It was Shinobu.
The roar of the river returned to my ears.
Then there was the other scene I always remembered.
Shinobu with a mini basketball in his hand, squatting beside me as I cried and peering into my face.
That place still exists. It’s right next to the playground monkey bars at the old elementary school.
Shinobu looked out the window of the second-floor classroom.
“I’m not her dad, and I’m not one of her girlfriends,” he said. “But I don’t think it hurts for you to have another person worrying about you.”
Ruka put her hand over her mouth like the pieces had just come together for her. “So that’s how her mom…”
“You’re not the only one, Shinobu.” Ms. Okumoto’s eyes misted over in reminiscence.
“We always tried to fill her mom’s shoes,” Ms. Nakai said, fixing him with a wistful gaze.
“We laughed and got mad and cried—just like her mom would have.” Ms. Kita looked down, smiling.
“What a lousy bunch of moms we are.” Ms. Hatanaka was wiping away a tear.
“Suzu has brought us so much joy,” Ms. Yoshitani said, her hand on her chest and her eyes glistening.
Other than the moonlight, the streets of U were black as ink. I squinted into the darkness.
“Kei…where are you? Answer me… Let me hear your voice… Kei… Kei, are you there…?!”
My feelings became a song. There were no words, only my voice tracing a melody.
“La la la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la la la…”
A faint light glowed in my chest. At first it was a tiny point in the very middle, but as I sang, it grew bigger. Quietly spreading from inside to out, the light shone like a candle burning in my chest.
I remembered experiencing this light before, back when I’d been crying outside the Dragon’s door. My arms had been crossed over my chest, and when I opened them, there was a round, bruise-like mark on my chest. The mark emitted a soft, warm light.
This was the same. U’s body-sharing technology was giving my heartbreak a visible form.
The more I sang, the stronger the light became.
“Suzu…!” Ms. Hatanaka’s AS gasped when she saw it.
“Suzu, you…,” Ms. Okumoto murmured.
The choir ladies were in U as ASes. The lovely, colorful costumes they each wore suited them perfectly.
“Suzu…!”
Ruka and Kamishin were there, too. Ruka’s AS was a bluebird holding an alto sax. Kamishin’s was a dog carrying a big canoe on his back.
I kept singing.
“La la la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la la la…”
I saw a tear fall from one AS’s eye. It wasn’t what I’d have expected from his fierce expression.
“La la la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la la la…”
Some of the ASes had lights in their chests like me. I saw one, then two, then three in the dark. Soon there were more, the light rippling outward from one chest to another.
Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands.
The lights pulsed emotionally in rhythm with my breath as I sang. Feelings without words. Like sorrow, like encouragement, like comfort for sadness, like hands lifting me up.
Hiro’s AS looked at the lights. “I was your only friend… And now…look at you!”
She was crying, her chest glowing.
The web of lights rippled out to the horizon.
Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Millions.
The light in each of those chests was only a gentle, soft, modest glow. But together, they shone powerfully, resiliently, confidently.
“La la la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la la la…”
I gazed out at the dizzying sea of lights.
Tens of millions. Hundreds of millions.
What an incredible sight.
All these people were gathered together, their feelings taking form before my eyes. Feelings were no longer invisible. Here in U, here in our chests, they had shape and color and brightness.
“……!”
The thought brought my own feelings surging irrepressibly upward. Tears blinded my vision and my jaw trembled so bad I could hardly sing. Holding back sobs, I looked down and managed to wipe my tears with one hand, which caused me to stop singing. I shook my head and switched to the other hand. I still couldn’t keep singing.
“Suzu!!” the choir members’ ASes yelled, the lights in their chests pulsating.
“Suzu!” Ruku’s AS cried, holding up her sax as her chest glowed.
Peggie Sue was there, too.
“Belle!!” she shouted, filling me with still more emotion. “Keep singing!! Don’t stop!!”
She began singing loudly in my place.
“La la la la la la!”
The ASes nearby stared in confusion.
“It’s Peggie Sue.”
“That Peggie Sue?”
“What’s she doing here?”
She ignored them and screamed, “Belle!! Sing!!”
That seemed to set off the other ASes. They picked up my broken melody and started to sing as well.
“La la la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la la la…”
Little by little, the melody spread. The sea of ASes were singing my wordless song together. Their voices rose from the farthest corners of the park.
“La la la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la la la…”
The choir ASes were swaying and singing, too. Ruka’s AS was playing the melody on her sax. It was a magnificent jam session of the masses. Innumerable ASes were together in song, their chests glowing in the dark. And the more they sang, the brighter their lights shone.
“Wh-what’s happening?!” Justin stuttered as he watched, white as a ghost. “She was unveiled—so why is she still here?!”
He hadn’t expected this. Once a person’s been unveiled, they can’t live in U anymore. That’s what makes unveiling so powerful. Those with the power to unveil control the world.
Belle had definitely been unveiled. He’d thought the whole world had mocked her, jeered her, and hurled her to the ground. So what was he looking at now? It was all wrong. What had happened?
One of the sponsor logos behind him drifted away.
“Hey!” he cried, whipping his head around to look. The other logos started disappearing, too, like a receding tide. In mere minutes, he had lost all his sponsors.
“Damn!!” Justin muttered, clenching his teeth. He looked hounded. He was no longer a person of power, no longer a chosen AS. The millions of ASes with their glowing chests appeared before him like a golden ocean. Suddenly, its center swelled high into the air.
“Wh-what’s going on?!”
An enormous whale encrusted with speakers was surfacing leisurely through the golden sea, raising a huge wave.
It opened its gargantuan mouth and roared, as if to join in the song. Water jetted from its blowhole, glittering in the air like fireworks.
The whale’s enormous rostrum lifted me with it. I was in the same place where Belle, dressed in a gown of red flowers, had boldly sung to the world. I was standing in the same spot, as my real self.
Standing and singing boldly.
Surrounded by its offspring, the whale floated leisurely over the golden sea.
Sing, let your heart soar!
Sing forever!
Sad and so happy! Feelings flow over, now
Our world is full of all kinds of colors
Closing my eyes I can still see the stars
Shine in the sky, sing in their harmony
Flowers, they’re blooming, oh it’s beautiful!
I wasn’t a beautiful woman, not by any stretch of the imagination. I was just a freckled kid from the countryside. But Belle was inside me.
The other me gave me strength. Belle had disappeared, but she remained inside me, as my core. Living as Belle had made me stronger.
Thank you.
The instant those words rose in my mind, countless flowers blossomed from my body. Unending bunches of them adorned the streets of U. They fluttered down from the drifting whale and settled on the glowing ASes.
The whale and its babies swam languidly through the golden sea of swaying ASes. A U-shaped moon hovered in the sky above.
I belted out the last lines of the song, like I was embracing all the life that existed in that moment.
Kei watched the performance in awe.
“Wow…!”
Tears were streaming from Tomo’s eyes.
“Kei, I…I want to see Belle… I wanna see her.”
But Kei was unsure, still suspicious.
“…Is she really Belle, though? I don’t totally trust her yet.”
Then, seeming to make up his mind, he whispered, “But…”
If Tomo said he wanted to see her—