“…Mika, did you see that? The one who walked just now……gh, whoa!”
While I still looked back, Mika stopped moving. The next moment, however, Allen suddenly went into the alleyway and made me hit my head on Mika’s chest plate. Mika must have made Allen do that.
In the shadow of a building, away from the moonlight, Mika’s hand lowered the hood on my cloak from behind.
That action made me blink my eyes in my darkened vision.
“…Mika?”
“……Ye-Yeah. What the hell was that? Another you?”
When I turned around and called his name while peeking through the hood, Mika uttered this with a stunned look on his face. Then he went on.
“…Ahh. I guess I was drunker than I thought. Should we go back?”
I blinked again and froze when I heard Mika, who had also pulled down the hood of his cloak deeply, muttered this quietly with his hand over his mouth.
Then, when I saw Mika’s gaze wandering aimlessly to the brick wall of the alley, I immediately realized what was going on.
“……Mika.”
Although it was a distance away, there was no way Mika wouldn’t have noticed a figure that looked like “me” passing through there. It was only a short moment. However, if I recall correctly, before Mika turned around, he didn’t have a look of horror on his as I did, but rather a look of “Oh shoot”.
And he decided to say that I mistook what I was seeing. No, that was what he wanted to do.
That was…
“You…You knew about it already?”
“……About what?”
“Are you going to continue with that lie? If you knew about it, that means there was something that caused it, right?”
The chilling fear I had felt just a moment before had vanished.
Because the man I trust most in this world has now decided that I only mistook seeing something and that we should ‘leave it be’.
There was no way Mika, who is very cautious when it comes to me, would have reacted that way if he didn’t already know about that existence.
No, it might be because he can’t leave me here to go see it alone. But even if that were the case, I think it was very upsetting for him to act so shallow as to blame it on alcohol.
And now that I pointed it out to him, Mika stared back at me with a blank expression that also looked a little displeased.
I don’t know what he was thinking. But unlike me, I guess Mika can keep his expression in check…I felt my chest ache a little.
As if caught in that small pain, irritation rose in me.
“I’ll leave aside asking why you didn’t report it to me. But if you wanted to hide that thing, it’s your mistake that we ran into it like this. I’ll go check it out.”
“Nagi, no… Wait, hey!”
After a moment’s delayed reaction, Mika’s hand squeezed mine as I jumped off Allen.
I glared at Mika who was on horseback and told him.
“Another me was walking over there just now. I have a right to know the truth, don’t I?”
“This is not good. You just saw a ghost or something. Please….let’s just leave it at that.”
With that, Mika got off from Allen without a sound of footsteps, and then put the hood of the cloak I was wearing back on again with both hands, deeply. The hand that touched my cheek at that time was very cold for Mika, who usually has a high body temperature.
Then, I thought.
(Yeah…he didn’t just want to leave it be. I’m sure it must be something he doesn’t want me to know.)
Why is that?
It’s easy to see why. Whenever there is something this guy does not want me to know, that is when it is safer for me not to know.
So, Mika must have known and tried to do something on his own.
But I…
(I don’t want to just be protected. I also don’t want something to happen that I don’t even know is happening.)
Then I muttered. A children’s song about a prince who has seen “his own ghost” passed down on this continent. The story of the prince who thought he was dreaming and was lured to the underworld by the Grim Reaper is well-known in this country.
“…Does the wandering prince walk at night?”
“No! That’s not true…!”
“I wonder. I just saw another me. Maybe this is something that will continue~”
The song is also sometimes sung by the town’s children while jumping ropes. Then, occasionally, it is used to scare children who won’t go to sleep.
To scare them that they might see their own ghosts. That they have to go to bed as soon as possible or the reaper might take them away. But that kind of story doesn’t scare me.
When I saw Mika become visibly impatient, I was convinced that it was something he didn’t want me to know no matter what. Even Mika must know that I won’t back down now that it has come to this. That was why he was in such a rush.
“You must know already. I’m not changing my mind.”
“……”
The trees planted along the river could be seen in the distance, shedding their last leaves.
