Chapter 8: Second Chances

When he awoke, he could feel the last lingering traces of a fever. His mind was a kaleidoscope of memories—old, forgotten memories of a bygone chapter in his life.

“...Huh...? Whoa!” He looked down to find he was dressed in kids’ clothes. Clothes that were now skin-tight.

“How do you feel?” Nagase asked, her brows furrowed with worry.

“I’m alright... I think...”

“Here. Get changed.” She handed him the outfit he’d previously been wearing, folded neatly into a stack.

“What’s our current situation look like?” he asked.

At this, she looked away and shook her head. He looked out the window to find it was pitch-black outside.

After a brief rundown of what had happened while Taichi was Regressed, Inaba pressed both hands to the table and bowed her head. “God, I really fucked up... I won’t ask you to forgive me, but at least let me express regret for my actions... I’m so sorry, everyone.”

“C’mon. No need to beat yourself up over it—that’s my job. After all, if anyone’s to blame here, it’s me,” said Taichi.

As of tonight, the members of the CRC were now subject to completely random bouts of Regression that struck at any given moment and lasted a variable length of time. And this time it affected Taichi, too.

“So during the five-plus hours I was [twelve years old], everyone minus Nagase Regressed once each...?” he mused absently.

“Correct,” Inaba muttered darkly. Her gaze was fixed on Kiriyama [age 9] and Aoki [age 7], both bundled up in blankets and playing video games.

It was now past 7:00 PM.

“I am hungryyy, oh so hungryyy...” Kiriyama [age 9] sang to herself.

“Hey! No standing on chairs! That’s not safe! ...Impressive sense of balance, though!”

“Join me, Taichi-san! Let’s compete to see who can spin in circles the most!”

“That’s even less safe! Come on, now!” He picked her up off the chair and set her back down on the ground.

“Awww... You’re no fun...”

“Taichi! What are you doing? Hurry it up!” At Inaba’s summons, he walked over to where she and Aoki stood, and she clapped them both on the shoulder. “Taichi... Aoki... We’re counting on you.”

“You got it.”

“Roger that, Captain Inaba!”

Their mission: to bring back enough food to last them for at least a few days.

“Try to make it quick. But on the off chance one of you Regresses, contact me immediately. Then get your asses back here as fast as possible.”

Now that there was a reasonable chance any one of them could transform into children on the spot, it was no longer safe to wander around outside on a whim. After all, this physical change was something even strangers could see, plain as day.

That said, they couldn’t very well go without food or water.

“Be sure to make a pit stop at a porta-potty or something while you’re out. I’d like to reduce outside excursions as much as possible.”

“Why not just use the bathroom at the corner store?” Aoki asked.

“Seeing as we don’t know when it might strike, we’re better off avoiding human contact as much as possible.”

“Will do!”

The two of them had been chosen for grocery duty for one critical reason: they had Regressed most recently out of everyone. Thus, it was likely they wouldn’t be struck again for some amount of time.

Key word being likely, of course.

“Alright, we’ll be back later.”

“Safe travels... Come back soon,” said Nagase.

Her exhaustion was worryingly apparent.

It wasn’t until well after 9:00 PM that they finally reached a point where none of the five were Regressed. (Nagase had Regressed to [age 13] for just an hour and a half while the boys were out grocery shopping, which meant all of them had now officially Regressed once each following «The Second»’s rule change.)

“How’d it go?” Inaba asked the others. “Seems like my family’s okay with it, at least for tonight.”

They had all called their families to deliver the following message: Something’s come up and I won’t make it home tonight. It’s possible I won’t be home for a while.

While Regressed, they would lose control of their bodies and generally be incapable of consciously keeping themselves concealed. Thus, the only option left to them was to stay away entirely.

“Yeah, my folks are cool with it,” said Aoki.

“My family is... tentatively okay with it... but they’re pissed,” Taichi chimed in. “Even my mom got mad, and she normally doesn’t care at all.”

(In particular, his sister Rina told him that she hated him and consequently had decided to pretend he didn’t exist. Taichi wasn’t sure he’d be able to win her back, considering his wallet was practically growing cobwebs at this point.)

“My family’s... pretty pissed, yeah...” Kiriyama put her head in her hands. “Like, they were already worried enough with the amount I’ve been gone lately, and this is kinda the final straw.”

Taichi thought back to his past encounters with Kiriyama’s mom and her warm smile.

“Not only that, but like... my sister could blow our cover at any minute. Obviously I’ve told her we’re fine and convinced her to keep quiet, but who knows how long it’ll last...”

Not even their hideout was safe.

“What about you?” Taichi asked Nagase, who was staring blankly down at the table. At his question, she looked up sharply.

“Huh?! Oh... Yeah, it’s all good. Everything’s just peachy... but, uh...”

“But what? Tell us what’s on your mind,” Inaba pressed.

“Umm... Could I... maybe go home for a bit? Just for like, two minutes! It won’t take two seconds, honest!” she blurted desperately.

“Absolutely not, dumbass. If I let you do that, I’ll have to let everyone else do it too, and at that point we’re as good as busted.”

If society at large found out about the supernatural events of their lives, well... there were a few different possible outcomes. Maybe it would end as little more than a rumor. Or maybe anyone who tried to report what they’d seen would simply be thrown in a mental ward. Or maybe... the five of them would be carted off and confined to some sort of lab for analysis.

But the worst possibility of all... was that «Heartseed»—or «The Second», or someone else entirely—would erase everything.

After all, these beings had implicitly conducted similar experiments elsewhere. And though they were at the height of the Information Age, as of yet no such otherworldly phenomena had ever been reported to the public at large. According to Inaba, this suggested «Heartseed» and his ilk had some method of keeping things under wraps.

Specifically, she had three pet theories: erasing their memories, erasing history, or both. None of them could be disproven. After all, these entities were essentially omnipotent.

“Yeah... I had a feeling you’d say no... Sorry. Forget I asked.”

She looked so utterly defeated, a gust of wind could knock her over.

As the night wore on, the room grew much, much colder. Inaba [age 3] lay near the heater, wrapped in multiple blankets to keep her from getting sick.

“Is she finally asleep? Thank god... Staying up late must be hard when you’re three,” Kiriyama whispered.

“Alright. In the meantime, let’s get some fresh air in here.” Aoki walked off to open the windows. After all, with a kerosene heater on full blast, they needed to keep the room safely ventilated.

