The Story of a Macaron-Loving Girl Who Lived a Thousand Years Somehow. Chapter 2

She Can Talk To Concrete 

He opened his eyes, feeling an unwanted warmth on his hand. 

He had awoken when a nurse in her late thirties grabbed his hand and stuck an IV needle into it. 

All that was within his vision was a somehow unreal, inorganic hospital room. 

“What you’ve come down with can’t be cured.” 

This is what the doctor told him a bit later. 

His high school life was worthless, without many friends. 

The potential for his future seemed to diminish. He could hardly see a future ahead. 

So he muttered cynically, “Welp, what can you do,” and entered the classroom with a metal bat. 

The hula dance teacher, and her mother who was cheating with him, didn’t know, and her father who vanished into thin air one day didn’t know. 

But to that she always said, “Welp, what can you do.” 

Some give up on living in despair, and some go running to their loved ones. 

There are many different approaches. 

Thus, he went to his school’s closing ceremony with a metal bat. 

He heard beastly cries of anger from the classroom, but they mattered not to him.

So he’d no longer go to school, which was two hours from home. He’d never meet them again. The anger and yelling of someone you’ll never see again is even more pointless than hearing someone talk about the dream they had last night. 

Ignoring the voices echoing through the school, he dashed through the halls at top speed. 

He saw nothing but blackness. Like everyone had vanished from the world. 

He suddenly thought, “If I die, will that blackness go on forever?” 

Eternal blackness with no time nor space. Would he be able to stand it? 

The piercing blue sky seemed bigger than ever, and a world filled with brilliant color spread before him. 

He was already free. 

* 

“I’m home!” 

“Yeah, the closing ceremony ended early.” 

“Okay, mom. See you!” 

His mother left, and her lying son saw her off. She never would have imagined he, in his third year of high school, took a metal bat to school and spanked a kid with it. Some things you’re better off not knowing. 

His mother, of course, would be very sad if she learned about it. He didn’t want to see that. 

After confirming from the window that his mother was far enough away, he got his textbooks out of his bag. The symbols of high school. As he went up in years, these things got harder, tortured him further. 

He put another in the shredder, and buried another to nourish the earth, and burnt another to contribute to global warming. 

Freed from his chains, he went to observe ants in the garden. 

He bounced erasers, dug up and immediately refilled holes, counted stains on the ceiling, gave himself baths with water bottles. He tried his hardest in all of these meaningless things. 

“I wonder if I should just die already,” he sometimes thought. 

On one of those days, he received an invitation to a class reunion. 

He didn’t have any friends in high school, but he had a fair amount up to middle school. Sou-chan who lived nearby was a popular girl, and since they were close, he had more friends by extension. 

In fact, the text inviting him to the reunion had been from Sou-chan. 

He wondered whether he should go or not, and asked his mother for her two cents. 

“I dunno what I should do…” 

“I’ve been doing things! Today I filled a water bottle with pebbles!” 

“Okay, mom…” 

“Well, okay, I guess I should look forward to seeing Sou-chan again,” he told himself. 

But alas, God was not kind to him. 

Due to catching an out-of-season flu, Sou-chan couldn’t come to the reunion. 

Thirdly, his friend You-kun became a shut-in who wouldn’t leave the house. 

Fifthly, his friend Taa-chan was hospitalized after a traffic accident. 

People laughed with each other. Had lively conversation. It had nothing to do with him, so he worked to sprinkle lemon juice on fried chicken in the corner of the room. 

“If I’d known it would be like this, I should’ve just looked for a nice-shaped rock at the river…”, he muttered, no one listening. 

However, among them was a girl who was also isolated in the corner like him. 

From what he remembered, she was in a group in their class that didn’t stand out very much. 

In those days, she had long black hair in braids, and he had hardly ever talked to her in all their nine years of elementary and middle school. 

He was able to gleam that she similarly had no friends who had come to the reunion. 

