Over eleven years, the bus remained the same.

Its nostalgic, cute face-like front light was nestled in the dead bushes.

It was an old bus to begin with, so the passing of eleven years did not dramatically change its appearance. When things get old enough, the passage of time is no more to them, just like Machu Picchu, the Mona Lisa, or the Parthenon.

It felt like time had slowed when I stepped into the bus. Warm sunlight shone through the windows. The dust motes in the air glittered and sparkled. The couch still had a cover and a cushion. Yuzuki’s manga were still in their paper bags.

Memories of the distant past came vividly back to me. It was as though I could see myself and Yuzuki, third graders, lying on the couch and passing time idly.

In our grown-up body, the couch that felt so spacious was so small.

Sitting was hard for Yuzuki in this state, so she leaned on me. Leaning against me, she breathed softly. I gently held her waist.

“I missed this.”

“I miss it too.”

In a trickle, we talked about our memories, gradually tracing our lives from the time we first met. When our memories caught up with the present, we went back to the beginning. Afraid of what to come, we spun around in time.

As we did so, a long, long time passed. To me, it felt like we had grown old together, with deep wrinkled and bent hips.

Of course, it was merely my imagination.

Time trickled away.

“My eyes. Yakumo-kun, let me see your face, one last time,” she pleaded.

I faced Yuzuki. The light coming in through the window had already changed to the color of dusk.

Her eyes, which were shimmering with confusion, glinted in the red light.

“Can you see…?”

“I can… Yakumo-kun, I like your face.”

The stud that was her arm lifted. She was trying to caress my face.

“Ah—” She gasped, her breath ragged.

Her eyes wandered desperately. She blinked repeatedly.

“I think it’s nighttime for me…”

She closed her eyes and rubbed her right eyelid against my nose.

“Thank Heavens…I got a good look at your face. “ Her voice shook.

And then, quietly, night fell. The white shape of the shimmering moon shone through the window. The moonlight dimly lit the contours of Yuzuki.

“Strange…” she said quietly. “So much has happened… and now it all seems so…familiar, as if…It’s like I’m a baby again…Do we humans go back to where we were born……?”

With every inhale and exhale, life was slipping away from her breath.

She was dying.

Suddenly, I felt as though the pressure of everything in the night sky was coming to me.

I couldn’t live without Yuzuki.

I finally realized that.

“Yakumo-kun, will you be…okay without me?” She asked with genuine concern. “You can live by yourself? Will you starve yourself…? You won’t cry… right?”

Tears spilled out. I held back my sobs, I kept my body from shaking, I can’t let her know. I needed to let her depart in peace. Fortunately, she could no longer see my streaming tears.

“I’m all right, don’t worry.” I lied.

She smiled radiantly. “Good…”

“Are you okay?” I caress her. “Do you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine… I’m fine… Yakumo-kun…”

“What is it?”

Her voice became stricken. “Yakumo-kun…? Yakumo-kun?”

Her hearing…

She began to cry.

“No!! Not my hearing! Not that! I… I can’t listen to music anymore! No, not this!!” She shook violently.

I remembered when she was frightened by dandelion fluff. I finally realized that there are things in this world that are more painful than death.

I hugged and cried with her. I could feel her trembling, and I felt as if I was going to freeze too.

“I’m scared, Yakumo-kun. I’m scared… I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die!”

I rubbed Yuzuki’s trembling shoulders as hard as I could. Flakes of salt fell out.

She kept crying.

“Yakumo-kun… why hadn’t you come? I’ve been waiting… waiting for so long… waiting for you…!”

I knew what she meant. The “Runaway from home.” That night had remained in the bottom of Yuzuki’s heart for a long, long time. The loneliness of that night has always scared her.

“I’m sorry…Yuzuki…I’m sorry…!”

I saw little Yuzuki crying all alone on the bus.

I wanted to go back in time to save the lonely white shadow of a girl.

Somehow I wanted to enter that horrible night and save her.

I cried and prayed. God, if you are here, please help me. Please have mercy on me. Please save Yuzuki from that terrible night.

Then I thought of one thing.

Yuzuki, listen to this, please…

I tapped her shoulder rhythmically with the fingers of my left hand.

I kept on tapping…

“Ah–!” She stopped crying. “The Venetian Boat Song!”

I told Yuzuki with my left hand the accompaniment that represented a boat bobbing on the waterways of Venice.

I continued to do the same thing for as long as I could remember.

Nocturne, etude, polonaise, mazurka, sonata, ballade, scherzo …

I was surprised at how much I remembered. I had been watching Yuzuki’s performances for so long. It was always her and her piano that saved me when I was in the worst of times. Her performance was vividly burned into my mind, just like light shining in the darkness.

“Yakumo-kun… I can hear you… I can hear you… I can hear my performance. No, there’s more! I can hear it all…all the music I’ve ever heard…! I can hear…the music that so many people have made…with love.”

“Yuzuki…”

“It’s here, the music! It has come for me. It’s here for me, in the end!”

“Yuzuki…” I dropped all my guise and bawled my eyes out. “Don’t leave me…”

“Yakumo-kun, bye-bye… I love you.”

“Yuzuki…”

Don’t. Please. Yuzuki.

“ Don’t… catch… a cold…”

And so Yuzuki drew her last breath.

In the darkness, where her heart had stopped beating, I cried alone.

I heard the sound of her body crumbling into salt.

I closed my eyes, covered my ears, and cried like a child.