You Shine in the Moonlit Night +Fragments
Author: Sano Tetsuya (佐野徹夜)
Translations: Ren
Please only read these translations at (inkraintl @ WordPress); if you are reading this on another website, then you are reading stolen/copied content.
Watarase Mamizu is a girl suffering from the incurable Luminescence disease and it was my duty to complete her "List of Things I Want to Do Before I Die," in her place at her request.
Because Mamizu can"t leave her hospital room, I was checking off her list one by one in her place. Then, I would tell her what happened and my impressions of the experience. That"s what my days have been like recently.
Not all of the things she wanted to do before she dies were serious things— there were a lot of ridiculous requests as well. For example, one of her requests was, "I want to see my divorcee father." It was quite a serious request and a heavy burden. In comparison, things like going bungee-jumping and other silly wishes were much easier to accomplish. That"s what I thought, as I didn"t think such requests were unreasonable.
Several months had pa.s.sed since I met Mamizu in April.
I had more free time once it became summer, and with that, the number of things Mamizu wanted to do before she dies increased as well.
I felt a little nervous as I entered a beauty parlor in town that I booked an appointment at. It was a different shop from the one near my house. It was a little embarra.s.sing to do. If it went well, I would never go back to that beauty parlor ever again.
・I want to go to a beauty salon, point at the cover of a magazine and say, "Please make me the same as this person."
This is pretty silly to be honest. Is this what she really wants to do before she dies? Isn"t she just messing around with me? I thought.
So, I went to a beauty parlor I had never been to. The atmosphere inside was different from the one I always went to.
It might"ve been a mistake to make an appointment online without looking it up first.
Firstly, it was s.p.a.cious. There was enough s.p.a.ce for ten people to get their hair cut. The number of people working was also unimaginably great. I couldn"t tell at a glance how many people there were in all, but there seemed to be about ten people at work. It felt quite different compared to the privately-owned salon I usually go to because there were more than three people.
In addition, it was a stylish salon. The interior, which gave off a meticulous feeling, was organized in rows. But it wasn"t just the interior— the staff also had a youthful and stylish air about them. There were many young women among the customers as well. Overall, it had a refined atmosphere.
Even though I don"t really care, even though such stores exist…… Is this a store where not just anyone can enter at this time? I"m regretting this decision a little bit.
I was led to a chair in front of a mirror and told to wait for a moment. At that time, I was handed a magazine, so I flipped through it. The photo of a stylish model came into my view.
"h.e.l.lo. What kind of look would you like to go for today?" I quickly raised my eyes. Looking over at the mirror, there was a hairdresser with a brown hair and a frizzy perm behind me. I compared his clothes to mine. They were somewhat similar. I was wearing a plain pocket T-shirt from MUJI. However, unlike the cheap clothes that I was wearing, the clothes worn by the other party felt like they were cut and sewn. When fashionable people wear T-shirts, they"re probably cut and sewn. I felt a bit unhappy and lost my confidence.
Although I wanted to say, "I just remembered I have some errands to do, so is it alright if I go home?" I managed to stopped thinking about it and made up my mind to stay.
"The same as this, please."
Without taking a good look at the magazine I was holding, I pointed at the man on the cover. Fortunately, his hair was also black and wasn"t in a strange hairstyle.
"Ah, okay. I got it."
Is it just my imagination, or does it seem like he"s laughing at me?
……It"s probably just my imagination, I thought.
After shampooing my hair, he started making small talk with me. I didn"t want to keep digging my grave, so I cut off the conversation by saying, "I"ve been getting into meditation lately, so I"m going to meditate now." I closed my eyes and let my hair be cut at his mercy. I didn"t want to open my eyes.
"Done," he called out to me in less than an hour. I was afraid to open my eyes.
"……Huh, it looks pretty normal."
I felt disappointed and compared the model"s photo to my hairstyle. You could say that it was similar. Well, it was similar. Although I couldn"t say that it was completely different…… there was something different about it as well.
But I couldn"t put into words what it was that was different. However, it didn"t have an aura. It didn"t have a stylish and refined aura at all.
"Though it didn"t really change, well, it"s like that."
What is that supposed mean? I thought, but I couldn"t muster up the energy to reply. After the haircut, he applied a wax that I usually didn"t wear but it still didn"t feel like anything had changed. I paid ￥4500 with the discount for first online reservations and left the beauty parlor.
Please only read these translations at
As I entered the hospital room as usual, Mamizu was writing something in her notebook. I remembered that the notebook was where she was putting together her "List of Things I Want to Do Before I Die."
"Did you already think of something new?" I initiated conversation with her even though I was growing tired of it.
"Welcome, Takuykun."
Mamizu took a quick glance over at me and turned her attention back to the notebook in an engrossed manner.
"Do you notice anything?" I continued talking to her while I touched my hair. I couldn"t get used to the sticky feeling of the wax.
"Hm……?" She showed some sociability and reluctantly raised her face from the notebook to take a look at me.
"Do you think there"s something different than usual?"
"Something different, you say……? Ah, did your blood type change?"
"That can"t be changed."
It appeared that she hadn"t noticed the change in my hairstyle at all.
"Well, it can change if you get a bone marrow transplant though, you know."
"I didn"t need to know that kind of information at all……" I replied in disgust. As I said this, Mamizu suddenly got out of bed as if she had realized something. In surprise, she looked askance in my direction, stood on the tip of her toes, raised her head and stared at me.
"What is it?"
The distance between us grew closer. Maybe it was because I tried to hide it due to my bashfulness, it became harder for me to say what it was than I intended.
"Takuykun, did you grow taller?"
I began to feel exhausted, as if my knees were going to give out. I stopped myself from saying, "Do you not remember what you said?" This was something that I could only explain by myself, and it would just become a more miserable pattern otherwise.
"Of course you"re growing. You"re still in your growth period."
Upon saying this, Mamizu extended the palm of her hand to see my height difference. "Someday, I won"t be able to catch up with my hand." She held down her fingers from the index finger to the ring finger and showed me the distance between her thumb and pinky, which were still upright. "You"ll probably keep growing even after I"m gone," she said, fluttering her hand about like a b.u.t.terfly.
"What will you do at that time, Takuykun?"
"……I"d play basketball if I grew like that," I replied, while I thought that I didn"t particularly long to grow to a great height