"It's a little sister!"
Kariya answered without even thinking, the words slipping out instinctively. But the firmness in his voice startled both Rin and Aoi.
"Mm, a little sister would be nice too~ Then I can play with her."
Having recovered her senses, Rin sounded faintly aggrieved, as if Kariya's overly excited reaction had frightened her.
Normally, Kariya would have already pulled Rin into his arms to comfort her, but today seemed different.
The crisp clatter of chopsticks falling onto the table made Rin freeze. Looking toward their owner, she found her father clutching his head, his face deathly pale!
At that moment, Kariya truly had no time to worry about anything else. Several images that had suddenly flashed through his mind left his head splitting with pain, and then—
[Uncle Kariya]
That voice appeared again!
[Uncle Kariya...]
Unlike last time, the voice now kept echoing by Kariya's ears. It was a girl's voice, ethereal and numb, and it made his heart ache faintly.
Who was it?
Who on earth was it?
[Kariya...]
That familiar yet unfamiliar voice gradually faded from clear to indistinct beside Kariya's ears. He instinctively lifted his head, wanting to find where it was coming from.
Then he discovered that, at some point, the door to his home had suddenly opened, and a purple figure flashed past it.
"Wait!"
Without thinking, Kariya rose to chase after it, but—
"Kariya?"
"Dad?"
Aoi and Rin spoke at the same time, both looking at him with the same confusion, clearly unable to understand what he was doing.
"I..."
Looking at the two most important people in his life, Kariya suddenly found himself at a loss for words. Even he himself did not quite understand his current behavior. It was as though every cell in his body was screaming: