Chapter 19: Two People

Had I ever truly been acknowledged by someone while living? My memory is vague.

I didn't get along well with my parents.

A father and mother who don't come home.

I won't say that's the cause of everything.

I was aware that I'm poor at interacting with people. I don't know how to become good at it.

They were residents of an entirely different dimension.

So. Is that why?

I was about to be overwhelmed.

──Kasugai-kun.

─────

My parched throat rasps with each breath.

When I woke up, a ceiling spread out before me. I felt a stinging pain from the light streaming through the window.

「...Man, everything hurts in various ways...」

Inorganic electronic sounds. Desolate walls.

It was strangely quiet.

When I turned my face sideways, I squinted at the streaming sunlight. A room with an overall white motif.

I can guess──this is probably a hospital.

「Did I collapse?」

I remember the clinging nausea. More than physical pain, I was tormented by mental anguish.

Unbearable unreasonableness had rushed over me.

The unpleasant feeling had increased since waking up.

But it had softened somewhat.

After casually looking around at the floor, walls, and decorations, I peeled off the sheets covering me.

Bandages are wrapped and poultices stuck in various places.

I see, so that's why it hurts.

I sit up and regulate my breathing. The pain in various places was dull but steadily producing suffering.

「Even I can laugh at myself.」

I laugh through my nose in self-deprecation.

What am I doing? Jumping off a cliff to protect a towel isn't sane.

It was clearly abnormal behavior.

「What's done is done, though.」

I muttered to no one in particular.

While seeking reasons and grounds is my nature, this is inexplicable.

I acted on impulse. A moment of madness.

Nothing more, nothing less.

「...Ah, this feels awful.」

Though it had softened, the unpleasant sensation from that day still existed. I lean my body against the hospital bed.

The faint smell of medicine is irritating to my nose.

I have a headache.

But I remember.

「Orimoto and...Michikusa, huh.」

I mutter to myself.

I witnessed the moment when her outline became clear. I also experienced the sensation of being erased from memory.

That just breeds irritation.

To begin with, why did Michikusa disappear?

Orimoto said Michikusa confessed to Sera. So the condition is still caused by rejection?

No matter how much I think, no answer comes.

──I have questions too.

If touching makes you able to see, then everyone who touches Orimoto should be able to see her.

But there don't seem to be signs of that.

What has happened to me?

Having Orimoto make me touch Michikusa was a spontaneous action, and as a result it tilted toward the good.

You could also say...my worries increased.

(...For now, should I call someone?)

The wall clock showed just before noon. I can't judge how many days I've been sleeping.

I searched for my smartphone but couldn't find it.

Had it been confiscated?

When I clicked the nurse call by my pillow, a nurse appeared within a few minutes.

The sound of doors opening and closing. A nurse in a white coat.

She glanced at my condition and simply stated matter-of-factly, "Your consciousness seems clear".

It was just business-like interaction.

There was no dramatic calling for a doctor like in dramas, which was somewhat anticlimactic.

Well, it's helpful that it's not noisy.

My pulse is taken and the clarity of my consciousness questioned.

After finishing several short exchanges, the nurse quietly left the room.

The nurse bowed briefly and the door closed.

That sound strangely lingered in my ears.

The room was enveloped in silence again.

If I listened carefully, I could hear cicadas crying outside the window. Magnificent cumulonimbus clouds stretched across the blue sky.

「How are those guys doing?」

According to the nurse, I'd lost consciousness last night. In other words, just a night had passed.

My body seemed unexpectedly sturdy.

How are Orimoto and Michikusa doing?

I wanted to check if any messages had arrived on my smartphone, but it's not with me. I did something uncharacteristic.

(...Trying to contact someone.)

I look up at the ceiling.

I get bored in just a few seconds. Round and round my thoughts go, and only useless things float up.

Orimoto's future.

Michikusa's future.

When I breathe, the depths of my lungs feel heavy.

A sensation like wet gravel is stuffed in my chest. Every time I breathe, various parts of my body ache.

Electronic sounds from machines are carved into the room at regular intervals. The difference from last night's commotion was building discomfort.

Each time a sound rings, the silence is emphasized.

Orimoto's bothersome voice isn't here. Since it had been normal to have it constantly lately, I was even more restless.

──Why did I jump off?

Death had even crawled up beside me.

If I hadn't been lucky enough to wash up on the riverbank, I'd definitely be making friends with the bottom of the water.

After that, Michikusa's existence disappeared.

It was normal not to be able to remember.

I fainted again from unbearable pain.

Why haven't I cut ties with those guys? Without even minding that my peace gets disrupted.

