Chapter 1725 - 239.5 - Her Thoughts

Kaori's POV

Leon and Tsubasa were the same person.

After finding out something like that, I honestly felt as though I had just discovered something so ridiculous that my entire understanding of the world had suddenly crashed down around me.

It was something I never would have expected, even if someone had somehow told me beforehand that something like this could actually happen.

Tsubasa had died, only to be reincarnated into this world, where he eventually grew up and became the person who was named Leon now. Meanwhile, I had been left behind in my own world, spending all that time depressed after his death, only to suddenly get teleported into this world myself.

When I put everything together like that, the whole situation felt almost impossible to believe.

It was almost as if fate had somehow decided to bring the two of us back together.

Then again, I couldn't exactly say that fate had planned everything from the beginning.

Even if fate had somehow played a part in all of this, I didn't think it was reasonable to assume that everything had happened exactly the way it did just because we were supposed to meet again.

That would honestly be way too convenient.

Still, whatever the actual reason was, I wasn't complaining about it.

I had gotten to meet Tsubasa again.

He wasn't exactly the same person in the same form anymore, but somewhere underneath the name Leon, he was still the person I had once known.

Just thinking about that made another possibility suddenly cross my mind.

Could Shredica...

The girl who looked almost exactly like Chihara Akane...

Could she actually be Chihara Akane herself?

The thought sounded like an enormous stretch, and I knew I was probably reaching a little too far with it, but it wasn't completely impossible anymore.

If something like what happened to Tsubasa could happen, then perhaps something similar had happened to her as well.

Maybe Chihara Akane had somehow ended up in this world too.

Maybe she had been reincarnated, transported here, or brought into this world through circumstances that none of us understood yet.

Maybe the resemblance between Shredica and Chihara Akane wasn't simply a coincidence after all.

Maybe it really was some kind of fate.

The more I thought about it, the stranger the idea became, but I couldn't completely dismiss it anymore.

What was I supposed to do if that really was the case?

Honestly, I had absolutely no idea.

Still, I didn't really have the right to complain about any of this.

As far as I knew, Tsubasa...

I mean, Leon had already moved on from his previous life.

He was genuinely living his life as Leon now, rather than trying to continue living as Tsubasa, because as far as he was concerned, that life had already ended.

His life here was real.

He had people here who cared about him.

He had a new family waiting for him.

He had friends, companions, and people who had become important to him throughout the years. Even lovers.

This world wasn't some temporary place where he had been waiting for an opportunity to return home.

This was his home now.

He didn't seem to have any desire to go back, either.

That was exactly what I had been afraid to ask him earlier.

When he told me that I had to go home, I almost asked him about himself.

What about you?

Were you going to return with us?

I wanted to ask those questions so badly.

But before I could actually say anything, I already knew what the answer was going to be.

There was simply no reason for him to return.

He already had a life here.

He already had his own people here.

He already had a family here.

Why would he throw all of that away just because the world he used to live in suddenly became accessible again?

Even if I had asked him directly, I was almost certain that his answer would have been exactly what I was already expecting.

He wasn't coming back with us.

We were going to return to our world, but that world was his former world now.

This was his new one.

I was scared to ask because I already knew what his answer would be, and somehow, that knowledge frightened me more than actually hearing him say it.

I knew that I didn't really have the right to feel that way.

I understood that better than anyone else.

Still, knowing that didn't make those feelings disappear.

For some reason, I didn't want to let him go.

I wanted to stay with him.

I wanted to be beside him, even though the person standing in front of me wasn't exactly the same Tsubasa I remembered from before.

I knew how selfish that sounded.

After everything I had done to him during his previous life, I probably had no right to suddenly decide that I wanted to keep him close to me.

Maybe I really was being selfish.

Maybe I was even being some kind of scum for thinking this way after everything that had happened between us.

But now that I finally understood what I genuinely felt for him, I couldn't bring myself to keep pretending that those feelings didn't exist.

I didn't want to let Tsubasa go again.

I didn't want to lose him a second time after somehow getting another chance to meet him.

There was only one thing I could do if I truly wanted that to happen.

If I wanted to stay with him, then I would have to remain in this world.

That seemed like the only choice that could actually keep the two of us together.

Unfortunately, another problem immediately appeared in my mind.

I still had a life in my own world.

I had people waiting for me there.

I had memories that belonged to that world.

I had a place that I was supposed to call home.

If I decided to stay here, then I would be giving all of that up.

And if I returned...

There was a possibility that I might never see Tsubasa again.

Just thinking about that possibility scared me more than I wanted to admit.

The thought of returning to my old world while knowing that he would remain here made my chest feel strangely heavy.

I had already experienced losing him once.

I didn't know whether I could really handle losing him a second time.

Yet even after realizing all of that, I still couldn't make a decision.

I couldn't choose between the life I had before and the life I suddenly wanted now.

I couldn't decide whether I should return home or remain here with him.

My heart kept pulling me in two completely different directions, and neither side seemed willing to give me an answer that I could actually live with.

Was I really...

Being indecisive about my feelings for Tsubasa all over again?