Yasutaka Tsutsui - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

“By the way, Kazuko,” Mr Fukushima said, his eyes unfocused as though he were still lost in thought. “Since this has started happening to you, or even before it started happening, how is your health?”

“Well I’m glad you asked. I actually don’t feel quite the same as before. I can’t explain it well, but I have this ‘floating’ feeling.”

“When did this start?”

“It started, I think, on that Saturday after classes, when I smelt that chemical in the science lab.”

Mr Fukushima brought his hand down on the desk.

“Ah, I remember that. That was the time you said you saw someone suspicious?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, so that makes it four days ago…”

Mr Fukushima wrote down the date in his notebook and went back to his thoughts.

“Mr Fukushima, do such mysterious things happen from time to time?” Goro asked timidly. “Even though it’s happening right in front of my eyes, I’m still having trouble believing it. Is this something that happens often?”

Mr Fukushima nodded slowly.

“It’s no surprise you’re having trouble. Anyone would. Any ordinary person — when faced with such a mysterious set of events, things that can’t be explained by science as we know it — would be so bewildered that they would rather forget about it quickly without investigating properly. Our instincts tell us to fear this kind of phenomenon. Goro, I assume you are no exception?”

Goro hesitated a little before vaguely nodding. “Yeah, well, I guess…”

“But science is a discipline that gives us the tools to analyse things that are mysterious and discover the facts that make them normal. So for us to make discoveries, we must first be faced with mysteries. No mysteries, no new discoveries!” added Mr Fukushima with a sparkle in his eye.

Kazuko had never seen Mr Fukushima like this. Kazuo and Goro were also drawn in by the passion with which he was speaking, and were listening closely.

“So, incidents like the one experienced by Kazuko could be happening more often than we think. Indeed there are similar occurrences reported from all around the world. There are people who collect these stories and are investigating them. For example, Francis Edwards is one of them, but because he’s a researcher and not really a scientist, he simply records such facts.”

“But how would you explain what’s happened to Kazuko?” Kazuo asked.

“I would say, teleportation and time leap.”

“Time leap?”

“Yup. They are not as clear as in Kazuko’s case, but there are similar phenomena happening around the world. For example on 23rd September 1880, on a farm near Gallatin in Texas, a man named David Lang vanished in front of his wife, two kids and two friends. Simply disappeared while five people were watching. Also, in a small area off the south-east coast of the US, over twenty airplanes have mysteriously vanished. In these cases, the ones who disappeared haven’t been found, and the theory is that they leapt through time and ended up far in the future or far in the past. As an example of teleportation, there was a case of a person who one day disappeared from Tokyo and reappeared around the same time in Kimberley, USA. There are many stories like this from way back.”

Kazuko and her friends were awestruck. They’d never heard such stories in their lives.

“So in my case both teleportation and time leap happened simultaneously,” said Kazuko.

“That’s the only plausible explanation,” nodded Mr Fukushima. “When the truck was about to hit you, in addition to thinking of yourself in bed, you were also wishing to be far away in terms of time. That’s why you leapt through time to a place way before the incident.”

“But why was I able to—”

“Do such a thing? Well, that’s the thing,” said Mr Fukushima, jotting more things down in his notebook. “I think it was triggered by that chemical you smelt in the science lab four days ago. If I remember correctly, you fainted after smelling that lavender-scented chemical?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“The problem is that chemical. That chemical probably gave you these powers. By the way, don’t you like having this power?”

“No, I don’t!” blurted Kazuko. “I don’t like being the only one with powers.”

“I understand. And that’s a normal reaction. You don’t want others thinking you’re not a normal human, right? I understand how you feel. But what you need to do now is to use this power of yours to return to that science lab four days ago when this incident started.”

“What! Why?… And how?”

All three of them were surprised by his suggestion.

“By leaping through time, of course!” said Mr Fuku-shima, sounding even more surprised than Kazuko. “I mean, you have the powers, and you’ve already done it once, right?”

“But I was terrified of being hit by that truck and…”

Mr Fukushima raised his hand and stopped her.

“I know. And by looking into what psychological and physical state you were in at the time, we should be able to recreate the same conditions.”

“But Mr Fukushima, even if Kazuko can leap back in time by four days, what will she do when she gets there?” asked Kazuo, looking worried.

“She will need to meet that mysterious person who made the chemical,” explained Mr Fukushima, beaming at Kazuko. “She will have to get to that person before he or she makes the chemical. I think that will solve the problem. It might be a little risky, but I think Kazuko can do it.”

Kazuko fell silent, lost in thought. That’s right! she thought. If I can prevent that person from making the chemical, maybe I can make everything go back to normal.

“The biggest problem here is…” Kazuo said thoughtfully, “how are we going to make Kazuko leap back in time?”

Mr Fukushima reflected on this for a moment. “Kazuko, can you remember what you were thinking and feeling when the truck was about to hit you?”

“I’m afraid not,” Kazuko said with a sad expression, shaking her head. “I don’t think I’d have any idea unless I was in a similar situation again.”

“I totally understand,” said Goro, feeling a slight shiver as he remembered the accident in the morning. “And we can’t put Kazuko in such a dangerous situation again…”

“Okay. I will think of a way,” said Mr Fukushima as he got to his feet.

When they looked around, they realized that all the other teachers had already gone home and the staff room was now empty.

“You guys are going home, right? Should we walk out together?”

The three of them left the school with Mr Fukushima. As they stepped out and walked home along the edge of a building site, the cold wind blew gusts at them as they passed gaps in its large boarding fence.

“If I were to go back four days, would you all be willing to help me?”

“I’d say yes,” replied Kazuo, “but I can’t promise anything. I didn’t know about anything mysterious four days ago. So if you’d told me anything then, I’m afraid I probably wouldn’t have believed you.”

“And I might be even more sceptical,” added Goro.

“So you’re saying I need to work out this problem all on my own?”

But before anyone could answer, Mr Fukushima ran off the pavement and shouted, “Run! There’s a steel beam falling!”

Only two or three days ago, at this precise location, a piece of lumber had fallen onto the pavement injuring several people. Kazuo and Goro screamed and followed Mr Fukushima, but Kazuko remained rooted to the spot in terror. I’m going to be crushed to death! she thought. And the moment that thought came to her mind, a strange feeling engulfed her.