5 – The same day, ~1:30 PM

About an hour had passed since Haruki Misora was attacked by Oka Eri. Asai Kei found himself in Haruki’s room, somewhere he hadn’t been in quite some time.

It had a study table, a bed, and a bookshelf. Various accessories, posters, and plushies of cats in all shapes and sizes lay about. It had the air of a girl’s room, but also felt manufactured somehow, like it was designed for a catalog photo shoot.

Haruki Misora was standing in the corner of the room, looking frightened. Standing in her own room, she was scared. But it wasn’t a monster hiding in her closet that her fear was directed towards. Her eyes were directly on Kei.

It’s like she’s trying to escape reality, Kei thought. He kept his eyes right on her. He knew why she was scared of him. She was terrified of Asai Kei seeing her without her powers.

Haruki held out a wallet. “This belongs to you.”

With a smile and a thank you, Kei accepted it. She definitely didn’t use this to pay back then, he figured. He wanted to make sure he paid her back for their meal, but now was certainly not the time for that.

“Are you hurt?” Kei desperately hoped that he was putting the proper kindness into his voice. He knew that by default, he tended to speak impassively. Unless he put special effort into it, his sincerity rarely shone through.

Haruki smiled. Her smile looked off, somehow. “There is no problem. None at all. I cannot feel the pain any longer.” Her expressions, body language, and phrasing were all just slightly different than normal.

It would have been easy for Kei to play spot the difference. He could have taken down all of her lies within 10 seconds, easy. But what would that prove? It all fell apart whenever he looked at the bandage on her elbow. Every time he saw the blood seeping through, nothing else seemed to matter. Nobody in the world deserved to have the power that would force Haruki to wear a bandage. He could never forgive the person who allowed Haruki to bleed. The only problem was that every time he traced it back, the source of it all was inevitably himself.

Just how egotistic can one guy be?

Haruki getting hurt was always in the cards. Even up to this point, he had hurt her in numerous ways. But that had never stopped him. The worst part about the whole situation was that he knew this wouldn’t stop him, either.

“I am sorry, Kei.” Haruki didn’t even have a single thing to apologize for.

“Don’t say that. This is my fault.” Kei had been so careless, and not just in relation to the last few days. He had made mistake after mistake over the last two years. The bandage on her elbow was just one more realization of those mistakes. My strength can’t keep up with my ideals.

Kei tried to think straight. Right now, the most important thing was to take advantage of their situation. They could test the limits of the ability sealing, and find out the details about it. All it would take was complete disregard for Haruki’s feelings.

But there was no way Kei could pull that off. Haruki’s abilities were probably well sealed away. If she tried and failed to reset, all she would do is apologize again. He couldn’t take another apology from her.

But then, Haruki spoke up. “Please command me to reset.” Her voice carried an unusual stubbornness.

Evidently, Kei wasn’t the only one whose emotions were in turmoil.

Of course. That’s just the way it is, Kei thought. My strength isn’t enough.

Haruki Misora would know better than anyone else how Asai Kei was feeling. And of course she would. It was ridiculous to think that he could have forgotten.

“All I ask is that you continue to do what you think is right.”

It should have been so easy to realize that she was upset. If she was going to act so strange, she may as well have just said it out loud.

“Give me just one minute.” Perhaps it made him a coward, but he needed a minute to work through everything, so he could decide what to do with her.

“Understood.”

As soon as Kei heard her answer, he closed his eyes. He spent the next minute recalling as much of the last two years that he could. It was simple enough to connect the dots of how they had gotten to this point.

Their abilities had always defined them. Haruki Misora’s reset and Asai Kei’s perfect recall. They couldn’t accomplish much on their own, but those abilities connected them. Like a lock and key, the two were practically made to be put together. Just like that, the two of them had paired up together for the past two years.

It was slapdash. It was cruel. It was wrong.

Haruki Misora didn’t care in the slightest about her own ability. It gave her more power and significance than most in Sakurada, but it was never something that she relied on or defined herself by.

Suppose I could no longer reset. Would that change anything about our relationship?

Her concerns had nothing to do with her ability being gone. There was so much Kei wanted to say. Your value doesn’t come from your ability. Your ability doesn’t change anything. You don’t even have to stick around with me if you don’t want to.

But how could he possibly say that now? He was the one to seek her out purely for her ability. He was the one to define their relationship through those terms.

