Whisper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whisperscrawls) wrote2023-05-05 06:00 am
whisperscrawls) wrote2023-05-05 06:00 am
Shuuen no Shiori 4: Chapter 2
Chapter 2 - Schrodinger’s Cat Cries Out
It’s been a while since the school festival ended.
We immediately started filming again, so we’re in the middle of that right now.
We thought up lots of ideas, but in the end we decided to go with the plan for a “revival” that we’d talked about before.
We swapped who was involved with each urban legend, and the story itself changed a great deal as well.
At first, we had just discussed re-filming it, but while we did so, everyone kept contributing new ideas, so it ended up looking like a whole new movie entirely.
We ran into a lot of issues this time, too, but we felt certain that we would make a better film than last time.
But it felt like it was a bit...
Really, just a bit... less thrilling than before. I might’ve thought something like that.
The old version was riddled with mistakes, we had trouble with some things, and we were so new to it all...
But it was obviously fun to film with them, so there wasn’t a single thing I had been unhappy with.
*
We began at last to film the last scene of the movie.
We call this scene the “Schrödinger’s Cat Arc.”
After a lot of discussion, we decided that this would be how the scene played out.
Adding meat to bone, or rather, thinking about what other things we need to know in order to prepare for our chosen answer, I wrote the script.
We discarded the mystery that we used last time and intended to settle on some kind of conclusion this time.
Of course, until we film it, we won’t know how it’ll turn out, but I think we could pull off some really intense cinematography.
...But that means that The Bookmark of Demise would come to an end.
That feels really sad to me, and I’m sure the others feel the same way.
But I believed that with the five of us, we’d be able to give The Bookmark of Demise a proper end.
Besides, we have ideas for other things we want to film next once we finish working on it.
I’m sure that whatever we work on next, we’ll have fun with it.
The Revival Arc that we’re working on now is probably like a bonus stage.
An extension of the school festival.
The embers from the closing event’s bonfire have only just started to smolder.
But once we film this last scene, finish another movie, and present it to an audience...
We can finally move on.
Anyway, regarding the last scene...
We have a particular way that we want to film it.
No matter what, this scene needs to be filmed at school during nighttime.
We’ve already tried our best to make the other nighttime scenes look dark artificially, but I really want to film this scene during the actual night!
The issue with that, though, was obtaining the school’s permission.
There’s no way they’d actually let us do it.
If anything, if they caught us doing it, we’d probably get suspended.
Even if we asked our advisor for permission, he’d never give it. Except...
“Mr. W! We absolutely have to film it at school at night!”
“No, that’s... Even if you tell me that...”
“Doesn’t the idea of being at school at night excite you!?”
“...I can’t deny that it does, but...”
“Right!?”
“No, but that doesn’t...”
“And! We’re filming a horror movie! Isn’t it incredible that we’ve managed to make it this far without any nighttime school scenes!?”
I threw out as many excuses as I could possibly muster in order to convince him.
My clubmates, who’d come with me, thought it was impossible.
“E-ki... You’re making a lot of trouble for Mr. W...”
Everyone had already given up.
But as he looked upon us, Mr. W let out a sigh and began to speak again.
“Rules are rules.”
“Aww~... But...”
“...But...”
His next words were muttered under his breath.
“I’m on night shift next week, huh... Maaan, that’s so annoying...”
“...!”
“It’s so easy to forget to lock up the back door and gate after I’ve had a smoke...”
“Huh? What? Mr. W?”
“Having to do my rounds around campus is such a pain, and even if some harmless students happened to intrude and got home safely afterwards, it’s not like I’d know about it...”
“...Right!”
He was being extremely obvious, but I was just so happy!
“Hm? What are you all excited for? I was just talking to myself. Stop eavesdropping, and don’t tell anyone what you heard.”
“Right! Right!”
He really is a great guy.
We all exchanged glances before nodding.
“““““Thank you so much!”””””
The five of us simultaneously gave our thanks.
Mr. W continued to insist, in an exaggerated way, that he was sorry that he couldn’t help.
＊
It was finally recording day.
After school, we dropped off the filming equipment in the clubroom and left the building to wait at D-suke’s house nearby.
We chatted about what we were going to film while making our way through a huge pile of snacks.
“...But, y'know...”
“Hm?”
“...It’ll be pretty cool to be at school this late, won’t it?”
“That’s what you were thinking about...?”
“I mean, c’mon! It feels so entrancing! Even though I’m there all the time, it feels like I’m going somewhere totally new!”
“It really does~”
“I’m also looking forward to this quite a bit. If we could, I’d like to look into some of the mysterious phenomena that I’ve heard of happening at our school. One of them is—”
“Okaaay! We get it! Calm down, C-na!”
“...I am calm?”
“Ahaha... So, when it comes to the order of events in that scene—”
We continued chatting amongst ourselves, had dinner with D-suke’s family (and let me tell you, it was a massive dinner), and then, as it grew later and later, we prepared to head back to school.
＊
After walking down the darkened streets for a bit, we arrived.
We reached the back gate, pushed against it, and it swung open without any resistance.
“Nice!”
And so, the five of us headed towards the main building.
When we reached the back door, it was unlocked, just as Mr. W had promised it would be. Because of that, we were able to get inside without a hitch.
The building was suffocatingly silent at night, swallowing up even the ticking of the clock on the wall.
Just by being here at night, this place, where I usually see tons of people—a place that I’ve spent a lot of my time in—felt as if it had taken on an entirely different and bizarre form.
It was like we were wandering lost within a dream.
It felt like we had suddenly stepped into a world within a story, and just having that thought was enough to transform the pitch-dark school around us into a different dimension.
The sound of our five sets of footsteps echoing through the halls gave both the illusion of a crowd marching and of a single person’s steps.
“Oh, man...! This place has such an atmosphere to it! Doesn’t it, B-ka!?”
“...Oh, uh, y-yes...”
“Hm? What’s up, B-ka? Scared?”
“I-I’m not... scared.”
Being here made us restless, whether it be from excitement or fear.
As I teased B-ka for his fears, I felt A-no lightly poke the back of my head.
“Don’t make such a racket.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
“Seriously... So, D-suke, are we gonna be able to film when it’s this dark?”
“Hmm... We won’t really know until we test out the camera, but we can use the moonlight, and the building has emergency lights built in if we need ‘em, so it’ll probably turn out great.”
