Chapter 10 | Contents | Epilogue
Osanai-san was wrapped in a cream-colored down coat, and was wearing a gray muffler. She was always bad with the cold, and would often bundle up during wintertime.
She put down her hood, revealing a pair of cream-colored earmuffs that looked like it was made of down. After removing the earmuffs and wearing it around her neck, she naturally closed the door, cutting off the light that was streaming into the room.
“It was as I thought. It was weird that you were sleeping every day.”
I smiled wryly.
“Just a gripe, but you could have come in the afternoon.”
“I was busy.”
“Well, you’re preparing for your exams.”
“Yup. And…”
As Osanai-san faltered, I took the opportunity to crack a little joke.
“Because you were playing the detective?”
Glaring menacingly at me, she slowly walked in the darkness and approached the bedside table. She picked up the vase with the dried flowers and shook it. The light sounds of water sloshing around reverberated in the quiet hospital room. I spoke.
“Good on you for suspecting the water.”
Osanai-san returned the vase to the table.
“I think that under normal circumstances, you would have instantly figured it out, Kobato-kun. About why you were always falling into deep sleep, which is different from usual.”
“I thought that it would be like this since I had a big injury and my body needed to heal.”
“It was also weird that you were instructed to finish a cup of water every night. That would make you have to go to the toilet.”
“They said it was part of the treatment, so I didn’t suspect it.”
It isn’t rare for a third party to instantly notice an abnormality that the involved party doesn’t suspect. Even so, Osanai-san’s instruction was very interesting.
“Your note about watering the flowers was difficult to understand.”
The flowers that had accompanied that message were dried flowers. Naturally, they didn’t need water. But thankfully, I was able to discern the meaning behind that message. Basically, it meant:
Don’t drink the water at dinner, and pour it into the vase.
I failed that once because I was being watched. However, the second night was a success, and I didn’t drink the water. I’d never been awake past lights out since I entered the hospital, but I managed to maintain my consciousness today after discarding the water. Looking at the result, it was clear why I was awake now. I stared at the vase with dried flowers.
“I never noticed that I was being drugged.”
“I didn’t believe it at first. I couldn’t.”
Osanai-san took a short pause and looked at me.
“I could have warned you much earlier, but I didn’t believe my own intuition. Sorry, Kobato-kun.”
There was nothing for her to apologize about.
“Why are you apologizing for that? I’m the one who’s sorry… for pushing you off back there.”
Right before the accident, I’d tackled Osanai-san with my shoulder, causing her to fall onto the berm of the embankment.
“I was worried for so long if you were injured. There should have been other methods, too.”
“…Kobato-kun.”
“You were eating a taiyaki, right? That got ruined too. Sorry. Did you get hurt anywhere?”
“Kobato-kun.”
As I lay on the bed, Osanai-san drew her face closer.
“I only got lightly bruised, and I don’t care about the taiyaki. If you’re so hung up about it, you can buy one for me next time. Now listen to what I have to say.”
“…”
“You should know, Kobato-kun, but you didn’t wake up for more than five hours. What do you think I was doing at that time? I spent the entire time in the hospital waiting room searching on the internet, with phrases like ‘hit head cannot wake up one hour’ and ‘hit head unconscious two hours’. I knew I shouldn’t be doing that, but I couldn’t stop myself. Would you believe me if I said my fingers were shaking so much that I kept typing the words out wrong?”
I did feel a little skeptical on that point.
Osanai-san put her hands in front of her body and stood up.
“I’ll say it out properly. At that time, I didn’t notice the car, so if you hadn’t pushed me away, I would have gotten hit. I’m happy that you’re alive, Kobato-kun. I can’t say it’s good that you weren’t injured so badly, but I’m really, really happy that you lived and we can talk like this… Thank you for saving me.”
She said her piece well, but I couldn’t bring myself to agree. While I wanted to be a hero who light-heartedly saves others and disappearing with great panache, I was never the type of self-sacrificing hero who put their own life on the line, and even now I think that if something like that ever happened again, I would probably save myself. Yet, someone like me was able to save Osanai-san in that moment.
Everything else didn’t matter. In that one instant when an irreversible conclusion was crashing down on us, with our lives on a wafer-thin line, I’d picked an option that wasn’t bad, and it somehow worked out well.
I hid my eyes with my palm. Osanai-san probably wouldn’t want to see my tears, after all.
Before I knew it, the singing that likely originated from a television couldn’t be heard any longer. My eyes were now used to the darkness. Osanai-san didn’t make a move to switch on the lights.
“Anyway…”
I produced a bright voice.
“How did you know that I drank the water when I was instructed to?”
Osanai-san put on a face like she’d heard a boring joke.
“You noticed, didn’t you?”
I didn’t ask what she was referring to, not wanting to repeat a joke that wasn’t received well. I reached out towards the table and picked up the wolf plushie, one of Osanai-san’s get-well gifts.
“You took the trouble to buy this. Was it expensive?”
“It wasn’t free. But I don’t want to talk about that.”
I addressed the plushie.
“Good evening.”
But Osanai-san did not look impressed.
“Kobato-kun, you’re mistaken. That’s not what you’re supposed to talk to.”
“Huh?”
I was bewildered. I’d had quite some confidence in that, too.
Osanai-san pointed at the table. On it was the vase with dried flowers and the box of chocolate bonbons, of which there was only one remaining.
…Seriously?
I picked up the box and flicked its bottom with my finger. Osanai-san frowned.
“That causes interference, so stop it.”
“So it was this?”
I studied the box from the side. Indeed, it was unnecessarily deep considering the size of the chocolate bonbons within. “Chocolate bonbons – 16 pieces” was written on its underside.
I see. So it was a two-layered box, but the bottom layer which originally had chocolate bonbons now contained something else.
“I’m surprised that I was drugged, but I find it shocking that you installed an eavesdropping device.”
Osanai-san lowered her voice, as if she was implying that she couldn’t help but feel mortified at hearing those words.
“It’s not an eavesdropping device, it’s a walkie-talkie.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s a walkie-talkie that’s always turned on and only transmits.”
Isn’t that basically an eavesdropping device…
Osanai-san then spoke in a deeply emotional tone.
“It was so difficult. I had to use a frequency that wouldn’t affect the medical equipment. I don’t know much about it, so I had to get an expert to help.”
I can only hope it was a reasonable request.
While Osanai-san may be the type to use any means necessary, she doesn’t enjoy indiscriminately eavesdropping on others, at least based on my understanding of her. If she realized that I was always falling into deep sleep after dinner whenever she came to visit, it isn’t difficult to imagine that she would plant an eavesdropping device – or rather, a walkie-talkie – to find out why, but the box of chocolate bonbons was a Christmas present. I was struck by a car in the evening of the 22nd, meaning that she’d prepared the walkie-talkie almost immediately after the accident.
“Anyway, why did you think of planting a walkie-talkie here?”
“You already roughly know, don’t you?”
“Yeah, sort of, but I could be wrong.”
As I said that, Osanai-san gently hugged herself, as if she were protecting her body from something terrifying.
“I can’t say for sure because I was late to notice the car, but I think the driver didn’t apply the brakes when they ran into you.”
