Ch.66Chapter 10. Mirror (6)

Shall I be honest?

I was actually having quite a good time.

Of course, I still felt like a 30-something man inside, so being among these teenagers felt a bit awkward.

Plus, all these kids had distinct personalities rather than being ordinary teenagers. They all resembled “characters” I was familiar with.

I’m not sure if it’s still the case nowadays, but back then, each character was given an “attribute.” Not elements like water, fire, or wind, but personality traits like “tsundere” or “kuudere.”

And they would make sure characters didn’t overlap, or if they did, create decisive differences to make them “sell well.”

The same was true in this novel.

Yuuki was the quintessential tsundere, Hagiwara was the relaxed big sister character, Shii was the little sister, and Nakahara was the childhood friend.

Nakahara didn’t have much presence for a childhood friend character, mainly because she wasn’t part of the powered group, didn’t play a significant role in the protagonist’s life, and her character subtly overlapped with Yuuki’s.

After all, childhood friends typically come with tsundere traits built in.

Though, by standards twenty years later, she might actually be the more popular one. The violent tsundere concept went out of fashion long ago.

Anyway.

I’m glad these teenagers are from twenty years ago. If they were teens from the 2020s, I wouldn’t have been able to adapt properly. At least with this era, I feel like I’ve “returned to the past.”

Even though we’re in different countries, these kids will be around my age when the 2020s arrive.

“Um, Kurosawa-san?”

Hearing this awkward form of address, I turned to see Shii holding a handkerchief.

She had called my name, but she wasn’t calling me. Shii always called me “senpai.”

She was looking at Koko.

“Kurosawa?”

Koko looked at me.

“Koko still doesn’t understand the concept of family names.”

I told Shii. That was true. Koko understood that her name was Koko, and that I was called both Kurosawa and Kotone, but she didn’t understand “why.” She probably recognized “Kurosawa” only because she’d seen Yuuki call me that.

Judging by the handkerchief, Shii wanted to wipe cream from around Koko’s mouth after she’d been enthusiastically eating a cream bun.

But it would be awkward to call Koko by her first name.

In Korea, naming is quite simple—full names for people you’re not close with, first names for friends, and occasionally nicknames for people more famous for those than their actual names. In contrast, Japan has various forms of address, and it’s considered rude to casually call someone you’ve just met by their first name.

In some ways, it’s similar to Westerners. Do people from cultures with complex naming conventions all think this way?

I believe they call using first names “yobisute” in Japanese, but I’m still not clear on where the boundaries are.

Fukuda calls almost everyone around her, including me, by their first names. Kaneko calls me and all her juniors by nicknames consisting of “first letter of surname + chan.”

Even Yuuki and Miura, whom I’ve known for quite a while, call me by my surname “Kurosawa,” so I just assume everyone changes how they address others at different times. I don’t even know what the average timing is.

Is this what they call a cultural barrier?

“Um, well…”

Shii fidgeted uncomfortably after my explanation had effectively banned the “Kurosawa-san” address.

“Just call her Koko. She definitely recognizes that name.”

Now that I think about it, I’m so glad I gave her an easy name.

Not that she couldn’t understand more difficult names, but I still had many questions about Koko’s intelligence.

“Koko… san?”

When Shii spoke, Koko looked at her again.

Shii seemed a bit uncomfortable with Koko staring at her. Understandable, since she looks exactly like her “senpai.”

“You have cream here.”

Shii carefully wiped the cream from around Koko’s mouth with her handkerchief.

As soon as Shii’s hand moved away, Koko resumed eating her bread.

“…”

The room fell silent.

This time, I understood why. If someone couldn’t even recognize their own name properly, it meant their intelligence was truly that limited.

Everyone carefully glanced back and forth between Koko and me.

…What should I do?

While I was pondering this,

“Y-you two seem to get along well?”

Sasaki tried to break the awkward atmosphere with a somewhat lighter tone.

“Yes.”

I quickly nodded.

“We’re twins.”

