April 1.
They’d boarded a Minatomirai Line express at Yokohama Station, and it wasn’t long before it reached the next stop, Bashamichi Station.
They waited for the doors to open and joined the flow of passengers getting off. More people streamed from other doors, and the distinctive brick-walled underground platform was instantly packed.
This was a young crowd, generally ranging in age from middle school to midtwenties. Most were old enough to at least be in high school, though. About equal numbers of boys to girls.
“Everyone’s going to the music festival,” said Sakuta’s companion.
He turned to look at Ikumi Akagi.
“……”
“What?” she asked, catching his silent gaze.
“Just wondering why I’m on a date with you, Akagi.”
They’d met up at Yokohama Station, at the edge of the Minatomirai platform. All the way at the front.
“I invited you, and you didn’t say no,” Ikumi said without batting an eye—or even glancing in his direction.
“I didn’t say no because it was you asking,” he said, looking forward again.
“Even though you’ve got a wonderful girlfriend.”
Again, her tone stayed even. Her words were likely meant to be funny, but she looked so serious it was hard to tell.
“I know you’re curious about that dream, Akagi.”
This was the reason he’d taken her up on the offer.
“So is everyone here,” Ikumi said. Sakuta could see that behind her glasses, Ikumi’s eyes were watching the young people congregating at the escalators.
Nearly all of them were headed to the same place.
A ten-minute walk from Bashamichi Station would take them to the Red Brick Warehouse on the coast, a famous Yokohama tourist attraction and date spot.
Today it would be a music festival.
“Hence the crowds.”
Sakuta and Ikumi’s theory was proved by the group of high school girls in front of them.
“Can’t wait for this festival!”
“The #dreaming thing? Will there be a live reveal?”
“You know it! I dreamed about it!”
“Mai Sakurajima is Touko Kirishima? That’s wild! I’m screaming already.”
Everyone was waiting for Mai’s announcement.
They were excited to see if their dreams would come true, hoping the future would turn out like #dreaming said it would.
Similar conversations were happening behind them, next to them, all over the platform.
The same uncanny dream Sakuta himself had witnessed.
They’d dreamed Mai got up onstage and belted out a Touko Kirishima song. Then she straight-up said, “I’m Touko Kirishima,” and the crowd went absolutely wild.
In Sakuta’s dream, he’d slipped out of the concert to call Ikumi. On his cell phone…
Meanwhile, Ikumi had dreamed about getting a call from Sakuta. That’s why she was “curious.”
“Very Akagi to go confirm things with your own eyes.”
“If things do turn out like the dream and I’m not with you, you’re the one in trouble, Azusagawa. You don’t have a cell phone.”
Her tone remained perfectly calm.
“Since that’s not going to happen, there’s no need to worry.”
The dream wasn’t real.
Sakura knew better.
He knew Mai wasn’t Touko Kirishima.
She’d told him she planned to get up on that festival stage and deny being Touko Kirishima, clearly and irrefutably.
The escalator was packed with people buzzing about the Mai Sakurajima = Touko Kirishima theory, so Sakuta took the empty stairs up toward the exit.
Ikumi followed without complaint.
One floor up, at the exit gates, they were met by a domed ceiling. An underground chamber, orange from the bricks all around.
A fancy bit of design, both modern and retro.
The brick motif continued to the concourse beyond the gates, and Sakuta’s eyes followed the brick columns up through the atrium. It was stylish, and the vibes meshed well with the station name, which meant “carriage road.”
Following the signs to the aboveground exits, they heard the sounds of a piano drifting down from the atrium above. A small crowd was forming one floor up; Sakuta couldn’t see much from here, but they were probably staring at a street piano. That was the source of the music.
Sakuta recognized the song.
Most likely everyone here did.
It was a Touko Kirishima number, the song Mai sang in their collective dream.
The person playing that piano might well have seen the same dream Sakuta had.
As he wondered, the college couple ahead of them started talking about Mai Sakurajima.
“She was incredible even as a kid.”
“That morning soap? My mom couldn’t get enough of it. Always had that red knapsack on—so cute.”
“Yeah, I remember that! Really takes me back.”
Sakuta and Ikumi heard every word of it. She shot him a glance, probably wondering how it felt to hear people discussing his girlfriend.
This couple had no idea her boyfriend was listening in.
