Ch.8Chapter 2. Bread and the Heroine (2)

“Why?”

“Uh, no, well…”

Yuka Yuuki aimlessly waved the cornet bread in her hand. The rustling of the plastic bag sounded a bit too loud.

“I was thinking… since you know the lady, maybe you could ask her to set aside bread for me too.”

Hmm.

In the light novel, she was a strict tsundere heroine, but apparently that was only in front of the protagonist.

Come to think of it, she did seem somewhat kind in front of the other heroines too.

After quietly observing Yuuki, who was about half a head taller than me, I opened my mouth.

“If we ask them to prepare bread in advance, the people who made the effort to come early won’t be able to buy any.”

“Ah… yes, that’s true.”

Having heard my logical argument, Yuuki seemed to have nothing more to say.

“And personally, we’re not really acquainted. The lady just remembers me because I buy cornet bread every day.”

“Cornet bread? Every day?”

Is that really so surprising?

…No, objectively speaking, someone who buys only cornet bread every day might seem a bit strange.

To be honest, it doesn’t have any flavor at all. It would be like watching someone eat a slice of plain bread every day without toasting it or spreading anything on it. Cornet bread was just that—simply “bread.”

Though when you think about it as a meal, this might actually be more appropriate.

“…Anything else?”

“Uh, no, nothing.”

Seeing Yuuki answer like that, I turned around.

Unless I were the male protagonist, becoming friends with her might cause problems later. In fact, I was seriously considering transferring schools.

Having a yokai hunter nearby would be extremely tiring for someone like me who shares many similarities with yokai.

With that thought, I walked forward, but strangely, footsteps seemed to overlap with mine from behind.

I quickly turned around.

Yuuki, who had been following me, was pretending to look out the window.

“…”

As I narrowed my eyes and stared at her, Yuuki started whistling. No proper sound came out, just air. Why would she try to whistle when she clearly couldn’t?

I turned back around and continued walking.

The footsteps followed me even as I headed toward the rooftop.

Once I reached the roof, I turned around again.

The door remained closed for a while, then after I stared at it for some time, it opened slightly.

And through that gap, Yuuki’s face peeked out.

“…Why are you following me?”

“Well, you know.”

Yuuki gradually emerged through the door onto the rooftop as she spoke.

“I was just looking for a good place to eat.”

I narrowed my eyes again as I looked at Yuuki.

…Come to think of it, she didn’t seem to have many friends either.

She consistently acted cold toward boys, so naturally they couldn’t approach her easily, and that attitude made girls find her difficult to approach too.

Certainly, after transferring, until she saved the protagonist’s sister and became friends with her, there was no description of what she did during lunch breaks.

Could it be that she had no friends to eat with and was eating alone somewhere?

“…”

I should ignore this.

Two loners paying attention to each other would only make things awkward.

Besides, she’ll eventually get involved with the protagonist anyway. Even if it’s not because of his sister.

I sat down near the rooftop door in the corridor connected to the roof… I’m not sure what to call this area, but anyway, I sat near the door.

By the way, I always keep this area clean. Since I come here to sit during lunch, it would be inconvenient if it were dirty.

I sat down on the floor and tore open the cornet bread bag.

Then I took out a small dish from my pocket.

It had a lid that could be closed, probably designed to be carried with a lunch box. I bought this at a 100-yen shop too.

When I opened the lid, white powder was visible.

“What’s that?”

“…”

Yuuki, who had somehow sat down next to me, asked with curious eyes.

“Salt.”

Even I would get tired of eating the same bread every day.

Strangely, my body hasn’t shown any major problems yet. Well, I’m not exactly human, so it’s not surprising. If anything, it’s strange that I get hungry at all.

Anyway, I was getting tired of cornet bread, but I was hesitant to buy different bread.

So I came up with the idea of dipping the cornet bread in salt.

In the 2020s where I used to live, salt bread was popular in Korea. Was Japan the originator? If I recall correctly from what I read on Wikipedia, it was created in Japan around the time period of this world.

