Volume 12: You Who Bear the Azure Sky
His memories were hazy.
He couldn’t remember who he was, or why he was here.
It felt like a dream.
All he could be certain of was that this was inside his own consciousness.
A sky tinged in crimson.
Dusk’s dim shadows lay quietly over everything.
The world around him felt faintly desaturated, as if drained of both color and sound.
A railroad crossing barred his path with its yellow and black striped arm.
The high-pitched chime of the signal rang distantly, melding with the cry of cicadas as the two sounds dissolved into one.
There was no one else around.
It was a lonely place.
He stood there for a while.
Then, a massive hunk of metal thundered past, the train.
For a moment, through the blur of the passing windows, he saw the silhouettes of passengers.
What should have been an earsplitting roar sounded oddly muted, as if it came from behind a wall.
He looked up at the twilight sky.
There was something melancholic in the air.
The wind carried a sense of seasons long past.
And that’s when the boy, Sazanami Aoi, realized he was standing on the soil of the world he had left behind two years ago.
The last car of the train passed before him.
As its sound faded into the distance, he saw them, two silhouettes, a boy and a girl, standing against the light at the far end of the tracks.
The crossing gate lifted.
The two, wearing what looked like middle school uniforms, began to cross the tracks.
「Soooorry! I can’t believe I left the printouts at school… Thanks for coming with me to get them.」
「You dragged me here, remember? Besides, are you sure you left them at school? Maybe they’re just in your bag. Happens to me all the time.」
「I swear I checked like ten times! They’re definitely in my desk drawer!!」
Listening to their lighthearted chatter, a sense of nostalgia welled up in him.
Nakahara Kasane and Kiyosato Akane…
They walked right past Aoi, doing what they were exactly doing just like what they had done in middle school.
He turned to follow them with his eyes as they entered the shopping street beyond the crossing.
And finally—
Aoi remembered what had happened to him.
He had fought to defeat Kokujou that had taken Kiyosato’s consciousness.
She had suffered because of his ignorance, because he had gone through life knowing nothing.
He had vowed to save her, and in doing so, had resolved to throw everything away.
That was why he had shattered the bracelet.
The crimson sky he had looked up at…
Would soon fall into darkness.
「……」
Aoi bit his lip as he gazed at the edge of the indigo sky.
He knew this wasn’t reality.
He had to wake up.
He had to fight.
The girl walking away from him, her consciousness would vanish in the real world before dusk ever came to this place.
…Dreams are cycles.
And now, without realizing it, Aoi stood by the window in a classroom.
「Huhhh? That’s weird? It’s not here? Hey, why isn’t it here?」
「Don’t ask me. Geez, just hurry up already… We’ve got a ton of homework today.」
「Oh come on, you never do your homework anyway.」
「It’s the principle of the thing.」
The light of sunset filtered through the window, casting a gentle, melancholic contrast of light and shadow across the classroom.
There was a barren stillness to the air. Muted colors washed over everything.
Aoi sat by the window, watching as Kiyosato rifled through a desk while Kasane stifled a yawn from his seat.
Apparently bored out of his mind, Kasane began rummaging through his own bag and pulled out a book.
Kiyosato’s search for the printout wasn’t going well.
They kept chatting casually, but as Kasane became immersed in his book, a quiet dusk settled over the room.
「…Ah… huh? Ah! I found it!!」
Kiyosato finally uncovered the printout and triumphantly held it up, but Kasane gave no response.
Frowning, Kiyosato glanced over at him.
Even when she approached his desk, he didn’t react.
「Sekagen? Volume 10’s out?」
Peeking over his shoulder, Kiyosato’s voice finally got through. Kasane lifted his face.
「Nakahara, you really like Rui, huh.」
「Eh? Well… yeah.」
「I’m totally Team Senana.」
「You are?」
「Yup! She’s super energetic, and I love how she’s a little mysterious! But if I had to pick one character to be friends with, it’d be Mimia-chan. I’d love to go shopping with her.」
「Ah… yeah, I get that.」
It was the kind of silly conversation they’d had a thousand times before.
From the schoolyard outside the window came the shouts of club members wrapping up practice.
「I really wanna read it soon. It’s getting sooo good. But isn’t Kokujou just way too strong? There’s still like, four or five top generals left and they can’t even beat one.」
「Well, now that Hayato can use the “Radiant Divine Arms”, I feel like they might finally win.」
「But Hayato’s, like, super bad at using it.」
「There was a thing that said the Divine Arms compatibility can sometimes transfer if blood mixes, right? So after what happened in Volume 9, maybe Kotone can use hers again, someone wrote a theory about that.」
「Wait what? That’s not even in the main story.」
「Volume 5. Look it up.」
Kasane’s expression was slightly solemn.
He probably hadn’t been paying much attention to the conversation up until now.
「More importantly, what do you think of this? …Doesn’t it kinda feel like a death flag? If it is, I swear, what’s even the point of reading anymore…」
Before he realized it, Aoi had walked over to stand beside him.
Kasane hadn’t turned even a single page from the opening color illustration.
He probably couldn’t bring himself to move forward, paralyzed by what came next.
A girl with golden twin tails, cloaked in the power of two keys, stood defiant with a desperate expression, facing off against Kokujou Lilia.
Her final stand—
A battle to protect her friends and the one she loved.
Those long, sharp blue eyes… no.
The entire world within that book was, in this dull and desolate place, the only thing that shone with overwhelming color.
「…Ah…」
A faint sound escaped Aoi’s lips.
He felt it.
His eyelids slowly lifting.
A sky of piercing blue opened up above him.
It was vivid.
Ever since coming to this world, that thought struck him more and more often.
From the ground far below, the muffled sounds of fierce battle reached his ears.
He could feel his body dying.
He clenched his fists.
The brilliance of the azure sky pressed against his chest, tightening it, the ache inside growing sharper and stronger.
Leave a Reply