Work Text:
Approach Lights
Written by: Danburite/Danburite10
It was as if he had crawled out of the mud, a heavy awakening.
The sun, which was already high in the stately Japanese-style room, was shining brightly into the room, and he frowned uncomfortably at the glare. He looked over and saw a black montsuki haori with five crests hanging on a garment girdle.
It is the crest of the Sanjoin family, a prominent family in Kyoto.
Yesterday, he went to the ceremony in this crested haori hakama to unveil himself as the official heir to the Sanjoin family and as the president of a Sanjoin Group company to be established in Tokyo. However, his adoptive father, the current head of the Sanjoin family, has long told him that I have no blood ties to the Sanjoin family. His adoptive parents, who headed the Sanjoin family, had no children and at one time considered severing the Sanjoin family or handing it over to relatives, but then they wanted to bring in a new wind, so they adopted him as he was a child with no relatives.
He didn't know what his name was before that. His current name was Sanjoin Masato. It was the name his adoptive father gave him.
After returning from his studies in the USA, Masato spent some time learning the trade under his adoptive father, but was to be officially unveiled as heir to the family in a ceremony.
Of course, it was unheard of for someone with no Sanjoin family blood at all to become heir, and there was much opposition. He didn't like it either, and he didn't choose that path. However, he had no particular intention of going against it.
“...And that's one hell of a hangover,” he muttered, counting the grain on the ceiling. His voice was hushed.
Tired of the big party after the ceremony, he’d quickly changed and went to Gion for a drink.
As he was working as an assistant to his foster father, being taught how to be president, he never had to worry about anything financially. Thankfully, he wasn't bad-looking, so if he called up a woman I knew, there were plenty to choose from. He remembered that last night, after drinking like that, he did not return to his newly bought flat near the Imperial Palace, but instead, in a terrible drunken state, he’d called a driver from the Sanjoin family and rolled into this main house and fell asleep.
If they see me like this, will the Sanjoin family again say that I am unfit to succeed them?
Who the hell am I anyway?
For about a year and a half now, there has been a question that has been suddenly blowing up as if it were a geyser or something.
Why did he feel so strongly about it only today? Perhaps it was because he had an unveiling that forced him to prepare himself as an heir, or perhaps it was simply because he was still drunk and his head was spinning.
Does the lifepath of being the heir to the Sanjoin family really represent me correctly?
Apart from his life as an economics major in the US, returning to Japan and studying company management under his adoptive father, he could not help feeling that there was another rail running alongside his life. This other life must have intersected and crossed at some point, building this life of Sanjoin Masato.
It's all just a thin plating that a false life covers, and if you peel it off, you'll see a more terrifying version of himself...
Chile, twitching and twitching, the scar on his shoulder hurt. He could not remember when he had been injured, but he realised that the wound had always been with him. The terrible scar, as if something had pierced him, was enough to confuse him about who he was.
Am I capable of such aggression that I could have such horrendous injuries?
In an attempt to shake off the gloom, he slowly raised himself up with a queasy feeling which he didn’t know if it was a headache or nausea. On the mirror stand, he saw a man with long hair and a bad-tempered face. His clothes were still on. He had not even taken off his jacket, and had probably rolled over on the tatami mats and fallen asleep.
He stared at himself in the mirror. Long dark brown wavy hair and somewhat vacant dark blue eyes. And in his ears, the gaudy gold hoop earrings he’d been told to remove for the ceremony.
“Hey, who are you?"
When asked, that man in the mirror on the mirror stand had no answer.
It was a few months back.
“Masato-san, would you like to be the president of the new company we are setting up in Tokyo?"
The man in front of Masato, sitting upright and facing him, was his adopted father and the current head of the Sanjoin family, whom those around him call Master, and his words were truly unexpected.
“...Tokyo, is it?"
Masato’s adoptive father had been crippled for several years. But his dignity was still alive and well, and this is how he locked Masato in front of him with a sharp look in his eyes. Masato’s long hair, golden earrings, and dark blue eyes, which are often said to intimidate others, had no power in front of this man.
