It was dark out by the time I got home.
I had almost passed out at the museum earlier. I managed to make it back okay, but I still wasn't feeling too hot.
At least it was consolation that Kasumi wasn't the type of person to get upset about having to deal with stuff like this.
However, on the other hand...
"Hey, Ren, are you sure you're okay?"
That also meant that she was the type to fret endlessly. My current goal was to figure out some way to make her leave me alone.
If I didn't, she was liable to try to spend the entire night here watching over me or something.
"If you're still not feeling well,. you could try lying down. Should I make you some rice porridge?"
"Seriously, you don't need to do that. I'm fine. I'm off to bed now, so go home."
I knew that she was just trying to help, but I still couldn't really think straight after what happened earlier. I probably came across as harsher than I intended.
"It's not like I'm delicate flower, you know. My injuries healed up ages ago, so stop treating me like an invalid. I'm seriously gonna start feeling down if you keep being a total worrywart like this."
"Okay, but... I'm the one who asked you out today, so I feel kinda responsible. You're not the most reliable, after all..."
"And you're rude without even realizing it."
She did have a point, to be fair. I wasn't the type of person people looked to for help.
"I'd be troubled if someone reliable like you ended up collapsing on my account. So—"
"I'm not that fragile."
"And neither am I. If you're really trying to be considerate of me, then stop making me get in these pointless arguments with you. It's already going to be enough of a hassle going back to school starting tomorrow as it is..."
"Oh, that's right. No skipping, Ren."
"Says the girl who skipped today."
"I'll be fine. I make sure to go every day, so one day off won't kill me. But you probably have too many absences after being hospitalized for so long. You'll end up having to repeat a year if you keep slacking off. We both wanna graduate together, right?"
"..."
"Right?"
"Right."
"Alrighty, then hurry up and go to bed already."
"Well, I was trying to, but someone just keeps running her mouth."
"Oh shut up, invalid boy. No backtalk, you hear me?"
Kasumi threw some sheets on top of me. Surely there were less direct methods of getting someone into bed.
"Okay, good night. I'll come over and wake you up in the morning."
"That's fine and all, but while I'm at it..."
"Yeah?"
"Make sure you actually leave through the door this time, okay?"
"..."
"..."
"Eheehee~"
"Hey now."
Did she think she could get away with anything just by laughing it off?
"It's just, you know, such a hassle."
"That 'hassle' is considered common sense. Besides..."
I gestured to the wall next to me and sighed.
"The landlord's gonna be pissed if you keep it up. Just because we're next door neighbors doesn't mean you should..."
She would be in deep shit if the landlord found out that she had knocked out a goddamn hole in the wall and turned it into some sort of corridor. Like, this was the sort of thing people got kicked out for.
Kasumi and I moved into this apartment together when we enrolled in our current school. It took her less than a week to come up with the idea to "construct" this little side entrance.
"But my mom's conditions for us living alone was that we live next door to each other in the same apartment and help each other out. C'mon, it's fine. This way it's easier to look after each other."
"I doubt your mom expected you to go this far with it, though. Not in a million years."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah."
"Your so thickheaded. Besides, didn't Shirou start all of this? Don't blame everything on me."
Believe it or not, she wasn't lying. Kasumi, Shirou, and myself had all lived together in this apartment complex, all three rooms next to each other in a row.
It happened late one night. Out of nowhere, Shirou broke down the wall separating our rooms and barreled in here with the hammer still in his hand, saying he suddenly got the urge to play me in a fighting game. How stupid could he get?
"And so you ended up imitating that jokester completely."
"Heheh, though I didn't use something as barbaric as a hammer."
She was barbaric enough to go down to the hardware store the next day and buy a power saw, some tarps, and a mask, at least.
Anyway, as I had the bad fortune to live in between these two idiots, I ended up with holes on both sides of my room.
Privacy? What's that? Kasumi and Shirou would often just cut through here to visit each other, and my room became a sort of natural gathering place in general.
"At least seal up Shirou's hole."
"I won't! I mean, what if he comes back?"
There was no "what if." Shirou was never coming back, whether Kasumi knew it or not.
"I'm sure things will go back to normal between the three of us again. It'll be you, me, and Shirou, just like old times... Right?"
"..."
"Ren?"
