Yakumo Beni died. On her way home from a stream, a traffic accident. A sudden end. But when she opens her eyes, she's back in a familiar streaming studio. The date is three months before her death. Beni is confused, but she sees this as a chance. She knows that her friends in VSPO! will soon face misfortune one after another. Because in her previous life, she saw it all. Her best friend, Kurumi Nozomi, falls ill and retires. Her senior, Tachibana Hinano, gets caught in a scandal and breaks down.
The Mint-Green Rewinder - The White-Robed Cage, The First Price
Spring light leaked through the gap in the curtains.
Beni was walking through the residential streets of Setagaya. A sloping road lined with apartment buildings. The azaleas in the hedges had bloomed pale pink. Each time the wind blew, one petal, then another, fell to the ground.
(I remember this place.)
Nozomi's apartment. Comet Heights. An eight-year-old building with white outer walls. She'd come here several times in her previous life. She'd even stayed over after streams. Before pressing the intercom at the entrance, Beni took a deep breath.
(I'm going. I have to do this today.)
Her fingertips were trembling slightly. The pinky of her left hand—the finger whose outline had been faint when she'd looked in the mirror yesterday. When she'd checked this morning, the transparency was gone. But the wrongness remained. A sensation like a small stone lodged deep in the joint.
She pressed the intercom.
The ping-pong chime echoed through the morning quiet.
After a moment, the door opened.
"Beni-chan? What's wrong? Today's your day off, right?"
Nozomi stood there with a just-woke-up face. Her fluffy chestnut medium hair was tied in two at the sides. Bedhead made the left side stick up a little. Her slightly downturned brown eyes went round when she saw Beni. The tear mole under her left eye stood out clearly in the morning light.
She wore an oversized hoodie in place of pajamas. She was hugging a bear plushie against her chest. Nontan—the one Nozomi always carried with her even during streams, like a partner.
"Nozomi, I need you to come to the hospital with me."
Beni cut straight to it, no preamble.
The smile vanished from Nozomi's face.
"Huh, why? Nozomi's totally fine, you know?"
Nozomi lightly tapped her own arm. Her complexion was indeed fine. Her voice had energy too. But—Beni knew. Late April in her previous life. Around this time, Nozomi had already started feeling something wrong with her body. Changes so small she hadn't noticed them herself yet. A cough. A slight fever. Fatigue. She'd written it off as tiredness, never went to the hospital, and by the time it mattered, it was too late.
"How's your health? Been coughing weird lately?"
"Cough? Hmm, sometimes... but it's just the change of seasons."
Nozomi tilted her head. Her face seemed to say Beni was worrying too much. But she noticed Beni's expression was far from normal, and her own face stiffened a little.
"Beni-chan, did something happen? Your face is way too serious."
"Please. Just once is fine. I just want you to get checked."
Beni placed both hands on Nozomi's shoulders. She gripped firmly. Pouring in the will to not let her escape.
"W-wait... Beni-chan?"
"I'm worried about your body. Is that not allowed?"
Nozomi was at a loss for words for a moment. She stared into Beni's eyes. There wasn't a trace of joking in them.
"...Fine. If you're going to go that far."
Nozomi let out a small sigh and nodded.
——
Aoba General Hospital. White corridors. The smell of disinfectant. Somewhere far off, the sound of wheelchair wheels scraping the floor. After finishing at reception, they sat side by side on the long bench in the waiting room.
Nozomi still looked dissatisfied.
"Beni-chan, what's gotten into you today? Something's off. You finally message me after ages, and then it's straight to the hospital?"
"A woman's intuition. It's you we're talking about, so I've been worried the whole time."
Beni answered that way and gripped Nozomi's hand. Cold. Her fingertips were just slightly blue.
(—No. This is the same as my previous life.)
In her previous life, she hadn't noticed how cold this hand was. By the time she did, it was too late. Nozomi's hand, wasting away on a hospital bed. The IV tube. A voice about to fade.
"Get the tests. Please."
Beni said it firmly once more.
They were called into the examination room ten minutes later.
Dr. Kashiwagi—a woman in her fifties. Short hair mixed with silver. Behind her glasses, her eyes were calm but somehow warm.
"Kurumi-san, we'll do blood work, an X-ray, and a CT scan."
"Huh, even a CT? That's a bit much..."
"Just to be safe. If you're worried, it's better to check everything for peace of mind."
Dr. Kashiwagi glanced at Beni for a moment, then returned her gaze to Nozomi. She asked nothing. But seeing Beni's desperate face, she'd apparently decided not to ask unnecessary questions.
The tests took about an hour.
Back in the waiting room, Beni sat beside Nozomi. Outside the window, it was clear and sunny. Cherry blossom petals drifted on the wind.
That was when it happened.
