4 – The same day, 5 PM

Stepping out of the bathroom, Kei grabbed a mineral water from the fridge, taking two sips. He then noticed the notification light flashing from his cell phone on the bed.

Sitting down on the bed, Kei picked up his phone. He opened it, finding one e-mail and three missed calls. Evidently he hadn’t heard the ringing over the sound of his shower. All of the calls were attributed to an unknown caller, which told him they were from The Operator. Kei could only make outgoing calls to him from certain public phones.

He was left with nothing else but to check the e-mail. The text lined out a brief and informative summary of the two individuals who had experienced ability outbursts. Kei was provided with names, ages, and descriptions of their abilities.

He noticed an attachment on the e-mail, opening it to find the faces of a boy and a girl. The two ability users. He recognized them both on the spot, as he had seen them in each location he had visited.

But then he noticed a strange detail about the girl. Her photo showed a girl a few years older than the girl he had seen that morning.

Before he could think about that too deeply, the phone began ringing in his hand. He immediately pressed the answer button. “Hello, this is Asai.”

“I know,” returned the familiar voice of The Operator. “What were you doing?”

“Just taking a shower to get my thoughts in order. Did something happen?”

“I took a look at the picture of Souma Sumire. That finally helped me remember. Man, I just knew something was wrong. What the heck is happening?” He sounded genuinely confused.

The Operator’s voice was changed to an impersonal female tone, the same one that played when a call was made to a disconnected number. That very same voice was currently grumbling and complaining in a gruff tone. It sounded so strangely comical.

“Who is Souma Sumire?” The Operator asked.

Kei remained as calm as he could manage. “She’s a girl who passed away in an accident two years ago. She was only a second-year attending Nanasaka Junior High.”

“Oh, I know that. But that doesn’t explain everything.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve met her before.”

So this is how it went. Kei gripped his cell phone tighter.

Souma Sumire used Nakano Tomoki’s ability to contact Kei, but Tomoki never remembered using his ability. That had to mean his memory was being manipulated.

Kei could only think of two ability users who could manage such a feat– Oka Eri and The Operator. Oka Eri had the ability to rewrite other people’s memories, while The Operator could turn information into nutrition for his body. Anyone targeted by The Operator would lose their memories before the ability took full effect. Kei knew that thanks to the incident that occurred with Minami Mirai back in July.

With everything Kei knew, he had assumed Oka Eri to be the culprit, due to the extremely natural progression of her ability. Anyone she targeted wouldn’t even know that they had their memories rewritten, while anyone targeted by The Operator would experience a gap in their conscious memory. Tomoki hadn’t spoken of any such gap in their conversation.

Unless, of course, Tomoki’s memories had been overwritten by some other ability. But Kei couldn’t think of any reason Souma would go that far out of her way.

Which left one possibility.

“When did you meet Souma?” Kei asked.

The memory manipulation had to have happened so long ago that Tomoki couldn’t notice the gap. After all, his ability worked regardless of the time and place it was used. It could have been planned far enough in advance to remove any negative consequences.

“It was over two years ago, back in June, I think. She just suddenly showed up at my house.”

It all made sense. “So, back when you were still acting as a vampire.”

Back then, The Operator had lived by directly absorbing information from other people. Enough to the point that rumors began to spread about a vampire living in Mt. Tsukube, the low mountain located close to where he lived.

“That’s right,” The Operator answered. “Somehow, before even the Administration Bureau discovered me, that girl knew that I extracted information from people. I can’t imagine how she found that out. In exchange for keeping my ability a secret, she asked me to take information from a particular person.”

“Who was that?”

“Dunno the name. It was some boy. She seemed to know him, though. They were talking for a while. Or well, actually, she was doing all the talking. I was back hiding in the shadows, so I could only hear vague hints of her voice.”

The boy had to be Nakano Tomoki, no doubt about it.

“I gathered a few bits here and there,” The Operator continued. “Seeing that photo made it all come back. She was talking about the intersection where the accident happened today, then brought up the supermarket.”

All so her voice from two years prior could be sent to Kei.

The fact that she set it all up two years in advance particularly explained why she used The Operator’s ability, as Oka Eri wouldn’t have awoken to her ability at that point. But why would she have to do it all two years in advance?

Why? Why…

Kei’s heart quickened. A shiver started at the base of his spine and went straight up to his head, like he was suddenly struck with a chill. A possibility came to mind. He could hardly believe it to be true. But some instinct from within him knew it to be right.

