The

familiar voice was drowned out. There was nothing that could stop me. Because

everything had gone according to my plan, the result was as clear as the answer

to one plus one.

I slashed at Shuuichi Akiyama's

carotid artery.

Blood

gushed out, the crimson fountain pleasantly engulfing me and staining my head

red. It dyed both the rooftop and my stunted world red, and brought me to

somewhere new entirely. That was how the matter had been decided.

Then I

noticed.

I couldn't hear the sound of

chains any more.

Why was

that, "I" wondered?

After

all, "I" hadn't been able to slit Akiyama's throat.

Akiyama's

eyes were out of focus. He had already lost all reason. He was in no position

to have stopped me, so it couldn't have been him.

But

even so, my wrist hurt.

Someone

was squeezing tightly on the wrist of the hand I was holding the knife in.

Because of that, I hadn't been able to cut him.

Who

would do such a thing?

I

glared at the squeezing hand to try to figure out whose it was.

And the

culprit, the one who held back my right hand was—

"...Why?"

—My

left hand.

I

couldn't make sense of this. Why had I stopped myself? It made no sense.

Why was

my body acting against my will? Was it being manipulated by remote control?

Could you even do that? Was it even possible?

If it

was possible, it would only be through—

—magic.

"Kouta."

I

reflexively turned towards the voice.

There,

illuminated by the golden twilight, stood Miki Kouzuki. Her long hair fluttered

in the wind, each strand glittering like a jewel. Tears rolled down her smiling

face. She was so beautiful it made my chest hurt, and it was almost unfair how

freely she set the world in motion.

"Kouta,

who are you?"

"I'm…

Kouta Hiiragi…"

"That

right. You're Kouta Hiiragi, aren't you?"

As she

gradually approached me from the rooftop door, I was so stunned I couldn't

move. I stood there, paralyzed, and she took the knife from my hand. I felt as

though I wouldn't even be able to breathe without her permission.

"You

aren't Masato Yahara. You're Kouta Hiiragi."

Miki

then leaned on me and moved my hand to her back.

"Kouta

Hiiragi. You know what that is? The name of the person I like."

And

then.

Miki

Kouzuki kissed me.

Ahh… I could feel my cramped world expand rapidly,

as if I had just exited a long tunnel.　Light

flooded in through countless newly-opened doors and dazzled me.

But it

was scary. Advancing through those doors was scary. I didn't want to leave my

cramped world. I didn't want to learn about the expanded world. But this

illuminated place no longer held anywhere to hide. I had no choice but to

accept it.

As if

affirming my existence, my shadow stood out against the light.

I had

no choice but to be Kouta Hiiragi.

I had

to accept that reality.

The

bill I had been s.h.i.+rking so long had finally come due. I would have to stand up

against all my powerful foes.

As Miki

released my lips from hers, I finally remembered what was attached to the left

hand that had just stopped the violence.

"Ahh…

So that's it."

The red

hair band.

The

item Miki had stored her magic in.

What

had stopped me — what had stopped the Masato Yahara inside me — had been Miki's

magic.

"That's

not it."

But

Miki firmly refuted that claim.

"Say,

do you know why I kissed you just now?"

"To return

me to normal…?"

"The

next time you say something like that, I'm really going to hit you."

"What!?"

"A

woman's lips aren't so trivial a thing as that. No matter what her reason may

be, even if she herself doesn't realize it, there's only one reason a woman

ever kisses a man."

Probably

for the first time, Miki showed me a smile from the bottom of her heart.

"It's

because she likes him."

In

response to her confession, my mind went so white I thought my brains had been

blown out. It was completely blank. Matsumi-senpai, socially inept as always,

excitedly clamoured to the collapsed, corpse-like figures of s.h.i.+ho Sudou and

Shuuichi Akiyama, "Hee hee, it's a confession!"

Still

unable to think, all that dwelled within me were emotions.

—I'm

happy.

—I've

been waiting for this.

—I've

been waiting so long for Miki to put her feelings to words. So long!

"Uwa,

uwaa…"

Before

I realized it, I was crying too.

Not

because I was happy.

Because

I was sad.

Ahh,

finally. I could finally understand my own feelings, I could finally put them

to words.

—I was

sad that Masato was dead.

"There's

something I just learned, see. In this world, you can make things complicated,

or you can make them simple. It's all up to you. And if that's the case, then

don't you think making things simpler is nice?"

Miki

gently stroked my hair.

"So you

see, the reason you weren't able to drive the knife any further—"

She

brought her face to mine, and our tears converged.

"Was

because you didn't want to kill anybody… That's all."

And

that was a truth that I had no reason to doubt.