Every morning the same morning comes. So I will keep protecting the one who loves you most.
Haruto lives in an ordinary provincial city, enjoying a peaceful high school life. Clear skies, the same classroom, the unchanging smiles of friends. Every morning his little sister Hina jumps into his bed, his childhood friend Mao greets him with a smile, and his junior Hinata waits for him at the shoe lockers. Haruto has no idea why he's so popular. He just accepts the gentle days as they come.
Then a transfer student named Tsukasa appears. She's a tsundere—always putting up a tough front, ye
Every morning the same morning comes. So I will keep protecting the one who loves you most. - Rewinding Saturday — My Confession That Will Be Erased Tomorrow
It was Saturday evening.
Haruto stood on the bank of the Kiriha River. Yesterday, he had lost Mao and Hinata. No — even "lost" was too gentle a word. They had been erased from the world as if they had never existed. Scraped from the class roster, from everyone's memories, their very existence mowed down. That fact kept tightening around Haruto's chest like a cold hand.
(Why is it only me who remembers?)
The sky was still bright. The setting sun stained the river's surface red. Each time the wind blew, the grass on the embankment rustled. Haruto held his smartphone and reread Tsukasa's message over and over.
"I'll be waiting on the Kiriha River embankment this evening. There's something I want to talk about."
It was a short message. Tsukasa calling him out on her own — that had never happened before. She always put up a brave front, tossed out flippant remarks, came close and then pulled away just as quickly. That girl was waiting there, all alone.
Haruto started walking. Slowly, along the path on top of the embankment. He couldn't get the image out of his head — Tsukasa collapsing in tears on the rooftop last night. "I couldn't protect them," she had repeated, over and over. Protect from what? Repeated what?
There was so much he didn't understand. But right now, he just wanted to see Tsukasa's face.
Tsukasa was standing partway along the embankment.
Her light-brown side ponytail swayed in the evening breeze. The way she brushed her bangs aside with her hand. The small silver piercing on her right ear caught the sunset and glinted for a moment. When she noticed him, she lowered her eyes for just an instant — then slowly raised her face.
"You came."
Her voice was bare — the usual tsundere mask worn thin. Haruto stood before her. Between the two of them, the setting sun cast long shadows.
"I saw your message."
"...I see."
Tsukasa let out a small breath and turned her body toward the river. The sunset lit up her profile. Her amber eyes looked transparent, like honey. But behind them, they were so wet they seemed about to overflow.
"The reason I called you out today..."
She kept her gaze on the river's surface and continued.
"There's something I have to tell you. Something I've never been able to say."
Haruto listened in silence. Tsukasa's back was trembling faintly.
"You know, I... I like you."
The wind blew.
Tsukasa's hair swayed softly. The sunset melted into the river's surface. Haruto couldn't immediately process those words.
"For a long time. From the very beginning. Over and over, again and again, only ever you..."
Tsukasa's voice was shaking. Her shoulders quivered in small spasms.
"I liked you so much, so much, I didn't know what to do with myself."
Haruto couldn't move.
Having just lost Mao and Hinata in quick succession, his heart was numb. He had no room left to receive someone's feelings. Tsukasa's words reached his ears. But they didn't reach the depths of his heart. They slid across the surface and drifted somewhere far away.
(Likes me, she said.)
He couldn't feel the weight of those words.
Tsukasa didn't blame him for his lack of response. She simply turned around slowly.
The moment he saw her face, Haruto's chest gave a tight squeeze.
Tsukasa was crying.
Large tears spilled from her amber eyes, traced down her cheeks, and fell from the tip of her chin. Lit by the sunset, the droplets shone gold. Crying, Tsukasa tried to smile.
"Thank you. For listening."
That smile was more painful to look at than any expression Haruto had ever seen on her.
Behind that smile clung the quiet resignation and prayer of someone who had repeated this confession countless times, only to vanish each time without it ever reaching anyone. Haruto didn't understand why. But Tsukasa's smile looked like a scream.
