Chapter 161: Happy Ending
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 161: Happy Ending
After much deliberation, I chose the playground where the two of them had first played together as our meeting spot.
It held a certain symbolic meaning, but more practically, the park where the playground was located had become so run-down that people no longer visited, making it a deserted place.
Right after I got to school, I walked over to Ryuji, who was sitting by the window, nodding off.
"Ryuji."
"...Huh? What's up?"
"Do you have some time after school?"
Ryuji yawned, looking tired.
"Yeah, well, time is all I have. It's not like I'm in any club activities."
"Great. That works out perfectly. Come with me somewhere."
"Where are we going?"
"There's someone who wants to meet you."
A ghost, to be precise.
I glanced at Saya, who was waiting anxiously beside me for his answer, then looked at Ryuji with a serious expression.
Realizing I wasn't joking, Ryuji readily nodded.
"Sure, why not. It's a request from you, so I doubt it's anything weird."
"Thank you, really."
I bowed my head slightly and returned to my seat.
With this, all the preparations are complete.
The operation would begin after school.
Now, everything else depended on the conversation between the two of them.
「What do I do? I'm so nervous.」
Seeing Saya so overjoyed she could barely contain herself, I felt a strange sense of unease, but I decided to put my faith in one thing.
The persuasive power of Sakamoto Ryuji, the protagonist of this rom-com world.
*
After school.
The walk home today was a little different.
Normally, it would have been just Rika and me on the subway, but today, Ryuji was with us.
If you included the ghosts, Saya and Mahes, we were already a large group of five.
"Well, we'll get going now."
"Okay, see you! See you at school tomorrow!"
After waving goodbye to Rika, who saw us off with her usual energetic smile, we got off at Chitose-Funabashi Station.
As the two of us walked toward the park, Ryuji, who was beside me, spoke up first.
"So, Yoo-Sung, isn't it about time you told me? Who is this person that wants to meet me?"
"Ah, about that."
I scratched my cheek and averted my gaze.
"You probably know them. And you'll be incredibly happy to see them."
"???"
Ryuji's expression grew even more confused.
I couldn't say I didn't understand how he felt.
It was only natural he wouldn't understand why a guy he'd known for less than half a year was suddenly saying something like this.
"Well, seeing is believing. It'll be faster for you to understand if you see for yourself."
I brushed off the conversation with those words and quickened my pace slightly.
The place we arrived at was the public park near my house.
"This place is..."
Ryuji's face showed immediate recognition, as if it were a familiar spot.
"Wow, it's been so long. I can't believe this place is still here."
He walked over to the old slide and stroked it fondly, a nostalgic look on his face as he seemed to get lost in old memories.
"I used to come to this playground a lot when I was in elementary school. Is the person you mentioned one of the friends I used to play with back then?"
"That's right."
I nodded and checked my phone screen.
[I've arrived nearby.]
It was a message from Sasha.
Lifting my head, I looked around and saw Sasha walking toward us in the distance.
Ryuji followed my gaze and made a strange face.
"Isn't that Sasha?"
"It is."
"Sasha knew me when I was a kid? Did I forget or something?"
I shook my head.
"It's not what you're thinking, so don't worry. Sasha's just here to help."
"To help?"
Just then, Sasha reached the playground and approached us with a small wave.
"Yo, Kim Yoo-Sung."
"Sasha, thanks for coming today."
"You're one of my few friends. Of course I had to come."
As she spoke, she exchanged a nod with Saya, who was floating next to me.
In any case, everyone was now gathered.
I turned to Ryuji, who was still looking at us with a bewildered expression, and asked him a question.
"Ryuji, do you believe in ghosts?"
Ryuji tilted his head as if it were a completely random question.
"I didn't before, but now that Mahes is here, I do."
"That's a relief. The person who wants to meet you today is a ghost, too."
As I said that and looked at Saya, she nodded and entered Sasha's body in front of us.
Snap!
At that exact moment, I felt something invisible connecting her and me break.
Simultaneously, Sasha's normally blue hair slowly began to turn white.
Ryuji stared, speechless, at the supernatural phenomenon unfolding before his eyes.
It might have been a lot for a normal person like him to take in, but it couldn't be helped this time.
Without possessing a body, Saya couldn't have a conversation.
Presently,
the lips of Sasha, who had transformed into the image of a snow-white Yukionna, parted.
"It's been a while, Ryuji."