Of course, I’m not sure if that salt bread had spread throughout Japan at this point.

But I had no intention of buying salt bread; I just wanted to try adapting the concept.

I carefully placed the dish beside me and dipped the bread very slightly.

Then I took a bite.

Well…

Honestly, compared to what you’d buy at a bakery, it tastes incredibly mediocre.

But it’s better than nothing.

“Does that taste good?”

Yuuki asked, looking somewhat bewildered.

“Want to try?”

I showed her the dish.

Yuuki hesitated for a moment, then dipped her bread in the salt and brought it to her mouth.

“…Salty.”

“You dipped too much.”

I dipped just the tip again and put it in my mouth.

Well, it was edible.

…I just felt a bit of regret eating like this.

“Oh, really.”

Yuuki, who tried dipping just a little, blinked.

“…But honestly, cornet bread is still just cornet bread.”

Of course it is. It’s cornet bread after all.

Unable to deny that statement, I just quietly nodded.

*

And so, my second encounter with the heroine ended peacefully.

We didn’t have much conversation.

I spoke briefly when necessary, and she seemed unable to extend the conversation.

Yes, that’s how it should be. You should just become a tsundere couple with the protagonist.

And don’t suddenly point a sword at me later.

…By the way.

Now I really need to find a part-time job.

The money in my bank account has noticeably decreased. To be precise, the first digit has gone down.

In terms of overall amount, it hasn’t decreased that much, but the psychological impact was quite significant. You know that feeling when you feel like you need to restore something to its original state? That’s how I felt.

“Are you going alone today too?”

“Yeah… I have something to do.”

“I see.”

Mako Miura looked a bit disappointed.

Well… it might be a bit rude to say this, but are we really that close?

We barely know anything about each other.

But then again, that’s how school friendships often are. You meet someone without knowing anything about them, and only after hanging out for about half a year do you learn basic facts like whether they’re an only child or have siblings.

At this age, it’s fine to just hang out based on face value.

Though if you don’t form deeper connections, you’ll end up not keeping in touch as adults.

I waved back at Miura who was waving at me, and packed my notebook and textbook into my bag.

Even a delinquent student who missed more than a week from the beginning of the first semester needs to do homework.

But first, I need to find a part-time job.

Though I had no idea where to start looking.

*

So today, I decided to make a big investment and pound the pavement.

The only Japanese place names I knew were “large units” like Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Okinawa. Among them, the “somewhat” more detailed unit I knew was Tokyo, and within that “somewhat,” names like Ikebukuro, Shibuya, and Akihabara.

In fact, I don’t even know exactly what areas these names refer to. For example, “Garosu-gil” and “Myeong-dong” have different scopes, right? Garosu-gil refers to a famous street, while Myeong-dong is literally the name of a legal district.

Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just go and see.

And the place I chose was Akihabara.

To be honest, this was a choice heavily influenced by my personal interests.

Despite everything, in 2004, I was a middle school student without money, so Akihabara from that era was a place I wanted to visit.

You know what? 2004 was a time before YouTube. There was no easy machine translation through internet browsers, or if there was, it couldn’t produce natural translations like today.

In other words, finding information wasn’t easy. Back then, I didn’t even know about sites like Google.

Anyway, so I headed to Akihabara with a lot of personal interest.

“…Wow.”

And I honestly marveled.

In the other world, I was a fairly aged otaku. And that’s a sad thing. It means most of the content I was passionate about in my youth has ended.

Of course, you can dive into new things as an adult, but you can’t muster the same passion as in your youth. You might be able to splurge and buy a 300,000 won figurine from overseas, but you don’t have the energy to wake up at 4 AM, take the subway for an hour, and go buy a doujinshi.

“Wait a minute.”

Lost in thought, I muttered again.

I just realized I had solved one of my problems.

If I can just maintain a good distance from the protagonist and heroine, and somehow manage to secure money for tuition, I can maintain my life near Tokyo.