That wasn’t something I wanted to admit, but I had the same impression as well.
On that day, lots of snow was piled up on the pavement, which was a rare occurrence. It hardly snows in this city, so not many cars are fitted with snow tires even in winter. It is extremely dangerous to drive on snow with normal tires, so most cars were traveling slowly.
That car that hit me did not have such a high speed. If that was not the case, I might not be here today. The small yellow car slowly approached us, and when I thought it would pass us by, it suddenly changed direction.
And as Osanai-san said, I don’t think the driver stepped on the brakes. I told that to the police officer during the interview, and it was on the record.
– Three years ago, I suggested to Osanai-san that the car which ran over Hisaka-kun might have been aiming for her instead. In response, she told me that insinuating to someone who almost died that they were targeted for murder is not a funny joke. Now that I had a near-death experience, I can only say that her words were right.
However, that just means it isn’t pleasant to discuss the possibility of an intent to murder without any meaningful evidence, and not that we shouldn’t consider such intent at all. I could not deny that on that day I was intentionally run over – and almost murdered.
Osanai-san apparently had the same train of thought, which explained the chocolate bonbons, and the walkie-talkie.
“I thought that if the driver had really been hit you on purpose, you weren’t safe in the hospital, because the newspapers reported which hospital you were brought to. I wondered if it was a childish idea… to suspect that it might have been an intentional crime. But no matter how many times I tried to recall what happened, I could only think of the culprit not applying the brakes.”
Even so, she couldn’t continue guarding me while I stayed in the hospital. There was no certainty that the hit-and-run was attempted murder. So at the very least, she needed some tool for gathering information, to check if anything abnormal happened in my room.
It was meaningless for Osanai-san to hide the walkie-talkie from me. She would have informed me about the trick with the chocolate bonbons if we’d met. But in reality, I was always asleep whenever she came to visit.
Osanai-san took the box from my hand and stared at it. There was just one chocolate bonbon left.
“You left the roquefort cheese1 bonbon. Are you bad with cheese?”
“Not at all. I randomly chose one everyday, and that just happened to be left over.”
“Like me, you doubted if the accident was really an accident. After all, you never once said aloud that the chocolate bonbons were weird, or that you might have been almost murdered.”
“Yeah, I suppose. Wait, you were eavesdropping on me 24/7?”
“At least call it ‘listening in on’.”
“I don’t think they have the same meaning.”
“…I didn’t listen in on you for 24 hours a day. I just assumed you didn’t say those things, Kobato-kun.”
Ah, so she’d tricked me into making that admission.
And she was absolutely right. While I was feeling a little ashamed for having the childish thought that my accident was intentional, I still considered if the events that happened that day was attempted murder. That was why I made it a point to not speak of that possibility. Just like Osanai-san had snuck in a walkie-talkie, the culprit could be checking on my hospital room via some other means. Letting the culprit know that I suspected murder while I couldn’t move from the bed would not be a very safe action to take.
Of course, assuming that the culprit had intentionally crashed into me, it was unclear if they recognized me as Kobato Jougorou. I did think that they probably got frustrated by some reason or other and just wanted to run over any random pedestrian, but better safe than sorry.
Osanai-san gave an offhanded remark.
“Anyway, my first present was a voice recorder.”
“A voice recorder? Not a walkie-talkie?”
“A small walkie-talkie has a weak signal, so I would have to be near the hospital all the time. I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere, and it’s too cold to wait outside and continually receive the signal, so I decided to check things out by leaving a voice recorder at first. And then I noticed that you were always falling asleep right after dinner. I thought that was quite strange, so I switched it out for an eaves… I mean, a walkie-talkie. I would’ve liked to meet you during dinner, but visiting is prohibited during mealtimes.”
Indeed, I’d heard that I wasn’t allowed to visit during dinner while checking in on Hisaka-kun at the hospital three years ago. But putting that aside…
“You were about to say eavesdropping device, weren’t you?”
Osanai-san shook her head as if I’d asked her an outrageous question.
“No, I wasn’t.”
I chose not to inquire about the timing at which she’d switched out the voice recorder for the walkie-talkie. Was it the day before the memo about watering the dried flowers, or was it two days before that? Then, I realized.
Staring at the box of chocolate bonbons Osanai-san was holding, I asked.
“Were there two boxes of chocolate bonbons, perhaps?”
To retrieve the voice recorder and listen to the recordings, she would have to open the second layer of the box and tear out the voice recorder that was secured using tape or some other adhesive. That would take time and make noise, so I couldn’t imagine that Osanai-san would do that in this hospital room.
Naturally, she would have obtained two boxes of chocolate bonbons and two voice recorders, then switched the boxes. This way, she would be able to retrieve a voice recorder with data in it, and set a voice recorder that had just started recording in this room. She’d probably used the same method to switch the voice recorder out for a walkie-talkie.
Osanai-san tilted her head.
“Didn’t you notice? I didn’t pay attention to which bonbons you ate, so you might have had the same flavor.”
Come to think of it… I feel like I had the vanilla flavor twice…
Even if I wasn’t in my best condition, it was pathetic that I didn’t notice something in front of me being switched. I would have wanted to stomp on the ground in frustration if my legs weren’t injured.
I felt like I saw Osanai-san’s lips loosen for an instant as she looked down at me.
“Did you just smile?”
“No, I didn’t.”
In any case, Osanai-san had started eavesdropping on this room, and after a few visits, found it suspicious that I was always going into deep sleep early. With the eavesdropping device as a clue, she concluded that the glass of water after dinner was dubious.
Her written instruction that I was allowed only one chocolate bonbon a day was probably to ensure that the box stayed on the table.
While looking at the plushie on the bed, I asked.
“So what was this plushie for?”
“Do I need a reason for putting down a cute toy?”
“But it’s not exactly cute, is it?”
“It’s a cute decoy for when the culprit gets suspicious of a walkie-talkie.”
A decoy, huh…
“I don’t understand why they made you sleep, though.”
Osanai-san said. On that point, I had some ideas I was confident about. But there was one more thing I wanted to check, just in case.
“Osanai-san, sorry, but I have a favor to ask of you even when you came to visit.”
“Eh? Alright.”
“I want to go to the toilet, so could you help me get on the wheelchair?”
Without a hint of reluctance, Osanai-san nodded and brought the wheelchair that was languishing in a corner of the room next to the bed. I also moved my body and sat at the side of the bed. Now was the problematic part. It was dangerous to move from the bed to the wheelchair. Seemingly having noticed that danger, Osanai-san asked.
“Shall I turn on the lights?”
I pondered for a short while, comparing the risks of turning on the lights with the risks of moving onto a wheelchair when the area at my feet wasn’t illuminated.
“…Yes, please do.”
Osanai-san and I narrowed our eyes in response to the lights being switched on. Our eyes immediately got accustomed to it, and we started the moving process.
“The wheelchair can shift while I’m moving onto it, so please look out for that.”
Osanai-san answered while firmly holding onto the wheelchair’s handles.
