Cklares watched as the past, woven from sound, unfolded before her.
They stood before the entrance of an apartment.
A girl in school uniform with orange hair spoke to the closed door.
“Hey… Tiana. Why won’t you come out? There’s no one else in the apartment… and your parents, they…”
A pause. A few seconds of silence.
“‘Go away’…? Why?”
Cklares wondered if Shizuku had said something from the other side.
In [Vision], the Unlaws were invisible. That meant this must have happened after Shizuku awakened as one.
After the mass hysteria incident at her family home, she had reportedly trembled alone in her room—until Norman found her.
“Don’t say that. We’re friends, aren’t we? Look, that song I told you about is almost finished! And I managed to convince that upperclassman to—!”
Another pause.
The girl swallowed hard, then lowered her head.
“………………That’s not true.”
“Hey,” she said with a laugh—o
ne that barely held back tears as she spoke through the door.
“I… I need you, Tiana.”
And in an instant—the world shifted.
●
Shizuku now witnessed the changed world.
A pathway somewhere in the academy.
“……You’re persistent. I already said no.”
“Please, just hear me out!”
Sisel was chasing after someone—walking briskly ahead, refusing to even look at her.
It was Cklares.
But this Cklares wore no hat, no modified uniform, carried no cane.
Most of all—she wasn’t smiling.
Her mismatched eyes were cold, disinterested, as if the world held nothing for her.
“I want to perform at the recital—with you and my best friend! I’ve even written the music!”
“Are you not listening? I’m not some prodigy—I’ve only touched an instrument in class. I’ve no interest in recitals. And—”
Cklares stopped and turned to face Sisel.
Her heterochromatic eyes held nothing but rejection—
the gaze of someone who had long given up on everything.
Like looking into a mirror, Shizuku thought.
“I’ve heard about you. The girl who can’t do anything without her ‘friend.’ So why are you here alone?”
“……Tiana… isn’t feeling well right now. She hasn’t been coming to school.”
“Ah. Then the recital’s off.”
With that, Cklares turned away and walked off.
Yet Sisel still called after her.
“I won’t give up! Precisely because Tiana isn’t here—I have to be the one to keep trying…!”
And again—the world shifted.
●
“Hah… hah……!”
“I see… This is… quite the strange sensation…”
Fatigue from [Vision] washed over Shizuku.
Cklares, too, still wore her usual smile, but sweat dripped from her brow.
This was far more draining than usual—likely because they had witnessed two pasts at once.
But more importantly—
“……So it was you?” Shizuku muttered. “The upperclassman Sisel kept mentioning…?”
The one Sisel had spoken of—just before becoming Unlaws—
was none other than Cklares.
“Well, yes. ……Though I turned her down pretty harshly. That’s why I knew about her.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I figured you’d realize sooner or later, so I kept quiet.”
With a shrug, Cklares pressed on.
“So that’s why you never used [Vision]?”
Shizuku didn’t want to answer. But Cklares’s tone was oddly gentle.
“……Who knows? I’m not even sure myself. Only after you said it did I realize… I must’ve been avoiding it subconsciously.”
Unlike her usual self, Shizuku gave a faint, wry smile.
“At the very least… this is why I know Sisel would never kill herself.”
Do you understand? her eyes asked.
“She wouldn’t seek revenge on Rebecca and the others.”
Because— Shizuku smiled.
“If Sisel had died by suicide… if she did want revenge—she would’ve come for me first.”
●
Like a flower, Cklares thought.
A bud trapped in darkness, refusing to fully bloom—because its petals would only hurt others.
It could only open in the presence of someone who could bear its thorns.
“Back then… I told her, ‘We’re not friends anymore. Stay away. I don’t need you.’ I rejected her. Later, I heard… the very next day, Sisel died. They said it was an accident, but… I wondered. Was it because of me?”
Letting go of the sheet music, Shizuku let her long silver hair catch the moonlight as she spilled her heart.
“[Vision] shows what happened. But not how someone felt. I chose to believe Sisel wouldn’t take her life over words like those. So I accepted it as an accident.”
“Why did you think that?”
“Because… she was strong.”
Shizuku spoke softly.
“She was friends with someone like me—even while being bullied. That’s why I know. She wouldn’t choose death over something so trivial.”
“……I see.”
Under the night sky, surrounded by countless flowers, Shizuku’s faint smile carried an eerie beauty.
She suits the name “fairy” far more than I ever could, Cklares mused.
“Were you… afraid?”
she asked.
