CH 21

Part 3:

“Don’t forget my name.”

It feels like someone is calling out to me.

He could see a medium-length bob, the ends curled under. A short skirt. Slender arms and legs with skin as white as porcelain.

Who could it be? Even though he could remember neither their face nor their name, he knew it was someone very special.

As he raised his head wondering why, the world suddenly came into view.

※※※

He awoke to the chirping of birds. The gentle morning sun shone in through the window.

Osakabe looked around slowly, still wrapped in the blanket. The comforter had been kicked aside, and the sheets were all jumbled up. What happened? Something felt off and as he sat up, he noticed he wasn’t wearing any underwear.

Had he slept so fitfully the night before? Though now that he thought about it, he remembered some kind of dream. And yet, even though he had the sense it was an important dream, he could not remember anything that had happened in the dream. As much as he tried to remember, his head throbbed, feeling like it was stuffed with cotton.

His head felt heavy. It was hard to describe, but the closest he could come was comparing it to the morning after a hangover.

Regardless, he felt listless… An indescribable fatigue enveloped him.

In order to wake himself up from this vague stupor, he clapped his cheeks several times, and stretched before getting up.

He glanced at the clock—8 am.

He folded up the futon, smelling the reedy scent characteristic of tatami rooms, and changed into a navy t-shirt and black chinos. And again, he noticed something strange. These clothes… When did he buy these?

He had changed clothes with the intent of heading out, but he had no idea where to go. Or less that he had no idea so much as it felt like he had forgotten something. He almost felt a strange compulsion, as if he was wasting time—but it’s not as if that were true.

Something must have happened. Surely, something…

Somehow all morning, he felt as if he couldn’t think right. He had some sense all morning that he was supposed to have plans today, and yet. His mind was overwhelmed with an unfamiliar strangeness.

He stared at the ceiling in thought.

“That’s right. I’m supposed to pick up the photos I got developed.”

Remembering his plans at last, Osakabe finished getting ready at the sink, and left the room with only his wallet and cell phone in his bag.

After leaving his key at the front desk, he left the guest house. Putting on the helmet, he straddled the scooter and headed straight for Miyako Station.

He picked up his photos from the photography store by the station, and by the time he got on his scooter to head home, it was already after lunch. After wondering what he should do, he decided on a boxed lunch from a convenience store.

He remembered that it was Obon from the sales poster by the entrance to the convenience store. Seasonal items had been clearly set out too, and come to think of it…

I still haven’t been home to visit the family grave, he thought, and realized he hadn’t been home last year either.

Yet as soon as he thought of his family, his mother’s face in particular, he felt indifferent. Well, I’ll drop by sometime before August 15th. Reaching that conclusion, he set off on his scooter once more.

Originally he had planned on looking over the photos once he got back to the guest house.

However, unable to quell his restless feelings, he parked his bike by a bench next to a vending machine on the corner of a shopping street.

How childish, he thought in exasperation. He took the photos from out of his bag and looked at them, one by one.

Ok, not bad photos considering I’m the one who took them. Though one could say it was the quality of the camera, and they certainly weren’t as good as Minako’s, but he had some confidence in his photography skills. He had captured Jodogahama’s scenery quite well, he thought with some admiration.

“Huh?”

He stopped rifling through the photos as he noticed one that stuck out. He held it up and stared long and hard.

On top was the gorgeous blue sky. Along the bottom was some patch of grass, likely from the observation platform. While the sky was certainly beautiful, the composition was quite amateurish.

Well, I guess I am an amateur.

Or perhaps I pressed the shutter button by accident, he thought with a wry laugh.

And yet… “Another one?”

The next photo to appear was one that was almost entirely ocean.

He hadn’t taken a photo of either the horizon or the water’s edge along the beach, but rather it was a half-hearted picture of just the water’s surface.

“What the hell?”

No matter how he looked at it, there was no way he could have taken this photo by accident. But supposing this composition was intentional, it was such a poor photo he couldn’t even tell what he had originally intended.

He found another photograph just like it. Three, altogether.

No matter how he looked at them, this was unnatural. If there were only one, he could explain it somehow—but three unnatural photos. It was a little contrived to suggest he had mistakenly pressed the shutter button that many times.

…had he really taken these photos by mistake?

Or had he forgotten loaning out his camera to someone? He was ready to even believe that looking at these three inexplicable photos.

But no matter how much he racked his brain, there was no indication he would ever find an answer.

In the end, he put the photos back into his bag and set off on his scooter dissatisfied without a single clue.

Driving through the dappled sunlight through a small wood, he turned onto an ocean road from which he could hear the sound of the waves. As evening drew near, he finally arrived in front of the guest house.

He parked the scooter in the usual place, and walked towards the guest house where a woman in a white dress loitered by the entrance.

So young. She must be a university student.

Her hair, just skimming her shoulders, curled inwards somewhat. Her nose was straight, and her jaw slender. She didn’t have a creased eyelid, but there was a strength of will in her eyes. She could be considered quite attractive.

Unable to just completely ignore her, he gave a light greeting and tried to walk past her. But the very instant he tried to pass by, the young woman suddenly reached out and grabbed Osakabe by the collar.

“Hey…!” he protested in vain as she pulled him close with all her might.

“You… What are you doing here?!”

At first he thought he had heard wrong. But the young woman had definitely said those words, her voice cold enough to freeze him in his tracks.

“Wait—hold up. Could you at least let go? Is this how you talk to people?!”

He may be a convicted criminal, but even he was fed up with getting into messes like this with this crazy woman. All he wanted to do was extricate himself and flee the scene.

At last she let go. “You’re right. We can’t talk like this. So tell me, Osakabe Kengo. What’s a criminal like you prowling around here? Why did you come here?”

Clutching his throat, Osakabe cleared his throat and answered.

“Why, you ask? I’m just a tourist. I’m here on a whim.”

“A tourist?” She glared scornfully. “You’re awfully full of yourself, aren’t you? You came because you knew this was my mother’s family home, didn’t you?! Are you harassing us?”

“Why would I want to harass you…? I didn’t even pick this guest house in the first place, it was…”

The words stopped in the middle of his speech. That’s right, someone had no doubt shown him to this guest house, but who on earth…? He couldn’t remember anything at all.

“Anyway. There’s no deep meaning behind why I chose this guest house, and besides, I don’t even know you. Who the hell—”

He was cut off before he could finish speaking. The young woman raised her eyebrows in a scowl, and once more grabbed him by the collar and thrust him aside. “Stop screwing around!” she snapped. “Like hell you forgot, Osakabe Kengo! I won’t let you forget the bus accident that put my sister in the hospital!”

And she stabbed her finger at him. “I’m Shirakisawa Mafuyu1, the twin sister of the university student you put in the hospital—Shirakisawa Honoka. And aren’t you supposed to be on parole? Well, don’t you look like you’re having a grand time. This guest house is the Shirakisawa family business. Why else would you be hanging around except to get back at us?!”

“Shirakisawa Honoka…?”

The instant he heard the name, a rush of memories came flooding back along with an unbearable headache.

Mafuyu’s name means “midwinter.” Her seasonal name matches her sister’s name (which uses the character for summer) as they are both twins born in fall, just as Honoka explained in Chapter 8.