Volu 2, Chapter 13: The Place You Called From
Ti passed in a blink, and before I knew it, it was the deadline of the bet, August 31st.
It was pouring rain from early in the morning. Appropriately bad weather for my last day, I thought, looking out the window. The weather report said it would rain all over the country all day. The TV showed a crowd of people with umbrellas at a scramble crossing in the city, and read out the estimated rainfall in each area.
Hajikano and I gave up on going outside and spent the day lying in the room, gazing at the rain from the porch, and watching disaster reports on TV. The fact that it was the last day is exactly why we didn't want to do anything special, just savor a ager but certain happiness.
In the evening, while listening to a record on a turntable found in the closet, Hajikano crept up and covered my back. Her hands ca around to my chest, holding a fruit knife.
"Hey, Hinohara. I really enjoyed these ten days," she said. "It was really like a dream. When I lied down at night and turned off the light, I kept thinking, "maybe this is a dream I'm having unconscious after my suicide attempt." I was worried that the next ti I woke up, I'd be in a hospital, all alone. ...But when I woke up in the morning and opened the screen, you were always there. And I was so happy to know it wasn't a dream, and that alone almost made cry."
Hajikano stopped there.
"...So please," she said pleadingly, putting the knife in my hand.
I refused it, and she pouted. "an."
I took the knife from her hands and put it back in the kitchen. When I returned to the closet, Hajikano was lying down there.
She looked up at and asked, "Do you not like seeing blood?"
"I dunno," I dodged.
"I don't mind strangling."
"I'll consider it."
"That way, I'll be able to feel your warmth to the end."
"I think you've already felt it plenty these past few days."
"Absolutely not. And it's not a matter of how much."
"Greedy, huh."
"That I am. You just realized?" She smiled.
This was when I finally noticed that the crying mole under her eye was gone. I got up close to her to look at her face and make sure it wasn't a mistake.
So that mole wasn't real after all. Hajikano had been seeking my help all along, with that distress signal she thought up in grade school.
"What's wrong?", Hajikano asked, blinking.
I hesitated for how to reply, but after a few breaths, only said "Nothing, it was just my imagination." Now, I was Yuuya Hinohara. Talking about the crying mole would be bizarre. That was within Yosuke Fukamachi's jurisdiction - and he would never appear before Hajikano ever again.
Looking at her at close range, Hajikano closed her eyes as if expecting sothing. I parted her bangs and lightly flicked her forehead. She opened her eyes and turned away with dissatisfaction. It was such a childish reaction, my face broke into a smile.
After dinner, I went to look outside, and the rain had beco a light drizzle. We notified Yoshie reading the evening paper in her lounge chair and left the house. As I took an umbrella from the rack, she stopped my hand and shook her head. One was enough, she was saying.
We put our shoulders together under one umbrella, slowly walking to a coast about twenty minutes from the house. By the ti we saw the light of a small lighthouse, the rain had completely stopped. We sat on the edge of the bank, listening to the sound of the waves.
"Hinohara," she said to . "To tell the truth, there's sothing I need to apologize for."
"What do you an?"
She took a deep breath before answering.
"Last night, I finished reading my diary."
I looked at her face dumbfounded. "...Why would you do that? Didn't you decide to stop rembering?"
"I'm sorry."
She lowered her head and gripped the edge of her skirt with her hands.
"Well, what did it say?", I asked.
Hajikano hesitated to answer that question for a long ti.
I forced myself not to face the water, patiently waiting for her to start talking.
And finally, she broke the silence.
"Hinohara. Right now, I like you to a hopeless degree. But before I lost my mory, it seems that wasn't the case. At least until that mont she leapt into the sea, Yui Hajikano loved Yosuke Fukamachi."
Her words turned my world upside-down.
My mouth hung open.
She continued. "According to my diary, I attempted suicide another ti in the middle of July. At a shrine park near my high school, I tried to hang myself. Yosuke was the one who saved ."
Then Hajikano pointed below her eye.
"Did you notice my crying mole here was a fake?"
I wordlessly nodded.
"This is a signal that only makes sense between Yui Hajikano and Yosuke Fukamachi. Like a distress signal, kind of. When you're hurting, but it's difficult to be honest about wanting help, you draw a mole under your eye to signal it. That's what we decided."
She put her hand under her eye and ran her finger down her cheek, like showing the path of a tear.
