Chapter 8: Farewell to the Girl from That Summer Day

"It's so high up here!"

Shizuishi Marika offered a delightfully childish impression.

Though she was a thirteen-year-old first-year middle school student, she had been an elementary schooler up until last year, so there was absolutely nothing strange about her giving such a simple, childlike reaction.

When Torame Kouya had visited Marika at her hotel, she had mentioned wanting to do some Tokyo sightseeing since she was already here.

And so, the two of them ended up taking the easy route and visiting the Skytree.

Tokyo Skytree—the iconic 634-meter tower in Sumida Ward, functioning as a broadcasting tower, observation deck, and commercial facility that represented Japan.

Kouya led the girl from Kyoto down the glass-walled observation corridor heading toward Floor 450.

As they walked the corridor, Marika nervously but excitedly took in the sweeping view of the Tokyo cityscape.

"Having fun?" Kouya asked.

Glued to the observation window, the girl looked back at the Asakusa native.

"Yes! There's nowhere this high up in Kyoto. No matter where I look, I can see the city. But there's so much, I don't really know where to look."

"You're not really supposed to look at one specific thing. You just kinda look out over the whole thing and enjoy the vibe."

"Which way is your house, Kouya-san?"

"Down that way."

Looking bored, Kouya gestured vaguely toward the ground with his chin.

Marika stared intently down from the observation corridor. Squinting, the girl tried to find the cafe where her sister was, but apparently, her eyesight wasn't quite up to the task.

Leaning against the wall, Kouya asked his housemate's little sister a question.

"So, why did you come to Tokyo again?"

"To have my sister return home."

Still pressed against the window, the second daughter of the historic inn answered immediately.

Haa, Kouya let out an exaggerated sigh.

"You want Kiyoko-san to transfer schools again after only four months?"

"If she can endure the troublesome paperwork, that shouldn't be an issue."

"Human relationships ain't just paperwork. Four months is plenty of time for her to make a friend or two here..."

Kouya trailed off.

For a split second, the image of Shiga Meika flashed through his mind.

Kiyoko and Meika had been talking a lot lately, but could he really call them friends?

No, they probably weren't friends.

"Four months might not be enough to call someone a 'friend,' but she's built up a decent amount of trust with people, and telling her to just throw that away is pretty unreasonable, ain't it?"

And so, Kouya quickly amended his use of the word 'friend.'

Still clinging to the window, Marika turned to look at Kouya.

"The ones who need my sister are the people at Suimeisou. Not the people of Asakusa."

"...Well, I need her. Besides, the people at Suimeisou need you just as much, don't they?"

"..."

Marika fell silent at Kouya's words.

The rumors of the succession dispute must have undoubtedly crossed the girl's mind.

"Don't you want to inherit the inn yourself?"

Prompted by Kouya, Marika looked down just a little.

"...I am the second daughter."

"Ranking people by birth order is an outdated tradition."

"Kyoto is a region deeply rooted in outdated traditions. It is the ancient capital, after all."

"Why don't you think you're more suited to be the landlady?"

"..."

Marika didn't answer. It wasn't that she didn't have an answer within her, but rather that she simply had no intention of answering Kouya's question.

"You feel weirdly guilty toward Kiyoko-san, don't you?"

When Kouya pointed it out, Marika kept her head bowed.

Silence fell between them again.

A pair of small brothers holding juice cups ran past them, laughing excitedly.

After a while, Marika finally spoke in a quiet voice.

"I think my sister left Kyoto because of me."

That was what Shizuishi Marika confessed.

Kouya stared down at the girl.

"You want me to say, 'That's not true'?"

"No, there is no need to spare my feelings. It is most likely the truth. If I didn't exist, I'm sure my sister never would have left Kyoto. Even you can imagine that much, can't you, Kouya-san?"

"I dunno..."

"I believe my sister is holding back. Deferring to me, because I am our father's true daughter. The inn originally belonged to our father. I'm certain my sister believes that, because she isn't his biological daughter, she shouldn't be the one to own it."

The boy from Asakusa and the younger sister from Kyoto—a miniature city sprawled out beneath their feet.

"Therefore, it is because of me that my sister left."

