There, amid the countless boxes carried along on conveyor belts, Kazuki spotted one with a heart and the kanji for spring written on it—“Haru!”
“I found him! He’s in that box! Huh?!”
Just when he’d finally found his little brother’s box, it plummeted off the end of the conveyor belt and landed on a pallet of other boxes. An enormous red crane clamped onto the pallet and began to carry the whole pile of them away.
“Haruka!” Kappa-Kazuki and the others raced after the crane. They slid down along the framework of the structure before darting down narrow pathways. Unfortunately, the crane only seemed to get farther away.
“Ack! Stop!” Kazuki had been leading the others when he suddenly slammed to a stop. When the others peered out from behind him, they realized the path abruptly ended. “What do we do now?”
Kazuki felt himself losing all hope, but Enta just snatched him up by the scruff of his neck and flung him through the air as hard as he could. “Hmph!”
“Gah!”
Kappa-Kazuki landed with a thunk on the metal plank on the other side of the gap.
“Hyaaaah!”
“Guh!”
Soon, Toi also came hurtling through the air after him. Kazuki sprang to his feet and shouted back after his friend, “Enta!”
Enta heaved Keppi through the air and shouted, “Go, Kazuki! Don’t give up on Haruka!”
Time was of the essence right now. Kazuki and the others decided to hurry on ahead without their comrade.
A light suddenly began flashing red as a siren blared. They could see a barred gate ahead of them, beginning to slide itself shut.
“The gate!”
“No!”
Kappa-Toi leapt and smoothly slid forward, ducking under the gate. Gah-gon! It creaked in resistance as it hit his shell, propping it up just enough for Kazuki and Keppi to squeeze past.
“Kuji!”
An instant later, a durable fence slammed down between them, locking Toi out. He gave Kazuki a bitter smile as he said, “Jinnai and I will catch up, I swear.”
Kazuki and Keppi found themselves on an elevator that gradually began to descend.
“You can still get him back,” Toi called after them. “So keep running!”
As he waited for the elevator to come to a stop, Kazuki chewed his friends’ words over in his head. He couldn’t let their sacrifices go to waste.
Ga-thunk. As the elevator came to a stop, the two snuck out the doors. Before them loomed a hulking cylindrical structure spanned by an enormous bridge. The crane came soaring down from above them, its claws locked onto the pallet that contained Haruka’s box. It came to a stop just in the middle, by the very tip of the bridge that extended inward. Black flames began bursting out of the taiko-shaped engines surrounding the center, almost like some sacred ritual.
Kazuki started over the bridge, sprinting toward the middle. There wasn’t much distance left between him and the crane now. “Haruka, just a bit more…!”
Just then—
Ka-klink!
He heard the cold sound of metal as the crane’s arms sprang open. The solid pallet of boxes came apart as they were sent sprinkling through the air. The sight before him seemed to play out in slow motion as Haruka’s box went plummeting down into that valley of darkness.
“Haruka! Harukaaaaaaaa!” The sound of his shrieking was swallowed up by the gaping emptiness in front of him.
Bom, bom, bom… The blaze from the engines gradually began to fade. It was almost like watching the flame of someone’s life being snuffed out.
Kappa-Kazuki was crumpled to the ground in a daze. On the opposite side of the pathway, Toi and Enta arrived, though they were frozen in place by what they just witnessed.
“No way, it can’t be…”
“No!”
Kazuki was white as a sheet by the time he heard a voice call out from behind him. “Do you want to save Yasaka Haruka, ribbit?”
He glanced back to find Keppi. “Can I save him?”
“I can transfer your shirikodama to him, ribbit. If I do that, his life will be restored.”
“You mean it?”
“There’s no other way, ribbit.”
Before Kazuki could say anything, Kappa-Toi shouted from the other side of the chasm. “Wait! If he loses his shirikodama, what happens to him? Will he die like the Kappa Zombies?!”
That immediately made Enta bristle in refusal. “You can’t do that! Absolutely not!”
Keppi leaped over to stand on the tip of the crane as he continued, “Humans are connected by their shirikodama, ribbit. If you lose it, you won’t be able to connect with people anymore. This world is linked together in one great circle, and you’ll be flung outside of it.”
Kazuki echoed the words to himself. “Flung outside the circle…”
“Indeed. With your shirikodama removed, it will be as if Yasaka Kazuki never existed in this world at all, ribbit. All memories involving you—events, objects, everything—will cease to exist, ribbit.”
