Clatter-!
Pausing dead in her tracks, Araceli seed so stunned that she dropped her smartphone, her eyes widening like never before as she could only stare breathlessly in my direction.
"...Well?"
Crossing one leg over the other, I looked at her and asked what I thought should have been a simple question.
"A month, at least. It's been this long, yet you have nothing to say?"
Araceli's appearance remained more or less the sa as the last ti I saw her, including her rather girly sense of fashion.
This likely ans, as I thought, that no more than the ti I spent in the Otherworld has passed on Earth. So, I could make the assumption without hesitation.
"Say. Are you feeling alright? You don't seem too pleased to see . Or are you just ill?"
"Uh..."
No matter what, Araceli seed utterly unable to get a single word out of her mouth.
Was my appearance here really that shocking?
"Oh. Is it that your plans were abruptly ruined by my return? Did you not expect to see again in one, five, maybe ten years? Or was it your intention to trap in that dry world for the rest of ti?"
"N-no! Really, that's not it at all!"
"Hm."
Well, the truth is that it doesn't matter. After all, regardless of intention, they had no choice but to keep there forever.
It was the combined efforts of three people―Azaki Kiryuuin, Saburou, and Yuu Shimura―who trapped in the Otherworld.
Undeniably, creating a dream world and manifesting it as a physical, separate dinsional entity was not sothing doable by a single man.
It is only reasonable to suggest the idea that because the portal required three people to open initially, it will thus require three people to open it every consecutive ti.
There is, of course, an equally reasonable chance that the portal between Earth and the Otherworld could be opened without all three of the aforentioned individuals, however, even if that is the case, it would still require the work of the forr two; Kiryuuin and Saburou.
To connect the two worlds that were dinsionally separated, Kiryuuin was needed.
To open a spatial gate that allowed travel between these two worlds, Saburou was needed.
Yuu Shimura would likely be useless even after becoming the Hero of the Otherworld as there is no real need to manifest the dream world again after it already exists.
Still, even with just those two as the gatekeepers, it's clear that I would never make it back to Earth by their discretion.
Kiryuuin would want trapped in the Otherworld in order to "maintain peace" on Earth as part of the duty of the Wardens, but it's also not hard to imagine that he would be naive and gold-hearted enough to be willing to bring back after I had been 'corrected', like a prisoner.
Saburou, on the other hand, wouldn't be willing to let back no matter what unless he got to kill with his own hands; which itself isn't sothing Kiryuuin would allow. He isn't the type to care if I were stranded in the Otherworld for the rest of my life, especially after the nurous incidents with Tarou and Atsuko.
So, if there were ever a deadlock situation where Kiryuuin wanted to return to Earth, but Saburou refused, then the two would never work together to open the portal, thus leaving trapped for eternity.
In any case, I bet they never foresaw a future where I escaped the prison of the Otherworld of my own will, huh.
"You know, I almost wish I could feel bad for you guys."
"You worked so hard, ca up with a flawless plan, and manipulated everyone who was on my side."
"And yet, look at where we are now."
"I'm back, and I promise you, you have no idea just how much I've changed."
"Your flimsy sche failed, and now you're stuck on what to do."
"You have no individual power to do anything―we both know that―and now it's all up to to decide what to do with you, all the while you wallow in your regret, lanting the past you who made the choice to needlessly challenge ."
"How idiotic. It's quite sad, really; I can't imagine you feel very good about yourself."
Thinking about it, Araceli probably knew that those two don't see eye-to-eye on how I should be treated or "dealt with".
I still don't know anything about her truly, but I know enough to understand that it isn't necessary to care what she thinks any more when she doesn't pose a threat to and no longer holds any weight in my decision-making.
Although, in that sense, I don't think there remains a single person who could claim that privilege.
"C... Cipher..."
"So you can speak? Then? Speak."
"...T-there is sothing important they've been aning to tell you. Ever since then..."
Just like her image portrayed her to be at this mont, Araceli Arévalo's anxiety, caution and tentative speech made her nothing more than an unrespectable, frightened girl.
It was almost enough to make lower my guard for a mont, but thankfully, I quickly rembered who it was I was talking to.
"Sana, Sona, Sophie, Emir, Selina; since that day, each of them ca to and expressed--"
So, even when she brought up their nas directly to my face.
"―Araceli."
Interrupting her all of a sudden, she blinked at with a hint of fluster on her face.
"Yes...?"
Perhaps it was only then that she realised her mistake, as her eyes seed to grow wide upon examining my face.
"Say another word."
My voice sounded particularly cold even to . If asked to explain why, I wouldn't be able to give you an exact answer; all I knew is that what she said triggered sothing inside .
The nas of those people.
After what they did to , it wasn't sothing you should say to my face if you had any sense of self-preservation.
"...Cipher..."
I reflexively frowned at the abrupt sight of Araceli's face donning an expression of sympathy as she softly muttered my na.
This girl.
Acting as if she truly cared.
She appeared to know a lot of things at a glance and she presented a front that seed to want to take my side.
But what did she know, really?
About .
About anything.
Her actions have only caused trouble in a multitude of ways.
Wanting to help but only bringing about further difficulty as a result of needless ddling.
Soone who has only ever been a hindrance, whether intentional or otherwise.
That alone is sothing to feel ashad of, but it isn't even the worst of it.
At the end of it all, she has the gall to act like this?
