Rain tapped softly against the café windows.
Just ordinary, gray, Earth-style drizzle that somehow made everything feel quieter than usual.
Naomi was asleep upstairs, snoring gently into a loaf-shaped pillow. The café was closed for the morning. The enchanted sugar cubes were behaving. For once, the universe seemed to say, "Okay, Reika, you get a normal moment."
So I made tea.
Chamomile, vanilla bean, and a splash of milk that might have been 5% stardust.
I sat on the back porch of the café with my warm mug and the sky dimming around me, when it happened.
No flash.
No portal.
No time-stop.
Just a presence—like someone had stepped into the world sideways.
Me, But Not Me
She stood in the garden, beneath the lemon tree that only grew fruit on Wednesdays.
Same face.
Same sleepy eyes.
Same posture—hands wrapped around a mug like it was a shield and a friend at once.
But her outfit was different.
Her café was different.
And her eyes—they had a softness in them, but also distance. Like someone who had read the ending I hadn't reached yet.
She looked up.
Met my eyes.
And smiled.
"Hi, Reika."
My mouth opened before I could think.
"You're me."
"Yep," she said.
"From another timeline?"
"Close. Another version. The fork where we didn't stop time that one rainy afternoon in middle school."
"That's... oddly specific."
"Trust me. I remember it too."
She sat on the porch beside me.
No sound but the rain and two mugs of tea cooling slightly between us.
"Why now?" I asked.
She tilted her head.
"Because you're almost there."
"There?"
She didn't answer directly.
Instead, she pulled a tiny slip of paper from her pocket.
My handwriting.
'Don't open the journal before Chapter 45.'
She glanced at me. "Have you peeked?"
I shook my head. "I want to. Every day."
"I did," she said, voice barely above a whisper. "I opened it early."
I turned toward her sharply. "What happened?"
A pause.
Then a half-smile. Sad. Warm.
"I'll let you find out the honest way."
Reflections in the Rain
We sipped our tea in silence again. Two Reikas. Same soul, slightly different snacks.
"You've changed more people than you know," she said at last.
"I've mostly just given away coupons."
She laughed gently. "You think that's all you've done? You don't see it yet, but your kindness has weight. Every small thing... builds."
"Even my pudding mistakes?"
"Especially those."
She stood up, setting her empty mug beside mine.
"You'll meet others too," she said. "Different Reikas. Not all of them kind. Not all of them sane. But all of them you."
"That's not ominous at all," I muttered.
She winked. "Chapter 44 is your breath. Chapter 45 is your choice."
Then, just like that, she stepped into the rain—
And vanished, leaving behind a single tea biscuit.
It was still warm.