A single room on the top floor of a certain hospital. A frivolous girl lies in a bed surrounded by bedside monitors and medical devices, including infusions.
Her name is Saya Amamiya.
If you go to school, you're the girl who's supposed to be in high school next year.
"... Hiroya, brother. Thank you for staying on my side."
"Come on, don't tell me it's over like that, it's not even on the edge"
Sitting in a bedside chair, I follow Saya's cheek and pay off the hair hanging from her eyes with the flow. Saya embraced it like it tickled.
"I really appreciate that, don't I? My brother came to see me every day, and I was so, so happy."
"Well, it's obvious because we're family."
My parents died a long time ago, and we've been alone ever since. So when I found out that Saya was suffering from the same illness as my parents, I vowed to stay with Saya until the very end.
That's what I want from my heart, and I've never thought of it as a burden.
So...
"I really said no... I knew it. He was sweet on his brother's kindness because he had only a few lives left. He said it was a burden on your brother... I knew it."
I had an unspeakable surprise at Saya's words.
"What... what are you talking about? You can't possibly think of a burden, can you?
"That's sweet. But I do, don't I? Your brother was graduating next year, and you quit high school, right? That's to make time for your visit, isn't it?
"It's..."
It's true that I left school, but that's because there's another circumstance Saya can't tell you. What... I can't say that and I'm stuck with words.
"We've been living together forever. I know you hid it. Your brother's been spicy lately, and the number of sighs has grown, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
"Ya, it may have seemed that way lately, but that's a burden to take care of Saya, or not for that reason."
"So what's the reason?
"It's..."
If you don't give me a reason here, I'll admit Saya's concerns as well. I couldn't say it while I knew it. Not so much, because it was a secret I didn't want to put in my mouth.
Even if I don't tell you what's going on, Saya will know right away. I thought I should solve the misunderstanding later.
But...
That's how he looks at me silently, Saya is weak - but with a gentle smile.
"Brother. Annoying, hang up... sorry, huh? But that's it now...... so. From now on, live for yourself..."
"... Saya? Hey, Saya?
Something's wrong with Saya. That's what I thought. I panic and turn my gaze to the bedside monitor. I do not know the details of the figures indicated there. But...
"... disarming alarm?
Frown at the message displayed in the corner of the monitor.
"I told the doctor I couldn't do it, disarmed it... I got it. My final farewell to my brother, quietly, I wanted to..."
"-"
Understanding what that means, I panicked and stretched my fingers to the alarm setting on the touch panel. The moment I undone the setting that way, a warning noise sounded that incited anxiety.
"... to my minute, live freely,... be happy..."
At the end of the day, Saya fell into eternal sleep. Misunderstood that you kept putting a burden on me - leaving me with only wishes that I could never fulfill.
Then a week. Having finished Saya's funeral and her homework, I was back in the hospital room where Saya had been hospitalized until the other day. Now it's not for your sympathy, it's for my own admission.
- Yes, hospitalized.
I guess the disease my parents suffered was a genetic thing. Instead of attending Saya's visit, I was tested just in case, and I learned the fact that I had the same symptoms as Saya.
There is no prospect of healing with an unidentified disease for which a method of treatment has not been established. But I can definitely live longer than Saya, whose symptoms are getting worse. When I found out about them, I hid the fact.
Because I didn't want to grieve Saya, who would die before me.
But as a result, Saya died misunderstanding that she was straining me.
If it's going to happen, I want to go back that day and tell Saya.
I never thought of you as a burden because I had the same disease as you.
But that opportunity was lost forever. No matter how much I wish, I can't go back to that moment.
So I figured out what I could do right now. That's how I thought of Saya's whispering wish at the end. I want to make it happen.
But...
"Live free until my minute, and be happy -"
Sleeping in bed, I have the same window view Saya once had.
The streets stretching across the large windows still look like boxyards. And that's the only world I can see right now.
It's a world too small to live freely and grasp happiness.
"... even though Saya isn't here in the first place"
Saya and I have lived together since we lost our parents at a young age.
I didn't have to worry about the cost of living because of the insurance money my parents left me, but my life with two little kids was a streak of hard work. So for me, Saya is half the same, and there's no way I can be happy without Saya like that.
So - and I made one decision.
It's about overlapping lies.
Gather a variety of knowledge in the time left and stick it to the level as if you had experienced it. Then, one day when I met Saya in the afterlife, I would lie that I had such a happy life with so many different experiences.
If you think about it later, it's a bad plan, like there's only one way to get into it. But back then, I didn't have a choice.
For the first year I spent in the hospital room, I just kept gathering knowledge.