I took Jupiter to the old shrine the next day. This was our last chance to talk before the big battle.
Unfortunately, it was rainy out, so we had to bring umbrellas and wear raincoats. Some might say, “But that’s just nature. Rain makes for nice scenery every now and again.” But personally, I’m incapable of such thoughts.
I freaking hate rain. It’s one of the five things I hate most in the world. Everything about it bothers me: the sound, the moisture, the smell. And worst of all, despite how annoying it is, I know it’s a necessary evil.
And so, inevitably, I hate this time of year just as much. June—the season of rain and hydrangeas.
“Kyouichirou…you seem…on edge,” said Jupiter, her voice reverberating through the empty shrine grounds. She sounded stiff and hesitant.
I was ashamed that I’d worried her, so I tried my best to sound cheerful. “Ah, yeah. Sorry about that. I just really hate the rain.”
I tried to start the conversation with something everyone everywhere could relate to: the weather. I figured it would be easy to expand the conversation from there. And it seemed to work perfectly.
Jupiter nodded in agreement. “I don’t like the rain much, either.”
“Right? Isn’t it the worst when people try to shrug off how much it sucks just because it’s ‘necessary’ for the ‘health’ of ‘nature’?”
“…I wasn’t talking about the whole world, you know,” she said, glaring up at me. She looked like a round fairy in a yellow raincoat.
Crap. Maybe that was too negative.
“When it rains, thunder rumbles… That’s what I hate.” The silver-haired girl flapped her feet back and forth as we sat under the eaves.
She doesn’t like the sound of thunder, huh?
“Wherever lightning falls, it leaves a scar. Every time it strikes, something in the world gets hurt. Rain might bring life, but lightning only brings destruction… It’s the worst.”
“Are you talking about yourself?”
“Yes,” she said immediately, nodding.
For Jupiter, who had her powers forced upon her and had spent her whole life at their mercy, lightning was the very symbol of her torment.
A desire to push back welled up inside me.
Lightning provides a lot for the planet, too, y’know.
Lightning stirs the air, which falls to the earth with the rain and enriches the soil. I know this won’t sound convincing coming from a guy who wishes it would never rain again, so I’ll keep it to myself, but everything in life has its good points.
So maybe you don’t have to hate lightning so much as… And that was where I stopped my inner monologue.
I decided it was best to shut up. Starting an argument wouldn’t dispel the tension in the air. Sometimes, silence is golden.
“……”
“……”
The rain continued to fall.
There was nothing for us to say in praise of the harsh, sad world we found ourselves in. So for a while, we just sat in silence, watching those loathsome drops plummet down from above.
“How have these past two weeks felt?” I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
Jupiter answered right away. “I had so much fun. It was almost like a dream.”
She spoke very matter-of-factly but also fluidly and confidently, and with obvious warmth. Her voice cut through the sound of the rain and filled the shrine.
“I got to eat Fumika’s cooking and play with Big Sister Albi. And Haruka was super nice to me, too. And you cheered me up when I was down… While I was staying with you all, I felt like a regular kid. I was so, so happy.” I could tell she meant every word. “I never knew how fun the world could be when I don’t have to worry about hurting anyone. I didn’t know how nice it could be to let myself feel things… For the first time ever, I felt like it was okay for someone like me to be alive.”
“Huh…”
Then having her stay was definitely the right choice. I was half worried I’d strong-armed her into going along with it.
“But…” She looked down, and her voice grew somber. She looked pained, like her very soul was being crushed. “…I don’t have the right to be happy like that.”
I couldn’t let that go. I had to ask her why she felt that way. Not just as her party leader and friend but as her family.
“What makes you think that?”
A long silence followed. She started to speak many times, only to hesitate and fall silent again.
“Well, I…”
But in the end, she managed to answer. She tried her best to explain.
She told me about how she joined Rosso and Blu. There were good times, and she spent many happy days there. But without even realizing, she forgot all about that. And before long, she began to mistakenly believe that she had always been alone.
