Mai and Sakuta are leaving the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine, headed for Shichirigahama beach. [https://64.media.tumblr.com/f44e148f2963bfdd1adcd16a97060d98/361f534fe7a795aa-9a/s400x600/cdefaefed1909963355b1b079f6b5622cefff6e1.png]

January 6.

Sakuta Azusagawa and Mai Sakurajima are leaving Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine, the most important Shinto shrine in the city of Kamakura. Sakuta was initially upset that Mai dropped an entire 1,000 Yen bill into the donation box after the former informed her that he donated his loose change at the Fujisawa Station earlier in the day, but eventually grins as they walk down the shrine's stone stairs, accepting that it's for the best and that the gods will fulfill his wish.

“Were you able to make a wish worth the 1,000 Yen?” Mai asked Sakuta.

“I wished to not encounter many more incidents in the upcoming year.”

“Strange incidents, huh?” Mai turned her gaze at him, “You were able to meet me because of one, though.”

“I've had my fill of wild bunny girls.”

Sakuta and Mai exchange chuckles before passing through the shrine's Torii gate and leaving its premises, both of them heading to Kamakura station by foot.

3:45 PM. Shoko Makinohara's parents thanked Sakuta and Mai for accompanying them and their daughter Shoko as they walk across Shichirigahama beach. The family climb up the concrete stairs connecting the beach and the town itself and head home. Midway through climbing the stairs, Shoko turns around and happily waves her arm goodbye at Sakuta.

“Sakuta-san, let's meet again someday!”

“Don't forget to send us mail every once in a while, alright?”

“Mm!” Shoko nods, before turning back to follow her parents.

After Shoko and her parents disappear from view, Mai looks at her boyfriend with an idea in her mind.

“Hey Sakuta.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to eat somewhere tonight?”

This was so sudden. Normally, Mai would make something like this a reward for Sakuta's hard work or deed, such as having passing scores on his exams.

“I thought you have an appointment today or something?”

“My manager told me it had to be postponed because of last-minute change of plans. Besides, I just remembered everything both of us went through during Shoko's heart condition dillemma. We both deserve a time out.”

Now that Sakuta thought about it, the entire drama involving Shoko was stressful for them both. A surprise dinner date for him feels like the perfect way to ease the heavy emotional aftermath of reuniting with Shoko.

“Are you sure? People might take picture of us and we'll be on the news.”

“Don't worry, I know a quiet, secluded place where we can both eat.”

4:30 PM. It was a long trip crossing at least six different stations, but the two managed to drop off at Fujisawa Station. From there, it was a ten minute downtown walk to their destination. Mai led Sakuta to a small French restaurant within Kugenuma-Hanazawacho called La Canard et Buvette. The restaurant sits next to a liquor shop, both of them embedded at the first floor of a modest 5 storey building.

“Eating like we're abroad today?” Sakuta asked Mai.

“You're not used to eating at a Western restaurant, even though you work in one?”

“Benny's serves American dishes, so I'm not familiar with authentic French meals yet.”

Mai nods her head. “I understand.”

The two enter the restaurant. It has a fairly humble-looking interior, with western-styled wooden chairs and tables. A bookcase in the corner containing books for customers to read while they wait for their orders, conveniently placed between the window and the tables within.

Sakuta and Mai seat on a table, facing each other, located next to the bookcase blocking the window to stop unwanted bystanders from taking photos. Mai's a national celebrity; even though she publicly requested on national television that people not take stolen shots of her and her boyfriend, some dissidents might still refuse to fulfill her request. There were only two other customers, both of them men wearing tuxedos with their table covered mostly in paperwork, having only ordered mugs of coffee. The two men look busy.

“Mai, those two executive-looking guys look busy,” Sakuta whispered

Mai glances at the two men in the corner before turning back at Sakuta. “Reminds me of work.”

“There's not that many customers in this restaurant lately.”

“This place rarely gets busy because of the high price.”

Sakuta looks at the menu and confirms that the menu item prices are unusually expensive; 2,500 Yen for Duck Confit. 1,750 Yen for Beef Bourguignon, and 950 Yen for Chicken Marengo. Not including a 15% Otoshi fee, of course, which comes with a simple appetizer, one for each customer. The cheapest item here isn't even French; it's bannock, costing only 200 Yen, which is described in the menu as simply clumps of shallow-fried batter of flour and water, considered as a quickbread. Not long after, a waiter approaches their table with a small notebook on his hand. Mai immediately orders first.

“I'll have the French Six-Onion Soup, please”.

“Uh... I'll have what she's having,” Sakuta says to the waiter, knowing almost nothing about the menu items.