After exactly one minute, Kei opened his eyes. He looked directly at Haruki and twisted his mouth into a smile. Well, I guess this is all I can do. Forcing a smile makes it easier. Looks like I’ll have to keep up the sham. Finally, he spoke.

“Haruki, reset.”

She made a serious face for a few seconds. “It seems that I am truly incapable of resetting.” She smiled, and yet she didn’t apologize.

Haruki was always a strong girl. Kei should’ve known that better than most, and yet he somehow forgot. It was comical. He shouldn’t be forgetting anything, and yet something so critical had managed to slip past him.

With an expression more serious than usual, Haruki asked, “Please, I beg of you. I need my reset ability back.”

Kei looked her straight in the eye as he answered, “Of course, that’s the plan. We’ll get your ability back no matter what.”

Hopefully their cruel relationship could one day be redefined. But now wasn’t the time.

“Thank you very much.” Haruki let out a deep breath. Then her normal smile finally returned. “That makes me feel much, much better.”

“Well, it’s a bit early for that.”

“I disagree. If you wish for it, then it shall come to pass. Oka Eri is of no consequence.”

How did she figure that? They still didn’t even know what her abilities encompassed. Kei had no way of guaranteeing that they could get her ability back. But he really didn’t wanna air his grievances to Haruki right now. “Well, I’ll do what I can.” Kei tried to keep up with her confidence. “You ready to move?”

“Yes. Where will we be going?”

“We’ve got a lot on our plate. But first we need to head outside.” Murase Youka was waiting for them. He wouldn’t have minded her joining them in the room, but he ultimately decided to keep it to just the two of them.

“Understood,” came Haruki’s reply.

As Kei and Haruki opened the front door, they saw Murase leaning against a wall directly across from them. As soon as she noticed the pair, she quickly mumbled a callout.

“Right hand, Oka Eri’s ability.” As long as she called out in advance, Murase could use any part of her body to erase anything that she requested. It was at least worth trying to erase Oka Eri’s ability from Haruki’s body.

Murase positioned herself in front of Haruki, asking, “Is it okay if I touch you?”

Haruki nodded, “Yes. Please do.”

Murase took her hand and touched Haruki’s forehead. She slowly moved to the top of her head, then after a moment of hesitation, touched her chest. Removing her hand, she asked, “Well?”

Haruki looked over at Kei.

“Reset,” Kei instructed.

Nothing happened. Haruki shook her head. “I apologize. I am still incapable of using my ability.”

“I see.” Murase sighed.

Unfortunately, this was more or less the expected outcome. Kei assumed that Oka Eri’s ability affected the consciousness or memory of the target. It would be hard to physically touch those aspects. Since Murase was capable of removing the abilities used on a cat previously, Kei held out some hope, but perhaps the minutiae was different.

“I’m useless. I can’t even…” Murase muttered, flexing her right hand.

Now that’s just not true. “C’mon, your ability is outstanding.” Although the Witch’s ability of reading the future was definitely the strongest ability he knew, not many abilities were as cut and dry as Murase’s for such simple and powerful utility.

Murase glared at Kei. “How do you think it stacks up to resetting?”

“Uh, I’m not sure. That’s not a very simple comparison.” Kei didn’t think he could be objective enough to properly judge the power of the reset. He had too much skin in the game.

“Well, I wasn’t of any help, that’s for sure,” Murase remarked in a surprising show of candor.

Kei was a bit taken aback. He had always known her to brag incessantly about how overwhelmingly powerful her ability was.

“So what’s our next move?” she asked.

“We’re gonna meet up with Tsushima-sensei. He’s got the details of Oka Eri’s abilities ready for us.” Kei had already worked out the particulars of the meeting by phone. Without more data on Oka Eri’s capabilities, they wouldn’t be able to take any further steps.

“Am I going, too?”

Kei was appreciative, but he had something else in mind. “Think you could help me out with something else instead?”

Murase gave a noncommittal shake of her head. “Geez, whaddaya think I’ve been doing all morning?”

He had indeed heard about how she spent all morning tracking Oka Eri in the terrible heat. He was surprised by her sudden cooperative outburst. When it comes down to it, she’s really a great girl. Granted, she could be a bit aggressive at times, but her abilities were far too useful for him to pass up on her cooperation. Best to make use of it while he could.

“Alright then, I’ve got a favor to ask.”

“What’s that?”

