Ch.449IF Side Story: Seems I’ve Arrived a Bit Early (146)

Kagami’s existence was an enormous comfort to me.

Considering my entire life—both my previous one and this one—it couldn’t be any other way.

In my previous life, I lost my family. Not just my mother, but my younger sister and father too. All of them.

It wasn’t simply that I lost them—I witnessed with my own eyes how horrifically they died.

I’ve regretted it ever since.

Stopping my family from going on that trip, or even just changing the schedule by a day or two… well, that’s the kind of thing that only happens in fantasies, so I didn’t dwell on it too much.

But I still think about it.

I wonder if I could have recovered my family’s remains first. Even though they say the living take priority, I ended up neglecting my family while trying to save others.

Before I could do anything, my family’s bodies burned with the car. All I could recover were shattered remains.

For someone like me, this life gave me a family. Not only Kagami, a mother who genuinely cherishes me, but also a “dad” who excellently fulfills the father role, and a younger sister who follows me.

So how could I be afraid of walking at night like this? Actually, it seems a bit strange to be afraid of walking at night in the middle of Tokyo, Japan.

And with my younger sister and mother beside me, being afraid would be even stranger.

“…”

Somehow, we ended up stopping at a nearby family restaurant.

I wanted to help Izumi understand that my mom wasn’t a ghost, and more than anything, I wanted to hear more of Kaoru’s story.

Of course, with my mom right beside us, we might not be able to discuss anything too personal.

Izumi’s face was bright red. If she had just been scared by herself without saying anything in front of me, it wouldn’t have mattered, but she had already spoken up.

Koko was distracted by the cola in front of her, and Yuka had an expression that suggested she didn’t know how she ended up here. Well, since we needed my dad to come pick us up to go home, there wasn’t much choice.

And Kaoru was looking at me.

“Why were you curious about that?”

Kaoru asked me.

Her attitude wasn’t particularly aggressive. She simply seemed to genuinely want to know why I was curious about such a thing.

“Well…”

I rolled my eyes around.

Why was I so curious?

There are many enthusiasts in the world who take special interest in certain things. Being an otaku myself, I understood that well.

But even so, people don’t usually come out to school in the middle of the night.

“You seemed a bit desperate.”

She always had a smiling expression, but yes, Kaoru did seem somewhat desperate. And that was the only reason I had asked her the question.

So I thought that if she didn’t want to talk about it, that would be fine. There were quite a few people around, after all.

If it was too personal, I would completely understand if she didn’t want to discuss it.

After all, rather than asking seriously, it was more of a passing question that had suddenly occurred to me.

“Hmm.”

Kaoru tilted her head, then let out a long sigh.

“Well, you might end up finding out anyway.”

That’s what Kaoru said.

“Besides, yes, it might be related to you too. Just a little bit, though.”

“…Related to me?”

“You know, there are lots of rumors about you among the second-years. First-years probably don’t pay much attention since they see and talk to you often, but you know, at the beginning of the semester.”

Kaoru glanced a bit at Kagami.

…Wait, is she really going to talk about it? Even with an underclassman’s mother sitting right in front of her? Usually teenagers are a bit conscious about discussing their concerns when adults are around.

But Kaoru didn’t seem particularly bothered.

Could it be because of Kagami’s appearance?

“That fight you had in the bathroom.”

“Ah.”

I smiled a bit bitterly.

“Huh? You fought?”

Izumi seemed like someone who wouldn’t care about such rumors, and that appeared to be true.

“Yes, I fought. It just happened.”

“Yeah. And some of those girls are in the track and field club.”

“Ah, I see…”

“And one of them was someone who bullied my junior.”

Kaoru picked up a french fry from the plate and stared at it. She didn’t actually eat it. She didn’t seem to be in the mood.

“…Bullied?”

That’s a bit strange.

Kaoru is now a second-year. Her junior would naturally be a first-year. Of course, we’re already halfway through the first semester, but Kaoru had been going around trying to establish the Occult Research Club even before that.

Is she saying someone was being bullied in that short time?

“I transferred from another school, but many students here have been attending since middle school, even though the buildings are separate.”

