Strange Memories With You, My Dear

When Yuuko went to sleep that night, I wondered if she’d wake up properly the next day after noon, but she did. She was able to say a bit more in the hours that followed that afternoon and evening. As soon as I read the report message from Yuuko’s mother, I left the university and went to see her. She was sitting up on her bed.

Her consciousness, which was still hazy the day before, seems to have gotten clearer after a day. Yuuko was surprised to learn that she had been sleeping and unconscious for more than a month, according to her mother.

“Are you feeling okay?”

She nodded, then cocked her head as if troubled, glanced at me, and closed her eyes as if recalling something. I had a bad feeling about the way she appeared, so I immediately asked her.

“Yuuko, do you remember me?”

“I do, but…”

“What happened?”

“I felt as if I had been dreaming… for a long time… and my memories were all jumbled up… like an illusion, and they all disappeared so quickly that I don’t know which of them are my real memories.”

Then Yuuko turned over weakly and pressed her fingers around her temples as if to endure a headache

“Yuuko, you don’t have to force yourself. You’ve only just regained your consciousness. The doctor also said there might be some temporary confusion right after awakening.”

I said hurriedly as Yuuko glanced up and murmured, “Yeah…” With an anxious expression on her face, she glanced at me and nodded.

Yuuko, her mother, and I talked for a while. She told her what had happened while Yuuko was asleep, and she nodded her head as she listened. She also broached the matter before Yuuko’s collapse. But when I told her about my first visit to Yuuko’s house, she looked troubled, so we cut the conversation short. My uneasiness intensified when I saw her reaction and worried how much of her memory had been lost. However, I didn’t want to burden Yuuko, who was on the point of sickness, with too many questions, so I resisted the impulse to ask her what she recalled and how much she remembered, and instead opted to go home before it was too late.

When I told her to take care of herself, she responded, “Thank you,” and waved as I walked away. Outside the hospital, it was really chilly. My breath was white, and there were numerous stars visible in the clear sky. The chilly air was so pure that even a blink of an eye could be seen. I entered Ikebukuro station, strolled through the crowds, boarded a busy train, and exited at a minor stop. Unable to calm my restless and dissatisfied feelings, I took the long route home and went down the street alone.

The heavy air that had been stagnant in my chest surged up and out in a sigh as I approached the road Yuuko and I had previously walked on. It floated white in the chilly winter air, but quickly melted and vanished.

I went home and had dinner with my mother, who had just returned home, after wandering alone for a bit and calming down slightly. I told her at that moment that Yuuko had regained consciousness. I had already informed her that she had lost consciousness and was in the hospital, so when she heard my story, she was relieved.

“I wonder if it’s okay if I go visit her.”

“I think her memory is still a bit jumbled, so maybe if you went there now, she wouldn’t know who you are.”

I said, “Is that so?” my mother asked in a concerned voice.

“She had a little bit of trouble remembering things today, too.”

“I see… But anyway, I’m sure her parents are relieved that she’s conscious again.”

“Yes. They were very, very happy.”

“You’ve been looking kind of busy lately too, but take care of yourself.”

“Yes.”

I agreed with a nod, rinsed the dishes from my finished dinner, and returned to my room. I was feeling down and drowsy, so I didn’t switch on the light and simply fell asleep.

I felt a familiar loneliness in the darkness. That’s how I felt when I was an adolescent— waking up after experiencing the usual dream—which was probably a puree of my memories of parallel worlds. I was feeling lonely for the first time in many years, as if I had lost something important.

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From: [email protected]

Subject: Re:What we have learned in this world about what is happening to Yuuko.

The next day, I went to the laboratory to continue working on the preparation of my graduation thesis presentation, and received a reply from me on the other side of the world.

This time, there was no attachment to the email, and the body of the email was a thank-you note to Yuuko for giving information on the treatment. It said that the treatment for memory rarefaction that we had proposed had been carried out on the other side of the world, and that Yuuko’s consciousness had been restored.