In truth, as she sprinkled lemon juice on fried chicken in boredom, she was occasionally whispering things to the concrete. 

And perhaps not wanting to lose to her, he continued to sprinkle lemon juice on the fried prawns before him. 

Of course, no one came to talk to him either. 

* 

When the reunion was over, the former classmates went off to various after-parties. 

She looked at him doubtfully. Then she appeared to realize something, and looked at him as if saying “Ahh, it’s that guy.” 

“Are you heading back this way?” 

As soon as she spoke, his body froze up. He hadn’t had a single conversation at the reunion, so he’d totally forgotten how to respond to being talked to. 

He took a breath to calm himself down, then replied. 

She smirked at his ridiculous response. It was the first emotion she, who was just squeezing lemons, had shown all day. 

“I forgot. Try to remember it for me,” he jokingly replied. 

Looking at her closer, she had quite a bit of makeup on. More than an ordinary high-schooler would wear. 

After thinking for a while with her head lowered, her face gleamed and she shouted: 

That sounded like the name of a fourth outfielder, and it was not his, but he laughed and said “That’s right! Good memory.” 

He had a tendency to say a lot of pointless lies. 

He loved to pointlessly lie. And this was yet another meaningless lie that he would be better off not saying. 

“And I believe your name was Hanako Yamada?” 

People are usually a little displeased to have such mistakes made about them. But she laughed hearing it. 

Without any sign of anger, she poked his face with a smile. She wasn’t named Hanako Yamada, but her sunny smile didn’t mind. 

He was walking home with her. Their paths home went in completely opposite directions, but if he had time to observe ants every day, he could spend it walking the wrong way with her. 

The first true thing he’d said to her all day. Thinking it was a joke, she laughed “Haha!” like before. 

“Right. Hooray for summer vacation!” 

“Yeah, yeah. I gotta battle death once summer comes along.” 

With that, she span around happily. She did three spins, then stumbled back toward him. 

“Hanako Yamada, are you still in school?” 

“Oh, wow! You’re a free woman.” 

“It’s kind of a secret, but I work a night job.” 

“Nooo, that’s not it!” 

“Oh, yeah. I’m jealous!” 

“No, of course I am. It’s been on my mind since yesterday.” 

It was a dumb, thoughtless conversation, but she was smiling the whole time. A big difference from the bored expression she wore while squeezing lemons at the class reunion. 

“I guess I’m glad I came today,” she suddenly said when they were about halfway home. “Though truthfully, most of the time I was thinking I should have gone to see a baseball game.” 

“Yeah. I love baseball.” 

Shockingly, her swing looked exactly like one of Norihiro Nakamura’s, from the stance to the throwing of the bat. 

Perhaps pleased, she nodded with a smile. “Yep, I love it!” 

About how her good friend Mii-chan went missing on a trip to Paris. 

About how he couldn’t make many friends in high school. 

About how he whacked the class leader in the butt with a metal bat. 

And about how she could talk to concrete. 

“You can talk to concrete? That’s amazing!”, he praised, and she shyly giggled. 

It was a hard thing to believe right away, but he just thought “Yeah, I guess that could happen.” 

“I was so bored during the class reunion, I talked to concrete the whole time. I thought we were going to run out of things to talk about.” 

Her Norihiro Nakamura impression done, she started doing a Daisuke Miura one. 

“There’s so many dull people around, I’m glad you’re here to put me at ease,” he replied. 

“Ah, we’re here. This is my place.” 

“Do you live alone?”, he asked, getting curious. 

“Huh. That sounds fun.” 

“You could go into the woods or something to be alone.” 

“Right? There’s a batting center, a butcher’s, and a mat-maker’s all nearby! And the woods,” she incomprehensibly gloated. 

“You want to move in, Tarou Yamada?” 

“Really? What a shame…” 

“Well, see you! Maybe in three years or so!” 

“O-kay!” She waved like a grade-schooler. 

