Takamatsu Tomori woke early that morning.
It was the lightest she had ever slept in her life — but then she thought about how her mother had to get up early for work every single day, which meant her mother probably never slept deeply either, and that thought left her feeling strangely at a loss.
Would she herself, someday, become someone like her mother — together with Chiose?
If that happened, maybe their mother wouldn't have to be so exhausted anymore.
Night shifts… how did anyone survive the long dark of night like that? That took real strength.
"Mmph… Kyoumoto, do we really have to get up this early?"
"Kyoumoto?"
Who was that? Whose name was that?
Tomori heard Chiose mention it all the time, but whenever she asked, Chiose only ever gave some vague, roundabout non-answer.
Oh well. If she didn't want to explain, she didn't have to.
"I'm here, Chiose." Tomori shook her head, trying to coax her sleep-wild hair back into something resembling order.
"Mmm… huh? Oh — Tomori. Is it morning already?"
Rubbing her eyes until they flushed red, Chiose drifted in that foggy half-space between sleep and waking, and for a moment it felt just like being back in that cramped little rental room — squished onto a tiny bed with her younger sister, Haizuka Kyoumoto.
Ah. Kyoumoto.
The morning drowsiness was swept away by a fierce, sudden wave of longing. Chiose reached for something to do with her hands — anything to redirect herself.
She pulled Tomori back under the covers and tickled her along the ribs with nimble fingers.
"Pfft — stop it—"
"No way! Tomori — once this winter break is over, we're starting elementary school."
"Mm, elementary school? Will it… be different from kindergarten?"
"Probably," said Chiose — though she had no real idea what Tomori's elementary school days would look like. After all, she almost certainly wouldn't be around to see them. "You'll make lots of friends, Tomori."
"R-really?! Lots of friends?!"
"Mm-hm. But you're not allowed to give anyone weird presents. No pill bugs, okay?"
"Oh…"
"You can give all of those to me instead — no sharing with anyone else," Chiose said, catching the flicker of disappointment on Tomori's face and resorting, helplessly, to a show of mock jealousy. "Those special little gifts are for me alone — got it?"
Having said her piece, Chiose hopped out of bed on her own.
She had a feeling — a quiet, certain kind of feeling — that the chance to part might be right around the corner.
If a perfect opportunity to bring this long simulation to a close ever presented itself, Yoshiiro Chiose was not going to let it slip through her fingers.
...
"Tomori, are you sure there are beetles out here?"
Tomori had led Chiose to a corner of the little park where they usually played. The ground here was overrun with weeds; patches of land that had once bloomed with wildflowers now lay bare and barren, like something had given up on them.
You could actually catch beetles in a place like this?
"Mm. Whenever I crouch here for a while, beetles always climb up onto me."
"…Are you sure they're not just mistaking you for a fence post?"
"Maybe."
"Pfft… you little dummy."
The laughter that bubbled out of her took all of Takamatsu Chiose's defenses with it.
"Don't move, Chiose — I can hear them."
"Alright."
Chiose shuffled closer to Tomori and crouched down behind her.
She watched a leaf on the nearest branch tremble at the edge of falling, then let her gaze drift further — to an old tree in the distance, so enormous it would take a ladder just to climb it.
Come to think of it, wasn't there a ladder leaning at a crooked angle against the base of that tree?
Her thoughts were beginning to wander when something cool and ticklish crept onto the white ankle sock above her foot.
"Ah! T-Tomori! Something — there's something on my foot!"
What a horrible feeling.
"It's a beetle! Chiose, you're amazing — you pulled off the stick-in-the-mud disguise on your very first try!"
That was a rather unnecessary compliment… and was it even a compliment to begin with?
Chiose mechanically lowered her head and looked at the large beetle making its way up the side of her calf, climbing her muscle as if scaling a hill.
"This one's even bigger than the one we let go yesterday, Tomori."
"It is!"
Tomori didn't have a single drop of fear in her when it came to strange little creatures — she grabbed it with her bare hands without a second thought.
The pitiful beetle, its shell throwing off a rainbow sheen, thrashed and struggled in Tomori's small grip.
But clearly, Master Tomori — with years of experience under her belt — was the decisive victor in this battle of wills.
"The beetle has been subdued by the terrifying upright-ape Takamatsu Tomori — impressive!"
"Terrifying upright-ape? What's that?" Tomori tilted her head, puzzled as ever by the strange words that tumbled out of Chiose's mouth.
As expected of a little sister who loved to read — everything she said was unfathomable.
"Ahem, ahem — it's a compliment, basically."
The beetle was passed into Chiose's hands. It was, without a doubt, the largest insect she had encountered in this entire lifetime.
Only — the beetle's eyes…
Blood-red. Unnerving.
[You've been idle for far too long, my Host.]
「!!!」
W-was the beetle… talking?!
That voice. That way of addressing her…
The System?!
[Still hesitating? I understand. For a good girl like you, playing the villain is still a little difficult — so, shall I lend a hand?]
"..."
"Chiose? Is the beetle pretty?"
Tomori was talking, but Chiose's mind was in too much chaos to respond.
She tried to open her mouth, but her throat came out in nothing more than a dry, rasping scrape.
Instinctively, Chiose turned away from Tomori's garnet-red eyes, her own gaze drifting aimlessly — until, at last, she spoke her reply to the System silently, from somewhere deep inside.
[Help… this…]
The critical notice from the hospital flashed through her mind. The image of her little sister in the real world — helpless, pitiful — drifted past after it.
Six years. She had weathered six years inside this simulation.
Every single day had carried its own quiet dread of dying. And yet she had never been able to bring herself to act.
[Normal, for a first-timer — can't bring yourself to twist the knife.]
"..."
[System. I… need your help.]
Regret, lifelong sorrow — none of it is real! Don't let it weigh on you!
Swallowing hard, Chiose's trembling fingers traced the beetle's back. Her gaze shifted to Tomori, and after a long moment, she finally spoke:
"Ah — sorry. It's just so big and so cute, I got… a little distracted for a second."
The words had barely left her lips when the beetle in her hand spread its wings and took flight. Its blood-red eyes flickered with a halo of crimson light, and it circled once around the two of them before sailing off toward the distant old tree.
"It flew away!"
Tomori lunged to intercept, but her arms were too short — she nearly toppled herself over in the attempt.
"Be careful! It landed on that big tree over there!"
Chiose steadied Tomori and pointed toward the distant tree — the one that needed a ladder to climb.
So this was what the System meant by help?
[Yes. There's a ladder below. Climb up.]
"..."
"Tomori — come on, let's go get it back!"
"But… it's so high up…"
"I can't… that beetle was a gift from Tomori. I don't want to just let it go…"
"Then I'll go! Chiose, wait here for just a second."
"There's no need — honestly, it's fine if we can't get it…"
Chiose felt, dimly, that she understood what the System intended. She hesitated — and then made herself say it.
"Let's go together. I'll climb up and grab it — Tomori can hold the ladder steady for me."
"I — I'll do my best!"
Takamatsu Tomori, still very much a small child, raised her left hand with an earnest, endearing solemnity.
"Then it's settled."
Something inside Chiose felt like it was swaying — loose and unmoored. She clasped her hands behind her back and pressed her nails hard into her palms, leaving deep red crescents in the skin.
____
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