#urachi masamune | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kaibutsushidousha · 7 months

Text

Memory in Children: Mechanical Choices (Sagrada Reset 3) - Chapter 2: Android Girl (Early June)

[INDEX]

"We should work together.", Kei suggested after class on June 7th, Monday. Souma had to see someone else and would be late, so only Kei and Haruki were on the rooftop. "If we combine our abilities, we can do pretty much anything. We'll be able to breeze through pretty much any problem that comes our way."

However, despite knowing Kei's ability, Haruki's expression didn't change.

As always she shook her head in silence, with no expression to be found on her face.

"I dislike the idea."

This was his first time seeing Haruki express a clear refusal. So far, her answer for almost everything had been a "do as you please" nod.

"Why?"

Haruki answered dispassionately as if reading from a manual.

"I'm following the rules."

She spoke as if that statement removed all doubts, and then continued to be silent.

"I wanna know more about those rules. Who made them and with what intentions in mind?"

"I made the rules to conduct how I make decisions."

"What are the rules?"

"There are many. For example, I will refuse to contribute to a situation that would inflict ill effects on my living environment."

The potential to inflict ill effects on her living environment. Her phrasing truly sounded read off a manual.

"You think us working together would cause problems?"

"It's possible."

"How so?"

She looked at him with her emotionless eyes.

"Because you can exploit Reset for your own purposes.", she declared with no malice or hostility, in an astoundingly matter-of-factly voice. "When I Reset, I lose my memory of it. I won't notice your lies. It gives you too much hegemony. And nothing indicates I should trust you."

"I see, I can't argue against that."

Haruki Misora was not a fool. She knew how to doubt people. It's just that she normally feels no need to doubt.

After some thought, Kei opened his mouth again.

"Haruki. You Reset here on this rooftop on April 28th after class, right?"

"I don't remember it clearly."

"It's the day we first met."

"Yes. I believe I did."

"Why did you Reset back then?"

"A girl was crying."

"You Reset when you see girls cry?"

"It's decided that I use Reset whenever I see anyone cry."

("It's decided". What a passive way to phrase it. This girl speaks passively even about her own choices.)

"That's another rule you established, right?"

"Yes."

"But, you know, Haruki, you using Reset without me is pointless. Your Reset won't stop the girl from crying."

"Yes, probably."

"Then why do you follow this rule? I don't understand that."

She answered in her usual tone. No emotion, no filter. Like she was merely reciting facts.

"Pointlessness is not a valid reason to break the rules."

He gulped. Her answer stabbed him like a blade.

Kei then internally laughed at his foolishness. He didn't know the first thing about this girl. He once again realized that.

Nothing about Haruki Misora felt human. He thought he already knew that well enough when he first met her, but he was wrong. The part she lacked was located much deeper.

Normal people can't withstand pointlessness. It's not fundamentally pointless to repeat actions one finds pointless. Those can induce some form of enjoyment, tranquility, or satisfaction no one else understands.

But that didn't apply to Haruki Misora.

This girl was like a computer following the programs installed in her without knowing what they were for. She laid out rules she would keep following no matter what. Always, until there is a fatal error in the code. Like an android. An artificial something created to resemble a human being.

Somewhere in the past, Haruki programmed herself. She coded herself with the word "rules". That was what made the girl so artificial.

He almost failed to hold back his laughter. Nothing came out loud, but he had a heartfelt smile.

"Haruki."

This was the point he decided to stop having a filter when talking to her.

"I will earn your trust in the near future."

She answered in a quiet tone.

"I have never trusted anyone before."

"Ok. Then I'll be the first.", he answered with pride and confidence—an intentional display of pride and confidence.

Haruki was always expressionless and Kei always smiled.

This conversation ended when Souma appeared on the rooftop.

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

That day, Souma accompanied Kei on his walk home. It happened often because the path to her house was the same as his until half of the way.

"Kei. Are you getting along with Haruki?"

Since the end of Golden Week, Souma had started calling Kei by his first name. Completely naturally, as if this was to be expected of her.

"I'm not sure. The situation is kinda complex.", Kei shook his head.

"Heh. Didn't think I'd hear the word 'complex' coming out of your mouth."

"I avoid using it as much as possible, but her case demands the exception. She's a puzzle so difficult I'm starting to wonder if there is no answer."

"Really? I find her quite simple."

"She is simple, and that's the problem. I find excessive simplicity as hard to parse as excessive complication—For example, Souma, have you ever fallen in love?"

She nodded.

"I have. Very deeply. I feel in love with someone so deeply nothing else mattered."

(Unexpected answered, but it's wiser not to prod.)

"Was that emotion complicated?", Kei asked.

Souma shook her head.

"I found it simple. I found it very, very simple."

"Same for me. Love. Four letters. But I don't know how to verbally express the feeling of falling in love to someone who never experienced it."

(No matter how I phrase it, the explanation will feel incomplete.)

Souma Sumire giggled. And then she spoke with a deep and contained voice. Like the voice of God confirming the truth of the world.

"In this situation, you should give them a wordless hug. A loving, heartfelt one."

"That's not what I'm talking about.", Kei sighed.

"It's the same thing. Don't think about simple things in complicated terms. They need to be communicated simply and interpreted simply."

"And what if they don't accept what's simple?"

"You give up. Your best option is to forget about it until they're ready to accept it."

(That's a good point, but it doesn't make any progress.)

"Are you trying to say I'm better off forgetting Haruki for a while?"

Her thoughts were as simple as they could possibly get and that's precisely why Kei couldn't grasp them.

Souma shook her head once.

"Wrong. I'm saying you've already accepted her."

"What makes you think so?"

The next traffic light turned red.

Souma stopped her walk and answered.

"I have the ability to learn a lot about people from short conversations."

"That's your ability?"

"Oh, no. Bad choice of words. I'm not talking about the miraculous powers present in Sakurada. In that sense, I don't have any ability."

(I don't think she's lying.)

Every school in Sakurada holds exams twice a year to determine if the students have abilities, like regular height measurements and health checkups. The necessary number of Bureau members come to the school and use their abilities to investigate how the students' abilities work. The latest exam reported Souma as having no ability.

"Either way, I think I know you and Haruki quite well."

"Heh, that's a fascinating claim. What do you know?"

"For example, Kei, why do you want to get closer to Haruki?"

"To obtain the Reset ability."

She was quite the rare individual but that was not where his interest lay. He simply wanted Haruki Misora as a convenient tool. Kei thought this was a horrible answer. But there was no other way to summarize his intentions.

He deserved a rebuke, but Souma's expression had no hints of hatred. She answered with an approving smile on her face.

"You're the kind of person who knowingly answers this question in a way that makes you look worse than you really are. That's because your sense of justice is pretty intense. I could even call you a clean freak or a perfectionist."

"That's not true. I don't really know what justice means."

The traffic light turned green. Kei and Souma started walking at the same time.

"Imagine a god.", Souma nonchalantly started telling a story. "The god started an experiment. The goal of the experiment was to turn a normal person into a saint. And one young man was chosen as the experiment's subject."

He was already getting used to the suddenness of her long-winded metaphors.

Kei nodded.

"Go on."

"As the first step of the experiment, the god created a fake version of the man. The fake had no will of his own. He only acted the same way the real man would. The god thought that if the man had another one of himself, he could watch his own actions from an outsider's perspective and that knowledge would make him a better person."

"A god should be able to learn the result without having to actually do the experiment", Kei giggled.

"This god was mostly omnipotent but far from omniscient."

"Heh, how so? If you're omnipotent, you have the power to become omniscient."

"He had obtained all the knowledge in the universe once but quickly did away with all of it. That way he became mostly omnipotent but as close as possible to ignorant. Being a god is not easy."

(I'm curious about the god's reason to choose ignorance over omniscience, but that's not what Souma's story is about.)

"Okay. So the god made a copy of a man as part of an experiment to create a saint.", Kei put the conversation back on track.

"Yes. But the man didn't change his ways. He was definitely not evil, but he certainly couldn't be called a saint. He was sometimes kind, frequently cowardly, had common desires, and was capable of cruelty. His fake lived the same way, not good nor evil."

"And was the god satisfied with that?"

"Nope. That's why he made a second experiment. The god cursed the man. The curse made the man feel excruciating pain all over his body whenever he saw someone sad."

"Heh, sounds nasty.", Kei answered with a completely uninterested voice.

"That way, the man could no longer ignore other people's suffering. He reached out to people in pain to relieve his own pain.", Souma continued.

"That's exactly what the god wanted."

"The fake obviously did all the same things the man did. He wasn't in pain or anything, but he was built to imitate the man's actions. So, both the man and the fake lived seemingly saintly lives. The end."

The story didn't sit right with him.

"And what did the god do about what he saw?"

"He gave different names for the man and the fake."

"What names?"

"One was Virtue and the other was Hypocrisy."

(Oh, I see what this is about.)

"By the way, Souma, what's the purpose of this story?"

"It's just a metaphor. It's to make you understand the extent of your obsession with virtue."

Amidst her slow walk, Souma turned her head to Kei.

"Kei. Which do you think is Virtue and which do you think is Hypocrisy?"

He didn't even need to think about it.

"The real man is Hypocrisy and the fake is Virtue."

"What makes you think so?"

