do was introduce herself back. “I’m Asuna.” But it came out sounding brusque. And why’m I only telling him my first name? I’m not even going to give him my full name? —Wait, Shun didn’t give me his last name, either, so maybe that’s all right? As Asuna’s mind went in circles, she tried to cover for herself. She took another look at Shun and thought, This is one of those things, isn’t it? Attractive people are used to being told they’re attractive, so I should compliment his clothes or his taste in something else instead. As she was digging up memories of girls’ manga she’d read—she noticed something. The shirt over Shun’s right forearm was bloody. “You’re bleeding!” she said without thinking. As the daughter of a nurse, Asuna had always been especially sensitive to this sort of thing since she was small. She couldn’t just leave it alone. “Is that from yesterday?” Shun’s smile was the same as ever. “Yes, but it’s fine.” “Fine? It doesn’t look like you’ve treated it at all. We should really disinfect it, but there’s no antiseptic here… Oh, for goodness’ sake! Just sit there for a second!” “O-okay.” Yielding to Asuna’s intensity, Shun resettled himself on the rock. After thinking a little bit, Asuna didn’t see anything else that looked like it would work and wrapped her scarf around Shun’s arm. If she tied it tightly, it would at least stop the bleeding. “You should go to a hospital later and get it looked at for real.” “……” Shun gazed at the scarf for a little while. “So it’s your spot?” he said abruptly. Asuna briefly wondered what he meant, then realized he was continuing their earlier conversation. She’d claimed that this outcrop on Obuchi was “her spot.” She nodded. “Uh-huh. The radio gets the best reception up here,” she said proudly. Shun stared blankly back. “Radio?” He couldn’t possibly not know what radios were, could he? Either way, a look was worth a thousand words. Although that seems like a weird way to put it in this case, Asuna thought. She also wanted to show off her treasure a little. “Do you want to listen to it?” she asked, and Shun nodded. Asuna promptly reached into a space between the rocks, then pulled out a cookie tin she’d hidden there. This was no ordinary cookie tin, though. There was an antenna inside it—and a tuning circuit, a detector circuit, and a receiver. This tin was the crystal radio that had been Asuna’s treasure since she was little. “This is the diode.” Asuna took a blue crystal out of her breast pocket and fitted it into its place in the tin. Both the crystal and the radio were mementos of her deceased father—the only two physical items she had ever received from him. “The reception depends on the time of day and the weather, too.” “…!” For just a moment, Shun’s expression changed, but Asuna didn’t see it. Shun pointed at the crystal. “Listen, that stone—” “Got it!” Asuna happily interrupted as the set picked up a radio signal. Shun broke off, and his sentence remained unfinished. Asuna handed one of the earphones to Shun, and they listened together. “It’s a music program,” she said. Shun didn’t respond. “……” As he listened to the music, he was thinking. It’s a clavis… There was no mistake. What a stroke of luck! As they listened, Shun was reflecting on his life up to that point. He’d longed to go to the surface, had insisted on having his way, and had followed his teacher. I know coming to the surface invites an early death, but still… Unaware of her companion’s thoughts, Asuna took a sandwich from her bag and held it out to Shun, who was looking up at the sky. “Want one?” It was one of her extra-special sandwiches. It was a simple BLT, but that was why she was confident that it was delicious. “…Thank you. I was hungry.” After taking a bite of her own sandwich, Asuna said, “Earlier…” As Shun gazed at her kindly, she told him something important—something she’d never told anyone else. What made her do it? She didn’t know. She just knew that she wouldn’t mind talking about it, as long as it was with Shun. “One time, I picked up a strange melody. I’d never heard it before, and it was so mysterious. Like someone’s heart had been turned into sound waves.” Shun knew instinctively that it had been his “song.” “When I heard it, it brought happiness and sadness, too. