Short-Short: 'Half of Setsubun is Made of Kindness' *Weekly Short-Short Note 2/1 Theme

You must have been a hopelessly good-natured person.
Taking on the role of the ogre that everyone else hated.
Being pelted with beans that looked painful even from a distance by boys who didn't know how to hold back.
No, I understand now that those were malice in the form of beans.
Even while exposed to that malice, you were still smiling.
'I will catch all of your feelings and carry them away.'
I still remember your smile, clear as a cloudless sky.
Unable to bear the thought of that malice being directed at anyone but yourself, you truly took it all in and ran off into the cold sky with a smile.
Why am I remembering this now, of all times?

The sound of beans hitting the ground—a sound that was a symbol of malice to me—is echoing amidst the rubble and flames.
This country will fall in just a little while.
Memories like this are of no use now that I am on the verge of death.

'Don't give up on living.'

Why do you take my hand and cling to such a slim hope?
'If you stay alive, good fortune will surely come.'
Saying that, just like that day, you took the malice directed at me and let me escape.

I just ran along a pathless path, blinded by my tears.











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