Trice had a surprise look on his face in a void poked outfit. But I immediately changed that look to frightening.
"... I wonder if you're willing to talk to people."
"Wait. I don't know, maybe it goes on. Yeah, I like cocktails."
Sure, it was inappropriate as a response to a question, but it's not yet a conclusion.
Forcefully stop Trice's words and just zero out of his mouth any words that have no sign of coming together and drooling in his heart.
"What do you like about cocktails, they have flavors, aromas, appearance, existence itself, and so much more. I can't even remember when I first liked it."
"Yeah."
"To be honest, when I started as a bartender, I didn't like cocktails or anything. But I wanted to know about Ibuki, and I studied desperately. Soon, I feel like I've been liking it."
…………
Because of Ibuki's name, Trice openly shows her troubled face. I don't mind continuing.
"Somehow, but if I had seen you right after I came into this world, I would have nodded in two replies... If I knew there was you in this world when I still didn't know right or left. It's pathetic, because I think you were the most important."
"... yeah"
"But right now, cocktails are probably a lot more important than they used to be, and when I say what that 'cocktail' is... it's like everything I'm involved in,"
Tris tilts his neck slightly because of my analogy flying too fast.
I let her play with words like that, and I explained.
"I think, you know, every bottle of alcohol looks like a person. A lot of people put their thoughts into making one, sending it out. From the one sent out, a lot of people get involved to make another cup, and that finally makes this glass."
I might have told someone before. Alcohol resembles people in itself. It means that each has its own unique characteristics.
People who are brewers, even parents - in this world, the face of potion shops, nature, the world quietly produces a bottle.
Each of them is a bottle of individuality, an 'individual' with individuality.
"There is a lot of alcohol in the world. Each one is similar or not, but each one is worth it. If it were whiskey and gin, it would be completely different from the kind. If brands split among whiskeys, they're similar but different."
"... that's with people?
"Oh."
Tris hammered me like he understood a little of my flighty story.
I nod small and continue to argue with my heart.
"A cocktail can relate to an individual and an individual. I knew it would be good if we paired up with each other, or interesting combinations I couldn't imagine, and anyway, that's what I like."
I don't know what that is. So why do you like cocktails?
"That's somehow something I didn't understand until I got here. I've been on my own ever since. It doesn't mean it goes with anyone. That's normal, and I don't feel the need to fit in with anyone. But for the first time here, I don't know if I can be here."
I'll tell you myself, the answer is still not in me.
All you can do is just spit out the words that come to mind.
"So I don't know, I like that 'cocktail', and I mean, it's like a person, but not a person? So, uh."
It doesn't put together what I want to say well.
I don't even know what I'm trying to say, I just try to drool the words out of my mouth.
But my understanding is not sufficient to reach a conclusion any further. Many times I try to put my feelings into words, I say.
But like you didn't see me like that, Trice pinched his mouth.
"Good, total. 'Cause I kind of figured it out."
Trice has a mild tone. It sounds like calming a child who can't speak the language well.
"I mean, total. You simply like it here."
".................. eh"
"You said you liked cocktails. That's not just about 'alcohol'. I like this space where you, the individual, are mixed up with the other individuals in this room - shops, houses, cities, people, cocktails."
I felt Tris put together what I couldn't put into words.
She defined people as booze, something vague as a cocktail, that didn't come together in me.
I like cocktails. But that's not just about alcohol.
I mean, I like this place (cocktail), which is mixed up between me and the people around me right now.
"... p, hehe. haha!
Tris laughed as if my opinion had come together in me.
I don't know what's so funny. I get a flashy look. Trice looked a little lonely once again, after a glimpse of laughter.
"Right. You've come to this world and cocktails have become more important."
…………
"I mean, just like you said. He likes cocktails made from a lot of bottles," Everyone in this place, "rather than a bottle called" Me personally. "
"... it"
In view of the analogy I said without clapping, Tris concluded.
I wasn't sure that was rude either. I just knew exactly how she interpreted the words I said.
I was unconscious, but here's what I said.
I love this place. So I can't get away from here. I mean, you can't ride Trice's invitation, you know.
"Trice, but I..."
"Uh, I don't need any excuses. 'Cause you don't care about me, you don't get me wrong."
She wouldn't even let me follow her. Even such a movement of my emotions, in a way that I understand perfectly, just laughs lonely.
After a good understanding of how much I value Torisu Ibuki and how much I liked her. I understand that I don't want to leave this place right now.
Trice drank the last bite of [Old Pal], which was already almost empty.
"... an old friend. Sure, you did."
"... what"
"That Evening Mist General and Torisu Ibuki ended up staying 'friends' and ending the relationship. You were never a 'lover', were you? Whatever you sacrifice, it's like a priority, in a relationship."