“Yes. The future is the age of globalisation. That's why I sent you to America to study. Living only in the small city of Kyoto is meaningless. First of all, I want you to use this as a foothold to expand into Tokyo and develop new businesses. You have that natural instinct. Even with the recession of the last few years, the business you started here has somehow managed to keep our main family in Kyoto out of the red. I think you have already done enough for us. So, next time, go and find your own way of life for yourself. After that, you can come back to Kyoto and take over the main family business.”
The way I live my life. He had never thought about such a thing before. He had thought that he might randomly follow in the footsteps of his adoptive father, but he had no other dreams for the future.
“...What, you're not happy? I'm the CEO. Or, in modern parlance, CEO. Well, you can call me whatever you like."
“No, I have no complaints. I'm just trying to do the job I've been given. I just never really thought about my own life path."
“That's not good, even if you take over our main family, Masato-san, you should have more passion. Passion, passion. Do you understand? You have to find something so intense that you are willing to risk your life and burn yourself."
“Are you saying that you have that in you?” It was undeniably a question that came from the heart. What kind of passion did his adoptive father have? He knew that he had a centripetal force, good judgement, and that he ran his business with many family members and employees. What was the driving force behind it all…?
His adoptive father, who was over seventy years old, hmmed? and raised one eyebrow in a frightening manner. “Don't you see? Your adoptive mother... Love is good. I would have done anything to protect her. I didn't care if I couldn't have children. There were even people who wanted me to leave her, but I decided to stay with her, even if it meant adopting a child."
When Masato heard this, he bent his lips into a frown, feeling somewhat awakened. Is it true that he has so much passion for a single person? The answer was uncomfortable.
He was indebted to his adoptive parents, but he never had a particularly deep love for human beings. His relationships with men and women were somewhat ad hoc, and he never felt guilty when he found himself changing partners. He was sure his adoptive father had heard about his bad behaviour. Masato wondered if his father wanted to give him a sermon about it at this point.
“Are you asking me to go and have a love affair?” Masato asked in a slightly stern voice.
His adoptive father did not pay any attention to this, but just softened his expression and spoke to his adopted son.
“I didn't say that. In my case, my passion was my wife. That's all I'm saying. It can be love, dreams, beliefs, whatever you can devote yourself to. It doesn't matter what it is. I just want you to acquire that and then come back and play an active role in the family as an heir. By doing so, people around you will naturally come to respect you. ...Anyway, after the unveiling ceremony, I'm going to Tokyo on my last assignment, so why don't you come with me as my assistant? The rest of Tokyo is yours to do with as you please, Masato-san."
With silence, they faced each other.
“I understand," he just replied shortly and stood up, bowing his head lightly.
An existence that I want to protect, even at my own peril. Did he have such a thing? Was he the kind of person who could find a dream that takes precedence over himself? As he closed the sliding door of the master's room and stood in the corridor, he asked himself these questions.
No, maybe there is an ‘it’ in my distant memory that I don't know about...
Naru, you are... lovely.
Naru, it's good to see you.
Osaka Naru, who was doing her homework in her room, suddenly felt like someone had told her this, so she put down her pencil and looked up from her desk. Looking out the window, the orange sun was already beginning to set. Soon, her mother will return home after finishing her work at the jewellery shop attached to her house. She would have to finish her homework before she starts preparing dinner.
I wonder whose voice that was...
A deep, sweet, comforting male voice. She should have remembered it more vividly, but she couldn't remember whose lips spun those words. Maybe it was just recently, maybe it was a long time ago. As the days go by, slowly even the sound of the voice fades from memory. And yet, today again, she felt as if she was being called by that ‘someone’ whose name she could not recall, and she looked around again and again.
Of course, there is no one in Naru's room but Naru.
Naru could not remember that person, who should never have been forgotten. And, strangely enough, every time she remembered his voice, tears would well up in her eyes. It must have been a very painful memory.
Hey, who the hell did I fall in love with? I'm sure I fell in love with someone who made my heart burn. The grains of sand of that memory that she tried to scoop up, today too, spilled through the gaps between her fingers.
