The sensation of swaying—along with a soft warmth—pulled Yuuki back toward consciousness.
His head was heavy. His body felt weak, like it couldn't summon strength.
Yuuki had felt something like this before—back when the company nearly faced a catastrophic loss. He'd run himself ragged and gone two days without sleep, nearly blacking out in the car.
This time felt worse.
He'd truly lost consciousness for a while. Was this what it meant for his body to be hollowed out…?
Thinking that, Yuuki opened his eyes.
It was already night. The air was a little cool. The moon hung high.
Under streetlights, he was moving slowly.
In the lamplight, he saw a pale white nape close to him, caught a faint scent like incense, and noticed a kimono stained with the blood from his body.
Yuuki realized he was being carried on someone's back.
His childhood friend—Shiki Ryougi—had him piggybacked.
Feeling Yuuki's breathing change, Shiki naturally noticed he'd woken up and stopped walking.
"…"
"Can you move?"
Yuuki tried, then shook his head.
"Sorry. Not really…"
"I see."
She didn't say anything else. She started walking again.
But the realization that the one carrying him was the person he'd once admired during his student days made Yuuki feel oddly embarrassed.
Back then, he hadn't been a "fake student" like now. He'd been a real teenager in his previous life.
It was like being thirty-something and accidentally digging up your cringey middle-school posts—an inexplicable shame.
"Ahem…"
As if to sweep away the mess in his head, Yuuki cleared his throat and joked:
"Pretty impressive that you can carry me. You're a girl, you know."
"It's because you're too light. Are you eating properly?"
"…"
"Hey. Don't tell me you really haven't been eating."
Maybe because he didn't refute it, Shiki's voice took on genuine worry. Yuuki scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Because the maid's in the hospital… Fujino's been secretly learning to cook, but…"
Fujino's congenital analgesia affected her sense of taste too. Maybe with long practice she could eventually make something edible, but it would take time and experience.
Even if sheer love for his sister could correct it…
…it would probably only be slightly better than the dried-corpse flavor he'd just tasted.
"What did you eat yesterday?"
"Cup noodles!"
"The day before?"
"Cup noodles."
"And the day before that?"
"Cup noodles…"
"Are you some black-hearted company's employee? Don't tell me you've been living on cup noodles this entire time Tama's been hospitalized?"
The fresh corpse demon neck meat he'd swallowed earlier probably didn't count… especially since he'd thrown it up…
Faced with Shiki's concerned interrogation, Yuuki honestly felt guilty. Strictly speaking, ever since he'd asked Tama to take care of Fujino, Yuuki had eaten cup noodles constantly.
Not because he loved them.
Not because he was forced into it.
He just didn't want trouble. Yuuki had no pursuit of food. His mother died early. His relationship with his father had basically rotted away.
Aside from the meddlesome maid Tama, almost no one cared what he ate.
In that sense, he and Shiki were similar—Shiki, despite having real culinary skill and even chefs at home, still ate sandwiches for lunch as a quick fix.
Seeing Yuuki stay silent, Shiki sounded almost speechless:
"How are you even still alive?"
Ryougi—human beings, especially young bodies, are surprisingly resilient to abuse.
Their casual back-and-forth loosened the earlier tension. After a moment, Yuuki asked:
"Shiki, how did you find me? And… why were you even out there? I don't get it."
"Your sister came to me. She said you hadn't come back and she couldn't reach you, so I went looking in her place. As for how I found you…"
Shiki paused, then said:
"When I found you, you were by a roadside trash can. Covered in blood. You looked like you were about to die."
So she wasn't going to pry deeper.
Araya—so he dumped me by the roadside.
"Shiki, did you see anyone else nearby? Like… a tall monk in black?"
"No. And it's past midnight now. There wasn't even a pedestrian on the road."
"Good. If you do see him… be careful. He's dangerous."
"Was he the one who hurt you like this?"
"What, you're going to avenge me?"
"…"
…She might, actually.
Shiki looked cold and distant at school, but she had her own kind of warmth.
Thinking that, Yuuki shook his head.
"No. To be accurate… he saved me."
"…I see."
It seemed like Shiki was about to say more, when a familiar voice came from the distance.
"Big brother!"
Fujino—still in slippers, her hair unbound—came running, frantic, from the mansion.
...
After Shiki said, "Delivery complete," she left the Asagami home.
Fujino only returned to her room to sleep after Yuuki insisted—after she finished bandaging his wounds.
Only once he heard Fujino's even breathing from her room did Yuuki drag his weak body back to his own.
He shut the door and began thinking carefully about what happened today.
It was indeed Japan of the '80s and '90s…
…but not the Japan he'd assumed.
This was Type-Moon's Japan.
Shiki Ryougi—the Shiki Ryougi from Kara no Kyoukai.
And he was Fujino Asagami's brother…
Damn it. If I'd known, I would've rewatched the anime I loved after I started working. Or at least… if I hadn't quit FGO, that would've helped.
As it was, he could only remember the plot in fragments.
But one thing was clear: Souren Araya had his eyes on him.
"At this point in time… since Shiki is still in school and Fujino hasn't been bullied yet, that means the story of Kara no Kyoukai hasn't started…"
After all, Shiki didn't have Mystic Eyes of Death Perception yet.
"In other words, the top priority… is to run!"
Yuuki turned on the light and stared at a map of Japan on the wall, tracing with his finger.
"Tokyo is Tsukihime's stage—can't go. Misaki Town—can't go. Fuyuki City… no way. I don't want to get dragged into a gas leak incident. Absolutely not. Shimokitazawa… fine. Shimokitazawa it is."
He'd lost some flesh, but nothing too serious—at least he could still move. Running should be done fast. Bring Fujino and Tama—
No. Not now. If he'd already been targeted, staying with him might put them in danger.
If he left them in Mifune City, then following the plot Fujino would be targeted sooner or later anyway.
Have them move to Hokkaido instead. With Shiki and Kokutou around, even if the process was harsh, the story would continue, and the ending would be good.
Yes. Kara no Kyoukai was, in the end, a story with a relatively happy conclusion…
If Kokutou was there…
Cold sweat soaked Yuuki's pajamas—ones he'd changed into not long ago.
He'd transferred here two months already. He was in the same class as Shiki.
And there was no one in class named Mikiya Kokutou.
Had his transmigration changed things so much that the world had already diverged from its original track?
If Kokutou wasn't here… what would happen to Shiki?
Would this story still reach a good ending?
Yuuki stopped packing. He stared at his battered arms, remembering Shiki—his childhood friend—letting her precious kimono be stained with blood as she carried him home.
"I… can I do something…?"
[Ding.]
"…Huh?"
-------
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