Ch.217Epilogue. Training Camp (11)

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

The lady only came to her senses the next morning and said that.

“I must have suffered from heat exhaustion yesterday afternoon. I caused you all trouble.”

“…”

She probably had no memory of what happened, or thought it was just a dream, so we decided not to mention it.

“But, ma’am.”

—or so I thought, but apparently Yuka had other ideas.

“Could you tell us a bit more about your uncle? What kind of person was he?”

“My uncle? The one who passed away in that mansion?”

The lady pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Well, the truth is, I don’t know much about him either. He went to Tokyo when he was young and came back home when I was about ten.”

The lady spoke as if lost in memories.

“I heard he was doing well… but he suddenly returned home even though his business wasn’t failing. My grandparents and parents who were there at the time were puzzled too. He had made a lot of money.”

By current standards—that is, about 30 years before 2005 would be the mid-1970s.

It wasn’t quite the bubble economy period when money was so abundant it was practically rotting in homes, but it was a time when Japan’s economy was growing rapidly.

You could make a living just from interview fees by attending interviews all day, and companies would go bankrupt despite being profitable because they couldn’t find enough workers—what an incredible era.

So there was no reason to abandon a business that had just gotten on track. He could have made much more money if he had stayed a few more years. What would have happened afterward is anyone’s guess.

“At first, he fought terribly with my parents. My grandparents too… Anyway, something must have happened in Tokyo. Maybe something related to personal relationships? I don’t know the details because neither my parents nor my grandparents ever talked about my uncle until they passed away.”

“Hmm,” the lady furrowed her brow.

She had the face of someone reminiscing about a person she hadn’t thought of in a long time.

“My uncle was good to me… He often patted my head, hugged me, and bought me lots of delicious food. He also asked me to go out with him. My parents hated that sort of thing and would separate us whenever they saw us together.”

The lady, who had been squinting, suddenly seemed to come to her senses. She blinked and said with an awkward smile:

“Oh my, what am I saying? I’ve gone too deep into a story you probably have no interest in.”

“No, it’s fine. If anything, I should apologize for asking such personal questions.”

We thanked the lady and returned to our lodging.

11 o’clock.

Because of yesterday’s events, everyone had become lethargic, returned to the lodging, and fallen asleep.

Even this morning, I woke up to find arms and legs sprawled over me, making it a bit difficult to get out.

Anyway, we all got up, washed, and had a light meal of cup noodles.

Then Yuka grabbed my arm, pulled me to the living room, and sat me on the table.

My friends surrounded me and stared silently.

“…What?”

Actually, I kind of know why they’re doing this.

No, but this is really unfair.

I understand that the uncle seems suspicious in many ways.

He probably returned to the island after being involved in something unsavory, perhaps criminal, that made him abandon his business, and then lived with his parents.

And the fact that he was extremely friendly to the lady who was ten years old at the time… Plus, her parents and grandparents would rush in to separate them whenever they were together.

At the very least, those people knew what the uncle had done. The lady herself doesn’t seem to have suspected anything from childhood until now.

No matter how I think about it, it only leads to disturbing conclusions.

People often don’t notice these things themselves. If they did, more than half of child sexual abuse cases in this world could be prevented.

Anyway.

I get that he’s suspicious, but why did this person who didn’t appear when the others went in suddenly show up when I entered?

I’m not saying I wish he had appeared when the others went in. It would have been best if he hadn’t appeared at all from the beginning. He clearly came out with malicious intent.

“First, this.”

Yuka handed me a charm with a serious expression.

“…What’s this?”

“Keep it with you at all times.”

“Why?”

“So that doesn’t happen again.”

Well, I understand, but…

Couldn’t it just be a coincidence? Maybe he was waiting until the end, thinking someone else would come in.

Come to think of it, as soon as I entered, the sounds from inside and outside the house became muffled, as if cut off. The sound wasn’t completely gone, but the noise we made probably wasn’t heard well outside.

How creepy.

“…Kotone.”

Mako looked at me and spoke.

Seeing that she couldn’t quite bring herself to say what she was thinking, I could guess what was on her mind.

