In the end, I was most likely the cause of her sudden transformation. For so reason, back then I couldn’t piece it together, but now I felt so stupid for never realising.
As fast as I could, I got to the train station. People gave weird looks for running and the safety bots tried to hinder my movents, but I chose to ignore them, running past them.
In the end, I bumped into soone and only I fell to the ground.
“Hm?”
Their voice ca, but that wasn’t important. I had to get to Akane. I scrambled back up to get into the train, but paused once I saw the woman.
She was in a brown overcoat, with black boots and gloves. Her hair looked like silver in the moonlight and she exuded an aura akin to a goddess as she looked down on with a worried face. There was a tiny beauty spot under her thin red lips. Her eyes were covered with shades, but I could still tell that she was a beauty by everything else.
“Oh sorry.”
She offered her hand and I took it.
“N-no worries.”
Once I stood back up, I dusted my butt before trying to get into the train.
“Oh, wait.” She then stopped . I craned my head back to attend to her for a mont. “Please, I am a bit lost. I am headed towards Yokohama, but it would seem that I am not sure which way to head in.”
The beautiful woman with platinum blonde hair asked. I stumbled back and gulped, unable to mutter a word while just staring at her.
“Hello?”
She tilted her head, question marks popping up. That was when I regained my senses.
“Oh, I’m headed over there right now. You can follow if you want.”
I offered.
“Really? That would be great. Thank you very much.”
With that, we both got onto the train and took a seat. The woman sat down right next to with our shoulders practically touching even when the train wasn’t really filled up. I on the other hand was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable and decided to scoot away from her.
She looked at with an astounded face, before looking away unhappily. That must have insulted her in so way, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for a fake illusion.
The train stood still for about 5 more minutes, before it took off. The commissioner spoke to us through the coms, before the train started.
While on the ride, my mind was racing through the revelation I received. About the fact that the quest was still ongoing and I had less than 2 hours to complete it.
At least, I now knew the reason for Akane’s abrupt change. Now I just needed to find her. But…
A certain doubt was starting to grow within . If my first presumption was wrong, what if this one was wrong too? Even worse, I didn’t have the ti to make a second mistake. This had to be 100% right or my soul would end up being destroyed.
In that case, I needed to think up more reasons for all of that. But what else would make Akane cry like that on that night? And it probably wasn’t coincidence that the only mory I had of that night was that exchange.
Sadly, this feeling that I was missing sothing wasn’t helping out in anyway.
“Excuse , are you alright?”
The one to speak was the European woman I’d t. She looked at through her shades and wore a very worried expression.
It was only then that I realised that I was sweating. My heart was racing faster than sonic could ever. I sat back up and wiped the sweat off my face.
“Hehe, it’s 3 degrees out, yet I’m sweating like it’s a sumr day.”
“Don’t worry about it. Sotis, stress can cause such things.”
She whispered to calmly. Then rose her head.
“I’ve seen such a thing happen in my line of work. Several people breaking down from being stressed out. So going as far as killing themselves over it.”
“Is that so? What kind of job do you do?”
I decided to pass the ti talking to this bot rather than overthinking my situation. It was better than stressing myself out.
“Oh? I’m a model.”
“Really? I can totally see that.”
I complinted her and she smiled.
“Now what is the matter with you. You look like you are thinking too much.”
At first, I hesitated to tell her, but then realising that this was simply all in my head, I saw no harm in speaking to her about it.
Quickly, I explained the situation without getting too much into detail. All she knew was that I had betrayed Akane and if I didn’t fix it, our relationship would be broken.
“Hmm, are you feeling remorseful about what you did?”
“Of course.”
“Well, you do not sound remorseful. If anything, you sound like this is a boring pain in the ass.”
She explained how I sounded from her point of view. She even held her chin and observed with her eyes behind her shades.
“Listen here, kid.”
Her voice suddenly sounded different. Like I was talking to a completely new person all together. Her shades fell a bit, allowing to see the colour of her pupils. Golden, complete inhuman. My body was paralysed, unable to do anything.
“When you’re wrong, don’t try to hide behind this useless façade of indifference. Apologise, admit whole heartedly you were wrong and strive to never repeat that mistake again. Especially one as grave as betraying a friend’s trust.”
