The girl’s voice was sweet, too—as clear as a bell—although her eyebrows were knit in what seemed to be an ill-humored frown. Her every word and gesture were captivating. She can’t possibly be a living creature of the same sex as me, thought Mitsuri. While Mitsuri looked at her in fascination, the girl repeated, with some irritation, “Mitsuhiko Shiba?” Slightly taken aback, Mitsuri hastily said, “The manager is taking the day off today.”
“I heard that. But I don’t have a mobile phone, and there don’t seem to be any pay phones in the area, so please could you contact him for me? I tried asking the person earlier but he didn’t seem to be listening.”
“Ah, that’s what happened,” said Mitsuri. “I’m very sorry. Well, I’ll try to reach him, so would you mind waiting just a little while longer?”
The girl nodded, and Mitsuri returned to the shop in a hurry. She turned to Ukulele, who was standing behind the register. Still looking nervous, he said, “Sorry—the girl is an honest-to-god beauty.”
“Are you serious?” Muraoka piped up giddily. Mitsuri grabbed the handset for the store phone and crouched down behind the counter. She hastily dialed Shiba, but she couldn’t connect. She tried several times more, but each time, she heard the same automated message: “The client you are trying to reach may be out of the signal area…”
“Now? At a time like this!”
No matter how many times she tried, she couldn’t get through. She also tried the landline at Shiba’s apartment, but there was no answer there either, so he had to be out somewhere.
Mitsuri returned to the dine-in space wondering what to do, but when she got there, she found the girl slumped over the countertop.
“I’m sorry for keeping you…hello?”
Perhaps the girl was annoyed because it had taken so long? Mitsuri approached her, but something seemed off. Curious, she reached over and touched the back of the girl’s outstretched hand. It was as cold as ice. She put her hand to the back of the girl’s neck, and it was the opposite. She was burning up.
“Are you sick?”
It was just like when Kōsei had a fever. Mitsuri lifted her head to look at her face, and the girl’s breath was ragged. There was no mistaking it—the red in her cheeks signaled a fever.
“Come with me.”
Mitsuri took the unsteady girl by the hand and led her to the staff room. She was shivering slightly—maybe she had a chill?—so Mitsuri raised the temperature in the room. She draped her own coat over the girl’s shoulders and sat her in a chair. The dazed girl looked up at Mitsuri, her eyes cloudy with fever, and said, “Mitsuhiko Shiba…”
“I’m so sorry. For some reason I can’t reach him. But the more important question is, do you live near here? We should have someone from your family come get you.”
Her self-assurance evaporated, the girl sagged against the table. Without rising, she shook her head slightly.
“My home…it’s in Miyazaki.”
“What? You came all the way from there?!” Miyazaki was nearly on the opposite side of the island of Kyūshū. “What can we do? Listen, you need to tell me what you want with the manager.”
“To see him, that’s all,” she said, in a thoroughly forlorn voice. Perhaps she had come all this way holding back her illness? Or had the journey somehow pushed her beyond the limits of what she could endure?
“Excuse me, Mitsuri? What’s going on?”
Ukulele stuck his head nervously in the door, and when he saw the girl looking so sickly, he let out a pitiful moan. “Oh no…! Wh-what happened to her?”
“She didn’t seem well, as you can see, so I brought her in here for now. Forgive me, but would you mind taking my shift for the moment?”
“N-no, of course not.” Ukulele returned to the shop as asked.
“Well, I can’t let you spend the night here, you know.”
“The Whatever Guy. Call him, please.” A faint voice. The girl had lifted her head slightly from the table. “Maybe Tsugi will be home…”
“Tsugi? You know Tsugi? How…?”
“I’m…their sister.”
Their sister. The words bounced around in Mitsuri’s head, taking a while to settle. Their sister. Their sister? Their sister!
I deserve an award for not screaming out loud right now, Mitsuri thought. Impossible! This doll of a girl, the little sister of those two?
“Oh! Okay, well, so you…you’re Jewel?”
When she said the name she had been told earlier, the girl—Jewel—laughed a little.
“I guess my brothers mentioned me?”
She giggled sheepishly. Her face didn’t resemble either of her brothers, but she was so beautiful that Mitsuri felt it had to be her. Any sister of those two had to be—well, something like this.
Damn! Mitsuri couldn’t help but wonder at what sort of creatures the remaining two brothers must be. Her curiosity was mounting, but she restrained herself.
“I understand. I’ll contact him immediately.”
She was still holding the store phone, so she dialed Tsugi’s mobile number. But she couldn’t connect to his phone, either. She just kept getting the same robotic “out of range” message that she had heard when she tried Shiba.
“What? I don’t get it. What could have happened to him?”
And it was an actual emergency! Resisting the urge to slam the phone down, Mitsuri shifted her attention to Jewel. A strand of hair cascaded down the girl’s fever-flushed cheeks, and it seemed that at any moment she might fade away like a dream.
“First things first. I have to do something for this child.”
Mitsuri set the phone on the table and thought for a moment. She certainly couldn’t leave the girl here in this state. Maybe it would be best for her to duck out of work now and take the girl home with her? No, when she had left the house earlier today, Kōsei was hanging around with several of his friends. It wouldn’t be right to bring a sick girl home in the midst of all those hormonal teens—let alone such a pretty one. Hmm…was her only option to text Kōsei and ask him to leave the house? While Mitsuri was considering this, the doorbell for the staff room sounded. She opened the door. Several members of the Golden Villa Ladies’ Association were standing there.
“We came because our Mitsuhiko asked us to collect the rest of his holiday gifts. He said that they were piling up here and becoming a nuisance to the staff, so he wants us to put them in the Ladies’ Association meeting room for now.”
There was a common room on the third floor of the Golden Villa Apartments building, and it seemed that the ladies of the building were using it as a meeting room. Mitsuri had never set foot in the space, but the Ladies’ Association clearly considered it their headquarters.
Mitsuri quickly scanned the group. Among them, she noticed the face of Mrs. Sakuma, a retired nurse. She bowed to her and said, “I have a small favor to ask. The manager’s sister has come to visit him, but I can’t seem to reach him. What’s more, she seems to be unwell—”