Aquarium (2) EP.41

"Haah... haah..."

My head is spinning.

My stomach is twisting.

My eyes feel like they're burning.

But they just revel in my suffering,

Never stopping.

"Ah..."

The scene shifts.

Hoshino, driven mad by experiments from black suit to save me,

And Serika, Ayane, Nonomi... all searching for her...

All turned into corpses.

...And then,

"That's...? No, wait... That can't be... Why..."

"Wait, just a moment... What are you do..."

"Ugh...!"

An unspeakable, unimaginable thing happened.

"Uweeeeeeek!!!!"

...Honestly, I want to go mad.

I want to just give up on everything.

No matter how much I can't remember when I wake up,

These memories remain inside me, constantly gnawing at me.

"...Grr!"

But I grit my teeth and hold onto my sanity.

Even if I don't know anything else, if I go mad now, it's exactly what they want.

"...Hmm..."

"It's about time we moved on to the next step."

"...Haah..."

"Sora-chan... I wonder if she's okay alone..."

At the Abydos Hospital where Sora is hospitalized,

Takanashi Hoshino, with her pink hair, walked down the hospital corridor.

Apparently, Sensei was coming to visit, so she was planning to go greet him.

But she couldn't shake off the anxiety of whether something might happen to Sora in that short time.

If Sora heard, she might scold her for being overprotective, but Sora's actions up until now made it plausible.

"...Ah, there they are. Sen...!"

"Haah..."

"...Huh? Is Sensei fine?"

"...Sensei?"

She found Sensei in a corner of the hospital, muttering to themselves while looking at a tablet.

'What's going on?'

Feeling something was off,

She watched Sensei from a distance.

"...Haah... Two months..."

'Two months?'

"Arona, is there really no way to recover the halo..."

[No... It seems there's never been a case of a student losing their halo before...]

"...I see..."

[I'm sorry, Sensei. If only I were more capable...]

"No, no, Arona, you're helping plenty."

"...But keep investigating."

"We can't let Sora die like this."

"...What?"

"What did you just say...?"

'Die? Sora-chan is?'

Sensei muttered incomprehensible words.

At those words, Hoshino quickly began to grasp the situation.

"Two months... Die..."

"...Could it be?"

Hoshino, who thought that far,

Grab

"Ugh!? Wh-Who..."

"...Sensei."

"...Uh, uh? Ho-Hoshino...?"

She grabbed Sensei's collar and asked.

"...What do you mean Sora-chan is dying...?"

*

She found out.

Simultaneously with Sensei's report, my sister, Takanashi Hoshino, appeared before me.

Her expression was one of despair, just like that day,

"Sora-chan...!!!"

And she was angry enough to grab me by the collar.

"...Why, why didn't you tell me...?"

"Sora-chan... That you have a limited lifespan... Why did you hide it...?"

"Why on earth!!!"

'...I guess I got caught in the end...'

But despite her reaction, I was surprisingly calm.

'I expected to be caught.'

I had considered the possibility of her finding out since the invitations kept coming.

No matter how much I hid it, there was a limit since I had a limited time to live.

'...I didn't expect Sensei to make a mistake, though.'

...But in a way, this was an opportunity.

She found out not from me, but from a third party.

So,

'It would be even harder to refuse my request.'

It hurts my heart, but as I said before,

'It's hard to refuse a sick person's request.'

'...But before that...'

"...I need to use the restroom."

I need to soothe my stomach, which the painkiller couldn't suppress.

*

After that, I explained everything to Hoshino.

That I only had two months to live and the reasons behind it, everything.

And after hearing it all, Hoshino...

"Hic... Sob... Hwaaaaaaang!!!!"

Cried.

Louder than a newborn baby,

More sadly than I had ever seen.

I really felt incredibly guilty.

Enough to want to give up on persuading her.

But I couldn't give up just like that.

"It's okay, sis."

I comforted Hoshino, who was crying in my arms.

"What...! What's okay!!!"

"You said two months...!!! You said you had only two months to live...!!! So what's okay about that...!!!"

"Uh... well, I don't plan on dying yet...?"

I'm not going to die, especially when I might go to hell if I die like this.

"And this is a problem that will be solved if my halo comes back."

No matter how serious the situation is, if my halo is restored, it's all over.

"...It's gone..."

"...Huh?"

"There's no way to bring it back...!!!"

But it seems Hoshino can't be persuaded with just that.

"I heard from Sensei... They couldn't find a way to bring back your halo..."

"The very act of a halo disappearing is unprecedented...!"

'Well, that's true.'

I'm not an ordinary Kivotos resident but a created being,

An artificial human.

But being an artificial human, there must be a method specific to artificial humans.

'I can't say it now, but...'

"Hic..."

"...Sister."

I can create an opportunity to say it.

"Whew..."

I braced myself and spoke somewhat mischievously.

"...Then, as your sister with limited time, can I ask you for one favor?"

"...!!!"

I know. I know how cowardly this is.

Hoshino was already trembling from my previous remarks.

But if I don't go this far, she'll definitely refuse.

"Sensei gave me two aquarium tickets last time."

"But they expire tomorrow..."

"Will you go with me?"

I hope she'll forgive me just this once.