"Of course you buy it online. With how fast delivery is these days, once you pay, it'll usually arrive in less than a week. For some items, if you're willing to pay a bit more for shipping, next-day delivery is the bare minimum. Even faster options let you pay in the morning and have it delivered that same afternoon or evening."
Kotomi Izumi, already accustomed to online shopping, would only go to physical stores when accompanying family or her girlfriend for a stroll. Most of the time, she was used to buying whatever she liked on shopping websites.
"Eh... is that so?"
Ayani Kika nodded. From her expression, it wasn't hard to tell that she still didn't quite understand online shopping. Perhaps she was simply more used to buying things in person. Or maybe, in her understanding, shopping meant going to street stores or department stores.
Kotomi suddenly felt that there might be a slight generational gap between her and Kika.
Even though she's only a few years older than me, there shouldn't really be much of a generation gap between us. We were both born in the Heisei era. But then again, she's not very good with smartphones, so it kind of makes sense that she doesn't understand online shopping... Kotomi thought to herself.
"Kika-nee."
"Hm?"
"Sometimes, the things you say really make me feel like you've traveled here from ancient times."
Kotomi's remark made the corner of Kika's lips curl into a meaningful smile. After thinking for a moment, she leaned closer to Kotomi's ear, her red lips parting slightly as if she were about to whisper something.
Believing Kika was about to share a secret, Kotomi held her breath and listened carefully. Whether intentional or not, Kika let out a soft puff of air between her lips. Her breath brushed past Kotomi's ear like drifting flower petals. Then she asked with a smile,
"Is that so? If that were true, can you guess which era I traveled from? The Asuka period? The Nara period? The Heian period? The Edo period? The Taisho period? Or... the Showa period?"
Just as Kotomi was starting to imagine Kika as a girl who had truly crossed over from ancient times, Kika suddenly laughed lightly.
"Haha, I'm just teasing you. Where would this world have any time travelers? I was born in 2000—Heisei 12. Out of curiosity, I even looked up some of the major events that happened that year. So many big things occurred."
Kotomi looked at her helplessly. "Why do you love joking around so much?"
"You looked so curious, I just improvised a little~"
...
Kotomi and Kika walked into the bedroom. The futon laid out earlier hadn't been put away yet.
However, compared to when Kotomi had left a few hours ago, there were now one hundred cards neatly arranged across the tatami.
Curious, Kotomi crouched down for a closer look and realized that each card corresponded to a waka poem from Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
"Aren't these karuta cards? Kika-nee, can you play karuta?"
Kotomi recognized them at a glance. Back when she had been choosing which club to join, she had noticed that Sobu High School had a karuta club. At the time, however, she had been focused on experiencing different painting levels, so between the art club and the karuta club, she had chosen the art club.
"Mm. When I have free time, I play with Shiba. Karuta is one of the few games I'm actually good at," Kika nodded.
After looking at the arrangement on the floor, Kotomi asked curiously,
"But isn't the layout wrong? It's been a long time since I played, but I remember that the one hundred cards are shuffled face down, each side takes twenty-five, and the remaining fifty aren't used. Then you divide your cards into three rows—upper, middle, and lower—facing yourself, forming your territory and your opponent's territory."
"That's right. The layout is normally just like you said. The reason they're arranged like this now is because after you left, I couldn't sleep. Since I was awake anyway, I wanted something to do. After thinking about it, I took out this deck and laid them out to look at each poem. Though I already know every single poem by heart~"
"Ah, I see."
Kotomi smiled awkwardly, then sat down. Looking at the cards spread across the tatami, she couldn't help but recite the introductory poem used in karuta:
"When flowers bloom at Naniwa Bay, winter's shame closes away. Now that spring has come once more, the blossoms open in fragrant display."
Kika gazed at Kotomi sitting on the tatami with gentle eyes. She reached out, picked up one of the cards, and asked,
"Kotomi, do you have a fated card?"
"A fated card?" Kotomi tilted her head slightly in confusion.
"There's a legend about karuta. If you want to win, you must choose a card that represents you—one you're especially good at. That's called your fated card. Simply put, when you feel that the poem on a particular card can describe you or express a certain obsession in your heart, then that card becomes your fated card. And mine is..."
As she explained, Kika turned over the card she had picked up and showed it to Kotomi, then recited the poem written on it:
"Love's longing weighs on two distant hearts, wind and rain fill the city too soon. Though I would give myself without regret, I still yearn to meet you again."
For some reason, when Kotomi heard Kika recite the poem, an indescribable melancholy stirred within her.
"Even though I still don't understand you very well, when I hear you recite that poem, it just... feels like it suits you perfectly."
Kotomi reached out and gently brushed her fingers over Kika's fated card, voicing what she felt in that moment.
Listening to her, and seeing the expression on Kotomi's face, the smile in Kika's eyes deepened even more than before.
Because Kotomi's words made her realize something.
Although the current Kotomi had forgotten many memories, those memories had not truly disappeared from her mind.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have felt such emotion upon hearing that poem.
