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Let's just... distort things as I see fit.
"Thaaat's... riiight."
Like a voice after inhaling helium, an affirmation devoid of self-awareness or reality wriggled by my ear.
As if I'd shone a mysterious light from beneath a mask, Mayu-chan's expression reached the peak of radiance.

"Mii-kun."
"Yeah."
"Mii-kun? Am I... touching Mii-kun right now?"
"Yeah." *I am Mii-kun. I've come from your past. I don't know if I can proceed to the future.*
"Mii... kun..."
Should I say, "Long time no see"? Her hands finally left my neck, and I choked moderately.

Buwaah, Mayu-chan's eyes were overcome with tears. As if her eyeballs had melted.
"Mii-kun! Mii-kun Mii-kun Mii-kun Mii-kun Mii-kun!"
Mayu-chan collapsed crying, clinging to the sleeve of my clothes. *Now's the time, feel the guilt,* my reason, playing at being good, told me. But of course, the evil liar in me stood defiant and looked away.
*An ally of justice can't be made in one person, you see.*

*My objective viewpoint, observing all this, should have been twisting its mouth sarcastically, its eyes glinting dully, cheeks contorting into a smile. Instead, it was exposing an eerie, fleshy, completely inert face.*
*I always feel like I have this gaze that watches me from behind, looking down on myself with contempt.*
*And this time, that objectivity was being directed at Mayu-chan as well.*
*What is with this girl? I'm totally put off. My heart is recoiling so much I can't move.*
*That's why, until Mayu-chan got up, I could only keep looking down on her.*

Eventually, Mayu-chan's broken body, though unstable, straightened up again. This time, she wasn't just crying; she was also trying to smile, kneading her cheeks into shape with her own fingers.
"Ehehe, ehe. Mii-kun, I ca- Mii-kun, I caaaught him!" Mayu-chan, busy laughing, simultaneously and without hesitation, threw her arms around me with a "gabaah!"

"Uwah," she pressed against me hard from the front. *Oh crap, my goosebumps were also 'gui gui'—fruiting.*
*To think her attitude towards me could change this much from just twenty seconds ago, even though we're supposedly the same person.*
*Mii-kun really is loved by Maa-chan, huh.*
*Honestly, I can't keep up. My breathing is getting ragged from confusion.*

*But she's been pressing her tear-soaked cheek against me, 'guri guri.' Is she, perhaps, wiping her tears on the sweatshirt I'm wearing? I wondered, feigning ignorance, and waited for this torture to end. ......Waited. 'Guri guri.' Waited. 'Suri suri.' Wait— 'Juri juri.' It's not ending.*
*It seems I have to end this thing that has no end.* "Alright, warming up is temporarily suspended."
I pushed Mayu-chan's forehead and created some distance. *Getting rid of the chill and goosebumps seemed a bit difficult under this winter sky.*

"Ehh, I wanna gyuruccho Mii-kun moooore!" Mayu-chan protested cheerfully, using a verb that likely wasn't in any dictionary. She raised both hands and jumped up and down, the contents of her randoseru backpack rattling "gasha gasha."
"Oh well, okaaaay. We'll continue at hooome!"
Mayu-chan declared cheerfully and grabbed my hand. Her fingers intertwined with mine, squeezing tightly. Then, she started pulling my hand, trying to quickly get away from the hospital.

"Huh? You have business at the hospital, right?" *The client Sensei mentioned having an appointment with was probably this girl.*
"It's fiiine, I don't care about that. I don't knooow any liars like that. Let's go, let's goo!"
Mayu-chan strode briskly towards the intersection ahead, which had no traffic lights.
"Go where?"
"I told you, my house! We're gonna play together!"
*It seemed to be already decided.*

"She's such a liar, isn't she? 'Cause Mii-kun is right here!"
"She? You mean Koibi-sensei?"
"Don't you DARE talk about other women!!" I was suddenly punched. Of course, it hurt, coming without warning.
*It's strange, though; when someone speaks ill of Sensei, I don't feel good about it.*

