Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/2912051604232886910
Golden Week.
A gentle breeze blew through the quiet cemetery.
Shunta Kikuchi, holding a bouquet of flowers and some incense sticks, quietly crouched down in front of the familiar gravestone.
“…All right.”
He placed the flowers and some sweets on the grave.
He lit the incense and slowly pressed his palms together in prayer.
“Mom.”
A gentle smile spread across his face.
“High school and living on my own are going well.”
“I was nervous at first… but I’m managing just fine.”
Keeping his gaze fixed on the gravestone, he gave a small chuckle.
“I promised, didn’t I?”
“That I wouldn’t just cry all the time, but would look ahead and live my life.”
He scratched his head, looking slightly embarrassed.
“So please don’t worry.”
“Thank you for always watching over me…”
After clasping his hands together, he gave a slight bow.
“I’ll come back again.”
he turned on his heel and began walking slowly up the slope.
That was when it happened.
“…Huh?”
Right where he was looking.
On the slope of the riverbank.
A little girl slipped and lost her balance.
“Watch out!”
It happened before he even had time to think.
he had already started running.
“I hope I make it in time…!”
He grabbed the girl’s arm.
He pulled her toward him.
The girl was unharmed.
But in exchange—
“Damn it…!”
His foot slipped on the concrete beneath him.
The scenery flipped upside down.
His body was hurled into the air.
As he fell, all he could see was the girl’s tear-streaked face.
“…I’m glad.”
With those words as his last,
Hayata’s consciousness slowly sank into darkness.
◆
“—!”
He opened his eyes with a start.
“…Haa, haa…”
Gasping for breath, he looked around.
A familiar ceiling.
A familiar desk.
A familiar bookshelf.
“…Huh?”
Hayata slowly sat up.
“Here… my parents’ house?”
He scanned the room.
Furniture he was sure he’d moved out.
Belongings he’d taken with him when he started high school.
They were all here, as if nothing had ever happened.
“That can’t be…”
Just a moment ago, he’d fallen into the river.
He’d saved a girl.
(Did someone save me…?)
No, that wouldn’t explain it.
“There’s no way I’d be back in my room…”
A sense of unease stirred deep within his chest.
As if to shake off a bad feeling, he stepped out of the room.
It was at that very moment.
“…You were still at home?”
A cold, icy voice.
At the end of the hallway stood his stepsister, Yume Kikuchi.
Hayata couldn’t help but smile.
“Yume-san.”
At that moment.
Yume’s expression froze slightly.
“…Huh?”
Just for an instant.
A look of confusion flashed across her face.
But it vanished immediately.
“Don’t call me so casually.”
An icy stare.
“That’s creepy.”
“…………Huh?”
Hayata’s thoughts came to a halt.
He couldn’t understand what she’d just said.
Yume said nothing more and walked right past Hayata.
All that remained was the deathly silent hallway.
“……Did I do something?”
(……Was it a dream?)
“No, even if it was, isn’t the plot a bit too heavy?”
No, it felt strangely vivid for a dream.
Having been coldly rebuffed by Yume, Hayata descended the stairs, unable to hide his confusion.
(What’s going on……?)
His mind was filled with questions.
As he stepped into the living room, his stepmother, Nagisa Kikuchi, who was standing in the kitchen, turned around.
“Hayata-kun. How long are you going to sleep?”
Hearing her voice, Hayata breathed a sigh of relief.
“Nagisa-san—”
But he couldn’t finish his sentence.
Nagisa gave him a cold stare.
“Please stop calling me that.”
“Huh…?”
“I don’t deserve to be called by my first name by you.”
Her tone was matter-of-fact.
She wasn’t lashing out with emotion; there was only a cold, dismissive detachment.
“I want you to get out of this house as soon as possible.”
Hayata was speechless.
No matter how hard he tried to say something in response, no sound came out.
Then, from behind him, Yume snorted derisively.
“Mom. It’s pointless to say anything to a shut-in.”
“That’s true.”
The two of them continued their conversation as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
There was no place for him in that exchange.
“…A shut-in?”
That single phrase echoed over and over in his head.
(Who are they talking about…?)
He couldn’t wrap his head around it.
Why did these two hate him so much?
He couldn’t think of a single reason.
Without saying a word, Hayata returned to his room.
He closed the door.
In the silent room, he let out a deep sigh.
“…What’s going on?”
He sank onto the bed and covered his face with both hands.
He fell into the river.
He saved the girl.
He remembers that much.
But he can’t remember anything that happened after that.
“…Did I survive?”
He muttered under his breath and pulled his smartphone out of his pocket. He opened his contacts.
“…Huh?”
His father.
His grandparents.
They were all there.
But.
“Nagisa-san… isn’t there.”
I swiped through the list.
“Yume isn’t there either…?”
