“Heard from my old lady that it was you who found me and called the ambulance. I really owe you one, man.”
“Nah, it’s cool… Don’t worry about me. It’s her you should be thinking about.”
I signaled Akari with my eyes. She took a deep breath.
“Akito, we need to talk,” she said.
“…Yeah? About what?” he replied. His voice instantly turned hostile.
“About what you did two days ago… No, what you’ve been doing for the past couple of years. All of the harassment, all the late-night partying, all the grunt work you’ve made me do, all the money you’ve stolen… It all needs to stop. I don’t want to catch you doing any of that again,” she declared. Akito was visibly uncomfortable, but Akari persisted: “I’ve already told Kanae-kun about everything you’ve done to me too.”
“…Hmph. What, are you guys going steady now? Explains why you’re holding hands. The hospital ain’t the place to be flaunting your relationship status, guys,” he snorted derisively.
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The image of Akito I’d fought to maintain in my mind, my concept of him as a stand-up guy, a hardworking pitcher, crumbled to dust once and for all. I knew damn well that there was no way he’d forgotten all the horrible things he’d done to Akari—and yet here he hadn’t only shrugged it off but made wisecracks at her expense. My blood began to boil. I let go of Akari’s hand, walked up to Akito’s bedside, and looked down at him from above.
“Man, you’ve turned into a real douchebag,” I said. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Beg your pardon?” Akito said, his face flaring up with rage.
“You heard me. You’re a douchebag. All this crap you’ve done to hurt your little sister, and you can’t muster up one little apology? Do you seriously feel entitled to act like a complete asshole because you lost your shot at being a star athlete?”
“You tryin’ to say somethin’, pal…?”
“Yeah, I am, actually. Listen up: Try to mess with Akari again, and it won’t end well for you, ‘pal.’ I’ll come running with a big ol’ rock and chuck it right at your head—just like how you taught me to deal with bullies.”
“No, you listen, dickhead… I don’t think you know who you’re dealin’ with.”
Akito’s eyes flashed with anger. He sat up and made a grab for my collar…but whether due to the alcohol poisoning or the fact that he hadn’t been an athlete in years, his grip was weak. I shook him off no problem, causing him to lose his balance and fall out of his hospital bed.
“Grgh…” he grunted as he hit the floor.
His IV tube fell out, and a trail of blood began to trickle down his arm. I had no intention of trying to kick a hospital patient while he was down, so I reached out a hand to help him up. He slapped it away.
“Don’t touch me,” he barked, still on his hands and knees, his nails scratching at the floor. “You and everyone else are always lookin’ for excuses to talk down to me… Ever since I had to quit baseball, it’s like I’m one big disappointment. It’s bullcrap… It’s not fair, goddammit…”
He lifted his head and looked at me in distress. His expression was full of hate, and yet I found something strangely pitiable about it.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like?” he demanded. “To have the one thing you’ve dedicated your whole life to ripped out from under your feet? Do you?!”
“…Nope, can’t say I do. But there’s more to life than baseball, man. Not every single person you meet is gonna judge you based on how good of a pitcher you are.”
I reached out my hand again, but he ignored it and sat up straight without assistance. Not a moment later, I heard a woman’s voice at the door announcing her arrival. It was a voice I thought I recognized. My hunch was confirmed as soon as she slid open the privacy curtain.
“Hey, sorry that took so long, I had to—Wait, huh?”
Sure enough, it was Hayase, holding two cans of coffee precariously in her right hand. She must have been here to visit him even before we arrived.
“Whoa, Akito! Are you okay?! Did you fall out of bed?”
She set the coffee cans down on the bed and squatted down to help Akito up, looping his arm around her shoulders.
“Knock it off,” he growled.
“Oh, don’t be like that. You’re still recovering, it’s fine,” she said, helping him back up onto the bed before turning to look at us. “Hey, Akari-chan! Good to see you! And who’s your friend here…?”
Ouch, I winced. Forgotten already. Then I realized that she and I actually hadn’t met yet in this newly revised timeline. Duh. Right as I was about to introduce myself, Hayase gave a short, high-pitched shriek.
“Akito! You’re bleeding! Damn, we need to call the nurse!”
“Aw, save it. It’s not even a big deal…” Akito said in an attempt to downplay it.
