“Phew... every single song is so precious. It’s actually quite hard work performing them.”
Wiping away her sweat, Ichikawa-san smiled.
“I mean, we’ve ended up doing quite a lot of songs, sorry. The guys from the Cherry Boys said, ‘We’re only doing one song anyway,’ and gave us their time... I let myself rely on their kindness just for today. Thank you, Hazama-kun.”
“No problem!”
“What about us?”
Ando chimed in from behind with a dim-witted retort. It’s been a while since I heard his voice—Ando, the guitarist for the Cherry Boys who sits right behind me in class.
“Do you know the term ‘I-novel’?”
Then, Ichikawa-san began to speak softly.
“It refers to a novel where the author writes about their own experiences and emotions just as they are. It essentially means a novel where the protagonist is the author themselves.”
Though it was a sudden topic, her clear, ringing voice made the listeners want to pay attention for some mysterious reason.
“For me, there's a part of me that thinks of life as a single album. Like I’m spending my life creating an album... where each day is one measure, and those measures link together to become a song, which eventually becomes an album.”
Using unique gestures, she expressed such poetic and personal thoughts.
“In June of this year, a new song began. Carefully, so carefully, I layered one measure at a time... Before I knew it, it had become a very long song... and I’ve grown very fond of this song.”
Eventually, her hands stopped moving and were placed gently upon her guitar.
“But I can’t keep performing the same song forever. If I don't start the next song, I'll stay stuck without moving forward.”
Ichikawa-san looked straight ahead once more.
“So, in order to firmly engrave one important measure of that song into memory. This song is—”
She said in a bright voice.
“The last song I will ever write for amane.”
After strumming a C G C chord progression as if bowing.
She began to sing that song.
“Please listen: ‘My Measure.’”
* * *
『My Measure』
It was more myself than I am myself
The song I wrote all alone
Reached the people of destiny living in distant towns
And my name
Became “our name”
It was more my song than ‘Your Song’ was
In a sound where one is multiplied four times
The one-in-seven-billion me could no longer reach
To “my name”
My voice was far too small
Hey, the thing only I can do
I finally found just one thing
And that is letting go of your hand
Because this place is the starting point
Radiating outward, the very first step
Is inevitably a fork in the road
The further we go, the further apart we’ll be
But if that itself becomes proof that we were here
Words are so difficult
Even though I think I have to move forward
“Forward” means the “past”
And “forward” means the “last”
Because this star is a sphere
If I keep going straight, will I reach it someday?
If I literally grow one size bigger
Will we be able to make a sound together again?
If so, then please
Let that place be the destination of this journey
If heading there can be called “moving forward”
Then I’m sure I can keep walking with my head held high
The beginning was my song
The catalyst was your song
Our Kyousou that began on a Weekday
I’ll make it a Charm for the days starting tomorrow
No
As I thought, I’ll bury my memories
Properly right here in this place
I hope the words that budded from absorbing today’s tears
Will become a tree so large
They serve as a landmark for our next meeting
I hope it becomes a tree so large
It serves as a landmark for the journey’s destination
* * *
“Thank you very much. And now—”
Ichikawa-san, who lightly wiped the corners of her eyes, still looked straight ahead and declared in her clear, beautiful voice.
“—The next song will be the last.”