Everyone seemed to relax a bit at my words. They didn’t physically show it, but that’s how it appeared to me.

“What does she like?”

Sasaki asked.

“Koko likes pretty much any food.”

The problem was that she liked things that weren’t human food too. At least she didn’t eat objects. Looking at her structure, she probably wouldn’t get sick even if she did.

“And watching TV.”

She liked children’s cartoons. Just like how young children become quiet when given a tablet with cartoons playing, Koko was the same.

…Thankfully, she didn’t imitate cartoon characters.

I heard rustling and turned to see Koko picking up a snack and putting it in her mouth.

Everyone watched her for a while.

When she was just a big nose, her very existence was horrifying, but now that she looked like me, even her eating seemed cute. A bit animal-like, I suppose.

…Do I look like that when I eat?

“Hmm?”

Confused about why we were staring at her, Koko tilted her head.

Hmm.

Looking at her puffed cheeks, I could understand why Yuuki couldn’t resist.

*

The next day.

I woke up late and leisurely.

Koko and Yuuki were gone.

At first, I felt a chill down my spine, but I relaxed a bit when I saw a note on the table saying “Playing at the beach.”

I changed clothes at a leisurely pace and went outside.

The beach wasn’t that small, but it wasn’t difficult to find the kids.

How should I put it—they all look incredibly striking. I suppose that’s expected of heroines.

Since I came out late, and Yuuki and Nakahara were already playing with Koko, and Hagiwara had apparently seized the opportunity to get Sasaki to apply suntan oil on her.

Shii, who appeared to have arrived a bit late, was sitting next to Sasaki with a slightly sulky expression, while Sasaki, his face flushed, was trying his best to comfort her.

“You’re here?”

Hagiwara, lying face down and looking quite comfortable after achieving her goal, asked as she saw me.

“…”

I frowned when I saw she had untied the back of her bikini.

I thought it looked good in illustrations, but seeing a high school girl like this in person felt morally questionable.

No, more than that—you’re supposed to be a nun. Aren’t you being too provocative? Even if we’re only a year apart, you’re still only a second-year high school student.

…Well, I guess people who are going to do those things are already experienced by that age, but Hagiwara wasn’t that type of character.

She was supposed to be the type who would blush and get all flustered when alone with Sasaki. Otherwise, she would have no restraint at all.

But whatever she thought of my frown, Hagiwara just gave me a relaxed smile.

She seems to be misunderstanding something.

“Senpai!”

Seeing me, Shii jumped to her feet.

Wearing a white one-piece swimsuit with a thin white cardigan over it, she quickly approached me and said:

“Senpai, shall we go buy ice cream together?”

Ice cream? Sounds good.

I nodded.

“Ah, wait!”

“Brother, please wait here. Wouldn’t it be nice for you to spend time alone with Hagiwara-san?”

“But…”

Shii flashed a fiery smile.

She just looked cute to me, but apparently not to Sasaki.

“Okay.”

Sasaki seemed to give up and sat down.

“See you later~”

I don’t think she’s going to buy anything for you, Hagiwara-san.

With that thought, I turned away with Shii, leaving behind Hagiwara and Sasaki who were waving at us.

*

“I’m sorry, senpai. For showing you such an unsightly side of me…”

“No, it’s fine.”

A little jealousy is understandable. Honestly, I found Shii’s emotions easier to understand than Hagiwara’s or Nakahara’s.

At least Shii’s feelings were closer to family issues than romance.

In the end, Shii bought ice cream for Hagiwara too.

It was a bit funny watching her debate whether to leave one out until the very end. But she managed to restrain herself.

As we walked, sharing the bags of ice cream between us, I said to Shii:

“He’s family.”

“…Family.”

“I’d be worried too if Koko started seeing a man.”

“Isn’t that… more of a moral issue? It seems like a more fundamental problem than family…”

Is it?

Well, maybe not for me, but for Koko it would be close to a crime. She could probably be diagnosed with a disability if we took her to a hospital right now.

