Chapter 2 (2/2)

The two took a cart from the clerk and ran through the back entrance to the cardboard storage.

*

“I’m beat!”

The two returned to the park carrying a mountain of cardboard. They had pushed the carts a long way, so sweat dripped down their faces.

He drank water while trying to catch his breath, and she tried to fan herself with her hands.

“Still, I’m glad it went well.”

“Thanks to you, Hanako Yamada. You saved us!”

“Heheh. More praise!”

“Such brilliance! Smarter than a chimpanzee!”

“Aren’t I? Teehee!” Again, she stuck out her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Further a.s.serting her already large b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her one-piece looked about to tear.

“Alright, time to make our base.”

“Roger that! Let’s get started quick!”

On the way back, they had bought packing tape, glue, and other supplies, so their preparations were nearly complete. All that was left was to build.

“Okay, ready?”

“Yes!”

Pus.h.i.+ng the cart loaded with luggage, they headed into the grove.

The grove behind the park had changed little since he was in elementary school, as it had been mostly untouched by people.

Even though it was early afternoon on a holiday, they didn’t hear anyone. Of course, it was quite far from the shopping district. All they could hear in the dim grove was the buzzing of cicadas.

After walking a little ways, they found a light spot that stood out among the darkness. The sun poked through thanks to the lower density of trees there, and the ground sparkled in the light.

“Let’s build around here.”

“Ooh, that’s good!”

They unloaded the luggage from the cart. It took a while to get all the cardboard off, but filled with excitement to make a secret base, they didn’t mind the work.

“Hanako Yamada, what kind of secret base do you want to make?”, he asked, and her face beamed.

“I want it to be a fancy type thing! Like a castle!”

“Alright. We’ll do our best.”

“We will! Let’s do it!”

“Yes, we’ll both do it.”

After carrying that conversation, he took the largest piece of cardboard and began construction.

He honestly didn’t care much about what kind of base she wanted to make.

*

“I’m exhausted… I feel like I made something awesome!”, she said with satisfaction, wiping her sweat with a handkerchief.

The sun set behind the horizon, and everything got much darker. Looking at the time, it was already nine. That meant he and she had been toiling away on their bases for nearly five hours.

After all that work, they still weren’t done, but you could see them starting to come together.

Using cardboard extravagantly, he had built a large rectangular-prism-shaped base.

There were splinters, corners, and nails all over, so it was a simple design, yet one that tickled his male instincts. He was quite satisfied with his achievement.

Meanwhile, her secret base was the opposite of his.

Using color sprays she had bought from the shopping district, she made all her cardboard pink during construction.

She glued flowers and vines all around, adding some wonderful color. Though it was small, with its greens and browns, it didn’t feel at all out of place in the grove.

In places around her base, there were incomprehensible scribbles drawn with magic marker.

“What’re these?”

“These are concrete.”

“They look like humans to me, albeit stick figures.”

“Because Concretelings are pretty human-like already.”

“Well, okay, what can you do.”

She innocently laughed.

Suddenly, his body swayed with dizziness.

Unable to stand his reeling vision, he dropped to the floor.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

She looked at him in a panic. Her face was swaying and warping in his eyes. It was clearly something entirely unlike the dizziness from standing up earlier.

“I’m fine. I think I’m just a little tired…”

“Really? Good. Boy, you’re weak.”

“I’ve always aspired to be a fragile, misfortunate person, so I consider being in poor condition a good thing.”

“Haha. It’s no good to aspire to that!”, she laughed, stroking his back. It made his shaky vision calm down just a little bit.

Once he was feeling better, he staggered to his feet.

“Better go home, I’m exhausted for today.”

“Yeah, I’m tired too.”

“Guess we should take the cart back.”

“Right. My boyfriend will be back soon, so I need to get home.”

“We’d better hurry, then.”

“Yep. Run!”

“I might get dizzy again…”

“Okay then, walk!”

The two leisurely walked back to the convenience store.

Having their usual content-less conversations, they swaggered through the shutter-filled shopping district. Theirs were the only voices in the desolate place.

When a conversation ended, she started humming. And when she got bored of that, they talked again. The two were comforted having that appropriate sense of distance between them.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and thousands of stars glittered in the summer night. The Milky Way’s glow lit the shopping district, which lacked in streetlights.

She looked up at the sky and sighed.

“Wow, the Milky Way is pretty. Looks tasty.”

“It’d be nice to eat it someday. When you die and become a cloud, do your best to eat the Milky Way for me.”

“I’ll do the best I can!”

They returned the cart to the store, promised to meet again tomorrow, and parted ways.

