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And I sink deeper, deeper.
It seems my envisioned ideal downfall couldn't be achieved. After all, there's no sea in my hometown, you see.
When I rolled on the road to dodge Nancy Ooe's knee kick, the follow-up attack was verbal.
"By the way, what exactly did you want to accomplish today, spending the whole day on it?"
"No sane person would be convinced by an explanation of an insane person's motives."
"You think I'm a sane person? That's a wonderful compliment, pal." Yeah, right, something like that.
As for me, it was a difficult question to answer, so I just wanted to deflect it. How could I possibly summarize such an erratic plan: to protect my daily loop, incorporate Air Nagase, and then try to initiate an affair with Fushimi?... Actually, it's not something worth agonizing over.
If it lacked realism, then the answer befitting it was inevitably decided.

"I wanted to see a dream."
A dream of flight, where I could remain mad.
I wanted to spend all my time in a dream, repeating a peaceful daily life full of lies.
...But you know, lately, for some reason, my mind seems to have been strengthened (or driven mad?), and it keeps trying to recover right away. So I desperately tried to put it off, and I held out for quite a while, but it looks like I'm at my limit. I have no choice but to return to reality.
I have no choice but to accept the reality that Nagase Tooru was brutally murdered, and that ever since, my acquaintances have been targeted and killed one after another, a fact that has continued since the long holiday in September when I was nonchalantly traveling.
...
But even if I accept it, I still don't think I can move. I was kicked in the jaw too much, and it's affecting my knees.
Also, it bothered me that the background was still like an old, rain-beaten signboard, with its colors dripping thickly. And that the process of its regeneration wasn't starting in my eyes or mind at all.

"Well then, in connection with that bland 'dream'..."
Nancy Ooe. Ooe Yuna pulls my hand and makes me stand up.
I was sure she intended to help me partway, then let go and make me fall twice, but Yuna crushed my fingers until the very end. *Megyagya*, the skin on my middle finger twisted like a drill. *Pop, pop*, each and every cell was activated, performing its death throes,
And just like that, still gripping my fingers, Yuna, her shoulders trembling slightly, smiles as featurelessly as the raindrops now pouring down.
An expression like someone else's stolen smile, an alien look, hung before my face.
"I'll take you to Dream Island."

I had been brought to the apartment where Ooe Yuna and Ooe Akane lived.
I should have seen it yesterday too, but I only have the impression of seeing it for the first time.
"This is the dream...?"
"That's right. The dreamland where you've been staying since yesterday."
I see. Indeed, there are chairs and a fan that look like they were picked up from a garbage dump. That said, Dream Island being dirty was a story from decades ago. I wonder if this place will also become clean after a few decades.
Though it seems quicker to just tear it down and let it meet a glorious end.
Apparently, this was once the room where Biwashima Yagoto's family lived, but it doesn't really click. It's hard to get a sense of daily life from Biwashima, who was just a classmate. But then, where did I think Biwashima came from to school, and where did she go back to from school?

"Big Bro and Big Sis, welcome back! Hey, I'm starving!"
Akane, who was crouching in a corner of the room, greeted us, waving her hands sideways like she was doing the breaststroke. She was smiling up to that point, but when she noticed that not just I, but Yuna too, was dripping with a lot of water, she puffed out her cheeks. She was still so thin, though, that her cheekbones stood out. "Umbrella?" "Got it," Yuna said, showing off a neatly folded plastic umbrella. "I'm gonna open it!" Akane cried, thrashing about, and for some reason, opened the umbrella inside the room. The trapped water droplets scattered with a *fwoosh*, showering Akane and Yuna with a "Woah-oh-oh!"
Then, she tossed towels that were by the entrance at Yuna and me. I thought she was more of an airhead than simply innocent, but she's pretty considerate. If I tried to get my little sister to learn from her... she might just throw an animal pelt at me and say, "Wipe yourself with this." And if I dared to complain it reeked, she'd probably choose blood makeup to cover it up, and the entrance would end up smelling of raw blood. Ugh, hope it's salt.

While the sisters were horsing around like that, I took off my shoes, stepped up, and observed the inside of the apartment again. In a poorly lit corner of the room, there was a fish tank with six turtles. Are these the Pierre and Catherine they mentioned before? I always had the impression that animals you win at night festivals, like chicks or goldfish, have short lifespans, but turtles, as expected of creatures said to live for ten thousand years, are long-lived. Though I haven't investigated whether the turtles themselves would agree with that assessment. Next to it, in a rusty cage, a single young-looking sparrow was flitting about restlessly. It didn't chirp 'chun-chun,' but made a muffled 'kurutsu, kurut' sound, like a stork crying. I wonder if it's become twisted, like the personality of the person looking after it.

