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kaibutsushidousha · 10 months

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Memory in Children: Mechanical Choices (Sagrada Reset 3) - Chapter 1: The beginning of a summer (Asai Kei, pre-Reset)

[INDEX]

April 27th, Tuesday.

At 4:30 PM, Kei grabbed his school-issued white bag and stood up from his bed. The bag was very light. All his textbooks and dictionaries were either on his desk or his locker. The bag had only his pencil case and a few notebooks.

It was his 20th day in the second year of middle school. The life in the second year is not much different from the life in the first year and he had zero expectations that it would be. His old classroom, textbooks, teachers, and classmates were all replaced by new ones, but if anyone asked him what difference did that make, he wouldn't have a good answer. It felt as different to him as removing an old bolt and screwing a new one in.

Kei left the room after waving goodbye to a few classmates that he talked to every now and then but couldn't call his friends. He followed the hallway straight to the stairs and climbed down toward the front gate.

He walked deep in thought.

If he had to name one major change in his second year of middle school, it was one girl appearing before him. The girl was named Souma Sumire. She was also a second-year student at Nanasaka Middle School but attended a different class.

Ever since meeting her, she took permanent residence in a part of his mind. Often when he reached the landing of a staircase or the corner of a hallway, he felt like he was going to find her at the next turn. This wasn't any supernatural intuition at play or anything of the sort. His guess was wrong far more often than it was right.

(That's how much I'm wary of her, huh), Kei grumbled internally as if it was not his problem.

Souma Sumire was someone impossible to predict. People fear the unknown. His wariness was beyond his control.

He first met her on April 8th. Discounting the weekends, it's been 12 days between that day and the day he met her, and in these 12 days, he encountered her 17 times. That was a proportion of 3 times every two days. That frequency couldn't be a coincidence but he didn't know what was the meaning behind it. Most of those times, they had an incomprehensible but weirdly thought-provoking conversation and then she suddenly disappeared. He could feel her hiding an unspoken purpose but couldn't form any concrete theory. He only felt that, whatever it was, it would be something really annoying to deal with.

He turned at the last corner before the front gate. He felt like Souma would be on the other side, but again, his guess was wrong. Only a few students he didn't know changing their shoes.

Kei followed suit and opened his shoe locker. Atop his half-a-year-old sneakers, he found a white rectangle.

It was an envelope. Landscape-oriented and sealed with a red heart sticker. The envelope atop the dirty sneakers was the kind of envelope you only see in the emoji. A form so codified that no one still used it in real life.

He took it and checked both sides. The sender's name was nowhere to be found. After changing his shoes, Kei opened the envelope during his walk. The heart sticker ripped in the middle with a neat sound. If this really was a love letter, that would have been a technical flaw, in his opinion.

After leaving the school grounds, a strong wind blew when he pulled out the written paper.

It was almost May. The air was getting warmer, but the winds were still chilling. The paper fluttered in his hand, trying to fly away.

The text written on it was concise. Only two lines. The first line asked him to meet on the rooftop after school tomorrow, and the second line was the sender's name.

(That's some nice handwriting. Wait, that's not what my first impression was supposed to be. This turn of events might be confusing my brain a little.)

The second line of the letter read "Souma Sumire".

(Why take all these extra steps to invite me? If she needs something from me, she could just appear out of nowhere and start her one-sided conversations like she always does. I don't get what Souma is trying to accomplish.)

This last sentence was a doubt the 16-year-old Kei would still carry 2 years later.

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Asai Kei started living in Sakurada in his 12th summer.

Until the day he entered high school and started living on his own, he had been living in the house of the Nakano family.

A 12-year-old was too young to live alone, and due to special circumstances, Kei was not allowed to leave Sakurada. And the Nakano house was large, with more than enough space for an extra child.

After putting Souma's letter in his bag, Kei bought an English mystery in the bookstore on the national highway and made it back to the Nakano home. The sun was already setting by the time he got there.

The Nakano residence had been reformed a couple years before and still looked good as new. Past the gate, he heard a bouncing sound in the courtyard.

Looking in its direction, he found a boy playing with his basketball.

A tall boy with hair shaved short and big, round eyes. The boy's name was Nakano Tomoki. He was the eldest son of the Nakano, had the same age, and attended the same middle school as Kei. Tomoki and Kei were fairly close, considering they lived in the same house. He was the only person in town Kei considered a friend.

Kei was used to seeing Tomoki practicing basketball at this hour. Same casual combination of t-shirt and sports pants, same Converse sneakers. He did it every day, as regularly as the city lamps at the determined hour.

The Nakano courtyard had a basketball hoop. An old, rusty hoop that survived the house's reform intact. Kei heard once that it was installed when Tomoki's father was still in high school, so might be emotionally attached to it. Many strings on the net were snapped and drooping down, but as long as the ring was still in place, it worked as a basketball goal.

Nakano Tomoki tossed the ball into the air with beautiful form. The ball drew a high parabola, passing through the hoop and grazing the net on the way. Later it hit the floor with a bounce.

