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- Pi... pi...
A mechanical sound engraved with a certain rhythm is echoing in a certain room.
One boy was lying in the bed just in the middle of that room, based on inorganic white.
This is a room in a certain hospital. Times, modern. The location is Japan.
The boy, who slept easily, was so calm that he only seemed to be in a long dream, and the feeling of sadness that he was suffering from the disease could not be known from his expression.
And his mother, sitting in the chair next to it, was also shaking her head up and down in disdain because of too much raucous sunlight in the spring.
Spring evenings are dyed orange inside the hospital.
One girl was walking through such hospital hallways in high footsteps.
The girl's expression is never bright.
Still, she was walking down this corridor with one hope in her chest.
- Wouldn't you wake up today...
and…
- Ragged...
To the sound of the door being opened, the boy's mother regained consciousness.
"Oh? Mariko. You're a lot early today."
and the boy's mother spoke to the girl in such a voice as to keep the motherly tenderness in tone.
"Yes, aunt. How's it going with you?
And the girl asked about the boy lying in the open best.
"Hmm, not today, either."
"Really...
Ah... this is from my mom. Say hello to your aunt and uncle. "
and the girl handed the boy's mother a wrap of her mother's handmade cookies.
"Thanks for everything."
"No, at least that's all I can do..."
And, the girl drops her shoulder.
"Here! Taiichi! Amariko is here today!!
and the mother speaks to the boy lying with a gentle expression, only slightly enhancing the tone of his voice, but the boy has no reaction at all.
- Pi... pi...
Only the mechanical sound of it sounded vainly in the room.
"I'm sorry... I don't seem to be ill anywhere... but only consciousness returns."
and the boy's mother, for the first time at this time, cast a shadow on his expression.
The girl deliberately said in a bright voice, trying to encourage the boy's mother.
"Because you've always liked to sleep! You may just be sleeping a little longer and deeper!
The girl's care smudges in the boy's mother's heart.
"Hehe, Mariko's a good kid. Thank you. Thanks to Mariko, my aunt is feeling better."
Against the mother of the bowing boy, the girl waved diligently as she blushed.
"No, I don't...
I'm going home alone today! Because I think I'll be able to get back home before dark!
"Yes, then say hello to your mother and father."
"Yes! Goodbye!
"Goodbye."
And the girl went out of the room looking fine to the end.
Yes...
It was Taiichi Kondo lying in the room.
It was about four days before he suddenly collapsed on the doorstep of his house.
Someone noticed the loud sound of a fall, his childhood tame Asako Yagi, who lives in the next house, and was already unconscious when he found him down.
Although he was rushed to the hospital, he never regained consciousness.
I then even tested my body for blemishes, but the cause of my unconsciousness is completely unknown.
Because he is calm in breathing, he has just stabbed a large infusion in his arm now, and no other medical device is fitted specifically.
Asako, out of the hospital, took a deep sigh.
The look is darker than it was when I was in the hospital room.
She covered her face with a handkerchief in her hand when she boarded a bus with no one on it and the hospital was far out of sight.
- How... how can you not be conscious...
And, she thinks of the fattest non-returning consciousness and makes me cry.
- I would have stayed with you a little more then...
It was just after he broke up with her on the road in front of the house that he fell.
At the time of her fall, she regretted that if she had been with her, she would have been able to provide first aid sooner.
The voice, which she murdered and cried hard, would not have reached even the bus driver, but the figure was the poor girl herself, whoever might see it, who was hurting her chest and kept crying.
... and that was the time...
"Why are you crying?
And, right next to Asako, I heard a pretty girl.
But there was no sign of the bus stopping somewhere, and to that voice from her next seat, where no one was supposed to be, she stopped crying unexpectedly and looked at him.
There...
The figure of a woman wearing a hood deep.
"Are you... who?
And Asako pushed her fear to death, and she shuddered with a trembling voice.
"... I can't tell you..."
"Yes... so what are you doing here?
I'm sure he sees a ghost or something... and he was usually a Asako who doesn't believe in such things, but now I have to believe him. Because you see that clearly in front of you.
I'm here to ask.
"What?
In that inquiry of Asako, the mysterious Hood woman took a breath.
