How does one define a reunion?
A reunion means meeting again.
It is a word typically used to describe two or more people who once knew each other — coming face to face again, whether by chance or by design, after a period of time apart.
A reunion can be the continuation of a friendship, a family bond, or a love. Or it can be the spark that ignites an entirely new story.
But what if —
…
You — the girl I've just knocked to the ground — why do your eyes feel so impossibly familiar to me?
Everything went dark before Shiina Taki's eyes. She recognized the white-haired, red-eyed girl in front of her — because this was someone she could never, ever forget. Not in a million years.
[Are you all right?]
That was what Shiina Taki thought she would say.
But the words dissolved the moment they reached her lips, swallowed back down and replaced by a long, helpless sob.
"Are you all right?"
Yoshiiro Chiose pressed a hand to the side of her head where it had taken the impact, and reached the other out toward Shiina Taki.
She had only gone to the hospital for a follow-up after breakfast — just to confirm her body really was recovering the way it should be. She hadn't expected to run into a familiar face on the way home.
Chiose kept a politely neutral smile on her face while quietly taking stock of Shiina Taki.
A disheveled appearance. Thrown-together clothes. Hair that had clearly not seen a comb — resembling, in Chiose's honest assessment, a bird's nest.
She had assumed that seeing Taki again would stir nothing in her — that it would be a simple exchange of pleasantries and nothing more.
But standing here now, face to face with a Shiina Taki who looked thoroughly wrecked, Yoshiiro Chiose found she was nowhere near as composed as she had imagined.
[My heartbeat feels so strange right now. What is this…]
Her rose-red pupils trembled faintly. Yoshiiro Chiose worked to steady herself.
And yet her hand moved of its own accord — drifting close to Taki's head, brushing away the cherry blossom petals that had settled between the strands of her hair.
[Honestly… you idiot. In a life without me, you can't even be bothered to take care of yourself?]
Her knee was throbbing steadily, but Chiose pushed past the sting of the scrape and caught hold of Shiina Taki.
"I'm sorry — I was in a bit of a rush just now… are you… are you okay?"
On the word "rush," Chiose nearly let the tremor slip into her voice. She covered for it by making a small show of wincing and clutching her knee.
"I… I'm fine."
Taki seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. Her mind had gone completely, utterly blank.
She's so beautiful…
White hair. Red eyes. Exactly as she lived in memory — still that same slender frame. So this was what Yoshiiro Chiose looked like, on the cusp of high school.
Only…
[Why… why do Chiose's eyes look like they're glimmering with gold?]
They looked so mysterious. Carrying with them a strangeness — a subtle, inexplicable distance.
While Taki was still studying her, Chiose was already fighting to keep her emotions from spilling over.
She had told herself she was already a perfectly seasoned, cold-hearted woman. That running into these girls in the real world wouldn't shake her.
And yet here she was. She had barely laid eyes on Shiina Taki — who clearly was not doing well — and she already felt the familiar urge rising: to cheer her on, to help her, just like she had done in the simulation.
She wanted to walk back into Taki's life…
No. She didn't deserve that.
She had already made herself into someone who had desecrated another person's feelings inside a simulation. What right did she have to get involved with her again?
And yet, imagining Shiina Taki — who clearly had been struggling, who had apparently been rummaging through an abandoned building — a nameless, aching bitterness flooded through Yoshiiro Chiose.
Why was this idiot such a wreck?
Why was this idiot making her reach for that same word — wreck — again and again today?
In the end, Yoshiiro Chiose gave Shiina Taki one last pat on the shoulder, picked up her medical chart from the ground, and walked away.
They passed each other by. Neither managed to say "hello" or "goodbye" in time.
"Wait — your name is…"
By the time Taki came back to her senses, Yoshiiro Chiose was already gone — vanished around the corner at a brisk pace.
Left behind for Shiina Taki was nothing but empty air and an even emptier chest.
That was Chiose… it had to be. There was no mistaking it.
That was Yoshiiro Chiose…
Did this count as a reunion between them?
Did it?
A reunion can be the continuation of a friendship, a family bond, or a love.
It can also be the spark that ignites an entirely new story.
But what if —
[What if it's the first time you've ever met someone you know more intimately than anyone else in the world — does that kind of meeting even count as a reunion?]
[If we never knew each other to begin with, then what is it called when we meet again?]
[What if…]
Taki sank back down in a daze, kneeling on the ground, staring blankly at the corner where Chiose had disappeared.
"What did that paper say?"
She was almost certain she had caught the character for "illness."
"So Chiose really is sick? But then why is she still alive… in the dream she was gone by fifteen…"
Was it possible — that the Yoshiiro Chiose of this real world had lived longer precisely because she'd never had to carry the burden of Shiina Taki?
No, no — that wasn't necessarily a medical chart. It definitely wasn't a medical chart. It absolutely couldn't be.
Taki felt even more lost than before.
She crumpled forward like a puppet whose strings had been cut, catching herself on her forearms against the ground.
The concrete was cold and rough. Any normal person would have found it uncomfortable. But Taki couldn't feel a thing.
"She's still alive… is it because of me? No — wait… what am I even saying… no, no, that's not right…"
Still… as long as she was alive, that was something to be glad for.
Yoshiiro Chiose was alive. Taki should have been happy for her.
Taki felt the corners of her eyes go wet again.
[Then why am I crying?]
[Is it grief?]
…Probably.
In a place Taki couldn't see — beneath the sole of her shoe — the faint residue of violet petals still clung to the pavement. The crushed flower had left a stain on the dull grey rubber that had never belonged there.
By the original course of things…
That jarring, out-of-place smear of color was exactly like the girl who had crashed so abruptly into her life. Something that was never supposed to exist there at all.
"…Ugh."
What a profound, crushing sense of defeat. She — Shiina Taki — and Yoshiiro Chiose were strangers. Just strangers.
Taking those dreams for reality… that was pretty rich of her. This really was just how her whole life was going to go, wasn't it —
"Hey! I said — are you okay!"
"I just went and grabbed some wet wipes! Do you need them!"
Yoshiiro Chiose's voice rang out abruptly from behind her. Taki spun around.
It was just like the very first time they had met.
"You —"
"It's me! Did I knock you so hard you forgot who I am? Hey — do you need me to walk you to the hospital?"
Yoshiiro Chiose laughed and pulled Shiina Taki back to her feet.
No matter how terrible, how shameless a woman she might be — she simply could not bring herself to leave some poor girl crying on the side of the road. That was a line she wouldn't cross.
She — Yoshiiro Chiose — could be as awful as she liked! But the awful version of her only existed inside the simulator!
Her heart still beat like any other person's. It always would.
Even half a day ago she hadn't been sure of that — but standing here, looking at the very real, very vivid Shiina Taki in front of her, Yoshiiro Chiose finally understood. She was still, at the end of it all, a decent person.
"What's your name? I'm Yoshiiro Chiose, by the way."
I've never exchanged a single word with you — and yet every time you open your mouth, you pull me helplessly into memories that don't belong to me.
"I… my name is…"
Those hands were just as warm as they had always been… and she was shining, just like she always had in the dream.
This couldn't all be a lie. Could it?
It wasn't. It wasn't…
At last, Shiina Taki's lips trembled just slightly, and she spoke:
"My name is… Shiina Taki…"
Please take care of me. If our paths happen to cross again in the days to come.
____
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