Ch.187Epilogue. Clarifying Titles (3)

“Oh…..”

After looking around the room, Fukuda fell into thought for a moment.

“Can everyone sleep here?”

Well.

Yuka, Yuu, Fukuda, Mako. With four people, it should work out somehow.

In the room where I, Koko, and Kagami stay, there’s space for one more person to lie down, so with four people in the same room, there probably won’t be any major space issues.

The cleared-out room was somewhat more barren than the room we stay in. For one thing, there’s no TV. Since it’s usually an empty room, there was no need to put such things in there.

Just in case, we had equipped it with minimal furniture. A kotatsu for getting through the cold winter, and furniture for storing bedding. While the kotatsu was the same as the one in our room, the cabinet we brought wasn’t made of wood or plastic, but rather a portable cabinet made of cloth.

Still, I think this is enough for people to stay for a short while.

“Since there are futons, sleeping should work out somehow.”

We glanced at each other awkwardly. Only Koko remained innocent.

“…How should we arrange ourselves for sleeping?”

That’s right. It was a matter of distributing people.

At least three people would definitely have to sleep in the same room.

I, Koko, and Kagami probably can’t be separated. I wouldn’t mind sleeping separately, but Koko and Kagami would object.

Koko would insist on sleeping next to me unless it was absolutely unavoidable. Usually she was a good kid who readily gave in on various things, but that was only when she judged it wasn’t something she absolutely needed.

Since the last time I died and came back to life, Koko had been trying to stay as close to me as possible. Had she developed some kind of anxiety?

I thought it might get a little better after a few months, but—

“Woo?”

Noticing me looking at her, Koko tilted her head.

Seeing how she’s standing near me even now, it’s probably impossible for her to sleep separately today.

Then what about Kagami?

…In some ways, Kagami is more troublesome than Koko.

I think Koko’s stubbornness was definitely inherited from Kagami. Kagami always gives the impression of smiling vacantly, but she never gives up on something she’s decided to do.

Probably, Kagami won’t give up her place next to me either. Because she claims to be my “mother.”

She might step back a bit when I’m playing with friends, but when it comes to sleeping, she’ll insist on sleeping in the same room as me, so in the end, I, Koko, and Kagami are bundled together in one room.

Then one might say the other four people could sleep in the next room, but.

“……”

“……”

Mako, Fukuda, Yuu, and Yuka looked at each other.

These four are friends, yes.

But the kind of friends who are only close when there’s another friend acting as a bridge between them.

If there’s a mutual friend who’s close to both sides, they can chat pleasantly and get along, but conversely, if not, they become extremely awkward with each other.

…There’s nothing more cruel than putting such people together in the same room in the middle of the night.

“…Yuka. Would you like to sleep with us?”

At my question, Yuka thought for a moment and then nodded.

That makes sense.

Even so, Kagami and Yuka are probably the least awkward with each other.

It’s a bit ironic.

Since we’ve all gathered like this today, it might be better to try to help everyone become closer.

“What about Kagami?”

Fukuda asked.

“She’ll probably join in at an appropriate time while we’re having fun.”

The role Kagami wants is that of the “typical mother.”

Then what does a mother do when her child’s friends come over?

If I recall my old memories, it’s usually “bringing cut fruit to the room.” It’s not something that must be done, but somehow that’s the impression.

The other kids, except for Koko, tilted their heads slightly, but they didn’t argue with what I said.

“…Ah.”

While the others were lost in thought after hearing my words, Yuu made a sound as if remembering something and picked up her bag.

What she took out was a white envelope.

Unlike a typical letter envelope that opens on the narrow side, this was an elegant-looking envelope that opened on the wide side.

“What’s this?”

“A wedding invitation.”

“……”

At Yuu’s bombshell statement, we stared at each other blankly and quickly took out what was inside.

…Thankfully, it wasn’t “Yuu’s” wedding invitation. Well, she didn’t have a boyfriend anyway.

The invitation was for the wedding of Mr. Yamashita and Ms. Mori.

Weren’t they already married?

Well, maybe I was being too presumptuous. While this is Mr. Yamashita’s second marriage, it’s Ms. Mori’s first.

She’d probably want everyone’s congratulations.

Even from Yuu, who was a close younger sister but will now become her daughter.

The kids’ expressions became even more ambiguous.

Yuka didn’t know much about Yuu’s family situation, and Koko had never been to a wedding before, so they were tilting their heads in confusion, but Fukuda and Mako’s expressions were the very embodiment of “awkwardness.”

Should they congratulate her? Console her?

Yuu had even run away from home because of that incident. So maybe they should console her. It wasn’t a marriage she particularly liked.

But the current Yuu seemed to have accepted the situation to some extent.

Could it be said that their relationship was restored because of the incident where Miho nearly died?

Taking that into account, maybe they should congratulate her… but honestly, I don’t know what to say when someone’s “father” is getting married.

“…It’s okay to congratulate me.”

In the end, Yuu herself set our course of action.

“Um… congratulations?”

Fukuda was the first to speak.

“C-congratulations!”

Mako quickly followed.