However, I was postponing getting her diagnosed to keep possibilities open. When Yuuki brought it up and I shook my head, she teared up, but I kept quiet rather than saying something like “there’s still hope” which would have made me seem like a pitiful child clinging to fragile hope..

“…I think Hagiwara-senpai is just half-joking.”

“Playing around with my brother even half-jokingly? I absolutely cannot allow it.”

…

What a complicated child.

But I don’t dislike it. At least she’s not complicated with me.

As we were walking side by side—

“Hey there.”

…Huh?

Some guys approached us.

They didn’t look like college students… probably high schoolers. Just guessing, but they seemed at most three years older than us.

“Hey, you girls are pretty cute.”

Oh my.

I was impressed internally.

This scene appeared in the light novel. It’s a classic episode, isn’t it? An event to show how beautiful the heroines are and how much they like the protagonist.

But I’m not a heroine.

“Just the two of you? Want to hang out with us?”

At first glance, they looked like thugs. Both had skin tanned by the sun.

But I’d once gone to a mixer with similar expectations, only to find the guys were actually very nice, which made me laugh awkwardly. These guys might be the same—just innocent high school boys trying to talk to girls their age.

“Um, we have… our group…”

“A group? Guys? Girls?”

The two moved a bit closer to us. Shii stepped back, so I did too.

No one around paid us any special attention. That would be strange anyway—there were so many people playing nearby that our conversation wouldn’t be audible, and without listening carefully, it would just sound like friends talking.

“Men,” I said firmly.

“Oh, really?”

The guys looked momentarily stunned by my blunt response, but—

“Boyfriends?”

They persisted.

I was about to say yes, but then remembered Shii was beside me and closed my mouth.

If Yuuki or Hagiwara had been next to me, I could have said yes and it would have ended with some teasing. They would have known I wasn’t referring to Sasaki but to an “imaginary boyfriend.”

But with the earnest yet somewhat twisted Shii, she would think the “boyfriend” I mentioned was her brother. No amount of explaining would easily dispel that suspicion.

“Aw, come on~”

“If they’re not boyfriends, what’s the problem? Let’s just—”

I decided to cut them off without giving any reason.

As I opened my mouth—

“…Huh?”

Shii beside me widened her eyes.

She was looking at the guys, but not because of them. Rather, she was looking at something directly behind them—

“Koko!”

I shouted in panic.

“Hm?”

“Koko?”

One of the guys repeated after me, but I ignored him and rushed to grab Koko.

“Koko. No.”

Yes, it was Koko.

She had definitely been building sand castles with Yuuki and Nakahara when we left to buy ice cream, but somehow she had appeared behind the guys.

Sweat ran down my back.

“No?”

Seeing Koko tilt her head, I nodded vigorously.

“No. You can’t do that.”

I don’t know what she was trying to do, but whatever it was—no.

Wait, how did she even know to come here? No, that’s not it.

How did she get here?

To be precise, it was as if a person had appeared on screen in a single frame.

If I hadn’t known Koko, and if she hadn’t been wearing a swimsuit, I would have thought I’d seen a ghost and panicked.

I lowered my voice and said:

“Hurting people is not allowed.”

I had already told her this before.

“…Hurt?”

“…”

That’s right.

I don’t know exactly what Koko was trying to do.

I can only guess that she somehow knew my exact location from far away and sensed I was in some kind of trouble.

Koko responded very well to human emotions.

When Yuuki looked at her sadly, she would tilt her head as if not understanding the exact emotion, but when Yuuki played with her and was genuinely happy, she always smiled brightly.

And with TV shows, she liked scenes with children laughing and chattering.

Perhaps, just perhaps.

Koko might see me as the center of her world.

And she might treat people who show positive emotions and attitudes toward me or herself well, while those who try to harm me in any way—

“Oh, what’s this? You look identical? Are you twins?”

“Looking at you two face to face is like looking in a mirror. Want to hang out with us too?”

Koko’s eyes were deep.

