In this way the promise was made, but its fulfillment was postponed.
Shiori had been freed. But in exchange, Suga"s voice had been taken.
Panicking, they escaped from the woods, and completely forgetting about the funeral they went straight to Shiori"s father, Kenji, who was the Ogami-san, for help.
"…….goodness….after telling you not to get close to the forest so many times….."
After Shiori explained the situation, Kenji was completely lost for words.
Keiichirou said, "Thanks to this kid, their lives were saved, so it"s not so bad," trying to smooth things over, but Kenji, unable to be placated with such words, raised his voice and said "You don"t understand how terrible this curse is!" without hiding his irritation.
While this was going on, Shiori began saying that she could hear strange voices.
"They"re children"s voices. They say that mother is calling me. "You made a promise, come to the forest," is what they"re saying"
Saying her head hurt, Shiori crouched down. She also seemed to have a fever, and upon hearing this Kenji in particular turned pale and started saying "No more, I"m going to leave this house."
After that, Suga didn"t know what kind of talk the adults of the Kanzaki house were having.
That same night, Suga had been placed alone in one of the Kanzaki house"s rooms, thinking to himself, (What do I do. What do I do? No matter how much I apologize, I won"t be forgiven) and crying continuously.
Suga could also hear the children"s voices, but rather than calling him to the forest, it seemed that they were showing their dislike of him by throwing words of ill will, so he told no one.
Of course, he couldn"t talk anyway, and there was no one to listen, so he endured it with all his heart.
When dawn broke the next day, Suga was thrust a stone that would fit perfectly in the palm of an adult"s hand, but was hard to handle for a child.
It was a beautifully processed version of the enshrined rock at the foot of the mountain.
"Sugkun, look closely at this. Do you remember seeing this before?"
Of course, since Suga had often visited the Kanzaki house, it was a familiar object.
(That"s right, why?) As he gave a small nod, Suga properly realized that night-glowstone had no smell.
(Why was it only me that the Kotori Obake told smelled bad? If that"s the case, Shi-chan should be the one who"s touched them more)
In the festival dedicated to the Kotori Obake, it was custom to have the Ogami-san be responsible for the role of the priest. In addition, it seemed that Kenji had been involved in night-glowstone production, and the things he produced were displayed all over the Kanzaki house. Of course there were many placed in the children"s room as well.
As the name suggested, night-glowstone had properties that caused it to glow in the dark, and its beauty was on par with that of gemstones. At this time, the night-glowstone that Suga saw was many times the size of the charm stones, smooth and without any scratches or impurities. Even with all of the stones he"d seen before, this was especially beautiful.
He could a.s.sert that he"d never seen such a beautiful night-glowstone before. So when Suga shook his head vigorously, Kenji put it back in his pocket and this time took out a single photo.
Pictured was a narrow room, scattered with tools.
And right in the middle of the photo a large black stone was enshrined.
He had seen this somewhere. —- It was somewhere he"d been before.
It was the workshop that Kenji used to manufacture night-glowstone. However, it was in a terribly hard-to-reach place: in the Kotori Obake"s forest, after crossing the swamp, following the narrow cliffside path, and down a rope ladder. Almost like a secret base, it used the s.p.a.ce of a cave.
He was excited when he had found it. Feeing like some competent adventurer, he thought Shi-chan would be happy when he told her. But before he could even say anything, she would say something like "You can"t go into the forest" so he couldn"t exactly say that he"d already gone.
"You"ve been here before, right? By any chance, did you happen to meet anyone here?"
Shrinking away from the gaze that wouldn"t forgive any lies, Suga looked down. Taking that as a confirmation, Kenji pa.s.sed him paper and a pencil, adding another question, "Who did you meet there?"
With Shiori"s situation and all, he couldn"t lie.
With shaking hands, he wrote "Ishimori-sama" on the paper.
The man he had met at the workshop said that that was what the night-glowstone workers called him.
"I see, so you"ve taken on the curse of the night-glowstone. That"s why you were saved" Kenji said, satisfied.