“Keep tabs on Oka Eri. Make sure she doesn’t know that you’re following her, though.” Since they had a meeting later that night, Kei wanted as much info as possible on her movements. He figured Murase was uniquely suited for following people. She could muffle her footsteps, could stay constantly informed of where the other party was, and could make a peephole anywhere. As long as she was careful, it wouldn’t even be a problem if she was caught.

Murase nodded. “Gotcha.” Then she suddenly grinned and pointed at Kei. “I’m better at that stuff than you might think. You’ve never noticed me, after all.”

“You’ve followed me before?”

“Got that right.”

“When the heck did you do that?”

“That’s a secret. I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

Kei was genuinely shocked. He resolved to watch his back a little better in the future.

“So how long do you want me on her?”

“As long as possible. I’ll notify you otherwise.”

Murase chuckled. “Wow, that’s pretty shameless.”

Kei smiled back. “Well, give me an inch and I’ll take a mile.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out already.”

“What? I thought I did a great job of hiding it.”

“You liar. I’m not buying that.” She called out, “Right hand, anything separating me from Oka Eri.” Then she said, “I’ll let you know when I find her.”

“Right. If I need anything, I’ll send you an e-mail. Make sure your phone’s on silent.”

“Like I didn’t already know that. Seeya,” She quipped, turning around and walking off.

Suddenly, Haruki spoke up from beside him. “You seem to be getting quite friendly with other girls whenever I am not around, Kei.”

“Doesn’t it make you want more friends, too?”

“Who would you recommend if I were to try making more?”

“Nonō-san, probably.” Kei liked bringing up the cat-loving girl that they met at the shrine. Both she and Haruki were so strangely disconnected from other people. It was fun to try and imagine the conversations they would have.

Haruki answered with a very serious face. “I shall do my utmost to try.”

“Great. Well, time for us to go, too.” They really needed to get that information from Tsushima as quickly as possible.

Haruki nodded. “Understood.”

✽

2:15 PM. Oka Eri departed the bus just outside of Sasano Hiroyuki’s house. She pulled out her phone, calling the number at the top of her recent calls list. She had called a few times prior, but only got the answering machine.

While the phone rang, Oka Eri sat down on the nearby bench. She placed the plastic bag in her other hand beside her, flipped onto her back, and crossed her legs. Eventually, the ringing stopped and someone finally answered. A deep male voice came from the receiver.

“Hey, Oka Eri.”

“What’s with the full name? We’re not buddies.” She still didn’t know this guy very well, and she certainly didn’t want him acting chummy with her.

“So you’ve disposed of the photos?” the man asked.

“Not yet. Just got off the bus.” Right after sealing away Haruki Misora’s ability and calling Asai Kei, she received a call of her own. She was instructed to go back to Sasano Hiroyuki’s house and dispose of all his photos. The plastic bag she had contained lighter oil and matches so she could burn them.

Geez, I don’t have the time for this, she thought to herself. She wanted to prepare as much as possible for her 9 o’clock meeting with Asai Kei, but now she had been dragged back out somewhere she’d already been to burn some old dude’s photo albums.

“Do you need me for something?” the man inquired.

“Yeah, I got a few questions about all this.” She would’ve asked back when she’d received the instructions, but at the time he had only been interested in relaying commands before immediately hanging up. “Why do we gotta burn all his photos now?”

“Because he’s got pictures of things that he shouldn’t. Things that we certainly don’t want reproduced.”

She had heard all this before. “Wasn’t that why you had me seal his ability and all that? Why do I gotta come all the way back here just to burn ‘em now?”

“What difference does it make to you? We have a deal.”

Well, he had her there. She had indeed agreed to do his dirty work in exchange for inside information only known by Bureau staff. She only knew what she did about Asai Kei, resetting, and Sakurada’s most powerful ability user thanks to his connection.

Oka Eri crossed her legs the other way. “Yeah, I know we do. So, in exchange for doing this, I want information. The hell are you trying to get me to do here?”

“Oh, I see.” A light chuckle came from the other end of the phone. It felt like she was being made fun of, and she didn’t like it. “Sasano Hiroyuki lied about his ability. He doesn’t have to use his ability to step into his photographs.”

“What do you mean, he lied?”

“Sasano does not have to use his ability when he tears his photos, as he originally claimed. His ability only comes into play when he personally takes the photo.”

“So even though I sealed it, since he took all those photos beforehand, he can still step into them?”

