Work Text:
Yasogami High School’s gymnasium. For a rural high school, it was a fairly large gym, but with only three people remaining inside, the space seemed strangely stretched out. Only one of them was moving: Kou Ichijo, the captain of the basketball team, his hair reaching down to his ears. Despite being a basketball player accustomed to vigorous movement, even the way he bent down to pick up a rolling ball was silent and unhurried, hinting at the manners he had been taught from an early age. With the ball in his hands, Ichijo stepped back and launched a three-pointer. The ball sank beautifully through the center of the hoop. It was an impressive shot, especially considering that he was not particularly tall for a basketball player, and the effort he had put in was evident. Ichijo raised his fist in triumph, prompting the other male student in the gym, dressed in a tracksuit, to cheer him on.
The only other person there, a female student who had been recording Ichijo’s results, lazily twirled the pen in her hand before speaking.
“Hey, Ichijo-kun, there isn’t much time left for us to use the gym.”
She sounded bored despite being the one bringing up the time. She was Ai Ebihara, the basketball team’s manager. With her long, light-brown hair and slender waist, she was one of the most popular girls with the boys at the school. Because of her poor conduct, she had been forced to become the team manager the previous year, and at first she had shown absolutely no enthusiasm for it. At some point, however, she had become more motivated, and these days she even stayed until the end of practice. Apparently, though, her dislike of tedious, steady work had not changed. Ichijo thought about it. Maybe it would be good to give her a different kind of stimulation once in a while.
“Is it that late already? Time really flies. Oh, right, Ebihara.”
At the sound of her name, Ai’s gaze went straight to Ichijo. She had been interested in Ichijo for a brief period in the past, so even now she was prone to paying particular attention to him.
“What? Are we done already?”
“No, but before that. Why don’t you give it a try for once? Basketball.”
Ai tilted her head, still looking at Ichijo in surprise at the unexpected suggestion.
“It might give you a different perspective when you’re working as a manager, too.”
He genuinely meant it. As third-year students, Ichijo and the others did not have much time left for club activities, but he wanted to reach the end knowing that they had done everything they could. He felt the same way about Ai. Just then, from the back of the gym, the other boy’s loud voice rang out, full of enthusiasm and utterly lacking in reserve.
“Sounds interesting. I wanna see this.”
He was Daisuke Nagase, captain of the soccer team and Ichijo’s closest friend. He kept his bangs cut short, and the minor injuries he picked up playing soccer were always visible. Nagase and Ichijo were completely different types of people, yet they got along so well that people said the two of them were almost always together.
With both Ichijo and Nagase expecting her to take the challenge, Ai slowly rose to her feet with a smile. She grabbed the ball that had already been put away and headed toward the goal with the confident stride of a model on a runway. As Ichijo watched her with interest and anticipation, Ai’s theatrical voice rang through the gym.
“Very well. I have a confession to make. I have read… the definitive masterpiece of basketball manga, from beginning to end, at an internet café in Okina.”
“Manga? And at an internet café...?”
Ichijo’s incredulous voice went completely unheard as Ai raised both arms above her head at the free-throw line.
“My left hand is just for support...”
Lost in her own world, Ai released the ball. It traced a graceful arc through the air, only to drop with a lonely plop about two meters to the left of the center of the hoop.
“Didn’t even come close.”
Nagase’s completely innocent remark hit Ai’s heart with the force of a dunk, in direct opposition to the direction of her shot.
“Shut up! And why are you always here, anyway?! You have nothing better to do, Soccer Club!”
“You’re the loud one, Ebihara. You’ve seen me go home with Ichijo to grab something to eat after practice.”
Nagase remained completely unfazed, while Ebihara looked ready to march straight over to him. Ichijo, who had started this whole thing, began to panic. Ai had become much easier to deal with compared to before, but her tendency to act on her moods had not changed. He had been careful about handling that as captain, but he had let his guard down.
“Ebihara, good work today. I’ll take care of the rest, so you can head out.”
Hearing Ichijo say that, Ai was slightly mollified. She answered as though Nagase did not exist.
“Really? Then I’ll take you up on that. See you later~”
Ai immediately grabbed her bag and was about to leave when Ichijo hurriedly added one more thing.
