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 - On the night of destiny, a fading light
It was raining.
Thin streaks ran down the window glass. Beni listened to the sound in her apartment.
The room's light was off. Only the smartphone screen glowed pale blue in the darkness.
She opened the notepad. Her fingertips trembled faintly.
"Past-life memory: Shibuya Scramble Crossing, 11:47 PM, truck running the red light"
"Nozomi: detected early, life was saved. Cost: Runa Yamagishi (14) fell ill"
"Senpai Hinano: canceled after a flame war. Cost: my left hand turns transparent"
She typed that far, and her fingers stopped.
(So this is what I've done.)
Beni looked at her left hand.
From the shoulder down, it wasn't there.
Only the sleeve fabric traced the shape of her body, floating in the air. When she tried to focus on it, it wouldn't come together. The color of the wall behind it showed through a thin film.
She looked at the mirror.
Long mint-green hair. Pale purple cat eyes. A choker at her throat. A star-shaped piercing on her left ear.
She remembered all of it. It was her.
But from her left shoulder down, it was gone.
The girl in the mirror looked like half a person.
Beni gripped the place where her invisible left hand should have been with her right hand.
No sensation.
Nothing to hold.
"...I'm still here, you know."
Her voice fell into the dark room.
No one answered.
Bzz.
Her phone buzzed.
From Nozomi.
"Beni-chan, I'm definitely coming tomorrow. I won't leave you alone."
Tears welled up.
Bzz.
From Hinano.
"I'll be with you tomorrow. Wherever you go, I'll go too."
Beni stared at the screen.
Tears spilled over.
(Nozomi. Hinano-senpai.)
(I'm happy.)
(Even with a body like this, I'm—)
Beni wiped her tears.
She clenched her right hand into a fist.
Strength flowed in.
"...Tomorrow might be the last."
She looked outside the window.
The rain was getting stronger.
"Even so, I'm going to do it."
Her voice was hoarse.
But it was definitely her own voice.
Beni closed her eyes.
Only the sound of rain filled the room.
11:40 PM.
Shibuya Scramble Crossing.
The rain had been falling since daytime without stopping.
The asphalt reflected the neon, wet in red and blue.
Beni wore a black coat and stood at a corner of the crossing.
Her left hand was hidden inside her sleeve.
Inside the sleeve, there was nothing.
Just fabric wrapping air.
(Seven more minutes.)
Beni checked the time.
11:40 PM.
Seven minutes until the moment she died in her past life.
Her heart was loud.
Something pulsed violently deep in her chest.
(It rained that day too.)
(On the way home from a stream. Holding an umbrella. Waiting for the light.)
(It turned green. I started to cross. And then—)
Beni closed her eyes.
The sound of a truck.
The scream of brakes.
Impact.
—That sensation came back to her body.
Something cold crawled from her neck down to her waist.
(I died here that day.)
(But this time is different.)
(This time, I'll protect everyone.)
"Beni-chan!"
A voice.
Beni raised her head.
Two people ran through the rain.
It was Nozomi.
Fluffy chestnut medium hair. Two side-tied buns. Slightly droopy brown eyes. A tear mole under her left eye.
She clutched the bear plushie she always carried to her chest.
She wasn't holding an umbrella.
She was soaked to the bone.
"Beni-chan!"
Nozomi flung herself at Beni.
Thin arms wrapped around Beni's back.
Warm.
"Don't carry it alone! Nozomi will always, always be by your side!"
Nozomi's tears fell on Beni's neck.
Warm.
"Nozomi..."
The other one.
Long straight black hair. Half-up. Sharp blue eyes. Triple piercing on her left ear.
It was Hinano.
The wristband on her right wrist was soaked dark with rain.
"Beni."
Hinano gripped Beni's right hand tightly.
"If you're going to disappear, I'll carry it with you."
Her hand was cold.
Not just from the rain.
It was trembling.
Hinano was scared too.
"No matter what happens, I'm your senpai."
Beni looked at both their faces.
Nozomi was crying.
Hinano was biting her lip.
Both of them were looking straight at Beni.
(I wasn't alone.)
(In my past life, I died alone.)
(But in this life—)
Beni smiled.
"...Thank you for coming."
Her voice trembled.
"I'm happy."
Tears ran down her cheeks, mixing with the rain.
11:47 PM.
The light changed from red to green.
Beni's body went rigid.
(Here it comes.)
(Just like my past-life memory.)
From far away, an engine.
Getting louder.
Getting closer.
From across the intersection, a white light.
A truck.
A large truck running the red light.
Barreling into the intersection at full speed.
"Beni-chan!"
Nozomi screamed.
"Watch out!"
Hinano tried to pull Beni's hand.
But Beni didn't move.
(I was fated to die here.)
(But today is different.)
Beni saw.
In the middle of the intersection.
A girl stood frozen.
A middle schooler, maybe.
Holding an umbrella, looking at her phone.
Wearing earphones.
She hadn't noticed the truck.
—Runa Yamagishi.
The girl from the photo Kansokusha showed her.
The girl who was supposed to fall ill as the cost of saving Nozomi.
(She's here.)
(The girl who fell ill because of me.)
(But now, she's about to die here.)
(The Fate Correction Mechanism is targeting her.)
Beni started running.