"Good one.", said Kei.

He looked in Kei's direction and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his right hand.

"Hey. Home late today."

"Yeah. I passed by Mikura along the way."

"Mikura?"

"The bookstore on the national highway."

Tomoki broke down laughing.

"That's not a walking distance from here. Get home first and take the bicycle here if you're normal!"

"It's not THAT far. I can get from school to there in 25 minutes."

"And you can get from school to home in 10."

Tomoki laughed it off and picked up the ball.

"Play with me, Kei."

"Not really up for exercising today."

"People who don't want to exercise don't take 50-minute walks."

"People who want to read books do."

That said, he had a few questions for Tomoki. He could play some basketball while they talked.

"Wait for me to get changed."

Kei waved and walked to the back of the courtyard.

It was difficult for Kei to understand since he used to live in a far more populated city before his visit to Sakurada, but this residence had a room detached from the main building. That was where Kei lived.

Tomoki's grandfather built the detached building to be his study. It was originally a Japanese-style building but it was renewed with the main house's reform. The room was turned into a miniature Western house, slightly resembling an oversized doghouse.

With his borrowed key, Kei opened his room. Inside there were an immensely heavy wooden desk and a bookshelf with glass doors, both remnants from when the detached building was a study. The steel bed the Nakanos put there for Kei didn't match the decoration in the slightest.

Kei put his bag on the desk. He didn't keep much there. Only a pen stand, and next to it, a small cat-shaped keychain—No, the cat was no longer a keychain. With its metal fixture broken, it had lost all functionality. It was too unstable to use as a paperweight, easily rolling off from a mechanical pencil writing next to it.

Turned away from the artificial cat, Kei changed his uniform into a plain T-shirt and jeans.

When he came back to the hoop, Tomoki was sitting on the ball, bored out of his wits. He noticed Kei and stood up.

"Let's get started."

Playing basketball with Tomoki also became an immutable part of his daily life since age 13.

Kei lost the rock-paper-scissors game to determine who started on the offensive, so he stood turned away from the hoop. Then, he quickly closed his eyes.

Kei had the ability to perfectly remember his thought and sensations (for all 5 senses) from the past. His memory could be described as absolute. In his head, he can faithfully reproduce all of Tomoki's moves from the previous times they played basketball. The width of his steps, speed, preferred shooting forms, eye movement, minor idiosyncrasies, breathing rhythm—All of it in hundreds, thousands of instances.

Kei opened his eyes and smirked.

"I predict that you'll go for a feint on my right, then roll past me from my left."

Tomoki sighed heavily.

"Don't turn basketball into a psychological battle, man."

"I don't have a chance to beat you if I play normal."

"You sure?"

"Hm?"

"Nothing. Fine, do it your way."

Tomoki threw Kei the ball. Kei grabbed it and threw it back to him. Kei didn't know if that was how the official one-on-one rules went, but in the Nakano family court, the game started when the defense passed the ball to the offense.

Kei adjusted his legs to make it easier for him to move to the right. Tomoki lowered his center of gravity and sprinted. The ball hit the floor once, twice.

With the third bounce, Tomoki passed the ball from his right to his left hand. His body inclined. For a moment, his line of sight moved to Kei's right.

He noticed this was a feint. His posture, width of step, line of sight—and his expression. All these pieces of information allowed him to predict Tomoki's next move. He remembered all similar movements in the past and matched them with the current movements.

Exactly as Kei pointed out, Tomoki feigned going to the right and advanced with a sharp turn to the left. His words weren't a guess. He knew that if he said that, Tomoki would try to overcome him through the method told to him. But...

(That's another feint.)

Certain of that, Kei moved only his head, pretending to fall for Tomoki's trick. He had a perfect read on Tomoki's actions. He already had the timing and distance memorized. He didn't need to use his eyes.

Kei took a step forward while looking in the opposite direction. His head lagged behind to the right place.

Tomoki stood in front of him holding the ball above his head, in position for a short hop and a shoot.

Everything was as predicted. He reacted at the quickest timing. And yet... Tomoki smirked.

The time gap between Tomoki committing to the shoot and the ball flying off his hand was faster than he remembered. Stretching his hand mid-jump, Kei already knew.

(I won't reach.)

The ball passed above Kei's hand. After launching the ball, Tomoki's hand clenched into a fist. Kei twisted his body to pursue the ball's trajectory. Just to confirm what he already knew would happen.

The black silhouette of the ball contrasted against the sunset sky traveled its calculated course, passing through the hoop in an ideal high arc.

He heard the ball bounce on the ground. Tomoki smiled with joy.

"Perfect one, am I right?"

"I could have stopped that if we were the same height.", Kei answered after clicking his tongue.

Tomoki was almost 10cm taller than Kei.

"I don't care. Blame yourself for being a manlet."

"It's you who is too big. I'm barely below average."

"You're not winning this argument. You're a manlet compared to me."

