Ch.189Epilogue. Never Meant to Stay (1)

Although my working days have decreased, so have my reasons for earning money diligently.

Since living expenses were coming from Kagami’s savings, my part-time job earnings were just accumulating.

Of course, I felt a bit guilty about just living off her, so I offered to contribute to the expenses, but Kagami refused with a Buddha-like smile.

“You don’t need to do that when you’re not even an adult yet.”

…It seems she was pleased by the mere fact that I offered to contribute to living expenses.

By the way, it seems she’s planning for us to live together for a while even after I become an adult. Well, I suppose we’ll continue living together until I become independent.

Anyway, as the money accumulated, I naturally had other thoughts.

Before, I had to worry about using this money for food and transportation, but now it was truly “free” money.

No one would say anything about how I spent it.

And as soon as I realized that, I headed straight to Akihabara.

Yes. I haven’t been able to do many otaku-like things since coming to this world, but my essential nature hasn’t changed.

Some might think manga, animation, and games can be enjoyed later, but that’s not true. Trendy things, once gone, never return.

The best time to buy merchandise for currently airing anime is now.

Game cases, DVDs, and album covers get broken and worn, and figures gradually yellow over time no matter how carefully you maintain them.

I knew all too well that by the time you grow up and want to buy things from that era, all you can find are items bearing the marks of time.

“Kotone?”

“……”

However, my plan to “buy whatever I want” was shattered by a single word from Koko who had followed me.

In my previous life, I didn’t care about my little sister’s gaze. In fact, I didn’t particularly care about the gazes of friends or classmates either.

I would proudly discuss manga with friends in the classroom and display bunny girl figures in my room regardless of my sister’s contemptuous looks.

But here?

I carefully looked at Koko’s face.

“Woo?”

A face of pure innocence.

Very, very fortunately, Koko didn’t ask “Why is that person so undressed?”

I wouldn’t have any good answer if she asked me why I was buying such things.

I didn’t care if the sister I’d lived with since childhood looked down on me, but if Koko were to look at me with such an expression, I would be deeply hurt.

Besides, all my friends are girls. The only boy is Sasaki at best. While Sasaki supposedly likes manga and such, I didn’t particularly notice any figures when I visited his house.

My friends wouldn’t despise me for buying figures. They might accept it as a somewhat unusual hobby, and I might end up in the position of an “otaku with many friends” like those slice-of-life anime protagonists from the old days.

“……”

That is, if my mind were about 20 years younger.

My ego isn’t as inflated as it was then, my chuunibyou has been somewhat cured due to various issues, and having passed through the stormy period, I now seek normalcy rather than individuality. It was difficult for me to think about doing that in front of those friends again.

Plus, there’s Kagami at home.

If she looks at me with that Buddha-like expression while nodding her head kindly, I don’t think I could handle it mentally.

“Shall we go look at books?”

“Yes!”

In the end, I changed direction.

Well, I guess books or DVDs would be fine.

Come to think of it, it’s a huge merit to be able to buy and read content immediately without having to wait months or years, with nothing being deleted.

If I save a bit more money, I could buy a game console too.

As I nodded to myself, Koko following behind me tilted her head curiously.

*

And what I ended up buying was a camcorder.

Not an old one that uses 8mm tapes, but a digital camcorder that had just been released. It was a camcorder that couldn’t even reach SD quality, let alone 720p DVD quality.

Compared to monitors that would become commonplace in the market 20 years later, the image quality was incredibly poor, but it wasn’t a big problem at this time since monitor resolution wasn’t particularly good yet.

“Oh, a camera.”

Kagami said to me with a smile.

“Is there something you want to film?”

Only after hearing Kagami’s words did I recall that I had taken quite a lot of photos last year.

I thought I was going to die, so I wanted to leave evidence. Of course, photos taken with a phone wouldn’t have great quality, but I thought that was the only way to remain in my friends’ memories for as long as possible.

I had thought about buying a film camera too, but never did. The farewell came much faster than I had expected.

“Something I want to film…”

I muttered as I opened the box.

By the standards of an era where smartphones made separate “camcorders” unnecessary, it looked somewhat strange. Actually, even to me who didn’t have a camcorder at home during childhood, it looked a bit peculiar.

Folding the screen part for storage was similar to camcorders 20 years later, but overall the camcorder was quite elongated. It might be easier to understand if I described it as looking like a pistol with the handle removed.

The screen could rotate quite a lot, even completely around to film oneself.

Actually, I didn’t buy it because there was something specific I wanted to film.

I just knew that this year, You○ube, which would eventually grow into the world’s largest streaming site, would launch its service. I don’t think it will make a lot of money right away. But if I start now, by the mid-2010s, I could definitely establish a character as someone who’s been on YouTube for 10 years.

