8 – July 15th (Saturday) – Starting point

Kei’s last memory was the hands of the clock ticking just past 4 AM, before he was finally taken by sleep.

Then, on that very Saturday morning, July 15th, he was awoken by Nakano Tomoki’s voice.

Good morning, Kei!

From your perspective, this was sent to you yesterday, July 14th.

Kei fired back in his mind. Actually, from my perspective, this was sent four days ago.

Of course, Tomoki hadn’t actually sent this message yesterday. The time that this message would have been set up was while Kei and Haruki were on their way to the bookstore. However, a special aspect of this particularly irritating ability was that it would activate irrespective of resets. Once it was set that a message would be delivered on “July 15th”, then the message would be received every single time that “July 15th” was reached. In a manner of speaking, Tomoki’s ability was even stronger than Haruki’s reset.

Before the voice in his head began predicting the weather, Kei looked into the sky through a gap in the curtains. Clear skies, as to be expected. Whether you were blessed or not, the sun would choose to shine on its own time.

Eventually, the voice in his head switched over to Haruki’s. Do your best not to be late tomorrow, please. Kei let out a small sigh. He had planned on meeting with Haruki in the coffee shop, just as he had before their reset. Unfortunately, Minami’s issue changed things around, and he was forced to send her a cancellation e-mail in the middle of the night. Her reply was as indifferent as ever, but surely she felt slighted to some degree. When he thought about her emotionless attitude two years ago, even the chance of her being slightly pouty felt like significant progress. Not that he wanted to make a habit of toying with a girl’s feelings. He would have loved to take Haruki with him on his mountain hike, but the reset ability needed to be protected at all costs. He wasn’t too worried about actually running into any vampires, but if anything were to happen, it would be better not to have Haruki there.

Deciding that he would properly follow up with Haruki later, Kei pulled a bottle of oolong tea out of the fridge and chugged it down while opening the curtains. His timing was exactly the same as before the reset. Kei had recently been acting quite differently from the previous timeline. Yesterday, he had gone to a bookstore with a girl, deciding to prioritize her desires over reliving his memories. Today, he would be meeting up with Minami, someone he wasn’t supposed to see, to hike up a mountain with her. Compared to those two events, one might find the timing of drinking tea and opening curtains to be rather insignificant. But it being pointless didn’t justify breaking the rules.

Kei was no longer hearing Tomoki’s voice by the time he had changed his clothes. However, as he left his room to meet up with Minami, he received an e-mail from Tomoki. Last night, Kei had asked Tomoki to send a message using Kei’s voice. This, too, was an action unique to this timeline. Tomoki wanted to know what the message meant. Kei simply replied, Don’t worry about it.

Kei made his way to the designated meeting spot, the stone steps of Kamisaki Shrine. There was an area behind the main shrine that gave access to climb Spirit Mountain. The first half of it was actually the same route he would take to get to Nonō’s hidden shrine. Not only that, the area to the west of the mountain was Kawarazaka, the area where they had found several holes in the walls. It felt more than coincidental to Kei, but he still didn’t have enough evidence to do anything other than speculate.

When Kei arrived at the shrine at 8:52, Minami was nowhere to be seen. With a few minutes until the agreed time, he sat down on a step and took a look around. Preparations for the festival were in full swing, just as before. Kei wondered if he and Haruki would be eating candy apples down there later that day.

As Kei considered his options, and the things he wanted to do, he heard a voice in his ear.

“Hello…”

He whipped his head around. Behind him, a human head was growing out of the stone steps. It was Minami, of course. “Morning. That look’s really not doing you any favors.” He had just barely managed to hold back his reflexive scream.

Minami laughed in delight. “I couldn’t help but think of the legend of the headless girl, who says ‘hello’ with her head lying around, just like this. Rumor has it that if you don’t respond to her greeting, you’ll be spirited away. What do you think?”

“I think that you’ll face divine judgment for using the land of a shrine this way.”

