Epilogue—Then, after a week.
That guy had lied before and his existence was so vague that in the end we still didn"t know who he was, but what he said about there being no aftermath was true. Nagase did not experience any side effects and went back to school immediately. A letter was directly thrown into her mailbox at home. The money for her medical fees was inside it—«Fuusenkazura» sure took detailed care of remedial measures. (Although Gotou mentioned in a cla.s.s meeting a few days later, "I obviously remembered that I didn"t withdraw money, but when I looked at my bank savings some of my money was gone... What do you think? Does this mean I fell victim to some kind of fraud? Should I call the police?" But the Cultural Research Club decided to completely neglect what he said)
"At least «Fuusenkazura» didn"t have malicious intent towards us. Or maybe he is not a bad guy"—Taichi though and honestly said. But Inaba scolded him, "Your optimism is so embarra.s.sing!"
In the end, they finally escaped from the turbulence that has been affecting their lives since Nagase entered the hospital. And today was the start of a new week of club activities that the Cultural Research Club missed so badly. Activities, however, were not amazing or terrific things.
After school, Taichi was on duty to clean the cla.s.sroom. After he finished, he packed up his things and headed to the fourth floor of the recreational building. The other members should have already gathered there, right?
Hereafter, there were no "personality exchanges".
Though strange, when we try to remember what happened, what was stained in our minds during the personality exchange was very little. I don"t understand; it was an abnormal phenomenon after all... Or I might as well say that as time pa.s.ses, even though it did occur, it gradually faded away since it was a bit deviated from reality. It seemed like everything had happened in our dreams.
But some more important things had happened that were more important to me.
The world of the Cultural Research Club members changed.
The personality exchange was like a storm to us, exposing our agonies one by one. Nevertheless, some agonies that seemed terribly huge, when exposed to the outside, might be discovered to be unexpectedly small and insignificant.
Even every insignificant person could handle such problems.
Of course, you might get hurt, and may not have a guarantee of winning.
But problems that exist in someone insignificant should be smaller and more insignificant, right? This is what I mean.
But to stand up and fight—to confront, accept, and to think about it, certainly is not something that can be done with ease.
It will be too hard to do by yourself.
It will be too hard if there are no opportunities.
But, even if it will be hard, if we can do it—
The worlds of the insignificant five could change, and change to anything they wished.
Problems might still exist, and matters might not be eradicated from the roots.
For example, Taichi, who has a personality to sacrifice himself for others, hadn"t changed at all... Of course, this was because this was a personality that existed inside of him, so I guess this would not change.
But, if we confront the problem...
During the phenomenon, the Cultural Research Club members experienced a lot of things among them, and a lot of things had changed. Those things are irreversible.
But should we say that it was fortune or misfortune? At least in what Taichi saw, no one changed for the worse. They managed to do this.
That was because all of them were here and none of them were absent... This was something the five managed to do.
Compared to the past, Inaba looked gentler.
Compared to her past, Kiriyama looked more active in finding boys to chat with.
Compared to his past, Aoki looked smarter.
As for Nagase... Because she was too embarra.s.sed after the incident, we didn"t look at each other in the eyes and chat.
More importantly, Taichi was now extremely antic.i.p.ating the gatherings with the members in the clubroom. A lot had happened, but only if the five could get together and smile... maybe it would be okay from now on. Taichi couldn"t help but think like this.
To think like this was already a treasure; and this treasure represented everything.
Today, would Inaba still get angry at trivial things and resort to violence?
Today, would Kiriyama still become red, shout, and stagger when she is teased by "your reaction is the most interesting"?
Today, would Aoki be treated undoubtedly as the idiot and play as this role like a professional?
Today, would Nagase wilfully and incessantly act foolishly whether it was planned or not?
So, it was time to seriously undergo our club activities—to make an article that completely shows our interests!
Although Taichi believed it in his heart, at the same time he knew that today wouldn"t go too well. Was it because of everyone"s glee? He also actually wished that they would frolic a bit more.
Go, what lies ahead of me is the door to the clubroom!
My view was pretty good.
If I were to say something that I was still pondering about, it would be Inaba using an unimaginable cruel smile to say, "I heard from Iori. You... seemed to have stolen my first kiss. How do you think you should compensate for my loss... Fufufufu."
The compensation should not kill me... or so I wished.