“I guess it’s not safe to keep the heater on while we’re all asleep...” Taichi muttered to himself as he contemplated potential workarounds. They could each take turns staying up to keep watch... but they couldn’t escape the possibility that the person on duty might Regress during their shift.

“Uggghhh... Like, who cares about the heater? I wanna take a shower sooo bad... I can literally feel the sweat and grime...” Kiriyama complained under her breath, taking care not to wake Inaba [age 3].

“Me too... but since we don’t have a choice, all we can do is tolerate it.”

Considering her age, Nagase [age 11] was surprisingly sensible.

His mind stirred awake, hazy and heavy.

He hadn’t meant to fall asleep; he’d intended to stay awake as long as possible, just in case.

His back ached. Somewhere, he could hear the rustling sounds of someone moving around.

Rubbing his blurry eyes, Taichi sat up. The lamp had been left on overnight, and its light now blinded him in the darkness.

There, across the room on the farthest fringes of the lamp’s incandescent glow, he could make out a lone shadow.

Her skin was so porcelain-pale, it glowed in the light. The sloping curve of her shoulders tickled his aesthetic instincts, and he found himself almost wanting to touch them.

As his gaze slowly descended, her supple skin seemed to go on forever, interrupted only by a single band of fabric in the middle—

“Huh?”

Of course, he reacted in surprise. Audibly.

“Wha?!” Nagase whipped around, wearing only a bra from the waist up. “Nngah?! Taichi?!” She snatched a nearby sweater and held it up to hide her modesty.

Taichi hastily turned in the opposite direction. “I... I wasn’t looking, okay?! I didn’t see anything!”

As he listened to the rustle of clothes behind him, it occurred to him that “I didn’t see anything” was exactly the sort of thing a guy would say if he had seen something, because a guy who genuinely hadn’t seen anything wouldn’t realize what the problem was in the first place...

“O-Okay. You can look now.”

Now that Nagase had given the all-clear, he turned back in her direction. “Did you transform back just now or something?”

“Yeah. Sorry for waking you,” she said as she folded up the kid-sized clothes she’d been wearing earlier. “How old was I?”

“You were [eleven].”

“Hmm... What was I like?” she asked, her voice perfectly casual as she straightened out a stray wrinkle.

Taichi fumbled for an answer. “You seemed to be really smart and... mature for your age,” he replied finally, hoping it was what she wanted to hear.

“So that’s how you saw me, huh... Smart and mature...”

Are you trying to say you aren’t?

“...Anyway, change of topic—Yui and Aoki were really something else today, huh?”

“Yeah, that’s for sure.”

Indeed, “something else” was perhaps the only way to describe it.

“It was just... incredible, y’know? Me, I don’t think I could ever pull that off.”

“Yeah, same...”

The raw power he felt surging from the two of them in that moment... He didn’t stand a chance of replicating it.

“Really? You too?”

“Why do you sound so incredulous? I’m nobody special, you know.”

“Sure you are,” she replied without smiling.

“What? No, I’m really not... I’m useless without the rest of you guys.”

He watched as the cheer drained from her expression. Then it hit him: Why would their friends’ bravery make them feel bad about themselves? Surely they were meant to feel empowered, if anything.

“But—” he blurted out, hesitated, then continued, “—umm... well... I don’t have to accomplish everything on my own, obviously! All I have to do is reach out, and together we can do some amazing things... Take Aoki and Kiriyama for example! I feel like they couldn’t have done it without each other, you know?”

Somehow that came out sounding relatively articulate. Whew.

“Reach out, huh...” Nagase murmured to herself, looking away.

“So—”

“Jeez, what are we doing? It’s bedtime!” she interrupted, hopping to her feet. “Let’s get some sleep while we can! Brrr... I miss my warm blanket!”

She smiled weakly—and to Taichi, that air of fragility made it all the more beautiful.

Then she headed back to her makeshift “bed” and dove under the covers.

With the lamp relocated to prevent its light from showing through the windows, the room felt cold and dark. Around him lay Nagase, Kiriyama, Aoki, and Inaba [age 3], each of them curled up in a ball to stay as warm as possible. To him, the sight was heartbreaking.

Suddenly, it felt like the shadowy corners of the room were threatening to swallow them whole.

How would they survive this if they couldn’t even go home to their families? Would they ever be free to walk around outside again? Their food supply would last them through tomorrow at best—but what about the next day? They only had a limited amount of money on hand, and they would have to buy more kerosene for the heater eventually. Where would they shower or get clean underwear? And what if they were forced to abandon their hideout? Where would they stay?

How would they explain it to their families?

What would happen once the new semester started up? Would they leave town? If so, where would they go? How could they survive?

Taichi didn’t have a clear answer. And worst of all—it was his fault they were all suffering.

He’d taken everything too lightly. Way too lightly. Why couldn’t he have just kept his promise to «The Second»? Was it because he couldn’t stand up to Inaba? Was it because «The Second» had suggested it was all going to end soon anyway?

None of these were anything more than crappy excuses—and he didn’t have the right to make excuses. After all, he never once thought to actually make an effort to keep his word. He never made a decision one way or the other. Instead, he basically left it up to fate, ignoring the fact that this time around, the part he played was in fact a crucial one.

All this time, had he ever taken it seriously? Ever stopped to think critically about his actions? Or had he simply shrugged his shoulders from day one?

He didn’t have the right to lament their current situation when he never lifted a finger to try to prevent it. He’d been afraid of the responsibility, so instead he’d hid behind his own powerlessness.

For a guy who loved to go around sticking his nose into other people’s business, he sure was good at running away from his own problems. Pathetic.

He hated to think how much better this might have worked out if «The Second» had chosen someone else instead.

But there was no use crying over spilled milk. It was all in the past, and there was no going back.

After making sure Inaba [age 3] was bundled up nice and tight, Taichi crawled back into bed.

Sadly, not even multiple layers of blankets could shut out the chill of the hard concrete.

Another day of spontaneous transformations came and went. This was now their second night under the new, totally randomized Regression.

“I told you, one of my rich friends is taking me to hang out at their vacation home... Huh? L-Let you talk to them? What’s that? Sorry, you’re breaking up—Hold on, we’re going through a tunnel—” With that, Kiriyama promptly hung up, then turned her phone off completely. The look on her face was one of crushing despair. “This is totally not good, you guys. They’re about ready to file a missing persons report or something...”

“I gotta say, that was one hell of a lie just now,” Taichi remarked. Not that he’d been any more honest with his own family, of course.

The air between them was cold and dismal. Currently they were keeping the heater off in order to save fuel.

