A dream that ends in light. A friend who always walks ahead. And a message that changes everything.
Ichinose Taichi has had the same dream three times now—Touma turning back to smile at him on the road to school, then a blinding flash, then nothing. He tells himself it's just a dream. But when a message from his quiet classmate Kuze Futaba arrives out of nowhere, asking to talk, Taichi feels it: something is about to change.
In a fading seaside town where the shipyard closed and the young peop
Blue Flag: To Change the Lost Future - The Headlight Nightmare and Crossing Feelings
Morning light slanted through the classroom windows.
Taichi stared down at the phone on his desk, eyes lowered. The screen still showed Touma's message from last night, open and unanswered.
*"You wanna swing by the Minato café by the station tomorrow? I'll at least hear you out."*
He still hadn't typed a reply.
*(What am I even supposed to say to him?)*
Taichi touched the back of his neck with his right hand. It was damp with sweat.
Second day of the second term. The classroom buzzed from morning with students still clinging to the remnants of summer break. Taichi couldn't join that circle. No—he wouldn't.
*(Another day begins.)*
He shoved the phone into his pocket.
*(How's Futaba doing, I wonder.)*
Kuze Futaba. A girl in his class. Member of the gardening club. Yesterday after school, Taichi had walked home with her and Touma—the three of them together.
Touma had listened to Futaba talk with genuine delight. And Futaba, nervous as she was, had smiled like she was happy.
*(Maybe those two will work out.)*
Taichi murmured it in his head.
*(But me—)*
He was using Futaba. To investigate the fate of Touma's death. To protect Touma.
*(I'm doing something terrible to her.)*
Guilt spread slowly through his chest. But the fear of losing Touma was bigger. Much bigger.
Taichi stood.
He left the classroom and walked the hallway. The air of late summer drifted in through the open windows. The smell of sweat. The smell of disinfectant.
*(Right—I had printouts to drop off at the staff room.)*
His homeroom teacher had asked him to deliver them yesterday.
He turned the corner. The staff room was just ahead.
Taichi stopped.
Touma was there.
And beside him stood a girl.
Yagihara Mami. A girl from Class D, same year. Hair loosely curled, skirt hemmed short.
Her reputation among other girls wasn't good. She spoke roughly to every boy—except Touma.
"Morning, Touma-kun."
Her voice echoed down the hall. Sweet. Clinging.
Taichi instinctively ducked behind cover.
*(Mami...)*
"Oh—Mami. Morning."
Touma answered with a smile.
Mami stepped closer. Too close.
"Touma-kun, club again today? Do your best, okay?"
She touched his arm, gently.
"Yeah, thanks. Come cheer for me again, yeah?"
Touma didn't seem bothered at all.
Mami didn't let go of his arm.
"Of course. I'm looking forward to your match."
Her smile was flawless.
But Taichi thought he saw something else behind it.
*(Is Mami plotting something against Touma?)*
His guard went up.
Then it happened.
A boy came walking down the hall from the far end. A first-year on the baseball team.
"Ah—Yagihara-senpai, good morning."
The underclassman greeted her.
Mami's smile—the one meant for Touma—vanished in an instant.
"Huh? What're you looking at? Annoying."
The boy flinched.
"S-sorry!"
He fled.
Mami turned back to Touma.
"Sorry about that, Touma-kun. Some weirdo bothered me."
She gave him that sweet smile again.
*(That switch is terrifying.)*
A chill ran down Taichi's spine.
She used that soft voice only for Touma. And she was that cold to every other boy.
*(Mami has some bad intentions toward Touma.)*
The discomfort in his gut was close to certainty.
Then—
Mami glanced toward Taichi.
Just for a moment.
But definitely.
Her eyes met his—cold and sharp as ice.
Something cold crawled from Taichi's neck down to his waist.
*(That just now...)*
*(She saw me.)*
Mami turned back to Touma at once and smiled as if nothing had happened.
"See you, Touma-kun."
She waved and walked off down the hall.
As she passed Taichi, she murmured—barely audible.
"...Don't go sticking your nose in."
The words reached only his ears.
Taichi couldn't move.
