Following Nazuna’s suggestion, I brought us to the far edge of Moshimo Beach.
We walked side by side as we descended the concrete steps leading down from the road. In the twilight, we had to carefully feel our way forward, checking each step with the toes of our shoes.
On the opposite edge of the crescent, we could see the lights of the vendor stalls and the crowds waiting for the fireworks to begin. Nearly the entire population of Moshimo seemed to be gathered there, enjoying the atmosphere.
“Wow. It’s true. Nobody comes to watch from this end of the beach.”
I couldn’t see Nazuna’s expression clearly, but her voice was strangely cheerful.
I felt the ground under my sneakers change from concrete to the wood of the boardwalk. I recognized exactly where we were. This was where I’d seen Nazuna at the water’s edge… We were standing at the place where she’d last seen her dad.
Mixed in with the bustle from the far edge of the beach was the quiet lapping sound of waves coming ashore.
Nazuna shuffled several steps down the boardwalk and began to take off her shoes.
“You’re not seriously going swimming, are you?”
Nazuna ignored me and hopped down from the boardwalk to the sand. When she was a little ways away, she turned in my direction.
Nazuna grabbed the hem of her black dress and slowly began lifting it over her head.
“!!”
Her figure was little more than a shadow. I couldn’t see clearly, save for the fact that the color enveloping her body had changed from black to a lustrous silver. It lit up her face ever so slightly, and I saw that she was looking at me—shy and bashful, but smiling.
I didn’t know what to do. As I averted my eyes, Nazuna turned away from me and began to run into the sea.
“Hey!!”
I found myself sprinting after her.
She ran in her bare feet. My sneakers sank into the sand with each step. The distance between us grew larger and larger.
Wait!
I started to shout, but my voice was drowned out by the splashing sounds of Nazuna’s legs kicking in the water. Eventually, those too faded, and I was left with only the same quiet lapping that had greeted us when we arrived at the water.
I was up to my ankles in water. My sneakers were soaked through. But I didn’t care. I was worried about Nazuna, now gone from my sight.
“Hey!! Nazuna!! Are you there?!”
The only thing I could see was the sea, pitch-black like spilled ink, quietly pushing against the shore.
Then, fifty feet out, Nazuna suddenly poked her head from the surface.
“!!”
Her long black hair clung to her face. She didn’t bother to pull it away. She stood straight up out of the ocean, looking off in some other direction.
Nazuna’s unexpected actions had left my body frozen, but finally I managed to call out, “Don’t do anything reckless!”
Nazuna still didn’t turn toward me. She looked up at the sky.
“Hey, Norimichi.”
“What?”
“What kind of fireworks do you think they have in this world?”
“Huh…?”
“Do you think they’ll be round? Or flat? Or some wiggly, weird shape?”
“Umm…”
The distance between us was frustrating. It felt so far from the water’s edge to where Nazuna floated out in the sea. I’d been through all those worlds where we had been pulled apart, and I’d rewound just as many times to get her back. At last, I’d found a world where we were alone, but…
No, wait… This might be my chance…
At this distance, where we couldn’t see each other’s faces, maybe I’d be able to finish saying what I’d tried to on the bike. No, I had to say it! Before the first firework went up!
“…Nazuna!”
My voice rang loud enough to surprise even me. Nazuna turned away from the sky to look my way.
“Huh?”
I’d managed to call out to her, and I had her attention, but the next words wouldn’t come.
“Um, never mind…”
“What is it?”
Soon the fireworks would start. We’d both look up, curious to know what shape they were. Their sparks would flicker as they fell across the night sky, and there would be light—enough for us to see each other’s faces again.
The thing I was trying to say was absolutely, categorically impossible for me to say to her face. I’d gone through the day performing all sorts of acts of courage. Stuff I never could have imagined myself doing. Stuff a hero in a comic book would do. But those actions all paled in comparison to this new task. The stress was on a whole other level.
“What is it? Say it.”
Nazuna’s tone had grown a bit more forceful.
I have to say it. Here I go. Just say it. Say it!
I waded a little farther into the water, hoping for Nazuna to hear me even a tiny bit more clearly.
“Nazuna! I—”
The whistle of a single, small firework interrupted me. It rose up directly behind Nazuna’s back, streaking into the night sky.
“!!”
“!!”
Nazuna and I both followed its course.
From our distance, the pace of the little ball of fire seemed leisurely, and its tail of light wavered as it climbed. Our eyes were pulled up with it, as if they were attached by strings.
It would be the first firework I’d seen from below that day.
At long last, the ball of fire slowed and reached its apex. A moment later, the whole sky was filled with one grand explosion.
Boom! Boom-boom!!
The firework spread out in every direction. The sparks drew their arcs across the night at one perfectly uniform speed.
“Wow!!”
“Whoa!!”
It wasn’t flat. It wasn’t grotesque… It was beautifully, perfectly round.
After that first flourish, the floodgates had opened: New fireballs streaked up one after another and bloomed into all colors throughout the garden of the sky.
Every one…was round.
For some time, we continued staring up at those round flowers opening up to us… Or rather, I think we were unable to do anything else. But little by little, we were dragged back to reality by the shouts of “Whoa!!” and “Amazing!!” coming from the far edge of the beach.
“Huh? They’re…”
“…They’re round, Norimichi.”
“…How?”
According to the rules of all the wishing worlds so far— Of course, I didn’t really know if there were “rules” to begin with… But if there were, the fireworks in this world weren’t supposed to be round.
The railway line had curved when it was supposed to be straight. The trees had grown in weird, twisted directions. All sorts of things had been shaped differently than they should have. The fireworks we were watching weren’t supposed to be round like in the real world…
Unless this means…
“We’ve come back…”
“Huh?”
“I think we’ve come back…to the real world…”
I quickly scanned the ocean and opposite bank. The homes on the mountainside no longer looked like gingerbread houses. They were square and angular as they were supposed to be.
The trees growing around them were standing straight and tall, and the propellers of the wind turbines along the ridge were back to the shape I was accustomed to—even turning clockwise as they always had. And the moon hanging above the turbines…was round.
Did someone else throw the wishing orb?
I felt sure it must have fallen into the sea after I’d thrown it the last time. Then, why had things gone back?