There is a moment when night collapses.
Not when the moon vanishes.
Nor when, because of that, the stars fail to shine.
It is not because the coming day is feared, nor because the sun is on its way.
When there is no one who waits for the night.
Or when there is no one left who remembers.
Only then does the night collapse.
She realized that only after she finished her choice.
She did not regret it.
It had to be that way.
Only when she herself collapsed did the day arrive. For the one who remembers, what’s needed is not night but day.
Thus.
She was certain she had to do so.
But contrary to that resolve,
if she had any regret, it was that she should have chosen just a little later.
That she should have chosen lazily, even a day later—
that alone was all she regretted.
Hoooo—!!
Black smoke wavered. The spewing force surged from below upward. With that rising surge, it…