Taki Shiina was inexperienced, and so was Chiose Noshiro.
So their clumsy closeness left them both gasping for breath a minute later.
"Whew... Stupid Taki, loser, loser! Stupid loser!"
Chiose's voice was all pouty affection — her nervousness just now had definitely not been an act.
It was also the first time she'd had a thought like this... Compared to endlessly rewriting the fates of the girls around her, this sort of thing was, as expected, far more difficult.
"Little Chiose... I... I'm sorry, I got carried away."
Taki Shiina kept replaying the feeling in her mind. For the first time, she'd learned there was something sweeter than honey.
"Don't talk about it! I just wanted to, so I did... that's how they always do it on TV, ugh..."
[That's cute, but you can't do this to other people, okay?]
"Of course not, only Taki is special. Taki is my... my ears, Taki is a part of me... We're best friends... the very best... friends..."
Were they really just friends?
That was what Taki thought as she undressed herself.
"Taki..."
Chiose sank most of her body beneath the water's surface, only a small part of her face showing as she spoke drowsily.
"What is it?"
"I... I feel much better, thank you. But I don't have many hearing aids left, so next time don't just rinse them under running water... they'll break."
The way she'd handled the hearing aid so roughly, it was like watching someone torture a prisoner.
"Ahem, I was in too much of a hurry just now, I wasn't thinking."
Not far away, on the washstand, sat the hearing aid that had been ruined by tap water. Taki looked, embarrassed, at the new pair Chiose had just put on.
"Is this pair working alright now?"
"What do you think?!"
The moment Taki's clothes were pushed all the way off, Chiose pulled her close.
Their noses touched, and at last Chiose spoke slowly:
"Little Taki... do you know what it feels like to wear a hearing aid that's broken from water damage?"
"What?"
"It's uncomfortable — you can even hear the sound of static. But... thank you for bringing that broken one home for me. I think, even if that pair is useless now, it can still hold this memory that belongs to just the two of us..."
Chiose's eyes were unwaveringly resolute:
"So, please keep that broken pair safe for me. It's... a mixture of hearing and pain."
The hearing aid Chiose Noshiro had discarded represented Taki Shiina's redemption of her.
That's how it was.
...
Night fell, and outside the rain never stopped.
In Chiose Noshiro's bedroom, the two of them lay curled up together in one bed, resting.
They whispered to each other for a long while, until Taki Shiina, utterly exhausted and overstimulated, was too tired to keep her eyes open, and they finally said goodnight.
It seemed like tonight's story could have ended right there, as far as Chiose was concerned.
But—
Under the moon's watchful gaze, Chiose Noshiro opened her eyes on her own.
Within her golden pupils, five golden rings slowly turned, while a sixth ring was forming, like a child being carried in the womb.
Though it wasn't very obvious yet.
When the tender murmuring faded, Chiose Noshiro's face no longer held any trace of the fragile, pitiful look from before.
She walked to the curtains and, with the same hands that had just embraced Taki Shiina, drew them open, letting moonlight flood the bedroom.
"It seems the third stage has completely begun."
Chiose held up two fingers.
She had set this Simulation into four small stages.
Stage One: the entanglement of fate beginning with the fall into the lake.
Stage Two: the collision of two broken souls after meeting.
"Stage Three is..."
Glancing back at Taki Shiina, still sleeping soundly and snoring softly, Chiose Noshiro did her best to hold back the swirl of feelings inside her.
"Feelings beginning to stir restlessly in the dark..."
My feelings for you will build layer upon layer, all the way until the start of the fourth stage, my...
"Little Taki."
Chiose placed the notebook she had been writing in for years in the most conspicuous spot on the desk. She spent a long time adjusting its angle, and made a point of opening the diary to a particular page.
"Tonight's story hasn't ended at all, you know."
With her hearing aid properly fitted, before stepping out of the bedroom, Chiose let her fingers trail across Taki's delicate profile.
Taki made a soft murmuring sound, then drifted back into deep sleep.
That's how it was.
"Once it reaches stage four, the story will be drawing to a close."
My good girl, do enjoy what might be the most brilliant, happiest stage of your life.
...
"Mmh..."
After some mysterious loud noise, Taki Shiina's eyelashes fluttered a few times as she slowly stirred awake.
Without thinking, she grabbed the phone beside her and checked the time.
"It's only four... Are the neighbors insane, making this much noise?"
Her pretty brows knit together, and Taki tugged the blanket over herself irritably.
Usually when she stayed over at Chiose's house, she slept in the guest room, but today was different.
Today she was sleeping in Chiose's own bed, wrapped in Chiose's scent!
The whole space around her smelled of her best friend Chiose Noshiro, and it thrilled Taki to no end.
Reaching a hand out beside her out of habit — if she remembered right, she'd fallen asleep holding Chiose.
But...
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
"Wait, no! Where's my Chiose?"
Her hand found nothing but empty space; the spot beside her was cold, as if no one had ever lain there at all.
Taki Shiina's eyes snapped open, and by the bright moonlight she took in the whole room at a glance.
Beside her...
There was no Chiose to be found at all!
"Was I dreaming? But isn't this Chiose's house?"
Taki sat up in bed, looking around at the furnishings in confusion.
Since she'd just woken up and her mind hadn't fully booted up yet, Taki Shiina sat at the edge of the bed for a while before she came back to her senses.
She thought:
[Maybe she just got up to use the bathroom... It's fine, I'll wait for her and then go back to sleep.]
Propping up her drowsy head with one arm, Taki felt sleepiness washing over her reason, as if she'd drift off again any second.
But soon, another loud crash jolted her fully awake. She pressed her ear against the wall, trying to figure out exactly where the noise was coming from.
Great, now she was completely unable to fall back asleep.
Putting on the robe Chiose had set out for her, Taki sat at the desk, waiting quietly for Chiose to come back.
But something caught her eye and held it fast.
"What's this?"
A diary?
"Is this Chiose's diary?"
The unmistakable, delicate handwriting and the various doodles Taki knew so well left no doubt whose diary this was.
Taki Shiina swallowed nervously, her hands drifting uncontrollably over the pages.
"Reading someone else's diary... isn't that a pretty bad thing to do?"
Maybe she should just pretend she hadn't seen it and go back to lying down.
Chiose would be back soon... right?
...
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