When the sound of her steps stopped, he slowly began his walk home. 

* 

The next day, he resumed his usual life. Which, of course, was just observing ants in the park. 

He watched the ants with each coming day, but on the fifteenth day he felt a creeping boredom. 

And with little else to do, he sat on a bench and stared into the sky. 

“Oh! We meet again!” 

He turned to the voice, and found the one he called Hanako Yamada. She waltzed over to him. 

“It’s been a week! What are you doing now, Tarou Yamada?” 

“Ooh, sounds important.” 

It was a more the kind of casual dress you’d expect from a high-schooler, and a huge change from her prior night-worker clothes. 

She replied sourly. “Well… I guess I kinda got fired from my night job, or something like that.” 

“I was so enthusiastic to serve my customers, I gave out a little too much for free.” 

“I know. Gosh!” She pouted, pretending to be mad. 

“Wah!” 

He suddenly noticed her big eyes looking at him and was startled, letting out a small yelp. He positioned himself like nothing had happened. 

“Geez! Hear out my hardship, will you? What were you thinking?” 

“Alright, well, what can you do.” 

He could see her black underwear under her strawberry one-piece, but he looked away. 

“I’m bored now, too. Since I’m thinking already, I’ll think about how we can waste time.” 

A long-past memory arose: “Back in elementary school, I think I played with Sou-chan around here.” 

Still, as time passed they got bored, and sat around like now wondering if there was anything else fun they could do. 

Just as he thought it, it revived another memory. 

That’s right. Their secret base. 

When they were in elementary school, they made a secret base to play in. 

“But what ended up happening with that?” It was so long ago, he couldn’t remember anything more. 

“A secret base,” he mumbled. 

“I know what we’ll do. We’ll make a secret base.” 

“Ooh, that’s a good idea!” 

“Just the idea of a secret base makes me excited! That’s pretty good coming from you, Tarou Yamada.” 

“What a genius! Alright, I’ll help you make a secret base!” 

“Shouldn’t you spend time with your boyfriend with your time off?”, he asked the elated girl, having some doubts. 

“That sounds terrible.” 

“Well, what can you do. I guess you can help me make a secret base, then.” 

Her skirt fluttered up revealing her black underwear multiple times. 

“Huh? Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just your imagination.” 

“Yeah, when it’s just your imagination, what can you do. So give up.” A childlike, worriless grin came to her face. 

* 

“So, do you know what you do first in making a secret base?” 

“Wrong! First, we procure cardboard!”, he proudly explained. 

“Yes, cardboard. With enough cardboard, we can create an infinite number of secret bases. Cardboard is the greatest invention of all mankind.” 

They were the only two voices in the park, lit by the red mid-afternoon sun. 

“Roger that!” 

The two walked around the shopping district, old and littered with shuttered stores. At the far end was the only convenience store in town. 

“Huh, you can get cardboard from the convenience store? I didn’t know that.” 

“Roger that!” 

When the boy saw the clerk, he put a hand to his head. 

“What’s up?” 

“Oh, no… We only just started, and we’re already stuck…?” Her shoulders drooped. 

“But it’s too early to give up. We’ll see what we can do.” 

“Stop, you’re embarrassing me.” 

He walked right up to the register. There was a cold sweat on his back. He tried to ignore the quickening of his heartbeat. 

When the boy approached, the blond clerk spewed words that he was unable to ascertain as Japanese. 

“Excuse me. Um, would you be able to give us some cardboard?” 

“Ah. Okay.” 

“I, uh, don’t think it was any good…” 

“Yeah…” 

“Ah, what can you do… Alright, just leave it to me.” 

He tilted his head, thinking it a strange thing to do, as she traipsed over to the register. 

“C’m'n in…” 

“Um, excuse me. Could I get some cardboard?” 

“Just give us that cardboard in the back. We’ll take it all, so it won’t be any more trouble for you.” 

