“No...I love sentimental things.”
A shiver ran down my spine, and my legs felt suddenly unsteady. I almost couldn’t keep standing. I’d been somewhat embarrassed by my phrasing to start with, and now, in the face of her answering me like that, it was almost too much—I had to wrestle down the urge to cry out.
“Um, well, you know,” I stammered instead, “we should go talk to Jill, um, together. We need to record those songs before you can deliver them, after all.”
“Why are you so flustered all of a sudden?”
“I’m not,” I insisted. “Yeah, not flustered at all.”
“I suppose you are just that little bit weird.” She chuckled.
There was nothing I could do but throw my hands up in surrender and try for a change of topic. I stood there for a moment desperately trying to think of one.
“Oh, right,” I managed eventually. “About your pay.”
“Right. This is a massive job, so can I expect a commensurate reward?”
“Yes. I already have it prepared. An utterly unique treasure.”
“And where are you keeping such a wonderful thing?”
“It’s inside a box right now... Though it’s a bit fishy-smelling.”
“I don’t have the slightest idea what you mean.”
I wasn’t sure whether to hand it over now or wait so I could at least wash off the outside first. As I was worrying about that, Nito ran up. She took Charolles’s hand and pulled at it.
“Charolles, can we have the lantern flowers?!”
“Of course. The two of us picked so many, after all.”
There was no resisting Nito’s eager smile. Charolles and I exchanged glances and gave each other a nod, mutually deciding to leave the grown-up negotiations for later and just enjoy ourselves for now. Then Charolles moved over to the bonfire and deposited a veritable mountain of lantern flowers in front of it from her magic bag. Nito, following Fago’s instructions, picked one of them up and then softly tossed it into the fire.
“W-Woooow!”
We all looked up at the flare of light as the flower caught fire. Its petals shone scarlet as they burned, floating up into the sky and then scattering outward. The momentary glittering as they dissipated looked like dozens of red shooting stars falling through the night sky.
After that, everyone else offered up their own flowers in turn: Fago, then Paula, then Jill, then Monty, then Charolles, and then finally me. Each flower sparkled as it burned, sending countless shards of light dancing through the air.
As my flower’s sparks faded, I whispered something into Nito’s ear. She whipped her head around in surprise, shaking it and saying, “We can’t do that!” Despite her claim, though, a gleam of curiosity lit up her eyes. So I gathered up a mound of the flowers in both hands and then passed it to her. She frowned at me, but then mumbled out an excuse along the lines of, “You’ve given them to me now, so I’ve got no choice, but you’re the one who wanted to do this,” as she turned and cast them all into the fire at once.
They immediately burst into brilliant flames, billowing up into the sky and drifting back down like falling snowflakes, and Nito let out a shout of joy that echoed through the courtyard. We stood there next to each other, watching them drift.
Neither of us will ever forget this, I thought to myself. It was a stronger memory than any other, and it would always keep shining. I believed that deep in my heart. Even if the world ended with the dawn, that moment would live on.
✦ ✦ ✦
I woke up during the night, probably due to the leftover excitement from the Lantern Flower Festival. The adults had quickly spotted the wine I’d given as an offering to the saint, and all of them—particularly Paula—had indulged in some drinks, making the festival more boisterous both figuratively and literally. Even I’d been dragged into it; Paula had pulled me off the sidelines to dance with her. Fago had danced with Monty, and Nito with Charolles, and they’d all enjoyed themselves, but for me, anxiety had won out over enjoyment.
I rubbed my eyes and pulled myself up, then glanced to the side and found Nito wasn’t in her bed. Out from under the covers I got, heading into the corridor. Since I’d already given the phone to Charolles, I didn’t have a light source, so I had to rely on the moonlight shining in through the windows as I made my way to the main hall. When I opened the door, I found Nito sitting on the front pew, painting a picture of the saint by lantern light. I stood in the doorway for a moment, surveying the scene before me.
“Why are you up so late?” I asked eventually.
“Oh, Keisuke. Did I wake you?”
Her voice was clear, so I supposed she just hadn’t been sleepy.
“I just couldn’t sleep,” I told her, walking over and sitting at her side.
For a while, the only sound in the room was Nito’s paintbrush rasping over the paper. The paints she used for her watercolors were different from the tube paints I’d seen her use before. She had a shallow metal box lined with small rectangular divots, each one occupied by a different color of paint. A gap running down the middle of the box held two familiar bullets.
“The Lantern Flower Festival was fun,” she said, somewhat softly.
“It sure was. I’m glad we did it,” I told her. “Thank you, Nito.”
She didn’t say anything at first; I just waited.
“I should be the one thanking you. I wasn’t all that helpful.”
I shook my head.
“We were only able to do it at all because you’d said you wanted to. Suggesting something is an indispensable role in making it happen. Also, if it weren’t for your invitations, I don’t think we could have gotten everyone here.”
Nito paused again. Silence hung between us for several long moments.
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” she said eventually, her voice barely more than a murmur. “But you put in all kinds of effort when I wasn’t watching, didn’t you?”
“Well, I don’t know about that.”
“You can’t get out of it that easily. You need to tell me the whole story later.”
Her words had a forceful tone to them that told me any excuses I made would do me no good. Being seen through so thoroughly wasn’t the nicest of feelings. Weird, I haven’t actually done anything wrong...
“It’s a beautiful village,” she said.
“It is,” I agreed.
“Fago, Paula, Jill, Monty...and Charolles, they’re all such wonderful people.”
“I think so too.”
“But we have to leave them again.”
Maybe I should suggest we stay. We had our goals—Nito was searching for her Golden Sea, and I was searching for the big man in black—but we didn’t know if we’d ever actually find what we were looking for. No one would have blamed us for spending some more time in this comfortable village. Even then, Nito had said that we had to leave. She’d made the decision to forge on ahead without stopping.
“It’s lonely, isn’t it?”
“Yes...it is...” she answered, the tail end of her sentence wavering; her breath grew harsher and harsher, before it eventually gave way to muffled sobs.
I looked straight up at the statue. Fago had come here every day and prayed, and that prayer had come true. I might not have really ever done so before, and I couldn’t come here every day like she had, but I wanted to pray as well. It might have been an all-too-selfish prayer, but that didn’t matter to me. I just wanted Nito to never be left alone, to always be able to smile, to be happy.
That’s the only prayer I have, I murmured mentally, so...please.
Nito dried her eyes on her sleeve and sniffled.
“Keisuke, you danced with Paula earlier,” she said.
“Don’t remind me. It was intense. I still need some time to come to terms with it.”
Nito laughed, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“I was a little jealous of Paula,” she said.
Well, there’s only one thing to do here, I thought, and leaped to my feet, offering a hand to her.
“May I have this dance, my lady?”
I really didn’t look the part of the charming prince, but that didn’t matter. Nito was the only one that could see me. Her eyes widened, but she smiled and gave a slightly choked, “You may,” as she stood and took my hand.
We stepped in close and began to sway. The only music we had was Nito’s off-key humming—amusingly enough, it was a pop song from Japan—and neither of us could dance at all, really. We were out of time with the music, staggering and stepping on each other’s feet. You could hardly have even called it dancing, but Nito still had a smile on her lips, so I was happy.