"I want the moon."

When an innocent younger brother asked a cute thing like that, an older brother in any time or place would definitely grant that wish.

s.h.i.+buya Shouri was also like that.

"I want the moon!"

Late at night when the whole family was sleeping, his three-year-old younger brother abruptly rose from his pillow and brandished his arms at the sky. Giving a sidelong glance to his taken-aback older brother, he jumped down from his bed, approaching the window to the balcony.

"Hey, Yuu-chan, don"t do that."

Outside of the window was pitch-black central park. Completely dark other than the high-rise buildings of Manhattan that never sleep and the lovely moon, the dead of night was definitely not a landscape where a three-year-old toddler should be playing. All the more if his guardian is an eight-year-old.

"You can see it from inside the room, right? Look, we can pull back the curtains."

"I don"t wanna see it. I want it."

"You want it, huh? Why?"

He opened the curtains and raised the window, through which the perfect sphere shone. Rather than seeing the moon of their home on the other side of the ocean, the moon of a foreign country rose above them.

The younger brother slipped past the older one"s arm, threw open the door to the living room, and got a large paper grocery bag. He spread it with both tiny hands, grabbed it by the edges and waved it overhead.

"You can"t catch the moon with a paper bag."

"Why not?"

Oh, wow. Shouri sighed with a bitter smile and hung his gla.s.ses on the side of his bed.

Yuuri was an obedient and adorable little brother, but he could be a little dense. He still believed that Santa Claus really came down the chimney, and he was convinced that a human being could catch the moon. It can"t be helped, since he"s five years younger. After all, when he remembered himself when he was three, being like this was okay, right? He was becoming just a little bit anxious.

"Wait a minute. Don"t open the window, okay."

Shouri left with that final word, walking towards the master bedroom with footsteps as stealthy as a kitten, and got a black salad bowl. He filled it to overflowing with water and walked back very carefully.

Yuuri flopped down onto the s.h.a.g carpet, waiting to see his smart big brother"s tactics. His wide eyes were staring at the moon, full of joy.

Shouri placed the bowl on the floor next to the window, causing ripples in the water"s surface, so that the moon was reflected. The bowl shook and made small waves.

"Look at that."

"Wow!"

The little brother"s face shone and his lips parted; he looked like he would start crying soon.

"... it"s not there."

He had thrust his finger in, and the figure of the moon in the water had disappeared.

"Yuu-chan, you can"t hold the moon, you know."

"But."

He snorted like he was about to start weeping, while his small hand s.h.i.+fted the water disconsolately.

"I want to play catch."

"With the moon!?"

"Yeah."

For a moment Shouri cursed his father for teaching the toddler about baseball. But that feeling was corrected immediately as he dug madly through his younger brother"s toy box, making a mess.

"I"m going to play catch with Shou-chan. With the moon."

At last, inside a vinyl glove, Shouri found something soft and yellow that he held up to his little brother"s face.

"Yuu-chan, look, it"s the moon."

No response. For the sake of making it look more like the real thing, Shouri drew strange patterns on with permanent marker.

"See? They"re craters."

Even less of a response. So Shouri changed his plan; in order to bring out the fantasy-fairy tale atmosphere, he drew the image of a dancing animal.

"It"s the rabbit on the moon."

"A rabbit?"

Now sure that he had earned a favorable response, Shouri let out a sigh of relief.

He placed the ball in his little brother"s tiny hand, clasping his fingers tightly.

"It"s Yuu-chan"s moon."

Three-year-old Yuuri stared intently at his smart big brother; after a short time he rose his voice, setting the moon on his lap and picking up a hard ball.

He took a red magic marker, and drew a clumsy shape on the sphere.

A starfish? The big brother guessed it was something like that. Yuuri spent some time filling inside the lines with red.

When the person himself had finished his important work, he held it out with a satisfied nod.

"Here!"

Then, sounding very proud, he said,

"It"s Shou-chan"s star!"

In the middle of his dusty luggage, Shouri discovered a memento from more than ten years ago. In a nostalgic mood, he called out to his little brother as they pa.s.sed in the hallway.

My little brother has become a high school student, huh? And all of his childish charm is gone. He held the ball with the red star drawn on it at Yuuri"s eye level.

"Yuu-chan, look at this. Do you remember it?"

Thereupon the younger brother wrinkled his brow, and if it were the old days he would have put his small palm on his older brother"s forehead.

His face was filled with confusion and sympathy.

"Hey, Shouri, it"s been years since we played Dragon Ball together, hasn"t it?"

G.o.d, I don"t want the moon anymore. I wish my little brother was the way he used to be.