Book 4: Chapter 19 |
For some reason, the last thing that appears to me is Kazuki Hoshino’s face.
I turn to him and ask something.
Hey, if that’s really you—
—did you teach me my true wish?
Koudai Kamiuchi’s funeral takes place on a day with high humidity after the rain the day before and an excessive heat index.
Those in attendance are scowling, unable to maintain their best behavior because of the heat. It’s exactly as if they have forgotten they are mourning the deceased.
Even so, quite a few people are crying. From the snippets of conversation I overhear, I can tell he was well-liked. That doesn’t seem right to me, since I knew his dark side, but maybe it’s only natural considering how friendly he was.
Then a young, pretty woman, who I’m guessing is his mother, breaks down sobbing, as if every last drop of moisture is being wrung from her slender frame.
A pArt_of my mind wants to just be done with him and not worry about it. It wants to think this was bound to happen because he was such a horrible person.
But even he has people who love him. That’s to be expected, though.
It’s why the result of Daiya’s actions really is detestable. It’s also partially my fault.
Of course it is.
Just like Daiya, I killed Koudai Kamiuchi, too.
Kamiuchi’s mother keeps muttering “It’s my fault,” even though she’s obviously not the one who strangled him. Her desperation sounds like a curse she’s placing upon herself, willingly plunging herself into sorrow.
When I look at Kamiuchi in his portrait, I see his eyes are squinted a little, with just his mouth turned the slightest bit upward. I’m sure it’s supposed to be a smile, but it doesn’t look that way at all to me.
Next to me, Maria has probably noticed something amiss in my expression, because she asks, “…Did you know him?”
I shake my head as if it’s the most natural thing in the world and reply, “Not at all.” Though she most likely never really spoke to Kamiuchi, Maria is truly saddened by his death. She says little, and later, when we visit a coffee shop, she even leaves a bit of her strawberry tArt_uneaten.
In that sense, I think it’s a good thing Maria doesn’t remember the Game of Indolence. If she did, I’m positive she would feel responsible for not being able to save him and blame herself.
The Game of Indolence, huh?
It truly seemed as if Kamiuchi had gotten the most out of his Box. He didn’t, though. Mogi and Asami held reservations about the feasibility of their wishes, which thus weren’t granted properly; in the same way, Kamiuchi couldn’t utilize his Box to the fullest, either. In fact, you might be able to say he was the least successful of them all.
I mean, the wish of the Game of Indolence itself was born from such reservations.
If so, then what was his real wish?
I give it some thought…but in the end, I don’t know.
I didn’t have the opportunity to come to know him that deeply. So I don’t have a clue.
Even so, when I look at his portrait, I can tell this much:
I think Kamiuchi…was lonely.
*******
It’s the last day before summer vacation arrives, and Daiya is still missing.
The entire school hasn’t stopped its uproar over yet another murder, but that will probably die down by the time summer vacation ends.
Of course, an unpleasant feeling continues to come and go in my chest. I’m fine with that, though. My decision to be fine with it is what brought us here, after all.
Nevertheless, summer break starts tomorrow.
“……Okay.”
I dismiss my downcast mood. Ignoring the way my shirt sticks to my skin with sweat, I put on a smile and enter the classroom.
“……Huh?”
Kokone is crouched down in the corner of the room for some reason. She’s sitting hunched over with her knees pulled to her chest, squirming restlessly.
…What in the world is she doing?
“Yo, Hosshi!”
“Good morning, Haruaki… Hey, what’s up with Kokone?”
“Oh. It’s just her usual cry for attention, so don’t pay her any mind. Just like those little black things you see skittering around in the corners of rooms but are still super-annoying. We should stArt_calling her ‘Koko-roach’ Kirino from now on!”
“Who’re you calling a cockroach?!”
Ah, she definitely heard that.
As she looks back at us balefully, I see that she’s done up her hair with a barrette today, showing the nape of her neck. And—
“Oh, glasses.”
—she’s wearing light-blue frames.
Kokone seems to wince and curl up a bit more at the word.
“I usually wear disposable contacts, but, wellll…I forget to buy new ones. Ohhh… I’m super-bummed. I look awful in glasses.”
“…That’s why you’re in the corner of the classroom?”
“Yeah. I don’t want anyone to see my face. I’m moping.”
As far as I can tell, you were actually drawing more attention, though.
Judging by her expression, however, it would seem she’s pretty serious about her aversion to being seen in glasses. I don’t see anything wrong with it every so often, but maybe that’s how a girl’s mind works.
“Don’t worry. They look good on you.”
