Strange Memories With You, My Dear

Chapter 01.05

Unknowable Memories

Translated by KuroNeko
Edited by Omkar

I continued to get a sensation of déjà vu as I travelled through the train to Irisawa Amusement Park, one of only four carriages on the train, and the peculiar feeling that I was entering a memory that I had never experienced grew stronger.

    The sun was shining brightly at this time of year. Dusk lasted a long time. The sunlight, which had begun to yellow somewhat as I walked out of the convention centre, was now brilliant red, and the sky was purple.

    There were no other passengers in the carriage I was seated in. Despite the fact that it was a Sunday, no one would be going to an amusement park at this point in the day. Except for those whose home station is the nearest along the route.

    I arrived at the final station, Irisawa Amusement Park Station, in around fifteen minutes after two stops (with no passengers on board).

    It was difficult to believe that this station was an amusement park station because it was so desolate and barely illuminated.

    Looking over the website of the amusement park on my tablet, it appeared that construction will begin next month.

    How did I end up in a place like this? I scoffed at myself, thinking that this was now an unusual behaviour. Perhaps the emotional feeling of having retired from club activities had a role in it. 

    I let out a sigh.

    I noticed a Ferris wheel that was not moving. Coming from the amusement park, I heard a high-pitched sound like something hitting steel, as if they were preparing for construction.

    I decided to take a short walk about the area before returning home since I had come all this far, so I departed the station.

    I saw a piece of paper affixed to a steel plate as I exited the long, tunnel-like ticket gate that stated, “Due to restoration preparations, the park is closed to the public.”

    There was no one near the amusement park’s entrance. Roadside trees with young leaves and rows of azaleas in full bloom stretched long along the fence. There was a faint lingering glow of the western sky amid the dimness. The amusement park’s roller coasters and lofty towers have turned into massive dark shadows.

    The wind rustled the leaves, and the sound of rustling leaves reverberated through the air. I inadvertently stroked an azalea blossom that was flowering nearby. They were lovely white blooms. The greenery of the sprawling vegetation was drenched in the setting sun, giving it a warm crimson tint.

    And beyond that, I noticed the shadow of a person, exactly like me, staring at the flowers in the planting.

    As I looked into its eyes, I realised she was a girl with a short cut. She was dressed in a grey cardigan over a red dress and carried a white shoulder bag over her shoulder. A slender silhouette emerged from the backlight.

    I couldn’t see her face very clearly, but I had the strange impression that I knew her.

    A girl’s shadow suddenly glanced up and turned to face me.

    At that instant, I felt a strong sense of uneasiness, as if my memories of the unknown and my actual experience were blending, as if my dreams and the real world were overlapping.

    She moved in closer to me. Her footsteps were loud and clear in my ears. The angle shifted slightly, and I could see the crimson sunset lighting up her face.

    She looks familiar.

    She brushed against the azalea flowers in the planting, as if to deceive me, while she remained staring at me.

    For some reason, my heart was racing. I was much more nervous than I had been at the outset of the day’s 100-meter run, the culmination of my five years of athletics. But my feet kept moving toward the figure, step by step, as though directed by a weird sensation of déjà vu. She’s still looking at the flowers and then at me.

    “Hey…”

    Unconsciously, I called out to her as I came close enough to hear her voice.

    But there were no more words to say, and a very unpleasant quiet descended. I saw her feet as I looked down. Red pumps. It moved slightly and made a thumping sound.

    “Umm…” I fumbled with the words in my tongue before looking up and trying to formulate them out of my blank thoughts.

    “Have we met… before?”

    She froze for a split second, gasping for breath. Then her frozen look gave way to a kind, soft, yet perplexed smile.

    “…Have we…?” she tilted her head.

    I felt awkward, but I went with the flow of the discussion that was already going on and spoke the words.

    “I’m not sure, I just felt like it… I’m sorry, I’m not trying to pick you up or anything. I felt a distinct feeling that I remembered you from somewhere, so I just called out to you…”

    “No,” she said, and then, “To be honest, I’ve had that feeling for a time now… you seem familiar to me.”

    With a Hmm she tilted her head lower than before, as if attempting to recall something.

    “I’m sorry. This happens to me from time to time. It’s as though I think I know something I shouldn’t… I’m really sorry.”

    I instantly regretted it after telling her what I was talking about.

    What is it that you know that you are not supposed to know? If someone said it to me out of the blue, I’d probably think they were crazy.

    Let’s get out of here as soon as possible and go home…

    “Please, wait,” she said as I was about to turn back with that thought. I turned to face her again without thinking.

    “That’s…” And she froze, as though terrified, and then, “――I’m actually the same way, too.”

    “…What do you mean?”

    My already racing pulse became much faster and more strong.

    “Isn’t that what they call “deja vu”? That’s what I’ve been feeling a lot lately… That’s also why I’ve come here today. I heard on the news that this place is about to be demolished soon…”

    I was taken aback, and the premonition I had before appeared to be growing into a kind of certainty, so I asked without thinking ahead.

    She jerked her head up, as if she’d been played.

    “That’s right!”

    Then she spoke it with a startled smile on her face, a pleasant contrast from her prior trepidation.

    “I’m Fukuhara Yuuko. You’re either Yukinari-san or Tomoki-san, aren’t you? … That’s, I’m sorry, my memory’s a bit hazy…”

    The voice I had heard in my dream, Yukinari-kun, overlapped with her voice.

    “That’s right, I’m Nakayama Yukinari.”

    “I knew it!”

