Chapter 17: Sprouting Seeds, Disappearing Seeds

I couldn't resist.

My momentum-driven body soars through the air and I'm in a head-first plunge position. ...How far will I fall from here?

A moment without leeway. The reversal of scenery.

My vision turns completely upside down, and only large flowers spread across the night sky. Don't mess with me.

「Seriously...!」

My body is slowly thrown outward.

Behind me is Orimoto, eyes wide with shock. I told that stupid woman to wait, but she couldn't stand it.

At least the towel I'm clutching.

「Orimoto, I'm throwing it!」

The voice I squeezed out is mixed with noise.

It gets drowned out by the wind, festival music, and fireworks.

Still, Orimoto seems to be listening.

「K-Kasugai-kun──!?」

「Catch it!!」

I hurl the towel toward the shrine grounds.

The wide fabric. Large air resistance.

It flutters and... lands on the grounds' floor. That's paved gravel. It should only get a little soot.

Orimoto's dumbfounded expression.

The gorgeous fireworks blooming behind her illuminate Orimoto's face... that's as far as I could see.

「──Gah.」

Pain that tears through me.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

A steep slope. The cliff's incline. From my back.

Branches tear at my arms, and something sharp like stones penetrating here and there in my clothes causes groaning pain.

I fall without even being able to speak.

I roll down the cliff, drawn by gravity. My consciousness dims at the nausea-inducing rotation speed.

「Ka, ha──」

What runs down my back is cold sweat, lukewarm blood, and friction with the ground. ──The sound disappeared for a moment. Instead, what echoes is the sensation of organs bouncing deep in my body.

(What the hell am I really doing?)

It's just a towel. Just a piece of cloth.

I don't particularly like Orimoto.

There's no deep meaning. A whimsical impulse.

A feeling like I'm not myself.

The pain, fear, and my own stupidity threaten to drive me crazy.

(Who's the idiot now...)

Why did I do something so out of character?

Why did I come to the festival?

(Damn it, how long will I keep falling...!)

The world keeps reversing repeatedly. The boundary between sky and ground becomes ambiguous. The sound of wind cutting by my ears.

My body was tumbling through the air.

And each time I rotate, I get an unpleasant sensation like being pulled back to the sky then slammed to the ground.

The body heat I was holding just moments ago.

The footing of the shrine grounds I was standing on.

Everything is moving away.

Time's flow becomes sluggish. One second becomes unusually long. One second that continues forever and ever.

I don't see something like a revolving lantern.

I don't have enough memories worth seeing.

But I was only concerned about Orimoto.

(...We still haven't solved anything.)

My leg hits something and bounces, changing my body's direction. My surroundings are dark and I can't see anything anymore.

But I'm still falling.

My body won't stop.

The air felt thin. My throat is blocked. I have no preparedness at all, only mounting fear.

「──Ga.」

The impact came soon.

─────

「────kun!」

I heard someone's voice. Someone's voice.

I'm slightly lifted by the feeling of being called.

Having consciousness means I'm alive. I can hardly believe it... but am I alive?

I was about to fall. To the bottom.

I was being dragged in by an invisible monster, thinking that if I fell like this I'd die.

My whole body feels crushed like it's been flattened.

Someone shakes me. It hurts.

「────igai-kun!」

Pain seeping through my whole body. Several places show more severe, intense pain asserting their presence. But I'm alive.

What's happening to my body?

That voice gradually becomes clearer. It calls me again and again and again, as if taking shape.

I recognize that voice. Far too well.

...I have to wake up, anyway.

「──sugai-kun!」

I have to open these heavy eyelids that are stuck shut.

Next I have to sit up.

After all... I'm still.

(...I thought I was dead.)

Toward the light. Toward the voice calling me.

I desperately push through the comfortable swaying and keep my consciousness that seems ready to fly away if I'm careless.

It felt like I'd be in trouble if I fainted.

It felt like I wouldn't be able to come back.

「You're loud. I can hear you.」

「──Kasugai-kun!!」

The moonlight was dazzling, and I almost reflexively closed the eyelids I forced open.

「Kasugai-kun! Kasugai-kun!!」

Orimoto's face filled my vision.

Her tears were wetting my cheek. At the same time, a soft sensation touched me. ──This is.

「...Yo, Orimoto.」

「C-Can you understand?! Can you understand me?!」

「Otherwise I wouldn't be calling your name...」

It was a towel.

The towel that was a present for Sera is now completely disheveled and has lost its original form.

「Kasugai-kun is alive. ...I'm so glad.」

「...Using the towel defeats the purpose.」

「Idiot!! You're such an idiot!」

Orimoto wiped me roughly.

