LN The Tunnel To Summer The Exit of Goodbyes Completed SS

Chapter 1:
Monochrome Skies
M AN, I hate summer.
Such were my thoughts as I sat broiling on the concrete

platform, praying my train would soon arrive to grant me a
brief reprieve from the midmorning swelter. It was only the
beginning of July, and already it felt like stepping into a
sauna every time I walked out the front door. The blistering
heat and humidity would have been miserable enough on
their own, but add to that the endless laughter of cicadas, and
it was enough to make my morning commute feel like a sick
form of torture. Just when I thought things couldn’t possibly
get any worse, a muffled announcement rang out over the
station’s lone loudspeaker.
“Erm, attention, all passengers. We regret to

announce that we’re experiencing a significant delay due to
an unexpected collision with a deer farther down the line.
We deeply apologize for the inconvenience, as we know your
time is valuable, but ask that you please bear with us as we
address the situation…”
The rusty old loudspeaker choked out a crackle of static

from its perch atop a nearby utility pole as the
announcement cut off. Ugh. Not again, I groaned. The same
thing had happened last month, albeit with a wild boar
instead of a deer.
Only a single set of tracks ran through the ramshackle

station, which looked directly out over the open ocean. All
that lay on the inland side of the platform were dense
woodlands and a steep upward incline. As it was one of the
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few truly remote stations left in the prefecture that had yet to
be remodeled, it had become a somewhat popular destination
for explorers looking to venture off the beaten path.
Unfortunately, the rail line’s dilapidated state also meant that
these kinds of delays were relatively frequent. Not that I
generally minded being late for school—any other time of
year, I would have welcomed the free tardy slip—but right
now, I would have vastly preferred to sit in an air-
conditioned classroom than languish beneath the hot sun for
God knew how much longer. Delays due to wildlife could last
anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, though the
announcer’s use of the word “significant” led me to believe I
was going to be stuck for at least another thirty minutes,
based on prior experience.
“Great. Guess I’m getting cooked alive…” I grumbled as

I hung my head in resignation, the harsh sunbeams beating
down mercilessly on the back of my neck. I lifted the sleeve of
my button-down and wiped a trickle of sweat from my
temple before it could get into my eye. You’d think it
wouldn’t be too hard for them to install a covered waiting
area with an AC unit, but then again, this station didn’t even
have automated turnstiles, so perhaps that was too great a
luxury. All I could do was hobble over to one of two small
benches under the rickety wooden shelter to try to get some
relief from the heat. One of the two was already occupied by a
couple of girls from my high school, chattering blithely as
though the scorching weather didn’t bother them in the
slightest.
“Hell yes! Looks like we might get out of first period

gym class after all!”
“Aww, but that poor deer, though…”
“Hey, survival of the fittest, right?”
It was like this every morning. These two never seemed
to be on quite the same wavelength—but judging from their
perpetual giggling, this apparently didn’t bother them all that
much. I took the empty seat opposite them and scooted as far
down the bench as I could so as not to make them feel like I
was intruding on their conversation. The shade did sadly
little to cool me off, so I undid the top button of my shirt and
flapped the collar a few times to give myself some air as I
leaned against the backrest. Then, as if in answer to my
prayers, a pleasant coastal breeze blew by, filling my nostrils
with the pungent smell of sea salt.
Just across the tracks, the land gradually sloped down

before dropping off into the sea. Over the edge of the cliff, the
light blue sky turned paler and paler as it approached the
hazy horizon, while in turn, the sea grew a deeper, fuller
shade of cerulean. The ocean waves shimmered softly in the
sunlight. There was something almost inherently therapeutic
about looking out over the ocean in the early morning—
similar to watching the fragile flicker of candlelight or the
cascading course of a babbling brook. It was one of those
things that you could look at for hours and never grow tired
of, soothing to the point of hypnotism.
After watching the waves roll in for a while, I twisted

around to look up at the tall clockpost behind me. It was
already half past eight. Even if the train were to roll in at that
exact moment, it still took about twenty minutes to reach our
intended station, and classes started at ten till. This being the
case, I resigned myself to the fact that there was no longer
any hope of making it to school on time and closed my eyes
to try to fit in a quick catnap.
Not long after, one of the girls sitting across from me

said something that made my ears perk up.
“So hey… Have you ever heard of the Urashima
Tunnel?” she asked her friend.
“Uh-oh,” the other girl groaned. “This isn’t another

ghost story, is it?”
“Nah, not exactly. I mean, it’s supernatural, yeah, but

more in an urban legend sorta way.”
“A scary urban legend?”
“Maaaybe?”
“Nope. Nuh-uh. Don’t wanna hear it.”
“Aw, c’mon. There’s no ghosts involved, I promise.

Anyway, the basic gist is that it’s a tunnel that can grant any
wish to those who enter it.”
“Any wish? Just by walking into it?”
“Yep. Any wish.”
“Huh… And that’s all there is to it?”
“No, but see, this is the part where it gets kinda

spooky… So, like, say you’ve gotten your wish, right? And
now you’re ready to go back home. But the Urashima Tunnel
doesn’t let you leave that easily. It always takes something
from you in return.”
“And what’s that?”
“Years. Years and years off of your life. Go in a

teenager, and you’ll come back out as a wrinkly old woman.”
“Whoa… So it’s like, would you trade all the best years
of your life to be a billionaire or whatever?”
“Yeah, exactly!”
“Gosh, that is kinda spooky to think about.”
“See, I told you!”
The two girls prattled on—Oh my God, speaking of

spooky, I found this huge spider in my room yesterday! Ew,
seriously? Yeah, I had my grandpa come in and whack it
with a rolled-up newspaper. Ha ha, your grandpa’s kind of
a badass. Yeah, he’s great—ditching one topic in favor of the
next at the speed of light and crumpling up the previous like
day-old newspapers, only good for killing spiders. But I
reached my hand into that recycle bin to fish out the one
article that piqued my interest from all the ones they
discarded to save it from the shredder, then smoothed it out
in my mind to give it another look.
The Urashima Tunnel: a mysterious passage that

dramatically aged all those who entered it, yet which would
grant them any wish in return. It was my first time hearing
this particular urban legend, though I could tell from the
name and time shenanigans alone that it was based on the
tale of Urashima Taro. While “granting one’s every wish” was
a fairly tired cliché for stories like this, the “rapidly aging”
part was at least pretty unique. I wondered what would
happen if someone went in that tunnel and wished to grow
younger. Would it cheat the system, or would they simply
grow younger briefly before turning into an old coot the
moment they stepped back out? What if they wished for an
infinite supply of youth serum they could take with them? Or
immortality?
Yeah, this is just asking for people to find loopholes, I

thought to myself as I opened my eyes to see that the train
had finally arrived. I glanced at the clock—it was thirty-five
minutes late. Yet thanks to nodding off for a bit with some
interesting food for thought, it hadn’t felt that long at all.
There was no blood or anything on the front of the train that
might suggest it had run over a deer; it looked the same as
always. I boarded the train via the rear doors and let out a
heavy sigh of relief as the merciful air-conditioning slowly
cooled my sunbaked body centimeter by centimeter. As soon
as I fell backward into the nearest open seat, the pneumatic
doors wheezed shut, and the train set off again toward its
destination.
“Thank you for choosing to ride with us today. We’d

like to express our sincerest apologies to all of our
passengers, so please listen carefully to the following
announcement…”
Wait a minute, I found myself thinking out of the blue

as the announcer read off one of his employer’s canned
apologies. Weren’t we supposed to get a new transfer
student today?
Kozaki High was only a stone’s throw away from the

nearest station, and it was the school pretty much everyone
who lived in the vicinity attended, aside from the extreme
over- and underachievers. Despite being out in the boonies, it
was pretty much your average high school. Sure, the building
could have used a renovation, and you did get the occasional
fox or tanuki wandering out on the athletic field, but
otherwise it was perfectly unremarkable.
After changing out of my street shoes in the entryway, I

made my way to Classroom 2-A. I’d shown up right in the
middle of passing period, so it didn’t strike me as abnormal
to see a bunch of students out chatting in the halls—but when
I reached the top of the stairs and rounded the corner, I was
a little taken aback to see that a sizable crowd had formed
right outside my classroom. At first I wondered if someone
had shattered a window or if a fight had broken out. Then the
light bulb went off in my head, and I realized they were
probably just here to see the new transfer student. Our
teacher had mentioned that we’d be getting a “new girl in
class,” so some curious onlookers were to be expected, but I
figured she had to be pretty cute to garner this much
attention. I shoved through the rubberneckers and into the
classroom, and the moment I made it inside, I saw her.
In her classy, vintage pinafore dress, she gave off an

almost radiant glow compared to the other girls in class, who
were all wearing their faculty-mandated sailor-style
uniforms. I assumed they simply hadn’t prepared a uniform
for the new girl yet, but her current outfit made her stand out
so dramatically from the rest of us that it almost looked like
someone had lazily snipped her out of whatever scene she
originally belonged in and hastily photoshopped her into this
one. Though to be sure, her pretty face didn’t hurt either. Her
long, straight, jet-black hair lent her an air of staunch
maturity at first glance, but her large, almond-shaped eyes
did a lot to soften her overall vibe. The way she seemed
totally engrossed in whatever book she was reading while still
maintaining perfect upright sitting posture was pretty
charming too.
By all accounts, she was easily as pretty—if not more so

—than Koharu Kawasaki, who was widely regarded as the
hottest girl in our class. Yet for whatever reason, she also
seemed a bit too well put-together, almost to the point of
feeling unapproachable. Indeed, despite her being the talk of
the school, thus far, no one had proven brave enough to
reach out to her. Everyone seemed pretty content to admire
the new transfer student from a distance. I wasn’t about to be
the first one to extend the olive branch either, so I simply
trudged over to my desk on the hallway side of the classroom
and took a seat.
“Kaoru! What’s up, dude?” said a chipper voice from
behind me.
“Not much, man,” I replied, spinning around in my

chair to face him.
It was Shohei Kaga, my best friend in the class. Given

his tall stature, short spiky hair, and extremely candid way of
speaking, you could have been forgiven for pegging him as
your stereotypical meathead jock—but in reality, he was an
indoorsy kid with some pretty highbrow hobbies. He was a
member of the school’s calligraphy club, and he even liked to
build model ships in bottles during his spare time.
“Heard your train ran over a deer?”
“Yeah.”
“Dang, feels like that’s been happenin’ a lot lately. I’m

kinda jealous. I mean, as someone who takes his own set of
wheels to school, I never get to benefit from that kind of little
accident.”
“Yeah, well. Try sitting on your ass outside for half an

hour in the middle of summer—or the dead of winter—and
then tell me how jealous you are.”
“I mean…I’m not any more protected from the

elements on my moped, y’know.”
“Fair enough,” I conceded.
Shohei shot a quick glance over at the new girl. “…Bet

they never have to worry about accidents like that over in
Tokyo.”
“Sure they do. All the time.”
“Aw, no way. There ain’t no deer in Tokyo.”
“Plenty of suicidal salarymen, though.”
“…Dude, you say some pretty messed up stuff

sometimes.” Shohei grimaced as though he’d never been
more disgusted with me in his life.
To be fair, that was probably a pretty tasteless joke on

my part—though I didn’t like how he made it sound like this
was a regular occurrence for me. Still, it was probably a good
idea to change the subject. “Anyway, why are we comparing
ourselves to Tokyo, again?”
“Oh, ’cause that’s where Ms. H said the new kid was
from.”
Ah. Ms. Hamamoto was our homeroom teacher, a new

instructor who’d just been hired by the school that year.
Though for the record, she was not the sort of hot young
female teacher that the average teenage boy might fantasize
about.
“Wow. Big city girl, huh?”
“Yeah, she’s gotta be miserable here, man. Imagine

moving out to the sticks after living in Tokyo all your life.”
“No kidding.” I laughed it off as I took another look at

her. “You think she’s going through culture shock or what?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“I dunno, it just seems like she’s isolating herself from

the rest of us. Wonder what’s going on with her.”
“Oh yeah?” Shohei perked up. “Lonely girl’s caught

your eye, eh? Don’t blame you—she is pretty cute.”
“Nah, not like that. Just curious what her deal is, that’s
all.”
“Well, her name’s Anzu Hanashiro, FYI. And lemme

tell ya, she seems like a real character, my guy,” Shohei said,
then proceeded to launch into a pretty amusing anecdote.
Apparently, Ms. H had explained to the class that this

new girl—Anzu Hanashiro—had moved to Kozaki due to
family matters, though it was her first time ever transferring
schools. But when the teacher asked her to say a few words to
introduce herself to the class, the girl shot back with, and I
quote: “No, I’m good, thanks. Can I sit now?” According to
Shohei, Ms. H had been so rattled by this unexpected
insubordination that she couldn’t even sputter out a
response.
I could believe it too. In the brief time while Shohei

related this little story to me, I’d watched one of our other
classmates go up to the new girl and try to talk to her, only to
be shot down with “Could you not? I’m trying to read here.”
“Well… Guess I can see how she became such a loner.” I

shook my head with a sigh of laughter.
“Too bad, though… She could be really cute if she were

a little more friendly,” Shohei lamented. “Whatever. I just
hope no one tries to mess with her.”
“Eh, I’m sure she’ll be fine. She seems way too

headstrong to let anyone get under her skin,” I replied. I had
more important things to focus on today than some new
transfer student; there was a quiz coming up next period. I
pulled out my math textbook and notes from my book bag.
However, before I could even start my little last-minute cram
session, the bell rang, and second period began.
Despite her not-so-minor personality quirks, the
Hanashiro girl quickly proved to be surprisingly adept at just
about everything she did. She answered every question the
teacher threw at her in no time flat, and in gym class she
outran the fastest kids on the track team. Yet when the other
girls in class praised her accomplishments, she never once
bragged or boasted; she simply gave them a cold,
uncomprehending stare, as though she were judging them for
finding something so trivial impressive. A few of my more
daring classmates attempted to invite her to join their
respective clubs or sports teams, but she rejected them all
with the same curt disinterest.
By all accounts, Anzu Hanashiro seemed to have no

intention of making friends with anyone at school, and she
spent pretty much every minute of free time between classes
reading her book. Normally, you’d think people would be
quick to sneer and reject a standoffish nonconformist
outsider like her, but it seemed the academic and athletic
prowess she displayed were enough to take her from
“awkward weirdo” to “misunderstood prodigy” in most of my
classmates’ heads. By the time lunch rolled around, she’d
settled firmly into her niche as a quintessential example of
the “lone wolf” archetype, and most were content to leave her
be and admire her from afar. But her newfound popularity
didn’t sit well with everyone in our class.
“Hey, new kid. Be a good girl and go buy me a Cheerio

Cola at the vending machine downstairs, why don’t you?”
said this new challenger as she waltzed up to Anzu’s desk and
slammed a hundred-yen coin on top of it.
It was Koharu Kawasaki—the aforementioned “hottest

girl in class” according to popular consensus. With her
bleached tawny hair in a permed, wavy, shoulder-length bob,
her clearly less-than-finger-length skirt, and the backs of her
indoor shoes crushed beneath her heels, she was pretty much
a walking example of every possible school dress code
violation. She was a very attractive girl, to be sure, but her
haughty swagger and snobbish superiority complex definitely
knocked her down a few rungs in my book. On top of that,
thanks to all the rumors swirling around campus that she
was dating one of the most notorious delinquents in the
senior class, no one ever dared challenge her, which only
inflated her ego all the more. With such a dangerous
upperclassman at her back, it was plain to see how she’d
remained the undisputed queen bee of our class for so long.
“What’s ‘Cheerio’?” Anzu inquired, eyeing the coin

suspiciously.
“Wait, huh?” Koharu balked. “You’ve never heard of

Cheerio before?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“Reeeally… Well, whatever. You’re a smart girl. I’m sure

you can find it.”
“Will a hundred yen be enough?”
“’Course it will.”
“Does it at least taste good?”
“Uh, what does that have to do with anything?”
“Do they have other flavors too, or just the cola?”
“Just shut up and go already!” Koharu growled as she

kicked the desk next to Anzu’s as hard as she could.
Anzu didn’t even flinch. She just stood up,
expressionless, and walked out of the classroom without a
word.
Koharu watched her leave, then strutted back over to

her own desk, plopped her butt down, and started bragging
to her posse of followers. “See? Told you she was faking it.
Just gotta know how to show her who’s boss.”
Only a couple of minutes later, Anzu returned, Cheerio

Cola in hand. Koharu sat with a smug grin on her face as her
new servant walked over to deliver the soda she ordered.
Then her jaw dropped in horror as Anzu looked her straight
in the eye, cracked open the can, and proceeded to chug the
whole thing right in front of her. The whole class looked on in
silent awe and disbelief as the new girl held the can aloft,
slowly turning it all the way upside down to suck out every
last drop, before finally releasing the metallic rim from her
glossy pink lips with a sigh of contentment.
“Thanks. That hit the spot.” Anzu slammed the empty

soda can on Koharu’s desk before walking back to her own
and reopening her book as if nothing had happened.
After a good five-second delay, Koharu finally exploded

and jumped out of her seat to go give Anzu a piece of her
mind. Unfortunately for Koharu (though fortunately for the
rest of us), at that exact moment, the teacher came walking
into class. She was forced to stomp back to her desk after no
more than a click of the tongue and an icy glare. Then came
the whispers from the peanut gallery.
“Holy crap. Is it just me, or is the new girl kind of a

badass?”
“Man, what I wouldn’t give to put Kawasaki in her

place.”
“Dude, did you see those chugging skills?! I bet that girl
knows how to party.”
Koharu’s face went bright red—redder than a can of

Cheerio Cola, you could say. Even I had to admit that it was
pretty impressive for Anzu to teach the class queen bee a
lesson in humility on her first day.
At the same time, it only cemented in my head the fact

that I would never in a million years have a chance to get to
know this girl. We would probably go all the way to
graduation without ever exchanging a single word and then
forget all about each other within a matter of months. She
was clearly far too much of a free spirit to ever take an
interest in a boring conformist like me, and it wasn’t like I
felt some compelling urge to reach out to her either. The
worlds we lived in were just too different to ever intertwine.
Simple as that.
Despite all the excitement surrounding the new

transfer student, the rest of the day went by as slowly and
uneventfully as always. When sixth period got out and we
were finally released for the day, I grabbed my book bag and
stood from my chair—only to be accosted by a still very much
pissed-off Koharu.
“Tono,” she muttered grumpily.
“What’s up?” I said, turning around to face her.
“Go buy me an ice cream.”
For reference, she was referring to the Sentan-brand

old-fashioned vanilla cones they sold at the student store.
They came prepackaged in a clear plastic shell, with a
perfectly shaped sphere of processed ice cream on top. Not
that it really mattered much.
“With what money?” I replied.
“What, you don’t expect me to pay for it, do you?”
From prior experience, I knew better than to talk back

to her on this. Though it pained me to admit, she’d been
treating me like her personal errand boy since the start of the
current school year. I still vividly remembered that fateful
day—I was walking down the hall, minding my own business,
when out of the blue, she asked me if she could borrow a
hundred yen, and I figured why not. Then she asked me for
another hundred yen the very next day, and while I did voice
a complaint, it was still such a small amount of money that I
begrudgingly acquiesced. She’d pegged me as a sap ever
since, and every now and again would come by to ask me for
money or to go buy things for her. I took no pride in being
easily manipulated, for the record—but every time I tried to
protest, the third-year goons she always paraded around with
would look at me like I was asking for a fight. I most certainly
was not, so I always caved in the end.
“Fine, whatever,” I relented.
“Good. Now get going. Chop-chop!” she called after me

as I headed out of the classroom to go buy her stupid ice
cream. As I descended the stairs, however, someone poked
my shoulder. Startled, I spun around—but it was only Shohei.
“Dude, you can’t let her walk over you that easily,” he
said, shaking his head as he jumped down a few stairs to get
on my level.
“Look, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,

all right? And after what happened earlier, I really don’t
think it’d be a good idea to rile the beast,” I said, trying to
play it off with a joke.
Shohei wasn’t having any of it. He smacked me lightly

in the back with his book bag and then shook his head with a
disapproving frown. “Nah, man. The more you enable her,
the more she’s gonna keep taking advantage of you.”
“Well, yeah, but I think you’re forgetting about her

scary-ass boyfriend. I’m not trying to have her go tell him
and his buddies to kick the crap out of me on my way home
just because I said the wrong thing.”
“That ain’t gonna happen.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Dude, you really think a senior’s gonna risk getting

expelled over something that petty during the most stressful
part of his high school career? He’s probably worried enough
as it is, what with entrance exams and finding a job and
whatnot. Besides, we don’t even know if those two are
actually dating. From what I’ve heard, no one’s ever seen ’em
walking around together like a couple.”
“You mean you think Kawasaki might be letting those

rumors swirl around to make people more afraid of her?”
“Hard to say. Maybe she’s the one who started ’em. I

wouldn’t put it past her.”
I certainly couldn’t disagree with that. She did love her

power trips, after all. “…Nah, I can’t believe she’d play into
the rumors if there weren’t some truth to it. I mean, that’d
only make things worse for her when he eventually found out
and set the record straight, wouldn’t it? Anyway, don’t worry
about me. I don’t care enough to kick up a fuss over such a
small amount of money.”
I meant it too. If a few hundred yen was all it cost to

keep me on Koharu’s good side, then it was a small price to
pay.
Shohei let out another exaggerated sigh. “Man, you

don’t have any backbone at all, do you?”
“I mean, do I really need one?”
“If you wanna be successful in life and not get bossed

around all the time? Yes. Hell, just look at the new girl. You
could learn a thing or two from her.”
“Pretty sure that amount of backbone only causes more

problems in the long run. Besides, it’s not like I’m totally
spineless or anything.”
“Oh yeah? How’s that?”
“It’s more like I’ve turned being spineless into my

primary defense mechanism.”
“And that makes it less pathetic how, exactly?”
“Well, think about it like this. Did you know that most
utility poles are actually hollow on the inside? It’s because
that makes them sturdier and less likely to fall over under
their own weight in the event of an impact. I’m basically
doing the same thing. By being spineless from the get-go, I’ve
got nothing to lose. No matter how hard someone might hit
me, I’ll only bend—never break. I know it might sound
counterintuitive to someone like you, but it’s actually a pretty
high-level strategy.”
Shohei looked extremely dubious. “You’re screwin’ with
me, aren’t you?”
“Mostly, yeah.”
He immediately kneed me in the thigh.
“Ow! All right, all right! Cut it out!” I whined, barely

managing to dodge out of the way as he went in for a second
strike. Phew, that was close. One might be forgiven for
thinking a simple knee to the femur wouldn’t hurt that bad—
but boy, did it ever.
“You’ve gotta start takin’ this crap more seriously,

dude,” said Shohei.
“That was a cheap shot, man…”
I was still rubbing my thigh in a vain attempt to make

the pain go away quicker when we arrived at the student
store. I hurried over to the freezer, belatedly remembering
that ice cream products always sold out fast this time of year.
Thankfully, one of the aforementioned vanilla cones
remained, the tip of its cone sticking out of the trove of other
assorted frozen treats.
“Phew, thank God. All right, lemme just buy this and
then we can get outta here.” I reached down to pull it out of
the freezer.
“Hang on. Let me see that thing for a sec.”
“Okaaay…” I said, handing it over begrudgingly.
“Now watch this,” Shohei said, then flicked the tip of

the upside-down cone with one finger. It snapped right off
and shattered inside the plastic casing.
“Hey! What the hell, man?!”
“Well, would ya look at that. Guess being hollow ain’t

always the best strategy after all.”
“Yeah, wow. You really proved your point with that

cheap ice cream cone. Great job.” I snatched it back from him
to size up the damage. “Oh, great… This thing’s gonna dribble
out all over her shirt while she’s eating it…”
“Heh. And how is that a bad thing, exactly?” Shohei

said with a snicker.
“Yeah, easy for you to say. You’re not the one who’ll
have to deal with the fallout.”
“Aw, don’t worry about it, dude. She probably won’t

even notice until after she opens it up. And if she does, you
can say it was like that when you bought it. Besides, it was
your money—you deserve to get at least a little payback for
your buck.”
“I’m not sure payback’s what I’m looking for…”
“Well, it should be.” Shohei turned to look me straight

in the eye. “You’re not a hollow utility pole or a flimsy ice
cream cone, dude. You’ve gotta stand up for yourself
sometimes. Show a little backbone! Stand up to her!”
“…If she ever pisses me off enough, I will.”
“Heh. Yeah, that’ll be the day…” Shohei scoffed under

his breath.
After delivering Koharu’s ice cream cone, I bolted off

campus like a bat out of hell. Then, just like every other day, I
headed home via the same train that brought me to school in
the morning. It was a pretty short commute, all things
considered; I typically gazed out the window or played
around on my phone, and it was over before I knew it. When
the train pulled into my station, I got up and showed the
driver my rail pass. By this point, he knew me well enough
that this was really just a formality; he didn’t even glance
over to examine it. I pressed the OPEN button next to the
double doors and hopped off the train, whereupon I was
greeted by the same searing heat and cicada choir I’d
suffered that morning. In no time at all, I could feel the sweat
starting to seep through my shirt, and I found myself wishing
that someone would add an extension to the rail line just so I
could take the nice, cool train all the way to my front door.
I followed the white line down the shoulder of the road,

keeping my head lowered so as not to be blinded by the harsh
rays of sunlight. Just along this street, past an independently
owned rice dealer and an old fire station I’d never once seen
with its doors unshuttered, was my humble abode. It was still
only the very beginning of summer, yet the black pavement
shone like a mirror, shimmering as though it were covered in
a thin layer of water. I remembered seeing a TV documentary
once about these particular road mirages that said they only
appeared when the temperature rose above thirty-five
degrees Celsius. Thirty-five degrees. No wonder it felt so
blisteringly hot. Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I gazed
up at the sun and squinted to convey my disapproval.
Finding it much too bright to keep staring at, I brought my
eyes back to the road. That’s when it happened.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a

young girl standing farther down the road and stopped dead
in my tracks, blinking a few times to make sure it wasn’t the
sunspots in my eyes. She wore a slightly oversized tank top
and denim shorts that showed off her naturally tanned skin,
and a little ponytail dangled out from the back of her baseball
cap. Even from a distance, it was plain to see that her once
bright-red sandals were well worn and faded, something that
only emphasized her outdoorsy, adventurous nature.
“See that? That’s the line where the rain stops!” she
said with her back to me, pointing ahead to where the road
began to glisten in the sunlight. Her voice was soft and
delicate, yet it rang clearly in my ears. I supposed that wasn’t
too surprising, given that every other noise of the afternoon,
even the incessant chirping cicadas, had suddenly gone quiet.
An eerie silence fell over the neighborhood, almost as if it
were frozen in time. The girl turned around and grinned at
me with the bubbliest, most effervescent smile I’d ever seen.
It was her. Karen. My little sister.
“Look, Kaoru! See how it always dries up by the time

we get close?! But I bet if we ran fast enough, there’d still be
at least a few puddles left on the ground!”
An intense wave of déjà vu washed over my entire body.
Right, I remember now. Back then, we didn’t know it

was just a mirage, so we were trying to come up with an
explanation for how there could be rain-slicked streets
beneath clear blue skies—some sort of dividing line between
rain and shine.
I wanted to tell her. Desperately, I did. Now that I was

in high school, explaining how heat mirages worked should
have been no trouble at all. But I couldn’t do it. My body
seized up like I was suffering from sleep paralysis, and I
couldn’t squeeze out a single word. The only part of me still
in motion was my heart, which threatened to beat right out of
my chest.
“Hey, what’s the matter? Why are you just standing
there?” she asked. “If you’re not coming, then I’m gonna go
on ahead without you.”
Karen turned her back to me once more and started to

walk off. I tried to call after her, but again, the words
wouldn’t come. The only sounds I could wring out from my
parched throat were a few haggard breaths. All the words I
tried and failed to cry out—come back, wait, don’t go—
remained trapped in my lungs, swirling around in a toxic
haze with all the other things I’d left unsaid. My chest burned
with the urge to let them all out, but my mind raced too fast
to even remember to breathe, and I started getting
lightheaded. Before I knew it, Karen had disappeared into
the shimmering heat haze that hung in the air above the
asphalt. Once again, I could do nothing to stop it.
Then, all at once, the cacophony of cicadas came back

in full force, almost as though they’d just returned from
lunch break. The beads of sweat that had been waiting
politely on the tips of my lashes finally trickled into my
corneas, and I reflexively closed my eyes tight to purge them
of the sting of salt. I ran as fast as I could the rest of the way
home.
When I made it back to the house, I reached into my

book bag for my keys and let myself in the front door. It took
a moment for my eyes to adjust to how dark it was inside—
though that probably had more to do with how blindingly
bright it had been outside than anything else. I went straight
up to my room to change into a T-shirt and shorts, then
headed back to the kitchen. After taking a minute to catch my
breath and quench my thirst with a glass of iced barley tea, I
made my way to the traditional-style sitting room. It was a
modest space—just eight tatami mats in total—with few
decorations aside from a hanging wall scroll in the alcove
that depicted a pleasant mountain scene. Now that my eyes
had had a chance to adjust to the darker indoor lighting,
looking out over the veranda through the sliding doors was
like peering into a totally different world—one much more
vibrant than ours.
I walked over and sat with my legs crossed atop a floor

cushion laid out in a corner of the room, right in front of the
altar we had set up in honor of my sister Karen. She had been
my only sibling, just two years younger than me, and had
died five years prior after a tragic and accidental fall.
It had been a sweltering summer’s day, same as this

one. Karen and I had taken our insect cage and butterfly net
and gone looking for bugs in the nearby woods. We were
specifically out searching for rhinoceros beetles, but by the
time evening rolled around, we still hadn’t found a single
one. It wasn’t as if we had some huge desire to catch one
either, but we had told our mom that we’d bring back a big
one that’d knock her socks off, and we were both too
stubborn to give up yet. So you can imagine our delight when
we spotted not one but two beetles hanging out together up
high on a very tall tree—a rhinoceros and a stag. We were
determined to do whatever it took to catch them both.
“Lieutenant Karen! We have a problem!” I barked,

affecting a militaristic voice for the hell of it. Karen was
happy to play along and gave me a stalwart salute.
“What is it, Sergeant Kaoru, sir?!”
“Our net will never reach that high!”
“Good God! Those bastards really have our backs

against the wall this time, sir!”
I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at this. “Pfft!
Where the heck did you learn to talk like that?”
“I heard it on TV!” she said with a mischievous smirk.
“Shoulda known.” I grinned right back at her.
To be sure, the two beetles were far too high to reach

without actually climbing the tree. Yet there were no
branches to grab within arm’s reach either, so that option
was off the table too.
“Yeah, no way I can jump that high,” I concluded. “So

what do we do now?”
“I mean…it seems pretty obvious to me. We’re just

gonna have to climb up there.”
“What? No way. There’s not even anything to grab this

far down…”
“Gosh, you’re dumb. Try thinking outside the box for

once!”
“What, do you have a better idea?”
“Yeah! You can give me a boost! Then I should at least

be able to reach that lowest branch, right?”
I looked up at the branch she was referring to. It was a

good two meters off the ground. “…Isn’t that a little
dangerous?”
“Aw, it’ll be fine! I’m a tree-climbing pro!”
“I dunno about this, Karen…”
“If we don’t hurry up, they’re gonna fly away!”
She had a point. This very well could have been our last
chance of the day. With that in mind, I reluctantly decided to
go along with Karen’s proposal.
“All right, we’ll give it a shot,” I said. “But you be

careful up there, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. C’mon, let me get on your shoulders.”
I knelt down. Karen flung off the old, beat-up red

sandals she loved so much and then climbed onto my back.
Holding her by the ankles, I stood upright and hoisted her
toward the branch, which she quickly clambered onto with
no trouble at all. She climbed so effortlessly from branch to
branch that she almost looked like a monkey—though of
course I didn’t say that out loud, since it might come off a
little rude. Still, I was pretty sure she could handle herself
from there, so I brought my gaze down to give my aching
neck a rest.
Looking back, that was probably the final nail in her

coffin. I never should have taken my eyes off of her, even for
a split second. The rest was kind of a blur—almost like it
happened in fast-forward. All of a sudden, I heard the sound
of a branch snapping overhead, and instantly I looked up. It
was too late. Karen was in freefall, tumbling headfirst back to
the ground. I still remembered the audible crack of her skull
hitting the hard earth.
It all happened so fast. I stood there stunned for a good

five, ten seconds, before finally coming back to my senses
and calling out to her. She was already gone. Not a drop of
blood on the ground, but she was no longer breathing.
I didn’t remember much about what happened after

that—just that I got really, really scared and ran away as fast
as I could until I found an adult in the nearby neighborhood
who could help. I didn’t know for sure that she was dead
until my parents told me the next day—the one small mercy
being that the autopsy apparently determined she died
immediately on impact and hadn’t suffered in the slightest.
Nevertheless, from then on, not a single day went by

where I didn’t think about what I could’ve done differently. If
I’d only refused to boost her up, or told her it was getting late
and we should head home, or never gone out bug catching
that day to begin with…Karen would almost certainly still be
alive.
I sat there in silence before her altar for a time, then lit
a stick of incense and rang the little bell as I continued
penning apology letters to her in my head, ones I knew would
only ever be returned to sender.
When I could sense my legs were about to go numb, I

got up and headed into the kitchen to get dinner ready. I put
some rice in the removable ceramic pot and swished it
around with tap water to wash off the starch, switching the
water out five times in total. I always had a hard time
remembering how many times I’d done it, so my trick was to
only swirl it around with as many fingers as the number of
times I’d drained and refilled the water. The first cycle, I used
only my pointer finger; the second, my pointer and middle;
the third, those two plus my ring finger—like so. When I
finally finished, I put the bowl in the rice cooker and pressed
the Quick Cook button.
Today, I would be making German potato salad. After

pulling all the necessary ingredients from the fridge, I set
about chopping them into bite-sized pieces, then sautéed the
onions, garlic, and bacon on the stove. Ever since Mom up
and vanished right after Karen’s death, I’d taken over all
dinner-making responsibilities, since my father couldn’t cook
to save his life. However, we also couldn’t eat takeout every
night, so it was kind of just something I had to man up and
learn how to do.
When the potato salad was complete, I put half of it on

a plate with plastic wrap and shoved it in the fridge for my
father. I then headed over to the living room to scarf down
my portion alone while flipping between a few different
prime-time talk shows, my chopsticks only ever stopping to
laugh at a particularly funny joke or when I felt the random
urge to mutter something aloud to myself. All the shows in
the seven o’clock block were pretty damn hilarious—and yet,
funnily enough, I could never remember a single one of the
jokes after I turned the TV off.
After soaking my dishes in the sink, I headed back to

my room and fell forward onto my bed, using my pillow to
prop up my chest as I killed time listening to music for a
while, then read a bit of manga. In no time at all, my eyelids
grew heavy, and my neck started getting sore as I began to
nod off. I knew I still needed to take a bath before going to
bed, but the sudden wave of fatigue proved too formidable to
resist, and I drifted off into a deep and peaceful sleep.
Or at least I did for a while, until I was startled awake

by a series of loud thumping and crashing sounds coming
from downstairs. Already I knew the culprit was no common
burglar—even in my half-sleeping torpor, I had a pretty good
idea as to what was going on down there. So, I decided not to
pay it any mind, laid my head back on my pillow, and closed
my eyes once more.
“Kaoru! Get down here!”
Ugh. Goddammit.
I got out of bed and took a deep breath before heading

into the living room, where I found my father, who’d gotten
back from his job at the town hall. He had yet to change out
of his slacks and button-down shirt, and he was sitting on a
floor cushion at the low table. His face was flushed red, and
he looked positively drunk. I watched his Adam’s apple bob
up and down as he glugged a tall glass of water. His cheeks
were gaunt, and specks of gray were peppered here and there
in his disheveled mop of hair. He was really starting to look
old—though I supposed that was to be expected of a man in
his fifties. Once he finished guzzling it down, he slammed the
cup on the table so hard that I thought it might shatter.
“Draw me a bath,” he demanded, not looking away

from the TV for even a second to make eye contact with me.
For the record, the TV was not turned on, so I had no idea
what he thought he was watching.
“Sorry, I’ll get right on that.” I headed toward the

bathroom. Just then, I stepped right in the middle of
something mushy with my bare foot, and a chill shot down
my spine. As I slowly pulled my foot back out of it, I saw that
it was the German potato salad I’d made, splattered all across
the tatami mats. Some was sticking to the wall, which led me
to believe that he’d thrown the entire plate of food against it.
Sure enough, I spotted the shattered ceramic shards near the
baseboard.
“Hey! What’re you standin’ around for?! You got

somethin’ to say to me?!” he roared.
“Nope, I sure don’t,” I replied, then kept walking over

to the bathroom. It was true—I really couldn’t have cared less
about him demanding I pull a bath for him, or him throwing
my potato salad against the wall, or even him breaking a
plate.
I felt only pity for my father, who’d lost both Karen and
my mother at almost the exact same time. I understood that
there was no real chance of him ever serving as a functional
father figure for me again after that, and I’d come to accept it.
Not to mention my immense guilt for having been the one
person who was with Karen when she died, and thus the only
one who could have prevented it. My heart was so full up
with pity, guilt, and regret that there wasn’t room for a single
iota of anger to enter the mix.
My father had once been an extremely mild-mannered

man, but Karen’s death and the resulting fallout had hit him
so hard that he became completely unstable. While there
were plenty of times like this one where he’d lose his temper
and start throwing things at me, there were also times when
he’d become weirdly affectionate. At first, I tried to do
whatever I could as his son to help dampen those massive
mood swings, but then one day, he said something that made
me stop caring altogether.
“Should’ve been you that died. Not her.”
It had been a frigid night in the winter of my eighth-

grade year. The second my father came bumbling in the door,
plastered, he said those words straight to my face, with the
same intonation in which one might have said “Boy, it’s cold
out there!” I honestly couldn’t blame him for feeling that
way; I was surprisingly calm and accepting of the sentiment.
It didn’t rattle or hurt me one bit. What it did do, however,
was pull the plug on any desire I might have felt to grow
closer to my father and help him get back on his feet. All that
went swirling down the drain when I finally realized that he’d
never thought of me as his son in the first place.
I was the product of an affair my mother had with
another man—something I learned when I was just eight
years old, but about which to this day I still didn’t know all
the details. Despite how young I was at the time, I had
recognized that it was a very taboo topic that I probably
shouldn’t pry into, especially since I didn’t really feel any
need to know more. My mother loved me very much, and
even my father was genuinely sweet to me at the time,
despite the lack of biological connection. In my primitive
child brain, I assumed that any prior adultery was a trivial
mistake that had long since been forgiven. I was pretty sure
that was how Karen felt about it too. So, despite that tiny bit
of awkward tension, we still loved each other and got along
as well as any family could ever hope to. We were the Tonos,
and nothing would ever change that.
Then Karen died, and everything fell apart. Any

semblance of familial harmony went straight out the window.
Yet even now I often found myself wondering how things
might have been different if I really had been the one to die
instead, like my father said. Though I was pretty sure the
answer went without saying.
I twisted the faucet and used the showerhead to wash

the potato salad off my foot. Then I filled the tub, kicked on
the gas, and gave the bathwater some time to heat up.
Figuring I’d only get yelled at again later if I didn’t clean up
the potato salad and broken plate, I trudged back to the
living room with heavy footsteps, only to find that my father
was zonked out cold on the floor. The cranky drunkard had
gone, and in his place was a man lying slovenly on the
ground with his mouth hanging wide open. He looked, quite
frankly, ridiculous.
“Heh… Glad I didn’t inherit those genes.”
Enough about that. I still had cleaning to do, and I
wanted to get it done while my father was still asleep if at all
possible. I gathered the fractured plate shards and wiped the
splattered gobs of potato salad from the floor and wall.
Strangely, the potato salad was a bit lukewarm to the touch,
which told me he must have zapped it in the microwave. I
couldn’t possibly imagine what had possessed him to go from
“Sure, I’ll eat this” to throwing it against the wall in no time
flat. Then again, I could never comprehend my father’s mood
swings. Nor did I have any desire to.
Having finished the cleanup, I returned to the

bathroom. After verifying that the water was sufficiently
warm, I turned off the heat. It would have been nice if we had
a dedicated water heater that could do this with a single push
of a button, but unfortunately our house was much too old
for that. I glanced at the clock—it was getting pretty close to
midnight. Normally, I would have turned in for the night by
then, but because I had dozed off for a bit earlier in the
evening, I wasn’t actually feeling all that sleepy.
So I decided to go out and get some fresh air. After

lacing up my sneakers in the entryway, I slipped out the front
door and into the pleasant summer night. It was the perfect
weather for a nice, long walk.
About thirty minutes later, I found myself walking

along the train tracks. I went out on nighttime walks like this
pretty frequently, but this was the first time I’d ever been
inspired to turn down the tracks and see where they went.
More than anything, it was a sudden urge to recreate an
iconic scene I remembered from an old movie—but now that
I was actually doing it, it turned out to be a lot more fun than
I was expecting. There was a sort of devilish thrill in doing
something so brazen that you could never get away with it in
the daytime. Something exhilarating about wobbling along
one of the rails like a balance beam, right into a deserted
train station. The sound of the rocks clacking together
beneath my feet was pleasing to my ear too, albeit a bit loud.
Thankfully I knew that no one else would be out walking
around at this hour, so I didn’t pay it much mind. There
weren’t really any streetlights in this part of town, but the
luminescent moon overhead meant that I could see my
surroundings perfectly. It glowed so brightly that on a
cloudless night like this, you could have been forgiven for
thinking the sun hadn’t yet set.
In fact, it had been a night just like this when I saw my

first shooting stars. Karen and I were sitting out on the
veranda, looking up at the night sky in the hopes of catching
a glimpse of the Perseid meteor shower. I managed to spot
three shooting stars that night, but Karen kept nodding off
and ultimately went the whole night without seeing a single
one. She was so distraught about it the next morning, it
looked like she was going to cry, but I assured her she’d have
another chance next time. In the end, that next time never
came. As a child, I’d heard it said that when you die, you turn
into one of the billions of stars that light up the night sky. If
that was true, then I hoped Karen had found herself a nice,
secluded corner of the universe from which she could watch
meteor showers each and every day. I’d like that for her.
After walking along the tracks for about an hour, I

finally came to a stop. Not because I hit a dead end, mind
you, but because I’d reached the entrance to a long, dark
tunnel. It was the same one my train passed through every
morning on the way to school, so I knew exactly where it
went—though I sure as hell didn’t have the balls to go
waltzing in there all by myself in the dead of night. So I
turned on my heel to head back the way I came. Then I
noticed something.
Off in the ditch to the side of the tracks, I spotted an old

wooden handrail engulfed in a sea of tall grass. Curious, I
brushed the overgrowth aside to find a small set of stairs
leading down on the seaward side of the rails. It descended at
a fairly peculiar angle, which explained why I’d never seen it
before when looking out the window from my seat on the
train. I figured it was probably just an access stairway for
railroad maintenance workers, yet it wasn’t roped off with a
Keep Out sign or anything of the sort. Unable to resist my
curiosity, I decided to take a look and see what was down
there, my heart beating faster with every step. When I finally
reached the bottom, after brushing several spider webs out of
my face, I found myself standing in a small clearing where
the vegetation was surprisingly short, right before the
entrance to yet another tunnel.
“What, seriously?”
This one was much smaller—only about three meters

high—and ran perpendicular to the larger tunnel above. It
was built from stone, and the outer rim of the entrance was
covered in a thick layer of moss. I couldn’t see through to the
other side from where I was standing, so there was no telling
how far it might go. It gave off such foreboding vibes that I
imagined there’d be quite a few scary stories about this place
if only it were in a more easily accessible location. No sane
person would dare venture into a tunnel like this. Ninety-
nine out of one hundred people would get cold feet and turn
back. I would have done the same, if I hadn’t suddenly
recalled that one little tidbit I’d overheard that morning.
“So hey… Have you ever heard of the Urashima
Tunnel?”
Nah. No way. I shook that ridiculous notion from my

head before it had a chance to take root. That was just a silly
urban legend. There wasn’t actually a tunnel out there that
could make any wish come true. Even if there was, the
thought of me stumbling upon it in my hometown the very
same day I first heard of it was too ridiculous to consider. I
was seventeen. I was supposed to know better than to believe
in stupid fairy tales by now. The smart thing to do would be
to go home and pretend I had never stumbled across this
creepy tunnel. As I once more ascended the stairs, I rebuked
myself for entertaining the notion. Then on the very last step,
I stopped again. What if—and this was a very big if—but
what if the rumors were true, and the Urashima Tunnel
actually did exist? Assuming it really could make any wish
come true, then…
Would it be possible to bring Karen back to life?
With only the flashlight function on my cell phone to

light the way, I took my first tentative steps into the tunnel. I
decided I would only take a quick peek inside, walk in a little
ways, and if I didn’t find anything, I’d walk right back out. I
moved forward slowly, watching my step to make sure I
didn’t trip or step in anything foul. The smell of raw earth
permeated the air. I’d been mentally prepared to come across
a dead animal carcass or two, but so far I hadn’t seen a single
fallen leaf on the ground. In fact, the interior of the tunnel
was remarkably clean—free even of the thick moss that lined
the perimeter of the entrance. The only really unsettling
thing about it was the muggy, lukewarm breeze blowing
through. That, combined with the fact that the passage was
so narrow, sort of made it feel like I was walking down the
throat of a massive, primordial snake.
If my phone were to die right now, I’d be scared out of

my mind. Suddenly very concerned about this possibility, I
looked down and saw that I had only ten percent battery life
remaining. Definitely not enough for me to feel confident
going any farther.
Just when I was about to turn back, I saw a faint light

shining in the darkness ahead. Could that be the exit? I
wondered. Boy, talk about anticlimactic. Guess it’s an
ordinary tunnel after all.
Still, I was more than ready to get out of this dark,

musty passage, so I ran toward the light…but as it grew
brighter and brighter, I slowly came to realize that it wasn’t
an exit at all.
“What…in the hell?”
It was a mid-sized torii gate, the type you might see at

the entrance to a Shinto shrine. Yet instead of the traditional
bright red, this one was colored an off-white that was almost
the pigment of human bones. It stood looming there in the
middle of the tunnel as if it had been waiting centuries for
someone—anyone—to pass beneath its crossbeam. There
wasn’t just one either. Peering through to the other side, I
saw that it was actually an entire corridor of equidistant torii,
one after another. Even more bizarrely, the “light” I’d seen
earlier had actually come from a series of torches that hung
diagonally off the walls between each torii and pointed
toward the ceiling. Every flame burned still and bright,
hardly wavering in the slightest. Whatever this place was, it
clearly held some sort of spiritual or religious significance,
and my gut told me I should think twice before going any
farther.
I had no idea where I was, nor had I ever heard of there

being any ceremonial sites like this anywhere in my neck of
the woods. I tried to check my GPS location, but my phone
wasn’t getting any service—a common occurrence in many
parts of Kozaki, to be fair, but right then it was awfully eerie
to be totally off the grid. All of a sudden, I was stricken by a
deep and primal sense of terror. I needed to get the hell out
of there. I should’ve never gone so far to begin with. But once
again, just as I was about to turn back, something a little
deeper into the tunnel caught my eye.
“What’s that…?”
Something small and red lay on the ground just past

the first torii, but the tunnel was too dimly lit for me to make
out what it was. I decided I’d take a quick peek before
heading back the way I came. With slow and steady footsteps,
I passed through the torii and leaned down to get a better
look.
Looks like…a sandal?
It was well worn and faded red—small enough to fit a

child. I slowly reached down and picked it up to examine it
closer. When I saw the name scribbled in permanent marker
on the heel strap, my breath caught in my throat.
KAREN
No way. It couldn’t be, I thought to myself. Yet it was.

