When I came to, Nazuna was in front of my face, staring down at me.
“Every night must come to dawn; the sun will surely rise,”
Wistfully, you sighed to me back then
I recognized where I was. Ah… This part… I’m back here now.
Unlike my first and second visits to the wishing worlds, in the third world, I felt a clear and immediate sense of having “come back.”
The inside of the Moshimo Railway car gently swayed back and forth, keeping time with the click-clack of its wheels against the track. From the window, I saw the crimson-tinged sky of early sunset. Nazuna had begun to sing.
It wasn’t a nagging sense of familiarity; I knew I had been there before.
“My mom always sings this at karaoke. It’s by some lady named Seiko Matsuda. I’ve heard it so many times since I was little that I know it all by heart.”
“…Huh. I had no idea…”
I clearly remembered having given a vague response like that before.
Troubled times, they come and go
And some days hope feels thin
But I know that all is not so bleak
Always your hand reaches out and comforts me
Lends me strength
To carry on
As I listened to Nazuna’s song, I thought about what had occurred. The whole situation was like a movie I’d randomly found on TV…
What was the name again? The Girl Who Leapt… Something like that…
It was the story of a girl who kept repeating the same day over and over again. I didn’t know if that was the kind of thing happening to me. But every time I made a wish and threw the orb…
Huh?
I flexed my left hand and realized something felt different. I looked down to confirm: It was empty. The wishing orb was gone… I felt certain that the last time I’d been on the train with Nazuna, I’d been holding it in my left hand.
Of course, the first and second time I’d gone back, the orb had returned to Nazuna. I looked at her hands, but she wasn’t holding anything, either. It wasn’t in my pockets. Had it rolled off somewhere? I flitted my gaze around the interior of the railcar but didn’t catch sight of anything resembling the orb.
“Hey! Are you listening?”
Nazuna had finished singing and sat back down beside me.
“Um, that, uh…orb from before…”
“Orb?”
“You know, that thing you said you found in the ocean…”
“Oh, that. I think I dropped it just before we got on the train.”
“Oh… Is that what happened…?”
I remembered the orb flying from Nazuna’s hand when she’d tried to shake the man’s grip on her arm. It had seemed to fall to the ground in slow motion, and the instant it hit the rough, graveled surface of the platform, I’d burst into a run.
Then I’d grabbed Nazuna’s hand, and we’d jumped onto the train…
Maybe the orb had some kind of limit? Maybe it could only be thrown three times, and only three wishing worlds could be visited. I had no idea how such a rule would have been decided, or by whom, but maybe it was like a pass with a limited number of rides.
If so, did that mean I was stuck in this world? That I couldn’t go anywhere else?
“It was at my dad’s spot. The place I picked that up.”
“Huh?”
“The place where my dad…washed up…”
When she started to talk about her dad, my heart skipped a beat.
It wasn’t long after this… Pretty soon we’ll…
I strained my ears.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
The sound of the train crossing was growing louder.
“Get down!”
“Huh? Why?”
“Just do it!”
Nazuna hesitated. I grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her down with me, so we were both hunched over with our heads against our knees.
“What are you doing?!”
A bit of panic had crept into Nazuna’s voice, but I didn’t have time to address that now. I prayed for the train to hurry through the crossing.
The clanging of the bells began to die down, replaced by the calm click-clack of the train. I lifted myself up and peered out the rear window. My friends were crossing the tracks. I could see Junichi and Minoru quaking with laughter as they poked fun at Kazuhiro. Yusuke stopped walking for a moment and seemed to look in our direction. But there was no way he could see us from that distance… I felt sure we were okay.
We’ve cleared Yusuke. The next hurdle is…
“Huh?! Mom?!”
Nazuna had noticed a small car running along a road just inland from the train tracks.
I saw Nazuna’s mother sitting on the passenger side and the man in the driver’s seat. The woman was saying something while pointing at the train. The car picked up speed and started to pull ahead.
“What do we do? …They’re going to be waiting for us at the next station. I’m sure of it… They’re going to catch us again…”
“No. I think we’re gonna be okay…”
“Huh?”
Just then, the train let out an earsplitting whine and began to veer off to the right.
“Whoa!”
“Ahh!”
We both lost our balance. I tumbled to the floor, and Nazuna collapsed onto the seat.
The Moshimo Railway track ran in one nearly straight line from the city to its final stop at Moshimo Station. Yet, the train we were riding had just made a turn almost ninety degrees to the right. The track I knew didn’t have any tight curves like that.
The inside of the car continued to sway side to side, but I managed to regain my footing. I looked out the window. The long, straight road where the car had been was receding into the distance. The train was now heading toward the bay—directly through the lines of trees that had been planted along our coast to protect against future tsunamis.
So this is how we avoid capture at the lighthouse station.
With the train veering away from the road, Nazuna’s mother would no longer be able to catch us by car. I breathed a sigh. We’d avoided our failure in the previous world. But my relief was soon cut short by Nazuna.
“Norimichi, something’s weird…”
Her eyes were wide as she stared out the window.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look.”
I followed her finger to the lines of trees along the coast.
Our social studies teacher had explained them to us. Moshimo had chosen a species called black pine for the project. Black pine trees grew straight and tall, and they withstood pollution and salty environments well, making them perfectly suited for use as a breakwater. But as if that entire lesson had been a lie, the hundreds of black pines before us now had gnarled, twisted trunks.
It was just like the grotesque fireworks we’d seen in the world before.
“What’s going on…?”
“I don’t know…” But even as I said it, an inkling of understanding was forming in my mind.
Among the different wishing worlds I’d traversed, I’d encountered flat fireworks, weirdly shaped fireworks, round Watermelon Bars, and wind turbines that spun backward… There had always been something different from the world I’d started out in.
And in this wishing world, too, the scenes and shapes I was used to had changed. Things that were supposed to be round became flat; things that were supposed to be straight were bent and twisted… That must have been why the trunks of the pine trees were gnarled and the usually straight train tracks had bent into a sharp curve.
But if so, then where was this train headed?
As I was pondering the question, the grove of strange trees began to thin.
The train pitched slightly forward, and Nazuna and I experienced a brief moment of weightlessness. Out the front window, beyond the operator’s seat, there was nothing in sight but the sea.
“Huh…?”
My weight shifted again as the train leveled out. It continued forward, sliding across the surface of the water as an ice skater might glide across a rink. The familiar, persistent click-clack was gone, and the inside of the train was visited by a tranquil silence.
“Is this for real…?”
“…Are we…riding across the surface of the water?”
“…Seems that way.”
Moshimo Beach came into view just outside the window.
It was filled with bustling crowds of people waiting for the fireworks to begin. Beyond them were the strings of lights of the vendor stalls. Through the windows on the other side of the car, we could see Moshimo Island rising from the middle of the bay. On it were the figures of what must have been the fireworks crew.
In this world, the train appeared to run along the surface of the water, cutting right through the center of Moshimo Bay…
Does that mean the train is heading for…?
Suddenly, things seemed to click. I thought I understood why the wishing orb was missing from this world. I’d repeated a single day over and over, visiting wishing worlds where one important change had been made. I felt certain we had come to the last of those worlds.
Previously, I’d thrown the orb from the top of the lighthouse. I’d wished “If only! If only Nazuna and I could be together!!” That wish had come true. I’d been able to avoid Yusuke and Nazuna’s mother, and the two of us were still together at that moment.
But when I’d made that wish, I’d forgotten to add one important detail.
I should have wished instead:
If only! If only Nazuna and I could be together forever!!