No. 6 Volume 2 by Atsuko Asano

Author:Atsuko Asano [Asano, Atsuko]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

"We relied on this memo to get us here."

Rikiga stared intently at Karan's scribbled writing. Shion spoke.

"Shortly after I... escaped from No. 6, my mother sent this to me. She must have thought you were still here. I'm just wondering how you―"

'Know my mother' was what Shion planned to say afterwards, but his words caught in his throat. A tear had spilled from Rikiga's eye.

"Karan... she hadn't forgotten about me... she remembered me... her writing... still the same as I remember it..."

His bowed head and broad shoulders were trembling slightly. Nezumi nudged Shion on the shoulder again.

"Egh, will you look at that. This old man is a teary drunk. At this age too― talk about embarrassing, hah."

"Shut up. What's wrong with getting a little teary? You're always wailing and yelling on the stage."

"That's all acting. What, are you saying yours is an act too, old man?"

Rikiga glared at Nezumi with watery eyes, and raise himself heavily. He extracted a folder from the back of a sturdy bookshelf. He drew a single photo from it and placed it in front of Shion.

"This is Karan and I."

An image of his mother was smiling back at him, young, beautiful and wearing a sleeveless one-piece dress. Beside her stood Rikiga, much thinner and well-proportioned than now, even with a hint of boyishness in his features.

"It was taken decades ago, not long after we met each other. Karan was still a student, and she was interested in the columns I wrote, and came to visit me. The third floor of the company building was my workplace, and when I'd just gotten back from an interview, she was sitting there. It was a rainy day, and thundering outside, but she came all the way out here to see me..."

Rikiga sniffled. Shion and Nezumi looked at each other. Nezumi gave a long, exaggerated sigh.

"You used to be a reporter, didn't you, old man? Can you summarize it a little more efficiently? So basically what you're saying is that you and Shion's Mama first met on the third floor of the Latch Bill company building, am I right?"

"That's right. We got along great... I enjoyed spending time with Karan. I think it must've been love. Back in those days, No. 6 wasn't as closed off as it is now. People were more or less free to come and go. I'd just started my career as a journalist, and one of the things I was sniffing out was about No. 6."

"Sniffing out? So you had some suspicions about that city, huh, old man? You must've had a decent nose back then. Too bad it's useless now."

Rikiga fixed Nezumi with a glare again, and contorted his face in an odd half-grimace.

"Eve, I wasn't kidding when I said I was your fan. When I first went to see you, you were standing centre-stage and reciting a poem. Arthur Rimbaud, I think it was... I was captivated by your appearance, and your voice."

Nezumi licked the grease from the pie off his fingers, and crossed his legs.

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