[Serial Short Story] Intersecting Twin Stars and the Moonlit Partner

Episode 5: The Night Fog Station and the Infinite Stars

2:00 AM. Sora, a twenty-eight-year-old architectural designer, let out a small sigh in front of the blueprints spread across the desk in her room.

She had just finished a competition for a large-scale commercial facility and her design had been selected. She was praised by those around her, and her career seemed to be going perfectly. However, the small hole that had opened up deep in her chest could not be filled, no matter how much work she did.

"…Was this really the right path?"

Ten years ago, had she become the architect she had dreamed of being as a student? She had only become better at compromising her designs to fit real-world budgets. No longer knowing if she was still running for the sake of what she wanted to create, Sora went out into the night city as if to escape.

The city was wrapped in a deep night fog. As she walked through the white smoke that obscured her vision, she came out under an unfamiliar, rusted streetlamp. It was a retro wooden station building. The sign was engraved with the words 'Station of Time'.

Drawn in, she walked onto the deserted platform, and just as Sora sat down on a bench—.

"You're late. I've been waiting, Sora."

A voice came from her feet. Looking down, she saw a black cat wearing a small conductor's cap sitting there. Its odd-colored eyes, different on each side, shone eerily in the moonlight.

"A... talking cat?" "I'm Knight. The guide of the Station of Time. This is a special place where the story that is you intersects."

Just as the black cat Knight slowly flicked its tail, a single old train slid onto the platform with a quiet steam sound, "shoo...".

The doors opened, and two figures stepped out.

The first was a girl holding a large sketchbook, her uniform sleeves rolled up. The second was an adult woman wearing a high-quality trench coat, with gentle wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

As the two approached, Sora's breath hitched. Their faces, their gestures—they were unmistakably her own self.

"Wow, amazing! Me at twenty-eight!? You're so grown up! Are you doing cool work!?"

The eighteen-year-old Sora peered at her with sparkling eyes. Faced with that overwhelming radiance, the twenty-eight-year-old Sora faltered.

"Don't get your hopes up... I haven't become the amazing person I dreamed of being. I just work every day to avoid making waves, and then I get tired and go to sleep."

As Sora looked away, feeling guilty, a hand was gently placed on her shoulder.

"That's not true."

The sixty-year-old Sora said in a soft, enveloping voice.

"I know now just how precious those 'days you spend trying not to make waves' are to me."

◇

The three of them sat side-by-side on the platform bench. Knight jumped onto Sora's lap, curled up, and began to purr.

Eighteen-year-old Sora said, clutching the sketchbook she held to her chest.

"You know, no matter what kind of hardships come my way, I'll do my best to pass the baton on to you guys."

Those straightforward words struck deep into Sora's heart.

She had thought she hadn't accomplished anything. But she realized she had been running, clutching the baton of innocent passion given to her by her eighteen-year-old self, never dropping it once, even while getting hurt, all the way to this very day.

"…Thank you."

Tears spilled from Sora's eyes, one after another.

"You know, I... I'm not the perfect adult you expected me to be, but I'm fighting hard. I've never once forgotten your dreams."

Then, sixty-year-old Sora gently placed her hand over hers.

"Yes, I know. Every tear you shed in your twenties while struggling, lost, and alone in the middle of the night has led to my 'fulfilling days' now. So it's okay. Every step you choose to take today has real value."

From the past to the present. And from the present to the future. A warm, invisible baton was surely passed among the three of them.

◇

Phone—the sound of the first train's bell rang out in the distance. Knight jumped off her lap and wagged his tail at the Soras.

"Well, it's time to say goodbye. But Sora, let me show you one last thing. Your life isn't just this single line of 'past, present, and future.'"

The moment Knight pointed to the night sky with his small front paw, the thick night fog cleared away, and a space of light resembling an endless universe spread out around the station.

"…What is this…"

Sora gasped.

Outside the station, infinitely branching 'tracks' spread out like a web. And on every one of those tracks—there was a 'Sora' living in her own place: a Sora who didn't become an architect and stayed in her hometown, a Sora who flew abroad and was laughing despite her failures, a Sora who was married and holding a child's hand, a Sora who was continuing her journey alone...

Our selves from infinite timelines are shining simultaneously in the worlds right next to us.

Not one of them envies or gets in the way of another. While living their own lives to the fullest in their respective places, they turn toward each other in fleeting moments and wave with warm smiles.

“You’re doing your best there, too, aren’t you?”
“I’m smiling right here.”

Even without words, I felt as if I could hear those voices.

“Everyone... is alive.”

Sora’s heart was full. The path where he stood right now was also an irreplaceable, magnificent path where his infinite selves were quietly continuing to cheer him on.

“I’m off.”

Sora waved with a bright smile toward his eighteen-year-old self, his sixty-year-old self, and all his selves shining like infinite stars.

◇

Waking up with a start, Sora found himself slumped over his desk in his room. Soft morning light was streaming in from outside the window.

Was it a dream? And yet, the overwhelming warmth filling the depths of his heart remained, never fading away.

On his desk lay a half-finished blueprint. A baton spun by his past and connected to his future. And here, in this place where his infinite selves from across time were cheering him on.

Sora took a deep breath and picked up his pen. With a refreshed expression, he began to draw his own first line with strength into the new morning light.

(Episode 5 End)