5:00 P.M.

5:00 P.M.

 

“Hunh? What’s this music? What a racket!” Hashizaka Shizuka said, lifting her head up off the bar’s counter.

“Something Teratsuki Kyoichiro set up, I believe. A wake-up call, as it were,” the man next to her said.

“This isn’t Led Zeppelin, though…classical music?”

“His theme. Hardly the piece to play as the curtains close, but oh well. His taste is what it is.”

The man laughed softly.

“Curtains?” Shizuka frowned. “You mean this is all ending?”

“Yes. I’m afraid this is good-bye. All distortions will return from whence they came, as they should.”

“I…see,” Shizuka stared at her hands.

“I can’t ever be Makoto-kun’s father. That’s a burden you’ll just have to bear.”

“No, I know that. That doesn’t matter anymore. That’s not what matters.” Shizuka looked up at him. “It’s just a shame. I was having so much fun.”

“Well, if you enjoyed it, that’s what really matters,” the man smiled.

“I did! It was a blast. You were far nicer than the real Teratsuki Kyoichiro-san ever was. I was able to tell you everything I was never able to tell him, and it feels like a real weight off my chest. Even if this is good-bye, I won’t ever forget you.”

Shizuka meant every word, but the man just shook his head.

“No, you won’t remember this.” He seemed certain.

“I will!” she insisted. “I swear I’ll remember.”

The man’s smile never wavered.

“No, once a distortion is resolved, no one remembers what it was. You survived your battles with your mother. So you no longer clearly remember how you suffered. And that’s the way it should be. The value in any distortion’s existence arrives only when it has vanished.”

Shizuka hung her head. “I don’t…really understand.”

“That, too, is as it should be.”

The man took her hand.

The initial fanfare had passed, and the music had settled down to a lovely tune.

“So what about you? Aren’t you lonely? Not being remembered?”

At Shizuka’s question, the man made a strange, asymmetrical expression, half smiling, half playing dumb.

“Our real selves have long roads ahead of them. I doubt I’ll have time to feel sorry for myself once I’m gone.”

The man kissed the back of Shizuka’s hand.

She suddenly felt extremely sleepy. The world around her began to blur.

“Oh…oh…”

Her lids felt heavy as lead, and, unable to keep them open, she began to sway. But there was one last thing she wanted to ask. She forced herself to get the words out.

“Wh-where…where are you?”

His voice came one last time as the world faded.

“I am everywhere, and I am nowhere.”

 

***

 

And Shizuka woke up.

“…!”

She sat bolt upright, as if slapped. But she couldn’t remember what woke her.

“H-hunh?”

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind. But there was no need. She was fully awake, her mind alert. She felt like she’d been dreaming, but that sensation was fading rapidly as she took in the reality around her.

The lights were back on inside the Moon Temple. The unconscious people were slowly waking up.

The first thing she did was make sure her son, Makoto, was with her.

“Mm, mm…” He was mumbling in his sleep.

She pinched his cheek, lightly.

“Makoto. Wake up, Makoto.”

She shook him, and his eyes fluttered open.

“Mm..mmm? Hunh? Mom?”

“That’s right. Who’d you think it was?”

“O-oh, it was amazing! Boogiepop just went snap and Zoragi…!”

Still half-asleep, Makoto began talking excitedly, waving his arms around. Shizuka had no idea what he was talking about, but she smiled and nodded.

Makoto was still half in his dream, and part of her was extremely jealous of that.

The overture was still echoing through the Moon Temple.