“Well, we aren’t supposed to be here, so we probably shouldn’t turn on any lights.”
“You’re right about that...”
“...Oh, right! Mr. W said that security guards sometimes make rounds around the school too, not just him, so should we come up with a secret code?”
“A code?”
“Yeah, a code, like, something to prove it’s one of us when we enter the room!”
“You get so into these types of things...”
“What’s wrong with that~? Is it a bad idea?”
“It’s not a bad idea, per se... You need to come up with one quick, though.”
“Indeed. You were the one to make the suggestion, E-ki-san, so surely you have some thoughts on what it should be?”
“...I-I want to know too.”
Huh? Oh, right, of course.
If I said something like “I didn’t come up with one yet!” A-no would probably hit me.
But, really...
Yeah, maybe this one would work.
If we chose this one, we probably wouldn’t forget it, no matter how much time had passed.
“So, how about—”
＊
More time passed as we continued heading towards the clubroom, still in a state of excited nerves.
A two-story wooden building that continued to deteriorate. Our destination was one of the clubrooms on the second floor.
The place where this all started, and...
“Oh yeah, I just remembered, they’re going to be building a new school building.”
“Yeah, I heard that too~”
“Will they tear down this building once they finish the new one?”
“Who knows.”
“Makes me a bit sad to think about.”
“Well, at least in that case, our movie’s setting becomes more accurate; an abandoned old school building~”
“...”
As we climbed the stairs, the echoing sound of our footsteps was the only thing that filled the silence.
The echo lagged behind the actual sound enough to make a strange rhythm puncture the air.
Gong.
Gong.
Gong.
It rang at regular intervals, the sound almost hypnotic in nature.
The ringing of the bell, coupled with the spooky atmosphere, only made our surroundings feel more like a dream.
We continued walking until we finally reached our clubroom, looking as it always did.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but within the room lay the equipment that we had dropped off before, untouched.
“Alright, let’s get everything set up to film!”
D-suke immediately got to setting up the equipment, and I went with him to check if everything was working.
D-suke’s going to be acting in the final scene too, so it’s my job this time to film from the point of view of the audience.
While the audience has, so far, been able to experience the movie as detached observers, we’re going to make them become an actual part of it.
To do that, we’ll create the illusion that those in the audience are actually there.
The others were scattered around the room, using flashlights to read through the script and perfect their lines.
Once we finish filming this last scene, what are we going to do?
I’d love it if the five of us could go all-in on another project like this.
I already have a ton of ideas for things we could do next.
One of them concerns the “Nameless Bookmark”.
It was the incident that inspired “The Bookmark of Demise”, but it was an unsolved incident, so wouldn’t it be fun if we made some kind of documentary about it?
And that’s only one of my ideas...!
Of course, it’s not like we’re that close to being done; we still have the editing and tons of other things to finish.
But, somehow... I feel like there’s been some feeling burning within me since the school cultural festival.
I need to make sure that this story has a proper end.
And for that to happen, the scene we’re filming today is absolutely necessary.
Thinking about it, I realized that this was the same feeling I had last time.
I felt like maybe I was the only one still feeling squirmy like this.
I was sure that wasn’t actually the case, but I felt an embarrassed grin tug at my lips.
Filming is proceeding just as planned.
The scene where the audience would step within our story and become characters themselves lay just ahead.
While we previously narrated the story in third-person, this scene made it seem like the audience was speaking aloud themselves, and the camera angle changed based on where they were looking.
The setting felt like this:
＊
The sound of footsteps echoes along the walls of a school building that was supposed to be empty.
The wooden floor makes unsettling creaking noises as they walk.
It was already pitch-black outside.
One could hear the dripping of water trickling from a faucet somewhere nearby.
The window rattled as wind rushed against it.
It was the same cacophony as usual.
The same unchanging conclusion I’ve seen a countless number of times.
D-ne killed B-ko.
Following that, D-ne died as well.
Then, A-ya killed C-ta.
Finally, A-ya killed himself right there.
No one was left standing.
Once again, this time, no one was left standing.
And so, the cycle ends once more.
Game Over.
No matter how many times it repeated, things stayed exactly the same.
I wished, from the depths of my heart, for an impossible anomaly to occur.
I wished for the end of this worn-out, extremely mundane, boring story that spanned multiple parallel worlds.
—And so, just as always, I opened the door to the former music room in the old school building, and...
―!?
Before my eyes was a scene that defied all logic.
Within the old music room stood not just A-ya, but also the supposed-to-be-dead B-ko, C-ta, and even D-ne.
Gathered at school as always, wearing the same uniforms as always, just like always...!
And then, everyone raised their hands to point at me.
...What is going on here?
“...I finally understand how this game works.”
A-ya began to speak.
“This game is one where it’s supposed to be impossible to win. I thought from the start that it seemed odd, that what was happening shouldn’t be possible.
“I’ll explain it all to you.”
*
“Alright, cut!”
I stopped the recording and lowered the camera.
Filming A-ya’s monologue made me feel even more tense than I usually do when filming.
But, but!
The part of the scene where I opened the door and they all pointed at me!
That was exactly the type of atmosphere I wanted to capture in that scene!
“Man, I got goosebumps from that!”
“I was so nervous...”
A-no’s face relaxed from the stiff expression she’d held during the scene.
“B-ka, your acting was perfect! You really felt like a main character!”
“...Ah, y-yeah...”
B-ka’s head was sagging forward slightly, as if he was tired.
“Alright! I need to get some stuff ready for the next scene we have to film, so let’s take a short break!”
“...Uh, well, then, I’m... going to go to the bathroom....”
“Oh, are you gonna be okay? Do you need someone to go with you?”
“...No, I’m fiiine...”
B-ka, slightly pouting in response to my question, turned to leave the room.
As he stepped out, I called after him: “Don’t forget the password!”
But even after some time had passed, B-ka still hadn’t come back.
“He sure is taking a while, huh...?”
“He is... Is he okay?”
“I’m concerned; do you think one of the security guards may have found him?”
“Hm~ How ‘bout I go looking?”
D-suke stood up, holding a flashlight.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Thanks. How about you check the closest bathroom to here?”
“Got it~”
And so, he flung open the door and left the room.
B-ka probably wouldn’t get lost here, so what could’ve happened to him?
Well, let’s just wait for D-suke to get back for now...
However, D-suke showed no sign of returning either.
