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 world 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 a tiny, everyday life.
Chapter 6: Hymn of Silence
'Chi-chi-chi-chi-chi... Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma...!!'
The excruciating pain of Minase's betrayal and the terror of the pursuing observers.
A bug in his brain, pushed to the limit, thrust Ren into a profound rift in dimensions, unlike anything he had experienced before.
—It was an overwhelming silence, so deep it made his ears ache.
When he came to, Ren was lying in a lush green meadow that stretched on forever.
The sky above was endlessly blue, and there were no modern buildings, no home centers, not even a trace of human presence. The memories flooding into his brain told him of the incredibly grand history of this world.
This was a world where, after the Sumerian civilization perished over ten thousand years ago, human history had 'rebooted' in a completely different form over another ten thousand years. It was a parallel world where the Earth had evolved on its own, without the human species ever existing.
'...Is there no one here?'
Ren stood up weakly and began to walk. Todo's cold voice, the angry shouts of complainers, and the judgmental eyes of society were nowhere to be found here. The 'world where no one could hurt him' that he had once desired so much was right here.
'—Welcome, traveler.'
Suddenly, he heard a calm, gentle 'voice' that resonated not in his eardrums, but directly in the depths of his brain.
Surprised, he looked around, but there was no one there. Only the small flowers at his feet and the leaves of the great trees swayed in the wind, emitting a faint light.
'This is a quiet world. Let your wounds heal here.'
It was a gentle language spoken by the plants. Every living thing in this world possessed a will, lived in harmony, and simply and kindly praised the world.
An endless solitude. Yet, strangely, there was no fear. How easy it would be to just surrender himself to this green earth and become a part of the world.
However, the more he was enveloped by that overly gentle silence, the more Ren's heart was filled with a maddening craving for 'that room'.
—A cramped, old apartment with a monthly rent of 65,000 yen.
Memories of a clumsy life for two that began when Mizuki, who worked in the gardening section of a home center, moved in, in a sort of semi-cohabitation.
A room with low wages for both of them, with nothing that could be called interior decor. The cheap, sugary sweetness of the 140-yen canned coffee that Mizuki would buy on her way home from work at night, which they would share from a single mug.
'Ren-kun, you worked hard today too. Thank you for your hard work.'
The smile of Mizuki, who would say that and wrap her warm hands, still faintly smelling of soil, around his own rough ones.
At the time, he couldn't help but think of that casual daily life as a 'bottom-tier cage' that was holding him back. He would compare himself to Todo, harbor feelings of inferiority, and jump through world lines as if running away from Mizuki's kindness.
But standing in a perfect paradise with no one else around, Ren realized it for the first time.
The time he spent with Mizuki in that shabby room was the only place in his life where true happiness had breathed.
(What I was looking for wasn't a beautiful world with no one in it. I want to go back to that messy, dirty, everyday life where Mizuki was by my side.)
Turning his back on the gentle singing of the plants, Ren gripped his smartphone tightly.
He forcibly gouged out the bug in the depths of his brain, causing space to distort violently.
'I'm sorry. I can't stay here.'
The green paradise began to warp and blur, and red and blue moiré patterns covered his entire field of vision.
To meet Mizuki once more and share the warmth of that canned coffee. Driven by that obsession alone, Ren threw himself once again into the endless, murky torrent of the multiverse. However, the world he arrived in next would confront him with even more cruel loneliness.
(Continues in Episode 7)
📖 Back Issues
You can read the previous stories here.
[Episode 1] Probability Bughttps://note.com/natty_llama5121/n/n4e1e144c7c74
[Episode 2] Reversal of Causalityhttps://note.com/natty_llama5121/n/nfa1e49142a8c
[Episode 3] Theory of Everythinghttps://note.com/natty_llama5121/n/nc2a656910d8c
[Episode 4] Shadow of the Observerhttps://note.com/natty_llama5121/n/n1f23bf0efa0c
[Episode 5] Accomplicehttps://note.com/natty_llama5121/n/n832d69adb3a6
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