Translated: Sei, MTL-sensei-tachi
Edited: Sei, Grammarly no Danna

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Thank you for your support Hector Amaya Jr., Chase, NetNN, La Fayette, Jeffery, That's Pretty Mint, Joshua Berry

Chapter 5 | Tobiume | Remake our Life!


(Note: 飛梅 (Tobiume) — Literally means “Flying Plum.” It refers to the legendary plum tree associated with Sugawara no Michizane. According to legend, the tree flew from Kyoto to Dazaifu to follow Michizane after his exile.)

——— read on seireitranslations.blogspot.com ———

Part 6

A few days later. The day of the appointment with Saikawa arrived quickly.

"I apologize for taking up your time like this."

Saikawa arrived at the share house exactly on time, where we had been waiting for her.

"It’s nothing to apologize for. Minori-chan, it’s been a while~"

At Shinoaki's usual voice,

"Yes... It’s been a while."

Saikawa bowed her head with a slight nod, looking somewhat nervous.

At first, there was also a suggestion that the three of us should meet at some restaurant. Since it had been a while, I had thought that we could have a meal together or something like that.

However, Saikawa politely declined the idea, and instead requested that we meet either at the share house or in some meeting space somewhere. Not only that, she also added that she wanted Nanako and Tsurayuki to be absent on that day.

As luck would have it, there was a time when both of them would be away, so I arranged our plans to fit that timing. Still, inwardly, I couldn’t hide my confusion at the atmosphere, which was clearly different from usual.

Anyway, we sat down at the kotatsu in the living room as usual, and I made tea for everyone. The mug for Saikawa had still been left here since the time she stayed here for a while before, so I used that.

As I stood up to boil some water, I turned my back to the kotatsu. This left Saikawa and Shinoaki facing each other one-on-one.

"Aki-san."

"Hmm?"

After the brief exchange, Saikawa took several sheets of paper from the file she had brought with her and laid them out on the table.

"This is..."

They were Shinoaki’s color illustrations, which we had only just finished delivering the other day.

Since they were for a shop bonus, the publicly released versions had the word “SAMPLE” watermarked on them. As a measure against piracy, the resolution was not particularly high, and even the prints in front of us had noticeably coarse dots.

However, Saikawa had gone out of her way to enlarge them to fill an entire A4 sheet.

Did she have something to say about these illustrations? I mean, if that weren’t the case, she wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of showing them to us like this.

I forgot about making the tea and remained standing, staring at Saikawa. Shinoaki, too, was waiting for Saikawa to speak.

Saikawa took a deep breath two or three times, repeatedly trying to speak only to swallow her words, and finally opened her mouth.

"These... these illustrations, were they drawn by you, Aki-san?"

For an instant, it felt as though an electric current had run through the room.

"Eh...Saikawa, what do you mean?

I understood. I knew what those words meant.

But inwardly, I also hoped that I was wrong. Because those words were probably the same thing that had been nagging at me since the other day. It was something I had denied, convincing myself that I had ruled out that possibility and was satisfied with that conclusion.

How would Shinoaki answer this question? I was too afraid to hear it, but I kept her voice, and then her expression, in my line of sight. She was expressionless.

With an expression that gave no clue whatsoever as to what she was thinking, Shinoaki said.

"Mm, I drew it."

Her voice was as gentle as ever.

But I realized that her voice had a different tone from usual.

Saikawa, whether she had anticipated that answer or whether it was unexpected.

"So that's... how it is"

Once it became certain, she took a deep breath and,

"Aki-san... what happened to you?"

she asked in a voice that sounded deeply troubled.

"Eh...?"

Shinoaki was confused by Saikawa’s unexpected question.

"You’re saying this is Aki-san’s drawing..."

"......"

I involuntarily held my breath.

The words were simple, but precisely because of that, they struck at the deepest place.

Silence filled the share house.

"I’ve been watching the things Aki-san creates all this time."

Saikawa began speaking calmly.