"Compared to you, pretty much everyone is. I'm only 3cm shorter than our school's second-year average. Considering how taller than average you are, it's clear to see that's you who's too big, not I who am too small."

Tomoki laughed.

"No matter what you say, I still outplayed you."

"Basketball needs to start sorting people by height. Just like the weight classes in boxing."

Kei picked up the ball amidst his pointless arguments.

"I won't lose today.", he said just for saying. He didn't believe his own words.

The one-on-one basketball games in the Nakano courtyard lasted until either Tomoki scored 20 or Kei scored 10. That's a large handicap, but even then, Kei only won 30% of the time.

That day, Kei scored 6 points before Tomoki reached his 20. That was the average result.

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Before they knew it, the sun had set.

Once the game was over, Kei sat on the floor and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Tomoki lied down next to Kei to look at the sky. The air had a cold blue color and a smooth layer of humidity the moment before night arrived.

"You've gotten a little faster."

"Have I? Well, I am still growing, I suppose."

"You really should have joined the Basketball Club, with how good you are at it."

"No way. My thing is the Broadcast Club."

Tomoki was part of a mini-basketball team in elementary school, but entering middle school, he chose the Broadcast Club. Kei didn't know why he'd do that. He had no reason to complain about what club Tomoki was part of.

"Ok, you do you.", he answered as nonchalantly as he could muster. "Tomoki, you know that strange girl from your class?"

"A strange girl? You mean the long-haired one?"

"No, a short-haired one. Her name is Souma Sumire."

She and Tomoki were both in Class 2-1.

"Oh, our class rep."

He already knew she was the class representative.

He ran a quick search on her. Didn't find anything interesting. Souma Sumire seemed to be just a regular 14-year-old with no ability. The only unique things on her profile are the fact that she moved to Sakurada from another city last spring and that she helped the student council in her first school year. But this spring, she resigned from her student council volunteer position, which did raise some eyebrows.

Still lying down, Tomoki quickly turned his head and answered.

"I don't think Souma is weird. But what about her?"

"I was just curious."

"What, are you in love?"

"I hadn't considered this possibility."

Tomoki returned his gaze to the sky. Kei also raised his head, seeing nothing be gained from looking at Tomoki's face. The clouds moved like black shadows.

"Well, I can't even imagine you liking anyone."

"That's rude. You know I love you."

"Yuck. I like women."

"You shouldn't be assuming love is automatically romantic. I love spaghetti, but that doesn't mean I wanna date a bolognese."

"Did you just put me on the same level as food?"

"It was just an example."

He actually didn't like spaghetti all that much. It was a nice thing to have once in a while and nothing more. This really was only an example.

Tomoki shook his head exasperated.

"Ok, put that aside. You showing interest in a girl your age is an unprecedented event, ain't it?"

"Is it really?"

"Sure is. Did anything happen?"

After a short moment of hesitation, Kei answered.

"We've talked a few times. And then today, when I was leaving school, there was a letter in my shoe locker."

The letter came in a white portrait-sized envelope with a heart sticker.

"From Souma?"

"Yeah. It said she wanted to meet me on the rooftop after class tomorrow."

"She's asking you out, no doubt about it."

"If it was any other girl, I'd have suspected this possibility. But this is Souma we're talking about."

"So what? She's just your regular cheerful girl."

Kei noticed a great divergence of opinions about Souma between himself and Tomoki. He didn't seem like a good source of information.

(Whatever. I'll know the answer tomorrow.)

"By the way, who was the long-haired girl you mentioned?"

Kei abruptly changed subjects. A frequently used tactic for when subjects got annoying.

"Hm, oh, yeah. There's this weirdo with long hair. She's kinda like you."

"Oh? Now I'm interested."

"She rarely talks, never emotes, and seems completely uninterested in anyone around her. Her name is... I think Haruki, but I don't know how to write it."

"That's nothing like me. I'm more on the talkative side, emote richly, and my name is Asai Kei."

"I'll give you talkative, but emoting, really?"

Kei answered with a bright smile.

"You'd be hard-pressed to find someone with a worse poker face than mine."

Tomoki shook his head in disapproval.

"Sure, I'll believe it. You just have similar vibes."

"So you got nothing concrete to say."

"The simplest way to put would be... you two look like you don't pour your heart into most things you do."

Tomoki looked at Kei with an unusually serious face. Looking at it was kind of awkward, so Kei looked at the sky. The deep indigo took its place in the post-sunset sky, covering the world in deep shades and faint darkness.

Averting his eyes couldn't prevent Kei from hearing Tomoki's voice.

"For example, you don't really want to beat me at basketball, do you?"

His voice contained a hint of hesitation.

(Tomoki actually doesn't want to have this talk either. Then he should have never brought it up. Words don't need to convey anything more than the bare minimum. Talk to me like you're talking to a convenience store cashier.)

"Is that what I look like?"

"It's not. You look very realistically frustrated out of context. But I don't think you truly care."

"Why?"