Marika laid out her true feelings.

Shizuishi Kiyoko and Shizuishi Marika.

They certainly didn't hate each other, but there was a delicate, undeniable distance between them as sisters.

Kouya roughly scratched his head.

"It's not like Kiyoko-san actually said that, right? That's just your own assumption."

"But she did leave. That is a fact. She left because she had a reason. —Can you explain any other reason why my sister would leave Kyoto, Kouya-san?"

"Who knows."

Having the question turned back on him, Kouya gave a vague answer.

Her assumption was probably close to the mark, even if it wasn't the whole truth.

Kiyoko didn't want a pointless conflict with her half-sister. That much was true.

But there had to be another reason why Kiyoko had come to Tokyo.

"Hey, why do you want Kiyoko-san to inherit the inn so badly? Is there any reason besides her being the eldest?"

"My sister has struggled for far longer than I have."

Marika answered instantly.

Pointed out so clearly, even Kouya was at a loss for words.

"Well, yeah, there's an age gap."

"And on top of that—"

"On top of that?"

"..."

Shizuishi Marika searched for the right words for a moment. Then, seemingly having found the perfect fit, she nodded firmly.

"I believe that job is my sister's true calling."

"A true calling, huh..."

Just as her sister said, a hospitality job where she managed a business on her own did seem perfectly suited for Shizuishi Kiyoko.

"Well, yeah, she definitely seems suited for hospitality, but it doesn't necessarily have to be an inn—"

"Let's end this conversation here. This isn't something I should be discussing with an outsider."

Cutting Kouya off, Marika tugged on his sleeve.

"More importantly, Kouya-san. I would like to buy some souvenirs before I go home. Will you accompany me?"

With the conversation forcibly cut short, that was the end of their talk about Kiyoko.

After that, Torame Kouya simply accompanied Shizuishi Marika on the rest of her Skytree sightseeing tour.

The blue sky stretched wide over Asakusa that day, dotted with towering cumulonimbus clouds.

It was a painfully beautiful blue sky, a stark, ironic contrast to the dark clouds hanging over the two sisters.

"—So then I bought some Pigeon Sablé cookies for souvenirs, and we were just wandering around a nearby shopping mall when we saw some random underground idol group doing a free live show, so we ended up watching it till the end, and that took up the whole day."

Late summer at Cafe Cassandra.

While working his final shift of the summer as his grandfather went to the hospital, Kouya gave Kiyoko a full report of the day's events.

Kiyoko, currently draining water from freshly washed glasses, shot him an icy glare.

"I see. So it ended peacefully with absolutely nothing of note happening."

"Well, yeah, but it wasn't a bad day."

"As long as you had fun with Marika, that is fine. (Translation: You just did something completely unnecessary, didn't you?)"

"Nah, I mean, I never would've gone to the Skytree if I didn't have an excuse like this, so I figured it'd make for a good story, y'know..."

"What is this nonsense about shopping mall idols?"

"They were some underground idol group I've never even heard of. They were doing a free show but the place was totally empty. We would've felt way too bad just walking away."

"So you stayed and watched the whole thing?"

"Yeah. It'd be sad if they lost even more of their audience."

"It would be wonderful if they became famous with your support, Kouya-kun. (Translation: Shouldn't they know their place?)"

"Their performance was actually pretty good, you know? Marika and I were saying if they ever get famous, we can brag about how we went to their empty live show back in the day."

"What a lovely story. (Translation: I couldn't care less.)"

Treating him with absolute ice, Kiyoko began wiping down the freshly washed glasses.

"But thank you anyway. For keeping Marika company in my place. (Translation: Even though it solved absolutely nothing.)"

And then, Kiyoko flashed him a deliberately fake smile.

Averting his eyes, Kouya nonetheless tried to push for the mending of their sisterly bond.

"Oh, yeah. Your sister really ain't a bad kid at all, y'know."

"...Who exactly said Marika was a bad kid in the first place?"

"No, it's just, you guys clearly look like you've got this massive rift between you."

"Please do not arbitrarily turn my family members into villains."

"But you can't deny there's this weird tension, right? It's like a textbook example of being overly polite and distant."

