"...So, that's it..."

Rena finished making her confession.

There was no applause or curtain call.

...It was a quiet and lonely stage that Rena performed on alone.

I think... I'd forgotten to blink since her confession started.

Everybody else seemed to be feeling the same way.

Rena looked at us

like she was a teacher waiting for questions from her students.

We noticed that she was imitating what Chie-sensei does at the end of class, and we all smiled bitterly.

"...I went to Yagouchi earlier

to find a place to bury these bags.

It was hard to pick a place because I wanted to make sure that nobody would ever find them.

I even thought about burying them in my backyard, because it might be the safest.

...But after I thought about it, I knew that wouldn't work.

My father might start planting vegetables one day, and he might find them.

So, it's better that I bury them somewhere in the mountains.

Plus, I don't ever want to let her near my father, even though she's dead."

I felt like I did something very bad...

...Rena's plan was going smoothly.

If I'd only hunted for the mahjong tiles instead of insisting on doing something else... this wouldn't have happened...

When I looked at the others, they all seemed to be regretting their actions too.

If Mion hadn't come up with the idea to play at the garbage dump...

If Satoko hadn't found the broken refrigerator...

If Rika-chan had convinced us not to go...

Rena could've had a few more days, and she could've gotten rid of these trash bags. They never would've been found.

Then what would've happened next?

...Nothing.

Everything would've remained the same.

We could've kept having happy and peaceful days.

Rena had been through a hard time, but she'd been forcing her face into a smile for us.

The fake smile was supposed to become a real smile one day.

...None of us were supposed to notice that Rena was going through a hard time.

After a while... Rena was supposed be able to forget the bitter memory of killing these two, and she was supposed to live as if nothing had happened.

But now, all of her effort, all her courage...

had been ruined...!

"I know killing people is a bad thing to do.

...I didn't want to do this, and I don't want to do it again in the future.

But... I believe this was the best solution, and I also believe I didn't do anything wrong.

I just applied my utmost efforts when God presented me with the equal opportunity to regain my happy, peaceful life!

Saying we should accept suffering and live an immaterial life without desires is nothing more than pretty words from those who have plenty!

Nobody can belittle my efforts!!

Rather, they should praise me for what I did!

They should celebrate for me!

Rena Ryuugu fought for her own fate.

And she won!!"

...I don't know why I did it, but I interrupted her.

I shouldn't have.

But I thought I needed to tell her this. So, I did.

"But Rena...

Why...

Why didn't you tell us?"

"...What do you mean?"

"We're friends,

aren't we?

Friends are always on your side without exception, no matter what. I thought friends were like family!

...If you told us about it, we could've helped you.

Then you wouldn't have had to get your hands dirty!"

What Rena told us made me sad.

I couldn't help myself from saying that to her.

Rena told us straight that she did the best she could.

She told us that right to our faces.

That's the same thing as saying that

she didn't need us

in order to do the best she could.

"...Kei-chan, you can say that now, but..."

"Wait, let me finish.

I believe that friends are there to share both happiness and hardship!

If you came to talk to us, I believe we could've done something different, and we could've led you to a better future!"

"A better future?

There's no better future than what I have right now.

This is the best possible future."

"That's a lie!!!"

My shout seemed to scare her a little.

I knew... that Rena didn't believe that this was the best possible future.

She just didn't have any other choice.

If she'd had other choices, she definitely wouldn't have chosen this one.

"I know you don't believe that... because you're crying!!"

"What?!

Who's crying?

Me?!

I'm not crying!"

"Yes you are!!

You've been crying the whole time!

Haven't you noticed it?!"

In fact, I didn't see any tears in her eyes or on her face at all.

But that didn't mean she wasn't crying.

Rena was crying.

She was crying because she was driven into a corner after all the hard work she did to become happy. Her tears looked so sad.

Anyone who couldn't see those tears wasn't really thinking about her...!

"I'm not crying.

Ahahahahaha, I won't cry.

I did the right thing. I made the right choice.

There's no reason for me to cry.

Ahahahaha,

that's ridiculous.

I have no idea what you're talking about, Keiichi.

Ahahahahaha."

"I know it......

You're crying right noooow!!!"

Rena stopped laughing all of a sudden, and she spoke with a cold expression on her face.

