The winter wind coursed over the river surface, causing the withered silvergrass on the riverside to sway. It was close to sunset, and I was taking a walk on the embankment road.
The road was wet with melted snow, even though snowfall in this city is rare during the month of December. The bouts of snow from last night had been pushed to both sides of the road by snow plows, and now took up half of the footpath. Thanks to that, I was forced to almost encroach on the carriageway, and cars would nervously overtake me a short distance to the side. Only one white line separated the pavement from the carriageway, and short plastic poles were placed every few meters along that line.
A girl also wearing the Funado High School uniform was walking on my left. She had a bob cut with trimmed bangs, was wearing a pair of cream-colored earmuffs, and was approximately a head and a half shorter than me. She’d claimed to have reached her goal for height, but I didn’t know exactly how many centimeters that meant. She was Osanai Yuki, a third-year high school student just like myself.
From an outsider’s perspective, the two of us had started dating from before entering high school, separated in the summer of our second year in high school, then got back together and started dating again in the summer of our third year. But in reality, our relationship was a lot more complicated than simply “dating”. It was in fact one where I would help Osanai-san, just as she would help me. We stuck together for the sake of this symbiotic relationship.
Right now, Osanai-san was not saying anything, and was instead focused on cherishing what she had in her hands. To express it another way, she was eating a taiyaki1. It was voluminous, filled generously with red bean paste, golden-brown, and wrapped in thin paper.
That taiyaki was from the main store of Ogura-an, located about twenty minutes’ walk away from our school, right after crossing the river. When we rendezvoused at the entranceway after school, Osanai-san had explained, “It’s so cold today that I’m chilled to the bone, so I need taiyaki to get home safely. If we’re getting it from Ogura-an, I think the main store is the best.” Thus, we walked to that shop together.
Normally, Osanai-san wouldn’t tell me that I should order something whenever we went to a sweets shop together, so she was the only one to purchase a taiyaki today. Osanai-san was holding the taiyaki with both hands as we walked on the embankment road that we’d taken to get to Ogura-an. She usually commuted to school by bicycle, but since snow had piled up on the roads today, she was treading on the snow in her fluffy boots. While she had something sweet in her hands, the expression on her face was far from relaxed, probably because she was trying to endure the bitter cold.
Looking at her from the side, a few things came to mind.
After advancing to high school, we acted together out of necessity. In the summer of our second year, we realized that it was no longer necessary, so we split up. In the one year after that, each of us spent time with another “lover”, and now here we were, walking together side by side again.
Up till that summer, we thought of each other as nothing more than convenient tools. Useful tools that take the form of humans, speak human language and occasionally say something interesting – but I feel that it is slightly different now. We’d probably stopped seeing each other as merely convenient tools, but precious ones.
You could also say that we’d realized how irreplaceable the other was.
At any rate, the two of us leaving school and heading home together even when it was not necessary to is an act that we would not be seen doing in the past. We’d certainly changed a little. Now, was that change desirable? Not that I can answer that question, given that I don’t know what exactly desirable means.
However, regardless of how my relationship with Osanai-san has changed, our ties will not last for long. Both of us are third-year students in high school, and we have different goals for higher education. My first choice is a university in Nagoya – because it is close by. On the other hand, Osanai-san is aiming for a university in Kyoto. If one of us passes, we will walk our separate paths. If both of us fail, we will remain in this city… but naturally, none of us wishes for that result. Hence, we can’t be with each other for long.
There was one other completely unrelated thought I’d had, which I decided to vocalize.
“You sure are taking your time.”
Osanai-san had been taking nothing but small bites out of the taiyaki from the beginning. She’d taken great pains to buy it hot out of the oven, but it would quickly go cold if she continued at this pace. Osanai-san loved sweet things beyond all else, so she usually never wolfed it down, nor was she so slow to make it seem like she was putting on airs. However, she was clearly slow in eating, just for this particular taiyaki. She nibbled another bit from the dorsal fin, then looked up at me.
“Yup.”
“It’ll go cold.”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
“Is it so hot you can’t bite it?”
Osanai-san’s reply came a little late.
“No, that’s not it.”
I could see the implication of that response. She was basically saying, “If it’s not too hot for me to eat, then why am I eating it slowly, Kobato-kun? Surely Kobato Jougorou would know the answer.” In other words, it was a challenge.
Now, I could happily rise to her challenge, or I could struggle to figure out why she would test someone, even when we’d promised to become petit bourgeois. But perhaps there is no deeper meaning to an idle exercise after school.
In fact, there is no need to even consider why Osanai-san was so painfully slow at eating her taiyaki. Given that she’d denied the possibility of the reason being that the filling was too hot, there can only be one answer.
“You’re using it as a hand warmer, right?”
With the weather being so cold, Osanai-san was keeping warm with the hot taiyaki. It would lose half its appeal if it gets cold, so she would want toeat the taiyaki while it is still warm, but her fingers would go cold if she finished eating it. As a result of her considering the balance between warmth and tastiness, she’d decided on eating at this slow pace.
Osanai-san glanced at me and gave a reply.
“Correct.”
That was all she said, as she continued staring at the taiyaki in her hands. Naturally, she wouldn’t give a word of praise for solving a simple riddle. While I thought that it was a little troublesome for Osanai-san, she still seemed to enjoy eating the taiyaki, so I let out a light smile.
On our right lay an extensive riverbed on which snow had accumulated, while on our left were buildings lined up in a cluttered manner. A car approached us from the front. The wind was cold, so I placed both hands into my pockets. I could see that the driver of the oncoming car was wearing a mask.
By the way…
I am currently aiming to become a petit bourgeois, and while I currently do not think that my inclination to solve mysteries is a good thing overall, I used to dream of being a hero. I would fantasize about lightheartedly helping someone, then disappearing into the wind while saying, “I don’t need thanks, citizen”, and I would wonder if someone would get into trouble so that I could play such a cool role. That was when I was in elementary school… but thinking back, these childish desires were probably lodged somewhere in my heart even in middle school.
I sure was an idiot. The only thing I should have on my mind when someone else faces danger is the hope that I don’t get caught up in the crossfire. The fact that various circumstances could cause me to be unable to protect myself while others could be somehow saved made me want to sigh. What did I do to deserve this? Just thinking about it made me feel annoyed. As I had that thought, I used my shoulder to bump into Osanai-san, who was walking on the left.
Taken by surprise, she staggered onto the slope of the embankment road, and went airborne for a moment. As she was in the air, her eyes were wide open in perfect circles, apparently unable to instantly comprehend that she had been knocked away by my body running into hers. The taiyaki in her hands also sailed away further than she did. I could be mistaken, but it seemed like Osanai-san had realized in the last second or so that something terrible had been done to her and was glaring at me. It was a dark, quiet gaze that contained the meaning “I’ll never forgive you.”
After Osanai-san, it was my turn to fly up into the air. The heavy, low-hanging clouds of winter spread across my vision.
I don’t want this to be the last thing I see in my life, I thought.
| (23 December – Chuunichi Newspaper, Society Section) At approximately 4:30pm on 23 December, a pedestrian was involved in a hit-and-run accident in Kira City. The police are in pursuit of the escaped vehicle. According to the police, the victim is an eighteen-year-old student who attends a high school in the city, and was transported to Kira Municipal Hospital. He remains in critical condition. Snow was piled up on the road at the time of the accident, and numerous other accidents have occurred in the city. |
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What about the remaining parts of Volume Five?
Don’t worry, I’ll get to them after finishing volume 6.
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