"Aki-san has always worked so hard, always been far ahead of me in ways I never even thought of, and your drawings had such incredible power, so I wanted somehow, even just a little, to get closer to that... That’s why I became independent and worked hard..."

She suddenly looked up at the ceiling for just a moment. It was obvious that she was holding something back.

"Please... look at these."

Saikawa took another file out of her bag and placed it on the table.

Spread out across the pile of papers were numerous illustrations that she had presumably drawn.

"Saikawa, these...?"

I picked up one of them, then lost my words halfway through.

To be honest, they were far beyond what I had expected.

Fantasy-style, steampunk-style, science fiction-style, modern-style. She had drawn illustrations in a wide variety of genres, so that they could fit all kinds of different settings.

The level of completion was impressive in itself, but what surprised me most was her originality and the precision with which she understood three-dimensional forms. From here on, converting 2D illustrations into 3D data would become an important point, and in that regard, she had already demonstrated an adaptability that could be called perfect.

And yet, that didn’t mean she had simply settled for something neat and safe. Whether it was the gimmicks, the progression, or the colors, she had managed to accomplish things several levels above.

"Kuroda-san's project still hasn’t gotten off the ground... So I thought I had to do something myself. I was planning to pitch these to game makers, so I drew them..."

The incredible ideas, the thought put into every detail, and the sheer volume. It was a collection of works that felt as though a mass of passion had been thrown at me, scattering from all four corners of the pages.

Saikawa continued speaking, as if tracing the path she had taken until now.

"Back when I was working on that previous video, I... I felt as though everything I had created up until then had been destroyed. Seeing Aki-san’s work was such a shock that it made me feel as though everything I was doing was only at that level, and I had been sent all the way back to the starting point."

Blue Planet. That was the work whose overwhelming power of expression and density shook not only us, but the world as well, and Saikawa, too, had been deeply shaken by it.

I still remember clearly how she sobbed and nodded during the first screening, and the words she said afterward.

I’m glad I came to like Shinoaki.

I’m glad I came to like Shinoaki’s drawings.

"That’s why I wanted to get closer, even if only a little. That’s why I wanted to leave this comfortable place and face drawing on my own. I thought that unless I did at least that much, the distance between me and Aki-san would only keep growing farther and farther, so I thought..."

But now, because she had been so deeply moved and inspired by that work, she was confused, and was on the verge of being disappointed.

Saikawa picked up the printed paper in front of her. On it was a drawing by the person she had admired so deeply.

But Saikawa’s eyes as she stared at the drawing were filled with sadness.

"This illustration is beautiful. It’s beautiful, but... it’s not what Aki-san used to draw, the kind of work I had been aiming for. It’s a picture of someone walking away with their back to me... I, I thought I could keep looking at that back forever, and that’s why I kept working so hard, but...!"

Large tears welled up in Saikawa’s eyes.

But she desperately held them back, determined not to let them fall.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t want to say something like this to Aki-san... But, bu-but when I saw that the illustration was included, I felt like I had to say something, no matter what, and so..."

Then she turned her face, filled with sadness, toward us.

"I know that Aki-san also hurt her body, and of course I was worried, and part of me wants you to stay healthy... But, but I don’t want to believe that this is the right answer..."

She shook her head again and again. Then, so that she would not show the tears that had welled up, Saikawa lowered her eyes and bowed her head.

Shinoaki remained silent the entire time. She did not try to answer Saikawa’s cries.

"Saikawa..."

Pathetically enough, I could not answer either. I could not explain to her, in the face of her cry from the depths of her soul, that there was a reason things had turned out this way.

There was no way I could. I could have listed any number of reasons based on work, or the logic of adults. But there was no way I could be foolish enough to think that any of them would reach even one millimeter into the feelings she had poured out here and now.

Eventually, Saikawa raised her head and stood up, her expression resolute.

"...I came here today prepared for the possibility that this might be goodbye."

Those strong words made me tremble involuntarily.