"Okay.

Let's say I did what you just told me.

I told you all about my father and that woman.

Then what?"

".........Well...

umm..."

"Then what?

Umm?"

...Rena had never talked to me like this before.

...It was as if she was mocking my ignorance, and that made me shut my mouth...

"You don't know what happened last year."

"...Last year?"

"Yeah.

Last year.

...It happened in June of 1982.

There was someone who had no choice but to kill a person to free himself from his misfortune."

Satoko gasped.

"Keiichi-kun, I don't think you know much about him.

About Satoshi Houjou-kun."

...I know that he's Satoko's older brother.

He's been missing, ...but people say he transferred.

...There's a rumor that he killed his aunt for Satoko's sake.

Therefore, it's been taboo to talk about Satoshi in my class... actually, in all of Hinamizawa.

"Satoshi-kun was under the same conditions... as I was.

He just wanted to have happy and peaceful days.

He just wanted to live peacefully and quietly with his sister.

...You've heard about what kind of person Satoko-chan's aunt was, haven't you?"

...If what I've heard is true, this is what happened:

After Satoko lost her parents, her uncle and aunt got custody of her and her brother, but they were miserable people.

Her aunt was especially cruel to Satoko.

Satoshi was the kind of guy who wouldn't even hurt a fly.

...But his aunt probably was the only one whom he didn't have a problem killing. That's how terrible a person she was.

"Everybody in Hinamizawa knew about the trouble the Houjou family had.

Everybody knew that their aunt was a hysterical and crazy person, and that she bullied Satoshi-kun and Satoko-chan.

Everybody knew everything.

Everybody in our class knew it, too.

Mii-chan, the future head of the three families knew it. Rika-chan knew it. And Satoko-chan knew it too, of course. Because she was the one experiencing it.

The 'friends' you're talking about knew what Satoshi-kun was going through more than anybody in Hinamizawa.

...And what happened?

Did anybody help Satoshi-kun?

No, nobody did.

Mii-chan had the most influence out of all of us, but she made up a lame excuse, saying that it might create a conflict between the Sonozaki family and the villagers. In the end, all she did was hurting him by offering her sympathy!"

"Th...That's not true...!!"

"Yes, it is!!!

...Satoshi-kun knew it, too.

He knew that you were only pretending to sympathize with him. He knew that you had no intention to help him.

That's why Satoshi-kun started to hate you, Mii-chan.

He said that you always told him you were his friend, but after all that, you turned out to be just another Sonozaki, just another person who bullied the Houjou family!!"

"I... I didn't mean to...!"

"You didn't do anything to help him!!!

You rejected his request for help by sympathizing with him!!

Do you have any idea how much that hurt?"

Mion tried to find something to say... but failed to do so.

...She bit her lip instead.

"Rika-chan, you were the same, too."

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

Now Rena was pointing fingers at Rika-chan.

...Unlike Mion, Rika-chan looked emotionless and empty, just like Rena did.

"Rika-chan, you don't have the kind of power in Hinamizawa that Mii-chan does.

But your word carries a lot of weight with the old people who come to your shrine, don't they?!

There was something you could've done for him, but you didn't!!"

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

"Rika-chan, you did exactly the same thing as Mii-chan did.

You just pretended to be his friend!!

All you did was sympathize with him and Satoko-chan!!

You didn't try to help them out of the trouble they were in!!

Can you imagine how cruel and merciless your sympathy was to them?!

Satoshi-kun wanted help.

He wanted somebody to help him!

He was at a dead end and couldn't get out of there by himself!! He was sinking all the way down to his neck in a swamp, reaching for help, and waiting for someone to grab his hand!!"

"......You're right."

Rika-chan's voice sounded mature. It was very different from how she usually sounded.

"......I didn't know how to save them. All I could do was to offer them some consolation.

I'm not going to deny it, nor am I going to make excuses for my sin of not trying hard enough to find a way to save them."

"I didn't know you knew..."

Rena gave her a twisted smile.

...That ugliness caused me to look away.

"And Satoko-chan.

I don't know if you'll believe me when I say this, but...

you're weighed down with sin, too."

I didn't understand why she was blaming Satoko. I tried to take her side... but I gasped in surprise when I looked at her.

