May 5 (Tuesday), 6:15 AMI’ve been awake for a while now.

But like a puppet with severed strings, I can’t move from atop Maria Otonashi’s bed. I have to contact Riko Asami. Despite knowing this, I can’t make myself move.

Maria Otonashi has been sitting in a chair watching me the whole time.

But even this isn’t enough for me to move. I can’t even look away from her steady, observant gaze.

She’s the first to lose her will and break our little staring contest. She stands up and goes off somewhere.

After a moment, she returns and offers me a cup of coffee. I only stare at the steam rising in front of me. When I don’t take the mug, she again backs down first, retracting her arm and taking a sip of her own offering. “That’s bitter…,” she comments. “……Well, seeing as there isn’t much to do at the moment, maybe I’ll talk to myself for a bit.”

She frowns into the mug as she speaks.

“I am a Box. And just like a Box, I can also grant wishes,” she informs me, as if this really were a regular chat over coffee. “But I am a failure as one. The happiness I bestow is fictitious and false.”

Her tone is bland, but her expression can’t fully conceal her frustration.

“What is happiness, really? Does it come to you based on your mind-set? If so, then even someone responsible for the disappearance of their entire family should be able to change how they feel. Is that really all it takes to achieve happiness?”

I thought at first she was talking about me, but now I’m not so sure.

“…I…don’t think that’s possible. I’m here now because I think that way.”

Now I know for sure she’s referring to herself.

“I don’t know exactly what happened with you, but I don’t think changing the way you think or your situation will make you happy. My guess is that you probably feel the same way. Am I right?”

She is. The only place I’m going is to hell, no matter what path I take.

“You asked me earlier to help you.” She downs the coffee before continuing, “As long as you’re fine with a failure like me, I can grant your wish.”

Under normal circumstances, I would assume she was trying to feed me an outrageous lie, but her face is the picture of sincerity.

Regardless of whether I believe her, it’s enough.

“……Really?”

It’s enough to make me speak again.

“Yeah. If the only roads before you lead to hell, then I’ll offer you a different path. It may be a mere illusion, but for someone in your position, I’m sure that’s more than enough.”

If all she wanted was to dangle hope in front of my nose to get something from me, she wouldn’t phrase it this way.

“Will you be okay after you use your otherworldly power…? Or will it be like in those manga where the hero has to pay a price for using their ability?”

Maria Otonashi stays silent for a moment.

“There is, isn’t there?”

“…It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“That just makes me even more worried.”

After a weary sigh, she answers, “I lose a portion of my memory.”

“What…?”

“When I use the Misbegotten Happiness, my memories of the recipient vanish, along with, to a certain extent, those of others involved with them. I actually have almost no memories at all. I can’t recall my family or my friends. All that remains to me are the memories I willingly sought out.”

“What? But why…?”

That sounds horrible.

“……Don’t tell me that means you would forget Kazuki Hoshino if you used your power on me…?”

She has no response to that. I’m sure it’s because I’m right.

“…I don’t understand. Why would you do that for me? Why would you be willing to forget someone so important to you…?

“It’s my choice. Like I said, you don’t need to worry about it.”

“But—”

“You and I are the same.” She cuts me off. “That’s why I don’t want to see you miserable. I don’t think I could bear it. I would never have become a Box if I could sit by and watch that happen.”

Is that why she’s willing to lose such precious memories?

That’s crazy. Crazy, but…

It’s also why she was able to become the pinnacle of creation.

If it’ll allow me to escape from eternal suffering, and if she’s doing it willingly, then I’ll accept her offer.

“Let me use a phone.”

She nods and hands me Kazuki Hoshino’s. I spot my number in the outgoing call history. Maria must have called me.

But that’s not the way to reach the one I want. I tried calling that number before, too, but it never connected. The number she calls me from isn’t mine.

No, it belongs to Yuhei Ishihara.

I make the call. After a few rings…

“Hello?”

…Riko Asami answers the phone.

May 5 (Tuesday), 9:42 PM

When I fill in the paper Miyazaki gave me on the second, it looks like this:

Book 1: Chapter 16 [/uploads/images/1206789/2/Art_P154.jpg]The remaining three time blocks,10 AM – 11

AM, 9 PM – 10 PM, and 10 PM – 11 PM,are all the time “Kazuki Hoshino” has left in this body. If we don’t somehow take care of the Week in the Mud within those hours, “Kazuki Hoshino” will have nothing left.

It’s 9:43 now. This means “Kazuki Hoshino” has only the final one hour and seventeen minutes remaining before eleven PM.

We have to do everything that needs to be done in that window, and we’ve finished all the preparations necessary to pull this off.

“Riko Asami” got in contact with Asami as requested. Asami agreed to meet, specifying a time and place.

