Chapter 6

"The culprit was…me!" Minori pointed to herself.

Ryuuji, Taiga, and Ami stared, dumbfounded and at a loss for words.

They sat in a row on the sofa, their mouths wide open like simpletons.

Then, Minori pointed at Kitamura, who was beside her. "And the

accomplice was…you!"

"Sorry, everyone."

"Sorry about that!"

They stood side by side and slowly lowered their heads.

For a while, the villa's living room was filled only with the sound of

the constant, quiet waves. The sun had completely set; a transparent, indigo

curtain had fallen outside the windows.

"What… what are you saying?" Taiga's weak groan trembled. She

sounded slightly tense and on the verge of panic.

The first crime Minori and Kitamura confessed to was the pillow in

Ryuuji's room, then the clothes strewn about in Taiga's, then the shaking

window and shutting door, then the hair inside the cave, and finally, that

mysterious monster.

"Yeah, we shouldn't have," Minori said. "We really, really shouldn't

have. But you guys are so gullible, and I wanted to show you that this is

how it's done. By the way, that sticky mucous was a face moisturizer. And

that hair was mine."

Pluck! She pinched the hair on the back of her head, which had been

cut a little bit shorter at the ends and stuck up.

"You said we're gullible. Does that mean…you knew? You figured

out the plan Taiga and I…?" Ryuuji asked nervously.

"Yes." Minori nodded deeply. "I thought something was weird from

the very start. Strange things kept happening one after another, and you two

were sneaking around and acting weird. So I knew you had to be scheming

something. But what really cinched it was when you were making curry.

Takasu-kun, you were just pretending that Taiga was in the kitchen, weren't

you?"

"R-right."

"And then I was like ah-ha, I knew it. Taiga's bad at housework, and

you kept telling her how good she was doing."

Of course. Ryuuji couldn't tell her he thought it would make a good

impression if Kitamura had been listening. He scratched his head, feeling

slightly apologetic toward Kitamura.

Kitamura just said, "But didn't you notice, too? All those stupid

things that kept happening in the cave—you didn't think, 'There's no way

Kitamura, who's always so put together, would fail so hard!' or anything

like that?"

"No, I was completely convinced you were an idiot…"

"Oh, is that so." With that low vote of confidence coming from a

close friend, Kitamura's expression saddened slightly. Apparently he didn't

know about that.

"I was completely fooled by your amazing performance, Kushieda. I

thought you were actually scared."

"What? I wasn't trying to act scared. Would a scared girl behave that

weirdly?"

"Well, it was you, so I thought that was how you acted when you

were scared, too…"

"Oh, is that so." Minori's expression also turned tepid.

Ryuuji really had been fooled. It may have been rash to think Minori

wasn't the type of person who could trick people.

"Aah…really…so you figured out everything…"

As she patted Taiga's slumping shoulders, Minori smiled. "No, no, it

was fun! Thank you, Taiga. You, too, Takasu-kun."

"You're not angry? We knew you couldn't handle scary stuff, and we

still tried to scare you. Well, we failed though."

"I ain't angry." Minori swung her two hands in two peace signs

around the left and right of her face. "Actually, the reason I tell people I'm

scared of stuff is because I'm tired of having to wait for things like this to

happen. It's like…if I keep telling people I'm scared, I'm so scared… I'm

really scared of gross zombies… something will happen. It's reverse

psychology."

"Uhh…huh?""

"If you just say you're scared over and over, eventually someone in

the mood for a prank thinks, 'Then let's give her a scare.' I then graciously

accept it. The truth is, I really love it. Horror, thrills, the occult, zombies—I

can't get enough of them. Screaming and getting all excited is fun for me. I

really love roller-coasters, too."

She got us—perfectly, like a pro. Ryuuji looked at the ceiling.