“Oh, sorry, but could you take this document to the faculty room for me?”
Even though it was already getting close to evening, Ai spotted some students who were still hanging around school. Up until the previous year, she had sometimes skipped class and gone all the way to the distant Okina City, so she often found herself thinking that ordinary high school students were surprisingly serious about school. These days, she attended without skipping classes, but school still wasn’t exactly a fun place for her. She hardly had anyone to talk to. Aside from Ichijo and the other members of the basketball team, plus Nagase as an honorary member, she didn’t have many students she was particularly close to. There had been one friend who had left a lasting impression on her during her second year, but he had only been here for a year before returning to where he had come from.
Yu Narukami. A transfer student with a mysterious sense of acceptance and a strong will. He had belonged to the basketball team, which was how she had gotten to know him. Ichijo and Nagase had both liked him very much, too. Thinking about Yu, who had also been the person who had broken her heart, Ai felt warmth rise in her chest and unconsciously quickened her pace. That was when she spotted three students in the hallway.
The moment she recognized one of them—a particularly large boy with his hair sticking dramatically straight up—Ai called out.
“Hey, Tatsumi! You’re still at school?”
“Ugh. Ebihara-senpai?”
There stood Kanji Tatsumi, said to be the legendary delinquent of Yasogami High. When Kanji had entered the school the previous year, he had seemed to be following the fast track to becoming a delinquent par excellence. He barely came to school at all, and when he did, he showed up horribly late, then naturally skipped class instead of actually attending. As fellow problem students, Ai and Kanji would occasionally run into each other. Since neither of them had anything better to do, they would kill time talking. Although Kanji looked like the kind of person who bowed to no one, he spoke respectfully to upperclassmen. He also seemed to have little interest in girls, so he never tried any annoying flirtation on her, which made him easy to talk to. At the time, he was one of the few students at school whom Ai felt relatively comfortable around.
At some point, however, Kanji joined the group centered around Yu, and after that he always seemed to have something going on after school. He was still intimidating simply by standing there, but people no longer seemed to fear him the way they once had. They hadn’t talked much lately, so Ai cheerfully spoke up after their long absence.
“What’s up? Trying to reinvent yourself as a model student or something?”
At those words, Kanji made a genuinely bitter face.
“I ain’t planning on becoming a model student, but, well... I’m studying.”
“Seriously?! April Fool’s Day was ages ago, wasn’t it?”
“I knew you’d react like that.”
Realizing that she had gotten carried away just because Kanji was easy to talk to, Ai silently reflected on her behavior and turned her attention to the student standing beside him. Compared to Kanji, he was much smaller, with a handsome face. No, not a boy. Ai addressed him.
“You’re the Detective Prince, Shirogane Naoto-kun. This is the first time we’ve actually spoken, right?”
Ai wondered whether calling her “-kun” was really appropriate, but most of the students at school called Naoto that, and she had the impression that she preferred it that way. In reality, Naoto showed not the slightest sign of being affected by Ai’s words. With her composure completely intact, she replied in a firm, dignified tone.
“Nice to meet you, Ebihara-senpai. I’ve seen you together with Narukami-senpai several times.”
“Come to think of it, Shirogane-kun was part of that mysterious secret society you had with Yu, wasn’t she? Headquarters at the Junes food court. Kujikawa was a member too, right? Are you guys some kind of celebrity club from an American TV drama?”
She was clearly joking, but Naoto felt that the description wasn’t entirely inaccurate. In addition to herself, there was Rise Kujikawa, the high school idol who had been taking a break from her career. Kanji was locally famous as the guy who had taken down a biker gang single-handedly. They had been too busy rushing around trying to solve a series of utterly extraordinary incidents to think about it, but looking back with a cooler head, Naoto could imagine that there had been quite a few people who found them suspicious.
“So what’s the secret society up to these days? Are Hanamura and Satonaka still active members?”
As Ai continued cheerfully, Naoto wondered how she ought to answer, but Kanji cut in.
“That’s why I’m studying. She’s helping me with it.”
“Oh, right. I almost forgot. Lucky you, Tatsumi. You’ve got a pretty fancy private tutor.”
At that, Kanji looked away, while Ai gave him a puzzled expression. Thinking back, when Naoto had stepped forward to introduce herself, Kanji had seemed momentarily flustered when she came close to him.
