Ch.340IF Side Story: Seems I’ve Arrived a Bit Early (37)

“Could it be, at Mr. Yamashita’s home too…?”

Kagami’s voice sounded as if it was being squeezed out. A voice like she was forcing herself to speak words that wouldn’t come out. It was the first time I’d heard such a voice from Kagami.

“No.”

The man cut her off sharply.

“Nothing like that has happened yet. Actually… I don’t know if you’re aware, but for various reasons, it’s not a home that’s easy to visit and enter.”

What did he mean by not being easy to enter?

And how on earth did this man get injured like this? And who was that woman in the dress?

If it’s about a “relationship,” there is something I can think of.

Didn’t he say she was Kagami’s older sister? If I recall my hazy childhood memories, Kagami and that woman did look very similar. She could easily pass as Kagami a few years older.

Back then, it was obvious because Kagami was so young.

Could this be a conflict between yakuza groups?

Is Kagami actually the daughter of a yakuza family? I don’t know how real yakuza expand their influence. Do families like that arrange marriages for political reasons?

“I see.”

“Yes… I apologize for saying this, but we haven’t just left the young lady alone. The boss ordered us to protect her from nearby.”

“I see…”

Kagami seemed somewhat relieved, but we still weren’t in a situation where we could completely relax.

It’s unfortunate for the man, but if Kagami ended up in the same state as him—I might not be able to handle that.

“This way. We have a car—”

But the man couldn’t finish his sentence.

It was a slightly chilly evening, but I could feel a bit of warmth.

And more than that, there was the smell of something burning.

I could hear sirens and someone shouting.

And far away, the street was illuminated in orange.

Without having to go closer to check, we could tell that the car the man had mentioned was on fire.

We turned and ran.

“Ah…!”

Midway, I tripped on a rock and fell forward. With a thud, things from my bag spilled out over my head—I must not have closed it properly when I rushed out.

“Kotone!”

Thump!

Rolled-up socks and underwear tumbled around, and a pink toy bounced forward and fell to the ground.

As bad luck would have it, the tip of that magic wand was stepped on hard by the foot of the man who had turned around after seeing me fall. I instinctively reached out and grabbed the broken wand. I disliked the toy being damaged more than the pain.

The man suddenly picked me up.

“Ah!?”

Kagami shouted, but then she pressed her lips together with an anxious expression, as if she had accepted it.

“I’m going to run a bit.”

Both Kagami and I were wearing sneakers. Our clothes were good for running.

Kagami nodded, and the man started running.

There was a slight smell of cigarettes. And faintly, the smell of iron. Probably blood. A smell I hadn’t encountered in a long time.

Some blood got on part of my clothes, but I stayed quietly in the man’s arms.

Tokyo is vast. And we were in quite a deep part of Tokyo.

So which way would be fastest to escape?

Even if we found our way out, we couldn’t leave Tokyo on foot. But using public transportation would make us easy to track. If someone knew which bus or train we took, they could go ahead and wait for us. The car we were supposed to take was destroyed.

But the man seemed to have a plan.

He stepped out onto the main road and raised his hand high.

A taxi stopped, then seemed to notice the man’s appearance belatedly and tried to leave, but the man opened the front door and pushed himself in without hesitation.

Then he handed me to Kagami through the open door.

Kagami got into the back seat holding me.

The man was handing a thick wad of cash to the driver.

“No one will blame you for getting involved. We’re just riding here for a moment.”

“…”

The driver, looking a bit frightened, stepped on the accelerator.

I couldn’t tell where the man had told him to go, but looking at the scenery outside the window, I could guess.

We were heading toward the sea.

The deepest part of Tokyo is Tokyo Bay. Of course, you can’t just board a ship from anywhere…

Perhaps he had secured such a place—

The taxi stopped, and as soon as the three of us got out, it immediately drove away. Fortunately, we hadn’t left any bags behind.

Even in this situation, strangely, I was still tightly gripping the broken magic wand while being held in Kagami’s arms. If I let go of this too, it felt like even the proof that I had such a good friend would disappear—

Where we headed was indeed the sea, but not a dock.

A car might be one thing, but there was no way to quickly prepare a boat or something similar to move us rapidly to our destination. Water transportation is significantly slower.

Where we arrived was probably somewhere along a river connected to the sea.

Far along the riverbank, which couldn’t even be called a dock, there was a small boat. The boat floating beside the walkway almost looked like it was there out of necessity.

As we were running—

“…Gah!”

The feet of the man who was running in front were cut off.

“…Go!”

Seeing Kagami pause momentarily, the man shouted. Blood flowed from his mouth, and then only the sound of wind came out.

He was dead. Or just about to be.

It was… a strange sight. On that path along the riverside in the city center, there were no obstacles that could cause someone to trip and bleed like that.