At the same time, Taichi’s stomach was rumbling loudly. Man, if only I could just stop being hungry... He ran a hand through his greasy hair.

Everyone in the room looked utterly miserable. They were slowly being pushed to their absolute limits, both physically and mentally. Honestly, they probably should’ve broken down completely by now... and yet they were still holding on. As long as they had each other, they could endure it.

But how long would that last?

“Seeing as none of us are Regressed at the moment, let’s go ahead and pick up our discussion where we left off earlier,” Inaba called, though she was audibly fatigued and her voice wasn’t as strong as usual. “First, regarding the suggestion to go to someone for help—I really, really don’t want to drag anyone else into this, so I’d like to avoid that option until it’s our very last resort.”

The others nodded in unison.

“I’m sorry, guys...” Taichi grimaced.

“For the last time, enough with the apologies, dumbass! ...Anyway, as it stands, it seems we don’t have a permanent solution available to us... so for the time being, let’s stock up on enough food to last us through tomorrow.”

“Just tomorrow, Inabacchan? Shouldn’t we try to get as much as we can?” Aoki asked. He’d been his usual chipper self earlier that morning, but now that energy was gone.

“I mean, you’re not wrong. Limiting the total number of public excursions would reduce risk considerably, and that’s a good thing. However... with our current situation as unstable as it is, I’d like us to keep as much money as we can on hand for emergencies.”

“You mean, like, if someone got sick and needed medicine?” Kiriyama asked.

“Precisely.”

Their lives were now hanging in the balance.

“Okay, so—”

Nagase stopped herself, and whipped out her cell phone. “Ack! Sorry! Gotta take this!” she interrupted as she put the phone to her ear and meandered over to the other side of the room. “Hello? ...Huh? Y-Yeah...? Wait, what?!” She froze in her tracks.

Taichi had a bad feeling about this.

“Mom, slow down! What’s going on?!” she yelled. “No, wait—Mom—!”

She pulled the phone away from her ear to check the screen, and started tapping furiously. Numerous callback attempts were made, but none were successful.

Eyes red with tears, she began to tremble. “What do I do now...?”

Hesitantly, Nagase began to explain what had happened over the course of winter break.

One day, out of the blue, the Nagase family got a knock on the door. It was Nagase’s first-ever stepfather—the man she herself had once described to Taichi as “the violent type.” (Kiriyama and Aoki hadn’t heard all the details about her family situation until now, so they were rather taken aback by this.)

Though this man had at one time been part of their family, it had been many years, and three other “fathers” had come and gone since they last saw him. There had been no contact between them, either—Nagase didn’t even know his phone number.

And yet, for some reason, there he was on their doorstep.

“Seeing as he used to be family and all, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to invite him inside,” she explained.

Then one thing led to another, and his “visit” turned into an extended stay.

“At first he would help out around the house, and I thought maybe he was serious about giving this another shot... but then, over time, he stopped helping... and then it became ‘I need money for booze’...”

And as the days wore on, the demands didn’t stop there. He hadn’t gone so far as to hit her or her mother, but whenever he got drunk, he would start throwing things.

Instantly, Taichi’s sight warped. Nagase was suffering. How had he failed to see it? Wasn’t that his job? Wasn’t he spared from the Regression specifically so he could be there to help keep them all safe?

“Sounds like a textbook ‘deadbeat dad’ stereotype... Just throw him out on his ass!” Inaba growled.

“Well... I thought maybe I could do it right this time,” Nagase replied. “I just kept thinking, y’know... maybe if I’d been better at making things work... maybe if I’d made better choices back then... maybe things could’ve been different.”

Any given human life was inevitably built on a series of irrevocable choices... but what if that wasn’t always the case? What if they had the opportunity to go back and try again?

“But in the end... it looks like I messed up all over again... and now my mom’s telling me it’s not safe to come home right now.”

He couldn’t begin to imagine how hard she must have tried to fix things.

“Do you think she’s like... in danger?” Kiriyama asked hesitantly.

“I don’t know... Maybe.”

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Inaba’s tone was tinged with anger.

“Because it’s my problem, and I need to deal with it.”

“I mean, yes, but—”

“Sorry, one sec!” Nagase jumped to her feet, pulled out her phone, and turned away from them to answer it. “Hello?! Mom?!” Pause. “Oh...” Her voice took on a layer of ice. “Hi, Dad.”

Evidently she was addressing him as “Dad” now.

“Uh-huh... Yeah... I mean, yes, sir... What?” Her tone shifted sharply into alarm. “Wait! You can’t! Dad—!”

She froze, her phone still pressed to her ear. Several seconds passed... and then she slowly flipped it shut once more.

Meanwhile, the room was dead silent. They could all tell that something serious had happened.

Nagase turned back to face them—on the verge of tears.

“What do I do...? What do I DO?!” Clutching her hair, she collapsed to the ground. “I need to get back there ASAP or else... but what if I Regress on my way there?! Then I’ll just cause problems for the rest of you, and I don’t want that! So what do I do?!”

She was more panicked than the others had ever seen her. Naturally, they all reacted at once.

“Calm down, Nagase!”

“Relax, Iori.”

“It... It’ll be okay, Iori!”

“Hang in there, Iori-chan!”

But their voices didn’t reach her. She was too deep in her own head.

Taichi hurried over to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Nagase!”

“What do I do...? I need to go... but I can’t... I can’t risk making things worse for everyone else! But I have to go! What do I do?!”

She was on the verge of a breakdown. Taichi felt panic creep up in his chest—but he pushed it back down. Right now he wanted to be there for her. He needed to be there for her.

He knew her mind was probably a jumbled mess at the moment, so he decided to keep things simple.

“Well, what do you want to do?”

They wouldn’t get anywhere unless she had an answer to that.

But Nagase simply shook her head. “I don’t know... I don’t know! I don’t know anything anymore!”

The next instant, Nagase slipped out of his embrace.

For a second he didn’t understand what had happened... and then he looked down to find a grade-school-age Nagase staring back up at him.

She had Regressed.

The little girl quietly got to her feet, rolled up her baggy sleeves, and headed for the door.

“Where do you think you’re going, missy?!” Kiriyama shrieked.

Mini-Nagase stopped and turned to look at her.

“I’m goin’ home.”

“What?! Why?!” Taichi exclaimed.

“I gotta be a good girl so my daddy won’t get mad. Keep Mama safe.”

Her little eyes shone like jewels, pure and untainted and full of light... as if she had been sent from heaven itself.

