“Senpai, be careful getting home.”
“Don’t take any detours.”
Tomoe and Sara sent Sakuta packing, but even outside the restaurant, he remained unsteady on his feet.
It didn’t feel like they were on solid ground. Really, he wasn’t sure he knew where his feet were, period.
He’d been down this station road so many times, but today it looked unfamiliar. He’d lived here for years but felt like he’d never walked this path before.
Sakuta had this odd sensation that he didn’t belong.
Almost as if he’d wandered into a strange new world.
The message from the other Sakuta kept echoing though his mind.
Stop Touko Kirishima.
Before reality is rewritten.
When he combined that with what he was facing, the meaning of it became clear.
“If it was going to be this bad, I wish the other me had been more specific…”
Mai claiming to be Touko Kirishima. Both Kaedes existing at once. Rio and Yuuma dating. Tomoe enrolling in Sakuta’s college.
That wasn’t the end of it, either.
The dreaming hashtag had caused him no end of problems, but today it was completely gone. He’d certainly wished it would go away sometimes—but not by having it erased from everyone’s mind like this.
Too many things different from the world he knew. Too many changes.
If Touko Kirishima was behind all these discrepancies, then he had no choice but to stop her. Getting thrown into this confounding mess meant he had every right to give her a piece of his mind.
But he had no idea who Touko Kirishima was. He’d thought the miniskirt Santa was the real one—until she’d turned out to be someone else. Nene Iwamizawa was never Touko Kirishima.
“But if anyone knows anything, it’s Fukuyama’s girlfriend…”
Nene had been Touko Kirishima for almost a year. She might hold some clues.
Before he knew it, Sakuta was running from the restaurant to the shopping area by the station.
Was he looking for Touko Kirishima?
Or just running from his fears?
Sakuta wasn’t sure, but he knew where he was headed.
Up the stairs to the pedestrian overpass, toward the JR Fujisawa building.
✦ ✦ ✦
A green pay phone was set in the corner with the coin lockers and kiosks. Sakuta lifted the receiver, dropped in a coin, and dialed a number he’d only just learned.
“Yeah?” A man’s voice came on the line.
Takumi Fukuyama, a friend from college.
Only then did Sakuta realize he’d misdialed.
“It’s me. Azusagawa.”
“Oh, I thought so! It says ‘pay phone’ so I figured it was you. What’s up?”
“Sorry, I meant to call Iwamizawa.”
Sakuta was clearly more rattled than he’d thought. But he was in no mood to laugh at himself for it.
“Oh yeah? What for? You okay?”
“I gotta call her so I’ll let you go.”
“Nah, wait. Nene’s with me; lemme pass you over.”
In the background, he heard Takumi calling her name, and Sakuta waited a moment.
“What’s this about?”
She came on the line, sounding put out.
“Know anything about who Touko Kirishima is?”
“Huh? She’s your girlfriend,” she scoffed. “I was such a fool. Can’t believe I didn’t see it.”
Her words sounded a bit spiteful, and most of that sentiment seemed reserved for Sakuta.
But he was in no shape to go back and forth on that subject.
“Could you please tell me anything you remember?”
“Seriously, ask your girlfriend.”
When he stood his ground, she brushed him off.
“Iwamizawa, you once said something about giving presents. You know, Adolescence Syndrome.”
“I might have.”
“What did you mean by it?”
“I mean, it seems like listening to Touko Kirishima’s songs gave me Adolescence Syndrome. Maybe that’s why I thought that?”
Her response almost made it sound like she was just some bystander.
“Maybe I just wanted to convince myself I was special like that.”
Her laughter was clearly aimed at herself.
“So you don’t know anything else?”
“Nope.”
“……”
It was almost anticlimactic how his one hope had been snuffed out.
“Guess I should be grateful,” she said. “You helped cure my Adolescence Syndrome. Thanks.”
“……You’re welcome.”
“Wanna talk to Takumi?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Yeah? Then bye.”
She hung up.
The phone started buzzing, so he set it on the hook. That was when Sakuta realized his hand was shaking.
Everyone was on a different page.
There was no clear path to a solution.
His mouth was dry.
His breathing became fast and shallow as he gasped for air.
He could hear the sounds of the street, but it all seemed so far away.