She looked like... she was accepting the sin that Rena had mentioned.

Satoko must have wanted to confess her sin before Rena pointed it out to her.

And so, Satoko opened her mouth first.

"...I don't know if you'll believe me when I tell you this either, but

...............

I realized it on my own.

I know what my sin is."

"...............I see."

"I realized it on that night Nii-nii disappeared.

...I wish I'd realized it while he was still there......"

"......I understand how you feel.

That sense that it was too late for regrets... right? I feel the same way.

It happened to me before. That's why I fought this time.

...Satoko-chan, I'm sure you can atone for your guilt in the future.

Because you realized what you did."

"......

But... that won't bring Nii-nii back.

He's not coming back."

Satoko looked down sadly.

...Usually, Satoko would say the opposite.

She always said that Satoshi was coming back one day without a doubt.

......But now... she accepted the fact that he would never return.

......She accepted it easily, as if she knew it already... because he's her brother.

"Do you understand now?"

She asked me all of a sudden.

"That's how they were in 1982.

Satoshi-kun talked to everybody he thought could help him.

He told them that he needed help. He told them what he was going through.

He consulted with them.

He even came to me, even though I had just moved here at that time.

I don't think it was embarrassing or shameful that he did that.

...People get desperate when they're unhappy!

Satoshi-kun tried very hard.

But he couldn't do anything about the situation, and he asked for help!

He kept asking for help!!

You said that friends are always on your side no matter what. But this is what 'friends' really are!

They're actually just people you hang around with for fun!

They don't help you when you need them!!

Friends are always like that!!

That's why I decided not to tell anybody when I found out that I was in the same situation as Satoshi-kun!

I knew that nobody would help me and that nobody could!!

I didn't need sympathy. It only makes me feel worse!!

It's better that I, at least, have fun at school.

In fact, I did have fun at school.

I was very happy.

I was able to forget about the trouble I had with that woman, even if only for a short amount of time at school!!

I wish Satoshi-kun could have done that too!

If he did, he wouldn't have had to feel constantly hopeless, and he could've at least enjoyed his time at school.

He didn't have any other choice than beating his aunt to death anyway!!

...I didn't know how to help him at that time because I just moved here.

All I could do was to listen to him and try to make him feel better.

But there might've been something more I could've done... I might've been lazy in thinking about what I could do.

But at that time, in 1982, I thought I was his friend.

...Ahahahahaha.

Ahahahahahahahaha!

Ahh ha ha ha ha ha ha!!

Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha...!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!

Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Rena's self-derisive laughter changed into grievous sobs...

Her tears gradually wore away at our relationship of trust...

Nobody will help me.

Friends are just people whom you have fun with. You can't trust them.

...The more Rena cried... the clearer we heard her voice in her heart...

Mion, Satoko, and Rika-chan... looked into the distance with sad expressions on their faces.

...I was the only one who could say anything back to her now.

I had to tell her this.

...And she knew it, too.

She just needed to hear it from someone.

I braced myself to tell her something that might hurt everybody.

"...I understand, Rena.

I understand what happened in 1982."

".........Nn?"

"I understand that they were heartless.

But Satoko also told you this.

They realized their sins.

They regretted what they did and didn't do!

So, it should be different this time.

They can understand your pain, and they can help you...!!"

"You weren't here last year. I'm afraid you don't know what you're talking about."

"That's right!

I wasn't here last year.

I wish I were!!

If I was here last year,

I would've fought for Satoshi!!"

"You're lying!!!!"

"I'm not lying!!!!

I've learned how important friends are since I moved to Hinamizawa.

I'll fight for my friends!!

If I was here last year and knew what Satoko's aunt did to her and Satoshi, I wouldn't have given Satoshi the opportunity to beat her to death!!

I would've done it myself!!

I would've done it in 1500 seconds!!

I wouldn't have even hesitated!!

I would've beaten her to death with a metal bat!!"

"Th-That's easy for you to say!

But you don't know the kind of determination you need to kill another person...!"

"I don't know that, and I don't need to know that, either!!!

You know why? Because it's an obligation to help your friends!!!"

"You don't understand, Keiichi-kun!!

You don't know how disgusting it is to kill a person. You can never get rid of the dirt on your hands, no matter how hard you try to justify it!!!"

