Volume 3 - CH 2.1

One day a new pit was added to the graveyard.

The coffin was filled with the smell of the sea.

The ■ asked the man carrying a heavy burden of guilt a question.

“If you grieve over the death of a lover, then let’s undo it.”

But it needed the missing ingredients.

One for the body, one for the soul.

But there was only one available.

So the monster couldn’t become human.

The coffin closed.

Everything returns to the sea.

The end.

Probably.

Now, let’s have a chat, shall we?

The blue sea swirled. The summer sea slowly vanished.

The two were swallowed into the sea without a sound. My arms cut through empty space. Unable to grasp anything, I clenched my fists. I cried for his name, but my voice couldn’t reach him anymore.

I woke up to my own screams.

Since that day, I’d had sleepless nights. When I woke up, my whole body was drenched in sweat, as if soaked in seawater. A few hours of shallow sleep always ended with me woken up by a nightmare.

But reality was as peaceful as it could get.

No matter how horrible the ending, closing a case meant returning to my normal routine.

Sitting on the couch in the office, I shook my sleep-deprived head. Mayuzumi was sprawled out on the couch as usual. Today she was wearing a black dress, simple but lovely. The ribbon tied around her waist cascaded down to her ankles.

Her fair legs, wrapped in ribbons, swung up and down.

“Don’t you have to clean the office?” she asked.

I shifted my gaze. The bucket on the floor was all dried up. The room was once again filled with a stifling atmosphere, and the air smelled sweet. I spotted a piece of chocolate lying on the floor.

But I didn’t have the energy to clean up.

Sitting around doing nothing was a waste of time. I knew that. But I couldn’t find the energy to do anything. I stared at my palms and covered my face. All the words I said to him were just sanctimonious bullcrap. My hands couldn’t reach him; they only grasped empty air.

All I did was knock someone into the pits of despair.

Doing nothing would have been better.

“Sorry, I just don’t feel like it.”

“Okay. Then can you put that away for me? It’s an eyesore,” Mayuzumi said tediously and lay down on her face.

Her foot hit the tank, and the lid fell off. Slowly, a red goldfish soared up from inside.

Made of blood, it drifted softly to the ceiling.

The scene looked incredibly magical.

I followed the fish with my gaze. Its well-proportioned figure was completely different from that of the disfigured fish. Then, something hit me on the cheek. A shell-shaped chocolate rolled on the floor. I turned my head and saw Mayuzumi scowling at me.

“Quit your whining already,” she said. “It’s so annoying. For someone so big, you sure sigh a lot. Do you want molds to grow in the office? You should apologize for the oxygen you’ve consumed.”

Mayuzumi chewed on a piece of chocolate. “Right now, you’re just a burden in the office. You’re not a houseplant. You can’t just sit around all day. Is it fun producing carbon dioxide? I don’t get any pleasure from watching you, so why don’t you get off your lazy butt and get to work?”

“A… job?”

We had no cases at the moment. There should be nothing for me to do.

Mayuzumi’s huge eyes flickered. “Huh? Did I forget to mention it?”

This can’t be good.

Mayuzumi glanced at my face and the clock. She picked up another chocolate and tossed it into her mouth.

“There’s someone I want you to pick up,” she continued, chewing nonchalantly. “I was going to wait if they could get here on their own, but I have a feeling they will probably get lost. It would be more trouble than it’s worth if we let them be, so could you please go?”

Who was she talking about? Mayuzumi stared at the air and nodded repeatedly. Asking for details was too much hassle, so I gave up and asked only what bothered me the most.

“What time am I supposed to pick them up?”

“2:00 p.m.”

It was currently 1:03 p.m.

I slapped my knee and stood up.

For once, she wasn’t late. I calmed myself down. I’d commend her for that.

I quickly closed the door to prevent the goldfish from escaping, and left the office. I hurried out of the apartment building and down the hill. On the way, I bumped into someone. I apologized and went on.

“Oh, Odagiri-san?”

I thought I heard someone call my name, but I didn’t have time to stop. I shoved my commuter pass in and scurried down the subway stairs. I slipped into the train just in time, right before it was about to depart. I held my aching side and wiped away the sweat. The thought of Mayuzumi sleeping peacefully in her room made my blood boil. But that was probably a good thing. Keeping myself busy should get my mind off of things.

What happened should not be forgotten. As a person involved, I couldn’t say that there was no point in crying over spilled milk. But as long as I lived, I had no choice but to keep moving.

Staying cooped up in that apartment wouldn’t change anything.

I can’t change a thing.

I let out a deep sigh and looked around the car. Classes were ongoing in the nearby universities, so there were not many people on the train. Someone who boarded the train with me looked up. When I saw his face, my breath seized in my throat.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I called you earlier, but you ignored me. So I followed you.”

A friendly smile appeared on his handsome features. There was not a trace of sweat on his face framed by light blonde hair. We ran the same distance, but how did he not even break a sweat?

Saga Yusuke.

As always, he appeared out of nowhere.

“What about school?” I asked. “Why did you skip classes to go to Mayu-san’s apartment?”

“I told you about it before, didn’t I? They’re not watching me as closely as before, so I stopped going. I liked the teachers, though. There’s this gym teacher who’s really dedicated to his job. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Unfortunately, I can’t really do anything about my lack of motivation.” He waved his hand around. Seeing the sour look on my face, he laughed. “Oh, come on. You know I seriously attended school, even if it was just for a little while.”

Being diligent for a short period of time does not cut it.

Perseverance makes one stronger. Not fully committing to anything all the time is not good. What’s more, realistically speaking, he shouldn’t be skipping classes this much.

“You’re gonna get held back a year if you keep playing hooky.”

“Like I said before, that ruling was handed down last May. I’ll go to school when I feel like it.” He laughed.

This guy’s treating reality and tuition fees like they’re nothing.

Yusuke was well-off financially. But that’s not always a good thing. He seemed to live his life rather recklessly. Saga Yusuke was partially broken. If he didn’t have to struggle to survive, his will to live would naturally fizzle out.

Right now, he was just eating his life away.

“You shouldn’t worry your kouhai too much. Did they say anything? You’ve gotten closer, no? You should go to school a bit.”

“Huh? You mean the little dude? I have no idea why he sticks to me like glue. It doesn’t really matter if I’m there or not. It’s not like we’re friends. I always fly solo.” He laughed again, waving his hand around.

It didn’t seem like he was getting off the train. I had no idea what was so interesting about following me. Stifling a sigh, I sat down on a vacant seat.

Yusuke plopped down next to me. “So where are you going?”

“Does it matter? You’re gonna follow me wherever I go anyway.”

“True. You’re basically a shut-in. It’s obvious that your running around has something to do with Mayuzumi-san. Otherwise, you’d be mopping the floor or something. You never leave your place, do you?”

How is this guy so pointlessly sharp?

But arguing with him would be too much trouble. I ignored Yusuke and closed my eyes.

There were still five more stops to my destination.