"Though it's cruel, you need to know this: you're already dead..."
"..." At Jiu Ming's words, several fleeting images flashed through Yuzuki's mind. She froze for a moment. "What are you talking about? I don't really understand. ＠Peak＠Novel＠"
Instinctively, she pressed a hand to her chest. The sensation of her heart beating eased her tense mood considerably. She thought this was just a joke he was playing on her, yet at the same time, an indescribable sense of foreboding welled up inside her. She wanted to avoid Jiu Ming's words.
"You're already dead."
Jiu Ming spoke sternly. If she did not recognize that fact, she would never be able to return to her own body.
"How could that be? I'm perfectly fine." Seeing Jiu Ming's serious expression, Mikage Yuzuki began to panic. She instinctively took out her phone, looked at the small number of contacts on it, and selected one with trembling hands.
Yet no one ever answered the number she dialed. "...Why isn't Mom answering?"
It was as though her imagined world had been shattered.
"Why?! Why did you have to tell me all this?!" As certain sealed memories awakened, Yuzuki sprang excitedly from her chair, went up to Jiu Ming, and tightly grabbed his sleeve.
"Because sooner or later, you would 'wake up.'"
Yuzuki's expression froze. She saw her once-warm little bedroom suddenly become somewhat dilapidated, as though it had gone untended for a very long time before someone had recently cleaned it up. It was tidy, but the marks left behind by time could not be erased.
What shocked her even more was the little girl lying on the bed as though asleep. Her eyes were closed, her expression peaceful—it was unmistakably her childhood self!
"What... is going on? Why did you have to tell me this...?"