Epilogue…or Prologue
FROM AN OUTSIDER’S PERSPECTIVE, maybe we looked like old friends—two septuagenarians sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea together. And in a way, we were. But I was planning to erase this world, and the old granny across from me, Kazune, was my sole partner in crime.
“Can I count on you tomorrow?”
“…A bit sudden to ask that, isn’t it?” she said.
“We ran all those simulations to ensure we’d be ready at the drop of a hat.”
“Yes, I know. So you’re really going through with it, hmm?”
“We’ve been over this a thousand times. It’s my life’s purpose. Though I do regret that I’ll be dumping this mess on you,” I admitted.
“Oh, I don’t mind the mess. It’s too late to complain now, anyway.”
“No, no, there’s still time for you to back out. I’ll find someone else. I’m sure one of those young whippersnappers at the lab will jump at the chance.”
“Don’t you dare! We can’t subject our young talent to something this dangerous! If someone has to do it, it should be me. I don’t have many more years left in me, anyway.”
“Nah, you’re gonna live to a hundred. I can feel it.”
“Ugh, spare me.”
She took a sip of tea—cheap leaves brewed in a cheap pot. Fitting for a man like me, but I was sure she was used to the high-quality stuff. She was the only friend this old misanthrope could claim to have, and she drank my shitty tea. Bad taste, some might say. Maybe that was why she was willing to humor me and my crazy plan all these years.
“You know what? Forget it. If we’re doing this, then let’s do it right. Do you have the roster for tomorrow?” she asked.
“Here.”
“I see… The IP capsule will be available all day.”
“Yeah, I managed to finesse that. I made sure the security system can be disabled from the outside too. No one suspects a thing. Guess that’s a perk of being the boss, huh?”
Kazune and I had long since been retired by this point, but as the former director and vice-director, we were allowed to walk around the lab as we saw fit. We’d passed the torch to our most competent successors, of course, but there was still some knowledge only the two of us had. We frequently dropped by for experiments as though we fancied ourselves visiting researchers—all to lay the groundwork for our ultimate objective.
“So, do I just follow the plan as normal?” Kazune asked.
“Yeah, no changes.”
“Remind me again what’s going to happen to you?”
“We haven’t done any clinical trials, so I can’t say for sure, but I’ll probably end up brain-dead. Already prepared my will and testament and donor card, so there’s nothing to worry about,” I told her matter-of-factly.
She looked back at me sadly. Deep down, she was a truly tender-hearted woman…
“No one’s going to want your nasty seventy-year-old organs.”
…which is exactly why she kept her tone harsh: to prevent me from feeling guilty.
Unfortunately, I did feel a little guilty about what I’d tasked her with, but it was a matter of priorities. I wanted to save Shiori’s soul, no matter who I inconvenienced along the way. At this point, it was my life’s sole purpose.
Kazune and I had taken our time making the final checks. Failure was unacceptable, or more accurately, failure was too risky. We tried experimenting on animals, but it was hard to judge whether they succeeded, and obviously we couldn’t experiment on humans. Tomorrow would be our first and last human experiment. Theoretically speaking, it was guaranteed to go wrong somewhere—but hey, theories weren’t always right.
Once we finished going over the plan, Kazune took a sip of lukewarm tea and let out a small sigh. “You’re really going to turn me into a murderer?”
“No! As I’ve explained a dozen times now, it’s not—”
“Yes, I know. Technically, it’s not murder. But the fact is, my actions will render your body brain-dead. It all comes down to my perception of that.”
“If you don’t want to do it, I can always—”
“I said I’m doing it, damn you! Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“…Sorry.”
“If you were actually sorry, you wouldn’t do it in the first place, but…oh, whatever. Also, my tea’s going cold.”
At her prompting, I refilled her cup. I was asking a lot of her, so I was more than happy to heed small requests like these. But even still…as I watched her sip what had to be scalding hot tea, I decided to finally ask the one question I’d kept to myself.
“Why have you stuck around all these years?”
She set her cup down and exhaled heavily. “Intellectual curiosity, I’m afraid. I’ve never beaten you once, remember? You were even the first to figure out time travel. And as a scientist, I’d kill to find out if these damn bubbles really sink.”
“…I see.”
She most likely wasn’t lying, but I felt like she was omitting some part of the truth. Normally she looked directly into my eyes, but right now, she kept her gaze carefully averted. That said, I didn’t mind. It was my selfishness that brought her into this, and she was allowed to have a little selfishness of her own.
“It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?” she mused.
“Tell me about it.”
“Be honest—did you ever come close to giving up?”
“No. Because I knew the moment I gave up, my life was over.”
“I see… Yes, of course. You’ve always been like this. I swear I’ll never understand it,” she muttered wistfully.
Frankly, the feeling was mutual. To this day, I could never figure out how to categorize our relationship. “What I don’t understand is why you never got married.”
“Oh, mind your business. It’s not like you got married.”
“Mm… True.”
She had a point. For one thing, it wasn’t relevant, and for another, we were in the same boat. If I had to guess, she was probably every bit as kooky as I was.
“…All right, I’m leaving for the day. If you need anything, get in touch.”
“Got it. I’m leaving too, so I’ll walk you out.”
Together, we packed up and left the house. The one thing I was grateful to this world for was the fact that we had both lived in relatively good health all this time, with no major illnesses or injuries. We walked to the train station with no need for a cane, and when we arrived, I bid her farewell. “I’m headed this way.”
“I see. Where are you going?”
I suspected she already knew, but I answered nonetheless.
“Gotta go rescue the crosswalk ghost.”