“Tires locked.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
I couldn’t put weight on my right leg, but there was no problem with my left leg. If I didn’t forget that my muscles had deteriorated due to my new lifestyle of staying on the bed, it wasn’t actually that difficult to stand on one leg and sit down on the wheelchair.
“Where’s the toilet?”
“You went up the elevator to get here, right? It’s next to that.”
“Got it.”
While pushing the wheelchair, Osanai-san opened the door. Actually, the wheelchair was designed such that I should be able to turn the tires on my own, but I hadn’t yet been thought how to do that, and more importantly, my ribs would hurt if I tried to grab the tires with my shoulders apart. Thus, I left that task to Osanai-san.
Perhaps it was because of the time, or perhaps because it was New Year’s Eve, but silence resounded in the corridor. After exiting the room, Osanai-san pushed my wheelchair to the right. We passed a number of other hospital rooms, as well as a nurse station. In it was a nurse in her mid-thirties called Nakata, but she didn’t say anything even when our eyes met. She probably didn’t know that I should be in a nurse’s presence when using a wheelchair, or even if she knew, she thought it wouldn’t be a problem to simply take a trip to the washroom.
Eventually, we reached the elevator. To its left was the toilet.
“Which toilet will you use?”
Osanai-san asked, meaning if I would use the wheelchair-accessible toilet or the regular men’s toilet. But I didn’t need to use either.
“No, it’s fine.”
I turned around to notice that the colors of discontent had seeped into Osanai-san’s face. I thought I would explain it to her after returning to my room, and didn’t expect her to think that she was being teased, so I gave a quick statement.
“When I first went to the toilet, we headed left after going out from the room.”
“To the left?”
“Yes. We turned round and round in the corridor before reaching the toilet.”
This hospital building was shaped like the character 口, with the courtyard in the center, so one would eventually reach the toilet regardless of whether they turned left or right. But if I had to say which way was quicker, it was clearly the one that Osanai-san had subconsciously put into practice.
“I was taken the long way when going to the toilet. I believe therein lies the reason why I was given sleeping medication.”
Osanai-san shot me a quizzical look.
“I don’t get it.”
“That’s to be expected. You were only listening to voices in the hospital room, after all. In other words…”
I started, but noticed the cold of the open corridor, and how much my voice echoed in it. A hospital corridor at night was not a suitable location for a conversation.
“Let’s talk in the room.”
Osanai-san nodded and started pushing the wheelchair again. It made a soft, shrill metallic sound whenever the tires were turned, probably because not enough lubricating oil was used, but perhaps this particular make of wheelchair has such a characteristic. The door to my hospital room was not locked. Osanai-san slid it open without knocking, wheeled me into the room, then closed the door on her own.
– Someone was standing next to my bed.
She was wearing a dull green long coat, and sneakers on her feet. Her hands were behind her back. A large mask hid the bottom half of her face, but I could instantly tell the identity of our visitor from her unique hairstyle. It was the nurse with very short hair.
“Good evening. Sorry, but I went to the toilet.”
She replied as if she was wearing a nurse’s uniform.
“I see. Still, please call a nurse if you wish to use the wheelchair. We do not mind if you press the nurse call button.”
Even in this peaceful conversation, I realized my mistake. When I was moving to the wheelchair earlier, I’d asked Osanai-san to switch on the lights to ensure my safety. I’d thought there was no problem… but there was one. These lights told the nurse that I was awake.
The nurse looked at the wall clock. It was past nine.
“Is this your friend? Sorry, but visiting hours are over, so I must ask you to leave.”
That was a perfectly valid order. My options were limited. Should I tell Osanai-san to go home, and wait for the New Year on my own? Or should I take a chance here?
I felt a twinge of pain in my leg. That pain whispered to me, “Don’t give your opponent time.”
After swallowing some saliva, I spoke.
“Sorry, but I did not drink the water.”
For just one instance, the nurse’s eyes turned cold. Now that I’d lighted the fuse, there was no going back.
“But why did you do it? Why did you make me drink sleeping medication?”
“Sleeping medication?”
Exuding patience, she put on a surprised look.
“What are you talking about? Come now, Kobato-san, please settle down. You’re starting to recover, after all.”
“I did not drink the water you gave me after dinner.”
“You can have trouble sleeping if you change certain habits. Should I get some water?”
“I’ve moved that water to a plastic bottle, and I’ve arranged to have it sent to the police.”
That was a lie. The water was still in the vase, which was sitting on the table behind the nurse. I looked squarely at her – my eyes would drift towards the vase otherwise.
Osanai-san and I were in front of the door, while the nurse stood between us and the bed. Another nurse would come if I pressed the nurse call button, but there was no hope of pressing it from this position. It wasn’t so late at night yet, so if it came down to it, opening the door and shouting for help should work.
The nurse smiled, as if trying to calm me down.
“…Kobato-san, you were seriously injured, so it was necessary to have you rest. You rested well, did you not? That alone will make the treatment produce better results.”
“So you’re saying that you had me drink that for the sake of the treatment? It was out of goodwill?”
“Of course. This is a hospital, after all.”
Even in a hospital, they wouldn’t secretly make a patient drink sleeping medication without an explanation. However, it was difficult to refute her point when she’d so brazenly stated it.
If so, I should simply force the issue.
“Actually, I was just discussing with her about why I was given sleeping medication. Because I was always sleeping at night, and because she only had time to visit me at night as a student about to take entrance exams, we only managed to meet each other today… Ah, sorry, I forgot to introduce her. This is my friend who was walking with me when I was run over.”
Unexpectedly, Osanai-san gave her name.
“Good evening. I’m Osanai Yuki.”
I didn’t know how Osanai-san read my intentions, but even if it was just by chance, that made it easier to proceed.
“Osanai-san, this is the nurse who has normally taken care of me. Her name is…”
I spoke while observing the nurse’s eyes.
“What was her name again?”
I couldn’t tell what expression was hidden behind her mask, but her exposed eyes were overflowing with rage.
This is it. Time to press her.
“Since the accident, I’ve received help from many people. There was Wakura-sensei from Neurological Surgery, Miyamuro-sensei from Orthopedic Surgery, the physiotherapist Mabuchi-san, and the janitor who always cleans this room, Yamasato-san. It was written on their name tags. But I still don’t know your name, Miss Nurse.”
It is more difficult to notice that something is missing compared to something that is present. But I could say it with confidence. This nurse did not usually wear her name tag.
“All the other staff members wear their name tags, so it’s weird that only you don’t have it.”
The nurse smiled through her eyes.
“There are all kinds of patients, and some of them remember the nurses’ names and harass them after being discharged. To deal with that, nurses do not wear name tags.”
I widened my eyes.
“Is that so? Sorry, I was mistaken… because I never had the chance to see the other nurses.”
The temperature in the room seemed to plummet.
“Since I was hospitalized here, you were working every day. At the very least, you worked for nine days in a row. You did everything, from delivering meals to assisting me with my daily life. For that, I am sincerely grateful… but to look at it from another perspective, I never had the chance to see any other nurse.”
Before I was allowed to use the wheelchair, the doctors would come into my room for checkups. Even after I could use the wheelchair, this nurse was the one to support me with that, and I had not seen any other nurse.
