Episode 1: Reunion

Nanase’s past. Nanase was born and raised as an ordinary girl. She slowly began to speak of the gears that had started turning at some unknown point.

There are two Earths.

The very first thing you learn after you are born is about this world.

The Earth over there apparently doesn’t know about this. How the world works, anything at all. Not even where you go when you die. But aside from that, it’s exactly the same. The topography, the people who live there. Of course, there are some differences in history.

Nanase had doubts about that, and without ever being able to accept it, she was now in her second year of university.

“Nanase, what are you reading this time?”

It’s break time right now, you know? You really love that stuff, don’t you, came an exasperated voice.

When Nanase lifted her face toward the voice of Ami, her classmate and childhood friend, she saw Ami’s thoroughly exasperated expression, just as expected.

“Again? ‘Differences Between Another Earth and Earth,’ seriously?”

Saying that, Ami snatched up the book Nanase was reading.

“Cut it out, it’s just getting good.”

Pouting, Nanase took the book back from Ami and carefully put it away in her bag. There was no helping it; with Ami around, it didn’t look like she’d be able to keep reading it.

Ami had excellent grades, and her reports were always top-class. She had always been “the capable kid” since she was little. She herself didn’t care about it at all, paying it no mind and spending all her time playing.

“You know, at this rate you’re never going to get a boyfriend.”

“That’s fine, I don’t care.”

“Don’t say such a wasteful thing when you’ve got such a cute face. For philosophy books and all those ‘beginning of the world’ texts, your textbooks and reference materials are more than enough. You’re already taking Earth History, Earth World History, and Earth Japanese History, right?”

There are tons of reference materials, you know, she added.

“But isn’t it a mystery why that other Earth doesn’t know anything and yet doesn’t worry about anything?”

“Are you stupid or what?”

After flatly declaring that, Ami smiled brightly and went on.

“Another Earth and Earth are different things, you know? If they were the same, there’d be no point, and each world has its own problems.”

Of course they’re worrying about stuff too, obviously, she said, pressing her hands together in front of her face.

“Please. Come to the mixer today, we’re really short one person.”

Nanase let out a sigh, thinking, I knew it.

And she felt a slight irritation toward herself for not knowing why Earth weighed on her mind so much. She couldn’t take it as straightforwardly as Ami did.

Even though she turned it down, she couldn’t quite refuse when Ami insisted, and Nanase ended up going out to the mixer with her.

Nanase grumbled that she’d gone all the way to university because she cared more about Earth than about guys, but Ami talked her down.

“What is it that bothers you that much, anyway?”

Ami said, looking like she really didn’t get it.

“I mean, Earth and this Another Earth are what you’d call parallel worlds, right? Even if you know in theory how something like that came to be, it’s still hard to accept, isn’t it?”

“…True, it’s not like I don’t understand what you’re trying to say, Nanase.”

“But saying Earth doesn’t know and we do, and that that’s the only reason we’re almost the same, is weird too, isn’t it? It’s not an issue you can sum up with ‘that’s all,’ right?”

The difference between Another Earth and Earth lay in whether or not people knew that humans were originally a collective of consciousness, that long ago, in the distant past, because of the Big Bang that consciousness was scattered, and that while repeatedly undergoing reincarnation, it would in the end return once more to being a collective of consciousness.

How do you return to the collective? It lies in getting rid of karma, the so-called “burdens” of one’s deeds, and by thus becoming a purified soul, you can return to the original world.

The inhabitants of Another Earth knew that. When they were scattered by the Big Bang, they did not forget that knowledge. But the humans of Earth forgot it completely and had to start from realizing that truth.

“In short, knowing that and actually being able to do it are two different things, right? And besides, don’t you think it would be painful to remember all your past lives, all the memories of this soul that began with the Big Bang?”

After saying that, Ami sighed and went on.

“It’s true, there is one thing that bothers me… Do you know what my previous life was? Did I ever tell you?”

Nanase silently nodded.

Ami’s previous life had been that of a young lady, the daughter of a noble family. She had heard from Ami’s own lips that when the peerage system was dismantled and the family fell into ruin, they had planned a family suicide.

“Knowing that doesn’t do me any good, so I don’t get why Earthlings are so hung up on their past lives.”

You’re right, Nanase nodded. And thinking Ami would just get gloomy if they went on like this, she decided she wouldn’t talk about these things in front of Ami anymore.