Allen, who was standing by the wall, also snorted anxiously, perhaps he had felt a disturbing atmosphere.
Mika looked at me with his mouth pulled back in a frown, glaring at me. I’m sure Mika knew where that other me was going. He didn’t have any more information that he wanted to know, so he tried to go back.
A cold breeze passed through. The next moment…
As Mika stepped forward, I stumbled into the brick wall.
When I tried to complain about his sudden action, Mika, who seemed to have decided to fight back, said in a tone that didn’t hide his displeasure.
“I’m telling you not to.”
“……I didn’t ask you to protect me to the point of losing my discretion.”
“You don’t need to know, Nagi. Because you have me! I’ll make sure…to protect you.”
He told me this with a serious look on his face. But…that wasn’t the issue.
Does this childhood friend think that I would say, “Okay, if Mika is protecting me, I feel safe”? Even if Machina had told me the same thing in my first life, I would still have gone to check it out for myself.
In the current situation, Mika had both of his hands on the wall and my body was trapped in the middle. I know he’s trying to keep me from escaping, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to move if Mika held me back, but his attitude was pissing me off.
“Get your hands away. They’re in my way.”
“Nagi-”
“I told you earlier. It’s your mistake that I encountered it. Give it up.”
While saying that, I looked away. At that moment, Mika’s hand made a motion to pull the hood of the cloak he was wearing over his eyes once more.
Why? As I thought about it, and turned my gaze back to Mika…
I felt Mika’s hands move to pull in the hood of my cloak, and something was pressed against my lips in my darkened vision.
“Mmnh?!”
For a moment, I thought that my mouth was covered with a hand, or so I thought.
However…
(……Huh?? Eh, what? His face is so close…huh?)
I tried to speak but could only make a muffled sound, and I opened my eyes.
Both hands I raised in an attempt to resist were grabbed and held in place. Mika’s unusually cold hands restrained mine with great force.
“Mn, nnh!”
Why, how, did it come to this? Those questions flooded my mind, and I froze in shock.
However…even I was aware of just what was being done to me.
(What?! What’s going on…!)
Then, the feeling of surprise was gradually replaced by anger.
By the time I realized that it was Mika’s…lips that were pressed against mine at many different angles, a hot tongue split my lips apart and entered.
For the first time, I felt the heat of others in my mouth, and it caused me to shake greatly. I didn’t understand this at all, so I just tried with all my might to escape from Mika’s restraints.
But…Mika’s hand didn’t budge at all, my head was pressed against the wall, and I couldn’t turn my back. As I twisted my body around frantically, Mika’s tongue grazed a sensitive area.
“Nngh…mnh.”
A voice with sweetness escaped my mouth, clearly different from the startled voice I let out heard earlier.
The heat was gathering on my face as I blushed. I was so embarrassed, feeling like I was dying.
However, as if to probe around, the inside of my mouth was explored. Before I knew it, my hands were pressed against the wall, and I couldn’t move at all, and a strange feeling ran through my body.
“Ha- gh.”
Even my vision was blurred by a wet voice that overflowed from my mouth. I screamed in my head. I didn’t know the reason for this situation.
But…!
(Still!……Still!)
The heat that was gently stroking my mouth was none other than Mika’s.
He stroked the back of my tongue, entangled it, changed the angle, and took my lips again and again. The rough, yet loving, sensation made me feel all kinds of emotions.
As I was struggling to catch my breath, our lips overlapped again.
“Mn, nngh…haa.”
“Nagi…”
“…Mi-Mika! You!”
I thought I heard the sound of Mika ending the kiss, but then he just stared at me with his hands sewn to the wall.
I tried to glare back at him with all my might, but I couldn’t tell how much power my moist eyes were displaying. Still, I tightened my lips and hoped that at least my resistance would be conveyed.
But then, I heard Mika’s cold-hearted voice above me.
“It’ll be hard for a kid like you who gasps for air over this to see it.”
“……”
With a confused feeling, I ruminate, “What the hell does that mean?”