And I don't know why, but I keep waiting for that person to 'come back' one day.
After completing his unveiling ceremony as heir to the Sanjoin family, Masato went to Tokyo with his adoptive father as he’d requested, even though he continued to have more doubts about his past than before.
This time, he was to rent out a conference room at a luxury hotel in Toranomon to hold a meeting with the companies involved in setting up a Sanjoin Group company in Tokyo. He was to be appointed CEO of that group company, so naturally he knew the responsibility was a big one, and he had stayed the day before to have a meeting with the secretary with whom he had been working for many years for that purpose.
I'm off today until the time of the evening meeting. I didn't have anything in particular to do, but I was feeling a strange chest pang that had been going on for the past day, so I decided to leave the hotel and walk around a bit to get rid of it.
Tokyo Tower... although I'd like to see it up close.
Come to think of it, he could see Tokyo Tower from the suite where he was staying. Even though the tower has long since ceased to play its primary role as a radio tower, it still holds a special place in people's hearts and makes them feel a kind of attachment to it.
As he left the hotel, a draft from the building ruffled his long dark brown hair. When asked why he wore my hair so long, he had no clear answer. But he felt like he had to ‘do that,’ so he couldn't quite bring himself to pick up the shears.
He was wearing a charcoal-grey suit for the meeting, and as if guided by something, he turned his feet in the direction of Azabu.
“Not much, I'm sure I've never been around here before.”
However, the view of the Azabu area was familiar. Was it because he had taken a taxi through there several times? No, his memory was still strong, even down to the more intricate parts of the area. With a vivid memory, as if he had lived there for months, he walked on without looking at the map on his phone. He might have walked one or even two blocks.
“Azabujuban, huh?"
Many countries had established embassies in this undulating, mortar-shaped city, creating a quiet and exclusive atmosphere. It had many hills and was very different from the flat urban area of Kyoto. It was the first time he had strolled around the city like this, but he was surprised to find himself walking along the main streets and looking at the scenery without getting lost.
And now he was wandering around as if attracted to something. Yes, as if he was ‘looking’ for someone.
Was this town… Azabujuban, a place where the ‘me’ I never knew existed?
When he stopped, he unconsciously rubbed the scar on his right shoulder through his suit. He felt as if more emotions than pain would erupt from it.
I want to remember, but I don't want to remember.
As he closed his eyes, he felt his other self peeking out from the depths of the deep swamp lying in the darkness. Come on, pull me up, he said. The man with the fearless smile had a look of contentment, as if he was much more greedy, irreverent, and fearless than Masato was, yet fulfilling something that he lacked.
“I am Masato Sanjoin. I am nothing else," he muttered to himself and then slowly opened his eyes. How long had he been doing that? He felt that the number of pedestrians had increased considerably. He had to get back to the hotel in Toranomon as soon as possible. He had less than an hour before the meeting.
It was then that he turned on his heel and tried to find a taxi back to the hotel.
Softly, a sweet breeze passed.
As if lured by the scent, he looked over and saw a girl in a sailor suit who appeared to be a high school student, her hair flowing as she passed next to him. Her soft wavy hair was cut at her shoulders and tied half up with a large ribbon. Her expression was a little childish, yet she was a classy girl.
I have to call it off. He thought quickly and reached out his hand, but then he came back to himself and put his hand down. Do I know that girl?
His heart jumped with a thump. It was as if he could hear the voice of the girl who was already in the back of my mind. 'Sanjoin-sama?’
He felt like he was being called that. What a pleasant, bell-ringing, lovely voice. No, there was no way he was supposed to know her voice. Was it an auditory hallucination or something?
Come on, remember quickly. Don't let this encounter disappear as a fleeting dream, deep in the swamp of memory, someone muttered in a low voice.
“What?"
Do you still not understand? Have you forgotten the love you had for the one you risked your life to protect?
The words send an electric shock through Masato’s body. His eyes, which had opened wide, lost their focus.
I'm... yes, I 'died' protecting that girl.
Her love changed you. The diabolical evil one gave her life for love, and once she had fulfilled her life, she disappeared.