The impudent, completely self-ignorant audacity to dare to feel bad for ?
Just who the hell does she think she is?
"..."
It was a genuine question, and I found myself desiring a genuine answer.
However, we now live in a ti where answers are scarce, and genuineness even more so.
With Truth gone, it is simply how it is.
Of course, even in the past, I wouldn't have been able to answer such a question.
In fact, I had tried many tis and subsequently failed.
Whether I was not allowed to know or whether fate determined it not to be the right ti.
Regardless, Truth was obstructed.
Until the mont that I used Michael Guff's asurent of mories to relive the old days before the San Cinelia Playground incident.
Naturally, there was not enough ti after that to figure anything out as I was imdiately cast away and discarded into the Otherworld with even my only reliable ally, Truth, stripped away from .
But now, I am back.
I have returned, and with Reality on my side.
So, as I had done with the World Tree just before, shouldn't it be possible?
To view the 'true essence'―the 'reality'―of the individual standing before .
There is no reason why it would not be possible; only the reasons why I make it possible.
Thus, I focused on my eyes and affird my reality once again.
I can see the truth of whoever I lay my eyes on.
Imdiately after stating that, my vision shifted similarly to earlier; all colours vanished, leaving only a black-and-white wirefra world.
Seeing it once again, the first thing to co to mind was the type of blank blueprints one might see in a 3D modelling software. As I had to 3D print various plastic parts in the past, I was more or less familiar with such models, but it was far more than just a little bewildering to see it applied to the entire world around .
Still, rather than anything else, there was only one thing I focused on.
In this monochromatic, 3d wirefra world, there was but one thing that stood out.
The girl in front of , whose appearance did not match the Araceli Arévalo I knew in the slightest.
A woman with straight black hair and black eyes, nothing at all like the princess-like, golden waves and glowing athysts that could normally be seen donning her head. And that wasn't to ntion her entirely different facial structure, too.
Just what... Who is that?
I was stunned speechless for a mont by the pure absurdity of what I was seeing, my mind staring at the woman's face, who appeared a few years older than the normal Araceli, and working hard to figure out why Reality was showing this.
The woman was not a wirefra, unlike everything else around . She had a real appearance. Soone almost indistinguishable from any other person you might see walking down the street.
No matter how I tried to recall a matching appearance to the woman in front of , I couldn't find one in my mory.
At that mont, I noticed a book hanging around her neck with a chain.
Araceli wasn't carrying a book just a second ago, so was it directly related to the woman?
...Wait.
Suddenly, sothing occurred to .
A young woman with black hair and a book.
Soone who matched that simple description, but who must also be hiding a deep secret.
No matter how bizarre, it felt familiar; I knew I had seen such a person sowhere.
―And then it hit .
Liam Chiba-Wallace.
When I visited Ella's little brother in the hospital, I had him use his forcefully evolved asurent on .
At that ti, it showed three visions―visions I concluded to be of the past, present, and future.
Of course, that was a while ago now, but I still rember the vision of the present to this day.
Because, although it wasn't as shocking as the scene of the future, it was certainly puzzling enough to leave a lasting impact on .
That vision was of a young woman in her room, reading a book on her bed and getting frustrated at its contents.
As far as I recall, she had the sa black features as the woman in front of , and although I don't rember the appearance of the book in the vision, I don't think it's too far-fetched to assu that it might be the sa one.
After all, those visions were supposed to be sothing impactful, or at least have so kind of deeper, hidden aning in any capacity.
Therefore, the fact the vision of the present was so focused on that book must be a key point.
"..."
My eyes were drawn to the object, and as I stared at it, I suddenly began to feel a sense of unease, like foreboding.
My logic said that it was sothing important I should get to the bottom of, but my instincts scread in warning.
I don't know what it was warning, but...
Whether it was sothing dangerous or not, I had always been soone whose undying curiosity won out in the end.
Since the book hung by her neck with the front on the inside, I couldn't see the cover of the book from where I was standing, including the title, so I approached her and reached my hand out to her neck.
Naturally, since the world around hadn't actually changed―just how I saw it―Araceli freaked out and tried to jump back when I moved so abruptly, but I just grabbed her and pulled her back in.
"Stop moving."
"!!"
At my words, empowered with Reality, her resistance imdiately crumpled and her body stiffened still.
Araceli stared at in a mix of confusion and fear as I looked at sothing invisible below her face.
I knew it must have seed like I was acting nonsensical, but this wasn't the ti to care.
The chain seed to be fastened too tightly around the woman's neck to take off, and I didn't particularly care to remove it anyway, so instead I simply turned the book around.
Silently, my eyes laid upon the front cover of the book.
"..."
The book's title was the very first thing to catch my attention; plastered on the front in a sort of faded white hue and in a font that seed as if the words themselves were cracked and falling apart.
[The Hero Wants to Save the World-Ending Villain!?]
It was a strange-sounding title, and not at all particularly attention-grabbing if you were to ask for my personal opinion. In fact, it sounded rather bland―maybe too long?
Regardless, this must be the book that the woman was reading in the vision.
At that ti, I rember she was crying and grumbling about sothing that occurred in the story.
But... What relation did any of that have to Araceli?
Glancing briefly between the woman's tense face right in front of and the book hanging just below her neck, I felt my curiosity begin to blaze.
All this ti, I was curious.
Just what are you hiding, Araceli?
Reviews
All reviews (0)