“Well, I dunno about that, but at least the story would spread like wildfire among the kiddos. But whatever,” she mumbled, rising from under the stone steps. Kei stood up as well, and the two began walking up the steps, side by side.

“So, you were up here yesterday, right?”

“Yeah, I can remember that much.”

“Where do things get hazy?”

“Right around… here.” Stepping under the shine archway, The two approached the main shrine. They walked around it, going up the small hidden staircase behind. The stairs eventually gave way to a mountain path. It was surrounded by tall grass, and looked like an animal trail, but had a few traces of human intervention, such as the sign labeling it a hiking course.

Kei walked carefully, so as not to cut his ankles on the tall grass. “You really came out here in the middle of the night?” When Kei considered the rainfall over the last day, he thought that he might be able to find muddy footprints in the area. Unfortunately, those hopes were quickly dashed.

Minami tilted her head slightly. “Well, I figured whoever it was would probably be coming back here around that time.”

“So, when you say, ‘whoever it was,’ you mean you weren’t specifically looking for vampires?”

“I dunno. I definitely wanted to find a vampire, but I just really got the urge to climb this mountain once it stopped raining.”

“And you at least made it all the way to the main shrine, right?”

“Yup. Still got nothing on what happened after that, though,” Minami said apologetically.

“Well, you don’t know what you don’t know. Let’s just do what we can.” Efficiency wasn’t an issue here. As long as he could keep Minami on track with him, they could make some kind of progress. Finding Minami’s body would be a great start, but coming away empty-handed was an acceptable outcome as well. This wasn’t at all like the issue with the cat. The Bureau was sure to be knee-deep in figuring this out as they spoke. They would have put their best and brightest to work immediately, since a human was affected by what was undoubtedly an ability. In this case, the lack of footprints was essentially a confirmation that they weren’t in the right place.

But, Kei was fine if this little investigation turned out to be pointless. After all, he could just leave everything to the Bureau, and wait for them to figure it all out. This little charade was mostly to keep Minami from panicking.

With that in mind, Kei posed a question. “If this doesn’t pan out, do you have any other ideas of where to check?”

“Well, it’s almost lunchtime, so maybe we should just call it here anyway.”

“That’d be fine. You could investigate on your way home for any extra clues. Is that what you wanna do?”

“Well… what do you think, Asai-kun?”

“I’d rather keep going down the trail for now.”

“Why?”

“The way I see it, if a girl’s body was found on a public road, she’d have undoubtedly been rushed to the hospital already.” Technically, putting it that way wasn’t a lie. But Kei’s real motive was that he was finding this midday hike to be surprisingly enjoyable. It wasn’t too hot yet, since it was still morning, and the sun was shining brightly. From where they were, it would only take around another hour to complete the hike around the mountain. The cicadas screeched as the surrounding mountains glowed with a yellowish-green hue in the morning sun. They were backdropped by a pure blue sky dotted with pure white clouds. Kei would have loved to spread out a blanket, lay down, and enjoy the day.

Suddenly, Minami spoke up. “Oh, yeah. I looked into the MacGuffin.”

The MacGuffin. Kei searched through his memories, and recalled that Haruki brought it up about an hour before their save on Thursday. The face Minami had made at the time stood out to him. “What did you find?”

“Not much. The U-Lab computer only had a little side note about it.”

Kei had figured that the U-Lab would have some kind of information on it. After all, The Operator had said it himself, I know the dictionary definition, and could tell you some myths and legends that use one. U-Lab was so passionate about myths and legends that they even tried making up their own.

“What did the note say?” Kei asked.

“It was just a little rumor. Evidently it gained some footing two or three years ago.”

“Hmm, sounds intriguing.”

“To be honest, I was a bit shocked at what it said.” Minami smiled widely. It was the same kind of smile she always had plastered on in class. Kei realized she wasn’t as easy to figure out as he had assumed. Most of her bright and exaggerated expressions must have been fake. After all, nobody would be able to keep up that same kind of smile when they had become a ghost and didn’t even know where their own body was.

