Tomorrow continues into the future

World of Shinju.
The fight with the rebelling god’s forces, led by Akamine Yuuna, had come to a stalemate while the bonds of friendship between DE Heroes, AD Heroes and the newly arrived Sentinels strengthened. Then, it happened.

“I wanna try burying a time capsule!”

“Huh!?!”

The one who blurted that out with no context or preamble was none other than the DE Hero from Sanshuu Middle School, Yuuki Yuuna. Most people in the room reacted with an almost conditional reflex, save for her greatest friend, who treated it as the most natural thing in the world.

“Tougou Mimori! In full and utter agreement with Yuuna-chan’s proposal!”

One was left wondering if she even bothered listening to what was said at all.

“Time capsule? What’s that, anyway?”

Doi Tamako momentarily closed her mouth, wide open in anticipation of botamochi, and turned her head to her fellow AD Heroes.

“Tamacchi-senpai, you know how they put memorable things in a container, bury it in the ground, then unearth it after a few decades and reminisce about the past?”

The explanation by the well-read erudite Iyojima Anzu raised a bunch of “huh” and “ooh” from the audience.

“I think I’ve heard about it. They do them for graduations and stuff, right?” asked Takashima Yuuna, a spitting image of Yuuki Yuuna, and the double nodded happily.

“Yeah, yeah! That’s it!”

“I get that much, but why so suddenly?”

 Fuu, the club president, set her steaming teacup on the table and asked the perfectly reasonable question.

“I saw it on TV yesterday!”

“Uh-huh, right.”

Met with a radiant smile, Fuu realised there was no deeper reason and let out a pained sigh.

“I saw that show too!” several voices rang out, and began to fill in the gaps in reasoning left by Yuuki. Among them, the most excited came from Suzume, the Sentinels’ number one glib mouth, who had evidently been starving for some ordinary conversation.
“A bunch of kids in elementary school bury a time capsule, but go different ways after they graduate, and former friends stray away from each other. But when they become adults and encounter hardships, they suddenly remember… Oh yeah, the thing they buried on that day was… Hey!”

The moment Suzume paused to catch her breath, the elementary schooler Nogi Sonoko swiped the verbal baton right out of her mouth and continued.

“And then, 10 years later, on the promised day! The protagonist comes to his alma mater, assuming nobody would remember, and witnesses all of his grown-up friends there!”

“Whoa, that’s so touching!”

The happy ending left Gin, Sonoko’s classmate, starry-eyed and excited. On the other hand…

“Hmm. Right, gotcha.”

Tamako, surprisingly restrained in her reaction, was chewing botamochi and sipping on tea.

“Do you girls want to do it? It should be a lot of fun if we do it with the club… Hm?”

“...”

Yuuki was stunned by the unexpected reactions of her friends, who were silently exchanging glances. The uneasy mood of waiting for someone to say something was broken by quiet, quick clapping from the beaming Aya, the Miko of the Sentinel team.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea!”

“Right!? Thanks, Aya-chan!”

Praise from Aya, known also as “the angelic Miko” and “conscience of the Hero Club” put a smile back on Yuuki’s face. But then a “Yuuna, you’re so stupid… For crying out loud” rang out.

Karin, Yuuki’s teammate, took on the thankless duty of pouring cold water on the oblivious Yuuki.

“Think about it a little. Even if we bury a time capsule, when exactly are we going to dig it out?”

“Huh? In ten or twenty years, I guess? …Oh!”

Yuuki went silent, in painful realisation why there was so little joy on the faces of the rest.

Indeed, they didn’t have a few decades. They didn’t have even one decade’s worth of future together ahead of them, because their destinies were set in stone: all of them would be sent to their own timelines upon the defeat of the rebelling god.

“Right… I’m sorry.”

Spending day after day with them had become so natural and fun that Yuuki had completely forgotten about the cruel shackles placed upon them.

“Don’t apologise. It’s not a bad idea, really. So, no problemo!”

The off-handed comment by the Farming King… Hero Utano from Suwa, that is, made her Miko partner, Mito, break her silence and confusedly try to figure out her true intentions.

“We’re not talking about veggies when we’re talking about burying stuff in the earth, okay?”

“Oh come on, I get that much! I was gonna tell the future groups to have a reunion. I’m sure Wakaba would agree!”

“Yeah, naturally. I’d like it if the two Divine Era groups, the Sanshuu Middle team and the Sentinel team, met after they go back to their timeline. And don’t worry about us AD folks.”

Wakaba, the warrior of fortune of the Anno Domini era, cast a glance at her teammates and was answered with immediate nods of agreement…

“Haah… Nah, no can do.”