"Dunno. Gut instinct."

"Sure..."

Kei stood up and slapped the dirt off his jeans.

He could notice Tomoki slightly raising his eyebrow in the dark.

"My bad, that was weird."

(If you think you need to apologize for it, don't even bring it up.), Kei thought but didn't point it out because he thought this was also unnecessary dialogue. Instead, he chose the answer that cut the conversation short.

"You don't need to apologize. More importantly, I want to wash off all this sweat before dinner. Can I use the shower first?"

"Go ahead."

"Thanks."

Kei turned away from Tomoki.

(I'm not wholly unfrustrated from losing at basketball.), he made excuses to himself. But he acknowledged the fact that he didn't care all that much for the results of the basketball games he played to pass the time.

(Ultimately, I think Tomoki's criticism is right.)

It was pretty much true that Kei didn't pour his heart into most things he did, although it was not a matter of where his heart was, but a matter of how much he had.

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The next day. April 28th, Wednesday.

That day, Kei remained in his classroom after class.

The letter he got from Souma only told him to go to the rooftop, without specifying the time. Kei opened a novel, having decided to waste at least 15 minutes before going.

It was the English mystery he bought the last day. It had the translator's commentary at the end of the book, and Kei decided to read that first. He wasn't particularly interested in the translator's commentary. What he was doing was similar in spirit to starting a set meal from the salad. He learned that the book was written 40 years ago, sold by multiple publishers, and won a minor award.

After reading the first few lines, he heard a sudden voice in his head.

He was very familiar with it. It was Tomoki's voice.

ーKei, I got a favor to ask. Can you wait for me in your classroom?

That was Tomoki's ability. He can select a time and send his voice to someone far away. Kei kept reading the novel in his hands, then Tomoki appeared exactly when he finished reading the translator's commentary.

"Bro, can I borrow your English dictionary?"

"Sure, but why do you need it after class?"

"I'm gonna use it in the club."

(What would the Broadcast Club use an English dictionary for? Are they going to translate the song titles?), Kei thought while he pulled the English dictionary out of his desk.

He chatted with Tomoki for a quick bit, and before he knew it, 15 minutes had passed. The two split paths early into the hallway and Kei took the stairs going up. He needed to climb two floors to reach the rooftop.

He remembered the letter in his shoe locker. ーCome to the southern school building rooftop on April 28th. Souma Sumire.

(What an entitled letter. I'm not asking for a fancy greeting paragraph, but at least tell me what do you want from me.)

Making loud and crude footsteps with his school-mandated indoor shoes, he climbed the stairs and opened the door leading to the rooftop.

But the one there wasn't Souma Sumire.

There was only a long-haired girl with no expression on her face.

Kei knew the girl's name. For a simple reason: he had the names of all students of his year memorized.

The girl's name was Haruki Misora.

A girl in the same class as Nakano Tomoki and Souma Sumire. He recalled Tomoki describing her as weird the previous day. Someone who, like Kei, doesn't pour her heart into what she does.

Haruki Misora's eyes were fixed on Kei.

But for whatever reason, Kei didn't feel seen. If Kei wasn't here, she would be looking in the same direction with the same face.

The long-haired girl's gaze was simple and devoid of will. Just as Tomoki described, he couldn't imagine her pouring her heart into anything.

Kei intentionally smiled and walked straight to Haruki. She didn't react. An unknown boy approaching did incite caution or nervousness in her.

He started the conversation.

"You're from 2-1, right?"

Haruki took a while to react. It was as if he couldn't see or hear Kei. Once Kei walked next to her, she finally answer with a quiet voice.

"Yes."

He was disturbed by the timing of the response but tried his best not to show it on his face.

"Do you know Souma from your class?"

"Yes."

"Great. Souma told me to come here. Do you know where she is?"

"No."

(What's this girl's problem? I feel like I'm talking to a concrete wall.)

After some thought, Kei asked another question.

"What's your favorite food?"

He wanted to test if she could say anything other than yes or no.

The question came out of nowhere but she answered with no signs of surprise.

"I don't have any."

"Ok. Least favorite food then?"

"I don't have any."

"Must be nice not to be picky. You sound like you have a very healthy diet."

While giving this half-hearted answer, Kei internally cursed Tomoki. (How the hell is this girl anything like me? I look way more human than this.)

"By the way, why are you here? If you wanna be alone, I don't mind leaving."

"I'm here because Souma Sumire invited me. I don't particularly want to be alone."

(I didn't think she could give answers this long.)

Kei let out an intentional sigh.

"I wish you had brought that up back when I mentioned Souma's name."

She tilted her head, not understanding what he said.

Paying attention to her every reaction would prove stressful. Kei followed up with a question.

"Can you tell me more about Souma?"

"I don't know what you mean by 'more'."

"Anything. Just tell me whatever you know about her."

Haruki lowered her head with a fixed speed and raised it again at the same pace. An affirmative nod, even if it didn't look like one.

