[Yakumo・ Common Route Prologue]
As I hurried home, trying not to be swallowed by the crowd, I regretted the sudden drinking party I hadn’t been able to refuse. I’d wanted to leave early today.
…It’s always like this. I smile along with everyone, pretending to enjoy it, even though a part of me keeps whispering that it wouldn’t matter if I weren’t there at all. Somewhere along the way, I must have abandoned my own will far behind me.
After a few halfhearted drinks, a talkative coworker mentioned that tonight the strawberry moon would be clearly visible.
The sky, huh…
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even looked up. I’d been so busy just trying to live that I hadn’t noticed anything around me.
“I want to go home…” The words melted into the noise of the city before they reached anyone’s ears.
But where, exactly? Lately, I keep feeling a vague pull toward somewhere far away. Not my parents’ house, not my apartment. Somewhere much farther…somewhere I’m meant to return to.
…Maybe it’s just work stress.
Someone bumped my shoulder as they passed, and when I lifted my gaze— a red moon loomed above, staining the sky with an ominous glow.
So that’s the strawberry moon…? I vaguely remembered that June’s full moon looks red because of the atmosphere— or something like that.
But for some reason, tonight it looked unsettling, like the moon during a lunar eclipse, sinking into Earth’s shadow.
YOU:“…What—”
When I lowered my eyes, an uncanny sight appeared. A man with long, flowing hair—so beautiful he looked almost like a doll— was quietly staring up at the crimson moon.
He should have stood out, and yet people passed by without so much as a glance, as if the world were moving around him while he alone was left untouched.
I stopped in my tracks.
The moon’s red light spilled over his pale hair, so eerily beautiful it nearly made me forget to breathe.
A strange tension coiled in my chest— the prickling sense that I was seeing something I shouldn’t. A chill crept down my spine, and the bag in my hand suddenly felt unbearably heavy.
Slowly, he turned toward me.
His eyes—red like the moon. A gaze so quiet and commanding it made me want to look away, yet something in me refused to.
YAKUMO:“…It’s suffocating.” He muttered the words as if spitting them out. A low, smooth voice with a cold edge. It should’ve been swallowed by the city noise, yet somehow, I was the only one who heard it.
YAKUMO:“This place is suffocating. That’s what I said.”
His tone pressed against me, as if urging me to agree.
I couldn’t answer. He continued.
YAKUMO:“…Butterflies are foolish. Without guidance, they lose the way home. Stay too long in a place you’re not meant to be, and you’ll only destroy yourself.”
His red eyes narrowed, as if seeing straight through me.
YAKUMO:“You understand, don’t you?”
Then he extended his hand.slowly, deliberately.
YAKUMO:“—Then take my hand.”
続きから日本語とちょっとした制作小話です！↓
