Chapter 6 (1/2)

Translation: I Want to Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino (Chapter 6)

Synopsis

One day, I - a high schooler - found a paperback in the hospital The “Disease Coexistence Journal” was its title It was a diary that my classmate, Sakura Yamauchi, had written in secret Inside, it ritten that due to her pancreatic disease, her days were numbered And thus, I coincidentally went fro-Class drawn to her, as irl that was already suffering from an illness with an equally cruel reality…

The best-selling, ainning debut work by Yoru Sumino:

“Bestsellers 2016 (Overall) by NIPPAN” - 4th Place

“Bestsellers 2016 (Paperback Fiction) by NIPPAN” - 1st Place

“Bestsellers 2016 (Overall) by TOHAN” - 5th Place

“Bestsellers 2016 (Literary Books) by TOHAN” - 1st Place

“Bookstore Grand Prix 2016” - 2nd Place

“DA VINCI BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015” - 2nd Place

“Bestsellers 2015 (Literary Books) by TOHAN” - 6th Place

As of January 2017, this book has sold over 720,000 copies

Please buy the book to support the author

The girl had been hospitalised The next time I saw her was Saturday the sa was cloudy, and the te hours, I had come to pay her a so-called hospital visit, or rather, I had been summoned

She was in a private ward There weren’t any other visitors when I arrived Dressed in a typical hospital goith a tube hanging fro some weird dance When I called out to her from behind, she jumped up in shock, and squealed noisily as she burrowed under her blanket I sat down on the pipe chair that had been left beside the bed, waiting for the commotion to end All of a sudden, she beca had happened Her paroxysms knew neither time nor place

“Don’t appear so suddenly, I was so e to die”

“If you’re going to die in such an unprecedented h for the rest of your life Here, a visiting gift”

“Huh, you didn’t have to! Ah, they’re strawberries! Let’s eat theet them”

Just as she ordered, I retrieved two sets of plates and forks, as well as a knife, from the nearby white rack, and seated myself back on the chair Incidentally, the strawberries were bought withi

(adsbygoogle = adsbygoogle || [])push({});

vento the hospital to visit a classmate

After re the stems, I inquired about her condition as we ate the strawberries

“It’s totally alright The numbers were a bit weird, sofine I’ll be hospitalised for about teeks, have so inserted into my body, and after that I’ll be back in school”

“By then it would already be suh”

“Ah, that’s true Then I’ve got to make plans for summer vacation with you huh”

I looked at the end of the tube that extended fro frole doubt came to mind

“What do you tell others, like Best-Friend-san, I mean, Kyouko-san?”

“I told Kyouko and the others that I had an appendix surgery The hospital side is also covering it up for etting harder and harder to tell the truth y'know What does Get-Along-kun, who pushed o, think?”

“Hmm, I think you should properly tell Best-Friend-san, I uess I should respect what you, who hugged o, decide to do”

”Don’t ! Before I die, I’ to tell Kyouko about how you pushed ”

“You’re actually going to turn your best friend into a criminal, the sin runs deep within you”

“That said, what do you even mean by ‘Best-Friend-san’?“

”I refer to Kyouko-san as Best-Friend-san inside my heart In a familiar manner”

“All I hear are forht?”

Appalled, she shrugged She didn’t look the least bit different from how she usually was

I did ask about her condition through ourfine The truth was, I feared the time of her death had suddenly been pushed forward But as far as I could tell fro at her, that didn’t seeht and her movements were robust

Having regained a peace of ht, untouched notebook fro

“Well then, now that you’re done with your snack, it’s time to study”

“Whaaat, let’s just take it easy for a little longer!”

“I came here because you askedit easy over here the entire time”

Of course, there was a proper reason forher for the first tiht during the suppleone to school, and tutor her She was shocked by hofully honest I hen I promptly accepted her request Honestly, how rude of her

I handed her the new notebook, grabbed a pen, and conveyed to her the summarised contents of the supplementary lessons I cut out the parts I subjectively felt were alright not to reed lesson She listened seriously for thebreaks, my pretend lesson ended after about an hour and a half

“Thanks so o become a teacher”

“I don’t want to And why do you only suggest jobs that will get me involved with humans?”

“I thought that s I actually wanted to do if I wasn’t going to die”

“If you say so like that, it’ll , so please stop”

While giggling, she placed the notebook on the brown coloured rack beside the bed There were reading a lined up on its shelves Surely, to an active hu After all, she was doing that weird dance earlier too

It was late in theto visit around noon, I ave irls’ talk,” to which I politely refused Playing teacher had left , just confir that she was fine had left me satisfied for the day

“Then, before you go hoic trick”

“Ooh, you’ve already picked it up?”

