Silver Wish

Urgh, this is no good at all; she got close to no sleep. But her gaze fell on the strap that Kiryu managed to patch up. Maybe she can gradually remember if she keeps looking at this stuff. "Lila, watch your step."

Lila looked over and noticed the hole a few steps away from her feet. It was no simple hole; it was large and looked like a meteor hit it. Today she was inspecting the rest of the town with Kiryu. Unlike in Star Town, however, the streets of New York were slightly better. There were people on the streets.

"It's strange." Kiryu mumbled. "If he is alive, this would be the nearest town."

"..."

"Lila, are you sure you want to join me on this investigation? You can still go back."

"I'm not that weak."

'Though I am sure Kiryu noticed that I cried.' Her red and puffy eyes were difficult to hide until Kotori-chan took her to her room and used makeup.

She watched many more videos after Kiryu left and practically stayed up all night.

Her thoughts broke off when he turned around and pinched her cheeks. "Your eyes are still red and puffy, you're making quite the face."

"B--be quiet!" Lila exclaimed.

"You know I did have hidden intentions bringing you here."

Lila laughs. "En, figured."

"Right, my Lila is clever. You've always been very sharp."

When she senses the shift in his tone, her gaze softens.

"Even if I want to feign ignorance. I can't keep doing so for long, you know? After all, right now, so many people are in pain. It would be a sin for me to ignore those who are hurting despite having the ability to do so. Though I am not exactly sure if I can solve the root of the problem, I know I can do something to change their present situations."

That is why that is why she left that day. The reason why she left him behind even though she loves him so much.

"By the way, do you want to contact the other guys?"

A knowing ah escaped her lips when he said those words. Indeed it would do no good leaving them out of the dark.

"Shichiro must be worried."

Lila laughed softly when she heard those words. "I see you point Shichiro out first."

"Isn't he the one you are closest to?"

"En."

"Don't hang out with Shichiro so much."

Lila laughs. "Aha. But the stuff he ends up researching is really interesting. Besides," a soft gaze appears on her friend's face. "sn't it because of Shichiro that the two of us were able to become more honest to what we wanted as idols?"

"Well, I'll admit it's because of his encouragement that we entered the selection."

"A huh, even though we were both thinking about it anyway. We both had our hesitations. To be compared with our parents and Kumi-senpai, as well as Onee-chan's generation. However, Shichiro was the one who told us to hold our head up high."

"When you praise him this much, I feel awkward as his best friend."

Lila looked over at Kiryu. "But Kiryu, you're the one who told me to believe in him. In fact, during that time, people doubted him. You were the first one who stood up for him too. You did several things like the one hundred challenge to prove that Shichiro was a good person."

She watched as Kiryu turned red at those words. "Wha- wait, why do you still remember that? It happened a long time ago."

"Why would I forget? They were important memories of during the time we got closer."

Yuhi sighed, defeated. "Even now, I can't argue with you if you say it like that."

"Do you want to argue with me?"

"No, you are right after all." He trailed off. "As a genius, someone who's intelligence was far above others. Shichiro was an outcast. The other children didn't want to get close to him. It's not as though they didn't want to because someone tried. But others couldn't keep up a conversation with him. They couldn't understand what he was talking about and vice versa. Whenever he did get into a group, and they talked about normal topics. Shichiro would always be like, 'I don't comprehend why you waste so much time on something like that. ..'"

Now that she thought about it, she had similar memories regarding Shichiro. Although it got better during high school, Lila still had those occasions where she, without fail, dragged him away before the fight could start and when they returned to the classroom. Those children wouldn't speak with him anymore.

Nakara Shichiro is a complicated person, but for Kiryu and her, he was very important.

"I remember once asking him if he was sad. But he told me,' That emotion is not needed in education. 'To Shichiro, his studies were everything but ---"

"If you're close to him, you'll see how lonely he is. Once you've seen it, you can't pull away from him, right? But that would simply sound like pity. For me, it was because I could relate to him. However, Kiryu, you're not like that."

She didn't know what it was. Maybe it was due to their parent's friendship, or the fact that for as long as she could remember. Nakura Shichiro has always been by her side. But at some point, she found herself being with him always.

Even though she knew him for a long time, Shichiro told her not to speak with him in school. She enrolled late to school, so she didn't understand what that meant, and they even got into a fight about it. However, no sooner had they entered school, Lila understood what he was trying to do.

"He only wanted to help me. Because I entered late, it was already going to be difficult making friends. If I got involved with him then, it would be bad for him." she murmurs.

Even though she had Kiryu, Shichiro was always casually pulling her aside somewhere. He was always making sure that she saw the beauty of other people rather than their ugly sides. Like Kiryu, he tried to show her the good rather than the bad.

"Yes. For the longest time, Shichiro has always protected me. But there was also another person. I have a silly senpai who's always made sure that I see the beauty in everything rather than bad things. Even though it's stupid for them to do so, we are not foolish after all. We know the world isn't filtered through a rose tainted glass. Even when they know that we know that already, they continue to do so like fools."

She has a senpai who shields her from those things. She wondered what he was doing right now. When the world is in chaos, what is that person with so much strength doing? Is he using it for good, or is he slacking off?

"As for me, his existence is vital."

"Eh?"

"After all, it's because of Shichiro that you can open up to others.. I am very grateful for that."