"Yeah."
"Yep, okay, good night!"
Kasumi smiled sweetly and returned to her room... Through the hole in the wall.
I could tell by the complete lack of dust in my room that she had bothered to clean it while I was stuck in the hospital. Probably, Shirou's, too.
I would never admit it out loud, but I did appreciate the consideration. At the same time, though, I couldn't help but wonder if I really deserved having her look after me like this.
Kasumi knew nothing.
By all rights, right now we should have been—
"..."
This line of thought would get me nowhere.
I decided right then and there to stop mulling over the past. What was done was done. It wasn't healthy to keep obsessing like this.
There was no way the girl I saw at the museum could have actually been real. She was just a hallucination: meaningless clutter that was born from my unstable mental state.
"Yeah, that's it."
That was the only explanation.
I laid down in bed. A good night's sleep would be sure to wash away the memory of today.
I wouldn't remember a thing when I woke up the next morning, I was sure of it.
I stared up at my own ceiling for the first time in two months. Amid familiar surroundings, I drifted off into sleep gripped by a slight unease, rather than a sense of comfort.
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Now then—let the curtains rise on tonight's Grand Guignol.
'Tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance, my dear Zarathustra.
I am but a humble jester, come to present you with an opera.
Consider me naught more than a swindler, a charlatan.
My name? I suppose Cagliostro shall suffice.
Do allow me to regale you tonight with the girl I met while men still called me by that name.
The tale of the fair princess of the guillotine.
The tale of her origins, as well as how the two of us came to meet.
I beg of you to forgive my brevity.
It all came about as a result of simple bad luck. Nothing more and nothing less.
Humans are bound by their birth.
The average man cannot hope to compete with an absolute brought about by sheer chance at birth, regardless of his foibles or virtues.
My story deals with just such circumstances.
Unfortunately, there are many who fail to grasp the subtleties of these matters. Allow me to apologize for beginning by airing some tiresome grievances of mine.
The less reasonable among us have a tendency to seek an explanation for anyone who they perceive as breaking the mold, be they a mighty hero, a blithering madman, or a miserable victim.
Did they reach their status through tiresome effort?
Perhaps because they possessed a rare resolve.
Or could it be because of some traumatic event in their past?
Preposterous assumptions, the lot of them.
It's all nothing more than self-projection on the part of the common man.
An expression of the fanciful ideas that they, too, could have turned out that way.
That they too are capable of reaching the same level should they be granted the same opportunity.
Such sentiments are little more than masturbation, pitiful attempts to drag the supernatural down to their level and reduce it to something they are capable of understanding.
Miserable knaves, the lot of them. They are incapable of cherishing their fellow man without forcing themselves to believe that all others operate on the same logic as them. Such fools would be better off conversing with a mirror.
You will no doubt find tonight's story unpleasant, but I trust that your soul is not tainted enough to imitate the folly of lesser men.
In this world, there exist beings of utmost purity.
Yes, I speak of her.
Search the entire universe and you shall find no peers.
From the moment of her birth, she was complete. She did not, and would never receive even the barest mite of influence from the vulgar outside world.
The scar on her neck ever-flagrant.
Her words only pregnant with hex.
Fated to remain forlorn; doomed to never be loved.
Even an existence such as mine could not compete with a being as miraculously immaculate as her.
For the first time, I laid eyes upon true beauty.
I clutched a hand to my chest, overcome by the nature of her being. Ah, how wonderful was man, to bring forth something so spectacular by mere chance.
I knew immediately, on some primal level, that hers was not a state of being that others could hope to aspire to; one could devote his life to unraveling the mystery of dusty grimoires and never so much as set foot upon the mystic plane that was her dominion.
She was absolute in her otherness.
I must confess—I found myself envious of her.
I'm sure you scoff at the very notion, of course.
I can say that meeting her was the one true moment of brilliance to be found amongst the miserable ordeal of my life.
In a way, it represented a loss on my part, yet defeat has never tasted sweeter.
I finally discovered a goal to strive toward amid the endless expanse of the wasteland that I had wandered aimlessly for so long.
I shall kneel before you, my beloved queen.
I shall devote my very being to you—to the task of leading your soul to salvation.
That shall be my opera, the Day of Wrath that shall rend asunder the accursed ghetto that is this universe.