"Even after we went to separate middle schools, I would draw a mole under my eye when I wanted help, like it was a good luck charm. I kept that habit even after I lost my mory; not even knowing why I was doing it, after getting out of the bath or washing my face, every day I would mark under my eye with a marker. ...So when I got to high school and found Yosuke Fukamachi's na on the class roster, I felt like I was ascending to heaven. "Ahh, so Yosuke really ca to save .""
"But," I interrupted. "But Fukamachi was saying then that Hajikano seed to hate him."
"Right. It's not that I hated him, but it's true I was trying to keep my distance," Hajikano said. "Because after that horrible incident, I couldn't look him in the eye. And I wanted Yosuke to just rember as I was in grade school. I didn't want the mories of our ti together being overwritten by seeing in my shaful present state. ...For better or worse, Yosuke had an accident during spring break and was three months late to start school. So I was able to stay away from him for then."
She glanced toward to see my reaction, then faced forward once more.
"When I t Yosuke again months later, I was really surprised. The birthmark that covered the right side of his face had cleanly vanished. When I saw him, I thought, "I don't want to burden him." If he knew the misery of my life, dutiful Yosuke would surely throw away everything to co to my aid. But I didn't want to interfere with his life like that, when he was free from the prejudice over his birthmark. So I resisted taking the hand he extended to , and kept refusing him."
"...I think Fukamachi would be glad to know that," I said.
Hajikano grinned.
"As much distance as I put between us, Yosuke followed after . He even clearly stated his fondness for . I tried to bluntly push him away every ti, but... truthfully, I was so happy, I didn't know what to do with myself. The thought that he was still thinking about like this made my head spin with joy. But responding to his affection felt like fooling him, so I refrained. And I felt like there must be a girl much more fitting for Yosuke now than ."
"But ultimately, you ended up stargazing together," I appended.
"I'm so weak-willed," Hajikano said self-derisively. "In the end, I gave into temptation and started going with Yosuke to see the stars every night. In my heart, I told myself excuses. "I'm about to kill myself soon, so can't I dream a little at the end?""
"And then you t and Chigusa."
"Right. ...Honestly, at first I didn't like giving up my ti alone with Yosuke. But once we talked, I found that you and Chigusa were really great people, and I ca to like you in no ti. Only, Chigusa seed to be interested in Yosuke, so I was always on edge watching them. Of course, I didn't let it show. Chigusa was pretty with almost no flaws and had an honest personality, so I thought she would have taken Yosuke from soon enough."
Hajikano looked up at the night sky and sighed.
"It's strange, isn't it. Just a while ago, I was trying to keep Yosuke away, but now I couldn't help but feel regretful if soone else took him away. Even though I should have been supporting their relationship. ...That said, other than that, our days together were really wonderful. All three of you were at a comfortable distance where you'd turn away but let hold your hand, so I was free to relax."
"...If that's the case, then why did you have to jump in the sea?"
She bowed her head and smiled worriedly. "I couldn't forgive myself for enjoying my life. It seed wrong for soone who left two girls to die to be having such a wonderful youth. And yet, I kept desiring more and more happiness. I especially wished to get Yosuke back from Chigusa. I ca to hate all of that about myself, so I jumped into the sea."
Her story seed to end there. Hajikano looked at my face, and awaited my response to the whole thing.
Once my head was in order, I asked her.
"Do you still love Fukamachi now?"
"Yes," she nodded without hesitation. "I still love Yosuke. I've lost my mory, but reading my diary, it hit . "Ahh, I do love this person." ...But it was a "love" that sat on the sa line as affection shown to family and siblings. And different from the "love" I have for you, Hinohara. Because the first ti I truly fell in love was the mont when you visited in the hospital and embraced ."
With that, Hajikano leaned against and hugged .
Even I didn't know how I should feel.
In a sense, everything I had done up to now was completely off the mark.
In a sense, nothing I had done up to now was wrong in the slightest.
Sothing like that, surely.
*
But the story didn't end here.
That night, I t the witch.
*
When I woke up, the first thing I did was check the ti. It seed like I'd fallen asleep. Hajikano was leaning against my shoulder and sleeping, faintly breathing. My watch said it was 11:56 PM.
Though the bet would be up in less than five minutes, I was calm enough that even I found it strange. Maybe I had experienced enough happiness in these ten days for nearly a lifeti. So there was no need for hastiness. I couldn't decisively say there was nothing left undone, but to ask any more than this would be a luxury. Considering it was my life, you could call it complete.
