Chapter: 96. The Two Who Swapped Positions
Kou felt as if he had experienced an incredibly gentle yet heart-wrenching dream.
In the dream, he tightly embraced that girl—
The one he still couldn’t forget to this day, unable to let go even in the deepest recesses of his memory.
Her tears soaked his shoulder, her voice choked, yet she struggled to squeeze out a smile in response to his belated confession.
That was the voice of his heart, buried deep for so long, never spoken aloud.
And she, too, finally shed her disguise and responded to him in her true form.
But dreams ultimately have a moment of awakening.
As Kou’s consciousness slowly surfaced from the depths of darkness, the first thing that caught his eye was a strange white ceiling.
It was dusk outside the window, and the sunlight’s afterglow streamed through the sheer curtains, casting a warm golden mist inside the hospital room.
That light quietly fell on the corner of the room, the bed, and the sheets, lending a touch of soft warmth to the space filled with the scent of disinfectant.
It was a hospital.
In just a moment, Kou immediately realized where he was.
The faint, slightly pungent scent of the cleaner in the air was enough for him to instantly recognize the reality without any deduction.
As his consciousness gradually returned, memories from that rainy night in Tokyo surged back like a tide.
He had encountered Takuya once again in the torrential rain and had completely lost to her in battle.
At the same time, she had mercilessly pierced through the lies he had constructed in his heart for these past few years.
—Was it because of what Takuya had said to him that he dreamt of Nagomi again while in a coma?
Kou pondered silently in his heart.
As his consciousness grew clearer, at that moment, a scent different from disinfectant lightly wafted into his nostrils.
It was a familiar and nostalgic fragrance, faint yet reassuringly sweet.
Unknowingly, Kou recalled a time in his middle school days when he would smell this fragrance every day after school—when he visited Nagomi, who was in a coma.
—Could it be…?
In an instant, Kou’s heart raced.
He instinctively tried to sit up but found that the edge of his sleeve seemed to be pressed by something soft.
He paused, turning his head to the side.
Then, his breath suddenly hitched.
What came into view was a girl sleeping at the edge of the bed, her long, jet-black hair, as deep as the night sky, cascading onto her shoulders and the edge of the bed, illuminated by the sunset with a gentle sheen, glimmering like fine silk in faint shades of gold and red.
Her lovely sleeping face was quiet and defenseless, her delicate eyelashes softly fluttering like butterfly wings resting on her cheek, accentuating her skin, white as cream, which radiated a nearly transparent softness under the light, her cheeks carrying a touch of adorable baby fat, as if they could shatter with a gentle blow.
And beneath her yet-to-open eyes were jelly-like, translucent cherry-pink lips that rose and fell slightly with her breathing.
Soft light streamed through the gaps in the curtains, casting a pale golden halo over her face, while motes of dust floated in the air, dancing quietly in that beam of light, creating a beautiful picture so exquisite that one wouldn’t dare disturb it.
—Kamishiro… Akane…?
—No, that’s not right… This is…
Without a doubt, the girl before him was Kamishiro Akane.
But deep within Kou’s heart, a voice or intuition told him that the girl before him was Nagomi—her warmth, her presence, the outline of her familiar features ingrained almost in the depths of his soul… everything was calling out to his most cherished memories.
And it was this sense of “contradiction” that left Kou feeling immense confusion and struggle.
Nagomi’s shattered soul was currently interfering with the understanding of the world and reality.
Because of the incompleteness of her soul, she could only reveal her soul actively, and in either the world or others’ perceptions, she could not be equated with “Nagomi.”
The intense sense of dissonance in Kou’s heart stemmed from this.
However, Nagomi’s ability—“Light Forging Truth” in some way made up for this cognitive gap.
Just as the starlight in Kou’s heart was about to suppress this recognition once more.
The Nagomi lying at the edge of the bed seemed to be awakened by Kou’s slight movement.
Her eyelashes fluttered lightly, and then her night-like black eyes slowly opened. Dim light poured in from the window, illuminating her clear, luminous pupils and reflecting the puzzled face on the hospital bed.
“…Kou…kun…? Kou-kun…?”
Nagomi instinctively whispered his name, her tone soft and trembling.
With that call, her awareness quickly returned to clarity, the previously dazed expression instantly replaced by joy.
Nagomi couldn’t help but softly murmur Kou’s name, and with her call, her consciousness rapidly sharpened.
“Kou-kun! You’re awake—”
Before Kou could react, Nagomi had leaped into his arms, squeezing him tightly.
“I’m so glad… really so glad…”
Her voice was mixed with strong emotions, a mixture of relief, guilt, and the release of long-suppressed feelings.
Her slightly trembling body pressed against Kou’s chest, allowing him to clearly feel the fragility and unease emanating from deep within her.
And that familiar warmth, that feeling as if it could envelop his entire world—Kou’s heart tightened abruptly.
The sense of “dissonance” that had been sealed deep in his memory since meeting Kamishiro Akane suddenly exploded at that moment.
His mouth slightly parted, as if using all his strength, and akin to fearing that this moment was too fragile and would shatter, he cautiously asked in a low voice:
“…Nagomi… is it really you…?”
“Mm, it’s me…” Nagomi’s voice gently fell, laced with deep self-reproach and guilt. “I’m sorry, Kou-kun… really, I’m sorry…”
Her answer, in that instant, pushed the “dissonance” in Kou’s heart to its peak, even the effect of “Light Forging Truth” temporarily vanished from his soul.
Without the “Light Forging Truth,” Kou finally faced this dissonance directly.
“Although I cannot… prove this in front of you right now… but really… it’s me…” Nagomi’s voice trembled as she added.
Kou, as the “Star Eclipsed Beast,” sensed at that moment that the girl before him wasn’t lying, and the sense of dissonance in his heart continually reminded him of that fact.
Even if his understanding ultimately could not reconcile with “reality.”
But his love for that girl allowed him to temporarily leap over this barrier—this girl before him was no one else but Nagomi.
Kou didn’t respond.
Because before he could, his arms had instinctively stretched out, using all his strength to pull her into his embrace.
In that moment, it felt like he was grasping onto a world on the verge of breaking apart.
As if fearing that everything would vanish again, fearing she would leave him once more, he held her tightly with every ounce of his strength.
