Tsushima Kagami's eyes snapped open. His back was soaked through with cold sweat.
His heart slammed against his ribs like it wanted to break out of them.
He gulped down air in huge mouthfuls, and it took several seconds before his vision would even focus.
Familiar ceiling. Familiar curtains. Manga piled in a mess at the head of the bed.
His room. He was home.
Wait. Why was he in his own room?
He'd been stabbed. Shouldn't he be in a hospital right now?
"Was all of it a dream?"
He muttered it hoarsely and reached up to touch his own face.
His palm came away slick with sweat. Just a nightmare.
He told himself that over and over. Only a nightmare.
But just as he was trying to steady his breathing, a dull ache spread through his side.
Like something in there was slowly turning.
Kagami hissed through his teeth, threw off the blanket without thinking, and lifted the hem of his shirt.
White bandages wound around his waist, layer after layer, the end fixed neatly in place with medical tape.
A faint yellow stain of ointment showed through the gauze, and the thin smell of iodine drifted up into his nose.
He stared at those bandages for a few blank seconds, and fragments of memory began surging up from somewhere deep in his head.
Right then, the bedroom door was pulled open from the outside.
"You're awake?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku stood in the doorway, backlit by the hallway light so that her expression was impossible to read.
The first thing Kagami noticed was the kitchen knife in her hand.
There was a dark red liquid on the blade.
The point was angled down, and something thick was creeping slowly along the steel toward the tip.
Kagami's breathing stopped for another beat.
"Bad dream?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku tilted her head, her voice level.
"I could hear you shouting from the living room."
She took two steps forward, and the red light on the blade swayed once in front of his eyes.
He wanted to ask what the knife was about, but a different question came out instead.
"When… did I get home? Shouldn't I be at the hospital?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku cocked her head at him, as if checking whether he was playing dumb.
"You've slept yourself stupid."
There was a trace of exasperation in her voice.
"They took you to the hospital yesterday. The doctor said it only cut the surface, so after they dressed it he wanted you to stay for observation."
"You absolutely refused. You insisted on coming home."
"What, you've forgotten all of it?"
Kagami frowned and dug for the memory.
Yesterday…
The hospital…
He couldn't come up with a single thing.
Everything after the incident at the amusement park sat behind a pane of frosted glass. Nothing would come back.
"I think it rings a bell."
In the end he nodded and chose to take her word for it.
The words had barely left his mouth when his stomach let out a loud, unmistakable growl.
He glanced down at his own belly and gave an embarrassed little laugh.
"I'm kind of hungry. Can I eat something?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku came over and slipped one hand under his arm.
She eased him up off the bed with a gentle touch.
Careful, as though terrified of brushing the wound at his waist.
Only then did Kagami notice her other hand still held that kitchen knife, and that the movement had shaken a few more drops of red off the flat of the blade onto the floor.
"Why are you still carrying that knife around?" he asked before he could stop himself.
"I was cutting meat."
Yukinoshita Shizuku said it without looking up.
"I heard you shout, so I came."
"Ah… I see."
Kagami nodded and let it go.
Shizuku had always been like that. Whatever she was doing, she gave it her whole attention.
Interrupted in the middle of cutting meat, she'd simply brought the knife with her.
It made sense, at least.
He got to his feet, and the wound at his waist pulled.
He bared his teeth a little at the pain.
Yukinoshita Shizuku's hand went straight to his arm, and she didn't let go until he was steady.
The two of them walked out of the bedroom together.
The living room was far brighter than the bedroom, afternoon sun pouring in from the balcony, three or four o'clock light.
Kagami squinted against it, and then he froze where he stood.
There were other people in the living room.
Sayuri sat at the dining table, head down, a utility knife in her hand.
The blade rested against a sheet of white drawing paper.
She drew it slowly along a pencilled line, and the paper parted with a faint tearing rasp.
She was cutting with total concentration. She didn't so much as glance up when Kagami walked out.
Shizuka Hiratsuka stood in the middle of the living room with her back to him, a baseball bat in both hands.
She raised it over her shoulder into a textbook batting stance.
Then she swung, hard, and the air split with a low whoosh.
The ponytail she'd tied her hair into today whipped out in an arc with the motion, then settled slowly back down.
She went on repeating the same swing.
