Ch.111Chapter 18. Repayment (2)

There’s a certain thing you always hear when receiving psychological counseling.

Take a break from work.

Take some time to relax and rest properly. Get more sleep.

Easier said than done.

Why do people work in the first place? To make a living, of course. Plus, regular psychological counseling costs quite a bit of money. People need to work just to afford those expenses.

Get more sleep.

This too was surprisingly difficult to follow. Some people had to wake up in the middle of the night to rush to burning buildings.

And if those two conditions weren’t properly met, the third one—”take time to relax and rest properly”—became impossible.

How could you possibly rest properly by just lying down and closing your eyes when your heart was burning with rage?

“…”

I absentmindedly stared at the ceiling while stroking Kuro, who had settled on my stomach.

“Meow.”

Kuro purred, rubbing his face against my hand.

Kuro wasn’t particularly affectionate by nature. He didn’t resist being touched by humans, but he wouldn’t come seeking attention either.

He did enjoy climbing onto people, but it didn’t feel like affection. Rather, it was probably because humans were the warmest heat source in the room.

…I don’t want to get up.

My body felt incredibly heavy. Though the floor with just a blanket spread out wasn’t particularly comfortable, just lying there made my body feel like it was melting.

I hadn’t checked the clock, but it was probably time to get up and start preparing.

I needed to help Koko wash up, feed her, and head out to meet friends.

“…”

Ten minutes.

Let’s sleep for just ten more minutes.

I figured a quick nap wouldn’t hurt. After all, I wasn’t the type to oversleep.

With the sun shining so brightly outside, there was no way I’d sleep for hours.

As I stroked Kuro’s soft fur, I slowly drifted back to sleep.

*

“…Huh!”

I woke up with a start.

I hadn’t had a nightmare. In fact, I hadn’t dreamed at all. It was as if the time I’d been asleep had been deleted, leaving a gap in my memory.

The reason I woke up was—you know how sometimes when you’re sleeping, you suddenly feel like your arm or leg is falling somewhere?

As always in those moments, a chill ran down my spine and I thought:

‘What time is it?’

‘Hmm,’ the part of my brain that remained calm said. ‘Judging by the sunlight, it seems I’ve slept in a bit.’

My eyes snapped open and my mind instantly cleared.

I pushed myself up from the floor and jumped to my feet.

Then I noticed that both of them were missing. Kuro and Koko.

Belatedly, I heard a sizzling sound coming from the kitchen.

The aroma of something delicious being grilled or stir-fried wafted over.

“…Koko?”

I got up and looked toward the kitchen. The kitchen door was open. Koko must have forgotten to close it.

I could see Koko’s black hair swaying. The ends of her hair, which I would normally have tied up, were swinging like a brush in pendulum motion.

That back view probably looked exactly like mine. Of course, I’d never see my own back.

I also heard a crunching sound. It was Kuro chewing his food.

“Kotone!”

Koko turned around when she heard my voice.

She was wearing the old apron I often used for cooking, the one I’d inherited from Yuka.

As Koko turned toward me, her body shifted slightly, giving me a glimpse of the kitchen.

There was something in the frying pan. Nothing strange, it looked like meat.

Now I could identify the smell more precisely. It was the smell of pork cooking.

“Cooking…?”

That was my immediate reaction.

Koko cooking?

My first thought was whether it was safe.

Koko doesn’t particularly like fire. Well, how many humans actually like fire?

She’s sensitive to heat, or rather, she would stand quite far away from the gas stove when it was on, just watching.

And now that Koko was cooking.

She had even washed herself and was properly dressed. Not pajamas, but outdoor clothes for going out.

Had she been preparing everything by herself while I was sleeping?

I slowly got up and approached Koko.

Koko was looking at me with a proud expression.

I slowly reached out and put my hand in Koko’s hair.

…It was still damp. And… a bit slippery too.

Maybe she hadn’t rinsed properly. With hair that long, it could happen. Until now, I had always washed it for her. Even I sometimes found it tedious to wash my own hair. In this state, her clothes beneath her hair would be wet.

Next, I looked at the frying pan.

Bean sprouts and meat were tangled together. It seemed she had learned how to make stir-fried pork with bean sprouts by watching me.

Judging by the color, it needed a bit more seasoning.

She had given Kuro too much food. It was like a heaping bowl of rice.

So in every aspect, what Koko had done was somewhat lacking, but…

“…You did well.”

That was all I could say.

What would it have been like normally?

Normally, I would have gotten up first and done everything. So that Koko wouldn’t have to move first. I would have washed Koko, dried her hair thoroughly, fed Kuro, and then started cooking.

But Koko had tried to do everything by herself without waking me up.

…Probably because of what I said in front of Kuro yesterday.

Had I hurt her feelings?

“…Let’s add a bit more soy sauce.”

Fighting back tears that threatened to well up, I deliberately bent down to get the soy sauce.

