Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 10 - Chapter 4

A Grown-Up Date

When Kii woke up, she rushed to the kitchen and launched headlong into telling Koutarou, who was preparing breakfast, about what had happened the previous night.

“Why were you asleep when mom came, Onii-chan? Jeez...”

“Sorry, I’ve been a bit tired recently.”

“When I told mom about you, she wanted to meet you, Onii-chan.”

“It’s a shame I was asleep. I’ll make sure to say hi if she comes by again.”

“She can’t come often, but she said she would come again. So I’m sure you’ll get to meet her.”

“I’m a really heavy sleeper, so make sure you wake me up when she does, okay?”

“Okay! I will!”

Kii believed that what had transpired in her dream was real. Of course, Koutarou had no intention of correcting her. She would come to understand on her own as she grew older.

This is like telling a kid that Santa Claus is real...

Sometimes it was just better to foster hope in a child rather than tell them the truth. The truth at the wrong time could be crushing. Koutarou thought this was one such instance, so he patiently listened to Kii’s story as if it were the truth while he continued to fix breakfast.

“So what did you tell your mom about me?”

“I said you were good at cooking.”

“I’m not that good though.”

“You are. Kii knows. Heehee...”

Kii had been chatting away cheerfully ever since she came flying into the kitchen. She was overjoyed that she’d gotten to see her mother, and she was thrilled to have someone to talk to about it. She was glad that someone was Koutarou, but she was also a little sad that she couldn’t tell her father. Her complex emotions regarding her father were beginning to sort themselves out after meeting with her mother.

“When I told her more things about you, she said that I should give you that.”

“What is ‘that’?”

“Eeheeheehee... It’s a secret!”

“Another one of those, huh? You sure have plenty of secrets.”

“Maybe. But I’ll tell you everything eventually. Heehee...”

“Then I’ll look forward to it.”

Kii was sitting on a chair in the kitchen with both of her elbows propped up on the table. She stared at Koutarou as he went about his business in the kitchen, her eyes bright with joy all the while. It seemed her dream had restored her cheerful personality.

This is how children should be...

Even though she was sitting behind him and he couldn’t see her, the glee in her voice and the energetic sound of her happily kicking her legs under the table said enough. And thanks to her, Koutarou was also in a cheerful mood.

After a while, Koutarou finally finished cooking and began setting the breakfast table. Still swinging her legs while waiting for food, Kii called out to him.

“By the way, Onii-chan...”

“Yes?”

Koutarou stopped what he was doing and looked up at Kii. When he did, he realized that something was different. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and her smile was timid.

“Uh, um, you see...”

“Go on. You can tell me.”

Kii seemed to be hesitating, so Koutarou smiled and urged her on.

“Y-You see... If you’re not too busy, um, would you go on a date with Kii?”

“A date?”

“Y-Yeah...”

Kii blushed even more and very shyly nodded.

Ah, so that’s what this is about...

Koutarou now realized why Kii was blushing. The word date was embarrassing for her to say, but at the same time, she wanted to be able to use it. In other words, though she was young, Kii was still a typical girl.

“You see, I made a promise with mom! I promised that I would go see the Kabutonga movie and tell her about it! S-So, um...”

Kii hurriedly tried to explain herself. Koutarou found her unusually flustered appearance to be quite heartwarming

“But... if Onii-chan is too busy, that’s okay...”

As she was reaching the end of her explanation, she lost momentum but looked up at Koutarou with longing eyes. Seeing her like that, he realized something else.

I see... Not only was that hard to say for her, she’s worried about bothering me...

Yesterday, Kii had been so preoccupied with her feelings for her parents that she hadn’t even considered that she might be causing trouble for Koutarou. However, after getting to see her mother and having the night to settle down, that was quickly changing. She’d started to think about Koutarou and his needs, and she didn’t want to cause any problems for him. That’s why she’d said what she had. Realizing that, Koutarou nodded.

“All right, then let’s go on a date.”

“Really?! Are you sure?!”

Upon hearing Koutarou’s answer, Kii’s expression instantly lit up with a bright, childish smile.

