Kaguya blinked. What did he just say?
“Different…?”
“You may not remember, but we once fought together, side by side… It was only for a few months, but so many things happened during that time.”
Kaguya responded with silence. She couldn’t refute what he was saying.
“I know you won’t want to hear this since this is practically our first meeting from your point of view, but since we’re never going to see each other again after this, you can just forget about it later. I don’t care. There’s just something I need to say before we go.”
A gentle smile, so gentle it didn’t seem at all suited to the young man’s face, formed on his lips.
“I need to tell you that I love you.”
Kaguya gasped in bewilderment. That was not at all what she had expected him to say.
“Love? Do you mean—like as a person?”
“I mean as a man and a woman.”
“But…this is almost our first time meeting.”
“Not for me, it isn’t.”
“B-but for me, this is only the second time.”
“I know that. I know this must make you uncomfortable to hear, so I hope you won’t despise me for saying it.”
But surprisingly, Kaguya felt nothing of the sort.
Rather, she felt a powerful feeling brewing inside herself. Similar to excitement but unlike anything she had ever felt before. She clutched tightly at her chest as if trying to control herself.
The young man, meanwhile, seemed much calmer. He began to change the topic, as if they hadn’t been discussing anything out of the ordinary.
“So why did you come here?”
“Well…I—I guess I’m searching for my old memories.” She pointed to a spot on the document. “I was told I had been in a coma for several months, but this document seems to contradict that. It shows my handwriting from a time when I was supposedly unconscious. And it had your name, so…”
“So you came here to ask me about it?”
“Well…something hasn’t felt right for quite a while now.”
Although he didn’t ask, Kaguya began to explain herself. It was like all the words inside her had come bubbling to the surface and were spilling out.
“There were events I couldn’t have possibly experienced. Emotions I shouldn’t have had… I’m not the type to just let sleeping dogs lie. I thought that if I met you, I might start to understand things better.”
However…
“That was a mistake…,” the young man said firmly. “It won’t benefit you to know those things. You’ll just get wrapped up in Tactical’s affairs again. Someone like you shouldn’t waste her time on stuff like this.”
“But the Bureau’s being dismantled anyway, isn’t it?” Kaguya insisted. “Once you leave here, you’ll get to go back to being a normal teenager, won’t you? Why can’t I go with you, then?”
“But…”
The young man was tongue-tied, apparently unable to come up with a good reason why. Despite appearances, it seemed like he was actually a pushover.
“I want to be with you,” she said.
Kaguya decided to put her real feelings on the line. This was all bound to work out so long as she just kept insisting.
“I want to be by your side and learn all sorts of things. About the memories I lost, all the things that must have happened, the times I shared with you. I want you to tell me what really happened over our months together.”
She meant it. This wasn’t just her scientific curiosity speaking. She felt as if she needed to know. It was too sad to choose not to remember it all.
“You remember, don’t you?” The things she didn’t. Those months she had lost. “Then tell me please. I’m not going to give up until you agree.”
“No, you really won’t, huh…? That is just like you, after all,” the young man said, sighing in defeat. “You never were the type to give in. I always had to give in first.”
The young man then extended his hand as if for a handshake. Although this was her first time seeing him extend his hand like this, it made her feel simultaneously nostalgic and melancholy in a way that was difficult to explain.
“The fight against the Goddesses is already wrapping up, so I doubt you’ll be staying with us for long…” Kaguya felt like she had heard these words before. “But welcome to the unit, Technical Lieutenant Shinohara.”
But something about his voice now seemed very different from whatever it was she was remembering.
“Actually, the Bureau is already gone now. If I’m going to call you anything, I guess it should be by your name, Kaguya.”
Out of everything that had happened so far, Kaguya realized that hearing him call her by her name was what caused her heart to race the fastest.
It didn’t seem to occur to her how rude it was for him to call her by her given name on a first meeting like this. Instead, she softly reached out to touch the hand held out for her.
For some reason, she suddenly felt like she wanted to cry. Besides her brother’s, she had never touched a boy’s hand before.
The sight of Azuma suddenly grew a little blurry. It took her a moment to realize it was the tears in her eyes. She wasn’t sure why she was feeling the way she was feeling, but she knew immediately that these were not tears of sadness.
“Yes, thank you. Captain Az—” Before Kaguya could finish, a thought occurred to her. “Actually, would it be all right if I call you by your first name, too?”
“What?”
“It’s just… If you’re calling me by my name, it’s only right that I do the same, right? It would be weird for just one of us to do it.”
“Well, I mean, that is…”
“Your name is Yuuri Azuma, correct? Well, in that case…,” Kaguya said, ignoring his distress as she extended her own hand.
Timidly, very timidly—yet firmly—the young man took her hand.
She smiled at him. “Nice to meet you again for the first time, Yuuri…”
Suddenly, Kaguya felt a little flustered.
“…Captain Azuma,” she added.
She felt a rush of agitation upon saying his name. Strangely, her face felt flushed.
It was normal to call someone by their name, wasn’t it? She had done the exact same thing with Koyuki Asaharu just moments ago. But now she felt confused in a way she did not understand.
Like she was someone else when he was there. She began to pull her hand away when suddenly—
“Ah—?!”
She was abruptly pulled in instead. No, not pulled—embraced. These arms now holding her were a little warmer than she had expected. As she looked up timidly, she saw that he was crying, too. She had her head down so she couldn’t see, but tiny sobs were escaping his lips.
And then his lips parted. She realized he was trying to say, “It’s nice to meet you,” but for some reason, the corners of his lips lifted upward before he could speak—into a smile of joy.
“Welcome home, Kaguya.”
THE END