part1 c2 (1/2)

Chapter 2: The Beast of Summer[edit]

It was so hot at the end of summer it felt suffocating. My messy bangs had grown too long, hitting against my eyelids. I had gone two days without showering and the sweat and oil in my hair irritated me so much that I had to put it up with a rubber band.

Delving into your mind’s world and battling with the present seven grave sins and the unknown eighth… I had used one hundred and fifty-six hours on this nonsense that seems to come from a video game for second year students in junior high.

They had understandably deformed the female genitalia. ‘l.u.s.t’ opened and closed repeatedly with a ‘kupaa, kupaa’ sound. I killed every single one of them relentlessly, recklessly killing the summer of my first year in high school.

The cicada sang, ”kupaa, kupaa.” It was very hot.

What a lewd design. The thing ‘kupaaing’ on the monitor squirted weird liquid out of its centre. Trying to dismiss in my mind the fact that I hadn't taken a bath, I pounded every single of these disgusting, filthy beings with a machine gun.

”Jintan, are they Jynx[1]?”

”No.”

”But its lips are so fat. Isn't it like Jynx's ‘hatoko’?”

... 'Jintan.'

This honey-sweet voice clung even closer to my skin than my sweat and oil.

”Do you know what 'hatoko' means, Jintan? It's your grandpa's little sister's child's child, you know? So that in Menma’s case is Kii-kun!”

”...”

Most likely I had been too hungry.

To have a gap induced from boredom and hunger is unacceptable, for it will allow unnecessary feelings to squeeze themselves into it against my will.

At these times, one has to be decisive and swiftly fill this gap.

”... Let me eat some s.h.i.+o ramen[2] then.”

”Wah. s.h.i.+o ramen. Menma wants to eat it too!”

I went into the kitchen next to the living room and lit up the matchsticks inside. The connecting points on the gas stove seemed to have a poor contact. I ignited it by throwing some ashes into the place where the gasoline had flown, and a loud boom was heard.

I like s.h.i.+o ramen. Having waited for the water to boil, I meticulously threw an egg inside so it wouldn't be stirred.

“Ah, I want the eggs stirred! I want egg flakes!”

Right. I wouldn’t stir it. When I eat it, I would lightly poke the lunar-shaped egg to let the half-boiled egg yolk ooze out, crowning the noodles. This way of eating seemed much more mature than eating egg flakes…

“Boo! The egg is getting boiled! Stir it, quick!”

“…”

I would never admit believing in unreal things, for example: UFO, UMA, MRR, or spirits.

“Si...”

I had to regulate my breathing patterns with my nose, because at some point that I was unaware of, my breathing had become strained.

If I had to deny it, I should have to neglect it from the very start. If I were to be a bit wary of it, only just a little bit, it would be the evidence that I had already accepted it as reality.

“Ah. Look! It’s expanding already! Quickly stir it… Stir—it—quick!”

Three minutes. Give me three minutes and this will be done.

Nevertheless, those three minutes that seemed to flee so fast when I play games seemed so long now.

Noodles. Please, I beg you to become cooked as quickly as possible—thus I started to pray impatiently. At this moment, the malfunctioning, tone-deaf doorbell speaker rang its out-of-tone ringtone

“Aren’t you going to open the door, Jintan?”

“…”

I would never open the door during my dad’s working hours, no matter how many times the bell had rung. This was what I usually did.

However, the things that human beings can neglect simultaneously are finite. Perhaps this ringtone was a G.o.dsend to help me.

(Let me get an escape by this chance.)

As I gave thanks for this coincidence, I turned off the stove. Now I couldn’t cook the egg into a beautiful lunar shape, and the noodles would also get mucky. Nevertheless, I had no other resort. I then walked to the door.

“Now is the time. Stir!!”

The eggs in the pot seemed to be swished and swooshed. I felt a stream of cold sweat sliding through my back.

“Coming… Mmm!?”

When I opened the creaking door, in front of me stood the visualization of the ‘l.u.s.t’, a woman as if having its s.e.xual organ slapped on her face.