*(Mami's watching me.)*
*(Does she know I'm trying to protect Touma?)*
Something pounded hard in his chest.
Touma hadn't noticed him. He went straight into the staff room.
Taichi stood alone in the hallway.
*(Something's moving around Touma.)*
*(Futaba. Masumi. And Mami.)*
*(Can I protect him?)*
He clenched his fist.
Morning light stretched long across the hall. His shadow lay black on the floor.
Far off, the first bell rang.
Taichi headed to class with heavy steps.
After school. The light through the classroom windows had weakened.
Taichi checked his phone.
A message from Futaba.
*"Ichinose-kun. Would you come to the greenhouse again today? I want to thank you for yesterday."*
He replied briefly: "Got it."
*(Futaba was happy about walking home together yesterday.)*
*(But I—)*
He blamed himself.
*(I'm using her kindness.)*
Taichi stood.
He left the classroom, changed shoes at the lockers, and circled around the back of the building.
Behind Aohama High. That's where the gardening club's greenhouse stood. Glass-walled. Eight meters by twelve. Thirty years old.
The glass glowed dully in the evening light.
Taichi stood before it. Peering inside, he saw a figure.
A girl with chestnut hair in a loose braid.
Kuze Futaba.
He took a breath, then opened the door.
Stifling heat wrapped around him, thick with the smell of soil and plants.
"Ah... Ichinose-kun."
Futaba turned. Her big, pale-brown eyes wavered, a little anxious. Her palms were covered in small bandages.
"Thank you for coming."
She fidgeted, fingers laced together.
"It's fine. So—what's this thank-you about?"
He tried to sound as gentle as he could.
Futaba looked down. Stray hairs clung to her cheek with sweat.
"Yesterday—walking home with you and Touma-kun—I was really, really happy."
Her voice lifted slightly.
"Touma-kun listened to me so much. About the gardening club, about plants. It was so much fun."
She raised her face and looked at Taichi.
"It's thanks to you, Ichinose-kun. Thank you."
Her smile was like a flower blooming in the greenhouse.
Taichi couldn't look at it directly.
"...I didn't really do anything."
He averted his eyes.
*(I'm using you.)*
*(And still, you thank me.)*
His chest tightened.
Futaba tilted her head slightly, as if noticing.
"Ichinose-kun?"
"...It's nothing."
He shook his head slightly.
Futaba gazed at him.
"You know, Ichinose-kun... you really worry about Touma-kun, don't you."
Taichi stopped breathing.
Her words pierced him.
"Yesterday too—you were right beside him, watching him the whole time. I noticed."
She looked down, as if she wanted to say more.
"...He's precious to you, isn't he."
Taichi was at a loss for words.
*(No. I just—)*
*(I just want to protect him.)*
*(But I can't tell her that.)*
He couldn't say anything.
Silence filled the greenhouse.
Futaba seemed to read something else into his silence. She smiled, a little lonely.
"...I'm sorry. That was a strange thing to say."
She went back to tending a potted plant on the verge of dying.
"This one looks like it's wilting again. I think I overwatered it."
She touched the dry leaves gently.
Her profile looked somehow forlorn.
Taichi watched her back.
*(I'm using Futaba for my own convenience.)*
*(I can't look away from that.)*
He touched the back of his neck with his right hand.
The sweat wouldn't stop.
"...I should head home."
He forced the words out.
"Oh—yeah. Thank you, Ichinose-kun."
She turned and gave a small wave.
Taichi left the greenhouse.
Outside, it was fully dark. A lukewarm summer night wind blew.
He went down Hell Slope and headed home.
No one was home. His mother hadn't returned from work yet.
Taichi went to his room and collapsed onto the bed, still in uniform.
He stared at the ceiling.
The day spun around and around in his head.
Mami's sudden switch. Mami's cold stare. Futaba's lonely profile.
*(I'm exhausted.)*
He closed his eyes.
Before he knew it, he was asleep.
Light streaks past.
Touma turns around. His face—smiling.
And the world goes white—
No.
This time it's different.
In the dream, Taichi saw it clearly.
Touma turns. Smiles.
And beyond him—
Two round lights.
White. Blinding. Two lights.
