Although over half an hour had passed since she'd been shot in the back three times and though she'd lost a large quantity of blood from the arrow wound in her leg, Takako Chigusa was still alive. Mitsuko Souma had disappeared, but Takako couldn't care less about that.
She was half dozing, half dreaming. Her family…her father, mother, and younger sister were all waving at Takako from the front gate of their house.
She could tell her sister Ayako, who was two years younger, was crying. She was saying, "Goodbye, Takako, goodbye." Her handsome father, from whom Takako had inherited most of her features and her mother who shared her looks more with Ayako, were both silent, looking very sad. Their pet dog, Hanako, drooped her head and wagged her tail. Takako had taken care of Hanako, smart female dog, ever since she was a puppy.
Oh shit, Takako thought in her dream, how awful. I've only lived fifteen years. Hey Ayako, look after Mom and Dad, okay? You're so spoiled, so learn from your older sister a little, huh?
Then she saw Kahoru Kitazawa. Her one really close friend, the petite girl she'd been buddies with for seven years now.
Time to say goodbye to you too, Kahoru. That's right. You were the one who said that nothing, not even hell, could scare you as long as you gave it your best shot. That's right, I'm not afraid. But…it's still kinda hard, dying alone like this....
Then Kahoru seemed to be shouting. But she couldn't hear her well. It sounded like, "What about him?" Him?
Then the scene changed to her track team locker room. She knew it was the summer of her second year because this room had been torn down last fall, replaced by a new clubhouse. Hey, this is no dream. This actually happened. This…
An older teammate. His buzz-cut hair stood up in front, and he wore a white T-shirt with the words
"FUCK OFF!" on it and green track shorts with black lines. Playful but gentle-looking eyes. He was the guy she had a crush on. He was good at running hurdles. Now he was concentrating on taping up his knee which he'd injured a while ago. There was no one else besides them. Takako said, "You have a beautiful girlfriend. You two make a great couple."
Ah well, when it comes to him, I turn into an average girl. How lame.
"Yeah?" he lifted his face and smiled. "You're prettier than her." Takako smiled, but felt a little odd. She was happy to hear him praise her looks for the first time…but the fact he could tell another girl she was prettier also indicated how strong his relationship with his girlfriend was.
"Don't you have a boyfriend, Takako?" he asked, smiling.
The scene changed again.
She was at the park, but everything appeared very low.
Oh, this must be from my childhood. I must have been in the second or third grade. Hiroki Sugimura was crying in front of her. He wasn't tall the way he was now. In fact back then Takako was taller. A bully had taken away his brand new comic book.
"Come on, boys don't cry. Don't be such a wuss. Be strong. Come on. Our dog just had puppies. You wanna see them?"
"Okay…" Hiroki wiped his tears and tagged along.
Come to think of it, Hiroki started martial arts school the year after that. He also went through a growth spurt around then and eventually ended up taller than her.
Up until the end of elementary school they often visited each other. Once, when she seemed preoccupied, Hiroki asked her, "What's wrong, Takako? Something wrong?" Takako thought about it and then said what was on her mind. "Hey, Hiroki, what would you do if someone said they liked you?"
"Hmm. I don't know, since it's never happened to me."
"…don't you have a crush on someone?"
"Hmm. Nope. Not at this moment."
Takako then thought, so I'm not even in the running?
Whatever. She continued, "Oh, really. Well you should find someone you can confess to."
"I'm too chicken. I don't think so."
The scene changed. Junior high school again. They became classmates in their second year. They were talking on the first day of class. At some point, Hiroki asked, "So I heard there's this supposedly hot guy on the track team." Although he didn't directly say it, he was implying she had a crush on him.
"Who told you?"
"Just heard. So how's it going?"
"No hope. He has a girlfriend. What about you? You still don't have a girlfriend?"
"Leave me alone."
…we were always on the verge of being close. We both had a thing for each other but…or am I just imagining things? At least I liked you. I mean, it was different from how I felt about my track teammate. You know what I mean?
Hiroki's face appeared. He was crying.
"Takako. Don't die."
Come on guy, be a man. Boys don't cry. You might be bigger now, but you haven't made much progress.
Was it by the grace of God? Takako came to her senses once more. She opened her eyes. Hiroki Sugimura was looking down at her in the soft afternoon light. Beyond Hiroki she saw the treetops, and in between them fragments of the blue sky formed complex patterns like those in a Rorschach Test. The first thing she realized was that Hiroki wasn't crying.
Then she started wondering, "How did you…"
As she tried to form words with her mouth, she felt as if she were forcing open a rusty door. She realized she didn't have too long to live.
"…get here?"
All Hiroki said was, "I managed." He knelt down beside her and gently lifted up her head. She'd fallen face forward, but now for some reason she was facing up. The palm of her left hand (her left hand…no, the entire left side of her body was numb now, so she couldn't feel anything…it might have been from Kazushi Nüda's blow to the side of her head) felt the sensation of weeds underneath—had he carried her here?
Hiroki then asked quietly, "Who got you?"
That's right. It was important information.
"Mitsuko," Takako answered. She didn't give a damn about Kazushi Nüda anymore. "Be careful." Hiroki nodded. Then he said, "I'm sorry."
Takako didn't understand. She stared at Hiroki.
"I was hiding outside the school…waiting for you." Hiroki said and then tightened his lips as if holding something back.
"But…then Yoshio came back. I…I got distracted for a split second. Then…you know how you ran at full speed…1 lost you. I ran in your direction, calling after you, but…you were too far off by then." Oh no, Takako thought. So it was true. After she ran away from the school into the woods she thought she'd heard a distant voice. But she was so frantic she thought it was just her imagination—and if it wasn't, then it meant there was someone—so she continued running at full speed. Oh—
Hiroki had waited for her. Just as she'd suspected, he'd been waiting for her, risking his life. And when he said, "I managed," he probably meant that he'd been looking for her all this time. The thought made her want to cry.
Instead she did her best to form a smile on her face.
"Really? Thanks."
Takako knew that she couldn't talk much anymore. She tried to come up with the best thing to say, but then an odd question occurred to her and she blurted it out, "Do you have a crush on someone?" Hiroki's brows moved and then he gently said, "I do."
"Don't say it's me."
Still looking sad, Hiroki faintly smiled.
"No, its not."
"Well then…"
Takako took a deep breath. She felt as if poison were spreading through her body which strangely felt both chilly and at the same time incredibly hot. "Could you just…hold me tight? It'll be…over soon." Hiroki tightened his lips and raised her up, hugging her tightly to his body with both his arms. Her head was on the verge of falling back but Hiroki held it up.
She felt like she could say one more thing.
"You have to survive, Hiroki."
Dear God, can I have one more word?
Takako looked into Hiroki's eyes and grinned.
"You've become quite a stud."
Hiroki said, "And…you're the most stylin' girl in the world."
Takako smiled faintly. She wanted to thank him, but she was out of breath. She just stared at Hiroki's eyes. She was grateful. At least she wasn't going to die alone. The last person to stay with her ended up being Hiroki. And she was grateful. She really was.
Kahoru…thanks, I heard you.
Takako Chigusa remained in this position as she died approximately two minutes later. Her eyes remained open. Hiroki Sugimura held her limp, lifeless body and wept.
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