*Well, putting that aside... Going to Mayu-chan's place like this, what about it?*
"C'mon, let's gooo!" Mayu-chan pulled my hand with all her might, making me worry my elbow would pop out if I resisted. This wasn't a push from behind, but a pull from the front.
*Even if I went home today, it's a day my aunt isn't there, so I guess it's probably fine. And while I say 'I guess,' I've pretty much already decided to go.*
*...Or so I say.*

*Because, isn't seeing someone frolicking about without a care for discretion or what others think, like getting a share of their joy just by watching?*
*Even if I'm not the one being rejoiced over, that's still a wonderful thing, isn't it?*
*I thought that maybe, just this once, I could help my heart tell such a lie.*

Led around by Mayu-chan's smile and a grip stronger than I'd expected, the place we arrived at was an apartment building of a vividly dull color. Looking up, it was tall enough to seem at least seven stories high, with a considerable sense of intimidation.

"Maa-chan's house, hardly anyone ever comes. Is it that 'living on my own' thing? Feels like being an adult, huh?"
She sought my agreement with this childish, trying-to-act-grown-up sentiment, her smile completely open and innocent. Her tears had already dried, leaving only their tracks on her cheeks. Joy dominated her face, extremely excluding all other emotions.

"Yeah, maybe it is like being an adult... But, what about Maa-chan's grandpa and grandma?" *They wouldn't have gone to the mountains with laundry to fight demons, bobbing along, would they?*
"Hm? Don't know." The same uninterested tone as before. "I don't wanna live with them. And I have lots of money."
"Is that so." *Mayu-chan is full of things she doesn't know and things she doesn't try to know.*

"Yep, that's right. Then, let's gooo!"
With practiced steps (please understand the meaning by feeling), Mayu-chan headed for the hall elevator, towing me along. "Runrun fuhaa!" Surrendering herself to a roller-coaster-like surge of elation, Mayu-chan jabbed the "3" button.
I pressed the "Nn."

"Guoooon," Mayu-chan frolicked, happily mimicking the sound of the elevator ascending. She jumped around in the elevator this way and that, making the walls and floor shake "kako kako" (though it was actually more of a "doka doka," there are things you shouldn't point out about a woman besides her age). I also wanted to groan "Uoooohhm," feeling like an elevator shaft, but I refrained because it seemed I'd be interrupting Mayu-chan's "Goongongogo-gon" solo performance. *So says my shyness, offering an excuse.*

Without stopping midway, the elevator arrived at the third floor. Mayu-chan, spinning with a "Dabadaa!" and leaping out into the corridor, and me, made to dance with a "Bibideh!" There was no one passing in the corridor, but we were thoroughly witnessed by the potted ornamental plant in the corner. *I earnestly prayed that plants do not have hearts.*

Spinning "gurun gurun" together, playing at making butter, we were heading towards Mayu-chan's room... or so I assumed. The corridor floor and walls, contrary to the apartment building's exterior, were slick and shiny. I nearly slipped many times, but our clasped hands supporting each other... that sort of touching storyline had been discontinued, so of course, we just fell. By the time we reached our destination, I had fallen twice, and Mayu-chan, six times.

And so, while scraping our randoserus against the wall and stepping on each other's feet, we reached the front of the room at the very end of the hall. Our game of conveyor-belt sushi was over; we, the unsold items who continued to survive, stared at the door.
"This is my, plus from today, Mii-kun's house! Zubishi!"
Mayu-chan forcefully pointed at the door. Or rather, she jabbed the door hard with her index finger, making me a little worried if she'd sprain it or something. *And I also had a feeling she just said something pretty major, but I decided to ignore the problem, postpone dealing with it, and just moved my spare eyes.*

The nameplate read "御園" (Misono)... *I wonder if that's how you read it, Misono.*
"Wait a sec, okay?" Mayu-chan finally let go of my hand. *We had been holding a small summer in each other's hands, but soon it would have nowhere to go and would likely freeze to death. Like a grasshopper, it was.*
*I thought she might do something now that her hands were free, but Mayu-chan just kept staring at me, perfectly still.*

