“What the hell happened?”
Naturally, Yuuki asked me once again what on earth was going on.
Both of us were just sitting outside the house for a moment. Not that we had gone far, we were just side by side in front of the door having a little chat.
In my opinion, Coco was still a kid who couldn’t properly understand Japanese. Even if she did, she could probably only grasp very fragmented words, like a cat or dog might understand.
I didn’t think it was an issue of intelligence. No, to be precise, I couldn’t judge whether it was or not yet. I had only just met Coco on Monday. Spending time together on Tuesday and Wednesday didn’t give me enough of a grasp.
Besides, I wasn’t an expert.
However, it seemed Yuuki thought it would be impossible for Coco to understand our conversation. It seemed he was concerned she might get hurt if she understood even a little.
So I chose my words carefully.
“… Last time.”
As I slowly moved my mouth to let out one word at a time, Yuuki nodded seriously.
It was as if he thought I was forcing myself to say something difficult.
“… I said there’s another ghost in this house.”
“Yeah.”
Wasn’t that a bit too decisive?
Well, it wasn’t exactly a situation to be scared of now, but still, I felt a bit frightened hearing the confirmation.
“So I did a little investigation about the house too.”
“And?”
“This apartment…”
I lifted my gaze to look up.
I could see the roof covering the hallway.
“This apartment belongs to my mom.”
“…”
Yuuki covered his mouth with both hands.
I slowly continued speaking to him like that.
How far can Kagami really act? If I make him too much of a villain, won’t he blow up?
It did seem like Kagami was enjoying the situation strangely every time I met him, but honestly, I didn’t think he would just let this thing pass.
No matter how I thought about it, I had acted too thoughtlessly.
…
No, wait, thinking back, this is so unfair.
I had no idea Coco’s body was here in this house. I was just curious if there was a ghost living in an empty room. To be precise, I was really just curious if it was truly an empty room.
If there was indeed a ghost, I could ask Yuuki for help, or I would look for an exorcism method. Or I might just accept it and live with it.
But who would have thought that opening the door where I heard snoring would reveal a real nose?
And not just any nose, but a huge one crawling across the wall!
But again, in a roundabout way, this was my fault. I should’ve just thought to live with it if there was a ghost or should have pulled cash from my bank account to rent another room.
…
Well, there’s no point in questioning what could have been now.
“There was one in an empty room.”
“Alone?”
“… Yeah.”
Yuuki seemed to be pondering something with his mouth shut.
I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I was certain whatever came to his mind was not just an ordinary childhood fantasy.
“So what about food?”
“Eh?”
“She has to eat even if she’s alone in her room!”
“…”
I thought for a moment.
“I thought someone brought it to her.”
“… Perhaps your mother?”
“…”
I pressed my lips tight.
Kagami, I didn’t say anything this time, okay?
Even if Yuuki imagined that, either way, I wasn’t the one who made that happen. So at least for this, I wasn’t at fault.
“What about clothes?”
“…”
Honestly, it was better to stay silent and avoid exposing contradictions than to say something.
Speaking of which, Coco didn’t have clothes, did she? She was just a nose. The things in the fridge weren’t clothes; they were wrapped in plastic.
“…”
Yuuki covered his mouth with his hand.
His eyes were welling up with tears again.
It felt like someone was poking my heart with a needle. I felt like I had become a very bad person.
No, I really was a bad person. I was telling a pretty serious lie to a friend.
If I hadn’t told such a lie, then I would have had to bluntly state how serious of a situation this was, which would have been awkward too.
“Like when you first came to the house?”
“…”
I nodded.
To be honest, it was better than when I was alone. At least she had some plastic wrap in her room. I had nothing but a blanket.
…
Though she wasn’t stored in the fridge cut into pieces.
Thinking about that might actually be colder.
“Who on earth is—”
Yuuki hesitated, looking at me for a moment before shutting his mouth.
Should I just tell him it’s fine to continue speaking? But then I decided it was better to be quiet.
Kagami was already getting a ton of mental curses from Yuuki, and pushing him to say that out loud felt a bit wrong.
Considering Kagami’s position, he certainly wasn’t a hero, but still… there’s got to be some moral obligation as a human being.
“—Fine, I get it.”
Yuuki nodded and said that.
“First of all, I’ll help you.”
“… Huh?”
I was a little flustered by his words.
“No, it’s okay.”
When I replied like that, Yuuki’s eyebrows scrunched up into a ‘I’m mad’ angle.
“You have to go to work tomorrow, right? So Coco and that cat—”
“The name is Kuro.”
“—Kuro will be alone in the house. Are you okay with that?”
He should be the right age to handle all this. If he was born before me, he must be around the same age. Or perhaps a decade older.
“…”
But right now, Coco wasn’t in a good state.