Come now—'tis time to take center stage, Zarathustra.
Take her hand and lead her in dance.
I would like nothing more than for you to dazzle me.
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-Ren Fujii's POV
Suddenly, I heard the sound of waves crashing against the shore.
I found myself standing on a mysterious beach bathed in the crimson hue of dusk.
This was a place far removed from the hectic fervor of the city. I could hear nothing but the quiet murmur of the waves and the sporadic chirping of birds somewhere in the distance.
The scenery around me possessed a fleeting beauty, one brought about by the setting sun as it melted into the contours of the distant sea.
This was the sort of sight that would normally vanish in an instant, but somehow I knew that here it would persist eternally. This was a moment frozen in time.
Half of the sun had already sunk beyond the horizon, but the remaining half would never bulge. The waves continuing to roll in and out were surely governed by something other than the tidal force I was familiar with.
Suddenly, I understood. This was a dream. There wasn't a beach like this anywhere near Suwahara City—hell, it didn't even really look like somewhere in Japan.
I had set foot on foreign soil. Set foot on a temporal plane far removed from the present.
It would seem that I understood the nature of this plane on an instinctual level.
By all means, I should have felt some sense of bewilderment, being confronted with so surreal a scene. But I simply found myself captivated by it.
There was a certain nostalgic atmosphere about the plane that spoke to me. No, maybe what really drew me in was the sense of stagnation.
This was a world frozen in time, possessed of the beauty of an everlasting sunset. The very concept of the flow of time was meaningless here.
An eternal twilight, decorated by a sun that would never dip below the horizon. This world existed on the border between day and night, its very existence a precarious reverie fallen between the cracks of reality.
I felt truly at peace here, within this concentrated moment.
I sat down on the beach, absently staring out at the sea and listening to the waves.
I found myself overcome with a peculiar sense of déjà vu.
Even though I had never laid eyes on this place before, it was like I was already deep familiar with it.
Obviously, this was all just a dream, but it was a pleasant feeling nonetheless.
Knowing what you're dealing with in advance means that you can handle anything it might throw your way.
Foreknowledge makes it possible to avoid dangerous situations and prolong pleasant ones.
To make better, more meaningful decisions.
What could bring about a greater sense of peace?
Yes, my ideal world was—
"Knowing everything in advance. Going around in circles until the day you die. Was that your heart's desire?"
"..."
She cut across my line of vision at nearly the exact same time as I turned around.
For the first time, I knew what it meant to have your breath taken away.
The word that immediately came to mind was "enchanting." I felt certain that anyone who came across this girl on this beach would be stunned in the same way I was.
She was outfitted in a shabby, worn-out dress; no one could call her attire elegant, but on her it exuded a radiance that women of high society could never hope to attain with even their most extravagant formalwear.
Her long hair emanated an auburn aura, lit up the dull red glow of the setting sun, as she danced across the wet sand of the beach. The stark white ankles peeking out from the hem of her dress offered a sharp contrast to the warm colors of the world around her.
She turned to face me, emerald eyes gleaming with a gentle light.
I couldn't take my eyes off her; she was like a gemstone cut into human form. As I stared, she began to sing, a ghost of a smile playing across her face.
I could only give myself unto her song, unto the sweet refrain brought forth by her heavenly voice.
The words "L'enfant de la punition" suddenly flashed through my head.
I didn't know what those words meant or why came to me now. Her song was a melody unfamiliar to me.
However, I felt certain that it was some form of prayer, perhaps a hymn unbeknownst to all but her.
The girl before me was utterly pure, removed from our base world. How could a melody spilling forth from the lips of a being so immaculate be anything but a prayer?
Was it possible to listen to a song you never heard before within a dream? I didn't know, but there was no sense in pondering such questions.
She was beautiful, plain and simple. That was enough to make everything else seem—
"...?"
Something felt vaguely out of place.
Was I overlooking something important?
"..."
The stirring of emotion I had felt up to that point dissolved.
Listening with a clear head, the lyrics of her song began to form intelligible sentences.
I had been a fool.
Throughout Japan's history, twilight—the borderline between day and night—had been regarded as the time when the boundaries between the natural and supernatural grew thin.
Twilight was when the inhuman walked among the living.
All along, this girl had been mad.
