Last Winter We Parted by Fuminori Nakamura Read Free Book Online

siblings we are, huh? You’re in danger too
.
    The smell of disinfectant wafts up from the cold floor. As though no matter how persistently someone has tried to kill whatever germs are there, they still refuse to be eliminated.
    —I try to capture a person’s true nature in a photograph. My sister … she stimulates a person’s true nature, and throws it into disarray. In a way, I’m probably no different. My sister wants everything from a person. And when she’s gone, the man is ruined … These men give up everything for my sister, and she sucks them dry, and tosses them aside … She’s a looker, isn’t she? My sister
.
    “… She’s alluring.”
    —Right. You probably think that you’ve never met anyone like her in your life … I want my sister to be happy. But it will never happen. I doubt she will ever be happy, or that anyone around her will ever be happy either
.
    I am aware of the prohibited recorder I am carrying.
    “She showed me … a photograph. A photo of you and Akari when you were kids.”
    —… I was in it?
    “Yes. You were.”
    —I have no interest. If I’m in the photo, then I didn’t take it, right? So it means nothing to me
.
    He lets out his breath. Still he doesn’t shift his expression.
    —… But it’s strange. That my sister likes you, I mean. You
don’t seem like her type … I wonder what has changed in her life
.
    Suddenly, my reflection in the acrylic glass overlaps with his face. I look away. “Save me.” I haven’t been able to get what she said out of my mind. Her scent is still on my neck.
    “Is Akari … is she in some kind of trouble?”
    —Hm?… It wouldn’t surprise me if she were. She’s the sister of a murderer. I’ve only made things worse for her
.
    I wonder if that is all. I have the feeling it is something else. It doesn’t seem like it is just some kind of abstract wish for me to save her from herself.
    “But other than that, something more tangible.”
    —… Did she say something to you about it?
    “No, I just …”
    The man is staring at me.
    —… She made some bitter remarks to the bereaved families and … she has a lot of enemies. That’s why she’s living like she is, in hiding. Even though she had nothing to do with what I did, well, for instance, there are still the families of the men who committed suicide … Taking sides with my sister means everyone else becomes your enemy … But that’s not what I meant by being prepared. Will you promise me something?
    There is a flicker of strength in his eyes. It is only the slightest shift, however, there is definitely emotion behind it.
    —Whatever happens, I want you to stay by my sister’s side
.
Whatever happens. Even if she goes into a hysterical rage, even if she has an episode
.
    “… An episode?”
    —Yeah, you really don’t know what you’re dealing with yet … If you’re not willing to take on everything that comes along with her, then I don’t want to see you again. Take it or leave it. But you ought to see the photograph I took of her. See her brutal past … I don’t know if you could take it. Me, or my sister
.
    His expression quickly returns. Back to apathy.
    —… When you’re involved with my sister and me, you … Will you be swallowed up, and lose yourself?

7
    I AM READING through the archives, but my brain isn’t processing them.
    Of course it must be because I am drinking. I leave the archives on the desk and lie down on the bed. I can hear my neighbor coughing on the other side of the wall. It sounds like a painful cough, one that will dislodge something from deep within. He coughs again and again; it goes on without end. Wanting to get away from the noise of his coughing, I roll over. Keenly aware of the stranger whois just on the other side of the wall, I suddenly get the creeps.
    My cell phone rings, and looking at the screen, I see that it is Yukie. I wonder why I didn’t turn off the ringer. The high-pitched