Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 13 - Chapter 1.5

5

Two days later, January 5. Sakuta’s restaurant shift started at five. It was his fourth straight day working there; all his earnings were meant to pay for driving school.

Hunched over against the winter cold, he stepped through the front doors.

“Welcome!”

At the chime, a bright, cheery voice called out. A small-statured waitress came out to meet him. She was a high school girl he’d never seen here before, but one he knew only too well.

“I’m not a customer, so you’ll wanna go with ‘Good morning.’”

He was the veteran here, and Sara Himeji had an IN TRAINING badge on.

“You oughtta act surprised at least!” Sara protested, sulking. “‘Why are you here?!’ Or ‘When did this happen?!’ You know, like a normal person.”

“You took the job, right? It’s not a mystery.”

“You’re so boring!”

She seemed frustrated by his refusal to give her the reaction she’d wanted. Letting her vent in one ear, he headed to the back room. “Good morning,” he said, offering the standard start-of-shift greeting—one used despite the hour. He passed the kitchen entrance on his way to the break room.

He could hear Sara’s footsteps following him.

“Sensei, isn’t this uniform cute?”

“You make it look good,” he said, not even glancing back.

“Really? Great!”

She still clapped her hands with glee.

He stepped behind the lockers to change into his server uniform. First he took off both top and bottom, then he was down to his underwear.

“Oh yeah, Himeji…,” he called over the lockers. He’d gotten his shirt on and was doing up the buttons, but he could still hear her out there.

“What?”

“Did you dream on Christmas Eve?”

“I did!”

“What about?”

“Was with a friend on Enoshima.”

“Enoshima, huh?”

Same location as Kento’s dream, and presumably Juri’s.

“You didn’t happen to see Yamada there?” he asked, putting one leg in his slacks.

“I totally did. On a date with Yoshiwa. So much for being in love with me! What a bastard.”

“You drew a line in the sand, so he moved on.”

He tightened his belt and donned his apron, then emerged from the lockers.

“Yamada told you, huh? Same day you rejected me.”

This was a little dig at him; she pouted after she said it.

“Huh?”

A new voice, neither Sakuta’s nor Sara’s.

Tomoe was standing in the door, in uniform.

It was likely she’d entered just in time to hear Sara’s last line—hence her shocked gasp.

“What’s up, Koga?” he asked, as if nothing had happened.

“Er, um…I was gonna show Himeji how to work the register, but she wasn’t on the floor.”

She was looking for Sara.

“Then I’ll have Sakuta-sensei show me!” Sara said, pointedly moving over to him and clutching his elbow.

Tomoe’s eyes snapped to that hand. Reflexively.

“Senpai, what did you do?” she asked, glaring at him.

She was grumpy to the point of being sullen.

“Oh! Tomoe-senpai, are you jealous?” Sara asked, teasing her before Sakuta could answer.

“O-of course not!”

“But you’re flummoxed. Did something happen between you two?”

Sara clearly knew it had. Until a few days earlier, she’d been able to read minds. She’d probably learned enough to put the pieces together and know something had gone down, if not the specifics of it.

“Nope. C’mon, let’s hit the register.”

Ending that subject, Tomoe turned to go.

“Oh, gimme one minute,” Sara said. “Got something Sakuta-sensei needs to hear.”

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped the screen.

“This thing here…were you aware?”

Sara showed him her screen.

A social media service with short posts, filtered by the dreaming hashtag.

 Mai Sakurajima reveals that she’s Touko Kirishima. April 1. Red Brick Warehouse music festival. #dreaming

 The band’s guest vocalist is Mai Sakurajima, sang a Touko Kirishima number, then announced she’s been Touko Kirishima all along! #dreaming

 Seems like a lot of people had this dream. Well, so did I. Mai Sakurajima confirms she’s Touko Kirishima at a music festival. #dreaming

 This settles it. Touko Kirishima and Mai Sakurajima are one and the same. #dreaming

There were tons of posts just like these.

He scrolled down ten times without finding an end to it.

That made sense.

“There’s, like, five thousand of them…,” Sara said, looking creeped out by it. She was well aware of how ominous that was.