"That girl simply assumes on her own that because I don't share my father's blood, I'm holding myself back out of deference to the Shizuishi family."

"Oh. You actually get it."

"Obviously. There's no way I, her actual older sister, wouldn't realize something that a complete stranger like you could figure out."

Kiyoko shut him down with rare bluntness.

Kouya couldn't help but think that knowing it and not saying anything about it was exactly why things were so complicated, but Kiyoko's entire vibe screamed, Do not stick your nose into other people's business. But this was Asakusa, a town built on human connection and compassion.

Kouya was already in too deep. He couldn't just back down now.

He decided to fully lean into being a busybody and intervene in their troubled relationship.

"Half-sister this, eldest daughter that—put all that aside. The reason Marika told you to go back to Kyoto is because she thinks you're cut out to be the landlady."

When Kouya summarized Marika's stance, Kiyoko fell silent for a moment.

Regardless, Kouya kept pushing.

"She said working at the inn was Shizuishi Kiyoko's 'true calling.'"

"..."

Kiyoko remained silent for a long time.

She was probably well aware herself that she had a knack for hospitality.

After a while, Kiyoko let out a heavy sigh.

"That girl misunderstands me."

"How so?"

"She thinks I'm stepping aside for the sake of the inn. Suimeisou is precious to me too, but that is not the reason I left Kyoto."

"I wanted to ask you about that too. Why did you suddenly come to Tokyo, anyway?"

Kouya looked at Kiyoko, finally voicing the simple question he had been harboring all this time.

"...Why, you ask? There's no point in telling you."

"Huh?"

"Because you don't even remember, Kouya-kun."

Kiyoko shot Kouya an icy, sulky glare that practically pierced right through him.

"Eh?"

—Wait, did I just step on a landmine? As the boy panicked slightly, Kiyoko gave him a cold sidelong glance.

"Well, whatever."

"If you're fine with it, then fine, but... Don't part ways with your sister while things are still awkward when she came all the way from Kyoto. It's a waste of bullet train fare."

"I already told you, things are not awkward."

"Then let me rephrase. Fix this 'low-key misunderstanding.' It'll literally take two seconds."

"...What exactly do you want me to do?"

"She thinks her older sister should inherit the house. You need to talk to your sister about your real feelings."

"We are deliberately avoiding telling each other our true feelings."

"What a messed-up sisterhood..."

As Kouya's face twitched, Kiyoko simply shrugged.

"It's self-defense. It's always best to avoid unnecessary conflict."

"That might be smart, but it's totally foolish. It just means you have zero mutual understanding."

"If you're going to say things like that, then if we clash over our true feelings and something happens, will you take responsibility for it?"

Kiyoko's phrasing rubbed Kouya the wrong way, and he snapped back,

"Tell her! If anything happens, I'll take responsibility for you!"

Getting defensive, Kouya blurted it out.

—The moment the words left his mouth, a sudden wave of déjà vu washed over him.

He was sure he had said something incredibly similar to this girl once before.

A memory from Torame Kouya's past came rushing back.

The deafening sound of cicadas, and the murmuring waters of the Kamo River.

The boy from Tokyo had spoken to the girl without even turning around.

—If it gets too hard, it's okay to run away, he had said.

And then, his younger self had definitely followed it up with:

"If anything happens, I'll take responsibility for you, so come to me."

The young boy had said it with absolute, unshakable confidence.

"Ah."

Remembering it, Kouya was left utterly dumbfounded.

Up until this exact second, he had completely, entirely forgotten.

If he had forgotten it, there was no taking responsibility or anything else.

As the boy stood there paralyzed in shock, Kiyoko peered at him curiously.

"Is something wrong, Kouya-kun?"

"Uh, no. I just feel like I said something similar a long time ago..."

"Ah..."

As if suddenly understanding, his childhood friend from Kyoto gave a single nod.

"You finally remembered. (Translation: You're too late, idiot.)"

She scolded him, her tone carrying a distinct pout.

A distant promise from a summer day.

As the memories flooded back, the boy slipped into a state of mild panic.

Ten years ago, I told Kiyoko-san I'd take responsibility. I definitely said it.