*

“Ahh! They’re destroyed!”

When they met at the park the next day and entered the grove, their secret bases were in shambles.

“Oh, this is awful… Can we possibly let this stand?”

She was despondent and crumpled to the ground. He didn’t let it show, but he was very dejected inside as well.

That was when he remembered the fate of the secret base they made long ago.

Indeed, he recalled it was destroyed just the same way. When he and Sou-chan found the ruins of their base, they wailed in sorrow.

It may have been such a sad memory that he tried to erase it from his mind. But with the same sight before him, it was brought back.

And the ones who had destroyed it had been…

“Hey, you the ones who built those weird things?!”

As he was reminded of the past, a voice came from behind.

When he turned, he saw four young boys in middle school uniforms, arms linked. Maybe middle-schoolers these days are brought up better, as the one serving as their leader was about same height as him, a high-schooler.

“Yeah! And you’re the ones who destroyed them?”

“That’s right! We’re thinking we’re gonna build a secret base here! What’s the big idea building that weird junk?!”

“We got here first!”

“Shaddup! We already decided we’d build one here and everything!”, the largest of the boys shouted back.

From their att.i.tudes, they didn’t seem like very logical people.

On top of that, he had a fatal illness, and was getting weaker by the day. It was obvious he wouldn’t win in a fight against these four.

That was when he remembered the whole story.

Back in elementary school, it was a group of middle-schoolers who destroyed their base.

Since they were far older than him and Sou-chan, they could do nothing before them and ran away in tears.

An enjoyable memory was immediately turned into a dark past that they never wanted to remember.

No matter the times, people’s natures don’t change. He yielded once more to the childish threats of selfish middle-schoolers.

While he remained silent, the middle-schoolers went on and on.

“Ikkun said we’re gonna build here, so we’re gonna build here. Can I make it any clearer?!”

“Yeah, yeah! Get outta here!”

“Heck, you should know without us havin’ to tell you!”

“Go home! Go hooome!”

Not just Ikkun, the leader, but also his three cronies started berating them. Though they had certainly made their point already.

The power of numbers defeated his rationality.

“So what! You can go build over there! You don’t have to destroy anything!”

She was angered by this irrational spectacle. It was the first time he’d seen her actually be mad.

He couldn’t help noticing that her reb.u.t.tal made the middle-schoolers wince for a moment.

“Hanako Yamada, let’s withdraw for now.”

“Huh? Why?! Let’s kick them in the stomachs and make them apologize!”

“Come on!” He took her arm and ran.

She was too surprised to react and ran with him.

The middle-schoolers got rowdy to the point of not being able to make anything out, and their yelling echoed through the grove.

This sort of thing had happened before, hadn’t it?

He smiled a little, remembering that.

*

“I’m so upset! Geez…”

After running from the middle-schoolers, they went to the convenience store at the end of the shopping district.

She sulked and held his arm tight, very frank about her sorrow over the destruction.

“Hey, calm down a little.”

“You want me to calm down?! Our secret bases were destroyed!”

“Well, we can just make them again.”

“But they’ll be destroyed again! That’s not the only good place for a secret base, right? Why didn’t we beat them up?!”

“Didn’t you see? Even though they’re middle-schoolers, their leader’s arms are as thick as yours, Hanako Yamada. If I punched one in the gut, I’d be the one beaten up.”

“Hmm… I guess that might have happened. The others were big, too.”

“And violence begets violence. Even if we got some lucky hits, our bases would be destroyed as soon as we were gone.”

“I guess that might be true… But Tarou Yamada, didn’t you tell me you beat a kid’s b.u.t.t with a metal bat?”

“That was different. Things happened. Anyway, I don’t think violence is the right approach.”

“Hmm… I guess I get it…”

She listened to his argument, but she didn’t appear to accept it.

The secret bases they put their all into had been destroyed. Was that just another “what can you do”?

“But it sucks to just keep running…”

Hanging her head, she sourly offered one last plea. Tears were faintly forming in her eyes.

Patting her on the head, a bold smile came to his lips.

“Of course I’m not going to run. We’ll keep away from that place, but other than that, I don’t have any intention of giving up on our bases.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve got a good idea.”

“Really? Tell me, tell me!” Her face brightened instantly.

He started calmly explaining.

“Hanako Yamada, did you see? When you protested, the leader, the one they called Ikkun, was rather shaken.”

“Huh? Really? I didn’t notice that!”

“I think they probably haven’t had much contact with girls. They didn’t look cool enough for that. Plus, in middle school, boys and girls still tend to be on bad terms with each other.”