"What's wrong?"
"Yes?"
"Hmm, Mii-kun's little hand is all alone and looks lonely."
"Maa-chan feels bad. Can Mii-kun bear it?"
She kept glancing at my hand, from which summer had begun to peel away. *The meaning of her question was difficult to grasp, so I remained silent.*

"Well..."
*I wanted to ask for an explanation a few times, but I was afraid she might take it as me asking 'what floor are we on?' or something like that, so...*
Mayu-chan didn't seem to be waiting for my response, and immediately declared, "I'm gonna hold hands after all!" and took my hand again. *Ah, so that's what she meant. The out-of-place summer has returned.*

"Coo-per-a-tion! Here Mii-kun, hold this side of the bag."
"Uh, okay." I held one side of the randoseru Mayu-chan had taken off her shoulder.
Together (or rather, the owner did most of it herself), we overturned Mayu-chan's randoseru, and its contents flowed "zabaaa" onto the floor. That said, no textbooks or notebooks came out; crumpled-up handouts, treated like waste paper, made up most of the contents. Among them, one metallic object—whether valuable or not, I couldn't say—bounced once on the floor with a hard sound.

"Found it!" Mayu-chan bent down and picked up a key laden "gotegote" with keychains, a persimmon-shaped charm, and other trinkets. It looked more like a mere tourist souvenir where the key itself was the extra.
The homeowner inserted it so forcefully it wouldn't have been surprising if the key broke off in the lock, and turned it "goki goki." *I felt like even a burglar would trespass into a room more carefully than that.*

After a struggle so intense it seemed like metal powder might scrape off, the lock finally opened. She tossed the key aside ("poi") and opened the heavy-looking door. In the entryway, with a "Yahoo!" she immediately kicked off her shoes haphazardly and stepped up into the hallway. Then she turned around, smiled shyly, and said,
"Mii-kun, welcome home!" *Ooh, I've obtained my long-desired 'My Home'! Just kidding, though.*

"Yeah... Excuse me for intruding." I bowed my head with a "pekori." I didn't take off my hat yet.
"Ehh, you're supposed to say 'I'm home!' there. Do-over!"
"...I'm home." *Short for 'Right now, I just want to gaze into your eyes.' That is a lie.*

"Okay, okay. Now, I gotta get ready!" Mayu-chan detached her hand from mine and ran "dotadota furafura" deeper into the apartment. When I looked back, the randoseru was still left outside the entryway, and the scraps of paper had gone off on a journey with the wind. *If I could sense any sign of Mayu-chan coming back to get them, I'd be a locally famous psychic boy living the 'uhauha' life, I mused emptily, as I collected the randoseru and the discarded key. By combining these two... all I get is Mayu-chan's school-going set, huh.*

I also went inside and closed the door. Once it was fully shut, the outside sounds were cut off at once, and Mayu-chan's humming became clearly audible. "Hmm-foo-foo-foo," it went.
I twitched my nose carefully. Inside, the smell of human habitation, different from the outside, drifted.
*Even just that made me feel subtly relieved.* I placed the key on the shelf next to the entryway and took off my shoes too. I placed them neatly next to Mayu-chan's and tried comparing their sizes.
*Our heights aren't that different, but my shoe size is a little bigger.*

"......Hm? Mmph."
Suddenly, feeling like I'd forgotten something, I turned towards the door. *If it was something that would become important later, then it just became a 'doesn't matter' thing, so that's one less thing to do, which is helpful.* *And so, I proceeded deeper into the apartment just like that.*

Proceeding a little down the hallway, a living-room-like space opened up. There was a sofa that looked big enough for three Mayu-chans to sleep on, and a TV with a screen larger than my room's window. There was also a heater that seemed capable of warming the entire room faster than I could run around and get sweaty, and an air conditioner near the ceiling, more convenient than the dust always dancing in my room. The desk was rectangular, same as in my room, but I arbitrarily decided to be impressed, figuring it probably incorporated elements like the golden ratio and was high-class.
*With a slight mix of lies.*

For now, I placed the two randoserus on the desk. Side by side, it would be nice if they were auspiciously red and white, but they were actually red and black. Like this, it was just like blood that had flowed out of the body and oxidized. *Since blood flows, it feels like it's still alive, but it also gives the impression of being about to die.*

