Chapter 26: 26

Girl In A White Room

Translated by LyraDhani

Edited by LyraDhani

–In a pure white room, a girl was crying, holding a doll in her arms. The girl’s face was in shadow and couldn’t be seen clearly. The doll in her arms was missing one limb at a time.

The girl was trying her best to fix the frayed parts, but unless she could find the missing limbs, there was nothing else she could do.

Still, why was that doll in such a terrible state? Tsugumi felt like he was forgetting something, but he couldn’t remember anything because his head was so foggy.

As Tsugumi stared at the girl, she eventually closed her eyes, as if she had made up her mind to do something.

–Darkness.

–In the blank room, the girl was laughing with a doll. The doll’s arms and legs had been mended and looked as if they were brand new.

But there was one thing that bothered him. The girl’s body was one size smaller. Her body, which was originally about 10 years old, was now about 7 years old.

Tsugumi saw this, and for some reason felt the urge to scream out.

“Stop it. Please stop! –Why do you have to do that?”

Tsugumi himself didn’t know why he shouted such a thing. But he knew intuitively. The girl was getting more and more worn out every time she fixed that doll. The doll wasn’t worth it.

Perhaps she heard Tsugumi’s desperate voice, the girl stood up and walked toward him. As she got closer, the shadowed girl’s face was revealed.

–The girl had the same face as “Hagakure Sakura”.

No, she was shrunken and younger, so her impression was softer than that of “Hagakure Sakura”. And the decisive difference was the eyes. Those beautiful ruby-red eyes were gazing tenderly at Tsugumi. As if she was looking at someone she loved.

And then the girl gently held out the doll that she was holding so dearly. Is she asking him to accept this?

–But he gently pushed the girl back and shook his head.

If he accepted the doll, he would probably continue to fix it whenever it was damaged and wear himself out. And finally, he would disappear. The thought of this gave him chills.

A sense of frustration and fear of loss welled up from deep within his chest. It was scary that the girl in front of him would disappear.

The girl looked sad when she saw Tsugumi. She forced him to hold the doll and slowly opened her mouth.

-A warning bell rang in his head. Don’t listen to those words.

“””

–Before his brain could recognize the words, Tsugumi jumped to his feet.

“–Ahhhhh!”

A meaningless scream came out of his mouth. His throat must have been cut by the sudden loud cry, and his cough was laced with blood. Tsugumi rubbed his aching chest as he slowly calmed his breathing.

“Ha, ha. …A dream, huh?”

With blurry eyes, he looked around. The place that looked familiar was Tsugumi’s room. When did he come back to his room? He twisted his head, but couldn’t remember anything.

“You’ve woken up. How are you feeling? Is there anything wrong?”

Perhaps noticing Tsugumi’s loud voice, Bell appeared in his room through Transportation and asked about it. In her voice, he could hear the concern she couldn’t hide.

–And then he finally remembered what he had done.

“Bell-sama… Am I alive?”

Tsugumi asked, holding his head, which suddenly began to ache. He couldn’t remember what happened after he dropped the ice on Radon. Even when he woke up, he was skeptical that he was actually alive.

–The battle that seemed to continue to roar and burn with life. Just remembering it was terrifying. To be frank, it was a wonder that he was even breathing right now.

Tsugumi gently hugged his trembling body. It was a story he couldn’t laugh at when he was shaking now.

Seeing this, Bell smiled softly and said.

“Ah. You won, and you survived. –You did well.”

He chewed those words carefully. The fact that Radon had been defeated, and that Tsugumi was alive like this, was proof of victory.

–Yes, that’s right. I’ve done it.

“Yes, I’m glad…”

Then, Tsugumi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

–I’ve won the bet.

When he thought about it, he felt tired. Besides, his body felt heavy and there was a stinging pain in his chest.

“My whole body aches and my chest hurts. …I wonder if it’s like a muscle ache.”

“…I hope that’s all it takes. Are any of your senses not working well, or is your memory feel clouded?”

“Hmmm, not particularly.”

He was prepared for the worst, like missing a limb in reality, but there was no such problem. It was a bit discouraging.

…Maybe the dream I had earlier has something to do with it?

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Even as he thought so, only the unsettling feeling remained.

–What was that girl all about?

