Even today, he had only just realized that he hadn't succeeded after all.
Moonlight still streamed into the arena, yet it suddenly seemed to have turned cold.
Saki Miyanaga stood barefoot within the halo of light, her smile bright; Amae Koromo stood frozen in the shadows, the black aura around her loosening for the first time.
Looking at Koromo like this, Kageyama Sora suddenly wanted to hug her.
Staring at the screen, he murmured softly, "You still have me, and Tohka..."
Playing Mahjong with Koromo Was Fun
Saki Miyanaga's words, "Go see your family," were like a rusty key, violently prying open the lock on Amae Koromo's memories.
She froze where she stood, her golden hair falling over her shoulders, its ends stiff as though frozen—the black veils drifting at her parents' funeral, the silence of late nights spent hugging her knees and counting the patterns on the ceiling... All those fragments she had desperately suppressed beneath the shell of the Demon King surged forth now, slicing painfully into her heart.
"Keep playing mahjong the way Tohka told me to..." Her voice was as faint as a sigh, threaded with tiny tremors. "And yet Koromo is still as lonely as ever."
She suddenly lowered her head and laughed. The sound was hollow as it echoed through the silent arena, like glass shattering in an empty house.
"Even if I play with others, they won't be happy, will they..." Remembering the opponents she had driven to tears with Under the Sea, remembering how they clenched their fists yet did not dare raise their heads, her fingertips suddenly went cold—her mahjong had never been "playing." It was a high wall that pushed everyone away.
Her gaze swept over Saki Miyanaga across from her, then over each of the opponents before her. Those