"Good morning! Little Chiose!"
"Morning-morning-morning-morning-morning! Tomo-Tomo, how'd you turn into a little panda-penguin? You weren't staying up late doing anything naughty, were you? Heh."
"Huh? No way, nothing like that!"
"Really? Even though the night before last, Little Tomo was whimpering and clinging to me, saying she didn't want me to leave her house, that she wanted me to sleep over with her~ How come today you're saying you never wanted to do anything naughty?"
"Wuu! Chiose! That wasn't wanting to... do anything naughty!"
What was there to do before class started?
Before class, of course, one simply had to have a good time teasing the adorable Miss Dark-Circles Penguin.
So cute—could just a few flirty words really make her blush all the way to her ears?
Little Tomo really was one of the cutest dummies.
Sitting back down in her own seat—the one right behind Tomori—Chiose reached forward with her fingers and started playing with Little Tomo's braids.
What, didn't Takamatsu Tomori not wear braids?
Simple enough—Chiose could just tie a few little ones for her.
With the boost from The System, her fingers were indeed nimbler and defter than usual by no small margin.
In just a moment, having finished the braids, Chiose moved on to massaging the flesh at the back of Tomori's neck. The kid kept twitching—surely she too had been won over by Chiose's superb massage skills.
Braiding, tickling—no matter how Chiose played, Tomori would hold it in and make no sound.
She said not a word, only reddened at the earlobes more and more.
"Little Chiose..."
In the last minute before class, Tomori secretly turned her head.
Her eyes downcast, she began to whisper in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"This thing called 'a whole lifetime'—does it really exist?"
"Of course. No matter how many times Little Tomo asks me, I'll always answer Tomo-Tomo's question confidently, sincerely, and patiently."
Chiose cleared her throat and said firmly:
"I swear, we'll be best friends for a whole lifetime!"
"A whole lifetime?!"
"Yes, a genuine, honest-to-goodness lifetime!"
In the classroom, they looked at each other amid laughter.
In the wardrobe, she opened her eyes in dead silence.
"..."
The wooden scent of the wardrobe smelled nice, and the clothes overhead carried the comforting smell of detergent and sunshine.
Yet Soyo smelled a rotten stench.
What was that smell?
Oh—it was the smell of her own soul molding away... Then it's fine.
The world's so dark, the house so quiet... How nice.
Just close her eyes like this, and a whole lifetime would come to its end.
Today she had to go to class.
Soyo couldn't even be bothered to request leave; she didn't want to look at her phone, didn't want to type, didn't want to be eroded by the light.
She wanted quiet.
She only wanted to hug her knees and curl up in the wardrobe until she could no longer breathe.
"Wuu."
That gossamer-thin sob—had it come from her own throat?
How pitiful, Nagasaki Soyo—you deserve it!
Hahahaha... deserve it... deserve it...
[What's wrong, Little Soyo? Is something making you unhappy?]
Now awake, Soyo involuntarily sank into a daze.
It was as if she saw once again that mature big sister who loved her, standing right before her.
If Chiose-mama were here, she'd surely scoop her up... even if she could no longer manage to carry her.
[Mama! Mama! Don't cry!]
The figure of a daughter also appeared in her fantasy.
Soyo seemed to see once more that adorable little girl who loved her, tugging at the hem of her skirt.
If Chiose-chan were here... she'd surely gaze up at her with those pitiful big eyes.
She'd fret over her in that cute, tearful little voice...
She was one of only three people in Soyo's memory who cared about her.
Who were the other two? Easy to guess—one was the fantasy Chiose-mama, and the other was her own birth mother...
How awful—of the only three people who loved her, two were figments of her own imagination.
Hahahahaha.
Haha...
"I don't... want to keep living... With memories and feelings this heavy, how am I supposed to keep living...? Little Chiose, you tell me, how am I supposed to keep living...?"
Soyo's heart began to slam violently against her ribcage; the little thing's pounding was so fierce that all at once it lent Soyo a strange kind of strength.
[Chiose! Chiose! Chiose! Chiose!]
"In the real world there's a Chiose... In the real world there's a Chiose!"
Search for her, track her, pursue her, find her, dig her out, seize her...
"That's my Chiose! It's so unfair—why don't you even know me, while I can't stop thinking about you every single moment...?"
Unfair!
Why aren't you thinking of me... why?
So maddening! Really, so maddening!
[Why is it that only I, Nagasaki Soyo, have to shoulder so much all alone? Why must you be so good to me? Whether as my mother or as my daughter, why do you have to be so good to me?]
[Why did you have to... teach me what love is?]
Soyo very nearly cracked her back molars from clenching them.
She summoned every last ounce of strength in her body, desperate to break free from the pile of clothes!
And in the end she succeeded.
[If I had never known this true love you gave me, I could have gone on living, shouldering the coldness and indifference everyone shows me now, forever...]
Nagasaki Soyo kicked the wardrobe door open.
[So now what am I supposed to do?!]
"I swear..." Soyo's voice had gone hoarse to a certain degree, "I will definitely find you. If I can't find you in one day, I'll stake it out for two... if two days aren't enough, I'll stake it out for three..."
I have to find you!
And then! And then! And then!
"And then I'll... I'll..."
Soyo, her vitality restored, suddenly fell into bewilderment; most of the fervor that had just burned in her heart had ebbed away.
What was she going to do?
The other girl wasn't anything to her at all.
"I want to... apply to be your friend... You're not allowed to reject me... I want to be your friend for a whole lifetime... your family for a whole lifetime... and if you don't agree... I'll..."
I'll cry!
Forcing back the tears threatening to fall again, Soyo began to tidy herself up a little.
Though she called it tidying up, in truth she hadn't the patience left to put on makeup or even wash her face.
She was going right now to the intersection where she'd met Chiose that day!
Since Little Chiose had passed by there, that street was most likely the route Little Chiose had to take home!
Nagasaki Soyo was now terrified that a single second's delay would make her miss Chiose. Wiping her tear-streaked little face roughly clean, Soyo grabbed her little bag and dashed out the door.
School? Not going! Skipping it right now!
The band? Not forming it! Disbanded for good!
Sakiko? Who are you?! Don't come near me!
"I have to run into her... I have to run into her!"
And if she didn't! If she missed her!
"Then in the real world I'd really... carry this regret for the rest of my life..."
A whole lifetime longing for a love she'd conjured up herself, a whole lifetime unable to move past it.
Only then did Soyo realize...
Her life seemed to have been utterly ruined.
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