Hmm... Is that what I think it is?
“Good luck, Tatsumi.”
“With what?”
“With studying, obviously.”
While Kanji stumbled over his words, looking frustrated, Ai turned her attention to the other boy. He was taller than Naoto, but much shorter than Kanji. His hairstyle even resembled Kanji’s a little, though he had a slender build.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
“My name is Naoki Konishi. I’m Kanji’s classmate.”
Konishi.
Ai’s unconscious registered the name. But it never quite reached the level of conscious recognition, and her attention immediately returned to Kanji.
“So you really do have friends, Tatsumi.”
“I’ve known Naoki since elementary school...”
“That long? Come to think of it, Naoki and Naoto have pretty similar names.”
The two of them, whose names Ai had casually compared, looked at each other.
“I never even thought about that until you pointed it out.”
“Maybe your powers of observation aren’t all that great for a detective.”
“Well, you got me there, Konishi-kun.”
The two of them laughed together. Seeing Naoto like that, Kanji’s face turned faintly red. Ai decided that sticking around any longer would be intruding, and chose to leave.
“Well, I’ve got somewhere to be. Bye-bye!”
She said it unilaterally and immediately walked away. Kanji watched her leave with a weary expression. Just then, Naoto noticed the puzzled look on Naoki’s face and spoke to him.
“Konishi-kun, what’s wrong?”
“That Ebihara-senpai... Even when she heard the name Konishi, she didn’t even bring up my sister.”
Naoki’s older sister, Saki, had been one of the victims of the serial murders that had shaken Inaba the previous year. She had been two years older than Naoki. Even when people meant well, the moment they spoke to him, they would bring up his sister, treat him with special consideration, and force him into the role of the grieving bereaved family member. Naoki had grown irritated with being made to play that role. So even though some time had passed since then, it was unusual for someone to hear the name Konishi and not even allude to Saki. Sensing how Naoki felt, Kanji spoke to him.
“Naoki, Ebihara-senpai doesn’t really pay much attention to other people, so she probably just genuinely forgot about Saki-san.”
“But sometimes, that can be a good thing.”
When Ai knocked on the faculty room door, she was greeted by a teacher wearing an ancient Egyptian headdress. It was a bizarre sight, but it was real. She was Sofue, the history teacher, better known as Carmen. Fascinated by Egyptian history, she was an eccentric teacher who always wore some antiquated-looking headdress and carried a crystal ball and a dowsing rod wherever she went. At least she seemed to be sane enough not to start claiming that she was the reincarnation of Cleopatra.
Unfortunately, Carmen informed her in her usual archaic manner that a meeting was about to begin and that she would have to wait for a little while. At this rate, she might end up staying even later than she would have if she had stuck around with the club until the very end. Ai felt gloomy, but she couldn't break her promise to Ichijo. She sat down on a bench near the faculty room and slowly fell into thought.
Ichijo, Nagase, Kanji, Naoto. Without realizing it, Ai had just been talking to people who were all closely connected to Yu, including Naoki, who hadn't even registered in her conscious thoughts. The more she thought about it, the more she was reminded just how unbelievably wide Yu's circle of acquaintances had been.
Just then, a figure passed in front of Ai. She paid it no attention, but when she felt a tremendous vibration beside her, she was startled and turned toward it. There, occupying the space beside her, was a body of extraordinary width. Ai took one look at the face and involuntarily exclaimed.
“Ah, you're Hanako Ohtani.”
The person she had addressed replied with an unimpressed expression.
“And you're Ai Ebihara.”
There were people at Yasogami High who secretly called Yu Narukami the school’s “boss.” If you went by the legends he had actually left behind, Kanji Tatsumi was arguably more deserving of the title. But Yasogami High had someone who surpassed even them in sheer presence.
Her face and body seemed to have been stretched to an extraordinary scale, giving her an overwhelming presence and an audacity to match. Put simply, she was extremely fat. That person was Hanako Ohtani. Rather than merely being an outsider at school, Ohtani seemed to live in an entirely different world. She possessed a certain dignity of her own, and both boys and girls regarded her with a mixture of awe and fear.