“That’s true! When I was in middle school, I hardly talked to any boys.”

“So they’ve never really had a cute girl like Hanako Yamada get mad at them, either. That’s why they were so taken aback.”

“Heheh, you’re making me blush. Heap on the praise!”

He completely ignored her and went on talking.

“So I think we should set up a Venus flytrap.”

“I get it! You’re amazing, Tarou Yamada! So I guess I should have them touch my b.o.o.bs?”, she proposed with face beaming, holding her large b.r.e.a.s.t.s up.

“Hmm… I don’t think that’s the best idea. There’s four of them, but only one of you.”

“Oh… Yeah, that’d be hard.” She was let down by having the idea rejected.

She felt like she’d come up with the most brilliant plan the world had ever seen, and never expected it to be shot down so quickly.

Seeing her disappointment, he said something.

“Well, I might be able to work something out with what I’m thinking. Give me a second.”

He entered the convenience store, and a pleasant door jingle echoed throughout it.

“W-Welcome!”

The clerk who had given them the cardboard stood up tall and greeted him. He paid him no mind and walked to the back of the store.

He brought a large quant.i.ty of something back to the register. The clerk was startled, but rang it up without a word.

“T-Thank you, come again!”

“No, thank you,” he said to the polite clerk, then left the store.

When he exited the cool store to the midsummer exterior, he stumbled for a moment. He felt he was getting dizzier every time.

He stopped for a while, then when it had calmed down, walked over to her.

“Sorry for the wait. I was a little nervous…”

“What’d you buy?”

“Take a look.” He handed her two vinyl bags.

The bags were both stuffed full, and thus rather heavy. When she took them, she immediately pulled an item out.

“Whoa, what the?! Tarou Yamada, you perv!”

She found a large quant.i.ty of p.o.r.n magazines.

High school girls, married women, everything from Gravure Photo Collection to Kairakuten, they had it all at the convenience store.

Ten thousand yen’s worth of cheap p.o.r.n.

“We’ll use these to take back our secret base.”

“Ohh. But can we really do it?”

“Of course we can!”, he confidently replied. Though she had doubts, he put them at rest.

“How reliable! Great job, Tarou Yamada!”

“Also, there’s one more thing we have to do, so we’ll do that today. Tomorrow we’ll put the plan into action.”

“Alright! Let’s do it!”

With a ton of p.o.r.n in hand, they walked away from the store.

*

“Man, those two were pests. We told 'em we were building here! How dare they go against us?”

“Heck, it looked like they’re in high school or something, yet they couldn’t say a word back. Super lame!”

“Ikkun’s too cool to be beaten by high-schoolers!”

“Ha, it wasn’t even hard. Those guys were weak!”

The next afternoon, the four middle-school boys were in the park by the grove. After driving off the high-schoolers, they were very enthused.

“Alright, let’s make our base.”

They rudely marched into the grove. Nothing seemed different from yesterday, and theirs were the only voices in the grove.

But when they neared the secret bases they had destroyed yesterday, there was a clear oddity.

“What’re these?”

“Whoa…”

There, they found p.o.r.n magazines. Tens of them, scattered all around.

“Ikkun, what do we do with these?”

“Ah, uhh… Well, er… Can’t we just ignore them?”

Ikkun was clearly shaken. He was as inexperienced as an elementary-schooler.

Having done nothing but karate all through elementary and middle school, he was not so immune as to honestly say such a thing.

After all, he was in middle school and still talking about secret bases. That alone could give you insight into his personality.

As the boys worked on their secret base, they kept glancing over at the p.o.r.n. Anyone could tell they were enthralled by the sight of magazines containing naked women.

Even once construction began, there was an uneasy atmosphere that persisted between the boys.

Nervously and with clumsy hands, they put the base together. But unable to focus, little progress was made.

“Hey, Ikkun. Can’t we… clean that stuff up a little?”, one of the boys asked.

They did their best to hide it, but erotic material clearly excited them, and they couldn’t take it any longer.

“S-Sure. Yeah, it’s getting in the way. Clean it up.”

The four went over to the p.o.r.n together. Their eyes lept to the covers of captivating naked women.

Ikkun’s face went red with embarra.s.sment, and he looked away.

“Whoa! Awesome!”

“Take a look at this! Duuude!”

“Ohhh man…”

Quickly forgetting their sworn duty to clean the magazines up, the boys looked over the covers as if chowing down. The sound of slurping up saliva echoed through the grove.

Unable to contain himself, one boy took a magazine and flipped it open. With that, the other boys started reading through them one by one.

“This one’s unbelievable!”

