After speaking, Kazumi subconsciously raised her head and looked toward where Kotomi Izumi stood.
She couldn't see Kotomi Izumi in her ghostly state, yet as though words had suddenly surfaced in her heart, Kazumi quietly stared in Kotomi's direction. Under those strange circumstances, their gazes met.
After a long while, Kazumi tilted her head in confusion and murmured:
"Strange. There's clearly nothing here, so why did I suddenly want to look in this direction?
"If my gaze continued straight ahead from here and passed through the wall of the Doll Room, it would reach the Thornbirth Well.
"The Thornbirth Well... The Sacrifice Mother spoke of must be divided into three rituals.
"Today is the first day. Mother will perform the Yomi Ritual, which symbolizes the beginning, in the hidden chamber of the Serpent of Heaven.
"On the second day, the Eye-Destroying Ritual will be performed at the bottom of the Thornbirth Well.
"On the third and final day, Mother will perform the last ritual at the Blood Yomi—the Lunar Eclipse Ritual."
Kazumi looked in Kotomi's direction and spoke slowly. Although she couldn't see Kotomi, her gaze seemed to pierce through the wall and reach the Thornbirth Well, which stood only a dozen or so steps away from the Doll Room.
She spoke as though subconsciously telling the ghostly Kotomi Izumi, yet also as though she were reviewing the three-day procedure in her mind one last time before the rituals began.
After hearing this, Kotomi Izumi committed the locations and rituals for each of the three days to memory. Before she could begin considering the questions that were growing heavier and heavier, she suddenly felt her vision gradually darkening.
I want to look Kazumi one more time...
With that thought, Kotomi Izumi fought back the drowsiness flooding her eyes. Before her vision went completely black, she took one last look at Kazumi's face.
The next second, everything before her plunged into darkness, and Kotomi Izumi's consciousness seemed to be drawn into a whirlpool.
...
Kotomi Izumi had no idea how much time passed before she slowly opened her eyes. Her keen hearing allowed her, still half asleep, to hear the sound of the train traveling along the tracks. Glancing out of the corner of her eye toward the window, she discovered that the sky outside was already beginning to brighten.
"Is it morning?"
Kotomi Izumi spoke slowly, as though asking herself. Despite having slept through the entire night, she didn't feel refreshed. The scenes from last night's dream remained vividly engraved in her mind.
Kazumi in a dark red kimono, Kazumi's younger sister, Kazumi's mother, the dolls, the Kuchihana family, Gokugū Village, the calamity, heaven, the sacrifice, the rituals...
Countless enormous questions piled up in Kotomi's mind like heavy stones. She tried to choose one and think through it first, but no matter which one she selected, she inevitably had to consider all the others at the same time.
Yet when she tried to think about them together, they became like a tangled ball of thread, twisted and knotted beyond recognition. It was difficult to determine which strand might lead to the truth.
Most of all, whenever Kotomi Izumi recalled what Kazumi's mother had said, an overwhelming shock still surged through her heart.
"There is no 'but'! Kazumi, do you even realize what day it is today? It is December 20th, Shōwa 31. We've already reached the final stage. If you don't finish making the dolls soon... all these years of effort will have been for nothing!"
December 20th, Shōwa 31!
The moment Kotomi Izumi heard the date contained within those words, confusion and shock exploded inside her like a powerful charge of dynamite.
If Kazumi's mother had truly been telling the truth, wouldn't that mean Kazumi had already been fifteen years old in Shōwa 31?!
Of course, what shocked Kotomi Izumi most—what made her mind go completely blank the moment she heard it—was the question Kazumi had asked her mother:
"Mother... has Kotomi already gone home?"
It was no exaggeration to say that when Kotomi Izumi heard Kazumi ask that question, her mind had turned completely blank.
Kotomi Izumi understood perfectly well what it meant for Kazumi to say such a thing in Shōwa 31.
It meant Kotomi herself had already been born before Shōwa 31!
Assuming she had been the same age as Kazumi in Shōwa 31, meaning they had both been fifteen, then from Shōwa 31 until the present Reiwa 7...