Fragmented memories floated in and out of his brain. He desperately pulled them together and fitted the pieces together like a puzzle to create a single figure. Yes, the image of a beautiful girl smiling softly at him.
“Naru-chan, ...Naru."
He spun the name from his lips as if it spilled out, all too naturally.
Her name is Osaka Naru. The beautiful and strong girl who taught him love. Just calling her name warms his heart.
Who am I? Then who am I?
At that moment, the other him, the one who had been in the swamp of memories, emerged from the swamp for the first time and confronted him. He was staring at Masato, wearing a military uniform that he didn't know which country it belonged to.
I am the last piece of this puzzle. If you had chosen to live a peaceful life and not wished to recall the haunting memories of your past, I would have been willing to sink to the bottom of your memory swamp and disappear once and for all. But you remembered Osaka Naru by yourself.
You want to know? You want to know about that shura's past?
Then take hold of it with your own hands.
As he was led, he reached out his hand and the man in the military uniform was sucked into him... Sanjoin Masato.
At that moment, the memory of Sanjoin Masato, who was only a construct, and the parallel memory of the other ‘self’ that had just been sucked in, coexisted. The memories were replayed in his brain like fast-forward, recomposed, and then accepted with pain.
Now you know everything.
Yes, my real name is... Nephrite. I was one of the leaders of an evil organisation called the Dark Kingdom Four Heavenly Kings.
Oh, my God. How could I have forgotten her? How could I have not remembered her for so long, the woman I risked my life to protect?
He grabbed the last shred of memory of Nephrite and rushed over to her, uncontrollably.
“Become ...-chan!”
At the sound of an urgent man's voice behind her, Naru stops walking towards her home and turns around.
She tilted her head and stared at the man in a suit who had followed her. He was tall and strange, with very long wavy hair.
“Da... are you...?”
The man's demonic look made Naru freeze to her feet. The man rushed over, grabbed Naru by the shoulders and shook her.
“Naru-chan, oh thank God. You are safe? Are you hurt? ...What the hell happened to the Dark Kingdom⁉"
“...dark, king-dom?"
He was a neat-looking man. His long dark brown hair was gently wavy and stretched to his waist, and his eyes were a strange dark blue. On his ears were gold hoop earrings. Cool, maybe a bit flirtatious.
But he was very rough and pretentious for a pick-up, and he seemed like a guy who would be popular enough without doing that.
How did this guy know my name in the first place?
“I don't know... I don't know you."
Overwhelmed by the sheer force of the situation, and just wanting to escape the bondage, Naru muttered in a trembling voice. As soon as he heard those words, the man's eyes widened, and his lips shivered, as if he was so shocked.
Did I say something so terrible?
“Naru-chan, have you forgotten?”
A man's voice, as if he was hanging on. The man, wearing a good quality dark grey suit, staggered to his knees on the ground and stared up at her, not caring that his clothes were dirty.
"...Naru-chan."
Naru was once again startled by a voice that called out lovingly. I know this voice. It's the same mysterious voice that calls me. The hallucinatory voice calling to me that I always hear in the distance when I'm studying in my room in the evening sun. At other times, it is that comforting voice that protects me from the darkness of nightmares and wraps me like velvet, as deep and velvety as the twinkling of a star.
“It's okay, if you've lost me from your memory, you can go to... As long as you're safe, I want nothing more. That's why I risked my life to protect you."
What a tragic sound these words carry.
I have some connection with… this person in my lost memories and I have forgotten it. I would have remembered this voice and I would have liked to meet him one day and know something about this sealed something.
Something important, that encounter, wasn't that what she was waiting for?
Naru just looked down at the man in front of her as he nodded and knelt without effort.
She was almost ready to remember this man. But it was so scary, it was like an alarm bell was ringing in the corner of her head that it might be a memory tucked away in a Pandora's box that she might as well forget.
The man seemed to take Naru's stunned appearance as a rejection. His expression softened, and he spoke an apology. “Right. I'm sorry for calling out to you so suddenly. It was annoying.”
Forget that I called out to you.
