[Condolences: Imadegawa Seido died in a plane crash on February 22]

【……】

Taking a taxi to take Imadegawa Chisaka home, Narumi searched the Internet for information about the Imadegawa clan on the train back to the rental house.

The index finger clicked on the news on the phone, turned two pages, and then turned off the screen.

The right hand holding the mobile phone hangs slightly, and the tilted mobile phone screen reflects the neon lights on the street outside the tram window.

He looked away from his phone's screen and looked at the street, where the evening lights were set against the sun.

The train passed unhurriedly, and the scenery framed by the windows kept jumping from lamp to lamp.

Chaotic thoughts also flickered with the scenery.

Imadegawa Chisaka is an angel.

That's what he thought until today, at least.

But when the healed wounds bloomed again before his eyes, and he saw with his own eyes what Imadegawa Chisaka said, "White fog can't save people", the word "angel" became ironic.

……

People die and cannot be resurrected.

That's why there will be awe and respect for death, and there will be thoughts and remembrances of the living for the dead.

People are powerless in the face of death, so it is easier to accept fate.

Angels can heal all wounds, but they cannot raise the dead and turn back time.

It is closer to the point of changing fate than the world, but it is also more difficult than the world to accept the facts that have happened that cannot be changed in reality.

If the price is that no one will hear her voice and see her presence after that.

No one in the world will remember her anymore.

It can also be explained by [what cannot be understood by the world, destined to endure loneliness].

so

The angel's ability to heal wounds is only an illusion, but they live day and night in silence that is not observed by the world.

And what is she living for?

If there really is a god in the world, it is the so-called god who made Imadegawa Chisaka experience all this,

The girl in its eyes is probably just a trapped beast in a fighting cage.

The trapped beast lives to escape from the cage, to live for the hope of returning to the forest or seeing its relatives again.

If it didn't give the trapped beast hope of returning to the forest, how long would the trapped beast live?

Or rather,

If you don't meet him who happened to be in a car accident,

How long can Imadegawa Chisaka endure loneliness and silence?

Walk out of the station, walk up the ramp that has been lit up and head back to the rental house.

After washing, he dragged his somewhat tired body and lay down on the bed, and then looked at the ceiling in a daze.

He considers himself a selfish person who may sometimes do things that are not beneficial to him in order to satisfy his spiritual needs. But in the vast majority of cases, they prioritize themselves.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have managed to alienate Imadegawa Chisaka, who saved his life, from himself because he didn't want to pay the price. I won't accept the 1 million yen "salary" that I can get just by helping to buy groceries and pay utility bills.

Just as the audience at the Colosseum doesn't really care about the life and death of the trapped beast, the person who can't be observed is not himself, so why care......

……

“……”

Alas (helpless with a wry sigh)

Clicks (Lights that have been turned off come back on)

Click (the door of the rental house is locked)

Tick (Taxi stops next to the street)

"Shibuya Shoto District, trouble."

"Understood."

……

The taxi stopped in front of the gate of Imadegawa's house.

Narumi saw Imadegawa Chisaka standing in front of the door with a soft white light [Imadegawa] door number, quietly waiting for him to open the door.

After he got out of the car, he got into a taxi.

"Huh?"

"Shinkansen." The girl whispered.

The driver couldn't hear it, so he was naturally unmoved, but looked at Narumi Yu with some confusion.

"Shinkansen."

He sat back in the taxi and told the driver what Chisaka had said to Imadegawa.

"Understood."

The driver didn't ask much, and the car started slowly and drove off the street.

"Fighting Beast Cage, Trapped Beast...... While I agree that the analogy is apt, I still don't understand how you connected me to the beast. ”

The girl, who seemed to know everything about him, frowned at him and looked at him with a bit of questioning in her tone.

"Where are you going by Shinkansen?" Yu Narumi changes the subject.

He had grown accustomed to the fact that Imadegawa Chisaka always knew exactly what he was thinking at any time.

"Kyoto."

"Yes, what about the cost?"

"You come out."

"Dating?"

"It's not."

"......" Narumi suddenly fell silent.

"Finally discovered?" Imadegawa Chisaka leaned back in the seat, and the light outside the car window swept across the girl's side face, leaving no trace.

Deprived of her existence, even if there was light passing by, it was as if she was in the dark, only her eyes were still slightly shining, but they were only still looking at the angle of the roof of the car.

Narumi Yu retracted the relief on his face.

If the stealth of the girl is a disease.

I don't know when the condition worsened.

The angle of light in the taxi may be a problem, but when she stood next to the door number, the white light shone at her closer.

This time it's the light,

Next time, maybe it's sound.

Next time......

It's not [stealth],

Instead, [disappear].

"If you're worried about me, you might as well think about yourself first."

The sound is calm, like the surface of the water where the rain has stopped and the wind has stopped, without ripples and undulations.

Without "light", there is no reflection on the surface of the water, only darkness beneath the surface.

"In the Colosseum, you're not in the audience, maybe you're on the field like me."

Imadegawa Chisaka looked at the brightly lit street outside the window, touched his hand lightly on the window, and watched the light penetrate his palm and toss on the gray-white cloth surface behind the front seat.

"If I do disappear one day, I'm afraid you'll be back to the way you were when you were in a car accident."

“……”

Narumi wants to say something like the protagonist in an anime or a movie series, "It's not going to disappear, I'll figure it out with you." "Why are you worried about this, when the time comes, I will lie in the hospital every day, and I will be rescued immediately if something happens, where will there be danger." Words to liven up the atmosphere.

But in front of Imadegawa Chisaka, these words don't make any sense.

All the girls in his heart were clear.

"Because you've already lived once, it doesn't matter, does it?"

“……”

"I don't know who you were in your previous life, where you lived, and what kind of life you went through, and I'm not interested. But at least you still have a lot to do in this life...... For example, I was admitted to the University of Tokyo. ”

"Huh?" Narumi Yu was a little surprised—he didn't have any memories of before the car accident, and naturally he didn't know that he wanted to be admitted to Tokyo University.

"You promised your father." The hand that couldn't touch the light hung down, and the girl finally moved her eyes from the window to Narumi Yu, who was sitting next to her, "Your past is here with me." ”

"But at the time you said ......"

[Amnesia is due to damage to the brain and no way to recover like a limb; Memories aren't a price, you don't have to pay for it in the first place. ]

He remembers it clearly.

It was raining heavily that day, and he ran all the way from the kiosk in the park to the convenience store, drenching his whole body.

"You wouldn't tell me the truth at the time, why can't I lie to you?" Imadegawa Chisaka asked calmly.

"Where's the penguin raincoat?" Narumi Yu suddenly remembered.

"At my house." The girl's expression softened slightly, perhaps because she thought his focus was too strange, "I'm not bad enough to throw away other people's belongings. ”

The Shinkansen high-speed train station is approaching a short distance from the train window, and taxis stop at the station parking space.

"Here we are."

"Good work."

“……”

When paying, the driver hesitated, observed Narumi up and down, and finally couldn't help but speak:

"I take the liberty of asking, when I was in the car just now, I didn't see you wearing headphones, and I didn't take out your mobile phone, right...... What do you use to talk to someone? ”

"Well," Narumi Yu replied with a slight smile, "Imadegawa-san was in the car at the time. ”

“…… Yes? The driver looked slightly stunned, looked around at Narumi Yu's words, and then looked into his car, not seeing anyone except Narumi Yu.

When he turned around, the teenager in his cab was gone.

He hurriedly opened the car door, and when he saw that the fare he had just received was still there, he breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.