That’s it. A good girl like you should always get to smile like that, Kii-chan...

He had already promised to take her to the movie, so he had no reason to refuse. On top of that, he wanted to do anything he could for her right now. People were naturally more inclined to spoil considerate children than selfish ones.

“It’s fine. But I have something to do today, so I hope tomorrow is good enough.”

Today, Koutarou had to go pawn the platinum he had gotten from Clan, and then use that cash to buy food and some miscellaneous goods. Since Clan couldn’t leave the laboratory, the shopping fell on him.

“Then I will help you!”

Kii happily offered her assistance. The way she saw it, it was only fair that they work today if they were going to play tomorrow.

“Thank you, Kii-chan.”

In reality, there wasn’t a lot that Kii could help with. But since Koutarou believed that her willingness to help was worth rewarding, he honestly thanked her and patted her head.

“Heehee, all right! Tomorrow’s a date!”

“You can call it a date if you want, but I don’t have a lot of experience with going out to play with girls, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“Eeheeheehee, it doesn’t have to be a grown-up date! The things I like are all things you wouldn’t do on a grown-up date anyway.”

Unlike his best friend, Kenji, Koutarou had almost no experience going on dates with girls. That’s why he was a little worried this date wouldn’t be exactly what Kii had in mind. However, Kii made it clear she wasn’t expecting a so called grown-up date. Though she’d used the word “date,” she was fine with something like going to play at the park or going out for ice cream.

“Well, if that’s what you want, you can leave it to me.”

“All that matters is that Kii and Onii-chan have fun together.”

“That’s... actually a pretty grown-up thing to say.”

Koutarou reached out and patted Kii’s head again. She happily smiled in response.

“So it is a grown-up date then?”

“It’s really an attitude thing.”

The two laughed together, and that was how Koutarou ended up promising to go on a date with Kii.

After exchanging the platinum for money at a pawn shop, Koutarou and Kii went shopping. Between food and other sundries, Koutarou actually had quite a long list of things he needed to get. After the next time freeze, Koutarou would be getting off the Cradle, but Clan would remain. And since she was occupied, he had to make preparations for her. He also believed it was best to stock up on supplies just in case something happened in the meantime. His battlefield experience in Forthorthe had taught him to take such precautions.

For their shopping, Koutarou and Kii visited large supermarkets and department stores. They bought enough supplies to fill an entire shopping cart plus three cardboard boxes, so it was quite a bit of work to carry it all around. Thanks to that, by the time they were actually done with the shopping, both Koutarou and Kii were exhausted.

“Good work.”

“Phew... We really bought a lot...”

They sat down on a park bench to take a break before pushing the heavy cart the rest of the way to the Cradle. It was an even more daunting task considering the Cradle was parked halfway up a mountain. Getting the cart there wouldn’t be easy, which is why they’d decided to take a breather first.

“Here, Kii-chan. You can open it now.”

“Really?!”

Koutarou pulled out a bag of candy from the cart and handed it to Kii. She happily accepted it with a big smile on her face. Koutarou watched her out of the corner of his eye while he dug around in a bag and pulled out two plastic bottles so they would have something to drink.

“I hope it’s a good one...”

Kii carefully opened up the candy. It had a special Kabutonga-themed package, and it came with a trading card inside featuring a random character. When Koutarou saw Kii staring at it in the store, he’d picked it up for her.

“Aww, it was just Scarab King...”

After a quick glance at the trading card, Kii’s shoulders drooped. She’d gotten a card featuring one of the show’s villains, complete with a dark background and everything. Kii had wanted Kabutonga, or at least another hero if she couldn’t have him. She’d gotten her hopes up, so she was visibly disappointed at this result. Seeing her like that, Koutarou felt badly for her.

“Let’s get another one on our way back.”

He offered to buy her another one so she could try again as he handed her one of the juice bottles. He still had plenty of money from exchanging the platinum, so he could afford to splurge some on candy. He also knew there was a convenience store on the way back where they could stop to get more.

“No, that’s okay. I couldn’t eat all that candy.”