She faced the clerk and made a request a little bit louder. 

The clerk was wordless at this sudden action, and his mouth hung open. There was immediate silence. 

All the customers in the shop turned toward the clerk to see this sight rarely seen in daily life. Noticing the odd atmosphere, the clerk quickly took his hand away. 

“Thank you very much! Also, can we borrow a cart or whatever?” 

“Hooray! Thanks so much!” 

“Alright! We procured cardboard!” 

“Roger that! Let’s carry!” 

The two returned to the park carrying a mountain of cardboard. They had pushed the carts a long way, so sweat dripped down their faces. 

“Still, I’m glad it went well.” 

“Heheh. More praise!” 

“Aren’t I? Teehee!” Again, she stuck out her breasts. 

“Roger that! Let’s get started quick!” 

“Okay, ready?” 

Pushing the cart loaded with luggage, they headed into the grove. 

The grove behind the park had changed little since he was in elementary school, as it had been mostly untouched by people. 

After walking a little ways, they found a light spot that stood out among the darkness. The sun poked through thanks to the lower density of trees there, and the ground sparkled in the light. 

“Ooh, that’s good!” 

“I want it to be a fancy type thing! Like a castle!” 

“We will! Let’s do it!” 

After carrying that conversation, he took the largest piece of cardboard and began construction. 

The sun set behind the horizon, and everything got much darker. Looking at the time, it was already nine. That meant he and she had been toiling away on their bases for nearly five hours. 

There were splinters, corners, and nails all over, so it was a simple design, yet one that tickled his male instincts. He was quite satisfied with his achievement. 

Using color sprays she had bought from the shopping district, she made all her cardboard pink during construction. 

“What’re these?” 

“They look like humans to me, albeit stick figures.” 

“Well, okay, what can you do.” 

Unable to stand his reeling vision, he dropped to the floor. 

She looked at him in a panic. Her face was swaying and warping in his eyes. It was clearly something entirely unlike the dizziness from standing up earlier. 

“Really? Good. Boy, you’re weak.” 

“Haha. It’s no good to aspire to that!”, she laughed, stroking his back. It made his shaky vision calm down just a little bit. 

Once he was feeling better, he staggered to his feet. 

“Yeah, I’m tired too.” 

“Right. My boyfriend will be back soon, so I need to get home.” 

“Yep. Run!” 

“Okay then, walk!” 

The two leisurely walked back to the convenience store. 

When a conversation ended, she started humming. And when she got bored of that, they talked again. The two were comforted having that appropriate sense of distance between them. 

“Wow, the Milky Way is pretty. Looks tasty.” 

“I’ll do the best I can!” 

When they met at the park the next day and entered the grove, their secret bases were in shambles. 

She was despondent and crumpled to the ground. He didn’t let it show, but he was very dejected inside as well. 

That was when he remembered the fate of the secret base they made long ago. 

It may have been such a sad memory that he tried to erase it from his mind. But with the same sight before him, it was brought back. 

When he turned, he saw four young boys in middle school uniforms, arms linked. Maybe middle-schoolers these days are brought up better, as the one serving as their leader was about same height as him, a high-schooler. 

“That’s right! We’re thinking we’re gonna build a secret base here! What’s the big idea building that weird junk?!” 

“Shaddup! We already decided we’d build one here and everything!”, the largest of the boys shouted back. 

From their attitudes, they didn’t seem like very logical people. 

That was when he remembered the whole story. 

Since they were far older than him and Sou-chan, they could do nothing before them and ran away in tears. 

While he remained silent, the middle-schoolers went on and on. 

“Yeah, yeah! Get outta here!” 

“Go home! Go hooome!” 

The power of numbers defeated his rationality. 

“So what! You can go build over there! You don’t have to destroy anything!” 

He couldn’t help noticing that her rebuttal made the middle-schoolers wince for a moment. 

“Huh? Why?! Let’s kick them in the stomachs and make them apologize!” 