“Just a sih there are a couple others that I’ on”

What she presented was a ic trick that , choose the card that the participant had chosen; I thought that it ell done given that she had learnt it in this short of a tiic tricks, I couldn’t understand the trick

“I’ to do an even harder one next time, so look forward to it!”

“I’ll look forward to it; ic trick, you should escape fro box”

“You mean at a crematorium? That’s impossible you knooow”

“Like I said, that kind of joke is-”

“Sakuraaa, you doin’ okay………… Wait, again?”

Without thinking, I turned around to that lively voice Best-Friend-san had entered the ward energetically, but her face twisted when she sawthat Best-Friend-san’s antagonistic attitude towards ly obvious At this rate, it didn’t see with Best-Friend-san after her death would become a reality

I stood up fro words, and proceeded to head ho at raood to look predators in the eye

However, contrary toeach other without any interference, the girl on the bed suddenly reeous, and said it

“By the way, Get-Along-kun, what about Onii-chan’s jersey and underwear that you borrowed?”

“Ah……”

I had never been so thoughtlessly cursed to this extent before Today, though I had put her older brother’s clothes that I was lent into otten to do so

However, there was nothing to say now

I turned around, and saw the girl grinning, as a shocked expression surfaced on Best-Friend-san, who had moved to the side of the bed I didbe noticed, retrieved a vinyl carrier containing the set of clothes fro, and passed it to her

“Tha~nks”

Still grinning, she looked at both Best-Friend-san and lance Perhaps I had a foolish desire to see so scary Best-Friend-san had already recovered fro at me with eyes that looked like they could kill so like a lion

I immediately diverted my eyes away from Best-Friend-san, and quickly shuffled out of the rooirl and ask in an exceedingly low voice, “What do you ed into so troublesome, I worked my feet faster and faster, far away from the room

On Monday, the start of the folloeek, I headed to school, and found that extreh the classroom

So the girl The one I heard it froum toat the nonsensical ruum, which I politely declined

I tried to somehow deduce the reasons behind the start of the ru the way, there were probably soether, which were then exaggerated into news that I was always around her Having heard that, people who didn’t think well of me labelleda rumour that was treated as if it were true - this was as far as ination went, but it may have still been nowhere near the truth

Even if it didn’t come about in such a manner, I was still appalled at the ru had happened, al in s like “there’s the stalker, it’s better to be careful,” co in the rumour

To say it once more - from the bottom of my heart, I was appalled I wondered just why they would believe that the thinking of the ether, they could probably kill a person as if there weren’t any proble as one believed that they were in the right, they could probably bring the And they wouldn’t even realise that it wasn’t a huht

That hy I thought that if the matter were to escalate, there would be an outbreak of bullying directed atoverly self-conscious To put it clearly, the one they were interested in was the girl, notafter her

No, I wasn’t even following after her That hy, there was no benefit for theainsttroublesolare at me in interest, or perhaps just hostility, everyday when I attended school - that was simply scary

When I told her about the , holding her pancreas

“Kyouko, everyone, and Get-Along-kun are all interesting huh!”

“You’re the type that thinks talking behind people’s backs is a? What a horrible human”

“What’s a involved with you - who they’ve never gotten involved with before - in a way that doesn’t ot yourself into this sort of situation?”

“Isn’t it because I’ve been hanging out with you?”

“So you’re h, it’s because you haven’t properly talked with everyone”

She asserted while peeling the skin off mandarins on the bed

“You see, they all don’t know Get-Along-kun’s character, so that’s why they’ve co the et along with everyone”

“I’h”

It was soone, and our classet about me without her around

“I’m sure that once everyone knows more about you, they’ll properly understand that you’re an interesting person Besides, I don’t think they really think badly of Get-Along-kun”

While talking about foolish things and peeling the skin off

“Apart fro but a ‘Plain-Classmate’”

“Did you get that fro the people themselves?”

She tilted her head to the side, as if striking at the core of my character

“I didn’t ask But I think that’s how it is…”

“But you wouldn’t know that without asking the people theination? And that isn’t necessarily right”

“It doesn’tto involve ination, it’s just how I think it is It’s an interest of ine what someone thinks of me when they call my name”

“What’s with that self-absorption? Are you the self-absorbed sort of boy?

”Nope, I’m the prince of self-absorption that hails from the land of self-absorption Show your respect”

With an unaetting her to understand my system of values She was the opposite sort of human from me after all

She was a hu involved with people Her expressions and character had stories behind them In contrast to that, all human relationshi+ps outside of ination inside ination, it didn’tno har like that Froetting involved with people The opposite of her, I had no need for the huh if asked whether that was fine, I’d just be troubled

Having finished eating the ether and tossed it at the trash can The ball of skin splendidly entered the trash can, and just with that trivial event, she punched her fist into the air, looking happy

“Incidentally, what do you think I think of you?”