—Wait, hold on a sec. What the hell does 'responsibility' even mean here? How exactly do you take responsibility? Does it mean carrying the weight of someone else's life? Physically?! No, wait, that literally means taking responsibility for Kiyoko-san's entire life! What am I supposed to do?! Why the hell did I say that ten years ago?! Am I an idiot?! Actually, wait, did Kiyoko-san seriously take my ten-year-old words to heart and come all the way to Tokyo?! Isn't that insane?! What the hell do I do now?! A raging torrent of thoughts rushed through the boy's mind, completely overloading Torame Kouya's brain circuits. He was suddenly struck by the intense urge to hold his head in his hands and crouch on the floor.

Desperately fighting the urge, Kouya timidly stole a glance at Kiyoko.

"Kouya-kun...!"

Standing right in front of him was a girl who was very obviously expecting something.

Kiyoko had already left Kyoto and was standing right here.

Just like their childhood promise, she had come to him.

For now. For now, he just had to put the talk of promises and responsibility aside.

He needed to get back on track! First things first, he had to settle the issue with her sister.

Ahem, Kouya let out a deliberately loud cough.

"Anyway, anyway! Marika thinks you left the house because of her!"

"And?"

"Clear up the misunderstanding!"

"Say what?"

"Just go and honestly tell her the real reason you want to stay in Tokyo!"

"..."

"Why are you looking away?"

"...Because it's embarrassing."

Kiyoko mumbled quietly.

"Huh?"

Kouya blinked.

Kiyoko looked away and desperately made her excuses.

"Telling my actual younger sister the truth and having her think I'm some head-in-the-clouds romantic is incredibly embarrassing!"

"Who cares?! What's the problem?! What's wrong with telling the truth?!"

"In Marika's mind, I am not the kind of older sister who talks about such flighty things."

"Who gives a crap about that?!"

"It's a carefully crafted image strategy."

"To hell with image strategies when it's your own sister! Just go tell her the truth!"

"But—"

"No buts! I'll be there to watch you."

"Please stop! That makes it even more embarrassing! If you're there, nothing will get resolved!"

"Fine, then I won't watch, just talk to her!"

Giving her no room to argue, Kouya grabbed his smartphone and dialed Marika's number.

"I'm gonna call her here, so you better tell her the truth. Got it?!"

"You can't say that after you've already started calling her... You really are a busybody, Kouya-kun."

Beside Kouya as he pressed the call button, Shizuishi Kiyoko shook her head in exasperation, then quietly added one last sentence.

"—...Though I suppose I've known that for a very long time."

—The last day of summer vacation at Cafe Cassandra.

A middle school girl sat tensely at a window seat in the stylish little cafe tucked away in a corner of Asakusa.

The girl's name was Shizuishi Marika.

After staying at her hotel until morning, she had been summoned by her older sister to the cafe where Kiyoko was freeloading.

Sitting up straight at the window seat, the girl waited anxiously for her sister to appear.

"Here you go."

The cafe's elderly master placed a special luxury parfait, overflowing with seasonal fruits, in front of Marika.

"Huh? I didn't order this..."

The girl looked up at the elderly master in confusion.

"It's on the house."

Smiling gently, the old master, Torame Jurou, returned to the back of the shop without leaving a bill.

"..."

After staring at the luxury parfait for a moment, Marika picked up a silver spoon and scooped up some of the ice cream.

She put the ice cream in her mouth, and just as she reached for the cherry on top, the person she was waiting for arrived.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Hearing that nostalgic, familiar voice, Marika looked up.

"Sister."

Standing there was a slightly older girl with long hair, dressed in summer clothes.

It was Shizuishi Kiyoko, Marika's older sister from a different father.

"May I sit here too?"

"Ah, yes. Of course."

For some reason feeling nervous around her own sister, Marika nodded.

Kiyoko took the seat directly across from her younger sister.

"..."

After that, silence descended on the corner window seat of the cafe.

Neither of them seemed willing to speak the next words.

Amidst the awkwardness, Marika slowly continued to eat her parfait.

She really needed to thank the old master who had given it to her.

An older and younger sister who shared only half their blood.