"Blood, blood, blood, it wants blood.
Shower the guillotine with drink. May the guillotine's thirst be quenched.
What it wants is blood, blood, blood."
She continued singing, the same smile as ever adoring her features. Her emerald eyes were as clear as surface of a pristine lake, without a trace of malevolence to be found.
Which was precisely why the scene before me was so horrifying.
She possessed a childlike innocence, in jarring contrast to the utter profanity of her accursed song.
"Blood, blood, blood, it wants blood."
Her song reverberated inside my head, splitting itself into seemingly endless echoes. As I stared at her, I caught a glimpse of the crimson band around her neck through her disheveled hair—unmistakably the work of a guillotine's blade.
"What it wants is blood, blood, blood."
This was the same girl I had met in the museum.
The cursed girl who had met her end by the guillotine.
"L'enfant de la punition."—
"It wants blood."
I was assaulted by a sudden, brutal impact, as if I'd been hit by a semi.
My vision went black.
In the next moment...
I found myself in the midst of a turbulent crowd, gathered around gallows set up in the center of a plaza.
A torrent of sheer delirium fueled by fear and hatred and a dark elation consumed everything, the scenery around me little more than churning chaos.
A deafening chorus filled my ears—
"Je veux le sang, sang, sang, et sang.
Donnons le sang de guillotine.
Pour guerir la secheresse de la guillotine.
Je veux le sang, sang, sang, et sang."
The frenzied crowd was singing the same song that I had heard only moments earlier. Back in the time period when public executions like this were commonplace, it must have been the hymn they offered before the guillotine.
The elites, the clergy, and the common man had come together, all for the same purpose of seeing a criminal decapitated before their eyes. To see my head fly from my shoulders.
That's right—don't ask me why, but the criminal strapped to the guillotine was none other than myself. Next to me, some sort of official was calling out to the crowd, speaking a language I didn't recognize. It would seem he was recruiting a volunteer to act as the executioner.
It wasn't long before a man emerged from the crowd. He released the guillotine's blade, and my head—
...tumbled to the ground, bathed in the queer tones of the eternal dusk.
My spine was severed in an instant, inducing ataxia, but my ability to feel pain had been lost along with the connection between my brain and the rest of my body.
I could do nothing but stare up at my headless body as it spewed forth blood.
Ahh, my heart was still beating. I wanted nothing more than to extend a hand to my body, but that was impossible now.
"Blood, blood, blood, it wants blood."
All I could do was lie on the ground, listening to that abominable refrain.
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"...Hahh... Aah..."
I jolted out of bed, only to find that it was already light outside.
I immediately reached for my neck. It was, of course, still attached to the rest of my body.
"Just a dream, huh."
I slumped down. Dream or not, that experience was no laughing matter.
It was just in bad taste. And above all else...
"Whoa, hey, what's wrong?"
I wasn't very happy about the fact that Kasumi (who snuck into my room like this on a daily basis) had just seen the whole thing.
"Are you okay? You were groaning in your sleep. I guess your wounds haven't completely healed just yet..."
"That's not it."
I wouldn't have been released from the hospital if I hadn't made a full recovery, so this dream had nothing to do with my injuries. It was nice that Kasumi was so worried about me, but if I didn't make things clear now she'd end up driving us both to ruin.
"I'm a delicate guy, y'know. I just had a rough night because of this new pillow. Also, I was groaning in my sleep because some pervert was staring at my face while I slept."
"Hm? You mean me?"
"You see anyone else around here?"
"Wow, talk about ungrateful. Fine then, no more meals from me!"
Kasumi gave me an exaggerated glance, shaking the kitchen knife she had brought from her room back and forth.
No wonder I had a nightmare. Who wouldn't, if there was a crazy person holding a knife staring at them while they were asleep?
At least, that was what I tried to tell myself.
"Jesus, put that thing away, you're gonna poke an eye out. And please stop waving it around in front of me."
"It's your fault for not having one in your own room. Sheesh, you know you'd be living off of packaged food if it weren't for me. Can't you be grateful for what I do for you and let me enjoy a few benefits on the side every now and then?"
"Benefits?"
What was she going on about?
"I mean getting to watch your face while you sleep. It's so cute!"
"..."
