From ANOTHER STORY, by yasu
"Is that window open?"
"Yes, please...oh...nice to see you!"
Nozomi had come to turn in the payment forms for the benefits of her unemployment insurance. Sitting in front of the teller window to wait her turn, the voice of a charming, middle-aged man with white hair reached her. If he had been wearing a business shirt just a little more pristine, he could have been a branch manager in a large corporation.
"Oh, yes. It's nice to see me in a place like this, you mean..."
"Ahaha, it really is. How's this? Where would you like me to see you, instead?"
"Oh, no! They're really strict about that kind of thing, you know, when you get to my age."
"It's really okay. After all, if you just give up, that means nothing can happen. I mean, I'm in the middle of a 14-game losing streak, myself. But I guess since I was turned down already once today, that makes it fifteen, doesn't it? Ahaha."
"It's good if you can look at things so positively...must be nice, being so young."
"It has nothing really to do with optimism, though, it's more that I'm thinking that there has to be something good for me tomorrow."
"Isn't saying something like that called optimism? Well, I suppose...you'd have to believe that there was something good in tomorrow, or you wouldn't be able to say it, right?"
"That's right! Let's both do our best!"
Four months had passed since that strange day.
Nozomi was in the midst of her job search.
After she had been rescued, she regained consciousness to find herself in a hospital bed. The ones who had pulled her from the flames had been some of her former classmates. Then, to make sure that she pulled through all right, they all came to her hospital room again and again to come see her. It was as if their hearts leapt with joy to see Nozomi again for the first time in 20 years. As they talked together, this is how she felt.
She had dearly missed those days in elementary school, having to leave and never return, and her classmates, too, had felt sad because they had no way to reach Nozomi at all. They had really looked forward to listening to her stories, but more than that, they had honestly liked Nozomi as a person very much.
And so, those who learned from the old janitor about Nozomi's secret room always gathered there, during difficult and sad times--and reading the stories that Nozomi had left behind, were given new courage and hope. Though that room had become so important to everyone in the school, time did not stop for it.
Though the classmates from her time had already graduated, the room had been handed down as a sort of tradition, and for some time had come to be called "The Room of Hope" by the students who attended the school.
However, eventually the school had been closed, and so it became impossible for new children to visit the room. But, scores of the graduates from the school raised their voices in saying that they did not want the room to become no more, that Room of Hope that had given them dreams, courage, and hope.
Perhaps it was because it had become something dear for them to hang on to, but, with that desire that was born of simply wanting to save this place, day after day a different person returned to check on it, and, they had managed to protect that room.
And so, on that night as well, being Kazu-kun's night to keep watch, he was able to find her after seeing smoke coming out of the Room of Hope. He had been very surprised. To see what looked like a person's shadow in the room, he was surprised once more. Panicking, he broke the glass of the window, and rescued the person trapped inside. Afterwards, when he discovered that person was Nozomi, he was shocked for a third time.
However, regrettably, everyone's fondly remembered Room of Hope had been burned to the ground, beyond repair.
"I'm sorry...it's my fault..."
"We're just happy that you're all right."
"But...when things were going badly for everyone, you all had to go to that room, right?"
"It's okay, because we all remember everything. All of the stories you wrote."
"That's right, they're all carved on all of our hearts. As we thought, memories are memories after all. From here on, since we were able to meet with you again, Nozomi, after however long it's been, it's all right if we all create a story of the future together."
Since she was a little down at being unable to decide on a new job, Nozomi thought she would try writing stories again. It would be the best thing in the world if she could make that childhood dream she had of becoming a great novelist, come true someday. Of course, she had no idea how, but she thought that now she would give it her best shot, no matter what.
"But even if I do that..." Nozomi thought over and over again.
"What happened in ANOTHER STORY? Unmistakably, the things I could do in that book became reality, and the girl in the story spoke to me...but trying to think about it now with such bitterness, it wasn't that I was foolish in thinking those things...could it be that with my mind hazy, I was just that delusional?"
She thought that she wanted to read the book once more, just to make sure, but the only piece of it spared from the fire was the back cover, so it could no longer be read.
Nozomi, taking the back cover in her hands, looked at it intently. "Hm? There's something stuck in here..."
Stuck between the endpapers and back cover, she found a single scrap of paper. At that moment, Nozomi remembered all of ANOTHER STORY.
The melodies of "love", "dreams", "wisdom", "courage", and "hope" began to spread throughout the world again. "Arc", as well, returned to their original forms from their former states as stone statues, and the old man and the Ice Queen were able to meet each other once more.
The old man addressed Nozomi.
"Thank you. Thanks to you, peace has once again visited this place. We wish to keep from making the same mistakes again. But, as the Devil of the Mirrors has said,
while the foolishness of humans is very unfortunate, it is also the reality of things. If, by some chance, darkness engulfs this world again, I want to remember you, and I want you to remember too, when it looks like the darkness will surround you. Remember that there are people who do possess the qualities of "love", "dreams", "wisdom", "courage", and "hope". So that you will not forget this, I'll leave this in your care.
Saying this, the old man handed Nozomi a white scrap of paper, with nothing written on it.
Nozomi had put that scrap of paper between the insides of the back cover. Gently, she took the scrap of paper out from its place.
On that scrap of paper, which should have had nothing written on it at all, characters started to appear.
"The Story Has Just Begun."
Little by little, the characters vanished, and the piece of paper was transformed into a written invitation to the Temple of Music.
Nozomi, taking the invitation in hand, looked for the Temple of Music, and stepped out into the world, on her way there.
To prove the existence of "love", "dreams", "wisdom", "courage", and "hope" inside of herself once again...