6 – July 16th (Sunday) – A new day

July 16th, Sunday. Kei found a contrail dividing the clear blue sky. It seemed to him that he didn’t find as many contrails in the sky as he did when he was younger. Perhaps the jets that made such trails weren’t used as often anymore. But then, maybe he simply wasn’t looking at the sky as often as he used to.

For the first time in a while, Kei looked down at the watch on his wrist. It read 11:43:07, 08. The seconds ticked onwards. He knew that it was accurate, as he set it directly to the timed signal playing that morning. He discovered that a single, exact second was slightly longer than he had imagined.

Kei stood by the riverside with Haruki, the sun beating down strongly on them. The forecast had predicted a hot summer day. As the second hand of his watch pointed straight down, he heard the crunching of stone as Murase Youka approached.

“Nice weather today,” Kei said, attempting small talk. Her only response was the glare of her eyes through her oval lenses. The same eyes he had seen countless times before.

Kei glanced up at the sky once more. The contrail seemed just as solid as a mountain, or any other cloud. It was hard to believe that it could simply appear and disappear at a moment’s notice.

Kei spoke, still staring up at the sky. “There’s just one thing I want to ask you.”

“What’s that?”

“If we hadn’t reset, would that cat really have died in an accident?” Their reset had eliminated any chance of the cat getting in an accident, and Kei had never truly confirmed if the accident was real. The only person who really knew if the accident was fact or fiction was Murase herself.

“What does it matter? That’s so pointless,” Murase said, her tone stiff.

“I disagree.” Kei shook his head, then looked Murase directly in the eyes. “There is a point. In fact, it’s more important than anything else we could discuss today.”

Murase Youka had never appeared as solid as the contrail up above. From the first time he saw her face, her stone-cold mask revealed a chipped and brittle nature. But as long as she continued staring straight ahead, she would never have spotted the contrail to begin with.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m still deciding if I’m satisfied with all we did over the past several days.”

“You sure get hung up on stupid stuff,” Murase answered, with a forced neutral expression. “The accident was legit. That cat really did die. Happy now?”

“Very much so. Thank you for your cooperation.” Kei smiled. He put all his heart into his next words. “Let’s work together, Murase-san. I’d like to become your partner.”

His offer was exactly what Murase had brought up just the other day. But nonetheless, she frowned. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. On one condition.”

“Oh really? What’s that?”

Rather than thorny, Kei would have described her voice as unrefined. It was coarse, and her emotions bled right through, as though she found voicing her thoughts unreasonably frightening. Thinking back, she had been speaking like that ever since they first met.

“I still can’t trust you, to be blunt. I’m just not sure you could take on the Bureau with your power.”

“My ability is the absolute strongest.” Murase glared at Kei, and he returned a smile.

“Then let’s put that to the test.”

Kei knew there was no chance she would refuse. She had the utmost confidence in her ability, and a serious desire for Kei’s assistance. After the mess surrounding Minami and The Operator, she knew the value of resets. On top of all that, he knew that she couldn’t have the courage to face the Bureau all on her own. That was only natural.

For a long time, she simply glared at him. The longer he watched her expression, the more he understood that what appeared to be anger and frustration was no more than simple sulking. In fact, as he studied her, he noticed she had quite the baby face.

“What kind of test?”

“We’ll make it your specialty, fighting. Let’s have a sparring match with our abilities. Whoever gives up first, loses.”

Murase pulled a face. “Are you an idiot?”

Yeah, probably. Kei didn’t answer, choosing to vaguely tilt his head.

Frown still on her face, Murase continued. “So you’re saying that if I can beat you, you’ll be my partner, right?”

She was probably expecting Kei to nod his head right about then. Ostensibly, she was just seeking verification, but Kei could tell she wasn’t confused about the stakes. She was just so insecure that she was grasping at any straw she could find.

With that in mind, Kei shook his head. “Not exactly, Murase-san. You see, no matter how the test goes, I’d like us to work together. But if you can’t beat me, you don’t stand a chance against the Bureau. In that case, you‘ll need to change things up.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“If you win, then I’ll fall in line with you. But if I win, then we’re gonna take down the Bureau my way.”

“So, we’re just fighting for who’s gonna be the leader?”

“That’s one way to think of it.”

