Part 260: Awaken from the Foam

"Get up."

With those words, I wake.

"Due to a certain reason, you must survive."

"Huh... huh...?"

"Get up."

"...Mmm..."

"Open your eyes. There, now."

Someone shakes me roughly,

"——Meow!"

I jerk awake, pulling back the blanket.

At the same time, a sweet scent filled the air.

A familiar smell—my own body's scent.

And I let out a sigh of relief.

Then I'm surely safe. After all, this is the place where I feel most at ease in the entire world.

Inside a cocoon called Oftun.

"Then I'm going back to sleep now♪"

I say it casually, not really speaking to anyone,

"Quickly wake up, 'me'. Otherwise..."

A sharp *thud* rang out, and the family heirloom sword from my grandfather was thrust just a few millimeters in front of my nose.

"Kyaa!"

"——I'll pierce you through, you know."

"What's going on, what's going on!?"

I yelp in surprise and fall off the bed.

Then I stared at the terrifying intruder who had committed such a barbaric act.

Huh...

"Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh...?"

My eyes widen in shock.

Long, messy hair reaching down to her shoulders, dull, unfocused eyes.

A red track suit with the school emblem of Masataka, paired with black undergarments.

The girl standing there was an exact replica of me—my very own doppelgänger.

She was my exact mirror image—my very own doppelgänger.

"Good morning, 'me'."

"Ah... um, 'me'-like person."

Then, finally, the memory clicked into place.

Flying high in the sky thanks to the "migratory bird's feather," overlooking that massive castle.

And directly receiving the technique of the girl, Koi-kuchi Hibana.

"May I ask something?"

"Please go ahead."

"What exactly is going on here?"

She gave a somewhat annoyed expression as she replied,

"It's due to the influence of Hana-ba-san's 'Spatial Magic VIII.' This place feels like... some kind of imagined world, you know, something like that."

"An imagined world..."

Now that she said it, it did feel like I was dreaming.

My bed, the familiar room, even the girl in front of me—everything seemed strangely unreal, as if it weren't quite real.

I gazed at the girl in front of me, who looked exactly like me, floating in a hazy, dreamlike state.

"Could I take a closer look at areas like under the arms, the back, or the back of the head?"

"Or, perhaps, study that creepy feeling you get when someone's jaw rests on your shoulder..."

"That sounds wonderful! Let's do it, let's do it. I've always wanted to try it out if I had another version of myself."

"Unfortunately, I don't have the time for that... so we won't."

"Huh? You don't have time...?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean?"

"Even as we speak, the missile launch time is drawing near."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"…Let's talk about it somewhere else."

"That's fine with me."

It felt strangely natural to speak those lines, even to myself.

There's hardly a place more suitable for a serious conversation than one's own home.

Yet the words of the other "me" carried an inexplicable, dream-like persuasiveness.

I stood up and followed behind her.

Though I felt unsteady, as if my feet weren't touching the ground, I found myself arriving at the schoolyard of Sakagahara High School without remembering having descended any stairs.

Just beside it was my grandfather's house, where I spent my childhood, next to our regular ramen shop. Adjacent to that was a barbershop. Further on, a shopping district I used to walk through with my father, its exact location now hazy. A toy store. A festival stall. Baby castella. Squid skewers. Caramel apples. The house of a friend I was close to for a short time in elementary school.

For some reason, this sensation felt oddly familiar.

Occasionally, I dream of my "ideal town."

A place filled only with joyful memories from my brief life.

In that hazy space, I ask my other self—the one who still offers a coherent response—this question.

"Basic question, okay?"

"Yes."

"Who are you?"

"I am... well, if I were to put it simply, your 'past self'."

"Past self... meaning,"

"Reincarnated one," as Hachibai-san apparently mentioned, meaning "me" as your "teacher," correct?

"That's right. Exactly."

She nodded solemnly.

"Hmm. So you are the one. The famed..."

"Yes. I am the famed one."

"According to rumors, you've accomplished quite a lot."

"Yes. Yet in the end, it was tragic. I achieved nothing, died in vain."

"I see."

I nod in understanding, genuinely impressed. "You really do look good in that red jersey."

"By the way—why am I even talking to you? If you've received Hakuha-san's *Spatial Magic*, shouldn't your memory loss have been cured by now?"

"That's exactly it."

She grimaces, as if swallowing something bitter,

"See, Hakuha-san—she's actually done it."

"Done what?"

"Yes. The *Chrono Magic VIII* does not strictly have the effect of 'curing memory loss.'"

"Wait...?"

I couldn't believe my ears.

"Still, there have been reports that several people with memory loss were cured by her magic."

"Ah... well, let's just say it only *appears* that way from the start."

"What do you mean by...?"

She let out a faint sigh, her expression slightly more somber than mine.

The true nature of that, from the very beginning, is a magic spell designed to gather information from another time and space.