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i cant do this anymore they keep bringing up lucas my boy who was let go too early im going to CRY im going to STOP BELIEVING IN CANON SHIIIIBAAALLLLLL im gonna go draw fanart when im less sick this CANNOT BE THE ENDDDDD RATTLES THE CAGE BARS
I want to believe that she lived on after Mitsuharu found a doctor, because not all tragedies are, should, end with death. I feel like the tragedy here is the all those years lost, those years that Satoko might've spent recuperating and living healthier yet Shinpei was chained to this notion that she was gone forever. The tragedy that is not being able to see each other until the very last moment. But even then that ending would be the sweetest thing to them.
I also don't think it's a she's-dead or he-died-too situation, because you can clearly see that in the last panel, their hair colors revert to white, and the hand clinging to Shinpei is much skinner with more lines, indicating proper age.
Effectively, I think I've ruined my laptop with how much of my tears have fallen into the crevices of my keyboard (/joke, this is probably unsanitary, don't cry into keyboards) and I'm going to take an entire half a year to recover from the way this manga has changed me. I don't think I'll be commenting more after this one, but maybe in a future reread you'll see me again lol.
たちばな先生、この漫画を描いてくれて、本当に、心から感謝いたします。また逢う日まで、ずっとこれを読み返すつもります！