novelThe Grass looks Greener (3)
| ← Ch.24 | Ch.26 → |
"What was that? I felt really irritated just now for some reason."
Shouko, who had been revising what she learned in school that day, stood up from her chair after suddenly losing her concentration.
"Aaaah, I'm so stiff... Ugh. It's already eleven pm...... Haa."
Looking at her slimphone that was charging beside the study desk that she had been using since she was in elementary school, Shouko saw that the time was already a little past eleven pm.
Unlocking the phone for no particular reason, she saw that one of applications on the screen had a small ① symbol on the icon.
"......"
She knew who it was from, and what that notification meant.
It was from Yasuo, a ROPE message with his excuses.
"......Hmmph. I don't care. He's being too self-conscious."
She made to tap the ROPE icon with her thumb, but for some reason, she lost the will to do it.
Even if she didn't read the message, she knew what would be written inside. It would be about those beautiful foreign women.
Even Shouko didn't seriously believe that Yasuo was in a relationship with those mysterious women.
She had just been surprised at seeing him get out of the taxi, and panicked upon seeing what looked like a standard kiss scene from a drama or movie, but considering Yasuo's personality, he would never do something like that. Even so, she had not been able to keep her emotions under control.
She had realized that she couldn't keep her emotions in check, and while trying too hard to hold them back, she had gone and said something like that.
Even though she didn't really feel that way. No, maybe she actually did.
She knew that she was being unreasonable. After all, no matter how you looked at it, Shouko was just one of Yasuo's acquaintances.
Their relationship was not even developed enough to call them friends.
Even back in middle school, when the distance between them had been at its least, she had not talked with him unless there was a pressing need to do so. The longest she had probably talked to him was during that assignment to "Research the Occupation of a Person Close to You."
After the change in classes after second year, she ended up in a different class from him. After that, their third year had gone by, and until he met her by accident in front of the prep school the other day, Yasuo had forgotten about her.
In other words, Shouko knew barely anything about Yasuo.
She knew where his house was, but Yasuo himself wasn't aware of the fact that she knew.
"Worrying about this by myself, so stupid. I mean, I'm basically like a stalker at this point."
Suspecting the relations that a boy had with people of the opposite sex, when she wasn't even that close to him.
"But... I can't help it."
She didn't understand why she felt that way about Yasuo.
If she considered this calmly, it was love. She admitted that to herself because she didn't want to feel like a child who refused to accept it.
She had probably been in love with Kenzaki Yasuo since the second year of middle school, ever since that incident.
However, the reason for that was far too shallow.
Even considering the aftermath of that workplace research assignment, when she tried to remember if there was anything that drew her towards Yasuo so strongly, she couldn't think of anything.
"It couldn't be helped, I wasn't used to dealing with people, so I fell for the first guy who showed me the slightest bit of kindness."
She didn't think he did it because he had any special feelings for her.
He probably hadn't really thought it through, either. Actually, if he was the kind of person who thought things through before doing something like that, she probably wouldn't have such strong feelings about him.
"Diana, huh..."
She didn't really remember what happened back then because her mind had gone completely blank, but she understood right away that it was a pet name, and seeing them calling each other by their first names and talking in a lively manner, she thought that they looked like they were really close.
"That seems nice."
Shouko sat back down at her desk while spacing out and wrote 『Shouko』 in a corner of the notebook that lay open on her desk with a pencil.
"!!"
She went red in the face, and erased it right away.
"Time to sleep. I should go to sleep and forget about all of this. My thoughts get all muddled up at night. Ah, come to think of it, my eyes are always tired lately too. Ugh."
Shouko turned towards her closet and pulled out her futon while berating herself for being taken over by her girly side for even a moment, and spoke in a loud voice as if trying to erase her embarrassment.
"....................!!"
Once she was done laying out the futon, she buried her face in the pillow and held her head in embarrassment once again.
"I'm such an idiot."
Leaving her messed up bangs as they were,
"I should take a bath, brush my teeth, and go to sleep."
She walked to the corner of her room with unsteady steps and took some underwear out of the closet, and then went downstairs. Once in the dressing room, she took off her clothes and tossed them in the laundry basket.
"Hmm?"
Shouko suddenly felt that something was off when she saw her reflection in the mirror. She was still wearing the same underwear that she had put on yesterday.
She wondered if she had forgotten to take a bath yesterday, and suddenly remembered.
"Ah, that's right, I fell asleep without even changing into my pyjamas yesterday. Ah, I must be really out of it. I even forgot that I didn't take a bath."
