I was killing time by watching the clouds drift across the blue sky.
There was only one reason I was doing this.
I was waiting beside the entrance to the rooftop at Raizen High School for Tobiichi to show up.
Itsuka-kun was standing by the door, so unless he deliberately lured her this way, she shouldn’t notice me.
Creak—
"She’s here."
The sound of the rooftop door opening reached me, and a white-haired girl came face to face with Itsuka-kun.
From where I was, I could only see her back, but I could tell she was Tobiichi from the fact that Itsuka-kun didn’t panic.
"Um, this is..."
Tobiichi held out the paper Itsuka-kun had left behind and asked what he wanted.
"Ah... Sorry for calling you out so suddenly."
"It’s fine."
She was just as calm as ever, but for some reason the atmosphere didn’t feel cold, which made it a little awkward.
The Tobiichi I always knew gave off the kind of presence Tonomachi-kun had described as eternal frost.
And since she was usually expressionless anyway, seeing this bright, almost fresh-faced version of Tobiichi made her seem like a completely different person.
"...Well, history itself changed, so I guess it wouldn’t be wrong to say she changed too."
Since the altered history was Tobiichi’s history, thinking of her as a different person might not actually be wrong.
"So, Tobiichi."
"...Yes?"
"Shit."
Itsuka-kun had called her by name like before the change, and that threw her off.
Itsuka-kun seemed to realize his mistake too, because he corrected himself in a slightly awkward voice.
"Ah, sorry, Tobiichi...chi-san. It was rude to call you by your first name all of a sudden, wasn’t it?"
"No. I was just a little surprised. Um... Itsuka-kun..."
It was like watching a piece of youthful romance unfold, and it made me a little dizzy.
It was nothing like the Tobiichi I knew, so there was nothing I could do about it.
The way she always charged straight ahead, as if she knew everything about Itsuka-kun and could see right through him, was enough to feel like madness.
And now! She was awkwardly chatting with Itsuka-kun like some fresh-faced schoolgirl, and from my perspective that was just way too unfamiliar.
"...What is it?"
"Well, Tobiichi-san. This morning, when you saw my face, you seemed really surprised, didn’t you?"
I hadn’t known that.
When Tobiichi had appeared, I’d been startled and looked over, and then Mayuri and the Fire Keeper had immediately started making weird assumptions, so I’d been too busy clearing that up to watch what was happening over there.
I was curious why Tobiichi had been surprised by Itsuka-kun’s face, but I’d get the reason now, so I waited quietly for her answer.
"Sorry if that bothered you! I was just a little shocked... You looked so much like someone Itsuka-kun had met before..."
"...What?"
"...No way."
It was obvious she meant Itsuka-kun.
According to Itsuka-kun, he’d rushed in to save Tobiichi’s parents, so back then, when she was little, she must have seen the same face Itsuka-kun had now.
So Tobiichi hadn’t met someone similar. She’d met the same person.
The only problem was that the two of them were the same age.
It didn’t make sense for her to think the person she’d met as a child would still look like a high school student now.
That was why Tobiichi probably couldn’t imagine that the person she’d seen back then was Itsuka-kun.
"Could that person have been..."
"It couldn’t have been Itsuka-kun. I met that person five years ago, after all. Back then, Itsuka-kun would have still been in elementary school. Besides... that person is already gone. Five years ago, right in front of me..."
As she said that, Tobiichi’s body began to tremble.
She was probably reliving that memory and feeling the shock of watching someone die in front of her all over again.
"...Would it be all right if I went back to class now?"
Thinking Itsuka-kun was done with his business, Tobiichi tried to head back to the classroom.
If we let her go now, we’d lose the chance to find out why she became a spirit, so Itsuka-kun had to keep her here somehow.
"W-wait a second. Five years ago... could it have been the Nankocho Great Fire?"
"How did you know that...?"
Thankfully, Itsuka-kun steered the conversation in a different direction, and Tobiichi didn’t go back to class.
"Could that person have been your older brother, Itsuka-kun...?"
It seemed she’d assumed that, since it was five years ago, they were siblings rather than the same person.
Still, since Tobiichi had guessed the relationship on her own, it made it easier for Itsuka-kun to answer.
"Well, more or less..."
As soon as Itsuka-kun said that, Tobiichi grabbed his hand.
Just as I was about to step in at her sudden boldness, Itsuka-kun lightly shook his head to stop me.
