Final Chapter
I WAS FLOATING, set adrift into a deep and fathomless pool of darkness. I was hard and heavy, as though I’d been buried alive in a coffin full of liquid cement. My whole body lay rigid, suspended in space, with only my consciousness swirling languidly around it. I couldn’t cry out for help, or turn my head, or lift a single finger. All I could feel was a creeping cold slowly slithering up my legs. I was afraid. I was confused. My mind tried desperately to wriggle free from its clutches. I screamed within, though it made no sound.
Then I saw it: a tiny pinprick of light piercing the darkness. Suddenly, I regained some small amount of control over my body. I reached for the light with heavy limbs, trying my hardest to claw through the darkness. At first, it was like treading water, paddling hopelessly in the middle of an open ocean with no chance of making it to shore. Eventually, the light began to grow brighter and brighter, and I could just make out the silhouette of a person standing directly in front of it. It looked like a woman, but the light behind her was too blinding to make out her face. The closer I got, though, the more defined her contours became.
“—”
She was saying something, but I couldn’t quite make it out from this distance. It sounded like a droning hum. Yet for whatever reason, it soothed my ears, like the voice of an old friend I hadn’t seen in years and missed more than the world could ever know. I kept swimming through the liquid darkness, slowly but surely closing the distance between myself and this shadowy figure. When I was finally within arm’s length, I reached for her.
“—ono—Tono-kun—”
I heard a voice.
“Tono-kun… Tono-kun…”
It was calling my name. Over and over, like a desperate, tearful plea.
“Tono-kun!”
A water droplet plinked onto my cheek, and I opened my eyes. A woman was looking down at me with tears on her face. She was so close that I couldn’t help but squirm in surprise. However, she had apparently rested my head on her lap. She held one of my hands clasped in both of hers and rubbed it gently against her cheek.
She looked a lot like Anzu, only her hair was much shorter, and she looked quite a bit older than the girl I remembered. If you’d told me she was Anzu’s older sister or something, however, I would have believed you without batting an eye. Why was she crying? What was she doing here in the first place? As far as I could remember, I was still deep inside the Urashima Tunnel.
“Tono-kun… Are you okay? Do you recognize me? It’s me, Hanashiro, Anzu Hanashiro…”
Anzu Hanashiro… Hanashiro?!
“Wh-what are you doing here?!” I shouted, sitting up in a fluster. This sudden motion gave me a throbbing headache, and I clutched my forehead in a vain attempt to quell the migraine. When I did this, little flakes of dried blood fluttered from the tips of my bangs. Startled, the woman immediately let go of my hand and grabbed my shoulders to gently prop me up.
“No, don’t! You really shouldn’t move around too much yet. You’re in pretty bad shape…”
“O-okay…”
Anzu helped me sit so that we were directly across from each other on the ground. I stared at her, closely examining her facial features, as she looked me over in turn, clearly concerned about my current state of health.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Does your head hurt? You don’t feel sick or anything?”
“Yeah… I think I hit my head a little too hard. I’m not bleeding anymore, it doesn’t look like, and I don’t feel nauseous or anything… Pretty sure I’ll be all right…”
“You’re sure? Oh, thank goodness…” Anzu placed her hand on her chest as she let out a sigh of deep relief.
I, meanwhile, was still extremely confused. Part of me was convinced I had to be dreaming. “So you’re…really Hanashiro, huh? Then what are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?! Isn’t it obvious?!”
Anzu’s eyes shot wide open, and she raised a clenched fist to shoulder level. She held it shakily aloft for a good few seconds, as though she wasn’t sure where to punch me, before ultimately slamming it flaccidly into my chest. It didn’t hurt, but there was a weight to it that confirmed once and for all that this was more than just a dream. Then, before I knew it, she threw her arms around my neck, wrapping me tight in her embrace. Her damp, silky hair against my cheek. The scent of perspiration tickling my nose.
“I’m here to bring you back because you were taking too long, you moron!” she yelled. Her face was so close to mine that it made my eardrum ring. I didn’t mind one bit.
“What? But I thought for sure you chose to pursue being a manga artist…”
“I did! And I am one!”
“Th-then why the hell are you—”
“Because I finished already! I wrote a whole damn series, and it’s out in paperback and everything! I didn’t rush the conclusion either! I tied up every loose end! But even then, you still hadn’t come out! So I got sick and tired of waiting, and now I’m here to drag your sorry butt back with me! Is that so wrong?!”
I was stunned. Utterly at a loss for words. Not only had Anzu’s story been picked up for serialization, but she’d finished the whole thing, and it was even out in trade paperbacks? She’d accomplished all that while I was running around in the tunnel for just a day or two? Holy crap. I honestly couldn’t believe my ears. These were things the average person never accomplished in their entire lifetime. Then to top it all off, she’d cast everything aside to come chasing after me into the tunnel, all by herself…
“And another thing!” Anzu tightened her stranglehold on my neck. “Why would you ever write that you don’t expect me to wait for you?! I can’t believe you! We were supposed to be a team, remember?! How could you just leave me behind, all alone?! Was it really so wrong that I got cold feet about that first editing offer?! Is that why you abandoned me?! Is that why you wouldn’t let me come with you?!”
“No, it’s nothing like that…”
“Waaah! I’m sorry, okay?! Please don’t hate me! I don’t wanna be alone anymore! Waaaah!”
With her head over my right shoulder, her tears soaked through the fabric of my shirt. She dug her nails so deep into my back, I actually thought she might draw blood. All I could do to make it up to her was gently run my fingers through her hair.