Canned Coffee of the Multiverse

“What if I had made a different choice back then?” A man wandering through parallel worlds in search of an ideal life finds his “true place” at the edge of the universe. This is a poignant and heartwarming multiverse novel that, at the end of an epic sci-fi journey, 100% affirms the value of our tiny, everyday lives.

Chapter 1: A Bug in Probability

There was a sensation as if my head were sinking into the floor.

“Are you even listening, Kiryu!”

The roar, exploding at close range, unpleasantly rattled Ren Kiryu’s eardrums. This was behind the service counter at Takakita Home Center Nishinomiya, where the setting sun was shining in stickily. Ren was offering a deep bow—the angle of which he had lost count of today—to the elderly man in front of him, who was red-faced and pounding on the desk.

“I am terribly sorry, sir. Due to a lack of verification on our part, we are out of stock of the wood treated with preservative that you purchased...”
“‘Sorry’ isn’t going to cut it! I have to finish my garden deck by today! What are you going to do about the gas money for my round trip and the time I’ve wasted!”

The spittle flying from the man’s mouth left small stains on the chest of the green uniform Ren was wearing.
Ren just stared at the stains. Even as he spoke words of apology, half of his brain cells were wandering somewhere far away, completely unrelated to the trouble in front of him.

(If, back then—)

A sharp pain throbbed deep in his head. It was the precursor to the chronic migraine that tormented him almost every day.

(If, on that night five years ago, I had signed the startup contract with him.)

“Hey! I’m asking you if you’re listening!”
“Yes, I am truly sorry. I will check the stock at other stores immediately and deliver it directly to your home in my own car, so...”

A young part-time staff member was watching Ren’s back from behind the counter, trembling with fear.
Twenty-nine years old. Floor manager. It sounded good, but in reality, he was nothing more than a shield placed on the front lines of shift adjustments and shootouts of unreasonable complaints like this. Even if he were to suddenly fall ill and stop coming to work tomorrow, someone else would just be wearing this green uniform next week, bowing their head in the same way.
There were plenty of people to replace him. To this world, his existence was nothing more than a buried gear.

After nearly another hour of fruitless arguing, when he finally sent the enraged customer away, it was completely dark outside.

“...Kiryu-san, I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”
“No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Alright, let’s get the rest of the inventory organized.”

Forcing a weak smile, Ren rushed into the men’s restroom in the back.
He locked the stall door and collapsed onto the toilet seat. As he rested his head against the cold plastic wall, intense self-loathing washed over him like a tidal wave.

With trembling hands, he took his smartphone out of his pocket.
He opened the screen and tapped on a bookmarked web article. It featured an interview with a certain man that had been published in a business media outlet a few days ago.

“‘Multiverse Thinking’ as Told by a Young Maverick: Choices That Don’t Fear Failure Change the World”

The man, flashing a confident smile at a desk in a sophisticated office, had been his best friend in college. Five years ago, the two of them had chased the same dream and were on the verge of starting a company. But Ren had been terrified of the “risk of failure” and had run away at the very last moment, jumping at a job offer from this home center in the name of stability.

And what was the result?
He, who took the risk, had now become the darling of the era, commanding hundreds of subordinates and moving the world. He, who feared the risk, hesitated even to buy a 140-yen canned coffee and was ending his day being yelled at by a stranger.

“Damn it...”

My vision blurred rapidly. It wasn't tears. My headache had reached its limit.
Even though it should have been just that 'one single choice' that night that separated him from me.

'I want to go back... If only I hadn't run away and had taken his hand back then, I would be—'

I squeezed my eyes shut, tightly, so tightly. It was in that very moment that I cursed my current self until my molars ground together, and yearned with a maddening intensity for 'another possibility' that was not here.

Thump. My heart leaped.

'—!? '

A tremendous amount of heat, as if my brain were boiling, exploded inside my skull.
When I opened my eyes, something strange had happened.
A cramped toilet stall. Its outlines were beginning to blur into a double image of red and blue, like a misaligned 3D video. On the surface of every material—the wall tiles, the plastic door, my own hands—unseen geometric 'moiré patterns' emerged and squirmed eerily.

'W-what is this...'

I tried to stand up, but there was no strength in my legs. Furthermore, I had the sensation that the direction of gravity was going completely haywire. A violent dizziness, as if I were being sucked into the floor, or perhaps falling toward the ceiling.

A high-pitched sound, like glass shattering inside my head, rang out.

My vision cracked geometrically like a kaleidoscope. In every single shard of the fractured space, a scene I had never seen before was reflected. Myself in a suit, myself in a lab coat, myself standing on some southern island—.
Those shards became a violent, muddy torrent that swallowed Ren's consciousness.

'Ugh, ah, aaaaaah!'

The scream I let out was sucked into the space and vanished.
Thud. A violent impact pierced my entire body.

The next moment, what assaulted Ren's nostrils was not the scent of the air freshener in the home center restroom.
It was the faint drift of a high-end cigar and the rich aroma of aged wine.

'—Eh?'

I slowly open my eyes.
This was not a cramped stall. The night breeze was gently stroking my cheeks.
Ren was standing on the vast balcony of a high-rise tower apartment in the city center. Below him, the breathtakingly beautiful night view of Tokyo, like scattered jewels, spread out endlessly.

I look at my hands.
What was there was not the sleeve of a dirty green uniform. It was a well-tailored, deep navy high-end suit that fit my body perfectly.
In my right hand, a crystal glass. Inside, an amber liquid swayed eerily, bathed in moonlight.

'W-what... where is this... is this... a dream...?'

My breathing becomes ragged from the confusion. At that moment, a smartphone in the breast pocket of my suit emitted a short electronic beep.
I pull it out to look at the screen.
The moment I saw the name of the caller displayed on the display, Ren's breath stopped.

'Todo (Representative)'

It was the name of that best friend, the one I had been looking at with jealous eyes through the media screen just a moment ago.
I swipe the screen and fearfully hold it to my ear.

...Hello?
Hey, is that you, Ren?

What I heard from the other end of the receiver was unmistakably his voice. However, it carried a much deeper, heavier resonance than the voice from my student days that I remembered.

About the board meeting with those Silicon Valley investors tomorrow. You've finished the final check on the documents, right?
Board... meeting...?
What's with that sleepy voice? If you mess up the documents, our company's listing plan for this term will be completely ruined. I'm counting on you, Vice Representative.

With a click, the call ended.
Back on the balcony where silence had returned, Ren stared at his smartphone in a daze.

The face reflected in the screen didn't have a single trace of the pathetic, down-and-out shadow he had worn at that home improvement store. It was the face of a perfect 'successful person,' harboring confidence and a slight hint of exhaustion.

Is this... a world where I didn't run away...?

A torrent of 'memories' began to forcibly flood into Ren's brain. The face of a secretary he had never met, figures for funding in the hundreds of millions of yen, the business plan he and Todo had stayed up all night writing together—.
Clutching his head and staggering toward the night view, Ren understood.

That he had come to a different world line.
And this was the first 'bug' in a long journey through the multiverse, where he would hack the very structure of the world itself and throw himself into a mad quest.

Episode 2: Reversal of Causalityhttps://note.com/natty_llama5121/n/nfa1e49142a8c

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