As I went out together with Youko-chan, or got called over to Orin-san’s house, or spent time clearing away the summer homework I’d left undone, my summer break came to an end.
Though our uniforms have yet to change, daily life has gradually taken on an air of fall, and maybe in the whole prefecture, but surely in my town, the sky has grown empty and high.
A clear fall sky, with not a cloud in sight——
It’s a phrase used to exemplify a pure, untainted heart, without worries or ills, but——
It is because of that emptiness, that I’m unable to do anything about this unease I feel.
Because that blowing wind makes me self-conscious… of an empty place that’s opened up in my soul——
Ahh, that’s it.
It’s because I’ve lost something.
Someone dear to me is now gone——
——Who?
Well of course, that would be my mother and——
——and?
My mother and——
——: And then, hey Hato-chan, are you listening?
Kei: ……Eh?
I’m brought back to myself at Youko-chan’s voice.
Ever unchanging in my tendency to forget the events and sights around me when thinking, I fluster and bat away thoughts that go beyond absurd.
Kei: Ah, I’m listening, I’m listening! I hear you loud and clear, okay?
Youko: Nngawd, come on! Ha~~to-chan, you’ve been weird ever since you went to the country during break!
Kei: Ah… yeah……
Just as Youko-chan says, ever since I went to Hemidzuka, something about me’s been strange.
Kei: You see, I feel like something important must have happened there…
Youko: ……Somethin’ you can’t remember?
Kei: Yeah……
Though still, it’s not that I’ve forgotten all of it. I remember what I remember, anyway.
The mansion inside of the Chinju Forest was the kind of place where I couldn’t easily live, but then Sakuya-san came because of a coincidental work assignment, so I was able to get by for food, at least——
—and when I came to, I had been dozing in the back of Sakuya-san’s car, on the road back to my apartment.
Youko: You think you experienced an abduction or something?
Kei: ……You mean like that electric belt that lets you lose weight like nothing?
Youko: Uwaa— The only part that matches up is “ab”—
Kei: Ahaha, sorry.
Youko: To think even your natural spaciness would get powered down, whatever it is must’ve hit you pretty hard, huh……
Kei: Ahaha, I guess so.
It really did hit me hard, I think.
But compared to everything from ten years ago, or the shock of my mother passing away, it might be pretty insignificant in comparison.
At any rate, I’m living my life in peace everyday like this——
And as long as that continues, I guess that’s all I need.
If there’s emptiness, you just have to fill it up.
If it really was so important, then I probably wouldn’t have lost so much as several days of my memory.
For example, right now, I probably can’t remember the things I was doing with Youko-chan two or three months ago——
And yet, those memories I have with her are being overwritten with what I’m experiencing right now.
Memory is something that leaks away, and I might as well let leak what may.
Just relinquish it into the wind passing by.
Even if you keep in mind the face of someone you pass on the street, it’s not like it’s going to have some grand impact in your life——
For example, just because I forget that sibling-like couple that just passed by doesn’t mean——
Onikiri no Kashira: Ah….. One—……
Young boy of the Oni Slayers: ……Tsudzura.
Onikiri no Kashira: ……If parting is so hard on both of us, then in the end, perhaps I shouldn’t have made her forget.
Young boy of the Oni Slayers: You may be right, but no matter how much you regret it, you can’t turn the time back.
Onikiri no Kashira: I suppose not……
Young boy of the Oni Slayers: Let us return, back to the world where we belong.
◇Near and Distant Shores – 此岸と彼岸 – Blue Ending