"Souma Sumire is the representative of Class 2-A. She instructed me to head here on my own before her because she would be late due to her class representative tasks."

"And do you know what those tasks are?"

"No."

"Ok."

It couldn't be a meeting with all class representatives because Kei's class rep wasn't called. Kei didn't remember his teacher saying anything to that effect. That said, it could have been an errand only she was asked to do.

(Eh, doesn't matter.)

Only one thing was important: Souma called Kei and Haruki to the rooftop at the same time. She had something in mind, and for that, she needed to make the two of them meet.

"Did you know that Souma called me too?"

"No."

"What about the reason why we were called?"

"I don't know."

"Me neither. Man, what's Souma even thinking?"

(How am I supposed to kill time alone with this bizarre girl? I guess we could play word chain? I don't feel like Haruki will refuse. She could play along with the word chain in the same monotone as the previous conversation. I say Squirrel, she says Lily, I say Yell, she says Lexicographical.)

Kei was struck with curiosity to see a girl say the word "lexicographical" with no emotion in her voice but knew he would gain nothing from putting his wish to the test. Instead, Kei asked a slightly more meaningful question.

"Are you friends with Souma?"

Haruki tilted her head.

"I don't know the definition of friends."

"Okay. Then do you talk to Souma often?"

"Souma is most likely the classmate I spoke with the most last year."

"Oh, you were in the same class last year too."

Kei remembered the class distribution chart he got when he first came to Nanasaka Middle School last year. Indeed, Haruki and Souma were both listed under class 1-4.

"Then I don't see why you wouldn't call yourselves close friends."

"Because I believe the frequency in which I talk to classmates is far below the middle school average."

"Really?"

Haruki rhythmically nodded.

"The person with which I talked the longest in this second year is you."

This was their first talk. The bar was really low to make him number 1.

"The school year started only 20 days ago. You still have a lot of opportunities to talk to people."

"Is conversation necessary?"

"Good question. I can't exactly say it is. Suit yourself."

Haruki didn't answer, perhaps because of what Kei said. Kei couldn't find further reason to talk and leaned on the rooftop handrail.

Students walked on the street in front of the school, on their way home. Their intriguing voices were faintly audible from the rooftop. Kei was comfortable with this distance from the crowd.

Kei and Haruki stood on the rooftop in silence for a while. He wondered when Souma was going to appear. He considered waiting 5 more minutes before thinking about what to do next. His options were going home or actually playing word chain.

Until now, Haruki spent this entire time looking at the rooftop entrance, but then she moved next to him. She looked at the street in front of the middle school.

(Did anything catch her interest? I can't even imagine what could interest her.)

Her expression remained colorless and invisible as always. He couldn't find any emotion in it. The night sky couldn't hope to compare to the darkness contained in her face. Kei followed her line of sight.

Students walking home on the street in front of their middle school. Fewer than before. The peak hour of student traffic had already passed. A girl was crouching on a corner on the other side of the street. She wasn't a Nanasaka student. She looked too young to be a middle schooler. It was a girl in the earliest years of elementary school.

He could tell at first glance. She was crying.

Did she trip? Was she lost? He couldn't know why and her cries wouldn't reach the rooftop. But the fact remained that a girl was crying alone under Haruki Misora's gaze.

Kei returned his gaze to Haruki. Her hair was fluttering in the wind. Her naturally wavy hair spread its thin tips.

Her pale lips made the slightest movement.

"Reset.", whispered Haruki Misora.

A whisper like a sigh.

Haruki Misora's voice was slightly coarse and considerably deep for girl standards.

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April 27th, Tuesday.

He found an envelope with a heart sticker in his shoebox, bought an English mystery in the bookstore on the national highway, and accepted Tomoki's invitation for a game of basketball upon getting to the Nakano residence.

He operated as if commanded by a program.

Kei lost the rock-paper-scissors game to determine who started on the offensive, so he stood turned away from the hoop.

Then, he quickly closed his eyes. He tried to recall the width of Tomoki's steps, speed, preferred shooting forms, eye movement, minor idiosyncrasies, breathing rhythm—All of it in hundreds, thousands of instances.

It all started with something feeling off.

(The memory range is not the same as usual.)

His description was not accurate but he didn't know how else to word it. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the previous month. It felt more distant than it used to be.

Inhaling deeply to steel himself like you do when about to take a dive, Kei tried to remember "yesterday".

The day before April 27th. Normally that would be April 26th.

But what he found was another April 27th.

When he came to his senses, his head was overloaded with information. His memories continued from this moment to the next day—All the way up to the rooftop after class on April 28th.

A headache and nausea accompanied the approximately 24 hours' worth of memories suddenly forcing themselves into his brain. Kei grabbed his forehead to fasten his hazy consciousness tight.

He clenched his eyes close. The back of his eyelids showed faint red-tinged lights scattered through the dark, and he could hear Tomoki's disconcerted voice.

"What's wrong?"

Kei opened his eyes and forced a smile.

"Nothing. I was just thinking about how I don't stand a chance."