They certainly didn't hate each other, and they were naturally sisters, but there was a distinct, natural distance between them that only sisters could truly understand. —That was their relationship.

If they tried to explain this exquisite distance to anyone else, they surely wouldn't be able to convey it accurately.

The one to break the silence first was the older sister.

Taking a deep breath, Shizuishi Kiyoko asked her younger sister a question.

"Marika, how many years do you think the statute of limitations on love is?"

It was an incredibly bizarre, utterly unexpected question.

"...Excuse me?"

Hit with a question she never saw coming, Shizuishi Marika couldn't help but do a double-take at her sister.

Yet her sister, Shizuishi Kiyoko, didn't seem to be joking in the slightest. Her expression was completely serious.

"Umm... well, I don't think there is a statute of limitations on love...? I don't really know, but if there was a statute of limitations after marriage, couples would just automatically divorce..."

Marika couldn't help but think, Who do I think I am, talking so highly about love as a middle schooler? but for the time being, she offered her thoughts.

"I suppose so."

Her sister seemed to ponder this for a moment.

"...Umm, Sister. What exactly are we talking about here?"

When the younger sister couldn't help but demand an explanation...

"This is me telling you to inherit the inn, Marika."

The melancholic older sister declared it bluntly.

Going from statutes of limitations on love straight to inheritance issues, Marika leaned forward, thoroughly confused.

"No, you are far more suited for it, Sister."

Kiyoko shook her head at her sister.

"You have to be the one to inherit Suimeisou, Marika."

The older sister stated firmly.

"But Sister—"

"Listen to me, Marika."

Cutting off her younger sister, the older sister began to talk about her own circumstances.

"I will be honest with you. There is someone I like here."

"Eh—"

"I came all the way to Tokyo believing in a selfish promise I made with him."

"Wait, is this what they call a 'pushy woman invading a man's home'?! You, Sister?! This is the first I'm hearing of this!"

"It's the first time I'm saying it."

"It's also the first time I'm hearing about you having any sort of romantic promise! I know absolutely nothing about this!"

"It's a promise from a long time ago. But you just told me yourself, Marika. There is no statute of limitations on love."

"Ah... Wait, is that person..."

The image of the cafe owner's grandson, the boy who had shown her around the Skytree yesterday, flashed through Marika's mind.

Even so, the confession was so sudden that Marika's comprehension couldn't keep up.

"Well, um, I don't think he's a bad person, but I wonder if he's really a good match for you, Sister... No, it's not my place to say anything. Actually, wait, were you always the type of person who operated on such romance-driven logic...?"

"Please do not call it 'romance-driven.'"

"Ah, I'm sorry."

Glared at by her sister, the younger sister stammered an apology.

Haa, Kiyoko let out a sigh.

"Because of that, I want to stay here, and there is something I want to do."

"Something you want to do...?"

Marika looked up, asking timidly.

"I'm going to run a shop with him."

The older sister began to speak of her ambitions matter-of-factly.

"I am thinking of asking them to sell my homemade sweets here. If they are well-received, I might even ask to sell them at Suimeisou as well."

"..."

"What's wrong, Marika?"

"Sister, are you entirely serious about this? Or is this a joke?"

The younger sister confirmed with a deadpan expression.

Her older sister brushed a stray lock of hair from her shoulder with her fingertips and smiled.

"I am not joking. Though whether I succeed at what I'm serious about is another matter entirely."

"Right... of course."

"Exactly. Everyone wants to succeed, but not everyone does. Even I know at least that much. —But I want to share a dream with Kouya-kun."

"I... had never heard any of this before..."

"Because I just told you for the first time."

"...Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Why? Because it's embarrassing. For all sorts of reasons."

"You will absolutely succeed, Sister!!"

SLAM! Shizuishi Marika slammed her hands on the table and declared it loudly.

"Marika, what's gotten into you all of a sudden...?"

Startled by her sister's sudden shout, Kiyoko leaned back as Marika pressed forward aggressively.

"You will succeed, Sister. After all, you survived the absolute worst, debt-ridden days of Suimeisou alongside Father and Mother! Compared to our family's massive, multi-layered debt, winning over the man you like and running a storefront will be a walk in the park!"

Shizuishi Marika argued passionately.