「Troublesome things just keep increasing.」

The hands of the clock on the wall advance.

The movement is slow, but the minute and hour hands are definitely advancing. The world continued turning as always.

The wounds all over my body were proof of being alive.

Large flowers in the night sky. A woven towel.

The disappearance of Michikusa, Orimoto's best friend.

After a night, it might have been resolved somewhere I don't know about. That would be good.

Suddenly, two sets of footsteps.

──The hospital room door is opened.

I thought it was a doctor, but it was different from my expectation.

She...they were standing there.

The moment I saw the two outlines, my chest clenched tightly. Several seconds of silence dominate the scene.

「......Kasugai-kun...」

Orimoto Suzuka's voice was hoarse.

Behind the open door. Summer sunlight streaming through the window illuminates chestnut-colored hair and golden hair.

「...What's with that face?」

Her face looked like she was about to cry, yet somehow had a peaceful smile. Contradictory.

A strangely half-hearted voice came from my mouth.

What emotion should I have put into it?

I was poor at interpersonal relations.

「Hey, say something──」

Orimoto doesn't answer my question.

Instead, she took a step forward.

Her long eyelashes tremble.

Gaze meets gaze.

「You woke up...」

...With the utmost care, Orimoto gently wrapped my wounded, rough hand in both of hers.

It was the warmth of a living human.

「...I'm so glad… really...」

「You're being dramatic. Crying over every little thing.」

While saying that, I was overwhelmed by the amount of tears. She's been a crybaby since yesterday.

I scratch the tip of my nose to cover up.

I stiffen my lips in awkwardness.

Sobbing echoes against the hospital room walls. Orimoto was strong, yet a woman who cried often.

「......」

When I try to move my body, pain shoots through me.

Even trying to endure it showed on my face. Orimoto astutely noticed and brought her face close.

「Don't push yourself...!」

This girl has a weird sense of distance.

「You lost consciousness twice...I thought you might not make it...! I, I forced you to!」

「......My bad.」

I don't think Orimoto is at fault.

Orimoto had worked hard in her own way to solve what happened to Michikusa, and this was the result.

Then I'm the one who should apologize, even if just formally.

I caused unnecessary worry with my selfish actions.

「The towel thing was my arbitrary decision, and it's not like you'd normally think touching Michikusa would lead to that.」

「But, even so...I...!」

Orimoto stubbornly won't bend her opinion.

There's no point in repeating this back-and-forth. I seek help from the golden-haired girl next to me.

「Michikusa...calm this girl down.」

「Suzuka has stubborn aspects.」

Michikusa, who had been listening without interrupting the conversation, nodded with a small motion.

Then she pats Orimoto's head several times.

「Calm down, Suzuka. Kasugai is making a troublesome face. He's troubled that you won't stop crying.」

「...You say it clearly.」

「Inori thinks being direct is better.」

Regardless of whether the logic makes sense, the constructive way of speaking somehow suits Michikusa.

「Inori~! Uu, sniff...!」

「Dirty. You'll stain the yukata.」

Michikusa was in geta and yukata.

This means──that's how it is.

...I rubbed my chin with my fingertips.

「Inori is so cold! Kasugai-kun...!」

「...You've got snot hanging again, stupid woman.」

「You're harsh right after waking up!」

It took quite a while for Orimoto to stop crying. The more I know, the more new faces I discover.

That was also a fresh sensation.

「──I heard the situation from Suzuka.」

I looked at the two alternately.

This scene, the fact that no one else can see it, seems inevitably strange.

「Yukata, hard to move in.」

Michikusa pulls up her sleeve.

The gorgeous orange yukata and obi expressed the disconnect from the hospital room more than being beautiful.

I see, as expected──.

「That yukata is fixed?」

「Seems like it. When I woke up I was in yukata, and wearing geta automatically. I can walk but it hurts so I don't like it.」

Michikusa shakes her head slightly.

「I roughly understand.」

Michikusa suddenly speaks calmly.

「Inori seems to have definitely disappeared.」

「You're accepting it pretty readily.」

「No point worrying about it. Besides, it's not just Inori, there's Suzuka who understands. And Kasugai too.」

I take a deep breath and exhale.

The questions settled in the depths of my heart just keep increasing. ──People disappearing is impossible.

And for it to be two people.

「...Well, you know.」

Problems just keep piling up.

Rather than solving them, walls just keep weaving together in layers, and before I know it I'm covered in bandages.

「You guys are still alive, at least.」

Orimoto blinks repeatedly and sniffles.

Michikusa tilts her head with sleepy eyes unchanged.

