Chapter 19
"XX, wake up! The teacher is here!"
"...What did you call me?"
"Kurozuka."
The scene before my eyes flickered, the light was bright and dark, and finally solidified into a classroom.
"Are you confused from your sleep?"
Kurozuka Kirishi placed her arms on the table and slowly pulled herself up. Fatigue and sleepiness flooded over her eyelids like a tide, and she could hardly open her eyes.
"Maybe," she whispered, "I feel like I've had a very long dream."
School time is always difficult, and today, her condition is particularly bad. Her thoughts keep drifting away, and every time she loses focus, she is always caught by the teacher.
Finally, after she had lost consciousness for who knows how many times, the teacher, who had lost patience with her, punished her by making her stand in the corridor.
She stared down at the ground, and although she didn't feel wronged at all, tears welled up in her eyes uncontrollably.
A gust of wind blew through the corridor, and she subconsciously reached out to lift her bangs, but found nothing.
Only then did she suddenly remember: she had cut her hair short a long time ago, and now the ends of her hair just reached her ears.
After school, Kurozuka Kirishi quickly picked up her schoolbag and left. She returned home alone, and most of her family members had already gone to bed.
She simply washed up, returned to her room, picked up her phone, and for some reason, she didn't open the usual entertainment apps, but opened the address book.
In fact, she herself didn't know what she wanted to see, but when the short list of contacts came into view, an inexplicable confusion still gripped her.
It felt like... something extremely important had disappeared without a trace.
Finally she turned off her phone and went to bed early.
The days passed by as usual, but a certain inexplicable anxiety grew day by day. She couldn't remember how many times she had burst into tears without warning.
She lowered her head as usual and wiped the corners of her eyes silently.
"What's wrong? Are you sad?" My deskmate came closer, his voice filled with worry and confusion.
Kurozuka Kirishi himself was also feeling bewildered. One second he was still talking normally, and the next second tears were already streaming down his cheeks.
"Maybe I haven't had enough rest recently." She said softly. This was not the real reason, but she couldn't find any other better explanation.
The blurred face of her deskmate stared at her for a long time, as if examining her carefully. After a long while, he suddenly spoke:
"You go back."
"It's just that I don't need to take leave..."
"That's not what I'm talking about." She interrupted Kurozuka Wushi, her tone unusually firm: "You're very unhappy, right? And... do you always feel like you've forgotten something?"
Kurozuka Wushi stared at the person in front of him, and suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity and strangeness. The long black hair and porcelain-white skin—
"Who are you?"
The girl's face gradually became clear in her eyes. Her smiling eyes were like butterflies gently touching spring water, and the corners of her lips were slightly raised like petals soaked in dew: "I am you."
She reached out and brushed Kurozuka Kirishi's ear, lifting a strand of her short hair. "Do you like me? After all, I'm your ideal type."
"So frivolous." Heizhong Wushi frowned slightly.
The other party was visibly stunned: "...Ah?"
“But it does look good.”
"Who is more frivolous?"
Kurozuka Kirishi studied the other person's irritated expression and continued his commentary, "But his temper is awful."
“Ahhhhh! I’m the old you! It was you who had such a bad temper before!”
"Are you admitting you lied?" Kurozuka Kirishi caught a glimpse of her guilty conscience. "I guess... this isn't who you really are."
She waved her hand and softened her tone: "Alright, alright, how come you saw through me so quickly? This is actually your true appearance, okay?"
As soon as she finished speaking, her long black hair suddenly shortened. At the same time, Kurozuka Kirishi's short hair began to grow rapidly, falling down to her legs like a waterfall.
The memories that had been deliberately buried came back flooding back. Heizhong Wushi rubbed his aching temples and looked up to meet a pair of eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"You remember?" Her voice was filled with joy, not as annoying as she remembered.
Seeing that Kurozuka Kirishi remained silent for a long time, her expression darkened a little: "Really... do you hate me that much?"
"I don't hate you." Kurozuka Kirishi retorted subconsciously, but paused when he saw the doubt in the other's eyes.
In the pervasive silence, she finally admitted in a low voice: "From the beginning to the end, the only person I hate is myself."
"But I am you and you are me, why do we have to look at them separately?"
A familiar sentence, now spoken by her past self, left Kurozuka Kirishi stunned for a moment, a complex emotion welling up in her mind, leaving her speechless, but the other party showed no intention of stopping.
"You said you don't hate me, which means you don't hate your past self. Similarly, I like you, which means you like your present self, so the conclusion is—"
"You obviously like yourself~"
As if seeing through Kurozuka Kirishi's confusion, her expression became more lively: "Can you please face yourself?! You are really great now! You are exactly what I imagined you to be, okay!"
Did I used to talk so much?
Kurozuka Kirishi looked at the angry girl in front of him, unconsciously reached out his hand, and gently rubbed the top of her head. The method of coaxing a puppy actually made her calm down.
At this moment, Kurozuka Kirishi clearly felt the changes in herself. Compared with her healthy self in the past, she seemed like a different person after she became ill.
But the time seemed to be almost up, so she thought about asking, "Do you know how to get out of here?"
"Of course! All we need to do is destroy the anchor of the illusion, and the anchor is usually the most important thing in a person's heart." The other party said with a smile, as if an invisible tail was swaying happily behind him.
She handed a knife to Kurozuka Wushi, her intention was obvious.
"Try to end the life of the guy you hate the most with your own hands?" She pointed to her neck with a bright smile, without a trace of gloom.
But after taking the knife, Kurozuka Kirishi shook his head; "I admit you are right."
The tip of the knife drew a sharp silver arc in the air, and without the slightest hesitation, it turned precisely inwards—
"You and I are the same person."
The moment the words fell, the sharp blade plunged into her own chest with absolute determination. The feeling of her flesh being cut was horrifyingly clear, and warm blood gushed out as if breaking free from its restraints, staining the entire world before her eyes red.
Kurozuka Kirishi looked at the face opposite her. The bright smile on that face, which was exactly the same as hers, froze and shattered instantly.
Instead, there was an unconcealable astonishment and disbelief, as if witnessing a miracle that could never happen.
An indescribable joy quietly grew and turned into a low, relieved laugh.
She finally understood what she had always longed for.
She wants to be seen.
So I try to prove that my existence can stir up a ripple in the hearts of others.
She has always wanted to prove,
Even if it is as small as dust, it can still create a silent tsunami when it falls.
The illusion carefully constructed by the other party was indeed perfect, but it overlooked a very important point.
She in the illusion is essentially the same as she is in reality.
"So—" Blood flowed from the corner of her lips, staining her pale face with a rich, bright color.
Her black eyes were blazingly bright, burning with an almost crazy light:
"Don't underestimate fools like us."
She is a child of the earth, a seed buried deep in the soil, tangled in the darkness where no one is watching, letting the roots entangle and rot in silence.
But it is precisely because of this that she is sensitive and delicate, and is particularly aware of the malicious intent of the outside world.
So let's gamble, the probability is one in ten,
Put her all on it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
