Golden Time:Volume8 Chapter6

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Golden Time 8: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

NOTE: From end of page 376 to the end of the chapter.

* * *

That New Year's Eve, I was with Kouko in her living room.

Together with her family, Kouko was stuffed under the kotatsu, passing mandarin oranges on from her mother, one after another. Her father was pretending to sit casually next to Kouko the whole time, something I found really annoying. But, I endured it. Strangely, Matsuko also pretended to happen to be at Kouko's side.

According to what Kouko was saying, the guilty party in sending the e-mail that brought them back together was Two Dimensions.

Two Dimensions, it seems, had flipped out at me. Very much so. Looking back on it, I could hardly have helped but get him mad at me.

I had somehow managed to explain, directly, to Yana-ssan and to Oka-chan my condition of having awoken in this body. But in the end, still unable to speak properly to Two Dimensions, I had left school and gone back home.

After I had left Tokyo, I had not been able to explain my situation again at all to Linda nor Kouko, Yana-ssan nor Oka-chan, nor Two Dimensions either, but,

"I was the only one Banri ignored!"

Two Dimensions said, saying he was deeply hurt.

And that I had broken the agreement that bound the three of us, myself, Two Dimensions and Kouko together.

A long time before, at a drinking party for first-years organized by Oka-chan, the three of us had taken a vow that whenever any of us held a drinking party, then we all absolutely had to be there. Two Dimensions swore by the stories he had written, Kouko by her favorite brand, and I had sworn by my password.

As for me, I had completely forgotten about it, and didn't go to a drinking party Two Dimensions was trying to organize. To put it simply, I had broken the oath, with the result being that the password, my collateral, had become forfeit.

Two Dimensions hatched a plan to somehow try and call me back to Tokyo. To that end, of course, it seems he thought that Kouko's presence would help.

If you want to shoot the leader, first aim for his horse. If an e-mail were to arrive, seeming to be from me, sounding sorrowful, Kouko would think about coming back to me. If she saw me acting like that, running by my instincts at earthquakes, even my slow brain being encouraged, she would wonder if his lost memories had been awoken as a result.

And so Two Dimensions, using my password, of his own accord sent a flurry of messages to Kouko, pestering her to get back together with me.

But of course, it wasn't like Kouko was deceived by it. Suspicious, she used my password and logged into my account too, every day, keeping an eye on the mysterious mail being sent to her.

And then, at long last realizing my circumstances, she sent Two Dimensions an e-mail. From that exchange, and from the clearing of the account the next day, Kouko understood quite clearly, and was convinced that the culprit was Two Dimensions. He was the only other person beyond Kouko and I who knew the password.

Kouko, accused Two Dimensions "Why are you doing that kind of thing!?" and you could say they had a real fight. The night of Christmas Eve, in the street in front of the university. While Yana-ssan and Oka-chan desperately tried to stop them, it was a shouting match, coming even to blows--- it sure must have been a terrible sight to see.

As for Two Dimensions, blaming Kouko for having tried to do nothing about my returning home, blaming to the point of tears, seems to have shouted "No matter what, I cannot give up on Banri!"

"One time, I abandoned Banri! I've always regretted that, and felt ashamed of it! I will not give up on him this time! I will do anything!"

He said.

When he said he had abandoned me, he was talking about the time at the spring training camp.

Caught up by that suspicious cult, myself, Kouko and Two Dimensions were constrained to stay in their building. I stayed behind in order to recover the roster and dispose of it, and so everyone else could go home. To accomplish that, I put on an act. However, so that I wouldn't be the only one staying behind, Kouko had returned to the training camp. It seemed that being unable to return at that time, Two Dimensions had regretted it every since.

Hearing Two Dimensions' outburst, the part of Kouko that continued to regret being separated from me that way, if she were to borrow the words for it, would probably have said "I woke up." I can't give up either, it would have said. Still not seeming to change her mind, it told her 'Remember the anniversary of our escape!'

And with that, Kouko did a restart.

For Kouko's sake, Oka-chan exercised her rights. I had promised Oka-chan when she made that video that she really could do whatever she wanted to with it. It didn't matter what: watch it, pass it around, or even erase it. She burnt it to DVD so she could him a copy, but Oka-chan freely decided her own plan.

"You will be the messenger to deliver this, Kaga-san!"

Kouko, charged with this mission, said she would be to meet up with me on her own. However, seeing me after a long time, it made no difference if Kouko or Oka-chan came. The mirror that had been loaded with memories and hidden away had been gently returned. She got out from the taxi, and while looking down over the flood-plain, Kouko seemed to be hitting herself over the head. Saying to herself "What am I doing? What else have I not said? There's no meaning in me coming like this..." but then she came running down the bridge to me, laughing like crazy.

