Tomotaka-senpai condemns me.
“… You should have led her away while I had my eyes averted.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s deep blue eyes shake, and he looks away from me.
Hanging his head, his right hand covers his eyes.
“You made me realise my feelings, yet you tell me to let them go… Why? Isn’t it fine to keep quiet, and snatch? Chako, too, would listen to you. There’s no need for me to personally let go.”
I’m doing something cruel.
I’m surely using the most cruel method.
I stare at Tomotaka-senpai, and take a breath softly.
“… That’s right. Of course you would not want to.”
In the 2nd round.
Tomotaka-senpai accepted a transaction to exchange Chako and I.
That time, he called Chako a『magical item』but…
Surely, that wasn’t it.
“Chako is important to senpai, isn’t she? You do not want to part from her, right?”
I don’t intend to have a transaction like that time.
Tomotaka-senpai, too, would probably not accept a transaction now.
“… If senpai doesn’t want to let Chako go… that’s also fine.”
While staring at Tomotaka-senpai, I smile a little with my brows knitted.
Truthfully, it’s not fine.
However, in that case, I’ll just find another road again.
“… I… don’t want to let Chako go.”
“Yes.”
“I really don’t.”
“… Yes.”
“Like you said… Chako may not be happy… Surely, she hates me too…”
Tomotaka-senpai clenches the right hand covering his eyes.
His brown hair also gets gripped, making the watching me pained too.
“… I finally found.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s voice is grazed.
“Chako is…”
Tomotaka-senpai puts more strength than ever into his right hand.
“The family――I finally found.”
The right hand with strength put into it is distressing, and that voice is trembling…
I can tell how much emotion is packed in those words of Tomotaka-senpai.
『Family』
… Ah, I see.
Chako is family to senpai.
“Although we were only together for a year… Chako gave me warmth. Greeting me “Welcome back” when I return from school and eating meals together.”
Tomotaka-senpai continues to speak, with a face on the verge of crying.
“I didn’t know… the feeling of looking forward to returning home. Or that worldly proceedings can also be done at home.”
Even though he’s still on the verge of crying, Tomotaka-senpai doesn’t cry.
He, simply, bit by bit…
Lets words out his mouth, as though to spew the emotions in his chest.
“All that… Chako taught me.”
Tomotaka-senpai told me about his family before.
He spoke nonchalantly but, surely Tomotaka-senpai had always been suffering.
The warmth of『family』.
He had always been searching for it.
“I don’t want to let go… of that.”
No longer, do I want to be alone.
Tomotaka-senpai says.
That’s right.
Senpai has always been alone.
To return to being alone, again…
Of course he wouldn’t want to.
“… You don’t have to let go.”
If it’s the family Tomotaka-senpai finally found…
I don’t have the right to ask that hand to let go.
However――
“Senpai… start it over.”
Yes.
I can ask him that.
“Start over the relationship between Chako and senpai.”
Chako and senpai had a wrong starting point.
It will surely go well between them if everything is returned to the start and done over.
“I think that Chako isn’t in pain because she’s with senpai… she just doesn’t like being a familiar.”
Yes. In the 2nd round.
Senpai said to eat him, but Chako didn’t.
Chako was originally human.
I think she doesn’t like things like that.
Things like not being able to grow accustomed to oneself… and fitting in with this world.
That’s why she’s in pain.
“… Chako doesn’t hate senpai, you know?”
Chako, when disappearing in the 2nd round, said what Tomotaka-senpai did to her.[1]
She said that he gave her a house.
That he gave her a soft and fluffy bed, time to watch TV, food and a bath.
She couldn’t have said that, if she hated him.
“You can just release the familiar contract, and start over again. Only the start was a mistake… Chako will let you start over.”
Because, didn’t senpai say it already?
That『I want to start over the things I’ve done to you.』『I want to erase everything I did to you.』
The things he did in the past can’t be erased but.
Even then, he can start over.
I raise my voice desperately so that it will reach Tomotaka-senpai.
Tomotaka-senpai lowers his right hand, dumbfoundedly looking at such a me.
Those deep blue eyes shake from side to side…
“… Start over?”
The words softly leaks from Tomotaka-senpai.
I nod to that and add on.
“That’s right. Even if you let go of Chako’s hand, you just have to seize it again. Just as you told me just now, please tell Chako you’re family. Chako will surely take it on.”
Chako too, is alone in this world.
When she’s no longer a familiar, and Tomotaka-senpai tells her they’re family, it should resound in her heart.
I look at Tomotaka-senpai’s eyes, and firmly tell him.
My voice has properly reached Tomotaka-senpai.
He’s properly listening to it.
However, Tomotaka-senpai closes his eyes softly.
“… That may be so. Chako may forgive me if I apologize.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s somewhat deadly calm voice resounds.