This was one of the very same sandals our parents had
bought for her all those years ago. I still vividly remembered
her asking me if they looked good on her. Even the
handwriting was unmistakably hers; the “N” in the name was
backward, and she’d always had a bad habit of writing it that
way.
But what on earth was it doing here? The last time I

remembered seeing this particular sandal was, of course, the
day she died. The paramedics hadn’t collected them when
they took her to the hospital, so I’d headed back into the
woods to recover them after. I’d found the one with our last
name, TONO, written on it in no time at all, right where I
remembered her flinging them off before she climbed onto
my back. No matter how hard I searched, I had never found
the one that said KAREN, even after scouring the entire area
for what felt like a month straight. Eventually I just broke
down and gave up after a good, long cry.
Those woods had to be at least five kilometers away

from here, though, so it made no sense for her sandal to have
somehow made its way into this tunnel. This couldn’t
actually be the Urashima Tunnel, could it? No. It was too
early to jump to such drastic conclusions. Hell, a stray dog or
a crow could have picked it up and dragged it into this place.
Surely that was far and away the more likely explanation.
Besides, the tunnel hadn’t even granted any wishes yet. Sure,
I’d gone around looking for this sandal for weeks, but it
wasn’t the sandal I wanted back—it was Karen herself.
Regardless, I figured I’d find out soon enough if I kept

moving forward. If I found Karen at the end, then it was the
real deal. If not, it was an ordinary (albeit very weird) tunnel.
Slowly, the building anticipation began to win out over any
initial misgivings I might have had. Putting the sandal in one
pocket and my cell phone in the other, I ventured deeper
within, curious to see how far these torii gates went. The
torches were almost the more bizarre part, now that I
thought about it—how long had they been burning? It wasn’t
as if someone could have anticipated me coming in there and
lit them specifically for me in advance, so I had to imagine
they’d been burning for quite some time. But that begged the
question as to how they had enough fuel to keep burning
perpetually. There must have been some sort of secret
mechanism to it, maybe a floor panel or something that
turned them on when someone walked inside. But who
would have designed such a thing for a random tunnel so far
off the beaten path, and for what purpose? I racked my brain
but couldn’t come up with a single plausible explanation.
“Karen…? You there?” I called out in a quiet voice that

echoed down the tunnel. Though obviously, I knew there
would be no response. Until there was.
“…rrr…”
A voice came calling back, though it was so hoarse and

frail, I couldn’t make out whether it was a child’s or an
adult’s, let alone what gender. Even so, it was definitely a
voice, not some trick of the wind. My heart started pounding
faster and faster. Someone was in there, just ahead. And if
there was even a remote possibility that it might be Karen, I
needed to reach her as fast as I could. So I ran. I ran through
the next several torii until I heard another sound, then
stopped and listened closely. It was a sort of skittering, like
that of a large bug or a small animal scurrying. It sounded
like it was coming from extremely close, yet I didn’t see
anything that fit the bill, presumably because it was hiding
behind one of the torii pillars. My heart rate quickened
further; I tried to tell myself it was a mouse or something and
attempted to dash right past it—but whatever it was jumped
out at me from behind the next gate.
“Bwaaaaagh!” I screamed, falling onto my ass.
I immediately looked up and saw that a small bird had

perched atop the next torii, cocking its head as it looked
down at me, apparently unable to comprehend why I’d fallen
in fright.
“Friggin’ bird… Scared the hell outta me…”
I was so relieved, I couldn’t help but laugh. I got back

on my feet and peered up at the little troublemaker. He was a
tiny fella with bright yellow feathers—probably someone’s
pet that had flown away from home. I knew for a fact that we
didn’t have any birds of his color native to the Kozaki area, at
least. In any case, how could he have gotten lost so deep in a
tunnel like this?
“Hey, wait a minute… Are you a parakeet, little guy?”
Upon closer inspection, that did indeed seem to be the

case. The beady black eyes, the rounded beak—yep, he was
just a little budgie. I could tell because we’d had one as a pet
way back when. His name had been Kee, and he’d had the
same yellow shade of feathers as this guy, down to identical
little white specks around his neck. This little birdie looked a
lot like Kee, in fact—the more I looked at him, the more
uncanny the resemblance became… However, I knew that
yellow feathers and white speckles weren’t that uncommon
for parakeets like him. Plus, Kee had been dead for many
years. Karen and I had given him a small burial ceremony
ourselves and made a tiny grave in the backyard. So…yeah. In
no way could this bird possibly be Kee.
No way in hell, I thought to myself as I realized how

heavily I was breathing. It seemed the mix of fear and
anticipation bubbling up in my gut was finally about to reach
a boiling point.
“…rrr…”
The parakeet was trying to say something. I clutched at
my chest in a vain attempt to silence my beating heart and
tried to lend it an ear.
“Ribbit, ribbit…little frog…”
My heart skipped a beat. It was a miracle it didn’t stop

completely.
“Hopping through the…swampy bog…”
It couldn’t be. There was just no way—it was

impossible.
He was singing the exact same nursery rhyme we had

taught Kee when we first brought him home. We sang it over
and over to him because we thought it would be cute if the
three of us could all sing it in a round, but unfortunately all
he ever wanted to repeat were the first two lines, and he died
before ever learning the rest. This bird sang that song in the
exact same way. That was in addition to having the same
color feathers and the same spotted pattern on its neck. This
was all, quite frankly, impossible. My brain still ran at light
speed, trying desperately to come up with some sort of
explanation.
I know—it must be a hallucination! I’m hearing and

seeing things because I’m in this creepy tunnel in the middle
of the night, and my brain’s exhausted. There’s probably not
even a real bird up there! I bet if I tried to touch it, my hand
would go straight through!
Hoping to prove my theory, I reached out to gently

poke the parakeet with one finger. The little budgie didn’t shy
away, even as my finger bumped against its soft lower neck
feathers. I felt its muscles spasm as I made contact, along
with its subtle body heat—all in a single touch with just one
finger. This was no illusion. This was a real, live bird—more
specifically, our old pet parakeet. Kee. Alive and well.
“What the hell is going on here…?”
How could an old dead pet of mine be right in front of

me? Could this actually be the Urashima Tunnel after all?
Even then, how would that explain Kee…? As I stood there
grasping at straws, trying so hard to explain the
unexplainable, Kee flew off farther into the depths of the
tunnel, and I reflexively gave chase. Even if there was still
some doubt in my mind about him being the real deal, I
certainly didn’t want to lose him again.
Then a moment later, I got a sudden sinking feeling in

my gut, and I slammed hard on the brakes. Something was
gnawing at the back of my brain, almost like I was forgetting
something very important. Generally, I was the type of
person who tried to take an optimistic view on things like this
—like, if it was really so important, I wouldn’t have forgotten
it. However, something deep inside me was saying I should
really think long and hard to try to remember this one. It was
like some sort of premonition; I could feel it in my bones. A
sense of impending doom slowly built in my chest that I
couldn’t quite place.
Say this was the Urashima Tunnel. Let’s think back to

what my one and only source for that rumor had said about
it. How had that girl at the train station described it this
morning? I replayed their conversation in my head.
“So, like, say you’ve gotten your wish, right? And now
you’re ready to go back home.”
No, not that part.
“But the Urashima Tunnel doesn’t let you leave that
easily. It always takes something from you in return.”
Yeah, right after that. What was it that it took, again?
“Years. Years and years off of your life. Go in a

teenager, and you’ll come back out as a wrinkly old
woman.”
My stomach dropped.
I could feel the blood draining from my face.
Yes, the Urashima Tunnel could grant any wish, but it

took years off your life span as its toll. How could I have
forgotten the most important part of the whole urban
legend? Now I stood conflicted, torn between the enticing
thought that I might find Karen just ahead and the fear of
selling my entire life away in exchange. In the end, my fear
won out. After all, I had no way of knowing how far this
tunnel went, or if I really would find Karen at the other end,
so continuing on like this seemed far too dangerous.
Having finally made up my mind, I whirled around and

set off sprinting at full speed back the way I came. I exited
the tunnel as fast as I could, stumbling so frantically through
the dark that I nearly fell over on more than one occasion.
Yet when I looked ahead, the entrance seemed much closer
than I expected. When I reached it, I practically dove over the
threshold back into the outside world, rolling over a few
times as my body hit the ground. Despite the stains I’d no
doubt gotten all over my clothes, I simply lay there for a
while, looking breathlessly up at the night sky as the stars
looked solemnly down at me in turn. When I finally caught
my breath, I held my hand in front of my face. I saw no
wrinkles, creases, or varicose veins—my hands looked
perfectly fine, if a bit feminine for a guy my age. Then again,
they’d always been that way.
“So then…nothing changed?”
I tried patting my face. I detected no wrinkles there

either, nor even any patches of facial hair. It felt exactly the
same as it had before I entered the tunnel. Oh, thank God, I
thought to myself as I let out a heavy sigh of relief. I hadn’t
aged one bit. Of course, I’d thought from the outset that the
whole “instant aging” thing seemed a bit too ludicrous to be
true, but boy, was I ever glad to be right.
I sat up and tried to wipe the dirt off my back. Now that
I’d had a chance to calm down a bit, I couldn’t believe how
different the atmosphere inside the tunnel had felt compared
to outside. It was almost like I’d just awoken from a very,
very strange dream. Thinking about it rationally, it wouldn’t
have surprised me if that really had been a dream—because I
mean, why the hell would there be a virtually infinite number
of torii and torches deep in a random tunnel in the middle of
nowhere? I would have dismissed the whole experience as a
fever dream right then and there…if it weren’t for the sandal
poking out of my left-side pocket.
“Yeah, no. This really was hers… There’s no getting

around it.”
The little red sandal I held in both hands was

undeniable proof that what happened in there hadn’t been a
dream or a hallucination. Moreover, when I closed my eyes, I
could vividly recall what Kee looked like, and the decaying
texture of those torii, almost as if they were still right in front
of me. There was no doubt in my mind that the tunnel I’d just
exited was somehow connected to that bizarre, otherworldly
space.
With all these remaining unanswered questions, I was
feeling a little frazzled by the whole experience, though I was
mostly grateful to have made it out in one piece. At the same
time, another part of me was strangely entranced by the
mysterious tunnel, compelled to uncover its true nature. That
probably just meant I wasn’t ready to give up on the
(admittedly microscopic) possibility that if I followed it to the
very end, I could see my little sister again. At present, I was
too tired, and I needed to get home. Maybe I’d give it another
shot after school the next day.
I crammed Karen’s sandal into my pocket, then trudged

up the stairs to the train tracks and stretched my weary legs
for the long walk home.
When I made it to the house, I opened the front door

quietly so as not to wake my father, then stepped into the
entryway. Unfortunately, in the process, I knocked over an
umbrella leaning against the wall, which clattered loudly as it
fell on the hardwood floor. I winced, then hurried to set it
upright before attempting to dash up to my room—but then
the hallway lights flickered on.
“Kaoru!” gasped my father, looking out from the

doorway of the main bedroom.
Crap. He’d caught me red-handed in the act of being

out past curfew without permission. I really wasn’t in the
mood for a lecture, so hopefully he’d make it quick. I hung
my head low to give the illusion of remorse as my father
dashed down the hall and grabbed me roughly by the
shoulders. I closed my eyes, bracing for him to smack me
upside the head. However, after several seconds, there came
no punch to the gut, nor slap across the face. Cautiously, I
reopened my eyes to see my father looking down at me as
though he were about to cry. It was pretty unnerving, to be
honest.
“Oh, Kaoru… Thank God…” my father said, wringing

the words out like moisture from a damp dishrag.
Thank God for what?
“I don’t know what I would’ve done if I were to lose you

too… I’m sorry for my behavior earlier. I had a little too much
to drink, that’s all.”
Aha. I see what’s going on here. My father had gone

into his famous post-hangover repentance mode and was
desperately trying to atone for whatever aggressive actions he
might have taken while under the influence. Whenever this
happened, he always turned almost disgustingly nice and
apologetic, so I quickly told him not to worry about it.
“I’m really sorry, son. I’ll be sure to more carefully

monitor my alcohol consumption going forward,” he assured
me—refusing to fully commit to going sober, as usual. “So
please promise you won’t run away from home again, okay?”
I nodded, though I found it a little ridiculous for him to

imply that me being away from the house for a few hours was
somehow “running away from home.” It wasn’t like this was
the first time it had ever happened either.
“I mean it, son. I kept getting calls from the school, and
I had no idea what to tell them… Where on earth did you go,
anyhow?”
Calls from the school? The hell’s he talking about? I

was extremely confused at this point, but I went ahead and
answered his question regardless.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I went out for a little
walk, that’s all.”
“…So you refuse to tell me, is that it? Then I suppose it

must have been somewhere I wouldn’t approve of.”
“No, I’m dead serious. I just wanted to get some fresh

air.”
“Be honest with me, son. Whose house were you

staying at? Or did you run off into the city?”
“I wasn’t staying at anyone’s house. Heck, I didn’t even

leave Kozaki…”
“Forget it,” my father said, his expression turning sour.

“Just don’t let it happen again. If word got around town that
you’d gone missing, there could’ve been serious
repercussions. For both of us.”
My father proceeded to return to the bedroom,

scratching the back of his head as he turned the lights off
once more. What the hell was that all about? I had absolutely
no idea, but I tried to shrug it off and decided to go take a
shower to wash off all the sweat from my long night out.
Then my father said one last thing before closing the

door, something that really threw me for a loop.
“Unbelievable… My own son, running off for an entire

week to do God knows what… Where did I go wrong?”
He was muttering under his breath, though, so maybe

I’d simply misheard him. In any event, I headed for the
bathroom to take a nice, hot shower. Peering into the mirror
at my reflection, I confirmed once more that I had indeed not
aged a day. Relieved, I set my cell phone on the counter so I
could take off my clothes. Then the screen flashed on, and I
had to do a double take. It showed that I had dozens of
missed calls—not just from my father but from Shohei as
well. Underneath that was a wall of text messages.
“Son, where are you?”
“dude quit playin hooky”
“I expect you home by tomorrow. That’s an order.”
“brooo where the hell are you i’m bored out of my

mind”
“At least reply to let me know you’re somewhere safe.”
“everyone’s gettin kinda worried about u bro… ok i

lied. just me. but still!!”
What the hell was going on here? How could I possibly

have gotten this many calls and texts while I was out walking
and not heard a single one? It didn’t make any sense. For
that matter…
Why was the date on my phone almost a full week off?
“What the…” I mumbled as I squinted and brought the

phone up to my face. The screen clearly displayed the date as
July 8th—yet it had been just before midnight on July 1st
when I left the house to go for a walk, so it should only have
been July 2nd.
“Is my phone glitching or what?”
I tried fiddling around with it a bit, but everything else
seemed to be working fine—it was only the date that didn’t
add up. All the missed calls and texts were from after July 2nd
as well. All of a sudden, I felt a slight chill. I wasn’t really in
the mood for a warm shower anymore, so I left the bathroom
and headed into the living room, where I grabbed the remote
off the table and turned on the TV. The screen flickered on
right in the middle of the weather forecast. As the soft
classical piano music drifted from the internal speakers, I
read the text scrolling on the marquee at the bottom of the
screen.
“LATER TODAY (7/8): 10-20% CHANCE OF RAIN”
I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.

Though at this point, it was less that I couldn’t believe my
eyes and more that I wanted to rule out every other possible
explanation before fully accepting the impossible.
“No way. You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I whispered

under my breath in a futile attempt to shake off the anxiety. I
turned off the TV and whipped out my phone to dial the only
other person I could think to ask. After being sent to voice
mail several times, he finally picked up on my tenth attempt.
“Yeah…?” said the gruff voice on the other end of the

line.
“Hey, Kaga? Can I ask you something?”
“Dude, do you have any idea what time it is?”
“Yeah, so about that—could you tell me today’s date?”
“Whaddaya mean? It’s like, uh…the 8th, isn’t it? Yeah, 4

a.m. on the 8th.”
“Okay. And you’re one hundred percent sure about
that?”
“Yes. Dude. Also, why are you calling me about this?

Why didn’t you check the calendar on your own phone or—I
dunno—do literally anything other than wake your best
friend up at four in the morning on a school night? Speaking
of which, when the hell are you gonna come back to—”
Before Shohei could finish that sentence, the call

dropped. I looked down at my phone and learned why. My
battery had died. Bad timing, to be sure, but at least I’d
managed to get my main question answered. By all accounts,
today really did seem to be July 8th.
“What the hell, man…”
I felt a headache coming on. This just wasn’t possible;

I’d only been out of the house for three hours, tops. I’d maybe
have been willing to accept that I was off by an hour or two,
but a week? I ran back into the bathroom and checked my
face in the mirror again. My beard hadn’t grown at all. I
generally shaved it once every three days, so going without
for an entire week would have been very noticeable. I didn’t
feel hungry either, despite not having eaten anything since I
left the house a week ago—supposedly.
The same could be said for my phone. There was no

way the battery could have lasted an entire week without
needing to recharge, especially considering it had already
been at ten percent when I walked into the tunnel. Yet it had
still held enough charge for me to have a short phone call
with Shohei. It wasn’t as though cell phones consumed zero
power when not actively in use either. The fact that it had
automatically updated the date to July 8th the moment I left
the tunnel and got service again was evidence enough of that.
“The tunnel… The Urashima Tunnel…”
It was the only explanation I could think of. All these

bizarre phenomena had only begun to occur after I walked in
there: finding Karen’s sandal, bumping into our old dead
parakeet, and now this inexplicable time jump. Just what in
the world was happening to me? Was I suffering from some
form of amnesia? Was this all just an illusion? Had someone
brainwashed or hypnotized me? Try as I might to rack my
brain for answers, the only things I managed to come up with
were more questions, and a whole lot more anxiety.
“…I can’t do this right now, man. I need to sleep.”
My mind was in shambles. I needed to give it some rest

before attempting to make more sense of this situation. Not
to mention, I had to go to school in the morning… Or in a
couple of hours, rather.
Chapter 2:
Sweat and Hair Conditioner
W HEN I WALKED into my classroom at Kozaki High

the next morning, all eyes were on me—if only for a moment.
Pretty much all of my classmates looked over at me as if to
say “Whoa, he’s back?” then returned to whatever it was they
were doing. A few students did approach me to ask where I’d
been.
“Yo, Kaoru! Where were you, man?”
“Almost thought you were gonna drop out for a minute

there.”
“What the heck were you even doing last week?”
I tried to play it off like I’d come down with a really bad
case of the flu, an excuse they seemed to buy, given their
jokey reaction (“Whuh-oh! Hope you’re not still
contagious!”) and subsequent entire loss of all interest in me.
Thus was balance restored to the universe as I returned to my
natural state of being: just some random guy in class who no
one ever paid any attention to.
I proceeded to sit at my desk, then pulled out my

textbook and pencil case from my book bag. Suddenly,
someone kicked my chair from the side.
“’Sup, dude,” said Shohei in his standard unaffected

tone.
“Hey, man. Nothin’ much.”
“So what the hell was that phone call about last night?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, sorry… Guess I was still kind of in

zombie mode.”
“Uh-huh. Ya don’t say,” he scoffed. “Anyway, were you

seriously outta commission for an entire week because of
some cold?”
No, I wasn’t, actually. However, trying to explain what

really happened would have been far more trouble than it
was worth. I figured he wouldn’t believe me anyhow. So, I
decided to lean into the white lie I’d just come up with.
“Yeah, man. I’ve never been more sick in my life. Felt

like I was on death’s doorstep.”
“Okay, now you’re screwin’ with me,” said Shohei,

clearly starting to get a little annoyed. “You really expect me
to believe you just got over a pneumonia-tier cold? Hell, you
look fit as a freaking fiddle. And if you were really that sick,
your dad should’ve called the school to let ’em know, right?
There’s no excuse for being MIA that long.”
I froze up, not sure what to say when he’d so

thoroughly debunked my alibi. The worst part was that he
had a point too. I should have faked a cough to make it seem
more believable, at the very least.
“So, do you wanna tell me what really happened or

not?” Shohei demanded.
“Well, I guess you could say…I sort of ran away from

home, in a sense? Then I totally lost track of time, and before
I knew it, a whole week had gone by. I know, sounds crazy,
right? I couldn’t believe it either. Heh heh heh.” I tried my
best to laugh it off nonchalantly. But I could tell from
Shohei’s glare that he saw right through that excuse too.
“Look, dude. You don’t have to tell me about it if you

don’t want to. But as your friend, the least you could do is
text me back. Dumbass. Just don’t call me up at 4 a.m. again.
I’m not gonna pick up next time.”
“Ha ha… Yeah, sorry about that.”
As much as I felt like an asshole for keeping Shohei at

arm’s length, I had to admit that I really appreciated his
tendency not to pry into my personal life. He was like the sort
of friend you only started talking to because you randomly
happened to get seated next to them in class, the one who
you always went to first when the time came to pair up for
group projects. Close, but not too close; we each respected
the other’s privacy. Obviously, I didn’t know exactly how
Shohei felt about it, but for me, this was the ideal level of
intimacy for a friendship.
“Though it does make me kinda wonder, y’know?” I

mused aloud.
“Huh? About what?” Shohei replied.
“Just about how time works in general. Like, would

there ever be a situation in real life where several days could
feel like only a few minutes? …Er, not that I’m trying to hint
at anything here, for the record. Just a random thought I
had.”
I tried to float the subject as casually as possible. I

knew Shohei was actually a pretty astute and intelligent guy,
so there was a good chance he might know of a potential
explanation for this bizarre phenomenon, one that I’d never
come up with on my own.
“Nah, man,” he replied, looking at me like I’d just said
the dumbest thing in the world. “I mean, if it were a few
hours and you were super engrossed in a book or something,
maybe I could see it seeming like a few minutes, but a few
days? There’s no way you’d be able to not notice that kind of
time passing. I mean, your stomach would let you know for
one thing, and you’d naturally get tired sooner or later and
need to sleep.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense…”
“Though on the other hand,” he said, suddenly looking

quite pensive, “there are definitely ways in which it can feel
like time’s moving faster than it normally would. Like, if
you’re focusing super hard on a given project for several days
straight—though that’s more of a mental phenomenon than a
physical one. I guess from a mythological standpoint, there’s
always the concept of being ‘spirited away.’ You know—
people disappearing and then coming back in circumstances
that go unexplained and seem supernatural.”
“Hmmm…”
I had to admit, neither of those possibilities sounded

especially plausible in this case. Sure, I’d been focusing pretty
hard while in that tunnel, but not to the point that I’d miss a
whole week. I supposed there was technically always a
possibility that I’d been inexplicably “spirited away.” Though
if that were the case, I felt like I’d never know how or why.
“Oh yeah, and then there’s also the whole concept of

time dilation—or the ‘Urashima effect,’ as it’s more
commonly known in Japan.”
Wait. Urashima? That was the last word I’d expected

to come out of Shohei’s mouth. Obviously intrigued, I leaned
forward in my seat. “Hang on. Could you tell me a little more
about that?”
“Oh, it’s that thing you see in sci-fi novels from time to
time. About how when you start traveling at nearly the speed
of light, or your body gets subjected to immense gravitational
forces, time kinda slows down—but only for you.”
“What do you mean, it ‘slows down’?”
“Like for you, it might only feel like a few minutes have
passed, but in the outside world, it could have been several
hours. Remember the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in Dragon
Ball? It’s pretty much the exact opposite of that.”
Holy crap. He’d perfectly described the phenomenon

I’d experienced the night before. I couldn’t speak to whether
there were any light-speed or hypergravity shenanigans at
work in the Urashima Tunnel, but if it had been named as
such because it exhibited the Urashima effect, then
everything made total sense. In which case, I wasn’t suffering
from memory loss or hallucinations—the flow of time had
simply slowed to a crawl while I was inside the tunnel. That
also explained the lack of physical changes to my body.
“Uh, dude?” said Shohei. “Why’d you go quiet all of a

sudden? You’re not about to tell me you were on some sort of
light-speed interstellar flight last week, are you?”
“Nah, man. Of course not. It’s hard enough going into

the city from our neck of the woods, let alone another solar
system.”
“Ha! Now there’s the deadpan smartass I know and

love!” Shohei said, punching me hard in the shoulder. It hurt
pretty bad, but I decided to let it go as a show of gratitude for
giving me a promising new lead in this mystery. “Anyway,
dude, just so you know, some things around here kinda took
a turn for the worse on account of you being away for so
long.”
“Wait, really? You mean I’m not just a waste of space

here after all?”
“…Dude, do you realize how pathetic that sounds?”
“No, I do.”
“Then don’t say it like that… Anyway, have a look,”

Shohei said, pointing across the room with a jerk of his chin.
He seemed to be directing my attention to where the new
girl, Anzu Hanashiro, sat alone at her desk, quietly reading
her book as usual.
“…What about her?” I asked. “Oh, you mean that she’s

got her school uniform now?”
“No, dumbass. How would that be a change for the

worse? Try looking a little lower.”
“At what?” I asked, not seeing anything unusual at all

about her skirt—but then I brought my gaze further down
and grasped what Shohei was hinting at. She was wearing a
pair of cheap rubber bathroom slippers, whereas the last
time I’d seen her, she’d been wearing a nice pair of indoor
shoes.
“It was Kawasaki’s doing, in case you hadn’t guessed,”

said Shohei.
“What happened?”
“Well, it all started when… Oh, hey. Speak of the devil

herself.”
Shohei gestured with his chin again—this time toward
the door at the front of the room, right as Koharu walked into
class. She proceeded to waltz right up to Anzu’s desk with her
posse of followers.
“Oh my gosh! Look at you! Why are you wearing those

ratty old slippers in class?” Koharu teased with a knowing
smirk. Anzu didn’t even look up—which obviously was more
than enough to piss off a short-tempered girl like Koharu.
She scrunched up her face and clicked her tongue in disdain.
“Oh yeah? You’re gonna ignore me, huh? Fine, have it your
way. I just came over here to let you know that I found your
other shoes for you, but I guess you don’t care!”
Koharu pulled a pair of indoor shoes out from behind

her back. I immediately noticed that, for whatever reason,
they were soaking wet. Koharu then pressed them down hard
on Anzu’s desk, sending water squeezing out across the
surface with a loud squish.
“Looks like some big meanie tried to flush ’em down

the toilet yesterday,” Koharu went on. “Did you have to walk
all the way home in those things yesterday? Ah ha ha! That’s
so cute. Anyway, try to be more careful next time. Don’t make
other people have to go fishing around in the toilet for you.”
Koharu wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it

anymore—she was out for blood. Even the girls in her posse
didn’t seem prepared for her to have gone this far; their
sideline chatter was all muttered stuff like “Yikes” and “Holy
crap.” I could see now what Shohei meant about things
having taken a turn for the worse. It appeared that Anzu had
somehow wound up the latest victim of Koharu’s relentless
bullying streak.
That being said, however, I felt nothing from watching

this exchange take place in front of me, presumably because I
felt no strong emotions toward the new girl one way or the
other. How could I, given that we still had yet to exchange a
single word? As of that instant, it was no skin off my nose, so
I honestly couldn’t have cared less.
It appeared I wasn’t the only one. Anzu herself didn’t

seem the slightest bit bothered by any of Koharu’s
provocations. She didn’t dignify this blatant affront with a
reaction, just carried on leafing through her book, wholly
unintimidated.
“See what I mean?” said Shohei, nudging me with his

shoulder.
“New girl looks completely unfazed.”
“Yeah, she’s always like that. Won’t give Kawasaki the

time of day.”
“Damn. That’s impressive.”
If nothing else, I had to respect the new girl for not

taking any of Koharu’s crap. Most girls—hell, most boys, even
—would have cracked by this point. Yet it was plain to see
that Anzu wasn’t the one about to crack, as each time she
refused to acknowledge her provocateur’s existence, Koharu
became visibly more irritated.
“Hey. Don’t you have something to say to me?” Koharu

demanded. “Not a word of thanks for the girl who saved your
shoes? You think you can keep quiet and it’ll all be over soon,
is that it? Keep it up, and I’ll go tell some of my senior guy
friends how much you’ve been getting on my nerves lately.
And they’re not as gentle as I am, FYI. So don’t come crying
to me if you get jumped on your way home.”
A pause. Then, without a word, Anzu turned to the next
page in her book.
“God, you’re pissing me off! Just say something

already!” Koharu snapped.
I couldn’t believe how much she was letting Anzu get

under her skin. Normally, bullies lose interest in tormenting
someone when they fail to get a rise out of them after a
number of attempts, but for whatever reason, Koharu
seemed intent on pursuing this particular vendetta. Though
perhaps she’d finally grown bored with it, because almost the
second after blowing her lid, she shrugged the whole thing off
with a “Fine, whatever” and turned to head back to her own
desk.
Just when I thought the dust had finally settled, the

new girl finally opened her mouth for the first time.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” said Anzu, her tone

like that of a scolding parent—an equal mixture of frustration
and disappointment.
The class erupted with scandalized murmurs.
“Whoa, what the hell?” Shohei gasped.
“Finally gonna give her a piece of your mind, eh?”

hooted one of our classmates.
“Give it to her, new kid!” hollered another.
I hadn’t been around for the past week, obviously, but I

could tell from the tension in the air that Anzu deigning to
speak to Koharu was an extremely rare occurrence. The
entire class was on tenterhooks as they prayed this would be
the day someone finally put the queen bee in her place.
“Oh yeah?” Koharu whirled around. “You got somethin’
to say, huh? Well, for your sake, I sure hope it’s an apology.”
There was a ferocious glint in her eyes as she and Anzu

finally locked gazes with one another. Undeterred, the new
girl rose fearlessly from her seat to face her bully.
“Sorry, Kawasaki, was it?” she began. “Just curious, is

this actually fun for you, or do you really not have anything
better to do?”
“Huh? Is what actually fun for me? Surely you’re not

implying that I was the one who took your shoes yesterday,
are you?”
“I mean all the petty harassment in general. Hiding my

textbooks, scrawling rude words all over my desk, spraying
me with the bathroom hose—do you actually enjoy any of it?”
“Wow, sounds like someone’s a little paranoid. I mean,

it’s not like it was me doing all of those things.”
“Let me ask a different question, then. Is your moral

barometer utterly broken, or did you never have one in the
first place?”
“Don’t know what that word means, sorry. How ’bout

you start speaking in a language I can understand, you
antisocial freak?”
“Fine. Have it your way. I’ll punch you and get it over
with, then. Ready?”
“Uh, excuse me? You wanna go, you little b—”
WHAM.
Before Koharu could finish her sentence, Anzu
proceeded to sock her right in the nose with no hesitation
whatsoever. The whole class went instantly, deathly silent.
Even I was at a loss for words; a punch in the shoulder or the
gut I could have understood, but straight in the middle of the
face? Even if it looked like Anzu hadn’t really put her back
into it, that still had to have hurt like hell. Indeed, Koharu let
out a near inaudible high-pitched squeal as the force from
the punch caused her to fall backward onto her ass. A
moment later, trails of blood began to trickle from both her
nostrils. It seemed Koharu herself hadn’t fully registered
what had occurred, as she just kind of sat there, making no
attempts to stand or wipe the blood from her nose.
“Oh, sorry about that. Wasn’t expecting to actually

draw blood. But hey, I guess we can call it even now,” Anzu
said matter-of-factly. Then she sat down, moved her wet
shoes off the desk, and went back to reading her book.
No one moved a muscle. I assumed they were waiting

to see how Koharu would respond. Would she fire back or
would she flounder? Fight or flight? This was the first time
her position as queen bee of the class had ever been put to
the test. However, in the end…
“Hic!”
She chose flight. Everyone watched as she scurried out

of the classroom, tears streaming down her cheeks. Perhaps
the greatest indicator of her defeat, though, was that her
usual overconfident posture had crumbled into a hunched-
over slouch that looked so pathetic, even her usual retinue of
yes-girls looked on with disgust. Koharu’s reign of terror was
officially over, as far as I was concerned. Barring a major
comeback arc, there would be no recovering from this
crushing defeat.
“Heh. Crybaby,” Anzu snickered to herself.
It was the first time I’d ever seen her smile.
“Man, what a day, right?” said Shohei as he sat in front

of me during lunch hour, munching away at his yakisoba
sandwich.
Koharu still hadn’t come back to class, and the day was
halfway over. To be honest, I couldn’t blame her. No way
would an arrogant girl like her be able to handle that kind of
humiliation. Even if she did come back and try to play it cool,
the image of her sniveling on the ground would remain
burned into our memories for all eternity. Hell, it wouldn’t
have surprised me to see the tables turn and for her to
become the new punching bag for the school bullies. Who
knew, maybe she wouldn’t ever show her face at school again.
I could tell that a majority of my classmates were overjoyed
to finally see Koharu get her comeuppance, but personally, I
couldn’t help feeling an itty bit bad for her.
“Feel like she didn’t have to punch her in the nose,

though, man,” I mused between sips of my coffee-flavored
milk drink. My lunch for the day was a humble hunk of raisin
bread.
“Eh, she can take it. Not like it broke any bones. Even if
that was a lot of blood.”
“Yeah, but you can’t just punch a girl in the face…”
“Hard disagree. When it’s girl-on-girl, that’s totally fair

play.”
“I really don’t think that makes it okay, man.”
“Nah, dude. It’s her own fault for egging the new girl on
for so long.”
“I just feel like there was a more civil way of handling it.
That’s all.”
Shohei frowned grumpily. “What the hell, man? Why

you gotta be so contrarian? You’re not seriously trying to take
Kawasaki’s side here, are you? After how crappy she’s treated
you?”
“Nah, man. It’s not like that. Though I guess it could be

a slight case of that, uh… What’s it called again? Holstein
syndrome?”
“Stockholm syndrome. Holsteins are a type of cow, my

friend.”
Right, that’s what I was thinking of. I knew there was

a “hol” in there somewhere.
Sensing a break in the conversation, I took my eyes off

Shohei for a moment and scanned the classroom. Virtually all
of our classmates were engaged in lively small talk as they ate
lunch with their friends, including the girls who’d once been
part of Koharu’s posse. If anything, they actually seemed to
be laughing and enjoying themselves more than when their
ringleader had been around. Almost like her absence didn’t
make any difference to them whatsoever. Thus again, while I
wasn’t a diehard Koharu sympathizer by any means, I did
have to feel the slightest bit bad for her.
Then, all of a sudden, the door to the classroom swung

open with a loud crash, and everyone turned to look. It was
Koharu, accompanied by a thuggish male student who looked
like nothing but trouble. He had dyed blond hair, a silver
necklace with a crucifix, and he wore his baggy pants so low
that the cuffs were thoroughly shredded from being
repeatedly stepped on. He had a pretty slender physique, but
he still looked like the type of guy you wouldn’t want to mess
with. I did recognize him from somewhere, though—if
memory served, this was the same senior delinquent who
Koharu was allegedly dating. He scrunched his almost-
nonexistent shaved eyebrows together as he scanned the
classroom with an icy glare before finally stating his business.
“Lookin’ for a girl named Hanashiro. She in here?”
The cheery vibe in the room instantly froze over.

Everyone had heard the rumors of Koharu’s boyfriend being
a notorious punk who was always looking for a fistfight. As
such, more than half of my classmates simply looked down at
their desks, praying that as long as they stayed out of it, they
wouldn’t get caught in the crosshairs. That was my plan too,
of course. Unfortunately, the senior punk and I made eye
contact before I had the chance to look away.
“Hey, you,” he said. “Which one of these chicks is

Hanashiro?”
I knew he wasn’t gonna buy me playing dumb for a

minute, so I fessed up and pointed out where the new girl
was sitting with my eyes. She was, at present, taking a large
bite of her sandwich as if nothing was going on. The way she
chewed it loudly despite the obvious air of tension in the
classroom told me she was doing this on purpose. Once the
senior guy picked her out from the crowd, he barged into the
classroom and walked right over to her. Koharu, meanwhile,
was being surprisingly docile throughout this whole
exchange. Usually, having her tough-looking guy friends to
back her up only emboldened her to act like even more of an
irreverent big shot, but for the time being, she was scuttling
after him in silence like a child hiding behind her mother’s
skirt.
“You’re Hanashiro?” the guy asked as he stopped in
front of her desk.
“Yes, and?” Anzu set her half-eaten sandwich on the

table, not the smallest hint of fear in her eyes. “Can I help you
with something?”
“Got somethin’ I need to talk to you about. C’mere for a

sec.”
“I’m eating right now.”
Abruptly, the senior thug kicked Anzu’s desk as hard as

he could, knocking it over onto the ground with such force
that it sent her sandwich and milk tea flying through the air
from the momentum. It was so sudden and needlessly violent
that a few of the girls in class shrieked.
“Last chance,” said the punk. “You comin’ or not?”
“…If you insist,” Anzu replied after a short pause, her

expression blank.
“Good. Follow me,” he ordered, then walked back out of

the classroom with Anzu in tow. He turned and gave a
warning to the rest of us before slamming the door: “Any of
you go snitching about this, you’re dead meat.”
There was silence for a moment. Then the murmurs

started right back up again.
“Whoa, is she gonna be okay?”
“She’s so dead, dude. Someone should call the teacher.”
“Wait, so those two are dating after all?”
“That’s what she gets for challenging Kawasaki, I
guess…”
From the sound of it, there were an awful lot of people

worried about Anzu, but after the senior guy’s little parting
threat, none of them were brave enough to actually go tell a
faculty member. Myself included.
“Yikes, man,” I casually remarked to Shohei as I

resumed eating my lunch. “If that were me, I’d break down
and start begging for my life at that point.”
“Uh, dude? Shouldn’t you be going after her?” he

replied, his expression stern.
“Huh? To do what?”
“Gee, I dunno… Rescue her, maybe?”
His oddly expectant tone was really throwing me for a

loop.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why should that be my job?”
“Because it’s kinda your fault that Kawasaki dug her

hooks into the new girl, duh. Didn’t we just go over this?”
“Pretty sure we didn’t. But go ahead and run it by me

one more time.”
“I mean, think about it. Usually, Kawasaki bosses you

around when she gets angry, and that helps her blow off
some steam. But since you were gone all week, she’s been
forced to take her anger out on the new girl instead.”
“And that’s my fault how, exactly? Don’t pin the blame

on the victim, sheesh.”
“Fine. You’re still complicit in this for pointing that
dude to where she was sitting.”
He kind of had a point there. I faltered a moment. “…

Man, stop making it sound like I’m the villain here. I couldn’t
help it. You would’ve done the same thing in my shoes.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Shohei rose from his seat.
“Wait, are you going after her?”
“Well, yeah. You expect me to stand by and let her get

her ass kicked?”
“Wow, Kaga. Never knew you were so cool,” I teased.

“If this were an anime, you’d be the main character for sure.”
“Yeah, and you’d be a faceless background character

they only drew in to fill space.”
Ouch. I had to admit, that one stung a little bit. He

wasn’t wrong either—all I’d done was lead the villain straight
to Anzu’s desk, then try to act like I had nothing to do with it.
Hell, calling me a faceless background character was honestly
pretty generous, considering he could’ve easily gotten away
with calling me the annoying little traitor that everyone
hates.
“So are you coming or what? Not gonna force you to,
but here’s your invite.”
I was conflicted. Was I going to own up to my

cowardice and stay here in the name of self-preservation, or
go try to help the new girl and reclaim my lost dignity? I went
back and forth for a bit, but eventually, the scales tipped ever
so slightly in favor of the latter.
“All right, fiiine. I’ll tag along,” I reluctantly agreed,
feeling more than a little peer pressured. Although I was
pretty worried about the new girl. I knew I would have a hard
time sleeping if I found out she got beaten to a bloody pulp
due (at least in small part) to my own inaction. “But no
heroics, all right? If it gets dicey out there, we need to go find
an adult.”
“Sounds fair to me. C’mon, let’s go.”
I shoved the remainder of the half-eaten raisin bread in

my mouth and ran out the classroom door after Shohei.
There was only one place ne’er-do-wells in school were

likely to do their dirty work: behind the gymnasium—at least
according to every manga I’d ever read. It was a trope for
good reason, though, as that was the most wide-open space
on campus that was also hidden from prying eyes. As such,
Shohei and I decided to check there before anywhere else. Lo
and behold, my intuition was correct.
“You know why I called you out here, right?” the senior
punk asked like an interrogator, backing Anzu against the
wall. I was relieved to see we’d arrived before it actually came
to blows. Shohei and I remained hidden for the time being,
peeking out from the corner of the gymnasium building to
watch the drama unfold.
“Nope. Can’t say I do,” Anzu replied.
“Playin’ dumb, eh? ’Cause Koharu tells me you slugged

her in the nose.”
Hearing Koharu’s given name said aloud in this context

was decidedly weird. It occurred to me that it really wasn’t
the kind of name you associated with a queen bee.
“Oh, no. I definitely did that. Though to be fair, I did

warn her beforehand. Even asked if she was ready for it.”
“Wow, so you think it’s okay to sock people in the nose

as long as you give ’em a heads-up first? That sure is some
head-ass logic you got there. Guess you won’t mind if I do the
same thing to you, then?” The guy brought his face closer to
Anzu’s with a twisted smirk. It was enough to make me
nervous myself.
Yet Anzu seemed entirely unfazed. “By all means, feel

free. Just don’t expect me not to fight back.”
Her tone was fearless and assured. Almost a little too

fearless, if you asked me. This guy definitely wasn’t the type
who’d hesitate to hit a girl. I whispered to Shohei that it was
about time we went to call for a teacher, and he nodded in
agreement. However, as we were about to turn and run to the
faculty room, things got really real.
“Whoa!”
Without a hint of warning, Anzu took a swing at the

thug’s face, just like she’d done to Koharu earlier, catching
him completely off guard. Even so, either due to her punch
not being fast enough or the guy having insanely good
reflexes, he somehow managed to catch her fist before it hit
its mark.
“The hell do you think you’re doin’?!” he shouted,

backhanding her clean across the cheek so hard that the
sound echoed across campus. A small trail of blood ran down
from the corner of Anzu’s mouth. Things had officially gotten
violent. There was no time to waste—we needed to go find a
teacher ASAP.
Wait, but what if it’s too late by the time we get back?
Maybe it made more sense for the two of us to jump in and
help right away. As intimidating as this guy was, we’d at least
have a numbers advantage over him. Not that this
guaranteed we wouldn’t get our asses beat, mind you…
As we stood there waffling, he was literally kicking

Anzu while she was down. She was on her knees, grunting in
pain as he slammed the pointed tip of his shoe repeatedly
into her gut.
“H-hey, knock it off! That’s too far!” Koharu shouted

frantically from the sidelines. She’d certainly chosen a
convenient time to get sympathetic. She was right, though.
This was going way too far. There was no time for hesitation
anymore; I needed to muster up what little courage I could
find, dive in there, and do whatever I could to break up the
fight.
Right as I was about to do that, Shohei shouted out

from behind me.
“Uh-oh, guys! Teacher’s coming!”
I balked and looked around. However, I didn’t see any

teachers.
“Wait, what teacher?” I whispered to him.
“Don’t worry about it, dude. It’s a bluff,” he whispered

back.
Ohhhh. Now I got it. As far as scare tactics went, it was

an oldie but goodie.
Sure enough, the senior punk instantly started looking

around nervously upon hearing the word “teacher.” No
matter how much of a badass he was, no one in their right
mind would want to be caught beating up an underclassman,
let alone a girl. Though I figured for him, it was less about it
going on his permanent record and more about saving face in
front of his cronies. As he scanned the vicinity, he eventually
made eye contact with me, and he gave me a sour look as
though he’d swallowed a fly.
“Dammit. That kid must’ve ratted us out… Well,

whatever. Consider this a warning, new kid. Next time you
pull that crap, I’ll send you straight to the emergency room,”
he said, then swiftly turned to run away.
Anzu wasn’t about to let him off that easily.
“Oh, no you don’t.” She tackled him from behind, her

arms wrapped around his waist. This caused the bully to fall
forward like a toppled building, and he growled in pain as his
face hit the hard earth. Anzu crawled on top of him and
straddled his back with such feral, rabid motions that her
skirt flipped up, and for a moment, I could see her panties—
though it was pretty hard to care about that when she was
battered, bruised, and exhibiting the kind of fathomless
malice you might expect from a vengeful spirit in a horror
movie. She pulled a ballpoint pen out from her chest pocket,
raised it over her head, and then brought it down, driving it
like a stake into her assailant’s temple.
“Gyaaagh!” he wailed in agony.
I couldn’t imagine she’d broken through bone or

anything, but it still had hurt like hell. She continued
stabbing him with the pen, driving its sharp point relentlessly
into his arms, face, and back over and over. At first, he
struggled desperately to wriggle out from underneath her,
but then realizing there was no escape, he apparently decided
his best option was to simply cover his face with his arms and
wait for the onslaught to end. It seemed he’d wholly lost his
nerve to fight back, as he kept whimpering pathetic apologies
in a vain attempt to plead for mercy. I had no idea how long
she intended to keep this up; all I could do was watch with
my mouth hanging open as she exacted her revenge.
“Hey! C’mon, that’s enough! Cut it out!” yelled Shohei,

snapping me back to my senses. He was right. We couldn’t
just stand here and let this continue.
The two of us ran over to break up the fight, but

apparently Anzu misinterpreted that as us being on the
bully’s side, and she started brandishing her weapon at
Shohei instead, swinging it wildly through the air so that he
couldn’t get close. While she was distracted by him, I found
an opening to close in from behind and pinned her arms
behind her back. Pulling her up by the armpits, I dragged her
a safe distance away from the upperclassman. With her head
close to mine, the smell of sweat and hair conditioner filled
my nostrils. I couldn’t believe how light she was, nor how
dainty. Who would have thought that this borderline-frail girl
could have taken on both the queen bee of our class and the
biggest thug in school and come out on top? These were
strange times we lived in, to be sure.
“Let go of me!” Anzu thrashed, but I had her pinned in

such a way that she posed no real danger to me, purely due to
the gap in physical strength.
“J-just calm down, all right?! It’s over,” I said, trying to

quell the raging storm inside her.
I yanked her around, twisting my torso so that we were

both facing in the bully’s direction. He was hobbling off
toward the school’s main gate like a wasted drunkard. The
most intimidating delinquent in school was fleeing from
campus with his tail between his legs. Seeing this, Anzu’s
fight-or-flight response finally switched off.
“You promise to chill out now?” I asked.
“…Let me go,” she muttered.
I quickly did as I was told. The first thing Anzu did after
finally regaining control of her limbs was brush her bangs
aside to wipe the blood from her mouth with the back of her
hand. As she dragged her wrist horizontally, it left a streaky
trail of crimson across her cheek. I had to admit, it made for
a pretty mesmerizing image, almost like it had jumped
straight off of a movie poster.
“What?” she demanded, glaring at me.
Whoops. I’d clearly let myself stare a little too long. I

sure as hell wasn’t about to say “Oh, I was mesmerized by the
sight of you” like a creep, so I quickly hashed together
another feasible explanation. “Oh, sorry. I was thinking
‘Damn, that looks like it must’ve hurt.’ That’s all.”
I pointed to the swollen, bright-red cheek where the

punk had slapped her. To be sure, even if this was a spur of
the moment excuse I’d pulled out of my ass, on closer
inspection, it really did look like it hurt a ton.
“You might wanna go to the nurse’s office,” I suggested.
“That was already the plan, but thanks for your

permission. Now leave me alone.”
Almost immediately after turning to walk away,

though, she started stumbling pretty badly. Thinking she
must still be dizzy from the impact to her skull, I hurried over
to help her stay upright, but she slapped my hand away. The
message was clear: “Get lost.” Even so, I didn’t want to find
out later that she’d collapsed on her way there, so I decided
to follow after her at a safe distance. Neither Shohei nor
Koharu had suffered any injuries, so I figured it was probably
fine to leave them behind as I traced Anzu’s steps into the
school building. There was something a little eerie about
walking down the empty hallway together, just the two of us,
while maintaining a wide gap between.
“Did you get in a lot of fights like this at your old school
too?” I asked, my eyes fixed on the small of her back, where
her sweat-drenched uniform clung to her skin.
“So what if I did?” she answered tersely, not turning

around to face me.
“I mean, maybe it’s none of my business, but I feel like

it’s not the best idea for a girl your age to go around picking
fights.”
“You know, as much as I appreciate all the unsolicited

advice, I think I can take care of myself, thanks.”
“Sure, maybe you feel that way. But I guarantee you’re

only gonna make other people worry about you when you
come home with massive welts on your face.”
“Yeah? Who am I gonna worry?”
“Uh… Maybe your parents? Duh.”
“I don’t have any parents,” she stated bluntly.
Perhaps it was due to how candidly she admitted this

that I made the following slip of the tongue:
“Wow. Lucky you.”
Anzu stopped dead in her tricks, and abruptly I realized
my mistake. That was not the proper way to respond to
someone who’d just revealed they were parentless. If
anything, it was about the most inconsiderate thing I possibly
could have said. Virtually any compassionate human being
would know that the only correct response to finding out
someone’s parents had either died or abandoned them was
“Oh God, I’m so sorry”—and I’d pretty much said the exact
opposite.
“What’s that supposed to mean, exactly?” Anzu turned

around to face me. Her expression seemed to say that she
hadn’t yet fully decided whether to be shocked or offended.
There was a piercing look in her eyes that told me she wasn’t
about to accept anything less than a convincing explanation
as to why I felt that way. It seemed I might have stepped on a
pretty big land mine. Hell, if my answer wasn’t to her liking, I
worried she might come at me with that ballpoint pen of
hers. I panicked, almost certain of my impending doom.
But what could I do? Maybe it still wasn’t too late to

apologize and take it back? However, that would mean
admitting I’d said something extremely messed up, and she
might interpret that as me having initially said it sarcastically
as a direct insult. I didn’t want that. So maybe the best option
really was to just unload all of my dysfunctional family-
related baggage on her and explain why I would ever think
not having parents was something to be desired. In that case,
where would I even start? From my father being a hopeless
drunk? From my mother abandoning us? From when Karen
—
Before I could finish that thought, the warning bell for

fifth period rang.
“Oh, shoot! I forgot our next class is in the science

room! I’d better haul ass and grab my stuff if I wanna make it
there on time! I’ll catch up with you later; you take it easy in
the nurse’s office, okay? See ya!” I yelled before dashing off,
my tone far more chipper than usual. As I rounded the
corner, I thought I heard her calling after me to say
something, but I pretended not to notice.
I slid into the science room seconds before I would

have been marked late. Once class began and the teacher
started taking attendance, I realized that not only Anzu was
missing, but Koharu was as well. I figured she’d gone home
in shame after that whole debacle, and when I asked Shohei
about it after class, he confirmed that to be the case.
“Yeah, she seemed like she was pretty done with the
whole beef, dude,” he recounted.
“Seriously? This is the same Kawasaki we’re talking

about?”
“Yep. She just kinda slouched over, lookin’ kinda like a

deflated balloon, and then wobbled her way off campus.”
“Uh-oh… You don’t think that’s a warning sign, do you?

