Nine’s Contract Public Enemy Number91 Volume 1 Chapter 1

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Chapter 109: Towards our Goodbye

„When a jellyfish dies, it dissolves in the water and disappears.”

For whatever reason I couldn’t fully grasp, I grew incredibly sad while listening to Rie. Yet I was unable to convey my feelings with words.

I was sad. But I also felt like the word “sad” didn’t suffice at all. It lacked some kind of decisive touch or so.

For some reason, words of grief had already lost their one thing I wanted to convey the most.

But I couldn’t pinpoint what exactly. Only that the sadness I felt couldn’t be expressed with the word “sadness”.

When I first heard the story The Mermaid Princess and how she became sea foam in the end, an unbearable and unforgivable feeling overcame me. As I was listening to Rie, this memory came bubbling up once again.

To not forgive and being unable to forgive, this resembles sadness somewhat.

If I had to describe the type of sadness, I would compare it to waking up from a nostalgic dream. You can’t remember what exactly you were dreaming about and are overcome with remorse for forgetting it. Meanwhile, I’m happy that I’ve forgotten something.

I was perplexed by myself, when I realized how my inability to say anything calmed me. When I looked into the mirror in the morning, I saw a girl. She grinned at me while I could have thrown up any minute. Figuratively, that’s how I felt.

It’s infused with incredible sadness as well.

Still, the word “sadness” felt like it was discarding way too many other things to be considered accurate. Even though I wanted to say something, I could only remain silent in the end.

Which was all the more reason I should have felt deeply, deeply sad.

To dream. To have dreamed. I’m always dreaming. Dreaming of Rie.

Rie’s face brimmed with joy but I don’t know why. She was looking at me. She smiled just like back then. It was a curse. She opened her mouth, as if she were to speak. but I couldn’t hear her. I couldn’t hear Rie’s voice. She laughed.

So, the nostalgic nightmare repeated. Again. Again. Again and again. She’s touching me. I’m reaching out to her, her cheeks, lips or nape…

I’m haunted by Rie every night. Every single night.

It was immeasurably painful.

2

It was raining. Neither me nor Rie brought an umbrella with us, so we stayed inside the school.

We gazed at the tepid June rain gently running down the windows’ exterior from our dusty literature club room. The baseball and football clubs couldn’t be held. The light was turned on but the room was mysteriously dark. Everything was quiet.

It was a small, messy room in the school’s C building, overflowing with the abandoned belongings of the upperclassman who graduated, as no one dared throwing them away. Even the lockers’ doors couldn’t be closed anymore. On the wall hung an old, discolored idol poster.

A room so quiet it seemed forgotten.

Only me and Rie were here. The literature club was puny, so this wasn’t uncommon. As always, I was reading a book.

I looked up when I heard a rustling sound, and saw Rie opening the window. The smell of rain penetrated the room.

Her long, black hair softly wavered. Every single one of her fine strands of hair looked like masterly crafted threads of silk.

She stretched herself and turned around. The skirt of her school uniform fluttered around her and the ribbon on her chest bounced up and down. Her bangs were cut just right to expose her eyebrows on her oval, rounded off face contour. Her pupils were brightly smiling, framed by long eyelashes.

Her lips began spelling my name, “Hey, Pine.”. She had somewhat of a big mouth.

Normally, a smile accentuates the mouth in particular but it only made her look cute.

“The rain has no end.”, she said with her usual smile. She was the only one who called me Pine but that made me mysteriously happy.

Come to think of it, I think I’ve never seen her not smile.

Maybe that’s why she was the kind of girl who would get along with everyone in an instant. She never gave anyone a reason to be on guard. Being around her was always fun, always full of kindness. She was always listening and never interrupted anyone.

Rie told me her mother left the family when she was still a child, so she lived with her father and brother. Though I don’t know much about her family circumstances. I overheard some gossip about how her mother had an affair. I never tried confirming it since it might have been rude to ask. Her brother was a kind but skinny person. He was always awkwardly smiling whenever we met.

“Seems so.”, I said while peeling my eyes off the book. I saw her feet.

A flower pattern was drawn onto her indoor shoes by a magic pen in various colors. Her green sole almost looked like leaves. I saw the deep blue knee socks she wore and the white thighs growing out under her short skirt.

“Hey, where are you looking?”, she said in a jokingly manner.

I didn’t have an answer ready.

She was in the third class while I was in the fourth. The only class we had together was PE. But, I was a klutz. Meanwhile, she was an athlete. I still remembered the beauty of her butterfly from swimming class.

Rie took a cup out of the cupboard which had a famous bear character printed onto it. Mine was light blue.

“Would you like some rose hip tea?”

“Yeah, sure.”

She poured the hot water from the water cooker in the cup and splashed it out the window. Then, she put in the teabag and poured water over it. Steam arose from the hot cup.

Rie sat on a chair and looked at me with her chin on her hands.

“No one’s here, huh.”, she said but that was not unusual. A literature club wasn’t popular nowadays.

I just replied with a vague “Yup.” I didn’t mind being alone with Rie a single bit.

“What are you reading?”

She leaned forward to get a peek at the book’s cover. Even though I never took off the dust jacket, her attempts were seemingly futile.

I told her the name of the female author – who recently won a small literary prize – but she didn’t know her. Rie wasn’t an avid reader.

“It’s beautiful…” She said while gently stroking over the book’s cover with her white index finger’s tip.

“I made it myself.”, I replied. “There was a beautiful wrapping paper around one of the cans at the shop where my mother always bought black tea. I ripped it off and made it into a dust jacket.”

“Heee?”

She slightly lifted her lips up and added “It looks nice.” She took the teabag out of the steaming cup and handed it to me.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

Since I wouldn’t be able to read another line even if I tried to, I put the bookmark in and grabbed the cup. Its sweet smell enticed my nose. I took a sip though it tasted rather sour. I took three sugar sticks out of the bag.

“Ah, you’re as big of a sweet tooth as ever.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad.”

I gently poured the sugar into the red fluid. It might not taste good without the sweetness but I needed to restrain myself so as to not overdo it.

“No one would think you would be into sweet stuff.”

“What would they think?”

“That you’re a cool beauty, I think?”, she said and laughed a little.

I took little sips of her freshly brewed, steaming hot rose hip tea hot. I was a sweet tooth who couldn’t handle hot drinks. I was a kid, if anything.

The rustling sound of rain dropped into the room through the still open window. Every drop that hit something made out of metal produced a high-pitched sound while others trickled down the leaves.

The concert band’s performance reverberated from afar.

We listened closely to the melody in silence. I felt a bit uncomfortable and let my gaze wander around the room. Rie was staring at me with a gentle smile.

“What?”

I was surprised at the bluntness of my own words. I didn’t mean it like that.

“Aren’t you coldhearted today?”, asked Rie.

“I’m a cool beauty after all.”

I tried fooling around a bit, she laughed.

I’m different from her. I can’t talk well with others nor am good at smiling. I’m not cool, I’m just shy and bad at associating with others.

Rie didn’t seem to be bothered enough by it to say anything and continued smiling at me.

“Warm up then!”

She brought her face closer like she was trying to look at me from below. I was reflected in her moist lips. The tea must have wet them. I averted my eyes in embarrassment and stared at the poster at the wall. The idol – whose name I didn’t know – smiled at me.

“The rain doesn’t stop, huh?” said I this time. They were meaningless words.

“Won’t you go home, Pine?”

“I forgot my umbrella.”

It rained without end, drop by drop by drop.

“And you?”

Rie wasn’t an actual member of the literature club, so she never read any books despite coming here. She really wasn’t an avid reader. Despite that, she always came by. She always was the only one sitting in the club room with me.

I didn’t write anything though. While I loved reading, I found writing a difficult process as I couldn’t put my thoughts into the right words. No matter which words I used, they always strayed away slightly from my intended message.

Maybe I read books in hope to find the words I could fully express myself with.

“So, I forgot my umbrella too!”, she answered as my silhouette was reflected in her moist eyes.

Since the tea had cooled down a bit, I filled my mouth with the fluid and swallowed it in one gulp.

