At the Year-End Party He Thanked Me for Doing His Paperwork, So I Took the Microphone novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Hanamori Ryota

"When?" Chiaki said.

"The papers go to the ward office next week," Reina said. "My father has a lawyer who does nothing else. Ryota signed yesterday."

"And your grandfather?"

"My father told him it's what I want." Her voice cracked for the first time, very slightly. "He's eighty-six. He believes his son."

Chiaki stood in Kaname's corridor in his shirt and thought about it.

"Let him," she said.

Silence on the line.

"Let him file it," Chiaki said. "Let him put Ryota's new name in the gala programme. Let him stand on the stage on the twentieth and announce it to everyone who matters."

"Hayase-san..."

"You wanted to stand in front of your grandfather as yourself," Chiaki said. "Then we need your father to stand there first, as himself."

There was a long pause.

Then Reina laughed, a small, startled sound.

"You're frightening," she said.

"So I'm told."

On the first of March Chiaki went to Aoyama Cemetery with Kaname.

It was a cold, clear Sunday, and the plum trees along the cemetery paths were in flower, white and deep pink against the old stones.

He carried a small paper bag from the Hanamori shop in the station, and a bucket of water, and a ladle.

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