Yuuki seemed to see her as… a child with a disability. It was understandable. Seeing a teenage girl devouring cat food would obviously make anyone think she had some issues.
“I’ll help you tomorrow. Today, I came here to sleep anyway, so it’s fine.”
“Are you sure it’s really okay?”
I asked with concern.
Has Yuuki ever taken care of a child? I hadn’t heard about his family dynamics, but judging from what I had seen so far, Yuuki seemed to be an only child.
“Don’t worry too much! I’ll—”
He was about to say something but began to mumble when he realized he had no relevant experience.
“… I’m confident!”
That was all he said.
…
Well, I didn’t have any experience either.
I had taken care of my younger sister, but she was definitely smarter than Coco.
For now, I nodded.
I couldn’t leave Yuuki to handle everything during the break, but if he could cover for a day, that was a relief for me.
“Alright. Then let’s go back inside.”
With those words, Yuuki stood up with vigor.
He grabbed the doorknob and suddenly turned to look at me, as if remembering something.
“By the way, did you give her the name Coco?”
“… I don’t know her name.”
Upon my answer, Yuuki laughed.
“Did you take it directly from your name?”
No.
I just called her Coco because she was a “nose.”
Of course, it wasn’t necessary to explain to Yuuki, a Japanese, that I borrowed the name from Korean.
And Yuuki’s assumption sounded plausible. Who would name their sibling after a body part?
“It’s a cute name.”
As I nodded, Yuuki returned the gesture while expressing his opinion.
I found myself nodding with a red face for no reason.
When we opened the door, Coco—
““No way!””
…Was trying to rip open the cat food packet again.
Yuuki and I shouted in unison as we rushed back inside.
Could it be that the first food we gave her, being cat food, was the problem?
“Meow meow!”
Looking at Coco making an awkward cat sound, I wiped my face in disbelief.
…Please tell me she’s not going to end up imitating a cat’s ears and tail later on!
Just because it’s a light novel, the thought sends a chill down my spine. Damn it.
*
Coco didn’t dart around as crazily as I had feared.
It seemed like Coco mainly caused trouble when ‘alone.’
When we were nearby, she usually showed interest in us. Watching her behave like a regular unaware animal was indeed adorable.
It was cute, but…
Living like you’re an animal is a problem…
“Really, is this okay?”
The next afternoon.
When I asked Yuuki, he nodded.
“It’s fine. She’s much calmer than I expected.”
“…”
Well, that’s true but…
Coco didn’t seem to have a complete lack of wariness towards humans. Generally, she seemed to avoid people.
The reason I expressed it as ‘seemed to’ was that I couldn’t quite gauge how many humans Coco was aware of.
For now, I was the one who fed her.
And since Yuuki also fed her, that made two people she definitely followed.
Other people, like the guy next door or some social acquaintances, probably wouldn’t be followed at all. She only searched the man’s refrigerator when no one was there, and when the social acquaintances came over, they sealed Coco’s flesh in the fridge.
That was also why I hadn’t called Kagami. I couldn’t imagine what kind of reaction Coco would have upon seeing him.
What if she turned into some indescribable form of monster and attacked Kagami?
“If any problem arises, just call.”
Of course, just because I answered the phone didn’t mean I could do anything right away.
Even if I got permission from the boss and rushed back home, it would still take one and a half hours to get here. I could cut that down to about thirty minutes by taking a bus, but it would still take over an hour and ten minutes.
“Yeah. I’ll contact you.”
Yuuki responded energetically.
He seemed to be deliberately doing that to ease my worries.
But Yuuki didn’t show any emotional signs like he did yesterday.
Yesterday, his eyes had brimmed with tears every time he saw Coco acting too much like a wild animal or a little child, but he wasn’t doing that now.
“… I’m sorry.”
“You said you would do it, right? You don’t have to apologize.”
Yuuki replied with a smile to my words.
…What a nice guy!
So incredibly nice, really.
I felt this more intensely seeing it in person than just reading it in a novel.
Yeah, for now, let’s accept his good intentions. I’ll repay him later somehow.
And… I’ve got to think of some solutions while working.
Is there a kind of kindergarten that takes care of kids like Coco? Or perhaps a welfare center? Or something like that.
…
Everything feels overwhelming.
Once I finished thanking Yuuki, I sighed several times while walking to the station.
Regardless of the time gained, I hadn’t come up with any solid ideas by the time I reached the station.
*
And it was only after seeing Shii at work that I remembered an important promise I had forgotten.
“Kurosawa-senpai?”
Seeing me holding my head and sitting down on the floor, Shii was startled and crouched down with me.
“W-What’s wrong? Does your head hurt? I have some medicine with me. Should I give you some?”
She carries that kind of stuff around?
