“Another version of yourself…”

  That matched what my brother had told me back at home.

  “Tsurubami-kun, actually… I’ve heard about this ‘other self’ thing too. Can you tell me more?”

  Tsurubami-kun lifted his head sharply.

  “You mean… there are others who’ve returned besides me?”

  He even leaned forward slightly.

  “No, actually… I don’t know who said it. I heard someone mention it in an audio file attached to a patient report. I tried to dig deeper right away, but within less than a minute, the entire file was deleted. It was so fast, I started wondering if I’d imagined the whole thing.”

  A brief silence followed.

  The only sound in the café was the background music—an unaccompanied choral hymn.

  In the midst of that song, I saw Tsurubami-kun’s profile in the dim light, and he looked almost angelic. I found myself reaching out toward him without thinking—

  and that’s when it happened.

  “Have you found the Oblivion Drug?”

  A staff member, who had been running the café alone, was suddenly standing next to us.

  We’d assumed it was the perfect place for a private talk, since no one else was around.

  “The… Oblivion Drug?”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  My brother looked puzzled.

  The middle-aged employee’s eyes shimmered slightly, but maybe that was just the lighting.

  “That’s the key to stopping the disappearances.”

  “Stop. Please. I don’t know. I don’t have any Oblivion Drug. I don’t even know where it is.”

  Tsurubami-kun was clearly shaken.

  This night was giving us way too much information to process…

  “Is it really a drug? Like a headache remedy or something? Which pharmaceutical company makes it? If it’s being imported illegally from overseas, we have a problem.”

  My brother’s tone grew firm.

  If this was a new medicine that hadn’t even made it to the Bureau’s radar, it was a serious matter.

  “I’ve heard someone say it too—that they’d be killed by their other self.”

  The café employee said that instead of answering the question.

  “Huh?”

  All three of us said the same syllable, each in our own voice.

  “Who was it?”

  Before my brother could speak, I—usually the shy one—beat him to the question.

  “It was someone I took in. Someone from the underground.”

  What the hell was this guy talking about?

  “A few days ago, around this same time, a young man wearing white came into the café. The white clothes alone were unusual, but he looked so terrified, I felt sorry for him. He had no money, but I served him something to drink anyway.

  I didn’t have much else to do.”

  He paused for a deep breath.

  I glanced at Tsurubami-kun—his expression had changed from unease to outright fear.

  “You okay?”

  I whispered, but he didn’t respond.

  I knew he wasn’t ignoring me on purpose, but it still hurt.

  The man continued.

  “At first, no matter what I asked, he just kept mumbling the same two things:

  ‘If I meet myself in this world, I’ll be killed.’

  And, ‘I need the Oblivion Drug.’

  Once he calmed down, he said the drug would let him return to the underground world.

  And that it would also solve the disappearances happening up here.”

  “‘Oblivion’ means ‘forgetting,’ right? So what… it makes you forget the headache? Makes you forget who you are? Or maybe… you give it to the people around you so they forget someone ever existed? That kind of thing?”

  My brother asked cautiously, clearly still unsure whether this was real or nonsense.

  The café man suddenly grinned.

  “If it were something that predictable, it wouldn’t be interesting at all, would it?”