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone.” And the one who’d heard his song had been his teacher’s daughter! What an incredible twist of fate. “It’s stayed with me ever since… I want to hear it again.” “……” Shun wasn’t saying anything, and Asuna was suddenly nervous. Had she said something she shouldn’t have again? They’d only just met; why was she blabbing about all these things? Maybe she’d gotten carried away because he was handsome. She needed to cover for herself somehow, but she couldn’t find the words. Timidly, Asuna said his name. “…Shun?” Shun couldn’t speak. Oh… As he watched Mimi playing with a summer bug, a thought passed through his heart. I have no regrets left. Slowly, ever so slowly, the sun began to set. As he gazed at the lingering orange light in the western sky, Shun smiled. “—You haven’t asked me about anything, Asuna.” That came out of nowhere, and Asuna responded on reflex. “Huh?” It made him smile again. “You must have all sorts of questions.” All sorts of questions. Maybe he was right. Come to think of it, there were lots and lots of things she wanted to ask him, including everything that had happened yesterday. For the moment, though, she simply wanted confirmation. “…Do you mean about that bear thing?” “Yeah.” “I do, but…I don’t have to ask them now. After all, I’ve got a ton of things to ask about. I think it’ll take a really long time.” She meant it. However, she’d also realized that this would give her an excuse to meet him again. “I’ll come back tomorrow, okay?” I can just ask him what I want to know then, she thought. Instead of replaying, Shun slowly went to lie back on the ground and murmured, “I came from a faraway place called Agartha.” She’d never heard of it before. Agartta? “…Like another country?” As soon as she asked it, she thought, What kind of silly question is that? No place in Japan would have a name like that. However, Shun went on without answering her question. “There was something I wanted to see, and someone I wanted to find. No matter what it took.” Then Shun took the pendant from his shirt. It was a jewel that looked like a blue crystal. A clavis. Holding it up to the sunset, he went on. “—But I have no regrets anymore.” It wasn’t clear how much Asuna understood about what he was saying. She simply gave an honest reply. “…So your wish came true, then.” Shun didn’t respond. Instead, he sat up. “You should go home before it gets dark.” She’d been dismissed, and she started to worry that she’d said something wrong. Still, Asuna couldn’t suppress her desire to stay with him just a little longer. “I know. I’ll go once the cicadas stop crying,” she said. Meanwhile, Shun thought, I have to make sure to do this, if nothing else. “—Asuna.” At the end. At his end. “I’ll give you a blessing.” “Huh?” Once again, Asuna didn’t understand what he’d said. Why does Shun keep saying things out of nowhere like that? she thought. “Close your eyes.” “……” She did as he said. And ever so gently… …Shun kissed her on the forehead. Startled, Asuna’s eyes flew open. “Huh? D-did you just—? Um…” She’d blushed bright red, and Shun gazed at her peacefully. Meanwhile, Asuna couldn’t believe what had just happened. She thought she might have imagined it. “…Ki-ki-ki-kiss…?” She couldn’t get the words out—but there was no way she could simply say “Did you just kiss me?” “Asuna,” Shun said. Here at the end, there’s only one thing I want. “All I want is for you to live.” “U-um…I, uh…” Asuna didn’t understand just how important those words were—or rather, she hadn’t recovered from the shock of being kissed. At the sensitive age of eleven, being kissed by a cute boy—even if it was only on the forehead—was a lot for her to process. She was embarrassed, plain and simple, and she couldn’t bear to stay there any longer. “I-I’m sorry; I’ll see you tomorrow,” she told him. Still oblivious to what Shun truly meant to say, Asuna put the crystal radio into her bag, and— I have to promise, she thought. “See you tomorrow.” With that, she ran away as one thought churned in her mind. He kissed me, he kissed me, he kissed me, he kissed me… Shun watched her go, then glanced over his shoulder. A wide, vast landscape, the sights of the surface, spread out below him. As he took it all in, he lost track of time… …and then the stars began to come out. It was what he’d always, always wanted to see, what he’d longed constantly to witness. The sky of the surface, shining with stars. Shun spoke to the cat beside him. “You got a fine name, didn’t you?” He closed his eyes, then opened them. “I can’t take Asuna to a better place, so…please do it for me.” Those were the last words Shun ever said to anyone. When he took a step forward, his next words were only for himself. “—Right now, I’m really afraid.” A beautiful, glorious sky—a sky full of stars. “But I’m really happy, too.” Into that sea. “It looks like I could reach out and touch them.” His outstretched hand tried to catch a star. His vision blurred. And then—