Put aside what to do with the dry goods that have not yet been received, and accept the reality that the pre-delivery of dry goods failed. Shinichi Iwahashi changed his mind and told her, "Then I will bring you something else as a gift... After all, it is considered a business trip."
"Gifts and everything are good..."
Akina Nakamori thought of the somewhat magical gift sent by Shinichi Iwahashi from Fukuoka, and after thinking about it for a moment, she couldn't help laughing on the phone, "You are not going to give me a round fan this time, are you?"
"That's okay." Iwahashi Shinichi humbly accepted the proposal.
She was originally going to joke with him, but he actually agreed. Instead, Akina Nakamori was fooled and believed it, "Are you really giving me the uchiwa fan?"
"I won't tell you now." Iwahashi Shinichi deliberately made her happy again, "to add a little more fun to you when you receive the gift later."
"All right."
Akina Nakamori seemed to close her eyes and make a wish on a birthday cake, waiting for the mysterious business trip gift later.
Just saying something like that, she unconsciously felt relaxed. On the phone, she said to Iwahashi Shinichi, "Mizora Hibari-san passed away yesterday...Shinichi, you must already know."
She talks to herself.
Shinichi Iwahashi agreed, "Yes. Today's concert in Osaka will also include a session to express condolences to Misora-san."
Akina Nakamori said, "Hmm, um," as she listened, she said incoherently, "I feel a little lonely."
"lonely?"
The young Akina Nakamori, who has not yet passed her twenty-fourth birthday, expressed her loneliness with a tone that seemed to have truly realized the "end of the era".
Shinichi Iwahashi was unexpected.
"When I was young, my mother taught me to sing "Apple Minor" while saying, 'Hibari-san started singing on stage at the age of eight.'...My mother and Misora-san are the same age," Akina Nakamori told him.
In her girlhood, Chieko had a crush on her peers, and Nakamori Akina took over from Chieko.
To Akina Nakamori, Misora Hibari is like a symbol in her childhood memories.
Iwahashi Shinichi thought of how she acted like a spoiled child just now, and seemed to understand her mood when she made this call. He half-guessed and asked, "Have you called Chieko-san?"
Nakamori Akina smiled and said to him, "...it seems that mother is not at home."
The call to Chieko couldn't be reached. Nakamori Akina thought about it and couldn't help but want to call Iwahashi Shinichi. But this was definitely not because of the inertia brought about by playing the phone booth game with him so often that she would think of it when she picked up a public phone.
he.
"Alas." She sighed softly and muttered in a low voice, "You have seen through everything."
Iwahashi Shinichi smiled, "That's because when I couldn't guess, I pretended to be stupid and passed by."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Iwahashi Shinichi continued to make her happy, "Next time I have trouble guessing, I'll ask you for help, 'Akina, please tell me why?', okay?"
"Haha!" Nakamori Akina said, making him laugh.
While laughing, she took the opportunity to tease him, "Such an attitude is wrong. When you ask for something from someone, you should be more sincere, for example, call her 'Mingcai Baby', so the probability of getting the answer will be higher."
"Set too high a threshold and too many conditions for people seeking help, which will prevent them from asking questions." Iwahashi Shinichi pretended.
Nakamori Akina couldn't defeat him, so she was about to lift the chessboard, "So, you just don't want to call me 'baby'?"
She spoke more and more energetically, gradually forgetting the topic of the conversation, and began to mutter around the "baby" that Iwahashi Shinichi couldn't pronounce, "Stingy, shy."
This is 120% intentional.
In my opinion, you are childish.
Shinichi Iwahashi thought to himself, but he didn't add fuel to the fire and say it out loud.
In any case, after talking like this, the loneliness in Nakamori Akina's heart disappeared. She happily clung to Shinichi Iwahashi and chatted with him all the time.
After talking for a while, Iwahashi Shinichi told her that he was having dinner with the band.
"It's the band where lead singer Jun's family runs a dry goods store."
"That's why you asked about the dry goods again?"
"However, I didn't buy the dry goods this time. It was a gift from the lead singer's mother."
"Hey~ I'm so popular with the shopping street aunties." Nakamori Akina teased him.
Iwahashi Shinichi accepted the compliment and decided to try harder, asking, "So, do you still want these goodies?"
