Chapter 7: Heartseed

That morning, on the way to school, there were a lot more students on the streets. Club activities had been on pause for finals week, and the third years had been busy studying for entrance exams, but all of that was over now, and Yamaboshi was back to normal.

It was March — technically spring, although the temperature outside was still firmly in “winter” territory.

“Morning, Taichi!” called a cheerful voice as he felt someone clap him on the back.

“Oh, hey there, Nagase.”

It was Nagase Iori, his club president. She was the prettiest girl in their grade, and talking to her one-on-one made his heart flutter. As usual, her long hair was perfectly styled.

“Have you been studying for finals, Taichi?”

“Not a lot, but a decent amount. What about you?”

“About the same as you. Guess that makes us rivals!”

Nagase didn’t seem like the studying type, and yet she had excellent grades.

“Alright then, you’re on.”

“Winner gets two ‘go buy me whatever snack I want, whenever I want’ coupons! How about it?”

“You want to make me into your gofer...? Alright then. Two coupons it is. But I don’t know how often we’ll get to see each other after finals are over, so we might not be able to use those coupons until the next school year starts.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

They passed through the school gates, stopped at their lockers to change into their indoor shoes, and were on the way to their classroom when all of a sudden—

“Whoa!”

“Ack!”

“Uwacchi!”

—a male student dashed out from around the corner and nearly crashed into them.

“Sorry!”

He inclined his head in apology. Probably a first-year. Another male student ran after him. What were they doing, causing a ruckus first thing in the morning?

“Hey! Tennis team!” a male teacher bellowed from the other end of the hall.

“Oh crap, oh crap!”

“Hurry up, Kimura!”

“Gimme a minute! ...Really sorry about that!” He bowed to Taichi and Nagase, then took off running again.

“Hmmm... I feel like they might need a refresher on the school rules,” a voice murmured.

Taichi looked over to find student council president Katori Jouji standing there, his arms crossed.

“Maybe we could incorporate some sort of incentive campaign into next year’s program?” a bespectacled student offered. If memory served, this was the vice president, Sasaki. He was often overshadowed by the more charismatic president.

“Perhaps...”

Katori’s gaze met Taichi’s. They’d spoken a handful of times in the past, but they weren’t particularly close, so the two of them exchanged a curt nod and went their separate ways.

As they entered Classroom 2-B, they found a pair of girls mid-conversation by the door.

“Setouchi-san, I noticed you still haven’t turned in your worksheet.”

“Oh, that... I forgot it at home. My bad.”

It was class president Fujishima Maiko and notorious delinquent Setouchi Kaoru.

“Didn’t we have this conversation yesterday, too? Get it turned in, please,” Fujishima demanded firmly. She was never one to mince words.

“I told you, I forgot.”

“In that case, I’ll message you later tonight so you’ll remember to bring it tomorrow. What’s your email address?”

“None of your freaking business.”

“...Alright then, but you’d better bring it in tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

Fujishima fixed Setouchi with a long, suspicious stare, then turned and walked out of the classroom. Then Setouchi rounded on Taichi and Nagase.

“What are you two looking at?!”

“Oh, er, nothing... Good morning,” Taichi replied awkwardly.

“M-Morning, Setouchi-san,” Nagase chimed in.

Both of them were a tiny bit uncomfortable around Setouchi. This was because, for whatever reason, Setouchi had the tendency to get snippy with people she perceived to be good students. Thus, the two of them decided to hurry to their desks before she caused a scene.

“God, I can’t believe you!”

“W-Well, I—Oh, Iori! Taichi! Get over here!”

Just then, fellow clubmate Kiriyama Yui beckoned them over to a different group of girls.

“Morning,” Taichi greeted her.

“Yeah, yeah, good morning! Now then, don’t try to change the subject! This is exactly why you and Aoki never got anywhere! You had two whole years and you blew it!” snapped Kiriyama’s close friend Kurihara Yukina from the track team.

“Okay, well, like, these days it seems like he’s not interested anymore, so...”

“Yeah, I get that vibe, too. Nothing you can really do about it. They say timing is key for this kind of thing.” Then Kurihara leaned in. “But I am not letting you spend all three years of high school without a boyfriend! You won’t have any time for boys once entrance exam season starts up, so you have to get a move on now! See, your biggest problem is that you never approach any of the guys!”

“Wh-What are you talking about?” Kiriyama laughed nervously.

“And the same goes for you two over there!” Kurihara shouted at Nagase and Taichi.

“Uhhh...”

“Not sure what you want me to say... Ohohoho!”

“You’re both attractive and popular, so it makes no sense that you haven’t dated anyone! Heck, you could date each other for all I care!”

At this, the two of them exchanged a look. They held eye contact for a few seconds... Then Taichi tilted his head. “I don’t know,” he laughed awkwardly.

Admittedly there was a point at which Inaba had tried to play Cupid for them, but... yeah.

“Yeah, I get the feeling there’s a line between you that can’t be crossed... Like you’ve both got stuff you’re dealing with on the inside... Or maybe I’m just overthinking it,” Kurihara shrugged, and Taichi felt a strange discomfort in his chest.

But before they could continue, another girl changed the subject.

“Forget all that! Right now we should be talking about finals!” declared Nakayama Mariko, a Calligraphy Club member who wore her hair in outdated high pigtails.

“Oh, come on! Can you really blame me for wanting to think about literally anything else?!” Kurihara shot back. Apparently there was a reason she started a conversation about romance. “I know your game, Nakayama-chan. You’re just trying to change the subject before I turn the spotlight on you!”

“I... I’m not really interested in that kind of stuff, Yukina-chan...”

“Oho? What was that little pause just now, hmm? Hmm? ...Okay, I’ll quit teasing. But seriously, all of you — Nakayama-chan, Yui, Iori — you’re all way too pretty to be eternally single!”

The three girls laughed awkwardly in response. Was it really just a matter of poor timing that they hadn’t dated anyone? Or were there other factors at play? If possible, he hoped he’d have the opportunity to help them figure it out someday.

But of course, real life was never that convenient.

“Hey, Yaegashi!”

“Yaegashi!”

After first period came to an end, Miyagami and Sone rushed over to Taichi’s desk. Looking at them from an outsider’s perspective — Miyagami from the Photography Club with his picture-perfect hairstyle, and chubby Sone from the Manga Club — they would appear to be a mismatched duo at first, but...

“We saw you!”

“Having a lot of fun!”

“With the girls!”

“Earlier this morning!”

“Which begs the question!”

“Why aren’t you dating any of them?!”

Then they both exclaimed in unison: “Loser!”

When it came to insults, these two idiots were perfectly in sync.

“What do you want from me?” Taichi groaned.

“C’mon, man! It’s just such a waste! You’re on good terms with a ton of girls — if you went for it, I’m sure you could start something with one of ’em!”

“Says the guy who’s never had a girlfriend in his life.”

“I’m gonna deck you, Sone.”

“H-Hey! Stop! I’m on your side here!”

“We’re all on the same side,” Taichi retorted.

“No, see, the thing about you is, you could get a girlfriend, but you choose not to. You just look down on us instead. Which makes you even worse than a playboy.”

“Dude, harsh...”

“Speaking of, here comes the real playboy,” Sone muttered, and Taichi looked over to see the star of the soccer team, Watase Shingo, standing there.

“What’s up? You guys want me to brag about my girlfriend some more?”

“Nngh... I knew it! He’s our true enemy! Right, Yaegashi?!”

“I feel like you’re just looking for a scapegoat, Miyagami.”

“Relax, people. Relationships aren’t all sunshine and roses, y’know. I keep telling her I gotta study for finals, but she keeps nagging me... I guess we’ve got a bit of a mismatch in our priorities.”

Evidently, dating someone from another school came with its own set of problems.

■□■□■

After school, Nagase had cleanup duty, so Taichi and Kiriyama headed to the Rec Hall without her. Seeing as it was finals week, the CRC couldn’t do much in the way of club activities, but they were still allowed to hang out in the clubroom.

Out in the hall, they spotted a group of girls walking and chatting merrily.

“Misaki, you haven’t been studying at all, have you? You’re too in love with track, eh? Huuuh? Hnnnnn?”

“Quit nagging me, Yukina! I already study a little bit every day. I just don’t feel the need to cram for the tests, that’s all!”

“Wow... Misaki is nothing like Yukina... Well, except for their height, I guess!”

It was a group of five girls: Kurihara Yukina, Oosawa Misaki, and three other track team members whose names Taichi didn’t know offhand.

“Oh, hey, it’s Yui and Yaegashi! Are you guys headed off to study? We’re gonna have a little study party ourselves!”

“Uh... You know Oosawa’s giving you a dirty look, right?”

“What? Misaki, come on! You said you’d tutor me, right? Right?”

“You drive me crazy, I swear to god.” But despite her folded arms, Taichi could tell that Oosawa wasn’t really all that annoyed.

“You two are like two peas in a pod, huh?” Kiriyama remarked casually.

“What’s the matter, Yui? You jealous?” Kurihara shot back quickly. “God, you’re adorable. Wanna come with us?”

“Huh? Oh, uh... nah, that’s okay.”

Kiriyama glanced furtively at Oosawa; their eyes met, but in a heartbeat they both averted their gazes in opposite directions.

“Huh? Did something happen between you two?”

“Nah, it’s nothing,” Kiriyama replied, shaking her head.

“Hurry up or we’re leaving you behind!” one of the other girls shouted from down the hall.

“Coming!”

And so Kurihara and Oosawa dashed off.

Rec Hall Room 401: home to the Cultural Research Club. Inside, the five second-year members had gathered: Taichi, Kiriyama, Nagase, plus Inaba Himeko and Aoki Yoshifumi.

Normally they’d entertain themselves with their own separate activities, but today everyone was hitting the books. The only sounds were those of scritching pencils and the flutter of pages.

Nearly two years had passed since the club was first formed. Originally it was created purely as a dumping ground for misfits, but then it turned out they all got along really well, and so a bond was forged. Currently they had finished preparations for their club presentation, which meant they were now free to focus entirely on studying for finals.

Taichi’s eyes met Inaba’s.

“Hmm? Got a question, Taichi?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Don’t be scared to speak up if you’re having trouble. Or are you distracted?”

“I just looked up for a second, that’s all.”

“Keep doing that and you’ll end up in third place, behind me and Iori. Pretty pathetic for a tryhard like you.”

“I’m not a tryhard! But yeah, I do feel like I study harder than either of you... Ugh...”

“Or who knows — maybe I’ll get third place!” Aoki ventured.

“Not happening.”

“C’mon, Inabacchan, you don’t know that for sure! Not until it’s all over!”

This was a very optimistic take, coming from the guy who generally failed every other test. You’d think he was joking, but no — he was dead serious.

And speaking of dead serious... Aoki had continually professed his love for Kiriyama right from the moment he first met her. It was hard to say how much of it was just him playing around, but considering how many times she’d shot him down and/or ignored him outright, his dedication was mildly impressive. These days, however, his intensity was finally starting to wane. But that was fine, in Taichi’s view. Not all crushes were meant to be.