It's good to see you.
The man then stood up and turned on his heel to leave.
...forget? Good to see you? Remember, now?
Naru bit her lip.
You were that kind of person. You smiled a masked, frivolous smile when I approached you, but you rescued me when I was taken away and tried to protect me even when you were pierced by those terrible thorns.
Tears spill from Naru's eyes. I'm such a terrible girl for forgetting you.
A cruel past that was too harsh and cruel had somehow faded from Naru's memory. It was a past that was once lost to this world, which, strangely enough, everyone around her said they didn’t know about when asked.
But... even if you disappeared from everyone's memory, I was not supposed to forget ‘you.’
“I knew you would come back one day.”
Her voice did not reach the ears of the long-haired man who was already trying to climb up the hill.
“My, my favourite..."
Naru held her bag and followed after him.
Wait. My, my darling. My favourite person. Naru hugged the long-haired man in the suit... ‘Nephrite’ on his back.
“It's awful... I've waited so long for you to simply disappear from me like that. How I wish I could have forgotten you. I don't know anymore..."
Nephrite-san.
I've been waiting for you for a long time.
I was sure you'll come back to me.
I believed.
He looked back slowly. He never thought she would come after him.
There was a lovely girl looking up at him with tears overflowing her eyes. She is so overflowing with emotion that she could no longer smile well. Even her tear-stained smile was adorable.
“Welcome back," shuffling, the girl – Osaka Naru – muttered.
He hesitantly reached for the girl's eyes. Wiping away a large tear, he bent down slightly and stared into her eyes. “...I'm home, Naru-chan."
At these words, Naru jumped into his chest. He softly accepted her.
For both of them, it was like the first warmth they had ever felt. They had been torn apart without being able to embrace each other like this or express their feelings for each other.
There is nothing sad anymore. This is no epilogue.
It was the beginning of a world of two people.
In the end, they only exchanged contact details in a hurry after that and parted ways.
Masato returned to the hotel where the meeting was to be held, but could not hide his upset at the meeting afterwards and just thought about Naru. He was saved by his secretary's exquisite follow-up, but even his adoptive father was worried that something had happened during the dinner. Of course, he had never been so flustered at work before.
Back in his hotel suite, lying on his bed, he looked at the Tokyo Tower, illuminated in vermilion. Now that he remembered his past as Nephrite, there were many things he wanted to know. What had happened to the Dark Kingdom in the first place? Had the operation failed? What about the other Four Heavenly Kings? Jadeite had seen to it that they were frozen, but were Kunzite and Zoisite still trying to get the Earth...? And what happened to Sailor Moon?
According to Naru, a year and a half has already passed since the battle. He had been ‘reincarnated’ as a human, and he assumed that he’d spent his time with false memories, and it made sense that it was at that time he began to question his origins and himself.
Oh, how I miss her. The woman he’d risked his life to protect was full of love and he wanted to know her more. Although his past as one of the Four Heavenly Kings remained as a memory, he no longer had any desire to use her. He just wanted time to look at her peacefully.
After one sigh, he took his smartphone out of his breast pocket and tapped the contact number he had just heard from Kurara.
"...Yes."
He hadn't expected Naru to answer the phone after just one call.
“Naru-chan?"
“Yes... it is. Sanjoin, is it -sama... or Nephrite-san?"
“Either. You can call me whatever you like."
“Well, then, Nephrite-san, yes.”
Silence flows between them. Even Naru's breath, which can be heard faintly through the phone, is lovely.
“That... will I see you again?"
“I'd love to see you, right now.” Hearing these words, he chuckled.
“It's... not as bewitching as it used to be anymore, so I guess it's difficult to say that I'm flying away right now. But I'll see you soon. Actually, I'm going to be based in Tokyo. Besides, I'd like to get to know you better. I'm sure we have a lot left to talk about." Somehow, he's become a hard talker. When it comes to Naru, his heart is inevitably buoyed up and he can't control that rising in my heart.
“Yes. Thank you, Nephrite-san. For finding me."
“Thank you... for waiting for me.”