No matter how many times I checked, she wasn’t listed.
A bad feeling crept into my chest.
Next, I opened the photo folder.
Photos with my mom.
Scenery I’d taken since I started living on my own.
So many memories.
But—
“They’re not there…”
Not Nagisa.
Not Yume.
My friends from school, too.
Not a single one was there.
“What the hell is going on…?”
He clenched his smartphone tighter.
He looked around the room.
The family home he was supposed to have moved out of.
His cold-hearted family.
The vanished contacts.
The nonexistent photos.
None of it felt real.
After thinking it over for a while, Hayata let out a wry smile.
“…What is this?”
“So that’s how it is.”
The tension drained from his shoulders.
“It’s a dream.”
That single sentence made it all strangely make sense.
“I fell into the river.”
“I’m just having a weird dream because of that.”
He looked around the room once more and chuckled softly.
“It’s way too realistic for a nightmare, though.”
“Well, I’ll wake up eventually.”
◆
Night.
Laughter drifted up from the first floor.
Hayata picked up the rice ball that had been left outside his room and returned to his room.
“…Even though it’s a dream, I’m still hungry.”
He peeled off the plastic wrap with a wry smile.
It was still warm.
He took a bite, and the tension drained from his body before he knew it.
“It’s actually pretty good.”
The taste and temperature were so realistic that it was hard to believe it was just a dream.
“Well, if it’s a dream, there’s no point in overthinking it.”
From downstairs, he could hear Nagisa and Yume’s cheerful laughter.
“…Even if it’s a dream, they could at least be a little nicer to me.”
He muttered under his breath.
After finishing the last bite, he collapsed onto his bed.
“I wish I’d wake up soon…”
Muttering that, he quietly closed his eyes.
◆
The next morning.
At the far end of the hallway, a woman stopped in her tracks.
The bathroom door was slightly ajar.
Through the crack, she could see Shunta standing in front of the mirror.
He was trimming his overgrown bangs.
He shaved his overgrown beard.
He straightened the rumpled collar of his school uniform and quietly gazed at his reflection in the mirror.
“…At least I’ll try to look normal.”
He seemed somehow different from how he had been just yesterday.
The woman watched him in silence.
Eventually, she lowered her eyes slightly.
“……”
Without saying a word, she quietly walked away.
◆
School.
He opened the classroom door.
Clang—
For just a moment, the classroom fell silent.
Everyone’s gaze turned to Hayata.
But that lasted only a few seconds.
As if nothing had happened from the start, everyone looked away and resumed their conversations.
(……What is this atmosphere?)
Hayata said nothing and headed for his seat.
Only the sound of his chair scraping across the floor echoed quietly.
“…He’s here.”
“He actually came to school.”
“For a shut-in.”
A faint voice drifted in from somewhere.
No one was laughing at him.
No one was yelling at him either.
It was just that not a single person made a move to approach him.
Homeroom.
The homeroom teacher glanced at Hayata for just a moment while checking the attendance roster.
“Kikuchi.”
“…Yes.”
After confirming his response, the teacher said nothing more.
“Alright, let’s move on to announcements.”
Class was the same.
No one called on him.
No one spoke to him.
It was as if he alone had been cut off from the classroom.
(Even for a dream, this is a bit much, isn’t it…?)
Lunchtime.
Hayata left the classroom.
That was when it happened.
“…Oh.”
Across the hallway, a girl was walking.
The moment he saw her, Hayata’s eyes widened.
“Mio.”
His childhood friend, whom he’d grown up with since they were little.
He called out her name without thinking.
Mio stopped in her tracks.
For just a moment, he felt a glimmer of hope.
But—
“…Don’t ever talk to me again.”
“…………Huh?”
After saying only that, Mio walked right past Hayata.
“You sure get talked to a lot, don’t you?”
“…Even after what you did at the entrance ceremony.”
Hayata’s train of thought came to a halt at the voices he heard from around him.
(Enrollment ceremony…?)
What’s that about?
I don’t remember anything like that.
In the first place, I don’t even think I did anything at the enrollment ceremony.
“…Wait a minute.”
My family hates me.
No one at school will come near me.
And now, even my childhood friend, Mio, has rejected me.
On top of that, everyone seems to know a “Hayata Kikuchi” that I don’t recognize.
“…What did I do?”
Hayata lightly pinched his cheek.
“Ugh… that hurts.”
If this were a dream, he should be waking up by now.
He fell into the river.
He saved a girl.
And when he woke up—everything had gone haywire.
“…Is this not a dream?”
If so, where is this place?
And—.
What on earth did the “me” in this world do?
A girl walked past him.
Her hair was a vivid pink.
People naturally gathered around her, and cheerful laughter filled the air.
She must be the popular girl in class.
She didn’t even notice Hayata as she walked right past him.
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