And so, we come face-to-face with Riko Asami.

The meeting place Asami specified turns out to be our school. Though our school does have a security system, climbing over the gates isn’t enough to set it off.

It’s still Golden Week, so no one is here. We find her standing in the center of the empty schoolyard.

“Why do you think I decided to meet you?” she murmurs, like she’s talking to herself and not at all like the Asami I know. “I know what you hope to accomplish, after all. You’re here to stop me from killing myself and steal my Box, right? That’s something I don’t want to happen. But I still decided to meet you. Do you know why?”

Asami’s eyes are focused on some unknown point nearby.

“Because I wanted to see you one last time. I wanted to see the one I admire so much, who did what I couldn’t and created an ideal version of herself.”

“I don’t think so,” Maria forcefully interjects. “What you really want is for me to stop you from doing something as stupid as throwing your life away.”

Riko Asami listens carefully to Maria’s words, and her mouth curves upward in a smile. “Sorry, but that tired argument won’t work on me. Ugh, what a disappointment… I didn’t want to hear those dull platitudes from you.”

“Hmph. So then why exactly did you come to meet us? Do you think I can’t see that you’re afraid to die?”

“You’re my insurance.”

“…Insurance?”

“I thought that if I got too scared to actually go through with it, you’d be kind enough to kill me instead,” she tells us matter-of-factly.

“…”

Why? Why is listening to this conversation so……annoying?

I know there are certain emotions I should be feeling now. Panic, fright, sympathy—those would be more natural in this case. So why is it that all I’m feeling right now is irritation?

I think and think and think, and then it dawns on me.

……No way.

“Asami.”

Only my subconscious could have led me to this fact. No wonder I’m pissed off. There’s no point to this idle chitchat.

“You met with Miyazaki after the Week in the Mud was set in motion, didn’t you?” I ask Asami abruptly, and she slowly nods. “He lied and told us the owner had died, to make us believe we had no chance of undoing the wish. He hoped to get us to give up and thus allow the Box to complete its purpose.”

“…And?” Asami prompts me.

I nod and continue. “Miyazaki was confident we would never be able to find you. But here you are, alive and well. Why would he be so sure of himself if that’s the case?”

Asami hesitates for a moment, then explains, “…When we met, I promised him I would go into hiding. That’s why—”

“Why?” I interrupt Asami midsentence. “If Miyazaki was allied with ‘Riko Asami,’ the person trying hardest to help the Week in the Mud run its course, and you’re prepared to take your own life to stop it, why would you need to collaborate with him?”

She has nothing to say.

“It doesn’t make any sense, don’t you think?” I press.

“How would you know my mental conflicts?”

I’ve had it. This is gross, and I can’t take it anymore.

“You are so creepy. Why’re you talking like that? Cut it out already.”

“……This is how I always used to talk. You wouldn’t know it, but ever since middle school, I—”

“What I’m saying is you can drop the act. You’re here in front of us now, so you wouldn’t want to hide, right? So…”

“…stop talking like that, O.”

Maria’s eyes fly open wide as she gawks at Asami…or should I say, O.

All expression vanishes from Asami’s face. She looks so mechanical that I can’t sense any of the girl I knew in there.

“You’ve been keeping up this charade since the thirtieth, right? Even bad taste has its limits, you know. Thinking back on it, nothing has seemed right about her since then. Haruaki even commented on how weird she was acting, only to completely forget about it the next day. That’s part of your nature—no one who isn’t a Box owner can remember you. I guess you didn’t visit our classroom, because Miyazaki was in there, huh?”

Asami listens to my theories silently, her face still a blank slate.

“Miyazaki was so confident about his big lie that Asami was dead because he knew you had possessed her body. If an inhuman being like you was walking around in her body and told him he would never see you again, my guess is he would probably take it to heart.”

Not even that is enough to provoke a change in her expression.

“He might have forgotten about you, but it seems he couldn’t forget that something had possessed his sister. That’s why the only way out for Miyazaki was to make sure the Week in the Mud did what it was meant to do. That’s how you set him up as my enemy. You set the stage so that ‘Riko Asami’ and ‘I’ would be fighting on equal terms.”

I fix Asami with an angry glare as I continue.

“Then all that was left for you was to sit back and have your fun observing it all.”

The moment I finish speaking…

“Heh-heh.”

…the blank expression warps, and Riko Asami disappears entirely.

Well, the body is still hers. But there’s no longer any way of mistaking it. Riko Asami no longer exists behind those features. No human has an unfathomable grin like that.

“Well, well, I’m impressed.”

With that smile still in place, O claps their hands. The display is an expression of their confidence that they are perfectly safe, despite having been discovered.

“……You seem to be enjoying yourself, O.”