"The real man is helping others for his own benefit. The fake is helping others with no ulterior motives. It couldn't be more obvious whose virtue is purer."

"Sure, but the real man is acting of his own will and the fake is just following the leader."

"That doesn't matter. Actions you benefit from are not pure virtue."

Kei believed genuine good is something extremely subconscious. The term "good will" is only applied to instinctive, almost reflexive actions that remove oneself from the equation.

Souma nodded.

"And that's why I called a clean freak. Your sense of justice is so strong that you can't consider yourself just. One minor impurity is enough for you to see yourself as the villain. There's no one in the world you could consider good, am I right?"

Kei paused to think, then shook his head.

There was one exception. Kei knew one person who was very simple, very pure, and capable of completely ignoring herself.

He was going to say her name until he remembered something.

ー I'm saying you've already accepted her.

ー What makes you think so?

Everything Souma said since this point was the answer to his question. Always dancing around the heart of the matter, as roundabout as she could be.

Souma had the sadistic smile of a capricious stray cat.

"Haruki Misora is your ideal, I'm quite sure. The only one in the universe who can become your vision of pure good. How could you not accept someone like this?"

That was the moment.

When he first felt Souma Sumire's absolute domination. When Kei first felt that everything he knew, his thoughts and spoken doubts, every emotion he felt was under Souma's control.

"I know one possibly effective way of making you and Haruki understand each other better.", she said.

"What would that be?"

"Let's find out about Haruki's past. What did she experience to make her like this and what did she feel about that."

Kei had already investigated that.

"I couldn't find anything special about Haruki's past."

No noticeably traumatizing incident.

"I see. But there must be something. She wasn't born thinking like that. Something made that girl into the Haruki Misora we know, even if not something noticeable from the outside."

"Then that would be something we have no way to find out."

"We do. We can ask her."

"I already tried that. She'll answer any question we ask, but there's nothing worth noting."

"I can imagine. But don't you think we can find something if we explore Haruki's memories in more detail?"

He repeated her words in his mind.

(Explore... her memories?)

"How?"

"I know the perfect ability for it. I talked with its user today. I think he'll be willing to help."

Before he knew it, they arrived at the corner where their paths diverged. The two stopped walking at the same time and turned to see each other in very close proximity.

"I've always been meaning to ask this. Souma, what's your goal?", Kei asked.

She wasn't trying to obtain the Reset ability like Kei. He couldn't begin to imagine what Souma wanted out of bringing Kei and Haruki closer to each other.

She tilted her head up to take a better look at his face.

"I already told you it's my job as class representative."

"Not very convincing."

"But it's true that I just wanted to make you and Haruki friends."

"Why?"

(Souma doesn't benefit from this in any way.)

“I love messages.”, she answered with a smile.

"Messages?"

"Yes. I suppose my goal is to pass on a lot of words from one person to another."

"You lost me."

"You'll understand one day. I know you can."

Souma took one step closer to Kei, smiling like a stray cat. Their foreheads almost touched. A breeze caressed Kei's and Souma's cheeks.

"Tell me, Kei. Do you want the Reset or do you want Haruki Misora?"

He could feel her warm and moist breath. A faint sweet smell leaked out of her mouth mixed with her words.

"The Reset, of course.", Kei answered.

"And why do you want it so bad?"

"'cause it's useful."

She slipped one step back. Like she was running away.

"Not very convincing."

She said goodbye, turned her back to him, and took off.

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

At the same time, Haruki Misora was in a small park.

The park was part of her way home from school. Normally a place she passes by without a thought, but that day she found someone she knew. The girl named Kurakawa Mari.

"Play with me.", Mari called upon finding her. Now they were both sitting on the swings.

Ever since they met at the end of April, Haruki has been frequently seeing Mari in the park. She was probably there the whole time. Just outside of Haruki's perception until then.

The park swings were too low for the 14-year-old Haruki. If she didn't watch out for the angle of her legs, she would have easily scraped her soles on the ground. That's why she was tightly holding on to her knees.

The swings go back and forth. Moving while staying in place. It added minor changes to her view, made her feel the wind on her cheeks, and then she was back. It's a playground utensil, so it's meant to be fun. Haruki couldn't tell what was so fun about the swings. It wasn't a matter of age. Even at Mari's age, she didn't get the appeal of the swings.

Mari laughed out loud next to her. Her swing swayed far less safely than Haruki's. The pouch on Mari's shoulder swung along it. Haruki thought about how far behind she was in terms of her ability to enjoy the swings. But that one thought didn't go anywhere.

Haruki expressionlessly swung around at a fixed rhythm. She did it for a while until she noticed she could no longer hear the laughing voice next to her.

Turning to Mari, she saw a stopped swing and the girl looking at her face.

Mari weakly gripped the hem of Haruki's uniform skirt. She always did that. And every time, Haruki comes close to remembering something but ultimately can't.

Mari slightly raised her head and spoke.

"Are you not having fun?"

(Honestly, I'm not.)

Haruki's head shake changed Mari's expression.

The shape of her lips and the position of her eyebrows moved—Was that a smile or a crying face? Haruki couldn't tell the difference. Mari still hadn't released any tears. But she knew it was possible for people to be sad without tearing up.

"Tell me what you're feeling.", said Haruki.

She was a little surprised at her own question.

(Why do I want to learn about Kurakawa Mari's feelings?)

She couldn't think of a reason. This was an unnecessary question, not present in the rules.

(But something inside ruled out that I must.)

Perhaps something named emotion. It voiced that doubt before her reason could process it. It could have also been because Mari was weakly gripping the hem of Haruki's uniform skirt. Her grip was stronger on Haruki's consciousness, it seemed.

Mari was once again puzzled.

"Feeling?"

"It means..."

Haruki didn't know how to define the word "feelings".

(Why do I not know? Is it that I'm unable to explain something I'm unaware of?)

If Mari started crying, Haruki would confirm she was sad. In that case, she could whisper "Reset", knowing it was pointless. But no tears poured out of Mari's eyes.

"I want to play with you.", she said.

"Why is that?"

Mari smiled. Clearly enough for Haruki to tell.

"I don't know. It's just fun."

(A very human answer.)

She recalled Souma Sumire's question.

ー Who is the android?

At the very least, this girl couldn't be further from android status.

Understanding that Haruki was troubled for no discernable reason, Mari looked up at her face again.

"Miss, what do you do in middle school?"

Haruki answered the question. For once, it was easy to answer. She knew clear answers for what classes she took and what she ate for lunch.

"What do you do for fun with your friends?"

Now this question was hard to answer. Haruki wasn't clear on the definition of the word "friends". But for some inexplicable reason, she found herself wanting to answer.

She talked slowly but without pause.

"I'm not sure if they're my friends. But there are two people I've been talking to a lot lately. One is my classmate Souma Sumire and the other is Asai Kei, from another class."

"What do you talk about?"

"Today I talked to Kei about trust."

"Tr-ust?"

"It means to accept another's decision without a logical basis for it."

Mari contracted her mouth. She wasn't understanding the conversation.

"I said I can't trust him and he said he'll earn my trust.", Haruki continued.

This time, Mari nodded convincedly for some reason.

"He loves you."

Love. A word she didn't understand.

But even she could guess that was not the case with Asai Kei. What he wanted was her Reset ability.

One thought crossed her mind and she declared:

"Love is a feeling."

(Will that suffice for my failed explanation before?)

Mari nodded again.

"Sure. I also love you, miss."

Then with (what Haruki determined to be) a smile, she continued.

"I also love mom. But mom doesn't love me. She hates me because I'm fake."

"What do you mean by fake?"

Immediately after asking, she noticed the similarity between her question and Mari's previous questions. She added that she didn't ask for the definition of "fake", she was asking why did Mari consider herself fake. But Mari didn't answer.

After a moment of thought, Haruki asked a different question.

"Do you want your mother to love you?"

"Yeah. A lot."

Wondering if there was anything she could do about it, Haruki took an envelope from her bag. A small, blue envelope.

Souma Sumire gave it to her before. She said to consider it a good luck charm.

"I'll give this to you."

"What?"

"If you open it and say your wish out loud, the wish will be granted."

"Really?"

"I don't know. I don't believe it."

Mari quietly laughed.

"How weird."

Haruki didn't understand what was weird.

"But thank you.", said Mari before putting the blue envelope in her deep green pouch.

30 minutes later, a man appeared in the park.

The man seemed to be in his mid-twenties, wore a creasy suit, and had a stubble on his chin. He walked straight to Mari and spoke.

"I'm here to take you home. Let's go."

Mari tilted her head.

"Where's mom?"

"She'll be late today. It's dangerous out here in the dark, so let's wait in the hospital."

"Oh. Ok."

Mari nodded but didn't start walking. She grabbed Haruki's uniform skirt.

"Who is he?", Haruki asked.

"Mr. Tsushima."

(Tsushima. If I recall correctly, Mari's family name is Kurakawa, so he must not be the father. It is possible her parents are divorced, but even then, I find this Tsushima a little too young to be Mari's father.)

Tsushima looked at Haruki.

"Are you Haruki?"

"Yes."

"Mari talks about you a lot. Thank you for always humoring her.", he said with what she assumed to be probably a smile.

She didn't feel like she did anything deserving of gratitude. But she wasn't going to waste her time rejecting his expression of gratitude either.

"Who are you?", Haruki asked.

