Foxfire Summer | Short Story

"Give my regards to Sana."
After school at the entrance. With the scorching setting sun at his back, Tatsuya said that briefly. Holding his soccer ball under his arm, his gaze drifted into the air for just a moment. I pretended not to notice the guilt hidden deep within his eyes.
"Yeah, I know."
"Sorry. Tell her... tell her I'll definitely come this weekend."
"Yeah, I'll tell her."
Tatsuya turned his back as if to escape and ran toward the field. The dry sound of his cleats kicking the asphalt echoed through the clinging humidity.
For Tatsuya, a regular on the soccer team, there was almost no option to skip practice. That's why visiting her after school was my role as a member of the home economics club. It was an unspoken rule that had somehow been decided among the three of us. Or perhaps Tatsuya himself was afraid to look directly at Sana, who was growing thinner by the day.

I unlocked my bicycle and put my foot on the pedal. With the creaking sound of the rusted chain, the heavy wheels began to turn.
Mid-July. The humid heat peculiar to the basin made my uniform shirt stick to my skin. It was a twenty-minute bike ride from the school to the general hospital where Sana was hospitalized.
I passed along the road by the river that flows through the town and climbed a gentle slope. Mountains covered in dense green loomed ahead in my field of vision. This town had a sense of confinement, as if it were being looked down upon by mountains wherever you went.
When I finished climbing the slope, out of breath, a white, huge, and inorganic building appeared.
I went through the automatic doors and took the elevator to the fourth floor. I bowed slightly in front of the staff station and headed to the private room at the end of the hall.
Three knocks—.
"I'm coming in."
When I opened the door without waiting for a reply, the sunset streaming in from the window dyed the white bed orange.
"...Oh? You came again?"
Sana, who was reading a book on the bed, looked up and gave a bitter smile.
"Man, it's hot, it's hot. Isn't it over thirty-five degrees today?"
I fanned my face with my hand exaggeratedly, pulled up a folding chair, and sat down.
"You don't have to come if it's that hot. This hospital is in the opposite direction from your house, right?"
"The home economics club is free. Even if I go home, I just hear my parents' nagging, and it's heaven here with the air conditioning on."
"Hehe, what's that?"
Sana laughed softly. Seeing that smile, I let out a sigh of relief deep in my chest. She looked better than I thought. Her complexion wasn't worse than when I saw her last week, and the IV tube was disconnected today.
"Where's Tatsuya?"
"Club activities. He said he'd definitely come this weekend."
"I see. That soccer idiot is the same as ever."
Sana shifted her gaze outside the window. There, the mountain behind the town loomed as if surrounding it. The ridgeline was outlined by the sunset, and a black silhouette floated in the sky.

Sana was hospitalized last month. At first, she said it was just anemia, but then she started missing school under the pretext of a check-up hospitalization. A week passed, then two weeks, and she didn't return. Neither her homeroom teacher, her parents, nor my parents would mention a specific illness.
"Now is the time to focus on treatment."
Every time that adult cliché was repeated, a heavy silence piled up between Tatsuya and me. We were high school seniors; we weren't children anymore. We could imagine the outline of the truth that adults were trying to hide, whether we wanted to or not.
"Hey, when is this year's summer festival and fireworks display?"
Sana said suddenly.
"It's the first week of August. The Saturday after next."
"I see... I want to be discharged by the fireworks display."
I covered her mutterings, which sounded like talking to herself, with a deliberately cheerful voice.
"You can do it. When you're discharged, let's go together. We'll eat yakisoba from a stall, make Tatsuya treat us to shaved ice, and have a barbecue on the riverbed, just like last year."
Last year, Tatsuya messed up the heat control and burned all the meat black. As I was about to continue that memory, Sana interrupted me in a quiet voice.
"Yeah... I want to go. It's our last summer as high school students, after all."
The sound of her voice was so fragile that I choked on my words.
Sana was staring intently at the mountainside behind the town outside the window.
"...I saw it last night."
"Saw what?"
"Foxfire."
For a moment, I felt as if the air in the room had frozen. Only the sound of the air conditioner running echoed low.
"No way. It must have been your imagination. Car lights or something, right?"
"No, it wasn't. It was pale blue, flickering... and they were climbing the mountain in a line. Just like my grandfather said before he died. It was truly beautiful..."
It wasn't an atmosphere for joking. That was because a color that seemed somewhat ecstatic, rather than fear, was seeping into Sana's profile. That only fueled my anxiety even more.

—Foxfire.

In this old town surrounded by mountains, several superstitions still live on. One of them is that "foxes, which are messengers of the gods, live in the mountains." In fact, there is a large Inari shrine on the mountainside behind the town with a row of vermilion torii gates. And there was a taboo that we had been told by adults since we were children.

—If a sick person sees foxfire, they will be taken away.
—A disaster will befall anyone who sees foxfire.

