Cardfight!! Vanguard: Generations Volume 4 [Ryouta Rival]

- Part 13

All I could hear in this moment was the sound of rain rushing past me.

...in my immediate vision was a lone woman.

Rinbayashi Amou.

She was like a ghost.

Her skin was paler than a sheet of paper, her long pitch-black hair was darker than space, and her vast cosmic hollow eyes sucked you in like a black hole.

Today too, her existence seemed almost translucent.

Like she stood in a world that was above all of ours.

In a realm none of us could reach, no matter how much we tried to seize it like her.

It was like she existed between the very fabric of reality and dreams.

If I didn't know any better, if you told me she was an alien princess from another world, I would believe it.

That was the sort of impression that Rinbayashi commanded.

Even though we were in the same class, we had only ever meaningfully interacted once.

She made small talk to me during our first war against 3rd Year A Class, but afterwards, both of us went on our separate ways.

Looking back, she was probably trying to sound out how I felt about our shared situation.

And like her, I didn't want to bring it up.

But when Nakajima started his rampage at school, Rinbayashi had no choice but to bring it up to me...

...because I didn't recognise her on our first meeting.

That was the first time she ever felt real.

Like she was on the same level I was.

I felt as though I could reach out and touch her.

She was there, in the present moment, by my side.

But that beauty was rendered destroyed by the black hole of the past.

Today too, her ephemerality was tainted by my knowledge of what was to come.

She passed by Megami and stood right in front of me.

Her eyes gazed into mine.

I really would fall.

"...Takanori-san."

Her quiet and soft voice cut through the white noise.

"Will you come with me?"

Rinbayashi extended her pale right hand out towards me.

It was so ghostly... so fragile... and so small.

Covered on her palms were faint streaks of freshly wiped blood.

"Um, excuse me?"

Before I could respond, Megami cut in between us.

Rinbayashi didn't so much as glance at her. She sidestepped forward, reentering the space in front of me.

Megami furrowed her eyebrows before cutting in between us again, this time grabbing Rinbayashi by the shoulder to stop her from moving.

"I apologise for being so forceful, but can you two stop ignoring me for a moment and explain what's going on?"

For the first time in their interaction, Rinbayashi looked at Megami.