Editing Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi:Volume6 Chapter2 (section)

===Part IX===
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Inside the tent, Ai secretly thought to herself that the moment she was most awake was when she had just woken up from her sleep.

Her waking brain was calmly grasping the current situation: Alice's rejection, Dee pointing out the fact to her, her own ugliness. She remembered everything, and accepted them all with the dullness distinct to someone who had just woken up.

"…The sun rises even in times like this."

She was surprised.

She tried to get up, and felt a dull ache in every part of her body. It was not a muscle pain, but a nerve pain.

Ai wondered if this was how it felt for a fish that was washed ashore from the sea.

Then, she suddenly noticed that the pain was less so on the left side of her body.

<i>What is that? </i>She wondered, and turned her head. And there was—

Scar and Celica were holding her left arm.

Ai, unable to move, gazed at the scene.

It was a happy scene.

Scar probably did not intend to fall asleep. She was in a cramped posture with her legs bent over, wrapped in a single blanket as she breathed away. The blanket appeared to be draped over her later on by someone else. In her arms, Celica clung to Ai's arm like a pillow, smearing her sleeve with drool.

This was the only place where she was protected from the pain of the world.

Ai felt the increasing urge to cry. She really almost cried, but the tears did not flow.

Then, she noticed something else on the right side.

It was a Gravekeeper shovel.

"…Why?"

She probably reached for it when she was lacking in oxygen. It was probably placed there just as a toy would be given to a child throwing a tantrum. She looked over and saw that Scar's shovel was also next to it. <i>The more the merrier?</i> Ai wondered.

Ai smiled as she imagined Scar carrying her shovel to bed with a serious face. But the smile only took shape in her mind, and her cheeks did not move even a millimeter.

That was fine. The thought of smiling was good enough.

"Miss Scar…, please wake up."

Ai quietly made up her mind as she called out to the warmth of her left hand.

She would save Alice.

She would bring him back.

She did not know what would happen after that, but she believed it was the only thing she could do.

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