Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 13 - Chapter 4.1

Chapter 4- No Dreams of Santa Claus

1

New Chitose Airport boasted an inn with hot springs.

It was well past one AM, and everyone was fast asleep.

This place was open all night, and they were killing time here before an early flight to Tokyo.

The indoor and outdoor baths were equally large. It had a restaurant, break rooms, even a hot stone spa.

Sakuta took a nice bath, donned the provided jinbei, and sat down on a recliner in the relaxation room.

He flipped through a volume from the room’s manga shelf.

After a while, Takumi joined him in the next chair over. He was wearing the same gray jinbei.

“Word from Akagi. She booked the first flight back in the morning.”

“What time?”

“Seven thirty. Should reach Haneda a bit after nine.”

Takumi’s eyes were on his phone, reading what Ikumi had sent through a messaging app.

“Where’s she?”

“Resting in the girls’ relaxation room.”

“Thank her for me.”

“Hell no. Do that yourself.”

With that, Takumi tossed the phone to him. Sakuta had to drop the manga to catch it, losing his place. He’d only been skimming it, so no big whoop.

He put the manga aside and glanced at the screen. The message app was still up and running. The other side was labeled Ikumi Akagi.

He wrote:

 Thanks for getting the tickets, from Azusagawa.

It was soon marked read.

 You’re welcome.

How polite.

Very Ikumi. He let out a wheezy laugh.

“Thanks for the phone,” he said, tossing it back.

Takumi let out a surprised yelp but easily caught it.

“Yo, Azusagawa.”

“Mm?”

“Sakurajima know you’re here with Akagi?”

“I called and let her know before we popped in here.”

“What’d you tell her?”

“Somehow Akagi ended up tagging along.”

“What’d she say?”

“She said, ‘Hmm.’”

Takumi gave him a horrified look.

“So she’s super pissed?” he asked, attempting a smile and failing.

“Don’t worry, I’ll blame you for everything.”

“Sounds like I should be worried.”

“It’s the truth, though.”

“Oh, right.”

Takumi gave up and flopped back against his seat.

The conversation died down.

“……”

“……”

Silence reigned.

Sakuta didn’t reach for the manga, and Takumi didn’t look at his phone.

Both just sat there like they were waiting for something.

It was a full minute before Takumi said anything else.

“Uh, Azusagawa…”

“What?”

“What’s gonna happen to Nene?”

That long silence had been leading up to this.

“Right now, she’s lost track of Nene Iwamizawa. If you and I forget her, she might as well no longer exist.”

Miori had also been able to see her, but he didn’t bother bringing that up.

“What should I do?” Takumi asked, his voice the same as with the first question.

Serious but not desperate.

“The power of your love is the only thing that can save her.”

“A man who forgot her for most of a year? Where do I get off talking about love?”

“If not you, then…there’s no one else who can. Get it together.”

Sakuta kept his eyes forward, saying what had to be said.

Takumi seemed taken aback.

But then he laughed out loud.

“Ah-ha-ha, been a while since anyone clapped back that hard.”

“Get your girlfriend back so she can clap you back.”

“Nene’s super scary when she’s mad.”

But he was speaking with real warmth and affection.

Takumi and Nene. He could feel the time they’d spent together.

“She was pissed when I asked her out, too. ‘Took you long enough!’ she said.”

“And when you failed exams?”

“First time she cried. ‘Why?!’ Second time she was supportive. ‘Don’t push yourself too hard.’”

Takumi laughed, like that was worse.

“And the third time was the charm?”

“She cried again, saying, ‘I’m so glad.’ She’d been in shambles.”

“……”

“Thinking back, I bet she was already going through some stuff.”

“……”

“She was legit famous back home. Going off to Tokyo for modeling jobs. No one but Nene did anything like that. They even knew her name at other high schools—people would roll past just to scope her out. May not sound like much to you, but…”

Takumi smiled awkwardly because he was referring to Mai. No one could really compete with her in the “famous” category. She wasn’t a local celebrity, but a national one.

“But coming to Tokyo, it didn’t seem like she got as many jobs as she’d hoped. Not that Nene ever wanted to talk about that.”

“She won the beauty contest.”

“That’s why she was so thrilled. The song she did struck a chord. And so she started filming videos of herself singing. Happy to be recognized for something. People saying she sounded just like Touko Kirishima, like the real deal—Nene was enjoying that.”

“Was that what she’d wanted to do?”

“She told me she was hoping to be an announcer for a Tokyo TV station. Another reason why she was so pumped about the beauty contest victory. I’d known she could sing from karaoke, but…”

“Now she’s claiming to actually be Touko Kirishima. And seems like she genuinely believes that.”

“What went wrong?”

“A lot of things, with her and with you. But you can still fix it.”

“……”

Takumi just stared at him.

Sakuta ignored that.

“Maybe I can,” Takumi muttered.

“You can,” Sakuta said, nodding.

“Azusagawa…,” Takumi said, not looking at him.

