Joining with everyone else at the table, I noticed there seemed to be someone missing.

"I asked Kaede if she wouldn't mind going to my parents’ house in Yokohama a little earlier tonight, I figured it would be for the best."

Sakuta spoke up as I had looked around the table, noticing the empty chair. I nodded, still a bit shaken up from my encounter with Kyoko.

Mai and Rio had a look of concern on their face, clearly Sakuta had given them a brief rundown after he had left his post outside the bathroom door. Rio spoke up first.

"If it's any consolation, tomorrow will be a fresh start and that the whole situation will have never actually happened, unless you boys plan to romp around the beach again."

I cracked a slight smile, appreciative of the effort. Mai, however, was a bit harsher.

"Just because she's upset, she shouldn't have lashed out at you like that. Unfortunately, you can't exactly expect an apology. But the nerve of her, if she knew what you were going through..."

Sakuta cut her off, placing his hand on hers.

"It is what it is. I think it's best if we move on to hopefully better news, you do have some better news for us, right Futaba?"

I noticed that instead of the one notebook that she had brought to lunch, she now had three stacked in front of her.

Rio quickly flipped through the first notebook in the stack, finding her starting point.

"In regards to having an ultimate solution, I'm sorry to say I don't have one for you. But I think I may have found a way to merge the two versions of you once you figure out how to save her."

I immediately sat up. True, saving Sakura was my ultimate goal. But what if I saved her only to still wake up trapped in this loops? Trying to not sound over excited, I asked the only question that mattered.

"What do I have to do?"

Rio pulled the magnets she used during our lunch out of her pocket.

"You remember what I said regarding how you essentially are reversed from Sakura? Well, again this is just a theory, but it may be possible to reverse that effect which should merge the two versions of you back to one."

She flipped a few more pages in her notebook before continuing.

"Throughout history, medicine has been practiced both through pharmaceutical as well as natural ways, and sometimes considered mystical methods. I don't think you'll be able to go to a pharmacy and pick up a prescription, but after doing some research, I found references throughout history of medicine of men treating cases that couldn't be explained any other way than unnatural."

I felt a shiver as she spoke those words, as though we were speaking of things that were best left undiscovered. She had turned the notebook around so the rest of us could see. On the open pages, there was an anatomical photo of a man, with lines pointing out specific areas of the body. I tried to read what they said, but it was too small for me to make it out clearly.

"Acupuncture has been used as a healing method for years, but from my research it looks like things were done to focus on a more metaphysical level in those days. Most of this research is buried and hard to find, thankfully the lab I work at has a direct access line to the local municipal office, so we are able to access it."

I thought about all of the needles used during acupuncture, and instinctively flinched. I never had an issue with needles before, getting shots over the years was never a big deal. But simply having a needle in your arm for a few moments was a lot less scarier than having to lay down with dozens of needles in your body.

"Don't worry, it wouldn't require a ton of needles like normal acupuncture, but it still will require using a decent amount."

She turned the page again, this time showing a similar photo but with certain areas highlighted.

"From the research, these would be the areas required for this to work."

I quickly counted how many spots were highlighted, giving up once I got to thirty.

"And how sure are you that this would work?"

She quickly did some mental math.

"I give this plan a 60% of working. It's not perfect, I'll admit it. There's some more steps involved but none of them have anything like needles being poked into you."

Once again, she flipped the page in the notebook. Now, there were notes about different ancient rituals.

"As far as any other supplies, it's simple things like incense, Himalayan salt to be placed around your body, and a personal object that belongs to the other you."

I tried to think through the few things I had brought from my home, wondering what I had that might work.

"Uhh… I don’t have my ID with me right now. Would that work if I had it?"

Rio shook her head.

"You need something special, it has to have some meaning to you. An ID might be personal, but do you have any sort of connection to it?"

She was right. If I ever lost my ID I would be upset for sure, but I could always get it replaced. Mentally going through everything I had brought with me, I couldn't seem to think of anything that would work. But then I had an idea, though terrible it may be.

"No, but I know something I could grab from my house instead."

I expected someone to immediately shoot my idea down, but the reaction I got was much different.

"Can you get it without being spotted by anyone there?"

Sakuta was the first one to raise a question.

I nodded, recalling how I had previously gone back to grab some supplies.

"Though I would appreciate if someone else came with me and grabbed it, I know exactly where the item is. I just want to play it safe. But… the problem is that my home is in Takaoka. We might have missed the final train from Fujisawa."

Then, Mai came up with an idea.

“We can go to Takaoka in my car. It’ll be bit of a long journey but we’ll reach there at the perfect time to get the things we require.”

I hated the idea of having to involve any of them this much, especially as it would technically be breaking and entering if they were caught.

Much to my surprise, Sakuta and Rio nodded.

"It may not be a solution you feel comfortable asking, but it is smarter this way."

Mai looked over to Sakuta, waiting for his input.

"She's right, it would be pointless to do all this day after day only to make a mistake now."

Rio nodded, adding in her own point.

"We can use earpieces and have you guide whoever goes inside, it beats having to explain everything beforehand and hope it goes well like some bad heist movie."

