It was the weekend, and Tomori had finally dragged Chiose out for a wander — something that hadn't happened in a while.
Six years of shared life. When Chiose actually stopped to think about it, the bond between them was something delicate and real. She might have spent half those years dozing in corners, but the time she'd logged alongside this little squirt was no small amount.
Over those six years, they'd spent entire days staring blankly at each other. They'd tied each other's little pigtails into their own hair. They'd snuck out in the middle of the night to watch TV, only to get caught and spanked for it.
Chiose had decided Tomori was nothing like a typical little girl. Her desire for dolls and pretty dresses didn't hold a candle to her devotion to rocks and bugs.
In everyone's eyes, Takamatsu Tomori was, without question, a thoroughly weird kid.
"Actually… it's not that Tomori really loves these things either, is it? It's just that rocks and bugs are the coolest things she's ever gotten her hands on."
At least in Chiose's eyes, little Tomori would always be an absolutely precious little angel.
Chiose sat on the ground with her back against a tree, her gaze fixed on Tomori crouched right at her feet, stacking stones.
Tomori dug grimy little pebbles out of her pocket, then used her mud-caked hands to build a summer retreat for roly-poly bugs right there in the grass.
"Tomori! Don't you ever get tired of playing the same game?"
She knew perfectly well that Tomori was a fictional character inside a simulation. And yet — not once, in all their daily life together, had anything felt false.
Even if Tomori sometimes really did seem like a little automaton. Was that just the spacey-silly thing all little kids had, or was it her own particular trait?
"Chiose, here."
Tomori hesitated for a moment, then very carefully produced a beetle she'd been keeping tucked in the deepest corner of her pocket.
"Where'd you catch this? It's so cool!"
Chiose held the beetle up against the sun. It gleamed — just like Takamatsu Tomori's glittering, exquisite grey eyes.
"Over there."
Tomori pointed toward a little patch of weeds nearby, and her voice took on a shy, pleased lilt from the praise.
"You adorable dummy… what does little Tomori want to be when she grows up?"
"Mm? When I grow up?"
Tomori stopped mid-pyramid and turned her blank gaze on the battered little park.
[What do I want to do when I grow up? I've never thought about it once.]
On the swings, butterflies had settled to rest, fanning their wings as if they had something to tell Takamatsu Tomori.
What were the butterflies saying?
"I don't know… I want to keep sitting in the park soaking up the sun with you forever, Chiose. What about you? You read so many books every day — will you still want to come sit in the park with me when we're older?"
"Huh? Where's that coming from all of a sudden — of course I would…"
Ahem. Of course I won't be alive that long, you dummy!
Flustered, Takamatsu Chiose snapped shut the book in her hands: How to Survive a Month on Five Hundred Yen and Still Come Out Five Hundred Yen Ahead — Plus Feed Another Person.
She read books for one reason only: to walk away from her simulated time with knowledge that was absolutely, concretely real. The system had told her that even time inside the simulation was fake — a thousand years in here might amount to no more than a single instant in the outside world.
Wasn't that the perfect opportunity to stockpile survival skills?
Come out of the simulation with both knowledge and lifespan in hand — that was the most efficient use of every resource available to her.
"Of course I'll be soaking up sun with Tomori for the rest of my life."
Even if that life might not have very long left in it.
"Promise?"
"Absolutely!"
"Tomori, since it's still early — let's go catch an even bigger beetle."
"Okay!"
Chiose smiled, her mind quietly calculating.
Now then — how do I squeeze the most out of this run? I'm sorry, dear sister. It's all just to eke out a few more years… I'm sorry.
...
"I'm stuffed!"
After dinner, the two of them washed dishes together.
Usually when Chiose and Tomori washed up, they'd make a bowl of soap bubbles and then blow them around the kitchen until they got bored.
Standing on her chair, Chiose stacked the washed bowls and chopsticks up into the cupboard.
[Something's off with Tomori today. It's way too quiet in here.]
Takamatsu Chiose glanced over at Tomori, who was just standing there staring into the sink. Something was definitely wrong with her tonight. On any normal evening, Tomori would have already started blowing bubbles by now.
"Tomori!"
Without asking anything, Chiose squeezed out a little dish soap, looped her index finger and thumb into a circle, and blew a bubble straight at her.
It popped the instant it touched the tips of Tomori's hair.
"Oh — Chiose?"
"Pshh, what are you doing just standing there pretending to be a big rock?"
"I…"
Tomori's hands fidgeted behind her back. That restless little gesture meant the words weren't coming easily.
"It feels like… you've been acting strange lately, Chiose."
"Huh? Have I?"
"You have… lately you just read and sleep and draw all the time. It feels like you're drifting further and further away from me…"
"Oh."
Were all little kids this perceptive?
Then again, Chiose also knew that little kids were very easy to manage. Even if doing so sent a twinge of guilt through her conscience every single time.
"Don't overthink it, Tomori. When we go to bed tonight, let's secretly stay up and look at the stars."
"Mm, but last time we stayed up watching TV, Mom scolded us…"
"You dummy, that's because we weren't careful enough. You should trust in my abilities," Chiose said, putting on her best show of wounded dignity. "This time! This time, big sister Tomori, just watch — we are going to count every single star all night long without getting caught!"
"Stars…" Tomori echoed softly.
Something like that felt as far away as her own future.
"Yes, yes — stars! Stars are like little lamps in the sky, you know. Every night, a kind and generous god lights up the lanterns of heaven, and those lanterns are the stars we see!"
"Is — is that right!"
"It is! I love Tomori most of all, so naturally I love stars most of all too! We're going to soak up the sun for our whole lives, so of course we're going to watch the stars for our whole lives too. My dear sister."
Takamatsu Tomori's eyes lit up. She grabbed her little sister by the hand and pulled her back to their bedroom, triple-checked that the door was shut and locked, and then pressed close to Chiose's ear and breathed warmly into it.
"But… Mom does her nightly check-ins… if she catches us, you'll get in trouble again, Chiose."
"Then we pretend to be asleep, wait for her to finish her rounds and go back to bed, and then we sneak up again."
There were so many ways to work around the rules in life. Kids were just kids — always worrying too much, too timid to take the next step.
Chiose kept a firm hold on Tomori's little hand, tracing her thumb over those soft, tender fingers, still faintly damp from the dishwater.
"Tomori — this is exactly what I'm best at. Bending the rules. So you just follow my lead without a care in the world, okay?"
"O-okay! I always, always trust you, Chiose!"
Tomori didn't quite understand what "best at bending the rules" meant. But she trusted her little sister unconditionally, without question or hesitation.
One of the special things about twins is that sometimes they share the same heartbeat.
If only Chiose and Tomori were twins in the traditional sense too.
Smiling, Chiose covered Tomori's eyes with one hand and — wicked as ever — wiped the water still on her palm straight across Tomori's little face.
And in the place where Tomori couldn't see, the corner of Chiose's mouth trembled, once and then again. That was simply how things were.
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