"There was a young sparrow outside with an injured wing. I waited half a day, but its parents didn't come to rescue it, so I had no choice but to temporarily take it in. If they don't come for it soon, it'll strain our finances, and that'll be a problem."
Sensing my gaze, Yuna interjected with an explanation. The young sparrow finally stopped after bumping its head against the bars.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. In an emergency, you plan to bash it, make it into meatballs, and use it as an ingredient for curry rice."
"You understand perfectly, don't you?" Yuna nodded with a cool expression, wiping a droplet from her right cheek with a finger. It seems she has no hesitation in kicking humans around, yet abandoning a sparrow isn't an option for her. From now on, I'll secretly call her Ms. Yunagorou. That's too much trouble, so I'll just say that was a lie. Well, it's true that stepping on humans might give a more direct and enjoyable reaction. My little sister would probably say the same thing.

"This sparrow, right? It runs super fast!"
Still clutching the umbrella, Akane dashed to a corner of the room. It seemed she'd been watching the turtles in the tank and the sparrow in the cage until Yuna and I appeared at the entrance. "Oh, really?" I said, my reaction clearly showing my lack of interest, and sat down in a corner of the room away from the tanks. I leaned my back fully against the wall behind me, slumping into a near-lying position. I felt so listless. It was like after nearly drowning in a pool. Come to think of it, something like that happened during a summer vacation many years ago. I wonder if Akaike is doing okay.
Akane deflated her puffed-up cheeks and, in a good mood, opened the young sparrow's cage. The moment it was opened, the sparrow dashed out of the cage. It wasn't flying. *Chibababa*, it scurried across the floor at high speed. She said it had injured its wing, so maybe it can't flap them due to the aftereffects. Even while running around, the young sparrow moved as if it recognized Yuna—who was standing by the table, brushing raindrops off her shoulder—as its center. Does it think of her as its parent? She really does seem to have a constitution that animals like. It's quite something that so many mutual affections are formed, isn't it? Though saying I'm envious would be a lie.
"Look, look!" Akane pointed at the young sparrow with a beaming smile, as if showing off to me. "Yeah," I nodded, wondering how this kid perceived my existence. If she thought of me as 'Big Bro Yuna's friend,' that would be somewhat regrettable. "Still, about that..." I said, somewhat vaguely, calling out to Yuna.

"About what?" Yuna tilted her head, crouching down and guiding the young sparrow onto her palm.
"That you're still managing to live, I mean."
Brushing up her wet, clumped hair, Yuna glanced sideways and let out an "Ah."
"I requested a small amount of assistance from Akane's grandfather's side."
It wasn't said in a very cheerful tone. The young sparrow she had just managed to get onto her palm quickly returned to the floor. The sparrow, still not flying, wandered the floor again. As I followed the minute movements of its wings with my eyes, my focus blurred and my vision grew hazy. Without correcting it, I kept it that way and asked Yuna.
"What's the sparrow's name?" "Blower." "Huh." For a while, I didn't realize the origin of that name.

By the time I realized, my interest in the young sparrow had faded, and I was focused on Yuna and Akane's interaction. The two of them looked like a fur seal at an aquarium and the keeper tossing fish into its mouth. Never mind whether it was natural for Akane to be leaning back at Yuna's feet. At the fingertips of Yuna's raised right hand was a sugar cube.
"You want three sweets! You glutton!" "You had three sugar cubes?" "...You're so modest, Akane." Only one was tossed into her mouth. *Munch, munch*, Akane crunched the sugar cube contentedly. Watching her profile, I recalled myself offering a mandarin orange to my little sister's mouth. Come to think of it, are our 'setups' even similar to the point of both having little sisters?... Aha, I said 'setup' again.

However, my little sister is higher-spec, or rather, her specs are superior. If you ask me for details as to where... well, things like how she butchers meat, the frequency of violence flying about, or how it'd be a lie if she didn't fight her brother. Hooray for little sisters. The 'ni' in 'imouto' is the 'ni' from Nirai Kanai. That's a lie, or rather, I don't even know what that is in the first place. Oh well, I might as well just elevate 'ni' to be the representative 'ni' of 'imouto.' It feels like putting the cart before the horse, but if I collapsed, my sister would probably be happy.