It was more as though those memories were locked away by countless chains. If Kotomi were to frequently come into contact with what she had forgotten, perhaps one day in the future, those chains sealing her memories would shatter with a crash—and she would recover everything.
...
A few hours earlier, when Kotomi Izumi had left, Ayani Kika had written everything she wanted to tell her on yellowed manuscript paper. If she were to show those pages to Kotomi now, perhaps Kotomi would recover her memories on the spot.
But...
Whenever she thought about the memories Kotomi might have forgotten, Kika hesitated again. Would letting Kotomi recover her memories truly be a good thing?
Besides me, there should be others who know that Kotomi has lost her memory. What they don't know is that the amnesia caused by that fire years ago wasn't her first time losing her memories.
Kotomi has forgotten so much. Whether it's me or the others who know about her amnesia, what we each know is only the tip of the iceberg compared to everything she has lost. Even if we told her everything we know, it might not be enough to help her recover all her memories.
The only person who could truly restore all of Kotomi's memories... is probably her.
Because from the very beginning, she was always by Kotomi's side. She accompanied her and witnessed everything Kotomi experienced. Without exaggeration, she is absolutely the person in this world who understands Kotomi best.
I'm so jealous of her...
Kika drifted off in thought.
"Kika-nee? Spacing out?"
Kotomi's voice pulled her back slightly.
"Sorry. I was thinking about a friend. Her situation is a bit special, so whenever I think about it, I can't help but get lost in my thoughts."
Kika had been thinking about Kotomi all along. But when Kotomi asked, she paused for a moment and chose to tell a small lie, saying she had been thinking about a friend.
After all, if she were to say directly: I was just thinking about your amnesia.
There was no telling how Kotomi would react.
Kotomi didn't realize that the "friend" Kika was referring to was actually herself. She almost said, There's no one else here, you don't have to use the 'I have a friend' excuse.
But then she reconsidered. Perhaps Kika chose to phrase it that way because it was difficult to speak about directly. Or perhaps she truly did have a friend whose situation was indeed special.
"What's going on with that friend of yours? If you're willing, I'd like to hear about it. Maybe I can help in some way. Of course, if it's not convenient to say, we can just pretend this conversation never happened and move on," Kotomi said considerately.
Sigh... this little fool still doesn't know that the friend I'm talking about is you, Kika thought helplessly, a faint smile in her heart.
Then she nodded.
"Alright."
Seeing her agree, Kotomi immediately straightened up a little, adopting an attentive posture.
Kika organized her thoughts, carefully crafting her words so Kotomi wouldn't realize she was talking about her. Kotomi likely didn't even know about her own amnesia yet. If some careless sentence accidentally touched upon a long-forgotten memory, at the very least, her mind might fall into temporary confusion.
After all, recovering memories required mental preparation.
Once she had arranged her wording, Kika slowly began.
"I have a friend. She's a very cute girl. When I first met her, we were both still children. Almost every time I saw her, she had a bright smile on her face. She loved eating—every meal, she would eat a lot..."
As she began describing her first meeting with Kotomi, Kika almost said too much. Thankfully, she realized in time that if she continued like that, Kotomi might notice she was describing her. She quickly shifted direction.
"But later, because of something that happened, she lost her memory."
"Amnesia?!"
Kotomi's face showed surprise. Inside, however, she was thinking, I thought amnesia was rare. I didn't expect Kika's friend to have lost her memory too. I wonder if she lost everything, or just part of it like me...
"Yes. Amnesia. When I first learned about it, I couldn't believe something that only appears in movies had happened to her. But when I saw her again, she truly had lost her memory. She sat on the hospital bed with empty eyes, as if a brain once filled with writing had suddenly turned into a blank sheet of paper..."
"How long has she been like that?" Kotomi asked.
"A long time. The reason I spaced out just now was because I suddenly realized how long it's been since she lost her memory. It gave me a strange sense of melancholy."
When I first learned from Kazumi that I had actually lost part of my important memories, I was overwhelmed by complicated emotions too. Knowing you've lost memories, yet being unable to recall them no matter how hard you try... Kotomi thought silently.
"Has her condition not improved at all? Like recovering even a little bit of her memory?" Kotomi asked carefully.
She herself had once recovered part of her lost memories, albeit with Kazumi's help. So she wanted to ask about Kika's friend's specific situation.
Out of sympathy for someone who had also lost memories, Kotomi had already made up her mind. Once she completed Kazumi's request and successfully awakened her from her long sleep, she would find time to ask how to restore memories. After learning the method, she could help that amnesiac girl.
Of course, Kotomi had a tiny selfish motive too. For example... if that girl happened to be very pretty, then while helping her recover her memories, perhaps she could also see whether their relationship might develop further.
That was also why Kotomi wanted to help the girl personally.
"No. Although she has lived normally all this time, there's been no sign of her memory returning," Kika said slowly.
"I see..."
Kotomi nodded and silently took note of it. I should do what I can, I suppose, she thought.
After all, for Kotomi Izumi, the most important thing right now was to fulfill Kazumi's request from before she fell into slumber—and awaken the ever-sleeping Kazumi.
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