Neither Nagase nor Kiriyama joined the conversation, and so the room fell silent once more. Their serious studying continued all the way to their scheduled break time.

“Agh, I’m so tirrred!” Kiriyama collapsed forward onto the table.

“Break time, break time!” Nagase sang to herself as she jumped to her feet and headed over to the shelf.

Aoki slumped lethargically in his chair, and Inaba cracked her neck. Taichi stretched, hoping to calm the tension in his mind.

“Hmmm. Why are there so many gaps in this photo album?” Nagase asked. She probably grabbed the album entirely on a whim, but now she was flipping through it, looking at the handful of club-related photos they’d stored inside.

“Huh? What gaps?” Kiriyama asked.

“Take a look! You’d think we’d put each photo right next to each other, but there are a bunch of blank pages in between for some reason!”

“Whoa, you’re right... Why is it like this? Did one of you take some photos out?”

“Why would we need to do that when we could just print new ones? We’ve got the files on a flash drive,” said Aoki. Indeed, he had a point.

“Well, from now on, let’s make sure not to skip any more pages,” said Taichi.

He wasn’t sure how the album had ended up like that, but he didn’t have too much of a problem with it. Well, as long as no one had deleted the original files, of course.

Nagase was the first to head out, as she had to go grocery shopping for her mom. Aoki was next, claiming that he, too, had an errand to run. And since they’d lost their focus, the other three decided it was time for them to head home as well.

“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” Inaba asked on the way to the school gates.

“You mean, whether we wanna meet up again? Hmmm... Well, it’s nice to have you there, like, in case I have questions, and it’s fun to compete with everyone else, but... I guess we should probably, like, try to study on our own,” Kiriyama mused.

“Yeah, we can probably handle the rest at home,” Taichi nodded.

“Alright then, no club meetup tomorrow. Hmmm... We’ll need to bring in our stuff for the club presentation, but other than that, we might not be back to the clubroom until next semester...”

Chances were good that today was their last visit for quite some time.

Arriving at home, Taichi stopped by the living room to say hi to his little sister, then headed upstairs to his room. He dropped off his bookbag, changed into loungewear, relaxed for a few minutes, then took a seat at his study desk.

A short while later, he wanted to double-check his math, so he opened his desk drawer to look for his calculator.

“Hmm?”

There was a stack of about seven sheets of blank paper, all stapled together. Confused, he grabbed it and flipped through it.

“The heck is this?”

He had no recollection of putting this in his drawer. Why would anyone staple together a bunch of blank paper? Where did it come from?

Since the paper was all blank, he figured it might have some use to him in the future, so he tossed it into the paper tray.

“What the?”

Next, he spotted an expensive-looking notebook he didn’t recognize.

“Whoa, this looks really fancy...”

It was far too elaborately designed to be used as an ordinary diary; maybe someone could fill it out like a scrapbook, but even then, Taichi couldn’t see himself using it. He flipped through the pages.

They were all blank.

“Did someone give this to me at some point...?”

Even so, he would have stored it somewhere else.

“I guess Mom or Rina must’ve snooped around in here...?”

Ultimately, this was the explanation he settled on. And with that, he went back to studying.

■□■□■

From there, the days flew by in a whirlwind — studying, studying, break time, then more studying. The worst nights were when there were three different tests scheduled for the next day; he studied so much, he didn’t have time to think about anything else. Every now and then his sister pestered him for attention, and he had to shoo her away with the vague promise that they would hang out “some other time.” But right now, during finals week, he had no time for hanging out anywhere with anyone.

Then, at long last...

“We’re free! No more finals!” Nagase shouted after the final test was submitted. Her energetic voice carried all the way across the classroom, and in that moment, she truly spoke for all of them.

“God, that almost killed me.” Behind him, Watase slumped forward onto his desk. “But at least it’s over now! Hey Yaegashi, would you wanna — Oh, wait, I already have plans today. Well, would you wanna hang out sometime soon?”

“I don’t mind, but... aren’t you busy with soccer practice?”

“Super busy, man. But I could make a little time.”

Soon they’d be third-years, and they’d have to retire from their clubs altogether. Graduation loomed on the distant horizon. But when would Taichi and the others officially retire from the CRC? They didn’t have any yearly competitions, so it was hard to gauge.

He really enjoyed his current club. It was fun, and he got along with his clubmates... but sometimes he questioned whether his time might have been better spent in a more competitive club. He didn’t regret choosing the CRC, but he did feel somewhat unfulfilled on occasion. Almost like something was... missing.

Not that he could really complain, of course. He had a pretty easy life, all things considered. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder if his life would have turned out even better, had he chosen a different path. After all, he was by no means bound to this one. With a slightly different outlook, it was possible he would have made vastly different choices. And maybe those choices would have changed his whole world.

But even if he had chosen a different club, he probably still would have asked himself these same questions. After all, the grass was always greener on the other side.

“Got any plans?”

“Wanna go somewhere?”

“No, I’ve got practice today.”

“I’m going home and enjoying my day off!”

“You mean you’re gonna waste it with video games?”

“No, stupid! I’m going out to eat!”

Freed from the captivity of finals, everyone was now chatting about their plans for the rest of the day.

“What are your plans today, Taichi?” Nagase asked.

Taichi looked up sharply; he hadn’t noticed her standing there. “Uh, I don’t really have any. But I’m sick of studying nonstop, so I’ll probably take it easy at home.”

“Gotcha... I guess all that’s left is to practice our solo parts for the club presentation.”

“Now that we’ve got some experience, it shouldn’t be as stressful as last year’s.”

“Yeah... I guess we don’t need to meet up today. Where’s Yui...? Oh, she’s with Yukina-chan.”

Kiriyama was busy giggling away with Kurihara, Oosawa, and some other girls.

“Hmmm. I guess I’ll just shoot Inaban and Aoki a quick email.”

“What about you, Nagase? Any plans?”

“Nah.”

“Alright then.” He couldn’t bring himself to invite her out anywhere. After all, she was a girl, and... yeah. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yup! See ya!”

And with that, the conversation came to an end.

After a quick discussion with Miyagami and Sone about test results and potential spring break plans, Taichi left the classroom. Apparently both of them had some “minor” club activities scheduled for the day, so he headed down the stairs alone. Now that finals were over, the school felt louder and happier than usual.

That is, until he overheard some familiar voices:

“Hey, Chihiro-kun, what do you think it means? Doesn’t it gnaw at you?”

“Even if it does, I don’t remember, so there’s no way to investigate.”

It was Enjouji Shino and Uwa Chihiro, the two CRC first-years. Taichi appreciated their willingness to join their pointless little club, but it felt like they still hadn’t fully opened up to the second-years. They only showed up for club activities on occasion, and they didn’t stop by the clubroom in the mornings. Chihiro in particular had only joined due to Yamaboshi school rules requiring some sort of club participation; he was more interested in going to the local karate dojo.

Taichi was pretty sure neither of them were headed to the clubroom today, so he didn’t feel the need to chase them down.

“What if we just ask them if they have heartseeds?”

“If it’s just a phone call, sure. Man, they’re gonna think we’re obsessed with heartseeds...”

—Taichi’s stomach turned.

What the hell? Why did he suddenly feel... frustrated and queasy and miserable? There was no clear reason for him to feel any of those things. As he paused to ruminate on it, the two first-years walked off.

But the feelings only lasted for a fleeting moment, so Taichi shrugged it off and headed home.

After that, the days that followed were decently, but not completely, fulfilling. The CRC gave their club presentation. A few more days went by. Then they got their test results back.

Time ticked along, moment by moment, until their second year of high school was nearly over.

+++

Honestly, I should have ignored it. But I couldn’t.

According to one Enjouji Shino, “We can’t just let this go. It has to mean something!”

And so there we were, walking down Main Street together, with her blatantly trailing behind me rather than beside me.

After we got our test results back, the next three days prior to the closing ceremony were spent going over each and every question on each and every test. Students who did well were free to leave after lunch, but those who scored below a certain threshold were required to stay behind for supplementary lessons. So for me, today was my second half-day. But for some reason, today didn’t play out the same way as yesterday. I should have been on my way to the dojo right now, but instead I was here.

For as worthless as this world could be, I’d have to be stupid to waste my time with pointless shit. Unlike some people, I had priorities.

It all started about a week ago, when I found three plastic pouches full of weird little black seeds in the pocket of my bookbag. I had zero recollection of ever putting them there. Initially this creeped me out, but then I figured there must have been some kind of mix-up. Right as I was debating whether to take them to the Lost and Found box or just toss them, however, Enjouji caught sight of them and said:

“Those seeds come from heartseed vines, don’t they? I have some, too.”

Her story was the same as mine: she found them in her bookbag and had no idea where they came from. They were just... there. Was this another mix-up, or was someone pranking us? I figured it had to be one or the other, so I started asking around, but no one had the first clue what I was talking about.

You’d think the story would end there. But then Enjouji asked me if I wanted to look into it sometime and, for some idiotic reason, I agreed.

As the days went by, and the closing ceremony got closer and closer, I thought maybe we’d end up forgetting about it until after spring break, but then she approached me about it earlier today. And since I’d already promised I’d help, I let her drag me to the train station, where we caught a train into town to pay a visit to the local garden center. I called them like a week ago just to check, and sure enough, they told me they carried seeds for heartseed vines.

If only they didn’t carry them. Then we would have been out of leads, and our “investigation” would have come to an end. But alas, they did, so here we were.

I glanced over at Enjouji. I could only imagine what the guys in my class would say to me if they knew I was hanging out with a girl one-on-one... That said, it didn’t really feel like a “date,” given she was glancing around even more restlessly than I was. What a dweeb.

“These seeds sure are weird, huh?”

“Yep.”

“...Chihiro-kun?”

Apparently she wanted a real answer. “Yeah, it really makes you wonder.”

At this, her face brightened in relief... and I felt a strange discomfort in my chest.

Why did Enjouji decide to investigate? And why did I agree to help her?

At the time, she explained her reasoning as follows:

—It feels like my normal life might finally get interesting.

“Normal” was certainly apt, both for her life and my own. We were both ordinary people with nothing special going on... but there was a tiny chance we could change that. That was why I joined the Cultural Research Club in the first place. But then a year went by, and nothing ever came of it.

I didn’t want to be like them. There would be no bridging the gap between us; I knew that perfectly well, and yet... at times, I couldn’t help but wonder if I could fit in with them. If it could lead me in the direction of something more. As long as I followed this path, surely there was a tiny, microscopic chance...

We made a right at the corner. Just a few more steps and we would arrive.

Out front, there was a large parking lot completely devoid of cars. Upon further inspection, the parking lot was gated off with a metal chain. Then we approached the doors, where someone had hung a simple, unsophisticated wooden sign:

CLOSED.

“...Looks like they’re closed.”

“S-Sure does...”

The investigation was over. Like a couple of idiots, we had wasted not only our time, but our train fare, too, and there was no taking it back. All we could do now was cut our losses and throw in the towel.

I was delusional to think anything would ever come of this.

“Well, so much for that. I’m leaving.”

“W-Wait, Chihiro-kun! We only just got here! But... I guess... there’s nothing we can really do...”

