Chapter 130: I and Me / From the Cradle to the Grave (2/2)

「New Moon Sama」

「――Ngh！」

Startled, she quickly braked.

Somehow, Tsukumo had appeared beyond the entrance.

Not able to stop, she crashed into her opponent. She rebounded away and fell on her backside.

Tsukumo leisurely entered the building. The shutter went down, letting out an electrical “gigigi” sound.

The falling shutter, and the disappearing light.

She desperately tried to escape, crawling toward the entrance.

「Can’t let you do thaaat」

「Kyaa!」

Her hair grabbed, her neck was jerked back.

During that time, the shutter completely closed.

Despair attacked Youran, and the bit of the outside she had seen――the difference between the hope seen and the despair tightened her heart.

「Let’s go back. Okaa-sama’s going to arrive soon, after all.」

Tsukumo said, dragging Youran by her hair.

The path that she had desperately tried to reach was taken back, and hope became far.

Passing through the long corridors and coming out of the decorative elevator, he had her stand before the staircase.

Staircase.

To Youran now, that looked like a straight path to despair.

If they went all the way up here then they would not return again. That seemed like the sickle of hell opening its mouth widely.

「……Let go.」

Youran softly opened her mouth. Tsukumo reacted to the voice that was squeezed out of the bottom of her stomach.

「Oh, did you ready yourself, New Moon-sama?」

「Let go.」

She said the same words with a different tone.

As if he were overpowered or had an opinion about that, Tsukumo released her hair that he had been grabbing.

Falling to the floor, Youran who had been dragged silently stood up.

Looking at the staircase, then the shutter, then at Tsukumo.

Roughened hair and a quiet gaze.

「I can’t escape, huh」

「Nah, of course not. I have no intention of letting you.」

「I see, I get it.」

「Ohhh, so that means――」

「Indeed, I have readied myself. It seems that there is no point struggling any further.」

She said, quietly closing her eyes.

Behind her eyelids, various scenery came and went.

Her life thus far, like a revolving lantern, flowed through there in a moment.

Lastly, the form of one boy floated.

Seeing that face lastly, Youran opened her eyes.

「……Give me my hairclip.」

She said quietly, and Tsukumo picked it up handing it to her. She accepted it, slowly tying it back into pretty twintails like some sort of ritual.

「That hairstyle is also good, New Moon-sama, just like――」

It seemed that Tsukumo was saying something, but it didn’t enter her ears. Her eardrums were picking up sound, but her mind did not recognize it.

Raising her hands, she fastened the twintails.

A smile rose; one of self-depreciation.

「New Moon-sama?」

As if realizing something at last, Tsukumo said with a puzzled voice.

Amongst the faintly opened teeth of the mouth, the tongue was softly added in.

If she would be humiliated like this, then she might as well――

「Just――」

Tsukumo frantically tried to halt. He aimed a cold smile at her.

（Once more……I wonder if you wanted to be pulled tight.）

Thinking that in the heart, closing their eyes, and putting power into the jaw.

「You must not!」

「――ngh」

That moment, her voice dissolving her resolve sounded out. Not heeding any physical obstacles, the fairy had slipped past the wall and appeared.

「That’s bad; you must not do that sort of thing!」

「You……」

「Taiyou-chan! They’re here!」

Perplexed at the suddenly appearing fairy, she who had been able to stop Youran went in the direction of the day after next, letting out a loud voice.

Dogohhn!

The building violently shook, the next moment.

Through the floor where Youran and Tsukumo stood, concrete telephone poles had pierced through the wall like spears.