Fluorescent lights dazzled my eyes. Just moments prior, I was in a pod in a dark room, but now I was somewhere much brighter. I closed my eyes, then slowly opened them to find out where I was.
This was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, my bedroom—but upon further inspection, I spotted some manga on my shelves that I had no recollection of buying. This had to be a parallel world! Step one was a success. Now I had to find out if my parents were divorced.
I recognized this room from the same house where the three of us used to live together. After they got divorced, however, Mom moved out. So if I found her somewhere in this house right now, it would more or less confirm that they were still together.
I checked the clock—it was just past 9 p.m. If Mom was here, she’d still be awake. After two or three deep breaths, I slooowly opened my bedroom door. I could faintly hear the sound of the TV coming from the living room. Was my dad home, or…?
For some reason, I found myself creeping on tiptoe to the living room door. Then I put my hand on the knob, twisted it, and silently inched it open. There on the couch, channel-surfing, was none other than…
“Mom!”
“Jesus, you scared me! Silent as a ghost—gave me a damn heart attack!”
When she whirled around to look at me, my suspicions were confirmed. It was my mother, and if this was my world, she wouldn’t be sitting here right now.
“Sorry, Mom… What are you doing here?”
“Huh? Can’t a woman watch some TV?”
“No, I mean… Yeah, of course. But, um…where’s Dad?”
“Still at the lab. I’m sure he’ll be home late, as usual.” She shrugged like this was a normal conversation—probably because living here was normal to her.
I was convinced. This had to be it. “Hey Mom…can I ask a dumb question?”
“What sort of dumb question?”
“Um… You and Dad are still together, right?”
God, I’m so stupid. Surely there had to be a better way of asking! Her jaw dropped as she blinked back at me in confusion. No surprise there. In a world where they weren’t divorced, this question would sound extremely weird.
But then, for some reason, her confusion turned to sympathy.
“I’m so sorry you had to see that, sweetheart, but everything’s okay now. Mommy and Daddy aren’t getting divorced,” she said.
Yes! YES! In this world, my parents were still together! Based on what she said, it sounded like there was a point at which divorce was on the table, but in this world, they made things work! That meant my dad was still married—and that meant me and Shiori—
“Oh, right! Shiori!”
I just remembered. Did she make it to this world too? I checked my phone but couldn’t find a contact entry for her. Had I not met her in this world? If so, then as of today, that was going to change. If Shiori and I were both here, we were going to… Well, maybe we wouldn’t get married right away, but you know.
So what now? I wanted to see her as soon as possible, but where was I supposed to find her? I cursed myself for not having the forethought to set a meetup spot beforehand. I assumed we would end up in the same spot together, but I forgot that parallel shifting meant trading places with our parallel selves.
In that case, perhaps my best bet was to go back to the lab where we just were. Maybe Shiori would have the same idea. Even if she didn’t, I could just ask my dad to ask the director to get in touch with her.
And so I decided I would go to the lab. I could just say I was going to wait for Dad to get off work, right?
“Koyomi, what’s the matter?”
As I stood there, embroiled in my thoughts, Mom looked at me with mild concern. Right—my behavior probably seemed strange to her. Sorry, Mom, but I don’t have time to worry about that right now!
“I’m gonna go pick up Dad from work, okay?”
“What? Now wait one minute, Koyomi! Seriously, what’s gotten into you?”
Ignoring my mother’s confusion, I headed for the front door. Really sorry about this, but I gotta find Shiori ASAP! I’ll explain later, I promise!
I grabbed a pair of shoes I assumed were mine from the shoe box and put them on. They were the perfect size, and they matched the shape of my soles from frequent use, so they had to belong to my parallel self. Well, starting today, they were mine. This whole world was mine! Here, I’d carve a path to a future with Shiori—
✦ ✦ ✦
And then there was only darkness.
“Huh?”
Thrown suddenly into shadow, it felt as though the blackness was adhered directly to my eyeballs. Of course, that wasn’t actually the case. Over time, my eyes adapted enough that I could see my immediate surroundings.
I was lying on my side in the cramped pod, my arms wrapped around something soft and warm. Then I smelled that familiar shampoo…and realized it was Shiori. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I was holding her in the dark. Had I been sent back to my home world? Why? It was going so well!
Had Shiori shifted back too? Had she even made it there to begin with?
“Hey, Shiori? Can you tell me what just happened?” I whispered.
She didn’t answer.
“Shiori? What’s wrong?”
I tried again. Still no answer, but I could definitely feel her weight and heat right there in my arms. Was she asleep? Or was she off in that parallel world still? In that case, wouldn’t her parallel self be here in her place?
“Hello? Shiori, wake up! Shiori?”
I pinched her cheek. No reaction. Then I realized something critical. Here in the cramped pod, there were a lot of ways for me to feel her presence. Her body heat, her sweet scent, and…her breath.
“…Shiori…?”
Our lips were practically touching, and yet…I couldn’t feel her breath against my skin.
“Shiori? Shiori?!”
I put a hand up to her mouth and tried to feel for it with my palm, but no dice. She isn’t breathing? Why isn’t she breathing?!
“Shiori! Shit, we gotta get you out of here!”
I tried to open the glass door, but it refused to budge. Then I realized our most critical mistake: the door on this pod didn’t open from the inside! What else could I do? Scream for help? But then they’d find out that we snuck in… Screw it!
“HELP! IS ANYBODY HERE?! WE NEED HELP! PLEASE!!!” I hollered at the top of my lungs while banging on the glass door. At least one researcher was bound to still be working at the lab. They had to hear me!
And sure enough, as I was making the biggest commotion I could manage, the lights suddenly clicked on. Someone had come to the rescue!
“WE’RE IN HERE! LET US OUT!!!” I screamed louder than ever before.
“Koyomi?! The hell are you doing, son?!”
On the other side of the glass, I saw that my savior was—for better or for worse—my own father.
“Oh, and my daughter’s with him. I really thought you two learned your lesson…”
I saw the director standing beside him too. Ideally, I would have liked to keep those two in particular from ever finding out about this, but that didn’t matter right now. They opened the pod door, and I came scrambling out.
“Didn’t we tell you not to come in here without permission? I’ll have you know that this machine—”
“It’s Shiori! She’s not breathing!” I yelled, interrupting the director.
At this, she and Dad exchanged a glance—then pulled Shiori out of the pod without another word. Normally they’d demand answers to a thousand questions, but they both quickly realized Shiori’s condition was far more pressing. After a few seconds of observing her current state, the director started calling someone on her phone.
“It’s me. Got an emergency patient with special circumstances. We need an ambulance ASAP.” With that, she hung up and immediately started blowing into Shiori’s mouth while Dad gave her chest compressions.
As for me… I couldn’t comprehend what was happening right in front of me. I just stood there, staring blankly, as the two of them fought like hell to keep Shiori alive.