The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
Book 2: Chapter 18

May 18 (Monday)

I scan the classroom, balling up the wrapper of a salted-beef-tongue-flavored Umaibo. Nothing appears to be out of the ordinary with my classmates. Everyone does seem a bit restless, but that’s probably because we have midterms coming up tomorrow.

“Yo, Kazu!”

“Ow!”

Kokone greets me with a karate chop.

“……Morning.”

“So the other day, I was just walking around Shibuya…”

“Okay…?”

Kokone seems awfully pleased with herself as she suddenly launches into her story. “I was gonna head to Marui and maybe hit up HMV to check out some albums, you know? But then it was like, everyone simply couldn’t ignore my charms, such as these E cups here.”

When did she get another size?

Kokone opens a fashion magazine on my desk and points to something. It’s a picture of her smiling on the street.

“Oh, wow!”

It’s an honest reaction, and Kokone looks even more proud. “Ha-ha-ha, it just so happens I got stopped five times in only two hours, if you include the guys trying to chat me up. I turned them all down, but sometimes they’re scouts for modeling agencies, you know… Phew… The world won’t leave me be. So, how about this picture? Whatcha think?”

“……Yeah, it’s pretty good.”

“Right? Take a look at my quote, too. A couple of minutes ago, I thought the strings of my hoodie were my headphones and put them in my ears.C’mon, it’s the perfect quote for that klutzy appeal. I’m adorable.”

“Yep.”

If I say too much, this could drag on even longer, so it’s best to go with the flow.

Kokone suddenly calls out Haruaki, who watches the scene with disgust. “…Got something to say, Haru?”

“Not really. Just that all this showboating is making me sick.”

“…Well, wearing jerseys all the time makes me sick.”

“What’d you say? Don’t go talking smack about my Adidas!”

“I’m not talking smack about your Adidas; I’m talking smack about you.”

I can’t suppress a smile as I watch them go at it.

It’s great. These little verbal sparring matches are another sign that my life is returning to normal.

The truth is, things almost reached the point where I never could have talked with my friends like this again. We might have destroyed the Week in the Mud, but that didn’t erase anything that had happened during that period. The fact that I told Kokone I loved her would never go away.

It was all thanks to some quick thinking on Maria’s part that our relationship allows us to interact like this again.

I think about the tightrope walking I had to do back in Mogi’s hospital room.

It’s noon on the ninth.

Sitting on the white bed is Kasumi Mogi, the pajama-clad girl from the picture I’ve seen so many times on my phone. Standing next to her is Kokone, wearing her hair down today.

Both of them are glowering angrily at me.

I’m well aware of this, so I’m staring intently at the mattress in an effort to avoid eye contact with either of them. I can see Maria’s legs out of the corner of my eye.

…I wonder, is this what people mean when they say love is a battlefield?

“Tell me what’s going on, Hoshino,” Mogi says, calmly but sharply, and I scratch my head. “You told Koko you liked her, even though you’re going out with Otonashi? Why would you do that? Do you just not care…?”

Kokone had apparently asked her good friend Mogi for advice when I made my confession to her, which is why I’ve been summoned here.

“Koko told me you and Otonashi were close, but…from what I hear, it sounds like you two are really in a relationship.”

“Uh, well…”

“……If you were going out with her, you should’ve said something…… I guess it was silly of me to think we had something going on……”

The sharp edge fades from Mogi’s voice. Her expression is unmistakably sad.

“Explain yourself, Hoshino!” Kokone’s voice is rough with anger.

“Well, we’re not… I mean, we never, like, you know…”

“You never what?! I—I didn’t ask you if you’d done that or not! What a lech…”

“That’s not what I’m saying! You’re getting it all wrong!”

“As if I’d believe you now! I can’t believe you’d say something like that in front of Otonashi! I mean, you’re on a first-name basis and everything!”