Then, after a brief pause, she lowered her energy level and added:

"Well, um... even if, by some chance, things don't go well, I'm sure it won't be a problem if you just run a modest little shop at the Torame household."

"You certainly downgraded your expectations just now, didn't you."

"I was merely considering the scenario where things don't work out. —...But I truly want you to be happy, Sister. I really do."

"Thank you. It makes me happy to hear you say that."

Kiyoko looked down briefly, then looked back up at her sister.

"So there you have it, you must inherit Suimeisou. Make it even bigger than it is now, and when it goes public, be sure to give me some shares."

"Ah, you're counting your chickens, Sister."

"Counting my chickens?"

"Before they hatch."

"Marika, you're going to have to run the inn, so you need to work hard too."

"Ah, yes."

Shizuishi Marika reflexively straightened her spine and corrected her posture.

Kiyoko pointed the silver spoon—which she seemed to have brought herself—at her sister.

"Can I have half of that?"

"Eh?"

Marika looked confused for a moment before realizing her sister was pointing at the parfait, and hastily pushed the glass toward her.

"Ah, yes. Of course. Go ahead."

"Thank you. I've been thinking this looked delicious, but I never had a chance to eat it."

"...Couldn't you just make it yourself? I heard you work here part-time."

"It's better when someone else makes it for you."

"I completely understand that feeling."

The daughter of a hospitality family nodded deeply, watching warmly as her older sister happily ate the parfait.

—In the end, the sisters never discussed family matters again after that.

The rest of their conversation consisted entirely of safe, harmless topics.

But for the two sisters, that was more than enough.

"I will contact you when I get home. —Goodbye then, Sister."

The departure bell rang, and Shizuishi Marika, carrying her large backpack, gave a small bow.

"Come visit again. Next time, please actually contact me beforehand. I can at least come pick you up at the station."

Marika turned her eyes to the boy standing next to her sister and spoke.

"Kouya-san, please take good care of my sister. I mean it."

"Ah, yeah."

Kouya gave a vague reply. He felt like Marika glared at him a little, but maybe it was just his imagination.

"Be careful on your way back."

Shizuishi Kiyoko waved to her sister inside the train as the bullet train's doors slid shut, separating them.

The Shinkansen slowly began to move.

The final day of summer vacation at Shinagawa Station.

From the station platform, Kiyoko and Kouya watched the Shin-Osaka bound Nozomi 393 depart, taking Marika back to Kyoto.

Once the bullet train was out of sight, the two turned on their heels and began slowly walking through the station toward the escalators.

"Charging 150 yen just to see someone off on the platform should be illegal, don't you think?"

"You're walking onto the platform without even being asked to, of course you gotta pay an admission fee."

"I despise it. It's like those cheap local governments that charge viewing fees for fireworks."

"It's a valuable source of revenue."

"It would be much better if temples just paid taxes."

Chatting about meaningless things, the boy and girl began their slow trek back to the cafe in Asakusa.

Under the blazing sun, the heat radiated off the asphalt, baking the two of them.

"So hooot. Let's buy something to drink on the way back."

"They were selling Ramune at a shop near here on the way in. The ones in the glass bottles."

"The ones with the marble inside? Talk about nostalgic."

"I haven't had bottled Ramune since the Jizo-bon festival either."

"What the heck is a Jizo-bon?"

"You don't know? It's a festival in Kyoto where all the neighborhood children gather around the local Jizo statues."

"Never heard of it."

"Ah. That's right, Kouya-kun, you came in the summer and left in the summer."

In the sweltering heat, the two bought ice-cold Ramune and headed home.

"I'm home."

Upon returning to the Torame household, Kouya tossed his empty Ramune bottle aside and threw himself onto the sofa.

They had lowered the AC temperature and left it running while they were out, so the room was reasonably cool.

Kiyoko, holding her empty Ramune bottle, headed for the sink.

"Kouya-kun, if I save the Ramune marble, will you use it for something?"

"What would I even use it for? I ain't a little kid."

"I thought the little kids who come to the shop might be happy if we gave it to them as a bonus."

"If you think so, do what you want. You can have mine too."

Kouya handed his empty Ramune bottle to Kiyoko.