Murase was silent for a while. Kei stole a glance at his watch.

“And what exactly would your way entail?”

“I’ve got it planned out to a T.” Kei gave a grandiose smile. “First off, you’re gonna go back to school. You’re gonna take your student life as seriously as possible. You’ll work for the Service Club, give up your grudge towards the Bureau, and graduate with academic honors. It doesn’t really matter if you go to college or not. At some point in the future, you get a job working for the Bureau. Then, we work together from the inside, changing the Bureau one policy at a time.”

Essentially, she was going to follow in her brother’s footsteps. If the accident hadn’t occurred, she probably would have done that of her own accord.

Murase’s glare kicked up a notch. She furiously spat, “So you’re no different from Tsushima.”

“I’m totally different from Tsushima. All you gotta do is pass my test. That’s simple enough, isn’t it?”

Murase’s frown was gone, replaced entirely by her glare. “Are you being serious?”

“Absolutely.” Man, I’m the absolute worst. Is this really the right thing to do? Of course, Kei had long answered that question as it tossed and turned in his head. This was the antithesis of right. But he had decided to do it, so there was nowhere to move but forward.

“Then I’ll end it quickly.” Murase slowly approached, walking over the pebbled shore.

Kei’s smile remained as he held his hand in the shape of a gun, and pointed it at Murase. “Haruki, save.” He gave a, “bang,” imitating gunfire.

As though it were a starting signal, Murase began moving faster.

“July 16th, 11:48:17.”

As he heard Haruki’s voice, Kei’s smile slowly disappeared.

Murase moved towards Kei without an ounce of hesitation. “Index fingernails, human body,” she called. As soon as the line was finished, she thrust her right hand forward.

It would have been easy enough to dodge with a quick step back, but Kei held his palm up instead, catching her finger. It jabbed into his skin with a sharp pain. At least she doesn’t grow her fingernails very long. Blood flowed from his palm down to his wrist, leaving a gross, lukewarm trail.

Kei spoke, forcing his facial expression to remain neutral. “Aw man, even just a knife would be way scarier than this.”

Murase’s eyes widened, and she took a few steps back. She stared at the blood on her right hand. Kei took the opportunity to widen the distance between them.

“Cut that out already,” Murase hissed.

“Why? We’ve only just begun.”

“Right hand, human body,” Murase called out. “Try it again if you wanna lose your whole wrist.”

“Well, we can’t have that.” Kei moved further away, glancing at his watch. 11:49:15. Time had somehow slowed to a crawl.

Murase took another step forward. Her second step halted, however, as soon as Kei opened his mouth.

“Why did you request us to save that cat?” She’s afraid of hurting people, so it should be easy enough to find ways to buy time.

Sure enough, Murase answered. “I already told you yesterday. I just wanted to find out if I could surpass resets with my power.”

“I know you’re lying.” With all confidence, Kei pressed forward. “You genuinely wanted to save that cat. You wouldn’t have gone so far out of your way to find it otherwise. You even kept it in your room, and would lovingly pet its back.”

Now it was Kei who drew closer to Murase.

“There were two sets of holes found on Wednesday after our first reset. One group was in Kawarazaka, around 7 PM. That was you looking for The Operator. But the other group was in a park by the shopping district, around 3 PM, exactly where that cat could be found. You prioritized that cat above even finding The Operator.”

Kei had known something was fishy about her request right from the start, not that he had ever planned to refuse it. He meant it when he said that saving just one cat was a worthwhile task. Now, Kei was certain he had made the right call. Even that could bring happiness, and the possibility alone made it a task worth accomplishing to the fullest. Murase had never been the enemy.

“Don’t you see, Murase-san?” Kei called her name, taking care not to get too emotional. “We’ve been working together this whole time. Because of what you and I did together, that cat’s alive now.”

Kei didn’t need any more than that to be satisfied by their partnership. He’d do it again in a heartbeat. It would be an honor to spend his life dedicated to such work.

“Stop… talking about that.” Murase’s voice was a whisper, but it cut through louder than a scream. She raised her right hand, and swung it through the air, as though to slap Kei in the face. But she moved incredibly slowly. Kei shoved back his rising fear and waited till the very last moment to pull himself away. Murase’s eyes shot open even wider than last time. And of course they did. Just a little bit closer, and she would have killed him.