People in this world don’t know I’m a character, but videos of “real” high school students in sailor uniforms might be interesting in some sense—a rather mercenary calculation.

“Kotone?”

But those thoughts vanished when I saw Koko tilting her head, looking at me lost in thought.

I don’t mind appearing alone, but I wouldn’t want my friends or Koko to be hurt by appearing in videos.

…I’ll have to film those kinds of videos alone.

Well, that’s fine.

Even if I film those alone, there’s no limit to what can be captured with a camcorder.

I attached the battery to the camcorder. When I turned it on, there was a little charge.

I opened the screen, turned around, and filmed Koko and Kagami.

“Oh my.”

While Koko just blinked, not quite understanding what I was doing, Kagami quickly moved away.

“Why? Are you shy about being filmed? You took photos just fine.”

By the way, the photos we took at the festival were nicely framed and displayed in the room. Seeing Kagami occasionally look at those photos with joy makes me think they turned out well.

I wonder if she ever cried looking at those photos after I died?

“Taking photos when properly dressed and being suddenly filmed are different, I think.”

She seemed genuinely upset, so I quickly turned off the camera, and Kagami spoke in a somewhat soothing tone.

This is the first time she’s been this serious since we started living together. I should be careful about this.

I didn’t think Kagami would care about her appearance—ah, no. I guess it makes sense, since Kagami used to make a living based on her looks.

“Kotone.”

Koko grabbed my hand, and when I looked up, I saw her staring intently at the camcorder I was holding.

She seemed curious about what this object was, since both Kagami and I seemed to know but she didn’t.

“Want me to show you?”

“Yes!”

I turned the camcorder back on to show her.

[Oh my.]

[Why? Are you shy about being filmed? You took photos just fine.]

And then Kagami’s face appeared in the video.

She looks beautiful even like this. Her casual clothes were a bit low-cut, but honestly, they were much more modest than what she wore at the bar.

Besides, I had no particular intention of sharing this video with others. I just wanted to use it to reminisce later, after a long time had passed.

“…Was it saved?”

While Koko and I were watching the video, a voice came from behind.

It was almost the same as Kagami’s usual voice, but I could tell. This was a slightly angry voice.

“Ah, well—”

I was about to make excuses and delete it, but somehow that didn’t seem right either.

Natural videos are most effective when captured in one take. If you film again later, you only get typical footage of people prepared to be filmed.

I’m not some philosophical film director, but if you’re filming everyday life, isn’t it best to capture people just living normally?

Thinking that, I quickly turned the screen toward us.

The screen was a bit cramped.

With the three of us sitting side by side looking into it, it was almost completely filled.

None of us were particularly well-groomed. Koko and I had just bathed, so our hair wasn’t completely dry, and Kagami was a bit more disheveled than usual.

But because three such people were side by side, the image in the video looked very harmonious.

And only after seeing us together like this did I realize.

Ah, I really do resemble Kagami.

Since Koko looked exactly like me too, the three women in the video truly looked like a mother and her daughters.

“……”

Kagami stopped speaking, and I glanced at her.

She had been reaching between Koko and me to take the camcorder, but her eyes were fixed on the screen.

Her outstretched hand lost some of its strength.

“…What do you think?”

I asked cautiously.

Kagami said nothing in response to my question, then let out a small sigh.

“Don’t show it to other people.”

“Okay.”

I nodded.

I was smiling inside, and Kagami lowered her hand and hugged Koko and me from both sides.

“Whoa!”

Koko made such a sound, clearly delighted.

The three of us got closer, and we were clearly visible in the video.

“Kagami, you should look at the lens, not the screen.”

“I know.”

At my words, Kagami smiled toward the lens.

It was a somewhat awkward smile.

She’s always smiling, but when suddenly asked to pose for a photo, her expression stiffens.

Or maybe it’s because it’s video, not a photo.

Well, whatever.

I might not tease her about it now.

But who knows, maybe in about 10 years.

That thought must have shown on my face because Kagami glanced at me briefly, but I desperately pretended not to notice.

*

“Ah!? Oh, a camcorder?”

On the way to school.

Yuka was waiting in front of Tamachi Station, and when I approached her filming from a distance, she was startled.

“Did you just buy it?”

Seeing her fiddle with her bangs slightly, it seems video isn’t as easy to capture as photos.

“Yes. I want to preserve memories.”

“…Really?”

As if sensing something in my words, Yuka narrowed her eyes slightly and looked at me.

“It’s not like that this time.”

Yuka must have realized that the reason I took so many photos was because of the prophecy, so I deliberately spoke in a slightly firmer voice than usual.

“We only have two years left of high school.”