“Naturally, even for you, sleep and rest are necessary. This is just a guess, but your shift is during the day, and you don’t work at night. That is why you were worried about the night. If I woke up and pushed the nurse call button, another nurse wearing their name tag would come in. I might not notice it, but if I do, I might ask someone… what is the name of that nurse with very short hair?”
The nurse showed just a hint of irritation.
“As I said earlier, nurses at this hospital do not wear their name tags. I had you drink medicine because I wanted to let you rest and recover earlier.”
“I’m happy for your consideration. I went to the toilet just now and passed by the nurse station. Nakata-san was in there. I could tell from her name tag.”
The existence of that nurse station was the thing I was about to tell Osanai-san about earlier.
“When going to the toilet or to the roof, you pushed me the long way round on the wheelchair. Turning right after exiting from this room will instantly take you to the elevator, but you intentionally turned left. Of course, that was because you didn’t want to pass the nurse station. Even when I gained permission to go to the rooftop garden, you tried to hurry me back to my room. That was because you didn’t know when a different nurse accompanying a patient would arrive.”
I recalled another thing.
“Come to think of it, the most dangerous moment for you was right when I entered this hospital. That was the only time when I was carried by a stretcher and surrounded by many other nurses. But you got out of the tight spot with one line. You told me to close my eyes whenever I was being moved around, and I followed your suggestion.”
Osanai-san made an interjection at the perfect time.
“But Kobato-kun, why did this nurse want to hide her name? Why did she go as far as to give you sleeping medication to ensure that you didn’t notice that other nurses are wearing their name tags?”
I answered without drawing my eyes away from the nurse.
“Because the relationship between me and her would be apparent if I know her name. Learning about our relationship could cause me to figure out what she did.”
I’ve really been taken care of well by this nurse, and I can’t thank her enough. That much is true.
However, that and the fear of death are two different things.
“The nurse’s characteristic very short hair is something she attained very recently. The physiotherapist Mabuchi-san couldn’t think of a nurse with very short hair. She usually wears spectacles, but didn’t wear any while working. Of course, she could be wearing contact lenses for work, but I don’t think that’s it. Now, think of a person who wears glasses and has a hairstyle opposite of what this nurse has, or in other words, long hair. What if that person changed her appearance when I got hospitalized here? Basically, this means that I know this person and I could recall her name. In fact, I’ve already remembered, and I also know what happened. This nurse’s name is…”
Anxiety filled my chest. It wasn’t actually as probably as I’d made it out to be. However, I was confident enough to make a bet.
“Eiko from N course.”
Eiko from N course.
That was the only person in Ouyou High School whom I’d heard rumors about getting in an accident. Three years ago, I’d thought that finding the person we were looking for on the very day we put up the posters was too good to be true so I hadn’t tried to find out more about this Eiko who had apparently only broken her bicycle.
I should learn a thing or two from this case. First, that people lie – there was no evidence to support Eiko’s claim that her bicycle was broken by a motorcycle. Next, it is illogical to think that information gained from unbelievably good luck has no value. Whether it was obtained on the first day or the hundredth, information must be questioned under the same conditions.
There was one more thing I noticed. The senpai at Ouyou High School who had been so kind to us had introduced herself as being in the B course, then instantly corrected it to Business Course. So what did Eiko from N course mean?
Nursing course, most likely.
The nurse kept silent.
If I was wrong, she would have denied it. Relieved by her silence, I continued.
“If it was another name, you wouldn’t have needed to hide it. There would also be a great deal of risk in changing your name tag. But the name ‘Hisaka’ was bad for you. If I found out about that name, I would naturally recall the events of three years ago. The victim of the hit-and-run accident three years ago was Hisaka, and now the nurse in charge of me after I got involved in a hit-and-run is also Hisaka. Would I believe that to be just pure coincidence?”
I gave a light grin.
“Then again, you didn’t make a big difference on my thoughts. For you, the main problem is if I told the police your name. It would be disastrous if they linked this incident with the one three years ago. That’s why it was necessary for you to hide your name and cut your hair to put on a completely different image from when I saw you that one time in Ouyou High School. Why did you not want me to link the two cases so badly? It goes without saying.”
I took a short breath and exhaled.
“It’s because you ran over me. You probably recognized me as Kobato Jougorou, and intentionally turned the steering wheel to crash into me – you committed attempted murder.”
The nurse forced a smile.
“Hold on. Even if I’m Hisaka Eiko, even if I put medicine in your water, that doesn’t make me the culprit of the hit-and-run accident.”
“The police can do an investigation, but…”
I looked at Hisaka-san’s mask. I’d seen the underside of that mask many times from the hospital bed.
“Hisaka-san, you’ve been exposed to the sun recently, haven’t you? The tip of your nose and the area under your eyes are red. At first, I thought it was because you went skiing or snowboarding. But I was wrong. You were working several days in a row, and had no time for recreational activities. To be precise, you were always in the hospital working when the sun was out. So when did you get sunburned?”
“That doesn’t have any…”
“On the commute here. After running over me, you started going to work with a method that would allow you to get sunburned. To put it simply, after the incident you stopped commuting to work by car, and started walking or cycling here.”
“That’s for the sake of health. It has nothing to do with the accident. Anyway, the biggest proof is that I haven’t been arrested by the police.”
“That proves nothing. Isn’t it possible that the police are taking some time to arrest you because they haven’t found your car and don’t have enough evidence? Well, it seems that they’ve confirmed that your car was not shown on the security camera footage, so it’s only a matter of time before they find your car, I believe.”
That was a bluff. I had no idea if the police had their eye on Hisaka-san. However, she was shaken by this, and made a blunder.
“Why is it that they’ll find the car if it wasn’t in the security camera footage? That’s just nonsense!”
Three years ago, it was a huge problem that the car involved in the hit-and-run accident was not caught on the security camera of Nanatsuya Town Store. That was because the river was swelling, so the culprit should not have been able to descend to the riverbed, which was the only other escape path.
On the other hand, that problem didn’t exist in this case. If the car was caught on neither the convenience store’s surveillance cameras nor the one at Inaba Bridge, downstream of the accident site, it was obvious where the car went.
“The car’s at the riverbed, probably hidden with dead winter grasses.”
I noticed a sense of superiority in Hisaka-san’s eyes. It was as if her eyes were saying, “That’s wrong, what an idiot.” Basically, I had to change my answer.
“If not, it’s in the river.”
Did Hisaka-san let her guard down because she was wearing a mask? The expression from her eyes easily gave away her rattled state of mind.
“Inaba River is a volatile river that can swell with just a bit of rain. You sank your car in the river, and planned to collect it later on after a period of swelling pushes it downstream, saying that it was washed away by heavy rain. I also understand why the arrest is taking so long. Pulling a car out of a river is an operation that requires quite a long time to prepare.”
Silence fell in the hospital room.