For the past few days, she had been feeling sick when she woke up.
She would have a splitting headache and her body felt heavy, there were bruises in strange places on her body even though she didn't remember getting hurt, and felt a dull pain akin to muscle fatigue, the whole package.
She probably didn't realize it in the morning because of that.
"Hmm? I did take a bath yesterday though, didn't I!?"
She had. Or at least, that's how she felt.
She didn't know why, but the sensation of 『having gone into the bathroom』 was strongly etched into her consciousness.
However, her actions from the morning and the sensation from her body were in opposition to that memory.
She had a vague sense that her body and hair were more greasy than they should have been.
"Seriously. Have I been thinking about stupid stuff for so long that I can't even remember if I took a bath or not?"
She didn't think that she had been taken over by her girly side to that extent, but,
"Oh well, it doesn't matter. I just need to wash myself thoroughly today."
After that, she took her underwear off as well and put them in the laundry basket, and entered the bathroom.
"...It should be okay. I didn't get close to Yasu-kun today so he shouldn't have noticed... wait."
Shouko barely managed to keep herself from slamming the showerhead that she was holding against the floor.
"My head is seriously not okaaaay!! Ugayaaa!?"
Shouko accidentally opened the overhead shower tap all the way in wanting to finish her bath as quickly as possible, and yelled after getting doused with cold water.
"......Good thing it wasn't hot water."
Shouko's house was quite old, and the pipes for hot water and cold water in the bathroom were separate.
The water heater was also quite old and it wasn't possible to make any delicate temperature adjustments. If she had opened the hot water tap instead, she would have received a shower of blisteringly hot water.
Feeling depressed with herself for losing her calm and showering herself with cold water, Shouko quickly scrubbed her hair and body clean and immersed her body into the bathtub.
"Haaaah......"
Lots of things had gone wrong today. If things stayed this way, then the situation would completely go out of her control.
Her emotions were running wild because she was trying to run away. She had to face them properly and put her feelings in order.
Shouko drifted off into thought about the time when she had run across Yasuo at the Ozone Tokorozawa Shopping Center.
She finally remembered it. Her name was Dianaze Krone.
She had beautiful golden hair, and perfect, unblemished skin. Her speech was polite, backed by her perfect Japanese.
Her expression had stayed stiff throughout their conversation, probably because she was apologizing for her actions on the day when she had met with Yasuo again, but her beautiful face suggested that she could make most men go slack jawed if she smiled.
Although the combination of golden hair and green eyes was quite eye-catching, she had a refined and quiet sense of beauty without a hint of gaudiness.
In the few seconds before she had noticed Shouko, she had been worried about keeping Yasuo waiting.
She remembered her exaggerated seriousness when she was apologizing.
However, the impression Shouko got when she had seen her for the first time was that of a strong and stern woman.
She was probably a truly strong woman, the kind who was usually soft but could be strong when it was required.
Her movements back then were also almost superhuman, so she must be physically fit as well.
"Aaah."
At that moment, Shouko realized something.
"Ah... I see, so that's how it is."
Thinking about it calmly, she understood why she was so irritated when she saw Yasuo getting along with that girl called Diana.
"I'm..."
However, whether she could accept that or not was a different matter. Shouko took a deep breath, and dunked her head under the water.
She is exactly the kind of girl I wanted to be back then.
Obedient, cute, able to speak her mind even in front of the person she likes, and has a strong sense of self.
But being clumsy, I ended up as a gloomy, shy girl who never looked at people or smiled happily because I was afraid of how people saw me. Because of that I couldn't even say what was on my mind, and I just kept smiling even while people were making fun of me, I was such a good for nothing girl.
While still in middle school, I realized that I would never be able to become the girl I dreamt about, so I stopped trying.
That's why I became who I am today. But even then...
I'm still the kind of girl who is suspicious about Yasu-kun's relationships even though I barely know him, still so shy that I can't even look at him properly, hiding my true self behind coarse words and acting like I don't care because I can't tell him what I really want to say, and am sitting here laughing by myself.
I haven't changed one bit.
When I entered high school and all my relationships with people were reset, I thought it was a chance to change myself.
I have more friends now, can talk to guys, and even get along with people from my middle school who don't know how I used to be back then.
But at the end of the day, it's like my heart has just changed a set of clothes. Once those clothes come off, I'm still the same second year middle school student I was back then, trapped in my own shell.
Even though I want to be a girl like that, a girl who can stand beside the one she loves and laugh without hiding anything.
Feeling unreasonably jealous, I can't even bring myself to read a ROPE message from Yasuo. I feel so stupid.
