The moment the fall began, Chiose had already pulled Tomori completely into her arms.
Wind roared past her ears. As the ladder gave way and they plummeted, her mind went utterly blank.
Tomori. Kyoumoto. Father Yuji. Mother Hikaru.
Not a single one of them surfaced in her thoughts.
She just kept thinking, over and over, about the night sky from yesterday.
Last night, they had taken so many photographs together… ah, how many was it exactly? She couldn't quite remember—
THUD.
Her back hit the ground with brutal finality, too hard to even cry out.
The only sound that reached her ears was a clean, sharp crack.
Takamatsu Chiose's vision went black, and she lost consciousness.
[That hurt like hell!]
...
[Ngh… where am I…]
She pried her eyes open in a daze. Before her heavy eyelids could even process light, the searing pain in her back crashed into her mind first.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts — ngh…"
Noshiro Chitose forced her eyes open and found herself pinned beneath the ladder, Tomori unconscious in her arms.
[Welcome to the world, five minutes post-fainting. The System has performed a mandatory reboot on your behalf. This service is complimentary.]
"..."
Like some kind of vampire. Disgusting.
Chitose wanted to spit in this useless System's face, but the searing pain left her completely unable to move.
"Am I dying? System — what's happened to Tomori?"
[The Host is currently at death's door. This System prefers to describe your present condition as 'halfway out of your own body.']
"What… so what am I supposed to do? What about Tomori — is she okay?"
She couldn't stop worrying about this foolish girl. In the end, Chitose made herself ask.
[She was knocked unconscious by the impact.]
"..."
Fair enough. Chitose had cushioned the fall as best she could, but dropping from that height — it made sense that Tomori would be out cold.
"But why am I still awake? By your logic… shouldn't I be in some kind of coma right now, just waiting to die?"
[This is the System's end-of-life care. Is there anything you still wish to say to Tomori? You may use these final moments to say it.]
"What kind of — what even is that?!"
[Consider it a first-simulation privilege. There won't be another chance like this.]
[Once Takamatsu Tomori regains consciousness, the Host will lose awareness entirely and pass into death.]
"I understand. Stop talking, just — stop. Cough, cough."
The only three things Chitose could still move were her mouth, her mind, and her hands.
Her palm was streaked with blood she had just coughed up. More kept welling past her lips.
"Haah… what a mess…"
Pathetic.
Dirty — and not just on the outside. Something inside her felt dirty too.
Her hands were shaking terribly — the same trembling as the day she had received her critical-condition notice at the hospital. Even so, Chitose gathered Tomori into her arms and arranged her as gently as she could, trying to make her comfortable.
"Tomori, I'm sorry…"
Holding Tomori like this — had it always felt this safe? How had she never noticed before?
"Well… our ending was always written. I'm sorry for giving you a childhood that wasn't quite whole."
With her injuries unhealed and untreated, Chitose's body continued to bleed.
Blood obscured her vision. Blurring — that was the only word left in her mind.
"It's too late now… no amount of words will change anything…"
Tomori's small body seemed to be trembling.
"I'm sorry, Tomori…"
"I'm so sorry… but I have to keep living… forgive me…"
Her voice faded to a murmur. Chitose was slipping away.
"I hope the recordings… will keep you company as you grow up… Tomori…"
Something sharp seemed to pierce through her back. Blood spattered across Takamatsu Tomori's face — but Chitose could no longer see clearly, and just kept whispering whatever words her fading mind could still find.
"Tomori, look after Mom and Dad. Don't grow up too fast…"
With the last faint parting of her lips, Takamatsu Chiose's eyelids finally drooped shut.
[Triggered: Fragile]
At the very end, she made out the trembling of Takamatsu Tomori's lashes.
"Chiose? Chiose! CHIOSE!!!"
Sob… You're so terribly pitiful. I want so badly to comfort you.
I just can't anymore.
...
"Ow — that stings!"
Noshiro Chitose lurched upright from a park bench, her medical file fluttering out of her hand.
No sign of Takamatsu Tomori anywhere.
No sign of Takamatsu Chiose either.
"I'm… back, aren't I."
The sky was just as blue and clear as ever. The ground of the park was scattered with newspapers passersby had carelessly dropped. The dates and headlines all declared: this is the real world.
It was over. The simulation.
An unsuccessful simulation — and it had ended… just like that?
[Congratulations, Host. You have manufactured an unfortunate life for Takamatsu Tomori. Though your performance in this simulation was substandard, from this point forward, whenever certain special scenarios are triggered, Takamatsu Tomori will be overcome with grief. She will regret having failed to protect her little sister. She will regret that, as the elder, she could have made better choices to save the Host instead of acting so recklessly.]
[Tabulating Regret Index… Congratulations, Host. Lifespan awarded: one year and fourteen days.]
[Overall Evaluation: Below Average.]
When the notification chimed — laden with judgment and a hint of mockery — whatever small measure of calm Chitose had managed to gather crumbled at once.
Her limbs felt light and nimble. Her heart was another matter — it sat heavy in her chest, pressing all the breath out of her.
"Why did it have to announce Tomori's future like that… it's supposed to be a simulation, so why make it feel so unbearably real…"
Such an awful feeling.
Truly, profoundly awful.
It was still spring. Fallen cherry blossoms blanketed every corner within sight. Noshiro Chitose bent down and picked up her medical file.
"This… I don't need it anymore."
The critical-condition notices — all that useless paperwork — she shoved it wholesale into a rubbish bin without a moment's hesitation. Exhausted in body and soul, Noshiro Chitose turned and began walking home.
"My body really does feel better. No urge to cough. My legs don't feel like they're giving out."
That was… one of the few pieces of good news.
In her skirt pocket sat a small-denomination banknote — the parting gift that Dr. Ijichi had pressed into her hand as she left the hospital.
"I'll pick something up for my little sister on the way home… I wonder how she's been getting on these past few days I was in hospital."
The moment she thought of her sister, her heart felt ready to leap straight out of her throat.
Noshiro Chitose felt as though it had been years since she last saw that poor, precious girl.
"Home. I'm going home right now!"
She tried running. Her legs did not disappoint her.
They moved with surprising, almost startling ease.
A jog, then something a little reckless — an actual run.
And then a full-tilt sprint, arms and legs pumping out of sync, and she still couldn't make herself stop—
Nothing else matters! Just run — run until you've got it all out of your system!
She could actually run now! Her body… her body was getting better!
Cherry blossoms tried to blur her vision, but the wind swept them away.
This road home — she had walked it so many times it should have bored her — felt strangely, inexplicably dear to her today.
*I'm sorry, Tomori… I… I couldn't save your little sister, Takamatsu Chiose. Even if we were twins.
We were strangers from the very beginning.*
____
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