Kei swallowed his fear and grabbed Murase’s arm as it hung in the air. It was a risky move, as he didn’t know what defined her “hand” based on her ability. But luckily for him, it seemed that the area about three inches below her wrist wasn’t included.

Looking directly into her eyes, Kei continued. “Do you know why you lost your memories after our second reset?”

“‘Cause I didn’t care. I already knew that I could cancel out a reset at that point.”

“Your ability lasts exactly five minutes, right? No more, and no less. Not only that, once you use it, you can’t turn it off, and when it’s gone, you need to reapply it.” That much was obvious from just watching her in action.

“What’s your point?”

“Well, since it only lasts for five minutes, then we could reset while you were sleeping, and you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

Murase shook off Kei’s hand, and forced a laugh. “So what, you exploited a weakness? Big deal.”

Kei stared straight at Murase, almost imitating her glare. “You’d think that, wouldn’t you? But no. I reset right in front of you. In fact, just before we did, I heard you call out to nullify abilities on your whole body.”

Murase shook her head. “That’s impossible. I already know that I can nullify resets.”

“I agree. Normally, that would be impossible.”

Murase’s superiority over resets was well established. In fact, by the Bureau’s standards, her strength rating would be higher than Haruki’s. She could easily have canceled the reset. Of course, despite that, Haruki’s ability still had its upsides. Murase’s superior strength didn’t keep Kei’s hand from coming back after their second reset. Comparing the two had less to do with the concept of an unstoppable force against an immovable object than it did a medicine that cured all ailments. He was hurt, and Haruki’s ability healed him. Simple as that.

But before their second reset, Murase clearly tried to counteract it. He could hear her voice saying, “Whole body, abilities,” in his mind. If it was purely her ability against Haruki’s, then the reset would have lost out, and Murase would have retained her memories.

“Do you know why you were with us that day?”

“Of course I don’t. Tsushima must have set me up again.”

“Incorrect. You came to meet with us of your own accord.”

Kei doubted that Murase would be able to imagine it. Even if it had happened in her own headspace, without having experienced it, she was unlikely to believe them.

“You said that you were going to kill us.”

The Murase that Kei saw back then was unique among all his other encounters. She had always acted in earnest, but never more than that moment. She always held a unique fragility, but she had never looked closer to her breaking point than she had right then. She seemed at the end of her rope.

“You found out that because of your actions, Minami-san died. Tsushima-sensei told you all about how The Operator killed her. So you threatened us, and attacked. You thought that if we reset, then it would be like it never happened.”

Murase Youka didn’t have it in her to kill anyone. She could barely bring herself to attack someone just to cause a reset.

“You’re lying.” Murase continued her ever-present glare. She stared straight ahead, as if to ignore all her surroundings. “Even if I found that out, there’s no way I’d lose to a reset. It’s impossible. You made all of that up.”

But, in fact, Kei’s story was entirely true. The fact that Murase failed to counter the reset was nothing more than the exposure of her own weakness.

Kei spoke, once again keeping a tight rein on his emotions. “Abilities don’t work unless the user wants them to.” That wasn’t exactly a strict rule or law, but it was accepted as common sense. “You didn’t want your ability to activate, so it didn’t. Because you wanted to be affected by the reset.”

Murase Youka couldn’t accept that her own two hands had caused someone else’s death, directly or not. She was so shaken that she did everything in her power to forget the death of a girl she didn’t even know. No other explanation made sense with the information at Kei’s disposal.

“That’s not possible,” Murase shook her head, still glaring. “Besides, what difference would it make to forget some random girl?”

“If you forgot about her, then it wouldn’t weigh on your mind.” As far as Kei was concerned, that was its own form of happiness.

“I’m not that weak!” Murase retorted.

Almost without thinking, Kei muttered, “So what?” It’s okay to be weak. 

Weakness showed sensitivity. People were so apt to take healthy sensitivities and put labels on them like, “weakness.” Was it so bad to be sensitive to pain? To fear? To your own sorrow?

Being sensitive to sorrow was vital in Kei’s book. Sensitivity to sorrow gave way to kindness, and human kindness deserved every affirmation.

