The old apartment, a one-room at the end of the hallway. Light seeping through the door crack slanted across the old linoleum floor. The wallpaper was peeling slightly from the edges, and the window frame made a low creaking sound every time it was opened or closed.
On the sink, last night's dishes were stacked sloppily, and the refrigerator door's rubber seal was loose, with thin condensation forming in the gaps. Still, this room had their things in it. Two wrinkled towels, a windbreaker and a thin knit top hanging on the drying rack, two pairs of sneakers lying haphazardly in the corner, and an ordinary morning messily strewn over the blanket.
Reze woke up first. The body warmth left on the pillow cooled quickly.
She pulled the curtain halfway and opened the window. Cool air came in, making the thin curtain sway like a wave once, its edge brushing the back of her hand.
“I’ll spend another fun day with Denji today.”
After muttering softly, she took a hair tie and tied her hair with a familiar motion. In the small wall-hanging mini-mirror—too cracked to really be called a mirror—her tied ponytail reflected softly. A strange expectation lingered in her eyes.
A rustling sound came from one side of the blanket. Denji was lying face down with his face half-buried in the blanket.
“Ughhh— I’m sleepy…”
A yawn was mixed into the end of his words.
Reze approached and tapped the edge of the blanket.
“Wake up. We’ll miss the bus if we’re late.”
“Just five more minutes…”
“I’ve seen that ‘five minutes’ turn into fifty plenty of times.”
“Really, just five more…”
“Denji.”
At the short call, Denji’s ear twitched very slightly. Reze yanked the blanket off.
“Wake up. We’re going to the sea, remember.”
“…Ah, the sea.”
At the word ‘sea’, Denji’s eyelids snapped open. A look flashed in his eyes as if he were about to jump up any second.
After washing his face, Denji shook off the water roughly and returned to the room. Reze, tying her windbreaker around her waist, spoke.
“Got the towels, got the spare shorts, got the water.”
“The lunchbox is… roughly done.”
“Roughly?”
“While making the rolled omelette… it kinda fell apart.”
“Haha. A fallen-apart rolled omelette is still a rolled omelette.”
“Right?”
Denji gave an awkward laugh. A morning that felt messy and imperfect, but that’s why it smelled even more alive.
They stood at the entrance putting on their shoes. Opening the door and stepping out of this one-room still felt like a small departure for the two. Even the air coming through the door crack felt new and quiet. Reze took a slight breath before turning the doorknob.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
The sound of the door closing clicked—and spread to the end of the old hallway.
There were almost no people at the bus stop in front of the apartment complex. The early edge of autumn. Even with the sun up, the air wasn’t too hot, coolly brushing the nape of their necks. They boarded the bus and sat side by side in a window seat near the middle.
As the bus moved, the city’s straight lines receded. Gray buildings decreased, the roofs of low houses connected, and further out, fields appeared. Street trees with leaf tips beginning to tinge slightly yellow. Sunlight sitting on the window frame dyed the seat fabric a tone brighter.
Denji pressed his forehead against the window, looking outside.
“Going out this far is a real first.”
“Another first?”
“Yeah. Since I was little, it was just… eat, sleep, work, and work again.”
“So today, we rest. See what we want to see, eat what we want to eat.”
“Reze.”
“Yeah?”
“Being with you… I strangely feel like I’m learning how to rest.”
Instead of answering, Reze turned her gaze out the window and raised just the corner of her mouth ever so slightly.
"Heeey~ Our Denji has grown up a lot!"
The bus window carried shattered sunlight. A thin silver line was visible in the distance. Reze narrowed her eyes and pointed as if tracing the line on her palm.
“That’s the sea.”
“Ooh…!”
Denji’s shoulders shook. His words decreased, but his eyes grew brighter instead.
After driving for a while, Reze nodded off from drowsiness. The bus’s vibration rocked their bodies rhythmically. Denji carefully brushed her flowing hair behind her ear. Unconsciously, it was a very gentle touch.
“What are you doing.”
“Ah, you’re awake?”
