"My name is Takamatsu Tomori. I've already lived in this house for six years. It's lovely to meet you again... my little sister."
"My name is Takamatsu Tomori. I've been working here for four years. It's lovely to meet you again... my junior."
No matter how many times she was given the choice, Tomori would still reach out and take Yoshiiro Chiose's hand.
Even knowing, as she did, that a happy ending might truly not exist.
But rather than flinching away again, all Tomori wanted now was to hold on.
Takamatsu Tomori helped Chiose gather up the scattered stationery and notebooks — her own bag had come open in the collision too.
She hoped she hadn't accidentally swept any of Chiose's things into her own bag.
For a moment Tomori's instincts told her she'd stumbled back into the storage room of the company from her dreams — but she shook her head, remembering: this was school. This was reality.
And that was just how things were.
Tomori's heart was hammering wildly.
That poor little heart — wounded so many times in the span of a single week — was, in this moment, receiving a rare and precious balm.
Tomori walked ahead of Chiose, both hands clasped together over her chest.
[She's actually... she's actually really called Yoshiiro Chiose...]
She's real! A real, actual Yoshiiro Chiose! The very same Yoshiiro Chiose from her dreams!
Though the fact that the other girl didn't recognise her... left Tomori feeling just a little bit deflated.
A familiar stranger. A strange familiar face. What an awful combination of words — she'd never imagined it would happen to her.
"Takamatsu-san, watch where you're going."
"Call me Tomori. Don't call me... Takamatsu-san."
Eh?
This time it was Yoshiiro Chiose's heart that lurched.
Looking at Takamatsu Tomori standing before her with tears shimmering in her eyes, Chiose found herself suddenly yanked back to that night.
The night Tomori had too much to drink. What was it they had said to each other?
Inside her chest, something like a hundred little Shiina Takis were bouncing up and down — yet on the surface, Yoshiiro Chiose appeared perfectly unruffled.
That night, she herself had said...
"Just call me Tomori. The one name I'd hate to hear from your mouth, above all others, is 'Takamatsu-san.'"
Right. She had said exactly that, hadn't she...
Was this a coincidence?
"Oh? Then — Little Tomori?"
"Mhm!"
Takamatsu Tomori smiled, satisfied.
She was facing away again now, though, so Chiose couldn't see her expression.
"In exchange — would Tomori-san please call me Chiose? I'm not used to people calling me by my surname either."
"Sure! Then — then... Chiose!"
It was nearly time for class. Today was orientation day, and everyone was back in their homerooms waiting for the form teacher.
Chiose and Tomori were probably the last two students who hadn't made it back to class yet.
Chiose's hand reached out on instinct — almost taking Takamatsu Tomori's small hand in hers.
She stopped herself halfway, pulling it back.
She was being careful. Measured. She didn't let anyone notice a thing.
[Tomori... is this what you were like in high school?]
[I know you didn't go through the Simulation the way I did... but I still want to make it up to you.]
[Everything in the Simulation was false. Everything in reality is real.]
[So this time — your high school years — I'm going to make sure you spend them happy.]
[I was there for your early childhood. I was there for your adult years. And now I'll be here for your adolescence too!]
Tomori, you wonderful idiot — just like me!
It was fortunate, at least, that Takamatsu Tomori was walking ahead — for once, Yoshiiro Chiose didn't have to school her own expression into something serene.
The corners of her lips wouldn't stop trembling.
Fragments of old memories kept surfacing in her mind — tangled and precious all at once.
Tomori.
Getting to meet you again... I'm so glad.
I'm truly grateful that you exist. The world felt so dim and grey — but when I met you again...
I realised just how impossible it is to forget you.
Back to the classroom. The form teacher's self-introduction. Students introducing themselves to each other. The opening ceremony. That was the agenda for today.
The same old routine — Chiose had been through it once or twice already in the Simulation.
Yoshiiro Chiose was half-draped over her desk. Takamatsu Tomori sat right in front of her.
Perfect. An absolutely perfect seat! Once classes properly started, she could cause all sorts of mischief from back here!
Like braiding her hair. Or using her toes to tickle Tomori's calves — things she'd always wanted to do in the Simulation but never had the chance.
Once they were close enough, she was absolutely going to tease Takamatsu Tomori mercilessly!
Yoshiiro Chiose pressed a hand to her chest.
[This has nothing to do with anything else. I just really like Tomori, that's all — that's why I want to do all of this.]
To atone for her wrongs, and because she genuinely, sincerely wanted to build a shared history with them — Yoshiiro Chiose wanted to become friends with the people she had wronged in the Simulation, out here in the real world.
If... that was even possible?
Hmm... there was no guarantee they'd even cross paths. Fate had always been a fickle, slippery thing.
The real world. No disguises needed. She was no longer anyone's little sister, colleague, mother, or unattainable ideal — she was simply a girl named Yoshiiro Chiose.
Chiose had already begun to savour her own life.
She had all the time and all the ability in the world to do whatever she wanted.
Takamatsu Tomori, walking just ahead of her, was not faring quite as well.
"What's this?"
Tomori had fished a strange piece of paper out of her bag.
Thinking it must be something of Chiose's and that she ought to return it promptly, her eyes still darted over it on instinct.
"!!!"
This looked like a page from a hospital examination report?
Little Chiose — was she sick?!
Ha ha... it's probably nothing serious. A little cold? Or a fever... maybe the flu... oh, but what if one of her organs was failing? Oh no...
Cancer. A fracture. Inflammation.
A cascade of illnesses flashed through Takamatsu Tomori's mind and she began to spiral, her fingertips skittering anxiously back and forth across the desk.
She had already lost Little Chiose twice. She was genuinely terrified.
If she lost Little Chiose one more time — in reality, no less —
Takamatsu Tomori would truly fall apart.
The two of them, each nursing their own secret preoccupations, passed the rest of the morning that way — only snapping back to themselves when the last bell before lunch finally rang.
"Little Chiose. Lunch..."
Tomori turned around, meaning to invite Chiose to eat together — a chance to get a little closer.
But when she turned, she found the other girl already at the door.
All that was left for Takamatsu Tomori was a familiar retreating figure.
The girl walked out of the classroom, and Tomori stayed behind.
Just like every other ending.
Every single time, it was Chiose who moved forward while she herself hesitated and lingered.
Takamatsu Tomori let out a breath, gathered her courage, and followed.
Right!
Starting with this lunch invitation!
She was going to seize this chance! Lunch was a microcosm of her entire life — she could not let the other person slip away!
The old Takamatsu Tomori would have stood there and watched the retreating figure without doing a thing.
But things were different now.
She was Tomori — the Tomori who had lost Chiose twice!
The strongest Takamatsu Tomori there was!
"Little Chiose!"
Tomori rushed forward — only to find Chiose on the phone with her family. She retreated back to the wall.
She tilted her head back slightly, staring up at the ceiling, quietly working out in her head what she was going to say to Chiose in a moment.
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