In trying to remember the past, he saw the future.

Kei will lose this basketball game. He'll only manage to score 6 points before Tomoki hits his 20.

(Time turned back.)

The reason why he could understand that so smoothly is that he already experienced that multiple times before. In the two years that Kei had his absolute Memory Retention ability, he's been experiencing that every few months.

Someone used an ability. One that affects time.

The 24 hours' worth of lost memories spread disorderly through his head. Kei realigned the memories in proper chronological order. At the end of the process, he found one word at the last moment before time turned back.

The girl on the rooftop. She had beautiful wavy hair fluttering in the wind.

Her pale lips whispered.

In a voice like a sigh filled with resignation.

ーReset.

Immediately after it, the world turned back the clock.

(Amazing.)

The moment one girl said "Reset", the world returned from April 28th to April 27th. Could it all be a coincidence? Could the two things be completely unrelated?

Or was it Haruki Misora?

Could a girl that small have an ability so big it could return everything in the world, if not the universe, to the past? Could she pull off an effect this powerful with a single word?

(I can't believe this.)

Kei involuntarily laughed.

"Seriously, what's wrong, Kei?"

He heard Tomoki's voice.

"I just remembered something nice."

He focused on his memories and opened the eyes he had closed without noticing it.

He saw Tomoki's uneasy face, but couldn't bother concerning himself with it.

The ability to turn back time. That was an extremely significant ability for Kei. An ability that saved him in the past once, to be specific.

Haruki Misora whispered it.

ーReset.

(What a perfect word for that ability.)

"Tomoki, let's play some basketball.", said Kei, still not done laughing.

(Let's get this day over with already. So I can see Haruki Misora again tomorrow.)

#sagrada reset #memory in children #mechanical choices #asai kei #nakano tomoki #haruki misora

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kaibutsushidousha · 9 months

Text

Memory in Children: Mechanical Choices (Sagrada Reset 3) - Chapter 1: The beginning of a summer (Asai Kei, post-Reset)

[INDEX]

To Asai Kei, this was the second April 28th, Wednesday.

After classes were over, Kei immediately left his classroom, clutching his English dictionary.

Before the Reset, Kei wasted some time in his classroom before going to the rooftop. But this time, things were different. He sprinted to class 2-1. Nakano Tomoki's, Souma Sumire's, and Haruki Misora's class.

He had things he wanted to verify before meeting Haruki.

Why was Haruki in the place he was called for instead of Souma? Why did time rewind when Haruki said "Reset"? How much of these events were orchestrated by Souma?

On the other side of the hallway, Tomoki appeared out of the destination room.

"Yo, Kei."

"Hey. You can borrow this."

Kei pressed the English dictionary against his chest.

"Hm? A dictionary?"

"Yeah, you'll use it in the club."

"Oh, true. How did you know?"

(Because you asked for it before the time rewind. But I'm not gonna bother explaining all that.)

"It's a long story. By the way, is Souma still in the room?"

"Oh, found her. Want me to call her?"

"No, it's fine."

Her being there was all Kei needed. The room had two doors, but standing in the hallway, both were within his view. With his eyes on the doors, Kei passed the time chatting with Tomoki.

They talked about the Broadcast Club, about music, and about movies they liked.

Suddenly, a voice echoed inside his head. A voice identical to Tomoki's voice, but not talking about movies like he was.

ーKei, I got a favor to ask. Can you wait for me in your classroom?

The exact same words he heard pre-Reset.

Same as always. Kei already knew from experience that whenever time rewound, Tomoki's activated ability would take effect again. Case and point, the voice that reached him on the first April 28th reached him again on the second.

"Tomoki. Did you use your ability to send a voice to this moment?", Kei asked just to make double sure.

He wrung his neck with doubt.

"No. Why?"

"Nothing major."

(A Reset doesn't erase Tomoki's ability. When multiple abilities with contradictory effects activate, only the ability with the highest intensity takes effect. So Tomoki's ability to send a message to a determined hour has a higher intensity than Haruki's Reset? At the very least, I can be confident my Memory Retention intensity is higher. That's how I can remember events erased by the Reset. And I can't be only with higher intensity than her. What's the Bureau's opinion on this? It's kinda like a glitch in her ability, so couldn't this cause a dangerous situation? I wanna know the details of how Reset works. How can I gain more info on the ability?)

While he was deep in thought, Souma Sumire appeared out of the Class 2-1 door. She walked away, showing no signs of having noticed him.

Souma was his greatest priority at the moment.

"Sorry, Tomoki. I got something to do now."

"Oh, sure. It's almost time for me to go to the club."

Kei quickly waved goodbye to Tomoki and walked after Souma. He kept his distance, concealing the sound of his footsteps as he pursued Souma Sumire.

She proceeded through the hallways with no brakes or detours. She was heading to the eastern school building. A place with no crowd, home to special classrooms, like the cooking room and the art room.