I have to apologize. But what should I say?
I was rude because I was too conscious about my own shortcomings. What good is saying something like that?
Besides, Yasuo and I aren't that close. I'll just come off as self-conscious and make him wonder what's wrong with me.
Even so.
"Uu."
She was feeling short of breath.
Her thoughts had rapidly risen to the surface with the worst possible timing, and because of that, Shouko became more aware of her own reality and felt depressed.
She took a deep breath, but maybe because she had immersed her head in hot water for too long, she felt strangely dizzy.
She thought that thinking of stupid things made her do something even more stupid, but her body refused to obey her will.
She wondered if she had stayed in the bath for too long, and in the next instant her vision turned completely red, and,
"Ah, this is bad..."
As soon as she whispered that, her consciousness fell into darkness.
※
Yasuo was sitting at his desk, working on his Social Studies report, when he heard the sound of a notification from his phone and saw that there was a mark on the application icon for ROPE indicating that he had received a new message.
Looking at who had sent the message, he saw that it was from Diana, and the message said that she had been unable to find Khalija.
『Has the Colonel come back there yet』
Seeing that, he replied to the 『Diana』 inside the phone screen.
『She hasn't come back here. Are you still searching outside?』
『Yes. I don't want to keep Madoka waiting for too long, so I plan on returning soon. It's been about１１１☆?↑11☆11↑↑』
"Hmm?"
He suddenly saw a bunch of characters and numbers jumbled up and he furrowed his eyebrows in doubt, but he soon received an animated sticker of a creepy-looking rabbit character crying, so he vaguely understood what had happened.
『Do you see a key that says 'kana' or 'AEU' anywhere?』
After he sent that,
『It's fixed!』
He received a happy-sounding message. He also received another sticker of the same creepy-looking bunny making a peace sign.
"She can send stickers, but doesn't know how to switch the keyboard back to alphabet mode?"
Yasuo smiled wryly.
『It's been about one hour, so I plan on coming back there once for now. 』
Ah, so she had been trying to type 『1 hour』.
And this time, she wasn't sure if she would be able to revert to the alphabetical mode, so she typed it out as 『one』.
"She should just type the message in kanji."
There had been a popular book which made fun of messages sent by mothers who weren't used to digital devices, and the messages Diana sent were pretty close to that.
"That reminds me, I didn't get around to asking about what language they speak in Ante Lande."
He didn't have any time to relax since Khalija came over, and as Khalija also spoke perfect Japanese that was in no way inferior to Diana, he had completely forgotten until now.
『Maybe she went drinking for a change of pace?』
『Drinking tea?』
"No, I'm talking about alcohol."
He inadvertently spoke that aloud instead of typing it.
Looking at the clock, he saw that it was already past eleven pm, and even high school students would know that adults wouldn't go out of the house to drink tea at such a late hour.
However, if a person wasn't aware that 『going out to drink』 was an idiomatic way of saying 『going to eat at a restaurant that serves alcoholic drinks』, they might take the statement at face value.
"Hmm? But doesn't 'drink' in English also have the nuance of drinking alcohol?"
Maybe it was just that Diana was not in the habit of consuming alcohol.
He had never seen Diana drinking alcohol, and he didn't even know what the legal age for drinking in Resteria was, and whether Diana was allowed to do so.
It would take another two years until he was old enough to drink, but would he be able to go drinking with Diana by that time? Or maybe he would go with his father first?
"...It's entirely possible that I won't have the time to go drinking as well."
The possibility of him ending up as an unemployed twenty-year-old who had failed at both getting into college and becoming a Hero was definitely not zero.
He tried to get rid of those terrifying thoughts, and remembered that as he was born in April, he was already old enough to vote.
There were no elections planned at either the national level or the regional level right now, but when a voting card with his name on it was finally delivered to their house, would he experience some sort of mental change?
He had absolutely no understanding of politics, but would he feel the need to study about various things to make his vote count?
"Behaving like an adult is actually quite difficult if you do it seriously."
Considering how Khalija said that people were considered to be adults at the age of fifteen in Resteria, if he went to went to Ante Lande and became a Hero, would he end up having to carry a heavy burden instead of just being respected as an individual person?
Had his parents carried such a burden as well?
『In any case, I'll be coming back now. I left Madoka at my apartment and came outside, so you haven't taken a bath yet, right, Yasuo? Would you like to take a shower once I'm back?』
"............Seriously."
He felt that it would be far better for his mental health if he borrowed the shower while it was still just his mother who was staying there.