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The girl with the doll that had the same limbs removed in the same place that Tsugumi had lost during the battle.

He didn’t feel anything bad. In fact, he even felt a strange sense of nostalgia. But Tsugumi couldn’t remember anything about that girl.

The girl who resembled Hagakure Sakura – and thus looked a lot like him – was trying to tell him something at the time, but what exactly did she want to say? He kept thinking about it but there was no answer.

“I have a lot of other questions, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see for a while. …I’ll borrow a tool from an acquaintance to do some tests. It pains me to have to bow down to him, but it will have to do.”

“…I am sorry to bother you.”

Tsugumi looked apologetic and bowed to Bell. The fight started out as an act of selfishness on his part He was really sorry that he had put Bell through that reckless battle.

However, Bell didn’t seem to care and shrugged lightly.

“What’s the matter? –This case is also beneficial to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“In every age, the Gods love a ‘heroic’ battle. Your battle this time was well-received. I, the God of contracts, am proud of you.”

Bell said this proudly, but it felt a little complicated to be treated as if he were a gladiator. But if Bell’s reputation among the Gods had improved, then Tsugumi was happy for her.

“… Yes, what about Chidori?”

Suddenly, Tsugumi said. He didn’t think there was any damage because the barrier was put up with no problem, but it didn’t mean that she wasn’t involved in an accident during the evacuation.

The current time was 9:30 at night. It was noon when Tsugumi started fighting, so he had been asleep for almost nine hours.

He hurriedly checked his cell phone and saw a number of incoming calls. The top notification was fifty minutes ago. It said that the trip had been canceled and that she would be home in an hour.

“…I am glad. It seems that Chidori and the others are safe.”

Tsugumi patted his chest in relief. If Chidori had been seriously injured, he would have lost sight of what he had worked so hard for.

If she was going to be home in ten minutes, it would be better to greet her. Even just for the sake of it, he’d been ignoring the calls. It wouldn’t be good to cause her any more unnecessary worry.

“I’m going to go downstairs for a bit. I need to talk to Chidori.”

“Why don’t you do it tomorrow? I still think you should rest today.”

Bell said she was worried, but as for Tsugumi, he didn’t feel that there was anything wrong with his body. It would be no problem to go downstairs and talk with Chidori for a bit.

He gently shook off Bell’s attempts to keep him in the room and headed for the front door. Just as he was going down the stairs, he heard the front door open.

“I’m home. …Why is it so dark?”

He could hear Chidori’s frustrated voice. Indeed, there was no time to turn on the lights, so the first floor was dark and nothing could be seen.

Tsugumi turned on the hallway light and headed for the front door.

“Whoa, you surprised me. If you were there, you should have called out to me. Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

Chidori, who had entered the hallway from the front door dragging a suitcase, said so accusingly. But he couldn’t speak.

–The moment he saw Chidori’s face, all thoughts were blown away.

He staggered toward Chidori.

“…Chidori.”

“What’s wrong, Tsugumi? You look pale. Huh, what?”

He hugged Chidori, putting his hands around her back. The faint warmth made Tsugumi almost cry.

–Alive. Chidori is alive!

That made him irresistibly happy. It was as if everything had been worth it.

“I am so glad you’re not hurt.”

His voice was trembling. Before the fight, he had actually prepared himself – that he would never see her again. That’s why he was so happy to see her again like this.

Perhaps realizing that Tsugumi was unstable, Chidori gently stroked his head with concern.

“…Yeah, I’m sorry for worrying you.”

At these words, Tsugumi tightened his embrace a little.

–Chidori. The only family member he’d ever known. Losing her was unthinkable.

Because she was the only one left in his life.

“If you’re safe, that’s fine.”

The next moment after he said that, he coughed loudly. He put a hand over his mouth to see if he was coughing up phlegm, but his palm was red.

He let go of Chidori and sat down in the corridor. He couldn’t get any strength in his legs. And then he coughed intermittently, coughing up blood, which did not stop.

“…Tsugumi? No, it’s a lie, right? Hey, Tsugumi!!”

Chidori, who sensed what was happening, screamed impatiently and shook Tsugumi, but the blood in his mouth prevented him from speaking properly.

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His vision distorted. He heard someone calling out to him, but he didn’t have the energy to recognize it.

–Then, Tsugumi let go of his own consciousness.

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