I was glad Hajikano was asleep. If I vanished before she woke up, she wouldn't have to experience the decisive mont. Like a cat vanishing from its owner before it's about to die, I felt it would be good to die quietly while Hajikano didn't notice.
I stared at the second hand on the watch. The red hand relentlessly brought today toward tomorrow, second by second. It seed like I would be in a staring contest with the numbers to the end at this rate, so I took off the watch and threw it into the sea. Then I laid Hajikano on the ground careful not to wake her, and quietly walked to the edge of the bank.
Ti passed slowly. Less than five minutes felt like ten or even twenty. They say that before death, your ntal activity goes up as your life flashes before your eyes, so maybe it's sothing like that, I thought at first.
But it really was a long four minutes. It was like the length of a second increased with each one. Or else with each second forward, tomorrow moved a little further away. I even thought that at this rate, I might never reach tomorrow. Like Achilles chasing after a tortoise he could never catch forever.
Just then, I heard footsteps behind .
I turned around thinking that Hajikano had woken up, and when I saw the person there, I gulped.
The surprising thing was, when suddenly faced with that revealed truth, I was hardly perturbed. No, not even that. Hard as it was to believe, from my own reaction, it seed that maybe I had expected her to show up from the beginning, and was just waiting for it to happen.
Perhaps, from so ti ago, I had considered the possibility.
The wind blew, and the ribbon of Minagisa First High's uniform swayed over her chest.
"It has been a while, Fukamachi," Chigusa said.
"Yeah. Long ti no see, Ogiue," I responded with a wave.
Chigusa sat at the edge of the water and looked up at .
"May I have a cigarette?"
I took a pack from my pocket, pulled out the last one, and handed it to Chigusa. She put it in her mouth, and I held the lighter to her face. Chigusa coughed from the bitter taste and knit her brow.
"It really doesn't taste good, does it."
I stood next to Chigusa and gazed at her outfit once more. No mistaking it, she was the Chigusa Ogiue I knew. Her voice, her body, her scent, her behavior, it was all as I rembered it.
But it was also she who was the "woman on the phone," who'd offered a bet.
"Don't talk too loud," I said. "I don't want to wake up Hajikano."
"Not to worry, she will not wake until dawn," Chigusa said with conviction.
"Did you do sothing to Hajikano?"
"Hm. Who can say?", she answered vaguely. "Really though, Fukamachi, you weren't surprised at all to see . Amazing."
Once I was sure Hajikano was sound asleep, I talked to Chigusa.
"They got a replacent Miss Minagisa."
"Yes, I'm aware," she nodded. "What was she like?"
"I only saw her photo, but she was pretty."
"Hmm."
"Personally, though, I liked the previous one better."
"Is that so. Hooray," Chigusa raised her hands in delight.
I turned around again to make sure Hajikano wasn't awake.
Then I got to the point.
"There's one thing I don't understand."
"Only one? What is it?"
"What happened to the real Chigusa Ogiue? Or, was there a real girl nad Chigusa Ogiue at all?"
"Rest easy," Chigusa replied quickly, as if expecting the question. "The real Chigusa Ogiue you t in the hospital safely left two months after you. She is doing fine now, in a distant town. ...And just as you've imagined, the Chigusa Ogiue you reunited with in high school was no more than a fictitious character I played. No such girl existed from the start."
"...I see. I'm relieved to hear that," I nodded deeply. "Well, turn to foam, drown , do as you please."
"Please, don't rush things. We have gotten to et again, after all."
I shrugged. Even seeing the trick unveiled to , I still had trouble believing this Chigusa was the sa person as that woman on the phone. Their voices were different, of course. But that wasn't all. Chigusa to was a symbol of innocence and harmlessness, and the woman on the phone, a symbol of maliciousness and harmfulness. I had trouble linking the two together. Even if I knew it to be factual in my head.
"Fukamachi, when did you start to find suspicious?", Chigusa asked.
"I don't know." I shook my head. "But helping you with that reading practice definitely did sothing."
"It really was just coincidence I was picked as Miss Minagisa," Chigusa laughed heartily. "Don't you think that's ironic? For to play the part of the rmaid, of all things."
"Yeah. It's ironic, alright," I agreed. "Hey, Ogiue. Can I ask one more thing?"
