"Elevator wiring damage… Every ti disaster strikes it always feels like 'just an accident.' Even the events themselves were accidents."
Whether it was Takabayashi's sudden heart attack, Yukari falling and her umbrella snapping open, her mother's rainy-day car accident, or Misaki's sudden leukemia complication,
all of these were countless coincidences converging to slowly guide soone toward death.
Even if you handed them over to the police, it would just look like soone was having a streak of bad luck.
"And it's precisely because of that," said i, walking beside Rinji, "that past students could only handle these problems themselves. Outsiders couldn't help them."
"I figured as much. Who would believe a bunch of middle schoolers talking about a 'curse,' even if that curse had lasted twenty-six years?"
By the ti they left the hospital, the sky was already darkening, nearly dinner ti.
"Your sister's being discharged tomorrow, you can finally be at ease, right?"
"Ever since you saved her in the hospital back then, I've already been at ease."
i spoke softly, the corner of her lips holding an almost imperceptible smile.
"No matter what, Takamine, you're the one who saved half of ."
For so reason, i regarded Misaki as her "other half," so having Rinji rescue Misaki multiple tis from the hands of death, she naturally considered him her own lifesaver.
"Since she's being discharged tomorrow, will you go pick her up?"
"…That'll be difficult. My mother probably won't allow to see her."
"What a complicated family situation. What reason could make your mother refuse to let you et your own sister?"
"Do you want to know?"
i turned back, smiling at Rinji.
"If you don't want to say—"
"If it's you asking, I'll answer honestly. I've said before, you're special."
"…"
"Actually, I also have a few questions for you, Takamine."
---
"This place is really sothing."
Rinji stopped in front of a doll shop.
Rather than a shop, it was more like a beautifully built Western-style house, only decorated to look like a doll shop.
Above the door was written: "At dusk when night descends, one may glimpse an illusory azure eye."
A pretty eerie place.
i entered first, and after a mont's hesitation, Rinji followed.
Inside, it was dim, filled with dolls everywhere.
The dolls were exquisitely made, but in the gloom they looked especially unsettling, always pushing one into the uncanny valley.
"Oh my, custors?"
From the dark interior, an old, grim voice spoke.
At the front desk, an old woman sat there.
Seeing Rinji enter, she grinned.
"Middle schoolers, huh? Half-price tickets for you. Since no one else is here, feel free to look around."
The shop was half museum, half store, so of course tickets were required.
"Don't look down on ."
Rinji readily paid the full price, then followed behind i.
"i, this is your ho, right?" Rinji asked. "That old woman said 'no one else is here,' which ans you live here."
"Yes. Actually, you could've told her you're my friend, then you wouldn't need to pay."
"Doesn't matter, it was only five hundred yen."
"I'll go upstairs and change. Takamine, feel free to look around."
"Yeah."
i went upstairs, while Rinji explored the shop.
The Western-style house was spacious, clearly showing that i's family was wealthy, one of the prominent households of Yomiyama City.
Most exhibits were dolls, with a few other crafts.
Besides miniature dolls on stands, there were also life-sized ones, and in so places even separate doll joints were displayed.
All the dolls were masterpieces, but the unsettling aura they gave off never went away.
Their eyes were so lifelike, it felt like they were all staring straight at Rinji.
But since even haunted houses didn't bother him, Rinji calmly looked around with interest, until he reached the deepest part of the exhibit.
A wooden coffin lay there.
Curious, Rinji stepped closer, only to find soone lying inside.
"i… no."
Looking closer, he realized it was an incredibly realistic doll.
Its features had been ticulously carved, looking almost identical to i. So much so that Rinji nearly mistook it for her.
"Looks similar, doesn't it?"
At that mont, i walked out from behind Rinji.
She was now wearing a blue camisole dress, sothing only for ho, and had removed her eyepatch, revealing her doll-like eye.
The combination of her casual dress and heterochromatic gaze gave her a unique charm.
She stood before the coffin, looking down at the doll identical to herself. "This could be considered my 'other half,' or perhaps not even that."
"Can you say it in a way I can understand?"
"You already know Misaki and I are sisters, right?"
"Yeah."
"My original na is Fujioka i," she said. "But when I was very young, my family couldn't afford to raise two children. anwhile, my current mother had lost her own child in an accident at birth, leaving her unable to have more. So I was fostered here."
"I see."
Still staring at the doll in the coffin, i continued, "My mother made this doll in my likeness. But… it isn't . It's the child she lost, the one who never got a chance to grow."
"You an… your mother sees you as a replacent for her dead daughter?"
"Quick to catch on, Takamine," i smiled. "I thought you'd be the type of boy clueless about such things."
"I just prefer not to dwell on it. Individual variables are far more frequent than group ones. Trying to read people's hearts doesn't suit ."
Rinji stared at the doll identical to i.
"Besides… if I rember right, I was supposed to have an older sister too."
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