Chapter 1724 - 239 - Give Up (6)

Right now, Kaori's eyes were so wide that they practically looked like saucers, and she had the expression of someone who had just been told something so ridiculous that her brain was struggling to process what she had just heard.

"B-But... how can that be?" she asked, her voice trembling as she stared at me. "A-Are you really... Tsubasa?"

She looked me up and down several times, almost as if she were desperately searching for something familiar about me that could confirm what I had just told her.

I couldn't really blame her for being confused.

From her perspective, I probably looked completely different from the person she remembered.

"I am Leon in this world now," I told her calmly. "The Tsubasa that you knew died in that world."

The moment I said those words, she sucked in another deep breath.

It seemed like every revelation I gave her made her heart jump all over again.

I honestly wondered how much more information she could take before her brain simply decided that it had enough for one day.

"H-How... how did this happen?" she asked after a moment, still staring at me as though she was afraid that I might disappear if she looked away.

She seemed to be believing me now.

At the very least, she appeared to have finally accepted that I really was Tsubasa, even though there was still some disbelief hiding behind her eyes.

"Well, I don't really know," I admitted honestly. "For some reason, I woke up here inside the body of a baby."

"L-Like those isekai stories?" she asked.

She sounded genuinely surprised, although I suppose she had enough experience with manga to understand what I was talking about.

She had read those kinds of stories before, so naturally, I figured she would recognize the concept without me having to explain everything from the beginning.

Honestly, that made the whole explanation considerably easier.

Trying to explain reincarnation to someone who had never encountered the concept would have been an absolute nightmare, and I really didn't want to spend the next several hours sounding like some guy explaining the plot of a manga to someone who had somehow skipped the first hundred chapters.

"I know those things are supposed to only happen in manga," I said, "but something completely crazy happened to me anyway, and even now, I still can't completely believe it myself."

I paused for a moment before continuing.

"Sometimes, I still feel like I'm dreaming, honestly. I mean, I died in one world and somehow woke up in another one as a baby, so there isn't exactly a normal explanation for any of this."

I looked down at my hands.

Slowly, I clenched them into fists, feeling my fingers press against my palms as I reminded myself that this body was real.

The sensation was familiar.

The warmth of my skin was real.

The pressure against my palms was real.

I could even feel my pulse beating beneath my skin.

"But right now, yeah..." I continued, looking back at her. "I guess this is my reality now."

"Y-You really are Tsubasa..." she whispered.

Her voice was so quiet that I almost had trouble hearing it.

Then, as if those words had finally allowed everything to sink in, her eyes widened once again.

Tears immediately began gathering at the corners of her eyes.

One tear rolled down her cheek.

Then another followed.

Before long, they were pouring down her face one after another, and she didn't even seem to notice that she was crying anymore.

The tears were thick and plentiful, and there was something different in her expression now.

Her eyes seemed brighter than they had moments ago.

It was almost as though a little bit of light had returned to them after being buried beneath years of sadness.

For the first time since I had seen her again, she looked like someone who had finally found a reason to hold onto something.

It looked like hope had started making its way back into her heart.

"That's right," I told her with a smile.

I didn't know what else I could say.

Those two words were probably enough.

It was probably the first time she had ever seen me smile like that, especially after everything that had happened between us.

She stared at me for several seconds.

Her lips trembled.

Then she suddenly started crying much harder than before.

"Tsubasa..."

Her voice cracked as she said my name.

She cried loudly, finally allowing all the emotions she had been holding inside to come pouring out without trying to stop them.

All the sadness she had carried.

All the loneliness.

All the anger.

All the helplessness.

Everything seemed to come out at once.

I could tell she had been holding those feelings inside for far too long.

Honestly, it was probably good that she was finally crying.

Crying wasn't going to magically solve everything she had gone through, and I knew better than to think that one emotional reunion could somehow erase so many days of pain.

Still, maybe she needed this.

Maybe she simply needed someone from her past to tell her that she wasn't completely alone.

Even if I couldn't fix everything for her, I could at least stay there and let her cry.

"Tsubasa!" she cried as she suddenly rushed toward me.

She wrapped both arms around me and hugged me tightly.

I didn't push her away.

Instead, I simply stood there and let her hold onto me as tightly as she wanted.

After a moment, I wrapped my own arms around her as well.

My feelings probably weren't as overwhelming as hers were, so I didn't hug her nearly as tightly as she hugged me, but I still wanted her to know that I wasn't rejecting her.

I wanted her to have this moment.

After everything she had apparently gone through, she deserved at least a little bit of happiness.

***

After some time had passed, Kaori finally seemed to calm down.

Her breathing gradually became steadier, and she wiped some of the remaining tears from her cheeks while trying to regain her composure.

Her eyes were still red from crying, but at least she wasn't sobbing anymore.

"That's why I thought..." she muttered quietly.

She lowered her head slightly.

"This Leon is such a jerk..."

I couldn't help but wonder if my personality from my previous life had somehow followed me into this one.

Apparently, even reincarnation couldn't completely get rid of some habits.

That was honestly a little embarrassing to think about.

"I never expected... to see you again," she said after a short pause.

She looked back at me.

"I'm really happy."

Her voice was much calmer now, although I could still hear the emotion behind it.

Then she suddenly stopped herself.

Her lips pressed together tightly, and she looked away as though she had almost said something that she wasn't ready to reveal.

I noticed the hesitation immediately.

She looked like she was debating whether she should continue or simply keep whatever she had been about to say inside her head.

Before she could force herself to say anything else, however, I decided to stop her.

"You have to go home, Kaori," I told her gently. "You can't stay here."

"H-Huh?"

She looked genuinely surprised.

Her expression changed almost immediately, as though she hadn't expected those words to come from me.

Still, this was something that needed to be said.

Kaori wasn't from this world.

She belonged somewhere else.

She had a life waiting for her on the other side, and no matter how happy she was that we had managed to meet again, I couldn't simply pretend that she could stay here forever.

"Right..."

Her voice became quieter.

She gave me a forlorn smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"But..."

She started to say something.

Then she stopped.

For a moment, she looked like she wanted to continue, but the words simply refused to come out.

That same forlorn smile appeared on her face again.

"Never mind," she finally said. "It's fine."

She lowered her gaze before slowly looking back at me.

"Right now... I'm just happy that I got to see you again."

She sounded like she genuinely meant it.