After reuniting with Black Arus, I went back to the classroom and found Maria there.
At first I was startled, but after hearing the story, it turned out she’d come back not long after I left.
And so we walked home together.
"What should we have for dinner tonight?"
"Shido! I want hamburg steak! I want hamburg steak!"
"Me too!"
"No, you guys... we already did that yesterday..."
"Hii. What are we having?"
"Hmm... I haven’t decided yet. Is there anything you want?"
"Not really."
As we chatted about this and that on the way home, a group passed by us.
"Mom! Dad! Hurry up!"
It was a voice I somehow found extremely familiar.
Still, I didn’t pay it much mind.
There were people in the world with similar voices, and maybe the sense of familiarity was just my imagination.
The only thing that bothered me was that the language I’d just heard was Korean.
I’d never seen any Koreans while living in Tengushi, so hearing Korean felt a little strange.
"Well, whatever. Probably just some tourist NPC."
I was about to brush it off without a second thought.
"Honestly, our son really is full of energy."
"What’s wrong with that? It’s nice to see."
Not until I heard that voice.
It was a familiar voice.
An unforgettable one.
No, a voice I absolutely should never have forgotten.
"...Hii?"
My head snapped around on reflex.
I searched for the group that had just passed us, my eyes darting around.
"You said you’d show me something at the park. What exactly are you planning to show me?"
And I found them.
But the group had already turned and disappeared behind a building.
Seeing that, a hundred thoughts flooded my mind.
Why?
How?
This should be impossible.
Did I see wrong?
No, there was no way.
"..."
I couldn’t just stand there.
Even if it was my imagination, I’d definitely seen them.
"Hii?"
Shutting down the thoughts that kept rising up, I ran toward the path where they’d disappeared.
"Hii! Hey! Where are you going?"
"Honored guest!?"
"Hieta! Where are you going?"
The others were calling after me from behind, but I couldn’t stop.
I had to confirm with my own two eyes what I’d seen.
"...Nothing."
But for some reason, they were gone.
"...Park."
The place the woman had just mentioned.
There was only one park around here.
The distance from here to the park wasn’t far at all, so without a second thought, I sprinted there.
When I finally arrived, I found a single fragment floating in one corner of the park.
It looked like a broken shard of glass, and for some reason, a warm feeling was seeping out of it.
Before I knew it, my hand was reaching toward the fragment that gave off the feeling of being inside a cozy home.
"Huff, huff. Found it."
"Hieta! What on earth are you do..."
The moment the tip of my outstretched finger touched the fragment, the surroundings rippled like waves.
And the park changed into the park I knew.
"...What is this?"
"The surroundings changed?"
"What the hell is going on?"
The park had become the one I knew very well, the one near my house.
As the park changed, white walls began to appear around us like fog.
And then, three people appeared on the bench in the park.
The first to appear was a boy.
He looked to be about high school age.
The ordinary-looking boy with black hair and black eyes set down the bag he had been carrying on his back and took out a guitar.
At the same time the boy took out the guitar, the other two appeared as well.
One male and one female.
They were also ordinary-looking man and woman, both with black hair and black eyes like the boy.
But to me, they were anything but ordinary.
"Ghk...!"
The moment I saw them, my breath caught in my throat.
I wanted to breathe, but I couldn’t.
As if something were blocking me, I couldn’t get any air.
"I practiced this so I could show it to Mom and Dad!"
"Really? Then I can look forward to it, right?"
"Well, let’s see how good you are."
In response to the boy’s words, the woman said she was looking forward to it, and the man, looking a little embarrassed, turned his head away and spoke only while glancing at the boy out of the corner of his eye.
Then the woman jabbed the man in the side, giving him a look.
Such an ordinary daily life.
A familiar daily life.
A daily life I could no longer see.
"Ahem."
The boy cleared his throat and began to play the guitar.
Then a song flowed from the boy’s voice.
The man and woman smiled as they gazed at the boy, seeming to enjoy his song.
And the longer the boy’s song went on, the more tears welled in my eyes.
