Mari's thumb gently stroked the back of Tetsuya's hand, a comforting rhythm. Her eyes searched his face, trying to gauge the depth of his impending breakdown.
"Look, Tetsu..."
She began, her voice soft as if she were explaining a simple concept to a child, or perhaps, a very confused philosopher.
"It's… not quite right, but maybe it'll help your brain calm down a little."
She paused, gathering her thoughts, her gaze drifting towards the newly vibrant petunias on the sill.
"Imagine... imagine there's a God. Like Yuria-chan talks about. And then this God decided to make a human. A real human, with a human body, a human brain, human feelings, and a human heart. Just like you."
Mari continued, her words slow and deliberate.
She squeezed his hand lightly.
"But this God... for some reason, they also just... put all of their power, everything they are, into this one human."
Her eyes met his again, a poignant, almost pleading look.
"So, this human is just a human. They live, they breathe. But they also happen to contain all of God's power. Does that... make even a tiny bit of sense?"
Tetsuya's mind reeled. It was an analogy, she said. Not quite right. But the implications... He was dating a human-shaped containment unit for The Absolute. It was still absurd. But it was perhaps less terrifying than the alternative.
"A God who is also human."
"A human who is also God."
"My girlfriend."
...
The walk home was a strange silent pilgrimage. The setting sun cast long shadows of them across the pavement — making them look like two entities from different dimensions — momentarily intersecting. Tetsuya's mind was a maelstrom of philosophical wreckage. The analogy Mari offered had calmed the immediate panic, but it left behind a chilling emptiness.
He walked beside her, acutely aware of every rustle of her school uniform, every casual swing of her arm. This was the girl he loved, the girl who debated Kant with him. This was also... everything.
"Mari. Even if... even if I try to accept what you just showed me, what you just said... How do I know? How do I know you're... God? And not just some other incredibly powerful being? Alien? Demon? How do I know you're not just... lying to me?"
He finally managed, his voice sounding hollow against the chirping cicadas.
Mari stopped by a lamppost. She looked up at him — her gaze impossibly ancient, yet utterly innocent.
"You can't. Not in the way your human brain wants to 'know' things."
She stated simply, her voice as clear and uncomplicated as a single note.
She paused, then continued, her tone taking on a quiet, almost melancholic resonance.
"I could make you believe anything. Make you worship me instantly. But that wouldn't be you knowing. That would be me forcing it. And I won't do that."
Her expression softened, a subtle, almost imperceptible shift that spoke of profound resignation.
"There is no proof for you, Tetsu."
She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a near whisper — a phrase echoing across millennia, across belief systems, across the very fabric of existence.
"אהיה אשר אהיה." (I Am that I Am)
Tetsuya felt a cold, sharp blade of terror slice through the last remnants of his sanity.
"This is it. I've finally gone completely mad."
The reality checks, the plant, the teleportation — all of it was just an elaborate hallucination. A cruel trick of his own overtaxed mind, manifesting his deepest philosophical fears into a soft-spoken girl with cherry-blossom shampoo.
He looked at Mari, his eyes wide with dawning horror.
"So... so I'm just crazy? This is all in my head? I'm having a psychotic break?"
He clutched his temples, the sudden overwhelming certainty of his own insanity almost a relief compared to the alternative.
Mari's expression didn't change. She just looked at him, her gaze unwavering. She let his spiraling thoughts run their course, until he finally met her eyes again, desperate for confirmation of his madness.
"If you were to take your own life right now. You would either wake up. Or you would simply cease to exist."
Mari began, her voice calm.
She paused, allowing the grim weight of her words to settle.
"If you choose to live, then both possibilities remain... So... Don't take the first, Tetsu."
The chill that had settled in Tetsuya's stomach intensified.
"Both possibilities remain."
The logical mind even when shattered craves explanation. It reaches for causality.
"Why... why this? Why be Mari? Why exist in a human body at all? There has to be a reason. Everything has a reason!"
He waved his hand vaguely, encompassing their entire absurd reality.
"Reason."
Mari echoed, the word feeling alien on her tongue, stretched thin and brittle by her utterance.
"Reason is a human concept, Tetsu. It's a structure your mind creates to make sense of things. Cause leading to effect. I told you this, remember? Back when we used to debate metaphysics in the library. You'd ask 'what is the ultimate cause?' or 'what is the first principle?', and I always said... 'it simply is.' "
Tetsuya's mind flashed back to those very debates — those heady afternoons filled with the scent of old books and the thrill of intellectual combat. He had dismissed her answers as either profound intuition or playful evasion. He never considered — it was the literal truth.
"There is no reason for my existence. There is no cause. There simply... is."
She offered a sad smile, a gesture of deep apology for a truth that couldn't be understood.
"I am not bound by your logic of reason, Tetsu. I Am that I Am."