Part 116
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Music: play track 7
"...... I want you to live."
Akiha tilts her head questioningly.
"No matter what you become---I still want you to live, Akiha."
My tears cannot be stopped.
Akiha hugs back joyfully---and bites on my neck.
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"-----!!"
It hurts.
But it is not an act to suck my blood.
It is just a primitive act to bite me.
"A-Akiha."
Akiha just frantically bites my neck.
She tears off the meat and my bones are being chipped away.
Akiha has no intelligence.
She does not know who is holding her, or the meaning of an embrace.
Akiha is no different from a beast in human form.
But still----
That's---just a selfish wish.
"----But, we made a promise."
Akiha does not let go.
Still holding on to her, I place my knife on Akiha's "line".
---If someone is going to kill you eventually, then...
"I won't let anyone hurt you."
----The knife, without a sound,
and probably without pain,
"Since I am the only one for you."
----Gently ends Akiha's life.
One event has ended.
When I was a child.
The happiness when we met here and ran around this courtyard.
The brightness of the stars we watched together.
Just a few days ago.
Everything we talked about here.
...... My body is cold.
My mind feels dizzy, like I'm about to go to sleep.
...... I'm sleepy.
I feel like if I slept right now, I could dream that this was all a dream.
But that's just a dream and someday, I would have to wake up.
It feels like even I am just part of this dream.
Or was everything an ephemeral dream from the start?
If so, please...
Let me sleep on and never wake me up.
"---------Ha, ha."
In the sky, the blue, blue, glass moon.
The tall curtain of trees and the applause of showering crimson leaves.
"Haha, ha------"
I'm sad, yet all that comes forth is laughter.
...
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Music: play track 7
"...... I want you to live."
Akiha tilts her head questioningly.
"No matter what you become---I still want you to live, Akiha."
My tears cannot be stopped.
Akiha hugs back joyfully---and bites on my neck.
"-----!!"
It hurts.
But it is not an act to suck my blood.
It is just a primitive act to bite me.
"A-Akiha."
Akiha just frantically bites my neck.
She tears off the meat and my bones are being chipped away.
Akiha has no intelligence.
She does not know who is holding her, or the meaning of an embrace.
Akiha is no different from a beast in human form.
But still----
To think that the crime is borne by me is selfish thinking.
"...... I'll save you."
Hard.
With all my might, I embrace Akiha.
"Uh, uhhh, uhh!!"
I embrace the wildly moving Akiha.
Crunch.
She breaks my shoulder bone by biting through it.
"------A, Akiha-------"
Even though one of my shoulder's bone is broken, I embrace Akiha with one arm.
"Ugh!! Uhnn.........!!"
Akiha rages wildly.
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I embrace her for a long time.
...... Is it because this might be our last embrace?
I have never held someone so dearly, trying to remember everything... their heartbeat, their warmth...
"Uh...... Mm......"
...... Maybe since she found out I am not going to do anything, Akiha stops fighting.
I don't know how long we were like this in the falling autumn leaves.
But Akiha has fallen asleep in my arms.
I swore I would save her, no matter what happened.
It's really easy to save her.
The reason why Akiha is living as one of the Tohno Blood.
If the human she is sharing her life with disappears, she can go back to the original "Tohno Akiha".
But that means---the death of Tohno Shiki.
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2:
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