My check ached where the man’s elbow had connected.
There was no reason for me to be at the station anymore, and I’d begun pushing my bicycle along an unpaved country road. The sun was setting, and the sky along the ridgeline was dyed a deep ochre.
The orb was in my pocket. It didn’t seem right to just throw it away, so I’d decided to hang on to it for now.
When I approached an intersection, I heard a troublingly familiar voice come from the crossing farm road.
“The display’s gonna start soon, you know.”
“We’re still not even close yet.”
“Just shut up and walk!”
Kazuhiro, carrying a huge backpack on his shoulders, was shouting at Junichi and Minoru behind him.
Oh yeah… The farm road’s the quickest way from the shrine to the lighthouse…
Junichi noticed my figure and began jogging closer.
“Huh? Hey, it’s Norimichi!”
“H-hey, guys…”
“Yo! Norimichi! Where’ve you been?!”
Kazuhiro and Minoru also closed in on me. Beyond them, Yusuke was standing still, staring at me with hollow eyes.
“Why the crap didn’t you come to the shrine?” Junichi said as he lightly kicked my bike.
“Um, well… Something came up…”
I glanced at Yusuke. He was still staring at me. It seemed he hadn’t said anything to the others about Nazuna and me…
“So you took care of it and then caught up with us?”
“Huh? Um, yeah, that’s right…”
I’d really just run into them accidentally, but when Junichi gave me an opening, I aligned my story to what he’d said.
“Well then, let’s keep going. To the lighthouse!”
“Um, yeah…”
“But seriously, I don’t even care anymore whether fireworks are round or flat…,” Minoru said, munching on some ramen snack mix. He jumped onto the back of my bike.
“Me, neither.” Junichi peeled my fingers off the handlebars, hopped on the bike, and started pedaling ahead with Minoru still on the back.
Kazuhiro chased after him, shouting anew.
“Oh, don’t even start! Why did we even come all the way out here, then?! Keep walking!!”
Beyond them, up on the mountain, I could see Moshimo Lighthouse and its rotating ray of light. After everything else that had happened, it seemed I’d be heading to the lighthouse with my friends, after all. Just as I’d resigned myself to that fact and begun to follow, a voice came from behind.
“…Where’s Nazuna?”
“Huh?”
I turned around in surprise. Yusuke had sneaked up behind me at some point. Up close, I saw a trace of anger in those same empty eyes he’d been watching me with since our paths crossed.
“Oh… She’s gone now…”
I considered explaining what had happened at the station but stopped myself. It would just complicate matters further.
“So tell me, why did Nazuna show up at your house in the first place?”
Yusuke seemed to have grown even more irritated, thanks to my ambiguous response. His latest question carried an edge. Part of me wanted to resolve the misunderstanding, but I was still struggling to separate the two sets of memories I seemed to have. I wasn’t sure which of those timelines applied to “now.”
“Um, well…that’s because…at the pool…”
“Spit it out.”
“Um, I can’t really explain it very well…”
“Are you two dating?”
I felt like I’d been blindsided. Agitated, I found myself suddenly shouting.
“What?! No, we’re not dating! What gave you that idea?!!”
“Then, what’s going on?!”
The problem was, I had no idea myself. If I honestly laid out everything that had happened, I was pretty sure it would just make him angrier. After racking my brain, the only words I managed to summon came across like a lame attempt to dodge the question.
“Um…well…”
“…God, just shut up, Norimichi.”
He spit out his last remark, then started walking after Junichi and the others. Yusuke and I had been friends for a long time, but I was pretty sure this was the first time he’d ever snapped at me like that.