Wait, an argument…? With Sakura?
Something felt off with the way she was remembering things. When had she ever fought with Sakura? She couldn’t even think of a reason why she might.
Her chest started to throb with heat. As if she was burning up. The heat had spread to her chest. She felt sick and dizzy like she had a fever.
Kaguya dove deeper into her memories. Right, they had argued. Neither of them had been able to see from the other person’s point of view. But at some point along the way, as they continued to butt heads, they had learned to respect one another’s perspectives.
But what changed? Yes, right, someone important had turned into a hero. And then Kaguya dove into that hero’s psyche and learned that heroes possessed their own mental worlds.
A field of flowers. The gentle face of a mother, a little girl clinging to her side. That girl’s name…
It was…
“…Sakura,” said Kaguya. “It was you.”
Sakura smiled, an embarrassed, almost resigned look in her eyes. Her pink hair swayed gently to the side.
Sakura had turned into a hero. And she hadn’t been able to come back.
It was fascinating. All the pieces were beginning to click into place. But who was this captain she had fought with? What kind of conversations had she had after Sakura became a hero, and with who? Whose heart had she taken a peek into? Whose life she had saved, and who had she been saved by and made a promise to? Who had she let see her cry? Who was she planning to eat that ice cream parfait with?
“He’s here,” Sakura said gently. Kaguya raised her head. As she did so, the cafeteria suddenly filled with more people. “It’s just like it was on that day. I came first, and then he showed up later.”
A young man with icy silver hair was walking their way.
Even Kaguya, who barely took an interest in people’s faces, noticed how handsome he was. There was a silver cross in his left ear. His sky-blue eyes bore a hole through Kaguya.
“Ah…”
She remembered him. She definitely remembered him. This wasn’t their first time meeting. They had found themselves in this exact same situation a long time ago.
The young man stood before Kaguya without saying anything.
The heat was now circulating throughout her entire body. Hot and clammy, from the top of her head all the way down to the tip of her toes.
“Um…” Kaguya desperately tried to come up with something to say. The headache and dizziness were so overpowering that her voice sounded close to tears. “Can I ask your name?”
The young man stared back at her with the same sharp glare as before.
“—ri.”
She could not hear him the first time. She was having trouble staying on her feet, and Sakura was no help. The young man repeated himself while Kaguya continued to stand there dumbly.
His name.
“Yuuri Azuma.”
The wind rose up, enveloping everything. Rewriting this entire world. Returning it. Kaguya felt like she might pass out at any second as the scenery around her flew away into the sky. No, it was Kaguya who was falling. Falling away from the cafeteria, just as if she had fallen out of a plane. Falling down into the darkness.
Azuma was conscious again, brought to his senses by shouts from Rindou, Koyuki, and Haru.
There was the sound of a gunshot. Immediately, the tentacle piercing him exploded into fiery scraps, and Azuma fell toward the ground, into the waiting arms of Rindou.
But it was surely too late for Azuma by this point.
It’s up to them now.
It was going to be difficult, however, for Rindou, Koyuki, and Haru to end this fight quickly on their own. There was a good chance Tokyo would be lost.
But that was no reason to give up. Kaguya had taught them that.
“Koyu—”
Instead of finishing a word, a spurt of blood escaped his lips. His lungs must have been hit. He was finding it difficult to breathe.
“Azuma!!”
Koyuki flew toward his side. But Azuma waved her off harshly.
“Enough… It’s too late…to save…”
Any other person might hear that and assume he meant that it was too late to save the hero that had once been Kaguya and that Koyuki shouldn’t hold back. But Koyuki understood what he really meant. That it was too late to save him. She needed to leave him and focus on killing Kaguya first.
“…!”
Koyuki couldn’t argue—Azuma was obviously already beyond saving. She turned abruptly, a look of regret on her face.
Azuma, for his own part, was going to continue fighting for as long as he could. Even if he knew his death was already certain.
Picking up his katana, he began walking forward at a comically slow pace, deeper into the petals, coughing up blood as he went. Right foot first, he trudged forward doggedly, cutting wild swaths through the flourishing petals and hacking away at this infinite blossom at the center while his life steadily dwindled away. Despite his massive injuries, he was able to cut down five or so petals with every slash, moving forward another step each time before they could regenerate.
Finally, he arrived. Now that he was close, his ears picked up the sound again.
The egg belonging to Kaguya Shinohara’s hero was right there in front of him.
The place Kaguya fell into was unfamiliar—no, that wasn’t true. She knew this place.
It felt nostalgic for some reason. She remembered the sound and the smell. She watched the scene from a slight distance.
Someone was arguing far away.
A red rain was falling. A rain that smelled like rust.
Kaguya listened to their voices as the rain beat down on her. She heard them arguing.
“You son of a bitch, you wait! Kaguya still hasn’t woken up yet!” someone shouted.
Another voice said, “Don’t be ridiculous. She’s already—”
“There’s still time for her. She can still make it! I said stop!” the first voice shouted back.
She was on the ground, and the person’s large, dark back was protecting her. As he glanced over his shoulder, she caught sight of a young man with chestnut-brown hair and pale violet eyes.
Several other people were standing around him.
“Ren…”
The voices continued. A memory dredged up from deep within her mind.
“But why Kaguya?” her brother demanded, his voice barbed. “It was me originally. I’m the only one able to dive into the heroes. If you wanted to go after someone, it should have been me.”
The other person said something in response. But whatever they said was unclear. Either it was no longer in Kaguya’s memory, or she simply hadn’t been able to hear. But she heard what her brother said in response clearly.
“Fine. Then I’ll go instead.”
Instead…
The memories rustled in Kaguya’s memories. He had said the word instead.
“I’ll become your guinea pig in her place. Just leave Kaguya alone.”
What was he saying? What did he mean? She understood intuitively. The memory was too insistent.
“So because you don’t know what’s going on and because the process failed…” Her brother’s voice was incredibly low, like he was furious but also afraid. “…you want to make a new hero? Have you lost your fucking minds?”
Kaguya seemed to be watching that memory from someplace far away. Watching what really happened that day. The truth.
Her brother had gone to Technical No. 1 in her place.
The pain in Kaguya’s head felt intense, threatening to make her hate this world and everything in it. It felt like her head was going to implode. A flood of memories came rushing back, along with the pain.
It was impossible to keep up the deception any longer.
“A hero…”
She was beginning to hyperventilate.
“I’ve become a hero.”