Minami pointed up her index finger, and continued. “The rumor was that whoever holds the MacGuffin can control all the abilities in Sakurada.”

Kei smiled back. “That sure would be nice.” It sounded like a prophecy out of a fantasy book. It was goofy, and so unrealistic that it was kinda funny. But as Kei thought about it more, it felt a lot less funny. After all, Tsushima was the first person to bring up the MacGuffin. Tsushima represented the Bureau, which in all reality, represented total control over Sakurada’s abilities. “Did you learn anything else?”

“Nope, that’s it. The club had done a bit of research, but never even found the source of the rumors. It must not have been very popular.”

“Alright. Thanks for telling me.”

“Once this vampire hunt is over, I kinda wanna look into this MacGuffin more. I’m getting really curious about it.”

“Say, why are you searching for vampires anyway?” Kei didn’t really mean anything by his question. It felt like a natural continuation of the conversation. But Minami’s smile was immediately wiped away, replaced with a look Kei couldn’t quite describe. It was like a mixture of displeasure, confusion, and something else he couldn’t name.

With what must have been her most honest expression of the day, she answered. “Well, it’s only natural, right?”

No, it wasn’t natural at all. If it turned out that there were a bunch of people out there secretly hunting for vampires, Kei would have to readjust his opinion of the world.

Minami soundlessly moved towards Kei. Her body was completely still despite her forward motion. She looked every bit the part of a ghost, even in the bright summer sunlight. “I guess it doesn’t have to be a vampire. After all, all the summer specials on TV feature ghosts, right?”

“Well sure, they might have them on TV shows, but I still wouldn’t go out looking for them. Even people who like to visit haunted spots don’t just go alone.”

Those kinds of activities were designed for making a scene with your friends. For most people, it probably had nothing to do with ghosts. It was just a chance to get excited and carried away by something that was markedly different from everyday life.

But Minami still wasn’t smiling. “But if you’re watching the show, it’s because you’re interested. If there was a ghost out in the middle of the street, everybody would go to see it, right? That’s no different from going to look for a ghost, right?”

“Uh, maybe,” Kei nodded with a rushed answer. Perhaps there were some arguable nuances, but most people were excited by the supernatural. A ghost standing in the road could cause a variety of different reactions based on the individual, both positive and negative. “Well sure, if I knew a ghost was out there, I’d probably try to go see it at least once.”

Kei thought he was agreeing with Minami, but she wasn’t having it. Her face glazed over, and she muttered something to herself. It was so quiet, she was probably just talking to herself. But Kei heard it loud and clear.

“No, you wouldn’t.”

Kei had never heard her sound so serious. It was like an ice cube running down his back. He took a good look at Minami. Just how many more emotions was she hiding behind her smile?

“It’s not exciting when it’s always available. It only matters if you can see something that nobody else has ever seen before.”

“You think so?” Kei wasn’t too sure.

“You already have your own ability, Asai-kun. Of course you wouldn’t be interested in vampires.”

“I dunno about that, my ability’s nothing special.” Sure, remembering everything was somewhat convenient, but it was nothing flashy or special in comparison to other abilities. It could even be considered reproducible by someone with a sharp enough brain. The only unique value offered to Kei’s ability was through Haruki’s Reset ability, which had nothing to do with him.

But Minami shook her head. “That’s not true. You can’t understand what it’s like to not have an ability. All of them are special when you don’t have one.”

Kei searched for words as Minami slipped in an, “I’m sorry,” but he couldn’t find anything to say. He couldn’t wrap his head around the issue she presented.

Minami began moving ahead, and Kei walked behind her. Despite her body’s slight transparency, he couldn’t see her face from behind, which naturally meant he couldn’t see the expression on it.