「You're noisy and bothersome.」

「Kasugai-kun, that's exactly your problem.」

「Is Kasugai tsundere?」

「No way!」

When I raise my voice, my lungs hurt.

What the hell are they saying?

「Look, I worry and this is what I get.」

「...That's his way of being caring, Kasugai-kun is terrible at following up, isn't he?」

Orimoto chuckles and adjusts her uniform sleeves with the flow. She clicked across the hospital room floor with her loafers.

「Ah, you saw my crying face again...!」

「Again? ...Is Kasugai actually a scumbag?」

「I'll knock you flying, you bastards.」

This is the worst. I was already being led around by just Orimoto, and now Michikusa has joined the battle.

Moreover, the two are best friends.

This is exponentially noisy.

「...I'm getting discharged quickly.」

「Yeah! My partner-kun, please do your best. If anything happens with your injuries, I'll support you~?」

「First, I don't remember becoming partners.」

「You still haven't acknowledged it...?!」

Perhaps having heard about our relationship level from Orimoto to some degree, there's no shock on Michikusa's face.

The silence ended.

The quiet hospital room now has Orimoto's laughter as she wipes away tear traces and Michikusa's sharp poisonous tongue flying back and forth.

I ask through gaps in the conversation.

「...So, what are you going to do from here?」

At my words, Orimoto, with her nose still red, puffs out her chest and dramatically points her finger up.

「Solve it! Absolutely! ...The method is, well, we still don't know anything though.」

「So? Everything's just going with the flow?」

「Kasugai-kun will be there too, right?」

Then Michikusa opens her mouth vacantly.

「Then strategy meeting when Kasugai gets better.」

「...Inori, what's a strategy meeting? What do we do?」

「That's still undecided.」

The geta makes a clacking sound.

「Anyway, knowing Suzuka, she's only been doing reckless, haphazard things.」

「Gunu...I was totally found out...!」

「Inori holds Suzuka's reins.」

I have haphazard aspects too, so I deliberately maintained silence here.

Watching this scene of them laughing together in front of me, I can glimpse the depth of their friendship.

They're what you'd call close friends.

──The conversation eventually flows, and Orimoto raises her hand.

「I request the strategy meeting be somewhere cool!」

「Agreed.」

「...You're free.」

I smile wryly.

The hospital room will probably have occasional visits from medical staff, so it's inappropriate for calm discussion.

「After discharge, strategy meeting somewhere cool about future movements. ──Is this good?」

「No objections!」

Orimoto smiles cheerfully.

「Ah, this makes it a party instead of partners! Kasugai-kun is the leader!」

「Inori is strategist. Suzuka is warrior.」

「Hey, Inori? Does that role suit me? Does it? I want a cuter role...!」

Before I knew it, I'd become the leader.

"Three women make a crowd" is a famous saying.

But even two are sufficiently noisy, and my retorts can't keep up. Just listening is tiring.

「...You guys, where's your sense of crisis?」

Exasperated, I put my hand to my forehead.

Is this how best friends get carried away?

Suddenly the cicadas' voices ring out especially loud. The blue outside the window was also unusually vivid compared to earlier.

Surely, nothing is over yet.

「──Ah, a doctor might have come! Inori, move aside, if you bump into them they'll make suspicious faces?」

「Roger.」

The beautiful girl combo avoiding the doctor and nurse who entered. No gazes are directed at them.

The doctor and nurse are only looking at me.

They've been erased from the world.

Photos, memories, personal belongings, proof of having lived, all of it had been completely obliterated.

「Ah, the stethoscope is being applied and I twitched. Wow, I might have seen some stomach...!」

「Suzuka, noisy. Be quiet.」

I was being messed with as they pleased.

Taking advantage of me not being able to move.

I'll get them back.

「Your irritation is leaking. Kasugai.」

「......I'm definitely going to corner you later.」

「This time Suzuka was bad.」

Summary.

Supernatural phenomenon.

Orimoto Suzuka.

Michikusa Inori.

Both disappeared from the world.

They became invisible to others.

All details remain unknown.

Beginning.

I became involved with Orimoto Suzuka, who was agonizing on the footbridge over this reality.

This led to the present situation.

(...Recovery is the prerequisite.)

How we should move going forward, first I need to heal my body's wounds. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be long-term hospitalization.

But man...I'm quite the oddball.

I'm sticking my neck into trouble.

(Wonder what'll happen...)

In the corner of the hospital room, the two beautiful girls chatting happily are invisible to others, yet they're there.

If my involvement can change something.

Currently, the peak of summer season.

「Ah, I twitched again. Let me take a photo.」

That bastard, you better be ready later.