As always, she thought logically about the issue at hand.

There was just one question left to ask. I looked at each of them.

"So who’s willing to come with me?"

The three of them looked at each other, before looking back to me. Sakuta smirked.

"Isn't it obvious? We'll all go together."

Mai drove her car throughout the whole journey. After a couple of hours, we reached Takaoka and soon found ourselves headed towards my house.

Sakuta was the one who would be heading inside the house, Mai was going to be our lookout, while Rio would be standing by with me on the phone call with Sakuta.

"Sakuta, dear, please be careful when you're inside. Everything rests with you."

Mai was clearly worried, though whether that was simply due to the love for her fiancé or that perhaps he was a bit clumsy when trying to be sneaky.

He reached down and grabbed her hand, trying to reassure her and perhaps calm his own nerves.

"Hey! I managed to sneak out from the hospital once, not to say that I was injured pretty badly on the chest. I can manage this ok?"

The two lovers drew slightly ahead, leaving Rio and me to walk together.

"So you've thought this over correct? It's risky doing this, the last thing we want is to end up grabbing the wrong item."

Clearly, Rio was thinking much further ahead than just the next step. Nodding, I told her my plan.

"I see, I'm glad you've put some thought into this. Let's just keep our fingers crossed then."

I pulled out the phone Mai had let me borrow, the one I had bought was still ultimately useless having no minutes on it.

"I was worried that we might cause some issues by using her work phones, but I suppose a few minutes of talking won't matter come the morning anyway."

Rio laughed at that.

"We wouldn't be able to attempt merging you back tonight anyway, so you could go crazy and call anyone in the world. They wouldn't notice it tonight with how late it is, and as you said that next morning it won't matter."

It was just before midnight when we reached the house. I had thought about delaying the visit later, but I knew by now everyone would be asleep in the house. No reason to keep everyone else awake any longer than necessary.

Sakuta pulled out his ear phones, connecting it to his personal cell phone and Mai gave me and Rio two of her earpieces to connect them to my borrowed phone. Once he had it situated, I gave him a call.

"Check check, can you hear me?"

Sakuta had placed his hand by his mouth, trying to avoid any unnecessary volume as he spoke. I was standing only a few feet away from him, but the only sound I heard from him came through the phone I was holding.

"I hear you, loud and clear."

Mai squeezed his hand one last time, before heading to her assigned post to keep watch. Rio had already gone to her post, and before long they too were on the call as well. They were positioned to see if any lights in the house came on, there would be enough ambient light inside the house that Sakuta should have no problem making his way to my room.

I walked over to the door with him, unlocking it with the spare key I had taken the day before yesterday. Slowly opening the door, we managed to avoid any noises that would give us away. Sakuta flashed me a thumbs up before heading inside, and I too moved towards my post.

The sound of Sakuta’s breathing filled the receiver, as I stood waiting.

"You'll need to head up the stairs, the fourth step from the bottom will creak so you need to avoid using it."

"Got it."

His reply was a whisper, trying to be a stealthy as possible.

It was a full two minutes before the sound of his voice came back.

"I'm at the top floor now, which room is it?"

"The right door, you'll only be able to open it halfway before the hinges start making any noise."

I could almost sense his eyes rolling.

"Next you'll tell me I have to place an object quickly when I grab yours or a boulder will start chasing me down the stairs."

Immediately, Mai chimed in shushing him.

"If you ruin this by trying to tell some silly jokes, then you'll regret it. I'll even make sure to have a reminder in my letter every day until this is all over."

At times, I wondered just what kind of relationship they had. I'm sure it was just playful banter, but there was a part of me that wondered if it wasn't.

Sakuta was silent at that, the only sound coming from him was his breathing once again.

"The first item is going to be on the nightstand next to my bed, it should be the only book on it if things are how they were last time I was in the house."

Sakuta was silent for a moment.

"I see it, hey I think we have this book too. Woah Haruki… you never told me that you had such a cool action figure…"

Haruki was a bit embarrassed and whispered.

“W-Well, my dad bought me once when I was small… I never played with it since I never had any interest in stuff like those...”

Mai interrupted us with another shushing noise, not happy about his extra commentary.

"Thin ice mister! Hide your inner child for now… baka."

I could hear him gulp.

"Okay I have the book, what's next?"

I tried to recall where the other item would be.

"In the closet there's a set of drawers. The second from the top should have a card box."

Sakuta was silent for a moment.

"It's not in here."

Immediately, I began to panic. Where could it be then? Then I realized where it could be, and felt my spirit sink just a little lower.

"This might not work, but it might be under the pillow the other me is using."

I could tell from the silence that everyone was shocked. Rio was the first to speak up.

"This seems extremely risky, but it's a bigger risk to only have one item and it ends up being a bust."

She was right, this would be pointless if the item we grabbed didn't work.

"Sakuta, do you think you can get it? If not then we'll have to think of something else you can grab."

Mai sounded concerned, any lingering teasing was erased.

"Sakuta?"

He was still silent.

"Please tell me you're not trying to grab it right now. Sakuta?"