She was too surprised to react and ran with him. 

The middle-schoolers got rowdy to the point of not being able to make anything out, and their yelling echoed through the grove. 

He smiled a little, remembering that. 

* 

“I’m so upset! Geez…” 

She sulked and held his arm tight, very frank about her sorrow over the destruction. 

“You want me to calm down?! Our secret bases were destroyed!” 

“But they’ll be destroyed again! That’s not the only good place for a secret base, right? Why didn’t we beat them up?!” 

“Hmm… I guess that might have happened. The others were big, too.” 

“I guess that might be true… But Tarou Yamada, didn’t you tell me you beat a kid’s butt with a metal bat?” 

“Hmm… I guess I get it…” 

She listened to his argument, but she didn’t appear to accept it. 

“But it sucks to just keep running…” 

Patting her on the head, a bold smile came to his lips. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Really? Tell me, tell me!” Her face brightened instantly. 

“Huh? Really? I didn’t notice that!” 

“That’s true! When I was in middle school, I hardly talked to any boys.” 

“Heheh, you’re making me blush. Heap on the praise!” 

“I get it! You’re amazing, Tarou Yamada! So I guess I should have them touch my boobs?”, she proposed with face beaming, holding her large breasts up. 

“Oh… Yeah, that’d be hard.” She was let down by having the idea rejected. 

Seeing her disappointment, he said something. 

“W-Welcome!” 

He brought a large quantity of something back to the register. The clerk was startled, but rang it up without a word. 

“No, thank you,” he said to the polite clerk, then left the store. 

He stopped for a while, then when it had calmed down, walked over to her. 

“Sorry for the wait. I was a little nervous…” 

“Take a look.” He handed her two vinyl bags. 

“Whoa, what the?! Tarou Yamada, you perv!” 

High school girls, married women, everything from Gravure Photo Collection to Kairakuten, they had it all at the convenience store. 

“Ohh. But can we really do it?” 

“How reliable! Great job, Tarou Yamada!” 

“Alright! Let’s do it!” 

“Heck, it looked like they’re in high school or something, yet they couldn’t say a word back. Super lame!” 

“Ha, it wasn’t even hard. Those guys were weak!” 

They rudely marched into the grove. Nothing seemed different from yesterday, and theirs were the only voices in the grove. 

“What’re these?” 

There, they found porn magazines. Tens of them, scattered all around. 

“Ah, uhh… Well, er… Can’t we just ignore them?” 

Having done nothing but karate all through elementary and middle school, he was not so immune as to honestly say such a thing. 

Even once construction began, there was an uneasy atmosphere that persisted between the boys. 

They did their best to hide it, but erotic material clearly excited them, and they couldn’t take it any longer. 

The four went over to the porn together. Their eyes lept to the covers of captivating naked women. 

“Whoa! Awesome!” 

“Ohhh man…” 

Unable to contain himself, one boy took a magazine and flipped it open. With that, the other boys started reading through them one by one. 

“This one’s sooo hot!” 

With the boys around him engrossed, Ikkun timidly reached for a magazine. 

“Buh… wha? What’s this about?!”, Ikkun shouted, tossing the magazine aside in haste. 

“Huh? How’d you know that?” 

“I can tell from your uniforms. There’s only three middle schools around here, but they have different uniforms. I don’t know if you were coming from club meetings or what, but you should have changed outfits.” 

“Oh, oh! Not another step. I’ve already sent the photo to my friends. What will people at school think when they see you were looking at porn? Girls really hate pervy creeps.” 

“You think anyone will believe that? Cameras these days are amazing. Everything from your bloodshot eyes to the extent of the collection you were perusing… It’s all perfectly clear in the photo.” 

He laughed with satisfaction and slowly walked over. Standing in front of them, he gave Ikkun a wide smile. 

“Oh, there’s nothing to worry about. We’re not demons. If you behave properly, there’ll be no need to do such an awful thing,” he kindly told the quivering boys. 