Well, she did pull out bandages and ointment from her bag without a second thought in the story. This had to do with Shii’s past. She had been in situations where she had to resolve things on her own whenever she got hurt while trying to act like a perfect little sister.
“… No, it’s fine.”
I replied that way first and thought for a moment.
Shii had already invited me to go to the beach.
And I had accepted under the condition that I could go with a friend. Of course, the person I would take would be Yuuki.
I thought Yuuki needed to follow the main story closely, after all.
If something were to change there, I would need to see it firsthand.
But now I had a family-like existence.
Holding my throbbing head, I finally stood up.
“Are you really okay? Should I tell the boss?”
The boss was right there sitting. Even when I was covering my head and squatting, he was looking this way. There was no need to say anything extra.
“… Shii.”
“Yes.”
“… About going to the beach together.”
“Ah… yes.”
Shii seemed to take on a slightly worried expression.
Was she worried I might refuse? Or was it that circumstances prevented me from going?
Hmm… maybe there was some validity to that. A huge problem did arise.
But—
“Can I add one more person to my party?”
Shii, who had been looking at me with concern, blinked her eyes once.
After staring at me for a while, my heart raced.
Maybe that condition was too unreasonable? Originally, Shii was going out with her older brother, and I just crashed that plan by asking to come. She probably intended to overcome other heroines that accompanied Sasaki by proposing to me, and I might have made it more complicated.
However, my worries seemed to be unneeded.
Shii let out a sigh of relief as if she thought her older brother being with the two girls would become less likely, placing her hand on her chest.
“That might be okay. But still, I think I need to know who this other person is…”
“That is…”
I thought for a moment before saying.
“My younger sister.”
Blink.
Shii’s eyes blinked for a moment.
“Your younger sister?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you have a sister?”
I pondered again.
How should I answer this?
But thinking again, I realized I hadn’t actually told Shii about my sibling relations.
“Yeah.”
So I decided to brazenly push forward.
“It’s my little sister.”
“Oh…”
Her reaction was rather nuanced.
“I’m sorry. I unconsciously thought that you were an only child…”
“No, that’s understandable.”
I began moving my feet. Shii also followed me into the changing room. No one was inside yet.
“… She looks just like me.”
“Is that so?”
Shii tilted her head.
I should have taken a picture, huh?
“But she’s a bit… younger.”
I said that somewhat vaguely.
Sorry, Shii.
No matter how I look at it, leaving Coco alone at home while going on a trip feels a bit off.
But if I backed out, Yuuki would lose his reason for going on the trip as well.
“If she looks like you, I’m sure she must be a great person!”
If you ignore the fact that she loves cat food and uses a cat litter box, then Kuro could be considered decent overall.
She obeys well.
It’s just because she can’t remember.
I wanted to wipe my face, but doing that in front of Shii felt a bit off.
So instead, I took off my top.
As the fabric brushed against me, it somewhat felt like my face was being wiped.
Though the direction was opposite.
*
If I had a family of my own, would my feelings of returning home be something like this?
Hmm.
No, these feelings are definitely not the same. There surely would be no overlapping emotions aside from the feeling of urgency.
After finishing dinner with Shii, I hurried to the station and anxiously awaited the train, finally managing to board and head back home.
Today, I didn’t walk but took the bus. I was glad I had checked beforehand. It allowed me to arrive home quickly without needing to walk for thirty minutes.
As soon as I got off the bus, I walked home as quickly as I could, and the moment I climbed the stairs and opened the door—
I felt something was off.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but yep, the door being open felt weird.
Even if there were people inside, and no matter how much it was during the day, leaving the door open felt strange, doesn’t it? It’s not just that it wasn’t locked. The door was ajar.
And the house was strangely quiet.
Feeling my heart pounding, I rushed into the house without even thinking to take off my shoes.
And.
“… Oh dear.”
If I were to rank the names of people I didn’t want to meet right now, this person would be at the very top.
Just stepping out from the entrance and nearly colliding into me was Kagami, who glanced back and forth between me and Yuuki, who was standing in front of him, and Coco, who was behind Yuuki.
Then he said,
“… Huh?”
Oh no.
This is a problem.
Kagami was looking at us with an expression that clearly screamed ‘I have no idea what’s going on.’
Of course, Kagami was a decent actor, so it could be all an act, but… we hadn’t even talked about anything in the first place.
The way he was looking back and forth between me and Coco with one hand on his cheek showed a side of him completely different from when he played ‘actor’ in front of everyone else.
“Alright, now you’ve seen it, right?”
I had no clue what kind of conversation they were having. With a very fierce expression, Yuuki spoke to Kagami.
“So are you still planning to back out?”
“…”
Kagami stared at me intently.
“…”
I glared back at Kagami, unsure whether to just grab the doorknob and turn around to flee or not.
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