Seeing my expression, Kaoru felt the need to explain.

“And the track and field club is quite famous. Almost all the first-years were active in middle school too. The student who was bullied was like me, someone who came to this school in their first year of high school.”

“I see…”

“I thought we had become quite close, but that student never said anything. Well, if it was that easy to talk about, it probably wouldn’t be called bullying.”

“…”

Hmm.

How should I put this?

The story that came out was much darker than I expected, so I was a bit taken aback.

“In the end, that student is in the hospital now. They haven’t regained consciousness.”

None of us could say anything. Izumi’s face, which had been red, turned deathly pale. She probably already knew this story but hadn’t told us anything.

More than that, she probably hadn’t thought that Kaoru’s desire to create the Occult Research Club was related to this kind of story.

“Actually, I was quite weak physically when I was young. I often saw ghosts and such things. So my parents concluded that if I exercised hard and became healthy, I would be fine. I didn’t particularly want to do it, but I had no choice.”

Kaoru smiled at me. I couldn’t return the smile after hearing that story.

“But after that incident happened, well, I didn’t want to stay in that club anymore. So I left… and the occult talk, that’s because of the ikiryō.”

“Ikiryō?”

“Yes. The soul of someone who hasn’t died yet. If we could summon that soul and talk to it, we might be able to find out what happened. I could apologize in my own way, and maybe that student could come back.”

“Kaoru…”

Izumi said, gently placing her hand on Kaoru’s arm.

…I see.

It’s not that I don’t understand.

After hearing the whole story, I felt two emotions simultaneously. One was bewilderment. Not so much because the story was too heavy, but because I was a bit perplexed that she would tell me such a story.

And Kagami, whom she met for the first time today, was here too.

Yuka seemed to be deep in thought, and even Koko was sitting quietly, apparently sensing the darkened mood.

“Actually, I had some expectations. About you and Yuka. It seemed like there was something there.”

“Ah.”

I see.

I’m not sure if she was physically weak or not, but Kaoru’s kokkuri-san ritual did have some unexpected meaning.

She said it doesn’t always work, but she definitely summoned something like a spirit.

So perhaps she had faintly recognized something about Yuka’s or my identity. Or maybe… well, she thought something after that kokkuri-san incident. After all, Yuka and I did act as if we knew something about that sort of thing.

“I see.”

Kagami, having heard the whole story, had a very pained expression.

“Ah, yes.”

Kaoru responded a bit belatedly.

“Um, I’m sorry for suddenly telling this kind of story when we just met today. Somehow, I just felt like talking about it.”

Kaoru scratched her head with an expression that suggested even she didn’t quite understand, and said.

“How should I put it… I wanted to make an excuse a little…”

…Ah, so that’s it.

She called me out in the middle of the night, and even had her mother follow behind, extremely worried.

Perhaps Kaoru wanted to apologize for that.

“No, it’s fine. Sometimes it’s better to share such concerns with others.”

Kagami said that while placing her hand on my arm.

I didn’t know what to say. I don’t think I was… that good of a daughter.

Even today, I made Kagami worry terribly.

“…”

Yuka hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Talking with an ikiryō might be a bit difficult.”

“Huh?”

Kaoru looked at Yuka.

“Usually, spirits that take form like that are mostly those with strong lingering attachments. And if it’s an entity visible to everyone, there’s a high possibility it’s an entity that harms people because of those attachments.”

Yuka said, looking back and forth between Kaoru and Izumi.

“Even the person Izumi-senpai saw, while maybe not having enough attachment to harm people, perhaps there was some emotion you could empathize with at that time.”

“Wh-what?”

Izumi’s face turned even more pale at the implication.

She seemed terrified at the possibility that what she saw might ‘really’ have been a ghost.

“I see…”

“…”

Kagami quietly observed Kaoru.

Perhaps it’s because Kagami herself is a mother.

She seemed to sense something from Kaoru, who was only a year older than me.

“I’m sure that junior will definitely wake up.”

That’s what Kagami said.

Kaoru gave a slightly bitter smile.