"Sorry, this is so sudden. But if I don't say it now, I..."
Tsukasa wiped her tears with the back of her hand. But they wouldn't stop. They overflowed one after another, wetting her cheeks.
Haruto took one step closer to her.
He had to say something. He thought so. But no words came. Mao's and Hinata's faces floated up. The smiles of the two who had vanished blocked his throat.
"But you know, tomorrow, I'll be erased too."
Tsukasa's words seeped into the twilight air.
For a moment, Haruto couldn't grasp their meaning.
"...Erased? What do you mean, erased?"
His voice came out hoarse.
Tsukasa didn't answer his question. She just stared straight at him with her tear-soaked eyes.
"I've been protecting them all along. Mao, Hinata, and you. So that no one would be erased, so that no one would die."
Tsukasa's words poured out like a dam breaking.
"I stood on the road side at crosswalks, caught kids about to fall on the stairs, kept everyone away from dangerous places — I watched over them, always, always. Over and over, I repeated the same week, again and again."
(The same week, repeated.)
Those words echoed inside Haruto's head.
"But just protecting them isn't enough to save them."
Tsukasa forced the words out.
"No matter how I protected them, Mao was erased. Hinata was erased. No matter how many times I repeated it, they vanished in the same places, the same way. Nothing I do changes the outcome."
Tsukasa's tears melted into the sunset and disappeared.
"So just protecting isn't enough anymore. Even if I'm erased, if you notice — the world might change."
Haruto desperately tried to understand her words. But the meanings scattered, breaking apart inside his head.
(If I notice, the world changes?)
"There are things only you can do."
Tsukasa took a step closer to him.
The sunset wrapped around them both. The murmur of the river echoed quietly. The scent of Tsukasa's tears reached Haruto's nose.
"Please, Haruto. Don't forget me. Don't forget Mao. Don't forget Hinata."
Tsukasa's hand touched Haruto's chest.
It was a small hand. It was trembling. But from her palm, a definite warmth spread through him.
"Even if I'm erased, you alone — remember me."
In that instant, heat spread slowly across Haruto's left wrist.
An old scar rose faintly red under the sunset. It was pulsing, like a heartbeat.
(Again.)
Haruto looked down at his left wrist. The scar was radiating heat. Tsukasa's words, Mao's words, Hinata's words — they began to overlap in his mind.
"I feel like I've walked this path before."
"For some reason, I feel calm when I'm near you, senpai."
"Even if I'm erased, if you notice—"
(Something is connected.)
Deep in Haruto's chest, something stirred. But what it was hadn't yet taken shape. Like a hazy fog, it slipped away the moment he tried to grasp it.
"You don't have to answer."
Tsukasa slowly stepped away from him.
"I just wanted you to hear it. That's all I need."
Wiping her tears, Tsukasa smiled. That smile looked like it would melt into the sunset and vanish.
"See you, Haruto."
Tsukasa spun around and turned her back.
And then she ran off into the gathering dusk.
Haruto tried to chase after her. His legs wouldn't move. He tried to call her name. His voice wouldn't come.
Tsukasa's retreating figure grew smaller and smaller. Her side ponytail was swallowed by the twilight. The piercing on her right ear glinted one last time.
(Tsukasa-san.)
Haruto stood rooted to the spot.
Only the murmur of the river echoed on, endlessly.
——
Sunday morning.
Haruto greeted the morning having barely slept. In his futon, he replayed Tsukasa's words over and over.
"Tomorrow, I'll be erased too."
(No way.)
Even as he thought that, deep in his chest there was something close to certainty. Mao had vanished. Hinata had vanished. Then it wouldn't be strange if Tsukasa vanished too. No — given the order in which they'd disappeared, it might even be natural.
Haruto sat up with a start.
