“The other day, when I divined your fortune using the priestess tarot cards...” Hearing Shirayuki’s sudden remark spoken in a soft voice as she turned towards those waves, it all came back to me. I was pretty sure she told me that my overall luck was good. It did seem like she did a pretty shoddy job though.
“The truth is ... the results said ... you were going away.”
“...Going … away?”
“You’ll be leaving the place you’re at now—within a few years no less.”
“That ... probably means I’m going to transfer to a regular school. My long-cherished desire is finally going to be fulfilled sometime next year.”
“... I was thinking that ... it might mean Aria was going to take you away somewhere ...”
“Hah,” I responded with a short laugh, but Shirayuki continued to look despondent as if she were seized by some sense of foreboding.
“After all, Aria changed you. Ever since you met her, you’ve had a cheerful ...”
“What? Me?”
“I never saw that coming” is the first thought that came to my mind, but somewhere deep inside me, I suspected that it could really happen. Now that was something I never saw coming.
Aria changed me …?
“... No she hasn’t,” I denied. The words left my mouth in a lower voice than I expected they would.
“... It’s okay ...”
“What is?”
“If it will bring you happiness ... If you like Aria ... It’s okay if you’re going to be with her. Even if it were just from behind the scenes, I wanted to support you … and repay the kindness you showed me.”
“H-Hold up. What are you—?”
“That’s why I’ve tried to put all my effort into so many things until now. I tried my best with studying, the student council, club activities ... It was all so I could improve myself. But in the end, none of it served any purpose,” Shirayuki said ... cutting me off.
What’s going on with Shirayuki? She’s different than she usually is.
It was like she was urgently trying to convey to me everything she had kept concealed in her heart up till now.
“... You’re saying the most bizarre things. I told you before that Aria and I are just partners, didn’t I? And why have you been talking in the past tense? Are you by any chance … referring to the ‘butei killer’ incident last month?”
She hadn’t said so specifically, but considering Shirayuki’s personality, she might be concerned about how she didn’t assist me at all with the “butei killer” incident. When things got ugly, the one who was always there with me was Aria, who quite possibly, is the only person Shirayuki cannot get along well with.
“That’s not it ...” said Shirayuki, suddenly turning around. It was dark and hard to tell, but it looked like there were tears in her eyes. “Kin-chan.”
“H-Hey.”
She had flung herself into my chest. It was instantaneous. This was the Shirayuki that spent minutes closing the distance between us when she sat nearby me the other day.
Seriously. W-What’s happened to her?
“Kin-chan, I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry.”
Shirayuki looked up at me, and I wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for, but faced with those watery eyes, I was powerless to say anything. The light of the moon illuminated her face, and I had been aware of this from the very start, but she truly was pretty. Her slightly out-of-season yukata and her hair that she was wearing up were perfectly suited for this ideal Japanese girl. A childhood friend—I’ve always interacted with her as friend since I was a young boy. It was a relationship as precious to me as water, but one that didn’t allow the intervention of any nonessential elements … I could tell that at this moment, something like nectar was being blended into that relationship. It was maddeningly sweet and made it nearly impossible to refrain from drinking every last drop.
“Kin-chan … I’m sorry. I know this is so sudden. ... Until now, I was afraid you would hate me and I couldn’t say it …but would you listen to just one selfish request of mine? Would you please make just one of my dreams come true …?” Shirayuki’s lips were trembling, and the expression on her face revealed that she was at her absolute limit. It was at the point where she looked like she might die if she were to continue with what she was going to say next. “Just for this moment ... just for this one moment ... look at me. Look only at me …”
It was at that instant when a cool night breeze, too early to be making its appearance in the summer, swept by us that Shirayuki closed the gentle, lovely eyes underneath her perfectly straight bangs.
“... Kiss ... me …”
Could I have misheard her …? Probably not.
Certainly, she had said it very faintly, but she was standing right in front of me.
Why …? Why would she suddenly …?
The surprise had caused my heart to beat loudly, and I immediately checked the flow of blood in my veins. This sensation ... was different, however. The nature in which my blood was flowing wasn’t an indication that I was going into hysteria mode. This was a normal reaction—and not quite sexual stimulation ... It was probably due to Shirayuki looking so sad and pained. My ability to speak was starting to abandon me. Before I knew it … without even making a conscious decision to do so, I had instinctively started reaching out towards Shirayuki. I wasn’t even aware if the purpose was to stop her or to comply with her, but I was now on the verge of gently touching the back of her yukata ...
Boom.
The sound of a distant explosion reached our ears.
“...?”
Our most primitive instinct—the instinct to protect each other from danger—took over. Shirayuki, who raised her shoulders in alarm, and I, coming back to my senses, simultaneously looked in the direction from which the sound came...
Two more explosions rang out in the skies above Walt Land. One after another, fireworks were launched into the air where they transformed into large colorful circles. We had jumped to conclusions and assumed the event already ended, but apparently it was just an intermission.
“... Ngh ...”
There’s just nothing that can be done about the habits human beings form over their lives.… In the last few seconds, I had placed myself protectively between the source of the explosion and my client, Shirayuki. I also had my hand on the Beretta that I brought with me just in case. I had my days of training at Assault to thank for all this. Here, I was on heightened alert after hearing the sound of a firework. Having miserably misread the situation when Shirayuki had been agonizing so earnestly, I was unable to look her in the eye as I turned to face her. Just a moment ago, our feet were so close that our toes were practically touching, but because of the movements I made, they were now half a step apart. Those forty centimeters seemed so vast that they would be impossible to recover.
“…Sorry,” Shirayuki apologized. Her voice sounded like she was giving up on something, and she looked up at the fireworks with somewhat hollow eyes that made it seem like she wasn’t entirely there. There was no help for it, so I, too, turned my gaze towards the variously colored fireworks that seemed to magically rise into the air. The summer fireworks added color to the night view of Tokyo, both in the sky and the rippled reflection in the ocean. The two of us simply continued to watch the scenario, standing there as if our souls had left our bodies.
…Never did we think that moment would become our time of parting.