“... Hi.”

Having lightly tanned skin, wearing tight aqua-blue suspenders, and being overly exposed—the way she deliberately shows off her immature s.e.xiness- feels overly carnal, she made me uncomfortable.

Splat.

“Hey. Things are going quite well for you .”

“Ah, Ahah…”

What an unlucky day.

Misfortunes never come alone. Rats. How I wish to whack them away: to use the machine gun in the game to shoot everything away, including this real thing and that unreal thing, penetrating them with bullets.

Hey. Wait?

What would happen when this thing sees that?

“… Um. The cla.s.s teacher told me to give you this, your holiday homework.”

The girl in front of me awkwardly stretched a pile of printouts to my face.

“Hah? Holiday homework… It’s already the end of August now. The holidays will be over after two days!”

I spoke back in reflex to this girl I haven’t spoken to for a long time—three years of no social interaction to be exact. To my blurted doubts, she said, “It’s fine. After all, you’re always in the holiday mood. Besides, unlike you, Yadomi, I’m very busy.”

She said it with a commanding tone completely opposite to her frivolous appearance. From that tone, it was impossible for one to tell the fleeting of years, as if she had completely seen through me.

She was making me impatient.

“Then you can just dump it on me. After all, I wouldn't go to that stupid school!”

When I blurted this out, her aqua-blue suspenders seemed to have become heavier. Her lips twisted, yet she didn’t make a sound.

“Mmm…?”

Was she trying to say something? Having noticed, I involuntarily started to concentrate on something…

Then my mind became completely blank, for I had unwillingly shown my mistakes. The girl intentionally aimed at my defensive mistake and quickly lashed a fierce comment at me.

“You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“What!?”

”You should be ashamed of yourself.”

My blood rose and my ears became hot. What do you know?

I wanted to argue. I wanted to hurt her with extremely sharp, impulsive words!

“Eh, who’s there?

“!...”

A sound came from the back, cooling my heating head.

I didn’t look back, trying to see the reaction of this girl—Anaru Anjo. She furrowed her eyebrows as if surprised, but that was only a reaction towards me.

So, Anjo couldn’t see her?

“What’s the matter, Yadomi. You look upset.”

The problematic matter behind me screamed ‘Ahah!’ in joy when it heard Anjo’s voice.

“This voice! I know it! It’s Anaru!!”

Her naïve voice spoke the forbidden word.[3]

“You… Don’t call her Anaru!!”

I interrupted her in reflex. Even if she was the visualization of ‘l.u.s.t’, saying this to her so bluntly was a bit too much.

“… Ah.”

Anjo’s face slowly turned into a color much more vibrant than brown.

“Ah, Ah, An… Don’t call me Anaru!”

She said the same thing as I did. But of course, she said it to me.

I see.

From Anjo’s perspective, I was the one who said ‘a.n.u.s’. And she decided to completely ignore that bothersome thing touching her tanned skin and crying repeatedly, ‘Anaru, Anaru!’. No, she wasn’t ignoring it. She was…

So, this is truly…

“Waaaaghh!?”

Bam. I pa.s.sed out.

I wasn’t like this back then.

In that summer, I didn’t have a problem with this heat and this painful sunlight that tanned my skin. During that summer when we were in grade 5 at primary school, we were always seen together.

There was an abandoned, coal-burning, small house on the mountain at the back of our school. We moved a lot of useless ‘treasures’ there and called it our secret base. We played there for the rest of our summer. All my memories of summer were born there.

We were the ‘Super Peace Busters’.

‘Busters’ was a word we just knew and we just remembered, which seemed to mean strong people. We had to safeguard peace and punish evil. With this sublime wish, we gave ourselves this name.

Of course, the first one to propose it was I, the captain.

No one denied my idea. No one cared. For at that time, I was the best at everything, be it running, calculation examinations, or even calligraphy—I had even gotten a silver award.

“Heh. Busters! Though I don’t understand, it feels really cool!”

