Kei: Ita!
The thread-cutting teeth that pierce my skin also cut the thread of tension.
Kei: Wait, stop it! Time out!
With the force of a spring that’s been wound to its base, I push away at Tsudzura-chan’s body.
Even though her body has enough strength to jump as high as the treetops, apparently its weight hasn’t changed much.
Though the teeth that pierced it widen the wound as they part, they separate from my skin.
After falling teetering onto her back, with smart movements, Tsudzura-chan somersaults right back to her feet.
The way she glares at me, from across the several steps opened between us, is that of a beast on the prowl, judging the right timing to pounce on her prey.
The eyes of a beast that shine in the dark keep watch over my path of escape.
Kei: Tsudzura-chan……
As it retreats backward unknowingly, my back touches against the brush covering that direction, and makes a sound.
It looks like this is the area that was subjected to wind and rain just a moment ago.
Kei: Hya——!
The cold of that fallen drop creates a decisive opening for her.
As she darts across the earth, kicks the ground and flies my way, I lose to her momentum and find myself pushed to the ground.
The brush and branches served as a cushion, so I didn’t wind up hitting my head and blacking out or anything, but I’m sure my entire body is covered with abrasions.
Kei: ———
As I open the eyes I had reflexively shut, I see Tsudzura-chan’s open mouth.
There’s no use. I can’t push back at her from this position——
The moment I admit that in my mind—
——: I need you to stop yourself, right now.
A chilled voice and pale blue light wedges in between us, recoils——
—and throws Tsudzura-chan backward.
Pale blue… as if moonlight itself was bestowed the shape of butterflies.
From beyond a curtain of light created from a swarm of those butterflies, a woman in a kimono shows herself.
Kei: Ah…… Ohashirasama……
The Ohashirasama—— the god of Hemidzuka.
No wonder, it makes sense that a god could stop a god, I reason with exceeding simplicity.
Come to think of it, it seemed like the Ohashirasama knew about Obana-chan, before.
Ohashirasama: Are you all right, Kei-chan?
The Ohashirasama looks at the wound on my neck, and furrows her brows gravely.
I hide that wound with my hand, and make up a face to say it’s okay.
Kei: Umm…… I’ll be all right, but……
But——
I look at the fallen Tsudzura-chan.
Tsudzura: …………
Tsudzura-chan sits her bottom to the ground, swimming a vacant stare through the air.
The hoozuki-like eyes she’d inherited from Obana-chan are gone without a trace——
The small, normal girl, with no claws or fangs to be seen, has fully returned to her normal self.
Kei: Tsudzura-chan! Tsudzura-chan!
I run to her and jostle her shoulders.
Kei: Tsudzura-chan!?
Tsudzura: ……Ah!
When I look into her face and meet her eyes, the glittering light returns to her irises.
And then, her wandering gaze fixates upon one point.
I can’t see it directly, but to her night-adjusted eyes, I imagine it’s a bright red color.
Tsudzura: Kei-oneesan, your wound……
Upon my neck, staring at the rivulets of flowed blood as if to measure the wound’s depth, she whispers.
Tsudzura: That… is something I did, isn’t it? Everything seems to be coated in a blur, but…… I was trying to……
Rubbing her hand to the edge of her mouth, she looks at the blood pasted there and begins to tremble.
A little of it is mine, but the greatest majority of it is Obana-chan’s.
Tsudzura: Ah…… aagh!……
Kei: ……Tsudzura-chan?
Tsudzura: I really…… shouldn’t……
Tsudzura: I really…… should never……
As if afraid of my hands grasped upon her, she shrinks her shoulders and slips her body away from me.
Tsudzura: Obana died because he was with me… and then, Kei-oneesan, you ended up like that……
With a shivering step, she backs away.
Tsudzura: It should never have happened! A person like me, who isn’t normal, should never be with anyone else!!
Before I can bury the step planted between us, she flips her body around and begins to run.
Kei: Wait… Tsudzura-chan!!
Tsudzura-chan runs away.
The back I once was able to chase and catch grows farther away, and disappears into the night darkness.
After that, I never found Tsudzura-chan again.
Not the next morning, nor the morning after that——
Not even after the summer ended.
A person who was precious to me…
…disappeared forever.
And that was the end of my summer.
◇Successor to the Kotodama (1) – 言霊の継承 (1) – Blue Ending