Those words continued to echo in Ryuuji’s mind. Like a reverberation that flies across a deathly quiet forest. Like a ghost wandering a vast graveyard. Along with memories of several years spent in Schwabing. Over and over. On and on.
2001, the year after Pluto Again.
Ryuuji became an assistant on the recommendation of Professor Mavlet Nyman. He was a teaching assistant as opposed to a research assistant. A student pays tuition and studies academic subjects, but an assistant can earn an income while studying for a degree.
Better than anything else was the right to live in a special dormitory for married men. This special dormitory was on the west side of the university campus. Originally a part of a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, the hospital was refurbished into condominiums shortly after the war. Cracks ran in places along the outer wall, which looked like a huge spider web from a distance.
There was no need to worry, though. Repair work was to start within the year, a senior administrator who showed Ryuuji and Kaya around told them.
It’s been more than half a century and it’s still the same, but if construction is ever completed, it will be as good as new. It’d be perfect for a new residence.
"What do you think?" Kaya asked after the preliminary inspection.
"It’s pretty good," Ryuuji replied. He especially liked the shape of the cracks in the north wall. They could be used in a Rorschach test.
"Other than that, I like it. When should we do the report?"
Let’s try today, said Ryuuji.
After dinner that evening, he informed the Weisses that he was thinking of moving out, Mr. and Mrs. Weiss looked at each other.
Mrs. Weiss knitted her lovely eyebrows.
"I wish you could stay here forever."
Mr. Weiss, who wanted to add to what Mrs. Weiss said, kept looking downwards and turned to Ryuuji and Kaya.
"I figured it was about time you started to consider being more independent," he said softly.
"Please go. Go and try to live life to the fullest. However, if you run into any trouble, please do not hesitate to call on us at any time. Even if you do not have any issues, please come visit us at least a couple of times a year. Both you and Kaya are like family to us, like a little brother and sister.
Mr. Weiss smiled broadly. "The dog will be really sad with you gone," he said as he extended his hand.
"I’m glad someone will miss us," Ryuuji replied and he grasped Mr. Weiss’s hand.
Mrs. Weiss hugged Kaya.
The four of them embraced each other, pressing their cheeks together.
Lilie was sleeping asleep on the sofa in front of the fireplace.
Grit lay under the sofa and yawned.
They finished moving to the new house and Ryuuji took a day off. He bought a tent for three people and went out to the Baltic Sea along with Kaya. It was a substitute for their honeymoon. They headed north on the International E-road network. Kaya also had a license, so she and Ryuuji took turns driving on the way. After two days on the road, they arrived in Rostock.
The streets were chilly since it was early spring, but the coast was crowded with tourists.
Ryuuji and Kaya slowly walked around in the clear air as though blessing the fleeting spring and felt the fine sand shift under their feet. They bought sandwiches, potato chips and bottles of beer at a shop they found along the way, then found a grassy area and sat down.
When they saw the burning red sunset eventually fall over the Baltic, Ryuuji returned to his car and assembled a dome-shaped tent and the two of them crawled inside.
The next morning when Ryuuji awoke, the surroundings were covered in the darkness just before dawn. Ryuuji forgot where they were for a moment, but he was immediately reminded of Kaya’s breath.
Ryuuji carefully crawled out of the tent so as to not wake her. He took a beer in his right hand, climbed the small sandy beach and sat down. He listened to the sound of the waves and downed the bottle in two gulps while taking in the smell of the tides.
Ryuuji thought about his life before coming to Munich, before he met Kaya. "I wonder if that was truly me," he said to himself. "And is that who I really am here now?" He didn’t know how to feel about it.
Ryuuji was surprised that everything changed completely after their marriage and his behavior seemed to have completely changed.
He wondered what he should say about these feelings now. How should he express these emotions?
The sky was beginning to brighten.
Then, birds began to sing from somewhere. Ryuuji stood up and searched for the source of the sound, but could not find it.
Kaya came out from the tent and walked over to Ryuuji.
"Ryuuji?"
"Hey, good morning."
"Good morning," Kaya said as she looked at Ryuuji. It was dark and she couldn’t see well, but was he smiling?
"I’ll always be with you," Ryuuji said. "Want a beer?"
Kaya shook her head quickly to refuse the offer and the birds chirped again.
"Oh, Robins," Kaya said as she looked at the sea, the same moment that Ryuuji did likewise.
Ryuuji traced Kaya’s line of sight and turned his face to the sea again.
However, he saw no birds anywhere.
The bright sunlight penetrated the cold air of the early morning and the sea began to regain its color.
"Hey, did you know?" Kaya asked.
"Among some types of migratory birds, there are individuals that will stay behind to live in the places they stopped at along their journey," Kaya whispered as she gazed at the sea. She whispered so as to not startle the birds, even though they still hadn’t spotted any.
"It is a healthy individual. It doesn’t stay behind for reasons such as getting injured and not being able to fly or getting sick. Nothing like that. Nevertheless, it stays behind," she continued. She looked at Ryuuji. "Why do you think that is?"
Kaya’s figure seemed to gradually become hazy in the dim light. Her question puzzled Ryuuji.