Trice emphasised the word friend.
When I couldn't say anything and wrinkled between my eyebrows, she held her forehead with her hands a little sorry. I look slightly overwhelmed and sorry.
"... sorry. Eight hits. The truth is, I just felt a little sorry for you now"
"... I meant to shake it."
"Shut up. Shut up! Don't do this because I'm gonna be a jerk! Ah, my sister's spare time is a little out of stock......... no, at her physical age, I wonder if the total is more adult."
Tris joked and said. If you ask me, Tris stayed the way he was in my memory and didn't look old at all. That means her physical age is probably younger than mine right now.
I could have misled you with her jokes like that, but Trice's voice was trembling helplessly. So laughing is the harder it is.
I swallowed it. I knew I was the one who drove her into that state, and still, I was holding her trembling hand.
"Ibuki, I..."
"Boo. Trice, come on."
She shook my hand off and clearly denied the name I accidentally spoke of.
I cough and say it again.
"... Tris, I might have to find something here."
"... for a cocktail?
I snorted, groundless.
Sure, Trice's invitation was fascinating, but you can't answer that, that's what I thought.
"I can't find anything in this place right now. It's very painful. It's painful and I can't help but want to escape. But no, so I shouldn't take your hand."
"Why?"
"Even if we run away from that bitterness now, we're just going to experience the same bitterness again with our hands drawn away. It's just a postponement. I have to get over that pain in this place."
It has no great name, it is a wish. In the midst of more priorities, somewhat ambiguous feelings, that's what I think.
There is never any action to be taken to spread the cocktail.
Still, I can't go any further than this cocktail without clearly handling the pain I'm feeling in this place right now.
No, I can't go ahead as a human being, not just a cocktail. Running away from that bitterness and spreading the cocktail again in a new place seemed like an advance in the matter.
I need to figure out what I'm stuck with myself right now.
"If I go anywhere else here, I don't think I'll know the answer to Ibuki's cocktail from then on."
…………
Tris opened his eyes slightly to the word 'cocktail then'.
For example, it's easy to ask Trice the answer here. All you have to do is ask him what cocktail he wanted me to drink then.
But I think she also told me that I didn't want it.
I thought that was a question that leads directly to the answer in me.
When I get to that answer myself, for the first time, I can settle for 'Torisu Ibuki' in me. I can throw an answer to Trice's earlier question.
I feel that way with my heart, not reason.
Tris sighed heavily because he saw my weirdly stubborn side.
"You've been a pain in the ass for a long time, but you've been a cocktail fool, and you've been a pain in the ass with a ring. That's why I'm not hot."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not bad. Not bad, but he's a bad guy, not at all."
Trice, with a lonely grin, gently fronted the glass that was empty.
"Welcome. It was delicious. Thanks for the luxury."
"... What's next?
"Hate and you're still pretty busy with this."
I almost unconsciously pulled her off, but Trice slowly refused to do so.
And then he gets up from his seat and turns his back on me.
"Trice. We'll be back, won't we?
"... well, maybe it's the last time 'Trice' comes to this store."
I didn't mean to be so blunt that I didn't realize the meaning hidden in that word.
"I don't know what it is, but good luck."
"Uh, shut up. It's not about being nice to the woman you waved."
Tris returns the same joking words to my coarse words.
Then he just moved his neck and looked at me. Those eyes were shaking, helplessly.
"Total... please, don't die"
All of a sudden I turned my eyes round to the words of concern I was told.
It was supposed to be a time for me to worry about her, but no matter what her eyes look like, she's more worried about me than she is.
"What is it?"
"... I can't go into details. But remember."
My ears, the sound of her unrealistic words, go by.
"... Soon, this city will be engulfed in war"
War, it took me a while for the word to become an actual image in me.
I'm a shitty bartender and I'm too inexperienced to picture it. I've lived a peaceful world all my life.
Trice walks to Stasta and the exit without hesitation. I try to chase her in a hurry, but she stands up to refuse to drop me off.
I was stopping by surprise.
hands on the exit door, she said with a thin grin.
Go to a third party on the spot, not me.
"I'll take care of the whole thing." "Witch of 2,000 years."
Karan. And the sound of opening the door does sound in the store.
By the time I realized, Trice was gone. I stared at the space where she disappeared for a while and shook my head.
Leave the tris thing alone. Thoughts turned to the last word she said.
The last word was clearly directed at someone else, not me.
"Sui. Are you there?
I spoke to the door to the store entrance.
Just as I dropped Trice off earlier, the sound of karan echoes in the store.
"... yeah"
And in the form of a replacement for Trice, the blue-haired girl showed her face through the door.