"You're right.

Killing a person in order to save your friends is such short-sighted way of thinking.

...It might sound like I'm contradicting myself, but I think things aren't meant to go well when you take care of an evil matter by doing an evil deed.

I'm proud of my conviction that I wouldn't hesitate to kill a person for the sake of my friends.

But...

the peace I get by doing an evil deed won't last forever.

We all know that by instinct... That's why we all despise evil things, I think."

"............What?

I have no idea what you're talking about."

She didn't have to tell me that... I was aware I wasn't making any sense.

But...

for some reason...

I could easily imagine a world like that.

A world in which I saved my precious friends by committing an evil act.

...The peace I seized by doing that evil deed didn't last long.

...It got worse. It ended in a way as terrible as the sin I committed...

This was a memory that shouldn't exist.

...I don't know why,

but I know for a fact that it happened

in that world of possibility.

"...I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm talking about."

For some weird reason, I couldn't prevent myself from smiling in embarrassment even in a situation like this.

"But you know it too, don't you, Rena?

...You know that you didn't want to get your hands dirty.

You're crying because you wanted us to help you, but we didn't.

...You didn't want to be a murderer.

You're lying when you claim that this was the best choice you could have made!

That's why you've been crying!!!"

"That's not true!!!

That's not true

that's not true

that's not true

that's not true!!!"

"You know better than anybody if it's true or not!!

You've been regretting this from the beginning!!

Even if you were able to hide the corpses without getting caught, you could never have washed the blood off your hands.

How are you going to fool yourself into believing that you won't have to live the rest of your life bearing the burden of your sin?!

There's only one way to do that!

You have to believe that this was the only choice!!

That means you have to live your life denying your friends, and denying that your friends are worth asking for help!!!

Are we worth nothing to you, Rena?

Of course not!

You always believed that friends exist to help each other!

Your friends were immature last year.

That's why they couldn't help Satoshi from his unfortunate fate.

But people grow up.

We don't make the same mistake twice. We don't want to regret the same thing twice!

So... believe me!!

We're your friends!!

We're on your side!!!"

".........Haha...

...ahahahahaha.

.........So what you're saying...

is that I was immature too, right?"

"Yeah, I am.

You were immature because you couldn't believe that your friends grew up.

But I'm not going to blame you for that.

...We didn't notice until today that you've been going through such a hard time all alone.

......People can communicate their feelings only by talking to others.

So, there was nothing we could do, because we didn't talk.

......In that sense... it's hard to say it, but we have to admit that this was meant to happen today in order to make your choice the best one for real."

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

"We finally talked about our feelings.

We now know that you've been distrusting your friends since last year, and that everybody regretted both what they did and didn't do!!

So now, we finally became true friends!!"

"......

Finally...

but it's too late.

We only notice our sins after it's too late."

"That's not necessarily true.

For example... As your friend, I can understand the things you've done... this time!"

"...What do you mean

by that...?"

"I understand that depriving people of their lives is an unforgivable crime.

But I also understand that my friend, Rena, had no other choice but to do this!!

So, I don't think you're filthy, and I'm not scared of you!!

If something like this happens again, we should talk and think about what we can do together.

But this already happened, and I understand that!

When I say I understand, I mean I forgive you.

...I don't hate you for what you did!!"

I said that to everybody this time.

I said it to all my friends.

"I accept what Rena did.

I accept that she had no choice other than to do this, and that this was her last resort after thinking it through many times.

So...

I'm going to side with her...!"

"...Kei-chan..."

"Of course, if she killed them for money or some other stupid reason, I'd drag her to the police!

But that wasn't why Rena did this.

She couldn't run away, and she thought it through before she came to this point!!

If she's guilty of anything, she's only guilty for not talking to us about it beforehand.

But

I forgive her for that too!

I forgive her for coming to this point!!!"

"......Keiichi."

"So!!

I beg you all!

Please forgive me for not noticing Rena's situation and for letting her go through it alone.

My sin is that I allowed a day like today to come to pass!"

"...Keiichi-san..."

"We're the only ones who know about these bags.

If we keep it to ourselves, everything will be fine.

Rena doesn't have to worry about a thing.

Let's hide them somewhere like she planned.

We'll cleanse ourselves with salt later, and that's it!!

