Vol 2 Chapter 9 – Chain【Vol 2 — Youth in the Midst of Calamity】

…I heard the window open.

With a clatter, the window slid open, and the night breeze slipped in.

Cold air crawled up from my feet and wrapped itself around me.

“Ah, Will. So you really were here.”

I heard the light tap of someone landing on the floor.

I knew who it was from the voice alone.

“…Honestly, Elena-chan had to go and put up such a troublesome barrier…”

It was my childhood friend, Aria.

Aria looked down and muttered something under her breath for a moment, then suddenly looked up at me and broke into a smile.

She smiled at me with a bright grin, like a flower blooming.

My heart filled with relief.

Just seeing Aria’s face let me relax.

It was probably because I’d finally run into someone familiar, someone who wasn’t Elena after she’d become “abnormal.”

After being held captive for three straight days, my mind was already close to its limit.

If it was Aria, then maybe, just maybe, she could stop Elena.

Even Elena, who now looked utterly abnormal, should go back to her usual self if we could just calm her down and actually talk things out.

We should be able to laugh together casually again, like always.

Thinking that, I was about to tell Aria everything when I stopped myself.

“————”

I stared hard at Aria’s smiling face.

Maybe she found that strange, because Aria tilted her head.

That ordinary little gesture of hers was no different from usual.

No different from usual. It should have been—

—and then I remembered what happened the other day.

Right before Elena ended up restraining me, when Aria had confessed to me.

————Ahh, geez, Will, I love you.

But, well, for now, that should be something we could leave on hold.

Aria should at least know how to read the situation at a time like this.

I looked at Aria.

Her eyes still held reason.

She was still tilting her head.

————Onii-chan, I love you.

The words Elena had said before flashed through my mind, and a horrible chill ran through my whole body.

Just then, my eyes met Aria’s as she stood there tilting her head in puzzlement.

Aria smiled.

For some reason, that smile overlapped with Elena’s.

Another chill hit me.

If I was getting scared of even Aria, then Elena must have done a real number on my mind.

I took a deep breath and stepped toward Aria.

As if deciding something from that alone, Aria gave a small nod and stood right in front of me.

Tilting her head just a little and smiling, Aria held out her hand to me.

“Come on, let’s go together already, okay? I get it, you know? Elena-chan was threatening you, wasn’t she? That’s the feeling I got.”

Could it be Aria really understood everything about the situation I was in and had rushed here for me?

Some indescribable feeling welled up inside me for my childhood friend, and I nearly started crying.

“But if you’re with me, it’ll be okay… I’ll protect you properly, Will. …So, okay? Okay?”

As I stood there frozen, shaken by a kind of emotion I couldn’t even describe, Aria gently pulled me into her arms.

Soft.

I never thought the warmth of human touch could soothe my mind this much.

At this point, I honestly felt like I could fall for Aria as a girl,

and it started to seem like the best choice would be to accept that confession from back then and stay with Aria forever—

—when I heard a tiny, tiny wet sound.

Something soft and damp touched the cut on my forehead, the one I’d gotten while escaping from Elena.

Thump. My heart jumped, as if it had realized something before I had.

Without understanding, I looked at Aria in front of me.

Then again, something wet touched the cut on my forehead.

Aria was licking my forehead.

Again and again, gently, as if tending to it.

“——”

When she finally stopped licking my forehead, Aria wet her lips with her tongue, still faintly stained with blood.

…Ah.

“It’s okay, it’s okay… I’m the one who can understand you best, Will. I’m the one who can love you best. …I love you, Will.”

…Ahh, ahh.

“H-Hey, Aria.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“…What’s this?”

My right wrist and Aria’s left wrist were connected by a silver chain.

When I twisted my right hand, the soft clinking scrape of metal against metal brushed my ears.

Then Aria spoke again without the slightest trace of hesitation, and I shuddered.

“Yeah, Will. We’re going to be together foreeever, okay?”

————No way.

Clang. The chain rattled and bit deep into my wrist.

Even though I was the one who had made it move, the sound startled me.

