“Okay, that’s enough! Break it up! What seems to be the problem here?” she demanded.
She quickly set about trying to calm the man down and deescalate the situation, letting him know very politely how disruptive he was being, that everyone was watching, and that he should probably drink some water. She was clearly a pro. As I stood there marveling at how she didn’t let him get even a word in edgewise, she shot a glance over at me.
“I’ll handle it from here,” she said. “You run along home, okay?”
“Huh? Wait, but I…”
“Seriously, it’s fine. Think of it as my way of thanking you for all your help.”
It was becoming increasingly clear that hanging around here any longer was only going to make things harder for her. Total stranger or not, I didn’t want to put her out any more than I already had, and since I was already planning to make a run for it anyway, I decided to take her up on her generous offer.
“All right, fair enough,” I said. “Thank you.”
I bowed my head to her slightly and then took off at an easy sprint. Weaving my way through the crowd helped me to finally realize where I was and subsequently why there were so many people here. These were the temple grounds of the Sodeshima Shrine. Judging from the massive crowd, as well as the various food and entertainment stalls lining the main path leading up to the shrine, I’d apparently been sent back in time directly into the thick of Sodeshima’s biggest annual event: the Ocean’s Bounty Festival. This didn’t help explain why I’d come there in the first place, though. I was extremely uncomfortable in large crowds, so I generally avoided the festival like the plague.
Who was that blonde-haired woman, anyway? I felt like I might have recognized her from somewhere, had I not been too preoccupied with the belligerent drunkard to get a good look at her face. Still, she said that it was her way of thanking me “for all my help,” so I must have assisted her with something over the past couple of days. I was finding more questions than answers, as usual, and it was starting to get really annoying. I felt like a new hire that was being brought into a highly complicated position as a replacement for someone else, only to find that my predecessor had quit on mysterious terms without leaving any notes or guidance for me—except in this case, that predecessor was myself.
I figured I should at least check the time. I reached into my right-hand pocket where I usually kept my phone and was pleased to discover that it was actually there this time around. I pressed a button, and the screen turned on—it was April 4th, 6:05 p.m. Akari was right, then—I had indeed been sent back 48 hours in time from the evening of the 6th. Guess the Rollback is real, then, I thought to myself. This time, it was surprisingly easy for me to accept—though maybe it was just that my brain had gotten numb to all the crazy things happening to me. Hey, it was a fair bit better than feeling insane. I slid my cell phone back into my pocket and headed off for home.
By the time I made it back to the house, I’d already decided what my first priority there would be—gathering as much intel as I could. When I entered the living room, I found Eri doing her schoolwork at the table like the good student she was. It was the perfect opportunity to ask her a few questions.
“Hey, Eri? Mind if I ask you a thing or two?” I asked.
She shot me a quick glance, then turned back to her notes.
“Sure, whatever. Make it quick,” she said.
“Awesome, thanks. I’ll get right down to it, then: Where do you think I went today?”
Eri looked back up at me, one eyebrow raised in curiosity.
“What is this, some sort of trick question?”
“No, just answer honestly.”
“…I mean, you went to the festival, didn’t you?”
“Ding ding ding. Atta girl. Okay, next question: Do you know why I went to the festival?”
“You were gonna help out at one of the booths, right? That’s what you said yesterday, anyway…”
Aha. So I’d been helping them set up or something. That would explain why that blonde-haired lady felt indebted to me—she must have been on the planning committee or something. As for why I agreed to help out, that remained a mystery, but at least now I knew why I was there to begin with. I was scared she’d get too suspicious if I asked her point-blank, so I decided to frame it like a cute quiz show. It had paid off, apparently. Eri didn’t seem to suspect a thing.
“Congratulations, young lady! You got every answer right! …Okay, so there were only two questions, but still. Thanks for your participation, and we’ll see you next time!”
As I made my dramatic exit from the living room, I heard Eri mutter a single word under her breath: “Weirdo.”
Back in my own bedroom, I sat down at my desk and pulled out a pen and a notebook from the drawer. Flipping open to a blank page, I tried as best I could to recreate the diagram Akari had drawn in the dirt when she was explaining the Rollback to me. The incident over at the festival grounds left me a little out of sorts, so I wanted to refresh my memory and make sure I hadn’t lost any of what she told me. I drew the dates and arrows one by one as she had, moving ahead one day, then two days back. When I drew the last arrow to April 2nd, I set the pen down. Okay, yeah. I’ve still got it down pat. We’re good.