WORLD: NEIGHBORING WORLD
BRANCHED WORLD: DATE A LIVE
LOCATION: KETER
"So, how did things come to this?"
Inside a classroom, a special place constructed from White Queen's memory. An empty classroom.
This was the school building of Kyoou Girls Academy, the place where Tokisaki Kurumi spent time together with Yamauchi Sawa.
The sanctuary where the two of them fostered their friendship and were allowed to talk in this calm sunshine.
The place they walked was where they savored youth, experienced youth, and embraced youth together.
She remembered.
She remembered her past as Tokisaki Kurumi, and the memory of waving her hand to bid farewell to her friend.
However, the only feeling that arrived in Kurumi's chest was an indescribable emptiness.
Her consciousness had already switched to the mindset of killing her friend. However, this landscape couldn't help but make her feel nostalgic.
With their Astral Dresses, Kurumi sat at the far extreme right in the back, and White Queen diagonal to that in front.
To Sawa's question, Kurumi hummed willfully to herself, tilting her head upwards.
"Many things happened after that."
"What about that person? Was he also one of the things that happened?"
Sawa's voice was tinged with something. What was it? Regret? Sadness?
Even she herself didn't know. But that hint of sadness was definitely there.
Kurumi acted as though she hadn't caught on and continued regardless.
"Since losing you, I embarked on the path of endless killing, stepping across corpses only to fulfill my one goal."
"To stop what made us what we are today."
In regards to that, White Queen said nothing. Rather, she could... relate to those words.
She was about to do the same as the person she cherished so much did. No wonder Kurumi was trying as hard as she could to stop her.
White Queen let out the slightest hint of bitterness, but she didn't show it. Now she understood why that person did what he did to stop this.
In the end, if she died or won, this same underlying issue would continue between them, without either of them truly understanding the other.
Now, White Queen was curious.
"What about him? How did you two meet?"
She asked that, hearing the stifle of laughter behind; she didn't need to turn to Kurumi to know she was laughing.
What was so funny? Was it something she said? White Queen frowned.
"No. I was just surprised that you of all people would be interested in that."
"K–Kurumi-san, just what do you take me for?"
Sawa's lips twitched, prompting Kurumi, placing the elbow of her left hand on the table, then leaning her head on it.
Her right hand curled around the left. Her gaze drifted towards the whiteboard.
From the whiteboard, her gaze then drifted towards the neither morning nor afternoon nor evening sky.
The neighboring world, unlike the normal world, doesn't experience this sort of weather change.
"Well, it was when I was most desperate for power. After all the crimes I had committed, he came."
"Good for you."
Queen sneered without so much as a glance, but Kurumi took it easy with her now tsundere-plus-queen attitude.
"Says the one who was saved by him."
Sawa's lips twitched again.
"I never asked for that meddlesome interaction. If Kurumi-san had just killed me, everything would be over."
Sawa tightening her fist, her brows furrowed, extremely frustrated, spoke that. Even without being there to see her expression, Kurumi could tell.
She must have been frustrated, angry, and all the more pained.
Now that the personality of Queen was being peeled away, it allowed for Kurumi to know Sawa's real thoughts.
Her real thoughts were mixed with Queen.
Her Inversion wanted to reunite with her after she had tossed it away, so did Sawa.
In the end, it mixed and became what was currently known as White Queen.
And so, Kurumi decided to accept both.
If she didn't know better, then she might have killed her best friend and the other side of her again.
Now that she thought about it...
"It's okay Sawa-san."
From behind, her slender arms, covered in black and red, wrapped around her friend, pulling Sawa into an embrace.
Yes, reaching this point...
It was clear she didn't want Sawa to cross that final line. Hence was why Sawa decided. Perhaps it'd be best if she went.
"That won't happen anymore."
"Are you telling me, you're getting cold feet? Don't you want to separate your precious friend from your inverted clone?"
True. Kurumi thought about it too.
However,
"It doesn't have to be. Currently, what I'm doing is trying to change fate, to see a different path."
"Funny, you speak as if you've seen the future."
Sawa laughed, but then paused and realized.
"So, you did see the future."
Kurumi chuckled.
"Not that I entirely did; rather, I knew of the outcome, but I thought that was also for the best."
Then silence, only for a bit before Kurumi spoke once more.
"Sawa-san, how about we atone for our sins?"
"You mean for YOUR sins."
"We have sins. Don't you think it's too shameless to deny those sins?"
"That's true. Was trying to kill each other a sin?"
"Yes, of course it is a sin. Moreover, it's not just the death of Sawa-san. I am also responsible for whatever screwed up thinking that Sawa-san was thinking."
"─Don't ridicule me."
Rather than being upset, she looked at her friend so shamelessly as if to think, so even she can be this shameless too.
She was just disappointed. Jokingly though.
"Selfishly killing, and then selfishly feeling the need to take responsibility. How absurd."
Sawa exhaled at Kurumi's sudden change of thoughts.
"If it was something I chose to do, why should you be blamed for it? That's absurd. Is it because of you? Don't make me laugh."
"It's my choice. And if that was what I myself freely chose, then it doesn't concern Kurumi-san. I despise letting you carry that burden."
Then as though she'd been waiting for her friend to say that the entire time, Kurumi removed her hand.
She then slammed her hands on the desk in front of her.
"All the more reason, Sawa-san. If it's this Sawa-san, then she hasn't done anything wrong. So why should I?"
Ugh. Sawa let out a groan from her lips. If they continued this back and forth conversation like this...
It'd lead to nowhere.
But not that she didn't understand what her friend thought.
"Haah. Fine."
Then she paused.
"But... The person that turned us to spirits, do you know them?"
For a moment, Kurumi's body tensed as they then locked eyes. Denying this... rather, there's no way to deny this.
Slowly, Kurumi nodded her head.
"Spirit of Origin. That is what we call her."
As those words fell, Sawa's lips curled into a smile.
"Well, there's no way she shouldn't be expecting retaliation after everything she has done."
"You plan on revenge, Sawa-san?"
Sawa exhaled, shaking her head. "Since Kurumi-san said killing is bad, there are several other ways to make someone's life hell without killing, are there not?"
Kurumi's lips formed an "O" shape as she stared at her friend. She didn't know who was now worse between both of them.
But this idea, she would ride on it.
Enough sacrificing others for her goal. Sure, she could not atone enough for her sins, and surely, she would go to hell.
However, at the very least, she needs to make sure she works for that atonement.
"Hehehe. As expected of Sawa-san."
"Kurumi-san, leave me alone! Stop being so clingy, damn it!"
"I guess this Sawa-san isn't so bad either."
"What do you mean by I'm not bad too?"
Chatters floated across the building, unaware that everything had been witnessed by Laurel.
He floated above the building with a serene smile on his face and the shake of his head.
'While others may claim this is a blasphemy of their original repentance, Sawa had yet to kill...'
'Hence, there was no reason for her to be killed....'
'Although this scene is far from being the best happily ever after, both won't stray further than this point.'
In a way, it was better this way.
"My work here is over. I'll leave the management and the rest to them."
"I wonder how Tatsuya's research is coming along now."
With a smile, Laurel floated backwards, his body entering a vortex.
Nightmare-Queen's Redemption Arc [Complete]