Three years after that fateful day, Hodaka has returned to Tokyo. Fresh out of high school, he now lives alone in a tiny apartment, and he's finally reunited with Hina—the girl he once risked everything for.
Hina is no longer the "sunshine girl." She's just an ordinary high school student, living peacefully with her younger brother Nagi. They see each other almost every day—shopping for groceries, cooking meals together, laughing over nothing. But something's stuck between them. They still have
After the Clear Skies - A weekend at rock bottom, you are me.
The air clung to him.
It had been raining for three days straight. No, maybe longer. Hodaka couldn't really tell anymore.
Inside the Daily Shore Tabata North Exit convenience store, the peculiar stillness unique to late-night hours filled the space. The low buzz of fluorescent lights. The footsteps of the other part-timer moving somewhere beyond the shelves. The faint vibration the refrigerated cases gave off now and then. All of it felt impossibly distant.
Hodaka looked down at the product in his hands. A carton of milk. He was trying to line it up on the snack aisle shelf, without a trace of hesitation.
(*Wrong.*)
Somewhere in his head, a voice spoke.
(*That's not right.*)
But his body wouldn't move. His arms slowly pushed the milk carton in next to a bag of potato chips. The crinkle of the bag rubbing against it. *What am I doing right now?* No — *Am I even here right now?* He thought about it, vaguely.
"[cold]Hodaka-kun."
Before he knew it, the store manager, Miyake-san, was standing right behind him. Expressionless, he was looking at Hodaka's hands. The milk carton, shelved haphazardly. Miyake said nothing, just grabbed the milk and returned it to the refrigerated case. A silent reprimand delivered with his back. Hodaka stared at that back for a while. His gaze wouldn't focus.
(*Ah. I'm*)
*useless.*
In his pocket, the corner of his phone pressed against his thigh. That sensation felt heavy.
There had been no reply from Hina for a long time now. At some point, the messages had even stopped showing as read.
*"Go home."*
That sunken voice clung to his ears, tangled up with the sound of the rain. Deep inside his left ear, her voice echoed, over and over.
Closing time came to an end. Still silent, Miyake pressed a cold can of coffee into Hodaka's hand.
"……Sorry."
His voice was hoarse.
Miyake just gave a slight nod and disappeared into the back office. Hodaka stared at the coffee can in his hand for a while. Droplets of condensation traced down his fingers. Cold. It felt like his own body heat was being sucked into the can.
He wanted to apologize, but he didn't know how. He wanted to get closer, but he couldn't take that first step. Every time he moved, he hurt Hina. With the blade called "protection," he was cutting her to pieces.
If that was how it was, then maybe—
Hodaka gripped the coffee can tightly. Hard, and cold. That temperature alone was what kept him tethered to reality.
He walked home through the rain to his apartment, Corpo Urata. Forty-two years old, a two-story wooden building. Even his footsteps climbing the stairs felt heavy. He opened the door to his room. Damp, musty air.
Without even taking off his shoes, he collapsed onto the tatami.
The grain of the ceiling looked blurry.
(*What should I have done?*)
The question, unanswered, was swallowed up by the ceiling.
How long had he been like that?
A violent banging knock echoed through the room.
"[angry]Hodaka-san! You're in there, right? Open up!"
It was Nagi's voice.
Hodaka couldn't move.
"I'm opening it! I swear!"
*Click.* The door, which he hadn't locked, flew open with force. There stood Amano Nagi, still in his school uniform. His slightly long black hair was wet from the rain. His large eyes fixed on Hodaka, sprawled on the tatami.
"[sarcastic]……You're the worst."
Nagi let out an exaggerated sigh, then let himself in. The floor littered with snack crumbs, the mountain of unwashed clothes. Nagi looked around the room, his mouth twisted.
"[sarcastic]So this is what they call a pigsty."
Hodaka couldn't say anything back. He just stared up at Nagi, dazed.
Nagi sat down next to him. He sat cross-legged and lifted his chin just a little. Silence filled the room. Only the sound of the rain could be heard, faintly.
"[serious]My sister, you know."
Nagi spoke, quietly.
"[serious]Today at school, she made the same calculation mistake three times."
Hodaka's gaze shifted to Nagi.
"[serious]She said three years' worth of airheadedness hit her all at once."
Nagi tried to force a laugh, but he couldn't quite manage it. The corners of his mouth stayed tense, only his voice hanging in the air.
"[serious]Hodaka-san, why are you staying away when you like her? You're both so clumsy, I can't stand to watch."
Nagi's voice was trembling. He wasn't yelling, wasn't lecturing. Just the honest feelings of a tired middle schooler, laid bare.
"[whispers]This is as far as my mediating goes."
Those words pierced deep, deep into the center of Hodaka's chest. Hina was hurting too. Just like him. Because he had hurt her. That fact was so unbearably heavy that Hodaka couldn't breathe. The back of his throat tightened. He tried to inhale, but couldn't do it properly.
There was no way he could say anything back.
Nagi stood up.
"[serious]……And, here."
He tapped at his phone and forwarded a message to Hodaka's phone.
"[serious]Kirishima-san has business with you. She said to come alone."
Leaving those words behind, Nagi disappeared through the door. His rough footsteps descended the stairs. The footsteps grew fainter, and eventually melted into the sound of the rain.
Silence returned to the room.
Hodaka lifted his heavy body. He looked at his phone. A message from Miu. *"I'll be waiting at the Solamachi Rooftop Plaza this weekend. There's something I want to talk about."* Amidst her usual logical phrasing, he felt like he could detect a faint tremor.