It had already been 10 minutes since he left the room.
At first, we’d just been chatting amongst ourselves like normal, but we started to realize that something really wasn’t right.
“...Hey, what do you think happened?”
“He really is taking a while...”
A-no and C-na’s worry showed on their faces.
He was taking a long time, but there weren’t that many things that came to mind when I thought about what could have happened.
“Maybe one of the security guards caught him...?”
“M-Maybe...”
“Yeah...”
“But how do we know for sure?”
“Right... Well, if a guard found someone suspicious lurking about, they’d probably head back to the teacher on duty to report what happened, right? Even if it was just a student...”
“Y-You’re right... That makes sense...!”
“Should we... try to get to the night duty room?”
I may have suggested it, but I knew that it wasn’t that simple.
What if the two of them really did just get lost?
But also, what if they got hurt somehow?
But if they really did get caught by security, is a teacher coming our way right now?
No matter what angle you were looking at it with, someone had to stay here and wait.
“Someone has to...”
“I’ll go to the night duty room.”
As soon as I opened my mouth to speak, C-na cut in.
She knew what I was thinking.
But...
“I can’t just let you go out there alone, C-na...”
“But if two people go, then someone is left here alone, aren’t they?”
“That’s... true, but...”
“And leaving two girls here alone would worry you too, wouldn’t it?”
“...”
I glanced at A-no. I already had a bad feeling about how she was doing, but she looked like she was about to burst into tears from fear.
“I’ll be fine. I’m used to this kind of thing.”
“But...!”
“The haunted house.”
“Huh?”
“I’m better at navigating pitch-black spaces; we already know that from the haunted house, don’t we?”
C-na said that with a teasing smile on her face.
“...C-na...”
C-na was probably scared herself.
It was obvious that she would be; even if everything culminated in the most mundane conclusion possible, wandering the school at night by yourself with all this going on would scare anyone.
But even so, C-na was the type to worry about others first.
“Alright... But if you get scared, come right back. And if anything happens, yell for help right away! I’ll come running!”
“Hehe... I understand.”
C-na took one of the remaining flashlights, flashed us a last smile, and left the classroom.
“...It’ll be alright.”
I probably murmured that under my breath because I wanted it to be true.
＊
A short while passed again.
With how dark it was, I wouldn’t expect C-na to have reached the night duty room yet, but even this short of a time felt like eternity.
A-no and I were holed up in the corner of the classroom, sitting in near-complete silence.
“...Hey.”
“...What?”
“...Sorry. I kinda got you wrapped up in this mess.”
“...I-It’s fine...”
“But, like, I’m sure everyone’s just fine, but the security guards are gonna be sooo mad at us...”
“...I don’t like the idea of that either...”
“Oh, right~... Your family’s pretty strict, after all...”
“That...! That isn’t... the issue here...”
A moment of silence.
A silence broken by two voices.
“Um!” “Hey—”
We had spoken at almost the exact same time and ended up interrupting each other, drowning out whatever we both said next.
“W-What is it?”
“...T-That’s what I want to ask you... What is it...?”
“It’s alright, I’ll say it after you do.”
“I-I’ll speak after you do... Go on...”
A-no seemed to be blushing for some reason.
What’s that about? You’re making me blush.
My mouth was flapping open and closed like a fish.
Huh?
What was I going to say?
I was probably going to try to cheer her up, um, uh...
W-Why do I have to get so flustered...!?
“...Thanks.”
As I was thinking that, I heard A-no’s unexpected murmur.
I knew what she was referring to, and softly murmured a response of my own.
“...No problem.”
It felt like a strange feeling had settled in my chest.
We’ve been through a lot together, but now we have to move on.
It’s time for this extension period to end.
That’s why we came here to film today.
I looked into A-no’s eyes.
A-no gazed back.
She looked calmer now, a faint smile on her face.
Right now, we’re neither too close, nor too distant. I wonder what it’ll be like for us after everything ends?
We can’t all stay together forever.
We can’t live only within our happy memories forever.
If we were trapped in them, that wouldn’t really be a good thing.
So that this world didn’t repeat in an endless loop, though that was impossible...
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
Just then, we heard a faint scream in the distance.
A girl’s voice.
That was probably...
―C-na’s voice.
No, had something happened...!?
My feeling of calm was shattered, giving way in an instant to a flood of dreadful scenarios.
I could tell that A-no, still beside me, was thinking the same thing, the color draining from her face.
“Huh? T-That voice just now was... C-na...? What? Huh?”
A-no stood up, her whole body stiff as a board.
She was hugging herself tightly.
“Calm down...!”
“But that, that was...! I-I can’t just ‘calm down’...!”
A-no abruptly grabbed a flashlight and began to run.
No! I have to stop her!
“Where are you going!?”
“I have to... turn on the light...! I have to... get out of here...!”
She’s panicking!
I ran after A-no, intending to follow her out of the classroom, but as I neared the entrance, my foot caught on an equipment bag that had been left nearby.
“Agh...! Hey! A-no!
“Stop! Wait for me!”
Hastily freeing my foot, I raced down the hallway.
The space before me that had been lit up by a flashlight was dark, and A-no had already disappeared.
“Damn it...!”
What should I do?
What should I do?
The fact that we heard C-na scream means that something already happened to her...!
Should I chase after A-no?
Should I head to the night duty room?
Or should I leave the school to find someone to help us?
What would be best for me to do!?
“...Rgh!”
A sudden headache began to pound at my skull.
In the moment where my mind went blank
the events of a dream I had before flashed in my head.
I only remembered the dream from back then
that I thought I had forgotten
of the worst possible conclusion
when it was too late.
“Aaaaah...!!”
—The wrist was the first thing that fell.
“*** ********* ******* **** *** ****** ** *** ***** *** ****”
“...!”
As my headache faded, I lifted my head.
For a moment, it struck me; the mistaken understanding that this must simply be the continuation of that dream.
That dream took place around dusk, didn’t it?
And since then, the moon has already risen.
But I just can’t remember, at all, what the final line was.
What was the unease I was feeling then? If I just understood that...!
Anyway, for now, just for now, I began to walk, not paying any mind to my destination or the setting around me.
Wobbling on my feet.
It was as if I was sleepwalking.
Calm down, calm down already.
Dreams aren’t reality.
The intense fear I’m feeling right now is just making me unreasonable.
