Gray Wings No Longer Needed ~I'll Protect Your Tomorrow~ - The Reversed Hourglass

――I hear a voice. Someone is crying. Far away. Darkness surrounds me. I stand still. Nothing beneath my feet. No sky. No walls. But the voice is clear. Crying. A voice so familiar it tears my chest apart. "...Yui?" She was there. Deep in the dark. Soft brown hair falling past her shoulders. A small flower hairpin swaying on her left braid. Not the smile I loved. Tears stream endlessly from her large eyes. She stared at me. Her mouth moves desperately. Trying to tell me something. But I can't hear her. Like a thick glass wall stands between us. Only her lips move. The words never reach me. "Yui!" I reach out. My fingers almost touch her――. 　◇◇◇ I woke up. My heart pounds. Sweat soaks my whole body. The room is still dark. Outside the window, the sky is dyed indigo. Dawn is close. "...A dream." My voice was hoarse. I grab my phone from the bedside. Turn on the screen. The brightness stings my eyes. Tuesday. 5:17 AM. And then I see it. The last message from Yui. 'I'm done with you!' From a month ago. That day, we fought over something stupid. We were supposed to meet at Kawase Station. I was just ten minutes late. But Yui was genuinely angry. She got on the train without me. On her way home, she... I put the phone face down. The screen's warmth lingers on my palm. My eyes catch the blue friendship bracelet on my right wrist. Yui gave it to me in middle school. For my birthday. The threads are worn out now. The color has faded. I look out the window. Two blocks away. A two-story house. Yui's house. Flower planters line the balcony. The flowers are almost dead now. One month since that day. Yui is gone. And yet, I'm still here. In Minase City. Hibari-ga-Oka housing complex. Wasting each day like drawing lines in a notebook. (If I hadn't been late. If I had apologized properly that day.) I've thought about it so many times. I know thinking changes nothing. I've known that for a long time. But I can't stop thinking. I sigh. I'm about to put the phone away――that's when it happened. An unfamiliar icon on my home screen. It wasn't there yesterday. An hourglass icon. Spinning backwards. The app name: "Modorino-Tokei." "What is this?" I don't remember installing any weird apps. But it sits right in the center of my home screen. Like it's always been there. My finger moved on its own. I tap it. The app opens. The screen is pitch black. Only white text floats up. 【Tomorrow's News】 'Stabbing incident at Kawase Station, Minase City. Victim is a high school girl. Suspect currently at large.' My heart jolted. "――A high school girl?" The news shows the date, time, and location. Tomorrow――no, today. Tuesday. 6:00 PM. The rotary in front of Kawase Station. A bad feeling hit me. (Yui's dream. Her crying face. Desperately trying to tell me something.) Was she trying to let me know? That there's still time. Help me. "...Idiot." I muttered it. Like I'm telling myself. Yui is already dead. I went to her funeral. I visited her grave. And yet, just because some app appears, what am I even hoping for? But I couldn't look away. At the bottom of the screen, a countdown is running. Numbers that seem like remaining time. Decreasing. One second at a time. 　05:47:33 　05:47:32 　05:47:31 The clock hands looked like they were spinning backwards. 　◇◇◇ Time for school. I put on my uniform. The navy gakuran of Minase Minami High School. My face in the mirror looks more normal than I expected. Deep brown eyes. Slightly droopy. Short black hair. Messy. A small scar on the edge of my left eyebrow. From when I fell playing with Yui as a kid. Height: 172 cm. Slim. But I think I'm decent at sports. But today, the uniform blazer felt unbearably heavy. I leave the house. Riding my bike through the housing complex roads. The April air is still cold. The wind stings my neck. I pass by Yui's house. I hit the brakes. The second-floor balcony. Flower planters lined up. Yui loved flowers. She always talked happily about wanting to do flower arrangement as a career. The flowers in those planters are dead now. No one to water them. Not since she's been gone. I remembered something. From elementary school. There's a river in Minase City called the Asase River. Every August, they hold a lantern floating festival. Three thousand lanterns drifting on the water. A beautiful festival. Yui and I went to that lantern floating together. 'Let's promise. To always be together.' Yui's voice comes back to me. 'Yeah. Promise.' My voice answering her. "...I couldn't keep it." My voice leaked out. On the empty road. I couldn't protect Yui. That day's fight. The accident after. All of it. I push the pedal. The bike moves forward. The wind stung my eyes. 　◇◇◇ I arrived at the classroom. Minase Minami High School sits on the south bank of the Asase River. Mid-slope on a hill. About seven hundred students. A pretty normal public school. Class 2's room. Window side. Last row. That's my seat. Diagonally in front of me. That was Yui's seat. An empty desk and chair. No one touches them. No one talks about them. But just being there, they remain. Like proof she existed. "Morning." I just raise a hand vaguely at my classmate's voice. Classes were a blur. What I wrote in my notebook wasn't math formulas. It was the news from earlier. Kawase Station. 6:00 PM. Stabbing incident. If this is real, someone gets stabbed this evening. If this is connected to Yui. If I can do something. (But how?) I don't even know how I got this app. I don't know if the news is real. It could just be a prank. Thinking that, it suddenly felt ridiculous. 　◇◇◇ After school. Sunset pours into the empty classroom. From the window, I can see the southern hills. Far away, the chimney at the old Kanemitsu Factory site casts a shadow. Still sitting at my desk, I opened Modorino-Tokei again. It's still there. The backwards-spinning hourglass. Flickering. The news hasn't changed. 'Stabbing incident at Kawase Station, Minase City. Victim is a high school girl. Suspect currently at large.' 6:00 PM. It's 3:30 PM now. Two and a half hours left. The countdown is still moving. 　02:29:17 　02:29:16 "...What the hell is this?" My voice trembled. My fingers tighten around the phone. Hard enough to crack the screen. If this is real. If Yui is trying to tell me something. "I'll protect them. This time." The words I muttered dissolved into the sunset. I still don't know what I can do. How to change the future. How to use this app. The cost. Nothing. Even so. (I don't want to lose anyone again.) Never again. Not anymore. Staring at the countdown numbers, I steeled my resolve. Outside the window, cherry blossom branches clatter in the wind. The cold April air seeps into the classroom. The desks and chairs of the empty room stretch their shadows long. Time moves forward. Quietly.

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Episode 1

Name: Gray Wings No Longer Needed ~I'll Protect Your Tomorrow~
Author: Novelia

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