But neither of them could quite disconnect from the call. Neither wanted to let go of that once again entangled thread of fate.
“Naru-chan. Can you see the sky?" Nephrite cut to the chase suddenly.
“Yeah. I'm on the balcony."
“It's autumn now. You can see the Great Quadrilateral of Pegasus. The rest can be seen at... The light in the city of Tokyo is too strong. I don't know if I can even see third magnitude stars in this.”
“...Now I want you to sit next to me and look at the stars with me. And please, Nephrite-san, teach me a lot about the stars."
“Oh, let's do that. Come on, it's late. I'll get back to you."
“We'll miss you. ...Good night."
They hung up the call, leaving each other with a sense of regret.
Osaka Naru. Your love rescued me from an evil organisation. If I could walk with you once more, I would give everything.
On Naru's lap was a large bouquet of flowers, all in gorgeous pinks. The fragrance of these flowers fills the car.
“We could talk in a café somewhere, but I don't want too many people around to hear us. Maybe you could give me a break for a narrow car ride today.”
He somehow knew that it was a luxury car, a car so small that it left him speechless. A glossy crimson sports car with a loud engine sound, a luxury car called Ferrari, he believed... It had been delivered as a new car a few days ago.
“No, the drive is better for me because I get to be closer to Nephrite-san. Plus the bouquet is lovely. Thank you for the flowers.”
His face broke slightly at the sound of Naru's voice as she thanked him while gazing at his profile while driving.
“I was actually going to have this 812 Superfast delivered in Kyoto. But I'll be in Tokyo a lot from now on, so I decided to use the car here... I wanted to have a date with you like this."
At the mention of the word 'date,' Naru's cheeks flushed red. The fact that this was the first date since they’d met again was a heaven-sent feeling.
As he drove, they talked about each other. If they had sat down face to face, they might not have been able to talk so much. In that sense, Nephrite’s suggestion of a drive made sense.
Naru told him that she had had some strange experiences after he’d disappeared, but that she had managed to stay safe, that Tokyo was gradually returning to normal, and that she was now a high school student.
He also chatted about his personal situation. He told her that he had already lost his power as one of the Four Heavenly Kings and had become a mere human being, and that he had been put in charge of a company in Tokyo as the successor to the Sanjoin family.
“Now, enough of the serious stuff for today, let's go somewhere for a night view." As the sun began to set, he said this and took the car off a certain exit on IC on the Metropolitan Expressway.
“Where are you going?"
“It's where you can catch the night breeze. Don't worry, it's not a strange place."
He found himself crossing a large bridge lit by bright white lights, and Naru was looking at it happily with sparkling eyes.
“A strange place: ...here, Tokyo Bay?”
“Ah. If you cross this bridge, you'll get to the central breakwater. Go through the tunnel in the sea, drive for a while and you're at your destination."
Naru's eyes gleamed with curiosity as she peered around the landscape through the car window, the Ferrari driven by Nephrite slid into the T1 multi-storey car park at Haneda Airport.
“Well, there's still time for dinner. Until then, let's go for a little night view."
The door opened and Naru got out of the car.
Nephrite was wearing a loose-fitting dark blue double coat of cashmere, but Naru wanted to keep light and decided to leave her trench coat in the Ferrari along with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
At a coffee chain with a view of the runway, Nephrite bought Naru a hot latte with marshmallows and lots of chocolate sauce. In contrast, he had a simple cup of black coffee. As they sat side by side at a counter with high chairs along the window, they could see the plane taking off from the runway through the glass.
Naru sipped her sweet drink and peeked at Nephrite, sitting beside her. His neat face had a somewhat melancholy expression on it, the irreverent look he used to have gone. His dark blue eyes were calm and powerful rather than sharp. The moment he brushed his long hair back, Naru realised that nothing was stuck in his ears. He used to wear beautiful honey-coloured stone earrings and had been wearing gold hoop earrings the day they’d met again.
“Nephrite-kun, that...? Piercing?"
”Hm?” Nephrite said in a deep voice, then put his cup on the counter and touched his ear.
“Oh, come to think of it, I think I might have taken my earrings out recently.”