“Correct. In fact, you or I could enter into them if we were to tear the photos ourselves.”

Oka Eri had to laugh. The whole situation was hilarious. “And so now we gotta come back and take all of his photos.”

“Precisely.”

“Then why did we even bother sealing his ability?” As things stood, that was basically a moot point.

“I just didn’t know enough at the time. I had every reason to believe sealing his ability would do away with the entire problem. But fortunately, another member of the Bureau had been looking into Sasano since yesterday. For whatever reason, they had been keeping tabs, and I checked it out. Without that little coincidence, the entire Bureau would have remained mistaken about his ability.”

“Ha, the Bureau must be made up of chumps if they’re getting abilities that wrong.”

The man seemed unfazed by her taunt. “It’s only natural. Do you know how many abilities there are in Sakurada? With half of the residents, that leaves tens of thousands of variables. It’s an impossible feat to juggle that many abilities with just one public institution run by civil servants.”

The man paused for a moment. When he spoke again, it was in a hushed tone, like a teacher trying to explain to a student what they got wrong. “The Administration Bureau has created the illusion that they have perfect control over Sakurada and its abilities, but that’s all it is, an illusion. You’ll find that reality is quite different. Sakurada is under a real threat. However bad you think it might be, it’s much, much worse.”

Oka Eri had heard that whole bit several times by now. “Look, that’s just nonsense. How bad could things be when you’ve got future sight under your control?” Among the information she extracted from him was the existence and location of Sakurada’s most powerful ability. A woman trapped in a building, keeping watch over Sakurada and all its future problems.

“Well, she’s certainly a powerful asset, I won’t deny that. As far as I know, her ability is without comparison. But I guess I forgot to tell you one part.” The man’s voice went subzero. “She’s not long for this world.”

Oka Eri found herself reflexively gripping her phone tighter. “Seriously?”

“Mhm. If you want her ability, you’d better act sooner rather than later.”

“Are you sure that’s something a Bureau employee should be saying?”

“Well, it hardly matters anymore.” His voice was distant and dispassionate, as if talking about the matters of an overseas country. “The Bureau’s extracted everything they need from her. She’s just a husk of an old woman abandoned inside a wreck of a building now. She’s hardly worth the effort. The security’s full of holes, too. I’m sure you could get in entirely by yourself, with your ability.”

Oka Eri gulped. “If I tried going after her and failed, would you cover for me?”

A dry laugh echoed from her speaker. “And why would I do that? I don’t remember that being a part of our deal.”

Oka Eri joined along in the laughter. “Kekeke. I guess you’re right.” Then she lowered her voice. “You still didn’t answer my question, by the way. What are you trying to get me to do? What’s in these photos? What’s your angle here?”

The man uttered a sigh. “I only disclose information known by the Administration Bureau. My private business is my business alone. You’ll do well not to pry into it.”

Oka Eri clicked her tongue. This guy was a Bureau employee, but everything he said seemed to go against what the Bureau stood for. She was just a grunt for going out and doing his dirty work that the Bureau wouldn’t approve of.

“Now, I’ve been quite generously upholding my side of the deal, haven’t I?” he asked.

She had initially gone to him for info on Asai Kei, resets, and powers stronger than the reset. “You’re sure that he has the MacGuffin, right?”

“Oh, without a doubt.”

“And he’s gonna try to protect it, right?”

“Most likely. I don’t know, and I don’t really care, but that would make the most sense.”

“That’s good, then.” She would plunder the MacGuffin, and take down Asai Kei.

“So that’ll be all for now, Oka Eri. I’ll keep praying that someday you can finally be free from your past.” With that final, mocking statement, he hung up.

Oka Eri didn’t know this guy. She didn’t know a single thing about him. But he sure seemed to act a lot like the Asai Kei she knew two years ago.

She yanked at her hair in frustration. Freed from my past, huh? You sure think you know it all, don’tcha? Well, whatever. Say whatever you want. Just learning more about Sasano’s ability was more than worth the trouble. Picking up her lighter oil and matches, she stood back up. Time to make good use of my resources.

She was told to burn every single photo, after all. Nobody would know the difference if one or two happened to get lost along the way.

✽

The man sat back, reclining in a black leather chair. “So that’ll be all for now, Oka Eri. I’ll keep praying that someday you can finally be free from your past.” With that final, mocking statement, he hung up. He handed the cell phone to the woman standing next to him, who was in fact its original owner. He rather detested putting things in his pockets.