It would be hard to clean up if something happened, but if I jumped in here and nothing serious was going on, the situation might end up getting weird in a different way, so I held back and waited as Itsuka-kun wanted.
"Your brother saved our parents! If it hadn’t been for him, they would have died back then."
Tobiichi was thanking Itsuka-kun for saving her parents.
She called him her brother, but that probably wasn’t a title Itsuka-kun cared about much anyway.
The fact that Itsuka-kun had saved Tobiichi’s parents was undeniable.
"Thank you so much...!"
Seeing Tobiichi bow her head, Itsuka-kun looked visibly flustered, but he told her it was fine and made her lift her head again.
"Sorry, that was so sudden!"
"No, it’s really fine."
"I’m truly grateful for what happened that day."
"So, Tobiichi-san. Then your parents are doing well, right?"
It was a slightly awkward way to phrase it, but from Itsuka-kun’s point of view, he was probably just asking whether the people he’d saved were doing well.
Tobiichi nodded at the question.
"Yes. They’ve been healthy ever since. They almost got caught up in an accident a few days ago, though..."
"An accident...?"
"They said some cult group carried out a terrorist attack. Luckily, a red-haired man who was there saved them, but he left right away, so they never got to thank him."
"...Huh?"
That sounded familiar.
Among my memories after the change, there had been an incident a few days ago where some weird cult that believed spirits were gods carried out a terrorist attack on civilians, saying they needed sacrifices.
I happened to be there, and there weren’t many of them, so we subdued them quickly, but I left right away because getting tangled up with them any more would’ve been annoying.
They’d even had knives and other weapons, so it had nearly turned into a real disaster.
"I think I know who that was..."
"Really?"
"Huh? Yeah. He’s in our class."
"What!?"
Tobiichi looked genuinely shocked.
If I were her, I’d probably never imagine that the person who beat up knife-wielding attackers was just a high school student, let alone that he was in the same class as me.
"Could it have been Higakieta-kun?"
There was only one redhead in our class, so Tobiichi guessed it quickly.
Yeah, red hair really was pretty rare.
"...Probably. He said he subdued some suspicious people the other day."
"Thank you for telling me. I almost walked right past my benefactor."
As she said that, Tobiichi started to head back to class again, but Itsuka-kun asked one more question.
"U-um, Tobiichi-san. Why did you join AST?"
That was an important question too.
If her parents were alive and well, then why had she joined AST?
But there was one thing we’d overlooked.
"How do you know about AST!?"
Ordinary people were not allowed to know about AST, so they wouldn’t have any information about it.
"Well, I mean..."
"Could it be that Itsuka-kun has ever been outside when a spacequake alarm was sounding?"
"Uh, I sort of..."
"That’s incredibly dangerous! Please never do that again!"
"Y-yeah..."
Unlike before, her tone wasn’t calm at all now; she was actually scolding him, and both I and Itsuka-kun were a little startled.
She was an AST member, after all, and also the family of someone she owed a debt to, so maybe she was just worried about him.
"If Itsuka-kun knows about AST, then you must know the cause of spacequakes too, right?"
"A spirit..."
"Yes. Dangerous beings with powers like the worst spirit, [Nightmare], or the spirit AST members have to be most careful of, [Knight], are the cause of spacequakes."
"...Eh?"
Knight was my identifier.
Hearing my identifier mentioned out of nowhere, I blurted out in surprise.
Of course, we were a little far away and I hadn’t spoken very loudly, so she probably wouldn’t hear me, but I covered my mouth anyway just to be safe.
"Tobiichi-san?"
"No. I thought I heard someone there."
Her physical senses were still terrifyingly sharp.
"To continue, the spirit who killed Itsuka-kun’s brother was also a spirit. Back then, I made up my mind. There should never be another victim like him. I’ll become someone who can protect people from spirits...!"
Tobiichi’s fist was trembling from how tightly she had clenched it.
Itsuka-kun had a complicated look on his face, probably because he felt a little responsible for the fact that, in this altered history, Tobiichi had joined AST because of him.
Still, there was one more thing Itsuka-kun needed to ask, so he fixed his expression and spoke again.
"Can I ask you one more thing?"
"What is it?"
"...Why did you become a spirit, Tobiichi-san?"
Itsuka-kun asked directly why she had become a spirit, with no extra words.
But Tobiichi just looked completely confused.
"...Huh? What do you mean?"
Shockingly, she didn’t know she had become a spirit.
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