Merely thinking this far made Kotomi Izumi shudder. She had always believed she was only sixteen this year.
But now, another possibility had appeared before her—she might already have been fifteen years old back in Shōwa 31!
Then wouldn't my current age be... Kotomi Izumi covered her face. Even after waking up, the complicated emotions in her heart were still difficult to accept, yet at the same time, the situation felt absurdly dramatic.
She had always wanted to pursue immortality, but after one dream, she had suddenly discovered that she might not need to pursue immortality at all. After all, she could be an ancient monster born in Shōwa 16 who had lived all the way until now. What would be the point of pursuing immortality then? Perhaps she was already immortal!
But the moment she began considering the matter from that angle, Kotomi Izumi's already burdened mind became even heavier, as though the questions within it might crush her at any moment.
If I was already born in Shōwa 16, and I met Kazumi in Gokugū Village during Shōwa 31, then why don't I remember any of it? Could it be that many of my memories between the Shōwa era and the Reiwa era have been shackled? And perhaps, for some reason, I was even the one who placed those shackles upon my own memories... Kotomi Izumi struggled to sort through each possibility in her mind. Thinking had always been one of her strengths, but now she felt her ability to reason gradually becoming sluggish beneath the sheer weight and scale of these questions.
"Ugh..."
Kotomi Izumi thought for a long time, yet her mind remained clouded. In the end, she could only sigh helplessly.
At that moment, Kotomi Izumi desperately wished Kazumi were beside her.
As long as Kazumi were there, no matter how enormous and burdensome the questions in her mind became, Kazumi would surely be able to answer them for her. Even if Kazumi didn't know the exact answers, Kotomi believed that with her help, she could recover her memories as soon as possible.
Kotomi believed the shackled memories within her mind were the ultimate key to uncovering the entire truth!
Although many questions remained unanswered, after thinking it over, Kotomi Izumi decided to stop dwelling on them for the time being.
These questions were simply too enormous and too heavy. If she kept thinking about them, the slightest misstep might cause her to lose herself within this whirlpool of fog and completely succumb to obsession.
I'll save my progress for now. The next time I think about it, I'll load the file... Kotomi Izumi joked inwardly, using the thought to ease the strain on her mind.
After lying on the reclined seat for a little while longer, Kotomi Izumi finally decided to sit up.
But just as she tried to rise, she suddenly felt as though something were holding her tightly.
It must be Yui... Kotomi Izumi thought, the corners of her lips curling into a faint smile as she looked down.
Yui loved hugging Kotomi while she slept, and Kotomi happened to love being held while sleeping as well.
However...
When Kotomi Izumi lowered her gaze, she discovered that Yui wasn't the only one holding her—Yukino was too.
Yui was hugging one of her arms, while Yukino hugged the other. Seeing how neither of them fought or competed in their sleep, Kotomi couldn't help murmuring:
"If the two of you could get along this peacefully while awake, I wouldn't have to worry so much about a romantic bloodbath~"
After saying that, Kotomi Izumi abandoned the idea of sitting up. Since it was still early, she might as well lie back down, rest a little longer, and enjoy being embraced by both Yui and Yukino at once.
After all, she had spent the night dreaming about something filled with so many mysteries and unanswered questions. Even though she hadn't suffered from insomnia, Kotomi Izumi still felt exhausted.
Her physical and mental fatigue even made her consider sleeping in again after returning home. As for the manga... she could skip an update just this once.
Kotomi Izumi looked at Yui, then at Yukino, and a deep sense of satisfaction immediately welled up within her.
So this is the charm of having a beauty in each arm! Kotomi Izumi shouted inwardly, firmly deciding that when she renovated her house in the future, she absolutely had to buy a large bed!
It had to be an especially, extraordinarily enormous bed!
Kotomi Izumi had originally planned to sleep a little longer, but before closing her eyes, an idea suddenly surfaced in her mind.
—While Yukino and Yui were both asleep, she could kiss them on the lips!