Kii’s smile returned as she stuck a piece of candy in her mouth. She clearly liked it, but she was right. A tiny girl like her couldn’t finish two or three packages of it. She was disappointed about the card, but she made the adult decision to endure it.

She should just be more childish when it comes to things like this...

Kii was never very selfish, and that made Koutarou want to do something special for her. Simply put, he wanted to see her happy.

Huh? Now that I think about it, this card...

Looking at the card together with Kii, Koutarou realized he’d seen something similar before. The colors weren’t the same, but he’d seen the same style of illustration and card design somewhere.

“Of course!”

“What is it, Onii-chan?”

“Hang on a sec, Kii-chan. I have something nice to show you.”

Koutarou smiled at Kii and reached into his breast pocket.

“What?”

“Here, look.”

Koutarou pulled out something to show it to Kii.

“It’s Kabutonga!”

When she saw it, Kii’s eyes shot wide open. Reflected in her eyes was a trading card depicting her beloved Kabutonga. And it wasn’t just any card. It was a rare card with a metallic foil sheen.

“Wow, how did you get this?!”

“I got it a while back.”

It was the card Koutarou had used as a bookmark in his play scripts. It was actually a recreation of the cards available from this year, handed out as a promotion for the reshowing of the Kabutonga movie. As such, it had a matching design to the card in Kii’s hands now.

“I’ll give it to you, Kii-chan.”

“Really?! It’s a sparkly card, you know?!”

“Yeah. You wanted one, right?”

Koutarou was planning on giving the card to Kii. He hadn’t been able to throw it away because of how it had come into his possession, but he had no problem handing it over to someone who wanted it so badly.

“Yes! Thank you, Onii-chan!”

Kii took the card from Koutarou and held it above her head with both hands. It almost looked like she was trying to use the sun to see through it, but the thick card wouldn’t let any light pass. It was simply an expression of her joy.

“All right! It’s a sparkly Kabutonga!”

“Take good care of it, okay?”

“Yeah, of course!”

It was actually something he’d gotten as a promotional item when he went to see the movie ten years in the future. Everyone else who’d seen the movie had the same card, but he didn’t see any reason to tell her that. Just like with Santa Claus, sometimes there was no reason to tell the truth.

That’s right. We can probably see the movie at the theater in the amusement park.

Thanks to the card, Koutarou remembered there was a theater there. He was planning on taking Kii to visit the amusement park as part of their date the next day, so he figured they might as well catch the movie there.

“Heehee, I’ll make sure to write my name on it later!”

Kii was in her own little world as she admired the card. The sight of Kii in such a childlike state pleased Koutarou.

I’ll check it out when we get to the amusement park tomorrow.

That’s what he quietly decided as he watched over Kii in high spirits.

Before now, Koutarou had only ever been on one outing that might qualify as a date. Using that as reference, he planned his day out with Kii. In the morning they would take a stroll through the forest park, and after eating lunch at a restaurant near the station, they would take the train to the zoo and the amusement park in the afternoon.

And just like Koutarou had hoped, the Kabutonga movie was showing at the theater in the amusement park. Though it had limited seating capacity since it was part of the park, it always carried promotional goods for whatever film it was screening. Koutarou knew it would be filled with stuff Kii would love.

“Wow... amazing...”

As soon as Kii entered the theater, she was completely awestruck with the sights in front of her. There was so much to take in and she didn’t want to miss any of it, from the big poster for the movie to information on the promotional goods and more.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting, Kii-chan. Here’s a pamphlet.”

“Thank you, Onii-chan!”

However, her interest soon switched over to the ticket and pamphlet that Koutarou had bought for her. The pamphlet was exclusive to the amusement park, and the deluxe edition even had a small bonus figurine attached to it.

“All right!”

After receiving the pamphlet from Koutarou, Kii flipped through the pages wide-eyed.

“You’re better off not reading that until after the movie.”

“Huh? Why?”

Hearing Koutarou’s warning, Kii stopped flipping through the pages. While smiling at her, he pointed at the pamphlet.

“It spoils part of the story, so if you read that first, you won’t enjoy the movie as much.”

“Oh, I see! Then I’ll look at it later!”