Once, and again, and again. Never once turning around.
And out on the balcony, Seika Ijichi was crouched on the floor.
A small stack of split firewood lay beside her, and a hatchet was gripped in her hand.
Kagami had no idea when the house had ever contained a thing like that.
He only saw Seika Ijichi raise the blade high over a length of log and bring it down in one clean stroke.
With a sharp crack the log split neatly down the middle, the halves springing away to either side.
Kagami stood at the junction of the hallway and the living room, feeling strangely unmoored.
"You're… all here?"
He ventured the greeting.
Nobody answered right away.
Sayuri's utility knife hesitated, then went on pushing forward.
Shizuka Hiratsuka's bat hung in the air for an instant before completing the swing.
Seika Ijichi finished her cut, and two full seconds passed before she reached for the next piece of wood.
"Mm."
Sayuri answered first, the sound coming out as though it had been sitting in her throat a long time.
Shizuka Hiratsuka didn't look back. She only let the bat hang at her side for two seconds, and that counted as a reply.
Seika Ijichi didn't make a sound at all, just nodded from where she crouched.
Kagami stood in the center of the living room and felt a strange atmosphere pressing in on him from every direction.
These were people he knew inside and out, and yet right now it was as if something had been laid between them.
They were all busy with their own tasks, all sharing this space, and not one of them was really looking at him.
He rubbed the back of his neck, uneasy, and decided to break the awkwardness himself.
"Shizuka…"
He started toward her.
"What made you want to play baseball all of a sudden?"
Shizuka Hiratsuka still had her back to him.
She lifted the bat into her stance and swung it through, crisp and exact.
"I've always wanted to play baseball with Kagami, just once."
Kagami blinked, then smiled.
"If we get the chance sometime, let's play."
Shizuka Hiratsuka didn't stop. The bat came around again, stirring a thin gust of wind.
With her back still turned, she asked, "Really?"
"Really."
Kagami nodded, smiling.
And then Shizuka Hiratsuka said nothing more.
She kept swinging the bat, stroke after stroke.
As if that exchange had never happened at all.
Kagami stood there a few seconds longer, the air growing heavier by the moment.
So he took the hint, turned, and headed for the dining table.
Sayuri was still cutting paper.
A whole pile of finished pieces lay in front of her, all different shapes.
Long strips. Curved sections. And several pieces that looked like collars.
"Sayuri, what are you making?"
Kagami sat down beside her.
Sayuri didn't look up.
The blade of the utility knife crept along the drawn line with a fine, dense scraping sound.
Kagami waited a while and assumed she wasn't going to answer.
Then at last she spoke.
"A paper bridal gown."
"A paper bridal gown?"
Kagami looked down at the scattered pieces.
"That's amazing. Are you making a prop?"
"What's it for?"
Sayuri finally stopped the knife.
Her head stayed lowered, her bangs hiding most of her face.
All Kagami could see was the faint tremble of her eyelashes.
"I really want to wear a bridal gown. Just once."
Kagami was taken aback for a second, then he laughed.
"Then we could just go to a photo studio."
"Plenty of bridal shops rent out dresses these days. You don't have to make one yourself."
Sayuri was quiet for a moment. Then she slowly raised her head.
"Then would Kagami be the groom? Would you take the photos with me?"
Kagami looked into her eyes.
"If it would make Sayuri happy, of course I would."
Sayuri stared at him for two seconds, then lowered her gaze and gave a small nod.
She said nothing else, just picked up the utility knife again and started on the next collar piece.
Kagami thought the corner of her mouth had curved. Or maybe it hadn't.
He stood and walked toward the balcony.
Seika Ijichi was still crouched there, the hatchet stuck into a chopping block by her feet.
"Seika."
Kagami leaned against the balcony door frame.
"Why are you splitting firewood in the house?"
Seika Ijichi stood a log upright on the block and raised the hatchet over her head with both hands.
Sunlight caught the flat of the blade and threw a cold flash straight across Kagami's eyes.
He squinted without meaning to.
"The house is cold," Seika Ijichi said, and the hatchet came down with a crack, splitting the log clean apart.
"It'll be fine once I get a fire going."
Kagami started to say that they could just turn on the kerosene heater.
But he looked at the hatchet in Seika Ijichi's hands and swallowed the words back down.