Accepting it, Kiyoko deftly extracted the marbles and threw the bottles away.

"Feeling a little nostalgic for your childhood?"

"Over a Ramune?"

"You used to love collecting the junk toys that came with snacks back in elementary school."

Kiyoko reminisced about their elementary school days, narrowing her eyes nostalgically.

"A long time ago, Kouya-kun... you told me that if things ever got too hard, I should come to you. You said you would take responsibility. That made me truly happy."

Kiyoko whispered quietly.

"..."

For a moment, Kouya started acting suspiciously jittery.

It felt like he was being interrogated over the whereabouts of a ten-year-old promise he had completely forgotten about.

His younger self had spouted a bunch of irresponsible things to little Kiyoko, like taking responsibility and writing letters, but in the end, he hadn't fulfilled a single one of them.

It was all just talk. He hadn't written her a single letter. He had betrayed her expectations.

"I'm—"

He felt like he had to say something, but the words wouldn't come.

As Kouya's eyes wandered the floor, Kiyoko stretched in the air-conditioned room and began to talk about herself.

"You know, until a little while ago, I was really lost about my future. When I was a child, I wanted to help my father and mother rebuild the inn, but once the inn actually got back on track, my dream came true, and suddenly I didn't know what I wanted to do anymore."

"...Up until then, you were just so overwhelmed with reality that you didn't have any other choices."

"I suppose so. Just as Marika was getting older, I started hearing whispers from people around us about which of us would become the next landlady... I started thinking about all sorts of things regarding my future, but whenever I did—"

Kiyoko looked down.

"Whenever you did?"

"Strangely enough, the face of the elementary school Kouya-kun would always pop into my head."

"..."

"I found myself wondering... I wonder if Kouya-kun is doing well? I wonder what he's doing right now? We hadn't contacted each other in so long, I wondered if he had completely forgotten about me."

"...Sorry, I totally forgot."

"I figured as much."

Kiyoko smiled wryly at the boy who confessed with such a grave expression.

Then, subduing her laughter, she continued.

"It was right around that time that Jurou-ojisama happened to call us."

"My grandpa did?"

"Yes. It was to let us know that an acquaintance of my father's in Tokyo had passed away."

"Now that you mention it, Grandpa did pull out his mourning clothes a while back."

It was right at the beginning of summer vacation when they had taken his grandfather's mourning clothes—which he had left sitting out for months—to the dry cleaners along with their school uniforms.

The frantic panic that ensued afterward over the romance fulfillment charm left in his pocket was also quite the memory.

"Jurou-ojisama called the landline, so I ended up talking to him for a while."

"With my grandpa?"

"Yes. Jurou-ojisama seemed to know about the rumors of our inn's succession dispute, and he was terribly worried. And as we were updating each other on our lives and chatting, the topic naturally shifted to you, Kouya-kun."

"..."

"As we were talking, for some reason, I just overwhelmingly wanted to see you—"

Quietly looking down, the girl from Kyoto spoke of that moment matter-of-factly.

"I remembered how, a long time ago, you told me to come to you if things got too hard. And the very next second, my mind was made up. I was going to Tokyo... I was going to go to Kouya-kun. Before I even realized it, caught up in the momentum of the moment, I had already told Jurou-ojisama over the phone that I was planning to transfer to a high school in Tokyo."

"Wait, what? You decided to transfer on a whim while you were literally still on the phone?!"

As Kouya stared at her in utter shock, Kiyoko nodded, looking slightly embarrassed.

"I did. Even though absolutely nothing was finalized yet, before I knew it, I had blurted out that I was transferring."

"You can't say 'before I knew it' when it was your own mouth!"

"It felt as if my head and my mouth were completely disconnected. I hadn't thought about it even the slightest bit until that very moment, but the second you crossed my mind, Kouya-kun, my mouth just said, 'I'm transferring to a high school in Asakusa' without me even realizing it. I suppose you could say I was driven by pure emotion."

"Didn't Grandpa think that was weird as hell?!"

"He knew about the succession dispute, so he seemed to think it was a good idea..."

"...He completely misunderstood."

"He did."

"Doesn't he still misunderstand?!"