We were at an impasse. It seemed that Hisaka-san could not think of any way to counter my point, but wasn’t admitting that she was the one who did it. Given that I’d voiced my suspicions, I would have to bring down the curtains on this case, or this night would never end. If I lay on the bed and said that we would continue the next day, Hisaka-san would come for my throat in my sleep. That said, I also couldn’t whip out my phone in front of her and call the cops. I would be completely helpless if she tried to stop us by force, and I couldn’t imagine that Osanai-san would win in terms of physical strength. Anyway, I didn’t have a mobile phone in the first place.
What broke the stalemate was Osanai-san’s voice, which contained a modicum of glee.
“Now I understand. I always wondered what you came here for. It’s New Year’s Eve. You could have just snuggled up in a kotatsu2, so I found it strange that you came to hospital in your casual clothes. But now I know.”
A subtle vibration I received from the wheelchair told me that Osanai-san was holding onto its handles. In other words, she was preparing herself so that we could escape at any time.
“You could think that you were safe as long as Kobato-kun stayed in the hospital. During that time, you could keep an eye on him to see if he remembers anything about the hit-and-run culprit, or if he says anything unnecessary. Giving him sleeping medication wasn’t just for the sake of not letting him see the name tags of other nurses, right? It’s also because you couldn’t help but be afraid that he would talk to someone about the incident while you’re not around, isn’t it?”
I see. Hisaka-san wasn’t just doing her job when she hid her identity to continue taking care of me as a nurse, but it was to monitor me closer than anyone else can… that certainly makes sense.
Osanai-san calmly continued.
“You were able to hide your identity because Kobato-kun was in a room where he wouldn’t meet other nurses. But he’ll eventually heal. He’s alive, after all. When he’s healed to the point when he can be discharged, he won’t need to deduce or infer anything. He’ll instantly understand that you were hiding your name.”
“…”
“Also, you said earlier that Kobato-kun was recovering well. You must have become more flustered as his condition improved. You wanted to escape from your crime, but didn’t want to drop everything just to run away, so there were only three methods you could use.”
If it were me, I would have counted down with my fingers, but as expected, Osanai-san was still gripping onto the wheelchair’s handles.
“First, you could get adopted or married while Kobato-kun is still in hospital so that your surname changes. But that would be difficult. You need someone to help you with that, and even if your surname changes on the official register, that might not mean that everyone would immediately start calling you by your new name. Someone might say, ‘Hisaka-san. Ah, you’re no longer called Hisaka-san now, right?’ and that would be the end of your plan.”
For a moment, I sensed one of Osanai-san’s hands leave the handle it was holding on to. She continued.
“Second, you could kill him. But dirtying your hands with a big crime just to cover a small crime is a stupid thing to do.”
For the first time, Hisaka-san was indisputably disconcerted.
“Kill? I wouldn’t…”
Osanai-san’s voice was colored with derision.
“Yes, you couldn’t kill him. Even though you could run over him with your car, you couldn’t bring yourself to kill him by your own hands and volition. Did you want someone to praise you for making such an ethical decision? No, you’re just a coward.”
“…”
“And the third method is timidly buying time. While you won’t be home free, there’s no risk of being decisively ruined. You thought that if Kobato-kun recovering was a problem, all you had to do was to drag it out.”
Come to think of it, Miyamuro-sensei said that I might be allowed to go outside next month. But if some unfortunate situation caused my injury to worsen, that prospect would be canceled.
“So you would give Kobato-kun’s thigh a little knock while he’s sleeping from the drugs. That way, he won’t be able to leave the room, and you can continue comfortably hanging in the lukewarm water3. At the very least, you would be able to monitor Kobato-kun for the entire period at the end of the year when working multiple days in a row is welcomed… Hey, Hisaka-san, what are you hiding in your little hand?”
Inside the mask, Hisaka-san let out a deep sigh.
In her hand was a small hammer.
I’ve been hated by others before. I’m not the type to get along well with everyone else.
I’ve also had hostility directed at me in the past. I don’t actively incur enmity from others, but I suppose being resented is just a fact of life.
However, this is the first time I had someone wanting to harm me. It’s also a first for me to see a weapon being brandished against me.
It was a terribly small hammer. Could it be some kind of medical equipment? No, thinking that a nurse would attack with medical equipment doesn’t make sense. But no matter how small it was… if I got hit by that, I wouldn’t get away with just a bit of pain.
I burst into laughter. It was unmistakably, undoubtedly a bluff, but it helped me regain some of my composure. Osanai-san had been abducted by people who considered her an enemy in the past. She must have felt a lot more afraid back then. Moreover… how scared can I be of a hammer compared to a car barreling straight at me!
Hisaka-san had risen to Osanai-san’s provocation and had taken out her weapon. She could no longer use the excuse that it was part of the treatment process. The one driven into a corner was her.
Basically, there was now the possibility that she could lose control of herself and attack.
Hisaka-san moved her arm and raised the hammer. I thought she was about to throw it away and surrender, but she apparently had no intention to do so. Even though I’d temporarily shaken off my fear, I couldn’t see a path to victory for us. As my brain calmly made that judgment, Osanai-san scattered something.
“Ah!” Hisaka-san yelped. I sneezed, and clutched my chest in an attempt to contain the pain in my ribs. My eyes hurt. What was that… Chili pepper, black pepper, or some other similar substance? Pulling on the wheelchair, Osanai-san opened the door and slipped out of the room. She veered to the right, causing the wheelchair to rattle.
At the nurse station, Nakata-san glared at us, but did not raise her voice, and only sharply chided us.
“Please do not run in the corridor!”
Osanai-san seemed busy, so I replied.
“Please call the police!”
At the end of the corridor was the elevator, and its doors were opening. Osanai-san slowed the wheelchair down, letting a doctor alight before rushing in.
There was one other nurse in the elevator. She stared at us suspiciously, but did not rebuke us. Looking back, I could see Hisaka-san chasing after us. The elevator’s doors closed, sending some vibrations to my body.
I almost clicked my tongue. The elevator was moving up. The fifth floor, which was just one floor up, was the highest we could go. We could have escaped to anywhere if it was going down, but now we were trapped.
The elevator quickly reached the fifth floor, and the nurse alighted. Osanai-san asked.
“Shall we get off?”
Hisaka-san had definitely pressed on the button to call the elevator. If we stayed on the elevator, it would go down to the fourth floor, and we would run into her. There was no choice but to get off here. For a moment, I thought of suggesting the trick of using some object to block the doors from closing, but gave up on that idea. It could work elsewhere, but this was a hospital. The elevator not being able to move could endanger someone else’s life.
Then again, we were the ones who had our lives at risk.
The fifth floor was dark. Osanai-san quickly looked around at our surroundings. Name plates for each room did not stick out into the corridor like in school, so we couldn’t tell which door would lead to which room. Osanai-san headed for the automatic door across from the elevator. I thought it would be locked, but it unexpectedly opened.
Through the door was a windbreak room, and we reached the rooftop garden after opening another door.
It wasn’t that chilly tonight. There was no wind, and the night sky, lit up by streetlamps, looked slightly white. I was wondering why the door wasn’t locked, when I noticed that an elderly patient holding a crutch was in the rooftop garden, accompanied by a nurse whose name tag read “Hata”. Hata-san looked at us and spoke.
“I’ll be closing the door.”
