Chapter 10: In a dark wagon Part 2
Translator: Soafp
The inside of the van is dim and cramped.
Where am I? The car seems to be parked somewhere in the mountains. The overwhelming smell of cigarettes makes it hard to breathe. Neither my mother nor father is here to rely on. And inside, I'm a small child, stripped naked. I press my small hands against the window, shouting outside. The cool, emotionless sensation of the window glass reaches my hands. Beyond the window, there's my little brother, now a third-year middle school student. I'm calling for Kai-chan. Help me. Please, help me…
…Ah, this is that dream again. Haa, it's this dream again. Even though I realize this, I still pound my hands against the window as always. …But then, clank, clank. …Huh? That's not the sound of my hands hitting the window. It sounds like something hard—like a stone or metal—striking it. I feel something strange in my left hand, and that's when I notice for the first time that I'm holding something. I slowly open my hand to look. A black handle with a round, swirling emblem… the car key with the Toyota emblem.
“What… is this?”
“What do you think it is?”
Kai-chan asks, turning around as I absentmindedly speak out.
“Eek!”
I scream involuntarily.
Kai-chan's eyes… are empty.
“Why do you think that is?”
“Kai-chan… what's wrong with your eyes?”
“Why do you think that is?”
“Why are you making that face?”
“Why do you think that is?”
Kai-chan, with his empty eye sockets, keeps asking in a flat voice, over and over.
“Why are you so… angry?”
“Why do you think that is?”
I'm getting more and more scared, and I pull my hand away from the window.
The sound stops.
The temperature around me starts to drop.
“Why do you think that is?”
“Do you hate me?”
“Why do you think that is?”
“Why did you die?”
“Why do you think that is?”
I'm naked. My breath is white, and I can't stop trembling.
Even though it's supposed to be spring, the window is cold enough to be covered in condensation.
Even though it's supposed to be spring, frost is forming around Kai-chan.
And then… I blurt out the one thing I didn't want to know.
“Is it… my fault that Kai-chan died?”
The moment I asked that—
Thud.
As always, the ground beneath me disappears, and my most precious little brother vanishes before my eyes.
“Kai-chan!”
My little brother in his pink dress shrinks rapidly and falls headfirst onto the concrete beside the bushes.
Thud.
A loud, dull sound echoes, loud enough to reach even the van.
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