He turned around, leaning against the door frame, and looked toward the kitchen.
Yukinoshita Shizuku stood at the counter, cutting something.
A steady, muffled thud-thud came off the cutting board.
Her head was bowed. From Kagami's angle all he could see was the fall of her hair.
The living room had gone abnormally quiet.
Shizuka Hiratsuka's bat had stopped swinging.
Sayuri's utility knife had stopped on the paper.
Seika Ijichi's hatchet hung in midair and didn't fall.
Kagami glanced around at all of them, and finally the words came out.
"Um…"
"Why is everyone being so cold to me today?"
No one answered.
The thudding on the cutting board stopped.
"And Shizuku."
Kagami looked toward the kitchen.
"You've had your head down this whole time. You won't even look at me."
Yukinoshita Shizuku stood at the counter, the kitchen knife suspended in the air in her hand.
She still didn't lift her head.
"Kagami-kun."
"Isn't there something you want to say to us?"
The other three in the living room stopped what they were doing at the same instant.
All of them turned to look at Kagami.
For a moment Kagami found it hard to breathe.
And then he remembered.
He remembered what had happened yesterday.
The fragments of memory finally locked together.
"I'm sorry."
He bowed his head, his voice unsteady.
"Making dates with all four of you at once. That was my fault."
"I shouldn't have deceived you like that."
"I'll accept any punishment you want."
The living room was silent for a few seconds.
Then Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice came from the counter, still in that calm tone that made a person's skin crawl.
"So which one does Kagami-kun like the most?"
Kagami raised his head, and his throat worked once.
He looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku's back, then at Sayuri with her head down at the dining table, at the blank-faced Shizuka Hiratsuka in the middle of the living room, at the silent Seika Ijichi on the balcony.
"I…"
Kagami dragged in a deep breath and clenched his fists until his nails bit into his palms.
He didn't want to lie anymore.
He'd lied for so long. He was tired.
If today was the end of the line, then at least he could die honest.
"I am so sorry!"
"I like every single one of you!"
His voice rang out through the empty living room.
"That's why I can't turn any of you down!"
He was practically shouting, and his eyes burned.
"I know I'm greedy. I know I'm a piece of garbage."
"But I mean it with all of you! I'm not toying with anyone's feelings!"
He was breathing hard as he looked at them, and he forced out every word.
"If you're willing… I'll do everything I can to make every one of you happy."
"I'll give every one of you a hundred percent of my heart."
The living room was so quiet he could hear his own heartbeat.
And the drip of the kitchen tap that hadn't been shut off all the way.
Then Yukinoshita Shizuku turned around.
Her expression was hard to make out, but Kagami noticed the corners of her mouth had lifted, just slightly.
"I see."
There was a shade more warmth in Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice than before, a strange sort of tenderness.
"Then, Kagami-kun, we'd like to see your heart."
"May we?"
Kagami let out a breath.
The tension finally drained out of him. He almost wanted to laugh.
So all they wanted was to see him prove himself.
He took it for granted that this was the beginning of forgiveness, some signal of reconciliation.
"Of course you may!"
He nodded hard, and gave the first genuine smile of the day.
"I'll show you what I'm worth!"
"I—"
Kagami never finished.
Because at some point Yukinoshita Shizuku had come to stand right in front of him.
And her right hand held that kitchen knife, and she sent it straight into his heart.
Kagami looked down at the blade buried in his chest, the tip driven clean through from back to front.
There was no pain.
Like the car in the dream, the first instant carried no sensation at all.
Only a strange warmth spreading out from his chest, as if someone had poured a cup of scalding water inside his body.
He lifted his head and saw Yukinoshita Shizuku's smiling face inches from his own.
Her eyes curved into crescents, and her smile was impossibly gentle.
"Thank you, Kagami."
Her tone was delighted, and yet somehow underneath it there was something like a sigh.
"You've finally let us see your heart."
"I want to see it too."
Sayuri's utility knife pressed into his chest from behind.
Through the pajama fabric, through skin, into flesh.
And then she drew it slowly downward, opening him up.
"No playing favorites, okay?"
Shizuka Hiratsuka's bat came around from the side and caught him across both legs.
Kagami felt the bones shatter into countless pieces in a single instant.
