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My parents had already evacuated, so I was the only one left in this house.

The reason they left me behind was simple: this house wouldn’t collapse. As people began whispering and casting uneasy glances our way, my parents decided to abandon me here like a human sacrifice, saving themselves instead.

“You’ve always been a strange child… a witch,” my mother had said.

How many times have I been called that now, I wonder? Every time I face the end of the world, I find myself asking the same question. What did I ever do wrong? Time after time, I’m born into a world on the verge of destruction, and I die before reaching thirty. This time, it looks like I won’t even make it to twenty. Maybe it’s because the oldest version of me, the one who wasn’t caught in a world’s collapse, died of illness before turning thirty?

I’ve mostly accepted it by now. If the end comes, then so be it. Still, if I could, I’d like to live long enough to become an old woman before I die. I just want to live a normal life and die a normal death.

As I stare out at the town, now home only to looters and thieves, a flicker of green catches the edge of my vision. Green hair, a color rare in this world. But I recognized it. I hadn’t seen it in this world, but I felt sure I’d seen it in the last world.

And the one before that. And the one before that…

That hair belonged to a very cute girl, one who always looked younger than me, and who always had the same appearance no matter the world. Before I realize it, I rush out of the house. I unleash all the powers I’d been hiding just to live quietly, and I chase after her.

It doesn’t take long to catch up. Looking closer, I see a black-haired girl beside her. I sigh inwardly; it seems I’d been too focused and narrow-sighted.

“It’s been a while since someone’s chased after us,” the green-haired girl said lightly.
“With the way you look, Fini, you do tend to get chased a lot,” the black-haired one replied.

As soon as I catch up, the two of them start chatting casually. I can’t make sense of what they are saying, but even so, it is clear their casual tone doesn’t fit this dying world. If a tea set suddenly appeared between them, I had no doubt they’d sit down for tea right then and there. That’s how out of place they felt.

They are clearly talking about me, but not to me, which made it hard to interrupt. Just as I decided to speak up anyway, the green-haired girl, Finis, turns toward me and asks, “So, who are you?”

“My name is Lili. Who are you two? Don’t tell me the world’s ending because of you?”

There is no point in playing games, so I ask directly. I can’t be sure they are the cause, but given the circumstances, there aren’t many other possibilities. If my memory is right, even as the world crumbled in past lives, she was always the one standing calmly at the end.

Finis’ eyes widen slightly at my words, but then she nods, as if she’d just understood something.

“I see. You’re quite unlucky. Probably about as unlucky as I am.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what I said, Viatrix.”

For a moment, I don’t realize she is talking about me.

“My name is…”
“Lili is your name in this world, is it not?”

Her words leave me speechless. I haven’t said anything about being reborn. I am sure of that. So how does she know? Did she somehow figure it out? Or did she somehow already know who I was?

“That’s why I’ll call you Viatrix,” Finis said. “You don’t have to bother calling me anything.”
“Who are you? What do you know? Tell me! Tell me everything!!”

She knows, she has to know. About me. About everything I’ve wanted to understand but gave up on long ago. I want to know. I want to know. I desperately want to know.

As my emotions surge for the first time in ages, a massive earthquake shakes the ground, as if an explosion has gone off beneath the world itself.

“Unfortunately, it seems we’re out of time,” Finis says calmly. “So, I’ll answer one thing you want to know. Just one. That’s my promise.”
“…Do you know who I am?”

It is the only question I can manage to ask calmly. Because deep down, I know, I’ll meet her again. In the next world, and the world after that, and the one after that. All I need to know is whether she truly knows me.

If someday I stop being reborn and simply disappear, that will be fine too.

“Do I know you?” Finis tilted her head slightly. “That’s hard to say. But I might know things about you that you don’t know yourself. I can’t see into your heart, after all. But yes, I know what you look like, at least.”

I don’t regret my question, but I know I’d asked the wrong one. Knowing is too broad a word, and yet, I think she still answered the question I really meant to ask. Whether out of mercy or amusement, I can’t tell. Either way, I’d gotten the truth I sought.

And just then, the ground split open beneath me. As I fall, Finis remains where she stood, perfectly calm.

“It seems time’s up. I hope we don’t meet again.”
“No… I’ll come find you again!”

I shout with every ounce of strength I have, and that is the end of my life in this world.