site 39: Miyuu Aikawa

“Did you go to the cops about your friend?”

“Her family said they filed a missing person’s report,” I said as my gaze wandered outside the window.

I was sitting on the second floor of the Excelsior near the entrance to Sun Road, and I could look down and see the people below me clearly. It was late afternoon, so there were lots of housewives doing evening shopping and students heading home from school.

But inside the café, it was mostly female customers. I didn’t see anyone but me who was wearing a uniform. Teenage girls like me tended to prefer fast food places like McDonald’s.

It was Toko, not me, who’d chosen this place.

I dunno... I felt a little nervous.

The heater was on inside the café, but I felt cold, and I wrapped my arms around myself.

I told myself it wasn’t good to worry too much, and tried to take my mind off it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Chi. My mind kept coming back to her.

“Where did she go...?”

Chi was my classmate and best friend. The only reason I’d started “Myu’s Nicco-Nico Live Fortune-Telling” was because she’d told me to. She’d always helped me with the broadcasts, too. She’d always been there to cheer me up. It was thanks to her that I had the courage to continue this project.

“You okay?” Toko asked.

She had shown up right on time for our meeting, and she’d been worried when she’d seen the look on my face.

It was just like a grown-up woman to be able to be kind without being too obvious. She was really someone I could respect, so I couldn’t think of anybody to talk to about this except her.

“So did you find anything?”

“I’ve been peeking into all the places she used to go every day on the way home from school... But of course, she’s not there... I’m not sure what to do...”

“A missing persons report isn’t enough to get the police to do anything, yeah...”

I squeezed my hands into tight fists on top of my lap. It had been a week since Chi had vanished. Every day, I kept trying to stop myself from imagining the worst that could happen.

Yesterday I’d finally seen Gamo, who’d been out of touch for a full week too, and so I’d been a little hopeful that maybe I’d see Chi as well.

“When I think about what happened in Inokashira Park, I just get scared. I feel like maybe Chi was one of the people they found down there... I don’t really want to think about it, but...” Maybe I shouldn’t have listened to Gamo when he was coming up with all his ideas on the case. I started to freak out and ended up coming to Toko for help.

“It’s true that they haven’t ID’d half the bodies from the lake,” Toko commented.

I hadn’t looked to see if Chi’s name was among the ones they had found. When I thought about seeing her name on that list, I got so scared.

Since I hadn’t heard anything from Chi’s mom, I’d been telling myself that she had nothing to do with that case.

“Don’t think about it too much. Believe, and keep waiting. I know some people with the police, so I’ll ask them.”

“Yeah... thanks.” She was so nice that I wanted to cry, but I bit my lip and stopped myself.

I took a sip of the maple latte she’d bought for me. Its sweetness and warmth made me feel a little better. “I feel a little better, I think.”

“I see. I’m glad to hear it.” Toko rested her chin on her hands and sighed. “I’ve been a little busy lately. Maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention to what’s been going on around me. Somebody I knew died recently, you see.”

“...” I gazed out the window halfheartedly. I could see my own sad-looking reflection in the glass.

It reminded me of the vision of the bottom of the water that I’d seen before. Maybe that vision had something to do with the Inokashira Park incident...? No way.

“Hey, Toko. Do people really just... die like that?” I didn’t even realize what I’d said. “Do you think there’s life after death, Toko?”

An editor at Mumuu would definitely say yes to that, so I thought it was a bit of an unfair question. I wanted someone to tell me what I wanted to hear, so I’d decided to ask her as opposed to someone else.

“Yeah. Of course there is.”

But even so, hearing Toko agree made me feel better.

“I think without the afterlife, the world seems a lot more cramped.” Toko smiled a little as she kept talking. “You can replace afterlife with ‘heaven’ or ‘the spirit world,’ if you prefer. But I’ve always wanted to find real, unassailable proof that something like that existed. Something non-religious, I mean.”

“I hope you find it someday, Toko.” If she ever did, maybe I wouldn’t be scared to die. Maybe I’d be able to really see my dad again.

“Just leave it to me. But when I do find it, I’m charging an entrance fee for all humanity. There’ll be no exception for you, Miyuu.” Toko puffed out her chest and laughed.

“Oh, I wanted your help with something, Toko.”

“What is it? I’m not offering discounts on that entrance fee.”

I opened the photo gallery on my phone and showed her a picture.

“What do you think of this?”

She looked at the phone with the stern expression she never let me see.

“Hmm... It’s definitely not a ghost photo, I can say that.” She stared at it for a while and then smiled a bit.

“It’s the last picture that Chi sent me. You see that weird white light, right?” I’d shown it to Toko because she was an editor at Mumuu and supposedly had a strong sixth sense.

“I think this is just light bouncing off a cell phone strap or something.”