Maybe we should call the suicide prevention hotline, just to
be safe?”
“Dude, seriously, stop with the morbid stuff… Pretty

sure she’s not gonna kill herself over something, bro.
Anyway, how’d things go with the new girl on your end?
Anything spicy happen?”
“Nah, not really. I kinda followed her awkwardly down

the hall and then had to book it to class.”
“What, that’s it? Bor-riiing.”
I didn’t know what he’d been expecting, and I wasn’t
sure I wanted to. In any event, it wasn’t long before sixth
period began, with both girls still absent, though the teacher
did at least explain that Anzu was taking the rest of the day
off because she wasn’t feeling well. However, since her book
bag was still lying at the foot of her desk, I could only assume
she was still in the nurse’s office and hadn’t yet gone home. I
tried to imagine the look of shock on the poor nurse’s face
when she walked into the room; anyone with half a brain
would immediately assume there’d been a physical
altercation. As the last period of the day dragged on, I sat and
wondered what kind of excuse Anzu might have cooked up.
As soon as the final bell rang, I was the first one out the
door. As I made my way back from campus, I went straight
past the station where I would normally catch the train and
instead continued walking right alongside the tracks. When I
reached the point where the tracks entered the tunnel, I
looked around to make sure no trains were coming (and that
nobody in the vicinity was watching), then climbed over the
chain link fence. Its metal wiring jangled loudly as I hopped
down the other side and onto the tracks themselves. From
there, I jogged through the tunnel, then took a sharp turn
into the seaward ditch where the wooden staircase was
hidden.
There it was, waiting for me: the Urashima Tunnel.
I’d come back to do a little independent research. I was

now all but convinced that this was indeed the Urashima
Tunnel, but at the same time, there were several ways in
which it differed quite drastically from the urban legend I’d
originally overheard. For one thing, it didn’t instantly age
you; in a way, it was more like it aged everyone else except
you, since time passed much more slowly for the person
inside. The bit about it having the ability to grant any wish
also remained to be seen—though it certainly didn’t seem to
be as simple as walking in, then walking back out. That being
said, I harbored no delusions that a high school kid like me
could ever understand how the tunnel actually worked from a
scientific perspective. Nevertheless, there had to be some
rhyme or reason to it, so as long as I figured out the basic
rules, I should be able to venture safely into its depths, where
maybe—just maybe—I’d find Karen.
Hence why I’d decided to investigate. My goal for the

day was to figure out exactly how the flow of time differed
inside the tunnel. The night before, I had been in there for
what felt like only a few minutes, but in actuality, a whole
week had passed. So for starters, I wanted to know exactly
how long one minute of tunnel time was in real-world time.
Otherwise, I might accidentally spend way too much time in
there and end up like Urashima Taro.
Say I skipped five years in there, for example. Sure, my

body would still be seventeen, but legally, I’d be twenty-two.
Society at large would have progressed five years without me.
That might be fine if I were a feral child living in the
mountains somewhere, but in today’s modern society, that
wasn’t the sort of time you could afford to lose by accident.
Time once lost could never be reclaimed, after all; that was
exactly why I needed to tread carefully. Dropping my stuff on
the ground, I set my cell phone on top of my book bag. Then,
after some light stretches, I headed inside the tunnel.
The first order of business was to figure out the exact

cutoff point where the flow of time began to warp. My plan
was to keep going in and out of the tunnel, gradually
increasing how deep I went each time, then checking to see
when the time on my cell phone outside started to advance at
a much quicker rate. At that point, I’d know I’d found the
approximate location of the cutoff. I couldn’t help but feel
like there had to be a more efficient way to figure this out, but
I sure couldn’t think of one, so I figured it wasn’t worth
fretting over. Once I’d repeated the process a few times, I
became a little nostalgic for those old back-and-forth pacer
tests we had to run in elementary school gym class. After
about thirty runs, however, I was officially beat.
“Ugh… This is brutal…”
It was cooler inside the tunnel than outside but still

swelteringly hot. I was already covered from head to toe in
sweat. There had to be a better way of doing this. Finally, I
grew fed up with only doing tiny incremental advances and
decided to run all the way up to where the torii gates began. I
didn’t have to know where exactly the boundary was—just
having an approximate idea was good enough for now. Even
if I was ten or twenty meters off, it really wasn’t a huge deal
in the grand scheme of things. So, with renewed optimism, I
ran back into the tunnel, stopping only when I was right
before the off-white torii.
I gulped. Perhaps a small part of me had still been

holding out hope that the bizarre experience I’d had the night
before was nothing more than a fever dream. Looking up at
them again like this only made the harrowing reality of it set
in all the more, and I became pretty overwhelmed. The whole
place really was quite unsettling. It wasn’t just the torii
(which looked like they could have been made from the
bones of some Jurassic beast) but also the torches on the
wall, still burning as eerily as they had been the night prior. I
had no clue whether they’d been burning all night or if
someone had come to reignite them at some point in
between.
“All right, based on vibes alone, it’d make sense for the
first torii to be the cutoff point… Let’s see if I’m right.”
All I had to do was walk through, then come back out. I
decided to go all the way to the third torii, though, just to
remove any room for doubt. As soon as I got there, I did a
right about-face, and my breath caught in my throat.
A person was standing there, directly in front of me.

After the initial shock wore off, however, my brain quickly
registered who it was: Anzu Hanashiro, the new girl.
She simply stood there, arms crossed, book bag slung

over her shoulder, staring at me in blank confusion. A large
wad of gauze was taped to where she’d been bleeding from
the corner of her mouth earlier. She didn’t say a word, and
neither did I, maybe because part of me was convinced she
was an illusion. After all, what in the world would she be
doing here? Yet there she was, standing within arm’s reach,
having also passed through the first two torii. If she’d been
following me this whole time, though, you’d think I would
have noticed much sooner. Then again, if this was an illusion
conjured up by the tunnel, why in the world had it chosen
this girl with whom I’d spoken for the first time just hours
ago? Hell, it had even put a bandage over the same cheek that
had been slapped earlier—a shockingly specific detail to
include.
“Hey,” said the illusion. “What is this place?”
“D-don’t ask me…”
Sure, I could have said it was the Urashima Tunnel, or

that I was currently in the process of trying to figure that out
for myself—but what was the point of telling an illusion
anything? It seemed like a waste of time, and I really couldn’t
afford to…
Wait. Oh, goddammit! Why had I let myself get

distracted like this? This was no time to be speaking at
phantoms.
“I… I’ve gotta get outta here!”
“How come?”
“Don’t worry about it! Just c’mon!” I yelled, making a

break for the exit. For all I knew, several hours or days could
have passed. Sure enough, when I finally made it back
outside, I found that the bright clear skies overhead were the
color of navy-blue ink. I rushed over to check the time on my
phone and saw that it was three hours since I had last
entered the tunnel. Time had officially skipped forward once
more.
“Um, you’re hurting my hand,” said a voice.
“Huh?”
I whirled back around and was flabbergasted to find

that the illusory version of Anzu Hanashiro had somehow
followed me back out of the tunnel. Then I looked down and
saw that indeed, I had her hand in a vice grip tight enough to
rip it clean off.
“Whoa! Sorry!” I yelped, pulling my hand away so fast

you’d think I’d accidentally touched a hot grill. I must have
grabbed her by the hand on my way out without even
realizing it. Then I had another belated realization: her hand
had been warm and soft to the touch, which meant this could
only be the real-life Anzu—not a specter or an illusion. For a
moment, I winced, half expecting her to hit me for daring to
lay a hand on her, yet she seemed surprisingly chill about the
whole thing. Though there was a glint of skepticism in her
eyes.
“Tono-kun,” she said abruptly, and I nearly jumped out
of my shoes. I had no idea she even knew my name. “What
just happened?”
She pointed at the single star that adorned the evening

sky, having arrived unfashionably early for the night’s
festivities. Obviously, she was referring to the clear and
inexplicable time disparity. Did I have no choice but to
explain? Because I really didn’t want to, if I could avoid it.
Like, what if I told her about its supernatural properties and
she insisted on reporting the tunnel to the authorities so they
could have actual scientists look into it? They’d probably
block the place off to normal folks like me, and I couldn’t risk
that. It would mean giving up my only chance to ever bring
Karen back.
Yet something told me that trying to deceive her would

be an uphill battle as well. Obviously, she wasn’t going to buy
me pretending not to know anything, given how frantic I had
been to get out of there, and I couldn’t think of any
reasonable excuses. I suspected she wouldn’t fall for
something half-assed like “Oh, didn’t you know? The sun sets
much earlier out here in the countryside. Also it only takes
like a minute.” I certainly didn’t want to make her more
suspicious of me by trying to cover it up and failing.
All this time, she was still waiting, waiting patiently and
silently for me to answer her question. So in the end…I
decided to come clean. For whatever reason, my intuition
was that the chances of her going around and telling people
about this were pretty slim. She seemed less like the type to
cut open the goose that lays the golden egg and more the type
to keep it all to herself…or at least, that’s what I tried to tell
myself as I began to give her the very, very long-winded
explanation as to how I’d found this place and what I knew
thus far.
“Hm. Interesting.”
This was her only response after I finally finished

speaking. Maybe it was just me, but I thought I detected the
faintest hint of amusement in her voice. I couldn’t believe
how utterly unfazed she seemed by all this paranormal talk—
though I supposed after the pen-stabbing incident earlier, I
should have known better than to make assumptions about
this girl’s sense of what was normal and what wasn’t.
“So you know the risks, but you’re still determined to

explore it. Why is that, exactly?” she asked. Her tone was
genuinely curious. It seemed now that we’d exchanged more
than a few words—even if it was really a one-sided
explanation on my part—she was more ready to open up and
converse with me. Or at the very least, I no longer felt like I
needed to watch my every word for fear that she might punch
me in the nose.
“I mean, no special reason. There’s a wish I need

granted, no matter the cost.”
“And what’s that?”
“I need money,” I lied, seeing no need to tell her the

actual reason. “Wanna buy myself a motorcycle, a nice
guitar… All sorts of stuff.”
“Liar,” she instantly clapped back.
How did she know? Too predictable? Man, Kaga saw

right through my fake alibi this morning too… Maybe I’m
not a very good liar in general.
“You don’t strike me as the type of guy who’d be into
stuff like that,” she added.
“It’s not nice to judge people based on appearances,

y’know.”
“Come on,” she pressed. “What are you really after?”
Her eyes were dogged and discerning. I didn’t know

why she was being so persistent about this—it was a complete
one-eighty from the aloof persona she maintained at school.
For that matter, I still wanted to know what the hell she was
doing here, even if now probably wasn’t the best time to ask.
This wasn’t the sort of place you could just wind up by pure
coincidence, so the obvious conclusion was that she’d
followed me—but for what purpose? Did she have something
she needed to tell me? Something so important that she
hopped a chain-link fence and followed me down the tracks
into a mysterious tunnel rather than simply waiting until the
next day? What could it possibly be, in that case? And why
wouldn’t she have called out to me to get my attention
sooner? None of it made any sense, and I was getting tired of
thinking about it.
Maybe I should tell her the truth and divulge exactly

why it is I’m investigating the Urashima Tunnel. I’ll unload
all my dirty laundry, and she’ll be so put off and speechless
that she’ll run for the hills and never want anything to do
with me again. Then I can have the privacy I need to
conduct my investigation in peace. What could go wrong?
“All right, all right. I’ll tell you,” I said, taking a deep
breath before I began. “So yeah, you’re basically right. I’m
not here looking for money, or anything. My real wish isn’t
even a thing, actually—it’s a little sister. That’s what I’ve
always wanted… Er, wait—that came out wrong. It’s not that
I’m wishing for a cute little sister or anything weird like that
—I already have one… Or I guess ‘I had one’ would be more
accurate. Her name was Karen, and while she could definitely
be a real terror sometimes, she was a total sweetheart. Like,
you wouldn’t believe how adorable she was. She and I used to
go out playing together each and every day, and I can’t think
of a single time we ever seriously fought over anything. Then
five years ago, she died after falling out of a tall tree I helped
her climb, and it was pretty much all my fault. And that,
along with how shaken up we were by her sudden death,
kinda tore our entire family apart, because she was definitely
the favorite child—and the glue that kept my mother and
father together, for reasons I won’t get into, though to be
clear, I think the fallout was kind of inevitable; we were a
pretty dysfunctional family from the get-go; anyway, Karen’s
death hit me really, really hard, to the point that I still don’t
feel like I’m really ‘over it’ to this day, or rather, I haven’t
fully come to terms with it; like, yeah, I know she’s ‘dead,’ but
for whatever reason I can’t connect the dots between ‘dead’
and ‘never coming back’ in my brain—like I’m still holding
hope that she might come barging back in through the front
door someday with a great big smile on her face, or
something, though obviously, I’m not that stupid; logically, I
know better than to think there’s any chance of her ever
coming back—hell, we’ve got her ashes on our countertop,
and I was there for her cremation, and I literally helped
transfer her bones to the urn myself, but for whatever reason,
my mind keeps playing these stupid tricks on me, holding out
hope even though I know it’s impossible, and it’s just really,
really hard, and… Well, you get the idea. So yeah. That’s why
I’m trying to explore the Urashima Tunnel. Because I want
my little sister back—that’s what I’m really after. Go ahead
and call me crazy, but it’s the truth.”
Phew. That must have been the hardest I’d worked my

vocal cords in years. It was just, once I started talking about
Karen, the words came tumbling out of my mouth, regardless
of my volition. Maybe somewhere deep in my subconscious, a
part of me had been waiting for a chance to vent to someone
about all these emotions I’d bottled up over the past several
years. If so, then I couldn’t help but cringe at myself a bit for
opening the floodgates on this virtual stranger.
Anzu simply stared at me in speechless surprise, eyes

wide open, her mouth agape. It was pretty much the reaction
I’d expected. I braced myself for whatever words of ridicule
or disdain she might have for me. I was fully prepared for her
to call me crazy, or pathetic, or even a creep. What I wasn’t
prepared for was a muffled “Pfft” sound—followed shortly
thereafter by wild and uncontrollable laughter.
“Ahhhh ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Somehow, some way, she’d managed to perfectly

subvert my expectations once again. This was not an
appropriate time for laughter. Yet laugh Anzu did, and for
quite a while to boot, to the point that she actually started to
cry from how downright hysterical my tragic backstory
apparently was to her.
“God, you’re such a weirdo,” she giggled, wiping the

tears from her eyes.
Me?! I’m the weirdo here?!
“So have you told anyone else about this tunnel yet?”
she asked.
“No, and I wasn’t planning to. I mean, who the hell

would believe me?”
“Yeah, fair point.” Anzu still had the giddiest grin on

her face.
Yet I still had no idea what she found so amusing about
all of this.
“Hey, Tono-kun!” she said, suddenly hopping forward

to get right up close to my face. Almost a little too close,
actually. As my heartbeat quickened, the only thing my brain
could focus on was how long her eyelashes were.
“Y-yeah? What is it?”
“Wanna team up with me?!”
“Huh? S-sorry, come again?”
“We could work together to unravel the mysteries of the

Urashima Tunnel, and then we could both get our wishes
granted! Two heads are always better than one, right?!”
“You…wanna work together…?”
I mulled it over a bit. My original plan had been to

scare her off so well that she’d never bug me again, but this
was actually a pretty decent idea in its own right. I didn’t
know if she was prepared to take this as seriously as I was,
but having someone else to help out would definitely
expedite the process. If nothing else, I wouldn’t have to keep
running back and forth in and out of the tunnel to figure out
how things worked. Plus, I liked the cut of her jib; the idea of
teaming up in pursuit of a mutual objective appealed to me,
and she had showed a lot of initiative by making the proposal
as the newcomer to the negotiation table. So, after weighing
the pros and cons of both options, I ultimately decided to
take her up on her offer.
“All right. Let’s do it,” I said with a decisive nod.
“Great! Then it’s settled!”
Anzu took a step back and curled her lips into a devilish
little smirk, causing the wad of gauze on her cheek to bend
ever so slightly. It was such a mischievous smile that I
couldn’t help but feel like I was being duped somehow—not
that I could really think of how she’d ever benefit from
deceiving me in a situation like this. Though that reminded
me:
“So hey, I was wondering—what the heck are you doing

here, anyway?”
“Oh, right. There was something I wanted to ask you.”
So you followed me all the way here from school? Why

didn’t you call out to me back in town and get it over with?
However, she addressed this quickly, almost as if she’d

read my mind.
“But then after trailing you for a while, I guess I was

having too much fun to want to blow my cover…” she
admitted bashfully.
It seemed stalking people was her idea of a good time.
“Okaaay… So what was it you wanted to ask me?”
“Oh, I totally forgot. Sorry.”
“…You’re kidding me, right?”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
“I mean, that was a pretty jarring experience just now.

Is it really that hard to believe it might make me lose track of
something that probably wasn’t all that important to begin
with?”
So Anzu claimed, but I really did find it pretty hard to
believe, considering she’d seemed cool as a cucumber
throughout the entire process. Either she was lying through
her teeth or she had truly forgotten—but I wasn’t about to
press her on it, since I could think of no reasonable
hypothesis as to why she might lie about this.
“Anyway… Do we have ourselves a deal or what?” Anzu

extended her right hand toward me.
“Hm? Oh, sorry. Am I supposed to pay you now, or…?”
“What? No, silly. I’m not trying to extort you,” she shot
back. Then her face relaxed into a warm and welcoming
smile. “I’m saying let’s shake on it.”
“Oh… R-right, okay. That makes a lot more sense.”
While I still felt a bit of trepidation as to how fast this

was all happening, I reached out a trembling hand
regardless. Anzu quickly snatched it up and clasped it firmly
with her own.
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Tono-kun.”
“…Yeah, likewise.”
With that final gesture of goodwill, the two of us said

our goodbyes to the Urashima Tunnel for the night. The
entire way home, however, I couldn’t shake the feeling that
I’d been thoroughly bamboozled.
Chapter 3:
When the Rain Lets Up
A FTER CLASSES got out the next day, I stood waiting for
Anzu at the entrance to the Urashima Tunnel, having gone
straight there from school. It was about twenty minutes past
the time we’d agreed to meet up, yet still she hadn’t shown.
Having to wait for someone beneath the scorching
midsummer sun with no means of contacting them was a
form of torture I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemies. If I’d
known this was going to happen, I would have suggested we
walk there from school together. Finally, after nearly thirty
minutes of waiting, Anzu came prancing airily down the
wooden staircase, not in any rush whatsoever. I had to admit,
she did look quite graceful, even with the big wad of gauze
still strapped to her face.
“Hey. You been waiting long?” she asked.
“Yes. Like a full half hour, actually,” I grumbled.
“Wow, that sucks,” she said without a hint of remorse.

“Anyway, check this out.” She reached into her bag and
pulled out a spool of nylon rope, still in the shrink wrap.
“Took me forever to find a store that sold this stuff. Never
realized how inconvenient living out in the boonies would
be.”
“Why do we need that, exactly?”
“Heh heh…” Anzu chuckled devilishly. “We’re gonna

run a little experiment.”
Once Anzu was done explaining her “experiment” idea
to me, I went over the steps in my head to make sure I had
the whole thing straight. One of us was going to walk inside
the tunnel at a (relatively) fixed velocity while carrying the
loose end of the nylon rope, while the other person stood
outside holding the spool, spinning it gradually to give it
more slack while ensuring it remained taut. For as long as the
flow of time remained normal, the nylon rope would
continue to unreel at approximately the same rate—but as
soon as the tunnel walker crossed over the boundary where
time began to distort, the person on the outside should
immediately notice the rope being pulled much faster. Then,
at that exact moment, the person with the spool would grab
the rope and yank it hard to stop the tunnel walker from
taking any more slack, thereby letting them know they’d
crossed the cutoff point and could come back out.
With this method, it would theoretically be possible to

find the boundary where the flow of time began to distort
without having to run in and out of the tunnel several dozen
times. Not only was I impressed by what a clever idea this
was on Anzu’s part, it also conveyed to me just how serious
she was about uncovering the mysteries of the Urashima
Tunnel, which genuinely surprised me. After all, this was an
inexplicable, time-twisting space—almost like an “anti-
hyperbolic time chamber,” to borrow Shohei’s example. If we
weren’t careful, there was a very good chance that several
years could pass us by while we were investigating inside,
and there was still no guarantee that it actually had the
power to grant wishes. This was not a challenge to be taken
lightly, and I had to wonder if Anzu had yet to fully grasp the
potential repercussions.
“So you’re really ready to go all-in on this, huh?” I

asked.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?” Anzu replied.
“I mean, we’re talking about a place where weeks fly by
in minutes. If you could just go in and out and get your wish
granted, that’d be one thing, but we have no idea how deep
this tunnel goes. I can tell you from personal experience that
it also does some pretty freaky crap to mess with your head.”
“Sure, I get that it’s dangerous. But if you’re not willing

to take risks, you’ll end up spinning your wheels your entire
life.”
“Yeah, on certain things, maybe. There’s still a line

between fearlessness and recklessness.”
“What are you trying to say? Do you want me to leave

so you can explore the tunnel all by yourself? Is that it?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m trying to get a
feel for how serious you are about this… Most people would
be shaking in their boots at the prospect, y’know.”
Anzu rolled her eyes so hard I thought they might

disappear into the back of her head. “Good thing I’m not
most people, then.”
“…Is that really something to be proud of?”
“Of course it is. I hate normal people. They’re

worthless.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at this. “Damn. That’s a pretty

harsh take.”
“I mean, it’s true, though. There’s no value in being

ordinary. The law of scarcity applies to way more than just
economics. Rare, life-changing experiences are worth
exponentially more than your average day-to-day. I’d much
rather live a short, fulfilling life than a long and boring one.”
“Mmm… I mean, I’ll agree with you there, but I feel like
it’s a little unfair to say that all ordinary things are worthless.
Like, sometimes there’s comfort in familiarity. And
sometimes common things are more popular than
uncommon things for a reason.”
“Like for example?”
“Like, uh…salmon, maybe? I mean, I know most people

tend to think of salmon as being like, the ‘vanilla’ option
when it comes to seafood, but to me, it tastes a hell of a lot
better than any of the fancier, more expensive fish out there.
Like, you could take me to the grocery store right now and
offer to buy me anything I wanted, and you sure as hell
wouldn’t catch me picking eel or whatever. I’d take salmon
over that even on special occasions.”
“I think eel’s way better than salmon, personally.”
“Oh. Well, fair enough, I guess,” I said. Sheesh, way to

totally deflate the conversation. Not that it wasn’t a totally
stupid discussion to begin with…
“But y’know? For a normie, you’re pretty interesting,

Tono-kun. I like that about you,” said Anzu, grinning from
ear to ear.
I suddenly got butterflies in my stomach. It still felt like

I had no idea who this girl really was on the inside. In school,
she was the most antisocial person imaginable, purposely
distancing herself from other people. But then she also had
somewhat of a childish, mischievous side, as evidenced by
the way she’d secretly followed me to the tunnel from school
the day before. Then on very rare occasions, she could show a
bit more of a feminine side, saying cutesy stuff like this that
could easily be misinterpreted as flirtatious. I wondered
which of the three was the real Anzu. Maybe none of them
were.
“Anyway, come on. We’re wasting daylight here,” she

said. “We’d better get this show on the road.”
“R-right. Sorry.”
It felt like she’d kind of dodged the question, but

whatever. For now, we had an experiment to run.
It was quickly decided that I would be the one walking

into the tunnel with the end of the nylon rope. Anzu would
wait outside with the spool, and as soon as I felt a hard tug on
the rope, I’d know it was time for me to turn back.
“Y’know… This kinda reminds me of playing

telephone,” I muttered to myself as I walked down the dark
corridor.
Way back when, Karen and I had made one of those

makeshift telephones out of two tin cans and some string,
then played with it all day—going upstairs and dropping one
end out the second-floor window to the other person in the
backyard so we could share utterly meaningless intel with
each other. As you can imagine, this got old pretty quick, and
we never played with it again after that day—but it was still
fun enough that I remembered it fondly to this day.
“Sure hope I’ll find you in here, Karen…”
I squinted my eyes and looked ahead. I could see the

dim light of the torches on the walls coming up. I was getting
close to the torii, which still seemed to me like the most
reasonable location for the time distortion boundary. Bracing
myself, I continued forward at the same pace and passed
beneath the first gate—
The nylon rope pulled taut behind me. Anzu had

officially given me the signal, so I spun around and headed
back toward the exit. When I made it outside, I found her
standing there with her hands placed on her hips, looking
awfully proud of herself.
“Why, hello there, Tono-kun. You’ll be pleased to know

that you were in the tunnel for nearly twenty minutes.”
“Wait, seriously? But I came straight back the moment

I felt the signal…”
“Yes, which means you must have already crossed over

the boundary at that point. So tell me—how far did you get?!
Was it right after the first torii like we thought?!”
Overwhelmed by the sudden barrage of questions, all I

could do was nod.
“Yes! It actually worked!” Anzu let out a little squeal of

delight. I couldn’t help but be charmed by her sudden burst
of pure, childlike glee.
Now that we knew where the boundary was, we could

easily measure exactly how much time distortion went on in
there. I was about to suggest that we go do that right away, in
fact, but then I realized it was half past five and would
probably be dark outside by the time we finished.
“Why don’t we pick back up tomorrow? It’s getting

kinda late,” I noted, but Anzu shook her head.
“No, I’d really like to get this figured out today if we

can,” she said. “Unless there’s some reason you need to be
home soon?”
I thought about it. I did generally need to be home so

that I could get dinner ready before my father got back from
work, but he’d been leaving the office pretty late recently, so I
figured I could afford to stay out a little longer.
“Nah, it’s cool. Let’s get this crap done.”
“Now that’s what I like to hear,” said Anzu with an

emphatic nod. It really did seem like she was dying to know
exactly how it worked.
“All right,” I said. “This time I’m gonna try going in

there and counting to three before coming straight back out.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll wait right here.”
“Er, actually, I can probably handle this part by myself

if you want. I mean, all I’ve really gotta do is check the time
before and after I go in. I could just as easily tell you at school
tomorrow.”
“I know. But we’re a team, remember? And now that

we’ve finally figured out where the boundary lies, I definitely
wouldn’t want to miss the big reveal. So I’m staying right
here.”
“…You sure? Well, if you insist. Not like I can tell you
no. All I was trying to say was that if I take too long, you’re
more than welcome to go home without me.”
With that, I ventured back into the tunnel. This time,

right as I stepped through the first gate, I started a timer on
my phone—counted one, two, three—then jumped back out
to the other side. I could already tell that it was a bit darker
in the tunnel than it had been on the way in, which told me
all I needed to know about how dark it had to be outside. If
the sun had gone down, then I had to have been inside for at
least an hour this time. Anzu had probably long since gone
home too.
“Damn… It really does feel like the blink of an eye…” I

marveled quietly to myself. Even though this was technically
the third time I’d experienced the tunnel’s time distortion
effect, I still hadn’t gotten used to it. To be fair, how could
one ever get used to such a bizarre, supernatural
phenomenon? Suddenly overcome by a great sense of
unease, I picked up the pace and started walking faster,
wanting nothing more than to get away from the eerie torii
over my shoulder. When I made it back out, my prediction
was proven right: the veil of night had begun to drape itself
over the horizon. Surprisingly, my other prediction turned
out to be dead wrong.
“Whoa! You’re still here?” I gasped, peering down at

Anzu, who was sitting on the ground in the dark with her
head buried between her knees.
“…Did I not say I was going to wait for you?” she

snapped back as she abruptly jerked her head up. Her voice
was tinged with a mixture of annoyance and relief.
To be sure, the way I’d emphasized the word “still”

probably came across as a bit rude, especially considering
how agonizing it must have been to have to wait for me out in
the dark for God knew how long. I immediately found myself
wishing I’d chosen my words more carefully, and I offered a
sheepish apology. Anzu didn’t acknowledge it; instead, her
eyes shot wide open as though she’d had a sudden epiphany.
“Hey, enough about that!” she exclaimed. “What time is

it?!”
“Oh, shoot! Good call.”
I’d completely forgotten to check the time on my way

out. Anzu shot up to her feet and checked her watch, not
taking the time to wipe the dirt off the butt of her skirt.
Obviously curious, I leaned in to look down at it as well. It
seemed almost exactly two hours had passed since I entered
the tunnel. Two whole hours, gone in a whopping three
seconds. Which meant…
“I guess one second in the tunnel is equivalent to about

forty minutes outside…” Anzu whispered under her breath,
having come to the same conclusion. Then she quickly dug
into her book bag, whipped out a pen and a notebook,
opened it to a blank page, and started scribbling some
calculations. I was amazed at how quickly she did all of the
math in her head—I knew she was smart, but not necessarily
that smart. When her pen finally came to a stop, I looked
down at the page and examined her work. It was a list of
different hypothetical periods of tunnel time, followed by
their real-time equivalents.
1 sec = 40 mins
1 min = 40 hrs
1 hr = 100 days
1 day = 6.5 yrs
Thus read her calculations. Anzu turned to look up at

me, her eyes wide and twinkling with excitement. “Six and a
half years in one day! Are you kidding me?! That’s crazy!
You could literally use this place like a cold sleep pod and
skip ahead to the distant future!”
It was like she’d entirely forgotten the past two hours of

boredom in an instant.
“Y-yeah, that’s pretty crazy, all right. At the same

time…”
While Anzu was gushing as though we’d stumbled upon

the discovery of the century, a dark cloud of doubt grew
bigger and bigger in my chest. Six and a half years in a day—
two decades in three. You really could use it for bona fide
time travel, no doubt about that. However, that would also
mean leaving everything in the “past” behind. All our
classmates would go on to graduate and get jobs without us,
and everyone we ever knew would continue to grow older
while we stayed the same. Kozaki High might not even be
around anymore when we came back out, let alone my little
house.
These were the sorts of changes Anzu would have to

deal with in order to have her wish granted by the Urashima
Tunnel, and I wondered if she was truly prepared. Or, hell,
on the off chance that the tunnel might grant her wish, since
we still had no proof that it actually possessed that ability. On
top of that, there could be all sorts of other dangers
associated with using the tunnel that were lying in wait for
gullible idiots like us. Maybe once you went in beyond a
certain distance, there was no coming back out. Granted,
these were all risks I was prepared to take if it meant even the
slightest chance of getting to see my little sister again, but in
Anzu’s case, I had no idea what she was after. No notion
where her motivations lay.
I shot a quick glance over at her. Her face was still

flushed and ecstatic from the exciting implications of our
new discovery. Even in the face of such dire possible
consequences, she wasn’t shrinking in the slightest. She was
still clearly one hundred percent determined to conquer the
Urashima Tunnel, even if she obviously knew it was a bad
idea to dive in without doing our due diligence first.
Hey, Hanashiro. Why are you so dead set on this?

What are you hoping to gain here?
I was this close to saying the words, but I choked them

back down at the last second. The last thing I wanted to do
was rain on her parade when she was obviously having a total
blast. Besides, there’d be plenty of other opportunities for me
to ask about her motives and end goals. One thing I could
definitely say for sure, though, was that we should wait until
another day to start the investigation proper—both to make
the necessary preparations and to give Anzu some time to
come down from this emotional high and start thinking
rationally again. But for tonight, a little celebration in honor
of an experiment gone well certainly wasn’t going to hurt
anyone.
It was two days after we nailed down the precise time

ratio of the Urashima Tunnel. I was sitting across from
Shohei making mindless small talk as we ate our lunches
when all of a sudden, I caught a glimpse of Anzu out of the
corner of my eye. She gave off a frigid, unapproachable aura
as she ate her sandwich alone—and it was almost enough to
make me think the more candid side of her I’d witnessed a
couple days prior had been nothing more than a figment of
my imagination. The giant welt on her face was now gone,
thankfully, as was the wad of gauze.
“You’re looking at the new girl again, dude,” Shohei

grumbled.
“Mm?” I said, finishing the current sip of my canned

coffee milk and pulling the straw from my lips. “What’s
wrong with that? You got a thing for her? Possessive much?”
“Oh, shut up. I’m gonna beat your ass.”
“Heh. Easy, man. I’m just messing with you.”
“Seriously, dude—if you’re that curious about her, you

should go say something to her. You’re never gonna be her
friend by watching her from afar like a creep.”
“Yeah, I know.”
I hadn’t told a single person about my new working

relationship with Anzu—mainly because I figured it’d only
draw unwanted attention to the both of us. I could only
assume she’d been avoiding talking to me at school for the
same reason.
“It’s not that I really wanna be friends with her or

anything, though,” I went on. “I find her behavior kinda
interesting, is all. You never know what she’s gonna do next.”
“Hrm… Well, she is a bit of an enigma, I’ll give you that.

Hell, I heard someone saw her climbing over the fence onto
the train tracks the other day. Who even does that kind of
crap?”
“…Yeah, good question.”
So she was seen, huh…? Would have expected her to be
more cautious than that.
“Oh yeah, that reminds me!” Shohei blurted out. “I also

heard a little rumor about Kawasaki’s punk-ass boyfriend.
They’re saying he fully dropped out of school.”
“Wait, what? Seriously?”
“Yep. Somethin’ about having to take over the family

fishing business, apparently. But if you ask me, I’m guessing
he was too embarrassed to come back to school after getting
his ass handed to him by a girl.”
“Heh. Well, good for him. Hopefully it helps him build

a little character.”
“For real,” said Shohei, stuffing his cheeks with a huge

rice ball.
Come to think of it, Koharu hadn’t been back to school

since that day either. I wondered if she would end up
dropping out too.
Finally, classes were over for the day. As I closed my

textbook and shoved it in my book bag, an announcement
rang out over the intercom.
“Kaoru Tono from Class 2-A, please report to the

faculty room. I repeat: Kaoru Tono…”
It was Ms. H’s voice.
“Uh-oh, bro. What’d you do this time?” Shohei teased.
“Hell if I know.” I shrugged. It was the truth—I
genuinely had no idea.
I finished packing up my things and headed out of the

classroom, then made eye contact with Anzu as I walked past
her in the hall. She gave me a silent nod, then turned around
and walked down the stairs…but I wasn’t sure whether that
was supposed to mean “I’ll wait for you outside,” or “Let’s call
it off for today.” Would have been nice if she used her words,
but alas, I couldn’t be bothered to chase her down and ask, so
I headed straight on to the faculty room, turning left around
the next corner. When I reached the door at the end of the
hallway, I quietly slid it open and announced my arrival, then
wove between the cubicles over to Ms. H’s desk.
“Um, Ms. Hamamoto? You called for me?” I asked, and

she turned to look up at me. Then, setting aside whoever’s
quiz she was grading, she swiveled around in her seat and
gave me a big, friendly smile.
“Oh, there you are, Tono-kun. Sorry to call you up out

of the blue.”
“That’s okay. What did you need me for?”
“Yes, well. It’s about Kawasaki-chan, actually.”
“Oh? What about her?”
“Well, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, she hasn’t shown up

for school the past couple of days. She did call in to say she
wasn’t feeling well, but I’m starting to get a little worried
about her. Was thinking that if she doesn’t come back soon, a
little house call might be in order.”
“Okaaay…” I said. What does that have to do with me,

exactly?
“Which is where you come in, Tono-kun. Could you be
a dear and deliver Kawasaki-chan’s summer English
homework?”
“Huh? Me?”
“Yes, you. I already asked some of her friends if they’d

be willing to handle it, but apparently they’re all too busy.”
I assumed she was referring to the girls in Koharu’s

usual posse. Probably that Haneda chick and the other one,
Sado. If I had to guess, they’d blown Ms. H off out of laziness
or spite. Hence why she’d resorted to asking me.
“You two went to the same junior high, correct?” asked

Ms. H. “So I figure you probably know where she lives.”
“I mean, I do, yes…”
“Then can I count on you to take care of it?”
She’d put me in a tough spot. Anzu and I were planning

to meet up and further explore the Urashima Tunnel. Though
even if we weren’t, I didn’t really feel like doing grunt work
for the sake of the girl who’d always made me do her grunt
work.
“Sorry, I’ve kinda got plans this afternoon…”
“Oh? What kind of plans?”
“I was gonna go hang out with a friend for a while.”
“Really, now? And do what, exactly?” Ms. H inquired,

and I kind of just stood there perplexed, wondering why my
teacher would ever need to know that. Then she smiled and
dropped the bomb: “Not another reenactment of Stand By
Me, I hope?”
“…Sorry? Come again?”
“The school received an eyewitness report the other day

from someone who’d seen ‘that Tono kid’ walking illegally
along the train tracks. You wouldn’t happen to know
anything about that, would you?”
Aw, crap. Somebody saw that? And to think I just got

done judging Hanashiro for the exact same thing…
“Er, yeah, about that… Thing is, I’d missed the train,
and I couldn’t afford to wait for another, so I decided to take
a little shortcut home, and, uh…”
“So it really was you, then,” she sighed, disappointed.

“Oh, Tono-kun. You know, we’re typically supposed to call a
parent or guardian when we receive reports like this…”
Oh God. If my father found out about this, I’d really be

in for it. Seeing no other recourse, I panicked and started
groveling. “I-I’m really sorry! I promise it won’t happen
again! Just please don’t call my house…”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
I held my tongue and listened to what Ms. H had to say.
Apparently, the person who’d called in had requested

that the school let me off with a simple warning, since they
knew my family had “fallen on hard times” in recent years,
and it was Ms. H’s intention to respect their wishes. I wasn’t
sure whether to feel grateful for this stranger’s goodwill. I
often found myself annoyed at how quickly word got around
our enclosed rural community, since it meant everyone knew
about all of my family’s nasty little secrets.
“Regardless, please, no more walking on train tracks,
okay? You could literally get run over and die—and even if
you didn’t, you’d get hit with a nasty fine for forcing the train
to stop.”
“Yes, ma’am… It won’t happen again.”
“Good. Well then, I suppose I’d be willing to let it slide,

just this once…” Ms. H began, before ominously trailing off
into an excruciating pause. “…Then again, you’ve had a lot of
absences and late arrivals recently, so perhaps a phone call
home really is in order. That is, unless you’re willing to prove
to me you’re committed to doing better going forward.”
“And how can I do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know… Maybe by offering to step up and

check in on another student who hasn’t been showing up
lately? Maybe bring them their homework while you’re at it?”
So it was a thinly veiled threat, then. Do as she asked,

or she’d call my father.
“…All right, fine. I’ll deliver Kawasaki’s homework.”
“You will? Oh, bless your heart! Here you go, then!” she
said, handing me a staple-bound English workbook. I put it
in a plastic sheet protector and slid it into my book bag. As I
walked out of the faculty room, I made a mental note that
we’d need to find another route to the tunnel going forward,
even if it required a massive detour. Walking along the train
tracks again would be far too risky.
Now then. I needed to let Anzu know I’d been

conscripted for homework delivery duty, as well as that we’d
been seen walking along the tracks. Presumably, she knew I’d
been called to the office, but I wasn’t sure where I might find
her. I decided to check back in the classroom for starters, but
she wasn’t there. Then I figured she might be waiting in the
main entryway, but she wasn’t there. I supposed it was
possible she’d gone home or headed to the Urashima Tunnel
by herself, but…
Ugh. Times like these made me really wish we had each

other’s contact information. Scouring every corner of the
school wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so I changed out of
my indoor shoes and walked out of the building, scanning the
courtyard as I made my way off campus. Right as I passed
through the main gate, I heard a voice call out from behind
me.
“Tono-kun.”
“Whoa! Jeez, you scared me…”
Sure enough, it was Anzu. She’d been waiting off to the

side of the main entrance to campus with her arms folded
and her back against the wall.
“Took you long enough,” she said grumpily as she

pushed off the wall.
“Sorry, I was trying to find you. I would’ve called you,

but…”
“Oh, right. I never gave you my number, did I?”
“Nope. But yeah, I was just thinking we should do that.

Makes things a whole lot more convenient, at least.”
“Yeah, okay!” Anzu exclaimed, sounding surprisingly

ecstatic as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell
phone. We quickly typed each other’s contact info into our
respective address books.
“This is so exciting!” she squealed. “I’ve never traded
numbers with someone before!”
“Wow, no kidding?”
“What about you, Tono-kun?!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty new to me too. You’re only my second

contact ever.”
(The first had been Shohei, for the record.)
“…Second, huh. Well, gee, aren’t you special,” she

grumbled. Her expression went from beaming to deadpan in
zero seconds flat—it was quite the dramatic mood swing. She
closed out of her address book and shoved her phone back in
her pocket. “So I heard you got called into the faculty room.
What was that all about?”
“Oh, yeah. I guess someone saw me walking along the

train tracks the other day, so I kinda got chewed out for that.
No biggie.”
“Huh. Well, fair enough.”
“Speaking of which, I heard someone spotted you doing

the same thing as me, so we really need to not use the train
tracks going forward. I mean, not that it’s that big of a deal or
anything. I got off relatively easy, I’d say.”
“Relatively?”
“Oh, yeah… So, uh…” I began, scratching my cheek with

one finger. “I actually got roped into running an errand for
Ms. H. Gotta go stop by Kawasaki’s place and drop off some
homework for her.”
“Kawasaki…” Anzu repeated, her expression darkening
as if to say “How dare you utter that name in my presence.”
And, well…after what Koharu had done to her, I couldn’t
exactly blame her for feeling that way.
“Yeah, so I think we’ll have to call off the investigation

for today. Sorry.”
“…All right.”
“Anyway, I’d better get going. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I

said and started walking toward the nearby bus stop. Then
something tugged on the strap of my book bag, so I turned.
Anzu was staring me straight in the eye.
“Wh-what’s up?” I asked.
“I’m going too.”
“Huh?”
Where in the hell had this change of heart come from? I

was totally convinced that Anzu hated Koharu’s guts… Or
maybe she wanted to come along precisely because she had a
bone to pick with her? Was this a revenge thing?
“Uhhh, you sure about that? This is Kawasaki’s house

we’re talking about.”
“Yes, I heard you the first time.”
“You don’t think it’ll get awkward or hostile or

anything?”
“Oh, it might. Wouldn’t be surprised.”
Then why the hell would you want to come? I wanted

to ask.
Before I could summon the nerve to ask, Anzu let out
an impatient huff. “However, now that the investigation’s
been called off, I’ve got nothing to do this afternoon. So I
figured I’d tag along to kill some time, that’s all. Unless you
don’t want me to come?”
“I mean, it’s fine, I guess… But we’re just dropping off

some homework and leaving. So I’d better not catch you
throwing hands.”
“Wow, excuse you. I would never.”
“Or legs.”
“I would never.”
With that, we made our way down from campus and

hopped on the bus. The plan was to ride it for six stops,
where we’d get off only a stone’s throw away from Koharu’s
residence. We were leaving school a bit late, so there were
actually very few other Kozaki High students on the bus, and
certainly none who were sophomores like us. We sat at the
very back of the vehicle, and I lazily gazed out the window
and watched the scenery pass by as the driver took off.
When we passed through the shadow of a nearby hill, I

could see Anzu’s face reflected in the windowpane. She was
sitting directly beside me, her nose buried in her book from
the moment we settled in. Curious as to what kind of book it
might be, I tried to examine the front cover through the
reflection, but all I could really make out was the backside of
an illustrated cat sitting on its haunches. I figured it was one
of those “what would life be like from this animal’s
perspective” types of stories. All I knew was she’d been
reading this book for a while, as it was the same one she’d
had her nose buried in before she punched Koharu in the
face.
“So do you totally hate Kawasaki, or what?” I asked

randomly, turning my head back away from the window.
“Yep. Hate her guts,” Anzu said without a mote of

hesitation, not looking up from her book.
“Then why are you coming to her house?”
“Because I wanna go wherever you go.”
She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the

world, and my face went bright red in turn. Easy, Kaoru.
Don’t get the wrong idea. You’re just working together.
Nothing more than that. I cleared my throat and did my best
to keep my cool.
“Y’know, you really shouldn’t say stuff like that so

lightly,” I warned her.
“How come?”
“Uh, because anyone other than me would probably

take it the wrong way and get their poor little heart broken?
Just a guess.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say it about anyone other than you.”
“…Pretty sure you’re giving me a little too much credit

here. I’m just your average, boring-ass high schooler.”
It was this that finally caused Anzu to tear her eyes

away from her book and look directly into mine. “That’s not
true at all. You’re not boring or average, Tono-kun. If you ask
me, you’re about as abnormal as they come.”
“…Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?”
“Obviously.”
“Well, if you say so, I guess,” I said with a shrug, then

rested my elbow on the windowsill once more. Shortly
thereafter, the bus driver announced over the intercom that
we were approaching the stop nearest to Koharu’s place, so I
pushed the button to request our stop.
As the bus rolled up to the stop, I handed the driver

three hundred yen, then descended the stairs and onto the
sidewalk. Almost immediately, I smelled the pungent scent of
wet earth. I glanced at the towering white thunderhead
slowly advancing through the western sky.
“Looks like we’re gonna get rained on.”
“You think?” said Anzu. “But it’s so nice out right now.”
“Nah, I’m pretty sure. C’mon, let’s hurry and get this
over with.”
We quickly headed in the direction of Koharu’s house.

Just a little way down the road, we came upon a compact
apartment building with an okonomiyaki shop on the first
floor. Koharu’s family lived on the upper level of this
building. We climbed the stairs and soon arrived at the door
with the KAWASAKI nameplate beneath the covered outdoor
walkway. When I rang the doorbell, a loud ding-dong could
be heard echoing from inside the building, followed by the
sound of hurried footsteps darting over wooden floorboards.
“Who iiiiis it?” called the occupant, swinging open the

front door.
It was Koharu. She was clearly in “stay-at-home” mode,
judging from her T-shirt and baggy sweatpants—as well as
the thick-rimmed glasses perched on her nose. I’d known her
since junior high, but this was my first time ever seeing her in
glasses. I quickly deduced that she must have worn contacts
at school. She seemed a little frazzled by the sight of us, but
she quickly snapped back into her usual indignant glare.
“…What do you want?” Koharu demanded.
“Ms. H needed someone to drop off your summer

homework.”
“And you guys volunteered?”
“Not exactly. But hey, we’re here now.”
“…Great.”
There was the slightest hint of sadness in Koharu’s

eyes. Maybe she’d picked up on the fact that this likely meant
that all of her usual posse had turned their noses up at the
task, and was now pretty dejected about how quickly her so-
called friends had abandoned her. Or maybe I was projecting.
Back to business. I held out the workbook, and she took

it without a word. However, as I was gearing up to say
goodbye and put an end to this strained interaction, I heard a
strange sound creep up from behind me, almost like the hiss
of TV static. I turned around, and sure enough, it had already
begun to rain.
Great. It was a sudden downpour like I’d never seen. As

I stood there wondering what the hell we were supposed to
do now, a woman’s voice called out from inside the
apartment.
“Koharu, it’s raining cats and dogs out there! Why don’t
you invite your friends inside?”
“What?! No way!” Koharu shouted back, whirling

around at the speed of light. “They’re not my friends, Mom!”
There was a loud stomping of footsteps as the woman

rushed out into the entryway. She wore a simple apron and
had her long hair tied up in the back. She appeared to be
Koharu’s mother.
“Koharu! How can you be so rude after they came all

this way?! I taught you better than that!”
“But Mom!”
“Sorry, you two.” Koharu’s mother smiled, pushing her

aside. “She can be a bit of a grump sometimes. Don’t take it
personally. Feel free to come on in!”
Anzu and I looked at each other, shrugged our

shoulders, and then walked inside as instructed. Koharu,
despite obviously being quite peeved about this turn of
events, showed us to her room without any further backtalk.
When we got there, she motioned with her chin for us to have
a seat, so we both obeyed and hunkered down on the carpet.
Aside from my little sister’s, I’d never been in a girl’s

bedroom before. There was a vaguely sweet fragrance that I’d
never smelled in any of my male friends’ rooms. However,
the room itself was far more austere than I would have
expected from a girl as wild as Koharu: just a simple writing
desk, a cream-colored dresser, and a closet. Hell, if it weren’t
for the bookshelf full of fashion magazines, one might have
been forgiven for not realizing this was a teenage girl’s room
at all.
“Hey. Quit looking around like a snoop,” Koharu
snapped.
“S-sorry,” I said, immediately turning my eyes down to

the ground.
“As soon as the rain stops, you’re outta here. Got it?”
I nodded profusely, and the conversation promptly

died off. Anzu simply sat there, still as a porcelain statue,
while Koharu fidgeted restlessly with her phone in her chair.
The only sound that pierced the silence was the pitter-patter
of raindrops on the windowpane. The anxiety was stifling.
Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I tried to strike up a
conversation with Koharu again.
“So you wear glasses when you’re at home, huh?”
“Yeah, and? Are you saying I look dumb?”
“No, not at all.”
“Good. Now shut up.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Interaction attempt: failed. Once again, I cursed my

lack of social skills. It seemed I had no choice but to sit
quietly and wait for the rain to let up, so I hung my head in
defeat—but then, Koharu herself broke the silence to address
Anzu for the first time.
“What the hell are you doing here, anyway? I mean,

Tono I can sort of understand, but you?”
“I’m only here because he’s here,” Anzu responded

matter-of-factly.
“Sorry, what? Are you guys boyfriend and girlfriend or
something?”
“Please. Tono-kun and I are kindred spirits. Don’t try to

equate our relationship to a shallow, superficial one like
yours.”
“Um, gross? I literally have no idea what that means,

and I’m not sure I want to… Wait. What do you mean, ‘like
mine’?”
“Aren’t you dating that juvenile delinquent you tried to

sic on me?”
At this, Koharu clammed up.
“…We’re not dating,” she answered in a small and

mousy voice.
“Wait, you’re not?” I chimed in, genuinely a little

shocked. Granted, Shohei had mentioned before that the
rumors were unsubstantiated, but they still seemed more
believable to me than the alternative.
“He decided on his own to start acting like we were.