“What the heck? That’s worse than dying!” Kappa-Enta roared, disturbed by the thought.
“So, the Kappa Zombies we defeated, it was like they never existed at all?” Toi realized.
“You can’t do that, Kazuki!”
Kappa-Kazuki didn’t respond to Enta’s cries. Instead, he aimed a question at Keppi. “Does that mean…Haruka’s accident would have never happened?” His mind flashed back to that day.
“…Indeed, ribbit.”
As he looked down at the ground, a thin smile suddenly appeared on Kazuki’s face. “Okay. All right, then.” He dragged himself up off the ground, resolved. “I’d like you to give my shirikodama to Haruka, then.”
His voice was quiet, but it still carried through the open air all the way to Enta and Toi.
“All right, ribbit. Then jump down into this chasm, ribbit.” Keppi pressed a button, transforming the crane into a giant hoist instead. “I’ll take your shirikodama into my body for safekeeping, ribbit. We’ll need to cut all your connections to people before I make the transfer, ribbit.”
“Okay.”
“Kazuki! Stop this!” Kappa-Enta shrieked at them.
“Stay right there!” Toi joined his shouts of protest, and the two went scrambling down the pathway.
Kazuki slowly stretched out his hand to grasp the chain dangling from the hoist. The chill of the steel against his skin seemed to clear away his thoughts. I was never inside that circle to begin with, he realized. Everything will be perfect for them without me.
He remembered what Haruka had told him: From beginning to end, you and I are connected by a great big circle. Kappa-Kazuki shook his head and stepped forward, resting his foot on the hook at the bottom of the chain.
This is my last chance…an opportunity for someone like me, who can’t connect with others, to atone for what I’ve done.
Ba-chink!
He pressed the button to begin lowering the hoist. The chains rattled, echoing as the machine powered up and began to move.
“Stop it, Kazuki! Do you really think this would make Haruka happy?!” Enta bellowed as he ran.
“It’s fine! Haruka will forget everything and move on. You, too, Enta. Soon you’ll forget all about me.”
“There’s no way I could forget! Just stop already. No more! Kazukii!”
Toi sprinted along behind Enta, frantic. The hoist continued to plunge Kazuki farther down into the chasm. “Tch! We’re not going to make it!” He skidded to a halt, having realized that they’d never catch up. Kazuki was gradually receding from them.
“Kazukiiiii!” Enta’s cry echoed around them.
Baaaang! Baaaang! Light flashed as Toi whipped out a gun and fired it, smoke rising from the barrel. His bullets arced down into the hoist, hitting it in just the right spot to cause the machine to backfire.
Ga-rarararara…
The recoil sent the chain that had been lowering Kazuki into the abyss instantly skyrocketing upward.
“Wh-whoooaaa?!” Kappa-Kazuki’s body flew up over the hoist. He danced through the air before landing with a splat in front of Enta.
“Kazuki!”
“You okay?!”
Kazuki remained splayed out on the ground, motionless, so the two each took one of his hands in theirs and heaved him back onto his feet. Now he was upright at least, and still safely breathing.
“Give us a break,” said Toi.
Kazuki quietly muttered to his two relieved friends, “Why?” His face crumpled in frustration. “Why did you stop me?! I’m the one who wanted this, so keep out of it! It’s better if I just don’t exist—”
Thwack!
Kazuki’s sentence hung in the air, unfinished, as heat blossomed on his cheek. He collapsed backward from the force of the blow.
Toi had socked Kazuki in the face. His fist was still clenched as he bellowed at his friend, “If you’ve got the time to run your mouth with that nauseating rubbish, then you’ve got time to use your brain and think of another way!”
“That’s right! I won’t forgive you if you just disappear on me like that!” Enta flared in agreement, leaping on top of his fallen friend’s stomach. As Kazuki groaned in protest, he saw a blue string twirling above his eyes. Enta was dangling the old friendship bracelet above his head—the same one he threw out.
“Huh? I thought I threw that away.”
“Haruka entrusted me with it, because he still hasn’t given up! He believes in you and is waiting for you!”
“Haruka…” Kappa-Kazuki’s trembling fingertips brushed over the bracelet.
“Verdict: Love. Box: Returned,” announced a robotic voice, echoing around them.