BGM: Tsuki wo Hamu

The girl felt like crying and swallowed hard.
Suwako stood beside Sanae and patted her on the head again. This time, she didn’t shake her off.

“Everything changed, can’t you see?”, said the other woman, laughing.
“Stop it, Kanako”.
Suwako called her name reproachfully. “Let her choose.” Unlike Suwako, Kanako seemed to be enjoying the whole time.

“Listen, Sanae.”
Kanako sat down in front of Sanae and began to speak, eye to eye.
The girl thought that even though it was nighttime, her black eyes were very narrow and looked like those of a snake.

Suwako also sat beside Sanae and hugged her shoulders from behind.
She noticed that the uncomfortable feeling she felt from Suwako’s palm was gone, and she was slowly beginning to get used to it.

The fear faded and she felt as if she had known them both for a long time.

“The wish you just shouted has opened a door that had been closed. You are free to return to the other side. But if you do so, you’ll never see Suwako again”

“E-eh, wait.”
“No waiting. We don’t have much time. In any case, your kotodama pried open a door that should never have been opened.”
She is a great gal, Kanako said, patting Sanae on the head.
Strangely enough, she didn’t feel bad, even though they’d never met before.

“But if I don’t go back, I won’t be able to lead a normal life. I won’t be able to go to school like I used to, or even see my friends.”
Kanako stood up, saying that the correct choice had to be on the other side.
“Now, what do we do?”
Sanae could only be puzzled by the too urgent request for choice. Suwako, who felt it on her back, said in a gentle tone of voice that there was no need to force it.

“You can stay here.”
“But then I won’t be able to see my mother, will I?”
Sanae had just felt that this person was not her mother, and she had shouted at the moon to give her back, but she couldn’t help but say mother again.
She wasn’t her mother, but now that her fear had faded, she felt something close to her, a new sense of familiarity.

“If we don’t hurry, the door will close.”
What to do now?
Kanako was forcing Sanae to make a choice.

“Don’t push it. You loved the “ordinary” and the “normalcy”. When you go over there, you’ll never feel those things again.”
Suwako tried to persuade her.

If you lose something no matter which you choose, it’s the same as choosing neither.

The hesitation disappeared, and Sanae stood up straight.
“…I’ve decided.”
And then she glared at the moon, which was looking down at them at its zenith, wishing she had never been there.

-The End-