After taking off my hat, I sat down in the middle of the sofa. It was soft and fluffy to sit on. But I didn't particularly feel refreshed or anything.
To the right of the living room, there was a half-open door. Had Mayu-chan gone there? Just as I was about to get up to go see, footsteps from the other side reached me first.
"Sorry to keep you waaaaiting!" Mayu-chan came running "totetote," carrying not tea for a guest, nor her prized collection (like a bird's neck that got caught in a window), but a round vase. Naturally, a cluster of flowers, arranged like a tiny pompadour, was youthfully jutting out from its top.

*Oh no, could this be a flag for a private ikebana lesson? No, rather, it might be a flag for remodeling my head that comes up with such ideas. Either way, I can't figure out Mayu-chan's intentions.*
*Besides, Mayu-chan being a flower-loving girl who brings richness to her life seems completely unlikely, so maybe someone else is taking care of these? Like, Mayu-chan's grandmother, for example.*

Waddling "yochiyochi" right up in front of me, "Look, look, a vaaase!" Mayu-chan thrust it out with both hands, showing it off. *For a moment, it sounded like 'Gabiin!' (sound of shock), I thought, fiddling with my ear, but before I could say something like, 'My, what an elegant item, ohohoho,' she yelled,* "The flowers!!"
"Don't neeed them anymooore!" "Eh?" Mayu-chan grabbed all the flower stems together in a bunch and threw them all away. The cut flowers, full of moisture, fell to the floor, making a "shaa" sound, like a clod of mud being squashed.

"And theeennn—" "What are you—" "DOKAAAN!" As if attracting a meteorite, it came crashing down.
My eyeballs stiffened as they took it in, my optic nerves feeling like they'd burn out to their very depths.
A first-rate, severe pain pierced terribly from my frontal lobe to the back of my neck.
Mayu-chan... hit me on the head... with the vase. Rain started falling on the back of my neck and such.

The vase, not completely shattered but remaining partially intact, was swung down on my head once more.
With that second blow, it became impossible even to kneel, and my whole body sank to the floor. Had my sense of balance gone haywire? The world distorted and spun so much it was hard to believe I was just lying down; I felt nauseous.

"Nihihi, I caaaught Mii-kun!"
*Ah, that's a similar line to before, but her laugh is different... As I was grabbed by the wrists and dragged, I found myself noticing such things.* My face scraped "gari gari" against the floor; it was itchy-painful. *I'd been nonchalantly wondering when I'd lose consciousness, but the intense pain in the back of my head, like a band's drummer, was functioning in place of chili pepper up the nostrils, refusing to let me indulge in lazy slumber. Like that so-called, 'If you fall asleep, you'll die!' situation.*

"Nnsho, nnsho," Mayu-chan grunted, seemingly struggling to pull me. *Even I, for all my faults, understood this wasn't the time to feel sorry for making her do hard labor, but what does she want to do, I wonder? The troublesome thing is, I have memories of this kind of development. When I was beaten with a metal bat, I properly lost consciousness, but this time, well... It's like when cows or chickens are being butchered to become meat for sale, but they're still conscious. This is what you call being kept half-dead, y'know. Just kiddin', though.*

Taking advantage of my immobile body, my thoughts roamed about freely and actively as if they owned the place. *Usually, they're hindered by inertia or other people and lack freedom, so at times like these, they go on an adventure inside my body. Still, my head gets hit a lot. Is it like some detective's forehead or something?*

"Yo-kkoi sho-ichi, yokkora, bokkora, hoooi!" She pulled my wrists with particular force, the danger rising to the point I thought my elbows would dislocate, but then the dragging stopped.
*The situation was unclear, but it seemed we'd arrived at Mayu-chan's destination.*
We'd moved several meters from the living room where we were just now. *Since we hadn't ventured as far as an outside graveyard or a garbage collection site, I was at least relieved about that.*