"Her proxy guardian, kind of."

"Why is Mari's mother not here?"

"She will be. She's just arriving late. C'mon, Mari. Let's go."

Mari stiltedly nodded and let go of Haruki's clothes.

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

08:30 PM. Asai Kei was in the detached room of the Nakano residence.

Nakano Tomoki went straight from the shower to Kei's room and lay down with his wet hair on the floor. The old radio he carried played English songs with static. This happened regularly.

Kei was sitting on his wooden desk, fiddling with his small handcrafted cat. The cat measured only a few centimeters. It was a black cat with only the area around its mouth and the tips of its paws white. It was originally a keychain, but its metal fixture broke. Now it was nothing more than an artificial cat, too unstable to find use even as a paperweight.

The cat's foamy face sank when pressed and returned to its original shape moments after being released.

"This thing.", Tomoki said. "You always had it, right? What's the deal with it?"

"Nothing. I just like it."

This keychain broke twice. It was fixed the first time, then it broke again. He had at least two opportunities to throw it away, and yet, it was still in his hands.

"I'm thinking about tying it with some kind of string to carry it around."

"Like a phone strap?"

"Perhaps. If auntie lets me have one."

The children in the Nakano house weren't allowed to have mobile phones in middle school. Kei felt this prohibition was really unreasonable in that day and age, but he couldn't complain about it to the family kindly letting him live with them. His classmates found this shocking but he didn't feel inconvenienced because he never tasted the convenience of it.

"Man, I wish we had phones...", whispered Tomoki.

Kei laughed.

"Your ability is going to lose its purpose if you get a phone, you know that?"

Nakano Tomoki had the ability to send his voice to distant people.

"My ability is a one-way road. A phone's already more useful from the point it lets me hear the other person too."

"True."

Kei placed the ex-keychain cat back on his desk and pulled a book out of the bookshelf.

It was the English mystery novel he had bought over a month ago. Kei had postponed it this whole time because lately he had been focused mainly on reading sci-fi novels about androids.

"Oh yeah, have you been hearing the rumors?"

In reaction to Tomoki's voice, Kei took his eyes off the book.

"About what?"

"About you, Souma, and Haruki."

"Huh. That's a surprise."

(We've been frequently going to the rooftop together, so someone would eventually notice it. But I don't think that makes for an interesting rumor. We're just three students hanging out on the rooftop after class. We aren't calling UFOs or committing crimes. We aren't even breaking school rules.)

"Well, you know how people love watching a good love triangle.", Tomoki said.

Kei laughed.

A love triangle.

"Sorry, but our relationship isn't that novelesque."

"They talk things how they can see it from afar. And it's extra juicy that one of the members is Haruki Misora."

"Oh, true. Imagining her in a romantic situation is quite the fascinating thought."

(I can't picture anything. It's perfectly understandable that the prospect of Haruki in love would breed all sorts of rumors.)

Kei moved his eyes back to the book in his hands. In the prologue, the protagonist detective is driving to meet his client.

The screams of love on Tomoki's radio are abruptly cut by the beginning of the next song.

"So, what do you actually do?"

"We just chat about whatever. Same as you and your classmates do at McDonalds, but on the rooftop instead."

Tomoki had an amused smirk.

"Knowing you, I'd have an easier time believing it if you said you three were lecturing each other on the theory of relativity."

"We do that sometimes. There're no theme restrictions on what we chat about."

"What is the theory of relativity, by the way?"

"Light, space, and time trust each other very much, and the idea that space and time compromise on their own rules to preserve this trust is called special relativity. And the idea that, if you add gravity to the mix, space and time will have a greater need to disregard their own rules is called general relativity."

"That makes no sense."

"Yeah, I don't exactly get it either."

"And that's what you've been always talking about?"

"That and much more. Today I heard the story of an unfortunate man cursed by a god."

This conversation didn't happen on the rooftop but followed the same formula as them.

"Heh. And did you enjoy the story?"

"It's a story about people suffering. I don't enjoy this kind of thing."

"Ok, then. Keep doing your thing."

The novel finally introduced the detective's client, a beautiful woman. Kei was fond of this kind of archetypical lead-in. He only hoped the client wasn't the culprit.

Neither Kei nor Tomoki opened their mouths for the next two songs on the radio.

When an acoustic guitar song about rainy days started playing, Tomoki spoke.

"I find it hard to believe that you've been doing the same thing for over a month for no reason."

"Still hung up on this? What's bugging you so much?"

"Whenever you start something weird, it always results in something."

"In what?"

"Someone got arrested while you were at it."

"That happens every day. It's not my fault."

"It was the guy who kicked Mio's bicycle on the street. You're the one who reported him to the police."

Mio was Tomoki's sister. Currently aged 10. She got a new bicycle in March, but someone kicked it, denting its basket and fender.

"That's a coincidence.", Kei answered.

"Didn't you say the guy gave you the money for the repair?"

"I talked to him about it and he agreed to it. He's a better guy than we thought."

He just neglected to mention it wasn't a normal conversation. He induced the man to get into a fight with the policeman, but it was true that the man paid for the bicycle repairs out of his own pocket.

Tomoki sat up.

"You're a nice guy, but you got a tendency to go overboard."

An unintended sigh escaped his mouth.

"I'm not doing anything dangerous this time.", said Kei with special emphasis on the "this time". "I'm just hanging out with a pair of girls."

"Hah.", Tomoki laughed. This eased the room's tension. "Like that's not a dangerous thing to do. Dudes with no girlfriends are gonna kick your ass."

"Oh no. Protect me from them."

"I'm a dude with no girlfriend, remember?"

"You could get a girl to fall for you if you heroically saved me from bullies."

"Good point. I'll think about after the second or third punch.", he nodded in agreement. "So, what got you together with Souma and Haruki?"

Nakano Tomoki was more persistent than usual.

After his second sigh, Kei closed his book.

"Do you promise me you won't tell anyone?"

Tomoki immediately nodded.

"Yeah, of course."

(He's not a liar.)

"I want to befriend Haruki Misora."

His eyes drifted to the cat on his desk. What once was a keychain. The keyholder was naturally attached to a key.

Reset. That meant something special to Kei.

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

Kei's first experience with Reset was during his summer vacation when he was 12.

That summer, Asai Kei visited Sakurada. Until then, he didn't know the place as a city, but rather as a name in the list of train stations. But since then, Kei has never left Sakurada.

At first glance, Sakurada is a perfectly ordinary provincial city. But not long within the city, Kei learned about supernatural abilities.

Kei got off the train and paid the excess fare for going past the station that he bought his ticket for. The ticket was bought at random. At first, Kei didn't care where he was going. Returning the wallet to his pocket, he felt on his fingertips that his keychain had broken. It was a small cat-shaped keychain.

The keychain was attached to Kei's home key. But now, without the metal fixture connecting the two, it had lost its purpose. The broken keychain resembled the small husk of a dead cicada. It was devoid of all past function, only waiting to weather away. Hanging on to it felt desolating.

Kei left the station with the keychain on his open palm. It was a thing he used because his mother gave it to him, and losing it didn't bother him. When he was about to throw it away, a voice came from behind him.

"Did you break that?"

He turned around and saw a man standing behind him. He was between his late twenties and early thirties. He was neatly dressed but didn't look like a salaryman. He couldn't guess the man's occupation.

"I'll fix it for you. I happen to have the perfect ability for it."

The word "ability" didn't catch Kei's attention at first. It was not a word that would come up in regular conversation, but he assumed it referred to a regular skill.

He was about to say he didn't need it fixed, but before he could, the man grabbed the keychain and its broken fixture.

If he had closed his hands for a moment and hid the keychain from Kei's sight, the boy would have assumed this was a silly magic trick, but the man's palm was still open. A short while later, when Kei looked at the keychain again, its fixture was fixed. It was like he edited a video. Without any flair or brag, the man simply fixed the keychain.

He returned it to Kei's hands.

"There you have it. Be sure to get home before it's late."

With a heartfelt smile, the man turned away.

At first, Kei didn't understand what he saw—That alone is obviously not enough to make someone understand Sakurada's residents have superpowers.

Kei walked around town and came in contact with abilities over time. Even under the most skeptical lenses imaginable, one would eventually accept that the city was full of superpowers. Partway through this process, Kei was already enchanted with Sakurada.

It was easy to feel the rules of the world which he thought unbreakable being violated left and right. The 12-year-old Kei felt like he was living a dream. He couldn't contain his desire to learn about this city.

He spent the next few days living in Sakurada.

At first, he didn't return home because of the train prices. If he went back, he had no idea when he would be able to afford a second visit. At that moment, he wanted a lot more information on Sakurada and nothing else mattered.

He would be taken to his parents' city if any adult found out, so he needed a plan. He decided his sleep would be divided into short sessions, all of them during the day. He needed to look like a child who fell asleep in a park from playing too much. At night, he needed to avoid being spotted and to never fall asleep.

He would call his family with an uncharacteristic frequency and make things up to them. He feared he would easily be located if they got the police on his case. Even if they eventually did, Kei wanted to buy time. His house was empty more often than not because of his parents' jobs, so he timed his calls to fall on voice mail to avoid being asked questions.