And so, Kei struggled. He wanted nothing more than to affirm Murase’s feelings. He knew that was the right thing to do, but he couldn’t do it. He was forced to crush the weakness inside of himself. It was absolutely horrible. He was disgusted with himself.

Kei took another look at the watch on his wrist. 11:54:38, 39.

“You can give up now. It’s okay,” Kei said.

“And why would I do that? All you’ve done this whole time is run away.” Suddenly, she called out, “Whole body, human body. See, now you can’t even touch me. You won’t be grabbing my arm any more.”

“Well, that means you can’t touch me, either.”

“I’ll catch you, just you wait.”

Kei sighed, shaking his head. “That’s not what I mean. I mean that you can’t touch me, because if you do, I’ll die. Then again, if we gave it a few minutes, I’d regenerate, so wanna give it a shot?”

It was Kei’s biggest bluff yet, and they both knew it. The cut on Kei’s palm had closed, but the blood still lingered on his arm. If she opened a gaping hole in his chest, it didn’t matter if he regenerated. All the blood that left him wouldn’t come back, and his heart would stop.

“As if I care what happens to you.”

“You don’t? I thought the purpose of this test was to become partners. We can’t partner up if I’m dead.”

“That’s fine. I don’t need any partners.”

“Don’t say that to your future partner,” quipped Kei, smiling. In his head, he derided himself as the scumbag he was. But with his mouth, he kept up his speech. “Look, I really believe that we could use your power to overturn the Bureau. So why not just give up already?”

Murase thrust out her hand again, and Kei moved away, keeping his distance. Just as before, her hand was slow and non-aggressive. It was less like she was swiping at him, and more like she was pushing him away in a panic so he wouldn’t see what she was hiding.

Murase continued pushing her hand towards Kei, and he continued to avoid it, just as she wanted. She made it all too easy for him. If his reaction came late, then she would stop her hand. She granted herself ultimate strength, and all it did was restrict her. Even that strength couldn’t stand up to the weakness of her kind heart.

“You don’t have the kind of power I do.” Struggling to keep up her airs, Murase threw taunts at Kei.

“If you can’t use the power to hurt others to actually hurt them, then that’s the same as being powerless.”

“You’re wrong. I hurt that girl yesterday.”

“Yes, quite the stunning paper cut you gave her. You could manage that much with a letter opener.”

“I was just going easy on her.”

“No, I really think you gave it all you had.” The clock continued ticking forward. Everything was going according to plan.

“Well, you’ve never done anything worse with your own power.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Kei had an incredible power to hurt others. Two years ago, it got that girl killed. Now, it was going to give Murase Youka a wound that would never heal.

Under his feet, Kei spotted a blood-speckled stone. He recognized it as the place where the blood from his palm dripped down. He had managed to return to the spot where he started this whole debacle. It was now 11:56:17. A good time to get things going.

Kei fell over on the spot. He slipped his foot up, and landed with his back to the ground.

“Don’t move,” Murase threatened. Of course, Kei knew that she wasn’t trying to be some kind of Wild West movie star, saying, Don’t move or I’ll shoot! It was a much gentler warning, saying, Please don’t move, it’s dangerous. Murase stood over Kei, his body lying between her legs.

Murase stared into Kei’s face. “I’ve got you now.”

Kei shook his head, and looked at Haruki. She was standing some distance away, and her face wasn’t expressionless. Rather, she watched them, the sadness clear on her face. I’m sorry, Kei apologized in his heart. Not that it would make any difference.

“Haruki-”

Before Kei could manage more than her name, Murase called out, “Whole body, abilities.”

Looking at Murase’s face, Kei saw that she was also sad. How could this have been the right move, when all it accomplished was making these two girls sad? No matter what I do, I just keep messing up.

Murase spoke. “Resetting is pointless. It won’t change anything. Have you noticed? We’re right at the spot where you were standing when you saved.”

Indeed, Murase had already made her callout. She was now immune to resets, so all one would do is place Kei right in front of her.

Nonetheless, Kei answered her. “Well, not exactly. We’re about two steps away.”

Irritation spread across Murase’s face. “And so what? If you reset, you’ll only be one step away from me, so I can immediately attack you.”

“Really?”

“You said it yourself, once I activate my ability, it stays for five whole minutes. You could try any ability on me, and it wouldn’t work.”