Come to think of it, patients should only be able to enter when accompanied by a nurse, even after hours. I put on a smile.
“Hisaka-san will be here soon.”
Hata-san nodded without a sign of doubt, then addressed the patient next to her.
“Come, let us go back. It is getting cold.”
Thus Hata-san and the patient exited from the rooftop garden, leaving only me and Osanai-san under the night sky. I turned around to say something to Osanai-san, but she was swiftly moving her fingers on her mobile phone. I started regretting not bringing a blanket from my hospital room. Even though there was no wind, the night was cold.
Having finished whatever she was doing on her phone, Osanai-san let out a breath. I asked.
“What do we do?”
“What should we do?”
“For the time being, could you call the police? I’m not sure if the nurse at the nurse station did so.”
Osanai-san nodded, pushed some buttons on her phone again, then brought it to her ear. She started talking in a voice so calm that I thought she should act a little more panicky.
“Hello. We’re at the Kira Municipal Hospital, and we’re being attacked by a woman wearing a mask and holding a hammer. This is the… Kobato-kun, which floor is it?”
“The fifth floor.”
“The fifth floor, in…”
“The rooftop garden.”
“The rooftop garden… I’m Osanai Yuki. O, sa, na, i, yu, ki. Yes, correct. I’m with a patient in a wheelchair… I don’t know. Yes, I understand.”
Before our eyes, the door to the building’s interior opened. The hammer dangling from her hand, Hisaka-san approached.
“She’s here now,” Osanai-san said to the phone before hanging up.
Now there was nowhere to run.
I spoke in a small voice that wouldn’t reach Hisaka-san.
“Do you have anything? Like a hammer?”
Her response sounded dissatisfied.
“Why do you think I walk around carrying a hammer?”
Oh, no reason…
Hisaka-san looked at the hammer she was holding and seemed to be at a loss. I could almost hear her say in her heart, “I don’t know what I should do next…”
I could feel something warm on my neck. It was Osanai-san’s muffler. After passing her muffler to me, who had just one thin hospital gown on my person, she put down the hood of her down jacket and whispered.
“Buy some time. Talk to her.”
The police are said to be quick to respond in general. What’s their average response time again? Even so, I don’t imagine that they would arrive in one or two minutes. Well, for the time being, I need to slow her down before she thinks of getting rid of me.
Actually, there were some questions I wanted to ask no matter what as soon as I confirmed that her name was Hisaka. Do you know Hisaka Shoutarou? If so, is he doing well? Is the rumor that he committed suicide a lie? But unfortunately, now doesn’t seem an appropriate time for such questions.
I spoke.
“Did you drive your car into me because you recognized me when I was walking on the pavement?”
Seemingly having come to her senses, Hisaka-san replied.
“Of course. Because of the snow, everyone was moving slowly that day. If not, I wouldn’t have been able to make out the face of a pedestrian.”
She spoke fluently, as if she’d practiced for an impending police interview.
“I can’t forget your face. When I noticed it was you, I immediately thought of crashing into you. But when I considered that I had my job and that I couldn’t just throw it away for my hate towards you, I became calm. But you were walking side-by-side with a girl, close to the road like you wanted to be run over, and you were laughing with a face like you’ve never experienced a single painful thing in your life! That’s why it’s not that I ran you over, but you made me do it! Don’t you think so?”
On that day, I was walking close to the roadway because snow was pushed to the side of the pavement, causing it to become narrow. Even so, I never crossed the white line that demarcated the pedestrian walkway… but I kept that rebuttal in my heart. Strangely, Hisaka-san seemed to only recognize me, and apparently didn’t remember Osanai-san at all. Considering the times I acted on my own… was she at the Inaba River Hotel on the day I met with Hisaka Kazutora-san? Was she secretly studying my face so she wouldn’t forget it?
Also, I was laughing on that snowy day on the embankment road, huh.
Wetting my dry lips, I continued trying to buy some time.
“When I was unconscious, I heard a voice saying, ‘This is retribution.’ Was that you?”
Hisaka-san’s eyes widened.
“You heard such a voice?”
“…Yes.”
I couldn’t tell because of her mask, but she was probably smirking from ear to ear. A somewhat hysterical laugh dispersed into the night sky.
“I won’t say something like that, it’s too classy for me. When I went to work the next day, I was surprised to find out that I was in charge of you. At first I thought it was the worst coincidence, but it was so good watching you suffer. What I said when I saw you sleeping was, ‘Serves you right.’”
Ignoring the cold, I asked another question.
“What did I do? What did I do to make it necessary for you to kill me?”
“The fact that you don’t even know is unforgivable.”
“You… you’re a relative of Hisaka Shoutarou, aren’t you?”
“Don’t you dare speak of Shoutarou’s name!”
Hisaka-san swung the hammer, making a whooshing sound. She flung off her mask and blazed away, her face contorted.
“You don’t know at all, do you? Everyone has their own circumstances to deal with, and they don’t go chatting about it with anyone they meet. So normal human beings understand that, and they’re careful to not overstep their boundaries. But you! Even when you knew nothing, you put on a face like you knew everything and trampled on our wishes. Ahh, why are you alive? I should have done a better job of running you over!”
A flurry of voices played in my head.
– Your feelings of wanting to help are enough for me. Please, don’t do anything.
– He was really fired up for the summer tournament. ‘This will be my last tournament,’ he said.
– I feel that he smiled more in his first year.
– I’ve never seen his father.
– When he went for this spring’s tournament, he removed it.
– I thought it was his little sister.
– Don’t tell anyone about her, not even the police.
– Could that be Eiko from N course?
– Of course, I did ask my son, but I also want to hear you out.
– It’s neither good nor bad.
– There was also a chance that I could get a sports referral based on the results of the summer tournament. But that’s gone as well.
– It’s enough for me to be alive after going through that.
– You look confused, Kobato.
– It’s like you don’t even understand what you’ve done, isn’t it?
– You’re.
– Just.
– Annoying.
Ah, so that’s what it was. So that’s what I did.
I timidly asked.
“Could it be that Hisaka-kun didn’t get along well with his family?”
A gust of cold wind blew over, though that may have just been a figment of my imagination.
Hisaka-san put down her hammer and answered.
“You’re wrong.”
As her words trailed off, the garden became painfully quiet.
“That’s not it. We got along well with each other. There are people who say that school or their parents are the worst, or that they want to die, but I couldn’t understand them. We were a happy family. Sure, we got scolded at times, but there was a reason for it. I was close with Shoutarou. Not in the way of a siscon or brocon, but normally. We respected and had affection for each other. You understand?”
But something happened.
To Hisaka-kun, the tournament in the summer of his third year in middle school was his “last tournament”. On the other hand, he would have gotten a sports referral for his results in the tournament. Hisaka-kun’s “last tournament” was just what I heard from Ushio-kun. He’d probably actually said something like this – “Hisaka Shoutarou’s last tournament”.
“A brat like you won’t understand, but…”
Hisaka-san’s eyes were not focused on me, but at her own feet.
“There are waves in life. You get good times, and you get bad times. It can’t be helped when there are bad times, and your relationships don’t sour simply from that. You just need to recover from those bad times, and you can joke about it when it’s all over.”