“And you feel the need to do this why exactly...?” Inaba asked.

“’Cuz I love my mama.”

That was her entire reasoning. As far as she was concerned, she was going to follow her heart without hesitation.

Meanwhile, Taichi was blown away. Sometimes little kids had a way better grasp of what mattered most... and right now, she was putting the rest of them to shame.

“Nngh...!” With that, grade-school Nagase clutched at herself—and the next moment, she was back to normal. “Huh...? Where... Wait, what? Did I Regress?” she asked, confusion on her face as she unrolled her sleeves. “Wait... How long was I in kid mode?”

“Not long at all. Like a minute, tops,” Taichi answered.

“Oh... That explains it... I... I remember...” she whispered. A tear rolled down her cheek. “Wait... Why am I crying?”

She laughed awkwardly and wiped her eyes. There, she froze, her sleeves covering her face.

Then, after a long pause, she looked up again. This time, her expression was one of firm resolve.

“...I’m sorry, but I’m going home.”

Something about the way she looked in that moment was so incredibly beautiful, Taichi found himself rooted to the spot... that is, until she turned to leave.

He hurried over and grabbed her by the shoulder. “Wait, Nagase!”

“I know it’s stupid, but I just... I have to go. I’m sorry.”

“Iori...”

“Iori-chan...”

Evidently neither Kiriyama nor Aoki knew what to say, either.

“I care about you guys so, so much... and I don’t want to put you at risk just for my own selfish needs... but... this is important to me. I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”

Her words were painfully sincere; the tears in her eyes were proof enough of that.

They weren’t the only ones struggling. There was a whole world out there—a world full of people who mattered. People worth protecting.

“I won’t burden you with this, I promise. I’ll figure it all out myself.” She pushed Taichi’s hand away and walked off.

“Wait!”

But Taichi was powerless to stop her.

Supposedly, her former stepfather was living with them again. Allegedly, he was causing major problems in the Nagase household. And apparently, Nagase needed to go stop him—despite the potential threat of the Regression looming over her.

Everything was moving too fast. He didn’t know how to react. And unless he got his act together, she was going to leave without them—

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, DUMBASS!” Inaba bellowed, venom in her voice. “Who said you could run off on your own?! Because I sure fucking didn’t!” She ran over at full speed and blocked Nagase’s path, her expression deadly serious.

More so than anyone else in the club, it was Inaba who always prioritized the needs of the group, carefully weighing all the risks to determine the best possible course of action. The question was, would she accept Nagase’s decision?

“You fucked it up the first time around, didn’t you?!” she shouted.

The intensity of Inaba’s reaction had Nagase at a loss. “I... Yeah...?”

“And you’re still agonizing over it to this day, aren’t you?! But do you know why you fucked up?!”

Inaba was clawing her way into Nagase’s old wounds without mercy.

“Wh... What do you mean, why...?” Nagase stammered, overwhelmed by the other girl’s ferocity.

“Because you tried to handle it all by yourself without consulting anyone, nimrod! How the fuck do you not see that?!”

“I—”

“You always try to do everything yourself, don’t you? And then when it doesn’t work—because it never works—instead of asking us for help, you freak out and run off! You think that attitude is gonna solve this?! Is that what you think?!”

“Well... I still gotta try... No, that’s not it... I have to make it work...”

“Will you fucking take a look around you for two seconds?! What are we, chopped liver?!”

Nagase glanced from Inaba to Taichi to Kiriyama to Aoki, her eyes redder than ever. “But... this is my personal problem... It’s my family...”

“Enough al—”

“Enough already!”

For a moment, Taichi wasn’t sure who had cut in—but then he realized it was none other than himself. He flinched as everyone turned to look at him.

And yet somehow his mouth kept moving.

“I mean, yes, technically it’s none of our business. And we don’t have the right to dictate how you handle it or anything like that. But there comes a point when it does become our business, and that’s when it starts destroying you.” He cared about her too much to let her suffer. “Anyway, sorry for being a nag.”

But Inaba clapped him on the shoulder. “Times like these, I don’t think you ought to apologize.” She shot him a smirk, and he got the vaguest sense that she approved of what he said.

“Remember what you said to me a while back? ‘Why would you do something so stupid without talking to anyone? If you’re that worried about it, then just tell us!’ And you were right. None of us are mind-readers,” Inaba muttered softly. “Maybe you didn’t have anyone you could turn to back then... but right now, you have us. Don’t forget that, alright?”

Some things were simply impossible to manage alone... but that’s what friends were for.

“I’m here for you, Iori!” Kiriyama called out.

“You know I got your back, girl!” Aoki piped up.

“Same here. I’ll always be on your side,” Taichi added.

Inaba turned back to Nagase. “See? You’ve got friends you can turn to. Friends you can count on. Friends who want to help you. So what’ll it be?”

What was the point of their friendship if they couldn’t be there for her at her darkest hour?

“Guys... I...” Nagase stammered, her expression blank with shock, as if she wasn’t quite sure how to react. Then, bit by bit, her face crumpled, and the tears came streaming down her cheeks as she began to bawl like a child half her age.

“Ultimately it’s your call, of course! Far be it from me to stick my nose into other people’s family business. Wouldn’t want to cross any boundaries,” Inaba explained cheerfully. “So, what’s your plan?”

She made it sound like the most trivial question in the world... like it was really no big deal one way or the other.

Nagase sniffled and wiped her eyes, struggling to regain her composure, and Taichi found himself wondering just how long she’d been holding it all inside. That said, he was glad she was crying in joy rather than anguish.

“All this time... I told myself I needed to fix it on my own...” Nagase murmured in a watery voice, still staring at the floor.

Truth be told, Taichi didn’t see anything wrong with that... but it was a personal choice she was by no means bound to.

“Because I was the one who screwed it up in the first place, I felt even more obligated to set things right without needing to rely on anyone... but then the Regression happened... and now there’s so much going on... and I didn’t want to add to it... so I...”

“You can just ask, Iori-chan.”

“He’s right, Iori. All it really takes is a few words.”

Nagase was lost at sea, searching for an answer, and so Aoki and Kiriyama stepped forward to be her lighthouse in the dark. Somehow the two of them had managed to become an even more powerful team... likely as a result of everything that happened between them the day before.

With their encouragement, Nagase finally looked up—eyes damp and puffy, brows furrowed hard, trying her best not to fall apart again.

Then, at last, she said the four magic words that would turn her friends into her heroes.

“...Will you... help me...?”

Until now, she had always struggled to solve everything on her own... but now she was finally asking for help.

