Wheelchair Girl: Chapter 5-5

RAWS: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2611p/28

Chapter 5-5: Photo

―6―

Kazutaka put Haruka back in her wheelchair after he treated her.

After letting out a deep sigh, Haruka said:

“Ah, that reminds me, I haven’t served you tea yet. Give me a moment.”

Haruka rolled her wheelchair toward the kitchen.

Kazutaka asked her from behind.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

“Not really, it’s something I’m pretty used to already after all. Akasaka-kun, feel free to make yourself comfortable over there.”

Haruka started boiling water in a kettle with familiar movements, her wheelchair moving back and forth as she prepared the tea leaves and teacup.

“Even if you tell me to make myself comfortable…”

Kazutaka couldn’t help but scratch his head.

There was no way he wouldn’t feel restless for visiting his female friend’s house for the first time.

He went back to the room filled with books and DVDs. It wasn’t possible to sit anywhere on the floor, so he found himself just standing there helplessly.

“Now then… what should I do?”

Technically speaking, he should have been studying at the cram school around this time.

He could envision the scene of him and his fellow students frantically studying for the upcoming entrance exams.

Yet he finds himself in a rather carefree position. Could he honestly afford to be this lax?

It didn’t feel far-fetched to see him flunking the exams. This anxiety suddenly came to him.

Kazutaka then noticed that the fusuma (TLN sliding door) that led to the next room was not fully closed, it was slightly open.

He found himself casually peeking through the crevice.

In the dimly lit room, there was just a futon spread out on the floor.

It was likely that it was just too much of a bother to fold it up and put it back in the closet, so it must have become a habit for her to just leave it like that. It looked as if someone just slipped out of it.

Kazutaka was somewhat able to imagine easily how Haruka looked like when she was lying here.

She would go to bed here every day, change into her pajamas, and…

(Come to think of it… It’s just the two of us in this house…)

Realizing this once more, he started to feel super nervous again all of a sudden.

Thus, he found himself just staring at the futon.

Eventually, the view ended up being just too stimulating for our healthy high school boy, so he decided to close the fusuma properly.

Right then, Kazutaka’s foot touched something.

A strange object rolled on the floor.

“What’s this?”

It was a long stick with a bamboo rake attached to it, seemingly one of these handmade ‘hand magic’ 

(TLN: I think he refers to these ‘grabber tools’ actually. Idk why the Katakana calls it ‘hand magic’ but I keep it because it’s funny.)

Having this kind of tool did make sense. With this, Haruka would be able to reach things that were further away from her without moving around too much with her wheelchair. And if needed, she could also use it as a backscratcher. 

Kazutaka picked up the ‘hand magic’, turned it around, and fiddled with it for a bit. He then looked around the room

He felt bored.

On a particular pile of books, there was Yumeno Kyuusaku’s novel ‘Dogra Magra.’ The cover looked somewhat indecent.

(TLN: I had to hold back from typing ‘sus’)

How about going to the toilet and calming down a little? Kazutaka called out to Haruka who was in the kitchen.

“Uhm… can I borrow your toilet quickly?”

“Yeah, sure. It’s right next to the bathroom.”

The toilet was your average everyday toilet. It did look too narrow for the wheelchair to fit in though.

However, the walls seemingly had brand new handrails installed onto them, similar to the ones in the bathroom. Kazutaka guessed that this was done by the people who let Haruka live here. A small gesture of goodwill probably, to make her life a bit easier.

After taking care of his business, he returned to the living room.

Haruka had already gotten out of her wheelchair and was sitting close to the low table in the center of the room, pouring tea for him.

Kazutaka looked at her through the entrance of the room.

A girl sitting on the floor while being surrounded by piles of DVDs and books.

Next to her was a wheelchair.

He had no idea how the room of your typical high school girl looked but he had an inkling that Haruka’s room might be rather plain in comparison. There wasn’t even a single poster on the wall, instead she had a presumably handmade ‘magic hand’ rolling around the floor.

