Kaho felt like she was trapped within an icy darkness.
Her body seemed to be nothing more than ice as a chill filled her body, which seemed to float within an endless deep and dark realm.
Her consciousness was extremely hazy. It felt like her soul was sinking down, as if she was about to completely lose her sense of self.
She could faintly sense some type of existence within this realm, which had attached itself to her body and was combining with her.
When the combining was finally completed, she would no longer be herself.
The time limit was also approaching. Kaho didn’t try to resist, nor did she willingly offer herself to the demon. She was simply calm.
‘Is this really alright?’ a tiny voice asked in the corner of her mind.
‘Isn’t this just fine?’ another tiny voice asked in the corner of her mind.
Kaho didn’t respond to either question.
Was it that she didn’t need to answer, or that she was unable to answer?
Kaho was calm and silent, but also confused and empty.
She felt like she should be thinking about something, but didn’t want to think about anything right now at all.
‘Let’s just leave things like this.’
She decided to slowly abandon her former self and welcome her new existence…
“Kaho!” Suddenly, a familiar voice shouted and pulled her slightly back from the darkness.
Karen found her younger sister.
Kaho was standing on the top of a building. Her entire body had become hazy, and her dress and mask were glowing a blinding red. The black runes on her dress seemed like a moving insect swarm which would come alive at any moment.
But even more eye-catching were all the colorful lines of various colors extending out of her back.
These colorful lines were gradually lengthening. The longest was already more than three meters long, and the number of lines was continuously increasing. These lines appeared beautiful and gave off an unearthly aura that also seemed somewhat ominous.
“Let’s stop, Kaho.” Karen looked directly at her younger sister. “You’re… you’re just escaping from reality!”
There was no response.
Yet, Karen sensed something flickering in Kaho’s wavelength.
This was a wondrously subtle sensation. If she had to describe it, it was something like a sisterly synchronization.
“You can’t face your heartbreak, so you turned towards a demon. What else can this be other than escaping from reality?” Karen continued. “You don’t want to become special at all! You’re just the same as before, escaping from reality because you can’t face failure, and shutting yourself in! In the end, you haven’t foundationally changed at all.”
The black insect-shaped runes on Kaho’s dress started moving about even more violently and making buzzing sounds.
Karen felt an obvious stronger tremor in Kaho’s wavelength.
“It would seem that I hit the mark… I’m sorry that it took me so long to notice all this. I’m a terrible older sister… But you’re the same! You’re a terrible, foolish younger sister! You actually wanted to abandon your sense of self in order to escape from reality? Is that any different from committing suicide? That’s so stupid… to the point where you couldn’t get any stupider!!”
Karen was angry and sad, guilty yet annoyed, and didn’t even know exactly what her current emotions were.
The runes on Kaho’s skirt started buzzing even more loudly. The rays of light on her back also began to shake.
“Let’s stop acting so unseemly.” Karen sighed. “We’re both terrible sisters, but we’re still sisters. We can face painful things together. Even if I can’t share the burden of your emotions, I can do various things for you, such as going out to have fun together, eating delicious food together, shopping for beautiful clothes together… No matter how painful the heartbreak, it will always pass with time… I’ve never experienced any heartbreak, so I don’t know what I should say, but I think that abandoning your sense of self because of a heartbreak is definitely no good.”
‘This is so foolish.
‘This is so terrible.
‘This is so unseemly.’
Karen transmitted her way of thinking with her expression.
*Whoosh…* The gigantic scorpion tail suddenly swung directly at Karen!
*Smack!!*
Karen took a direct hit, but she forcibly withstood it and wasn’t sent flying backwards by the impact.
“You become angry because I saw through you, honestly…”
“Not… at… all!” Kaho finally spoke.
Her voice was incredibly raspy and also sounded like it was buzzing, as if countless insects were chirping or vibrating against each other. Her voice was ear-piercing and shook Karen’s heart.
“I’m… not… escaping from reality… stop… making… ridiculous stuff up!!” Kaho’s voice got louder and she sounded noticeably angry. Her words contained a frightening power.
