Chapter 1001 - The Journey Starts Anew from Here
────To say I never thought of wanting you all to myself would be a lie.
You, who are more innocent than anyone.
You, who are more precious than anything.
If I were to bare this 'heart,' it would be for you, who are more beloved to me than the world itself.
But because you wish for it.
Because you, of all people, hope for it.
With a smile I've seen countless times, a smile I've learned from countless times, a smile that has layered itself over and over to form 'me'────like a young child's 'plea,' you smile.
Because you face this peerless path of thorns as if there is no other way.
Then, the 'love (words)' I offer to you...────
'──────'
'...──, ────'
Because that was the only thing I could think of.
As if singing a song of love to you, my precious one.
And, someday────as if reciting a song of sorrow to you, my distant one.
◇◆◇◆◇
Not just surprisingly, but just as I expected. I think a considerable amount of time has passed.
I conveyed all my resolve to the three of them. I conveyed all my feelings to my first love. The one who has finally come this far, in a sense, the world's greatest fool.
────However, but still.
Even if I have already exposed myself in the most disgraceful, pathetic, and utterly unsightly manner possible, I am still human. There's a limit to how much one can just brush things off.
That's why, look... even now.
"..................Alright."
Just opening a single door requires me to muster up all my courage.
I'm still in the virtual world. My current location is the instance home of my dear base, the clan [Azure Sky]. I gently reach out, grasp, and turn the doorknob, which connects to...
When I opened the partition, my gaze connected with...
""────...""
A crescent moon of amber.
That is to say, my one and only partner, glaring at me from the very start with half-lidded eyes.
"Sorry. I kept you waiting."
"...I waited."
I told her that, I told her this, I did that, I did this. After reaching a temporary stopping point, receiving her permission, and leaving Nia's atelier, I've arrived at this moment.
More than an hour has passed.
"...I'm sorry. Thank you."
All I can do is express my heartfelt gratitude to the girl who has likely been waiting like this the entire time. All I can give her are my true, unfeigned emotions.
One step. As I stepped into the room,
"────..."
Sora didn't utter a single word of blame.
Her room wasn't much different from my own clan room; with few objects, it felt more lonely than clean. I know her room in the real world too, and she's probably just that type of person fundamentally.
In that simple scenery, there were a few pieces of furniture placed almost as an afterthought.
One of them was a large, fluffy bed that functioned as her login and logout point, the one thing that seemed to show a bit of 'こだわり.'
I walked over and approached my partner, who was sitting there all alone.
""..................""
Thinking it would be weird to just stand and look down at her, I bent my knees beside the bed. Beside the girl to whom the innocent and graceful seiza sitting posture suited best in the world, our gazes remained locked.
A few seconds.
Ten-odd seconds.
────And, before it reached several minutes.
"...Yeah."
It started with Sora.
I caught her slender, outstretched left hand with my own left hand.
"..................Somehow, I just knew."
"Yeah."
"Somehow... I thought this is how it would turn out."
"............"
"...Whether I wanted it to turn out this way, or if I didn't... that's something I'll never tell you, for the rest of my life."
"...Yeah."
Our fingers intertwined. The girl drew my accepting hand towards her chest────
"──────Hmph!"
"Ow...!!?"
Sora bit down on my hand. Hard, without any mercy.
"Hey, wait...!?"
Of course, there was no pain. My yelp was purely reflexive. Even between two level 100 statuses, the Arcadia system isn't foolish enough to allow damage from a simple 'bite' through equipment without any skill enhancement.
So, the one to worry about should be her. Sora-san, who had just sunk her teeth into a gauntlet harder than steel when it comes to external impacts and the like, but────
"────...Tch, take it off."
"Huh?"
"Take this off! Hurry up and take it off!!!"
"Y-Yes, ma'am, huh...!?"
Sora, for her part, thankfully didn't seem to have taken any damage. But that aside, her momentum didn't stop, her words laced with an extremely rare lack of polite speech.
And so, pushed by my confusion, I followed Sora's intent as she slapped—no, smacked—my [An-Digalta, God-Wedge Flash Gauntlet] and unequipped the gauntlet.
"Hmph...!"
"Ehh...???"
This time, as expected, she bit down hard on my hand again────but with a little more restraint than before. I watched over my rampaging partner.
It doesn't hurt. Not at all.
That's why I was just utterly confused as to what this was all about. Then, to me,
"..................I can't swallow it at all."
".................."
Even I can understand.
She wasn't saying something strange in the sense that she couldn't eat my hand.
"...I've thought about it. That if it were you, Haru... that it would be the hardest path of all. That if you decided it was the only way, you would choose that path."
She's been thinking about my 'choice' all this time.
"So, I thought I was prepared..."
Sora says.
"But now that I've actually heard it from your lips... now that I've heard it..."
"Yeah."
"..................I can't swallow it at all..."
"...Yeah, I know."
She's showing me what's in her heart, hiding nothing.
She continues to keep the promise we made that day.
"............I... I..."
My bitten left hand was now held within both of hers.
"...I still don't understand myself."
"............"
A habit she's had for some time now.
A habit that, each time, has secretly dealt me a fatal wound with its sheer preciousness.
Gently bringing the ring of oath I gave her into contact with her own.
"I should want you all to myself."
A whisper.
"But part of me is relieved."
A whisper.
"...Even seeing you two kiss right in front of me."
A whisper.
"Before I could even think, 'I wanted to be the one to do that,'..."
A whisper, and another.
"I thought... 'I want to do that too.'"
As if frustrated with her own heart, which she can neither understand nor control.
"I can't even get jealous properly..."
My partner, who thinks of herself as a 'child,' showed me a tearful smile, as if ashamed of herself────
"I'm going to let myself think that's all 'thanks to' me."
If that's the case, there's only one thing for me to do.
"Because I threw your heart into such massive disarray... In other words, I'll take it as a joy that you love me enough to be thrown into such disarray."
I'm saying something terrible. But I understand.
"Nothing's changed, and nothing will. You're my one and only, my most important partner in the world."
".................."
We decided that this was right for us.
So cruel, so comical from an outside perspective. No matter how many contradictions we held, at the end of it all──── we joined hands, promising never to let go again. That's who we are.
"I love you, Sora. As my partner."
"............"
"I love you so much, Sora. ...As a girl."
"..., ............All this time."
To the words I once gave her, I now add my straightforward feelings.
"All this time, those were the words I wanted to hear, and yet...Tch!"
No matter how foolish and cruel a confession it may be.
"The fact that I can't be purely happy about it is your fault, Haru...!!"
I'm so sorry. I'm hopeless.
The atonement for my sin, as I've said so many times...──even if I can never fully atone.
"Even so, I couldn't let go of your hand. ...Forgive me."
So that I might be forgiven, even a little, so that one day I might forgive myself.
I will bet my life on it, and I will offer you my everything.
You can eat his hand, Sora-san.
And with that, let us begin Chapter 5's final section, Section 8, with high spirits.