Kazuki Hoshino 09/11 FRI 10:03 PM

What’s the best way to describe this sensation?

Nothing has changed about me, yet I’m clearly different from before.

All I’ve really done is come to understand myself. As if I had read my own user’s manual. That was enough to alter this world, though. A strange feeling is running through me and leaving me refreshed, as if someone has injected menthol into my blood. My thoughts are growing more and more organized as things fall into place.

The fog hanging over the world is lifting.

It’s getting clearer.

And clearer.

The world opens up before me.

Now I can focus solely on helping Maria.

Now that I have the Empty Box, I’m transformed.

“Whoa, what happened to her?”

That’s the first thing out of Haruaki’s mouth when he reaches the tunnel beneath the elevated tracks, by the embankment outside of downtown. His face is as white as a sheet. He’s looking at Iroha, who’s still unconscious and sitting against the wall covered with graffiti so bad it doesn’t even qualify as street art.

“H-hey, Hosshi, don’t tell me you killed her or something?”

“She’s alive.”

“M-man, what’s with all that blood…?”

True, there is red liquid on the ground and wall. On Iroha’s face and clothes as well.

“It’s fake.”

“F-fake blood? Really?”

Haruaki squats down and touches the red liquid on the ground, then sniffs it on his hand. After grimacing for a moment, he nods slightly several times in agreement that the blood is indeed fake.

“I-it definitely isn’t blood. Still, what’s up with all this? Why is she out cold?”

Haruaki peers into Iroha’s face, then checks her pulse and breathing. Her face is illuminated by the lantern, but I can’t see it from my position.

What did I do to Iroha? Explaining could take a while, so I settle for answering the first half of his questions about how things ended up this way.

“Daiya and Iroha came up with a scheme to show Maria I betrayed her. I completely fell for it, and now Maria is inside the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.”

“Which means she must have found out about Daiya’s Box, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Haruaki knows the situation is grave. He scowls, stands up, and gives me a hard look. “Why didn’t you call me before that happened? Don’t you think you can count on me?”

It comes across almost as a threat. As tall as Haruaki is, I can certainly feel his intensity.

“You’ve got it wrong. I couldn’t call you because they warned me to come alone,” I insist, but then I realize that wasn’t the only reason. “…Actually, I wouldn’t have been able to call you even if they hadn’t.”

“Then why?!” Haruaki yells. He’s upset he wasn’t able to help me.

I’m incredibly fortunate.

And I’m reassured.

I’m truly happy I became friends with Haruaki.

“It’s the opposite. The truth is, I didn’t call you because I do count on you.”

“Huh?”

“I count on you so much, it feels like I’m completely dependent…”

If not, I would never have gotten him involved in this. I wouldn’t have to keep beating myself up for teaching him about Boxes.

“…I-if you’re counting on me, then why?”

“You were with Kokone, right? I wanted you to keep her safe. Do you understand why?”

“Oh…” Haruaki scratches his cheek with his finger to hide his embarrassment. “That makes sense… We thought Daiyan was going after Kiri.”

“Yeah. Even if he hadn’t threatened me, we would have thought this whole situation was just Daiya’s attempt at a diversion.”

Yep, I had believed that Daiya was gunning for Kokone, that she was in greater danger than Maria or I was. And I had good reason to.

After all, I’d assumed Daiya would have figured out by then that I wasn’t the owner of the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.

If he did know, then he would try to do something about the real owner before he went for me or Maria. Obviously, he would go after Kokone before Maria.

But he didn’t.

“So Daiya really hasn’t put two and two together about the owner?”

“Seems that way.”

The Silver Screen of Broken Wishes is a Box that exists solely to eliminate Daiya’s. He should have picked up on it the moment Yuri entered the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes and the screens continued to show only Daiya’s past.

How does he still not realize I’m not the owner?

I might have a Box, sure. If worse came to worst, sure—I would want to contact O, get ahold of a Box, and take down Daiya. It would definitely be my last resort, but I have thought about it.

But even if I had gotten a Box, I wouldn’t have wished for this. My Box would never have ended up like the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes. I could never create a Box meant entirely to save Daiya alone.

I mean, it would be impossible for anyone who wasn’t thinking only of Daiya from the bottom of their heart.

It would be impossible for anyone unless they only had eyes for Daiya—unless they were nearly blind to everyone else.

That’s definitely not me. Daiya is my friend, and I’d like to think I care for him, but I’m sorry to say that my feelings for him probably aren’t strong enough to let me act so blindly. I could never be so focused on Daiya that I would dedicate a Box’s wish entirely to him.

Daiya should understand as much if he ever stopped running away and faced the true owner.

But he couldn’t.

Why?

Because the Box has made him lose sight of himself.

If he can’t pinpoint the real owner, it’s obvious he’s in the wrong. If he doesn’t even notice someone who thinks of him so intensely, Daiya is clearly at fault. He is consciously trying to forget this person in his attempt to turn his heart to stone. That’s why he has shut himself off and blinded his own eyes.

And yet, he still claims to have some lofty purpose? To be offering his own life up without a second thought, trying to right the world?

“……Heh-heh.”

It makes me laugh.

Ridiculous.

The efforts of such a person will never amount to anything.

Are you trying to suggest someone who’s closed their eyes can indicate a proper course? They’ll never point in the right direction. They’d only lead people even more astray.

And now he means to steal Maria from me?

Who the hell does he think he is?

“……”

I look at the unconscious Iroha, dyed in red. She was wrong, too. She tried to take Maria from me.

That’s why I did this to her.

I told Haruaki she was alive, which is technically true, but I did rob her of her purpose in life. As her pitiful state now might suggest, she may never fully recover.

But who cares?

“……Heh-heh-heh.”

Yep, I’m going to do the same thing to Daiya, too.

Daiya’s despair will likely be even greater than Iroha’s. This wish was originally his own. It’ll be pretty much impossible to bounce back once he knows it’ll never come true. What’s more, Daiya murdered Koudai Kamiuchi. When he can’t run anymore, the reality lying in wait for him is a cruel one.

But I’m going to crush him.

I don’t give a rat’s ass about the wish of some guy stumbling around in the dark. If the destruction of his Box leads him to a tragic fate, that’s on him. That’s just reaping what you’ve sown, right?

So.

Hurry up and give Maria back, you blind bastard.