"...Hm?"
Sometime before I noticed, the young sparrow had taken up position on my toes. It stayed perfectly still, as if gripping a tree branch with its feet. The sensation of being touched was not much different from a fly landing on my skin. My eyes met the young sparrow's. I felt like it resembled someone. Had I ever met a bird-like person? A bird person... Hmm. Musing on this, I tried to reach out to the young sparrow. Just then, my arm protested with pain against the inconsiderate extension, and I remembered my right arm had suffered a muscle tear (literal translation). I'll just interpret it as pain from being torn away from Mayu. ......Mayu, huh. If she's doing well, I could at least feel one step above the bare minimum of reassurance. Well, on that point alone, she's probably fine. Mayu's strength is her ability to procure 'Mii-kun,' her camphor shot, on the spot. The fact that there's probably no great difference in effect between the 'real one' and the 'fake one' is heartbreaking. Objectively speaking. Subjectively, the me who praised that more than a Nobel Prize-worthy invention was in a dim, dark place.

"Big Bro, food please!"
"Oh my, Akane, your English studies are going well, I see." Pat, pat on the head. Big Sis Yuna also seems to be smoothly becoming soft on her little sister. Weren't you a misanthrope? Or did you switch to the 'wanting to bully the one you like' route? It's so excessive it doesn't even work, you know. And to think you like *me*; I'd rather recommend you fall in love with your own reflection in the mirror for your health's sake.
"What's for dinner today?"
"Let's see, perhaps I'll cook the chicken we received," she said, looking down meaningfully at the young sparrow. The sparrow, oblivious to such a gaze, stared vacantly out the window, its face fixed in that direction. Does it want to fly away? Or is it just paying attention because the rain is hitting the window and making noise?

"Alright then, I'm going to start preparing now, so wait a little."
"I waited a lot already!"
"Then you can wait a little longer while you're at it, can't you? Kyaa~ Akane-chan, you're so patient, how wonderful!" Utterly monotone.
"Waaah," she pretended to cry. Akane's become quite an actress too.
"Ah, wait a sec." I interjected into their exchange. Both their gazes focused on me.
I felt bad for the starving Akane, but I called out to Yuna and stopped her in her tracks.
Thinking it was about time I asked my main question, I roused my weary body, sloshing the contents of my stomach. I had a vision of the rainwater in my stomach splashing, *chapochapo*, writhing in the darkness like an underground lake.

"Why did you bring me here?"
Last night, the explanation that she was starved for a laugh might have been convincing, but the current half-normalized me holds no amusement whatsoever. Whether I'm a human or an ornament, no matter how you look at me, if I had to name a prominent role, it'd be Yuna's punching bag or a scarecrow. The former aside, if a sparrow can leisurely perch on my foot, I wouldn't be up to the task of the latter. The young sparrow kicked off my toes with a little hop and moved to my ankle.

"I thought I'd have you become our Daddy-Long-Legs."
"Long legs?" Akane glanced at my legs and touched a finger to her lips. With Akane, it's hard to grasp the exact question she's pondering, but either way, it's still a hurtful reaction.
"Even if you try to squeeze a person with no money or goodwill, all you'll get out is mutual disappointment."
"Just kidding. We don't have newspapers or a TV in this room, so we're out of touch with the world. Besides, you seem to be close to the town's incidents again... I thought I'd like you to provide some information, so I 'protected' you."
"One must skillfully avoid danger, after all," she said, stroking Akane's throat with her finger. Akane, saying "Whee~," narrowed her eyes and wriggled as if ticklish, yet still let her older sister do as she pleased.

Are these two this carefree because they don't know anything? Or am I, unsuited to the atmosphere of this world or town, just too depressed? Probably, despite having experience seeing the corpses of several acquaintances, my reaction this time is excessive and abnormal. As if I've never experienced anything like it before.
But for me, an equation of only subtractions becomes a fatal wound.
"And also, it's partly out of malice, to make you spit out the several lies you've been bottling up."
"Lies?" Her words, as if she'd perfectly seen through what I was just thinking, put me on guard.
Yuna showed off a stifled chuckle and went into the next room. Akane, who remained, lowered her raised forehead, then trotted over to the turtle tank. Crouching down, she pointed to the turtles clinging to the wall inside, one by one, saying, "This one's Pierre." Is she taking roll call? How does she tell them apart just by looking? Could it be that the turtles are called by different names each time?