His eyes no longer knew whether to look at his chest or at his legs.
He only heard Shizuka Hiratsuka's gentle voice at his ear.
"Now Kagami won't be able to run away again."
He dropped to his knees with a heavy thud.
A wet gurgling came out of his throat.
He saw Seika Ijichi walk in from the balcony, the hatchet dragging behind her.
Then she raised it, slowly.
"It won't hurt in a moment."
"In a moment you'll get to be with all of us."
Kagami felt his field of vision take flight through the air.
Then it began to fall, slowly.
It landed on the floor at last, looking up at his own body and at the four of them, Yukinoshita Shizuku included.
Before consciousness broke apart completely, the last sound he heard was Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice.
She stood in front of him, both hands cupped around something as if it were a precious treasure.
Giggling, rapt and dazed.
"It's so beautiful."
As the darkness swallowed Kagami whole, the pain he hadn't been able to feel came crashing in through his entire body all at once.
"Stop stabbing me!"
"I'll never run a harem again!"
The words that had been stuck in his throat finally forced their way out of his mouth.
Kagami felt his head and body reconnect, and movement come back to him.
He bolted upright, clutching the left side of his chest.
Heart still hammering, he gulped down great mouthfuls of air that tasted of disinfectant.
Only then did Kagami register the warm pair of arms holding him gently.
One hand stroking his hair, the other rubbing slow circles on his back.
"Did you have a nightmare?"
That familiar scent. That reassuring voice.
Kagami's arms went around her without conscious thought.
"Mother."
The moment the word left him, he realized he'd just had a dream inside a dream.
The pain in his side came surging back.
And his still-foggy mind was finally dragged back to reality.
His stomach dropped.
If this wasn't a dream, if this was real…
He slowly loosened his hold on Mrs. Yukinoshita.
Though he didn't let go entirely.
Kagami stayed pressed furtively against Mrs. Yukinoshita, and inch by careful inch peeked around her at what was behind her.
The hospital room was packed with people.
Yukinoshita Shizuku, Shizuka Hiratsuka, Sayuri and Seika Ijichi were sitting right beside Mrs. Yukinoshita.
All four turned to look at Kagami together, their eyes full of worry and self-reproach, and something else underneath that he couldn't put a name to. Something amused.
Shimizu Nayotake stood quietly behind them, and when she noticed his gaze come her way,
she gave him a sweet little smile.
Beside Shimizu Nayotake were Kosaka Akane and Machida Sonoko.
Both of them relaxed visibly at the sight of Kagami awake.
Then something must have occurred to them in the middle of all that guilt, because they both quickly turned their faces away.
Behind them, Hiroi Kikuri and PA-ko looked at Kagami as though there was something they wanted to say and couldn't, and in the end they covered their mouths and arranged their faces into a moved, on-the-verge-of-tears expression before hurriedly bowing their heads.
As if one more second and the act would fall apart.
Kagami's gaze moved on toward the door.
Not far off stood Yamada Kenta and Hazuki Hotaru.
Both of them wore the expression of people desperately wishing they were somewhere else.
And last, Kobayashi Tomoaki, who looked to have only just walked in. He raised his hand, lifted his phone, and looked at Kagami.
"Sorry, I have to step out and take a call."
In the end Kagami let go of Mrs. Yukinoshita.
He looked around at everyone and produced an awkward but perfectly polite smile.
"Um…"
"Did I say anything in my sleep just now?"
Everyone smiled back and shook their heads.
Kagami nodded, smiling, and the whole room immediately spun around him.
He'd have loved to just black out on the spot and discover this was a dream too.
And as he started to tip backward toward the head of the bed, he felt several pairs of hands catch him.
Which was how he discovered that Hayase Kinue, Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage were sitting on his right as well.
He gave the three of them an awkward smile.
"Ha ha. Quite a lot of people came to see me today, huh."
____
⚡ BONUS CHAPTER MILESTONES
✍️ 5 REVIEWS = +1 Bonus Chapter 💎 100 POWER STONES = +1 Bonus Chapter 🔥 P@TREON (Walnut-chan): Read +40 chapters ahead & unlock 60+ exclusive stories!
🔥 New history: Mushoku tensei: Speed Run to kill Hitogami — posted on The_Mikudayo