Chapter 97

CHILDREN RECORD SIDE -NO. 1- (1) …It’s cold. Like I’m lying on top of a freezing sheet of ice? There was no telling how much time had passed since something had hit the left side of my chest. But I could still see—see the gun pointed at me. Oh, right. That must have been what got me. That was why I had fallen to the floor. Which means I don’t have much time left, do I? But…Shintaro. What had happened to him? With that injury, he was nearly unsalvageable, right? …Though, I wonder about that. If it could happen, it might just have happened to him, too. Maybe. However…this was probably it for me. I was lucky to have made it this long in life, anyway. It’d be stupid to expect a miracle to occur twice. …Someone’s yelling something. It’s echoing too much to make out very much, but…“Marie”? Is that what they’re saying? My ears are failing me already, aren’t they? And I had just bought that new set of earbuds, too. I had been looking forward to the TV shows I had recorded, to the movie I was going to see this weekend…But I suppose there was no point now. It’d be nice if these guys could get out safe, at least. Not that escaping right now would change their fates at all. But having that thing, that monster, just do whatever it wanted with them…That was just too awful to imagine. My vision began to fade. His twisted laugh curved and warped in the air. Ah, my vision’s already going. There’s no time left. Isn’t there some final thing I can do here? …Wait a second. I feel like I’m forgetting something. What was it? I couldn’t shake the feeling that, long ago, somewhere along the line, I had made this really important promise. Oh, right. My power… What was the first thing I made disappear with it? C’mon, Tsubomi Kido, think. What did I…What did you see on that day? Trace your memories. Back to that day, to that time…