Since then, I feel more and more deserted.

The flowers bloom and thank, and the cicadas chirp and stop. Spring goes to autumn, the snow falls, and the snow stops. Again and again, I crossed my fingers and counted countless times.

Now, tell me, when will you come back?

What I want to say to you has already piled up as high as a mountain.

Well, I will definitely live well until that time comes.

At that time, I will never forget it again.

- To you on the far side.

－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

"Isn't that a surprise?"

Mrs. Kaihara said with a smile.

"What should I say? Yes, indeed, somewhat unexpectedly. ”

Dome nodded frankly, and Mitsuki Umihara silently said the same thing.

In the knowledge of their siblings, the parents are childhood sweethearts who have known each other since they were children and have a close relationship. Now that they are a couple with a good relationship, if you speculate according to common sense, the emotional path of the parents should be logical. Just like the reality without a story, from childhood acquaintances to lovers, then dating, getting married, giving birth to children, and growing old together. Etcetera.

But now, the mother said that she had been separated from her father, which could not help but surprise the siblings.

Of course, it is not so reliable to infer the process from the source and the end point alone, especially if there is no logical inference such as the affection between a man and a woman.

can make such a good relationship break up for a while, presumably one of the parents has done something that the other party can't accept. And if you want to say which side......

Almost without any hesitation, the Umihara siblings set their sights on their father together.

In terms of feelings, as far as their siblings know, their father's reputation has indeed not been very good. What's more, they now know that their father had an emotional entanglement with a girl named "Alice". In this way, even if the mother couldn't accept it at that time, the two fell out or even broke up for a while, it is not unthinkable.

Their father coughed a little embarrassedly and glanced at his wife, who was looking at him with ** eyes.

"Alright, alright. If you continue to misunderstand like this, your father will probably blame me. Clapping her hands gently, Mrs. Kaihara said to her children, "That happened when we first started our formal relationship. It's not anyone's fault, but if I had to find someone responsible at the time, I think it would be me. After all, it was I who left him on his own initiative. ”

"No, the other side, that's not your fault."

Father seemed to be chewing on something uncomfortable.

What really happened? The Umihara siblings inevitably felt a little curious.

That's not something to remember, and it's not something that can be explained in a few words. Anyway, for some time after that incident, I forgot about your mother. The relationship with Alice also happened during that time. ”

My father's answer answered some questions. But what was the mother doing during that time?

Dome couldn't help but turn her face towards her father to her mother.

As if she had expected it, she saw her mother smiling at her as well.

"I just showed you this, and now I ask a question: What would happen to Theseus if there was no exit to the labyrinth?"

Dome thought for a moment.

"Probably...... You'll be going around the maze forever. ”

"yes, that's it." In a nostalgic tone, my mother said, "I was like that. Try to walk every path in a maze with no exit, repeating the process over and over again. Until one day, your father said he needed me. Now that I think about it, it was a long and boring time. Perhaps this is the only thing I want to complain about to your father. ”

"Even if it's just an excuse, let me find a reason. I wouldn't even be aware of you without Alice's help; If I don't find the answer, and just realize you, I'll just think you're an enemy. Only when all these conditions are met will we be able to meet again in the Land of Hope, a time that is inevitable for you and me. ”

"But I'm not the same as the memory of me you once knew."

Mother said quietly, and her father slowly stepped forward and gently cupped her cheek.

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter at all."

"Yes, it doesn't matter. In any case, it is an indisputable fact that I am here now, by your side. For me, just having that is enough. Because you need me, I'll be the person you need, that's all. ”

The parents gradually changed from narrating to talking to each other as children, and Dome showed a somewhat confused expression.

In fact, up to now, Dome was still blushing because of the conversation between his parents that was almost tantamount to a love story. However, since my father mentioned the name Alice, it seems that something has changed in the atmosphere.

Although both parents deliberately avoided the details of the distant past, they seemed to be able to feel something terrifying from the words. It was a midsummer night, but there was a feeling of a cold snap running through my back.

It's not that I think the story told by my parents is terrible, but it's more essential, and it touches the brain like a deep brain.

I always felt that the story of my parents brought people a deeper, more disturbing feeling, and Dome frowned slightly.

Then she heard her mother say again—

"Everything is tiresome and cannot be said. I can't see enough; Ears listen, not enough hearing. What is there, there will be again; What has been done, it will be done again. Under the sun, there is nothing new. ”

_

It may be said that this is a very wonderful thing.

There were no signs, no clues to follow. It's just ordinary, and when he hears his parents tell each other about his past, Mitsuki Umihara notices that the triangular pillar hanging on the inside of his clothes and on his chest seems to be emitting a faint light.

Although not immediately visible, the thickness of the summer uniforms is not enough to block out the light. So he put his hand on his chest and grasped the triangular pillar from the outside of his garment.

