In the brief moment before she woke up, she remembered.

“Souma Sumire.” It was his voice. “No matter what happened, you are still Souma Sumire.”

She had rigged the game, of course. No matter what name he ended up calling her, she would accept it.

The Witch. The Nameless System. He could have called her a completely random name, and she would have gone by it for the rest of time after. But she also knew those other outcomes weren’t possible.

“You’ve always been Souma Sumire. Once you came out of the photo, you heard Tomoki’s ability.”

Can you hear my voice? Souma Sumire’s message from two years prior.

It was so strange. “Why… do you believe that?” From the very start, he had acted as though it were obvious she had heard that voice.

“Because I know how you think.” Asai Kei smiled. It was childish and showy. “I mean, c’mon, Souma. If his voice really hadn’t reached you, then… A kind person like you wouldn’t say that it was up to me.”

That was a terrible reason. He could be a real idiot at times.

“After everything I’ve done to you… doesn’t it bother you?” How much pain and suffering was it fair to expect someone else to take?

I’m not worth trusting after all that. That goes without saying.

But his confident smile never wavered. “Of course I know what you’ve done. You’ve helped me and protected me. That’s all you’ve ever done for me. I have every reason to believe in you.”

Souma Sumire closed her eyes.

Oh, man. This is why I didn’t want to see him. Why I had been so scared.

She could feel a smile rising from the depths of her heart. The kind that made her forget about her guilt and irresponsibility towards him, and actually begin to forgive herself.

“But the thing is, Kei… until you decide, I’m not able to believe in myself.”

Not even hearing Nakano Tomoki’s ability would be enough to convince her that she was Souma Sumire. She had known that.

I planned out everything, even preying on my own weakness. Her emotions were so mixed up that she didn’t know what was what anymore. She was crying before she even knew what was happening. She wasn’t sure what those tears meant, exactly, but she knew that she had to apologize to him. She couldn’t smile yet.

“I’m so sorry, Kei. I made you carry my burdens again.”

Say my name. She knew what that really meant. Tell me who I am. Give me an identity. And now he was responsible for every single day that she went by Souma Sumire. All of Souma Sumire’s joys and sorrows were his burden to carry.

“That’s all I’ve ever done… this whole time.” Every single day of the last two years. She was so underhanded. So stupid, so selfish, so pathetically weak. “I kept pretending that it was for you, but I think that from the very beginning… I only ever planned this out for myself.”

It didn’t matter what kind of tactics she had to use. She just wanted him to see her face before going to bed. To think about her for a long time, longer than he ever considered Haruki Misora.

But there, in the center of her tear-blurred vision, Asai Kei was smiling. Yet it was a different smile than before. It was a fearless smile, where only the corners of his mouth bent upwards.

“Well, Souma… you may not know this about me, but I’m incredibly selfish.”

Her heart immediately rejected the notion. No. She had always known that. Because to him, kindness and selfishness were one and the same.

And he was so kind. Kinder than anybody else.

“Two years ago, when I decided I would bring you back to life, I accepted the reality that I would have to bear all the responsibility for that. It wasn’t really something for me to decide, but I did anyway.”

“I know that.” She had known from their very first meeting atop the tetrapods. She had known, and that drove all her decisions. “But come on, Kei. Everyone has burdens they don’t want to carry, things they just want to leave behind.”

He was just a first-year high schooler. The age where it was considered the most acceptable to be selfish, not in the way he thought, but in the actual sense of it.

“Even if it’s just a little too heavy, I think that’s the way it should be.” He stared at her intently. He never looked away. His powerful eyes gazed into her. “My ability lets me go on without having to leave anything behind. That was all that I wanted, to move forward while carrying everything.”

But I knew that. I knew all of that.

About his kindness. About how he was too sincere to choose her, even as a lie. And about the guilt that he had to live with as a result of those two factors. His sincere wishes crushed by the weight of everything else pushed upon him.

I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful.

He was so consistent. A truth that was never distorted, even to the point that it was sad.

The moonlight shone upon Asai Kei.

Souma Sumire rubbed her eyes. She couldn’t keep looking through distorted vision forever. It was time to stop crying. She had to be able to look directly at Asai Kei.

Souma Sumire wiped away her tears.

When she woke up, he was the first thing she saw.

He was illuminated by the moonlight as he had been in the dream world, more beautiful than any fiction could portray, and yet real. He sat on a metal folding chair, looking at her.

“Good morning, Souma,” he greeted.