Yukiatsu was number two. Although his grade in music was better than me, he couldn’t catch up to me in all other criteria.

“The word ‘super’ feels really strong…”

Tsuruko was a girl who did things at her own pace. She was pretty good at drawing, though, she always drew princesses or fairies. If only she could draw something else, then it would be a nice décor to hang on the wall of our secret base.

“If we use this name, we will have to really safeguard peace seriously. Can everyone do it?”

Anaru was abnormally serious and did things according to rules. For example, she would go sweep the secret base when no one told her so. She would even get angry when I wiped my nose with the collar of my jacket. She was exactly like the lady next door.

“Mmmahh! It’s super cool! Jintan!”

Poppo, though small and timid, would take off his pants sometimes, which was very fun; hence, I liked to bring him around to play.

“Then it’s decided. Is it, Jintan!”

Then there was Menma.

Menma’s honey-sweet voice had always given me energy. She always cried, and when she did, her eyes looked like gla.s.s pearls filled with water from the ocean.

Her grandfather seemed to be a foreigner, and she seemed to be a quarter mixed. Her soft milky hair looked like sunlight could penetrate it. If you smell closely, you might even smell faintly an unknown fragrance of flower from her…

Every time I heard Menma’s voice, I would rush to her, showing off the coolest side of myself.

Yes. As the captain, I had to run in front of everyone else. I could never trip and have an ugly side.

If I were to trip, I would rather fly away.

This was such an immature thinking, but I indeed had this feeling back then.

But the one to fly away wasn’t me.

Buzz…

The flapping sounds of B29 came from afar.

‘Super Peace Busters’ decided to investigate wars for the summer’s free investigation. With this vague investigation topic, we asked an old man nearby who had a problem walking.

“Ahah. I was just around as tall as you guys at that time. I escaped into the air-raid shelter, holding my little brother at my arms. My brother held my thighs tightly. It was a very warm scene…”

I looked at my own warm thigh.

“!...”

A thin leg was pressing my thigh tightly.

She took my arms as a pillow, and slept near my shoulders. She had promisingly long eyelashes on her sleeping face. I lightly smelled the air—a faint fragrance of flowers.

“I… must have gone nuts.”

Buzz, the electric fan kept swinging its head, denying with its might anything in front of it. Although I had never noticed it before, it actually was quite gentle.

At the moment, I was in a seriously acute situation.

This fragrance of flower and this sleeping face were once registered in my mind, yet I don’t remember them, because…

“Mmm…”

From the chest part of the dress, I could see the white bulging part that had the power and beauty to make every color to lose their brightness. I looked at her tipsily. Everything I knew about her shouldn’t have been mixed with the feelings I have towards her now.

There was also that leg that bluntly pressed on my lower abdomen. It was like a fleshy, slick, bright carp. Her kneecaps bent into an acute angle. Even her skirt was curled up. Under that, though I could not see from this perspective, I thought it would be like…

“…”

If I don’t get away with the heaviness and the wriggle on my lower abdomen, things will get dismal.

I could never let my s.e.xual impulse in my p.u.b.erty to rush out in this abnormal situation. Lightly and meticulously, I took away my wrists.

“Mmm…”

My heart thumped. I stiffened, not daring to move an inch. The wrecker blinked her eyes, bringing her long eyelashes in motion.

“Ah… Morning, Jintan.”

A soft smile then bloomed at me. This soft smiling face… Ahah.

It was the same as in my memory, making me dizzy.

“That’s great. You just fell over. I thought you would be dead.”

“…”

I thought… you would be dead…

“Wu… Wuaghhh!!”

I cried, jumped up violently, and ran away.

“Ji-Jintan!?”

Crack crack crack… Boom!

I rushed into the washroom, closed the door, and locked it, but this was not enough to make me a.s.sured, so I held it tightly with my hand.

“What’s the matter? Jintan!”

Bong, bong, bong. The door quaked.

A few months back then, when I entered high school for not even a week, I escaped outside and ran back home.

