Chapter 135: The Summer That Will Eventually Come at the End of the Volume

Twenty years ago, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The warm afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps in the green shade, licking the surface of the rough stone platform at the train station.

The iron rails, marked by the passage of years, trembled, indicating the timetable was not delayed and that the next train was approaching.

"Ye Chun? Ye Chun? Hey, Ye Chun!"

A voice that seemed long buried in distant memories kept echoing by her ear, bringing the dazed girl back to her senses.

Ye Chun blinked and looked at the girl in a school uniform beside her.

She touched the strands of hair on her forehead and showed an embarrassed smile: "Sorry... Xiye Ayaka, I probably stayed up too late reading manga last night and accidentally fell asleep."

"Huh? You can fall asleep while standing, Ye Chun? You're really amazing—if that's the case, isn't it dangerous to stand so far forward?"

However, Xiye Ayaka didn't care much about such small matters; she leaned over and asked curiously: "What manga could keep you up so late? Recommend it to me?"

So Ye Chun chatted with her classmate who was heading home along the same route after school about the currently serialized shonen manga.

The manga's plot was very good, the art was exquisite, and most importantly, she still had several tankobon volumes she hadn't finished reading, so she could continue adventuring with the protagonist when she got home at night.

Chatting with Xiye Ayaka, who could easily read the atmosphere, was also very easy.

And tomorrow was the Golden Week holiday, so she could sleep until the afternoon after staying up late, and there would be no more teachers asking them to go to school to help with the school festival.

But Ye Chun always felt that something was wrong.

Something very, very important had been accidentally forgotten by her.

Just like a dream—even though she felt she had experienced so much, upon waking she couldn't remember anything, and even the last bit of longing would be quickly crushed by the chaotic daily life.

Like sand between fingers, no matter how hard she tried, she could not change the ending that had flowed away completely.

Boarding the clattering train, Ye Chun placed both hands on her knees covered by a long skirt and quietly gazed at the golden-red sky.

"Xiye Ayaka." Ye Chun suddenly spoke; the short-haired girl gripped her classmate's palm and said seriously, "I always feel like I've forgotten something important."

"I get it, I get it~ because I often have this feeling too!"

Xiye Ayaka drew a circle in the air with her other hand and put on a serious expression: "As expected, Stand Users attract each other, right!"

Ye Chun watched Xiye Ayaka strike a pose from the manga JOJO and knew she wasn't taking her words seriously.

But that was normal.

Girls their age who also liked manga were a high-risk group for chuunibyou, always inexplicably fantasizing about things that didn't exist in reality at all.

Superpowers with different effects, forgotten and buried historical pasts, youkai exorcists, mononoke, and such.

These hot-blooded and conventional fantasy stories could always easily tug at the heartstrings of these boys and girls.

And every teenager who had read these stories had fantasized more than once that they were the protagonist of the story, possessing a bloodline or ability that was still sleeping.

But in reality, where would such things exist?

Ye Chun, who liked reading manga, understood this principle best.

But...

She murmured: "This time is different."

Although she couldn't say what was different, the incredibly strong intuition in her heart told her so.

And before this, her intuition had never been wrong—whether it was choosing one of four options in a multiple-choice exam, or deciding whether to buy a manga volume.

After parting with Xiye Ayaka, who got off two stops before her house, Ye Chun sat up straight, which was rare for her.

She clenched both fists, closed her eyes, furrowed her brow tightly, and searched every corner of the intricate pathways in her brain with all her strength for every trace of memory.

Ye Chun even traced her memories back from today to the night when she was three, when she accidentally wet the bed while sleeping and was scolded soundly by her parents who were woken up.

But not a single thing was related to what she had forgotten.

Not one.

These things were too ordinary, too ordinary to even qualify to enter her dreams.

Ye Chun had long been accustomed to these things that happened every day, every week, every month, every year.

Ding ding ding.

The sound of the train stopping at the station suddenly rang out, making the girl shiver all over.

She opened her eyes, and what came into view was the old platform not far from home that hadn't changed at all in several years.

Ordinary and commonplace.

Ye Chun got off the train feeling somewhat strange, walked several circles around this dilapidated little station, but found nothing unusual.

Until the "ding ding ding" sound rang out again.

Ye Chun's heart shrank, she suddenly turned around, and saw the rear of the old train gradually moving away.

An indescribable sense of relief rose from the bottom of her heart.

"It's the train..."

She blinked and thought uncertainly in her heart: "The thing I forgot, is it related to the train?"

Ye Chun took out her flip phone from her small leather bag, and then walked toward the direction of her home while holding the phone.

In 2004, if it weren't for the fact that there weren't so many cars on the streets of big cities yet, and most were bicycles coming and going, let alone that Ye Chun lived in a remote place in Hamamatsu City.