And to the word, Asako's eyes were opened wide, and he was struck by the feeling that time had stopped.
It's...
"Do you want to see him?
That's what it was.
He was Asako, who learned to faint, but when he managed to stay on it, he inquired.
"Him... who are you talking about?
"Dear Hideyoshi... No, Taiichi Kondo here"
An even stronger stimulus shakes the brain of Asako.
"How do you know about you? Who the hell are you?
And, Asako enquired, reinforcing the tone, but the woman just shook her neck sideways and did not answer the question.
"Answer me... you cry every day because you can't see him?
Against the mysterious woman who asks again, Mariko...
I shook my head vertically.
And still, as she pushed her emotions to death, Mariko turned to the mysterious woman and said quietly.
"I want to see you... I'm sorry I have to scold you to see me and get back to normal... I'm sorry... Ugh..."
And at the end of the day, I can cry without words.
Seeing how she was like that, the mysterious woman said.
"Master Hideyoshi... he said, 'I want to make everyone smile'. But I was always there for him. Not you smiling, crying every day..."
"What the fuck!! Soo, what are you doing? What does it have to do with someone who says he's really good at it? I don't understand anymore!!
And, Mariko finally raised her voice on the bus so that she could explode her annoyance.
But the bus may be moving. Suspicious, what a strange space she is in, and I can't see the driver.
The mysterious woman said pale against such a disturbing Asako.
"Dear Hideyoshi... Hideyoshi Toyotomi is now the same person as Taiichi Kondo"
"Hideyoshi Toyotomi...? That Toyotomi Hideyoshi...? What are you talking about?? He died over 400 years ago!?
"Taiichi Kondo lives in Hideyoshi after a long time."
"Why?"
"Because I found straw and he wanted it"
"You found it? Did you want it?
The mysterious woman snorted at the inquiry.
To say something too unrealistic, Mariko was in a state of utter incredibility, but no longer felt like there was more to regaining the consciousness of Taiji than relying on this mysterious woman.
"How can I... how can I see you...? How can I regain your consciousness?
The mysterious woman in the inquiry bit her lip softly.
And...
"Master Hideyoshi... you must want your smile too... so the woes will make you meet him to make you smile"
And the woman said with some grievous determination.
Asako grips her fist tighter.
And the woman continued.
"But there are a few conditions.
One thing is, if you go see him, you're here now, you lose consciousness. Like Taiichi Kondo... still okay?
"But if you and I get back together, we can both regain consciousness, right?
"Yeah..."
"Then that's fine! But if you don't tell me how to regain consciousness, I'm in trouble!
"Yeah... take this..."
And the mysterious woman took one beautiful stone and gave it to Mariko.
"Is this...?
"If you grip this stone hard and hope, you can go beyond a long time"
"So if we hold this together, we can come back to this day and age."
To that inquiry, the mysterious woman nods small.
And Mariko said, tightening her expression, as she consolidated her determination.
"Well, get started! After all that time!
"Wait! There's only one condition!
"What are the terms?
Then the mysterious woman pleaded with an uncut voice that appealed to Mariko.
"Make sure you make everyone smile! Please! If everyone involved with Hideyoshi smiles, use that stone!
The words are deeply engraved on the chest of Asako.
I have no idea the look on my face because I wear a hood deep, but I could easily imagine floating something glowing in those eyes.
To the thought of such a mysterious woman, uncut, sad and helpless, Mariko held a burning sense of purpose in her heart: "I want to make that wish come true at all costs".
- She... maybe...
And, at this point, one hunch went through Mariko's head.
But such a thing had nothing to do with the thoughts of a woman who was so frightened that if she touched it, it would be broken. She put it in her chest.
And she gives her pinky finger to the mysterious woman.
"What?"
"Give me your little finger."
When the dreaded mysterious woman gave her little pinky finger, Mariko tied it to her pinky finger.
"Fingering! Always that wish, I'll make it happen for you! Leave it to me!!
And Mariko said forcefully to the mysterious woman who could not hide her surprise.
And...
Asako Yagi lost consciousness of it on the bus home from the hospital.
It meant that she traveled beyond a long time to Taiichi Kondo's time.