Turtles don't place much importance on names, so perhaps they can tolerate it. Like me.
"...Akane-chan, ya." After wondering how to address her, I settled on some mysterious persona. Well, it's the usual for me. "Hmm?" Akane turned to me with an innocent, perfect smile on par with Mayu in her prime (which is, of course, her entire life). On her right palm, she held a turtle. The ordinary turtle, not equipped with jet propulsion on its shell, seemed unsettled by its sudden invitation to an aerial journey and was flailing its legs. Akane glanced at the turtle's antics with amusement, then looked at me again.
As for me, the young sparrow was gradually running up my body, creating an atmosphere as if a show-off contest for tame small animals was about to begin.
"Something you need from me?" "Yeah, umm..." I had a question, but I forgot it while talking to and focusing on Akane. "Do you like turtles?" I tried to fill the silence until I remembered. "Hmm, I kinda hate them." Considering she said it with a smile, her stated likes and dislikes must be the opposite of what she means. So she likes turtles. Just like my sister's mother.
Though that person liked crayfish, killifish, and even stuffed seals.
"Ah, well then, Yuna... Big Sis, no, is it Big Bro? Do you like that yukata girl?"
"Nope, I hate her!"
It was an immediate reply in a voice so shrill it made the windows tremble. "If you say it so loudly, Yuna-rin will get hurt," came a reaction from the next room, but I casually ignored it. Big Sis is a lucky one, isn't she... Oh, right, that reminded me. "Do you ever feel like you want to see Touka?" Akane pouted her lips with a "hmph."
Even as I tried to gauge her reaction, she remained fixed like that. Huh, was my question too abstract? I thought asking if she wanted to see a close deceased person was a pretty straightforward question.

While that was going on, Yuna returned, humming "hm-hm-hmm" a tune completely devoid of cheerfulness, carrying something in both arms that was so dilapidated, I wasn't sure if I could even call it a "...piano?" A piano small enough to be a lap pillow must be rare.
It was a small children's piano, its body painted pink. It had a number of white keys appropriate for its size, the same as the total number of fingers on both hands. Moreover, it looked like a second-hand item; the paint was peeling, and several black keys were missing. "Akane picked it up." "Yup! Because it was Touka-colored!" She said it so cheerfully. A faint twinge of something like admiration, or sentimentality, stirred in me. I felt like that was also an answer to my question about wanting to see Touka.

Yuna placed the piano on the floor and sat formally before it. A girl in a yukata sitting so solemnly upright created an atmosphere as if tea ceremony practice was about to begin. However, Ooe Yuna's long, slender white hands touched grimy keys, mixed with a brown color as if caked with grime.
That piano seemed to be an object that gave form to Yuna's own memories.
"...So, what are you planning to do with that?"
"A Nancy Concert."
Yuna declared it as if it were nothing. The causal relationship between the piano and my lies was as indistinct as trying to feel something with my right hand, swollen and engorged with blood. "Big Bro, are you gonna play the piano?"

"That's right, and I'll make dinner after that." "Okay!" Akane, perhaps fond of Yuna's playing, quickly hopped up from beside the fish tank and slid next to the piano with the turtle on her palm. Like she was playing high school baseball and had just slid into first base. But what was that turtle's name again? Francois, was it?
Just kidding, though.
"Well then, I'm starting. I'll put the fee on your tab." "Hey, wait a— Isn't this a scam? Like some bratty gang leader forcing a recital ticket on me!" Just as I was about to voice my complaint, Yuna's index finger pressed a key. A sound rang out, and I instinctively pulled back my left arm, which I had been about to extend. My right arm had stopped reacting unless I consciously willed it. Maybe it's about time I prepared a concealed gun.

I thought the piano would be like the clarinet in that children's song, but it wasn't that it couldn't produce any sound at all. Clumsy notes, completely lacking depth, flat and similar to electronic tones, trickled out one by one, scattering throughout the room in time with Yuna's fingers. The sound of the rain falling outside the window behind me felt more like established music. Akane was beaming at the performance, but I couldn't tell if it was for the sound itself, or if she was in a good mood seeing Yuna play the piano.
"Why did you start playing the piano, anyway?"
"It's an appeal to show that, 'Hey, I can play an instrument,' which is something different from you, Akkyun."
Yuna answered nonchalantly. Her fingers moved smoothly over the keys. ...Well, she looks like she's enjoying playing. It just seemed like a rambling succession of notes, as if she were hitting the piano keys randomly. Though, even if it were a proper performance, if I were just watching the pianist's hands, I'd probably only perceive it as them moving their fingers quickly and haphazardly anyway.

