Several months had passed since Kaguya had encountered the young man.
She had forgotten him completely by this point, throwing herself into her new research. They had to tackle the question of whether or not Goddesses could be turned back into humans, after all.
Kaguya had come to Headquarters earlier in the day with Mari, but Mari had other matters to attend to at the moment, so she was spending her time in the archives while she waited.
“Hmm, this isn’t quite right, either.”
She had been gathering whatever documents she could find that were related to the question. She had already rifled through several books and papers that seemed to bear a connection but couldn’t seem to find anything that looked like it might actually be useful.
Kaguya had figured out one thing at least: Turning a Goddess back into a human was impossible. It wasn’t a problem with her own powers of intellect. It was just plain impossible, no matter how far they went. Turning a Goddess back into a human would be akin to bringing back the dead.
Although…they apparently managed to turn heroes back into humans.
That was supposed to be impossible as well, but the Director had apparently found a way. If they could do that, then it should be possible to return a reconstructed and changed soul back to its original form.
However…
After looking through nearly every related book and document she could find, Kaguya was at a dead end.
“Ah…”
Just then, she remembered that there was a box where documents and materials that were waiting for disposal were kept.
Usually, these documents were collected and disposed of once per day or at least once per week—in theory. Since few people still used these archives, there were naturally very few documents to dispose of nowadays, and the box tended to be forgotten.
“Not that I imagine I’ll find anything worthwhile in there…”
Seeing it as her last hope, Kaguya decided to take a peek into the box anyway.
The box was less than half full. As she was skimming through the documents, expecting to come up empty, she noticed one item that was clearly different from the rest.
“Wh-what is this…?”
It didn’t look as if it belonged there. It was a report. Paperwork of some sort.
The piece of paper had staple marks in its upper right-hand corner, which told her that it was one sheet torn from a larger bundle.
While she had no idea what something like that was doing here, it was the contents of the reporting and the handwriting that truly grabbed her attention.
The report detailed the results of a physical and mental exam of a certain person—a young man, apparently. It was mostly written in handwriting that Kaguya did not recognize, but the handwriting of the notes and addenda was clearly her own.
But the date was from five months ago. A period when she was supposed to have been in a coma.
“That doesn’t make any sense…”
Supposedly, she had been asleep for eight months. That was what she had been told.
“Maybe the handwriting is just similar. This doesn’t seem like something I would spend my time on…”
However, she couldn’t stop herself from reading further.
“Elevated pulse, increased body temperature, sweating, redness in the face?”
Elevated pulse? Kaguya had felt those same symptoms before herself, hadn’t she? Yes, she definitely had. That time with that young man. She had experienced the exact same thing after coming face-to-face with him. It had only happened that one time, but she remembered it clearly. It was obviously an abnormal reaction.
Was it just an isolated occurrence, or could it be reproduced under the same conditions? She had to confirm. Which meant—
“I need to find him again in order to—”
Kaguya broke off mid-sentence as she remembered the young man’s attitude that day.
“I’d rather not, to be honest…”
He had behaved so arrogantly, despite it being their first meeting. Just remembering the incident left her feeling annoyed. Although she wasn’t sure why she cared so much.
“Now that I think about it, I probably couldn’t find him even if I tried…”
The special ops squad that the young man apparently belonged to was being disbanded this very day, or so she had heard, in order to be absorbed back into Headquarters. From what she had been told, there weren’t many people left in the squad these days, and it didn’t make sense to maintain their barracks anymore.
Putting that aside, why was only this one page in the box and not the rest? And what was it doing here, of all places?
She continued to read through the handwritten notes. As she looked more closely, ignoring the feeling that something wasn’t right, she eventually landed on one note in particular. But this note was strange as well. It was just one word written on the back of the page—not in her handwriting and not in the other person’s handwriting, either. It was in a third person’s hand.
“Love…?”
Love—as in love love?
That feeling that one human being could have for another?
“…I don’t understand…”
Why would somebody write something like that on a report and then scribble it out like they had? It wasn’t making any sense to Kaguya.
“But…maybe it has something to do with me…”
Something about Kaguya’s own self, right now, felt off to her. Even if this all turned out to be silly, she couldn’t quell her desire to know more.
Since there was only one page, there was no need to take it back with her. While glancing through the contents quickly, she soon discovered a name.
“Yuuri Azuma…”
For some reason that name almost felt nostalgic to her. She stroked the spot where it was written on the page.
“Captain Azuma…”
She startled herself by saying the name out loud. For some reason, the sound felt familiar on her tongue. As if this was not her first time saying it.
“Do I…know this person?”
Since the page had already been placed in the box for disposal, there was no need to ask for permission to take it. Besides, these archives were already in the process of being shuttered. Kaguya carefully folded the page in two and tucked it away before heading toward the building for Technical.
The cafeteria at Headquarters was located along the way. As she passed it, several things caught her eye all at once.
“Parfaits…”
The menu out front proudly proclaimed that ice cream parfaits were on sale.
This cafeteria was also going to be closed down before long. As a result, they were trying to get rid of their inventory. For some reason, when Kaguya saw parfaits written on the menu, she felt a pain in her chest.
“Wait, didn’t I tell someone…?”
It came suddenly, like a lump in her chest, this feeling that something was wrong. Kaguya searched her heart, trying to identify what was making her feel this way. She furrowed her brow as the answer finally came to her.
For some reason, she had the strong feeling that she absolutely needed to go eat ice cream parfaits with somebody.