All the shouting is starting to draw glances from others in the ward. Even the nurses are keeping a wary eye on our (seemingly) serious and important conversation and giving us a wide berth… Too bad they aren’t coming to tell us to keep it down.

Kokone exhales loudly and gives Maria an intense glare. “…Don’t you have anything to say to Kazu? You don’t seem to care in the slightest about what he said to me.”

“Hmph…… Hmm.” Maria crosses her arms in response to Kokone’s accusation. She glances over at me, the corner of her mouth twitching upward. …I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.

“Does his confession to you bother me? There’s no reason it should.”

“…Why?”

“Because I made him do it.”

Everyone is frozen solid. Me too, of course.

Okay, what have you gone and said now, Maria…?

“……What for? You put Kazu up to it when he said that to me?”

“That’s right.”

“K-Kazu, what the hell is this?” “Hoshino, I don’t understand!”

I’d love to know, myself.

“Kazuki’s attempts will just make the situation even messier, so I’ll explain for him,” Maria replies, still smiling faintly. “There is one fact I need to get out of the way first, which is that Kazuki dumped me.”

Kokone and Mogi both stare at me in shock. H-hey, it’s not like I know what’s going on, either!

“Yes, and he told me I meant less than nothing to him.”

I would never say something like that to anyone!

“How awful… How could you be so arrogant? I hope you curl up and die, Kazu!”

“I—I agree; that’s really disgusting.”

“No, I……”

I want to explain everything, but I’m not sure what Maria has planned yet, so I fall silent.

“I couldn’t understand why he cast me aside so callously. If he liked someone else, it might not be enough for me to let go of my feelings for him, but it would at least explain why he did it. So I asked him if he had feelings for someone.”

“A-and then he said he loves me?!”

“That’s right. After a long pause, he said your name.”

Kokone suddenly flushes bright red and bashful at Maria’s revelation. In contrast, Mogi turns a sickly green next to her… It reminds me of a traffic signal.

“Still, I couldn’t quite believe it when it was your name he said. You two always seemed like you were just friends to me. I told him the only way I would accept it was if he confessed his feelings to you in front of me right then and there.”

“So then Hoshino told Koko he liked her…,” Mogi whispers. The tears in her eyes are about to overflow.

Kokone’s face is still red, but she casts a worried sidelong glance at her friend.

……Come on, Maria, what’re you trying to do here……?!

“But anyway, just before we arrived here, Kazuki took back his claim that he likes you.”

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!” Kokone roars.

“K-Kokone, we’re in the hospital.”

“Shut it, you stupid, fickle bastard.”

“……”

“Here’s the bottom line: Kazuki told me he liked you as a spur-of-the-moment excuse to get me off his back. Once the lie was told and I’d threatened him to prove it by actually confessing his feelings to you, he couldn’t take it back.”

“Hmm… That does explain it, but… But still! That was a terrible thing to do to me!”

“I would take it more as a sign of how much he trusts you. Since the two of you are friends, I think he must have believed you would forgive him once he apologized.”

“Hmm…”

“Besides, even in the event you didn’t understand, it wouldn’t be an altogether bad thing, would it?”

“Huh?!” Kokone blushes again.

…Hey, that last bit was unnecessary, Maria.

“However, that doesn’t change the fact that we dragged you into this mess. Kazuki and I both feel terrible about it. Please forgive us.”

“I-I’m sorry. I really am…”

I choose that moment for my apology.

Kokone gives me a shrewd look, her cheeks still a bit red. “……Do you feel bad for what you did?”

“Y-yeah. I’m sorry.”

Now that I’ve expressed my regret, Kokone purses her lips and states her verdict. “Fine. I’ll forgive you, but never do that again! I may be used to guys saying they love me left and right, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t come as a shock. My mind was racing so fast I couldn’t get to sleep that night!”

“So you’re used to it.”

“Heh, I had two during my first year of school here… But that doesn’t matter! Are you sure you’ve learned your lesson?!”“S-sorry. I’ll behave myself from now on…”

Kokone is yelling, but her smile lets me know she’s calmed down.

