"A Return for the Favor" Epilogue

From that day on, my smartphone stopped announcing calls from my sister. Since I don't have any friends at school I talk to frequently, I only ever got calls from Daisuke or Nagisa, and I ended up spending my days in silence.

Summer vacation ended peacefully, and it was September.

Even with the new semester, there were no new additions to our reduced class size.

Atsuhisa had submitted his withdrawal papers during summer break and transferred to a correspondence school.

Even though days had passed since the incident, Atsuhisa's foolish actions were not forgotten. The female students who fell victim to his fangs would never forgive him. The people around him felt the same. It is wise to choose to run away rather than return to such a place.

Miki's seat was removed at the start of the new semester. Even though we took turns providing flowers at first, in the end, Endo had been covering all the costs. Now that she is gone too, the excuse that "having the seat there makes us sad because it reminds us of Miki"—a logic that shouldn't really hold up—was somehow passed unanimously.

It seems there is still no word from Endo. Thinking about them building a paradise for just the two siblings somewhere makes something sour rise in my throat, so I want to stop thinking about her once and for all.

Aoyama and Watase had also been absent since the opening ceremony. It seems they weren't thick-skinned enough to come to school as if nothing had happened. I thought vaguely that they would both probably transfer to different schools.

And it wasn't just them who were gone—...

After school, it was Daisuke who called out to me as I was heading to Itoya. Nagisa, still looking like she was in the middle of summer vacation, was by his side.

Among the ladies in the shopping district, it was the talk of the town that the two had become a couple before anyone knew it, and the other day, Daisuke had apparently gone to greet the fishmonger, only to be blown away. The neighborhood network of ladies was truly a terrifying thing.

Hey.
Hello.
Are you going there today too?

I nodded slightly. The three of us walked along the familiar path to Itoya.

Walking behind the two of them as they chatted noisily, I secretly gripped the thread-cutting scissors I had tucked into my pocket.

It was the scissors I had borrowed from Itoko as a weapon to counter my sister. I never once saw the black thread that entangled me. I don't know if it really snapped and disappeared along with my sister's vanishing.

But I felt like it didn't matter anymore. Perhaps the black thread didn't come from my sister, but from me.

Just as Atsuhisa had continued to seek Miki.

Isn't it possible that because I couldn't believe in my sister's death, and because I loved and kept seeking her, it turned into a pitch-black thread?

Excuse me.

When we arrived in front of the shop, which looked like an old folk house, Daisuke knocked on the door. There was no response. It was locked, and there was no sign of anyone inside.

Itoko had vanished, just the same.

The day after I fought my desperate battle, when I visited to return the thread-cutting scissors, there was no one left.

As if the thread of our relationship had been snapped, she had disappeared without a trace.

What on earth was she, I wonder?

Lately, I find myself thinking about it almost every day.

That unearthly woman didn't even let me say goodbye. I had carried the thread-cutting scissors she lent me so I could return them at any time, and they had become so familiar that they felt like my own belongings.

Only when I held these scissors could I see it.

A shining red thread between Daisuke and Nagisa.

Is it because I am being granted a share of Itoko's power through these scissors that I have come to see the threads of relationships between people?

"I wonder what she was, that person."
"Who knows."

She, who said she could only watch the process of humans connecting, severing, and nurturing relationships, will surely do the same wherever she goes.

Daisuke and Nagisa, having given up, invited me to go with them, but I politely declined.

"It's a date, after all, so you don't need a third wheel like me."

When I said that, I got to see their faces turn bright red. They were angry, but not seriously. Knowing it was just to hide their embarrassment, I waved goodbye.

From a little distance away, I watched with dazzled eyes as they reached out to hold hands, neither one initiating it first. The red thread twisted together, becoming thicker and stronger.

So many things happened. Truly. I was hurt, and I hurt others. My life was even in danger.

Even so, looking only at the final result where Daisuke and Nagisa were united in mutual love, it was a happy ending enough.

Perhaps that is just how life is.

I start walking. Toward my own life.

Just once, I looked back at the shop.

As long as I have these scissors, I am connected to Itoko.

That is what I felt.

Someday, I will open a shop. So that I never forget Itoko.

I am not the obsessive type like she was, so I will make sure to stock not just thread, but all the other sewing tools as well.

Ah, just selling them wouldn't be enough. I need to become someone who can truly make the most of these tools, starting with these scissors, or I won't be fit to be a shopkeeper.

After all, I am not the kind of person who can attract people with charismatic beauty alone, like Itoko could.

And to those who come to buy red thread with a racing heart, I will say this from the bottom of my heart, with a positive spirit:

"This is a return for your five-yen coin."

That is what I will say.

For I am a man born under a star that dictates I must cut threads and spin them anew.

(End)