「I can make another towel! If Kasugai-kun died, I, I...!!」

「...I just acted on impulse.」

「Idioot! Idiot, you're an idiot.」

I didn't mean to make her cry.

Trying to escape the subtle guilt, I tried to sit up. ...I tried to sit up.

「Oi, why are you holding me down.」

「...You still can't. Your wounds aren't clean yet.」

「...So it was a lap pillow.」

The reason my head didn't hurt even though I should have been lying on the ground was because Orimoto's thigh was my pillow.

However, I don't consider that lucky.

I'm not that kind of person.

「A beautiful girl's thigh, be grateful.」

「Ah, you have snot hanging.」

「That's the worst.」

Being held down so I can't escape, I reluctantly decided to accept the current situation.

Struggling just increases the pain.

The slender thigh visible from her uniform.

I felt somewhat uncomfortable.

But honestly, I didn't have confidence I could move properly. I won't convey that as a bit of bravado.

「You're so dirty... sniff.」

Orimoto, sniffling and crying while wiping her nose. Her eyes are slightly bloodshot and her face is pale.

The sultry, humid summer night season.

「After this, call an ambulance, okay? Even if you're conscious, you might have hit your head...」

「That's ridiculous, I'm fine.」

「No, call them.」

Orimoto brings her face close.

I can't escape from this distance where our breaths almost touch. I was reflected in her eyes.

It's a terrible face. It was covered in wounds.

「......Got it.」

「It's a promise. I'm coming with you.」

「You plan to ride in the ambulance...?」

「In a corner, just quietly.」

Orimoto smiles while applying the towel to my wounds. Despite myself, I find it comfortable and end up smiling too.

The delicate touch like handling glassware.

When I casually closed my eyes, the babbling of a stream blended naturally with the night's silence.

I suddenly put my hand to my head. It was wet.

My body also feels somewhat chilled to the bone. The water-soaked clothes clinging to my skin were unpleasant.

(...I see, I fell into the river.)

Orimoto murmured softly.

「When I rushed over, Kasugai-kun was washed up on the riverbank. ...You were lucky.」

Whatever she was aiming at, Orimoto gently brushed away my hand and started stroking with her own hand.

I feel a faint, gentle warmth.

Now that she mentions it, below the shrine grounds──the cliff's landing point is right in the middle of a wide river running through the city.

Apparently luck was on my side.

If it had been concrete or a mountain path, I would have mercilessly met my end. ...That was close.

「I called out to you many times.」

Orimoto pinches my cheek tightly.

「Ow! What are you doing!」

「I think Kasugai-kun is in the wrong~」

Being stared at intently, I lose my words. I'm aware I went too far, so I can't argue back.

While I'm internally screaming at the pain in my cheek, Orimoto gently starts stroking my head again. But the pressure is stronger than before, somewhat clinging.

「...I thought you might have died. ...I don't want that, I'd really be all alone.」

The tears that had almost stopped overflow again.

The drops that slowly trace down my cheek are hot. Incomparably hotter than the hand stroking my head.

「I... was more scared of Kasugai-kun dying than anything. More than staying like this myself.」

「That's definitely going too far...」

「No, I really meant it.」

I don't have material to deny it.

I have no reason to reject Orimoto's statement.

「So, don't do dangerous things anymore.」

Orimoto cups my cheeks with both hands.

I can't read the emotions deep in those eyes. But I could tell it was a voice filled with determination.

「I was being weak-hearted. Thinking I might disappear, or what if it stays like this.」

Orimoto nods repeatedly.

「But you know? Conversely, it's because Kasugai-kun is here that I've been able to get this far, right?」

「...I haven't done anything.」

「I totally knew you'd say that~!」

My cheek gets poked with a finger.

It's exquisitely annoying and makes me want to show blue veins.

Suddenly she scoops up the tears running down my cheek.

「My crying face isn't cute.」

「You didn't tell me not to look.」

「......Meanie.」

At the shrine grounds, Orimoto had asked me if she could cry. She was desperately holding back tears then.

But she was crying now.

She was a skillful woman who could cry while smiling.

I don't understand the intent behind it with my level, but there surprisingly wasn't a heavy burden.

It might be my misunderstanding, though.

「──Can you stand if I support you?」

「Ahh, pathetically I'll probably need to rely on you.」

How many minutes passed from there?

We exchanged trivial conversations.

We're not having any deep discussions.

Just surface-level words. In the distance, the festival's closing ceremony announcement was faintly echoing.

「...The festival ended~」

「I don't have any particular sentimentality. I didn't do anything.」

「That's just like Kasugai-kun.」

I get lightly smacked on the back.

