Chapter 15 The Gift of the Magi
It was the first morning of the remaining three days.
I wouldn't have an observer's eyes on .
Thus, Miyagi was gone.
I decided how I'd spend those three days a while ago. In the morning, I filled up the notebook.
Once I was done writing events up to yesterday, I put down the pen and took a few hours to sleep.
When I woke up, I went out to smoke, then bought a cider from a vending machine for my thirst.
I looked back at my bed.
One hundred and eighty-seven yen. That was all. And sixty yen of it was in 1-yen coins.
Three tis I counted it. One hundred and eighty-seven yen.
Realizing a strange coincidence, my cheeks burned. Passing the three days would be a sowhat uncertain business, but for now I enjoyed that happenstance.
Looking back at the notebook and adding important details, I got on the Cub and went around to the places I went with Miyagi, but this ti I really was alone.
I drove under a blue sky as if in search of her lingering scent.
I wondered if Miyagi was off observing soone else now.
I prayed that they wouldn't attack Miyagi out of desperation.
I prayed that Miyagi could keep working until she paid her debt, and live such a happy life that she forgot all about .
I prayed that soone would appear who Miyagi found more important than , and who found Miyagi more important than I had.
While walking in the park, children waved to . Getting a sudden idea, I pretended that Miyagi was there.
I put out my hand, said “Look, Miyagi!”, and held an imaginary Miyagi's hand.
It was the sa as always for everyone else. "Ah, that idiot Kusunoki's walking with his imaginary girlfriend again."
But it was very different for . In fact, it was hardly the sa at all.
As I went on doing this to myself, I was hit with such sadness I could barely stand up. I realized Miyagi's absence more than ever.
I had a thought.
What if it had all been an illusion of mine from the start?
I was convinced my life would end in three days. I knew that all but a shred of my life had been used up. That sensation couldn't have been a lie.
But did that girl nad Miyagi really exist? Had not only her existence, but the existence of a shop dealing in lifespan, been a convenient fantasy of mine as I recognized my coming death?
I had no way of knowing that now.
I sat on the edge of a fountain with my head low, and was called to by a boy and girl in middle school.
The boy innocently asked, “Mr. Kusunoki, how's Ms. Miyagi?”
"Miyagi's not here anymore," I said.
The girl put her hands to her mouth, shocked.
"Huh? What happened? Did you have a fight?"
"Sothing like that. Don't fight, you two."
The two looked at each other and shook their heads in unison.
"Well, I dunno... I an, even Mr. Kusunoki and Ms. Miyagi argue?"
"If you two get along so well but still fight, then there's no way we wouldn't.”
I wanted to say "You know, that's true." But the words wouldn't co out.
Before I knew it, I was crying like a dam had burst. The more I tried to imagine Miyagi beside to comfort myself, the more the tears ca.
The two sat around in my indecency and tried to console .
Then, surprisingly, I found that there were far more people who knew about than I thought.
People of all ages crowded around the scene, as if to say "Kusunoki's doing sothing new."
Shinbashi's friends Suzumi and Asakura were there. Suzumi asked what had happened.
I wasn't sure how to answer, so I told them that Miyagi and I had fought and split up. I made up a story about how she had turned her back on and abandoned .
"What about Kusunoki didn't Miyagi like?", a high school girl with sharp eyes said angrily. She really spoke like she believed Miyagi existed.
"Why, did sothing happen?", said a man beside her. I rembered his face.
That's right - he was the owner of the photo studio. The first person to acknowledge Miyagi existed.
"She didn't seem like the kind of person to do sothing so cruel."
"But does that an she's gone?", Suzumi asked.
A young man in a tank-top said to , “That Miyagi's a good-for-nothing girl, ditching a good guy like this!”, slapping on the back.
I turned my head up to say sothing, but I couldn't get any words out.
...Just then, there was a voice from behind .
"Indeed. To think, when he's such a good person."
I knew the voice, of course. I wouldn't have forgotten it in a day or two.
It would take thirty - three hundred - three thousand years for to forget.
I turned toward it.
I needed to be sure.
I couldn't have possibly misheard.
But until I saw it myself, I wouldn't believe it.
She chuckled to herself.
"That Miyagi girl really is a good-for-nothing."
Miyagi put her arm around my neck and hugged .
"I'm back, Mr. Kusunoki. ...I was looking for you."
I reflexively hugged her back, slling her hair. That sll was one with my sense of "Miyagi."
It was indeed her.
I wasn't the only one having trouble digesting the situation. Many of the people around were similarly bewildered and amazed. They were probably thinking, "Wasn't this Miyagi girl supposed to not exist?"
I was stunned into silence when I saw their reaction. Everyone could see Miyagi.
"Might you be Ms. Miyagi?", a man in a jersey timidly asked.
"Yes, I'm the good-for-nothing Miyagi," she answered, and the man slapped on the shoulder.
"Thank goodness!", he laughed. "What do you know, she really exists. And you're really pretty, Ms. Miyagi! I'm jealous!"
But I still didn't understand what was going on.
Why was Miyagi here? Why could the other people see Miyagi?
"So Ms. Miyagi... really was Ms. Miyagi," the high school girl said, her eyes wide. "...Yeah, sohow, you're exactly like I imagined you."
Asakura, from the back of the crowd, suggested that they let us be alone. So the people left us banter and congratulations as they scattered away.
I thanked Asakura.
"Guess Miyagi really was just my kind of girl," Asakura laughed. "Be happy, you two."
And then we were alone.
Miyagi took my hand and explained.
"Strange, isn't it? How can I be here? How can others see ? ...It's simple. I did the sa thing you did."
"The sa thing...?"
A few seconds later, I realized what Miyagi ant.
"How much... did you sell?"
"Also the sa. I sold all of it. All but three days."
My face went pale.
"Just after you sold your lifespan, the other observer contacted . He told you'd sold off even more of your life to pay off most of my debt. As soon as I heard that... I was determined. He did the formalities."
I'm sure I should have be saddened.
The person I had sacrificed everything to protect betrayed my desire and threw her own life away - I should have grieved.
And yet, I was happy.
Her betrayal, her foolishness, was now more dear to than anything.
Miyagi sat beside and leaned on .
"Quite impressive, Mr. Kusunoki. Buying back the majority of my life with just thirty days. ...And I'm sorry. I threw away the life you worked so hard to get back. I'm such a fool."
"Fool?", I said. "I'm the fool. I couldn't live without you for even three days, Miyagi. I wasn't sure what I was going to do."
Miyagi laughed happily and pressed her chin on my shoulder.
"Thanks to you, the value of my life went up a bit as well. So not only is the debt paid, there's plenty of money left. More than we could possibly go through in three days.”
"So we're rich," I said grandiosely, hugging Miyagi and shaking her.
"Yes, we are," Miyagi replied, doing the sa.
Tears poured out again, but so did they for Miyagi, so I didn't pay it any mind.
I'll die leaving nothing behind.
Perhaps so curious person might rember - as a fool, probably - but it's a lot more likely they'll forget.
But I don't mind that.
I don't need the eternity I once dread of now.
I don't mind if no one rembers .
Because she's here with , smiling at my side.
Just because of that, I can forgive everything else.
"Well, Mr. Kusunoki."
Miyagi turned back to with a lovable grin.
"How do you plan to spend these three days?"
I believe those three days,
compared to the tragic thirty years I would have lived,
compared to the worthwhile thirty days I would have lived,
were of much, much more value.
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