She looked away from my eyes, then looked out through the window at the passing scene.
“Or you will end up… alone. When you go to this girl, bow your head and shout with all your might that you are sorry. Tell her everything you want to and make sure you never make her cry again.”
There was sothing depressing about this woman as she spoke. When I first t her, I was clouded by the thought of her beauty, but now that I got a better look at her, she looked… tired and lonely.
The train ca to a stop and she stood up, tucking her arms into her pockets.
“M-Miss?”
I stuttered and she looked at with furrowed brows before smiling with her thin lips.
“Oh yeah. I work for Enigma. I’m sure you’ve heard of that modelling company before, right?”
With that, she walked off the train. It took a good minute to realise that I had arrived at my desired destination. I ran out the door, shouting at her.
“Oi, miss!”
However, the mont I got out, she was long gone. The people who wanted to enter the train gave weird looks, but I chose to ignore them. I clicked my tongue.
She had gone without even telling her na.
I gulped, but chose to focus on the task at hand. I had barely an hour to find Akane and apologise to her. Wasting any more ti on other illusions… people, was a big mistake.
My body moved on its own towards the park where the fireworks would be happening. I didn’t know why I assud Akane would co here of all places, but my instincts just told that she would be here.
The one place she wanted to be the most was the fireworks. I just hoped that I could get to her before the deadline.
*
“I give up.”
It had been 50 minutes. My body collapsed on a bench and I just looked out towards the sky. The fireworks would start soon and it was almost midnight.
I slumped down on the cold bench and looked at the night sky. One wouldn’t be able to make out the stars because of all the nights. Researchers even theorised that due to all the pollution of modern technology, there’d co a ti were all we saw when we looked up would be toxic smogs.
They’d estimated about 5 years till that happened. From then on, we might have to wear gas masks everywhere we went. It was such pessimistic factors that made sort of grateful for the fact that I died and reincarnated.
"Huh, when I think about it, Mitsuki also died, huh? I wonder where she is.”
My hand reached out to the sky. My mories of Mitsuki were fresh since I only saw her a couple of hours ago. I’d forgotten just how cheeky and bratty she was. Images of this perfect little sister had replaced her, but I guess that was because I missed her.
A smile crept up on my face when I realised that once I cleared this scenario, I’d never see her or my parents again. Not like I knew much about dad, or cared much for mom.
Slowly, I dropped my hand and rested it on the bench I sat on.
I had practically eight minutes till I would die. Strangely enough, I felt nothing about it.
All of a sudden, I was starting to regret trying to sacrifice Ken just for my sake.
‘h. I guess he’s safe and sound on earth now. Though, Maya did also reincarnate with . Did the shooter end up killing everyone in the shop?’
6 minutes remaining…
‘Hmm, maybe Uni is Ken. Hahaha, no way. If he was, I’d have been able to get a read on him by now. Still, he did remind of soone from my class. Wait a minute, Maya and Ken told that there was no one in the class when they went to school that morning… there’s no way they all reincarnated, right? Hmm, whatever. Doesn’t really affect .’
5 minutes remaining…
‘God, how’s everyone back in Larm. They all suddenly looked up to to take care of them. Athyst, Ulva, Shiroi, Kawaii, Sylphie, Kara, Reiman, Tsuna, Nuke, Reiman, Yuuna, even Oki. Ha, Zana. How’s she going to feel losing another friend so soon after eting one. I ended up betraying two friends flawlessly. I hope Arisu doesn’t suddenly kill everyone since there’s no one there to control her. Oh, then there’s those two goblins. The first guy I didn’t na, but the last one I called Baka. I should search for the first guy and give him a na. Yokino and Sunalla, taking on a crazy adventure to see actual Atlantis. How wild. There’re a few others, but h.’
4 minutes remaining…
“Shit. I never got my harem of monster girls like I was planning. What a waste of a second life. Then again, maybe I should have been more aggressive with those girls since they seed to be aggressive towards . Gaah, stupid waste of ti.”
3 minutes remaining…
‘Uh, I never found Minerva. After I promised too. Fuck, I really hope that she’s safe wherever she is.’
2 minutes remaining…
‘I don’t want to die forever, I guess. This is starting to feel depressing.’
1 minute remaining…
‘Man, I should have bought one last kebab.’