He knew he had to go. Even if it was a conversation that would push him even further into the abyss.
Under the overcast sky, the Solamachi Rooftop Plaza was terribly bleak. The benches were darkened with rain, and only the tomatoes in the planter garden were an incongruously vivid red.
Miu was leaning against the railing, looking up at the sky. Her short bobbed hair swayed in the faint breeze. She wasn't wearing her usual aggressive researcher's face. Her profile looked small, like a lost child.
Miu didn't turn around at the sound of Hodaka's approaching footsteps.
"[serious]You came."
"[cold]……What do you want to talk about?"
Hodaka stood beside her. Keeping a little distance.
Miu was unconsciously touching the blue glass bead bracelet on her left wrist. She let go of the railing and took a deep breath.
"[serious]Three years ago. The day of the Great Flood."
Her voice trembled, just a little.
"[serious]I had a best friend named Yuki. At the time, she was living in what's now the Shitamachi semi-submerged zone."
Miu paused there. A small gesture, as if something was caught in her throat.
"[whispers]I got a call from Yuki. 'The water's right up to my house. I'm scared. Come.' There was a voicemail message, of her crying."
Hodaka listened in silence.
"[whispers]But I…… was so absorbed in emergency processing of meteorological data, I didn't notice until six hours later."
Miu's fingers gripped the railing tightly. Her slender fingers turned white.
"[whispers]When I called back, the phone wouldn't connect anymore. Yuki's house was a total loss. Her family evacuated without even being able to take their belongings, straight to relatives in Saitama. I haven't heard her voice once since then."
Wind swept across the rooftop.
"[angry]So that's why you tried to research Hina's power."
His voice dropped low.
"[sad]……Yes."
Miu hung her head.
"[sad]I thought if I could elucidate the cause of the rain through research, I could atone, even a little, for my sin against Yuki. I thought the me who couldn't go help her that day could be forgiven, just a bit. Hina-san's power was the fastest route to that."
Her voice choked up for the first time.
"[crying]But it wasn't. That wasn't for Yuki. I just…… wanted to make myself feel better."
Tears spilled quietly from Miu's eyes. It was exactly the same crying face Hina had shown — the face of someone about to be crushed by guilt.
(*Ah.*)
Hodaka caught his breath. Something pounded violently deep in his chest. The sound of his own heart was terribly loud.
(*She's me.*)
He had convinced himself that he could only erase his sins by protecting. While saying he would protect Hina, the truth was, he just couldn't forgive himself for making her fight alone three years ago. To avert his eyes from his own weakness, he had bound Hina with the word "protect." Miu and he were no different at all.
"[whispers]……You."
Hodaka spoke with a hoarse voice.
"[whispers]You're me."
His own voice echoed deep in his ears, as if it didn't belong to him. His throat burned hot. He gritted his teeth and endured the sour thing rising from the pit of his stomach.
Miu looked up. Her tear-swollen eyes gazed at Hodaka. Those eyes widened, just a little, in surprise. They had been enemies. The thing to protect, and the cause of research. He had thought those two would never intersect.
But now, surely, beneath their feet, the same single bridge was being built.
For a while, the two of them stood side by side in silence, looking up at the cloudy sky.
"[whispers]……What do you plan to say to Hina-san, to apologize?"
After a heavy silence, Miu asked quietly.
"[sad]……I still don't know."
Hodaka answered immediately. There was no way he could know.
"[sad]……I see."
Miu gave a small nod.
"[sad]I also came up with eighteen different ways to apologize to Yuki, and scrapped all of them."
"……You're clumsy too, huh."
When Hodaka muttered this, sounding exasperated, Miu looked slightly offended.
"[sarcastic]Not as much as you."
The corners of both their mouths relaxed, just a tiny bit. They weren't close enough yet to laugh together. But they no longer hated each other.
There was someone just like him. That fact dropped a small, truly small seed of courage into Hodaka's chest.
Descending from the Solamachi rooftop, Hodaka walked the road back to Tabata alone.
The rain was still falling.
In his pocket, he gripped his phone. He opened the LINE chat screen with Hina. The last message was still from ages ago. He typed "I'm sorry," then deleted it again.
He still didn't know how to apologize, or how to get closer.
But it was a little different from the pitch-black despair with no exit that he'd felt until just a moment ago.
(*As long as I kept saying I'd protect her, Hina was always going to be a sinner.*)
Hodaka leaned against the railing of the elevated walkway on the Ukishima Connecting Bridge. The submerged townscape, hazy in the gray drizzle. His "protection" had been the key that locked her in a cage. Now, he understood that painfully well.
—That was when it happened.
Far away in the rain-covered sky, the clouds parted, just for an instant. Through the gap, a faint light, lasting only a few seconds, fell onto the water's surface of the submerged city. It wasn't a sign of clear skies. Just a chance gleam.
Hodaka, still gripping the railing, stared at that light. Not breaking into a run, not crying, just standing there, rooted to the spot. The light vanished soon after.
What did it mean to stand beside her as an equal? How could he get her to lay down that cross? Such words spun around and around in his head.
But not a single word came to him to grasp that answer. It was like black mud had pooled deep in his chest.
Slowly, Hodaka let go of the railing. And then he started walking again. Just one step, and then another.
The rain kept falling. There was no sign of it stopping anywhere.
Novelia is an AI-powered platform where you can create and read original light novels and fan-fiction, and chat with the characters as if they were real. Stories update daily, and you can start reading and creating for free.