Chapter 1 – The Girl in the Photo

The woman was, as always, alone in her room. As such, the only witnesses to the scene were two surveillance cameras.

She sat back in a large chair, speaking into an antique silver phone. Her voice’s high pitch mingled with its bright tone, and was woven with intermittent laughs.

Quite to the contrary, her face carried no emotion. Her eyebrows, cheeks, and gaze were fixed in place, like an elaborate rubber mask. As she carried on a gentle conversation, her face was like a completely blank sheet of paper. The contrast made for a spine-chilling sight.

As it happened, the majority of what the woman was currently saying was lies. If her claims were investigated, they could be proven false, but she knew that nobody would have that information soon enough for it to matter.

The woman was currently fabricating the future. Her goal was to bring a certain boy into the room with her.

“…Yes, of course. I must meet with him, no matter what.” Repeating her words yet another time, she finally hung up the phone.

Her heart was racing, likely due to having her first conversation in so long. Each thump added to the dull pain that was creeping through her chest. Her fingertips felt like lead. Holding her eyes open had become too much of a hassle, so she let them flutter closed.

Her body was close to reaching its end.

Eyes closed, she put her right hand on her chest and imagined a single door. It was a great, heavy door with a keyhole. She alone held the key to open that door. She pushed the key into the keyhole, turned it, and with a click, the lock released. Turning the doorknob, she opened the door. She carefully imagined each step in complete detail.

Suddenly, a series of images, all in fragments, began to line up. Like a hall of mirrors, each image stretched behind the last, continuing backwards. However, this series of images had a definite endpoint. The end of the row always depicted the same scene.

She began filing through the lined up images, one by one. She singled out a particular image, and it responded with a sound, beginning to move. The rest quietly faded away.

The vast majority of the images shared the same scenery. A single room, lined with bookshelves, an antique telephone as its only decoration. There was no sign of human life, no sounds of conversation. It was the exact scenery that she would see if she were to open her eyes. It was what she saw every single day.

But not every image was exactly the same.

In one of them, the door opened, and a boy entered. He carried himself with maturity, but was still quite young. He looked at the woman with purpose, and asked, “Could you please tell me my future?”

Another picture showed a young girl. She had beautiful eyes, but they gave off an artificial feeling as she stared at the woman. “No. I do not have any particular interest in stones.”

Those two photographs were followed by another series of the same old images. Patiently holding back a sigh, the woman shuffled through each one individually.

In one of them, the door opened yet again. A man in a black suit held the door open. Walking in from behind him was a girl with red eyes.

The girl spoke, wielding a daring smile. “Heya. I’ve come to plunder you.”

She continued down the images until she reached the end.

The woman was looking into the future. Every hour she had yet to live was lined up before her in first-person view.

Finally, she reached the last image. It contained the face of an elderly man looking straight at her. His face was distorted with emotion, so it was unclear whether he was smiling or crying.

The end of her story was already determined. It was the future, but it wasn’t very far away. Right after seeing that face, she would reach her end.

But the woman didn’t know what she would be feeling or thinking at that time. She knew what would be in her line of sight, but that didn’t include her own expression.

What will I be thinking as I look into his face?

That was her only connection to a yet-unexperienced future.

The woman shuffled backwards through the images. She continued reversing until she reached the scene of the boy visiting her drab room.

The boy offered up a weak smile. It appeared to be one of his most natural expressions. Despite putting forth a strong front, the boy was quite sensitive, and appeared to have a very soft heart.

The woman heard her own voice. Someday, she would say these exact words. “Do you desire for me to have a happy ending?”

The boy nodded. “Yes. Absolutely.”

Upon hearing that voice, she opened her eyes.

The lined-up images all disappeared.

Perhaps because she had closed her eyes for so long, tears had begun to well up. The room she was so familiar with had become blurred and distorted. That empty, silent, and windowless room.

It wouldn’t be long before that boy, known as Asai Kei, would finally be giving her a visit.

1 – August 9th (Wednesday) – The previous day

From Asai Kei’s right came the sound of an old-fashioned truck engine, permeated by the fizz of his newly opened soda can. From his left came a woman’s robotic voice out of the cell phone he pressed to his ear. Currently, the voice was given more attention, as it had asked him a question.