He suddenly felt light-headed. The very idea was ridiculous. Why?

When Kei spoke, his voice came out calm and clear. “Do you remember anything else?”

“Yeah, one particular thing.”

“Which is?”

“She definitely said something about a shower. It was part of what she was saying, at least.”

A shower? Kei couldn’t fit that piece in yet. Was the next incident supposed to occur in a shower?

“Do you know anything about this, Kei? How is she involved in all this?”

Kei had been considering that question for a long time. He felt like he finally had an answer. “I don’t know anything. She was just a girl I knew in my second year of middle school.”

“I can’t imagine you being friends with just some girl.”

“Well, that’s mean. Granted, she was a little weird. She was all kinds of smart, and she sure had confidence, but there was just this… loneliness about her.” Unable to keep the irritation out of his voice, he continued, “Sorry, I just… don’t want to talk about it.”

The Operator was silent for a long time. “Sorry. See ya.” With that alone, he hung up.

So Souma had all this stuff in play two years in advance.

The voice he had been hearing was her from two years ago.

It was her… before she died.

Kei chucked his cell phone away. He could hardly breathe. Emotions raged within him. He immediately gave in to the urge to punch the wall. His hand should have hurt in response, but he could hardly feel anything.

He had never before felt so annoyed.

“Souma… You…”

The Swampman. A functionally identical being that was very much not the real thing. Something that served the functions of Souma Sumire, yet was not Souma Sumire.

“Did you really… die for something like… that?”

It was unthinkable. It was entirely ridiculous. It could never count as a reason for a person to die.

A voice echoed within his head.

Alrighty, Kei. The next request.

It was her voice from two years ago.

Asai Kei had been following the directions of a Souma Sumire from two years prior.

✽

“Got a favor to ask you,” said Souma Sumire. She sat in the passenger seat of a small car, resting her left elbow on the window. She was starting to get a little sick of driving around in a car all day.

“What would that be?” responded The Index from the driver’s seat. She was the only other person in the car. Tsushima had been dropped off at the school some time ago, and Urachi evidently had some work to do around the office.

The Administration Bureau was presently struggling with a problem that had never previously been presented. It was likely that many of those employed had never experienced such issues before. Actually, it was quite similar to what Asai Kei had pulled two years ago, but those similarities would be hard to appreciate for the uninformed.

It was typical for unprecedented problems to be sent to the Countermeasures Department, which Urachi Masamune headed. Which was to say he would be asked to solve the problem that he caused.

“Could you get me some uniforms for Ashiharabashi High? I’ll need textbooks and gym clothes, too, or at least as many as you can manage.”

In the case that Urachi Masamune’s plan succeeded, all information about abilities within Sakurada would be entirely wiped out. Everyone, even Souma Sumire, would forget about their abilities.

Well, with only one exception.

But everyone would suddenly become part of a world that did not have abilities. As such, Souma Sumire’s death and consequent appearance from a photo would be treated as though it never happened. They wouldn’t have happened without her ability, after all.

I’ll just be a normal student, all things considered. Better to prepare for that ahead of time.

“They have already been arranged,” The Index answered.

“What about my desk and chair in class, and all the attendance numbers?”

“You should not encounter any issues. Tsushima Shintarou will be providing his assistance in that regard.”

“I see. Thanks.” Souma Sumire glanced out the window, commenting, “Here’s fine.”

The Index pulled the car over to the side of the road, putting it in park. “Thank you for your work today. Until next time.”

Out of curiosity, Souma reached out her hand. She pulled on The Index’s cheek.

The woman responded with a confused look. “What is the matter?”

Souma let go. “Just wondered if you’d get angry.”

“That would be a lie. You already knew what would happen.”

“Fair. I guess it’s more accurate to say I was trying to make you angry.”

“What would making me angry accomplish?”

“Let’s actually talk for once. You’re the only one who can read emotions here, and that makes me uncomfortable.”

“Perhaps it makes me uncomfortable that you are the only one here who can see the future.” The Index sighed, and her tone changed. “Look, what do you wanna talk about?”

“For starters, what do you think of the Bureau?”

“They’re the same from the inside as they look on the outside. Calm, collected, and impersonal.”

“It’s really no different from the inside?”