Save for but one voice of disagreement that came from Sekka, the Hero from Hokkaido.

“Hey hey, don’t make it awkward. Would it kill you ta mature a little?

Tamako, with a reputation for immaturity (though they were all children indeed), in a twist of fate, was lecturing Sekka who didn’t come off as childish at all.

“No, I’m not complaining that I’m left out, I’m just saying it’s impossible. We’ll forget it all.”

Several “oh”s could be heard.

“Waah, I forgot that we’d forget!”

Yuuki Yuuna let out her second shout of the day.

When Shinju’s world would close, the girls’ memories of it would be entirely wiped. That was the cruel destiny thrust upon the girls who should’ve never met each other. With that in mind, not even the girls who’d progress to the future would have any recollection of burying a capsule.

“I’m… really sorry, girls.”
“Yuuna-chan, cheer up.”

Tougou inevitably had to cheer up her greatest friend, who was dejected and burnt out. And few things were as dangerous as a motivated Tougou.

“Let’s bury it, everyone! For Yuuna-chan’s sake! Even if we can’t dig it up later, so what?!”

“Why even bury it if you can’t dig it up…?”

“Ack!”

The calm and completely reasonable comment from Chikage, devout follower of the other Yuuna, made Tougou’s teeth clench with a clack. To make it worse, her own younger self named Sumi twisted the knife.

“Um, we talked about the memory loss, but wouldn’t the memory-preserving box be erased by Shinju-sama when everything is restored to normal?”

“M-Memory-preserving box?”

Itsuki, little sister of the club president, couldn’t suppress her reaction to the wording. Whether she heard the quiet remark or not, Mebuki, leader of the Sentinels, spoke up.

“That’s right. I doubt Shinju-sama intends to let us leave anything in this world.”

“Eeh?! Do you mean everything? All of it, without exception? Even the expensive tea set and luxurious three-piece bedding I purchased here?! How unbelievably cruel!”

“Yeah, yeah. That 980-yen tea set you got at the thrift store and the half-price futon, blanket and buckwheat hull pillow are all gonna go poof. My chirping condolences.”

“Suzume-san!”

“Miroku… Good at shopping.”

“Miroku-san, did you say buckwheat hull!? Oh, joy! You’re part of the soba faction now!”

Suzume and Shizuku riled up the self-proclaimed lady Yumiko, then Utano butted in for some reason. The usual inexplicable flow of events. Takashima, however, remembered the main topic, and turned to ask Hinata a question.

“Hina-chan, what do you think? Are Sumi-chan and Mebuki-chan right?”

Hinata was the Miko most deeply involved with Shinju and the Taisha. For that reason, not only the Heroes but even Mito and Aya waited for her answer with bated breath.

“It is, yes. But I think the possibility of Miroku-san’s teaset remaining with her isn’t zero either…”
“My, is that so?!”

“Why only Miroku-san? That’s unfair!”

“Suzume, shut up. Hinata, why is that?”

Mebuki cut off Suzume’s chirping and prevented the conversation from derailing again.

“Because it wouldn’t get in the way of wiping memories. Something that has no effect on the future could be written into her memory as something she bought in the real world or had all along… All of this is just a guess mixed with wishful thinking, of course.”

In other words, Hinata’s opinion was that unlike things like photos and letters that could remind one of the existence of friends now gone, daily necessities that couldn’t cause impossible memories to surface had a chance of carrying over to the other world.

“So… What about the time capsule?”

Shizuku’s question made everyone exchange glances as if asking “Who knows?”.

“Alright! Tama’s putting an Uman-bou in!”

Tamako answered immediately, grinning and raring to go.

Allow me to explain what an Uman-bou is: it’s a cheap, delicious snack that comes in 108 flavours, a huge hit with kids.

“Awesome as always, Tamako-san! I’m in! Liver sashimi flavour and gizzard flavour!”

“Now hold on a minute!”

Fuu grabbed Tamako and Gin who were ready to start running ahead by their napes and scolded them.

“Why would you put something like that in? No food!”

“That’s your problem?!”

Itsuki couldn’t hold back her reaction at her sister’s misguided admonishment.

“Ahaha… Look, time capsules aren’t to put random stuff in. They’re for nostalgic things that’ll make you remember the past.”

“But if they’re nostalgic, they’ll disappear, won’t they?”

Fuu’s words only served to make Yuuki more dejected.

“Sorry, but we can only leave random rubbish behind…”

Karin reassuringly put her hand on Yuuki’s shoulder. Then the bigger Nogi Sonoko, who had been watching over the proceedings, spoke up.

“Then how about we put in stuff only Shinju-sama will consider random rubbish?”

“Only Shinju-sama…?”