“Ah, I see.”

Yuka nodded at my words. She seemed to understand.

It’s February now.

We hadn’t become second-years yet, and since graduation happens in April, there were actually well over two years left in terms of time, but having gone through school life once before, I couldn’t think of that time as short.

Time only seems to have passed quickly in retrospect.

“The seniors will graduate next year too.”

I nodded calmly at Yuka’s words.

You can’t hold back the flow of time.

But at the very least, I wanted to record it.

Initially I bought it for an extremely mercenary reason, but it’s fortunate that I found another good use for it.

“We’ll definitely have to bring it when we travel.”

Yuka said with a smile.

“Of course.”

I answered with a smile too.

After walking silently for a moment, Yuka suddenly spoke as if she’d just remembered something.

“Oh, right.”

And looking at me, she said:

“You couldn’t go to Comiket last winter because you were busy.”

“Yeah.”

She’s been thinking about it.

Well, Yuka would think about such things.

They say that when a person faces a near-death experience, their perspective on life changes.

They say you start valuing time more preciously, knowing that life can end at any moment.

Actually, I’m the only one who nearly died… no, who died and came back to life here, but Yuka seems to have taken something from that experience.

“Let’s definitely go this year. It might be a bit late to make New Year’s resolutions now, but still.”

Yuka looked dazzling as she said that with a bright smile.

Somehow my instinct was whispering in my head that there seemed to be some ulterior motive behind it, but I didn’t know then.

Cosplay outfits, if made with care, can take months to complete.

*

“Wow, nice! This is great!”

Fukuda smiled broadly when she saw the camcorder.

She was holding it herself, turning it around and filming everything.

Judging by how I get a little tense every time the lens points my way, there seems to be quite a difference between being the one filming and the one being filmed.

Thinking about it this way, I feel a bit sorry for Kagami.

“W-wait a moment, Harumi!”

When the lens turned toward her, Mako’s face turned red and she covered it with her hands.

“Hehehe. That just makes me want to film you more. You’re even cuter that way.”

“You sound like a criminal.”

Yamashita said incredulously as she watched Fukuda changing camera angles trying to film Mako.

“I wonder how the person saying that would react!?”

Fukuda said as she turned the camera toward Yuu, but Yuu just continued looking at her phone with an expressionless face.

Shrugging as if she had expected that, Fukuda handed the camcorder back to me.

“But I got plenty of cute footage of Mako.”

For reference, she filmed herself as soon as she got the camcorder. Right after that, when she pointed the camera at Koko, Koko raised both arms and shouted “Whoa!” making the classroom erupt in laughter.

“Are you planning to collect videos and make a movie or something?”

“…I hadn’t thought that far.”

I didn’t even mention that I bought it to upload videos to You○ube, yet she immediately guessed it. Fukuda’s intuition is impressive.

Is it because she’s sensitive to trends in this area?

“Come on, it would be a waste to just record and not do anything with it.”

Fukuda said with a smile.

“I’ll think about it.”

I said that because collecting and editing videos of friends didn’t sound like a bad idea.

Of course, I’d need to buy a computer and editing software, but let’s set that aside for now.

“Oh, right!”

Fukuda clapped her hands as if she’d just thought of something.

“How about this? A courage test!”

“A courage test?”

“Yes, yes.”

Fukuda nodded at my question.

“You know how they say ghosts show up well on cameras. If we go somewhere scary and film around, maybe we could capture something too?”

Actually, those are just low-quality cameras capturing something strange, and such photos have almost disappeared decades later as image quality improved…

Well, there’s no need to crush her dreams.

Besides, there really are ghosts in this world.

And the camera I’m holding is incredibly low quality compared to those from 20 years later.

“Sounds good.”

“Really!?”

When I nodded, Fukuda smiled brightly and said:

“C-courage test?”

In contrast, Mako’s face turned pale.

If she’s scared of courage tests, she could just not come along, but judging by her natural reaction, she seems to take it for granted that she’ll follow us.

“But it wouldn’t be right to do it now, would it?”

Fukuda said with a smile.

“It would be better to do it in summer. Those things are best done when it’s hot, right?”

With Fukuda’s words, another event was added to our summer schedule.

By the way, Yuu, sitting behind Mako and Fukuda, had been looking at me with a subtle expression since the courage test was mentioned.

While I can’t be called a formal shrine maiden, I am a descendant of the Kurosawa family.

If you had to call it something, it would be something like a shrine maiden.

Honestly, I’m a bit curious. How would ghosts react if they encountered a group with several people who have done actual shrine maiden work?

It might be fun to capture a ghost’s surprised reaction on video.

I’ll definitely have to bring Yuka too.

…I wonder if Kagami would come along?