Yoshiiro Chiose… this woman, she really does love acting on her own whims.
Barging into someone else's life without a word, then dragging that someone else into her drinking habits without a word, and now… now holding someone else's hand and saying lines straight out of a marriage proposal.
What exactly do you want from me?!
"I…"
I can't say yes.
I can't bring myself to trust someone again… especially—!
Takamatsu Tomori raised both hands and cradled Yoshiiro Chiose's face.
[What a gentle person she is. A woman this good — do I really deserve her gentleness?]
No. No, I don't. I had the courage to speak my past aloud, but not the courage to accept what she's offering me. Takamatsu Tomori…
You really are such a coward!
"Tomori."
Chiose's voice was soft and even — nothing like that usual drunk, half-dazed, unreliable fool she normally was.
Behind Chiose, Tomori almost thought she could see the wings of an angel.
"Actually, I met Tomori once, when we were both very small. But Tomori probably doesn't remember me."
"What? Really? I… I'm so sorry! I really can't seem to recall…"
"Pfft — it's fine… it's fine… haha, if Tomori still remembered something that small, that would actually be terrifying."
"Just pretend I was joking! Maybe I never actually met you before at all, Tomori-senpai."
Chiose laughed, but the laughter was threaded through with something bitter.
Looking at the Takamatsu Tomori standing before her now, Chiose felt regret — real, genuine regret.
She should have spent more time in her very first simulation.
Six years. Nowhere near enough.
With only six years, Takamatsu Tomori's life hadn't even really begun. In the ten, twenty years after those six, Tomori had faced every hardship entirely alone.
If only she hadn't died so early.
If only she had lived to thirty.
If only she could have watched over Tomori properly before dying… at the very least, the first Takamatsu Tomori who had ever belonged to her would have lived a better life. She could have steered her away from so much of the misfortune that came to define the life of a girl who burned like an alcohol lamp.
Chiose's laughter kept swelling, until somewhere inside it, it broke into a sob.
And at the same time she found herself regretting why the System had made her skip the first twenty-two years of this simulation — those years it had labeled [Not Important].
If she had met Takamatsu Tomori earlier… met the Tomori who was still in her adolescence, still only sixteen — then this Tomori, the disheveled and fragile one, the one who had grown on the outside but couldn't move forward on the inside, would never have existed at all!
If the first simulation had ended a little later… if this simulation had started a little earlier… fulfilling either one of those conditions would have made Takamatsu Tomori's life a happy one.
Just one of them. Something so simple, and yet so impossibly out of reach. It was only in moments like these that Chiose realized just how powerless she truly was.
The same way she could only save herself through simulations — without them, she couldn't even save herself.
From beginning to end, Yoshiiro Chiose had always been a powerless, useless woman.
"Tomori. I'm so happy… that you grew up. Truly. I really am so happy."
"Even when you were small, I used to wonder — what will you be like when you're all grown up? I'm genuinely so happy to be able to see you at twenty-six. Back when you were only six years old… even when you were only six months old, I was already praying for you."
Tears slid down her cheeks. Chiose saw them well up at the corners of Tomori's eyes and spill over.
But why were her own cheeks wet too?
Ah…
In Takamatsu Tomori's eyes, Yoshiiro Chiose found her answer.
[So I've been crying too…]
"Thank you, Tomori, for giving me the chance to meet you again. I swear — I'll walk forward with you. Please, trust me just this once…"
I'm going to lead the twenty-six-year-old you out of the place where the sixteen-year-old you got stuck. And at the same time — this is also for the sake of leading the six-year-old Takamatsu Chiose toward a future where she turns twenty-six…
The roadside was utterly still. Even the insects held their breath, unwilling to make a sound. The only things making noise in the entire world now were the moonlight and the soft fall of tears hitting the ground.
"I…"
Chiose and Tomori stood face to face, fingers interlaced.
[Such a warm hand… so warm that it almost doesn't feel real.]
[This is the only hand I can hold onto.]
[I…]
"I do!"
It was practically a wedding vow.
...
[I do] — those words aren't something you should say lightly.
