It was several days later. Mr. Ninomiya left his house in the dead of night and sneaked over to Ichinose Tea. He smashed the lock and forced his way into the store. He rummaged through the shelves in the back and soon found the little glass bottle. Indeed, it still had half its contents inside, just like when he’d seen it before.
He slipped the bottle into his pocket and turned to leave. But then he accidentally kicked something in the dark, sending it clattering across the floor. He heard someone stirring upstairs and coming down to investigate the noise. Doing his best not to give himself away, Mr. Ninomiya hurried out into the night.
Once he was back at his own store…
“I just have to mix this with tea or water or something and drink it, right?”
That was what the salesman had told him before, wasn’t it? Mr. Ninomiya quickly brewed a pot of tea—he had plenty lying around, after all.
“Mrs. Ichinose had to use half the bottle… I guess that’s how much you need to cure a terminal disease.”
He should probably take the same amount, then. He removed the cap and tipped the liquid into his tea.
Drip… Drip… Drip… Drip…
Drip… Drip… Drip…
Drip… Drip…
After nine drops, it stopped coming out. The bottle was empty. He stirred the medicine into the tea with a spoon and took his time drinking the mixture.
How long until it takes effect? It’s supposed to work “in the blink of an eye,” right?
His breath still warm from the tea, he sighed and waited for the medicine to do something.
It took only a moment. But it wasn’t what he was expecting.
“Urk…!”
Intense pain surged through Mr. Ninomiya’s body. He dropped his teacup and clutched at his chest.
Wh-what the…? What is this? What’s happening to me?!
The pain was so great that he fell from his chair and lay writhing on the floor.
It hurt so bad. He couldn’t breathe. His vision was getting blurry.
B-but…why?
Just then, a voice called out from the store entrance. It was young Mr. Ichinose. Hearing no reply, he went around to the back window and smashed it to get in. He soon found Mr. Ninomiya and saw the bottle in his hand.
“Oh, Mr. Ninomiya… Why?” he mumbled, his voice hoarse. “I saw that the bottle was missing, and…you’re the only one who knew it was there, so I came here just in case. I guess I was right.”
The young man staggered over to the telephone and called for an ambulance. While he waited for it to arrive, he crouched down next to Mr. Ninomiya, looking at him sorrowfully.
“Why did you do this? Why steal that medicine? I had plenty left over I didn’t need. If you’d just asked, I would have given it to you. If you’d done that…I would have been able to tell you how to use it.”
How to use it? Didn’t you just mix it into your drink?
Even with pain contorting his face and making his thoughts hazy, that question still drifted into Mr. Ninomiya’s mind. As if sensing what he wanted to ask, Mr. Ichinose went on.
“It’s called Two-Drop Medicine. That’s because if you take two drops of it, or four, or six, or any even number, it acts like medicine. But if you take an odd number of drops, it becomes poison instead. Its effect changes depending on how much of it you take. I don’t know how it’s possible, but that’s how it works. When my mother took some, we made sure to use an even number of drops. We used up half the bottle, and that was enough to save her life. But you’ve just taken that same amount in an odd number…”
Mr. Ichinose grabbed the bottle from the table. He poured a new cup of tea and held the bottle upside down over it.
“If there’s even two drops left in here, it might help keep you alive until the ambulance arrives…”
Mr. Ninomiya could still hear Mr. Ichinose’s voice, but he couldn’t see him. Everything was going dark.
Drip…
A single, solitary drop of liquid fell into the cup.
A second drop might have followed, but by then, it was too late. Mr. Ninomiya would never hear anything again.