Taking the phone, the woman asked, “Are you sure that was okay?”

“What, the photos? Talking about Sasano’s ability? Maybe bringing up the nameless system? Help me out here.”

“I meant all of it, but talking about the nameless system is particularly risky.”

“Ah, it’s no big deal. Knowledge about her is pretty isolated anymore.”

“That aside, you should not have left her alone for the disposal. We should have someone keeping eyes on her.”

“Nah, that’s okay. She can afford to make a few slip-ups. Wouldn’t have even bothered with her from the start if I wanted perfection.”

“Oka Eri only cares about herself. We cannot trust her to follow our instructions.”

The man shrugged. “She’s completely in the dark. As long as she doesn’t cause a huge ruckus, it hardly matters what she does.”

All he needed was the spark. Where the flames went after they were started was of no concern to him. It wasn’t like he had anything to lose.

The man leaned back into his chair, crossing his legs. “You know, the ability to see the future really is something… Ever thought about just how much despair it could bring a person?”

A slight smile flashed across his face.

✽

It was 3 PM, and Kei found himself in a small park with Haruki. The cicadas sounded particularly loud as they chirped from the many trees in the area. Kei and Haruki sat on an old, weathered bench with peeling paint as an escape from the direct sunshine.

Tsushima had planned to meet them here, as there was evidently a Bureau office right nearby. Kei looked at the clock again. It had been an hour since they arrived at the park 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Tsushima was now 50 minutes late for their meeting.

Eventually, Tsushima Shintarou made his debut. He was wearing a suit, which was rare, but also felt somewhat nostalgic. He raised a single hand in greeting, as though any more would be asking too much. His other hand held an A4 sized manilla envelope.

“Sorry. I’m pretty late this time.”

“No, no, I’ve been asking a lot of you recently.” Kei and Haruki stood up to greet him. Tsushima quickly moved over to the bench with them, and the three sat down.

After a short stretch, he started with, “Things are really getting annoying, aren’t they?”

“Yes, it would seem so.”

“Haven’t you had enough?”

“Enough of what?”

“You know what I mean.” Tsushima relaxed, letting his body slump against the back of the bench. “You don’t need Haruki’s reset. You can leave the Service Club behind. Just go be a normal 15-year-old and enjoy your high school years.”

But Kei wasn’t the one who refuted him.

“That is unacceptable.” A simple refusal.

Good thing I brought Haruki with me. Kei didn’t think he could have managed to say that if he was by himself. But she knew exactly what he was thinking, and he didn’t need to defend himself.

Tsushima shook his head. “High schoolers shouldn’t be doing this stuff. You should be living comfortably, taking advantage of your position.”

This time, Kei answered. “But I am living comfortably. I’m doing what I want, when I want, no matter how selfish it makes me.” He couldn’t afford to hold back on all the things he wanted. That was how people got stressed and overworked.

Tsushima smiled. “That’s what a workaholic says.”

“Well, then we may not be so different, Tsushima-sensei.”

“What do you mean? I’m constantly cutting corners. I live to make things easy on myself.”

“You’ve been working through all of summer vacation.”

“Well, I skipped out on lessons today.”

“Only to go do investigative work in the Bureau office.”

“And you should’ve seen how much I was dragging my feet. I worked hard today so I can slack off tomorrow.”

Kei grinned. He knew that Tsushima would be right with Murase tomorrow working on supplementary lessons, no matter what he might say.

Tsushima glanced at the sky, asking, “So what do you think Oka Eri’s abilities are?”

“Seems to me that it’s some form of brainwashing.”

“Anything more specific?”

“Not really. But if I had to wager a guess, it’s probably memory manipulation.”

Tsushima turned towards Kei. “What makes you say that?”

“She didn’t use her ability on me during our conversation before the initial reset.” If her ability was purely brainwashing, then she could just make anybody do anything she wanted. Stealing the MacGuffin or preventing a reset would have been easy as pie. But she didn’t even attempt to use her ability against Kei. “It’s likely that my ability renders hers obsolete.”

Asai Kei’s ability was perfect recall of the past, with the limitation being that he could never forget something once he experienced it. If Oka Eri functioned by memory manipulation, then their abilities would be at odds, and the stronger ability would come out on top. Kei’s memory strength was unmatched, and even if his memory was manipulated, he would be capable of compartmentalizing that experience.

