Chapter 52: 52. The Talk We Never Had

The spirit inside Yui’s body giggled. “You finally figured it out, Jiro? Yes, it’s me. Of course I look a little different now”—Yui cupped her breasts under the hot spring water—“and my proportions are a bit undersized … but I’m the same Misha you always knew. And always loved.”

Jiro closed his eyes and lit out a slow, faltering breath. He felt the same sharp pain in his stomach.

“Jiro?” said Misha. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you glad to see me?”

“I … you … this is too much. I don’t understand.”

“Do you need everything explained to you?” Misha laughed again. “It’s me, Misha. I died. I had regrets. I came back as a spirit. And now we’re here together. I don’t think I can put it more plainly than that, Jiro.”

Jiro shook his head. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

“You could be any spirit, just posing as Misha. I’m not as naive as I once was. I won’t fall for a trick like that …”

“Hmm …” Misha twirled a lock of Yui’s hair in her fingers. “Well there’s an easy way around this … all I have to do is show you that I know something only Misha knows. Something that only I know.”

Jiro gulped.

“How about this,” said Misha, her voice growing quiet. “How about I repeat those words we exchanged? The words we spoke on the day you proposed to me. A promise we swore to protect. That whatever happened, each of us would—”

“That’s enough.” Jiro felt another surge of pain in his stomach. “That’s enough. You don’t need to say anymore.”

“No Jiro I want to say it. We promised that we would be together forever. That we would forgive each others’ faults. Your allergies. My fits of anger and forgetfulness. That whatever happened, if one of us asked for help the other would always drop everything to help.”

“…”

“Jiro?”

“W-why did you come back? Why now? When it’s all over!”

“It’s not over!” Misha extended Yui’s pale porcelain arms. “Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone makes the wrong call sometimes. After we broke up …”

Jiro slammed a fist into the water. “We didn’t break up. You left me. You blocked my phone number and refused to even see my face. Suddenly, without warning. One day you were laughing at my jokes and the next … the next …” Jiro choked on his breath. “After all those promises we made, you broke them like you were cracking an egg. It was all bullshit. That my allergies didn’t matter … that we could love one another regardless of our faults … I actually thought that … that you loved me.”

“Jiro, Jiro …” Misha spoke in a soothing voice. Even the strands of Yui’s hair that floated and twirled in the night air seemed to relax and float back down to the correct positions. “I’m sorry Jiro. I know now I was wrong. I learned that very soon, after we broke up. I was young. I wanted to live. To meet other guys, to try other ways of life. Can you blame me? But in the end … I realized I was happiest when I was with you.”

“So you tried to come back …” Jiro said softly.

Misha nodded. “But when I came back it was too late. This time, you had blocked my phone number. You refused to even see me when I knocked on your door. You shut me off just as completely as I had done to you.”

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“I didn’t think … you would kill yourself.” Jiro felt tears suddenly appear in his eyes. This was the conversation with Misha he knew he would never be able to have. And now here he was, having it.

“I didn’t think I would either. It was just a joke. Climbing to high places and looking down. Skyscrapers, mountains, suspension bridges. Pretend to take off my shoes. Pretend to dangle my feet off the edge. Pretend to make a little slip … It was all a game.”

“Until one day it wasn’t.”

“Yes …” Misha said softly. “Until one day it wasn’t.”

For a long time they sat in silence with the water lapping about their shoulders.

“Are you glad to see me, Jiro? To speak with me again?”

“I don’t know.”

Misha slid closer to Jiro in the water. He felt Yui’s smooth hand touch his shoulder.

“Let’s start over Jiro. Let’s forget all about the past. I have this new body. I look different. But you always said that it’s what is inside a person that counts, right? And on the inside, it’s still the same old Misha. The same Misha that you knew and loved.”

Jiro let out a slow breath. “That body belongs to somebody else.”

“No Jiro. A body is just a vessel. An empty container. And the one occupying it right now is me. The old owner was weak. I am strong. So I am the rightful owner now.”

“The rightful owner …” Jiro echoed. “And what will happen to her? To Yui?”

“Oh she’ll stay here. Locked in a little compartment in the back of her own mind. Perhaps one day, when I grow weak or lose my focus, she may even come back. But I do not think that will happen any day soon. For I am powerful. I have grown powerful Jiro … And I did it all for you. All so that we can be together.”

“And where will we go?”

“Somewhere where nobody can find us, where nobody can recognize us. This girl is an orphan, right? She has no close family? It should be easy enough. Then we can start our life together. I’ll work. You’ll work. Maybe we’ll rent a little house with a vegetable garden … Tell jokes around the fire like we used to ...”

“So we’ll run away.”

“I suppose you could call it that. I prefer to call it a reset.”

Jiro stood up in the bath. Trails of steam rose from his body, leaving misty trails as they twirled in the night breeze. He turned to the woman sitting in the bath.

“Okay,” he said, extending his hand. “Let’s run away.”

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