That struck him as funny, and Sakuta had to suppress a laugh.
But a moment later, he caught something red in the corner of his eye.
A floor above, visible through the atrium.
On the passage where the street piano had to be standing.
A little girl in a red knapsack wove through the crowd. She moved quickly, not breaking stride.
“……?”
His pace faltered, as he was distracted by that strange sight.
“Someone you know?” Ikumi asked.
“Knapsack Mai……”
Seen from behind, long hair swaying, just as the couple had described her. That was exactly what Mai had looked like back when she’d been on that morning soap.
“Knapsack……?”
Ikumi followed his gaze, but that didn’t clear up anything for her. Not long after, the knapsack vanished into the crowd.
“From grade school. You saw it, right?” he checked.
“Sorry, I didn’t.” Ikumi shook her head. “Sure it wasn’t a trick of the eyes?”
“Didn’t feel like it. Gonna go make sure.”
A fathomless panic drove him forward. Sakuta pushed forward past the college couple.
“Wait, Azusagawa!” Ikumi called, but he left her behind, rushing up the stairs to the floor above.
No sign of the knapsack kid anywhere.
“Mai Sakurajima was already beautiful even as a child star. The other day, I stumbled across an old commercial of hers online…”
“The car commercial?”
“Yeah, that’s the one!”
Near the top of the escalator, some college girls were gathered around a phone.
Everyone was talking about Mai today.
She was the one person on everyone’s mind.
“That growth spurt came up quick!”
He wasn’t even trying to eavesdrop; his ears caught them anyway.
Then he spotted a red knapsack by exit 6—the one closest to the Red Brick Warehouse. She vanished down the corridor.
“……?”
Sakuta took a step after her but hesitated. Something seemed off.
She was much taller than the girl he’d seen a moment earlier. Not much shorter than she was now. Even the way she walked was more mature.
She’d grown.
At least, to Sakuta’s eyes.
“What the……?”
His confusion was mounting.
“Find her?” Ikumi asked, catching up.
But he was unable to answer that question.
Arguably, he had.
But that wasn’t the knapsack kid he’d originally been chasing after. He’d found a noticeably older version.
Sakuta didn’t know what was going on here.
He had no clue how to explain this to Ikumi.
But he had seen her again, which convinced him the girl was out there and not just a trick of the eyes or his imagination.
That left with him only one option.
“It really was a past version of Mai. Keep an eye out for her, Akagi.”
With that, Sakuta ran off, hoping to catch the knapsack kid. He wove through the crowds, heading to the exit she’d used. Then up the stairs to the outside world.
On the surface, he was greeted by the pale-blue skies of spring.
It was just past three.
Even in the light of day, the flow of pedestrians formed a single stream. They were taking a leisurely stroll down the brick-paved road that led to the sea. To the Red Brick Warehouse.
Sakuta squinted at the crowds but found no red knapsacks.
As he looked right and left, people poured past him. He heard Ikumi running up behind him.
He passed by an old beef hot-pot shop, and a hotel on the far side of the street, then a bridge. He got caught at a red light at the intersection beyond—outside another hot date spot, the Yokohama World Porters mall.
“Uh, Azusagawa,” Ikumi said, scanning her surroundings.
“What?” he asked, sweeping his eyes right to left.
“If Sakurajima was here, everyone would notice.”
She looked him dead in the eye.
And he met that gaze, holding it.
“True. You’re right…”
She had a point.
Everyone had been talking about Mai Sakurajima.
If Mai had walked right under their noses where everyone could see—they’d have spotted her instantly. Even if she wasn’t her present self, but a little-kid version—she’d already been a famous face since childhood. Lots of people knew Mai now. Everyone knew Mai the child star.
There was no way they wouldn’t notice her.
“Mai Sakurajima is so cute.”
Some college guys at the light behind him were chatting.
“I bought her photo book in junior high.”
“The one that sold so fast you couldn’t find it?”
“I saw that movie, too. The heart condition one.”
“First time I’ve ever cried in a theater. I even got a donor card.”
“Same!”
They all broke into laughter.
The light was still red. Cars were zipping by. Across the street, another group of young people were waiting—and a girl passed by behind them.
Junior high aged.
Barefoot in a white dress.
Sakuta would recognize her anywhere.
It was Mai before he met her. She looked like she had just stepped out of the very movie those college guys were talking about.