“If you want to come back tomorrow, knock yourself out, but leave me out of it. What would we even accomplish by visiting the store in person?”

“...I don’t know...”

Deflated, Enjouji hung her head. Maybe I was a little too harsh just now... not that I care.

Together, we turned and headed back the way we came, Enjouji silently trailing along behind me. I was pretty sure I hadn’t done anything wrong, and yet I felt like a total ass for some reason.

To force myself out of my dour mood, I took out one of the little seed pouches. I should just throw them away, I thought. Then I could be free of this nonsense. Not like Enjouji could make miracles happen, either. The two of us were just a couple of nobodies.

As we walked, I tossed the bag into the air, and as gravity pulled it back down, I caught it. Then I flung it even higher, and after a slightly longer wait, I reached out and barely caught it by the tips of my fingers. Then I threw it as hard as I could, because this time, it didn’t matter if I caught it.

“Wh-What are you doing, Chihiro-kun?!”

I reached out — but failed to catch it. Instead, it hit the ground.

“Hey, what’s that?”

I hadn’t realized anyone else was on the sidewalk with us, but as it turned out, a young girl was headed our way. She stopped short and stared at the pouch of seeds. Judging from her height and the kiddy backpack slung over her shoulders, she was in fifth or sixth grade.

She looked up and stared at us curiously. What do you want? Her gaze made me uncomfortable, so I bent down and grabbed the pouch. Then she pointed straight ahead, in our direction. Confused, I glanced over my shoulder at Enjouji, but she shook her head. “Not me!”

And so I determined that the girl was pointing at me... or rather, at the thing in my hand. Apparently she’d taken an interest in the seeds. She seemed like a good kid, although her wavy hair was really well-styled for someone her age.

“What’s that?” she repeated.

“What, this?” I asked.

“Yeah, what are those? Um... I mean... if you don’t mind me asking? For some reason they, uh, seem really fascinating to me...”

Out of nowhere, she started rambling. Oh boy, here we go.

“They’re just seeds,” I replied curtly, then added, “For heartseed vines.”

“Heartseed...?” she repeated pensively.

“Have you, um...?” Enjouji began, but then she tilted her head in contemplation. “No, I must be overthinking it... We haven’t met before, have we?”

“I don’t think so,” the girl replied, shaking her head.

For some reason it felt like maybe I had seen her around somewhere, but I couldn’t recall when or where.

“Was there something else you wanted to ask about the seeds?”

“N-No, that’s okay... Th-Thank you anyway!”

And with that, the little girl took off like a bullet.

+++

Taichi was sitting on the couch, watching TV. The room was so toasty warm, he kept nodding off from time to time. At one point he noticed that he’d slept through almost an entire show, but he didn’t really feel like rewinding it, so he just kept watching.

—Taichi...

“Taichiiii!”

“Whoa!”

The sudden loud voice made him nearly leap out of his skin. Shaking his head, he willed his brain to process his surroundings. Apparently he was woken by his little sister Rina.

“God, Taichi, you’re always so lazy when you get home!” she shouted, her hands planted firmly on her hips. The backpack on her shoulders suggested she’d only just come home from school.

“...You’re home late, I see. Were you hanging out with a friend? And what’s it matter to you what I do after school? I’m allowed to relax if I want. ”

“No, you are not! Just because they sent you home early now that you’re done with your finals, it doesn’t mean you can just lie around the rest of the day! You need to use this time to get some extra studying in! That way you can move up in the ranks!”

“Way to ignore my other question. Who died and made you the boss of me, Miss ‘I forgot to do my homework and now I need help’?”

“Th-... That was yesterday! This is today! And you have a job to do! Shoo, shoo!”

“Whatever you say, dear. I’ll start studying later — I’m on break right now.”

But his teasing only further provoked her rage. “Don’t you give me that attitude!”

“I get it, alright? Message received.”

“No more break! You have to study! Now!”

She hauled him to his feet by the arm and dragged him upstairs with her. But instead of protesting, he just went with it — honestly, if he kept watching TV, he’d probably just fall asleep again. She led him into his bedroom.

“Now sit down at your desk and grab your pencil!”

“Why do you want me to study so bad?”

“I need you to get a good job so you can take care of me after my first marriage fails!”

“...I’m gonna hope like hell that doesn’t actually happen.”

“Well then, you’d better get started! Here, use this!”

Without bothering to ask first, she plunged a hand into Taichi’s bookbag and pulled out a notebook.

“Oh, I don’t actually use that one. I just carry it around.”

“What? Really? It looked pretty worn out to me, though.”

Thump. Something dropped to the floor, and Taichi bent down to pick it up.

It was a small, clear plastic pouch full of black lumps.

“What are these?” He opened the pouch and shook out one of the little round lumps. “It’s not candy, that’s for sure... Looks like seeds, if I had to guess...”

On each seed was a small white mark in the shape of a heart. Whatever they were, Taichi didn’t recognize them at all... and given the timing, his suspicions turned to Rina.

“Did you put these in my notebook?”

But she didn’t seem to hear him. She was staring down at the seeds like she was entranced.

“Rina?”

“...Huh?! No, of course not!”

“Really? Because you keep looking at them...”

“I didn’t, I swear! Where would I even get those?! I didn’t buy any, and nobody gave me any... but...”

“Something ring a bell?”

“Earlier today I saw this high school couple — well, actually, I don’t know if they were dating — but anyway, there was this guy who had some of the exact same seeds, and I talked to him about it.”

“You talked to a stranger? That’s dangerous, Rina.”

“No, it wasn’t! The girl he was with seemed really nice! Anyway... his seeds were in a little plastic pouch, just like this one...”

“So he gave them to you, and they fell out of your pocket just now?”

“No! I swear, they’re not mine! They were in your notebook!”

“Well, I didn’t put them there. I don’t even know what kind of seeds they are.”

This conversation was going nowhere. If it wasn’t her doing, then how did this pouch end up sandwiched between the pages of his notebook, of all places?

Come to think of it, lately he’d come across some other things he didn’t recognize, too — the stapled stack of papers, the fancy notebook. Were these things connected in some way?

“Those are heartseeds.”

An indescribable feeling spread through every inch of Taichi’s body — something intensely unsettling. And then... it faded away.

“Is that really what they’re called? Heartseeds?”

“I don’t know! That’s what the guy told me! If you think I’m lying, then look it up!”

“I mean, I don’t care that much...”

“Just do it anyway! I want to know if it’s true!”

Rina was being overly demanding today. Was this his punishment for neglecting her during finals week? I guess I’ll be spending tonight making it up to her, he thought to himself as he powered on his laptop and opened a browser window. Then he typed “heartseed” into the search bar. The result: images that perfectly matched the seeds on hand.

“Looks like this guy was right after all.”

Cardiospermum halicacabum: a tropical flowering plant in the Sapindaceae family, known primarily as “balloon vine” due to its mostly hollow balloon-shaped fruits, but also known as “heartseed” due to the heart-shaped marks on its seeds.

Sure enough, the pictures showed a plant with thin vines and round, pale green fruits.

“I’ve heard of this plant before, but this is my first time ever actually seeing what it looks like, you know?”

He glanced over his shoulder at Rina to find her gazing enraptured at the computer screen. What was going on with her? Rarely did she take things quite this seriously.

“Taichi, I...”

For some reason, Taichi tensed up.

“...I was expecting something a lot cuter, judging from the seeds.”

Oh.

“Give me a break. You gotta have more to say than that, right? What’s the deal with you and these heartseeds?”

Just then, someone’s phone started to buzz. It was Rina’s.

“Mmmm... Sorry, but that’s all I got!”

“You’re the one who told me to look it up! Who’s calling you? You don’t have a boyfriend, do you?!”

“Buh-bye!”

And with that, Rina skipped merrily from the room. Clearly she needed to be reined in.

Taichi sighed and looked down at the heartseed in his palm.

“All I know for sure is that these seeds came out of my notebook.”

He racked his brain, but couldn’t remember ever buying them, nor did he know anyone with a gardening hobby that could have given them to him. But since his laptop was already on, he figured he’d do a bit more research. The word “heartseed” just didn’t sit right with him.

Then he struck upon the plant’s meaning in flower language.

—Together forever.

—A journey hand in hand.

There were a few other meanings, but those were the two that stuck with him the most. Frankly, he was surprised to learn that this pest plant carried any romantic symbolism at all.

He paused to think. Had he built any friendships in high school that he sincerely believed would last forever? Sure, he had plenty of friends, but... none that were likely to stick around. At what point, then, would he lose them?

All he knew for sure was that he was planning to enroll in the science course and study for college entrance exams. Beyond that, however, he didn’t really have a set destination in mind. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life... but at his age, surely it was impossible to have it all planned out, right? Plenty of his peers were in a similar position. There was no need to panic; he could just figure it out as he went along.

But without a destination in mind, he couldn’t ask anyone to come along with him for the ride. Otherwise, how would he know what direction they were headed?

Ugh, I’m taking this way too seriously. Forget it, I’m going back to the couch.

Taichi closed his laptop — and suddenly remembered another time when he’d felt the same rush of dread. How long ago was that? It felt like forever ago... Nah, it was pretty recent. Nevertheless, he was impressed that he managed to remember such a tiny detail. Clearly it had left a mark on him.

“Didn’t I hear Chihiro and Enjouji talking about heartseeds about a week ago...?”

■□■□■

The next day, after first period, Taichi headed for Chihiro and Enjouji’s first-year classroom. He knew it wasn’t urgent, and yet some part of him just couldn’t wait. The problem was, he wasn’t sure they would even remember the week-old conversation he was talking about. His hopes were slim.

“I know this is totally random, but... weren’t you guys talking about heartseeds last week?”

He was expecting them to give him a weird look and shake their heads, and that would be the end of that. But contrary to those expectations...

“...Huh?”

“Y-Yeah...?”

...they did indeed remember. Not only that, but they seemed rather alarmed.

“Y-You see, we actually went through with those plans just yesterday. We went into town looking for heartseed seeds,” Enjouji explained.

“But to be clear, it wasn’t a date or anything,” Chihiro clarified hastily.

So the two of them were wandering around town... right around the same time as...

“...You didn’t happen to speak to a little preteen girl, did you? Long, wavy hair like a magazine model?” Taichi asked offhandedly.

“W-We did, actually! She was really cute!”

Unbelievable.

“If you thought she was cute, then there can be no doubt — that was my little sister. Last night she was telling me about a pair of older kids who were carrying those seeds on them.”

“Uh, Taichi-san? You seem to be a little overly invested in how cute your sister is... but let’s not get into that. I can’t believe we bumped into her... What a crazy coincidence,” Chihiro mused.

Not only had they encountered Rina on the street, but Taichi managed to identify them based purely on a hunch. Crazy coincidence, indeed.

“So anyway...” Back on topic, Taichi plunged a hand into his pocket and pulled out the little plastic seed pouch. “I found this wedged inside one of my notebooks, and I have no idea how it got there. It wouldn’t happen to be yours, would it?”

Their eyes widened.

“Hold on a minute.” Chihiro darted back into the classroom, then returned a few seconds later. “I knew it. That’s identical to the ones I have!”

