Questions bubbled up inside me, searing my throat. I couldn’t let her slip away again without knowing.

“Hey, Haruka! Why didn't you help me when I needed it most?! You have powers, don’t you? Usually?”

“Let’s just say I can’t really interact with people going through a PVDS,” she replied, her tone purposefully evasive.

“Why?!”

She paused. Her eyes seemed to probe an invisible dimension, an elsewhere I couldn’t perceive. Despite her smile, I could feel her carrying a secret much heavier than she let on. A shadow flickered in her gaze—relief that the problem was solved, but terror at what was coming next.

“I told you, I come from another universe,” she resumed. “Because of that, I can't act on them directly. Why? I’m still not sure, but I have my theories. I’ll explain when I’m certain.”

She stood up, smoothing her uniform with a mechanical gesture. She tossed me an enigmatic smile before giving me a wink that felt almost cruel, given the state of my nerves.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Back to class; the clock's ticking. If I were you, I’d finish that tray fast. Anyway, stop by the club later, okay?”

Her silhouette dissolved into the crowd of students, leaving me alone with my heart in tatters.

After swallowing my meal without even tasting it, I headed back to the classroom. My eyes scanned the hallways nervously, desperately searching for white hair or Lucia’s blue eyes. Nothing. A cold certainty settled in my gut: Yuni had forgotten me.

How could I even approach her when our first meeting had been so paranormal? On the other hand, I felt a flicker of relief. I knew she was there, somewhere, alive, and that was all that mattered.

I arrived in class, exhausted. Ren was already there, balancing on his chair with his eternal smirk.

“So? Done chatting with the Boss?” he chuckled.

“The Boss?” I repeated, my brain overheating.

“Yeah, Haruka! You guys looked like you were having a summit meeting in the cafeteria. Did she dump another club chore on you?”

He had no idea that the fate of the world had been decided just minutes ago.

“Yeah… something like that,” I muttered.

“By the way, Ren… what day is it?”

He stared at me, eyes wide, before bursting into laughter.

“It’s Friday, Salkony! You sure you’re okay? You look like you just stepped out of a parallel dimension, man.”

Friday. The day of the shift. I turned my head toward the door, breath short. If reality had changed, what memory remained of Yuni and Lucia?

“Hey, Ren… do you know Yuni?”

He raised an eyebrow, looking at me with such incredulity that I immediately regretted the question. A heavy silence fell before he let out a weary sigh.

“Dude, I know her because of you! Are you serious? Your goldfish memory shocks me every single day.”

He leaned in, resting his elbows on my desk with that blend of seriousness and humor he used to tease me.

“Fine, since you’ve forgotten everything, let me refresh your memory. Yuni, the girl with the white hair, was being bullied by a bunch of scumbags. They almost cut her hair off by force. And then, like magic, you burst in. You knew exactly where they were. You’d warned Haruka and me, we followed you, we reported those guys to the office, and they got kicked out. Haruka even tried to recruit Yuni after that, but she shut her down instantly. She’s been playing the loner ever since, acting like she doesn’t need anyone.”

My blood ran cold. In this world, I wasn't the boy who had sheltered a ghost. I was a hero. A clean, logical past… but a total lie.

“And… are we close? Her and I?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“How should I know? You saved her, that’s it.”

“Right… I see.”

Suddenly, the room went quiet. The door swung open, and the teacher entered with his usual stack of documents. The chatter died instantly.

“Good morning, everyone. Please open your textbooks to page 142.”

I obeyed mechanically, but my eyes wouldn't leave the door that had just closed. The world told me I was a hero, but I felt strangely hollow. I had succeeded in stopping Yuni’s PVDS to give her a "normal" life, and in exchange, she had forgotten me. Even worse: Haruka’s very first goal approaching her for the club had already failed.

I lost myself in my thoughts, reflecting on my manipulated brain and erased memories. I had saved the world by stopping the PVDS of a single high school girl who had wished to disappear. I had done it all just to carry on as if it were nothing.

But I had to see her. Yuni.

Even if I had no reason left to do so. Even if seeing her was like looking at a ghost of a memory.