Kii shut the pamphlet without hesitation and flashed a bright smile.

“Eeheeheehee!”

After Koutarou patted her on the head, she began intensely staring at the figure she’d gotten.

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah!”

Kii was in an especially good mood today. She’d experienced all kinds of new things, and now she was finally about to get to watch the movie she’d been dying to see. But what made her happiest of all was that someone was spending all this time together with her. And not just anyone. Someone she adored and someone who understood her. Koutarou’s company made everything ten times better.

Everyone should just come up here and make friends with the people. Just like I did with Onii-chan...

Recently, the adults around Kii had been talking about complicated things. They were arguing about whether or not they should get along with the people on the surface. It was more complicated than that, but the details of the situation were too much for a six year old to follow. And now that she’d come to the surface for herself, she had her own opinion on the matter. Being friends with Koutarou was fun. She didn’t see why the adults were arguing about making friends like that.

Kabutonga says so too. Bravery is born from people supporting each other. When I grow up, I’ll support Onii-chan!

Special feelings began budding in her small chest. It was something that she’d been dwelling on since the previous day. Koutarou had been so nice to her even though she was a complete stranger, but was it really okay just to rely on him like that? If what Kabutonga said was true, Kii wanted to do something for Koutarou too. Those were the thoughts racing through her mind.

But even then, Kii had a grasp of her own immaturity. She knew the position she was in. She was still a child and didn’t have the power to support Koutarou. And so she began praying that she would become the kind of adult that could take care of him someday. In other words, young Kii had fallen in love. She wouldn’t realize it until she was older, but Koutarou would be her first love.

After the movie was over, Kii and Koutarou took to riding the attractions in the amusement park. Since it was almost evening, Koutarou was worried about wearing Kii out, but his fears were unfounded. The movie had gotten her pumped up, and she was still full of energy even now.

“Wow...”

Up close, the ferris wheel was a staggering height to a six year old girl. It looked almost as if it touched the sky, and Kii stared up at it in awe.

“Kii-chan?”

Koutarou called for Kii when it was their turn to get on. The attendant opened the door to the gondola for them. Since they were waiting on Kii, both Koutarou and the attendant had wry smiles on their faces.

“Sorry, I’m coming!”

Finally snapping back to reality after hearing Koutarou call her name, Kii ran towards him. When she caught up to him, she firmly grabbed hold of his hand.

“Here we go!”

Even though they were together now, she didn’t slow down. Still holding on to his hand, she leaped into the gondola.

“That’s dangerous.”

“Heehee, sorry.”

As if pulled in by Kii, Koutarou followed her in. Though he’d scolded her and she’d apologized, she was still beaming like she wasn’t the slightest bit sorry. Meanwhile, the door closed and the gondola slowly rose into the air without making a sound.

“If you do it again, I’ll have to punish you.”

“Eeheehee, it will be fine. Kii will probably be more adult when we meet again.”

“Huh?”

“I got to see mom, and I got to see the movie. Since I promised, I better go home soon.”

“I see, that’s true...”

Koutarou had almost forgotten, but Kii had run away from home. He’d even gone to go see the movie with her because that was part of the condition for her going home.

“But I think everyone is going to be mad at Kii. So... I don’t think I’ll be able to see you for a while, Onii-chan.”

Kii was aware that what she’d done was going to cause trouble, and she knew that would make it harder to return to the surface in the future. That’s why she was doing her best to enjoy today.

“That’s very good. I’m glad you’ve made up your mind.”

Realizing Kii knew what she was doing, Koutarou stopped scolding her. She was too clever for a six year old.

“I heard on the TV that travelling on your own makes you grow up faster.”

“Haha, you’re not on your own though.”

“Yeah. I was only alone for a little while. Heehee...”

She’d met Koutarou just a few hours after running away from home, and this was their third day together. In those few short days, however, she’d matured and even fallen in love. She would treasure them for the rest of her life.

“All right! With that said, let’s make sure we play our hearts out today!”

“Yeah!”

Kii would go home and Koutarou would go to sleep for ten years. Though sad, they would likely never met again. Knowing that, Koutarou didn’t see the harm in them having as much fun as possible on their last day together.

