Makoto left the apartment together with his brother, but they soon separated as Takaki headed towards the train station to go to work while Makoto proceeded on to school.
It was still early in the morning, but the sun was already blistering hot, as if to proclaim summer was near at hand. The tepid air was the kind that seemed to strangle the throat and suck the energy out of the body, replacing it with a weary, sluggish feeling.
Makoto’s white shirt was sloppily unbuttoned.
Since he wasn’t wearing an undershirt, his sweat stuck to his body and felt uncomfortable.
Ugh… I feel heavy… he thought.
He lifted his head of unkempt hair and hunched his back. Makoto trudged down the road with a distinctly lazy attitude. He was tall, with poor posture. He had a habit of walking with stooped shoulders, head down.
But just then, something caused him to look up.
—Ring.
He heard the sound of a bell.
✦ ✦ ✦
The asphalt, heated by the sun, emitted fumes which warped one’s view of the landscape. Standing there… was a little girl.
The girl was leaning on a wall. She stood there—a single, blooming white flower—alone under the powerful sun, amidst the swaying landscape. She wore a white dress and red shoes that would catch one’s eye even from a distance. She had white hair and a snowy complexion.
One could easily mistake her for a fairy, if not for the black cat wearing an unusually large bell sitting next to her. But as conspicuous as her appearance was, nobody took notice of her. The people walked briskly by her, preoccupied with the business of the morning.
Even if they might have been in a hurry, it was strange nobody looked at her. It was as if the little girl didn’t exist. But in fact, it wasn’t that they didn’t notice her, it was that they couldn’t notice her.
To normal people, the girl didn’t exist because she was invisible to the naked eye. But Makoto could see her.
Oh, of course, Makoto thought. I can see these kinds of things.
Makoto was able to see things other people could not. Like dead people, for instance. But even if he could see them, he would never try to approach them. He was used to apparitions, but still, they frightened him. Besides, he hated the fact he could see them. It made him feel as if he was abnormal. And whenever he experienced these phenomena, he always suffered painful headaches. So he never thought to actually involve himself with them.
He looked at the little girl; their eyes met.
Huh? he thought. That’s fumy. Strangely, his head didn’t hurt.
“Whoa! We haven’t even made ourselves visible and he can see us?!”
It was the black cat who spoke in surprise. He had the voice of a young boy.
Ohhh. So he can speak, Makoto thought, somewhat taken aback. But since this was his first time communicating with so-called “spirits,” he figured maybe that was the way it was supposed to be.
The girl, however, said nothing and just watched Makoto.
Upon closer inspection, she was very beautiful. She had white skin and pink cheeks, like peaches. She appeared to be quite young. Although the outline of her body appeared roundish, her facial features were sleek and gave her an adult-like appearance. She was a heavenly vision, enough to take one’s breath away.
The girl kept staring at him, and being an adolescent, Makoto felt uneasy.
“Is… Is there something on my face?” he nervously muttered, a typical line.
“Not really…”
The girl fluttered into the air like a dandelion seed and settled on the asphalt. The black cat followed closely behind.
“Don’t stare at Momo like that,” the black cat said in a foul manner.
Apparently, the girl was named Momo.
“Uh, well, I wasn’t staring…”
He did feel a bit strange, hearing a cat speak after all. Makoto crouched down and tried to see eye to eye with the black cat.
He was almost completely black save for the white tip on his tail. He looked quite cute. His appearance stood in such stark contrast to his arrogant attitude that it almost made Makoto laugh. But he managed to keep it under control, lest he get scolded again. He tried to reach over to pet the creature.
“Don’t get so touchy,” the cat warned. And so, Makoto steered clear of him.
“Uh… is this your cat?” he asked the girl.
“It’s not like he belongs to me…” she answered. “Daniel is my business associate.”
Like her appearance, her voice was childlike, but her tone sounded strangely mature. It was all so odd.
“Why can you see us?” the cat asked. “We’re supposed to be invisible.”
The black cat, who was apparently named Daniel, looked at Makoto with suspicion.
“Well, that’s… It seems I can see things I don’t want to see. You know, like ghosts, such as yourself.”
Makoto realized he was saying something bizarre in the midst of especially bizarre circumstances. He, who saw dead people, was here talking to a girl and cat who probably belonged in that very category,
“Hey, it’s one thing to call me a ghost…” Daniel reacted angrily, “but Momo?! Momo’s a shinigami!!”
Hearing the word “shinigami” jarred loose a fragment of Makoto’s memory.
“Shini…?”
“That’s right,” Daniel replied emphatically. “A shinigami.”
“Ohh, a genie…?”
“…In a bottle? Noooo! Shi-ni-gami! A god of death!”
“Yeah, well,” Makoto said incredulously. “This all smells like a lie…”
“It does not smell! Nggg… you’re such a moron! All right then, Momo!”
Irritated, Daniel thrust his tail out front and skillfully grasped the white tip with his forepaws to form a ring. Momo reached into the “ring.” As if performing some sort of space/time hocus-pocus, she pulled out an object that resembled a card case.
Without changing her expression, but in a joking tone of voice, she said, “Well, as a formality… Pleased to meet you. I’m a shinigami. But you already knew that.”
Momo thrust out a card. It appeared to be a shinigami identification card.
“Ah, thank you for being so polite,” Makoto said. “But you’re quite a peculiar one, aren’t you?” Makoto cracked a smile and scratched his face. The fact was that none of this was cause for surprise. Not because Momo and Daniel didn’t look anything like messengers of death or because he was quite used to seeing spirits and their ilk. No, he had known of the existence of these sorts of beings for some time now.
Makoto had met a shinigami once before.