“No, they don’t! Are you blind?! If you can’t see, maybe you should get some glasses, stat! Or maybe you’re just blinded by your love for me?! You really are a complete womanizer!”
“…Uh, that’s not it at all, but…”
“Don’t say that! Hurry up and stArt_liking me instead of girls’ clothes!”
This is horrible; she’s getting it all mixed up…
“C’mon, Kazu, say it. Just now, you were thinking I’m not the only one who wouldn’t like you; nobody in the world would!”
Haruaki makes it worse yet again.
“Grr. What did you just say, Haruaki?!”
“I said neither Hosshi nor anyone else has any interest in you.”
“What, is that some kinda roundabout confession?”
“……What pArt_of what I just said would make you think that?”
“I just want to think it. A hot-cold confession, like ‘The oh-so-popular Lady Kokone will probably captivate people all over the world… I’m the only one who should be interested in her.’ Looks like I don’t have any choice. As a reward for your love, I’ll give you one of my used facial wipes later. Keep it as a family heirloom.”
“Oh, I’ll burn it with a lighter as soon as I get it; I’m sure it’ll go up in a flash! Man… What a narcissist. I bet the sound of a sliding door sounds like a profession of love to you, huh?”
“Well, I can’t say that’s entirely wrong. The whole world loves me, so it’s a stretch to say that all its sounds are displays of affection toward me! ……Oh, but the world won’t love me with my glasses on… Just Japan at most…”
That’s plenty.
“Ugh… And here I’m supposed to meet Kasumi today… She’s gonna have to see me in glasses.”
“Huh?”
I think she just said something I can’t ignore…
“Kasumi…? Do you mean that Mogi is coming to school?”
When I ask, Kokone clamps her mouth shut with an expression that plainly says Now I’ve done it. She looks off in another direction and gives a weak smile.
“…Ah-ha-ha, I’d never spoil a surprise Kasumi told me to keep secret! Uh… When I said Kasumi, I meant, y-yeah! The ‘kasumi sleeve’—like the hermit, see!”
I’ve never heard that term before in my life…
“You’ve got quite the vocabulary, Kokone… By the way, what hermit are you talking about?”
“U-uh… One who put a quail egg in the palm of his hand and broke it with nunchaku.”
Oddly enough, I feel like you could find a hermit like that in reality.
……At any rate, it seems I need to get ready to act very surprised.
But…I am happy that I’ll be able to see Mogi at school.
*******
There’s no sign of her arrival even after the closing ceremony.
Maybe she’s going to come after school and hang out with us then?
As I glance at my classmates making a fuss over the grades on their report cards and their plans from tomorrow, someone calls my name.
“Kazuki.”
I look in the direction of the voice to see Yuri peeking in from the hallway.
When our eyes meet, her face lights up with pleasure. Her cheeks are just the slightest bit flushed, likely because she hurried over here after homeroom was over.
…What for? I wonder as I stand up, and I feel a hand come to rest on my shoulder.
“…Huh? What’s up, Haruaki? Um, Yuri’s calling for me, so I’d better go…”
Haruaki nods okay with a big grin. “Aha, I see. You call her Yuri, do you?”
“…Huh?”
“See… Well, I know you talk to her sometimes, but, like, I guess I might call it a tipping point, you know?”
“Yeah… And, uh, Yuri is—”
“Lemme just say this represents the opinion of the guys in our class.” Haruaki’s grip on my shoulder becomes stronger. “I hope these come off.”
He seizes my crotch in a viselike grip with his free left hand.
“Aaaaagh!!”
H-he’s gonna crush them! I didn’t even do anything!
But I can see the frosty looks my classmates have been giving me begin to thaw afterward.
…It’s a bit complicated, but this could actually be a good thing. That said, thanks to my confession of love to Kokone before, this whole topic is a minefield for me. Maria is fine, since everyone has come to realize she’s on a whole other level, but Yuri…is definitely trouble.
Could Haruaki have done what he did because he knows that? …No way, this is Haruaki we’re talking about here. He didn’t go easy on me, either. It really hurt. What a jerk.
My hands on my groin, I totter out into the hallway.
“A-are you okay?” Yuri glances between my face and my groin with concern.
“P-probably… Most likely… I’m sure…I’m fine… Anyway, that’s enough worrying about my crotch. Did you need something?”
Yuri turns bright red. “W-worry about your crotch…? Don’t say things like that!”
I didn’t say anything bad!
“U-um, I need to talk to you about something, so can you come with me for a moment?”
“Hmm… Okay, but we can’t talk here?”
“No.”