Suddenly, she stuck her right hand into my hair, which made me nearly drop my cup in surprise. She grinned and began combing my hair with her hand while stroking my nape. I got goosebumps. Her hands were a bit cold.

“What’s that book about?” she asked, and continued stroking my hair.

“It’s about a woman who lost someone really dear to her… and how she learns to cope with her loss.”

That was basically it.

“Do these stories fascinate you?”, she asked me, still smiling.

After giving it some thought, I wanted to reply with “Kinda.”. Yet I was interrupted by a poem verse that floated onto my mind.

After a loved one lost his life,

The time to take your own is rife.

After a loved one lost his life,

There’s no more fitting method for to strive.

3

“That’s Shunjitsu Kyousou, one of Chuuya Nakahara’s poems!”, the man said while pointing at me. He wore a brightly shining skull ring on his index finger. He had his black hair waxed to let it stand up, wore a black shirt, black jeans and black shoes. His tanned skin completed his complete blackness.

“Hey, do you know Chuuya Nakahara?! A modern girl is reading him!”, he said to the girl sitting next to him. He worded it like it was the discovery of the century and stretched out his arms in surprise. I thought he was weird. “Modern girl” sounded weird to me even more.

Do “modern girls” not read Chuuya Nakahara? Then I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t reading Shuuji Terayama or Kenji Miyazawa either.

“I do not.”, the girl, who must have been another modern girl, muttered without interest.

She had put her hand on her cheek and was probably daydreaming. She didn’t try to hide her annoyance. Still, her way of speaking didn’t fit the image of a “modern girl” but rather one of the last century. It wasn’t girly.

However, her appearance certainly stood out.

She had trimmed her lightly pigmented hair and only let a tiny part on the left grow out in order to braid it. She wore a black one-piece, black enamel shoes and black knee-high socks.

Was she a Lolita? Her clothes weren’t gaudy enough though. Rather, they looked like a mourning dress. They were simple. In contrast to the man, her skin was as white as powdered snow. She may have been cute if she were to smile but eventually remained silent.

The man was shocked and couldn’t believe his ears as he took a breath. He exhaled with a big sigh, making the crumpled together straw package on the table float up into the air.

“He was a poet who untimely died at the age of 30.”

For some reason I thought of death long before he said it.

The exams and supplementary lessons were over and the summer holidays began last week Friday.

The university campus was already fairly empty. Meanwhile, I conducted research for my report and read the books I had put on hold. I bought a sandwich at the supermarket, ate it in the shadows and went back early to the lodging house once I finished my tasks.

The sun burned on my skin. The clouds floating in front of the blue sky strikingly resembled cotton candy. Accompanied by the cicada, I went down the slope and passed by the main gate. A water puddle had formed under one of the parked cars on the roadside. I was just heading toward the crosswalk on the side as I heard something.

“Are you Hinata Souma?”

Someone unexpectedly called out to me.

I turned around and saw a young man and girl looking at me. In the middle of summer, under broad daylight, those two wore solely black. Despite their striking appearance, I couldn’t clearly make them out. Instead, they were blending with the shadow of the building…

I guess a big city has a big variety of people.

Even though they looked completely unfit for the heat, none of the two broke a sweat.

I slightly readied myself. While I’ve never seen those two before, the fact that they knew my name made me all the more wary.

I stared back at them, not uttering a single word.

For some reason the man began to smile broadly. Wrinkles formed at the outer corners of his eyes, making him appear a bit younger.

He began talking in an overly familiar voice.

“You are Hinata Souma, right? We were waiting for you.”, so he said.

They seemingly knew my name and face.

I answered bluntly, not lowering my guard for a second.

“And who might you be?”

“Ah, excuse me.”

As he said that, he took out a business card out of his jeans pocket. He flicked it like a business card magician and handed it to me in a striking motion.

A name was printed on the card or rather it was the only thing on it.

“Nine’s detective agency?”

What a weird name.

“My partner wrote that. It’s Ichijiku’s detective agency. I’m Ichijiku.”

The girl spoke this time. She was cold and unfriendly, tightly clasping her arms together in pride and rising her chin up high. The braid and its black ribbon wavered.

I stared at the card absentmindedly and suddenly spurted out.

“I guess because I is the 9th letter in the alphabet…”

“Very true. You’re smart.”

Being called smart by a presumably younger girl made me somewhat irritated and definitely not happy. Did this mean that, despite her appearance, she was older than me? If so, god must truly be a cruel person.

“Speaking of names,”, the man said while leaning forward and pointing his right index finger at him.

“I’m the one and only Ninomae.”

He stretched out his index finger to indicate a one. His ring shone dimly.

“Because you’re number one in number puns?“

It just occurred to me out of nowhere.

“Correct!”

The man smiled happily.

I felt like those names and reasons had to be fake. Or were they actually real?

“And what do detectives want from me?”, I nervously inquired. I would just refuse any weird invitations.

But the answer I got took me off-guard even then.

“We want to ask you some things about Rie Itou.”

My heart skipped a beat, as soon as her name came out of the girl’s mouth. I stopped sweating for a second before it spurted out of my pores again in full force. My heart began beating loudly, my body grew stiff. I let my bag fall, out of surprise.

“Well, we expected this reaction. Want to talk about it in a coffee shop?”, the man asked me with an upward glance as he knelt down to pick up my bag.

The nearby coffee shop was empty, be it due to its offbeat place, time of day or a different reason altogether.

Compared to the overly chilly library, the air conditioning was used more effectively here.

There were only two other customers besides us, a young man writing something on a piece of paper, and an elderly woman. The man could have been enrolled at my university.

We left the counter and sat down at a table for four. Only a peaceful piano melody reverberated through the room. I felt like I’ve already heard it before but couldn’t remember its name anymore.

A high school girl who likely worked here part time came to take our order. She had a round face and short nose but was really cute.

I ordered an ice tea, the girl an ice cream and the man an ice coffee.

“So… Why are you investigating Rie now, after all this time?”

I carefully broke the ice after the girl took our orders.

It had already been three years since her disappearance. What were they after?

The man shrugged his shoulders and began playing with a bundle of his sharply standing hair.

“We’re bound to secrecy so we can’t disclose anything about our client.”

What a convenient reason. I couldn’t make out anything in his deeply black pupils.

“Just talk to us about anything you want regarding Rie. Don’t force yourself. We don’t have a warrant like the police so simply talking to us would already be a big help.”

“I already told the police everything.”

As I said that, the girl opened her mouth.

“Ah, we know. You were completely honest.”

She stroked her braid with one of her thin fingers and opened her mouth in a careless manner.

“11th March, three years ago. It was roughly 4pm when you and Rie were on your way home from school. It was raining. You took a shortcut and parted at the station. A station employee saw a girl that fit Rie. Though he worked at the station closest to her house and not where you have seen her last. Naturally, she didn’t come home that day nor was she ever seen after that. It remains unclear whether the employee had actually seen Rie or not to this day.”

The girl seemingly glared at me. The man told me to not force myself but her eyes were clearly pressuring me.

“…Kinda like that.”

“We want to know more about this shortcut.”, said the man.

“We were told you went to an aquarium first.”

“…How do you know that?!”

“Haha, we can’t disclose anything about our sources.”, he answered jokingly.

I only told the police about that. Could these two dig out such secret information that easily?

The girl continued unconcerned.

“Yet you always denied going to the aquarium after that. You were even shadowed by the police for some time. Maybe you were holding the missing piece of the puzzle.”

“I don’t know anything!”, I instinctively blurted out loudly. The elderly women and university student looked at our table.

The girl still looked uninterested.

“Ah, I’m sorry….”

“Yes, you don’t know anything more about the outcome.”

For no obvious reason, the man smiled calmly and stared deep into my eyes.

“But we want to know a bit more about this aquarium.”

“Here’s your order!”. Just as I was hesitating, the girl from before interrupted us and began putting down the beverages on the table.

“Hope you enjoy it.”

With that, she left.

The girl scooped her ice cream with a little round spoon and slowly carried it into her mouth. Her cheeks became slightly red and her eyes narrowed in bliss. That was the first time I saw her smile. The wildly colored chocolate toppings on her ice made it look kind of childish.