“Are you outside?”

“Yeah,” he answered. He pulled the soda can in his right hand up to his mouth, and the carbonated cola seared down his throat. “I have plans, so I’m on my way to meet with someone.”

“Oh, should I call back later?”

“No need. I just got off the bus, and there’s plenty of time before our meeting.” He only had enough time to buy his soda before getting the phone call.

Kei sat down at the bus stop’s blue bench, and looked up to the sky. It was a bright, sunny day. The weather report predicted clear skies through the next day, as well. It was incredibly hot outside.

“Well, we can just keep this short,” began the robotic female voice. In reality, the person speaking to Kei through the phone was not actually a woman. His real identity was an informant known as The Operator. He never appeared in public if he could help it, and Kei only communicated with him by phone. Kei had in fact met him in person roughly a month ago, but that was under extraordinarily unusual circumstances.

Prior to this phone call, Kei had asked The Operator to look into something for him.

“What have you learned?” Kei asked.

“Well, not as much as I’d like,” came the unfortunate reply. However, as The Operator continued, he sounded somewhat amused. “I mean, it sounds super bogus, doesn’t it? I have a hard time believing something like the MacGuffin could have ever truly existed.”

The MacGuffin.

Kei’s request had been an investigation into the series of strange rumors surrounding that name.

“So, all the evidence points to the rumors being lies?” Kei was more or less expecting such a result. The common consensus was that The MacGuffin wasn’t real, after all.

“I don’t think you understand the scale here. For comparison, could you believe in the existence of a legendary sword that gives its wielder the power to take over the world?”

“I admit that would be a bit difficult to swallow.”

“Right? As far as I’m concerned, this is the same thing. Control of Sakurada’s abilities is equivalent to world domination, in a certain sense.”

“I see.” Kei took another swig of his soda, then held his can up to the sky. The beautifully bright red and blue contrasted so harshly that it made his eyes hurt. Far beyond the clear skies above lay pure white clouds. Though the wind blew strongly enough that he could feel it against his cheek, the clouds remained unmoved. Perhaps the wind wasn’t blowing so high up in the sky.

Whoever holds the MacGuffin can control all the abilities in Sakurada.

“How did such an unbelievable rumor ever catch on?”

“Well, getting a rumor to spread is mostly about luck. It’d be like throwing a message in a bottle out to sea. If you were lucky, you might get someone to read it, but most likely not. Of course, in theory, if you knew how to manipulate the circumstances, you could craft the perfect storm to make your rumor spread.”

“I’m sure someone like you could make that happen, with your connections.”

“Most likely,” The Operator responded unhesitatingly. “At the end of the day, you could just brute-force it. Keep spreading the rumor using every avenue possible, until one day it finally sticks. I could come up with as many strategies as I please, but you can’t beat the power of numbers.”

“So the MacGuffin is just a wild rumor that won the gossip lottery?”

“With what we know, that seems to be the case.”

“But I’ve got the MacGuffin with me.” Kei had ended up with it following the events from last month. It looked for all the world like an average black pebble. You could find a hundred just like it if you looked around any given riverbank. If it really did have the power to control every ability in Sakurada, it hadn’t been keeping its part of the deal so far.

“Well, therein lies the problem,” The Operator replied. “Rumors of this level almost never apply to real-life objects.”

A group of tanned elementary schoolers in shorts rode past Kei on bikes. They were almost like a banner advertisement repping for summer time.

“Couldn’t that also be coincidental?” Kei asked. “Maybe someone just picked up a pebble and claimed it was a MacGuffin, and people happened to believe them.”

“It’s tempting to nod along, but I’m not so sure. I can’t see that rumor gaining any traction. There’s no believability. Who’d buy such a tall tale about a tiny little stone?”

“Well, what else could it be, then?”

“Hard to say. It sure would be nice to chalk it all up to convenience, but the story surrounding the MacGuffin just sounds too much like a lie. Spreading a tale like that out of nowhere would take careful preparation.”

Then how exactly did the rumors circulate in the first place?

The Operator continued, mumbling, “If it’s all just a coincidence, then we’re looking at a huge series of coincidences. But it’s also unrealistic to claim that it spread arbitrarily from a random source.”

