One step outside the exit gate, I stopped in my tracks.
“……Hmm?”
I’d felt momentarily disoriented but soon snapped out of it.
The fall breeze brought a pleasant evening chill. The sky above was turning orange, the light already dimming; I could tell the sun was about to set.
Behind me, I could hear them playing an arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne,” and even farther, screams rising from the roller coaster going for one last spin.
Haruhi and Asahina were walking together up ahead, but she turned back.
“What, you forget something?”
“Nah.”
I started moving but glanced over my shoulder. A building like a castle, rides, attractions galore.
This—
A local fun center, not well-known outside our area. Half amusement park, half theme park. We’d just left. Small enough we could hit every ride before the day was out, but the quality of each one had been pretty solid—and we’d stuck around till almost closing time.
But…why were we here in the first place?
Having steamrolled us all through a grueling movie shoot and then a culture festival that really made Haruhi the center of attention, she’d somehow decided to reward our efforts.
“Let’s all go have fun together to celebrate! Forget about finding weird things; let’s turn our brains off and throw ourselves into tawdry entertainment! Fun for everyone.”
That film shoot had certainly ruffled some feathers. Perhaps this was her way of making up for that. If she possessed that kind of consideration, then I wished she’d let it show in class.
“Where we going?” I’d asked.
“An amusement park! Next Sunday, gather at the usual spot.”
So much for consideration—she settled all the plans on her own, and we’d spent the day getting hauled around in her wake, trying every ride in the place, and joining in on every attraction the theme park offered.
I will begrudgingly admit to enjoying myself. Asahina had been adorable, Nagato impassive, Koizumi prone to exhaustive commentary, and Haruhi a constant source of uproar. We’d battled a demon lord, fought space pirates, visited a western town, hunted sharks, assaulted Spanish fleets, flung ourselves into Greek myths—in hindsight, these attractions had sure had verisimilitude. Some of them had made it feel like we were really there. Amusement park tech not to be trifled with.
“Been a while since I played that hard!” Haruhi said, stretching. “I feel like I got a decade’s worth of fun. Maybe it’s just been that long since I hit up an amusement park.”
“I’d like to go again!” Asahina said. Dressed in street clothes and walking shoulder to shoulder with Haruhi, they looked like sisters—and I hardly need say which one looked older.
Koizumi was matching pace on my right.
“I thought we’d be worn out, yet my feet feel light. Like we’ve achieved something. Perhaps I got in touch with my inner child.”
Hearing that misty note in his voice, I glanced back once again.
“…………”
Nagato was right behind me, staring down at her palm for some reason.
Like there was something resting on it—but I couldn’t see it. Only her pale fingers.
Before I could ask what, her head drifted up, and our eyes met.
“…………”
Her eyes seemed to say, “I feel like I’m forgetting something. Any idea what?”
I couldn’t begin to tell you why I’d read into it like that, but if Nagato didn’t remember something, there was no way I would. I felt like there was something else I needed to ask her, but before I could put it in words, the doubt vanished like the last puff of smoke from a burned-out candle.
Something else tugged at my mind.
Something soft in my hand. I was holding hands with someone. I looked down…
And found my sister. Her right hand in mine, her left holding on to a balloon. A mascot character had been handing them out at the gate. There were some anime characters printed on the side.
She looked up at me and grinned.
My sister…? Had she been with us? No, wait, right, I remember now.
As I was putting my shoes on that morning, she’d thrown her arms around my legs, wailing, “I’m coming, too!” Somehow she’d found out we were going to the amusement park. I’d asked how.
“Yuki told me!” she claimed. But when I asked when and where, she’d thought to herself for a moment and simply said, “A birdie came!” which made me want to take her temperature. After that, she just insisted she didn’t remember and seemed to be telling the truth. Maybe the bird thing had been in a dream.
I left that mystery for later and attempted to pry myself away, but a fifth grader hell-bent on going to the amusement park has a grip like a freight crane on a shipping container, and I wound up showing up late with a sister in tow.
I knew Haruhi and Asahina would welcome her, but when I asked Nagato if she’d told her about our plans, she simply crooked her head, her face not shifting at all.
Fair enough. Nagato secretly sharing SOS Brigade plans with my sister had neither rhyme nor reason.
Walking slowly to match her gait, she said, “Kyon, piggyback!”
“Sure, sure.”
Even I’m not sure why I went along with this demand so easily.
It had been quite a while since I carried her like this, and for some reason, I found myself deciding I’d better splurge a bit on her next birthday.
We headed toward the nearest station. On the way, I heard something rustle in my pocket, and I pulled it out, finding a bit of paper with English written on it.
“What the—?”
Was this a key item from the escape room? The paper had a weird feel to it.
Koizumi leaned in.
“A passage from the Bible. The Book of Job?”
Bits of it were underlined.
“Remember me?” I muttered…but had no recollection where I’d obtained this. Well, we’d been in and out of a lot of places; I might have absently taken it in passing. I shoved it back in my pocket to throw out later.
I could hear someone snoring next to my ear and glanced over to find my sister conked out.
Not sure how you could fall asleep on someone’s back. As I was marveling at her feat, out of the corner of my eye, I saw wings flutter and looked up—only to not spot any bird…
“What is it?” Koizumi asked. From the look on his face, it must have been my imagination. I guess I hadn’t heard flapping wings.
Yet my eyes turned up to the sky…and saw a balloon rising.
It had slipped from my sister’s fingers in her sleep, escaped the clutches of gravity, and was now free to fly where it pleased.
The cartoony anime characters on the side were a man and a woman.
I felt like I’d seen them somewhere before, but their names and identities didn’t come to mind.
My sister’s lost balloon drifted on, higher and higher.
Perhaps a trick of the angle, but to me, the couple’s smiles looked relieved.