And then the conversation turned to Eliza.
“Eliza told you about me, right?” she asked.
“Yeah. I mean, she explained the gist of the situation, yeah. You’ve got it pretty rough. I wish the guys at Rosso and Blue had just told me about all that from the start.”
“If they had, you would have avoided me.”
I knew that telling her something nice, like “hey, no way,” would be easy. But that wasn’t what Jupiter needed.
“Hey,” I said. “Lemme ask you something. How many of your memories are intact right now?”
“I remember everything about you and the others. And if I try really hard, I can remember things about Eliza and the clan, too. But all the stuff that happened before I came here—none of it feels real.”
According to her, those memories were less like images and more like simple words describing the events.
The fact that her parents had abandoned her, her time at the facility, meeting Keraunos—she only had a loose recognition that all those things had happened.
Weakly, she explained how it felt like a story about someone else. When she thought back, it was like looking at the plot outline on the back of a forgettable mass paperback she barely remembered reading. It left her completely empty inside.
“I’m such a horrible person. Eliza was so nice to me, but I hurt her. And I don’t even remember any of it. Eventually, I’ll probably forget what you and—”
“You’re wrong.”
“It’s true. I forgot everything about Eliza and everyone else… Maybe one day, I’ll forget everything about you, too, Kyouichirou.”
Jupiter’s expression grew stiff, like she’d just remembered something that filled her with despair. And I had a feeling I knew what it was.
“Who…are you…?”
“On the fifteenth floor, I…”
“…You were just half asleep.”
Yeah. Just half asleep. You remembered my name almost right away.
So nothing’s going to change. You woke up. You were half asleep, but you soon came to your senses. Just focus on the results and forget about what happened before that. There’s no way to prove it one way or the other anyway, so…why not just forget about it? You don’t need to worry yourself over all that, Jupiter. You deserve to be happy.
“There’s no way for a terrible person like me to find happiness. No one’s ever going to forgive me— I’m…never going to forgive me.”
She began to sob. I could hear her sniffing, trying to hold back tears.
I wondered how Haruka would handle this if she were here. She would probably hold Jupiter in her arms gently and tell her, “It’s okay.” Yeah, that was definitely what she would do. Haruka Aono wouldn’t need to rely on pretentious logic. Her actions would speak louder than her words. And she would probably save Jupiter from this despair.
“Listen, Jupiter.”
But I couldn’t compare to Haruka. I was too clumsy and awkward.
“I want you to keep this a secret between us…”
And so I chose words over actions.
“The truth is, my sister is sick. And it’s pretty serious.”
“What…?” She stopped sobbing, and her expression went blank. I turned to face her and saw her blinking over and over as she struggled to understand. “I don’t believe you. If Fumika’s sick, then why is she always so energetic?”
“I can see why you’d think that… But it’s the truth, Jupiter. Sis is…”
I explained that Fumika Shimizu had a fatal illness. I kept the fact that it was caused by a curse and Albi’s true identity to myself, but I was up-front about everything else.
“She’s in the same boat as you. Albi’s powers are only sealing the illness. That’s why she seems fine. But it’s practically impossible to treat her with modern medicine. It’s really bad, and the doctors have basically given up on her.”
“So if Big Sister Albi’s power ran out, then…”
“…Yeah.”
I nodded. That seemed to be enough for her to understand the rest.
So sharp. What a good kid.
“But y’know what? It’s not really as bad as it sounds.”
“How? Isn’t Fumika in danger? You said there was no way to heal her.”
“That’s what the doctors say. But…” I wanted to convey that not all hope was lost. And that hope could be our family’s saving grace. “I’ve heard from a reliable source that somewhere in Eternal Darkness, there’s a medicine that can cure all illnesses.”
The Elixir—a spiritual medicine that transcends human understanding, capable of instantly curing any illness or lifting any curse.
“So long as we have that, we’ll be able to restore her to full health and free her from her illness… The most important thing in the world to me is saving my sister.”