The peak moment of interference, when the world was approaching, has passed, and Sensei’s estimated period of possible information exchange will soon be over. Already, our worlds were supposed to be slowly slipping away from us.

I was relieved to hear that.

I didn’t want any more information from a strange world flooding our brains. Even if I disregard the fact that I met and became friends with Yuuko as a result of this phenomenon, it was incredibly strange to assume that there was more than one of me.

“I think our world should be complete in our world alone.”

Sensei said when Yuuko’s grandmother passed away. I felt like I was getting a better grasp on the meaning of those phrases now than I had before.

In the far future, it may be acknowledged as self-evident that I and I exist in multiple worlds, and people who are comfortable with this worldview would form a new society, but right now, I did not feel like I could have such a feeling. We can’t even begin to comprehend what such a world might be like. I wanted to be the only one, and I knew there was only one world in which I could live. My past was not a happy one, and there were many things I didn’t want to remember, but I still felt a special connection to this place where I had created my own history. It was the same for Yuuko.

If there were other Yuuko in other worlds, I would only love the Yuuko who has been with me, with this me, in this world with me.

I tried to shut my email program. But then my fingers stopped moving the mouse, and I had a thought.

I still have something to ask him.

Maybe that will help Yuuko. I created a message to a parallel world and sent it.

To: [email protected]

Subject: Please share with me your memories of you and Yuuko in your world.

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Mr. Burley came to check on Yuuko, who had regained consciousness, before departing Japan. Mr. Burley was concerned that, while she remembered her parents quite well, her memories of me were unclear.

“I’m guessing that the rarefaction has been removed from her cherished memories since the treatment preferentially weakened the neurons from which they were strongly bound. She most likely treasured her memories of you as something really precious. I think we diluted it and caused the confusion of memory.”

Mr. Burley explained what he thought was the cause of Yuuko’s memory confusion in the common room, and he conveyed his worry for me by adding, ‘I’m sorry about what happened to you’.

“Yuuko has awoken. It’s all right. If we had continued to sleep in this manner, perhaps something worse would have happened. Thank you very much, for helping her.”

I said in poor English, and he patted me on the shoulder as if to encourage me. I watched Mr. Burley leave the hospital with Yuuko in her wheelchair (her muscles had deteriorated while she was sleeping and she still couldn’t walk very well).

During this time, he had been in contact with doctors and researchers all over the world to gather information, and he had learned that a small number of unexplained disorders of consciousness similar to Yuuko’s were occurring all over the world at the same time, albeit in small numbers, and he was going to travel the world for a while to gather data on these patients and use this experience to help treat these people. Furthermore, the fact that the information was obtained directly from a parallel world through a D-F quantum computer was kept a secret solely between me, Sensei, and the people who assisted us with this matter.

After all, it’s tough to prove that it actually happened, and if we tried, we’d have to explain Yuuko’s situation in detail. I don’t believe Sensei wanted to involve her in anything like this. “I’ll leave the achievement of being the first in the world to announce that we have made communication with a parallel world to later researchers,” Sensei said with a wry smile. A few days after Yuuko awoke, I gathered the people in the lab who had helped me with this matter in the Welfare Building lounge, reported Yuuko’s waking and what had happened thus far, and thanked them for their help.

“I’m glad she woke up safe and sound.”

Kobayashi-san was the first to tell me so.

“Yes. Other than some memory confusion, there doesn’t seem to be any after effects or anything like that, and she’s recovering well.” I said.

“But it’s the first time in the world that we’ve received an email from a parallel word. If we announced it, we could have become very famous.”

Komada-senpai said in a joking tone.

“I don’t want to become one of those. And I’m pretty sure people will write on the internet that we’re liars or crazy.”

I replied with a chuckle.

Matsumoto-senpai, who was sitting beside Komada-senpai, laughed and said, “Really, I’m glad you got a chuckle out of it.” She prioritized the improvement of the software aspects of the D-F method quantum computer over her own research, and soon achieved the results as requested by Sensei.

“Yes. Thank you so much for your cooperation.” I said as I bowed to the three of them once more.

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