What should I do …?! What the hell should I do …?!
“Kin-chan … go on,” Shirayuki said, looking at the expression on my face, which showed that I was at a complete loss.
“Don’t … worry about me anymore. I don’t want to put you in danger.” She admirably put on a smile underneath her perfectly straight bangs. Even at a time like this, she was trying to keep me from worrying.
“… Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Hotogi shrine maidens are guardian shrine maidens. It’s our destiny to sacrifice our body and our soul for the sake of another. Kin-chan, go and escape now. Don’t worry about me anymore . …”
“… There’s no way I’m leaving you here!”
Shirayuki tried to reply, but momentarily winced as the seawater finally made its way up to her mouth, and lifting her head up, she drew in a breath of air.
“It’s okay. I … Even if I die there won’t be anyone to grieve. The teachers and the other students might have held me in high regard, but there isn’t anyone who truly loves me. *cough* It’s not me … it’s just the power of a Hotogi shrine maiden that everyone reveres so much … *cough* …” said Shirayuki, lifting her head backwards as far as it could go and gasping for breath.
My toes had also left the floor of the warehouse. It had gotten to the point where I had to swim in order to move around.
“Sh … Shirayuki! Aria’s going to come back with the key any second! Hang in there for as long as you possibly can! Take a deep breath! Clients are obligated to follow the instructions of their bodyguard! I’ll do something about these chai-”
“I’m releasing you … from your duty as a bodyguard! Kin-chan …! Get out of here! Keep living …!”
“Shirayuki …! Dammit …! This is all happening … because of me …!”
“Kin … chan … it’s not your fault …!”
With those being her last words, Shirayuki shut her eyes tightly … and disappeared beneath the water’s surface.
“Shirayukiiiiii!!”
Shirayuki’s black hair wavered limply in the water. She stopped looking at me and just looked downwards as if she had already resigned herself to this fate.
“Shirayuki …!”
Are you trying to just die ... and make it easier for me escape? You released me from my responsibility as a bodyguard ... and defended me to the very end, saying it wasn’t my fault. …
“The hell it isn’t …!” I yelled, punching the wall.
I was at fault. It was entirely my fault that this was happening. I ignored warnings, didn’t prepare myself to face the enemy, and made the situation worse when I did take action.
Of course, it’s my fault!!
Now that things have come to this … I finally made up my mind.
Shirayuki, you always obediently did exactly what I said, didn’t you. Thinking back, most of what I ordered you to do stem from my own selfishness. So now it’s my turn to do everything that you asked of me. You told me three things. First off, you just told me to “keep living.” You got it. I’m going to stay alive all right. I’m not dying in a place like this. I’ll keep living with everything I’ve got, and I’ll crush Durandal and any other of Aria’s enemies. And when I’m done, I’m gonna live the most ordinary and carefree life possible. And as for the second thing you told me, I heard you loud and clear on that night when I was to start guarding you on my own. You said, “Protect me.” At that moment, you, too, were unaware of the enemy’s presence. That might be why you were able to say it so easily. But I did reply. I said, “Sure.” I’m going to protect you. I have a final trump card to play. Though I’ve kept it a secret and have been running away for it so long. I even hid it from you, a friend of mine ever since we were kids. I have this one card I saved until the very end—power I have locked away inside my body. More than half of what I did during that hijacking incident wasn’t of my own will. I silenced Aria so our enemy wouldn’t find us. That was the priority. If I hadn't used it, I would have died. That was the situation I was in. But now … my reason for using this power would have nothing to do with responsibility. Aria said I didn’t have to fight. Shirayuki herself rescinded the order I was given to guard her. That’s why I was no longer responsible. If I wanted to run, I was free to do so. Even if I would wind up regretting it for the rest of my life, I wasn’t obliged to use this power. But for the first time since my brother died, I’m going to use this power willingly. I’m going to use the trump card I have hidden deep within me.
I’m going to use hysteria mode!
Shirayuki, “I’m releasing you from your duty as a bodyguard,” you say?
“To hell with that!!” I screamed with my mouth wide open, and before closing it, took a deep, deep breath. Until I went red in the face. Until my lungs were on the verge of bursting. Until I became even closer to my limit. I sucked in all the air I possibly could … and dove underwater.
There, Shirayuki stood almost listlessly as I grasped her shoulders, and her large eyes grew even larger as she shook her head from side to side. She blinked her eyes rhythmically, sending me a message in code.
‘Don’t die Don’t make it up to me in that way’
Apparently she thought I was planning on dying with her. It was just like her to entertain such a thought.
That’s not it. That’s not it, Shirayuki. The third thing you told me. There was one more thing you told me to do, wasn’t there? Yesterday, after the fireworks, you said, “Kiss me.” I’m sorry it’s going to be under these circumstances though. I’ll do . . . what you asked of me!
I signaled a single word to Shirayuki with my blinking eyelids.
‘Breathe’
As soon as I communicated the message, I embraced Shirayuki …
“ …!”
…and place my mouth against hers. Shirayuki’s lips—and it was a crime to make this comparison, really—were … softer than Aria’s. The breath I held inside was being drawn out of me, and a just a little of Shirayuki’s passed my way as well. It had the sweet scent of peaches.
… Ahh. I can feel it. I can feel Shirayuki taking her next breath …
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
… as well as my increasing heart rate.