※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
The throat of that person was full.. entirely full to the brim, as if the existence of that area had no choice but to be full.. it was not that of conversational banter nor that of vomit rising after a night out drinking that had caused the throat to be full.. But rather instead what clogged the passage that held the key of life and death was something colder and far more dangerous——
——it was that of salt water... The water burned and tore at that person's lungs like a panicked intruder caught by a frail, old man whist being illuminated only by the glowing white moonlight above.. Every breath that rightfully belonged to that person was stolen away instantly... that liquid rejected the very concept of this person's existence.
Somewhere in the depths of that sinking consciousness, a distorted thought bloomed as if that of an Aster.
「This is the end i sought for.. this is what I wanted.」
They believed, if only for a fraction of a moment, that this was the definitive end they had been searching for. A frozen bed where everything would finally stop and they could finally rest——
A world where they would no longer be forced to be——
<□■, □■ □■□, □■□■□ □■■'□□ □■□□■□ □■□■□■□>
——That was the story.
That was the convenient version that remained for observers. But the truth, the rather ugly truth was entirely different. In the end that person wasn't sinking. They were not being dragged into an endless dark abyss by the grand and always turning gears of fate. They had not prepared for this in the slightest. They had not tied heavy stones to their ankles to ensure they sunk into the dark. They had not taken precautions to ensure there was absolutely no way back to the surface. So in that way It was not a grand execution... nor was it a poetic conclusion to a life full of nothing but tragedy. In the end it was not some perfectly orchestrated, dramatic ending either.. It was simply 『Another』——
——single, instantaneous decision. Another moment where the accumulated regrets of living became too heavy for the soul to support. A step forward to their fate. If they were one to meet an end, they wanted it on their own terms as the singular author of their final breath..
That person had walked out to sea willingly, They hadn't been pushed nor left to drown. But rather they moved forward on their own accord.
——every successful step forward, the shore behind them shrunk—
—the world of light and people—
——became further and further away, shrinking into an unreachable dot. The truly terrifying thing about the ocean was that it never needed to pull you in.. But rather sometimes, without a single whisper of malice——
——You were the one who drowned yourself.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※