The two stayed in silence for a little while. The cicadas’ harsh cries took the place of their conversation. Just a little farther ahead, they ran into a stream with clear water that sparkled in the sun. It was there that Minami turned around, and spoke once more.

“Y’know, Asai-kun, I-”

Just as she broke the silence, an electronic hum interrupted her. Kei’s cell phone was ringing. Minami seemed defeated, before flashing a small smile. “Go ahead. Answer it.”

“It’s fine, I’ll just call them back.”

“No, you should take it. I’ll be back at the shrine.”

“The shrine? Why?”

“I just really don’t think I got this far into the mountains. I’d rather try looking somewhere else.” Minami began rising into the sky before even finishing her sentence.

Kei watched as she got farther and farther away, pulling his still ringing cell phone from his pocket.

✽

Around that same time, Haruki Misora was sitting alone on the stone steps of Kamisaki Shrine, watching the festival preparations. As she dully gazed forwards, a gray cat walked over and curled up next to her. The cat acted as though nothing was interesting to it, and probably wouldn’t have been thought of as very cute.

Its fur was a ruffled mess, so Haruki began rubbing its back. The cat yawned absentmindedly as it was stroked, evidently being very used to humans. Its fur was warm, likely due to the summer sunshine. Just as Haruki thought how difficult it must be to go through summer as a cat, she realized that the cat had only walked over to curl up in her shadow. Haruki tried to remind the cat of its place in the world with, “Do you want me to add you to my collection?” But her attempt to unsettle the cat utterly failed, and the peaceful Saturday morning continued on.

Haruki had come to Kamisaki Shrine at the behest of Minami Mirai. Mirai had come to her room as a ghost last night, asking to meet her at the shrine the next day. Kei had already informed Haruki of Minami’s current state, so she wasn’t too surprised by the situation. Then again, living in Sakurada, seeing someone as a ghost wouldn’t be too much reason for alarm in the first place.

Kei had also shared that he would be mountain climbing with Minami today. It wasn’t until she was asked to go to Kamisaki Shrine that Haruki put everything together. He was talking about Mt. Tsukube, which was the rumored Spirit Mountain, which they had been so close to all this time.

Haruki hadn’t told Kei that she was called here. Even Haruki herself wasn’t sure why she hadn’t shared the information. Perhaps she considered it unnecessary to share, or left it alone to surprise Kei by showing up in the same place as him. There was also the possibility that had she told him, he would have said not to come. Although the last one was the most likely answer, Haruki didn’t really care either way. After all, her feelings were of no great import.

As Haruki sat waiting, someone she knew arrived, climbing up the stairs. It wasn’t Kei, and neither was it Minami. It was Nonō Seika. Raising her eyebrows, Nonō stopped in front of Haruki. “Good morning.”

“Good morning to you.”

“All by yourself today?”

Haruki nodded. “For now, yes. I am waiting for Kei and another girl, one of our classmates.”

“They coming back from the festival?”

“No, the festival is not scheduled to start until tonight. That is, if we are even going to attend.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Did something come up?”

“There are no conflicts in my schedule. It has to do with Kei. He has decided to use his time taking care of another girl’s problems.”

“Sounds rough.”

“All this after promising me ahead of time.”

“Geez, that sucks.”

“More than you could possibly know.” That, of course, was a joke. Perhaps Haruki wasn’t in the best of moods, but regardless, she didn’t allow her emotions to cloud her judgment. Not very often, at least. She would allow a selfish request to slip by every now and then, if it would make Kei happy. But most of the time, like when she wanted to ask him to wear a yukata tonight, the idea of displeasing him shut her down before she tried. Voicing her objections was made all the more difficult when she pictured the possibility of that bitter smile on his face.

“So, what’s this girl’s problem?”

“Ever since last night, she has become translucent, and started floating.”

“Is that supposed to mean she’s a ghost?”

“I am not sure what it is supposed to mean.”