Let's forgive each other for our sins.

And then we'll regain our happy and peaceful days!!

This is it, right?

Rena, this is the future you chose,

right?

This is the best possible choice, right?"

"

.........K-

Keiichi-kun

......"

I jumped on the hood of the abandoned car Rena was standing on, and I reached for her hands.

"Admit it!!

This is the world you wanted!!

This is the choice you wanted to make!!!

But, this is something that you can't choose by yourself.

All of us have to reach for each other's hands, so that Rena can make the choice.

...In other words, I can't make it happen by myself!

I need everybody to reach for each other's hands!!

So, Rena!!

You need to do it, too!!!

When all of us hold hands together, that's when you can go to the world that exists beyond the choice you made!!!"

"......K

-Keiichi-kun, I appreciate it...

if you really mean it...!

But...

but!

I'm not sure if that's what everybody else wants."

A little hand touched mine.

It... was Rika-chan.

"Rika-chan...!"

"......Rena, you aren't filthy.

.........You didn't give up.

You seized your fate, even though you had to dirty your hands to do it.

I have no reason not to accept you..."

Rika-chan's small hand was strong... and she spoke eloquently.

"......I know how comfortable it feels to be stained by disappointment at everything in this world, after getting lost in a maze of misfortune.

That's why I can understand how strong you are and how hard you fought, alone, without giving up.

I'm proud of having you in my life.

I agree with Keiichi.

I forgive you for your sin.

So, please forgive me for mine, too."

".........Rika-chan......"

"...I'm just a little girl without any power, but I could've fought.

I'll not give up on my fate.

I'll fight like you did.

So, I ask you to accept me as your friend."

Rika-chan usually acts childish, but now she was like a totally different person.

...She meant every word she was saying.

And then, another little hand reached out to ours.

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

"......Satoko."

Satoko put her hand over mine and Rika-chan's. She didn't say anything, looking down for a while.

Rika-chan urged her to speak.

"...Rika and I...

lost both our parents.

...We never cried about it, however.

...Because we have you,

a family

made of friends."

"......"

"I want us to continue to be a family for you.

...It's natural to get it all out and to confess everything to your family because, well, they are your family.

So, I think today was a great opportunity for us.

I appreciate that we had the chance to forgive each other for our sins."

"...A family made of friends. ...Satoko, I like that!"

"I forgive you for your sin, Rena-san.

...Please forgive me for mine, too."

A big hand reached out for ours.

It was Mion's.

"...I always thought it was my job as the leader of this club...

to talk about the importance of friends...

So... I guess I'm not that good a leader after all, huh?

Dahahahaha..."

"...Mion."

"...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make fun of you."

Mion still smiled and scratched her head.

"...Rena, I'm ashamed of myself, as your friend, and as the club president, for not being able to notice what you've been through.

I'd like you to forgive me for that.

...Of course, I also forgive you for not telling us about it.

You couldn't tell me because I wasn't good enough for you.

I thought I was trying to be a good leader for you, but I guess I wasn't doing my job.

It's my fault.

So, I

forgive you for your sin, Rena."

"Rena!!

Now you have all of our hands!!

We're all ready for you!!

It's your turn!

Reach out for us!

Come to us!!

This is the world you wanted!

You have all of our hands right here for you to reach!!

So, don't hesitate!!!"

"...I'm a murderer...

I'll get you guys into trouble..."

"......Rena... We are..."

"Rika-chan, you don't need to say anything."

"......"

"We're all reaching for your hand!!

What else do we need to say or prove?

Rena, you don't need to say anything!!

All you need to do is to reach out for us!!!"

"............Ah

........."

"Come on, Rena!!!

This is real!!

It's not too late!!

You still have choices you can make!

So, choose!!

You can still make it!!

Come on!!

It's not too late to start over again!!!"

Rena slowly reached out

............

and her hand touched ours.

She didn't hold our hands.

All she needed to do was to touch our hands to show us her will.

Rena chose to live, to share her life with her friends, rather than to refuse them for the rest of her life.

I took a step closer to her, and firmly grabbed her wrist!

It was getting dark, and some stars had appeared in the sky.

......We all...... forgave each other for our sins for the first time.

...And it was a little embarrassing...... but Rena's tears made us all cry, and we just kept crying together.