This moment.

Click!

It's like someone pressed the shutter from the outside of the whole world and took a whole section of the world. In the haze, Mitsuki Umihara saw a "non-existent landscape".

Place...... The feeling has not changed. It's just that on top of this high ground where there should be nothing, stands a building that doesn't exist.

It was a snow-white building of two conjoined buildings, with blood-red crosses standing on top of the buildings like tombstones. The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant water, and there was an electronic sound of "drip, drip".

It's really very quirky, but no one is attracted to these. Because above that, there is a vision in the distance.

That's a kind of ...... Radiance. Even though it was night, it was a scorching glow, as if it would set the world on fire at any moment.

The light was not a celestial body, but it hung high overhead. There are as many as ten of them, arranged in a circle like the compound eyes of insects, and each one is so dazzling.

The body could not move, and gradually only the light filled the vision, and even the smell of electronic sound and disinfectant became intangible. There doesn't seem to be anything in the halo, just a faint network of canopies and branches.

No, that's not so much the canopy as it is ...... Cerebral Cord and Nerves?

Suddenly, beneath the ten spheres of light, a shimmer of light as sharp as a needle fell straight down and pierced straight into the top of the coronal network.

"Hmm......"

Suddenly, a dizzyingly sharp murmur filled my mind, and then it faded completely, as if it had never existed.

By and large, he knew what had just happened. After the Fantasy Mite incident, he once specifically asked Mikoto Misaka for details. So he was by no means unaware of this phenomenon of memory association.

The triangular pillar that I got from Sister Bi was obviously the core part of the monster that was taken out of the AIM diffusion stance. The scene I saw just now was probably the same as what Mikoto Misaka saw at the time, and it was the "memory" of someone who had been connected to the hand of the fantasy Mikoto and left a record on the core.

When incomprehensible, this memory seems rather bizarre. Is the information stored on the core corrupted, or is it that parts are confused when connecting? Just as the slightest deviation or two in the DNA code is likely to end up being unrecognizable, it is possible that the information may not be stored in its entirety as early as the connection is broken.

No, wait a minute. Maybe there's another possibility.

There is no doubt that the process of recording information is the same as the process of communication, and it is the process of copying information at the other end of the spectrum in the same way or in an approximate manner. The communication diagram that my mother drew in the dining room was simple, but it was not narrow at all. Rather, it is an all-encompassing concept. There was a space in the communication diagram that the mother didn't specifically explain, perhaps because the concept was too simplistic or because she didn't feel the need to explain too much about an obstacle concept. But it goes without saying that that space is clearly at least as important as several other elements, and that space is called "noise".

It's easy to understand that noise naturally encompasses everything that causes a weakened signal. Did you also record this record with a noise called "noise"? This possibility is indeed impossible to rule out.

This naturally leads to an important question that cannot be ignored.

In addition to the obvious question of who is the owner of this memory, who is the creator of the "noise"?

Suddenly, he heard his mother's voice. The leisurely and deep voice said—

"Everything is tiresome and cannot be said. I can't see enough; Ears listen, not enough hearing. What is there, there will be again; What has been done, it will be done again. Under the sun, there is nothing new. ”

When he came back to his senses, he had already returned to reality.

"Brother?"

There was a worried voice from his sister beside him, and Mitsuki Kaihara shook his head vigorously, switching his attention to reality again.

"It's fine."

He waved his hand at his sister as a sign that he was nothing. When he raised his head, he suddenly met his mother's gaze.

It's just that at first glance, the mother's gaze seems to be resting on herself. But when you look closely, it's not always the case.

Although he didn't feel any discomfort, he couldn't help but hold his forehead. Only then will he be able to organize his thoughts.

Mitsuki Umihara recalled what his father had just said, and his father had just said that he had forgotten his mother for a while.

If you just interpret this sentence as "don't miss", then there really isn't anything wrong with that. But what if that's really just the literal meaning?

Completely forget your childhood sweetheart...... No, that sounds incredible.

Unlike "forgetting" that is often said in everyday life, it is actually very difficult to truly and thoroughly "forget" a person. As long as that person has existed and lived in this world, he will always leave traces of him. No one can guarantee that they will never come into contact with these traces. Therefore, if the traces of this person's existence are not completely erased, it is actually very impossible to "forget". Even the strongest psychic ability probably can't do such a thing.

Looking around, he suddenly noticed a detail that he hadn't noticed before, and that was the plateau itself.

There's nothing special about it, just lush green grass and the aroma of the earth, and nothing else.

But it is precisely because of this that it seems-

It's like a hollow trace left behind a building that once existed on top of it, but then disappeared without a trace in an instant.

Or rather, it's like being truly "forgotten".