Hisaka Kazutora-san, whom I met at Inaba River hotel, didn’t know when Hisaka Shoutarou was discharged from hospital. Three years ago, I thought the reason for that was because Kazutora-san was an imposter posing as Hisaka-kun’s father. I couldn’t imagine that a father wouldn’t know of his son getting discharged.
But now I wouldn’t think that way.
I can now think of him as a father who didn’t know of his son getting discharged.
Ushio-kun had told me that in Hisaka-kun’s first year of middle school, he didn’t talk a lot, but often smiled. That changed in the autumn of his second year. Ushio-kun had suggested that the third-year students retiring caused responsibility to fall on their shoulders, but middle school students don’t spend their entire lives in middle school. Hisaka-kun’s family might have been going through a “bad time” during that period.
I spoke while thinking back to the events of three years ago.
“I heard that before a tournament, Hisaka-kun removed the amulet on his tennis bag. I believe that is because there was someone at the tournament he didn’t want seeing the amulet.”
“Oh, that amulet from Ise Shrine? I gave it to him as a souvenir from our school trip. It was for him to win the tournament, get a referral and advance to a high school. So he removed it, huh. That’s terrible, but I understand why he did it.”
When Hisaka-kun went for tournaments, his mother would fetch him to and from the venues.
I finally understood.
The nurse in front of me is called Hisaka Eiko, and has Hisaka as her surname.
After the summer tournament, Hisaka-kun was supposed to have his surname changed. Or perhaps it was already changed, but due to the school’s consideration, he continued using his old surname – such consideration is not unheard of.
At the point of the accident three years ago, Hisaka Kazutora was no longer living with Hisaka Shoutarou’s mother.
Shoutarou-kun removed the amulet that Eiko-san had given him from his bag so that his mother wouldn’t see it.
And after the accident, Shoutarou-kun had Eiko-san leave the scene, and forbade the person who’d seen Eiko-san – Fujidera-kun, from speaking about her.
Indeed, I was wrong about Hisaka-kun not getting along well with his family. It wasn’t like that.
I can’t help but want to solve mysteries and flaunt my knowledge. I spoke what I didn’t want to say, not because of that damned personality trait of mine, but because I had no choice but to buy time.
“Your parents hated each other, right? Your father took custody of you, and your mother took custody of Shoutarou-kun, and they did not even let you meet each other.”
Hisaka-san yelled, either to get me to shut up, or as if she thought it would change the facts.
“No! There was just a small, temporary patch of bad time, that’s all!”
She swung the hammer again, causing another whoosh.
“Bad times can be recovered from! That’s why I was talking with Shoutarou. We talked about what we could do to get Papa and Mama to make up with each other, to be able to live together again, to get back the best, most wonderful time of our lives, and we made sure not to get found out. But you! You dug up the fact that Shoutarou and I were meeting with each other! And you even put up a poster in front of my school! There were rumors, and Papa noticed. And that was the end, the end of it all! I couldn’t meet with Shoutarou any more! That was our only chance to get our family back in order!”
Still holding the hammer, Hisaka-san scrabbled at her own head.
“If only I was there! If only I was there for him! If our family returned to normal, Shoutarou wouldn’t have done that. I wouldn’t have allowed that to happen. It’s all your fault! Because you did something you didn’t have to, I wasn’t there for Shoutarou when he was suffering the most. Because of you, Shoutarou jumped!”
Blood rushed to my head. Those words were not what I wanted to hear… So because of me, Hisaka-kun jumped to his death!
That’s a lie. It’s obvious that Hisaka-san is lying. I need to get my act together and reply to her. Now that I’ve gotten Osanai-san involved, I might get both of us killed if I go weak here.
Hisaka-san thrust the hammer at me.
“I won’t let you escape. I’ll get a criminal record. The life I’ve carved out for myself will also go to waste. It’s all your fault, Jougorou Kobato! I’ll kill you!”
While I was unable to speak, my field of vision suddenly became cream-colored. Osanai-san was standing between me and Hisaka-san.
“That’s quite the excuse.”
“Who are you?”
“You’re shouting that you had a reason to run over Kobato-kun. I see… so, who am I? You tried to run over me. If Kobato-kun hadn’t saved me, I would have gotten run over as well. You tried to run over someone you had no reason to. That just makes you a murderer, doesn’t it?”
I wasn’t the only one who investigated Hisaka-kun’s hit-and-run accident, but I did it with Osanai-san, so she should also be equally guilty in Hisaka-san’s eyes. But now Osanai-san was pretending to be an unrelated victim. I could understand her reasoning. It was to shake Hisaka-san, to buy more time.
A shriek rose from Hisaka-san’s mouth.
“…No! You were with that boy! If you want to hate anyone, hate him!”
“I refuse. Kobato-kun didn’t try to run over me.”
“Then I’ll just kill you too!”
“Unfortunately for you, I don’t think you can. Time is up. You won’t guess who’s on the on the other side of the door behind.”
Hisaka-san scoffed.
“So the police came. I know. That’s fine.”
Osanai-san didn’t ready herself for an incoming attack, but dispassionately replied.
“If you think about it, you should know that the police haven’t arrived, since we haven’t heard any sirens. You’re wrong, Hisaka-san. Behind you is someone else. Hey! You can come out now!”
Osanai-san shifted my wheelchair to the side.
Standing in front of the rooftop garden’s entrance, walking stick in hand, was Hisaka Shoutarou.
My muscles tensed up, causing my bones to creak and a jolt of pain to spread across my body.
Hisaka-kun. He’s alive!
I don’t know what I was thinking at that moment.
Hisaka-san dropped the hammer at her feet and cried out.
“Why!”
Compared to three years ago, Shoutarou-kun looked thin. As his walking stick made dry taps on the ground, Shoutarou-kun approached Eiko-san.
“Nee-chan4, I understand your sentiments…”
Shoutarou-kun spoke in a voice lower than what he had three years ago.
“I really understand, but please stop. Kobato-kun isn’t at fault. He was simply trying to find the car that ran over me.”
Eiko-san staggered and leaned against a planter that had nothing growing in it.
Ah, I see.
Eiko-san was heard. She realized that her will to murder someone and her admission that she’d driven a car into a person with intent to kill were heard by the younger brother she desired to live with again.
Her voice trembled and seemed like it would disappear at any moment.
“But Shoutarou…”
“It’s not your fault that I did something stupid, nee-chan. The result might be different if everything went back to normal and we could live together again, but there’s no use talking about that. Even if someone was at fault… it wasn’t Kobato-kun. It wasn’t him.”
“But!”
Shoutarou-kun moved over to Eiko-san with a slight limp, then gently touched her hand.
“It was really scary to be run over by a car. I didn’t want Kobato-kun to experience that feeling.”
“Ah…”
Eiko-san used the same method that had made her younger brother suffer to hurt someone else, and that fact was now known by, of all people, the one person she didn’t want knowing about it. Shoutarou-kun spoke.
“To be honest… I didn’t want you to do something like that, nee-chan.”
Eiko-san flopped down to the ground.