Moreover, when his back was wounded, nothing was visible. Could someone be shooting? But I didn’t hear any gunshots—

But before I could see it clearly, Kagami ran while holding me. I heard someone calling us from the distant boat.

And then, fear seeped from deep within my heart again.

I wondered what this was all about.

Who on earth was our opponent—

“Kagami.”

I heard such a voice.

And Kagami’s body stopped.

Kagami’s trembling breath revealed how terrified she was. Tired, exhausted, and frightened breathing.

“I have a proposal. Would you like to hear it?”

A voice similar to Kagami’s but subtly different. A voice that seemed to look down on people. Using polite speech but not actually showing respect.

Kagami slowly turned around.

Still in Kagami’s arms, I looked toward the source of the voice.

There stood a person who seemed to be imitating Kagami. Someone as tall as Kagami, as beautiful as Kagami.

Wearing a white dress and a wide-brimmed hat.

“…”

Kagami didn’t answer. She just glared at the other person.

“My, your personality seems to have changed a bit.”

The woman slowly approached.

When Kagami stepped back, the woman also stopped.

“…”

She could jump in right now or do the same thing that made the man collapse earlier to take Kagami down.

“Is that child so precious to you?”

“…”

“But, that child is precious to me too.”

“…She’s my daughter.”

I blinked.

I had never heard Kagami use this kind of tone before.

“…Yes, she’s your daughter too. And also the daughter of God.”

The daughter of God?

I heard Kagami grinding her teeth.

The woman sighed deeply and said:

“Fine. Then, you won’t listen if I say I’ll let you go if you hand over that child. Judging by your attitude.”

“…”

“You know what? Even if you lose an arm or a leg, it doesn’t matter. As long as there’s breath in that body… Don’t you know? You must have seen the other materials.”

“…”

“Eventually, with time, you’ll end up with us—”

“Solitude.”

Kagami opened her mouth.

“It’s solitude, isn’t it?”

“…What?”

“…You can’t just kill me. As long as I’m holding her, we’re both targets. Solitude can’t distinguish between us, right?”

“…”

The woman’s expression turned somewhat vicious.

I didn’t know what this “solitude” referred to, but apparently the power that woman used couldn’t target just one person.

“…I see. In that case, we have our methods too.”

Kagami stepped backward.

And the moment she turned her body—

“Aagh!”

Kagami screamed.

Blood flowed from Kagami’s arms and legs.

But Kagami didn’t fall.

As if determined to protect me from that attack, she wrapped herself around me even more—

Whoosh.

In that instant, I heard a sound by my ear.

Just like the sound of a knife being swung very quickly.

I fell away from Kagami.

Kagami had thrown me.

Blood splattered on my face. More than the pain of falling from a height.

The blood from Kagami’s arm looked so painful.

My heart was beating wildly.

I just hated this situation.

When I lost my family in my previous life, at least I had no reason to think it was because of me.

This time it was because of me. Even if I didn’t understand what was happening, that woman had mentioned me.

I got up.

Kagami stood up again and approached me.

The woman in the distance smiled—

I took what I was holding in my hand and struck my neck hard with it.

In that moment, silence fell around us.

“…Kotone?”

“What are you trying to do?”

Forcing myself to look away from Kagami’s pale face, I looked straight at the woman.

“Let us go. Me and my mom.”

“…?”

“If not, I’ll die. Then you’ll have a body with ‘not even breath left in it.'”

As I said this, the thing I was holding against my neck—

I could feel the magic wand, its broken end now sharp, digging into the skin of my neck. Perhaps a little blood was flowing. I couldn’t tell because of the sweat.

“No!”

Kagami shouted.

“No!!”

It was a tearing scream. One I had never heard in my life—

No, I had heard it in my previous life. The voices of mothers and fathers who realized their children were in flames.

Kagami, with some unknown strength, got up and rushed toward me.

Blood was still flowing from her arms and legs.

Kagami quickly reached out and grabbed my arm, but I gripped the magic wand tightly with both hands, tensed my neck, and shouted:

“Let us go! Or else—!”

“…”

“Kotone, Kotone!”

Kagami cried out as if she couldn’t say anything else, shedding tears. Passersby were gathering around.

Yes, this is the heart of Tokyo.

A place with far too many people.

I wonder if someone has called the police by now?

Unable to stop me from continuing to resist, Kagami finally picked me up completely and ran.

She boarded the boat and shouted to the men:

“Help me! Kotone is, Kotone is…!”

Ah, now I could really feel blood flowing from my neck. How deep had it gone?

Because of the running, and being thrown earlier, my mind was a bit hazy.

The boat departed, and the men, along with Kagami, tried to pry my hands away from that plastic toy—

That was my last memory of that moment.