I  put my  hand on my left chest and felt the beating of the heart transplanted deep inside me

“After I was seriously injured in the accident, I received a heart transplant from our father.”

During the accident, my heart suffered irreparable damage, and I hovered between life and death. I learned from my sister that my father, who had already passed away, had his heart removed and exchanged for mine, which gave me a new lease on life.

“I’ve heard that people who receive organ transplants sometimes share the skills and memories of the donor,” she said.

Until now, I had always been skeptical of such stories, thinking they were just fictional tales. Stories about people suddenly being able to speak a language they didn’t know before, or being able to do something they couldn’t do before, all seemed too far-fetched to be true.

“I think that when I received my father’s heart, I gained a part of his strength. And then, the power of the incomplete precognitive dream awoke,” I said.

“Yeah. Father lent us his strength,” my sister replied, hugging me tightly and nodding repeatedly.

She was convinced that the story about our father being an ability user was also true.

“That’s a beautiful story,” said a voice, sniffling.

Turning my head in the direction of the voice, I saw three people looking at us.

Embarrassed, I pushed my sister away and stood up straight.

“How long have you been listening?” I asked.

“Pretty much from the beginning?” one of them replied.

My face grew hot with embarrassment, so I quickly changed the subject.

“Oh, hey, speaking of that…”

Words aren’t coming out smoothly. I’m pretty shaken up.

“Hey, hey, if the ability blossomed from your father’s heart, then there’s no doubt that your father was also an ability user, right?”

“That village chief position is for ability users only, so it’s obvious, isn’t it?”

In response to Diya’s question, it was not me, but Jingūichi who answered.

“Then, did your father also have the ability to use precognitive dreams?”

“……..Ah.”

Except for Diya, no one seemed to have thought about it and they all simultaneously let out a bewildered voice.

Yes, that makes sense, certainly.

“Your father didn’t have the same constraints as Jin, like once a month, so wouldn’t he have known about this future?”

“AAAHHHH!”

Why didn’t they think of that idea?!

“I-it’s not like there were no restrictions on father’s ability. Plus, we don’t know to what extent he could see the future. And now, there’s no way to ask him about it,” I stuttered.

“Senior’s right. If he knew about this future, he would have told his children,” Diya added.

“But what if he was afraid of someone finding out who he told?” someone else chimed in.

“There were actually bugs planted in the living room and entrance,” Hinoyama interjected.

The three of them were discussing various opinions and speculating.

Taking their opinions into consideration, I tried to figure out my father’s thoughts.

Assuming that my father had psychic abilities, similar to my precognitive dreams, if he had already known about the current situation and zombie crisis, what would he do?

“Hey, Yae-nee, did you come across any diaries or documents when you cleaned up the house?”

“I don’t think so. I went through everything in the room when we sorted out what to keep and what to throw away. Mother always loved cleaning and organizing, so there wasn’t much clutter to begin with.”

Mother’s neat-freak tendencies kept the house spotless and clutter-free. Unfortunately, my sister didn’t inherit that trait from her.

“What’s up, Jin? Why are you staring at me?”

“Nothing.”

I shook off my thoughts and refocused. Father was never good with technology and didn’t even own a computer. His phone was completely destroyed on the day of the accident.

“What’s left are just clothes, CDs, and books,”

“I threw away everything else. I don’t listen to CDs and the books are just my hobbies, like manga. Oh, and there was also one book by Toru King, I remember.”

“I wonder why he kept it a secret from us?”

“Maybe he was embarrassed. He used to wear a mask and put on flashy performances, after all.”

My sister spoke as if she had seen it before. Maybe she searched for it on the internet after finding out his true identity. That book was the only thing that stood out on our bookshelf, so I couldn’t help but check it out. But it turned out to be just a simple magic trick book that anyone could do.

“Hey, where is that book?”

“If you’re talking about Toru King’s book, it’s in the bookshelf in the bedroom.”

“Got it! Excuse me!”

Diya barged in from the wooden deck and rushed up the stairs to the bedroom. After a while, she returned to the garden with a hurried footstep.

“Here it is!”