Taiga opened her mouth in mute amazement and eventually,

exhausted, held her head and closed her eyes. She couldn't have guessed

that the lie she told Kitamura the night before had been on point. Minori's

performance had beaten Taiga and Ryuuji black and blue from the start.

"Actually, once I knew what was up, I recruited Kitamura in the

middle of the night. We were already in the middle of our plan when you

two started your meeting. And well, it was like a godsend. I sent in a spy,"

Minori said and then added, "I also considered Ami as another option."

After being called an "option," Ami was at a loss for words. Her lip

just twitched. Ami might have drawn the short straw this time around.

Ryuuji was still staring at the ceiling, unable to move even an inch.

What the heck have I done? What have I been doing this whole time with

this precious trip, with this precious chance?

Taiga, probably in the same state of mind, curled into a ball on the

sofa. She furrowed her brow in anguish. She had let her chance to approach

Kitamura slip away—and for what? For nothing?

It had been pointless. And now the summer was over.

Ryuuji hadn't made a lasting impression and his relationship with

Minori hadn't changed. The one and only summer of his seventeenth year

was finished.

"Well then, in that case… ta-da!"

Possibly feeling guilty, Minori and Kitamura cheerfully held out a

huge bag.

"We actually went to buy fireworks yesterday!" Minori said. "Let's

light them on the beach!"

Ryuuji didn't feel like having fun at all, but, the more he thought

about it, it might be what he needed right now. Flowers of scattered fire

would pop open and bloom—no, wait, wouldn't that just be a reminder that

nothing had bloomed for him…?

The wind blowing across the beach was refreshing. The melancholy

cries of the evening cicadas rang from the mountains. The sky darkened

quicker than expected. Autumn seemed suddenly closer.

Listening to the waves, Ryuuji wandered along the surprisingly cold

beach in his flip-flops. When he had walked back earlier, he had still been

able to feel the heat from the midday sun.

"Wah! I'm scared, Minorin, I'm scared!"

He turned toward Taiga's voice.

"It's fine, it's not scary! Look! Look how pretty it is!"

Taiga stretched her arm far from herself as Minori lit the tip of her

firework. In an instant, thin green flames erupted vigorously from the

narrow, cylindrical firework Taiga was holding. As it popped and crackled,

small stars of heat blossomed around it. Not knowing what to do, Taiga just

held it straight up and stared at the flames that illuminated her too-pale

cheeks and Minori's smiling face.

"All right, which one should I choose? Maybe this one?" Minori took

a stick she seemed to be pleased with from the bag and lit it herself with a

lighter. She let it fizzle for a while.

"Oops!"

"Whoa!"

As Minori and Taiga both exclaimed, vivid pink fireballs burst and

overflowed from the firework. The gradually intensifying flames were

dazzling.

"Aha ha! This one's pretty amazing!" Minori frolicked and twirled.

The pink flame traced a long tail of light in the darkness like a glittering

ribbon.

What a dazzling smile, Ryuuji thought. The white teeth that shone

from behind Minori's lips as she smiled were brighter than the fireworks.

Her blinking eyes were brighter, too.

And then as he watched her, likely without leaving a trace in Minori's

life, without his existence leaving so such as a mark, he vanished. Far from

becoming darlings, far from becoming sweethearts, he hadn't even been

able to frighten her. The ways he had tried to surprise her and scare her

were cowardly, but in the end, he had even failed at that. He hadn't even

been able to make this fun for her in the first place.

It wasn't just because summer was ending that he felt like he was

going to cry.

A little way away, Kitamura lit a rocket he had set up. Shrrrr! The

shrill noise stretched into the sky.

"Wooow!" Minori shouted in joy.

Taiga's mouth opened without a sound as she looked up at it. The ball

of light showered the girls' gazes, and before long, it exploded with a POW!

Red and green flowers of radiant fire bloomed above the rolling waves of

the ocean.

Further in that direction sat Ami. She seemed to be watching the

rocket, but in actuality, she wasn't looking at anything. She was just holding

her knees. She looked bored and lonely.