Resting in his palm were three more seed pouches, all full of heartseeds.

“And Enjouji has some of her own, too.”

“Y-Yes, that’s right. I only have two, though.”

Altogether there were six pouches in their possession, for a total of approximately 50 seeds.

“In that case, it sounds like I ended up with one of your pouches by mistake. You can have it back.”

Relieved to have found the source of the seeds, Taichi happily offered the pouch back to its proper owners. But they didn’t take it. Instead, they looked downright perplexed.

“Well, the thing is... we don’t actually know where these things came from.”

Wait, what? “What do you mean?”

“Uh... exactly what it sounds like?”

“Y-You didn’t give them to us by any chance, did you, Taichi-senpai?”

“If I did, then I wouldn’t be asking you!”

“Nnn... I’m sorry...”

“No, it’s okay. I’m not mad or anything. I just don’t remember where I got this, so I’m worried I took someone else’s stuff by mistake.”

“Same with us. We tried looking into it, and we even found a place that sells them... but when we got there, they were closed.”

“Gotcha...”

Apparently the seeds belonged to a third party... but who? And why were the seeds divided up into exactly six pouches? And... why heartseeds?

After that, nothing else was gained from the conversation. Both Chihiro and Enjouji claimed to have no knowledge of how they acquired their seeds, and when they attempted to track the source, they hit a dead end. The mystery had only deepened.

Frankly, Taichi was still fairly convinced that his seeds had originated from the large quantity in the first-years’ possession. Or maybe it was some kind of prank. Either way, there was no real harm done — so why not simply let it go?

Well... for some reason, he felt like there was more to it. Like there was a fascinating story just waiting to be unraveled. And maybe... just maybe... it would add a little spice to his fulfilling, but otherwise ordinary, life.

With a tiny speck of hope burgeoning in his chest, Taichi went back to the classroom and showed the heartseeds to Watase.

“What am I looking at?”

“They’re heartseeds. I found them in my bookbag last night and have no idea where they came from. Do you know anything about it?”

“No idea.”

“...Yeah, I figured.”

Well, obviously it wasn’t going to be that easy. During the next break period, he approached his other friends.

“Miyagami! Sone!”

“Yeah?”

“Hmm?”

Then he asked the same question he posed to Watase.

“You’re asking if we know anything...”

“...about heartseeds?”

“No way, man. I don’t have the first clue about gardening stuff.”

“I’ve never even heard of them before.”

“Got it. Well, thanks anyway.”

Already, Taichi was starting to have second thoughts about asking around. It felt pointless, and he was tempted to throw in the towel... but he couldn’t let it go just yet. Next, he approached Ishikawa Daiki, the baseball player.

“Sorry, but I don’t know anything,” he replied with a shrug, and Taichi didn’t see any reason to press further.

He asked a few more people after that, but gained nothing in exchange for his time.

“What are you even talking about?”

“Why would you ask us if we know about your seeds?”

Truth be told, even he didn’t really know why he was doing it.

Now he was out of leads. Defeat set in, and his hopes for a “fascinating story” were set to end as nothing more than a fantasy. But right as he was about to call it quits...

“Kiriyama, can I talk to you?”

...it occurred to him that the two other people in possession of these seeds were both fellow CRC members. Thus, perhaps he would have better luck asking the people in his club.

“I found these heartseeds in my bookbag, tucked inside one of my notebooks, and I don’t know how they got there. Do you know anything about it?” he asked, holding up the pouch for her to see.

“Heartseeds...? Oh!” Her expression brightened as she took the pouch from his palm and held it up to eye level. “Wow! They’ve, like, got little hearts on them! That’s so cute!”

“...So you don’t recognize them or anything?”

“No, I don’t. Sorry.”

With that, his hopes were officially dashed. He thanked her and walked away.

“I guess I was wrong.”

Now that he’d completely exhausted all his potential leads, he figured he may as well leave the rest to Chihiro and Enjouji. Considering all the pouches they had, he got the sense that they were closer to the source than he was. All he could do now was let this made-up “mystery” go.

“Whatcha got there, Taichi?”

A pair of inquisitive eyes peeked over his shoulder. It was Nagase Iori, president of the CRC.

“Oh, uh... just some seeds. Heartseeds, to be exact.”

“...Heartseeds...?” Unlike everyone else he’d spoken to, Nagase put a hand to her chin in contemplation. “Something about that name... doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Huh?” Could Nagase have the answer he was looking for?

“I don’t know why, though.”

“...Oh.” Taichi slumped his shoulders in disappointment. He’d really gotten his hopes up that she knew something, and now he was completely devastated.

“C’mon, don’t act like it’s the end of the world! What’s so special about some seeds?”

“Well, you see...”

Nagase listened intently as Taichi recounted all the events that had led up to this moment.

“Hmmm... That’s fascinating. Like a little mystery!”

“Yeah, but no one knows anything about them, so I’m out of leads.”

Right as he was about to give up at last, however, Nagase stopped him.

“Now hold on a minute, Taichi. We might as well ask the rest of the club about it, don’tcha think?”

It would seem this strange little story was far from over.

Just like yesterday, school let out after lunch that day. And with no more classes left to attend for the rest of the school year, spring break was practically upon them. Some students headed off to take part in club activities, while the rest started making plans with their friends.

Meanwhile, the five second-years of the CRC were all gathered in Rec Hall Room 401, which was nothing short of a miracle considering Aoki was failing in multiple subjects. Luckily he’d passed the tests that were reviewed that day, and as such, had no obligation to sit through remedial lessons.

“Club presentations are finished, and after tomorrow’s closing ceremony, the school year’s officially over. We’re not scheduled to have any club activities until late March, when we need to discuss member recruitment... and yet you seem to have summoned us all anyway. Isn’t that right, Taichi?” Inaba growled.

Maybe he was making a big deal out of nothing. He could’ve just stopped by Inaba and Aoki’s classroom and asked them about it there. But to be clear, this wasn’t exactly his fault...

“I wasn’t the one who did it!”

“Oh really? Because Iori said you wanted us all to get together.”

“Whoopsie!” Nagase struck a cutesy pose that was obviously fake.

“Nagase!” Taichi hissed, but his anger quickly faded. “You know what? Forget it.”

“You always let Iori get away with murder...” Inaba clucked her tongue in frustration. Eeek. Apparently he’d only further incited her rage.

“Oh, please. I saw that li’l smile on your face when you found out we were havin’ a surprise meetup,” Aoki teased.

“Are you spreading lies about me, Aoki?”

“M-My bad! I’m sorry! I guess I was seein’ things!”

They all seemed so busy lately, and the number of club meetups had dwindled in recent months, but evidently no one really objected to hanging out today. If I’d known, I would’ve asked sooner.

“So you have something you want to talk about, Taichi?” Kiriyama asked.

“Well, I already asked you about it, but...” He set the pouch of heartseeds on the table.

“The heck are those?” asked Aoki.

“What am I looking at here?” Inaba blinked.

So Taichi gave them the full rundown.

“No clue, man,” Aoki shrugged without missing a beat.

“Oh, wow. I didn’t realize you were, like, hung up on it. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help,” said Kiriyama offhandedly.

But Inaba was... trembling...

“You called me up here... and wasted my time... over this...?”

Trembling with rage.

“And what really adds insult to injury is the fact that they’re heartseeds, of all things! ...Why does that bother me so much?”

So then, this specific type of seed had made her especially furious...

“Hold on a minute! Doesn’t it make you wonder where they came from? Even Chihiro and Enjouji were thrown for a loop! Maybe it has something to do with the club!”

“Logically speaking, Chihiro and Shino are the closest to the source, since they have a lot more than you.”

“Right... And apparently they’re going to spend today expanding their search...”

Hence they weren’t present for today’s meetup.

“Then why’d you have to go and waste our time with this?!” Inaba leapt to her feet.

“Now, now. Calm down, Inaban,” Nagase grinned. But then Inaba rounded on her next.

“If anything, it sounds like you’re the one who made a mountain out of this molehill, Iori! Honest to god, I should’ve known it was you!”

“Whoa, whoa!”

Nagase recoiled sharply — and her elbow collided with her bookbag, sending it straight to the floor, where it spilled its contents.

“Ack!”

She flinched from the sound, then rose from her chair and started tidying up the mess she’d made.

“Careful,” Taichi cautioned her as he joined her efforts.

Likewise, Kiriyama followed suit. Then she paused and picked up a folded paper pentagon. “Wait, is this one of the things you dropped?”

Its shape was too perfect to be a scrap of something else.

“Uhhh... Hmm. I’m not sure. I don’t recognize it.”

Nagase took the pentagon and opened it up. Apparently something was inside.

A small black speck fell to the table with a tiny thud.

But no one reached out to take it.

They were all too busy staring at the rest of the little lumps cradled inside the folds of the paper pentagon.

Black lumps... with white hearts.

Heartseeds.

“...Is this some kind of coincidence?” Inaba muttered. But the tone of her voice suggested she thought otherwise.

“I don’t remember putting these in here. Not at all,” said Nagase.

“Wait... Nagase, the paper!”

Taichi’s gaze drifted past the seeds to their makeshift envelope.

“It’s... a map...?”

Nagase tilted the pentagon and poured the seeds into her left hand. Then she unfolded the paper on the table. Sure enough, it was some kind of map printed off the internet. At the center was the local hospital.

“You got some kinda connection to this hospital, Iori-chan?” asked Aoki as he looked down at the map.

“I don’t even know if this paper is mine... but I definitely can’t think of any reason I’d need to go to the hospital.”

“Wh-What the heck is up with these stupid heartseeds? Is this some kind of prank? I’m literally freaking out here!” Kiriyama shrieked, rubbing her arm with one hand.

“Is there some deeper meaning to it...?”

“What kinda ‘deeper meaning’ could there be, Inabacchan? Is someone tellin’ us to go there?” asked Aoki.

“Okay, but why be so convoluted about it? Why not just write a note that says ‘go to the hospital’?” asked Kiriyama.

“Maybe there was a reason they couldn’t write it flat-out... Yeah, maybe they were barred from speaking or writing!”

“And yet they were free to buy heartseeds?” Inaba retorted.

While the other four continued to hypothesize out loud, Taichi ruminated on his own.

“Why heartseeds, anyways? Talk about obscure,” Aoki commented.

“The little hearts are really cute, though!” Kiriyama gushed.

“And if you draw eyes on it, it kinda looks like a monkey!”

“Can you people please stay on topic?” Inaba hissed.

Meanwhile, Taichi continued to think.

“I mean, nobody’s got any ideas,” Aoki replied.

“Maybe the pentagon was made out of scrap paper that just happened to have a map printed on it?” Kiriyama suggested.

“Well, I don’t know what they expect me to do with these seeds... other than plant ’em, I guess,” Nagase shrugged.

On a whim, Rina had pulled out a notebook Taichi normally never touched. Inside, they’d found little black seeds. And earlier that same day, Rina had encountered Chihiro and Enjouji, who were in possession of the very same seeds. As a result, Taichi took an interest in the seeds himself.

