Memory in Children: Mechanical Choices (Sagrada Reset 3) - Epilogue
[INDEX]
Two years ago, on April 28th, Asai Kei met Souma Sumire.
It was around 6 PM on the tetrapods.
2 years and 142 days later, the two were on the tetrapods again.
Considering the time erased by Resets, that gap would be longer. But regardless, the two were together again on August 28th.
This time they were in opposite positions. Souma was sitting on the tetrapods and Kei walked to her.
If she were on the rooftop of the southern school building, he would have brought Haruki with him, but since Souma was on the tetrapods, Kei came alone.
It was around 6 PM, just like when they first met. But since they were in a different season, the color of the sky was completely different. The tetrapods were engulfed by the sunset on April 28th, 6 PM. But on August 28th, despite the sun starting to sink, the sky was still blue. Things aren't like they were back then.
Seeing Kei's standing figure on the tetrapods, Souma smiled.
"Hi, Kei."
Souma's voice. As leisurely as it was 2 years before.
Kei laughed, baffled.
"Hi. It's been a long time, but not to you, I guess."
"Yeah, to me it feels like we met 3 days ago."
"When was that?"
"In my mind, Mari's mother tried to leave Sakurada 3 days ago."
"Ok, that's all sorted then."
Mari's mother tried to leave Sakurada on August 13th. Three days after it was—August 16th. That was when Sasano Hiroyuki photographed Souma Sumire.
Kei put his hands on the ground and sat next to Souma. It was like he was retracing her every movement.
"You've grown a lot taller. I'm a bit surprised."
"It's because I used to be short. Now I'm my class' average."
"How have you been doing in these past two years?"
"It's been alright. A lot happened. Both nice things and tragic things."
"Are you getting along better with Haruki?"
"A lot better than 2 years ago. Haruki changed. She's a pretty normal girl now. And she'll still change more."
"Yeah."
Souma smiled. A regular smile with no good or ill intent.
"Are you fine with that, Kei?"
It wasn't a question he'd hesitate to say yes.
"Of course. It's great that this is happening."
And yet, Souma disagreed.
"But didn't you fall in love specifically with the Haruki from 2 years ago? The invariably simple girl with a sense of self? Didn't you fall in love specifically with the girl who resembled the concept of pure good?"
"I'm not sure. I don't remember anymore."
Souma put on an amused smile. She had many smile variations.
"I can tell you went through many different experiences and got quite strong."
Kei didn't clearly understand what she meant by "strong". He thought he knew before but he could tell that he was misunderstanding it. It was difficult to understand the meaning of strength when all your previous knowledge of it was wrong, he thought.
Since he couldn't tell, his answer wasn't a yes or a no.
"I can at least tell that I changed in some way."
"Do you have an example?"
(Do I...?)
After some pause, Kei answered:
"If a girl invited me to watch the sunset with her, I wouldn't refuse."
"Even if you have a novel to finish?"
"Yeah. I can take my time to read after it's dark and I'm back home."
(What would have changed if I had gone to watch the sunset with Souma on the day of our last conversation? Would I have managed to get a deeper understanding of her?)
"I have two questions for you.", Kei brought up.
"Only two?"
"For now. Two are enough as a starting point."
"Fine by me. Then what's the first?"
"It's about something that happened two years ago, before you fell into the river. You recorded your voice to send to yourself with Tomoki's ability."
ー Can you hear my voice?
Souma sent this simple message to herself two years in the future.
"I did, what about it?"
"I never got to hear the exact time. When you will get the message?"
Souma Sumire shifted her gaze to her thin wristwatch.
"In about 5 minutes from now. I set it for 6:30 today."
"Makes sense."
Now he could tell why she prepared that.
It's the Swampman question. Was the girl in front of him the real Souma Sumire or someone else who just happened to be identical in every way? She had the tools necessary to get a concrete answer. If she was Souma Sumire, she would get the message addressed to her. And if she wasn't, she wouldn't.
(That must be what this is about.)
"And what's the second question?", Souma tilted her head.
Kei nodded and asked:
"Why did you die?"
An accident is not a reason to die when one has Future Sight as their ability.
She chose her death. In cold blood. Immediately after a Reset. She intentionally timed her death in a way Kei and Haruki's powers combined couldn't hinder it.
Despite the dark subject, the sky's blue remained as clear, deep, and quiet as always. Souma's answer had the same tone as this sky.
"She had her reasons why her death was necessary."
The girl sitting next to Kei said "She".
She referred to the Souma from two years ago as "She".
"Reasons necessitating death.", Kei repeated dodging the pronoun detail.
"Yes. Reasons to die a sudden and sloppy death that would look like an accident."
"But you're here now."
Just as Souma Sumire planned two years ago. It wasn't an ordinary suicide since she went out of her way to revive later. What was the need to die?
"Everything was necessary. Both her death and the origin of her clone, me."
"Why?"
"That's a secret. Let me keep it to myself. It won't be for long."
He didn't even want to imagine what reasons would necessitate a girl's death.
But he had to. Because Souma Sumire died. Even if the girl next to him is the real Souma Sumire, it doesn't change that she died once.
"You have the right to hate me. I did enough to deserve it.", she mumbled with hints of solitude.
He didn't have an immediate answer.
Souma Sumire's death scarred Haruki—or to be more accurate, Kei was the one scarred by her death. But hurting Kei simultaneously hurt Haruki. So much so that it distorted her ability. It scarred Haruki so bad that she could no longer use her ability by her own command.
Souma knew this would happen. She knew everything.
Kei sighed and agreed.
"Right. I can't forgive you."
What she did wasn't justifiable.
Souma slightly lowered her gaze.
"I'm sorry. I mean it. But I really had to. I can't stop what was set in motion, even though it hurt you and will still hurt you more."