After adjusting the seasoning a bit more, I waited for Koko to stir-fry a bit longer—her hand movements weren’t practiced, but she managed decently—and then turned off the heat.

Now I noticed there was rice in the rice cooker too. I hadn’t seen the contents yet, so I wasn’t sure about its condition.

“I’ll… go wash up.”

“Okay! I’ll get everything ready!”

Koko nodded and exclaimed in response to my words.

I went into the shower and left the water running for a long time.

*

The rice… seemed to have a bit too much water.

But it wasn’t inedible. Considering she had learned just by watching me without any direct instruction, she had done quite well.

Ironically, seeing Koko like this allowed me to relax a little.

With just a bit more teaching, Koko would be able to live on her own.

I was still unsure about how to teach her to make a living, but at least she could manage daily life.

“Kotone.”

“Yes?”

“Is it good?”

Koko’s face showed a hint of worry as she asked.

Perhaps it tasted different from what I usually made for her.

Her expression was slightly anxious as she lowered her head and looked up at me.

“…Yes. It’s delicious.”

I answered.

It was delicious. Not perfect, but still tasty.

Only after hearing my answer did Koko smile brightly.

I felt a little more at ease.

*

“You look well-rested.”

Mako commented upon seeing my face.

“That’s good. You looked exhausted yesterday.”

Well, I had plenty of reasons to be exhausted.

These kids didn’t know, but so much had happened.

“I guess finding your cat suddenly appearing at your travel destination would be quite a shock.”

Mako seemed to think I was tired because of Kuro.

Well… that wasn’t entirely wrong.

I just nodded in response.

Thinking we might still be tired from yesterday’s trip, Fukuda, Mako, and Yamashita didn’t take Koko and me anywhere far.

We chose to sit and chat at restaurants and dessert shops. I liked that too.

…”Enjoy yourself leisurely,” wasn’t that what they said?

Though it wasn’t really my intention, I thought that living like this might not be so bad.

*

[Are you feeling better?]

By the time I received Yuka’s check-in call in the evening, I had recovered enough mentally to confidently answer, “Yes.”

[Still, rest well. I wish you could take tomorrow off too.]

“…I’ve already missed too many days.”

At this point, I actually felt a bit sorry for the manager.

Of course, he was the one who told me to take time off. And I’m not the type to be overly grateful to my capitalist employer.

But still, there are promises between people.

Money never comes for free. It passes from one person’s hand to another in exchange for something, whether it’s goods or labor.

The salary I receive from the manager might be considered a lot or a little, but considering it’s based on an hourly wage, missing work this frequently is quite a loss for the person paying.

[…I suppose so.]

In truth, Yuka probably wishes I would quit my job. I always come home late. By the time I prepare Koko’s dinner and take care of various things, time flies by.

I’m not a genius who can memorize textbook contents in one reading, and I also had to do the homework occasionally assigned at school.

By the time I finished everything, it would be quite late.

Though the work itself wasn’t particularly intense, the accumulated fatigue from everything would cause me to fall asleep as if passing out.

Yuka had seen me like this many times before.

[Still, take care of yourself. If you lose your health, you lose everything.]

I couldn’t help but smile at those words.

To hear something I used to hear in my thirties at this age.

It was what friends who saw me would occasionally say. And that was years ago, before I came to this side.

“I know.”

My body gets damaged but recovers. Yuka probably knows this when saying those words.

So I just answer like that.

…Because I can’t tell her that I might leave before my health breaks down.

“It’s late. Yuka, see you on Monday.”

[Okay.]

Yuka didn’t prolong the conversation after my words. Probably being considerate of my fatigue.

We exchanged goodbyes once more and ended the call.

“…Koko?”

I noticed Koko staring at me intently.

Wondering if she wanted something, I called out to her, but Koko just shook her head with a “Uu.”

Sometimes I really don’t know what she’s thinking.

Well, people are like that in general.

Alright.

We had already eaten dinner before coming home. I felt pleasantly tired, but I wasn’t ready to sleep yet. It was still much earlier than my usual bedtime.

I’d watch TV with Koko for about an hour before going to bed. Even then, I’d be sleeping much earlier than usual.

With that thought, I reached for the remote when—

Knock knock.

Someone was knocking at the door.

I let out a small sigh and got up.

“Should Koko go?”

“No, it’s fine.”

Koko asked when she saw me getting up rather reluctantly, but I waved her off.

I had a feeling who it might be. Just look at the time. Besides, there weren’t many people who visited me regularly.

Kagami was standing behind the front door.

With a rather complicated expression.

*

I placed a cup in front of Kagami and filled it with oolong tea.

Then I poured some for Koko, who was sitting at another corner, and finally filled my own cup across from Kagami.

I took a sip to wet my throat and said:

“So, why?”

“…”

Kagami fidgeted with the cup without picking it up, lost in thought.

“First, I want to apologize.”

“Apologize?”

“I said I would protect you, but I couldn’t do anything at all.”

