Plate 5: Sachet

Plate 5:
Sachet

 

Scene 1

 

KAZUKI WAS FIVE at the time.

It was a bright, sunny afternoon at the beginning of spring when the Yasakas brought home the fourth member of their family. Their living room overlooked the Sumida River, lined with sakura trees that blossomed beautifully in the spring. They decided to name the little boy Haruka, after the Japanese word for the season that was upon them.

“…Haruka,” Kazuki said softly, testing the name.

Kazuki could see his reflection in the baby’s misty eyes. Haruka’s hand, smaller than an autumn leaf, stretched slowly toward him. When he reached his out in return, the baby clasped his finger tightly. Kazuki was surprised at the strength of his little brother’s grip, and he felt a sense of duty, one he couldn’t describe in words, swell in his chest.

Kazuki’s father, who watched from beside him, wrapped his arm around Kazuki’s shoulder and said, “You’re an older brother now.”

That’s when it hit him.

That’s right, I am an older brother now!

Kazuki felt joy then, at meeting someone that he needed to protect. He gently leaned his face in toward Haruka’s. The baby smelled of sweet milk and sunshine.

Ever since that day, the two of them were always together.

Haruka’s first word was “Kaa-cha,” a nickname that sounded similar to the Japanese word for mother (Kaa-chan). This led to a disagreement in which their mother insisted Haruka was calling her name, while Kazuki swore it was his name. The boys’ father, looking rather dejected, had to play peacemaker.

One day, their happiness was abruptly cut short.

 

Kazuki was ten years old when his grandfather on his dad’s side became terminally ill. As all of his relatives gathered at his grandfather’s bedside, the old man suddenly pointed his finger at Kazuki and said, “Your real mother was a disaster.”

For a moment, Kazuki had no idea what he meant. He could tell, however, from the chilly air around him, that the woman beside him was not who his grandfather meant. As he stood there, dazed, he understood that he didn’t belong. The only saving grace of the situation had been that Haruka slept through it all and hadn’t heard a peep.

He had a real mother out there; one he had been ripped away from. His parents were tight-lipped about the details, but they eventually told him that he was actually the child of his father’s older brother.

“Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the four of us are a family,” his father gently assured him. Kazuki tried to believe him.

But we’re not really family. I’m the only one who isn’t connected to them. Such thoughts came daily, unbidden, flitting through his head again and again.

Suddenly, everything that they shared up until now—matching striped outfits for the whole family, the four of them gathered at the table for a piping hot breakfast—he could no longer enjoy sincerely. Just seeing Haruka’s face, as the younger boy innocently idolized him, felt painful for Kazuki. He no longer knew the scent of happiness.

Scene 2

 

THE KAMINARI 5656 MEETING HALL, located in Asakusa and owned by the Tokiwadou Kaminari Okoshi Head Office, was a performance hall with a long history. It had a flashy exterior and a traditional arched roof, like something straight out of a Japanese fairy tale. This was where the local idol Azuma Sara’s meet-and-greet event was to be held that day.

“It’s here! That’s Sara’s car!” Kazuki said as he watched the van slip into the parking lot. He hefted the box holding his Sara disguise in his hands.

“Hey, are we seriously doing this?” asked Toi, who’d let himself get wrapped up in this despite his reservations.

“Of course we are! I’m going to see this mission through to the end!” They even labeled the mission “Operation Kidnap Azuma Sara.”

“Why are you like this?”

At Toi’s question, Kazuki looked confused. “Huh? Oh, you mean why I’m not dressed up yet? I’m going to change after—”

“No, not that! I mean, you know about me now… Why haven’t you said anything?”

Seeing how awkward Toi was acting, Kazuki dropped the tone of his voice a bit and said, “I was scared at first, but I was also jealous of you. Incredibly jealous.”

“What the…? I don’t get you at all.”

“Yeah, sorry. I know it’s probably all just me being selfish.”

The expression on Toi’s face made it clear that he didn’t understand.

“All right, let’s go,” said Kazuki, trying to switch gears. “First we have to deal with the manager.”

 

“Okay, Sara, I’ll come get you ten minutes before it’s time to go on stage,” the manager said as he ducked out of her dressing room.

“Roger that, dish ✩,” she called back, sounding just as dreamy as she did on TV.

Toi took one glance at the door, labeled “Azuma Sara’s Dressing Room,” and promptly followed after the manager.

