Kara no Kyoukai: Mirai Fukuin – The Garden of Sinners/Recalled Out Summer Chapter 3

3

Mikiya-san explained about precognition plainly. Calculation was building up the future; prediction was reading the future; and my precognition was prediction.

But putting that aside,

“Mm, looks great today, too.”

why is he eating that delicious-looking meat tart that I don’t even know when he placed an order for.

…And we were having a serious conversation up until now.

To see someone eat happily with such relish, it was like the air relaxed; it was vexing, like we were just making idle talk. Even I can’t remain silent.

“…Even if you say that it’s only because I have good memory, that doesn’t feel real to me. I don’t even have a good head.”

“It would be dangerous if you were conscious of it. It’s probably because the function of precognition is detached from Shizune-chan’s life – or maybe you can call it the ego – so it wouldn’t affect your actual life. And on rare occasions, when the conditions are met, you’re connected and the clip is replaced.”

Mikiya-san said this seriously, while devouring his meat tart. Munch munch.

…This is as much as I can endure. Finally, I stopped remaining silent.

“Excuse me, I would like this orange and sunflower mixed tart!”

I ordered something from the menu to the employee.

Mikiya-san looked at me with an awfully bright smile on his face.

Shortly thereafter, the tart arrived, and are sunflowers really something you eat to begin with? I picked up a fork while thinking thoughts like this.

Mikiya-san nodded kindly to me.

“Well, that was all just someone else’s opinion, so it’s okay if you ignore it. There’s only one thing I want to say to you.”

“T-That would be…?”

I felt somewhat tense, like I was about to receive a treat.

It was then,

“Shizune-chan isn’t that special. Something like seeing the future isn’t worth worrying about that much. Right?”

that I was washed over by the sort of everyday encouragement that I didn’t want to hear.

The words that I didn’t want to hear the most became icy water, instantly lowering my temperature.

“…You can say that because you can’t see it, Mikiya-san.

How can someone who can’t see – ”

– understand how I feel.

I barely managed to swallow these disgusting words.

“Actually, I can see the future just a little bit, too.”

Unmindful of my feelings, Mikiya-san continued in a light tone.

…It was a horrible betrayal. To praise me and then take me down again, maybe this person really is a devil. After all, he’s covered in black.

“Please don’t just say that on the spot. Anyone can just say – wha?”

I doubted my own eyes. Mikiya-san turned over the business card he laid on the table earlier and let me see it. I was amazed when I opened it – a scribble said, ‘Shizune-chan will order an orange tart’.

“See, it’s amazing, isn’t it?”

“……That’s true, but,”

I puffed my cheeks.

Did he think I was such a child that a trick like this would work?

“Please don’t make fun of me like that. Isn’t this just a guess? If you think about what’s ahead, anyone would know this. What I talked about was something that doesn’t change, something that would become reality,”

“If you mean a future that’s decided, I guess the man from before is different, then? After all, the future that Shizune-chan saw was different from the real conclusion.”

” – ”

Oh – I rose my voice, and froze.

It felt like a big bucket of cold water was splashed onto my hot head.

“…Right. He was, saved, wasn’t he?”

“Of course. It was thanks to Shizune-chan that he was saved. When you were on the bus, you saw the construction site out of the corner of your eye, and carefully observed the man on the same bus; all the parts came together when he headed in the direction of the construction site from the bus stop. So there. That can’t be compared to something like the prediction on this memo, but the act itself is the same.

You just think of the future as a matter of course… well, you’re a little different from other people in how far you go, but that’s not something to have a guilty conscience about. You just said it yourself, Shizune-chan. The future is something that anyone would know if they thought about it.”

Mikiya-san’s words slipped straight into my heart. It wasn’t anything special; they were just common, ordinary words, but,

‘ – that’s not something to have a guilty conscience about.’

it was like the mud that stained my chest were felled by its echoes.

“…Is it, a matter of course?”

“It is. All humans live by seeing the future. The me from five minutes later, the me from one day later. Depending on the person, they might even look at themselves from one week, from one year later. That isn’t something decided like precognition, but something more vague, although it’s nothing more than an expectation, that this is how they want to be. There’s no such thing as a person who doesn’t dream about the future while relying on his present self.”

Mikiya-san said this, plainly, but strongly.

Seeing the future, changing the future – those are just misapprehensions that I myself held onto.

After all, you can’t change something that hasn’t been born yet.

To humans, the future is always just something ‘to be thought about’.

What I do is not peeking into the future with my precognition and changing it, but making the future by living in the present.

No matter how much I see the result, the future is not yet born.

If I ever see an unchangeable future, then that’s not seeing the future; that can only be deciding the future. I don’t have an outrageous power like that, and in the first place –

“…The future I see, is always painful. There’s never a future where I’m smiling. So then, that means – ”

“Right. Isn’t the future that you see, a warning? As though it was saying, ‘this will happen – work hard, so you won’t have to feel regret’.”

…His voice quietly resounded.

The words he wanted to say to me, was the wish that this is the way he himself wanted things to be – a n.o.ble prayer.

↓

” – Well. That’s, one thing. But I still think it’s a problem to know the questions on my test by seeing three days ahead…”

That’s right. Mikiya-san is correct, but that’s still an answer from someone who can’t see it. I know now that my worry is something conceited, but something like a vital solution strategy is still –

“Right. So, instead of thinking three days ahead, think four days ahead.”

…Uh. Mikiya-san suggested this with a ridiculously gentle smile.

“Wha – What do you mean?”

“Shizune-chan knows things three days ahead, right? Then you can just think about what’s beyond that. The best I can do is think one hour or one day ahead, but your standards are set far beyond that. It might be difficult, but that would be your compensation for possessing special eyes. You can’t cure precognition, and it would be a shame to cure it.”

He grinned.

…Amazing. I felt I just saw a black tail on Mikiya-san for an instant.

Mikiya-san is saying that even people who are special need a handicap specific to people with special powers.

Otherwise, a special power just becomes a burden.

…This person identified my worry and weakness at the same time. If I have enough time to ramble about my worry, then I should first master this power. ‘I’m the only one cheating’. I had always held this defeatist way of thinking; it was being beat back into shape from its very foundation by these sharp but warm words.

“…You really got me. You look gentle, but you’re actually strict, Mikiya-san.”

Mikiya-san went, hmph, as he frowned.

Apparently he objected, not to the part about being strict, but the part about looking gentle. For an instant, I felt that I saw the visage of Mikiya-san being teased, with his friendly figure and his baby face.

“Um. Would you mind giving me that business card? I want to have it to remember this day by.”

“Huh… well, I’m not sure about that. My business cards are kind of useless, but… well, I guess that’s what they’re for.”

Mikiya-san gave me his business card a bit shyly.

…Well. A lot’s happened, but what really shocked me was this person’s perception. Mikiya-san had grasped my worry at that point in time, and began preparations only so that I would understand. Even without precognition, he had created a bright future.

But still,

“By the way, that was strangely off.”

“…I am ashamed. Not choosing from Today’s Recommendation, but from the Challenge Menu beside it instead – I hadn’t thought of that.”

Mikiya-san’s precognition didn’t have enough sunflower.

As you can see, having a limit is also a human-like ripple of hope.