“Do we even have a motive for spreading rumors about the MacGuffin in the first place?”

“We don’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out someone was just doing it for fun. Tons of computer viruses are developed by people who think it’s some kind of joke.”

That was certainly a valid possibility.

“Well, that’s all I’ve got for today’s report.”

“So, your report is that you don’t know anything.”

“Yeah. Despite the rumor only coming about two years ago, I can’t find any detailed information about it. That doesn’t happen very often. Honestly, it’s a little exciting.”

“You’ll keep looking into it, right?”

“But of course.” The Operator gave his farewell, but Kei cut him off before he could hang up.

“Hold up a moment. I’ve got one other favor to ask.”

“Oh? What would that be?”

“Could you look into a Sasano Hiroyuki for me?”

“Sure, who is he?”

“I don’t really know any details. From the sound of his voice, I’m guessing he’s a fairly older man.”

“You’ve never even met him before?”

“I’m on the way to see him now. I got a phone call from him earlier this morning.” Such was Kei’s entire purpose behind taking the bus and ending up here.

“If you’re meeting him soon enough, why even look into him? Something catch your attention?”

“Sasano-san wants the MacGuffin.” He had said so himself that morning over the phone.

After a short silence, the robotic, feminine voice of The Operator responded with a tone that indicated his interest. “I see. Where are you meeting?”

“Sasano-san asked me to go to his house.”

“Oh, that’s perfect. His name and address will make searching for him simple. How about a week’s worth of mineral water and rubbing alcohol in exchange?”

“Thank you very much.”

Kei adroitly relayed the man’s address. It was a private residence fairly close to where he was currently standing. He had likely already seen it without knowing. “How much can you get?”

“How much do you want?”

“Let’s start with a character resume. I wanna know why this guy would want the MacGuffin. I need all the background info you can get.”

“I should be able to get that for you by the end of the day. If not, then we might have a problem. It’d mean that someone was trying to hide his information. I sure hope we don’t end up with two mysteries on our hands.”

Kei looked up to the sky. The sun was facing towards the south. It was just getting past 1:30 PM. “I’ll leave you to it. Thanks.” His phone call ended, Kei leaned into the back of a bench.

He slowly drank more of his soda. There was still about 20 minutes until his planned meeting with Sasano Hiroyuki. He had left home early in case he got lost, but at this rate he may as well have taken a later bus route.

Just as he wondered what to do, his phone rang once more. The display read, “Tsushima-san”. The caller, whose full name was Tsushima Shintarou, happened to be a teacher at Kei’s school, Ashiharabashi High. Tsushima was also a representative of the Administration Bureau, the group that managed the vast and varied abilities of Sakurada.

Taking another swig of his soda, Kei answered the call.

✽

“Sakurada is a town of ability users.”

That expression could be seen as a bit overdramatic. In reality, only about half of the residents of Sakurada carried an ability, and it would be uncouth to ignore the other half. The town itself, however, lacked any other special characteristics worth speaking of. The once thriving seaside port had been closed some 40 years ago, leaving the town without even the smallest of tourist attractions, and neither did it have any unique exports. So, if you were going to talk about Sakurada, you’d be left with no choice but to discuss abilities.

Sakurada’s abilities defied both reason and categorization. Generally, they were like small magic tricks that you would watch a stage magician pull off, but these tricks had no hidden gimmick. Some abilities contained dangerous potential for abuse in the wrong hands. The Bureau was formed to keep such situations from arising.

The Bureau blended behind Sakurada’s public litigation like a chameleon, but held complete control over the town’s abilities. The average onlooker would find a section of the police department and city hall reserved for the Bureau, but very little was known about the complete size of the organization. In some ways, it could be considered ideal. After all, were a situation regarding abilities to arise, the Bureau was so efficient and swift with its cleanup work that their interference was all but considered natural at this point.

In Kei’s eyes, the Bureau was a terrifying entity. Its chokehold over abilities was so strict that a city with half of the residents containing special powers looked like nothing more than an average provincial town.

Unless, of course, someone else were to commandeer the Bureau.

Anyone with that kind of power truly would control all of Sakurada’s abilities, whether they had a MacGuffin or not.

✽

Tsushima kept things short and sweet.