"Though that gets ruined when you wake up and started whining about it."
I began to seriously consider wrapping her in a blanket and throwing her out the window.
"I began to seriously consider the embracing her and stealing a kiss."
"..."
"Heheh, read your mind, didn't I?"
"Yeah, keep dreaming. Anyway, you can use the kitchen whenever you want to make breakfast, so get to it."
"Kaaaay. Boy, you sure are domineering, huh?"
Kasumi headed off into the kitchen, still waving that damn knife around. I really need to look into closing that hole in the wall...
That said, her morning antics had done a good job of helping me forget about that horrible dream.
I was grateful for that, at least.
It was currently 7:20 AM. Kasumi and I sat at the table, about to get started on the rice, grilled fish, and miso soup that she had made. Truly a Japanese breakfast, if I had ever seen one.
It was about thirty minutes from our apartment complex to the school, so right now we could afford to spend ten minutes eating, ten minutes cleaning up, and ten minutes getting ready.
"Mmhm mmn, er yooerfarimz bag fum dah cleemerz, rat?"
"Sorry, what?"
"Mmmn, aah sed..."
Kasumi took a sip of tea, washing down the rice that had been stuck in her mouth.
Had anyone ever taught this girl the first thing about manners?
"Your uniform's back from the cleaners', right?"
"Yeah."
If memory served, it had been covered in blood and dust in addition to being ripped up all over. Our uniforms were made from white cloth, so it would have been hard to miss.
"They did a good job cleaning that thing up. And here I thought I should buy a new one."
"Yeah, though I ordered another one 'cause I thought you'd say that. They said it'd take a little time to get here, though. So use this until the new one arrives. It's far from perfect, but it'll get the job done, so put up with it for a while, okay?"
Kasumi placed a folded uniform that had been lying next to her onto my lap. I opened it up to find that it had been patched together here and there.
"..."
"What's with that look?"
"Nothing, it's just that... Uh, were you the one who fixed this up?"
"Y-Yeah, so? Got a problem with it?"
"No, not really, but..."
While Kasumi's cooking was more or less edible, her sewing skills left a lot to be desired.
"Anyway, thanks. Seeing how it's winter, maybe I can just wear a coat over it all day."
"You mean during classes, too? Isn't that against school regulations?"
"Don't be such a stickler. I'm still fresh out of the hospital here."
"Says the guy who was asking me not to treat him as an invalid yesterday..."
Kasumi shot me a glare, then proceeded to begin chowing down on the single tarako on her plate.
"It's spicy."
Well, of course it was.
"Hold on, I thought we were supposed to eat that together. Why're you trying to eat the whole thing by yourself."
"Oh, shut up. There's no way in hell you're getting any of this. It's from my mom, so I'm not sharing it with anyone, we clear?"
And so she began nibbling on her tarako... Without even using rice to soften its taste.
"..."
"..."
"So spicyyyy...!"
She looked like she was about to burst into tears.
"You sure your head's screwed on right?"
"Mind your own business, dummy!"
She turned her whole body away from me in her chair. She apparently had no further intention of speaking with me.
Not that I gave a shit. It would have been nice if she could stop mumbling stuff life "so spicy... But so good..." While acting like that, though. It was kind of creeping me out.
Since Kasumi had retreated into her own little world, I found myself without anything to do while we ate breakfast. I decided to check out what was on the news, which had been playing in the background this whole time.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much that caught my interest. Mostly just the usual about the weather and whatnot. And for an average citizen like myself, even the sensational news about corrupt politicians and celebrities caught having affairs wasn't really that exciting or relevant.
Since there was nothing interesting on TV, I decided to see if Kasumi had decided to stop acting like a child yet. But right when I was about to shift my focus back toward her...
"...ed, and died."
"...?"
Whoa, hold the phone. What'd they just say?
"A male homicide victim was discovered in Suwahara City late last night. The police are investigating this as a murder case—"
Wait, had there really been a homicide in Suwahara?
"Presently, the prevailing theory is that this was the work of some sort of 'slasher,' judging from the fact that it was an abnormal crime involving the severing of the victim's head. While the murder weapon has yet to be determined, it seems most likely that it was a sharp blade, possibly a katana, or a similar sword of over 60 cm in length. Furthermore, the victim has been identified as 24-year-old Kenji Ikano, an office worker in Suwahara City. The cause of death was decapitation—"
"Ah..."