Nonō knitted her eyebrows, looking doubtful, but she didn’t ask any more questions. As such, Haruki stayed quiet. She was never very good at conversations. She found looking for the right words to be complicated, like solving a jigsaw puzzle that was just a blank white sheet. She had always struggled with it, even since she knew Kei. In fact, it was likely due to Kei that she had become capable of speaking her mind at all, albeit in random and contextless ways.

Her last resort was to pet the cat as a way of passing the time, but the gray cat had already moved over to Nonō, and was rubbing against the other girl’s calf. He stuck his crooked tail up in the air, leaning into her. Haruki was left with no choice but to fiddle with the cat strap attached to her cell phone. It was made of a soft yet firm material that could be easily squeezed, but retained its form.

Nonō squatted down and rubbed the cat’s chin, then spoke up once more. “I’m gonna head on up to the shrine.”

“I see.”

“There’s plenty of shade up there. Wanna come with?”

“I cannot. This is where we agreed to meet.”

“Do you think you should check up on them?”

“That may be a good idea.” It was already 15 minutes past the time Haruki was told. It was probably best to see how things were going. They may have made a save, but she was still worried that something could happen to him.

Just as she opened the contacts list on her phone, she heard Minami Mirai’s voice.

“Heya, Misora. Sorry that I’m so late!” Haruki glanced upwards, following the voice. Minami was floating about 6 feet off the ground. It was harder to tell last night, when it was entirely dark, but she was indeed translucent in the midsummer sun.

Haruki, for one, was unconcerned with her classmates’ activities, even if they included floating around and being translucent. However, if she refused to help resolve the problem, her night with Kei at the festival would be in peril. It would be best to find a solution quickly, especially since her yukata was already carefully ironed and prepared.

Minami turned towards Nonō. “Uh, we haven’t met before, have we?”

Nonō looked towards Haruki. Left with no choice, Haruki began introductions. “This is Nonō Seika-san. She is our age, but she attends a different school. Additionally, she is a cat whisperer.”

“Cat whisperer?” Minami replied.

Nonō quickly spoke up. “I just like cats, is all. Who’re you?”

“Minami Mirai. Normally, I’m Misora’s classmate, but for now I’m a ghost.”

“I can clearly see that. What happened to you?”

“Hmm, well, the truth is probably a bit of a shocker.” Minami pondered something for a while, before turning back to Haruki. “Can you keep this a secret from Asai-kun?”

Haruki wasn’t sure what she was getting into, but nodded nonetheless. If this was a “secret from Kei”, it should be assumed he didn’t know about it, which meant it would be best for her to listen up.

With a smile, Minami said, “I think I’m probably dead.”

Dead.

Nonō narrowed her eyes, and Haruki asked a question. “Speaking of Kei, what is he doing?”

“Well, I kinda left him behind, but I figure he’ll be here sooner or later.”

Haruki decided that if Minami was right, the best thing to do would be to sit and wait for him. After all, a single reset was all that stood between Minami’s problem and its solution.

✽

On the other side of the phone, a singular sentence from Tsushima Shintarou echoed.

“We’ve found Minami’s body.”

It was a phrase that threw out all sense of reality.

Minami Mirai had died, and become a ghost. It was a very simple turn of events. Indeed, Kei had been considering that very possibility. But then, he heard that sentence. Not only did it feel unreal, he wanted it to be unreal.

Memories flooded his brain, and with them came a rising nausea. Each memory brought with it a different emotion, and each emotion stabbed through his chest like individual blades.

I used a reset, and someone died.

Kie tried to calm himself down.

It’s happening again. It’s exactly the same as two years ago.

He had to calm down. They had a save up their sleeve this time. They could still turn this one back around.

Someone died again, all because of me.

He had to stop panicking. Wasn’t he supposed to be prepared for this? The last time, when she had died, hadn’t he decided he would keep using resets anyway?