It wasn't easy to gather information on abilities. First he looked for text files, but all he could find were a few pamphlets made by the Bureau and distributed at the city hall. Only one short list of phone numbers to call in case of an ability-related issue, one campaign poster for a periodic ability evaluation, and one Bureau recruitment flier. Nothing more.

He understood that if he wanted to learn more about abilities, he would need to ask people directly. And so, Kei found a group of children.

Children usually want to talk about the things they know and rarely ever get suspicious when one asks an off-mark question. In the breaks between his sleep intervals, Kei found children younger than himself and asked them a series of questions about Sakurada's abilities. Even if not every piece of information is accurate, with enough pieces, he could begin to see the full picture.

Kei had one major question on his mind: why is such a wondrous city not public knowledge? This wasn't something one could reasonably hide without leaks, not to mention it isn't even part of Sakurada's local culture to hide their abilities.

But everyone in town seemed to know the answer. Every elementary school child he asked would tell him the same thing.

People who step outside of Sakurada lose all their ability-related memories. Completely, without a trace. If the deleted knowledge would cause a contradiction, it would have been replaced with another memory for coherence.

Kei used a library's internet to print a map of Sakurada's surroundings and tried to trace a line of where exactly people lost their memories based on the information he obtained in his interviews.

The line he drew was a circle completely encompassing Sakurada's urban perimeter. Not a perfect circle, more like a distorted ellipse. Like it was choosing the less populated areas around Sakurada. He could feel the intentionality of the shape.

Crossing the line makes one lose all memories related to the abilities, allegedly. Kei wanted to test that if possible but he was hesitant to the idea of leaving Sakurada.

Without his knowledge of abilities, he wouldn't come back.

That was one more reason to stay away from home.

4th day in Sakurada.

Kei was sitting on a red park bench with its paint coming off.

He absentmindedly stared at the cat keychain laid on the palm of his hand. It was attached to a key.

(Four days. I can't keep at it forever.)

He was long past the amount of time a 12-year-old could reasonably wander around without permission. He needed to make his final decision. To return to his parents' town or to look for a genuine way to live in Sakurada.

(I don't want to leave this city if I can help it.), he wholeheartedly felt. (Is there a way to guarantee I'll come back here if I ever leave?)

He couldn't think of any. When he was using the library's internet to print his map, he also searched Sakurada online.

He could find information about abilities when he tried. People posted about them on their blogs, social media, and forums. But there was no sign of those posts ever gaining traction. Not even from commenters accusing the original poster of making things up. Kei considered a few possibilities: maybe the posts weren't readable outside of the city or maybe they had some kind of powerful brainwashing effect that made people not pay attention.

Information about Sakurada's abilities couldn't be taken outside. And its citizens accepted this fact like it was a standard law of physics. Rules the world was built with, like gravity and inertia, rather than someone's decision.

But Kei disagreed. He suspected the abilities were being artificially concealed. He could feel someone's will. He couldn't bring himself to accept those rules without question. Thus, he needed to stay in the city to learn more about abilities.

(But is that really possible?)

There were logistical issues.

(I've been calling home from Sakurada's public phones. It's not hard to trace that.)

But there were also emotional issues.

(Am I really willing to throw away the past 12 years of my life? Staying here means abandoning my parents, my friends, and all relationships with the world that shaped me. Is that allowed? Can I do that? Can anyone do that? Is this really a thing God permits?)

Under normal circumstances, Kei didn't even believe in God, but this doubt got him questioning the divine figure deep inside his heart.

Kei recalled his parents.

He felt a clear divide between them and him. It was like they were separated by a densely opaque and soundproof glass pane. Both sides could only see vague silhouettes of each other and neither could hear what the other had to say.

Kei clearly recognized himself as the cause of the divide.

Kei had always been a child who struggled to open up. But it wasn't because he was bad at talking to adults. He could almost effortlessly decipher what his teachers wanted from him in class, for example. He knew what would sound the most honest to others, and what would affect them without offending. Sometimes he intentionally got people to scold him because he knew that's what they needed to get over the situation.

He was skilled at surface-level mimics of the adults' intentions. But that was all he knew how to do. Everything Kei said and did transmitted raw information without real emotion. It was like he provided the correct answer for mathematical problems he didn't solve. He thought only of the other person's reactions and never about his own will.

People would be creeped out by him if they knew about it. There's an expression called "uncanny valley". It says that the closer an android's appearance is to a real human, the more pleasant it is to human eyes. People prefer humanoid androids to simple boxes, and androids with eyes and mouths to those without. But if that crosses a certain point and becomes too human, that pleasantness flips into unpleasantness. Humans feel a strong disgust for non-humans that look too human, which they describe as "uncanny".

If they knew about him, they would feel like he's a fake who falls into the uncanny valley for approaching too much the concept of an ideal child. And there were only two people in the world who knew of Kei's true nature. His father and his mother.

It's been a few years since Kei realized they didn't know what to do with him. The two of them tried hard to keep loving their child despite finding him uncanny.

He wholeheartedly believed they were nice parents. He was glad to be their son.

(But if you have to try hard, that's because you don't love me.)

Every time they forced a stifled smile, he felt more empty inside. And then Kei faked a smile a lot more convincingly than they could. But they knew it was fake.

(I'm the one at fault. But how do you solve a problem like this? The more I do what they want, the further the divide grows.)

Kei knew he loved them.

That was undeniable.

But his love wasn't deep or firm. It was love that could easily fall over at any moment. Shallow love that could fade away and disappear without a trace like a scrape wound.

(What would they do if I never returned home?)

They'd be sad. On the most part genuinely, and on the remaining lesser part, out of obligation. But the obligation part is the feeling that would stand the test of time better. The genuine sadness would gradually turn into relief.

(Because I'm a living burden. My mere presence hurts them.)

Kei laughed at his own line of thought. It was wholly fraudulent. He was misaligning his own thoughts to support the idea of abandoning his past life.

(Stop sugarcoating it. Stop averting your eyes. You need to understand what you're doing more objectively. More. Be conscious of your sins.)

And so, Kei tried remembering his parents in the most accurate and detailed way he could muster. To recall every little thing they gave him.

That's how he realized it.

His memory was far too vivid.

To an impossible degree. He could remember anything in the past in a level of detail he was sure was beyond human capabilities. He remembered the tiny creases on a dress his mother wore years ago. He remembered what was written in his father's newspaper. The voices of children coming from the balcony window. The flavor of the spaghetti he ate on one lunch. The first time he ever heard his mother's voice. The first time he saw his father's face.

Roughly everything that happened in the past 12 years of his life. He could easily draw any memory his body experienced, even from times before he had a formed identity.

Kei didn't notice he was crying until the droplets fell from his cheek to the ground.

He didn't notice that remembering everything since his birth made him shed tears.

(Oh... I love mom and dad.)

He had forgotten that somewhere along the way. Kei did, in fact, love them. He never lost his love, only forgot it. The affection he held for them was more special than anything else in the world. He just remembered this feeling.

But he wasn't crying because he remembered it.

If his decision had been to return to them, he would have been smiling. He would have found his genuine answer and left Sakurada for good.

He gripped his keychain strongly enough to make his fingers go white.

Remembering everything, all their happy memories and his pure love for them, didn't change a thing.

(Now I know I can abandon them.)

He shed tears. That was all he needed to convince himself he could discard his beloved mother and father.

It was his fourth day in Sakurada.

Asai Kei learned that he gained an ability.

An ability presumably born only to remind him of the weight of his sin.

But it didn't take long for his tears to dry out.

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

For the next 24 hours, Kei spent his day in Sakurada the same way he did before.

He studied his own ability and gathered information about Sakurada. And he examined ways to live in Sakurada.

It was impossible for a 12-year-old to live alone. He could find food and a roof on his own, but what mattered most was having a social reason to stay in the city. Without one, the police could take him away. He could feel an arbitrary time limit approaching him.

He needed to look for a collaborator. An influential adult collaborator. He thought long and hard about how to obtain one. His cat keychain was in his hand as he thought. His house key was still attached to it. He gripped it instead of returning it to his pocket.

(I'm still hesitating. I can't bring myself to throw away the possibility of returning to mom's and dad's home. But that's not a bad thing. I can live with the hesitation until the answer inevitably appears to me.), he thought at the time.

On the early afternoon of Kei's 5th day in Sakurada, a black car parked ahead of Kei next to the walk. It wasn't a fancy car, but it was remarkably well-polished.

Two men in black suits and one woman in a dark blue suit came out of the car. Both men seemed to be in their mid-thirties. The woman was a lot younger than them. Very early twenties.

They surrounded Kei before he had a chance to run away.

The woman in dark blue was the first one to talk.

"You're Asai Kei, correct?"

She was assertive.

"Who are you?", Kei asked. He had no good guess. (The police? They don't look like it. I know plain-clothed officers exist, but I don't think they handle missing child cases.)

"We are from the Bureau.", the woman answered.

(The Bureau. The public office that manages abilities in Sakurada. But they told me the Bureau activity was limited to solving problems involving abilities. Why would their people need to surround a twelve-year-old?)

Kei intentionally kept his mouth shut. He looked straight into her eyes. He didn't trust the claim that they were Bureau members.

"We need to talk. Could you get on the car?", she continued without an expression on her face.

Kei answered with a bright smile.

"Depends on the subject. Could you please tell me before we go?"

"It's about your life."

"Heh."

