"COPY BOY" My Clone is an Elementary Schooler ⑭ [I Collapsed]

<Summer, Episode 14>

I was taken away in an ambulance.

It happened on the day I was playing in the sandbox at the park with Chibi.

It had been a long time since I stepped into a sandbox. The sensation of sinking, which I had long forgotten, felt like walking on fluffy clouds. Even under the scorching sun, it felt cool and pleasant to stick my hands into the sand.

We built a sand mountain and started digging a tunnel from both sides. Carefully, so the mountain wouldn't collapse, we scraped away a little at a time with our fingertips.
Eventually, the moment it felt soft and gave way, my hand connected with Chibi's on the other side. It was a soft, warm sensation, like some kind of living creature, suddenly appearing from the damp, gritty, cold soil.
At that moment, I felt as if our consciousnesses had connected through our fingertips. A sense of synchronization that Chibi must have felt too. It was only for an instant, but I felt like I saw myself, like a reflection in a mirror, sticking my hand into the other side of the sand mountain. I felt a bit dizzy, but I didn't pay it any mind.

Next up was making mud dumplings.
We kneaded the mud with water, wrapping it in our palms as if to cherish it, and rounded it out. While sprinkling sand on it to remove the surface moisture, we gradually made it harder in our hands. We kept sprinkling sand over and over, polishing it until it was smooth.
I was moved, even now, by how the ferocious mud that had been gritty just a moment ago could become such a refined artificial object, and I continued to polish it while admiring the smooth sphere.
When you concentrate, you talk less. The silent, repetitive act felt like a sacred practice, like the sutra copying passed down for centuries in a mountain temple, bringing peace to the spirit.

It was Chibi who broke the silence.
He started asking me riddles while playing with the sand. Apparently, it's popular at school.

“What food has nine colors?” He gave a challenging smile.
“What was that?”
“A food with nine colors.”
“Nine...”
“Nine colors.”
“Nine... hmm... ah, coconut!”
“Wrong.”
“Nine... kyu... cucumber!”
“Wrong.”
“Any hints?”
“No hints.”
“You're stingy. Let's see, a food with nine colors, huh...?”

It was the moment I stood up to look for drier sand to buy myself some time to think...

That is the last thing I remember. I don't have much memory after that.
In broad daylight, it felt as if a giant night curtain had been drawn, and darkness suddenly rushed in. In dramas, people usually just collapse with a thud, but when it happens to you, it's hard to tell what's going on.

Feeling a lethargy as if I had slept far too much, I came to.
My eyelids were too heavy to open, and my head was in a fog, but the smell of the clean, stiff sheets told me this was a room I didn't know.

Little by little, I remembered being called by my name over and over, and the sight of the ceiling flowing by as I looked up...
It came back in fragments here and there.

A hospital room, I guess. This place.

I thought back to the dream I had been having just a moment ago.
A dream where I was in a hurry to make lots of mud dumplings. No matter how much I rounded them, they kept crumbling...

...That's right. Come to think of it, I was at the park with Chibi.

I heard familiar voices whispering. It seemed like Inuzuka and Professor Yagi-hige were arguing about something in the hallway outside.
Neko-chan reported.
“We're waiting for the MRI results, but it seems to have moved about 10 millimeters since the last scan.”
“In just a few months...”
“Oh my, and it was quiet for nine years.”
“So it started moving the moment he met the clone, huh.”
“I feel a mysterious connection.”
What could they be talking about?

When I looked over, Grandma was watching a wide-show on TV with earphones on.

“You awake?”
“Yeah.”
“Get some more sleep. Sleeping is the best thing for you.”
When I turned over, I made eye contact with Chibi.
He was lying in the next bed, watching me.
“Yo.”
“Yo.”
“What happened?”
“Big Bro, you went ‘thud’.”
Apparently, I collapsed while making mud dumplings. And for some reason, Chibi had a headache too. I was the one who collapsed, so why did Chibi get one too?

According to Neko-chan, the degree of synchronization is increasing because we are living together. If the other person's health worsens, they are affected, even if only a little.
Even though he's extremely shy like me, he apparently cried and clung to passersby, begging them to “help Big Bro.” He really pushed himself for me.
“Thanks.”

“Yeah. We were almost done, too.”
“Done with what?”
I pulled my arm out from under the sheets. In his hand, he was clutching a mud dumpling that had been split in half.

We laughed, keeping our voices low.

Inumaki entered the room, wearing a fake expression as if he were worried. He rattled off words of comfort about my health and explained the reason using the word “anemia.” But from the whispering I heard earlier, I somehow sensed that I didn't just happen to collapse.

“What were you talking about in the hallway?”
“Nothing.”
“Something about it being quiet for nine years...”
“Ah...” (So you heard, but) “It's a different matter.”

Is he hiding something from me? What happened to me?
Does it have anything to do with Chibi appearing in my life?
Hospital beds are no good. Do they emit some kind of radio wave that weakens the heart? I'm becoming paranoid.

“School lunch.”

Chibi said suddenly.

“School lunch? What about it?”
“A food with nine colors.”
“What?”
“Nine colors. Kyushoku. School lunch.”

Thanks for that, Chibi.
I feel a bit better now. I'll deal with the troublesome stuff later.
More importantly, let's make mud dumplings again.

(To be continued)

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