But, I have a feeling that if I don’t catch up to her now, I’ll never see Tsudzura-chan again.
Opening tons of tiny cuts, when I pull through the brush, what I see is a slightly open area.
I know this place——
A ribbon, dyed blue-purple in moonlight and night colors, dances back and forth in the warm wind.
Ahh, it was supposed to be pink, but that ribbon——
—This is bad. Going in that direction at this speed is dangerous.
Kei: Tsudzura-chan, please stop!
That’s the danger signal I placed before. A sign saying “it’s dangerous, so stop!”
I’m telling the one I’m chasing to stop, all the while increasing my speed. Thankful for the receded weeds and brush, I give one last burst of speed and slide my legs.
My palm reaches to the edge of her hood.
The ribbon’s now flashing by in front of my face.
I clench all of my strength into my legs, and apply the brake.
With this, I should be able to make it, somehow——
Kei: Gotcha!
——but, that last remiss was the fatal flaw.
Even if I were alone, I was still in my fastest sprint, and I couldn’t just stop on a dime, but when you consider Tsudzura-chan, with no intention of stopping, then it’s impossible.
Tsudzura-chan’s foot, trying to kick at nonexistent ground, falls instead on empty air.
The resistance to gravity the ground once provided now gone, our angle of motion corrects itself 45 degrees down. We’re now going diagonally down.
Drawing a curved line steep enough to preclude the word “curve,” Tsudzura-chan’s body falls into the decrepit well.
Pulled along by that force, I fall in along with her.
Kei: I knew i~~~~~t!
Kei: *Aita!* *Itatata*……
The greatest fortune in this for Tsudzura-chan and I was the lack of sharp rocks or hard boulders at the bottom. That, and a thickly packed carpet of fallen leaves.
However, by no means is my thoroughly pounded rump not in pain.
Kei: ……! So, Tsudzura-chan, are you okay? Are you alive and everything?
Tsudzura: That is…… I am okay right now, but……
Our positions must’ve been switched in mid fall, as now Tsudzura-chan lies on top of me.
Tsudzura: ……Onee-san, what exactly are you doing?
Kei: What am I doing? Tsudzura-chan, I was chasing you. The means might’ve been awful, but if it ends well, then it’s all for the best!
Tsudzura: This situation isn’t best in the least!
Removing herself from atop my stomach and looking above her head, maybe it’s due to the brilliance of the moonlight, but her eyebrows are furrowing to make an awfully stern face.
Tsudzura: By visual estimate, the exit could be as high as five meters. Even if I stood on your shoulders, Onee-san, our height wouldn’t come close.
In apparent frustration, she kicks the wall.
Tsudzura: When a human is closed in, it is the end for them. When they’re closed in, they become unable to do anything but sit and rot. That is why I——
Kei: Then, how about we get out?
Tsudzura: Get out? It is nothing so simple——
Kei: Ufufu… what’ve we got here~?
I take the vines that hang against the wall in hand, and with an appealing pose, show that it connects to the well’s edge.
Still yet to lose its youthful strength, it shines like the strands of a spider web bathing in moonlight, appearing as if to shine.
Uuu… calling it a spider’s thread isn’t very lucky—— or maybe it is.
As long as I don’t put myself first, like Kandata did, or dangle on it foolishly, I’m sure it won’t snap.
At the very least, it will probably handle Tsudzura-chan’s weight with no problems, so I think I’ll let her go first.
Kei: You can climb to the top with this, can’t you? I was thinking something like this might happen, so I set it up beforehand~
That aside, to think it shone this brightly, and yet Tsudzura-chan was unaware of this rope of salvation… that really isn’t like her.
Then again, it’s true that she hasn’t been acting herself ever since we met Senba-san, but…
At any rate, clearly, it’s not a good idea to push Tsudzura-chan into a corner——
—that thought is plain in my mind.