Mai seemed to have prepared everything as she ordered at the very second the waiter approached them. The waiter writes down the order before leaving. A moment later, he comes back with a small plate containing two pieces of what appears to be tomato-basil bruschetta, intended to be served to both of them. Sakuta takes a bite, and the powerful flavor of three or four simple ingredients widens his eyes.

“This is the most delicious thing I ever ate in my entire life...” Sakuta's eyes began to water as if he discovered light for the first time in years even though he only ate an appetizer, “Everything else I ate at this moment on will be cheap compared to what this restaurant has to offer.”

Mai's mouth pursed as she glared at him. Sakuta notices this, thinking that he just said that Mai's cooking is bad if not terrible, as compared to an authentic fancy French restaurant downtown. He immediately tries to smooth-talks his way out of this.

“... But I know Mai-san's cooking will always be better because she makes it with love.”

“Everyone here in Japan makes their food with love,” Mai commented, still frustrated, “besides, I can make this bruschetta too, you know.”

“You could give even more love with your cooking if you were making bruschetta wearing nothing but an apron.”

“Sheesh, this apron thing again?”

“I'll be waiting for that moment.”

“I'll be waiting for you to destroy the toilet.”

“Eh? How come?”

“I'm doubling the amount of laxatives I'll slip into your food.”

Twenty minutes pass and their onion soups finally arrive at the table. Two steaming hot bowls of creamy yellow soup, sprinkled with green onions and topped with croutons. Mai and Sakuta take a sip of the onions, and true to its name, a powerful array of flavors from different kinds of onions pierced through their taste buds.

“Hey, Mai-san.”

“Delicious, isn't it?”

“This soup looks a little modest for what people usually eat in a Michelin-star restaurant.”

“If you want, you can always order more.”

“I'm not really a big eater, so this is fine,” Sakuta feels embarassed having his girlfriend pay for all of this, so he seems satisfied with what he ordered.

5:30 PM. Mai and Sakuta's tables are filled with several empty plates. Sakuta felt too curious about how the rest of the dishes tasted like and the two of them ended up ordering half of the menu items in the restaurant. The two are left with their drinks. Mai finishes taking a sip and places her glass on the table.

“How's your sister Kaede?”

Sakuta's eyes turn at Mai, her right elbow resting on the table and her chin resting on her palm, following up her question.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Is she finally going to school?”

“She went as far as the gate. I'm not sure if she's ready to go to school yet.”

“It must be tragic.”

“Ah?”, Sakuta raises an eyebrow.

“The Kaede you knew for 2 years. The Kaede that's been holding onto you like a koala since the adolescence syndrome made her lose her memories.”

Images of Kaede crawling on Sakuta's bed wearing her panda suit pajamas fills his mind. He doesn't like it, but he doesn't dislike it either. All of it now forever remains as nostalgia, and Sakuta had already long accepted this Kaede's “death”.

“Shoko was there to comfort me. I was in the bathtub listening to her reading Kaede's diary entries and how hard she tried to stay as Kaede. She wrote a list of goals that she wanted to achieve, and we managed to complete all of them in just one day, before she woke up as her original self with no memory of who she was during those two years. I guess I'll never see that Kaede ever again.”

He finishes drinking his glass of water and drops the cup on the desk. “But it's okay, life goes on as it should. At least I got my real sister back.”

Mai sighed, before beaming a smile of relief. “I'm glad you were able to bear it.”

The waiter comes back with a long receipt, which Mai promptly paid in cash. Suddenly, something entered her mind.

“Sakuta.”

“I know, we ordered too much.”

“No, not that. Does Kaede have something to eat at home tonight?”

Sakuta's mind goes blank. Knowing that he had no way to contact his sister, only one word managed to slip out of his mouth.

“Ah, shit.”

...

8:00 PM. Sakuta arrives exhausted at the Azusagawa Residence after a long and exhausting trip home. As night fell, rush hour in the Fujisawa station rose, leading to long lines. He bought takeout food from a nearby restaurant along the way, thinking that Kaede might be hungry as he got home. Sakuta opens the apartment door and speaks the usual “I'm Home” line.

“Good evening, big brother,” Kaede responded with a monotone voice that echoed from the living room.

As Sakuta walks in, he saw Kaede reading a math textbook. Kaede still hasn't went to school, but she's studying hard. It looks like the girl doesn't want to be the only one who lagged behind the other students once she finally goes to school once again.

“I brought some takeout with me. I thought you might be hungry.”

“Yeah, Mai-san called me a few hours ago. Just place it on the corner, I'm busy.”

Sakuta's glad that Mai had thought of calling his sister while he rushed to the nearest restaurant. Kaede seems to be too focused at her studies. Sakuta places the takeout order at the corner of the table. He notices the pile of textbooks under the table, with a history textbook on top of it.

“Trigonometry already? You shouldn't be pushing yourself this hard”, Sakuta sat in front of Kaede across the kitchen table. Kaede turns her gaze at Sakuta.

