part1 c14 (1/2)

Chapter 14 : Call My Name[edit]

“…”

In this heat, Atsumu, who forgot to turn on the air-conditioner, stared straightly at his phone.

Chiriko had sent him a mail: ‘we will hold a party to greet Menma today. Everyone in Super Peace Busters will join, though you look like feeling unwell. If you’re willing, join us.”

“If I’m willing…what does she mean?”

What is willing? He couldn’t find any reason to make himself willing.

Atsumu felt irascible, as if he was betrayed by Chiriko.

Everyone in Super Peace Busters?

Atsumu’s anger had become Menma’s anger. She silently trembled; her short and disarrayed breathing seemed to be at the side of his ear.

Atsumu had already lost his ability to make the right choice. There was no other way to do it even if he had this problem. He thought in the depths of his heart.

(If there is really a Menma whom only he could see…)

How would Menma think if she knew the thoughts I was having? The problem was that Atsumu couldn’t stop already. These thoughts couldn’t hold him from doing this.

“Menma. Let them see. Let them have a look at you.”

Atsumu forcefully pushed the door.

“Ah…”

Meiko practiced her voice in front of the ratating electronic fan.

Before Jinta went to school, he opened the window of his room and even moved the electronic fan upstairs. He didn’t know that the hot weather was only a mental cognition to Meiko and not a physical experience. Though he didn’t know, he didn’t deliberately go to check.

Meiko’s accepted Jinta’s soft gentleness was to press on the electronic fan.

“Ah…Ah…”

But it was very boring. This bored feeling was also embedded with the worriness for Jinta, making the time harder to bear.

As such, Meiko walked downstairs.

The shrine was placed in the living room.

Although she was aware of its presence, she was still a bit afraid to approach it. The name Jinta’s father called towards the shrin and the phot placed on top of it was the gentle face Meiko knew, but there was always some hesitation in her heart that stopped her from checking it out.

Nevertheless, Meiko was sitting on the cus.h.i.+on in front of the shrine without any hesitation.

“Auntie…”[1]

Meiko clasped her hands in front of Jinta’s mother. The miraculous scene of a spirit undergoing a memorial ceremony to a deceased person was happening right here.

“Auntie is a lot more beautiful than the one in the photo. Menma’s photo is the same: Menma doesn’t quite like the photo, but it’s a rare one that Menma doesn’t make a V gesture. Menma likes to make a V gesture when shooting photos. The photos that don’t have her making a V gesture and few and far between.”

Then, she lightly rang the bell. The crisp sound reverberated in the damp room, bringing into it a beautiful, refres.h.i.+ng sound.

“Although Menma had died, she’s still very lively…”

Trickle, trickle… Something trickled from Menma’s eyes.

“Ah. Ahle? What’s the matter? Eh?”

Tears drop affluently. Even having rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, the tears don’t seem to cease.

“What about me? How strange…Auntie, please don’t laugh at me.”

Jinta’s mother was gently smiling in the photo, though she couldn’t really make the sound of smiling. And in place of this sound was the ringing sound of the doorbell that was about to broken.

“…eh?”