Souma Sumire quickly flipped her gaze up to the ceiling, suddenly feeling embarrassed. She watched the white hospital ceiling above the bed.

“Were you watching my face as I slept?”

“Should I not have? I thought you looked rather pretty.”

“I guess it’s just as well. Not even I’ve been able to see it, actually.”

Souma Sumire sat up in bed. She spotted her shoes placed by the side of the bed, slipping them on before standing up, finally calming down as she pressed the wrinkles out of her clothes. “So, this is purely a question of curiosity. There’s no ulterior motive, and I’m not placing any blame here.”

“Ok. What’s that?”

“Why are you beside me, and not Haruki?”

“Well, I had two reasons.” He calmly nodded. “For one, I just had a feeling that you would wake up first.”

“Why?”

“I don’t really know. Maybe it’s just a miracle that I was right.” He delivered the line like it was a light joke, but even that sounded earnest coming from him.

He was the kind of guy where confronting the Administration Bureau over an ability was just business as usual, but it was a miracle to pick the person who woke up first.

Well, as far as I’m concerned, having him be beside me is a miracle. At least she wouldn’t wake up in a bad mood from waking up to see him staring at Haruki. Better to be embarrassed than to be sulking. “What’s the second reason?”

He pointed at the window. “The moon is really pretty tonight.”

“Huh?”

Asai Kei took a look around the hospital room, and Souma Sumire followed his gaze. The room had four hospital beds in total, two by the window and two further in. One of them was still surrounded by curtains.

“You were sleeping by the window, and Haruki wasn’t.”

Well, that’s something. The lovely moon was making its own miracle happen. It wasn’t much, and it could be easily overlooked, but it was a miracle nonetheless.

Souma Sumire stretched, watching the moon outside of the window. She had only been asleep for a few hours, but it had felt so much longer than that.

She hesitated for a moment on whether or not to share what she was thinking, but made up her mind and just did it. “Oh, right.” Trying to act as naturally as possible, Souma Sumire turned towards Asai Kei. “I’ve… lied to you in the past.”

Quite a few times, actually. It was something she wanted to make sure she rectified that night.

“How so?” Asai Kei smiled, tilting his head gently.

Souma Sumire pointed an index finger at his chest. “The thing is, I actually really hate communicating, or anything indirect like that. From now on, Kei… I just want you to listen to my voice.”

The boy’s face shifted to a strange show of surprise. Then, he smiled. He looked genuinely happy to have heard her say that. “Okay. You got it, that’s what I’ll do.”

Souma Sumire nodded, trying to look as serious as she could manage. It took everything she had to push down her smile, but she wanted the moment to be serious. “Very well, then. I must be off.”

“You’re leaving?”

“I really don’t like the idea of seeing Haruki’s face right now.”

“Where will you go?”

It was only when she was asked that she realized.

She had absolutely no idea where she would go. Her mind was in complete shambles. But it would be a terrible idea to try and go back to that abandoned hotel.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. If I wander around aimlessly for long enough, then I’m sure The Index or someone will come and pick me up.” She had a hard time believing that the Administration Bureau would just leave a person with future sight to do as they pleased.

She walked to the hospital room’s exit, Kei on her tail. She figured he was probably trying to see her off.

Souma stopped before the white door. Looking back, she stated, “Just one more thing.”

The rather childish tilt of his head could be seen by the moonlight.

“Make sure you’re careful with onions. They’ll burn fast if you don’t keep a close eye on them.”

Unfortunately, she couldn’t see his expression well with his back to the light. But somehow, she was certain that he was smiling.

“Okay. I’ll be careful. Thanks.” He held out his hand. “So then, Souma, I look forward to our future together.”

Souma Sumire let out the breath she had been holding in, also pushing her hand out. “So do I, Kei. See you later.”

They were too far away to embrace, but they were at just the right distance to shake hands.

It was tragic in its own way, but she had to admit that it was worth at least a spoonful of happiness.

✽

As Souma Sumire left, Asai Kei turned on his heel. It was time to take his own first step.

A set of curtains opened, and Haruki Misora popped out. “Has she gone?” she asked. She looked like a child playing hide-and-seek.

“Yeah. You woke up about halfway through or so, right?” Kei crossed the room, sitting down in a metal folding chair.

“I did,” Haruki answered, nodding. She moved to stand at Kei’s left.

“Why didn’t you come out?”

“No particular reason.”

“No particular reason?”

“I felt that seeing Souma Sumire would be somewhat embarrassing.”

“Well, she didn’t really want to see you either, for what it’s worth.”

