Ch.276If Side Story. Tokyo Slayers: Final Chapter (14)

A peaceful daily life is something that cannot be exchanged for anything else.

Souta thought that peaceful daily life was simply a given.

That’s not to say he believed everywhere on Earth was peaceful.

There were wars happening in distant continents. Japan was a country that was doing quite well compared to the rest of the world, and Souta was in a position where he could live a relatively decent life within it.

Although his family situation wasn’t exactly ordinary… still.

Even in this world, that daily life could collapse.

Even without yokai or supernatural phenomena, human malice alone could destroy everyday life. Souta had already witnessed such situations before.

That’s why he could deeply appreciate how precious a peaceful daily life was, even while living as an ordinary high school student.

In that sense, Souta seriously wondered if the current situation could still be called a peaceful daily life.

Kurosawa had been gradually improving over the past while. Although it seemed the other students in her class still barely spoke to her, Souta was now getting used to her naturally following behind him after school.

Nanami, who at first had treated Kurosawa with nothing but pity, was slowly starting to enjoy hanging out with her.

Perhaps she found it more enjoyable that Kurosawa showed almost no reaction no matter how she was touched?

Although Kurosawa rarely touched her own hair, when in Nanami’s hands, it would somehow end up in twintails.

Even though her expression hardly changed, maintaining her stoic atmosphere, objectively speaking, Kurosawa was quite cute in appearance, so it strangely suited her.

Yuka still maintained a subtle distance. She apparently had no intention of dropping her guard since she didn’t yet know everything about Kurosawa.

And there was one more person who followed behind these three.

Harumi Fukuda.

The girl who had saved Kurosawa when she was being assaulted last time continued to follow Souta’s group afterward. Usually, she kept her distance, only approaching when Nanami, Yuka, or Souta noticed and called out to her.

Strangely, she reminded Souta of a cat, but he didn’t dare say so out loud, sensing he might get hit for such a comment.

Well, if he were to compare them to cats, all the girls around him had that quality to some extent.

Anyway, peace was being maintained somehow—though to Souta, it felt somewhat precarious.

The three people who had been hospitalized due to Fukuda had returned to school. They weren’t suspended or expelled.

“…After all, they did get beaten up pretty badly too.”

That’s what Yuka said about the incident.

“Besides, Grandfather seems to have chosen not to get too involved with them.”

Yuka didn’t explain the details. But judging from her not-so-pleasant expression as she said this, Souta thought that Kurosawa’s family situation probably wasn’t going very well.

So, although not openly visible, the causes for peace to break were steadily accumulating.

Having experienced such things several times before, Souta couldn’t help but feel anxious.

In that sense, Nanami looked impressive to Souta as she held Kurosawa’s twin ponytails, one in each hand, making them flap like wings.

“…”

What do you think?

Souta was about to ask Yuka that question but decided against it.

Yuka had been through various things too. In fact, she probably knew much better than him about the terrible things that happen to people when trouble breaks out.

There’s nothing more meaningless than telling someone who’s worried not to worry.

Honestly, Souta wasn’t sure if he should say such things when he himself was worried.

And so, time passed while he didn’t know what to do.

Nothing particular happened throughout the first semester. Those three people didn’t cause any trouble during that time either.

Souta felt relieved about this fact, but continued to feel uneasy.

*

It’s not that absolutely nothing happened during the first semester.

While hanging out with Kurosawa, he learned that she lived in Saitama.

And that she wasn’t simply not eating food, but was extremely picky.

Kurosawa generally didn’t like bland foods or dishes with lots of vegetables. But that didn’t mean she liked salty foods either. That seemed to be why she had eaten just a few french fries and then left the rest untouched.

On the other hand, she seemed instinctively drawn to sweet things. She liked ice cream and chocolate. Naturally, she really liked chocolate ice cream.

She preferred meat over noodles or rice, and among meats, she favored slightly undercooked meat with some redness remaining.

She still remained expressionless while eating, but her behavior was gradually becoming more human-like.

She would eat faster when she was eating something she found delicious.

After finishing, she would stare at her companions. Then one of them would order something more for Kurosawa to eat.

It wasn’t like Kurosawa was always just getting free meals.

Since Kurosawa attended Hanakawa High School—or rather, as would be expected of any “high school student”—Souta couldn’t help but be a little surprised when Kurosawa took out money to pay for her share.

Thinking back, those kids had been taking Kurosawa’s money. Since Kurosawa didn’t appear to have a part-time job, that money was surely allowance from home.

Souta felt somewhat relieved about this fact.

Yuka had said the Kurosawa family wasn’t an ordinary place, and Kurosawa indeed had a tattoo on her wrist that looked like the mark of some cult. From that perspective alone, it seemed like Kurosawa was being abused, but the fact that she was given quite a lot of allowance regularly suggested that they at least recognized her as their daughter.

Souta knew better than anyone that giving money alone doesn’t make someone a good parent, but there wasn’t much he could do about it right now.

And so, Souta’s group, which on the surface seemed unlikely to hang out together, somehow continued to do so until just before summer vacation.

With midterms and finals all finished, only summer vacation remained.

The school uniforms had already changed to short sleeves.

Souta had wondered how Kurosawa would manage with her tattoo, but Fukuda had tied one of her hair ties around Kotone’s wrist.

Apparently, that’s how she had gotten by during her first year. At least until that girl named Mako died.

“Is everyone planning to go straight home like this?” Nanami asked.

Souta blinked at her words.

They had just finished eating their chosen menu items at a family restaurant, as usual.

Normally, everyone would head home from here.

It’s not that they hadn’t gone to other places, but honestly, when they went to karaoke, Kurosawa seemed clueless about how to have fun, and Fukuda sat there with an expression that said “I knew this would happen,” so they hadn’t really thought about “having fun” separately.

In fact, Souta regularly went to his part-time job, so he didn’t have much time either.

In the end, the idea of teaching Kurosawa about the joys of this world hadn’t been very successful.

“It’s summer vacation. It’s summer vacation now! This is practically our last summer vacation!” Nanami exclaimed indignantly.

“Next year we’ll be third-years, and we’ll have to study then. Shouldn’t we obviously take some action?”

“Even if you say action…”

“What to do during summer vacation, where to go for fun, which festivals to attend. There are so many options!”

The other four people stared blankly at Nanami as she insisted.

“Even if we go somewhere, Sasaki can’t take much time off because of his part-time job.”

“One overnight trip is enough!”

Nanami held up a finger in response to Yuka’s comment.

“Souta, you’re off today, right? So at the very least, you have to hang out with us today.”

Souta looked somewhat dazed at Nanami, who spoke with a reddened face.

Had Nanami always been like this?

Well, she had always been proactive.

“Yeah, I have time today. But where?”

At Souta’s question, Nanami was momentarily speechless.

“Um… well.”

Nanami rolled her eyes around, then gulped and said:

“Today, could we go to your place? It would be nice to talk comfortably, you know?”

At Nanami’s words, Yuka’s eyes widened. Souta thought it was an expression he hadn’t seen since the beginning of the first semester.

Fukuda looked back and forth between the two and laughed incredulously, while Kurosawa maintained her blank expression.

Looking back at Nanami, she still didn’t seem inclined to take back her words.

Souta eventually had no choice but to shrug and nod.

Seeing Nanami’s face brighten as she clenched her fist, Souta couldn’t help but let out a laugh.