Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko:Volume8 Curtain Call

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Curtain Call – The Rocket to Ending No. 1

Let us talk about Youth Points… Or so, I recall saying at the very beginning. And, as I promised, I had gone on to recount about eight different stories involving the rise and fall of those Youth Points.

Moving past all of those, I wondered what the cumulative total of those Youth Points stood at now. I had no way of knowing that objectively. Whether they were in the positive or the negative, I couldn’t say. Well, I would simply pray that someone might make a wonderful judgement upon it while reflecting on the stories told thus far. Only God knows.

Well, now.

By coming to this town, I had found one more thing worth discussing, in addition to my youth.

Let us talk about aliens.

It was a strange thing that I could count them on my fingers, but ever since I arrived in this town, there had been aliens all around me.

And quite a surprising number of them, too. I truly wondered what was going on with this place.

Of course, every single one of them was merely self-proclaimed. Not even one of them was the real thing. Well, probably. There were a few suspicious ones, but they were all somewhat imperfect, and not a single one looked capable of defying gravity and taking flight.

I wondered what my youth had even been, spent constantly being entangled with people like that.

Sometimes, I wondered how things had ended up this way. I didn’t really feel any regret. I was just puzzled.

No matter how many times I retraced my memories, I could never find an answer.

Only the beginning was easy to understand.

The reason why I ended up spending my days holding hands with aliens…

It was likely because, on that day, at the entrance of my new home…

I had happened to find something that looked like a chikuwa lying there, haphazardly.

“Hmm… this is difficult.”

I was troubled. There I was, in the garden of the Touwa Family on a Sunday, standing before a bicycle and Erio. While I kept my hand firmly gripped on the top of Erio’s head as she attempted to climb into the bicycle basket without a second thought, I continued to tilt my head in contemplation. I was trying to instill a bit of common sense into Erio, who looked at me with wide, bewildered eyes, but it was proving to be a difficult task.

Someone riding a bicycle with another person in the basket was not allowed.

To begin with, two people riding the same bicycle was prohibited altogether, but it had occurred to me that one shouldn’t persist in such an even more dangerous manner. However, persuading Erio was proving difficult.

“Listen, Erio, riding in the basket is dangerous. You’ll gt in trouble if we get into an accident or something.”

“Hmm.”

Erio nodded, looking like a cat with her arms hanging limp at her sides, her scruff still held in my grasp.

“So, from now on, you should ride on the rear rack instead.”

“Mmmmm.”

I shook my head. We had already repeated this unproductive exchange about two times now.

“I mean, it’s dangerous.”

“Hmm.”

“Stop doing that, okay?”

“Mmmmm.”

…That’s how it went. It was a difficult challenge, as it was a child’s rejection based entirely on pure instinct, without a shred of logic. Since I had managed to get her to put on her shoes at the entrance today (even if she was stepping on the heels), I had attempted to move on to the next stage.

However, how could I possibly persuade a child who hardly ever speaks and had absolutely no respect for me?

“Cousin, you’re a tyrant!”

“I’m trying to look out for you, and this is how you act.”

I pinched her cheek and stretched it out. Immediately, Erio, who had been behaving quietly, became active and pinched my cheek back. I sensed something bad was coming thanks to my intuition and past experience, but I was too late. Her light blue eyes locked onto mine. She watched as the strength flowed from her eyes, through her throat, and all the way down to her fingertips.

“Muuui! Muuu!”

“Adyadyadyah!”

Erio pulled on both of my cheeks with all her might. For me, whose cheek flesh was several degrees firmer than Ryuushi-san’s, it felt like torture. The sound of skin snapping and stretching echoed right beneath my eyes. Did she have no concept of restraint?!

“Did you think you could beat Ebiuo-san? Ibyohoh!”

“It hurts, it hurts! Fine, I give up, let me go!”

I surrendered obediently. Honestly, it was a struggle because children had no sense of moderation. Was she really the same age as me? In fact, taking care of Erio made me feel as though I was five or six years older than I was.