20 seconds remaining…
“Akkun?”
A familiar voice entered my ears. My head whipped towards the source at lightning-fast speed, to look at her.
15 seconds remaining…
She stood there with her hair a ss, eye-bags under her eyes – clearly from crying too much.
10 seconds remaining…
There was sothing about the way she looked at . An expression of disbelief and disgust. Still, there was just sothing about the way she looked at that made feel like she was happy to see .
5 seconds remaining…
There was no ti to say what I wanted to. I just looked at her, unable to mutter a single word. Even when I knew I could say that one word in 5 seconds. That didn’t feel fair. Summing up my betrayal with one word, that was probably shittier than betraying her in the first place.
Still, I had to say sothing before I died forever.
Sothing. Anything. I just needed to start with it, before those 5 seconds ran out.
“Akane…”
DING!
[Ti is up!]
The bell tolls rang, singing of my inevitable demise. In the end, my last thought would be about my supposed childhood friend.
Quite a shitty ending.
…
‘Huh? I can think? I’m not dead?’
“Akkun? What’s with that weird face? You look way too pleased with yourself.”
‘Eh? Eh? What’s this? I can hear Akane’s voice. But there’s no way, right?’
Just then, I heard the sound of a phone ringing. I could feel it on my thigh. I could feel. I wasn’t dead. My eyes snapped open to et a pouting Akane, glaring at .
‘Eh? What’s happening?’
The ringing in my pocket only continued. I decided to check it out and there was a call from my only contact on the phone. I picked it up.
“Alpha?”
“Oh. You’re alive? Good, good. That ans it worked.”
She sounded pretty elated on the other side of the phone.
“What are you talking about?”
“I bought you about 30 minutes in the stupid scenario. Now you can complete it without dyi-”
“Is that my child I hear? Tori dear, it’s your gracious god-”
“Shut the hell up, you useless freeloader!”
“Mind your tongue, youngbl-”
“I’ll kick you out.”
“Go ahead and try it.”
“Y-”
Long story short, Alpha saved . I cut the call since I couldn’t understand what the hell was happening in the background. For now, all I had to do was apologise to Akane.
I dropped my phone and focused entirely on Akane.
“W-what’s with the way you’re looking at ?”
She was suddenly self-conscious.
My body jumped up and grabbed her in a hug. She tried to jump back, clearly startled by the sudden movent, but I wouldn’t allow her to. She was trapped in my hug before any escape was possible.
I was a bit taller than her, so her head rested on my shoulders and I rested my chin on her head. Tears stread down my cheeks uncontrollably while I held her in my embrace.
For the first ti, I was crying tears of genuine happiness. Maybe the fact that I wasn’t going to die had so part to play in it, but then I was most definitely pleased by the fact that I could apologise to her at least once.
“A-Akkun… what’s this?”
This was sothing I doubted I’d be able to say to the face of the real Akane any ti soon. However, one day I would have to do so. I needed to earn her forgiveness rather than keeping our relationship the way it was with her being so untrustworthy.
“I’m so sorry.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry for selling you out and throwing you under the bus. I’ve been a really crappy friend for the past year, ignoring you, saying whatever the hell I felt was right and forcing stupid values on you like your shitty parents were doing. All for so stupid money that doesn’t matter. I didn’t an to hurt you, Akane.”
“…!?”
“I won’t deny it. Rather, I want to make a promise. Even now, I swear I’ll make it up to you. I’ll tell the real Akane everything too. I just hope you don’t end up like the other one did.”
“What are you talking about?”
She tried to push away, but for tonight, I possessed herculean strength. Nothing was going to separate from her.
“Can we… can we just hug? It’s been a good minute since we did.”
“But…”
Still resisting my embrace, she tried to stomp my leg, but I ignored the pain.
“Please."
With that, I felt Akane’s resistance fade away. Rather, she hugged tightly and I could feel her body shaking in my grasp. She was probably crying, but that wasn’t important now.
Behind us, the sound of fireworks went pop, but we didn’t even waste ti to look at them or hear them. The world seed to fade before us and my mory of that night ended with the simple darkness of my shut eyes.
When I next opened my eyes, I was sleeping on a king-sized bed with a golden feathered kitten lying on my body and a crystal drake lying next to my bed.
‘Akane…’
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