Chapter 450: The Reason to Live

Chapter 450: Chapter 450: The Reason to Live

Chapter 450: The Reason to Live

"You... What are you talking about!?"

Seeing Iwanaga Kotoko’s flushed face, Sakurakawa Rikka smiled serenely.

"What? Aren’t you usually the one who loves talking about these kinds of things?"

"Who... Who wants to talk about that with you...?"

Iwanaga Kotoko was the perfect example of someone with high attack and low defense.

She loved making shameless jokes, but beneath that bold exterior, she was surprisingly shy.

Even after dating Asagiri for so long, her fair cheeks would still flush whenever their eyes met at the wrong moment.

Now, faced with Sakurakawa Rikka’s unexpectedly bold words, she had no idea how to respond.

In the end, she could only turn toward Asagiri beside her with a pleading look.

Seeing his girlfriend’s pitiful expression, Asagiri first reached out and ruffled Iwanaga Kotoko’s hair.

Then he turned toward Sakurakawa Rikka sitting across from him and smiled.

"But do you really need to confess this urgently?"

"Yes. Very urgently."

Sakurakawa Rikka nodded without hesitation.

She looked directly into Asagiri’s eyes, a faint smile gracing her lips.

"By the way, I’ve never been in love before."

"Kissing, hugging, holding hands... all of those would be firsts for me."

"It’s my first time too."

Hearing Asagiri answer without the slightest hesitation, Sakurakawa Rikka froze.

Then she covered her lips and laughed softly.

"There’s really no need to say that."

"I already know about your relationship with Kotoko and the others."

"I don’t mind, so you don’t have to lie to me, especially with something so obviously false."

"I never lie."

Asagiri corrected her with a serious expression.

"My physical fitness has improved, so naturally, my recovery ability has become extraordinary too."

"Recovery is essentially cellular regeneration."

"According to my rough calculations, every twenty four hours or so, my body has renewed itself enough that I’m practically a brand new person."

"And if I’m a brand new person..."

"Then naturally, everything is a first time again."

Sakurakawa Rikka and Iwanaga Kotoko both fell silent.

Their expressions became extremely complicated.

Neither said a word.

Yet somehow, it felt as though they had said everything.

Was that logic correct?

No.

Surely it wasn’t.

And yet...

Why did it somehow sound almost reasonable?

"That doesn’t sound right..."

Iwanaga Kotoko muttered.

"But somehow, it also sounds right."

"I’d like you to accompany me somewhere."

Sakurakawa Rikka looked toward Asagiri.

Then she turned her gaze toward Iwanaga Kotoko beside him and offered a gentle smile.

"If you’d like, you can come too."

"Are you going to..."

Iwanaga Kotoko seemed to immediately understand what Sakurakawa Rikka intended.

The two women looked at each other for several seconds.

Eventually, Iwanaga Kotoko shook her head.

"I won’t go."

"Unlike you, my role in battle is extremely important."

"I need to hurry back and continue training with Asuna and the others."

With that, Iwanaga Kotoko stood and left by herself.

Watching her retreating figure, Sakurakawa Rikka murmured,

"This Princess of Curses..."

"She’s surprisingly tsundere."

"Where do you want to go?"

Hearing Asagiri’s question, Sakurakawa Rikka merely smiled without answering.

She took a banknote from her wallet, placed it on the table, and softly called to the waiter.

"Cash."

...

Half an hour later, aboard a moving Shinkansen.

"Here."

Sakurakawa Rikka lightly touched the surface of a can with her index finger, confirming that it was properly chilled.

Then she handed the Coca Cola to Asagiri with a smile.

"This is your favorite drink, if I remember correctly?"

"You’re not wrong."

Asagiri accepted the cold can, opened it, and took a sip.

Then he chuckled.

"But I don’t think I’ve ever drunk this in front of you."

"Information really is your specialty, Sakurakawa Rikka."

"You’re not to be underestimated."

Sakurakawa Rikka crossed her long right leg over her left.

Her left hand gently supported the side of her face, giving her posture an effortless elegance and mysterious beauty.

Her eyes, accented by light purple eyeshadow, rested on Asagiri.

A faint smile appeared within them.

"If I told you that I died hundreds of times while checking every possible future before finally discovering that this was your favorite drink..."

"What would you think?"

Asagiri answered calmly.

"I’d say you’ve surpassed the level of a heavy woman and entered full yandere territory."

"Oh? Is that so...?"

Sakurakawa Rikka chuckled softly.

Then she turned toward the window and watched the scenery rapidly pass by.

"The truth is much simpler."

"I asked Iwanaga Kotoko."

"That’s how I knew."

She paused.

"But..."

"Do you know why someone like me, who had already become numb and even believed she’d lost most ordinary human emotions, developed these feelings for you?"

"And only you?"

"Because the way I look at you and talk to you is too normal?"

"It isn’t exactly that..."

