When the train had cut all the way across Moshimo Bay, it veered again suddenly. The brakes screeched, and our speed fell. We slowly rolled to a stop.
The station we’d arrived at…was Moshimo Station.
In this world, the Moshimo Railway line seemed to run not in a straight line but in a large circle, looping endlessly around the same locations. I’d never ridden on the Yamanote loop in Tokyo, nor had I even seen it in person, but I’d heard about it. Maybe the line we’d just ridden was like a tiny version of the Yamanote Line.
The doors opened, and Nazuna and I stepped out onto the platform.
“We’re back where we started.”
“Yup.”
I scanned the ground, wondering if the wishing orb was lying somewhere nearby. I couldn’t see it anywhere.
“Looks like the train can’t take us away anymore,” Nazuna said.
“Yeah…”
“Because you threw the orb.”
“Seems that way…”
I aimlessly looked up at the sky. Just the slightest hint of orange still lingered there among the indigo expanse.
✦ ✦ ✦
Pretty soon, the fireworks display would begin—the last fireworks display of the day.
✦ ✦ ✦
We headed out from the unmanned ticket gate. Leaning against the station building was my bike. I couldn’t help but laugh.
There had been a time when Nazuna and I were on that bike together, riding to the station. I didn’t know exactly when it had happened anymore; I just knew that it felt like a long time ago. Back then, I’d had no idea where I was going. I’d just pedaled as hard as I could. But now, neither Yusuke nor Nazuna’s mother was chasing us anymore, and the worn-out bike was still there, as if it had been patiently waiting for our return. I stood it up and motioned to Nazuna.
“Shall we?”
“Let’s.”
We followed the leisurely slope down to the sea. As we rode, we looked around at the strange sights that world had to offer. Like the black pines we’d seen along the coast, the trees growing along the roadside were gnarled and twisted. The walls of the old homes lining the road were not straight but instead bulged outward, like a scene I remembered from a picture book about a house made of gingerbread.
The wind turbines still stood along the mountain ridge, but their propellers now had odd, compounded layers of blades, some spinning vertically and others horizontally. The moon, which hung just above the mishmash assortment of propellers, was a weird, wiggly shape, not unlike the fireworks from the last world.
“Norimichi.” Nazuna’s voice came from behind.
“What is it?”
“Was this whole world created by you?”
“I dunno. I guess so. Maybe.”
“It’s like the world in Alice in Wonderland.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“It’s like I’m Alice, and you’re the White Rabbit. Don’t you think so?”
“Huh?”
“Hey, and the White Rabbit threw something, too. Just like you. What was it, again…? A stone? Or some kind of orb?”
I’d heard the title before, and I had some vague idea of what the story was about. But ever since I was old enough to remember, I’d been reading Shonen Jump comics. The kinds of books girls read were foreign to me.
“How does that story end?” I asked her.
“Huh?”
“Like, there’s a girl named Alice, and she goes to some strange wonderland, right?”
“Obviously.”
“Cut it out! I’m trying to ask you how things turn out for Alice.”
“…Hmmm, what did happen to her? I forgot.”
For a while after that, we rode in silence.
Everything we saw in that world seemed strange. But at least one thing hadn’t changed: the refreshing ocean breeze that cut its way through the muggy summer air as we rode.
It was the same breeze that had greeted me that morning as I zoomed off from my house and down the slope leading to the sea. As the thought occurred to me, my heart was suddenly stricken with a small, curious fear: Would I never return to what was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill summer day…?
I was enjoying my time with Nazuna, but what would happen to Yusuke and the others, and to my dad, my mom, everyone at school…? Would I never see them again? Would I never again have idle conversations with my friends, or be scolded by my mom, or play at school, or experience that beloved taste of curry left out overnight…?
“Hey, what if…?” Nazuna’s voice came from behind. “What if you threw that orb one more time and said you wanted to put things back the way they used to be? What would happen then?”
“Huh?!”
Can Nazuna read my mind in this world?
The idea plagued me for a moment, but I managed to regain my cool and respond. “I guess…the world would go back to how it used to be, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh…”
Perhaps Nazuna had been wondering the same things. A moment ago, she’d claimed she couldn’t remember what happened to Alice in the end, but based on how those kinds of stories usually went, I doubted the heroine ended up staying in Wonderland forever. I didn’t know how things turned out for Alice back in her real world, but it seemed Nazuna was contemplating our own outcome in terms of that story.
If she was right, then when Nazuna went back…
“But if I wished for that…,” I began.
“Hmm?”
“That would mean you’d be going away, wouldn’t it?”
“…”
“I don’t want that… If that’s what going back means, then I’d rather stay in this weird world, together with you.”
“…”
Nazuna remained silent.
The next words I wanted to say would have felt far too embarrassing if we’d been standing face-to-face, able to see each other’s eyes. But riding together on the bicycle, both facing forward, just maybe I’d be able to get my true feelings out. Maybe I’d be able to entrust my words to the ocean wind whipping by us, and that wind would carry them back to Nazuna’s ears.
I tried saying it inside my head once, for practice.
Nazuna… I…
No, I just couldn’t get it out! I couldn’t make the words come out!!
The bicycle came to the bottom of the slope. When we turned onto the road following the coastline, I finally heard her speak again.
“Hey, how about we go for a swim?”