Then I guess some genius saw that and assumed it was
mutual, though I clearly wasn’t into the guy at all.”
“Huh. No kidding… Wait, but then how come you never

denied it when all the rumors started swirling around?”
“I mean…why bother? People are gonna draw their own

conclusions either way,” Koharu said, fidgeting
uncomfortably as though there was something caught in her
teeth. I could tell she was being evasive, but it was Anzu who
actually called her out on it.
“Oh, I get it now. So you didn’t like him, but you also
didn’t want to completely deny the possibility that you two
were dating. In other words, you wanted to keep using his
reputation as an intimidation factor, didn’t you? Like the
daughter of a mob boss using her daddy’s name to scare off
any small-time punks who might try to mess with her.”
Yeesh. I mean, I guess it’s a fitting analogy, but did we

really have to go there?
“Wha… No, that’s not it at all!” Koharu barked in

denial, her face going crimson.
Anzu just kept on going. “How isn’t it? If you weren’t

trying to use his reputation to your advantage, you wouldn’t
have threatened to go tell your ‘guy friends’ how much I was
getting on your nerves lest they jump me on my way home.
Sure, maybe it wasn’t him specifically you were talking about
in that instance, but it’s still using intimidation tactics to
avoid getting your own hands dirty, so I’d say my point
stands.”
Koharu bit her lower lip and began to tremble.
Oh God. She’s gonna cry.
Then Anzu delivered the finishing blow: “I mean,

really. How fragile is your ego? You try so hard to maintain
your tough girl persona, but is it just to cover up the fact that
you don’t have any actual friends?”
That did it. The dam burst, and big, ugly teardrops
cascaded down Koharu’s cheeks.
“Y-you don’t have to be so mean about it…” she

whimpered, sniffling a few times before breaking down into
full-on sobbing.
Flustered, I knew I had to do something. “C’mon,
Hanashiro! That’s too far. You need to apologize.”
“Fiiine…”
“No, don’t give me that. Actually apologize to her.”
Anzu rolled her eyes but turned to face Koharu

nonetheless. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you cry…even if I
did say it knowing full well that it would hit you where it
hurt.”
“A sincere apology…” I reprimanded.
However, Anzu showed no signs of remorse, and

Koharu’s tears showed no signs of letting up. As I sat there all
jittery between the two of them, the closet door suddenly
burst open and out jumped two little boys, no more than
elementary school age. They were, presumably, Koharu’s
little brothers.
“Hey! Quit pickin’ on her!” one of them yelled as they

both ran over to Anzu and started wildly flailing their arms at
her. In a rare moment of discomposure, Anzu covered her
face in a frantic attempt to block their punches while
pleading with them to knock it off. Meanwhile, Koharu was
still busy bawling her eyes out. It was utter pandemonium,
and I had no clue what to do.
Just then, the door swung open, and in came Koharu’s

mother with a tray of iced tea.
“Aha! There you are, you little rascals!” she said,

pulling the two boys away and bopping them each on the
head. Now all three of the Kawasaki siblings were crying
loudly, and I was extremely ready to go home.
“Sorry about that little fiasco,” said Koharu’s mother
after summoning me and Anzu out into the hallway for a
little chat. She was laughing awkwardly with her hands
placed firmly on her hips. “Anyway, something tells me my
daughter started it, but if you could try not to let things
escalate going forward, I’d really appreciate it. She really is a
sweet girl deep down, you know.”
All I could do was nod my head in shame. Even Anzu,

for all her lack of remorse, was now meekly hunched over like
a scolded pet.
“You wouldn’t believe how quickly she came dashing

out of her room when she heard the doorbell ring earlier. I
don’t know what happened with her friends at school, but I
think she must be pretty lonely right about now. Obviously, I
can’t make you bury the hatchet and be friends with her, but
at least try to get along, would you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, then looked over at Anzu, who

simply nodded.
“Great. Well, it’s still raining pretty hard out there, so

feel free to stick around and take it easy a little longer if you
like.” With that, Koharu’s mother retreated down the hall
into the other room.
“If we like,” she says… After what just happened, it

would be pretty shameful to bow out and go home now. So
we opened the door to Koharu’s bedroom once more, where
we found the three siblings engaged in some sort of card
game on her bed. As soon as Koharu saw us enter, though,
she gathered up all the cards and handed them to her little
brothers.
“Okay, back to your room now,” she said, and they
obediently got up.
“If they pick on you again, Sis, just let us now!” said one
of the boys.
“Yeah! We’ll make ’em pay next time!” said the other.
The two boys stuck their tongues out at us as they

marched out of the bedroom, taking their adorable sibling
dynamic with them. Now alone again in the room with
Koharu, we just kind of stood there uncomfortably for a while
until she suggested we sit down and we obliged.
“So what did Mam… What did my mom say to you?”
“Nothing much,” I said, making an amused mental note

of the fact that she apparently called her mother “Mama”
most of the time. “Just told us to take it easy.”
“She asked you to be friends with me, didn’t she?”
All I could do was smile sheepishly. Koharu grabbed

the beanbag pillow at her side and promptly buried her face
in it. “Ugh, she’s so embarrassing… This sucks… Just kill me
now.”
Obviously, I knew she wasn’t literally saying she

wanted to die, but it still felt terrible to hear her so mortified.
Yet I didn’t have enough experience dealing with women to
know how to talk my way out of this one.
“You’ve got a weak mindset,” Anzu cut in ruthlessly.
Yikes, man. Not that I had any better ideas as to what

to say, but I knew that sure as hell wasn’t going to remedy the
situation. I tried playing mediator once more. “C’mon,
Hanashiro. You’re the one who took things too far… At least
act like you wanna make it up to her, sheesh.”
“What’s the point in pretending? I’m not going to take

back what I said.”
“I know, but still…”
“You’re too soft, Tono-kun.”
“No, you’re unreasonably harsh.”
As we carried on arguing with one another, Koharu

suddenly lifted her head back up out of her pillow.
“Hey… How do you act so invincible all the time,

anyway?” she asked Anzu in a meek little voice, like a pupil
seeking guidance from their master. Which might have been
exactly what was happening, now that I thought about it. I
turned and gave Anzu the sternest glare I could muster,
demanding she answer this one in good faith—or else.
Anzu apparently got the message, because she slouched

her shoulders a bit and begrudgingly began to explain. “I
mean, it’s not like there’s a secret method to it. However…”
“However?”
“If I had to sum it up, I’d say it’s all about not being
afraid to punch people’s lights out.”
Welp. That sure wasn’t the sort of thing you’d expect to

come out of a teenage girl’s mouth.
“You’ve gotta set hard boundaries for what you’ll put up

with internally. Like, if someone does this, that, or the other
thing to me, I’m gonna punch ’em in the face. Once you do
that, it’s easier to analyze situations and yourself from a top-
down perspective. Helps you keep a level head and avoid
letting your emotions take control.”
“What do you mean by ‘top-down’…?” asked Koharu,

tilting her head.
“Yeah, sorry. Not the best metaphor. But you know

those old video games, where you’re looking down at your
character, and you can see their HP and MP and all that jazz
off to the side? It’s kind of like that, where you try to see your
emotions as quantitative values and act accordingly based on
the overall severity of the situation, rather than making knee-
jerk responses. Just like how you might only use a potion
when you get below half health, you’ve gotta actively decide
to only take a swing at someone after they cross a certain
line. Oh, and you always want to get the first strike, if at all
possible. Because most of the time, all it takes is one good,
hard punch to leave people too stunned to respond. Also, if
you know your opponent’s a lot stronger than you, don’t be
afraid to arm yourself accordingly or resort to underhanded
tactics. Whatever it takes to get the job done.”
It was a surprisingly detailed explanation, albeit a

highly unsettling one. Just how many fistfights had Anzu
gotten into in her lifetime?
“…That’s crazy. I could never do that,” Koharu said,

sulking. Neither could I, to be fair.
“I mean, I’m not saying you should go around picking

fights just to build confidence. But you do have to learn how
to face your problems head-on, or you’ll be a bluffer your
entire life. Nothing’s going to change unless you do.”
Koharu shuddered visibly. Her face was starting to go

pale. “Where do I even start?”
“Don’t ask me. That’s your problem.”
It looked like Koharu was about to start crying again, so

I nudged Anzu with my elbow. She scratched her head as
though she was sick and tired of having to play the therapist,
but resumed her little pep talk regardless.
“Anyway, my point here isn’t that violence can solve all

your problems, for the record. Again, this is about setting
your own boundaries and sticking to them. Staying true to
your convictions and not letting anyone peer-pressure you
into doing otherwise. Do it long enough, and not only will it
build up your self-esteem, but you’ll also be a much cooler
person in general. There’s nothing more uncool than
insecurity. It’s that same insecurity that led you to hide
behind that temperamental thug’s reputation and let
everyone in school think you two were dating. Isn’t that
right?”
“I mean…yeah…”
“Well, there you go, then. My advice to you would be to

start living on your own terms for once. I don’t care what
those terms might be. Just set expectations for yourself and
follow through on them. It’ll probably really suck at first, but
it’ll help you get much closer to the person you actually want
to be, so I’m pretty sure you’ll be a lot happier in the end.”
“The person I…want to be…?”
“Correct. Because at the end of the day, there’s no one

right way to live our lives. All we can do is pick whatever path
suits us best, then run down it as fast as we can to see how far
we can get in what little time we have,” said Anzu, followed
by a conclusive sigh as she turned to look out the window.
“Oh hey, would you look at that. The rain finally let up.”
Since we agreed we’d only stay until the weather
cleared up, Anzu and I figured it was about time we took our
leave. We said our goodbyes, walked out the front door, and
immediately had to squint our eyes at the harsh glare of the
setting sun. However, no sooner had we descended the stairs
at the end of the outdoor hallway than a voice called out from
behind us. Turning around, I saw that Koharu had come
chasing after us in her slippers. She scrambled down the
stairs before sliding to a stop right in front of Anzu, then
started nervously twiddling her thumbs at belly button level.
“…What now?” Anzu asked dubiously.
“Oh, yeah, um… So, like, all that stuff you said just
now? I’ll be honest: you totally hit the nail on the head. Like,
that was so freakishly accurate, you’re either psychic or I’m
even more pathetically transparent than I thought… Anyway,
uh… I wanted to apologize, I guess. For being such a horrible
person to you up until now. I’m sorry.”
Koharu bowed her head low, and my jaw dropped in

turn. I’d never seen this girl apologize to a teacher when she
got in trouble, so watching her humble herself like this was
almost too surreal to believe. That stuff Anzu said back there
must have really sparked some sort of change inside of
Koharu.
Anzu seemed pretty taken aback by this too. There was

a good, long pause before she actually responded to the
apology. “…It’s fine. I’m not hung up on it.”
“Well, if you say so… Oh, and Tono?”
“Yeah?” I replied.
“I owe you this.” Koharu reached into her pocket and
pulled out three thousand-yen bills, then practically shoved
them into my hand.
“Wait, what’s this for? I never lent you this much

money…”
“It’s to pay you back for everything I’ve extorted from

you. I don’t remember the exact amount, so I’m sorry if it’s
not enough.”
“Nah, that’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s not okay. I’m trying to make a clean break here, so

just take it, all right?”
A clean break, huh? Guess I can’t really say no in that

case, I thought. “All right. If you insist.”
I pocketed the bills, then we said our goodbyes to

Koharu yet again before leaving the apartment building
behind. We walked in silence along the rain-slicked sidewalk,
inhaling the scent of fresh precipitation rising up off the
asphalt. Countless puddles lined the roadway—the biggest
and most transparent of which reflected the blinding light of
the setting sun. We soon arrived at the bus stop. I checked
the schedule and saw that the next bus wouldn’t be arriving
for another twenty minutes. Unfortunately for us, the nearby
bench was utterly soaked from the rain, so we had no choice
but to wait side by side on the shoulder of the road.
It was quiet all around. Off in the distance, a lone

evening cicada sang its song.
“Well, I’m glad we managed to get her back on her

feet,” I said, spouting words to fill the silence. I was still
expecting at least an “uh-huh” from Anzu, yet no reply came.
Curious, I glanced over at her. She kept staring straight
ahead. Her profile seemed to almost glimmer in the streaks
of receding sunlight. Then I watched as her pursed lips
opened slowly to utter a few pointed words:
“Do you have a crush on Kawasaki?”
I was so blindsided by this that I couldn’t answer for a

moment.
“Who, me? No way—are you kidding? She’s like an

apex predator; we’re not even on the same level of the food
chain. If she’s a killer whale, then I’m a puny little jellyfish.”
“Uh-huh,” she grumbled dubiously.
“Where’s this coming from?”
“Well, you just seem awfully concerned about her.”
“I do?”
I was about to clarify that I really wasn’t, but then the

words caught in my throat as I recalled Shohei saying almost
exactly the same thing. The Stockholm syndrome
conversation. Maybe it really did seem like I had a thing for
Koharu from an outsider’s perspective. That wasn’t the case
at all, to be clear. Sure, she had a pretty face, but her
personality sucked. She was bossy, threatening, not to
mention stubborn and selfish, while also a crybaby deep
down… Wait. Hold the phone.
“Oh. Yeah, uh… I think I know why that might be.”
“Do tell.”
“Because she kinda reminds me of my little sister, in a

way.”
“You mean like her face, or what?”
“Nah, her personality. Karen could be pretty stubborn a

lot of the time too. Not in a selfish way—she’d throw fake
tantrums and start crying and whatnot, but it was just a front
she used to stop my folks from fighting or whatever. She was
pretty calculating.”
Karen had been a super sharp kid. She realized early on

that for a lot of families, it was the kids holding the marriage
together. Anytime our mom and dad started having even a
minor domestic dispute, she instantly picked up on it and
start begging them to take us to the amusement park or the
aquarium or whatever in an attempt to relieve the tension
and force them to start making amends. I knew it hadn’t just
been me imagining things either; she had definitely been
stubborn on purpose.
“…Not sure I follow,” said Anzu.
“Yeah, sorry. I’m bad at explaining these things. But

trust me, I definitely don’t have any deeper feelings for
Kawasaki or anything,” I said conclusively, putting an end to
the conversation before it could go any further off the rails.
Then I asked a question of my own in rebuttal: “Besides, you
seem pretty concerned about her too, y’know. What with all
that genuine life advice you gave her.”
“That’s just because…her mom asked us to get along

with her.”
“Pretty sure she meant ‘you kids play nice now,’ not
‘literally make my daughter see the error of her ways and
turn over a new leaf’…”
“Yeah, well. Some of us are overachievers, Tono-kun.”
There wasn’t really anything I could say to that—
especially since the proof was in the pudding. Anzu seemed
to have had a genuinely positive impact on Koharu… For
now, at least. Whether it would actually last was another
question entirely.
On that note, the conversation died off, and we stood in

silence for the remainder of the time it took for the bus to
arrive. It wasn’t an unpleasant silence by any means.
Sometimes just being alone with someone feels nice, even if
there isn’t anything to say.
The next thing I knew, I was at the aquarium,

surrounded by a world of ethereal blue. The circular floor
lights in the underwater tunnel were dim, and there were few
people around. Through the thick ceiling glass, I watched as a
massive whale shark floated leisurely over my head. Off to
my side, a school of sardines swam by, so densely packed that
they almost looked like an even bigger fish than the previous
one.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there—if for no other

reason than that my dead sister was crouched in front of the
glass beside me. Then the cogs began to turn in my brain,
and I realized that there was only one real explanation for
this bizarre phenomenon. I was having a dream, a dream of
the day all four of us had taken a trip to the aquarium as a
family, just weeks before Karen passed away.
“It’s so pretty,” Karen whispered, pressing both hands

against the glass. However, the look on her face told a
different story; she looked kind of lethargic. I assumed her
legs were tired, judging from the way she kept shifting her
weight from ankle to ankle. Wanting to share in this lucid
dream with her as long as I could, I traced my memories back
through the past and tried to respond with the exact same
words I’d said back then.
“You wanna head home soon?”
“Mmm, nah,” said Karen, her ponytail swinging from

side to side as she shook her head. “Mom and Dad still need
time to make up. Let’s stay a little longer.”
Our mother and father were standing some distance

away, watching over us as they talked about who knew what.
I did hear them laughing from time to time, which led me to
believe that things were on the upswing.
“Well, if your feet hurt, I could give you a piggyback

ride,” I offered.
“Better idea! Let me ride on your shoulders!” said

Karen, upping the ante.
“What? Here?”
“C’mon, pleeease?!”
Karen started yanking on the corner of my shirt,

stretching the fabric as she whipped it from side to side.
Begrudgingly, I knelt and let her climb on my shoulders, then
held her ankles tight as I stood up, and she started giggling
with glee. She rested her hands on my head, then gathered a
big clump of my hair and bundled it together into a little
topknot with a hair tie. This was my “control stick,” which
Karen could pull whichever way she wanted to have me move
in that direction. It was basically just a more advanced form
of playing horsey, but we had fun with it.
“Forward, Brobot!” she would say, and I’d start

marching forward while making hydraulic whirring sounds
with my mouth for each footstep (she really liked when I did
that). Then when I’d inevitably get tired, I’d say “Re-questing
re-fuel,” and she’d hop down to give me a break. When she
told me to fire my lasers, I’d kick over whatever small object
lay in our path (not the most convincing laser beam, but we
made do).
“Are you having fun, Kaoru?”
“Sure am,” I replied. If Karen wanted me to take her

somewhere, then I wanted to go there too. Her smile was
more than enough reward.
“Yeah? Good,” Karen took her hands off the control

stick and gently ran her fingers through my hair. “I’m glad we
came, then.”
I was awakened by the sound of my alarm clock going

off, and I opened my eyes to the familiar sight of my bedroom
ceiling. Specks of dust danced in the few beams of morning
sunlight that managed to leak in through the curtains. I sat
up in bed and switched off the alarm, still reeling from the
lucidity of that dream.
If I recalled correctly, we’d gone to see the dolphin

show right after that. Karen and I had sat right in the front
row (a.k.a. “the splash zone”) and were thus soaking wet by
the end of the show—but still laughing our butts off, mind
you. The dolphins had just been such wacky and playful
creatures, we had been unable to contain ourselves. That was
far from the only pleasant memory I had from those times
too—when Karen was with us, pretty much every day had
been full of wonder. If only she were still alive, maybe things
would have remained that way to this day.
I got out of bed and headed into the hallway. After
making sure my father wasn’t lurking in the kitchen, I
stepped out the side door to the backyard, which had fallen
into a state of utter neglect after my mother disappeared on
us. I squatted below the bathroom window and reached my
hand into the crawl space beneath the house; I quickly found
what I was looking for and pulled it out.
It was a large rectangular tin that had originally held

rice crackers or something, but which Karen and I had
repurposed as a secret hiding place to store all our greatest
treasures—a four-leaf clover, some marbles from ramune
bottles—that sort of thing. Now it also housed some of the
things that Karen had cherished most in her life, like her
favorite comb and stuffed animal, as well as some of my
favorite pictures of her. It was sort of a time capsule-slash-
memento box dedicated to her memory.
Upon opening the lid, however, the first thing that

jumped out at me were her old pair of red sandals. With the
one I’d found recently in the Urashima Tunnel, they were
once more a complete pair. Just looking at them like this set
my heart at ease; it gave me hope that Karen might really be
out there, somewhere in this world. Don’t worry, Karen. I’ll
find you. Just wait for me a little bit longer.
With that silent, prayer-like promise, I closed the lid

and put the treasure box back under the house where it had
always been, ever since we were kids. The secret hiding spot
Karen and I had decided upon together. I would have loved
to get the box out of the elements and move it into my room
or something, but I knew my father would probably throw it
out if he ever found it, so I’d left it there to be safe. The
memory of him going off the deep end and getting rid of
every last thing from Karen’s room after my mother left was
still fresh in my mind. It was the main reason I had so few
mementos of her. I did resent my father for that, obviously,
but I knew taking my anger out on him wouldn’t do either of
us any good. If anything, it’d fracture our relationship even
further.
I bounced back up to my feet and checked the time on

my phone. It had just turned 7 a.m. I headed back to my
room to get ready for school.
It was approaching mid-July, and the midsummer heat

was only getting more brutal. As I walked through the main
gate onto campus, a couple of girls ran past, holding their
book bags up like makeshift umbrellas to shade themselves
from the sun. I changed into my indoor shoes, then headed
through the hallway and into Classroom 2-A. Before I could
get to my desk, I noticed there was yet another new girl in
class. She had bobbed black hair and thick-rimmed glasses,
and she looked like any other average girl—yet for whatever
reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen her
somewhere before.
Then it hit me: it was Koharu. She’d dyed her hair back
to its natural color, and her skirt now stretched all the way
down to her knees. It was a complete and total one-eighty
from her previous bad girl aesthetic.
“Uh, Koharu? What happened to you? Please tell me

that’s not your new look,” one of the girls from her old posse
said mockingly, wasting no time in making fun of her for it.
Koharu gave a simple noncommittal answer, neither
confirming nor denying, and tried to shrug it off. Seeing her
smile sheepishly and stumble over her words was such a
drastic change from her usual haughty demeanor that I
genuinely wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t had the
context of the events of the day prior.
“Dude, you think she lost a bet or something?” Shohei
whispered in my ear. I hadn’t even noticed him walk up to
my desk.
“Guessing it’s more like she decided to turn over a new

leaf.”
“A narcissist like her turning over a new leaf? Never

thought I’d see the day.”
“Yeah, well. She has been through a lot lately.”
“I’ll say, especially after the new girl humiliated her.

Speaking of which, where did you run off to with her after
school yesterday, anyhow?”
“H-how do you know about that?” I sputtered, totally

caught off guard.
“Wow, so you guys did hang out, huh? One of the guys
from calligraphy club mentioned he saw her sitting next to
some dude on the bus yesterday. She’s kinda the talk of the
school right now, y’see. Anyway, I asked him to describe the
guy she was with for me, and it sounded an awful lot like you,
so I figured I’d open with a bit of a leading question to see if
you took the bait.”
Ah. Welp. It seemed I’d walked right into his trap.
“So? What’s goin’ on between you two?” Shohei asked,

his voice oozing with intrigue.
“Nothing as scandalous as you’re hoping for,” I said,

rolling my eyes. “We’re not dating or anything. Hell, we’re
not even technically friends yet.”
“Then where the hell were you going on the bus with
her, huh? Last time I checked, you ride the train home,
buddy.”
“We just had to go to Kawasaki’s place to drop off her

summer homework.”
“You both had to? How in the hell did that turn of
events come about?”
“It’s a long story, man. Would take years for me to even

summarize. So out of respect for your time and mine, let’s
not and say we did, shall we…?”
“No need to be a dick about it, dude,” Shohei scoffed.

Clearly he realized that I was merely too lazy to explain. “But
hey, can’t say I’m too surprised. You guys have a lot in
common, after all.”
“What? Yeah, right. Just what exactly do she and I have

in common?”
“Well, for one thing, you never open up to other people

whatsoever. And from what I can tell, she’s the same way.
Feels like you’re both kinda on the same wavelength in terms
of wanting as little to do with other people as possible.”
“…Are you my therapist now?”
“Nah, I just like watching people and trying to analyze

the psychology behind their behavior. It’s kind of a hobby of
mine.”
“First I’ve heard of it.”
Before we could finish our chat, the warning bell for

first period rang, so Shohei flashed me a peace sign and
headed back to his own seat.
Before long, it was lunch. Normally, Koharu would
have eaten with her posse seated around her desk, but today,
she shot up with her lunchbox in hand the moment class was
over. I watched her curiously, wondering where she might be
going. To my surprise, she marched right over to Anzu’s desk
and meekly held her lunch out in front of her.
“…Hey, um. Mind if I eat here today?”
Murmurs broke out all across the classroom. Even

Anzu, who was in the process of opening her sandwich bag,
seemed a little bewildered by the request.
“Suit yourself, I guess,” said Anzu.
Permission granted, Koharu went back and dragged the

chair from her own desk over to Anzu’s, then removed the lid
from her lunchbox and set it on the tabletop. It was a bizarre
sight to behold: these two former enemies, who’d been at
each other’s throats mere days ago, were now breaking bread
in silence together as equals. However, the peace and quiet
wouldn’t last for long, as that Haneda girl who’d once been a
devout member of Koharu’s posse soon strutted up to where
the two were sitting with a big old smirk on her face.
“Um, Koharu, sweetie? Why in the world are you

having lunch with her?”
I could tell from her tone that she wasn’t upset about
Koharu choosing to eat with someone who wasn’t them; she
was clearly just looking for more ammunition with which to
ridicule their disgraced queen bee. Koharu looked down at
the ground, visibly uncomfortable.
“Because…” she began, mumbling too inaudibly for me

to make out the rest.
“Sorry, what was that? Could you speak up, maybe?”
asked the girl.
“Because I wanna learn to be like her someday!”
The whole class went dead silent. It was so quiet, you

could have heard a pin drop. The Haneda girl stood there
with her mouth hanging open, and Anzu looked just as taken
aback. Hell, even I never would have predicted such a drastic
change of heart. I’d assumed she was eating with Anzu
because she felt like it would be way too dicey to try to fit in
with her old friend group and she was desperate. Though
perhaps that was the real reason, and Koharu had simply
pulled this answer out of her ass because she couldn’t come
up with any better excuse on the spot.
However, as soon as Koharu’s old friend realized she

wasn’t pulling her leg, she burst out cackling. “Ha ha ha ha!
I’m sorry, what?! You can’t be serious, right?!”
Sneers and snickers broke out as our other classmates

began to murmur amongst themselves.
“Heh. Looks like someone realized they ain’t that big of

a deal after all.”
“Guess her bad girl dominatrix act was all just for show,
huh?”
“Did that punch to the face totally scramble her brain

or something?”
It was like a public stoning, albeit with words instead of

rocks. Yet Koharu did her best to endure it, though her face
was bright red and her entire body was trembling.
“That’s hysterical,” the Haneda chick went on. “How do
you plan on doing that again? Just gonna be a pathetic,
antisocial loser from now on?”
“None of your business… Just leave me alone.”
“Aw, don’t be like that! Of course it’s my business!

We’re friends, aren’t we?” Haneda said, egging Koharu on as
she grabbed her by the shoulders and jerked her back and
forth.
For a so-called “friend,” she sure was being pretty

ruthless. Koharu didn’t fight back; she just sat there refusing
to make eye contact.
“Hey, c’mon! Say something, already!” the girl insisted,

this time nearly shoving Koharu out of her chair. As she
pulled her arms back, one of her hands caught on the
placemat Koharu had laid out underneath her lunchbox, and
the whole thing got yanked violently across the surface of the
desk. Before Koharu could react, her lunch had been sent
soaring through the air from the momentum. Even the girl
bullying her hadn’t intended to go that far, if her horrified
expression was anything to go by. But instead of apologizing,
Haneda decided to lean into it and simply turned up her
nose.
“That wasn’t intentional, for the record. It’s your own

fault for not answering my question. Isn’t that right?”
Haneda turned to seek the approval of the rest of Koharu’s
ex-posse where they sat. They all nodded and offered some
words of support. Not one of them took Koharu’s side.
Koharu opened her mouth to say something, but then

stopped short and got down on the ground to begin cleaning
her lunch off the floor. Seeing her hunched over—defeated,
with tears of resignation in her eyes—genuinely hurt to
watch, and I quickly set my food down to get up and offer to
help her. Before I could, there was the loud screech of
someone else roughly sliding their chair out from under their
desk.
“Kawasaki.”
It was Anzu. She rose from her seat, totally

expressionless, and walked over to stand beside Koharu. She
was the last person I would have expected to intervene, but
the moment she stood, the Haneda girl started shaking in her
boots.
“You said a minute ago that you wanted to be more like

me, didn’t you?” Anzu asked Koharu, who simply nodded a
few times in stupefied amazement. “Then watch and learn.
I’ll show you exactly what to do when someone steps over
your boundaries.”
Anzu slowly turned to face Koharu’s aggressor, then

clenched her fists and held them up at eye level like a boxer.
Everyone in class could tell that she was more than ready to
punch this chick, whose face instantly turned deathly pale.
“Hey, w-wait a minute! I’m not looking for a fight with

you! Stay the hell away from me, freak!” Haneda waved her
hands frantically back and forth to indicate that she didn’t
want any trouble. She turned on her heel and beat a hasty
retreat back to her own desk.
“Humph. All bark, no bite,” Anzu scoffed, then pulled a

tissue out of her pocket and started silently helping wipe the
food off the floor.
Though Koharu seemed totally at a loss as to why Anzu

was suddenly being so nice to her, she did at least remember
to express her gratitude with a meek little “Thanks…”
I let out a heavy sigh. For a moment there, I hadn’t
been sure how that was going to play out. I was glad we’d
managed to avoid another altercation. That said, I couldn’t
believe how much Koharu had grown overnight; it seemed
she really did aspire to be like Anzu someday, which was
probably why she’d made such an effort to keep her cool no
matter how Haneda tried to get a rise out of her. I had to
respect the level of determination it must have taken to
decide to rebuild herself as a person from the ground up.
Koharu had just earned herself some major props in my
book.
Several hours had passed since that kerfuffle at lunch,

and I was carving through dense undergrowth on a seldom-
traveled dirt path at night, with only my pocket flashlight to
light the way. These mountain trails were surprisingly loud at
night—maybe even louder than the shrieking afternoon
cicadas. A plethora of different insects vied to be heard over
each other, and the constant crowing of nightjars rang all
through the forest.
“Ugh, this sucks…”
I’d made sure to cover myself from head to toe with bug
spray before leaving the house, but I’d already gotten at least
three mosquito bites. It had been a critical error on my part
not to wear long sleeves. I would have loved to walk along the
railroad tracks again, where there was no annoying
underbrush to worry about, but unfortunately I couldn’t take
any more chances after getting that warning from Ms. H the
other day. So, unmarked trails and bug bites it was.
Eventually, after a long and hard-fought battle with

Mother Nature, I finally arrived at the wooden stairway
leading to the Urashima Tunnel. As I descended, I noticed
white lamplight coming from right in front of the tunnel.
Figuring it must be Anzu, I picked up the pace—and sure
enough, it was. She was crouched, clutching her flashlight
tightly with both hands as she used it to illuminate the
ground directly in front of her. She didn’t seem to have
noticed me yet.
“Hey, looks like you beat me here this time,” I called

out to her as I reached the bottom of the stairs. She shot up
to her feet like she’d seen a ghost and shone her flashlight at
me. Thankfully, I managed to shield my eyes before going
blind.
“You’re late!” she shouted.
I checked my cell phone. It was 8 p.m. “Aren’t I right on

time, though?”
“You’re supposed to be five minutes early! Everyone

knows that!”
“Oh, right. Says the girl who was more than thirty
minutes late last time.”
“Not even remotely the same thing! That was during

the daytime! You can’t leave an innocent young girl all by
herself out here at night! What if I’d been gobbled up by a
wild animal, and they found my bones licked clean the next
morning and couldn’t even identify me?!”
“Pretty sure that’s never gonna happen. This isn’t the

African savanna, last I checked. Besides, if you really didn’t
want to come out here at night, why didn’t we do this
tomorrow morning?”
“I already told you! Because I want to fit in as much

investigating this weekend as we possibly can!”
Right. Today was Friday, July 12th. We had the day off
on Saturday, and Monday was the school’s founding day, so
we had that off as well. In other words, we were looking at a
three-day weekend—which was highly valuable to us,
considering that our biggest obstacle when it came to
venturing deeper into the Urashima Tunnel was plain old
time itself. Even the briefest, most bare-bones investigation
of its inner reaches would cost an exorbitant amount of time,
so having three days in a row that we could afford to lose was
a rare and valuable asset. Getting started tonight as opposed
to tomorrow morning gave us yet another twelve hours to
use, so Anzu definitely had a point. Even with that extra time,
though, we’d only be able to stay inside the tunnel for a
whopping total of two minutes. I’d even gotten permission
from my father to spend the night at a friend’s house all
weekend long, all for two measly minutes.
“We don’t have time to stand around here talking

either. You still remember everything we talked about in our
prep meeting, I take it? Then let’s get going.” Anzu grabbed
me by the hand and dragged me along with her as we took
our first steps into the Urashima Tunnel’s gaping maw.
The warmish draft inside the tunnel tickled the back of

my neck. You’d have thought it would be nice and cool in
there so late at night, but something about the dark enclosed
passage and its stifling humidity made it difficult to breathe.
I wanted to get this done ASAP so we could head back to the
fresh air outside. Our main goal for the day was to try to
figure out how long the Urashima Tunnel might be. The plan
was to run as fast as we possibly could, as far as we possibly
could, as soon as we passed through the boundary, then
come running straight back.
“So basically,” Anzu began, “if we can only afford to be

in the tunnel for a total of two minutes, that means we should
be able to make it about three hundred meters in if we’re
going at a full sprint. Given our current elevation and the
circumference of the hill the tunnel runs directly into, there
shouldn’t even be three hundred meters of underground for
us to go through. Assuming all goes well, we should be able to
make it out to the other side.”
“Ooh, good analysis. I’m impressed!”
“By what?”
“I dunno. You just sound like you know what you’re

talkin’ about.”
“Oh, pfft,” she snickered. “So you just like the sound of
my voice, then. Got it.”
Man… She probably thinks I’m really dumb, huh?
“Anyway, I was doing some independent research in

the library the other day,” she went on. “I tried to find any
possible leads I could about the Urashima Tunnel, but there
was nothing of value on the web or in any of the books on
urban legends I checked. So all we can really do is feel it out
for ourselves and investigate based on our own personal
experiences.”
“Damn, Hanashiro. You’re really putting in the work on

this… Uh, but could you let go of my hand now? You’re
squeezing pretty tight.”
Anzu stopped dead in her tracks and instantly

relinquished her death grip on my hand, which she’d
maintained ever since she dragged me into the tunnel. If it
were just a nice, tender hand hold, maybe I wouldn’t have
said anything (even though I’d have been losing my mind on
the inside), but she had been digging her nails deep into my
skin, so I had no choice but to point it out.
“R-right, sorry. Guess it would be kind of silly for us to
hold hands the whole time.”
“I mean, if you wanna hold hands, I don’t mind. Just

not like that…”
“It’s fine. Forget it. C’mon, let’s go.” Anzu urged me

onward. I started to walk again, but soon something tugged
me backward once more. Anzu was gripping the back of my
shirt with both hands and standing mere centimeters behind
me—to the point that with every little step I took, the toes of
her shoes bumped into the backs of my ankles. This had to be
the single most inefficient way to walk in the history of
mankind.
“Hanashiro, are you afraid of the dark or something?” I

asked as we clumsily shuffled along. She didn’t respond
immediately. Looks like I was right. I had a hunch based on
how oddly unsettled she’d been acting from the moment we
met up tonight.
“Yeah, so what? You got a problem with that?” she

finally admitted, albeit rather defensively and with a fair bit
of venom in her tone.
“Nope, I wouldn’t judge you for that. I was curious,

that’s all. Though you seemed pretty okay with it the last
couple times we came in here,” I recalled, thinking back on
when she had first tailed me here and the time after that. I
hadn’t noticed her being spooked whatsoever in either of
those instances.
“Well, yeah. That was during the daytime. It was still

light outside, so it wasn’t entirely impossible to see in here.
That’s the only reason I could hold it together. Now that it’s
nighttime, though, all bets are off. It’s pitch-black outside, it’s
pitch-black in here. Like, what if both our flashlights died? I
think I’d have a panic attack.”
“Wow, it’s really that terrifying to you?”
“Yes, stupid. If anything, you’re the weird one for being

totally unfazed. How can you not feel suffocated when the
darkness closes in on you? Swallowing up everything else
around you, the pressure slowly building as it dissolves your
world step by step…?”
As she carried on muttering in fear, I suddenly felt like

I had a moral responsibility to do something. After all, I was
the schmuck who’d told her to let go of my hand because it
kinda hurt, while from her perspective, she was confronting
one of her greatest fears and just looking for anything to cling
to in order to feel more secure. How had I not made that
connection sooner? I was a pathetic excuse for a man, let
alone a friend.
I took a deep, quiet breath, then reached back and

firmly laid my hand on top of Anzu’s, holding it tight. It
tensed and trembled in fright for a moment, but then quickly
clasped mine right back. The whole thing couldn’t have lasted
more than three seconds, and neither of us said a single word
—but the unspoken emotions conveyed between us in that
moment were deeper and more intimate than any she and I
had shared before. It didn’t take long before I started to feel
extremely awkward and embarrassed about what I’d done,
though. I made a desperate attempt to resuscitate our
previous conversation so we could both stop lingering on it.
“I’ve gotta say, I’m a little surprised; I was starting to

think you weren’t afraid of anything at all, to be honest. Did
some traumatic event inspire your fear of the dark or what?”
“Yeah. When I was in elementary school, I got in a fight
with one of my classmates, and they shoved me in a locker
and locked me inside. Been afraid of dark, claustrophobic
spaces ever since.”
“O-oh. I see.”
Somehow, I’d already made things awkward again. I

didn’t know why I’d thought past traumas might make for a
lighthearted conversation topic in the first place, but this was
definitely heavier than I’d bargained for.
“I wasn’t being bullied or anything, for the record. It

was just a rare case of me picking a fight and losing, really. I
eventually figured out how to open the locker from the
inside, then went and whacked the hell out of the kid that
locked me in there with a broom, so I still got the last laugh
in the end.”
“Ha ha. Now that sounds more like the Hanashiro I

know.”
“Is there anything you’re afraid of, Tono-kun?”
“Sure there is. I probably couldn’t list ’em all off the top
of my head, but there’s plenty of stuff that scares me.”
“Okay, then what’s your number one greatest fear?”
“Number one? Hrm, let me think…”
It was a tough question. Obviously, I could rattle off a

number of different things that terrified me, but trying to
rank them in order was the real hard part. Getting eaten by a
shark, getting mauled by a bear, earthquakes, contracting a
fatal disease… Pretty much anything that the average person
would fear, I was afraid of too. I supposed the main thing
that connected these things was that they all related to a
general fear of dying, or the concept of death itself. That was
also a primal, instinctive fear embedded in all living things,
though, so it didn’t really feel unique to me specifically. What
was I, Kaoru Tono, more afraid of than anything? Was it
something to do with death?
The death of a loved one, probably.
“Yeah, I dunno. Nothing’s really jumping out at me,

sorry.”
“Really? Huh.”
Anzu sounded slightly miffed by this boring response,

but I really didn’t want to darken the mood by delving into
even heavier territory. Still, I was pretty sure the answer I’d
come to was the right one, even if I wasn’t going to say it
aloud.
“Hey, check it out.” I pointed ahead as I caught a

glimpse of light coming from deeper inside the tunnel,
presumably from the torches on the wall. We were fast
approaching the torii. Anzu and I ran the rest of the way at a
brisk jog. Once we made it to the first torii, I turned off my
flashlight and slipped it back into my pocket—we wouldn’t
need it from this point on. Now that we had a reliable light
source again, Anzu slowly released her grip on my shirt as
well.
“All right,” I said, gulping down a mouthful of saliva.

“Now comes the hard part.”
We had a time limit of only two minutes. Once we

passed beneath the first torii, we’d run as far as we could in
one minute, then spend the remaining minute coming back. I
set my cell phone’s stopwatch function to make sure we
didn’t lose track of time.
“Okay, we’re all set. Just tell me when.”
“Ready when you are,” Anzu said. Her expression was

stern, but there was a hint of hesitation in her voice. Yet she
didn’t seem to be afraid—the defiant spark I saw in her eyes
as she stared straight down the throat of the tunnel was one
of dauntless curiosity and determined aspiration. There was
clearly no need to worry about her.
“Cool. When I say go, then,” I declared, putting one leg

out leaning forward into a standing start position. My
clenched palms were slick with sweat. “On your mark, get
set… Go!”
I pressed the Start button on the timer, and we both

took off running, with me taking the lead. The torii whooshed
past one after another as I dashed down the corridor, going
at about eighty percent of a full sprint. Given that Anzu had
handily shown up every girl on the track team, I was pretty
sure she’d have no trouble keeping up with me no matter
how fast I went. As I started breathing harder, I looked at my
phone to see that only ten seconds had passed. Still no exit in
sight. I shot a quick glance over my shoulder to see how Anzu
was doing. She seemed to be managing just fine, so I picked
up the pace a bit.
The timer hit twenty seconds, then thirty. Outside, it

would be tomorrow afternoon. So far, there hadn’t been a
single change of scenery in the tunnel—just torches and torii
as far as the eye could see.
Suddenly, a familiar question popped back into my

brain. Just what was Anzu trying to gain from the Urashima
Tunnel, anyway? She and I had talked quite a bit over the
past few days, yet still I had no idea what wish she wanted
the tunnel to grant for her. It wasn’t constantly gnawing at
my brain, mind you, nor did I think it was necessarily any of
my business, but I did feel like it would be a good idea for us
to be on the same page in that regard—especially if there was
any risk of it obstructing the investigation going forward. I
decided to make a point of asking her as soon as we made it
back out of the tunnel.
We’d almost reached the end of the first minute, and

my legs were officially killing me. Just as I was looking down
to check the time, however, I heard a loud rustling sound
coming from ahead. Bringing my gaze back up, I saw dozens
—maybe even hundreds—of sheets of plain white paper all
fluttering to the ground, like a whirlwind of oversized confetti
that had come absolutely out of nowhere.
“Whoa!”
One of the countless sheets came flying toward me like

a flyer in a hurricane and slapped me right in the forehead,
entirely covering my eyes so that I couldn’t see a thing. I
panicked helplessly for a moment before trying to reach up
and peel the sheet off my face, but I lost my balance and fell
crashing to the floor.
“Yeowch!” I shouted.
“Tono-kun?!” cried Anzu.
Finally, the paper drifted gently down from my face—

just in time for me to watch my cell phone go skidding across
the rocky tunnel floor. The inertia from the impact had made
me lose my grip and sent it sliding like a curling iron nearly
three meters away.
No! We need that timer! I scrambled onto my hands
and knees and crawled over to pick it up. Luckily, aside from
a little crack in the screen, the phone appeared to be mostly
unharmed. Phew, thank God… Wait, forget about that!
We’ve gotta go!
“My bad! C’mon, we can’t waste any more…

Hanashiro?”
I was convinced I’d find her either already way ahead of

me or standing by my side ready to help me up—but she was
in neither of those two places. She was standing stock-still,
right where I’d fallen, looking in disbelief at one of the fallen
sheets of paper, which she now held in her hands. The rest of
them lay in a scattered pile at Anzu’s feet. There had to be at
least a solid hundred sheets.
“Hanashiro?” I called again, but there was no answer.
If the way her shoulders were heaving was any clue, she
was on the verge of hyperventilating—though surely not
merely due to exhaustion from the minute-long sprint (she
was in much better shape than me, after all). Something
definitely wasn’t right here. I got back up to my feet and ran
over to her.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked.
“But… But this is…” she muttered to herself in a daze,

her voice trembling.
I wasn’t sure she’d heard me. Curious, I peered over her

shoulder at the piece of paper. It had crude little characters
drawn on it, separated into distinct panels like a comic
book… It almost looked like some random kid’s hand-drawn
manga. What in the world was this doing here in the
tunnel…? It was a mystery, to be sure, but we didn’t have the
time to stand around contemplating it. I looked at my cell
phone again: we’d passed the one-minute mark. A cold sweat
trickled down my forehead.
“Hanashiro, we have to go back.”
Still no response. She didn’t turn her head to look at

me. In fact, she dropped to her knees and started scrounging
around on the floor, frantically gathering all the other sheets
of paper.
“Hanashiro, stop!” I yelled, still to no avail. “What the

hell are you doing?! We don’t have time for this!”
“Just go on without me!”
“What?! Are you crazy?! I’m not leaving you here!”
“Well, I’m not leaving this here either!” she snarled at

me. Her voice was feral and distressed, like a bloodthirsty
animal with its leg caught in a trap. The sheer desperation in
the way she struggled to gather them all made it abundantly
clear that this was not the Anzu I knew. I realized very
quickly that nothing I could say would convince her, and for
a moment I considered trying to physically drag her out with
me. But that would have taken far too long.
“Ugh, fine!” I growled.
I got on my knees and started to help; it seemed like the

best possible option left. As soon as the pages were gathered,
we both got up and sprinted as fast as we could back the way
we’d come. We couldn’t afford to waste a second checking the
time—we just ran and ran until we were safely on the other
side of the torii and back to where time flowed naturally.
“Whew… I’m beat, man…”
I had to fight incredibly hard to resist the urge to let
myself collapse on the ground right then and there, but I
somehow managed to hold it together and wait until we were
fully back outside. As we approached the exit, the interior of
the tunnel grew brighter and brighter, and we were greeted
by a gradual crescendo from the local cicada choir. The
moment we stepped out of the tunnel’s shade and onto the
parched grass, we were assaulted by the brutal midday sun.
I looked at my phone: it was 1 p.m. on July 16th. We’d

entered the tunnel on the night of the 12th, which meant we’d
been in there for more than three and a half days. Yet even
after sacrificing that much time, we still had no idea how far
the tunnel went. All we’d gleaned from that entire experience
was that it had to be longer than three hundred meters.
Or, well, I suppose we did find one other thing. I

looked at the stack of papers in my hand. Then I blinked, and
in the next moment, they were gone.
“Wha…”
Anzu had snatched them away at the speed of light.

Whatever these papers were, she clearly didn’t want me to
see them, and as a result, I caught only the most fleeting
glimpse of their contents.
“Hey, uh… Hanashiro?” I asked as she turned her back

to me. “What exactly are those?”
“…nothing…”
“Sorry? I can’t hear you. Turn around and speak up a

little, why don’t you?”
Anzu didn’t budge.
“Hellooo…?” I said. Still, no response. Getting
impatient, I grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her
around myself. However, when I saw her face, I froze.
Anzu’s eyes were watering. She was crying. As I stood

there at a loss for words, she rubbed her eyes dry with her
wrist and swiftly regained her composure.
“It’s nothing important. Don’t worry about it.”
“C’mon, now… You can’t expect me to believe that.”
Surely if the papers weren’t that important, she

wouldn’t have been crawling on the ground trying to collect
them like a rabid animal. From what I could tell, the papers
themselves didn’t seem to be torn up or deteriorated in any
way, so there was no way some random person had thrown
them out inside the tunnel years and years ago—especially
considering the inexplicable way they’d come fluttering from
the ceiling. My guess was that they were another of the
tunnel’s “impossible” finds, like Karen’s sandal and our old
pet parakeet had been for me. But why a bunch of sheets of
paper? And why was Anzu crying over them?
“Is that what you were wishing for?” I asked.
“No,” she replied.
“Then what is it? Just tell me straight, I promise I won’t

judge.”
“There’s no point in explaining it.”
“You don’t know that. For all we know, it could give us

a major clue toward solving the tunnel’s mysteries.”
“…I promise you it won’t.”
Anzu’s voice shook ever so slightly. Clearly there was
some reason she didn’t want to tell me, not under any
circumstances. I wondered if she would crack if I said her
unwillingness to be upfront could present a major obstacle to
the investigation…but I decided to let it go. Sure, maybe me
knowing would give us a new lead to pursue, but if it would
only come at the cost of driving a wedge between us, it
wouldn’t be worth it. That kind of distrust might obstruct the
investigation too, after all. However, there was one question I
still wanted to ask.
“Then what is it you are after? What wish do you want

the tunnel to grant?”
“I…” Anzu began but then stopped short—almost like

the words caught in the back of her throat. A good ten
seconds passed before she finally managed to stutter out the
rest. “…I’m not sure yet, actually. I guess I figured I’d find out
somewhere along the way.”
“Wait, seriously…? You’re risking years of your life

without even a concrete goal in mind?”
“Oh, I have a goal in mind,” she fired back. “I want to

be someone. Someone extraordinary.”
“Uh… Okay? In what way?”
“I mean, think about it—a mysterious space where the

flow of time itself turns fragile, but with the promise of
granting any wish? What more extraordinary experience
could there possibly be than venturing into a place that bends
the laws of the universe?”
“I’m not sure having extraordinary experiences makes

you an extraordinary person, though.”
“That’s where you’d be wrong. It is precisely what
makes people extraordinary.”
Now my head was starting to hurt.
“But why are you so obsessed with being

‘extraordinary’?” I demanded, rising to my feet as my
patience grew thin.
Suddenly, Anzu looked lost and confused, like a child

who’d become separated from her mother at the
supermarket. In fact, I’d never seen her look so vulnerable
before. Then, after a few moments of hesitation, she
answered calmly:
“When I was thirteen years old, my grandfather passed

away.”
A warm breeze blew by. The leaves rustled overhead.

