The Cat That Leaps Through Time: All 10 Episodes — Only the Cat Knows the Gaps in Time
On the slope, there is a gray-and-white cat.
Ryota, pushing his bicycle uphill, one day notices the cat getting ahead of him. His chain comes off, and when he looks up, an unfamiliar town from the past spreads out before him.
People holding on to dreams they were about to give up on. A rival who transferred schools. And himself from one year ago.
The cat says nothing. But each time he climbs the slope, Ryota's time, which had stopped, begins to move forward little by little.
A series of ten inte
The Cat That Leaps Through Time: All 10 Episodes — Only the Cat Knows the Gaps in Time - Bib Number: The Past Can't Be Changed. But Its Meaning Can.
Ryota asked Koji if he could take down the results sheet from the club room wall.
"Take it down and do what with it?"
"I was wondering if I could just have my part."
Koji thought for a moment, then cut out the corner of the results sheet where Ryota's name was written. It was a small scrap of paper.
That night, Ryota peeled off the race bib that was still stuck to his room wall. It had been there for a year, never removed. A faint trace of adhesive remained on the wall.
The bib and the cut-out results sheet. He placed them side by side on his desk.
The moment his fingertip traced the number on the bib, the air in the room changed.
***
The room was less tidy than it was now. Nothing was stuck to the walls yet. He was standing in front of the mirror. It was himself from a year ago—the morning of the race.
Ryota watched.
The younger Ryota was trying to pin the bib to his clothes, redoing it over and over. His hands were trembling.
"Hey—"
He called out, but the younger Ryota didn't look his way. It seemed he couldn't see him.
The self in the mirror stopped moving for a moment, then murmured quietly.
"Today, I don't have to win. I just have to run properly, all the way to the end."
Having said only that, the younger Ryota finished attaching the bib and left the room.
Ryota watched his retreating figure. He couldn't say anything. He couldn't change anything.
The air in the room shifted again.
***
Ryota was standing in his own room. Only the adhesive marks remained on the wall. On the desk were the bib and the cut-out results sheet.
For the first time, Ryota understood what his past self had been thinking that day. He hadn't been aiming for victory from the start. He had only aimed to run to the end.
If that was true, then maybe second place wasn't a failure after all.
Ryota placed the bib on the desk once more. This time, he didn't put it back on the wall. He tucked it into a drawer.
He opened his phone and sent Tatsuya a message.
"Want to run next year's race together?"
The reply came right away.
"I'm in."
That was all. Ryota stared at those words for a while.
The next morning, Ryota climbed Haru Slope. The cat wasn't there at the boundary of the moss.
Even so, Ryota climbed the slope without hesitation.
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