“…orry…” 

“We’re sorry! We’re sorry for destroying your secret base!”, he sobbed. One after another, the other boys apologized as well. 

“That was so cool, Tarou Yamada!”, she whispered into his ear. 

“Now don’t go making people mad at you!”, she gleefully said to the boys who would not stop sniffling. Perhaps because of the sudden kindness, the boys burst into tears. 

“These things happen in life. It’s all right.” 

“It’s fine. Don’t worry! We’ll put it behind us and make a secret base together. We’ll have lots of fun!” 

So they energetically told the kind goddess who had forgiven their sin and offered to build one with them, “Yes, ma'am! Understood!” 

“Got it! Let’s go!” 

After they were gone, he muttered. “Bad girl.” 

“Yeah. It’s leagues better than just driving the kids away.” 

With the change in command, this time it had a quieter vibe. 

“Yes, ma'am! Understood!” 

The boys felt like they were getting friendly with a cute older woman, so they didn’t mind the work one bit. 

Every time the boys completed a task, she would pat them on the head. They delighted like faithful puppies and felt proud indeed. They were absolutely her servants. 

He helped her out with her base from time to time, but in a few hours, his was back to where it was before. 

Entranced in the building of their bases, they worked until sunset, and then they were finally complete. 

“It was nothing! We had lots of fun too!”, they frankly told her. They smiled with childish innocence. 

“Right. Good work today!” 

“Of course! For sure!”, she laughed. The boys shyly nodded. Yes, they were absolutely her slaves. 

Immediately, the boys got awkward looks and ran away. 

“This is popularity in action, Tarou Yamada.” 

“Guess we should go home,” he said, and she replied a little differently. 

“Alright, let’s take it easy here.” 

So the two lied down in the pink secret base she created. 

But he had a terminal illness. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to tease the boys nor talk to her anymore. 

For the first time, he thought “I don’t want to die yet.” 

“Sure is pretty,” she uttered beside him. The moonlight gently illuminated them both. 

“Hahh… It’s great.” 

The two were wrapped in comfortable silence in the gloomy secret base. 

“I’m getting kinda sleepy…”, he said, rubbing his eyes. It was already 11 at night. 

“I’m too tired. I’ll get some sleep for tomorrow.” 

He quietly laughed. “Alright. Let’s do our best!” 

“Alright, see you tomorrow. Good night.” 

Not just one moon, but many like shooting stars filled the sky. 

He saw not the sky above the secret base, but a white ceiling he had seen before.

Beside him, there was a girl anxiously holding his hand. He seemed to recall who it was. 

“Are you okay?”, the woman asked, touching his cheek. He didn’t know what had happened at all, but he said “I’m fine.” 

It was just common sense. It was unthinkable that he, a boy in high school, wouldn’t tell his mother he had a terminal illness. 

“"But anyway,” he says…“, the nurse loudly sighed. She was simply stunned. 

“I see…” 

That day, at the same time he lost consciousness, he had coughed up a ton of blood. This threw her into quite a panic. 

She let him down in the park, and his mouth was red with overflowing blood. Her back was bloody too, but it didn’t matter. 

Before long, the ambulance arrived at the park. He was carried on and taken to the hospital. 

“You should really thank her. I’m going to call your mother now.” 

The nurse ran down the hall again. As he watched her go, he thought, unbelievably, “I wonder if mom’ll be mad.” 

“Sorry to make you worry. Thanks.” 

“Hanako Yamada, I owe you my life. I’ll thank you to the day I die.” 

“Hmm. Well, humans die someday.” 

She looked straight into his eyes, and he unconsciously looked away. 

“Hey, will you come work on the secret base tomorrow?” 

“I see…” The typically naive girl hung her head, like she had at the class reunion. 

“Tomorrow’s no good, but we’ll work on it as soon as I get better.” 

“I

Chapter end