Kai realized he didn’t understand anything about the person they knew as Kuroba Eru.
She was in the same school year as Nanaka, Aina, and himself, and had gone to the same middle school with the other girls. Her hair was long and black, with bangs that covered one of her eyes. She was an illustrator. She had already received business requests and stood at the entrance to the world of professionals, far ahead of Nanaka and Kai. Apparently, she liked illustrations of cute girls. She always had headphones on, but he didn’t know what kind of music she listened to. She looked rational but was actually passionate, hard to please, and quick to anger. She loved drawing more dearly than anything else, reveling in the beauty—and wallowing in the flaws—of her works, to the point where she would pass out from her own emotions.
That... was about it. He had gone home, eaten dinner, and begun thinking about such things when he’d received a phone call from Nanaka.
“Eru hasn’t come home yet!”
“Kuroba-san hasn’t...?” Kai started to ask, before briefly trailing off. “You mean, she’s been gone since we last saw her at the club?”
“No!” Nanaka corrected. “Apparently, she went home once. Her mom came by just now because Eru told her she was coming to my house, and she was worried since it was getting late.”
Kai turned to the clock. It was already past 10:00 pm. “Is there any place you think she’d be?”
“I already checked everywhere I could think of, but she wasn’t there...! Kai-kun,” Nanaka wailed, “what should I do?!”
“...Nanaka-san, calm down.” The sound of her choking back tears ironically served to bring Kai back to earth. He asked her to calm down again as her panicked sense of urgency was transmitted through his phone’s speakers. “I’ll go to look for her,” he promised.
“Th-Then I’ll join you!”
“Nanaka-san, please stay put,” Kai pleaded. “If Kuroba-san comes back and you’re not there, that’ll be a problem on its own.” He took a few more minutes to convince Nanaka of his plan before asking for a list of places to which Eru might have gone, and then heading out.
As soon as Kai stepped out of his air-conditioned apartment, the uncomfortable heat of a humid summer night descended upon his skin. The sticky night quietly stretched out around him, as though he was running headfirst into a thin layer of finely woven spiderwebs. Nevertheless, Kai roughed up his gluey front hair and began to run.
The streets of Tokyo would still be busy at this time of night, but there were only a few stragglers strolling about here in Niigata. There were still a decent number of people around the train station, but a short walk took Kai to a small shopping district where it was rarer to pass by a person than not. The glow of a 24-hour convenience store gently bobbed on the horizon like a real life save point.
If I had the power to save and load, he wondered, could I have avoided this? No, it wouldn’t have helped. After all, Kai didn’t know anything about Eru. No matter how far back he rewound time, no new choices would appear before him. It was easy to forget this truth, but choices only presented themselves after you’d gotten to know the person you were talking to. Random conversations would never increase a friendship meter somewhere that would beam a multiple-choice dialogue into his brain.
In truth, Kai was sure there had been some better option, but there was no use dwelling on it now. Still, a decision as easy as ‘Search’ and ‘Don’t Search’ didn’t need even a moment’s hesitation.
“...Dammit,” Kai cursed. He had checked all of Nanaka’s suggested locations, but Eru was nowhere to be found. Pausing for a moment, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and chugged a sports drink from a nearby vending machine. As the water he’d lost rapidly soaked back into his body, Kai felt the noise in his mind die down.
He didn’t know where Eru might have gone. But there must be some place, he thought. The only memory the two had shared was when she’d warned him not to get too close to Nanaka, and...
“...It’s a long way,” he said to himself. Still, it was the only place he could think of, so there was no getting around it.
Kai had just steeled himself for a long run when a patrolman returned on bike from his route to a nearby police box. Coincidentally, someone had called him over and he had gotten off his bicycle. He probably hadn’t had time to lock it.
Kai’s body began moving as soon as the thought crossed his mind. “Um, excuse me,” he called out.
“Hm? What do you—hey, wait!”
“I promise I’ll give it back!” With the angry shouting of a police officer at his back, Kai stood on the pedals to accelerate as fast as possible, following along a bypass on a street with sparsely placed street lights until he got to a quiet little shopping district. The wheels on his steed creaked as he made his way onto the main road, and went straight across a bridge to get over the river.
On the other side, Kai passed through another shopping district and found that, from this point onward, the path was almost entirely uphill. He felt like his legs would cramp up any second now. I didn’t know how bad it’d be, since I came on a bus the last time, he thought ruefully. That’s it, I’m never coming here on foot again. After shifting his focus to think about these things for a while, he found himself nearing the top of the hill and switched gears to go flying downhill in an instant.
The way the night breeze wicked away the sweat on his skin was exhilarating, and Kai quickly put the windbreak—made up of trees that smelled like the ocean—behind him. The view opened up to a scene altogether different from what he’d seen before: a pitch black world expanded in front of him, and the roar of the sea sounded like the cry of some unseen monster.
Placing his borrowed bicycle in the corner, Kai walked down the steps leading to the beach. The lighting around here was less than sufficient so he made do with his phone’s flashlight. With the change of seasons, the seaside clubhouse now had a menu plastered on the side. The lively location devoid of people only emphasized the darkness of the quiet waves.
Kai didn’t know what he was going to say. He didn’t know what he wanted to say. Even so, he knew he had to talk to Eru.
She was there, standing in the same place which Nanaka had shown him previously.
As his eyes adjusted to the lightlessness of his surroundings, he could make out the white blouse of a uniform fluttering in the sea breeze. Her long hair draped over it like a raven’s tail, and the ends of each strand melted into the shapeless dark.
“Kuroba-san,” he said. There was no response. Thinking that she may not have heard him, he took a step closer.
“...Why?” She asked, turning toward him before he could try to ask again. “Why... is it you?” The rest of the story resided in her eyes: there was only one person she was waiting for.
Kai was sorry that he couldn’t live up to her expectations, and he himself agreed with her. But there are times when you have to rise onto the stage, even if it’s not the role you signed up for, he told himself. Nanaka was counting on him. He couldn’t back down now.
“What...” Eru paused to let out a giant breath and build up her usual persona. With a puffed chest, she continued to ask, “What did you come here for? Do you want to continue our quarrel in the clubroom? Will you be satisfied if I tell you my history with that bitch?”
“I came here because I was worried about—”
“Spare me the niceties, dear,” said Eru, cutting him off. “I know you don’t believe the words you’re spewing.”
Kai could tell that she wouldn’t believe him even if he refuted her; every inch of Eru’s attitude was expressing the fact that she had no plans to open up to him.
“...Not with ‘that bitch,’” he told her calmly. “But rather, if you’re willing to tell me what happened between you and Aina-san...”
“One time.” For good measure, Eru repeated herself. “I’ll only explain this to you once. Just thinking about her is punishment enough for me.”
“Do you hate her that much...?” he asked.
“It’s not a question of whether I like or hate her. She’s... my enemy.” Having said so, Eru’s tale came flooding out.