Nakamori Akina didn't change her mind, "No more!"
Why does this guy have to bring her goodies every time he goes to Osaka? Absolutely not!
All right.
Iwahashi Shinichi accepted the reality, "Then I'll take it back to my home later." After thinking about it, he bargained with her, "Next time you come to my place and cook something with that bag of dry goods. How about it?"
The more I talk about it, the more I think this plan is feasible.
In order not to waste food and to digest the dry food as soon as possible, we should eat together more often and invite her to play at home more often.
Nakamori Akina suddenly realized that she had fallen into his trap.
"Why are you so cunning?" she said on the phone, dumbfounding.
Iwahashi Shinichi tried hard not to laugh - this was just talk.
When enough was enough, he told Nakamori Akina that he wanted to go back. "If I continue to call, the band members will think that they are sneaking away to avoid paying the bill."
Nakamori Akina urged him, "Go back quickly, go quickly!"
Put down the phone.
Akina Nakamori took back the withdrawn coins and held them in her hand, feeling light-hearted.
…
In the record store, Misora Hibari's works were placed in the most conspicuous place in the store, with a commemorative poster handwritten by the store clerk. Her last single before her death was "The Stream", and her last album was an album called
Selections from "Special Selections".
Since these two works were recently released, they have the most complete products.
Most of the people who walked into the store for Misora Hibari picked up a selection album. Some also picked up the "Continuous Flow" at the same time.
Chieko took a copy of the greatest hits album and a new single, paid the bill, and got on the train home.
She and Misora Hibari are of the same age. When she was a girl, Misora Hibari was already a big star known as the "eldest lady". She also likes singing and thinks she has talent. Such Chieko not only looks forward to Misora Hibari's life, but also
She is very strong and hopes to become a big singer one day.
The hope was not realized, and Chieko became a mother with six children and a wife who argued violently with her husband.
But the dream of standing on stage and singing was inherited by one of his daughters.
It's not appropriate to say it's an inheritance, but it's better to say it's the seed of a dream she placed on her daughter, and it grew into flowers that belong only to Akina.
Hibari Misora passed away, and her ambition to be competitive as a girl and her expectations for her daughter after becoming a mother have all become a thing of the past.
When she saw the newspaper in the morning, Chieko felt mixed.
It feels as if an old friend of many years has parted ways with me, and I also feel the emptiness of my teenage years when my competitiveness has disappeared. In addition, I seem to feel my own weakness in this loneliness and emptiness.
She left the house, got on the tram alone, and wanted to go to the record store to buy a record by Misora Hibari.
When she got home, Chieko put "The Stream" on the record player.
When this single was recorded, Misora Hibari's lungs had been completely eroded. Even so, when she opened her mouth to sing, her singing voice was still so steady that it was admirable.
"Unknowingly, I have been walking on this narrow and elongated road for so long."
"Suddenly looking back, my hometown is already far away. The rugged road doesn't even have a map, just like life."
When he decided to record this song, would Misora Hibari know that this would be his last single in his life?
As Chieko listened to her repeatedly singing "The Continuous Stream", she seemed to see Misora Hibari looking back on her own life, injecting her ups and downs into it.
Misora Hibari, who repeatedly sang "The stream never stops flowing", seemed not to be proud of this life, and of course, she had no regrets either.
What is life? Hibari Misora seemed to be searching for the answer to this question in this song. Then, she gave the answer she sang repeatedly.
Like water, it keeps flowing, and like water, it accepts everything.
Listening to her favorite Hibari Misora's posthumous work, Chieko first felt as calm as still water. Then, she seemed to hear the sound of water ringing in her ears, and the water flowed through her heart.
Whether it's Hibari Misora or Chieko, life is like water that keeps flowing. Like water, it accepts everything it encounters on the path along the way, whether it's the expected or the unknown.
It's as if I heard Misora Hibari saying, don't worry, don't be afraid. This is life.
Chieko seems to have received the encouragement Misora Hibari left at the end of her life.
At this time, outside the living room, the phone rang - as if it was a temporary illusion, it was the sound of water flowing by her ears. When she came back to her senses, she realized it was a phone.
Chieko walked out and picked up the phone receiver. It was her daughter Akina calling.
