“But you transferred to our school from somewhere else, right? How come?”
Toi sighed and stared up at the sky as he slowly began to explain. It wasn’t because Enta had complimented the restaurant, or anything—his mood had just softened, and he wasn’t bristling anymore. “After my mom and dad passed away, we left Asakusa for a while. My relatives inherited the store. I just live there.”
“Oh, okay…sorry,” Enta said, apologizing sincerely.
Toi changed the subject. “Anyway, what’d you come to me for?”
“Oh yeah! That’s right!” Enta dropped the soccer ball and bowed his head down in front of Toi. “I’m begging you! Please give your Wishing Plate to Kazuki!”
He suspected as much. This was the only reason Enta would bother approaching him, after all. “I don’t… He’s put you through the wringer and caused you nothing but pain. How are you not fed up with him?”
From Toi’s perspective, Kazuki’s indifference toward Enta couldn’t be so easily forgiven. Especially since the other boy’s feelings bled into Toi’s consciousness, and he was now keenly aware of just how Enta felt. It was also obvious that Kazuki had no room in his heart for anyone but his little brother.
“Kazuki saved me from a life of loneliness. And I’ve decided that it’s my turn to help him this time!”
Those words jolted Toi’s memory.
His brother had told him long ago, “In this world, those who can’t survive have to disappear.” And those who disappeared were forgotten. That went for people as well as towns, buildings—everything. Once something disappeared, it was overwritten by something new, like data. And in this city, no one stopped to notice. Asakusa was a city prone to sudden, extreme change. Tourist spots that couldn’t cut it were left struggling to outlast each other.
With the city as a backdrop, he found himself wandering to the seaside water bus stop where he’d last seen his brother.
“‘It’s my turn to help him,’ huh…?”
It pained him to admit it, but Enta’s words and feelings tugged at his heartstrings. Both Enta and Kazuki were trouble, but Enta in a different way than the latter.
That thought seemed to summon the other troublesome person in question—Kazuki—who appeared decked out in his Sara outfit.
“There you are! Kuuuuji!” Sara-Kazuki came blasting full speed down the promenade toward him. The other boy didn’t even slow as he approached, but instead, threw his arms around Toi.
“Guh?!”
He could hear Kazuki’s voice ringing in his ears. “Help me kidnap Azuma Sara! Dish! ✩”
“What?!”
With that, Toi found himself caught up in what would most definitely turn out to be immense trouble.
“Phoo, phoo…”
Sara-Kazuki had purchased some instant cup soba from the convenience store and was now sitting in the high-rise parking lot, blowing on his noodles to cool them. His lightly colored lips were puckered adorably as he did so.
Pa-chik.
Toi captured the image on his smartphone before mumbling in exasperation, “Okay, you’ve gotta be kidding, right?”
“Ehehe, I am being completely serious, dish! ✩” Sara-Kazuki tilted his head back slightly and smiled.
The memory of their first meeting flashed through Toi’s mind. He’d been in the middle of trying to break into a car when Kazuki, dressed as Azuma Sara, happened upon him. At the time, he honestly thought that Kazuki looked cute.
“Tomorrow—shlurp, shlurp—before the handshake event, I’d like you to—shlurp, shlurp—kidnap her—shlurp, shlurp…” He was noisily slurping up his noodles, as was custom, yet the fanfare seemed ridiculous considering he was eating only one noodle at a time.
“You really suck at eating noodles,” observed Toi.
Gulp…gulp… As Sara-Kazuki tilted the bowl back to drink the dashi broth, the light in the background framed his silhouette like a painting.
Ba-thump, ba-thump.
Toi found the thrumming of his heart annoyingly loud.
“Pwaaah! You’re the only person I can entrust with such a request, Kuji.”
He felt slightly disappointed watching Kazuki return to his normal self after looking so cute, but Toi dismissed the thought, trying to keep his cool, aloof air. “If you get found out, you know it’ll be serious trouble.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be taking her place. I promised Haruka I would use our secret code when we shake hands.”
“Gimme a break,” said Toi. “You know there’s no way this is gonna go well.”
“I’ve kept this secret all this time! And I have to keep up the charade that I’m Sara, for Haruka’s sake!”
Toi was at a loss against Sara-Kazuki’s impassioned pleas. Once again, his thoughts were sent reeling back to the past.
The weak have to be protected in order to survive. That was a lesson he learned early.
A flier had been posted on Sobakyuu’s door. Dear customers, it read. Due to the untimely death of the owners, the store will be closing.
In the winter when he was ten, Toi’s parents passed away. Later, he pieced together that his parents had been saddled with an enormous debt after being conned by one of their friends. Chikai was already hanging out with the wrong crowd back then and rarely came home. Even so, the young Toi had no one else to rely on except his older brother.
Time went by in a daze as he gazed at the urns where his parents’ ashes were kept, and at their portrait. Both sat on a floor desk beside him. Even when day turned to dusk, he couldn’t even bother to flip on the lights.
One day, a sudden, violent thumping came up the stairs, and Toi’s entire body tensed. The door rattled as it was thrust open, revealing Chikai wearing an embroidered baseball jacket.
“Brother…” Toi mumbled, but before he could welcome his older sibling home, he heard something light and round bounce off the floor and come rolling to a stop at his feet. It was a ten-thousand-yen bill that Chikai balled up and tossed at him.
“There. Use that and figure out how to feed yourself.” Chikai began rifling through his parents’ chest of drawers, grinning as he produced a pearl necklace.
“That’s Mom’s,” Toi said reproachfully.
Chikai, whose mood had taken a dark, vicious turn, spat back, “Once you’re dead, it’s all over. If it means we can get some cash, I’m sure that’s what those two would’ve wanted.”
The way Chikai referred to their parents as if they were strangers—“those two”—seemed to open up a chasm between them.
“Dad always said not to do bad things,” Toi protested.
That didn’t stop Chikai from continuing to rummage around for any other valuables. “Yeah, like an idiot, he pretended to be some kinda saint and look where it got him.”
Toi couldn’t hold back his anger anymore. “I hate you for saying such horrible things about Mom and Dad! It should’ve been you instead of them!”
Thwump! In the blink of an eye, his brother was upon him, grabbing him by the jaw and shoving him roughly up against the wall.
“Hrgh!” Tears sprang to his eyes, both from fear and the pain.
“I’ll run you through…!” Chikai threatened, then calmed himself down enough to say, “Listen up, Toi. In this world, it’s only the bad people who survive.”
On a different evening, he watched through a window as his brother met up with someone in the alley behind Sobakyuu. The man was muscular, with a fierce look on his face. Toi had no way of knowing at the time, but this man was Yuri Kamome, the young leader of a powerful group in Asakusa called YURIKAMOME.
Kamome tried handing a cloth-wrapped object to Chikai. “Chikai, you’re an adult now. You can handle somethin’ like this,” he giggled.
“No, I’m not ready for that yet,” replied Chikai.
“Then how about this. I’m leaving this in your hands for safekeeping, as an older brother to a younger brother. You won’t refuse me then, will ya?”
Chikai sensed that refusing the man any further would be a bad idea. He let out a quiet sigh and said, “All right,” as he took the object.
Kamome’s laughter echoed eerily down the dark street.