Is this perhaps all she has? Kazutaka thought to himself.

Is this what you’d call ‘closed-off’? 

She does give off the vibe of keeping most of her thoughts and things for herself.

As if she has concluded that her world consisted solely of DVDs and books…

(TLN: Friendly reminder that this novel was written in 2010, so DVDs were still a thing back then. Nowadays people either buy a subscription or pirate movies or just watch some guy explaining them via YouTube summaries I guess.)

Seeing Kazutaka standing still right in the doorway, Haruka spoke up.

“What are you doing there? Come here and sit down.”

She patted the zabuton cushion next to her, inviting him to take a seat.

“I can offer you sweets and manju. As for tea, I only have Japanese tea, is that all right?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Thanks.”

Kazutaka, while putting some additional distance between himself and Haruka, sat next to her.

In front of him, on the table, there was a cake box containing bite-sized manju.

When he sat down next to Haruka, his foot ended up hitting something below the low table.

As he wondered what it was, he realized that there were even books piling up below the table and decided to pull those out.

Turns out that it was a prep book for a university entrance exam, containing a collection of questions from past exams.

In addition to that, he also found a large chunk of notes. The letters were enumerated with very beautiful handwriting.

Were these her notes for the university entrance exam?

“Damn, so many. Won’t you get buried with this much?”

“I mean, I can’t attend cram schools or prep schools, so I gotta give my best myself.”

Haruka responded with a soft smile.

Kazutaka found himself digging deeper into this.

“Harukawa, what do you plan to do in the future? What career paths are you considering?”

He recalled that they had briefly touched on this topic in a past conversation. She didn’t want to attend a school for handicapped people as it gave her a disadvantage in getting into universities as well as job hunting. So there must be some crucial reason for her to even choose to attend Kazutaka’s school.

“Come to think of it. Do you remember how I mentioned that I have a dream?”

“Yeah…”

Haruka wrapped her teacup with both her hands and shyly explained:

“Well, it’s more of a little wish of mine rather than a dream. Promise you won’t laugh and I’ll tell you.”

“I won’t laugh, I won’t.”

“Really? Really?”

After assuring her that he was serious, Haruka revealed her wish for the future.

“You see… In the future… I’d like to be able to work in the medical field, become a researcher, and find new medicine.”

“Medicine…?”

“You see, after my accident, I was hospitalized for a while. There, I met many different kinds of people. Some of them were able to make a complete recovery thanks to medicine. Others suffered due to side effects. I’d like to be able to help these people somehow. I want to make medicine for them.”

“I see…”

Kazutaka found himself stealing glances at the piles of books.

On top of a novel about medical care, there was a vial with pills.

He had no idea what these pills do but it was clear that Haruka was still in a condition that wouldn’t allow her body to function properly without proper intake of these drugs.

“If it’s possible to hole yourself up in your room and research medicine in the lab, I thought that it would be also possible for someone in a wheelchair to pull off. That’s why I decided to give my best here.”

Haruka talked about her dream with a shy smile.

Despite her constitution, Haruka had a clear goal in her mind and was making also an effort to move towards that goal.

“You have yourself together, don’t you?”

Kazutaka couldn’t help but nod at her in admiration.

“I think it would be nice if your dream came true. Becoming a medical doctor.”

“Yes!”

Haruka nodded strongly.

“That reminds me…”

Haruka started to recall something and mentioned:

“I think this is the first time I let someone else enter this house besides my uncle.”

“Really?”

(TLN: Now, really?)

So I’m her first guest?

Haruka once again bowed to him with a ‘Welcome’

“I’m here.”

Kazutaka bowed in return.

As both raised their faces and their eyes met, both found themselves smiling at each other.

　―7―

Kazutaka reached out to a manju inside the box filled with sweets.

