TOKYO, 2018
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"What?!" Naoto's voice echoed in the four corners of his office. "You told her about her future?!"
Takemichi could only do nothing but close his eyes and sigh. He put his hands on his mouth, biting his lower lip underneath. He nodded.
"Are you fucking crazy?!"
"I had no choice."
The young detective ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Sitting back on his swivel chair, he palmed his face as if to try to calm himself.
With silence in the air, Takemichi just sat on the sofa and stared blankly at the floor, appearing to be not mentally present. It was only been about twenty minutes since he came back from the past. His eyes were moist the moment he opened it, chest filled with heavy feelings that he couldn't even describe. The only thing that he was certain of was that all of it was caused by what just happened yesterday, in 2006.
He expected the detective's reaction. He wouldn't be surprised if Naoto wanted to beat his foolish and stupid ass right at the moment. Takemichi thought maybe he needed the beating, though. So he could wake up. So he could get himself together instead of just drowning at the thought that everything was over for him.
Naoto sighed. "What did she say?"
"She thought I was making it all up."
"She didn't believe you."
"Of course." He scoffed. "Of course she didn't. She thought I was crazy."
He remembered how Nika Ogawa just stared at him that day. After he said everything, she just stared at him as if he had some loose screws in the head. She thought he was playing. She thought he wasn't taking her seriously at all.
And despite it, he totally understood. Why did he even think that she would believe him in the first place?
Oh, how stupid he was.
"It just a matter of time before she tells Hina and Mikey--or maybe they already know. Maybe in the past Mikey's already kicking my face at this moment and Hina has already dumped my ass."
And then he and Chifuyu will be kicked out of Toman. Sayuri could spread a rumor in the school that he's a crazy stalker that claims to be someone from the future and everyone will stay away from him, he'll be a freak and a laughing stock.
It's all over for him.
Naoto sighed. "My partner Sakamoto still hasn't updated me about his undercover investigation with the Oshiros. Nothing new."
"Maybe we should stop."
"Stop?"
"It's been almost two months since the explosion and we're still not going anywhere." Takemichi put his hands on either side of his head. "Everything in 2006 just got fucked up. Maybe I really suck. Maybe.. Maybe I really can't do it--"
"Could you bear living with your friends dead?" Naoto asked. "With Hina dead?"
It made Takemichi stop. Eyes on the floor, he bit the inside of his cheek. Almost immediately Hina's face flashed in his head, wearing that sweet beautiful smile that he always loved. A tear escaped his eye and so he shut them, wiping the fluid with the back of his hand.
A tomorrow without Hina.
He might as well just die.
The constant whirring of the airconditioning filled the silence in the room as neither of them spoke. They seemed to be lost for words. Tired. Takemichi didn't even want to know how everything's going to turn out now that Nika Ogawa finally knew about her future. The past had been altered. Everything was about to change.
He immediately pulled himself up, realizing something.
'Change?'
"Wait," he suddenly said, turning to Naoto. "Now that Nika Ogawa knows about everything, it should somehow change the course of events."
It could even make an entire new timeline. If he got kicked out in Toman and got dumped by Hina in the past, it means that in the future he wouldn't be associated with Toman and he wouldn't be together with Hina.
Naoto gave him a look, seemed to be getting what he's trying to say.
"Is the present timeline still the same?" Takemichi asked. "Has your memory changed or updated?"
"No," Naoto said, shaking his head. "Everything's still the same as I remember. The explosion in Azora Tokyo still happened. My sister and half of Toman is still dead. Mikey's still in the hospital. Nothing changed at all."
Takemichi paused. If that's the case, it only tells one thing.
"She is meant to find out."
"What do you mean?"
"She is meant to find out!" Takemichi repeated, a smile forming on his lips. "She is meant to find out about everything--about her future, about her death! The present timeline didn't change because that's how it's supposed to be!"
"So it means she didn't tell Hina and Mikey?"
"Yes, definitely!" He finally realized it. "And it means.. It means she believed me."
Naoto just stared at him. "Are you sure about that?"
Takemichi knew he could be wrong, but by what the timeline was telling, there's a big possibility that he was not. He had to make sure. If he was right, it could mean that Nika Ogawa was meant to help him change the future.
"I'm going back," he said, standing up. "I need to talk to her again."
Naoto stood up, too. The two was just about to shake hands when the telephone on the detective's table rang. They gave each other a glance before Naoto walked to the table and answered it.
Takemichi watched as the look on Naoto's face changed after taking the call. "What is it?"
"It's the PSIA," he said. "A report. They say that the identity of the woman's body found on Azora Tokyo's 68th floor--"
"Nika Ogawa's body," Takemichi said.
"Yeah." Naoto nodded. "They finally identified her."
Takemichi gaped. "W-What? How?!"
"Someone came to claim her body just now."
"Who?" Takemichi asked. "Does--Does Mikey know about this?"
"I don't know, but I need to get there ASAP." Wearing his coat, Naoto took his keys and rushed to the door. "I'll tell you about it when I get back. Wait here."
Takemichi threw himself back on the sofa the moment Naoto left the room. His lips stretched into a somewhat anxious smile as he looked up the ceiling.
He sighed. 'At last.'
His heart started wilding at the thought that the corpse of the woman who had Nika Ogawa's face had finally been identified. For months, he, Naoto, and even the PSIA couldn't find a single hint about who she really was--her real name, and even her present connection to Mikey or to Toman. He couldn't believe he was finally about to find out. The questions about her presence in the building the night of the explosion, even her possible connection to the mastermind, Tatsuyanagi Oshiro. All of the answers could finally be brought to light the moment Naoto comes back.
And once again, he was filled with hope.
He was still far from solving everything. But by finally knowing about the real identity of Nika Ogawa's body, he knew that he was a step closer to the root of it all.