On a garden bench, the night sky was brilliant with stars.
The slender figures in silver and black sat far apart, one on the left and one on the right.
Sen Getsusa sat with her legs crossed, tilting her head back to admire the night view without saying a word. Beside her, Tojo Aoi just watched her silently.
"Tsukisa."
Sen Getsusa remained silent.
"Tsukisa?" Tojo Aoi's hand quietly moved across the back of the bench, advancing toward Sen Getsusa.
But just as she was about to touch her, the girl recoiled.
"Aoi... I was inexplicably invited to Mr. Spencer's banquet today. It was your idea, wasn't it?"
Sen Getsusa turned her head. Her voice wasn't as stiff and cold as Tojo Aoi had expected; instead, it was somewhat airy.
"I want to apologize, I—"
The stumbling words were cut off halfway.
"I know. I accept it."
Sen Getsusa smiled gently.
She opened her arms and reached back to grab that thin hand.
The young girl held Tojo Aoi's hand, and a familiar feeling surged back into her heart: "I accept your apology, Aoi."
"Really?" Tojo Aoi was instantly overjoyed. In her large almond eyes, Sen Getsusa's face was reflected. "Really?! You're not going to ask me..."
"Ask?" Sen Getsusa let go of her hand. "No need to ask. I think you surely had reasons beyond your control, right?"
Under the night sky, the flowers bloomed quietly.
A purple curtain quietly appeared above Tojo Aoi's head.
There lay all the answers.
[Name: Tojo Aoi]
[Ritual (order): Unknown]
[Ability: Unknown]
[Price: Unknown]
[Energy Level: Lv1 · 'Origin Point']
[Suggestion: Tell her to get lost.]
Sen Getsusa said with open-hearted sincerity, "Although that day was very painful..."
After a slight pause, the girl smiled brightly. "But Aoi must have had a reason she had to do it, right?"
—Considering you've become a Ritualist, then, perhaps, the reason we had to break up was just that?
—I was just a tool on your path to becoming a Ritualist.
—Right?
—Tojo Aoi?
Sen Getsusa looked at Tojo Aoi, but her thoughts drifted far away.
After a long while, she squinted her eyes and spoke with a sense of loss, "I forgive you, Tojo Aoi."
As the words fell, the girl turned her body and leaned back against the bench.
The bright and dim stars across the sky twinkled for her, like the skeletons left behind by countless dead explorers in the deep blue seawater.
"From now on, please don't live your life with guilt toward me. I don't blame you, and you didn't do me wrong."
"By saying this, can I unlock your shackles?"
"Aoi?"
Sen Getsusa's ethereal voice was like a lit incense stick, slowly drifting and fading.
Tojo Aoi felt cold.
She hurriedly grabbed the back of Sen Getsusa's hand with great force, saying through gritted teeth, "No! It's my fault! Sen Getsusa, I didn't want you to unlock the shackles in my heart. My purpose for coming today is, is..."
"Is it to make up?"
As Sen Getsusa gently withdrew her hand, she also patted the back of the other's hand to soothe Tojo Aoi's anxious heart.
The girl told Tojo Aoi a story.
Just like the whispers they shared while snuggled in bed during countless days and nights, close to each other's ears.
"Once upon a time, there was a human who fell in love with a fairy."
That human was very persistent, even though everyone said that humans who fall in love with fairies come to no good end.
The human didn't believe any of it; he just fell in love with the fairy.
And so, the fairy became his wife.
They spent many years together. Life was ordinary but interesting, warming each other's hearts like a cozy fireplace.
Suddenly, one day, the fairy waited for her husband to come home in a very unusual manner and prepared a table full of dishes.
During the meal, she hugged the man while crying, sobbing as she poured out her heart.
'I want your arm. Yes, I'm sorry!' The fairy who had become his wife spoke through tears, saying that from the very beginning, she had approached the human with the intent to deceive him.
'Wait until he falls in love with me, then cut off his arm to cure Mama's illness. Swallow his heart to gain powerful magic. Gouge out his eyes to let me Master new skills.'
Yes, the plan had been so perfect at the start.
'But I fell in love with you! Really, I truly fell in love with you!'
The fairy cried, her vision blurred by tears.
The human said nothing.
He rubbed the fork in his hand and glanced at his suffering wife in his arms.
"For Mama... to cure her illness?" he murmured.
Later, the fairy obtained the man's arm and healed his mother's disease.
She firmly pulled the man, trying to salvage this prematurely ended relationship.
The man, however, did not agree.
"You don't love me anymore?" the love‑unaware fairy asked urgently.
"Precisely because I love you."
The one‑armed man left the forest and never returned.
After finishing, Sen Getsusa paused, "Aoi, do you know why he left?"
Tojo Aoi fell silent.
Her proud, always‑perfect burgundy nails had already pierced deep into her palm, blood seeping from the fist.
Sen Getsusa glanced at Tojo Aoi's hand, sighed, opened the other's hand, lifted it, and clasped it, interlocking ten fingers.
Tojo Aoi felt—she sensed the same blood and wound in Sen Getsusa's hand.
The girl raised both hands, five burgundy fingers and five fresh green ones, all stained with blood.
Unfazed by the throbbing pain in her palm, Sen Getsusa spoke and told the second story.
"This might be a story you're very familiar with, Aoi... hmm, a tale of a princess and a Soldier."
A naive Soldier fell in love with a princess.
He boldly confessed, and the princess was both surprised and delighted.
She arrogantly said, "If you can stand beneath my balcony for a hundred days and nights, I will marry you."
The Soldier agreed.
Ten days, twenty days—mosquito bites, wind and rain, thirst and fatigue, and the crowd's mockery.
He persisted through it all.
On the ninety‑ninth day, only one day remained.
Just one more day to make a hundred.
The Soldier looked at the balcony and loudly declared his feelings to the princess.
Then, he left.
Sen Getsusa asked quietly, "Why did he leave?"
Tojo Aoi struggled to part her lips, her voice choked, "Re‑spect?"
Sen Getsusa stuck out her tongue and licked the blood on her hand.
"No, I think he might have gotten bored. After all, men are always switching between sage mode and demon king mode."
"Maybe he just got a burst of sage mode at the start?"
ヽ(??▽?)ノ
Seeing Tojo Aoi's complicated expression, Sen Getsusa sprang up with a 'whoosh', clicked her sparkling high heels into place, and dressed.
She turned her back to Tojo Aoi, her gentle voice mingling with the night's hush:
"You are as beautiful as tonight's darkness, Miss Tojo Aoi."
"But since that day, I have come to hate the night."
Tojo Aoi lowered her head, her expression inscrutable.
mystery surged in the woman's heart.
This ability had helped her discern insincerity in countless words; the sudden feeling was all too familiar to her.
[Lies]
Not far from the two, Eriri leaned expressionlessly against a slanted tree.
She listened quietly to the whole story; her golden hair, under the Moonlight's gaze, attracted a few bright green fireflies.
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