Chapter 18: The Past Is Already Past

Chapter 18: The Past Is Already Past

Yatsuno Gen was in no hurry to push Kiyono Mitsuki home.

They moved very slowly, as if taking a leisurely stroll.

The two passed through streets large and small, walked through the lively city area, until they reached this dazzling bridge.

The bridge spanning the bay was shrouded in neon-like lights. Although the bridge was nearly more than 800 meters (~875 yd) long, many passersby were still willing to walk across it.

To admire the bay and the scenery of these lights.

It was like a rainbow crossing the bay, and at night it was even more beautiful and brilliant.

Countless vehicles traveled across the bridge, bringing the fierce sound of wind around them.

“What was life in the orphanage like?”

Suddenly, Kiyono Mitsuki asked this beneath the lights on the bridge, her gaze looking toward the darkness far out across the bay.

Yatsuno Gen looked strangely at the young girl whose hair had been blown into disarray.

“What else could it be like? Eat when it was time to eat, sleep when it was time to sleep. There was nothing special about it.”

“Did you have friends before?”

“Friends? Mm... I do not remember any children my age. Most of them were also very cold and had a strong sense of self-protection. Probably everyone felt that even if we were in the same orphanage, we could not be friends for very long, and we would eventually go our separate ways, so they were too lazy to build that kind of connection. But I did know one friend from outside before.”

“Outside?”

Kiyono Mitsuki looked strangely at Yatsuno Gen, and the boy stopped.

He leaned slightly against the bridge railing.

Yatsuno Gen leaned against the railing, his black hair stirred slightly by the wind beneath the bridge, while the lights illuminated his beautiful and delicate profile.

It made him seem dreamlike and unreal.

“Mm, a little girl from outside the orphanage. At the time, she seemed to have moved nearby with her parents. One time, her paper airplane flew into the orphanage, and I happened to pick it up, so we got to know each other.”

Kiyono Mitsuki’s expression became somewhat strange.

“That sounds like the beginning of some classic childhood sweetheart story... You are not making it up, are you?”

“Why do I smell vinegar?”

“You are the one who is jealous. What happened afterward?”

Kiyono Mitsuki actually knew that Yatsuno Gen was not the kind of person who liked making up stories to make himself seem special. He also did not need so-called stories to prove himself. On the contrary, being able to hear his story gave Kiyono Mitsuki an inexplicable sense of honour.

Yatsuno Gen thought for a moment.

“After that, she often ran over to the orphanage to play with me. Nothing else happened. Later, she moved away, and we gradually lost contact.”

“You never saw her again?”

Kiyono Mitsuki asked.

“Actually, I did see her later, but there was no difference.”

“She did not remember you?”

“Not that. It is just that perhaps our circumstances had changed, and everyone had become sensible. We also understood what kinds of friends should be made and what kinds of friends had no need to keep in contact. It was probably better to simply pretend not to know each other.”

Kiyono Mitsuki pursed her lips.

“The fairy tale turned into a realistic story. How boring.”

“Enough. You are almost laughing out loud, yet you still say it is boring.”

“I am not!”

Kiyono Mitsuki refused to admit it.

Yatsuno Gen began pushing Kiyono Mitsuki across the bridge again.

There was no disappointment in his expression, only more of a steady calmness that accepted things as they came.

“Actually, most stories are like this, right? After all, we eventually discover that we live in reality, not fantasy.”

Kiyono Mitsuki frowned somewhat unhappily.

“Are you some disappointed middle-aged man in his forties with no family, no children, and no job? You are clearly a young man, so why do you speak in such an old-fashioned way?”

“Do not listen if you do not like it.”

Yatsuno Gen did not indulge her either.

Of course, Kiyono Mitsuki did not get angry. Both of them were growing used to each other’s way of speaking, as well as the occasional unpleasant personality.

“I just do not like it when you speak like that.”

She also did not like the way he seemed to have seen through the secular world.

He should have fewer worries and should be filled with hope for the future.