“Mm?”

“I do love Nene.”

A confession out of nowhere. Though perhaps it wasn’t so out of the blue for Takumi. Talking about her had likely brought those feelings back up, along with all his memories of her.

“I love Nene,” he said again.

“Tell her that tomorrow.”

Sakuta hopped up off the recliner and headed to the door.

“Where you going?”

“Toilet.”

“Make it a good one.”

“You get some sleep, Fukuyama.”

“Like that’s possible?”

Sakuta didn’t dignify that with a response, just sailed out of the room.

As advertised, he hit up the toilet, but instead of heading back to Takumi afterward, he went downstairs. One flight down was the hot springs, and two flights down was the restaurant.

The latter was closed for the night; there was a light on by the free-drinks counter, but the rest was dark.

He poured himself some hot houjicha.

A voice called from behind.

“Azusagawa?”

He turned to find a woman in a yukata sitting on the edge of the raised tatami floor.

Ikumi.

She must have swung by for a drink, too. She had a mug in one hand.

Sakuta took a seat a respectable distance from her.

“Thanks for reserving the flight back.”

“You said that already.”

“Akagi, you’ve been a huge help.”

“That one’s new.”

Ikumi took a sip of tea, not showing much emotion.

“You even did the research and found this place.”

She’d been the one who’d suggested they kill time here. Before their flight at Haneda, she’d also said, “We’ll be arriving late. Better buy a change of clothes here.”

“Well, that benefits me,” she said now.

“Still helped.”

“Mm.”

Ikumi sipped her tea again, looking uncomfortable. For all her work helping people, she wasn’t getting any better at taking a compliment.

“……”

“……”

There was no one else here this late, so if they weren’t talking, nothing broke the silence. Except maybe the hum of the AC.

“Akagi…”

“What?”

“What’s your take on Fukuyama’s girlfriend?”

It was an easy question to ask. Simple to put it in words.

But extremely hard to answer. A really thorny problem.

To his surprise, Ikumi didn’t have to think about it. Never even looked lost. She answered like she’d had her remarks prepared.

“I think it’s pretty typical.”

She didn’t look at all rattled. Wasn’t hesitating. Just being rational.

A bit too unflustered.

“You think?” Sakuta asked, voicing that doubt.

Her words had not been enough to convey her intent.

“Has that never happened to you, Azusagawa? You never lost yourself, had to find yourself again?”

That question made him wince. This time she’d gotten through loud and clear.

“I sure have,” she said. “Nothing went right, or I was just going with the flow…and in my case, I wound up in another world entirely.”

“I’ve done that, too. Totally lost myself.”

It felt right. Ikumi’s words allowed him to grasp the enigma that was Nene Iwamizawa at last. They made her situation feel familiar.

“With Fukuyama’s girlfriend, she let that flow turn her into Touko Kirishima.”

Things hadn’t worked out in Tokyo, and it had felt like a rejection of everything she was. Then the Mai Sakurajima had shown up. She’d struggled, fought…and gotten nowhere. And she’d lost her way. Didn’t know who she was anymore.

And floundering, she’d seized on those words.

“People said she might be the real Touko Kirishima, and that struck a nerve when she was most vulnerable.”

“I’ve got something like that,” Ikumi said. “In kindergarten, a friend’s mom said, ‘You’re such a good girl, Ikumi.’”

“……”

“That made me so happy, I tried to be an even better girl so people would praise me more.”

“That’s very you, Akagi.”

“The upshot—everyone in junior high laughed at me for being too serious.”

“I noticed.”

“You did not.”

“I did.”

“Really?”

“Well, I was reminded of it. You cleaned the chalkboard better than anyone else, right? Made those erasers like new. Used a cleaner that inhaled the chalk dust—no one else had ever done that.”

“My one accomplishment.”

She laughed at herself. Not at Sakuta, but at her own past.

“But at the time, I thought that was me. It didn’t feel hard at all.”

“And that all started with a single ‘Good girl.’”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe Nene Iwamizawa had people say she was like Touko Kirishima, and she thought that would help her find herself.”

It was at least a ray of hope.

She’d mistaken that for a path forward.

“That ever happen to you, Azusagawa?”

“Someone told me I was capable of kindness. And I felt like that was worth trying out.”

“You still believe that, huh?”

“Which means you might well be right.”

“Mm?”

“This is pretty typical.”

Singing Touko Kirishima’s songs had gotten Nene the attention she craved. A taste of her goals. What she’d always wanted. The person she wanted to be.

Her ideal self.

It must have felt good.

In Nene’s case, that just happened to be Touko Kirishima. Being someone worthy of attention was more important than being Nene Iwamizawa.

“Once again, Akagi, I’m glad you came.”

He put the empty mug down and flopped over backward onto the tatami. The tall ceilings of the inn stared back at him.

“Best you go upstairs if you’re gonna nap,” she said.

“I know.”

But his eyes were already closed.