“Why? Last time I saw you, you were wearing gold hoop earrings.”
“You remember me well. ...You are indeed a jeweller's daughter.”
“Maybe they were given to you by an old girlfriend?” Hearing this, Nephrite laughed. But he did not tell her the answer to the question.
She's utterly perceptive, this one.
He hadn't had a girlfriend for a long time, and he wasn't interested in being with a particular one. But it is true that the earrings he was wearing when he’d met... Naru again had been a gift from one of the women, and he had taken them off since that day.
Of course, he hadn't seen anyone romantically since he’d met Naru again, and he no longer wanted to see anyone else.
“Even you, you've grown up to be so pretty, I bet you have a great guy.”
Naru's gaze wandered as Nephrite peered at her closely. “I don't know if he was nice or not, but there was someone who was a bit like an extension of my friend. I was sad when you disappeared. And then, there was a classmate who encouraged me. We kind of spent time together. I was studying hard too, but he was more brilliant, so he went to a different high school, and we kind of drifted apart. Really, that's it."
Hmmm. Nephrite stirred up the remaining coffee as if to pour it down the drain.
“Um, I... that." Naru regretted having told him about Umino. She must have felt bad because she told him about the person she had dated because of the grief caused by his disappearance.
“Naru-chan, it's nice to learn about you. Thank you for telling me," when he said this, Nephrite put his empty coffee paper cup down on the counter with a thump. He then propped himself up on his elbows and stared at the aeroplane behind the glass. “...but what can I call this feeling I'm having right now?”
He was a person who could make such a lonely voice. That's what Naru thought as she looked at his profile.
I wonder what he is feeling now. Anger? Irritation? Troublesome?
Or ‘jealousy?’
Was Nephrite jealous of her former relationship with Umino? No, it couldn’t be. As if to shake off the heavy air, Naru got down from her high chair and said to Nephrite in a bright voice, “Nephrite-kun, I want to see the plane. I want you to take me to the observation deck."
Nephrite raised his eyebrows and opened his eyes in surprise. “That's nice, but you might be cold in that outfit.”
“I can handle a bit of that! Please take me!" For the first time, Naru voluntarily clung to Nephrite's arm.
Nephrite looked at Naru with a relaxed expression. He then took her hand and squeezed it gently. “All right. Let's go."
The observation deck was a place where all sorts of noises reverberated. The sound of an aeroplane pushing back to start its engines, the noises made by a baggage car, and the wind blowing across the deck.
The coloured lights indicating the location of taxiways and runways through the wire fencing were beautiful, shining like jewels. Neither Naru nor Nephrite had any way of knowing what the colours meant.
Was there something like this, like a guideway light or an entry light, guiding us to our mutual destiny? If once again, because of that guidance, we were allowed to exchange warm feelings and reunite... Thinking about this, Nephrite brushed back his long hair and looked at Naru, who was looking at the plane with a curious look on her face.
He was very upset earlier. He hadn't thought that Naru had been seeing someone because of his death. Of course, he knew that it was impossible to have eternal love or loyalty to someone who has died, and he could understand why one might feel affection for someone who helped heal one's wounds.
But one disturbing emotion was stirring in Nephrite's belly. A fierce, burning emotion. He didn't want to admit it, but he was sure it would be more accurate to call it jealousy. That's how badly he wanted to be with this girl. Somewhere deep down, he put aside his own rough relationships with men and women and wished that this girl would only look at me.
That idea was nothing short of selfish.
Another strong wind passed by. He shivered and hugged himself. The most important thing to remember is that the best way to get the most out of your time in the sun is to be prepared for it to set.
After a moment's hesitation, Nephrite loosened the belt of the dark blue double coat he was wearing.
“Naru-chan, you must be cold. Come on, come on." After saying this, he hugged Naru and wrapped her in the cashmere coat.
Naru was startled by the hug and stiffened for a moment.
However, when she gradually relaxed, she slowly leaned back and looked up at Nephrite. Her eyes glittered as if they reflected the polar lights of the taxiway, and her cheeks were flushed even in the dark outdoors.