In the living room, Hina was preparing breakfast. His middle-school sister furrowed her brow the moment she saw his face.
"Big brother, you didn't sleep again? Your face is terrible."
"Something like that."
Haruto left the house with barely a bite of breakfast. Hina said something, but he didn't hear it.
Outside, the sky was clear. The Sunday morning air was cool and pleasant against his skin. Haruto walked at a quick pace along the path by the Kiriha River embankment.
(Tsukasa-san should be at school.)
It was Sunday, yet he had this baseless conviction. Tsukasa was in the classroom. At that seat by the window, waiting alone.
He passed through Tokiwa High School's gate. The school building was dead silent on the holiday. Haruto changed into indoor shoes at the entrance and headed for the second-year Class C classroom.
He opened the classroom door.
No one was there.
Of course not. It was Sunday. But Haruto's eyes went first to the seat by the window.
(It's not there.)
Tsukasa's seat wasn't there.
More precisely, the desk was there. But the nameplate with Tsukasa's name on it wasn't. Nothing was on the desk. As if no one had ever sat there, the desks stood in neat rows.
Haruto looked at the bulletin board at the back of the classroom. The class roster was posted there.
He searched for the names.
Haruto.
(Tsukasa's name isn't there.)
It was the same as with Mao. The same as with Hinata. The world was treating Tsukasa's existence as something that had never been.
Haruto bolted out of the classroom.
He headed for the rooftop. He pushed open the off-limits door.
No one was there.
He went to the library. It was closed on Sundays. But he peered through the window.
No one was there.
Haruto left the school building and headed for Arietta Mall. The shopping mall in front of the station was crowded with people on a Sunday. Haruto ran to Nocto Café on the first floor.
When he opened the café door, the manager, Shiori Maddock, poked her head out from behind the counter. A gentle woman in her forties, always wearing a soft smile.
"Oh, Haruto-kun. How unusual — coming on a Sunday."
"Um, has Tsukasa-san come by?"
Haruto asked, out of breath.
Shiori Maddock tilted her head.
"Tsukasa-san...? I'm sorry, who is that?"
At those words, the strength drained from Haruto's body.
(Just as I thought.)
It had been the same with Mao. The same with Hinata. Everyone had no knowledge of the erased person from the start. The harvesting of memories. Deletion from the world.
"Haruto-kun, you look pale. Sit down, can I get you something?"
"No, I'm fine. Thank you."
Haruto left the café behind.
When he stepped outside Arietta Mall, the Sunday sunlight beat down mercilessly. Families and couples walked by, looking happy. The scene felt like something from a distant world.
Haruto walked alone.
(Mao, Hinata, Tsukasa — all erased.)
(All of them, erased from the world.)
(Only I remember.)
His feet carried him naturally toward the Kiriha River embankment.
——
In the evening, Haruto stood alone on the Kiriha River embankment.
The place where Tsukasa had confessed yesterday. The row of cherry trees he had walked with Mao. The embankment he had run along with Hinata. All of it was here.
The setting sun stained the river's surface red. The same sunset as yesterday. But different from yesterday. Tsukasa wasn't here. Mao wasn't here. Hinata wasn't here.
Haruto put his hand in his pocket. His fingertips touched a scrap of paper.
He pulled it out.
It was a clipping from Mao's novel. In neat handwriting, a single sentence was written.
"That person will remember me even when I forget."
Haruto held the scrap up against the sunset.
(Mao.)
"Even if I forget, remember me."
(Hinata.)
"For some reason, I feel calm when I'm near you, senpai."
(Tsukasa.)
"Even if I'm erased, if you notice — the world might change."
The words of all three overlapped at once in his mind.
That was the moment.
The scar on Haruto's left wrist blazed with heat.
(Hot.)
Haruto clutched his left wrist. The old scar was hot, as if it were burning. It pulsed like a heartbeat. Thump, thump, thump.
(What is this?)
Images flooded into Haruto
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