 

“Hm-hmm, hum. ♪” The manager was in a cheerful mood as he relieved himself inside the old-style bathroom. “Sara’s finally gotten popular enough to hold her own personal event at the 5656 Meeting Hall. If we keep this up, we might actually make it to the Budokan arena one day!” He continued muttering about his dreams of grandeur, trying to slide up his zipper when—

Creaaaaak.

He could hear the door to one of the stalls behind him crack open.

“Hm?”

In the mirror in front of him, the manager watched as a man in a kappa mask whipped out a cucumber.

“Gyaaaah?! Guh?! Urgh?!”

A sign hung on the door to the men’s bathroom that read Closed for Cleaning. The noises echoing from behind the door certainly seemed disturbing for a simple cleaning, but silence settled back over the area soon enough.

“Phew…” Toi pulled the mask to the side of his face and heaved a sigh. In the stall in front of him sat the manager, bound and pantsless, looking utterly depraved.

“What the heck am I doing…?” Toi’s complaint slipped out the bathroom window along with the man’s pants, disappearing in the wind.

 

Sara lifted her head at hearing a knock on the door. The smartphone in her hand displayed the thumbnails for a series of cucumber photos: the phrase “cucumbers around the world” had been typed into the search engine above.

“Pardon the intrusion.” The person who entered the room wore a kappa mask on his face.

If Sara were a normal idol, she would have immediately called for help after an intruder slipped into her room. As fate would have it, however, the man in the kappa mask held the very cucumber in his hand that he used in his crime moments ago.

“It’s a cucumber, dish! ✩” she said happily.

“We’d like you to do a PR photoshoot before you go on stage for the meet-and-greet.” He gestured with the cucumber, and Sara’s eyes followed it greedily. She was too focused on it to question his request.

“Okay, dish. ✩”

Toi sighed behind his kappa mask, a little surprised at how easily he managed to lure her out of the room with him.

“What the heck am I doing…?” he muttered, not for the first time today, though no one paid attention to his complaint.

One person watched Toi’s careful execution of the plan—Sara-Kazuki. “Kuji, you did it!” He stepped out of the shadows and slipped into Sara’s waiting room, safe and unnoticed.

 

“Okay, everything’s in place,” Kazuki told himself. As he sat at the extravagant vanity, his smartphone chirped at him, alerting him of a new message.

Harukappa: I just arrived at the meeting hall! I’ll finally be able to meet you! A selfie of Haruka in front of the venue was attached to the text.

Sara: Thanks for coming! I am excited to meet you too, dish! ✩

Harukappa: Remember how we talked about a secret code yesterday? I thought of a good one!

Sara: Okay, tell me!

Sara-Kazuki’s expression remained dark the whole time, at odds with the cheerful replies he was sending. The words Toi said to him before replayed through his mind: You and I aren’t so different. We’re the kind of people who’ll do anything to get what we want. Toi couldn’t have been more right.

Kazuki dressed up as Haruka’s favorite female idol, created a fake account to connect with his little brother, and even went so far as kidnapping Sara today so he could fulfill his promise. All for Haruka.

Even I know this is insane, he thought.

Harukappa: I’ll say, “From beginning to end.” And you’ll say, “We’re all connected in a great big circle”

Kazuki’s fingers trembled as he typed his reply.

Sara: That’s a beautiful secret code, dish! ✩

Harukappa: It’s a sign that we’re connected!

After he read Haruka’s reply, Sara-Kazuki hugged the phone tightly against his chest. Then he lifted his face, all traces of doubt gone now.

Real or not, Haruka and I are still connected.

 

The fifth and sixth floors of the 5656 Meeting Hall were one giant, open area, an enormous room with a stage that was called Tokiwa Hall. There was a line of fans at the entrance, waiting for the venue to open.

Enta stood beside Haruka and his parents. He glanced down at the boy, who was gazing intently at the screen of his smartphone. “Haruka, what are you watching?”

“It’s today’s lucky selfie horoscope!” On the tiny screen of the device, Sara was announcing the item of the day.

“You must really like her to be watching this when you’re about to meet her in person in a few minutes.”

“Yeah! I love her!”

Behind the screen, Sara’s dreamy voice intoned, “Now then, what will today’s lucky selfie item be? It’s a sachet, dish! ✩”

Haruka looked back at his mother and asked, “Hey, what’s a ‘sachet’?”