And yet his heartbeat was weirdly loud. His heart was beating so hard it hurt.
His body was reacting to the terror he felt.
Sakuta recognized this feeling.
He’d experienced this once before.
“Nobody understands me. It’s exactly the same.”
His third year of junior high.
Nobody had believed that Adolescence Syndrome was real. He’d been isolated.
And right now, he was completely isolated again.
He picked up the receiver with shaking hands.
“Akagi was with me yesterday…”
Ikumi had been shocked when Mai said she was Touko Kirishima. She couldn’t believe her ears. Just like Sakuta.
He punched in eleven digits.
But his fingers were trembling so hard he couldn’t manage it.
Each time he got one wrong, he had to start over, and it took forever.
So many attempts.
The hand holding the receiver was shaking even harder. He had to hold it tight to avoid dropping it, and that only made the tremors worse.
His one stroke of luck was that the call went through quickly.
“Akagi!” he yelled.
But the answer…
“The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try again.”
A flat recorded message.
He must’ve gotten the number wrong.
That was what he concluded as he dialed again.
Once more, it connected, but all he heard was…
“The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try again.”
The same thing again.
“……”
His brain stopped working.
Unable to process what had happened, he dialed Ikumi’s number a third time.
And got that same message.
Sakuta hadn’t dialed wrong. He was pretty sure it wasn’t a memory issue, either.
But the call wouldn’t connect. It wasn’t in service.
He could feel a tight knot in his stomach.
It was so agonizing that he found it impossible to stay upright.
Next thing he knew, he was half-collapsed by the pay phone.
No one else to turn to.
He took out his wallet to put the extra coins away…
…and a white scrap of paper slipped out from between the bills within.
“……”
His hands naturally reached for it and pulled it closer.
Eleven digits, written in his hand.
This was his wallet, so Sakuta knew exactly whose number that was.
She’d given it to him two years back.
He knew her name and face.
But he’d never actually dialed it. She’d never tried to call him. They’d stuck to writing letters this whole time.
He put every coin he had into the phone.
Slowly, carefully, he punched in this unfamiliar number.
Making sure he made no mistakes.
Taking deep breaths.
Finally, he hit the last number, and he heard it ringing.
One ring. No pickup.
“……”
A second ring. Silence.
“……”
A third ring came and went—and only then did she answer.
“Hello?”
Her voice sounded just like he’d remembered it.
“Hi, it’s been… Sorry to just call out of the blue. It’s me. Azusagawa.”
He’d utterly failed to prepare an opening remark and wound up spluttering a bit.
She must have found that funny. He heard her giggle.
“Sakuta, your fate is entwined with mine,” she said, a teasing lilt in her voice.
He wasn’t sure what fate had to do with it.
“……Fate?” he repeated.
He got his answer.
“Behind you.”
The voice wasn’t from the speaker.
It was right behind him.
“……”
Unable to believe it, Sakuta turned like a windup doll.
Mouth half-open, he found himself face-to-face with a high school girl.
She was three paces away, clad in a Minegahara High uniform.
Her eyes met his, and she broke into a smile, unable to contain her delight.
Sakuta knew this girl.
A special someone from his distant memories.
The high school girl he’d met on the beach at Shichirigahama when he was suffering the most.
She’d comforted him then. His first love.
And now she was standing before him, just as she’d been back then.
His jaw hanging open, he tried to call her name.
Shouko.
But no sounds emerged.
In time, he croaked, “Why…?”
“If I’m going to high school, it’s got to be Minegahara!” she said, grinning sheepishly.
Only then did his brain catch up.
“Before school starts, I popped by to talk to the faculty about my body—my heart.”
The girl with her hand on her chest was not the girl he’d met at Shichirigahama.
It was the girl who’d moved to Okinawa.
And that girl had graduated from junior high and was about to start high school this spring. It all added up.
“So what do you think? Does the uniform look good?”
She struck a pose.
“Makinohara!” Sakuta said, unable to stop himself.
Shouko looked somewhat taken aback.
But she soon flashed a happy grin.
“I’m right here, Sakuta!” she said. “And now that I’m here, it’s all gonna be okay.”
“……Is it?”
“Let’s go meet Touko Kirishima together.”