“Really? Well, all right.”
Then, with a big yawn, Hikaru laid down exactly where he was. Yoshiki could hear the jingling of the wind chime hanging from the eaves. He covered his face with both hands.
I know. I know just how abnormal—how dangerous—this peaceful time is. I can’t go on acting like this is normal.
Because Hikaru died a long time ago.
“Y’know…,” Hikaru began.
Through the gaps between his fingers, Yoshiki could see Hikaru shifting his body slightly.
“…I’m really enjoyin’ myself. Just bein’ with ya is enough for me. Thanks for the watermelon, too.”
“The heck? Why’re ya comin’ out with that all of a sudden…?”
“Well, I’m not gonna lie to ya. I don’t know. I guess I just feel like I wanna be up front and tell ya that stuff.”
“It’d be great if I could do the same,” Yoshiki said under his breath.
But that regret, which had finally found its way out of his throat, was truly pointless now. It was too late.
When he looked up, his eyes fell on some items displayed in the small alcove above the room’s sliding door. There was a photo of Hikaru’s great-grandparents, an award certificate someone had received, and a group photo of the forestry union.
Next to those was a photo of Hikaru and Yoshiki from their elementary school graduation ceremony.
Every time Yoshiki came into this room, he would see that photo of the two of them making silly faces while holding their diploma tubes and think, What’s with those faces? and What a bunch of goofs we were.
In this small village called Kubitachi, Hikaru Indou was the only kid close to Yoshiki’s age, so they had always been together.
Even though you’re dead now. Even though the Hikaru from that picture is gone now. I’m still here, living my life comfortably, eating watermelon with someone who looks just like you but isn’t, and listening to the same wind chime we heard back then.
He knew that he couldn’t be forgiven.
Yoshiki fumbled around in his pants pocket and pulled out his smartphone. When he opened his messages, the name of the person he had just exchanged contact info with appeared at the top of his screen.
Rie Kurebayashi.
That was the name of the “random housewife” who had approached Yoshiki at Nozomi Supermarket.
“If you keep this up, you’ll mix.”
The red shadows typical of dusk had fallen across Kurebayashi’s face as she gave Yoshiki that warning.
“ M-mix…? What do ya mean…?” he stammered.
“It’s hard to explain… You won’t be human anymore if you get too mixed in with somethin’ from the other side.”
Yoshiki had struggled to form a response, to which Kurebayashi shook her head and said, “Oh, don’t be scared! I really am just a housewife who happened to be passin’ by! It’s just that I can see more than the average person.”
She must have thought that Yoshiki found her suspicious, so she added, “I ain’t lyin’,” and heaved a big sigh. “Ya know the mountains over in Kubitachi? The area that’s off-limits? Well, for as long as I can remember, I got this no-good feelin’ from that place. I just knew there was somethin’ real bad out there.”
The mountains that’re off-limits in Kubitachi—she means the place where Hikaru went missing.
“It’s just…recently, that no-good feelin’ just up an’ disappeared all of a sudden. It had me in a right state wonderin’ where it went off to. I didn’t know what was goin’ on.”
Kurebayashi’s eyes, which had been fixed on Kubitachi, slowly shifted back to Yoshiki.
“But it’s come to be by yer side, hasn’t it?”
The way she had her gaze trained on Yoshiki made it hard for him to breathe. It took him a fair amount of time and effort before he finally managed to say, “…How…? Do you know somethin’…?”
“I don’t. But I do know that things won’t go well for ya if ya keep doin’ what yer doin’.”
Kurebayashi then put her hand on her chest and took a deep breath. When she exhaled, her breath was tense and shaky.
“I’m serious. I’ve never seen somethin’ like this before…but you have yer reasons, don’t you?” she said before taking out her phone. “If you’d like to talk about it, contact me.”
And as instructed, Yoshiki had exchanged his contact information with her.
Hey
That was the message Yoshiki sent to Kurebayashi. It was as if the sound of the wind chime had urged him to do it.
He didn’t know what to do next. His finger hovered over the keyboard, unable to move.
“Hey, Yoshikiiiii! I got somethin’ I’d like ya to bring to yer mama…,” Hikaru’s mother called out from the kitchen.
Yoshiki was relieved; that gave him an excuse to stop what he was doing, although he thought it was cowardly of him. He placed his phone on the table.
“Yes, ma’am,” Yoshiki replied toward the hallway.
Then he left the living room where the fan continued to spin at full power.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hikaru, if ya really like someone, ya gotta marry ’em quick like.”
His father had given him that advice when he was little.
He couldn’t remember exactly how old he was in that memory, but his dad had a sparkler in his hand, and so did Hikaru—the kind that spat orange sparks.
“I’ll just get married like normal. What’ll happen if I don’t?” Hikaru asked.
“Unuki will take ’em into the mountains.”
That’s exactly what his father had said. Until a moment before, the man had been watching his sparkler with a serene look on his face, but now his brows had furrowed into an expression of sadness.
“It’s an Indou family rule. If you got yourself a lover, you gotta hurry an’ marry ’em. It promised not to lay a hand on our family members, so they’ll be safe as long as ya take ’em as your bride.”
“Why does it take them away?”
“It’s lonely, so instead of takin’ one of our family members, it takes the person we cherish most.”
Like the setting sun, the embers from his father’s sparkler dropped, leaving a dark blotch on the ground.
Hikaru’s sparkler still burned energetically, as if it was singing.
“Just an ol’ wives’ tale, though! That one girl that dumped yer old man—and a whole buncha others before her—are all alive an’ well…”
The tail end of the man’s words, spoken with a laugh, overlapped with his burnt-out sparkler. Deep down, Hikaru questioned if it really was just an “ol’ wives’ tale,” but just as he was about to ask, everything went dark.
His own sparkler had already gone out.
That was Hikaru Indou’s memory, not his own.
But even if I won’t be takin’ you, I can always be with you now.
That’s what Hikaru thought whenever he dug up this memory.
I’ll just have to be careful not to let anyone else take you.
Ping! The sound of a notification woke Hikaru up. He tried to go back to sleep, but the wind chime kept him awake.
He got up while rubbing his cheek, which held an imprint of the tatami floor. Then he noticed Yoshiki’s smartphone had been left on the table.
He saw that there was a message from someone he’d never heard of before—someone named “Rie Kurebayashi”—and stopped yawning.
Feel like talking now?
It was a brief question addressed to Yoshiki.
“…Who’s…this?”