2

At the sound of the door opening, Asai Kei checked the shop’s clock. 9:55. Exactly five minutes before the agreed meeting time.

Kei stood up and turned around, facing the entrance as Haruki stood up beside him. A girl wearing red glasses entered, and after glancing around the shop with serious-looking eyes, she walked up to the two of them.

“Are you Murase-san?”

At Kei’s question, the girl scrunched her eyebrows and gave the tiniest of nods. Her face was unmoving, but he couldn’t tell if it was from nervousness or caution. Kei made an effort to smile warmly.

“Pleased to meet you. My name is Asai Kei. This is Haruki Misora.”

The girl, that is, Murase Youka, seemed to be doing her best to smile in response. Her face was still as stone, but her cheeks lifted slightly. Her eyes, however, glared harshly at them from behind her lenses. Kei wondered if there was a hidden meaning to her gaze, but decided not to harbor suspicions of someone he just met, instead focusing on keeping his smile up.

“I am Murase Youka. Tsushima-san directed me to the two of you.”

Tsushima Shintarou was a teacher at Ashiharabashi High, the school Kei and Haruki attended. He also happened to be a member of the Administration Bureau. All schools in the city had a Bureau representative among their staff for the same reason they would hire a qualified professional for the nurse’s office. Abilities could cause any number of problems in a school setting, and nobody wanted to be caught unprepared in such a scenario.

Kei and Haruki were meeting with Murase at Tsushima’s request, but had only been given her name and age. Evidently, she was one year older than them. She was likely a year above them in school, although Kei didn’t know which school she attended.

“Sorry, I’m not really sure what to do here,” Murase muttered.

Kei responded with a chuckle. “Well, honestly, neither do we.”

It was rare to receive inquiries from anywhere other than Tsushima directly. For now, Kei requested that they all sit down. He had thought it would be bad manners to greet her while sitting, which was why he previously stood up, but since then had not been able to find a good opportunity to sit back down.

A clerk came over to take Murase’s order, and she simply responded, “Coffee.” Kei took the opportunity to order an ice cream.

Once the clerk left, Murase asked in a low voice, “Are you a high-school student, Asai-san?”

“That I am. A first year.”

“Why are you assisting the Administration Bureau?”

Kei gave a vague smile at her question. “Because of the club I joined.”

“The Service Club?”

“That’s the one.”

The Ashiharabashi Service Club. Every school within Sakurada had a club by the same name. Similarly, the Bureau liaison staff always served as its advisor.

The Bureau kept close surveillance on those with special abilities. While technically all abilities were special, the Bureau had a closer eye on those with particularly dangerous abilities.

Joining a Service Club was one way of helping soften said surveillance. The Bureau assigned jobs according to the abilities of the club members, which were overseen by the advisors, and required detailed reports on their activities and progress. Club members could follow a template to file and submit their reports, showing their trustworthiness in following the process, and in return were given some unique freedoms.

“I think the name is somewhat distasteful.”

“The name?”

“Calling it a Service Club.”

“You think so? I quite like it.” Kei’s answer created a lull in the conversation. Murase seemed to be searching for her next words. Kei gave her a moment to collect her thoughts, then asked his own question. “How about you explain your situation to us? What exactly is it you want us to do?”

“You mean you don’t know anything?” Her voice was forceful, with a hint of displeasure. She corrected herself with, “Was the situation not communicated to you?” Her mannerisms suggested she wasn’t used to speaking politely to others.

Kei had only received a basic outline of her request. “In my understanding, you were looking for a lost cat. However, in that case, I would think there would be several people more qualified for such a task.”

“I heard you two were experts at finding lost things.” That was more or less true, depending on when the item in question was lost.

“When did you lose track of your cat?”

“About a week ago.” That was far too long ago. They could have helped if the cat had only been lost since noon three days ago, however.

Murase’s eyebrows lowered, a dark shadow crossing her face. “But, the cat isn’t lost. I found it just yesterday morning, in a nearby neighborhood, on the side of the road.”

“Then, what is it you need from us?”

“When I found the cat, it had already gone cold.”

It had already gone cold. What a horrid expression.

“A traffic accident?”

“Yes.”

The true nature of the request was becoming more obvious. But, in that case, why had Tsushima-san described it as “searching for a cat”?

Kei moved his eyes back towards Murase, noticing that her gaze had not budged. Her eyes held the same glare from before. Ever since she had taken her seat, the look in her eyes had not changed one bit. Her face may have expressed different emotions, but her eyes stayed focused, looking straight ahead. They neither looked down in defeat, nor up in admiration. Those eyes would never find a rainbow.

Murase spoke again, her tone forceful. “In short, I want you to revive my dead cat.”

A difficult request indeed. To Kei’s knowledge, nobody in Sakurada possessed the ability to raise the dead, be it humans or cats. But this was undoubtedly a request tailored for Kei and Haruki.

“I understand.”

“You can do it?”

“No. What we can do is make it as though it had never died.”