There was a woman who wanted to meet Asai Kei and Haruki Misora. Evidently, she was one of the top brass at the Bureau, and Kei didn’t even have the right to refuse her summons. Arrangements had already been made to pick up Kei and Haruki the next morning.

The relay was simple enough, and yet Kei still found himself confused.

What did it mean to be high up in the Bureau? It was impossible to glean anything about the internal affairs of the Bureau from the outside, so Kei had no point of reference. That aside, what could any of the top management staff have to gain from meeting him? The only reason Kei could conjure up was that she wanted his ability, but if it was just about utilizing his ability, then a set of instructions would have sufficed.

Tsushima continued, grumbling, “Geez. If I had it my way, you guys would’ve never met her. It isn’t right.”

“What do you mean by that?” From Kei’s perspective, a high schooler being as active in the Bureau as he was already tipped the scales of what was “right”.

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you anything about her. It isn’t my place, and I don’t even have much to tell you in the first place. But, to generalize, she’s more or less the most dangerous person you could ever deal with in Sakurada.” With those foreboding words, he hung up.

Kei looked up towards the sky, sighing. Once again, he was caught up in a situation he didn‘t have the means to understand. He couldn’t even make an educated guess. Of course, if this woman was so closely tied to the Bureau’s secrets, he would be doing himself a favor by not trying to find out more information. But, for the time being, Kei had other goals. Shaking his head to clear his mind, he refocused his thoughts on Sasano and the MacGuffin.

He finished his cola, straightened himself up, and threw his can away in a nearby recycling bin. Just as he was planning to head towards Sasano’s house, he heard a voice from behind.

“Are you Asai-kun?”

The voice sounded almost exactly like the voice he heard over the phone that morning. Kei turned around to find a rather short man. “Yes, it’s nice to finally meet you. I assume you would be Sasano-san?”

“Just as you say. It’s nice to meet you.” Nodding his head, the man gave a great smile, one that deepened the wrinkles on his face. Combined with his salt-and-pepper hair, he appeared to be around his mid-sixties. Kei couldn’t be certain, however, because everyone aged differently.

Sasano continued, “What wonderful timing. I was just on my way home from a nearby sweets shop. They make a wonderful mizu youkan.”¹ He held up the paper bag in his hand as he spoke. “Although, you younger folk might prefer the more Western sweets.”

Kei shook his head. “Anything sweet is good for me.”

“How wonderful. Come now, it’s so hot outside. Let’s get going.” Sasano began walking away, and Kei followed behind him.

They were headed into an area that was fairly far from the center of town. There were nearly as many fields as there were houses, and many of the houses that remained had old-fashioned tile roofs. The roads were paved, but the sides of the roads were piled with dirt or tall grass.

“I must apologize for how far out my house is.”

Kei smiled at Sasano-san’s remark. “I only needed to ride one bus. It’s not that bad.”

“Well, perhaps it was still unfair of me to give you such a sudden call and ask you to come out right away. I’m sure you’re busy, being that you’re a student and all. I must apologize, I’m getting quite selfish in my old age. Of course, it doesn’t help that my age acts as the perfect scapegoat.”

“It’s no different than children who get selfish and blame everything on their young age. Besides, I’m pretty lazy for a high schooler.”

Sasano responded with a smile that contained equal measures of gentleness and timidity. “Well then, I suppose you should try to put a little more work in.”

Leading Kei on, Sasano stepped through an old gate towards a wooden, one-story house. The house wasn’t much to speak of, but a huge garden was kept on the same land. Kei spotted a white car parked in the back of the garden.

Sasano opened the sliding door and stepped inside. The inside of the house looked unnaturally dark, likely due to how bright the sun was outside.

“Please, come in,” Sasano invited, as he slipped off his shoes and walked down a polished hallway. Kei walked in behind him, coming into a large, Japanese-style living room. The unfamiliar smell of tatami mats further proved the traditional nature of the house.

Sasano turned on an old-fashioned air conditioner using a remote controller, then said, “I’ll be right back with some tea,” before slipping out of the room.