A twinge of regret shot through me like a rush of adrenaline,
and I bit down softly on the inside of my cheek. “…Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.”
“I take it the two of you were pretty close…?”
“Not really… Barely knew the guy. Can’t even

remember what he looked like now.”
“Oh, uh… I see…”
“It still terrified me,” she explained. “The way he died,

yet nothing changed. Like, shockingly little was different.
Sure, a few people shed tears for him at his funeral, but I can
guarantee none of those people were still crying about it a
week later. Death comes for us all in the end, and we kind of
just have to accept that in order to cope through life until we
ultimately kick the bucket ourselves. Not like denying the
human condition will keep the reaper at bay, after all. Then
once you’re gone, any traces of you ever having been alive
will slowly fade away and be swallowed by the sands of time.
With very, very few exceptions, every single person alive
today will be long forgotten even just two hundred years from
now. That’s what my grandfather’s death made me realize.”
Her tone gradually grew more and more imperative.
“It’s pretty distressing, don’t you think? The thought of

dying and leaving nothing behind. The world not changing
one iota from your having been in it. Makes you wonder what
the point of living in the first place is, you know? Like, why
are we even here? Why bother putting in all the effort to live
if only to suffer and die and be forgotten? That’s what makes
the thought of being ordinary so terrifying to me. That’s why
I’m so determined to be someone. Someone who’ll be
remembered. Who’ll actually leave an unforgettable mark on
this world. Someone extraordinary.”
I was stunned. Speechless. Anzu had gone from zero to

full-on existential crisis in no time flat. This wasn’t the sort of
thing I could respond to with a noncommittal “Yeah, I hear
ya,” or “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” I had to respect
the sincerity with which she’d chosen her words and respond
in kind.
I thought about what I could say. I thought long and

hard, but nothing came. My mind was blank. There was
nothing I could think of that seemed a fraction as meaningful
as what Anzu had said. I supposed that made sense; she’d
probably spent months or years developing this personal
philosophy of hers. I couldn’t expect to come up with an
equally poignant rebuttal in a mere few seconds… Yet I
couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge (and thus tacitly
endorse) that worldview either. So I floundered, and I said
the stupidest thing imaginable.
“Boy, you sure can talk a lot when you’re passionate
about something, huh?”
Was I the dumbest man alive? Quite possibly.
“…Wowww. Really? That took a lot of courage for me to

say, you know.” Anzu glared at me with narrowed eyes. “I’ve
never told anyone that before.”
“S-sorry,” I apologized in a panic. “It was just kind of a

lot, and I didn’t know what to say, so I kinda…”
“It’s fine. Still felt good to get it off my chest. Do you at

least see where I’m coming from now? When I say that’s why
I want to explore the Urashima Tunnel?”
If I were to answer honestly, I’d have said that yes, I

understood her point of view. However, I couldn’t relate to it
whatsoever. I felt no desire to be someone special or famous
like she did. I mean, the unstated implication of her little
philosophy was that anyone who lacked greater ambitions
was lazy or a failure, and what was so wrong with being
average? Why waste your whole life struggling to leave a
lasting mark on the world when you wouldn’t be around to
see it anyway? Assuming freedom of choice existed, if people
were content to live out simple lives, why should they aspire
to be more? Who needed the dramatic peaks and valleys
between feeling artistically fulfilled one moment and then
being depressed the other ninety-nine percent of the time
when you were in a creative rut? Life was too short, and if
being one of the sheeple meant you could maintain a stable
level of happiness throughout, what was wrong with that?
That said, I obviously had no right to decide whether

Anzu’s reasons for wanting to explore the Urashima Tunnel
“passed muster.” Regardless of whether I could accept her
motives, she doubtless had no intention of giving up the
investigation, even if she had to do it without me. Her
willpower and initiative were plain to see. To be clear, I
didn’t want to part ways with her either, regardless of our
opposing values. So I knew exactly what it was I had to say.
“…Yeah. There’s no doubt in my mind anymore that

you’re dead serious about this.”
“You mean it?” Anzu pressed. I nodded decisively, and

her face relaxed into a smile. “Well, okay then.”
It seemed all was forgiven. Yet a vague sense of guilt ate

away at me. I had to really fight hard to resist the urge to
break eye contact with her.
We only ended up being able to attend sixth period that

day. Needless to say, Ms. H gave us quite the earful when we
finally stumbled onto campus. Honestly, I wasn’t sure why
we’d bothered showing up. I let out a loud, bellowing yawn in
the middle of class, and the math teacher instantly shot me a
dirty look, so I ducked my head down in submission. It was 2
p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, but as far as my body clock was
concerned, it was still sometime in the early hours of the
morning after Friday night; trying to stay awake and pay
attention to the lecture was an uphill battle, to say the least. I
twirled my pen in my right hand as I tried to fight off yet
another yawn. None of the lecture material was registering in
my brain. All I could think about was the Urashima Tunnel.
Two key aspects defined the legend of the tunnel: one,

it affected the flow of time, and two, it could grant any wish
to those who enter it. The former we’d confirmed to be true,
but the latter still remained to be seen, and it was starting to
make me anxious. My wish certainly wasn’t to be reunited
with a dead pet, or my sister’s sandal, and if Anzu was to be
believed, those sheets of paper weren’t what she was truly
after either. That begged the question: On what conditions
did the tunnel manifest things like that? Did it grab
meaningful objects from a person’s memories and project
them at random? No, there had to be a method to the
madness. In my case, it was almost like it took my real wish
and taunted me by granting me all sorts of things which were
closely related, but never the one thing I truly wanted.
I was suddenly reminded of the tale The Monkey’s

Paw. It was a short horror story that I’d been assigned to
translate for my junior high English class. The basic premise
was that whoever held the titular paw would be granted three
wishes, but only in a roundabout way that exploited
loopholes in the wisher’s phrasing. It was essentially a genie’s
lamp but much more devious. For example, a man and
woman who used it to wish for a large sum of money would
be granted the sum, but only as a settlement after their son
was killed in a horrific accident at his workplace the next day.
Then when they wished to bring their son back to life, they’d
get a knock on their front door from his mutilated,
decomposing corpse.
In a way, perhaps the Urashima Tunnel’s wish-granting

mechanics functioned similarly to the monkey’s paw, albeit
without the evil twist. On second thought, maybe there was a
certain malevolence to it. I mean, it had waited until I was
about to turn back before it made Karen’s sandal appear in
front of me, which seemed a little too perfect. Then the same
thing had happened with Kee, our parakeet. It was almost
like the tunnel was summoning bait to lure its prey (in this
case, me) deeper inside.
Thinking back on it now, from an objective standpoint,

it really did seem like I was walking straight into some sort of
trap. Though if there were malicious forces at play behind the
Urashima Tunnel, then what if it twisted my wish like the
monkey’s paw and gave Karen back to me, but only in a
strange and disturbing way…? I didn’t want to consider the
possibility.
Trying my best to shake that unsettling thought from

my head, I glanced up at the calendar written in chalk on the
blackboard. Summer vacation was fast approaching.
Chapter 4:
Her Dream, His Reality
T HE REMAINING DAYS before summer vacation came

and went in the blink of an eye. Once the end-of-semester
assembly was over, we returned to the classroom to pick up
our report cards, then were free to go by lunchtime. About
half of my classmates quickly filed out of the classroom to go
home or to their respective club meetings. The other half
remained, comparing report cards as they made plans and
gushed excitedly about all the fun things they were going to
do over summer vacation. Beach. Barbecue. Fireworks. All
the usual suspects.
As for me, however, I sort of just sat there in a wistful

daze for a while, watching the action play out from the
sidelines. When I considered that this could very well be the
last time I sat in Classroom 2-A, I got surprisingly emotional,
and I couldn’t bring myself to rise up from my desk.
As I scanned the room, my eyes happened to land on

Koharu’s old friend group. The Haneda girl had taken over as
leader of the pack, and they all seemed to be chatting it up as
blithely as ever.
Meanwhile, Koharu, who used to be right there in the

center of them all, was far off in a different corner of the
room, meekly packing her things so she could go home. Yet
to my surprise, instead of heading straight for the classroom
door, she walked over to speak with Anzu, who was also
getting ready to leave. They then pulled out their cell phones
and had a brief exchange before smiling pleasantly at one
another and filing out of the classroom. I could only assume
they’d traded contact info.
Seeing their departure as my own cue to leave, I finally
scooted my chair back to stand up, but I didn’t get that far
before Shohei called out to me from behind.
“Hey, Kaoru. You got plans this afternoon?”
“Nope, not really. Why, what’s up?”
“Me and some of the guys from calligraphy club were

gonna go grab a bite to eat. You wanna come with?”
Just as I was about to politely turn him down, I stopped

myself. There was a very good chance that this would be the
last time I ever saw Shohei as well. In that sense, maybe it
would be a good idea to take him up on this offer and hang
out with him one last time, just in case… Then I thought
about it some more and realized that it wasn’t a good idea
anyway. I wasn’t a part of the calligraphy club, so an outsider
tagging along would just make everyone else feel less
comfortable letting loose.
“Sorry, man. Think I’ll have to pass.”
“Wow, you actually waited five seconds before

answering this time. You were seriously considering it,
weren’t you?” Shohei teased. Damn, he was sharp. “C’mon,
dude. No need to be shy. The other guys won’t bite, I
promise. They’re pretty chill.”
“Nah, I really shouldn’t. I’m broke as a joke right now.”
“Well, I don’t mind buying for ya on account of you

being the newcomer to the party!”
“Thanks, but I wouldn’t feel right about that. Don’t

worry about me. You guys go have fun. I’ll see you around,
man,” I said, putting an end to the conversation as I stood up
to walk away.
“C’mon, dude. Don’t be like that,” said Shohei, grabbing

me by the arm. I could almost feel a question mark pop up
over my head. He was being surprisingly persistent today.
“You’re way too young to be such a grumpy old hermit. These
are the best years of your life, bro. You’ve gotta go out and
enjoy ’em while you still can.”
“There’s no guarantee I’d enjoy myself.”
“Well, sometimes just putting yourself out there is

important too.”
“What is this, the elementary school marathon? I’m not

looking for a goddamn participation trophy, man,” I
snapped. Then, realizing I was getting worked up for no
reason, I cleared my throat and tried to calm down a bit.
“Look, I appreciate the free counseling session, but I really
don’t need the advice. I’m not looking to reinvent myself,
man. I’m just trying to maintain the status quo.”
“Oh yeah? Then how come you’ve been missing class so

much lately?”
Now that gave me pause. I hated making people worry

about me, and Shohei had never been so obviously
concerned. I felt truly bad having to dissemble and shrug off
his good intentions, but I couldn’t tell him the truth. The
Urashima Tunnel was a secret between me and Anzu, not to
be shared with anyone else. Telling Shohei would mean
betraying that mutual trust, so I chose to swallow my
discomfort and keep quiet.
“If you don’t wanna tell me, that’s fine. I will say this, at
least,” Shohei began, leaning in close as though he was about
to grab me by the collar. “Unless you wanna waste your
whole life away, you’ve really gotta learn to step outside your
comfort zone, dude. Stop obsessing over what you have to
lose and start thinking about what you have to gain. Just my
two cents.”
“…I’m not obsessed,” I said, gently pushing him away.

“Besides, nothing’s ever lost forever. There’s always a way to
get it back.”
Shohei looked utterly perplexed by this response, like

he couldn’t begin to comprehend the words coming out of my
mouth. I decided to take my leave before he had a chance to
ask me what I meant.
“Well, see you in September,” I said on my way out.
Shohei let out a sigh of resignation. “…Yeah. Don’t flake

on me next semester, dude.”
It was the first day of summer vacation, and I was

waiting for Anzu outside the Urashima Tunnel once again. It
was another scorcher of a day—hot enough to make someone
go insane—but thankfully this time she strolled up at 1 p.m.
on the dot, just like we agreed.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she said as she descended

the stairs, and I waved to greet her. She was wearing long
sleeves and pants despite the searing heat, and had a wide-
brimmed sun hat on for good measure. Though in all
fairness, she was certainly well dressed for the occasion,
considering our objective today was not to explore the tunnel
itself but the mountainous woodlands all around it. The idea
was that every tunnel had both an entrance and an exit, so
unless the “Urashima Tunnel” moniker was a massive troll,
we should hypothetically be able to find where it bottomed
out somewhere on the other side of the imposing hill it ran
beneath. That was our main goal for the day.
“You really think we’ll find it, though?” I wondered

aloud. “I mean, it’s gonna be pretty tough to scour this entire
mountainside.”
“If we can’t find it, we’ll dig a new tunnel straight into it
from the side. Boom. Free shortcut.”
“…Wait, huh?”
“I’m kidding.”
Whoa. Hanashiro, making a joke? Never thought I’d

see the day.
“Obviously, I’d never suggest something that reckless,”

she clarified. “I mean, what if it caved in and we got trapped
inside? Not that I wouldn’t consider it as a last resort if the
investigation proves too difficult down the line, I guess—but
for now, trying to find the other exit is our best bet from the
standpoint of both time and effort.”
“How would we even do that, anyway? Rent an

excavator or something?”
“Potentially. How much do you think that would run

us?”
“I genuinely could not tell you.”
Even if we did manage to rent one out, how the hell

would we transport it all the way out to the tunnel? Maybe
we should nip this idea in the bud and get down to business.
“So how are we doing this, then?” I asked.

“I think for starters, we should do a full loop around the
circumference of the mountain. I think you’re probably a
more seasoned hiker than I am, so why don’t you take the
lead, big guy?”
“Sure thing, city slicker. I’d be happy to show you the

ropes. C’mon.”
With that, we made our way to the unmarked trailhead.
We called off the investigation after a mere two short

hours. Reason being: we’d underestimated the mountain.
Underestimated its might. We had figured that since it wasn’t
particularly densely wooded, we’d be able to tackle it without
too much trouble, but that had been a major miscalculation
on our part.
However, the biggest reason for our ultimate failure

was that we didn’t have a clear-cut destination in mind. If we
were just going from point A to point B, that would be one
thing, but since we were looking for something in particular
with no clue as to where it might be, it meant we had to go
over every patch of the hillside with a fine-toothed comb to
make sure we didn’t accidentally overlook it, which was
straight-up exhausting.
At first, it felt like a fun challenge, like we were hiking

to a pleasant picnic at a scenic viewpoint. However, after one
too many spiderwebs to the face, and one too many close
calls tripping over giant roots, the conversations died off, and
in the end, we got stranded; we even lost track of the way
from which we’d come. By the time we finally made it back to
the entrance of the Urashima Tunnel, we both looked like
we’d just crawled out of a horror movie.
“Well, so much for that idea. Sorry,” Anzu apologized as
she peeled yet another spiderweb from her hair.
“Nah, I should’ve known better too… Honestly, I feel

like we should call it a day after this, even if it is only three in
the afternoon.”
“Yeah, agreed. I need a shower, ASAP…”
Thus we made our way back up the stairs to the

railroad tracks, both of us more than ready to head home.
Just then, I had a horrifying realization. I reached down and
patted the pocket of my jeans, but I felt nothing. I frantically
reached my hand inside, but alas, it was completely empty.
“What’s wrong?” asked Anzu.
“I think I must’ve dropped my house key somewhere…”
“Uh-oh. Are you gonna be all right without it?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a spare back at the house. But I’ll be

locked out until my dad gets home, so I guess now I’ve gotta
find a way to kill a few hours…”
Thankfully, he usually didn’t come home nearly as late

when he went in to work on his day off, so I’d hopefully only
have to wait until about 8 p.m. or so to be let back in the
house. Not that there were any guarantees.
“Well, in that case…!” Anzu blurted out, her voice

squeaking anxiously. Her face was bright red, and something
told me it wasn’t from all the sun we’d gotten today. Then,
after an excruciating pause, she offered her suggestion in a
softer, more timid voice:
“Do you…wanna come over to my place?”
The condominium where Anzu lived was relatively
close to downtown. After passing through the auto-locking
entry door, we made our way to the impeccably sanitized
inner hallway. While I’d never mention this aloud, it was
clearly several tiers more luxurious than Koharu’s housing
complex. Eventually we came to a stop outside a door, which
I assumed to be Anzu’s unit—but then I noticed that the
name on the door wasn’t Hanashiro. Then I recalled what
she’d told me the day she beat up that senior punk: Anzu had
no parents. I was very glad to have remembered this minor
detail before I asked about it.
She unlocked the door, and I followed her into the

entryway, where we bumped into an older woman, probably
in her early fifties. Her pepper-gray hair was tied in a bun,
and a couple of reusable shopping bags hung from her arm.
It seemed we’d barged in just as she was getting ready to go
shopping. Anzu stopped to greet her, albeit in a rather formal
way for someone she was supposedly living with. I kept that
thought to myself and simply bowed my head along with her.
“Is this a friend of yours, Anzu?” the older woman

asked, looking at me with what appeared to be genuine
surprise on her face. Then, as if remembering a prior
commitment, she gasped, bringing one hand up to cover her
mouth. “Oh, goodness! Where are my manners? Let me pour
you two some tea before I go…”
“Don’t mind us,” said Anzu, shaking her head. “By all
means, go run your errands.”
“Are you sure…? Well, all right, then.” The woman

squeezed past us and headed out the door.
“This way,” said Anzu, beckoning me farther in. She
stepped up into the hallway, and I followed after her.
“That was my aunt, by the way,” she explained before I

had the chance to ask. “Her husband passed away two years
ago, and her daughter’s living on her own now too. Hence
why it’s just me and her at present. Though if you’re
wondering why I was being so formal with her, it’s because
we don’t talk an awful lot. We’re less like family and more
like roommates.”
“Huh. Interesting living situation, I guess…”
“You go on in.” Anzu opened the door at the end of the

hall and gestured me inside. “I’ll be right back.”
She trotted off into another room, her footsteps beating

in a pleasant rhythm against the hardwood flooring. A few
moments later, she returned with a rolled-up washcloth and
a drinking glass.
“Okay, here’s some iced tea and a wet towel.”
“Hey, thanks.”
“I’m gonna take a quick shower. Feel free to wipe

yourself down with that in the meantime.”
Anzu pressed a button on a little remote control to turn

on the AC, then left me alone in the room once more. Unsure
of what to do, I sat on the floor and took a sip of my iced tea.
Then I unraveled the wet washcloth and used it to wipe my
face and neck as I looked around the room.
Right off the bat, the main thing to stick out to me was
the massive bookcase that nearly covered an entire wall. On
its shelves were all manner of different books, ranging from
classic literature to popular pulp manga, all neatly organized
by publisher. It was a perfect display of Anzu’s detail-
oriented personality. The next thing I happened to notice was
her writing desk, which was the only part of the otherwise
immaculate room that was remarkably untidy. Books were
stacked atop it in uneven piles, and eraser dust was strewn all
across the surface. Other than those two details, however, it
was about as spartan and unspectacular as Koharu’s
bedroom had been. I had to wonder if they were exceptions
to the norm, or if my lack of personal experience had merely
given me some bizarre notions as to what a teenage girl’s
room should look like.
After finishing my initial survey of the room and fully

wiping myself off, I was officially bored. That was a bit of a
problem, because it felt pretty flustering being alone in a
girl’s room with nothing to do, as a guy who’d never really
had any female friends. Even sitting there absentmindedly
was a challenge, because my mind kept getting distracted by
the vaguely sweet feminine fragrance that seemed to only
exist in girls’ bedrooms. Thinking I might read a volume of
manga or something to keep myself occupied, I got up and
walked to the bookcase. Surely Anzu wouldn’t object to me
pulling one out to entertain myself, would she? Luckily, she
happened to have a copy of a particular manga I’d been
meaning to check out, so I went ahead and pulled it out from
the stacks.
“Hm?”
It was then that I noticed an envelope, wedged between

the top of the manga volumes and the bottom of the next
shelf up, almost like it had been hidden away. Curious, I
reached to pull it out. Printed on the corner of the front of the
envelope was an official company name and logo: “Yutosha
Publishing Co.” The seal had been broken, but obviously I
wasn’t about to go rifling through someone else’s mail. Just
as I was about to slip it snugly back into place, my hand
froze.
Wait a minute. Isn’t Yutosha, like…a pretty major

book company?
Then all of a sudden, the image of Anzu on the ground

desperately gathering those pages of drawings flashed back
into my head. Could it be? My better judgment tried as hard
as it could to quell my rabid curiosity, but in the end, the
latter came out on top. With trembling hands, I gently pulled
the letter from the envelope and had a look.
“…Well, holy crap.”
I heard the doorknob twist as Anzu let herself back into

the room. “Sorry that took so long… Wait, are you reading my
—”
“Oh, yeah. My bad. I was getting pretty bored, so I

kinda helped myself.” I was sitting on the floor with my back
against her bed, leafing through one of her many volumes of
manga. “Should I have asked first?”
“No, you’re fine.”
In her lacy camisole and matching lounge shorts, Anzu

was showing a lot more skin than I’d ever seen on her, to the
point that being in the same room was making my heart race.
When she walked over and sat right beside me, it only
worsened my nervous tension. I set the manga I’d been
reading on the low table and tried to start a conversation in a
feeble attempt to keep things from getting weird.
“Boy, you sure read a lot of manga, don’t you?”
“Yep, I sure do. Does that surprise you?”
“Maybe a little, yeah. I mean, I’ve only ever seen you

read normal books at school.”
“Wow, you must pay a lot of attention to me.”
“Yeah, well. You’re the one who refuses to blend in like

a good little conformist. Not my fault you stand out.”
This got a good laugh out of her, which did help me

loosen up a bit. We went on to make casual small talk for
quite some time, gushing about our favorite movies, books,
foods, and so on. We whiled away the warm, sleepy hours of
the late afternoon—each passing minute feeling lazier than
the last—as time trickled by like honey, slow and sweet.
“To be honest with you, I actually do still have parents,”

she suddenly confessed, not long after we finished talking
about our most nostalgic childhood video games. “I mean, it
wasn’t a lie in the sense that they’re not a part of my life
anymore, but I still feel bad for misleading you. Truth is, my
mother and father are both still living in Tokyo. They were
always extremely strict, though, and I guess a rebellious
daughter like me was too much for them to handle. So, they
tossed me overboard in the hopes that living with my aunt on
this deserted island for a while would make me change my
ways.”
“Uh, you do realize we’re still connected to the

mainland here, right?”
“It was a metaphor. Don’t think too hard about it.”
I could only laugh and shake my head. Kozaki wasn’t

even that remote, all things considered. But whatever.
“I always hated my parents,” she went on. “The way
they treated me like I was mentally deranged for wanting to
pursue my dreams and make a name for myself, just because
it wasn’t a ‘stable’ career path like the boring, worthless ones
they decided to waste their entire lives on. I’ll never forgive
them for that. But you know what’s really sad? When they
told me they were sending me away to live in Kozaki, I took it
way harder than I expected. Like there was still some
lingering affection there I couldn’t shake, no matter how
much I told myself I hated their guts. I’m such a stupid brat.”
Anzu shook her head in self-reproach.
“Anyway, yeah. So as you can imagine, I was still pretty

torn up about the whole situation by the time I got here. Felt
like I was kinda at the end of my rope, and it made me act a
lot more reckless than I should have. I mean, I’d been in my
fair share of fights before, but I’d never had a guy slap me
across the face, then start kicking me in the stomach before.
To be honest, I was about ready to break down and cry before
you and your friend showed up… Do you remember what you
said to me back then? When I told you I didn’t have any
parents?”
“Yeah. ‘Lucky you,’ right?”
“You got it. The words fell right out of your mouth, no
sympathy or spite to them whatsoever. When I heard that, I
was like, ‘Dang, this guy must have been through a lot. He’s
way farther along in life than I am.’ That’s the real reason I
followed you to the tunnel after school, by the way. I had to
know what could ever happen to a person to make them say
such a thing like it was nothing at all.”
“…Huh. Never would’ve guessed.”
“I know this is probably a really, really inconsiderate
thing to say, but…I kind of look up to you for that. For all the
stuff you’ve been through, I mean. Some people go their
whole lives without developing that kind of character depth.
It’s what makes you so interesting, Tono-kun. It’s why I can’t
help but gravitate toward you.”
I felt a gentle weight as Anzu leaned her exposed

shoulder against my upper arm. The fragrance of her freshly
shampooed hair drifted into my nostrils and sent my
synapses running wild.
“Hey… Look at me.”
I slowly twisted my head to the side and met Anzu’s

upturned gaze. Flushed cheeks. Shimmering eyes. Glossed
lips. Her larynx bobbing ever so slightly as she gulped down
the very last of her inhibitions.
“Tono-kun, I… I think I…”
“Hey, Hanashiro,” I interrupted, cutting mercilessly

into her unfinished thought like a butcher’s knife through a
squirming fish.
“…Yeah? What is it?” she asked, clearly miffed that I’d

ruined the moment.
Then, without missing a beat, I blurted out, “Are you

writing your own manga?”
For a moment, it looked like Anzu couldn’t process

what I’d said. She looked so puzzled that I began to worry
that maybe I’d gotten the wrong idea entirely. Those
concerns quickly proved to be unwarranted.
“Wait… How do you… Huh?!” Anzu sputtered, her
entire body trembling as her mouth opened and closed
repeatedly like a goldfish. Her flushed face turned even
brighter red, and her eyes shot open so wide, I thought they
might pop right out of their sockets. Her face became a
jumbled mess of potent emotions—one part confusion, one
part embarrassment, and one part disbelief.
“H-h-how…?” she pleaded, desperate for an

explanation.
“When I went to borrow a volume of manga from the

bookcase, I noticed an envelope sticking out. Wondered what
it was, so I peeked inside and saw some sort of manga
evaluation sheet. You know, like the type you get when you
submit an original work to a publishing contest.”
Anzu let out a terrifying grunt and pounced on me,

grabbing me by the collar. Given that she was already leaning
against me, there was no room for me to shake her off, and so
I fell backward onto the floor beneath her weight.
“How could you invade my privacy?!”
She was now straddling me from above, slamming the

back of my head into the hardwood floor as she shook me by
the shoulders. The force from the impact jostled one of the
straps of her camisole from her shoulder, exposing a portion
of her bra. I averted my eyes in panic.
“I got curious, that’s all…” I answered sheepishly.
“Y-you can’t go d-digging through other p-people’s

mail!”
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. But seriously, it’s nothing to

be ashamed of.”
“I’m not ashamed! I’m livid!”
Yikes. I knew she’d be pissed, but not this pissed. I had

to run damage control, stat. “No, really! I think it’s super
cool! Especially since it looks like you got pretty high marks
too. And based on the little summary blurb, it sounds right
up my alley. I’d love to read it someday.”
“Wha…”
All of a sudden, the shaking stopped, and Anzu let go of

my shoulders. I slid out from underneath her, then pushed
myself up so that I was sitting directly across from her.
“I noticed your desk is covered in eraser shavings; are

you still working on things? Do you have anything finished
you could show me?”
“What? No… None of my stuff is good enough to show

other people…” Anzu mumbled, her previous indignation
crumbling into bashfulness at the drop of a hat. It was kind
of cute, actually.
“If you’re entering your work in contests, I assume you

want to be a manga artist, don’t you? In that case, you’re
definitely gonna want to get feedback from other people.
C’mon, please? I promise I’ll give you my honest
impressions.”
“It’s so embarrassing, though…”
I had her on the ropes. One more push ought to do it.
“Please, I’m beggin’ ya! I wanna be able to say I read

Anzu Hanashiro’s breakout hit before she was famous! Hell,
I’d pay you for the privilege of reading it!”
“Hnnnnngh…”
I couldn’t tell if that sound meant that Anzu was
flattered, conflicted, or annoyed, but regardless, she crawled
on all fours over to her writing desk and pulled a stack of
papers out from one of the drawers. She then duckwalked
back over to where I was sitting and held them out to me
with both hands as though they were some sort of certificate
or diploma.
“Here,” she said. “This is my newest one… I just

finished drawing it. You can read it if you really want to, I
guess.”
“You sure you don’t mind?”
“J-just don’t go in expecting too much. I can tell you

right now it’s gonna seem really, really amateur compared to
all the big-name professional stuff you probably read…”
“Well, I’m stoked to check it out regardless. Thanks.”
I reached out and accepted it delicately with both

hands, trying to show her manuscript an equal level of
respect. Right off the bat, the cover art was extremely eye-
catching and impressive; you could have told me it was being
sold in stores, and I wouldn’t have batted an eye. I knew you
should never judge a book by the cover alone, but it certainly
gave me high hopes that the contents would be good enough
to match. Eager with anticipation, I turned to the first page.
Silence fell over the room. The total lack of any other
sound made the whirring white noise of the AC unit feel
much louder than it actually was. The entire time I was
reading, Anzu looked extremely on edge. She was constantly
fiddling with her hair, adjusting her seating posture, and
being generally restless all around. Amused by this new and
adorable side of the invulnerable girl I thought I knew, I stole
furtive glances at her every time I turned the page until she
got mad at me and told me to focus on the story. I apologized
in earnest and did as I was told from that point on.
No more than five minutes later, I was finished reading

the manga. If I had to give it a genre, I’d file it under sci-fi. It
was the story of a lone girl in a post-apocalyptic world who
went on a journey across the land searching for other
survivors.
“…W-well? What did you think?” Anzu asked gingerly,

the trepidation plain to hear in her voice. She was sitting
upright on her knees in formal seating posture. As promised,
I gave her my honest review.
“I thought it was really, really great!” I exclaimed,

holding up the manuscript in awe. “I found the main
character to be super likable and compelling. Especially in
that last scene, where we find out she’s actually an android
who thinks she’s human. The way it hits her so hard at first,
but she gets back up and continues her search for survivors
regardless—that part really resonated with me. Oh yeah, and
I also love how much foreshadowing you peppered in
throughout to kind of hint at the fact she was an android all
along. I didn’t pick up on it at all on my first pass, but now I
really want to read it again to see what else I missed. It was
definitely a real page-turner, that’s for sure. Loved every
minute of it.”
“You… You did?!” Anzu replied, her voice squeaky and

ecstatic.
“Yeah. If you told me this was a one-off story in some

major weekly manga magazine, I wouldn’t bat an eye. It’s
really incredible, honestly. I had no idea you were such a
talented artist, not to mention storyteller. And the fact that
you’re already putting yourself out there and entering your
stuff in competitions and whatnot is pretty—”
“Uh, s-sorry, could you give me a sec?” Anzu
interrupted. She stood straight up, then dove onto her bed
and buried her face in her pillow. At first, I didn’t know what
to make of this, but then she started rapidly kicking her legs
up and down and squealing with glee.
“H-Hanashiro?”
All I could hear was the sound of her muffled elation. I

didn’t know if she was trying to hide it or what, but I was glad
to see that she was apparently quite pleased with my review.
She went on kicking her legs like this at full speed for a good
several seconds too, until finally, she stopped all at once as
though her batteries had run out. She slowly twisted her body
around, then sat upright and tried to collect herself. Her
bangs were plastered to her forehead and frizzy from the
static.
“…Welp, I think that’s enough happiness for the next

five years,” she said.
“Ha ha. Guess it was a good thing you let me take a look
after all! If you’ve ever got more stuff you want me to
‘proofread’ for you, just say the word. I think it’s definitely a
good idea to get feedback if you’re aiming to do this for a
living someday.”
“I mean, I’m not actually trying to be a professional or

anything—I don’t put in nearly enough work to ever make it
big. I just submit my stuff to competitions sometimes for the
hell of it, and because I like the feedback…”
“Huh, really? That’s a shame. I think your work is

pretty damn good already.”
“No it’s not…” Anzu mumbled shyly, turning to look

away from me. She went crimson from ear to ear all over
again. I waited for her to regain her composure, then dove
right into my next question.
“So hey, I was meaning to ask you something.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“All those papers we found at the Urashima Tunnel

before… Were those pages from previous manga you wrote?”
Anzu’s eyes widened a bit, though only for a second

before she straightened her posture and nodded
affirmatively. “Yeah, they were. All stuff that I wrote way
back in elementary school.”
“Aha. So I was right, then…”
From the fleeting glimpse I got at the time, I had been

fairly certain that they were manga pages; I’d just had no
idea what significance they might have held for Anzu.
“Sorry about that, by the way,” she said. “I acted pretty

selfish back there…”
“It’s cool. What’s done is done. Though I would like to

know what those pages meant to you, if you don’t mind
telling me.”
Anzu let out a sigh of resignation, then answered in a

soft, meek voice. “They’re all my old stories that my parents
threw away.”
“Wait. They tossed your artwork in the trash?”
“Yeah. When I was ten years old, I got in trouble for

drawing in the middle of class, and then my folks found out
during parent-teacher conferences. They told me to stop
wasting my time on stuff that ‘wouldn’t help me amount to
something in the real world,’ then made me watch as they
threw everything I’d drawn up to that point in the garbage.”
“…Ouch. That’s pretty harsh.”
“I poured so much time and effort into every one of

those pages. I bawled my eyes out and got in a huge fight
with my parents. From then on, I made a point of continuing
to draw as much as I could out of spite, right where they
could see me doing it. I never told anyone else about it, but I
refused to give up on manga, no matter what. Honestly, that
was where all of my issues with them started, and what
ultimately led to them cutting me loose and sending me
here.”
“Damn…”
This was pretty heavy stuff. Now I understood why

Anzu had gone so feral trying to gather those pages in the
tunnel. I had to respect her determination, though,
continuing to draw manga because it was what she loved to
do, even when her parents vehemently disapproved. I found
that kind of passion to be quite noble.
“But I mean, if you really love making manga that

much, I don’t see why you felt the need to hide it from me in
the first place. Especially considering you’re so good at it.”
“It’s because it means so much to me that I didn’t want

to share it with you.”
“Huh. Is that how being an artist works?”
“At least for me, it is,” Anzu said, biting her lip. There
was a long pause, and then she shifted gears: “…But why
would my old manga show up inside the Urashima Tunnel?”
“What do you mean? Probably because you wanted it
back, I assume.”
“Huh… Did I want it back, though?”
“Don’t ask me. How should I know?”
“To be honest with you, I’m not one hundred percent

sure myself. Like, obviously I wasn’t going to just leave my
old manga there in the tunnel, but as for whether I’d been
harboring some deep-seated desire to get it back all these
years… Yeah, I’m not so sure about that.”
“Really? Huh…” I replied noncommittally, leaning

against the bed as I looked at the ceiling. Then all of a
sudden, I felt an epiphany coming on, and I let out a tiny
gasp. Anzu looked over at me, mildly startled. Hell, I was
pretty startled myself, to be honest.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Oh, uh. Nothing,” I lied. “Don’t worry about it…”
Meanwhile, my brain was whirring at light speed. There

was something there, like a faint, glimmering light at the
bottom of a fathomless void. Think, Kaoru. I knew it had to
be something important. It felt like I’d finally gathered all the
pieces I needed; I just had to find the right way to connect
them, trying different combinations until something clicked.
After racking my brain for a good while, I finally found the
deduction I was groping for: everything we’d found in the
Urashima Tunnel thus far had one thing in common. It was
never things we found ourselves actively wishing for, it was
only ever things from our past that—
Before I could finish that thought, I heard the sound of

the front door being unlocked in the hallway. Evidently
Anzu’s aunt had returned from her shopping trip. I looked up
at the wall clock and saw that it was 7 p.m. I decided it was
best not to tell Anzu my new hypothesis just yet. For one
thing, it was still unconfirmed, and it would only make her go
crazy with needless speculation.
“Well, I should be heading home,” I said, standing.
“Oh… Well, okay…” said Anzu, slumping her shoulders.
Ugh, don’t make that face. Now I feel bad.
“We should decide when we want to meet up at the

tunnel again, though,” I suggested. “Any ideas as to what we
should investigate next?”
“No, I’ve been thinking it’s about time to call off the
investigations, actually. I mean, I can’t think of anything else
we really need to look into,” she said, then straightened her
shoulders and looked me dead in the eye. “No more test runs.
I think we’re finally ready for the real deal.”
“Meaning…?”
“It’s time to get your sister back, and make me someone

extraordinary. We’re gonna go in there and not come back
out until we’ve both had our wishes granted.”
I gulped down the saliva that had pooled in my mouth.

So it was finally time, then.
“Do you have a date in mind?”
“Yep. I’m thinking August 2nd.”
“All right. Sounds good to me… Why the 2nd,

specifically?”
“No real reason… Just thought it’d be smart to give
ourselves a good several-day buffer beforehand, that’s all.”
She had a point; there were a lot of preparations we’d

need to make—not just in terms of what we’d need to take
with us into the tunnel, but also in terms of being prepared
for what might happen when we came back out. We agreed to
settle on the particulars via text later, and with that, Anzu
walked me to the entryway, where I slipped on my shoes and
opened the front door to leave.
“All right. Guess I’ll see you later, then.”
“Hey, um… Tono-kun?”
“Yeah?”
Anzu looked like she was mustering her courage to tell

me something, but she faltered in the end. “…Sorry. It’s
nothing important. Get home safe, okay?”
“Will do. See ya.”
As I turned to close the door behind me, I caught one

last glimpse of Anzu’s face. She looked just the slightest bit
crestfallen, and a pang of guilt tugged at my heartstrings.
The week before the day we planned to venture into the

tunnel, I was spending the morning happily vegging out in
my bedroom when I got a text from Anzu.
“Kawasaki invited me to go to the festival with her.

Any interest?”
This time of year, she could only be referring to the

annual fireworks festival held in the next town over. It was
the biggest local event around, with people coming in droves
from all over to see more than six thousand individual
fireworks lit in one gigantic spectacle of a show. I’d been
there a few times myself, back when Karen was still alive, but
I hadn’t realized it was the day. Though to be crystal clear,
my interest in going was less than zero. I loathed big crowds.
I began to type a reply to Anzu’s message: “I think I’m

good, but thanks.”
All that remained was to hit send, yet my fingers froze

in place. Two lingering doubts gave me pause. The first was
based on the way Anzu had phrased it: “Any interest?” as
opposed to something like “Wanna come with?” Maybe I was
reading too much into it, but it almost made it sound like she
wasn’t all that interested in going if it was just her and
Koharu, and would only accept the invite if I agreed to go as
well. Knowing what Koharu had been through recently, I
didn’t have the heart to turn her down, especially when she
was already trying so hard to rebuild her social life from the
ground up. The second reason I hesitated, though, echoed
the feeling I got when Shohei asked me to get lunch with him
and the calligraphy club guys—that this might be my last
opportunity, so I shouldn’t let it go to waste.
“Man, I dunno…” I grumbled, rolling around restlessly

on my bed. Then I heard the sound of the bathroom door
opening downstairs. It was my father. I didn’t know why he
was home on a weekday, but he was. Maybe it was to make
up for some prior holiday that fell on a weekend, or maybe
he’d used a day of paid time off. Either way, I didn’t want to
interact with him whatsoever.
“…Guess that settles it.”
I deleted the message I’d composed and typed a new

one: “Sure, I’d be down. Where and when do you guys
wanna meet up?”
I hit send before I had a chance to second-guess it.

There was nothing I hated more than having to deal with my
father, so I figured I might as well go and at least try to have
fun. Although in that case, I needed to get cleaned up so I
could head out at a moment’s notice. I went downstairs to the
living room, where I found my father seated on a floor
cushion watching some mindless TV show. I took a deep
breath before calling out to him.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hm? What is it, Kaoru?”
“I’m going out for a bit tonight.”
“Oh, uh… I see. How late do you think you’ll be?”
“I’ll be home before midnight, don’t worry.”
“You gonna need dinner?”
“Think I’ll get something while I’m out and about.”
“Fair enough. Have fun.”
I nodded, then headed straight back to my bedroom.

Holy crap. I couldn’t believe I’d had an actual, civil
conversation with my father without things immediately
devolving into an argument. Though come to think of it, he’d
been in awfully good spirits the vast majority of the time
lately. Usually, he barely acknowledged my existence, but he
had just asked me about dinner and even told me to have fun.
He hadn’t said anything remotely like that to me since before
Karen died. After our last stint in the Urashima Tunnel—
when I told him I’d be staying at a friend’s house over the
long weekend, then come back a day late—he hadn’t said a
word in complaint. I tried to imagine what might have
brought on this sudden change of heart; maybe something
good had happened to him at work? I thought about it for a
moment, then shrugged it off. It wasn’t worth overthinking.
Just as the evening sky began to bleed from light

orange to deep vermilion, I arrived at the bus stop where
Anzu had suggested we meet. Usually, it was rare to see even
a single senior citizen waiting around for the bus there, but
since it was the night of the festival, there was actually a
pretty long line of people at the stop, some of whom wore
traditional summer yukata and jinbei. Anzu and Koharu
weren’t among them, which came as a surprise given that the
shuttle was supposed to arrive in five minutes. Concerned, I
began scanning the vicinity, when suddenly I felt a clap on
my shoulder. I turned around, and there she was: Anzu, in a
breezy periwinkle sundress.
“Hey. Been waiting long?” she asked.
“Nah, just got here myself.”
“Cool. No sign of Kawasaki yet?”
“Nope. Guess she might be running late… Oh, wait.”
Just then, I spotted her, coming down the opposite

sidewalk in traditional festival garb. As soon as she noticed
us, she hurried toward us across the street via the crosswalk,
her wooden sandals clacking against the pavement the whole
way. She looked pretty cute in her soft-pink yukata, which
was embroidered with a goldfish pattern, but her face quickly
twisted with disgust the moment she saw me.
“Ugh. What are you doing here, Tono?”
Wait, did Hanashiro really not tell her I was coming?
“I invited him,” Anzu explained. “Figured the more, the

merrier.”
“Oh, is that right? Well, if Anzu invited you, I guess it’s

fine…”
“Anzu?” I asked.
“She insisted on giving me a stupid nickname now that

we’re friends,” Anzu explained, clearly not enthused by this
development.
Aha. So they were on a first-name basis, then. Or at

least one of them was. I smiled. “Glad to see you two are
getting along so well.”
I meant it too. However, Anzu evidently interpreted

this as teasing sarcasm, because she smacked me hard on the
shoulder. Not long after, the bus arrived, and the three of us
climbed aboard. It was already pretty packed, but we luckily
managed to find two side-facing seats along the window for
Anzu and Koharu (though I had to remain standing). The
automatic doors closed, and the engine chugged to life as the
bus set off toward its next destination.
“So hey, how do you like my yukata?” Koharu asked

Anzu.
“What do you think, Tono-kun?” Anzu asked, passing

the ball to me.
Gee, thanks a lot.
“I, uh…th-think it looks pretty good, honestly?” I

stammered.
“Then I’m inclined to agree,” Anzu declared.
“…You guys are totally dating, aren’t you?” Koharu

glowered at me suspiciously.
Neither Anzu nor I said a word in denial.
The light changed, and the bus driver slammed on the

brakes, causing me to lose my balance from the sudden
change in momentum. I would have gone careening down the
aisle if I hadn’t quickly grabbed one of the overhead straps
and regained my footing. Phew, that was a close call.
Even so, Koharu gave me a look and shook her head

with a disapproving sigh. “God, what do you even see in this
loser, Anzu?”
“Why are you calling him a loser?”
“I mean, no offense, but he’s kind of a scrub. Not much

of a personality, no real skills or sense of humor, and it’s not
like he’s all that attractive eith—”
“Don’t talk about him like that,” Anzu cut in, her tone
cold and sharp like an ice pick.
“Urk… A-all right, fine,” Koharu winced, shifting her

attention back to me. “Then what was it about Anzu that first
caught your eye, Tono?”
“Wait, huh?!” I spat out, flummoxed.
“Ooh, yeah. I’m pretty curious about that too,” said

Anzu.
Now they were both looking up at me expectantly. I was

officially cornered.
“I mean, it’s pretty hard to put that sort of thing into
words, y’know…? Plus, you’re kinda putting me on the spot
here…”
“What, you can’t think of anything?” said Anzu,

furrowing her eyebrows dejectedly.
Dammit. Now I really had to pull something out of my

ass, or it’d only come back to bite me later. I racked my brain
and tried to come up with the safest, least corny answer I
could throw together on such short notice. “…Well, if I had to
pick one thing, then I guess it would be, uh…”
“C’mon, pal,” Koharu pressed. “We don’t have all day.”
“Her…scent, maybe?”
Koharu’s face twitched as she recoiled into defense

mode, clutching her upper arms with both hands as though
her stranger-danger senses were ringing alarm bells in her
head.
Okay, yeah. Definitely could have chosen a better way

of phrasing that.
“Ew, what?! I asked what caught your eye, not your

nose, you disgusting creep. Is that your rubric for a girl’s
attractiveness? Their smell?! Great, now I feel like I need a
shower. Ugh.”
“N-no, no!” I frantically waved my hands back and

forth. “You’ve got it all wrong, I swear! I don’t go around
sniffing random girls or anything, I promise! Even with
Hanashiro, it was just a coincidence.”
“Oh reeeally? How does one ‘coincidentally’ get a big ol’

whiff of someone, wise guy? Just what kinds of fun little
activities have the two of you been getting up to lately?”
“Oh, get your head out of the gutter. It’s nothing like
that… C’mon, Hanashiro. Throw me a bone here,” I pleaded.
Anzu wasn’t paying attention; she was too busy sniffing

her own arms with a pensive, worried look on her face.
“I have a scent?” she muttered to herself.
We hopped off the bus and strolled toward the festival

grounds. It was dark at this point, but fortunately for our
purposes, there wasn’t a single cloud in the night sky—
perfect weather for a fireworks show. The fireworks
themselves were going to be set off from the other side of the
big river, whereas all of the spectators had to stay and watch
from the side where all the food stands and whatnot were
lined along the river walk. It was a short trek from the bus
stop to the festival grounds, so we could hear the hustle and
bustle of the crowd enjoying the festivities even amidst all the
loud exhaust noise from cars idling on the roadway. After
crossing the street and walking a little ways, I caught a whiff
of something cloyingly sweet, like castella sponge cake.
“So did you two have anything specific you wanted to

do at the festival?” I asked as we ambled down the sidewalk.
Anzu shook her head.
“Yeah, me neither,” said Koharu. “Though I did want to

go fishing for bouncy balls at some point before we leave.”
“Oh, yeah? Cute. I used to love doing that when I was,

like, five.”
Koharu looked confused for a moment, and then her
face went bright red. “Wha… N-no! It’s not for me! It’s for my
little brothers! They asked me to bring home one of those big
squeezy ones with the spikes all over it!”
Oh yeah, I remember those things. Had one for like a

week before it got a big hole and deflated into a worthless
plastic husk.
“Aw, that’s nice of you,” I said with a smile. “Y’know,

you seem like a surprisingly good big sister, what with the
way you still play cards with them and whatnot.”
“Hey! What do you mean, ‘surprisingly’? …Oh yeah,

that reminds me! Do you have any siblings, Anzu?”
“Nope. I’m an only child.”
“Wow, that’s cool. I always wanted to be an only child.”
“Really? I always kind of wished I had a little brother or

sister, personally.”
“Ha ha, no… Trust me, they’re nothing but a hassle.

Always pestering you to play with them, or to be the
chaperone whenever they want to go someplace… And oh
God, don’t even get me started on having to take baths
together…”
“W-wait, that’s a thing?”
I found it kind of rewarding to see Anzu having a

normal conversation with someone who wasn’t me. It was
hard to believe how sociable our scrappy rebel had become
lately. I felt like a proud parent watching their eldest child go
off to college as I followed the pair at a safe distance, not
wanting to interrupt their lively discussion.
As we got closer and closer to the center of the action,
the crowds grew a fair bit denser. There were a lot more food
stands in this area too, as evidenced by the savory scents of
deep-fried food and yakisoba sauce hanging warmly in the
air. Before long, I heard the sound of someone’s stomach
growling loudly; it was like a sound effect straight out of a
cartoon.
“Wow. Excuse you, Kawasaki…” Anzu said with a

teasingly judgmental glance.
“Oh, no, no, no! Don’t lie! That was you, not me!” said
Koharu, placing her hands grumpily on her hips with a big
harrumph.
Wow. Did Hanashiro really just try to gaslight

Kawasaki? What is this, elementary school? Even from a
distance, I could tell that it was really Anzu’s stomach that
had growled.
“If you’re getting hungry, we can stop and grab food

somewhere,” Koharu offered. “There’s still plenty of time
before the fireworks start.”
I checked my phone. It was now 7 p.m., and the show

didn’t start for another hour. We agreed to take our time
perusing the different food options as we continued down the
riverwalk. After passing several booths, Anzu stopped dead in
her tracks in front of one, peering in at their display of grilled
squid with curiosity and awe.
“Whoa, is that just, like…a whole squid, grilled up and

impaled on a stick…?”
“Yes, Hanashiro… That’s why they call it grilled squid

on a stick. Or wait—have you really never seen that before?” I
asked.
She nodded. “I mean, I’ve seen it on TV a few times,
probably, but I’ve never really been to a festival or anything
before…”
“Wow, no kidding?”
I supposed they probably didn’t have too many

traditional-style festivals in Tokyo proper. Either that or
she’d never had anyone to take her to one growing up.
“Have you had one of them before?” she asked. “Do

they taste good?”
“Yeah, they’re great. Why don’t you get one and see for
yourself?”
“Ugh. I’m tempted, but I’ve been really craving takoyaki

too…” she whined, clearly torn.
“Well, why don’t we get both, then?” Koharu chimed in.

“There’s a takoyaki stand right over there. I’m getting pretty
hungry, myself, so I’d be happy to go wait in line for it.”
“Really? Could you buy enough for both of us, then?”
“Sure thing!”
Anzu handed her some cash, and Koharu went click-

clacking off in her wooden sandals to the takoyaki stand.
Meanwhile, Anzu had placed her order for a grilled squid
with the elderly man running the booth. When my nose
picked up the tantalizing scent of Worcestershire sauce
nearby, I started getting hungry too, and I remembered the
yakisoba stand we’d passed on the way.
“Hey, I’m gonna go buy myself some yakisoba real

quick.”
“Okay. If Kawasaki beats you back here, we’ll be
waiting in the dining tent.”
“Copy that.”
I spun around and walked back the way we’d come.

Luckily, there wasn’t a long line, so I managed to get in and
out with my yakisoba pretty quickly. Grand total: four
hundred yen. When I got back, Anzu had vanished from in
front of the grilled squid stand, so I took a peek inside the
dining tent, where sure enough, I found my two companions
seated and digging in. I got there just in time to see Anzu sink
her teeth into the squid for a big honking first bite; she
seemed to really enjoy it. I looked around for a place for
myself to sit, but the tent was a small, cramped space
between two food stands, with only three two-seater benches
for people to sit on, all of which were currently occupied.
Resigning myself to eating while standing, I was about to
take my first bite of yakisoba when Anzu stopped me.
“Hey, wait a minute. Kawasaki, could you scoot a little

that way?”
“Sure, how’s this?”
“Great, thanks. Come have a seat, Tono-kun.” Anzu

patted the barely thirty-centimeter space now open beside
her. I thanked her for her thoughtfulness and sat. It wasn’t
exactly comfortable, but it beat standing, and for that, I was
grateful. Though the fact that our shoulders constantly
rubbed against each other did put me a little on edge.
I opened the plastic takeout container that held my

yakisoba and dug in with my chopsticks, slurping the thick
noodles one by one. They were utterly drenched in sauce,
which might have made them a bit too rich for some, but I
loved it.
“Hey, Tono-kun!” Anzu tapped me on the shoulder. I
turned to look and saw that she was holding a piece of
takoyaki on a toothpick toward me with a big old grin. “Open
wide!”
“Er, no thanks. I’m good…”
Koharu gave me an instant death glare from over

Anzu’s shoulder, as if to say “You eat that goddamn takoyaki
right now, or else.” Fearing for my life, I caved to peer
pressure and opened wide to let her shove the whole thing
straight into my mouth.
“Oh God!” I yelped with my mouth full. “Iss so hod!

Hodhodhodhod!”
The girls burst out laughing. At least someone was

having fun at the expense of my melting taste buds. I tried
my best to roll it around inside my mouth like a hot potato as
I suffered through each painful bite before finally gulping the
molten ball of lava down my throat. It felt like my tongue was
bleeding by the end.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” said Anzu, coming down

from a massive giggle fit. “But it was Kawasaki’s idea, for the
record!”
“Hey, most guys would kill to have a pretty girl like you
feeding them! Be sure to savor each and every bite, now!”
Koharu snickered.
I honestly couldn’t savor much of anything given how

flaming hot it had been, but I nodded submissively
nonetheless. I proceeded to quietly work through about half
of my yakisoba until eventually, Anzu stood up and offered to
go buy us drinks.
“Want me to come with?” Koharu offered.
“No, that’s okay. If two of us leave, we risk losing our

spot. I’ll go by myself.”
“You sure? Well, okay. I’ll have a Cheerio Cola. Or any

cola, if they don’t have that.”
“I’ll take a bottle of Lifeguard, if they’ve got it,” I added.