“Victory.”

Erio released my cheeks and, with a blank expression, formed a peace sign with a little flourish. Good for her.

“And with that, our playtime is over, so get in the luggage carrier quietly.”

“Mmmmm.”

“…Never mind, I’ll go in the luggage carrier myself.”

It didn’t make much sense, even to me. However, since I had already said it, I sat in the luggage carrier instead of on the saddle. Fu fu fu, this way the bike wouldn’t be able to move, so she wouldn’t be able to ride in the basket either. Though I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere either.

“Well then, I’ll do the driving.”

“Whut?”

Erio scurried over to the handlebars with quick, light steps, then straddled the bike with such force it was as if she were kneeing the saddle. After ringing the bell twice, “ring, ring” she placed her feet on the pedals.

“Today, Erio-san is going to escort Cousin.”

Erio looked back and chuckled, “fu fu fu”. That triumphant smile was the spitting image of Meme-san’s.

“…You really are mother and daughter.”

“Hm? Cousin and I are like mother and daughter?”

“To an onlooker, it might not be wrong.”

Though I imagined an actual child would be far more of a handful than her.

You’re something else, Meme-san.

“Erio is the mother? Having a child like Cousin is such a drag.”

“You’re getting way too full of yourself.”

“Ugh.”

I silenced her by pulling her hair from behind. I let go with a laugh, thinking it was a convenient leash.

However, the fact that Erio was riding a bicycle, well.

I wondered if this, too, was one of the influences brought about by Little Smakin. I looked up at the sky and stared at the sun. Narrowing my eyes, I thought about what she had given Erio, feeling as though she had vanished somewhere beyond the light. She had truly involved herself in Erio’s life only to depart.

I wondered how much of her behaviour had been sincere.

“By the way, can you even ride a bike?”

“O-of course I can. It’s no problem at all,” Erio added, pedalling in a panic and making the wheels spin. The bicycle, which had become slightly rusted from the seawater, made a strained noise, but there were no issues with its movement.

I placed my hands on Erio’s shoulders to match her movement and lifted my hips from the luggage rack, resting my feet beside the wheels.

“Oh, oh, oooh.”

As I stood up, Erio lost her balance, and the bicycle became unstable. The front wheel traced an S-shaped curve, and I felt as though I were about to be thrown off. The bicycle nearly tipped over, but Erio managed to avert disaster by instinctively kicking the ground. In the process, her left shoe slipped off and was left behind, yet Erio proceeded onto the road anyway. She showed no sign of stopping; in fact, she even kicked off her right shoe and tossed it into the garden.

“Hey, what are you doing after I went through the trouble of making you wear those.”

“I can’t give it my all while wearing shoes.”

She wiggled the toes of her bare foot, opening and closing them rhythmically. It was like watching an elementary schooler getting ready for a footrace.

Once again, I placed my hands on those shoulders that felt so unreliable, as if they might crumble under the slightest pressure, and gazed out over the town from a slightly elevated vantage point. The wind brushed against my cheeks, arriving just a little earlier than usual. On that Sunday, the town was peaceful and quiet, as if it were dozing in the sun. The sound of turning wheels reached my ears without interruption, and Erio’s very essence seemed to overlap with that rhythmic flow.

Enveloped in a shimmering dust that felt as though it might lead me into another world, my destination was nothing more than a simple candy shop.

E.T. did not ride in a basket. Instead, he travelled by bicycle, taking Earthlings along.

That was the reality for those of us on the other side of the cinema screen.

Ring, ring.

“Hey, stop ringing for no reason.”

I scolded her, wondering if she had made the bell a favourite pastime, as Erio continued to flick it with her finger. As I did that,

“Ring, ring.”

She started making the sound with her mouth. Furthermore, it sounded remarkably like the bell. Even though she had no intention of mimicking it, Erio’s voice seemed to ring like a bell. It was difficult to tell if an actual bell was ringing unless I checked with my eyes.

The bicycle moved sluggishly through the residential area, at about half the speed I usually pedalled.