No one replied, of course—because it went without saying.

“Listen, Iori. Can you explain exactly what’s going on right now? Is there anything else you need to do besides show up?”

The brain of the operation, Inaba Himeko, had already moved on to the planning stage.

“Huh? Well, um... I kinda won’t know until I get there...”

“Alright, well, you’re absolutely not going by yourself. Should we split into two groups...? Nah, forget it. Let’s move, everyone!”

“Yeah!” the others cheered in perfect unison.

And so the five of them ran down the road in the direction of Nagase’s house.

In their condition, they couldn’t take the train or even a taxi; after all, if they were to Regress in an enclosed space, they’d have no way to explain it. So they moved on foot, carefully choosing alleys and other unpopular streets.

There was no time to stop and plan things out beyond “if someone Regresses, we’ll pause to reevaluate the situation.”

They needed to run. A lot of time had passed since Nagase got the call from her stepfather. Run. No time for breaks. All they could do was simply pray the Regression wouldn’t strike. Run. They needed to get to their destination and resolve the problem as quickly as possible—

“Nngh?!”

Just then, Inaba hunched over, clutching her chest.

“Inaba?!” Taichi shouted.

“Inaban, are you okay?!” Nagase asked.

“F-Fever... It’s—”

A split-second later, she shrank.

“Oh, come on! You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Nagase hurried over to little Inaba and put her arms around her, shielding her from view. Thankfully the street was dark, and they didn’t see anyone else around.

“How old are you, Ina—er, Himeko-chan?” Nagase asked as she rolled up the other girl’s now-baggy sleeves and pant legs.

“...I’m twelve.”

Taichi stopped to catch his breath. “So that would put her in sixth grade... You think it’s a bad idea to take her with us?”

Inaba [age 12] was about two sizes smaller than her high school counterpart. Running around in an oversized coat would likely prove difficult. Plus, she likely had less stamina than—

“Aoki?!” Kiriyama shrieked.

Taichi whipped around to find... a pile of clothes on the ground.

“What the heck?!” Kiriyama dug through the pile and uncovered a baby who promptly began to cry.

“Aww! D-Don’t cry, sweetie! Now stay right there—it’s cold out here!” As she spoke, she wrapped his full-sized clothes around him in a makeshift bundle and lifted him up into her arms.

“Waaahhh...!”

“Umm... Can you tell me how old you are?”

“Dah buh!”

“Uh oh... Looks like he hasn’t even learned to talk yet...”

Which would put him right around [age 1].

“Oh god... This is all my fault... What do we do...?”

It was clear Nagase was starting to panic... and she wasn’t the only one.

“Two people Regressed... What if it strikes us, too...? No, even worse—what if they transform back in public?! Aagghhh...!” Kiriyama groaned.

Taichi’s heart began to thump uncomfortably in his chest. His mind was playing out every possible negative scenario at once, and he low-key wanted to puke.

Desperate to stay grounded, he pinched the back of his hand. Stay calm, he told himself.

As much as he wished he could run away and pretend this wasn’t happening, it was a problem they needed to confront head-on. Failure would result in dire consequences, and so he needed to summon all his courage.

I’ve already screwed this up once. I can’t make the same mistake again.

He needed to take charge and decide on the best course of action—like he should’ve done right from the very start.

And right now, to him, the best course of action was this:

“...Kiriyama, do you think you could take Inaba and Aoki back to the hideout?”

“What? By myself?”

“Yeah. And I’ll go with Nagase back to her place.”

“B-But... What if Yui Regresses, too? Or what if you and I Regress at the same time? Anything could happen,” Nagase cut in.

She was right. It was a gamble, to be sure.

Taichi gazed at Kiriyama, and she looked back firmly... Then she glanced down at Aoki [age 1].

“Okay. Let’s go with Taichi’s plan.”

“Y-Yui...?”

“No time to waste! Let’s get moving!”

Without hesitation, Kiriyama walked over and took Inaba [age 12] by the hand. Meanwhile, Taichi crouched down to her eye level.

“In—er, Himeko-chan—if worse comes to worst, look after them for me, okay?”

One might argue that there was no sense in putting faith in a twelve-year-old girl who didn’t have context for what was happening... but Taichi believed she would pull through, no matter what age she happened to be.

Inaba [age 12] nodded quietly.

“We’re counting on you, Taichi! Hang in there, Iori!”

And so, with baby Aoki [age 1] and all his clothes in one hand and Inaba [age 12] in the other, Kiriyama dashed off back to the hideout.

“I’m so sorry... It’s my fault we’re all in this mess...” Nagase whimpered in a tiny, trembling voice.

“Don’t worry about it. Honestly, I would’ve done the same thing in your shoes. Now let’s hurry!”

“F-Finally... made it... We’re here...” Nagase wheezed as they arrived at a weathered, old, two-story apartment complex.

Taichi gasped for breath. “So... this is... your place...”

“Our apartment’s an end unit on the first floor.”

“So... what’s your game plan here? Should I come with you?”

“I don’t think that’d be a good idea... You should probably wait ou—”

She was cut off by a loud CRASH as something shattered—a glass or perhaps a dinner plate—and a woman screamed.

It sounded like it was coming from inside Nagase’s home.

“Mom!” Nagase took off running, and Taichi followed suit. Whatever was going on in there, it didn’t sound safe.

Nagase rattled the doorknob, then pounded on the door with her fist. “Mom! Open the door! It’s me, Iori!”

“Shut the fuck up! I’m coming, alright?!” a man answered from inside. The rasp in his voice suggested he’d been boozing pretty hard.

“Dad...” Nagase whispered.

Then the door opened.

And in that very instant, Nagase vanished into a pile of clothes on the ground.

Taichi’s heart stopped.

Is this a dream?

Beneath the pile of clothes was a wriggling lump.

His brain had yet to process this, but his body moved on autopilot, scooping up the newly Regressed Nagase along with her clothes.

Then he took off like a bat out of hell.

Behind him he could hear angry shouting and thunderous footsteps. But he couldn’t afford to look back and check. Did Nagase’s stepfather witness her Regression? Did he recognize her in child form? Taichi wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he needed to get her out of there.

What if he were to Regress right this instant? What would happen to him? To them?

As he ran, this much younger Nagase peeked her head out of the jumbled pile of clothes, and the passersby shot him questioning looks as he dashed past. It must’ve been quite the baffling sight, a teen guy carrying a small girl bundled up in clothes clearly meant for someone two or three times her age.