“Yeah. Playing tricks in secret, right?”
“Not at all.”
“Hmm. I’ll be the one to play tricks.”
Reze grinned—. Jokes instead of deep sleep. That was their way of resting.
Getting off at the terminal, the air was different. A salty smell was mixed into the wind like dough. A moist metallic scent, a smell that touched memories from long ago. Going down the hill, the view opened up.
The sea—.
The horizon changed from a line to a plane, filling their vision. Sunlight embedded itself in the waves like thousands of fragments. Seagulls circled once in the distance, and further out, another circle. A few people were scattered like dots.
“Whoa!”
Denji practically ran onto the sandy beach. He took off his sneakers and stepped barefoot on the sand. Grains slid smoothly between his toes.
Reze also tied her shoelaces together and slung them over her shoulder, her windbreaker tied at her waist as she followed him in. Waves lightly swept over their ankles. When the water receded, the feeling of the sand crumbling beneath their feet was strangely pleasant.
“Wait, it’s a bit deep here.”
“It’s fine! It’s only up to my ankle…”
Before Reze could finish speaking, the sandy bottom dipped slightly. Water splashed up to their knees.
“Yikes, it’s cold!”
Denji lost his balance, and Reze reflexively grabbed his arm and pulled.
“Back up. One, two.”
The two stepped back simultaneously. The wave soon lowered again.
“Scared, huh.”
“Not at all.”
“Liar—.”
A sharp-edged joke, but with a slightly dulled tip. Reze’s eyes were laughing. Denji laughed along. The pants wet up to the thighs looked like they would dry quickly in the sun.
They walked along the sandy beach for a while. Denji sat down at the water’s edge and took the lunchbox out of his bag.
“Ta-da— The fallen-apart rolled omelette.”
When the lid was opened, the rolled omelette was indeed half-crumbled, the sausages had cuts that were too deep and splayed open like flowers here and there. The rice balls were lumpy like pebbles.
Reze scooped up some egg with her chopsticks and ate it. The lips she was chewing slowly curved into a smile.
“It’s good.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really. You have a knack for this.”
“Ooh— hear that, sea? She says I have a knack for it!”
A breeze passed over the lunchbox, and a seagull’s shadow quietly brushed by.
That’s when it happened. Reze felt a strange sensation running down her spine. A ‘gaze’ that wasn’t visible but was definitely there. She pretended not to notice, just raising her eyes to scan the horizon and the end of the breakwater alternately.
On the sand, no utility poles, no flags. Far off, a black dot overlapped with the sky. A crow. Not common, but not extremely rare either.
…Even so.
That bird’s eyes were too clear, and its expression was eerily blank.
“Reze?”
“Ah— it’s nothing. Eat.”
She lowered her gaze and picked up her chopsticks again. A faint salty taste spread throughout her mouth.
For a while, the two lightly ran, sat down again, splashed in the water, and rested in the shade.
Quiet breaths seeped in between the laughter.
And at some point, Denji stopped. The look in his eyes as he gazed at the horizon deepened just a little.
…Seeing this sea reminded him of that day.
The Bomb Fiend, Reze.
The moment I realized she couldn’t explode underwater, I wrapped her in chains and threw myself into the sea with her.
Round and round, the chains flapped noisily underwater, and in that gap, Beam appeared.
The Shark Fiend that he was, he swam like crazy, pulling me and Reze along, and we barely managed to reach the shore.
That moment during the festival, when she said to me, ‘Let’s run away together.’
I didn’t really know what I was thinking then…
But now I think I understand.
― Reze was the only one who saw me not as the ‘Chainsaw Man’, but as ‘Denji’.
That simple sincerity alone had strangely touched something deep inside.
Was that why?
On the beach where that fight ended, I looked at Reze and impulsively said,
‘Let’s run away together.’
There was no reason or plan in those words. It was just… for the first time, I had the desire to ‘live’ with someone.
“Denji?”
Reze called, lightly grabbing his arm.
Denji took a short breath, looked at her, and shook his head.