“I see...” I felt a little better hearing that, so that was good. But now my clue was gone.

“But... I feel a little better.” Toko put the phone on the table, still smiling, and said something strange.

“You feel better?”

“Yeah. That’s right. About your friend Chi... If there’s one thing I can say...”

“...”

“She’s still alive.”

“What do you mean?”

“If the photo you just showed me really is a clue about Chi, I don’t feel any waves of the dead coming from it. You know, I can tell these things.”

“Y-Yeah...” Her words made me so happy that I teared up a little.

“So you need to keep a hold of yourself, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, by the way, Miyuu.” When we left the café, Toko turned to me as if she’d remembered something. “Have you been meeting with that guy from Kirikiri Basara lately?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I nodded, and Toko adjusted her glasses. The light from the streetlamp flashed off them for a second... or so I thought.

How did Toko know about that? Had she seen the article about me that Gamo had made?

“What’s he like?”

“What’s he like...?” I never thought she’d take an interest in Gamo. Was it okay to tell the truth...?

“He’s kind of a loser. Not the type I’d want as a boyfriend.”

Gamo, I’m sorry.

“Does he seem dangerous?”

“Oh, no, not like that. Not at all. Really. Gamo is... Oh, his name is Yuta Gamon. He’s a pervert.”

“There’s lots of perverts in my editorial office, so I’m used to them.” Toko started to walk towards the station. As she walked, she asked me about Gamo’s age and what he did for a living, and while I hesitated, I answered her.

Eventually she crossed her arms, as if lost in thought, and then pulled me to the side of the street. She stared right into my eyes with a serious look.

“Listen, Miyuu. Can you introduce me to this Gamon kid sometime soon?”

“Huh?”

“He might have something to do with some private research I’m doing.”

“Huh? Really? Did he do something wrong?”

“Oh, no. It’s not like that. But it feels like a lot of important information goes up on that Kirikiri Basara site of his. I want to talk to him.”

“Oh, okay. I’m sure it’s fine.” Gamo would probably break down in tears of joy if he heard an editor from Mumuu wanted to talk to him. At least, he certainly wouldn’t turn her down.

“Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be asking you things.”

I said goodbye to Toko in front of the station and started to walk home.

The instant I was alone, I heard a spooky song from my bag, one you might hear in a suspense movie. This was the melody I used when I got a call from a number not on my contacts list.

I quickly took my phone out of my bag, and sure enough, it was a number I didn’t recognize.

“Chi?!” I answered the phone without even thinking about it.

“...”

“Hello?! Is that you, Chi?!”

“...” They said nothing, but I could hear them breathing.

“Hello?! Chi? It’s you, right?” I screamed into the phone.

And then...

“Um... no.” The voice that replied wasn’t Chi’s. It belonged to a man.

I was so disappointed I wanted to hang up. But...

“I want to talk to you about my dad.”

“Who are you...?”

“Sarai. We talked on your livestreaming program, remember?”

“...!” My heart skipped a beat.

Yeah, I remembered. I’d talked to him on my Nicco-Nico Live Fortune-Telling Program a month or so ago.

Gamo had said he was a Basariter, a regular on Kirikiri Basara. He’d pretended to have a question and called in just to humiliate me, but the vision I’d seen was so painful and shocking that I’d cried.

—There’s things you want to say to your dad, right? Now’s your only chance! If you don’t do it right away, you’ll super regret it!

That’s what I’d said.

And after that, his dad had died. I hadn’t been able to speak when I’d seen it on the news. I’d felt a pain in my heart. If I hadn’t told his fortune, maybe his dad would’ve survived.

“Sarai... Hashigami, right?” I knew his name because I’d seen it in the vision.

“...That’s right.” He didn’t seem surprised that I’d guessed his name.

But how did he know this number? The phone number I’d used for my Nico broadcasts was for a different phone that I didn’t usually use.

“Oh, I see. You’ve gone silent for more than a second because you’re wondering how I got your private cell phone number, right? It’s simple.”

He felt like another person who’d be a pain in the butt, in a completely different way than Gamo.

“My father was on TV several times. One of the producers from a show he did came to the funeral. And that producer introduced me to the director of the program you’d appeared on.”

Did he mean Don’t Miss It! POM!?! The world was a smaller place than it looked.

“So you watched the program I was on?”

“No... I googled it.”

I-I see. So he didn’t know everything, then.

“So... what do you want me to do?”

“Can we meet somewhere?” Sarai said he wanted to talk about his dad.

I remembered the vision I’d seen during my broadcast. It was so noisy that I could only understand fragments of it, and I’d been under so much stress that I think I mixed a lot of it up with memories of my own dad.

Would I be able to answer his questions? Regardless, I felt like I had to talk to him.

“...Alright.”