It felt like she’d kind of dodged the question, but whatever. For now, we had an experiment to run.
It was quickly decided that I would be the one walking into the tunnel with the end of the nylon rope. Anzu would wait outside with the spool, and as soon as I felt a hard tug on the rope, I’d know it was time for me to turn back.
“Y’know… This kinda reminds me of playing telephone,” I muttered to myself as I walked down the dark corridor.
Way back when, Karen and I had made one of those makeshift telephones out of two tin cans and some string, then played with it all day—going upstairs and dropping one end out the second-floor window to the other person in the backyard so we could share utterly meaningless intel with each other. As you can imagine, this got old pretty quick, and we never played with it again after that day—but it was still fun enough that I remembered it fondly to this day.
“Sure hope I’ll find you in here, Karen…”
I squinted my eyes and looked ahead. I could see the dim light of the torches on the walls coming up. I was getting close to the torii, which still seemed to me like the most reasonable location for the time distortion boundary. Bracing myself, I continued forward at the same pace and passed beneath the first gate—
The nylon rope pulled taut behind me. Anzu had officially given me the signal, so I spun around and headed back toward the exit. When I made it outside, I found her standing there with her hands placed on her hips, looking awfully proud of herself.
“Why, hello there, Tono-kun. You’ll be pleased to know that you were in the tunnel for nearly twenty minutes.”
“Wait, seriously? But I came straight back the moment I felt the signal…”
“Yes, which means you must have already crossed over the boundary at that point. So tell me—how far did you get?! Was it right after the first torii like we thought?!”
Overwhelmed by the sudden barrage of questions, all I could do was nod.
“Yes! It actually worked!” Anzu let out a little squeal of delight. I couldn’t help but be charmed by her sudden burst of pure, childlike glee.
Now that we knew where the boundary was, we could easily measure exactly how much time distortion went on in there. I was about to suggest that we go do that right away, in fact, but then I realized it was half past five and would probably be dark outside by the time we finished.
“Why don’t we pick back up tomorrow? It’s getting kinda late,” I noted, but Anzu shook her head.
“No, I’d really like to get this figured out today if we can,” she said. “Unless there’s some reason you need to be home soon?”
I thought about it. I did generally need to be home so that I could get dinner ready before my father got back from work, but he’d been leaving the office pretty late recently, so I figured I could afford to stay out a little longer.
“Nah, it’s cool. Let’s get this crap done.”
“Now that’s what I like to hear,” said Anzu with an emphatic nod. It really did seem like she was dying to know exactly how it worked.
“All right,” I said. “This time I’m gonna try going in there and counting to three before coming straight back out.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll wait right here.”
“Er, actually, I can probably handle this part by myself if you want. I mean, all I’ve really gotta do is check the time before and after I go in. I could just as easily tell you at school tomorrow.”
“I know. But we’re a team, remember? And now that we’ve finally figured out where the boundary lies, I definitely wouldn’t want to miss the big reveal. So I’m staying right here.”
“…You sure? Well, if you insist. Not like I can tell you no. All I was trying to say was that if I take too long, you’re more than welcome to go home without me.”
With that, I ventured back into the tunnel. This time, right as I stepped through the first gate, I started a timer on my phone—counted one, two, three—then jumped back out to the other side. I could already tell that it was a bit darker in the tunnel than it had been on the way in, which told me all I needed to know about how dark it had to be outside. If the sun had gone down, then I had to have been inside for at least an hour this time. Anzu had probably long since gone home too.
“Damn… It really does feel like the blink of an eye…” I marveled quietly to myself. Even though this was technically the third time I’d experienced the tunnel’s time distortion effect, I still hadn’t gotten used to it. To be fair, how could one ever get used to such a bizarre, supernatural phenomenon? Suddenly overcome by a great sense of unease, I picked up the pace and started walking faster, wanting nothing more than to get away from the eerie torii over my shoulder. When I made it back out, my prediction was proven right: the veil of night had begun to drape itself over the horizon. Surprisingly, my other prediction turned out to be dead wrong.
“Whoa! You’re still here?” I gasped, peering down at Anzu, who was sitting on the ground in the dark with her head buried between her knees.
“…Did I not say I was going to wait for you?” she snapped back as she abruptly jerked her head up. Her voice was tinged with a mixture of annoyance and relief.
To be sure, the way I’d emphasized the word “still” probably came across as a bit rude, especially considering how agonizing it must have been to have to wait for me out in the dark for God knew how long. I immediately found myself wishing I’d chosen my words more carefully, and I offered a sheepish apology. Anzu didn’t acknowledge it; instead, her eyes shot wide open as though she’d had a sudden epiphany.
“Hey, enough about that!” she exclaimed. “What time is it?!”
“Oh, shoot! Good call.”
I’d completely forgotten to check the time on my way out. Anzu shot up to her feet and checked her watch, not taking the time to wipe the dirt off the butt of her skirt. Obviously curious, I leaned in to look down at it as well. It seemed almost exactly two hours had passed since I entered the tunnel. Two whole hours, gone in a whopping three seconds. Which meant…