༄ Let's meet again...༄

༄ 48. Broken Bonds

The Captain and Demon manager of Inarizaki's volleyball team were stepping out of the gymnasium, the bright sun was upon them like bees with their honey.

It was around 12 o'clock in the morning when the two decided to take a walk through the city of Hyōgo.

"Do you still remember the time when I saved your grandma?" the Fox girl suddenly asked the man beside her out of nowhere.

"You mean the time when you appeared with a ton of bruises on your body?"

"And here I thought you had been into a fight," the man chuckled, which earned him a little hit on his arm from the white haired girl.

"But jokes aside, I'm really glad that you were the one who saved her," he honestly said.

"If you weren't there, at the right place, at the right time, there wouldn't be a future for her anymore..."

"Hmm," the girl hummed. "Sometimes, the saved ones need to save their saviors," Aria softly muttered.

"Did you say something?"

"Now that I think of it..." Aria trailed off, diverting the topic. "That was also the moment we became closer, right Kita-san?"

'But you still will not call me by my first name,' he innerly sighed.

"You're right. And I'm glad we are now," the man honestly thought out loud.

The two looked at each other with full admiration for each other. Brown eyes met the sparkling pink ones. Their height differences didn't even matter right now. The fact that they had each other now, even if it was 5 centimeters apart, was a moment of sheer joy to them.

"Is that you, Tia-chan?" a deep voice suddenly asked out of nowhere, interrupting their moment.

The unofficial couple turned their heads and were met with a familiar yet unfamiliar tall young man.

The boy has long blond hair and messy bangs. As noted by the two, the boy was a very handsome and tall young man who looked really masculine and mature for his age. On top of that, he wore a familiar blue boy's uniform that Aria could recognize anywhere.

"Mo...miji?" Aria questioned with widened eyes.

"It's been a while, Tia-chan," the young man chuckled.

"I-Is that really you, Momiji?!" Aria yelled and went to approach him, only for him to take a couple of steps back.

"Tia I-,"

"Impossible..." the Fox girl muttered through her breaths, when she noticed his change in aura.

"Kita-san, will you please buy a vanilla ice cream for me?" she suddenly requested.

The Captain understood that the two 'cousins' wanted to talk alone and left the scene.

"How?" Aria asked the young man in front of her.

"...."

"How is it possible?"

"That... I unfortunately do not know, Tia," Momiji sighed.

"One night, I woke up in the middle of the night with tears streaming down my face, but I didn't know why. I suddenly felt an empty hole in my soul and cried my heart out," Momiji explained.

"Then I knew I was freed from the curse,"

"Tia, you were right. There is a way to break the curse," the young man exclaimed which took the girl's attention.

"But the way isn't as simple as searching for a key for a key lock,"

"I think it gradually breaks as time passes by due to the curse slowly diluting from generation to generations,"