Paper Airplane Series Episode 11: Kaori Sees It

1 | The hospital morning was noisier than usual

The hospital morning was a little noisier than usual.

“Kaori-chan, are you done with your rounds yet?”
“Yes, I'm going now!”

Even though I'm an intern, I'm being entrusted with more tasks.
I roll up my scrub sleeves a little and tie my hair back.

(It's going to be a busy day again...)

It was the moment I closed the chart and stood up.

──Whoosh...

The wind blowing in from the automatic door stretched out strangely long.
It was an unnatural, quiet breeze, as if someone had just passed through.

(...Huh?)

The next moment.

2 | The wind 'slides in' for a long time

A single paper airplane came flying, sliding down the hospital corridor.

Slowly.
Really slowly.
Trailing a small afterimage, as if it had just left someone's hand.

“Eh... in a hospital? Whose is it?”

Looking around, there was no one in sight.
It was folded too sloppily to have been dropped by a child patient.

Kaori crouched down and picked it up.

She felt as if the paper in her hand still held a little warmth.

(No... must be my imagination.)

But her heart was beating strangely fast.

Should she open it?
Would it be better not to?
But if she didn't look, she would be even more curious.

I took a deep breath and gently unfolded it.

3 | What was written there

In the center, a familiar handwriting.

And, one more line below that.

Kaori gasped.

(This handwriting...
The feel of this paper...
Why is it, her face suddenly came to mind?)

There was no clear evidence.
But, there was a faint sense of connection, like a small light glowing deep in her chest.

It was a different folding style from the paper airplane I picked up a few days ago.
However, I felt like it had the same scent somehow.

(...Maybe it's just my imagination. But...)

A feeling she couldn't explain even to herself gently pressed deep in her chest.

When she lifted the paper gently, the back showed through.

(...Hmm? Are there still words?)

4 | Another handwriting on the back

When she turned it over, there was completely different handwriting there.
Thick and idiosyncratic, clearly someone else's writing.

Kaori: "...What is this? Who...?

"No way, it feels like it resembles the principal's handwriting..."
But she didn't say it out loud.
(No, no, that can't be right...)

Only confusion remained in her heart.

The protagonist's words. The principal's words.
Two lives have touched on a single sheet of paper.

……Is it a coincidence, or...

Only the wind seemed to know the true reason.

5 | Called by the head nurse (pulled back to reality)

Head Nurse: "Kaori!!
　　　　I asked you to do the 'observation watch' in the ICU, didn't I!?
　　　　Your senior is waiting!!"

Kaori: "I'm sorry!! I'm going now!!"

She hurriedly puts the paper in her pocket.
But her heart is pounding.

(……Why did it fly here……
　Is this really just a prank by the 'wind'?)

Even while running,
she can feel the paper in her pocket swaying slightly against her thigh.

6 | Evening, on the rooftop

By the time her shift ended, the setting sun was reflecting off the hospital glass.

Kaori climbs the stairs to the rooftop alone.

The wind is blowing softly.

She takes the paper airplane out of her pocket,
and unfolds it once more.

In the center, written in that child's handwriting, are
"Continued"
"Thank you for listening"

And, on the back of it,

in thick lines:
"Move now"

The two handwritings were quietly overlapping on the single sheet of paper.

Kaori (inner voice):
(……I'll go to that school tomorrow)

The moment she muttered that,
the wind gently swayed her hair.

It was as if
"go ahead"
had been said to her.

■Next Episode Preview

The principal and his ex-wife have made their move. Kaori has also made her move. All that remains is—
"that boy" at the center of the wind.

Episode 12
《A Reunion That Passes By》

The wind carries someone else away once again.