Was that scream just now really C-na?
Maybe everyone’s playing a prank on me.
They probably hid themselves, one by one, in order to scare me.
Honestly, what bad taste.
Your acting’s getting better, everyone.
I know that much.
I’m your director, after all.
Ah, that’s right, the movie.
We were filming a movie.
It didn’t feature acting this realistic, though.
I’m talking about them, yeah, but myself too.
If someone filmed me right now, it’d be Academy Award-worthy, wouldn’t it?
Because I’m really... really scared right now.
Oh, right—I remembered that I had a video camera with me, and held it up.
When I left the classroom earlier, for some reason, I grabbed not only a flashlight, but also the camera.
I pushed the button to record, and the green surface switched to red.
Even though the button was so small, the little bit of light it gave off seemed to paint the entire hallway in red.
“B-kaaaa~”
I headed down the hallway, calling out as I did.
“A-nooo, cut it out alreadyyyy~”
I found that I was smiling.
“D-sukeeee, where are youuuu~?”
That’s right, something absurd like this is just...
“C-naaaa... You know, don’t youuu? That I’m a biiiig scaredy cat...”
Cut it out already.
Please, please, just cut it out already.
The grin on my face was strained, like I was about to start crying.
“I’m begging... you...”
I felt like my whole body, down to my bones, was trembling.
Like my heart was being scraped with sandpaper,
Like my spine had been submerged in water,
Like the blade of a knife was tracing my sides,
A horrid, unpleasant sensation.
“...”
I couldn’t force any other words from my mouth.
Even so, I slowly, slowly continued to walk.
After some time, I reached the stair landing.
—Clatter.
I heard a noise come from somewhere behind me.
As I turned around, I noticed light leaking from the classroom that I had walked quite a distance from without realizing.
Did someone end up coming back?
Anyway, I gotta get back there!
I ran through the darkness, forgetting to turn off the recording button on the camera.
So I didn’t fall like earlier, I made sure to light the path before me a bit.
A-no, B-ka, C-na, D-suke.
Seriously, you guys made me worry!
There might be a security guard with them, huh.
And if that’s the case, Mr. W’s probably there, too.
Yikes, we’re gonna have to take responsibility for this.
If that’s what happens, I’ll say that as the club president, and the director, it’s all my fault.
But, well, my clubmates are good guys, and Mr. W’s nice too, so they might try to stand up for me.
But I gotta protect everyone.
...When I see their faces, I might just burst into tears.
I wonder why, but anyway, I just really, really wanted to see them as soon as possible.
I stood before the classroom and opened the door just as I usually do.
“Guys...!”
—Squelch.
The first thing I noticed was that, beneath my feet, there was some kind of slimy sensation.
Just the feeling of it gave me goosebumps.
Even through my shoes, I could feel its lukewarm temperature.
The very depths of my nose were tickled by a sickly-sweet smell.
My whole body was letting out alarm signals.
I raised my gaze from the floor, which I couldn’t see very well, to see the classroom in its entirety.
—Moonlight illuminated the center of the room.
The first thing I saw was four individuals' hands pointing at me.
It was almost like we were filming the last scene of our movie.
There was a clear difference, though.
—Everyone was a corpse cut into pieces.
“...?”
I couldn’t process the scene that I was seeing before me.
As if everything was normal, in the seats that everyone always sat in, were bloody corpses.
In A-no’s seat sat a headless corpse, pointing in my direction.
In B-ka’s seat, only a leg and an arm were placed, pointing in my direction.
In C-na’s seat, only the upper half of a body had been placed in the chair, pointing in my direction.
In D-suke’s seat, a head and arm had been placed on the desk, pointing in my direction.
All that was there,
were hunks of meat.
Wrist.
Leg.
Head.
Upper body.
Headless.
Everything was just as it had been in the dream.
The world I had seen in the dream had seeped into reality.
These people, who I recognized...
The people I had, just a bit earlier, been chatting with...
A revolting feeling, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
I approached their corpses one by one.
I touched D-suke’s face, and ran my fingers through his hair.
I held A-no’s shoulder, giving it a light shake.
I brushed my hand against C-na’s cheeks, and grasped her hand.
I touched B-ka’s leg and fingers.
Everyone... Everyone was still slightly warm.
Even so, it finally clicked in my brain that there was no way they could recover from this.
“Uergh...!”
As if it just remembered how to, the contents of my stomach surged up.
The sour taste of stomach acid felt like it was eating away at my mouth.
Unable to take it anymore, I crouched down and vomited out everything in me.
“Bleurgh...!”
The moment the monochrome world gained color was burned into the depths of my retina.
It was as if, so that I could never forget this again, the image had been branded directly onto my brain.
Please, please just let this be a dream.
I wiped my mouth and lifted my head as if I was praying.
But nothing changed.
A feeling of absolute despair.
The overwhelming feeling of reality.
For some reason, when looking upon their mangled forms, all I could remember were the fun times I spent with them.
The eating contest with D-suke.
Playing games with A-no.
The haunted house with C-na.
Sculpting candy with B-ka.
“...Wh...y...”
I spoke in a voice that could barely be heard.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t force myself to move.
No matter how many times I tried to stand, I couldn’t.
I guess my strings have already been cut as well.
I’ve slowly become unable to understand, no matter how much I try... the difference between reality and dreams.
And so, maybe that’s why, when I heard that behind me, that even though I noticed it, I couldn’t understand whether it was happening in a dream, or in reality?
I mean, it’s weird, isn’t it?
Something like that can’t be happening.
—Clatter.
“Hh...!”
Bam!
In the next moment, I felt an impact, like I’d been hit by a truck.
And just like that, I immediately collapsed,
And then,
From that familiar silhouette,
I heard something I wasn’t expecting to hear...
“You said you’d be in charge of The Dream’s Conclusion, didn’t you, E-ki?”
＊
Since that day, I’ve been seeing the same dream repeat over and over.
In this room that smells of disinfectant.
Connected to wires that control whether I live or die.
What’s reality, what’s a dream, and what’s fiction... That doesn’t matter to me at all.
The only thing that exists in my mind are those happy days.
The alternate universe that should have come to fruition.
The lying boy cries out in his sleep from the nightmares he sees...
But even then, that too is a happy dream.
If a bad end is what’s going to happen...
No, because a bad end is what’s going to happen...
Because that’s right, isn’t it?
