“Kwaaah! Chikai, that bastard. Looks like he hasn’t gone back home yet. And the old man workin’ there says he cut ties with Chikai, so he doesn’t know nothin’,” said Yasu.
“Ah, well. It’s just a matter of time before he slips up. He’s barkin’ up the wrong tree if he thinks he can defy us, steal from us, and get away. Ehehehe.” Kamome’s eyes peeled wide open as he laughed. “If you find him, shoot him. He’s got my gun.”
“Kwaaah!”
Having heard their conversation, Toi hastened back home.
Now that Sobakyuu had reopened, customers were gradually beginning to return. When Toi pressed the door open and entered, his uncle immediately scolded him. “Toi! I told you to enter from the back!”
Without stopping to reply, Toi scrambled up the stairs to the second floor. Inside the room, a single thousand-yen bill sat in front of his parents’ portrait. It hadn’t been there this morning. When he yanked the drawer to the desk open, he found the gun still remained, its presence as oppressive as ever.
So, his brother wasn’t walking around with the gun on him. As he went to shut the drawer again, a slip of paper tucked beneath the gun caught his eye. He pulled it out and flipped it over. It was a photo of him and Chikai when they were younger, smiling. One they’d taken together as a family when Toi was five.
Warm memories filled him, one after the other. Making and eating soba together as a family. Him and Chikai standing out in front of the store during Sanja Festival, wearing happi coats and selling soba. The two of them walking to a flower garden together on one of their rare days off.
“Brother…!”
I knew this was going to happen…! Toi was prepared for his memories to leak. But when he thought about how that meant reexperiencing that day all over again, he couldn’t help but feel like he was somehow betraying his brother. This was supposed to be a secret between the two of them, forever.
The shirikodama transferred to Kazuki.
YURIKAMOME, frustrated by being unable to locate Chikai, had set its sights on his younger brother instead. Toi, however, couldn’t risk being a burden to Chikai by letting them capture him. He ran with everything he had.
Above him, on the Azuma Bridge, men in the same embroidered baseball jackets he’d seen his brother wear were talking about him.
“That little brat… Where the heck is he hiding?!”
“We need him as a hostage to lure Chikai out! We have to find him!”
“Kwaaah!”
When their footsteps began to fade, Toi chanced a peek out from the tunnel where he was hiding, its entrance lined by stones. He had to hurry. But where? Where could he go? His footsteps felt heavy as he wandered down the tunnel.
“Hey, kiddo, where you goin’?”
Toi’s head jerked up to find Yuri Kamome standing ahead of him at the exit.
“Ehehehe. How about I tag along with you?”
One step, then two. Kamome was making his way closer.
Unable to stand it anymore, Kazuki cried out, “Run!”
Having received the shirikodama from Kazuki, Enta shared in his friend’s terror. But it was the eerie calm that settled over Toi in the vision that worried him.
Bang!
For a split second, the inside of that tunnel lit up like a sunny day. A lead bullet buried itself in Kamome’s stomach, and his hulking form sank to the ground. The scene played out in slow motion for Toi.
He was breathing as hard as if he’d just run a sprint. He belatedly realized his hands were trembling as they clasped the grip of the pistol.
He’d taken a life. With this gun.
Behind the fallen Yuri Kamome was a silhouette he knew all too well.
“Bro…”
He had been searching so desperately for his older brother, and now he felt like running away.
This was awful. Scary. He was a murderer.
Help! I’m sorry. Dad, Mom…!
Chikai walked straight toward him.
Toi’s legs refused to budge, as if his feet were sewn to the ground. He snapped his eyes shut and felt something icy brush against his hands. It was Chikai’s hand. With a soft touch, his brother peeled Toi’s trembling fingers back and lifted the gun away. And with it, the cold sensation of the steel against his skin was gone as well.
Chikai aimed the gun at Kamome’s still body and pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
The ear-splitting sound broke his paralysis. He glanced up at his brother, who stared at Kamome’s corpse without an ounce of emotion on his face.
“In this world, it’s only the bad people who survive.” Chikai knelt down so he was at eye level with Toi. He gave his little brother a smile for the first time. “I’m the one who killed him. With this gun.”
“Huh?” he gasped in shock.
“The two of us are going to survive this world, no matter what it takes. You understand, right?” Chikai squeezed his arms tight around Toi.
It was the first time that had ever happened.
Toi clung to Chikai, whose back felt so broad that no matter how much Toi stretched, he couldn’t fully wrap his arms around his older brother. He felt embarrassed by how young he was—helpless, weak, unable to do anything but stand around and be protected.
“Yeah…yeah!” Toi said finally as hot tears bubbled up, wetting his frozen cheeks.
Never again would the two of them be separated. They swore as much that day.
“No!”
His sorrowful cry echoed in their shared ocean of emotions.
After the Desire Field faded, Toi noticed he had a new message on his phone.
Chikai: The situation’s changed, doesn’t look like I’ll be able to come back. I’ll contact you again later.
A few short, curt sentences. His brother had dished out similar bad news countless times before. Today’s, however, was particularly disheartening.
“Unfortunately, today’s Wishing Plate is silver once again, ribbit.”
“Tch…” Toi snatched the proffered dish up, but when he tried to leave, Enta stopped him.
“H-hey, hold on a second! I saw what happened. Toi, you…that guy…”
“Yeah. I killed someone,” Toi finished for him.
“How can you…how can you be so cool about it?”
There was no point in trying to argue about it, at least not in Toi’s mind. He had no interest in associating with these two anyway, so it was best for them to hurry up and distance themselves. “If I hadn’t shot him, then he might have killed me. Or he would have killed my brother.”
“Still—” Enta started to protest.
“You want to argue so bad over whether it was justified or not, go ahead. But concepts like good and evil don’t mean squat to the powerful. That’s why I decided that I need to get strong, so I can survive and stay with my brother. I can take whatever judgment you want to dish out, I don’t care.”
“But…”
“But I won’t allow anyone to put my brother’s sacrifice to waste. If you spill my secret…”
In the blink of an eye, Toi whipped his ruler out, grazing the tip of Enta’s nose. The other boy squeaked in surprise.
“I’ll run you through.”
Toi left the collapsed Enta behind and started to leave the plaza.
“Kuji!”
He didn’t need any more trouble. But no sooner had he thought that than Kazuki came running after him.
“Here, my Wishing Plate. You can have it.”
“Kazuki?!” Enta exclaimed, crawling after them on his hands and knees.
Toi glanced at the silver Wishing Plate and then at Kazuki’s face. “What’s this about?”
“I think you deserve this more than I do.”
Enta couldn’t hold his tongue after hearing that. “What are you talking about?! You’ve been doing all of this for Haruka, right?! Why are you handing your plate over to someone like Kuji, of all people?! Isn’t Haruka important to you?”
“I…” Kazuki balled up his fists, squeezing out the words. “I hate Haruka.”