[What you didn't expect was that before you could make a move, Ibuki Yuko pounced on you. She knocked you out of the truck's path, and the green iron beast rushed past your feet and crashed into the wall of the library.]
[The dust raised by the truck settled down, and pedestrians from all around rushed to both sides, some went to look at the truck driver, and some gathered around you and Ibuki Yuko.]
[You pulled Ibuki Yuko up, thanked the passers-by for their concern, and carefully examined the girl's body, confirming that she only had a scrape on her right elbow.]
[A young man hurriedly got off the truck's passenger seat and worked with several pedestrians to lift the middle-aged driver off the driver's seat. The young man apologized to you. His father was driving and suddenly had a heartache and couldn't control the speed and direction of the car. He asked you to go to the hospital for a checkup. You looked at Ibuki Yuko and the girl shook her head.]
[You rejected the young man's proposal, and he took out his wallet, gave you all the money in it, and left you a business card.]
[You accepted the money and the business card.]
[While you were talking to the young man, Ibuki Yuko had already started walking. She raised her right arm to prevent the blood from her wrist from getting on her clothes, and calmly crossed the road.]
[The wound on her arm and the dusty clothes all revealed her embarrassment, but this embarrassment turned into an elegant embellishment in her calm expression and behavior, just like the Western pattern on the belt of a gorgeous kimono, which not only did not destroy the elegance of the kimono, but also revealed a noble and open-minded attitude.]
[You caught up with her and took her to a nearby community hospital, using the compensation money the young man gave you to pay for the consultation.]
[The community doctor is a middle-aged woman. You asked her to examine Ibuki Yuko's body and confirmed that the girl had no internal injuries.]
[After leaving the clinic, you took the subway back. On the way, you were both very quiet. Ibuki Yuko didn't like to talk, and you were busy making plans in your mind.]
[We have arrived at Tsukimi-ri Station. You and Ibuki Yuko walk out of the subway station, walk along the shore lined with cherry blossom trees, and head toward the apartment.]
Memory scenes emerge.
Walking on the sidewalk paved with crimson stone bricks, you can clearly see the cherry blossom trees not far to the left. In the season when the cherry blossoms are not in bloom, the cherry blossom trees are like ordinary trees, covered with green leaves. Through the gaps between the branches and leaves, you can see the river reflecting the sunlight.
Ibuki Yuko walked in front of Minami Yuki.
There was a square band-aid on the girl's elbow. The white band-aid made her look sickly, and her petite body looked even more pitiful.
"Why save me?" Nan Youxi walked beside the girl.
"If you get hit, you will die." Ibuki Yuko's answer was very simple.
Coming from her world-weary mouth, this statement was strange and peculiar, like vegetarianism coming from a lion or abstinence coming from a stallion.
"Death is no big deal, right? Just like being alive is no big deal." Minami Yuxi said this deliberately, curious about Ibuki Yuko's answer.
The girl was silent for a long time, and Nan Youxi followed her across the main road, into the alley, and into the apartment building.
"I don't know." Ibuki Yuko replied.
The two walked through the corridor of the apartment building, and the shrubs in the courtyard outside the corridor were lush.
"Hey, senior sister, you should have figured it out, right? I stayed where I was on purpose." Nan Youxi continued to chase, he had a plan.
"Um."
"So, you are ready, right?"
Pressing the elevator button, Ibuki Yuko turned her head and looked at Minami Yuki's face, waiting for his additional explanation.
“… because she gave birth to the child.”
"This concept is surprisingly simple. Yes, the mother gave the child life. The child was not originally in this world, and it was the mother who arbitrarily pulled him from the outside world, so the mother has the obligation to take care of the child."
"Um."
"Just now, if Senior Sister hadn't intervened, I would have already been in the outer world and died. In other words, it was Senior Sister who arbitrarily pulled me back from the outer world and gave me life. So, what is the relationship between me and Senior Sister now?"
"…Mother and son?"
"Right, so are you ready to take responsibility for me, Senior?"
"Doctors also give life to patients." Ibuki Yuko tried to refute Minami Yuki's logic.
"But the patient came back to the world voluntarily. The doctor didn't save him 'barbarically'. But my senior sister saved me 'barbarically'."
Yuko Ibuki thought for a while and couldn't find any point to refute. If it was Nao Asano, she would have had to admit it timidly at this time, but the girl was different. She was just world-weary, not socially phobic.
"I refuse," she said bluntly.
We arrived at the 6th floor, and the hoarse sound of the door opening echoed in the elevator car.
"Refusal is useless. I'll leave everything to you from now on, Mom Yuko." Nan Youxi stepped out the door.
[What made Ibuki Yuko, who was determined to die, save you? You don't know, but you know one thing clearly, Ibuki Yuko can't turn a blind eye to your death, so what you have to do next is clear. ]
[You decided to rely on Ibuki Yuko. There is a joke that what humans love most is to force good girls into prostitution and persuade prostitutes to become good girls. You think that turning Ibuki Yuko from a person seeking help to a savior is the same contrast.]
[After returning home, you thought about Ibuki Yuko and began to formulate your own plan of "escaping from the world".]
[Upstairs from you, Ibuki Yuko is sitting on the floor, also thinking about you. ]
[When the truck came, fear and joy invaded her at the same time. The joy was the joy of completing the game, and the fear was the fear of leaving the world.]
[Which path is more correct, death or life? She didn't know, so she chose to refuse to choose. She stayed where she was, not to choose death, but to ignore the truck. She was waiting for the red light to turn green so that she could walk to the other side.]
[In her world, trucks don’t exist, the horns honking all around don’t exist, and the only thing that exists is herself waiting at the red light.]
[How did she notice you? She herself didn't know. She saw the truck coming towards you, and the slight anxiety in her heart became all she felt, so she rushed towards you.]
[Reflection is an ability that Ibuki Yuko has long lost. She only thought about it briefly and buried the memory. Her world is winter. Looking far away, there is snow all around and above. Everything is buried in the snow and cannot infect her body.]
[Two days later, Ibuki Yuko went to the convenience store to shop, and she saw you by the river.]
[You sit on the riverbank, with your legs hanging over the reflection of the blue sky on the river surface. Just leaning forward a little, or a sudden strong wind, can push you into the blue.]
[The girl walks up to you and pulls your sleeve. ]
(End of this chapter)