Silence surrounded him.

The river was wide enough near its mouth to calm the current, and the sea was still too far away to hear the waves crashing. There were no other people around, and the setting sun quietly painted the landscape in golden hues. Something, anything would have been nice, even cicada cries. But no matter how he strained his ears, the odd silence continued.

Asai Kei and Haruki Misora stood side by side among the ever-quiet tetrapods. The evening of August 30th was warm, like the touch of a feverish forehead, and Kei felt his consciousness flickering in and out. He closed his eyes, and darkness filled his sight. The sole figure of a girl emerged from that darkness.

Souma Sumire. The girl whose smile was like a fearless, daring, and whimsical stray cat. The girl who had so suddenly died.

He met that girl atop the very tetrapods he stood among. It had been two years ago, on April 8th, around 6 PM. The pair met in the tetrapods covered in the evening glow.

All I wanted was to be alone back then. He didn’t want to see anyone, didn‘t want to talk with anyone, purely desiring to watch the sunset. Someone showed up, but he didn’t plan to interact with them. 

But then, Souma Sumire spoke. Are you crying?

It was such a simple question that he found himself answering purely out of reflex, Why would you just assume that? In the place where he hadn’t planned on seeing anyone, Souma Sumire managed to force an encounter with Asai Kei.

He opened his eyes. The deep red sunset was before him, just like it was those two years ago. It was even more concentrated than before he had closed his eyes. In time, the balance would be lost, and the sun would mix in with the muddy colors of the night.

Fixing his eyes on the sight, Kei asked in a quiet voice, “Do you remember the stuff about an android?”

He noticed Haruki slightly tilt her head beside him. It wasn’t a confirmation or a denial, just a simple tilt of her head. “Are you referring to the question that Souma Sumire asked us?”

Kei nodded. It happened two years ago, on April 28th. The three of them were all in their second year of middle school, spending their time together on the rooftop of the southern school building.

Kei repeated the question Souma had asked them back then. “Let’s suppose that one of us is an android.”

Asai Kei, Haruki Misora, and Souma Sumire. They hadn’t spent very much time together up to that point. In total, they knew each other for just over a whole summer, from the end of April to the end of August in the same year.

Kei spent that entire summer considering the question she had asked.

Let’s suppose that one of us is an android.

An android. A creation designed to seem entirely human, while remaining entirely inhuman.

Souma’s question to Kei and Haruki was, Who’s the android?

“She brought it up the first time that we were all together in the same place.”

Kei’s relationship with Haruki began that day. The day that Souma Sumire asked who among them was an android.

Kei slowly began to sift through his memories. He knew exactly what lay inside that metaphorical Pandora’s box, and that made him nervous to open it. Bit by bit, moment by moment, he began gently tracing along his path through that unforgettable summer of two years past.