Suddenly, though we hadn’t even passed a car until then, I heard the sound of something approaching from behind. When I looked back, it was a motorized scooter. A scooter rider without a helmet sped past our bicycles in an instant. That scooter came to an abrupt stop ahead of us, and the driver looked back.

She had a small frame and flowing blonde hair. Her figure, with the sleeves of a vibrant, goldfish-coloured yukata fluttering, looked familiar. Her youthful face broke into a bright, cheerful grin. She was the person who had been called Princess Kaguya, back at the sea this summer.

The surface of the moped was covered in scratches, as if it had been ridden roughly.

“Yo! You were Maekawa’s friends, right… Hey, don’t overtake me!”

With a “ring, ring!” Erio overtook the moped, which had come to a deliberate halt. She then continued forward just as she was. She seemed so absorbed in her rhythmic muttering that she wasn’t paying attention to anything else.

“Erio, brake.”

“Hm?”

She lifted her chin and looked at my face. Looking down at her relaxed expression, I asked her something other than to brake.

“Is riding a bike fun?”

“Mmh.”

She affirmed with a pleasant expression. Well, that was good.

“Hey, you brats, show some respect to your elders! And while you’re at it, cherish the aliens!”

Princess Kaguya, who had hopped off the moped and sprinted to catch up alongside us, operated the brakes on her own. The bicycle screeched to a painful halt, and the “ring-ring” sounds came to an abrupt end.

“Hey, you girl in light blue. You better stop properly, or I’m gonna pick a fight with you, you brat.”

She was already picking a fight. A small child with arms crossed swerved in front of the bicycle and introduced himself once more.

“Yo, friends-z!”

“The ‘z’ is just part just redundant.”

“Kids these days are so annoying.”

Though her tone was accusatory, she wore a grin from beginning to end.

“So, do you need something from us?”

“Need something? No way, because I don’t even know you guys that well.”

She burst into a loud, monotone “Gah-hah-hah!” The adults in this town were all like this.

“Come to think of it, you boy over there, you know Yashiro, don’t you?”

She cast a fleeting glance toward me. For what it was worth, I knew Erio too.

“Well, I guess. But I don’t know her well enough to call her an acquaintance.”

“If you’re friends with someone like that, your future is looking pretty bleak!”

She stated it with a boisterous laugh. But then she immediately pulled that smile away and turned dead serious.

“And you know Maekawa too, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“On top of that, you were friends with Ryuushi, right?”

“To some extent.”

“I-I’m also friends with Ryuushi or something!”

Erio interjected. Princess Kaguya merely nodded, appearing not particularly interested.

“You’re quite the ladies’ man, young boy! You’d better watch your back so you don’t get stabbed from all sides!”

She gave a thumbs up and shouted, “Yeah!” Her voice was loud every single time she spoke, making it embarrassing to be around her.

“Um, isn’t Yashiro with you?”

“She’s rarely ever with me. I just let her roam free at my place. I’m starting to worry that the turtle in the garden might eat her one of these days, though I think I saw her during breakfast this morning.”

She clicked her tongue happily. From that gesture, it was clear that she didn’t hold much ill will.

“That kid eats a lot, for such a little thing. Hey, how about it, young man? Want to take Yashiro off my hands?”

“No, thank you.”

“Answering that quickly? You’re a ladies’ man but you’re of no use at all.”

“What do you mean, no use?”

“I don’t know,” Princess Kaguya said, sounding strangely smug for some reason. Then, as Erio turned her bicycle around to try and bypass her, she leaped sideways to block the path. Erio let out a groan and looked up at me.

Good grief, was she counting on me to handle this? Not that I felt bad about it, though.

“Um, if you don’t have any business with us, please don’t get in our way. For what it’s worth, she has work to do after this.”

I tapped Erio on the shoulder. She looked at me, demanding a correction for “for what it’s worth,” but I ignored her.

“Fine then, I’ll create some business for you. Next Sunday, I’ll recruit you guys as guest players for a baseball game.”

