If they could speak to her again — would they thank her?
What kind of Chiose had she left in their memories?
They would thank her.
...Would they, though?
Would they say, [Thank you for giving me a Chiose all my own — I'm so glad I had a Chiose that belonged only to me]?
If she could truly receive that gratitude, Yoshiiro Chiose would be very happy indeed.
Still — it was probably better not to let herself find out what those people actually thought of her.
If she were to meet everyone from the Simulation again, Yoshiiro Chiose would be the first one to lose her composure.
That's just how it was.
"Wow, that girl is so pretty," one classmate murmured.
"Right? I love her — look at those fingers, so long and slender, I can already tell they'd be good for all kinds of things." The girl standing to her right responded in kind.
"I want to squeeze her hands... or have mine squeezed..." another girl passing by began to say, trailing off mid-sentence before being dragged away by her classmates.
(Translator's note: The source text uses 'QQ' as a deliberate slang term/acronym (possibly a reference to 'poke' or affectionate gesture in a Chinese internet context).
Yoshiiro Chiose walked down the corridor, quietly realising she had underestimated just how much her changes were affecting her surroundings.
Little gasps of admiration drifted up around her. Granted, it was mostly the more extroverted ones who said anything aloud — most people kept their awe neatly tucked away in their hearts.
[Is it because of those four faint golden rings in my eyes?]
Those barely-visible, coil-like irises really did carry some kind of indescribable magnetism.
Chiose smiled to herself.
[Goodness! I'm really so sorry for being this cute.]
"Little Chiose is quite popular, isn't she."
Togawa Sakiko seemed to recall something — a flicker passed through her eyes — but she showed no other unusual reaction.
As it happened, both Chiose and Tomori had been assigned to Class A. Sakiko, though? Chiose remembered seeing her name on the bulletin board for Class 1-B.
Just next door.
"I need to stop by the homeroom teacher's office to hand in some paperwork first. Go ahead, Little Chiose — I'll see you in a bit."
"Sure thing. Good luck!"
Togawa Sakiko — exceedingly useful as a contact, but genuinely befriending her would be a different matter entirely... That impression came from what Takamatsu Tomori had said about Sakiko in the second Simulation — though, if Chiose were being honest, it had long since calcified into straightforward bias in her own head.
Her fondness for Sakiko had never climbed much higher than [acquaintance] level, and most of that was due to Takamatsu Tomori's influence in the second Simulation.
This awful woman bullied Tomori! Terrible! Although... she was a pitiable child in her own way.
Yoshiiro Chiose didn't actually know the full story behind Sakiko, but she had a theory: Sakiko was probably the daughter of a once-prominent family that had fallen on hard times. That sort of storyline was terribly romantic.
Togawa Sakiko — surely her family went bankrupt, and that was why she'd ended up like this. It had to be that. Absolutely.
There was no way she'd left home because of her own personality. No way.
"—? L-Little Chi—"
Walking up the staircase, Yoshiiro Chiose suddenly heard a voice calling from somewhere above — a voice that had haunted her waking hours and her dreams alike.
Chiose looked upward.
What met her eyes was a perfect pair of legs.
If those were a pig's trotters, they'd be just right for a slow-braise — actually, now that she had a bit of money, she really ought to improve her diet. Tonight she'd show Kyoumoto what four full Simulations' worth of painstakingly honed cooking could do!
Probably because her nerves had finally started to ease, Chiose had been spacing out a lot lately — and by the time she registered that something was very wrong, it was already too late.
Wait wait wait wait — why were those legs flying straight at her?!
Chiose blinked.
Beautifully shaped legs. A skirt billowing in wild disarray. A glimpse of hidden girlish innocence.
Yoshiiro Chiose's eyes flew wide. At close range, she finally saw clearly the face of the girl tumbling down the stairs — pomegranate-red eyes and short grey hair.
In those clear pomegranate eyes, Chiose could see her own reflection staring back, utterly unprepared.
"Get out of the way!"
It was all the falling girl managed to say.
And she said it far, far too late.
Thud —
One girl crashed into the other. The white-haired one became the cushion, catching the grey-haired girl in her arms.
That falling sensation — so familiar!
In the brief, suspended moment of their descent, a wave of impossible familiarity washed over Yoshiiro Chiose.
[Ah... a sense of déjà vu. Wasn't it just like this — tumbling down drunk at the harbour that night?]
Another thud, and they hit the ground.
Chiose ended up pinned underneath the little penguin, their bags spilling everything across the floor.
Hadn't she forgotten to take something out of her bag when she got back from the hospital that day? She couldn't remember.
"Ow..."
Sparse afternoon light slipped in through the corridor window, falling across the tangled dark-green mid-calf socks of Yoshiiro Chiose and Takamatsu Tomori.
Four legs intertwined, bodies pressed close together — and for a moment, their heartbeats seemed to fall into the same rhythm.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry — wait, Little— ah, are you all right, um, this classmate here, are you okay?!"
Flustered and stumbling over her words, Tomori scrambled off Chiose in a panic.
"Me? I'm fine, don't worry about me — are you okay?"
When Chiose confirmed it was Takamatsu Tomori, something in her chest dropped — and then she forced herself, with some difficulty, to smile.
From Tomori's perspective, however, the smile looked exactly like someone in too much pain to manage a real one.
"I'm taking you to the infirmary! I'm truly, truly sorry!"
On the first day of school, nearly taking out Yoshiiro Chiose — Takamatsu Tomori, you absolute menace! This was reality — there weren't infinite Chioses for you to go around killing!
Tomori had been about to pull Chiose to her feet, but the familiar scent curling around her senses made her whole body go soft.
[It couldn't be anyone else! This is Yoshiiro Chiose's scent! Not quite as intoxicating as the grown-up version, but the high-school Little Chiose is still wonderfully fragrant...]
"Pfft — now you're worried about me? You look perfectly comfortable to me. Maybe I should be the one taking you to the infirmary," Yoshiiro Chiose said, wrestling her composure back into shape through sheer force of a will forged across a hundred ordeals.
She slipped on the mask called attitude — and attitude, in the end, is just another mask the heart wears.
Tomori found herself scooped up by Chiose's arms. Face to face now with the person she had thought of every single day, the person she had dreamed of endlessly, Takamatsu Tomori suddenly felt her eyes go very, very dry.
She had only wanted to catch a glimpse of Chiose walking onto campus from a safe distance. Just one look — that would have been enough. Who could have known that a missed step on the stairs would nearly take Little Chiose out with her...
I really shouldn't be getting close to her, should I?
But... hm?
Without warning, a rush of images flashed across Tomori's mind — images she could never forget.
The storage room. Papers flying everywhere. A senior and a junior colliding —
And then Tomori's hand was suddenly clasped in another's. A texture achingly familiar. So soft, so warm. Chiose's hand.
She lifted her head. Pomegranate-red and wine-red met once more.
Takamatsu Tomori watched Yoshiiro Chiose's lips move:
"My name is Yoshiiro Chiose — first year, Class A at Hane-oka. It's lovely to meet you!"
"Ah — oh... okay, I'm... my name is Takamatsu Tomori..."
Such a familiar exchange! It felt so unbearably familiar!
Tomori's heart hammered wildly, her pupils trembling.
"I'm also... in first year, Class A..."
____
________________________________________
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