If I had to guess from Mika’s words, that other “me” was doing things that the real me, who couldn’t even kiss, couldn’t even imagine. And Mika, to me…
(He did this kind of thing…to let me know that I’m just a “kid”?)
My heart ached like it had been pierced by a spear.
I’m sure Mika has a lot of experience, though I certainly don’t have any, as he said. And yet— and yet, I couldn’t believe he was taking this approach.
Mika followed up by moving his face to a position where his lips were almost touching mine. My lips were gently stroked, like he always did.
“Or…should I teach you more until you get used to it?”
My heart was about to stop.
If I let loose even a little, tears were going to spill down my face.
I must have liked Mika since I was little.
I always admired this man’s freedom, and I always cherished the time we spent together.
I know in my head that Mika cares about me, and wants to stop me to the point of doing something like this. But still, I never thought I’d be kissed like this— like he was looking down on my lack of experience.
It made me think that he was making fun of me.
Right now, I’m being made fun of by the man I like.
(He’s telling me that it’s impossible for someone like me…)
Mika wanted me to turn back in anger here.
This man wanted to protect me, even to the point of being hated.
Mika may even be thinking that I’d be able to guess his intention.
I know, because we’ve been together for a long time. If he had gone this far, I might have chosen to turn back after guessing Mika’s intention.
—If it was me from the first life.
(But I’m different, Mika. If you say I’m ignorant, I’m willing to get over that too and press on…)
My throbbing chest still felt hurt.
I tried my best to suppress the feeling of wanting to glare at Mika. I shouldn’t let my feelings get the better of me.
This is when I have to do…the exact opposite.
I gently closed my eyes just once. Then, while slowly opening my eyelids again, I saw his face once more.
And then…
I smiled softly as if I were looking at the most beloved person in the world.
“!”
Mika, with his face full of surprise, tried to distance himself a little.
But then I put my hand around Mika’s neck, and swallowed my saliva while casting my eyes downwards. Then, hoping to look as bewitching as possible, I looked up, remembering Antoine.
“Well then……me.”
“What?”
“Teach me, Mika. You’re going to teach me…until I get used to it, right?”
I drew Mika’s head closer just like that.
I slowly brought my slightly open mouth over Mika’s lips and placed them softly over his.
I was so embarrassed that I closed my eyes, so I didn’t know what kind of expression Mika had on his face.
But after pressing my lips against Mika’s unmoving lips for a moment, I ended the kiss and pulled away.
Thump, thump, my heart was beating loudly. Slowly, slowly, I lifted my eyelids and looked up at the man I resent and also love.
And then…I noticed.
“Pfft.”
I couldn’t help but snort, because Mika’s face in front of me was incredibly red.
I was so nervous until just now, but I forgot all that. Mika’s face, which was bright red, was strangely distorted. I held my mouth, held my stomach, and held my laughter, holding back the urge to laugh out loud.
Mika’s embarrassed voice descended.
“……Damn, I failed.”
I didn’t have to see his face to know. He was probably making an awkward expression while ruffling his red hair.
It was to be expected. It was too underhanded of a plan to turn him away by forcibly kissing him back.
I told him while holding back my laugh.
“That’s right. From the point when we encounter it, you’ve already failed. Pfft, gh, ah, give it up, haha.”
“You~! It’ll be really sickening. It’s definitely better for you to never have seen it! You idiot.”
“I won’t know that until I see it. I don’t want to just be protected.”
“……”
I felt like it was more of a disaster for Mika to even do such a thing, even though it was such a big deal that Mika and I kissed, and it kind of made me lose all restraint.
My heart had recovered enough to laugh and tell a joke to Mika.
“Or what? Do you really want to kiss me until I get used to it before we go check it?”
“…Don’t get carried away. You wouldn’t like it if I really did.”
“Huh? Let’s just go.”
“Listen! You’ll definitely regret it, you hear me!”
Thus, the two of us had to hide Allen and then follow after the other me from behind.
Then I thought as I followed Mika’s back.
(Why did he turn that red, I wonder…?)