The next day, when Taichi went to speak to Chihiro and Enjouji about it, he learned that his clear plastic pouch of seeds matched theirs exactly. He tried asking his classmates about it, but no one had any leads. But right when he was about to give up, Nagase stopped him. Then she dragged him to the clubroom... at which point they discovered heartseeds in her bookbag.

Each of these details was minor and inconsequential — well, except for the heartseeds, maybe. But without that exact sequence of events, without that perfect timing, they never would have made it here. And in that sense, it felt like a miracle. Like destiny.

Of course, if he admitted this out loud, anyone he told would probably laugh at him. After all, he was clearly reading way too much into it.

Nothing that happened in his life would go on to have global repercussions, and from that perspective, his life was undeniably meaningless. Likewise, this series of events was equally insignificant, and if he let it go, it would fade into obscurity, like any other mundane minutia.

But what if he decided, apropos of nothing, that it was significant? Obviously it wasn’t, but... what if?

Time ticked by, flowing past in a single stream until eventually it disappeared beyond the horizon. That was how life worked. But given all the coincidences that had lined up here, Taichi felt compelled to ask a single question:

“Does anyone else feel like they’re forgetting something?”

Never had he imagined his question would have such a dramatic effect. Instantly the room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone looked like they’d been struck by lightning.

Something was different. Something was happening. Something was changing. All because of Taichi’s tiny suggestion... because he chose to speak his mind.

“What if we went to that hospital?”

But that tiny first step was enough to change the world.

■□■□■

And so the five second-year members of the Cultural Research Club caught a train to the local general hospital. They walked in through the front doors, entered the recently refurbished lobby, and... came to a stop.

“So, uh, where do we go now? We don’t have anything to go on,” Nagase muttered, staring up at the directory sign hanging from the ceiling.

“Why the hell did I come here? I must be stupid,” Inaba grumbled.

“I don’t know, but I only agreed to this because you did,” Kiriyama replied. “Like, I know you wouldn’t have signed up for it unless you thought it was a good idea.”

“I beg your pardon? Don’t pin this shit on me, Yui. I only caved because you people—”

“Relax, ladies! Think of it like a picnic!” Aoki grinned.

“What kind of psycho goes on a picnic at a hospital?!”

“For now, let’s just take a tour through all the areas visitors are allowed to access,” Taichi suggested.

“I blame you, Taichi! This was your stupid idea in the first place!”

“Yeah, well, everyone agreed to it. Including you,” he shot back.

She scowled, but didn’t argue further.

Truthfully, Taichi was on edge. Not only had he acted purely on a hunch, but he had dragged everyone else into it, too. Looking back, he didn’t quite understand what was going through his head at the time. It was unbelievably reckless.

“Well, if I’m being honest... when you asked us if we were forgetting something, I can’t deny that it hit me like a ton of bricks,” Inaba grumbled in admission.

And so they wandered aimlessly through the hospital building, starting with the first floor. Obviously they couldn’t poke around in the patient rooms, so instead they stuck to shared spaces. But it was a hospital, and there wasn’t much to look at. So they just... walked. Nothing really jumped out at them.

“Has anyone been here before?” Inaba asked the group. The response was a unanimous no.

“What about you, Yui? Have you ever gotten injured from karate?” Nagase asked. But of course, Kiriyama hadn’t been involved in karate in many years now.

“Yeah, but only minor stuff, like, stuff they can handle at my neighborhood clinic.”

“Looks like we might hit a dead end,” Aoki mused quietly. And his observation was on point.

Taichi felt completely ill at ease. If they came up empty-handed after all this effort, Inaba was sure to tear him to shreds. He was so sure they would find something here, but he didn’t know where to look or even what he was looking for. Maybe it wasn’t inside the hospital at all. Or maybe they’d already passed it without realizing. There were countless possibilities — what if the map really was little more than a piece of scrap paper? He could only pray that wasn’t the case.

They arrived at the second floor, started their rounds, and a few minutes later, they were done. Meanwhile, Taichi’s mood was starting to take a nosedive. Was there really no deeper meaning behind the map and the seeds?

“So, uhh, where are we now?” asked Kiriyama as she led the way into a smaller room. “Seems like some kind of waiting room—”

Then she gasped, and it set off warning bells in Taichi’s head. His heart fluttered in his chest, convinced that something wasn’t right. Hastily, he rushed over to the entrance. “What’s wrong?!”

The room was devoid of any human life — just vending machines and empty benches.

Then a sharp pain erupted in his skull, like someone had stabbed a needle into it.

Images — floated to the forefront of his mind — overlapped — with his surroundings — past and present — matched up —

I’ve... been here before?

“What’s... going on...?”

“Wait a minute,” said Inaba, furrowing her brow. “I feel like I vaguely...”

Beside her, Aoki clutched at his hair. “Yeah, it’s weird... Almost like... like I know this place...”

“What is this place, anyway? And what the heck was I doing here?” Kiriyama asked, bewildered.

But as for Nagase...

“Why...? Why?! Why, why, why?!”

...she looked completely unhinged, clutching her head and whipping her long hair in all directions.

“Iori, what’s wrong?!”

But Inaba’s voice didn’t reach her.

“I... I know this place... I know I know it! I cried here! My heart ached! But I smiled, because... something good happened? But what? I don’t...!”

“Stay calm, Nagase!” Alarmed, Taichi grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Wha... Huh...? Taichi...?”

She froze stock-still, as if he had somehow switched off her mental breakdown. This came as a relief, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure how to follow up. “Uhhh... Take some deep breaths, okay?”

She stared at him, her expression unwavering. Then it occurred to him:

“Oh... Sorry, didn’t mean to get all handsy with you!” He hastily moved to relinquish his grip on her shoulders.

“Wait.”

She grabbed his hand. Her fingers were warm and soft and—

A jolt of static shot through his body. Electrified, he froze in place as she stared directly into his eyes. Then her pretty pink lips started to move. Slowly. Seductively. Provocatively.

“Hold me.”

It took a minute for the words to sink in, and even then, Taichi’s mind was a blank slate. In his place, the rest of the group reacted for him.

“What?!” shouted Aoki.

“What for?!” shouted Kiriyama.

“...Don’t be ridiculous,” muttered Inaba.

“Just do it, okay?! Th-... This is embarrassing for me, too, y’know!”

Nagase’s cheeks flushed pink — evidently she did have a functioning sense of shame after all — but nevertheless, she insisted. And that was all the reason Taichi really needed.

“O-Okay... Here I go...”

Timidly, he reached out... then hesitated... then summoned his courage and drew his arms in, closer and closer, until finally they were wrapped around her body in a warm embrace.

“You’re actually doing it...?”

He could hear Inaba grumbling somewhere in the background, but her voice felt distant.

This was his first time holding a woman, and as such, he didn’t really know what he was doing... but at the very least, he endeavored to be gentle. And in return, what he felt was warmth — and sadness.

Sadness?

Not only had he experienced these feelings before... he cherished them.

Slowly, he pulled away from her. Her eyes were shining with strong-willed determination. For a moment they gazed at each other... and it was that connection that gave them the confidence to say:

“We hugged each other here in the past.”

The other three stared at them, slack-jawed. The silence felt as though it would last for all eternity... but it didn’t, of course. Eventually this frozen moment in time began to thaw.

Then Kiriyama started squealing — literally. “Wh-... What are you talking about?! Nobody told me about this! Have you guys been dating this whole time?!”

“No way, man... Y’know, that really makes me think... I’ve been tryin’ my best to get over Yui, but for some reason I just can’t,” Aoki muttered, although he seemed to be getting off-topic.

“G-Guys, wait! We’re not dating! Really! All I know is, me and Taichi definitely held each other right here in this spot at some point in the past... The question is, what led up to it...?”

“So you and Taichi did come to this hospital?”

“Uhhhh... Well, I don’t remember ever coming here, but... but it was definitely this spot! Right, Taichi?!”

“It’s a mystery to me, too. I thought maybe I was just misremembering, but no — the exact same thing happened, right here, in the past. I can say that for certain. That being said, though... for some reason, your body feels different compared to last time...”

“Her body feels different?! Oh my god, Taichi, you pervert!” Kiriyama shrieked.

“That doesn’t make any sense, though... My body hasn’t changed at all that I’m aware of... If anything, my boobs have gotten bigger... so what are you comparing it to?!”

“Wow, Iori! Way to humble-brag! Ugh!”

“Don’t worry, Yui! Your speed bumps are perfect just the way they are!”

“This isn’t about me!”

Nagase burst out laughing. “Oh man, all this bickering really takes me back! We used to be like this all the time, remember? So... what changed?” She frowned, puzzled.

Kiriyama and Aoki exchanged a furtive glance, then averted their gazes in opposite directions.

Then the mood in the room turned viscerally uncomfortable, in a way that was hard to describe. But it wasn’t a negative feeling; if anything, this was a heartwarming moment. So why had it taken so long to finally happen? That was the mystery at hand. Why hadn’t they pursued their desires?

All they had to do was make a tiny effort, and it was right there within reach. Was there some sort of reason that had kept them from taking action? Or was it a series of tiny coincidences that kept them from reaching each other? If so... was it too late to make things right?

Make things right? How? By doing what? The idea was absurd.

Taichi’s memories were a blur. Something — something was wrong — with the world. The world was different — they were different — they’d forgotten — but — not entirely.

No matter how tiny these fragments were, they were still something.

And so Taichi saw a tiny thread of light shining down in the darkness. And if he didn’t hold on to it, it could vanish at any moment.

The thread trailed off in a single direction, with mountains and valleys like a heart rate monitor. Taichi followed it slowly, cautiously, like it might snap at any moment. Where did it lead? He squinted into the distance... and then, at last, he saw it.

The thread tied the five of them together. Their bond was more than skin-deep. Their hearts were connected... by a shining light.

“I remember now.”

Together, the five of them voiced the answers they’d found inside.

“Something happened inside that building... and I was there... but what...?” Kiriyama muttered.

“Yeah, I was in a building... No, I went to see Nana? And then I went to that building?” Aoki murmured to himself.

“I was... I was at some kind of abandoned factory...?” Nagase mused.

All of them seemed to have some specific location in mind. Taichi did, too. But the place he envisioned was far, far away...

“Taichi,” Inaba called. He wasn’t sure why she was calling for him, but regardless, she seemed calmer than the others. “There’s this one place on my mind — I can’t get it out of my head. I think I have to go there.”

“You too, huh?”

Something told him that if they went there, they’d have an experience just like this one. They would find something.

“Anyway, you’re coming with me,” Inaba continued casually.

“Wait, what?”

+++

Each of us had a destination in mind, so we split up and headed out.

At the hospital, after watching Taichi and Iori hold each other, something descended over the CRC... or maybe something rose up inside us. Either way, different images filled each of our minds, and we all swiftly agreed that we should go to those places.

Frankly, it was downright eerie. A series of strange occurrences put a certain location in each of our heads, and now we were just going to go there for no reason? Normally I would never do something like this... and yet, at the same time, part of me was certain that it was what I needed to do.

Either way, I’d see for myself once I got there.

And so I caught a train I normally never took, deboarded at one of the most deserted stations, then took a bus all the way to the foot of a mountain... all while dragging Yaegashi Taichi with me.