We stood in a circle, holding each other by the shoulder, and putting our heads together in the middle.

...We are a family made of friends. We forgave each other, and were happy together.

...There's a memory in the back of my mind, but it's not supposed to exist.

I tried to save one of my friends in that world.

In order to do that, I rejected all of my other friends.

I acted recklessly alone...

and I brought about the end of the world.

The situation we had here is the same as the incident in that far-away world, in the sense that people have been deprived of their lives in order to save one friend of mine.

But other than that... it was different.

We have Rena,

Mion,

Satoko,

Rika-chan,

and myself.

Nobody was missing.

We were going to regain them.

We were going to regain those happy and peaceful days!

The road going there might be a little rough.

...But we'll walk it together.

We all will.

We went to the place in the mountains of Yagouchi that Rena had picked for burying the bags.

Carrying corpses is a scary thing to do, but it made us united more strongly because of that.

Since each part of the corpses is in a separate plastic trash bag, we can tell what's inside in each bag by touching it. First, we forced ourselves to laugh whenever we had to touch the bodies, because we were scared. But after a while, we got used to it, to the point where we could make jokes about it.

...Of course, all of that was probably a bluff,

but we all tried our best.

Mion somehow had detailed knowledge of how to hide corpses, and she told me to dig the hole deeper.

Rika-chan helped to carry the bags.

Satoko used her talent of setting traps to perfectly camouflage the place where we buried the bags.

Me?

I was in charge of digging the hole.

Rena dug it earlier, but I made it a little deeper.

After we finished all that, we walked back to the place where we parked our bicycles, and we looked back at the place where we buried the bags.

...It was completely unnoticeable.

We'd never be able to find the place again once we left for home.

That's how perfect it looked.

"Great!

Thank you all for your hard work!

We're done here.

It's time to go home."

Mion said it cheerfully, as if we just finished club activities or something.

We had no more bags to carry, and we no longer had any burden to carry either.

We got on our bicycles, but Rena was still standing there, looking into the distance.

"Hey, Rena."

".........What?

Ah... I'm sorry.

...I think I caught a cold or something. I feel feverish and dizzy...

Ahahahaha..."

Rena's face looked slightly red.

Mion touched Rena's forehead. It actually was a little warm.

...She had a tough day today.

...She had to go through so many things.

She had to find a place to hide the corpses.

She had to dig a hole.

...We caught her with the bags.

...We talked about our feelings.

...And we forgave each other.

She must be exhausted after a day like that.

"Rena, you should rest well when you get home."

"...Yes, thank you.

I will."

"...Rena, we forgave each other for everything.

So, don't blame yourself anymore, okay?"

"Ahahahahahaha.

......You were right about me."

"...What do you mean?"

".........I couldn't fool myself.

No matter how hard I tried to justify what I did... I was still scared.

Look at me. I'm still shaky, even with all the help I got from you.

...If you hadn't found me with the corpses, if I'd taken care of this alone...

I wouldn't have been able to bear the burden. I'm pretty sure I would've been crushed by the pressure."

She said all this with a bitter smile.

It might take her a long time to heal from the pain.

......But it must be 100 times shorter than the time it would have taken if she did this all alone.

Rena's home was the closest from here. Rena went her way, and the four of us were left behind.

Mion made a suggestion.

"I think we should just forget...

about today.

What do you think?"

"I agree.

I think that would be best for Rena-san, too."

"......Rena is a strong girl.

If we act like nothing happened, she'll act that way too."

"If you keep acting for long enough, it becomes real, right?"

"We'll be able to forget by not talking about it.

Our goal is to forget about it completely."

"......I think we'll keep wondering whether or not the day of reckoning will come for the rest of our lives."

"You're probably correct...

It's not going to be so easy to simply let it go."

"Even if I can't forget about it for the rest of my life, that's fine by me.

...The most important thing is to keep it in my heart forever."

"The most important thing is that we don't make her think about it."

We nodded in agreement, just as my house came into view.

"Well, this is goodbye.

See you at school.

Just like always!"

"...Just like always."

"I will set a perfect trap for you just like always!"

"Ah ha ha!

Goodbye, Kei-chan."

After I parted with them, I still felt hot...

and dizzy.