With fewer people around, he's grown more conscious of his footsteps. He wanted to learn Souma's goal if possible, but it might have become difficult to do it unnoticed.

Souma climbed the stairs at the end of the hallway. Kei sneaked close to the stairs. He could hear the Concert Band Club rehearsing in one of the music rooms on the first floor.

When he turned to look into the new hallway after climbing the stairs, he unexpectedly made eye contact with Souma. She was standing immediately in front of him with a smile.

"Good afternoon, Asai."

(Sigh, she heard the footsteps. When did she notice it?)

"What are you doing here, Souma?"

"Class representative duties."

"Here?"

(What could she be doing in the middle of a regular hallway?)

Souma quickly nodded.

"The place doesn't matter. It can be anywhere but the southern building rooftop."

"What's the meaning of sending me this?"

Kei pulled out of his pocket the letter found in his shoe locker. A white envelope with a heart sticker. But the heart was ripped in half.

"Cute, isn't it? Did it get you excited?"

"Only until I read your name."

"It took me quite a lot of searching to find an envelope size that perfectly fits your shoe locker."

"I don't know enough about envelopes to comment. But I think it's really mean to invite someone to a place and not go there."

Souma smiled softly.

"Sorry. But I really wanted you to be alone with a certain girl."

"That's your class representative duty?"

"Yup. Although half done for my own benefit."

He understood nothing.

"Is Haruki the person you want me to meet?", he asked.

She responded with a short nod, barely moving her thin chin.

"Exactly. How did you know?"

"It's a long story."

He had no intention of informing her that time had rewound 24 hours. He couldn't tell if Souma knew about Haruki's ability.

"And what makes introducing Haruki to me be part of your job as representative?", Kei asked.

"She doesn't have many close friends.", she beamed a smiled.

"And?"

"I thought that if I introduced you to Haruki, you two could be friends. Let's go to the southern building rooftop.", said Souma before she started walking.

Kei walked next to her and sighed.

"I don't see how that's a job for a class representative."

"Really? I think being concerned about everyone's relationships is a pretty essential part of the job."

"I'm not from your class. If you wanna make friends for Haruki, you should make do with the people in your class, methinks."

"Impossible."

With no change to her smile or the tone of her voice, Souma made a statement in absolute terms.

"Not many people have the potential to become her friend. No one in my class can. In that case, what can I do but choose from other classes?"

"Class 2-1 has Tomoki. Nakano Tomoki. He's a lot better at making friends than I am."

"Maybe for normal girls. But for Haruki, he's a no-go. She's a very strange girl."

"And what about you, Souma?"

"Me?"

"You can be Haruki's friend."

"That'd be difficult. I'll try, but I think I'm another no-go. The two of us are very incompatible. We're like a cat and a crow fighting over the last bit of water in the desert.", Souma maintained her indistinct smile. "I'm sure we won't become friends."

Those words were unexpected to him. He couldn't tell why. He didn't know Souma well enough to have a read on her. But nonetheless, this felt unexpected. "We won't become friends". Words of reluctance.

The two take a turn to the hallway on the way out of the eastern school building.

"Ok, I get it that Haruki is the type that can't make friends easily. But why did you choose me for it?", Kei asked.

"Because you two are very compatible."

"What makes you think so?"

"I mean, you two are so similar."

The same thing Tomoki told him. Kei frowned and asked.

"What about us is similar?"

"Your values, presence, character, philosophies. Something vague in between those things. You two are like water and ice, but not exactly. Perhaps like air and vacuum, perhaps like faith and law. Oh, right. Like gravity and gravitation—that's the best comparison."

He understood nothing.

"I don't know about the other examples, but I don't think air and vacuum have anything in common."

"You think so? If I put air and vacuum in transparent boxes, they'd look the same to me though."

"You're not speaking in terms of essence. Air and vacuum are far more different than a crescent moon and a banana."

"So you do get what I meant. One's essence is not like the other's. But when put into proximity, they naturally mingle. Like how air expands to occupy all of the vacuum."

Kei shook his head.

"You got nothing concrete to say."

"Ok, let me dumb it down for you—"

Tomoki's answer to the same topic was "You two don’t pour your heart into most things you do."

"The way you two take life so seriously is identical.", Souma said with a warm smile and a cold voice.

Her assessment could be taken as the opposite of Tomoki's.

"Asai, if you wanna be Haruki's friend, you have my support."

"I don't see any meaning in befriending her."

"I do. I see a huge meaning in you two being together. See—", Souma leaned to Kei's ear and whispered. "Do you want me to tell you what Haruki's ability does?"

His heart beat faster. How much did Souma Sumire know? It felt like she knew everything.

"You know her ability?"

"Yup."

"How?"

Souma changed smiles. She now had a mean-spirited smile, not too dissimilar to the Chesire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.

"When I'm in the right place and the right mindset, I get any information I want. It's automatic."

(That answered nothing.)

Before he could point that out, she returned to a previous topic.

"Hey, Asai, what's the difference between gravity and gravitation?"