“It cannot be helped. I have spoken like this for a long time. I cannot change it in a short while.”

“Then you still have to work hard to change it.”

“Why must I change?”

Yatsuno Gen lowered his head and asked.

The girl raised her head. In the gap at the collar of her base T-shirt was a somewhat obvious pale curve.

In his eyes, it gave off a beautiful sheen.

It was as if without needing to smell it, he had already seen a rich milky fragrance.

“Because if you are like this, no girl will like you. Who likes being with a boy who lectures people with grand principles every day? It is better to be a little childish, a little chuunibyou, and a little youthful.”

“I see. Then tomorrow, I will trick a girl into coming home to spend the night.”

“...Do whatever you want!”

Kiyono Mitsuki snorted coldly.

Yatsuno Gen pushed her all the way home.

Along the way, they talked about some trivial topics, about school, about life.

There were even things about Kiyono Mitsuki’s own past.

Perhaps because of this trip outside, the girl’s urge to talk had opened up quite a bit.

With the sky wide and the sea vast, a person’s mood also became much more relaxed.

Only, this still seemed unable to change the fact that she finally had to return to that little box-like home, nor could it change the feeling that without Yatsuno Gen, she did not even want to step out of her front door.

After pushing the girl into her room.

Yatsuno Gen stretched lazily.

“I’m exhausted. Have you gotten fat recently?”

Kiyono Mitsuki said in annoyance, “Where am I fat? You were not carrying me. Can you feel that just by pushing a wheelchair?”

Yatsuno Gen nodded thoughtfully.

“So you want me to carry you?”

“...I did not say that!”

Kiyono Mitsuki’s face reddened slightly.

Yatsuno Gen smiled indifferently.

“All right, rest early. I will go back first.”

“Mhm...”

Kiyono Mitsuki watched the boy’s back gradually walk toward the door.

As if compelled by some strange force, she blurted out.

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

Yatsuno Gen turned back and asked.

Kiyono Mitsuki’s expression was somewhat awkward. She tried hard to pretend to be cold, but what she said was.

“Thank you for taking me out to eat today...”

Her voice was still very soft, but this time, it could already be heard clearly.

Hearing this sentence, Yatsuno Gen instead walked toward the girl.

Under Kiyono Mitsuki’s somewhat panicked gaze, he bent down and grabbed the armrests of her wheelchair with both hands.

All at once, Kiyono Mitsuki had no choice but to lean hard against the chair back.

Even so, she could not escape the oppressive feeling this boy brought her.

That familiar scent, that scorching body temperature, seemed to surround her in an instant.

His face at close range looked even better, and those deep eyes were like a magical vortex.

They instantly made her head spin.

Before she could ask what he was doing.

Yatsuno Gen’s frivolous voice sounded.

“If you are saying thank you... is saying it enough? Is there no reward?”

A misty haze appeared in Kiyono Mitsuki’s eyes.

She timidly avoided looking straight into his eyes, yet seemed to be firmly locked in place, unable to escape at all.

She felt as if she had become a little white rabbit in a cage, facing a powerful hunter, with no way to flee.

“W-what reward do you want?”

She even forgot to retort or refuse.

Or rather, in front of him, she had never had much room to refuse in the first place.

She could only let him take whatever he wanted.

She felt that she had already reached the limit of what she could do. As a girl, she had almost abandoned most of her reserve and expressed everything she meant.

The cold expression she was trying hard to maintain was also on the verge of collapse.

It did not match the words she had spoken at all.

But at this moment, Yatsuno Gen’s wickedness still continued.

He only smiled and looked at her frivolously.

“What do you think?”

He simply refused to say it directly, continuing to toy with this girl’s mentality.

Even when she was already like this, he still had to tease her this way!

Kiyono Mitsuki felt extreme embarrassment and anger.

Yet this ambiguous atmosphere was still fermenting, so intoxicating that it went to her head.

His face at such close range gave her the sense that he was delicious and appetizing.

As if accepting her fate, she closed her eyes and leaned forward.

