The Showa-dori intersection was our city’s largest, splitting into four quarters almost exactly at the center. Styled as a pedestrian scramble, it naturally got a lot of traffic. In the past there used to be a big pedestrian overpass connecting each of the four corners, but people complained about the pillars impeding visibility for drivers, so the whole thing was torn down. The old photographs made it look so cool though! Whenever I came to the intersection, I’d often stop and imagine what it would have been like to walk across it.
On the southwest corner of the intersection, there was a patch of greenery too small to be called a park. There stood the Leotard Girl, a bronze statue of a curvy young woman shyly covering her chest with her arms. It had been there since before I was born, and I was used to seeing it, but I had no clue who the model was or why it was erected there.
More than fifty years had passed since the rumors of a crosswalk ghost first started. Walking north from the southwest corner, you might encounter the specter of a young girl with long dark hair. Some people claimed she was on her way to a rhythmic gymnastics competition when she was fatally struck by a car, so the Leotard Girl was erected in her memory. However, I knew that was nothing but fiction someone had cooked up. The ghost and the Leotard Girl had nothing to do with each other.
I stood at the intersection and checked the IP band on my left wrist. On the holographic screen, beneath “IEPP” was a six-digit numerical display with three integers and three decimals. The decimals were in constant flux, too rapid to follow with the human eye, but the integers held firm at 000. Sure enough, I was in World Zero. So I called out to the empty crosswalk.
“Hello there.”
In response, Shiori’s ghost materialized into view—a girl with youthful features and long, straight black hair cascading over her white dress. After all these years and everything I had done, she somehow still had the strength to smile at me when she saw me.
“Sorry it’s taken me so long,” I told her.
She cocked her head in confusion. Her every gesture was adorable.
Summoning all my love for her, I continued. “This is goodbye.”
At this, she frowned slightly, but I knew she wouldn’t be frowning for long. I was going to sink her bubble.
What a long, long life I had lived. It had all gone wrong the year I was ten, when I met someone I shouldn’t have. And four years later, she was hit by a car at this very crosswalk, and she turned into a ghost, all because of me.
Then sixty years went by—sixty damn years—and now, at last, I could save her.
“…What do you mean, goodbye…?”
She continued to frown as I explained to her what I was about to do. I was going to sink the Bubble of Einzwach all the way back in time to the branch that determined whether or not I would meet her, then merge with the reality where I didn’t. And because a portion of our imaginary elements were synced, she would be pulled back in time along with me. Together, we would run away to a new world and live happily ever after—at a safe distance.
Once I was finished, grief spread across Shiori’s face. “But I don’t WANT to never see you again!” she yelled.
“We don’t have a choice, Shiori. In every world where we’ve met, you always end up a crosswalk ghost. If I’m going to get you out of there, I can never meet you again.”
“No!”
“It’s okay. As long as we never know each other, you’ll live a happy life. You won’t have to be alone and invisible ever again.”
“No! I don’t want to be apart from you, Koyomi-kun!” She shook her head, her voice watery.
I could feel my heart breaking. “Shiori, please…I need you to understand…”
For the next few minutes, the two of us argued in circles. I need you to understand. No. We don’t have a choice. No. It’s the only way to save you. No, I want to be with you.
I mean, obviously I didn’t relish the thought of never seeing her again either, but at this rate, I would probably kick the bucket soon myself. And at that point, Shiori would truly be stuck here all alone at the intersection, unable to communicate with anyone, unable to age, possibly for all eternity. I couldn’t let that happen.
But…the more Shiori begged to be with me, the more my resolve started to crumble. I wanted to be with her too, damn it! That was what I wanted more than anything! But that would mean keeping her a ghost, and I could never make that choice!
Part of me wanted to save her. Another part of me wanted to be with her. I didn’t know which was right. So…I decided to gamble on a third option.
“You win, Shiori. Let’s promise each other something.”
“Promise what?”
“A month from now, on August 17th, in the new world…I’m going to come back to this intersection to get you. Meet me there.”
The first gamble was whether my parallel self would still be alive by then or not. By my calculations, August 17 was past the date he was expected to die.
The second gamble was whether we’d even remember we made this promise. Merging with our parallel past selves would most likely overwrite our personalities and memories.
And my third and final gamble was if, by some miracle, we were able to reunite in the other world, would it ruin her life all over again? Truth be told, this was already an inherent risk of my time travel plan. But if I could hold out until my final days, I hopefully wouldn’t have enough time to cause the same disaster all over again.
And so I caved at the very last second and left a loophole in my plan. If there existed some kind of higher power in this world, surely they would permit me one last moment of selfishness.
“August 17?”
“That’s right. August 17.”
Maybe she didn’t remember, but that was the date of the accident that turned her into a ghost. If I could meet her at this intersection on that date, perhaps I could save her for real this time.
“A month from today, in the other world. But we have to go back in time and start over from when we were seven, so it’ll be August 17, sixty-six years from then. As for the time…well, it’s 10 a.m. right now, so let’s go with that. I’ll show up at 10 a.m. to get you.”
“You promise?”
“Yes, I promise.”
She smiled wistfully, like she could see straight through to the future. “Sixty-six years… That’s such a long time…”
“Yeah, I know. But we’ve already known each other for nearly that long, see? If we can do it once, we can do it twice.”
The second go-around would be completely different, of course. She wouldn’t be in my life, and I wouldn’t be in hers. We would simply have to wait.
“Think you’ll remember?”
Nodding slowly, she smiled—so weakly, I worried she might fade away altogether. “I won’t forget. Ever.”
“…Okay, I gotta go now. But this goodbye won’t be forever. I’ll see you again, Shiori.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later.”
She waved goodbye with a smile, and I smiled back. Then I turned away from the crosswalk—away from her.
But just then…
“Koyomi-kun!” she called after me. “I’m really glad I met you.”
The words gouged my heart…and the ones that followed made me want to stop, turn around, run back, and hug her tight.
“Thank you for everything… I love you.”