I Do Not Dream Of Eating Your Pancreas (IWTEYP x Seishun Buta Yarō)

Chapter 8: Words Of Encouragement & Pain

I was glad that I wasn't holding my drink when Rio said that, otherwise I surely would have dropped it. "What do you mean, I can't meet her? Is all of this just pointless then?" If I couldn't meet her, how would I save her? Would that vision of her crying over my dying body really be how things had to end?

Rio lightly coughed, sensing that I was upset over her words. "This is just a theory, and it may turn out I'm wrong. But if I'm right, that doesn't mean things are pointless. It just means it will be more work for you, but I still believe that even if I'm right, you can still save her."

I kept my hands underneath the table, so neither her nor Sakuta could see how tight my fists were clenched at that moment. I nodded to her for her to continue, trying not to betray the emotions bubbling up underneath my hopefully calm exterior.

"It may not always be what you want to hear, but she's always had a way of figuring things out in the past." Beside me, Sakuta spoke up, perhaps able to sense some of my frustration. From one of the pockets on her lab coat, Rio pulled out a magnet. No, upon closer inspection, it was two magnets side by side.

"You know the basics of magnets and how they work, right? Pretend that these two magnets are you and Sakura normally. You have no problem being in contact with one another because of the magnetic attraction." She pulled the two magnets apart before flipping one of them around.

"So what happens when you try to put the magnets together when they are oriented the same way?" As she spoke, she attempted to put the two magnets back together. No matter how much she tried, the magnets would fight against her.

Slowly, I began to understand. Placing the magnets back into her pocket, Rio looked towards me. "My theory is that because of your syndrome, you've essentially become that flipped magnet. You tried to get to her in time the first try, but were unable to save her. Today, you went to the hospital but she was already gone from there."

"So how am I supposed to save her if I can't get close to her?" I thought this was going to be good news, but everything I had heard just made the whole situation harder than it already was. At the end of the day, I was the only one who remembered each day. How was I supposed to save her when I was constantly having to start from scratch?

Rio had opened up her notebook and was scanning through the many pages filled with her handwriting. "Is the news good? No, it probably doesn't seem that way. But every small part of the puzzle builds together. NASA didn't send people to the moon after a day, it took a lot of people doing a lot of research, trial and error, and even then it was unsure if the mission would be a success."

I could tell she had more to say, but catching her glance I looked over and saw that our food was on the way to our table. Closing the notebook, Rio placed it on the open seat at the table. "The same is true here. The more we know, and the more we can figure out regarding your syndrome, the more likely it is that we can find a solution."

I thought back to the dream I had, where Sakura was out of my reach. Maybe Rio was right about this theory. I quickly told her about the dream as we ate. "You know why we sleep and dream right?" She took a break from her meal, clearly thinking more of the mystery at hand than the bowl of ramen in front of her.

"Because our bodies recieve so much stimulation each day, our brain needs that time while we are asleep to really process everything. Dreams, however, can involve things that had nothing to do with what you experienced that day. Sometimes, you might have dreams involving things that you fear, even if you had no stimuli that would invoke that fear."

"In your case, I believe it's due to the syndrome affecting your subconscious that you've had these dreams. Seeing the different attempts to save Sakura even when you hadn't actually attempted them yet, being unable to reach out to her in your latest dream. The mind is a mystery, even after decades of research, and more so the syndrome. Most people consider it a type of folklore if you ask them about it."