Living in such a rural place, Ye Chun naturally didn't have the good habit of "not looking at her phone while walking on the road."

At most, she would put down her phone when crossing the road, and at other times she would pick it up again.

—Even if she wasn't searching for supernatural events related to "trains" like today, she would browse 2ch or check manga news.

But until she reached the doorway of her home, until the sun was almost completely set, Ye Chun still hadn't found any useful information.

As soon as she searched for "train" related topics, the forum popped up with various discussions and popular science from railway otaku and researchers about active and retired trains, as well as related Q&A posts.

Although having this knowledge on the 2ch forum was good, it wasn't what Ye Chun wanted to find.

"Sigh."

Sighing, Ye Chun took out her key, unlocked the front door of her home, entered the threshold, and while taking off her shoes, said: "I'm back."

No one answered.

The girl's nose tip twitched, catching the scent of steaming hot food, and listened further — the daily news broadcast and the clatter of cooking crowded in together from the threshold into her ears.

She waited a bit more, but didn't even get a "welcome home" from her younger brother.

"As expected, he's my real younger brother..."

Ye Chun clicked her tongue in displeasure, having one hundred percent reason to believe that guy was currently leaning against the bed reading the manga she'd bought.

Sure enough, the moment she reached the living room, Old Mother's voice came from the lively kitchen: "Xiao Chun, dinner will be ready soon, go call your younger brother down from upstairs to eat!"

"Okay, okay..."

Ye Chun waved her hand, climbed the stairs wearing large slippers, and twisted open her own room door without even knocking.

Ask why she didn't knock?

Joke's on you, this is her own room, why would she need to knock to enter?

As for what might happen if she doesn't knock... Ye Chun thought as long as she isn't embarrassed, the embarrassed one is just her younger brother.

But this time, as expected, nothing embarrassing happened.

She poked her head in to look at the manga in her younger brother's hand, and gave a noncommittal hum.

Ye Chun raised half a thumb, then flopped down hard: "Death Note may be good, but didn't I say already—!"

With a strange cry, Ye Chun began fiercely yanking her younger brother's cheeks: "How many times have I said not to eat cookies and snacks in my room! Are you deaf!!!"

"Big sis I was wrong sorry—!"

The two horsed around in the room again.

Until Old Mother's summons climbed up the stairs once more, only then did Ye Chun reluctantly let go, staring at her younger brother rubbing his bright red cheeks, raising a fist not even half the size of a sandbag,

"Next time you do this, I'll summon Platinum Star and give you a good Ora-ing, you hear me, brat!"

The youth in casual wear stood up swaying: "Big sis, are you some hidden Yakuza big sister boss? How come you use tongue-clicking so skillfully too?"

Ye Chun naturally couldn't say this was the product of her fantasizing about becoming the Oyabun of the entire Yamaguchi-gumi.

So she just shrugged: "Just tongue-clicking, you pick it up just by saying it randomly, right."

"What a waste." The youth sighed, "I originally thought if needed, I could join the organization as a Wakagashira, and together with you big sis, unify all of Japan's Yakuza."

He showed off the nonexistent muscle definition on his arm: "Hehe, this is muscle armor only visible to fellow superpower users like me!"

A thick wave of Chuunibyou hit her face, making Ye Chun's scalp a bit numb — her younger brother happened to be in his second year of junior high, so his Chuunibyou was flaring up this intensely, huh.

Can't afford to mess with him, can't afford to mess with him.

Ye Chun was just about to go downstairs when she heard the sound of a manga closing along with a question,

"Hey, big sis."

Her younger brother asked: "If one day you really picked up a supernatural item similar to Death Note, what would you do? Punish evil and promote good like the manga protagonist, or would you hand it over to the police?"

Ye Chun asked casually without turning her head: "You picked one up?"

She didn't notice the momentary unnaturalness in the youth's expression behind her, just stepped on the stairs, then touched her chin and thought for a good while.

Then raised a finger: "If it were me, I'd definitely keep it for myself."

Only then did Ye Chun turn her head, seriously: "Even if not used to punish evil and promote good, just using it to make money could let us move to a bigger house, buy more manga, let you get into a better university, let Dad and Mom retire earlier."

The youth sighed: "Big sis you're too lacking in ambition, normally don't people want to change the world?"

"Who asked me to be this kind of person." Ye Chun crossed her arms, unashamedly pointing at herself with her thumb, "The so-called first-class good-for-nothing 'otaku', that's talking about someone like me!"

"Damn it..."

The youth muttered listlessly as he passed by Ye Chun: "Then I'd definitely do all the above first before changing the world."

"Compared to this, little brother you'd better think about how to achieve an overtaking on the curve during winter cram school."