Kei sucked in air. He remembered his resolve. It didn’t entirely clear the panic away, but it helped reel him back into reality. “How did Minami-san die?”

“She was murdered.”

Murdered? By who? Why?

Tsushima continued, “It appears to have been an accident, but we know without a doubt she was killed through human action.”

“You know what caused it, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know for certain what would happen?”

“It was supposed to be a very low probability.”

“But you still knew. You knew, so you told me to hold off on resetting for as long as possible.”

“That’s right.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me then?”

“Since when do I have to tell you anything? The Bureau doesn’t just hand out information for no reason.”

Kei bit his lip.

Wrong. This was all wrong. It had nothing to do with Tsushima. Kei himself had decided he didn’t want to know. He was indecisive, since he didn’t want to seem selfish by asking for all the details.

I’m such a hypocrite, Kei spat at himself. Here he was, using an ability as powerful as a reset, forcing the world to redo three days, all to save one cat, and he was trying to save face. Trying not to look selfish. What good was indecision going to do him? What excuse did he have to not give his absolute, 100 percent best effort? It was annoying how weak he was. It was miserable. It was frustrating. But even as his mind was thrown back into chaos, he knew that being negative would do nothing to improve the situation.

So Kei forced a smile. He would have to tough it out. Being stubborn was one of his strong suits, anyway. “I understand. Yesterday is history. Please tell me what’s happened.”

Tsushima would have no choice but to tell Kei. Even if they reset, and Minami Mirai returned to her physical body, she would be doomed to follow the same path. If they wanted to make any difference, Kei had to make the right calls, and carry over the experience so that things could be different.

Tsushima paused for a moment of contemplation. Or perhaps he paused in a moment of resignation. Either way, he eventually began speaking.

It was quite a long story.

Once upon a time, there was a certain man. That man hated filth to the utmost extreme. He even detested the very skin that was attached to his body. Of course, he didn’t strip away his own skin, as what lay underneath was no less filthy.

Eventually, the man got to the point that he hated touching everything that existed in the world. Everything was filthy, when he thought about it. The only things he could bring himself to touch were pure white linens and brand-new t-shirts. He could not stand being in any rooms besides a place he had sanitized to his own distinct satisfaction.

Of course, this brought with it the problem that he had nothing to eat. The only thing he could possibly bring himself to swallow was pure water. He considered pure water to be the antithesis of filth. He could not manage to bring anything else to his mouth. If something would be considered filthy when it got on his skin or clothes, how could it be any less filthy going into his mouth?

Now, the natural conclusion of such a man could only be death. After all, water is not food, and without food, a human simply dies.

But the man still did not die.

Fortunate circumstances gave the man an ability by which he could live despite not eating anything. Although, it could perhaps be considered less of a fortunate circumstance, and more of a fateful inevitability, as the man lived in the town of Sakurada. Abilities within the town Sakurada were individually tied to their user’s character, after all. A person’s true nature and deepest desires would be made tangible through their granted power.

This man had the ability to convert information into sustenance. Information was formless, pure, and clean. The man tried collecting as much information as possible, but eventually was forced to realize his methods were inefficient. He always felt hungry for more, to the point that he was weakened and even dying from starvation.

But one day, he realized that the true application of his abilities lie elsewhere. It would be an exaggeration to call it an awakening, as all that happened was a simple realization. All this time, he had been surrounded by massive clumps of dense information.

In other words, he discovered that he could absorb information from humans, and he immediately began partaking.

Meals were quick and efficient. For the first time in years, the man felt full, and relished in the animalistic satisfaction of his hunger.

But at the same time, the man didn’t wish to be a bad person. He didn’t want to find out what would happen if he took as much information as he wanted from any one person. He only took small bits of information from someone at a time, to avoid any problems. The person might lose consciousness for a little bit, but they woke up soon, so it was fine. From what he could tell, at worst the person would lose about an hour’s worth of memories.

