After the Festival
Part 1
“What the heck am I doing?!”
Once again, Arata Kagami found himself shouting at the ceiling while in his bed.
That intense battle with the Natives that involved Tendou Souji, Misaki, Tadokoro, and the rest of ZECT…
During all of that, Kagami suffered grave injuries and was carried to the hospital by Tendou.
Kagami drifted between the realms of life and death in the ICU, but he somehow managed to stabilize.
After being transferred to the general ward, Kagami asked the doctors and nurses about what happened to ZECT and the Natives. But no matter how much he asked, they all ignored his questions, simply responding with “Focus on recovering.”
For some reason, ZECT wasn’t contacting him either.
The same went for his father Riku, Tadokoro, Misaki, Renge, Tendou, and Hiyori as well.
No one even tried to contact him, let alone visit him.
After ten days of being hospitalized, Kagami finally became capable of getting out of bed, and attempted to contact ZECT himself.
But he couldn’t get into contact at all.
No matter who he called, be it Misaki, Tadokoro, or Riku, none of his calls would go through.
It was the same even after he got discharged a month later.
He couldn’t get into contact with anyone.
Kagami tried visiting Bistro La Salle, but it was closed.
“I’m pretty sure Hiyori would be working here even after the final battle with the Natives, so why…?”
Since he couldn’t even get into contact with Yumiko, there was no one who could answer Kagami’s doubts.
After dropping Kagami off at the hospital, Tendou said that he was going to Paris, but Kagami couldn’t tell if he was lying or not.
Kagami had no choice but to return to his apartment.
But whenever he tried to get back into his usual lifestyle, he would be struck with extreme exhaustion, and failed to ever get out of his bed.
It was an endless cycle of staring at the walls or ceilings, falling asleep, waking up, and so on. He always arrived at the same question.
“What am I supposed to do now…?”
His feelings were a jumbled mess of success and loss.
The world was supposed to have set a course for a new direction after the final battle with the Natives.
But Kagami had lost so much.
Tendou, Tadokoro, Misaki, Renge, his father… and Hiyori.
No, he wasn’t even sure whether he had actually lost them or not.
Wrapped in lethargy, he did nothing but waste his time sleeping all day.
Suddenly his cell phone rang.
Kagami didn’t want to get up, the incessant ringing showed no sign of stopping any time soon.
“Hello?”
Upon finally squeezing out his voice, a high-pitched female voice responded to him.
“Help me.”
Not only was it completely unfamiliar, but it also sounded like a foreigner.
Kagami set down his phone and went over the words he heard once again.
“Help me.”
The serious meaning those words held ended up dampening Kagami’s mood.
“Even after saving humanity, there’s still stuff people want me to do?”
Tendou wouldn’t say something like that, Kagami thought to himself.
Perhaps it was because he had spoken for the first time in a while, but he suddenly felt hungry.
“I guess I’ll eat.”
As if trying to cheer himself up, he spoke those words and crawled out from his cave-like blanket.
He then cooked up some instant ramen and started eating.
The sound of him slurping up the ramen only made him feel even more empty.
“This isn’t good enough.”
Those kinds of thoughts continued to rise up inside him.
Kagami turned on the television.
He surfed through the channels.
Variety, gossip, drama reruns.
Nothing had changed at all.
It was as if everything with the Worms, the Natives, and the Shibuya Meteorite had never even happened before.
Kagami was frustrated. It felt like the whole world was completely ignoring everyone who put their lives on the line to save humanity.
But as he thought about that, even Kagami himself began to feel like that battle was a distant memory.
The only thing that he was certain of was that he was stuck all alone in his crude one-room apartment.
Kagami decided to go outside for the time being.
But Kagami didn’t know where to go.
He sat on a bench in the park and absentmindedly thought to himself. And then he arrived at a conclusion.
He had to find out what exactly had happened within the month following the battle with the Natives.
Upon finding a goal, Kagami felt filled with motivation for the first time in a while.
His legs naturally carried him to Tendou’s house.
