On the first weekend of November, after several days of grey drizzle, the sky over Tokyo had cleared to the clean, brilliant blue of freshly washed glass.
Early that morning, Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku walked side by side through the old streets of Bunkyo Ward. Shops of every size lined both sides of the road, interspersed with aging apartment blocks and private residences.
The autumn wind stirred the golden ginkgo leaves clinging stubbornly to their branches, sending them spinning in lazy circles around the feet of passersby.
Today was the official release date of the November issue of Shinchō.
The sign above Fujiwara's bookshop looked exactly as it always had. The plastic curtain hanging in the doorway swayed gently in the breeze.
The two of them went inside together.
Perhaps because they had come so early, there were no other customers yet.
Tanaka wasn't doing his usual rounds between the shelves, guiding customers to whatever they were looking for. Instead he stood behind the counter, a magazine in his hands, completely still.
He looked up at the sound of the door, and glanced at Tsushima Kagami.
His eyes were shot through with red.
"Tanaka-san?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku asked in surprise.
"Are you all right? Didn't sleep well?"
Tanaka didn't answer. He just gave a rueful smile and jerked his chin toward the back.
Owner Fujiwara came out from the stockroom in the rear.
He looked even worse.
The face that was always creased with a smile seemed to have had something essential drained out of it. He looked exhausted and dazed — deep bags under his eyes, stubble left unshaved, the collar of his shirt crumpled.
"Kagami-kun."
Because Kagami always asked Owner Fujiwara to set books aside for him, and because Tanaka — that supreme number-one single-character devotee — had to help promote him on the forums every time, the three of them had long since moved past any sense of formality.
The honorifics had been dropped entirely; they called each other by name now, the way friends do.
He set a bundled stack of magazines down on the counter.
"These are the ones we set aside for you."
Tsushima Kagami took the magazines and glanced down at the cover.
Shinchō, November issue.
On the cover, a strip of pure white paper banding had been added.
No elaborate design. Just four characters in plain black — No Longer Human.
"Owner Fujiwara, are you…"
Yukinoshita Shizuku opened her mouth carefully.
Owner Fujiwara sat down in the chair behind the counter and was quiet for a moment.
"I read your No Longer Human last night. Stayed up until it was done."
His voice was slightly hoarse.
"And then I ended up like this."
He reached into the drawer and felt around for a pack of cigarettes, pulled one out, and put it between his lips.
Tanaka came over as well and sat down beside him. He took out his own cigarettes, lit Owner Fujiwara's for him, then lit his own.
The two of them drew in long, simultaneous drags, then exhaled.
Smoke rose slowly, blurring the lines of their faces.
"I'm holding up all right, though."
"After all… I've been through something similar myself."
He didn't say what.
But Tsushima Kagami looked into his eyes and suddenly had the sense that somewhere in their depths lay a very old and very heavy history.
"I just never expected it."
Tanaka glanced sideways at Owner Fujiwara.
"The owner — he always seems so unbothered. And here he is, completely undone by it."
Owner Fujiwara blew out another lungful of smoke and gave a wry smile.
"Who said I was unbothered?"
"I just never saw the point in talking about it."
He looked up at Tsushima Kagami.
"What I'm actually curious about is — what kind of state of mind does it take to write something like this, Kagami-kun?"
Tanaka nodded in agreement.
"No Longer Human does go back to that register — the same feel as The Setting Sun."
"But the content of this story, it really is…"
"Frightening."
"I keep feeling like Oba Yozo in the book resembles too many people I know."
"It gives me this strange sensation — like looking into a mirror."
"Unsettling, to say the least."
Tanaka's literary sensibility had been steadily growing of late, and his readings of the characters and their stories were becoming sharper all the time.
Even now there was a lingering unease in his eyes — the kind that comes from having been shaken somewhere too close to home.
He took one final, deep drag and exhaled it all — the gloom in his chest, the smoke ring — in a single long breath.
"But at least I'm not Oba Yozo."
Beside him, Owner Fujiwara nodded in silence.
"If it weren't for Kagami-kun's preface and afterword —"
"— the ones that make clear from the very beginning that this is a story about wanting to save everyone —"
"— I think a great many readers would have misread what it was really trying to say."
Tanaka continued:
"If the first book I'd picked up that day in the owner's shop — back when I'd just lost my job — had been this No Longer Human instead of Cheesecake..."
"Even with the preface and afterword, I honestly can't say whether I would have found my way back, or gone somewhere I couldn't return from."
Tsushima Kagami smiled and clapped Tanaka on the shoulder.
"But the two of you understood what the book was trying to say, didn't you? And understood it well?"
"So don't underestimate the other readers either."
"And actually — I'm going to have to ask a favor of Tanaka-san."
"Everything you've felt, and everything we've talked about today — could you share it on the forums? Spread the word as widely as you can."
"Help people understand that this is a story about being glad you're not Oba Yozo."
"Give everyone a little inoculation in advance."
At those words, Tanaka straightened up and smiled.
"Understood. I'll do my best to get Kagami-kun's message out to as many people as possible."
"Though really — only someone with Kagami-kun's sunny outlook could write a novel this thoroughly bleak and come out the other side unscathed."
"I suppose the owner and I were worrying about Kagami-kun's mental state for nothing."