What this means is that I’ll have the opportunity to attend major events held once each in summer and winter.

The thought sent a shiver down my spine.

Until now, I was too preoccupied with worries about daily life to think about anything else.

Well, even now I’m looking for a job because I don’t have money, but still.

Honestly, considering the subway costs, it would have been wiser to look for a convenience store job near my neighborhood, but what can I do? I’m already here.

Since I’m here, I should at least check if there are any job opportunities, if only to make the money spent worthwhile.

…

In life, you sometimes need excuses like this.

*

As I was excitedly exploring Akihabara, I spotted a gakuran approaching from a distance.

That black uniform with the collar turned up, which looks like something male students would wear in old movies, actually had less character than sailor uniforms.

If the person wearing it hadn’t been a face I recognized, I would have just assumed it was someone from another school and moved on.

The person wearing it was the protagonist.

Souta Sasaki.

The female student next to him was wearing a sailor uniform with a white base and blue collar, which was the uniform of Hanakawa Middle School.

Or it could be called the junior high division uniform. Anyway, they’re run by the same foundation.

So, that middle school girl must be his sister, Shii Sasaki.

She’s not wearing glasses now, but she wears them when she needs to read or study. The amanojaku probably targeted her after seeing that. Though that wasn’t revealed in the novel.

I wondered why the two of them were—then I remembered that the protagonist had a character trait of liking manga and such.

If you ask if he’s openly an otaku, well, not to that extent, but there was a setting that he had such interests, probably to gain readers’ empathy. There were occasional descriptions of him playing games or reading manga.

As for the sister, she’s in the position of the “perfect little sister” that appears quite often in these kinds of novels.

You know, the kind who often says things like “Really, big brother!” and is diligent, filling in the gaps left by her brother’s carelessness. Mature for her age.

Moreover, she even called Sasaki “honored brother” and used formal speech, if I remember correctly. Honestly, the setting is a bit excessive. But I guess that’s a characteristic of light novels from the mid-2000s.

The distance between us… I’m not exactly sure, but it was close enough that we could recognize each other if we knew each other’s faces. Especially since I recognized Souta Sasaki.

So the next thing I did was duck into a side alley.

And then I thought.

Why did I hide?

I’ve only seen Souta Sasaki from a distance. There’s a bit of difference between light novel illustrations and real people.

From here, it’s like seeing someone who did an incredibly good cosplay, or rather, a natural one. The same goes for his sister beside him.

While I could identify them by appearance alone, the main reason I recognized Souta Sasaki was because I knew his seat. I had looked through the classroom window and seen his seat, so I recognized him immediately.

But on the other hand, he doesn’t know my face.

Even if he did, there’s no reason for him to show that he recognized me. We’ve never even had a conversation.

I could have just naturally walked past him.

“Yeah. Why did I hide, really?”

After questioning myself like that, I walked back out of the alley with confident steps.

“Whoa!?”

“Honored brother!?”

“Ugh.”

And I collided head-on with Souta Sasaki who was passing by the entrance at that moment.

Talk about bad luck.

Even though I have a body that can communicate with the spirit world by cutting my wrist, and use that blood to forge a katana to slay yokai, on the outside, I’m just a high school girl who looks like she’s on the verge of anorexia, and my strength isn’t much different.

Moreover, the weight difference between Souta Sasaki with his standard male build and my body, which barely falls short of the average height for women, was significant.

He was just a bit startled and stepped back slightly, but I hit my forehead against his shoulder and fell backward, landing on my bottom.

…That hurts.

My bottom hurt from hitting the ground, and my hand hurt from trying to break the fall, but most of all, my pride hurt.

If I had my original body, I would have been at least half a head taller than him. I probably could have lifted him up if I wanted to.

“Ah, sorry!”

Souta Sasaki exclaimed and quickly extended his hand toward me.

I looked up, following his hand.

He’s young.

That was my first thought.

