Night had fallen. Kyoumoto lay quietly curled in Chiose's arms.
The little one slept soundly — at least more soundly than Soyo or Taki. About on par with Takamatsu Tomori after a few drinks, actually: no fussing, no noise, just effortlessly, unconsciously cute.
Chiose had her headphones on, phone screen dimmed to the lowest setting.
Light. Kyoumoto was sensitive to light. Even in her sleep, harsh flashes made her uneasy. Chiose had long since made a habit of keeping the brightness down whenever she was scrolling beside her.
Sleep wouldn't come. She lay there flicking through videos, the little one's chest rising and falling in a slow, peaceful rhythm — the very picture of warmth and safety. That's just how things were.
She stumbled across a video with the caption: [It's Friday. You and your classmates have plans to game together tonight, but it's not time yet — what do you do with yourself right now?]
The half-enclosed little room in the video caught her attention. Especially the window — a gentle breeze drifting through, that particular slant of light you only get at dusk, and beyond it the city stretching away into something that seemed infinite.
She'd seen this kind of scene a thousand times as a child. Every time she did, a strange, creeping dread would come over her. That twilight unease.
The feeling of a day nearly over... frightened her more than the night ever had.
She scrolled to a comment: [Who in this day and age actually doesn't know what to do with their time? There's never enough of it.]
"Mm... if I didn't have the Simulation, my time wouldn't be enough either."
But now, all of a sudden, time was plentiful — and lying here at home cuddling her adorable little sister felt almost like squandering it.
She wanted to do something. That restless, nameless urge had been hovering at the edges of her mind for days.
"It's so late already... I wonder if Tomori's fallen asleep."
[Go return her umbrella.]
Out of nowhere, the thought surfaced.
[Go find her. Go see her. Go, now.]
[Find some way to give her a hug.]
"....."
Yoshiiro Chiose set down her phone. She didn't even notice when her headphones slid off to the side.
She'd already had a bath when she got home. It was just past ten. She had school tomorrow.
Just go to sleep. No one would blame her for it.
"But... I want to see Tomori."
And Taki — but in real life, she and Taki hadn't quite grown close enough yet. Better to go find Tomori, the one she was relatively closer to.
Yoshiiro Chiose closed her eyes and silently counted to three. Then she slowly eased herself away.
She tucked the blanket carefully around Little Kyoumoto before allowing herself to leave the bedroom.
[Sorry, Little Kyou. Big sister will be back to keep you company very soon.]
The bedroom door eased shut behind her.
In the darkness left behind, Haizuka Kyoumoto blinked.
The rain had stopped. Chiose didn't quite know why she was heading out this late.
She just wanted to go and see Tomori.
"How peculiar," came a voice. "No Simulation running, yet here you are frittering away your real life. Quite the dereliction of duty from our host, Yoshiiro Chiose."
"Mind your own business. The System is just The System, the Simulation is just the Simulation — but my real life is more than just my real life. Now go back to sleep."
"Tsk, tsk."
The System stood beneath a streetlamp at the side of the road. Darkness was her natural backdrop, and the lamplight only made her look more otherworldly.
"Take these. Think of them as... compensation. You'll find a use for them."
The System let out one long, slow sigh — the kind that carries a weight of quiet feeling — and pressed a sketchbook and a thick-tipped fineliner into Chiose's hands. She patted Chiose once on the shoulder and dissolved into the night.
She vanished exactly as she always appeared: without rhyme or reason.
"What am I supposed to do with these — fold paper planes and throw them through Tomori's bedroom window?"
Chiose shrugged, tucked the items under her arm, and kept walking.
Five minutes. Ten. Fifteen. At half past ten on a quiet night, Yoshiiro Chiose arrived beneath Tomori's apartment building.
She stood on the footbridge, the road still carrying the occasional passing car behind her — and the idle thought drifted through her mind that maybe in some future Simulation run, she could try jumping from here. Just to see.
Why had she come, really? Perhaps it was simply because seeing Takamatsu Tomori's smile today had given her such a profound, bone-deep sense of satisfaction.
Being able to make a high-school-age Takamatsu Tomori happy — that, in turn, made Yoshiiro Chiose happy.
Somewhere in the small building nearby, one particular window corresponded to Tomori's bedroom.
Chiose stared at it, lost in her own thoughts — and then kept staring, until... that window was pushed open.
Short grey hair dancing in the breeze. Garnet eyes catching the light. This girl — were you looking down at me?
"Huh? Little Chiose!"
Tomori had simply opened the window for her usual pre-sleep airing out of the room — and found Yoshiiro Chiose standing in the street below.
Though, to be fair, whatever Tomori was saying was probably too far away for Chiose to hear clearly.
Chiose waved enthusiastically up at her — and in that instant understood exactly why The System had given her those things.
A terrible, delightfully wicked idea had just flashed through her mind.
She moved to the nearest pool of light, uncapped the fineliner with her teeth, and wrote in large, bold letters across the sketchbook...
[I HATE YOU! TOMORI!]
Heh heh. If you see that written there... you'll definitely come down, won't you!
Sure enough — the moment Takamatsu Tomori read those words, she bolted straight downstairs. Pyjamas still on. Slippers still on. Didn't even stop to change.
Less than a minute later, Takamatsu Tomori had been summoned.
"Little Chiose! You — you can't hate me... please don't hate me, okay...?"
Tomori looked absolutely pitiful — her reaction even bigger than Chiose had expected.
Those sweet eyes of hers looked primed to spill over at any second.
[Looks like high-school Tomori really doesn't have any friends. She treasures me so much.]
Yoshiiro Chiose cleared her throat and hid the sketchbook and pen behind her back. She leaned forward with a mischievous tilt to her voice: "Tomori! You just don't get it, do you?"
"Huh?" Tomori fidgeted anxiously with the hem of her pyjama skirt, all flustered sweetness. "What do you mean... is there something I did wrong? I'm sorry!"
"You dummy! Don't you know? Hate outlasts love! So I'm scared that someday our friendship might run out — so I hate you instead! That way, it'll last much, much longer~"
"Huh?"
The fluster drained from Takamatsu Tomori's face, leaving pure bewilderment in its place.
After a long moment of buffering, she came back online — as though her brain had just finished installing an update.
"That... actually kind of makes sense?"
"So say it with me, Tomori! I hate you! Tomori!"
"Ah... w-well then... I hate you too, okay?"
"Pfft — exactly! The brightest loves must someday fade; only hatred endures without end!"
Takamatsu Tomori's adorably flustered reaction had Chiose grinning ear to ear. Good thing the weather had been mild lately — otherwise she'd genuinely have had to worry about Tomori catching a chill standing out here in her pyjamas.
"Did Taki make it home?"
"Mm! Taki left a few minutes after you did!"
"So there's really no one home at your place tonight?"
"Nope! Oh — Little Chiose, why did you come and find me, anyway?"
Takamatsu Tomori looked at Yoshiiro Chiose with genuine puzzlement. Surely she hadn't come all this way just to tease her.
That would be way too ridiculous.
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