He just hugged her, but to make her eyes so moist and to lean back so shyly and modestly, he wondered if she had really been 'going out' with that classmate or something. He almost erupted with a caustic desire not to give up this girl to anyone else.
“Naru, you're really pretty. Besides, you've become a much more beautiful woman."
At the sound of his voice, Naru jumped up and down again, and shyly buried her face in Nephrite's chest. Even through the jacket, he could feel Naru's soft cheeks pressed against him. How far will she go to do something cute?
“Nephrite-kun, I'm alive. ...Warm."
“Oh. Looks like I really am living as a human being.”
Naru rubbed her ear against Nephrite's chest. “You know, ...thump, thump. I can hear your heartbeat. I want to listen to it all the time."
With a muffled whisper, Naru hugged Nephrite even tighter.
The warmth of that fragile, dainty girl melted even Nephrite's heart. When he patted Naru's shoulder, he found that it was shaking slightly.
She might be crying. She seemed to be trying not to be noticed, though.
“Naru-chan, look up.”
When he gently touched her round cheek with the back of his hand, he found it was still moist and wet with tears.
“Don't look at... it's nothing."
“Are you alright? What's making you sad?"
“Because,” said Naru, sobbing and clinging to Nephrite. “I wondered why I almost forgot you. I was thinking how terrible I had been. I'm so sad... I don't really know if you were reincarnated or brought back to life or what, but if you were alive in this world, I wish I could have found you out sooner."
“It's the same for me. I've been asking myself since I met you again why I couldn't remember you. I'm sure it was a period of redemption for me, to be reborn as a human being from an evil organisation. That's probably why I've disappeared from the memories of everyone who was involved with me. Of course, I still don't know if I've really become a normal human man."
“It's not your fault, Nephrite-san! You got badly hurt and still saved me. And I told you, 'I love you, no matter how bad you are.' And I still love you, no matter how bad you are.”
Her shouts were almost drowned out by the sound of the plane's engines as it took off. But the desperate plea was more than enough to strike a chord with Nephrite.
Nephrite stroked Naru's cheek as she looked up at him and put a finger to her tiny lips.
Traced with his thumb, her peach-coloured lips were soft and inviting, and her moist eyes immediately knew what he wanted from her.
No. ...I cannot be sure that I am no longer tainted by evil, even if I take her lips.
Since he had been reincarnated as a human, he could easily drop women without any difficulty, embrace them if he liked them, and break up with them if he got bored of them. He hadn’t felt attached to anyone.
But Osaka Naru in front of him was special. He wanted to protect her, he loved her to the point of madness, and she was a precious existence that he didn't want anyone to take away from him. He didn't want to dirty her, to the extent that he was careful... to even touch her.
I love you, I love you...
He wanted to open his mouth and tell her this, but his voice was gravelly and the noise around them prevented her from hearing it. The first time he’d seen her, he’d been a little confused, but he was able to shake off his hesitation and bent down to hug Naru tightly.
What a soft, warm presence.
“Can I continue to be... with you and…?” Naru nodded her head in agreement to Nephrite's words, which spun in her ear in confusion as he hugged Naru.
In response to his words, more tears overflowed from Naru's eyes. “Stay with me. You're here and that's all I want."
Nephrite slowly let go of her body and wiped the tears from her cheeks as she calmed.
“Thank you. For believing in me. ...So don't cry anymore."
Nephrite took off his cashmere coat and wrapped it around Naru's slender body. The hem of the long coat was not suited to Naru's height and seemed to rub against the ground.
“Nephrite-san...?"
“I don't want you to get cold."
Nephrite picked her up with his coat wrapped around her, and spun her around as if they were dancing. It reminded him of the first time they’d danced at an embassy party in a certain country.
“Come on, let's go to dinner. To celebrate our reunion!"
Naru nodded and stretched out her arms with a smile. She clung to Nephrite, who looked at her calmly. She then gently closes her eyes as if to chew on that happiness.
“Nephrite-san, don't let me go again.”
There is nothing to tear them apart any more, as they are now heart to heart.