Maria’s brows furrow as she jumps into the conversation.

“Enjoying myself? Heh-heh, why wouldn’t I be? This round of observations was truly worthwhile. Seeing how Kazuki Hoshino would react, how he would think, how he would suffer when his identity was taken from him has proven to be deeply intriguing. I never expected he would so clearly recognize ‘Riko Asami’ as an enemy and take action to bring her pain. Heh-heh, this experiment was rather short compared with the last one, but the results have been rich indeed.”

“Freak.”

Maria’s jeer has no effect on O’s mirthful expression. “Now then—shall I give you this Box?”

I don’t pick up on the meaning of those words right away.

What was that? O’s going to give the Box to us? Why? We haven’t even backed them into a corner or bargained for it…

“……What’re you trying to pull?” Maria asks in my place.

“Oh? Is there something odd about my behavior?”

“Is this magnanimous attitude a facade to hide your desperation now that we’ve managed to sniff you out?”

“Your answer couldn’t be more incorrect. What about this situation would imply I’m in peril? …Hmm, it would appear you all misunderstand. My goal in this has been to observe Kazuki Hoshino, not interfere with your plans. This Box has given me my fill of fun with him, so I have already accomplished what I set out to do. Giving it to you now that I have no use for it is no problem at all.”

Now I think about it, they’re right. Ensuring the Week in the Mud would reach completion was never the point for O. Rather, if the Box actually does what it was made to do…

“Ah…!”

“Yes. I wasn’t going to say anything, but it seems you’ve figured it out on your own. Heartbreaking.”

They must be delighted to see the blood draining from my face. O is positively beaming.

“It’s true—this Box you call the ‘Week in the Mud’ was never meant to fulfill its purpose from the very start. Riko Asami is a human of interest, but not nearly enough so that I would sacrifice such a hard-earned guinea pig. Let ‘Riko Asami’ take the place of ‘Kazuki Hoshino’? Not on my watch.”

O snickers.

“And so, when the time was right, I was planning to give you the Box regardless of whether you found me. There’s nothing peculiar at all about my simply handing it over like this.”

I made “Riko Asami” into my enemy to take myself back.

I wounded her and caused her suffering. I even made Miyazaki my accomplice. I went so far as to betray Maria, too.

But…

…even though I stooped so low…

“It was all for nothing, wasn’t it?”

Did O have me where they wanted from the very beginning? Was I simply dancing in the palm of their hand?

If so, then what does that make this whole week into…?

“It hasn’t been for nothing.”

A certain girl denies O’s claim, and I glance over toward her.

O turns their cheeky grin on Maria, too. “And just what do you mean by that?”

“Don’t you get it? Kazuki’s mission is to get back his normal life. Naturally, we did what we could to that end. So nothing would have changed. Even if Kazuki had managed to puzzle out that you never intended for the Week in the Mud to finish its work, it wouldn’t have changed his actions.”

“Again, how so?” O asks, thoroughly engrossed.

“That goes without saying,” Maria scoffs. “There’s no reason he would place trust in your whims.”

Ah, I see it now. O is giving me the box purely because it’s the most interesting thing for them, nothing more than a whim.

It would have been impossible for me to hope for that and not act on my own. Despite the chance that all my efforts would be in vain, I know for a fact that I still would have done everything in my power to put an end to this Box.

“I see. However, Kazuki is one thing, but you, I’m afraid, have truly labored to no avail. This Box cannot be used again.”

“You are hilariously simpleminded. Revealing yourself here to us now is a sign that I’ve made at least some progress. It proves that as long as I’m with Kazuki, I will encounter you and your Boxes.”

“Hmm…?” O widens their eyes, almost deliberately. “Are you being serious?”

Maria’s reply sounds disappointed. “I’ve spent the equivalent of a lifetime hunting down Boxes. Why ask that now?”

“That’s not what I meant. Your foolishness doesn’t concern me in the slightest. I’m asking if there is some significance to proving that your proximity to Kazuki will allow you to encounter me.”

Maria’s eyes dilate at that, and her face slowly goes pale.

“So you didn’t notice…or to be more precise, you didn’t consider it deeply enough, I assume?” O smiles again. “Such proof is meaningless. Besides, weren’t you planning on leaving Kazuki anyway?”

Wh-what…?

“C-cut the crap!”

“Heh-heh, that deathly white complexion is all the proof you need to know I’m being truthful. Kazuki, I’ll have you know that she is planning on using her Box on ‘Riko Asami.’”

“Use the Misbegotten Happiness…?”

I’ve touched that Box, so I know. I’ve seen the depths of that sea, so I know. Maria must under no circumstances use her own Box. I may be generally clueless, but even I can tell that using the Box would be an irreversible act.

