Ukawa Ai
I’LL SHIP THE CLOTHES back to you in a couple days. It was the sort of thing one friend would say to another. And with that, Julia had taken the camera kid and walked off while Ai waved and watched her go.
“Uggghhh.”
The emotion swirling inside him was strong, but not especially complicated. He tried to express it through a sigh, but it vanished into the greater hustle and bustle of the city district. Unable to shake it, he started tapping on the smartphone in his hand. He had been given a mission, after all.
That said, he wasn’t convinced that Akane was actually going to martyr herself in the name of a novel. When he called her number, he was hoping she’d be lounging around at home, and he believed the chances were very likely. He only went through with it in order to confirm that his friend was indeed safe and sound.
But the phone rang and rang with no sign of anyone picking up.
With no choice left to him, he punched out a short email and headed back the way he had come with Julia, down the hill. He had half a mind to pay a visit to the bookstore; after all, there was a good chance she couldn’t answer the phone simply because she was on the clock. Maybe she was on break in the back room when they passed by earlier.
Partway down the hill, when someone offered him a free hand warmer as part of some company’s promo campaign, he took it on reflex.
When he pulled open the glass door and walked into the bookstore, he was greeted by a clerk busily reorganizing books on a shelf. Ai thought he vaguely recognized him.
“I have a question…”
“Looking for something in particular?” he asked, looking up at Ai. Sure enough.
“Actually, yeah. I’m Ukawa, and I’m friends with Itobayashi Akane. You might remember me from the other night after you guys closed up. Is she working tonight, by any chance?”
“No, she’s not scheduled today.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks anyway.”
“Of course. No problem.”
So she wasn’t at work. He’d barely gotten started and already he was out of leads. But since there was no need to walk straight back out, he decided to amble around the store while he planned his next move. This brought him to a section he didn’t normally visit. Here, he spotted Girl’s March. If Julia’s hypothesis was even slightly correct, then maybe there was something in the book that he’d overlooked… Picking it up, he opened it to the pages near the end and flipped through.
This is so stupid, he scoffed to himself. Surely he could have chosen to go home instead of buying into this crackpot theory. On the off-chance that Akane really was in danger, it was patently ridiculous to stand here flipping through a paperback.
He didn’t need to be doing this. Surely the world wasn’t going to end. But there were two things keeping him there: one, he knew his roommate would interrogate him about what happened today, and two, something Julia had said still lingered on his mind:
She could be right here in town today.
As far as Ai had noticed, Girl’s March never described the weather or clothing choices, and there was no way to know if the story’s world experienced the same passage of time as its readers on Earth. At the very least, he hadn’t seen any hints of that nature. As a result, he had no idea what section might refer to today’s date or this specific location.
But Akane had left him with one specific truth. Regardless of whether the author had meant to set the story in this district, this was where the two of them had always met up. Looking at it that way, perhaps Akane did share the same interpretation as Julia.
“You’re a bad influence on teenagers, you piece of shit author,” he found himself muttering as he turned the pages.
Ai had seen the writer’s face once while reading an interview between her and Julia. By his estimation, she looked to be about their age or slightly older. Her face exuded purity and elegance in equal measure, like a spoiled rich kid.
“Excuse me…”
When he heard this sudden voice off to the side, he didn’t immediately realize he was being spoken to. He glanced over purely out of reflex and was startled to see a female clerk looking straight at him.
“Sorry to bother you. You’re friends with Akane-chan, right?”
At first he thought perhaps she was going to criticize him, be it for reading without paying or for waiting to ambush Akane, but one look at her expression told him this was not the case.
“I’ve been wondering—are you a model or something? Sorry, I don’t mean to pry.”
That was when he realized he vaguely recognized her, too. “Nah, I work at a music venue. This is just how I like to dress, that’s all. She and I met through a shared interest, and I was wondering if she was here tonight.”
He volunteered the name of his workplace to lend himself credence, but like Akane, she had never heard of it, even though it wasn’t far from here. As he was explaining where the venue was located, however, he thought of something.
“Say, could I ask you a question about this book?”
“Oh, um, sure! Go right ahead.”
“You know the part near the end when the main character tries to kill herself? Supposing that scene took place in this area, where do you think she’d do it?”
“Wha…?”
He knew from the outset that it would be a weird question, but apparently, it was weird enough to warrant utter confusion. Embarrassed, the clerk clapped a hand to her mouth. Still, whether she was bored, duty-bound, or simply that sort of person, she nevertheless cleared her throat and began to brainstorm.