This statement filled Kaguya with a sense of dread beyond anything else Sakura had said thus far. Did Sakura just say that she had become a hero? That wasn’t possible. If Sakura had turned into a hero, then who was this person facing Kaguya?
“Well…i-if you’re a hero, who’s talking to me right now? Everyone knows that heroes can’t speak!”
“You know better than anyone how untrue that is, Kaguya. You’ve talked with the heroes many times—so many times—before.”
“Wh-why would you…?”
Why would Sakura say something like that? That was what Kaguya had begun to ask. If it could even be called a question. There were so many emotions behind that word why for Kaguya right now.
Why was Sakura here? And why would she say something so awful?
“Something very important is missing from this world.”
Sakura glanced toward the sky-blue ice cream, which was already beginning to melt. Sprinkled with silver dragées. Those colors were giving Kaguya such a powerful sense of déjà vu.
“Kaguya, I know you can remember. Because once you take something into your heart, you never forget.”
Azuma had thrust his katana into the hero, but in the end, it was pointless. The hero’s powers of regeneration repaired the wound almost immediately.
The hero was still not showing any clear signs of hostility. But the rose petals continued to proliferate. They seemed to be doubling exponentially every five minutes. Each petal was as large as a human head.
Considering the size of Tokyo and Chiba, it wouldn’t be long before the entire metropolis—if not the entire world—was buried in monstrous petals.
The scale of this attack could easily dwarf that of the hero from six years ago. In just thirty minutes, the petals would have increased sixty-fold. After an hour, this whole region would be covered.
Azuma sliced off one of the petals, trying to at least do something, but it was a fool’s gesture.
If only he knew where the egg was. Now, when it mattered most. When they needed to find it more quickly than ever. He spoke loudly so that everyone could hear.
“Pull out all the stops! Whatever you can. We have to kill this thing!”
They all responded without hesitation. That was at least one saving grace. They were all in agreement when it came to saving Kaguya.
“What do you mean, you know that I can remember? What are you—?”
“Hey, Kaguya!” Kaguya’s question was interrupted by her brother’s voice. “Your ice cream is going to melt.”
“Oh…!”
Right—they were eating ice cream. She extended her hand. She had to eat the ice cream before it melted. Just before her hand reached the bowl, however, Sakura suddenly snatched the ice cream away.
“Ah! Sakura! You give that back!”
“Absolutely not.”
Sakura dumped the ice cream on the floor. How dare she! This wasn’t like her at all! Kaguya’s eyes went wide as she yelled at Sakura.
“Sakura! Why would you do something so—?”
“Seriously, Arakawa. What the hell?” Kaguya’s brother said, standing up from his chair with a clatter and yelling at Sakura in Kaguya’s place. “Why would you ruin food like that? What a waste.”
Sakura paid him no mind. Kaguya hesitated. It wasn’t like Sakura to do something so low as just to ignore a person.
“Wh-what’s gotten into you, Sakura? You really are acting strange.”
“No, Kaguya, you’re the one who’s acting strange right now.”
Kaguya was taken aback by the expression on Sakura’s face. A kind of desperation. Kaguya did not really know Sakura all that well, but she knew this wasn’t the kind of face that Sakura usually made.
“S-Sakura…?”
“Here, Kaguya. You can have mine instead.”
Kaguya’s brother held out more of that same sky-blue ice cream. Sakura immediately tried to snatch it from his grip, but this time Kaguya’s brother was too fast for her.
He was taller than Sakura, so he held the ice cream high over his head, which Sakura couldn’t reach. Sakura began to climb up onto a chair, of all things, to try to get at the bowl.
“Sakura?! H-have you lost your mind?!” Kaguya cried.
Sakura would never stoop to being so disrespectful. Kaguya was beginning to wonder if this was really even Sakura.
No, I don’t think it is.
Sakura would never behave in such a rowdy manner, not the Sakura that Kaguya knew. Kaguya began to feel a twinge of fear. The anger in Sakura’s eyes was verging on hatred.
All this over some ice cream? But why would Sakura want to keep a little bit of ice cream away from Kaguya so badly? Didn’t Sakura want her to eat it?
Kaguya’s curiosity suddenly took over. That ice cream was the only colorful, shining thing in this entire sepia household.
As soon as her brother handed the bowl to her, Kaguya seized it from his hands. Sakura breathed in sharply.
“Don’t—!!”
“No, do it.” Kaguya’s brother’s voice changed completely. He could barely contain himself. It sounded like he was about to explode with joy. “Kaguya, this is what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? To sit around the dinner table, like a family, with me?”
Kaguya grew intoxicated with his words. They felt so buoyant and light. She started to forget what she had been doing. She had felt something like this before, hadn’t she? But this time, it was different. This time, there was only one brother.
“Go ahead and eat up. It’s always been your dream, after all.”
Sakura was screaming at her, but Kaguya could barely hear. It didn’t matter. The ice cream. Kaguya opened her mouth slightly and moved her hand. The sky-blue and silver dessert, which was already dripping off the spoon, entered her mouth without further resistance.
“…? Huh?”
Something seemed to shift, rewriting itself with a click.
What had Sakura been so upset about? This flavor was almost bafflingly delicious. It danced on her tongue. And yet there was something poignant about the taste, some indefinable sense of sadness or loss. Sweet? Bitter? It was impossible to describe the ice cream’s flavor in a single word.
But what is this feeling?
It felt…as if she had just lost something very important. As if she had stumbled past some point of no return.
Sakura suddenly flew into a rage. Kaguya stared at her in a daze. Sakura’s expression, as she rounded about on Kaguya’s brother, verged on being demonic.
“Sakura… Did you really want to eat the ice cream for yourself so badly? Don’t be mad. We can always just buy more,” Kaguya said.
She had a feeling that wasn’t the issue, though. Sakura looked completely shocked at what Kaguya had done.
“I already went down that path myself, Kaguya…”
Sakura was crying. Kaguya was starting to realize that she might have just done something that couldn’t be taken back.
“…but I didn’t want it to happen to you!”
A wind rose up—a breeze from outside the house that soon grew into a storm and then a tornado, rattling the house on its foundations. Yet Kaguya did not feel so much as a quiver. Like in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it seemed as if the entire house might go shooting off into the sky.