“No. Just… remembering.”
“Remembering what.”
“That time.”
Reze’s eyes wavered for just a moment.
And soon, she relaxed her expression as if it were nothing and poked Denji’s arm.
“Then don’t think about it now. Now is—”
She gestured with her chin toward the waves.
“Here.”
Denji laughed shortly and nodded.
The two walked again, wetting their ankles.
The sounds of the beach mixed with their footsteps, and the present softly covered the surface of the past. With a thickness that was very thin, but bearable.
The afternoon sea had grown quieter.
The sunlight softened gently, reflecting on the water’s surface, swaying calmly.
The two walked along a narrow path that ran under a rocky hill.
Tough weeds poked out between the rock crevices, and pieces of glass caught the sunlight, sparkling like small flames.
They sat side by side on a rock.
The saltiness dried by the wind faintly seeped into their collars.
The waves folded and unfolded calmly below the cliff.
For a while, they said nothing.
Strangely, the time of doing nothing felt rather full.
“You know, Reze.”
“Yeah?”
“This kind of thing… is really nice.”
“This kind of thing?”
“Just. All of this right now.”
Denji’s voice was lower and calmer than usual. No jokes, no bloody scent.
Reze looked at his profile.
Somehow, it felt unfamiliar. A face she hadn’t seen when fighting or running away.
“Being with you, Reze… I feel like I keep learning new things. Maybe that’s why.. I want to go to school together.”
The corners of Reze’s eyes trembled slightly.
What Denji didn’t know was that she had never been to school either.
“…Then, do you want to really go to school together?”
“Huh?”
“Why so surprised. We’re still 16, you know. The age for school.”
Reze said with a laugh.
“The timing is a bit awkward now… let’s try to enter when the new term starts next year. How about it?”
“Really…?”
“Yeah.”
Reze held out her finger. Her pinky.
“Promise.”
Denji hesitated for a moment, then carefully hooked his finger with hers.
A small strength was born, and the sound of waves seeped between them.
“Back then… in the sea, you said it.”
Reze muttered softly.
“Let’s run away together.”
Denji didn’t answer. Instead, he looked at the same sea as her.
“Now—”
“We’re in the middle of running away together.”
“That’s right.”
“And, we’re in the middle of learning.”
“Learning what.”
“How to live well.”
Denji laughed. A somehow foolish, honest smile.
“I’m really bad at that, though.”
“I know. That’s why I’m teaching you.”
Reze narrowed her eyes playfully and poked his shoulder.
“There will always be homework.”
“Ugh— homework…”
“Today’s homework: Be happy.”
“That’s… a bit hard.”
“It’s homework because it’s hard.”
The two laughed simultaneously.
The wind lifted Reze’s hair, and its shadow brushed Denji’s cheek.
The sunset was slowly tilting in the distance.
The light lay down, and the sea pushed up a golden color.
Reze placed her palm on the sand and traced a very small letter with her finger.
D & R. A round border. A wave came up and slightly crumbled the edge. Only the letters remained.
“They’re left.”
“Yeah.”
“Will they remain even when the next wave comes?”
“Then we’ll just write them again.”
Reze slowly lifted her finger and traced over the letters one more time.
“This is something we decide.”
At that moment, Denji understood. The reason she sometimes silently looked at the sea, the momentarily blank expressions, and the jokes thrown for no reason.
They were all gestures to hold onto the present for a long time.
The wind changed. The temperature dropped just a little faster.
Far away, on something like a power line at the end of the breakwater, a black dot was visible. Whether it was a crow, a knot, or an illusion—it was too far to tell.
Reze withdrew her gaze and stood up.
“We should start heading back.”
“Yeah. But…”
“What?”
“Next time, let’s come at night too. On a day with lots of stars.”
“Sounds good.”
Reze smiled.
“I’ll give you homework then too.”
“Again?”
“Yeah. Then, make one wish.”
The two walked slowly with their backs to the sea. Two lines of footprints followed side by side on the sand, disappearing when a wave came up, and then continuing again.
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