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==== 19.22. The Department of Backdated Regret ====
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**Location:** Former Prefectural Building, East Nagasaki \\
**Description:** \\
A once-forgotten wing of Nagasaki’s civic administration has been reclassified as the Department of Backdated Regret. Established---according to its only existing charter---six years after it was disbanded, the department’s office furniture is scorched, but paperwork persists. Juna finds carbon forms marked “Personal Detour #11” and “Unmade Apology - Form B.” Judai unearths a request for an event to *have never happened*. Dates loop backward in declining decimals. No two drawers contain the same calendar. A sign reads: “Regret only functions when its documentation is misplaced.” Though the building has no electricity, the filing cabinet glows faintly. A looped film plays in the corner, showing people walking away from things they never did. \\

**Keywords:** \\
backdated regret, civic mis-remembrance, reverse chronology, apology registry, memory cancellation \\

**Very Short Story:** \\
They sift through drawers of misfiled emotions. Judai finds a document dated his twelfth birthday---signed “I’m sorry” by a name he never knew. Juna holds a folder labeled “Pre-emptive Shame.” The ink fades as she reads it. On one wall, framed regret applications from across eras ripple like heatwaves. “This one’s for a missed train in 1952,” she murmurs. “And this,” Judai says, “is addressed to someone who hasn’t yet existed.” As they leave, a drawer slams shut. On it: their names. A note inside reads: “We almost turned back.” They hadn’t. But maybe they should have. \\

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