“Big brother, don't underestimate me. I might be smarter than you think.”

“Keyword, might.”

“Jeez!”

9:00 PM. Sakuta and Kaede are casually sitting next to each other on the sofa, watching TV. Kaede just finished eating dinner, as the rice box is left in the trash, licked clean. There's very few interesting TV shows to watch lately. Kaede has control of the remote, so all that Sakuta could do is watch his sister switch channels.

A kids' show briefly showing a group of five brighly colored bipedal bears and a small red creature entering a giant blue bus, the pink one seemingly leading them in. A cooking show featuring an angry British chef with blonde hair slapping an undercooked plate of salmon with his palms under such force that it exploded into pieces, cutting off right as Kaede immediately switched to another channel. The timing of the abrupt cut caught Sakuta off-guard, which made him burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“What's so funny, big brother?”

Sakuta wiped a tear off his right eye as his laughter slowly faded, “I don't know Kaede, maybe it's the timing of you switching the channel? It was so sudden...”

“You seem to be in a very good mood today. Did something happen?”

“Mai invited me to dinner, which was why I arrived home late.”

Kaede looked slightly frustrated. Having heard from Mai, she knew that Sakuta would arrive home late, but not this late. Sakuta apologized.

“I'm sorry I returned home late.”

“Why would you let your little sister starve to death? I had to eat the shredded cheese at the back of the fridge.”

“I said I'm sorry. I should've told you in advance that me and Mai were going to eat.”

Kaede turns her head right, facing Sakuta with a moderately angry look. “You know you two could've invited me to your dinner date. Actually, you should've called me from the start!”

“I thought you were still scared of phones.”

“I...”

Kaede paused for a moment, feeling tense. Still remembering the cyberbullying and the physical wounds she got from it.

“Yeah, I still am...”

Kaede may have been freed from the adolescence syndrome, but she was still traumatized from the online bullying that triggered it.

He also remembered everything that the older Shoko said, about her constantly becoming kinder and kinder as days passed, and his promise of becoming as kind as her. Although the older Shoko he met is now just a memory, Sakuta personally promised to preserve her act of kindness to the bitter end.

Sakuta places his hand on top of Kaede's head and gently rubs it for a few seconds. She's a bit annoyed that her brother still treats her like a kid, even though she's already grown up.

“I'm already 15, jeez.”

The two of them turn back to watching the TV, which is showing a replay of a military re-enactment in the Czech Republic back in December 1st. An unusual type of warfare was being demonstrated, showing groups of soldiers close together forming long rectangles and carrying different ornately designed flags. The marching was accompanied by a group of drummers and wind instruments, the beating of the drums making the soldiers march in rhythm of the tune they're playing. The flutes were clearly off-pitch and the drums not completely in sync with one another.

Soldiers in green uniforms arrive in tighly packed formations, accompanied by soldiers wearing white. A man wielding a sword in one hand shouted a command and pointed his sword forward at the direction the soldiers in green were facing. They all marched at once towards the position of a line of soldiers wearing blue jackets and white pants. A group of large cannons cannons arrive at the field from the blue army's side, being pulled by men with ropes.

The first cannon fired, while the second one advanced forward. As the former was being reloaded by a group of men, the second stopped and fired. A third cannon advanced next, the cycle continuing until the sixth and last cannon fired, forming an echelon. Eventually, the soldiers in blue aimed their guns at the approaching green army, and fired their guns at the latter all at once. Suddenly, all of them charged at the green soldiers and managed to drive them back to their starting position, while the cannons continued firing at the direction of the soldiers in green.

Sakuta turned his eyes on his left to check on his sister, who looks half-asleep bent down with her elbows resting on her thighs, and her hands on her cheeks.

“... Why are we even watching this?” Kaede complained, raising her back towards the sofa's backrest.

“You tell me, you're the one holding the remote.”

“Ugh. What time is it?”

Sakuta looks at the wall clock, “It's 9:27 PM”.

The credit roll ends the show, which is soon followed by advertisements. Before the first ad had the chance to play the first 5 seconds and show their product, Kaede immediately turns off the TV through the remote.

“I'm going to bed. Goodnight.”

Kaede goes to her bedroom and closes the door. Sakuta is once again standing alone in the apartment living room. Feeling bored, he calls Mai using their home phone.

“Good evening, Sakuta,” Mai's voice gave Sakuta a great level of comfort.

“Hey, Mai.”

“I thought our time talking to each other at the restaurant was enough. Something happened with Kaede?”

“She's a little upset that I went home late.”

“I told her you were coming home with food. Did she eat tonight?”

“She literally drank all of the rice out of the box. Didn't bother to use chopsticks.”

