Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 7th Episode 28 (section)

=== Part 5 ===

It is time to speak of—…

He tried to.

He tried to pass it along.

About him and his partner.

About the two girls.

Even so, he remembered nothing.

Just like a storyteller dying his Kamishibai<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamishibai</ref> screen in white.

He was supposed to use words, gestures and gesticulations to talk about what he saw, heard, as well as—obtained.

And then ask for the audience’s impressions.

''—How was it?

Like that.

Without hearing the answer, he wouldn’t be able to move forward.

“How do you feel?”

As he sat against the wall, Ichinokuro Arisu peeked at him, worried.

Right, she was Ichinokuro Arisu. He knew her. However, he couldn’t remember when and where he’d met Arisu. She didn’t seem to know him.

“I feel much better, thanks. What should I do about your handkerchief?”

While holding his brow, he raised his face.

As the lights in the scramble crossing turned green, people started moving all at once.

Akamaki City. He’d been an intern doctor here nearly two years ago.

He’d finished his internship there ''without any major incidents'', and then applied to become a doctor on an isolated island on a whim. He worked there ''without any major incidents'', except that one day the island burned down.

His memories of the time were fuzzy. What on earth was that? Had there been some scary disaster? He’d barely escaped with his life, boarded a boat he’d found ''by chance'',  and escaped the island.

After finishing off his long treatment and rehabilitation, he came back to Akamaki City.

He hid his face with a scarf because he felt like he had to do.

Anyway, how to put it—he felt as if he was possessed by a very convenient delusion.

Also, he felt as if he was too late.

Wasn’t what he felt he needed to tell was something already talked about by someone?

He had this feeling.

“I’ll give it to you as a present.”

Seeing Arisu wear a carefree smile, a certain sight passed through his mind.

''This is my present, to you …

He couldn’t recall the face of the one who told him this. He also forgot what he received.

“…Thank you.”

“You started crying all of a sudden. I got surprised.”

Arisu sat right next to him.

Still sitting on the ground, he scratched his hair. He was still a little dizzy.

“It’s probably heatstroke. I feel blurry and confused. But I’m fine.”

“Oh, I’m glad to hear.”

“Ah…”

“Hmm? What?”

He had to tell someone about it. So he thought.

However, his mouth was unable to form the words. Although he had something he needed to ask, he couldn’t remember it.

“No—it’s nothing.”

Arisu tilted her head, confused.

“Are you still here? I’m worried that you’d collapse again.”

“What should I do…”

“What should you do… what were you doing here? Work?”

“O-oh, yeah. Err—I had something I needed to ask of a girl like you.”

He absently let his mouth run off.

''—You’re such an idiot!

Someone should have naturally scolded him at such times.

He couldn’t remember who scolded him.

“Oh, you’re doing a survey!”

Arisu made a convenient interpretation of his words. Well, a survey fit the idea of wanting to ask someone in a place full of people. He simply nodded.

“Yeah, right.”

“What were you asking about?”

“…”

He soon regretted the fact he nodded.

He was looking for someone to ask them something. There was no doubt about that.

However, he had no idea what were the questions he wanted to raise.

“You don’t have anything with you, though…? Wait, have you lost your survey papers?”

“—O-oh, yeah, exactly.”

Arisu looked at him with eyes full of pity. She looked like she wanted to point out how much of an idiot he was despite being an adult. He wanted to run away.

“Do you have any idea where you lost it?”

“…I don’t, so I can’t go look for it.”

“Do you remember what was written in it?”

“…Not at all.”

“Then it’s hopeless.”

“I’m frankly at a complete loss…”

He should have had a plain life.

At some point he was supposed to hold a very important Kamishibai performance. However, the story he needed to tell was dyed completely in white and he lost it.

A narrator who lost his story could do nothing but vainly stand in place—

“Hah…”

Arisu sighed. Seeing that profile, so unsuitable for such an energetic girl, he thought to himself.

“You look tired as well.”

“I’ve been running around a lot today. I met up with friends and asked them for a favor.”

“Favor?”

“Do you know the Perseid meteor shower?”

“Oh… it’s already the season for it.”

“There’s something I have to do that day. I want them to help me with it.”

“Having a party?”

“Not something quite that fun, but… I hope it goes well.”

Arisu seemed like she was going to stay by his side until he recovered. While watching the crowds at the scramble intersection, they conversed.

Just like friends. Or perhaps siblings.

“—Why does your face look so lonely?”

As he spoke with some bitterness mixed in his voice, Arisu was startled. She pouted.

“I’m not.”

“Had a fight with a friend?”

“A fight…”

“If it’s stupid, I’ll hear it. I still have some time until I can stand up.”

After thinking a bit, Arisu opened her mouth. There were some things she could talk about because they were complete strangers.

“After seeing the meteor swarm—everyone will grow apart.”

“…”

“Everyone has their own things to do… even the one who’s finally become our friend will go to Ouka City. Rina—one of my friends—has many people counting on her, so I don’t know if she’s even going to appear at all during the meteor swarm, too…”

“…”

“And the one most important to me, too… I’ll definitely find the answer until then.”