The man poured five shots of the gum syrup – placed on the table’s basket – into his ice coffee. The clear fluid swayed like the shimmering of hot air. A clunking sound came out of the glass as he started stirring.

“Over sweetened is just sweet enough for me.”, he said lightheartedly as he noticed my gaze.

“The only things you need in life are sugar, curiosity and a bit of malice.”

“Malice?”, I asked, repeating his words.

“Yep. But you have to use it as the secret aroma of your personality! Being overly mean will simply make you dull. The only thing you can overdose on is sugar after all.”

“You have quite the bad character.”

“I heard that a lot.”

I snuck a fleeting peak at the girl who had finished scooping her ice. She looked pleased but averted her face when she noticed me.

I took a sip of my ice tea. It wasn’t sweet.

“You and Rie Itou went to the aquarium.”, said the man.

My eyes returned to the man.

“We’re doubting that. Why? Because this aquarium doesn’t exist. The police already searched for it but couldn’t find any place like it. Did you really go there?”

“No one believes me either way.”

“Believing and forgiving are a human’s greatest luxury. Think of Jesus Christ. When he was crucified on Golgotha he shouted, ‘Eli Eli lama sabachthani?’ which you can translate as ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’. In the end, he didn’t hate God nor his executioners. He truly was a luxurious man.”

“I sense malice in your words.”

My response made him laugh.

That day, me and Rie definitely went to an aquarium. But it was never to be found. It didn’t exist. Naturally, I initially doubted the police and searched myself but no matter how long, I never found it again.

“I want to hear what happened that day.”

He smiled while taking a sip of his sweet iced coffee.

I didn’t expect to find Rie by telling them the story. I stirred in my ice tea with the straw and thought. Or rather, I was pretending to think.

Ah whatever, it was just some idle gossip after all. Nothing I could talk about would change this fact. Maybe I could help those two detectives to find her. Did I want to find her? I didn’t know. Her smile came to my mind…

The man interrupted my thoughts.

“That’s not sweet, right?”

He offered me the gum syrup. His skull ring smiled at me.

4

Rie looked at me as calmly as the rain. The edges of her big lips were raised upwards in a smile and her almond shaped pupils shone brightly wet as she stroked my hair. She combed endlessly through it with her thin, white finger. I gulped the tea down in one sip. At the bottom of the cup remained undissolved sugar crystals.

“I’ll better head home.”, the moment I said that, Rie stood up too.

“Let’s go together.”

We sparsely exchanged words while walking to the shoe lockers. We changed our shoes, looked up to the lead colored sky and saw the thick drops raining down from it. There was almost no wind but it was chilly for June nonetheless.

“How are you going to get home, Rie?”

She seemed to think for a bit and answered with a quiet laugh, “Hey, won’t you accompany me for a bit?”.

“I don’t mind, but what about the rain?”

That moment, she took out a folding umbrella out of her bag. I obviously didn’t ask her why she lied about having brought none.

It wasn’t a big umbrella and our shoulders peeked out from under it. The school uniform’s shirt above my left shoulder was soaking wet and cold.

We walked from the school to the station. While it took us a while to get there, there was still time until the club activities would officially end. So, there weren’t many people on the street.

“We look like a couple now.”, Rie said jokingly in reference to how close together we walked under the umbrella.

Still accompanying her, she led me onto a train and we got off four stations later at one I didn’t know. The rows of short, old buildings made it seem like a labyrinth.

“Where are we going?”, I asked but she only winked with her left eye and said it’s a secret. Her long, glossy hair remained dry and flowed smoothly even in the rain.

Even though we only walked for a little while, we must have come quite far because I could hear the trains only in the far distance.

We encountered no one on the way, maybe due to the rain. It wasn’t a pedestrian-only road despite its narrowness, but bicycles were completely absent as well.

All I could hear was the rain hitting the umbrella, the splashes each of our steps made and Rie’s breathing. I could feel her body warmth clearly. It made me a bit nervous.

Additionally, the thought of going to an unknown place made me anxious. It was just like going to a foreign country. I was assaulted by a feeling akin to loneliness or maybe helplessness. All of it felt weirdly nostalgic.

I restlessly looked around the area as Rie interrupted me.

“Hey, we’re there.”

She pointed to an old building that looked like a movie theater. The walls were slightly dirty and cracked all over.

“What is there?”

“An aquarium.”

“An aquarium?”

I parroted back at her. The quiet building before me was nearly the complete opposite to how you would imagine an aquarium to be.

But at the entrance hung a small sign with “Jellyfish Aquarium” written on it. The letters were fading away but it was clearly readable.

“You wanted to come here?”

“Yep!”

She folded the umbrella gently and pulled on the clattering door.

It was dim inside. The whole room was lit blue in various places.

Something like a counter was directly to the right. A man sat inside.

“Welcome.”, he said. He had a strangely crumpled face but it fit this mysterious place. He had long sidelocks and a 5 o’clock shadow beard. His completely white and seemingly clean shirt shone in the darkness.

“Hello.”

She greeted him as if she was a regular here.

I took out my purse.

“Eh, how much does it cost?”

The man smiled faintly.

“Nah, we’re free of charge.”

He affectionately spread his right palm.

“Please enjoy it.”

Without knowing why, I looked at his featureless palm and its short lifeline.

“Hey, let’s go.”

Rie grabbed my hand and dragged me along. Her hand was soft but a bit cold since it had gotten wet in the rain.

It was comfortably warm inside, and I felt like a calm breeze was coming from somewhere. I couldn’t see my feet in the darkness. Only the sensation of her hand reassured me.

“Hey, look! Look!”, she turned around.

“A moon jellyfish!”

The jellyfish swam idly in his blue illuminated, inlaid water tank. It was round and slightly bigger than my hand. Its transparent, faint lines drew simple patterns.

“It’s prettier than I expected.”

It was beautiful in its tiny tank. A lot more than I thought.

“Right?”

I casually looked at her face as she said those words, but she didn’t really smile.

While she was directly staring at the tank her lips were tied tightly together like she was enduring something. Something was definitely wrong with her, I felt. My chest grew tighter and I knew I should say something to her.

But I didn’t know what, at all.

After staring silently at the fish tank, Rie looked at me.

“Let’s go to the next!”, she said and turned to me. She smiled again.

It may have been called Jellyfish Aquarium, but it truly contained exclusively jellyfishes. The dim room with the bluely illuminated jellyfishes invoked a feeling of mystery. There weren’t any special devices in the aquariums or trick to the way the water flowed. Some jellyfishes moved up and down, some had long, buoyantly tentacles and others looked like small squids.

One species looked like decorations as their countless, silk-like tentacles reached up like thin fog on the glass. On the tank was a plate with a name engraved on it but I couldn’t understand it.

The aquariums’ interiors grew increasingly longer and narrower on the second floor but with a clear path into its interiors. Maybe it was due to the rain or the norm, but the building was completely void of other visitors.

“Hey, Pine.”

She called me after we made a round-tour of the second floor.

“Do you know the jelly moon?”

“Jelly… moon?”

I repeated her words.

“Yep. It’s when you see the moon reflected on the sea’s surface. Doesn’t it look like the moon became jelly? It also refers to a similar-looking jellyfish species, so I came up with this name!”

Now that she mentioned it, the interiors truly reminded me of the nightly sea with its blue lighting and floating jellyfishes who bore a striking resemblance to the moon.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet came to my mind. Specifically, the famous balcony scene where Rome pledged his feelings towards Juliet to the moon. She just said that he shouldn’t pledge anything to the inconstant moon. Its constant waxing and waning symbolized uncertain things after all. I told this to Rie.

“You’re as literate as always! I’m sure no high school girl would read Shakespeare nowadays.”, she said and laughed. Her big mouth was cute, and I could see her small, white teeth.

After that, her gaze shifted to something else completely and she uttered a single sentence.

“When a jellyfish dies, it dissolves in the water and disappears.”

She laughed again for some reason unknown to me.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t find an answer.

“It leaves no trace behind.”

She uttered those words as if she was envious of their fate.

“Hey, Pine.”

“…Yes?”

“I’ll disappear very soon…”

I could hardly see her in the blue light.

“Hey… what do you mean…?”

I laughed. Even though she said nothing funny, I laughed.