After a while, though, rumors of a vampire began to spread. The man knew immediately that it was his fault. He didn’t know how, but something must have slipped somewhere, and now the rumor was gaining traction.

The only time the man took information from humans was a small period of time a few years ago. When the Administration Bureau caught wind of the rumor, the man thought he’d never be able to use his ability again. But opposite of his expectations, the Bureau worked with him to create a safe and effective environment for gathering information. It was less efficient than taking from humans, but as long as he endured a little hunger, he was never in danger of dying. The man was very happy. He didn’t have to cause any trouble for others, and even better, he didn’t have to go outside into the filthy air to search for prey.

Until just recently, the man lived in his new environment enjoying a happy, if slightly hungry, life.

Unfortunately, some trouble came up that caused his carefully crafted environment to come crashing down.

Left with a deep, burdensome hunger, the man chose to once again feed from humans. One might argue that he didn’t even have a choice in the first place.

Just last night, the man extracted information from a young girl, for the first time in years. Of course, he only planned to take as much as he needed, and leave it at that, just as before.

But, unlike before, no matter how much information he extracted, the girl never seemed to lose any. Then, before he knew it, he had taken too much. The girl was dead.

Nobody could have predicted it. Not even the girl herself. But as it happened, the girl had the ability to retain her information even until death. In other words, she possessed the ability to become a ghost when she died.

“This is very clearly a man-made disaster,” Tsushima commented. “But more than that, it’s an unfortunate result of a series of coincidences.”

The victim’s name was Minami Mirai.

The perpetrator’s name was Yoshii Ryouji. He was an authorized informant backed by the Bureau, commonly called by the pseudonym, “The Operator”.

Yoshii Ryouji, A.K.A. The Operator, turned himself in to the police early this morning. In his hands was the corpse of Minami Mirai.

She was wrapped in a pure white sheet, and her body showed no signs of injury.

For some time after Tsushima finished his story, Kei sat in silence.

His first words were to simply ask for more details on The Operator. He figured that as long as he reset and visited The Operator before anything could happen, they could avoid this whole affair.

Unfortunately, Tsushima didn’t know The Operator’s address. The Operator was in police custody, which made things easier, but since Tsushima wasn’t assigned to his case, getting the information would take some time. 

Tsushima promised to contact Kei as soon as he had anything, and hung up.

Kei struggled to suppress the emotions rising within him. The Operator is the culprit, and he didn’t mean to do it, so everything is fine. All we have to do is reset, give him a call, and everything will work out. Even if he doesn’t answer, I can just tail Minami to find him. There was no reason to be upset. This was just a funny story he could tell later on down the line.

But he still couldn’t keep them down forever.

As Kei slowly walked down the mountain, he considered what he knew of The Operator. Despite knowing he was actually Yoshii Ryouji, Kei had a hard time conflating the voice he knew from phone calls with a real human man.

When Kei reached the shrine, he found Haruki, Minami, and Nonō all there together.

Why was Haruki here? He didn’t know, but it hardly mattered. Kei pushed aside his confusion, called Minami over, and began explaining the situation to her. He doubted that she would understand most of it, and she would forget it following their reset anyway. But he still thought she deserved to know.

Minami floated in the air as she listened with a slight frown. She looked dissatisfied, somehow. When Kei was finished, she flew off, saying, “I’m gonna go look at my corpse.”

Kei exchanged basic pleasantries with Nonō before taking his leave. He saw the gray cat they had rescued down at Nonō’s feet, pawing at her shoelaces. It was a relaxing and enjoyable sight that he wanted to keep watching, but he couldn’t afford to stare at a cat all day.

With Haruki by his side, Kei walked absentmindedly through the city. He didn’t really have anywhere to go. All he needed was one call from Tsushima so he could immediately get to resetting. He wanted to resolve Minami and The Operator’s case as quickly as possible.

As they walked along the river, Haruki spoke up. “Minami-san told us that she had died.”