(Of course it will. She chose to die and come back to life. That can't be the end of the insanity. It was obvious there was more to come.)
Kei looked into her eyes with a prayer in his heart.
"What's your goal?"
She lowered her eyelids before speaking.
"Say, Kei, do you know why I named the black stone MacGuffin?"
The MacGuffin. The stone used to unite Kei with the persons with the necessary abilities and to indicate Souma's machinations. A worthless pebble, just charged with overblown rumors.
"A MacGuffin is the prop that invites the protagonist to the plot."
The plot device that leads a specific individual to where they can be the story's protagonist. A MacGuffin could be a mysterious suitcase forced on their hands, an indecipherable letter, or anything of the sort.
Souma nodded.
"I chose you to be the protagonist of the story I arranged. Every event this far has been in preparation for that."
"And what's the plot you prepared?"
That was her goal.
A girl's reason to die and come back to life.
"If you got that black stone, then you already know."
Under that painfully blue sky...
Souma watched Kei with eyes deep as the sky itself.
"The owner of the MacGuffin will control all abilities in Sakurada."
What she said was overblown.
Absurd.
Kei sighed again. (Not very convincing.), he thought.
Next, he asked:
"Did you get to hear your voice?"
Souma Sumire's voice from two years ago. ー Can you hear my voice?
It was already past 6:30. She already had her answer.
She slightly tilted her head.
"Which do you want the answer to be?"
Late to the job, the lowest part of the sky was starting to turn red.
"I'm sure your choice will be the right one."
Her voice was quiet, but certain.
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Memory in Children: Mechanical Choices (Sagrada Reset 3) - Chapter 3: The end of a summer (2 years later/August 30th, Wednesday)
[INDEX]
The 16-year-old Asai Kei and Haruki Misora sat on the tetrapods under the quiet light of sunset. The silence continued until the twilight sank.
When the last bit of light disappeared under the distant buildings on the other side of the coast, Murase Youka appeared. And when the azure of night started to recolor the pink clouds of sunset, Sakagami Yousuke appeared.
The users of every ability necessary to take Souma Sumire out of her photo have gathered together.
Sakagami had left Sakurada two years ago at the end of the school year. But he always returned to the city around this time of the year, for the mourning rites on Souma's death anniversary. Kei already knew that.
That was their only window of opportunity. He already explained the purpose and usage of each ability in the previous day.
(We'll bring Souma Sumire back to life.)
Murase felt resistant to the idea of reviving the dead. But she ultimately agreed. She remembered her brother, who also died in an accident. Sakagami, on the other hand, actively wanted to bring Souma back from the dead. And it didn't start now. He had been like this since the day after Souma died two years ago. What he felt for Souma was close to religious worship.
Haruki Saved on August 28th, a date before Kei explained the operation. All preparations were already in order.
The 28th—two days before. That was the day Sakagami came to Sakurada. And before he learned about the plan to take Sumire Souma out of the photo.
Kei's choice of day to Save was very deliberate. It was timed so Sakagami wouldn't remember anything after the project's resolution. Kei didn't know if that choice was right or wrong. He believed there was no correct option on this one.
At this point, he couldn't find the words to say. He shared impersonal greetings with Murase and Sakagami and pulled the photograph out of his pocket.
It was a picture Sasano Hiroyuki took of those tetrapods 2 years ago. The image of Souma from 2 years ago was contained within the frame.
Kei, Haruki, Murase, Sakagami—each of the four grabbed a corner of the photo. With a tug, the picture is ripped apart, making a crispy noise.
Immediately after it, their sight is taken over by a powerful white light. A light like the flash of a camera. Sakagami screamed.
Kei closed his eyes for an instant and opened them back.
The temperature was not that different.
Same silence too.
But the sun that he saw sink behind the buildings was still in the sky. The scenery seemed like time was rewound less than 10 minutes. But the world recreated here was from 2 years ago.
As proof, Souma Sumire was there atop the tetrapods behind him.
The 14-year-old Souma was still the same mature-looking girl with mysterious hints of childishness. She was extending her hand in his direction. With the MacGuffin on top of it.
At the moment, the thought of saying something to her didn't cross his mind.
She was also looking at him without saying a thing. She had a beautiful smile under the sunset.
The girl who died two years ago. She looked daring, solitary, and capricious like a stray cat. But this girl planned everything down to every tiny detail and executed her design flawlessly. Now he could see a glimpse of the emotions hidden behind that smile.
The android girl.
The girl chained by the future. Her every action followed the codes of a program. The girl who died unable to break the chain of the future—the girl who arranged her own death.
Sakagami watched her with stunned awe.
Then he crawled up the tetrapods. Murase followed behind him. Kei sighed. He noticed he wasn't breathing. He chalked it up to nervousness.
Haruki Misora turned her back on Souma. It seemed like her usual behavior at first glance but there was a mix of hidden emotions in the gesture. Kei was the only one who saw it.
"Will you not go?", she quietly asked.
With a smile, Kei shook his head.
"I feel like my moment to talk to her is not now."
(Will we be a trio again? Will we be able to have a space like the one we had on the rooftop? That's probably asking for too much. There's no turning back. Our only chance to remain ignorant is two years in the past.)
Sakagami was shouting upon getting up close to Souma. Behind him, Murase looked displeased. Eventually, Sakagami touched Souma's and Murase's shoulders. Murase with his right hand and Souma with his left.
Murase looked at Kei, nodded, and spoke loud enough for him to hear it from over there.
"Body, reset."
With that, Murase was immune to the effects of the Reset. And so was Souma, via Sakagami's copy of Souma's ability. They could fully cancel the Reset's influence.
"Haruki, Reset.", Kei whispered.
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