"I’ll beat Aki-san. Overwhelmingly. I’ll face myself and make this expression my own. I don’t even want to think that this is how it will end, but still, I..."

As if shaking off her hesitation, Saikawa,

"I’ll draw. Because I love drawing more than anything."

she declared firmly.

Minori Ayaka was here. (Note: In case you've forgotten, this is Saikawa Minori's pen name.)

With the strength to keep moving forward through nothing but her body and her will.

After that, Saikawa said nothing. She silently picked up her bag, gave us another sorrowful look, as though holding something back, and then,

she bowed deeply and left the share house.

(What... have I done.)

Thinking of her merely as a rival to make Shinoaki more conscious of her was far too shallow.

It was only natural, but she, too, was a creator with an incredible amount of innate talent. Just as Shinoaki had grown while being influenced by her, she had also grown by watching Shinoaki. And now, that relationship had been reversed in this way.

Even as I bitterly felt my own foolishness, I decided that, first of all, I had to do what needed to be done.

"Shinoaki"

I called her name, intending to ask her what she was going to do.

But she,

"I’m sorry, Kyoya-kun."

The drawings by Shinoaki and Saikawa that remained in front of her.

After carefully gathering all of them,

"I want to be alone for a little while."

she said, then quietly went upstairs to the second floor.

"Shinoaki..."

All I could do was call her name.

At that moment, there was simply nothing I could do for her.

The living room of the share house became eerily quiet after everyone had left.

The ticking of the clock on the wall, the kettle quietly steaming, and the sound of my own breathing were the only things that continued to echo.

——— read on seireitranslations.blogspot.com ———

Part 7

Three days had passed.

I came down to the living room, where I talked with Nanako and Tsurayuki.

"I see. So, at least she's managing to bathe and eat properly"

At Tsurayuki, who looked relieved, Nanako let out a deep sigh and said,

"Even that was only because I kept telling her over and over. Even when it comes to food, she’ll only eat something like one rice ball, and even when I ask her if she wants me to make ramen, she just says, ‘Sorry,’ and that’s it..."

"I see. Well... it sounds like she’s barely managing to get by."

Tsurayuki folded his arms and looked up at the ceiling.

Since then, Shinoaki had remained in a state where she barely spoke at all.

She spent most of the day in her room, and we had no idea what she was doing or what she was thinking. Whether it was me, Nanako, or Tsurayuki, whenever anyone spoke to her, she would only say, “Sorry,” and made no attempt to communicate anything.

"So something like that happened with Saikawa... I was really surprised, honestly."

I had explained the general situation to Nanako and Tsurayuki.

"It’s a difficult situation. Saikawa did it because she cared about Shinoaki, after all."

"Mm...That's right."

I nodded at Tsurayuki’s words.

Saikawa had simply acted according to her feelings. And on top of that, her actions were filled with deep affection for Shinoaki.

"That’s why, if you notice any changes in Shinoaki, I’d like you to let me know anytime. I’m sorry to ask you to do something like this, but I’m counting on you."

Both of them responded to my request with smiles.

"Don’t worry about it. It’s for Shinoaki’s sake, after all."

"I hope this can be a good opportunity for her. No, Shinoaki will surely be all right."

Those words relieved me a little, but deep down, I was filled with anxiety.

Shinoaki had been shocked by Saikawa’s words the other day. There was probably no doubt about that. I also understood that there was nothing we could do but wait for her to recover.

But the passage of time did not necessarily mean that a positive solution would come from it.

Perhaps she was simply spending her time continuing to be troubled by Saikawa’s words.

Perhaps she was going over everything that had happened so far in her mind and beginning to change the way she thought about drawing.

And... although it was something I didn’t want to think about, perhaps she might even stop drawing altogether.

(So in the end, will it come to this...?)

The memories of the future I had been taken to came rushing back.

Ironically, the reason Shinoaki at that time started drawing again was because of Minori Ayaka, in other words, Saikawa.

