Chapter 13: Transforming into a Bird, Grasping the Clouds

The last ember-orange of the setting sun slipped through the screen window.

The cross and amber pendant on Kanzaki Sumire’s chest, the gleaming silver-white bracelets on her wrist, and her blue-gray short hair all caught the beautiful twilight glow before fading away with her retreating footsteps.

“…Huh?”

After the door clicked shut and the presence in the room truly vanished, Someya Sara’s lips parted slightly. Her long lashes blinked in confusion, looking completely lost, like she still hadn’t processed what just happened.

Xiao Nuosang’s entire system crashed.

It had already prepared pain-nullification, last rites, and a eulogy for its host, fully expecting Someya Sara to get kicked to death like a random mob.

Yet…

Kanzaki Sumire came over—not to help Jakui Rinrincho, but to basically stand up for its host?

—“Let’s go!”

—“What kind of person bullies a little girl?”

—“She’s crying.”

—“Your sick hobbies are getting worse.”

Replaying Kanzaki Sumire’s words, Xiao Nuosang stealthily glanced at its host again.

Knees hugged to chest, curled into a tiny ball in the sofa corner. Cheeks still flushed, lashes wet, pale blue eyes misty and pitifully glossy. Black collar and white cuffs completely disheveled from Jakui Rinrincho’s earlier handling.

Oh.

The little white sock on her right foot had slipped off onto the floor at some point, revealing a slender, snow-pale ankle, soft pink-soled feet, and neatly trimmed toenails like tiny crescent moons.

…Fine.

Its host really did look weak, helpless, and desperately in need of protection.

No wonder even Kanzaki Sumire couldn’t bring herself to do anything.

“U-um… Xiao Nuosang…” Someya Sara timidly poked the system. “Are they really gone?”

[Yep, baby~! They’re gone! The door’s locked!]

Xiao Nuosang answered patiently while internally screaming: so this is why its host only needed to sit there to become a walking “please protect me” sign—she didn’t even need to act.

*

Apartment hallway.

Thanks to years of lugging a guitar around stages, Kanzaki Sumire’s stamina far surpassed Jakui Rinrincho’s desk-bound lifestyle. She dragged the other woman out without breaking a sweat.

Jakui Rinrincho stared at the closed door, a flicker of displeasure and amusement passing through her jewel-red eyes.

“Sumire.”

She shook off Kanzaki Sumire’s hand and leisurely smoothed the wrinkles Someya Sara had left on her black coat collar, voice lazy.

“Since when did you become so compassionate?”

“Cut it out.” Kanzaki Sumire turned away, avoiding those probing eyes. The fading sunset conveniently hid the faint redness on her ears. “I was just bored. Bullying a blind girl who can’t see anything—what’s the point? Watching her cry? Annoying.”

“Annoying?” Jakui Rinrincho stepped closer, almost whispering. “I seem to recall you staring pretty hard.”

Kanzaki Sumire stiffened, glared back in embarrassment and anger, and snapped faster and louder than usual.

“Hey! What nonsense are you spouting?! I just… I just don’t think she’s the one who posted that crap online. Look at how timid she is—how could she have the guts?”

Jakui Rinrincho laughed softly and pointed to the doors on either side.

“This floor has three units. Left is a pair of high school lovebirds living together. Right is a University of Tokyo fine arts student. The IP traces here. I’m almost certain it’s Someya Sara. You were in such a rush this morning, so I brought you along to see.”

She leaned against the hallway railing, propped her cheek on one hand, pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, and let a hypocritical, wicked smile creep onto her usually aloof, divine-like face.

“Don’t you think it’s interesting? She looks so harmless and obedient—no one would ever suspect her. But if it really is her… doesn’t that make it even more fun?”

Kanzaki Sumire snorted, light green eyes full of disbelief and disdain.

“Hypocrite. You’ve just been cooped up in the office too long and now you’re taking it out on people. Someya Sara looks like the honest type—not like you, all fake politeness and rotten inside.”

“Also.” She continued, “You really think someone like Someya Sara could post slander about us online? I’m not looking down on her, but she’s blind. She probably needs her girlfriend for basic daily life—how could she even use a phone to make a post?”

Jakui Rinrincho didn’t reply. She simply gazed at the corner of sky now speckled with stars, lost in thought.

“I’m not interested in pointlessly bullying the weak with you.”

“Go investigate that art student next door first.”

After grumbling to herself, Kanzaki Sumire pulled out her phone and sent a voice message to their last involved friend, Aizen Sou Hazuki—the final party in this mess. Her tone was light and mocking.

“Hazuki-nee, you won’t believe this—Jakui Rinrincho actually tracked the poster to a blind girl. Isn’t that hilarious?”

Before the message finished sending, footsteps sounded from the stairwell.

Regular, soft, yet carrying the stubborn caution of someone who had long given up on life.

A girl in a black dress that blended with the dusk climbed the stairs, arms full of an easel and paint buckets. Her skin was sickly pale, her eyes dead, as if she were ready to leap from Tokyo Skytree and become one with the clouds at any moment.

She clearly hadn’t expected two strikingly out-of-place strangers in the hallway at this hour. Her steps faltered; her empty gaze lingered on Jakui Rinrincho and Kanzaki Sumire for a second or two before returning to total apathy.

“Could you move?” Her voice was listless. “You’re blocking the way.”

Jakui Rinrincho glanced at the narrow hallway they were hogging and at the girl’s painting supplies.

“Sorry, we’ll make room.”

She pulled Kanzaki Sumire aside, clearing a path for Houya Riai.

As the girl brushed past with her easel, Kanzaki Sumire suddenly leaned close to Jakui Rinrincho’s ear and whispered.

“Rinrincho… doesn’t she kind of look like Hazuki-nee?”