“It’s a fragrance bag, filled with scented potpourri.”

“A fragrance bag…” Haruka echoed. A tremor seemed to run through his body, though it went unnoticed by both his parents and Enta.

Enta cut in and said, “S-so Kazuki didn’t come with you guys today?”

“No,” said Haruka’s mother. “Kazu-kun left early this morning.”

“O-oh, okay…” Enta pasted a strained smile onto his face to mask his inner panic. What the heck are you doing, Kazuki?! If Haruka finds out the truth, it’s all over!

“Okay then,” came Sara’s voice from Haruka’s phone. “Have a wonderful day, and may lots of luck be dished your way! ✩”

Scene 3

 

AN IMPOSING HUSH settled over the large conference room at the Asakusa Police Station, where a meeting was presently underway. A paper on the outside of the door read: Asakusa Suspicious Death Investigation HQ.

The chief’s voice echoed inside the dimly lit room. “We have identified the body we found early this morning: unemployed thirty-five-year-old Nioino Fukuro.” His profile revealed that his name was written with the kanji for “fragrance bag.” “Six months ago, we arrested him as a suspect in connection with the Asakusa Protected Species Fragrance Bag Incident. He was released after we failed to bring charges against him. We’ll be investigating his death as a homicide.”

There was an audible ka-chik as the projector flipped through photos of multiple Japanese giant salamanders—listed as a protected species—that had been unlawfully abducted and imprisoned in cages. These same salamanders were, of all things, being fed curry so their sweat could be extracted.

The prevailing mood in the room was pretty much, Come on, there’s no way a potpourri with their sweat could make for a good fragrance bag. There was a fiery energy in the room.

In the midst of all of this, two people abruptly stood up—Reo and Mabu.

“We’re the ones who sniffed him out!” said Reo.

“It was yesterday’s sachet!” said Mabu.

 

Yesterday evening, to be precise. The incident took place at the police box where the two worked.

“This is a stinkin’ false arrest!”

“For those souls without beginnings or ends, those unable to connect…” Mabu held up a photo of Nioino at the scene of the crime, feeding extremely spicy curry to a giant salamander sitting in a bucket.

“Now, let us open a door…” Reo aimed the barrel of his gun at the man. “Is it desire?”

“Or love?”

A large taiko drum appeared above Nioino’s head.

“Desire Extraction!”

Nioino was absorbed into the drum and disappeared completely.

 

“This is where we’ll do the shoot. Please go on in.”

The man in the kappa mask brought Sara to a nearby building, called Asakusa Kannon Hot Spring. The vines covering the building’s exterior gave it a solemn atmosphere, but it had actually closed its doors for good. Behind the creaking entry lay a dark, vast skeleton of a once-booming business.

“Ooh… This feels like something straight out of a horror move, dish. ✩” Sara, who was not like other idols, stepped inside without an ounce of suspicion. And as soon as she did, the door slammed closed behind her.

The culprit, of course, was the man in the kappa mask—Toi. He wrapped a heavy chain around the outside of the door, then inserted a key into the giant lock on the front, effectively sealing the girl inside.

“I’ll let you out as soon as the handshake event is over. If you wanna hold this against anyone, hold it against him, not me.” Feeling satisfied that his work was done, he glanced behind him to discover—

“A complately successful escape! ✩” There stood Azuma Sara, in her trademark pose.

“What?! Why—how did you get out?!” He glanced back, but of course the padlock and chain were perfectly intact.

Toi chased after her, and soon found himself trapped in a cat-and-mouse game with him trapping her and her slithering free. He tried sealing her in a telephone box, a large coin locker, and finally even a magic box with swords sticking out of it. But no matter where he locked her up, she always snuck out to declare, “A complately successful escape! ✩”

Toi, who had some experience in criminal activity, lost all of his confidence at this utter defeat. “Just what the heck is she?!”

 

“And now we’ll commence the meet-and-greet with Asakusa’s very own idol, Azuma Sara-san!” The announcement echoed throughout the event hall, finally heralding Sara’s long-awaited appearance.

It was Enta’s first time ever seeing her in person, and his nerves made him lose sight of his original objective—to prevent Kazuki’s secret from being revealed.

At least until he saw Sara-Kazuki appear on stage.

“Good morning! ✩ It’s me, Azuma Sara, dish! ✩”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you seriously doing this?! Enta was completely flabbergasted, unable to believe that Kazuki would resort to something like this. But he quickly remembered his mission. No! Haruka’s going to realize the truth!

