Time Capsule Raiding
When I decided to write my will, I soon noticed that I couldn’t start writing anything at all without an assumption of who was going to be reading it.
Holding a pen over stationery I bought from a nearby shop, I thought about what to write for a long time.
While the cicadas were there, I could blame them for not being able to move my pen - but even after they flew off, I still hadn’t written a single word.
Who was I hoping would read this will in the first place? A will is fundamentally a means of communication. I had to write to tell someone something about me that they couldn’t see otherwise.
I survived until twenty because of my memories from when I was with you, and I won’t survive beyond twenty because I can’t stand a world without you.
Goodbye. I’m praying ten-year-old me survives inside you for a little longer.
Reading it again, I thought that I probably wouldn’t mail this letter. There was a serious problem somewhere in there.
And if that was the objective of the letter, then it seemed I should maybe not write anything at all.
Any form would do; if it was just addressed to Himeno, and I was the sender, that would be enough. And that would result in the least misunderstanding.
Or maybe - another option was to not talk about my death at all, but write about normal, everyday things.
Communicating with letters wasn’t a common thing, and since elementary school, I had no one to send New Year’s cards or anything like that. There must have only been a few letters throughout my whole life.
The students all wrote letters to put inside the round capsule.
“I want you to write those letters to yourself ten years from now,” she said. “Maybe you won’t be sure what to write, since I just said that out of the blue… I know, you can write things like "Did your dream come true?”, or “Are you happy?”, or “Do you remember this?”, or “What would you like to tell me?” There’s a lot you could ask. You can also write about your own hopes, like “Please make my dream come true,” or “Please be happy,” or “Please don’t forget about this.”“
She couldn’t have predicted that in a decade, some of those children had given up on their dreams, weren’t happy, and had forgotten a lot.
"Also, at the end of the letter, please write who your best friend right now is. …Don’t worry too much about what they think about you. If it’s a case of "They hate me, but I like them!”, please just write it. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure no one else sees it, not even me.“
I couldn’t remember what I wrote to myself. I couldn’t even remember whose name I wrote.
It could have been I was the only one who wasn’t contacted, but more than likely, they just forgot.
“Time capsule raiding,” I replied.
A town of green hills. The cries of insects and the overpowering smell of vegetation couldn’t even be compared to where I lived now. Even straining my ears, all I could hear were bugs and birds.
“Surely you can’t sneak into an elementary school and dig holes in the middle of the day?”, Miyagi asked, walking behind.
There wasn’t even a convenience store in walking distance. It would have been time-consuming, but maybe better to take my moped.
“Places from my past, huh… It wasn’t a very good past I had here.”
“Don’t bring up her name so lightly. I really don’t want to hear it out of your mouth.”
“Wasn’t planning to.”
Suddenly, I looked to my side and saw Miyagi applying what appeared to be sunscreen. I always thought she was really fair-skinned, and I guess she worked to keep it that way.
“Essentially, yes.”
“Yes, I’m only seen by those I observe. However, as you are aware, there are exceptions. …For example, when you first visited the shop. When I am not on observer duty, I can be seen by those who are intending to sell their lifespan, time, or health. …Is something the matter?”
“I do it for myself,” Miyagi retorted as if hurt. “You would take a shower even if you had no plans to meet anyone, wouldn’t you?”
I regretted how I was falling right into Miyagi’s suggestion. She illuminated just how boring and ordinary my actions were.
I started on the path into the thicket, then walked off the trail for about five minutes before I reached my destination.
There was a broken-down bus there which served as a so-called “secret base” for Himeno and I in our youth.
Something was written on the side of the seat in blue permanent marker. I took a close look at it and realized it was an arrow. Looking to where it pointed, I found another arrow.
I had no memory of drawing such a thing, and only Himeno and I knew about this place - so it had to have been Himeno.
Once it was burned into my sight, I left the bus, and like I did as a child, used a fallen tree to climb onto the roof. Brushing away some fallen leaves, I lied down flat.
After visiting my grandfather’s grave, it was night, and I headed for the elementary school.
My throat was dry. My hands were getting really blistered, also aided by my time at the batting center yesterday. Miyagi sat by and watched me dig holes, writing something in her notebook.
While I smoked to take a break, my memory finally came back to me. That’s right, we were going to bury it by a tree behind the gym, but someone mentioned that a new tree might be planted there, so we buried it somewhere else.
I picked one at random and opened it up. I skimmed through the “message to your future self” and the “best friend” part.
Just as expected, by the time I’d read all the letters, the lonely name on the chart was me. Not a single person had chosen me as their “best friend.”
And… while I searched the time capsule thoroughly for Himeno’s letter, I couldn’t find it. Maybe it just happened that she wasn’t there the day we buried it.
If only Himeno’s letter were there.
Stuffing my own letter, which I’d found earlier, into my jeans pocket, I reburied the time capsule. I returned the shovel to the shed, washed my hands and face with the nearby faucet, and left the elementary school.
Maybe Miyagi was right. What I was doing was like not normally believing in any gods, but only going to shrines and temples and churches to beg for help when I was having hard times.
I never really took the train much when I lived in the area, but for such a rural place, I didn’t expect the last train to leave so early.
I could have called a taxi, and it wasn’t like I couldn’t have gone to my parents’, but I ultimately chose to spend the night at the station.
While I didn’t think I’d be sleepless because of how utterly exhausted I was, with the strange lighting and the bugs loitering around my feet, I knew I couldn’t count on a particularly pleasant rest.
From the bench behind me, I heard Miyagi’s pen writing. I was impressed by her endurance. She must have not gotten much sleep at all in the days she’d been watching me.
Of course, it wasn’t like I was sympathizing. I just wished she’d stop doing that job.