As a matter of fact, Ai had taken an unusually strong interest in Ohtani. Ohtani, however, had no interest in Ai whatsoever. After saying those few words, she was already looking away, apparently ready to move on. Ai hurriedly spoke again.
“So you knew who I was.”
“Ebihara-san is famous.”
She answered, but her tone was curt, making her lack of interest obvious.
“Ah, probably famous for all the wrong reasons.”
“Hmm. You seem to care quite a bit about what other people think of you.”
Her reaction was just as subdued as before. But that was precisely why Ai had been so interested in Ohtani. It was true. Ai cared very much about how other people saw her.
Ai wasn't originally from Inaba. Shortly before entering middle school, her father suddenly became wealthy after succeeding in business. The resentment and jealousy this attracted from the people around them led the family to move away and start over somewhere else. Back then, Ai had been overweight and bullied, mocked with the nickname “Butahara,” and she had been deeply hurt by it. Taking advantage of the move to a new place, she desperately dieted and studied fashion, painstakingly creating the admired Ai Ebihara everyone saw now. The thought of having that persona stripped away terrified her.
After she had spoken frankly with Yu the previous year, she had come to realize that she didn't have to push herself so hard. Even so, she still felt reluctant to give up the slim, model-like figure she had worked so hard to attain, and sometimes wondered what exactly she was holding on to when she felt that way. For Ai, Ohtani was therefore endlessly fascinating: someone who could carry herself so confidently in a body like that. She had always wanted to talk to her someday.
“Oh, right, Ohtani.”
Ai spoke up on the spur of the moment, not wanting the conversation to die.
“You know how guys are always confessing to Amagi and getting rejected flat-out?”
“Don’t know.”
Ohtani answered in a tone of complete indifference. In fact, she genuinely had no idea that Yukiko Amagi was extremely popular with boys. Ohtani simply had no interest whatsoever in other people she considered irrelevant to herself. Ai thought back to that foggy period the previous year. For some reason, so many people in town had done nothing but gossip about one another. There had been something unsettling about it. Judging from Ohtani now, maybe she had been one of the people who hadn't been affected by it even then.
“Really? Well, it happens pretty often. And they call getting rejected by Amagi a ‘failed Amagi Crossing.’ What does that mean? Is it some kind of enka song?”
That question seemed to pique Ohtani’s interest ever so slightly, and she answered bluntly.
“It’s a reference to Seicho Matsumoto’s Amagi Crossing. That came long before the song.”
“Who was that again? I feel like I’ve heard the name before.”
Ohtani was silent for a moment. Then, consciously keeping her emotions from showing on her face, she answered.
“A famous mystery novelist from long ago. A lot of his works have been made into movies and TV dramas, so there must be at least a few you know, Ebihara-san.”
“Oh, mystery novels. Kosuke Kindaichi.”
“That’s Seishi Yokomizo. I was afraid you were going to say Young Kindaichi.”
“Obviously I know the difference between that and a manga. Still, you really know your stuff.”
There was no sarcasm or hidden meaning in Ai’s words. She was simply impressed. Despite being wary of Ai to some extent—after all, Ai had kept approaching her and striking up conversations despite the two of them having had no connection whatsoever—Ohtani had not sensed any malice in her. Judging from her last few replies, she seemed sincere enough. Ohtani relaxed her guard a little and answered in a calmer tone.
“Kashiwagi-sensei recommended them to me. She said that since she was a biology teacher, there were a lot of mystery novels that she found interesting to read.”
“Kashiwagi? Oh, I heard you two are pretty close.”
For the first time, Ohtani’s previously composed expression turned visibly displeased.
“Ebihara-san. It’s rude to call a teacher by her surname without an honorific.”
Ai was caught off guard by the unexpected irritation. She didn't particularly dislike Kashiwagi. It was just that she didn't like teachers in general. More precisely, she didn't even have enough feelings toward them to like or dislike them. Kashiwagi and Carmen were the same. Ai thought for a moment, then asked another question.
“But what about Morokin? I know it’s kind of bad taste to speak ill of someone who’s dead.”
“Call him Morooka-sensei. You know that. Well... yes, I didn't like him very much.”
