It was time for the library to close. I had to leave.

I bought some food on my way home.

I shut my door and locked it right away.

Then, I heard the door of the neighboring apartment open.

Kasai lived next door.

...Nobody else lived on this floor of the nearly empty apartment building anyway.

I clearly heard the door open and close.

Kasai must've noticed that I came home, and was coming over because he wanted to talk to me.

I unlocked the door and shouted out to him.

"Is that you, Kasai?

I'll leave the door unlocked for you."

"I'm not Kasai-san, Shion."

That voice...

I twitched.

"Can I come in...?"

"......Sure,

Sis."

The door slowly opened.

......My alter ego Mion Sonozaki appeared.

She was holding a box of cake...

While smiling timidly.

"......Are you going to keep standing there until I escort you?

Come in.

Sorry this room doesn't look very cute."

"...It looks comfortable."

Sis looked a bit tense when entering my room. It was her first time here.

"How's life...?"

"My new school is as boring as I thought it would be.

I usually go, but I skip classes when I don't feel up to it.

I couldn't do that when I was going to St. Lucia's."

"Ahahahahaha.

So St. Lucia's was really tough, huh?"

"Hah, you should go there sometime."

"Ahaha, sorry.

I brought cake. Let's eat."

Mion opened the box. I saw two cheesecakes there.

We have the same taste in food,

so we don't have to fight if we get two of the same thing.

I chatted with her over the cheesecake.

I talked to her about school and whatnot.

"If you need furniture, tell me.

I might be able to get some for you."

"Hmm.

I finally got used to this room, but I might move out soon. So furniture won't be necessary. Thanks, though.

Dad wants me to come back home...

I don't want to live with him, but he sounds desperate."

"Ahahahaha.

He'd be pleased if you came home. He looked lonely while you were gone."

"Hah, you can only say that because you don't have to live with him."

"Ahahahahaha."

Come to think of it, this was the first time I'd talked to Sis since I was allowed to live as Shion Sonozaki.

She didn't look like how she was at the Sonozaki house that day.

The successor of the Sonozaki family and my twin sister are two different people.

The demon lives inside the leader of the Sonozakis.

Our bodies are exactly the same, except for the tattoo of a demon on her back.

Mion's destiny as the successor was set in stone when she got that tattoo.

.........It's pretty simple.

The Mion from that night was different from the Mion before me.

When I was forced to tear off my fingernails, I'd momentarily despised her.

But if I were the next leader of the family...

I'd have done the same.

"......Shion...

how are... your fingernails?"

"The wounds have closed.

I don't bandage them anymore because it looks too conspicuous...

but my nails still look ugly, so I don't really like showing them to people..."

I sneered at her, displaying my incomplete fingernails.

Mion grew quiet and looked down.

"......You don't have to apologize.

You did what you had to do.

You just played the role of the successor.

I'm not holding any grudges."

".........I'm sorry..."

"Okay!

Apology accepted.

But!

If you apologize one more time, that'll be canceled!

I won't forgive you for the rest of my life!"

"Huh?!

What do you mean...?!"

"Once you start apologizing, you never stop,

so I'm cutting you off."

"...Will you really forgive me...?

About Satoshi-kun, as well...?"

My heart ached when she mentioned his name.

...It felt just like the ache of an old wound.

"...I figured you loved him."

"No wonder. I shouted it out loud in front of all of you.

I'm not embarrassed anymore.

Ahahahaha."

"Granny truly believes you've atoned.

She thinks you've done all you needed to do,

so the matter is finished."

"......That's good.

My pain won't go to waste, then."

"I wonder where... Satoshi-kun disappeared to, though..."

I started choking when I heard her say that.

I'd just said it to her myself...

I said that I'd forgiven her completely...

but that promise instantly evaporated...

Just because of what she said, I felt like I'd turned into a completely different person...

...What did you just say, Mion...?

Did you say 'I wonder where Satoshi-kun disappeared to'...?

Who else could know other than you and your folks?

What did you say...?

Where did he go......?

I felt my eyeballs reddening in anger. It felt as though they were about to pop.

I choked on a burning sensation in my throat.

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

Mion's expression rapidly changed.

It looked like she noticed the devil's mask on my face.

We were one and the same.

...We could understand each other's thoughts without voicing them.

So showing our expressions was like unveiling everything in our hearts to the other.

"......Uh...... s-sorry......"

Even though I'd told her not to apologize anymore, Mion apologized.

...I felt like strangling her...

I was going to make her confess where she'd hid Satoshi-kun...

If she told me she threw him into the Onigafuchi Swamp, I'd strangle her to death right then and there......!!!

"I really don't know... what happened to Satoshi-kun..."

That's a lie.

"...It's true...