Arisu raised her face.

In the sky where the sounds of the crowds and cars honking mixed together, a butterfly glowing in silver was dancing.

It was a silver Morpho butterfly.

“Saying goodbye is lonely…”

Looking up at the fluttering butterfly, he mumbled this.

For some reason, he couldn’t stop looking at it.

“And painful too…”

Arisu looked down, wordless.

“Since it hurts so much—is parting a punishment?”

He unconsciously mumbled.

“If it’s punishment, then is the meeting itself a punishment as well?”

Arisu was silent, lightly kicking pebbles with the tip of her shoe.

Was meeting itself a punishment—

Trying to voice that, he was convinced.

Right—he came back to the city in order to ask this.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_7th_p315.jpg|thumb]]

He was able to ask what he needed to, from none other than the one he needed to ask.

He had this conviction.

“You wish you hadn’t met in the first place…?”

There was no mistake.

He’d met someone precious in this city and did something to them.

He wanted to ask whether or not it was a sin of someone who knew about his doing.

What he did was meaningless—

If that was a sin, he came back in order to receive punishment.

“—No.”

Arisu shook her head to the side.

“I’m glad we’ve met.”

Looking genuinely happy, the ponytail girl smiled.

He was taken in by her smile.

Ichinokuro Arisu’s transparent smile overlapped with the smile of an unknown girl.

On top of a sickbed.

The girl hugging a picture book and smiling happily—

“I’m even grateful to the fate that let us meet.”

“…Even if it was an especially twisted fate?”

“Yeah. It’s an important memory, after all.”

“…”

“Even if we grow apart, I will—never forget.”

Never forget.

For some reason, these words caused him pain.

“…I see.”

He found himself smiling as well.

This was his first genuine smile ever since escaping Aoharima Island.

A load off of his shoulders—was how it felt.

He felt as though he finally escaped the heavy fate.

“As long as we don’t forget—we’ll definitely reunite with our feelings intact.”

He looked up at the Morpho butterfly.

He had the feeling he’d met someone he was never supposed to have met again.

However, he was apparently no longer needed. The Morpho butterfly just passed overhead and returned to Arisu.

His role in this city was already over.

“Alright—”

He pulled his back away from the wall and stood up. Arisu raised her face.

“What about your survey?”

“Yeah. Actually, I’ve been offered work at a hospital that took care of me before. I’ll just go back being a professional.”

“Eh, were you a doctor?”

Arisu looked surprised. He was already used to him not looking the part.

“If you’re a doctor… then you’ve parted with many patients, right?”

Arisu asked, full of hesitation. She was probably not asking about patients being discharged.

“Well, yeah.”

“Isn’t it painful? Or are you already used to such things?”

Arisu turned serious; perhaps she’d had experience in being separated from someone by death.

He scratched his unkempt hair with his fingertips, smiling bitterly.

“At the very least, for me… it is painful. And sad, too.”

“How can you keep going if it’s sad?”

“—I believe it’s the minimal resistance I can offer.”

“…?”

“I’m already fed up with being sad. If I can’t keep resisting it being that way… if I give up somewhere, I feel like I wouldn’t be able to face the people I’ve seen off until now.”

''I’m probably just parroting someone—

He added in his heart.

''Continue resisting.

He had the feeling that the one closest to him told him this.

“…”

Arisu was speechless. However, silently—and happily—she was just smiling.

“—Ugh.”

Suddenly, her cute smile twisted. Seeing the other side of the crossing, she rose up.

“Crap, it’s Daisuke.”

As he turned around, he could see a boy on the other corner of the scramble crossing. The boy glared at Arisu with like those of a predator spotting its prey.

“If I’d explain to him that I snuck out of the house to meet Rina, would he understand? No, it’s definitely hopeless. He’s already cracking his fists and making a violent face.”

“Right… those are some nasty eyes. I don’t know your circumstances, but I think you should escape as soon as possible.”

“Goodbye, Sensei!”

The same moment as the lights for pedestrians changed, Arisu dashed off.

“—”

He widened his eyes.

Sensei—

That name had a very nostalgic sound to it.

“Please become a good Sensei!”

Turning around and leaving him behind, Ichinokuro Arisu ran to the other side of the crossing.

After that, the boy called Daisuke chased her with a scary look in his eyes.

For a moment, he and the boy in mad pursuit after Arisu—locked eyes.

However, they exchanged not a single word.

They just passed one by another.

“Sensei, huh—”

He turned his back to the boy and girl who were playing catch.

Wrapping the scarf around him again, he hid the faint smile rising to his lips.

Although it was so common calling doctors that, he felt as if it had some special meaning.

Everything about his role was over.

Therefore, from now on—

“Isn’t that name too much for me. …Don’t you think so as well?”

He would retrieve what he’d lost.

He thought he’d become Sensei.

While whispering to someone who’d always been at his side—

He left Akamaki City.



To be continued…


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