Like me, all she really wants is for our friendship to go back to normal.

As long as we can maintain our normal routine, our peaceful day-to-day won’t be shattered again so easily.

“Anyway, um, I think we’ll be going.”

As I say this, I look at Maria and make to leave the room… To be honest, I’m slightly embarrassed about the audience we’ve drawn, and I’d like to get out of there as soon as possible.

“Wait.”

“…What’s up, Mogi?”

“Um, well… You dumped Otonashi, right? I’m just wondering—why are you still together, then? Are you sure you aren’t going out anymore?” Mogi’s voice is wavering.

“Uh… Well, yeah.”

She searches our faces and then lowers her eyes. “……Ugh, I hope I get out of here soon. I’ve got to get back to school. This is so uncomfortable… It makes me really anxious…”

“D-don’t worry, Kasumi! I’ll keep an eye on him for you!”

Mogi’s face fills with happiness at Kokone’s declaration. “…Koko, when Otonashi said it wouldn’t be a bad thing if you misunderstood, you didn’t seem too upset.”

“Y-yes, I was!”

Mogi gives me a tearful glare. “Hoshino, you idiot!”

“Uh…”

“Why couldn’t your false confession have been to me and not Koko?!”

Uh…is that really what’s bothering you?

It’s lunchtime.

Maria and I are sitting across from each other at a table in the cafeteria. She’s eating ramen that probably tastes like rubber with a blank look on her face.

She sure seemed happy when she ate that strawberry tart the other day. When I tried to take a picture, she gave me a full-on punch and polished it off with a dark scowl.

“Do you want to come by my place today, Kazuki?” she asks.

The boy next to me spits out a mouthful of fried rice.

“I was thinking maybe the library would be good today, but I’m not sure.”

“Well, if that’s what you want, I’m okay with it.”

I’ve been going to Maria’s house for the last two days. We aren’t just hanging out; Maria, the reigning top student of our school, has been tutoring me for our upcoming exams.

As a second-year, though, I’m not sure how I feel about a first-year tutoring me…

“So you won’t stop by, then. Oh well, I’ve still got quite a bit of stew left over, but I guess I can finish it all myself.”

“…I thought it tasted good.”

“I didn’t ask what you thought.”

She was so considerate before, but now the ice is back.

“Still…”

If she heard this conversation, let alone that I’d been going over to Maria’s place, I’m sure she’d be angry, I think, remembering the girl who always sat next to Maria at lunch up until two weeks ago.

Things were pretty much back to normal. Mogi’s been a little grumpy whenever I visit her at the hospital, and Daiya still won’t really talk to me, but I feel like I almost have the comfortable life I once knew back.

Well, I say that, but Riko Asami and Ryu Miyazaki are no longer a part of it.

Our Golden Week ended up being extended for four more days, and class didn’t resume until the eleventh.

This was because a student at our school was suspected of murder. Our principal had appeared on TV while we were on break, saying he had always found Miyazaki to be a dedicated student with excellent grades.

The first day after the holiday ended was tough. The media and their cameras were everywhere, and class was like something out of a nightmare with girls sobbing openly. Our homeroom was unrecognizable.

But after a week or so, things went back to normal.

Naturally, it became taboo to even mention “Ryu Miyazaki” among our class. His name was forcibly tied to the murders and, in a sense, the disruption of our regular lives. It wasn’t even allowed to exist among us if we wanted to maintain the usual flow of things.

Of course, we’ll always remember Miyazaki. There’s no way we could ever forget him. But he’s not a part of our conversations anymore.

Miyazaki will never return to the normal life I know.

His younger sister, Riko Asami, is no exception, either.

The moment the murders became public knowledge, she no longer had any place here. None of our classmates had been aware before that Ryu Miyazaki and Riko Asami were brother and sister, but now the entire country knows. Her address and photo ended up on major websites, and though she should have been treated as a relative of the victims, any place she had in life here was destroyed by the media and the prying eyes of the general public.