That's just a superstition. There's no scientific basis for it. It must be some kind of light phenomenon, or perhaps the refraction of light. But those words, heard in this dim hospital room, had a weight that I couldn't completely deny.
"Don't worry. You're just feeling down because you've been hospitalized for so long. Anyway, you should just think about getting better. Okay?"
At my desperate attempt to comfort her, Sana finally turned toward me and smiled weakly.
"Yeah, you're right. Sorry, for saying something strange..."

The bike ride home felt much heavier than the ride there.
I felt as if I could feel a gaze from the mountain behind me, and I pedaled without looking back even once.
That night, I couldn't help but call Tatsuya.
"...Hello?"
A grumpy voice. He was probably playing a game after his bath.
"It's about Sana..."
"What? It's not like she had a sudden change, is it?"
Tatsuya's tone changed instantly.
"No, that's not it. It's not that, but..."
Choosing my words carefully, I told him what I had heard in the hospital room today. That she said she saw foxfire. That her demeanor was somehow not normal.
"Huh? Foxfire?"
As expected, Tatsuya raised a bewildered voice.
"Are you taking old people's fairy tales seriously?"
"But Sana was acting strange. She seemed to really believe it."
"You idiot! It must have been a mistake! She's been looking at white ceilings for so long, her mental state is weak!"
Over the phone, there was a dull sound of something hitting a wall. Tatsuya must have kicked something in his frustration.
"I know. Don't shout..."
"...Damn it."
I could hear Tatsuya's rough breathing. I knew his anger wasn't directed at me. He, too, was on the verge of being crushed by an indescribable anxiety.
"I'm going to visit her tomorrow."
"Huh? What about club activities?"
"Shut up! Of course I'm going to skip that!"
He said it as if spitting it out, and the call was cut off unilaterally. Staring at the mobile phone screen as it went dark, I let out a deep sigh.
—I'm anxious.
Both me and Tatsuya. The three childhood friends. I believed this relationship would last forever. If Sana were gone, our balance would collapse. If one corner of a triangle is missing, it can no longer maintain its original shape.

The next morning, during homeroom. The homeroom teacher, who entered the classroom with a sorrowful look, announced that Sana's condition had worsened. And that she would be off-limits to visitors for the time being.
"Why! Why can't we see her all of a sudden!"
On the rooftop after school, Tatsuya kicked the wall in anger.
"Calm down. It seems to be the family's wish to let her focus on treatment for now."
"That has nothing to do with it! She'd definitely get better if we went and encouraged her!"
"It would only be a nuisance if we went. There's nothing we can do."
At my words, Tatsuya glared at me, but eventually collapsed into a chair as if his strength had left him.
That's right. There's nothing we can do. Prayers and paper cranes are powerless in the face of medicine.
—Just waiting. Nights spent clutching my mobile phone, praying that the worst news wouldn't come, continued.

◇◇◇

Early August, when the sound of cicadas became even more intense.
A miracle happened.
"Why didn't you two come wearing yukatas!"
In front of the hospital's main gate. Under the scorching sun, Sana had her hands on her hips and was puffing out her cheeks. That figure was far from the patient who had been connected to an IV tube until a month ago.
Color had returned to her skin—no, the translucent whiteness remained, but there was a luster on her cheeks as if rouge had been applied. A yukata with goldfish on a navy blue fabric wrapped her slender body.
"I'm coming from club activities, so I don't have time to change."
Tatsuya scratched his head awkwardly.
"And I... yukatas don't suit me."
"Geez, how boring. Even though I was finally able to be discharged."
Sana hopped around, making her geta sandals clatter. A month since she was off-limits to visitors. It was a sudden discharge, just when everyone had prepared themselves for the worst. I heard rumors that even the doctor tilted his head, saying, "It's phenomenal recovery power."
—A story like being bewitched by a fox.
Everyone said so.

We walked side by side along the shrine approach, which was crowded with people.
Candy apples, grilled squid, shaved ice. The lights of the stalls illuminated Sana's profile. She laughed a lot and ate a lot, as if to clear away all the frustration she had felt until now.
"Oh, it's almost time."
People's gazes were directed at the night sky. After a whistle-like sound, a large flower bloomed in the night sky with a heavy bass sound of "boom." Cheers went up. Particles of light poured down, burning our shadows into the ground.
"Beautiful..."
Sana muttered, looking up at the sky.
Fireworks launched one after another. Red, green, golden. Every time various lights scattered in the sky, Sana's expression appeared and disappeared.
"Hey, why don't we go somewhere a little quieter?"
At Sana's suggestion, we left the crowd and headed to the stone steps behind the shrine. It was surrounded by trees, and the noise of the festival could be heard in the distance.
The three of us sat down on the stone steps. The cold sensation of the stone was transmitted to our bottoms. Only the sound of Tatsuya opening a juice he bought from a vending machine echoed.
"...Hey, are you really okay? Wasn't the discharge too early?"
Tatsuya asked as if he had made up his mind.
"Yeah. I'm really energetic. My body feels light."
"I see. Well, that's fine then."
Tatsuya and I also tried not to think deeply about that discomfort. We didn't want to think about it. Sana is right in front of us, looking healthy. As promised, the three of us were able to come to the fireworks display together. Isn't that enough?