And yet, in this world, it had ended up with a result that could almost be called the exact opposite.

(That’s just... too heartbreaking.)

I was frustrated beyond words that there was nothing I could do.

For now, all I could do was pray that Shinoaki would come back.

——— read on seireitranslations.blogspot.com ———

Part 8

Even after a week had passed, Shinoaki’s situation had not changed.

Nanako was at least making sure she was doing okay physically, so I wasn’t concerned about her health, but I still had no idea how she was doing mentally.

I also made a point of checking in on her regularly. But all I ever got in return was, “I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel like talking right now.” It was frustrating that I couldn’t even have a conversation with her.

It was around evening, when I had begun to lose hope, wondering if there was really nothing I could do to help her.

Suddenly, my cell phone rang.

"——It's Saikawa."

Her name appeared on the display, the very person at the center of everything that had happened.

I couldn’t ignore the call, but honestly, I didn’t know what I should talk about. Hesitating, I let it ring for a few calls before pressing the answer button.

"...Yes.

I gave a short reply, and then,

"I’m sorry... about last week."

The first thing Saikawa did was apologize.

"Not at all. If anything, I’m sorry I couldn’t say anything."

Originally, I was supposed to be there to mediate between the two of them, or at least to support them.

But in the end, I couldn't do anything.

"No... I did something that made it difficult for you to say anything. So, uhm, is Aki-san there? I’ve been thinking about it this whole time, and so much time has passed, but if she’s able to talk, then I was thinking I could come over now..."

I hesitated for a moment, wondering whether I should tell her.

Surely Saikawa would be worried, and she would probably do something about it.

But when I thought about what Saikawa might think if she found out about this later,

"Shinoaki is..."

I decided it would be better to tell her.

"She hardly ever comes out of her room. She’s able to take care of the bare minimum, but she’s stopped talking to everyone much, too."

"Eh, has it been like that since then?"

I hesitated for a moment before answering,

"Mm."

I confirmed it.

"............!"

I could hear Saikawa gasp on the other end of the phone.

Just as I had imagined, she seemed to be shocked.

"Saikawa, it's not your faul..."

Before I could finish, Saikawa said,

"Senpai, I’m sorry. I’m coming over there right now."

With that, the call ended.

"Saikawa..."

She had taken exactly the action I had expected. My concern had turned out to be justified.

But part of me also wanted Saikawa to come. I thought that if it was her, she might be able to have some kind of conversation with Shinoaki.

There might be things she could talk about with Shinoaki that I couldn’t.

I decided to place my hopes in that.

——— read on seireitranslations.blogspot.com ———

Part 9

Before long, Saikawa arrived at the share house. After briefly exchanging greetings with Nanako and Tsurayuki, she immediately went upstairs with me.

"Do you think we'll be able to talk...?"

At Saikawa’s question, I gave a small nod.

"But the interaction will really be kept to a minimum. When I spoke to her, all she did was respond with something like, ‘I just don’t feel like it right now’."

"I see."

Saikawa’s expression grew tense.

We stood in front of Shinoaki’s room.

I lightly knocked on the door and said,

"Shinoaki, Saikawa is here."

Normally, there should have been some kind of response, but there was no reaction.

Without saying a word, I nodded to Saikawa and stepped aside. I decided to take the lack of any response as an indication that she was willing to listen.

"...Aki-san, can you hear me? It’s Saikawa."

Saikawa spoke to Shinoaki through the door.

"I said some terrible things to you, Aki-san... even though there must have been circumstances behind what you did, and I said them without considering your side. So I thought I had to apologize, and when I contacted Hashiba-san, I heard that you’d been staying in your room this whole time. I couldn’t bear it anymore, so I came here. I’m sorry."

Her earnest voice pierced my heart as I stood beside her.

"Could we at least talk for a little while? Please."

But even in response to Saikawa’s heartfelt words, there was no reply from the other side of the door.

"Senpai..."

Saikawa’s sad expression was turned toward me.

