We Don't Open Anywhere: Kouta Hiiragi's Closed World (V)

Kouta Hiiragi's Closed World (V)

The familiar voice was drowned out. There was nothing that could stop me. Because everything had gone according to my plan, the result was as clear as the answer to one plus one.

I slashed at Shuuichi Akiyama’s carotid artery.

Blood gushed out, the crimson fountain pleasantly engulfing me and staining my head red. It dyed both the rooftop and my stunted world red, and brought me to somewhere new entirely. That was how the matter had been decided.

Then I noticed.

I couldn’t hear the sound of chains any more.

Why was that, “I” wondered?

After all, “I” hadn’t been able to slit Akiyama’s throat.

Akiyama’s eyes were out of focus. He had already lost all reason. He was in no position to have stopped me, so it couldn’t have been him.

But even so, my wrist hurt.

Someone was squeezing tightly on the wrist of the hand I was holding the knife in. Because of that, I hadn’t been able to cut him.

Who would do such a thing?

I glared at the squeezing hand to try to figure out whose it was.

And the culprit, the one who held back my right hand was—

“...Why?”

—My left hand.

I couldn’t make sense of this. Why had I stopped myself? It made no sense.

Why was my body acting against my will? Was it being manipulated by remote control? Could you even do that? Was it even possible?

If it was possible, it would only be through—

—magic.

“Kouta.”

I reflexively turned towards the voice.

There, illuminated by the golden twilight, stood Miki Kouzuki. Her long hair fluttered in the wind, each strand glittering like a jewel. Tears rolled down her smiling face. She was so beautiful it made my chest hurt, and it was almost unfair how freely she set the world in motion.

“Kouta, who are you?”

“I’m… Kouta Hiiragi…”

“That right. You’re Kouta Hiiragi, aren’t you?”

As she gradually approached me from the rooftop door, I was so stunned I couldn’t move. I stood there, paralyzed, and she took the knife from my hand. I felt as though I wouldn’t even be able to breathe without her permission.

“You aren’t Masato Yahara. You’re Kouta Hiiragi.”

Miki then leaned on me and moved my hand to her back.

“Kouta Hiiragi. You know what that is? The name of the person I like.”

And then.

Miki Kouzuki kissed me.

Ahh… I could feel my cramped world expand rapidly, as if I had just exited a long tunnel. Light flooded in through countless newly-opened doors and dazzled me.

But it was scary. Advancing through those doors was scary. I didn’t want to leave my cramped world. I didn’t want to learn about the expanded world. But this illuminated place no longer held anywhere to hide. I had no choice but to accept it.

As if affirming my existence, my shadow stood out against the light.

I had no choice but to be Kouta Hiiragi.

I had to accept that reality.

The bill I had been shirking so long had finally come due. I would have to stand up against all my powerful foes.

As Miki released my lips from hers, I finally remembered what was attached to the left hand that had just stopped the violence.

“Ahh… So that’s it.”

The red hair band.

The item Miki had stored her magic in.

What had stopped me — what had stopped the Masato Yahara inside me — had been Miki’s magic.

“That’s not it.”

But Miki firmly refuted that claim.

“Say, do you know why I kissed you just now?”

“To return me to normal…?”

“The next time you say something like that, I’m really going to hit you.”

“What!?”

“A woman’s lips aren’t so trivial a thing as that. No matter what her reason may be, even if she herself doesn’t realize it, there’s only one reason a woman ever kisses a man.”

Probably for the first time, Miki showed me a smile from the bottom of her heart.

“It’s because she likes him.”

In response to her confession, my mind went so white I thought my brains had been blown out. It was completely blank. Matsumi-senpai, socially inept as always, excitedly clamoured to the collapsed, corpse-like figures of Shiho Sudou and Shuuichi Akiyama, “Hee hee, it’s a confession!”

Still unable to think, all that dwelled within me were emotions.

—I’m happy.

—I’ve been waiting for this.

—I’ve been waiting so long for Miki to put her feelings to words. So long!

“Uwa, uwaa…”

Before I realized it, I was crying too.

Not because I was happy.

Because I was sad.

Ahh, finally. I could finally understand my own feelings, I could finally put them to words.

—I was sad that Masato was dead.

“There’s something I just learned, see. In this world, you can make things complicated, or you can make them simple. It’s all up to you. And if that’s the case, then don’t you think making things simpler is nice?”

Miki gently stroked my hair.

“So you see, the reason you weren’t able to drive the knife any further—”

She brought her face to mine, and our tears converged.

“Was because you didn’t want to kill anybody… That’s all.”

And that was a truth that I had no reason to doubt.

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