“Oh no you don’t, buster. We gotta get that looked at, pronto,” she said. She pressed the nurse call button next to his pillow while giving him a disapproving look. “I swear, you’ve always been like this. Stubborn about the dumbest of things. This is why everyone ends up distancing themselves from you sooner or later.”
“So what? Who cares?”
“I care. You need to learn to take good advice when it’s given to you, for cryin’ out loud. Open up a bit more, why don’t you? You’re only making things harder for yourself by shutting folks out. What do you think would’ve happened if you weren’t lucky enough to be found by someone the other night? Did that even cross your mind?!”
Suddenly, there were tears in her eyes. Akito got a little flustered at that.
“Psh, c-c’mon… It ain’t that big a deal. I mean, look at me. I’m fine, aren’t I?”
“You could have died, Akito!” yelled Hayase.
Akito shrank back. His eyes wavered uncomfortably for a moment, unsure what to do, but eventually he threw up his hands and scratched his head.
“…All right, I’m sorry. Sheesh.”
It was almost too quiet to hear, but he had apologized. We stood in shocked silence around his bed for some time, until the nurse we’d called showed up to ask Akito how he was feeling. He mumbled a few begrudging answers at first, before Hayase smacked him on the back and told him to explain in greater detail. Incredibly, this was all it took for him to start being more cooperative. I was standing there watching their little back-and-forth when I felt Akari gently poke my sides with her index fingers.
“We should get going,” she suggested.
“…Good idea,” I agreed.
At least he’ll be in safe hands with Hayase, I thought to myself. Akari and I briefly said our goodbyes to the two of them before we excused ourselves from the hospital room.
The boat ride back to Sodeshima was practically empty; I chalked it up to the fact that it was in the middle of the workday. You could probably count the number of other passengers on one hand. Akari and I sat side by side right in the middle of the seating area.
“Thanks again, Kanae-kun,” she said at one point, with zero lead-in.
“Hm? For what?” I asked.
“For coming with me to the hospital, silly. And…for standing up to my brother.”
“Oh, yeah… Don’t mention it. Shame I didn’t manage to wring an apology out of him…”
The main objective of the day was to draw a line in the sand, after all—and I wasn’t confident we’d accomplished that goal.
“Well, it made me happy, that’s for sure. I never could’ve done that on my own,” she said. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. It was only the slightest hint of a smile, but I’d take it. Seeing her happy again was enough of a reward for me on its own.
“Feel free to let me know if he gives you any more trouble. Luckily for you, I’ll be just down the street from now on.”
“Wait, huh?” she said, staring blankly at me. “You mean you’re not going back to Tokyo?”
“Nope. I’m dropping out so I can stay right here with you in Sodeshima… Didn’t I already tell you this up on the roof the other night?”
Her eyes widened in astonishment.
“I totally thought you were just bluffing about that to talk me down…”
“Hell no. I wouldn’t lie in a dicey situation like that.”
“Have you already filed your withdrawal paperwork?”
“Nah, not yet. I figure I can call the school and take care of it over the phone.”
I knew it wouldn’t be quite as easy as that in practice. I expected some firm resistance not only from my father but from my teachers as well. Still, I was fully prepared to fight for my right to withdraw myself from school.
“Forget it, then. You don’t have to drop out,” Akari said.
“Huh?” I gawked, knocked thoroughly off-kilter. Of all the people I expected to face opposition from, Akari wasn’t one of them.
“I mean, that’d only make things harder for you in the long run, right? Like, what would you even do after moving back here?”
“Uh… Probably enroll at Sodeshima High, I guess?”
“And after you graduated from there?”
“Haven’t really thought that far, to be honest…”
“You’re already on the fast track into a great college, Kanae-kun. You shouldn’t waste that opportunity. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the sentiment, but I’d feel horrible if you were to give all that up on my account.”
“Urgh…”
On second thought, she had a point. Maybe dropping out of high school would be too drastic. I had reservations about the idea myself, of course, but Akari’s doubts made me wonder if I should just scrap it entirely. Some part of me did feel like a bit of a coward for skulking off back to Tokyo by myself after talking a big game up on the rooftop the other night, though. How in the world was I supposed to make up for that? While I sat there stressing myself out about it, Akari gave a soft, simple smile.