Even though he was in his own room, he felt worried for a second if Nodoka was watching him from somewhere and hurriedly looked around.
It was bad for his heart in many ways, so he wished she would stop saying things in such a manner already.
If he had received such a message from a regular girl like Shouko, he could imagine what sort of things Nodoka would say to him and was unable to keep a calm face.
『No sorry to do this when you're away, but I think I'll go take a bath right now. 』
『I see. Understood. Please take as much time as you need. 』
Well, that was easy enough.
"Even though she said that, it would be better to get out of the bath by the time Diana gets back."
Diana's apartment only had the minimum necessary furniture and appliances, and there were still some things that had not been delivered yet, so according to Nodoka, it was a 『pretty dreary-looking place』.
It was the first time that he would be entering a girl's room, but seeing as Diana had been staying at the Kenzaki family house until a few days ago, he didn't feel all that nervous.
If anything, the bathroom at his house had been destroyed before Diana's room had a chance to become more like that of a typical girl's room, so that was the only silver lining in this situation.
He prepared his underwear and a towel, and was about to go downstairs.
"Still unread, huh? As I thought, I should speak to her directly instead of sending a message by ROPE."
Looking at the screen of his conversation with Shouko, he saw that the message he sent earlier that evening with his explanation was still not marked as read by the recipient.
However, he could not erase the message that he had already sent. So all he could do was hope for a reply and wait.
Just when he thought that.
He saw a mark appear next to the message indicating that it had been read.
"Ah."
Yasuo was surprised by this sudden turn of events, but he was even more surprised by the reply that came soon after.
『I'm coming to see you. 』
"......Eh?"
It was a short message, written entirely in Hiragana.
『Eh? Do you mean you're coming over to my house?』
He inadvertently replied, but that message didn't get marked as read.
"What's going on?"
Not only was the conversation going nowhere, the contents felt like something out of a horror story.
There were plenty of cases where people sent a message knowing that they had made a typing error or used the wrong kanji because they were busy, such as when they were riding a bicycle.
Maybe Shouko had actually been too busy to look at her slimphone until now, and after she finally saw his message she sent a hurried reply...
"No, but still, would she actually come over at such a late hour?"
It was already past eleven-thirty pm.
Yasuo had thought that it might have been better to talk to her in person earlier, but it was also not so important that they had to urgently meet in person so late in the night to discuss it.
『It's pretty late today, how about sometime tomorrow?』
He was pretty worried about the situation so he sent that message, but this one stayed unread as well.
As he thought, something was strange.
He decided to just go ahead and call her, but before ringing for very long, he was routed to voicemail.
"T-This is weird."
He continued calling her, but she didn't pick up at all.
No wait, he heard something.
It was the sound of a phone vibrating.
There was the sound of a phone vibrating in concert with the phone call.
"......Eh?"
The sound of a vibrating phone?
Why was he hearing something like that?
When the call went to voicemail and Yasuo disconnected, the vibration stopped as well.
And then, when he placed the call again,
"!?"
Yasuo jumped away from his desk, and knocked his chair backwards. The chair which was on wheels moved backwards into the corner of the room until it hit his bookshelf, knocking various things to the floor, but Yasuo was in no state of mind to worry about that.
Eventually, the call went to voicemail again, and the vibration stopped at exactly the same time.
However, Yasuo was staring at a certain spot with his slimphone still held to his ear.
There was a slight gap in the curtains of his window.
He could see a sliver of the outside through that gap.
The sound of the vibration came from out there.
However, he didn't care about that anymore. He could see it. It was definitely there.
It was that red light.
"You've... got to be kidding..."
The face of the Shii that was looking in through the windowpane with one eye looked to be the same as that of the Shii that had destroyed their bathroom.
The depths of that black flame that burned without a sound were slightly illuminated by the light from the room that leaked out through the gap in the curtains.
His father was at home. He mother was also close by. Diana was also on her way back.
There was only one enemy. They had to defeat it for certain this time.
But... But this Shii was...
"Ta...Tatewaki-san, is that you?"
『Grrrrrrrr』
It had destroyed the wall of the bathroom to get inside, but this time it seemed content to just watch from outside the window.
『o......』
"Eh?"
『...st... ve...』
The voice was similar to that of Alexei's Shii, it seemed to come from the depths of hell and inspired terror in those who heard it.
Even so, he could tell that the underlying voice was that of a girl.
Yasuo realized that just as each Shii was different depending on who they were when they were alive, which could also be called their 『identity』, they could also have different voices.