At this point he’d run so long, his legs were starting to give out. No matter how hard he pushed himself, his speed was starting to peter out.

But he kept running nonetheless. He accidentally slammed into someone, but kept going. He hit a red light at the corner and turned right. Up ahead he could see a policeman heading his direction on a bicycle. His heart skipped a beat. Averting his gaze, he hoped the officer wouldn’t notice—

“You there! Wh—”

Startled, Taichi broke into a run.

Then he rounded the next corner and ran some more.

What do I do? Is her dad still chasing me? What about the cop?

His lungs hurt. His legs were screaming at him to stop. He knew he couldn’t keep going. He needed a plan. Go back to the hideout? But what about Nagase’s mother? Now that it wasn’t bound by a strict schedule, the Regression struck frequently. Was Kiriyama doing okay still? He didn’t know where to run, so he headed for somewhere with less foot traffic. His brain needed more oxygen. He couldn’t think.

Was this the end of the line?

Did he make the wrong choice?

Maybe so. But there was no going back.

He darted into a narrow alley... and came to a stop.

It was a dead end.

Behind him, he could hear footsteps approaching as a long shadow slowly stretched past him, cast by the nearby streetlamp.

Part of him was ready to throw in the towel, but another part of him was still convinced he could find a way out of it.

Slowly, Taichi turned.

And there stood [Gotou Ryuuzen], advisor to Yamaboshi High School Class 1-C and supervisor for the Cultural Research Club. Lifeless and lethargic with half-lidded eyes, «it» practically melted into the darkness of the alleyway.

This was «Heartseed», the original mastermind who had turned their lives upside down.

“Goodness me... You all seem to be having a fairly hard time...”

As usual, its speech was a slow drone. While at first glance there were similarities between it and «The Second», sure enough, «Heartseed» gave off a distinctly different vibe.

“Buh... wah...” Little Nagase seemed to sense the inherent danger and began to fuss.

“Oh, now you show up? Were you behind this the whole time?”

“No, no... I most certainly wasn’t... Wait, what? I thought you of all people knew the answer to that, Yaegashi-san...”

Could he trust it to tell the truth?

“Then why bother turning up? Where’s «The Second»?”

“Oh... Okay then... First, I guess let’s do what needs to be done... Ugh... I’m working too hard today...”

Suddenly the weight in his arms magnified, and he struggled to stay upright.

“Whoa!”

The next thing he knew, Nagase was back to normal.

With Taichi unable to support her weight, she fell to the alley floor.

“What the—Huh?! What is this, a straitjacket?! Oh, my arms aren’t in the sleeves for some reason...” Nagase wriggled around for a moment, fixing her clothes, then got to her feet. “What’s going on? Goss—” As the realization hit, she gasped and scrambled backwards, bumping into Taichi. “«Heartseed»...” she whispered, and he felt her start to shake.

“That should about do it...”

“Should do it? Meaning?”

As usual, it never offered much in the way of an explanation.

“Oh... Meaning I just ended the phenomenon... That’s all...”

“You ended it?”

“Yes... Did you want to keep going...? I could start it up again... No, actually, I won’t do that... Too much effort...”

“Wait... huh? The Age Regression is over now? What happened while I was Regressed, anyway? What’s going on?” Nagase looked utterly baffled.

“I see... So that’s what you’ve been calling it... Well... it wasn’t meant to be part of my plan... which is why I’ve ended it...”

“Your plan...? Then what’s the deal with «The Second»? Who are they in relation to you?”

“...It’s a long story that would take too much effort to explain... Basically, we’re not all one giant monolith... Each of us has our own definition of fascinating... Oh, but... I’ve seen to it there won’t be any more disruptions like that in the future, so you’ll never encounter—” There, «Heartseed» stopped mid-sentence. “Oh... Right... Just ignore that last part... I didn’t mean to answer the question... Ugh, forget it... Let’s call it quits here...”

As usual, it never fully answered their questions.

“The point is, it’s over now... Say hi to the others for me...”

“Wait... What about my mom? What happened, Taichi? I remember we were at my house...”

“Yeah. Then you Regressed, and I had to get you out of there. We should probably hurry back.”

“Got it.”

“Oh... That’s right... I almost forgot... Nagase-san?”

“Wh-What do you want? I don’t exactly have time to deal with you right now,” Nagase shot back, her voice thorny and laced with mistrust.

“Please, hear me out... I do think you’ll like what I have to say...” Despite the urgency they felt, «Heartseed» continued at its own aggravatingly slow pace.

“Spit it out already!”

“Oh... Losing your temper won’t help you here, Yaegashi-san... For that matter, this is not really any of your business... Could you kindly stay out of it?”

The unknown entity gazed at him with Gotou’s eyes, and goosebumps pricked up over his arms as though his body was repulsed on an instinctual level.

“Come now, Nagase-san... You know it’s too late to change anything, don’t you...?”

“Wh... What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about... the very thing you’re about to try to fix right now...”

How much did it know?

“You mean... m-my mom and dad?”

“Ah... So that’s what you call him...”

Are you suggesting she shouldn’t?

“It... It’s not too late...”

“Oh...? I thought you of all people already knew there would be no second chances...”

At this, the blood drained from her face. Taichi tensed, prepared to catch her if she collapsed.

“...Do you really want to try again?” Its voice was dry and monotone, and yet its words carried a hint of allure—dangerously appealing, like the sweet scent of a Venus flytrap. “My incompetence has put you all through quite an ordeal... So, to return the favor... No, that’s not right... Whatever... To make things right, I’m willing to give you a freebie... a gift... a little treat from me to you...”

If you want to do something nice for us, how about you never bother us again? Taichi thought.

“So, Nagase-san... would you like to start over? If so, I can make that happen for you.”

“...Start what over?”

“Everything... We’ll undo everything that’s happened thus far, and you can start again... from any point you desire.”

“What? Are you saying you can reverse time? That’s... That’s impossible...” Nagase scoffed, though she was a bit too stiff to be convincing. “You can’t do that... can you?”

«Heartseed»’s cheek twitched as it curled its lip a fraction of an inch. It was... smiling... if only from the nose down.

“I mean, sure, apparently you guys can transform us into our past selves, but... there’s no way you can go back and r-redo our lives,” she stammered.

If these beings could bring someone’s past to the present, could they take someone from the present and transport them back to the past?

If so... would that person have the chance to set right what once went wrong?

“Would you like to start over?” «Heartseed» repeated, a bit more firmly this time, and the magnetic pull intensified.

“I...”

