Chapter 4:
Adulthood and Middle Age
I WAS TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OLD when I was “reunited” with that woman.
She had graduated at the top of her class at Kyushu University Faculty of Science, Department of Imaginary Science, and in grad school, she presented her doctoral thesis at an academic conference to great acclaim. Then, she completed her PhD in record time, turned down postdoc fellowship offers from universities and laboratories in other countries, came back to her hometown, and applied to work at the ISRI. As it turned out, her father was one of our longtime researchers, and he gushed about how proud he was to anyone and everyone who would listen.
The whole lab was in a tizzy over this competent young candidate, my dad and the director included. But unless she was going to discover a way to save Shiori, I didn’t care. Naturally, it was unanimously agreed that she would join our team starting April 1.
The ISRI’s turnover was generally low, so she was the only person hired that year. As a result, there was no real “welcome party” held for her beyond an all-hands meeting where we introduced ourselves. Even then, attendance was optional, so I chose to spend that time on my research.
Later that day, Dad gave her a tour of the building to show her our facilities. Naturally, they came to my assigned room, and that was where I met her for the first time.
…Well, technically it wasn’t the first time. In actuality, it was the second, but I hadn’t put two and two together yet. I wasn’t interested in her, so I just bowed to her in silence without even making eye contact. The most I would give her was my name.
It was Dad who started the introduction. “This is Hidaka Koyomi-kun, senior researcher for this department. Full disclosure, he is my son, but there’s no need to give him special treatment.”
“Yes, sir.”
My first impression was that she seemed aloof. Behind her glasses, her almond-shaped eyes afforded her an air of icy intellect, and though she was face to face with a new colleague and possibly future boss, her expression was devoid of any forced pleasantries. To me, that wasn’t a bad thing whatsoever. All that mattered to me was her skill. Flattery would only waste time.
“Koyomi, this is that new hire I was telling you about. Not to lump all the young people in the same room, but I’m thinking of assigning her to you.”
To be quite honest, this offer came as a mixed blessing. I had been made “senior researcher” practically out of nowhere—there weren’t even any other researchers in this room with me—and now I was going to have a subordinate?
My isolation was partially due to being the youngest researcher on the team, but more than that, I simply produced better results working alone. That was, of course, intentional on my part; I didn’t want to build any unnecessary interpersonal relationships. In reality, I had spent the past ten-plus years thinking only of Shiori. The director seemed to be okay with that, but my dad probably couldn’t help but worry about me the way only a father could. He must have been planning to assign me a young new subordinate right from the start.
But…no one else knew that my current objective was to establish a method of time travel. I was using my parallel world research as camouflage. Of course, it was always possible that the field of imaginary science would arrive at time travel eventually, but currently it was believed that only lateral movement was possible.
Using the notebook analogy, you could move to different points on the same page, but to reach a different page would involve piercing through the paper—in this case, the “paper” would refer to imaginary elements. In other words, time travel would require breaking the barrier created by imaginary elements. And since imaginary elements gave form to physical matter, breaking that barrier would theoretically destroy the physical matter too.
In summary, the tenets of imaginary science dictated that time travel would equal the destruction of the world.
Because of that, none of us were researching time travel—or at least, we weren’t supposed to be. I was only being paid to research parallel worlds. And since I needed to reallocate that funding to my secret time travel research, having another pair of eyes in this room would only hinder me.
I contemplated all this in the span of a second while the new hire stepped forward to introduce herself.
“I’m Takigawa Kazune. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
She bowed, then looked directly into my eyes, and suddenly…it felt as though I’d heard that name somewhere before. Had the researchers said her name aloud when they were reading off her resume? I had no memory of it. Had I seen her name when I skimmed her lauded doctoral thesis? Surely I’d remember if so.
Once more, I observed her face. Intellectual features, thick lenses, narrow eyes that exuded an unapproachable aura, light brown hair worn in a bob cut… Yes, I was convinced I’d seen her somewhere before.
After Shiori became a ghost, I stopped participating in most social interactions. I never had friends in high school, and after I dropped out, I only ever went to the lab, to the intersection, and then back home again. Was she a part-timer at some cafe I went to once? No, surely I wouldn’t recognize a random barista…
“You two may be the youngest researchers on our team, but you’re no less talented. Any field could stand to benefit from fresh, young eyes. I hope the two of you can work together to further the legacy of imaginary science,” my dad summarized neatly. In the blink of an eye, he was suddenly in his fifties, but he really shaped up over the years. And out of respect for him, I found myself acting like a normal human for once.
“Nice to meet you, Takigawa-san.”
I extended my hand, and she gripped it…hard.