Just as he outstretched his hands to try to cover the younger boy’s eyes, Haruka exclaimed, “It’s Sara-chan! She’s sooo cute!”

“Huh?”

It wasn’t just Haruka either; cheers erupted from all over the audience.

Th-they’re all buying it?!

Sara-Kazuki responded to their encouraging shouts with a smile. “I am so glad you all came here today, dish. ✩ I was really looking forward to meeting you as we—huh?!” His eyes met Enta’s. He was clearly shaken by the sight of his friend in the crowd.

Enta used the hand signs they created back when they played soccer together to send a message. Haruka doesn’t know. Keep going. Who would have guessed they’d ever use those signs under these circumstances?

 

The meet-and-greet proceeded smoothly, until at last it was Enta’s turn. Haruka was waiting behind him.

“I’m cheering for you. In more ways than one…” Enta said sincerely, offering his genuine support.

“I-I appreciate that, dish… ✩” Sara-Kazuki smiled awkwardly and shook his hand.

Their father pushed Haruka forward in his wheelchair, until he was sitting right before Sara-Kazuki.

“Sara-chan!” Haruka tightly gripped both of Sara-Kazuki’s hands, their warmth the same as they had been that day.

Scene 4

 

UNABLE TO SHAKE OFF the unease he felt since his grandfather’s death, Kazuki began playing soccer. He had no particular love for the sport; he just wanted an excuse not to be at home. It worked better than expected, since he became so immersed in the game that he could forget about everything else.

Regardless of why he started playing, Kazuki still developed a genuine love for the sport. Soon, his and Haruka’s shared bedroom was covered in soccer merch and posters of overseas players.

Playing gave him the strength to stop wearing matching outfits with his family. The season was changing, and with it, the clothes everyone wore. Kazuki wondered what his parents must have thought when he threw the striped outfit into the trash.

He spent the rest of the day playing soccer by himself at the park in front of their condo complex.

“Kazu-chan!”

He somehow knew it would be Haruka that came to get him.

Kazuki stopped practicing and climbed up the whale-shaped jungle gym. His brother scaled up after him, and the two sat side-by-side at the top.

“I saw you from the veranda, and thought I’d come say hi!”

In front of them, the sakura trees were in full blossom, with Skytree looming up in the distance. Just beyond the promenade sat the Sumida River, its water quiet that spring night.

Kazuki felt a prick of guilt, and unable to hold his silence any longer, finally asked, “Were Mom and Dad mad?”

“Nope. They’re not mad, but they are worried. Worried that you’ve never really liked wearing matching outfits with us. Do you really…hate it that much?”

Yes, completely.

“No, it’s not that. But I’ll be in middle school soon. It’s time I grow out of that kinda stuff.” Kazuki’s excuse was sloppy, thrown out to brush his brother off, but Haruka seemed to buy it.

“Ohh, okay. You’re already an adult, huh…?”

If only that were true, then he could live on his own. Right now, though, Kazuki was just a helpless child.

“But you know…” Haruka took Kazuki’s hand in his. “Even if we wear different clothes, even if you grow up and we’re not together anymore, we’re all still connected by a great big circle, from beginning to end.”

Even now, Kazuki still remembered the warmth he felt from Haruka’s hand.

 

“From beginning to end!”

Haruka’s words brought him jolting back to reality. This was Sara’s meet-and-greet, and right now he was Sara. He had to respond with Haruka’s secret code.

“We’re all connected…in a great big circle.” It was a struggle to squeeze the words out, and he wondered if his voice wavered.

“Ehehe! Thank you!” When Haruka smiled blithely at him, Kazuki swore he heard a creaking sound, as if his heart was bending, warping inside his chest. And then—

“That Sara’s a fake!” Sara’s manager reappeared, bursting through a door on the side of the stage.

Throughout the event center, noise erupted from the crowd. It was little wonder why; the manager wasn’t wearing any pants.

“A fake?” Haruka murmured.

“Where’s the real Sara?!” The manager shrieked.

Enta flung himself at the man, trying to hold him back. “Gah! This guy’s a pervert—a flasher! Watch out, Sara-chan!”

“Urgh! What are you doing?! Get off me, four-eyes!”

“Oh, stuff it! You wear glasses too!” Enta protested.

