Translator: Reo

Editor: PalenMisha

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 89 – The Past – Toki

After I managed to channel the magic, Assam brought something over to me.

“It’s a bit unsteady but it’ll do. Toki, hold this.”

Assam handed me a small, flat device that felt similar to a smartphone.

“Close your eyes and try to picture your family. As you do, channel some magic into this.”

His words surprised me.

Ah, could it be…? Would I be able to see them? The family that I thought I’d never see again?

“This, is…?”

Assam smiled kindly, though that quickly changed into a somewhat apologetic expression.

“This is a nengrapher. It can preserve the things you’ve experienced as still or moving images. I’m giving it to you. Would you show me what your family looks like?”

“!!” I hugged him, unable to hold it in. And Assam patted me on the back as if to calm me down.

When one poured magic into the nengrapher and thought about what one wanted to see, the image in one’s mind would then be projected through magic.

Depending on how someone pictured it in their mind, the projection could either look like a photo or a 3D image. And, if they pictured it as something moving, it would become a video.

“Assam… Th-thank. I, I…”

It was something I couldn’t bring myself to tell Assam because I had resigned myself to giving up on my past. I felt guilty that I was still clinging on to it.

“Aah, I know. I’m sorry for being late. It’s just that the nengrapher can’t function without magic. I wanted you to be the first to use it when you had magic in you. You didn’t get to bring anything with you from that world, right? Because I brought you here without asking. I always thought I should apologize for that.”

“To come here, I also, wished. Assam fault, wrong. Thank you, Assam. Thank you.”

After crying a lot and laughing a lot, I used the device.

I thought about the time before I got sick, when my parents still got along. 

The image that appeared on the screen was vivid and nostalgic – a family photo of the three of us.

When they decided to get a divorce, we were told that if they took custody of me their assets would change and the subsidiary aid would be reduced. It would have cost a tremendous amount of money to keep my body alive. I’d made my decision after discussing it with my parents many times.

In the end, I’m the one who made that choice. It made me a bit sad though that I could remember their faces in the photo more clearly than how they looked when they came to see me in the hospital.

“This, photo, always in my room.”

“You look like your mother.”

“Un. Often told.”

It was a photo of a smiling family. Apparently, I could also turn it 3D, but I didn’t want to. I mean, even if it were 3D… I wouldn’t be able to touch them. I’d never be able to feel their warmth again.

I should never forget those distant days of my childhood, the warmth of their hands as they patted my head. Right, I should never forget.

The first image was of my parents. The second was of my attending physician and the nurse in charge of me. Afterward, an old woman who loved period dramas, the young children who stayed in the same ward as me, and that guy – my best friend.

Assam made a strange face when I showed him my friend. He knew that he had already passed away and mourned my loss, but still felt jealous of someone who was that close to me.

Seeing him with such a mixed expression, I couldn’t help but laugh.

I remembered something and projected it, remembered and projected. Until the pile of photos grew.

“I… wasn’t… alone.”

There were so many people around me, but… I couldn’t express my thanks to them anymore.

That nostalgia-filled longing for my home made me cry in frustration.

All those people in the photographs – I’ll never be able to see them again. I should treasure them, and give them all my thanks.

『Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.』I thanked them over and over again, hugging the photos to my chest and crying.

All the people in the photos were smiling. Because they were always smiling when they looked my way.

I had been surrounded by a lot of love. Realizing that, I started crying again.

“Toki, let’s have Tsugura turn these into a collage. Then we can hang them all up.”

“Un, un. Thank you, Assam.”

The large hand that stroked my head was incredibly warm and made me cry happy tears.