3

“Well, if it isn’t Asukai-san! Let me guess––you ran out of salt, yeah?” Kishida Machiko, who ran the general store at the base of the mountain, broke into a smile at her unexpected customer.

“Actually, I thought I might stock up on a bit of food.” Asukai Jin unloaded the rucksack he was carrying onto the floor. It would be full on the way back.

“That reminds me! You know that picture of yours I’ve been holding onto? It finally sold the other day. It amazes me how simple pencil drawings on sketch paper like that can sell!”

“You don’t say. That’s great news,” said Asukai, starting to rummage through the canned food on the shelves.

“Err, so, how much do I owe you again?” Machiko attempted to hand over the chit, but Asukai was insistent.

“No, no, that was my gift to you. There’s no need to waste your money on me.”

“Even so… You’ve got to assert yourself when it comes to these things. I suppose you probably don’t concern yourself with them much, being an artist.”

Machiko didn’t want to just treat Asukai as a shopkeeper would a customer. She’d rather take care of him on a more personal level, as Asukai the “young artist”. Asukai laughed, brushing off her comment.

“Well then, please make today’s purchase free of charge. That’ll do.”

“I still don’t think that would be enough, personally… Don’t you want to know how much it sold for? Is that something you artist types don’t have an interest in?”

“No, they say that the likes of Picasso, for example, were extremely particular about how much they wanted their paintings to sell for. I don’t think it was out of material need, but because they wanted to know to what extent their art would be acknowledged from a societal perspective.”

Asukai spoke gently, without the slightest trace of disdain. He had a worldly way of putting things––at least, that’s the impression he gave––and he was particularly good at it.

“An artist, in themselves, is a useless individual who doesn’t create a thing. The point where they first acquire meaning is when someone forms an interest in them. And money happens to be a convenient medium, being the most popular known commodity.”

“…Oookay. But how are you any different?”

“Oh, I’m no different. It’s just that where I am now, I haven’t yet grasped my own art. It would be problematic if I were to rush ahead and have myself evaluated now.”

“Huh. Not easy, is it?” Machiko was deeply impressed.

“But I am essentially a cheapskate, and here’s the evidence,” said Asukai, indicating the products lined up at the register. There were many times the usual amount.

“So you do have a good head on those shoulders! Well, at least there’s that,” chuckled Machiko. “Oh, that’s right!”

She stood up midway through working the cash register and vanished into the back of the shop. She and her husband’s house lay beyond. She reappeared a little later with a box. A box of confectionery, to be precise.

“Here, give this a try as well.”

“What is it?”

“It’s cake, dear! Given to me as a gift at a wedding ceremony the other day. I swear to you, it is de-licious.”

“Are you sure?”

“I was there with the hubby, so we got landed with two of the same!”

“Haha, I see.”

Asukai lifted the beautifully wrapped package that held the square sponge cake in his hand. His eyes caught the name of the maker printed on it, and he let out a small gasp. Only a short time ago had he heard the name come up in conversation.

Looks like I found myself a good souvenir.

He smiled and turned to Machiko.

“Fantastic. I’ll take it. How much will that be?” he asked. Machiko laughed.

“I’m not taking your money! Besides, it was never on sale to begin with.”

“Well then, allow me to take it off your hands.”

Asukai gathered his luggage and headed back up the mountain.

* * * * *

“………”

In the forest outside the lodge, Tosuke sat focusing his mind in deep contemplation. He didn’t really need to meditate specifically, but it was something Kigawa Norisuke used to do. So, he thought to imitate him.

He was working hard to try and grasp the feeling in his chest, which had up until now only been a vague “something,” as a more concrete emotion.

He was sparring… and his partners were his memories of the people he’d met up to this point.

He distinctly recalled the pain that they’d placed on him. It was as if, once it was impressed upon him, it left an indelible mark. Which is why Tosuke was able to reflect on it as clear as day, even if he didn’t try particularly hard to recall it.

“If you can capture it as I do, as a concrete “flower”-like image, your sense of it will all come together,” Asukai Jin had explained to him when they were contrasting their powers, but as Tosuke had no powers of visualization, he gave up on this.

What Tosuke was attempting was to identify pain directly as a flavor of ice cream.