This was not something to be dismissed, and the look on her face made it clear she was taking it seriously.

“That is definitely too many,” Sakuta said, voicing his honest opinion.

The whole time he was working, he couldn’t get those five thousand posts out of his head.

Everyone had seen the same concert.

They’d been part of that crowd.

And they’d all seen Mai Sakurajima take that mic and claim she was Touko Kirishima. They’d dreamed it.

The same dream Sakuta himself had experienced. He imagined that the details all lined up—the only difference being where they stood.

Which meant all these posts came from members of that concert audience.

Just as Sakuta’s and Ikumi’s dreams had overlapped, these five thousand posters had all dreamed of that same moment in the future.

At that point, it no longer qualified as just “weird.” Sakuta found it downright unnerving.

So anytime he had a moment to spare, his mind went back to those posts. His shift wound on.

And he racked up the hours worked.

At nine, high school staff—Tomoe and Sara—took off, leaving Sakuta, the manager, and one other college part-timer on the floor. It had been Sara’s first day on the job, but she left with a smile and a wave.

“I’m outta here, Sakuta-sensei!”

The hour after that went quick, and Sakuta’s shift ended. There hadn’t been much traffic that night, so around nine thirty, the manager had told him to clock out already.

Not one to argue, he excused himself at ten on the dot and headed to the back room while taking off his apron.

He stepped into the break room, intending to change behind the lockers. He’d assumed he’d find it empty, but there was a high school girl just hanging out. Tomoe, eyes on her phone.

“You still here, Koga?”

“Oh, Senpai.”

“Quit fiddling with your phone and get home.”

“I wanted to ask you something, so I was waiting for you.”

About Sara? He figured that would lead to grumbling. But what Tomoe said next was on a different subject entirely.

“You seemed concerned about the #dreaming posts, so I thought I’d share my dream.”

Tomoe was looking right at him, clearly taking this seriously. The fact that she’d waited a full hour for him got his attention. This seemed like something she couldn’t talk about during work, so she’d kept quiet until now. In which case, he thought that they should take this outside.

“Lemme change quick, then. This isn’t the best place for it, so I’ll hear you out on the way.”

“Gotcha,” Tomoe said, nodding.

Outside, Sakuta and Tomoe headed toward Fujisawa Station.

“You had a Christmas Eve dream, then, Koga?”

“Seems like everyone did. Nana, my friends in class… Did anyone miss out? It’s feeling like a no.”

It was limited to their generation, but to Sakuta’s knowledge, Mai was the only one who hadn’t had a dream. If that was true for Tomoe’s circles, too, then the exceptions were rare indeed.

They passed the station and headed east. Foot traffic died down, and Sakuta got to the point.

“So did you see Mai’s big announcement?”

“I did not.”

“Then what?”

“My dream started a good deal earlier than April first.”

“How much earlier?”

“February fourth.”

A very specific date. And not one that rang a bell. It was the day after Setsubun…but that was all he could really say.

“What happened?”

“Sakurajima-senpai was working with Fujisawa PD, acting as police chief for a day.”

“She was?”

That was news to him.

“There was an accident during the event. In my dream, the news said she was seriously injured and had not regained consciousness.”

That was also a first.

“You mean it?”

“I wouldn’t make something like this up.”

“I know.”

“The news said some equipment fell on her, and she was rushed to the hospital.”

It was just a dream, but Tomoe’s tone was grim, like she’d witnessed this firsthand. The look on her face was every bit as dire.

Neither the police chief thing nor the equipment collapse had shown up in the dreaming hashtag posts. Everything Mai-related he’d seen was about the music festival on April 1 and her shocking announcement.

Sakuta’s own dream had been about that. Ikumi’s dream had been about the same day, the same time.

“What happened to Mai after she reached the hospital?”

“There was no news about her recovery. At least, not as of April ninth.”

“……Huh?”

He uttered a very dull-witted noise. What had she just said?

“As of April ninth, there was no further news.”

Sakuta had not misheard her.

“I asked you, but you wouldn’t tell me much.”

Tomoe glared at him, holding him responsible for what he’d done in her dream.

