"No… this isn't real…"
Yukari clutched her umbrella and rushed down the hall, tears still streaking her eyes.
Just moments earlier, Mikami had told her that her mother had been in a car accident while driving and was rushed to the hospital.
The news had panicked her instantly.
Beyond worrying about her mother's safety, an overwhelming sorrow crashed down on her, knowing the calamity had now chosen her.
Even though she always smiled in front of her classmates, ever since joining this class she had kept her fear buried deep inside.
Why me?
Why did I have to enter Class 3-3?
She was only fifteen, with a bright future ahead. Why did she have to endure this?
With such thoughts, her steps quickened. All she wanted now was to reach the hospital and see her mother.
But… what if she never saw her again?
"Why… why did it turn out like this…"
Just as she rushed toward the stairwell, tears blurred her eyes and she closed them for an instant.
And in that instant, the accident happened.
Her foot slipped on the step, her body lost balance, and she tumbled forward. The umbrella flew from her hand.
As if by cruel coincidence, the umbrella struck the ground and sprang open, its pointed tip facing upward just as Yukari fell toward it.
The tip was sharp enough. Combined with the acceleration of her fall, it could easily pierce through a vulnerable part of her body.
Yukari's eyes went blank as she fell, staring at the tip of the umbrella rushing toward her throat.
So it was finally her turn?
"…"
At the moment the tip was about to impale her, she shut her eyes.
But the pain never came. Instead, she felt something tug sharply at the back of her collar.
'I'm… still alive?'
She opened her eyes slightly.
Her feet dangled above the stairs, her body frozen in a forward-leaning pose, her throat only a millimeter from the umbrella's tip.
If she had really fallen, the umbrella would have pierced straight through her.
Feeling the grip on her collar, she turned her head slightly. Behind her stood Rinji.
He held her by the back of her collar with one hand, keeping her from falling further.
"Takamine…"
She was about to call his name, but Rinji gave her no chance.
With a tug of his wrist, he hauled her upright, then silently went down the stairs, picked up the umbrella, closed it, and shoved it into her hands.
Without another word, he walked down the stairwell.
"…"
Yukari wanted to call after him, at least to say thank you.
But Rinji was in the state of being the one who didn't exist. As a member of the class, she wasn't supposed to acknowledge him.
Rinji understood this too, which was why he hadn't spoken a single word to her from beginning to end.
---
"Mom!"
"Yukari…"
"…Thank goodness."
Rushing into the hospital room, Yukari finally let her tears fall when she saw her mother on the bed.
Her mother was still alive, and that was the best comfort she could have asked for.
"What's good about this? My leg probably won't be able to move for months." Her mother scolded with a smile. "But it's just a fracture. With some rest I'll recover."
"I'm just so glad you're alright…"
"Sorry for worrying you."
Looking at Yukari leaning over the bed, her mother simply smiled and stroked her hair.
"Sorry for making you worry."
She had no idea how much pressure her daughter lived under each day, knowing disaster could fall on her or her family at any time.
"Thank goodness…"
"Yeah… I still don't know why the brakes suddenly failed. When I hit the car in front, I thought I was going to die. But I was lucky—someone pulled me out, and just a few seconds later the car exploded. It was so close."
"Eh? Something like that really happened?"
"Yeah."
Her mother touched her chin as if recalling it.
"It was a handsome black-haired boy. I asked for his name but he didn't tell me, only said his surname was Takamine."
"Takamine…"
"Right, didn't you say the other day there was a new transfer student in your class with that surname? Could it have been him?"
"…"
Yukari wanted to say she didn't know him, because the most effective way to avoid disaster was to treat him as someone who didn't exist.
But then she thought of how Takabayashi had still died of a sudden heart attack at home despite this rule, and how the one who saved her mother today was Rinji.
After some inner struggle, Yukari slowly spoke.
"Yes, there really is a classmate with that surname."
"Eh, then…"
"But the one you met must be someone else. The Takamine in my class has beautiful blond hair, not black." Yukari smiled.
After her brush with death, she no longer intended to treat Rinji as someone who didn't exist.
Why should she erase someone who had saved her life?
---
At the hospital entrance, Rinji was grumbling.
"Seriously, how many things am I supposed to deal with in one day? Sakuragi nearly died once just walking down the stairs after class, then on her way to the hospital she ran into even more accidents—three falling objects from high up, two cars skidding, and even a kitchen knife flying out of a house toward her head. What the hell."
All along the way, Rinji had been protecting Yukari without her noticing, stopping six fatal crises in total.
"Not bad at all," a voice said.
It was Rinji's young father, Isaac, smiling beside him.
"It was easier on my end. After I saved her mother, nothing else happened."
"Tch… what, did the calamity give you special treatment or something?"
"Maybe."
"Then why doesn't it give me the same? Am I that insignificant?"
"Who knows."
"So how did you manage to save her mother? Don't tell me you can sense who's going to die."
"Oh, because when the two cars collided, hers came flying straight at me. If I were just a normal person, I'd already be a smear on the road."
"…"
As expected, since he was Rinji's real father, the calamity had fallen on him too.