Reina Nakajima is seeking confirmation.
The morning sun shines on the south wall of the Chigusa University Hospital's convalescent building. The wall, which appears misty white in the dark night, glows a gentle orange under the morning light.
Reina Nakajima was sitting on the hospital bed, and sitting next to the bed was her father, Youhei Nakajima.
"What's wrong? Do you miss your dad?" Nakajima Yohei smiled, but his inner doubts were not revealed on his face.
Early in the morning, his daughter suddenly sent him a message asking him to come over. When he woke up from his sleep, more than an hour had passed since the message was sent. He hurriedly asked for leave from school and came to the hospital.
Normally, his daughter would smile politely in response to his not-so-clever jokes, but today she didn't smile, which made him feel uneasy.
"The girl that Dad talked about these days, who suddenly became very close to Minami Yuki, is her name Ibuki Yuko?" Nakajima Rena looked at her father. She was verifying the information in her dream.
Nakajima Yohei was surprised at first, and then wondered how his daughter knew Ibuki Yuko's name. He had been referring to Ibuki Yuko as "a second-year girl" these past two days, and never mentioned her name. His daughter had no friends, so it was impossible for her to have heard about it from others.
He looked into his daughter's eyes, hoping to find clues to her emotions. Those eyes were quiet, like a deep pool; all the turbulent waves were hidden beneath the calm surface.
"Yes," he replied, "you know her?"
Nakajima Reina didn't answer, so she asked again: "Is Ibuki Yuko's mother called Ibuki Honoka?"
"I'm not sure. I'll go back and check it on the school computer." Nakajima Yohei felt even more uneasy.
Nakajima Reina opened her mouth and prepared to continue asking for names. She saw many people in her dream that she didn't know now but would know in the future. She stopped talking because her father didn't know these people.
She changes some information in other areas.
"Isn't there a park next to the hospital? There's only a swing in the park, and there's also a 24-hour convenience store nearby."
"Yes, there is a park. When you were little, I wanted to take you there. I'm not sure if there is a convenience store there. I haven't passed by there for a long time."
"Dad, have you ever been to Xiaodou Mountain?"
"Azukiyama? Is it the one next to it? I've been there a long time ago."
"Is there a pavilion up there? There's an iron fence at the edge of the cliff."
"There is a pavilion, but I don't remember the iron fence. It might have been installed in recent years."
"Hydrangeas have no fragrance?"
"Yes."
"The beautiful lake in Yoshida Town that Dad mentioned before is called Sora no Ike?"
"So it's called the Sky Pond? Now that you mention it, I remember it. It's called that. I didn't expect you still remember it."
His daughter, who usually didn't ask him anything, asked so many strange questions today. Nakajima Yohei's heart was in turmoil. He suppressed his anxiety and tried his best to answer his daughter's questions in a normal tone, like a ship trying to keep it stable during a storm.
Reina Nakajima didn't ask any more questions, she already had the answer in her heart.
The movie in her dream was her future. The boy who broke into the ward, the garden, the park, Adokoyama, and Yoshida-cho were all real things.
According to the future in the dream, the boy will come to her in a few days.
She was enveloped by a long-lasting joy and anticipation. She thought of the people floating on the summer sea and sunbathing on TV. Now, she was lying on the sea water of expectation, enjoying the light called joy sprinkled by the golden wheel of happiness.
The sea breeze in her heart is sunny and peaceful, but this peace is just a projection of the future into the present, an illusion.
A slight breeze blew into the virtual image and quickly turned into a storm, sweeping up the white clouds, stirring up the sea surface, sucking the sea water into the air, and turning it into cold, heavy rain that fell down.
Will the boy really come to her
There were ripples in Nakajima Reina's quiet eyes as she thought of the question her husband asked her through the VR glasses.
"If everything goes back and your memory is still there, back to the time when I hadn't gone to the hospital, but in that world line, I might not necessarily choose you, would you think that the memory of the future with me is a good thing?"
Everything flows backwards.
Reina Nakajima looked at the familiar hospital bed beneath her and at her father who had not yet aged.
She thought back to the scenes from her dream movie.
The husband's first two sentences seem to be a summary of the current situation, a prophecy.
Since the first two sentences are prophecies, could the following ones also be prophecies
I won't necessarily choose you.
She covered her chest, feeling pain in her fragile heart. The bright sunlight outside the window was particularly dazzling.
"Reina?" Nakajima Youhei called her.
She turned her head and looked at her anxious father.
"What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?" Nakajima Yohei looked towards the door of the ward.
He leaned forward, and as soon as his daughter nodded, he would rush out of the ward and call the doctor.
"It's okay." Reina Nakajima put down her hand and shook her head.
The pain in the heart only lasted for a moment and soon subsided, but the storm in the heart could not be eliminated for a long time.
Her brief answer could not reassure Nakajima Yohei, so the man carefully asked his daughter: "Did you dream about something? Or do you want something? Whatever it is, I will get it for you."
"I want Yuuki." Nakajima Reina murmured.
"ah?!"
Her words shocked Nakajima Youhei.
"Dad said we can get anything, right?" Nakajima Reina turned to look at her father and smiled.
"Don't tease daddy." Nakajima Yohei felt calmer when he saw the smile on his daughter's face.
He thought that the girl's words about wanting Nan Youxi were a subtle rebuttal to his boasting.
Nakajima Reina did not explain. She said, "I dreamed of Yoshida-cho."
"Is that so?" Nakajima Yohei's voice became lowered, and the last note almost only sounded on his lips.
He thought that if his daughter dreamed of Yoshida-cho, her strange words would have a reasonable explanation.
When his daughter was young, his heart disease showed signs of improvement for a while. He and his wife brought their daughter to Yoshida-cho to watch the first snow of Sora-no-ike. However, his daughter did not live to see the first snowfall, and because of the worsening of her condition, she hurried back to Misaki and was admitted to the hospital.
His wife was upset about the cancellation of the trip and became more disgusted with her troublesome daughter. Not long after she returned, she divorced him.
In the past, Yoshida-cho was not a happy place for the daughter, but was filled with misfortune.
However, when he glanced at his daughter out of the corner of his eye, he saw her smiling. Her eyes, half-closed because of the smile, were brighter than he had ever seen before.
"It's so beautiful." Reina Nakajima exclaimed.
She recalled the scenery in her dream, remembering her and Minami Yuki holding each other's hands, lying on the snow, the snow gently caressing their cheeks. She looked out the window, the blue sky and white clouds across the glass were like a pond in the sky after the first snow.
The conversation ended quickly, and Nakajima Yohei returned to school from the hospital. His daughter's smile kept flashing in his mind. He was confused and couldn't figure out whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.
He had no classes in the afternoon, so he sat in the office in a daze for a long time. He was awakened only when the school bell rang.
He felt that he had to do something, but he didn't know what he should do. It was like walking in the fog, knowing that he had to move forward, forward, but where was the front
He walked to the classroom door and called out to Minami Yuki, who was sandwiched between Ibuki Yuko and Chiju Kazumi.
"Nan, come to my office."
(End of this chapter)