It at least seemed like they didn’t hate each other. Perhaps, if just a few things were different, they could have even become good friends.

Haruki Misora stared straight at Kei. “Do you wish for Souma Sumire and I to get along?”

That was quite a question. Kei couldn’t just nod or shake his head for something like that. “Well, you at least don’t want anything bad to happen to her, right?”

Haruki nodded, her expression serious. “Yes. That is absolutely true.”

“And if she was in trouble, you would help her, right?”

“Most likely, if it were in my power to do so.”

“Then that’s good enough.” Perhaps not the best, but it worked.

Haruki Misora smiled, looking entirely at peace. “That makes me glad. I do not know what I would have done if you asked me to be her friend.”

“You don’t want that?”

“I think it is best for her and I to have a slight amount of hostility towards each other. That seems natural, not to mention comfortable.”

“You really think so?”

“I do.” Haruki Misora smiled, showing a rare flash of mischief in her expression. “I do not think you would understand.”

Well, I guess that’s her version of natural. Perhaps a bit odd in terms of wording and expression, but natural. I like that.

“So then, Kei, does this mean that everything is over?”

“For now, yeah.”

It would never be over in the truest sense. Problems were never-ending. But they could at least afford something of a break. The past few days in particular had been quite hectic. It was time for a chocolate break, and to fulfill some wonderful promises.

“In that case, we should make dinner together,” Haruki proposed.

“Mhm. We’ll go shopping for it tomorrow.”

“I have one more thing to add.” Haruki Misora walked around to the back of the metal folding chair, placing her hands on both of Kei’s shoulders.

Kei looked up into her face. “What’s that?”

“I think I will begin growing my hair out.”

“Sounds great, but why?”

“I remembered something earlier.” A smile spread across her face. It was a natural, gentle, and altogether new kind of smile. “You once told me that my long hair was beautiful. Do you remember that?” she asked, tilting her head.

Asai Kei looked out the window, feeling a bit embarrassed. The moon was as beautiful as ever, shining down upon Sakurada from the sky.

No doubt it was somewhere very far away. In some cold, lonely place where it couldn’t even shine on its own. Instead, it looked elsewhere from afar, completely unaware of its own beauty.

But the moon was unquestionably the most beautiful thing in the night sky. Its brilliant, noble light shone the brightest.

He thought for a moment about the girl that was so much like it. Then he suddenly felt silly, closing his eyes.

Then he finally answered her question. “Of course. I pride myself on a good memory, you know.”

The girl’s small hands were still on his shoulders. His continual wish was that he would never forget a single thing, all the way down to their weight and warmth.

✽

And so, the girl watched the boy.

He was a very complicated, yet very simple boy.

He was always moving forward, perhaps standing in place for a moment, but never letting anything stop his continual forward momentum. He was always thinking, sometimes letting fear catch him with worry, but never allowing himself to give up. If he happened to make a mistake, he would start over, redoing it the right way.

But there was nothing exceptional about any of that.

It was no different than a child regretting their failure. No less genuine than the sadness a person felt once they realized they had lost or broken something. No more real than the wish to be happier as a result of those events.

Such natural and obvious desires were his true nature.

The Sakurada Reset. A holy revival. Changing the world in the right way.

At the end of the day, that was all he desired. To carry all sorts of hardship, moving forward and seeing both dreams and reality in places where neither could normally be seen.

The girl walked forward, matching the pace of the boy. Their rhythm was so much like the ticking hands of a clock.

With each step, the scenery before them changed in subtle, but very real ways. It was possible that some day, the boy and the girl could be standing in entirely different places.

But no matter where she was, the girl would always be watching a narrative unfold. The narrative that came from the single prayer that every obvious and even childish emotion could be remembered forever.

The narrative of a boy who never forgot yesterday, carrying that prayer into tomorrow.

Sakurada Reset – END

Afterword

Originally, Sakurada Reset was published from 2009-2012 under Kadokawa’s Sneaker line of books. The series you just completed was republished through Kadokawa with several additions and corrections. As I thought through the republishing, I considered all sorts of edits to the text, but in the end I kept the story as it was while only changing the more detailed writing expressions to suit my current tastes. By no means do I want to reject the book as I wrote it for the Sneaker publication, but as long as I was editing it, I felt that being honest to the book meant putting the best I had into the current version. Were the revisions a success? A failure? Maybe it’s not for me to say, but at the very least, I had a lot of fun with the process.

