Side Story 8

One Last Glimpse (Mr. Perfect) 3
Immediately upon returning home, he threw away the poison he had secretly ordered from the dark web. Dying to spite his parents was far too ridiculous. He was able to honestly think so.

Conversely, he will use his parents. In order to become an adult who can live without being ordered around by anyone.

And if someday, he could go meet her…

… Because he was carefree picturing such pipe-dream-like delusions, was divine punishment struck upon him?

(Eh, Kana? She died, though?)

Having become independent as a doctor in America, becoming able to have confidence that he had become a full-fledged adult, he returned to Japan after a long time. Finding out Kana's address from a former classmate with whom he had been relatively close and heading there with a pounding heart, her mother told him nonchalantly.

(What a shame, it was a mere four days ago, you know?)
(What did they call it? A sudden death from a cerebral infarction?)
(Until the day before she was full of vigor, so if you were just a little earlier, you could have talked to her, though.)
(I didn't know that ugly girl had such a handsome guy.)
(What the hell, despite being so ugly, wasn't she enjoying herself properly?)

In her mother, there was not a shred of an indication of grieving her daughter's death. The words spilling from her chapped lips were all selfish, nothing but extremely unpleasant things.

(If I recall, the funeral should be tomorrow, though.)

Except for that piece of information.

Withdrawing to his hotel for now, he asked various things from the classmate who had given him Kana's address. Kana was, to his astonishment, the eldest daughter of thirteen siblings.

It was reportedly a well-known family in the neighborhood. The parents made children without planning and made Kana nurture them, while they themselves hardly involved themselves in childcare.

Kana was not permitted to go on to high school, and after graduating middle school worked earnestly for the family. Even when neighbors unable to bear the sight consulted public services, it was reportedly the end of it when told that they could not meddle in what the person herself was doing of her own will.

It might have been better if Kana had just left the house altogether. But Kana could not abandon her siblings, and continued to stay at home.

Even so, it was a death right after the youngest sister finished compulsory education and she had finally started living alone.

If only Kaoru had come much earlier.
If only he had pulled her away from that house, even by force.

While agonizing, the night gave way to dawn, and the next morning, Kaoru headed to the funeral hall where her funeral was being held. His classmate had told him that if a funeral were held in that area, that was the only place.

To her younger sister who was attending the reception desk, Kaoru entrusted the bouquet of roses he had purchased at a florist along the way.

Red, white, purple, pink, blue.

When he imbued the words he wanted to convey, it turned into an outrageous size, but her younger sister accepted it. Refusing when recommended by all means to offer incense, he stated his condolences only and left the funeral hall. He had no face to show her.

On the way back to the hotel, when he stopped by their nostalgic middle school, a female student in uniform was just coming out from the school gate. A petite female student with the same ponytail as her.

(... Sakurai-san!)

The moment a truck that dashed out vigorously from the roadway plunged toward the female student, Kaoru was rushing over with speed surprising even to himself.
Immediately after shoving the female student away by a hair's breadth, the truck collided with Kaoru, and finally stopped upon crashing into the school gate on top of that.

(A-Are you alright!? An ambulance right away…)

The female student with a crying face, when seen up close, looked nothing like her at all. She bravely tried to call an ambulance with her smartphone.

But his intuition as a doctor told him that it was surely in vain. He himself was already in a state beyond help. In another few minutes, death would arrive.

(Sakurai-san…)

(I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!)

Her vestige overlapped onto the sobbing female student.

(If there is a next time, I definitely won't make that mistake.)

(Next time, surely…)

In the corner of his field of vision being painted black, the ponytail's tail swayed.

With faintly smiling as his last, Kaoru's consciousness was swallowed by darkness.