Everything was peaceful as long as I hid at home; however, I couldn’t believe even in this state there would be an intruder.

The place that could accommodate me had become narrower and narrower. My helplessness has grown to—If I were invaded even here, then I had no place to escape. This is my last defense: I had to protect it.

“Poo pooing? Hey, are you poo pooing?”

Can’t you even let me to think seriously?

I would never admit unreal things. I don’t believe in anything pertaining to spirits, but if she really is real…

If she really is Honma Meiko…

Then why had she grown a bit from back then. Why… why?

“W-Why do you have to come to my place?!”

“Heh?”

My voice was trembling. I realised even my kneecaps were trembling. What a shame. Nevertheless, this was an emergency situation. I was not the one to be blamed.

“Are you a spirit?!”

“Yeah, should be?”

“Not should be, but be! Why until now… besides, you’ve grown, why do you have to come to my place?!”

“Mmm… Even if you ask me I won’t know.”

“…”

She said she didn’t know.

This was an accentuation of speech that an anime character used in a hit anime. For this relieving tone, the trembling of my legs stopped without my noticing.

“But, let me guess. Menma probably wants to make a wish come true!”

“Wish… right. What wish?”

“Umm. I don’t know!”

How calm you sound. The tone of your voice sounded exactly like you wanted to gain pleasure from the situation I was stuck in.

“Ah. Jintan, come out!”

Although I was still afraid, my mind seemed to have become more stupid.

The situation I was in was too strange. If she were a spirit, she would have the look of a spirit and scare the h.e.l.l out of me. Otherwise, this actually was…

“… It can’t come true.”

Menma c.o.c.ked her head, making a little ‘eh?’ doubtful sound.

I rebuked her loudly, “If you don’t even know what’s your wish, how can you make it come true?! What do you want? You!”

“Ahah! Your saliva is spurting out! Bother! Look at my defensive wall! Eh~ Wait for a moment…”

Menma put her hands under her chin, posing a face of contemplation.

“Yeah… a wish. A wish that could only come true when everyone is back together!”

“Everyone…?”

“Right! Everyone is everyone! Super Peace Busters!”

Ah… There seemed to be something squiggling at the depths of my throat. This was a memorable, painful sound.

Super Peace Busters.

“Let’s first go get Anaru’s help! We didn’t make a good greeting just then…”

I quickly interrupted her to stop her from saying anymore.

“As you can see, she’s not the Anaru you know anymore.”

“Heheh? Isn’t Anaru, Anaru?”

She looked to have grown older, yet she was still a child inside—completely the same. She didn’t even hear what I had been saying.

“I was saying! She isn’t the Anaru back then. Even if you find that blonde, she wouldn’t help!”

“B-Blonde?”

“That means a dumb woman! To put it short, she’s not our friends…”

“No!”

I freaked out looking at Menma. Her eyes with pale colors were welling with tears, like gla.s.s pearls filled with water from the ocean…

“No… I hate Jintan who would say bad things about Anaru!”

“… Menma.”

“Hey. Let’s go find Anaru again, okay? Let’s go seek her for her help, Jintan!”

That spirit forced me to find the past pals.

She forced me with dropping tears. This situation was too amusing. However, her tears were in sync with something for no apparent reason.

Right. This girl maybe wasn’t a spirit.

It was my psychological pressure, my trauma… my sense of guilt. It was a visualization of all that heat that lashed on me in the summer.

When I put it this way, the reason why Anju couldn’t see Menma was convincing.

This was because the Menma who stood in front of me now was only my own hallucination.

It was the hallucination I created of that summer to reproach myself at this summer.

“…”

Fu. I heaved a long sigh.

I puffed away all the surprise, wavering, and perhaps some of my edited over-sweet scenes from my stomach, puffing them out all in one breath.

“I understand. I’ll leave it to Anaru to help your wish come true.”

“Jintan!”

With still some tears in her eyes, Menma bloomed a soft, delightful smile.

That’s right, I only have to ask for her help.