28. Kyrie Fights Back
By the time I had left Leslie and arrived at Seventh Heaven, it was already dusk. It was the first time I had visited twice in one day.
"Welcome―"
When Tifa realised it was me, she gave a curious look, and soon burst into laughter.
"There was something I wanted to talk about..."
Saying that, I slid on to the edge of the seat at the counter.
"Did you give up on going to Nibelheim?"
"No, it’s not about that.."
"Sounds serious."
"Yeah."
"Actually..." I decided to further shorten the story I told Leslie. "Don Corneo seems to be using photographs to intimidate people, you were in one of them, Tifa. I stole it and tore it up, but Corneo said he has copies..."
"Wait a minute. Corneo's still alive?"
"Still alive... what do you mean?"
"Oh, sorry. It’s kind of complicated. There's a lot of stuff I don't know either. So, Corneo had a picture of me?"
"Yeah, You, a girl named Aerith... and Cloud. I’m not sure how to say it. Cloud was dressed as a woman."
"Oh, eh, that. There must have been a hidden camera."
"Yeah, seems like it."
"Wait, so you know Cloud?"
"Well, just barely. Even if I add all of our conversations together, there’s only about three minutes."
"There aren't many who can last five with him."
Tifa said with a cheerful smile. But soon she seemed to have another question on her mind...
"You know of Aerith too?"
"No, it’s just, there were three names written on the back of the photo."
"Oh, I see."
"Is she a friend?"
"Yeah. Well, she was someone more special... I guess"
"I see."
My curiosity about Aerith had been more than piqued, but it felt awkward asking about someone who had died, and plus, I hadn’t even gotten down to the point yet.
"Anyway, I just figured what I did at Corneo’s place might cause you some trouble, so I wanted to let you know. I may have done something unnecessary."
"Evan..." Tifa said, staring right at me. I lowered my gaze, feeling uneasy... and there was Tifa's chest. I quickly looked up.
"Evan, you're a good person."
"That’s not true."
"Why are you pretending to be bad?"
"I'm not pretending."
Tifa laughed again when she heard my reply.
"Anyway, I'm going."
"Don't worry about Corneo. I have Cloud."
Tifa said in a voice full of confidence. The relationship between Tifa and those around her had to have been more complicated than I could ever imagine.
"Hey, have you spoken to Kyrie since then?"
I looked at Tifa, slack-jawed.
"She was sitting here until a little while ago. She ate a lot."
"By any chance, did you tell Kyrie I was going to Nibelheim?"
Tifa looked at me with surprise this time.
"Sorry, was that a secret?"
I nodded slightly.
"I'm sorry..."
"Nah..." That moment, my stomach rumbled loudly. That reminds me, I haven't had a proper meal for a few days.
"I'll make you something. It's my treat, so eat as much as you'd like."
Before I could answer, an apologetic looking Tifa had placed a frying pan on the stove.
-
As I rubbed my full stomach and surveyed the central square, I spotted Kyrie’s face from the side. She was sitting in the driver's seat of the car, with her eyes staring straight ahead. There was nothing special in the direction she was looking in. She stared into space, contemplating something. I sorted through the information that Tifa had given me, and pondered what I should say to her. Now, what to do. Before I could even think of any choices, nevermind an answer, I was at the side of the car. Whatever. Even if it was to chew me out, Kyrie was waiting for me. It made me happy enough to want to take that step forward. I no longer cared about how I had gone off on my own because of what happened between us, or what I thought, for that matter.
"Hey."
As I called out to her, Kyrie gave me a glare and got out of the car. She was wearing a sleeveless riders jacket, a simple pair of denim shorts, and sturdy boots on her feet. In her hand was the usual military backpack. It was as if she was getting ready to go on a trip― wait, could it be? Kyrie places both hands on her hips, and looks up at me in defiance.
"Get in."
She ordered me and quickly went around to the passenger seat, herself.
"Okay."
I replied, getting into the driver's seat.
"The Turks aren't here."
"They said something urgent came up."
"Really?"
"Yup"
Kyrie suddenly twisted her body, and stuck her head toward the rear seats. When I looked, there was a big bag, made out of light brown cloth, sitting on the seat. Whatever's in there, it's packed to bursting point. After placing her backpack on top of that, she shoved her hand into the pocket of the cloth bag.
"The Turks lent me this."
Kyrie held out what looked like biker's goggles.
"That’s great. They looks pretty good."
"But, if you wear them too long, they leave marks around your eyes."
She quickly put on her own pair to show me.
"You have a pair too?"
"Of course I do."