That wasn't completely accurate, but Kaede did finish the whole rice box in only a minute, a new record. Although she might have actually nibbled on the shredded cheese in the fridge while she waited for her brother to return. Sakuta's unable to come up with any plans for tomorrow aside from helping Kaede go to school, so he starts asking about Mai's celebrity life.

“So how's showbiz?”

“The manager told me we'll have a meeting with an international firm tomorrow morning at five.”

“Five in the morning?”

“Yes. I'll need to go to sleep early,” Mai pauses for a moment, on Sakuta's end this probably means that she's checking the time, “actually I need to go to sleep now. Talk to you tomorrow, goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Mai-san.”

Sakuta waited for Mai to hang up. But instead of going straight to bed, he feels like he still wants to check on everyone else. It was just too early for him to go to bed, perhaps he could waste his time by socializing for once. He decided to try contacting his best friend Rio Futaba and have a chat with her.

“The number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please try your call later-”

Sakuta drops the phone and groaned, concluding that Rio's most likely busy studying another theory regarding qunatum physics at the moment. He then dials to his kouhai Koga, perhaps she could help speed up Sakuta's perception of time until it hits 10 in the evening.

“Tomoe residence. Who this?”

“You know who this is.”

“Ah, senpai!” Sakuta's dead, monotone voice made it easy for Koga to identify him. “We don't get to talk to each other often since that Laplace time loop syndrome, however you wanna call it. Oh, and work. Are you here to talk about something?”

“I just called because I want to accelerate time before going to sleep. Go ahead and talk about anything.”

Koga's chatting slows down time on Sakuta's perspective. [https://64.media.tumblr.com/aaee89e2dcec299cf3633bf09735ee24/361f534fe7a795aa-1b/s400x600/d050ac5744ad2a94141185019cb85a0e43d5415b.png]

This was a mistake. Sakuta had to endure 25 minutes of Koga talking about random gossip, meme videos, her quiz results, cat videos, foods she ate, meeting someone wearing the same blouse she was, among others. All of the stories she's mentioned simply entered Sakuta's left ear and exited out of his right. The chat with her overall somehow slowed down time instead, as Sakuta focused his eyes on the clock, impatiently waiting for it to tick to 10 PM.

Midway during the call, he's already considered Koga as the Molly Collins of Fukuoka, but he's still thankful that they both kicked each other's asses many months ago. Otherwise his future would have turned a radically different turn during the Shoko dillemma.

Koga eventually yawned and felt like falling asleep. All the verbal chatting she did with Sakuta eventually tired her down.

“And that's... That's the...” Koga's clearly about to fall asleep, “Wait, I remember that time we were at the beach, where we helped find this girl's....”

Sakuta waited for any continuation from Koga for a few seconds, “... This girl's what?”

Sakuta heard loud snoring through the phone. Deciding that this should be enough, he hangs up. Sakuta walks towards his bedroom and falls asleep on his bed almost immediately.

...

November 30.

5 AM. A faint, female voice is calling him.

“...ig brother, wake up! Big brother, it's morning! Wake up!”

Sakuta body feels exhausted. He wants to go straight back to sleep and rest his eyes for a little longer.

“A few more minutes...”

“Jeez, if you're not getting up, I'll play this bugle close to your head.“

Sakuta still refused to get up. The girl fulfilled her warning.

“Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you.”

A loud reveille played next to Sakuta's right ear, which startled him. On immediate reflex, he immediately got up and swiped the bugle off of Kaede's hands.

“Kaede! Where on earth did you get this?” Sakuta raised his voice in annoyance, “And why do I...”

Sakuta places his head on his forehead, sensing a migraine and the irresistible urge to shower.

“... Why do I feel and smell like I haven't taken a bath in weeks?”

His sleep-deprived mind began processing the environment he's in. The clothes he's wearing. The clothes Kaede is wearing. The bed he's sleeping. The other people around him sleeping in the same room he's in. The smell of his body and the place around him.

Sakuta discovers that he's sleeping in a large, white tent. He's wearing thick, dark blue pants and a white blouse. Kaede's wearing a dark blue coat and pants, both of their uniforms look and feel like they're made of hemp linen. The bed he used was his own dark blue coat. To his surprise, Mai, Shoko and Koga are all in the same tent as he is, fast sleeping and wearing the same clothes as the two Azusagawa siblings. But the bugle somehow failed to wake the rest of the girls up.

Eventually, Sakuta wonders if this is a dream, but all the senses he's feeling are real. There are no discrepancies or unusual phenomena while he looks around. This is all real.

He's not in Fujisawa anymore.

“Um, Kaede?” Sakuta asked her calmly.

“Yes, big brother?”

“Where...”

Kaede notices her brother's expression of fear and disbelief grow as he tries to ask.

“... W-Where the bloody hell are we?!”