As she spoke, she wiped her hands on her apron again.
"I'll just make some miso soup and we'll be all set."
"It's already more than enough. Please don't trouble yourself, Auntie Shimizu," Tsushima Kagami said.
"No trouble at all, it'll be quick."
The three of them settled down around the low table.
Nayotake sat beside her mother, quietly picking at her food and eating, occasionally lifting her eyes to glance at Tsushima Kagami before quickly lowering them again.
Mrs. Shimizu kept piling more food into his bowl, murmuring "eat more, eat more" all the while.
"Auntie, I can serve myself, really..."
Tsushima Kagami looked at the food heaped into a little mountain in his bowl, feeling a bit helpless.
"Oh come now, you've done so much for Nayotake."
"We don't have any way to thank you, so this is the least we can do."
"Here, here, have some soup—careful, it's hot."
The miso soup had tofu and kelp in it, the most ordinary home-style recipe, but it warmed the stomach wonderfully.
Tsushima Kagami took a sip and felt a warmth spread all through him.
After the meal, Nayotake gathered up the bowls and chopsticks and took them to the kitchen to wash.
Mrs. Shimizu got ready to go help too, but Tsushima Kagami called her back.
"Auntie Shimizu, actually, there's another reason I came today."
He drew out a neatly folded form from the inner pocket of his coat.
He spread it open on the table and slid it across to Mrs. Shimizu.
It was an aid application form—black print on white paper, densely covered with all sorts of clauses and explanations.
At the top was the name of a charitable organization.
Tsushima Kagami said, "You know I've recently been collaborating with Shinchōsha on their charity initiatives."
Mrs. Shimizu nodded; she'd known about that for a while.
What's more, these days you often saw it in the news and papers—reports that Tsushima Kagami was donating the royalties from No Longer Human, including all future earnings, to charity.
Tsushima Kagami smiled and continued.
"It just so happens there's a charity that seems to be looking for people who meet their aid criteria."
"So I asked around through my connections at Shinchōsha. Apparently it's mainly aimed at people facing medical hardships."
Tsushima Kagami did his best to keep his tone casual, as though he were just sharing a bit of gossip he'd happened to overhear over tea.
"I had an acquaintance look into it afterward—this organization was newly established."
"Their review threshold is relatively lenient. It's mainly to help people struggling with medical expenses."
"So I got a form sent over. Why don't you and Nayotake fill it out—you might just qualify."
The room fell quiet for a moment.
There was only the sound of running water from the kitchen faucet and the soft clink of dishes.
"Kagami-kun..."
Mrs. Shimizu's voice was a little hoarse.
"You really shouldn't have gone to all this trouble for us."
"I just happened to come across it and asked, that's all. It was no trouble."
"There's no guarantee it'll work out, but there's no harm in trying," Tsushima Kagami cut her off, his tone matter-of-fact.
Mrs. Shimizu rested her hand on the table, her fingertips pressing against the edge of the form.
Her gaze fell on the paper, but she wasn't really reading the words.
Her whole expression seemed distant, dazed.
The truth was, she and Nayotake had once thought about seeking help from charity organizations like this.
So they'd run all over the place, filling out one form after another.
The ward office, the Red Cross, all sorts of charitable groups.
But every time they were told to wait for news, and they waited and waited until nothing ever came of it.
Eventually they'd given up hope.
She never imagined that today Tsushima Kagami would go and track down these charities to get a form for them.
Even if it would, in all likelihood, sink like a stone into the sea again.
Still, this thoughtfulness of his—not even family would necessarily take something so much to heart.
So she didn't say a word about how she'd once sought out organizations like these to no avail.
She merely gave a gentle nod.
"All right, I'll give it a try."
Mrs. Shimizu smiled and picked up a pen, beginning to fill out the form according to the instructions.
Nayotake came out of the kitchen after finishing the dishes, water still dripping from her hands, which she wiped on her apron.
She walked over, and when she saw the form on the table she froze for a moment too.
Then she looked toward her mother beside her, and without saying anything, she knelt down beside her as well.
Once she'd settled in next to her mother, she picked up the form and read it over carefully.
Then she looked calmly at Tsushima Kagami.
"Thank you."
It was impossible to tell, from her look or her voice, whether she felt happy or resigned in that moment.
"Save your thanks for when the application gets approved."
Shimizu Nayotake nodded, and picked up another pen that Tsushima Kagami had prepared beforehand, and began to write.
"Oh, right—you'll also need photos, the ID kind. Do you have any?" Tsushima Kagami suddenly asked just then.
Nayotake thought for a moment, then rose and stepped into the "bedroom" that was partitioned off by a curtain.
After a while, she came back out holding an old photo album.
The album's cover was made of that imitation-leather material, its surface already worn pale, and the metal rings that held the pages had begun to rust.
She sat down at the table, opened the album, and searched through the plastic-sealed pages.
Tsushima Kagami had no intention of prying into other people's private belongings, but his gaze still drifted inadvertently across a few of the photos.
One was an ID photo of Nayotake, probably taken when she started high school.
In the picture she wore a school uniform, her lips pressed lightly together, her hair still short, but the long bangs in front covered her eyes so you couldn't make out her expression.
Back then she looked a little fuller in the face than the first time he'd met her.
There was also a photo of two people together.
The photo had yellowed, its corners creased—you could tell it had been handled over and over.
