After hanging up with Kouta, Ren sat motionless on the futon for a while. The smartphone screen went dark. The room fell silent again. (Damn it, Kouta.) But their feet moved. Naturally. They stood up and looked in the mirror. A girl's face stared back. Black hair slightly tousled, eyes still faintly red underneath. The piercing in their right ear caught the light. (……It's me. This is me too.) That confirmation was enough. Ren slipped their arms through the sleeves of the uniform. --- They arrived at Furin High's gate just after afternoon classes ended. Friday evening. The baseball team's voices echoed from the grounds. The sky was high and clear, thin clouds drifting westward. The girl's uniform skirt swayed in the cold wind. Ren stopped at the gate. They were there. Hinata Aoi and Mishima Yuki stood side by side in front of the gate. Aoi's crimson hair flowed in the breeze. Her eyes were red. She'd been crying. Yuki's black hair was perfect as always, but her lips were pressed tight. She wasn't smiling that usual smug grin. Both of them looked at Ren. A beat of silence——then, perfectly in sync, they bowed their heads. "We're sorry." Their voices matched exactly. Ren froze. "[surprised]……Did you two practice that?" Yuki's head snapped up immediately. "[angry]We didn't practice anything!" Aoi followed. "[surprised]We didn't! It just happened to——" "Things don't just happen to sync up like that." "That's exactly why things are like this!" "That's not what I——" All three voices overlapped at once, and Ren closed their eyes for a moment. (Stop it. We're just going to argue again.) But the corner of their mouth twitched. They tried to hold back a laugh and completely failed. "[serious]……Never mind. I get it. Let's go." They started walking. "[gentle]……Thank you," Aoi said quietly from behind. Ren didn't turn around. But they slowed their pace just a little. "[whispers]……I was wrong too." That was all they said, then they faced forward again. Behind them, Yuki made a complicated expression, and Aoi's cheeks flushed with happiness. Ren couldn't see it, but they knew. --- The north building's rooftop. When Ren pushed the door open, the evening wind rushed in. "[excited]Ren!!" Kouta stood waiting with both arms raised in a victory pose. Their deep green bob cut swayed in the wind. Golden eyes sparkled. Way too energetic. Natsuki leaned against the wall with their arms crossed. Silver hair caught the light. Eyes of different colors——right blue, left red——gazed quietly at Ren. A small nod. That was all. And then. A figure in a white coat sat on an old bench, leisurely sipping tea from a paper cup. Katase Rumi. Furin High's school nurse. With a gentle face and an "oh my" expression, she looked over at them. She even had a notepad on her lap. "[surprised]……Why is the teacher here too!!" Katase took a sip of tea and smiled gently. "[gentle]Well, when I heard the curse might break, I wanted to see it happen. For medical records……" She flipped through her notepad pages. "[angry]That's not medical!!" Kouta nodded with a natural expression. "[gentle]But it's reassuring having the teacher here, right? In case something happens." Yuki nodded. "I agree." Aoi continued, "Yeah, that's true." Ren looked at all four of them. They all had the expression of "that's obviously right." "[serious]……You guys are weird, you know that?" They muttered it. Kouta grinned. "[laughing]That's you, man." "Shut up." Ren said, but the tension drained from their body. Something that had been wound tight loosened and faded away. --- Ren started walking. They passed the water tank and moved toward the center of the rooftop. Their footsteps echoed on the concrete as everyone watched in silence. They stopped in front of the graffiti. ——When you find your true self, the curse breaks. The letters didn't change. They'd always been there. Ren had come here for days, screaming, crying, and they were still there. For a moment, they just stared. Behind them, Kouta held their breath. Aoi's body went rigid. Natsuki stepped away from the wall, moving forward. Yuki pressed her lips into a line. Katase gripped her notepad tighter. Everyone was waiting. Ren took a deep breath. "[serious]I'm Sakuragi Ren." It started as a quiet voice. But what came next was different. "[serious]Until recently, I was just a delinquent——I panicked when I became a girl, couldn't