“If she does, she will lose all memory of you. And without those memories, there is little doubt she will leave your side.”

“Wh-why are you so sure of that?!”

“Simple. That’s what happens every time she uses it,” O says.

I turn toward Maria. Her nervous lip chewing is enough for me to know it’s true.

“Why would you think to use the Misbegotten Happiness…?”

“…I told you before. Asami’s suffering is inevitable, and I can’t just sit back and watch.”

Is she saying she would harm herself just for that…?

But yeah, I get it. She’s always been like that. Maria would throw her own life away to save someone else. That’s the type of person she is.

“I am a Box. I’m not human. I exist only to save others. Right, that’s why I…”

Maria’s ever-stern countenance returns, and she declares in a loud, clear voice:

“I can remain Aya Otonashi.”

Yet, I can’t help but think there’s still a bit of Maria Otonashi in there, too.

“…Never let me out of your sight, either.”

That was the real Maria, wasn’t it? That was how she really feels, unable to bear the solitude.

This is all wrong. There’s no way ignoring her own emotions is the correct choice.

But I can’t just claim she’s wrong. I have no idea what resolve has led her to this point, so I could never deny her that.

“Maria.”

All I can do is say her name, the one only I can call her, and let her know how I feel.

“I don’t want you to do it.”

Maria’s face stiffens a bit.

“I can’t stand the thought of you forgetting about me and leaving!”

“……Kazuki.”

“You’re terrible! You’re the one who asked that I never lose sight of you, and now you’re the one planning to lose sight of me! How could you do something like that?!” I shout.

Maria bites her lip and lowers her gaze. “……But if I don’t, Asami—”

I interrupt her by taking her right hand, and she looks at me with round eyes. “Asami will be fine.”

“…Why?”

“You might not believe it yet, and you might get angry at me and think I’m sugarcoating the situation, but I have faith that she will.”

I squeeze her hand tight.

“There is no despair in our lives that can’t be undone.”

I realize her fingers are much slimmer than I thought. Not just her fingers, either. Maria’s entire profile is incredibly delicate, a perfect counterpoint to her spirit.

“Asami will be fine, even if the Week in the Mud is destroyed. There’s no way in hell that despair is the only fate that awaits her!”

“……And you’re telling me to believe this?” she whispers.

I thought she would reject me.

First off, she’s seeking out Boxes. There’s no reason for her to accept a guy who believes in the ordinary day-to-day, when she actively tracks down the objects that destroy it.

But despite that, I still have faith in normal life.

“She just needs to find hope.”

“…What?”

“There may indeed be despair awaiting Asami in the future, but there will also be hope. I know of one source, at least.”

“What are you talking about…?”

“There’s someone out there who thinks Asami is the most valuable person in the world. Doesn’t that count as a little ray of light?”

I see the slightest hint of acknowledgment begin creeping into Maria’s features.

“…If nothing else happens, you may be right. But Asami will almost certainly be facing a lengthy prison sentence because of her actions.”

“Even so, I’m positive the two of them will be fine as long as they stick together. If they can understand how precious they are to each other, they’ll be okay. Don’t you agree?”

“…”

“Maybe we’re just assuming we know everything there is to know about Asami. There’s still one more hour of ‘Riko Asami’ after this. It won’t be too late if you make your decision after checking with her first… Well, don’t only check with her. Help her find some hope, too. I know it’s there.”

Maria gives my hand a little squeeze.

“And while you’re at it, give her a hand in finding some happiness that isn’t an illusion.” With that, I let go, and Maria looks down at her free hand. “……U-uh, hey, it’s still Golden Week, right?”

Maria frowns and looks up at the sudden question.

“Things didn’t turn out so great, but I was really hoping to enjoy this break. But we do still have one more day off tomorrow, so…” I close my eyes for a moment, summon my courage, and spit it out. “So…let’s go somewhere tomorrow. Um… Hey, I know! How about we get some strawberry tarts? They’re your favorite, right?”

There’s surprise in Maria’s eyes. She stands motionless for a moment, but eventually, the tension leaves her face as if it were never there.

“Heh-heh… What was that all about?”

“Y-you don’t want to go?”

“…This will mean you spent every day of Golden Week with me, you know.”

“Huh? Is there something wrong with that?”

Maria tilts her head to the side and smirks. “If it doesn’t bother you, then I’m fine with it.”

“Really? You promise?”

Promise.

Her expression had only just softened, but it tenses again when she hears that word. Maria closes her eyes for a moment and ruminates on the meaning of the word, then opens them again. Her mouth relaxes again and curves upward in a smile, and she speaks in a firm yet gentle tone.

“I promise. I promise you a future where we can go and eat strawberry tarts tomorrow.”

Yep, I know I have nothing to worry about.

And so I wait for that final possession to take place.