That was hardly the only strange thing here.

What on earth was Tomoe talking about?

The specifics and extent of her dream were far beyond what Sakuta had seen or what any #dreaming post involved. This was a huge departure. And within that dream, she’d made a conscious effort to get in touch with him. As if she’d just been living a normal life…

“Uh, Koga.”

“What?”

“Your dream went on that long?”

He’d experienced something very similar once. With Tomoe. Summer of his second year in high school. Strange memories of looping through the same few days.

“I guess.” She looked away, clearly not wanting to say more.

Which told him all he needed to know.

“You saw everything from Christmas Eve until April ninth?”

“So what if I did?”

She made a face at him, practically admitting it.

This matched Tomoe’s previous Adolescence Syndrome symptoms. The future simulation. The return of Laplace’s demon.

“I didn’t loop through the same time on repeat or anything,” she said evasively.

“So you realized high school graduation was coming up and got nervous about whether you’d make friends in college?”

“Shut up.”

He’d definitely got it in one.

“How you doing?” she asked.

“Mm?”

“Did you make friends?”

A forced change of subject.

“Got one or two I talk to often.”

Takumi was probably safe to call a friend. Takumi would likely throw a fit if he said they weren’t.

There was also Miori, who’d described them as potential friends. That could mean they still weren’t friends. Sakuta himself would be perfectly fine with making that leap, though.

“But it’s different from high school.”

“Like, how?”

“We just kinda hang out. Without getting to know each other as well as I did Kunimi or Futaba.”

In high school, everyone’s lives overlapped, and that deepened the connections. Like, without even trying, you wound up with a good idea where people lived. They were that close.

But in college, everyone’s active range expanded, and there was little to no overlap. Once you left campus, you had no clue what anyone else was up to. And that distance kept relationships thin.

That was neither good nor bad.

It was just how things worked.

And it let people keep a safer distance and avoid hurting each other.

“Huh, okay.”

Tomoe took his word for it but also clearly didn’t get it. It didn’t feel real to her yet.

“Koga, just don’t panic and try to join a group that’s not right for you again.”

“Well, if I do, I’ll come to you to grumble.”

“No more than once a week.”

“Also, this is me.”

They’d hit an intersection, and Tomoe paused in her tracks. She would have to turn left there, and Sakuta would go right.

“Thanks for sharing, Koga. It was a huge help.”

He was mildly concerned by the reemergence of the petite devil, but he had learned something vital from it.

“Then treat me to a Mont Blanc that’s only good for two hours.”

“Is ten good?”

“One’s plenty!”

“No need to hold back.”

“If you wanna thank me, just be normal about it!”

“That’s asking a lot.”

“Suuuure. Later, Senpai.”

Tomoe waved and walked away. He watched her go, and she soon turned back.

“You’re making this weird!”

She pointed down the road, urging him to get moving. Then she ran off, trying to get out of his sight. He soon lost track of her.

“I never get bored watching her,” he muttered, then turned the opposite way down the road.

For a while, his footsteps echoed through the residential streets. His breathing was the only other sound.

All he’d done was show up for work, but he’d ended up hearing a lot of strange stories.

Sara’s news about all the people who’d shared his dream.

And Tomoe’s simulation of the future.

Too much baffling information at once, but one piece of the puzzle had slotted into place.

Mai would be in a coma.

What Tomoe had seen could not line up better with the Mai’s in danger warning. And he was glad to know about it in advance. If she was bound to have equipment fall on her, it shouldn’t be that hard to prevent.

Most of this made no sense, but that alone seemed safe.

Not that he didn’t have concerns—he had no idea how this connected to the other part of the message: Find Touko Kirishima.

And why had he dreamed about Mai calling herself by that name? That still made no sense.

How did the pieces fit together? What parts of it weren’t related at all?

Just thinking about it made his head spin.

“I’m so lost.”

The words slipped out, but they were a clear reflection of his state of mind.

That evening, Mai called.

As they talked, she mentioned, “Oh, right. On February fourth, I’ll be police chief for a day.”

Straight from her own lips.

Exactly as Tomoe had promised.