In Nanase’s previous life, her father had been a self-made man, so her mother had probably had some hardships, but Nanase herself was given whatever she wanted, lived a comfortable life, married the person she loved, had children, and died of a contagious disease shortly before getting to see her grandchildren.

Because she knew she would be reborn, death itself was not frightening. What was frightening was something else.

If you take your own life, that consciousness will definitely remain. For people here, who can’t forget even the sensation of dying, “being unable to forget” is an unbearably cruel punishment.

Ami must have that burden as well; while keeping a cool expression and radiating cheerfulness, she was obsessed with erasing the karma from her previous life.

“Come on, you’re going to the mixer, right? Don’t make that face. Where’s the usual energetic Ami?”

“You’re the one who brought it up in the first place, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry, okay?”

Trading their usual snappy remarks, Nanase and Ami disappeared into the night streets.

No matter how she looked at it, she’d been tricked; I never should have let Ami talk me into this, Nanase thought, lighting a cigarette as soon as she sat down.

She hardly ever smoked anymore, and the resigned, bitter look on her face showed it. Any friend who knew her even a little would understand; Nanase was easy to read to begin with.

Nanase sat there openly annoyed, not even bothering to hide her irritation or worry about people watching.

Yuri and Sayaka, who had come along with her, spoke to her in exasperation.

“Nanase? What? Did Ami drag you out again?”

“I mean, yeah, we can tell from that face because it’s always the same, but it’s still a mixer, so at least try to smile, okay? You’re in an even worse mood than usual, and you’re ruining that pretty face of yours.”

Nanase gave a wry smile, then said, “I’m going home,” and stood up.

“H-hey, Ami? Nanase says she’s going home.”

“Come on now, Nanase?”

Shaking the two of them off and standing up, she found him there.

The person Nanase least wanted to see.

“Nanase, are you going home because I’m here?”

“That’s right,” Nanase said, and he apologized and forced her back into her seat.

“Nanase, I’m sorry. I asked Ami. I told her I wanted to see you.”

When she finally raised her face, she saw Ryu’s, smiling at her.

“All right then, anyway, here’s to Ryu and Nanase’s reunion—cheers!”

With Ami leading the toast, the drinking party began.

Once things had gotten to this point, she couldn’t just go home, nor could she talk to any of the other guys.

Ami really got me this time, Nanase sighed again.

“Nanase, did you really not want to see me that badly?”

Beside her, Ryu drank his beer with the same obvious enjoyment as always.

His face, his voice—nothing about him had changed.

That was what hurt Nanase.

“I didn’t want to see you. I never wanted to see your face again. If I say that, will you let me go home?”

She said that to Ryu with as calm a face as she could manage, her eyes cold and empty, showing nothing.

“I see… You really didn’t want to see me that much.”

Ryu looked like he was about to cry.

They had been together for a long time, so Nanase could tell.

And Nanase was weak against that expression of his.

“You don’t want to see me anymore? Is that really okay with you?”

He had said the same thing, with the same face, when Nanase had brought up breaking up.

Unable even to nod, she had run away from that place, and a year had passed since then.

Nanase knew that the reason she didn’t feel the slightest nostalgia was because she had been unable to forget.

“I apologize for running away without saying anything back then, for changing my phone number just like that, for telling Ami not to say anything, for trying to act like I’d never existed. But still, did you really have to do it this way?”

“Then if I’d just gone to see you normally, would you have agreed to see me?”

The answer was no. Because they both knew that, they fell silent.

Nanase loved Ryu—so much that she could no longer suppress that feeling. One day she realized that without Ryu she couldn’t do anything. She hated that, it was painful, and while she was searching for something, she became interested in Earth. And then she broke up with Ryu as if she were running away.

Even now, she hadn’t forgotten Ryu. She remembered that day they broke up as if it were yesterday.

But she knew that if she started being with Ryu again now, things would only end up the same way.

“I decided that if I got to see you again, I’d say this. I want to go out with you again. I want you by my side, Nanase. I knew you’d turn me down, so it took me a whole year to work up the courage. Even if I’m just a memory to you now, I still love you, and I wanted to cherish that feeling of mine, so I decided I’d say it.”

That was as far as Nanase remembered.

The last things she heard were Ami and the others screaming, and felt were Ryu’s warm arms catching her.

Nanase collapsed, and just like that, she lost consciousness.