4

All throughout the night, she kept whispering, “Reset.” But never once was she capable of using her ability.

The next day was September 16th, a Thursday. Haruki Misora arrived at Nanasaka Junior High sleep deprived. She typically went to bed no later than 10 PM, so it had been a long time since she found the morning difficult to get through.

Her morning classes passed by as her thoughts were filled with nothing but Asai Kei and resetting. She found her notebook filled with information that she didn’t even remember putting down. It seemed her body was capable of carrying out most daily tasks on autopilot.

As she finished eating her school lunch with the school’s silver cutlery, Haruki let out a sigh that she herself didn’t even notice. Completely unaware of how rare an event she had just missed out on, she quietly muttered, “Reset.” But the world remained unchanged.

Her head still felt heavy and stuffy. She hadn’t yet gotten over her lack of sleep. She decided to nap for the remainder of her lunch break. After returning her lunch dishes, she sat back down at her desk. She then noticed Asai Kei standing outside the doorway to her classroom.

It’s finally time. He had come to instruct her to reset. Haruki had been ultimately incapable of doing so herself.

She walked outside her classroom. Asai Kei watched her, smiling gently.

Standing in front of him, she declared, “I must apologize, Kei. I was incapable of resetting.”

She intentionally called him Kei. Souma Sumire used to do the same, calling him by his first name. After Souma Sumire’s death, Haruki began imitating her.

Do I want to replace Souma Sumire? Haruki asked herself. She didn’t know. All that was certain was how important Souma Sumire was to Asai Kei. She seemed to have held a particularly special place in his heart.

Haruki thought back to what she had seen on the rooftop back during the middle of August. Souma Sumire had leaned into Asai Kei as Asai Kei put his hands on Souma Sumire’s shoulders. They had looked so intimate.

“Let’s get going,” Asai Kei said.

Haruki nodded as guilt bloomed within her chest. All he wanted was for me to use a reset on my own. I couldn’t even do that much.

They walked down the hallway side by side, heading up a flight of stairs and across another hallway. Neither of them spoke, but Haruki knew where they were headed. The southern building’s rooftop. The school was always loud during lunch break, but as they entered the southern building, everything quieted down. The southern building only had staff and resource rooms, and was otherwise separated from the majority of the school. Other students rarely came by.

Asai Kei stopped at the top of the stairs, staying on the landing with the exit door to the roof. He did not open the door, instead sitting down on the stairs. Haruki sat beside him.

“Go ahead and reset,” he said.

It would have been nice to just nod along and do it. After all, now that he had given the order, Haruki felt confident she could properly reset. She just had the feeling it would work. But instead, she asked a question. “Kei… are you sure that you truly wish to reset?”

He nodded. “Of course.” His voice resounded with confidence. It didn’t sound like a lie to Haruki. But even so, she felt a sort of resistance. There was one conjecture that she had never been able to resolve.

“But… do you not… hate resets now?”

“Hate them? Why would I?”

“Because a reset… killed Souma Sumire.”

Kei let out a dry laugh, as if he were mocking the entire world around him. “Ha! That’s not how it went at all. Souma Sumire died in a freak accident. It had nothing to do with resets. She died, plain and simple.”

Haruki looked into his eyes, but couldn’t find any hidden emotion. He seemed entirely the same as always.

But that can’t possibly be true.

Asai Kei was deeply wounded by Souma Sumire’s death. Even by then, the scar was fresh and painful. No matter what kind of show he wanted to try and put on, she could see through his forced smile.

And yet I already trust him. Perhaps not in everything, but in many ways. He must have been very practiced at forcing that smile.

Haruki shook her head. “But if we had not reset, Souma Sumire would not have died.”

Asai Kei lightly shrugged his shoulders. “Nobody can say that for certain. Sure, Souma Sumire didn’t have an accident before the reset. Sure, she might be alive if we hadn’t done it. But what difference does that make anymore?”

“It proves that resetting is dangerous. Should we not avoid utilizing such a costly ability?”

Kei of all people should have been the one to immediately agree with her. The pain and suffering that Souma Sumire’s death caused him, the hatred he should have felt towards resets, it all should have been magnitudes stronger than anything Haruki herself knew.

But his answer was delivered with perfect calm. “It is possible that we could change someone’s future by resetting. For all we know, someone somewhere could end up unhappier from what we do. But it’s just as likely that we could be saving somebody else from that same kind of misfortune.”

Haruki couldn’t even begin to understand what he was feeling.