“Baseball?”

“Just some casual baseball, early morning. You did some during summer vacation, didn’t you? I’ll let you participate again.”

The way she spoke, completely disregarding anyone’s autonomy and forcing participation, was strikingly similar to Yashiro.

“It’ll be so much fun!”

“Why did your tone get so ominous all of a sudden?”

“I’ll have Maekawa contact you, so make sure you show up!”

Leaving that one-sided command behind, she hopped onto the motorized scooter that Princess Kaguya had left unattended and sped off. Her thick blonde hair flowed in the wind as her silhouette rapidly faded into the distance. After watching her depart, Erio looked up at me.

“Cousin, are we playing baseball next week?”

“Hmm, well, as long as we don’t have any prearrangements or anything.”

“Then, I’m relieved.”

She let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “You brat,” I muttered, digging my finger into her crown.

I met the next acquaintance after I counted about thirty times the sound of “ring, ring.”

“Oh, if it isn’t Makoto-kun and Erio-chan.”

The person who spoke to us in a cheerful voice was the hairdresser, Ooi-san, and her daughter.

This time, Erio also voluntarily stopped the “ring,ring” and applied her brakes.

Perhaps she was on her way back from shopping, because plastic bags were dangling from Ooi-san’s fingertips. Even though it was the middle of October, she was wearing short sleeves as usual and a slightly worn red hat. Looking at her outfit, I couldn’t help but be reminded of summer.

Ooi-san’s daughter, the name of which escaped me, peeked out while clinging to Ooi-san’s leg, let out a “fueee” sound (?), and stared intently at Erio. She seemed quite intrigued by Erio’s hair. Feeling that gaze, Erio grew restless. She began shaking her head from side to side, trying to escape those curious eyes.

“H-hi there.”

Erio offered a clumsy greeting while turning her face away. The girl’s reaction was a “f-fueee” hardly worth describing. She completely hid herself behind Ooi-san’s leg. She seemed like an incredibly shy child.

As a side effect, Erio felt a little depressed by the fact that she had been feared.

“You’re quite shy, aren’t you? Don’t take after your parent.”

Ooi-san smiled while stroking her daughter’s head. Well, Erio didn’t take after her mother, either.

Though, that was a truly wonderful thing.

“Mm-hmm, you both have grown your hair out. You should come by to get it cut soon.”

She knelt down as if to peer into my and Erio’s faces, continuing with her business. It felt as though every time we met, she remarked on how much our hair had grown. Ooi-san herself seemed to have let hers grow even longer since the summer, as the tips of her hair looked as though they might reach past her waist. I wondered how much further she intended to grow it. Perhaps she was making a wish or something.

“I’ll make sure to stop by once I get my allowance next time.”

“Ahaha, that’s right, you are a high schooler. It must be hard to manage your finances. So young, so young,” Ooi-san laughed repeatedly. Then, she said, “See you later, Erio-chan,” to Erio, with whom she hadn’t spoken much, and began to walk away. Her daughter, whatshername-chan, stopped clinging to her and instead took Ooi-san’s hand.

Halfway there, she turned back and gave Erio a small wave, letting out a little, “F-fueee.”

Erio responded by waving her hand with an exaggerated flourish.

“It’s a good thing, right? You have a friend whose mental age is just like yours.”

“Wh-what are you saying? Stupid Cousin!”

Erio puffed out her cheeks. Then, she began pedalling her bicycle again. As she started moving, the bike swayed precariously from side to side once more. That instability suited Erio strangely well.

“Hey, Erio.”

“Hm?”

“You’ve really started to settle into the town, haven’t you?”

A person she could share such exchanges with had finally appeared within the town.

“I don’t need to hear that from an outsider like you.”

Erio pouted her lips, as if to say she was offended.

“I suppose that’s true,” I laughed, unusually agreeing with her point.

And so, we headed toward the candy store, passing several familiar faces along the way.

It was a common, everyday sight for a day spent in this town.