Sakurada Reset was my debut work, and the series in which I by far learned the most about writing novels. Every single book helped me discover more about crafting sentences, constructing a story, and overcoming(or avoiding) obstacles that got in my way and made me feel hopelessly stuck. I used to say that this series was everything I ever learned jammed into one package, but perhaps it’s more true to say that everything I ever learned from this series continues to grow and flourish in the form of each new book I write.

This series is the narrative of a boy who aspires to be God, and works to realize all his ideals despite being unable to become God. Put another way, it’s the narrative of a girl who cut her hair, until she began to grow it out again. Put yet another way, it’s the narrative of a girl who lied for the sake of a boy, until she could admit that what she had said was a lie. All of these narratives were written from the set of values that I had believed to only be natural when I was a child. I still believed in them when I was writing the Sneaker publication of Sakurada Reset as a 24-year-old, and that has yet to change even now. So this series is themed around something that feels incredibly natural to me, something that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

Thank you so very much for reading this series to completion. I tried putting together various words that I know in as thoughtful a way as I could manage. What did you think of it?

If even a sentence of this novel was to your liking, then nothing could make me happier.

Kouno Yutaka, February 2017

Messages from the translation team

ShwampBam, Translator – In May of 2023, I had said that the Plastic Memories visual novel would remain my longest project, that I wasn’t interested in translating novels because it would be too hard, and that I really liked the Sakurada Reset anime. Now, in January 2025, almost two years later, none of those statements have held up very well. Let’s address them one at a time.

Although these could be famous last words, I do see this book series as actually being my longest and largest project. Although I certainly want to continue novel translation(and have no shortage of ideas for projects to pick up), at the moment I do not plan to pick up any series longer than three volumes. I’m more of a shorter series guy to begin with, and the new stage of life I’m finding myself in right now also would be better suited to spending a little less time on hobbies. I called this project my unpaid second job for a while, and that is very true, and I had a harsh cycle of grinding the series only to massively burn out for a few weeks to a month at a time. I think a slower pace on smaller projects will help me keep up the work while not getting too overwhelmed with any individual story I decide to work on from here on out.

As it turned out, translating novels was in fact really hard. Really, really hard. Add to that my complete obsession with following correct syntax and writing rules for a small fan project that nobody was forcing me to work on, and you’ve got hours of time spent sweeping six volumes to make sure that the usage and translation of “sayonara” is consistently said as “goodbye” and that goodbye was not used for any other farewells, so it can remain special for the one snippet of conversation that acts as its payoff. That said, I think taking on such a daunting project actually pushed me to perform better in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise. Volume 1 was rocky and, quite frankly, poorly executed. I literally rewrote almost the entire prologue at one point because my original version was horrendous. But it took till about volume 3 to really get my skills and capabilities to level out, and the fact that this was one big project pushed me to go back and fix those previous problems so the series as a whole could retain consistency and quality. If they had been three individual volume projects, I likely wouldn’t have bothered to resurrect an old series just for a few patches, and that could have marred the overall quality of our project compendium moving forward by having such blatant skill curve blemishes.

On top of all that, going back to check the anime at various points was excruciating. I haven’t been this upset at a supposed “adaptation” since reading the Toradora novels. I mean, I guess it’s just surprise surprise, another adaptation did a poor job, but man, it really got on my nerves. They couldn’t even bother to get the blocking right in the final scenes, so little details like Souma sitting on Kei’s bed as a power move get lost, or they just slap a boring-looking office phone in the Witch’s room instead of the specifically described antique silver phone that is mentioned on several occasions. Those little things really matter to me, but I guess it’s not like anyone will force me to watch the series again. If you enjoy the series, that’s great and all, but I hope you can appreciate how much was truly lost when the show is mostly people talking, and they still didn’t bother to add in so many conversations that thickened out the plot and characters.

I could go on, but that’s enough whining. On to the positives, because in this translator note, there will in fact be several.

I loved working on these books. The story, characters, dialogue, foreshadowing, just everything was so well done. I felt like I really got to know our main characters, and truly understand them. The abilities felt so fleshed-out and thought through, with several interesting and creative uses for them that showed Kouno actually cared about how they interacted with the world, and not just the plot or the singular scene. Little changes in Haruki’s speech at times, Kei slowly maturing and moving towards new growth, and Souma’s tragic and insightful interludes. I’ll be up front and say my favorite part of the story was volume 5. Isolation is the theme that I always resonate the strongest with due to my past negative proclivities, and writing Mytyl’s monologues as she succumbed to the world that she created for herself, yet could never be truly satisfied by, reminded me so heavily of the life that I had once lived. But that scary step of reaching out and trusting someone else really does make all the difference.