It’s just a simple system of equations.
If you want to improve a bad ending...
—Make the moment before it happens full of happiness.
<-- Chapter 1 Part 4 || Chapter 3 -->
It’s been a while since the school festival ended.
We immediately started filming again, so we’re in the middle of that right now.
We thought up lots of ideas, but in the end we decided to go with the plan for a “revival” that we’d talked about before.
We swapped who was involved with each urban legend, and the story itself changed a great deal as well.
At first, we had just discussed re-filming it, but while we did so, everyone kept contributing new ideas, so it ended up looking like a whole new movie entirely.
We ran into a lot of issues this time, too, but we felt certain that we would make a better film than last time.
But it felt like it was a bit...
Really, just a bit... less thrilling than before. I might’ve thought something like that.
The old version was riddled with mistakes, we had trouble with some things, and we were so new to it all...
But it was obviously fun to film with them, so there wasn’t a single thing I had been unhappy with.
*
We began at last to film the last scene of the movie.
We call this scene the “Schrödinger’s Cat Arc.”
After a lot of discussion, we decided that this would be how the scene played out.
Adding meat to bone, or rather, thinking about what other things we need to know in order to prepare for our chosen answer, I wrote the script.
We discarded the mystery that we used last time and intended to settle on some kind of conclusion this time.
Of course, until we film it, we won’t know how it’ll turn out, but I think we could pull off some really intense cinematography.
...But that means that The Bookmark of Demise would come to an end.
That feels really sad to me, and I’m sure the others feel the same way.
But I believed that with the five of us, we’d be able to give The Bookmark of Demise a proper end.
Besides, we have ideas for other things we want to film next once we finish working on it.
I’m sure that whatever we work on next, we’ll have fun with it.
The Revival Arc that we’re working on now is probably like a bonus stage.
An extension of the school festival.
The embers from the closing event’s bonfire have only just started to smolder.
But once we film this last scene, finish another movie, and present it to an audience...
We can finally move on.
Anyway, regarding the last scene...
We have a particular way that we want to film it.
No matter what, this scene needs to be filmed at school during nighttime.
We’ve already tried our best to make the other nighttime scenes look dark artificially, but I really want to film this scene during the actual night!
The issue with that, though, was obtaining the school’s permission.
There’s no way they’d actually let us do it.
If anything, if they caught us doing it, we’d probably get suspended.
Even if we asked our advisor for permission, he’d never give it. Except...
“Mr. W! We absolutely have to film it at school at night!”
“No, that’s... Even if you tell me that...”
“Doesn’t the idea of being at school at night excite you!?”
“...I can’t deny that it does, but...”
“Right!?”
“No, but that doesn’t...”
“And! We’re filming a horror movie! Isn’t it incredible that we’ve managed to make it this far without any nighttime school scenes!?”
I threw out as many excuses as I could possibly muster in order to convince him.
My clubmates, who’d come with me, thought it was impossible.
“E-ki... You’re making a lot of trouble for Mr. W...”
Everyone had already given up.
But as he looked upon us, Mr. W let out a sigh and began to speak again.
“Rules are rules.”
“Aww~... But...”
“...But...”
His next words were muttered under his breath.
“I’m on night shift next week, huh... Maaan, that’s so annoying...”
“...!”
“It’s so easy to forget to lock up the back door and gate after I’ve had a smoke...”
“Huh? What? Mr. W?”
“Having to do my rounds around campus is such a pain, and even if some harmless students happened to intrude and got home safely afterwards, it’s not like I’d know about it...”
“...Right!”
He was being extremely obvious, but I was just so happy!
“Hm? What are you all excited for? I was just talking to myself. Stop eavesdropping, and don’t tell anyone what you heard.”
“Right! Right!”
He really is a great guy.
We all exchanged glances before nodding.
“““““Thank you so much!”””””
The five of us simultaneously gave our thanks.
Mr. W continued to insist, in an exaggerated way, that he was sorry that he couldn’t help.
＊
It was finally recording day.
After school, we dropped off the filming equipment in the clubroom and left the building to wait at D-suke’s house nearby.
We chatted about what we were going to film while making our way through a huge pile of snacks.
“...But, y'know...”
“Hm?”
“...It’ll be pretty cool to be at school this late, won’t it?”
“That’s what you were thinking about...?”
“I mean, c’mon! It feels so entrancing! Even though I’m there all the time, it feels like I’m going somewhere totally new!”
“It really does~”
“I’m also looking forward to this quite a bit. If we could, I’d like to look into some of the mysterious phenomena that I’ve heard of happening at our school. One of them is—”
“Okaaay! We get it! Calm down, C-na!”
“...I am calm?”
“Ahaha... So, when it comes to the order of events in that scene—”
We continued chatting amongst ourselves, had dinner with D-suke’s family (and let me tell you, it was a massive dinner), and then, as it grew later and later, we prepared to head back to school.
＊
After walking down the darkened streets for a bit, we arrived.
We reached the back gate, pushed against it, and it swung open without any resistance.
“Nice!”
And so, the five of us headed towards the main building.
When we reached the back door, it was unlocked, just as Mr. W had promised it would be. Because of that, we were able to get inside without a hitch.
The building was suffocatingly silent at night, swallowing up even the ticking of the clock on the wall.
Just by being here at night, this place, where I usually see tons of people—a place that I’ve spent a lot of my time in—felt as if it had taken on an entirely different and bizarre form.
It was like we were wandering lost within a dream.
It felt like we had suddenly stepped into a world within a story, and just having that thought was enough to transform the pitch-dark school around us into a different dimension.
The sound of our five sets of footsteps echoing through the halls gave both the illusion of a crowd marching and of a single person’s steps.
“Oh, man...! This place has such an atmosphere to it! Doesn’t it, B-ka!?”
“...Oh, uh, y-yes...”
“Hm? What’s up, B-ka? Scared?”
“I-I’m not... scared.”
Being here made us restless, whether it be from excitement or fear.
As I teased B-ka for his fears, I felt A-no lightly poke the back of my head.
“Don’t make such a racket.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
“Seriously... So, D-suke, are we gonna be able to film when it’s this dark?”
“Hmm... We won’t really know until we test out the camera, but we can use the moonlight, and the building has emergency lights built in if we need ‘em, so it’ll probably turn out great.”
“Well, we aren’t supposed to be here, so we probably shouldn’t turn on any lights.”