Kei sat down in front of the room’s prominent all wooden table. He tried sitting in proper seiza form to match the environment, knowing that due to his lack of practice, his legs were likely to grow numb before long.²

Looking out of the room’s window, Kei caught a glimpse of the garden. A huge tree sat in the very center. Kei supposed it might be a sakura tree, but it was so old and withered that he couldn’t be certain. The stark contrast of the withered tree and the lush greenery brought only death to Kei’s mind.

Kei stared blankly at the tree as his mind began working.

There aren’t many shoes at the entrance of the house. It seems most likely that Sasano is the only person living here. Does he have a job? Today’s Wednesday. He can be home during the weekdays, and nothing here indicates that he’s self-employed. He could be old enough to be retired, but there’s nothing here to prove that, either. Maybe he has vacation days stored up.

Most importantly, why would someone of Sasano’s age want the MacGuffin? Why would he want the overwhelming power to control every ability in Sakurada?

Of course, Kei couldn’t answer any of his questions. There wasn’t even enough information to make a convincing hypothesis.

Before long, Sasano returned to the room. He carried a tray with two glasses of barley tea and two plates of mizu youkan. He arranged the glasses and plates on the table, then sat down across from Kei.

Kei took a bite of the mizu youkan at the behest of Sasano. “It’s good. I really like it.”

“Isn’t it? I look forward to it every summer. There’s nothing like it this time of year, and it’s a seasonal treat.” Sasano picked up the toothpick holding his slice of mizu youkan before continuing. “Not to mention, isn’t it just so beautiful? The colors aren’t as bright as they are in jellies, but it certainly holds its own in terms of beauty and intensity.”

Kei looked closer at the mizu youkan he was eating. The deep blacks and reds mixing together certainly held their own appeal. He wouldn’t even know how to begin mixing a color palette together to create such a strikingly rich combination. “It certainly is quite beautiful.” He took another bite, and once the deep sweetness had passed through his mouth, he spoke. “In this morning’s phone call, I believe you told me that you wanted me to give you the MacGuffin.”

“Yes. That’s quite right.”

“And what do you hope to accomplish with it?”

Sasano slowly tilted his glass of tea back and forth. The ice within tinkled against the glass, making a noise akin to a wind chime. “I’m chasing after my dream.”

The cool air blew in with a low drone. Sasano returned his glass to the top of the table as Kei met his eyes. “What is your dream?”

“A fabrication. It’s nothing more than an illusion from the past. But that makes it all the more beautiful, and all the more valuable.”

Kei considered what he had said for a moment, but couldn’t decipher what it meant. However, it was clear that Sasano was trying to be indirect. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to be more specific.”

Sasano gave an embarrassed smile. “Do I have to?”

“If you’re not willing to tell me more, then this conversation is already over.” As it turned out, having a MacGuffin caused more problems than it solved. Personally, Kei didn’t believe the rumors surrounding the MacGuffin, but in the edge case that they were true, the current situation was not to be taken lightly. At the end of the day, Kei didn’t plan on handing over the MacGuffin. As far as Kei was concerned, it would be best to roll it into the back of another drawer. But if Sasano truly had a problem, then Kei was willing to find a solution.

Sasano spoke back up. “I don’t want it for its overwhelming power. All I want is to regain what I’ve lost. More specifically, my ability. Surely, if the MacGuffin can let you control every single ability, then mine would be in there, too, right?”

Did he just say he lost his ability? “Hold on, please explain that a little further.”

Sasano took a small sip of his barley tea, presumably to moisten his throat. “I had an ability once. It wasn’t particularly strong or threatening, but it meant everything to me. But last week, a girl who must’ve been in middle school came up to me and told me she was going to seal it. Then, just like that, I couldn’t use my ability anymore.”

Kei couldn’t think of any possible technological advancements that would be capable of sealing an ability. Without that possibility, assuming Sasano was telling the truth, the only conclusion was that somebody carried an ability used for sealing other abilities.

Kei asked his most important question. “What exactly was your ability?”

“A rather useless one, if I do say so myself.” Getting up, Sasano said he would show Kei an example. He headed towards a bookshelf in the corner of the room that was loaded with photo albums. Taking one out, he flipped it open, showing that each page had four clean photographs, all taken in excellent quality.

“This is a picture of my garden,” he said, pointing to a photograph of a large sakura tree in full bloom. Kei noticed that the photo’s margins were slightly larger than standard. “What do you think?”

