文字版 這一章的文字版——用於無障礙、螢幕閱讀器和搜尋。
The night after Kaito turned down the empty-bus ride, the 3:12 bus doesn't stop and the kerb outside stays dark. Convinced he has broken something, Kaito sets out to reconstruct exactly how his nightly ritual with Amano Yuki, the night-bus driver, began — so he can locate the precise moment he ruined it. Between checking the empty window, he replays it in three memories: the first 3:12, when a woman in a transit uniform refilled her dented steel thermos from the free hot water and bought nothing; the long run of nights he held item after item across the counter — "On the house?" — and got the same small headshake every time; and the night he stopped offering, brewed a pot for himself, and she finally asked for one cup, paid in exact coins, and said "Same time tomorrow" on her way out. The store's night regulars deliver flatly contradictory, unverifiable verdicts on whether a refusal can ever be taken back, and none of them agree. Rin films the spiral while quietly checking the kerb herself. Near dawn the bus finally stops — and Yuki, refilling her thermos, explains it was only roadworks and a detour; she never took his "I couldn't" as anything more than a man who couldn't. The entire six-hour catastrophe happened only inside Kaito's head. She says "Same time tomorrow," drives off into the greying daylight, and Kaito is left with the correct answer and nothing else.
第 1 頁
A wide establishing shot of the 24-hour store deep in the night, looking from behind the counter out through the rain-streaked front windows to an empty kerb. Kaito stands behind the register, watching the door. Rin leans against the counter nearby, one earbud in, phone in hand. Rin: That's the fifth time you've looked at the door.
第 2 頁
Panel 1: Kaito stares past the counter toward the front window, tense. Rin: The bus isn't coming, is it. Panel 2: Kaito, strained. Kaito: Last night she offered me the loop. One empty bus, one hour. I said I couldn't go. Panel 3: Close on Kaito's two hands gripping the counter edge. Kaito: So tonight the bus didn't stop. Panel 4: Kaito turns to Rin, dead serious. Kaito: Rin. Can you take back a no? Rin: It's 3:14. You have all night to be weird about this.
第 3 頁
Kaito stands at the front window, one flat hand resting on the wet glass, looking out at the empty rain-slick kerb where no bus waits. Deep blacks, reflections in the glass. Kaito: ...not tonight.