Anohana:Part 1 Chapter 7

Chapter 7 : The Night of Meiko

This was the second night Meiko had come back.

Quietly, she looked at a distance in the dark without blinking. Those eyes were more sullen than the dark. In that illusory void lay every feeling she could think of for Meiko.

Meiko always acted against the fact that she had been forgotten.

She always held onto a place in her heart, with an out of tone voice—she would pay all her effort and strength in her prayers.

So, her wish was a lie.

Meiko complained—let the liar disappear. Let her reveal her true self under the sunlight.

However, she failed to even put this into words and speak them out.

She could only let others to decide what kind of girl she was. She couldn’t enforce her own wishes on others.

For she was this kind of a girl…

So until now, she was still here, not yet disappeared, and contiued to stare at a distance. And with the flow of time, her contours became even clearer.

And thus Meiko continued to grow.

Then, her hair fluttered in the night wind.

Frog croaks sounded from the darkness.

“Croak…”

She started to imitate the croaking of the frogs. Nevertheless, frogs don’t actually ‘croak’. Instead, they make a sound like some kind of instrument…a sound that only frogs could make.

From when did people think that frogs ‘croak’?

(It’s so tiring…)

She only wanted to say it, even though she wasn’t clear whether she was really tired.

Menma had been strolling everywhere today, walking here and there. She seemed to be hungry, yet she wasn’t clear of this fact.

Time flew past in such a slow pace.

In the morning, the sky would turn light blue, in the afternoon a blue mixed with white, then gradually mixed with red, in the night dark blue, and finally pitch black.

Menma saw this change of colours by gazing head high to the sky at different places.

There were a lot of things Menma knew in these places; however, there wasn’t anything she was very clear. Every single thing changed here or there.

“I really want to see everyone.”

Menma mumbled, trying to stop the tears that welled in her eyes to overflow.

I couldn’t go see my family. I was so scared I could only look at a distance, not daring to get any closer. It was undoubtedly I wasn’t a bit scared when I saw Jintan and the others.

I hope my family could forget me, but I hope everyone in the Super Peace Busters won’t.

This feeling I have is the same—be it Menma or Meiko.

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