He suddenly figured it out. He came up with one possibility that connected the Bureau, abilities, Sakurada's urban structure, and Kei's position within it.

(How did I not think about this before? I should have imagined this possibility yesterday on the bench. Maybe I subconsciously avoided the idea because it's too good to be true.)

"How did you find out?", Kei asked.

"I don't understand the question."

"Can you tell me how did you find out about my ability?"

The woman averted her eyes and shut off her expression.

"I’m afraid I am not allowed to answer."

"Really? Then can you tell me your name?"

"This is also confidential."

"Why?"

"It's a... tradition among the Bureau's information handlers."

(A form of security to prevent people from being identified? Doesn't look too effective to me. Maybe it really is just a tradition, I don't know.)

"Sounds awfully impractical. What do people usually call you?"

This conversation was pointless. He was simply reversing his mindset. Switch from being someone trying to hide information to being someone drawing out information from others.

"I'm Sakuin.", she answered after some hesitation.

Kei nodded, never letting go of his smile.

"Fine by me, Ms. Sakuin. Let's get in the car."

Kei took the lead and walked to the black car. After his face was no longer visible to any of the Bureau members, he bit his lip.

(I should have thrown away my key sooner. Here I was trying to decide if I stay in Sakurada or go home, and then the answer came to me in the worst way possible.)

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

One of the men in black sat on the driver's seat and the other took the front passenger seat. Kei and Sakuin rode in the back seat.

Sakuin started talking as soon as the car started walking.

"The Bureau has decided on your verdict."

"And what would it be?"

"You are forbidden from leaving Sakurada."

"Why?"

"I'm afraid I am not allowed to answer."

"I believe what you're saying goes beyond any public office's authority."

"Are you planning to sue us over it? You are guaranteed to lose the case. You won't even get to step into the courtroom."

(What's making her so confident about it? But I don't think she's lying. I don't believe the Bureau would be able to regulate all abilities in Sakurada without this level of power.)

Kei leaned harder on his seat.

"Fine, I can imagine why my ability would be a problem to the maintenance of Sakurada. It touches upon a fundamental rule of all abilities, so it's pretty obvious."

Sakuin peered at his face, searching for an answer.

Kei spoke with certainty, thinking about how embarrassing it would be if his answer was wrong.

"I won't lose my ability-related memories if I leave Sakurada, right?"

Abilities have one rule: take one step outside the boundary and you'll forget all about them. He had the ability to remember everything. Those two elements were in clear contradiction.

Sakuin scowled for an instant but immediately fixed her expression and spoke.

"What makes you think so?"

"I can't come up with any other possibility."

That was the only way to tie together Kei's ability and a prohibition to leave Sakurada. No scrap of information about abilities is allowed to leave the city. Kei infringes on that. Therefore, he needs to stay inside.

Sakuin laughed. Not joyfully. It was a nervous laugh. He didn't expect such a sincere display of emotion out of her, but after that momentary scowl, it would be idiotic to maintain the front of emotionlessness.

"Fine. You're correct. We cannot allow information on abilities to leak outside of Sakurada."

Kei nodded and continued.

"I have one more guess."

"On what?"

"On the phenomenon that erases people's memories when they leave Sakurada. That's done through someone's ability—most likely someone within the Bureau, right?"

He was half-sure of it.

People forget their knowledge of abilities upon leaving Sakurada. If that really was a rule built into every ability, Kei would still forget his no matter what.

(But if that phenomenon is manufactured by someone's ability... If someone has a large area-of-effect ability to steal memories...)

Kei had already learned about intensity. When two contradictory abilities try to affect each other, the one with the highest intensity takes effect. If his ability to remember has a higher intensity than their ability to forget, he will remember his ability outside of Sakurada.

Sakuin coldly shook her head.

"I'm afraid I am not allowed to answer."

"Really? What a shame."

Kei shrugged for emphasis. This whole time, he had been choosing his words and gestures to be the most annoying possible. He detachedly mused about his own unpleasantness.

Sakuin cleared her throat and pulled a few documents out of the metallic suitcase next to her seat.

"Reasons aside, the Bureau wants to bind you to a contract. Independent on your will. Consenting now would make the procedure easier on both of us."

Kei took the document handed out to him and skimmed it.

It was a contract with multiple clauses.

The Bureau would ensure Kei's livelihood in Sakurada. In exchange, he needed to stay within the city borders and not mention this contract to anyone.

In addition...

"The Bureau will purchase your past. For a hefty sum."

Kei kept reading. The file did cover that. He counted all the money his parents ever spent on him and from that he could tell that he was being offered enough money to last until he finished college.

"What happens when you buy my past?"

"You'll disappear without a trace from the world outside Sakurada."

(Yikes.)

"You mean you will do something to fake my death? Like they do in spy movies?"

"No, more exactly, the very fact that you ever existed will be erased."

"But how?"

"I'm afraid I'm not allowed to answer. But our methods are not dangerous. You may have faith in that."

He didn't believe it because he was told to believe it. He did it because there was no room for doubt. He knew for a fact that all information on abilities was erased outside of Sakurada. The same method could be used to erase all information on the life of Asai Kei.

"Will my parents forget everything about me?", Kei asked after some hesitation.

Sakuin closed her eyes, in the most telling expression she presented so far. Kei thought she was a good person.

"Yes. I understand it's painful, but..."

"No, it's ideal."

(The slate will be wiped clean, without any hint of a loss. Both of us will probably be happier that way.)

Kei intentionally smiled.

"I agree with the broad terms of this general contract. So can you give me some time to read the fine print?"

"Understood."

"Thank you. Also, can you stop the car?"

Reading in a moving car made him sick.

After the car parked by a street, Kei turned his eyes back to the document in his hands.

He wasn't interested in the text. What he needed was time to organize his feelings about this event where the Bureau's will was forcing him to remain in Sakurada.

His brain had no complaints. A lucky outcome came to him on a silver platter exactly the way he wished for. But his heart couldn't tolerate this.

He thought things over again.

(Why had I not thrown away my key before?)

He didn't want the decision to discard his past and his parents to come from an unknown organization. He didn't want to have "It's because some adults told me to" as an excuse.

He was supposed to be more selfish about it. More sinful. He rejected the escape route that comes with the decision being beyond his control. He needed this final decision to have been taken alone.

He closed his eyes and sighed. To make himself give up. To exhaust his emotions.

That's when it happened.

The first Reset experienced by Asai Kei.

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

When he opened his eyes, Kei was at the park.

He was sitting alone on a red park bench with its paint coming off, crying.

4th day in Sakurada.

He remembered his parents' love and still wanted to abandon his family regardless. Gripping the keychain attached to his home key, he wordlessly let his tears flow.

Tracing his memories one more time, he noticed it.

(I remember tomorrow.)

Kei could remember what was about to happen in detail. Tomorrow, he will meet Sakuin, enter a black car, and sign a contract to abandon his past.

(I remembered the future?)

It made no sense.

He could think of three possibilities. 1: Kei's ability can remember the future. 2: Someone else used an ability to reverse the flow of time. 3: This memory is fake and everything was Kei's fantasy.

He didn't feel a need to choose an alternative immediately.

What mattered was the possibility that he could leave Sakurada without losing his memories. That was worth testing. If his future memories were true, he had no reason to force himself to stay in Sakurada.

(I can go back to mom and dad, then visit Sakurada again another day.)

Common sense dictated he needed to go home. Before Sakuin found him again. He needed to return to where he belonged and visit Sakurada again in high school or college, when he was old enough to live alone.

Before he knew it, his tears were dry. Kei laughed alone on the bench.

(But... the other option is still so much more appealing to me.)

Letting go of his entire past and living in this marvelous city was more appealing. Kei wanted to be in town for as long as possible. Even if he came back for the first day of high school, that was still 4 years away. He didn't want to waste 4 years.

And if possible, he didn't want his parents to remember he existed. He didn't want to see his parents struggling beyond their limits to love their child. That's what Kei wished, for his own sake, not theirs.

He remembered what happened 4 days prior. The words a woman claiming to be a witch told him.

ー You’re looking for a place where you belong.

ー But if you set foot there, you can never come back.

ー Sakurada will never let you go.

(She was completely right. The witch's prophecy came true.)

Key removed the key from his keychain. It came out without resistance.

He got off the bench, left the park, and leisurely strolled away.

He went to the trash can by the convenience store in front of the park.

Without hesitation, Kei dropped his house in the bin for non-combustible trash. He made his own decision to throw away his past, without anyone forcing his hand. Kei's guilt was now fully his, without any missing pieces.

He had to be forced through this decision if weren't for someone rewinding time, but he was graced with the opportunity to make his own choice. It was a sad, agonizing, happy, and liberating event.

Kei looked at the keychain in his hand.

Bizarrely enough, he felt the keychain to be someone he shared fate with. The keychain that held the key to his previous home. The keychain that made him learn about abilities. The keychain no longer connected to anything. He pressed the squishable cat with his fingers, and soon enough it returned it returned to its original shape.

Kei decided that if he ever found something more important to him than the house he spent his first 12 years in, he would attach this cat keychain to it.

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

The radio played a static-ridden song about the coasts of California. A stupidly cheerful song.

The 14-year-old Asai Kei took his eyes away from the cat on his desk. The keychain that was fixed by an ability and broke again.

"Why are you so intent on being Haruki's friend?", Tomoki asked.

