"Toyokawa, have you been picking up any part-time work lately?"
"No. I'm in a terrible mood right now. Goodbye."
Bang——
This girl, she really is something else…
Yoshiiro Chiose stared at the wooden door, now only centimeters from her face. It had already swung shut, and she could even hear the lock clicking into place.
This girl called Toyokawa Sachiko…
Truly, astoundingly rude — and a complete mess to boot!
When Chiose had knocked just moments ago, Toyokawa Sachiko had answered reeking of alcohol, tears glistening in her eyes, stuffing glass bottles off the floor into a large plastic bag one by one.
Surely this girl wasn't the type — young as she was — to have gone off the rails, secretly working part-time jobs to fund a drinking habit and numb herself into surviving an otherwise wretched life?
Hmm? Hmm…
Not entirely out of the question, though. Maybe she'd run into something genuinely awful.
"Poor kid. I'll forgive her for nearly slamming the door into my face."
Chiose went back to her own apartment, simmered a pot of red date and snow pear soup using some ingredients she'd bought the day before, poured it into one of the system's insulated flasks, and returned to stand in front of the neighboring door.
She knocked again. This time, the Toyokawa Sachiko who answered wasn't wearing that same aggrieved, resentful look as before — instead, she was forcing herself into a mask of stony composure, willing her face into blankness.
"Is there something else you needed."
The iciness in her own voice surprised even Sachiko herself.
But working until past midnight, coming home to find no drinking water in the apartment, resorting to finishing off the expensive beer her father had left behind, accidentally getting drunk in the process, and only waking up just now…
Days like this really did make Toyokawa Sachiko feel like there was very little point to being alive.
"Ah, sorry for disturbing you just now — my apologies!"
Wine-red eyes glinting with a flash of sheepishness, Chiose pressed her hands together and offered up the insulated flask.
"I'm Yoshiiro Chiose, from next door! You probably still remember me a little, right? Just now I happened to catch a pretty strong smell of alcohol on you… I know it might be a bit presumptuous of me to say, but you really should drink less! This is a restorative soup I made — please take it!"
To stop her small act of kindness from being refused, Chiose shoved the flask into the dazed Sachiko's hands, gave a quick bow, and immediately fled.
She gave Toyokawa Sachiko absolutely no time to react.
"Wait — hold on! You've got the wrong idea! I…"
By the time Sachiko shuffled over in her slippers to the Haizuka family's front door, it had already swung neatly shut.
Almost like payback for the door Sachiko had just slammed in Chiose's face.
"I…"
Toyokawa Sachiko looked down at the flask in her hands, momentarily at a loss for words.
"The girl next door… she's gentle as a little angel."
"And… she's also looking for work?"
...
"So, about the fact that my neighbor who moved in a few months ago is a blue-haired beauty about to start high school and also a raging alcoholic — yeah, that sentence alone could probably serve as a light novel title."
Alcoholic… alcoholic… hmm? Hmm…
Back inside, Chiose ladled out a bowl of the red date and snow pear soup for Kyoumoto as well — good for her health — then braided Kyoumoto's little pigtails and settled onto the sofa with her sister in her arms to listen to the radio together.
The radio was loaded with recordings of every song by their favorite band, My Chemical Romance.
Small, slight, and radiating an incomparable warmth — Kyoumoto was Chiose's eternal, irreplaceable hot-water-bottle of a little sister.
"'Alcoholic' is actually a pretty interesting angle. Maybe I can work that trait into the next simulation somehow."
"Sis, you're talking to yourself again."
"Ah, I'm just thinking through a few things."
She kneaded Kyoumoto's little cheeks repeatedly, only stopping once the girl let out a disgruntled squeak of protest.
"Little Kyo, take a nap. Big sis will nap with you."
"Okay!"
Between her part-time work, Chiose hadn't napped alongside Kyoumoto in a very long time.
Kyoumoto shifted in her sister's arms until she found just the right position, then drifted sweetly off to sleep.
The moment Haizuka Kyoumoto was asleep, Chiose set about preparing for the day's simulation.
Time was pressing. One year of lifespan was still far too short.
[This System will offer assistance prior to simulation commencement. Details as follows:]
[Please select your background:]
[Daughter of a Zaibatsu: fifty years]
[Daughter of the upper class: twenty years]
[Daughter of the middle class: ten years]
[Daughter of the lower class: one year]
[Daughter of a wanderer: zero years]
[Birth Mystery Box: one month]
The Birth Mystery Box went up in price? Ha!
Still picking the Mystery Box though! Chiose was absolutely certain she'd hit big this time!
In the real world, Chiose squeezed Kyoumoto's small hand. She had no idea how long it would be before she'd get to see her little sister again after this farewell.
In the end, she still couldn't quite let go of that soft, sweet warmth.
[Please select your talent (three talents are randomly generated each time for your selection)]
[Photosynthesis: survive on sunlight alone. Required lifespan: ten years]
[Edge Thief: under certain conditions, you may acquire the skills of your simulation target. Required lifespan: five years]
[Sea of Enmity: when alone late at night, you become significantly more likely to attract the attention of random killers or other criminals, with a high probability of being inexplicably stabbed to death. Required lifespan: zero years]
"Do I even need to think about this? It literally told me exactly how I'll die! System, honestly, I could cry."
Selecting! Sea of Enmity!
[Please confirm your chosen assists: Birth Mystery Box — Sea of Enmity]
Confirmed!
[Before the simulation begins, this System would like to once again remind the Host that within the simulation…]
"I know, I know — I'm fully aware, I'm already prepared!"
Chiose rested her chin on top of Kyoumoto's head. The warm, solid feeling made her eyes naturally soften into a half-squint.
"Any living creature that's attacked or hurt will feel fear — but the ones inside the simulation don't have that! In the simulation! It's all fake!"
Fake, fake, all of it is fake!
[Excellent! Precisely so. It is wonderful that the Host has been able to adjust her perspective in time.]
Could she actually adjust? Maybe.
If a person's convictions could be shifted that easily, they wouldn't really be convictions at all. The only thing Chiose could genuinely do was try her best to convince herself.
If she did something awful inside the simulation, she would still feel sorry for her own actions when it ended — that part hadn't changed.
Some things instilled in you from childhood are very hard to throw away. But for the sake of survival!
Yoshiiro Chiose — go on… try to let yourself go a little more!
Bring your lifespan back up to something a normal human being might call reasonable!
[Simulation commencing.]
[This System looks forward to the Host's improved performance, and a far more qualifying Lifelong Regret.]
"I'll do my best!"
The holographic display dissolved in an instant, and Chiose's consciousness began its slow descent.
The thought that the first thing she'd see when the simulation ended would be her little sister sleeping peacefully in her arms made the pressure ease, just a little.
"I wonder if the Toyokawa girl next door will like my cooking. If I could find someone to do part-time work alongside, the shifts wouldn't be so dull."
Pasted to a wall along the street was a recruitment notice from a drinking-water delivery company looking for customer service staff — Chiose thought that if she gave it a shot, she might actually get hired.
Carrying that small hope with her, she slipped into sleep.
Orange light spilled warmly through the drawn curtains. The two sisters were curled together on the sofa in a tangle of soft limbs. The world settled back into quiet stillness, and that was that.
____
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