Only with Your Heart

Actually when I went outside, the rain was much stronger than I saw through the glass window.

Fortunately, there was little wind, so it didn't come down like blowing from the side. As Chizuru turned to Tanzawa to open his umbrella and enter, he received the umbrella pattern from Chizuru and held it himself.

"Um, I can have..."

"No, because there's a difference in height. When Ayase holds it, I have to bend my neck. Let me have it."

It is true that Tangzawa fell into one long category or another, and Chizuru is not particularly tall. If he doesn't raise his umbrella high like that, Tanzawa will have to pull his head in. Having no choice but to be so firm on a five-minute journey, Chizuru agreed to ask Tanzawa to hold his umbrella and decided to start walking.

The rainwater flowing over the asphalt in the driveway is reflecting the downtown neon and glowing fantastically glitter, with countless automobiles busily crossing over it.

On the guardrail protected sidewalk, people returning from work with colorful umbrellas were headed to the station to flow.

I thought Chizuru was blurry that this world was really convenient.

There was naturally no asphalt paved road in the world of Ruklov, so sometimes when it rained badly, it seemed impossible to walk without dipping into mud until the candles. It wasn't even an umbrella, so it was one of two things: go outside and get wet, or stay in the rain and stay motionless.

Once and for all he......

"What are you laughing at, Ayase?

"Huh."

Suddenly called out, Chizuru looked up at Tanzawa in surprise. And then Chizuru dyed her cheeks red when she noticed herself laughing unconsciously about it.

"Shh, excuse me, alone. I suddenly remembered something strange."

"Really?

Though Tangzawa didn't have the kind of vibe to blame for it, Chizuru felt so uncomfortable that she had to shake something else. Sometimes a hasty, mouth-running dialogue is unstoppable, even though we know it usually doesn't call for a lot of results.

Chizuru looked around and searched for the motivation for the story.

About ten meters away, a sign of a small Italian restaurant stands wet in the rain.

"Oh, you know, that sign shop over there is so delicious. It's small and it's stuck in the back, but it's always full for lunch and it's hard to get in."

"Huh?"

"Before this, there were times when I was accidentally free and I went in, but the interior was beautiful..."

"Huh, you didn't know that"

And whining, Tanzawa seemed to be looking through the menu written on that sign. "Ayase, aren't you hungry? Me, I want to eat amazing right now."

"Oh, wow, I haven't..."

To be honest, Thousand Cranes was also getting a little hungry and I lied because I wanted to avoid becoming the flow of this story, although I didn't want to resist the temptation of delicious pasta and salad. Oh, idiot, I can't believe you're waving about a restaurant on your way home from work like this.

Tangzawa pointed that out.

"Ayase wielding a meal story at this hour is bad! I'll treat you, go out with me. It's hard to get Italian on your own, because if it's full, I'll give up."

"So, but, you know"

It was Tanzawa who had the umbrella no matter how much he wanted to argue, so when he could change the direction of progress, he had to go with it. When they noticed, they stood at the entrance to the white tiled building. It's just a small building with its restaurant on the ground floor, a beauty salon upstairs and a law firm with a harsh (nasty) name on the third floor, and the exterior is a normal building with no particular philosophy.

I gazed and glanced inside the restaurant over the rain grain from part of it that was glazed, and although more than half the seats were filled, there were still some empty tables.

"Chief Tangzawa..."

And I tried to squeal the last resistance, but Tanzawa had already put his hands on the door.

As soon as the rain-wet bell makes a dull noise with Karan and the door opens, a bright voice of "Welcome" rings from the inside. Chizuru was kind of the type of person who felt bad about walking away when he heard this.

"You don't have to worry, I won't take it and eat it. I'm hungry, and Ayase likes it here, and I happen to have an empty seat. Stay with me."

When Tanzawa made his last push with a smile, Chizuru also felt silly to resist any more. Some of it would be due to the delicious scent that leaks out of the open door.

Chizuru entered the store after Tanzawa.

The store interior, lined with dark brown wooden tables and chairs, was unified and comfortable with a calm European-style interior.

One waitress wearing a black apron seems busy serving each table around. There were two types of recommendations for the day, so Tanzawa and Chizuru ordered one each and returned the menu. Wine was also recommended, but this was politely declined by Chizuru. Tanzawa didn't argue with that either.

When the waitress left her seat, the two faced each other quietly for a while.

"Something... I'm sorry I invited you so hard. It was after you asked me out weirdly to say no."

It was Tanzawa who opened his mouth first while reassembling his hands placed on the table. Chizuru replied without saying anything, shaking only his neck beside him, saying he didn't have to worry about it. Tangzawa smiled modestly and nodded as if he was somewhat relieved.

A brief silence came again, but I don't really care because of the busy interior of the store.

Tanzawa is looking around.

"You can stay calm in places like this. When I'm alone, I just go in the ramen shop, the beef bowl shop, that's all, so it's fresh."

The tone of Tanzawa this time was much more casual and bright. Chizuru is also followed and laughs.

"Chief Tangzawa, are you eating alone at a ramen shop or something?

"Ouch. I miss being single. I don't even have a girlfriend to make me lunch."

"If you look closely inside the company, there are a number of women who care about the chief. No doubt about it."

"I don't know..."

Tanzawa looked in trouble like she didn't know if she could laugh or be depressed, and let her gaze swim sideways. "... I wonder if Ayase is in there"

It was a suppressed voice that whined to itself, but it also sounded clear to Thousand Cranes.