"Err."
"Well, let's go."
The car was completely under Kyrie's control. We had always struggled to maintain a comfortable distance between each other, but it was completely different now. Things felt comfortable. Nothing felt out of place, either. I started the car, and slowly drove into the main avenue, heading toward the south end. The goggles kept the wind at bay, but occasionally pebbles and dirt would fly into my face. It seemed if I had wanted to avoid those, I still wouldn’t be able to drive very fast. Before long, Kyrie stuck her head in the rear seat again, and started rummaging through the bag. She quickly turned back around, put on a woolen hat, fit for a snowy mountain, pulling it down over her eyes and covered her nose and mouth with a cloth featuring a large floral design.
"Go faster!"
Obeying Kyrie's muffled voice, I stepped on the accelerator.
"..."
Kyrie said something else, but it was drowned out by the sound of the wind, and the cloth over her mouth.
"What?"
When I showed her that I couldn't hear, placing a hand against my ear, Kyrie pulled down the cloth covering the lower half of her face.
"Feels great, doesn’t it!"
The gravel and small stones continued flying through the window and painfully against my cheeks. But if it made Kyrie happy, then I couldn’t complain. I stepped on the accelerator as hard as I could. The engine would roar to life and propel us even faster― or so I thought. The engine sputtered in protest, and before long, stopped altogether. I look at the fuel gauge. It was the telltale sign that we were out of gas. The car continued coasting for a while, but eventually stopped dead. Kyrie folded her arms and looked down.
"Where’s the fuel?"
"It should be delivered to the southern end of the main avenue at dawn tomorrow."
Given what had happened at Corneo’s, I didn't think things would go as planned. But that was something I wouldn’t know until tomorrow. Kyrie was more important right now.
"We still have quite some time as well as distance to cover, but what do you want to do?"
「どうしよう」
"I wonder."
"There’s nothing we can do but push the car, right? Then we’ll sleep in the car and wait."
"Yeah. Well, I'll push. You sit here and turn the steering wheel for me."
"Sure."
I got out of the car, and made sure Kyrie was sitting in the driver’s seat. Then, I went around to the back and started pushing the body of the car with both hands. There was no sign that it was starting to move at all. I turned around, putting my back to the body, and put the strength into my legs. I pushed even harder, despite thinking it was no use. The car started moving all of a sudden, and I almost fell over. Somehow, I managed to turn around and continued pushing with both hands again. Once the car started moving, it continued forward with unexpected ease.
"I heard from Tifa. That your mother isn't dead. She's still missing. She may be in Nibelheim."
Kyrie, who was inside the car, must have been yelling quite loudly.
"Really?"
Suddenly, the car started to meander.
"Kyrie, the steering wheel!"
As I looked inside while pushing, I saw Kyrie was turning the steering wheel hard to the left and right.
"This. Is how. I feel."
"It gets really heavy when you do that."
"Of course. You noticed? First of all, on the way back from Healin. What you said, that hurt. But it was also my fault for making you say that."
It wasn’t Kyrie’s fault. I just ruined things for myself.
"But then, what happened at the clinic, that’s was too much. That was really just too much! I hate being tested like that."
Yeah. That was bad.
"What you did after that was even worse. You disappeared. I don’t really know what was going on, but you spread your lies everywhere. And yet, you told it all to Tifa. Hey, Evan. I thought I wanted you to like me, and put in a boatload of effort. I stopped being bad. I cut out the old friends who tempted me back."
"A boatload of effort?"
"I'm worn out."
The meandering stopped. She seemed tired of pointlessly steering rather than helping.
"What was it? Oh, right. It's because I grew up in a crime family in the slums. The border between good and bad is vague and really thin. You hate that, right?
"I don’t think... that’s it."
"I know you go overdo things to fit in with us. I know you’re trying to act all mean and tough because you’ve got some sort of misconception in your head about the slums. But the real Evan is different. I know that. You're a good person. You don't want to do bad things."
I wonder if there are actually any guys who would feel happy about being called a good person? At any rate, I’ve heard too much about the "real me" today. I wish people would just lay off it already.
"Well, anyway, both of us have been living a lie with each other."
"Why are you making it seem like you want to call it a draw."
"I didn't mean it like that."
"No, you did mean it like that. You’re always like this. When you don't get the response you’re looking for, you just say you didn't mean it like that. Even when you don't say it, that’s what your heart says."
"If you put it that way, then there’s nothing more I can say."
It seemed she was pretty angry.
"What should I do."
"You tell me."
Kyrie fell silent, and I pushed the car in silence.