“Otherwise I’ll have the same thing as her.”
“Got it. Be back in a bit.” Anzu turned to walk out of the

tent.
“Man, she’s changed…” Koharu said once she was gone.
“For real…” I nodded, actually agreeing with her for

once—hell, maybe for the first time in history. “Though I’d
say you’ve changed just as much, if not more. I mean, you’re
like a totally different person now.”
“Yeah… I know. Believe me, you’re not the first to

notice. Things sure have been different around here since
Anzu showed up,” Koharu mused affectionately.
She wasn’t wrong, though I still thought her personality

shift was by far the biggest shake-up Anzu’s school transfer
had wrought. It remained to be seen whether Koharu would
truly be happier with her new self in the long run, but at the
very least she’d matured an awful lot in a considerably short
amount of time. If it were me, I’d certainly prefer people
think of me as a kindhearted person rather than a terrifying
one.
“…I’m really grateful to her, you know. I hope that

someday I can repay the favor.”
As I watched Koharu gaze up at the roof of the tent with
reverent admiration in her eyes, my chest panged with
melancholy, which I quickly attempted to shake off by diving
headfirst into my remaining yakisoba.
A moment later, Anzu returned to the tent, and the

three of us made casual small talk as we enjoyed our drinks
together. Once we had a touch more room in our stomachs,
we bought a piece of castella sponge cake and split it three
ways. We’d utterly forgotten about the upcoming fireworks
until we heard the first shot go whistling into the sky outside.
“Aw, crap,” said Koharu. “The whole riverside’s

probably packed by now. We’d better hurry, or we’re never
gonna find a spot to sit.”
We crammed the rest of the sponge cake into our

mouths and washed it down with our respective drinks, then
threw our garbage in the trash can on our way to the river.
Just as Koharu had foretold, the embankment was heaving
with people. It wasn’t so packed that there wasn’t room to
stand, but the whole hillside was covered in blue tarps with
families and friend groups sprawled out on top of them. We
wove through the throngs of people, searching for a place to
sit down, until finally we managed to find a small open spot
just large enough for three. Koharu pulled her own checkered
picnic tarp from her tote bag and spread it on the bare earth.
It was clearly only designed to seat two, but we easily
managed to make it fit all three of us.
After settling in, I looked at the night sky with

anticipation, eager to finally see some fireworks. Before long,
there came a thunderous boom, followed by reverberations
so intense, they could probably defibrillate a person’s heart.
Then came the crackle and the flash as the glittering trails of
falling gunpowder painted a technicolor dreamscape across
the night sky. The vivid starburst seared its triumphant shape
into our retinas, then drooped lazily downward before finally
fizzling out into the darkness. Then came the next one, and
the next, each splaying new spectrums of color onto the jet-
black canvas.
“It’s beautiful…” I heard Anzu whisper beside me.
Another rocket whistled into the sky, though this one

was followed by a long pause before it finally exploded into
shimmering vapor trails that wriggled out from the center
like tiny fish swimming frantically upstream. The crowd
oohed and aahed as the golden branches came zigzagging
down to form the shape of a weeping willow. Next came a
gigantic flower, blooming brilliantly as it was joined by
dozens of smaller supporting fireworks. This was succeeded
by a wall of classic two-tone peonies, their color-changing
pistils zipping away like honeybees from the hive before
falling limp and cascading like waterfalls. Next on the
agenda: a bombardment of fast and frenetic star-mines.
Something soft rubbed against my right pinky. Anzu

had slid her hand right next to mine. Normally, this alone
would have sent my heart racing and turned me into a
nervous wreck, but in this moment, for whatever reason, all
the right moves came naturally. I slid my palm over the tarp
to take her hand in mine, and our fingers effortlessly
intertwined. Though our hands were cold at first, the
exchange of body heat helped us keep each other warm.
Then came the grand finale, as the biggest and boldest

fireworks of all lit the night sky in striking colors,
illuminating our faces in warm and ever-changing hues. It
was a dreamlike vignette plucked straight out of a storybook
ending.
“Whew! Man, that was good!” Koharu stretched her
back as we meandered up the riverwalk. Now that the main
event was over, we were ready to head home. The crowds had
thinned quite a bit, though the food stands and other
attractions were still going strong. The various vendors
shouted out their offerings in an attempt to lure a few last
customers as people filed out of the festival grounds.
“Excuse me! I’d like to buy a turn, please!” Koharu

called out, handing two hundred yen to the attendant at the
bouncy ball fishing stand. He took it and plopped a tiny
paper scoop in her hands. She knelt in front of the big water
tank, rolling her sleeves back as she psyched herself up to
fish out some bouncy balls like nobody’s business. “All right,
let’s see if I can get a hundred in one go this year!”
“Is that possible?” Anzu asked, looking genuinely

perplexed.
“Oh yeah. I’m a pro at this. Ain’t nobody ever scooped

more balls than me. I’ve been undefeated since elementary
school!”
I thought you swore you were only doing it to bring

back a souvenir for your brothers, I wanted to say, but I held
my tongue.
“Huh… I’ve never done it before, personally,” said

Anzu.
“Wait, seriously? Then why don’t we do it together?!

Excuse me, sir! Could we get another scoop over here? …All
right, now watch closely—there’s a trick to it, see. Before you
do anything else, you’re gonna want to dip the paper in the
water, ’cause that’ll—”
As Koharu hyped Anzu up to go fishing for bouncy
balls, I massaged my eyelids with my thumb and forefinger.
It seemed staring at all those bright fireworks for an
extended period of time had given me a headache, because
both my eyes and brain were throbbing in pain. It would
probably be a good idea to head home and go straight to bed
as soon as they were done with their little kid’s game.
Pinching the inner corners of my eyes, I took a deep breath
and turned my head toward the sky—when all of a sudden, I
caught a glimpse of a woman passing by in my peripheral
vision.
To be clear, all she did was casually walk past me. Yet
something about her put my brain on high alert.
I turned toward her as she walked away. She was

wearing a yukata and had her hair tied up on the back of her
head. I couldn’t tell much else from behind, not even how old
she was. Yet for some inexplicable reason, this crazy impulse
in my head told me I needed to get a better look. Before I
knew it, I was chasing after her, sprinting as fast as I could so
as not to lose her in the crowd. The more I closed the
distance between us, the more the strange emotions inside
me began to take on clearer and more discernible shapes.
Devotion… Dependence… Déjà vu… Nostalgia?
Then the woman stopped, turning to speak with the

forty-something-year-old man who stood beside her, and I
finally got a look at her face.
“Wha…”
I had to rub my eyes and do a double take.
It was my mother. The woman who’d thoroughly

disappeared on us five years prior. But how? How could she
be here? No, perhaps that was the wrong question. After all,
it wasn’t as if she had died. She just woke up one day and
decided to walk right out of my life without ever looking
back. She didn’t even handle the divorce paperwork herself;
she made her parents take care of that. Nevertheless, I
obviously should have known in the back of my head that
there was always the possibility that I would run into her
somewhere.
More importantly, who was that man beside her? Was

he her new partner? They seemed to be having a good time
together, anyway. My mother was laughing. Enjoying herself.
Content.
But what about me? What was I supposed to do? …No,

it went without saying. I would not say anything, pretend I
never saw her, and go home and forget about this. That was
the right thing to do. My mother had made her choice, and it
wasn’t my place to infringe on her happiness anymore.
Was I really okay with that? Walking away without

trying to get closure on any of the unanswered questions
she’d left me with? Like why she walked out on us, and if it
was my fault, or if she ever loved me in the first pl—
All of a sudden, she turned toward me.
Then our eyes met, and for a moment, time stood still.
The bustling sounds of the festival grew distant.
Everything around us started flowing in slow motion.
Neither of us moved a muscle.
We simply stood there, keenly aware of one another.
She knew who I was. And I knew who she was.

An eternity distilled into a few, fleeting seconds.
Then it was over, and not a moment later, her face

twisted in abject horror.
One of the corners of her mouth twitched with disgust,

and her lips trembled as though she were about to cry out for
help—like a prisoner who’d been thrown into a dungeon,
locked up in a cage with a ferocious, bloodthirsty monster.
That reaction told me more than words ever could. In her
eyes, I probably did look like some horrible abomination, the
very manifestation of her trauma that she’d spent the last five
years trying to forget.
My brain sent out a distress signal to every one of my

nerve endings, telling them to get me the hell out of there,
right now. So I turned on my heel and attempted to walk
away as calmly as I could.
I didn’t know what I’d expected. For her to apologize

for abandoning me? To tell me it wasn’t my fault, and she
didn’t hold anything against me? No, I knew better than to
get my hopes up. Yet somehow, it still felt like I’d been
grossly betrayed. My legs began to quake. I was so dizzy, I
thought I might faint. As I stumbled away, I bumped into
several different people walking in the opposite direction, a
couple of whom yelled at me. To be clear, I could see where I
was going just fine—it was only that my brain wasn’t
processing any sensory information whatsoever.
“Tono-kun?”
All of a sudden, Anzu was standing right in front of me.
“What’s the matter? Why’d you run off? …Hang on.

Why do you look so pale? Are you feeling all right?”
“Hanashiro…” I mumbled, walking to her with heavy,
plodding footsteps. Then I threw my arms around her.
“T-Tono-kun?!”
I held her firmly in my embrace, squeezing her delicate

frame as tightly as I could, skin touching skin, my chin
hanging over her shoulder. I couldn’t explain it—it was just
something I had to do. I knew that if I didn’t find something
to hold, something to anchor me, I’d be dragged into the
swirling vortex of emotions that now threatened to swallow
me whole. The water was rising, and I needed her now more
than ever. So, I held her close, so as not to be swept away.
At first, Anzu’s entire body seized up in shock. Then, bit

by bit, I felt her muscles relax, until eventually she let her
guard down completely and accepted me into her universe.
We stood there like that for a while, her holding me down as I
took shelter from the storm in the comfort of her existence,
my only source of warmth in the entire vacuum of space.
I don’t know how long it lasted, could have been five

seconds, could have been a full minute. However, when I
finally felt calmed down enough to stand on my own two feet
again, I pulled away…only to see that her cheeks were flushed
pink, which made me start blushing up a storm as well. What
the hell was I thinking, doing that right in the middle of a
public space? The people around us probably thought I was
some cringey lover boy who’d let myself get swept away by
the throes of intense passion.
“S-sorry, I just… I don’t know what came over me…” I

stammered.
“Are you okay?” Anzu asked, her voice full of genuine

concern.
Now that the heat of the moment had subsided, the
embarrassment had gone, and in its place came a sense of
newfound security and belonging. Like maybe there was a
place for me in this world after all. Like maybe I’d be all
right, so long as I had Anzu to keep me grounded.
“…Yeah. I’m okay now. C’mon, Kawasaki’s probably

getting tired of waiting.”
“You sure you’re all right…?”
“Yep. I’m all good, thanks to you. I owe you one.”
As we made our way back to where Koharu was

waiting, I said a silent farewell to my mother. I knew I’d
likely never cross paths with her again.
On the shuttle ride home, the bus was virtually empty.

The three of us sat side by side all the way in the back, me at
the window seat, staring out into the night and offering only
yes or no responses to Anzu and Koharu’s attempts to engage
me in conversation. I was officially ready for bed, and not
just due to eye strain. If anything, my exhaustion was more
mental than physical.
When I thought on that unfortunate encounter, I

realized that I had expected something more from my
mother. Maybe somewhere deep down, I’d always assumed
she would return to us once she recovered from the trauma
of losing Karen. I knew that was a pretty fanciful delusion on
my part, but it at least explained why I felt so crushed.
I’d known from the moment my mother walked out on

us that she’d never come back, and I thought I’d come to
terms with that. Yet merely seeing her face had given me a
resurgence of false hope. It seemed blood ties truly were the
hardest to sever. Maybe it was that blood connection that had
brought us together again, some invisible bond of fate. I liked
to imagine that it was, because it gave me renewed hope that
I might be reunited with Karen one day, given that she and I
shared a far, far stronger bond.
…No. It wasn’t a matter of “might”—I would see Karen

again. Someday very soon, in fact. Before the end of summer
vacation, I was going to head deep into the Urashima Tunnel,
and I wouldn’t return until I found her and brought her back.
That was my mission: my obligation as her brother.
After seeing Anzu and Koharu off at the station, I took a

ten-minute taxi ride home. When I walked in the front door,
I saw a pair of white high heels I didn’t recognize sitting in
the entryway. Apparently, my father had a guest, which was
unusual enough on its own, but a woman? Now that was a
first. I sneaked down the hall so as not to disturb them, but
then the living room door opened and my father poked his
head out.
“Oh, there you are, Kaoru! Was wondering when you’d

make it home!” he grinned, his face so red and slack-jawed
that I instantly knew he was drunk. He’d come home like this
a lot lately, but today he looked especially bad. “Well, don’t
just stand there! C’mon in and say hello!”
“Uh… Okay.”
I did as I was told and walked into the living room,

where I made immediate eye contact with the woman sitting
politely atop the tatami mat floor. She was a clean-cut young
lady who appeared to be in her mid-thirties, and her whitish
skin had an artificial sheen. She offered a pleasant greeting,
which I returned in kind. I looked at the table and saw a big
platter of catered sushi and a row of large beer bottles. Half
the sushi platter had been picked over, and they’d gone
through two of the beer bottles as well.
“Well, go on! Have a seat!” my father said.
“Sorry?”
“I said have a seat, my boy. Take a load off for a while.”
My father grabbed me by the shoulders and more or

less forced me to my knees. He was making it abundantly
clear that I had no say in the matter, but it was all so sudden
that I couldn’t really fathom what was going on. My father sat
beside me and put his arm around my neck with a giddy
smirk. His breath reeked of alcohol.
“This is my son, Kaoru,” he said. “He’s a sophomore at

Kozaki High.”
“Aww. He seems like a very well-mannered boy,” the

woman smiled.
“Oh, he is. He can cook, do laundry—you name it. Only

thing it seems he can’t do is shoot his poor old man a text
when he decides to go AWOL, ha ha ha!” he chuckled
heartily. “Oh, you know I’m just teasing, Kaoru. Hey—you
hungry? Feel free to have as much sushi as you like! It’s all
yours, son.”
“No, I’m fine, thanks…”
“This kid, I tell ya. Never been a very big eater. Though
it saves me money, so I dunno why I’m complaining, ha ha
ha!”
I just sat there in silence. My father’s words, his tone of
voice, his mannerisms, his expressions—it was all so
transparent. He was merely playing the part of a good father.
Like a costume party that only he had dressed up for. Why
was he trying so hard to give off the illusion that we had a
good relationship? Why had he insisted I come join them?
Who was this woman, anyway? She was clearly a fair bit
younger than my dad, so why were they speaking so candidly
with one another? Was she a distant relative? A co-worker? A
friend? My mind was filled to the brim with all sorts of
questions, but nary a single answer.
“Oh God, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce

you!” My father removed his arm from around my neck.
“Son, I’d like you to meet your new mom.”
…Huh? My “new mom”?
“I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while, but I’ve been
so busy with work. I wanted to wait for it to feel right, you
know? So, yeah. Sorry if this is all a little sudden, but that’s
where we’re at right now!”
What do you mean, “that’s where we’re at”?
“Y’see, she and I have known each other from work for
quite a while, but we only really hit it off about a month ago
when”—“and so we met up for lunch a few times and”—“she’s
been married once before too, so”—“and then when you ran
away from home that one time, she”—“emotional support,
and”—
The words he was saying barely registered in my brain.

My head spun like crazy. I was nauseous. What the hell was
this crap? And on the same day I’d had a traumatic
experience with my old mom, no less? Could I really not
catch a goddamn break?
Yet the two of them happily carried on, totally
undeterred by my lack of enthusiasm.
“Anyway, c’mon! Let’s have a toast!”
“Didn’t your doctor tell you not to drink so much?”
“Aw, it’s no big deal! Today’s a special occasion!”
“I don’t think that excuse would fly with him…”
“Quit worrying and drink with me, already!”
“Oh, for crying out loud…”
“God, we need to go out for real seafood again

sometime soon.”
“Yeah, after things calm down at work a little bit,

maybe.”
“Oh, I’m sure they will before too long.”
“I’d love to take a nice overseas vacation too.”
“Did I mention I’ve been saving up for a new car?”
“We’ll have all the time in the world once we retire.”
“Would be nice to take up some new hobbies.”
“Buy a nice little house somewhere.”
My old, cranky father and the woman he intended to

forcibly instate as my new mother continued to paint their
vision of their idyllic future together. I could already tell
there was no room for me in that frame. After all, the only
way to be a part of a family was to be born into it and thus
connected by blood, or to love someone so much you wanted
to start a new one with them. I had neither love nor blood
ties with either of these two, so where the hell did that leave
me in this equation?
“Oh, right, just so you know, Kaoru, we’re going to be

moving out of this place sometime in the not-so-distant
future.”
“…Wait, what?”
“I’ve got a new job lined up and everything,” my father

explained excitedly, totally ignoring the clear displeasure
drawn over my face. “We’re gonna get out of Kozaki and
move into a nice condominium. It’ll be a little bit cramped
compared to this place, sure, but things are gonna be a whole
lot more convenient over there, I promise.”
The woman across from us nodded enthusiastically to

emphasize the point.
“Oh, and don’t worry about your educational career.

We’ll be able to sell this place for a nice chunk of change.
Then we can afford to send you all the way through college,
or whatever technical school you like. We can even set you up
with enough money to rent your own place if you want to go
somewhere farther away. The three of us are gonna have a
fresh start together in a brand-new city, in a brand-new
home.”
A fresh start.
“Isn’t that exciting, son? There’s a new life ahead of us,

waiting just around the corner.”
I thought I felt a blood vessel pop inside my brain. The

pores on my scalp flared, and my vision went red.
Piss off, old man. What about Karen, huh? You just
gonna try to leave her in the past? Just gonna move on with
your happy little carefree life and forget all about your only
child of flesh and blood? You sicken me. How dare you not
spend every waking hour of every day in misery and regret
over what happened to her. How dare you not keep her in
the forefront of your mind at all times. When you stop doing
that, it really will be like she never existed to begin with.
Don’t you realize that, you stupid asshole?
I wanted to grab one of those empty beer bottles and

smash it over his head. I wanted to flip the table and punch a
hole in the screen door. I wanted to give in to the rage inside
and let it take control. All I could do was clench my fists and
grit my teeth. I didn’t know how to actually act on any of
these urges, so the anger could only build inside me until it
reached a breaking point. Then the fury toward my father
turned into frustration with myself, until eventually I
couldn’t hold it in any longer, and the tears came gushing
out.
“Whoa, what the… Kaoru? …Are you crying?” my father

asked with concern, peering up into my downturned face.
Don’t look at me, you piece of crap.
“What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?” asked the

woman.
Stay out of this, you goddamn home-wrecker.
“…Oh, I see what’s going on here.” My father placed his

hand on my shoulder.
I said, don’t touch me.
“Don’t you worry, Kaoru. I understand that you have a
lot of reservations about this. It’s a pretty big change. But I
know the three of us can get through it if we work together.
Can you try to do that for me, son?”
As I looked at his smiling face, full of newfound hope

and aspirations, I finally understood. My father was
determined to pretend like none of it had ever happened. Not
Karen’s death, not my mother leaving, not the horrible way
he’d treated me—he was trying to leave all that emotional
baggage in the past so he could go skipping off to find his
happily-ever-after with his shiny new wife. Just like my
mother seemed to be doing, judging from her horror at the
mere sight of me. The two of them really were perfect for
each other in that sense. Too bad they’d already divorced.
All at once, the red-hot rage that had been simmering

in my head dropped to below freezing, and a chill ran down
my spine. Only a moment later, my stomach churned.
Then I puked. All over the table.
The woman shrieked as the cascading river of light-

brown vomit and half-digested foodstuffs dribbled onto the
tatami floor. Even after I’d thrown up every last chunk of the
yakisoba and sponge cake I’d eaten at the festival, the taste of
Lifeguard mixed with bile remained in my mouth as I
continued retching every last drop of fluid in my stomach.
“H-hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” my

father yelled, forgetting to maintain his loving parent act as
he pushed me to the ground. As soon as my stomach was
empty and I finally finished dry heaving, I got up and,
without cleaning up my own mess, ran out of the living room,
scrambled up the stairs, and locked my door. Finally safe in
my bedroom, I wiped my mouth with a copious number of
tissues, then climbed into bed and pulled the covers over my
head. It was the only way to calm myself down, even if it
meant overheating in a vacuum-sealed pocket of my own
putrid breath.
I couldn’t help myself; it was simply too nauseating

being down there. The stupid smug look on my father’s face
as he talked wistfully about our future, and the way the
woman hung on his every stupid word with rapt attention
like he was some spellbinding orator delivering truly
insightful wisdom—it was vile, and depraved, and disgusting
all around. If I’d stayed there even a second longer, I would
have done something I regretted. Hell, I was getting pissed
again just thinking about it.
As I swallowed repeatedly in a vain attempt to use my

saliva to soothe the burn of gastric acid in my throat, my cell
phone buzzed in my pocket. Figuring it was my father telling
me to come back downstairs, I rolled my eyes as I pulled it
out to see whatever nonsense he’d sent. In actuality, it was a
text message from Anzu.
“Thanks for coming out tonight. I had a really good

time.”
That was all that she wrote. Yet funnily enough, it

quelled the demons inside me and set my soul at ease. She
really was my only safe harbor in this world. I definitely
wouldn’t have been able to hold it together after what
happened at the festival earlier if she hadn’t been there to
support me. Never in my life had I let myself lean on another
human being before—certainly not to the extent of breaking
down and wrapping my arms around them, at least. Only
Anzu had seen me at my most vulnerable, and I couldn’t
possibly express how grateful I was to her for accepting me,
even as the flawed screwup that I was. My respect for her was
renewed after tonight, welling alongside a strange new
emotion, an almost magnetic affection that I couldn’t resist.
Anzu had officially cemented herself as an irreplaceable part
of my world.
I replied to her text with a simple “Same here,” then

drifted into a deep, murky sleep, still clutching my cell phone
tightly in my hand.
August 1st, the day before our final expedition into the
Urashima Tunnel. It was 10 a.m., and the cicadas were out in
full force. I sat at my writing desk, composing a letter to my
father that ultimately boiled down to “Hey, I’m running away
from home, and I’m probably not coming back.” I was mainly
leaving it so my father couldn’t get the police involved to look
for me after I was gone, thinking I’d been murdered or
abducted. By making my intent to leave clear in advance,
they wouldn’t have cause to launch a full-on search party for
me. At least, that was what Anzu said.
My primary source of anxiety was that they might

somehow track us to the Urashima Tunnel and unwittingly
walk inside trying to find us, and there was no telling what
problems that might cause. Worst case, we would be
apprehended before we got our wishes granted, or they
would seal off the tunnel and trap us inside. That was one
possibility I definitely wanted to avoid.
Of course, that was only if my father managed to

successfully request a search party, and even that was
unlikely, so I wasn’t all that concerned. I knew my father
wouldn’t try that hard to find me before giving up—and from
what I’d heard about Anzu’s parents, they wouldn’t either.
My father had become extremely bitter toward me ever since
the night of the festival when I puked all over the living room
floor. He hadn’t asked me if I was feeling okay, or even
acknowledged me when I walked in the room or came home.
He did give me dirty looks from time to time, however. He
was pretty much treating me like a leper, an obstacle
standing between him and his ideal new life. I would be out
of his hair very soon, so I hoped he could be patient just a
little bit longer.
“…All right.”
With the letter finished, I went over the things I

planned to bring with me into the Urashima Tunnel one last
time. I had everything laid out on the floor: my flashlight, my
wristwatch, my wallet, four packages of Calorie Mate, and a
two-and-a-half-liter thermos for drinking water. I shoved
them all inside my big hiking backpack and put it on to test
the weight. Surprisingly, it was only about half as heavy as
my normal school book bag when filled with textbooks. Even
after filling up the thermos with water, it’d still be pretty
damn light. The plan was to power walk—not run—the whole
way once we made it past the torii, so we needed to keep our
load as light as possible. This was another one of Anzu’s
ideas. I felt like I wasn’t really pulling my weight as her
partner, what with her being the one always coming up with
the good ideas, but that just went to show her intelligence. If
her wisdom made it more likely for the expedition to be a
success, then I’d have been a fool not to take advantage.
The time was finally drawing near. Soon, Karen and I

would be reunited. The plan was to take the whole day off
and rest up for the big day. Yet I’d barely curled up in bed
with a nice volume of manga when I heard my phone ring. It
wasn’t just a text either, it was an actual phone call—and
from Anzu, no less.
“Yes, hello?” I answered.
“Hey, Tono-kun? Sorry for calling you out of the blue

like this.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. What’s up?”
“Are you busy right now? Could we meet up and talk for
a bit?”
“Sure, no problem. Where at? The tunnel?”
“Preferably not… I’d like to sit somewhere indoors, if

possible.”
I glanced at the clock. “Then how ’bout the café? If we

wait a bit, we could grab lunch while we’re at it.”
“Okay. Which café?”
“The one right by the school. Why don’t you meet me in

front of the main gate at around noon or so?”
“Got it. I’ll see you at noon, then.”
“Sounds good. Bye.”
End call.
I wondered what she wanted to talk about. Maybe she

wanted to have a pre-game meeting before the big
expedition. One last chance to go over things face-to-face,
since we’d only talked via text for the past week. Either way,
I’d find out soon enough.
The hot sun radiated mercilessly off the asphalt, baking

the bottoms of my feet through my rubber soles. A sudden
gust of ocean wind blew past, caressing my cheeks with even
more sweltering humidity. As I stood waiting for Anzu in
front of the school, a whole half hour before we’d agreed to
meet, it felt like I was sitting in a sauna. Unfortunately, I had
no other option; if I’d taken the next train, I would’ve arrived
well past noon. One of the many things I hated about living
out in the sticks. About ten minutes later, the local bus rolled
up to the stop in front of campus and let Anzu out onto the
sidewalk. I waved at her, and she jogged to where I stood.
“You’re here pretty early. Hope I didn’t make you wait

too long,” she said, slightly apologetic.
“Nah, just got here myself.”
“Oh, good. Well then, shall we?”
I nodded, and we headed down the main drag, walking

shoulder to shoulder along the sidewalk in the direction of
the café. From a bird’s-eye view, the area would have looked
like a ghost town or an abandoned movie set, with stray cats
and crows far outnumbering the number of people on the
streets. Occasionally, a small pickup truck went puttering by,
but other than that, the only sound was the distinctive cry of
the min-min cicada.
“No offense, but this really is a Podunk little country

bumpkin town.”
“Ha ha… Sorry if it’s not up to snuff for you. What was
your old neighborhood like?”
“Not nearly as metropolitan as you’re imagining. Pretty

basic residential area, actually.”
“Wow, really? You mean you didn’t waltz on over to

Harajuku and eat fancy crêpes after school on a daily basis?”
Anzu snickered. “You’ve got an awfully specific mental

image of Tokyo life. I mean, sure, there are kids who do stuff
like that, but I only knew two or three at most. Downtown is
far.”
“Huh. That’s wild to me.”
“Just the way it is.” Anzu shrugged before pivoting the

conversation back to me. “So, what do you usually do after
school?”
“Oh, just whatever. Read manga, cook dinner, chill.

Basic stuff.”
“Wow, you know how to cook?”
“I dabble.”
“Maybe one of these days you’ll have to invite me over

for dinner.”
As we carried on making small talk, I quietly realized

that something felt off about Anzu. She seemed awfully
chipper and was being far more talkative than usual. I would
normally have considered this a positive development, yet
something about her demeanor suggested she was desperate
to keep the conversation from dying and was filling the void
with whatever words she could find. Almost like she was
trying to butter me up before telling me something she knew
I wouldn’t want to hear… Then again, it was a very minor
behavior shift, all things considered, so maybe I was
imagining it.
We walked down the covered sidewalk of the depressed

shopping district beneath a canopy of exposed steel beams. It
had certainly seen better days; the number of shuttered
storefronts far outweighed the number of shops still in
business. A stray cat lazily walked in front of us from behind
a hat shop that I had never once seen a single customer enter.
“Is there really a café around here?” Anzu asked,
growing visibly concerned.
“Yeah, it’s a little hole-in-the-wall right up… Aha. There

it is.” I pointed to a signboard they had posted out at the
roadside. We proudly serve KEY COFFEE, said the
manufacturer-provided advertisement. Next to the entrance
was a glass display case featuring fake versions of some of the
food offerings: a rice omelet, Napolitan spaghetti, et cetera. A
bell jingled as we opened the door and were greeted by the
old woman that ran the joint, who was resting her head in
her hands on the countertop.
“Hey, kids. Place is empty, so go ahead and sit

wherever,” she said, before getting up and heading back into
the kitchen. She was obviously annoyed to have her
downtime interrupted. We navigated the narrow, dimly lit
interior, took a seat at a table for two, and proceeded to
peruse the menu. I quickly settled on the rice omelet, while
Anzu ordered the deli sandwich. We also requested a pot of
coffee for after our meal. The woman scribbled our orders
down, then brought two glasses of ice water. I downed mine
in a single gulp and plunked the empty cup on the tabletop.
“So what did you—”
“So listen, um—”
Whoops. We’d both started talking at the exact same

time. I scratched my head sheepishly and urged Anzu to go
first.
“Oh, no, I just, uh… I was wondering if you come to this

place very often,” she said.
“Mmm, every now and then. Maybe once a month or

so?”
“Just by yourself?”
“Yeah, since junior high, at least. Before that, Karen

and I used to come together.” Usually also with my mother
and father, mind you, but I felt no need to mention them
specifically.
“Interesting… What kind of kid was Karen, anyway? I

don’t think I’ve ever asked.”
“Aw, man. She was great… Super cute, and a pretty

smart cookie to boot. Just insanely good at reading the room
and picking up on social cues. If she’d lived to junior high, I
guarantee she would’ve been the most popular girl in school.”
“Wow. I’d really love to hear more about her. Got any
fun stories you can share?”
“Oh, do I ever! I still remember this one time, back

when she was only three years old, when we were—”
I started rattling off a number of hilarious childhood

anecdotes, but all the while, I was thinking to myself that
something didn’t feel right. Obviously I was glad for the
opportunity to talk about my little sister, but why did Anzu
suddenly seem so interested in knowing more about her?
Surely this couldn’t be the reason she’d called me to meet.
After finally reaching a stopping point in my recounting of
classic Karen moments, I decided to ask.
“So hey, what did you want to talk abou—”
“All righty, kids. One rice omelet and one deli

sandwich.”
Unfortunately, our food showed up before I could

finish.
“Let’s eat first,” Anzu suggested.
“Y-yeah, okay.”
It looked like I’d have to wait until after lunch. Oh well.

Using the bottom of my spoon, I spread the ketchup out over
the top of the omelet. It was your average, simple rice omelet,
a thin layer of egg wrapped around chicken fried rice, but it
was the most cost-effective item on the menu from a price-
per-calorie standpoint, so I made a habit of ordering it every
time.
I glanced up at Anzu as I cut my omelet with the side of

my fork. Her deli sandwich was pretty hefty, layers upon
layers of ham, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese on French bread.
She clutched it with both hands like a hamburger, letting her
teeth sink in deep. I had to admit, it looked pretty good. I
made a mental note to order that the next time I came—then
remembered that this place would very likely be gone by the
time we returned from the Urashima Tunnel. As I stared with
melancholy at the sandwich I’d likely never have a chance to
try, I noticed something: Anzu’s hands were trembling.
“Hey, Hanashiro?”
“Mmf…? Whash up?”
“Is the AC bothering you?”
She swallowed her bite. “No, it’s fine.”
“Well, all right… You’ve got some mustard on you, by

the way.” I rubbed my thumb against the corner of my own
mouth to indicate where it was.
Anzu went pink and quickly wiped it off with a napkin.

It seemed she was totally oblivious to the fact that her hands
were shaking. I thought it strange but finished my meal
nonetheless. After taking our dishes away, the woman
brought out our after-lunch coffee.
“So you mentioned over the phone you wanted to talk

about something?” I said.
“I wanted to ask you about your little sister.” Anzu

poured milk and sugar into her coffee and stirred it around.
“I figured I should know a bit more about her, or else how am
I supposed to find her in the tunnel?” Her spoon clinked
rhythmically against the sides of the ceramic coffee cup.
“Oh, is that right? You’d think you would’ve asked more

about what she looked like than her personality, in that case.”
“I guess I got a little sidetracked by all the great stories

you were telling. Rest assured, I was planning to ask about
her appearance as well.”
“C’mon, there’s gotta be something more to it than that,

right? I mean, these are all things you could have asked over
the phone.”
“I disagree. I always prefer to have more involved

discussions in person—it’s more efficient.”
“…You’re spilling your coffee.” Anzu froze and abruptly

stopped stirring. Then, biting her lip anxiously, she lifted the
spoon out of the cup and set it gently on the saucer.
“Look, Hanashiro. I’m not trying to grill you here…but

are you sure there isn’t something you’re not telling me?
Some other reason you called me here today?”
She didn’t respond.
“Listen. I don’t want either of us to walk into that
tunnel tomorrow with any lingering regrets or uncertainties.
So why don’t you come right out and say it? Whatever it is, I
promise I won’t think any less of you.”
Anzu looked at me, eyes wavering nervously. It was

clearly something she was very reluctant to discuss. I sat
straight and braced myself for whatever it might be, resolved
to keep calm and listen even if it was something I didn’t want
to hear.
Anzu took a long, long sip of her coffee, then opened

her mouth. “…Have you ever heard of Giorno Monthly?”
“Huh?”
Of all the things I might have guessed she was about to

say, that certainly wouldn’t have been among them. Giorno
Monthly was a manga periodical aimed largely at an older
audience. I’d leafed through it a few times at my usual barber
shop; it featured a wide variety of more mature genres, from
dark fantasy to adult contemporary slice-of-life. In general,
you could always tell that the authors had a really unique
creative vision with every story they published.
“Yeah, I’m familiar. What about it?”
“…Four times a year, they do this thing called the

Rising Star Competition, where they take original manga
submissions from aspiring artists and select one winner for
actual publication.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And, well…I actually entered my own story in this

spring’s competition a few months back. They finally
published the results in this month’s issue, which went on
sale today.”
Aha. That explained why Anzu had made us wait until

August 2nd to do our expedition into the Urashima Tunnel.
I’d found it highly odd that she picked the 2nd over the 1st,
but now I understood; Anzu had wanted to see the results
before we left. That made sense, of course. Obviously, if she
did win, it would be pretty unfortunate for her to vanish for
several years without ever knowing.
Wait… Hang on a minute.
“You’re not about to tell me you won, are you?”
“No, no. I definitely lost.”
“Oh… G-gotcha.”
“But,” Anzu continued before I could offer my

condolences, “as it turns out, there was an editor on the
publishing team who really took a liking to my submission,
even though it didn’t win… And they got in touch with me to
ask if I’d be interested in working on a manga together.”
“…Wait. S-seriously? So your story’s gonna get

published after all?!”
“No, not exactly. It just means that I’ll have my own

editor now, who I can work with on any hypothetical future
projects. However, I haven’t heard anything more than
that…”
“Wow. Your own editor, huh…”
The idea was so foreign to me that it was starting to feel

like I wasn’t worthy of existing in Anzu’s orbit anymore.
When I made eye contact with her, it looked almost as if she
was being rapidly pulled away from me, like one of those
stretching corridor scenes in horror movies. Vertigo effect.
“So, uh… What does this mean, exactly? Now that

you’ve got an editor, where do you go from here? Y’know, it’s
funny, I read a lot of manga, but it feels like I know
shockingly little about how it’s actually made.”
“Well, the vast majority of people keep entering

competitions until they win one. In theory, I’d keep writing
manuscripts, send them to my editor for review, make
adjustments based on their feedback, and hopefully improve
the end product as a result… At least, that’s how I assume it
goes. I’m not much of an expert myself.”
“So is that what you’ve decided you wanna do now?” I

asked. Maybe I was pushing too hard, because her brow
furrowed slightly.
“This isn’t about what I ‘want.’ All it means is that

there’s an editor out there who likes my work, which is kinda
cool. That’s it. End of story. Doesn’t change my plans in the
slightest.”
“Well, the ‘plan’ was to head into the Urashima Tunnel

tomorrow… Are you sure you’re still cool with that?”
It was entirely possible that we’d be leaving the world

we knew behind for months, even years. Something told me
Anzu’s new editor wasn’t going to sit around waiting for her
next manga for that long, and I didn’t know the first thing
about the manga business.
“…That’s a ridiculous question,” said Anzu. “Do you

seriously think I’d bow out at the last minute just because
they randomly decided to assign me an editor? Sure, it’ll be a
shame to pass up that opportunity, but who cares? The
tunnel’s going to grant me something much more valuable
than one measly editor. It’s not like this means I’ll have to
give up writing manga for the rest of my life or anything
either. Now that I know my work is worth something, I can
double down on it as soon as we make it back out. So please—
just let the editor thing go already, okay?”
If that’s really how you feel, then why do you look so

distressed? I thought being a manga artist was the only
thing you ever wanted. Aren’t you ecstatic to finally get
some recognition from the pros? Are you really gonna
throw away this once in a lifetime opportunity to make it
big, just like that? Like hell you are.
“I think you should really give this more thought,

Hanashiro. Let’s at least postpone the expedition for now.”
Anzu shook her head vehemently as though I’d asked

her to break her moral code. “Absolutely not. It’ll only make
it harder to let go in the long run.”
“Harder to let go of what?”
“Of everything. My manga career, my friendship with

Koharu—all the dead weight tying me down that might make
me reconsider going into the tunnel. The longer we put this
off, the harder it’s going to be to cut those ties and leave
everything behind. If we don’t kiss the world goodbye and
launch the expedition right now, I’m afraid we never will.”
“Aw, c’mon. Don’t call your friend dead weight. And

don’t talk about your manga that way. I know how important
to you it is.”
“I mean, it’s just a stupid hobby…”
“Listen to me. I can tell you’re getting cold feet. You
wouldn’t have called me here to talk if you weren’t. If you’re
having second thoughts, then we’ve gotta seriously pump the
breaks and reconsider our game plan.”
“Argh…” Anzu groaned, placing her elbows on the table

and holding her head in her hands. Her bangs hung like
drapes over the table as she let out a whine of distress. “I
don’t know what’s best for me in the long run… What should
I…?”
I gazed at the ceiling fan overhead, its motor whirring

softly as it spun in circles around a single fixed point, around
and around and around again. I made my decision.
“We’ll postpone it for now. It’ll give us both time to

think harder about what we really want.”
“…Yeah, okay.”
Paying no mind to how utterly heartbroken this seemed

to leave Anzu, I lifted my coffee cup and poured its lukewarm
contents down my throat.
Even after we’d settled up with the owner and stepped

out of the café, Anzu looked pretty despondent: her shoulders
sagged, and her eyes were fixed diagonally on the ground.
The whole way home, neither of us really said a word, and
the few times I did try to strike up a conversation, she only
gave one- or two-word answers. Eventually, I gave up
entirely, figuring it would do more harm than good to
attempt to forcibly cheer her up. So we walked in silence the
rest of the way to the bus stop in front of the school.
Originally, I planned to say goodbye to Anzu and head to the
train station right away, but I didn’t feel right leaving her in
this emotionally disheveled state, so I decided to hang back
and wait with her until her bus arrived.
“…I’m really sorry,” she said abruptly, breaking the

silence.
“Nah, it’s cool. Not like either of us did anything wrong

here.”
“But…you’ve been waiting so long to see your sister

again, and now because of me…”
Anzu sniffled. She seemed to feel much worse about

this than I’d realized. Scratching my head restlessly, I tried to
summon the most reassuring voice I could muster.
“Aw, c’mon. Cheer up, buttercup. I hate to see a pretty

girl cry.”
“Stop, I’m being serious here…”
“So was I.”
I placed my hands on Anzu’s shoulders, and she jerked

back a bit. She had such a delicate frame; I could feel the
exact shape of her clavicles through her skin. I squeezed her
shoulders gently, and a tremor ran through her. I didn’t let
go and instead brought my face closer—close enough to see
myself reflected in her teary eyes, between each beat of her
long lashes.
“Wh-what?” she asked.
“…You really are pretty, though. You know that?”
“Huh…?”
“I mean, you’ve got big, beautiful eyes, perfect skin, a
cute little nose… That’s about as perfect as a face can get. You
could be a model if you really wanted to. Hell, you’re prettier
than half those magazine girls already.”
Anzu’s face went crimson, to the point that I almost

expected steam to pour out of her ears. Standing this close to
her, I could see each and every little shift in her expression
oh-so-perfectly.
“C-cut it out, Tono-kun… What’s gotten into you all of a

sudden…?”
Anzu tried to cover her face, but I took her wrists and
pulled them away, holding them high over her head in a
forced “I surrender” pose. Then I went on, in a voice loud
enough for every teacher and student on campus to hear:
“Face it, Hanashiro! You’re a total babe! You’re both

drop-dead gorgeous and irresistibly adorable! You’ve gotta
be the cutest girl in the whole wide world!”
This time, I thought I really did see steam coming out

her ears.
“W-would you knock it off?!” Anzu hissed, wresting her

hands free so that she could use them to cover my mouth.
“Wh-what the hell is wrong with you?! Have you gone
completely insane?!”
“Ha ha ha… Sorry, sorry. Just thought it might be a

quick and easy way to cheer you up.”
“You are literally unbelievable…” Anzu left out a sharp,

huffing sigh of disdain. A moment later, just as I’d hoped, I
heard a little “pfft”—and then the levee broke, and she burst
out laughing. “Pfft ha ha! Ah ha ha ha! Oh God, my sides!
How can you be so dumb?! I’m dying! Aha ha ha ha ha!”
Seeing her cackle uncontrollably made me start to feel

pretty silly too, and before long, I busted up laughing right
along with her, impervious to the judgmental glances we
received from the occasional passersby. The laughter came
like a raging fire from deep within; each time I thought we
were finished, the coals reignited and flared all over again.
Before long, it felt like we’d forgotten what the joke was in
the first place and were laughing at the fact we’d been
laughing for so long. Finally, when my cheeks were soft and
sore, the giddiness mercifully abated. We were both
drenched in sweat and wholly out of breath.
“Holy crap, I’m exhausted,” I said, still panting.

“Sheesh, Hanashiro. Why’d you have to go and make me
laugh for so long?”
“Me? You’re the one who started it… God, my abs hurt
after that.” Anzu still snickered a little as she wiped the tears
from the corners of her eyes. It was only a simple gesture, yet
on her, for reasons beyond me, I found it oddly alluring, even
seductive.
“Man, you’ve got a really attractive laugh, though,” I

said. “Anyone ever told you that?”
“Oh, no you don’t! I’m not letting you get me riled up

again… Get outta here, you!” Anzu turned away in a cutesy
huff. I found myself thinking that it was like a scene straight
out of a teen romance manga, and I savored the unique thrill
of awkward, adolescent flirtation.
Then, as if right on cue, Anzu’s ride rolled up to the bus

stop, and the automatic doors opened. She shot me a playful
smirk and hopped aboard.
“All right. I guess we’ll be in touch.”
“Yep. See ya later.”
With a loud whoosh of compressed air, the automatic

doors closed, and the bus pulled away from the sidewalk. I
stood there and watched it go until it was completely out of
sight. Behind the obnoxious cacophony of cicadas, I heard
muffled wind instruments begin to play out of tune. It
seemed that wind ensemble practice had begun. If I listened
closer, I detected the sound of one of the sports teams
shouting the names of different stretches as they wound
down for the day. To be sure, it was about the time when club
activities normally wrapped up. If I stayed much longer, I’d
see a fair number of students walking out the main gate.
“…Guess I’d better get going.”
I set off down the sidewalk toward the train station.

When I looked above me, the sky overhead was so
unbelievably blue, it almost didn’t look real.
I felt so alive.
Chapter 5:
Run
I T HAD BEEN THREE DAYS since Kaoru and I met for lunch
at the café. I was sitting on my bed, hugging my knees to my
chest and fiddling with my cell phone. My palms were
sweating a bit despite the AC, perhaps a sign that I was more
nervous than I realized. I opened my address book and
scrolled down to Kaoru’s name, then took a deep breath.
“…Come on. You can do this.”
I pressed the call button. Then I waited.
Three days prior, I’d purchased the latest issue of

Giorno Monthly from the local bookstore first thing in the
morning and learned that I’d lost the spring competition.
Though in all honesty, I had no delusions about my work
being award-worthy to begin with, so it wasn’t a huge
letdown. In a way, it came as a small relief, allowing me to
shift my focus and devote myself fully to the Urashima
Tunnel expedition with no lingering doubts.
Shortly thereafter, I received a phone call from

someone who introduced themselves as an editor for the
magazine. After briefly verifying my credentials, he offered
his condolences to me for not winning the contest but said
that he had felt “a spark of something” in my work. It wasn’t
the most specific appraisal, to be sure, yet it made me do a
stupid little happy dance. That emotional high didn’t last
long, as he proceeded to rattle off a laundry list of ways in
which my submission was sorely lacking. You can’t do X, you
should’ve done Y for this part, why in the world didn’t you do
Z, et cetera. I tried my best to answer his questions,
discombobulated though I was, and in the end he suggested
we meet up in person sometime to discuss specifics, then
hung up. The phone call lasted more than thirty minutes, yet
for me, it felt like the blink of an eye.
Then it hit me: I had a choice to make. Would I pursue

this new opportunity and work toward creating manga
professionally, or would I go into the Urashima Tunnel to
seek a greater purpose in life regardless? It was a difficult
conundrum, to be sure. After going back and forth in my
head over and over to no avail, I decided to look to Kaoru for
guidance. That didn’t help either, unfortunately. All it did
was postpone the expedition, and now I was extra
determined to come to a final decision before I delayed him
any further. I spent every waking hour deliberating with
myself. Three days later, on the morning of August 4th,
I finally made up my mind.
I would venture into the Urashima Tunnel after all. I

couldn’t leave Kaoru in the lurch. I jumped into action. First,
I called the editor and let him know I really appreciated the
offer but that I had to respectfully decline due to personal
reasons. I was prepared to have to explain myself a fair bit,
but he just said “okay” without asking why. I was grateful
that the call went smoothly, though it made me wonder if
he’d been feeding me a line with all that talk about my
“potential,” which was a pretty crappy feeling, to be honest.
At least now I had nothing left to have misgivings about. I
wanted to share this news with Kaoru as soon as possible, so
I took a deep breath and dialed him up. But then…
“We’re sorry, but the number you have dialed is

currently unavailable. Either it has been disconnected or it
is somewhere beyond the reach of its local service provider.”
So either his cell phone was dead or he was out of

range. Given how terrible cell service generally was in Kozaki,
I tended to assume it was the latter. My phone had lost signal
while I was riding the bus down the main drag, so it wasn’t
all that uncommon. Yet for whatever reason, I felt unusually
apprehensive. I waited three minutes, then dialed again.

currently unavailable. Either it has been disconnected—”
I waited another three minutes.

currently unavailable. Either—”
I waited thirty.
“We’re sorry, but the number you have dialed—”
I stood from my bed. No way. He wouldn’t. Worst-case

scenarios oozed one by one from my brain, slowly filling my
head with a flood of doubts. The pit of my stomach tightened
as each breath grew shallower than the last. I called Koharu
as fast as I could.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Kawasaki? Do you know where Tono-kun’s house is? If

so, could you tell me?”
“Huh? Yeah, I know where he lives. Why do you ask?”
“Sorry, can’t explain right now. Could you just tell me?
It’s extremely time sensitive.”
“S-sure, no problem. Uhhh, I guess I’ll text you his
address, and you can go from there?”
“Cool, thanks.”
I hung up, and the follow-up text from Koharu came

pretty quickly. It had Kaoru’s address, as well as a line
underneath saying she was worried about me and that we
should talk soon. I hated not offering her more of an
explanation, but I really didn’t have time. I grabbed my
wallet, slipped on my sandals in the entryway, and dashed
out the front door. As I ran down the hallway of the
condominium, I checked my phone to see when the next
train to the station by Kaoru’s house would run. Looked like
at least an hour. God, I hate living in the sticks.
I grabbed my bike from the bike lot and straddled one

leg over it, then sped off in the direction of Kaoru’s
neighborhood. It was a straight shot for a while, followed by a
steep uphill climb. While I was generally quite confident in
my athletic abilities, these hilly country roads could be pretty
grueling at times. The uneven pavement slowly wore away
my stamina, and sweat poured down my entire body. My hair
refused to stay out of my eyes as I pedaled up the steep
incline. When I finally reached the top, I could see all the way
across the open ocean. It was a gorgeous view, but I had no
time to enjoy it, so I bombed down the opposite side of the
hill. After passing an old fire station with a worn, red
emergency light over the garage, I spotted a big old-
fashioned house. That was the place.
I parked my bike at the edge of the property and put

down the kickstand, then ran to ring the bell. After about a
minute of waiting, an older gentleman answered the door
with one hand while scratching his lower back with the other.
I assumed this was Kaoru’s father, though the two looked
absolutely nothing alike.
“Hi there… Can I help you?” he asked.
“Hello, sir. I’m Ton… I’m one of your son’s classmates.

