Vol 2 Chapter 10 – Fall【Vol 2 — Youth in the Midst of Calamity】

I stared blankly at Elena as she came flying into the room through a thunderous crash of shattered wall fragments.

“Ah, you took quite a while, Elena-chan. I didn’t think I’d put up a barrier that tough…”

Still wearing that pleasant smile, Aria looked at Elena.

“Get away from Onii-chan.”

In response, Elena narrowed her eyes and strode toward us, her voice coated with anger.

Even I could sense the killing intent she was directing at Aria.

Aria’s smile didn’t falter.

I could tell, though, that it wasn’t the same kind of smile she’d been showing me before.

“Mmm, that’s impossible, Elena-chan. Because Will and I are going to be together forever.”

As she said it, Aria hugged me even tighter.

“Just get away from him, Aria-chan. Otherwise Elena… doesn’t know what she’ll do…”

Elena muttered it softly, her eyes hollow.

“Besides, it seems like Will likes me way, way… way more than Elena-chan.”

See?

Aria loosened her embrace and tilted her head at me.

I couldn’t do anything.

I couldn’t think of anything.

—I didn’t want to think.

Aria’s eyes, deep and dark like a bottomless void, stared straight at me.

“……..Right?”

“…”

Why I nodded at that moment, I’ll probably never know.

But I did understand that it was something I absolutely shouldn’t have done.

Because my vision was suddenly drenched in red.

“Hey…? Aria-chan. What did you do to Onii-chan while Elena was gone…?”

At the edge of my reddening vision, someone’s hand was flying through the air.

It was a slim white hand, soft-looking and completely spotless.

Severed halfway up the arm, it finally fell to the floor.

It landed with the cut side down, then rolled with a wet, sickening sound of meat and blood scraping together.

There was a chain attached to that wrist.

The same chain that was connected to my own wrist.

“…………Eh?”

“Hey, Aria-chan? What did you do to Elena’s Onii-chan…? Hey… hey, hey, hey! Answer me!”

Elena closed in on Aria.

There was a faint smear of Aria’s blood on her cheek.

For some reason, she was smiling.

Aria didn’t show any sign of suffering from the pain of having her arm cut off.

She just stared blankly at her own severed hand lying on the floor.

No, what Aria was looking at wasn’t her arm, but the chain attached to it.

The chain connected to me.

“……….Ah”

Suddenly, Aria’s face twisted like she was afraid of something.

That was all I could see.

The instant Elena grabbed Aria by the collar, I bolted out through the broken wall and into the hallway.

At that moment, I had no clear will of my own.

I had no reason left.

I just obeyed the thought spinning round and round inside my head—that I had to get away from here.

At that moment, I felt like I heard something behind me.

Run, run, kept spinning round and round, round and round and spinning—

○

“No… no… no…”

Dragging the silver chain still attached to my right hand, I walked outside the mansion.

—I had forgotten that there was someone’s hand attached to the other end of the chain.

I didn’t even have the strength to run anymore, so I just staggered forward, dragging my body along.

Still, farther away.

Even a little farther.

Farther.

Farther.

My head hurt.

My brain ached, creaked.

My body was hot.

My heart was pounding too fast.

As I stumbled through the deserted village at dawn, dimly lit as morning slowly crept in, I suddenly caught sight of a figure.

For an instant, panic and a chill swept over me at the thought that they had already caught up to me.

My body trembled on its own, a chill ran through me, and violent nausea surged up.

And I started wondering how any of this had happened in the first place.

Come to think of it—

—Who are they?

DON’T.

I can’t think about that.

DON’T.

—Who am I running from?

—Ahh, I remember.

DON’T.

And then, for a moment, I thought I saw Elena and Aria smiling brightly right in front of me, and suddenly my thoughts became clear.

Everything snapped into focus.

I was running from Elena and Aria.

And yet, why was I this calm?

Because the girls standing in front of me— no, the girl—

She was—

Only then did I finally recognize Sophia standing in front of me with a confused expression.

Startled, I looked at Sophia.

“S-Sophia…?”

Sophia was supposed to be in town with my parents right now.