“But… I can’t do that.”
And, faintly smiling, he shakes his head a bit.
“You don’t know… I did nothing but cruel things to Chako. Chako has no reason to be with me if she isn’t my familiar.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s eyes open.
Then, raising his hung head, he looks at the stars twinkling in the sky.
“Even then, Chako… if I ask her to stay with me, she probably will.”
He gives a small, bitter smile…
And bites his lips strongly.
“… That’s, too pitiful for Chako.”
I can only listen to the words Tomotaka-senpai spill.
“Exhaustively used by me and suffering… even then, she has to forgive me?"
Tomotaka-senpai’s face remains warped in pain.
However, those deep blue eyes aren’t shaking…
“It’s not necessary for me to be forgiven.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s clear voice reaches my ears.
Resolution dwells in it.
… Senpai has decided.
I…
――I made senpai choose that.
“.. Yes. I realized after talking to you… Although it was short, I spent time with Chako… That is surely plenty already.”
Tomotaka-senpai mutters.
“As you say… I’ll let Chako’s hand go.”
That’s the response I desired.
I simply look at Tomotaka-senpai.
Tomotaka-senpai gives a small sigh, focusing the eyes that had been looking at the sky at me.
“You don’t mind it being on my birthday, right?”
“… Yes.”
“I’ll tell her explicitly on that day.”
“… Understood.”
My heart throbs painfully.
Not wanting to be alone.
Tomotaka-senpai feels that way but.
I, again… am making Tomotaka-senpai alone.
I cross my hands in front of my stomach and squeeze them tightly.
“… Shouldn’t you doubt me more? I might just be putting off the date, you know?”
“No, senpai won’t do such a thing.”
He won’t.
Tomotaka-senpai will surely let go.
“I believe senpai.”
“… The one I can’t believe in the most is myself.” [Tomotaka]
“… I will believe.” [Yui
Tomotaka-senpai looks at me with a face that seems like he’s troubled, that seems like he’s on the verge of tears.
I make a smile to the best of my abilities at Tomotaka-senpai, and look up at the sky.
The winter sky is clear and pretty.
The stars are glittering more than usual.
Is this okay…?
Is Tomotaka-senpai really not going to tell Chako anything…?
I don’t know what’s right.
I’m unable to say anymore…
Within the freezing coldness.
Tomotaka-senpai and I, the two of us, look at the stars twinkling.
Tomotaka-senpai condemns me.
“… You should have led her away while I had my eyes averted.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s deep blue eyes shake, and he looks away from me.
Hanging his head, his right hand covers his eyes.
“You made me realise my feelings, yet you tell me to let them go… Why? Isn’t it fine to keep quiet, and snatch? Chako, too, would listen to you. There’s no need for me to personally let go.”
I’m doing something cruel.
I’m surely using the most cruel method.
I stare at Tomotaka-senpai, and take a breath softly.
“… That’s right. Of course you would not want to.”
In the 2nd round.
Tomotaka-senpai accepted a transaction to exchange Chako and I.
That time, he called Chako a『magical item』but…
Surely, that wasn’t it.
“Chako is important to senpai, isn’t she? You do not want to part from her, right?”
I don’t intend to have a transaction like that time.
Tomotaka-senpai, too, would probably not accept a transaction now.
“… If senpai doesn’t want to let Chako go… that’s also fine.”
While staring at Tomotaka-senpai, I smile a little with my brows knitted.
Truthfully, it’s not fine.
However, in that case, I’ll just find another road again.
“… I… don’t want to let Chako go.”
“Yes.”
“I really don’t.”
“… Yes.”
“Like you said… Chako may not be happy… Surely, she hates me too…”
Tomotaka-senpai clenches the right hand covering his eyes.
His brown hair also gets gripped, making the watching me pained too.
“… I finally found.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s voice is grazed.
“Chako is…”
Tomotaka-senpai puts more strength than ever into his right hand.
“The family――I finally found.”
The right hand with strength put into it is distressing, and that voice is trembling…
I can tell how much emotion is packed in those words of Tomotaka-senpai.
『Family』
… Ah, I see.
Chako is family to senpai.
“Although we were only together for a year… Chako gave me warmth. Greeting me “Welcome back” when I return from school and eating meals together.”
Tomotaka-senpai continues to speak, with a face on the verge of crying.
“I didn’t know… the feeling of looking forward to returning home. Or that worldly proceedings can also be done at home.”
Even though he’s still on the verge of crying, Tomotaka-senpai doesn’t cry.
He, simply, bit by bit…
Lets words out his mouth, as though to spew the emotions in his chest.
“All that… Chako taught me.”
Tomotaka-senpai told me about his family before.
He spoke nonchalantly but, surely Tomotaka-senpai had always been suffering.
The warmth of『family』.
