47: A Sad Memory

“So, about what we were talking about earlier… you’re Tom, right?”

Rena asked as the soft glow from the corridor of mirrors lit her back.

“Yes, my name’s Tom. What’s yours, big sis?”

Tom showed no particular surprise when she said his name.
Behind him, the same endless darkness stretched out as it had when they first arrived.

Yet, somehow, his body gave off a gentle light, illuminating the shadows around them.

“I’m Rena. Rena Tenor.
And you’re Tom Hawthorne, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I think that’s right.
Huh, so your name’s Rena too.”

“Huh?”

“There was a girl named Rena I used to know—a childhood friend.
But… she drowned in the pond.”

Rena’s breath caught as she recalled a strange, dreamlike memory—of herself sobbing at the edge of a pond, right before she had encountered Dan.

—It was the golden light that saved Rena that day—

Thinking back to the words the boy had suddenly spoken that day, it seemed that in that version of events, she had been the one who was saved.

A “setting”… Rena remembered Dan’s words and suddenly felt a creeping unease.
Something enormous was connecting her and this boy.
Something beyond coincidence.

“Wait—hold on! That girl… she was saved, right?
A golden light appeared from the pond and—”

Rena couldn’t hold back her feelings any longer.
Rena’s voice broke through, unfiltered.

“The golden light, yeah, that’s true.
But it was me who got saved.
Were you really there, big sis?”

Little Tom looked up at Rena with a surprised expression and went on.

“Rena dropped her stuffed animal into the water, and I tried to get it for her.
But I slipped and fell in.
Then she tried to save me, and… she fell in too.”

Because I dropped the stuffed animal, Tom tried to pick it up—

Rena thought she suddenly heard the voice of the girl in the one-piece dress from that day.

Dropped it into the pond, tried to retrieve it, and both fell in—that much aligned.
But what happened after… didn’t match.

“So… Tom was saved, and the girl… she drowned…”

Rena whispered, clearly confused.

If parallel worlds truly existed, it would all make sense.
In Rena’s world, she had been the one who survived.
But in this child-Tom’s world, he had been the one saved.
Both worlds existed. Both timelines moved forward.
And the force that triggered this strange divergence, Rena realized, must have been the light from the golden axe.

“Wait, big sis… are you the Rena who drowned?”

Tom, suddenly taken aback, peered into Rena’s face.

“Are you… the Tom who drowned?”

They both froze, their voices overlapping—each struck by the same chilling realization.