But upon arriving at the house, there was no nameplate.
Ringing the doorbell gave no response.
Kagami climbed over the gate and entered the premises.
But the door was locked. Knocking gave no response either, to no surprise.
“Who might you be?”
Suddenly Kagami heard a voice from behind, and he turned around.
Standing there was an old lady.
Her eyes had a clear and dignified look to them.
Part 2
The old lady, dressed in her elegant kimono, with her pure white but lively hair neatly tied back, looked straight at Kagami.
Her imposing manner led Kagami to think that this person might very well be the “Grandma” Tendou had always mentioned.
“Sorry for intruding. I’m Kagami, a friend of a man who used to live here.”
“I see. Unfortunately, no one lives here right now.”
“Would you happen to know where Tendou might have gone?”
“The real estate company is in complete charge of the house’s management, so I’m afraid I wouldn’t know anything…”
It seemed that Tendou really had disappeared.
“Oh, but what about his little sister, Jyuka?”
“Why don’t we continue this conversation inside? Come on in.”
The old lady invited Kagami into the house.
Kagami found himself awash with nostalgia as he walked through the living room, noticing that everything looked the same as ever.
But the leather sofa looked lonely without Tendou who always sat on it arrogantly with his legs outstretched.
The old lady didn’t know where Tendou had disappeared off to, but she was able to tell Kagami that his little sister Juka had gone to study abroad in America two weeks ago.
After that, the furnished house became vacant.
Kagami politely thanked the old lady and was about to leave the house.
“Oh, I almost forgot.”
The old lady quickly ran to another room and then returned carrying a single picture.
It was a picture postcard addressed to Tendou that was sent from Bangkok in Thailand a week ago.
The sender’s name was Hiyori, but the contents of the postcard were clearly not written by her. They were written with unfamiliar English letters. The contents said the following:
“I’m someone who traveled with Hiyori for a while after meeting her at an inn I was staying at. Hiyori is currently sick and resting. She’s been running a fever for several days now, so I recommended she go to the hospital, but she’s insistent on not going, and on top of that, she keeps telling me not to tell anyone about her. But I couldn’t help but be worried, so I sent this letter to an address I found in her notebook.”
On the postcard was the name “Rin”, which was surmised to be a girl’s name, as well as the address of the inn she was staying at in Bangkok.
Kagami then realized that the foreigner-like voice that said “Help me” was most likely Rin as well. Assuming that his phone number was in Hiyori’s notebook, it all added up.
Kagami immediately stopped caring about that empty month-long gap of his life.
He decided to head to Bangkok and help Hiyori as soon as possible.
The old lady felt relief upon hearing that.
She was concerned for Hiyori as well after reading the postcard.
“I’m jealous of how much energy young people have.”
For just a second, the old lady’s eyes glimmered with the light of a little girl.
Her smile granted Kagami’s lonely soul the courage and motivation it needed.
Before seeing off Kagami at the front door, the old lady even gave him a good luck charm.
Kagami politely said his thanks and exited the house.
Later on, Kagami realized that he had forgotten to ask about the old lady’s relationship with Tendou.
“That’s okay. Right now I just need to get to Bangkok!”
Kagami was determined.
But Kagami’s only experience with overseas travel was his field trip to Hawaii from his high school days.
With no idea where to start, Kagami first went to a convenience store to read some tourism magazines, and after deciding that it would be faster to just ask about details directly, he immediately headed to a travel agency that was listed in the magazine.
Kagami went up to the window preparing for the worst, but was surprised to find that the receptionist immediately offered him cheap options for flying to Bangkok.
Kagami immediately purchased the fastest option available.
He withdrew his entire balance and set off from the Narita Express.
He knew nothing about his destination Bangkok.
“But things’ll work out as long as I get there. I won’t get anywhere until I at least start moving forward.”
Kagami spoke to himself as he absentmindedly gazed at the scenery from behind the window of a taxi.
Lying at the bottom of his backpack with his frugal luggage was his Gattack belt.
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