A gust of wind started blowing. It was a wind that scattered the sounds of sobbing.
Through that wind, a siren blared.
Eiko-san was taken away for questioning.
Osanai-san, Shoutarou-kun and I were all given a general bout of questioning, but unexpectedly, were not asked to go to the police station. We were only told that we would be questioned again at a later date, and to not leave the city so that they would know our whereabouts.
In the dim hospital lobby, Hisaka-kun and I faced each other. I was on a wheelchair, while he was holding onto a walking stick, which was lustrous and made of wood.
“Long time no see, I suppose.”
I could not find the words I should say, and barely managed to speak.
“Long time no see. I didn’t think we would meet. Why are you here?”
Hisaka-kun’s eyes wandered.
“Huh? Where’s Osanai-san?”
I turned around. It wasn’t rare for her to suddenly disappear.
“Well, whatever. I heard about the situation from Osanai-san yesterday. I recognize her face but never talked to her before, so I was surprised when she suddenly approached me. Anyway, she talked about you getting run over, and that you were thinking about me and all sorts of stuff. She also told me to see you in hospital.”
“…So you came on New Year’s Eve?”
“There was nothing else I wanted to do. I had trouble changing buses, so I was late, and when I finally arrived, I was surprised to get a message telling me to go to the rooftop garden. I never… I never thought something like this would happen.”
I’d noticed that Osanai-san was using her mobile phone for something when we entered the rooftop garden. So she was calling for Hisaka-kun.
If he hadn’t come, we probably wouldn’t have been able to stop Hisaka Eiko-san.
“Thank you. You saved us.”
“It’s weird for you to thank me when my sister did something horrible to you. I don’t know how I can apologize.”
“You don’t need to apologize. I did something selfish three years ago without knowing anything.”
“I also went too far when I was a middle school kid. It’s been bugging me the whole time. I was the one with the secret, so why did I have to say all that?”
“It’s only natural.”
I replied in a voice so loud that it surprised even me.
“It’s only natural to have those words said to me.”
Hisaka-kun widened his eyes in surprise, then put on a slightly dark smile.
“Y’know, I’ve been wondering for a long time. About why you made such a hurt face after I hit you. At the time, I thought of you as an asshole who investigates interesting cases that appear out of nowhere like in a drama, and pokes your nose into others’ secrets just for fun.”
His impression of me wasn’t wrong, but Hisaka-kun continued.
“If you were such a messed up guy, you wouldn’t have made that face when I punched you. You may not believe it, but that was the first and last time I ever hit another person, and it got me thinking. So I asked Ushio about it, and he said you were taking my medical fees into consideration.”
Well, I did say something along those lines. If we couldn’t find the culprit, Hisaka-kun’s family wouldn’t be able to get compensation from them. His family would have to pay the medical bills, and there would be no compensation for him being unable to participate in the tournament and being unable to get the sports referral.
“And that’s when it hit me. If you brought up the medical fees, you weren’t trying to trick me with kindness. You were really worried about me, and were just trying to help.”
That’s it.
That was the biggest folly I did three years ago.
“I…”
My voice trembled a little.
“I was really an idiot. I thought that if I could find the culprit of the hit-and-run accident, I would be praised, recognized. On top of that, you would receive compensation, relieving some of the burden from your family. I would be able to help you. Hisaka-kun will definitely be happy, I thought… that was what I honestly thought.”
Calling it goodwill is probably not wrong, but it was intrusive, unwanted, self-centered goodwill. Hisaka-kun would be happy if the case gets solved as a result, no matter what truths I unearth along the way – That was what I assumed, and it was wrong.
Three years ago after school, after I received that weak slap from Hisaka-kun, I was shocked on a level I couldn’t imagine. After some extensive thought about why that was so, I realized that I was blindsided by a rejection in a situation where I thought the other party would definitely be happy. It was like having a friend throw away a present you especially selected for them, or being told by your grandfather or grandmother, “That’s terrible, I don’t need it,” after giving them a drawing. I realized that I was depressed that my goodwill was not well received.
That was foolish.
I can only call myself an idiot for thinking that way. The one who thought it to be goodwill was me alone, and Hisaka-kun had no obligation to accept it. I was even foolish enough to think that me overstepping my boundaries would be excused since I was showing him kindness.
I was disgusted by my naivete. I still am, even now.
Hisaka-san spoke.
“At that time, I couldn’t say ‘Thank you’. I still can’t say it now. But let me say this. Kobato… I’m sorry for hitting you.”
I don’t have the right to have Hisaka-kun apologize to me. But I could understand how he must have felt wanting to say something but being unable to say it for a long time, and now was his time to do so.
“I also did you wrong. Sorry.”
Hisaka-kun replied light-heartedly.
“It’s fine. But was it better for me to not forgive you? I’m not the type to be considerate to others, so I can’t tell.”
I let out a small chuckle. It might be a mistake, but I thought that now would be a good time to verbalize the feelings I’d been carrying around.
“Hisaka-kun, I’m glad that you’re alive. I heard the rumors, and kept thinking and wondering if it was my fault.”
Hisaka-kun gently smiled and looked down.
“Well, in a sense, it was your fault. In another, it was my sister’s fault. Even Ushio and Fujidera were somewhat related. But I tried to die not because of someone else, but because I thought I wanted to. Though I failed.”
He then stole a glance at my facial expression.
“You look like you want to ask about my situation.”
That’s a misunderstanding. I shook my head.
“Not really. I’m glad that you’re alive, and that’s the end of it. However, if there’s anything I can do to help, please tell me. If speaking about it would make you feel better, please let me hear you out.”
Hisaka-kun shrugged.
“Well, to put it in a phrase, that’s human relationships for you. It’s not your fault, but now that a relative has become a criminal, my troubles have doubled. I really hate how I can’t live on my own. Haven’t you ever thought of wanting to quickly become an adult, Kobato?”
I don’t know about that.
Though I believe I have thought of wanting to become a decent human being.
The nurse whose name tag read “Nakata” came towards us from the end of the corridor. I reflexively glanced at the wall clock to find that it was already way past eleven. Hisaka-kun also looked at the clock and muttered, “Oh, man.”
“There are no buses at this time.”
“Perhaps you should have taken the police car.”
“I suppose. Well, I’ll figure it out.”
Holding his cane, he headed for the exit.
“Goodbye, Kobato. Hope you have a good year. I’m glad we were able to meet.”
I waved at his retreating figure.
“Goodbye, Hisaka-kun. Hope you have a good year… and I’m glad we were able to meet.”
Hisaka-kun did not look back.
Chapter 10 | Contents | Epilogue
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Editors (Tier 2): Suleman, Dedavond, Egi Pratama, Pearl H Nettle
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- Sheep milk blue cheese from southern France.
- A low, wooden table frame covered by a futon, or heavy blanket, upon which a table top sits. Underneath is a heat source, formerly a charcoal brazier but now electric, often built into the table itself.
- Meaning to have an easy time.
- Term of endearment for an older sister. I could have translated this to “big sis” or something, but in general I don’t like to translate how people address others.
Such a great resolution! Now all that is left are the epilogue and volume 5.
Thank you for the hard work of translation.