"Sleep... sleep..."
The voice carried a peculiar rhythm, a trace of murderous intent hidden beneath its seemingly gentle tone.
The instant Kanae sensed something was wrong, she drew her blade and slashed toward the voice.
But the cherry-pink blade stopped in midair, unable to descend.
"Kanae, what are you doing? Did I do something to upset you?"
[Kanzaki Kumo] appeared before Kanae, looking in confusion at her stunned face.
"Kanzaki... kun?"
Kanae instinctively called him that, but something felt wrong. She felt as though she had forgotten something important, and the [Kanzaki Kumo] before her also gave her a strange feeling, yet when she thought carefully, she could not quite remember.
Glancing around out of the corner of her eye, she found herself standing in a field of flowers.
It was the gift her lover had given her on her eighteenth birthday. Now, at the turn of spring and summer, the flowers were at their most abundant, and a gentle breeze carried wafts of their fragrance.
"Wasn't I... where... am I supposed to be... here?" Kanae's mind was muddled.
Looking more closely at the [Kanzaki Kumo] before her, she saw that not only did his appearance match her memories exactly, even the confident, sunny smile on his face was no different.
Yet those eyes, seemingly brimming with tenderness, held a hint of something jarring and uncanny, making Kanae frown. The blade in her hand remained suspended before [Kanzaki Kumo].
"Can we talk this through? If I've upset you somehow, I apologize. Put your Nichirin Blade away first. This is dangerous."
[Kanzaki Kumo] seemed not to notice the wariness in Kanae's eyes and spoke in the easygoing tone she knew so well.
As he spoke, he even raised a hand to push the blade slightly aside.
But he failed to move