"So you'll still call that na," Chigusa smiled. "What is it?"
"Did you put through all that irrational stuff for so deeper reason than just being a pest?"
"Yes, that's right." She slowly nodded. "I wanted, this ti, to make The Little rmaid have a happy ending."
"...I see."
A dry laugh ca out of my mouth.
"Seems like that was a failure, though."
Then Chigusa tilted her head. "...How do you an?"
"I an it couldn't be a happy ending."
After an unnaturally long pause, Chigusa suddenly put her hands to her mouth and laughed.
"You're so sharp, Fukamachi, and yet so slow where it's most important."
"What's so funny?", I asked, taking offense.
Chigusa took a deep breath to calm herself, and wiped tears of laughter from her cheek.
I couldn't understand what Chigusa was saying at all.
She stood up tall, and made a ceremonious declaration.
"Congratulations, Fukamachi. You've won the bet."
*
Like I explained before, The rmaid of Agohama was like a mix of the legend of Yaobikuni told in Fukui, and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little rmaid. The story begins with a girl living in the little fishing village of Agohama eating the flesh of a rmaid her fisherman father caught without realizing what it was, and becoming immortal also without realizing it.
It was long, long ago.
For a few years after she ate the rmaid flesh, not a single person noticed the change to her body. It was very normal for growth to stop around her age, so even she never even thought that she had beco immortal.
A decade later, everyone was astounded by her peculiar body. Compared to other girls her age, she was all too young-looking. White skin and glossy hair, just like a girl of fifteen or sixteen. And not only that. Ever since she ate the rmaid flesh, a difficult-to-describe charm radiated from the girl's body, even seeming as if she glowed slightly. Naturally, the young n of the village beca entranced by her.
But after several decades, as others her age had their hair turning gray, the fact that she still showed no sign of aging began to feel definitely strange to the people of the village. There had simply been too few changes to her. It couldn't be dismissed as "liveliness" anymore. Was she really human?
Still more decades passed. By that ti, most of the girl's friends had died. And though that much ti had gone by, her body still showed no sign of age. She stood at the deaths of innurable people, her heart worn down each ti. When her last friend died, the girl decided to leave the village she was born in.
The girl beca a Buddhist priestess, and went around the country in pursuit of death. In her long journey, she acquired Buddhist powers, and ca to use them to heal the sick and give help to the poor. But she never found a ans to be freed from her eternal life. As overwhelmingly many days went by, she beca unable to even rember her own na. And by the ti she forgot her reason for traveling, by coincidence, she arrived in her hotown.
...Up to this point, you'd be right to say there's no real difference between The rmaid of Agohama and Yaobikuni. To get more exact, the legend of Yaobikuni also existed in places besides Fukui. Depending on the region, the protagonist could be a rich man's daughter, or given the rmaid flesh by a mysterious man, but they all shared the point of an immortal girl becoming a Buddhist priestess, wandering the country, and arriving back ho.
The legend of Yaobikuni ends with the girl finally dying after arriving ho. But in The rmaid of Agohama, this is where the story truly begins. Back in her ho fishing village after centuries, exhausted from a life full of others' death, the girl cut off communication with people and decided to live in the sea. Yet when she saw people in trouble, she couldn't help extending a hand, so as she brought people from shipwrecks to shore and saved people from drowning, she ca to be worshipped in the village as a god of the sea.
One night, the girl saved a young fisherman drowning in a storm. The fisherman was hardly conscious, but he thanked the girl and tightly grabbed her hand. With this incident, she fell in love with the fisherman many centuries younger than her. Every ti he went fishing, her heart beat fast. At those monts, she really was a girl of sixteen again.
One day, a few years later, a young rmaid ca to the girl. The rmaid said she sought the aid of her powers. The girl listened, and found that the rmaid had fallen in love with a human man. She said she would make any sacrifice to beco a human and live with the man. Thinking of the young fisherman, the girl sympathized with the rmaid's plight, and turned her tail into human legs. Not knowing that the man the rmaid loved and the young fisherman she loved were one and the sa.
As they parted, the rmaid said: "What am I thinking, falling in love with a fisherman of all things? Even though my mother was killed by a fisherman..." The girl had a thought. What if, perhaps, her "mother killed by a fisherman" was that rmaid my father caught? Was it her mother's flesh I ate back then?