“Yup. It only gets more obvious the longer you’re there.” The Index took her hands off the steering wheel, leaning back into her seat. “The three founders had this unshakeable faith, especially the Nameless System. Probably helped that she knew she couldn’t be wrong, but she stayed calm no matter what happened. As long as everyone stuck to their roles, it all worked out.”

Her logic was easy enough to follow. The Witch had led Sakurada for 40 years without one single error. The Index’s ability to use a word like “faith” so naturally spoke to the amount of trust everyone had been able to put in the Witch.

“And all that went out the window today, didn’t it?” Souma asked.

Something happened that the Witch hadn’t predicted.

“You got it. For the first time in 40 years, the Bureau has lost faith in the Nameless System. It’s like their very foundation is crumbling away.”

Souma asked the question that had been nagging her. “Did the Witch really not know about this, or did she just keep it a secret?”

“My bet’s that she just didn’t know.”

“Because of Urachi-san?”

“Probably.”

What on Earth could that man have done? Granted, he found a way around my ability, so no reason to believe he couldn’t work around the Witch as well. She was still curious as to exactly what he did, though.

The Index pulled a face. “There’s really no reason to get all caught up about that guy. He’s more of a beast than anything else.”

“Hm. Well, I think I got it.”

“Got what?”

“What Urachi-san did. How he kept this future from the Witch.” She had considered it during the conversation, and the answer came much more easily than she had expected.

He must have met with the Witch after she had already left Sakurada. Then he just used her future sight to formulate a plan.

No doubt he had used one of Sasano’s photographs. That would have made it simple enough to meet with the Witch in a time long past, even after she was gone from Sakurada or anywhere else. Then he just had to change the future she saw.

The Index sighed. “Now you’re acting like a beast.”

Souma smiled. “It’s not very considerate of you to compare a young lady to a beast.”

“I didn’t think beasts were particularly concerned with being considerate.”

“Then maybe you should take the hint. It’s rare for them to give warnings.”

The Index frowned. “So? Seen enough of my future yet?”

“No. Haven’t been able to for a while.”

“Why not?”

“Oka Eri used her ability per Urachi-san’s instruction.”

“When?”

“Just before.”

After making a call to Kagaya, Urachi had taken the car to a particular building. Souma had met up with Oka Eri there. Her memory was rewritten, and she forgot how to see into the future. The Index had been waiting in the car, so she wouldn’t have known.

So now I’ve served my purpose.

Urachi was convinced that his plan would succeed, so he no longer needed future sight. Keeping such a powerful ability around that he couldn’t use would only be detrimental, so all the better to get rid of it.

Works in my favor if he thinks stealing my ability away is all it will take.

Without her ability to see the future, she was just another second-year middle schooler. No need to monitor her all that much.

Souma turned to the woman before her, asking, “Do you believe that Urachi-san’s actions are right?”

The Index frowned. “Absolutely not. I had never considered the possibility that he would personally arrange an accident.”

“In that case, why follow him?”

The Index didn’t respond.

Souma looked back out the window into the town of Sakurada. It was 5 PM, and the sun was setting. It was far away in the distance, turning all the buildings on the horizon black. Only the traffic lights could be seen beyond the shadow. An exhausted salaryman passed by the car, lightly tripping on something as he walked.

Everything looked entirely ordinary.

“Because I don’t think abilities are necessary,” The Index finally answered. “I think abilities should be gone from this town. That’s the only thing we agree on. But I don’t know how to do it, so I have no choice but to go along with him.”

“What makes you think abilities are unneeded?”

“Good question. Probably ‘cause I work for the Bureau.”

The Administration Bureau’s ultimate goal was to eliminate any problems that arose from abilities within the town. It could certainly be argued that the most efficient way to accomplish that goal would be by getting rid of abilities.

Souma smiled. “You’re definitely not a beast.” She was in every way a normal, common person.

“Of course not. I’m just a civil servant.” The Index nodded with apparent pride.

“I’m glad I got the chance to talk with you. Thanks for the chat.” Souma unlocked the door to get out of the car. As she opened it, The Index spoke up.

“Goodbye, Souma Sumire.”

Souma bit back the bitter chuckle rising inside of her.

That wasn’t fair.

You weren’t supposed to have done any research on me.

“Don’t call me by that name.” Standing on the asphalt, Souma smiled. “I’m a Witch.”

The second Witch. A nameless system. A machine functioning by its programming.

I am not Souma Sumire.

Just a construction designed to look the part.

With a thunk, she closed the door.

End of Chapter 2