Starting a Night Shift Part-time Job at a Convenience Store.

“Takenaka―!!”

A layer of tears formed in my eyes. I re-gripped the wheel with the tiniest speck of hope.

Having lost my mind, I called out the other person’s name at the top of my lungs in tears.

Takenaka, recognizing that this was no ordinary occurrence, asked me calmly what had taken place right away.

“I-I, right now! On the night shift, a-alone!!”

The words spontaneously spilled out of my lips before I could even utter them.

What was I supposed to say? From where should I explain? My impatience was leading to further impatience.

“And then! She!!”

My explanation would render the narrative impossible to follow but that was not really a priority. Should I turn around, she should be right behind me. She moved behind me in a split second. Even a motorcycle might not be able to outrun her.

[Please don’t get worked up.]

How could I possibly not get worked up!

[Unless you calm down, Hakamada, I can’t help you either.]

“…!”

[First of all, settle down, take your time, and tell me what has happened and where you are now.]

His voice was tender and gentle, like water pouring over the blazing impatience. Each word was spoken clearly.

Right there I took a deep breath, exhaling and inhaling. Straining my stomach, I managed to regain the rationality that I had nearly lost.

Unable to completely restrain my fear-accelerated respiration, I did my utmost to convey my present situation, my voice faltering in places.

[So Hyuga is at… and now you’re outside the convenience store.]

“I just passed the tunnel!”

[Tunnel…]

What was I going to do? What was I supposed to carry out?

I waited for Takenaka’s instructions.

[…Hakamada, please――now!]

Huh―

[At this rate, it will be a disaster――please――quickly.]

“Takenaka… um, I’m sorry, please say it again!”

[At this rate――will――]

What―

When I checked my cell phone screen earlier, the signal was supposed to be functioning properly but a strange noise was mixed in with his voice and I couldn’t hear the all-important part…!?

Even though Takenaka was telling me to do something, that part was inaudible. My impatience, which had subsided, was ignited again.

“Takenaka! Hello!?”

[Hello――]

“Something’s wrong with my cell phone, I can’t hear you properly!!”

[――da, now――]

The noise was getting… worse and worse.

[Hakamada――I――from now――so――anyway――]

“T-Takenaka…!!”

“Fall――Hakamada――that person is likely――You――supposed――so――please――quickly――or else――]

Quickly or else―

Look, I could tell things were serious, but this… Seriously, what should I―

“Ha―ka―da―quick―ly.]

“Ah, wait, Takenaka!!”

While catching the wind from the front, feeling the cold perspiration, I screamed until my throat was crushed, hoping to at least make my voice a little bit stronger so as to not be drowned by the noise that was intensifying. Takenaka, how can I stop Hyuga? I―

“I don’t want to die like this, not being able to do anything―!”

I wondered how much of my voice reached Takenaka on the other side.

[Hakamada, bi―――…―――]

The strap attached to the steering wheel and the cell phone both wavered pathetically. An electronic sound without warmth, the sound I hated to hear the most right now was looping incessantly in my ear.

Snapped.

Snapped.

Snapped.

It has been snapped.

The only lifeline I had left was shredded, hammering in my head.

All traces of hope and salvation, everything vanished and flew away into the darkness. Not merely my head, but my whole body, blanketed in white.

My cell phone crashed to the concrete ground at that very second when the strap snapped. I kept driving without stopping, catching the wind. I picked up the speed.

Wrong.

I can’t stop.

I couldn’t stop.

I couldn’t stop the bike, nor could I slow it down. My body…

My body, my arms, they were stuck like they were locked in place.

It should have been that way.

When my eyes drifted down to my hands, I realized why my body had abruptly lost its freedom.

My arms, which were grasping the steering wheel, were piled on top of a multitude of white arms. They were obstructing me from turning the steering wheel. I was seized so harshly that I suspected I might get bruises, accompanied by the sensation that my blood had stopped flowing.

It wasn’t limited to just my arms.

The same suffering was in my pedaling feet and in my throat as I struggled to shriek…

All over my body, I was being forced to ride my bike, with white arms wrapped around me.

Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies.

Lies, lies.

Lies.

Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes before flying backward.

And then―

“Senior.”

In front of me, with widened eyes and hands outstretched, was Hyuga, who was waiting for me.

It was hopeless, I couldn’t evade it.

I was plunging in.

The ensuing sound I heard next was neither Hyuga’s voice nor the lifelike sound of people being struck.

What I heard was…

A horrific sound so intense that my eardrums ruptured. The sound of something immensely solid and strong being destroyed. Like an explosion.

My body was flung forward. An incoming floating sensation.

Exactly the same sensation as when someone fell off a roller coaster.

I plunged headlong into the white guardrail reinforced with steel plates. As I crashed into it, I smashed through the guardrail along with its reinforcements. The entire bike resounded with a deafening boom as I was catapulted vertically into the cliff at that spot. By the time I grasped all the details, it was already too late for anything else.

[Your bike…! Please stop right now, Hakamada―!!}

Ah, Takenaka, at that time. Was he warning me that?

I thought I heard Takenaka’s heartbreaking cry, which was impossible to be heard, but now it was too late.

I was cast out into the darkness and fell like I was being sucked in, and the last thing I saw was…

“Senior… with this… we’re the same…”

It was reflected in the mirror. Hyuga’s face was smiling as she clung to my neck…