Rain poured down. Occasionally, lightning struck too.
It felt similar to Kanna's lightning ability. Though without the purple hue.
No, perhaps Kanna's ability was more like a magnetic field. She had mentioned before that she created a barrier to contain the explosion of her power.
While clear days were nice, rainy days had their own pleasant feeling.
The continuous gentle noise of falling rain, the smell rising from the wet soil.
These things brought peace to the mind and body.
If it had just been quiet rain, it might have been a comfortable night.
But the thunder made it difficult to sleep.
I could sleep through such sounds, but Kanna beside me apparently couldn't.
"...ugh, uhhh..."
"Are you okay? Are you afraid of thunder...?"
Looking at Kanna curled up and clutching my clothes, I wasn't sure how to handle the situation.
So I carefully spoke to try to find the cause.
But a voice shot back as if telling me not to treat her like a fool.
"W-who are you calling a coward? As if I'd be afraid of something like that!"
"Right, of course..."
Before, she was only afraid of being alone in dark places, so simply being with her was enough to alleviate her fear.
But now, unlike before, my presence didn't seem to help much, which left me at a loss.
I couldn't remember anything useful, and since her mental state had regressed, it felt awkward to press her with questions, so I changed my approach.
"Should we talk about something, if you're struggling?"
"Talk...?"
"Just, anything you know about."
Any conversation would do—chatting until she got tired and fell asleep seemed like the best option.
Looking at the rain, it seemed likely to continue until morning, so this seemed better than waiting for it to stop.
When I suggested this, Kanna thought seriously for a moment before her face brightened as if she'd remembered something.
"Ah!"
"Let's lie down while we talk, since this is difficult."
"Oh, okay."
"So? Did you think of something good to talk about?"
It felt like dealing with a child.
Though she hadn't actually become a child, her innocent expression made me feel bittersweet.
I adjusted my position, fixing my gaze on the ceiling, thinking that just exchanging voices might make me less emotional.
Kanna rustled about, straightening her curled-up body and lying down properly, pulling her hands out above the blanket.
Then she continued.
"Did you know?"
"Know what?"
"There's something called a totem here."
"..."
"If it exists, Mysterious Persons can invade. Let's go remove it tomorrow."
After hearing Kanna's words, I couldn't say anything.
Before we became friends at the Academy, when no one believed her, she had desperately asked for help. Now that we were friends, her information seemed more certain.
If I had been her friend from the beginning, if I had reached out when others turned their backs, would she have told me everything she knew?
Before I could regret such things, everything had already happened, but hearing these stories made me keep looking back at those times that had passed.
As I sat there dazed, Kanna seemed to think her explanation was insufficient and hurriedly added more.
"I-it's true! I'll show you when I find it later. But we need to get rid of it quickly. What if Mysterious Persons invade again like in the news? I think it's in a town near the Wall... Gasp, is that where we are?"
"No."
"Huh?"
"You've already protected us once, Kanna. You don't need to find any totem."
I whispered those words.
Feeling tears welling up slightly, I wiped my eyes secretly so Kanna wouldn't notice.
At my words, she responded with a dumbfounded voice as if that couldn't be true.
But there was no lie in what I said, so I continued speaking to her.
If I didn't say even this much, Kanna might put on her shoes and run out tomorrow to look for the totem.
"You said it's May now, right?"
"...Yes."
"During these two and a half months, you worked hard and that's how things turned out."
I could have said that although many people died, she had saved even more lives.
Wishing that Kanna would only hear good things in this situation, I didn't mention anything about deaths.
After all, when she recovered and returned to reality, she would face it then—there was no need to burden this version of Kanna with such pain.
But even after hearing this, Kanna seemed to quickly grasp what she had done and turned her head sharply.
I could tell from the sound and feeling, so I turned my head toward her as well.
"D-did I do it? Did I already do it...?"
Kanna's eyes were wide open, her expression one of disbelief.
"S-so what I know is different...? I-it was strange. There's no way M-Mysterious Persons would invade like that... I must have done something wrong."
Tears welled up in Kanna's eyes.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... Is it because of me that happened?"
Come to think of it, even without me saying anything, the news had shown lists of those who died in the line of duty.