Until now, He’d only made these conclusions on an individual level––a certain flavor for a certain pain; however, Tosuke had also been constantly working, to the very best of his abilities, on making ice cream for many people at once. He was fairly confident that he could roughly work out his issue without needing to examine and test-test anything.

If he could point to a single flavor of ice cream, he might able to interact with the people with whom he’d formerly had awkward interactions with a bit better in the same stroke. He was always feeling their pain, after all…

In the same stroke … That’s right. I’ve been slacking off on that until now.

Such were his thoughts after having listened to Asukai. It occurred to him that, compared to the effort Jin had been making, everything he’d been doing up until now was effortless. He’d been relying too heavily on the gratification he felt when people like Kigawa Norisuke, Teratsuki Kyouichirou and Furukita Sonoko tasted his ice cream, and had never tried to understand who he truly was.

And so, for the first time in his life, he was thinking of himself. He who shared no common skin color with any other; he who was different from others.

He’d made a lot of ice cream, but now he wondered what sort of ice cream he would personally enjoy.

What would that be…?

Various ideas floated into his head, but everything that came to mind was for other people. This one was suited to her. That one is meant for him.

Perhaps it was his number one specialty, the peppermint flavor? The flavor that he’d continued to make despite the fact that Kigawa Norisuke wasn’t very fond of it?

But no, that didn’t seem to fit either. He even felt like that was meant for someone else. But again…who that someone else was, he didn’t know.

“Have you ever thought about taking over the world with ice cream?” Teratsuki Kyouichirou had once said to him. Perhaps that really had been the case. Perhaps he’d been constantly seeking out that flavor so that the world would still acknowledge him, a world that would surely never accept him for who he was.

“In that case, how about I scrape together an environment that would let you make ice cream?” Asukai had offered. But to tell the truth, he was divided. Everyone he’d worked with before had all died. Asukai had laughed, calling it a jinx: one of those people was in his old age, and the other had had an accident that had nothing to do with him. Still, Tosuke was scared.

He couldn’t help feeling bad about the way Asukai was pampering him. He wondered if the very fact that he was alive was an extremely bad thing…

Feeling bad… Bad things… I’ve thought about such things before, huh…

Tosuke broke his concentration for a moment.

It was expected that he’d be tired after several hours straight. It seemed to him that he’d been thinking superfluous things the whole time.

What makes something a truly bad thing…?

He thought deeply about this vague and insignificant question.

Had it been bad for him to make everyone eat his ice cream? That’s why he’d been abandoned and left to wander in the mountains? If it had been a bad thing, then why?

Why…?

At that moment, the sound of an engine began to rumble, coming from downhill. Tosuke stood up. It was the sound of Asukai’s off-road bike. He’d been using it to go up and down the mountain despite there being almost no proper roads of any kind. Apparently, it had been specially modified in various ways. The tank had been enlarged and the gears had been adjusted to prioritize power in exchange for speed. Well, it was something to that effect. It seems he’d got some person named Kirima Nagi to make it for him.

Tosuke had made it back to the lodge at practically the same time that Asukai arrived.

“Welcome back.”

“Yeah. How’s it looking?” asked Asukai, taking off his helmet.

Tosuke shook his head. “It’s just not going to work for me like it did for you.”

“Well, these things take time.” Asukai gave him a firm pat on the head. This tickled Tosuke, because it was the kind of action an older brother might give his little brother. “Ah yes, I brought you a present. I’ll tell you now; it’s not ice cream, but it’s not far off either.”

Jin was talking about the cake he’d got from the general store. A sharp pain shot through Tosuke’s chest.

“…Rei’s cake, huh.”

“I doubt she made it herself, but I thought it might serve to show you that she’s working hard.” Jin went into the lodge, suggesting that they have a drink; Tosuke followed, and sat down on a chair.

“Jin… You’re a good person,” he said, watching the rising steam of the coffee being poured in front of him.

He’d spoken in earnest, but Jin laughed at him.

“I don’t know about that. You’re speaking to a villain who could very nearly have been a threat to the world here.”

“………” Tosuke again fell into thought.

“Something wrong?”

“Hey, Jin? …Was what you did really all that bad?”

“I believe so.” Jin’s answer was immediate.

“But…you did what you did because you thought it was right, didn’t you?”

