Yuta arrived at Rikka's house. He had been asked by Rikka to help her tidy up her former treasures. Walking into Rikka's room, although it wasn't his first time, he still felt it was a spectacular sight, looking at the room full of strange and bizarre things.
Rikka held a small doll, somewhat hesitant.
"Yuta… classmate, there isn't much time left now. I promised my mom I'd clean up all these things before she comes back today."
"All of them?"
"Hmm… if they're left out, she'll definitely worry again… I don't want to make her feel uneasy."
"Is that so…" Yuta felt a bit relieved. Rikka knew how to think of others, and though he felt a pang of sadness, he decided to help Rikka thoroughly, following her wishes, just as he had done before, sealing away all these dark histories of the past. "What do you want me to clean up?"
"Anyway… let's start by tidying up these things on the floor."
The two of them brought in a large number of cardboard boxes and silently put things in one by one. During the cleanup, Yuta found many things he was very interested in, but unfortunately, all of them had to be buried along with Rikka's past.
Throughout the process, Yuta silently put one chuunibyou item after another into the cardboard boxes, but Rikka, however, threw the seemingly normal dolls on the bed into the boxes one by one… In her eyes, these were not normal…
She held a small statue she used to like very much, examining it closely, her eyes filled with extreme reluctance… She really liked this thing, but… this thing was not normal… That one, also not normal, and that one… that one…
None of them were normal.
Rikka's cardboard box became fuller and fuller, but her heart became emptier and emptier… An urge to cry lingered in her chest, but she couldn't cry… A normal person wouldn't cry when tidying up these abnormal things.
Yuta looked at Rikka's back. He didn't know what to say. It was a good thing that Rikka was no longer chuunibyou and was gradually returning to normal, but he still felt so much heartache and couldn't say anything more.
It wasn't until Rikka tore off the black gauze hanging on the bed that Yuta spoke up to stop her… This thing, it's fine if it stays hanging, right?
But Rikka was very confused. Was this thing… normal?
She could no longer distinguish what should be tidied up and what shouldn't. She couldn't tell what was normal after all…
Rikka held a strangely shaped wooden carving in her hand. She had been chuunibyou for too long. Suddenly returning to reality, she hadn't had time to bring all of herself out, leaving half of herself in that beautiful bubble of fantasy.
That half of her, her right eye sparkled with golden light, and the smile on her lips never stopped. She had no friends by her side… This half of her looked completely normal. Although there was no longer a smile on her face, she had family and friends accompanying her.
The only commonality, perhaps, was that both versions of her were equally lonely.
Yuta decided to follow Rikka's opinion and helped her put away everything she considered abnormal, piling them into cardboard boxes and leaving them on the outside balcony. However, there were too many things, so after some deliberation, Rikka stacked some boxes filled with her "don't want" items and left them outside. These would be taken away and disposed of in a few days.
The originally cluttered room was no longer crowded; the space became very large, with only a bed with a black blanket and some large dolls that Yuta had kept… If Yuta hadn't kept them, these things would probably have been thrown out as "abnormal," even though these dolls were very cute.
Yuta sat on the floor, hugging a large turtle doll, watching Rikka sit at her desk, holding a small potted plant and staring blankly… Rikka had never liked potted plants, but… this was "normal"…
Tired of looking at the potted plant, Rikka said she was hungry and wanted to eat. Facing Yuta's invitation to eat at his house, Rikka suggested they eat out…
Yuta agreed, but only when they passed the living room did he glance at the cardboard boxes piled there. Perhaps they contained not only strange props but also Rikka's happiness and fantasies.
........................
"Are you really full with just this?"
A familiar convenience store, familiar rice balls, but this time the two of them were not sitting on that familiar chair like before. At Rikka's request, they came to an even more familiar bridge underpass.
That's right, this was where the two of them confessed to each other. What was originally a beautiful place filled with rainbow-like colors in her memory was now dim and lifeless, just like "normal."
Letting Yuta help hold the bottom of the rice ball, Rikka tore open the wrapper on both sides, saying the same thing as last time,
"It feels so cool!"
"What's so cool about it?"
Looking at Rikka, who finally managed to show some smile on her face, Yuta also smiled and responded to her as he did last time. The lines remained the same, but the person had changed.
Silently watching Rikka pick up the rice ball and take small bites, Yuta noticed the light in the distance that they had seen when they confessed…
At the end of the river, car after car passed by, and countless tall buildings lit up, as dazzling and beautiful as before. The same light, the same scenery, the river surface also sparkled the same way. What was different was that these lights no longer had the rainbow colors they did last time, and Rikka could no longer feel a fatherly warmth from them. All she could feel was cold…
So cold.
"That's just the light from car headlights forming a continuous line, right, Yuta… The invisible boundary line, it doesn't exist, right…?"
"That's true, but…"
Yuta couldn't agree with Rikka's words, because… it was correct.
"Yuta…"
"Hmm?"
"My mom… she wants me to go to the grave-sweeping with her."
Grave-sweeping? Whose grave?
Yuta was stumped; his mind didn't process it immediately. He was still thinking about how to make Rikka happy, yet he couldn't affirm her former chuunibyou fantasies…
"To… sweep Dad's grave."
Yuta understood.
"What do you think? Should I go?"
"You ask me… again…"
Rikka turned her head to look at Yuta. Yuta could see a hint of expectation in her eyes… He didn't know what she was expecting, yet he couldn't say anything to tell her not to go. If Rikka was willing to go grave-sweeping, did it also mean that she had accepted her father's death?
Yuta lowered his head, not daring to look into Rikka's eyes, and looked at the untouched rice ball. Between them, there was only the rumbling sound of a passing train and a deathly silence.
Even after the train had completely left, the silence between them remained unbroken. Seeing Yuta with his head down, Rikka was disappointed. She no longer looked at Yuta and also lowered her head to look at the rice ball in her hand…
Yuta knew that silence wouldn't solve the problem. He hoped Rikka would go, that it would help Rikka accept reality, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.
"What, what do you think?"
"…If I go, Mom will be very happy, right?"
Yuta felt relieved when he heard this answer.
"Isn't that good?… Since Rikka, you want to do it, then I also…"
Rikka's eyes became completely numb. She silently put down the rice ball and extended her pinky finger towards Yuta.
"Yuta… hand."
Rikka, it seemed, had accepted.
Yuta extended his hand with a sense of relief, and their pinky fingers touched.
"Yuta… thank you."
Unlike before, the Rikka of the present did not shyly look at Yuta when they touched fingers; she didn't even want to lift her head. Yuta could only see numbness on Rikka's face.
"I'm going back first."
"Eh? Rikka?"
Watching Rikka run further and further away, Yuta did not chase her.
Rikka ran home. The night was so beautiful, yet she only felt cold. She was afraid to be outside, and she was also afraid to be alone. She just wanted to get home as quickly as possible, even if there was no warmth at home…
Until a car slowly stopped by the roadside, stopping beside her.
"Oh~ Rikka-chan~"
"Koushou…"
"…Rikka? What's wrong with you?"
Koushou keenly noticed that Rikka was very unwell.
Finally, Rikka got into Koushou's car, slowly driving towards the Park not far away…