“You’re right about that...”
“...Oh, right! Mr. W said that security guards sometimes make rounds around the school too, not just him, so should we come up with a secret code?”
“A code?”
“Yeah, a code, like, something to prove it’s one of us when we enter the room!”
“You get so into these types of things...”
“What’s wrong with that~? Is it a bad idea?”
“It’s not a bad idea, per se... You need to come up with one quick, though.”
“Indeed. You were the one to make the suggestion, E-ki-san, so surely you have some thoughts on what it should be?”
“...I-I want to know too.”
Huh? Oh, right, of course.
If I said something like “I didn’t come up with one yet!” A-no would probably hit me.
But, really...
Yeah, maybe this one would work.
If we chose this one, we probably wouldn’t forget it, no matter how much time had passed.
“So, how about—”
＊
More time passed as we continued heading towards the clubroom, still in a state of excited nerves.
A two-story wooden building that continued to deteriorate. Our destination was one of the clubrooms on the second floor.
The place where this all started, and...
“Oh yeah, I just remembered, they’re going to be building a new school building.”
“Yeah, I heard that too~”
“Will they tear down this building once they finish the new one?”
“Who knows.”
“Makes me a bit sad to think about.”
“Well, at least in that case, our movie’s setting becomes more accurate; an abandoned old school building~”
“...”
As we climbed the stairs, the echoing sound of our footsteps was the only thing that filled the silence.
The echo lagged behind the actual sound enough to make a strange rhythm puncture the air.
Gong.
Gong.
Gong.
It rang at regular intervals, the sound almost hypnotic in nature.
The ringing of the bell, coupled with the spooky atmosphere, only made our surroundings feel more like a dream.
We continued walking until we finally reached our clubroom, looking as it always did.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but within the room lay the equipment that we had dropped off before, untouched.
“Alright, let’s get everything set up to film!”
D-suke immediately got to setting up the equipment, and I went with him to check if everything was working.
D-suke’s going to be acting in the final scene too, so it’s my job this time to film from the point of view of the audience.
While the audience has, so far, been able to experience the movie as detached observers, we’re going to make them become an actual part of it.
To do that, we’ll create the illusion that those in the audience are actually there.
The others were scattered around the room, using flashlights to read through the script and perfect their lines.
Once we finish filming this last scene, what are we going to do?
I’d love it if the five of us could go all-in on another project like this.
I already have a ton of ideas for things we could do next.
One of them concerns the “Nameless Bookmark”.
It was the incident that inspired “The Bookmark of Demise”, but it was an unsolved incident, so wouldn’t it be fun if we made some kind of documentary about it?
And that’s only one of my ideas...!
Of course, it’s not like we’re that close to being done; we still have the editing and tons of other things to finish.
But, somehow... I feel like there’s been some feeling burning within me since the school cultural festival.
I need to make sure that this story has a proper end.
And for that to happen, the scene we’re filming today is absolutely necessary.
Thinking about it, I realized that this was the same feeling I had last time.
I felt like maybe I was the only one still feeling squirmy like this.
I was sure that wasn’t actually the case, but I felt an embarrassed grin tug at my lips.
Filming is proceeding just as planned.
The scene where the audience would step within our story and become characters themselves lay just ahead.
While we previously narrated the story in third-person, this scene made it seem like the audience was speaking aloud themselves, and the camera angle changed based on where they were looking.
The setting felt like this:
＊
The sound of footsteps echoes along the walls of a school building that was supposed to be empty.
The wooden floor makes unsettling creaking noises as they walk.
It was already pitch-black outside.
One could hear the dripping of water trickling from a faucet somewhere nearby.
The window rattled as wind rushed against it.
It was the same cacophony as usual.
The same unchanging conclusion I’ve seen a countless number of times.
D-ne killed B-ko.
Following that, D-ne died as well.
Then, A-ya killed C-ta.
Finally, A-ya killed himself right there.
No one was left standing.
Once again, this time, no one was left standing.
And so, the cycle ends once more.
Game Over.
No matter how many times it repeated, things stayed exactly the same.
I wished, from the depths of my heart, for an impossible anomaly to occur.
I wished for the end of this worn-out, extremely mundane, boring story that spanned multiple parallel worlds.
—And so, just as always, I opened the door to the former music room in the old school building, and...
―!?
Before my eyes was a scene that defied all logic.
Within the old music room stood not just A-ya, but also the supposed-to-be-dead B-ko, C-ta, and even D-ne.
Gathered at school as always, wearing the same uniforms as always, just like always...!
And then, everyone raised their hands to point at me.
...What is going on here?
“...I finally understand how this game works.”
A-ya began to speak.
“This game is one where it’s supposed to be impossible to win. I thought from the start that it seemed odd, that what was happening shouldn’t be possible.
“I’ll explain it all to you.”
*
“Alright, cut!”
I stopped the recording and lowered the camera.
Filming A-ya’s monologue made me feel even more tense than I usually do when filming.
But, but!
The part of the scene where I opened the door and they all pointed at me!
That was exactly the type of atmosphere I wanted to capture in that scene!
“Man, I got goosebumps from that!”
“I was so nervous...”
A-no’s face relaxed from the stiff expression she’d held during the scene.
“B-ka, your acting was perfect! You really felt like a main character!”
“...Ah, y-yeah...”
B-ka’s head was sagging forward slightly, as if he was tired.
“Alright! I need to get some stuff ready for the next scene we have to film, so let’s take a short break!”
“...Uh, well, then, I’m... going to go to the bathroom....”
“Oh, are you gonna be okay? Do you need someone to go with you?”
“...No, I’m fiiine...”
B-ka, slightly pouting in response to my question, turned to leave the room.
As he stepped out, I called after him: “Don’t forget the password!”
But even after some time had passed, B-ka still hadn’t come back.
“He sure is taking a while, huh...?”
“He is... Is he okay?”
“I’m concerned; do you think one of the security guards may have found him?”
“Hm~ How ‘bout I go looking?”
D-suke stood up, holding a flashlight.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Thanks. How about you check the closest bathroom to here?”
“Got it~”
And so, he flung open the door and left the room.
B-ka probably wouldn’t get lost here, so what could’ve happened to him?
Well, let’s just wait for D-suke to get back for now...
However, D-suke showed no sign of returning either.
It had already been 10 minutes since he left the room.