Kinshiro Morooka, better known as Morokin. He had been a teacher of ethics, but he was sarcastic and overbearing, and the students had absolutely hated him. “Rotten mikan” was his favorite expression, which seemed fitting for a man whose own personality was rotten. She had heard that even the other teachers hadn't liked him. What kind of enjoyment did he get out of living his life determined to make everyone hate him? Morokin had also been one of the victims of the serial murders the previous year. And there was something unusual about the circumstances.
“Even someone like him... it was still sad that he was killed. And his was the only one done by that copycat murderer, right?”
The serial killer had, incredibly, turned out to be an active-duty police detective. But Morokin was the only victim killed by a student from another school who had wanted to attract attention. You want to become famous badly enough to kill someone? That makes absolutely no sense. Even so, that whole case had given Ai chills. A student from her own school had been killed, too. Konishi Saki, wasn't it?
Huh? Konishi?
“About that Konishi from earlier...”
Ai suddenly spoke up. Ohtani looked at her curiously. Ai hurriedly waved her hands, trying to steer the conversation back on course. Man, I completely forgot about that.
“Are you going to college, Ohtani?”
Perhaps Ohtani had gotten used to Ai’s sudden changes of subject, because she answered immediately. And with absolute confidence.
“Yes. And I’m going to start a business while I’m still in school.”
“Wowww...”
Genuinely impressed, Ai couldn’t help letting out a somewhat absent-minded sound.
“You really have it together. That’s seriously amazing.”
That was exactly what fascinated Ai about her. Ohtani possessed this strange, unshakable confidence, and she never seemed to question it. She had something that Ai, back when she had been an insecure, overweight girl in elementary school, could never have possessed. Maybe the people who could attract good fortune and connections with others were the ones who had such a firmly established sense of self. She was nothing like Yu, but Ai couldn’t help recognizing Ohtani as another extraordinary eccentric—and someone destined for greatness.
Ohtani, meanwhile, seemed pleased by how genuinely impressed Ai was, and returned the question.
“And you, Ebihara-san?”
Ai faltered at the question. She looked away and stumbled over her words, clearly troubled by it. Eventually, she steeled herself and spoke, embarrassed.
“I want to... become a kind person.”
Ohtani visibly struggled to come up with a response. Ai continued.
“I know it’s abstract. But I skipped school a lot until last year, so graduating is my first priority, rather than getting all grandiose about my future career. Fortunately, my parents have money. So at the very least, I wanted to set myself a goal of what kind of person I want to become.”
“Ebihara-san, if you’re only kind, people will look down on you and take advantage of you.”
“Hahaha. You’re absolutely right. I’ll keep that in mind.”
It was so like Ohtani not to make some insincere attempt to agree with her. She didn't offer some spur-of-the-moment piece of advice, either. There was no reason or obligation for her to do that for someone she wasn't even close to. Someone like her probably showed genuine affection toward the people she was truly close to. Could Kashiwagi be one of those people for her now? As Ai pondered that, the faculty room door opened, and Carmen’s voice called out to her. So that was that. She had thought of the wait as an annoying detour, but it had turned out to be an interesting way to spend her time. As she stood up, Ai smiled at Ohtani.
“See you later, Ohtani~”
The days had been getting noticeably longer. There were still plenty of people out walking outside, and Inaba remained exactly what it was: peaceful, quiet, and boring. Just then, Ai’s eyes caught sight of someone—a bob-haired girl with healthy, sun-kissed skin, walking a dog.
“Ugh, Satonaka...”
Chie Satonaka was one of the students who had been particularly close to Yu. Back when Ai had been in love with Ichijo last year, Yu had told her that Chie was the girl who liked Ichijo, and Ai had consequently developed a fierce, one-sided sense of rivalry toward her. That was no longer the case, but there was still nothing for them to talk about if they happened to meet, and dealing with her would be a hassle. Fortunately, Chie hadn’t noticed her. Ai quickly tried to make her escape down the embankment.
“Successfully escaped from the enemy~”
Feeling like she was playing a game, Ai smoothly made her way down and grinned to herself. After embarrassing herself with that failed shot not long ago, she was in the mood to pat herself on the back for such nimble movement.
Serves you right, Nagase.
Now, what should I do?