“You must be wondering what I’m on about, huh? There’s no other choice than to laugh it off, right? Yet, I’m slowly fading away.”

She was still smiling but her voice was serious. She stretched and held out her hand as if it were translucent.

“I can’t see it.”

I could only utter those loose words. The warm breeze around my feet evaporated and I felt like sinking into the ocean.

“Yep… how peculiar, isn’t it?”

“What… joke is this?”

Her steps were drumming through the hallway.

“At first, people didn’t reply directly when I talked to them but soon, they didn’t even react when I was absent from class. My father and brother stopped noticing me as well. I might disappear at this rate.”

She was saying all that with a smile, but I couldn’t classify them as anything else than misguided attempts at imitating movie lines.

“I’m not only becoming invisible, my whole existence itself is slowly fading away.”

Maybe the others were just ignoring her as some sick joke?

But they wouldn’t go through such extremes nor had I heard any rumors about it.

“Hey, look.”

She pointed at her shadow. It was clearly visible despite the blue environment.

“Your shadow?”

“Yeah, don’t you think it’s overshadowing me?”

I noticed it as well once she said it but at the same time wondered if it was just because Rie said it. You shouldn’t be able to make out the thickness in this dim building either way.

“Isn’t your shadow normally just a faint silhouette of yourself?”

She smiled but I knew that she just wanted to soothe me and began explaining what she meant in a more understandable manner.

“You don’t understand. My shadow is growing thicker and I feel like it’s swapping places with my true self.”

“That’s why your physical body is disappearing?”

“I think so.”

It had to be a cruel joke of nature.

“It reminds me of Peter Pan.”, I pressed out my thoughts.

“Yeah, true. I will probably be swallowed by my shadow.”

As to match her shadow she made a small, snappy jump which made her short skirt and long hair flutter.

I didn’t know what I should say nor why she told me all these mysterious things. Maybe she needed something from me but I had no idea what. I didn’t know the answer to anything.

“How does it feel to be invisible?”, was the only thing I could ask.

Did I really want to know that? Or did I merely want to say something to her? I couldn’t tell.

Though I felt like I did want to say something else, I just couldn’t put it into words. My words can accomplish nothing. I am weak.

After thinking for a short while Rie answered.

“It’s incredibly aggravating but I can’t convey my angriness to anyone.”

“Angriness?”

“Just a thought experiment but imagine that even if you were saying you were sad or happy, you couldn’t convey it to anyone with your words…”

“…”

“Isn’t that depressingly lonely?”

Rie smiled as brightly as always.

5

“Interesting. So Rie Itou hinted at her own disappearance?”

The man… Ninomae nodded his head in agreement. His hair, looking almost like a pack of gold needles, followed his movement.

The girl sitting next to him, Ichijiku, seemed annoyed throughout, making me wonder if she was even listening. She rested her chin on her hands and looked outside the window. The man began to speak.

“After that, you both left the aquarium and went back to the station, where you said goodbye. Rie Itou disappeared after that… Were you informed of this the next day?”

“No, her brother called me the same night.”

“Junya Itou?”

“Yes.”

Wait, could it have been her brother who instigated this investigation? But still, why now…

“He asked me if I knew why Rie didn’t come home yet but I told him we went together.”

“But you didn’t know about the witness at the other station nor her whereabouts after that.”

“Yes…”

Rie disappeared. The police also came to interview me which caused another commotion. I was the last person who talked with her so of course they asked me about what happened.

Naturally, I told them of the aquarium, but it was nowhere to be found.

A lot had happened to her, so they concluded she ran away from home.

They didn’t have any witnesses of a possible kidnapping. She had vanished, just like the jellyfish dissolved in the water.

At first it was a sensation but over time less and less people talked about it. It was just like she said. Everyone forgot her. She really did disappear.

Personally, the one thing which saddened me more than her disappearance was how no one remembered her. It was so bitter, so hard to forgive I thought. It was cruel.

And so, the only person who ever called out to me was no more…

That was three years ago.

“Can I ask a more personal question?”, asked the man.

“What?”

“Were you and Rie Itou in a lesbian relationship?”

“We we-?!”

“Is that surprising?”

“Is it related to the case?”

“Hm, maybe it’s just my curiosity? You need sugar and curiosity in life after all.”

It sounded more like his malice.

“We looked at a picture of you two. Don’t you seem like a great match?”

“Where did you get that…?”

But that would’ve been disclosure of personal info.

“I can’t disclose that.”

“You’re wrong. Me and Rie weren’t in a romantic relationship.”

I shook my head vividly.

“Hmmm… So, you were more than friends but less than lovers?”

“No, you’re wrong.”

“No need to refuse it so heavily. But you were very close friends, right?”

Somehow the word close friends felt bewildering to me. Were we that close?

I didn’t have the confidence to confirm it. Maybe our relationship would’ve been framed incorrectly otherwise or so I felt.

“What are you gaining by asking these questions?”

I enquired this time.

“Hm, I wonder.”

He gave me an offhand answer. He leaned deeper into his chair’s backrest. I looked at Ichijiku.

She looked slovenly outside with narrow eyes. She may as well be sleeping. Ninomae stretched out his finger and gently poked her cheek.

“Don’t touch me, raven brain.”

Her voice was sharp as a needle.

“Hey, I just thought you were sleeping.”

“I’m awake. Want me to stuff you?”

“Haha, please have mercy, mighty lady!”

He shrugged his shoulders and turned his obsidian pupils to me. He didn’t blink once but smiled slightly with his mouth. He was like a cheeky grade schooler.

“What if Rie itou really disappeared like a jellyfish. If all of it were true, how would you react?”, he asked.

“As if that… would ever be possible, right?”

That’s what I answered. I didn’t know whether she ran away from home or got entangled into a whole other affair, but no one could just disappear. She just disappeared from everyone’s hearts.

Maybe I really was the only one who still remembered her…

My very own Rie…

Before I noticed, we were the only customers left in the coffee shop.

The piano melody was still playing.

Ninomae was happily grinning for some reason and played with his skull ring when he opened his mouth again.

“You know the concept of camouflage? It’s a witty technique for organisms to survive by blending in with their environment and remain undetected. Here’s an example: Jellyfishes have gelatin which has the same refractive index as water. Hence, they blend in with the water around them.”

He continued.

“Let’s take one of their natural enemies, the sea turtle. Because plastic bags floating on the water surface resemble jellyfishes, there are more and more reports of turtles mistakenly eating said bags in recent years. The same applies to surfers getting confused as earless seals by great white sharks.”

I instantly thought of the scene where the swimming area became a sea of blood.

“What are you on about?”

“About plastic bags who won’t dissolve.”

They checked a few things with me and our conversation ended. They paid for my ice tea and we were saying goodbye in front of the coffee shop.

“Hey.”, the man opened his mouth for the last time. Still, it felt like he was about to unravel his true intent.

“Did anything weird… happen lately?”

I thought about how I dreamed of Rie night after night but simply answered with a brief no and shook my head. They would have never let me be otherwise.

“Alright, thanks for everything today.”, said Ninomae with a smile while Ichijiku just stared at me in annoyance.

I bowed and stepped into the bustling crowd.

It was hot even on this cloudy day. My sweat began to steadily run down my back. I looked back once but the two had already disappeared into the twilight.

That night as well, I saw this dream. I dreamt about Rie.

She stared at me with a forced smile.

Sometimes she would try speaking only for her words to be swallowed before reaching my ears. It sounded like we were underwater. I was at a loss.

What’s wrong, Rie? What are you trying to tell me?

My words didn’t reach her. Like I couldn’t hear her words, she couldn’t hear mine. It reminded me of conversing in different languages, you could hear the other party but couldn’t understand them.

It was vexing. It was just like saying you were sad or happy, but unable to convey it to anyone with your words. It was depressingly lonely.

We had lost our main mean of communication beforehand.

Nonetheless, she looked at me with a calm smile.

My spirit shriveled as a feeling of guilt assaulted me. I was dead in the water. I frantically reached out to her arms. I tried stroking her hair, tracing her cheeks, touching or running my finger along her neck.

But it was a dream. A never-ending nightmare.