A stinging pain seeped through and I grimaced. This woman... I'll definitely get her back someday.

「Also, "didn't do anything" is a lie.」

When told this, I tilt my head.

「Because I made memories with Kasugai-kun.」

「Memories with me have no value so throw them away.」

「I don't want to. I took lots of photos.」

The smartphone thrust at me has several pictures of my blunt face saved. Too gross.

But can only I see these photos?

...I'll let her do what she wants.

「...Sorry about the towel.」

「It's really okay. I can weave another one, and things exist to be used. ...Besides, you know?」

Orimoto casts a shadow over her face.

「To begin with, it's my fault for inviting Kasugai-kun to give that guy a present. I made you get hurt too.」

「I see, certainly. That's your fault.」

「......Uhhh.」

She casts an even deeper shadow.

A negative aura emanates from her whole body, threatening to envelop even me as I walk supported by her.

「Well, I'm joking. About 70% serious though.」

「Kasugai-kun is──Kasugai-kun is!!」

「...Well, it was refreshing though.」

I smiled wryly. Refreshing, well put.

Since childhood, I've hardly had opportunities to hang out with anyone. I don't even have memories with my parents.

Festivals were at most listening to the flutes and drums from portable shrines.

Vaguely watching from home was what festivals meant to me. Not just festivals, but more familiar things too. For example, selecting birthday presents.

All of it was refreshing and full of surprises.

I'm cynical and twisted, but I can't possibly think that Orimoto, who's like a bundle of goodwill, should disappear.

「...Refreshing? What?」

「Nothing, just thinking unusual things are happening. It's annoying and troublesome, but I probably won't be bored.」

「Just now! You definitely! Made fun of me!」

「Yeah, I definitely made fun of you.」

I still can't judge how to handle the distance with the extroverted Orimoto to make things run smoothly.

But I want to help her somehow.

If Sera, Michikusa, and Kanzashi-senpai can't move, maybe I should do it.

─────

「...Thanks. Kasugai-kun.」

We walked along the river and arrived at the riverbank.

And then to the nearby residential area.

Earlier at the riverbank when I tried to call an ambulance and opened my smartphone, it was unexpectedly out of range. It wouldn't connect.

Also, the fact that my water-submerged smartphone wasn't broken was something I can only describe as the wonders of civilization's tools.

Coming here, I was given strange looks many times. From an outsider's perspective, a wounded man walking alone.

...That was naturally expected.

「What for.」

Putting it to my ear──a ringtone. For me, there's just pain. My bones don't seem broken either.

However, Orimoto won't be satisfied with that.

I should probably get examined for appearances' sake.

「For watching out for me!」

「...You're the one who keeps following me around.」

「Hehe, you could say that too.」

The call connected. I lean against a nearby telephone pole and explain the situation to the other end.

I couldn't exactly say I jumped off a cliff myself, so I blamed it on slipping.

Several matter-of-fact exchanges.

Apparently an ambulance will come to pick me up soon.

I exhale the stagnant air in my chest.

──Then I suddenly notice something strange.

「Orimoto, what are you doing??」

Looking over, she's farther away than where she was standing before. She seemed to be staring at something.

I can't see it from my position.

Moving my body was also troublesome.

Maybe the extent of my injuries is actually worse than I thought, given that I can't move properly without support, just as Orimoto predicted.

I lean against the telephone pole and look up at the night sky.

A clear sky without a single cloud spread out. I was enduring the pain and waiting for the ambulance when.

「──Kasugai-kun!! Kasugai-kun!!」

「Fuwah! ...Don't suddenly scare me like that.」

「I-Inori confessed! To Keiichi!」

I couldn't hear footsteps over the car traffic. With a panicked demeanor, Orimoto shakes my hand up and down.

I raised an eyebrow at the serious atmosphere.

「Calm down. Who did what?」

「Inori! Confessed to Keiichi!」

「Sera gets confessed to all the time.」

After all, it's the perfect opportunity of a festival.

Girls who want to become his girlfriend emerge in droves. It's nothing particularly surprising.

「Ah, the ambulance should be here soon.」

「Really? That's good...」

Orimoto sighs in relief, patting her chest.

But the next moment she opens and closes her mouth.

「That's not it! No, Kasugai-kun's thing is important too, but that Inori confessed, you know?!」

I wish she'd let go of my hand. It hurts.

「...Looks like she got rejected though. I thought Inori and he might date.」

「Is that girl close with Sera?」

「What?! We're talking about Inori, you know? I-no-ri!」

Couples in yukata passing by.

A family discussing the fireworks.

「Wait, Orimoto.」

There was an ordinary scene, and too ordinary scenes, and I asked an ordinary question.

「──Who is Inori?」