As the two quarreled, Haruka argued, “This is the real Sara-chan! She has to be, she said the secret code!” Kazuki had never seen his little brother speak so fiercely to someone before. Neither had his parents, he was sure.

Everyone was taken aback at the sudden disruption.

“Oh dear. What’s going on, dish?” A dreamy voice echoed from the back. There, at the exit farthest from the stage, stood Azuma Sara. Behind her, hunched over and breathless, was Toi.

“Huh? There’s…two of them?” Haruka stared at her in disbelief.

“Sara-chan! You’re all right!” exclaimed the manager.

“I went out for a cup of fresh air, dish.” Sara seemed completely unaware of the fact that someone had attempted to abduct and confine her.

As she merrily made her way to the stage, Haruka shouted at her, “From beginning to end!”

“Hm?”

“It’s my secret code with Sara-chan!”

Of course, there was no way for the real Sara to know what he meant.

“And…you are?” she asked.

The boy’s expression changed in an instant. “I knew it, you’re the fake! Right, Sara-cha—” Haruka whipped his head around to face who he thought was the real Sara, but the manager ripped her wig off, revealing his older brother, Kazuki. “Kazu-chan…?”

Though he stood on a stage bathed in lights, Kazuki’s vision went completely dark.

 

Chaos erupted in the event center, but on the stage itself, an eerie quiet settled.

“Kazu-chan… Ah!” Just as Haruka called his brother’s name, a small bag from inside his pocket floated up through the air before soaring off into the distance. “That’s my…!” The boy reached his hand out for it, but it had already floated out of reach.

Enta, who had been with the manager, watched it go. “Don’t tell me there’s another Kappa Zombie?!”

Kazuki took advantage of Haruka’s distraction to snatch up his wig and retreat from the stage. Only his headdress, which he hadn’t had time to retrieve, was left behind.

Haruka called after him. “Wait! Kazu-chan…!”

But Kazuki ran as fast as he could, as though he could outrun the echo of his brother’s voice.

Scene 5

 

ENTA ARRIVED at their usual spot—the Kappa Plaza. He found Kazuki, as expected, still dressed in his Sara outfit, his back facing Enta.

“Kazuki,” Enta started to say.

Kazuki let the wig slip from his hands, and it hit the ground with a soft fwump. “It’s over. Everything I’ve done, all of it…”

There was nothing Enta could say. He knew exactly how Kazuki felt, to a painful degree.

“You knew he’d find out eventually. That day just happened to be today,” said Toi, breaking the silence.

“Kuji…!”

“Everything people try to hide gets found out eventually. That’s all there is to it. It happens to all of us.”

Toi said it perfectly. Enta had struggled desperately to keep his feelings for Kazuki a secret. When it leaked out that Enta kissed Kazuki when he was sleeping, Enta resigned himself to believing that this was the end.

“This was foolish from the start,” continued Toi. “Did you really think you could keep it a secret forever?”

“Enough already!” Enta snapped at him, tired of hearing it.

Toi, however, ignored him and continued pressing Kazuki. “Why are you pretending to be the victim? You’re the one who did this, the one who hurt your little brother. You’re the perpetrator!”

Kazuki’s shoulders jolted, and in the same instant, Enta seized Toi. “He doesn’t need to hear that from a murderer like you!”

But the moment Enta said that, he realized something. Toi’s words hadn’t just been meant for Kazuki—he was speaking to himself as well. Still, Enta couldn’t back down now.

Nor could Toi.

“Then you tell him! If you’re really some ‘Golden Duo,’ then knock some sense into him already!”

“I…” They were both glaring at one another, each with a fistful of the other person’s shirt in their hand, when Kazuki’s voice broke through and caught their attention. “I’m the one who hurt Haruka. Even though I swore the first time would be the last, I’m the one who hurt him again.”

“Kazuki…”

“Again?” Toi whispered quietly, only for his voice to be blown away as Keppi wailed.

“Desiiiire…Extractioooon!”

In the next instant, all three of them had been turned into kappa.

 

“That was really rude, doing that out of nowhere, Keppi!” Kappa-Enta complained.

“Kappa Zombies come out when it gets dark. Thus, I changed you into kappa. Is there a problem with that, ribbit?”

Toi replied, “Yeah, this whole thing is a problem, actually.”

Noticing Kazuki’s silence, Kappa-Enta tried to change the subject out of consideration. “So, the thing that Haruka swiped from him… Uh, what are those things called again?”