“No, I know about that. I’m talking about you. Can you really attack me?”

That was all he had ever been talking about. The strength of her abilities was irrelevant, the truth about the last few days was of lesser significance, and he wasn’t interested in the Bureau’s justice. All he wanted to talk about was the girl in front of him, Murase Youka.

Instead of a reply, she simply pushed her hand closer to Kei’s face. If only she could see the absolute dread etched in her own face. She looked so pathetic. Kei could practically hear her heart racing in her chest.

Her index finger touched Kei’s bangs. Without a sound, they vanished. There was only the slightest distance between her skin and his. Of course, that was where she stopped her hand.

“Still wanna try talking crap about me?” Murase’s hand kept Kei from seeing her face. Not that he needed to. He could still see the sweat dripping from her slender neck, falling like teardrops.

“Well, just one more thing. It’s worth letting you know.”

Murase’s hand trembled in time with Kei’s speech.

“Tsushima-sensei probably told you this, but just in case. You know that Haruki can’t reset without my personal instruction, right?”

“What’s that sup-”

“Murase-san. You can give up now. It’s okay.” Kei steeled his resolve.

His last thought was of Haruki Misora. He thought of all the various expressions he had seen on her face up till that point. Then, once more, in his heart, he said, I’m sorry.

Holding his breath, Kei sat up.

The predetermined test had finally reached its planned result.

He did not close his eyes.

✽

Asai Kei’s time of death was 11:58:47.

He sat up, and his head touched Murase’s right hand. Immediately, his body collapsed, and unbelievably great wells of deep red blood began spouting from him. Murase Youka, directly in front of him, was the only thing that remained clean and dry. Her ability obliterated even the slightest drop of blood.

Haruki Misora watched as this all unfolded before her. Not once did she avert her eyes from the sight, watching his death down to the final detail. Everything went according to his plan.

Before long, tears began streaming down Murase’s cheeks. Her whole body shook, and she began crying, but Haruki didn’t hear a peep from her. It was as though she was desperately trying to hold something back, but why? It would have been better for her to be honest, and let out her wails. It didn’t make sense in the slightest.

Haruki bit her lip.

She wanted to reset it all, and make it go away. Quickly. Quickly. She wanted to bury these feelings away as soon as possible. She wanted to stop feeling so angry towards Kei.

Why did he have to go so far for Murase Youka? Whatever happened to her had nothing to do with them. Yesterday’s festival was much more important, at least to Haruki. But then, on the way home, all he would talk about was this plan.

Murase continued crying. Haruki looked away.

She looked at her watch instead. 11:59:49, 50.

The watch advanced. Slowly. Slowly.

51, 52.

At some point, the second hand warped.

But it wasn’t just the second hand. Suddenly, her entire vision blurred.

53, 54.

For some reason, Haruki was crying.

But why? That wouldn’t accomplish anything.

55, 56.

She wanted this to be over already.

She wanted to hear his voice, as soon as possible.

57, 58.

She wanted to talk with him again.

She wanted to voice her complaints about all this.

59.

If only all the incomprehensible feelings would just disappear.

The ever so slow second hand finally pointed to the time that this tedious spell would break. Then, with the ringing of an announcement bell, Nakano Tomoki’s playful voice entered her mind.

This is your noonday announcement on July 16th. Yo, Haruki, wassup? Seems that Kei’s got something to tell you. Could it finally be his confession of love?! Get ready, ‘cause here it comes!

Following that utterly pointless message, she heard his voice.

Reset.

Just one word. With that alone, meaning returned to the world.

The world restored itself to 11:48:17. Every single detail, the blood that spilled, and Haruki’s heart were reconstructed as they were at 11:48:17.

Murase Youka alone was left in the world of 12:00.

✽

“July 16th, 11:48:17.” The first thing he heard was Haruki’s voice.

Asai Kei stood on the riverbed, his hand in the shape of a gun. Before his eyes was Murase. She was a mere two steps away. She had stumbled over and fallen, crying on the spot. Everything had gone to plan, but it was far from a happy ending.

With as silly a voice as he could manage, Kei mimicked a gunshot. Murase flinched as though she had heard the real thing, then turned around and looked up at him.

