NOVEL NEXT This side story depicts an alternate ending where Nagisa is confined (very mild version).
*
When did it start? It was when Mika began to trouble me unusually.
Was it when I found out that she had lost her memories?
“Hehehe~ Nagisa-chan, the tea tastes strangely sweet today☆ It must be my imagination, right?”
“Well, Mika-san, I also find the tea to taste sweet today.”
My relationship with Mika could be simply defined as a long-time childhood friendship of ten years. Or at least, it used to be.
But since Mika lost her memory, that phrase no longer held any meaning.
To me, all of it became a one-sided relationship.
The time we spent together. The memories we shared.
All of those now remained as mere traces in my memory.
Indeed, Mika can no longer remember anything.
The day we first met in kindergarten when she made me cry.
In elementary school, when she casually ran for class president and easily beat me, then, seeing my gloomy face, offered to give up the position with the hope that I wouldn’t be sad.
In middle school, when she protected me from the delinquents who tried to kidnap me, storming their hideout and forcing them to kneel.
After just entering the academy, somehow becoming a member of T-party and lamenting that everyone seemed to expect too much of her.
All of those are things only I remember now. Is it really meaningful to cling to the thin thread of being Mika’s closest friend?
“Mika, are you here…?!”
“Eh? Hello, Seiya-chan! What brings you here? Didn’t you say you had a conversation to have with the teacher today? Aha, I get it☆ You ditched the poor teacher!”
Ah, I remember now. The point where I began to be concerned about Mika was when she started introducing people as friends that I had no clue about.
I could understand the students from Trinity. After all, it’s natural to have connections when we’re all at the same academy.
Abydos? I can see that. Mika, being kind-hearted in many ways, likely couldn’t ignore the troubles of those in distress there. I understand. Distasteful, but I understand.
But beyond that, she introduced a friend from Gehenna, and at that moment, I felt a piercing realization.
Ah, the Mika I knew is now just a phantom from the past.
Mika, who even let go of her blind hatred of Gehenna, changed completely from the Mika I once knew.
Up until then, I had tried to accept the gradually changing situation. Even if I felt Mika was drifting away from me, I decided to take it in stride. It’s surely a common occurrence in the process of growing up.
However, the moment I noticed that the distance between her and those fox girls was suspiciously small, I finally became aware of my feelings.
The completely transformed Mika had moved away from being my childhood friend of ten years and had become something entirely different…
All thanks to those damn thieving girls.
“Mika, that’s not important right now! Get away from Nagisa immediately!”
“Eh? Seiya-chan, why the sudden change? To tell me to stay away from Nagisa, are you feeling unwell? That— Ugh…?!”
Seeing Mika, who was about to stand and wobbling while bending over towards me, made me involuntarily smile.
“Oh no, is it already too late…?!”
“Yes, Seiya-chan, unfortunately, it’s very much too late. This time, it seems that fate was not in your favor.”
“Nagisa, what on earth are you planning to do about the aftermath!”
The mention of aftermath made her sound strangely unhinged today.
“If I were thinking about aftermath, I’d have bled while keeping my eyes open.”
I, Kirihouji Nagisa, loved Misono Mika deeply. And because it took too long for me to realize that fact, too many bugs had clung to the flower I desired.
If I had just put my stamp of ownership from the start. This fickle girl wouldn’t be wagging her tail everywhere.
“Ah, Nagisa-chan…?”
Did she feel relieved seeing me come over to support her? Mika weakly smiles and calls my name. But if I overlook a spoiled habit that she’s developed, that habit will never be corrected.
“Just sleep for a bit, my love. Then everything…”
Will be over.
After confirming that Mika’s halo had lost its light, I carefully laid her on the sofa.
“Nagisa, it’s not too late yet. You should stop this madness! Do you know who Mika’s favorite person is—”
“What does that even mean, Seiya-chan?”
“…”
“If I confess my feelings now, I know Mika-san would accept it. But don’t you think the fox girls surrounding Mika will just stand idle? And can lovely Mika-san just turn a blind eye to them?”
Mika was mine from the beginning. And you guys are just the pesky bugs that have crawled in.
Mika is not someone you should be coveting…
“But… Ah, Nagisa. Still, this isn’t right. It shouldn’t be like this! Don’t you understand the end will only be destruction?!”
“…Love makes fools out of people, and I was no exception. So, Seiya-chan, you should disappear for a while.”
I’m sorry, Seiya-chan.
I’m sorry, Mika.
It seems I wasn’t wise enough to pass by this path.
*
Two months have passed since then.
Trinity fell into great chaos with the unprecedented incident of two out of the three student council presidents of T-party disappearing simultaneously, yet peace remains precariously maintained.
It would be nice if I could say it was because I had prepared so much, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Interestingly, this peace is all thanks to Mika. While I can’t deny that the presence of the teacher and Shalle has also helped to some extent, it’s the connections Mika built over time that truly support the current peace.
Thanks to her wagging her tail like a dog around, many fox girls have clung to Mika, and even now, those fox girls are tearing through Kivotos looking for the missing Mika.
Absurdly, that’s the reason why the current peace can be maintained.
No one has figured out that I am the one who kidnapped Mika and Seiya-chan. At least not yet.
Pretending to be a broken woman who lost two precious friends and quitting T-party helped. If I had tried to take good care of Mika and Seiya-chan while living as a host, I would have been caught much quicker.
If I hadn’t done that, I would have had to lead the search for Mika, and I wouldn’t have been suspected; quitting was the logical choice.
Looking at it this way, I only feel sorry for Hanako-san. She was the only one who could fill in as a host in T-party at this point.