“If that’s what you’re arguing, then you might as well say that nothing bad exists in this world. Because everyone lives believing that what they’re doing is right.”

“Well then, why do you only now think it was bad? You came to these mountains yourself because you realized you’d committed a crime, right?”

“………” Asukai shut his mouth for a moment, but soon nodded. “When I was doing what I did, I hurt a girl in the process. If I hadn’t done such a thing, that would never have happened to her. That’s when I started to regret my actions. I clearly hadn’t been observant enough,” he said quietly.

“And that was a bad thing?”

“Yes, I think that lack of consideration is a crime.”

“…I…wasn’t thinking anything. Do you think that’s a bad thing?”

“You can’t have not been thinking at all.”

“…All I wanted is for everyone to eat tasty ice cream. That’s all.”

“That doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me. Weren’t you merely tossed about by the wicked flow around you?”

“No… I…kind of feel…that I was the worst of them all.”

Tosuke recalled Rei’s parting words.

“You don’t know yourself. When I’m with you, all that ends up happening is… I start to forget the pain.”

The words had accused him. They should have been what Rei truly felt. He couldn’t possibly believe that he hadn’t done wrong.

…Wait.

That’s right… Pain.

Everyone harbours a pain of their own, and he had erased that. Ice cream was merely a means of achieving that end. So then, was it a bad thing?

Take Kigawa Norisuke, for example. It seemed the old man had taken part in some kind of great “lie.” It seemed that he’d been extremely troubled by it. But in the end, he never confronted whatever it was. As for why… Could the reason have been because he’d been eating Tosuke’s ice cream every day?

“…!”

He... Was that the sort of thing he’d been doing?

Come to think of it, ever since Furukita Sonoko had started eating his ice cream, it seemed as if she’d practically stopped being hurt by others. What if it wasn’t that she’d stopped being hurt, but that she’d become unable to be hurt? If you take away the pain, doesn’t that mean that you can’t receive pain from others?

…Wait, hold on. What is all this? What am I even thinking right now?

His thoughts were becoming so complicated, it made even his head spin.

“…Tosuke?” Asukai looked at him with concern. “What’s wrong? Do you need to lie down?”

“N-no, it’s nothing… Though I am looking a bit pale,” he joked masochistically.

Asukai seemed unsure how to respond, but then settled on a smile. Tosuke forced himself to sound positive.

“Let’s go eat that cake! It’d be a shame to let it go to waste,” he declared loudly.

The two of them opened the wrapping and took a bite of the cake.

“…Yeah. I’d say it’s pretty tasty, wouldn’t you?” said Asukai, impressed. And it was in fact delicious. However…

“………”

The moment Tosuke placed the spoonful upon his tongue, his body stiffened. Asukai was taken aback by his abnormal expression.

It displayed anger.

His eyes were wide. His cheeks trembled. He looked furious enough to break into a rampage at any second.

“…What is this?” he murmured, his voice, too, quivering unnaturally. “This…? You’re telling me this is Rei’s cake? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” he roared.

As Asukai remained struck dumb with astonishment, Tosuke flung the rest of the cake into his mouth and crushed it between his teeth with the ferocity of a child avenging his parents, swallowed, and then continued to rage.

“This… This can’t have been the flavor Rei was looking for! Because this… This is my flavor!”

After that, he stood up and dashed out of the lodge like a whirlwind.

“H-hey!”

Asukai rushed after him, but by the time he’d gone outside Tosuke was already far away and had begun leaping down toward the base of the mountain.

Watching him, he covered about five meters in height and fifty in distance in a single bound. No human could possibly hope to catch up to him.

So that’s the kind of thing he can do when he’s serious. I’d pictured him as a delicate soul because of all the ice cream, all the soft things he’d been making, but…this is crazy.

Asukai sighed.

“His mobility is on another level––it’ll be impossible to catch up to him even with the bike. He’s like a grasshopper. But just what could have got him riled up like that…?”

Whatever had spurred him on and wherever he was headed, there was surely nobody that could stop him now.

“………”

Asukai watched him disappear into the distance and shook his head.

“Tosuke, whatever the reason, in the end you managed to find the resolve you needed to leave the mountain. Perhaps…it’s time for me to make a move too.”

A chilly wind swept up the mountain from the base, rustling through the boughs of the trees.