“This Kappa Zombie’s desire is for fragrance bags, ribbit.”

“Yeah, that’s what they’re called! If it’s something really important to Haruka, we definitely have to get it back! Right, Kazuki?”

After a moment of silence, Kappa-Kazuki just gave a small nod.

 

“Kappature it!” Keppi cried as the three of them flew toward the creature.

“This sachet smells good~!” The Kappa Zombie mercilessly showered them in a pleasant fragrance.

“Ooh, it does smell good…” murmured the three. It rendered them lightheaded, unable to draw out their usual power.

“Memories of smell remain until death! I want to drown myself in her scent!”

Fortunately, they were still able to successfully stop the creature’s onslaught. Then, with Kazuki at the forefront of their attack, they plunged toward the Zombie’s butthole.

“You can’t rely on something you can’t see!” shouted Kappa-Kazuki.

“Gyaaaah!”

“We kappatured it!” they yelled in unison.

As Kazuki held the creature’s shirikodama, he was shown a vision of the man’s desire, of his girlfriend peeling off her boots and smearing her feet over his nose.

“Aah… Spicy…” said the man.

“So that’s it,” Kappa-Kazuki realized, “you were searching for the smell of someone you cared about.”

“My secret’s been sniffed ooooooout!”

Nioino’s Kappa Zombie body began to fracture.

 

“Saraaa!”

“Saraaa!”

“Saraaa!”

And then all together, “Sarazanmai!”

 

“Leaking.”

 

The first scene, as Kazuki’s secret began to flow through their minds, was of him and Haruka by the whale-shaped jungle gym.

“Even if we wear different clothes, even if you grow up and we’re not together anymore, we’re all still connected by a great big circle, from beginning to end.”

“Haruka…”

“Ehehe! Kazu-chan, let’s go home together, okay?”

Haruka’s words brought him back to his real family. After that, Kazuki recovered the striped clothes he’d thrown out. His parents watched with a look of relief on their faces. Their daily lives returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened. Kazuki immersed himself in soccer, improving his skills until he and Enta were considered the Golden Duo.

Days and months passed. The color of the soccer posters on his wall faded quite a bit. One day, during spring break just before his second year in junior high, he met a woman as he was headed home after soccer practice.

“Kazuki…!”

When she softly wrapped her arms around him in a hug, he caught the scent of sakura—a smell that was like a key unlocking his distant memories. He had no memory of meeting her before, yet her smell was so familiar to him.

“…Mom?”

His birth mother was carrying a fragrance bag on her that smelled like sakura.

“Why are you…?”

As Kazuki watched this replay of his memories, he realized that this was the bag his brother had been carrying in his pocket. The one that flew away when the Kappa Zombie showed up.

“Why was Haruka carrying my mom’s fragrance bag? Unless…!”

Normally the shirikodama would pass from each one of them, but instead it went flying out from Kappa-Kazuki’s rear, only to be reabsorbed by the Kappa Zombie.

“I got it baaaack!”

This was the first time they ever failed a mission.

 

Tink, tink, tink…

Water was boiling in an earthenware kettle, causing the lid to clink noisily.

“You didn’t defeat the Kappa Zombie, so there will be no Wishing Plate today, ribbit. You idiots have made me so angry I’m boiling tea on my belly button! Ribbit!” Keppi wasn’t speaking figuratively either: there was quite literally a kettle of tea boiling on his belly button. “And, of course, you cannot return to your human forms, ribbit.”

“What?!”

“Tch…”

Enta and Toi, now stuck in their kappa forms, were none too pleased by this development.

“I’m fine staying like this,” Kappa-Kazuki muttered.

“Wh-what are you saying?” Enta demanded.

“Haruka must have known… He must’ve known we weren’t real brothers!”

Kazuki explained what had happened after the flash of memory he leaked to Enta and Toi.

Scene 6

 

“YOU’RE IN THE SOCCER CLUB? And you’re a forward? That’s incredible!” His mother appeared out of nowhere, but she was beautiful, kind, and full of smiles. Kazuki struggled to hide his confusion at first, but as they spoke, his reservations gradually subsided.

When Kazuki was young, he worried that his real mother was actually a horrible person after all. As he grew older, he became more certain that she was as awful as he feared, but his fretting just motivated him to cherish his current family even more.

