“What? Why did she do that? What right does she have to tell you that? How would that make you feel?”

Yukio still didn’t understand the reason for Kazu’s action.

It was none of her business!

An angry expression clearly formed on Yukio’s face. Kinuyo, however, remained calm.

“What Kazu did...” she began softly, with a very happy smile that Yukio had never seen before—she certainly showed no trace of fear, or any other emotion that one might expect having been told of her death through Kazu’s message, “was to assign me a final task—one that only I can do.”

Yukio remembered that when Kinuyo talked about the times he had nearly died, she used to say with tears in her eyes, “I wasn’t able to do anything for you.” Whether it was illness or accident, she could never forget the torment of waiting helplessly.

“It’s time you returned to the future,” Kinuyo said kindly with a smile.

“No, I don’t want to.”

“Do it for me. I believe in you.”

“No.”

Yukio shook his head dramatically.

Kinuyo held the passbook and stamp he had given her against her forehead.

“I will keep this. It’s filled with your wishes. I’ll take it to my grave without using it,” she said, bowing her head very deeply.

clang-dong

“Mum...”

Kinuyo lifted up her head and looked at Yukio with a kind smile.

“There is no greater suffering than that of a parent who is unable to save their own child who wants to die.”

Yukio’s lips began to tremble. “...Sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

“Forgive me.”

“Well now...” she said, pushing the cup, ever so slightly, to him. “Could you say thank you to Kazu for me?”

He tried to say okay, but no words came out. He swallowed and grabbed the cup with trembling hands. He lifted his head to see, with his now-blurry vision, Kinuyo beaming at him, and also weeping.

My sweet boy...

Her voice was too soft for him to hear, but that’s what her lips whispered. As if speaking to a newborn.

For a parent, a child is a child forever. Never ever expecting anything in return, she was simply a mother who wanted her child to be happy, always, to shower him with love.

Yukio had thought that if he died, everything would be over. He thought that it would have no effect on Kinuyo because she was already dead. But he had been wrong. Even after she died, she was still his mother. The feelings did not change.

I would have upset my dead mother...

Yukio gulped down the coffee. The acidic sour taste unique to mocha filled his mouth. The dizziness returned, and his body began to turn to vapor.

“Mum!” he yelled.

He could no longer tell if his voice was carrying to Kinuyo.

But her voice reached him clearly. “Thank you for coming to see me.”