Kei answered on the spot with whatever came to mind. “The sakura are extremely beautiful. It looks like these were taken on a Polaroid camera quite a long time ago.” The photograph was undoubtedly of the now-dying sakura tree outside. It was unlikely that the tree would ever bloom so healthily again.

Sasano nodded. “You’re right. This was taken some twenty-odd years ago. This picture is even older. It’s a picture of the road in front of my house before it was ever paved. This picture of the coast is fairly new, only from about seven years ago. Of course, you would have only been in elementary school around then. There was talk of covering the coast in concrete, so I got a photograph to preserve its old state.”

Everything seemed to be exactly as Sasano said. “So, these photographs have something to do with your ability?” Kei asked.

“These photographs were taken with my ability, actually.”

Kei took another look at the photographs, but nothing special stuck out to him. Sasano gently pulled out a photograph of the sakura tree in bloom. “All of these photographs show something that was lost. But with my ability, I can bring those things back.”

Sasano’s eyes narrowed as he gently gazed at the photo, before turning back towards Kei. “My ability can recreate the past. It’s a perfect restructuring, just as it used to be. Think of it as entering the photograph for a short period of time.”

“Entering the photograph?” Kei repeated. He thought that he could almost understand it, but he had no idea how to even begin imagining the concept.

Sasano smiled, although it didn’t reach his eyes. “All I want is to be able to use my ability again. It’s really nothing dangerous.”

Sasano explained his ability in detail. His ability would first activate when he pressed the shutter of a Polaroid camera. By design, the Polaroid would print out the taken picture.

“If I take the picture and tear it, I can enter into the photo.”

That still required the use of his ability, however. In total, he would use his ability twice. Once when he took the photo, and once when he tore it.

The world of the photograph would be an exact recreation of that past. If there was a book in frame, you could read it, and if the picture contained a person, you could talk to them. But the ability did not actually transfer you into the past. It was simply the world of the photo. If you broke something in the photo, it would remain undamaged in real life.

“Essentially, the ability allows you to immerse yourself in your memories.” Sasano appeared to be reliving some of those memories even as he spoke. “You can take in old sights and familiar smells, and talk with old faces. That’s all it allows you to do.”

Perhaps it truly was a harmless ability, but without personally experiencing it, Kei had his doubts. However, from what Kei heard, it didn’t seem to be an ability that could cause too much harm. It would be functionally no different from Sasano uploading all his pictures onto a personal computer that only he could access.

Sasano continued, “The ability comes with a couple of restrictions. First, I have to be standing in the place the picture was taken when I tear it. If I’m not there, tearing it won’t do anything. Second, you can only stay in the photograph for about 10 minutes before you’re sent back to reality.” After a slight pause, Sasano finished with, “And suddenly, starting a few days ago, I could no longer use my ability after meeting that girl.”

Kei nodded. “Thank you for sharing that with me. I think I understand the scope of the situation now.”

Sasano sighed. “Good. Now, let’s speak of the MacGuffin. Are you willing to hand it over to me?”

“No. For starters, I don’t think the MacGuffin truly has any special power.” Kei took a sip of barley tea before continuing. “I think the most likely explanation is that your ability is being blocked by the girl who came to visit you. In that case, the best course of action would be to find a way to cancel out her ability.” Kei, at least, saw that as a more meaningful method than leaving everything up to a tiny pebble.

Sasano smiled once more. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin trying to cancel out her ability.”

“If you don’t mind, I can help with that.”

“You? I would appreciate it, but why?”

Explaining exactly why would be no easy feat. To put it simply would be to call it egotistical, and to explain it in detail would take far too much time. Since neither of those options were desirable, Kei chose to talk around it instead. “I’m a member of a Service Club.”

The Service Club was a branch of every school in Sakurada, dedicated for ability users that the Bureau took special note of. Their typical club activities were to resolve issues from the Bureau using their unique competencies. The baseball club would swing their bats, the brass band would play trumpets, and the Service Club would use their abilities.

Kei continued, “I think we could use the resources of the Service Club to help solve your problem.” Unfortunately, Kei doubted reality would be that kind.