Although she despises the political aspects of Trinity more than anyone else, Hanako-san stepped up to the host position without hesitation, determined to find Mika-san.
Perhaps if I had removed Hanako-san, I might not have stepped on a tail. If you ask whether I regret that, I wouldn’t say so, though. I didn’t want to commit an act that would genuinely make Mika hate me.
During the month, Seiya-chan has never once been angry with me. She only looks at me with pity.
I don’t find that gaze unpleasant because I understand her feelings. I’m not foolish enough to ignore my predetermined end, even though I don’t know what lies ahead.
Seiya-chan knows this better than anyone, waiting silently for the moment to come. But there’s no one here who doesn’t understand.
Mika…
“Haah, Mika-san. I had such a tough time today. It seems those fox girls are slowly starting to suspect me. They might have found some decisive evidence. Hanako-san is just too capable.”
“Uh… I see. Nagisa-chan, you’re working so hard.”
Mika has changed.
At first, she tried to kindly persuade me, but at some point, it feels like she just let everything go. If she had simply hated and cursed me, I would have stopped this right away, but Mika didn’t do that.
What awaits the end of a sinner, I wonder…
One day, she called me, saying she had something to confess, but then shook her head and fell silent again. I’m a little curious about what she was going to say, but honestly, it isn’t really important.
“Pet me a little more, Mika.”
“Aha, Nagisa-chan, you have such bad taste, that’s what it is.”
Mika, unable to move her body due to being restrained, weakly laughs.
“You are a sinner.”
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m the sinner. I’m sorry, Nagisa-chan.”
“You are an unprincipled girl.”
“I always say this, but they seduced me.”
Her brazen response sparks my inner fury. I wonder how many times I’ve heard this answer; oddly enough, it still infuriates me.
“It doesn’t matter who seduced whom, you wagged your tail happily each time they came to entice you, didn’t you?!”
“I can’t deny that… But they all looked so lovely, what could I do?”
“…Now asking me to love only you is rather difficult, isn’t it?”
“Aha, frankly speaking, I think it’s impossible. So, I’ll just have to remain a sinner, at least for you.”
“…That’s enough. Stop with your empty words. I know better than anyone that you haven’t done anything wrong. You were just trying to make everyone happy.”
Because you are that kind of person, I couldn’t harden my heart.
I couldn’t bring myself to vanish completely with you.
Not death, nor the thought of being together again afterward.
Not even if I were to ruin you to make you mine.
None of that was possible because I ended up loving you, Mika.
“I love you, Mika. I love you so much that I wanted to claim you, even if I had to burn my own body.”
“Yes, I love you too, Nagisa-chan.”
“Just tell me once that you love only me. Even if it’s an empty promise. Even if it’s a lie, just once…”
“You know I can’t say that…”
I want to hate myself for not being able to even get angry after hearing that. I want to hate Mika for turning me into this, but I can’t manage to despise her.
Mika knows very well that she is a princess accustomed to being loved, and yet it may be my responsibility for falling in love with her.
“Listen, Nagisa-chan. About the story I wanted to tell you earlier. The truth is—”
Is she trying to bring up what she left unsaid before? But it seems the world wishes for me not to hear that story.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
A sudden deafening noise. It seems the tail had been stepped on back then.
The door, which I spent a considerable amount of money on, was brutally torn away, and dust filled the air. And through that chaos, a student gradually revealed themselves.
“Looks like the culprit is Kirihouji Nagisa, it’s you after all. I should have suspected sooner… It took me a while to realize because you were acting so well.”
…It seems my brief but eventful deviation has come to an end here.
“I’ve come to rescue you, Mika. It’s time for you to return to where you truly belong.”
“…Ahaha, did you find Seiya-chan as well?”
“Yeah, Yurizono Seiya was saved before you. Given her condition, it seems that lady paid quite a bit of attention. She was acting as if she already knew this would happen.”
“Yeah, well, if it’s Seiya-chan, she probably really did know.”
Unintentionally hugging Mika and burying my face in her disheveled hair, I catch a scent of the shampoo and body wash we used together. It’s a scent that calms my heart.
“…Is it greedy to ask you not to go?”
“Of course, that’s greedy. You know that Nagisa-chan, right?”
“What if I cry and throw a tantrum?”
“Even then, it would still be impossible. And that would hurt me too.”
“I’ve felt pain far greater than that.”
“Yeah, I know. So don’t cry. Stay strong…”
CLANK!!
Mika, who broke free from her cuffs and embraced me, gently pats my back, but the more she does, the more tears I have.
She could have escaped anytime and left the cage. Yet here she is, playing along in such a foolish act. It had to be someone so utterly foolish that it couldn’t have been anyone else but Mika.
“…Mika, you really are silly. You got caught on purpose, didn’t you? All my worry feels so foolish now.”
“Aha! But Nagisa-chan is my painful finger, you see; I couldn’t help it.”
Indeed, Mika is one of a kind under the sun.
“Kirihouji Nagisa, you won’t escape punishment for this kidnapping. It may be lightened due to consideration for Mika, but there’s no way around it.”
I knew something like this would happen; I even mentally prepared for far worse outcomes.
“That’s a relief! Right, Nagisa-chan? If I sincerely apologize, everyone will forgive me☆ Well, maybe someday…?”
Still, Mika’s bright appearance after seeing her again after a month feels so adorable that I suppose I didn’t desire that kind of conclusion.
Even though I still don’t like those fox girls, if Mika is happy, then that’s enough for me.
…Anyway, the one who owns this silly girl is me, after all.