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V13 Story I – Part 03

“Yusuke, what do you think of Mayu-san?”

“Her? Honestly, even now, I still don’t really get her.”

He wracked his brain hard like he was genuinely stumped. Saga Yusuke’s relation with Mayuzumi Azaka wasn’t shallow. Since he met us through his father’s request, we had been through many cases together. Yusuke had even assisted the fox in kidnapping Mayuzumi.

Yusuke looked up at the ceiling with a distant gaze, searching for the right words.

“She was a horrible person,” he finally said. “Even from the sidelines, you could clearly see there was something off about her. When people died before her eyes, her expression never changed. No matter what happened, she remained the same, unmoved. Such a person can’t be normal. She’s inhuman.”

I couldn’t disagree with his assessment. Mayuzumi Azaka herself had affirmed this. She had lived exactly the way she wanted, mocking the death of others, delighting in misfortune, wishing for tragedies.

Mayuzumi Azaka claimed that she was a fiend, that she had never done anything right. But still…

“But,” Yusuke continued, “though she was a horrible person, I don’t think she was a monster. I’m not sure how to put it, and I know this might sound strange, but she felt less like a person and more like the embodiment of all our fates.”

“Fate? Mayu-san is? That’s a pretty odd way to put it.”

“Yeah. She was the one who brought us all together, even those who are dead. Despite her laziness and lack of intent to save anyone, she never stopped you from taking action, did she? She could have threatened you or gotten angry, but she didn’t. She never shied away from getting involved. And whenever something happened, she was always there, sometimes laughing, sometimes shrugging, just watching everything unfold.”

“So, I believed that even if the whole world turned upside down, she would never change,” he added. “I expected her to always be lounging and eating chocolate at the office. But now… she’s gone… Huh. She’s really gone, isn’t she?”

I watched his profile. His eyes were wide open, as if the fact that Mayuzumi was gone was only coming to him now. Nanami silently handed him a cushion, and he held it tight. He frowned deeply.

“Mayuzumi Azaka was a horrible person. But she was beautiful. She was never a monster. She was always there, and I wanted her to stay that way. The thought of her being gone or dead is terrifying.”

Yusuke fell quiet, his gaze wandering around aimlessly. A heavy silence settled over us. Yusuke and I came to a realization. In the warmth of the room, it was easy to forget the harsh reality. But no matter where we looked, Mayuzumi was no longer there.

“I guess I understood even less than you did, Odagiri-san. Mayuzumi-san is gone. We failed, and she’s never coming back.”

Yusuke’s murmurs faded into the background. The warm air, still tinged with the scent of food, felt heavy, like a damp blanket. Suddenly, Nanami began flailing her arms and legs, twisting her body from side to side and slamming her arms down on the tatami mat.

We watched in astonishment as Nanami thrashed around like a child having a tantrum.

“I absolutely despised her!” she hissed.

Her sharp voice rocked my eardrums. She clapped a hand over her mouth, perhaps from exerting too much force in her gut. But she quickly recovered, thrashing her arms again as she let her frustration spill out.

“That woman wasn’t just inconsiderate—no, she was insufferable! That gothic Lolita always looking down on everyone with that smug, ‘I know everything’ grin! Who gave her the right to expose the real me, the side I’ve worked so hard to hide behind this innocent facade?”

“Wait, are you seriously saying this out loud right now?” Yusuke said. “Is that something you should be sharing?”

“And another thing! I don’t know what her deal was, but every single time, she’d stir up trouble over there, and then something else would happen here, and she just kept turning our lives upside down! Odagiri-san ended up a wreck, more people crowded into the house, and Aya… Aya was…”

Nanami’s voice trailed off until it faded entirely. She stopped flailing and sprawled out on the floor again. Her pigtails seemed to stick to the tatami. Yusuke, concerned, handed her a cushion, but she shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Vanished, gone, dead—I don’t get it. I’m so done with this. What was that woman’s deal exactly? Smirking, then disappearing, and all this talk about fate or whatever. It’s just weird!”

Nanami flared like a bristling cat. Then, looking utterly spent, she covered her face and let all the tension leave her body. She appeared even smaller than usual.

Nanami was just an elementary school girl. She wasn’t used to dealing with the death of someone close to her.

When she cried over Aya’s death, it reminded me of that fact, something I’d almost forgotten.

“Hey, little twerp, are you okay? Hey?”

“…”

“I’m talking to you.”

Even as Yusuke tried to reach her, Nanami didn’t respond. She stayed still, her face buried in her hands. Yusuke and I sat up, peering into her face, trying to offer words of comfort, when she suddenly spoke, her voice erupting like a cannon.

“Repeat after me, Odagiri Tsutomu!”

“Y-Yes?”

“Is there a way, you idiot?!”

“Uh, what? Um…”

“You said you’d bring her back, so you must have a plan. You’ve got a better chance than Orpheus, don’t you? So, spill it already!”

“Uh, little twerp… I mean, Nanami-san. That’s not how repetition works.”

“Just answer the question!”

Nanami slammed her fist onto the tatami mat. Her hands fell away from her face, revealing her eyes. Yusuke and I jumped back, watching her carefully. Her angry voice was hoarse, almost as if she were on the verge of tears.

But Nanami wasn’t crying. Her eyes, catching the fluorescent light, sparkled brightly. They shone as if stars were twinkling within them.

In those eyes, emotions swirled—anger, hope, and a fierce determination not to back down. Once again, I realized this truth: Nanase Nanami was strong. She lived with a resolve to be stronger than anyone else.

Her strength was blinding. That was why I couldn’t lie in front of her.

I let out a slow breath, feeling the tension tighten in my throat. I closed my eyes briefly to collect my thoughts. Since Mayuzumi’s disappearance, I had been in a haze, but during that time, what I’d seen in the spirit world kept replaying in my mind. Back then, I didn’t give them much thought, but now, they took on new meaning. I reexamined some of the details I had seen. I had asserted that it was theoretically possible. And I had to stand by my words. After much contemplation, I finally spoke.

“Meeting her is possible. But the chances of retrieving her are slim.”

Yusuke swallowed, staring at me with wide eyes. Nanami remained silent. Her gaze was fixed intently on me. Yusuke’s face was a mask of confusion, struggling to understand what I was saying.

“What are you talking about, Odagiri-san? There’s no way to get to the spirit world, right? There’s no method left available, so how could an ordinary person like you do anything about it?”

“I have a potential lead. But whether it can actually be done, I’m not sure until I ask. And I don’t even know if we can get their cooperation. But it’s not impossible. I can’t think of a concrete way to bring her back, but I’m going to secure a path there, at least. Nanami-san, Yusuke, I still…”

Yusuke lay on his stomach, staring at me. Nanami turned halfway, looking up at me with keen interest.

I closed my eyes to escape their intense gazes. Each time I was enveloped in darkness, the images from back then resurfaced in my eyes. Cherry blossoms falling in front of me, and Mayuzumi smiling gently.

Wearing a look unbefitting of a young girl, she gazed at me, saying, “It was utterly worthless, but it was a good life.”

The last time I held her hand, it was genuinely warm and soft.

“I can’t give up on Mayu-san. On Mayuzumi Azaka.”

Yusuke was right. She was my fate. Entangled in the Mayuzumi clan’s troubles, I ended up living this twisted life. She saved my life, and I had stayed by her side ever since. Through sickness or in health, no matter how much I wanted to part ways, we had always walked together.

I could state it with certainty. I could say it outright. I acknowledged the fact that Mayuzumi Azaka was the very embodiment of my fate.

And this burning passion driving me was something akin to love.