There were no anglers or children playing along the riverbank today, and unlike up above, there were few people around. Since she was in such a good mood, Ai decided she might as well walk around here for a while. The sound of the flowing water reached her eardrums in a rhythmic pattern, and the more she listened, the cooler and more refreshing she felt. Come to think of it, she had been living in Inaba for quite some time, yet she had hardly ever come to places like this. So this was the sort of thing she had overlooked because she had been so preoccupied with keeping up her appearance.
As she walked along thinking about that, she heard a deep, rumbling sound coming from ahead, as though the air itself were being leisurely pressed beneath it.As she approached the source of the sound, she caught sight of a long, slender golden instrument gleaming brilliantly in the sinking sunlight.
Is that a trumpet? But aren't trumpets smaller than that?
Ai knew next to nothing about brass instruments, so she had no idea what kind it actually was. She quickened her pace, watching the player. It was a petite girl whose size seemed completely out of proportion to the instrument. Rather than the bob cut that had seemed to define Chie just a moment ago, her hairstyle was better described as an old-fashioned okappa bowl cut.
A zashiki-warashi. That was the sort of quaint, familiar charm the girl possessed.
Ai knew her. When she approached and stopped, she quietly waited until the girl finished playing, without the girl paying her any attention at all. When the performance ended and the sound vanished from the surroundings, Ai spoke to her with a round of applause.
“Wow, you're good! We met when we saw Yu off, right? Matsunaga...”
“Matsunaga Ayane, Ebihara-senpai.”
“Right, Ayane. We only introduced ourselves briefly that time, so I didn't really remember. You remembered me, though.”
“Of course I know you, Ebihara-senpai.”
Ayane smiled without a trace of reservation. Just like Ohtani, she knew who Ai was. Apparently, Ai really was well-known around school. Judging by her reaction, hopefully not for anything bad. With that thought in mind, Ai continued the conversation.
“Come to think of it, you said you were in the concert band. Yu was doing that alongside basketball.”
“That’s right. Narukami-senpai told me about the basketball club, and that’s when I heard about you too, Ebihara-senpai.”
Oh. It didn’t seem like she had a bad impression of her. Still, Ayane struck Ai as an unusual type among Yu’s friends. Maybe she was another one of those people with a strong personality, despite how she looked. Ai found herself growing more curious about her.
“By the way, what’s this instrument called again? It’s not a trumpet, right?”
“It’s a trombone.”
“Oh, a trombone. I know the name.”
Ayane cheerfully answered even Ai’s utterly clueless questions. Maybe she was simply a nice person, but perhaps she also genuinely enjoyed talking about music itself. Just like Ichijo and Nagase, people who had something they could devote themselves to seemed dazzling to Ai.
“Isn’t that thing huge and heavy?”
Ai frankly voiced the question that had occurred to her the moment she saw it.
“I didn’t choose it because I wanted to play it at first. I wanted to play an instrument, but the only one we had at home was a trombone, so I had no choice.”
“That sounds like it must’ve been pretty tough.”
She had literally been working hard to master something that was too big for her to handle comfortably. What she was doing was completely different, but the effort Ayane must have poured into it reminded Ai of how desperately she herself had once tried to lose weight.
“Even when I practiced, I couldn’t get any better, and I had absolutely no confidence. But last year, Narukami-senpai encouraged me so much. And now I can stand here and play confidently like this.”
As she said it, Ayane smiled. Her expression was bright and clear, yet there was also a faint trace of loneliness in it. It was the same kind of feeling Ai sensed in herself.
Could she perhaps...
Ai spoke.
“Ah, Matsunaga. You’re one of the people Yu charmed, too, aren’t you?”
Until then, Ayane had been responding calmly enough, but she quickly turned bright red. With a sharp expression on her face, she forced out a rebuttal to Ai.
“‘Charmed’?! Please stop talking about Narukami-senpai like that!”
No doubt about it. Ai was certain now. This girl was the type who couldn’t take a bad joke, so Ai decided she would have to choose her words a little more carefully.
“I’m not saying anything bad about him. I liked Yu too, you know. And he turned me down just like that. Oh, well. I guess it was a hopeless challenge from the start.”
Ai said something momentous in such a lighthearted tone that Ayane’s anger vanished in an instant. Her eyes went wide. She was at a loss for words, but eventually steeled herself and asked in a quiet voice.