“……Perhaps.”
Shizuku’s voice was quiet.
“I might’ve been scared… to see through [Vision] that Sisel died because of me. Pathetic, isn’t it? Letting fear stop me from doing what I should’ve. Like some… ordinary girl.”
“That’s not true.”
The words spilled from Cklares almost against her will.
It felt unlike her—yet she knew she had to say them.
“Hey… Shizuku.”
“……What?”
“You mustn’t… belittle your own heart.”
“────”
Shizuku’s eyes widened for a moment—
“You sound like Norman now.”
“Yeah, well… I stole that line from Norman Sensei.”
“……Pfft… Hah, really?”
“Ehehe… Bad?”
Shizuku’s shoulders shook with quiet laughter. Cklares, too, covered her mouth, giggling.
Then—
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
“I understand now.”
“Do you? Then what will you do?”
“We’re going to meet the [Weeping Woman].”
Shizuku frowned suspiciously.
“So… the [Weeping Woman] is connected to Sisel?”
“Without a doubt. As much as you are.”
“………………Wait. The way you’re phrasing that… Do you know who she is?”
“Yep.”
“Since when?”
“Just now. When she deliberately showed us Sisel’s illusion. That was her message to us. Either way… we have to stop her.”
“You say that like… you have another goal.”
“I do.”
“……Hah?”
“Shizuku.”
What Cklares had to do—
“We’re going to clear up your misunderstanding.”
●
In the center of the courtyard, the [Weeping Woman] stood silently by the fountain.
Shizuku tilted her head.
“……Who is that?”
A short woman.
Her long, unkempt hair obscured her face. The white dress she wore was noticeably full-chested, but Shizuku couldn’t place her.
“……You know, that’s a bad habit of yours.”
“Hah?”
As Shizuku turned to retort—
“────She’s right, Tiana-Cram.”
The voice made Shizuku freeze.
She recognized it.
The hair, the clothes—completely different. But upon closer inspection… there was only one person it could be.
“………………Ms. Clake?”
“Oh my, full marks. I thought you might’ve forgotten my name.”
Natalia Clake—once Tiana’s homeroom teacher, now Shizuku’s. The same woman who had scolded them earlier that day.
“……I see. That makes sense.”
“No surprise?”
“I am surprised. But… I suppose I was subconsciously narrowing my options. Of course… if you were my teacher a year and a half ago… you were hers, too.”
Thinking that, Shizuku didn’t feel all that surprised anymore.
Everyone except Tiana had known about the bullying against Sisel.
So of course, their homeroom teacher had known too.
“So… you mean… you were punishing Rebecca and the others who bullied Sisel? Is that it?”
“How trite of you to phrase it that way.”
Natalia twisted her lips in disgust as she spat the words out.
She seemed like a completely different person from the strict teacher who had scolded Shizuku and Cklares during the day. Behind her bangs, her eyes burned with a fierce light, her hostility laid bare toward the two of them.
“…Hmm.”
But Shizuku couldn’t quite grasp the reason for that hostility.
It made sense that Natalia was the “Weeping Woman.” It also made sense that she had been punishing the members of the Social Contribution Club who had bullied Sisel. But even so, the hatred she directed at them—along with what Cklares had called a “misunderstanding”—was something Shizuku couldn’t comprehend.
Tilting her head slightly, she—
“Th—that’s exactly why! That’s the kind of person you are, and that’s why Sisel…!”
Natalia’s voice rose in fury.
Her disheveled hair and anguished screams made her the spitting image of the Weeping Woman, but—
“…What are you talking about?”
Shizuku furrowed her brows.
She wasn’t surprised by the sudden outburst. Sudden emotional explosions were common among Unlaws—especially those in a “Latent State.” But she couldn’t understand why Natalia’s anger was directed at her, or what it even meant.
“────Let’s compare notes, Shizuku-chan.”
Tap. Cklares lightly struck her cane against the ground.
It wasn’t so much an activation of her ability as it was a way to punctuate the conversation.
“You don’t mind, do you, Natalia-sensei? Even you must find it boring if Shizuku-chan stays completely in the dark, right?”
“…………Fine. Go ahead and talk. If that makes her realize her own sins, then so be it.”
“Good. That was my intention anyway.”
With that, Cklares turned to Shizuku.
Her plastered-on smile looked almost melancholic in a way.
“Shizuku-chan.”
The fairy spoke.
“Sisel────wasn’t the kind of girl you thought she was.”
●
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