“Hang on, Kunimi. You mean you and Futaba are dating?”
“A bit late for that!”
Sakuta felt his pulse quickening.
“You’re really dating?”
Unease left his lips quivering.
“We sure are.”
The inside of his mouth felt dry.
“Since when?” he managed to croak.
“Since fall of last year, when I got back from training. That enough for you?”
“……”
He didn’t manage to say it was.
His head was spinning.
Yuuma’s words had put him in a tailspin.
“Oh, and so it was Sakurajima all along! The real Touko Kirishima.”
While Sakuta was still reeling from the revelation that they were dating, Yuuma casually dropped that topic in their conversation. That saved Sakuta the trouble of having to ask it himself, but he hadn’t managed to calm down enough to tackle this new subject yet.
He took a few short, shallow breaths.
“……You believe that, Kunimi?” he managed to ask.
“I haven’t seen the vid, but she announced it at the festival, right? I just checked my feed, and everyone was talking about it.”
“Did Futaba say anything?”
He could feel his hand tightening around the phone. The tension rising up from his feet had made him grip it much harder than he’d intended.
“Mm? Uh, she said, ‘Poor Azusagawa, he’ll see even less of her.’”
He was ultra-focused on his ears, not wanting to miss a syllable.
“I imagine Sakurajima will be even busier now.”
But this was the last thing he wanted to hear. Definitely not good.
“……So even Futaba bought the announcement.”
Apparently, she also believed Touko Kirishima was Mai Sakurajima.
…Despite specifically discussing how impossible that was with him.
“Oh, Futaba’s out! Passing you along.”
He could hear in the background, “It’s Sakuta.” “Why?” “Not sure.” After that brief, breezy back-and-forth…
“What?” Rio’s voice.
But at this point he wasn’t sure what he should ask her about.
Mai claiming to be Touko Kirishima?
The message from the other potential world received via Ikumi’s hand?
The Kaede waiting for him at home?
The original Kaede who called from their parents’ house?
The fact that Yuuma and Rio were dating now?
There were too many strange occurrences.
Sakuta’s brain couldn’t sort through them at all.
He’d been hoping to talk to the Rio who wasn’t dating Yuuma and who knew Mai wasn’t Touko Kirishima.
But the Rio on the phone was dating Yuuma and thought Mai was Touko Kirishima. What should he talk to this Rio about? Where should he begin?
“Azusagawa?” she asked, when he said nothing.
“So, Futaba…”
“So, what?”
“The Futaba I know isn’t dating Kunimi.”
“……”
“What kind of Adolescence Syndrome is that?”
He’d ultimately gone with the most direct option.
“You’re still talking about Adolescence Syndrome, Azusagawa? You turn twenty next week.”
“True.”
The calendar in the living room had a big circle in red around April 10, with Sakuta’s Birthday! in hiragana Kaede’s handwriting.
“But the Futaba I know really—”
He tried to stick to his guns, but she cut him off.
“You don’t want me dating Kunimi?” she asked gravely.
“I’m all for it. Obviously.”
“Well, good.”
It didn’t sound like she was convinced.
“I’ve hoped you two would get together since high school.”
Sakuta absolutely meant that.
But even then, he’d been perfectly aware that would never happen. Yuuma was in love with someone else. Or should have been…
“Okay…”
This time she sounded more convinced, or possibly relieved.
“Tell me, Futaba…”
“What?”
“Are you happy?”
“……”
She inhaled like he’d caught her off guard.
There was a brief silence.
It was easy to picture how she filled it. Yuuma was in the room with her; she must have glanced at him. He’d have noticed and smiled purely because Rio was looking at him.
It was practically a foregone conclusion when she said, “Of course I’m happy,” sounding bashful.
Sakuta could hardly insist this must be some mistake.
Even if he did, there was no way she would accept that.
At best, she’d conclude he was talking crazy and become worried about him.
It would not lead to the future he was hoping for.
“Is that all, Azusagawa?” she asked, dubious.
“Not quite.”
“What else?”
“Be happy together.”
“Mm. Want him back on?”
“Nah, I’m good. Sorry I bothered you.”
With that, he hung up.
“……”
Sakuta put the receiver back in the cradle and stood there. His hand was still on it. He hadn’t moved at all.
Honestly, he understood even less now than before he’d made the call. It had only added to his problems.
But the call with Rio had felt familiar somehow.
“Come to think of it, Futaba had said she’d dreamed she was out with Kunimi…”
She’d said it felt like they were together.
That was part of the inexplicable Christmas incident, where so many young people posted about their prophetic dreams that it brought the servers down. The story got picked up by the news and morning shows and was still a hot topic through the New Year’s holiday.
On Christmas morning, Kaede had mentioned she’d dreamed about reverting to the other one.
Sakuta’s dream had been about Mai claiming she was Touko Kirishima.
Three dreams had come true.
“Is that what rewriting reality means?”
“What’s happening now?” Kaede asked, coming out of the washroom. She’d heard him talking to himself.
“Wish I knew.”
If the message from the other potential world was right, the cause lay with Touko Kirishima.
Stop Touko Kirishima.
He’d read those words, but yesterday, he’d been unsure why that was necessary.
Now, though, he was starting to feel like he had to act fast.
The other Sakuta had characterized this as rewriting reality, but to Sakuta’s mind, it was even worse.
The world he thought he knew was collapsing.
Fears smoldered in the pit of his stomach.
His pulse raced.
He felt desperate to escape this predicament.
“Sakuta, you’ve got a restaurant shift starting at lunchtime?”
“Maybe I do.”
He sounded out of it.
“Then we’d better give Nasuno her bath this morning.”
“Good point…”
He started to respond the same way, but halfway through, an idea struck him.
“Ack, sorry, Kaede. Got something to take care of before work.”
“Very well. I’ll give Nasuno her bath all by myself!”
Nasuno meowed at her feet.
There was something Sakuta had to confirm with his own two eyes.
He wanted visual confirmation that both Kaedes really did exist at once.