“Who knows, isn’t it so’?”

At my appropriate response, she pouted

“Bzzz, wrooong answer Though I did think that before”

I tiltedShe had thought that - in other words, it probably ed to that of others’, but she noticed that her oay of thinking was off the mark Just a little, it interested me

“Then, what do you think of me now?”

“If things like this were revealed, then hu anymore It’s because humans have no idea what they are to others that friendshi+p and love are interesting you know”

“Like I thought, that’s how you think huh”

“Huh? Have we talked about this before?”

Probably having really forgotten, she brought her eyebrows together, looking hing I looked athonestly at someone I was doubtful that I had beco, but on the flip side, I was felt it was so The one that irl before ood or bad thing But regardless, I had changed quite a bit

Looking at , she narrowed her eyes

“I want to show everyone that ?????-kun is a really good person”

Her voice was gentle So she had the gall to say that sort of thing to the boy that pushed her down Though this probablythat for the rest of my life

“Everyone aside, you should go and tell Kyouko-san She scares me”

“I’irl, she cares about her best friend, so that’s why she thinks you’re deceiving me”

“Then I guess there’s a probleh Kyouko-san seeood head on her shoulders”

“H Kyouko with praise Are you thinking of fooling around with Kyouko after I die? Even I’m shocked”

I devoured a ment as I looked back at her overreaction with an unaly disinterested, ain

“Well then, so for today’s ic trick…”

What she had picked up this time was how to make it look like the coin in her palht up in the prograht it was excellent for a beginner To , it just about made me think that she perhaps had an exceptional talent for this

“Well I’ve been practicing the entire time after all! Since I don’t have time you know”

Wasn’t it the case that she was able to practice because she had tio in order to let her know that I was strict with jokes

“If it’s like this, you reallyafter a year huh”

“Huess!”

She hadher joke ignored Since it couldn’t be helped, I honestly praised her hard work and its outcoood mood, she smiled

With that, my second hospital visit to her ended without any problems

The problem arose for me alone on the way home from the hospital

For me, the place that I would say I liked most in this world were bookshops, and so, on this day too, I dropped by a bookshop on the way home fro pretty hard, I browsed through the books Fortunately, I didn’t bring along the girl that I would end upwait, so there was no problem no matter how much time I wanted to spend here

I didn’t have anything that I could be proud of, but I was confident in justbooks For exaum, or if the sound of the chi, I could probably continue blocking out everything arounda book in my own little world I think that if I were a herbivorous ani any carnivorous aniht away

That hy, once I finished reading a short story within a paperback in one go, and returned to this world that would deprive a girl of her life through an illness, I realised it at long last

There was a lion standing beside me

I ju fro at the open book in her hands But I could tell that that consciousness was clearly out to get me

Perhaps, I could keep my footsteps silent, leave this place, and escape But those fleeting hopes of ht away

“What do ya think of Sakura?”

Behind that one line Best-Friend-san gave without a greeting or anything of the sort, there was a force that seemed like it would chew me up if didn’t answer correctly

While feeling cold sweat drip down my back, I was at a lost I wondered what ansould be correct But, when I thought about it, I realised soards to that question froirl was clear With that truth, I didn’t choose anything but to take the path of answering frankly

“I don’t know”

In the several seconds of silence that followed, I couldn’t be sure whether Best-Friend-san was at a loss, or sharpening her bloodlust, but by the tiht in the claws of a lion She roughly pulled ered, and she said the following in an inti tone of voice

“Even though that girl’s the way she is, she gets hurt irl with half-baked feelings Because if she gets hurt 'cause of that, I’ll kill you”

I’ll kill you - it was different from the easy threats eleainst their enemies, it was meant as a clear proclamation of her seriousness to me I shuddered

Without saying anythingto sohout the bookstore In the end, I was unable to leave that spot until I was offered gum by that classmate who just happened to enter the bookstore

Just what did I think of the girl? That night, I tried seriously thinking about it

But, as expected, I couldn’t even figure out anything close to an answer

The day after I was alirl telling o over The last two times, I had been contacted a day before each visit, so this was so had happened, but that wasn’t the case at all As soon as I arrived, she said the folloith a resolute smile

“Won’t you help me escape from the hospital?”

The girl had just wanted to unveil the ht away

“I don’t want to, I still don’t want to turn into a murderer”

“It’s fine, everyone will forgive you for breaking out a dying lover froreement”