In it, a young woman held a little girl in her arms, with the cherry blossom trees of some park in the background.
The young woman wore a floral-print dress, her eyes and brows curved with laughter.
The little girl in her arms had her hair tied in two small braids, holding up a stick of cotton candy, the corners of her mouth smeared with sugar, laughing to reveal a few tiny teeth like grains of rice.
That woman was Mrs. Shimizu in her youth.
And the little girl was Nayotake.
"This was taken when Nayotake was three years old."
Mrs. Shimizu leaned in for a look, a nostalgic tenderness in her voice.
"Back then she absolutely loved cotton candy. Every time she saw a cotton candy stand, she couldn't tear herself away..."
Hearing this, Tsushima Kagami suddenly understood—no wonder she loved sweets so much.
A little embarrassed, Nayotake nudged the album back toward herself, but her mother had already reached over and turned to the next page.
The next page held a photo that was clearly older still, its colors already faded with the passing of time.
In it was the front of a small shop, hung with cloth curtains and lanterns.
The shop's name was written on the lintel, but it had blurred beyond legibility.
A man and a woman stood at the shop's entrance. The woman was Mrs. Shimizu in her youth, dressed in a plain kimono, her hair pinned up, a happy smile on her face.
And the man beside her...
Tsushima Kagami didn't look any closer.
Because Mrs. Shimizu's hand had already come to rest over that photo.
Her fingertips pressed down slightly, as though holding something down to keep it from surfacing again.
"That was the little tavern Nayotake's father and I used to run."
Nayotake lifted her head and looked at her mother.
She, too, rarely heard her mother bring up such things.
Mrs. Shimizu's fingers slowly traced over the photo.
Perhaps it was that the lamplight this evening was too warm, or perhaps it was being in the presence of this young man.
All those words she'd bottled up for so long suddenly found an outlet.
"Back then we got by well enough."
"He did the cooking, and I looked after the customers."
"The shop wasn't big, but we had plenty of regulars."
A faint smile rose at the corner of Mrs. Shimizu's mouth, but it was soon scattered as if by a passing wind.
"Later... he got hooked on gambling."
"At first it was just pachinko..."
"But then the bets got bigger and bigger, until even all the shop's earnings couldn't cover them, and he went and borrowed from loan sharks..."
"By the time the creditors came knocking, he was already gone."
"It was only afterward that I learned he'd sold off the little shop after racking up a mountain of debt, and left me all alone."
This was the first time Nayotake had heard her mother speak of any of this.
She remembered how, as a child, whenever she asked about her father, her mother would fall silent.
Without quite meaning to, she pulled that photo out from the album and held it up.
Her fingers gripped the edge of the photo tightly.
As though interrogating the man inside it.
Mrs. Shimizu smiled and took hold of Shimizu Nayotake's hand, gently sliding the photo free.
Then she patted the back of her daughter's hand.
Only then did she look at Tsushima Kagami and go on.
"At that time I'd just gotten pregnant with Nayotake."
"The creditors said he may have run off, but the debt was his, and since I was his wife, I was the one who had to pay it back."
"I don't know whether that logic is right or wrong, but those people weren't the sort you could reason with."
"After that..."
Mrs. Shimizu put the photo back in the album, then closed it.
"After that, with the help and support of friends and neighbors, I managed to give birth to Nayotake safely."
"Then I took her along wherever I went to work—convenience stores, restaurants, cleaning companies..."
"I did all sorts of jobs."
"Later on I also got help from some pro-bono lawyers."
"They told me it was an invalid debt, that I didn't owe those people a single yen."
"And they even took my case to court for free because of it."
"Even though we won the court's ruling in the end."
"I still get harassed by yakuza from time to time."
Nayotake had said nothing the whole time.
She kept her head lowered, clasping Mrs. Shimizu's hand tightly in her own.
Mrs. Shimizu, for her part, seemed to be recounting nothing more than some other person's unfortunate past.
She looked at Nayotake and smiled, stroking her black hair.
For a moment, Tsushima Kagami didn't know what to say either.
It was then that Mrs. Shimizu took it upon herself to smooth things over.
"I'm sorry—I've gone on and on about all this nonsense again."
She gave a little laugh and reached out to pull the form on the table toward her.
"Let me see what else there is to fill in on this form."
Shimizu Nayotake and her mother once again set about filling out the form carefully.
The form was filled in quickly.
Every field was written out with great care.
Once it was done, Nayotake pasted the ID photo from earlier into place.
Then she handed it, together with her mother's form, to Tsushima Kagami.
"Thank you for going to the trouble."
"It's no trouble."
Tsushima Kagami folded the forms and tucked them back into his pocket.
He glanced at the time—it was getting late.
"It's getting late."
"If I take the train back now, I'll be just in time to pick up Shizuku when she gets off work."
"So I'll be taking my leave."
Tsushima Kagami rose to go.
Mrs. Shimizu and Nayotake saw him to the door.
"Take care on the way home."
Mrs. Shimizu stood at the doorway, her hands clasped in front of her, bowing slightly.
"You should both get some rest soon too, Auntie Shimizu, Nayotake."
Tsushima Kagami finished putting on his shoes and turned to leave, then stopped.
"I'll submit the forms tomorrow. I'll let you know as soon as there's any news."
"Yes, yes."
Mrs. Shimizu bowed and nodded again and again.
____
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