Looks like it’s going to be a proper talk…
“Sure. Let’s go.”
“Thank you. Okay then, follow me.”
She walks off as soon as she says this, so I wobble after her, still in terrible pain. Yuri notices my strange limp right away and stops.
“A-are you really okay?”
As she says this, Yuri stoops over slightly and looks down. Uh… I don’t think looking is going to do anything…
Just then, I notice something.
“Eep!”
Maria is there. Most likely, she was also headed to classroom 2-3 once homeroom ended.
She observes Yuri, who is peering at my crotch. Very intently.
She then gives me a look dripping with disgust.
…Huh? Is there something wrong with this…?
“I-it’s not what you think, Maria. Yuri’s just worried about me, is all…”
“What’s with the excuse? I know all about you. I bet Usui saw her come to your classroom, then got jealous and attacked you or something, right?”
She’s so spot-on it’s almost like she saw everything, so I nod enthusiastically.
“I know, so I’ll just say one thing.”
Maria tells me:
“I hope they come off.”
Why?!
Fleeing Maria’s chilly gaze, we arrive at the landing between the third floor and the roof.
After checking to make sure no one is around, Yuri bows her head.
“Really, thank you.”
“Uh…?”
What could she be grateful for?
Apparently sensing my confusion right away, Yuri quickly fills me in.
“For trying to do something to fix my friendship with Iroha.”
Oh…so that’s it. Well, I guess I can understand that.
*******
Kingdom Royale ended suddenly, like an elephant stepping on a paper balloon to smash it flat. As soon as the sensation hit me, I found myself in my bed in my pajamas.
I checked the date immediately. Though I spent all that time in the game, only a few hours had passed.
Soon after, a wave of emotion surged over me, and I called Maria. I absolutely had to see as soon as possible if she had any memories of the Game of Indolence.
“What do you want?” she said in a somewhat lower voice than usual, and from that alone, I knew instantly that she didn’t remember anything.
I was speechless with relief. Maria yelled at me for calling her out of the blue so early in the morning and then not saying a word. It was so true to form that I laughed happily, which made her yell at me again: “You think it’s funny to piss me off?”
Once I was sure she recalled nothing about the Game of Indolence, my mind turned next to Yuri and Iroha.
I went to school without any sleep and looked for them. But I didn’t have any luck. Both of them were absent.
…It was possible they would never return.
With that fear, I asked for their addresses from their teacher, who seemed dubious of my intentions, and then visited them at home.
Both were in terrible shape.
Yuri would burst into tears at the slightest thing without any rhyme or reason. Iroha had punched holes in the wall and would occasionally give an unsettling cry.
Regardless, I was at least able to confirm what kind of state the two of them had been left in.
They had forgotten about the existence of the Box itself, but they had clear recollections of what they had done. Since they hadn’t seen the Replay, the final game when I was the player was also missing from their memories. Apparently, they had been left in this state. Without any recollection of their reconciliation, all they had were their memories of Yuri deceiving everyone in the second game and Iroha’s massacre in the third.
Seeing me seemed to make them even more unstable. That’s probably to be expected, since the sight of me would have reminded them of the game.
It even entered my head that perhaps it would be better to stay away and wait for them both to recover naturally.
But that wasn’t going to work in the end.
After all, I was the only one they could talk with about what happened. They would certainly get better over time. But they would lose their ability to recuperate in the fullest sense.
I had to get the two of them to see that what had happened wasn’t their fault. True, they both exposed their worst sides in that game. I could see how that would make it difficult for them to forgive themselves.
Still, at the very least, I forgave them. I didn’t hold any lingering grudge against them.
So over the next week, I visited both of their homes regularly. A few times, Iroha’s family almost threw me out, but Iroha herself was able to stop them. Yuri’s mother didn’t know the full story, but she was still very welcoming.
I spoke to them a lot, though it was mostly one-sided. In particular, I told them over and over about the final game when I was the player.
I could vaguely sense something.
When their relationship mended, it would be like destroying the Game of Indolence to them; the Box would not have defeated them.
That was why I absolutely wanted the two of them to reclaim the friendship they had shown me so clearly during the final game.
I still couldn’t tell if they were doing better after a week or so of regular visits. But they did stArt_coming to school.
Iroha would only exchange greetings with me at school and nothing more, but I often spoke with Yuri during break periods.
Both have yet to believe they made peace during the last round.
That’s not unreasonable. Unlike back then, their relationship is completely shattered. It’ll be difficult to come back from that.
I still have faith, though.
The two of them can come to a place of mutual trust again.
After all, I know how much they care for each other.