In his hand was a book titled “Toru King’s Fun Magic”. Now that everyone had gathered, I took it upon myself to flip through the pages. It only contained explanations and methods for simple magic tricks that used cards and small props. Not interested, I kept flipping through until my hand stopped on one of the last pages.

“Is this a riddle?” I asked.

Until then, the pages had contained illustrated explanations, but this one was different.

“Um, it says ‘Toru King’s Challenge! Solve this code perfectly’, or something like that.”

Next to those words, the page was filled with what looked like a code or cipher, written densely in what resembled Katakana characters but was completely unreadable. It might have been a language from another country.

I don’t understand…I really don’t understand.

As I earnestly pondered the answer I desperately wanted to know, a voice suddenly spoke out, sounding uninterested.

“It’s this, senpai.”

“Yeah, I know what this is.”

It seems that the detective duo solved the mystery quickly.

“As expected of a famous detective, solving mysteries seems to be your specialty.”

While teasing Jinguichi with an elbow to his side, Diya glances at him as he stares at the book without any reaction.

“It’s not really a specialty. This code is just like the one I came up with as a hobby.”

“It’s exactly the same as the code you were creating as a hobby, right?”

When they were searching for Jinguichi in the mountains, I heard that he was creating codes as a hobby from Hinoyama. This matches exactly with what they found here…

“Uncle, did you steal this?”

“Don’t say such things. I hate to admit it, but I had no interest in Toru King. I’m seeing this book for the first time in my life. I swear it’s not a lie.”

Then why is the code invented by Jinguichi recorded in this book? There should have been no connection between him and my father.

“Maybe it’s a message left by father. He could have seen the future through divination and left a code that only we could solve…”

Upon hearing my sister’s words, everyone in the room turns their attention to Jinguichi.

“Shall we try deciphering it? ‘To my beloved child… If you’re reading this, then I’m already gone. I just wanted to say it once before I go.'”

Everyone’s serious faces turn to disbelief.

Father, couldn’t you see this future coming?

“Oh, let me continue. …Enough with the jokes, I’ll tell you a serious story. I can see the future once a year.”

It seems that unlike me, he could only do it once a year.

“It was vague, like a photograph rather than a video, and sometimes there were unclear characters. But the accuracy of my predictions was remarkable.”

It appears that my own predictive abilities are more precise than his.

“In 2 years and 5 months, I will die in a traffic accident. Those who receive my heart will be saved. This information was relayed to me in a roundabout way.”

Did my father know in advance that he would die in an accident?

“I have also considered changing my future, but I was afraid that changing the future could make it difficult for others. That’s why I left it as it was, and your mother accepted it.”

Did they choose a path where they would definitely not survive, he didn’t try avoiding their own deaths?

Despite knowing that he would die in an accident several years later, they raised us without showing any signs of it.

Thank you, Mother and Father.

“They were such wonderful parents.”

“I’m proud of our parents.”

“The best and something to be proud of.”

My sister wipes her eyes and says with a smile.

Don’t worry, be proud, me!

I won’t regret that my parents helped me.

“I’ll keep going. We don’t know the details about things like zombies, and we don’t know who or why they became like that.”

When our father wrote this book, did he not know that it was Mikishima who created the Modokis? And that the village was involved too?

“He built this house as a defense against zombies.”

Although he didn’t know the details, our father knew about the future where the Modokis had an abnormal outbreak.

“That’s why this house was so suitable for defense.”

Father didn’t know the details, but he knew about the future where Modokis would occur abnormally.

That’s why he had taken precautions in the location, building, and wall, anticipating this day.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen from now on. Sorry, Diya-san, Hinoyama-san, Jingūichi-san, we entrust our children to you.”

“Count on us!”

“We won’t let you down!”

They turn to me and smile as they say so.

Father left this code behind because he knew about their existence.

“Finally, you did your best for your brother, Yae. I’m proud of you as your father.”

“Father…Father!”

Yae covered her face with both hands, tears streaming down through her fingers.

“Next time, Jin, it will be your turn to protect your sister. Don’t forget that your father is always with you inside your heart. That’s all for now.”

The cipher seemed to end there, and Jinguichi closed the book. Though there were no specific instructions, our parents’ love was conveyed so strongly that it hurt.

“I will definitely survive and show you, Father and Mother.”