54: The Truth Within Memory

“This place… is something you need right now.”

Guided by Rena’s hand, Tom walked through a space lined with drifting books, casting another glance at her figure.
Her attire, bathed in the soft glow of ancient tomes, shimmered with threads of gold woven into deep indigo fabric.
With every slight movement, the golden strands caught the light, glimmering delicately.
A cascade of blond hair peeked from under her loose hood, deepening her air of mystery—like a sorceress or a guardian of old, born from forgotten legends.

Feeling an instinctive sense of reverence, Tom asked,

“I’m not sure what’s going on, but… this place must be really important, right?”

A mysterious breeze stirred the space.
Rena’s hood slipped off, revealing a subtle change in her appearance.
Only then did he realize—her once long hair, which used to cascade down her back, had quietly become a gentle shoulder-length cut.
What the candlelight had concealed now stood out in the dim glow of the library—highlighting a new side of her.
Her cloak, her gentle short blond hair… something about the whole picture tugged at Tom’s heart.
It was no longer the feeling of looking at a childhood friend. It was something more.

She was still Rena—but not the Rena he knew.
Even so, Tom chose to call her that.

“Rena… back then, in the picture book world—on the swing at Giraffe Park—I was being controlled by another version of me.
And then… No, maybe it doesn’t matter now.”

“…The swing?”

Rena suddenly stopped mid-step, and Tom reflexively bumped into her from behind.
He ended up wrapping his arms around her without meaning to, and let out a yelp.

“Ah! S-sorry!”

“I can see it… the vision of that moment.
Don’t move. Stay right where you are.”

“Eh? But—”

His heart was pounding so loudly it felt like it might burst.
With her back so close, the warmth of her body reached him, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she could hear the thudding in his chest.

“…It’s a memory—the moment your ancient memory awakened.
I see it now. You were fighting against your own past, but in the end… you succumbed to your own power.”

Tom recalled that moment on the swing—when he reunited with Rena in the picture book world.

(…Alright, I get it. But keep it down, would you?—Book…)

The memory had cut off at the point where the other, more arrogant Tom had started chanting something.

But now, Tom began to remember every detail of that “conversation with himself.”
He opened his mouth to explain it to Rena.

“R-right! That version of me did something to me then…
My body stopped moving, but I was still conscious.
I followed after you, dragging my feet, and found you by the big pond.
There was a little girl beside you, and she pulled off my shoes—and I fell over. That’s when—”

Suddenly, an ancient tome floated in front of him, its pages flipping open as if moved by an unseen hand.
While Tom’s eyes were glued to the sight, Rena quietly spoke.

“That child… was also me.
An event you yourself planned and prepared—to make sure you’d encounter her at that time and place.
It wasn’t just about parallel worlds.
That moment was one you forged, after so much effort… a moment that finally bore fruit.”

As her words and the memories pouring from the book connected, tears welled in Tom’s eyes and streamed down his cheeks.
And it was in that instant he finally accepted the truth—
That he, too, was another version of Tom.
Like this black-clad Rena, he existed between the real world and somewhere else.

He still remembered everything from the real world—but now, memories from another version of himself flowed in, as if slipping quietly into his mind.
They weren’t from the past or the future.
They existed beyond the constraints of time.

“I… I kept trying, over and over, to prevent what happened at the pond—when you almost drowned.
I searched through every possibility, trying to find the one reality where you survived.
But there was always one piece missing… one last move I couldn’t find.
Even so, I kept to my priorities.
I faced that moment, prepared… to confront that threat—Dan.”

The tome’s pages began flipping faster, as if manually sifting through a vast archive of memories from another Tom in another dimension.

As Tom searched through the memories, he couldn’t tell anymore—
Was he remembering his high school self? Or an older version of him?
All he could feel was the sorrow… sealed within the pages of the book.

Rena, still held from behind in Tom’s arms, gently turned to face him.
Her eyes locked with his as she spoke:

“I… never wanted a future where only I was saved.
I’ve also been searching—searching for a reality where you could be saved too.
And finally… I’ve made it here.”

Her warm hand touched his tear-streaked face.

“…Rena? Are you really the Rena I know?”

“The world isn’t just one place… But even so, this moment—right now—I want it to be real.
I want to leave something behind that proves it was… okay?”

She gave him a small, tender smile and closed her glistening eyes.

Then, with both hands gently cradling his weary face, she leaned in,
and as if to affirm the only truth between them, kissed him softly.

The ancient book slowly closed.
Its purpose fulfilled, it disappeared into a ripple of mirrored light—
as if quietly rejoicing that their memories had finally been reunited.