"Whew, I worked up a good sweat!" Mayu-chan made a gesture of wiping her forehead... or so I guessed. My head wouldn't move at all, so all I could see was the wood grain of the floor, and other than that, my eyelids. My eyelids were dim. That part still seemed okay. *When spilled blood seeps deep inside, even when you close your eyes, it's bright red.*

Mayu-chan let go of my hands for a moment and, with an "Esho," opened a door somewhere. Then, the "zuri zuri" (dragging sound) resumed. Being dragged, I guessed from what my face could feel directly from the floor—a storage room, perhaps? The floor was rough, dark, and dusty. Air that felt like it would dry out my whole face, much like in my own room, filled the space. *Ah, this isn't a basement, but I wonder if we're heading straight down the 'playing confinement' route.*

She pulled me to the wall, and finally shoved me in. With that, my transport seemed to be complete.
"Saaatte-tto, next, next!" With a cheerful voice, Mayu-chan "dotadota" exited the room, leaving me there. *Nausea and bloody vomit were mixed and wandering from the bridge of my nose to my esophagus, but right now, I could escape from this place. Can I move my body? In my top-heavy state, I tried asking each of my thoroughly lazy body parts how they were doing. My numbness reached my toes. My arms... my right one wouldn't move for some reason, but my left... ah, right, my body is lying on my right arm. Let's calm down. At this rate, returning to bipedal movement should be possible, and I should be able to open the door as usual. It is possible for me not to be confined.*

The choice is in the palm of my hand. It might not be about the future, but just a tool to escape from the past, but that's the one thing different from before. I still have been granted the right.
*If I were to be greedy, by replacing my head with a new one, I could handle various things more smoothly, my future life would go well, I'd grow about ten centimeters taller, and I'd become able not to be deceived by grandiose advertisements like 'National Basketball Champions,' right?*

My fingers and toes tried to stand, attempting to grip the floor as if it were straw. *Do I want to escape? The question swirled within me as I still dragged my dully aching forehead on the floor, only my limbs beginning to form a quadrupedal stance. That's why my head wouldn't lift; I ended up sliding 'zuru zuru' across the floor, trying to calm my body's rejection. If Mayu-chan, who would surely return soon, were to run into me as I was leaving the room and tilt her head asking, 'Where are you going?', how would I make excuses and slip past her? And so, my heart endlessly searched for reasons, trying to bind me to this place.*

*Even like this, do I want to stay within a thirty-meter radius of Mayu-chan, I wonder?*
*Besides, whether I can completely escape from Mayu-chan is an unknown. Even if I managed to leave the apartment building safely and go home, we go to the same elementary school, so we'd run into each other in no time, let alone someday. So, brilliantly cutting ties with an 'Aba yo!' seems impossible... or so it seems.*

*......Furthermore, and on top of that... If 'Mii-kun' were to escape from her, wouldn't that girl truly break? I thought. My excessive meddling encouraged my lazy heart.*
*Maybe the best thing is to just play caterpillar here and let inertia move my life along. When I grumbled such things, my nausea immediately opposed that idea. You want to go outside, don't you? Should I just go out into the 'shaba' (outside world/freedom) once? No, but even I hesitate to dirty someone else's house as I please. Besides, it looks like I'll have to spend some time here, so let's protect the environment, shall we?*

I relaxed my strength and collapsed onto the floor.
*Ah, come to think of it, what would happen if, say, tomorrow, my aunts rushed to the police saying I'd disappeared? Since our incident, the public has become sensitive to children disappearing. The police might act swiftly. The TV stations would probably pick it up as an interesting news story too.*

While I was imitating someone dawdling in their futon for another five minutes in the early morning, "Sorry for the waait!" Mayu-chan returned. She crouched down by my back and grabbed both my wrists.
She lifted both my hands behind my back to a position where my elbows felt like they'd break, crossed them, and tied them with a string or something. *Ah, this is confinement. Only then did I finally find confirmation of Mayu-chan's objective.*

