When we’d been preparing for the sports tournament, when Izumi had worried about how she was, words had also resolved the matter then.
She’d hated the way she would accommodate others without thinking and always wind up in an uncomfortable position, but at the same time, she had realized that she couldn’t abandon people when they were in trouble.
She’d been uncomfortable about having jobs forced on her for the sake of other people, and that was why she wasn’t excited about taking over for Hirabayashi-san when she was struggling to lead the tournament. But Izumi also didn’t want to just abandon Hirabayashi-san. —Thinking about it now, this contradiction itself may have been Izumi’s karma.
And while she’d had that contradictory view, words had made her realize: “If I want to do it, then I’m okay being in an uncomfortable position.” That had brightened her outlook. A single remark had changed everything.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was the same with the incident with Erika Konno and Tama-chan. When Tama-chan had just about been crushed by the conflict between what she believed was right and the wrongs of the world, once again, words had freed her.
Clearly, the world was in the wrong, and Tama-chan’s values were not. But seeing her fight with the wrongs of the world had made her friends sad.
She had been at a hopeless dead end, but she’d broken out of her situation in a beautiful way with contradictory but very honest words—that she wanted to change, even though she was right.
✦ ✦ ✦
And then—with me and Kikuchi-san.
That time at the cultural festival, and the farewell party.
She had been caught between her ideal for the world, that she really shouldn’t date me, and her desire to move ahead regardless.
There was me, caught between my karma of being unable to share responsibility with another in the real sense, and still caring about Kikuchi-san as a girl. If it was Kikuchi-san’s karma to consider ideals and examine the world from a bird’s-eye view, then both of us had been caught between karma and emotion.
✦ ✦ ✦
However, both of us had karma that was bound to harm others. But we affirmed each other and chose each other because we wanted to—and using our words as “characters” living in the story of this world, we had been able to close the gap between karma and emotion.
✦ ✦ ✦
People can only observe the world from their own eyes, and that’s why, in principle, everything is divided into the “self” and the “other.” That being the case, obviously, you can’t interact with anything other than yourself in the real sense.
In other words, isolation is frankly a matter of course, and facing that day after day is too cold for anyone to handle—but it’s right. In order to survive in that harsh reality, the one magic for connecting yourself and others—is words.
✦ ✦ ✦
But.
✦ ✦ ✦
Even using all the words at my disposal, I hadn’t been able to change Hinami.
I’d waited outside her house, and I’d approached her family without her permission.
I’d used my own girlfriend’s karma in a way that was taking advantage of her, in a sense.
I’d wanted Aoi Hinami to shine, and I’d looked directly at her weakness, using up all the words I had.
✦ ✦ ✦
—But even then, I hadn’t reached Hinami’s core.
✦ ✦ ✦
If a reason was a cogwheel for the sake of moving forward.
Then the one who had given me all the cogwheels for playing the game of life was Aoi Hinami, no question.
But at the end, she had said—that life was a shit game.
✦ ✦ ✦
So what’s the reason I’m playing this game, exactly?
✦ ✦ ✦
When words and reasons are removed from your life, all that remains is just emptiness.
✦ ✦ ✦
I must have fallen asleep at some point. Suddenly, the low buzzing sound of my phone penetrated my hazy consciousness. After all this time I’d spent melting away uselessly, the sunlight shining through the curtains had turned into a violet color of mingled night and evening. When I groped around the bed sleepily, my phone had a notification on it. It hadn’t even been plugged in to charge.
“…Huh?” I said.
Displayed on the screen was a notification that my watch list on a reading app had been updated.
There was only one item on that list.
It was Kikuchi-san’s Pureblood Hybrid and Ice Cream.
Part two, the latest section, had been posted about half an hour ago.
“…”
Head still sluggish, I opened the page.
I think saying that I was just curious wouldn’t be quite accurate.
I had a feeling— No, maybe I could even say I was certain.
It was my conversation with Kikuchi-san the day before that had turned into a fight.
Her novel hadn’t been updated for a while, thanks to her struggle, and yet here was a new part.
I don’t like to assume that everything revolves around me, but I wasn’t optimistic enough to think this wasn’t related.
I got up from the bed and sat down at my study desk.
“…”
I tapped the notification to unlock my phone and opened up Kikuchi-san’s user page on the novel-submission site.
I began reading the story, and it pulled me in.
After Alucia and Libra meet at the beginning, the novel is more of a school fantasy as the two enter the Academy at the royal castle, where they face difficulties and deepen their connections with others.
✦ ✦ ✦
The story of part two focused on the school’s magical-crafting competition.
Up until this point, Alucia had spent a lot of time with Libra to help him succeed in his life at school, but she ended up distancing herself a bit from him so she could go into this competition.
Meanwhile, Libra lived his life at school in his own way, but he ended up making friends with one of Alucia’s relatives, a girl called Nana from the blue race—
✦ ✦ ✦
“You’re close with Alucia, aren’t you, Libra?”
“Huh? Yeah, more or less.”
“So then tell me about Alucia’s weaknesses!”
✦ ✦ ✦
On Nana’s whim, he wound up helping her out in the magic-crafting competition.
The magic-crafting competition was more or less what it sounded like—a major Academy event where students would compete in crafting using magic. Being that it was not crafting but magical crafting, victory was based not only on appearance and aesthetics but also on the special effects that these crafts had.
Nana, who was on a team with Libra, was the star of the Academy magical-crafting club and the most likely candidate to win the tournament. She had over ten years of experience, so people figured it would be no competition at all. But then Alucia declared she was participating; she had her royal blood and her unique trait of being “bloodless,” and the rumors suddenly turned. The vibe of the tournament changed, and now people were looking forward to seeing who would win.