“Kii-chan, what do you want to ride next?”

“Um...”

The gondola they were in was just about to reach the top. The light of the setting sun illuminated Kii’s face as she peered out the window.

Ah...

Seeing her gentle smile like this, Koutarou was subtly reminded of someone else from a different time...

“I’ve decided! Onii-chan, let’s ride on that next!”

However, as soon as Kii excitedly shouted and pointed out the window, the similarity seemed to vanish. Koutarou was left unsure he’d even seen it in the first place.

“That thing spinning round and round and zooming by!”

“The roller coaster, huh? That sounds good. Let’s ride that next.”

But Koutarou didn’t let it bother him. Rather than spending his time trying to figure out who Kii reminded him of, he wanted to spend his time focusing on her.

After getting off the Ferris wheel, they walked side by side towards the roller coaster. With the setting sun hanging over their shoulders, they cast one long shadow together. Everything else was bathed in the red glow of the evening sun almost like it had been kissed with fire.

“Hey, Onii-chan.”

Kii reached her hand out to Koutarou. Realizing what she wanted, he reached his hand out for hers in return.

“Heeheehee.”

Kii took Koutarou’s hand and wrapped her fingers around it just like he did hers. Now holding hands, they continued towards the roller coaster.

“You know, Onii-chan...”

As Kii started to speak, she gave Koutarou’s hand a firm squeeze. Because of that, Koutarou knew what she was about to say was important.

“When I go home, I’m going to apologize to dad.”

“Oh yeah?”

Kii had run away from home because she’d had a fight with her father, so he was curious what had made her change her mind about him.

“I actually shouldn’t have run away from home... Instead, I think that I should have held hands with dad like this.”

“Hmm...”

Rather than telling her she was right or wrong, Koutarou simply squeezed Kii’s hand back. He felt like that would be the best way to convey his feelings.

“Also, I think I’ve made him worry. That’s why I’m going to apologize.”

“That’s good. I’m sure he’ll be really mad at first, but you should get along with your dad.”

“Yeah.” Kii nodded and smiled. She was happy that Koutarou understood. “But I think it’s also a good thing that I ran away from home too.”

“No, it’s not good.”

“No, I know it’s not good, but, I mean...”

Kii pursed her lips together and pensively put her hand to her cheek. However, her smile quickly returned.

“But I became friends with Onii-chan, right? That’s not a bad thing.”

“It’s true we probably wouldn’t have met if you hadn’t run away from home.”

Koutarou laughed and shrugged at the same time. When he first met Kii, he had been worried about what would happen, but things seemed to have worked out just fine. They’d made friends, the police hadn’t gotten involved, and now she was going to go back home. Like Kii said, it wasn’t a bad outcome.

“Right?”

“Still, overall, I’d have to say it wasn’t a good thing.”

“You’re strict.”

“That’s what the adult world is like.”

“I think you’re still a kid too, Onii-chan.”

“Okay, fine. We’ll just say it wasn’t a bad thing then.”

“Ahahaha!”

They were still laughing as they approached the entrance to the roller coaster. Just as they reached it, a car flew by them on the track. The highest point of the coaster stood seventy meters tall, meaning a sixty-five meter fall back down. At this point in time, it was the tallest ride like it in the country, and it was well known for its speed too.

“Amazing...”

Seeing the car whiz past, Kii’s eyes went wide. The roller coaster left a completely different impression on her than the ferris wheel.

“Are you scared?”

“Nope! I wanna ride it!”

However, Kii’s eyes had apparently gone wide out of fascination rather than fear. Seeing just how fast it could go, she was even more interested in it than before.

“Let’s go!”

Her eyes were sparkling as she excitedly grabbed Koutarou and passed through the entrance to the roller coaster. Since it was a new ride and had a reputation as the tallest coaster in the country, it always had a long line on the weekends. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case on weekdays like today and they didn’t have to wait long.

“Excuse me, you two.”

Before they reached the terminal, however, they were stopped by an attendant.

“Yes, what is it?”

“I’m very sorry, but I’m afraid this young lady can’t get on the ride.”

