On that branch, I rode the 8:10 bus. It meant that the fatal injuries I suffered from P were suffered by Kengo instead. My phone rang while I was waiting in his apartment by myself. It was from his dad.
“I’ve got bad news, Rara-chan.”
That was how it started. It almost sounded like he was smiling.
“I don’t know what to do, who to contact…but it’s bad news. They’re saying they can’t save Kengo.”
That was where my vision of the future ended. I’d seen everything.
It was easy to overlook the smaller stuff when something massive was going on. That’s what being human was. Kengo was about to spend an eternity making countless repetitive attempts to change something. That was massive. So there was no way to notice that tiny change or realize how the world was going to transform because of it.
But I did notice it. Or I guess I recognized it because I’d seen it. Obviously, I wasn’t about to accept it. I needed to destroy the world that branch led to. I couldn’t let it become reality. I had to jump ahead of Kengo before he realized it and snuff out the possibility before he had a chance to react. It didn’t matter what I had to do to achieve it.
I had to signal to the me who was waiting in his apartment that the world she was in wasn’t real—that it was simply a wayward branch of a point in the past. That she was dreaming. I needed to get her to wake up. But how could I get her to believe me? She needed to be convinced that I was telling the truth, that I could see into the future, and that I was contacting her, in that room, from someplace beyond the skies.
Ah. Ah! Ah…
Alien!
It was the exact same idea that Kengo was gonna have, but I knew it would work this time. The girl waiting in his apartment was still me. If an alien gave her a speech, she’d believe everything it said. I got up and started walking. I would be the alien. I had to be the alien. I might’ve already been one, actually. I might’ve been one for a long time.
This was my world, so I could be whatever I wanted. I could do whatever I wanted. I could become an alien and show up on Kengo’s TV. I didn’t know what I’d look like to the me who was sitting there, but she should be able to recognize me as an alien, because I was one. An alien was on TV. That was what the me in the other world would think.
“To every human who is watching: Thank you for your patience.”
She would be able to hear me.
“I hope you’ll remain calm and listen. The world’s end is approaching. We know because we aliens possess technology that can predict the future.”
Kengo was about to vanish from this world. That would be its end. This branch was heading for the end of his world.
“This is not a joke. This world is about to end very soon.”
I was putting everything I had into reaching the version of me who was sitting in front of the screen.
The world can’t end like this. This branch isn’t a part of the real world. The world you think you live in is nothing but a dream. Wake up. Think back. You exist, and that means P’s already happened. Kengo wouldn’t have come looking for me if it hadn’t. The world wouldn’t have branched off. But it has, and so P’s happened. It’s already passed. I saw a vision, a vision of everything. P is real, and you’ve gone through it. All you have to do is remember. What did I see? What did I hear? What did I think? What did I shout?
“I want humanity to stop the world from ending. That’s why I’m here. I implore you to keep your composure, but please believe me that everything I am saying is true. There is a way to avoid the end, but you cannot continue on this path. Watch carefully and think back. This is a drea—”
There was something coming down from beyond the clouds. Of course I knew what it was already; I was an alien. That arrow would fall down from above, destroy this world, and link my alternate self’s present moment back to that knot—back to that moment that would become X, when she would wake up.
I looked up and cried, “Over here!”
Land right here. Destroy this dream. Erase it. Wake up…
I could no longer speak as I was caught in that blinding white light. A second was all it took for everything to burst apart. The body I recognized as my own—the body-shaped something—was torn to shreds by the impact and vanished.
The end of this world had been foretold by a real alien that was struck by a real beam, leaving it to disappear as nothing more than a dream.
You’ll wake up in five seconds. Ready? Five seconds. Four. Three.
I waited for myself to wake up as I lost everything. She was collapsed in a pool of blood. She was about to go on a long, long journey. I knew because I’d seen it all in my vision. I would become a continuation of her, and she would become a continuation of me. We would blink, and the events of our future would become the events of our past. Meanwhile, we would meet Kengo, fall in love with him, and fight with him, over and over and over again. We would live over again a near-infinite amount of times. Kengo had made a mess of our knot, and there was no untying it.
You believed me, didn’t you? I’m glad. I really am. It meant we could be together. Can you hear me? You’re there, right? Don’t panic. Just open your eyes…
Two. A deep breath. And then to the beginning of X.
Of course, there was no need to go back. I meant it when I said this was the end. I was right, and I couldn’t lie. I just wanted to let you all know what I’ve been through to get here. So, goodbye. Here’s your # symbol.
I guess I’ll go back a bit now and start from P. Do you remember what P is? It’s what happened at 8:36 p.m., after we drove off into the night. After P comes everything that follows the “goodbye.”