“Do you think he’ll change?” the cat asked.
“Who knows.”
“That’s what you say, but you actually do believe he will, don’t you, Momo?”
“Who knows,” she answered again. “But… it’s going to be hard for him from now on.”
✦ ✦ ✦
It all felt so ephemeral that, if touched, it might actually break. But he felt as if he could go on living. He knew that he could go on living.
After school, the two of them walked through town. Mitsuki decided he would tell Yutaka about himself and the shinigami. He didn’t foster any hope of her believing him, though. After all, it seemed like a totally ridiculous story. Still, he wanted to tell her properly.
As he spoke, Yutaka looked at him with a blank expression. Strong winds had been blowing since morning. She held down her hair, which was being whipped by the wind, as she listened.
“So she said you were going to die?” she asked.
“Well, it was certainly something like that.”
“But did she say when you were going to die?”
“Well,” he said, venturing a guess, “it’s supposed to be real soon, right?”
“How soon is soon?”
Like a stubborn child, she kept asking about every little detail. Not to irritate him but because she wanted to know as much about Mitsuki as she could. It made Mitsuki realize something important.
“Hm…?” He wondered—when is soon? Yes, he had been told that he would die, but the shinigami had never said when it would happen. Maybe because what she had said was unbelievable, he hadn’t really listened to what the girl in white had been saying.
“Hmm…”
Mitsuki thought hard, but there was no way he could understand something he hadn’t listened to. When he realized it, he groaned.
“Then,” Yutaka said suddenly, “it’s all the same.”
“Huh? What is?”
“Like I said, it’s all the same.”
“What is?” Mitsuki asked.
“That you don’t know when you’re going to die. That makes you no different from me—or anybody else for that matter, Asano.”
Oh, Mitsuki told himself. I see. So that’s it.
It was the same for everyone. Everyone knows life will eventually end, yet they still go on living. That was what the shinigami had meant when she’d said the word “destiny” meant “to carry a life.”
I see, Mitsuki thought. People carry on with their lives and live. That’s the way people live. So that’s what she meant. Jeez.
“Aaagh!”
Dumbfounded, Mitsuki let out a sigh. Then, realizing his own ignorance, he laughed.
At that moment, they were passing by a construction site. The sounds of clanging metal drowned out their voices.
A powerful wind began to blow. Mitsuki remembered the news saying something about a typhoon. Without warning, the scenery shook and the purple-tinted sunset warped.
Only it wasn’t the scenery that was changing. It was Mitsuki’s sense of reality. The past and the present were overlapping, like some sort of deja vu.
With a start, Mitsuki looked around him. A young boy was walking ahead of them. Realizing what was about to happen, Mitsuki began running and leapt at the boy.
In that instant…
Clannnnnkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!
…A powerful noise rocked the entire area. The sound rippled and crackled through the air.
Mitsuki protected the boy, just as Subaru had done for him on that day. This time, he was the one doing the protecting.
Because of the strong wind, the construction beams slipped and fell toward the boy walking directly below. Bystanders saw the boy’s body move, as if pushed by some force. Yutaka’s scream was drowned out by the sound of the impact of the falling beams.
Ah, Mitsuki told himself. So I’m dead. Finally, I’ve become like Subaru.
He was finally like his sister, yet he still wished that he could have lived for just a little while longer. He wanted to smile and be next to her.
“Oh? Hmm?”
“Asano!”
He could hear her voice—it was getting closer. A blinding white light enveloped him.
He came to. Cradled in his arms was the boy, who wasn’t injured at all. In contrast, Mitsuki hurt all over, and blood was seeping from somewhere.
“…Asano!”
From between the overlapping construction beams, Yutaka’s face peered down at him. Seeing him respond to her call, she breathed a sigh of relief. Once Mitsuki saw her face, the pain seemed to disappear.
“I guess… I’m not dead.”
Thinking about the day Subaru had died, he looked at the sky. He thought he saw something that looked like a trace of light. It was actually the girl in white. She was smiling down at him.
Then, he remembered something else…
The one who had come to claim Subaru’s soul was none other than the girl shinigami now floating in the sky. All this time, Mitsuki had forgotten. Or had he just been unable to remember?
“You’re not supposed to die yet,” she had told him then. “Live. You must live your own life. But your heart is too pure to do that. I’m sure it will be a hindrance in your life.”
The girl had reached out and touched the young Mitsuki’s cheek. “So, I’m taking it with me. The memory of your meeting me, your pain, I will take them with me along with your sister. So… good luck.”
Then she had become light.
✦ ✦ ✦
After Mitsuki had been unearthed from the accident scene, Yutaka gave him a big hug. But it wasn’t just a hug; it was more like she jumped on him.
“Gg-gwoahh…”
He groaned from the pain that shot throughout his body, but still he held her tightly. For some reason, he began to cry again.
Watching from high above in the sky, the little girl cried too.
“What?” the cat said incredulously. “Now you’re crying too? I swear! You’re such a crybaby, Momo.”
Fluttering his bat-like wings, the cat wiped the tears from his master’s eyes.
“Shut up,” she said. “Why can’t I?” She stuck out her tongue at Daniel defiantly.
“Jeez,” the cat retorted. “Just because his sister asked you to, you lie and then try to change him. I swear, I don’t understand.”
Momo defended herself. “I didn’t lie. I just told him ‘good luck.’”
“Hmmm. Well, I think that’s enough meddling for me.”
As if to say, “Oh, well,” the black cat folded his front legs against his chest.
With tears in her eyes, the girl smiled prettily. “Like I told you before, I’m a meddler.”
—Ring.
After several decades, Mitsuki finally completed his life.
✦ ✦ ✦
Destiny is the road that unravels before us, the order of things both happy and tragic. Destiny is that which rules our long lives. And life is the distance we travel on that road. So there is no one real path. We all arrive at our destination, even after getting lost countless times.
There’s much more to come. This is just the beginning.
“Right, little shinigami-san?”
Under the night sky that evening, Yutaka showed him her “secret.”
“Look,” she said. “Here. It’s here, right?” She bundled up her long brown hair in her hands and showed him.
“Hmm…?”
There it was, a tiny scar, small enough for one to overlook. This was the reason she hated going into the pool. It was also the same scar she hid by wearing her hair long. She had suffered the injury when she was a child, and the scar remained.
School rules mandated that everyone wear a swim cap when entering the pool. Yutaka thought it was uncool to be forced to put her hair up in order to wear one.
Though it was on an area hardly noticed by anybody, to Yutaka it still looked ugly.
Mitsuki didn’t really understand, but then all of the creatures called “girls” seemed that way to him.
He shrugged it off. Oh well.
She sighed. “…Oh boy. I’m not looking forward to swim class tomorrow…”
“What?! You’re getting in the pool?” he asked, a bit surprised.
All this time, she had refused to go in, even going to extremes to get the class cancelled.
“Well,” she answered, “it’s okay now. I was able to show you this, so I’m fine.”
It was a hot summer evening. The light of the moon flickered on the pool’s surface while the wind created ripples on the water. And there she was, smiling next to him by the poolside.
Ah, the things he would do for that smile. But in so doing, he might end up losing his precious place of nostalgic memories.
It was a risk he was willing to take, because now he could smile.
“Well,” he told her, “that’s fine, but there’s another good way.”
“A good way?”
“All you have to do,” he explained, “is this…”
He lifted the pool’s square plug all the way.
Eventually, the pool was empty.
✦ ✦ ✦
poolside girl — fin.