“Mofuffuffufu”

After arriving at the candy store, I sat there without any particular purpose when a small figure appeared, like a final encore. The figure was clearly unaccustomed to moving while wrapped in a futon, as they slammed the right side of their body violently into the door. It was a heavy-duty shoulder charge. The small figure looked more likely to be sent flying than the rickety door itself.

“Hey, Yashiro. What is that outfit?”

“Hmph. You actually managed to see through my true identity. Not bad for you, Makoto. Don’t get cocky.”

The contents of the sleeping bag revealed themselves quite easily. Or rather, her identity had been plain to see all along since that distinctive hair was poking out. Yashiro approached, having shed her futon in a hurry as if finding it too stifling, and donned her spacesuit. A silver coin glinted between her fingertips. She was likely looking for “the usual.”

Yashiro let out a heavy sigh. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead.

“What was even the point of that disguise?”

“It was my own way of showing mercy, by attempting to provide some stimulus to that wrinkle-free brain of yours.”

She then held out a hundred-yen coin, adding, “And the usual, too.” After I swatted her hand away, I glanced at the discarded futon. Perhaps alien sensibilities were universal, because even her futon had an iris pattern.

I wondered if that futon might have been the one Little Smakin used.

“I ran into Princess Kaguya a moment ago. She asked me to take you in. I turned her down, though.”

“Hmph, we’re enemies, after all. Nothing to be surprised about.”

So, were you staying at the home of someone you were hostile toward and causing them trouble? Just how thick-skinned were you?

“More importantly, Makoto, about that matter.”

Yashiro lowered her voice and leaned her face closer. Hey, don’t thrust that beautiful girl face right in my eyes. I fell into the illusion that the overflowing particles of white light were weighing down my eyelashes, making my eyelids heavy. It was like the scales of a butterfly.

“Wait, what matter, all of a sudden?”

I had no idea what she was talking about. At that, Yashiro knit her brows, looking at me as if to say, “Are you an idiot?”

“It’s obviously the matter of when the time has finally come to activate the spaceship manufacturing plan!”

With a silly, self-made sound effect “ta-da!” Yashiro announced something.

“Wh-What did you say!?”

Come to think of it, she had been spinning such nonsense a few days ago. I wondered if she had been serious. Then again, she had never once uttered a joke until now. That was exactly what made it so troublesome.

“First, I shall go to the Moon. Fu fu fu… I wonder how many years it has been since I last set foot on that celestial body.”

“I hate to interrupt your trip down your deluded memory lane, but you’re talking about building a spaceship. You know, that’s not something you can just pull off with the same casualness as signing up for a cooking class.”

I was just sitting there idly, but I felt like I was about to be swept up into some absurd scheme, so I tried to set some boundaries. I waved my hands in a “no way, no way” gesture, but Yashiro refused to listen. She simply let out a low, rhythmic chuckle, her shoulders shaking.

“You all just wait, you Moon people. You shall tremble before a rocket made of Earthly parts.”

Actually, we’ve already been there. The Americans even went as far as planting a flag.

“Why don’t you take a page out of Erio’s book and aim to become an astronaut yourself?”

When I made the suggestion, Yashiro let out a derisive snort.

“How absurd. With the scientific capabilities of foolish Earthlings, it would take hundreds of years. I have concluded that it would be faster if I built it myself. Fu fu fu, how foolish, how truly foolish, you Futonese!”

Yashiro continued her foolish laughter. Her tone sounded as if she were prophesying that, five hundred years from now, humanity would be seeking encounters with aliens, which made me chuckle a little.

It felt as if her delusions might actually become the truth someday.

I found myself feeling a strange sense of worry, fearing that by finding joy in such things, I might one day join the ranks of these delusional aliens myself.

Even today, the alien was being noisy around me.

Little Smakin had not appeared before us once since that day. However, just as Yashiro had suddenly appeared, perhaps she, too, might one day pop up at the Tamura store.

Aliens were so predictable.

That was why she would surely come back to make a fool of me.