"Ah, why don’t we find a shop that serves good coffee?"
After thinking for a while, Ryuuji replied in a way he thought would be effective at changing the subject. It was all frivolous banter.
Kaya giggled and wrapped her arms around Ryuuji.
"Then shall we go back to the city and get some delicious coffee?" she
"That’s a good idea," Ryuuji said as he pulled Kaya close.
I’m glad you came, Ryuuji thought while he looked at the horizon. I won’t forget about this beach. Ryuuji had a good feeling about that. He wouldn’t forget yesterday’s silent talks. This moment at twilight. The scenery. The waves, the sand and the sky. The bird song. The sound of the tide. His wife standing beside him. I will never forget, Ryuuji thought to himself.
At the end of the year, Kaya gave birth to a daughter. Ryuuji and Kaya named her Sascha.
Then the busy days began. It was the most fulfilling time in Ryuuji’s life.
Every day he went to lectures as a student till two o’clock in the afternoon and after that he worked as an assistant. He served as an assistant to the research assistants, prepared instruments and gathered experimental data. In the meantime he found time to advance in his field and write several papers.
At one time, the building containing the psychiatric and neuropathology laboratory was demolished and it was decided to relocate the classroom to another building.
A large amount of clinical records became a problem. They were overwhelmingly short of the manpower needed to move the mountain of paper from a warehouse and organize it at its new home.
In order to cope with the record which had become a liability, Ryuuji appealed to the professor on the need for a computer. He got approval under the pretext of moving records more smoothly, so he immediately went to the general affairs department and borrowed a set of personal computers. Then before the professor changed his mind, Ryuuji directed some free students and they were able to enter the contents of all the charts into the computers in about five days.
After Professor Nyman realized this, he fulfilled his duty by destroying the entirety of the paper charts in a paper shredder.
Under the cover of the confusion of relocating, Ryuuji revamped the database management procedures, so to speak.
For some time after that, the professor spent his lectures with a look as though he had swallowed something sour.
Then, if for some reason it became necessary to investigate past records, he called on Ryuuji.
"You should check it out with your microcomputer."
"Microcomputer?"
The professor was an extraordinarily intelligent and capable person except when it came to computers. Ryuuji continued to write his thesis under the guidance of the professor and soon participated in conferences and then presented the thesis. The information gathered while making the clinical records database was had been useful.
Two years later, Ryuuji was promoted to research assistant.
He was by no means a professor, but he could no longer spare time for odd jobs as he could before. As the professor’s representative, he would give lectures more often, though not enough to be paid as a professor, but he earned enough to meet his needs.
In the summer of that year, Kaya and Ryuuji visited Mr. and Mrs. Weiss, having been invited to a barbecue party.
After a long absence, the garden of the old house greeted them as before.
Along with Mr. Weiss’s longtime friends, a number of so-called ‘celebrities’ of the town were invited.
For a long time, Mr. Weiss had been working on procedures for preserving the family manor. The manor was a cultural property owned by Mr. Weiss, but the request was finally approved and the manor became the legal property of a public utility foundation where Mr. Weiss served as a representative. By doing so, it became possible to save a great deal of taxes incurred from the repair and maintenance costs of the manor.
Mr. Weiss was in good spirits from beginning to end. Mrs. Weiss was busy preparing food and greeting guests.
In a corner of the garden, Lilie, who seemed to have grown tired of helping in the kitchen, lay against Grit as she read a picture book. Grit listened to her awkwardly read the story aloud with an expression that suggested he understood every word.
Ryuuji and Kaya left Sascha with Grit and Lilie, then went to give Mr. and Mrs. Weiss some help.
Sascha, who was now one year old, looked like Lilie’s sister. Sascha and Lilie seemed alike in almost every way. The only clear difference was that Sascha had black hair and Lilie was blonde.
The party. which began in the morning, ended late in the evening.
After seeing the guests out and tidying up, only Ryuuji, Kaya, and Mr. and Mrs. Weiss were left at the table in the garden. The sun was setting and the stars were beginning to twinkle. Sascha and Lilie were laying against Grit fast asleep.
Following Mr. Weiss’s lead, all four raised their cups.
"Gesundheit," Mr. Weiss said in a dignified tone.
It was merely a toast greeting.
Yet Ryuuji could not forget this word.
Each time he looked back on those days, he could not help but feel the presence of someone who controls human destiny. If he thought about what would befall six people in this place over the next few years, himself included, the word was too ironic. Too cruel.
‘Health.’ Could there have been any other word less suitable for those six people?
Of course, at the time, he never considered such a thing.
The world gently shone. It was full of blessings.
Ryuuji looked at Kaya. Kaya returned the look and smiled.
Kaya looked so beautiful. Ryuuji could honestly say that she had never looked more beautiful than at this time.
That’s right, Ryuuji thought to himself. We should go to the beach at Rostock again when Sascha gets bigger and can travel long distances. We can all watch the ocean together. We can hear the birds sing. At that time, there could even be four of us. Whether it’s a son or daughter, our whole little family will go together.
No work, no research, no articles to write, Ryuuji thought.
Everything was going so well. Surely this would continue, Ryuuji thought.
Kaya and Sascha died six months later.