Where had it started? Where had things diverged into right and left?
The click-clack of the train was now accompanied by the screech of its brakes. The train slid slowly into position alongside the platform.
Soon it would be completely stopped, and the doors would open.
When that happened, what was I going to do?
Would I get on with Nazuna?
If I did, where would we go?
Nazuna stared intently at me, waiting for a response that hadn’t yet come to me. I thought I sensed tears welling up. I felt like someone had taken an egg beater to the insides of my head, but I desperately wanted to answer her. I opened my mouth to speak.
Just then, a shrill voice emanated from the direction of the ticket gate, ripping apart our shared moment.
“Nazuna!!”
That voice… It’s so familiar…
I turned to find Nazuna’s mother, and behind her was a middle-aged man I’d never seen before.
They ran past the unmanned ticket gate and headed toward us. The anger on the woman’s face was as plain as day. That expression…the sight of her running toward me…my body stiffening… They were all familiar.
Whump!
I’d been standing dazed, overwhelmed by the bizarre impression that I was reliving the same moment over again, until a dull impact woke me. Nazuna’s suitcase had slammed into me as she carried it down the platform. She was running, headed toward a small fence at the far end.
“Nazuna! Get back here!!”
The woman continued shouting as she and the man passed in front of me…
Who is that guy anyway?
The heavy suitcase and unfamiliar shoes seemed to slow Nazuna down. Before she could even reach the fence, her mother and the man had caught her easily.
My body felt frozen in place. I could do nothing but watch.
“Nazuna! What were you thinking?!!”
Nazuna struggled with all her might, desperate to break her mother’s hold.
“Stop it! Let me go!! Stop it!!”
“Honestly, get ahold of yourself! Why are you always so difficult?!”
“Shut up! Let me go! Get your hands off me!!”
Finally, Nazuna seemed to have either drained all her strength or accepted her fate. Her mother and the man each gripped one upper arm and began pulling her in my direction.
“Norimichi! Help me!!”
“!!”
I jolted at Nazuna’s imploring use of my first name—and again at the subsequent glare I received from her mother. Every muscle in me went stiff.
Nazuna kept screaming as the two adults continued to drag her toward the ticket gate.
“No! I won’t go! I don’t want to go!!”
This scene, these voices… I’ve been through this before.
The only differences were the place and…the first time, the man hadn’t been around. It had been just Nazuna and her mother…
Wait… The first time? When was that?
My mind was getting even more mixed up. The only thing I was sure of was that I had definitely seen this happen before.
“Don’t touch me! Let me go!!”
Nazuna tried to shake the man off her right arm as she screamed. The orb she’d been holding in that hand sailed into the air.
“Norimichi! Help!! Norimichi!!”
Nazuna’s tear-streaked face had turned toward me. The orb was falling to the ground in slow motion. The instant it hit the rough, graveled surface of the platform, I burst into a run.
I won’t let them take her!!
The first time—whenever that was—I hadn’t been able to do anything. I’d stood and watched as Nazuna was taken away.
But this time…I won’t let them! I have to get her back!!
I caught up with them just as they reached the ticket gate. Without thinking, I seized the man’s arm.
“What do you think you’re doing, kid?!”
“Let her go!”
I pulled as hard as I could, but his firm, muscled limb wouldn’t budge. The man jerked his arm, trying to shake me off. His elbow slammed into my cheek.
“Ow!”
Stunned by the blow, I released my grip and crumpled to the ground.
“Geez, kid.”
The man stared down at me. I thought I detected the flicker of a smile at the corners of his mouth.
“Norimichi!! Norimichi!!”
Nazuna and her voice faded away beyond the ticket gate. Once again, I’d failed to save her…
Once again?
…Yeah, that was right. It seemed to make sense now.
I fell to the ground last time, too. Just like this…
No, wait… Yusuke was the one on the ground… And I wasn’t the one who was hit in the face… I punched Yusuke. But when did that happen? I looked at my right hand—the one that supposedly punched Yusuke. Just beyond my fingers lay the orb.
When I scooped it up, it was cold, like any ordinary hunk of rock. Even so, I felt the tangled threads of my two memories loosen just a bit.
When we’d had the fifty-meter race at the pool, I had lost. I’d injured my foot and run into Nazuna at the hospital. Then, at the fork in the road, Nazuna had been taken away…
And this orb… That’s right. After that, I threw this orb.
“Back there… If… If only I’d…”
How had it gone? I’d taken the orb and thrown it while thinking of something, hadn’t I? Then, after I threw it…the strangest thing had happened… I’d started living the same day over again, but slightly differently…
Whoosh!
The train at the platform closed its doors. I was tugged back into reality.
Slowly resuming its same old click-clack rhythm, the worn-out, one-car train departed.
I watched it gradually recede into the distance. Nazuna’s words again floated to mind.
“How about Tokyo? Or Osaka? Anywhere’s fine with me. But the farther away, the better.”
If… If only…Nazuna’s mother had arrived at the station just a little later… Then Nazuna and I would have been on that train, right?
A crow circling high above called out, as if pitying my lonesome figure on the Moshimo Station platform.