"Beni!?"
Hinano's voice came from far away.
Rain pelted her face.
The truck closed in.
A horn.
The scream of brakes.
She wouldn't make it in time.
But she would make it.
Beni lunged at the girl.
With both hands, she shoved the girl's body with all her strength.
"Kya!"
The girl fell onto the asphalt.
—In that instant.
The world warped.
The air shuddered.
Sound vanished.
Raindrops stopped in midair.
Time stopped.
(This is the Fate Correction Mechanism.)
(My actions changed fate.)
(The Correction Mechanism redirects its aim.)
(At me.)
Light descended.
From the sky.
A white pillar of light.
It pierced Beni's body from directly above.
"Beni-chan!!"
Nozomi's scream.
"Beni!!!"
Hinano's scream.
Agony.
Her body was torn apart.
Her bones shattered.
Her organs burned.
(It hurts.)
(It hurts it hurts it hurts.)
(But—)
(This is fine.)
(If I can take their place.)
(If I can protect everyone—)
The light enveloped everything.
Beni's consciousness cut off there.
The light subsided.
The rain had stopped.
Beni was standing.
In the middle of the intersection.
The truck was gone.
The traffic light, the neon, the people.
Everything was wrapped in silence.
As if only sound had been plucked from the world.
"Beni-chan!"
Nozomi ran over.
"Beni-chan, are you okay!? Please, answer me!"
Nozomi touched Beni's body.
Warm.
There was sensation.
(I'm alive.)
Beni looked at her hands.
Right hand.
There.
It moved.
Left hand.
—Not there.
From the shoulder down, completely gone.
The sleeve embraced air.
"...My hand."
Beni murmured.
Nozomi looked at Beni's left shoulder.
"Beni-chan, your hand... your hand is gone...!"
Nozomi's face twisted in terror.
Hinano ran over.
"No way... don't disappear! Please, Beni, don't disappear!"
Hinano gripped Beni's right hand with both of hers.
A strong grip.
Trembling.
"I haven't given you anything back yet! You saved me, and I haven't done anything!"
Hinano's tears fell on the asphalt where the rain's traces remained.
"Please... don't disappear from in front of me..."
Beni looked at both their faces.
Nozomi and Hinano were both crying.
(I protected them.)
(Nozomi and Hinano-senpai.)
(And that girl.)
(Everyone's alive.)
Beni smiled.
"...If I could protect everyone, that's enough."
Her voice was hoarse.
But she was definitely smiling.
"Even if my body disappears, if everyone's alive, then that's—"
"No! No, Beni-chan!"
Nozomi clung to Beni.
"Nozomi can't do it without you, Beni-chan! Streaming together, laughing together, together...!"
Nozomi's tears soaked into Beni's chest.
Warm.
"Nozomi."
Beni stroked Nozomi's head with her right hand.
"I love your smile the most, Nozomi."
"Beni-chan...!"
Nozomi sobbed.
—Then.
The rain started falling again.
Drip. Drip.
Cold droplets fell on Beni's cheek.
And Beni's body was wrapped in a faint light.
"Well done."
A voice.
On the other side of the intersection.
A black coat.
A tall man with black hair slicked back.
Gray eyes.
The outline of his face was blurred.
Kansokusha.
"Yakumo Beni. You struck back at the Fate Correction Mechanism."
Kansokusha approached slowly.
"But the cost is not over yet."
Beni glared at Kansokusha.
"...I know."
Kansokusha stopped.
"For every person you save, your existence disappears."
His words mixed with the rain and reached Beni's ears.
"You saved Nozomi. You saved Hinano. You saved Runa Yamagishi. For each one, you disappear."
"That's fine."
Beni looked straight at Kansokusha.
"I have no regrets."
Kansokusha's gray eyes wavered for a moment.
Pity.
Or perhaps something else.
"...I see."
Kansokusha smiled faintly.
"But that is only the prologue."
"...What did you say."
"Every time you save someone, someone else is hurt. And you yourself disappear. That is the cost of rewinding."
Kansokusha stepped back once.
"The true cost begins now."
Leaving those words, Kansokusha's figure melted into the darkness and vanished.
Only the rain continued to fall quietly.
"...The true cost."
Beni murmured.
Her left hand was completely gone.
And the fingertips of her right arm had begun to turn faintly transparent.
"Beni-chan, your right hand too..."
Nozomi said in a shaking voice.
"...It's okay."
Beni smiled at Nozomi.
"I'm still here."
Hinano supported Beni's right shoulder.
"...Let's go."
Hinano's voice was trembling.
But it was strong.
"Until you disappear, I'll support you. That's a senpai's job, right?"
Nozomi held Beni's right hand.
"Nozomi will support you too."
Beni looked at both their faces, one then the other.
(I'm happy.)
(Even if I disappear, I—)
"...Thank you."
The three of them began to walk slowly through the rain.
Beni's body still glowed faintly.
The transparency of her right arm spread little by little.
But Beni was smiling.
(I won't disappear yet.)
(Until I do, I'll be with everyone.)
The rain quietly washed away the city of Shibuya.
Far away, Kansokusha's voice mixed with the rain and could be heard.
"—Next, it's what you choose."
That voice reached no one.
Only the sound of rain fell quietly, quietly, without end.
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