The sky before dawn was still indigo. Miyano Arisu left Corpo Misogi before five in the morning. After reading her mother's letter, she had barely slept. That single line kept circling in her head. ——You've always done what others told you to do. When she stepped onto the promenade along the Misogi River, the air pricked her cheek with cold. The first week of December. The river surface trembled finely in the streetlight. The cherry tree branches had shed all their leaves, casting skeletal shadows on the ground. Arisu walked. She didn't sit. The last time she came here at night, she had sat on a bench, cast her questions into the river, and gone home. This morning was different. She could feel it herself. As she walked, she lined up the words of three men in her head, one by one. Seiji's voice. You have no will. You can't call this living. Ryou's voice. You're being exploited. Come with me. Takuma's voice. Are you alright? Are you alright? Are you alright? They all had different shapes, but they shared something in common. None of them were words directed at Arisu. They were words about Arisu. No one had asked what Arisu wanted. Assertion, protection, concern——all of it came from outside of her. It wasn't anger. She didn't have enough strength yet to be angry. But as a cold confirmation, it became clear to her for the first time this morning. The bench at the end of the promenade came into view. Arisu stopped in front of it, then started walking again. She didn't sit. It wasn't about whether to quit Hinata or not. It wasn't about choosing between people. Because she kept trying to find those kinds of answers first, she always ended up borrowing someone else's words. To search for what she herself wanted. That was all. Just that, first. She told no one. There was no need to. When the river surface began to turn white, Arisu turned back toward Corpo Misogi. —— Before Hinata's opening preparations began, the shop was still quiet. Arisu was wiping the counter alone. The lingering scent from last night——a mixture of soy sauce, dashi, and cigarette smoke——still drifted in the lower air. The wall clock struck seven. Footsteps came down from the second floor. Majima Yoshiaki descended the stairs. Fifty-eight years old, white tank top, work pants, eyes still half-asleep. When he saw Arisu, he started to say "hey," but his mouth stopped. Arisu had lowered her cloth and was looking at Yoshiaki straight on. "[gentle]Next week, could I take a week of paid leave?" Her voice didn't shake. She was surprised herself. For seven years, words she had never spoken before came out of her mouth as naturally as breathing this morning. Yoshiaki's face changed to confusion. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. "[serious]Next week is... the season for year-end parties, and Yoshioka is off too" "[gentle]I know I'm sorry. But please let me take it" She repeated herself. She didn't leave it vague. Silence came. Yoshiaki stared at the wood grain of the counter for about ten seconds. Then he nodded slightly. "[serious]...Alright" His voice fell onto the counter. Arisu said "Thank you very much" and picked up the cloth. Behind her, the counter chair creaked. When she turned around, Kawase Takuma was sitting at the far end of the counter seats. He was holding a coffee cup in both hands, not moving. Arisu hadn't noticed when he'd arrived. His dark brown hair was cut short, his serious black eyes had been watching Arisu's back. Something was wavering in those eyes. Kawase said nothing. Arisu said nothing either. After Yoshiaki withdrew to the kitchen, Kawase slowly drained his coffee. He took out his wallet and placed coins on the counter. Before standing up, he looked at Arisu's profile just once. It was the kind of silence where words were caught somewhere in the throat. "[serious]...I'm heading out" The sliding door closed. Arisu wiped the counter's wood grain with her cloth while listening to that sound. She knew Kawase's sincerity was genuine. But the weight of that silence——his sincerity stopping just as it was about to say something——was something Arisu couldn't quite accept yet. The guilt about not being able to accept it was just a little smaller this morning. —— In the early afternoon, as Arisu walked along Hikari Street, there was a figure in front of Photo Studio Luche. It was Kinoshita Seiji. He was standing with his back against the building's entrance, both hands thrust into his pockets. He wasn't wearing his usual camera around his neck. The scar at the corner of his mouth remained faintly. It hadn't been many days since the night Ryou had hit him. Arisu stopped. She didn't run away. "[cold]I'm not writing a sequel" Seiji said it. Looking straight at Arisu's face. "[cold]Instead, listen to me one more time. Not as a reporter" Arisu looked directly at Seiji's face. Dark gray eyes. Those sharp, gleaming eyes. She still remembered the voice he'd whispered right after their kiss that night in Tsukimori Greenery: "I knew it." She