"Oyoyo, Mii-kun! Don't be all shaky-shaky, be brisk-brisk!"
Mayu-chan, having finished tying me up, barked at me, who had become a captive of convulsions. "...Imposs'ble." *Unless I put enough force into the base of my tongue to nearly tear it off, my throat wouldn't move to produce a voice. Sabotage, perfected. Most of my meager abilities are concentrated in my vocal cords, yet now I'm like a chicken that can no longer boast the lie, 'I can fly, y'know!' Chickens that can't fly become meat, and chickens that can fly become exhibits. In reality, that's all there is to it, though.*

"Tsun tsun." Mayu-chan poked my hair with her finger. *That spot's probably going to become a bump, so I wish she wouldn't touch it.* "Oooi, Mii-kun ya, time to get uppies!"
*I struggled, pretending to be a sleeping slave, trying to get through this without incident.*
Naturally, she wasn't about to indulge such feigned sleep with, "Aww, Mii-kun went sweepies. Maa-chan will snuggle wif him, nukunuku!" Instead, it was, "I have no recollection of raising such a sloppy Mii-kun!" Iron foot education. My flank was stomped on and crushed. A groan like "Oueffu..." escaped quite easily. *What do you know, I can make a sound. So you weren't going to hold back until an emergency, is that it? Mm-hmm.*

"Oooh, Mii-kun went from bikubiku (shaky-shaky) to gakugaku (wobbly-wobbly)... Are you molting?" *However insect-like I may be, I'm not undergoing metamorphosis. In either sense of the word, okay?* "Waku waku (Exciting)!" "...Please, sit me up." *My throat finally gave in and decided to cooperate in achieving my peace and quiet.*

"Shikata nyaa-nyaa," Mayu-chan grumbled reluctantly in some unknown dialect, but still sat my body upright, leaning my back against the wall. With that, I was finally allowed to survey the entire room. *And so, I let the dizziness and shaking take over, 'guru guru'.*

What my eyes could yet make out was only one color: darkness. There were no shadows, and I couldn't see anything, to the extent that while it was highly possible Mayu-chan was really near me, it wasn't certain. These days, towns have streetlights, and remnants of light spill from houses along the road, so it's rare for the night to be completely dark. But this room held an unadulterated, pitch-black darkness within it.
*It's like comparing a human's heart to Mayu-chan's, I suddenly thought.*

My eyes were captivated by the lack of light, and my skin was plucked at by the temperature. Perhaps because the room had no windows and usually got no sunlight, the temperature felt chillier than outside. It felt as if dust-covered snow might fall from the ceiling at any moment. My breath, too, rapidly underwent an aging process, becoming completely white. Even though I was surrounded by darkness, the chill that came over me urged a stark white, Heian-era-makeup-like transformation across my entire being.

As my eyes adjusted, I realized my location was a small room. It was only about a quarter the size of the room I'd been sitting in earlier. If Mayu-chan and I were in it, it was doubtful if even one more Mii-kun could fit. The so-called 3M (San-Mii). By the way, there should currently be one Mii inside me.

My consciousness, too, felt like it would be bleached completely white if I took a breath. A white snake and a white alligator danced, wriggling their tails "gune gune," trying to devour my consciousness like a carnival. But on this Earth, humans have prospered more than snakes or alligators, so it was only logical that Mayu-chan's high-pitched torture declaration made the two beasts retreat from my consciousness.

"Part two, a hammerrr!" An introduction to a tool with a 100% danger-rating. The hammer, gripped in both her hands, combined with Mayu-chan's smile to maximally incite terror and defensiveness. I bit the inside of my cheek, resolved to endure whatever came— "CHUDOOON!" Mayu-chan's full body weight and the full impact of the metal struck my right shiiiin—aaagh!

- I apologize to someone, somewhere, for the inappropriate alien-language-like utterance that slipped in there.
My eyeballs informed me they couldn't bear to look directly at the current situation, so I responded to their request by rolling them back to show the whites. *The process was a lie, but looking at the result, it wasn't wrong.* My tongue was lolling out too. Triangles and quadrilaterals overlapped in the center of my vision, dancing madly. "One more for the finish!" The same treatment was administered to my left leg, and the degree of my eyeballs' base-stealing doubled. *If this were business performance, the company would be overjoyed.*