The voice that came from her throat was not Sasha's.
It seemed Saya now had control over the body.
And upon hearing Saya's voice, Ryuji's eyes began to tremble as if an earthquake had struck.
After a long silence, he barely managed to ask.
"Are you... Chiaki?"
It was a name I'd never heard before.
But I knew it had to be Saya's real name.
The moment he said "Chiaki," Sasha's possessed body flinched.
As if to confirm my guess, she murmured to herself.
"Right, I remember now. My name is Shirogane Chiaki..."
Then, as if she'd gained confidence, she took a step forward.
"It's been a long time, Ryu-chan. Has it been almost six years?"
The moment he heard that, Ryuji's eyes grew heavy with emotion.
"...Yeah, it's been a long time, Chiaki."
To be honest, I couldn't even begin to imagine what he was feeling right now.
The girl you liked as a child, the one you promised to marry, suddenly appears before you one day as a ghost. How were you supposed to react?
Ryuji hesitated before asking.
"What happened to you?"
Saya—no, Chiaki—replied with a bitter smile.
"You know, don't you, Ryu-chan? The incurable disease I've had since I was little... I eventually died because of it."
"...Was it because of me? Because I took you outside?"
"No, it wasn't like that. The doctor told me anyway. That if things continued as they were, I'd die before I turned twenty. My condition just worsened while I was resting, so I died a little sooner than expected."
Even though she was talking about her own death, Chiaki was calm, as if she were talking about someone else.
Perhaps that was only possible because she was already dead.
But seeing Ryuji still looking so distraught over her death, Chiaki seemed to feel sorry for him and reached out to stroke his cheek.
"Still, I'm glad. That I was able to meet you again like this."
"Chiaki..."
"I still remember it. The promise we made on the day I left this town."
"...You mean when we said we'd get married when we grew up?"
"Yes. That's right."
Chiaki nodded with a faint smile.
"Please forget that promise now."
"......"
Ryuji couldn't answer her request right away.
He probably knew it too.
He knew just how important that promise was to Chiaki.
The reason she couldn't pass on and remained on Earth.
One of her greatest lingering attachments to this world had to be that promise.
Finally, Ryuji spoke.
"Chiaki, can I be stubborn about just one thing?"
"...What is it?"
"I can't grant that request."
Caressing Chiaki's cold hand, Ryuji spoke with a brave smile.
"Honestly, I've never forgotten the promise we made when we parted for a single moment. And that will probably be the same even when I'm an adult."
He paused for a beat before continuing.
"No matter how you look at it, you were my first love."
The moment she heard those words, Chiaki's face flushed bright red.
"Wh-What are you suddenly saying?"
But Ryuji's confession, now that it had started, didn't stop.
"Even though you've become a ghost and it's a promise that can no longer be fulfilled, I at least want to be the one to remember you. I want to be the one to cherish the memory that you existed in this world."
"So,"
"Will you let me remember you forever?"
Struck by Ryuji's direct confession, Chiaki stammered for a moment before lowering her head and speaking in a voice that was barely a whisper.
"...I will."
Their conversation ended there.
A girl who wished to be forgotten and a boy who wished to remember.
It was truly a tragic story.
If she had lived, she probably would have been treated as the true heroine of the work known as Scramble Love by the readers.
I was watching the two of them in the sunset-drenched playground, feeling a strange sense of regret over that fact.
That's when Mahes, who had been silent beside me, spoke.
「Then shouldn't this girl just join us?」
"Huh?"
I turned my head, caught off guard by a possibility I hadn't considered at all.
In a situation like this, wasn't the standard trope for the ghost heroine to pass on after resolving her lingering attachments?
But at Mahes's suggestion, which pointed in a completely different direction, Ryuji's eyes widened.
"Is that really okay?"
「That depends on the girl's will. Whether she passes on now, or whether she remains by your side.」
It seemed to be an unexpected proposal for Chiaki as well, who, still in Sasha's body, wore a dazed expression.
"Is that really alright?"
「It's merely the difference between reincarnating sooner or later. You haven't become an evil spirit, so I can turn a blind eye to such a minor transgression with my authority.」
Having found their answer in Mahes's confident declaration, the two looked at each other.
Then, Chiaki spoke first.
"Well then... I'll be in your care from now on, Ryu-chan."
"I'll be in your care too, Chiaki."
After saying so, the two of them looked at each other and smiled brilliantly.