Before officially confirming publication in Shinchō, Tsushima Kagami had consulted Shimizu Nayotake and her mother about including the story of mother and daughter, along with that suicide note, as the preface — and he had offered them 1% of the future royalties as compensation.
In the end they refused, saying even 1% was far too much. Tsushima Kagami then changed his offer, proposing that the manuscript fee for this publication be given to them as a citation fee for using their story and the suicide note — otherwise, he felt, he would be eating steamed buns soaked in human blood all over again.
The result, just as Yukinoshita Shizuku had predicted from the start.
The mother and daughter simply refused to accept any further kindness from Tsushima Kagami. They felt he had already done so much for them.
To accept any more would be sheer greed.
If their own experiences and the suicide note could help more people, all the more reason not to demand any compensation in return.
Tsushima Kagami's inner reaction to this was, in short—
Idiots!!
So if you don't suffer, who will? What are we going to do if you end up dead?
You may not want to trouble anyone else, but at least spare a thought for me, your friend!
Forcing me to go through this whole roundabout song and dance.
I'm an idiot too!
I should have just kept on being a quiet, introverted shut-in. What was I thinking, making so many friends?
That way I wouldn't have known. And if I didn't know, it would be as good as never having happened!
Just then Shimizu Nayotake and the others noticed that Tsushima Kagami's face had, for some reason, suddenly taken on a slightly gloomy cast.
Yukinoshita Shizuku, too, watched the expression on Tsushima Kagami's face.
She had a fair guess that he was inwardly grumbling again — complaining about how troublesome Nayotake and her mother were, complaining about his own meddling.
The corners of Yukinoshita Shizuku's mouth lifted ever so slightly instead.
Kagami really is adorable. Is this what they call tsundere?
Oh dear, what am I to do — I'm liking him more and more.
Shimizu Nayotake, on the other hand, wondered whether perhaps she had been the cause of Tsushima Kagami's sudden bad mood.
So she asked, softly,
"Did I do something to upset Kagami?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku answered, smiling.
"It's not your fault."
"Kagami's just worried that No Longer Human won't be able to convey what he originally wanted it to."
"Isn't that right, Kagami?"
Tsushima Kagami nodded.
"Nayotake."
Yukinoshita Shizuku reached out and put an arm around Nayotake's shoulders.
"In any case, from now on, whatever's on your mind, you have to tell us. No more shouldering everything by yourself."
Everyone else nodded in unison.
Shimizu Nayotake blinked, then gave a small, gentle nod.
Outside the window, the morning sun was just right.
A few of them sat together, chatting, sipping drinks, occasionally leafing through a magazine.
...
Meanwhile, in Shinjuku Ward — at Kinokuniya Bookstore.
A long line stretched out from the entrance.
Yamada Kenta, sweat already beading on his forehead from being jostled in the crowd, stood somewhere in the middle of the line, every so often rising up on tiptoe to peer toward the front.
He was beginning to regret wearing so many layers today. He hadn't expected such a crush of people, and now he was drenched in sweat.
"Want a sip?"
Beside him, Hazuki was holding out a bottled drink with a straw stuck in it, offering it to Yamada Kenta.
Yamada Kenta waved her off.
"It's fine. If I have to go to the bathroom halfway through the line, that would be a disaster."
Hazuki then pulled a handkerchief from her little pouch, rose up on tiptoe, and dabbed the sweat from Yamada Kenta's forehead. Only then did she say,
"I really didn't think there'd be this many people here today either. To think we'd actually have to wait in such a long line."
"If I'd known, we could have gone to another store."
"They'd be lining up at other stores too, and probably with even less stock. What if by the time we got to the front there was nothing left?"
Hearing Yamada Kenta put it that way, Hazuki nodded, then said with a smile,
"Then let me take over the line. You go rest for a bit."
Yamada Kenta shook his head.
"With this much shoving and pushing, I'd better stay."
"Consider it making up for turning down your invitation last time."
"Why don't you go sit down somewhere."
"I'll keep you company right here, then."
Hazuki, having said that, stood up on tiptoe and dabbed the sweat from his brow once more before standing beside him, chatting with Yamada Kenta to keep him company.
When the two of them finally made it inside the store,
they saw the huge promotional banner hanging up.
[Shinchōsha announces: for every copy of this issue of Shinchō sold, 10 yen will be donated to charity. Furthermore, all royalties from the future physical-book edition of the Master of Dassai-ya's new work, No Longer Human, will be donated in full.]
Just then he caught snatches of conversation from the people around him.
"Dassai-ya-sensei hadn't appeared in Shinchō for several months now."
"I really thought he'd had some kind of falling-out and jumped ship to Kōdansha's Gunzō."
"Right, right — who would have guessed he'd suddenly publish a new work in Shinchō again."
"And it sounds like he's putting this one toward charity, too."
"Oh, that's right — isn't Gunzō also publishing the final installment of Dassai-ya-sensei's trilogy today?"
"Last preview said it was called A Wild Sheep Chase, I think."
"It's incredible. A pure-literature novel every month, and now he's running two at once."
"Does Dassai-ya-sensei never hit a creative block?"
By this time Yamada Kenta and Hazuki, still waiting in line, had also overheard the others' conversation.
Having come today to buy Gunzō, the two of them finally understood why there were so many people.
So it turned out that Dassai-ya-sensei wasn't only publishing a new work in Gunzō this time — he was also publishing a new work in Shinchō simultaneously, with all the royalties going to charity, and Shinchōsha pledging 10 yen to a charitable organization for every copy of this issue of Shinchō sold. No wonder there were so many people.