I stared transfixed at the news report as it elaborated on the details, but the sound of a plate shattering shook me out of my trance. Kasumi must have dropped it.
One could hardly blame her for being surprised—here we were eating breakfast as usual, and all of sudden the news starts going on about the gruesome details of a homicide. Suwahara City Park, the site of the murder, was a place most residents were very familiar with as well.
So Kasumi's reaction was very normal. The details of the incident, however, were far from normal.
They said that the cause of death was decapitation... So in other words, his head was cut off? If there were no other wounds on the body, then the act must have been carried out swiftly.
Maybe the culprit got the guy as they were walking by each other, or snuck up on him from behind.
Or they could have knocked the victim out first...
I couldn't be sure of the exact details, but if the murder weapon was a sharp blade like the newscaster had said, it seemed safe to say that the victim had been beheaded in one clean strike.
You'd need nigh-superhuman strength in order to pull something like that off. The culprit would have to be some sort of giant bodybuilder, and a guy like that walking around with a katana or something would definitely attract attention.
Yet according to the newscaster, there were no reports of anyone suspicious in the area at around the time of the murder.
So, what? Had they set up a piano wire trap in advance or something?
"..."
My hand shot to my neck. Here I was, trying to come up with some realistic scenario to explain the murder.
More accurately, I was trying to come up with an explanation that didn't involve that.
I was trying to avoid thinking about the implement that one couldn't help but associate with beheading.
I had seen it myself at the museum.
Hell, I had even had a dream involving it the night before.
The guillotine that had stood so imposingly amid the execution grounds in my dream. I could still remember it severing my head in vivid detail.
I had woken up to find that someone really had been decapitated.
Was this just a coincidence, just something I could laugh off as not concerning me?
After all, I had seen the same girl in both real life and my dream; it was already apparent that the boundary between the two was thinner than we thought. Who could prove that what happened in a dream couldn't also occur in reality?
In other words, my dream had been—
"Ren. Let's just keep going. We're gonna be late."
"..."
Kasumi was right. It wasn't healthy to keep going down this unrealistic line of thought.
"Got it. I'm gonna get changed now, so head back to your room."
"Aha, you've got nothing to be embarrassed about, you know."
"Shut up. More importantly..."
"Yeah, I know, use the door this time, right? It's a pain, so no thanks. Anyway, let's clean up the plates first."
Even our typical morning routine felt somehow strained.
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"C'mon, quit standing around. Get a move on, chop chop!"
But unlike me, Kasumi wasn't the type to keep moping around forever. It was business as usual as she stood in front of the apartment, harassing me.
"Sheesh, why does it take you longer to get ready than me? You're a guy! Oh wait, could it be... That you were busy putting on your makeup?"
"You want a slap across the face?"
Did no one ever tell her that it was rude to make fun of other people's appearances?
"You might wanna try and be a bit more fashion-conscious yourself for a change. You're always covered in sweat and swinging that bamboo sword around, so it's the girls who end up crushing on you instead of the gu—"
"You looking for a fight?"
"Yeah, whatever, act like you weren't the one who started it."
"What's your problem? I think you once told me that you were okay with all that."
"Keyword: "think"."
I sure as hell never said that.
"Besides, when it comes to popularity with girls, you're actually—"
"Completely indifferent to it. Especially when it comes to you."
"What the hell is wrong with this thing? Just about the opposite of cute."
"Good, I never wanted to be. Also, what's up with 'this thing?' What am I, an object?"
"Why yes, you stonehearted jerk."
"..."
Brain cells were going to start dying if I continued this conversation.
I didn't feel like being late for school the day after I got back from being in the hospital, so I urged Kasumi along.
"C'mon, let's go."
"Kaaay. Wait, you really are wearing your coat. It's not all that cold yet, y'know."
"They said it was gonna get colder later on today, right?"
"Did they?"
They did, but I thought better of bringing up the news again.
"I get cold real easily anyway."
And I'd rather people not see the patchwork mess I was wearing.
I kept that last bit to myself.
We walked for a bit until we hit a crossroads. This junction was in the heart of the city, so you could say that all of the roads converged here and then split off again.