still didn't know what that meant. Several emotions were lined up in her chest. Fear. Hurt. And something that hadn't faded. She hadn't sorted through it. But now, being able to stand here while holding onto that unsorted feeling was new for Arisu. "[gentle]I don't have words to share with you right now" Her voice shook. But she didn't back down. Seiji started to say something. His lips moved slightly, then stopped. There was a sense of movement in his pocket. Then his dark gray eyes narrowed, and he looked away from Arisu. "[cold]...I understand" He said it shortly and started walking ahead. His leather jacket's back disappeared into the crowd of the shopping street. Arisu watched his back disappear. She still didn't know what emotion remained. But she thought it was okay not to know today. That was something the old Arisu couldn't have done. —— In the evening, Majima Ryou was standing in front of the external stairs of Corpo Misogi. His ash brown hair was gathered carelessly, his hands thrust into his jacket pockets. His large upturned eyes took on a determined expression the moment they saw Arisu. "[serious]I'm making this the last time" Saying that, Ryou continued. He was worried about Seiji. That guy might do something else. Come to Osaka. If you come over there, everything will be settled. I'll protect you. ——Ryou said he'd come here every morning since that night but hadn't been able to call out to her. Arisu could tell that those words were probably true. Ryou's concern was genuine. Since middle school, it had never been a lie. But within that concern, there was no space to confirm Arisu's "desires." He was standing there to protect her, but he didn't ask the one being protected what she wanted to choose. It had always been that way from middle school until now. "[gentle]I'm not going" Arisu said. "[gentle]But...I want to be alone for a while. Please let me be alone for a while" "[surprised]Alone? What do you mean by that" Ryou's voice rose. His upturned eyes fixed on Arisu. Anger and something else entirely were in the depths of those eyes. Arisu paused for a moment. She searched for words. They were rough words, words she herself wasn't entirely sure she meant yet, but once they left her mouth, she didn't take them back. "[gentle]It's not that I dislike you. But right now, instead of being protected by someone...I think I want to try deciding things for myself" Silence came. The words to argue back disappeared from Ryou's face. His large upturned eyes looked toward something distant. A long silence. "[sad]...I understand" Saying just that, Ryou turned his back. He disappeared around the corner of Corpo Misogi. Arisu watched his back until it was gone. —— That night, back in room 206, Arisu noticed something. On the shelf by the entrance, there was something unfamiliar. A small pot. A pothos seedling with just a few round leaves. Tracing her memory back, when she was walking along Hikari Street this morning while waiting for Yoshiaki's answer——it had been lined up in front of Takeuchi Produce. A small seedling for one hundred twenty yen that the shop owner Takeuchi had arranged, saying "Please take it as a decoration." No one had recommended it to Arisu. It wasn't to make anyone happy. Her hand had simply reached out and bought it. She hadn't even been conscious of buying it until tonight. On the shelf by the window, there was a cactus. A single pot given to her seven years ago by a regular customer at Hinata. Something someone had given her. This pothos was the first plant Arisu's hand had chosen in a place without anyone's words. Arisu placed the pothos next to the cactus. Two pots stood side by side. "[gentle]...Nice to meet you" She said it quietly, then found it a little funny. In seven years, she had never spoken to the cactus. Now, the moment a new one arrived, here she was doing this. Outside the window, the bare cherry trees along the Misogi River floated in the streetlight. She wouldn't understand what she wanted in the next week. She knew that. But she could start searching while not understanding. For the first time since that night she'd left her questions on the bench, she felt like she could sleep tonight with her questions beside her. Late at night, her smartphone screen lit up. An SNS notification. A message from Kawase Takuma. ——I felt a little relieved hearing about today. It's not that I have something to say. I just wanted to tell you. Arisu read those characters in the screen's light. After reading, she turned the phone face-down. She didn't mark it as read. Not because she was thinking of a response. Tonight, she wanted to keep this message unread beside her. That was something that came from within Arisu, not from an outside judgment, and tonight she understood that. Tomorrow, she could choose to mark it as read, or not to. Either way, she could call it her own choice. That kind of morning would come. In front of the shelf where the pothos and cactus stood side by side, Arisu closed her eyes.