It had been completely unconscious.

On instinct, I tried to pull away from her, but it was meaningless.

What is this what is this what is this.

Round and round, round and round, my vision spun.

I can’t understand this don’t want to won’t won’t won’t won’t no way what is this no matter how I think about it this is wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Some prediction flashed through my mind for a moment, but I pretended not to notice it.

Because there was no way.

“What’s wrong, Will? Why are you panicking so much?”

Jingle… Aria looked at me curiously, the chain rattling as she moved.

“What is this…?”

The words that slipped out came out hoarse.

“Oh, this? Well, I made it myself. Once it connects to someone, it absolutely won’t come off unless you force it apart, and it can stretch as far as you want.”

Aria explained it happily.

“So, with this, I’ll always know where you are, Will, and I can come see you anytime I want. Oh, and this too. If it feels like it wants to be with the person it’s connected to, it shrinks on its own. Amazing, right?”

The chain connecting Aria and me was slowly shrinking.

Our bodies pressed together.

“Ahaha, at this rate it’ll just stay short forever. I made it so it could stretch and shrink, but I guess that didn’t really matter.”

“Ehehe,” Aria said, scratching her cheek bashfully.

I didn’t understand.

“Why… would you do this?”

“Because I want to stay with you forever, Will. I told you, didn’t I? That I love you. So I’m not going to hand you over to Elena-chan anymore, okay? I decided that.”

“…Huh?”

“You know, on the third day, when I saw Elena-chan forcefully teleport you away, I realized something. That I really do want to stay with you forever…”

That forever definitely didn’t mean the same thing as the forever I’d always known.

“I can’t stand the thought of Elena-chan doing whatever she wants with you, Will… I absolutely hate it.”

For just a second, Aria said it with no expression at all.

I tried to pull away and run, but the chain, already shrunk to its limit, wouldn’t allow it.

It bit into my wrist.

“You don’t like that either, right, Will? Being told ‘I love you’ by your actual little sister, a girl who lives in the same house as you and still doesn’t really think about you at all. Right? Isn’t that right? Will?”

Right in front of me were deep violet eyes so intense they felt like they could swallow me whole.

That was when I noticed it for the first time.

In Aria’s pure, innocent eyes, I saw the same color I’d seen before, just a little while ago, in Elena’s strange eyes.

I didn’t understand.

I had no idea what had happened to Aria.

I had no idea how it had come to this.

Then, as if she’d read exactly what I was thinking, Aria’s voice brightened.

“You know, I’ve been thinking this for a long time. That I wanted to stay with you forever, Will. Ah, I already said that just now, didn’t I?”

“Ehe,” Aria laughed.

“But I did think maybe forcing something like this on you would bother you, Will. But then I saw Elena-chan take you away… and I changed my mind. Really, I wanted you to come to me on your own, but if the alternative was Elena-chan doing whatever she wanted with you, then…”

Aria wrapped both hands around mine. The chain gave a light clink.

“Sorry for doing something like this all of a sudden. You were surprised, right? But don’t worry, okay? I’ll never make you feel bad, Will. I’ll do my best so you’ll definitely be happy. And of course I’ll protect you from Elena-chan too, okay? If I hadn’t been here just now, Elena-chan would have forcefully teleported you away again.”

Come to think of it, Elena really could call me to her.

Realizing that only now made my body tremble.

And seeing Aria’s innocent smile as she kept talking so matter-of-factly, without the slightest sign of strain, made me tremble even more.

This is already—no good.

The moment I admitted that, all the strength drained from my body.

As I collapsed, Aria gently caught me.

“Yeah, yeah, it was scary, wasn’t it…? It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m here…”

She hugged me as if wrapping herself around me.

It was an unbelievably soft, gentle embrace.

I don’t want to think. I don’t want to think through anything. I don’t want to imagine it, I don’t want to do anything, I can’t, there’s no way I can—

—a thunderous crash rang out.

Along with that sound, which felt like it belonged to some far-off world, the wall of the room blew apart.

The one who came in was Elena.