It isn’t raining today. That’s a rare gift in the middle of the rainy season.
Soft sunlight streams in through the school windows, coming from a blue sky that looks overjoyed to bless the land with its presence in between cloudy days.
I stop and look out the window. I’m on the third floor of the school building and can see the town unfurl below me. This new school was built on a small hill, providing a wide view of the residential district surrounding it.
Sunlight brushes against my cheeks, and wind blows in through the open windows to play with my hair.
I see my reflection in the mirror and tuck my ash-brown hair back behind my ears. I curled my hair and made sure I looked my best for today. I’m a little nervous, but I’m going to be okay. I’m going to be okay.
I start walking again and catch up to the teacher in front of me.
This is my first day at my new school. It’s time for everyone to meet Hitsugi Fujinaka.
The uniform has a navy-blue blazer with white lines on the shoulders. I think they call this a sailor uniform? It’s cute; I like it. My old school had sailor uniforms, too, so it feels both new and familiar.
It’s been almost two weeks since the Force incident. Noary employees rushed to the scene soon after the fight and took me and Karamori into their protection. They carefully tested me afterward to study what I’d done to myself.
I look at the palms of my hands. Archive and Third have remained fused with me since I absorbed them into Untitled. Noary is apparently going to perform more testing to determine what influence that will have on me, but I was told my condition is stable and that I’ll be given a degree of freedom.
I still feel Archive and Third’s minds within me. I think it’ll be impossible to separate us all, but strangely, the thought doesn’t bother me. Maybe it’s because we all share the same father.
I used to want sisters—now I have two. I was created first, so I guess that makes me the oldest.
I observe my surroundings. The floors are a shiny white and the walls are an undecorated gray. The building’s design is modern and there are few signs of damage; you can tell it’s relatively new.
This school—and the rest of the town, for that matter—is apparently a place where Noary gathers and safeguards people with special circumstances like me. Karamori said a little less than 10 percent of the student body is special in some way. I’m now a resident of this town and a part of that statistic.
The last two weeks were a whirlwind of moving and school transfer procedures. When I first heard I was going to be taken into custody, I was afraid that meant I would be trapped in a white room. Fortunately, that’s not the case at all, and while I still had some anxieties about moving here, Karamori and a bunch of other people supported me as I got situated. I’m now living in a dorm…which honestly, I’m still not used to at all.
The tall, young teacher walking ahead of me turns around.
“Fujinaka. You should introduce yourself to the class, I guess. Just keep it casual.”
His glasses make him look like a serious person, but there’s a casualness to his body language and speech.
“Okay,” I say in response. I put a hand to my chest and take a deep breath.
I’m going to be okay. I’m going to be okay.
The teacher opens the door and enters the room. I follow him.
The classroom is bright with sunlight. Students I’ve never seen are sitting at their desks, which are white and look nicer than the ones at my previous school. I feel my face stiffen as I get my bearings. With each step I take, the buzz from my new classmates grows louder. Their gazes pierce me from all throughout the room.
Ah, it’s happening again.
I’m getting scared. The truth is I’m not a real person, so it feels like I’m lying to everyone…
I catch sight of a guy with slightly messy hair two desks from the back on the window side. It’s Karamori. He’s giving me a soft smile, and I feel my face relax a little in response.
“Morning,” the teacher calls out to the class. “I think I already told you all, but we have a transfer student. Make sure you get along with her, and all that. Go on, introduce yourself.”
“Okay!” I reply, my voice now free of anxiety.
I’m going to be okay. I’m the same girl I’ve always been. Mom and Dad raised me as a person. I have nothing to feel guilty about.
I may have been created in a lab, but—
“My name is Hitsugi Fujinaka! It’s so nice to meet you all!”
—I’m just me. And that’s good enough.
“Anyway, Chika and Hina are taking me to a makeup shop later,” Fujinaka said.
“Wow, already calling them by their given names? You’re adapting fast,” Karamori responded, surprised.
The two of them had gone to the largest hospital in the town after school. They had passed through the gymnasium-sized lobby and were now walking the perfectly clean hallways. The place smelled of disinfectant and was filled with nurses’ and patients’ footsteps, which overlapped with their own. A nurse passed pushing a large cart that smelled faintly of cooked fish. It must be dinner time.
The setting sun approached the horizon, dyeing the hallway temporarily orange.
As they walked, Fujinaka looked down at Karamori’s feet. He was in one piece. He still had some bandages and scabs throughout his body, but he’d almost entirely recovered, including his crushed feet.
“I can’t believe your feet healed. They were gruesome.”