He looked over at her, smiled, and continued. “What do you think is more likely, Haruki? Someone getting into an accident by resetting, or saving someone from an accident by resetting?”

“I could not possibly know.”

“And neither could I. But they’re basically the same outcome. If a reset made 100 people happy and 100 people unhappy, then nothing would have changed. It’d be a zero sum.”

“I agree.”

“But if we personally used the power of a reset to help one person, then 101 people would be happy. The world would be a happier place.”

Haruki understood his point. The math and the numbers were all correct. If she was the same Haruki she had been a few months ago, that would have been enough to convince her to follow his plan.

But her resistance stood firm.

It doesn’t matter how many other people are happy.

Asai Kei would still push himself too far. He could save countless people, but he would never forget the ones he couldn’t. For every person he found a way to save, he would know that there were countless others that he would never be able to.

Asking Asai Kei to use a reset would be asking him to suffer. And she couldn’t stand for it.

Haruki stared deep into Asai Kei’s eyes. She wanted nothing more than to understand how he truly felt. She wished for it with all she was. But she still couldn’t understand anything.

Asai Kei kept going. “Let’s say, for example, you found a man injured and bleeding. Would it be wrong to help him?”

Haruki didn’t know why he was bringing up such hypotheticals, but it wasn’t at all a difficult question. She shook her head. “No.” Without a doubt, helping the man would be the right thing to do.

Nodding, Kei continued, “Suppose you were to help him, then somewhere along the way in his future he found a woman, got married, and built a happy family. Would that be wrong?”

Once again, Haruki shook her head. “No.”

Asai Kei smiled. “But… if you had left the man alone, the woman might have gone on to find another man. She could have built a different and even happier family, perhaps with other children of their own. But all those possibilities are taken away if you save the first man.”

Finally, all the pieces connected. Haruki understood his point, but couldn’t say anything in response.

Adding more strength to his voice, Asai Kei continued, “It’s not about abilities. Every single person, with every single decision that they make, changes the future. Thinking that resetting is the only way to do that is just conceited.”

Haruki Misora shook her head. That argument was completely unrelated. “But you are purposely changing the future in order to help others. If that action caused someone else misfortune, would that not make you sad?” As far as Haruki was concerned, that was the real problem.

Asai Kei’s eyebrows raised. She realized he was surprised. In that moment, for the first time, she saw a flash of emotion in his eyes. But it was gone as quickly as it had come. It was so brief that she wasn’t even sure if it was real, or only her imagination.

The answer he ultimately gave was entirely calm. “Obviously. When I think of real justice, I think of bringing happiness to everyone without bringing misfortune to anyone.”

“And yet you still wish to use resets?”

Asai Kei nodded. “Yes. I thought that would also be obvious.”

His voice resonated with power. Then, it finally hit her.

Of course. It is obvious.

He couldn’t reach his perfect ideal yet, but that didn’t mean he had to give up. Asai Kei had never let imperfection be an excuse for inaction. He never had, and he never would.

He spoke slowly and deliberately. “I want to get to the point where I can make happiness for others. Happiness without any conditions or caveats, like a miracle from God. I want to find a way to make everyone happy without causing pain or suffering for anyone else.”

Haruki nodded, but she knew that resets wouldn’t be enough to take him there. He needed a power that was infinitely greater.

“I don’t have that power yet. But I hate using that as an excuse not to try. I want to help as many people as I possibly can, even if that means hurting a few others.”

Haruki nodded once more. “I think that is the right thing to do as well.”

Asai Kei had been smiling the whole time. No doubt it had helped him suppress a great many underlying emotions. But the words he spoke next sounded perfectly sincere to Haruki. “In that case, Haruki, I want you to work alongside me.”

Haruki bit her lip gently. Of course. There was never any reason to doubt him. It didn’t matter if everything he had said was a lie to get a reset. Even if it was all coldly calculated to persuade her, it wouldn’t change anything.

Even if everything he did until the very end was all a performance. Even if he hated resetting with every fiber of his being.

Even if it’s a lie, I will believe him. Because he had found a lie to be the right way forward.

It wasn’t about his words. It was about what came before. It was the thoughts in his head that she could believe in, and there was no need to hesitate.

“I understand.” Haruki looked at him. “Tell me what to do, Kei.”

Kei directly returned her gaze. His speech was serene and composed as he declared for all the world to hear.

“Haruki, let’s reset.”

Just one word. With that alone, the world could be remade.