They come straight at Touma.
Beneath the lights, a dark shape. The outline of a body. Tires. A hood. A windshield.
A car.
The car bears down on Touma.
Touma is still smiling. He hasn't noticed.
"Touma!!"
Taichi screams.
But no sound comes out. His body won't move.
The car hits him—
"—!!"
Taichi bolted upright.
His heart pounded wildly. He was drenched in sweat.
With trembling hands, he grabbed the phone by his pillow.
Three in the morning.
Cold sweat ran down his back.
*(A car.)*
*(Touma gets hit by a car.)*
*(He dies in a traffic accident.)*
Taichi was certain.
Before, it had only been a white flash. But not now.
Those were headlights.
*(I don't know the time or the place.)*
*(But the cause of death—that's clear now.)*
Taichi hugged himself. The shaking wouldn't stop.
*(Touma is going to die.)*
*(Right in front of me.)*
He couldn't sleep. He stared at the ceiling, trembling, until dawn.
Morning came.
Taichi had barely slept. He changed into his uniform.
He looked in the mirror. His face was awful.
*(But I have to go to school.)*
He slung on his backpack.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Touma.
*"Taichi, let's go to school together today. I'll be waiting."*
Taichi stared at the words.
*(With Touma.)*
He had turned down Touma's invitations countless times before.
*(But today—)*
He typed a reply.
*"Got it. I'll be there."*
*(I won't leave Touma alone.)*
*(I'll protect him.)*
Taichi left the house.
At the bottom of Hell Slope, Touma was waiting.
"Taichi! Morning!"
Touma spotted him and waved.
"...Morning."
Taichi answered quietly.
"Man, it's been forever since we walked to school together!"
Touma grinned, happy.
"...Yeah, it has."
Taichi fell into step beside him.
They started up Hell Slope. A steep hill—twelve percent at its worst. The morning sun baked the asphalt.
Touma chattered on brightly, as always.
"I saw Mami yesterday. She said she'd come cheer for me."
Mami's name, from Touma's mouth. Taichi's chest tightened.
"...Mami's only that nice to you, you know."
He said it like probing.
"Yeah? She's normal, isn't she?"
Touma didn't seem to care.
*(She's not normal.)*
*(There's definitely something there.)*
Taichi muttered it in his head.
Then—
*Kiiiiii—!!*
A sharp screech of brakes echoed from the bottom of the slope. Then a horn.
Taichi spun around as if struck.
At the intersection below, a car had stopped dead.
Its headlights glowed white in the morning light. Two of them.
*(A car.)*
*(Headlights.)*
Last night's dream flashed through his mind.
Touma turns. Smiles. Light streaks past.
"Whoa, that was close."
Touma turned around, laughing.
The motion overlapped with the dream.
Taichi's whole body froze. His breath stopped.
*(Touma turned around.)*
*(The car's lights.)*
*(Same as the dream.)*
He was shaking.
"Hey, Taichi? You look pale."
Touma peered into his face.
"...It's nothing."
Taichi tried to smile. But his throat was dry, and his voice shook.
"You sure? You've been weird all morning."
Touma put a hand on his shoulder, worried.
"...I'm fine. Let's go."
Taichi gently removed Touma's hand.
*(I have to protect him.)*
*(I have to protect Touma.)*
He forced his trembling legs forward.
He entered the classroom and sat at his desk.
He checked his phone.
A message from Futaba. Sent late last night.
He opened it.
*"Touma-kun seems to be with Yagihara-san a lot lately... What should I do?"*
Taichi stared at the words.
*(Futaba's anxious about Mami too.)*
*(About Mami getting close to Touma.)*
His fingers stopped over the reply.
Mami's sweet smile. The nightmare of the headlights. The two overlapped in his head.
*(Is Mami involved in Touma's death?)*
Groundless suspicion spread through his chest like black sediment.
*(Mami would—)*
*(No. I'm overthinking.)*
*(But what if—)*
Taichi shook his head.
The noise of the classroom sounded far away. Laughter from classmates. Cheerful conversation.
Taichi stood alone in the middle of it.
*(Can I protect Touma?)*
*(Can I k
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