That Half-Finished Drink Was Lethal— What Happened When I Left My Bottle Behind in a 1:4 Male-to-Female World - 28

Chapter 28: A Maiden in Love, Updated — Bathed in Light That Illuminates the Darkness of the Past

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Once, the world was filled with color. If I scoured the drawers of Aoi Mimori’s memories, I would certainly find the smile of a girl I could call my best friend.

Throughout their three years of middle school, Mimori and Hikari Ichinose stayed close, like light and shadow. Hikari had outstanding reflexes and scattered smiles like a blooming sunflower while Mimori was plain and spent her time in the corner of the library, engrossed in electronic hobbyist magazines. At first glance, the two seemed to have nothing in common, but Hikari’s eyes would sparkle with joy, calling Mimori’s strange electronic circuits “like magic!” Meanwhile, Mimori secretly admired how cool Hikari looked while sweating during her club activities.

“Mimorin! Did you see the latest episode of this anime? It was legendary! Look, right here!”

“A-Au… Hikari-chan, you’re too loud… We’re in the library, so…”

Hikari would rush into the library between club sessions and spread out an anime magazine next to Mimori. Mimori would look at the page Hikari pointed to with an exasperated but happy expression. There, a happy time flowed, connected purely by things they loved, free from specs or ranks.

Back then, inorganic rulers like ranks and specs did not exist. The gears began to turn out of sync at the end of the first semester, after they started at the same high school and were assigned to different classes. As the ace of the basketball club, Hikari quickly climbed the stairs to S-rank, attracting the attention of the entire school. Meanwhile, Mimori remained the same plain otaku. Within the cruel system of ranking, she began to be treated as an E-minus—nothing more than a piece of junk that might as well not exist.

There was a male student in the same class. Mimori had summoned all her courage to confess her feelings to him, but he went so far as to expose the details of her confession to the entire class.

“Mimori? …No way. She lacks the specs to date me. She’d need to be at least A-rank. I guess she’s about an E-minus in terms of rank.”

The boy’s mockery echoed in the hallway. Passing by, Mimori felt her heart freeze. The surrounding students accepted those words as the “correct answer” and broke into snickers.

(..I feel sick. …I am… not an E-minus…)

Mimori’s lips moved soundlessly. Her body trembled with despair and anger.

At that moment… From across the crowd, she saw Hikari walking toward them. Hikari noticed the whirlpool of mockery, stopped, and knitted her brows.

(…Ah, Hikari. …I…)

Mimori looked at Hikari with a sense of clinging hope. Hikari also noticed Mimori. For a brief moment, the “color” of their former friendship flickered in her eyes. Hikari tried to take a step forward. However, a female student standing next to her firmly grabbed her arm.

“Leave her alone, Hikari. If you get involved with someone like that, even your rank will get stained.”

“………”

Hikari’s throat trembled slightly.

“…Ahaha. …You’re right. …Let’s go.”

It was a dry, doll-like laugh. She averted her gaze from Mimori and vanished into the crowd like a muddy current.

(…Ah. …Ahhh…)

In that instant, the last spark of hope vanished from Mimori’s world. The sight of Hikari biting her lip and distorting her face with guilt, yet being swallowed by the massive system known as the “surrounding atmosphere.” For Mimori, that was the final push that dealt a fatal wound.

Hikari Ichinose. In this moment, she suppressed her own heart with her own words. And so, she buried the existence of Mimori Aoi into a monochrome darkness, treating her as if she no longer existed at school.

After that, Mimori stopped going to school. Hikari would spend endless days of regret, wondering why she couldn’t take that step forward back then. The clocks of the two remained stopped in that monochrome despair since that day.

―Aoi Mimori’s POV―

“…A-Au. …Auuu…”

I placed my hand on the heavy doorknob of my room and took deep breaths over and over. A dark room. Only the pale light of the multi-monitor setup burned my skin white. Beyond my headphones, the footage captured by my drone, “Eye-Zero,” played. The world outside was filled with words bearing sharp poisonous stingers and cruel gazes that appraised others.

However, deep in my chest, a heat that wouldn’t go out had been lit.

『 I want to treasure you.』

I heard Yuu-san’s gentle voice through the drone. That sun-like kindness—looking at someone like me, a rank E-minus, as just a normal girl.

(…I can’t stay like this. …Nothing will change… if I’m just behind a screen…)

“『I want to treasure you.』 If I’m the one who believes in those words Yuu-san gave me the least… then nothing will change…”

With trembling hands, I turned on the lights in my room for the first time in months. So bright. Drone parts, empty cans, and dust filled the room. In the center sat a full-length mirror covered in dust. I stood before the mirror as if crawling.

(…Terrible. …I look like Gollum. …A-Au…)

Skin burned white by monitor light. Messy, faded hair. A tattered, oversized hoodie that didn’t fit. Reflected in the mirror was a rank E-minus, spec-deficient, transparent shut-in.