It seemed Ami was aware of his feelings towards Minori. How did

she find out? As he unintentionally stared at Ami's profile, Ami became

aware of his gaze. She looked at Ryuuji and then, without smiling, shrugged

her shoulders ever so slightly.

Come to think of it, back inside the cave she had said, Takasu-kun,

would you be lonely? Ryuuji couldn't answer at the time. But now, perhaps,

he thought he could.

His answer was that, maybe, Ami felt the same way he did. To other

people, it didn't matter whether he existed or disappeared. He might have

made her feel like that. The value he placed on Minori and the value he

placed on Ami weren't the same, no matter how you thought of it.

Ryuuji stood up and walked over to her, standing beside her, knowing

that he might be rejected.

"Hey… Today was ridiculous, wasn't it?" he asked.

"…" Annoyed, Ami looked up at Ryuuji's face and then immediately

turned away.

"Continuing the conversation from before, because I didn't answer…

I'd be lonely if you weren't around. But, well, how would I put it…"

Realization dawned on him. "It's not important whether or not someone

would be lonely without you. Isn't it more important to know whether

you're lonely yourself? If you think you're lonely, then you could figure out

how to stop being lonely, right? Look, we're both like that. You're the one

who said it. We're alike. If you're lonely, shouldn't you just say so?"

Ami's eyes shone brightly, though she stubbornly refused to turn

towards him. The rocket Kitamura had launched reflected in her large eyes.

They were very beautiful. It didn't matter whether they were real or fake—

they were beautiful.

"Takasu-kun…" Ami finally said. "I-I…" Drowned out by the sound

of the waves, her feeble voice was so faint that it seemed to disappear

beneath the sound of the fireworks.

"I haven't ever thought about whether I'm lonely," she said.

"You should think about it. Seriously."

"Isn't that…painful?"

"It can't be that bad as long as you can do something about it."

If you're lonely, then…It clicked for Ryuuji, and he started walking.

What he was telling Ami applied just as much to himself. Of course he

could do something about it. If he wanted to become equal with her, there

was something he had to do. It was incredibly simple.

"Hey, Kushieda."

"Huh?!" Still holding a firework, Minori turned.

He was lonely because there wasn't a piece of him in Minori. That

had to be what it meant to not be equals. And if that was the case, he should

try to start a conversation. To figure out whether it was possible, to scope

out whether there was space for him—and it didn't matter what kind of

space—he wanted to at least try shouting, I'm right here!

"Ya know…"

Taiga smoothly slipped away from beside Minori. "I'll take a

firework to the Dimhuahua," she mumbled as she made room for Ryuuji.

In order to make good on her show of support, Ryuuji summoned his

courage. "Ya know, Kushieda. Th-thank you."

"Huh?"

"Even though it was seriously scary, looking at it now, it was fun.

You had me completely fooled. Whenever I'm with you, unexpected things

keep happening. It's fun being around you, no matter what we're doing."

Minori was silent, as though taken by surprise, but then she said,

"Aha ha, that's my line." She looked at Ryuuji with her usual smile.

"This vacation was really fun," she said. "Thank you, too. I had a lot

of fun. With that seaweed ghost, and then that spicy curry. It was so good.

Oh, and we made sandwiches together, too. And you even tried the Minori

special with extra mustard. And then… and then you didn't laugh at the

weird stuff I said, and you just listened. You were really understanding."

Minori slowly rotated the fireworks in her hands, spellbound as she

gazed at the trails of fire, and then she laughed. "I'm really sorry about

scaring you and stuff. And about getting your towel dirty, too. I'll get you a

new one as a present. I just really wanted to show you a ghost, Takasu-kun,

and I kinda got carried away."

"Me?"

