Thefamiliar voice was drowned out. There was nothing that could stop me. Becauseeverything had gone according to my plan, the result was as clear as the answerto one plus one.

I slashed at Shuuichi Akiyama"scarotid artery.

Bloodgushed out, the crimson fountain pleasantly engulfing me and staining my headred. It dyed both the rooftop and my stunted world red, and brought me tosomewhere new entirely. That was how the matter had been decided.

Then Inoticed.

I couldn"t hear the sound ofchains any more.

Why wasthat, "I" wondered?

Afterall, "I" hadn"t been able to slit Akiyama"s throat.

Akiyama"seyes were out of focus. He had already lost all reason. He was in no positionto have stopped me, so it couldn"t have been him.

Buteven so, my wrist hurt.

Someonewas squeezing tightly on the wrist of the hand I was holding the knife in.Because of that, I hadn"t been able to cut him.

Whowould do such a thing?

Iglared at the squeezing hand to try to figure out whose it was.

And theculprit, the one who held back my right hand was—

"...Why?"

—Myleft hand.

Icouldn"t make sense of this. Why had I stopped myself? It made no sense.

Why wasmy body acting against my will? Was it being manipulated by remote control?Could you even do that? Was it even possible?

If itwas possible, it would only be through—

—magic.

"Kouta."

Ireflexively turned towards the voice.

There,illuminated by the golden twilight, stood Miki Kouzuki. Her long hair flutteredin the wind, each strand glittering like a jewel. Tears rolled down her smilingface. She was so beautiful it made my chest hurt, and it was almost unfair howfreely she set the world in motion.

"Kouta,who are you?"

"I"m…Kouta Hiiragi…"

"Thatright. You"re Kouta Hiiragi, aren"t you?"

As shegradually approached me from the rooftop door, I was so stunned I couldn"tmove. I stood there, paralyzed, and she took the knife from my hand. I felt asthough I wouldn"t even be able to breathe without her permission.

"Youaren"t Masato Yahara. You"re Kouta Hiiragi."

Mikithen leaned on me and moved my hand to her back.

"KoutaHiiragi. You know what that is? The name of the person I like."

Andthen.

MikiKouzuki kissed me.

Ahh… I could feel my cramped world expand rapidly,as if I had just exited a long tunnel.　Lightflooded in through countless newly-opened doors and dazzled me.

But itwas scary. Advancing through those doors was scary. I didn"t want to leave mycramped world. I didn"t want to learn about the expanded world. But thisilluminated place no longer held anywhere to hide. I had no choice but toaccept it.

As ifaffirming my existence, my shadow stood out against the light.

I hadno choice but to be Kouta Hiiragi.

I hadto accept that reality.

Thebill I had been shirking so long had finally come due. I would have to stand upagainst all my powerful foes.

As Mikireleased my lips from hers, I finally remembered what was attached to the lefthand that had just stopped the violence.

"Ahh…So that"s it."

The redhair band.

Theitem Miki had stored her magic in.

Whathad stopped me — what had stopped the Masato Yahara inside me — had been Miki"smagic.

"That"snot it."

ButMiki firmly refuted that claim.

"Say,do you know why I kissed you just now?"

"To returnme to normal…?"

"Thenext time you say something like that, I"m really going to hit you."

"What!?"

"Awoman"s lips aren"t so trivial a thing as that. No matter what her reason maybe, even if she herself doesn"t realize it, there"s only one reason a womanever kisses a man."

Probablyfor the first time, Miki showed me a smile from the bottom of her heart.

"It"sbecause she likes him."

Inresponse to her confession, my mind went so white I thought my brains had beenblown out. It was completely blank. Matsumi-senpai, socially inept as always,excitedly clamoured to the collapsed, corpse-like figures of Shiho Sudou andShuuichi Akiyama, "Hee hee, it"s a confession!"

Stillunable to think, all that dwelled within me were emotions.

—I"mhappy.

—I"vebeen waiting for this.

—I"vebeen waiting so long for Miki to put her feelings to words. So long!

"Uwa,uwaa…"

BeforeI realized it, I was crying too.

Notbecause I was happy.

BecauseI was sad.

Ahh,finally. I could finally understand my own feelings, I could finally put themto words.

—I wassad that Masato was dead.

"There"ssomething I just learned, see. In this world, you can make things complicated,or you can make them simple. It"s all up to you. And if that"s the case, thendon"t you think making things simpler is nice?"

Mikigently stroked my hair.

"So yousee, the reason you weren"t able to drive the knife any further—"

Shebrought her face to mine, and our tears converged.

"Wasbecause you didn"t want to kill anybody… That"s all."

Andthat was a truth that I had no reason to doubt.