Onto the thanks. As always, a massive, oversized, incalculable thank you to Shaggy. He once again changed a project from being just a few lines of English slapped on a Japanese aesthetic to a full-on, legitimate translation. Personally, I always prefer reading volume compilations over keeping a constant, page-by-page internet connection, so I wanted to make sure that was prioritized in my releases. Shaggy went on and did the impossible like he always does, learning everything along the way yet providing a product of ridiculous quality that’s more than I could ever ask for. If you liked anything about the compilations or cover designs, make sure to let him know, because he deserves all the credit in the world.

Another shoutout to ShadeSlayer for his proofreading. Both of us were very excited for this project, and he really helped smooth down some of the bumps on the road. I always like to have someone checking my work, and he knows how to correct me even when I don’t want to hear it, making the end result better than I could have done alone. He also served as my vent when I wanted to whine about how bad the anime adaptation was, so everyone in the discord server be grateful.

Lastly, thank you for reading. I mostly started these translation projects so that I could personally get to read them, and if someone else enjoyed it along the way, then cool. But to actually see numbers go up as people who cared about this specific project joined the server and looked at the website was a new one. I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one excited to read through this series, and that I got to provide something that others could look forward to. To those who’ve been here from volume 1, thanks for putting up with such a rocky start, and to those who joined later, thanks for enjoying the series alongside me!

My DMs are always open on Discord, and join our server if you want more updates for our current and future projects! I don’t really have any other socials, but if you see a ShwampBam anywhere, it’s probably me. Please let us know if you enjoyed reading, even a single comment means the world to me. I’ve already got the next novel I want to work on in mind, and though it will be a big change of pace, I’m very excited for what new challenges may lie ahead.

Until next time!

Shaggy, Compiler – Wow, does time fly! Back in July 2023, Shwamp asked if I could create English covers and compile EPUB and PDF versions for his translation. Much like with the Plastic Memories visual novel project, this was a first for me. Because of that, I had to learn how to compile a book for physical printing.

Some of the PhotoShop skills I picked up while working on PlaMemo came in handy for editing the covers. Formatting the text was a bit of a learning curve since I decided to use Adobe InDesign. It took some time to get comfortable with the software, but once I set up paragraph styles and incorporated a few grep changes (thanks, letter “a”), importing text became pretty easy, when I didn’t have to reinstall InDesign, that is.

Once the PDFs were ready, creating the EPUB and making a few tweaks in Sigil (an amazing open-source software) was a piece of cake. One thing I like about the EPUBs is that they work perfectly on my 2011 Nook Simple Touch, even in the newer EPUB 3 format. Seeing the test prints of each volume that Shwamp made was also awesome, it’s pretty cool to see something I’ve had a hand in being made physically. I’m looking forward to seeing the final ones.

I’ve been scrolling back through my DMs with Shwamp and comparing my original edited covers to how they look now. Honestly, I’m really happy with how they turned out in the end. I’m also including some of my ugly, not ugly, early designs here, just because I can. (I’m gonna make this hard on myself when I make the EPUB). The first two weren’t good at all, I was throwing words on a page to make ‘em stick. Three, four, six, and seven had little to no changes from concept to final. While one, two and five had drastic changes from concept to final.

On another note, I recently set up the Novels site under our own domain, using the novels subdomain on islaexecutionsquad.com. While the main site doesn’t have anything yet, I’m hoping to have something ready for it within the next few months. It’ll have links to our manga projects and a revamped manual experience. Speaking of, has anyone here read the manual?

Lastly, shameless plug: follow me on BlueSky (@shaggy.islaexecutionsquad.com) and check out my GitHub (shaggythecat) for updates on other projects I’ve worked on or am currently involved in, if I post anything about ’em.

Now that it’s finished, I can finally read Sakurada Reset.

ShadeSlayer, Proofreader – It’s hard to say everything I feel as this project comes to a close. At this point of my life, this project has spanned a tenth of my lived experience. In some ways it feels like this project has been a witness to that time, seeing me through the good, the bad, and everything in-between. I get to reflect upon the ways that both I and the project have grown and matured. And all the while, I got to witness my best friend get to translate one of his favorite series, and grow in his own creativity and writing skills. It has been a pleasure getting to be a part of this, I hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did. I hope that you too can choose to live in a world where a child-like wish can become reality. See you in the next project!