“Shou-chan, your… piano… it’s really beautiful.”

Then, Akari shyly smiles. My heart is filled with a warm light from her pure eyes.

“Akari, it is your poetry that illuminates my music.”

When I said that, she blushed.

“Eh, um, yeah…! Sho-chan, thank you. I really love you…!”

I mutter shyly. We laugh together. Ah, Akari. My light. What blissful time this is. Here, there is nothing but happiness that feels like eternity.

──It smells.

Suddenly, Akari’s smile shone brighter than ever before.

“Shou-chan… I… I have to tell you something…!”

Her voice is lively, like a child wanting to show off a treasure. Oh, how adorable she is!

“Well! What is it? Please tell me quickly!”

When I encouraged her, she sparkled with her eyes and said with a flush of joy on her cheeks.

“I… married Syo-chan’s! D-dad! A-and, you know…! I’m going to have a baby!”

J-Just kidding, right, Akari…?

That’s a lie, isn’t it…?

“Huh?”

My voice freezes.

She looked truly happy. Her lips trembled with joy, her hands lovingly caressed her abdomen, and on her ring finger, a ring sparkled—when had she put it on?

Father.

That bastard of a father, who drowned in that alcohol and rejected and abandoned me, is taking away my light?

“Tooru, what are you saying?”

Who on earth told the pure lamp such a malicious joke? I shout while imagining a pink head, but she just smiles dreamily.

“Ki, Kiyokou-san, you are so kind… and sincere…! I, I’m happy, Shou-chan…!”

The sound of my heart breaking overlaps with the voice of the light from the bottom of my heart. I vomited. As I collapsed in my own vomit, everything in front of me went completely dark, and I stopped thinking.

It smells like ──.

How much time has passed? When I became aware, I was in a pure chapel. A venue decorated with white flowers, smiling friends. My father, dressed as if he were the groom, stood in front of me and spoke with a calm face.

“Shoko, thank you. Meeting Toro and her poetry was thanks to you. I was saved by her poetry.”

Those words tighten my chest. No. What am I saying? That poem is for me.

A lantern stands next to my father. ── Ah, how beautiful it is… The bride, wrapped in a pure white dress, says with teary eyes.

“Shou-chan…! It was because of you that I was able to meet Dad. I really…! Thank you…! From now on, I’ll be with Dad, and Mom, for a lifetime!”

Her gratitude was pure and filled with love. The love as a wife to my father. The love as a mother cuts into my heart.

If it were a dream, how wonderful it would have been.

Applause erupted from the fellow attendees. Soy smiled, Aine scattered petals, Mutsuki quietly nodded, and Toshi’s eyes rolled back as Rakana slept on his lap. “It’s the best ceremony,” Umiri celebrated with tears of joy in her eyes, feeling the trust of those invited. Haruka, next to me, was overwhelmed with emotion, saying, “Brother-in-law, sister-in-law, it’s wonderful…!” Everyone here, the whole world, celebrates the two of them.

However, for me, it is hell. This happiness leaves me behind.

──It was mine.

This blessing, this light… Father, it was supposed to be… mine…!!

“Well then, let’s have a kiss of promise.”

When Father Yutenji said that, the two faced each other and exchanged shy smiles. Akari closed her eyes and tilted her lips upwards. The damn old man bent down, and the distance between the two shrank to zero.

I can’t take it anymore. There’s no way I can endure it.

I averted my gaze and, while looking at Aki’s belly, which was noticeably large even through the dress, I sighed. Then I let go of my heart once more.

I need the scent of waking from a dream.

──There is the smell of coffee.

When I became aware of the noisy sound, it was the dilapidated house in Akabane.

The source of the sound is obvious. It’s the cry of a lively baby—the child of Lamp and that shitty dad.

The light holds the baby and whispers.

“Okay, okay, it’s alright… It’s big sister Shoko. Look, Sho-chan… it’s your little sister, right? Do you want me to hold you?”

When Akari comforts the child, he immediately stops crying and, as if it were all a lie, starts to laugh. Looking up at me, who is holding him instead of Akari, he also smiles brightly.

That baby was the embodiment of happiness. With innocent eyes and a soft smile, she resembled my younger sister, who looks just like me in the past.

But she is the proof of the love between Toru and my father. She has taken away my Toru and forever stolen my place. I understand. I feel it. The love that once was solely for me is now all directed at my younger sister. That adorable face of my sister pierces my heart. I want to love her. I want to protect this innocent sister. … And yet, hatred overflows, and my chest feels like it is tearing apart. I turn away, shutting my soul. I do not want this happiness.

With a sharp gaze, my younger sister looked at me with eyes tinted with purple, resembling neither herself nor me.

As night falls, I crouch in the kitchen, holding my sleeping younger sister. In the next room, separated by only a thin partition, my father holds the lamp and smiles as if he were a couple in love.

“Thank you, Akari.”

When he said that, she

“Y-yeah… I really love you.”

And I embrace back. The two overlapping shadows wriggle, and only the sound of hot breaths and the rustling of clothes can be heard.

“Stop it already!!”

I cling to the piano and wildly bang on the keys, driven by impulse. Ah, I just want to forget everything…! I must escape into oblivion once again…!! The melody that expresses my ugly heart, the dissonance, resounds. The house crumbles, and moonlight shines through.

“Light…!! You are my light…!! …Why!? …Ah! I can’t forgive this child, or my father…!!”

At that moment, the sound of a baby’s laughter pierced my ears. When I turned my gaze, my younger sister, with a face resembling a lantern illuminated by moonlight, was staring at me with eyes that looked just like someone else’s, and said.

“Shou-chan, don’t forget this time, okay?”

I was moved to tears.

I’m glad it was just a dream…

I’m glad it was just a dream!!

Aren’t you being interfered with or affected by something?

What is it, meow…

I was moved to tears 🐼💦

I wonder… for some reason, people who hardly have any role are scary…

Did you really read this strange document, umirin?

Did you come up with that after seeing the thread during the day?

If you dislike it to the level of having nightmares, then that’s quite something…

It’s hellish…

But I really feel like I could be quite happy on this route too.

Ah…

Kiyotomo

Taso yo

Sadataki

Aine Miyata’s…

Please calm down, God.

Sayoko…! When I have a good friend like you… I can’t help myself… I’m so embarrassed…!

I understand Mutsumi’s feelings…

Don’t touch meeeee!!!!!!!

🐶Oh…

God becomes the god of destruction.

Maybe such a world could have existed~ It’s interesting, isn’t it?

Nyum nyum………

But in this world line, your sister will be born, God.

Tomorin’s child is surely going to be cute!

Kiyokubi-san… very serious… and warm…

I think there are similarities in Sayo-chan’s gentle nature…

Don’t dream about scenes of your father and best friend together!

It is I who will bear the light~!!

This time of day, the flood of strange documents makes it hard to keep up, but it’s fun.

Is it horror?

It was horrifying…

In Saki-chan’s dream, Rikki was rolling his eyes, and it was no good.

Hatsuka was treated relatively well by her shitty dad in reality…