6

Three ordinary days followed. I went back to my parent’s home for the holidays earlier than planned. Naturally, it was just a pretense to visit Rie’s home.

It was two hours away by train. The station didn’t change much at all, only the surrounding houses had rapidly disappeared.

“I’m home.”

“Welcome back, Hina.”

I could hear my little sister Himawari’s footsteps miles away. Her carefree greeting almost made me forget she’s studying for the university entrance exams. Her uniform’s skirt couldn’t have been shorter.

“Woah, you have like no luggage…!” With that she forcibly scavenged my bag.

“I brought no souvenirs.”

Her expression reminded me of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

I pulled on her little pointy nose.

“Greedy girl.”

“Stop it!”

“What are you two doing?”

Wiping her hands at her apron’s hem, my mother came to the entrance.

“I’m home, mom.”

“Hey, welcome home.”

It sounded like a formality.

“You’re earlier than expected. I thought we agreed on the weekend.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Her boyfriend probably left her.”, said Himawari’s The Scream.

“Are you that stupid?”

Her face did look stupid to be honest.

“Well, it’s fine. Your father is on a business trip in Hokkaido though. He’ll be sad if he can’t see you, you know?”

“It’s not that bad. Hokkaido is refreshing.”, said Himawari. As designated by the school, she wore short pants under her skirt.

“I’ll come by again, I have some stuff to take care of.”

“Stuff to take care of?”

The two tilted their heads, I refused to give me any clear answers.

After I put down my luggage, I left the house under the pretense of meeting some old school friends.

It was past noon, but the sun was as relentless as ever while the asphalt amplified its rays. The cicadas eliminated every moment of silence. Sweat ran down my body.

I hurried back to the station and got onto the train. I was out of breath. Yet I began to freeze in the train. My sweat was cold.

I vaguely remembered the way to Rie’s home and kept running into the wrong streets. Not because it was a confusing area but rather due to the many similar-looking buildings and lack of orientation points. One unclean, featureless house came after another.

After my countless detours I finally arrived at her house, only one hour after I left the station. The house wasn’t anything to write home about, clad in cream-colored walls. The many trees in the garden filled it with a thick green. The air was moist.

Itou was written on the nameplate. I had reached my destination.

I rang the doorbell, it rang twice.

Will someone be even home at this time during the week?

“Hello, who’s there?”

A man’s voice came out of the intercom. He sounded uncomfortable, maybe due to the speaker.

“Ah, I’m Hinata. Hinata Souma. I was in the same class as Rie…”

At that point I realized that I had no idea what to say. I hadn’t thought about it at all, almost as if I just came here out of an impulse. Now that I thought about it in earnest, I didn’t know why I came here in the first place…

I couldn’t do anything on my own. It was too late in every way.

Meanwhile an “Ah” came out of the intercom. “You’re Hinata?”.

“Hang on a second.”

Before long the door sluggishly opened.

“It’s been a while.”

Junya – Rie’s brother – came to greet me.

He wore a white V-neck shirt, matching thinly blue jeans and a smile on his slightly thick lips. His hair was a lot longer than back in the day and reached down to his eyebrows now. He grew up in every way, yet his fragile stature remained. Only his embarrassed smile when looking at me had vanished completely. I realized how long and short three years truly were.

“A-Ah, we haven’t seen each other in a while.”

I grew tense all of a sudden and my voice began shaking.

“Hey, what’s wrong? It’s been super long!”

Junya tilted his head while playing with his bangs.

“Eeeh.”

What should I say?

“Either way, let’s go up, it’s really hot out here.”

The bright outside sun and dim interior of the house clashed. My eyes didn’t adjust.

He led me into the living room which faced the garden. Rush mats were laying on the ground and a low square table stood on them.

“Want some barely tea?”

“Sure.”

He filled a glass to the brim with yellow barely tea. The pouring sound filled the room.

He sat down, facing me.

“It really has been a while. You’re in university now, right?”

“Yes.”

“Won’t you ask about me?”

“Ah, what about you?”

“Haha, as honest as ever. I’m a chemistry teacher.”

He smiled with his thick lips.

“You’re a teacher?”

“Yes, at a high school. Unexpected, isn’t it? I’m just a guest teacher though.”

“Isn’t that really stressful?”

Upon fully digesting that news, they reminded me of manga or novels.

“Well, I’m employed at a private college preparatory school.”

He told me its name. It was the same school I tried applying for during the entrance exams phase.

“Do you have summer holidays now?”

“Don’t make me laugh. There’s no such thing as holidays for teachers with club activities or other stuff. It’s tiring. I just got home too.”

“Aren’t you super popular with all the girls then?”

“Not at all. That’s just some manga and drama cliché. I’m more of a peculiar animal there.”

The glass of barley tea sweat drops of water as well. I took a sip and the aromatic flavor flooded my mouth.

“And? Do you enjoy it in university? Do you have a literature club?”

“Yes. Whether I enjoy it or not is hard to say but I do read books every day.”

“Ah, sounds fun. Even though Rie always hung out with you she never read a single one.”

He mentioned her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Hm? Why?”

“Nah, I shouldn’t have brought up Rie…”

“It has already been three years.”

Junya narrowed his eyes a little and stared outside the window, seemingly fighting back tears. No, he smiled.

“By the way.” I remembered I wanted to talk to him about the two detectives. Maybe he contracted them after all.

“I don’t know anything about them.”

He shook his head to both sides. His hair sluggishly followed.

“They didn’t speak to me or maybe they will show up sooner or later. Aaah, I don’t like this but maybe dad knows something.”

“Eh, where’s your dad?”

“He’s a salary man so he’s usually home late. Living alone with your son isn’t the best situation. I want to leave this house too.”

I looked at his hanging down face. I noticed how long his eyelashes were, similar to Rie and her bright eyes.

“Are you living alone?”

“Yes, I do.”

That’s all I said.

I gazed at the garden. It looked properly maintained. Filled with an abundant, fresh green, it brimmed with the summerly life force. Lush vegetation covered the ground, absorbing the sun’s rays and reflecting them brightly.

“It was my mother’s hobby.”

He noticed that I was looking at the garden. She left them when they were little.

“She wasn’t an expert but loved tinkering with it nonetheless and buying new flowers at the gardening shop. Me and Rie took it over back then. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Now Rie has left us too. Maybe it’s in this family’s female blood, huh? So, I’m doing it all alone since my father isn’t really interested in it. We haven’t talked about it yet, but my mom had an affair. I guess it’s not too far-fetched that it was the reason she left. Dad is always saying how Tomoko – our mother– betrayed us. When I leave too, the flowers will likely wilt.”

I silently listened to his story.

He stopped his mouth and fell into a deep silence as well. Only the cicadas remained, mixed together with some kids calling out for another.

“Aah.” He suddenly seemed to remember something.

“Do you know the story of Atamayama?”

“Isn’t that a classic rakugo?”

It was a weird tale about a man whose head had blossomed a cherry tree after he ate one of its seeds. Soon the tree’s buds began to bloom and it became the talk of the town at once. They admired the tree on the man’s head and opened a cherry blossom viewing festival. But the man couldn’t handle it. He tore off the tree but now he had an open hole there. With the rain collecting in the gap, many people soon came to fish in it. Still, the man couldn’t bear that noise either and at last, drowned himself in the pond on his head.

What a weird story.

“Rie loved such stories, be it from television or somewhere else.”

I heard that for the first time.

“Hey, look.”

He stood up and opened the glass door facing the garden. The stuffy, humid air mixed with the cool interior, resulting in a tiny breeze blowing at my feet, accompanied by the canonical cicadas.

“I dug the hole and put the cherry tree in with Rie.”

He pointed to a trimmed cherry tree which bore no fruit but was enveloped by an abundance of deeply green leaves. Around it – almost as compensation – bloomed light purple moon flowers, decorated with white sprinkles like someone spilled his paint.

“Ever since she was little, Rie loved carefully taking out the seeds of every fruit she ate like watermelons or cherries.”

“Why?”

“She was convinced the seeds would grow in her stomach and break through her one day.”

He laughed and I joined in. Rie was such a cute girl.

“Oh right, we have something a lot better than barley tea. Wait a second!”