 Aya raised her head. You could almost see a “?” over the heads of everyone in the room.

“Let’s take those Uman-bou. For Shinju-sama they’re just snacks, but not for Tama-bou and Mino-san, right?”

Sonoko’s words made Yuuki’s face brighten immediately.

“That’s it! If we put stuff that doesn’t directly have anything to do with our fight or each other, but has just a teensy bit of memories in it, it could work!”

“Hm. It all depends on whether Shinju will overlook something or not…”

Wakaba contemplated with her chin on her fist, and Takashima pulled her arm.

“Let’s do it, since the chance we can leave something for the future isn’t zero!”

“Y-Yeah, you’re right, Takashima-san…”

“Heehee, Chikage-san, didn’t you just say there’s no point if we can’t dig it up?”

“I’ll note that down!”

Anzu and the two Sonokos giggled, watching Chikage squeeze a quiet agreement out of herself while watching Takashima’s arm on Wakaba with concern.

“I guess… It’s all okay then?”

Yuuki felt the wind of change and her eyes started darting around the room in search of confirmation. Karin let out a sigh and smiled.

“Looks like it. Doesn’t change the fact they won’t be able to dig it up, though.”

Yuuki puffed up her chest, smiled brightly and clenched her first.

“It’s fine! Just thinking about what’s important to you and what you’d like to send to the future should be fun enough! Probably!”

While everyone was stunned by the powerful “probably”, Natsume, the Hero from Okinawa, suddenly stood up.

“Natsume-san, what’s wrong?”

Natsume quietly answered Gin’s question.

“The sea is calling me…”

“Eeh!? Why now!?”

“Put seaweed in the time capsule, it says…”

“I just said no snacks, so why do you think raw seaweed’s gonna pass, you stupid sea!?”

*Kaboom!*

Whether the explosion came from Fuu’s anger or everyone’s laughter, the mood in the clubroom brightened up drastically. Then the Hero Club switched gears to their usual positive mindset, and unanimously agreed to burying a time capsule.

But the matter was far from settled for the Hero Club. Up next was the fun part, talking about what kind of stuff they want to put in, what’s okay and what’s not. There was no shortage of people who’d try to put in perishables like botamochi, udon, soba or seafood, thick notebooks of dubious contents or wooden swords they’ve used in the past, and the discussion went on for a long time. It took a considerable time for the excitement to quiet down, but eventually the considerations of capsule size and item price made somewhat reasonable thoughts like “I guess outfits we made for events would disappear if we put them in…” or “It’s kind of embarrassing, but couldn’t we record a song and put the recording in the capsule?” began to appear.

“Yuuna-chan, what do you want to put in?”

“I think I’ll go with this.”

Yuuki pulled a book out of her bag in response to Tougou’s question. It was her collection of pressed flowers, which she made as a hobby day after day.

“Though I’ll have to remake them, since I wrote on them. They’ll be erased if there are names on them, right?”

“Can I see it?”

Tougou opened a random page and let out a “Huh…”, which drew the others in to take a look at the book too.

“Pressed flowers, huh? Wait, whoaaa!”

Karin shrieked and went beet red. The reason was the opened page, an azalea flower with “Karin-chan. Gets embarrassed easily but very kind!” written on the side.

It turned out that on every page the book had a flower, as well as the name of a friend and their good points in Yuuki’s eyes written in neat, careful script.

“Are you telling me… You have one for everyone?”

Mebuki couldn’t stop herself from voicing her justified suspicions. And true enough, there were pages for not just Heroes who were there from the start, but even for the Sentinels who joined in later.

“I do. What about it?”

“N-Nothing…”

It couldn’t have been easy to get a flower to represent everyone, considering how some could only be obtained during specific seasons. Yuuki must have come up with the idea of a time capsule long ago, and been making them, and wrote on the pages exactly what she thought of her friends.

“Oh, I know! If we bury the capsule in the flowerbed, it should be perfect!”

“P-Perfect in what way?!”

Karin shouted to conceal her embarrassment, her ears still bright red, and Yuuki looked over the faces of everyone gathered near her.

“Because then I’ll be able to find the capsule when tending to the flowers! Then I’ll see the pages and start thinking a lot! About how they look like I made them. Or if maybe I really did! Then, maybe I will… no, I will definitely remember! Who this flower was for, who that flower was for… Remember how I had a lot of friends here. Probably. Definitely. Absolutely!”

The usually noisy classroom fell completely silent at Yuuki’s passionate, if ineloquent speech. Nobody so much as blinked, and simply quietly stared at the girl happily clutching her flower book. They were touched by her deep, strong feelings for each and every one of her friends.

With Yuuki putting this much thought into leaving a piece of hope for the future in the capsule, none of the club could approach their choice of item half-heartedly anymore.