"Yeah. That's right." Minori looked down at a firework and then

slowly raised her gaze. With the fireworks reflecting in her eyes, she looked

straight at him.. "You said you wanted to see ghosts, didn't you? And I

thought, why don't I just show you one? Just like how you tried so hard to

show me one. And the whole getting scared thing was an act, but everything

we talked about before was real. It was all how I actually feel."

Ryuuji unconsciously closed his mouth, trying to figure out what

Minori was actually saying.

As though trying to bridge that gap, Minori continued to speak.

"Takasu-kun, why did you want to scare me?"

"Uhhh… because, Taiga told me you weren't good with that stuff…"

"So you were pranking me? You were teasing me? No, Takasu-kun,

you're not the type of guy who would show someone something they don't

like. You're the type of person who only ever thinks about how to make

people happy."

Uh. He choked on his words. Minori wasn't mad, but she wasn't

smiling, either. She just stared straight at him.

"Takasu-kun, when you were trying to scare me, what did you think

would happen? That's what I really want to know. It was really strange."

"That's…" He licked his dry lips, his heart jumping like a fish out of

water.

But he started saying it.

He wanted to say it.

"I wanted to make you believe that ghosts are real. I wanted to show

you a ghost. That wasn't a lie. You're not an outsider, so…so…"

He prayed that somehow Minori wouldn't misunderstand him as he

spoke quickly.

"I see." Minori said, her gaze turning soft and tender. It was unclear

how much she understood. It wasn't clear how far she'd accepted his

explanation.

She just smiled and continued. "Takasu-kun, have you seen a ghost?"

Ryuuji slowly nodded. He had seen it. He really had found one.

Had Minori found her ghost? Had she finally realized he was there?

Unable to ask her, Ryuuji looked at the sand at his feet.

It would be nice if she found him.

It would be nice if, inside Minori, there was even a small bit of him.

Not a ghost but a part of his soul.

"Hey, Takasu-kun… well, next…how about we look for a UFO

together? One that isn't a satellite."

Minori suddenly squinted at the sky and grinned. "After ghosts we

find UFOs. Then we can look for those mythical snakes, tsuchinoko. Then

we'll keep doing that and change the world bit by bit, and we'll keep

finding the things we want to see, which will change my world, and if that

happens then maybe someday…"

Then it happened.

Ryuuji saw something light up in the corner of his eye. He pointed

quickly at the ocean.

Minori turned around and saw it.

A ball of fire shot over the dark horizon. Then, it burst open. Round,

large, vivid flowers of light bloomed in the distant, transparent indigo sky.

Boom! Then a low sound resounded far away, a moment later.

It looked like fragments of stars were falling over Minori's head.

Minori extended both arms, and her eyes shone more radiantly than

any star. The tip of her nose was dyed by the glaring light of the fireworks.

And then she murmured, "It exploded—the UFO exploded," to herself. She

probably didn't mean for anyone else to hear.

Kitamura also noticed and looked up at the sky.

Taiga and Ami also followed suit.

Everyone was speechless. The boisterous dance of the flaming

flowers was so sudden.

They kept launching, dazzling as they opened, the sounds going off

and dispersing. Crimson, yellow, blue, green; their eyes were overwhelmed

by the radiance of the midsummer fireworks as they set the sky aflame.

"Is that…the Milky Way?" Minori muttered again as though she

couldn't believe it and stretched her arms toward the sky. Again and again,

she muttered, "It's like a dream, I saw it."

And beneath that dazzling sky, Ryuuji didn't notice as Taiga slowly

lowered her raised arm.

The fireworks are amazing, hey look, hey you stupid dog—

She dropped her hand to her side, leaving the T-shirt hem she

normally would have pulled untouched.

She finally realized it. She hadn't realized it at all until then.

Right.

So that's what this is.

Only Ami watched Taiga's profile from beside her. Below the sky

where the fireworks danced, Ami's eyes filled with amazement rather than

sympathy, but she decided to leave the secret unsaid, as she just stayed by

Taiga's side.

