九

After I don’t know how many repetitions of this scene, I’m jolted out of my numb daze because something new happens.

As little Keisuke pulls frantically at his sister’s arm, across the tracks, behind all the faceless people on platform 2, a real person emerges. It’s Keisuke, as I remember him currently. His uniform still as pristinely made up as ever, his hair swept to the side like a signature, it’s him.

He squeezes himself through the crowd and trips face-first onto the tracks. Scrambling desperately, he crawls the distance to this side and hauls himself onto the platform just in time. No sooner is he fully out of the train's path than Hori has fallen into it.

Despite climbing up in plain view of the two of them, neither reacted. They’ve got more important things going on I suppose. A weird man climbing onto the tracks wouldn’t stop me from dying if I was intent on it.

The siblings' bodies twist around each other once again and get flung out of view as Keisuke approaches me.