“Let’s see, it was…Kasane Kujiragi, right?” Shinra asked apologetically, his eyes bloodshot.
“…Yes.”
“Do you have time to talk? Or would that just end up with you cutting me and kidnapping me again?” Shinra wondered.
Kujiragi shook her head. “No, I no longer have any reason to abduct you against your will,” she said, staring into Shinra’s red eyes. “I judge that any emotion that cannot be ruled by Saika will not be swayed by simple pain or brainwashing.”
“I’m glad. I was worried you might say something like ‘If I can’t have you, then I’ll kill you.’”
“No. I am not actually that enamored of you.” Kujiragi walked toward Shinra and explained, “But…it is true that I have an interest in you. If I had to describe it, I would surmise that perhaps I am jealous.”
“Jealous…?”
“As a part of my research into Celty Sturluson, I also examined you, her domestic partner. As a human who was in love with an inhuman creature.”
“No mistake there,” Shinra said bashfully.
“I actually did not believe it at first,” she admitted. “I thought that you were acting out affection for Celty Sturluson on Shingen Kishitani’s orders, in order to keep her and the valuable research she might represent close at hand.”
“…”
“But the more I looked into it, the more I became convinced that your feelings were genuine,” Kujiragi said. She closed her eyes and continued, her voice a monotone: “I, too, have the blood of the inhuman within me, and I have no memory of ever receiving true love from another. Even my actual mother, an entirely nonhuman being, practically abandoned me to survive on my own.”
Despite her admission that she was all but nonhuman herself, Shinra said nothing. He was, of course, well aware that she was no ordinary human being.
“It was only yesterday that I finally became free from some personal business.” Kujiragi looked him in the eyes. “After speaking with other Saika owners, I made a decision. If no one will love me, perhaps I ought to love someone else.”
“And you chose me? Well, I think that’s a much more positive way of thinking than deciding you don’t need love, but why choose me?”
“For one thing, like I said earlier…I am jealous.”
This made sense to Shinra. She was jealous of Celty, who wasn’t human but was able to carry on a happy life. So she decided that she would steal a part of that happiness from Celty.
Kujiragi added, “For another…I sought some kind of return.”
“Return?”
“Perhaps I was hoping that in exchange for loving, I would be loved in return. And since you are capable of loving a nonhuman…perhaps…”
She included suppositions and speculation in her statements as a sign that even she didn’t understand how she felt. Still, despite her awkwardness, she was busy putting her thoughts in order.
“As I researched more about your unique nature, I began to feel a kind of envy. That you were not like other humans and you might represent a kind of hope for me. When I saw how you continued your relationship with Celty Sturluson, even after being injured by Adabashi, I felt—though I bear some responsibility for your injury, I will admit—a kind of admiration for you.”
Adabashi.
He was Ruri Hijiribe’s stalker, the man who’d injured Shinra terribly. But the mention of that name did not cause any particular consternation in him.
Kujiragi paused and tilted her head in slight disbelief at what she was going to say. “I became a fan of yours. Is that an inadequate reason?”
“…”
“So I will broach the topic again. Will you consider accepting my feelings?”
It was a simple confession of love—so very simple.
Silence enveloped the two.
In the distance, motorcycle engines roared, and there were sounds of destruction as well—but here on this street, it was so quiet that time itself might have stopped.
Then Shinra broke the long silence.
“I believe a normal human being would be angry right about now,” he said, grinning lopsidedly, his eyes red. “You got me injured, abducted me for your own selfish reasons, and generally did a lot of awful stuff to me.”
“…”
“But I’m just not mad at you. And that’s only because I have Celty.”
“?”
Kujiragi stared at him quizzically.
Shinra went on, like a rambunctious, innocent child: “Because I have Celty, I don’t need anything else. It would be a waste of my time to hate other people. So it’s only thanks to Celty that I can even stand here and have a pleasant conversation with you.”
He looked down, then raised his head again to stare Kujiragi straight in the eyes. “The only reason the guy you like is here at all is because of Celty.” It felt as if he was saying that as much to himself as to her. “So…I’m sorry. I cannot return your feelings.”
“…”
Kujiragi closed her eyes for a few moments, then exhaled. “I understand. I am satisfied just having heard your answer clearly.”
She was as expressionless as ever, but Shinra gave her a serious look as he said, “I know it’s strange to say this to someone you only just met, but…you seem like a mysterious person to me. You’re demi-human, and clumsy, and yet oddly straightforward, and trying to change yourself so that you’re not so otherworldly.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I think that while you don’t match up to Celty, you’re plenty attractive yourself. It might be cruel to say this after I turned you down, but if Celty didn’t exist, I might have fallen in love with you instead.”
After a pause, Kujiragi said, “Are you consoling me?”
But Shinra shook his head. “I’m not that clever and considerate.” He walked closer to her. “There’s just one thing that I can do for you.”
“…What is it?”
“I can offer you proof.”
“…?”
She gave him a curious look, so Shinra leaned forward, withstanding the pain of his many injuries, and said proudly, “I am proof that an utterly ordinary human being and the world’s most wondrous Headless Rider, the most mismatched couple imaginable, can still find love together.”
“…”
“So I’m certain that you will find the right person for you. And until then, whether it’s family, or someone close, or even yourself—take good care of someone,” Shinra said with a gentle smile.
Kujiragi was silent for quite a while, until at last, she said, “You’re an awful person.”
With the faintest hint of a smile on her lips.