Chapter 43

***A woman wants to die, and Sachi might help her.***

## Summary

Yashiro calls Matsubase to tell him that not only is he lost in the woods, he got separated from Sachi! Onii-san takes the phone from Matsubase and tells Yashiro to send his location information to Hijiri's phone. When he does, Onii-san tells him that he's not too far away. Then he warns Yamazaki that he's hold Matsubase as a hostage, so if he leaves where he is, he'll kill the detective. Yashiro agrees to stay put.

    Soon after, Onii-san and Matsubase find Yashiro, who fearfully explains that Sachi was right behind him, and then she wasn’t. Onii-san looked around and asked if Yashiro paid attention to whether Sachi could keep pace with his long stride. When Yashiro turns to talks with

Matsubase, Onii-san walked off before he disappeared as well. Onii-san noticed a drop-off from the path they were on, and jumped, seeing that the collection of fallen leaves would cushion the fall of anyone who’d slipped off the drop off by mistake.

Meanwhile, Sachi wanders around the forest and sees nooses everywhere. She remembers that the woman, Tsugumi, she met earlier told her that people often come to this forest to kill themselves. A

    s she wanders she runs into her. Tsugumi explains that she has come to the forest to end her life. She thanks Sachi for scaring off the man who was harassing her earlier. She explains that he was her abusive husband, who’s obsession with his mother led him to force her to do domestic tasks the way his mother did, and will beat her if she doesn’t. She was forced to place his mother above her own family, to the point of missing the phone call stating that her father, and only family member, was dying. That was the last straw.

So she came here to kill herself and be free. But she says that she recognizes Sachi from TV as the kidnapped teenager. Says she’s she won’t tell and is even jealous of Sachi, because she’s young and can start over again with her life.

    Sachi becomes shocked. The word ‘jealousy’ triggered a harsh reaction in her. She’d banned the word ‘jealous’ from her life, because being jealous of the people around her who seemed to be happy created even more psychological pain. She doesn’t want to remember the painful feeling of jealousy. She yells at Tsugumi, telling her to be quiet, or she’ll kill her. But Tsugumi is happy that Sachi would offer to. Tsugumi reminds Sachi that came to the woods to die. Sachi, still holding the box cutter, rushes at Tsugumi, believing that if she’s ready to die, and she doesn’t have an “Onii-san” to save her, it might be better if she was dead.

    Onii-san finds Sachi and prevents her from stabbing the woman. Onii-san says he doesn't care what she does, but she doesn’t seem like she’s ready to die. He tells her to wait for someone to rescue her. He tells her that she can only meet somebody to save her life she’s alive. He walks away with Sachi. The woman says she’s still going to kill herself, but before she can stab herself Yashiro stops her. Matsubase tells her they were just walking by, but want her to talk to them before killing herself.

Again, Onii-san does not understand why he’s doing what he does. If Sachi is free to go, why does he continue to chase her? He doubts that any shared interests he has with Sachi would be reason enough to chase after her. He says he only wanted to live with somebody who was suffering like he was. He only wanted to believe that this person was special, and nobody else, because people die and leave him alone. But he tells her that if she chooses to stay with him, he’ll tell her about his past.

He was called “Haru” as a child. This was not his real name. He was given the name Haru when he was found on the streets by an adult during springtime. (Haru means the season of “Spring” in Japanese.)

## Trivia

* Onii-san was "adopted" by The Man in springtime, when he found him on the streets.

* The Man named Onii-san "Haru", because Haru means the season of spring in Japanese.

## Images

Onii-san tells Yashiro to stay were he is; he and Matsubase will find him.Onii-san and Matsubase look for Yashiro.Onii-san finds where Sachi fell.Sachi threatens to cut Tsugumi.Yashiro stops Tsugumi from killing herself.

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