12:42 P.M.

12:42 P.M.

 

Hinako and I were under a tree, opening our picnic baskets. The contents weren’t very ladylike—cutlet sandwiches and salty edamame.

“Heh heh… I brought some beer, too,” Hinako said, grinning.

She opened the cooler.

I smiled, too. I took the can she offered, and held it to my cheek. The cold metal felt amazing after that walk through this sweltering heat.

The cicadas were so loud.

We tapped our cans together, and I took a bite of my sandwich. The breading split, but the bread held it in place. There was no katsu sauce—instead, the breading had a nice spice to it and the meat was juicy.

“This is good!”

“Eat up, I brought a lot.”

The edamame were salted just right. After all that sweaty work, my body was craving salt. The beers went perfectly with everything, too.

“Hey, Hinako.”

“Mm?”

“Do you forgive me?”

It took a lot for me to ask that.

Whoever it was behind her face smiled at me.

“I’m not the one who can grant you forgiveness,” it said.

“Yeah, I know. I just wanted to ask. I don’t know if an apology would ever be enough.”

“How often do you really remember me?”

“Um…”

“You’d completely forgotten about me until we met here.”

It was right. I stared at my hands.

“Sorry.”

It shook its head.

“No. You forgot because your guilt was too much to bear.”

“………”

“And that kept you bound, though you weren’t consciously aware of it. But no matter how much time passes, Hinako will never be anything but a source of harm to you. When by all rights, you should be enjoying yourself, as we are now.”

“That’s what you call ‘gold’?”

“That’s whatever you feel has that shine.”

“But this is just an illusion.”

I let myself say it. No matter how much I wanted not to say it, I had to. No matter how you looked at it, this couldn’t possibly be real.

“Hinako died long ago, and I’m sure she died mad at me. Here? We’re having fun. But…”

I stared at my knees, forcing the words out.

“So what?” The voice asked, soft and gentle. “Is that why you’re clinging to what happened, living your life in fear of Hinako’s anger?”

“Of course I am! What else is there?”

“There are always options. You just haven’t found them yet. But there are infinite ways of looking at things.”

The voice had suddenly become a man’s voice. Surprised, I looked up.

He was very handsome. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. I could only tell it was the same person who’d been Hinako by the color of his eyes.

“I’ve seen you before… recently.”

I recognized that face.

From the pamphlet. It was Teratsuki Kyoichiro.

“A face pulled from your memory… at least, according to Habara Kentaro.”

He grinned. I’d never heard that name before. But I was in no state of mind to ask about that.

“Then…you’re the King of Distortion?”

That made sense.

“Well. That hardly matters.” He nodded. “The problem is that you wish to beg forgiveness, but nobody can possibly grant that to you. No matter what I say in Hinako’s form, it’ll sound like a verdict to your ears. Whether you know this is an illusion or not.”

“………”

He was right. No matter what Hinako said to me, I would have to accept it.

So why wouldn’t he just let me have that?

The King of Distortion took one of the cutlet sandwiches.

“You mind?” he asked.

“Hunh? N-no, go ahead.”

They weren’t mine in the first place, but I said it anyway. I knew he’d been Hinako a moment before, but this helped them feel distinct.

The King of Distortion took a bite, savoring it.

“This is good! I see. In your mind, Hinako really was a person with great taste.”

“………?”

What did that mean? Were my feelings about Hinako creating this illusion? It sure sounded like it.

“Th-then…I’m making all of this? This summer, this whole world?”

That couldn’t be true.

If it was, then who was the King of Distortion?

The very fact that he was here contradicted that theory. Or was there some other answer, one I just hadn’t figured out?

“………”

The King of Distortion grinned at me.

My memories were fuzzy, but I did my best to remember where I really was.

I think—I felt like there were a lot of people around. And…were we locked up somewhere?

What had happened to all of them?

Were they all in their own worlds, like me?

In that case—was the King of Distortion with all of them? Were there as many Kings of Distortion as there were minds trapped here?

Was he…multiplying?

What did that mean? But the more I tried to think, the more the overwhelming reality of the cicadas and the sunshine and the smell of grass on the wind and the heat beating down made those thoughts seem awfully empty. The tension was getting to me, and I took a sip of beer, and the bubbles running down my throat made me lose my train of thought, made me forget I was even trying to think.

But before I did, I had one thing to ask the man with the kind eyes.

“Are you…‘using’ me? Us? I don’t know what for, but…”

“What if I am?” The King of Distortion’s smile never wavered. “Will you see me as evil? Fight me? I am distortion, and if making me your enemy will resolve your problems, then that is one solution.”

“………”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, and to cover my confusion, I reached for an edamame.

It was really good.

Hinako had made these.

“………”

I didn’t know what to do, so I just kept eating edamame like an idiot, and drinking beer.

“Is it good?” Hinako said. She was here again.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding.

I felt like there was something I needed to find. But until I knew what…I would be trapped here.

“………”

Oh dear.

That sounded like a really appealing proposition.

I sat in silence for a long time. Then…

In the distance, I could hear a rumble. It was really far away, so I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like the sound was coming repeatedly. Thud. Thud. Thud. What could it be?

“Like footsteps…”

Was there a faint roar, too?

“Oh, Zoragi? Don’t worry about him,” the thing with Hinako’s face said.

“Zoragi?”

What?

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.”

She seemed ever so slightly annoyed.