"She has an interesting ability.", Kei answered.

Kei now knew that that first Reset didn't have any inherent meaning. The Bureau would still apprehend him when he tried to leave Sakurada. Because an organization incapable of doing that wouldn't be able to manage all the countless abilities in Sakurada.

But it's still irrevocably true that Haruki's ability provided a form of salvation to Kei's heart.

Kei knew what excuses he would have made to himself if he had been forced to stay in Sakurada regardless of his will. "It's not really my fault. I didn't have a choice in the matter." Those would be the words always on his mind. Life would be easier for him, but Kei could not accept the idea of diminishing the weight of his sin.

Reset.

This ability very unwittingly saved Kei.

It gave him all the guilt he sought.

Haruki Misora's ability meant something special to Asai Kei.

#sagrada reset #memory in children #mechanical choices #asai kei #haruki misora #souma sumire #kurakawa mari #tsushima shintarou #nakano tomoki #urachi masamune #sakuin

3 notes · View notes

kaibutsushidousha · 1 year

Text

Witch, Picture, and Red-Eyed Girl (Sagrada Reset 2) - Chapter 2: Red-eyed Girl (part 5)

[INDEX]

The same day - 01:30 PM

01:30 PM. Almost an hour after Oka Eri attacked Haruki Misora.

Asai Kei was in Haruki's room.

He hadn't been there in a long time.

A study desk, a bed, and a bookshelf. Cat plushies and small props with chibi images of cats scattered all over the place. It definitely looked like a girl's bedroom, but in an artificial manner, like a photo in a room catalog.

Haruki Misora stood in a corner of her room, scared of something she wouldn't talk about.

(What could possibly scare so much her in her own room? There's no monster hiding in the closet. And her eyes were set only on me... Ok, enough with the escapism. Face reality and take another look at Haruki. She's scared of me. She's afraid of meeting me without her ability.)

Haruki took out his wallet.

"It's yours."

He smiled, thanked her, and took his wallet back. He imagined it was as full as it was before. She wasn't supposed to pay his café bill, but he knew it wasn't the best time for that conversation.

"Are you hurt?"

He worried if that sounded caring enough. His voice didn't emote unless he did it on command, no matter how much he felt the emotion he wanted to convey.

Haruki's smile was different from her usual smile.

"I'm completely fine. Seriously. It doesn't hurt anywhere."

Her expressions, gestures, and phrasing were not her usual.

Kei could play a game of Spot the Differences with her behavior. It'd take him 10 seconds to prove all her lies.

But there was no reason to point them out to her. Her elbow was bandaged and with marks of blood. That fact alone told everything.

(The world doesn't need anything that would make Haruki put on bandages. Making her blood leave her body is unforgivable. But the cause of those wounds is me. I'm never thinking about anyone other than myself, am I? I'm always considering the possibility Haruki will be hurt. I hurt her numerous times already. Premeditately. And I have no intention of changing that. Even then, I still can't forgive myself for it.)

"Sorry, Kei.", she said.

(You did nothing you need to apologize for.)

"No, it was my fault."

(There's so much I was careless about. I've made nothing but mistakes in these past two years, and this bandage on Haruki's arm is one of those mistakes given concrete form. My power falls so horrendous short of the ideal...)

The next thing he needed to do is get a full picture of the situation. To test if her ability is truly sealed. He would have already done it if he was able to fully ignore Haruki's feelings.

But he couldn't. It was most likely true that Haruki's ability was sealed. She was going to apologize again when the Reset didn't work. He didn't want to make her do that if he could help it.

"Command me to Reset", she asked.

Her voice was firmer than usual.

It contained a level of emotion she usually didn't consider necessary.

(Hah, she's showing off how powerless I am. Haruki Misora understands Asai Kei's thoughts better than anyone. That was so obvious. How could I not have noticed?)

"Please do what you find most correct."

(How could I not notice that nothing makes her sadder than me not acting normal?)

"Wait one minute."

The coward needed to stall for one minute to decide what to do next and how to interact with the girl.

"Understood."

After hearing Haruki's voice, Kei closed his eyes.

He needed them closed to remember the past 2 years in 1 minute.

And then reconfirm what he was already tired of knowing.

Their ability was always part of their interactions. Haruki Misora's Reset and Asai Kei's Memory Retention.

Two middling abilities that didn't amount to much on their own.

(Our abilities were what connected us.)

They were like key and lock. One couldn't be used without the other. Their abilities were the reason why they promised to stay together. The two stayed by each other's sides for two years, automatically, almost naturally.

Such a casual, twisted, and cruel connection.

Haruki Misora's ability didn't mean much to her. That was a very abnormal mindset by Sakurada standards, but she rarely ever relied on her ability.

ーIf I lost the power to Reset… would our relationship change in any way?

(If that was the only thing making you sad over the loss of your ability, then I wish I could tell you that the lack of the ability doesn't change your worth. That you don't need to change over that. But I can't, because now you no longer need to be with me all the time. And it'd be way too irresponsible to tell you this truth. After all, I'm the one who wanted our contact to be centered around our abilities.)

After exactly one minute, Kei opened his eyes. He looked straight into Haruki's eyes and twisted his mouth into a visibly false smile.

(Right, I'm always smiling at times like this. Because it makes things easier. But Haruki will see through the lies.)

"Haruki, Reset."

Haruki's face was intense for a moment, and then...

"Yeah, I can't."

She smiled back at him. She didn't apologize.

(I forget how strong this girl is at her core. And I knew this for so long. What a joke. The guy with the power to remember everything can forget something this important.)

She looked straight into Kei's eyes, her expression more serious than ever.

"I have a favor to ask. Please retrieve my Reset."

Kei returned her eye contact.

"Sure, it's what I was going to do anyway. I swear you'll have your ability back."

Their twisted and cruel connection is something they need to get rid of in the future but now was not the time.

"Thank you.", Haruki sighed.

And her usual smile finally returned to her face.

"This was very reassuring."

"You cycled through these emotions pretty fast."

"Not at all. Anything you wish for eventually comes true, Kei. Oka Eri is no match for you."

(I'm not so sure. Nothing about Oka Eri's ability is confirmed yet.)

He couldn't be sure that it was possible to recover the Reset. But he couldn't bring himself to look insecure in front of Haruki at the moment.

"Sure, I'll make it work.", Kei answered as if it was no big deal. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes. Where are we going?"

"There're lots of places to go. The first being the street outside."

Murase Youka was waiting there.

She could have entered the apartment, but she wished for Kei and Haruki to be alone for a while.

"Understood.", Haruki answered.

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

When Kei and Haruki opened the apartment door, Murase was leaning on the wall directly in front of them.

The first thing she said upon seeing them:

"Right hand, Oka Eri's ability."

Kei had asked this before. With this command, Murase could erase abilities on contact. It's possible it could erase Oka Eri's ability cast on Haruki.

She moved towards Haruki and asked.

"I'm going to touch you, ok?"

Haruki nodded.

"Please do."

Murase's hand softly touched Haruki's forehead.

It kept going up to the top of Haruki's head, and after a moment of hesitation, she touched Haruki's chest next.

"Anything?"

Haruki shifted her eyes to Kei.

"Reset", Kei commanded.

But nothing happened. Haruki shook her head.

"Sorry. Still can't use it."

"I see", Murase almost sighed.

It was as she expected.

Murase's ability required touching the target. If the target of Oka Eri's ability is Haruki's mind or memories, Murase would need to touch Haruki's mind, which is not very easy to pull off. Kei hoped this could work because Murase once managed to erase an ability cast on a cat, but the nature of the ability being used back them is not the same as this.

Opening and closing her hand, Murase whispered.

"I'm more useless than I expected."

(Absolutely wrong.)

"You have an excellent ability."

The best ability Kei knew was without a doubt the witch's future sight, but for a second place, it's hard to find an ability as "can do anything" as Murase's.

Murase gave him a half-glare.

"Better than the Reset?"

"Don't know. That's a complicated question."

He couldn't rank the Reset. Too much emotional bias attached to the choice.

"Either way, you can't deny it was useless now."

Murase was uncharacteristically frank. Kei was surprised. He was though she had absolute confidence in her ability.

"So, what next?"

"I'll ask Mr. Tsushima about Oka Eri's ability."

He had already called the teacher and decided on a time and place to meet. Without knowing the inner workings Oka Eri's ability, he had no way to formulate a plan.

"I'm going with you, okay?"

(Wasn't expecting that, but thanks.)

"You want to helps us?"

Murase shook her head, astounded by his denseness.

"What do you think I spent my morning doing?

She walked under the scorching sun to find Oka Eri. She already told him that.

(She's surprisingly cooperative. Goes to show how much she's a good person at her core. She can be aggressive sometimes, but I have no reason to refuse her cooperation. Her ability is extremely handy. If life gives you lemons, make a lemonade.)

"Then I have favor to ask."

"What?"

"Find out what Oka Eri is doing. Without being found out, if possible."

He was going to meet Oka Eri at 9 PM. He was hoping he could know the cards in her hand before the time comes.

Tracking was Murase's specialty. She can erase the sound of her footsteps, know the direction where people are, and produce peepholes. And if she's found out, she won't be in danger unless she makes any dumb mistakes.

"Understood", Murase agreed. Then she grinned and pointed at Kei. "I can do it. Not even you could notice me trailing you."

