Time ticked away, and empty beer cans rolled across the floor around them.
Himeko and Kazuki’s cheeks were flushed bright red, and their tongues were a bit thick, yet they still huddled together, pouring out everything hidden in their hearts.
“Su—Suian…” Himeko swayed, unable to even sit steadily.
Her words were slurred, yet she insisted on saying, “Actually, I’m so scared…
I’m so scared of being deleted by you…
But I can’t show it…
I have to be optimistic, I have to smile…
Only this way, only this way, when I’m actually abandoned by you, I won’t look so pathetic…” Kazuki’s head was also spinning.
Hearing this, he chuckled, reached out, and thumped his chest hard, coughing from the impact: “Look at what you’re saying…
I act—actually thought you feared nothing in heaven or earth…
Turns out you were just scaring yourself…
How could I ever throw you away?
You’re my partner…” He stiffened his neck, his voice growing louder: “I!
Kazuki!
Content wherever I am, peace to whoever I meet!
When it comes to valuing relationships and loyalty, I—I have never lost to anyone!” Hearing this, Himeko suddenly slammed the floor, as if realizing something, nearly knocking the beer can out of her hand.
Her eyes lit up brilliantly: “That’s right!
That’s right!
Since that’s the case…
you—you don’t need to try so hard to group up!
You clearly can have so many card friends like me, how could you possibly be lonely!” Kazuki slapped his forehead on the spot, as if he’d suddenly had an epiphany, and shouted along: “Ye—yeah!
You’re absolutely right!
I must be drunk and stupid!
I’m clearly not lonely at all!” A few more bottles went down, and both their gazes began to glaze over.
Himeko simply lay back, flat on the concrete floor of the rooftop.
Her fiery red hair spread out beneath her like a soft red blanket.
Cherry blossom petals, swirled up by the wind, landed in her hair and on her cheeks, but she didn’t move.
“Suian,” her voice was very soft, as light as the cherry blossoms in the wind, yet unusually clear, devoid of the drunken slurring from before, “Do you want to know about…
my life before?” Kazuki was surrounded by a pile of empty beer cans.
He sat cross-legged on the ground, his head tilted and resting on his bent knees.
Hearing this, he mumbled hazily: “Want to…
of course I do.” “Then I’ll tell you.” Himeko’s consciousness drifted again, but perhaps because what she was about to say was too heavy, she tried her best to make herself clear: “I had a dad…
and a mom.” “Sounds like something everyone’s had.” “You’re drunk, don’t interrupt, listen to me continue.” “Mom died of illness when I was very young.
That day…
I was the one keeping watch in the hospital room.
She was just lying there on the bed, her hand slowly turning cold.
I held her hand, held it for a long, long time, until the nurse pulled me away.” Her voice trembled a little, but she was still trying to speak.
“Later…
Dad was probably too busy with work, or perhaps…
he didn’t want to see this face of mine that looked so much like Mom’s.
I went abroad to study, and Dad’s workplace was half a planet away, which made our contact fewer and fewer, so few that…
I could barely remember when the last time he spoke to me was.” “At that time, I always wondered, if I died too, what would Dad do?” Her voice dropped, as if she were telling a secret hidden for over a decade.
“Suian, I don’t know which corner of the universe you came from, nor do I know what it’s like where you’re from.” “But where we are, it seems like for every East Asian child, the most extreme and craziest fantasy about death is imagining that after they die, their parents kneel before their corpse, crying their hearts out, filled with regret.” “I’ve thought about it too, more than once.” “I wondered what his reaction would be if I died in front of Dad.
Would he stop the work he was always too busy to finish?
Would he crouch down and really look at my face?
Would he regret it?
Would he feel guilty?
Would he regret leaving me for so many years in that way, being stingy with even a single sincere word?” “We always say that guilt is the heaviest shackle parents tie to their children, but we children all hide the most extreme thought in our hearts—we want to use our own deaths to firmly shackle that chain back onto our parents.” Speaking of this, her voice finally began to tremble, her clenched fingers digging deep into her palms.
“I thought in this lifetime, this would only ever be a dark, hidden fantasy in my heart.
But I didn’t expect that one day, this absurd thought would actually become reality.” “That day I came home from school and heard an argument on the roof.
It was Dad and Welt.
I heard Dad say he wanted to contact an extraterrestrial civilization and draw them to Earth.
He said the Earth was rotten to the core and only through destruction could it be reborn.” “I was completely stunned at the time.
I couldn’t believe that the man who had been my father for so many years actually wanted to destroy this world with his own hands, destroy countless children like me who were waiting for their parents to come home.” “Later, I went to stop him.
I cried and shouted at him not to do it, but the way he looked at me was as cold as ice.
He said I didn’t understand his ideals and that I was a stumbling block hindering him.” “In the end, he killed me with his own hands.” Tears finally couldn’t be held back, sliding from the corners of her eyes, hitting the cold concrete floor, and melting into the long hair spread across the ground.
Her voice shattered, carrying a sob suppressed for over a decade, and even her breathing trembled along with it.
“I remember until my death that when he killed me, he didn’t even blink.
I fell to the ground, watching his back as he turned and left, without even a word of farewell or a single glance back.” “This…
was my life.” The wind on the rooftop suddenly stilled, and even the cherry blossoms fell more slowly.
Kazuki’s head, which had been resting on his knees, slowly lowered.
Amidst Himeko’s recounting, his dizzy drunkenness turned into substantial sleepiness.
“Hiss—this liquor is way too strong.
My stomach feels like it’s been filled with lava; it’s burning.” Kazuki opened his eyes and found himself still slumped on the concrete floor of the rooftop.
His throat was dry and scratchy, as if he had swallowed sandpaper and it had become inflamed.
Σ _ ( ꒪ ཀ ꒪ ] ∠ ) Ugh!
He couldn’t hold it anymore, stumbled toward the edge of the rooftop, half-knelt on the ground, and almost threw up the acid in his stomach.
After finishing, Kazuki turned back and saw Himeko lying on the ground, sprawled out, her eyes rolled back from drinking, and his anger flared up.
With a clatter, his arms as limp as noodles, he grabbed an empty beer can and threw it at Himeko.
It just made a sound, causing zero damage.
“You natural-born drunkard, I’m never letting you touch alcohol again!” Kazuki got angry just thinking about it.
Before, this person had thumped her chest and said this liquor was like sweet water, constantly urging him to drink a few more cans.
As a result, the aftereffect of the liquor kicked in.
He only felt parched, his brain felt like it had been filled with paste and was out of control.
The thirstier he got, the more he drank; the more he drank, the thirstier he got, and he completely blacked out.
He couldn’t be bothered to argue with a drunkard anymore.
With a thought, he exited the Card Space, didn’t even stay in the System Space for long, and switched back to the real world in a second.
Time in reality hadn’t moved at all; it was exactly the same as before he entered the Card Space.
Just then, the system panel in front of him suddenly jumped, and the status of the [Student Himeko] card had actually updated.
[Student Himeko] [Card Status: Can Transform, Wish Fulfilled, Stored in Card Slot] Kazuki’s head heated up; he subconsciously gripped the [Student Himeko] card and, without a second thought, clicked summon.
A white light flashed before his eyes, and the next second, a sleeping beauty was lying straight on the floor, her whole body wrapped in the strong scent of alcohol.
It was none other than [Student Himeko].