Tsushima Kagami gave a small laugh, then said his piece.
"Right then, you two — chin up."
"You'll have plenty of customers before long."
"We've got somewhere to be, so we'll head off."
"Next time we have a free moment, dinner's on me."
Owner Fujiwara and Tanaka both smiled and nodded, giving a little wave.
Tanaka stood up to see them out.
When they reached the door, he suddenly called out.
"Kagami-kun."
Tsushima Kagami turned.
Tanaka looked at him, silent for a few seconds, then said something with quiet deliberateness.
"This book… is going to save a lot of people."
Tsushima Kagami looked back at him and nodded.
"I hope so."
They left Fujiwara's bookshop and made their way to the nearest subway station, heading for the Maruzen Marunouchi bookstore at Tokyo Station.
An autumn breeze moved through the street, and the ginkgo leaves along the roadside came loose all at once, settling across the ground in a layer of gold.
Sunlight filtered down through the gaps in the branches, dappling the pavement with shifting patches of light and shadow.
Yukinoshita Shizuku walked alongside Tsushima Kagami, the bag with the magazines hanging from her hand.
She turned her head and looked at his profile.
His expression was calm — as though nothing had happened back there at all.
"Kagami."
"Mm?"
"Are you nervous?"
Tsushima Kagami thought about it for a moment.
"A little."
"Worried the readers won't like it?"
"No." He shook his head. "Worried they will… like it too much."
Yukinoshita Shizuku blinked.
He offered no explanation, just kept walking.
Yukinoshita Shizuku watched his retreating figure and found herself thinking, suddenly, that this person was carrying far more inside him than she had ever imagined.
Around the corner from the Marunouchi bookshop street was the manga café where Ijichi Seika and the others worked part-time.
When they pushed open the door, a wave of warm air and the smell of coffee washed over them.
The café wasn't crowded — just a few customers tucked into corners with their books.
At the long table by the window, several familiar faces were already waiting.
"Kagami! Over here, over here!"
Sayuri spotted them first and jumped to her feet, waving enthusiastically.
She was wearing a pink hoodie today, and her twin-tails had been done up into two buns for once — she looked especially lively.
Machida Sonoko was right beside her, in a grey sweatshirt, her chin-length hair gathered into a small stub of a ponytail.
Kosaka Akane sat next to her — even while simply sitting still she had that composed, yamato nadeshiko air about her, but today's outfit was a rebellious black T-shirt and ripped jeans, an espresso in her hand.
Shibuya-kei? Harajuku-kei? Tsushima Kagami had no idea how to classify these things.
All he knew was it wasn't a patch on Tearful Girl.
Then Tsushima Kagami noticed that Ijichi Seika, Hiroi Kikuri, PA-san, and Hiratsuka Shizuka — none of whom were working today — were also sitting nearby, all dressed in much the same style.
He remembered that the group had been talking a lot about fashion lately.
Of course — rock musicians, naturally they'd be the trendsetting types.
So even Kosaka Akane — all yamato nadeshiko on the outside, conniving rebel underneath — had been infected by this crew of spirited rock-and-roll girls?
Shimizu Nayotake was still in her school uniform, sitting quietly to one side, head bowed, a glass of orange juice in front of her.
When they saw Tsushima Kagami and Yukinoshita Shizuku walk in, everyone looked up.
"Did you get them?"
Sayuri asked, barely containing herself.
Yukinoshita Shizuku set the bag on the table and took out a copy of Shinchō, passing it to her.
Sayuri took it and stared at the cover for a long moment.
"No Longer Human…"
She murmured.
"That title is so… bleak."
"Hasn't Kagami's writing always been like this?"
Kosaka Akane leaned over to look.
"The Setting Sun feels the same way."
Machida Sonoko nodded.
"And Hear the Wind Sing — it's not quite as bleak, but it still has that quiet undercurrent of melancholy."
Ijichi Seika set down her coffee cup and looked at Tsushima Kagami.
"I heard —"
"That you're donating all the royalties from this book?"
Tsushima Kagami nodded.
"And there's Shinchōsha as well," Yukinoshita Shizuku added.
"For every copy of this issue of Shinchō sold, they're donating ten yen too."
Everyone fell quiet for a moment.
"Ten yen?"
Sayuri blinked.
"It's not a lot, but if enough copies sell…"
"So it all comes down to how many copies it sells," Kosaka Akane said.
Machida Sonoko thought for a moment, then asked Tsushima Kagami:
"Which organization are you planning to donate to?"
Tsushima Kagami was quiet for a beat.
He could hardly say it outright — that he was planning to set up a charity of his own, then quietly arrange for Shimizu Nayotake and her mother to receive funds through its relief program to cover the cost of the surgery.
"Still looking for the right partner organization."
No one pressed further. They nodded.
"You do have to be careful with these kinds of charities."
At that, Yukinoshita Shizuku turned to look at Shimizu Nayotake.
"Nayotake."
"Yes?"
"I think you should reconsider Kagami's offer from before."
Shimizu Nayotake looked up at Yukinoshita Shizuku and Tsushima Kagami, and gave a quiet smile.
Then she looked around at everyone.
"Thank you all for caring."
"But my mother and I can't accept that money."
"If Kagami can donate it and help more people, that would be the best possible outcome."
____
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