It was natural that she could figure out people had died from seeing that, so my effort to gloss over it had been in vain.
"..."
She was blaming herself, thinking that she had tried to erase the totem, and had actually done so, causing all this to happen.
Recalling her words, it seemed clear that Mysterious Persons would have invaded this place eventually.
So such a totem must have existed.
Kanna had only accelerated the timeline, and people were displeased about that acceleration.
That was all.
If it could be resolved quickly, accelerating made sense. Whether it could be resolved quickly was another matter entirely.
Kanna was worried, afraid, and regretful about the consequences of her actions.
I thought that Kanna before losing her memories might have experienced the same feelings. But she must have had many concerns before making her choice, hesitations, and after choosing, her resolve would have helped her endure.
Now without that, Kanna was simply suffering.
"No, thanks to you, people are now standing guard vigilantly. That's why there were fewer casualties..."
"..."
I mentioned the current situation to comfort Kanna.
Because of Kanna's actions, the Wall had collapsed, but as a result, heroes became more vigilant about the existence of Mysterious Persons and monsters, strengthening their defenses.
The sacrifice was certainly not light, but she had accomplished enough to offset it.
Was it easy to reveal the weaknesses of new monsters and enable others to deal with them?
It would surely have required sacrifices numbering well over ten thousand.
Moreover, as a student, even while others mocked and ridiculed her as the Bottom Rank, she fought against Mysterious Persons and even protected heroes who had no immunity to unrefined mana.
For that alone, Kanna certainly deserved to be called a hero.
No, more than deserved.
"You know what? That interview on the news earlier, that was about you."
"Huh...?"
"You protected other heroes from Mysterious Persons. So I think you did well."
I smiled. I believed her actions were definitely worthy of praise, worthy of commendation.
Kanna hesitated, then nodded a few times as if it was difficult to accept but she would believe it because I said so.
"...I'll believe it because Ha-min says so."
Hearing Kanna's words made my lips twitch into a smile.
I had hoped that Kanna would trust me the same way I trusted her, and receiving that answer made me feel overwhelmed.
Of course, I didn't know how the original Kanna would react, but I rationalized that she had acted that way because she trusted me too.
"Ha-min, Ha-min."
"Yes?"
Kanna, who had been lying quietly as if about to fall asleep, called my name again.
There was something cute about the way she repeated it that made me naturally look toward her.
I caught sight of Kanna slightly turning her head to look at me.
Wondering what she would say next, I listened carefully to her words.
If she repeated something she'd already said, I would listen again, and if she worried and regretted to the point of tears, I would comfort her—that was my plan.
"When it rains, your ability doesn't work well, right?"
"Yes."
Because the stars aren't visible when it's cloudy.
There was no need to ask how she knew. I already knew that Kanna was aware of things about me.
Of course, I was curious about the source, but I didn't think Kanna would tell me about that.
Or maybe she would tell me now.
Or perhaps that too was instinctual, or forgotten along with her other memories.
While I was seriously pondering this, Kanna spoke more seriously than before.
In a voice that sounded like she was giving advice.
"Then try to work on using your ability even on rainy days. Something good will surely come of it."
"...It would be nice to use it anytime, I suppose."
"Right?"
"I'll try to work on it."
Kanna raised the corners of her mouth and grinned.
Does something happen on rainy days? If this was a warning, was it related to her asking me to become a star?
Was she speaking in riddles because people might think it strange if she spoke directly? If so, it wouldn't be strange to think there was a connection.
If something would happen on cloudy days that might make things difficult for me, was she telling me to train so I could become like a star myself, free from restrictions on using my ability?
I didn't expect the current Kanna to fully understand the thoughts of pre-memory-loss Kanna.
It would be difficult to follow conclusions reached after two months of calculation with just a brief thought before sleep.
Her voice grew increasingly drowsy.
Just as I realized sleep was coming, Kanna said quietly:
"If Ha-min cries, it would be my fault...right?"
"How would that be your fault?"
I raised my upper body in protest at those words, but Kanna was already curled up asleep.
Was it something said while half-asleep, or just sleep-talking after she had already fallen asleep?
What was certain was that she felt some kind of guilt toward me.
Even though there was no reason for it anywhere.