“This one’s sooo hot!”

“…”

With the boys around him engrossed, Ikkun timidly reached for a magazine.

The moment he flipped open one labeled “Kairakuten,” the sound of a camera shutter echoed around them.

“Hm, what’re you guys up to?”

There the two stood, holding a digital camera and a smartphone. With a grin on his face, he approached the boys.

“Buh… wha? What’s this about?!”, Ikkun shouted, tossing the magazine aside in haste.

“Hmm, I wonder if I should tell you? You’re students at Yamanoura, aren’t you?”

“Huh? How’d you know that?”

The boys were taken aback by his question and looked at each other. He continued on with coldhearted eyes.

“I can tell from your uniforms. There’s only three middle schools around here, but they have different uniforms. I don’t know if you were coming from club meetings or what, but you should have changed outfits.”

“Why you…”

“Oh, oh! Not another step. I’ve already sent the photo to my friends. What will people at school think when they see you were looking at p.o.r.n? Girls really hate pervy creeps.”

In reality, he had few friends and thus no one to rely on for such a thing, but the boys couldn’t know that. Their red faces were visibly turning pale.

“B-But we were just cleaning up some magazines we happened to find…”

“You think anyone will believe that? Cameras these days are amazing. Everything from your bloodshot eyes to the extent of the collection you were perusing… It’s all perfectly clear in the photo.”

He waved around his brand new digital camera like such a show-off. The boys could say nothing. Some of them were about to cry.

He laughed with satisfaction and slowly walked over. Standing in front of them, he gave Ikkun a wide smile.

To Ikkun, it was the most terrifying thing in the world.

“Oh, there’s nothing to worry about. We’re not demons. If you behave properly, there’ll be no need to do such an awful thing,” he kindly told the quivering boys.

Ikkun shook fiercely with his head hung low.

“…orry…”

“Hm? I don’t think I heard that,” he lied. Huge tears formed in Ikkun’s eyes.

“We’re sorry! We’re sorry for destroying your secret base!”, he sobbed. One after another, the other boys apologized as well.

“Very well!” He gave her a stealthy peace sign.

“That was so cool, Tarou Yamada!”, she whispered into his ear.

“Now don’t go making people mad at you!”, she gleefully said to the boys who would not stop sniffling. Perhaps because of the sudden kindness, the boys burst into tears.

She approached the wailing boys and patted their heads.

“These things happen in life. It’s all right.”

“Sniff… I’m so sorry…”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry! We’ll put it behind us and make a secret base together. We’ll have lots of fun!”

Smiles returned to the boys’ faces. They still did want to make a secret base.

So they energetically told the kind G.o.ddess who had forgiven their sin and offered to build one with them, “Yes, ma'am! Understood!”

“Alright, we can get lots of cardboard from over thataway. Hoof it!”

“Got it! Let’s go!”

She pointed in the direction of the shopping district and the boys ran off that way.

After they were gone, he muttered. “Bad girl.”

“Haha! With their help, we should be able to make a great base. Aren’t I smart?”

“Yeah. It’s leagues better than just driving the kids away.”

“Heheh! Of course!” She confidently slapped his back.

When the boys returned, they began making a secret base together.

With the change in command, this time it had a quieter vibe.

“Put a flower there! And put cardboard together there!”

“Yes, ma'am! Understood!”

She worked the boys hard to create her own secret base. They obeyed her commands without question.

The boys felt like they were getting friendly with a cute older woman, so they didn’t mind the work one bit.

“Ohh, now that’s a good job! Great, great!”

Every time the boys completed a task, she would pat them on the head. They delighted like faithful puppies and felt proud indeed. They were absolutely her servants.

Meanwhile, he worked silently to recreate his own secret base.

He helped her out with her base from time to time, but in a few hours, his was back to where it was before.

Entranced in the building of their bases, they worked until sunset, and then they were finally complete.

“Woo, we did it! Hooray!”, she shouted, looking upon her base. She hopped up and down to express her joy. And he looked on in satisfaction at his own base, wiping sweat.

“You did great! I’m so happy for you kids!”

“It was nothing! We had lots of fun too!”, they frankly told her. They smiled with childish innocence.

“Well, we have to get home now.”

“Right. Good work today!”

“Um… Can we come to the base again?”

“Of course! For sure!”, she laughed. The boys shyly nodded. Yes, they were absolutely her slaves.

“We’ve got p.o.r.n mags too, so you can come read those if you want!”

Immediately, the boys got awkward looks and ran away.

“Way to hog all the friendliness, Hanako Yamada.”

“This is popularity in action, Tarou Yamada.”