When it was finally their turn, Yamada Kenta's eyes landed at once on the stack of magazines displayed in the most prominent spot.
Unlike the usual Shinchō, this issue had an extra pure-white obi band wrapped around the cover.
On the obi were only four characters — No Longer Human.
No tagline. No advertising copy.
Just those four characters, lying quietly there.
And yet they carried more force than any flashy promotion.
"Grab two copies of Shinchō too!"
Beside him, Hazuki, seeing Yamada Kenta picking up two copies of Gunzō, quickly reminded him.
Yamada Kenta hurriedly placed two copies of Shinchō into his shopping basket as well.
Then he shot an OK sign toward Hazuki, who had been squeezed out toward the side.
Then he walked over to the cashier to pay.
Yamada Kenta paid, gathered the magazines in his arms, and came over to where Hazuki stood.
"Where to next?"
Yamada Kenta asked.
Hazuki glanced at the reading area, which was already packed full, and finally pointed at a café across the way.
"Let's go sit over there, and order some food while we're at it."
"You've worked hard — my treat!"
When the two of them reached the café, they realized it, too, was filled with people.
Most of them, no doubt, were readers who hadn't been able to find a seat at Kinokuniya Bookstore and had come here instead, eager to start reading right away.
The two of them hurriedly found an empty seat and sat down.
They ordered a cup of coffee, some cake, and fries.
Then they set the magazines they had just bought down in front of them, one each.
Hazuki couldn't wait to open up Gunzō and find the table of contents.
"I'll start with A Wild Sheep Chase in Gunzō."
"How about you?"
"Which one are you going to read first?"
Yamada Kenta picked up his copy of Shinchō and opened it casually.
"Then I'll start with this one."
He flipped to the table of contents and found the entry for No Longer Human.
Then he froze.
Pages: 47 through 189.
He did a rough calculation in his head.
It took up a full third — more than that, almost half — of the entire magazine.
"This..."
he murmured.
Hazuki leaned over for a look, and she too was stunned.
"That much?"
Under normal circumstances, for a single work to occupy that much space in a single issue of a magazine was almost unheard of.
At the very least, he had never seen anything like it before.
It meant that Shinchōsha valued this work to the absolute utmost.
Valued it so much that they were willing to squeeze out other pieces that should have run, willing to forgo the revenue of a multi-part serialization, just to publish it all in one go.
"What in the world... is No Longer Human?"
With that curiosity in his heart, Yamada Kenta slowly began to read.
Watching Yamada Kenta, who had clearly already been drawn in by Dassai-ya-sensei's new work,
Hazuki said nothing more to disturb him. The corners of her mouth merely curved up faintly, and she, too, turned her copy of Gunzō to A Wild Sheep Chase and began slowly to read.
Meanwhile, on Yamada Kenta's side—
He had turned to the very first page of the work, and that first page turned out to be a preface — a long one.
In the preface, the story of his friend, of mother and daughter, the story of that suicide note, was like a gentle blade that softly cut open his heart.
"Born a human, I am sorry."
"Born a mother, I too am sorry."
He stared dumbly at those two lines, and suddenly felt a stinging in his eyes.
He remembered — not so long ago, his classmate Shimizu had also collapsed because of a similar heart condition, after getting too excited during her on-stage band performance with Kagami at the school cultural festival, and had been taken to the hospital.
Afterward, the whole class had gone together to visit Shimizu.
Thankfully it had been nothing serious, and she had been discharged and returned to school just fine.
Then he read on.
Only to find another piece resembling a prologue.
Inside, in third-person narration, the impressions of three photographs were recounted.
Then came the First Notebook.
The Second Notebook.
The Third Notebook.
Just as there had been a false prologue, there was also a false afterword.
And finally, the true afterword.
Those words, so candid as to be frightening, came rushing in like a tide and engulfed him.
He didn't know how long had passed.
Hazuki lifted her head out of A Wild Sheep Chase and rubbed her slightly stiff neck.
Her stomach gave a couple of growls, reminding her that it was already mealtime.
"Yamada-kun, why don't we go get something to ea——"
The words caught in her throat.
Because she saw, across the table, that Yamada Kenta's face was already streaked with tears.
Tears were sliding down his cheeks, one after another, falling onto the pages of the magazine.
His lips were trembling faintly. He sat there motionless, as if struck by something.
"Yamada...?"
Hazuki asked cautiously.
"What's... wrong?"
Yamada Kenta didn't answer.
He simply kept his head bowed, staring at the magazine in his hands.
In his mind, those words played over and over.
Yozo's fear. Yozo's disguise. Yozo's despair.
He didn't know why he was crying.
It was just a story, after all.
Just someone else's story.
And yet those words, as though by some kind of magic, had bored their way into his heart.
And pried open some place he had never dared to touch.
All those things he had so desperately hidden.
All those things he had thought belonged only to him.
Weakness, falseness, fear, the longing to be loved without knowing how to love anyone in return——
So it turned out he wasn't the only one like this.
So it turned out that someone had faced these things even more honestly than he had.
So it turned out that being honest to that extent had, strangely, a kind of healing power.
No Longer Human...
Disqualified from being human, was it?
And what about himself, then?
Did he still count as someone who held the qualifications of being human?
Compared with Oba Yozo, his own troubles seemed to barely count as troubles at all.
Yozo had it so much worse.
"Yamada?"
Hazuki called out again, softly.
Yamada Kenta at last raised his head.
His eyes were red, traces of tears not yet wiped away on his face.
He looked at Hazuki, and suddenly he said one thing.
"I... I really want to become a human being."
____
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