The Moon’s Ship That Crosses The Night: Chapter 20

Previous TOC Next

As Kawase stepped out of his uncle’s clinic, he found that the rain had started to fall. His uncle lent him a vinyl umbrella, which he opened as he walked. He had offered him two, saying he could take an extra one, but the thought of dealing with the man while carrying another umbrella seemed like too much trouble, so he declined.

Under a single umbrella, the two of them walked side by side. His outer shoulder got wet, and since their walking pace didn’t match, he had to speed up or slow down to adjust, which irritated him.

On the way back to his apartment, after getting off at the nearest station, Kawase spoke.

"Six years... maybe seven years ago, I attended your mother’s funeral."

The man muttered, "Now that you mention it, that was back when we worked together."

"Can you tell me her name?"

"Whose?"

"Your mother’s."

After a brief pause, the man murmured, "I forgot."

"What? That’s ridiculous. She was your own mother."

The man tilted his head.

"No, really, I can’t remember. I wonder why... Maybe I’m getting dementia?"

Kawase was convinced he was being mocked. This man had no intention of giving either him or his uncle any useful information for his treatment.

"Enough already."

When he shouted, the man stopped walking.

"Why won’t you tell me anything? Do you really hate letting people know about you that much?"

The man blinked a few times while looking slightly upward. Maybe he was trying to face Kawase, but their eyes never met.

"Her name was actually Sumiko, wasn’t it?"

He blurted it out recklessly, just to test him.

The man let out a quiet "Ah."

"That’s right, Sumiko. But how do you know that?"

"Because my uncle was her doctor for a long time. That’s why I remember."

"I see. I thought his voice sounded familiar from somewhere. The world is small, isn’t it?"

The man’s gentle, almost absentminded way of speaking made Kawase think that maybe he really had forgotten. But he couldn’t be sure. Trying to figure out whether the man was telling the truth or not was exhausting.

The rain grew heavier.

"We should go," Kawase said, and as he started walking, the man, who had been holding onto his arm, moved with him.

So the man and Shibaoka Sumiko were mother and son. And Shibaoka Sumiko had taken her own life due to mental illness. Perhaps the man also had some kind of psychological weakness… No, he definitely did.

But if they were mother and son, then what about what Kobayashi had said—about the man referring to his "wife"? Calling his mother his wife would be strange. However, since his uncle had insisted from the beginning that they were parent and child, maybe Kobayashi had mistaken him for someone else.

Beside him, the man let out a small sigh. But to be honest, Kawase was the one who felt like sighing.

A suicidal man. A blind man.

Still, if he just had to look after him for ten days, until his eyes healed, maybe he could endure it.

◇:-:◆:-:◇

Kawase arrived at the office past 11:30 AM. Being a Monday, his computer was surrounded by a colorful assortment of sticky notes, decorating it like some kind of unpleasant ornament. He felt drained just looking at them.

“Oh, you’re here. I thought you might be off today,” Matsushita called out as he passed by.

“I took a short leave,” Kawase replied, mass-deleting minor emails and tossing five sticky notes from the right edge of his desk straight into the trash.

“Oi, Kawase!”

When he turned around, Arisawa was standing behind him.

“You sent me an email on Friday, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Frowning slightly, wondering why he was bringing this up now, Kawase watched as Arisawa awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“I actually forgot my phone at the office. When I came in this morning, I saw your email and missed calls. So, what was that urgent thing you needed to talk to me about?”

The absurd excuse made Kawase’s shoulders slump. It was far too late now, and besides, it was no longer something that needed discussing.

“It’s nothing important anymore. It’s already been dealt with.”

Arisawa gave a shallow nod. “Hmm, well, if that’s the case.”

“By the way, you were late today, weren’t you?”

So much for slipping in unnoticed—he’d been caught. He gave an honest “Sorry.”

Today was the man’s dermatology appointment. Since they hadn’t been able to book a slot, they had to line up early in the waiting room. Kawase had expected a long wait from the last time, so he’d brought his laptop to get some work done. It was hard to focus, but better than doing nothing.

The man sat there vacantly. Kawase didn’t talk to him, and the man didn’t ask anything either. The appointment took longer than expected, and though he had only taken leave until 11:00 AM, by the time they were done, it was already 10:45. He couldn’t just send the man home alone, but considering his slow pace, taking the train was out of the question. He had no choice but to take a taxi back to the apartment. After dropping the man off, he rushed to the station, but still ended up being thirty minutes late.

“The consultation took longer than I thought…”

Arisawa’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.

“What, you were the one seeing a doctor?”

“Oh, no, I’m fine. It’s my mother… she’s been feeling a little unwell.”

He couldn’t exactly say he was looking after the man, so he lied.

“Your mom?” Arisawa’s voice carried a hint of sympathy. Feeling guilty, Kawase added another lie.

“But it’s nothing serious.”

“Well, if anything happens, let me know early. We can adjust the workload if needed.”

The more concern Arisawa showed, the heavier Kawase’s guilt became.

“Oh, right,” Arisawa suddenly said, clapping his hands.

“Almost forgot—your proposal for ‘(Temp) Crab-Flavored Cheese’ got approved!”