“Ebihara-senpai... did you confess to Narukami-senpai?”
“Yeah. And it was a total heartbreak. That guy is way too popular, with girls and guys alike. Ichijo-kun and Nagase were always hanging around with him, too. And then there were Satonaka, Amagi, and Kujikawa in Yu’s group. Maybe they liked him too.”
Ai went on and on about Yu like an enthusiastic fan, but Ayane had barely heard anything after that. It was the first part that had struck her. Looking Ai straight in the eye, Ayane cut into the conversation that was still continuing.
“I could never bring myself to say it outright. Narukami-senpai always felt like some superhuman from a world far above me. Ebihara-senpai, I think you were amazing for confessing to him.”
“Superhuman. Yeah, he really does have the air of a hero who secretly saves the world. Cha-cha-cha-cha~♪”
Ai teased her while crudely imitating the orchestral BGM from a famous RPG. Ayane burst out laughing.
“We play that song pretty often in the band, too.”
“Ohhh~ So you guys play stuff like that, too.”
“It’s popular with audiences, and there are a lot of people in the band who like that game.”
After chatting about this and that for a while, the conversation naturally circled back to Yu. By now, Ayane felt a strong sense of kinship with Ai. She had the feeling that, at this distance, she could tell her things she normally never told anyone.
“It bothered me that I was too intimidated to honestly tell him how I felt. That isn’t the only reason, but I started wanting to become someone as great as Narukami-senpai, and I found myself with a dream.”
“What kind?”
“I want to hold solo concerts and be able to help someone through music.”
Ai was left speechless by something so far beyond anything she had imagined. Ayane, meanwhile, continued.
“That’s why I’ve decided to go abroad after I graduate.”
“Th-That’s amazing.”
Ayane, who looked like an ordinary high school girl in rural Inaba, had a staggering goal. Just like Ohtani earlier. Her willingness to take on challenges and her confidence in herself were extraordinary. And, as it happened, Ichijo had also said he planned to go abroad after graduation, thinking about his family and what lay ahead.
“And here I am, with nothing but some abstract goal.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to become a kind person. I really have thought about it seriously, you know.”
Of course, Ayane had no intention of laughing off the words of this courageous senior. She thought carefully and sincerely before slowly opening her mouth.
“Doesn’t that mean, like me, that you want to be able to help someone?”
Ai fell silent in thought. She had only considered it vaguely and never really examined the idea in depth, but... maybe there was something to it. She was the basketball club manager now, and although she was far from perfect, she did her best in her own way. Whenever everyone in the club looked happy, Ai felt happy too.
Oh. So maybe that was part of it, too.
“If I look at it that way, I think I can make my goal a lot more concrete.”
As Ai smiled, a memory was stirred in Ayane.
“That reminds me. There was something about Narukami-senpai’s part-time jobs.”
“A part-time job? I heard he had all kinds of them. He really was a busy guy.”
“One of them was cleaning at a hospital. Apparently, a nurse he often talked to eventually made up her mind to join an international medical team overseas. I don’t know the details myself, but apparently something happened that made her firmly resolve to do it.”
Nursing, huh? If you were talking about a job that helped people, it would be hard to find a more representative one.
That reminded Ai of something else she had heard from Yu.
“You know, Yu said he sometimes used to meet an old woman in mourning clothes here by the river.”
“All the time? I’ve heard that, in old Canada, there was a custom of wearing mourning clothes for an entire year.”
“You really know that kind of stuff.”
“I read about it in Anne of Green Gables.”
“You do kind of look like someone who would read that sort of thing. As for that old woman... I only heard the story secondhand, so I’m fuzzy on the details, but apparently her husband had developed dementia, and that was part of why she was troubled.”
As she had said, Ai had only heard the story secondhand and didn’t know the details, so she had no way of knowing exactly what connection there had been between the old woman’s mourning clothes and her husband’s dementia. Yu wasn’t the sort of person to openly reveal other people’s private circumstances. But Ai could imagine that there had been grief and joy there that someone as young as herself could never fully understand.
“Nursing and caregiving, huh...”