He disappeared into the kitchen. I heard grating noises from the hallway while staring at the cherry tree.

Junya came back after a short while, holding two glasses in his hands that were filled with a pink fluid.

“These are cherries fermented in sugar and white liquor similar to plum wine. You could call it cherry wine! It’s only 2 months old so it may be a bit early though.”

“I’m a minor.”

Despite being a teacher, he just held his finger in front of his lips. “It’s a secret”, he smiled.

The fluid was incredibly sweet and I didn’t taste the alcohol at all, just like cherry juice. I remembered Ninomae’s words from before.

The only things you need in life are sugar, curiosity and a bit of malice.

7

I went into Rie’s room at the end of the second floor. Nothing had changed since she disappeared.

A poster of her favorite band hung on the beige wall. But the bass player already retired and got replaced.

Two photo frames were turned over on her study desk. One was of us from when were at the amusement park, she was hugging the mouse mascot. We fell asleep on the train home and rode to the very last stop that day. Ah, that took me back.

The other one was a family picture of Rie, Junya and their parents. The two were still young. Rie and her mother’s mouth shape looked impressively similar.

I turned the pictures back down.

The shelf was filled with the manga I lent out from Rie. On her bed’s side laid the teddy bear I gave her on her birthday.

I took it. Only the side the burning sun shone on was warm.

Both my nostalgia and solitude hit me at once, almost pushing me to tears.

But that didn’t feel right. I wanted to burst out in tears like a kid but couldn’t shed a single one.

I was at a loss. Normally, I would have read a book now in an attempt to find the right words to express my feelings with. After all, I couldn’t express my sadness with anything.

Suddenly, I was pushed onto the bed. The springs squeaked in agony.

“Miiidoooriii!”

I turned around and saw Rie, smiling at me like she was planning a joke. Her eyes grinned at me and her tangling hair’s tips touched my face. They tickled.

Her slim fingers stroked my face. Slowly, they began undoing one button of my shirt, and another. She was a pervert. She pressed her lips against one spot of my body after the other. They were soft and a bit cold.

“I love you, Pine.”

Her whispering voice remained in my ears.

“I… love you too, Rie.”

I stretched out my hand to her. I caressed her slightly big lips and stroke her neck. I felt her pulse’s every beat. She was alive.

She was smiling.

In her room, on her bed that was penetrated by her odour and hugging the teddy I gave her, I was sleeping.

I would forget whether I saw this dream or not once I woke up.

When I left Rie’s home, Junya told me to come by again with a bright smile. “Sure”, I said, without knowing if I would actually visit again. He offered to bring me to the station, but I politely declined.

Junya sent his father a mail to ask if he knew anything about the detectives while I was asleep, but he apparently didn’t hire anyone. They didn’t visit him at work either so far.

No one except me saw them. Who sent those two or for what purpose remained a mystery in the end. Junya assured me he would get me answers if they would show up.

“Is it really okay for you to go alone?”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

I slowly walked to the station.

The sun was setting and transformed the scenery alongside it. Though I was facing a different direction on my way back too. One by one the street lights turned on, followed by the automatic entrance lights of each door.

I heard a crying kid from afar. The wind was still.

The streets were empty. A middle schooler wearing a jersey trotted with his head down.

I continued walking alongside the wall while sweat drops were quickly running down from my forehead to my cheeks. I wiped them away with the back of my hand.

When the cat on top of the wall noticed me, it jumped away and disappeared to the other side.

I licked my lips. I tasted a faint sweetness mixed with a little bit of saltiness.

The act of thinking. I was constantly thinking about something.

Yet I wouldn’t say I thought about something the whole time, it was more like I was an antenna. I just suddenly drew connections between things that I picked up on and had nothing to do with me. There were moments like that, I thought.

That’s why I was always thinking. I wasted three years wondering. Wondering why Rie disappeared. I probably visited Junya because I was thinking about it again. Then, it came to me. I connected the dots.

I don’t know where it welled up from. It felt like a bubble burst open at a fluid’s surface. A bang echoed through my mind. I remembered Motojirou Kaiji’s novel Beneath the Cherry Trees. If Rie were here, she would have surely said that no girl reads such things nowadays.

“A corpse is buried beneath the cherry trees.”

This short novel began with this phrase. A depressing story about a depressing man.

Junya’s words from before hit me like a surprise attack. Maybe I shouldn’t have remembered them. Maybe I shouldn’t have noticed it at all.

I repeated his words once again.

“I dug the hole and put the cherry tree in with Rie.”

Under that cherry tree, Rie was buried…

I whirled around in shock,

and lost consciousness.

The next time I opened my eyes was in complete darkness.

My body didn’t hurt but I couldn’t move either. My hands were bound together behind my back. It was slightly hard to breathe because my mouth was gagged. I was laying on the floor. It was too dark to see anything without light. I had no clue where I was.

Fear spread throughout my body. A scream welled up from my throat, but I tried suppressing it with all my might. My heart pounded like X. I was paralyzed. I was scared.

Was I in Junya’s home? I tried making out things in the darkness. Was the chair there? Was the gap that big? Was I brought back to the house? There were no mats nor the low table. Something felt off.

Where the hell was I? No one was here.

Would I see the face of my kidnapper when turning around? Would it be Junya’s? I didn’t think so.

My mind was foggy, probably due to the drugs. Did they make me collapse? Junya was a chemistry teacher but I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t think clearly anymore. Did Rie disappear the same way? Maybe she didn’t run away but got kidnapped and killed after all…

Who would do this though?! And what could they want from me?

Either way, I had to stay calm and think about how to get help.

I controlled my breath and listened carefully. I began hearing little splashes, as if water drops fell into a dug hole…

Will I be thrown in there after they killed me? Or even buried alive? These thoughts let my fear reach new heights, making my whole body shake in a frantic search for escape.

I heard a bang, a thud and soon someone held me down. Even shaking was impossible. My teeth were pressed together. It sounded like a shovel had been thrown onto the ground or something fell down…

And then…

“Heya, Hinata Souma.”, a man’s voice was whispered into my ear. I wanted to scream with my gagged mouth again, but he pressed his hand against it and I couldn’t produce a single sound.

“Shhh.”

When I looked up, I realized whose voice it was. It was the detective from earlier, Ninomae. His black shirt and jeans blended into the darkness. As my eyes slowly got used to it, I saw him pressing his right index finger against his lips. “Shhh.” I could faintly see his skull ring and his messed-up hair. To think that these two kidnapped and killed Rie…

“Is that how you thank someone for saving you?”

Ichijiku’s words pierced me like a knife. She too wore her usual black one piece. Merely her white hair stood out from the black surroundings.

He took his left hand off my mouth and came closer to my face to say something.

“Your theory is interesting but you’re off the mark.”

Off… the mark.

“Yup, totally off. So off I want to laugh at you. It’s so off you would have hit the guy’s forehead instead of the apple on his head!”

His cackling laugh sounded childish.

This was all going too fast; I couldn’t follow the events. Did they save me? If so, why did I feel so agitated? On top of that, there was no sign of other people. Who the hell were these two?

Ichijiku put her hand on her hips and began observing the surroundings with an annoyed gaze.

“Look.”

Ninomae took the cloth and packing tape off my mouth, which was covered in drool. He untied me after.

“What… What the hell are you doing…?”

My voice sounded awfully foreign.

“Your kidnappers lie flat as pancakes in the garden. Ichijiku packs quite a punch, oh, you should have seen her! Just like a stuntman, she unleashed a perfect screw drop kick straight from the heavens onto them! It looked exactly like the legendary version from Japanese wrestler Giant Baba you may have only seen once a year in his heyday! Her skirt lifted up just enough to deliver the perfect fanservice too! Her knee-high socks would have done the rest for every fetish!”

“Shut it, raven brain.”

Ichijiku put him down.

Was this some kind of joke? I didn’t get it.

I looked at the garden, but it was as dark as everything. Maybe I could find out whether it was Junya’s house if the lights were on.

“And? Don’t you want to see the culprit?”

Ninomae pointed to the garden.

“Wouldn’t that be Junya…?”

I couldn’t think of anyone else. But that someone must have seen me visit Junya. Did he panic? To think that person would kill Rie and kidnap me…

“Who knows.”

He nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.

“Does it even matter whether it was the same person who kidnapped both you and Rie Itou? No one cares about who got run over by a car either. If you want to know, you gotta investigate for yourself. Maybe he even was an acquaintance in the end.”

He bent his lips while saying that.

I doubted his words but couldn’t make sense of them either.

“We don’t really care about who took Rie itou with him or anything like that.”

“… But you asked me about her the other day.”

“Yeah and we heard your story. That was all we wanted.”

“Didn’t you investigate her disappearance…?”

“We never said that.”, he said with a blank face.

“So… why did you ask me?”

I looked at Ninomae, then Ichijiku. She observed us like a bored child.

But I clearly saw some kind of pity inside her black eyes. Was she pitying me, perhaps?

I got gooseflesh and focused on him again.

“We wanted to meet you.”

He pointed his finger at me while he said that. I felt like a gun was pointing at me.

“Me…?”

“Indeed. We came to convey a last message from Rie Itou to you.”

“A message…?”

“We just came to meet you. You should have ended it back then, Ninomae.”

She was clearly uncomfortable.

“Ah come on. The only things you need in life are sugar, curiosity and a bit of malice. That applies for the job too. We don’t care about Rie Itou’s whereabouts, only about the relationship between you two. Though you’re clearly the more interesting one.”

“Is that… a detective’s job?”

“We’re only part-time detectives… Or well, we’re doing it full-time but it’s not our main job.”

He traced his slender chin, then spread his arms and said,

“You might not believe us but we’re demons!”

“You’re just an annoying raven. Stop polluting the air with your words.”

She turned around and stared into the empty darkness.

What kind of nightmare have I dreamed myself into?

But where is Rie in this dream…?

“Right, you often dreamed of Rie Itou over the past three years. Everyone forgot her but you couldn’t let go. Night by night, in an endless loop, you continued dreaming of her. You didn’t let yourself forget her. Or rather…”

Ninomae lifted his lips up in a smile like he saw through it all.

Ah, normally I should have resisted their claim of being demons now. Yet, I didn’t doubt it at all. Only demons could laugh like this.

“After all this, I guess we can enlighten you. Actually, Rie Itou signed a contract with a demon decades ago. You both hadn’t met back then; she was still a child. She always fought with her mother. Or rather, she was getting sucked into the quarrels between her parents, maybe that’s why she ran away from home. At that time, the Itou family was collapsing but that wasn’t unusual. More importantly, the aimless Rie, wandered into a park and met… us.”

A shiver ran down my spine. I felt like something unspeakable lied beyond these words.

But I didn’t interrupt him.

“She wished for one thing: ‘I wish my mom would just disappear.’”

“That’s…!”

That’s exactly the kind of foolish thing a kid would say.

“Contracts with demons are absolute. Age doesn’t matter.”

His glare reached deep into my soul.

“H-How do you form such a contract?”

“She promised us her soul. Three years ago, just as written in the contract, her soul returned to us and was doomed to burn in hell.”

“Three… years ago…? Did Rie die after all?!”

“Those are the rules.”, he simply nodded in agreement.

“But let’s not reheat old events. Whether she was killed, committed suicide, caught a deadly disease or died in an accident doesn’t matter. Even if she died peacefully from old age. No one who made a contract with a demon ever experienced that though. However, she did leave us a message in her very last moment. After the human died it’s the demon’s job to escort their soul and right in front of the hell gate, she wanted us to convey something.”

“That duty isn’t written anywhere. You’re just making it up.”

Ichijiku barked in, sounding like an elementary schooler begging her parents for candy.

“Ah don’t give me that. I’m passionate about my job and always trying to improve. So, I’m up for anything that’s allowing me to better understand humans!”

“Ah, go on then…”

“But yes, our original job and this meeting aren’t related. Coming here to convey her message or not was all up to our discretion.”

“Even after three years?”

“For our kind, three years equal something like three minutes. We could have waited for our cup noodles to be done.”

His obvious shoulder shrug resembled that of a pantomime.

“You’re interesting. Very interesting indeed, because you’re a complex human. Or rather, you’re human because your character is complex. Your emotions are so contradictory, I love it! I love observing humans, especially ones like you. So, I’m craving to see how you would react to Rie Itou’s last message!”

Ichikuji pressed her lips together, still staring into the darkness.

“What did she say…?”

I pressed him for an answer.

He smiled widely but his mouth changed halfway along with his voice. I knew it all too well. I loved its bearer after all.

“If I were to be struck by misfortune, make everyone I love experience the same thing.”

My back froze, I stopped sweating.

He laughed again and began talking with a big smile still.

“Alright.”

He took out a parchment and knife from somewhere. The blade and his ring shone dimly together in the darkness.

“A special delivery service for you! If you form a contract with us, we’re going to fulfill any one wish of yours.”

Ah, that’s why they came here after all.

I glanced at Ichijiku,

She was coarsely scratching her head, putting her braid and ribbon into motion. Her hair still shimmered in the dark. It reminded me of a jellyfish. A fleeting beauty that would disappear with her death.

“We can fulfill any possible dream if you enter a contract with us.”

She spat out the words in disinterest and without batting a single eye at me.

“Possible dreams?”

I repeated in confusion.

“Everything except wishing for eternal life or unlimited additional wishes.”

Ninomae took the conversation into his own hand and continued.

“We can fulfill anything except those two. We could even bring back the dead. Or give the killer of Rie Itou a taste of true hellfire. Turning back time to your carefree days would be possible too. Or do you want to be a millionaire? A future full of wealth or fame?”

He spread his hands widely.

“And? We won’t force you into anything, only offer up our services.”

“Hey, we’re in the contracting business!”

“Shut up, raven brain.”

She coldly commanded him and looked at me with her black, round and endless pupils. They were a bit wet and shone in the dark.

Ninomae gave up with slight protests.

She continued.

“Decide what you want to do. You have a free will.”

Free will… Was I free to choose?

“How do you form the contract in detail?”, I inquired.

He answered this time.

“You cut your finger with this knife, just a bit. Then you sign with your thumb print. That’s all, easy, right?”

The blade flashed up, seemingly thirsting for fresh blood.

I looked up at Ichijiku, she looked back at me.

“So, you’re saying… Rie is in hell?”

I wanted to make my words sound sweet. Like herb tea infused with ample amounts of sugar.

“Yes.”

Her reply was short, filled with annoyance and unhappiness.

“And if I sign your contract, I’ll end up in hell too?”

I tried adding another sugar cube to my speech.

“Yes.”

She just spat out another short reply like young coffee.

“Is it possible for me to meet Rie then, I wonder?”

My mouth was overflowing with sugar, just as if it were collecting at the cup’s bottom.

“Who knows.”

It was frustratingly short.

“I see…”

If I were to be struck by misfortune, make everyone I love experience the same thing. I thought of Rie’s face. The Rie I knew from my dream could have very well said these words. So I thought. I felt like I finally found the words I was searching for. For some reason, I felt relieved.

These words connected us. Tightly, tightly, ever so tightly they bound our hand and feet together without any way to untangle them.

She was mine.

I was hers.

I wanted to see her again. Just like when we were spending our time together in the literature club room. Yet I didn’t want to simply return to them…

I stood up and realized how much bigger I was compared to Ichijiku. She looked up to me this time.

“Do you want to sign?”

She asked me.

I answered with a single, fierce nod.

“I see…”

It looked like she was about to cry but I couldn’t fathom why.

“Alright, what do you desire?”

I…

“Humans really are interesting, I’m totally afflicted!”, said the man in black with a stern expression. He wore a black shirt, black jeans and his whole body was uniformly black. His needle-like hair was laying flat, his skin tanned. He wore a big skull ring on his right index finger.

He looked down at the people on the street from the family restaurant’s window on the second floor.

Thick clouds were seemingly meticulously painted onto the summer sky with oil colors. The sun reflected on the asphalt; the passersby were sweating in unison from their foreheads.

“How? All I see are pesky animals, who’s foolishness is beyond salvation.”

The girl sitting diagonally to the man responded bluntly. Their black outfits perfectly matched. She wore a black one-piece, black knee-high socks and black, round enamel shoes.

