"Brother Pat..." Sparrow Sparrow seemed to have a bellyful of things to say, but after calling out to Angel, it was as though her train of thought had snapped. Her mouth hung open, yet she did not know where to begin.
Faced with Sparrow Sparrow's hesitation, Angel took the initiative. "Bobota doesn't have much time left?"
"...Mm."
"Is that why you insisted on seeing him through the signal tower?"
Sparrow Sparrow lowered her eyes and nodded softly. "These past few days, I've constantly felt hollow inside. When I thought carefully about it, I saw some images. Images about my brother. I knew he did not have much time left, so I wanted to see him one last time. Even if we didn't speak, just seeing him would be enough."
Although Angel had already guessed as much, he still felt a measure of sorrow when Sparrow Sparrow confirmed that Bobota's physical body might soon perish. He remembered Bobota once saying that he should be able to hold on for a year or two. Yet now, not even half a year had passed.
Perhaps it was because he had spent too much mental energy lately cultivating the Shapeshifting Softworm. Or perhaps, after seeing his younger sister Sparrow Sparrow and laying his obsession to rest, the valve in his mind that had kept him "insisting on living" had begun to loosen?
"How much time does he have left?" Angel asked.
"Perhaps a week, or perhaps half a month." Sparrow Sparrow counted on her fingers with a despondent expression, calculating Bobota's date of death. "It won't go beyond the seventh day of the latter part of the Month of Rest."
In other words, Bobota's physical body would collapse before the end of this month. And it was already midmonth.
"After you finished talking with