Even before we’d boarded the train, people’s moods had been fluctuating up and down around me all day, filling me with surprise and confusion. But the words move away coming from Nazuna hit me with a whole different kind of impact. It made my heart jump into my throat.
My entire day—from morning until now—had been nothing but surreal experiences. I didn’t know whether they were real or not. But at least I’d been able to see them all with my own two eyes.
Nazuna moving away, on the other hand, felt intangible. It seemed like an impossible future.
I mean, if she moved away, she wouldn’t be in Moshimo any longer…
The girl sitting right next to me now… I won’t be able to see her anymore…
So that was the significance behind her mother’s remarrying: The newlywed couple was planning to move out of town and take Nazuna with them. The logic was simple enough, but until then, the thought hadn’t even occurred to me. I’d never lived anywhere other than Moshimo during my entire life. Where else was there to be? I’d assumed that even if Nazuna’s mother did remarry, or even if the new fiancé was someone Nazuna didn’t like, Nazuna herself would obviously always be here in Moshimo.
“Huh? Move away…?” I managed to squeeze the words out. They were so soft and hoarse, I wasn’t even sure she had heard them.
Her head was slumped forward, but she bobbed it slightly up and down.
“That’s why…before I do, and while it’s still summer…just for today…I thought the two of us could…”
The train was approaching a crossing, and the clanging sound of the crossing bells drowned out Nazuna’s last few words.
Huh? If the two of us could what…?
I didn’t feel like I could ask her to repeat herself. Instead, I clenched down on the wishing orb, still in my left hand.
I’d come to that wishing world in order to get Nazuna back. That’s why we’d caught the train. But none of it mattered, because even in that world, Nazuna would ultimately be taken somewhere far away.
My downcast eyes were treated to a view of my old, beat-up sneakers and Nazuna’s red pumps…
The bright color burned itself into my eyes.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
The unsympathetic noise drew closer. The irritation bubbling up in me had no outlet.
Why?! Why did she have to go…?
If her mother wanted to get remarried, she was free to make that choice. But shouldn’t she be thinking a little more about how it would affect her daughter…? How cruel, making her leave Moshimo…
No, Nazuna had probably already spoken her mind. She’d probably fought with her mother, saying she didn’t want to move. But her mother had ignored it…prompting Nazuna to run away…
But even Nazuna herself had just admitted that a couple of junior high school students like us couldn’t really run away or elope… So what choice did we have…? How could we keep Nazuna from having to leave Moshimo?
If… If only… Yes, if only…
When the thought entered my mind, I sensed a curious warmth in my left hand. The orb I’d been clutching was emitting a faint heat. No, it wasn’t just heat. Until then, the orb had been black like cast iron. But unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, it seemed to be glowing red as it warmed.
That was the answer…
If… If only…Nazuna’s mother didn’t get remarried…
No… The thing troubling Nazuna had to be further back. What was it?
…If… If only… That’s it…! If only Nazuna’s father hadn’t d…
“It was at my dad’s spot. The place I picked that up.”
“Huh?!”
When Nazuna suddenly started talking about her dad, I worried for a moment that she’d seen right into my mind. But her faint, soft smile reassured me that wasn’t the case.
“Your dad’s spot?”
“The place where my dad…washed up…”
“…Oh.”
My mind momentarily flashed back to the scene of Nazuna that morning. I’d thought it strange for her to be out on the beach before school. But her words filled in the blanks, and a distant memory I had about that place returned to mind.
One year ago, I’d seen her clutching at that tarp covering her father’s body. It occurred to me that the place where that tarp had been was the same spot on the beach where I’d seen Nazuna crouch down in the morning. That was indeed the place her father’s body had washed ashore. To Nazuna, it was the last place she’d been able to be with her dad.
My hand naturally tightened, and I felt a growing warmth again. I didn’t know if it was the heat of my own body being transmitted to the orb, or if the orb was generating its own heat. But I did know what I was supposed to do.
I’d throw the orb one more time. Our next wishing world would be a reality where Nazuna’s father hadn’t died.
The two worlds I’d relived already had been jumps back of just a few hours—or thirty or forty minutes. When I threw the orb this time, I’d be going back a whole year.
A world where a person who was supposed to die survives…
I wasn’t sure if it was an acceptable thing to do. And I still didn’t know exactly what kind of world Nazuna and I were currently in—what things might have changed.
But I didn’t care anymore about things like fireworks. I didn’t care whether they were round or flat. I knew what I was supposed to do. For Nazuna, I’d…
I moved the orb from my left hand to my right.
Going back a year meant giving up the three inches I’d grown in height since then. But I’d grow it back.
I clenched my right hand.
Here we go…
“If only…”
I lifted myself out of my seat and began to raise my arm. Just then, Nazuna seemed to notice something outside the window.
“Huh? Yusuke?”
“What?”
Her words caused me to freeze in a farcical, half-finished pose. I stumbled out of it awkwardly, like some kind of slapstick comedian, and then whirled around to face the window. I leaned in close to the glass, thumping a hand against it.
As the train neared the crossing, I saw Yusuke…along with Junichi, Minoru, and Kazuhiro.
On a train anywhere else in Japan, it would have been a fleeting moment. The train would have sped through the crossing, and we’d have been long gone before anyone had time to react. But on the slowly rumbling Moshimo Railway train, we could watch Yusuke draw near in such clarity that it was as if we were moving in slow motion.
“Crap!”
The moment the train entered the crossing, I tried to sink down below the windows, but the last thing I saw was Yusuke and the others looking up at the windows of the train. Every face was contorted in disbelief.