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…No way, no way, it can’t be…

I didn’t reply and instead asked her a question myself.

“Are you… Mika… from Japan?”¹
“That’s right. I’m… Mika Magarigi… Ayumu Joujou’s… your childhood friend…” she replied with a smile on her tearstained face.

Quickly, drops of water trickled down from my eyes.
Jeez, what is this… It’s Mika, after all. The one I love so much. My childhood friend. Both the way she talks, and her mannerisms are Mika’s. It’s definitely her. Though she looks different.

As my tears were flowing, I reflexively hugged the girl who was very likely Mika, and cried.
“Ah… Mika… Mika~… Mika…”

Together with that cry, my tears started to flow like a waterfall. I had wanted to see her again. Even though we had been together all the time, we were suddenly pulled apart. I never forgot about her. Neither when I almost died, when I cleared the dungeon, when I was hunting fish in the sea, when I was in the middle of the tournament, nor when I was with Karua.
The one… the one who means the most to me is currently right in front of me. I’m touching her.

“Ah… Ayumu~… I wanted to see you again~~…”
Mika was also crying. She was hugging me in turn, as she wept large teardrops and screamed my name.

“Mika~~… Mika~…”
“Ayumu~… Ayumu…”

I recalled all of the time I spent with her. Like birthdays, or when I protected her.
It’s probably the same for her.
We both thought that we could never see each other again.
But I wonder, was it fate that brought us together?

At this time, we crossed time and space and met again.

____
__
_

The span of time, that seemed to both last forever and just for a moment, had passed. I had calmed down. Though, I was probably exhausted from crying.

Mika spoke first.
“You know, I… When you died, Ayumu, I thought it was the end of the world… It might be weird to say this now, so shortly after reuniting, but… I don’t want to have any regrets if we get separated again,” she blushed and relaxed her mouth as she said this. “I’ve loved you for so, so~ long.”

I also opened my mouth.
“When I came to this world, the most important thing in my thoughts was you, Mika. I regret not confessing during our school trip. Let me tell you, too.”
When I thought about saying it deliberately, I felt a bit embarrassed. But it’d be wrong, not to say it here and now.
“…I love you.”

We looked at each other’s faces. Mika’s face was bright red. Mine was likely, too. Then our mouths relaxed, and we smiled.

Well, I’ve done the one thing I absolutely had to do.

“Mika, what are you going to do from now on?” I asked, looking at her. “Will you accompany Mr. Lahand? Or will you stay with me? For longer.”
“The answer is obvious, isn’t it? Why are you even asking?”
“I see, in that case, we’ll need to tell Mr. Lahand and the others, don’t we?”
“Right, we have to give them our thanks.”
“Yep, so let’s go over there.”
“Yeah!”

We headed back to the inn’s lobby. So we could thank them and for Mika to say goodbye.

TL notes:
They only use 好き (“like”, “love”) here, which is somewhat closer to “like” than “love”, but it’s pretty clear they’re talking about love in this case.

1. In the original he first calls her ミカ (mika) in katakana and the 美花 (mika) in kanji. Same as the last chapter, there’s no difference in pronunciation, so this wouldn’t work in actual dialogue (unless I’m missing something big about pronunciation differences between katakana, hiragana, and kanji). I added the “from Japan” to clarify that he’s asking if she’s the Mika he knows.