Chapter 15 Section fifteen

The broken sunset glow instantly dyed the whole sky red, singing the end of the day. Unknowingly, the mountains, which were still boasting of lush greenery just now, instantly fell into darkness.We chased the ray of light in front of the car, and this scene seemed to tell us that the color of this world is not only the red sunset glow in the sky.Chiori, who was sitting on the assistant's seat, stared straight at the sky. Finally, a white building appeared on the left. "Coming." "Huh?" Qianzhi's expression seemed to completely forget my existence. "Here we are, there is no need to take a car."

"No need for a car. Well, no need." Qianzhi stretched a lot, and even yawned a lot.Seeing her like this, I unconsciously smiled wryly. The road spiraled slowly towards the top of the mountain, and the car made a big left turn along the way.The afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled from the top of the mountain, and the building became on our right.The road sloped slightly to the right, and from the car, it seemed to be looking down on the building.We found the entrance with great difficulty as the shadows gradually shrouded it, and turned right into the gate.Although it is remote here, the roads in the construction site are well paved. When I was slowing down to find a parking space—in fact, I just planned to find a place that would not hinder others—just a little distance away. A helicopter was spotted.At this point, I noticed a figure walking towards us from the building, and I stepped on the brakes and opened the window.

"Who are you? Why did you come here at such a time? You're not from here, are you?" An old man in overalls and jeans hoarsely shouted. "No, it's not—please wait a moment." I also responded loudly to him, turning my head and urging, "Chiori, the envelope." Chiori put down her arms, hurriedly opened the lid of the glove box, took out the envelope and gave it to me.I opened the car door and showed it to the old man. "This is the National Institute of Brain Chemistry Hospital, right?" "That's right. But we don't have outpatient clinics."

"No, I made an appointment with Keisuke Kisaragi who will be here today, Mr. Fujimoto or Ms. Iwamura—" "Fujimoto? Iwamura? No, we don't have these two doctors here. Although I don't remember the names of all the nurses, they all went home." The old man tilted his head, repeating Fujimoto's name repeatedly, and noticed the After the envelope, he took out his glasses from his breast pocket and said, "Lend me to have a look." I handed him the green envelope as promised. "It turned out to be a guest of the sanatorium." The old man glanced at the envelope, then immediately returned it to me, took off his glasses and explained to me, "This is a hospital, but it can almost be regarded as a research institute. The sanitation center is above, a minute's drive away." It's there. You drove up the hill! It's only a short drive up. However, it's impossible for someone who hasn't been to the sanatorium to get down there, because this road only leads to the sanatorium. "

"Go up?" Chiori got out of the car at some point and followed closely behind me. "That's right, look back, do you see it?" The old man pointed behind me in the direction where the setting sun was slowly sinking. I turned back a hundred and eighty degrees, and Chiori also turned a semicircle in small steps, facing the same direction as me. I don't know how to describe the scene reflected in my eyes at that time.Not only me, but even Chiori stared at the scene intently, which may explain the overwhelming majesty I felt. The ridge line on the top of the mountain is slightly undulating. Although the junction between the mountains is dazzled by the light, it still clearly distinguishes the areas of red and black. It makes people feel that the sunset at this time is more red and powerful than usual. ——But in this way, at most, there will only be a feeling of nostalgia passing over the chest, and it will not be so shocking to the soul.

There is a square shadow in the right corner, I thought to myself, that should be the sanatorium!Moving the line of sight up to the ridge line, I found another smaller shadow on the opposite side of the square shadow.There is not much difference in height between the two, except that the latter is more slender, and its straight silhouette can easily be mistaken for a tree. ——Something came out of the slender black shadow, and I couldn't help but look closely. At first it was too small to be seen, but it was later discovered that it was a human figure.Those people lined up, slowly walked out of the slender building, and moved towards the larger building.No one used to run, and everyone moved forward quietly and slowly at almost the same speed.The silhouette-like procession is deeply engraved on the red sky as the background, and the figures protruding from the black mountain ridge are like a group of pilgrims, and their silently moving postures deepen the already deep impression.

Until those figures had all entered the large building, Chiori and I were still staring in that direction without moving.The setting sun began to be swallowed up by the rising darkness, but the pilgrim-like procession remained on my retina like an afterimage, which would not disappear. "Hi, are you okay?" Suddenly an old man's voice came from beside him, and when he turned around, he was staring at me with a strange expression. "Ah! It's okay, it's okay, I just think the air is so nice and the sunset is beautiful. I'm sorry, I've been in a daze for a long time. This is the first time I've seen such a beautiful sunset, isn't it, Chiori?" I stared nonchalantly at Chiori from the mountain edge said.

"Well, it's so beautiful!" Chiori murmured in a deep voice that I would never have heard before, and the voice was mixed with quiet excitement. "Let's go! Be careful." Seeing the old man who left these words disappear, I urged Chiori to get back to the car quickly, shift gears, and step on the accelerator.In the blink of an eye, when the car drove out, the surroundings had merged into darkness.Chiori's soft breath came from beside her. —Not long afterwards, I knew immediately that the marching procession was actually a group of people seeking help.