"Little Chiose, why are you hiding from me?"
"Hm? Where is this... Am I dreaming again, just like last time?"
Opening her eyes in a daze, Yoshiiro Chiose instinctively swallowed—only for someone to seize her by the throat in an instant.
Ngh—
The sense of suffocation was so intense; this dream didn't seem fake at all.
Chiose scanned her surroundings from the corner of her eye. Only a small white lamp overhead struggled to give off light and heat. Beyond its ring of light lay darkness she couldn't see through.
And the person choking her... her face was hidden in the darkness too; only those pure white hands were clear to Chiose.
Wait! This voice?
"Little Soyo? Is that you, Little Soyo? Why are you doing this to me?"
Since she already knew this was a dream, Chiose no longer felt the slightest bit of tension.
She even tried tilting her head to look cute.
In the darkness, Nagasaki Soyo's ferocious, pretty face suddenly drew close to Chiose, but Yoshiiro Chiose wasn't the least bit afraid.
She actually found the other girl's current appearance rather amusing.
"Little Chiose... you're not allowed to leave me... no, no, no... now I've locked you up in here... you're finally mine and mine alone, aren't you!"
"That's right, that's right, I'm all yours now."
Yoshiiro Chiose let out a slightly bored yawn, feeling that dozing off inside a dream was a truly foolish, silly thing to do.
"Why are you being so half-hearted with me... why!"
"Half-hearted?" Chiose's tone was utterly astonished, as if she'd heard something unbelievable. "I'm not being half-hearted with you at all. Accusing me so unfairly... does that mean you don't love me anymore? Soyo, you disappoint me so much."
"I..."
The tables had turned! Now it was Soyo's turn to be at a loss for words!
By the time Chiose blinked again, the wicked Soyo who'd been choking her was now bound arms-behind to a wooden chair, while Chiose herself stood before her, gazing down from on high.
"Heh heh, Little Soyo, you really are still that silly child after all."
Now let me punish you good and hard!
I'm going to tickle your armpits until they smoke!
"Sis! Sis! Get up already—what kind of sweet dream keeps you from even waking to your alarm?"
"Mmm, it's Soyo..."
"Soyo? And who's Soyo? Some little sister you met outside, Sis?"
"Ngh!"
A chill ran down Chiose's spine, and she leapt out of bed with a jolt.
"Soyo? Who's Soyo? I, Chiose, have no idea."
Under her little sister's puzzled gaze, Yoshiiro Chiose fled swiftly to the washroom, where she forcibly splashed herself awake with handful after handful of cold water.
"Ahh, Little Soyo, you really do love me. I finally get a good night's sleep and you still won't let me be. Honestly."
Today was Thursday! The fourth day since she'd met Tomori and Little Taki!
Tomorrow was the weekend. The stretch a student looked forward to most was the span from Friday afternoon to before noon on Sunday.
During this period, students' laughter climbed many decibels above the usual.
"I'd love to go out and play with everyone. Basking in the sun at the beach would feel great, and sipping ramune down at the docks would be nice too! Or we could all just gather at my place for a meal—I could make grilled-meat bibimbap and samgyetang."
Yes! A get-together! We absolutely have to have a get-together sometime!
Best of all would be to make every one of these dishes Chiose remembered so deeply, then generously tell everyone not to hold back and to polish it all off!
The versions of them in the Simulation loved eating it, so there was no reason the real gang would dislike it.
After washing up in a hurry, Chiose—a slice of bread clamped in her mouth—mumbled a garbled goodbye to her sister and dashed out the door.
She'd overslept by ten minutes today; Sakiko next door had surely gone on ahead without waiting for her.
Turn the key, grip the handle, greet the new world outside!
Bam—
A soft, squishy collision sound rang out! This was a fierce clash between Chiose's heart and Sakiko's heart—a fantastical symphony born of wave upon wave of softness.
"Wuwah! Yahalloo, Sakiko! So you didn't leave after all!"
Though the hearts cushioned the impact, the collision still brought a little sting. Before pondering whether to rub the spot where Sakiko had been hit, Chiose greeted her with a good morning first.
"Cough, cough... yeah, I... I got up late this morning too... want to walk together? If not, I'll head off first."
Child, are you being a tsundere right now?
Pfft, sure.
Though she had no idea what Sakiko Togawa was thinking, looking at this soft, glutinous-mochi-like Sakiko before her filled Chiose with an inexplicable delight.
This kid was kind of silly. If she really hadn't waited on purpose, why was there not the slightest pause when she said "I got up late too"?
Clearly she'd waited on purpose.
Sakiko Togawa, so you're a tsundere too? Don't tell me you think waiting for me is something a bit embarrassing that'd make you lose face! If that's what you're thinking, then you're such a silly dummy.
"Want me to rub it better for you, Sakiko?"
Chiose said this line without thinking—after all, she often said the very same thing to her victims in the Simulation.
"I don't need it. Aren't we going? Hurry up, we'll be late."
"! So that's how it is? Wait—where did the bread I had in my mouth go?"
The two girls chatted, ambling unhurriedly toward Hane-oka.
Even though Sakiko said she didn't want to hold hands, Chiose instinctively took hold of hers anyway.
This was the start of a day belonging to ordinary girls.
This was... the start of a day belonging to a girl who wished to become human.
Takamatsu Tomori lay listlessly slumped over her desk for a nap; the heavy dark circles had turned the little penguin into a little panda.
"Tomori? What's wrong? Did you not rest well?"
Eri, who sat on the other side of the classroom, passed by and asked in a concerned tone.
But Takamatsu Tomori no longer had the strength to answer.
"So satisfying... I saw her again... so satisfying... haah..."
"Huh? Tomori, what are you talking about?"
"Oh, oh, it's nothing... I... couldn't sleep... and, and I had a nightmare... the really, really long kind of nightmare..."
In the dream she'd returned once more to that lightless stretch of part-time-job life after Chiose's death.
The dream was ashen gray, for Chiose's passing had drained every last bit of color from her world.
Everything had burned to cinders; all that remained of the world was snow-white ash.
Until Nagasaki Soyo... this old friend of hers asked her to look after her daughter in the hospital.
Ah, what an adorable, delicately carved little princess she was—eyes just like Chiose's, hair the same color as Chiose's? A face just like Chiose's...
If the girl hadn't been named Nagasaki Chiose, Tomori would have almost believed that her very own Yoshiiro Chiose had been reincarnated.
Haha.
"Haha... haah."
Even though thousands upon thousands of words rose to the tip of her tongue, when her red lips parted, all that could escape was a single, drawn-out sigh.
Takamatsu Tomori's life was filled with sighs and silence, and barring anything unexpected, it would stay that way until the day she closed her eyes forever.
"Tomori! Tomo-Tomo-Tomo-Tomori!"
Chiose's little face suddenly appeared right in front of Takamatsu Tomori. Rather than being startled, Tomori nearly kissed her instead.
"!!!!"
"Chiose! Good morning..."
"Good morning. I missed you, Tomori."
"Eh?!"
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