The next morning began with Nasuno’s feet on his face. Even with his eyes screwed shut, Sakuta could feel those paws counting one, two, one, two.
He was forced to open his eyes halfway, blearily looking up at his cat.
“Morning, Nasuno,” he said through a yawn.
His lids soon lost the battle against sleep and closed again.
It felt like he had woken up on the wrong side of the bed.
Sakuta knew why he was out of sorts. He had been tossing and turning all night.
For so many reasons…
So much had happened the day before. Too much.
Hiragana Kaede meeting him at the door had really hit hard. If his heart was stormier than the sea. He didn’t find it easy to drift off in that condition, much less get any rest once he did.
He’d slept fitfully, constantly waking himself back up. When he finally did sleep for real, it was getting light out behind the curtains. That was only an hour or two ago.
Another big yawn.
He would’ve loved to just roll back over.
But he made himself check the clock instead.
Seven thirty-two AM.
Sunday, April 2.
In other words, the day after April Fool’s. The day after the music festival in Yokohama’s Red Brick Warehouse.
“So much for a twist ending where that was all a dream…”
And as if punishing him for that false hope…
“Nasuno, is he up?”
A voice from the hall.
The other Kaede’s voice.
Nasuno meowed back and slipped past the door. Sakuta hauled himself out of bed and yawned a third time as he followed the cat into the hall.
✦ ✦ ✦
In the living room, he found Kaede smiling in panda pajamas.
“Oh, Sakuta! Good morning! Breakfast is all ready!”
She waved to the table, where toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, and cherry tomatoes awaited. A common morning meal in their house.
“You made all that?”
“These eggs are Mai’s secret recipe!”
“They are?”
“I’m now a licensed professional.”
She puffed herself up with pride. Her confidence was not unfounded—the eggs looked very good. Exactly like the ones Mai sometimes made.
“Then let’s see what professional cooking tastes like.”
“Great!” Kaede cried.
He sat down across from her. This Kaede was sitting where the original Kaede usually sat these days. She’d scooped eggs onto the toast and was happily munching away, looking like a portrait of happiness.
And that only made Sakuta feel like he was lost in an uncanny forest.
This was definitely hiragana Kaede.
There was no doubt about that.
“……”
It still didn’t feel real. More like he was actively dreaming.
“You’re not eating, Sakuta!”
“I am,” he said, following her lead and scooping scrambled eggs onto his toast.
The crunch of the toast complemented the fluffy eggs perfectly, filling his mouth with joy.
“That’s good,” he said.
“I’m licensed.” She beamed again.
“So, Kaede…”
“What?”
“How long have we been here?”
“Four whole years! We’ll start year five before April ends!”
“Thought so.”
“Sakuta, you are very out of it this morning,” she said, eyes gleaming like a detective on the case.
“You caught me.”
“In which case I have no choice but to make you some coffee.”
Kaede hopped up and moved to the kitchen.
From behind, it was clear she’d grown since he last saw her. Sakuta and hiragana Kaede had moved to this Fujisawa apartment four years ago. The spring he started high school. She’d regained her memories and reverted to the original Kaede again in the fall of his second year.
He only knew the other Kaede when she was in junior high.
The face peeping out of those panda pajamas wasn’t quite as childish.
The math checked out for the timeline she’d given.
She’d lived here four years.
Almost five.
And she’d been hiragana Kaede that whole time.
“Okay, Sakuta. Here you go!”
She came back from the kitchen and put a steaming mug in front of him. It had a tanuki on it.
“Thanks.”
He took a sip. A tad bitter. But that told him this was real. Not a dream, not his imagination, but real life.
He would have to work through things one at a time. Figure out what was real before yesterday, and what was real now.
“What’d you do yesterday, Kaede?”
“At lunch, I went to school and got materials ready to welcome new students to the club.”
“School?”
“Minegahara High?” she said like it was obvious, crooking her head at him.
“Club?”
“The Animal Club?” The doubt in her eyes was growing stronger.
“Right, I knew that.”
Clearly, this Kaede had made it into Minegahara. And joined something called the Animal Club.
“If we don’t get some new members, the future of our club is in trouble!”
“Well, you’d better work hard recruiting them.”
“That’s the plan!”
She clenched both fists, demonstrating motivation.
“Yesterday was a big surprise,” she said, changing topics.
“Mm?”
“Mai was Touko Kirishima all along?!”
He had not expected her to bring that up like she was making small talk. Her sunny tone was just what Sakuta expected from her. She clearly didn’t doubt the news at all.
“You saw the concert?”
“I watched a stream!”
She glanced at the coffee table. There was a laptop on it. She must have watched it there.
“Do you think Mai really is Touko Kirishima?” Sakuta asked.
“……What do you mean?” She leaned way over, her confusion manifesting physically. “Mai said she was. Didn’t she?”
“……I guess she did.”
“……?”
The confusion was not fading away. Before it could, there was a beep from the washroom.
“The laundry machine’s calling!”
Shoving the last of her toast in her mouth, Kaede hopped up and ran off like it was second nature. She’d evidently learned a lot more housework than he remembered. She’d grown quite a bit over these four years.
That put a smile on his face, but it wasn’t completely worry-free. He still had no clue what he was supposed to make of this.
Too many questions about the facts before him.
He wasn’t even sure this was real.
It felt like he’d gotten lost in the fog yesterday and hadn’t found his way out yet.
He needed to get a handle on things.
He gulped down the last of his scrambled eggs, got up, reached for the landline, and punched in an eleven-digit number from memory.
The first person he wanted to call was Rio Futaba, a friend from high school.
It rang twice, then she picked up.
“It’s me, Futaba. Sorry for calling this early. You got a minute?”
He was trying to maintain his cool, but he couldn’t stop himself rushing through the words.
“Futaba is not able to come to the phone right now.”
Sakuta had not expected a man’s voice.
“Leave your message after the beep,” the voice joked.
Sakuta recognized it right away. Another high school friend—Yuuma Kunimi.
“Why are you picking up?”
“Huh? Well, I figured it’d be fine to answer your call.”
He wasn’t sure what that meant.
“And Futaba?”
“She’s in the hot spring.”
Even more unexpected.
“Huh?” he said. A very dumb noise.
“She’s in the hot spring,” Yuuma repeated, like it was nothing.
“Why a hot spring?”
“Well, after you regaled us with tales of your hot springs date with Sakurajima, we wanted to see what all the fuss is about,” he said in a joking tone.
“So you’re staying the night?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Kunimi, I never took you for the cheating type.”
Sakuta meant to call out his friend, but he mostly sounded surprised.
“Cheating how?” Yuuma cackled. There was no trace of guilt in his voice.
It was at this point that Sakuta started to realize something was wrong.
Their discussion wasn’t making any sense.
“What about Kamisato?”
Yuuma could hardly ignore that name.
“What about her? We broke up two years ago. You know that.”
“Huh?”
Another dumb noise.
“You okay there, Sakuta? You’re acting weird.”
Yuuma was laughing like he was talking to an old friend. Enjoying the banter.