"He knows Marika came to visit, so it's fine. I'm sure he thinks everything is resolved now."

"I can't believe you kept quiet about something that huge until now, seriously."

"Well, you didn't remember a thing, Kouya-kun."

"Okay, yeah, that part's on me."

Since he was undeniably at fault on that front, Kouya couldn't argue back.

Kiyoko herself was still astounded by her own impulsiveness and how quickly she had made the decision.

Once her mind was made up, things moved incredibly fast.

As if the endless agonizing over her future had been a lie, in just a matter of hours, Shizuishi Kiyoko had gathered information on high schools she could transfer to, requested application forms as fast as possible, and processed the paperwork at lightning speed.

Before anyone around her even had time to stop her, she had arrived in Tokyo just like that.

Going to the place she wanted to be was actually that simple.

This is what I should have done from the very beginning. That day in May—the day she knocked on the door of Torame Jurou's house—she had felt a sense of clarity, an unbelievable feeling of liberation, as if a heavy weight had finally been lifted.

It felt as though a brand new life was beginning.

Looking back now, that day in May when she started living with Kouya felt like an eternity ago.

It almost created the illusion that she had been living in the Torame household for a very long time.

That was just how comfortable she felt here.

Kiyoko stepped away from the kitchen and walked over to the living room window.

The now entirely familiar streets of Asakusa stretched out beyond the glass.

"After the phone call with Jurou-ojisama, I submitted my application, took the exam, and completed the paperwork without thinking too deeply about it, and by the time I was finished as fast as humanly possible, it was already May."

"...So that's why you transferred at such a weird time."

Kouya finally understood why Kiyoko had transferred right after Golden Week, a full month after the new school term started.

The truth was, she had impulsively decided to transfer with zero planning whatsoever, and simply hadn't made it in time for the start of the term in April.

Regardless, her ability to take action was honestly terrifying.

However, according to her own words, Kiyoko coming to Tokyo was entirely the result of the irresponsible nonsense Kouya had spouted on a whim when they were kids.

To think that the words of a child, spoken without a shred of responsibility, had fundamentally altered her life nearly a decade later... Kouya couldn't help but feel a little responsible.

"...Kiyoko-san, if I hadn't said that irresponsible crap back then, would you never have come to Tokyo?"

Feeling the heavy burden of knowing his words had moved her life, Kouya asked.

"I wonder," she answered vaguely.

"I... I mean, I'm glad you're here, Kiyoko-san."

Looking away, Kouya mumbled the words softly.

Yeah, that was right. He didn't want Kiyoko to go back to Kyoto.

He didn't want her—Shizuishi Kiyoko—to disappear from this house, or from his sight.

The boy was now acutely, undeniably aware of that fact.

Still gazing at the city outside the window, Kiyoko's lips suddenly softened into a smile.

"When I was a little girl, Kouya-kun... after you went home, I cried for a very long time."

"...Yeah, seriously, my bad about the whole letter thing."

"But I'm not a child anymore."

Without a moment's hesitation, Kiyoko threw the window wide open.

"I'm not a child anymore, which means I can chase after you anywhere, all on my own. —So I'm saying goodbye to that summer day when I cried."

The unforgiving heat of the midsummer metropolis poured in through the open window, instantly blowing away every last ounce of Kouya's sentimentality.

"Hey, don't open the window when the AC is running!!"

As the boy scowled and complained, Kiyoko giggled softly.

"So stingy. And here I was just trying to set the mood."

"I'm saving electricity!"

"You really are stingy. Not a single shred of romance in you."

Kiyoko laughed.

"But you know, Kiyoko-san, you actually like being with me, don't you?"

In a desperate counterattack, half-joking, Kouya threw the words back at her.

"I suppose so. I must really quite like being with you, Kouya-kun."

Leaning against the window frame, Kiyoko admitted it without a hint of hesitation.

"..."

As Kouya stood there entirely taken aback, Shizuishi Kiyoko offered the boy from Asakusa a genuine smile—completely different from the sociable, polite smile she reserved for customers—and whispered:

"Kouya-kun... won't you take responsibility for making me say my true feelings?"

And with that, the summer ended.