He changed the subject. "How should I address you? Is it all right if I keep calling you 'Shiki'?"
"Of course. Please do. I'd be happy if you could call me 'Shiki.'"
Ryougi Shiki wore an innocent smile. Although her manners were calm and mature, she gave off an indescribably girlish air.
Shirou decided to leave the Ogawa Apartment first.
"Ah, wait... You probably shouldn't do that."
Ryougi Shiki stopped Shirou. He was in the middle of putting the unconscious Fujino on his back, intending to carry her home.
"She probably wouldn't want Shirou to treat her that way."
Ryougi Shiki rested a finger against her chin and said with a smile, "Miss Fujino worked very hard tonight. There's nothing wrong with giving her a little reward, is there?"
Shirou sighed helplessly and picked the girl up.
Ryougi Shiki exclaimed admiringly, "So effortless. Just as you'd expect from a boy."
The two left the Ogawa Apartment, chatting as they walked about trivial things unrelated to tonight's battle, such as "Shiki's Top Three Favorite Shirou Dishes."
"So Shiki really doesn't know you exist," Shirou muttered.
"Mm, because I'm different from them. Ori and Shiki are neighbors, so they know each other.
"But I'm a self they can't perceive. That's why Shiki won't remember what happened today—or our conversation."
"I see." Shirou felt a little disappointed.
The boy suddenly realized that this was both his first meeting with Ryougi Shiki and, perhaps, the last time he would ever see her.
After tonight, Ryougi Shiki's consciousness would melt away like accumulated snow, and she would fall into eternal sleep.
The thought filled him with overwhelming sadness.
They were clearly strangers who had never met before... So why did he feel this way?
"..."
Shirou came back to himself and noticed Ryougi Shiki staring