“Itadakimasu. Oh, I got a chestnut manju.”

“I got the purple sweet potato one.”

“Oh, it’s good.”

“Yeah.”

Haruka agreed as she stuffed her cheeks happily with the manju.

“Ah, by the way, I…”

While reaching out for a chestnut manju, Haruka mentioned:

“I was asked to give a lesson at an elementary school.”

“A lesson?”

Kazutaka tilted his head in confusion.

It turned out that Haruka had gotten quite close to those elementary school girls since the haircut. They meet up occasionally and play together.

Around those times, the class teacher of the girls reached out to Haruka.

It seems they were just teaching the kids about ‘universal design’ and ‘normalization’ and she wondered if Haruka would like to participate in one of the lessons.

(TLN: Original talks about ‘barrier-free’ which seems to be a Japanese term that refers to the idea of ‘removing steps’ (like the ones of a staircase), i.e., making the design of the environment accessible for all kinds of people, including the disabled ones. I think ‘universal design’ is a fitting term for that.)

According to her, the kids would listen and take the lesson more seriously and also listen to what they were taught and would be more encouraged to ask Haruka questions about her life, what parts were difficult, and where she might need help.

Listening to Haruka’s explanation, Kazutaka found himself nodding along.

“That sounds great. Go for it.”

He encouraged her right away.

Haruka responded with a sour look.

“Mou, you’re just treating this as someone else’s problem…”

“No, I think I think it’s honestly really good. Make sure to turn those brats into proper adults with your lesson.”

“But talking in front of everyone is embarrassing…”

Saying such, Haruka started to fidget.

“Oi, why do you think I agreed to cut your hair?”

While saying such, Kazutaka started to poke at Haruka’s (now freed) forehead.

He even ended up flicking it.

“I did it so you could reinvent yourself, become someone more outgoing than now. So isn’t this a good chance to do exactly? Go for it.”

Using his words to his advantage, he was trying to instigate Haruka.

“Hm….”

Haruka groaned and still looked rather worried.

After a short period of silence, she raised her face and responded:

“I can’t give them an answer right now but… yes… I will think about it for a bit.”

Kazutaka couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, nice. That’s the spirit. Those brats will love it.”

Ultimately, it was a good thing that she, who had shut herself off from the world, was now expanding it.

However, a sudden worry popped into Kazutaka’s mind.

“Ah, wait a moment. That teacher that asked you for the lesson. That one didn’t happen to be a young man?”

“Hm? It was a woman in her middle ages though.”

“Is that so… Then all good.”

Indeed, Kazutaka had just envisioned a scenario of a young male elementary school teacher asking Haruka to have first a ‘private interview’ with him before holding the lesson for the kids. But if it was just a woman in her middle ages, there were no problems.

(TLN: Men in 2010s Japan, am I right, lol)

Haruka tilted her head and asked:

“But why do you ask? Is it not good if the teacher had been a young man?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

To deceive her, he quickly picked up his cup and tea and took a long sip.

Perhaps he has grown slightly overprotective of her?

Rather than that, he simply didn’t want to imagine a scene of her having a friendly banter with another guy.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Hm?”

Haruka was just confused.

Kazutaka suddenly noticed a photo stand with a photo on top of one of these piles of DVDs. 

The photo showed a woman in her late thirties and a man in his forties. Both of them were smiling happily and the woman reassembled Haruka quite a bit.

To change the topic, Kazutaka pointed at that photo stand and asked:

“Are those perhaps Harukawa’s parents?”

“Ah, yes you’re right.”

Haruka looked at that photo and smiled.

She picked it up with one hand and stared at her parents.

Haruka started to talk about her parents.

“No matter how old they were, they remained a lovey-dovey couple and got along very well with each other. So much so that even I, as the daughter, felt embarrassed when I was with them.”

“Lovey-dovey huh…”

The two of them were close to each other in that photo, their cheeks were almost touching each other. They smiled directly at the camera and made peace signs.