Yet her skin was pale white. Even a blood drained, injured person could have looked more alive. Her thin, silver hair was thinly pigmented and cut short. She only let a part of the left side grow out to braid it. A black ribbon rounded it all off.

“Hey don’t be this harsh, Ichijiku! Treat your dear customer a bit better for god’s sake!”

The girl called Ichijiku cast a sharp glance at the man.

“Who’s a god here? Choose your words carefully, Ninomae.”

The man called Ninomae shrugged his shoulders in a grandiose manner.

She dug into her chocolate banana parfait with a thin, long spoon. She mixed the chocolate sirup, fresh cream and ice together into a thick soup.

Soon after she began gobbling it down the glass was already empty.

“You got something there.”

Ninoame pointed to the right edge of his lips.

“There’s chocolate, want me to wipe it off?”

She showed him the middle finger and licked her lips with her red tongue. Then she let her gaze wander outside the window, resting her head on her hand on the table. The blue sky, white clouds and sparkling sun formed a summery scenery straight out of a cheap drama novel.

“The jellyfish aquarium.”

That’s all she said.

“Did she make this whole place up after all?”

“Truly perplexing. Maybe it existed, maybe it didn’t, maybe it was another one of our trades. Or maybe they just missed another contract partner. Either way, regardless of what it was, you seem to have taken an interest in it.”

“Not really.”

She presented him a short answer while gazing out the window, obviously bored.

“Do you want to know the culprit maybe?”

“Not at all.”

“Ah, so you totally want to.”

“I said not at all.”

“Yeah, I get you, don’t worry. A Tsundere can’t be honest.”

He pointed his index finger at her.

“Your cold shoulder is just your way of showing me your love! I’m seeing right through you!”

“I’m seeing straaaight through you too. You don’t have a clue about anything.”

Nodding in agreement, he stretched out his body and began explaining.

“Hinata Souma was assaulted by Takashi Itou, the white-haired guy you offed back then.”

She didn’t reply, so he began happily explaining.

“You must be wondering who Takashi Itou is, right? He’s Junya’s father!”

She remained silent.

He continued.

“Takashi was of the firm opinion that his son killed Rie. When Junya sent him the message about two detectives making the rounds – that were us by the way – he panicked. He thought his son’s crime might come to light. Ha, what a weird fellow this Takashi Itou is. Don’t you think?”

She just looked annoyed.

“I mean, why would he cover for his son who killed his daughter? Not as weird as you would expect because Rie wasn’t his biological daughter after all.”

“What do you mean?”

Out of nowhere Ichijiku opened her mouth but covered it up right after. He nodded in agreement, obviously pleased with her reaction.

“His wife Tomoko had a lover. When Rie disappeared, Takashi had him under suspicion but reality is never that easy. Either way, Rie was the illegitimate child of Tomoko and her lover and Takashi must have seen it.”

“…”

“…Won’t you ask what he saw?”

“No.”

He nodded again, as if he saw right through her.

“He saw how… Rie and Junya had sex and concluded they must be half-siblings. That happened when both were still quite young. When she disappeared, he grew more and more obsessed with the idea that Junya did it. Isn’t that truly fascinating?”

He clapped once and continued.

“But it’s far from the truth to say Junya killed her. So, how did Rie die? What do you think?”

“Not a clue.”

He smiled devilishly and bestowed a belittling glance onto her and started to talk again.

“Most likely, the one who killed Rie was Hinata Souma.”

She looked at him.

“Hinata must have gone to her house that day and either strangled her or whatever which led to her death. Then she buried her under the cherry tree. There aren’t eyewitness reports to go by concerning the attack as a result. She then came back to Rie’s house later to confirm the cherry tree was still there, although unconsciously.”

“I don’t get it. Did she lie to herself all this time?”

“I don’t think so. Maybe she did lie to herself three years ago but over time this lie began to become her delusional reality. She truly became the poor girl who lost her dearest friend. Rather than thinking she lied to herself, it’s probably more accurate to say her memories lied to her.”

“Then why did she kill her?”

Ichijiku seemed at a complete loss.

“A truly interesting question and problem indeed. I think, cherishing the things dear to you can be quite taxing on you.”

“But when it disappears, you can cherish it without any effort, if you will. Do you follow?”

He suppressed a chuckle and sat deep in his chair.

“I doubt anyone can say for certain why she killed Rie. Maybe there wasn’t a reason to begin with. Such incomprehensible, absurd deeds are just part of humans. Now that I think about it, maybe Rie Itou committed suicide before Hinata Souma’s eyes too. In order to let her taste the same despair she felt back then. Hinata then concealed it, suppressed her memories and Rie became just another runaway… Mhm, another interesting possibility.”

“You sure you’re not hiding something yourself?”

“You need a certain imagination as a detective.”

“Don’t make me laugh. You’re not a detective but merely an annoying quibbler.”

“How heartless. Though I do know one thing for certain.”

She stared at him.

“The reason why Rie Itou called Hinata Souma ‘Pine’. It’s not part of her name so I thought it might be an inside joke but that’s not it at all! Are you curious?”

“Nope.”

“I totally get you! It’s quite witty actually. If you take Hinata’s H away you get ‘Hawaii’. What’s on a Hawaii pizza? Exactly, pineapple! Although a bit long, so she shortened it to Pine.”

“Ok.”

She interrupted him forcefully.

He looked pleased with himself and began gazing out the window.

“Rie was the only one who called her Pine. So, when she disappeared, no one was there to replace her role. Over time – when everyone began forgetting about Rie – Hinata’s nickname faded away too. The two can’t exist without each other, if one of them disappears so does the other.”

The street was encapsulated by boutiques and other stores. The human blobs went and left in an endless cycle. A girl carried an uncountable amount of paper shopping bags plastered with brand logos and a group of male and female students walked together in a line, while laughing and eating crepes.

“Say, Ichijiku.”, he said.

“Hm?”

“Do you know the immortal jellyfish?”

“Nope.”

“Hinata Souma told us that when Rie died, she dissolved in the water and disappeared just like a jellyfish, right?”

“She did.”

“But immortal jellyfishes don’t disappear. They experience death in their physical form.”

“What do you mean?”

“Normally, once a jellyfish bred, it dies and dissolves. But, immortal jellyfishes sink to the bottom of the sea and after around 48 hours their cells become active again. Its body transforms into something alike to plant roots, flowers begin to bloom and with them seeds as well. Those seeds become new immortal jellyfishes, genetically identical to the original.”

“You mean it’s immortal?”

“Yeah, it never truly dies. Jellyfishes aren’t hermaphrodites, so a female and male specimen are required for breeding. Yet, among all multicellular organisms with sexual reproductivity functions, the immortal jellyfish is the only immortal one. Even though there are 4.100.000 different species, it’s the only exception. Do you know what Telomere are? They’re normally referred to as the cell division’s price. With every new division, the chromosome’s ends shorten and the Telomere become shorter and shorter until a cell can no longer divide. This process is called aging. But the immortal jellyfish can repair its telomere with some kind of enzyme, or so it’s hypothesized. That’s why it won’t die.”

“Such an impudent lifeform, almost like us demons.”

She became mysteriously self-mocking.

“I think you got a slightly wrong picture, Ichijiku. They’re incredibly weak. They’re nothing more than food for their predators, too powerless to resist in any way and only a centimeter big.”

He tried to show how big a centimeter is with his right index finger and thumb.

“They turned their weakness into a weapon and live endlessly. Cast out by mother sea, unable to return ever again. How is it? Doesn’t it sound dramatic?”

She sighed, apparently having lost interest in the topic.

“What are you talking about?”

“Immortal jellyfishes’ immortality.”

“Hmph, what a time-waster.”

The sun rays bathed the scenery in light. The cicadas voices amplified each other, the passersby walked by, their foreheads dripping in sweat.

In these masses walked the two Souma siblings, carrying a dollar store bag. Himawari – the little sister – said something inaudible. She pointed at a store decorated with incredibly cheesy clothed dolls. Hinata – tired of the never-ending punk rock music – answered something.

The day Hinata made the contract, she wished for a simple thing.

“I want you to relay something to Rie. Tell her I’ll be joining her soon enough.”