The city was split neatly into blocks by the main streets crossing here, with the church and hospital on the side facing the mountains and the amusement park on the side facing the sea. As long as you started from here, it was impossible to get lost.
I figured one might expect this sort of thing from a city known as a tourist destination like Suwahara. No one would bother visiting if it was impossible to make your way around.
Of course, last night there had been a murder at the park on the seafront side of Suwahara favored by tourist; not exactly the sort of thing that's good for business. The police were probably already on the move looking for the killer.
It would be best not to walk around at night for the next few weeks, in more ways than one.
"Ren."
Kasumi suddenly called out to me.
"You're going the wrong way."
"Sorry, what?"
"That's where... You know..."
Right, of course.
"Sorry."
The fastest way to reach school was to cut through the park, so I had instinctively started walking in that direction. Thank god Kasumi had caught me; I had no intention of approaching a murder scene of my own volition.
"It's been so long that I'm not sure I remember the way. It'd be a lifesaver if you could just grab my hand and pull me along with you."
"H-Hey, you know... I'm seriously gonna leave you behind if you keep up with those lame jokes. Sheesh."
No luck.
I had tried playing it off to lighten the mood, but all I managed to do was piss her off.
In the end, though, Kasumi made sure I was following her the whole way to school.
I decided I should express my gratitude by offering her some important advice.
"Go in the classroom first."
"Huh?"
"Look, I'll be fine now. It's okay, just go on in. C'mon."
"Huh... What are you talking about?"
"Well, you aren't the sharpest tool out there, so maybe you don't get it."
Maybe I couldn't really complain about Kasumi being so "open", but at times, I wished she was a little more perceptive.
It didn't even occur to her on the way here?
Sometimes I just wasn't sure about this girl.
"Everyone's gonna look at you funny if you go in there with me."
"Why?"
"Why do you think...?"
I was already enough of an outcast to begin with. And now here I was, coming back to school after spending two months in the hospital because I had gotten in a huge fight with a classmate.
It wasn't hard to predict what sort of response I would get.
"I mean that they'd start spreading all kinds of rumors if they saw you on such good terms with me, so you shouldn't give them fuel for that fire."
"..."
Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
Kasumi was sort of person with a strong sense of justice, a rarity in this day and age.
"That's the sort of thing that really pisses me off. C'mon, we're going in together!"
She grabbed my arm and started dragging me with her.
"In we go!"
She might have managed to make a nice entrance, emphatically swinging the door open and all, but things didn't go so well after that.
"Aha, what's with all the stares?"
"About 30% of it is people being put off by that explosive entrance of yours."
The other 70% went without saying.
Unfortunately for Kasumi, the world didn't care if one was in the right or not.
My first day at school in two months was off to a stellar start. As I had expected, I didn't exactly blend in the classroom; I caught my classmates casting sideward glances at me more than a few times.
Kasumi didn't know when to quit, so she kept trying to get me involved with things, but I would rather she had just left me alone.
It wasn't like I was getting off on the idea of being some aloof loner or whatever, but I wanted to take things easy for the time being. A form of rehab, in a sense.
It was only natural for people to be wary around someone who had been involved in a violent incident, so I couldn't get angry at my peers. In fact, if they had started acting all friendly instead, it would feel more like they were afraid of me in some way, and that wouldn't really sit well with me.
I had never had any friends except for Kasumi, Shirou, and Himuro in the first place. Nothing wrong with things staying the way they were.
So Kasumi didn't need to keep up these futile efforts...
"Just hurry up and go eat. Like I said, I'm going with you!"
I had the honor of being invited to lunch by my childhood friend, who just so happened to be a bit of a celebrity around school.
"And why exactly should I have to hang out with a bunch of girls I've never even spoken with before?"
"To clear up any misunderstandings."
"Just stop. This is absurd."
A group of girls (hell if I could remember any of their names) stood behind Kasumi, gazing at me suspiciously.
"Aren't they your friends? If so, you shouldn't be persisting them."
"Why not? You're my friend, too."
"I'm glad to hear you say that, but..."
Was she trying to argue that a friend of a friend was a friend too, or something? Come on.
"Anyway, making a good initial impression is the important part. Take this chance to clear up the negative image people have of you—"
"And start making your daily life into something meaningful," blah blah blah. She just started going on with this stuff, like she was straight out of some sort of afterschool special.
