Erika got back together with her boyfriend, so that wouldn't work. Shiori left on an overseas business trip. And Chiaki was still hospitalized.

「Why isn't Osamu here?!」

Midori was better at finding beautiful things than anybody else I knew. This nine year-old girl would find these beautiful fragments of this world and share them with me.

Death was now both distant and close. The red-hot flames were approaching us from behind, taking concrete shape.

I turned around, only to get immediately punched in the face. They grabbed me by the hood and pulled me into the alleyway, where they proceeded to beat the living fuck out of me.

Midori was better at finding beautiful things than anybody else I knew. This nine year-old girl would find these beautiful fragments of this world and share them with me.

Death was now both distant and close. The red-hot flames were approaching us from behind, taking concrete shape.

I couldn't believe something like this would happen the day after I'd seen a dead person at a funeral. ...I didn't want to see another person die.

That night, I dreamt for the first time. The dream showed a world in which MAMIYA and I both had bodies and were close friends.

「Everything will be all right, Haruki. There's no need to be scared.」

The era was tiring us to the bone. Solitude that none could relate to was more agonizing than simply trying to live. The emptiness would become hunger. And if the flower you wished for didn't exist anywhere in the world...

「I was only about fifteen...」 「A certain nurse changed everything about me.」

「Arisugawa Osamu's fingers, touching the edge of the glass.」 「Ni'igaki Mayuri's awkward pronunciation from whenever she became excited.」 「Samejima Satoru's dignified manner of eating.」 「Morichika Touma's warm, white breaths.」