"When did you do that?"

"It's a secret. Doesn't matter either way."

(What the hell? I need to watch my back better.)

"So, how long do I need to watch Oka Eri for?"

"Until I say you're done."

"You're a really cheeky guy.", Murase giggled.

Kei responded with a smile.

"You have no idea how self-centered I am."

"No, I think I can tell."

"Weird, I thought I was great at hiding it."

"Liar. You do nothing to hide it. Right hand, what's between me and Oka Eri. I'll call you when I find her."

"Thank you. I'll message you if anything happens on my end, too. Keep your sound notifications on."

"I know. Bye."

Murase walked away.

Haruki spoke next to him.

"You've been getting along with a lot of girls lately."

"You should also be making more friends, don't you think?"

"Any recommendations?"

"Nonoo, perhaps."

Kei mentioned a cat-loving girl he often found sleeping by a Shinto shrine.

She and Haruki were both challenging small talk partners, so Kei couldn't imagine the two holding a conversation and was very curious to find out what that would look like.

"I'll try.", Haruki gave a serious answer.

"Good. We should also get going."

They need to see Tsushima and learn what they can about Oka Eri's ability.

"Roger.", Haruki nodded.

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

2:15 PM.

Oka Eri got off the bus. She was at the bus stop right next to Sasano Hiroyuki's house.

She took out her phone and called the first number in her call history. She called them many times but it always went to the answering machine.

She sat on the bus stop bench, listening to the dialing noise. She put down the plastic bag she had in her hand, lied down, and crossed her legs.

The dialing noise eventually stopped. Her correspondent had finally picked up her call.

She could hear a deep male voice from the phone.

"Hi there, Oka Eri."

"Don't call me Oka Eri. We're not friends."

She didn't know him very well, so she didn't want him acting too chummy in their interactions.

"So, did you get rid of the photos?", he asked.

"Not yet. I just got off the bus."

He called her immediately after she sealed Haruki Misora's ability and talked to Asai Kei on the phone. He ordered her to eliminate all of Sasano Hiroyuki's photos.

The plastic bag next to Oka Eri contained lighter oil and matches. Her role was burning Sasano's entire collection.

(Shit, I shouldn't be wasting my time with this. I'll meet Asai Kei at 9:00. I gotta prepare for that. Why now of all times I need to burn some stranger's photos?)

"Do you need anything from me?", he asked.

"I have a few questions."

She meant to ask those questions when she took her orders, but he announced he had something else to do and hung up without waiting to listen to her say anything.

"Why do we still need to burn the photos?"

"Because they're pictures of something that should have been photographed. More precisely, photos no ability should be allowed to reproduce."

She heard that before.

"Yeah, but you already made me seal the Sasano's ability, no? So why am I being asked to come back another day to get rid of the photos?"

"Does it matter why? We have a contract."

(He's right...)

Oka Eri would obey his orders, and in exchange, he would leak Bureau-exclusive information to her. Information about Asai Kei, about the Resets, and about the person with the best ability in Sakurada.

Oka Eri switches the crossed legs.

"I know that. So I'm asking for information as my deserved reward. What are you making me do?"

"Oh, ok."

She could hear a quiet laugh on the other side of the phone. She felt mocked and didn't like that.

"Sasano Hiroyuki lied about his ability. He didn't need his ability to enter the photos.", he said.

"What was the lie?"

"Sasano doesn't need to use his ability when he's ripping the photo. The activation is only necessary for the first step, when he's taking the photo."

"So basically, even with his ability sealed, as long as he still has photos he took using his ability, he can still enter them?"

"Yeah. And it doesn't have to be him. You and I could also enter the photos we ripped."

This was fascinating to hear. Oka Eri smiled.

"So we should have confiscated all the photos after all."

"Yes, exactly."

"Then why did we let him get away with just the seal before?"

There was not much of a point to disabling his ability.

"I didn't know about it back then. I thought the seal would have solved everything. But yesterday this one member of the Bureau started gathering information on Sasano, you see. I got curious and kept my tabs on him. Without this coincidence, we'd still have been in the dark about his ability."

"Hah, how dumb. Didn't think I'd ever see the Bureau be wrong about an ability."

"You can't blame us. How many abilities do you think there are in Sakurada?", the man dispassionately asked. "About half the citizens have abilities. That puts the number of abilities on the 5 digits. No way our measly public institution can manage all of them that strictly."

The man took a pause before he continued speaking in a lower tone. Like a teacher trying to speak to an underperforming student.

"The Bureau is built under the illusion that it's possible to regulate all the abilities. It's just a fantasy. Reality couldn't stray further from that. That's what makes Sakurada so dangerous. Much more dangerous than you think."

A line she heard from his mouth countless times.

"I don't get it. Sakurada is safe as long you have the ability to see the future, no?"

That was another piece of information she learned from him.

The best ability in Sakurada and the user locked in a building. A lone woman observing all potential problems in Sakurada.

"She's definitely competent. We never found anyone as useful as her. But didn't I already tell you? She's about to die.", he declared with a chilling voice.

She gripped her phone harder.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. If you want her ability, you gotta be faster."

"Is that really okay for a Bureau member to tell me?"

"Absolutely not, but we're way past the point it matters."

He spoke unemotive, as if he was talking about a distant country.

"The Bureau already extracted all the information it needed out of her. She's a dried husk now. Broken remains of the past abandoned in a deteriorating building. There's no more value in keeping people to guard her, so the security there is full of holes. Your ability can do the job."

Oka Eri gulped and asked.

"If I fail my attempt to take her away, will you protect me, perhaps?"

She heard dry laughter.

"How could I? That's not a clause in our contract."

Oka Eri cackled. "Sure isn't." Then contained her voice as much as possible before continuing. "By the way, you still didn't answer the important question. What are you making me do? What wasn't supposed to be in a photo? What's your goal?"

He sighed.

"I'm only disclosing the Bureau's info. Not my own. You have no right to ask about my goal."

Oka Eri cursed internally.

He was a Bureau member but his philosophy was different from the Bureau at large. And when he needed to things that go against the Bureau's will, he used Oka Eri.

"I gave you all the information you wanted, haven't I?", he asked.

Oka Eri asked mainly about Asai Kei, the Resets, and an ability better than the Reset.

"Asai Kei has the MacGuffin, right?"

"Without a doubt."

"He's trying to protect it, right?"

"Probably. I'm not sure and I don't care much to find out, but I assume he is."

"That's all I need to hear."

(if I can take away the MacGuffin, I win against Asai Kei.)

"Bye, Oka Eri. I pray that you can break free from your past one day."

The man hung up after delivering this final message in the mocking tone of someone who didn't mean the wish he made. Oka Eri barely knew anything about him.

But his methods resembled what Kei was like 2 years before.

Oka Eri violently pulled her hair, lost in thought.

(Break free from my past? What the hell do you know? But ok. Doesn't matter. I got the gist of Sasano's deal. I don't need the details. I'll use any means at my disposal.)

Oka Eri stood up, grabbing the bag with her oil and matches.

She was ordered not to leave a single photo unburned. No one would notice a few pictures missing from the burning pile.

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

He reclined on a black leather chair.

"Bye, Oka Eri. I pray that you can break free from your past one day."

The man hung up after delivering this final message in the mocking tone of someone who didn't mean the wish he made. He handed the phone to the woman standing next to him. The phone was hers. He didn't like carrying objects in his pocket.

Taking her phone back, she asked him.

"Are you sure this is the best course of action?"

"You mean my decision on the photos? Or telling her about the photos? Or perhaps my policy in dealing with the nameless system??"

"All of them. Telling her about the nameless system was particularly dangerous, in my opinion."

"It wasn't. Everyone connected to her is under control."

"Also, Oka Eri shouldn't be disposing of the photos alone. We need someone watching her."

"No, it's fine. Her taking some photos with her won't be a major problem. If I needed a perfect operation, I'd have used someone else."

"But Oka Eri acts out self-interest. We can't be sure she will follow our orders."

He shrugged.

"I don't care what that girl does. My only interest is that no incidents happen."

(The blazes just need to burn without thinking about where their flames are spreading to. Whatever gets burned, it won't be my loss.)

He threw his weight to his back and crossed his legs.

"You know, have you ever thought about the despair in the fact that the ability to see the future exists?"

After this quote, the man smirked.

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

At 3:00 PM, Kei and Haruki were in a small park. The cries of the cicadas were numerous and prevalent due to the large number of trees. The two sat under the shade of the trees, on a bench that had already lost most of its paint. They were supposed to meet Tsushima in this park. A building next to it had a Bureau office.

Kei checked his watch. It has been almost an hour since they arrived in the park. They got there about 10 minutes early. That meant Tsushima was 50 minutes late.

When Tsushima Shintarou finally showed himself, he was wearing a suit. Quite unusual for him. Nostalgic, even. He raised his hand with the face of someone who didn't want to be here. His other hand carried a brown A4 envelope.

"Sorry. I'm late."

"We're the ones who should be apologizing for the tough request."

Kei and Haruki stood up and greeted their teacher. Tsushima threw himself at the bench the two students had been sitting on.

After a light stretch, he started talking.

"Quite a mess you got yourselves into."

"Yeah, I can tell."

"Don't you think you've done enough?"

"About what?"