"Hey, you've noticed, haven't you?"
Sana's tone changed suddenly. In this place where the heat of the festival didn't reach, only that voice sounded terribly clear.
"Honestly, you're so easy to read..."
Sana said while keeping her back turned.
Tatsuya and I looked at each other. We couldn't say anything. Words wouldn't come out, as if something was stuck in our throats.
Sana turned around slowly.
Fireworks exploded in the distance, and the light illuminated her face. Sana's eyes were glowing faintly pale blue.
—I knew it.
The suspicion I had buried deep in my chest spread as coldly as ice.
Soon after Sana was discharged, a rumor started in town.
—That a fox had entered Sana.
I also heard that an old woman in the neighborhood who saw her right after she was discharged was so shocked that she bowed down in prayer.
Ridiculous. There's no way that could happen. While thinking that, both Tatsuya and I had noticed. That her shadow sometimes looked distorted. That there wasn't a single drop of sweat on her skin.
"I asked the Fox Spirit."
Sana said in a tone as if telling a secret.
"Please let me go to the fireworks display with everyone just one more time. I don't need anything else."
—A contract in exchange for her life.
The moment I understood the meaning of those words, the blood drained from my entire body.
"Then, they said okay. But, in exchange..."
"Stop! Don't say it!"
Tatsuya shouted.
"It has nothing to do with it! It's fine as it is! It's fine to stay like this forever! I won't tell anyone! Hey!"
Tatsuya tried to grab Sana's hand. However, his hand cut through the air. It wasn't that he couldn't touch her. It was as if he had grabbed a heat haze; Tatsuya's hand passed right through Sana's arm.
"Eh...?"
Tatsuya looked at his own hand in a daze.
At that moment, the surroundings became brightly lit. It wasn't the light of an electric lamp. Pale blue, cold flames appeared to surround us.
—Foxfire.
One by one, they increased. And then, two foxes appeared from the top of the stone steps along with white mist. They weren't ordinary foxes. Their whole bodies were white, their tails were long, and they were wrapped in a somewhat divine atmosphere.
The foxes descended the stone steps without a sound and sat on both sides of Sana, as if to accompany her.
"It seems it's time."
Sana smiled as if troubled.
"I wanted to be with you longer. Even after graduating from high school, even when we become old ladies..."
"Sana..."
My voice was trembling. Tears overflowed and wouldn't stop.
"Don't cry. I was happy. We were able to come to the fireworks display together like this at the end."
Sana stood up. The hem of her yukata fluttered, and it seemed as if her body was gradually turning into pale particles of light.
"Thank you. From now on, I'll be at the Inari shrine."
"No! Don't go! Don't leave us behind!"
Tatsuya shouted while sobbing.
"I'm sorry, goodbye."
Sana began to climb the stone steps slowly, as if urged by the white foxes. She never looked back.
With every step she climbed, her figure became transparent and assimilated into the pale blue flames.
—Take care.
The moment I heard a voice like a ringing bell at the end, the biggest firework of the day exploded in the night sky.
Golden light filled the world. Because of the intense brightness, we closed our eyes. When we opened our eyes next, there was no one there. Only the quiet stone steps and the noise of the festival heard in the distance remained. Neither Tatsuya nor I could move from that spot for a long time.
Even after the foxfire disappeared and complete darkness arrived, we continued to stare at the stone steps where Sana had disappeared.

Five years have passed since then.
After graduating from high school, I got a job at the local town office. I was assigned to the tourism division and am working on promoting the charm of this town.
Tatsuya turned down a soccer recommendation from a university in Tokyo and went on to a local university. He is currently studying to become a teacher. "I'm going to teach soccer in this town," he said enthusiastically.
We didn't leave this town. We couldn't leave.

Mid-summer. Twilight.
Tatsuya and I were climbing the long stone steps of the Inari shrine, carrying convenience store bags. The contents of the bags were mineral water, a cup of sake, and thick fried tofu bought from a local tofu shop.
"Man, it's hot again this year."
"You said it. Is this global warming?"
We wiped our sweat while having idle conversation.
We passed through the vermilion torii gate and put our hands together in front of the main hall. And then, we offered the fried tofu.
"Hey! Sana! We came to see you!"
Tatsuya shouted toward the main hall.
"It's too hot to bear! Make it a little cooler! You're a god, right!"
"Hey, hey, don't say anything sacrilegious."
I chided Tatsuya with a bitter smile, but he continued without caring.
"Show yourself! Don't hide, come out!"
The trees in the shrine grounds rustled in the wind. I felt as if I heard a dry barking sound from somewhere.
Tatsuya and I looked at each other and laughed. Sana must be laughing on the other side, feeling dumbfounded.
On the way home, while descending the stone steps, I suddenly looked back. Deep in the dense forest behind the main hall, I saw a pale blue light flickering.
We didn't stop walking, but we started walking with a certain warmth in our hearts.
—Even if we can't meet, she is there.
Somewhere in this town, she is always watching over us. Just with that fact, I felt like we could live on.
Looking up, a starry sky just like that summer was spreading out again this year.

(End)

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