"It's okay, calm down."

After reassuring Saikawa, I put my ear against the door.

The fact that there had been no response at all had been bothering me. At first, I thought she was listening in silence, but perhaps that wasn’t the case after all.

Just as I expected, a sound reached my ears.

"She’s... sleeping."

I could faintly hear her breathing, “Suu... suu...,” along with a few soft sounds.

For the time being, I was relieved to know that she hadn’t been deliberately ignoring us.

"...Should we come back when she wakes up?"

Saikawa whispered,

"No, I’m a little worried, too, so let’s check on her."

Normally, I wouldn’t do something like this, but I really wanted to know how Shinoaki was doing, so I steeled myself and reached for the doorknob.

(What had Shinoaki been doing all this time?)

The answer to how she had taken what happened and what she had decided to do about it over the past few days lay beyond this door.

I opened the door.

I gasped.

Whenever Shinoaki draws, she always keeps her room dark. I don’t know whether it’s just a habit or some kind of ritual to help her concentrate, but she had always done it that way.

And now, her room was completely dark. The light from the monitor barely illuminated the floor, where there were countless white things scattered about.

Shinoaki was sleeping in the middle of them, softly breathing in her sleep.

She didn’t seem to be in particularly poor physical condition, so I was relieved for the moment as I turned my gaze toward the white things surrounding her.

"Paper, huh?"

We entered the room. I felt something crunch beneath my feet.

"H-Hashiba-san, this..."

Saikawa cried out in surprise and handed me the paper she was holding.

"This is...!"

The moment I saw it, I too let out a cry of surprise.

Countless sheets of paper covered the floor. Every single one of them had rough pencil sketches drawn on it.

The characters and compositional elements depicted in them had certain things in common. And I immediately remembered what they were about.

"They’re light novel illustrations."

All those light novel illustrations that, on that day, I had even been told were not Shinoaki’s drawings.

Several of those illustrations had been completely redrawn from scratch, including the compositions, and they were spread all over the floor.

They were the result of Shinoaki taking action after what Saikawa had said.

"They’re completely different... They’ve become something else entirely."

At my words, Saikawa nodded vigorously several times as well.

"Yes, yes, this is..."

She hadn’t simply redrawn them. Every one of them was strikingly vivid, from the composition to the expressions, and overflowing with a fresh charm unlike anyone else’s. There was nothing else I could compare them to. If I had to put it into words,

"They’re Aki-san’s... drawings..."

Holding Shinoaki’s drawing tightly in both hands, tears welling up in her eyes, Saikawa gave the most fitting description of all.

That’s right. Shinoaki’s drawings could only be described as Shinoaki’s drawings. They didn’t resemble anyone else’s, yet they weren’t too unconventional either. They were drawings that could be loved by a wide range of people.

"I'm sorry, Aki-san. I really did something terrible to you. I know it would be understandable if you wanted to cut ties with me, but still, I... I..."

Saikawa hugged Shinoaki’s drawing lovingly and said,

"I really do love Aki-san’s drawings...!"

After saying that much, she could no longer get the words out. The tears she had desperately held back the other day now flowed freely.

I gently rubbed Saikawa’s back and turned my gaze toward Shinoaki, who was sleeping peacefully.

This was probably the result of Shinoaki, in her own way, cherishing Saikawa’s words, and the drawings as well.

It was an awkward choice, but one that could be called utterly sincere.

(Did I choose a path that would have taken that away from her?)

Faced with the miracle unfolding before my eyes, I regretted what I had done.

If Saikawa hadn’t been there... I didn’t know what would have become of Shinoaki from then on.

It was difficult to decide what was right or wrong based on such values, but at least when looking at it from the perspective of the drawings Shinoaki created,

(I had made Saikawa shoulder something far too great)

It was thanks to this girl, who loved Shinoaki and her work more than anyone else.

Because of her, Shinoaki had managed not to lose her own work.

"Areh...?"


Suddenly.