Granny doesn't know anything either...

Please believe me...!"

"That's a lie...

Are you saying that Oyashiro-sama's curse demoned him away?

There can't be a curse... There can't be..."

Words kept coming out of my mouth, like I was chanting a spell.

...I wasn't speaking by my own will anymore.

It was the demon...... who was controlling me.

The demon that'd been sleeping deep inside me woke up and was speaking through my mouth.

My hands... I mean, the demon's hands grabbed Mion by the neck.

"You guys demoned Satoshi-kun away...!

You and the Sonozaki family!!

Give him back to me!!

Give him back!!!"

My hands slowly but surely squeezed Mion's neck...

Mion put her hands onto mine.

...I looked at her fingers.

Three of the fingernails on her left hand looked as ugly as mine.

"......Mion?

What's this...?"

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

She didn't have to answer...

She had the same scars as I did...

She atoned as well.

The way those wounds were healing looked the same as mine.

...So, did she get these wounds around the same time as I did...?

".........It was unfair that only you had to go through that... hic... I felt so bad... hic...!"

Mion started sobbing......

...I stood there, petrified, still wringing Mion's neck.

"...Since I found out you loved Satoshi-kun...

I really wanted you to be happy...

hic... because...

it's always only you who has to suffer, even though we're twins... hic...!"

It didn't come as a surprise to me that Mion might also have loved Satoshi-kun as I did.

...We've always liked the same stuff, and even the same people.

She was stupid enough to feel obligated...

toward someone like me.

"I...

I told Granny to leave you and Satoshi-kun alone...

I shouted at her...!!

Hic...!

Then she said she'd let you be if you atoned with sincerity... hic!

And you did!

So... you were supposed to live happily with him...

but... Satoshi-kun has gone away......

That's terrible...

That's... hic...!"

Mion isn't smart enough to shed crocodile tears.

Those tears were real.

......Her tears dissolved my demon's anger like how the sun melts ice...

"Believe me, Shion......

I really don't know why Satoshi-kun disappeared......

Neither Granny nor the Sonozaki family have anything to do with it!

Granny forgave you,

so she would never do anything to him......!"

".....................Mion, I'm so sorry...

did I hurt you...?"

I took my hands off her neck and held her instead.

"...Hic... I'm not hurt...

You've been hurt a lot more than me, haven't you...?

Hic..."

......I shouted at the demon in my mind.

I believed in Mion.

I had been convinced it was the Sonozaki family that made Satoshi-kun disappear.

But Mion denied it

while shedding tears.

Between her and me, her tears are more convincing than any words.

So, I'd believe in her.

It absolutely wasn't the Sonozaki family that made him disappear.

So... do you really think that Satoshi-kun disappeared because of Oyashiro-sama's curse?

...I don't believe in curses!!

And Mion didn't do it!

If it wasn't the curse or the Sonozaki family, who demoned him away...?

I don't know!

I just know it's not Mion!

It's not the Sonozaki family because Mion says so!!

That's stupid, Shion......

Are you going to ignore Satoshi-kun's voice...?

I know, I know!!

You don't have to remind me, demon! I can hear his voice!!

I know he's mumbling with an ambivalent expression, like he always used to do...... even though he knows help won't come...!!

I'll help him no matter what!!

I'll save him if he's alive!!

I'll avenge him if he's dead!!

But Mion didn't do it!

You just want to take it out on somebody. It doesn't matter who!!

But I'm Shion, not a demon!

You're only a part of me!!

Don't try to take control!!

Fuck off!!

Don't ever show up again...!!

The demon faded away...

My body went limp... and I fell to the floor while holding Mion.

"...Shion... are you all right...?"

"...I'm all right now... Mion."

"...Why are we two different individuals...?

Why can't we just be one...?"

"Stop it...

we've asked ourselves that so many times...

but there's no answer...

I'm Shion and you're Mion...

that's just how it is."

"I don't care if I'm Mion or Shion...

I just want to be one and equal with you..."

"......There's nothing we can do...

You have the demon on your back...

You're destined to become the successor...

and we can't change that."

"I don't want that...

I don't need a demon. I don't want it......

I'm not a demon, I'm not...

I want to be a human like you......"

Mion is a demon, and Shion is a human.

...Even though we're twins, there's a difference between us.

Was it impossible for humans to live with demons after all...?

......It should be possible...

because they did it before.

That's the legend of Hinamizawa...

Humans and demons lived in harmony together,

as Oyashiro-sama watched over them.

......Mion.

Shion...

Satoshi-kun...

Demons... Humans...

Oyashiro-sama's curse... The series of mysterious deaths...

Satoshi-kun's disappearance...

We fell asleep while holding each other...

While holding everything...