It felt really weird.

I was even staggering to the front door.

...I felt as if I was floating in the air, like I just took some very strong cold medicine.

Today, something very shocking, something that made me super happy, and something very embarrassing happened to me...

...I felt as if

my heart and mind were about to explode because they were filled to the brim with both happiness and sadness.

I don't know whether I made a crucial mistake today, or if I had the happiest day of my life.

I don't know which it is, and all I could do was to stare blankly into space.

I felt frustrated, too.

Even though they were my friends, I was caught in the act of abandoning the corpses.

But at the same time, I felt relieved that my reliable friends accepted what I did.

Those emotions were all mixed up in my heart...

and they were equally strong, making it difficult for me to decide what I was feeling.

I was losing my sense of balance. It was like the world was warping around me. I heard sounds as if I was in a shower. Everything left me with a feeling of unreality.

When those emotions were about to make me lose control... I felt a heat on my wrist.

The part where Keiichi-kun grabbed me earlier started throbbing.

My feelings weren't cooperating with me... but the heat on my wrist calmed them down for me.

...I don't know how to express what I felt when my friends and I held shoulders together in a circle earlier.

But... the feeling was the only thing I knew to be real.

"......I'm home.

......Huh?"

As soon as I opened the front door, I smelled it.

It smelled really good.

My father isn't good at cooking, but he likes trying to cook creative dishes. I remember he used to cook something very challenging whenever he was in a good mood.

...So, this smell was a sign that he felt that way.

That's why I always liked this smell.

The reason he's in a good mood is because he found a job.

And not just any job. He found a job with a company created by friends from his old workplace.

They remembered my father and promised to hire him.

He told me that some of his other colleagues from the old company are also working there.

...It must be very encouraging for him to work with people he knows, because he hasn't worked for a long time.

The dinner looked great, in contrast to how it tasted.

It was a dinner to celebrate his new life,

to show his determination, to regain his bond with his daughter, and to make a clean start.

I talked about a lot of things with my father that night.

It had been a long time since the last time I talked with him like this.

...I don't remember when it was, but it reminded me of the days I was still happy.

Which meant... that I'd finally returned to that time.

My father still believes that Teppei is coming back one day. So, he's still very cautious about locking the doors and windows, and he gets scared every time someone rings the doorbell.

I told him so many times that they'd never come back... but I couldn't convince him, because I couldn't tell him the reason why they won't.

He'll eventually realize that he's free.

I'm sure it won't take too long.

My heart

was full of

many

many emotions that day.

If emotion could actually burst a heart open, it might happen to me.

My brain must have been overworked because so many things happened at once...

My head was still fuzzy, but I managed to crawl into bed.

I felt like the ground was moving. I totally lost my sense of reality.

...I remember that I once felt like this when I got the flu.

...I might get a high fever tomorrow.

.........But I don't care.

I don't care if I get sick tomorrow.

I just wanted to enjoy the fact that I took a step towards the future of my decision.

Keiichi-kun told me something like that today.

The high fever and the dizziness made me feel frustrated for some reason.

...But whenever I felt frustrated, I felt the heat on my wrist, too.

I grabbed my wrist with my left hand tightly.

It made the frustration go away, and it brought me relief.

Even the dizziness I didn't like just before made me feel like I was in a down-filled futon.

I was falling asleep in that down-filled futon... on my first night in a new world.

This dizziness didn't go away for a few days, but I gradually got used to it.

This new world looked like the world I used to live in before.

...But the sunshine was a little bit brighter, and Keiichi-kun's smile looked a little bit more gentle than before.

We made more noise than we used to. We spent every day slowly, but in high spirits.

Oh... What an idiot I am!

I underestimated that dizziness, and I caught a summer cold in June.

I wanted to get better as soon as possible!

I should have taken a day off from club activities, but I forced myself to play with them every day, and that made it hard for me to get better.

I finally learned my lesson recently.

I don't need to feel frustrated.

There's no limit to happiness in this world.

As long as we keep wishing for it, it'll continue forever... I don't need to feel frustrated anymore, because tomorrow I will have the happiness I have today.

We'll have the Watanagashi festival next Sunday.

Mii-chan tells us that we'll have a lot of fun and that we'll go extra crazy.

I really can't wait.