Emi felt a sharp pang in her chest, a dull ache that radiated outward with every passing word. She couldn't understand why, in the very final moments of the story, Shiori Takahashi-sensei had to pull such a move.
To make Menma so sensible, so heartbreakingly gentle, even at the very end. If no one in the world could perceive her existence anymore, Menma should be the one suffering the most. Yet, in that moment, her only thought was to comfort Jintan, who could no longer see her, only hear her, with the lie of a game.
"We're playing hide-and-seek!"
Emi marveled at the author's ability to create a girl so easy to love, only to force her to vanish in this very chapter.
Jintan, Poppo, Anaru, Tsuruko, and Yukiatsu were all sprinting through the woods in the dead of night. They scoured the mountainside for the Menma they could no longer find with their eyes. Meanwhile, the real Menma remained in the secret base, covering her eyes with both hands to stop the tears from falling.
"Not yet!" she cried out.
Across the hills, the voices of her friends echoed as they called her name. They were truly trying to find her, desperately hoping she wouldn't disappear just yet. But Menma stood in the shack, a lonely figure responding to the echoes.
"Not yet..."
"Not yet..."
She continued to shout back. If there was still anyone in the group who could hear her voice, she wanted them to view her departure as a game of hide-and-seek where she simply remained the one player they could never catch.
Inside the base, she used a pen to scratch out messages on pieces of paper. By the time the first light of dawn touched the mountain peak, she had left five notes in plain sight, each containing her final words to the people she loved.
The group gathered and opened the notes one by one.
I love the Yukiatsu who always works so hard.
I love the gentle Tsuruko.
I love the funny, playful Poppo.
I love the serious, reliable Anaru.
I love Jintan. My love for you is the kind where I want to be your bride.
The five childhood friends broke down, their sobs filling the quiet morning air. Emi lost count of how many times her own tears overflowed as she read. She had expected a moving finale, but she hadn't prepared for an emotional tear gas shell. Until the very end, Menma was thinking only of others, sending out waves of kindness to her friends.
But the story wasn't over. Emi saw there were still a few pages left.
"What is this supposed to be? Menma, aren't we playing hide-and-seek? If we don't find you, it's not over!" Jintan shouted into the empty woods, his face drenched in tears.
"Are you ready?" all five of them shouted toward the open mountain, toward the girl they couldn't see.
Throughout the novel, these five had been driven by their own selfish desires regarding Menma's death and her passing. Jintan wanted her to stay forever. Yukiatsu was jealous and wanted her gone from Jintan's side. Tsuruko and Anaru wanted her to disappear so the boys would finally look at them. Poppo wanted her to pass on just to ease his own childhood guilt.
But in this final assembly of the Super Peace Busters, every heart beat as one. They had one last task.
To finish the game and let her go.
"Are you ready?" they called out, over and over.
Hearing their desperate voices, the smile finally left Menma's face as her own tears began to fall.
"Ready!" she finally replied.
That voice seemed to bridge the gap between their souls.
At that exact moment, beneath the shimmering morning sun filtering through the branches, the five of them saw her. A silver-haired girl in a white dress, looking at them through a veil of tears.
They saw her, and they gave her their final answer.
"We love you!" they cried out in unison.
"I still want to play with everyone," Menma sobbed, leaning against a tree for support. "So, I'm going to be reincarnated. That way, I can play with you all again."
Emi followed every word as the farewell reached its end. Menma's form grew translucent until her shadow vanished entirely. In that final split second, the game reached its conclusion.
"Menma... found you!" the five of them cried.
"I've been found," Menma replied.
Her tear-streaked face was bathed in a brilliant smile. As the sun reached its most dazzling point, she vanished from the world.
Emi felt a hollow emptiness in her soul. Menma's disappearance had served as the cornerstone for rebuilding the group's friendship. On the surface, it was a story about five people saving a dead girl. In reality, it was about a girl returning to save them.
A single magazine contained fourteen stories, but today, Emi had no desire to read anything else. The final few thousand words of Anohana had exhausted her entire emotional reservoir.
Was it a "bad" ending? Not at all. It was a positive, healing conclusion. The dead found peace; the living broke their chains and faced a new life. And yet, Emi found herself grabbing another tissue to blow her nose.
"She just makes you want to cry," she whispered.
She wondered what kind of person Shiori Takahashi was to come up with such a story.
Was the author a gentle, lovely girl like Menma? Perhaps even cuter? The image of a bright, beautiful young woman formed in Emi's mind. In that moment, she became a lifelong fan of the author who had moved her so deeply in just fourteen chapters.
"This person is going to be famous far beyond the Minamijo region," Emi murmured. She closed the issue of Crimson Maple and immediately logged into her account.
She had a rating to change. Looking back at the 7s and 8s she had given earlier, she felt a surge of self-annoyance.
'What was I thinking?' she thought, as she corrected every score to a perfect ten.
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