Chap. 1: Prologue - The First Note

​———The sound is out of tune.

​The screeching friction of tires. A high-frequency wave striking the eardrums like dissonance.

Someone's scream. Is the pitch a sharp F#? If they don't support their breath a bit deeper, they'll hurt their throat... I thought.

​What happened to me?

Since when am I lying down, looking up at the sky?

​Someone is screaming at me as I lie here.

A blonde woman and... a child?

​———Ah, right... I shielded the child who was about to be hit by the car just now.

She was saved. Thank goodness...

​Are my hands still there?

They won't move. But they don't hurt, either.

At this rate, I'll never be able to hold a baton again... haha...

​Am I... dying?

...What a troublesome occupational hazard. To be worrying about the voices and sounds others make right at the brink of death.

​...It's cold.

The sounds I was hearing are fading away.

​Instead, a mysterious "voice" began to echo deep within my ears.

​"...To the one who elevates sound to the heavenly realm, and deeply trusts and loves..."

​Whose voice is this?

Neither male nor female, but undeniably a sound speaking directly to me.

​"...The power to reweave the threads of fate is granted."

​............

​———Mito.

Was I of any help to you?

​I became a conductor.

I did quite well for myself in Europe, too.

​But———the truth is, more than anything, I wanted to be your strength.

I wanted to hear that sound from that day... one more time.

​If I had this power... the power of a conductor...

Back then............ could I have............ fulfilled Mito's dream?

​"...Through a heart that pierces through with faith and love, the future shall be opened."

​The rhythm of my heartbeat is gradually falling behind.

From Allegro to Adagio. And then, Fermata (Hold)...

​All sounds vanished.

​Instead———a perfect silence (Generalpause) arrived————————-......

 * * *

​...It's bright.

​Can I... open my eyes?

Where is this...

​When I take a breath, my chest hurts.

But it doesn't smell like blood and iron.

Instead... the smell of miso soup?

​———Am I alive?

...That's impossible.

​I'm lying on my back. The ceiling is close.

No———is this the bottom of the top bunk of a bunk bed?

​Did someone carry me here?

This place is... familiar———huh? My body moves.

I don't really understand.

​Anyway, let's get out of bed... wait...

​"Eh?"

​My body is small?

These pajamas too———are they for elementary schoolers?

My field of vision is low. Did I shrink?

​Looking around... it seems familiar, yet unfamiliar. No———

The desk, the shelves, the Benesse poster... is this the apartment complex I lived in when I was a kid!?

​"Yo? Good morning. What's wrong? Making weird noises."

​"Mom!!?"

​Why is Mom, who should be in Japan, here? Wait, her gray hair is... or rather, she's young!?

​"What's the matter with you? You didn't oversleep, you know? Pull yourself together. Come on, breakfast is ready."

​I don't understand what this means.

​"Oversleep... for what?"

"...Is your head okay? Elementary school, obviously. Today is still Friday. Are you half-asleep?"

​...Ele... mentary school?

An elementary schooler?

​I ran into the washroom and looked in the mirror.

This is———me... as an elementary schooler!?

​"Mom, what grade... am I again?"

​Mom is now staring blankly at me with eyes full of suspicion.

​"...Yes, yes, wash your face. Go get changed properly. Class 4-3, Yo Ishigami-kun."

​4th grade...

4th grade?

​Did I... return to the past?

​Was everything just now a dream?

​———No. I have the memories.

Germany, the competitions, Mito—everything.

​I returned to the bedroom and changed into the clothes laid out for me.

I'm pretty sure... I had clothes like this.

Clothes I used to wear, chosen by Mom.

Then, this is the room I shared with my little brother when I was in elementary school.

​What in the world is going on... I thought, turning my eyes to the futon———

​There is something glowing by my pillow.

​Eh?

———A book?

​It's floating in mid-air, emitting a yellow light.

It's faintly pulsating in the same rhythm as breathing.

​(Eh? Eh...? Wh-What is this? Such a... fantasy-like object!?)

​———Is it calling me?

Calling my name, not with a voice, but with a "sound."

Every time the book exhales light, something rings deep in my chest.

​Timidly, I pick it up.

There's no pain or unpleasant feeling.

It's neither cold nor hot.

Just a sensation———as if the beating of a heart is being transmitted to me.

​I flip open the thick cover.

Letters that look like scorched traces float up to the surface.

​"The Tome of Distorted Fate"

​"A distortion created by defying fate and directly affecting a human lifespan shall return to the user."

​———At this moment, something "resonated."

​"Defying... fate..."

​A shiver runs down my spine.

It's as if this book is speaking to me.

With that voice I heard at the brink of death.

​"Yo! Did you change? Hurry up and eat your breakfast!"

​"Ah... yeah, sorry, I'm coming now."

​I hid the suspicious book under the futon and headed to the living room.

​After returning home from elementary school.

​I took out that book from under the futon once again.

As usual, it was floating and glowing yellow.

​Elementary school was exactly as it used to be. Or rather, it was the past itself.

Former classmates whose names I had even forgotten were all there. The teachers too.

Math, Japanese... I took the classes while recalling, Did we do this? Yeah, we did.

​The only difference is the 48 years of memories inside me.

Even on the way home, while tossing the white school lunch duty bag up and down, I pondered those words.

​"A distortion created by defying fate and directly affecting a human lifespan shall return to the user." ———

​(I can defy fate...?)

​As a test, I asked Mom.

​"Mom... is your rheumatism pain okay?"

​Mom's hands, which were folding laundry, stopped, and her suspicious gaze turned to me again.

​"...Rheumatism? Why do you know a word like that? Have you been watching too much TV? Mom doesn't hurt anywhere, you know? Ah, my shoulders are stiff though, want to massage them for me?"

​"Yeah, sure," I said, stepping close to Mom and massaging her shoulders while thinking.

​(As expected, Mom hasn't developed rheumatism yet. It's something that will happen in the future. That's why she doesn't have gray hair either...)

(If 'I can defy fate', then can I also change things that will happen from now on... change "people's destinies"?)

​"...Hey!?"

​I ran back to my room, throwing open a new notebook on the desk with a bam!

​(Today is April 24, 2018. Mito's... I'm pretty sure that day was............ recall the newspaper article...)

​The tip of my pencil trembled.

In the notebook, I wrote:

​April 12, 2020, 14:31. Hit-and-run accident at Higashi-Okazaki Station intersection. Mito, right femur damage.

​And the future beyond that.

The decisive "destiny of death" that would assail her in December of her first year of high school.

​If I avoid them, what will happen?

I open the glowing yellow book once more, read the sentence, and exhale a breath, Phew.

​"A distortion created by defying fate and directly affecting a human lifespan shall return to the user."

​...In other words, if I snap her destiny of death in half———

​———It means I will die in her place.

​The hand holding the pencil as I stared at the notebook was trembling... not from fear.

It was trembling with joy.

​I stared at my left fist, opening and closing it.

​It's such an incomprehensible situation, but.

This is a miracle.

​Who cares about lifespans.

​Who cares about fate.

​If my single life can allow you to play music for decades to come, there is no cheaper price to pay.

​I'm going to play it all over again.

​By turning my life into a score———the continuation of that day.