Murase’s eyes were wider than ever, tears flowing freely from them. She looked for all the world like an innocent little child. Several things to say flew through Kei’s mind, but in the end, he simply stood in silence. She was only two steps away. She was still close enough to touch, if only just barely.

Murase quietly spoke, her voice hoarse from crying. Kei knew that whatever she said in that moment was important, and not to be overlooked. But he just couldn’t hear her. He knew it would be even more wrong to ask her to repeat herself, and so looked for a suitable reply.

“It’s okay, I’m alive.”

Murase didn’t reply. He thought that she may have given the tiniest of nods. Her tears had yet to stop.

The sound of footsteps approached, and Kei raised his head, finding Haruki. He stared at her for some time.

“I’m sorry.”

Haruki tilted her head in confusion. “But I do not remember anything.”

“I know. But still, I’m sorry.”

Haruki stared at him for a time. Then, with the slightest of motions, she nodded. “I will go buy you something to drink.”

“Sure, I’ll take an iced coffee,” Kei replied. Haruki gave another slight nod, and turned her back to them.

Kei and Murase were left alone on the riverbank. For a long time, nobody spoke. Kei looked up into the sky. The contrail still remained.

Kei was so exhausted he could have fallen asleep right there. There were many things he wanted to put aside. Still, he knew he had to find something to say. But what did he want to tell her? It was difficult to sift through everything.

As he was worrying, he heard a hoarse voice. Fortunately, he caught what she said this time.

“I give up,” said Murase Youka.

Just in time, Kei found the one thing he wanted to say the most.

“I thought you’d like to know that the gray cat’s doing okay.”

Kei once again considered how they were able to save the cat. That was the way abilities were meant to be used, not for bringing sadness.

“Do you know Nonō-san? He loves to take naps with her. He’s over at a small shrine sitting up above the main one. It’s a really peaceful place. Every time I go there, I just feel so happy.”

Murase’s voice cut in. “What are you talking about?”

To be fair, he wasn’t making much sense. But he was getting there. “I was really glad to receive a request to save a cat. I mean it, from the bottom of my heart. It truly made me happy.”

That was his true purpose for meeting Murase at the riverbank. It wasn’t to try and sway her with fancy words, and it certainly wasn’t to make her cry. He wanted to share his vision with her, so they could join hands in harmony and walk together with a single purpose.

“I’ve got a plan, Murase-san. I wanna keep doing more stuff like that. Saving cats, saving dogs, and maybe even saving people, if we can. I want our abilities to be used for more things like that.”

Murase remained silent.

“If someone’s wet on a rainy day, we’ll bring them an umbrella.”

She looked down, staring at the ground.

“If we find a lost puppy, we’ll bring it to its mother.”

Kei continued talking.

“If we find a hungry kitten, we’ll give it some milk.”

He kept talking, waiting for Murase to look his way.

“Maybe we could dress up as Santa on Christmas, and hand out presents.”

Her mouth twitched, for just a moment. Perhaps it was a hint of a smile. And maybe, if she couldn’t smile, she was at least trying.

“All I wanna do, no matter who it’s with, is bring happiness to others. As many people as possible.”

After a long time, Murase nodded. “I would… really like that.”

“And you can already do it. Just like with the cat.”

“But you were the one that did that.”

“You were the one to rescue the cat, not me.”

“No. The reset saved the cat.”

“It was you that got us to use it in the first place. Besides, it doesn’t matter who gets the bigger role. We’re partners, aren’t we?”

It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Maybe, just maybe, there can be a happily ever after.

“C’mon, Murase-san. Let’s shake on it.”

She looked at her hand, conflicted.

Kei smiled. “It’ll be okay.”

Plenty of time had passed. Her hands would no longer erase anything they touched. They were just normal hands that could grab what was in front of them. The small, soft hands of a girl. Those two hands were more useful, and more valuable, than any of Sakurada’s abilities.

Slowly, Murase held out her hand. Kei put his out as well, and grabbed it. They were only two steps apart, after all. That distance was easily closed when they were both willing to reach out.

After giving a gentle yet firm handshake, Murase lied down. Just as always, she was staring straight ahead. But in that position, even she could look up into the sky.

“Oh, look, a contrail.”

As she gently whispered, the smallest of smiles flitted across Murase Youka’s face.

End of Chapter 3