97 Connections (1/2)
Yesterday night was the longest and slowest night of Rion and Kotomi Amami’s lives.
Everything they built was destroyed.
But a new ray of hope shone through their despair.
They sat in their grandparents’ yard, watching the night sky. In their hearts, they felt a peaceful calmness which they had never felt before.
Rion, we made so many mistakes.
Kotomi, we did so many foolish things.
Foolishly making so many mistakes, doing wrong by so many people, seriously hurting the most important person… it wouldn’t be enough no matter how much they apologized.
They… were finally able to see just how ugly and terrible their past selves had acted.
They felt awful, regretful, sad, pained, and yet... a burden had been taken off their shoulders.
It was as if they'd been released from an invisible dark cage and were able to see the endless sky again.
The sky wasn’t anything new to them.
It was something they possessed before, but abandoned unknowingly. Only now did they finally see it again...
It was as if they had truly returned home.
Ah, so it had been like this.
Ever since that day when they stumbled upon their father’s secret, they... lost their way.
They discovered a dark and narrow alley, believed that it was the correct path, and continued walking down it.
If they had persisted in walking down that path, it was likely they would have remained lost forever.
However, someone found them and pulled them back onto the path to home.
One person withstood the terrible agony of digging up his own past scars and reached his large hand out to them.
Another person withstood all the terrible things they had inflicted on him and reached a much smaller hand out to them.
This is the wrong road; come over to our side!
Being pulled along by the large hand and the small hand, they finally...
Rion...
Kotomi...
We’ve... returned.
The lost sisters finally recognized their own misdeeds.
The two lost little girls finally returned home.
...
Seiji merely glanced at the twins before he continued walking without missing a beat.
The bandages on Rion and Kotomi’s faces slightly dampened their beauty, but apart from that, they didn’t seem too different.
The biggest difference was their eyes.
Even though he only caught a brief glimpse of them, Seiji saw a clear light shining in the twins’ eyes.
Maybe they wouldn’t be able to make a complete turnaround so quickly, but they’d still made a good start.
Anyway, it didn’t have anything to do with him. He no longer had anything to say to them.
Seiji silently walked in between and past the twins.
”Seigo Harano...” a voice spoke up.
”We hate you.”
”Since you defeated us so utterly.”
”We’ll become stronger... and prettier than before!”
”Just like you.”
”And then we’ll surpass you.”
”Finally, we’ll overturn things and defeat you!”
The twins’ voices quavered with emotion as they took turns to speak.
Doubtlessly, this was something akin to a revenge declaration.
However, it didn’t sound dark at all; instead, it sounded bright.
Seiji smiled. ”If you can come, then come. No matter when, I’m always happy to accept a challenge... Just like I said before, I’ll play with you anytime. Even though you’re older than I am, I’m your senpai in life experience. As former scum, I’ll wait for you... my senpais that are also former scum.”
He left them with that sentence as he walked off.
Rion and Kotomi’s faces were now covered in tears.
They only had one sentence left in their hearts that they couldn’t say, wouldn’t say, didn’t dare to say, but they would say eventually one day: ”Thank you.”
...
*Ding!* Seiji received yet another notification from the system as a block of text appeared in front of him.
[A female character now has a connection rating that’s 50 points higher than their favorability rating, so your [connections] option is now available. You may now inspect all connection ratings of all characters with over 50 favorability/friendship/connection points.]
[Two female characters have a connection rating that’s 50 points higher than their favorability rating; you’ve received the special reward of [Item Duplication card!]]