“Why are we going on a picnic all of a sudden...?” he muttered to himself beside me.

For some reason, I felt that I needed him to be there with me. Couldn’t tell you why—but then, I couldn’t explain any part of this. It wasn’t worth agonizing over. Besides... when I saw him with his arms around Iori, it made me queasy. So in a way, this was just my way of making him pay for that.

“...Maybe we should’ve worn different clothes for this.”

This hiking trail was intended to be family-friendly, and the slope was nothing we couldn’t manage... but still, hiking in a starchy uniform was less than ideal.

This was the same mountain we visited during our first year of high school for a field trip. At the time, we hiked along the trail to the facilities halfway up the mountain, then split into our assigned groups and made curry. The whole CRC had been present: me, Iori, and Taichi in one class, Yui and Aoki in another.

“It’s too late to run home now. Remember last time? You, me, Nagase, Watase, and Fujishima were all in the same assigned group... Wait, but why was Fujishima with us?”

“Can’t remember. But knowing her and her hard-on for responsibility, she probably joined us so our group wouldn’t be shorthanded or something.”

The pointless chatter ended there, and we hiked the rest of the way in silence.

It wasn’t often I spent a lot of one-on-one time with this guy outside of the clubroom. Being alone with someone generally made me uncomfortable, since I tended to worry about what they secretly thought of me. But right now, I wasn’t worried about Taichi.

It was a weekday during the off-season, so naturally the trail was deserted. It felt like we were the only two people left in the world. Then we reached the end.

Up here at such a high elevation, it was fairly chilly. The outdoor facilities featured stoves and sinks — enough to cook simple meals — but as with the trail itself, no one was out here in the cold using them.

“Well, here we are... but I haven’t remembered anything. Have you?” he asked.

“Stop talking for a sec.”

Obviously I didn’t want to have come all this way for nothing. Just give me a minute. Be patient. Don’t rush me. Facts and logic wouldn’t help me here. I needed to feel...

Wait, what? Feel? Why would I choose emotion over rationality?

“Want to have a look around?” Taichi suggested, and I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I agreed. Following my faint memories, I walked to the stove our group had used.

“They look like ordinary outdoor cooking facilities to me. I’d hate to have to use these dilapidated ones.”

“They’re not dilapidated, they’re just old. And they already renovated half of them.”

“...Wait, I remember now. Our group was forced to use one of the grody ones — all because you lost at rock-paper-scissors!”

“I... I tried my best, okay?!”

“I’m not sure about that. You’re so bad at it, it’s freaking absurd.”

My mouth practically moved on autopilot. Almost like my body was going through the motions before my brain could catch up. Weird.

“Lay off me, Inaba. I can win if I really try! Rock, paper, scissors!”

“Whoa!”

It was so sudden, I threw out scissors on the spur of the moment — and my fingers brushed his.

“Ugh, I lost... Anyway, sorry for bumping your hand.”

I could hear Taichi talking — but my brain hadn’t processed it. All at once, I was swimming in emotion. My body was so hot, it was going to explode... like a supernova. It was out of my control.

“Huh...? What’s wrong, Inaba?”

Fuck. Don’t look at me!

I couldn’t bear the thought of him seeing the look on my face right now, so I covered it with my arm. It was mortifying. I was breathing heavily, and my cheeks were burning beet-red. Wait, why’s my sight going fuzzy? Am I tearing up? This isn’t me... I’m never this girly!

And yet—

“What am I feeling right now?!”

“Inaba, what’s wrong?!”

I caught a glimpse of Iori’s shadow — the ghost of someone who wasn’t here. Once upon a time, she said something to me... gave me something I pretended I didn’t want, but deep down, craved more than anything else. I learned I didn’t need to put up a tough front to earn people’s respect, so I decided I would just follow my heart and be myself.

I love you... I’m crazy about you... I’m head over heels for you... I adore you... You mean so much to me... You complete me... I’m yours forever...

Raw passion flooded me all at once. Where was it hiding all this time? Or was I just asleep? I couldn’t take it. Now that I was finally awake, I couldn’t close my eyes to it anymore. Not for the world.

I looked up. Taichi was standing there.

This was the man who taught me the meaning of love—

+++

Near Inabacchan’s house was an abandoned building four stories tall, located in an area “currently under rezoning,” according to a sign outside.

“This is it. There’s no doubt about it.”

Me personally, my memories were still fuzzy, but Yui sounded pretty dang sure, and I trusted her judgment.

At the hospital, one specific place had come to mind: this empty building. ’Course, Yui got mad that she was lumped in with me. Sorry, babe — there’s no fighting fate.

Right from the moment I first met her, I knew it was destiny... and yet that “destiny” never seemed to roll around. But deep down, I knew there was still a chance.

The interior of the building was pretty clean, all things considered, but it was kinda obvious the place hadn’t been touched by human hands for at least a year. Even the “Slated For Demolition” sign was starting to fade. So what did this place have to do with me?

Suddenly, a jolt of electricity shot through my brain. Building. Interior. I know this place. We hid here... We hid here? Why? I don’t know! I could feel myself getting lightheaded, but I snapped myself out of it.

“Wanna check it out?”

And so the two of us looked for a way inside. Minutes later, we found an unlocked window on the first floor. It was so easy, it almost felt like a trap. This has gotta be totally illegal, I thought to myself. But I could worry about that later; right now there were more important things at stake. So in we went.

There wasn’t much junk inside, but it was super dusty. Our pace slowed.

“Ugh, I wish I brought a face mask... Aagh!”

Just then, I slammed my foot into a cardboard box sitting on the floor. Ouch.

“Will you quit getting dust everywhere?! God!” Yui snapped.

“Nngh... Sorry...”

But for some reason, this little exchange felt familiar... and it warmed my heart.

Starting on the first floor, we worked our way through the building. Some doors were locked up tight, but most were wide open; we looked through each of ’em in turn.

“Anything ringin’ a bell?” I asked with my hand over my mouth, but Yui just shook her head.

So we went up to the second floor and repeated the process. Part of me wondered what we were even doing here, but I wasn’t about to ask. I just kept searching for something that would hit me like a ton of bricks. After all, I knew it was out there, and as long as I had faith, I would find it eventually... right?

We moved on to the next room. Then the next. Working our way through.

“Alright, next room,” Yui declared as she led the way. Although she could be a pretty opinionated person, she generally preferred to let others take center stage, so this was kinda unusual for her.

“For once it’s just you an’ me,” I mused quietly, since it wasn’t a common event.

“...Wha?! Wh-What’s that supposed to mean?!” she shrieked, backing away hastily.

“Nothing! I was just makin’ an observation!”

I screwed up. I should’ve known there was nothing Yui hated more than being close to or alone with me.

“Yeah, I know. I know you wouldn’t do anything like that.”

But today, for some reason, her smile was sweet and gentle. Since when had she ever opened up to me like this? It was a sad thought, but hey, better late than never—

“Wait... How am I so sure about that...?”

“D-Don’t worry about it! It’s important to trust your friends!”

Right now we had a good vibe going. But if I’d just put in a little more effort, couldn’t I have clicked with her like this a lot sooner?

Yui moved to another door and opened it; I followed her inside.

First impression: Wow, it’s a lot cleaner in this room compared to the others. The other rooms had junk all over the floor, like you’d expect in an abandoned building, but not this one. There were eight work desks lined up side-by-side, like an old office or something.

“This room — huh?”

And then I saw something. Flashes of stuff that wasn’t really there. Memories of blankets... a kerosene heater... a lantern...

Wait, what? Memories? I didn’t know how I remembered them, but somehow I did.

My biggest priorities rose up before me. I had a philosophy: to make each moment the best it could possibly be. But at some point, I gave up and settled into the role life had handed me. How could I have let that happen? I could have made things different if I had just stuck to my guns — so why didn’t I? It was a mystery.

I mean, it was all so simple. I wanted nothing more than to go back in time and tell myself: Grow a spine! Trust your gut! In a world as complicated as this one, what else can you truly believe in? As long as you know what you want, you can make it happen.

At least, that was how I felt. Was I right, though? Couldn’t tell you.

Sure, maybe I took my sweet time figuring it out — or remembering, in this case. But I knew for a fact it wasn’t too late to start again. All I had to do was say the magic words. Difficulty level: Casual Mode.

It was time to make my feelings known to Yui.

“Sorry, this is sudden, but... there’s something I want to say.”

Yui looked up at me, puzzled.

I’m going to tell her.

“I, Aoki Yoshifumi, am still madly in love with you, Kiriyama Yui. I just want you to know that.”

+++

I reeled from the impact, barely avoiding a KO. It was taking all I had just to hold my ground. Because the sudden confession from Aoki had nearly knocked my soul out of my body.

Wait, wait, wait. Why is this happening?! I wasn’t expecting this at all, so I was severely unprepared. I was just about to remember something, too, but then he distracted me!

Okay, let’s just set it aside. Just let it go and move on. I’m sure someday, when I’m ready, I’ll have a real answer for him... someday...

Hey, me. How long are we going to keep running away?

Aoki had professed his love for me since we were first-years. But at this rate, he was going to stop saying it... Er, not that I wanted him to keep saying it or anything! Well... maybe kind of!

But I didn’t confront it. I didn’t come to terms with it. And this was how I turned out. It could have been more, but I let it slip through my fingers. Who knew human emotions could wield so much power? With this, I could have changed something. How much had I ignored all this time? The world was full of fleeting wishes — I just didn’t have the strength to face it.

Some things were straightforward, while other things were complicated. But if I did my best to accept it, surely I could handle it in the end. And those feelings made all the difference. All I needed was a little courage... but instead I was a coward. I never, ever, ever took the initiative, and ultimately that was what sealed my fate.

So if anyone was going to rewrite that fate, it would have to be me. It wasn’t too late — I knew that from experience.

And so I found the words I needed to give myself a kick in the pants.

“I’m done running. I’m done dragging my feet. And I’m done being coddled. I’m gonna fight my own battles. I’m gonna move on.”

I was going to accept it... No, I was going to take action! So I stormed right up to Aoki—

“Huh?!”

—and slammed into him with a hug.

“...Uh... wha...?”

He was speechless.

I could feel a large, warm body... and I could hear the pounding of a heartbeat. Was it Aoki’s? Then what about mine? Was mine throbbing even harder? I couldn’t tell the difference. The two of us were joined together as one...

Wait, what?

“WHAT AM I DOING?!” Flustered, I shoved him away. “Wh-Wh-Why am I clinging all over you?! You’re a guy! That doesn’t make any sense!”

“D-Don’t ask me, man! You’re the one who did it! What was I supposed to do?!”

“Nothing! Just... be your normal self, like always!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

Well, obviously the normal Aoki was — wait, what the?

I could see two different futures ahead of me...

+++

Why is my secret memory about an abandoned factory, of all places? Couldn’t my brain have picked somewhere cooler? I snarked internally as I made my way there. Not that I really cared, but... I mean, Inaba got to go with Taichi, and Yui got to go with Aoki... I’m lonely, dang it!