Is he around?”
The man ceased his back-scratching and gave me a

suspicious look.
“No… I’m afraid he’s out of the house at the moment.”
“How long has he been gone?”
“Uhhh… Since day before yesterday, I think?”
I felt the blood drain from my face. In its place came

another wave of anxiety and urgency. “Where did he go?!
Please, you have to tell me!”
“Hell if I know. Figured he’s staying the night at a

friend’s house. He’s been doing that an awful lot lately.”
“…All right. Thank you for your help, sir.” I bowed

quickly before dashing back to hop on my bike once more. If
he’s been gone for two days, that can only mean one thing…
I tried my best to shake that harrowing thought from my
mind. There was no point in stressing myself out even more.
I just had to hurry. And pray.
As I pedaled as fast as I could down the winding roads

toward the Urashima Tunnel, I felt a dampness on my cheek.
Thinking it was a stray bead of sweat, I wiped it away, only
for it to quickly be replaced by a dozen more rapid-fire
droplets. Oh God. It was raining; and here it had been so
pleasant out only a minute ago. The light sprinkle quickly
turned to a full-on shower, and I was soaked from head to
toe. With each rotation of the wheels, I felt the extremely
unpleasant sensation of my wet clothes adhering to and then
peeling away from my skin over and over again. Then, before
I knew it, I was crying—though I wasn’t entirely sure why.
Just couldn’t hold it all in any longer, I guess. Yet still, I
pedaled onward, as fast as my legs would take me, even
though they were on fire. Even after it started to hurt so bad
that I thought I’d sprained both ankles. I just kept pedaling.
“Come on, Tono-kun… Please…!”
After what felt like ages, I finally stood at the entrance

to the Urashima Tunnel. I’d thrown my bike to the ground
farther back down the road and run the rest of the way
barefoot, my sandals having fallen off somewhere along the
way. The bottoms of my feet throbbed in pain from being
stabbed by hundreds of tiny pebbles. I had to reach Kaoru as
soon as possible, so I swallowed the pain and ran into the
tunnel regardless.
A little ways in, I noticed a glass bottle lying on the

ground. Upon further inspection, I saw a little paper note
inside. A message in a bottle? I could only assume Kaoru had
left it for me, so I picked it up and extracted the cork. Sure
enough, it was a few sheets of folded notebook paper, all
filled in with pencil. I wiped the rain and sweat from my
hands on my clothes so as not to ruin the paper, then started
reading the letter from the top, slowly and carefully.
To Anzu Hanashiro.
If you’re reading this letter and your name is not Anzu

Hanashiro, please put it back in the bottle and return it to
where you found it. Though that being said, I can’t imagine
anyone but her would wander in here and stumble upon it,
so I’ll continue under the assumption that the person
reading this is, in fact, Anzu Hanashiro.
First things first: I owe you an apology. I’m really

sorry for heading into the tunnel without you. You probably
feel pretty betrayed right now. Hell, I wouldn’t blame you if
you never forgave me. But if you could at least read this
letter all the way through to the end before you write me off
forever, I’d really appreciate it.
Now then. I’m sure you’re wondering why I decided to

leave you behind and enter the tunnel all by myself. So I’ll
tell you right now. The short answer is: I think you really
need to pursue this manga opportunity right away.
Whatever it is you think you might find in here, you don’t
really need it. What you really need is to make a name for
yourself as a manga artist ASAP. That story you wrote was
riveting, and it deserves to be read by a much wider
audience than just me. I’ll admit, I was a little surprised at
first to hear that they were ready to assign you your own
editor, but honestly? With how good you are, they’d be
downright stupid not to. You deserve every bit of this. I
really mean that.
But you know better than I do that manga trends

change rapidly with the times, right? Pretty much anything
that’s popular today will feel dated in four or five years, and
it’s hard to tell whether something that’d resonate with
people today would still be popular much further down the
line. I feel like the average reader’s tastes and sensibilities
fluctuate and mature along with the industry as a whole.
Not that I’m an expert or anything, mind you. My point is, I
really think you need to hit the ground running and make
your big debut as soon as you possibly can. On that, I’m all
but certain. If you really feel that manga is your true calling
in life, then you shouldn’t waste any more time chasing
fantasies like me. You’ve got the talent—your dream’s right
there for the taking.
On that note, there’s one other thing I’d like to say. You
told me a while back that your whole motivation for
exploring the Urashima Tunnel was because you “wanted to
be someone extraordinary,” remember? And, well…if that’s
really your dream, then I’m not gonna stand here and spit
all over it. To be honest, though, I’m not so sure you really
need to be out here chasing the extraordinary for the sake of
it. Because you strike me as the type of girl who’s totally
capable of enjoying life and finding fulfillment in all the
normal ways too. Granted, I get that we’ve only known each
other for a single month, but I still feel like I got to know you
pretty damn well in that short period of time.
When you clung to my shirt for dear life that first time
we explored the tunnel at night, I got to see how scared and
vulnerable you can be. When you showed me your manga
and I gushed to you about how incredible it was, I got to see
how ecstatic you can be when you realize you’ve created
something with genuine artistic worth. When the three of us
went to the festival together, I got to see how much fun you
can be when you let your hair down and enjoy yourself. And
when I told you how pretty I think you are (which I meant,
by the way), I got to see how adorable and red in the face
you get when you’re embarrassed.
Do you want to know the first thought that popped

into my mind, each and every one of these times? “Wow, she
really is just an ordinary girl deep down.” Yes, I realize that
to you, that’s probably the single greatest insult imaginable.
God forbid someone feel content with being normal, right?
But like I said above, I’m really not trying to spit all over
your dreams here. I want you to think long and hard about
this stuff, is all. About what you really want out of life, I
mean.
If you do take my advice and decide not to come in

here, I want you to know that I don’t expect you to wait for
me. I want you to make a ton of new friends, live your life to
the fullest, and laugh so hard, you get ab cramps every
single day. I want you to write the manga of your dreams
and let the whole world see what an incredible storyteller
you are. And when I finally make it out of here, I hope to see
your name listed right up there alongside the all-time
greats. Trust me when I say I genuinely, wholeheartedly
cannot wait to see what wondrous worlds you’ll come up
with.
Finally, I’d like to say one last thing, in case you’re still
on the fence.
You’re already the most extraordinary person I’ve

ever met, Hanashiro. And yeah, I realize that’s not really the
same thing as having your name go down in history. But
maybe the name Anzu Hanashiro doesn’t have to mean
something to each and every person who ever lives.
Maybe it could be enough for it to mean the world to

just one.
***
I checked my wristwatch as I ran down the corridor.
Eighteen minutes past midnight. I’d made a point of stepping
through the first torii at exactly midnight, which meant I’d
been in tunnel time for just under twenty minutes—nearly a
month in real-world time. Out there, my summer vacation
was over. I assumed Anzu had probably read my letter by
now too. Given that she was a much faster runner than I was,
the fact that I hadn’t heard her chasing me was pretty much
proof positive that she’d taken my advice and decided not to
come inside the tunnel, which was a relief. A huge relief.
I’m sorry, Hanashiro. Sorry for forcing you to make

such a painful decision. I don’t know how I’ll ever make it up
to you. I know you have feelings for me. I can tell. I can also
tell that I’m falling for you too. But your feelings for me are
different—they’re a product of a misguided desire to play
the role of tragic heroine by proxy. You crave the drama
and emotional intensity you feel is lacking in your life, and
you think I can provide fulfillment or growth for you in that
regard, as someone who’s experienced a lot of loss of his
own. But I can’t give you that. I literally do not have it.
If you really want to be someone extraordinary, don’t

waste your time getting involved with a hopeless wreck like
me. Just focus on being the best version of you that you can
be. Don’t go out hunting for supernatural shortcuts or a
tragic backstory that’ll earn you fast notoriety or cheap
sympathy. You’ve gotta buckle down and put in the work to
climb that ladder like everyone else. I know you hate doing
things the normal way, but I can promise the view from the
top will be that much sweeter when you feel like you’ve truly
earned it.
And you will reach the top. I know you will.
I mean, look at how long you’ve been creating your
own manga, and without ever sharing any of it with
anybody before you met me. I’m sure there had to have been
times when you felt discouraged because a story wasn’t
coming together and thought about putting down that
pencil for good. Or maybe you really do love drawing with
all your heart, and you never once considered giving up on
it, no matter what the rest of the world might say. Either
way, you didn’t give up on that dream. And here you are
today, having your work officially recognized by industry
professionals. That, to me, seems pretty goddamn
extraordinary. Far more so than stumbling on a magic
tunnel could ever be, and way more meaningful to boot. So
please, Hanashiro, don’t let this opportunity go to waste.
Live your life while you can, because tomorrow’s never a
given. Especially when you have a chance to be someone
right here, today.
Go out there and live like you mean it.
And no matter what you do, don’t ever end up like me.
TOTAL TIME ELAPSED: 1 HR 25 MINS (OUTSIDE:

141 DAYS)
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Whoa, what the…”
Just a little farther ahead, I saw the tunnel curve

upward at a steep incline. It was still a straight shot, so there
was no real cause for hesitation, but it was certainly going to
take a huge toll on my stamina, and my calves were already
wobbling beneath me like rickety stilts. I couldn’t afford to
pull a ligament or something at this stage in the game, so I
decided to take a five-minute breather, to be safe. I hunkered
down on the ground and pulled my thermos from my
backpack to take a good, long swig of water.
I had to have run at least ten klicks, so realistically, I

should have come out the other side of the tunnel. The fact
that I still couldn’t see the exit seemed to suggest that there
were some space-time shenanigans afoot. I felt like I was
making a ton of forward progress, but in all honesty, there
was no telling if I was even a tenth of the way through the
tunnel yet. Interestingly, this time around, I had yet to
encounter any strange things from my past that shouldn’t
have existed within this space. Not that I wasn’t glad for that,
mind you, but it was starting to make me anxious. Things
were going too smoothly.
Feeling restless, I checked my wristwatch. Only two

minutes had passed since I sat down for a quick rest, and
already I was antsy to get up and go again. It was impossible
to truly get any rest with the thought of how much real-world
time I was wasting with every minute constantly weighing on
my mind. Every second spent sitting still did far more to
mentally wear me down than the exhaustion of running ever
could. I stood, took a huge deep breath, and then started
booking it up the steep incline.
TOTAL TIME ELAPSED: 5 HRS 20 MINS

(OUTSIDE: 1 YEAR, 168 DAYS)
“Huff…huff…”
My light jog had officially slowed to a trudging walk.
With each plodding step, the soles of my shoes scraped
loudly against the rocky tunnel floor. I had no idea how far
I’d come anymore. All I knew was that every joint and muscle
in my legs hurt like hell. For the first three hours or so that I
was in the tunnel, I cried out Karen’s name every couple of
minutes, but now I couldn’t muster the energy. It was hard
enough trying to propel myself forward. By now, an entire
year and a half had passed in the outside world, yet I hadn’t
seen hide nor hair of my little sister. All I’d seen were an
infinite number of the same exact torches and the same exact
torii—though there had been some changes, like the sudden
steep inclines or curves in the tunnel’s course. For a while
there, I was worried that the first uphill climb might go on
forever, but it soon reversed into an easy downhill jaunt, and
there was also a time when I hit several sharp ninety-degree
turns in quick succession. My sense of direction was entirely
out of whack at this point, and I had no idea if I was
supposed to be farther underground or aboveground, or if I
was even going in the same direction horizontally.
Thankfully, there hadn’t yet been any forks or intersections,
so I at least knew I was still making some forward progress.
“Hrgh… Goddammit…”
My throat was parched, and I’d already gone through

nearly half my water supply. Considering that I still had to
make my way back the entire distance I’d come, I really
didn’t want to drink any more than that. Why in the world
had I decided to pick CalorieMate, perhaps the single biggest
thirst-inducer, as my only source of nutrition on this
journey? Man, I’d kill for an ice-cold Lifeguard right about
now, I thought. Nevertheless, I pressed on, trying my best to
suppress my unquenched thirst, when all of a sudden, I
heard a loud thunk from ahead, like the sound of a large
boulder being flipped on its side. A vague sense of déjà vu
made me stop right where I was. I knew it had to be some
sort of omen. One of the tunnel’s strange manifestations was
about to appear right before my eyes. A chill ran through my
entire body, and a low pitch rang in my ears.
…No. It wasn’t just in my head. It was an actual sound.

The sound of thousands of footsteps and human voices, each
one so chipper and full of life. Yet no matter how hard I tried,
they were too numerous and muddled for me to make out a
single word. Even so, there were people there. People other
than me, just ahead. A lot of them. I wet my throat with a
fresh coat of saliva and called out into the darkness.
“Karen…? You there…?”
I took another step forward—but then something

reached out and grabbed my right arm, and my heart nearly
burst out of my chest. Terrified, I turned to look over my
shoulder, and my jaw dropped. It was my father.
“There you are, Kaoru,” he said. “I’ve been looking all

over for you.”
Oh God. Oh God oh God oh God. I’m really in for it

now. How the hell did he find me here? My head was a
jumbled mess of panic and fear. It was such a shock to my
system that my brain was still trying to catch up.
“What’s the matter? You look like you’ve just seen a

ghost. Not feeling well?”
This made me finally snap back to my senses. There

was no tension in my father’s voice whatsoever. On further
inspection, I saw he was wearing a summery yukata, and his
face looked a fair bit younger as well. Something wasn’t right
here. No, nothing was right. Just how the hell had he gotten
here? If he’d followed me all the way, then surely I would
have heard his footsteps or his voice calling out to me. As I
pondered this little conundrum, I noticed the gaping hole
behind my father, through which a bustling crowd of people
could be seen. Apparently this was the source of the voices I’d
been hearing.
I tried my best to collect my thoughts and analyze the

situation rationally. On either side of the crowd, I could also
make out dozens of red paper lanterns and food stands. It
was like an entire festival was happening through a little
portal in the side of the Urashima Tunnel, and a younger
version of my father had just so happened to wander in from
the other side.
No, that’s impossible. The far more likely explanation

was that this was an illusion conjured by the tunnel itself.
That was still an “impossible” phenomenon, in a sense, but
one that I at least had reason to believe was plausible due to
prior experience.
“Is the crowd getting to be too much for you, son? If

you want, we can head home.”
The realization that this was not the same father I’d left
behind came as a huge relief. That relief was quickly followed
by a wave of anger. Why had the tunnel given me him and
not Karen? Even if it was his younger, kinder self, I didn’t
want anything to do with this guy anymore. Didn’t even want
to see his ugly mug ever again. Yet…for some inexplicable
reason, I felt a strange sense of ease and belonging. It pissed
me off beyond belief, but somewhere deep down, a part of me
yearned desperately to cling to this man who was supposed
to be my father figure, even though he had failed miserably in
that respect. It was an emotion I thought I’d discarded years
and years ago. I could deal with him ignoring me, or abusing
me physically or verbally, but this I couldn’t handle. It threw
me for an entire loop. I stood frozen in place.
“Kaoru? Are you all right, sweetie?”
Then came another voice I recognized all too well, as

my biological mother poked her head out from behind my
father. It was the mother I remembered from back when
Karen was still alive, when every day was a gift, and we were
the picture of a happy family. That version of her stood right
before my eyes, smiling down at me with the welcoming
warmth only a mother could provide.
“Yeah, he doesn’t seem quite right,” my father said.

“Maybe a soda or something would cheer him up.”
“Good idea. We just walked by a drink stand a minute

ago. You like Lifeguard, don’t you, sweetie?”
“I’ll have a beer, while you’re at it.”
“Oh, no you won’t. You’ve still gotta drive us home,

mister…”
“Well, it was worth a shot! Ha ha ha…”
No… Stop it. I can’t take this crap anymore.
“Ahhhhhh!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs, then tore my arm

free while the two of them were too startled to react. Then I
took off running as fast as I possibly could. They called after
me, but I refused to turn or look back. I just ran and ran,
until eventually tears streamed down my cheeks.
“Damn it… Stop trying to screw with my head!”
How could I not feel conflicted after being shown such

an idyllic vignette from my childhood? It was like the
Urashima Tunnel was deliberately trying to pour salt into old
wounds. I fought the urge to puke and kept on running,
glaring angrily down the tunnel’s throat as I wiped the tears
from my eyes.
Besides, as irritating as it was, that vision had only

gone to support my hypothesis as to the tunnel’s true nature,
the one I’d come up with in Anzu’s bedroom. If my theory
was correct, then it would only be a matter of time before I
was reunited with Karen again. So I kept running, that
thought as my sole motivation. As long as I could see my
sister again, it would all be worth it. I’d never ask for
anything ever again.

(OUTSIDE: 2 YEARS, 263 DAYS)
Dammit… God damn it. Just how far did this goddamn
tunnel go? I’d been running for nearly ten hours now, and
still all I could see were torches and torii. Where the hell was
Karen? How much time had passed in the outside world?
Like, going on three years? I’d have graduated high school, if
I were living out there at normal speed. Even if I were to give
up and turn back this instant, it would still be at least five
years spent in the tunnel by the time I made it out. Everyone
I knew would either be finishing college or well on their way
to building a fruitful career. They’d be studying hard for their
senior thesis, or working full-time, finding new hobbies, and
getting hitched. And then there was me, running in circles
through the dark, going from seventeen to twenty-two
without accomplishing a damn thing.
I had virtually no water left at this point, maybe enough

for one or two more big sips. My legs were fast approaching
their limit as well. Every step forward sent a sharp, searing
pain through my knees. If I went much farther, I knew I
wouldn’t be physically capable of making the return journey.
But what was I to do? Just turn back? Or should I keep
clinging to that last remaining sliver of hope and press
onward?
“…Ha ha.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. That was a stupid question. If

I turned back now, all of this would have been one gigantic
waste of time. I would have given away over five years of my
life for nothing, when Karen could be just around the next
corner. Or even closer. To give up now would be the stupidest
choice imaginable. Only a complete moron would do that. I
had to press on and have faith that she was waiting for me
just ahead.
“Karen!” I cried out for the umpteenth time, my voice

raw and hoarse as it squeezed past my dry throat. Yet I would
keep calling her name until I found her. No matter what
happened, I refused to rest my legs until she and I were
reunited.
Was I sure I was doing the right thing?
Wasn’t there anything better I could be doing with my

life?
Was this all going to end up being an even bigger waste

of time when I finally did throw in the towel?
I tried my best not to give questions like these much

thought. Obviously, I was scared out of my mind by the
possibilities, but I refused to think about them. Or when I
did, I fought hard not to give in to those fears. Nobody’s
future was certain, after all. We were all just running, groping
through the dark as time and death slowly crept up on us. I
wasn’t the only one afraid of that uncertainty. The same
could be said for Anzu, or Koharu, or anyone. All we could do
was keep moving forward, holding fast to the belief that one
day, we’d get where we were going—before the world
snatched it away from us. So I downed the rest of my water in
one gulp and kept walking, dragging my feet along the floor.

I made my way up yet another steep incline. I couldn’t

see in front of me anymore, and I was practically crawling
with how sluggishly I was dragging my legs. I’d discarded all
the things I’d brought with me—I’d even thrown away my
shoes. Turning back now was no longer an option I was
willing to consider.
“Grrrgh…”
I couldn’t remember how long I’d been climbing this

hill, just that it had been going on for what felt like ages. No
doubt it was the longest uphill trek I’d ever made in my
entire life.
“Argh…”
God, this was excruciating. My entire body ached with

exhaustion, and my legs had been reduced to two mushy
hunks of tenderized flesh only capable of sending out distress
signals to my pain receptors with every step. My eyelids were
starting to feel heavy too. I needed sleep. I wanted to stop
and take a rest. I was sure that lying down would help me
recover a bit and give me a much-needed break from this
endless incline.
I couldn’t let myself do that. I knew that if I lay down,

there was a good chance I’d never get back up. I had to press
on and make it to the top of this damn hill…
…Then again, what if I gave up? I mean, this seemed

downright impossible, and I was approaching my limit. No,
that was a lie: I’d long since passed it. I was using every trick
in the book to keep my mind off the pain, and somehow it
had worked thus far. However, even if I were to find Karen
now, there wouldn’t really be any point to it. I lacked the
least sliver of willpower or stamina to make the journey
home.
God, I’m so tired.
Maybe I ought to give up.
…But first.
Let’s go a little farther.
Just in case.
I’ll keep walking just a little longer, and if I don’t find

anything, I’ll give up.
Just a little farther.
Just a little farther.
Just a…little…farther…
I stopped dead in my tracks. Not because my legs had

finally gone on strike, but because something stood directly
in my way. Lifting my weary head to take a look, I saw an old
wooden door. My heart let out an audible ka-thump. A surge
of renewed hope shot through my chest. This was the first
time I’d run into a roadblock or dead end of any sort in the
tunnel. Karen could very well be just behind this door.
Although if she wasn’t, and all that awaited me on the other
side was yet another uphill climb… No, I didn’t want to
consider the possibility. I decided right then and there to
make this door the endpoint of my journey. If my little sister
wasn’t behind it, then I’d stop and take a rest. Gripping the
iron handle, I leaned all my weight on the door in an attempt
to push it open, since my muscles lacked the strength to do
so on their own.
“Ngh!”
As soon as the door swung open, my legs gave out from

under me, and I collapsed forward, my forehead slamming
against the ground. Yet it didn’t hurt, because my fall was
cushioned by a soft, shimmering blanket of sand.
“What…?”
The sand was warm against my face, and I felt rays of

sunlight streaming down my cheeks. Had I finally made it
outside? Lifting my head, I got a big whiff of salt and brine as
a gust of wind blew by, sending my bangs fluttering in the
breeze. Impossible though it seemed, I found myself lying
facedown on a white sandy beach with an endless ocean
spread out before my eyes, its waters the deepest of blues, yet
crystal clear all the way to the horizon.
I sat up on my knees and looked behind me. An old,

dilapidated cabin gazed listlessly over the shore, its front
door made from the same weathered wood as the one I’d
stumbled out of. Yet there was no tunnel behind the cabin,
only a grassy meadow covered in lush new greenery. I paid it
little mind. Whatever part of my brain was responsible for
making sense of things had long since gone into a state of
numb paralysis. Right now, the only thing that mattered to
me was whether my sister was here. Squeezing every last
drop of remaining energy from the tattered old dishrag my
body had become, I called her name at the top of my lungs.
“Karen!”
Over heeere, I heard a lackadaisical voice call back.
I turned my head in the direction the reply had come

from.
A girl was standing right there on the beach. Her

ponytail dangled out from the back of her baseball cap. Her
loose-fitting tank top hung halfway down over her denim
shorts. Her bright red sandals were half-buried in the flowing
golden sand.
It was her. It was Karen.
“You finally made it, Kaoru,” she said with a smile that
could outshine a thousand stars.
All at once, my body went limp and my vision grew

dark as my mind finally released its tenuous grip on
consciousness.
I was in the midst of a peaceful sleep. As I lay on my

back, a gentle breeze blew against my body, its angle shifting
to and fro in a slow, methodical pattern as the tiny motor on
the oscillating fan hummed softly. A futon was rolled out
beneath me. When I tried to turn my head slightly, I heard
the chaff of the buckwheat seeds inside my pillow shift and
scrape against one another. The sweet, earthy scent of the
tatami mats under my body soothed my nostrils. It felt like I
was sinking slowly into a thick, viscous pool of liquid
comfort. I felt all my exhaustion, all my stress being purged
from my body by those purifying waters. I didn’t want to get
up. I didn’t want to open my eyes. I wanted to lie there and
sleep forever… And honestly, why shouldn’t I be allowed to
do that? I’d been busting my ass for so long that surely no
one would think less of me for that. Man, the breeze from
that fan feels nice… Wait. What was I busting my ass for,
again?
“Oh, right!”
The moment I remembered my purpose, I shot up in

bed. Through the opened screen door, I saw the ocean past
the veranda. I surveyed my surroundings. I was lying in the
middle of a room lined with sun-bleached tatami mats, with a
hanging wall scroll in the alcove featuring a tranquil
mountain scene. It was a room I’d been in before. Many
times, in fact… Hang on a minute.
“I’m back at my house…?”
How could that be? I’d run myself half to death trying
to make it through the Urashima Tunnel, and now I was
sleeping soundly in my own home? I wasn’t wearing the
clothes I’d worn into the tunnel either—just a ratty old T-
shirt and some shorts. Could it be that…it was all a dream?
Had there never been an Urashima Tunnel to begin with?
No, that couldn’t be it. I would never fall asleep like this in
the sitting room. Besides, there were two huge differences
between this room and the one at my house. The first being
that you couldn’t see even a smidge of the ocean from my
home, just the overgrown backyard and the mountain behind
it. The second being that something major was missing from
this one: Karen’s memorial altar. It was nowhere to be—
“Oh, hey! You’re awake!” said a voice.
A voice that belonged to my little sister Karen.
She came rushing over to me, her bare feet stamping

against the tatami flooring.
“Boy, you just up and passed out all of a sudden! I had

to drag you all the way here myself. You’ve gotten pretty darn
heavy, you know that?”
She was right here in front of me. Talking, laughing.

Neither her face nor her voice had aged a day since the last
time I saw her, when she was ten years old.
“You were all covered in sweat, so I went ahead and

changed you into a fresh set of clothes too! You owe me big-
time, buster!” Karen placed her hands on her hips and puffed
out her cheeks in her trademark pouting pose. “Hey, are you
even listening to me?!”
She brought her face in close to mine, and I finally

snapped back to my senses.
“K-Karen? Is that…really you? Y-you’re not just…a

figment of my imagination or something, are you?” I
sputtered, fumbling over every other word.
“Wow, rude! See for yourself, why don’t you? Here!”

Karen plopped to her knees and grabbed my hand, then
placed my palm against her cheek. Her face was soft and
warm, but most of all, undeniably real. “See?”
Karen smiled and cocked her head, looking for

agreement on my part, so I nodded feebly. She definitely
wasn’t an illusion, but this was all happening so fast that it
still wasn’t quite registering in my brain. Seeing Karen in the
flesh, then waking up in this weird alternate-universe version
of my house… Having to process all of these impossible
stimuli had sent my brain into a nuclear meltdown, and it
refused to acknowledge any one of them as real. So I simply
sat there, looking at Karen in a daze, until eventually my
stomach let out a mighty growl.
“Oh? Are you hungry, Kaoru?”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’m not, like…”
Just as I was about to say “starving or anything,” I felt

an intense pang in my empty stomach and a fierce thirst in
my throat. I’d only forgotten them briefly because the shock
and confusion at all that was happening had fried my other
senses. To be sure, I was absolutely famished, and more than
that, I needed water. Desperately. Toward the end there, I’d
run for several hours without a single drop.
“S-sorry, Karen…but could you bring me something to

drink?”
“Sure thing. We’ve got a lot to choose from, though.

What would you like?”
“Anything’s fine, just…bring a lot of it…”
“Anything, you say? Hmmm… Well, okay!” she

responded peppily, then got up and headed into the kitchen
with a skip in her step. Meanwhile, I was coming down with a
bit of a headache, so I vigorously rubbed my temples. This
was more of an information overload than my poor brain
could handle. I didn’t know where to begin trying to make
sense of it all. As I gazed blankly out over the ocean, I heard a
high-pitched mechanical whir coming from inside the
kitchen. Karen must have been using the blender. What in
the world was she mixing up for me?
“Okay, all done!” Karen came into the room with a

large cup and the removable pitcher from our old electric
blender. There was a thick, whitish liquid inside. Wait, is
that…
“Did you make banana juice?”
“You betcha!”
She held up the pitcher triumphantly, grinning from

ear to ear as the liquid jostled around in the container and
nearly spilled over the rim. Now this took me back—she and I
had made banana juice together all the time. However, ever
since she died, I hadn’t made it once, using the convenient
justification that the blender was too much trouble to clean.
“Here ya go, Kaoru!”
The sweet smell of banana passed through my nostrils

as I took the cup from Karen and proceeded to drink it down.
At our house, we always added a whole lot of milk per
banana, so it came out extra smooth. I downed the entire
thing, never once lowering the cup from my lips until it was
drained of every last drop.
“Whew…”
All I could do was let out a sigh of contentment. I

wasn’t sure a drink had ever left me so satisfied. My throat
tingled with sugary goodness. As I went to pour myself
another glass, I heard the ding of the microwave going off in
the kitchen.
“Oh, yay! The food’s ready.”
“We’re having food?”
“Yep. Or, well, you are, at least. I made it, though! Go

wait in the living room, and I’ll have it right out.” Karen
dashed off into the kitchen yet again.
Wow, little Karen’s making food all by herself, eh…? I

found this extremely bizarre, yet I rose from my futon all the
same, bringing the juice cup and pitcher with me into the
living room. There on the low dining table, I found a big
jumbo bowl of fancy instant soba noodles, as well as three
grilled rice balls (microwaved from frozen) sitting in a row.
Karen was seated on one of the floor cushions, looking up at
me with pride. I couldn’t help but crack a smile. Yeah, that’s
about what I should have expected.
“Well, enjoy!”
“Thanks… Will do.”
I sat next to Karen and picked up my chopsticks,

clapped my hands together, then dug straight into the bowl
of noodles. I dipped the crunchy dehydrated tempura puck
into the broth a little bit, letting it soak up the savory shrimp
flavor, and took a nibble. Then I tried the noodles. Normally,
the flavor would have been a little much for me, but in my
current state of exhaustion, it was like the nectar of the gods.
My taste buds savored each and every drop of the salty broth.
Man, I don’t remember these things tasting so good…
I kept slurping up soba noodles like nobody’s business,

only stopping to take a bite of one of the fried rice balls or to
cool my mouth off with a sip of banana juice. It wasn’t the
best drink pairing for a meal like this, admittedly, but I could
hardly complain when I was prepared to devour anything
and everything in sight without even remembering to
breathe. I felt all five of my senses slowly growing clearer and
clearer with every bite of chewed-up food matter I gulped
down my throat. This was beyond the realm of deliciousness
—I felt like a cadaver returned to life.
After guzzling the last drop of remaining broth, I set the

bowl on the table. Satisfied, I opened my eyes again, and
finally, I could truly appreciate the beautiful sight laid out
before me. It was a scene that I’d been trying to recapture for
what felt like ages: Karen and I, merely existing in the same
space, enjoying our carefree lives together.
“So how was it?” she asked with a smile. This was the
first time I was cognizant enough to truly recognize and
appreciate her as Karen, my little sister. The moment I did,
the flood of emotions I’d bottled up for years came rushing to
the surface, crashing over me in waves. Every little detail
about her was so vivid, so exactly the way I remembered it.
Everything from her smile, to the way she breathed, to her
tiny mannerisms, all the way down to how each individual
strand of hair in her bangs swayed back and forth with every
slight movement of her head. Suddenly, my vision blurred,
and I heard a single water droplet plip into the empty noodle
container. The dam burst, and that first drop was followed by
an endless stream of tears as I broke down into a sniveling,
sobbing mess. The tears were hot against my cheeks, and it
was all I could do to keep myself from bawling loudly and
inconsolably.
Then Karen reached out and ran her fingers through

my hair, tracing her soft little hands up and down the length
of my scalp. “You’ve been trying so hard for so long, Big
Brother.”
There was a maternal gentleness to her tone, almost as

though the words radiated actual heat that melted something
cold and hard inside of me.
I nodded. I nodded over and over.
After thanking her for the meal and cleaning up after

myself, I’d finally managed to calm down quite a bit. That
was the most satisfying meal I’d had in my entire life thus far.
My chest was still fluttering with euphoric contentment. “…
Hey, Karen.”
“Yeah?”
I had to ask her something, now that I was once more

in a sound state of mind. Something I absolutely had to
verify, even if I wouldn’t like the answer. “Are you…actually
the real Karen?”
Karen groaned, putting her elbows on the table and

resting her head in her hands. “This again? You really can’t
tell, huh? I thought I told you, I’m—” she began, then
stopped short as her lips curled into a mischievous grin.
“Well, which do you think I am, Kaoru? The real Karen or an
impostor?”
“Hey, don’t answer my question with another

question.”
“But it’s more fun that way!” Karen flashed her canines.
To be sure, it was hard to feel that annoyed when I knew it
was all in good fun for her. “Well, Kaoru? C’mon, let’s hear it.
Which do you think I am?”
It seemed I had no choice but to play along with her

little game.
“I think…” I inhaled a shallow breath. Karen looked at

me with innocent eyes, eagerly awaiting my answer. “I think
you’re the real one.”
“Is that your final answer?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Well, there you go, then! Don’t let me tell you any
different.”
I’d seen the anticlimactic punch line coming, yet it still

earned my groan. Surprisingly, this joke answer actually
resonated with me, and I was pretty satisfied with it. In the
end, there was really no way to know if this Karen was an
elaborate fake conjured by the tunnel to deceive me, nor any
clear definition of what “real” meant in a supernatural
situation like this. In that case, all I could really do was
believe what I wanted to believe. That’s what I assumed
Karen was trying to tell me.
“You’re right. All that matters is that you’re real to

me…” I agreed, hoping that by saying it aloud, it might make
it feel more like the truth.
“Anyway, enough about that! We’ve got watermelon in

the fridge, Kaoru! We should have some!”
“Sounds like a plan.”
I decided that worrying about it any further wasn’t

going to get me anywhere, so I stood up, and we headed to
the kitchen. Opening the door to the fridge, I saw that inside,
there was indeed a plate of sliced watermelon covered in
plastic wrap. Below that were a variety of other treats, as well
as a vast assortment of drinks, just like Karen had said,
including a few bottles of Cheerio and Lifeguard. I didn’t
know where she’d gotten all this stuff, but something told me
it would be pointless to ask.
We sat on the veranda and sank our teeth into the juicy
watermelon, its ice-cold flesh gushing sweet nectar directly
into our mouths. It had to be the best watermelon I’d ever
tasted. When Karen started spitting the seeds into the yard, I
followed suit. Soon, all-out war began as we duked it out to
see who could spit their seeds the farthest. It was so much
fun, I actually started crying.
“Sheesh, Kaoru! Since when have you been such a

crybaby? Aren’t you supposed to be the older sibling here?”
“Yeah… You got me there,” I replied, sniffling. “But you

can’t blame me. People actually cry more when they’re older,
y’know. ’Cause they get more sappy and sentimental about
stuff.”
“They do?”
“Yeah. Pretty sure I read that somewhere.”
“Huh. I thought people were only supposed to get

tougher when they grew up.” Karen swung her legs back and
forth as they dangled over the edge of the veranda.
“Well, some do, that’s for sure. I knew one person who
was very tough.”
“Yeah? What were they like?”
“Oh, man… Where do I even begin?”
Incidentally, it was Anzu who had immediately popped

into my mind.
“She was the prettiest girl you ever saw, but could hold
her own in a fistfight right up there with the best of ’em. This
one time, she stood up to a super intimidating guy who was
way bigger and older than her, but even when he started
slapping her across the face and kicking her in the stomach,
she didn’t bend or break… She kept her cool and waited for
an opening to strike back. That’s the sort of girl she was. At
first, I was honestly kind of afraid of her, but once we started
spending time together, I realized she’s actually pretty damn
cute once you get to know her…”
“Do you have a crush on her, Kaoru?” Karen asked,

looking up at me with pure, wide-eyed curiosity.
I set my half-eaten slice of watermelon on the plate and

gazed out over the ocean. “…Yeah. I think I do, actually.”
Karen let out a high-pitched squeal of scandalized glee,

then scooted closer. “Well, if you like her so much, how come
you’re not together?”
“Well, she’s got her own stuff she needs to focus on

right now.”
“You still want to be with her though, right? Isn’t it

lonely being here without her?”
“I mean…yeah, it definitely is. But see…”
Karen stared at me with rapt attention, awaiting my

reply. I couldn’t bring myself to shrug her off or lie about
this.
“…The truth is, I… I don’t feel like I should be

permitted to really, genuinely love somebody like that.”
Only after the words had left my lips did I realize that
this was probably the first time I’d ever uttered the word
“love” about a specific person, in a romantic context, and
meant it. Now that I had, I couldn’t help but smile sheepishly
to dampen how embarrassing it was to admit. I still meant
what I said, though. At the end of the day, it was my
negligence that had killed Karen. Moreover, I was the one
who had caused the original rift between my mother and
father, which had led her to leave us and him to hit rock
bottom. I would have to be a pretty disgusting, selfish human
being to ignore all the pain and suffering I’d caused to go
prancing off into the sunset for my own happily ever after.
“Granted, I know that sounds dumb,” I continued. “I

mean, it’s not like anyone’s forcing me to bear that cross. It’s
self-inflicted suffering at this point. Guess it’s the one thing I
can’t seem to get past, for whatever reason… But I dunno.
Maybe this is all a little too grown-up for you to understand.”
“Nuh-uh!” Karen pouted, scrunching her face. “I totally

understand! Being permitted is like…when you have to get
your parents to sign a piece of paper to go on a field trip,
right?”
“Ha ha. Well, that too, yeah.”
“Do you really need a permit to love someone, though?”
“Oh, no, I wouldn’t say that. I think everyone’s born

with that right. But I also think it’s possible to lose it, under
certain circumstances… I dunno. It’s kinda hard to explain…”
“Hrmm… Well, in that case, I’ll have to give you a new

one!”
Karen shot up and dashed into the hall. I heard her

speedy footsteps thump-thump-thumping up the stairs. Less
than a minute later, she barreled onto the veranda with a set
of markers and some white printer paper in her hands.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“Heh heh heh… Watch this! …Actually, no! You can’t
look yet! Turn the other way!”
Sheesh, make up your mind, you crazy kid.
I did as I was told nonetheless. All I could hear was the

sound of her markers squeaking loudly against the paper,
only pausing occasionally when she stopped and pondered
aloud how to write a certain character or realized she’d made
a mistake. By the time I finished what remained of my half-
eaten slice of watermelon, she informed me that I was finally
allowed to look. When I turned, I saw Karen in a formal
seating position, facing me with her hands on her knees and
her butt on her heels.
“Okay! Allow me to present your replacement permit!”

she began, then held the sheet of paper in front of her face as
she proceeded to read off what she’d written. “Ahem. Big Br
—I mean, Kaoru Tono, in honor of how hard you worked
coming all the way in here to find me, I hereby grant you the
right to love again! If you want to, that is! Anyway, congrats!”
She held the sheet of paper toward me with both hands.

I looked down to see the words “LOVE PERMIT” written in
big bubble letters at the top, surrounded by all sorts of
colorful little doodles: flowers, a little doggie, and so on. It
was very cute. Yet I found myself unable to reach out and
accept it from her.
“What’s the matter, Kaoru? Go on, take it.”
A warm sensation bubbled up from the pit of my

stomach. Ever since the day we lost Karen, I’d been
languishing. Distressed. Constantly tormented by the fact
that I was still here, but she wasn’t. I desperately wanted to
be punished for having been unable to save her, yet I couldn’t
think of a single way in which I could ever properly atone. So
I simply refused to allow myself even the slightest bit of
happiness, hoping that might alleviate some small fraction of
my guilt. I was prepared to live out the rest of my days this
way, like a monk who’d sworn off worldly desires. Yet now,
thanks to Karen, I… I…
Of course. It was all so clear to me now. There was no

longer a shred of doubt in my mind. The Urashima Tunnel
didn’t have the power to grant wishes.
All it could do was help you reclaim the things you’d

lost.
That was the tunnel’s true power. Karen’s sandal, our

old pet parakeet, the days when my mother and father and I
all lived happily together—even Karen herself. And now my
ability to love another human being. These were all things
that I’d lost somewhere along the way, and which the tunnel
had given me a chance to reclaim.
“Um, Kaoru? If you don’t want this, I’m gonna throw it

out.”
“W-wait, no! I do want it. I really, really do…”
I frantically reached out and took the Love Permit with

both hands. As I touched it, an exhilarating electric feeling
ran through my fingertips, then coursed up my arms and
through my entire body. It was just a thin sheet of printer
paper, yet it held deep emotional value that went beyond
appraisal. I sat there frozen in place for a while, soaking in
the sensation of holding it in my hands. It felt like I was
finally free, after all these years spent captive to my own self-
loathing.
“…Thank you, Karen. I promise I’ll treasure it always.”
“Mm-hmm! Please do!”
“And, um… Sorry, I know I only just got here, but…” I

smiled sheepishly, hoping once again that it might take the
edge off the extremely embarrassing line I was about to say.
“I feel like…I’m ready to try to love someone again.”
When I went up to my bedroom, I found that my

backpack had already been set out for me, almost as if Karen
had foreseen this turn of events. I slung it over my shoulder
and headed to the kitchen. Opening the fridge door, I
grabbed enough food for two and crammed it into the main
pouch. I now knew approximately how long the tunnel was
and thus how much food and water we would need. As long
as neither of us suffered any injuries on the way out, we
would be able to make it back without too much trouble. We
were all set to go whenever. I slipped the Love Permit into a
sheet protector to keep it from getting creased and slid that
into my backpack as well before heading to the sitting room.
“Hey, Karen,” I called, and she turned from her seat on

the veranda, still chewing a mouthful of watermelon. “Let’s
leave this place. Together.”
I had to bring Karen with me to Kozaki. That was my

original objective, even if the comfort of this illusory home
had caused me to momentarily forget it. However, until both
of us were out safely on the other end of the tunnel, I couldn’t
call my mission complete.
“Where are we going?” she asked “Down to the beach?”
“Somewhere even better. Where there are aquariums,

and zoos, and all sorts of different things. I’ll take you
anywhere in the world, as long as it isn’t here.”
“But we do have aquariums and zoos here. And

amusement parks. And indoor water parks. Anything you
could ever want.”
I knew Karen had to be telling the truth. If my own

house had been replicated, then the sky was the limit.
Nevertheless, that wouldn’t be enough for me.
“No, Karen. I mean, sure, maybe you’re right. Maybe

this paradise really does have everything I could ever want.
But it isn’t where we belong. We have to go back to Kozaki.”
“No way.” Karen took another big ol’ bite of

watermelon. Chewed. Swallowed. “I’ve gotten used to being
here. I don’t think I’ve got what it takes to live out there
anymore.”
“Of course you do!” I dropped to my knees and made

intense eye contact with her as I slammed my fist against my
chest. “I’ll make sure there’s a place for you out there again, I
promise. I’ll find a way to make it work, and I won’t let
anyone get in our way.”
I knew it wouldn’t be easy for Karen, returning to a

society that had marked her as long deceased. However, I
meant what I said, and I was fully confident that I could pull
it off somehow. For Karen, I could do anything.
“So please, won’t you come with me?” I pleaded.
Karen finished her slice of watermelon and set it on the
plate, then let out an exaggerated sigh, like a troublemaking
kid who’d been caught red-handed. “…Okay, fiiine. You win, I
guess.”
“Sweet! Then let’s get going!” I exclaimed, grabbing

Karen by the hand and heading for the front door. Then I
remembered something. “Oh, crap! The time!”
Oh God. I’d been so caught up in catching up with

Karen that I’d wholly forgotten. I was about to rush into the
living room to check the time…then quickly realized that
none of the clocks here would properly reflect how much
time had actually passed since I’d entered the tunnel. I had to
check the wristwatch I’d strapped on at the start of this
journey. I wasn’t wearing it anymore, so where was it? Maybe
Karen had taken it off when she changed my clothes.
“Hey, Karen, you wouldn’t happen to know where my

watch is, would you?”
“Oh, you mean this?” Karen reached into her pocket

and pulled it out. In a rush of anxiety and relief, I snatched
the watch from her grasp and checked the time. It read half
past five, and I’d entered the tunnel at midnight. The last
time I remembered checking my watch, the little hand had
been pointing to the two—but I knew it had already done a
full rotation by that point, so that implied that it had been
not five and a half hours but seventeen and a half… Yet even
that seemed a little odd.
“Hey, Karen…? How long was I asleep after I got here?”
“Oh, you were zonked out for a while. Like half a day,
probably.”
I froze. If I’d slept for twelve hours, then that implied
the little hand had made two full rotations and was working
on its third, which meant…I’d been in the tunnel for going on
thirty hours now. A cold sweat rolled down my forehead.
“W-we’ve gotta go, right now! I’ve been in here for way
too long!”
I grabbed Karen by the hand and hurried out the front

door. One step off the porch, and my foot sank into the sand.
The house stood on the boundary between a grassy meadow
and the beach. There were no roads or utility poles to be seen
anywhere. The utter impossibility of maintaining a
permanent residence in a place like this only drove home the
fact that this world was an illusion. I quickly spotted the tiny
shack from which I’d originally emerged. It wasn’t far at all
from the house. We made our way across the beach until we
stood before its old wooden door.
“Okay, Karen… You ready?”
“…Yeah.” She looked pensive, gripping the lower hem

of her tank top as she stared anxiously at the ground.
“It’ll be okay. No need to be afraid. It’s a long way back,

but I promise we’ll make it.”
This did little to visibly reassure her. Regardless, we

didn’t have time to just stand around. The clock was ticking,
second by second, hour by hour. Determined not to waste
any more time, I reached out and slowly creaked open the
door. Beyond it was the steep downhill slope I’d nearly killed
myself climbing on the way to this place. Thankfully, the
return trip would be easier on our stamina, though we’d still
need to be careful not to trip and fall.
“All right, let’s do this.”
I took my first step through the door. As soon as I did,
Karen wrapped her arms around my waist from behind. I
turned my head to look over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see
her face on account of it being buried into my backpack. All I
knew was that I was standing on one side of the door, and
she was still standing ankle-deep in the sand on the other.
“Karen? What’s the matter?”
“There’s someone out there who means the world to

you, isn’t there?”
“Yeah, and I can’t keep her waiting any longer. That’s

why we need to leave.”
“I’m so glad. You’re finally ready to move forward

again.”
“…Karen?”
Her little hands squeezed tight on the fabric of my

shirt. “Come on, Kaoru. You already know what I’m about to
say, don’t you?”
I felt an uncomfortable palpitation in my heart, and my

breaths grew fewer and further between. I furrowed my
brow. “…No, Karen. I really don’t. Why don’t you spell it out
for me?”
“Well…think about it like this. Clownfish can only live

in the sea. If you tried to take one and put it in a river, it
would only choke and die. They’re weak that way. All they
can really do is hide in their little anemone friends and watch
the bigger, stronger fish from afar. Like salmon, for example.
They can live in the ocean or in fresh water. They can swim
upstream, then back down again as many times as they want.
Heck, they can even jump up waterfalls. And on top of all
that, they’re really yummy to eat.”
“Well, yeah. You’ve got that right. I really don’t see how
this has anything to do with our current situation, though.”
“It has everything to do with it. You’re like a salmon,

Kaoru. But me? I’m a weak little clownfish, stuck here in my
—”
“Don’t say that!” I shouted out. “You’re Karen! You’re a

human being, not a clownfish or a salmon! You can go
anywhere you want. So please, don’t say stuff like that…
You’re killing me here…”
I’d spent so much time—in more ways than one—trying

to make it here. I couldn’t possibly return by myself.
“It’s okay, Kaoru. I’ll always be with you. Whenever you

need me, I’ll be right there by your side… So please.” Karen
released her grip on my shirt. “Don’t worry about me. Go out
there and live like you mean it. Just like you told her.”
She pushed me from behind—only gently, but it was

enough to make me lose my balance and stumble forward
into the tunnel.
“Karen!” I screamed, whirling around.
Karen wasn’t there. Nor did any trace remain of the

wooden door, or the dazzling sunlight, or the white sandy
beach, or even the lingering scent of salt water. It was just an
infinite tunnel again, stretching out in both directions. It felt
like all the air had been vacuumed out from my lungs. I
started walking deeper into the tunnel, trying desperately to
find the door to that dreamy shore once again.
Then I heard a voice ring out in my head. “Go out there
and live like you mean it. Just like you told her.”
Just like I told her. It went without saying who “her”

was. Karen was telling me to stop letting myself be dragged
down by the past and start looking toward the future—to find
my place in the world, right alongside Anzu. That was her
final message to me as my little sister.
“Nnngh…!”
I held my head in my hands, digging my fingers into my

scalp. I closed my eyes as tightly as I could, yet still the tears
found a way out.
“Nnnnnngh…!”
Some small part of me deep down had nursed an

inkling that things would turn out like this. The Urashima
Tunnel’s true power was to help you retrieve what you’d lost,
after all. It had given me the chance to see Karen, as well as
my right to love another person. It had given me something
else too, without me realizing it: my ability to stand tall and
look reality in the face. To leave the pain of the past behind
and start living in the now. In order to do that, though, I
would have to actually learn to move on from my sister’s
death, which was diametrically opposed to my original goal
of bringing her out of the tunnel with me. I had to choose one
or the other.
I was confident that the tunnel had no will of its own,

let alone ill will. My guess was that its manifestations of the
things I’d lost were all automatic. So if a contradiction like
this was occurring inside it, I had to assume it could only
mean that there was already a part of me, deep down, that
had unconsciously chosen to start facing reality again. A part
of me that had accepted Karen’s death. I should have known.
I just hadn’t been able to let go of that last sliver of hope I’d
clung to for so long—that maybe one day, a miracle would
occur, and those happy days we shared as a family would
return.
It was a naive, starry-eyed dream, to be sure. But it was

finally time for me to wake up. I gritted my teeth so hard that
it felt like they might fissure and crack. I tensed my abs,
trying my best to seal off the emotions billowing up inside of
me and threatening to explode. I forced them down, deeper
and deeper, then shut the lid tight, locked them away behind
padlock after padlock, and threw away the keys. I wiped my
eyes with my forearm from side to side and cried out at the
top of my lungs.
“Karennn! I’m headed out noooow!”
With that, I turned and started running as fast as I

could toward the exit.
“Okay. Love you,” I could almost hear her calling back.

I sprinted desperately through the darkness, throwing

myself downhill at nearly the fastest speed my legs could
manage. The weight of my backpack, its straps chafing my
shoulders as it bounced up and down, was definitely draining
my stamina faster than it would have otherwise, but it also
made me feel a lot more reassured than I had coming in. I
knew that I had enough water and food to make it out, so I
didn’t have to worry about starving to death. It was purely a
question of stamina and how fast I could make it outside.
My heart pounded so loudly that I could hear it in my

ears. With each step, a pain shot through my knees that made
me worry they might crack and crumble to bits. My throat
was hoarse and raw from the intense rate at which I huffed
air in and out of my lungs. I was in pain. I was exhausted.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t rest. Maybe at some point I would let
myself stop to take a single breather along the way, sure, but
it was still too early for that.
Anzu was waiting for me outside, and I couldn’t wait to

see her again. Assuming she’d never tried to enter the tunnel,
she was twenty-five years old by this point. Though I had told
her that she shouldn’t feel like she had to wait around for me,
so I assumed she hadn’t. Maybe she already had a boyfriend.
Maybe she’d forgotten all about me. Hell, maybe she was
married with kids. I didn’t care. I wanted to know what sort
of life she’d led over the months and years I’d spent running
around in this musty old cave. Perhaps more than anything, I
wanted to read whatever new stories she had written. God,
there were so many things I wanted to do!
With a firm next step, I kicked off the ground and

picked up the pace. I didn’t feel any pain or exhaustion at this
point—my hopes and dreams for the future served as a
powerful anesthetic to numb me from both. I hoped this
adrenaline rush would last me long enough to make it all the
way outside.
It was strange, though. It was almost like the more I

ran, the more stamina I gained and the faster I went. This
momentum didn’t last for long, because just then, as I rushed
downhill, my legs got caught on one another, and I went
tumbling forward. My vision spun into a dizzy blur as my
body rolled down the steep incline, battered and bruised by
the rocky floor with every rotation, and only stopping when
my head crashed hard into a pillar of one of the torii. Even
then, I got right back up and started running again. A trickle
of liquid dripped into my eye. Thinking it was sweat, I
reached up to wipe it away—but my fingers came back red. I
was bleeding from my skull, apparently. I paid it no mind. I
kept on running.
I had to hurry. The world wasn’t going to wait for me

any longer. I needed to go faster. Then faster still. I didn’t
care how black and blue, how bloodied and bruised I got.
Nothing would stop me. Nothing would get in my way. For as
long as the flow of time kept moving forward, I would keep
running. Even if my legs gave out from under me, I would
keep on going. I would claw myself out until my fingernails
were shredded if I had to.
“Graaaagh!” I screamed. I knew it was nothing but a

waste of valuable energy, but I couldn’t help it. I had to let
out the raging whirlwind of emotions inside me. Yet still my
legs strove frantically onward, even when my vision began to
blur and I couldn’t make out where I was going. I tripped and
fell again and again. However, each and every time, I got
right back up. No matter what happened, I refused to give in.
I kept on running.
***
I’d been running for so long. Where to, I didn’t know.