At this, Taichi recalled a conversation they’d had in the past.

—Personally, I think I’d go for it, if I had the chance. Maybe everything would work out the second time around.

Thinking back, maybe that innocuous comment was actually a cry for help. Once again, she was drowning, and he couldn’t even toss her a lifesaver—but here came a giant cruise liner, far bigger than his measly rowboat, ready to haul her on board. All she had to do was ask... and then she’d be gone. Irrevocably gone.

“I... I’m tired of putting on an act... I want to be the real me. I want to be able to say ‘this is who I am’... and actually mean it for once.” Her words were a tiny ripple on the water’s surface: quiet, yet strong enough to rock the boat. It was obvious this was what she truly wanted all along. “I won’t try to claim I’ve had a hard life... but in my opinion, it hasn’t been great... and deep down, I do wish things could’ve been different... so...”

If things had gone differently, maybe she never would’ve lost sight of her true self. Maybe she wouldn’t have had to suffer that misery. Maybe, in a different life, this broken bird could have spread her wings and soared to new heights.

“So... I...”

He wanted to tell her not to go... but he couldn’t. After all, he knew how much she’d suffered—and how powerless he was to help her.

“I...”

Thinking back, all three supernatural phenomena had affected Nagase drastically. And here at her breaking point, she was being offered a choice... almost like everything they went through was planned to lead up to this precise moment.

He couldn’t stop it. All he could do was let the current take her—

At that moment, his left hand grew warm, and he could feel a steady pulse. Maybe he had latched onto her in the same way a drowning man would clutch at driftwood. Either way, the next thing he knew, he was holding Nagase’s hand in his—and his mouth was moving of its own accord.

“I like you just the way you are.”

“That’s enough out of you, Yaegashi-san,” «Heartseed» cut in, a rare occurrence for an entity that was ordinarily so sluggish.

But Taichi didn’t mind. All that mattered was that she understood he accepted her for who she was.

Nagase trembled, rooted to the spot. Then, finally, she returned Taichi’s grasp—tightly.

Just like that, he could scarcely feel the frosty winter air, much less the chill of «Heartseed»’s presence.

“...I believe that my past experiences have made me into the person I am today. And if I let myself regret every single thing that happened, it’d be like saying I’m ashamed of who I am now... and I don’t want that.” Her tone was firm, direct, unwavering. “I admit, I do sometimes wish I could get a second chance... but not because I want to erase my past failures. I just don’t want to give up, that’s all.”

As it turned out, there was a distinct difference between starting over from scratch versus trying again in spite of one’s failure. While they might have seemed similar at first glance, in reality the two concepts were worlds apart.

“Back then... at the end of the day, I was just doing my best. I can’t just erase all my hard work like that; it’s not right. Now that I’ve seen what it means to live true to yourself... I could never do that.” Her grip on his hand tightened further, and he realized she must have been referring to Aoki and Kiriyama. “But more than that... I’ve found where I belong. I’ve found people I want to spend the rest of my life making new memories with.” Their fingers slowly laced together. “And everything that happened back then has led me to where I stand today. Without my past, I wouldn’t be here in the present.” It was clear she truly cared for the club. “So if it means I have to wipe the slate clean... then I don’t need a second chance that badly.”

A massive, destructive, otherworldly force had invited her to leave the ordinary behind—but Nagase had summoned all of her courage to flat-out decline.

It was pretty badass.

With its offer thrown back in its face, «Heartseed» stood there silently for what felt like an unusually long amount of time. Perhaps it hadn’t anticipated that she would say no.

“Oh... I see...” Its curt response carried the faintest hint of either disappointment or relief; it was hard to tell which. “Well then... I guess that’s that... In that case... we’re done here...” It shook its head.

Nagase looked at Taichi, her eyes shimmering brighter than ever, and for a moment he was lost in the beauty of it.

“Let’s go, Taichi.”

“Right.”

Their long battle with the supernatural was over at last.

Now they had a real-world problem to solve.

Their hands pulled away, and they took off running.

Past «Heartseed».

Leaving it in the dust.

When it came to real-world problems, there were no miracle cures. All they could do was play it by ear and try their best.

By the time they made it back to Nagase’s apartment, they were both utterly out of breath. They rushed inside to find that her stepfather had left the house and thus far had yet to return. “He took our money with him before he left, so I assume he’s gone off to buy booze,” Nagase’s mother told them.

The living room was modestly furnished. Taichi and Nagase sat side-by-side on one end of the coffee table; a short while later, Nagase’s mother returned carrying two steaming cups of tea, which she placed in front of them.

“Th-Thank you, ma’am,” Taichi stammered, then took a sip. Didn’t want to be rude, after all. Meanwhile, he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

His first impression: the woman was less like a normal human and more like a carefully crafted sculpture—her emotions muted, her features perfected with a thin layer of makeup. Her clothes were visibly cheap, and yet somehow they afforded her a regal air. All in all, Taichi found he couldn’t really imagine what her day-to-day life was like or what she did for a living. In a way she seemed almost larger than life... although this was mitigated somewhat by the fat bruise on her cheek.

“Umm... Are you sure we should be hanging around here?” Nagase asked her mother.

“I doubt he’ll come home for a while yet, so it’s probably fine.”

“Probably fine?” Taichi retorted before he could stop himself.

She looked at him, and he tensed up. Her natural charm felt... dangerous, somehow.

“So... what’s going on?” she asked as she took a seat across from the two teens.

“Well... umm...” Nagase scratched her head as she searched for the words to explain it.

“It’s okay. You can tell me,” her mother replied, her voice as crisp as a mountain spring, almost as if she knew exactly what this was about. “If you’re pregnant, then I’m excited for you.”

Taichi promptly spat his tea across the room.

“A-Are you crazy?! Of! Course! I’m! Not! Pregnant!” Nagase pounded on the coffee table emphatically.

“You’re not? I thought maybe you two were planning to elope and wanted to ask for my blessing.”

“No, no, no, no, no!” she shouted, blushing.

“Well, okay then...”

First Kiriyama’s sister, and now this? Why does everyone assume I knocked somebody up?!

Thankfully, this misunderstanding helped to lighten the mood in the room considerably.

“Ahem! Anyway... Mom...” Nagase hesitated and looked away.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“Do you... love him? Does he make you happy?”

“Not at all,” Nagase’s mother answered without a moment’s delay.

“Huh?” Nagase looked up. Apparently she hadn’t anticipated that. “Wait... really?”