(His words… so that I can value myself more than anyone. …I have to change who I am now.)

I quickly changed my clothes and checked my equipment. The latest noise-canceling headphones by Sony to completely shut out external noise. A black oversized hoodie two sizes too big to blur my silhouette. And smart glasses to overlay digital information onto the real scenery, creating a visual shield.

The front door. To me, it was the entrance to a final dungeon more terrifying than the deepest part of a demon king’s castle.

(I’ll do it. I’m going to do it. A-Au.)

Click.

The sound of the lock turning echoed through the quiet hallway like a gunshot.

“…Ugh…!”

(…The outside. …It’s scary. …A-Au… ugh! But I have to go. …To stand… by Yuu-san’s… side…!)

One step outside. The pouring sunlight felt like a laser burning my retinas. The sound of my own footsteps on the asphalt reached my ears with eerie loudness.

(A-Au… The air is heavy. …It’s like other people’s gazes… are scanning my level… Someone help me…!)

In the scenery viewed through my smart glasses, “Warning Displays” I had configured were dancing wildly.

【Danger: Interpersonal contact rate increased by 30%】

【Warning: Heart rate exceeds normal values. Premonition of panic】

The destination park was only five hundred meters away. I walked toward the park, relying on the drone’s GPS. My feet stopped many times, and I almost began to hyperventilate. Even so, the sensation of the controller hidden in my chest pocket made me remember his smile.

“A, u… hick… uu…”

A bench in the corner of the park. I had reached my limit. My legs trembled, and the strength left my knees. I practically crawled to a bench hidden behind overgrown bushes in the corner of the park. I hugged my knees, pulled my hood down deep, and curled up. Objectively speaking, I think I looked like an extremely strange and suspicious girl in a hoodie.

(..As I thought, it’s impossible. …I’m not… allowed in the outside world… …Yuu-san, …I’m sorry… I really am…(

The soundproofing of my headphones reached its limit, and the surrounding noise began to invade my consciousness.

Thump, thump, thump…

The rhythmic sound of a basketball, synchronized with the speed of my heartbeat. My defense instincts screamed a violent alert at the noise piercing through the noise-canceling headphones.

(A-Au… It’s scary. …The surrounding noise is too poisonous for me right now…!)

Hugging my knees and pulling the hoodie’s hood as deep as possible, I froze like a stone statue on the bench. My field of vision was only a few centimeters off the ground. I waited for the storm to pass while staring at the cracks in the asphalt as if glaring at them. However, fate rejected my evasion command.

“Alright! Last one!”

A bouncy voice. Immediately after, an “orange sphere” crossed the edge of my vision along with the violent sound of feet kicking the ground.

“Whoa…!? Careful…!”

A dull impact. Someone collided with my bench—no, with me—with the momentum of their jogging.

(A, a, a, a-au!? Physical interference!? Logout, I want to logouttt…!)

My thoughts burned out from panic. The impact knocked my body sideways, and then…

Whoosh.

My AT Field (hood) was ruthlessly stripped away.

“A… au?”

The moment I looked up, my vision spun violently. With a tremendous shock, I fell on my rear with a thud.

“Ow, ow, ow… …I’m sorry. …Are you hurt?”

My gaze collided with the girl who peered into my face while apologizing. A ponytail tied high up. Healthy white skin that repelled sweat. And large, wide-open double-lidded eyes like sunflowers. My internal server performed a high-speed search of my past database.

(Match found. Hikari Ichinose.)

“A-Au… ugh! Au, a, a… auuu…!”

“…Eh?”

The girl in front of me—Hikari Ichinose, with her ponytail disheveled and a basketball in her arms—froze like a stone. The high-performance smartwatch on Hikari’s wrist vibrated. A warning sound went off: Beep, beep.

【Warning: Intense agitation detected. Heart rate is rising sharply. Please rest.】

Hikari stared at me as I sat slumped on the ground, shaking uncontrollably and continuing to emit strange cries of “au.”

“…Mimorin? …No way, is that you, Mimori!? Mimori Aoi…!?”

Hikari’s eyes widened to their limit. In her mind, the afterimage of the gaze she had averted that day flickered back to life as a color image.

“A… a… au…!”

The moment my name was called, my brain overheated and exploded.

The classroom that day. The averted gaze. The brand of rank E-minus. Strange cries, bordering on hyperventilation, leaked from the back of my throat. I tried to crawl away from the spot.

“Wait! Don’t run away, Mimorin!!”

Grab.

Hikari’s arm, tempered by basketball, firmly grabbed my shoulder.

“Wait! Don’t run away! …Please, Mimorin! It’s me! It’s Hikari Ichinose!”

“A, u… uaa…”

Hikari’s face forced itself into my vision.