In truth, shortly after Kazuki was born, her husband—his birth father—had died in an accident. Kazuki’s anxious grandfather pressured her to give her baby up. Knowing the full story about how he’d been adopted, Kazuki couldn’t find it in him to blame anyone.

“Honestly, I was so immature back then,” his mother said. “I lost the person I loved, and it was like my world turned pitch black. All I wanted to do was run from the pain of reality. But after we were separated, I thought about you all the time.”

His mother spared no detail in explaining why, exactly, she had come to see him. She even disclosed the specifics of her current situation. “Actually, I have a family now that’s just as important to me as you are. I know it’s very selfish of me, but I still desperately wanted to see you,” she said, embracing him.

He could no longer catch the scent of sakura anymore. Instead, he remembered the scent of sweet milk and sunshine. “I have family that’s important to me too. And a really adorable younger brother,” he said.

“Kazuki…”

He wondered what she thought. Kazuki couldn’t tell for certain, but the two of them smiled at each other. He said, “Let’s keep our reunion a secret. And tomorrow when you leave from the station, I’ll go to see you off.”

“All right.”

He felt more at peace than he ever had before, honestly happy from the bottom of his heart. Kazuki was part of a real and beautiful family, even if he hadn’t been born into it.

The next morning, he carefully snuck out of his house before anyone could see he was awake. His birth mother was taking a long train ride from the Tokyo Skytree station back to her family. After mulling it over the whole night, Kazuki decided that his current family was, truly, the most important thing in his life. That was why he wanted to keep his meeting with his birth mother a secret, so as not to worry them. Yet despite all his caution—

“Kazu-chan!”

He was waiting at a busy intersection on the east side of the Azuma Bridge when his brother came racing down the bridge toward him.

“Haruka, why are you here?”

The younger boy finally caught up, completely out of breath. “Where are you going? I’m going too!”

“You can’t.” He was going to see his birth mother off. There was no way he could bring Haruka along.

“Why not? Is it because I’ve been bad?!” Haruka sometimes worried that he was being punished for something he didn’t know he’d done.

“I never said that.” And I have to hurry, Kazuki thought. The time for his mother’s train departure was fast approaching.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll be good from now, so…don’t leave, Kazu-chan!”

“Enough!” Kazuki impulsively batted his little brother’s hand away.

“Ah…!”

They both inhaled sharply at the same time, as Kazuki realized what he’d done and Haruka processed the rejection. But Kazuki was out of time. He had to leave his brother behind or he’d never see his mother again.

At some point, the light turned green. Kazuki hardened his heart and started to make his way across the crosswalk. The pedestrian sign began to flash, signaling that the light would change again soon.

“Wait…wait! Kazu-chan…!”

 

He had no real memory of what happened after that. Just vague things, like the dark shade of the pedestrian light, the sunlight pouring over the street from the west, the growing puddle of painfully vibrant red. Red. RED. It all played out in slow motion, as if he were in an underwater world. And ever since that moment, Kazuki couldn’t breathe properly.

 

The Kappa Plaza was dead silent, almost like the bottom of the ocean.

Kappa-Kazuki’s voice was so uncertain, so broken, that the words came out like bubbles, floating up and disappearing. “I felt so much regret… It’s just like Kuji said, I am the perpetrator. Haruka will never walk again.”

“But…but…” Unsurprisingly, Kappa-Enta was the first who steeled his will to speak up. “I don’t know how to say this, but…you’re not responsible for what happened, Kazuki.”

“Everyone told me the same thing. My dad, my mom…even Haruka!”

Enta went quiet after Kazuki said that.

“No one blamed me! Even though I’m the one who ruined everything!”

Kappa-Toi just watched quietly.

“That’s why I decided to punish myself. I decided we’d stay a fake family forever. But they all keep trying to treat me like I’m really part of their family.”

Tears welled up in Enta’s eyes. It was as if Kazuki were telling them that he’d never let anyone else in his heart ever again.

“Every time I see Haruka’s wheelchair, I can’t breathe. I quit playing soccer, but it’s just not enough. So I stole Nyantaro. I even became Sara so I could be connected to Haruka…!” As he spoke the last of his confession to them, Kazuki’s eyes filled with tears. Everything he said was the truth, one he kept hidden from everyone until now. One he’d turned his back on for so long—his true, bleak, dreary self.

“Saying it was all for Haruka is a lie. I…I deceived Haruka to protect myself. I…”

He wanted to be connected, even if he had no right to be.