The attendant indicated Kii while speaking to Koutarou.

“Whaaat?! Why not?!”

Of course, being told that she wasn’t allowed to ride all of a sudden just wasn’t something Kii could accept. She walked right up to the attendant and protested with exaggerated gestures.

“Kii won’t do anything dangerous! I’ll sit still in the ride, okay?!”

“N-No, you didn’t do anything wrong. But you see...”

Under the pressure of Kii’s protest, the attendant pointed to a nearby signboard.

“In order to be safe on the ride, you have to be a little bit bigger. If you were to ride on the roller coaster now, something dangerous might happen, and we don’t want that.”

Clearly written on the sign the attendant had indicated were the words: “You must be at least 140 centimeters to ride this attraction.” Kii had only recently grown past the 110 centimeter mark, meaning she was almost a whole thirty centimeters short of the requisite height.

The roller coaster was equipped with a safety bar that lowered down on the passengers to secure them in place. Kii, however, was short enough that the safety bar wouldn’t reach down far enough to protect her. With the gap between her and the bar, there was a high chance she would be thrown from the ride during curves or freefalls. As a safety precaution, the attendant simply couldn’t allow her to get on.

“I am truly sorry, but would you consider choosing another ride instead?”

“N-No way...”

Kii’s shoulders drooped, but she understood the reason she couldn’t ride the roller coaster and didn’t complain any more. She’d gotten her hopes up enough, however, that the overwhelming disappointment drove her to the verge of tears.

“I can’t grow big all of a sudden!”

“That’s too bad.”

“Aaauuuuugh!”

“I’m so sorry, but you can look forward to it when you get a little older.”

They parted ways with the attendant and returned down the path towards the entrance of the ride. As they passed by the other people waiting in line for the ride, Kii looked up at them with envy.

How do I put it? It’s like...

Koutarou felt badly for Kii, but seeing her so worked up over it was also strangely heartwarming. It was a complex emotion. He’d wanted her to be able to ride the roller coaster, but seeing her now, he felt nostalgic.

“It’s unfair that grown-ups get to have all the fun... jeez...”

That was a sentiment Koutarou understood well enough. When he was young, he’d often felt the same way. Looking at Kii going through it now, he almost felt like he was looking back on himself from long ago. So even though he felt for her, he couldn’t help but smile.

“You’ll become a grown-up soon too.”

“But I wanted to ride it today,” Kii said as she squeezed on Koutarou’s hand. “Together with you, Onii-chan...”

Kii was still looking up at the roller coaster and its cars of happy people enjoying themselves. She wanted a memory like that with Koutarou because she knew they would likely never be able to come here together again.

Jeez... She really is such a good girl...

When Koutarou got a better idea of what was going through her head, he could feel it tugging at his heartstrings. He knew he wanted to see her smile again.

“Then let’s ride something that we can only ride today.”

Fortunately, he managed to think of something right away. This was an amusement park, so there should be plenty of ways to make her smile.

“Only today?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

When Kii, still on the verge of tears, looked up at Koutarou, he was pointing at something. Following his finger with her eyes, she spotted a large merry-go-round.

“What?”

When Kii saw the merry-go-round, she rubbed her eyes and tilted her head in confusion. It didn’t look like something that they could only ride today to her.

“If I’m not with a small girl like you, it’s far too embarrassing for a guy like me to get on.”

“Ah!”

Kii suddenly understood. The merry-go-round was full of children and their parents. There were also young couples riding it, but the men all looked uncomfortable. In the end, it seemed what Koutarou said was true; it would be hard to get on without a child as an excuse.

“Onii-chan, you want to ride something like that?”

A slight smile appeared on Kii’s lips. Seeing that, Koutarou nodded emphatically and flashed a mischievous smile.

“Yeah. Is that okay?”

“Of course it’s okay!”

After nodding her head too, Kii finally smiled brightly again. The look in her eyes then turned gentle.

“Say... you’re just enduring the embarrassment for Kii’s sake, aren’t you?”

“No, I want to ride it for myself. Isn’t that horse cool?”

“Hmm. Then I’ll leave it at that.”