He had always been searching for it.
“I don’t want to let go… of that.”
No longer, do I want to be alone.
Tomotaka-senpai says.
That’s right.
Senpai has always been alone.
To return to being alone, again…
Of course he wouldn’t want to.
“… You don’t have to let go.”
If it’s the family Tomotaka-senpai finally found…
I don’t have the right to ask that hand to let go.
However――
“Senpai… start it over.”
Yes.
I can ask him that.
“Start over the relationship between Chako and senpai.”
Chako and senpai had a wrong starting point.
It will surely go well between them if everything is returned to the start and done over.
“I think that Chako isn’t in pain because she’s with senpai… she just doesn’t like being a familiar.”
Yes. In the 2nd round.
Senpai said to eat him, but Chako didn’t.
Chako was originally human.
I think she doesn’t like things like that.
Things like not being able to grow accustomed to oneself… and fitting in with this world.
That’s why she’s in pain.
“… Chako doesn’t hate senpai, you know?”
Chako, when disappearing in the 2nd round, said what Tomotaka-senpai did to her.[1]
She said that he gave her a house.
That he gave her a soft and fluffy bed, time to watch TV, food and a bath.
She couldn’t have said that, if she hated him.
“You can just release the familiar contract, and start over again. Only the start was a mistake… Chako will let you start over.”
Because, didn’t senpai say it already?
That『I want to start over the things I’ve done to you.』『I want to erase everything I did to you.』
The things he did in the past can’t be erased but.
Even then, he can start over.
I raise my voice desperately so that it will reach Tomotaka-senpai.
Tomotaka-senpai lowers his right hand, dumbfoundedly looking at such a me.
Those deep blue eyes shake from side to side…
“… Start over?”
The words softly leaks from Tomotaka-senpai.
I nod to that and add on.
“That’s right. Even if you let go of Chako’s hand, you just have to seize it again. Just as you told me just now, please tell Chako you’re family. Chako will surely take it on.”
Chako too, is alone in this world.
When she’s no longer a familiar, and Tomotaka-senpai tells her they’re family, it should resound in her heart.
I look at Tomotaka-senpai’s eyes, and firmly tell him.
My voice has properly reached Tomotaka-senpai.
He’s properly listening to it.
However, Tomotaka-senpai closes his eyes softly.
“… That may be so. Chako may forgive me if I apologize.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s somewhat deadly calm voice resounds.
“But… I can’t do that.”
And, faintly smiling, he shakes his head a bit.
“You don’t know… I did nothing but cruel things to Chako. Chako has no reason to be with me if she isn’t my familiar.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s eyes open.
Then, raising his hung head, he looks at the stars twinkling in the sky.
“Even then, Chako… if I ask her to stay with me, she probably will.”
He gives a small, bitter smile…
And bites his lips strongly.
“… That’s, too pitiful for Chako.”
I can only listen to the words Tomotaka-senpai spill.
“Exhaustively used by me and suffering… even then, she has to forgive me?"
Tomotaka-senpai’s face remains warped in pain.
However, those deep blue eyes aren’t shaking…
“It’s not necessary for me to be forgiven.”
Tomotaka-senpai’s clear voice reaches my ears.
Resolution dwells in it.
… Senpai has decided.
I…
――I made senpai choose that.
“.. Yes. I realized after talking to you… Although it was short, I spent time with Chako… That is surely plenty already.”
Tomotaka-senpai mutters.
“As you say… I’ll let Chako’s hand go.”
That’s the response I desired.
I simply look at Tomotaka-senpai.
Tomotaka-senpai gives a small sigh, focusing the eyes that had been looking at the sky at me.
“You don’t mind it being on my birthday, right?”
“… Yes.”
“I’ll tell her explicitly on that day.”
“… Understood.”
My heart throbs painfully.
Not wanting to be alone.
Tomotaka-senpai feels that way but.
I, again… am making Tomotaka-senpai alone.
I cross my hands in front of my stomach and squeeze them tightly.
“… Shouldn’t you doubt me more? I might just be putting off the date, you know?”
“No, senpai won’t do such a thing.”
He won’t.
Tomotaka-senpai will surely let go.
“I believe senpai.”
“… The one I can’t believe in the most is myself.” [Tomotaka]
“… I will believe.” [Yui
Tomotaka-senpai looks at me with a face that seems like he’s troubled, that seems like he’s on the verge of tears.
I make a smile to the best of my abilities at Tomotaka-senpai, and look up at the sky.
The winter sky is clear and pretty.
The stars are glittering more than usual.
Is this okay…?
Is Tomotaka-senpai really not going to tell Chako anything…?
I don’t know what’s right.
I’m unable to say anymore…
Within the freezing coldness.
Tomotaka-senpai and I, the two of us, look at the stars twinkling.
