“Don’t you remember? Right before the last Rollback, you—”
Then it hit me. We met in the abandoned park on the 6th, and right now, it was only the 5th. Of course this Akari wouldn’t know what I was referring to.
“Er, n-never mind. Forget I said anything. Sorry, I guess I’m still getting used to the whole Rollback thing…”
“Ohhh, gotcha… Yeah, it’s pretty hard to wrap your head around.”
“No kidding. If you hadn’t explained it all to me, I’d probably be curled up in the fetal position somewhere right about now.”
“Wait. When did I explain anything to you?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.
“Oh, right. That was yesterday too… Er, I mean, tomorrow. April 6th. You gave me the rundown at the abandoned park.”
“I did…? Huh. Weird,” she said, her face clearly indicating that she was still confused but had given up on trying to decipher my lunatic rantings. I could hardly blame her, really—imagine being told about something you’d done on a day that hadn’t even happened yet. After the past couple days, I could relate to the feeling.
“Anyway, why did you want to meet up so bad? Did something happen?” I asked.
“No, nothing happened… I couldn’t sleep, is all.”
“Oh, seriously…? How come?”
“I dunno,” she said, lowering her gaze. She brought a clenched fist up to her sternum. “Just, whenever I closed my eyes, I kept having these really dark intrusive thoughts… Like, of someone I really cared about going somewhere far away or of them one day deciding they didn’t like me anymore…stuff like that. I couldn’t take it.”
These sounded like pretty vague, abstract anxieties, especially for Akari. Still, I didn’t feel comfortable prying at what seemed to be a pretty uncomfortable subject for her, judging from her vulnerable expression. I didn’t know if this was all the same “someone” she was envisioning in each of these episodes, like maybe her brother, or some faceless entity standing in for the world around her. Regardless, it was clear that Akito’s death had really done a number on her mental state. And even if I didn’t have all the details, she was clearly shaken up enough that she couldn’t sleep and resorted to calling me in the middle of the night so she’d have someone to keep her company. I felt I at least owed her that much, as her longtime friend.
“All right. Then let’s talk for a while, why don’t we?” I smiled, and Akari’s expression immediately softened into one of relief.
“…Thanks, Kanae-kun.”
“Don’t mention it. It’s fun to get outta the house sometimes,” I said and then pivoted immediately into casual small talk. “So what have you been up to today?”
“Today…? I didn’t really do all that much, to be honest. My mom was on the phone pretty much nonstop making calls about my brother, though.”
“What kinds of calls?”
“I think she was calling a bunch of different doctors from some university hospital? Trying to get more information about my brother, I guess.”
“Huh… That’s interesting,” I replied, not knowing what else to say.
If Akito was already long dead by the time I found him, then there was no way they transferred him there for treatment. Meaning…they were probably doing his autopsy. I bit my lip, realizing that I may have unintentionally reminded her of even more unpleasant thoughts. Then, as I was scrambling to think of something more uplifting we could talk about, an ice-cold gust of wind came whooshing by. Now officially freezing, I rubbed my upper arms in a futile attempt to make some heat via friction.
“Man, it’s cold out here,” I said. “Can we go somewhere else?”
Back in Tokyo, there were 24-hour diners and fast-food restaurants all over the damn place, but there was nothing of the sort here in Sodeshima. The only business establishments that would still be open at this hour were a handful of small bars and pubs—and unfortunately, we were both still minors.
“…Well, it’s not heated, but I know one place where we can escape from the cold,” said Akari.
“Oh yeah? Where’s that?” I asked.
She looked me in the eye and said, without a hint of sarcasm:
“Sodeshima High.”
After successfully scaling the front gate, the two of us hopped down and made a beeline across the center of the vacant athletic field. Ahead of me, Akari was walking with a confident skip in her step, not even making the slightest effort to be sneaky about it.
“H-hey!” I whispered harshly. “Are you sure we’re not gonna get in trouble for this?”
“We’ll be fiiine,” she said, shrugging me off. “Our one security guard goes home at ten o’clock. There’s literally no chance of anyone catching us. Trust me.”
“Wait, for real? Do they just not care about people breaking in, or…? Y’know what, never mind. But even if we don’t get caught, this is still super illegal, right?”
Akari stopped in her tracks and turned around to look up at me.
“Don’t think of it as illegal, think of it as an adventure! Don’t you wanna go on an adventure with me, Kanae-kun…?” she whimpered.
No, not the puppy-dog eyes… Anything but that…
“Fine, fine… You win,” I said, giving up. “At least we’re not hurting anyone.”
“Yaaay! C’mon, let’s go!”
Akari’s face beamed with delight as she spun on her heels and headed for the school building. It was no use—I’d have to go along with this. Having crossed the field, we began circling the perimeter of the main building. When we’d made it about halfway around, Akari came to an abrupt stop in front of a frosted sliding glass window. How she was planning to get in, I didn’t dare imagine, but she quickly grabbed the window by the edges and started rattling it around in its frame.