When she found out the rmaid's love was for that young fisherman, the girl regretted her actions. But she couldn't interfere with the course of the rmaid's love. I ate her mother's flesh, so I have a duty to advocate for her happiness. That's the least I can do to atone.
And so the young fisherman and the rmaid were wedded. The two had a happy life. It seed as if there wasn't any room for displeasure. But there was an ironic twist of fate. One day, the rmaid couldn't bear not to tell her husband everything about her, and revealed that she had once been a rmaid, not a human. This set the tragedy into motion. The fisherman had lost both his parents in a storm when he was young, and it was believed in the village at the ti that storms were caused by the singing of rmaids. As a result, he had a deep hatred of rmaids.
Upon learning that his wife was a rmaid, the fisherman despaired and threw himself into the raging sea. The rmaid jumped in to save him, but having lost her tail, she didn't even have the strength to carry him and swim. By the ti the immortal girl ca rushing over, they had long since drowned. The girl grieved, and decided to live alone at the bottom of the sea.
That was the gist of The rmaid of Agohama.
But Chigusa made an addition.
"Then a few centuries passed, and while leaving the sea again after quite so ti, the girl saved a drowning boy. The boy who felt sohow similar to that young fisherman, having so kind of thought, visited the beach near-daily afterward, and he began to weigh on the girl's heart. The boy ca to love a certain girl, but feeling that he wasn't a suitable partner for her, seed to keep those feelings in his chest. I want to help him, the girl thought. This ti, I'll make it work. No mistakes like back then. I would make this boy's love succeed in the best possible way."
*
"I win?"
Chigusa nodded.
"Yes, that's right. You have surmounted many forms of adversity, marvelously ending up with a mutual love with Hajikano. Though it seems you haven't realized it yourself."
"What do you an?", I said, my voice unconsciously raising. "That can't be right, can it? I an, Hajikano..."
Chigusa interrupted. "Hajikano is not as slow as you think. She had long since seen that you were Yosuke Fukamachi assuming the na of Yuuya Hinohara."
I was too shocked to speak.
"Your long conversation earlier was a roundabout confession. She told you to your face that she had always loved you, and now loved you even more." Chigusa shrugged. "Did you really not notice that?"
My legs buckled and I collapsed on the spot. Chigusa chuckled at my reaction.
"It was convenient for her as well to remain fooled. She hesitated to admit her affection to Fukamachi, but if it were "Yosuke Fukamachi as Yuuya Hinohara," she could share her feelings without it weighing on her."
I ran through my interactions with Hajikano in the past few days in my head.
That ti... and that ti... that that ti...
Hajikano knew who I really was, and still accepted my affection?
I lied down face-up and put a hand over my face. "I was a fool."
"Yes, you rather were," Chigusa agreed.
"So basically, everything was set up for from the start?"
"That's correct."
I pulled my hand away. "So then why did you take such roundabout actions? If you just wanted to make my love succeed, was there any point to removing my birthmark, any point to appearing before as Chigusa Ogiue?"
"I wanted the two of you to experience every kind of hardship. Taking away your birthmark, your ultimate weapon which earned you Hajikano's sympathy; borrowing the appearance of Chigusa Ogiue to shake your feelings; creating a situation where there was no salvation except by killing Hajikano - I wanted to have it proven that you could both overco it all."
"...I get it," I said. "Co to think of it, that letter you sent ntioned "a way for both of us to survive." Was that a trap?"
"Yes. Hajikano saw who you really were because you were constantly attending to her for ten days. If you had followed the letter and chosen to search for "the woman on the phone," you would have very little ti together, and it would have likely been impossible for her to realize who you really were by today."
I was starting to accept it, but then a new doubt appeared. "But, that one ti, you linked the calls to make an opportunity for and Hajikano to talk, right? What was that about? Just on a whim?"
Chigusa scratched her cheek with a troubled look. "That was completely outside of my expectations. I did not imagine you would try to burn your face. I an, there would have been no purpose to it. I was stunned, but at the sa ti, I rather admired it. I saw you really would go that far for Hajikano. In deference to that recklessness, I allowed you to talk on the phone for just ten minutes. ...By the way, do you have an ashtray?"
"Nope. Put it in here."
I offered her the empty pack. She grinned, put the cigarette butt in her hand, then held it up to . A mont later, the cigarette butt had turned into a white callia. Unlike my magic tricks, there was probably no secret to this one. She handed the flower with a cocky look. I held it to my nose; it had a faint sweet sll.