“Let… a-au… let go! D-Don’t look at me with those eyes…!”

“No! I won’t! I’m not letting go! I’ll never, ever let go again…!!”

Hikari’s voice was trembling. Before I knew it, she was kneeling beside the bench, hugging me head-on.

(So hot.)

Even through the noise-canceling headphones, I could hear her violent heartbeat. The scent of citrus, like a towel dried in the sun, forced its way into my stagnant lungs.

“…I’ve been looking for you this whole time… After that, when you stopped coming to school… I realized just how much of a piece of garbage I was…! I’m sorry, Mimorin. I’m so sorry…!!”

She looked more mature than before, but the sun-like, straightforward radiance in her eyes hadn’t changed a bit from that day.

“Ugh… I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, Mimorin…!!”

Near my ear, Hikari’s apology continued, sounding almost like a scream. Hikari’s tears fell onto my neck.

(It’s so hot.)

“…I… I lost to the pressure and just went with the flow… and I left you all alone… I’m so pathetic…!!”

Hikari wailed like a child. The sun that had looked so dazzling and perfect was crumbling into pieces in my arms. It possessed a raw, realistic heat that was more intense than any tears I had observed through a monitor over the last few years.

“A-Au… …Hikari-chan…”

My arms moved hesitantly and wrapped around Hikari’s back. It was strange. I should have hated her so much. I should have felt so much despair. But looking at Hikari’s tears, I could tell that something that had hardened deep in my heart was slowly being repaired.

“…Hikari. …Au, Hikari-chan. …Don’t cry. …Don’t make that face.”

“…Ugh, uwaaaaaaaaann!! Mimoriiiiiiin!!”

Hikari hugged me with all her might again. In the middle of the park. Without caring about the eyes of others, years of regret and forgiveness intersected violently between the two of us.

(The reason I can forgive Hikari… Is it because Yuu-kun said he wanted to treasure… my courage that day? …Is that why?)

The warmth Yuu-kun gave me had rebooted my self-esteem. I reached out with a trembling hand and gently touched Hikari’s back.

(Besides… Yuu-san… would surely… say something like this…)

“A-Au… No, it’s okay. …Hikari-chan. …I was just weak… so don’t worry about it anymore…”

“There’s no way that’s true! I was the worst!”

Hikari looked up and looked at me with a messy smile.

“…Hehe, a-au… Hikari-chan, your nose is… really running.”

“Eh!? Wait, Mimorin, you’ve got tears and snot mixed together too… your face looks terrible!”

Still embracing, the two of us stared at each other from point-blank range and froze. Due to years of apologies and despair, both of our faces were a complete mess with ruined makeup. It was a ghastly sight.

“Ahaha! This is the worst! If the people in class saw this, our rank might drop all the way to G in one go!”

“A-Au… Hikari-chan… you’re mean… hehe.”

Just as we had done in the library back then, we looked at each other and laughed from the bottom of our hearts.

“Mimorin, you’ve changed somehow. …I can’t put it into words well, but your eyes… they’re alive. Hey, did something happen?”

“A-Au…”

My gaze wandered. Yuu crossed my mind. The person who said he wanted to “treasure” my courage.

“…I, m-might… have… someone… I like.”

“Eeeeeeeh!? No way!? Mimorin has someone she likes!?”

Hikari immediately switched into love-talk mode and leaned in.

“Who!? What guy!? I see, so that’s why you came outside while shaking like this…”

Hikari glanced at the smartwatch on her wrist that was sounding a violent alert. Recorded there was a heart rate of pure blessing for her best friend, different from the anger or regret she felt toward Rin.

“That’s great! I’ll support you with everything I’ve got, Mimorin! Right now, my own love life is being messed with by this woman with the absolute worst personality… yeah, like some relative’s aunt. So, I definitely want you to be happy, Mimorin!”

“…A-Au. …Thank… you.”

I squeezed the sleeve of my hoodie tightly.

“…Then… Hikari-chan. …I have… a request. …I want you… to teach me… about makeup… and dieting… and things like that.”

In response to my utmost “request,” Hikari’s eyes shone with the brightest light of the day.

“Leave it to me! I’ve got plenty of stamina from basketball, and I had makeup drilled into me by my seniors in the club! I’m going to turn you into the cutest girl in the world, enough to make that guy you like flip out!”

“…A-Au. …I’ll be… in your care.”

Hikari grabbed my pale hand firmly and stood up just like that.

“First, over there! The drugstore! The first step of the production is picking out the best foundation for you. Let’s go!”

“Ah, wa… Hikari-chan, …too fast… au…!”

We started running, with me being dragged along.

I’m still anxious, but the word “Warning” was no longer floating on my smart glasses.

《They do not yet know. That the person they both like is the same boy, Yuu Yuuki.》

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