"Why... why am I crying...?"
I thought I’d gotten over it.
I thought I’d already cried out everything I had to cry.
I thought it was already an emotion I’d dealt with completely.
But no.
That made no sense.
It was impossible from the start.
They were the ones who gave birth to me, the ones who let me be born, the ones who made it possible for me to exist in this world.
They were the ones who loved and cherished me more than anyone else.
The two of them, enjoying the boy’s song and playing in front of me, were my parents, and the emptiness left behind by their deaths was not something that could be easily fixed.
Maybe it was something that could never be fixed at all.
Thinking I’d gotten over it had been my mistake.
How could I possibly overcome my parents’ deaths, when they had already taken root so deeply in my heart?
And the hole in my heart was that much bigger.
I should have said hello when I woke up in the morning.
I should have told them I loved them more often.
Belated regret came flooding back again.
"How is it!"
Before I knew it, the boy’s first song had come to an end.
The boy, my past self, smiled at my parents and bragged that he’d learned guitar from a friend.
He’d borrowed this guitar from that friend too.
He asked them what they thought of his skill.
"Our son is amazing!"
"You’re not that good, though."
Dad wasn’t the type to praise people much.
More accurately, he was the type who got awkward about praising people.
So I hadn’t heard many compliments from him.
"You jerk! How can you not praise your own son!"
Mom, unlike Dad, was the type who praised me often.
Even when I drew our family for the first time in elementary school, she’d praised me for doing a good job.
From my current perspective, it was a pretty terrible drawing.
"W-Well. You did well."
Unable to withstand Mom’s pressure, Dad covered his mouth with his hand and offered a compliment.
A smile spread across his face.
"So, no next song?"
Dad spoke casually, but he must have been looking forward to it, because he wanted another song.
My past self laughed and answered him.
"Of course there is!"
And that was the start of my second song.
As the singing rang out once more, my parents closed their eyes as if it were only natural and listened to my song.
"I’m sorry, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you I loved you more often. I’m sorry I couldn’t stay by your side more often. I..."
Even knowing the scene before my eyes and the parents listening to the song my past self was singing were illusions, I couldn’t stop the surging emotions.
And so the second song came to an end.
"How is it?"
"Oh~ Our son sings so well~"
Mom praised my past self, ruffling his hair over and over as if he were adorable.
"...You did well."
Dad praised me with his usual indifferent expression.
"Is there another one?"
"Hmm... I do have one left, but..."
"But?"
"I wrote and composed this one myself, so it might be weird."
"You can write songs too? Our son is amazing~"
"Come on, hurry up and play it."
And so began my last song.
This song was one I made while thinking only of my parents.
I’d roughly put it together after looking things up online, so it was clumsy and the lyrics were strange, but my parents were smiling as if even that made them proud.
"H-How was it?"
My past self turned away in embarrassment.
Mom hugged me and said I was wonderful, and Dad awkwardly came over and quietly wrapped his arms around Mom and me too.
The moment I reached out toward the three of them, they vanished like smoke.
"...What was that just now?"
"Probably Hiki’s past."
I stood there for a long time.
Even if it had been a phantom, even if it had just been a program, I had seen my living parents for the first time in so long.
I needed time to gather myself.
"Ahaha, sorry. I showed you such an ugly side of me."
Only after some time had passed could I apologize to the people who had followed me.
"Hii, are you okay?"
"I’m fine... honestly, I’m not fine. But what can I do?"
I couldn’t overcome it, but I could at least get used to the pain.
"I have to get used to it."
"Hii..."
"Honored guest..."
"Hii, sir..."
"Ahaha, you really don’t need to worry so much."
By then, I’d managed to calm my emotions somewhat, so I spoke to the people looking at me with worried eyes.
"I’m okay now. Let’s go buy groceries and head home."
And so we headed home from school with the mood a little heavier than before.
"Since we had all that happen today! I’ll make dinner!"
"Mana! Absolutely not!"
"Stop Mana!"
There was a small incident, but we still ended up having a pretty satisfying dinner.
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