Battle Royale

Shinji stared back at Yutaka and then looked up at the cluster of branches above them. He wasn't surprised by Yutaka's sudden emotional outburst, though it wasn't part of with his clownish persona. Here was another side of Yutaka. That's why they'd been friends for so long. But—

"I don't care if I die. What else can I do for Izumi now?"

I wonder what it's like to feel that way about a girl, Shinji wondered as he stared at the olive-colored layer of tree leaves shining brilliantly in the direct sunlight. He had dated girls and slept with three in fact (not bad for a junior high kid, huh?), but he'd never felt that way about a girl the way Yutaka did.

Maybe it had something to do with his parents not getting along. His father saw another woman. (Apparently he was an excellent bureaucrat, but though it might have been presumptuous for his kid to be saying this, he was a vile man. It was unbelievable he could be the brother of Shinji's uncle, who radiated brilliance.) His mother couldn't hold anything against his father, and so whether it was flower arrangement or a women's group, she went from one hobby to another, lost in her own world. They had normal conversations. They did what was necessary. But they didn't trust each other, and they didn't help each other. Their mutual disgust accumulated as they grew older....Well maybe that was what most parents were like.

Meanwhile...ever since Shinji Mimura became his school's star basketball player, he got popular with the girls— so going out with them was easy. Kissing them was easy. Then after a while sleeping with them was easy too. But...he never fell in love with anyone.

Regrettably he had no opportunity to bring this up with his uncle who always had the right answer for everything. It only concerned him recently, and it was already two years since his uncle's death.

The earring on Shinji's left ear came from him. His uncle always had it with him. He told Shinji, "The woman I loved wore this. She died a long time ago though." It was one of Shinji's prized possessions. After his uncle's death, he took it as a keepsake without anyone's permission. He could hear his uncle saying, "You'll end up becoming jaded at that rate. It's not a bad thing to love someone and be loved by someone. Hurry up and find yourself a nice girl."

But he still never found someone he could really fall for.

He remembered how his precocious sister, Ikumi, who was three years younger than him, asked, "Do you want a romantic marriage or an arranged marriage?" and how he'd answered, "I may end up not getting married at all."

Ikumi. Shinji thought of his sister. I hope you fall in love with someone nice and have a good marriage. I might end up dying without knowing what it's like to be in love.

Shinji looked back at Yutaka. "Can I ask you something, Yutaka? I'll apologize in advance if it sounds offensive."

Yutaka looked blankly at him. "What is it?"

"What was so great about Izumi?"

Yutaka stared at Shinji and then his tear-drenched face broke into a smile. Maybe this would be his way of offering his bouquet of flowers to the dead.

"I don't know how to say it, but she was so pretty."

"Pretty?" Shinji repeated, then quickly added, "I mean, I'm not saying she wasn't."

Izumi Kanai, well, she wasn't a dog for sure, but as far as pretty girls went, there was Takako Chigusa (oh, I guess she's my type), Sakura Ogawa (well, she had Kazuhiko Yamamoto, and those two are gone), and Mitsuko Souma (well, she's out of the question, no matter how pretty she is).

Yutaka then smiled a little again and said, "When she looked drowsy and rested her cheeks on her hands, she was pretty."

And then he continued, "When she was watering flowers by the classroom window, the way she touched the leaves, she was pretty."

"When she dropped the baton at the annual field day and burst into tears afterwards, she was pretty."

"When she was hanging out during our breaks, listening to Yuka Nakagawa, holding her stomach as she burst out laughing, she was so pretty." Ah.

As he listened to these observations, Shinji suddenly felt like he totally understood. Yutaka's observations didn't explain anything, but it felt right. Hey Uncle, I think I actually might begin to understand what this is all about.

When Yutaka was done speaking he looked at Shinji.

Shinji looked at him kindly and tilted his head slightly. Then he grinned.

"I thought you'd become a comedian when you grew up but now I think you could be a poet."

Yutaka smiled too.

Then Shinji said, "Hey."

"What?"

"I don't know how to say this, but I think Izumi's really happy to know that someone loves her that much. She's probably crying right now up there in heaven."

Compared to Yutaka's poetic observations, his words sounded cheap, but he had to say it. But now Yutaka's eyes began to well up with tears again. The tears flowed down his cheeks again. They formed several white stripes on his cheeks.

"You think?" Yutaka replied, all choked up.