“Really?” Murase didn’t smile. Neither did relief show in her expression. But her eyes kept their glare, challenging them.

Kei answered her question with another question. “Why do you want to save this cat?”

“I just want my pet back. Is that not enough?”

“No. That’s quite enough.” Kei was in no position to refuse a commission from Tsushima-san in the first place.

He turned to his side, acknowledging Haruki. She seemed to have no interest in Murase’s story, simply fiddling with the black cat strap hanging from her phone. Just as usual. Negotiations were always left solely to Kei.

He almost let out a sigh, but swallowed it at the last moment. He turned back to Murase, fixing his face into a serious expression. “Are you prepared to sacrifice three days of the world’s time for your cat?”

It was a meaningless question. Kei was only asking out of his own personal interest. She would forget about the whole conversation soon enough, anyway.

Murase scrunched her eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You may lose today, yesterday, and the day before for this cat. Do you have the resolve to make everyone in the world live out those days a second time?”

Murase seemed to be in thought for some time. In that span, the clerk brought over their requested coffee and ice cream.

After waiting for the clerk to walk away, Murase gave a straight answer. “I do.”

Kei took a single bite of his ice cream.

“Alright, then. Please tell me everything about this cat.”

According to Murase Youka, the cat was originally a stray. She had picked it up about half a year ago. It was a kitten back then, but had grown quickly. It was a male moggy. His name was Mike.

Murase had taken several pictures of the cat with her cell phone. Kei gave her his e-mail address and asked for a few pictures. He received a picture of a blue-eyed cat with dirty gray fur and a crooked tail, eating in the shade of a telephone pole. He didn’t seem very friendly, but looked charming nonetheless. Yesterday morning, he had been hit by a car in a neighborhood nearby, and died. Murase found him at around 9:15 that morning. He was in front of a bread bakery.

After finishing her story, Musare bowed, stood, and left with, “I’ll leave it to you.” Her untouched cup of coffee remained on the table.

“What will we do?” Haruki finally looked up at Kei with a question.

Kei scooped his melting ice cream into his mouth as he answered. “We’ll save the cat, of course. It was a formal request, and I like cats. We don’t have any reason to refuse her.”

If all went well, the cat would be alive once more, and the girl’s harsh glare might even betray some happiness. The Ashiharabashi Service Club would gain more acclaim, and their club budget could go up. Although, for this club, the designated budget was managed more like payment for part-time work. On top of that, if you made sure to keep your receipts, just about anything counted as a club expense.

Haruki noisily slurped down the rest of her iced coffee before asking, “Do you not find this request even a little bit strange?”

“Strange how?”

“The contents, for starters. Unless the death of the cat had to do with an ability, the Bureau has no reason to care about it. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” The Administration Bureau only acted in response to problems created from abilities. Otherwise, there would be far too much to handle.

“Not to mention that this happened far too recently for them to put in a request under normal circumstances.”

“Mhm. I think so, too.”

The instructions to meet with Murase had come from Tsushima yesterday at lunch break. According to Murase’s story, her cat had been run over just yesterday morning. In a few short hours, Murase had contacted the Bureau, received permission for an official investigation, and obtained a relay with Tsushima. That was abnormally fast compared to the usual process.

“So, what will we do?” Haruki repeated her question.

“We’ll save the cat, of course.” Kei repeated his answer. Although this time, he left out the rest. It was quite possible this was not a formal request. What if she had gone directly to Tsushima without contacting the Bureau? It wasn’t impossible that she already knew him through attending Ashiharabashi High. Not even Kei knew the names of every student in the school. If Tsushima had placed this request privately, then everything Haruki pointed out would make sense. The timing would be perfectly reasonable.

Thinking critically, there were other aspects to consider, but at the same time, knowing everything wouldn’t necessarily make him feel better. Besides, his gut response to the request was, “I want to save the cat,” and Kei found that a meaningful task in itself.

Haruki nodded gently. Her movements betrayed no emotion as she said, “We should go to the festival tonight.” Changing the subject abruptly was a specialty of Kei’s, but Haruki had taken to it recently as well.

“The festival?” Now that it was on Kei’s mind, it certainly was that time of year. There was always a festival in mid-July signaling the beginning of summer vacation. Such was the progression of summer in Sakurada. “Sure. Tonight should work out just fine.”

There was definitely something about this request they weren’t being told, but the challenge that lay before them was a cat that died yesterday.

An innocent smile flitted across Haruki’s face. “With that decided, we must give our all to help this cat.”

“Mhm. We’ll start by gathering information.”

Their effective deadline was tomorrow morning. The cat would get into an accident by at least 9:15 AM. Kei’s senses told him that he would have two days. Two days to find this cat.

Haruki tilted her head. “Do you intend to ask The Index?”

“No, I’ll go for The Operator this time. I don’t want to risk blowing things out of proportion by asking The Index.”

After taking the last bite of his ice cream, Kei stood from his seat.