***

"Ugh!"

When Taiga opened her eyes, she didn't know where she was for a

moment. She felt like she had been having a strange dream. She still felt

frightened by it, still trapped in that mood. She felt as though she had been

left behind, alone in a terrifying place.

"What are you doing? Look, you're gonna fall!"

"Uh? Huh?"

Ryuuji was in front of her. Beside him was Kitamura, pulling Ami's

luggage from the rack and handing it over. Ami, however, was staring into

her Chanel hand mirror as she cried, "Aaah, trains definitely dry a girl out!"

"Taiga! We're going!"

They pulled her hand, and she rose from the seat. Minori smiled ear

to ear as she carried Taiga's wicker bag for her.

Oh right, vacation is over, she realized. At some point, the limited

express train had arrived at the familiar station. Passengers were already

spilling onto the platform.

Flustered and holding her bag, Taiga grabbed Minori's hand and

walked down the narrow aisles. She didn't know when she fell asleep, but it

had probably been too long because she had a thumping headache. And she

felt a sharp stabbing pain in her stomach.

"Minorin…my stomach hurts…"

"Huh? Really? Hey now, are you okay? Takasu-kuuun, Taiga says her

stomach hurts!"

Whaaat? Ryuuji turned around, Kitamura joining him.

"Do you want to take some medicine? Sit at one of the platform

benches for a sec." Kitamura looked over his glasses at Taiga. His gaze was

so gentle that just looking at him would have made someone cry. But Taiga

shook her head and looked away. I'm fine.

It's fine.

It's fine like this.

In a few days, summer vacation would end. Then their normal lives

would resume.

They would go back to their unchanging group, unchanging

classroom, and unchanging mornings and nights. But they would also go

back to something that had changed just slightly.

But, Taiga thought, she was okay with that. She didn't have a reason

not to be.

They were at the ticket gate where they met two days earlier.

"The trip lasts until we get home! Everyone make sure you head

straight home!" Kitamura delivered an almost embarrassing speech.

Ryuuji was deep in thought as he completely ignored Kitamura.

"Should we stop by the supermarket to do some shopping? Today's Friday,

so tuna should be cheap." Taiga, what do you want to do?

"Be quieeet, I'm tired! Don't talk to me about your housewife

errands," she refused coldly.

Ami, being Ami, was humming pensively. It seemed that she was

worried about her nose, which had burned slightly in the sun. "Maybe I'll

go straight to my parents' house and take a trip to the beauty salon…" It

was the statement of a celebrity.

"Look, look, look! Come over here! Gather round!" Minori spoke

seriously and forcibly pulled the ragtag group together against their will.

"Uhh, so our trip concluded without a hitch! Which means we'll all

see each other in the new term! See you at school!"

"We have club activities tomorrow," said Kitamura, who couldn't

read the room at all. He was left behind as the rest of the circle waved at

each other.

Minori headed to the North exit where the bikes were stored, but then

immediately turned around and called Ryuuji's name. "I'll bring a towel

next time I see you! What color do you want?"

"Uuh, blue!"

"Huh? You want it pink?"

"I said blue!"

"Huh? You want a gaudy gold with gold lamé to boot?"

"Buh-loo!"

"Got it, khaki, right!" Minori, who clearly understood, smiled even

more dazzlingly as she said, "Buuuuuuh…khaki…"

What idiots. Taiga's eyes were cold as she sat down.

Ami looked at Taiga and hummed for a moment before patting

Ryuuji's back. "Later!" She put on her sunglasses, transforming from a high

school student on summer vacation into a prim model. She began walking

to the ticket gates for her transfer so she could go back to her parents' home

in the middle of the city.

Kitamura handed over the stomach medicine to Taiga as he waved his

hand and said, "I left my bike behind, too!" and ran off in the same

direction as Minori.

And with that, the summer of Takasu Ryuuji's second year of high

school ended.