The Service Club’s activities had to be sanctioned by the Bureau. Furthermore, the Bureau only would accept requests in which an ability directly caused a problem. Although Sasano was grieving the loss of his ability, it would be hard to argue that there were any specific problems to solve. Sure, he couldn’t go into his pictures and relive nostalgic memories, but that didn’t justify intervention.

However, most civilians didn’t know about those specifics. Most people just assumed that it was a volunteer club for ability users, and Kei could work with that assumption.

Sasano gave it some thought, showing a clearly worried expression. Eventually, he said, “How exactly do you plan on canceling out somebody else’s ability?”

“Let’s just take it one step at a time. First, tell me more about the girl who visited you.” If it turned out that girl was the ability user, Kei had a few cards up his sleeve for canceling her ability. Even if she wasn’t, there was probably something worth learning about her.

“She was definitely in her teens. She wore ripped jeans and a choker with a cross attached, and her eyes were red.”

“What do you mean, her eyes were red?” Could he have meant that she was crying prior to meeting him?

“She was wearing colored contact lenses. She told me all about how they were specially ordered and how proud she was of them.”

“Did anything else about her stick out to you?”

“Not particularly. She didn’t have any standout physical features.”

A choker, ripped jeans, and red contact lenses. It was a striking image, but she could change her outfit any time she wanted. Unfortunately, nothing about that description was overtly identifiable.

“When did this red-eyed girl come visit you?”

“Last Thursday. I guess that would be… August 3rd? It was around 5 PM or so.”

Six days ago. Haruki Misora, a girl that Kei was well acquainted with, had the ability to rewind time, called a Reset. But her power was limited to a three-day span, and she had to set up the time she wanted to revert to in advance with a save.

Haruki had already made a save the day before yesterday, the 7th. Sadly, her ability would not be useful at this juncture.

“Did the girl steal any of your photographs?” The only motive Kei could think of, given Sasano’s power, was to erase evidence. It was possible he had taken a picture that showed something she didn’t want known.

But Sasano shook his head. “No, not at all. She just bragged about her contact lenses, and somehow sealed off my ability.”

So her motive wasn’t to get rid of evidence? Then, did she decide that sealing off his ability would be enough in and of itself? Kei tried a follow-up question. “Do any of your pictures contain some kind of special information?”

“Special information?”

“Yes, like documents, letters, computers, or otherwise hard to meet individuals. Do any of your pictures have significant objects in them?”

Sasano thought it over for a bit, but ultimately shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t really know. I usually take pictures to view a particular landscape.”

“I see.” Sasano was probably overlooking something. If the issue wasn’t with his photographs, there was no motive to seal his ability. “Could I take a quick look at that album?”

“Sure, help yourself.”

Kei took the large album, flipping through the pages. The photographs were placed in film inserts, and the pages were quite thick, so there weren’t very many pages despite its size.

Kei recognized about half of the areas in the beautifully taken photographs. He passed a page with a mountain road covered in stunning autumn foliage, and another with long, sandy beaches. Some pictured the white lighthouse that he had seen every day from his middle school’s windows. Sakurada wasn’t a particularly large town, so it contained a limited number of spots worth taking photographs of.

Just as Sasano had claimed, all of the photographs were landscape scenery. Several had people in them, but Kei couldn’t tell if they were particularly important people just from the photographs alone.

In the end, Kei couldn’t gather enough information to pin down the girl’s motive. It was entirely possible her motive lied in one of the random houses of any number of the landscapes. Not only was it nearly impossible to guess from the individual photographs, an intimidating number of albums still remained on the shelf. Losing hope, Kei turned to the last page.

There, he found a single photograph of a narrow riverside road.

I know that place.

It was quite close to the middle school that Kei had attended.

In the photograph, a bright red sunset was sinking into the horizon. The river sparkled in the evening light, flashing orange beams into the right side of the picture. The picture was taken near the mouth of the river, and showed the downstream section as it yawned wider and wider. Tetrapod concrete structures, built to prevent erosion from the river, took center stage. And below those tetrapods was a long, jet-black shadow.

Kei’s breath halted reflexively. It felt like time stopped with it.

This was where Kei had first met that girl. That girl, who was so catlike in nature. That girl, who had died two years prior. That oh-so-special girl.

And then.