She probably thinks I was about to be sexually assaulted again after already having been raped.

That’s right.

I never told Mako the truth yesterday. To be honest, I was in a daze, and the children didn’t want to separate from each other after seeing the ghost, so there was hardly any opportunity.

Yuu was relatively calm, but Harumi was unexpectedly a bit scared.

Needless to say, Tsuneda and Shii stayed close to Koko.

And we were all in the same place most of the time.

“…”

Even now, how long do I have to wait to tell her?

Maybe it was because of that frustration and helplessness mixed together.

In the end, I exploded.

“Mako, what you’re thinking is actually a misunderstanding.”

Even though I say “exploded,” I’m not angry.

Eventually, as they get to know me, they’ll gradually learn about this side of me.

I don’t think revealing a part of myself today will drastically change the future.

Mako flinched at my words, so I continued as calmly as possible.

“That day, I wasn’t sexually assaulted.”

Yuka’s eyes widened.

…Ah.

She must have seen something similar too.

She actually almost experienced it herself.

Feeling the conversation getting tangled again after I had exploded and started to explain, I continued what I was saying.

“Actually, I met an Agui that day.”

“An Agui?”

Mako asked, a bit confused.

The other kids around us were the same.

As expected, Yuka had the most intense reaction.

…Right. Yuka knows what kind of creature an Agui is. After all, the reason she transferred schools was because of that Agui, and that Agui already knew the taste of human flesh.

By then, serial killings had already occurred.

Feeling the conversation getting even more tangled, I decided to deal with that separately later. Anyway, when we get back home after the trip, Yuka will probably follow me or visit the next day, so I just need to wait.

“…It’s a yokai that eats… well, anything it can get its hands on.”

The children’s expressions became complex.

Yuka, Yuu, Koko, and Kaoru looked shocked. These were all children who knew about yokai.

Izumi turned pale. She might not know other yokai, but she had seen the slit-mouthed woman. Well, Izumi even recruited a ghost as a club member in the first semester of last year.

The rest of the children looked like they didn’t understand what I was talking about.

Well, what can I do?

But at least they had all seen ghosts. They saw Yuka beating up a ghost, and Mako even punched one.

So no one outright denied it. Thinking that was fortunate, I continued.

“…Think of it as something like a ghost. You know I have, um, that kind of blood flowing in me, right? So I managed to defeat the yokai in my own way. That’s it. So don’t worry. I wasn’t assaulted like that.”

I looked straight at Mako to reassure her, but…

“T-then, what you met that time was…”

Mako asked with a pale face.

Ah, this isn’t what I wanted.

I just wanted to tell her that I hadn’t been sexually assaulted.

…

But thinking about it again, I’m basically saying I almost got eaten instead of raped.

I felt my own face turning pale.

“W-what do you mean, don’t worry?”

Mako asked with a trembling voice.

“T-then, you almost died…”

Mako suddenly seemed to realize something, rushed over to me, and grabbed both my shoulders tightly.

“D-don’t tell me those cannibalistic murders were committed by that yokai!?”

Mako is smart.

She immediately thought about what I hadn’t mentioned and came to a conclusion.

She doesn’t doubt my words. That’s actually more problematic. What an irony that mutual trust is causing problems.

“I-if I had been there…”

“No.”

I cut her off firmly.

“You shouldn’t have been there. You would have died.”

Mako looked dazed.

“I was able to resolve it because it was me. If it had been someone else, it wouldn’t have worked. It would have only increased the number of victims.”

“I was there too.”

Yuka said somewhat grumpily.

“The reason I transferred to Hanakawa was because of that.”

“…I wanted to reduce the number of victims, even by one.”

Yuka thought for a moment. She still looked sulky, but after glancing at Mako, she nodded. She understood what would have happened if I hadn’t stepped in.

“…”

The room fell silent for a moment.

“But why did you give me the charm?”

“Oh, that.”

Yuka said.

“There must be a reason why that man appeared before you. Usually… you know? People who target young girls often do so because they want to bully those who are socially vulnerable.”

“Are you saying I’m vulnerable?”