“Well, you’re right.” Tsushima handed over the envelope. “Here’s all the info on Oka Eri’s ability.”

“I really appreciate this.” With a short bow, Kei accepted it. As he took out the contents, Tsushima continued speaking.

“Oka Eri’s ability is described as the capability to add or subtract memories. It is memory manipulation in a sense, but it can be distinctly divided, and it’s worth considering the two categories as separate skills.”

There were five sheets of paper in the envelope. The first contained a basic outline of Oka Eri’s ability with notes, and the remaining four detailed the series of experiments run to test the limits of her ability.

Tsushima continued, “I’ll start with adding memories. It allows her to plant some kind of memory that doesn’t exist. There’s no limitation on what kind. She provides a vague concept, and the target fills in the rest automatically, creating a new memory in the process.”

That was what had happened to Murase Youka. She was led to believe that something terrifying had happened, and her brain filled in the concept with a brand new memory.

“She can use that moment to ensure that the target takes certain actions as well. For example, she leads someone to believe that not only is a major crisis happening, but they also need to escape as soon as possible.”

That lined up precisely with Murase’s incident. She was convinced that something terrifying happened and that she also needed to call Asai Kei about it.

“That’s incredibly powerful.”

“Got that right. It was even noted that she’s capable of making people trust her by convincing them that they’re dating, or that she’s from some specific organization.”

Human action was heavily determined by memories. People could be suggestible enough to attempt something purely because they thought they remembered trying to do it earlier. If your memory told you that you could trust someone, then you would believe them. Controlling memories was a direct route to controlling actions.

Tsushima pointed at Haruki. “I’m sure she’s under the influence of Oka Eri’s other effect.”

“So, removing memories.”

“Yep. It’s exactly what it sounds like, it makes you forget something. Haruki has forgotten how to use her ability.”

Kei looked over at Haruki, and she nodded. “He is correct. I cannot remember how to use my reset ability.”

Technically, Haruki’s ability hadn’t been plundered, just her method of using it. But the technicalities hardly mattered here. Their situation was all the same regardless.

“What must I do to recover my memory?”

“Well, Oka Eri’s ability has three weaknesses.”

“Which are?”

“Well, for one, she can only activate her ability by maintaining eye contact for at least five seconds.”

A few things fell into place with that explanation. Both Haruki and Sasano described Oka Eri making a big deal out of showing off her contact lenses. She probably used them as a primary way to guarantee eye contact. It was nice to know that her ability wasn’t all-powerful, but since Haruki had already been affected, the information didn’t help much.

“Secondly,” Tsushima continued, “The effect can be overcome. If you can externally identify the memory that was either added or taken away, its power over the target will be nullified.”

Kei nodded. That also lined up with his experience. As soon as Murase was able to look around herself and confirm that her fears were not in line with reality, she wasn’t scared anymore. In essence, the memory manipulation was extremely powerful in the short-term, but had many exploitable imperfections in the long-term.

“So I am capable of remembering how to use my reset?” Haruki asked.

Kei’s gut told him no, but he kept it to himself for the time being. He was fairly certain, however, due to the fact that Sasano still had not regained his ability.

“If you were capable of externally identifying that memory, then yes, it’s theoretically possible. Unfortunately, it’s not very realistic,” Tsushima stated. His voice relaxed somewhat. “You were the only person in the world who knew how to use the reset ability, Haruki. Without someone else to explain it, there’s nothing that can be done to help you relearn.”

Ability usage tended to be abstract and personal in nature. Most people couldn’t easily describe what it felt like to use their own ability, much less anyone else’s.

Tsushima continued, “Making someone forget their ability is one of the ways that Oka Eri can ensure a long-term effect.”

She did a good job finding out how to hedge up her ability’s weaknesses. If only one person knows something, and they forget it, then it’s gone for good.

Haruki turned to Kei, asking, “Do you think that I am capable of putting in enough effort to forcefully remember how to use my ability?”

“You can give it a shot, but I’m not too sure.” A method to brute force her memories back came to mind almost immediately, but he didn’t have the resources to make that happen at present.

Haruki didn’t look particularly discouraged, but she turned back towards Tsushima. “What is the third weakness?”

Tsushima nodded. “She can only apply one effect at a time. If she creates or removes a new memory, then the previous effect will expire.”