『...st ...ve... Yasu...o...』
"Ah... Aaah, no way."
Alexei's Shii came in search of Hideo the Hero.
In that case, this Shii that came to the Kenzaki house twice in search of him while muttering his name...
"What... Just what happened... Tatewaki-san is a Shii? B-But why..."
If Shouko was actually a Shii, did that mean she had died a long time ago?
No, the assumption that Shouko had already died before they met again was too far-fetched.
In the first place, Shouko wasn't supposed to have had any connection to Ante Lande at all.
Just what sort of thing had happened to turn Shouko into a Shii?
However, considering the power it had displayed in breaking down the wall of the bathroom, and its ability to put up a fight against Khalija, no matter what was on the inside, it was certain that Yasuo was no match for it.
As he thought, he had no option but to call for his father. However, raising his voice might provoke it.
He was hesitant to use the Holy Sword summons inside the house to bring his father here, so he tried to slowly move out of the room, but,
『Grrokah. 』
Along with a strange growl, the Shii disappeared from his window. At the same time, he heard something hard fall onto the balcony.
"What!?"
As soon as the ominous presence disappeared from the window, Yasuo opened the curtains without thinking.
For some reason, he didn't consider the possibility that he could be attacked from outside.
He just saw the same old view of the night that was usually visible.
However he noticed something strange on the roof of the house on the opposite side of the road, opened the window, and jumped out onto the balcony.
"Eh."
It was a snake made of light.
There was a snake of light on the roof of opposite house, and it was restraining the Shii, and the person holding the tail of that snake was...
"Khalija-san!"
There was no mistake. She was wearing the tracksuit that she had still not returned to him, and the circlet with an embedded gemstone.
Maybe he was just seeing things, or it was reflecting the light from the snake of light, but it looked like the gemstone was glowing faintly.
So that was the appearance of the weapon known as the Snakebone, Marfik. If so, it had a grand and imposing appearance that certainly lived up to the name Snakebone.
In any case, it was good that Khalija had chosen to capture it instead of slaying it. If she happened to destroy it for some reason, he had no idea what the consequences would be.
Yasuo patted his chest in relief and waved his hand at Khalija.
"!!"
At that moment, it looked like Khalija had realized that Yasuo was looking at her.
"Huh?"
However, she stood up and turned her back to Yasuo.
"Khalija-san?"
Just before she turned around, even though it was dark, he could tell that she had a sad expression on her face.
"Eh!?"
She then spun around and leaped high into the air, and disappeared somewhere Yasuo's eyes couldn't follow. Of course, she took the snake of light and Shouko who had turned into a Shii along with her.
"What was that... just now... What is she... Khalija-san, where did she go... That's right, I need to let Diana know...!"
He had to let everyone know about what happened just now.
He turned around with the intention of going back inside the house and calling everyone, when his foot struck something.
"This is..."
It was a slimphone.
It was a slightly outdated model YOIPHONE, enclosed in a plain, transparent case.
When he pressed a key, a lock screen image that looked like it was a default image that had not been changed was displayed on the screen.
Also displayed on the screen was a notification message displaying information about recently received calls. It read, 『Incoming call: Yasu-kun』.
"What... What the hell is going on!?"
Yasuo gripped the slimphone and ran out of his room to tell his father and Nodoka what had happened.
"That small-sized Shii is Shouko-san!?"
"And Khalija-san carried it off!?"
"Are you sure about that, Yasuo?"
Diana, who had returned to the house, Nodoka, and his father looked like they didn't know whether to believe what Yasuo was saying.
Even when Yasuo showed them Shouko's slimphone, they were still not immediately convinced.
However, a flash of light suddenly appeared outside the window in the small garden of the Kenzaki house, and when everyone looked in that direction to see what happened,
"Open up! Hurry!"
They saw Madoka who was supposed to be waiting in Diana's room for Khalija to return.
She had a stern expression on her face, jumped into the house the moment Hideo unlocked the window, and made a staff appear in her hand.
"It's the Shii."
"Hah?"
"Eh?"
"What!?"
"Don't tell me..."
The four of them reacted in different ways, and simultaneously looked at the slimphone that Yasuo was still holding.
"There were two of them in the garden. There was also one on the road. I really doubt that's all of them! We need to get rid of them quickly, or somebody could get hurt!!"
An unknown number of Shii. The small-sized Shii. And Khalija.
"This was unexpected."
Hideo shook his head like he was exasperated.
"It looks like we were dancing in the palm of someone's hand right from the start."
| ← Ch. 24 | Ch. 26 → |