As for the other person who looked like an alien, Erio, better known as Big Smakin, she was hunched over in a corner of the candy store, busy on a phone call. Even when I teased her about her lack of professional pride, she seemed too absorbed in her conversation to hear me. It sounded as though she was speaking to Ryuushi-san. Though, perhaps it was a bit premature to call it a truly rare occurrence.

After all, their relationship had only just begun.

“Hey, are you listening, Makoto? I’m going to build a spaceship. A spaceship!”

Yashiro spoke as casually as if she were talking about making a plastic bottle rocket, all while tugging on my ear. I scowled and furrowed my brows in pain, thinking, “You brat, just because you’re actually motivated doesn’t mean you can build a spaceship.”

“For starters, building a spaceship with you is something that’s at least five hundred years away.”

“Huh? Your brain seems even more scrambled than usual today, Makoto.”

“I’m joking, don’t take everything so literally… So, a spaceship, huh? I wonder if we could make one out of candy store supplies.”

I looked around the shop. Every time I shook my head, that unique scent drifted into my nose. It was mainly the aroma of dried wood. The flat scent, mixed with just a hint of something artificial, felt as if it were staining the inside of my nostrils white. I inhaled deeply, taking in that smell that felt like a symbol of stagnation and tranquillity. Then, I exhaled.

If one only inhaled, everything would come to a standstill. It was through the act of exhaling that breath was born, and that people began to move.

Of course, this was hardly the kind of situation that would make one gaze into the distance, lost in a sense of poetic atmosphere. Unfortunately.

In this place, where time seemed to have frozen since the Shouwa era, there were those who continued to clamour about a future far beyond the skies. They came in waves, constantly changing. The “aliens” gathered here.

Maybe.

Within this otherwise rounded Earth, this might just be the place closest to the cosmos.

“…Mm, mm. W-Wash my neck? ‘kay, I’ll wash and wait.”

After nodding several times, Erio ended the call. She then tucked her phone away inside her clothes and turned around with enough energy to wag a tail. Her face was visibly radiant with joy, and in that moment, she seemed completely disconnected from her usual eccentric self.

“Cousin”, she reported, using that same old way of calling me that showed no sign of her ever intending to remember a person’s actual name. An English vocabulary book lay scattered beside where she sat. I wondered if the words needed to reach one’s dreams were listed in there.

She had hinted at the possibility of returning to school, though that decision was something for a little further in the future.

“Ryuushi or something said she’s on her way now.”

“Heh? I guess she’s on her way back from club activities, then.”

“Yeah, that’s what she said.”

“Hmm. In that case, shall we try calling Maekawa-san as well?”

There was no particular reason to do so, but for now, the four of us were able to be together. That fact alone made me incredibly happy.

Every person was like a star. There was a distance between oneself and others. Some stars were close, while others are far away. Yet, even with those close stars, there are often times when the distance begins to widen as time passes. If that distance grows too great, it becomes truly difficult for us to reach that star even with a rocket. It becomes, for all intents and purposes, impossible.

That was why, while our distances were still close like they were now, we decided to set aside stargazing for a while.

We decided to set out as much as we pleased using rockets.

“Since having more hands for spacecraft manufacturing is always better, I shall permit the addition of more labour.”

Yashiro, who had been listening to the conversation from the side, interjected. It was becoming impossible to ignore her.

“Hey, if I’m going to listen, you’d better have a concrete plan.”

“Of course I do. Prepare to be amazed, nay, prepare to be in awe…”

And so, no matter how many times I was deceived by Yashiro’s grandiloquent manner of speaking, I continued to listen, only to regret it every single time. The only person who would take such nonsense seriously was likely my cousin, who sat beside me listening with eyes sparkling… And Little Smakin, I suppose.

Everyone truly loved space, didn’t they?

I looked up at the sky visible from the entrance and squinted my right eye against the dazzling sunlight.

Gazing at the blue sky from a corner of the Earth, I aimed for the far reaches of space.

After all, we were Earthlings.

Let’s talk about Youth Points.

For a little while longer, in this town watched over by aliens.

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