Kawase’s hand clenched into a fist before he could stop himself.

“Seriously?”

‘(Temp) Crab-Flavored Cheese’ was a snack combining cheese and a crab-flavored processed fish product. By using surimi, they could cut costs while leveraging their company’s seasoning technology to bring out a unique crab-like taste.

“To be honest, it probably won’t be a massive hit, but it has the potential to be a long-term seller. You’re leading the project, and your team will be Matsushita, Enoki, and Wada.”

“Got it.”

“That makes this your fourth project, right? Well, don’t overdo it.”

With a light pat on Kawase’s shoulder, Arisawa returned to his desk.

Kawase felt a surge of excitement. Even knowing the hard work ahead, getting a new product approved always gave him the same thrill as getting his hands on concert tickets.

Ignoring his other tasks for now, he started mapping out the steps to turn ‘(Temp) Crab-Flavored Cheese’ into an actual product. As he jotted down rough notes in his notebook, noon arrived. He felt a little guilty about being late, but skipping lunch wasn’t an option if he wanted to make it through the afternoon.

Wallet in hand, he stepped into the elevator, just as Arisawa slipped in after him. Spotting Kawase, he grinned and said, “Oh, you’re eating out today too?”

"I'm getting tired of the cafeteria."

LEMIO had an employee cafeteria, but after years of eating there, Kawase found himself growing weary of it. Occasionally, he would step out for a change of pace.

"Yeah, same here. I just have to get some soba from Kabuku-an today."

Arms crossed, Arisawa nodded firmly. Kabuku-an was a small, old shop tucked away in a back alley. The interior was cramped, but the soba was nothing short of exquisite. It was the kind of choice Kawase would expect from someone with Arisawa’s refined palate. Watching his superior, Kawase suddenly remembered something.

"Chief, mind if I tag along to Kabuku-an?"

Arisawa readily agreed, and the two of them headed out together. The place was crowded, as expected during lunch hour, but since it was soba, the turnover was fast. Within five minutes, they were seated at a table. After placing their orders for the lunch special soba, the energetic voice of the staff relayed their request to the kitchen.

"Chief, can I ask you something about the former branch president?"

Kawase spoke in a serious tone.

"Hmm? Something about Shibaoka?"

"Um... The branch president, he lost his sight once due to stress, didn’t he?"

"You knew about that?!"

"Well, he mentioned it briefly at the drinking party the other day…"

He slipped in a small lie. Arisawa took a sip of the cold barley tea and said, "I see."

"If he talked about it himself, I guess it’s no longer a secret. Back then, he asked us not to mention it to anyone at work, but since he’s already left the company, I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore."

"But you knew about it back then, didn’t you, Chief?"

"Knew about it? I was the one who took him to the hospital and looked after him."

Kawase was surprised.

"I couldn’t attend his mother’s funeral, so I went over two days later to bring incense money. The front door was open. Call it a bad feeling, a sixth sense, but something felt off. So I went inside, and there he was, collapsed in the hallway. When I asked him what was wrong, he just said, ‘I can’t see.’ I panicked and rushed him to the hospital. But no matter where we went, they couldn’t find anything physically wrong. Turned out it was all stress-related. His mother had just passed away, and he was completely alone. So I started bringing him food, taking him to the hospital—basically looking after him. Eventually, it got too troublesome to keep going back and forth, so I just stayed over at his place. And somehow, over time, his sight came back. Strange how these things work."

"Did you… encourage him while you were by his side?"

"Encourage?" Arisawa tilted his head.

"Like… telling him it’s going to be okay, that his sight would come back… that kind of thing."

Arisawa let out a thoughtful hum.

"I don’t really know much about illnesses, but if it was caused by stress, I figured saying ‘you’ll get better’ too much or fussing over him too much might backfire. So I just handled it however I felt was right at the time."

Knowing Arisawa’s personality, Kawase figured he had truly taken a laid-back approach, just as he described.

"But why are you suddenly bringing up Shibaoka?"

"Ah… well, I… I know someone who suddenly lost their sight, too. The cause is unknown…"

He stammered through a flimsy excuse. Arisawa furrowed his brows, looking concerned.

"That sounds rough."

"But… they got their sight back pretty quickly."

"Wait, was that what you wanted to consult me about?"

"Uh… yeah, kind of."

"Sorry about that. I should’ve answered my phone sooner."

"It’s fine now."

Arisawa let out a sigh and crossed his arms.

"There are all sorts of strange illnesses out there. The problem with cases like this is that even when you go to a hospital, they can’t tell you the cause, and there’s no clear treatment either. And the tricky part is, not everyone reacts the same way to stress. Some people might break down, while others don’t. So if you end up like that, people just assume you were mentally weak to begin with."

"Do you think he was weak, mentally?"

"Who knows." Arisawa shrugged.

"When we worked together, I never thought so. But his mother had just died, and they seemed close. You never really know what’s going on inside someone’s head. As long as they seem fine on the outside, most people don’t care what’s happening underneath."

His words were blunt but rang true.

"Yeah… I guess so," Kawase murmured in agreement.

Previous TOC Next