“No, you are escaping from reality!” Karen intentionally went against her. “You turned towards a demon because you didn’t want to face your pain! Also, you wanted to make Harano-kun and myself feel bad as revenge against us!! You said that you had the confidence to obtain the demon’s power, but you were just fooling yourself and everyone else! What you really thought was that you didn’t care what happened to you; you gave up on yourself! You intentionally wanted to make us feel bad!!”
“No… no… noooooo!!!” Kaho started shouting loudly.
The red light on her exploded, forming a powerful shock wave!
But Karen managed to withstand this as well.
“Honestly, you’re so annoying! Someone like you.” Karen grit her teeth. “But, you’re my younger sister, my only sister! I love you, Kaho! I want to get closer to you, I want to encourage you to become more spirited, I want to see you leading a happy life!!
“Because I’m your older sister!!”
“Shut… up… get… the hell… away!!!” Kaho shouted loudly yet again, causing a dense swarm of insect shadows to appear around her. The rays of light behind her back swiftly extended to become more than ten meters long!
“You’re not allowed to talk to me like that!!!” Karen started yelling as well… no, roaring!
She grit her teeth and rushed over at full speed, whipping up her right hand and viciously slapping down…
*Slap!!*
A loud slap resounded as she hit Kaho’s face.
For a moment, it seemed as if the entire world had quieted down. All the strange buzzing noises stopped, the black runes on Kaho’s dress stopped wriggling, all the insect shadows disappeared, and the rays of light on Kaho’s back settled down.
Kaho stood there dazedly with her head tilted, as if she couldn’t believe what just happened.
Karen retracted her hand and then hugged Kaho.
“Don’t talk to me like that…” Karen spoke in a way that sounded half angry and half begging. “I feel so bad… Kaho… I’m so angry… and really want to cry… Just how can I get you to understand… I’m begging you… return to being my sister… don’t leave me…”
Tears streamed down Karen’s face.
These tears came straight from her soul’s prayers.
She truly wanted to regain the sister who was about to leave.
“Sis… ter…”
Kaho’s consciousness gradually became clearer.
She left the icy darkness and returned to the warmth of the world.
‘Just what have I been doing?
‘Why did I want to do these things?
‘Am I… still me?’
The moment that she thought this, a sudden fierce pain entered her head! The icy darkness overwhelmed her once more!!
Loud buzzing sounds could be heard, sounding angry. Kaho faintly saw a pair of blood-red eyes with an incomparably cold look. These eyes gave off the feeling as if it had a terrifying power which could destroy everything…
‘…I’m sorry.’
Kaho apologized to that demonic existence.
‘I’m not you… Nor should I become you… Because someone will be pained if I do so.
‘That person is really clumsy and stupid, to the point of being unsalvageable, since she still hasn’t given up on the ugly and foolish me even at this moment.
‘I don’t really think that I have any value. I really feel that if I became you, it would be fine even if I was no longer a human.
‘But, that’s not what she thinks.
‘She thinks that I’m foolish, and she’s annoyed with and looks down on me. Yet, she’s still unwilling to let me go.
‘She believes that I have value in staying by her side.
‘…My bad, it doesn’t have anything to do with value.
‘It’s only because we just happen to be sisters.’
*BBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!*
An angry, strange sound seemed to explode within Kaho and shake her very soul!!!
An incredibly fierce pain attacked her as Kaho felt her soul being forcefully dragged down to that deep and icy realm.
Kaho did her best to resist. With her final bit of energy and awareness, she suddenly shoved Karen away!
“Es… cape…”
The colorful rays of light on Kaho’s back suddenly grew explosively to over one hundred meters in length, transforming into a pair of gigantic and beautiful wings of light!!
Countless, endless amounts of insect swarm shadows that seemed numerous enough to fill the entire dream world appeared! There was an incredible insect stench in the air, and their buzzing sounds were cacophonous. It seemed as if something terrifying was about to descend and break through an invisible barrier!!
“Kaho…” Karen wanted to do something, but just standing was difficult already for her. She felt a chill invading her body, causing her body to go limp and her consciousness to go hazy.
Then, a tall figure suddenly stood before her.
“Leave the rest to me!” Seiji spoke in a confident tone.