"I'm sorry, although I don't discriminate against homosexuals, I myself have no intention of going down that path…"
Asagumo Chihaya said to Chihaya Anon awkwardly but politely.
Then she nonchalantly put some safe distance between herself and her.
"Wait a minute, this is a misunderstanding—"
"Ah, if possible, please don't come within two meters of me…"
"Isn't that super discriminatory?!"
"It's not that I dislike it that much, hmm, just stand over there and it'll be fine."
"Isn't that already the doorway? By the way, this is Anon's room! Asakura, you say something too!"
Chihaya Anon puffed up her cheeks and sought help from Asakura.
Then she saw Asakura sitting cross-legged on the cushion, holding a teacup like an old man, taking a sip of green tea, and then letting out a comfortable sigh: "How peaceful…"
"Peaceful, my foot! If anything, it's all your fault that things got so complicated!"
Chihaya Anon's fur bristled.
Asakura tilted his head and said with a relaxed smile, much like a capybara's: "Japanese, so hard, I, don't understand~"
"Don't pretend to be a foreigner at a time like this!"
The girl loudly complained: "And now is not the time to dwell on such minor matters, is it? What about Curse? What about the oddities? Are these things just going to pass by?"
"Hmm…"
"Don't actually show that 'I'm a bit tired of it so I don't want to talk about those things anymore' expression. People who are driven to despair by those things will feel very pathetic, like me!"
"Mmm…"
"And don't actually show that 'Oh wow, this kid is indeed pathetic' expression. That just makes Anon feel even more heartbroken!"
"So troublesome…"
Asakura sighed.
Chihaya Anon patted the cushion without any force: "Whose fault is all this?!"
"Because of Beethoven?"
Asakura said uncertainly.
"Why?!"
The girl had an expression of 'Why is that name appearing here?!'
"It's all because of fate → Fate Symphony was written by Beethoven → Therefore, everything is because of Beethoven."
Asagumo Chihaya explained, "Takuma-kun probably thinks along those lines."
"That line of thinking is too bizarre, and why does Asagumo understand Asakura's thoughts so well…?"
Chihaya Anon complained, but then her expression dimmed.
Putting aside the matter of being mistaken for a lesbian, just speaking of the things she had encountered, she really couldn't blame anyone—if she had to say, she could push all the responsibility onto that oddity, but now that entity had already been 'executed immediately' by Asakura, so it seemed there was no other reason besides sheer luck.
Could she really blame her father for buying that kind of craft and putting it at home?
After stepping into this unknown, forbidden domain, the world in her eyes would undergo earth-shattering changes.
"What will the world become like in the end…?"
"As long as the sun rises as usual, people's lives must go on."
Asakura became a little more serious, and Asagumo Chihaya also stopped joking. Although the reasons and processes were different, everyone was suddenly pulled into the 'extraordinary' world, and they could somewhat empathize with Chihaya Anon's current feelings: "Don't worry too much about it. It's just that some things have been added to daily life. You don't need to feel as if something is hanging over your head."
"They are such dangerous things, why can you, Asakura, treat them so calmly?"
Chihaya Anon couldn't help but ask, she murmured without much confidence: "I feel that I can't be like you, able to easily treat such things as a matter of course…"
"Let's take an example—" Asakura did not answer directly, "Anon, do you know about gamma-ray bursts?"
"Huh?"
The girl froze for a moment, then replied uncertainly: "It seems to be an astronomical phenomenon?"
"That's right. You can think of it as a ray containing immense energy, which is quite a normal existence in the universe. Once the Earth is hit by a gamma-ray burst, an unprecedented mass extinction could occur. The interruption of civilization is just a normal phenomenon, and even humanity could be extinct because of it."
Asakura said: "Unfortunately, there are quite a few things in the universe similar to gamma-ray bursts that can deliver a fatal blow to the entire Earth, or at least the Earth's biosphere. Who knows when one might suddenly appear and cleanse the entire surface."
"If you look at it from this perspective, it's easy to feel that everything humanity has is just a fragile dream, and civilization, seemingly capable of altering nature, is nothing more than a slightly more resilient soap bubble. It's normal for it to burst at any time, making the meaning of life seem empty, and the ideals one strives for just moonlight in a crack, flowing meaninglessly through your fingers even if you try to cup it."
Asakura concluded: "There are so many things that can destroy everything, but before this, you never felt your life was false, nor did you feel that the time you spent and your future were meaningless, did you? Now, it's just that beyond these things, there are some additional supernatural existences. Most of them don't even have as much impact on Earth as a slightly larger meteorite. Why should you worry about these things?"
"Alright, hmm, perhaps Asakura, you are right… Even if the sky really falls, at least there are people like you to hold it up."
Chihaya Anon didn't seem to be comforted, but she seemed to have quite good psychological adjustment abilities, and she seemed a little happy that Asakura would comfort her so seriously. Her expression was not as gloomy as before.
"To be able to cheer up so quickly, Anon's spirit is quite strong."
Asagumo Chihaya couldn't help but say with some surprise.
"It's alright, and Asagumo should have similar experiences, right?"
Chihaya Anon said.
Asagumo Chihaya shook her head: "As for me… because there's an existence I care about more than contemplating life, I don't waste time thinking about those things. Compared to that, Anon's ability to recover her spirits so quickly is more impressive."
"Hehehe, I, Chihaya Anon, am made up of one-third optimism, one-third resilience, one-third cuteness, and one-third vitality!"
"Isn't that an extra third?"
Asakura retorted.
"That's a backup hidden energy source!"
The girl said with a grin, showing her small canine teeth.
"It would be nice if her sexual orientation were more normal."
Asagumo Chihaya said with a smile.
"Gulp…"
The strong-willed girl clutched her chest and collapsed.