Ye Chun put her arm around him and walked downstairs: "Otherwise you'll end up in a crappy school, and even with superpowers you won't be able to date a beautiful girl from the main campus~"

"Is that so?" The youth's eyes turned determined in an instant.

"Would big sis ever lie to you!" Ye Chun coaxed patiently, "Although good schools don't necessarily have cute beautiful girls, the worst schools definitely don't have cute beautiful girls."

So the youth nodded vigorously: "Then I'll study."

Huh?

The sun rose from the west? Two moons rose in the sky?

Ye Chun blinked, not understanding why her always-failed persuasion to study suddenly succeeded on this ordinary evening.

Connecting it to the previous question... could it be, her younger brother really picked up some supernatural item?

No no no, how could that be possible.

Thinking here, Ye Chun suddenly understood how Xiye Ayaka had viewed her before.

I see.

Ye Chun and her younger brother went downstairs to the living room as usual, got lectured by Old Mother, then sat at the dining table, and after saying "I'll eat now" started wolfing down food.

As if afraid the other would snatch her dishes.

After eating her fill, Ye Chun, free from homework troubles during Golden Week, returned to her room, changed into thin pajamas, and began devouring manga.

As for little brother, naturally she threw the manga out and made him scram back to his room to read.

Ye Chun propped her chin with her hand, and just like that kept reading until nearly midnight — the manga plot was simply too attractive, to the point the girl didn't know where she'd thrown the train matter.

But '04 isn't '24, people who stay up past midnight in this year are still few.

At least Ye Chun isn't.

Reluctantly setting aside the half-read manga, Ye Chun ended a day almost no different from every past holiday.

Next up, wash up and sleep.

Thinking thus, Ye Chun climbed up from the soft warm bed, wanting to close the curtains beside her.

But just as she walked to the window side, Ye Chun suddenly discovered a small ornament like a model on the window sill.

She looked closely and discovered it was a model of a train station.

On the station sign were clearly written four characters—【Kisaragi Station】.

"Kisaragi Station……"

Ye Chun pulled back the curtain, staring fixedly at this inexplicably appeared, yet outwardly ordinary little ornament.

Her inner intuition told her—whether to reach out and touch it now would be an action that would change her life.

Ye Chun had never felt her heart beat as fast as it did at this moment, as if it would burst out of her chest the next moment.

So, should she reach out her hand?

—But before asking this question, she first had to ask herself whether she was satisfied with her current life.

Ye Chun lowered her head, lost in thought.

Then the girl reached an answer.

—Without a doubt, she was satisfied.

Her parents' relationship was harmonious and neither had any major health problems; usually, Old Mother would buy or make whatever she wanted to eat, and Old Father would secretly slip money into her hand, telling her not to let her mother know.

Her younger brother at home was a bit chuunibyou, but was definitely a good person.

At school she didn't have any particularly close friends, but there were plenty she could chat with endlessly, let alone the legendary bullying incidents.

Ye Chun felt that her life so far, though not exactly a big winner who had it all, could definitely be called happy.

—So, should she reach out her hand?

Gazing at the "Kisaragi Station" ornament on the window sill, Ye Chun silently swallowed her saliva and slowly raised her hand, hovering in midair.

Then, with prepared resolve and determination, without the slightest hesitation, she grasped the Kisaragi Station ornament.

Because if she hesitated and considered any longer, Ye Chun thought she would definitely give up grasping this once-in-a-lifetime fantastical color before her eyes for the sake of her current ordinary and joyful life.

In that case, though she would continue to be happy as now, she would definitely regret it.

Ye Chun did not want to regret.

Thus, at the instant her fingertip touched Kisaragi Station, Ye Chun felt something deep in her memory shatter with a slap.

Next, that segment of memory of "being sent back to today twenty years ago" unfolded bit by bit, telling her exactly what she had forgotten before.

And the next moment, countless memories were displayed before Ye Chun's eyes like a film strip, waiting for her to flip through.

Following that came ownership and usage rights of the mononoke "Kisaragi Station."

—After dying at Kisaragi Station, Ye Chun inherited everything of it; that was the relationship between the two.

"Uesugi-kun……I'm back."

Ye Chun murmured silently, recalling the last instant she drove her SUV out of the tunnel, then surveying this strange yet familiar room arrangement, she couldn't help but shed tears.

The girl hugged the station model and slumped to the ground.

She opened her mouth wide and began to wail soundlessly.

Tears fell like rain, into the warm moonlight of early summer.

May 5, 2004, Beginning of Summer.

That year, Ye Chun was eighteen years old.

In her eighteenth summer,

began.

——Second Volume · The Summer That Will Eventually Come · End——

(End of Chapter)