Having grown somewhat immune to it, Tangze chose a cake sweet enough to make his teeth ache. He glanced at him twice but did not feel much of anything.
Okita Soji was not so socially oblivious that he would completely ignore the atmosphere. Part of the reason he said that was because he knew Tangze did not mind the topic.
To put it somewhat exaggeratedly, he had sensed that Tangze not only did not mind, but in this setting, might even want to use the scenery to stir up old feelings and reminisce about the past. So he simply tested Tangze's attitude.
His attitude toward Kyoto, toward the past, and, through that, his attitude toward a friend like him who represented that past.
"Don't worry, Okita. My memory did have some problems, but not to the point where I'd forget even this." Having seen through Okita Soji's intentions, Tangze spoke up first. "Though the angle is a little different, the atmosphere of the night cherry blossoms still feels very much like the view from my home."
"Then I guess I was overthinking it." Seeing him expose it so directly, Okita Soji readily admitted it. "Later, Hattori told me that it wasn't just the day of the case. Because of all this, even your memories of the past might have been misled. I couldn't help feeling scared afterward."
With people nearby who did not know much about the situation, Okita spoke vaguely, but the emotion he described was genuine.
Tangze had not been especially close with his classmates, but with Hyperthymesia alone, his impressions of them should have been deeply ingrained.
Yet this guy had told Heiji Hattori that someone had put up posters at school saying he had been convicted and spread rumors unfavorable to him—things that were wrong in