"Mother!"
Chieko heard her energetic voice and smiled, "Akina-chan!"
"Wasn't mother at home just now? I called, but no one answered." She said childishly.
Chieko told her, "I went to the record store to buy Hibari-san's records."
"As expected of Hibari-san, at the end of his life, he left a masterpiece like "The Stream"." Chieko talked with her daughter about her idol.
Her tone sounded open and free.
Facing Chieko like this, Nakamori Akina was able to let go of her worries.
"...It's a good song, Akina-chan." Chieko said.
Akina Nakamori said, "Yeah, yeah" and listened.
After Chieko finished singing the song, she smiled and said to her, "I'm so happy Akina-chan called me."
"Mother……"
"Afterwards, how about we go to karaoke and sing apple tunes together?" Chieko discussed with her.
"Of course!"
Akina Nakamori responded enthusiastically, "My mother is the best at singing Misora-san's apple ditty, but I'm not the best at it."
Chieko smiled, "When Akina-chan was learning to sing the apple tune when she was little, I was shocked by you. I didn't expect that I could learn it so quickly and sing it so well."
Mother and daughter, after many years, talked about Misora Skylark and Apple Ditty again.
However, the mood now is different from the past. Nakamori Akina no longer carries Chieko's dream, but has her own life and ideals, just like a river branching off from the mother river and having its own trajectory.
As for Chieko, her dreams have always been in the river of her life.
After chatting for a while, the topic turned to each other asking about each other's current situation. Nakamori Akina and Chieko said that they would go back to see her next time they were on vacation.
"Iwahashi-kun, are you okay?" Chieko also asked Iwahashi Shinichi.
Akina Nakamori told her, "It's very good...Iwahashi went to Osaka on a business trip."
"Really? Thank you for your hard work." Chieko said, "Next time, Iwahashi-kun is also welcome to come over for dinner."
"Iwahashi really likes your cooking skills..."
Chieko laughed after hearing this, and said to her as if she was trying to tease her daughter, "That's because Iwahashi-kun likes you."
When these words came out of her mother's mouth, Nakamori Akina was particularly embarrassed. She was particularly embarrassed, but she also felt particularly at ease.
"Next time I will take Iwahashi to eat the fried burgers you made." Nakamori Akina said.
I used to miss fried burgers when I was in a bad mood, but now I look forward to fried burgers with joy. It’s because of Shinichi Iwahashi that the meaning of fried burgers has quietly changed and changed.
…
Misora Hibari herself serves as the president of her personal agency. Now that she has passed away, the handover of the agency must be done. The adopted son Kato Kazuya is not yet eighteen years old, so he will not be useful at this time.
Columbia Records sent people to assist the people in the office with the handover.
Hibari Misora had been unable to sell many years ago, and every time she released a new work, the shipment quantity was quite conservative. This time she passed away suddenly, the public turned their attention to her again, and Columbia Records also added shipments to her after a long time.
Of course, the last single "Continuous Flow" and the last collection "Special Selection" are also added.
Before Hibari Misora passed away, the sales volume of these two records was only 10,000 or 20,000, but on the day the news was released, the number of additional order requests from record sellers exceeded 100,000.
While additional records are being shipped to take advantage of this opportunity to make huge profits, Columbia Records also has to prepare for the upcoming funeral, memorial service, and deal with various turbulent matters.
It seems that Misora Hibari's personal office has taken over the bulk of the work this time.
However, there is a consensus on one thing, and that is: the record company, and even the entertainment industry, want this funeral to be as grand as possible.
DREAMS COME TRUE The day after the Osaka show ended, Shinichi Iwahashi returned to Tokyo. As soon as he took off his hood, he changed from the giraffe man of the band back to the president of the record company.
This ability to seamlessly switch is also first-rate.
In the evening, there was a fat young man named Akimoto Yasushi as a host. After work, Shinichi Iwahashi went to keep his appointment.
The fat young man looked very at ease, but after not seeing him for a while, his face seemed to have gained weight. His face, which was reminiscent of oiliness, looked even more oily now.
When they met, the two exchanged a few words.
"Mizora Hibari-san passed away."
After having a drink, Qiu Yuanyasu took the initiative to talk about this matter.