Chapter 32 (1/2)

shi+zusawa Sou was an autobiographical writer from before the war He wasn’t very well-known to the public, but apparently, he had some loyal fans

His ht,’ was known as a typical piece of sanatoriu the lives of patients hospitalized in sanatoriuonist who suffered froraphical writer, and autobiographies are generally stories written based on actual experiences shi+zusawa Sou himself had suffered from luminescence disease and died in his twenties

I couldn’t quite get a grasp on the ie his work portrayed just from this description on the internet, so I decided to actually borrow the book from Mamizu and read it

While I was reading ‘One Ray of Light’ at my own seat between classes, Kayama called out to me

“What are you reading that for?” he asked

“Ah, it’s just…”

It was an old book; its literary style and metaphors were old-fashi+oned, so it took h it Honestly, it was such a minor work, and I would never have picked it up init

“That’s the book that Watarase Mamizu likes, isn’t it?”

I was startled

Did Kaya?

“Oh, really?” I played duht

“I like it too, actually,” Kayama said

This was an unexpected fact Or rather, I couldn’t iine that it was a coincidence I would have understood if it were a famous novel, but it was no coincidence that Kayama liked an obscure book like this

“I haven’t finished reading it yet, so don’t spoil it,” I said

“He dies in the end,” Kaya the story immediately

But even I knew that ry

‘One Ray of Light’ wasn’t that long a book It wasn’t even two hundred pages in paperback for, I didn’t find it particularly interesting Well, there were interesting parts, but the story see features in my eyes Maybe that was because it was a here an autobiographer knew that he was dying and depicted what he thought his own death was going to be like It was melancholic and induced a dark mood

The next day, we had an educational field trip It had been decided that our class would go to the folklore ine what the folklore s would be on display? Earthenware? Bears?

It was at nine o’clock in the ate at the station near theat I’d arrived early, but I encountered Kayama, who had arrived even earlier Almost none of the other students had arrived yet

“Hey, shall we skip out on this?” Kayaest so like this

I decided to join hiins of the people of our hometown

“I want to visit shi+zusawa Sou’s grave,” I said

Kayaained his co early,” he said to one of our classmates, who stared at him blankly

We went through the ticket gate and got on the train I looked on the internet to find that shi+zusawa Sou’s grave was deep in the mountains at the prefectural border It would take about an hour and a half by train to get there, but then we’d have to climb a mountain after that

“Kayas

“Well, I’ll e If I can’t, you’ll carry me anyway, Okada,” Kayama said in a tone that

Our conversation stopped there

Rush hour had passed, so there were few people inside the train and, it was quiet

Now that I thought about it, the two of us had never gone out soether We hadn’t even established hobbies or topics of conversation that we ine that we’d have a lively conversation during our journey

“About Watarase Mamizu,” Kayama said

No, that’s right That was the single topic of conversation we had in common

“I liked her,” Kayama said briefly

“I know,” I said, not playing dumb this time

“I guess you do,” Kaya dumb either

And then, Kaya me why he had come to like Mamizu