"Why did I come?"
Right. Why did I come, exactly.
Chiose blinked, then set her mind spinning through all the cunning stratagems she'd picked up across four Simulation runs.
"I... I missed you, Tomori. You're the first real friend I've made in years... so, so I just..."
"Oh, Little Chiose..."
Tomori seemed to deflate a little — no doubt absorbing Chiose's situation as though it were her own pain.
She hovered, arms half-raised, wanting to pull Chiose into a hug — but uncertain whether they were close enough yet for that. So Tomori stayed where she was, not quite sure if she should.
"Tomori... can I have a hug?"
Chiose's voice came out soft, the words carrying an almost irresistible pull.
And it wasn't a lie — not a single word of it.
All three years of middle school, she'd been too busy picking up odd jobs, delivering milk, plastering flyers on walls and scraping them off other people's walls to have any time for friends. She'd been so rushed off her feet she'd nearly lost touch with the world entirely.
"Of course! C-come here."
They held each other. Two girls, wrapped in each other's warmth — soft and unhurried.
When they finally pulled apart, the places where they'd been touching turned cool in the night air, and somehow that chill felt worse than the distance had.
Neither of them dared ask for another hug — both too busy turning red. Tomori went a deeper shade; Chiose's blush was more restrained, but it was there.
They walked on hand in hand, the way they might have in a past that never existed.
They made their way slowly toward the Takamatsu apartment, empty at this hour — all of it guided, as ever, by Yoshiiro Chiose.
If you ever find Yoshiiro Chiose in real life, count yourself lucky. She won't try to write anyone's story for them anymore. She won't cast a troupe of NPCs to play their parts. What she will do is pour everything she has into becoming your perfect companion — whatever that looks like for you.
She'll be your best friend. And she'll keep it that way. Forever.
"Hm. We were here just this afternoon and I didn't really look around properly."
It had been years since she'd last come back, hadn't it? Four or five at least, in real terms.
She couldn't let on that she knew this place well — but the fondness pooling in her eyes gave Yoshiiro Chiose away at every turn.
"Oh! A little fish tank — how adorable."
"Right?! Dad brought it home out of nowhere a few days ago. He said he'd had a nightmare and wanted to keep some fish to cheer himself up."
Keep some fish, hm.
Mm...
Back in the first Simulation, the young Takamatsu Chiose had adored those tiny little aquarium shops.
The kind tucked away in the forgotten edges of the city — the sort only a child, with a child's gift for aimless wandering, would ever think to seek out.
She remembered how Takamatsu Yuji and Takamatsu Hikaru loved to take Tomori and Chiose out on weekends for a bit of fresh air. And Chiose would always lead the way — straight to the nearest fish shop.
A few rows of tanks lined the walls, a few more down the middle — arranged so you could take in every fish at a glance.
The lighting in those shops was always dim, but above every tank hung a cluster of fluorescent tubes, different sizes casting different lights. Fish of every kind and colour drifted beneath them, and the whole shop shimmered in something strange and beautiful.
The Yoshiiro Chiose who had once been Takamatsu Chiose had loved that atmosphere so much... God, the nostalgia.
Yoshiiro Chiose stared at the little tank in front of her, lost in a reverie — those happy childhood memories surfacing one by one, refusing to stay down.
The happiest childhood she'd ever known, across any life.
The one in real life — she couldn't quite remember it anymore.
Later, in the Simulation, they'd visited a proper aquarium — the Takamatsu couple taking them again.
That day had left such a vivid impression. She could still see her small self standing there, surrounded by ocean creatures drifting past on all sides. A single tank there was bigger than an entire fish shop.
But she'd always preferred the little shops. Because Tomori preferred them too — and in those dim, close spaces, she could always find a Takamatsu Tomori just as entranced as she was...
As the years went on, dedicated fish shops grew rarer and rarer. People seemed to have less and less time to keep fish at all.
Now and then you'd spot a tank of ordinary goldfish on a flower shop counter at the corner of some street.
Chiose understood. Her aquarium had closed for good.
"Mm..."
And it wasn't just that. Her first Simulated life had ended too.
"Ahh..."
"What's with the sigh? Are you feeling unwell, Little Chiose?"
"Oh, it's nothing. I just feel bad for bothering you in the middle of the night..."
"We're friends, aren't we! This is nothing!"
Tomori worked up her nerve — but still couldn't quite bring herself to meet Chiose's eyes.
She stared at Chiose's feet instead. "I don't have any friends either, you know... and Taki doesn't have any friends either... so the three of us can definitely become good friends! It's just — it's just that we don't know each other that well yet! Once we do we can—"
Takamatsu Tomori! What are you even saying! Aaaaah! This is so embarrassing!
"Pfft. Talking behind Little Taki's back, are we? I'm going to tell on you tomorrow."
"Huh? Nnn, please don't do that?"
"Idiot! As if I would, you big goof."
Chiose came back to herself, surfacing from the tide of memories.
A line came to her, unbidden.
[You went to see the snow together. You weren't looking at the snow. She wasn't looking at you.]
How fitting that felt right now.
Here they were, the two of them standing before the little fish tank — Chiose not watching the fish, and Tomori not watching Chiose's eyes.
Because Tomori was watching her own feet.
Pfft.
"I'll head off now, Tomori! I'm really glad we're friends. Let's be best friends for life, okay?"
"Mm! Little Chiose — see you tomorrow!"
Chiose had arrived quickly, and she left just as fast — fast enough that the warmth she'd left on Tomori hadn't even faded yet.
Takamatsu Tomori went to the window and watched Chiose walk home until she disappeared from sight.
"Oh, right — that footbridge downstairs... what's it called again?"
Chiose Bridge, if she remembered right.
What a coincidence.
There were three streetlamps by Chiose Bridge. The oldest and the newest had both long since gone dark, leaving only the one in the middle — the one closest to Tomori's home, neither first nor last — still faithfully shining away.
The lamp lit up Chiose Bridge. Chiose Bridge kept the lamp quiet company.
Somehow, that seemed like enough for both of them.
"Life... it feels like it's suddenly gotten good again."
Though whenever she thought about Chiose dying in that dream, a cold unease crept back in.
But that was only a dream. It wasn't real!
And even if the Alcohol Lamp and the Mini-Lamp had cursed some other version of Takamatsu Tomori at the dream's end... well, that was their business.
Their Chiose was gone — but her own Chiose was still here, alive and well.
"I can't let anything happen to Little Chiose. Everything's going to be alright..."
Tomori closed her eyes and offered a quiet prayer — for herself, and for Chiose. Then she took one last long look toward the direction Yoshiiro Chiose had vanished, before unhurriedly easing the window shut.
There was a soft click — and the world went quiet again.
This silence, surely, had warmth in it.
Goodnight, world. That's just how things are.
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