Sunset Glow
Woooaaah…! So prettyyyy…
For real… It looks so mysterious…
…I don’t think there’s a person alive that could hate a view like this.
So this is… a sunset that humans would find beautiful.
The sun is setting…
(It’s almost like the end of life…)
This is a view that can’t be seen unless everything is perfect. The tides, the weather, all of it… This has to be a reward for everyone’s hard work.
Is that so… I suppose that’d make me pretty lucky, wouldn’t it?
Hey, I wanna go get a closer look! Let’s move towards the water more.
Yeah. It’s not like we can come to a place like this everyday.
Footsteps.
Be careful while you’re walking, everyone!
Ev3ns kinda look like they’re right out of a painting, walking around in the sunset… Nayuki-kun, thank you for making the effort to bring us here.
……
Thud.
(Sighs)… I feel like an idiot. Why am I going this far…
This is exactly why I didn’t want to get this close…
Huh…?
Whenever he brings up when he’s going to die… I feel so helpless. I end up trying too hard, like an idiot.
Before the whole metaverse ordeal and even after… I still find myself working for him…
I hate it… I can’t stand that I keep doing this even though I’d made up my mind to never do it again.
(Nayuki-kun… really cares about his brother…)
While we were on our way home, after seeing his “Death Prophecy”, it was dusk. The entire world was painted with the colors of the sunset… just like it is now.
Huh…?
It was the last walk we had in the sunset together… I couldn’t see his face because of the sun gleaming behind him.
It felt like… he was walking towards death. The fact that he didn’t say anything scared me… The fact that he was going to die scared me…
(Nayuki-kun…)
I didn’t want to be pulled along by his whims anymore, so I wanted him to stay out of the way until he died… and that’s why I got him locked up.
……
I’m sorry, what?
I said, I wanted him to stay out of the way. So I took advantage of the commotion going on within his fight team, framed him for assault, and got him imprisoned.
Knowing him, I knew he’d take the fall in order to protect his former allies.
So, I drew him to the scene of the crime… He probably knew it was my doing too.
(I just listened to a WILD confession…)
…Well, it was still grating that he was smiling so casually while he was in prison. He even managed to climb his way to the top and get called “King”… (scoffs).
No matter where he is, he’ll still find a way to be annoying…
(Nayuki-kun… The impression I had of you being a kind and thoughtful manager… is crumbling…)
Ugh, damn it all…
There’s no point in bothering with it anymore. Let’s just go and take some promotional photos!
Y-Yeah, okay!
(I’ll stop thinking about the Kitakata brothers for now…)
The sunset on the wet sand is all patchy and uneven~ It might not be totally fab, but that’s makes it just like us ♪
“Fab”… Slang from the 1970’s meaning “fabulous”. Definition recorded.
You’re not wrong… It’s got its flaws and missing pieces…
Still, I didn’t expect us to perform the refrain perfectly today. It was truly a miracle at that moment.
I had literally noooo idea what to expect, but once we got up on stage I had so much fun my head was gonna explode!
What about you, Taotao? Didn’t it make you feel alive?
…Yeah. I’ve been… feeling like a dead man walking for three years now.
For the first time in… a while… I felt like I was truly living in this world.
And that’s all thanks to Raitin too!
Me…?
If you weren’t thinking so quick on your feet, then we wouldn’t have even been on stage, Raitin!
All the BIG LOVE from the audience was so real, I could feel it. Chii doesn’t really know what love’s supposed to be like, but on stage, it really felt like everyone was shouting, “I love you!”
“I love you”…
Taotao felt alive~ Chii felt a lotta love~ It’s all ‘cuz of Raitin, right?
True. I have to thank you for that, Raito-san.
……
After that bangin’ performance we had today, I think I’m gonna start liking sunsets too!
I used to haaaate them~
You hated the sunset?
Mhm! Keep this hush between us, but my parents were literally never home. I used to wait for them around sunset time to see if they’d come back.
It was a time where I didn’t even think there would be any food on the table. So it reminds me of how helpless I felt when I was little.
But that starts fresh now!
It reminds me of when I was in high school… Hanging out at arcades and going to karaoke…
But… halfway through the school year I wasn’t able to attend anymore.
Is that so? You still have time on your side, though, right? Maybe you can re-enroll and finish.
I… guess so. I haven’t really felt like I was living here up until now, but that’s an option.
I didn’t think there would be things that would help me feel alive. I think I’ll start looking for new goals and things to enjoy from here on out…
Things are lookin’ up for you, Taotao! Chii’s pretty good at games, so let’s play together sometime! We can make a lotta memories ♪
Yeah.
You two are always so cute… It’s like watching a game of make-believe.
Kuguri, what does the sunset mean to you?
……
What’s that?
…From Franz Liszt’s transcendental etudes.
Plüss. Could a machine like you have any special attachment to the sunset?
It… reminds me of the death of my developer.
…!
My developer… loved the sunset. It was when he… wished to die.
In those unclear moments, when the developer looked at me… he seemed to truly believe I was his deceased son.
The sunset signifies… death, and the end of love.
Death… and the end of love…
So even you have felt love, Kinari? If you say there’s an end… that means there had to have been a beginning, no?
I simply used the phrase to represent my feelings for my developer. It was picked from a vast pool of data.
Even so… I’m still a bit jealous.
…? Why’s that? What’s the sunset mean to you, Raitin?
I…