Not even the third weakness came as much of a surprise to Kei. It confirmed his suspicions from when Murase didn’t lose her abilities during her fiasco of looking for Kei. No doubt Oka Eri wanted to seal her ability but instead prioritized separating Kei and Haruki.

Just to be sure, Kei asked, “So if Oka Eri uses her ability on Haruki again, then she’ll remember how to use her reset?”

Tsushima nodded somewhat reluctantly. “Well, yeah, that should be how it works.”

Although that would leave Haruki with a separate altered memory, if they simply reset it, they could start over from 11:49:32 AM.

Kei nodded. “Thank you very much for your assistance.” They finally had a way of retrieving Haruki’s reset.

“Just don’t push your luck, okay?”

“Absolutely not.” He would have to pit Haruki against Oka Eri again to even get started with the plan. Dangerous methods were simply not an option.

Tsushima said his farewells and stood up to leave. Kei made sure to bow and thank him once more before he walked off. When he raised his head, he found Haruki staring at him.

“Was that all within your expectations?” Haruki asked.

Kei nodded. “Honestly, it’s a little better than I expected.” He had considered everything that Tsushima mentioned within possibility, but he felt much better now that everything was in its place. “I was really worried that Oka Eri would try something like making someone I know think they were her friend. A simple conversation could easily break through memory manipulation at that level.”

In all honesty, it was just a lot less trouble. He had already been wary of Murase Youka becoming brainwashed into being Oka Eri’s friend when he had first found her, as it happened. While they were walking to Haruki’s house, he put her through a real gauntlet to ensure that there weren’t any holes in her testimony. It was exhausting, not to mention extremely rude, and he felt terrible having to do it. But since Murase was planning on trying her ability against Haruki, he definitely couldn’t afford risking anything.

“Had you considered it a possibility that Oka Eri used her ability to make me her friend?”

“Of course I had considered it,” Kei answered. But if you were lying, I’d know right away. He had two years worth of expressions, body language, and phrasing to go off of. If he could still be fooled after all of that, then he would’ve been a lost cause. “It’s good that you’re not her friend.”

“I agree. It is good,” Haruki answered.

✽

After that, Oka Eri was the only thing on Kei’s mind.

He read over all the files Tsushima had brought, and exchanged countless e-mails with Murase for updates on her whereabouts. He sifted through every single memory that he had with Oka Eri, and not just the conversations. He thought about how she looked walking around the school, the faces she made as they passed in the hall, and what the mansion that she had initially lived in looked like.

Deriving her thought patterns was key. He needed to know how she thought, and from there, find her purpose.

She had plenty to say before their initial reset.

That’s what a villain does. It’s only natural for me to cause trouble for other people.

Obviously ‘cause it’ll get on your nerves. I really hate you, you know that, right?

You know, watching you act like that really pisses me off. I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure you hit rock bottom.

The girl they met at the middle school had a few interesting additions.

She was always talking about how much she wanted to be like Asai-senpai.

You don’t take other people seriously, you hide your real intentions, and everything you say is to mislead people. You mock the world around you, and everything you say is blatantly malicious. A villain, more or less.

I can’t say for sure, but personally I think that when she said villain, she meant someone who was strong. She constantly brought up how much she hated weak people.

Eri once said that Asai-senpai was the only person that she allowed to call her by her full name.

Two years ago, the girl who was known as Fujikawa Eri had asked him a particular question.

What can I do to become stronger?

Of course, he could remember with precise detail exactly how he answered that question. His words were like a rope that bound him, pulling ever tighter.

Shortly after 5 PM, he received a call from Oka Eri. He answered it, and she spoke first.

“Heya, Senpai.”

Her voice was bright and cheerful. She was playing her part splendidly.

“I’ve decided on where it’s all gonna go down. Remember that lighthouse that was visible from the middle school library?”

“Yeah, of course I do.” The lighthouse had been shut down ever since the port closed some 40 years back. Now it was just a tall, solitary tower with no purpose.

“That’s where we’ll be. You’d better remember to bring the MacGuffin.”

Kei quickly cut in before she could hang up. “Wait, Fujikawa Eri!”

He heard a sharp breath, followed by a scream. “Don’t you dare call me by that name!”

It almost sounded like she was crying. And from that voice alone, it became clear what was most important to her.

“Sorry… Oka Eri.”

“Don’t expect me to forgive you.”

“Right. I know.”

The call ended. Kei sighed. The night’s plans were finally settled.