While Miura, Fukuda, and Yamashita also gave the impression of being young, Souta Sasaki looked particularly younger. Perhaps it was partly because his face wasn’t tanned at all despite being male.

I hesitated for a moment, looking at his hand.

Then I reached out and grabbed it. However, instead of directly grabbing his hand, I extended a bit further and grabbed his forearm.

Souta Sasaki seemed to understand my intention and grabbed my forearm, pulling me up.

I didn’t get the impression that he was particularly muscular.

Well, even in the novel, he wasn’t described as having good physical strength in the beginning.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

My face flushed.

To be honest, while the two of them had no idea, I had literally fallen because of my own foolishness. I had unnecessarily gone into the alley and then suddenly jumped out, even timing it with their passing.

“…No, I’m fine.”

“Really? You seemed to fall pretty hard.”

“…I said I’m fine.”

“I see. That’s good.”

Souta Sasaki looked at my uniform and said,

“You go to Hanakawa High School too? So do I.”

“…Yeah.”

I let go of his hand, but Souta Sasaki seemed to have forgotten to let go and continued speaking.

“Ah, are you Kurosawa from Class B?”

“Um, honored brother.”

The sister beside him finally spoke up.

She poked Souta Sasaki’s shoulder with her finger, then used that same finger to point at his hand still holding mine.

“Whoa!? Ah, sorry!”

“…”

His surprise is like something out of a manga.

Well, he is a light novel protagonist after all.

“My brother has caused you trouble. I apologize.”

The sister bowed politely toward me.

“No, it’s fine.”

I answered, waving my hand again.

Well, I’d like to just move on now.

The words “Why don’t you just enjoy your date with your sister?” almost came up to my throat, but seeing his genuinely kind face, the words got stuck and wouldn’t come out.

And—

“How do you know my name?”

—yes, this bothered me a bit.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve never even spoken with him.

“Ah, well. I have a friend in Class B. That…”

After starting to speak, he seemed to wonder if what he was about to say was inappropriate.

Souta Sasaki hesitated for a moment.

As I stared at his face, the boy became flustered.

“Um… he said he was surprised because someone who usually doesn’t dress up suddenly came to school all dressed up.”

Ah, I see.

Boys will talk about girls. From simple appearance evaluations to somewhat crude comments. It’s fine as long as the person being discussed doesn’t hear it.

“…I see.”

That was my response.

Then I lightly touched my crumpled sailor uniform to straighten it and turned to the side.

“Ah, wait a moment!”

Souta Sasaki called out to me.

I turned my head.

“…What?”

At my question, Sasaki himself looked like he didn’t know why he had called me.

…Wait, hold on.

Thinking about it again, isn’t this more dangerous than being with Yuuki?

While Yuuki slays yokai with her sword, Sasaki defeats yokai with his own blood.

In other words, his body itself is no different from Yuuki’s sword “Muname.”

“Well, since it was my fault, even if you’re not hurt, I’d like to make it up to you.”

“That’s not nece—”

“I was on my way to have a meal with my sister. If you’d like, would you join us?”

“…”

At Sasaki’s words, I quickly closed my mouth.

A meal?

“What kind of food?”

“Oh, tonkatsu or something like that.”

Tonkatsu?

Meat that’s coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried in oil? An opportunity to consume both animal and vegetable oils at the same time?

And without spending my own money?

Actually, when Sasaki said that, his sister beside him had a shocked expression.

Of course she would. She was on a date with her beloved “honored brother,” and suddenly some gloomy girl she’s never seen before is intruding.

Well, even without that context, it could be unpleasant.

But I had already heard the word “tonkatsu.”

My stomach is already past the point of no return. I hadn’t been able to consume much protein since I stopped hanging out with Miura and her group.

“…I’ll go.”

“Oh, really?”

Since Souta Sasaki had heard me say “That’s not nece—”, my answer seemed to surprise him.

And that’s how I somewhat forcibly joined the Sasaki siblings.

Just for today, though.