Ch.407IF Side Story: Seems I’ve Arrived a Bit Early (104)

And so, I endured another year.

I’m not sure. Whether it’s okay to think I’ve endured. Even though I’m surrounded by so many people who like me and help me, thinking that way might be a kind of rudeness, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but sigh with relief.

Let me be honest.

I hate fighting. I hate risking my life.

The reason I hate fighting is probably because my mind is ultimately that of an ordinary person. In middle school and high school, I would read light novels and think that if I were the protagonist, I would have just torn everything apart and won, but reality isn’t like that.

An adult’s imagination is much more cowardly than a child’s, so conditions keep getting added to the power I want to have.

Preferably in a way where I don’t get hurt. Where people close to me don’t get hurt. In my teenage delusions, I was at least holding a knife, but after becoming an adult, I just wished the world would go according to my thoughts.

Ridiculously enough, I actually had a profession that involved risking my life.

My last memory is hazy. I think I went into a fire, but I don’t remember clearly. I probably died there.

I hated it every time I had to go in. I probably won’t have that kind of job in this life.

Unintentionally, I ended up with a job that risks my life in a different sense.

Looking down at my hands, there wasn’t a single scar. After seeing how Koko’s body was structured, I think I understood the reason a bit. It means that I’m not fundamentally different from Koko.

“…”

I thought I might be a heroine, but in reality, was I just one of the yokai to be exterminated? One who never even appeared in the main story, exterminated by someone like Yuka, whose existence never even made it into the narrative?

“…Are you thinking about Koko?”

Yuka asked as I was staring blankly at my hands.

“Well, yeah.”

I felt a bit embarrassed that she had noticed so accurately.

That day, Yuka also saw what kind of being Koko was. She also heard what that woman was saying.

She had already seen several times how wounds on my hands healed instantly.

Does Yuka see me as a yokai? At first she didn’t know, but now does she think she knows my true identity?

“You said it back then, right?”

“Huh?”

“When you first met Koko.”

“…Yeah.”

That I didn’t sense any yokai energy, so maybe she wasn’t a yokai. That’s what I said. If I hadn’t stopped her that day, Koko wouldn’t have become Koko. She would have just died as a lump of flesh that couldn’t even properly form a human shape.

“I’ve never felt anything like that when I’m with you either.”

Yuka said quietly.

“I’ve never gotten the creeps even once.”

“…”

“So, well, you’re probably just someone with some special abilities. Like me. Like Koko.”

Is she just saying that to comfort me?

But at least, Yuka didn’t seem to have any intention of being hostile to me right now.

Yuka tidied her hair that was fluttering in the wind. I could see the thin red ribbon that tied her hair together. It was the Christmas present I had given her.

The day after New Year’s, Yuka had tied her hair like that when she came to see me.

“Why are you staring?”

“No, just…”

I was debating whether to compliment her on how well it suited her, but decided not to say anything. Somehow I felt Yuka would be very embarrassed.

We walked in silence for a while.

We didn’t meet in Akihabara today. Somehow I felt that if we kept meeting in places like that, Yuka would really think I was a hopeless otaku.

Just a busy street we found. But if you veer off a little to the side, you end up on a street with small, pretty shops scattered here and there.

Although it’s the day after New Year’s, it’s still a time when it doesn’t feel awkward to call it the new year.

Excited people were walking around the streets.

I was a bit excited too.

“Yuka.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re friends, right?”

“…”

Yuka looked at me again at my sudden question. Her face seemed to say, why are you asking something like that?

“…”

But it’s not like Yuka answered right away. For some reason, Yuka mumbled awkwardly for a while, then said,

“Yeah, I guess so.”

That was enough.

*

After walking around outside, I invited Yuka to my house.

Last time I stayed over at Yuka’s place, so this time I told her to come and stay at mine, but Yuka declined at first.

“Mom said she’s preparing sukiyaki.”

When I pressured her like that, Yuka was a bit flustered.

The menu itself wasn’t important. Actually, the sukiyaki was indeed a menu that Kagami had prepared specially because I mentioned I had eaten it. Whether she was trying to repay what she received, or was inspired because I said it was delicious, I’m not sure.

Rather, Yuka was probably just surprised by the statement “dinner has been prepared for Yuka.”

That must be it. If Yuka doesn’t come for dinner, Kagami’s prepared dinner would go to waste.

Since I brought it up before dinner preparations at Yuka’s house, Yuka couldn’t bring herself to refuse.

“…Then, I’ll just eat dinner and go.”

Well, I expected that answer.

But that’s enough.

Anyway, once she comes and we take our time eating, the sun will set, and then someone will suggest she stay overnight.

I’ve prepared some things with my saved allowance.

“…”

Perhaps sensing something suspicious from my smiling face, Yuka stepped half a step away from me.