It wasn’t a definite goal. It was nothing more than an idea that had just occurred to her. Even Ai understood that it wasn’t the kind of work one could do on half-baked ideals alone. But at least now, it had emerged as a concrete possibility. Until now, she had simply been wandering through a thick fog, using the abstract goal of becoming a kind person as her only light. Now, it felt as though she could finally make out a building in the distance.
Even so, there was still plenty for Ai to think about. She thought of Ichijo. She thought of Nagase. Then she looked at Ayane standing before her and compared herself to them, wondering what it was that she lacked. Suddenly, she spoke to Ayane.
“Hey, this is kind of presumptuous, but can I request a song?”
“Huh? What song?”
“Anything Matsunaga likes.”
Ayane fidgeted for a moment after hearing the request. Ai knew it was probably an awkward one. She could refuse if she wanted to, but given Ayane’s personality, Ai somehow didn’t think she would. Sure enough, Ayane timidly raised the trombone at an angle with her small frame and began to play. Every time she moved the slide with her right hand, the pitch changed, sending a lively, boisterous melody rippling through the air. It was a blatantly cheesy pop song by an idol group that had been popular some time ago. Ai listened with a smile, swaying her arms and body along with the music. Eventually, the performance ended, and Ai opened her mouth.
“‘Let’s fall in love, shall we? Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa. Dance, dancin’ all the night~♪’ I like this song.”
Ayane’s reaction was one of unmistakable surprise.
“I’m glad~ I thought Ebihara-senpai would be into Western music or club music.”
“Is that prejudice because I look like some stuck-up girl? Ayane-chan, you’re so mean~”
“Um, well... I mean...”
“I don’t really understand the kind of music Matsunaga mentioned. This is the kind of stuff I like.”
As it happened, their musical tastes overlapped. But Ayane looked like she was having a wonderful time playing the song just now. Because she liked it. Thinking back to her goal of wanting to help someone, Ai wondered whether that alone was really enough. If she made someone other than herself the driving force behind her life, wouldn’t it become twisted somehow when the circumstances changed? Ai reconsidered herself as the basketball club manager. What had really been the moments that made her happiest? It wasn’t simply that being thanked felt good. It was moving forward together. Whatever she chose to pursue, she needed to know what kind of person she herself wanted to be.
“Thanks, Matsunaga. I got a lot out of talking with you. Though, now that I think about it, what am I doing taking advice from you when I’m supposed to be your senior?”
Ai said it partly to hide her embarrassment, but her face was bright and cheerful, and something in Ayane’s heart seemed to soften and swell with warmth as well. On a whim, Ai picked up a small pebble at her feet. Without giving it any thought, she tossed it into the river. It skipped beautifully across the surface three, then four times. Ayane looked impressed, and Ai threw a fist into the air.
“Yes! See? I can do it too! Damn, I wish I could’ve shown Nagase.”
By the time they had finished talking, the sun was already beginning to set. It was probably time to call it a day. But neither Ai nor Ayane wanted to stop. They had only just met properly for the first time today, and there was still so much they wanted to talk about. They were two people who had been drawn together by the gravitational pull of Yu Narukami. Ai broke the silence.
“Since we’re here, Matsunaga, wanna grab something to eat? Like those guys do?”
“Sounds good. Souzai Daigaku, I suppose?”
At that, Ai answered in an exaggerated, almost grandiose voice.
“Don’t think so small, Matsunaga Ayane, who’s about to spread her wings and take on the world. We’re going to Aiya.”
It was the name of the old Chinese restaurant in the Inaba shopping district. Despite Ai’s stylish appearance, she had gradually come to feel surprisingly at home with the place’s down-to-earth atmosphere. Even so, Ayane still couldn’t quite connect the image of Aiya with Ai.
Ai continued.
“How about the Special Meat Bowl? I’ll take that bastard down for you.”
It was Aiya’s secret menu item. The portions were so absurdly huge that even food fighters who had heard the rumors were said to have trouble conquering it. Among the people Ai knew, apparently only Yu and Ohtani had managed to finish one. It was technically a rainy-day-only menu item, but perhaps they could get one if they asked.
“Wait, you mean that insane bowl rumored to be an act of violence against meat, a vortex of meat, a whole planet of meat?”
Ayane recoiled at the thought, and Ai replied with a cool, self-satisfied air.
“Actually, I used to be a big eater. Leave it to me.”
<<fin>>