He didn’t quite understand, but he’d had too much fun to care.

By the time the boys left, it was very dark. Only the moon lit the area, as there were no lights around. The grove was silent except for the buzzing of bugs.

“Guess we should go home,” he said, and she replied a little differently.

“Hmm… While we’re here, why don’t we take it easy in the base? My boyfriend won’t be coming home today.”

“Alright, let’s take it easy here.”

“Right. Let’s do that!”

So the two lied down in the pink secret base she created.

As they looked up through the roof of the base, glittering stars filled their vision with no clouds to block them. It was so bright, he closed his eyes.

Ahh, this is great. I wish this could go on longer.

He suddenly had that thought.

But he had a terminal illness. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to tease the boys nor talk to her anymore.

He would only return to the secret base they had built just a few more times before it was all over.

For the first time, he thought “I don’t want to die yet.”

“Sure is pretty,” she uttered beside him. The moonlight gently illuminated them both.

“I haven’t seen such a pretty sky in forever.”

“Hahh… It’s great.”

He gazed at the fantastic sight for a little while.

The two were wrapped in comfortable silence in the gloomy secret base.

“I’m getting kinda sleepy…”, he said, rubbing his eyes. It was already 11 at night.

“Really? Stay up longer!”

“I’m too tired. I’ll get some sleep for tomorrow.”

“Aww… Well, what can you do. Alright, we’ll make modifications to the base tomorrow. We’ll combine my base and yours, Tarou Yamada!”, she said, her excitement still not quelled.

He quietly laughed. “Alright. Let’s do our best!”

“Yeah, we will!”

“Alright, see you tomorrow. Good night.”

Just then, his vision spun. With a pain like his head was splitting, his vision gradually narrowed.

Not just one moon, but many like shooting stars filled the sky.

He could feel the energy being sucked out of him.

“I hope I can make it tomorrow.”

He softly whispered, and relinquished consciousness.

*

He was awoken by a warmth in his hand.

He saw not the sky above the secret base, but a white ceiling he had seen before.

Surprised, he looked around. He was on a white bed, with several needles in his arm attached to a tube. His every muscle ached.

Beside him, there was a girl anxiously holding his hand. He seemed to recall who it was.

“W-Whoa! You’re up! N-Nuuurse!”, the girl called in panic.

It seemed he was in the hospital. There was a pattering in the hallway, and a nurse in her thirties he’d seen before appeared.

“Are you okay?”, the woman asked, touching his cheek. He didn’t know what had happened at all, but he said “I’m fine.”

“You didn’t tell your mother about your illness, did you?”, the nurse said with a sigh.

It was just common sense. It was unthinkable that he, a boy in high school, wouldn’t tell his mother he had a terminal illness.

“No. But anyway, how did I end up here?”

“”But anyway,” he says…“, the nurse loudly sighed. She was simply stunned.

”You were apparently near the park, coughing up large amounts of blood. If the girl there hadn’t called an ambulance, you wouldn’t be with us here now.”

“I see…”

That day, at the same time he lost consciousness, he had coughed up a ton of blood. This threw her into quite a panic.

She called for an ambulance with shaky hands and ran to the park carrying him. Every time he drew a pained breath at her back, she nearly cried.

She let him down in the park, and his mouth was red with overflowing blood. Her back was b.l.o.o.d.y too, but it didn’t matter.

While waiting, she kept stroking his back, muttering “Get well, get well, get well…”

Before long, the ambulance arrived at the park. He was carried on and taken to the hospital.

“You should really thank her. I’m going to call your mother now.”

“Right. Understood.”

The nurse ran down the hall again. As he watched her go, he thought, unbelievably, “I wonder if mom’ll be mad.”

Once the nurse vanished down the hall, she said “You scared me…” with a sigh of relief, stroking her chest.

“Sorry to make you worry. Thanks.”

“It’s fine. I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Hanako Yamada, I owe you my life. I’ll thank you to the day I die.”

“Tarou Yamada, are you going to die?”, she solemnly asked. There was silence in the empty hospital room.

“Hmm. Well, humans die someday.”

“I don’t mean like that!”, she angrily specified. He was silent.

She looked straight into his eyes, and he unconsciously looked away.

“Hey, will you come work on the secret base tomorrow?”

“Hm. Tomorrow might be hard.”

“I see…” The typically naive girl hung her head, like she had at the cla.s.s reunion.

In response, he spoke as cheerfully as he could muster.

“Tomorrow’s no good, but we’ll work on it as soon as I get better.”

“But you have a terminal illness, right, Tarou Yamada? You’ll die.”

“I

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