Those deep eyes moved to look behind me. In those eyes, I could see the reflection of the two guys about to put their hands on my shoulders—

“H-help us!”

Blink.

Hearing Shii’s cry, those eyes blinked.

“Help us!”

“Huh, what?”

“What’s going on?”

The guys turned pale at Shii’s shout.

Seeing people turn to look at us after her cry, they became even more flustered.

They were about to leave, but—

“What do you think you’re doing, you bastards!”

With an almost screaming voice, Sasaki came running and landed a straight punch on one of their faces.

It wasn’t like a manga where he flew backward and fainted.

The guy stepped back a few paces, holding his nose, with blood trickling between his fingers. His nose was bleeding.

Good job.

Well, legally we might be at a disadvantage, but it’s better than two people dying.

“Brother!?”

Shii screamed.

“Shii, are you okay!?”

As Sasaki turned his head toward Shii, the other guy’s fist flew at his face.

I quickly turned and pushed the guy away. Momentarily losing his balance, he turned his eyes toward me.

They were filled with hostility.

And Koko saw those eyes too.

This is getting out of hand.

“You bastard…”

“What’s going on here?”

As if the two guys had companions, another group of men approached us.

These ones looked definitely older than the two. At least college students, and they looked ready for trouble.

“Boss!”

The guy with the bleeding nose called out to the large, broad-shouldered man at the front of the group.

“What’s wrong with your face? Did you get hit?”

His gaze shifted to Sasaki.

“By this scrawny guy?”

Then he looked at me and Koko.

“Oh, I see. Trying to protect your girl, huh?”

He seemed very relaxed.

“What’s happening, what’s happening?”

A carefree voice came from behind us—it was Hagiwara.

Still wearing her revealing red bikini, she approached us casually.

“I was wondering when the ice cream would arrive, but I see you were held up by this.”

“S-Souta!?”

Following behind Hagiwara, Nakahara saw the situation and panicked.

“Kurosawa, what’s going on?”

“Well, you see.”

Where should I begin?

At first I thought they were just typical guys looking for girlfriends, but they turned out to be worse than I expected.

Thinking back, in the novel, I believe it was the bigger guy who approached first. There wasn’t a detailed description, but there was mention of him being very large.

And he lost to Sasaki.

Sasaki, who rushed in to protect Yuuki, fought incredibly hard and eventually won.

Of course, during that time, Yuuki had instantly subdued the rest of the group.

“Well, I don’t need an explanation. Let me guess—you tried to hit on them because they were alone?”

The man who seemed to be the leader whistled lightly as he looked at Yuuki.

“Hey, are you the only guy here? With so many girls, can’t you share? You only need one, right?”

“That’s right. Souta, one girl is enough for you, isn’t it?”

“Senpai, is this really the time for jokes!?”

Sasaki was horrified by Hagiwara’s completely tension-free joke.

“Well.”

Hagiwara interlaced her fingers and stretched her arms forward, palms out.

This caused her cleavage to come together, creating a momentarily sensual image.

I was trying to maintain a serious expression at the sight, but Hagiwara smiled at me before turning her gaze back.

“From a religious perspective, impure relationships between the sexes aren’t really recommended.”

You’re the most impure one here.

I couldn’t hold back my criticism.

Hagiwara glanced at Yuuki. Yuuki sighed deeply, then nodded.

“Look, wouldn’t it be better to end this here? With so many spectators, it wouldn’t be good for you if rumors spread about men getting beaten up by girls, would it?”

“Senpai, what are you saying!?”

Nakahara was horrified by Hagiwara’s words.

“…Huh?”

The man scratched his head.

“Guys, what is she talking about?”

“Isn’t she cute, boss?”

“Let’s teach them a lesson!”

“Right, we can’t just let this go when one of our guys got hit.”

The leader looked at us again.

“I don’t like hitting women. But it’s self-defense, so don’t blame us too much.”

I looked at Koko again.

…

I think I need to figure out how to save your lives first.