I didn’t know the exact location, so I went home, hopped on my bike, and raced around the vicinity of Yamaboshi until I found it. The place was solidly built, yet clearly unused — the perfect place for a bunch of thugs to hang out, if this was a manga. I kicked out my kickstand, parked my bike, and headed inside.

The rusty door reluctantly slid open. Inside, the air was musty and humid; I could see some machinery and steel drums in the far corner, but the center of the room was completely barren. I glanced up at the window and noticed that the glass was broken.

Right, I remember now. That was the spot where I watched the action unfold. At the time, I cursed myself for being a passive bystander, and yet I couldn’t do anything about it.

But today, I wasn’t up there. I was right here... in the same spot I stood back then. At least, according to my new memories — although I couldn’t explain how I knew they were mine. It was a bizarre sensation, to say the least, but one I could trust.

At the time, I got the sense that it had taken a lot of willpower. But looking back, it would’ve been all too easy to come here; it wasn’t even that much of a walk.

My philosophy was this: If you know what you want to do, then go for it. All that matters is how you want to go about it. It’s okay if you struggle. Just fight through your failures, make a total ass of yourself, then pick yourself back up again and push onwards. No “best,” “worst,” or “normal” necessary. Once you’ve set your mind on something, you’ve basically already won.

All that was left now was to walk around inside this factory. Pretty simple stuff. Just one small step, and we would gain something — or regain something, as the case may be. Because it felt like we were forgetting something.

But as long as we didn’t give up, I was confident we could remember it someday.

+++

Maybe these heartseeds are more important than we thought.

All of us in the CRC were forgetting something, and there were important hints buried at locations with special significance to the club... At least, that was what Iori-senpai told me over the phone. She said she was planning to call Chihiro-kun next, but she didn’t need to, because he was already standing right there with me. The two of us were investigating the heartseeds, just like yesterday.

“Chihiro-kun! I think it’s safe to say these seeds are important after all!”

“Just because Nagase-san says so doesn’t make it true,” he argued back. But that was probably just his tsundere side talking. Wait, what? He’s tsundere? I couldn’t remember for sure, but the thought made him a lot less intimidating.

Today we had gone back to that same garden center that was closed last time. Sure enough, they had heartseeds in stock. And when we asked if anyone had bought any recently, the clerk pulled up the store’s sales data and told us they’d made two heartseed-related transactions in the past month... but they had no way of knowing who those customers were.

So Iori-senpai’s tip had come at the perfect time, since we were out of leads anyway.

“Can you think of any important locations, Chihiro-kun?”

“Like what? We never went anywhere as a club.”

“Well... yeah, but...”

The five of them were just so perfect. Their light drew us in, like moths to a flame. But all we could do was admire them from afar. We didn’t even go with them to their “summer camp.”

“Yeah, I guess we mostly hung out at the clubroom. As far as offsite events are concerned, well...”

“We did go to the nature park that one time. But that was before we joined, I guess,” Chihiro-kun muttered.

This was the only special location we could think of.

So there we were, at the nature park. Once upon a time, me, Chihiro-kun, and the rest of the CRC had taken part in the track team’s marathon and barbecue party for... some reason. But that was the point at which we decided to formally join the CRC.

“I can’t believe we actually came here,” Chihiro-kun lamented quietly. Which was weird, because I seemed to remember him suggesting it.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure there must be something here that we’re forgetting.”

“How can you take her word at face value?” he asked me dubiously.

I wish you would stop harping on about this. I’m tired of repeating myself.

“...Let’s just trust her, okay?”

My voice came out all watery, and Chihiro-kun’s brow furrowed.

“This could be our only chance. We can’t let it slip away.”

Our only chance to—

“O-Okay, let’s get going, then,” Chihiro-kun muttered brusquely, and stalked off. But I got the sense that he was trying to be at least a little bit considerate of my feelings.

There were a handful of other visitors scattered around. Technically it was still wintertime, and it could get pretty cold on cloudy or windy days, but apparently these folks were eager to go on a springtime stroll. Together, Chihiro-kun and I entered the park.

“Oh, this is it!”

This was the spot where they’d set the starting line for the marathon; I recognized the big tree nearby.

“Not to dredge up ancient history, but... why the hell did we all run that stupid marathon?”

“That’s not important, Chihiro-kun! Do you feel anything? Anything?” I asked hopefully, even though I hadn’t found anything for myself.

“Nope... C’mon, don’t give me those puppydog eyes. It’s not my fault, alright?”

“S-Sorry...” I didn’t mean to make him feel bad. Sadly, I hung my head.

Once I recovered, we set off again. All was quiet, save for the swishing of grass underfoot as we walked along the perimeter of the park.

“...Well, we’ve made a full lap around...”

“Maybe we should go in deeper.”

And so we kept on walking. It was a pretty big park, so if we wanted to check all of it, it would take quite a while. There were a lot of spots to visit.

We walked along in silence. I had faith that something was hidden here... but every now and then, my anxiety welled up inside me, casting doubt on my conviction. Was I deluding myself again? I kept hoping against hope that my fiction would become reality. Would it ever be the real deal? Or would it only ever be fake?

I always imagined myself changing things — making something happen — but those things never manifested in real life. This time, though, there were signs that this was real. Our senpai believed in it. And I wanted to believe that this was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Why were my experiences all fabricated delusions? Would I never find something real? Was I just not good enough compared to my senpai?

That which I believed to be real always transformed into an illusion, vanishing into thin air right before my eyes.

By the time we reached a dead end, I was completely out of breath. Chihiro-kun hadn’t spoken in a long time now. So what was on his mind? Somehow, I got the feeling he was thinking about the same stuff I was. After all, we were two peas in a pod. Alone, we probably would’ve given up by now, but together, we could hold out a little longer.

“Let’s make a left this time instead of a right,” Chihiro declared, and set off again. Hastily, I chased after him.

Walking, walking, walking.

That which I believed to be real always transformed into an illusion. Transformed? In that case, couldn’t the illusions transform into something real? Well... maybe. But sitting around wouldn’t make it happen.

I took a step forward, then another, then another. I walked and walked and walked, hoping that with each step, the fake would become the real deal. I didn’t have any proof that it was possible, of course, but all I wanted was a tiny change. And while one step was a tiny amount of progress on its own, if you stacked up a bunch in a row, you could go pretty far. Farther than you thought was possible.

We were passing through the thicket when on a whim I looked over my shoulder — and a split-second later, an image rose vividly to the forefront of my mind. I looked over at Chihiro-kun and found him shaking. A bit too hard, actually. Then I realized I was shaking, too.

“I was so desperate to find that asshole...”

“I... I vowed to fight... to change the world...”

This was where I had an unbelievable, impossibly fictional, but very real experience.

Because this was where the two of us met «Heartseed».

+++

They were all forgetting something — Yaegashi Taichi was now fully convinced of it.

On that mountain, Inaba had remembered a little, although she didn’t tell him the details. And he had seen fuzzy images in the back of his mind — images of Inaba challenging Nagase to a cucumber-chopping competition, or elbowing him in the gut... Hmm. All of them were less than flattering memories of Inaba for some reason.

He didn’t remember any of this happening, and yet at the same time, he did. It was completely contradictory. The timelines were unraveling.

Once they reached the foot of the mountain and regained cell service, their phones lit up with emails from the other CRC members, detailing the new information they’d acquired. Each of them had remembered something at their chosen destination, and as they recounted these stories, Taichi found that he somehow remembered them happening, even though he didn’t remember being present for it. But make no mistake — these memories weren’t simply faded. No, it felt like they were uncovering things that were overwritten entirely.

Each time someone regained a missing piece, it was restored for the rest of the group. Did they all have a collective memory or something? The most vivid of these new memories was the one Chihiro and Enjouji had restored: the memory of «Heartseed». No, not the plant. This otherworldly being had no physical form, and yet it existed nonetheless.

What exactly was it? What had it done to them? Where was it now? Nobody knew for sure... but they remembered interacting with it. It had inflicted all sorts of grueling trials upon them, and in response, they had banded together to fight back. This happened again and again, until at last they established some sort of alliance with it — but in the end, all Taichi could remember was an intense feeling of rage.

Then Inaba suggested they all meet back up and share their memories with each other. After all, it felt like all these tiny individual pieces would come together to form a bigger picture. But she and Taichi had just spent the afternoon hiking up and down an entire mountain, and as such, it was already late in the evening.

She was eager to meet up as soon as possible, but he insisted on swinging by his house first. There was something he wanted to pick up... and since he was unable to visit the place that came to mind back at the hospital, this was the next best thing. Eventually she conceded, and Taichi hurried home.

He deboarded the train at his usual station, then ran the whole way to his house.

As time passed, the memories grew sharper and clearer. They still didn’t have all the details, but they could remember how they felt at the time, and they were eager for the moment when it would all make sense. They couldn’t wait a single second longer.

The things Taichi had regained were things he never should have lost in the first place. He’d never given it much thought before, but his life felt so empty now that he knew what he’d been missing. Granted, he wasn’t complaining, per se. If he had to guess, the things he lost probably wouldn’t have impacted his life that dramatically.

The place he remembered was in Hokkaido, the location of their school trip. Something deeply important had happened to him there — enough to change him as a person, no exaggeration. And since everyone else was remembering important stuff at their chosen locations, he was tempted to go to his, even though it was ridiculously far away.

But then Inaba reminded him of the photos they’d taken over the trip, and a moment later, he remembered he still had one of the things he acquired there, stored in a long, thin box. It probably wasn’t there the last time he opened his desk drawer, but now it would be. And it was proof of a priceless bond.

Beneath the sunset, Taichi raced down the street and into his house, where he found Rina staring at him from the stairs.

“Wh-What’s the matter, Taichi...?”

“You played a big part in this, so thank you,” he told her, pausing to ruffle her hair as he passed her on his way up.

“Be more gentle! Ugh!”

Contrary to her complaint, however, she was still smiling.

He rushed into his bedroom and went straight to his desk, where he opened the drawer. Sure enough, it was there. He grabbed it and packed it into this bookbag.

His mother was home early from work that day, and on his way out of the house, she called out to him: “Are you going out again? Will you be home for dinner?”

“Yes and yes,” he replied as he stepped back into his shoes.

“Any requests?”

“Curry!”

Once again, he deboarded the train and started running. Almost there.

He hit a red light and came to a stop. Then it turned green, and he took off once more. He was so close, he could taste it. Soon, he would be back where he belonged.

Even if they lost their memories, it didn’t mean the events were truly erased. There was always some faint trace left behind.

Through the darkness of twilight, he could see Yamaboshi High School up ahead. This school building contained two years’ worth of memories for each of them; he passed through the gates for the umpteenth time in his life, then cut across the athletic field.

At this hour, club activities had ended for the day, but there were still a handful of people on campus closing up shop. They all looked at him in alarm, but he ignored them. Right now, it didn’t matter what they thought of him.

He ran in through the front entrance and passed through the West Wing in the direction of the Rec Hall. Fortunately the teachers were still in the building, but soon the school would close, and they’d all have to go home... Still, the CRC couldn’t possibly imagine meeting up anywhere but the clubroom.