“Well, they weren’t healed so much as restored,” he explained. “Injuries on that scale that can be treated in my line of work. Though they make us recover from small injuries on our own.”
Karamori had taken off his school blazer and was carrying it over his shoulder along with his backpack. That left him in a short-sleeved shirt with a long-sleeved undershirt beneath it. That undershirt probably concealed countless scars.
He fanned his face with his free hand.
“You look hot,” Fujinaka said.
“I am. I wish we could switch to our summer uniforms already.”
“Oh, I didn’t even think about that! I just started wearing this uniform! When do we switch?”
“Next week.”
“Oh, wow!” Fujinaka exclaimed. A passing nurse glared at her, and she ducked her head and closed her mouth.
They continued to chat, but Fujinaka noticed that Karamori wasn’t saying much. She’d spent time with him nearly every day for the past two weeks and had gotten better at reading him.
Karamori was the type to hide his feelings to avoid burdening other people. There was no way his crushed feet and other injuries hadn’t been terribly painful during his recovery. Despite that, he gave Fujinaka all the help she needed during the move and even showed her around the town. He did so while letting no pain show on his face. She felt terrible when he arrived on crutches.
Fujinaka could see that he was tense. There was a tightness to his voice that was perceptible only if she listened closely.
“Are you nervous?”
“No. Why would I be?” Karamori asked, his tone perfectly casual.
“…Okay.”
He was probably just being stubborn and hiding his feelings.
“How long has she been able to receive visitors?” Fujinaka asked.
“Since a week ago,” he said.
“One week?! And it’s taken you until now to visit?!”
“I’ve been busy.”
Fujinaka cocked her head and sighed resignedly. “Karamori… You never let it show, but you’re actually kind of gloomy.”
“Where’s this coming from…?”
“Nowhere. I just think you have a tendency to overthink things. I know you feel guilty, but you’ve worked super hard and saved a lot of people. It’s okay for you to be happy about this.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Karamori said evasively.
Fujinaka walked ahead of him and turned around.
“I just, you know, think it’s really cool how you’re able to conduct yourself positively despite all the terrible things you’ve been through. That’s all.”
Her bluntness left Karamori at a loss for words.
Fujinaka’s eyes suddenly snapped toward nothing. She looked bewildered.
“Huh? Now? Here? But… You want to come out that badly? Oh, fine,” she muttered. She looked up and down the hall, and with a flash of light and a ting, she turned into Archive. There was a bandage on her cheek, and, somehow, she was wearing the same uniform as Fujinaka.
“H-hey! Don’t switch in public like that!” Karamori said.
“No one was watching,” Archive replied.
Karamori looked around and saw that she was right; there was no one in the hallway.
“…Also, I was getting a little worried.”
“About what?”
“Never mind.” She cleared her throat, her expression nonchalant. “I have something I want to say.”
Karamori’s breath caught in his throat. Archive was still mostly expressionless, but she’d clearly said that of her own will.
Their eyes met.
“Thank you for saving me.” Her gaze stayed fixed on his, and then she gave him a gentle smile he’d never seen from her. It was clearly from the heart. “We are standing here now because we seized this future.”
“…!”
Archive leaned her back against the wall and closed her eyes without waiting for a response.
“We’ll wait here.”
Karamori looked at the number of the nearest hospital room. They had reached their destination. He opened his mouth to respond but ended up saying nothing.
He put a hand to the door, trembling slightly. He closed his eyes and slid it open.
Bright evening light coming through the far window made Karamori squint. The room smelled faintly of a person’s presence and was dyed orange just like the hallways. A bed sat in the center of the room against the wall, its curtains open and swaying gently in the wind coming through the open window.
The bed’s occupant turned toward Karamori. The sun behind them made it difficult to make out their features for a brief moment until his eyes adjusted. It was a girl.
She had slightly slanted eyes and a mature face. Her glossy black hair, which fluttered slightly in the wind, was shoulder length. And her signature side ponytail…was gone.
Oka Sakura—the girl who had been transformed into Archive—was sitting up in the bed.
“…!”
Karamori couldn’t manage a single word.
In a way, he’d just been looking at that face. But this was different. Her eyes, her figure, the way she carried herself—he hadn’t forgotten any of it for a second. Even her tan was the same as the day she’d turned into Archive.
Fujinaka had imprisoned The Archive inside Untitled. Naturally, that had restored the original body used to create it.
Two weeks ago, when the red book was fully consumed, Sakura had been left standing in Archive’s place. The Half-wits immediately attacked Karamori, who was able to free himself from Tyrfing’s control once he killed them. Archive must have left them there for that purpose.