“Ah, yes, that picture. The sunset was so beautiful, I just had to preserve the moment. Isn’t the contrast between the sun and shadow so breathtaking?”

Sasano probably continued talking after that, but Kei was finding it hard to hear him. Sounds and words were losing all significance. The ringing in his ears superseded all else.

It wasn’t all that important. It shouldn’t have mattered that much. But it came so fast, so suddenly, that he couldn’t even attempt to reorganize his thoughts.

“That picture is fairly new, actually. I think that one was from, oh, two years ago or so?”

Standing in the center frame, atop the tetrapods, was a very slim girl. She looked so very small. With all the backlight behind her, you could hardly see more than a silhouette. But that wouldn’t be enough to throw Kei off.

It was her. The girl who was no longer in this world.

The girl’s left hand was thrust outwards. What she held was so small that it was hard to make out, but it looked for all the world like a small, black pebble. Like the MacGuffin.

Surely, that’s what you would call too good to be true.

It felt unnatural. Like some sort of sick joke.

Kei closed the album.

“Well? Did you find anything that looked unusual?” Sasano’s voice finally regained its significance.

“No. Nothing caught my attention.” Kei’s own voice was so calm and stable that it made him uncomfortable.

Sasano took the album back and slotted it into the shelf. It went into the second row from the top, as the third album from the right. “Would you like to look at any other albums?”

“How many photos do you have up there?”

“It’s hard for me to say. Probably somewhere around one or two thousand, but even I don’t know where all of them are anymore.”

Kei shook his head. “I’ll stop here, then.” Without any further clues, it would be impossible to sniff out a single photo from all those options. Perhaps the sheer number was why the red-eyed girl didn’t even bother taking any.

Sasano nodded. “I’ll take the time to go through all of the individual photos when I can.”

“That would be great. I’ll start my own research as well.”

“By the by,” Sasano tilted his head, “If you were to get my ability back for me, how shall I repay you?”

“The Service Club does not ask for any compensation for its work.” Any work expenses or costs were repaid through the Bureau as a stand-in club budget for each school.

An embarrassed smile flitted across Sasano’s face. “But, I couldn’t just let you do this for nothing.”

After an audible pause, Kei said, “Would I… be able to go into a picture with your power?”

“Absolutely. If you were holding the picture as I tore it, then you would enter with me through my power.”

“Then, if we manage to make this all work out, could you let me into one of your photos?”

Sasano had a picture of the girl who died two years ago.

He smiled. “Oh, but of course. If that’s all you want, I’d let you visit as many pictures as you wanted.”

Kei asked another question, looking directly into Sasano’s eyes. “There’s one more thing I’ve wanted to know ever since you called me.”

“Oh? What would that be?”

“How did you know that I had the MacGuffin?” It was far from public information. Only four or five people should’ve known, and even stretching his imaginary limits to include more people, Kei could barely double that number.

“Oh, I heard it from an acquaintance of mine.”

“How are you two acquainted?”

“Through the Administration Bureau.”

“Could you tell me this acquaintance’s name?”

Sasano closed his eyes for a short while, and his mouth jerked into a painful smile. “I’m sorry. I can’t answer that.”

Kei nodded. “I understand.” He was curious, but for now, it didn’t really matter.

After leaving Sasano’s house, Kei returned to the blue bench by the bus stop. The sun was still beating down from high overhead.

Kei closed his eyes, recalling Sasano’s words.

A dream. A lie. A figment of his imagination. Surely that was all it was. Somewhere deep inside of himself, Kei smiled. On his mind was, of course, a picture. A picture of concrete tetrapods lined up beside a riverbed, bathed in the orange sunset.

If he closed his eyes, he could see it clearly.

He saw the small figure of that girl atop the tetrapods. In her left hand was a small black stone so strikingly similar to the MacGuffin.

Surely, that was where he could find her.

Footnotes

¹ 水ようかん, a traditional Japanese jellied confectionery made primarily of sweet red bean paste. return

² Sitting in seiza includes kneeling, putting the tops of your feet on the ground, and sitting on your soles. It takes a great deal of practice and discipline to keep the form for any length of time. Culturally, it is the traditional, formal, and polite way of sitting, as traditional Japanese tables are low to the ground with cushions rather than chairs. return