help Kouta, got pissed at Yuki, pretended not to see Aoi……I ran away from everything because it was annoying and loud." The skirt swayed in the wind. "[serious]But. Becoming a girl taught me something." Their voice grew louder. "[serious]I finally understood Aoi's feelings. I felt deep in my bones how much Kouta and Natsuki matter. Yuki's annoying but——she's reliable. All of that makes up who I am now!!" They shouted toward the sky. "[excited]This is me!! The real Sakuragi Ren, right now!!" The voice echoed across the rooftop, spreading, fading. ——That was the moment. The graffiti letters glowed faintly. Slowly. Like light that had soaked into the concrete was seeping back out to the surface. White light traced the shape of the letters, spreading outward. "Ah!" Aoi gasped. The light extended from Ren's feet, enveloping Kouta and Natsuki a short distance away. All three at once. "[scared]Huh, huh, what!?" Kouta flailed their arms. Natsuki narrowed their eyes. Ren didn't close theirs. They kept looking straight ahead. Seconds later——the light faded. Kouta cautiously looked at their own hands. "[surprised]……Hands." Bigger. A man's hands. Shoulders had changed. Voice had dropped lower. Natsuki grabbed a handful of their silver hair. Their expression didn't change, but their eyes widened slightly. Ren looked at their own hands. Scarred, back to the original arms. They touched the piercing in their right ear. It was still there. Still there. (We're back.) The moment that thought crossed their mind—— RIIIIIP!! A loud, spectacular sound. The girl's uniform skirt that Ren was wearing——no, the thin pants fabric underneath that had remained, tore dramatically at the seams as their body returned to its original size. One entire thigh was exposed. One second of silence. "[laughing]Pants!!" "[laughing]Spectacularly!!" Yuki covered her mouth with her hand, shoulders shaking. Even Natsuki's mouth twitched up slightly. "[angry]Wait!! Hold on!! Don't laugh!!" Ren covered their face. Completely red, holding their waist. Katase was scribbling something into her notepad. "[gentle]Pants damage——recorded." "[angry]That's not the thing to write down!!" Kouta was laughing so hard they were rolling on the ground. Natsuki whispered softly, "Good." Just that one word, but it felt like they'd said everything. --- As the laughter was dying down, Aoi came over to Ren. Running. Red hair swaying. Soft brown eyes already glistening with tears. Freckles visible on her cheeks in the evening light. She grabbed Ren's arm and hugged them. "[crying]Welcome home……" Her voice trembled. She was really crying. Ren——didn't pull away. There had been so many moments like this before where they would've taken a step back. But today their body wouldn't move. Didn't want to move. Their face was hot. They could feel themselves blushing all the way to their ears. But. "[whispers]……Yeah. I'm home." They whispered it softly. Kouta's eyes went wide. "[surprised]Wait……huh!? Ren didn't run away!?" "Shut up." Yuki watched it all. With a complicated expression. Lips pressed into a line, she turned toward the window. She lost. That's what she was thinking, Ren thought. They couldn't see her, but they knew. They'd seen that expression so many times before, strangely enough. Katase was writing something again. "[serious]Patient's psychological recovery confirmed." "[angry]I'm not a patient!!" Aoi laughed while still clinging to Ren. Kouta burst out laughing again. The rooftop became noisy and lively once more. The twilight light slanted across the concrete. --- Just before everyone headed down the stairs together, laughing and talking. Natsuki looked at the graffiti one more time. The light had faded. The letters should've stayed the same——should've. But. Natsuki's eyes narrowed. Beneath the original letters, faint lines were floating in the gray concrete, barely visible. They formed the shape of letters. But only half of them were showing. Was it the lack of light, or——was it just not "that time" yet? "[surprised]Natsuki, what are you looking at?" Kouta turned back. "[serious]……Nothing." Natsuki looked away and walked toward the others. They kept that fragment of letters, that half-visible shape, quietly inside their chest. They still couldn't read all of it. But it was definitely there. The curse was broken. But the graffiti——hadn't disappeared.