The moment that idea appeared, Kotomi Izumi's heart immediately became restless. She had already exchanged countless good-morning kisses and goodnight kisses with Megumi and Yui—so many that she could no longer keep track.
But she still hadn't shared a single kiss with Yukino. Kotomi Izumi's heart stirred as she wondered whether she should take Yukino's first kiss right now.
Maybe I should start by stealing a light kiss? Kotomi Izumi thought as she slowly lowered her head, drawing closer little by little to Yukino's small, cherry-colored lips.
Ring ring ring—!
At that exact moment, the alarm Yukino Yukinoshita had set early that morning at Kotomi's request began to ring.
For the first time in her life, Kotomi Izumi felt such a powerful urge to smash a phone to pieces.
Fortunately, before she acted, she suddenly remembered that it was Yukino's phone and that she herself had asked Yukino to set the alarm. Only then did Kotomi Izumi manage to restrain the hands that had nearly crushed it.
I almost had to buy Yukino a new phone... After withdrawing her small hands, Kotomi Izumi gave an embarrassed laugh inwardly.
The alarm had gone off, so Yukino and Yui would probably wake up soon. After thinking about it, Kotomi Izumi decided to lie back down and pretend she had only just awakened as well.
After Kotomi Izumi lay down and closed her eyes to feign sleep, not even a minute passed before Yukino Yukinoshita opened her hazy eyes to the sound of the alarm.
She first reached out, picked up her phone, and turned off the alarm.
Once the alarm fell silent, Yukino Yukinoshita leisurely stretched before gently pushing Kotomi's shoulder and whispering:
"Kotomi, it's time to wake up. Kotomi..."
Kotomi Izumi listened to Yukino Yukinoshita calling her awake while continuing to pretend she was asleep.
After all, opportunities for Yukino Yukinoshita to wake her didn't come often. More importantly, Yukino's tone and the way she nudged Kotomi's shoulder were both so gentle. Naturally, Kotomi Izumi intended to seize the opportunity and enjoy it for a little longer.
I'll pretend to sleep for another five minutes... Kotomi Izumi thought.
While Kotomi Izumi continued pretending to sleep, Yui Yuigahama woke up first. When she saw Yukino calling Kotomi awake, she immediately felt somewhat displeased.
After all, in Yui's heart, waking Kotomi was something she should do as her girlfriend, not something Yukino should be doing.
"Yukino, isn't it still early? Why are you waking Kotomi now? Kotomi doesn't like getting up early," Yui Yuigahama said while rubbing her sleepy eyes.
Tsk. Yui, couldn't you have slept a little longer? Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't help thinking, though she replied in her usual calm tone:
"You may not know because you went to sleep early yesterday, but before Kotomi fell asleep, she specifically asked me to set an alarm for her and wake her in the morning. She was worried she might oversleep and wanted to avoid reaching the station while she was still unconscious."
At that moment, Yukino Yukinoshita's tone sounded less like an explanation to Yui Yuigahama and more like a declaration of superiority.
However, the innocent Yui Yuigahama simply took Yukino Yukinoshita's words as an explanation and failed to detect the slightest hint of provocation.
"Oh, so that's what happened. Thank you, Yukino."
"It's nothing. But why are you thanking me? I merely did what Kotomi asked me to do," Yukino Yukinoshita asked in confusion.
"Ah, it's nothing! Don't worry about it!"
Yui Yuigahama hurriedly replied. Yui had long regarded Kotomi as her lover, her family, and her future wife. So when she heard that Yukino was waking Kotomi because Kotomi had asked her to, she had subconsciously thanked Yukino.
That was close. Yukino almost found out that Kotomi and I are dating... Yui Yuigahama thought nervously.
Yukino Yukinoshita continued trying to wake Kotomi. Only five minutes later did Kotomi Izumi "finally awaken," sitting up with sleepy eyes. She subconsciously leaned into Yui's embrace and said to Yukino:
"Good morning, Yukino."
Then she raised her head and glanced at Yui:
"Good morning, Yui~ Yawn... I'm so sleepy. Let me lean on you for a while."
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