Sakurakawa Rikka remembered their first meeting inside Mount Massive Asylum.

The smile in her eyes gradually softened.

"It’s simply that whenever I’m speaking with you..."

"Or even when we’re not speaking and you’re merely nearby..."

"I finally feel relaxed."

"It’s as though my entire life has been spent drowning."

"And only when I’m beside you do I finally remember how to breathe."

"Oh, really?"

Faced with Sakurakawa Rikka’s heartfelt confession, Asagiri chuckled.

"I didn’t realize you were this poetic."

Sakurakawa Rikka pressed her lips together in a small smile.

A complicated light appeared in her eyes, and her voice trembled ever so slightly.

A faint blush colored her pale face.

"Then..."

"What about you?"

"How do you feel about me?"

"What’s this now, a relationship review meeting?"

"Don’t change the subject."

Sakurakawa Rikka normally carried herself as a serene, elegant beauty.

That was precisely why the shy expression on her face felt so striking.

"Do you..."

"Have special feelings for me?"

"Yes."

"From the beginning?"

"The beginning..."

Asagiri thought about it for barely half a second.

Then he gave an answer Sakurakawa Rikka had never expected.

"At first, it was mostly physical attraction."

"You’re beautiful, and that frail, mysterious appearance of yours naturally makes people want to protect you."

"At the same time, it made me curious about what you’d look like if that calm composure ever completely broke."

"Stop. That’s enough."

Sakurakawa Rikka quickly interrupted him, covering her mouth as she laughed.

"I know I asked, but don’t you think that answer was a little too honest?"

Asagiri waved his hand solemnly.

"Facing the true desires within one’s heart is the source of my great power!"

"Is that so?"

Sakurakawa Rikka nodded obediently despite the complete lack of logic in his declaration.

"Perhaps."

Then she continued,

"But you said ’at first.’"

"That means it’s more than that now, doesn’t it?"

"Mm."

"It is."

"Good."

"I got the answer I wanted."

Sakurakawa Rikka tried to maintain her usual composure.

However, the bright smile blooming at the corners of her lips betrayed the happiness she could not conceal.

For a moment, she looked almost like an ordinary girl who had just heard exactly what she had been hoping for.

"Then..."

Sakurakawa Rikka slowly continued,

"It seems asking you to accompany me there really was the right decision."

...

Several hours later, deep within an unknown mountain range.

"This is the place."

Sakurakawa Rikka stood before a dilapidated old house that looked ready to collapse after years of neglect.

A complicated emotion appeared in her eyes.

She spoke quietly to Asagiri beside her.

"This is where I lived when I was young."

"My grandmother forced many children to consume flesh taken from two Cursed beings, the Mermaid and the Kudan."

"In the end..."

"I was the only one who survived."

Asagiri said nothing.

He simply remained beside Sakurakawa Rikka as the two slowly approached the ruined buildings.

"Over there."

Sakurakawa Rikka pointed toward a small pond beside the house.

Her voice was incredibly flat, almost as though she were describing an ordinary childhood memory.

"I died there sixteen times."

She pointed toward the main hall.

"And there, forty five times."

Then toward another location.

"Thirty two times there."

Her gaze slowly swept across the ruined property.

"Altogether, I died here two hundred forty eight times."

"On average, a little more than once per day."

"I continued until I completely mastered the Kudan’s ability to glimpse the future."

Sakurakawa Rikka fell silent for a long time.

Then she continued.

"But once I completely mastered the Kudan’s power..."

"And more importantly, once death stopped frightening me..."

"No one here could control me anymore."

Hearing that, Asagiri asked blandly,

"You killed them all?"

"No."

"What a pity."

"A pity?"

Sakurakawa Rikka looked genuinely surprised.

Asagiri smiled.

"You weren’t expecting me to say that killing them would’ve been wrong and that you should’ve relied on some proper punishment instead, were you?"

"How revenge is carried out belongs to the person who suffered."

"If it had been me..."

"I would’ve killed everyone responsible that very day."

"Now that would have been a satisfying ending."

Sakurakawa Rikka stared at him for a moment.

Then she covered her mouth and chuckled softly.

"You really are different from most people."

Her gaze returned to the abandoned buildings.

Her tone became flat again.

"The Sakurakawa Family members responsible for all of this, including my grandmother who orchestrated the experiment, are already dead."

"This is the final place."

"Ever since childhood, revenge was the goal that kept me moving."

"It wasn’t even that I hated them deeply."

"I simply thought..."

"If everything connected to what happened here could disappear from the world, perhaps I could become normal again."

"Perhaps then..."

"I could find a reason to keep living."

Asagiri nodded calmly.

Then he smiled.

"So?"

"Have you found it now?"

"Your reason to live?"

Sakurakawa Rikka turned her head.

She quietly studied Asagiri’s profile.

A gentle warmth appeared in her eyes.

Then she gave a small nod.

"Yes."

"I have."

....

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