For what, I couldn’t say. Maybe I was chasing something, or
maybe something was chasing me. All I knew was that I’d
been running for a long, long time. Still to this day, I hadn’t
stopped. I kept moving forward, swinging my arms back and
forth, even when my feet felt more bruised and blistered with
every step… Or at least, I thought I was moving forward.
Even so, no matter how much time passed, it seemed like I
couldn’t reach the finish line.
“Mmngh…”
I awoke with a terrible kink in my neck. I peeled my

right cheek off the cold, hard tabletop and lifted my head.
Apparently I’d fallen asleep while working at my desk. I could
feel my joints creaking as if I were a machine in desperate
need of an oil change. I glanced at the digital table clock—it
was three in the morning. I stood from my chair and
stretched a bit, cracking my lower back with a satisfying pop.
The thick scent of ink and wood pulp hung heavy in the air of
my silent, sleepy bedroom. As I looked at the heaping stacks
of paper spread all over my writing desk, I decided it was
about time to call it quits for the night. I’d clean up, take a
shower, and then hop into bed for some actual rest. Before I
did that, I wanted to finish one last scene. I twisted my
shoulders from side to side, then sat down, put pen back to
paper, and started inking my streaky pencil lines once more.
That fateful day, when Kaoru ran off into the Urashima
Tunnel without me, I did try to chase after him at first, even
after reading the letter he’d left for me at the entrance. I
figured that even if he’d gotten a several-day head start, that
would only amount to like a minute of time in the tunnel, so I
could catch up with him easily. Then something stopped me.
“Whatever it is you think you might find in here, you
don’t really need it. What you really need is to make a name
for yourself as a manga artist ASAP.”
I got all the way to the boundary where the torii began,
but that one line from his letter was like a ball and chain
around my ankle, tethering me to the outside world and
refusing to let me go inside. In a way, it was almost like he’d
cast a spell on me, because now, it felt like if I didn’t pursue
this manga opportunity, I’d be directly betraying Kaoru. So in
the end, I couldn’t do it. I had to turn back.
When I first read the letter, I managed to stay

surprisingly calm about the whole thing, though in
retrospect, it was just that I couldn’t bring myself to fully
confront the harsh reality that I’d been left behind. Then
again, thanks to that, I was able to keep a level head and
make the right decision, so it was still a net positive. The first
thing I did upon making it home that day was call my editor
to tell him I’d changed my mind and that I wanted to work
with him after all. Thankfully, despite my selfish flip-
flopping, he welcomed me back with open arms, and he even
said he was glad to hear it.
From that day forward, I devoted myself

wholeheartedly to drawing manga in a professional capacity.
Even so, all the while, I was waiting. Waiting for Kaoru to
return to me.
For the remainder of my high school career, I

continued attending Kozaki High and sent whatever projects
I’d written in my spare time to my editor through the mail. I
faced a whole lot of rejection at first, and I lost more
competitions than I could count, but eventually my hard
work paid off and I actually won one: I got a short, self-
contained story published in a magazine. Obviously, I was
satisfied with this result, but at the time, it was hard to feel
truly elated. I wasn’t unhappy with my work or anything,
mind you, I was just upset with the way things had been
going at school.
All of our classmates seemed to have forgotten about

Kaoru entirely. Sure, he was the talk of the class for a short
while when he stopped coming to school and word got out
that he’d run away from home, but by the time our senior
year began, everyone was too swamped with entrance exams
and worrying about their career paths to mention him
beyond the occasional “Oh yeah, what ever happened to that
guy?”
I couldn’t help but be reminded of the immense primal

fear I’d felt as a child when I saw how quickly everyone
moved on from my grandfather’s death—my first experience
with existential dread. However, the thought of Kaoru’s
existence fading into memory scared me even more than
that, so I made a point to always keep him at the forefront of
my mind, thinking about him more than anyone else in the
world. When I graduated from high school and my editor
suggested I move to Tokyo to try to get experience as a live-in
assistant for a more well-known manga artist, I immediately
turned him down, insisting on staying right in Kozaki. I
rented a small one-bedroom apartment in town, and thus
began my life as a full-time author.
Of course, both of my parents were vehemently

opposed to my pursuit of a career in manga in lieu of further
education; they’d always been huge sticklers about that sort
of thing. Moreover, my determination was too strong to let
them stop me. It was too late. I’d made the choice to devote
my entire life to writing manga, knowing full well they’d
likely disown me for it. I spent every hour of every day
crafting worlds and characters and stories. This hard work
soon bore fruit, however. Only a year out of high school, I
managed to secure a deal for my very first serialization. That
was when things started to get really busy. My required daily
workload increased by several orders of magnitude, and I
only got about half as much sleep as I had in high school, if I
was lucky. Yet for how grueling the lifestyle of a serialized
manga artist could be, it certainly served as a potent
anesthetic to distract from the constant pangs of anxiety that
stabbed at my chest every other waking hour of my life. Not a
day went by that the dread of not knowing when Kaoru might
return didn’t rattle me to my core.
Despite the extremely demanding deadlines of my

writing schedule, I still managed to fit in a sliver of spare
time here and there to stop by the Urashima Tunnel. Usually,
I just sat right at the entrance and started mumbling
incoherently to myself, maybe talk about how work was
coming along on my current manga. Every once in a while, I
tried calling Kaoru’s name. It was a bit like visiting
someone’s grave to pay respects, though I never went so far
as to leave flowers on the ground outside or anything.
Although I did write a little letter for him each and every time
I visited the tunnel, in which I’d relate whatever was going on
in my life along with my updated contact information, and
left it in a bottle inside the tunnel like he’d done for me—
though I never saw any indication that he or anyone else had
ever opened it up and read a single one.
Tell me, Tono-kun. Just how much longer do I have to

wait?
Or was waiting my first mistake?
I knew it was pointless to waste my breath on questions
that would only go unanswered. The moment they left my
lips, they would be swallowed up into the fathomless void
that was the Urashima Tunnel. Just like everything else.
A year into my first serialization deal, my story finally

hit its stride. I could see the broad strokes of where I wanted
it to finish out. All I had to do was pile on chapter after
gripping chapter and pepper in enough foreshadowing
throughout to make the big finale the best it could possibly
be. Thankfully, I’d finally gotten the hang of my rigorous
publishing schedule, and I even had a little bit of free time
now—though perhaps by corollary, this also meant that I
spent a lot more time thinking about Kaoru. The hotter
months were always the hardest; they reminded me of that
dreamlike summer when he and I spent nearly every single
day together, and we were both each other’s worlds entire.
Those had been the fullest, most memorable months of

my life. Every day a new thrill, a fresh adventure to discover.
Yet lately, thinking back on it would bring about a sharp pain
in my chest, like I’d been stabbed with a knife. Then the
anxiety seeped in through the stab wound to slowly gnaw at
my heart.
What if Kaoru had made it out of the Urashima Tunnel

a long time ago? What if he was secretly living a new happy
life in a better place, unbeknownst to me? What if he simply
wanted nothing to do with me anymore, and that was why he
hadn’t attempted to contact me? Eventually, it got to the
point where the anxiety was so strong, I thought it might
bore a hole in my chest.
Another two full years came and went.
My first manga series was finally complete. Not

discontinued or truncated in the slightest; I managed to put
every bit of the story I wanted to tell on paper. I was also
extremely satisfied with how well I’d wrapped things up. It
was the exact perfect conclusion I’d envisioned before the
story even started publication. The readers seemed to love it
too.
Yet my depressive funk showed no signs of letting up.

Now that I’d lost my serialized gig, I couldn’t coast through
life on that alone. It was like I’d been thrown off the rails,
tossed back to fend for myself in the jungle at night with no
direction on where to go. My editor told me that I should
work on submitting a rough draft for a new story concept.
That made sense, obviously. As an author, once I’d finished
telling one story, it was time to move on to the next. That was
simply the cycle of being a professional manga artist. Yet,
though I now had full confidence in my abilities as a
storyteller, I wasn’t completely convinced that this was what
I, Anzu Hanashiro the human being, truly wanted. Or to put
it more simply, I was lost, unsure of where my life should go
next.
Should I try to go look for Kaoru in earnest, or should I

write a new manga?
I had to admit, I’d entertained the idea of going into the

tunnel and chasing him several times over the years, even
despite the massive head start he had by now. Yet every time,
I remembered the words in his letter and felt like I owed it to
him to really pour my all into my manga career. That,
combined with the simple fear of taking on the tunnel and its
unknowable nature all by myself, always made me reticent.
Plus, like I said, Kaoru had been in the tunnel for quite
some time—probably going on a full day now, by my
estimation. One would have thought that would be enough
time to make it to the end of any tunnel, barring
supernatural shenanigans. The fact that he was (to the best of
my knowledge) still inside seemed to imply that something
truly bad had happened. Maybe he’d fallen into some sort of
trap and couldn’t get out without help, so he was starving to
death. Maybe he’d encountered some horrible abomination
and been gravely injured. My mind drafted worst-case
scenarios one after another, and with each “what if,” my
chest grew tighter and tighter. A part of me desperately
wanted to rush in and help him. However, every time I stood
before that first torii, I got cold feet and froze in place, unable
to move a muscle.
I was a grown adult; gone was the invincible teenager I

had once been. I had actual responsibilities now, as well as
my long-term financial stability and well-being to think
about. The thought of putting myself in any sort of danger
was pretty terrifying. Even scarier than that, really, was the
thought of going in and discovering that Kaoru was nowhere
to be found. Like, what if he’d come out of the tunnel and left
Kozaki behind without saying a word? Then I’d have thrown
away all the success I’d built over the past few years for
nothing.
I knew that I should give up on Kaoru and try to forget

about him. Really, I did. I knew that constantly obsessing
over him after five whole years was unhealthy, plain and
simple. Despite that, I couldn’t do it. Even after all these
years of dashed hopes, whenever I heard my phone vibrate,
part of me couldn’t help but wonder if it might be him. Every.
Single. Time.
So I languished in agony, unable to go after Kaoru, but

unable to move on from him, as the weeks and months piled
up like so many sheets of crumpled drawing paper. Since
when had I been such a spineless coward? I found myself
envying the dauntless girl I’d been in days gone by, who’d
always been able to maintain an optimistic outlook without
effort—without even good reason.
The days rolled by one after another, yet still I failed to

come up with any decent ideas for my next big manga series.
And of course, I still hadn’t heard anything from Kaoru. I did
receive an invitation to go out to lunch with an old friend—
one Koharu Kawasaki. We met up one day at the old café in
downtown Kozaki.
“Hey, Anzu! Long time no see, huh?”
“Yeah… No kidding.”
We hadn’t seen each other once since graduation. We

did keep in touch via text for a while, but as my career started
picking up steam, even that slowly fell by the wayside—and
now we hadn’t spoken in almost a year. Seeing Koharu’s face
again for the first time in so long, I couldn’t help but notice
how much softer and friendlier her smile had become. She’d
left Kozaki shortly after graduation to get her teaching license
at vocational school, and she had apparently scored herself a
job teaching elementary school in the city.
When Koharu had first told me, way back in high

school, that she wanted to be a teacher when she grew up, I
had been genuinely taken aback. So taken aback, in fact, that
I’d almost thought she was pulling my leg. Nevertheless, here
she was. She’d put together a clear-cut plan, followed it
through to the end, and was now a full-fledged teacher, just
like she’d said she would be. All the disdain I’d felt toward
this one-time bad girl had totally evaporated, and in its place,
I felt nothing but genuine respect for her.
We quickly set about catching each other up on what

was new and exciting in our respective lives, continuing to
make casual small talk between bites after our food arrived.
“Have you been getting enough sleep lately?” Koharu

asked at one point.
“Who, me?”
“Yeah, you’ve got big dark circles under your eyes. Are
you really still that busy now that your series is finally over?”
“No, not so much, honestly. I’ve been having trouble

falling asleep lately, I guess.”
“Wait, you’ve got insomnia? Is there something that’s

been stressing you out a lot? Maybe writer’s block or
something? Can’t come up with any new story ideas?”
“Well, yeah. That’s part of it too, but…”
“Don’t tell me. It’s Tono, isn’t it?”
I was at a loss for words. I really hadn’t expected

Koharu to be able to see through me so easily. She made a
glum expression for whatever reason, then put her elbows on
the table and rested her head in her hands.
“God, where the heck did that guy run off to…?” she
wondered aloud.
For all the complaints I’d had about Koharu back in

high school, she was one of the only people I knew who’d
remained concerned about Kaoru’s sudden disappearance
after graduation. I had to respect her for that.
“I mean, what kind of loser runs off and leaves a girl
like you high and dry, y’know? So help me, if I ever see his
stupid mug again, I’m gonna sock him right in the kisser!”
“Oh, please do. He deserves it,” I said, chuckling.
We ate in silence for a while after that, enjoying the

smooth jazz that flowed softly from the restaurant’s overhead
speakers.
“Hey, Kawasaki?” I asked casually as I twirled some

pasta around my fork.
“Mm? What’s up?”
“If I told you I was thinking about completely giving up

my manga career to go find him, what would you say?”
Koharu’s hands instantly stopped, and her eyes went

wide as she looked up at me. “Anzu… You’re not seriously
still in love with that guy, are you?”
“I mean…”
“Look, I know it’s really not my place to judge, but

don’t you think this obsession has gone on long enough? I
mean, the guy straight-up vanished on us without giving us a
courtesy call. Pretty sure the only way we’re ever gonna see
him again is if he decides he wants to come back…”
“Yes, I appreciate that, but it doesn’t make me miss him

any less,” I replied, raising my voice a little bit. I was dead
serious. The only problem was that, to me, my manga was
almost exactly as important as he was.
“I mean…do you really have to pick one or the other

here? Can’t you go looking for him while continuing to write
manga?”
“No. Absolutely not. All that’ll do is keep me from
devoting the proper time and energy to either. No one ever
got anywhere by being indecisive.”
Koharu furrowed her brow with concern. “Are you sure

you’re not burnt out, Anzu? Maybe you should take a little
time off, then think this over again with a fresh mind…”
“I can’t do that!” I shouted, finally pushed over the

edge. “I can’t stop running. I can’t even slow down. If I do,
the anxiety will catch up with me. And once it does, it’ll make
everything around me go dark, and I won’t be able to see or
think straight. That’s what terrifies me the most. If I’m not
doing something to keep my mind occupied, I get paralyzed
by all these intrusive thoughts. Though I guess it doesn’t
really make a difference, because when I do make up my
mind to do something, I always end up second-guessing
myself anyway, wondering if it’s really the right choice…”
I hung my head, covering my forehead with both

hands, and implored: “Tell me, Kawasaki: What am I
supposed to do…?”
I knew she wouldn’t have any answers. However, now

that the lid was off, I couldn’t help but let all the emotions I’d
bottled over the years gush out all at once.
Koharu took a long, unwieldy sip of water before

attempting to respond. “Sorry, Anzu…but I really couldn’t tell
you. That’s not for me to decide.”
“…I know. Sorry, didn’t mean to kill the mood. Don’t

worry about it.” I smiled awkwardly in a futile attempt to
mediate my embarrassment and then went back to eating my
pasta. It was supposedly the most popular item on the menu,
yet at present, it tasted like flavorless sludge. Like nothing at
all.
“But y’know what? This kinda takes me back to an old
conversation we had,” Koharu said, her expression abruptly
turning wistful. “Remember in high school, when you
punched me in the face? Then things got a little out of hand,
and you guys came over to my place to drop off my summer
homework? I remember telling you that I wanted to learn to
be just like you. Do you know what you said to me?”
I didn’t respond, so after a short pause, she continued.
“You said that at the end of the day, there’s no one right
way to live our lives. All we can do is pick a path and run
down it as fast as we can to see how far we can get in the time
that’s given to us… Or at least, I’m pretty sure that was it.
Maybe I got the wording a little jumbled, but I still remember
it plain as day.”
All of a sudden, Koharu’s lips widened into a broad and

all-encompassing smile.
“Those words changed my life, you know. So I figure

that if you follow your convictions and stick to the path your
gut tells you to, then maybe—just maybe—things will work
out the way you want in the end. Just like they did for me.”
Koharu’s words rang in my ears, then slowly permeated

throughout my body. Deep in my chest, I felt a warmth, as
though magma was bubbling up from the bottom of my
weary heart, dissolving all the clotted dregs of anxiety that
had built up inside it over the years. I felt a kind of
exhilarating energy return to every corner of my body, one
that I hadn’t felt in ages. I knew exactly what this strange
feeling was—because it was one I used to know. One I used to
call my own, once upon a time. It was courage. It was
fearlessness.
“I mean, granted, all I’m really doing here is handing
your own advice back to you. I still have no idea what I’d
recommend, but… Wait, Anzu? Are you okay?”
I hadn’t noticed, but tears were streaming down my

cheeks. “Kawasaki…”
“Yeah?”
“I think you must be misremembering. I’m pretty sure I

never said anything that cool. Either that, or you’re
embellishing an awful lot.”
“Huh?! Y-you think? Oh God, that’s embarrassing…

Sorry, it’s just been so long, and…”
“No, it’s fine… I appreciate it.” I dabbed my eyes with

one of the warm moist towels the server had brought to the
table. How had I not realized any of this before? It was all
stuff that I was supposed to know, but somewhere along the
way, I had apparently lost sight of it all. “…God, I’m so
stupid.”
It was like someone had flipped the switch. Now my

eyes were wide open, and I could see the road ahead once
more. I grabbed my plate of food and raised it to my chin,
then proceeded to shovel the remaining pasta directly into
my mouth.
“A-Anzu?! What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?!”
“Here! I’ll pay the bill!” I pulled a ten-thousand-yen bill

from my wallet and slammed it on the table before dashing
out of the café, mouth still filled to the brim with pasta. I
couldn’t afford to stay there a minute longer, because I’d
finally realized something. Something crucial. Simply waiting
around wasn’t ever going to get me anywhere. However, I
wasn’t about to give up on Kaoru or my manga aspirations. I
couldn’t possibly pick between the two. I’d just have to find a
way to claim them both.
I would take on the Urashima Tunnel. If I didn’t find

Kaoru there, I’d search the whole wide world if I had to. And
like Koharu said, I would keep drawing manga while I looked
for him. So long as I drew breath, nothing could stop me
from drawing manga if I truly wanted it badly enough.
Yes, I knew this greedy decision very well could give me

nothing but heartbreak. A hunter who chases two rabbits at
once catches none, as they said. But if you felt you had no
choice but to go after both rabbits, there was simply no other
option—you had to learn to multitask. Perhaps more
importantly, you sure as hell weren’t going to catch anything
by standing still and hesitating. It would be a cold day in hell
before I let that happen!
Every fiber of my being was telling me the same exact

thing:
Run. Chase after him as fast as you possibly can.
I felt a rush of hot blood swirling around in my head,

and a jumbled mess of memories flashed before my eyes like
slides from an overhead projector. The day I transferred to
Kozaki High. The day I got in a fistfight with that senior thug.
The first time I ever followed Kaoru down the train tracks.
The day Koharu and I settled our differences. The day Kaoru
and I first held hands inside the tunnel. The night we all went
to the festival together. The day he up and vanished without a
word. Every moment I’d spent with him during that fleeting,
still-unending summer propelled me forward, pushing my
legs as fast as they could go as I kicked myself for having ever
waited so long.
Are you listening, Tono-kun? Because I’m on my way,
and I’m going to find you.
I’ll run as fast as I can. I’ll track you down to the ends
of the earth if I have to.
So please, promise me you’ll stay safe until I get there.

I’m coming.
It had been five long years since Kaoru entered the

Urashima Tunnel.
It was finally time to run in there and take back what

was mine.
***
Hanashiro… Hanashiro…!
Over and over again, I called her name as I ran through

the tunnel, screaming it in my head even after my throat was
too hoarse to make a sound. My entire body was on fire. I felt
blood coursing through each individual finger. My heart
called on every last cell in my body, pounding harder and
harder to spur them into action.
I barreled into a sharp turn around the next corner,

pushing the grip on the soles of my shoes to the absolute
limit. I refused to slow down for an instant. The air
whooshed like a wind front past my eardrums as I made this
intense change in momentum, then pushed through that wall
and proceeded at top speed down the next passage.
Rationally speaking, my muscles should have long since

given out, yet they continued to confer their blessings, urging
me incessantly ever faster, ever onward.
Hanashiro… You must be so much older and more

mature by now. Do you still remember that fateful summer
we spent together in high school? Y’know, it’s funny, to think
back on how awkward our first interaction was. I said
something really inconsiderate that any person but you
would have been offended by. Yet for whatever reason, it
just so happened to pique your interest so much that you
followed me all the way into the Urashima Tunnel, where
we had our first real exchange. From that point on, we were
partners who shared an exciting secret. And over the course
of our investigation, I got to know you pretty damn well.
You had so many of the things I’d always wanted—so many
of the things I lacked. You told me once that you really
looked up to me, but from my perspective, I’ve always been
the one looking up to you. You gave off a radiant glow like
no one I’d ever known. With your intelligent grace, your
brutal honesty, and all your adorable little quirks, you
brought a splash of vibrant color to my dreary,
monochrome world for the first time in forever.
That’s why I could never forget you. Even if you’ve

moved on with your life and forgotten about me, I’ll never,
ever forget you or those days we spent running like the wind
beneath the hot summer sun. You were still only seventeen
then, so it probably feels a world away by now, but for me
it’s all still crystal clear. I’ll always remember those days
and keep our memories close to—
All of a sudden, I felt a crunching in my legs as they
gave out. Apparently, I’d finally hit my limit, and I fell—right
at the top of a steep downward incline. I had to brace myself
for impact.
I couldn’t. There was no time.
“Aw, shi—”
Before I could raise my arms high enough to protect my

face, they took the brunt of the impact with the ground, and a
searing pain shot through my wrists. Yet that alone wasn’t
nearly enough to stop the momentum, and I did a full
rotation in midair before crashing hard on my back. The fall
knocked every last breath of wind from my lungs, and all I
could do was let out a pathetic, breathy cough. Even still, I
kept rolling downward, my battered body crashing
repeatedly against—
I felt a snap in my brain, as at last the cord was cut, and

my mind finally let go.
Final Chapter
I WAS FLOATING, set adrift into a deep and fathomless

pool of darkness. I was hard and heavy, as though I’d been
buried alive in a coffin full of liquid cement. My whole body
lay rigid, suspended in space, with only my consciousness
swirling languidly around it. I couldn’t cry out for help, or
turn my head, or lift a single finger. All I could feel was a
creeping cold slowly slithering up my legs. I was afraid. I was
confused. My mind tried desperately to wriggle free from its
clutches. I screamed within, though it made no sound.
Then I saw it: a tiny pinprick of light piercing the

darkness. Suddenly, I regained some small amount of control
over my body. I reached for the light with heavy limbs, trying
my hardest to claw through the darkness. At first, it was like
treading water, paddling hopelessly in the middle of an open
ocean with no chance of making it to shore. Eventually, the
light began to grow brighter and brighter, and I could just
make out the silhouette of a person standing directly in front
of it. It looked like a woman, but the light behind her was too
blinding to make out her face. The closer I got, though, the
more defined her contours became.
“—”
She was saying something, but I couldn’t quite make it

out from this distance. It sounded like a droning hum. Yet for
whatever reason, it soothed my ears, like the voice of an old
friend I hadn’t seen in years and missed more than the world
could ever know. I kept swimming through the liquid
darkness, slowly but surely closing the distance between
myself and this shadowy figure. When I was finally within
arm’s length, I reached for her.
“—ono—Tono-kun—”
I heard a voice.
“Tono-kun… Tono-kun…”
It was calling my name. Over and over, like a desperate,

tearful plea.
“Tono-kun!”
A water droplet plinked onto my cheek, and I opened

my eyes. A woman was looking down at me with tears on her
face. She was so close that I couldn’t help but squirm in
surprise. However, she had apparently rested my head on her
lap. She held one of my hands clasped in both of hers and
rubbed it gently against her cheek.
She looked a lot like Anzu, only her hair was much
shorter, and she looked quite a bit older than the girl I
remembered. If you’d told me she was Anzu’s older sister or
something, however, I would have believed you without
batting an eye. Why was she crying? What was she doing
here in the first place? As far as I could remember, I was still
deep inside the Urashima Tunnel.
“Tono-kun… Are you okay? Do you recognize me? It’s

me, Hanashiro, Anzu Hanashiro…”
Anzu Hanashiro… Hanashiro?!
“Wh-what are you doing here?!” I shouted, sitting up in

a fluster. This sudden motion gave me a throbbing headache,
and I clutched my forehead in a vain attempt to quell the
migraine. When I did this, little flakes of dried blood
fluttered from the tips of my bangs. Startled, the woman
immediately let go of my hand and grabbed my shoulders to
gently prop me up.
“No, don’t! You really shouldn’t move around too much

yet. You’re in pretty bad shape…”
“O-okay…”
Anzu helped me sit so that we were directly across from

each other on the ground. I stared at her, closely examining
her facial features, as she looked me over in turn, clearly
concerned about my current state of health.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Does your head hurt? You
don’t feel sick or anything?”
“Yeah… I think I hit my head a little too hard. I’m not

bleeding anymore, it doesn’t look like, and I don’t feel
nauseous or anything… Pretty sure I’ll be all right…”
“You’re sure? Oh, thank goodness…” Anzu placed her

hand on her chest as she let out a sigh of deep relief.
I, meanwhile, was still extremely confused. Part of me

was convinced I had to be dreaming. “So you’re…really
Hanashiro, huh? Then what are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?! Isn’t it obvious?!”
Anzu’s eyes shot wide open, and she raised a clenched

fist to shoulder level. She held it shakily aloft for a good few
seconds, as though she wasn’t sure where to punch me,
before ultimately slamming it flaccidly into my chest. It
didn’t hurt, but there was a weight to it that confirmed once
and for all that this was more than just a dream. Then, before
I knew it, she threw her arms around my neck, wrapping me
tight in her embrace. Her damp, silky hair against my cheek.
The scent of perspiration tickling my nose.
“I’m here to bring you back because you were taking

too long, you moron!” she yelled. Her face was so close to
mine that it made my eardrum ring. I didn’t mind one bit.
“What? But I thought for sure you chose to pursue

being a manga artist…”
“I did! And I am one!”
“Th-then why the hell are you—”
“Because I finished already! I wrote a whole damn

series, and it’s out in paperback and everything! I didn’t rush
the conclusion either! I tied up every loose end! But even
then, you still hadn’t come out! So I got sick and tired of
waiting, and now I’m here to drag your sorry butt back with
me! Is that so wrong?!”
I was stunned. Utterly at a loss for words. Not only had

Anzu’s story been picked up for serialization, but she’d
finished the whole thing, and it was even out in trade
paperbacks? She’d accomplished all that while I was running
around in the tunnel for just a day or two? Holy crap. I
honestly couldn’t believe my ears. These were things the
average person never accomplished in their entire lifetime.
Then to top it all off, she’d cast everything aside to come
chasing after me into the tunnel, all by herself…
“And another thing!” Anzu tightened her stranglehold

on my neck. “Why would you ever write that you don’t expect
me to wait for you?! I can’t believe you! We were supposed to
be a team, remember?! How could you just leave me behind,
all alone?! Was it really so wrong that I got cold feet about
that first editing offer?! Is that why you abandoned me?! Is
that why you wouldn’t let me come with you?!”
“No, it’s nothing like that…”
“Waaah! I’m sorry, okay?! Please don’t hate me! I don’t

wanna be alone anymore! Waaaah!”
With her head over my right shoulder, her tears soaked

through the fabric of my shirt. She dug her nails so deep into
my back, I actually thought she might draw blood. All I could
do to make it up to her was gently run my fingers through her
hair.
“I’m sorry… I know I put you through an awful lot. You

didn’t deserve that…”
“Yeah, and if you think I’m gonna let you off easy,
you’re dead wrong!” she said, still sniffling uncontrollably. “I
swear, if you ever run off on me again…!”
“I know, I know… But don’t worry. I’ll never leave you

behind again. From now on, we’re gonna go the distance
together.”
“…You promise?”
I took Anzu by the shoulders and pulled her head away

from my shoulder so I could look her in the eye. Her face was
drenched with tears, sweat, and snot. Even so, it was the
most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I took a deep breath, then
brought my face close to hers and took her lips in mine. I
went in so fast that our teeth knocked awkwardly together,
but she didn’t seem to mind, so I decided to lean into it. It
lasted all of five seconds—and cost us another several hours—
but it was worth every minute. Finally, I pulled my face away.
I’d never kissed anyone before; the slight taste of salt
lingered for a good while on my lips. I stood and extended a
hand to Anzu, who was still in a bit of a daze after that.
“Come on, partner. Let’s go home.”
Forty-seven hours, fifty-six minutes. That was the total

amount of time I’d spent inside the Urashima Tunnel. When
converted to real world time, that came out to…
Thirteen years and forty-five days.
My body was still seventeen, but from a legal

standpoint, I was a thirty-year-old man. Anzu, meanwhile,
had waited five whole years before entering the tunnel to
come after me, and thus was a full-grown, twenty-two-year-
old woman.
When we finally did emerge from the Urashima

Tunnel, we were greeted by the most beautiful September
sunset you could ever imagine. Even when we made it to the
main road, I really didn’t feel at all like I’d been gone for
thirteen years. Kozaki was every bit the sleepy little seaside
community it had always been, and even Kozaki High—which
I’d always figured would be demolished and consolidated
into one of the bigger nearby high schools before long—still
stood tall and proud over the town. Probably the most
surprising thing was the newfangled types of phones I saw
people playing with on the train. They were all tip-tapping
around on the screens with their bare hands, and I had to
wonder how the glass didn’t constantly get smudged with
fingerprints.
Since I was still in pretty bad shape from running

around and getting all beat up in the tunnel, we stepped into
a random clothing store along the way to get me a fresh
outfit, then checked into a cheap business hotel in the city.
We took turns using the shower of our unassuming twin
room, then sat on our beds and talked about anything and
everything that had happened since we saw each other last. I
told her about the crazy things I had seen in the Urashima
Tunnel and how I really had managed to reunite with my
little sister, if only for a little while. She told me about her
new life and what it was like being a serialized manga
creator. We spoke animatedly for hours on end and quickly
lost track of the time. Before we knew it, it was well past
midnight. Eventually, we got to the subject of where exactly
we saw ourselves going from here.
“I’m going to keep writing manga,” Anzu assertively

declared. “I’ll rent a condo or something and pour everything
I can into making my big comeback. I figure I’ve got enough
money left to keep myself fed for another two years or so
while I come up with something, and it’s really the only thing
I’m good at, so…yeah.”
“Hey, sounds good to me. Not that I’d have any right to
tell you otherwise.”
“What about you, Tono-kun? What are you going to do

now?”
I floundered at this, mainly because I had literally no

plan of action. I honestly hadn’t given much thought to what
might happen after I left the Urashima Tunnel. I had been
too preoccupied with seeing Karen again, so I’d kind of just
shrugged it off and told myself I could surely find some way
to make a living if only I worked hard enough. Anzu putting
my carelessness under a microscope made me feel like the
most pathetic moron alive. Even so, I had no intention of
lying to her.
“Sorry, I really haven’t given it much thought,” I
answered honestly. “I know I’m gonna have to find a job of
some sort, obviously.”
Anzu shot me a concerned look, then started rubbing

her chin between her fingers. “Mmm… But you’re supposed
to be thirty, as far as the government is concerned, right? I
mean, the same can be said for me, obviously, but I feel like
it’ll be pretty tough to find stable employment with a
thirteen-year gap on your record, especially when you didn’t
get your high school diploma.”
She was extremely correct. So correct, in fact, that my

heart sank to the pit of my stomach. Just as I opened my
mouth to assure her I’d find a way regardless, she cut me off
in a loud and declarative voice. “Speaking of which, I’ve been
thinking about moving to Tokyo.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Yes. It’s just more convenient for someone in my

industry when you can be there in person for things. I’ve also
been thinking of hiring an assistant.”
“Oh? What kind of assistant?”
“Ideally, someone who could help me draw to lighten

my load. Adding half-tone shading, filling in all-black areas,
maybe drawing some simple backgrounds if possible. That
sort of thing.”
…I honestly wasn’t sure I was capable of doing even

that much. I’d only taken two or three semesters of art class,
and I really didn’t have an artistic bone in my body. I
wondered how “simple” these backgrounds she envisioned
were supposed to be. If it were just, like, sandy beaches or
scorched-black plains or something, maybe I could manage,
but… No, there was no way. As I mulled over what I might
actually be capable of, Anzu giggled and let herself fall
backward onto the bed.
“On the other hand, it might be more useful to have an

emotional support person who could help me out around the
house. Someone who could give me pep talks or feedback
when I’m feeling down or in a creative rut, and be my live-in
assistant twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. You
wouldn’t happen to know anyone who might fit the bill,
would you?”
Oh, so that’s your game, eh? Finally reading between

the lines, I got up and sat right next to Anzu on the other bed,
lifting her off the mattress with both arms.
“Well, if you think I’m a qualified candidate, I’d be

more than happy to help out.”
“…You sure you don’t mind being with an aging twenty-

two-year-old like me? I mean, I’ve practically got one foot in
the grave,” she joked.
“You kidding? I’ve always had a thing for older

women.”
“Wait, really?”
“Nah. Just you.”
“Ah ha ha… God, you’re so full of it. Always have been.”
“Oh, you think so, huh?”
“Why, yes. I do, actually.”
The conversation died off, and for a good, long

moment, we simply stared deep into each other’s eyes. Just
when I thought the mood might be right, she grabbed a
pillow and swung it hard into my face. I fell backward, and
she proceeded to pounce on me and playfully smother me
with it.
“Ha ha ha! I’m sorry, I can’t! That was so cringey, I’m

dying!”
“Oh, now you’ve done it!”
I grabbed the other pillow and threw it at her in

retaliation—but she snatched it right out of the air and came
back for more, pummeling me relentlessly with pillows in
both hands. I was laughing so hard, it was all I could do to
shield my face from the assault. Anzu and I went on fooling
around until our sides were as sore as our bodies had already
been, then crashed into bed together, thoroughly exhausted
after what had probably been the single longest day in
history.
Several days after we emerged from the Urashima

Tunnel, it was finally starting to feel like we were getting into
the swing of things. After filing some short-form paperwork,
we were officially approved to lease a unit in a pretty nice
condominium in the Tokyo suburbs. We were still living in
Kozaki for the time being, but we’d been assigned a room
number and planned to move the next day.
Anzu read new manga every day and brainstormed so

she could start working toward her big comeback. It had
been eight years since her last series concluded, so she really
had to catch up with the times and modern trends if she
wanted to compete with the big names in the industry.
Meanwhile, I’d read all the way through her previous work,
which I’d been eagerly looking forward to the entire time I
was in the tunnel. When she first handed me the physical
copy of Volume 1, I couldn’t believe I was actually holding it
in my hands—though once I got to reading, it was the story
itself that I found truly unbelievable.
Anzu’s artistic and storytelling abilities had grown light

years beyond that first amateur manga she’d let me read in
her old bedroom. Though it seemed there were some things
that hadn’t changed, because when I gave her my rave
review, she went tomato-red from ear to ear, just like she had
in high school.
Speaking of high school, we met up with Koharu and

Shohei the day before, after Anzu and I had invited them out
for lunch. They were both grown adults by now, obviously,
and quite a bit older than Anzu. When they first walked in
and saw me, unchanged from the day they last laid eyes on
me, Shohei looked like he’d seen a ghost while Koharu
started crying, then ran up and punched me in the shoulder.
She seemed genuinely a little pissed as she demanded to
know where the hell I’d been all this time, and I explained
things as honestly and clearly as I could. When I finally
finished, Shohei was the first to speak up.
“Y’know, as much as I’d like to call you on it and say

you must’ve been having some crazy fever dream or
something…just looking at you guys, it’s pretty hard to deny
that something out of this world must’ve happened to you.
But hey, you’re back now, right? That’s all that really
matters.”
“God, do you guys have any idea how worried I was?!”

Koharu cut in. “I mean, first you up and vanish on us without
a word, and then I lose Anzu too?! Ugh… But yes, I’m very
glad you’re both with us now…”
After that, the four of us proceeded to wax nostalgic
about our high school days and get caught up with what was
going on in each of our lives, all while slowly picking away at
serving after serving of okonomiyaki. Shohei and Koharu
were both officially in their thirties, and they were living out
respectable lives with respectable careers. Shohei worked for
a real estate firm in town, while Koharu was an elementary
school teacher. Of course, I already knew these things from
my discussions with Anzu, but I couldn’t conceal my surprise
upon hearing it straight from the source, especially when it
came to Koharu. There really was no telling how a person
might turn out.
“Y’know, it seems like you’ve changed a bit, man,”

Shohei said, pulling me aside as Anzu and Koharu were busy
chatting it up about something or other. “I mean, not in the
looks department, obviously… But I feel like you’ve definitely
got some ‘big man on campus’ energy. Like you’re gonna do
you, and you don’t give a damn what anyone else might
think.”
“Yeah, well… I’ve kinda been through a lot these past

few days, ha ha…”
“God, I’d love to see Kawasaki try to extort your lunch

money now. Bet you’d just tell her to go screw herself and
walk away.”
“Hey! He’s not the only one who’s matured here, you
know!” Koharu butted in, and we all started laughing.
“Hey, at least you’ve finally found purpose in your life,

my man,” Shohei went on. “Hell, plenty of folks our age still
have trouble with that. So don’t ever lose sight of it, all right?
Keep that backbone straight, you hear me?”
“Thanks, man… I definitely will. But hell, you sure pay
close attention to me, you know that? You’d make a great
therapist.”
“Yeah, well. Analyzing people’s psychologies is kind of a

hobby of mine. You knew that though, didn’t you?”
I couldn’t help but smile at this exchange. It really was

a blast from the past.
“Right. How could I ever forget?”
When we finally ran out of things to talk about, Shohei

mentioned offhand that he’d like to see this so-called
Urashima Tunnel for himself. So, as soon as we finished our
meals, we all headed there to take a look.
However, the tunnel was gone. All that stood in its

place was a flat wall of rock. Almost like it had never been
there at all.
“Okay, you guys. Come on, what gives?” Shohei

demanded impatiently.
I could only really shrug my shoulders. “…Who knows?

Maybe it really was a fever dream after all.”
All four of us couldn’t help but feel like we’d been

bamboozled.
After saying our goodbyes to Shohei and Koharu, Anzu

and I set off toward our next destination. We hopped off the
train and headed down the road that ran alongside the train
tracks. After passing by the closed-down rice dealer and the
old fire station—its doors still shuttered to this day—we
arrived at our destination.
It was my house, or rather, the house I used to call my
home. We walked right past the big No Trespassing sign and
up to the front door. The locks hadn’t been changed,
thankfully, so I was still able to let myself inside. I’d heard
from Shohei that my father had long since moved away from
Kozaki but had been unable to find a buyer for our old house,
so now it just stood there, slowly withering away. It didn’t
surprise me that he’d been unable to sell the place; it was an
old wooden house that would need a lot of renovations. I
wouldn’t have been shocked to see it demolished by the next
time I came back to look at it.
“Sorry for the intrusion,” Anzu said politely as she

walked in the front door behind me. Obviously, there was no
one living within who might respond or care. It was still
broad daylight outside, yet the house’s interior was
surprisingly dark due to the shutters on the windows and
screen doors. We walked over creaky floorboards down the
hall as the rich smell of dusty hardwood filled our lungs. We
made our way up the stairs, taking care not to get caught in
any of the spider webs hanging from the ceiling, and arrived
at my bedroom door. I reached out and opened it.
“…Nothing left, huh?” Anzu muttered to herself.
The place had indeed been stripped clean of all its

personal effects, though I had to admit, it did feel
surprisingly roomy without my bed and writing desk taking
up so much space. Anzu, however, quickly slumped her
shoulders in defeat. It had been her idea to come here in the
first place; she wanted to see if there were any childhood
mementos that we might be able to salvage. I assumed she
had been hoping to at least find an old photo album or
something.
“Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you in advance. Had a

feeling my dad would’ve cleaned the place out.”
“Yeah, but you’d think there’d be something left.”
“So what now? You wanna check the other rooms too,
just in case?”
Anzu shook her head. “No, I’ll admit defeat. If they

were this thorough in clearing out your room, I highly doubt
we’ll find anything interesting in any of the others, and I’d
feel weird rummaging through stuff that isn’t even yours…
Let’s go home.”
I nodded, and we headed back down the stairs. Just as I

got done putting my shoes on in the entryway, I remembered
something. Something important.
“Oh yeah, that reminds me. There is something we

should grab before we go.”
“What’s that?”
“C’mere. I’ll show ya.”
We headed out the front door and circled around to the

backyard. I quickly found the familiar gap in the crawlspace
and reached my hand inside. My fingers touched something
cold and metallic. Thank God, it’s still here. I pulled it out
and wiped the dust from the lid of the old rectangular tin.
Anzu looked at this box of treasures in wonder, as if she

could already tell how valuable it was to me. “What’s that?”
“It’s where I keep every memento I still have of my little

sister.”
Upon hearing this, Anzu’s face went pale for a split

second, but she quickly collected herself. “Oh, wow…” she
whispered softly, a tone of reverence in her voice.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve got a few old photos of me in here
too. Though I only really set aside the ones that were of me
and Karen together, obviously.”
I lifted the lid off the tin and was greeted by the sight of
the heel straps of Karen’s bright red sandals. On top of them,
however, there lay an envelope, one that I’d never seen
before.
“Huh? What’s this?”
It was a plain old manila envelope with nothing written

on it whatsoever. I had no recollection of ever putting
anything like it in there. Tilting my head with curiosity, I
opened it and peeked inside. It contained only a single sheet
of folded notebook paper. I pulled it out and opened it. The
only things written on it were an address and phone number
I didn’t recognize…and then at the very bottom of the page,
my father’s name.
“Wait…”
I could only assume that this was my father’s new

address and phone number. Had he really known about my
treasure box all this time? Or maybe he’d found it after I’d
left for the Urashima Tunnel. Either way, he’d somehow
known about this old metal tin and deliberately chosen not to
throw it away, opting instead to leave his new contact
information inside in case I should ever come back to retrieve
it. Of that much, I could be certain. A twinge ran through my
chest.
Goddammit. I thought I was supposed to be over this

crap…
“Is that…your father’s address?” Anzu asked, her voice

full of concern.
“Yeah… Looks like it.”
“What are you gonna do with it?”
“…Let’s bring it home with us. You never know… Maybe

there’ll come a time when I’m ready to face him again.”
I caught myself thinking that if that ever came to pass,

it would be nice if I could talk amicably with him again, just
like old times. I bit my lip with chagrin at the realization that
even after all this time, somewhere deep down, I still held
hope for a decent relationship with him. Then all of a sudden,
Anzu grasped me by the arm.
“If it’s too much for you alone, you know I’d always go
with you, right?” she offered, flashing me that perfect,
fearless smile of hers.
“Yeah. I’d like that,” I said, smiling right back.
With the treasure box tucked under one arm and Anzu
on the other, I left the old, ramshackle house behind. A gust
of wind shook the power lines overhead, and an icy chill crept
up the back of my neck. As I shivered from the cold, I
realized for the first time that I hadn’t heard any cicadas
chirping in a good while. It seemed that after thirteen years
of summer, Anzu and I were finally ready to greet the fall—
together. I never thought I’d be sad to see it go, but I couldn’t
be too upset, because I knew another unforgettable summer
was waiting just around the bend.
Afterword
I ’VE ALWAYS WANTED to write a good, solid novel.
Not necessarily one that will stick with people

throughout their entire lives, or change their entire
worldview, or that people will still be talking about in
literature classes two hundred years from now, mind you.
Just a plain old compelling narrative, with a magnetic world
and characters that can draw readers in and make them
forget all their real-world woes, regrets, jealousies, or
whatever else might be irritating them at that particular
moment. A real page-turner that, by the time people reach
the ending, will make them look up at the clock and be
amazed by how many hours flew by without them even
noticing. Almost like the book itself has the capacity to slow
the flow of time for the reader, even as the outside world
continues speeding on by. Kind of like the Urashima effect.
That’s one thing that all the best novels have in common, if
you ask me.
I’ve spent many a night mulling endlessly over

thoughts like this, like a rambling drunkard who can’t hold
his liquor nearly as well as he thinks he can. But if this, my
very first ever novel, managed to pull you in like I’ve just
described, I think that would be the greatest reward that I,
as an author, could ever ask for.
Not to imply that I could ever have done this alone,

however.
To my editor, Hamada-sensei: Thank you for all of the
laser-focused advice you gave me back when I didn’t know
the first thing about being a professional writer. I can’t tell
you how grateful I am to have an editor who’s as passionate
about my story as I am.
To the extremely talented KUKKA-sensei, who

provided the beautiful art for this book: When I first laid
eyes upon your jaw-dropping cover illustration, I remember
I froze in place and thought to myself, “Wow. Now I really
need to make a story that lives up to this artwork.” It was so
stunning, it legitimately took my breath away.
To the guest examiner on the judges’ panel, Asai Labo-

sensei: Your written notes about my original manuscript
were so in-depth, I felt like they gave me my first proper
glimpse into the world of being a professional author. I will
endeavor to continue writing novels in a way that will not
bring shame to your glowing endorsement on the cover of
this book.
To my dear older sister: Thank you for always lending

me an ear whenever I needed advice or a sanity check. You
were my first fan and my first critic long before I ever
submitted any writing to anyone else, and it was much
appreciated… I pray you’ll always remain in sound health
and mind for the rest of your days.
And to my past self, who always dreamed of being an

author someday: All those long days you spent writing,
pouring your heart and soul onto the page as impatience and
regret over your life choices slowly crept up on you? They
finally paid off here, in this book. Sure, you had to take a fair
few detours and make a whole lot of mistakes to get here,
but just look—it wasn’t all for nothing, now was it? Thanks
for never giving up on your dreams.
Finally, I’d like to thank all the other people who had a
hand in bringing this book to life aside from those few whose
names I’ve written above. I’m sorry I don’t have all the space
in the world to thank each and every one of you. Please know
that you’ll forever have my undying gratitude for your
equally important contributions.
On that note, dear reader, I leave you. Until we meet

again.
MEI HACHIMOKU
2019
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mei Hachimoku
Born in 1994. Kansai resident. Wandering through life

with a whole lot of purpose but absolutely zero sense of
direction. No clue where the hell I’m going anymore, or
where I might end up. Just gotta focus on keeping the lights
on for now, I guess.
ABOUT THE ARTIST

KUKKA
Born in 1994. Kansai resident. Wandering through life

with a whole lot of purpose but absolutely zero sense of
direction. No clue where the hell I’m going anymore, or
where I might end up. Just gotta focus on keeping the lights
on for now, I guess.

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Chapter 1:

M AN, I hate summer.

Such were my thoughts as I sat broiling on the concrete

“Erm, attention, all passengers. We regret to

The rusty old loudspeaker choked out a crackle of static

Only a single set of tracks ran through the ramshackle

“Great. Guess I’m getting cooked alive…” I grumbled as

“Hell yes! Looks like we might get out of first period

“Aww, but that poor deer, though…”

“Hey, survival of the fittest, right?”

Just across the tracks, the land gradually sloped down

After watching the waves roll in for a while, I twisted

Not long after, one of the girls sitting across from me

“Uh-oh,” the other girl groaned. “This isn’t another

“Nah, not exactly. I mean, it’s supernatural, yeah, but

“A scary urban legend?”

“Nope. Nuh-uh. Don’t wanna hear it.”

“Aw, c’mon. There’s no ghosts involved, I promise.

“Any wish? Just by walking into it?”

“Yep. Any wish.”

“Huh… And that’s all there is to it?”

“No, but see, this is the part where it gets kinda

“And what’s that?”

“Years. Years and years off of your life. Go in a

“Gosh, that is kinda spooky to think about.”

“See, I told you!”

The two girls prattled on—Oh my God, speaking of

The Urashima Tunnel: a mysterious passage that

Yeah, this is just asking for people to find loopholes, I

“Thank you for choosing to ride with us today. We’d

Wait a minute, I found myself thinking out of the blue

Kozaki High was only a stone’s throw away from the

After changing out of my street shoes in the entryway, I

In her classy, vintage pinafore dress, she gave off an

By all accounts, she was easily as pretty—if not more so

“Not much, man,” I replied, spinning around in my

It was Shohei Kaga, my best friend in the class. Given

“Heard your train ran over a deer?”

“Dang, feels like that’s been happenin’ a lot lately. I’m

“Yeah, well. Try sitting on your ass outside for half an

“I mean…I’m not any more protected from the

“Fair enough,” I conceded.

Shohei shot a quick glance over at the new girl. “…Bet

“Sure they do. All the time.”

“Plenty of suicidal salarymen, though.”

“…Dude, you say some pretty messed up stuff

To be fair, that was probably a pretty tasteless joke on

Ah. Ms. Hamamoto was our homeroom teacher, a new

“Wow. Big city girl, huh?”

“Yeah, she’s gotta be miserable here, man. Imagine

“No kidding.” I laughed it off as I took another look at

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“I dunno, it just seems like she’s isolating herself from

“Oh yeah?” Shohei perked up. “Lonely girl’s caught

“Well, her name’s Anzu Hanashiro, FYI. And lemme

Apparently, Ms. H had explained to the class that this

I could believe it too. In the brief time while Shohei

“Well… Guess I can see how she became such a loner.” I

“Too bad, though… She could be really cute if she were