"Ugh... help me...!"
From the back of the corridor, toward the treatment room, a scream.
Beni's back jolted.
"W-what?"
Nozomi looked up too.
"Emergency patient! Clear the treatment room!"
"The delivery room—which one first?! This patient was supposed to be transferred yesterday—she's the pregnant woman!"
"She was supposed to go to another hospital, but the test appointment cut in...!"
—The test appointment cut in.
Those words stabbed into Beni's chest.
(It's... my fault.)
Beni felt her hands trembling. Yesterday, she'd pushed through and forced a reservation to get Nozomi to the hospital. Because of that, the pregnant woman who was supposed to be transferred to another hospital got routed here, and her treatment was delayed.
(I tried to save Nozomi... and someone else got hurt.)
The nurses' frantic footsteps echoed down the corridor. The sound of wheels. The sound of the treatment room door slamming shut.
Beni clenched her fists on her lap. Her nails dug into her palms.
(But... but I had to save Nozomi.)
Even thinking that, another voice spoke somewhere in her heart.
(Was that really the right thing to do?)
——
The test results came out in the afternoon.
Dr. Kashiwagi called them into the examination room with a serious face.
"Kurumi-san. It's early stage, but we found a lesion."
Nozomi's face went pale in an instant.
"Huh... no way..."
"It's still small. At this stage, treatment can cure it completely. Early detection was truly fortunate."
Dr. Kashiwagi closed the chart and looked at Nozomi.
"You did well coming in. A little later and it would have been too late."
Nozomi grabbed Beni's arm with a trembling hand.
"Beni-chan... why did Nozomi..."
"Thank goodness... really, thank goodness."
Beni squeezed Nozomi's hand back. She fought hard to hold back the tears threatening to spill.
(She's saved. Nozomi's saved.)
But behind that joy, the pregnant woman's scream from earlier wouldn't leave her head.
——
When they left the hospital, the sky had started to cloud over.
Nozomi was still dazed. But looking at Beni's face, she gradually regained her usual smile.
"Beni-chan. Really, thank you."
"Don't mention it. You're my precious best friend."
"But... how did you know? Nozomi hadn't told anyone."
Nozomi tilted her head. In her eyes was gratitude mixed with a tiny bit of suspicion.
Beni was at a loss for words for a moment.
(No way I can tell her the truth. That I died and came back.)
"A woman's intuition. It's you we're talking about, so I've been worried the whole time."
Beni laughed it off. Nozomi still looked unconvinced, but she didn't press further.
"Beni-chan, you shouldn't push yourself either, okay?"
"I know, I know. Leave it to me!"
——
On the way back after walking Nozomi home.
Beni was walking alone toward the station.
That's when her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She looked at the screen. Unknown number. One message.
"What you are doing is distorting the world."
Beni's feet stopped.
(—Who?)
She hurriedly looked around.
Street trees. A convenience store. A salaryman waiting at the light. A student riding past on a bicycle.
Among them—for just a moment, she saw a black shadow.
A black coat. The outline of the face blurred. The man she'd seen in front of her home yesterday.
"Ah...!"
The instant Beni raised her voice, the shadow vanished.
As if it had never been there at all.
——
She got home in the evening.
Beni sat on her bed and opened the notes app on her phone.
"Three days ago: Rewind began."
"Today: Took Nozomi to the hospital. Lesion found, early treatment can cure it."
"Cost: Pregnant woman's transfer delayed. Knee pain. Mysterious message."
—Knee.
The moment she wrote that.
A sharp pain, like a needle stabbing, shot through the depths of her right knee.
"...gh!"
Beni tumbled off the bed without thinking. She curled up on the floor, clutching her knee. It hurt. It hurt. A pain like something grinding deep inside the bone.
(What is this...!)
Cold sweat ran down her back. Her breathing grew shallow.
After about ten minutes, the pain finally subsided.
Beni crawled back onto the bed and rubbed her knee. The pain was gone. But the wrongness remained. The same sensation as her left pinky.
"...So this is the cost."
Beni murmured quietly.
Outside the window, it had started to rain.
——
That night.
Beni added a new line to the notes app on her phone.
"Next target: Prevent Tachibana Hinano's cancellation."
She clenched her trembling fist.
(I saved Nozomi. But there was a cost. If I save Hinano-senpai next, someone else might get hurt again.)
Even so.
Even so, Beni couldn't afford to stop.
"Leave it to me. This time for sure, I'll protect everyone."
The sound of rain tapped against the window.
Beni held her phone to her chest and quietly closed her eyes.
The wrongness in her knee still hadn't faded.
Her left pinky still felt a little strange too.
Somewhere in the world, the fate correction mechanism was quietly beginning to creak—and Beni didn't know it yet.
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