As for me, I wonder if I would have laughed like that.

Set into the notebook PC on the kotatsu, the DVD played back. Her parents talked about something while watching the New Year's Eve shows on TV. Earphones plugged into the jack, he divided his attention, listening to Kouko and their voices with one ear.

Incidentally, about her father just now, coming here in the car... that was something I would just as soon forget.

He left the house without saying anything to Kouko; she didn't hear him say he was picking me up. If he had asked her "You've talked about it, don't you want to see him now?" she would have said "It's not like that!" and been embarrassed. He was an incomprehensible middle-aged man, but of course I may grow to be fond of him. It's possible I will always be at the mercy of these genes.

Playing back the video, I was sitting next to Kouko, buried deeply beneath the kotatsu, watching my own face talking. The voice and way of speaking awkwardly stiff, it was strangely embarrassing.

'...Well, what you are seeing is Tada Banri.'

While talking foolishly with an idiotic expression, the me in the screen gave me a speech.

'I suppose right now you're buried underneath a kotatsu...? And you've probably got Matsuko in your arms.'

He seemed to be positively clairvoyant. Matsuko was stretched like a bridge over my stomach and Kouko's, looking spoiled and licking her front paws.

'I suppose Kouko is right next to you. ...Saying that, though, is my wishful thinking. If it turns out that way, good. If that's how it is, then it's already the best it can be.'

With a feeling of 'You see! You see!' I looked over next to me.

I thought, "Eh?"

Unnoticed, Kouko had fallen asleep.

Even though my parents weren't here, so to speak, I managed to relax... traveling alone by bullet train, the world of tea plantations reproaching me, I wondered if weeping and howling, today's fatigue had left me. Her back supported perfectly by her zaisu, Kouko had dozed off, her mouth half open. Even though we had been chatting normally until just a little bit ago.

'...Well, though there are many things like this I would ask of all of you, and certainly you, you're okay! This I guarantee! And then, Kouko, I really... ah, err, excuse me, I'm not there, of course. If I could speak directly, that would be best. Yes. You go say it, from your own mouth.'

Stopping the playback, I tapped softly on Kouko's shoulder next to me.

"Kouko. Kouko."

"Uh... yes!? Hey, I wasn't sleeping!?"

While rubbing the sleep from her face as hard as she could, Kouko suddenly straightened up and smiled. Startled by the sudden movement, Matsuko fled.

"You know..."

"What!? Though I wasn't sleeping, what!?"

"For staying here for me, thank you."

"...Oh"

Well, as if just that much were enough. It would be simple, if only he could put it all into words.

And yet, being able to say it directly, here and now, made me happy beyond compare.

* * *

Once more April had come, and a new person had come to this world.

It was Dai and Meiko's firstborn child, a little girl. When Linda and I went to see her, she was crying energetically, her face all red. There was no excuse for how Linda, carelessly, somehow like me, cradled the little, tiny baby in her arms. But Meiko placed her up against my chest, guiding my hands while making me gently carry that new life. Meiko's mother was there with her, standing guard on me with a fierce expression, and my hands trembled from the surplus of pressure.

The new life surrendered to me for a while by Meiko, gingerly held in my arms, driving my mother and friends mad, was little a little bread roll. Her warmth soaked into me little by little, to the very bottom of my heart.

In this way, her warmth passed to each in turn, was exchanged with everybody, and life went on. I too had been born into this circle of life, and while I was confused, I still made the journey.

We leave the past, we have the present, and then the future comes to us. If we leave time for the night, the morning comes. However many times the seasons go around, it returns us back to a different spring and once more new days start.

Returning to Tokyo, I also returned to the university. Every bit as much as I expected, not everything started off well right away. Going through by trial and error, I make mistakes and recover from them. As usual, the same old grind.

Doing like this, I once more live in a new present. I still have that note from that time, not having tossed it out. By the way, when I wrote that note with my friends names on it, I had added in "Return favor to Soga Umako-senpai." My memories have not returned completely. "Who!? Honestly, who!? You don't even know to ask Linda!?" said the harassed-to-death person still living next door.

Today I went running too.

Because I had slept in, I was late for meeting up with everybody. My stomach churning (this is bad!), I weaved my way amongst the strangers in the street, crossing others paths, passing them from behind.

At that moment, I realized somebody had called my name.

I turned around.

Just as if I were looking into a mirror, there was a face looking towards me. Saying "What's this?" I peered back, got closer, and then without thinking reached out my hand.

The End

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