“Okay! We’re just going to go ahead and burn away this lifeline of yours!” Suddenly, one of the coverall-clad adults appeared, brandishing a lit blowtorch.
“Go away! Stop it!” Tabuki reflexively screwed his eyes shut.
Momoka let out a scream. A few embers from the blowtorch flecked out onto Tabuki’s arm as well.
“Let go of my hand! Hurry!” Tabuki wailed. The heat stung his throat, and it was excruciating even to speak. His arms and legs were already at their limits, and he could scarcely even hold the birdcage anymore.
“No! I’ll never let you go!”
He cracked open his eyes at Momoka’s voice. The edges of her hand were hideously burnt, her skin curling and running with blood.
“Your hand! Let go already!”
The coverall-clad adult looked at Momoka, who refused to let go. They gave a thin smile, and once again lowered the blowtorch to her arm.
“Let go!”
Though Momoka screamed again, she did not let go of his hand. Her breathing was hindered, sweat pouring from her face, gritting her teeth through the heat and the pain. Still, her thin arm never broke the connection to Tabuki. Quietly, her breath ragged with agony, she repeated, “No.”
The adult gently tilted their head at Momoka’s stubbornness, and began to turn the dial on the torch. They were trying to make the flames stronger. Tabuki could not bear to see her already battered hand be lit aflame again.
Maybe Momoka wasn’t lying. But within Tabuki’s heart, it was all already over. “It’s fine. Let me go. I don’t have any reason to live anymore!”
“Then live for me!” Her voice was loud and clear, ringing out across the Child Broiler.
His eyes opened wide in shock, and he looked at his own fingertips, wrapped in the burnt bandages. Slowly, he began to slip away from Momoka’s grasp.
He was falling, or so he thought. Suddenly, the door of the birdcage opened, and the little bird flew up and away.
He was glad that the bird had gotten away. The door probably warped as the birdcage melted in the heat of the flames. Then, for a moment, Tabuki thought: I’m glad I got to meet Momoka before I faded away to nothing.
“Tabuki-kun.”
Tabuki slowly opened his eyelids at her gentle voice. The sky above him, dotted with white clouds, was such a faint blue that it looked as though it was painted in watercolor. He sat up and looked around. The Child Broiler was billowing black smoke from its massive chimneys somewhere far off in the hazy distance. The ground Tabuki sat on was moist dirt in which small flowers grew abundantly, stretching all the way to the horizon. A breeze blew soundlessly, playing across the flowers and in Tabuki’s hair.
“The Child Broiler is so far away,” he murmured.
“C’mon, let’s go home now.” Momoka once more offered her hand to the speechless Tabuki. There was no longer any trace of skin left on her hand. Even the blood that once soaked it was burnt black, her fingertips trembling faintly.
“Why…” …would you go that far, just to save me? Doesn’t your hand hurt? How had she infiltrated the Child Broiler, and how did she save Tabuki? Did she truly love him?
There were so many things he wanted to ask her, so instead he just closed his mouth.
“Now the two of us are a pair. I’m sure this was our destiny.” Momoka smiled with glee, looking straight at Tabuki with her big, round eyes, her expression clear.
There was no need for Tabuki to ask anymore. Her words and expression were so frank, they sparkled. He wrapped both his hands around hers in thanks, and stood.
He could almost hear her shoulder-length hair swaying in the wind.
Tabuki set Himari on the ground, seized her arm, and pulled.
“Tabuki-san, why? The accident happened so long ago, and you said you didn’t harbor any bad feelings toward Shoma-kun and the others!” Ringo shook the door noisily. “Open this!”
Tabuki ignored her cries and began walking, dragging Himari along. A powerful wind rushed through the scaffolding, sending Himari’s long hair fluttering.
“Himari-chan!” Ringo screamed.
Himari glanced back at Ringo, breathing shallowly. Hearing the word “accident” from Ringo’s mouth shocked her. How long had Ringo known that Himari’s parents were the perpetrators of that attack? Had she still spent time with them, even knowing that fact? Did Kanba and Shoma know about this? That Ringo knew the reason why the Takakura family was burdened with such sin?
“Tabuki-san, stop! What’s the point in getting revenge now?” Ringo screamed through the doors.
Tabuki halted. “There is a point. I think it just might be the direction my destiny has been pointing me,” he said, his back still turned.
“What are you gonna do to Himari-chan?”
“You’ll see for yourself. That is your destiny.”
Tabuki looked across the darkening scenery. There was a tower crane constructed in the courtyard, painted in stripes of crimson red and white. From the wire extending from the end of the crane hung a gondola reminiscent of a square bird cage, constructed only of red steel beams with no roof. Another strong gust blew, sending the gondola swaying.
Tabuki shoved Himari onto the gondola and locked the door. Then he took the controls of the crane, and the gondola rose high into the air. Himari was far out of anyone’s reach.
Unable to guess what was going to happen next, Himari simply stared back at Tabuki. Her lips were parted, her long hair obscuring her view.
His gaze never leaving the caged Himari, Tabuki took out his cell phone and made a call. “Takakura Kanba, yes? I’ve taken your little sister. If you want her back safely, you will bring me your father, Takakura Kenzan.”