And so he arrived at the four-story Rec Hall, a rickety building that needed some serious earthquake retrofitting before it fell apart, according to the rumors he’d heard during his first year. Then, in his second year, he heard the school was starting to consider demolishing it altogether, but ultimately nothing ever came of it.

His heart ached. For some reason, the simple act of looking up at the Rec Hall provoked a deeply emotional response, but why? It didn’t make any logical sense; it was just a building. And yet... to him, it was more than that. This was the place where he had built something truly special — bit by bit, day by day.

All human lives had purpose. There was no such thing as a pointless act. And eventually, those tiny fragments added up into something that could change the whole world.

Taichi ran up the stairs, one step at a time. He’d climbed this staircase so many times, he could do it with his eyes closed. Each time he reached a new landing, he turned and kept going. Up, up, up.

Was it humanly possible for a person to rise up four stories unassisted? No. But with the help of a sturdy structure, the “impossible” was suddenly within reach.

Arriving at the fourth floor, Taichi headed for the first room: 401. He couldn’t see inside or hear any voices, but he could feel their warmth radiating from inside. What they had built together had turned into firm bonds that kept them connected, and it drew him in.

There was just one last missing piece of the puzzle.

Gazing at the A4-size printer paper bearing the words CULTURAL RESEARCH CLUB, he reached out and opened the door.

Inside was Nagase Iori, and Kiriyama Yui, and Aoki Yoshifumi, and Uwa Chihiro, and Enjouji Shino—

“Taichi!”

“Taichi!”

“Sup, Taichi!”

“Taichi-san!”

“Taichi-senpai!”

They all called out to him.

Then he made eye contact with Inaba Himeko. Wordlessly, she rose to her feet. Now the seven members of the Cultural Research Club were together at last.

Taichi set his bag down and pulled out the long, thin box. For the first time, he lifted the lid. Then he grabbed the chain and held it out in front of him.

The pendant was a comma-shaped magatama made of blue glass with a swirly pattern. Beyond it, he could see a glint of sparkly scarlet... and realized Inaba was holding up a red version of the same necklace.

The two pendants were the exact same shape. Red and blue, sparkling like stars, symbolic of their mirrored feelings. There was only one thing left to say.

The hands on the clock spun backwards as Taichi summoned his soul.

Conviction. Vision. Agency.

Then, at last, he said the words his whole life had built towards:

“I love you, Inaba.”

And the next thing he knew, he was engulfed in a white light.

■□■□■

The five members of the CRC were in the clubroom. Outside the window the sky was dark.

It felt like they had gone on a long journey in another dimension and only just made it back home.

Today’s date: the day before the closing ceremony.

Their memories had gone back to normal — meaning they had regained their memories of everything related to «Heartseed». For a while they sat there and confirmed the sequence of events with each other, just to be sure, but as far as they could tell, everyone was on the same page.

Judging from what they now knew, it seemed they had won the battle inside the Isolation Zone... but once they returned to the real world, their memories of «Heartseed»’s phenomena were erased. Two weeks had passed since then.

“What the hell is going on?! Get your ass out here, «Heartseed»!” Inaba fumed.

And the next moment—

“You called...?”

—«Heartseed» appeared, piloting the body of Gotou Ryuuzen, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Everyone exploded all at once.

“This time you’ve crossed a fucking line!” Inaba roared.

“Quit screwing with us!” Kiriyama shrieked.

“I’m gonna punch your freakin’ lights out!” Nagase shouted.

“But... I... Well...”

“Sorry, but you can’t expect us to forgive you for that,” said Taichi.

“You’re gonna wish you never pissed us off, bro!” Aoki declared.

“It’s unfortunate you chose to lie to us,” said Chihiro.

“N-Now it’s time for you to pay the price!” shouted Enjouji.

Together, the seven of them circled around «Heartseed», who backed up against the clubroom door like the coward it was.

“Yes, but... please listen... I... I’m sorry.”

...Obviously this apology didn’t solve everything, but it was a good start.

“So what’s the deal with that alternate version of the world where your actions never impacted us? Was it the real world? Or an illusion? Or some kind of parallel universe?” Inaba demanded.

As usual, «Heartseed» stood there lifelessly, with no visible emotional reactions.

“Of course it was the real world... Everything in this world is ‘real’... It simply contains a multitude of alternate possibilities... and some of those shifted around...”

“Shifted around? So you’re saying the world can be rewritten?”

“...Sure, let’s go with that... Anyway, now you will all live out your normal lives... and you’ll never have to worry about it again...”

Evidently <Heartseed> had no interest in speaking further about the subject. And when you were dealing with this fickle entity, sometimes you had to know when to cut your losses and move on.

“I must say... you’ve all done well...”

“Done well, my butt! We literally forgot everything!” Kiriyama spat furiously.

“Yes, but... now you remember it again... Though I admit, it was a massive gamble...”

“So you let us forget on purpose on the off-chance that we’d remember it again? That was your gamble?” Inaba asked.

«Heartseed» nodded firmly. “I knew if you tried to simply pretend you had forgotten... «The Third»’s group would see right through it... so my only option was... to let them erase it with the hope that you would regain it... although I had no guarantee that would happen...”

Inaba stared back, stunned. “So you didn’t even know if it would work?!”

“I was aware that... something similar had happened in the past... but I wasn’t certain whether I could intentionally make it happen... and worse still, once you lost your memories, I lost my own... so in that sense, I’ve only just ‘returned,’ like the rest of you...”

“Well, couldn’t you have just explained all that in advance...?!”

“What I needed most of all... was for everyone to band together... If you knew that nothing you did could prevent you from losing your memories... would you still have worked as hard as you did? Surely you wouldn’t have been willing to trust me... Oh, and... I was hoping that... if I made a dramatic emotional impact on you right at the very end... it might linger on in your minds...”

“Fine. Whatever. I get that this was all part of your plan. But I will say this: it fucking infuriates me that it actually worked.”

“That said, I did put a lot of small details into place... hoping you would find them... but it was through your efforts... that it all went off without a hitch...”

Frankly, it was hard to celebrate.

“So we made it through by the skin of our teeth...?” Taichi muttered. It felt like a stroke of pure luck more than anything.

“Yes, but... with this, we probably won’t have to worry about «The Third»’s group...”

“Key word: probably?” Nagase asked.

“Either way, we can just beat ’em all over again!” Aoki declared.

More importantly, there was something else they needed to make sure of: Had the rest of their friends regained their memories — or “records” — of the phenomena-related events?

According to «Heartseed», the moment all seven of them officially regained their lost memories, those memories were unlocked for everyone else involved. The only exception was the Isolation Zone and the related events, since they were phenomena beyond «Heartseed»’s control.

“...Thanks to your hard work, the number of emergency shutdowns was kept to a minimum... thereby ensuring that undoing them was the more convenient option...”

Long story short: they had successfully kept everyone safe, themselves included.

“But they don’t remember the Isolation Zone, right? Are those events erased now?”

“Indeed, they don’t remember them... but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were erased...”

“Hnnn... So it’s possible they might find something that helps them rediscover those memories, the same way we did with the heartseeds...?” Enjouji whimpered.

<Heartseed> nodded.

In other words, the memories of the Isolation Zone were still out there, and under the right circumstances, it was possible for other people to regain them. But perhaps the majority of people would assume it was all a dream...

Looking at it that way, maybe the only real difference between memories and fantasies was the way people chose to interpret them. The world was full of countless possibilities, after all.

“Possibly, yes, because we can’t erase living beings...”

So that was how the seeds survived the Record Wipe. For as omnipotent as «Heartseed» and its ilk liked to pretend they were, they couldn’t lay a finger on any living organisms — plants included.

“Nevertheless... once something has seeped into the human heart, it truly leaves a mark... I was expecting you to lose a few bits and pieces, but... instead, you gained it all back... But then again... it’s all interconnected, so... I suppose it worked like a domino effect...”

Indeed it had. It all started with a tiny thread, but once they grabbed hold of it, it led them deeper and deeper until everything had changed.

“You know, it’s kind of incredible to think that the mere act of us regaining our memories actually rewrote the rest of the world,” Taichi commented.

“Well, I should think it was only natural... seeing as you people were the central pillar of this world... Oh, but... only in this one instance, of course...”

Their story was apparently over now, so maybe it didn’t matter anymore.

“Is this the last time we’ll ever have to deal with you?” asked Chihiro.

“...Yes, this is the end...”

Did those words carry sentimental value for «Heartseed» at all?

“So we’re finally free from you, eh? Honestly, after getting a look at what the world would’ve been like without you... I’m kind of scared of what will happen when you’re gone,” Inaba muttered, and Taichi was inclined to agree.

Regardless of how they arrived at this point, the fact remained that «Heartseed»’s impact on their lives was preferable to the alternative.

“Well, it was all really just a tiny series of... missteps, I suppose you could say...? Even in a world where I never approached you... if you had made different choices at certain points, it’s possible you still would have ended up here... or maybe not...”

Out of all the possibilities in the world, they had somehow managed to encounter the supernatural being known as «Heartseed», and although they had slipped off the path for the past two weeks, they had finally made it here. This was everything they wanted. Now all they needed to do was move forward.

“Now I think that about does it for... our final conversation, don’t you agree...?”

«Heartseed» looked around at the seven members of the CRC, then slowly turned to leave.

“Who even are you, anyway? Or what are you?” Inaba asked.

This was probably the last question they would ever get to ask it. But would «Heartseed» actually answer?

“...Good question.”

Apparently not.

“All I can say is... we enjoy watching you humans. Your confusion, your pain, your hesitation, your contemplation... your epiphanies, your discoveries, your faith, your betrayal... your failures, your successes... All of it.”

“But we don’t need supernatural phenomena to experience those things,” Inaba pointed out.

So why go to the trouble of conducting these “experiments”?

“We need it to be... more dramatic... Otherwise we cannot fully comprehend it...”

Were these concepts really that alien to the «Heartseeds»? And for that matter, even if they did comprehend it all, what would happen then? If that was their goal, then...

“So, did you finally achieve humanity?” Taichi asked, probing.

«Heartseed» tilted its head. “Who knows...?”

But for some reason, Taichi didn’t mind it shrugging him off like that. After all, it was exactly the sort of thing «Heartseed» would do.

“I hate to admit it, but... you and your ilk are all basically omnipotent, right?” Inaba sighed. “So if you’re so much better than us, then what exactly do you believe you’re missing?”

“It’s true that humans are not omnipotent... There is much they cannot do... They are imperfect creatures who lack stability.”

“Harsh,” Taichi retorted.

“But they are changing,” «Heartseed» insisted. Its voice was uncharacteristically firm, and its usual lethargy was gone. “And change is progress. From the perspective of one who is fully evolved, that progress is valuable, regardless of what direction it’s headed. But you humans can evolve both individually and as a species... and that is what makes you so wonderful.”

This was different from «Heartseed»’s usual fixation on all things fascinating. This, unmistakably, was an opinion based on emotion. So in that sense... wasn’t it already human?

“We will 100% definitely never cross paths again... Thank you for everything.”

And so, after all the trouble it had caused them, the all-powerful supernatural entity quietly left the room—with a smile on its face.

And that was how the story of «Heartseed» ended.