Chapter 19: Will you hold my hand when the world ends?

Thursday 8 May, 20XX - Part 4

It was 10pm. Just one more hour until the 11pm deadline.

Yui and I drove up a nearby hill overlooking the city, the kind of place where families might have a picnic on weekends. It was pitch dark, with only the full moon offering some light.

We took the plastic bag filled with coffee and snacks to a nearby picnic table. From there we could see the shining lights of the city. Each building had a few glowing windows and a few that were dark.

I pointed at the windows that didn’t have their light turned on. “They have gone to sleep.”

“Heee…they aren’t really worried at all.”

“That seems to be the case.”

“Why not? The traffic lights went out before. Shouldn’t they be more careful?”

I rested my chin on my hand while gazing out at the lights. From here we could hear the sounds of the city – the cars, the people, the sound of trains running across tracks.

“If their life is going well, then they want to keep living it. It’s as simple as that.”

“Hmmm…” Yui copied my pose by resting her chin on the palm of her hand. Underneath the table, her feet touched mine. Neither of us said anything to acknowledge it. It felt reassuring to know that there was someone with you. “Those might be the same people online who make fun of others for worrying that the world might end.”

“Maybe.”

“If the electricity goes out, it will be impossible to pretend that nothing is going to happen,” Yui said.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“It’s possible that people will continue to live their usual day-to-day lives even as the world falls apart. Not everyone will be like that, but I think a lot of people will do that. They will live their existing lives until the end of the world.”

“Haruto, you really think so?”

“A lot of people…they are born, they go to school, they graduate and then get a job. They go to the supermarket to buy food, they go shopping when they want to buy clothes, and they go on holiday when they have time off. They have children, they raise them, the children leave and start their own families. They are content living this life. It’s a good life. It’s the only life they have ever known. I think most people cannot adapt if this life disappears, so they will keep acting out the same routine. It is the unhappy people who desire change.”

“Huhn…I guess we will find out who is happy and who is unhappy.”

Yui pointed at the windows that had their lights turned off.

“You think in each of those homes is a happy family?”

“It’s possible.”

“Heee…that’s nice.”

Even in the darkness, I could tell that her eyes were filled with loneliness. Maybe a long time ago, she had brief happy moments with her family. Maybe before her father left and also before her mother married her stepfather.

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” I said.

“Haruto?”

“It’s something from a book I read.”

“I think I heard of that one before. Isn’t it by a famous German author?”

“A Russian writer.”

“Hee, I didn’t know you read stuff like that.”

“My mother and I didn’t have a lot of money, so I read books in the library to kill time. I figured knowing a bit about famous literature would help during interviews.”

“What does that quote mean? Please explain, Iyama-sensei.”

“Stop it, that’s weird.”

“Please teach me, sensei~ An earnest student is seeking your guidance.”

She reached across the table and touched my hand.

“It just means that when we are happy, we are happy for more or less the same reasons. But when we are unhappy, there can be lots of different reasons for it.”

For a while, neither of us said anything.

“Yui?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you holding my hand?”

“Fuwehh?”

Her face was red. Despite that, she didn’t let go of my hand. Instead, she gripped it even harder.

“D-Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s just that…ugh…this is really embarrassing.” She took a deep breath. “I get scared in the dark, okay?”

“R-Right.”

We were like two frightened children, lost out here in the world, holding hands so we could gain some reassurance that we weren’t alone.

“Haruto?

“Yeah?”

Under the faint moonlight, our eyes met.

“Will you hold my hand when the world ends?

I blinked. Was there some deeper meaning behind that?

“Sure.”

Yui smiled. Even in the darkness, she was beautiful.

“What do you think the Kobayashi sisters are thinking right now?” Yui asked.

“By now they must have realized that we’ve tricked them. They have probably already called their boyfriends to tell them. Maybe the police are already looking for us.”

I looked at my watch. Just ten more minutes until 11pm.

Yui glanced left and right.

“I don’t think they will find us here,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

“Most people will think that we drove in a straight line to get as far away as possible from the campsite. The police will search for us under that assumption. They won’t think that we parked next to the largest city in the region.”

“Haruto…you’re really smart.”

“Actually I got this idea from when you were hiding your things in those coin lockers at the station. Sometimes it’s better to hide things right under their noses.”

Yui grinned from ear to ear.

“That was a pretty neat trick, right?”

“Yes.”

There it was again. That look on her face that said, ‘Praise me more!’

“I’m pretty smart, right?”

“You’re the smartest. You’re the Kaito Kid of our age.”

“Huhnnnnn~”

She was glowing with happiness.

I looked at my watch again.

Just ten more seconds until 11pm.

Three…

Two…

One…

Our phones lost signal. ‘No Signal’ was displayed even though we were next to a major city.

A moment later, the city went dark.

“W-Wow,” Yui mouthed.

So the message we received was serious. From this moment on, we were cut off from the rest of the world.

Cities were again divided by mountains, countries divided by the sea.

We had returned to feudal times.

Yui and I stared at the mass of darkness that had replaced the shining city. The only sources of light were the headlights of cars on the road since those used batteries for their lights.

It felt like a dream, but I wasn’t dreaming.

“Haruto, am I dreaming?”

“I’m not going to slap you.”

“Oh, then – “

“No, you can’t slap me.”

One time was more than enough.

We got into the car. It was time to start the next part of our plan.