No. Thank. You.
"Hey, Ren, you listening?"
Okay, I was seriously getting fed up here.
"I don't really care what others think of me."
"Well I do! Everyone keeps saying whatever they like about you without even knowing what really happened. That kinda stuff really annoys me. So—hey, look at me when I'm talking to you."
Kasumi grabbed my face both sides. Clearly I wasn't getting off that easily.
The idea of trying to persuade her had probably been doomed from the start.
"Look, it may not seem like it, but in my own way, I'm tr..."
"What's that? You got a problem?"
Before I could respond with 'of course I fucking do'...
...my phone suddenly barged into the conversation with a beep.
"No way... You actually got a text."
"Yeah, so? C'mon, let go of me."
What sort of reaction was that? I thought Kasumi was supposed to be sticking up for me, not treating me like some outcast herself.
I shook her off and looked at my phone's screen.
"What's wrong?"
"Sorry, Kasumi. I forgot I already had plans."
"Huh? Hold on! Ah, wait—Ren!"
"I'll eat with you next time."
I slipped past her and offered some parting remarks as I entered the hallway. I cast a glance to the side, only to find Kasumi's friends still staring at me. They didn't need to conspicuously avert their eyes as soon as they noticed I was looking at them, geez...
See? It was just as I said. People's preconceived notions didn't go away that easily. And honestly, people weren't exactly mistaken in their perception of me, so trying to "clear things up" or whatever was a ridiculous idea to begin with.
There was no need to expend a bunch of effort only to end up making things awkward for everyone involved.
Like I was trying to tell her earlier, I dkd try to be considerate in my own way, since Kasumi had problems understanding the nuance of delicate situations like this.
So I wasn't happy with her trying to give me shit about it.
"Congratulations on getting out of the hospital. School was lonely without you. How are you feeling? There's some things I'd like to talk to you about, so I'll be waiting on the roof. By the way, no one else is around. Just the two of us!? (๑ > ᴗ < ๑) Just me and Fujii... (* ´ ₃` *)" Hurry on up—Himuro."
"..."
What was I supposed to say to this?
Looked like she hadn't changed a bit. I wasn't sure I should heaved a long sigh or start laughing.
As a senior, surely she had something better to do than messing with her underclassmen. I really couldn't figure that part of her out.
Like, true, I couldn't picture her getting stressed out over college entrance exams or job hunting, so maybe that sort of carefree approach did suit her. But... Let's just say that she took things too far.
Well, anyway, the roof, huh? It would be a little rude to just turn down her offer, and besides, I was looking for a way to give Kasumi the slip anyway.
I climbed up the stairs and threw open the door to the roof.
"Damn, it's cold."
It was December. To put it simply, the roof was murderously cold at this time of the year.
Before I had taken my two months leave of silence, there were still plenty of students eating lunch up here every day, but obviously no one was crazy enough to—
Oh yeah, I guess there was someone crazy enough to keep using the roof... I heaved a sigh as I searched for her.
There she was, sitting on a bench by the fence and munching on a sandwich. Why did she pick the coldest spot on the entire roof to sit, anyway?
"Himuro."
I didn't get a response, so I went ahead and sat down.
"..."
"..."
"Hello?"
I had been sitting next to her for nearly ten seconds now, but she hadn't even looked in my direction, let alone tried to strike up a conversation.
She didn't fall asleep... Right?
"Himuro?"
"Aah... Uuh... It's cold. I'm freezing. Warm me up."
"..."
For a moment, I considered just getting up and leaving.
This was Rea Himuro, the senior who happened to be one of my few friends.
"That sure looks warm, Fujii. Would you mind lending it to me? I'd appreciate it. Actually, let's not beat around the bush. Hand it over, bitch!"
This was about what you could expect from her.
"Honestly, I didn't take the weather forecast seriously. Looks like it's more accurate than I thought. Anyway, I'm really cold, so could you show me some kindness, Fujii?"
"I wonder."
For all her claims that she was freezing, she wasn't shivering one bit and her expression seemed more or less normal. I couldn't be sure of her intent, but she was eyeing my coat.
That stare of hers was colder than any weather.
"Just so long as you actually give it back."
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To be continued.