Well, so much for that. Sheesh. Not that I minded—I was pretty used to addressing her as “Iguma-san” by this point anyway. If she was more comfortable with that too, then it just meant less work for me. I pulled the covers up over my eyes as well to block out the bright lights overhead, then fell asleep to the drumming of my own heart.
After passing through Sendai, we continued following the Tohoku Line due south, stopping along the way in cities like Natori, Iwanuma, Shibata, and other midsize towns I was fairly certain I’d heard the names of at least once or twice before. All of these were definitely small enough to be classified as rural, though they still had all the amenities we needed. This allowed us to make it all the way down to Fukushima without any of the trials and tribulations we’d faced during the first few legs of our trip.
We’d been on this journey together for probably over a month now. I’d lost track of the exact number of days ever since Akira passed out in the rain, which had definitely messed with my sense of time a bit—but I knew it had to have been more than three weeks at the very least. I’d gotten pretty used to this nomadic lifestyle by this point; I’d even begun to feel a strange sense of fulfillment with each new city we came to, explored, and then promptly left behind. It still wasn’t a pleasure cruise, by any means, but I’d grown accustomed to the rhythm and rapport of this adventure with Akira by now.
Which did make me pause and wonder sometimes: What about after we made it to Tokyo? What if we found a way to make time start moving again? Alternatively, what if we didn’t? What would our next objective be, in that case? Whenever I started thinking that far ahead, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit anxious.
“What are you lookin’ all angsty and apprehensive about?” Akira asked as we walked down the street. She had a steamed meat bun in one hand, which she’d procured from a nearby mini-mart and was now munching on as we made our way through town.
“Nothing,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Wait, I get it… You wish you got a meat bun too, don’tcha? Well, too bad, ’cause you’re not getting any of mine!”
“Didn’t want any.”
“Oh yeah? And why not, huh? Think you’re too good to eat my leftovers, is that it? Now that’s just plain rude.”
“I never said anything like that…”
Akira flashed a teasing grin at me as she took another big bite of her bun. She was clearly just trying to get a rise out of me, which was a bit annoying, but it was enough to derail my negative train of thought, so I was grateful to her for that, at least.
It was a bit wild just how much she and I had opened up to each other over time, especially given that our first impressions had been…less than positive, to put it lightly. That stilted awkwardness that had hung over our every conversation back then felt so far away now, like some trivial argument we’d had forever ago. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that of all the people I’d gotten to know in my life, she was probably my single closest friend.
Friend. Yes, that felt like the right word to describe it. Obviously, I didn’t know if Akira considered me her friend as well, but I got the sense that she probably did… Once time started moving forward again, would she still interact with and treat me the same way that she did now?
But just as I was contemplating this, Akira suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. I watched the meat bun slip and fall from her grasp—freezing in midair just a few inches before it hit the pavement.
“Hey, butterfingers,” I said. “You dropped your bun.”
“…Look.” Her voice sounded stunned and hollow as she lifted a trembling finger toward the sky. I turned my gaze in the direction she was pointing, and my eyes immediately went just as wide as hers.
There was a person floating high above the street, just over the edge of one of the nearby rooftops. It was a woman in a business suit, her body suspended weightlessly against the autumn sky as though she were lying face down in a pool of water. Almost as if time had frozen at the exact moment she jumped off the building to—
Almost as if? No, that was exactly what we were witnessing here. It was the only explanation that made sense. We’d just stumbled onto the scene of an attempted suicide.
“H-holy crap, we’ve gotta go save her!” said Akira, snapping back to her senses and dashing off to the office building the woman was jumping from. I followed her into the lobby, and we climbed the narrow stairwell all the way to the top floor, then swung open the door leading out onto the roof. Immediately, I spotted the woman’s long, fluttering ponytail over the edge of the protective railing, reaching upward as though her hair had a will of its own and was trying to save her.
We rushed over to the edge. Even knowing that there was no risk of her falling any further than she already had, it was hard not to feel like time was of the essence. The woman looked close enough that we could probably reach her if we jumped the railing.
“Here, I’ll pull her back up!” Akira said frantically.
“Wait, no!” I shouted. “Let me do it.”
“Nah, I got this! You can’t touch other people, right?”
“Yeah, but this is super dangerous…”
“I’ll be fine, trust me. I’m not as helpless as you think I am.”
I ground my teeth together in vexation. Realistically, I should be the one doing this, since I had more upper body strength than her. But Akira also had a point that I might have some involuntary negative reaction and lose my grip, so I should really just leave this to her. I’d just have to find some other way to help out.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll hold you by your backpack so you don’t fall.”
“Cool, sounds good,” said Akira, climbing up over the railing.
Once she was on the other side, I grabbed her backpack with both hands. The street looked pretty far down from up here; one false move and she’d tumble to an almost certain death. I held on as tightly as I possibly could as Akira leaned out over the edge and gripped the woman by the back of her suit collar.
“Hnnngh…!”
She pulled as hard she could, and the woman’s body slowly came drifting back toward the building. It may have looked as though she was floating weightlessly, but in actuality, all of her weight—or inertia, or what have you—was still in play, so it took considerable force to drag her back in. I could hear the snap of one of the buttons on the woman’s jacket popping off as beads of sweat ran down Akira’s neck. I felt pretty worthless for not being able to do anything to help but support her from behind. But after much effort spent pulling on the woman in this awkward, unstable manner, Akira finally managed to get her entire upper body back up over the protective railing. From there, Akira jumped over the railing herself, then hauled the woman the rest of the way by her underarms to lay her out flat on the rooftop.
“Phew… Man, I’m beat,” said Akira, plunking her butt down on the concrete.
“Yeah, good work,” I said. “Take a load off.”
Now that I had the chance, I took a closer look at the woman. She looked to be in her late twenties, maybe. Her eyes were tightly shut, and her hands were clasped before her chest as if in prayer.
“…Actually, sorry, Iguma-san,” I said. “Would you mind checking her pockets for me too, really quick?”
“I mean, I don’t mind… But why?”
“Guess I’m just curious to know what made her want to die.”