Yoshida’s everyday life had changed ever since his meeting with Aria.
“Good morning, Aria,” he said.
“Oh, good morning to you too, Yoshida,” she said.
“What are you doing today?”
“I’m going to the river over that way.” She pointed. “I want to try catching fish with my hands.”
“With your bare hands? I think that’ll be pretty hard.”
Whenever Yoshida had the time, he met Aria at the abandoned church and joined in her games. Aria was a master at playing, or more accurately, a master at finding things enjoyable. She could have fun with every bit of nature out in the sticks, things Yoshida had only found gloomy before, as he’d grown accustomed to seeing them every day since he was born.
“Aha ha! Look how clear the water is!” Aria was delighted just from stepping in the river. “Come on, Yoshida, hurry up!”
“You always look like you’re having a good time, Aria.”
“I am! There’re so many pretty things in the world. How can I not have fun when I’m surrounded with the things I love?” she said with her arms spread wide. Those eyes, as clear as the blue sky, reflected a wonderful world that could go on forever, just like she said. “Besides, I have you too.”
She fidgeted as a tinge of red spread across her cheeks.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing, I’m fine— Take that!” Without warning, she splashed him with water.
“Yeep!”
“Ha ha ha, listen to you!”
“Oh, you’re gonna get it now.”
Thus began the water splashing wars.
Boy, this is the best, Yoshida thought. He felt warm just by being around her. He was still a coward and painfully awkward, but he felt his mood lighten when he was with her.
“Guess what? I’ll get to go to school soon too!” Aria said as they were resting under a tree, their game finished.
“Really?!”
Aria had moved to Yoshida’s village from a faraway town because of her father’s government work. She’d been studying with a private tutor instead of attending school since she was old enough to learn.
“I asked my parents and they said yes. Now I can play with you at school too!”
Thanks to her bright and cheerful personality, Aria fit right in at school. Yoshida was swept along by her current, and the bullying against him lessened. Each day, her life was filled with smiles. A beautiful world would continue to reflect in her eyes—that’s what everyone expected.
However, things started to change two years later.
Yoshida was worried because Aria had looked down in recent days, so he asked what was wrong.
“Lately, my mom and dad are always fighting,” she said. “Mom says she misses our life in the town. She liked parties with fancy people and expensive food, and then my dad doesn’t only love my mom, he also loves our maid. He did a bunch of naughty things with her.”
“Aria...”
Yoshida couldn’t say much in return. The secrets Aria confided in him were too heavy for a seven-year-old boy to process.
Perhaps that was the moment she started losing sight of the beauty in the world around her.
The changes in the world around Aria didn’t stop there. She also started getting bullied at school. As often happens in closed communities, the boy dating the most popular girl in school found his eyes wandering to Aria. At first, the girl and her many friends simply gave Aria the cold shoulder, but the situation later devolved into harassment like hiding her things, and eventually into actual violence.
All of that led up to an inciting incident.
A girl had been pulling Aria’s hair and was about to punch her pretty face when the girl’s arm suddenly disappeared. Since no one at the time realized the cause of this shocking event, there was a huge fuss around the mystery.
Yoshida alone knew what had really happened.
“I saw something strange and heard a weird sound,” Aria told him. “This black thing splattered onto her, and it made this creepy sound. She tried to shake it off, but her arm was already gone. Let me show you.”
She picked up a branch and tried to stab her arm with it. The moment it came into contact with her, a repulsive black static gushed out of her body and the branch broke into pieces before vanishing for good.
Yoshida was at a loss for words; he’d never seen anything like it.
“What...what’s happening to me?” Aria asked with tears in her eyes.
“Aria!” Yoshida pulled her delicate body into a hug. “I’ll be by your side no matter what happens. You can rely on me for anything.”
“Thank you, Yoshida.”
I want to get strong, for her sake, he thought. Strong enough that she’d have no reason to cry when she was by his side.
Over the next five years, Aria’s world became gradually consumed by the noise. Her classmates, the villagers, her parents, and finally even the natural scenery she loved so much all started to look and sound like unpleasant noise to her. The only thing Yoshida could do was stand by her side.
Once the villagers realized she was dangerous, they regarded her with apprehension and tried to ostracize her, but to no avail. The invincible miasma that protected Aria blocked all attacks and retaliated without mercy. Everyone in the village besides Yoshida wondered how they could ever exterminate this perilous entity.
Then the fateful day came.
Yoshida had gone shopping in the neighboring village. He was already twelve, old enough to take such a trip; in his village, kids were expected to help out by that age. He’d left early in the morning, crossed a mountain, finished his errands, and returned—to nothing.
“What happened here?”
The village Yoshida had been born and raised in had vanished. The buildings, people, and even the abundant nature had completely disappeared and been replaced by a vast wasteland. A young girl stood alone in the middle of it all.
“Aria!”
“Yoshida...”
When Aria heard Yoshida’s voice, she turned around to look at him. Tears ran down her face and a tremendous amount of noise emanated out of every part of her body.
Yoshida would only learn this later, but apparently, the villagers had summoned soldiers from the kingdom and tried to kill Aria earlier that day. Their intermediary had been Aria’s father. Her mother—who’d already divorced her father and was living apart from them—hadn’t voiced any opposition either. The hired soldiers and villagers had mercilessly attacked Aria, resulting in the complete erasure of the village.
But as Yoshida still knew none of that, he could only stand and stare in complete bewilderment.
“What should I do, Yoshida? Everyone disappeared,” Aria said. She started walking toward him, staggering like a sleepwalker, tears still spilling from her eyes. “Everything looks like noise to me now,” she said in a trembling voice. “It’s always so loud, this constant buzzing. It never stops!”
“Aria...”
“Hey, Yoshida, will you do me a favor?” She took out a knife from her breast pocket—it had been part of her father’s collection—and handed it to Yoshida. Her eyes were imploring. “Please...just kill me.”
Yoshida was so overcome with shock he couldn’t reply.
“Every last thing will soon become noise. Anything covered in it can’t hurt me, but it hasn’t covered you for some reason. Probably because I like you—oh, I went and said it.”
“I...” Yoshida had no room to feel any happiness despite the confession of love he’d just received. He couldn’t even tell her that he felt the same.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be able to see you, so please, kill me.” Aria pointed the knife in Yoshida’s hand at her throat.
“I...” His hand trembled. He already knew that someone who wasn’t covered in noise could touch Aria without interference. He was even touching her hand at that very moment. Her protective noise wouldn’t even let her hurt herself, but he could kill her, just as she wished.
She’s right. Only I can do this.
Aria was a gentle girl. At this rate, everything in her sight would be enveloped in noise and she’d lose her mind, turning into a vile monster that erased the people around her in her quest to stop the buzzing. Yoshida didn’t want to see that happen to her, so he had to do this now.
Right then and there, he had to grant this pure and sweet girl’s earnest wish.
“Haah...haah...haah...” He could hardly breathe as nausea washed over him. He mustered every last ounce of his resolve and gripped the knife tightly. Its blade dug into the surface of her skin, and red blood trickled down her throat.
At that moment, Aria smiled a lonely smile.
That was too much for him. Yoshida ran away screaming, tripping over himself as he pounded his feet with everything he had, too scared to look back.