"Gravitation is the force we receive from other masses. Gravity is the total force you get when you add other forces, like centrifugal and whatnot, to gravitation."

For example, everything on Earth is affected by the planet's gravitation, and gravity is the force of this gravitation combined with the centrifugal force of Earth's rotation.

Souma nodded.

"Haruki is like gravitation. One pure force. And you add a different vector of force to her. In other words, you're gravity."

"I'll agree that she's the pure one."

"But you're the greater force. Although your force is diminished by as much your vector conflicts with hers."

The two made it through the hallway to the other building and started climbing the stairs.

The tallest place in the southern building. Souma opened the door to the rooftop.

The wind blew with a loud noise.

The girl's long hair was fluttering in their direction.

(Was she watching the crying girl? Like how she was doing before the time rewind, when she whispered "Reset" with so much apparent resignation?)

As Haruki turned around, her face was expressionless, in what seemed to be a total rejection of emotion.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunlight was warm in the second half of April, but the wind still blew slightly cold.

Souma Sumire sat on a corner of the rooftop, looking at the sky.

"Let's talk.", she said.

"Talk about what?", Kei asked after sighing.

"About anything. For example, I'm sorta against how the year is divided into 4 seasons."

Kei leaned on the handrail.

"But the seasons have benefits. Like how you can blame the heat of August on the Summer."

"I'm not rejecting Summer. Look, April is almost over. No blossoms left in the cherry tree, see? I can feel the end of Spring in that. But Summer is still far away."

Souma looked at Haruki and asked.

"Hey, what's the next season going to be?"

Haruki slowly blinked and then answered promptly.

"Next weekend will be the first day of Summer."

Souma smiled.

"Really? Summer is much closer than I thought."

And then she looked at the sky again.

Kei casually turned his eyes in the same direction.

The southern sky at the end of April. The gap between Spring and Summer. The sky was in the process of shifting from the pale blue of Spring, the color of zero gravity, to the deep blue of Summer, a color that draws all in with strong gravitation.

The pale of spring felt still far more prominent than the deep. His impression was that Summer was a lot more distant than the weekend.

"Then let's spend the days of this upcoming Summer here.", Souma Sumire said. "We'll get together on this rooftop all the time and exchange words to get to know each other."

Kei tilted his head.

"Is there any purpose to this?"

Kei pretended to not care but was deep in thought.

Souma was proposal was appealing. If Haruki had the ability to rewind time, he'd love to be on close terms with her.

But on the other hand, he couldn't tell what Souma was thinking. It was hard to believe that she was simply trying to make friends for Haruki because she was her class representative.

"Purpose.", after repeating Kei's word, she smiled. "Each of us can just find one on our own, no need to follow what others say here. We'll simply meet and talk. Just rest our wings together like sparrows roosting on the same power line."

"I hate acting without an objective."

"Ok. I'll shoehorn in some random purpose for you."

After pausing for a brief moment of thought, she spoke.

With a calm voice, raising her delicate chin to look at the southern sky.

"Suppose one of us is an android."

"An android?"

"Yes. An artificial something created to resemble a human being. Practically indistinguishable from a person. You could hold their hand, kiss them, examine their blood, and wouldn't be able to tell they were artificial. Only by measuring their degree of empathy that you can finally begin to surmise they're not human. Wasn't there a novel like this?"

Kei sighed and answered.

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — Written by Philip K. Dick in 1968."

"Yeah. The android from this story. Suppose that android is among us."

The elaborate androids you see in sci-fi novels don't exist.

"And what's the purpose of this supposition?"

"A simple question—Who is the android?"

"You think that's a meaningful question?"

"Absolutely. Who is the android? Under what grounds will you argue your answer? The initial purpose of our encounters will be to get the three together to think things thoroughly until we produce an answer."

Kei shrugged.

"Just examine their spine. You can identify androids like that in Electric Sheep."

"Are you forgetting what 'suppose' means? All of us are normal human beings. We'll think under the assumption one is an android, and guess who it is. Then, at the end of summer, we'll compare our answers."

Android.

The first one that word brought to mind was Haruki.

A girl with no expression and no hints of free will. Kei knew barely anything about her. But to him, it seemed like she always operated in accordance with a program. Like an artificial construct.

Haruki Misora was still standing a few steps away from Kei and Souma. Souma was calling the three of them to meet regularly, and yet she was positioned like an unrelated third party.

(Is this Souma's way of commanding me to think about Haruki?)

They would see each other every day and further their understanding of Haruki Misora. He could agree these acts had a purpose.

He could benefit from having a good read on her—the one with the ability to rewind time.

"Haruki, do you agree?", Souma asked.

Haruki tilted her head slightly.

"I never read the book."

"You should. I'll lend it to you tomorrow."

"Understood."

The sun started setting before they knew it.

"Let us meet here again when summer begins.", said Souma under the light of sunset.

#sagrada reset #memory in children #mechanical choices #asai kei #nakano tomoki #souma sumire #haruki misora

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