start a conversation with Nagato. I could see that it wasn’t any different with this Nagato.
I turned back to scanning the bookshelves in silence.
My eyes happened to stop at the spine of a certain book.
The title looked familiar. It was the first book of the long foreign sci-fi series that Nagato lent to me when the SOS Brigade was first established, the book with a scary amount of words. Now that I think about it, Nagato was still wearing glasses when she said, “I’ll lend you this,” and forced the book on me without waiting for my response. It took two weeks to read the whole thing. Feels like it was years ago. Too much has happened.
Enticed by that curiously fond memory, I drew the hardcover from the shelf. I had no intention of reading while standing when I wasn’t in a bookstore, so I just flipped through the pages and was about to put the book back when a small rectangular piece of paper fell by my feet.
“What?”
I picked it up. It was a bookmark with an illustration of a flower. The kind bookstores put in your bag without asking—bookmark?
It felt like the world was spinning around me. Yes… Backthen… I opened this book in my room… And found something just like this bookmark… Then I took off on my bike… I could recite that phrase from memory.
Seven PM . Waiting in the park in front of Kouyou Park Station.
I held my breath as I turned the bookmark over with a trembling hand—and saw a message.
“ PROGRAM EXECUTE CONDITION—ASSEMBLE THE KEYS. FINAL DEADLINE—TWO DAYS ”
The bookmark that fell from the hardcover book had a message in Times New Roman print, just like the last one.
I quickly spun around and took three steps toward the table where Nagato sat. I stared into her widening black pupils.
“Were you the one who wrote this?”
Nagato tilted her head as she gazed at the back of the bookmark I was holding out. She then turned to me with a puzzled look on her face.
“It resembles my handwriting. But… I don’t recognize it. I don’t remember writing this.”
“… I see. Thought so. Yeah, it’s okay. I’d be more worried if you did know what this was. I was just a little curious. Yeah, don’t mind me…”
I wasn’t paying much attention as I made my excuses.
Nagato.
You did leave a message behind. I’ve never been happier to see such a cut-and-dried message. Was it safe to assume that this was a present from the Nagato I was familiar with? That this was a hint for dealing with the current situation? I mean, why else would she leave this note here?
Program. Condition. Keys. Deadline. Two days.
… Two days?
Today was the nineteenth. Was I supposed to count two days from now or two days from yesterday, when the world went crazy? Worst-case scenario, the deadline would be the twentieth, tomorrow.
The moment of joyous surprise was wearing off like lava slowly cooling. All I knew was that there was a program, and I would have to assemble the keys to execute it. But what were the keys? Where would I find them? How many were there? Where did I go to trade them all in for a prize?
A flurry of question marks spun above my head before merging into one giant question mark.
Would executing this program return the world to how it was before?
I began pulling books from the shelf and returning them at a fast pace while checking to see if any other bookmarks might fall out. I worked busily under Nagato’s startled gaze for nada. There weren’t any others.
“This is it, huh?”
Well, if I get greedy and ask for too much, I’ll be weighed down and end up right back where I started. It’s a waste of time and your life gauge to run around using whatever you can find without settling on a destination. I have to start by figuring out the keys. I’m still a fair distance from the summit, but I’m starting to pick up on the correct direction to go.
I opened my lunch box and set it on the table, after asking for permission, and ate my lunch, opening my mind to potential
I turned back to scanning the bookshelves in silence.
My eyes happened to stop at the spine of a certain book.
The title looked familiar. It was the first book of the long foreign sci-fi series that Nagato lent to me when the SOS Brigade was first established, the book with a scary amount of words. Now that I think about it, Nagato was still wearing glasses when she said, “I’ll lend you this,” and forced the book on me without waiting for my response. It took two weeks to read the whole thing. Feels like it was years ago. Too much has happened.
Enticed by that curiously fond memory, I drew the hardcover from the shelf. I had no intention of reading while standing when I wasn’t in a bookstore, so I just flipped through the pages and was about to put the book back when a small rectangular piece of paper fell by my feet.
“What?”
I picked it up. It was a bookmark with an illustration of a flower. The kind bookstores put in your bag without asking—bookmark?
It felt like the world was spinning around me. Yes… Backthen… I opened this book in my room… And found something just like this bookmark… Then I took off on my bike… I could recite that phrase from memory.
Seven PM . Waiting in the park in front of Kouyou Park Station.
I held my breath as I turned the bookmark over with a trembling hand—and saw a message.
“ PROGRAM EXECUTE CONDITION—ASSEMBLE THE KEYS. FINAL DEADLINE—TWO DAYS ”
The bookmark that fell from the hardcover book had a message in Times New Roman print, just like the last one.
I quickly spun around and took three steps toward the table where Nagato sat. I stared into her widening black pupils.
“Were you the one who wrote this?”
Nagato tilted her head as she gazed at the back of the bookmark I was holding out. She then turned to me with a puzzled look on her face.
“It resembles my handwriting. But… I don’t recognize it. I don’t remember writing this.”
“… I see. Thought so. Yeah, it’s okay. I’d be more worried if you did know what this was. I was just a little curious. Yeah, don’t mind me…”
I wasn’t paying much attention as I made my excuses.
Nagato.
You did leave a message behind. I’ve never been happier to see such a cut-and-dried message. Was it safe to assume that this was a present from the Nagato I was familiar with? That this was a hint for dealing with the current situation? I mean, why else would she leave this note here?
Program. Condition. Keys. Deadline. Two days.
… Two days?
Today was the nineteenth. Was I supposed to count two days from now or two days from yesterday, when the world went crazy? Worst-case scenario, the deadline would be the twentieth, tomorrow.
The moment of joyous surprise was wearing off like lava slowly cooling. All I knew was that there was a program, and I would have to assemble the keys to execute it. But what were the keys? Where would I find them? How many were there? Where did I go to trade them all in for a prize?
A flurry of question marks spun above my head before merging into one giant question mark.
Would executing this program return the world to how it was before?
I began pulling books from the shelf and returning them at a fast pace while checking to see if any other bookmarks might fall out. I worked busily under Nagato’s startled gaze for nada. There weren’t any others.
“This is it, huh?”
Well, if I get greedy and ask for too much, I’ll be weighed down and end up right back where I started. It’s a waste of time and your life gauge to run around using whatever you can find without settling on a destination. I have to start by figuring out the keys. I’m still a fair distance from the summit, but I’m starting to pick up on the correct direction to go.
I opened my lunch box and set it on the table, after asking for permission, and ate my lunch, opening my mind to potential
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