Only with Your Heart

After a while, the dance fell asleep on the futon, so Chizuru also lay next to it, staring at the ceiling in the dim darkness of just the bean bulb.

2 A small LDK apartment floats blurry in sight.

There's a futon, there's a tabletop with a modern look but also a cottage in winter, there's a TV, there's a fridge, and this year's calendar hangs on the wall. Things that were a thousand cranes routine.

At some point that had become uncomfortable as if surrounded by exotic things. Especially on nights like this that remind me of Luklov.

The world over there had only about a medieval culture called here.

No electricity, no automobiles, no water supply, and of course no way of communicating information like television or the Internet, to the extent that there was a thin resemblance to paper made of barely animal skin, and letters existed. Few people could read the letter either.

With titles, ranks and knighthood as seen in the medieval West, Ruklov was originally a little baroness. That's what made me an orphan in a world of war, until I stood alone as a knight.

So when we first met, Ruklov was a young man with such sharp eyes and a tough face that he seemed to be able to scratch just by touching him.

Pink black hair with the same color eyes that go with it. The face was deeply carved and dressed in what we call a white man's back here, but the skin color was a little darker. Tall...... how long was it? I don't know if there was a unit of height measurement itself, so I don't know the exact number, but maybe, like, 185cm? It was bigger than a thousand cranes for one head.

If I recall, I don't know my birthday or my blood type.

Thinking about it, what a lot of information there is in modern Japan, so distracting. The world over there was more primitive. When people loved people, I think what they needed was one of each other's bodies. I didn't even have a date.

Ruklov looked at Thousand Cranes, and Thousand Cranes looked back at Ruklov.

A paralysis similar to the current ran to the core of the two bodies... and that just started it all. Ruklov wouldn't have had any idea of what to do if they shook him or anything like that.

"I chose you."

With just one word of that, he vowed to love forever. It's like a wolf who found his turn.

But that way of being loved was comforting. No shame, no hearsay, even, required as soul and instinct guide...... such love.

I'm sure in this world today, at least in modern Japan, you can't be loved or loved that way. Although naturally, because the way of life itself is completely different.

The next day the sky was covered in more and more clouds, and the weather forecast I was looking into on my phone before the dance left meant that stronger rain would begin to fall in the afternoon.

Chizuru wove a beige cardigan, dressed in a calm black knee-length skirt with a white shirt, and went to work a little later than usual. The company was all in private clothes and in the summer it was an open workplace where even men wouldn't mind without suits, but Chizuru didn't pay as much attention to fashion as other women employees.

I am not ashamed to remove the epidemic, and if it is clean, I think that is fine. I didn't need to distract the opposite sex, so I did just the minimum necessary for makeup as well.

Still, sometimes, men like Chief Tangzawa show up.

I'm not complacent, but Thousand Cranes definitely had a much more eye-catching, beautiful face than average. The back was not too low or too high, it was luxurious, but there was a lot out there to get out of, and it would have been better if I could say so.

Having confirmed that his mobile umbrella is inside the back, Chizuru runs fast into the business building where the company is located. Then, around the front automatic door, suddenly, a light dizziness struck a thousand cranes.

(... what?

At first, I thought it was just anemia coming from lack of sleep.

I feel a creased shake on my head, followed by a feeling that my hands and feet are slightly paralyzed. Thousand cranes felt hypotensive, so sometimes these symptoms occurred in the morning. I only slept a few hours obsessed with talking to dancing, so I thought it might be because of that.

But when I managed to stop and hold my head at the building's entrance, a sharp noise like Keane suddenly crushed my ear.

As if it were not the sound of this world, it was a sharp sound overheard in the noise in the building, just in the head of a thousand cranes.

(This is)

The heartbeat of the thousand cranes rang out in response.

I remember this feeling. I've heard this sound before......

(This, this is!

Chizuru, who unconsciously held both ears by his hand, managed to prepare his escaping breath. Still, the nostalgic and strange sound that resonates in my head does not stop, but on the contrary becomes heard a little louder, a strength that I very much don't think of as an audible.

An equally slightly late hour came into the building when company employees and OLs looked sideways at Chizuru, who was stopping in a flickering and suspicious manner, and passed by. It doesn't seem to be heard by others.

Yes, I remember.

This was also the case then. After this sharp sound, I hear a 'voice' from somewhere...

"Chizu...... l......"

"Hey Ayase!?

Suddenly, the sound stopped when the chavon balls felt like they were sprinkling with bread.

At the same time, Chizuru panicked and raised his face when he could see that someone was grabbing him by the shoulder all the time. Then right next door, Chief Tangzawa, wrinkled between his eyebrows with a worried face, stood with his neck tilted to peek into Chizuru.

"Ah..."

And Chizuru accidentally leaked his voice.

"What's up? Stand in a place like this all morning. Does it hurt your head, too?

Tangzawa's tone seemed to care about Chizuru as much as it was a little daunting. A white shirt and gray tie peek from the dark blue suit, with hints of morning aftershave. Chizuru's consciousness gradually returned to reality.

"Shh, sorry, my friend came to stay last night and I couldn't sleep much... I'm dizzy"

I'm not lying.

Though I didn't tell you everything.

When Chizuru corrected his posture and managed to make a smile, Tanzawa looked like he was going to think about whether he should be convinced for a while, and shrugged his shoulder like he had no choice.

"You want to go to the infirmary?

"No, no. I'm just really feeling a little dizzy. I have low blood pressure, so I do sometimes. It's okay."

"If Ayase says so..."

Tangzawa's one hand gently touched Chizuru's back. "Shall I come up with you? Don't fall down, okay?

On the big hand hitting his back, Chizuru squinted for a moment. But before trying to escape that hand, Tanzawa cleverly took Chizuru to the front of the elevator.

There are lots of other mountain people around, and maybe they're just caring about Chizuru's health that he's dizzy. Still, Chizuru felt something warm on his spine, like Tanzawa's affection, like passion.

I can't hear a 'voice' or a sound anymore.

When the elevator arrived with the sound of a tin familiar to his ear, the door opened. Chizuru and Tanzawa rode in to be sucked into it mixed with many others.

Before the door closed, Chizuru looked back over his shoulder and stared remnantly at the building's entrance.

I wonder what it was.

I did feel it last summer, it looked just like that feeling. Though it was only a momentary event.

Were you excited last night because you told the dance the truth, and you just felt this hallucination? Or...?