“……”

Yuu looked at me, Koko, and Yuka.

“Congratulations.”

I spoke first.

“I… hope they have a good love.”

Yuka, who didn’t know either Mr. Yamashita or Miho well, said with an expression that looked like she might break into a cold sweat at any moment.

Actually, her back might already be damp.

“There will probably be lots of delicious food at the wedding.”

“Wow!”

Koko, who had been looking as if she didn’t understand why “marriage” was something to congratulate, cheered at Yuu’s words.

I thought she had learned quite a lot about the world, but it seems there’s still much to teach.

Yuu stared at me for a moment, thinking, then reached into her bag and took out another wedding invitation. I wonder how many she brought.

“Here. For Kagami.”

“Ah.”

I accepted it.

That’s right.

Kosuzu’s character was the worst, and in the end, her mother-daughter relationship with Yuu was completely shattered because of what Kosuzu herself did.

But even so, the fact that we are somehow connected by blood doesn’t change.

The same goes for Kagami.

“…Miho said to tell you thank you.”

Yuu spoke again.

Ah, that’s right.

It’s a bit awkward for me to say this, but if it weren’t for me, Miho probably wouldn’t have been okay either.

Come to think of it, that was also Kosuzu’s doing. Moreover, it was an evil act committed purely out of personal emotion, with no connection to the purpose of socialization.

She was quite a persistent person in many ways.

“It’s nothing, really.”

But receiving an apology like this made me feel a bit embarrassed.

I was fidgeting with the invitation when,

Knock knock.

There was a knock at the door.

“Everyone, please have some of this while you talk.”

The person who came in was Kagami.

Seeing her enter the room with a tray piled high with prepared strawberries and a smiling face made me feel strange in many ways.

She’s basically a person with a somewhat suspicious smile, isn’t she?

I’m sorry to say this about Kagami, but her first impression was so suspicious that her smile still feels suspicious to me. …She’s still far from being evaluated as a “loving mother.”

My friends’ gazes all converged on me at once.

I shrugged my shoulders.

What did I tell you?

*

“May I join you?”

When Kagami came in, we told her to sit down for a bit, and she boldly squeezed in between me and Yuka.

Did she actually want to join in? Well, parents repeatedly entering their child’s room with food while they’re talking with friends probably have that kind of psychology to some extent.

But it’s not like she could squeeze in and have a friendly conversation.

Kagami, who deflected Yuka’s glaring look as if it were a mirror, alternated her gaze between the wedding invitation and Yuu.

She had an expression that suggested she never expected to receive such a thing.

Well, she is a person whose surrounding relationships have all fallen apart. In my opinion, Kagami probably doesn’t have any friends her own age. Not that I was suggesting she should become friends with these kids, but, well, if her human relationships increase, maybe Kagami could also learn to make more human expressions.

“…I also received a death notice.”

“……”

Oh, is that so?

“Because the funeral was properly prepared.”

Kagami said with an indifferent expression while looking at the wedding invitation.

I looked around at my friends.

“I received one too. It should still be at home.”

“Me too…”

Fukuda and Mako nodded.

Yuka nodded with an expression that suggested she didn’t know whether to laugh or be serious.

“…No one threw it away?”

“…I wanted to keep it as a memento.”

Yuka answered my question.

“Right? There’s no need to throw it away.”

I frowned at Yuka’s words.

No, it’s a death notice after all.

It’s an announcement that someone has died.

Come to think of it, Kagami has been wearing the hair tie I used to use since some point. It’s soaked in blood and won’t return to its original color even after washing, but she’s been using it continuously since tying her hair with it at the last funeral.

That’s like carrying around a dead daughter’s belongings.

“Think of it as drawing a major misfortune at the beginning of the year.”

Yuka finally couldn’t hold back her laughter and said with a smile on her lips.

Omikuji, a fortune slip you can try at Japanese shrines. The one that always appears when a shrine is shown in anime.

“Since you drew the worst fortune when you picked, this year will surely be filled with only good things.”

That’s it.

The service line that shrine maidens give.

If you draw a major misfortune, they say “You had bad luck today, so all the bad luck for the year has passed,” and if you draw a major fortune, they just congratulate you as is.

“Rather than the major misfortune of the year, isn’t it the major misfortune of a lifetime?”

I don’t know how much Fukuda knows about the incident. Mr. Fukuda was there too, so he might have heard some of the story.

“That’s good. The major misfortune of a lifetime. Well, I’ve already died twice, so I probably won’t die a third time.”

If there’s no third death, doesn’t that mean you’ll live forever?

I felt something strange about Yuka’s words, but seeing how oddly well Fukuda and Yuka got along made me a bit uneasy.

“Or, I have a few extra copies, would you like one? How about going to a nearby shrine and tying it there?”

She’s probably referring to the custom of tying a slip of major misfortune to a tree branch at the shrine and leaving.

“…No, I don’t particularly want to see my own death notice.”

Everyone laughed at my answer.

So that story has reached a level where it can be laughed off.

At least that’s one thing to be thankful for, I thought with a somewhat bitter corner of my mind.