Shinoaki, who had been sleeping in a sea of white paper, slowly sat up and yawned.

"Kyoya-kun, Minori-chan, what are you two doing here..."

Looking as though she had no idea what had happened, Shinoaki spoke in her usual gentle, soft voice.

"Aki-san...!"

"E-Eh? Minori-chan, what’s wrong?"

Saikawa threw herself into Shinoaki’s arms and sobbed loudly beside the bewildered Shinoaki. I smiled as I watched them, but seeing what had happened between the two of them made me painfully aware of my own powerlessness.

The power wielded by a creator is something that no other person can possibly control.

I should have known that. So why had I forgotten?

——— read on seireitranslations.blogspot.com ———

Part 10

After that, following Saikawa’s dogeza and Shinoaki’s attempts to calm her down, along with the suggestion that we might as well go out for a meal, we ended up going to a restaurant near the university.

Unfortunately, Nanako and Tsurayuki had other things to do and couldn’t come, but Saikawa talked and ate enough for about three people, so perhaps it worked out for the best.

And then,

"Thank you for the meal! I'll do my best! Aki-san, Hashiba-san, please look forward to the next one!"

She energetically waved her hand back and forth before disappearing into the darkness of the night.

We waved back as we saw her off, and,

"...Well then, shall we go home?

"Mm."

We started walking toward the share house.

Shinoaki was in front, and I was behind her.

It was our usual order.

The end of the year was drawing near, and the wind blowing down from the mountains was very cold.

Come to think of it, when I walked home from the hospital with Tsurayuki, it had been snowing.

With the cold being this intense, I figured it would probably snow somewhere again. The scenery would be beautiful, but I imagined the cold would seep into my body.

The roads near the University of the Arts (Geidai) had very narrow sidewalks, which made them difficult to walk along. But we didn’t pay it any mind and continued walking in silence. Unusually, there were no cars or people passing by today, and it felt as though we were the only ones walking along this road.

We had been walking for a while. It was after we were hit by yet another strong gust of wind, and it finally died down.

"Kyoya-kun."

Shinoaki suddenly spoke.

"Sorry for making you worry."

"Don’t worry about it. Shinoaki was having a much harder time than I was, weren’t you?"

Saikawa’s words had pierced both her and me.

When it comes to words directed at a creator, only the creator can resolve them.

In this case, the only thing Shinoaki could do was create a work. Empty words alone would never have gotten her message across.

That was why she drew relentlessly, without thinking about her own physical condition. And the result became a more eloquent answer than any words could have been.

Shinoaki had not been working with her soul. It had shown in what she created.

So, Saikawa noticed that.

My body felt frozen by the cold, even more than the temperature would suggest. When I spoke to her out of concern,

"No, I'm fine."

Shinoaki replied without turning around to face me.

Even though she surely hadn’t been fine at all.

There was another brief silence. Then Shinoaki spoke again.

"You remember when I took you to my parents’ house, Kyoya-kun?"

"Mm."

"You know, I really love drawing."

The word “love” sounded like it carried a special meaning.

Then she began talking about the atelier. That strange space, as if that place alone had been cut out from the rest of the house.

"When I looked at the paintings Mom had drawn in the atelier, I felt like I could go to another world, and I loved that. That’s why I wanted to draw pictures myself and go to a world I loved."

Shinoaki had been traveling within her drawings.

It wasn’t an admiration for her mother, but rather the trigger that allowed her to enter her own world.

"Mom kept drawing for such a long time, no matter what anyone said, and she kept drawing even after she got sick, until she eventually passed away. Dad and Yuu-kun were sad about it, too."

“But you see,” Shinoaki said, pausing for a moment.

"There’s something I really could never tell my family."

Her voice sounded lonelier than ever.

"I couldn’t help but think that I was envious of Mom for being able to keep drawing for so long."

"............"

I was at a loss for words.

I had misunderstood her all this time.