Asami dropped out of school before any of us noticed.

“Why the faraway look, Kazuki?” Maria asks, having finished her ramen while I was distracted.

“Uh, no, it’s nothing…”

“You must have been thinking about Asami… I swear, she’s always on your mind, isn’t she?”

“Stop saying it like that. People will get the wrong idea…”

Maria smiles contentedly at my discomfort. There’s no doubt about it now. She is definitely a sadist. Actually, I already knew that.

“You don’t need to worry about Asami. You know that, right?” she says, still smiling.

Her words bring a smile to my face, too, and I nod.

That’s right—I don’t have anything to worry about.

I pull out my phone and open the last voice memo.

“Good morning, Kazuki Hoshino. No, good afternoon, or maybe it’s good evening?”

It’s the exact same greeting she gave me at the beginning, word for word. But the voice isn’t Kazuki Hoshino’s, but rather a girl’s.

It belongs to Riko Asami.

If the date is as the file states, then the recording was made at two in the morning on the sixth, not long after I left the diner with Maria. I’m not sure when Maria nicked it, but she must have decided to give my phone to Asami without asking.

That way, she could record this message.

“What should I say? Maybe, ‘I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble’? If words were all it would take to earn your forgiveness, I’d say as many as I need to. But I know that won’t be enough. After everything I did to you, you can never forgive me, I know.”

That’s not true at all. Besides, carrying a grudge around with me like that would just get in the way of my average life.

“I doubt you’ll be able to forgive my brother, either, no matter what punishment he receives for his crimes. He’ll probably serve ten or twenty years, maybe even longer, but that doesn’t mean what he did will be forgiven once he’s free. My brother did it on my behalf, but it was wrong. He’ll feel the weight of it more and more as time goes on, I’m sure. And I’m sure his heart will break, over and over. But don’t worry. Ryu still told me that he made it in time, despite knowing all of this.”

Her voice is clear and optimistic, without any hints that this is just a facade. Asami is unmistakably speaking from her heart.

“I’ll be fine from here on out, too. I finally understand, after all. I understand perfectly. I won’t lose sight of the truth again.”

She must have known better than anyone that there would be tough times ahead for her. She must have already known she would never be able to come back to this school.

And then, she says it.

“I am Riko Asami.”

The message ends.

I have no idea what sort of hardships she’ll face. But I’m certain she will never claim that she’s no one, or say anything similar, ever again.

That’s how I know she’s going to be okay.

I’m positive she’ll be okay.

Asami didn’t tell Maria or anyone else where she was going. Though that means it’s just a baseless rumor, there is one bit of gossip I’ve heard several times:

Riko Asami is working a job on a farm in Hokkaido where she lives on-site.

If that’s true, I’m glad. Up there, she can build a place for Miyazaki to come home to.

I suppose it’s my nature as an optimist that makes me so confident she can do it. But I still believe it.

I can still believe that joy and laughter will be part of their lives again for both of them.

“Yep, I knew you’d be with Otonashi.”

Those words jolt me out of my little reverie. I feel like I haven’t heard that voice in a while. I look up.

It’s Daiya.

Though we haven’t spoken since he hit me, Daiya plops down next to Maria as if nothing ever happened.

……Wh-what does he want? Is he getting ready to say he wants to be friends again? That’s fine if it’s true, but Daiya isn’t the type to be so straightforward about it.

“Kazuki.”

“Y-yeah?”

“I heard about why you’ve been acting so weird.”

I guess he must have heard about what went down in the hospital room from Kokone or someone.

Daiya flashes a bold grin at me as I sit there stunned.

I suddenly notice something. Before, only Daiya’s left ear was pierced, but now the right one is, too.

And that’s when he delivers the sucker punch.

“You’re mixed up with O, aren’t you?”

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