32: A Memory That Couldn’t Be Let Go

“I disappeared…?” Rena murmured in a daze.

The mirage she had been seeing faded like heat haze, and her focus returned to the strange Tom standing before her.

“But it’s okay. Because now… I’ve found you.”

The fake Tom showed a fleeting look of relief, glancing briefly at the white sneakers lying on the ground.

“As long as you’re somewhere within reach…
Even if you slip away, I can always find my way back to you.
You’ll always return to me.”

His words were disjointed, but somehow, Rena sensed a deep sorrow within them.
It was something she recognized—not from logic, but from the glimpses of sadness she had sometimes seen in Tom’s real eyes.

Slowly, Rena spoke, as if trying to guide a lost child back to the right path.

“I don’t think you’re lying.
Somehow, I can feel that.
But… I don’t think I’m the one you’re really looking for.
Maybe it’s some other version of me—somewhere, in another world.”

“I know that too, Rena,” he said quietly.

“It’s because of the memories… memories I can’t forget.
They’re all I have left to hold onto.
Even if we’re separated by time—even if I’ve grown older—I’m still me.
And you’re still you.”

“But that’s just from your side, isn’t it?” Rena countered gently.

“From where I’m standing, you look like the Tom I know, sure—
but you don’t sound like him, and you don’t act like him.
And still, you’re asking me to believe you’re the same.
Is that really fair?
Or do you have something… something strong enough to make me believe in you again?”

To her own surprise, the conversation remained strangely coherent.
And that very fact made Rena realize—this was Tom.

No matter how distorted this world was, the heart behind these words was unmistakably his.
The note left behind by the man with the fishing rod floated through her mind again:

“Don’t doubt—just believe.”

Maybe that was what she needed to do now.

“…You’re probably right, Rena,”

he said, his voice trembling slightly.

“Rena...
The way you’re speaking now… It’s so familiar…
It’s almost enough to make me cry.
I couldn’t even keep my priorities straight anymore…”

Suddenly, there was a splash.
Rena turned around in shock.
The little girl she had been holding hands with was gone.
Floating alone on the surface of the pond was the white plush toy the girl had been clutching.

“What!? She’s gone!?
No way…!!” Rena cried out in panic.

“Gghhh…!! Guh—bluh—gugh—!”

A strange gurgling noise came from Tom.
He suddenly staggered, raising his arms toward the sky as if trying to grasp something invisible.

Then—he choked violently, and a massive amount of water gushed from his mouth.

“Tom?! What’s happening to you!?”

Without thinking, Rena rushed toward him.

He looked as if he were drowning—
not in the pond,
no, on the dry ground, impossibly, and yet he was unmistakably “drowning.”