Buzz——
Buzz——
Buzz——
A phone rang on, loud and lonely.
"Ngh…"
Takamatsu Tomori pried her eyes open with great reluctance. Night had already fallen.
She found herself lying on the floor of the shared two-person office on the second floor of Yotsuya-ba Co., Ltd.
The building was utterly silent. The city's garish neon lights spilled freely through the glass window, splashing colour across Tomori's cheek.
She reached for her phone with heavy arms. The work blazer she still wore was soaked through on one side — she'd knocked over a drink at some point.
"Mmph… hello?"
Terrible. Chiose must still be waiting for her right now.
"Tomori. Have you been doing all right lately?"
The gentle woman's voice on the other end of the line snapped Takamatsu Tomori wide awake in an instant. It was a warmth she knew she could never forget for the rest of her life.
"Mom? Oh — I just got off work, I'm heading home soon. I'm… doing pretty well."
"Living on your own out there, make sure you eat properly. It's gotten cold lately, dress in layers… oh, that's right — when you called me yesterday, was it because you were short on money? I'll transfer some to you tomorrow."
"N-No, it's not that! I have enough money, it's just… ah."
It had been a very long time since she'd called her mom. Even longer since she'd been home.
She'd been using work as an excuse to avoid it — but Takamatsu Tomori knew there was another reason she hadn't gone back.
Something like…
"Mom… you work yourself to the bone for our family, and I never became the successful child you deserved… I'm pretty much a failure, aren't I."
Such a failure. This life of hers.
Every day before she met Takamatsu Chiose had been utterly flavourless. She'd achieved nothing. The university she attended was unremarkable, nothing worth mentioning. And her job — many people had never even heard of what she did.
"How could you say that, you silly girl," came the voice from the other end of the line. Takamatsu Hikaru was quiet for a moment, then spoke in that warm, familiar way of hers.
"Tomori has always been Mom's pride, you know. Tomori is already a grown adult living independently — time really does fly, doesn't it."
"Mom…"
Mom. I might be about to make a choice that goes against what most people would expect of me.
"I… was selected by an American record label. Me and a very good friend — no, my best friend! But I'm not sure if I should say yes. It's all so sudden, I'm completely unprepared."
Mom, go ahead and scold me. That way I'll have an easy reason to turn down something this unreliable.
Mom, go ahead and give me your blessing. That way Chiose and I can fly far away together.
Somewhere in her subconscious, Tomori had already handed the decision over to her mother. She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed in silence, the noise of the street outside drifting in around her.
"Hmm, something like this…"
"Tomori already has an answer in her heart, doesn't she."
"..."
She did. She really did.
"So what does Tomori want?"
"I want… to stay in Japan with Chiose. I want to commute to work and back with her, go out and have fun with her… That kind of ordinary everyday life — it's simple, but just that would be more than enough for me."
Being someone else's saviour? No thanks… Takamatsu Tomori had already found her own saviour.
The only thing she truly wanted was something simple — just to be with Chiose!
But… but Chiose…
Chiose was destined to be a woman Tomori could never hold in place.
She had arrived faster than a gust of wind, and now she was about to vanish just as swiftly, like a bolt of lightning.
Could Tomori really keep up with her?
"She told me I could become someone else's salvation — but I've been the one being saved by her all along. And I know I'm not the only one she's saved…"
It felt less like talking to her mother now, and more like negotiating with her own heart.
"Maybe… I should let Chiose go. Chiose still needs to bring light to so many more people, and I'm just a passing stranger who happened to be warmed by it. Mom, what am I supposed to do? This question is so hard, I really…"
I really don't know how to choose.
Choking up. Words coming in fragments, her voice rising and falling — that was the state Takamatsu Tomori was in as she spoke.
"Oh, sweetheart…"
Hikaru sighed on the other end of the line. Her voice was bittersweet but still gentle: "Tomori really is grown up now, isn't she. Whatever you choose is fine. Mom and Dad won't stand in your way."
"Go choose the path you won't regret."
There it was again — that same phrase!
"I! I…"
The path she won't regret.
What on earth was the path she wouldn't regret?
If the choice was left entirely to her — could she really choose right?
Takamatsu Tomori hung up the phone and downed the last sip of alcohol from the box.
She took one final look at their shared office, and left before she could linger on all the small moments that had happened there.
"I'm going… to find Chiose!"
She looked as though she had steeled herself to some kind of resolve.
The time was 10:10 PM.
...
Rewind to one hour earlier.
Takamatsu Chiose was waiting at the dock for Tomori to arrive.
Today was, barring any surprises, her last day in the simulation — so she had chosen not to lose herself in drink this time.
"Why are you so confident that someone is going to come here and kill you?"
The System had taken the form of an evening breeze, whispering in Chiose's ear.
"Have you forgotten the talent I chose? And even if no one comes to end it for me — I still have you, don't I, my dear Sys-tem."
Chiose reached out, trying to catch hold of that warm wisp of wind. It slipped right through her fingers.
"You change so fast. Even I'm having a bit of trouble keeping up."
"That's because I'm still not sober, hehe. Turns out I'm not quite so lucid when I'm drunk — alcohol numbs my nerves and makes me do all sorts of unimaginably wicked woman things."
All in good time.
Takamatsu Chiose felt herself loosening up more and more. At this rate, next time she might not even need alcohol to make a magnificent transformation into a wicked woman.
"Good luck with that."
"I'll take it."
What a bizarre conversation. This shameless System was both useless and not particularly clever.
In the next simulation, could she make the System play an actual character to keep her company?
Takamatsu Chiose was still mulling it over when she heard the sharp, rhythmic clack of leather shoes on wooden planks coming from her front-left.
"Here we go."
A woman covered head to toe in blood came strolling towards Takamatsu Chiose, a large cleaver dangling lazily from one hand.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, yeah, you…" the middle-aged woman muttered in a thick, hard-to-place accent.
Chiose said nothing, curious to hear what she would say next.
"Why do you have to be so damn pretty? My husband never comes home anymore — it's women like you who lured him away, isn't it?"
So that was the motive.
Chiose swallowed. She knew the odds were that she was about to be taken out — but faced with death, she still felt fear creeping in.
"Say something! Is that it or not, IS IT IS IT IS IT?!"
"Huh? That — that, what…"
The woman shrieked, swinging her cleaver as she charged forward.
Chiose blinked.
[Tomori — between tomorrow and the unexpected, which do you think arrives first?]
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