I stared at Kagami, who was bowing his head to me.

“Is there a reason?”

“…There are several reasons.”

Kagami said.

I gave a slight nod. It wasn’t really appropriate behavior toward someone who appeared older than me. But what else could I say? Even something like “tell me” would sound just as rude.

Kagami didn’t seem offended and continued:

“First, that place… was Kyoto.”

“Because there are many of those kinds of people?”

“That’s part of it, and they’re also quite rigid.”

Rigid, huh.

I had heard it was a place that hadn’t changed much over the centuries. Many locals lived there, and the residents took great pride in their neighborhood.

Tokyo, just counting the oldest 23 wards, has a population of nearly ten million, and the entire metropolitan area has far more. It’s a massive city, the modern capital of Japan, where people from all over the country gather and intermingle.

Naturally, it was also a good place for different entities to blend in. Besides Kagami’s cult, other pseudo-religions thrived there too.

“So we never thought such a thing would be possible.”

Unfortunately, compared to exorcism organizations or government agencies rooted throughout Japan, the cult was merely small-scale.

It probably took them some time to figure out what had happened to me.

“Have you heard of turning living people into yokai?”

“…I’ve heard of it. Most yokai-related ghost stories are like that. But—”

It’s a different matter to believe it’s actually possible.

In history class, we learn that Park Hyeokgeose was born from an egg. We also learn that Park Hyeokgeose was likely a real historical figure, but no one actually believes he hatched from an egg.

“Throughout history, many have seen yokai, and some have survived encounters with them. Some yokai resemble humans.”

So naturally, stories about “humans transforming into yokai through some process” would be passed down.

In Korean, “beom” refers to both tigers and leopards. You can tell from the word “pyobeom” (leopard) that it contains “beom.”

Of course, Korea had organizations dedicated to hunting tigers and leopards, and experts in those organizations knew they were different animals.

But in most villages, stories were passed down suggesting tigers were male and leopards were female, showing how little they knew about the two.

When you’re just trying to avoid being eaten, there’s no luxury to make such distinctions.

“For example?”

“Well, a famous story would be Onibaba. It’s about a being who went mad after accidentally cutting open her daughter’s belly and killing her grandchild. There’s even a story about this yokai being exterminated. In the stories, they don’t even distinguish whether it’s a ‘yokai or human.'”

It’s just passed down as a legend about a yokai called Onibaba.

“…What if that’s the truth?”

“A cannibalistic demon who had eaten humans should have become a yokai.”

Kagami answered rather decisively.

But his expression still seemed somewhat unsettled.

“But… if one were to see such a being directly, the story might be different.”

“Could there be methods other than being born that way?”

“…”

Kagami furrowed his brow, lost in thought for a moment.

“To be honest, we’d like to know too. My sister might have succeeded because she’s clever in such matters… but unless one twists the natural order, how could a human body be turned into a yokai?”

“Twist the natural order?”

“…”

Kagami paused again.

“It’s our long-held wish. To connect with the divine and twist the natural order. And thereby create paradise.”

“…”

It was the first time I’d heard this.

But I wasn’t surprised. It was too plausible a story for such a group to pursue.

“So that’s why you’re trying to borrow the power of gods.”

“Yes. That’s why we’re trying to borrow divine power, and that’s why you and… Koko over there exist, I suppose.”

Kagami pronounced the name “Koko” very awkwardly. As if it was strange that Koko had a name at all.

For a brief moment, I felt the urge to ask if Koko and I were Kagami’s real daughters.

But I decided to put that question aside.

If I heard they were real, I might be shaken.

“Do you feel guilty for failing to protect me?”

“…”

“Then, could you research related materials? And tell me what you find.”

“I’ll do my best to dig up everything we know.”

Kagami nodded readily at my request.

“And I’d also like to know what Kosuzu was trying to do in Kyoto.”

“Understood. I’ll investigate how she created such a situation too.”

In this area, though they might be slower, they could be more accurate than other groups. After all, Kosuzu was Kagami’s sister, and they came from the same place.

That concluded our conversation for the day.

Kagami bowed to me one more time before leaving.

I immediately laid out the futon and lay down.

And together with Koko, I fell asleep right away.

*

The vibration of my mobile phone woke me from sleep.

Looking at the phone, I felt the same chill I had felt yesterday and jumped up from my spot.

The manager’s name was displayed on the phone.

And the time was just past one o’clock.

I was late.

How did I oversleep this much?

“I’m sorry. I’m leaving now—”

[Ah, about that.]

As I hurriedly answered the phone, the manager spoke in a somewhat awkward voice.

[It’s as I thought.]

“As you thought…?”

[Your sister is here right now.]

“What?”

[And she’s claiming to be Kotone.]

“…”

I frantically looked around.

“Meow.”

Kuro lazily meowed from the still-unmade futon.

Koko was nowhere to be seen.

I clutched my head with the hand not holding the phone.