    She responded loudly with a bright smile, both surprised and pleased.

    “I know who you are!” 

◇

We both decided to take a seat and speak. I grabbed a drink from a nearby vending machine and sat on a seat beneath a lush green tree. I drank canned coffee, while she drank milk tea from a small plastic bottle.

    “I remember coming here with you, Yuuko-san.”

    “The pool, right?”

    Yuuko smiled as she held the plastic bottle in her hands on her lap.

    “Yes,” I responded with a firm nod.

    “…Among us were three boys and three girls… We mostly played separately, although we put our belongings in the same place and ate lunch together…”

    Her tone was somewhat nostalgic. A number of vivid images flashed through my head, as though provoked by her words. I felt close to her, like if we were reminiscing about the past. And soon after it, I had a creepy feeling about this inconceivable thing.

    “What happened?”

    Perhaps my face was drawn, so Yuuko asked suspiciously.

    “That’s not a memory that I experienced, after all.”

    “Yes. I’ve never been to this pool before.”

    “――So, despite the fact that we’ve never met before, we’re close and have memories we don’t even remember, right?”

    Are you not afraid? I considered adding that, but Yuuko, being a laid-back person, said, “I guess so,” and tilted her head in thought again. She didn’t appear to be as creeped out as I was.

    “What do you mean…?”

    I also considered the possibility that she was insane and was taunting me with her claims. However, based on what I had seen thus far, I didn’t believe Yuuko was that type of person.

    “Does this happen to anyone else?” Yuuko said.

    “I’ve never heard of it…”

    “That’s right.”

    She murmured mysteriously.

    My thoughts were a jumbled mess. What is the reason behind all of this? My brain was emitting an unknown radio wave, which occurred to be connected to her brain, and information was being transmitted… That’s so stupid. I kept plugging away all the plethora of meanings that were popping up inside of me.

    “Yukinari-san. Are you okay?”

    Yuuko murmured, her gaze fixed on mine. I had inadvertently moved my head to the side and then abruptly glanced up. Her face, with its big black eyes and long eyelashes, lingered in my thoughts for a little while after I saw it up close.

    “O-oh, yeah. I’m sorry. It’s simply that I’m a bit confused… I was wondering as to why this was happening…”

    “Are you a science major, by any chance, Yukinari-san?”

    “That’s right.”

    “I knew it.”

    Then she said, with a smile of understanding.

    “My father is a scientist, and you seem to have a similar vibe… When I get home, I’m going to ask my father if such a thing exists.”

    “Won’t they think it’s kind of weird?”

    “I’ll say something about a movie, and then I’ll leave it alone to listen too.”

    With a chuckle, she said. After all, she didn’t appear to have the unsettling sensation that something impossible was happening. I had a strange feeling of weakness, yet I was also relieved.

    It was getting quite dark before I noticed it. The crimson hue in the sky had disappeared, and the white light of a neighbouring streetlight glittered up.

    We were both nearly out of the drinks we had been sipping leisurely. The talk was cut short, and there was a brief silence. “Umm…” I murmured to Yuuko. “Yes,” she said.

    “If you don’t mind, before I leave, I’d like to exchange contact info with you.”

    I was amazed by my courage to say something like this to a girl I’d never met before. However, for some reason, I felt strongly that I should not let this encounter end in this way.

    “Oh, yes. That’s right. I’ve been meaning to ask you about it too.”

    She took her smartphone, which was in a pocketbook case, from her handbag. I also pulled my smartphone from my pocket and we exchanged chat app accounts.

    Then we got up, dumped the empty drink containers in the garbage, and walked over to the station.

    “Where do you live, Yuuko-san?” I asked her, and she said it was in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward.

    “But I lived around here until I graduated from elementary school.”

    “What elementary school did you attend?”

    “Irisawa Daini Elementary School.”

    It was a school that the kids from the school district right near where I live go to.

    “I was in first grade.”

    “Really? You used to live just around the corner.” Yuuko’s tension was palpable, and she cocked her head and murmured.

    “I wonder if living nearby had anything to do with it.” I said, half to myself.

    “I don’t know…”

    I paused for a moment and ran through my memories once again. I wasn’t meant to know a girl from a different elementary school. Yuuko seemed to be pondering as well, and her pace slowed. It was growing dark, the far countryside was fading into obscurity, and the lights of the station we were heading to were floating in the dusk.

    “It’s a bit of a hike from here to Toshima Ward.”

    Yuuko shook her head as I said.

    “Not really. It won’t take more than an hour, and the trains heading up are empty at this time, so if I sit down and read a book, I’ll be there in no time.”

    We talked while waiting for the train at Irisawa Amusement Park Station, which was as vacant as it had always been, and then boarded the empty train together. The atmosphere was so calm that when the talk was cut off, the silence felt awkward.

    We alighted at Shin-Musashino station. From there, I’ll take the down train and Yuuko-san will take the up train.

    “Then…” I bid her good-bye as she made her way to the other platform, and she gave me a little bow and said, “See you later,” before heading up the stairs.

    I sat on a bench by myself, waiting for the next train. The sun had already set, and the moon was rising in the perfect night sky visible through the platform’s tin roof. It was becoming a little chilly outside, so I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt.

    I eventually boarded a train with a large number of passengers on the way home, and in the midst of the commotion, I felt as if everything that had transpired up to this point, including my encounter with the girl who called herself Fukuhara Yuuko, had been a dream.

    However, there was an account registered under the name “Fukuhara Yuuko” on the screen of the chat application on the smartphone I took out of my pocket.