“Why are you running away?”

“No, just…”

When I followed Yuka and asked, she answered a bit awkwardly.

When I grinned and suddenly jumped toward Yuka, she was startled and ran away.

We caused a bit of a nuisance weaving through people for a while.

Well, at least we both ended up laughing heartily in the end.

*

“Yuka?”

“That’s right. It’s Yuka.”

Koko, who had rushed to the entrance at the news of my return home, tilted her head and spoke, so I introduced Yuka again.

Thinking back to the meeting with Koko, Yuka had tried to cut Koko down.

In the end, she didn’t because she listened to me.

Perhaps because of that, Yuka had a somewhat awkward expression while looking at Koko.

“Welcome.”

And seeing Kagami, who had accepted Koko as her daughter, Yuka’s expression became even more awkward.

“This way, please.”

“Excuse me for intruding…”

At Kagami’s words, Yuka entered the house very demurely. After greeting my father and spending some time together in the living room, Kagami finished preparing the meal.

Before Koko came, the TV programs we watched were quite adult-oriented. News and such things.

I did have a small TV in my room where I watched videos and such, but the living room TV was usually my dad’s domain.

But after Koko arrived, the atmosphere changed a bit.

Koko preferred being in the living room with everyone rather than staying in her room. She wasn’t the type to simply enjoy being around lots of people, but she did like our family and friends.

Whether because of Koko’s personality, or because she had only learned language recently, she liked colorful and funny animations.

We had to pull her away from the TV several times when she was watching so intently she seemed almost sucked in, and even now that habit hasn’t been completely fixed.

The one fortunate thing is that she likes to eat.

Even if she’s in front of the TV, she’ll run right over when the meal is ready.

The sukiyaki was delicious. Both Koko and I were satisfied, and Dad and Yuka said it was delicious too.

The taste itself was a bit different from what we ate at Yuka’s place.

Since today wasn’t a party atmosphere like Christmas, I went up to my room with Yuka and Koko.

“A game console?”

“Yeah. I bought one.”

A used game console that’s a bit old even by current standards.

Still, it’s a console that can play 3D games. The games came in cartridges rather than CDs.

If I had remained an only child, I probably wouldn’t have bought this game console, but it’s different when you have someone to play games with. Koko is smart. She understood game rules better than expected. Her skill level was average, but that meant we were always neck and neck.

I crouched down and rummaged through the cartridges, pulling out a racing game with karts and a fighting game where four people could battle it out together.

“Want to play?”

When I showed the games with a confident smile, Yuka burst out laughing.

“Sure, let’s play! You’ll play too, right, Koko?”

“Yes!”

The three of us sat side by side on the bed.

In the end, Yuka was holding the controller until it was time for her to go to sleep. We didn’t bother keeping track of who won more. That wasn’t what was important.

*

In the middle of the night.

After putting Koko and Kotone to sleep on the bed, Yuka was lying on a futon on the floor.

Somehow she couldn’t fall asleep. The two of them seemed to be in deep sleep, breathing evenly.

Getting up and looking at the bed, she saw Koko snuggled up against Kotone. Both had their hair down, and though the room was dark, it was easy to tell who was who by seeing who was snuggling up to whom.

The two of them had different auras even when just standing.

“…”

I almost cut down a child like that.

Yuka felt complicated emotions.

Feeling thirsty for no reason, Yuka got up and went downstairs.

And, as luck would have it, she ran into Kotone’s mother in the kitchen, who was holding a cup and a water bottle for the same reason.

“Ah.”

Kagami smiled slightly when she saw Yuka.

“You seemed to be awake late, are the two of them asleep now?”

“Ah, yes.”

The sight of Kagami with her hair down, wearing comfortable sleeping clothes, was breathtaking even to Yuka, another woman.

Kagami took out another cup and poured water for her.

“Th-thank you.”

Yuka said carefully as she received the cup.

Kagami stared at Yuka for a moment. Did she do something wrong? Maybe she had heard about Koko.

Yuka couldn’t understand how… a person could be born in such a form. She just thought that the Kurosawa family was much more unusual than she had imagined.

If this person gave birth to that child directly—

“Thank you.”

Kagami suddenly said that, interrupting Yuka’s thoughts.

“Pardon?”

“Thank you. For not harming my daughter in that moment.”

“Ah, no, I…”

Yuka didn’t know how to respond and became flustered.

“Thanks to you, I was able to meet my daughter again.”

“…”

Kagami bowed lightly to Yuka again and walked past her without making a sound.

Yuka stood there blankly for a while, pondering what emotion she was feeling right now.

If she had to define it, it would be “confusion”—

But the strongest emotion she felt was relief, thankfulness.

Yuka exhaled a long breath.