“Ah, I see.” So she already knew, Kei thought. Since her ability was to become a ghost, it made sense that she would know the activation condition.

But why had she tried to keep it a secret from him? Kei started thinking it through, but quickly shut himself down. Making baseless assumptions wouldn’t do him any favors. Instead, he pursued a different subject. “So, why were you at the shrine?”

“Minami-san visited me last night and asked me to meet her there.”

“Ah. Why’d she want you there?”

“I do not know. Do you have any idea, Kei?”

“Nah…” When Minami became a ghost, she first visited Kei, then Haruki. Their commonality was that they were both in the Service Club, and you only got in there by being particularly powerful.

When Kei considered his conversation with Minami in the mountains, he hoped that he was able to understand her at least a little bit better. But maybe she was right, and there were things he would simply never be able to comprehend.

Ultimately, the best answer Kei could muster was, “I don’t think I know Minami-san well enough to say.”

Haruki looked his way. “Are we going to bring her back to life?”

“Yeah, of course.” Kei nodded. He couldn’t sit back and do nothing when her death was caused by his reset. They were lucky that the timing worked out this way. The mere thought of her dying within the 24-hour reset cooldown gripped him with a terror beyond words.

How exactly did Minami die, though? Kei used a reset in order to save that cat, and that somehow caused Minami to die at the hands of The Operator. They were clearly missing a piece to this puzzle.

Haruki spoke again. “Minami-san didn’t seem particularly upset, given her situation.”

“Yeah, I know.” Her bright disposition was clearly an act, but Kei couldn’t tell what it was hiding. Was she hiding sadness of her passing? Fear? Anger? In all honesty, he couldn’t separate his impressions from what he typically saw of her in class.

“It would be difficult to describe what she is experiencing as death. Typically, we would not associate death with being able to move around, laugh, and talk with other people.”

Kei nodded halfheartedly at Haruki’s assertion. What exactly would you call death? Kei didn’t fancy himself to be capable of giving it a definition. Perhaps death could take many forms. Maybe it wasn’t right to try and box it into one category or another. Better to leave that to the lawmakers and philosophers.

“Are you saying that you don’t want to use your reset?” Kei tried talking in his normal tone, but he may have let some irritation slip through.

Haruki tilted her head, looking a bit confused. “That is not what I meant to imply. However, there is still much we do not know surrounding Minami-san’s issue. It has only been 48 hours since our save, so we do not have to be in a hurry. Would it not be best to learn as much as we can from Minami-san before she forgets it all following a reset?”

Her analysis was calm and just. Perhaps someone else would be less objective when their classmate had just died, but not Haruki Misora. She was by nature an exceedingly objective observer of reality, even more so when Kei had first met her. She confidently left all of her decision-making down a small set of self-made rules.

Kei was loath to respond to a logical argument with an emotional argument. But, at the end of the day, emotion was what guided people’s decisions. Kei simply wasn’t capable of putting his feelings aside. But even besides that, when it came to these topics, he particularly wanted to be vulnerable and honest with Haruki.

“Understanding Minami-san’s viewpoint isn’t the issue here. This is actually about…” His words caught in his throat. Regardless, that was probably all Haruki needed to hear.

It was his fault. Kei called for a reset, and a girl died. The power to redo the past should only have been used to bring about hope. Using that power to cause problems was absolutely unforgivable. He hated it. He absolutely hated it. He couldn’t let it happen. He could still see the smile on the face of the girl who had died two years ago. He still remembered the reset that he couldn’t take back. Choosing to still believe in the power of resets was a product of his own selfish needs.

“I understand,” Haruki said.

Kei searched for words. He wanted to say something positive, something uplifting. He wanted to invite a new world in, one of sweet dreams and kind lies. But he couldn’t. He was forced to pull himself back into reality.

A girl had appeared from around a corner up ahead. Kei didn’t know why she was there, but he did know who she was.

In front of them stood Murase Youka.