At first, we’d just been chatting amongst ourselves like normal, but we started to realize that something really wasn’t right.
“...Hey, what do you think happened?”
“He really is taking a while...”
A-no and C-na’s worry showed on their faces.
He was taking a long time, but there weren’t that many things that came to mind when I thought about what could have happened.
“Maybe one of the security guards caught him...?”
“M-Maybe...”
“Yeah...”
“But how do we know for sure?”
“Right... Well, if a guard found someone suspicious lurking about, they’d probably head back to the teacher on duty to report what happened, right? Even if it was just a student...”
“Y-You’re right... That makes sense...!”
“Should we... try to get to the night duty room?”
I may have suggested it, but I knew that it wasn’t that simple.
What if the two of them really did just get lost?
But also, what if they got hurt somehow?
But if they really did get caught by security, is a teacher coming our way right now?
No matter what angle you were looking at it with, someone had to stay here and wait.
“Someone has to...”
“I’ll go to the night duty room.”
As soon as I opened my mouth to speak, C-na cut in.
She knew what I was thinking.
But...
“I can’t just let you go out there alone, C-na...”
“But if two people go, then someone is left here alone, aren’t they?”
“That’s... true, but...”
“And leaving two girls here alone would worry you too, wouldn’t it?”
“...”
I glanced at A-no. I already had a bad feeling about how she was doing, but she looked like she was about to burst into tears from fear.
“I’ll be fine. I’m used to this kind of thing.”
“But...!”
“The haunted house.”
“Huh?”
“I’m better at navigating pitch-black spaces; we already know that from the haunted house, don’t we?”
C-na said that with a teasing smile on her face.
“...C-na...”
C-na was probably scared herself.
It was obvious that she would be; even if everything culminated in the most mundane conclusion possible, wandering the school at night by yourself with all this going on would scare anyone.
But even so, C-na was the type to worry about others first.
“Alright... But if you get scared, come right back. And if anything happens, yell for help right away! I’ll come running!”
“Hehe... I understand.”
C-na took one of the remaining flashlights, flashed us a last smile, and left the classroom.
“...It’ll be alright.”
I probably murmured that under my breath because I wanted it to be true.
＊
A short while passed again.
With how dark it was, I wouldn’t expect C-na to have reached the night duty room yet, but even this short of a time felt like eternity.
A-no and I were holed up in the corner of the classroom, sitting in near-complete silence.
“...Hey.”
“...What?”
“...Sorry. I kinda got you wrapped up in this mess.”
“...I-It’s fine...”
“But, like, I’m sure everyone’s just fine, but the security guards are gonna be sooo mad at us...”
“...I don’t like the idea of that either...”
“Oh, right~... Your family’s pretty strict, after all...”
“That...! That isn’t... the issue here...”
A moment of silence.
A silence broken by two voices.
“Um!” “Hey—”
We had spoken at almost the exact same time and ended up interrupting each other, drowning out whatever we both said next.
“W-What is it?”
“...T-That’s what I want to ask you... What is it...?”
“It’s alright, I’ll say it after you do.”
“I-I’ll speak after you do... Go on...”
A-no seemed to be blushing for some reason.
What’s that about? You’re making me blush.
My mouth was flapping open and closed like a fish.
Huh?
What was I going to say?
I was probably going to try to cheer her up, um, uh...
W-Why do I have to get so flustered...!?
“...Thanks.”
As I was thinking that, I heard A-no’s unexpected murmur.
I knew what she was referring to, and softly murmured a response of my own.
“...No problem.”
It felt like a strange feeling had settled in my chest.
We’ve been through a lot together, but now we have to move on.
It’s time for this extension period to end.
That’s why we came here to film today.
I looked into A-no’s eyes.
A-no gazed back.
She looked calmer now, a faint smile on her face.
Right now, we’re neither too close, nor too distant. I wonder what it’ll be like for us after everything ends?
We can’t all stay together forever.
We can’t live only within our happy memories forever.
If we were trapped in them, that wouldn’t really be a good thing.
So that this world didn’t repeat in an endless loop, though that was impossible...
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
Just then, we heard a faint scream in the distance.
A girl’s voice.
That was probably...
―C-na’s voice.
No, had something happened...!?
My feeling of calm was shattered, giving way in an instant to a flood of dreadful scenarios.
I could tell that A-no, still beside me, was thinking the same thing, the color draining from her face.
“Huh? T-That voice just now was... C-na...? What? Huh?”
A-no stood up, her whole body stiff as a board.
She was hugging herself tightly.
“Calm down...!”
“But that, that was...! I-I can’t just ‘calm down’...!”
A-no abruptly grabbed a flashlight and began to run.
No! I have to stop her!
“Where are you going!?”
“I have to... turn on the light...! I have to... get out of here...!”
She’s panicking!
I ran after A-no, intending to follow her out of the classroom, but as I neared the entrance, my foot caught on an equipment bag that had been left nearby.
“Agh...! Hey! A-no!
“Stop! Wait for me!”
Hastily freeing my foot, I raced down the hallway.
The space before me that had been lit up by a flashlight was dark, and A-no had already disappeared.
“Damn it...!”
What should I do?
What should I do?
The fact that we heard C-na scream means that something already happened to her...!
Should I chase after A-no?
Should I head to the night duty room?
Or should I leave the school to find someone to help us?
What would be best for me to do!?
“...Rgh!”
A sudden headache began to pound at my skull.
In the moment where my mind went blank
the events of a dream I had before flashed in my head.
I only remembered the dream from back then
that I thought I had forgotten
of the worst possible conclusion
when it was too late.
“Aaaaah...!!”
—The wrist was the first thing that fell.
“*** ********* ******* **** *** ****** ** *** ***** *** ****”
“...!”
As my headache faded, I lifted my head.
For a moment, it struck me; the mistaken understanding that this must simply be the continuation of that dream.
That dream took place around dusk, didn’t it?
And since then, the moon has already risen.
But I just can’t remember, at all, what the final line was.
What was the unease I was feeling then? If I just understood that...!
Anyway, for now, just for now, I began to walk, not paying any mind to my destination or the setting around me.
Wobbling on my feet.
It was as if I was sleepwalking.
Calm down, calm down already.
Dreams aren’t reality.
The intense fear I’m feeling right now is just making me unreasonable.
Was that scream just now really C-na?
Maybe everyone’s playing a prank on me.