If... if I didn't have memories with Ruklov, Chizuru could have been one of the women employees who admired Tanzawa. As appealing as that sounded, Tangzawa was. But.

"Sorry......"

When Chizuru answered downwards, the waitress just returned and lined up the cutlery for the two seats.

"That's okay. That's what I already knew... and you raised it a little too badly. Sorry about this one. I don't talk like that anymore, so let's talk like colleagues normally."

It was Tanzawa's gentle smile that made him look like a slow-faced Chizuru.

"You can't call yourself a co-worker if you're a chief and a contractor, can you?

"It wouldn't be such a tough company. I'm at the same workplace and I get paid by the same president, so it's fine with a colleague. I was a contractor, too."

"Were you?

The bitter atmosphere broke down with that one word, and the two were laughing at each other. Because he ordered the recommended dishes, and the order came early, Chizuru was ready to enjoy dinner while listening to Tanzawa's memorabilia at the time of joining the company.

Soon, the topic was about Tanzawa's past lovers. We're just finishing up our meals and ordering each other some after-dinner coffee and tea.

According to the story, unexpectedly, only one woman Tanzawa had ever dated, which also naturally disappeared at the same time as each other's employment.

"I suddenly lost contact. I barely saw him since I started working, and I guess I have no choice..."

Tanzawa said so with a shrugged shoulder.

Chizuru, on the other hand, no longer knew what to say.

I wasn't confused by Tangzawa's love story. In that sense, Tangzawa was only speaking to me as a kind of joke of the past. But with that fact and Tanzawa's current reaction, Chizuru felt like he had been poked in the chest.

"Chief Tangzawa... can I ask you one thing"

Before thinking deeply, questions emerged from Chizuru's mouth.

"Yeah?"

"The woman I liked suddenly disappeared from my sight... what did you think? Angry, or sad, or..."

Tangzawa opened his eyes to his surprise and stared at Chizuru. And while I thought about it for a while, I slowly answered to choose the words carefully.

"At first, yeah... I was flabbergasted. I didn't really feel anything, and I was just kidding. I thought if it happened tomorrow, I'd be back to normal."

…………

"After I finally got a sense of reality and understood the situation, I was angry for a while... But this didn't last long, and I missed him right away. I miss you more than I'm sad."

I felt Tanzawa's dialogue pierced my chest one by one.

In Tanzawa and Luklov, the personality, the world in which they live and the way they think are completely different. Still, the answers given by one man through similar experiences were painfully realistic for Chizuru. Maybe Luklov felt the same way, I couldn't even breathe when I thought so.

"How long?"

"Hmm?"

"How long have you been able to remain fond of her after you broke up?

Maybe because Chizuru's expression was too serious, Tanzawa also tightened her mouth with no heart or stiff shoulders.

Though he wouldn't have any pleasant memories to remember, Tanzawa seemed seriously reminiscent of his past as he stared at Chizuru. And...

"... I promised I wouldn't talk about this anymore. Honestly, I think I dragged it all the way until I saw Ayase. I mean, until the next love."

Then the conversation ahead, Chizuru doesn't really remember.

I only remember blurry parts of Tangzawa behaving so brightly that he was empty, as if to mislead his confession, but the content of the conversation slipped through Chizuru's ears beautifully.

As promised, Tanzawa behaved gently to the end, and when the meal was over, the two walked together to the station. The rain was also somewhat weak, and after buying one of the vinyl umbrellas that was missing in the convenience store at the front of the ticket gate, I went on to each house with a goodbye greeting without anything.

And then I was swayed by the train by myself, I reached the nearest station at home, when I left the ticket and opened my umbrella again...... Finally, tears came to my thousand-crane eyes.

(Until the next love begins......)

In the other world, where maybe nearly fifteen years have passed, has Ruklov found his next love yet?

Behind Chizuru's brain, his broken hand touched the cheeks of someone Chizuru's unknown woman, and the fantasy arose of his low voice gently whispering in the ears of that yet unseen woman.

My heart screams that I don't like it as soon as possible, and I can help myself in the hand holding the umbrella. Even if it wasn't, the rain made my vision look even blurrier and less promising.

─ ─ At that time.

A strong tinnitus struck, and Chizuru dropped his umbrella to the ground.

At the same time, I get dizzy and I finally stand. Instead of stopping, the tinnitus grew stronger, so much so that my head ached.

Exactly the same as this morning.

That incredible sound exactly the same as that feeling that led Chizuru to the world of Lucrov, and kept him away.

"Take me... Take me..."

Chizuru was pleading with a trembling voice. "Take me! Bring me back to Lucroff!

The passers-by look at Chizuru, hiccup, dropping his umbrella and whining to himself. But I didn't care about that.

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

As a leak overflowed from somewhere far away, a 'voice' could be heard.

Chizuru made more tears in his eyes in another sense.

"Caeli...... Masca...... Condo..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

"Go home! Let me go home! Save the world and the kingdom and everything again, so please, bring me back to Lucroff!

I felt that if I missed it now I would not have the next chance... just like when I made up my mind to go back to my sick grandmother.

But there's no more stray like it was then. The only remainder of his heart was that he would not be able to see him without being able to say anything to dance, and everything else, Chizuru's heart was entirely determined.

"Return me!

Yes, right after I shouted at the end of the sky like nowhere else.

Chizuru's vision overflowed with golden light, and his body felt fluttering and floating... his consciousness disappeared so that he could be swallowed by the light as it was.