[Serialized Novel] "Heart's Chick" Episode 18

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"Can... can a |Sylph| speak human language?"
Kanou-sama muttered with hollow eyes.
I lowered my gaze at this belated realization. I had wondered if it were possible, but she hadn't known that fairies could speak or communicate. I bit my lip, realizing only now that this was the reason for our current situation.
"It seems so."
"...Why?"
Kanou-sama asked me with a look of agony. Her expression turned sharp in an instant.
"Why? Why? Why!?"
Over and over again.
"I believe both fairy tears and living blood are things beyond what we humans can handle."
"Ha! Speaking of which, why are you so nonchalant right now despite having suffered a major injury earlier? You can say such things after receiving so much of a fairy's grace!"
"...That may be true, but."
"There was no confirmation of whether you were with a fairy... It was information from a friend of an acquaintance, and it's strange to be so concerned about the speed of wound healing. ...But still!"

Kanou Towako was screaming. Strangely, her voice didn't echo; it reached my heart quietly and directly. In the darkness, only she and I were clearly visible, and I felt that this told me we were in a world that was not of this earth.

Perhaps this place is inside the heart.

I had entered the heart of the woman who had touched my own heart.
And what do you know? We were not in the familiar waiting room of the hospital, but in the darkness.
Only emotions and words entered my head. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but since there was only one person, it was easier to deal with. It was a much quieter space than the jumbled hearts one encounters on a crowded train.

"Taming a fairy, domesticating it, and manipulating it to lend you its power when the time comes. You are quite the clever one!"
"...I have no such intention at all."
"Liar! Humans are humans after all. Everyone has a weak heart. You're just running away to a method of keeping a fairy nearby without hunting it because it hurts your conscience!"
"If that is what you think, you are welcome to think so."
"I learned that there is a way to bind them without hunting. That is about the only profit I've gained from meeting you."
Kanou-sama had been like this for a long time.
How intense her emotional fluctuations were.
At this rate, her body wouldn't last. Her heart would just keep wearing away.
Even if she underwent the heart-healing treatment my master taught me, her heart was so tightly closed that it didn't seem like something that could be set right in a few months or so. She couldn't listen to people's words, and she had been living while neglecting the "present" because of a painful past and an anxious future for a long time.

"Can't you leave that fairy alone?"
I suggested with a feeling of despair.
Had Hina and I done something to this person? Since we lived quietly deep in the forest, I wanted her to leave us alone. That was my wish and my hope.
"That child is innocent. There is no reason for her to be hunted. I was surprised at how much capture tools have evolved, but even if you improve them into the best tools in the future, fairies will eventually become an endangered species. There are limits."
"The limit has already been reached."
"Is that so? That is precisely why I believe that we doctors have no choice but to face our patients steadily and diligently without relying on fairies."
"You relied on one, didn't you?"
...We were back to square one.

She envied the fact that only I was managing thanks to Hina's power. She wanted to be saved, too.

"You are also human. If it's painful, let's say it's painful. The power of fairies is for the sake of the people, and while that grand cause is certainly true, if you yourself are in too much pain, why not swallow your own tears? I don't know if that will make you feel any better, but..."
"If I..."
"If you can become healthy and look forward, many patients will be saved by that. You will feel better, and the patients will be happy. Is it difficult for you to think that way right now?"
"......"
Her gaze wavered. Perhaps she was hesitant.
I believe that all people are creatures who wish to be "cherished."
They are seeking love. ...Probably. I wonder about those who are truly strong.

Communicating directly heart-to-heart in the darkness. It was a strange sensation.
She looked into my eyes. I was startled. Her eyes... she had no pupils. The inside of both eyes was darkness.
"I have already swallowed plenty of tears."
Her hand grabbed my chest. This was not the real world. Her hand pierced through my chest and sank into my body with a thud.
"I have also swallowed living blood. Even so, the wounds of the heart remain open."
"Ugh..."
Something was grabbed, something was gripped.
She, who shed black tears from her pitch-black eyes, continued.

"No one can heal me. Not tears, nor blood.
Therefore, Okuno Kokoro. Send that |fairy| to me.
I will devour her, body and all."

(To be continued)

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