They probably hid themselves, one by one, in order to scare me.
Honestly, what bad taste.
Your acting’s getting better, everyone.
I know that much.
I’m your director, after all.
Ah, that’s right, the movie.
We were filming a movie.
It didn’t feature acting this realistic, though.
I’m talking about them, yeah, but myself too.
If someone filmed me right now, it’d be Academy Award-worthy, wouldn’t it?
Because I’m really... really scared right now.
Oh, right—I remembered that I had a video camera with me, and held it up.
When I left the classroom earlier, for some reason, I grabbed not only a flashlight, but also the camera.
I pushed the button to record, and the green surface switched to red.
Even though the button was so small, the little bit of light it gave off seemed to paint the entire hallway in red.
“B-kaaaa~”
I headed down the hallway, calling out as I did.
“A-nooo, cut it out alreadyyyy~”
I found that I was smiling.
“D-sukeeee, where are youuuu~?”
That’s right, something absurd like this is just...
“C-naaaa... You know, don’t youuu? That I’m a biiiig scaredy cat...”
Cut it out already.
Please, please, just cut it out already.
The grin on my face was strained, like I was about to start crying.
“I’m begging... you...”
I felt like my whole body, down to my bones, was trembling.
Like my heart was being scraped with sandpaper,
Like my spine had been submerged in water,
Like the blade of a knife was tracing my sides,
A horrid, unpleasant sensation.
“...”
I couldn’t force any other words from my mouth.
Even so, I slowly, slowly continued to walk.
After some time, I reached the stair landing.
—Clatter.
I heard a noise come from somewhere behind me.
As I turned around, I noticed light leaking from the classroom that I had walked quite a distance from without realizing.
Did someone end up coming back?
Anyway, I gotta get back there!
I ran through the darkness, forgetting to turn off the recording button on the camera.
So I didn’t fall like earlier, I made sure to light the path before me a bit.
A-no, B-ka, C-na, D-suke.
Seriously, you guys made me worry!
There might be a security guard with them, huh.
And if that’s the case, Mr. W’s probably there, too.
Yikes, we’re gonna have to take responsibility for this.
If that’s what happens, I’ll say that as the club president, and the director, it’s all my fault.
But, well, my clubmates are good guys, and Mr. W’s nice too, so they might try to stand up for me.
But I gotta protect everyone.
...When I see their faces, I might just burst into tears.
I wonder why, but anyway, I just really, really wanted to see them as soon as possible.
I stood before the classroom and opened the door just as I usually do.
“Guys...!”
—Squelch.
The first thing I noticed was that, beneath my feet, there was some kind of slimy sensation.
Just the feeling of it gave me goosebumps.
Even through my shoes, I could feel its lukewarm temperature.
The very depths of my nose were tickled by a sickly-sweet smell.
My whole body was letting out alarm signals.
I raised my gaze from the floor, which I couldn’t see very well, to see the classroom in its entirety.
—Moonlight illuminated the center of the room.
The first thing I saw was four individuals' hands pointing at me.
It was almost like we were filming the last scene of our movie.
There was a clear difference, though.
—Everyone was a corpse cut into pieces.
“...?”
I couldn’t process the scene that I was seeing before me.
As if everything was normal, in the seats that everyone always sat in, were bloody corpses.
In A-no’s seat sat a headless corpse, pointing in my direction.
In B-ka’s seat, only a leg and an arm were placed, pointing in my direction.
In C-na’s seat, only the upper half of a body had been placed in the chair, pointing in my direction.
In D-suke’s seat, a head and arm had been placed on the desk, pointing in my direction.
All that was there,
were hunks of meat.
Wrist.
Leg.
Head.
Upper body.
Headless.
Everything was just as it had been in the dream.
The world I had seen in the dream had seeped into reality.
These people, who I recognized...
The people I had, just a bit earlier, been chatting with...
A revolting feeling, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
I approached their corpses one by one.
I touched D-suke’s face, and ran my fingers through his hair.
I held A-no’s shoulder, giving it a light shake.
I brushed my hand against C-na’s cheeks, and grasped her hand.
I touched B-ka’s leg and fingers.
Everyone... Everyone was still slightly warm.
Even so, it finally clicked in my brain that there was no way they could recover from this.
“Uergh...!”
As if it just remembered how to, the contents of my stomach surged up.
The sour taste of stomach acid felt like it was eating away at my mouth.
Unable to take it anymore, I crouched down and vomited out everything in me.
“Bleurgh...!”
The moment the monochrome world gained color was burned into the depths of my retina.
It was as if, so that I could never forget this again, the image had been branded directly onto my brain.
Please, please just let this be a dream.
I wiped my mouth and lifted my head as if I was praying.
But nothing changed.
A feeling of absolute despair.
The overwhelming feeling of reality.
For some reason, when looking upon their mangled forms, all I could remember were the fun times I spent with them.
The eating contest with D-suke.
Playing games with A-no.
The haunted house with C-na.
Sculpting candy with B-ka.
“...Wh...y...”
I spoke in a voice that could barely be heard.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t force myself to move.
No matter how many times I tried to stand, I couldn’t.
I guess my strings have already been cut as well.
I’ve slowly become unable to understand, no matter how much I try... the difference between reality and dreams.
And so, maybe that’s why, when I heard that behind me, that even though I noticed it, I couldn’t understand whether it was happening in a dream, or in reality?
I mean, it’s weird, isn’t it?
Something like that can’t be happening.
—Clatter.
“Hh...!”
Bam!
In the next moment, I felt an impact, like I’d been hit by a truck.
And just like that, I immediately collapsed,
And then,
From that familiar silhouette,
I heard something I wasn’t expecting to hear...
“You said you’d be in charge of The Dream’s Conclusion, didn’t you, E-ki?”
＊
Since that day, I’ve been seeing the same dream repeat over and over.
In this room that smells of disinfectant.
Connected to wires that control whether I live or die.
What’s reality, what’s a dream, and what’s fiction... That doesn’t matter to me at all.
The only thing that exists in my mind are those happy days.
The alternate universe that should have come to fruition.
The lying boy cries out in his sleep from the nightmares he sees...
But even then, that too is a happy dream.
If a bad end is what’s going to happen...
No, because a bad end is what’s going to happen...
Because that’s right, isn’t it?
It’s just a simple system of equations.
If you want to improve a bad ending...
—Make the moment before it happens full of happiness.