"Kind of a pity about Hinohara," I said, looking at the flower. "He seed pretty fond of Ogiue."
"Is that a fact?" Chigusa put her hands together and her eyes widened. "But not to worry. By dawn, there won't be anyone left who rembers ."
"And I'm no exception?"
"Right. Aren't you glad?"
I didn't want to answer that question. I felt like I'd flat-out regret answering, whether I was honest or not.
"I've been fooling you all this ti, haven't I?", Chigusa said peacefully. "I played the part of the fictitious "Chigusa Ogiue" smiling to myself with all these thoughts of "if I behave like this, surely it will shake Fukamachi's resolve." Feel free to be more angry."
"...Yeah, that might be true." I took my eyes off the callia, stood up, and turned back to Chigusa. "But even so, I liked the ti I spent with you. And I think maybe you might not have hated your ti with , either. Isn't that right?"
"...You hit where it hurts," Chigusa said, trying to conceal her emotion, and hit my chest with her forehead. "You really are a bad person, Fukamachi."
"We're in the sa boat there," I said.
Chigusa raised her face and smiled sadly. "At first, I simply approached you to fulfill the role of testing your devotion. But half a month into performing as Chigusa Ogiue, I realized I was deeply enjoying the role. I was swallowed up by the fictional person I'd created. I got so into my part, I even forgot who I really was at tis. The tis I spent with you, Fukamachi, truly were as "Chigusa Ogiue," forgetting all my past. ...But, oh well. It's not my first experience with heartbreak. I can't be wounded by such things."
She parted from my chest, stood on the edge of the water with her back to it, looked up at the night sky, then turned back to .
"I shall reveal one last secret from my bag of tricks. About the birthmark I removed from your face, Fukamachi. To tell the truth, it would have gone away with ti from the start. I only slightly accelerated the ti it took to do so. Practically the sa as doing nothing."
I thought for a bit, then shook my head. "That "slight acceleration" was really important. If I still had the birthmark at the ti of our reunion, I think the relationship between and Hajikano would be more codependent and destructive. So, thanks."
"Don't ntion it." Chigusa smiled with her eyes shut. "...Now, Fukamachi. Even once I go, please don't slack off. You still have one final job left to do."
"One final job?"
Chigusa whispered sothing. As I brought my ear closer to make out what she was saying, she stood up and softly put her lips on my cheek.
After smiling with satisfaction over my surprise, Chigusa leapt from the edge of the water. I reflexively tried to grab her hand, but I didn't make it in ti. A mont later, I saw her land on the water. Not in the water, but on. Like there were an invisible one-centiter floor above the water, she walked soundlessly on the surface. I stood there in amazent, seeing her off.
After walking about ten ters, she turned around.
"Goodbye, Fukamachi. I'd never had such a fun sumr before. My one regret has been settled, so now I can finally put an end to myself."
Imdiately after, a gust of wind blew, so strong that I couldn't keep my eyes open.
When the wind stopped and I opened my eyes again, Chigusa had vanished.
*
The horizon was dyed orange, and I saw a faint yellow-green on the boundary with the deep blue sky. Early-morning higurashi buzzed and sparrows chirped, and the outlines of things gradually beca clear. The white rays of the sun drew a boundary line along the sea which sparkled in the morning sun, perpendicular to the horizon. A morning calm ca to heat up the ground, and the wind I'd felt on my skin for a long ti ca to a stop.
Hajikano, sleeping on my lap, opened her eyes. She smiled as she saw my face. "Good. You're still here." She sat up and clung to tightly, rubbing her cheek against mine to be sure I was really there.
"Hey, Hajikano. It seems that I won't have to die yet after all."
"...Really?"
"Really. I guess I can keep staying here."
"Until when?"
"Until, whenever."
"Always?"
"Yes, always."
"You're not lying?"
"Yeah. I've given up on lying to you, Hajikano. So you don't have to act like you're being fooled, either."
After a few seconds of silence, I felt her body suddenly heat up in my arms.
"Yosuke?", Hajikano asked timidly.
"Yeah," I nodded. "Not Hinohara anymore."
Hajikano lifted her head and looked at my face closely.
"Welco back, Yosuke."
"Yeah. I'm back."
Keeping her arms around , Hajikano shyly smiled and closed her eyes.
And I carried out the "final job" Chigusa had taught .
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