Coming home after drinks and having a bowl of yakiniku-topped rice seemed to have become a tradition for Takamatsu Tomori and Yoshiiro Chiose.
"Mmph! Tomori! Did you put a little too much salad dressing on this?! It's so rich and sweet!"
"Hmm? Is — is it?!"
"Absolutely! You dummy!"
Even though they were in Takamatsu Tomori's home, Chiose felt completely at ease — and no wonder, given that over the past ten-plus days she had visited Tomori's place far more often than she'd gone back to her own.
"I'll be more careful next time!"
It was a recipe Chiose had only just taught her. She had learned it, but she still hadn't quite gotten it to taste exactly right.
"Hehe, it's already really good! My little Tomori is amazing, you know."
Setting down her chopsticks, Chiose gently reached over and fixed Tomori's hair.
"I really want to eat some surf clams. Ah, I miss that flavor so much."
No money to eat it in reality. Simulations were the only chance she ever had to taste things like that — and yet she always forgot to.
"I — I know a Japanese restaurant. My high school graduation ceremony was held there. Someday… I can take Chiose there to eat!"
"Oh? Sure, but…"
Spreading her hands wide and leaning back, Yoshiiro Chiose made a helpless face:
"I'm pretty much broke, so I'll have to let Tomori treat me."
"Deal!"
"Such a pushover. Lucky for you it's me you're dealing with — anyone else would clean out your wallet, take out loans in your name, and blow it all at pachinko!"
"How could anyone do that… that's awful."
"Pfft."
Honestly, she was just so happy about how warm everything felt right now.
Chiose drained the last of her Kisatsushu reserves and flopped directly into Tomori's lap.
"I'm going to sleep now, Tomori! Don't forget to help me with my bath later."
"Eh? Okay."
Help Chiose with her bath…? Chiose had helped her with baths so many times by now!
Just thinking about things like that made Takamatsu Tomori's face go red.
"In those videos… they say that if you get embarrassed helping another girl with her bath, that means you're into girls… but me, I'm, I'm…"
But I'm not into girls.
I just have very strong feelings for little Chiose… that's not love, is it?
Tomori hesitated, and decided to use the last bit of wine left in her glass for courage.
Outside, the sky was dark and heavy. It was just past nine in the evening.
A drowsing Chiose. Her own flustered self. The last few bites of yakiniku rice left in the bowl. And an empty, empty bottle.
"How did life suddenly become so… warm?"
At what point had something gone wrong — turning a life that had once been as cold as stone into something glittering gold?
Takamatsu Tomori couldn't figure it out. But for Chiose's sake, she was willing to open her mouth and sing again.
If it's just singing, it shouldn't be too hard.
— — —
Py! A good friend's book!
"Chihaya Anon Has Nine Wings"
[Citrus; Love ALL; Esper Battles of Wit]
Chihaya Anon loses control of her esper abilities in a disaster and is forced to drop out of her school in England, returning to Tokyo to try to live as an ordinary person.
But reality won't allow it.
What she knows: she's been surrounded by veterans of the former hero team Crychic, who've formed a new team around her.
What she doesn't know: her five closest friends are actually members of AveMujica, an extremely dangerous esper criminal organization.
Tomori swears she'll be by her side forever.
Riki walks around with a permanent scowl, seemingly holding some kind of grudge.
Her favorite streamer, Nyamu-chan, and her most beloved idol, Misumitsu Hatsuhana, each invite her out in turn.
Toyokawa Sachiko, wrapped in endless mysteries, moves in with her — making her lunch during the day and becoming her sworn enemy at night.
Add in Goto Hitori, who looks up to her, and Iseri Nina, who inexplicably likes her for some reason…
Oh right, she also has to team up with everyone from MyGO!!!!! from time to time to fight AveMujica.
Ugh, the one bright spot in all this chaos is that Nagasaki Soyo is gentle and considerate — she's the only shelter for my heart in this whole mess…
Huh? Why did Soyo just ignore me when I said hi?
Wait? You're all saying I'm not needed? What does that mean?
Don't scare me like that, seriously!
____
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