Suga didn"t understand what he meant, but Kenji"s scorn-filled gaze was scary.
Suga wanted to say, "What"s a curse?" "I only went there once," and wrote them down, but Kenji had turned his back on him, and so the only thing left for Suga who couldn"t talk was to give up.
—–Why? Back then, it was fine. Even despite the fact that there wasn"t anything scary then, …?
(….. It"s because I broke my promise. ……Because I did something selfish.)
Unable to think of anything besides that everything was his fault, as the adults were talking with grim faces Suga was shivering and crying, left alone in a corner of the room.
(Maybe they"ll tell me I can"t see Shi-chan anymore)
Even before that, Suga who had lost both of his parents was as good as an orphan.
Someone who seemed to be a distant relative had been saying something about an orphanage.
He would probably be taken somewhere far away. And then, he would surely never be able to see Shiori again. What should he do? What would happen to him? Would they really not let them meet again? He still had to properly say "I"m sorry." But his voice wouldn"t work, so how should he—
After a while, Suga was led to a different room.
Inside were Shiori"s parents, and sitting on a chair was Shiori.
When Shiori realized Suga was there, she happily called out "Sugkun!" But that smiling face was different from usual. Looking a bit weak, with a poor complexion, she didn"t seem to have much energy.
Without a moment"s delay, Shiori"s mother who was nearby said, "Now, say your last thank yous properly," urging Shiori on. With those suggestive words, Shiori looked at her mother curiously. This time, Kenji said, "Thanks to Sugkun, you were saved, so you have to thank him properly,"
"…….why? Why is this the last? I don"t know what you mean"
"Shiori, listen to what you"re told. Today is the last, we"re going to be leaving this place."
Suga opened his eyes wide. He had expected that he would be the one to leave the village, but he didn"t think that they would be the ones to instead. But, their reason to came quickly.
(It"s to run away from the Kotori Obake.)
While Shiori was throwing a tantrum over not wanting to say goodbye, Kenji sighed and took out the large beautiful stone he had shown Suga earlier from his pocket and brought it close to Shiori"s face.
"Now, look at this stone carefully. Don"t be so resistant, Shiori," said Shiori"s mother.
"You have to forget. That promise, as well as this village."
——Forget? Needing to forget, how would they make that happen?
While Suga was blinking in surprise, Kenji said,
"There"s no other way. In order to escape from the promise, this is our only hope."
When Shiori"s mother hugged her from behind, perhaps by some instinctive fear, Shiori began struggling all the more.
Flailing around, struggling violently, Shiori stretched her freed right hand towards Suga.
"No! I don"t want to! Help me, Sugkun……!"
Suga couldn"t move a muscle. He couldn"t take Shiori"s hand.
(I"m sorry, Shi-chan. It"s my fault…… Even though everything is all my fault….)
Kenji, with that jewel-like night-glowstone, was planning to erase Shiori"s memories. So such a thing was possible. —— Was it possible? It was a protective stone, after all.
Suga suddenly remembered the memo pad and pencil clutched tightly in his hand. In a hurry, he began writing. Shiori might forget right away, though.
"Shi-chan, a promise"
Because of his haste, the letters came out all jumbled up. He turned the page.
"I"ll protect you, Shi-chan"
(Even if she forgot. I"ll do whatever it takes. I won"t let the Kotori Obake get her. I"ll definitely protect her.)
Kenji said something under his breath.
Suddenly the night-glowstone"s soft glow grew stronger.
It was a beautiful, gentle light. When it faded a second later, Shiori, just like a puppet with its strings cut, fell down on her mother"s lap.
A pale face. Eyes tightly shut. Colorless lips. She looked just like a princess from a fairy tale. In order to protect her from an evil witch, her memories had been erased with magic and was put to sleep.
And to think that it really was all his fault.
(With this, she"ll have forgotten me too…?)
Carrying Shiori, the adults pa.s.sed by Suga without pausing and left.