Except for me embarrassing myself, the entrance ceremony finished without any problems. The new students all went to their classes and introduced themselves, there was a short homeroom class, and then it was time to go home.

“Hey, you said that in the future, I saved people in a bunch of stories, didn’t you? Which means that even if something weird does happen to me, I can’t die, right?”

“You’re an idiot, aren’t you, Rekka?” R sighed from the back of my head. Evidently, she was incapable of moving more than five meters from me, so no matter where I went, she floated along nearby. What would happen when I had to go to the bathroom? “I explained that I came here to change the future, right? The fact that I’m here is already causing that to happen. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to help finish the stories like you did in my timeline’s past.”

“Wait. Isn’t that really bad news for me?”

“Well, from the perspective of the people in the future, you’re the one who ruined everything. If you were to just up and die, it would serve you right, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m not that interested in helping you guys out anymore.” Today was my sixteenth birthday, and my first day of living on my own. And now I was supposed to do my best to save the future, too? All the excitement I’d started to feel at the prospect of my new life was draining away.

“You know, your name makes you sound pretty tough, but you actually look like kind of a wimp. Your looks are pretty average, too. I don’t understand why everyone was so interested in fighting over you.”

“Shut up.” There was always the odd barb mixed into R’s words. Was that her personality? Or maybe...

“Do you hate me enough that you want me to die, too?”

“I couldn’t say. I’m an artificial life form called a Kiklim, created to complete this mission. So while I have knowledge of the future, it doesn’t feel very real to me.”

“An artificial life form, huh?”

“By the way, I’m two years old. If you hit on me, that means you’re a pedophile.”

“Big words for a girl who’s still in diapers.”

“How rude. I may look formal on the outside, but my underwear is surprisingly sexy. Would you like to see?”

“No.”

Still, two years old? Was that why her expression and voice were always so flat? It kind of explained how she seemed a little unbalanced.

“Oh? Rekka, what’s that?” Suddenly she grabbed my head and turned it to the side, as she pointed at a small electronics store on the shopping street. The window display had a row of big-screen TVs that were playing the afternoon news.

“Those are televisions.”

“I know that. My question was about the program.”

“Hmm? It says, ‘Large Power Outage in City, Residents Saw Lightning Fall From Clear Blue Sky.’”

“I can hear the voices as well as you. That’s not my question. Is that one of those so-called news programs?”

“Huh? Is that it? Hmm... Yeah, that’s a news program, right.” I didn’t expect her to ask me what the show was, as opposed to what was on it right now.

“Huh, so that’s a news program. Rekka, please get closer.”

I moved in front of the TV like she asked. R started to examine the TV carefully.



“Are there no TVs in the future?”

“How rude. Of course there are. But even if I know what one is, this is my first time actually seeing one. They’re not needed for my mission, after all.”

“I see.”

R’s calm, composed demeanor was gone. She was staring at the TV with shining eyes. She looked just like a little kid. I didn’t know exactly what a Kiklim was supposed to be, but she was just a normal girl to me.

And she’d never even played with friends, or done anything for herself, too.

It wasn’t fair, I thought.

It was still hard for me to believe, but if what she said was true, and I had ruined the future... why had they entrusted fixing everything to a little girl? She said that’s why she had been created, but that was completely abnormal. Was the future such a mess that something as abnormal as that could happen? If it was, then as far as I was concerned, it wasn’t my problem.

It wasn’t my problem at all.

But it seemed like it was my fault that they’d sent R back into the past. If R couldn’t touch or talk to anybody but me— if I was the only one who could save her— then maybe I couldn’t just abandon her. She was a bit of a brat, but if you considered her age, her behavior wasn’t so bad.

“I’ve got a TV at home. When we get back, you can watch it as much as you want. If there’s a movie or TV show you want to see, I’ll get it from a rental shop for you.” R had been glued to the TV screen, but when she heard my words, she spun around and looked at me.

“Really?”

She still had no real expression on her face. Was I just fooling myself if I thought she looked a little happy? But that was good enough for now. I nodded.

“I’ll be living on my own from now on, so we can have a little party to celebrate. Wait, I guess you can’t eat, can you? I suppose we can get some more DVDs, then.” I thought I was being pretty nice, considering I was a student who didn’t work a part-time job. But for some reason, R was staring at me skeptically.

“Just so we’re clear, I’m not one of the girls you can seduce, okay?” For the first time in my life, I was so shocked by something someone said that I fell down backwards, onto my butt.

“Stop being stupid and let’s go.” I grabbed R by the hand and started to walk. She was floating in the air, so I didn’t feel any weight, but her hand felt warm.

I had a lot of stuff to think about, like the future and the Namidare bloodline. But for now, it seemed my most pressing concern was how I was going to live with my strange new roommate.

So anyway, that’s how R and I met.

That’s how I reluctantly took my first step out of my normal, ordinary life, and into the world of the extraordinary.

I really didn’t want to consider the possibility that I was already up to my neck in it.