Kii understood what Koutarou was really doing. She was a clever child after all.

“Despite my looks, I’m confident in my horseback riding.”

“Then let’s ride it together!”

And that was why Kii didn’t mind if she was riding the merry-go-round. What she was after wasn’t riding the roller coaster so much as it was making memories with Koutarou.

After playing in the amusement park until the sun set, Koutarou and Kii headed back to the Cradle. They took a train to the edge of the city. From there, it only would only take about thirty minutes to reach the Cradle from the station by foot.

“We’re back...”

Holding hands with Koutarou, Kii looked at the mountain growing larger in front of her. Koutarou had kept his promise, so now it was her turn to hold up her end of the bargain. It was finally time for her to return home.

“I was never planning on going back...”

“That’s just how it is. You don’t run away from home for long. You’re usually ready to go back after growing up a little.”

Excluding special cases involving things like abuse, children usually only ever ran away out of immaturity. Going back home was inevitably the natural result of maturing enough to see that.

And that’s exactly what had happened in Kii’s case. She had run away because of the friction between her and her father after her mother’s death. After getting some breathing room and calming down, however, she realized the error of her ways and was able to forgive her father. She understood that she wasn’t the only one grieving. Her father was suffering too. In the end, running away from home had helped her grow up considerably over the course of a few days.

“I’m sorry for causing you all this trouble, Onii-chan...”

“No, it’s okay. I think meeting you was a good thing.”

Deep down, Koutarou was truly happy they’d met. Kii was a sweet, gentle girl. Though she’d thrown him for a loop and been something of a pain at first, he was now glad they’d become friends.

After all, if she hadn’t met Koutarou, what would have happened to Kii? Would she have wandered the city on her own? What then? Thinking about it like that, Koutarou was especially happy they’d run into each other. Her running away from home still wasn’t a good thing, but she’d lucked out in finding him.

Besides... there’s just something about her...

Koutarou had gotten a strange sense of deja vu several times after meeting Kii. She reminded him of someone. He’d felt something similar a couple of times back in Forthorthe, but this was even more vivid than that.

“Oh, and thank you for the card.”

Kii pulled out the metallic card and showed it to Koutarou.

“I made sure to write my name on it so I wouldn’t lose it. Look!”

She’d written big letters across the front of the card in permanent marker. It was supposed to be her name, but in her childish handwriting, it mostly looked like scribbles.

“Ah...”

Another wave of deja vu came over Koutarou.

What? Impossible... I’ve... I’ve seen this before!

Koutarou had seen a card like this in the past, complete with scribbling on it. The one he’d seen, however, had lost most of its sheen. It looked like this one, but about ten years older.

Then, this girl is... No, wait... Can coincidences like that really happen?! Doesn’t the handwriting just look similar?

Koutarou was getting confused. If what his gut was telling him was true, it would indeed be a rather remarkable coincidence. Compared to that, it seemed much more likely that the handwriting just happened to be similar.

“Kii-chan, could your name be...”

To figure it out, all Koutarou had to do was ask Kii’s real name. That would clear things up. If Kii was just a nickname for something else, then...

“Is your real name actually Kiri―”

However, just as Koutarou was about to ask, a video billboard that had been installed on the exterior of a nearby building caught his eye.

“The time is now 6:06 PM. Here’s the weather report for today, the sixteenth of April. Skies will be clear over the entirety of Harukaze City―”

The moment Koutarou saw that large billboard, his mind was completely overtaken by a singular thought: the date. Any and everything else no longer seemed important.

“I-Impossible. It’s April 16th, 1999?!”

“What’s wrong, Onii-chan?”

Realizing the change that had come over Koutarou, Kii looked at him worriedly. Seeing his pale face, she squeezed his hand.

“That means the accident happens today! And in less than an hour!”

“Onii-chan, what are you talking about?!”

Kii didn’t know what was going on, but based on the way Koutarou was acting, she could tell it was serious.

“My mom is going to die!”

On April 16th, 1999, Koutarou’s mother died in an accident. It happened, rather, it would happen at 7 PM. In less than an hour’s time, his life would change forever.