Ever since then, Yuka has started to treat me a bit more comfortably.
However, she still didn’t live nearby. Yuka lived quite far from my house, so calling her over every time felt a bit awkward, but I thought it was fine to meet at a middle point.
Even though it was a bit inconvenient for me to wander around too much alone because of my location, my dad, who had some time on weekends, would often drop me off.
He would drive me over and wait until Yuka arrived. It was just one of those things.
“…Hey, Dad.”
“Yeah?”
That day was no different. While waiting for Yuka, I suddenly called out to my dad, who was sitting next to me, looking down at me.
Kagami is tall for a woman. She might even be a bit taller than the average man. Although people often think she looks young because of her appearance.
No, actually, considering she has a daughter my age, she does seem pretty young, but sometimes she looks even younger.
My dad is taller than her. He’s well beyond the average height for men. There’s a reason why Sota feels a little scared whenever he sees my dad. It’s not like Sota is short, either.
But even though my dad was like that, he wasn’t scary to me at all.
Looking at a girl who, in fact, could hardly be called his daughter on the paperwork, he would still show a typical doting dad expression and attitude.
These days, I’ve even gotten quite close with Nakagami, so sometimes when Dad says something weird or makes others feel awkward, Nakagami would playfully slap his arm. It didn’t hurt, though; it was more like a light tap.
Dad seemed to find that amusing.
Somehow, my dad’s position in our household has turned into literally being “Dad.” That goes for me and Nakagami. Although they pretended to be a couple with a somewhat noticeable age difference around others, that’s how it was at home. Nakagami didn’t openly call him “Dad,” but the age difference between Nakagami and Dad is only a little less than that between me and Nakagami.
So even if I wanted to be scared, it was a bit hard to actually feel fear.
“Don’t you get annoyed from always having to bring me here like this?”
But I’m a person, too. That means I understand some human decencies.
It might not matter whether there’s blood relation in a father-daughter relationship, but sometimes I feel guilty when I put my dad, who is legally a bit ambiguous to call family, through this. I could easily take the subway from somewhere near home.
Actually, even when I took the subway, my dad would usually be right next to me—
“……”
But somehow, Dad looked a little shocked by my words.
Thud.
The soft-serve ice cream he was holding fell to the ground. His mouth was wide open, and his eyes were glazed over.
“Kotone, am I annoying you?”
No, honestly, I thought the one saying that would usually be the more annoying one, right?
Seeing a bear-sized uncle making a face like he was about to cry made me feel kind of weird.
“No, no.”
I quickly spoke before Dad really started to cry.
“What I mean is, I just wanted to ask if it’s annoying to bring me every time.”
After staring at me for a few seconds, Dad seemed to finally accept that I was serious.
He let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Well, if that’s all, there’s really no problem.”
And he said it as if it were the most natural thing.
“Every dad in the world is happy just being able to go around with their daughter.”
Then he slightly turned his gaze towards the street.
I could see a family passing by in the distance. There was an uncle who wasn’t as big as Dad but still looked pretty sturdy, walking with a middle-aged lady and two daughters around the same age as us.
The little girl holding both parents’ hands looked so happy.
……Well, usually by the time a daughter hits her twenties, she wouldn’t be so close with her dad like that. Unless she becomes much older, maybe.
Ideally, there should have been Dad’s real daughter beside him, not me.
But that wasn’t just because of me. Dad also had his reasons for being away from his real family, and somehow this situation just happened to occur.
Still, I felt a bit guilty.
“So, how do you feel about it, Kotone?”
“What?”
“Do you feel like this situation isn’t particularly good?”
Dad asked softly as he looked at me.
Suddenly realizing the ice cream in my hand had started to melt, I quickly licked the melted part with my tongue.
While stalling like that, I thought it over.
……If I had to say whether I liked it or not, it was ambiguous. This peaceful life is nice. At home, there’s Nakagami, and Dad is kind, plus I have friends around.
I had a feeling that this lifestyle might last a bit longer than before.
But simultaneously, that was also why this life was considered incomplete. There are people watching us, there are those aiming for me, and I have to confront monsters—it’s a life far from ordinary.
If I were to compare the two conditions—sure.
“……It’s okay.”
Right. ‘It’s okay.’
There are good places and bad places, but for now, still—everything was okay.
“I see, that’s a relief.”
With Dad’s response, I could feel the tension in my shoulders relax a bit.
I slowly finished licking the ice cream in my hand while Dad stood up to pick up the fallen ice cream and throw it in the trash can. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about the mess on the floor.
The person we were waiting for was coming from a distance.
She didn’t wave her hands enthusiastically or anything. Middle schooler Yuka wasn’t quite that type yet. But still, when our eyes met, she smiled slightly and waved her hand a bit.
Dad and I stood up simultaneously.
“Well then, have fun. I’ll come pick you up when there’s time.”
Dad patted my shoulder. His big, heavy hand made me sway a bit to the side. I glared at him, but naturally, Dad didn’t budge at all, chuckling as he waved and walked away from us.
Yuka approached, having exchanged a light greeting with Dad.
As I waved goodbye to Dad who was getting further away, Yuka came up to me and spoke.
“By the way, Akihabara, huh?”
Yuka said, looking incredulous.
“You were the type to watch that kind of stuff?”
“Yeah.”
I turned back to Yuka after watching Dad disappear into the crowd.
“I watched a lot since I was little.”
“Really?”
Seeing her tilt her head made me realize that I didn’t fit the kind of image she had in mind.
I grew up watching magical girl shows since I was little. I’ve rewatched the same season multiple times. Well, most of the time, I was just watching what my friend was into beside her.
Even though they had broken, I still had some of those toys lying around at home.
“So, did you want to come and see it?”
“That’s somewhat different.”
I scratched my head a bit as I spoke.
It’s probably more because of the memories left over from my previous life. The objects of my childhood longing. The sacred place for otakus.
I wondered if it was appropriate to use the term otaku at my age—
Ah, that’s right.
I’m already a middle schooler.
At this point, whether I’m an otaku or not can probably be decided. Originally, it’s the age when one starts to like anime.
“Just, I wanted to come and see. I’ve hardly been to places like this.”
I ended up mumbling that in a vague way since it was hard to explain.
That’s right.
Nakagami really likes me, but the way she likes me is a bit of an issue.
I don’t want to break the image she has of me. I really want to be the perfectly lovely daughter in front of my mom.
Therefore, I’ve never asked Nakagami to come to a place like Akihabara because I just didn’t want to show her how I collect figures of cute girl characters.
We usually spend time going into shopping malls and wandering around downtown, eating good food.
……Well, Dad did tag along today, but at least in front of him, I didn’t show too much interest in figures. He still thinks I came to see these kinds of places.
“Hmmm, so you mean you just wanted to go to a place you wanted to go with me, because I’m your bodyguard?”
Yuka squinted her eyes and asked.
“No.”
I replied to her.
I know exactly how to counter-attack in situations like this.
“I just wanted to hang out together as friends.”
“…….”
Yuka couldn’t find a retort to that.
“……Let’s go.”
In the end, Yuka turned around.
I followed her with a slight smirk on my face.
Hmm.
Still, I wondered if a few small goods wouldn’t matter much to Nakagami.
