It rained again.
It was a furious downpour, with rain bouncing off the hard, cold asphalt. It was a deluge savage enough to grind away at the earth.
At this park, one could usually hear the voices of children, even in the evening. But tonight it was dark, and, in the pouring rain, one could barely see a few feet ahead, much less anyone on the street.
Up in the night sky, strobes of lightning crackled. The lightning streaked across the low sky and was blinding. The rumbling noise that followed was deep enough to cause a roar in the ears. The thunder shook the boy’s little body.
Inside the cardboard box he carried, the contents rustled noisily, in startled reaction to the rumbling.
The boy wore a light blue raincoat. From under his hood, he peered down at the box. A puddle of water had formed on the plastic sheet he had placed on top of the box to protect the contents from the rain.
“…You… It’s all your fault… If you hadn’t been around…”
The boy looked left and right.
“……”
Steeling his resolve, he placed the box in a location that would be easily spotted by passersby. He would abandon it in the park, yet the boy thought of it as a final act of kindness.
“…I… I…”
The boy’s shoulders trembled. Perhaps it was the lightning, perhaps there was a deeper reason, but his resolve began to crumble.
Whatever was inside the box continued to struggle.
“It… It’s all your fault… That’s why I…”
“…So you’re saying you’re not at all to blame?”
—Ring.
Not even the pouring rain could obscure the sound. The ringing of the bell and her voice echoed within the boy’s mind.
“What…?”
He thought his heart was going to pop out. There, in front of him, stood a little girl dressed in white. She stood next to the cardboard box he had just put down.
In the rain, her white hair and red shoes seemed to glow faintly. Stranger still, the girl was floating in mid-air. And if one looked closely, one would notice an elliptical area around the girl, which shielded her from the rain.
For an instant, he thought she was a ghost. But immediately, her appearance reminded him of something else. It was too fantastic and unbelievable, but she looked very much like a fairy he had once seen on TV. Remembering this, he became somewhat entranced by her and didn’t even notice the black cat by her feet.
The cat’s black body blended in with the darkness, but his eyes were like golden moons. He wore a rather conspicuous-looking red collar around his neck, with a bell attached to it. His tail pointed straight up into the night sky; only the tip of it was white. Glaring at the boy, the cat opened its mouth and spoke.
“Were you planning to kill it?” The cat’s voice sounded like that of a young child, about the same age as the boy.
“Eek!” The boy’s knees buckled under him in fear and surprise.
Th-the cat spoke?! he thought, unbelieving.
The boy fell backwards and landed on his butt in the rain-drenched mud. His cotton shorts immediately became soaked with water, and a cold sensation shot through his body.
“Daniel, come.” The little girl beckoned to the cat. She appeared to be a bit younger than the boy, yet her voice, although childlike, sounded strangely like an adult’s.
“Hrrnph!” the cat snorted. Shooting one last glance at the boy, he scampered over to the girl.
The girl crouched and scooped up the water that pooled atop the plastic sheet covering the box.
“If it continues raining like this, what will happen to this poor ‘child?’” she murmured. She seemed to be speaking to the black cat beside her and, at the same time, addressing the young boy.
“I mean, if you leave him like this, he’ll surely die.”
The black cat rapped his forepaw against the side of the box. “Heeey, you alive in there, pal?”
In response, the contents of the box rustled.
“He seems to still have some fight left, Momo,” the cat told the girl, craftily displaying a coy yet happy expression.
“But if you leave him like this, there’s no telling,” the girl said somberly.
The cat accosted the boy. “You stupid punk! What were you planning to do with my relative here?”
This time the black cat bared its teeth and glared angrily at the boy with golden eyes.
“……”
The boy finally understood what they were talking about. Besides the rain and mud, a sticky layer of sweat gushed forth and drenched his body further.
“Wh-what the hell are you guys?!” he asked in a panic.
The term, spoken in desperation, was an apt description in this case. He could not find an excuse to explain his actions to the strange little girl and her cat. The weight of his crime grew heavier on his little shoulders. He had lost his resolve once, so he’d shut away his emotions. But he now found it weakening again. “Hate” was transforming back to “love.” So the boy dashed in between the girl and her cat and ran for his life.
“Th-there’s no way I’d abandon him! I-I just thought I’d leave him for a while, that’s all!” he cried, holding the box and running at full speed towards the exit.
What’s going on here?! he thought frantically. What the hell is going on?! It’s not my fault! It’s not my fault. I… I…
And then it happened. He heard it. “Her” voice.
He looked behind him in panic. But there was nothing there to provide form to what he was searching for. As for the girl and cat, they were no longer visible.
“Am I imagining things?” he asked himself.
It was a soft voice, like feathers. He could almost hear it even now. But she wasn’t there. He would never hear that voice again.
“She’s gone…” he said to himself. “Why? Why…?”
From inside the box, a small, weak voice cried out. “Meow.”
It was a troublesome burden, left behind by her.
✦ ✦ ✦
Back when they were still together…
“Hey, you two are dating, aren’t you?!” a classmate teased.
“Shut up! Just go away! It’s got nothing to do with you anyway!”
Seto Kota yelled with all his might at his male classmates who teased him. He swung at them just for good measure, roaring mightily. But he missed, resulting in even more teasing.
“Coooo, coooo!” his classmates teased before running off.
“Jeez, those guys,” Kota complained irritably. “Every day, each and every day… They really piss me off.”
Red in the face and with steam almost coming out of his ears, he ran his hand through his closely cropped, chestnut-colored hair, bleached against his will by his older sister in junior high.
“Don’t worry about what those stupid guys say.”
Although he was worried, Kota put on a bold front while in the presence of the girl standing behind him now. The one he had been protecting.
Wearing a light yellow dress, the girl spoke in a voice as soft as fur on a newborn kitten.
“It’s fine,” Makihara Mai said reassuringly, and rewarded the boy with a smile as bright as sunflowers.
She had a rather mature-looking face for a girl her age. In fact, Mai acted a bit more grown-up than the other girls in her class. She herself wanted to hurry up and become an adult fast.
Kota, on the other hand, would have preferred being a kid as long as possible.
Standing at eye level with Mai, he peered into her eyes. They were clear and sharp. Mai used to be the taller one. Though he had not yet entered puberty, Kota had started growing, and now they were about the same height.
Realizing this, Kota basked in a sense of superiority, thinking, I’ll shoot past her in no time. But once he got used to looking at her eye-to-eye, he no longer bothered to brag about it. He realized there was nothing to be gained in bragging. After all, he would reason, we’re still the same age…
“You don’t need to try so hard, Kota,” Mai continued, bringing the boy out of his reverie. “You don’t have to walk home with me.”
“Well, that’s because you… I mean, it’s lunch break… Er, what I mean to say is… Oh, f-forget it! Just forget it! I’m walking home with you because I want to!”
Not quite realizing the implications of the words he had haphazardly blurted out, Kota felt suspicious about Mai’s quickly reddening cheeks. He hurriedly dismissed the thought and began walking.
“Come on,” he urged. “Let’s go.”
“Okay,” she replied.
It was lunch break and Mai needed to go to the nurse’s office first. Kota was greatly concerned for her. Especially under the circumstances.
Mai walked behind Kota. Her soft hair, tied in pigtails, bounced rhythmically as she walked. She felt warm inside. He may not have expressed himself gracefully, but she appreciated his warm feelings.
Later they would walk home together. And that’s when they would run into “him.”