“Mmh.”

A soft sound.

A touch like a dragonfly skimming the water.

The girl, whose cheeks had already turned completely red, shoved the boy in front of her away.

“Hurry up and get lost!”

She did not even dare look directly at him.

Clearly, she had been the one to kiss his cheek, yet she acted as if she had been completely forced into it, her words betraying her true feelings.

Yatsuno Gen also did not press further. He straightened up with a smile.

“Good night.”

Without waiting for the girl’s response, he walked out the door.

Only when the door closed did Kiyono Mitsuki seem to wake from a dream.

She touched her nearly burning cheeks.

And those tempting red, tender lips.

Somewhat annoyed, yet helpless, she lowered her head.

“Bad guy. So annoying.”

After returning to his room, Yatsuno Gen prepared to directly refine the spiritual energy that had recently become abundant.

As for the lingering warmth on his face... mm, he would not wash it for now.

Before he had time to enter a meditative state.

Suddenly, his phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number.

After hesitating for a moment, he answered the call.

“Hello, who is this?”

“It is me.”

A cold, clear voice sounded from the phone.

The instant he heard it, Yatsuno Gen made a judgment, and the expression on his face became colorful.

“Asagiri Rin?”

“...Mm.”

“How did you get my number?”

Yatsuno Gen asked directly.

The other party was silent for a moment.

“You do not need to concern yourself with that. I have my own methods.”

But the reply was very cold.

It was as if she wanted to draw a clear line between herself and him in every respect.

“What is it?”

“Was Yamazaki Jihei’s matter your doing?”

The other party was even more direct.

Yatsuno Gen did not panic at all. Leaning lazily against the wall, he said.

“What does that have to do with me? Are you thinking of me as too bad?”

“Someone saw that on the day he met with trouble, you were the last to enter his office and speak with him.”

“He was my homeroom teacher, and I am often in the top three of the year group. It is normal for him to talk with me, right?”

“It was for that girl called Kazama Sakura, right?”

And the other party wasted even fewer words, not even bothering to go around in circles, directly cutting to the heart of the matter.

How long had it been, and she had already found the key point?

Yatsuno Gen had to admit that she was still this sharp, and even smarter than before.

“I do not know what you are talking about.”

Of course Yatsuno Gen did not admit it.

But the girl on the other end of the phone did not seem to care about that.

She merely said in an indifferent tone.

“I know your abilities very well. Making him fall from a building like an accident and leaving no evidence behind is something you can do, and he indeed was not anything good. Next, the school will not let the police focus too much attention on the school, and very soon they will only be able to classify it as an accident.”

“Is this the result of your interference?”

Yatsuno Gen showed not a trace of gratitude, instead asking back teasingly.

The other party was silent for a moment.

Then, her voice still resembled a cold pool of dead water.

Not a single ripple rose.

“You only need to pay a little attention to a policewoman who will be investigating at school over the next two days.”

“Asagiri Rin, are you compensating me?”

Yatsuno Gen asked directly in return.

The other party paused.

“That is not what I mean. You are overthinking it.”

“Is that so? Then do not do things that easily cause misunderstandings. I hate people who go back and forth. Whether you forgot the past or are pretending not to know me, it does not matter. I will not blame you either. But doing this kind of back-and-forth thing that easily causes misunderstandings makes people feel burdened. Of course, if you are just moving yourself emotionally, then pretend I did not say anything. I also have no obligation to cooperate with your feelings.”

“...I will not make this call again in the future. You can rest assured.”

“I’m hanging up.”

Yatsuno Gen took the initiative to hang up the phone.

He put down the phone.

Entering meditation, the wind stirred the grass, accompanied by the surge of invisible spiritual energy.

At the other end.

The cold and lonely girl who had hung up the phone still wore an expression like a glacier, making it impossible for others to approach.

She tightened her grip on the phone in her hand.

Then, with a cold face, she deleted the number she had just saved.

As if nothing had ever happened, and that call had never existed.

The past.

Was already past.