I had thought that Shinoaki was meeting her mother whenever she drew. That by doing the same thing herself, she wanted to take in what her mother had been thinking, and the world she had seen.

But that had only been my own shallow assumption.

Shinoaki had already been creating her own world for a very long time.

That was why, more than the loneliness of no longer being able to see her mother, she felt envious of her mother for having walked her chosen path all the way to the end without ever straying from it.

Perhaps the reason she took me to her mother’s atelier was because she wanted to show me that resolve, that way of life.

To tell me, I’m ready for this.

And yet I had suggested something completely misguided, and failed to properly understand her resolve, her way of life.

Instead, I had done something that only made her lose her way.

"I’m sorry. I couldn’t understand you, Shinoaki."

Shinoaki shook her head and said, “No,”

"Kyoya-kun really thought things through a lot. You talked properly with Dad and Yuu-kun, thought about it a lot, and then came up with a way to do it. More than anything, even I thought it was the right thing to do at the time."

“Fufu,” I heard her laugh softly.

"But it didn’t work, did it? Because I wasn’t... putting anything into it."

I felt a shock as though an arrow had pierced my heart, as though it had also grabbed hold of it and shaken it.

I should have known, yet part of me still thought I could make things work somehow. But Shinoaki’s words made everything clear.

I hadn’t put anything into my drawings.

I hadn’t put anything of myself into them.

Shinoaki’s words resonated with two different meanings.

They were about her, but at the same time, they were about me as well.

"Now it’s my turn to chase after Minori-chan. I wonder how I should overtake her"

It sent chills down my spine.

She was already prepared to fight.

(My ego had been insignificant from the very beginning.)

Shinoaki was carrying a deep burden.

Saikawa had been there all along, too.

No, Tsurayuki and Nanako as well. Everyone who had made a pact to create something as a creator was carrying that same deep burden.

They all carried the pain of continuing to fight against themselves within, like a darkness they could never escape.

The darkness of the night had dyed everything except the ground beneath our feet pitch-black. In that black space, where even sound seemed to be swallowed up, only Shinoaki’s figure seemed to be giving off light.

As I watched her walking ahead of me, the words someone had once said suddenly came back to me.

『Welcome back, protagonist. From here on, it’s hell again.』

Who had said those words, or why they had been said, I couldn’t remember at all.

So this was the hell they had been talking about.

Watching all my friends go off to the battlefield, and witnessing the moment when they ceased to be my friends.

It was nothing other than hell.

When I returned from a hopeless future to the past, hadn’t I sworn it?

That I would never forget. I had confronted Kuroda and acted solely for the sake of creating the best work.

But somewhere along the way, I had once again started showing my naivety.

And this was the result.

My legs trembled. This dark road at night was a road leading to hell.

"Kyoya-kun, I..."

Shinoaki stopped walking.

"I’m going to be alone again, so——"

She turned around to face me.

"I want you to stay with me."

This isn’t a confession of love.

If anything, it was the exact opposite: words of parting.

They were words that showed her resolve—to betray the family she loved dearly, choose the path of suffering, and walk through the world of expression, a world without any definitive answers.

A pact to say, “Let’s go to hell together”.

It was the beginning, the moment when the monster became aware that she was a monster.

"...Of course."

"Mm, thanks."

Once again, a strong wind blew.

Her soft hair was swept by the wind, and for a moment, her face disappeared from view.

And when the wind died down, it was no longer the girl I had loved so dearly standing before me, but Akishima Shino.

She was a writer who had made up her mind, faced her own burden, and accepted it as a creator.

Softly, almost as if on cue, white flakes began drifting down from above, falling in such abundance that they covered everything around us. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as they quietly accumulated on the ground. It was almost like something out of a dream, as though it had begun at exactly the right moment.

Perhaps it was a gift from heaven, allowing her to welcome this parting with snow instead of a rain of tears.

I felt like I was going to cry. But I desperately held back my tears.

"Looking forward to working with you, Kyoya-kun."

"Likewise, Shinoaki."