“W-What happened, Will-kun? You look awful…”

Seeing her fluster over the state I was in made me feel incredibly relieved.

—Relieved.

For some reason, that relief gave me an intense sense of déjà vu, but I didn’t pay it any mind.

Because Sophia had gone out of her way to appear in front of me at a moment like this.

Because surely, she had come to help me.

I mustn’t doubt Sophia.

I mustn’t even think about doubting her.

Otherwise, I’ll break.

I threw myself into Sophia’s arms.

Softly and gently catching me, Sophia wore the face of a loving mother.

She didn’t seem especially surprised that I’d suddenly hugged her, or that there was a chain on my hand, or even that there was an arm attached to the end of it.

I pretended not to see that fact.

“What’s wrong? Will-kun… did something happen?”

“…Yeah, Sophia, Onee-chan—…”

○

Before I knew it, I was at Sophia’s house.

My memory was hazy, but I felt like I’d told her everything, and Sophia had accepted it all without the slightest question.

This was Sophia’s dining room.

I was sitting in a chair across the table from Sophia.

In my hands was a cup filled with a clear, reddish-orange liquid.

I slowly sipped the tea Sophia had brewed for me.

It was very warm.

It felt like it was soaking into my chilled body.

“Well? My homemade tea is good, right?”

“Yeah, it’s really warming me up.”

“…I’m glad.”

Resting her cheek on her hand, Sophia looked at me gently, and when she heard that, she gave me a smile like the sun.

It was soothing.

I could feel my turbulent heart gradually calming down.

Thank goodness.

Ahh, thank goodness, really.

Now I can—

“I was worried what I’d do if you said it tasted bad. Because… no, never mind.”

“…Sophia, Onee-chan?”

Was it just my imagination?

For just that moment, it felt like a shadow had passed over her smile.

My body trembled.

—No, it had to be my imagination.

Unconsciously telling myself that, I looked at Sophia.

Sophia’s smile hadn’t changed.

A warm smile, like she was gently wrapping up her little brother—

—A sharp pain stabbed through my brain.

I was overlooking something.

That’s what my brain was trying to tell me.

That couldn’t be right, because Sophia was always on my side, always sweet to me, always there with me.

She’d always been there beside me, just like an older sister.

So this unease had to be, yes, it had to be my imagination.

“——”

At that moment, something went wrong with my body.

“——”

My fingertips and toes went numb, all sensation dulled, and I dropped the cup of tea I was holding onto the floor.

“——”

With a sharp crash of breaking ceramic, the reddish-orange liquid spread across the floor.

“——”

Even then, the numbness spreading through me kept advancing, eating away at my whole body.

“——”

The legs supporting me stopped working, strength drained from my body, and I crumpled.

Pathetically, I collapsed onto the floor.

“——”

Something was wrong.

Wrong.

Something was wrong.

Then what, exactly, was wrong?

“——”

And then, all at once, the source of that unease became clear.

Sophia wasn’t shaken by what was happening to me.

She was only smiling calmly.

“——”

Why?

Why?

I had the strange feeling I’d seen that same smile somewhere before.

Where?

Where had I seen that smile?

It felt so, so much like something from just a moment ago.

It really did.

And then I finally arrived at a possibility I could no longer keep buried, and I told myself that couldn’t possibly be true—

—and then a vague haze fell over my thoughts.

It felt like a dim haze, neither white nor black, was slowly staining my mind directly.

The heaviness in my body reached its peak, and I couldn’t even tell if I had any proper sense of touch left.

A dim curtain started to fall over my vision too.

Slipping, slipping down, slowly.

My consciousness sank into darkness.

“I’m sorry, Will-kun. But I think this is what will be best for you. Because I’m the one who likes you most, who loves you most, who adores you most. …So, okay? Please understand…”

My thoughts wouldn’t clear.

I could understand the words she was saying, but I couldn’t understand what she meant by them.

I DIDN’T WANT TO.

My body and head were numb.

Someone laid themselves over my body.

So soft.

Who was it?

—Who?

But at the very end, all I heard in my ears was…

“Let’s be happy together with Sophia Onee-chan, okay? I love you, Will-kun. I love———”