“Haah…”

The discussions have resumed, yet Shizuku was wandering alone around a nearby residential area.

Shizuku had little idea of what to put in the time capsule from the start, and Yuuki’s words made her even more at a loss.

The surroundings were turning dark. She went outside under the excuse of getting some air so it was time to return, but she was reluctant to do so because of the mood in the room.
“What should I do…”

“How ‘bout a ramen bowl?”

SHIZUKU’s voice ringing out in her mind had a forced cheeriness to it. She must’ve been worried.

“You like ramen, right? It’s good stuff!”

“True, but… When someone opens the capsule, what are they going to think?”

“Ah…”

““It’s a bowl”. And nothing more.”

There would be nothing to give away that she put in there, like Yuuki’s idea, and there wasn’t even a smidgeon of friendship or bonds in the idea.

“Oh come on, there’s gotta be at least a smidgeon in that.”

“What’s a smidgeon, anyway…”

“You’re the one that said it.”

SHIZUKU, her alter-ego, heard everything Shizuku was thinking. Just when she was about to note how handy and inconvenient at once that ability was, SHIZUKU went “Oh…” and clammed up.

“It’s pretty difficult, isn’t it?”

“Eh…”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

Shizuku turned around to see the source of the sudden voice behind her to find an awkwardly smiling Chikage.

“Why…”

“I can’t think of anything either.”

Chikage walked up to Shizuku’s side, matched her pace and started walking together with her.

“I’m not used to that kind of stuff, anyway…”

“Coming up with ideas?”

“Leaving memories behind…”

Chikage’s eyes were constantly pointed downwards, as if she was hell-bent on observing the toes of her shoes.

“Since I’ve only ever wanted to forget things.”

Chikage sounded like she was talking to herself, but Shizuku found herself nodding.

“Mhm…”

Shizuku recalled the days when she had nobody but herself and SHIZUKU. There were no memories worth passing over to the next day there. Only a girl clutching her knees, hoping for each day of pain and suffering to end as quickly as possible. She felt a powerful squeeze on her heart.

“...Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Huh…?”

Shizuku saw Chikage, whose gaze was pointed up. The bright-red setting sun dyed their surroundings scarlet.

“I… hated the sunset in the old world. It’s like it was telling me the day was ending, and it would soon be tomorrow. All while I was hoping that tomorrow would never come…”

Shizuku quietly looked at Chikage, who was saying painful things with an unexpectedly serene expression, from the side. When Chikage said “But…”, a gust of wind interrupted her. She pushed her long, fluttering hair to her back with her fingers and continued.

“But now… I’m hoping for tomorrow to come as quickly as possible. Every single day.”

“Ah… Me too.”

Shizuku felt the same way. What would she do tomorrow? Where would she go? Who would she talk with and about what? The world of forced fighting they were in should’ve been scary and unwelcome, but unlike in the past, she was looking forward to every single day. Because the Hero Club taught her there was a lot more fun and enjoyable stuff than bad and unpleasant waiting for her the next day, and the one after that too.

“Humans are a selfish bunch, aren’t they?”

Chikage had an embarrassed smirk on her lips.

A melody rang out from the city hall, filling the streets and signifying that it was 5 PM. And, accompanied by that music box rendition of Yuuyake Koyake, young children merrily skipped around the two of them, singing along.

Those smiles, illuminated by the setting sun were radiant with happiness, leaving no doubt that a wonderful tomorrow would come.

“Do you think we’ll find… something to send to the future?”

“Yeah, we will, I’m sure of it. Even if it takes us longer than the others…”

Chikage’s tone made it clear that she didn’t need to rush, which made Shizuku relieved. Because of that, it was a lot easier for her to open her mouth than when she was talking to SHIZUKU, alone.

“How long will it take? One day? Two?”

“Y-You’re pretty impatient, huh…”

The voices of the children holding their hands and singing were getting further away. Shizuku and Chikage laughed softly, as the melody enveloped the streets touched by the evening sun.

“We should go back, too.”

“Mhm…”

Shizuku, seemingly learning from the children just earlier, shyly pulled on Chikage’s fingertips.

“Eh…?”

She was a little surprised but didn’t resist, and walked along naturally. The two of them imagined opening the door to the clubroom, and then being greeted with…

“Oh, here you are! Welcome back!”

“They’re holding hands, woooo!”

“You must feel chilly. Alfred, a spot of tea, would you?”

“By the way, what’s for dinner?”

…and many more random, eccentric, yet infinitely warm and kind welcomes from their friends. They snickered again.

What did they all put in the time capsule? Did it reach the future? That is a story to be told some other day.

-End-