“Really. Obviously I did love him at one point in the past, but those feelings are long gone now.”

Evidently Nagase had meant it when she said she didn’t consult anyone about her problems, because Taichi got the sense that she and her mother had never really had this conversation before.

Then she asked the question he knew she’d been wanting to ask for a long, long time: “But... if you don’t love him, then why are you letting him stay here?”

“Because I could tell that you cared a lot about trying to make things work,” her mother answered easily. “I got the sense that you wanted to give him another chance.”

“Huh...? Me?” Nagase stared blankly.

“Yes, you. Am I wrong about that?”

“Darn right, you’re wrong! Well... okay, no, you were right. I was kinda hoping I could do things right this time.”

“Thought so,” her mother said with a sly grin.

“Okay, but—but I was only doing it for you!”

“You were?”

“I mean... okay, it was more so for me, but... but I never would’ve tried if I knew it wasn’t what you wanted... Wait, what?” Nagase tilted her head in confusion. “Then... why did I bother...?”

Taichi had a feeling he knew where this was going.

“I know this is none of my business or anything, but... did you guys not talk to each other about your feelings toward this person? At any point before now?”

Mother and daughter shook their heads in unison. Oh, for crying out loud! You two aren’t mind readers!

“But Mom... you’re the one who invited him in, and you never tried to throw him out, so I figured you wanted us all to give it another shot!”

“I only chose to tolerate him because you seemed to care about him so much.”

It was clear they had each tried to take the other’s feelings into consideration... without actually making sure they had the right idea.

“Mom... why...? Why would you put yourself through that...?”

Once again, Nagase’s mother didn’t hesitate for a moment. “Iori... I only care about your well-being. As long as you’re happy, nothing else matters.”

Perhaps this was proof that she regretted putting herself first during Nagase’s childhood and was now prepared to make any sacrifice to help her daughter follow her dreams.

Now it was Nagase’s turn to speak her mind.

“Mom,” she began, her voice soft and shaky with emotion, “I can’t be happy unless you’re happy, too.”

The two of them had kept these feelings bottled up inside for far too long. Now, at long last, they were putting it all on the table.

For a moment, they gazed at each other silently. Now that they’d opened up to each other about how they really felt, their familial bond had grown even stronger... right before his very eyes.

As it turned out, relying on others wasn’t always as easy as it sounded. Kiriyama was right; at the end of the day, they each needed to put in the effort to confront their problems. Sometimes they simply needed to summon the willpower to buckle down and get things done. But with strong willpower came the strong likelihood that this could backfire, leading to tunnel vision that would render someone deaf to their surroundings entirely, much less offers of help from friends.

So how do you know where to draw the line between things you ask for help with and things you do on your own? Frankly, there is no correct answer. You have to take it on a case-by-case basis. Yes, sometimes that means you screw up... but mistakes are how people learn, after all.

A long silence passed. Then Nagase’s mother asked, “So... do you want him gone?”

“Well... if we’re both happier without him, then yeah.”

“Alright.”

Finally, the two were on the same wavelength.

Just then—almost as if the universe had waited for that precise moment—someone began to pound on the front door.

“HEY! Who the fuck locked the door?! Open up, you dumb bitch!”

Judging from the rasp in his voice, it was Nagase’s stepfather.

Nagase’s mother jumped to her feet.

“He’s home!” Nagase hissed under her breath.

“What do we do?!” Taichi whispered back as the two of them moved to stand up.

But Nagase’s mother forced them back down into sitting positions. “I’m the grown-up here. This is my job.”

“But Mom—!”

“I’ll be fine.”

There, for the first time, the woman smiled—soft, reassuring, and yet there was a strength to it. Instantly they knew she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

She strode over to the door, unlocked it, and stepped outside.

“I’VE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU, YOU DEADBEAT DRUNK! THIS AIN’T YOUR HOUSE, AND WE DON’T OWE YOU SHIT! NOW GET LOST, SCUMBAG! AND STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM US!”

As it turned out... Nagase’s mom kicked ass.

□■□■□

And so Nagase’s mother beat the crap out of her abusive ex-husband. (The course of events was unclear, but ultimately the incident ended with him prostrating himself at her feet and promising never to return.) Once he was gone, she went and apologized to the neighbors for the disturbance... and that was that.

Looking back, it was kind of anti-climactic, really. But as it turned out, most real-world problems didn’t have dramatic conclusions; humans just often had trouble getting straight to the solution without a detour or two.

Taichi and Nagase walked side by side through the wintry city streets.

They were decidedly not holding hands.

“I wasn’t much help this time around, was I?” Taichi sighed. Fortunately things had still worked out in their favor, despite the series of bad choices he’d made.

“I dunno about that. Personally, I’d say you helped a fair amount. After all, I couldn’t have worked up the courage without you by my side. If you hadn’t been there... Yikes. I don’t even wanna think about it.”

Had he really given her the strength she needed to find her happy ending? He just couldn’t see it.

“But all I ever did was screw up and make the wrong judgment calls...”

“Oh, enough already! You know that’s not true! I mean, okay, you did screw up some... but not where it mattered most. You probably just don’t realize it since it came second-nature to you, but... it’s the little things, y’know?” she grinned.

Man, I hope you’re right. He felt his mood lift a bit.

It was one thing to regret his mistakes, but he couldn’t afford to let himself get dragged down by it. He needed to move past it. So what if he screwed up? That was then. This is now.

Still, there was one last thing he wanted to discuss.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you about... the thing you said to him at the end.”

“Are you curious why I thanked him?”

There she was, bowing her head and yelling “Thank you for everything!” as he beat a hasty retreat down the street. It was quite a sight.

“Well...” Nagase jogged up ahead, then turned around, blocking his path. “I just thought, like... Despite everything that happened between us, I owe him a lot for making me into the person I am today, so I might as well say thank you! Y’know?”

If each person was a product of all of their lived experiences, both good and bad, then perhaps they ought to be grateful for those bad experiences all the same... To Taichi, this seemed like a hard sell.

“Now, if you ask me if I really meant it, that’s another story.” Evidently there were still some hard feelings. “But when you hold a grudge, it bogs you down... and forgiving someone sets you free.” From the way she smiled, he could tell that she’d finally come to terms with everything. “I owe you all so much. Thank you, Taichi... I wouldn’t be here without you. And I’ll be sure to thank the others, too.”

With that, Nagase turned back around and walked forward once more.

In that moment, she shone brighter than all the lights of the city. Brighter than the moon.

She had thrown off the shackles of her past, and now she was free.