“You probably looked vulnerable. Only you two were frightened. Besides, he might have been drawn to you because he had done such things before. You give off a familiar scent, don’t you?”

“…”

When I stared at Yuka, she shrugged.

“I’m not scared of that sort of thing at all. Like I said, he only targets those who seem weakest to him. As it turns out, you weren’t someone who would be easily victimized.”

Yuka said that and gave a small smile.

“But keep carrying the charm. Just in case. We’ll visit a shrine later and discuss it more… Oh, right.”

Yuka suddenly seemed to remember something and grinned.

And before I could feel afraid of that smile, she said:

“Let’s also tell your mother about this. She probably knows some other methods.”

Judging by her use of polite speech, it seems many of her misunderstandings have been cleared up, but—

“I-I’d rather you didn’t.”

“What do you think, Koko? You want Kotone to be safer, right?”

Yuka ignored my plea and asked Koko.

“Yes!”

And of course, Koko nodded and answered that way.

Koko didn’t interfere when Yuka was beating up the ghost.

Koko has learned to be mindful of others. Thanks to my diligent teaching, she has definitely learned not to transform her body in front of others.

Especially in front of people who don’t know Koko’s true identity.

Of course, after everything was over, I noticed that the tips of Koko’s hair had become a bit stiff, but seeing Yuka handle it, she apparently didn’t feel the need to step in.

She’s developed… yes, she’s developed awareness.

But now doesn’t seem to be the time to be moved by that.

Because Koko was smiling at me.

Koko is a child who has lost me twice. It’s natural for her to react this way in such a situation.

…But… didn’t she look like she didn’t quite understand the situation until just a moment ago?

Could it be that she was reacting that way to keep the atmosphere from becoming too serious because Shii and Tsuneda were nearby? Was it because Tsuneda was right next to her that she couldn’t transform her body?

Tsuneda still looked a bit dazed, as if she hadn’t fully grasped the situation.

I should explain things to her slowly too. After all, we’ll be attending the same school for more than a year.

I wonder how Tsuneda will react when she hears this “light novel-like” story.

That remains to be seen.

*

We did have some fun on the last day, though.

When we went back to the sea, the children played in the water excitedly as if nothing had happened. This was possible because yesterday’s events ended almost like a comedy.

Well, we don’t know what the true identity was. Our thoughts are just speculation.

He might have really just fled because his business failed. It might have been too heavy a story for the young lady, so they didn’t tell her.

For an “uncle with a lot of money” who fled here, the lady didn’t seem that wealthy. She owned two houses, including the one up there, but one was left abandoned, and the one she lived in didn’t look much different from other houses on the island.

Perhaps it was just about money, and the other family members who didn’t like the uncle living with them showed such attitudes.

…If that’s the case, it’s a bit regrettable.

After playing excitedly and washing up thoroughly, we went to board the boat again.

We departed around 3 PM.

The sky was clear.

I was glad that at least this one thing deviated from the light novel formula.

“…Despite everything that happened, we couldn’t use the last one in the end.”

“It’s okay because we took a lot of photos.”

Izumi, who had approached me without me noticing, said that, and I replied comfortingly.

Izumi gave a bitter smile.

“Isn’t filling content with photos the job of the photography club?”

After staring at me for a while, Izumi suddenly said,

“I’m glad you joined the literary club.”

“You haven’t graduated yet, senior.”

“I’ll be busy in the second semester. Actually, I should have given up the position of club president at the beginning of this year, but I’ve been putting it off until now.”

“…”

Wait.

Somehow, this conversation seems to be going in a strange direction.

“It might be a bit late to say this, but would you take over as president for about half a year? I think I could graduate with peace of mind if it’s you.”

“What?”

Um, well…

I guess someone will have to take over as president next year.

I thought Tsuneda, who will be a second-year next year, would take over, skipping her second year.

“I’ll talk to the teacher when school starts. Well then, do your best, president-to-be.”

With that, Izumi headed toward the cabin.

“…”

I stared blankly at Izumi’s retreating figure, then,

“W-wait, Senior Izumi!”

I called out urgently and ran after her.