"Everything." Tsushima relaxed all his muscles and reclined on the bench. "Haruki's Resets aren't absolutely necessary and you know it. And without them, you have no reason to stay in the Service Club. Put this crappy job behind you and become a proper 15-year-old. Enjoy your high school life."

The rebuttal to this didn't come from Kei.

"I don't want to."

A simple refusal.

He was glad Haruki was with him. Kei alone wouldn't have been able to say what she did. He knew what she would answer but couldn't possibly answer in her stead.

"You've already done more than any teenager should. Learn to relax, geez."

This time it was Kei who answered.

"We do relax a decent amount. We do what we want when we want without stressing over what people think about it."

Holding back on your wishes for no reason is just tiring.

Tsushima laughed.

"You're practically a workaholic."

"Just like you, Mr. Tsushima."

"Don't give me that, I cut corners wherever I can. I actually want less stress in my life."

"And yet you're working during summer vacations?"

"I skipped supplementary classes at school today, you know?"

"To search information at the Bureau for us."

"Not because I wanted to. I did my share today, so I'm taking a day off tomorrow."

Kei smiled. He knew that despite what he said, he'd still teach Murase's supplementary lesson the next day.

He looked at the sky and spoke.

"What do you think Oka's ability is?"

"Probably brainwashing or something with a similar effect."

"Anything more specific?"

"I'm not sure. But my theory is the ability to manipulate memories."

Tsushima made eye contact.

"Why do you think so?"

"Pre-Reset, when we saw eye-to-eye, she didn't use her ability on me."

If creatively used, an ability to brainwash others could do practically anything. For example, she could have made him hand her the MacGuffin or cooperate in sealing Haruki's Reset.

And yet she didn't use her ability on Kei.

"This got me theorizing that her ability is not very effective on me."

Asai Kei's ability allows him to accurately remember the past. And one of its drawbacks is that he's not allowed to forget them ever again.

If Oka Eri has the ability to manipulate memories, the two abilities would cause a complete paradox. When abilities clash contradictorily, only the one with the highest intensity gets to be effective. And Kei's ability intensity is extremely high. If his memories were manipulated, he would probably remember both the correct memory and the manipulation process.

"Congrats, right answer."

Tsushima handed him the large envelope.

"Here's the file on Oka's ability."

"Thank you."

He bowed and took the document.

While he was taking the paper out of the envelope, Tsushima made his commentary.

"The file titles Oka Eri's ability as Memory Addition and Memory Subtraction. It's just memory manipulation, but they split the effects into addition and subtraction for simplicity's sake."

The envelope contained 5 printed pages. The first page was a detailed explanation of Oka Eri's abilities and substantiated speculation on the unconfirmed details. The remaining 4 pages were real usage examples and their results.

"First, there's the Memory Addiction. Basically, she can implant non-existing memories. It can be anything. If Oka Eri gives the target an unclear idea, the target's own head will make things up to turn that into an existing memory."

That's the effect cast on Murase Youka. She was convinced that something scary happened and created her own scary memory.

"When doing so, she can manipulate their memories in a way that will somewhat reliably command them into performing one particular action. For example, she can go a step beyond manipulating memories to convince them something dangerous is approaching and directly convince them that they need to run away."

That's why Murase called Kei. She planted the memory that when something scary happened she needed to call Kei.

"That's powerful."

"Yeah. She can get pretty much anyone to do what she wants by convincing them that they're lovers or belong to the same group."

People act based on their memories. If their memory tells them they want to ride a bus, they'll ride it, and if it tells them they want to make a phone call, they will. If they're convinced the person they're talking to is trustworthy, they'll believe pretty much anything they say. Controlling memories means controlling actions.

Tsushima pointed at Haruki.

"And the effect she was hit with is most likely the other one."

"Memory Subtraction?"

"Yeah. This one is simpler. It makes people forget something. Haruki forgot how to use her ability."

Kei looked at Haruki.

She nodded.

"It's true, I can't remember how I Reset the previous times."

Looking only at the consequences, taking away the knowledge of how to use an ability is the same as taking the ability away. The victims weren't able to notice the difference.

"How can I remember it?", Haruki asked.

"Oka Eri's ability has three major weaknesses.", Tsushima answered.

"Those being?"

"First: the ability requires at least 5 seconds of eye contact to activate."

That was part of Kei's theories. The account of how the ability was cast on Haruki makes it obvious enough already, but Sasano also mentioned her bragging about her contact lenses. She was using those lenses as a tool to make people look at her eyes.

The ability was as powerful as it was easy to deal with. But this weakness meant nothing now that the ability is already cast on Haruki.

"Second:", said Tsushima. "The ability falls apart easily. If a third party tells them exactly what memory was added or subtracted, they'll eventually remember the correct memory."

Kei nodded.

After checking behind Murase and explaining to her that nothing scary was happening, she became aware of the mistake in her memories. Her ability was extremely powerful short-term but manageable long-term.

"Then I'll remember how to Reset?", asked Haruki.

(No. You can't. Sasano can't remember how to use his ability after a long period of time. Tsushima said "if a third party tells them exactly what memory was added or subtracted".)

"It's theoretically possible but practically impossible.", Tsushima listlessly answered. "You, Haruki, were the only person in the world who knew how to Reset. No one else can accurately teach you how to do it."

Sakurada's abilities were abstract more often than not. It would be difficult to verbally explain how to use one.

"Making someone forget their ability is the only application where Oka Eri's ability is expected to have a permanent effect.", Tsushima said.

That application was a loophole in her ability's restrictions. By making someone forget information no one else in the world knows, it becomes impossible for it to be remembered again.

"Do you think I can remember on my own with enough effort?", Haruki asked Kei.

"It's worth trying, but I don't know."

He could use his ability to forcibly awaken her memory, but there was one number missing in that equation.

Without losing spirit, Haruki asked Tsushima.

"And what's the third weakness?"

He nodded and answered.

"Oka Eri can't keep two effects on the same person. Using it a second time cancels the first effect."

That was another restriction Kei had considered.

She didn't seal Murase's ability. It was highly likely that she couldn't seal Murase's ability and get her to ask Kei for help at the same time. Oka Eri prioritized separating Kei and Haruki over disabling Murase's ability.

Kei needed to be sure.

"So if she uses her ability on Haruki again, she'll remember how to Reset?"

"Yup, that's right.", Tsushima confirmed even though he really didn't want to.

This would get another memory of hers manipulated, but this could be reverted by Resetting back to 11:49:32.

"Thank you.", Kei nodded.

He could see a clear way to retrieve the Reset ability.

"Don't do anything too dangerous."

"I'd never."

He needed to create an environment where Oka Eri would use her ability on Haruki again. This meant putting Haruki in contact with her. He couldn't afford risky methods.

Tsushima said goodbye, stood up from the bench and turned away from them.

Kei bowed and thanked him.

When he raised his head, his eyes met Haruki's.

"Do you think you can handle this?"

Kei nodded.

"Oka Eri's ability is much less of a challenge than I was imagining."

Everything Tsushima said was among the possibilities Kei was considering, but he felt a lot better having it confirmed.

"The scariest thing Oka Eri could do is pull someone I know to her side, but that won't work. The memory manipulation will be undone as we talk."

That's the best thing he could have heard. He was actually suspicious that Murase was made into an Oka Eri spy. So before going to Haruki's house, he went through a lot of annoying and tiresome methods to make sure her account was true. It was awful, but he needed to be sure since the plan was to have her use her ability on Haruki.

"Did you ever consider the possibility she made me a mole with her ability?", Haruki asked.

"Of course I did.", Kei answered.

But if Haruki lied, he would have seen through it. He had two years' worth of her face, gestures, and words memorized. He'd need to be really dumb to still be deceived.

"I'm glad you weren't Oka Eri's mole.", Kei said.

"Yes, me too.", Haruki answered.

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

Kei spent the rest of his day thinking about Oka Eri.

He read Tsushima's whole document and chatted with Murase to keep track of her actions. And then he remembered everything related to Oka Eri. Not only their conversations. Her face when they passed across each other in the hallways, her profile in the schoolyard, and even the appearance of her old house.

The biggest issue was Oka Eri's mindset. What is she thinking? What is her goal? He needed to know in full detail.

Pre-Reset, she said:

“Evildoers are always trying to cause problems.”

“Because it’ll upset you. Do I have to spell it out? I hate you, dude.”

“See, that’s what’s so annoying about you. That’s why I can’t back down until I see you hopelessly defeated.”

The girl in the middle school art room said.

“Eri once told me she wanted to be like you.”

“That you never took others seriously, never opened up, riled people with empty promises, were proud of your worst behaviors, and belittled the whole wide world. Basically, you’re a bad guy.”

“I remembered one thing. Eri said only Asai is allowed to say her proper name.”

And two years ago, Fujikawa Eri said:

“What do I have to do to get stronger?”

He remembered his own answer.

He could easily imagine how much his words chained her.

Oka Eri called him at 5:00 PM.

“Sup, big guy.”, she said through the phone.

Her voice was cheerful and carefree. It was faked.

"I decided on the stage for tonight's show. Remember that lighthouse we saw through our middle school library window?"

"Of course.", Kei answered.

The lighthouse had been closed for almost four decades. Now it was just a tall, purposeless building.

"It's there. Don't forget the MacGuffin."