“R…Raana-chan, I don’t know about this…”

“It’ll be fine. C’mere.”

She reached out towards me, a picture-perfect smile on her face.

At her feet, a pebble tumbled down and landed on the floor several meters below.

Just this morning Raana had shown up unannounced at my house and asked me to come with her, saying there was something she wanted to show me. It was a Sunday and I hadn’t made any plans, so after mulling it over and asking Dad for permission, I agreed.

We took a short walk to the subway station nearby, then rode southwest until we were just past the Tama, at the edge of Kanagawa. There on the riverbank, surrounded by a tiny forest of pampas grass and shrubs, was a huge, three-story brick building. It was clearly abandoned, and the signage facing the levee road was faded by the years and weather, but I could just make out some text naming it a storage facility.

“W-what is this place?,” I asked, following Raana past the broken window by the entrance.

“Used to come here when I was younger. Grandma had friends nearby, and she’d bring me.”

I straddled the windowsill, watching for shards of glass. “…S-She brought you… to an abandoned warehouse…?”

“No, to their house over that way.” Raana pointed back with her thumb. “But I snuck out and came here.”

“O…oh.”

On the uppermost story, past three long flights of stairs, the afternoon sun streamed in through holes in the sheet-metal roof. Dust danced in the air, stirring in our wake. It irritated my nostrils as I caught my breath; I was distracted enough trying not to sneeze that I didn’t realize Raana had stopped in her tracks, and nearly bumped into her.

“Weird. Wasn’t like this before.”

“E-eh?”

“There’s a hole.”

“A… h-hole?”

“Yeah. A big hole.”

She was right. In front of her, a huge chunk was carved out of the wooden floor, both in this story and the one below. A heap of rotted planks sat at the bottom of the pit, and above it a gap was torn in the roof in roughly the same shape.

“I… think the rain… ate it,” I ventured.

“Makes sense. You’re pretty smart, Tomori.”

“Um. Thanks. …R-Raana chan, what are you doing?”

“Crossing.”

Before I could say another word, Raana slid into the narrow strip of floor still left standing, and skillfully side-stepped her way past the hole.

And there she beckoned to me from across the chasm.

The building had unusually high ceilings, so the drop was steeper than you’d expect from just two stories. It must have been ten meters, at least. I peered into it again and gulped.

“I… I’m w-way too clumsy. I’ll definitely fall,” I whimpered.

Raana shook her head. “Just do what I did.”

I was shivering just thinking about it, but… something about the look in her eyes drew me in.

I sidled onto the outcropping and began shimmying past it. Slowly, slowly, making sure not to look down. I timed my breaths with every step. One, two, three.

After ten or so, it seemed I’d made it through.

“See?,” Raana said. “Easy.”

“Ah… y-you’re right! I did i—”

In an instant, the ground below me gave way.

I must have taken a wrong step.

My heart stopped, and in a thousand short images my life flashed before my eyes. I saw faces; Taki-chan, Ano-chan, Soyo-chan.

…At least I got to spend the rest of my life with them, I thought.

“R…Raana-chan… You’re… surprisingly strong.”

My arm was sore from how tightly she’d gripped it.

“Thanks.”

“A-ah, your knee! It’s bleeding! I-I brought bandages and disinfectant, s-so just let me–”

“Not yet.” Raana held a hand up. “Follow me.”

“U-um… okay…”

“In here,” she said, and stepped into a small room at the corner of the building.

“…Meow.”

“Meow. …That means ’long time no see,’ Tomori.”

“O-oh.”

On Raana’s lap sat an old, thick-coated orange tabby. It looked at me and mewled once again.

“D…do you know this cat, Raana-chan…?”

“Mm,” she nodded. Her knee was still raw, mottled red with burst capillaries. And yet she was smiling so gently. “An old friend.”