Half letting the piano sound go in one ear and out the other, I fiddled with my eyes, trying to bring the background into focus. Experience, though this is only the second time, tells me the outlines of objects should be redrawing themselves by now. The recovery is slow. Is it because an abnormality occurred in the loop's cycle? My functions have become mismatched, each misjudging its given period. It's like I'm in the middle of being dismantled.
Then, the sound of the piano changed. Discipline was added to the flock of notes, and it took on color. A timbre was born. It was a melody. The once disorderly intervals, like an infant who has learned words, learned the meaning of pauses and began to take appropriate distances from the preceding and succeeding notes. The sound became something the listener could enjoy.
I knew that 'music' well. A sequence of eight bars, something that had even been in school textbooks.
Listening to that performance, looking down, I lost consciousness for a moment. It was surely only for a few seconds, but I felt at peace, and let my taut consciousness flow from the corners of my eyes like droplets.
It was a sensation as if Yuna's fingers striking the keys were striking my brain itself. I could feel the softness of my own brain. I became able to face my inner self, not through sight, but through touch.

"It's a song that hits you right in the tear ducts, isn't it?" Yuna asked smugly, her fingers still moving.
"......Are you telling me to travel the countries of the world and collect eight melodies or something?" That performance.
"Isn't it just right for a mama's boy like you? If you get homesick, call me right away."
"I'm not a mama's boy, you're off by one character. I'm a Mayu-con."
"Somehow, that sounds like the name of a money-eating monster."
"Mayugon, Mayugon," Yuna mispronounced gleefully. Incidentally, she probably also hit wrong notes sometimes. Either the piano was broken, or it lacked some scales, or Yuna's fingertips slipped – one of those was the cause. "Now then, tell me. About this incident you and the town have been dragged into, Akkyun."

"...It's not a particularly interesting story, though."
I decided to disclose information equivalent to the help I'd received (was there any?).
And so I spoke. About how my ex-girlfriend was killed. How one of the reasons was because she was dating me. How the person killed next, and the person killed after that, and then even the next one, were all murdered, making it like four in a row in bingo, putting me in a 'reach' state. How a fifth person might even be killed today. And how all the victims were people connected to me.
And while I was at it, the culprit too. I finished by saying they were someone connected to me. In the end, I laid it all bare.
There was nothing left to hide. Not for someone like me, who has already exposed every last one of my disgraces.

"Hmm... I wonder why my name wasn't on that murder list. Could it be they're jealous of our relationship, Akkyun? *Pout pout*."
After hearing the whole story, Yuna attempted to show indignation with a blank expression. Of course, it had no effect on anyone's heart.
"Maybe they thought your financial situation was so dire you'd starve to death if left alone anyway."
Though I have no idea how much that assistance from your grandfather, or whatever, amounts to.
"You were treating me less like a rich young lady and more like a poor young master, weren't you? You're correct, so..."
"No, that's not a fact good enough to give a thumbs-up to." For either of us.
"Please cashew. Please macadamia." "Please almond. Please peanut."
Akane jumped on the bandwagon and made a ruckus too. Only the turtle and the young sparrow were quiet.
"Why is it all nuts...?"
"Because they're friends with 'beef of the fields,' so I presume they rank with chicken or pork."
Is that her way of claiming she's making a modest request?

"But I'm relieved. It seems I'm outside the mosquito net in this matter."
"...Well, yeah."
"Oh, but come to think of it, that gentleman who seemed like the culprit came to see you when you were sleeping on the road. He was cheering you on, Akkyun, telling you to 'hang in there' in a dull, flat voice."
"......Hoh." Near Fushimi's house, huh. "Surprised you didn't get killed, Yuna."
"I gave him a sugar cube, and he went home quietly. He must have been irritable because he was low on sugar, surely."
"He took it?!" I retorted towards the absent culprit. Well, there's a chance she's lying, though.
Finally, Yuna pressed all ten white keys simultaneously, concluding the performance with a dissonance. "Oo-hyaa!" Akane cried, covering her earholes with the turtle's belly.