“It was actually me who took the photo.”

“Really?”

Kazutaka checked out the photo of Haruka’s now-deceased parents.

“…It’s a beautiful photo. You took a good one.”

“It felt almost as if the happiness was coming out of the photo, their smiles were contagious.”

As he was watching the married couple getting all close to each other in that photo, Kazutaka suddenly noticed something.

“Huh… I feel like I’ve seen this photo somewhere…”

Yes… These two and this overall scene…

Kazutaka could swear he had seen them somewhere before.

A question mark was floating over Haruka’s head and she asked:

“We never handed out this photo to anyone…. Perhaps…Akasaka-kun, did you meet my parents?”

“No, I don’t think I’ve ever made direct contact with them. But this particular photo, I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.”

“But where?”

Kazutaka dragged her lower half over the floor and sat next to Kazutaka. Both were peering into that photo, hoping to figure out something that way.

On the right side of the photo, the man with glasses was Haruka’s dad. On the left side, a woman with medium hair was Haruka’s mom. Both of them were making a peace sign and directly smiling at the camera.

Indeed, Kazutaka felt like he had seen this exact composition somewhere.

Kazutaka scratched his chin and let his thoughts wander.

Where did he see them?

If he wasn’t mistaken, in the photo he recalled, the two of them were a bit younger…

And suddenly, it hit him all at once. A flashback.

The photo in his mind overlapped with one of Haruka’s parents.

“Ah!”

Kazutaka raised his voice.

“Wh-what’s wrong? Do you remember?”

“Yes, I remembered! It’s at the okonomiyaki gramps’ wall! That wall with all those photos stuck onto it!”

“Eh… this photo there is well?”

Haruka was surprised.

“No, actually not. There is a photo that looks exactly like this one but your parents were younger. That one is somewhere on that wall of photos at grams’ place.”

Gramps’ wall was somewhat of a time capsule so to say. It had photos of children and students who went to that okonomiyaki shop back in the day. There were hundreds of them, going perhaps even decades back in the past.

On that wall of memories, there was a photo similar to this one, with Haruka’s parents being younger.

On the right side, there was a glasses-wearing male student. On the left side, was a female student with medium-length hair.

In that photo, the two of them were almost pressing their cheeks against each other, facing the camera with bright smiles while making peace signs.

Perhaps those were Haruka’s parents in their teens.

“Didn’t you say that your parents used to live here and even started dating in their student days? Then everything makes sense and the photo I saw would fit the bill!”

“My parents also went to that okonomiyaki place when they were in high school. Like the two of us?”

Haruka made a surprised face, her eyes were like dots.

Kazutaka nodded with excitement.

“Yeah, it seems like it. What a coincidence.”

So Haruka’s parents went to Gramps’ place in their high school days. Perhaps they went there on a date?”

And then they had someone take a photo of them there as commemoration and it was stuck onto that wall.

And then twenty years passed.

And their daughter Haruka, went to that same okonomiyaki place.

Almost as if she was following her parent’s footsteps, with Kazutaka by her side.

“So my parents’ album had such a photo as well… I didn’t know at all.”

Haruka found herself staring at the photo of her parents again.

“When they were young and went to that okonomiyaki place. About what kind of things did they talk then?”

If her parents were still alive, Haruka could have asked them various questions about this. Unfortunately, they were no more. 

Still, Haruka who had managed to touch a fragment of her parents’ past had a content expression on her face. She traced the photo frame affectionately with a smile.

“…Do you think that photo is still on that wall now?”

“…Yeah, I guess so.”

Kazutaka responded in a gentle tone while looking at Haruka’s side profile.

“Let’s go again to that place, let’s look together for your parents!”

“Yes…”

And she nodded.

Translator’s note:

One part left and that’s it for Chapter 5. Chapter 6 will have romantic development if I didn’t misread anything. Stay tuned.